Purezza wasn't a fan of house parties, least of all ones thrown by high-school aged Kendra vampires that milled about amongst mortal teens and waited until the clock struck a special hour before laying waste to the majority and turning one or two for their own benefit. It actually bored the shit out of her. This one, though, was different. She'd come victim hunting again. Toying with that cat had been fun, but Purezza was just itching to ruin someone's life.
She came upon a man not as young as the rest inside standing outside by the cars, cigarette in one hand, cell phone in the other. She guessed by that nauseous feeling she got (preposterous, what sort of vampire gets sick? She did, that's what. Damned curse) that he was on the phone with a girlfriend, wife, or something of the like. She felt like interrupting all the same, and so she did just as she pleased.
"Hey there, stranger," she said. She put a little twist on it, hoping to get the fool to hang up the phone. His back was still mostly to her, but she could make out enough of his face to know he was attractive; dark. Her type. Human, and that was all the more fun.
Maybe she'd make him put the cigarette out in his eye for fun.
Jared actually didn't care who was throwing the damn party, so long as he could get fully trashed and have some people he could associate with. Even if he was just beating them into the ground in a game of pool, or really beating them into the ground, he didn't care. He needed entertainment.
There was nothing entertaining about arguing with Angela.
"WHAT THE FUCK is wrong with me asking what you do when you vanish all night? Are you seeing someone else? I'll kill the fucker, I swear it," he threatened. As far as he was concerned, he'd been totally honest with her and told her what he was up to, even though he'd been worried she'd drop his ass right then and there. Instead, she'd busted out his window, which he'd had to fix that day. He still wasn't happy about it.
That's when that chick passed by, and he glanced her way as he took a long drag off of his cigarette. It was his second for this phone call. He turned away, dismissing the woman, but found his eyes turning to her once again. Damn, she was hot. He had to wonder of Angela had heard.
He gestured to the total babe to hold on a second, his cigarette hanging out of his mouth. He had to figure out where he and Angela were before he could decide what to do about a hot chick. If she was going to dump him, on the phone no less, he was going to go have his fun. If she'd calm down for HALF A SECOND and work things out, he'd tell the new bitch to take off.
Yes, he was a vindictive asshole.
Purezza smiled graciously and really considered the cigarette to the eye trick right then. Who was he to tell her to hold on? But she indulged, as this lover's tiff was making her head hurt enough to intrigue her. This sounded like something she could ruin a lot of. She leaned against the bed of a pick-up truck and folded her arms, expression demure, prompting.
"Jesus CHRIST Jared, how much have you had to drink THIS time?" Angela shot back, before screaming out the window at someone who stopped in front of her with no blinker to turn. The black 3000GT VR4 got loud for a moment as she stomped the gas, and the exhaust note drown out the rest of her swearing.
"I TOLD YOU that I'd talk to you tomorrow, and that would have been today, except you wouldn't answer your phone and now you're fucking drunk. Can you FUNCTION, seriously, without one beer? Seriously?"
Purezza's brows raised as she listened on. Sounded like the girlfriend was hiding something from the boyfriend, and now they were fighting over it. Purezza could run with this one easy. She lowered her head a little, unwilling to entertain any more of this argument.
"Hang up the phone," she whispered to Jared. He wouldn't have been able to hear it in the sense that he'd notice it, but he'd definitely hear the command in his head. Purezza awaited the result.
"Oh, shut the FUCK up about my drinking. I'll be drunk in about twenty minutes, and I'm sure as hell sober enough right now to hear you fucking changing the subject AGAIN. God damn it, Angela, can't you just fucking tell me the TRUTH for a change?" he demanded, only more pissed for the fact that she was insulting HIM for drinking when she couldn't even be honest about the fact that she was fucking another dude.
Hang up the phone.
He didn't so much hear it as just get the thought into his head that he'd had enough, that Angela could go spend the night at her knew guy's house, and he was going to go get plastered. "You know what, Angela? FUCK. YOU."
He hung up.
He took another drag off his cigarette to finish it off, dropped and stepped on it before turning to the woman who'd stopped to 'chat'. "Hey, sorry about that, I'm Jared. What's your name?" he asked, for starters.
Angela couldn't even get a word in edgewise before Jared just exploded and hung up at her. She banged her phone against the center console until the battery popped out and launched itself onto the passenger side floorboard by Hailee's feet. The girls exchanged looks, and Angela began ranting to Hailee instead of Jared.
Purezza smiled as he spoke, as though the previous few moments had never occured at all. "Purezza," she said, voice soft and lilting. "Sometimes people call me Purr, like the noise a cat makes? I don't mind either way." She held out her hand to shake his, and was very aware that she had to appear at least strange for not commenting on the fight.
"So, I take it you're newly single?" she asked dangerously. Here be the test of loyalty. She was interested to know the outcome, as it drastically played a role in whether she would turn him or just kill him. "Mind if I catch a light?" she asked sweetly, producing her own cigarette from her purse, which rested next to her on the bed of the truck. Purezza could go for a little bit of a death stick right now, sure.
He sighed, barely reining in his temper as he shook her hand. Just because the phone conversation was over didn't mean that he was ready to just drop the argument. He felt like kicking the truck next to him, but he wasn't going to spaz out in front of this girl. "Purr, huh? Well, I wish I could say I was newly single because it'd be a hell of a lot simpler, but her and I still have a lot of shit to figure out," he told her, his tone rather short. He didn't have to sound happy about it.
He didn't say anything to her request for a light, instead just pulling out his lighter and offering it to her. Chivalry wasn't his strong suit, so he wasn't lighting the cigarette for her, and he'd already had two himself. He wasn't in that much of a hurry to die. Ironic.
Purezza didn't need him lighting her cigarette. She didn't like fire near her face, especially not wielded by an angry mortal boy. She lit it and exhaled sharply, blowing a trail of smoke into the night sky and holding out his lighter simultaniously.
"Well, sorry to hear that. The fact that you're fighting, not that you're single," she said with a smile. And it was a lie. She was overjoyed to find that he was still dedicated to the girl. The heat of their argument had nearly made her vomit. Actually, even though he was mad, she still found it uncomfortable in his presence thanks to his overly emotional aura at the moment. She cleared her throat.
"Tell me what you were fighting about?" she asked of him after a pause. She'd have to lay the hypnosis on to get answers, she was pretty sure of it. He seemed like a typical human male. Stubborn, hot-headed. Unwilling to talk, at least, not about shit she wanted to hear.
He took the lighter back without thinking anything of the situation, and popped it into one of his pockets. His cell was in another, though he was doubting Angela would ever call. She was going to bitch to Hailee about how much of an asshole he was instead of talking to HIM about it. Real cool.
Normally, he wouldn't have wanted to talk about the problem with anyone. It was their problem, not Purr's, and it just wasn't his style. Something about this woman, or maybe the way she asked, made him think otherwise, though. "Don't worry about it," he said, and that might have been all, if not for her little voice trick.
"She goes off all night all the time, and I didn't press for answers all this fucking time, and I finally came clean and told her the total truth, and she won't bother to return the fucking favor. I bet she's sleeping with some other asshole, but doesn't have the guts to come clean. I could even deal with that if she'd just say that's what it is, but she keeps telling me we'll talk about it tomorrow, then wants to say I'm fucking drunk and can't function well enough to talk about it tonight," he explained, that basically being the issue. He didn't have much more to say on it. He WASN'T wasted, either. He'd had maybe two drinks, and that was nothing for him.
Purezza laughed a little. "So angry," she chided. "Do you really think she's lying to you about seeing someone else?" At the way his temper seemed to explode, she doubted it. She had no idea who Angela was though, or what she did, or she could have guessed what her midnight madness brought. She plucked her name from his head, and would have, if she'd been human, choked on the smoke she'd just inhaled for the amount of startlement she'd just felt.
Arun? Of the Arun line?
Oh God, Purezza had struck GOLD.
It didn't really matter what Jared did now, she'd made up her mind. She was turning him, and then turning the lovesick fool loose on his Witch girlfriend. Then she'd sit back and watch the carnage candy with that cat - what was his name? Darren? She thought he needed more exposure to this side of life.
She might have thought it was funny, but he didn't. Angela probably thought he was at some party having a blast, but he wasn't. He was just about as pissed off and frustrated as she was, and he turned around suddenly to kick his tire just about as hard as he could. It was the only part of the car that wouldn't either hurt him or leave a mark, so it was the only safe spot, and he was rational enough to know he didn't want to bust his car up. He was WAY too frustrated not to hit something, though.
"I don't fucking know! All I know is that she's running around all night long and told me she promised someone she wouldn't tell me! What the fuck does that sound like to you?" he demanded. If this girl had a better idea, he was all for it. He wasn't accepting the 'I have to wash my hair' line or anything of that ilk.
"You're being ridiculous. That girl loves you more than life itself. You are petty and stupid and base, and you don't deserve a woman of her calibre." Purezza stood straight, now, walking towards him. She let her power seep into her voice, enjoying the human's reaction as he visably resisted her words, her poison; her auditory suicide.
"Take this cigarette. Take it," she commanded, holding the half-smoked cigarette out to Jared. She reveled in every second she could see him fighting. He was strong, she knew. But not... strong enough. She smiled brightly at him.
"Admit you were stupid. Admit you were wrong."
She folded her arms.
He stopped what he was doing, immediately, without hesitation, and frowned. He heard what she said and should have told her to go to Hell, but for some reason, that had hit harder than it should have. What did he care what this dumb bitch said? She didn't know him, she didn't know Angela, and she sure as Hell didn't know what was going on enough to make a judgment call like that, but for some reason he was actually thinking about what she was saying. He almost thought he believed it, but even just thinking for an instant that she might be right made him even more angry. How dare she tell him all those things, even if they're true?
"I don't want it," he snapped, but his eyes were inexplicably drawn back to the cigarette immediately after he told her that, like he couldn't take them off it. Like he DID want it, but he knew he didn't. He didn't want her nasty cigarette. He didn't know where she'd been, and he had a half a pack in his car. He could get his own, but for some reason, he still found himself reaching out to take it. Something weird was going on, but it wasn't nearly so obvious as it was when she told him to admit he was stupid, and wrong.
That was where they had problems.
As far as Jared was concerned, he wasn't stupid OR wrong, and if he was, it was time to revert back to the first part. He didn't ever admit when he was wrong. If it happened, everyone just glossed over it. He didn't apologize well, either. Why should he? Who had ever been willing to admit that they'd wronged him, or apologize? He'd had one great big mess after another for a life, so why be a pansy and apologize or tell people what he was bad at? He paraded around his best and/or favorite qualities, and the rest got shoved to the back. He didn't want to admit any such thing.
"No." He could refuse, but he felt his mouth growing dry, like something was wrong. The words seemed to want to leap out of him, and he didn't understand that. Even if he'd truly believed what she said, since it was leaking its way into his subconscious on a more subtle level even as he tried to resist the rest, he knew for a fact that he didn't think he was wrong or stupid. Not those two. What was going on? "I have to go, I haven't had enough to drink for this shit."
He wanted to leave, but he still felt like saying what she told him to. He swallowed, still finding it wrong.
Purezza walked towards him, arms comfortably folded as she spoke. Her pace was slow, languid. She had a strange half-smile that she had not had before, a sort of Mona Lisa countinence. Her eyes glimmered as the light crossed them, like eyeshine, and Purezza allowed the glamour to drop, giving her natural black eyes their place back.
"Say it. Say you're sorry. Admit it. You know Angela isn't cheating on you, just like you know several other facts about your life that won't ever change. But like a typical man, you have to go and fuck it all up by flying off the handle and saying things that do so much damage... so much damage that she won't even come rescue you from me."
"Do you know what happens to boys like you? They attract creatures like me. Creatures that see a good thing, and see someone chipping at it, hacking away mercilessly, because they simply can't begin to exist without maybe, just once, accepting things the way that they are and being happy. And we watch you ruin and corrupt the things in life that we can't even hope to posses."
She walked 'round him slowly like a vulture, holding his mind with her own to keep him in place. She didn't feel like allowing him running room. "Drop to your knees like the filth you are. Now." Purezza seemed to have tired of her game.
"I'm going to have you begging for your Witch girlfriend before I've even started. Put the cigarette out on your arm. Now."
It didn't occur to him until he saw her eyes change color that he might be in trouble, and by then, she was already talking again and it was too late. The light bulb that turned on in his head had to be nearly visible, but he still didn't want to play along. He clenched his jaw, not wanting to say anything, but her words were still getting through to him. He hadn't known what was happening with Angela, and so there had been doubt there the entire time in his mind. This woman with her magic voice was only strengthening the part that had believed in Angela when he didn't know what she was doing, the part that wanted to think that she cared and maybe even loved him, and worked at drowning out the cynical voice that wanted him to keep his distance before he set himself up for a painful mess.
Somehow, he was getting the impression that Angela wasn't going to be the one to fuck his world up. Can't imagine where that came from.
He had to grab the car beside him as his knees tried to buckle, but he glared at her suddenly. "Even if I say I'm sorry, why the fuck would I apologize to you? If anyone deserves it, it's Angela, and she's not here," he snapped, and there, he'd said it. He'd fucked up and lapsed in thought when Angela was called a witch, though. Witch? Was that like, bitch? Was this psycho calling his girlfriend a bitch? How fucking dare she?!
Annnd, there went the cigarette. He was suddenly pressing into his arm, where it hurt like HELL and got a few strangled curses out of him as he also let go of the car and crashed to his knees. That felt just about as good as the cigarette, and he cursed a little more rather than scream or make any other indication of pain, though he dropped the damn cigarette and clutched at his arm, his cursing getting just a little shrill from the multiple shots right in a row.
"How the FUCK are you doing that?"
"You'll find out soon enough," she said, with a voice full of promise that would sew nightmares into the minds of those looking on. She walked 'round him, trying to decide what she wanted precisely to do before she finished this. She drummed her fingertips together like Mr. Burns, thumbing through his mind for something painful, something that would break him. He seemed enough of a problem that she might not be able to really dig anything up, not anything that would bother him. She was slightly frustrated, and hit him in the face with the back of her hand in lieu of it. The blow likely would hurt quite a bit, considering she hit harder than Angela did (and that this was intentional).
"You're filth. Disgusting. You reek of emotion, despite your attempts to bottle them up. Your mere existence is offensive to my eyes. You should feel rotten inside, remorse for this malady that you are. The world would be a better place if you were never in it. Angela would be better if you were never in it."
She crouched down to him, and reached out, intending to grab him by his throat. "It's only a pity that anyone will mourn your passing at all. Fortunately for them, they won't have to. Instead, they'll have to lock their doors at night and hide themselves with relics, because you, my dear, are about to enter my world. Then maybe you'll see why I'm such a bitch."
She applied enough pressure to his throat to cut off the air for a few seconds, just to watch him squirm.
"You should be very afraid right now."
That first comment of hers was ominous enough, but he had no idea that she was ripping through his mind, or even that she COULD do that. He'd have been pretty smug if he'd realized how much trouble she was having in finding something to mess with him about, considering how little really bothered him. He'd seen and done enough that there wasn't much more someone could throw at him to really hurt him. Of course, she would manage, but she wasn't going to use anything in his own mind to break him down.
Or maybe she was.
What she didn't realize was that he was already pretty damn sure she was right, even without her using her voice powers. Or maybe she did, and she was just making it worse. Either way, that blow got a pained sort of yell from him, but he caught himself and had to just sit there for a moment to get his wits about him again while she spoke. And he'd thought Angela hit like a dude. He was running into a lot of those women lately. "You think I didn't already know that? That's been my life since I was old enough to remember. The world never needed me, but it got me, so we both had to make it work," he told her, shaking his head some, his whole jaw still stinging. That hurt like a bitch.
It wasn't like he had much of an opportunity to do or say anything else, though. Suddenly, she was speaking again, and then grabbing him by the throat. He didn't even consider that a woman would try to choke him, so he hadn't even made the attempt to stop her, but he grabbed her wrist and hand with his own rather quickly when he realized that she didn't just hit like a guy. She was slowly cutting off his air, and talking about things he didn't understand. It sounded like she was going to kill him, but he didn't know what she meant about the people who would have mourned him locking their doors and protecting themselves with....relics? Wasn't that like, crosses? What the hell? Her world? What the hell was she talking about?!
Then, there was no air, and he gasped, trying to get anything he could as he fought against her grip with his own hands. How could a woman her size be so strong?! He couldn't break her grip, and he couldn't breathe at all. One could say that he had a spike of fear in him, even without her voice tricks.
Yeah, he was afraid, and that had to be visible to her in his wide, dark eyes. He didn't scare easily, but he'd never flirted with the idea of death. He was a fighter, and he didn't want to die, especially here and now.
Purezza ignored the rest of his mewing, and jerked him forward only enough to bite him. She didn't even bother to try and put his mind somewhere else, she made it just as painful as she pleased. Fear, pain, sadness - these were the only things she understood, or was allowed to understand. Hysteria, misery. She took a little pleasure in ruining his life more thoroughly than his twenty some odd years as a social fuck-up could have, though, and that was something.
When she'd drained him just to the point of death, she dropped him, and snatched his cell phone from him. She scrolled through his call list until she found Angela's number, cleverly marked Angela. She pressed send. What happened next perplexed her; had the girl really been cheating? When a male voice answered, and Angela could be heard in the background, however, she knew that her message would get across all the same.
"Tell the Witch that her pet is no longer amusing to me," she said, voice clear and sing-song. She hung up the phone, and dropped it by Jared's body. Now was the part she had seen done many times but never done on her own. Time to create a fledgeling.
Purezza cut her wrist skillfully with one of her nails, and held it just over Jared's mouth, letting the blood drip down onto his lips. He wouldn't go for this one willingly, she knew.
"Drink it."
He had NO idea what the hell was going to happen when she jerked him towards her like that, but getting bitten into by the bitch was the LAST thing he expected. It hurt. It hurt like nothing else he'd ever felt, worse than the cigarette burn and the way she'd hit him and even the way she'd been choking. It felt like fire in his veins, and it took him a moment to register through the sheer agony of it that she was drinking his blood.
Drinking. His blood.
Through his throat, like a goddamned.....vampire. A vampire. Sure, he didn't think it was true, or that he believed it, but how could he really refuse to believe it when she was sucking the blood out of his body through his throat? Okay, so he believed, but it was a little late.
He actually lost track of time while she drained him. It could have been seconds or hours, it was all the same to him, all just pain sweeping over him like a wave of hurt, molten lead in his veins that hardened as she released him and took his phone. He wanted to get up, to fight her or escape, but he couldn't do anything. He felt so tired, so heavy and useless. He TRIED to move, but his muscles didn't want to be up to the task. He could barely keep his eyes open, but he refused to pass out. That was for weaker humans, and he wasn't going to be weak if this was his last night.
Not that being unable to move while she talked to Angela wasn't weak.
Really, he thought he was dead when she finished with the phone, but she actually surprised him again. She cut her own wrist, letting it drip over his mouth, and it occurred to him about a second later that he didn't want that in his mouth. He forced his lips shut and tried to keep anything more than that first drop from getting past, but there wasn't a whole lot he could do about it, especially with her telling him to drink it. He was weak, he hurt, and his will was starting to crack under the constant abuse. He resisted just because it was in his character to do so, but his lips inevitably parted to take in the blood.
What a taxing even this was. She didn't even want to hang around and give her little creation any information, either. Come to think of it, knowing how Witches had responded in the past to her little escapades, she supposed she shouldn't be hanging around at all.
She shook her hand free of Jared after a few moments, the cut sealing up as she ran her tongue along it. Her own blood was tasteless to her, and that was just fine. She leaned on the car to regain her composure, and stared down at his body as his life crept out of him.
"Just so you know, you tasted horrible," she said. And with that, she was gone.
He hadn't known what her blood would do, having never been the sort to read all those stupid books about vampires, but he wasn't so sure if he expected to feel the way he did. It was like it only sped up the painful, heavy feeling of...dying. He was dying, he realized rather suddenly, and there was nothing he could do about it as she pulled herself away from him. That parting comment of hers deserved a response, even if he didn't think he could talk. His throat still felt like it was on fire, and his breathing was growing more shallow.
He fought to shift just one hand enough to give her the finger, though. One last parting shot, and how else could he die but being a total asshole and fighting the whole way? He inevitably went lax and lost consciousness, though. He didn't see Purezza leave.
When Angela wanted to get somewhere in a hurry, she sure could. If it had been anyone else besides Reilly in the passenger seat, she'd be inspecting for shit stains. As it was, she pegged him for a more road raging driver than she was. The car slid around the corner, which shouldn't have happened at all thanks to the all-wheel drive system, but Angela made sure to hammer it just in case she hadn't gotten her point across that she was in a panic. Might not have been the best choice to let her drive, actually.
When she finally stopped the death ride of doom, she jumped out, leaving her door open. She didn't try to hassle Reilly to move faster, because she figured he'd be damned good back-up if the vampire was hanging around. She ignored the fact that he was probably happy about this.
"Jared!" she shouted, running towards the driveway. She actually nearly tripped over his body, and caught herself side-first into the side of his car with a loud WHUMP. She jumped up in pain, and spun around a few times, clutching her arm. When she looked down, she froze. She wanted to scream, but she just couldn't make the sound come out. She was too refined, too trained, too.. Oh to hell with it.
"FUCK!" she yelled. "FUCK! FUCK!" She dropped to her knees, trying to asess the situation from where she could. "Oh fuck, Reilly, I think he's dead!" she called back to her cousin. "Fuck! Fuck, Jared, I'm sorry! I'm sorry I didn't tell you where I was! Fuck, I'M SORRY!" she screamed. She hit his lifeless body in the chest, trying to... she didn't know. She just didn't know.
Reilly expected this sort of reaction no matter how he had acted. He didn't expect Angela to blow the whole thing off, and the way she was driving only proved his point. She cared a lot. Her complete and utter disregard for the rules of the road was nice though--at least he wasn't alone in psycho driving habits.
When Angela boogied out of the car, he forced himself up and slammed his door. Then, for good measure, he slammed hers as well. Unlike Angela, he didn't go flying at Jared. Instead he looked around, trying to locate the vampire responsible. When nothing jumped out at him, he trudged along to meet his cousin and her dead boyfriend. Her reaction to it made him inwardly cringe.
He allowed her to scream and hit Jared. She had to let it all out and nothing he had to say would fix that. He just remained alert, watching for any predators that thought now would be an amazing time to reappear. Yeah right.
Somehow, he had a terrible feeling about this whole thing.
Really, of all the shit he'd been through that night, waking up because someone had absolutely POUNDED on his chest wasn't at the top of his list of favorite things. It wasn't the worst by far, but he could have had a nicer wake up call. The blow to his chest actually hurt worse than he thought it should have, and that was enough to jolt his consciousness back to the surface. He had other concerns as well, like just how HORRIBLE he felt. His head felt like it'd been split open, his whole body ached, and now his chest felt like he'd just been hit by a car or something.
He actually had the strength to move again, which might have struck him as odd if he'd had the chance to consider it, but he didn't move to do anything other than sort of double over on the ground, obviously in pain. He hadn't even bothered opening his eyes yet, and wasn't sure if he wanted to.
"S-stop," he gasped out, completely unaware of the fact that he hadn't been breathing right up until he sucked in air to speak.
Angela screamed in surprise like a little girl and sprang backwards. She laughed immediately afterwards, a nervous, flighty sort of laugh. He wasn't dead, right? He'd just been knocked unconscious, that was all. She was shaking so bad that when she tried to pull her hair into a pony tail, it took her a few tries. She rolled up to her knees and put a hand down on the ground to steady herself.
"Sorry! I'm sorry, baby, I was so worr..."
She trailed off as she saw the dried blood on his neck. The vampire aura was still so fresh that it blended in with those around them from the bash inside, and she hadn't... she hadn't caught it right away. She reached out to his wrist, to try and pick up a pulse.
"Oh shit, Reilly," she said. She didn't have to say anything else.
The moment Jared moved, Reilly's complete attention shot to him. Angela was laughing; she hadn't realized yet. She even began to apologize, but Jared wasn't breathing. He wasn't alive. They were too late in more ways than one.
He knew it. The way that they had found him--everything was so set up. The vampire had called. She wanted Angela to come and find him this way. That had been the intention. It all seemed so obvious then.
Angela figured it out. She regarded him, shocked with the turn of events.
"Wonderful," he sighed out. He didn't know what else to say. "Just fucking wonderful."
Any guilt that he had felt left him. Well, Jared thought he was immortal before, and now he was. He had wanted to be a badass, strong and powerful, and now he could be. The universe hated him. The world was better off with Jared as a self-important human.
He had half a mind to tell Angela to get away from him so that they could put him out of his misery, but he didn't. Jared wouldn't hurt her. He cared about her when it came right down to it. Just because he was a vampire, it wouldn't change that. They weren't unfeeling creatures, as much as Reilly would loathe to admit that. Still, killing him now before he became a problem seemed logical.
Jared actually made something akin to a hiss when she grabbed his wrist in search of a pulse, but it was really just the result of him breathing in rather sharply because just her touch hurt. It was almost like touching metal in the middle of winter, when it was so cold it burned. Not quite, but he knew her skin wasn't that hot, so it was a similar feeling. Either way, he tried to jerk his hand away from her, just to make it stop.
"What the fuck is going on?" he finally asked, his voice lower and strained, betraying the pain he was in. Even not touching Angela, which he hadn't really determined was the cause of it all, his head hurt like someone was playing the drums on his brain, and his wrist was burning still. He didn't know it, but the blow to his chest was nearly non-existent because he'd had clothing to protect him from most of the damage. His wrist hadn't been so fortunate.
Reilly may have been right about killing him before he could become a problem, but it was almost sad the position Jared was in. He didn't know what was going on, what laid before him, or even what the rules of his new existence were. An instruction manual would have been awesome at this point.
Angela jerked back in surprise. She had a lot of things to explain, and no real time to explain them. "Jared, I am only going to say this once. A lot of things are happening right now that you probably don't understand, and I will explain them to you, but right now, we need to get you somewhere safe. Can you stand up?" she asked. She was still a little shaken at his behaviour, but then again, she'd never been around when someone had just been turned. She didn't really know how she would have reacted if it'd been her, but then again, Angela couldn't really GET put into that position.
She stood up, trying to give him some breathing room, and moved to stand by Reilly. "We need to get him to Single Earth before he attacks someone. I don't think he's going to be able to help himself." She was borderline tears. So much for strict self control. This was way overwhelming.
Reilly listened to Angela and frowned. She was keeping information hostage. In order to understand, Jared had to go to Single Earth. That didn't seem fair, and despite his dislike for Jared, it felt wrong to do to him.
"What's the difference between telling him now and telling him in Single Earth? If he's gonna go batshit, he's gonna do it in either place." He sent his gaze to the crumpled vampire, silently wondering why he was in so much pain. That wasn't how the change was supposed to happen...
Reilly didn't believe in Single Earth vampires anyway. They were like the tooth fairy. It was a bunch of vampires parading around pretending to vomit rainbows, just like it was parents masquerading as the pretty little fairy that took children's teeth from them in exchange for some pocket change.
"You're a vampire, Jared, like the kind from the movies. You suck blood, you don't age, and you live as long as you keep your big mouth away from people who have more power than you do. For some vampires that's a long time, but for you, I'm doubting that. Sounds like tons of fun, doesn't it?" He only said it because he trusted Jared enough not to freak out. That man was all about being a badass and running on high testosterone. Badasses didn't freak out.
Well, this would put quite a damper on Jared and Angela's relationship. How sad.
He almost wanted to get pissed at Reilly for talking about him going batshit, like he was going to. Of course, he wasn't entirely prepared for what the guy had to say, and ended up staring up at him with an expression that said he wasn't sure if Reilly was insane or if he dared believe him.
That bitch had bit him, and done some other crazy shit, so was it really impossible? He'd thought 'vampire' as well when it happened, but did he really believe that he was a vampire now, too? Wasn't that crazy talk? "Fuck you," he snapped, but looked to Angela. It made his headache spike up, so he winced and looked away. Why was that happening?!
"You're insane. I'm not a fucking vampire, because if I was, wouldn't I be more powerful or something? All I feel right now is a fucking migraine and like I was dragged through the dirt," he told him, but then stopped. "Why would you say that? How would you even know anything about vampires? What the fuck is going on?"
She could have kicked Reilly in the face for doing that. She wanted to, but she knew better than to direct her anger at her equally-matched cousin. He'd had slightly more training than she had, and that... well, their parents would be getting called, that was certain. She looked from him to Jared, and sighed.
"You wanted to know where I go at night? Well, here it is. I go out to places like this and roast vampires before they can do... exactly what just happened." There. She said it. What a relief. Too bad it was 24 hours too late. "I told you there was a specific reason I didn't want you to know. I didn't want you involved, and now you are."
And it's my fault.
The unsaid words hung in the air like a blade over her head, and it really hurt her to even think it. She choked down on her emotions as best she could, and exhaled before she started to lose her control.
"Now, that being said, we need to get you somewhere to feed before you go spastic and try to take a bite out of one of us." She reached out for his arm, hoping he wouldn't fight her too much. Angela hadn't ever used a gross display of her power against Jared; now would be the time, however inappropriate it was.
She left out the bit about what would happen if he tried to attack one of them. She certainly wouldn't pull Reilly off of him if he drew first blood. That was... there were some rules even she had to abide by, no matter how much she didn't want to. At least, she hoped she'd be able to abide by it. She didn't forsee this ending well for any of them.
He wanted to just stare at her, maybe give her a dirty look, but his head was positively pounding. It only seemed to get worse as she explained, which made him feel kind of bad. She was finally being honest and sounded like she was upset, but all he could think about was the headache. It was almost all-consuming.
"You---"
Somewhere in there, he'd had something to say, and it might have even been somewhat intelligent even through the headache, but that vanished in an instant as she grabbed his arm. There was that hissed intake of breath again as he tried to pull away, tried to get out of her grip, but she wasn't letting go. It wasn't like with his wrist (which had still hurt up until he'd been completely distracted by her grabbing him), and it felt almost like her hand was burning right through his arm, it hurt so bad. Metal poker against the skin bad. He made an attempt to grab her wrist, not even noticing how quickly he moved because he was just beyond caring about that, but the instant his palm touched her skin, it felt like grabbing a hot skillet. He released her just as quickly as he'd grabbed her.
"LET GO! IT FUCKING BURNS, LET GO!" he screamed, finally just digging his free hand into the ground and grass beside him, just for something to squeeze, and completely not caring about badassery or anything of the like. It fucking hurt.
Reilly didn't bother responding to Jared, despite the fact that he was starting to obtain a tick in his left eye. He understood Jared's confusion, naturally, but damn. It wasn't until he opened his mouth that Reilly really remembered how much he disliked him.
He felt completely out of place. Angela didn't have to explain anything regarding her personal life to Jared right now, but she had chosen to, which was fine. Of course, in actuality, Reilly really shouldn't have had anything to do with this and that fact was becoming more and more apparent every second that he stayed.
Jared reacted to Angela's touch as if she were torturing him. Reilly frowned. That wasn't supposed to happen. Mentally, he flipped through all of the information he knew about vampires to try and figure out just what was going on. He had woken up in pain, had seemed like he had been hurting this whole time, and now Angela was creating an even worse effect.
It didn't take longer than three seconds before it hit him.
"Angela, he's an Akka," he warned. Wow, Jared was possibly the unluckiest guy in the world right now. It must have been karma working its magic.
"Jesus CHRIST!" she screamed as Jared began freaking out on her. She let go of him sharply, and skipped backwards a few feet from the grip she'd had on him. "Jared, what is your pr-"
"Angela, he's an Akka."
She couldn't decide what she wanted to say. She inhaled sharply, finally, tilting her head a little, and then shook it. "No," she said. "No. No, it's not possible. Akkas don't come to bashes, he can't.."
The expression on Reilly's face was deadpan as usual, but there was something different, something in his eyes, something that was more wary than it had been before. If what he said was true, her mere presence was going to drive Jared over the edge. She looked at her cousin helplessly, and balled her fists up so tightly she dug her nails into her palms.
"This isn't fair," she whimpered. "This isn't FAIR." Jared may not have known what it meant, but Angela knew well that this would be the last time they ever saw eachother. Even as a Kendra, or a Silver, or God, a Mira, she could have dealt with it, could have... but this didn't even give her a CHANCE to.
He looked from one to the other from where he was sitting in the dirt, one hand clutching at the burn on his arm from Angela's grabbing him, and just enduring his headache while Angela went on emotional overload and made his head hurt worse, and Reilly acted all monotone on them. He was obviously starting to figure out that Angela was the reason he was hurting, but he didn't understand WHY. It was also mildly worthy of concern that Reilly was being so...detached. The guy was usually a lot more enthusiastic in his reactions.
Perhaps that was the reason why Jared looked at Reilly first. "What's an Akka?" he asked, almost starting to believe that they might be right after all this. Angela killed vampires. One had bitten and apppar----oh. Right, now he remembered. "And does it have anything to do with that crazy bitch feeding me her blood?"
He'd forgotten that, in the excitement of everything else. Was he really a vampire? Ugh, that sounded so insane.
"Yeah, it does," Reilly answered Jared. Angela was upset and he wanted to comfort her, but he wasn't entirely sure how. He also wasn't so sure that now was the right time. So rather than say anything to her, he could only frown apologetically.
"Akka's just a line of vampires. The problem is, anything that holds great emotional value hurts them. Like, for instance," he straightened himself, gesturing offhandedly to Angela, "Angela. She's your girlfriend. The fact that she cares about you and that you care about her is gonna keep on hurting you, which'd be your problem right now." He really couldn't explain it any better than that, and he definitely wasn't going to tell Jared the advantages of being an Akka, like the fact that they were all strong. He wouldn't hesitate to tell him how quickly they usually ended up dying, though.
Jared really wasn't having a good day, was he?
"I don't know all the details, but I've seen Akka vampires start hurting around art and shit like that. Crosses, churches; that kinda stuff too."
Angela sat down on the closest thing she could find, feeling her knees suddenly get weak. There was that old familiar pit in her stomach, the one that she'd had since childhood. The one that separated her from the rest of the world. Did every Arun Witch just get some predetermined fuck? Even her mother'd had a shit childhood; it probably explained why her uncle was such a dick. Some of them dealt, some of them didn't. Which would Angela be, she wondered? The line was damned, cursed, 'tainted', and now she was getting it up the ass for it, that's what.
"Of all the fucking things to bite him," she hissed to herself. She was alternating between vast heatwaves of anger and heavy, solid lines of heartache. She couldn't figure out what she wanted to feel, or how she wanted to feel it. She wanted to go home, and crawl into bed, and wake up tomorrow and have this be a bad dream. But it wasn't. She looked back at Jared, and then away again.
She needed to just get up, and go. Just get up and go, and never look back. She couldn't guarantee his safety at all, or her own, but she could stop hurting him by simply being in his presence. She'd never seen an Akkan first had; she'd never seen it this bad. She knew why they didn't live long, though, now. What do you do when the mere thought of enjoyment burns your mind?
"Reilly. I think we need to go," she said in a low voice. She was trying to put her teenage self out of her mind, pull the Witch in. It was incredibly hard.
He just STARED at Reilly as the guy spoke, then glanced very briefly at Angela. If he was quick about it, it was relatively okay. He still had that headache, but maybe he could work through that. He was still hoping this was some crazy nightmare, but it was no dream he'd ever felt before, and he didn't think his own mind was creative enough to come up with this shit.
The fact that Angela and Reilly both knew so much about this, when he was totally clueless, wasn't quite so nice.
"Go where?" he asked, thinking again of that place they'd mentioned at first. He didn't remember the name, but it didn't occur to him that Angela might be trying to leave without him. Somehow, their earlier fight seemed stupid in comparison, and there was too much going on right that second for him to worry about the fact that she'd been lying to him and keeping things from him for so long. Right then, more immediate matters were important, and it seemed almost impossible to him that she'd just abandon him like that.
He pulled himself up, using the car to steady himself, and just...waited. He didn't know what was supposed to happen next, he hadn't really even had a chance with that headache and hearing all this crazy talk to even just look around as a vampire yet, and none of that mattered just yet. Where were they going?
Angela was not reacting well.
Reilly understood, one-hundred percent, why Angela would want to leave. This was her boyfriend. She was causing him pain. Not emotional pain, but the physical pain that only an Akka had to go through. That made complete sense, and yet, at the same time, he didn't feel that it was the brightest idea. She was leaving Jared, a new vampire, all alone without any direction, and while Reilly felt no obligation towards Jared or any other vampire, he did think that it was still cold on her part. It was irrational and she was working entirely off of her emotions. She needed to stop doing that; Reilly worried about what else it could lead to. Aside from that, he wasn't so sure about leaving Jared to his own devices. He could do something incredibly stupid with no one there to stop him.
"You really want to leave?" Reilly asked her. He was so tired of being serious, but this situation wasn't over yet. "I know you're hurting him, but really, he can take it. Just don't touch him."
His eyes slid to Jared, then back to Angela as he sighed. "I think you should really try to help him out. If we go, what's he gonna do? Didn't you want to take him to Single Earth?"
He wasn't going to argue with her, so if she just wanted to leave, he would leave with her. This was her problem, not his, so however she chose to handle it was up solely up to her. Reilly could only offer her his honest opinion.
Single Earth. That's right. Angela looked up and sighed. She was so... so mixed up! She looked at Reilly now, cutting Jared and what he wanted completely out of the conversation for the moment. She wanted to just ask Reilly to take him, but she felt like that would get Jared dumped into the wood somewhere. She frowned. Again.
"I don't know. I don't know," she said again, more softly. She really didn't. This was just going completely wrong. "I don't know what to do."
At one time in her life, Angela remembered she could make any decision on a dime, but it was never because she severed her emotions out of it. A lot of those had gotten her into trouble, in retrospect. Now wasn't the time to just make a decision on the fly - the problem was that she didn't have TIME to sit and weigh her options. There was never any time.
"I guess we can get him to Single Earth and go from there," she said finally. But she somehow didn't want to be in the car with him. She wanted to be... as far away as possible.
He was being ignored. Great. Just what he wanted, after all this. It made him mad, but even more, it made him want to get a drink. Getting absolutely shit-faced had NEVER looked so good.
"Hey, in case you two forgot, I'm still fucking here. Why don't you ask me what I want to do and tell me what the fuck Single Earth is?" he demanded. It was really nice of them to worry so much about what was going to happen to him in the next ten minutes, but he'd have liked a little input, and maybe some more information about just how messed up his life had gotten. That was need-to-know information, and since they seemed to know so much, he wanted to hear it.
He still couldn't believe Angela had kept all this from him.
Reilly, who had been about to answer Angela, turned his head and gave Jared a sharp stare. "Chill." Jared didn't know enough to have an opinion and if he wanted to know anything in particular, nothing was stopping him from asking.
Looking back to his cousin, Reilly crossed his arms over his chest and relaxed his weight on one leg. "Don't feel pressured. Anything that's decided will work out. We'll make it work.
"And we're not going to keep you in the dark, you know," he continued then, focusing back on Jared. "You'll get all your questions answered at Single Earth, that's what they're there for."
He had so many comments he wanted to make. So many unspoken taunts and moronic, yet somehow entirely effective one liners, but he kept them all in. He was amazed that he had gotten this far without saying something stupid. He was notorious for that, especially with Jared. Maybe subconsciously he knew that this was too big of a problem for him to be playing it off as nothing.
Still.
"Bunch'a fucking fakes."
She shrugged finally, throwing up her hands to convey how useless she felt her ideas were going to be at this point. "Fine. Single Earth."
She twirled her car keys around her finger, waiting for Jared to decide not to comply. She wouldn't bank on it, but she hoped for it. She just wanted to leave, to leave him there, to cut this off now before it got worse. And it would, she knew. Once they got to Single Earth she'd need to make a few phone calls.
Being told to 'chill' nearly got a nasty remark out of him, but then Reilly was back to talking about that Single Earth place again, and despite his usual bad attitude, he wasn't going to be dumb and not listen to information that might really help him out in the near future. That didn't mean he had to be nice about it all, though.
"What. Is. Single Earth?" he finally asked, nice and slow. He'd already tried to get that answer, and all Reilly had said was 'bunch of fakes'. That was both encouraging and informative. Right. Fucking Reilly.
He was tempted to be a pain in the ass just because he could, and because that constant headache was starting to make him seriously cranky. That was because Angela was there, according to Reilly, and Angela had sounded as though she believed it. It made him want to take off, just put some distance between them so that he could actually think, but for some reason, he stayed. Maybe to prove that he could, or that he would? He had a habit of doing the exact opposite of what he really should do, so it really wasn't too surprising that he decided to stay. And who knew? Maybe staying and getting some actual help was for the best. It wasn't helping his mood any, though.