Night's Omen

He hadn't found a problem with her maneuvering him against a wall, nor had it occurred to him what she was about to do.  If he'd have had a moment to think straight, he would have freaked out and tried to escape, but she had his mind under rather strict control right then.  He was glad for it as her teeth broke the skin of his throat, plunging him into a warm, comfortable place where it felt kind of like he was floating.  It felt wonderful, very relaxing, and that's exactly what he did as she fed.  He relaxed against the wall, having completely forgotten whatever it was he'd been doing before he ran into her for what was going on currently.  It felt nice to just let everything go, but the floaty, warm feeling was starting to make him feel somewhat sleepy.  His limbs felt tired, and so did his mind.

That was when she released him, and he slid down the wall without the support she'd been giving him.  He still felt sleepy, though the sounds and smells of the normal world came rushing back to him, keeping him awake.  He was suddenly very aware, as well.  

He picked his head up to look at her and he just stared as she waved at him, blood still marking her lips and the edges of her mouth.  It took him a moment for it to process that it was his blood, though.  His.  She'd bitten him.  His hand shot up to his throat to feel the wound (even though 'shot' wasn't really the right word, since he was still moving a bit slow for it), and the fear and horror that had been poking at his brain since he'd seen the man shoot himself came rushing back full strength.  She'd made prey, food, out of him, and the cat inside of him hated that even more than the human did.  Neither humans nor leopards are used to being prey, and his instinctual reaction to that was to get away from any predator that could pull that off.  The problem was pulling himself to his feet, though.

He managed it, but it took an effort so soon after such blood loss.  He wasn't feeling so great, honestly.  He'd recover quickly enough, though.  Fortunately, shifters were quicker to recover than humans by a long shot.  He just had to get away from her, which was his top priority.

"You stay the fuck away from me," he gasped, finally making it to his feet and glaring at her.  He was almost afraid to take his eyes off of her, lest she attack in that moment that he looked away.  He was already starting to make his way along the building, but he wasn't getting far just yet.  He needed more time to recompose himself and gain some color again, but he didn't want to take that time.

She laughed. She tossed her hair back and licked the blood off of her lips, visibly shaking as she tried to wrap her mind around the shifter blood. She'd totally forgotten how potent it was. Purezza was high on power, and she leaned back against the wall looking almost like she'd just had a good roll in the hay and not a meal.

"Oh, why don't you go play in traffic," she laughed, waving her hand at him towards the busy street. Even twined with her laughter, the extra power she'd picked up from his blood is ultimately what propelled the command so heavily straight to his ears.

Purezza blew a strand of hair in her face as she watched the shifter.

He really hadn't needed any encouragement to get himself the hell out of there, but that COMMAND was completely impossible to ignore.  He'd slowed down in his movements, trying to pull himself together right up until she'd laughed like that.  It had stopped him dead in his tracks to stare at her, and that command had gotten another horrified look out of him.  He understood on some level what she was doing, and he tried to bolt down the sidewalk away from her.  It just...wasn't what happened.

When he took off, he shot right into the road, stumbling a bit but still moving faster than any normal human could have.  There was still a chance that he could avoid a car, since she hadn't specifically told him to get hit, but his chances were pretty low after she'd nearly drained him.  He got as far as the second lane of traffic before he saw a car flying down the street at him out of the corner of his eye.

This was going to hurt.  What did Connor say about it?  Ah, right, 'street pizza'.

Heather brought it up at the least convenient time. At least, it was the least convenient time for Valerie. She had HIM right where she wanted. They were in his car, returning from the ballet. In a confined space there was nowhere to hide, nowhere to run, especially not when he was driving. And when she asked it, he couldn?t just stop and insist she get out and walk herself home. Home was nearly twenty miles away, and there was no way Val would leave her alone on the city streets.

If only he had done? well, something different, that was for sure. Gone away for a month until he either learned to block it solid or it just went away, rather than trying to convince her he was alright when he was anything BUT. He kept getting these- these ridiculous urges at the most god-awful random times. Just now, halfway through the ballet, he?d felt the explosive need to urinate. Which was bad enough, but he?d wanted to urinate ON THE BALCONY RAILING. Like a DOG.

It was Adrian?s influence, no doubt, and Valerie had held in a multitude of growls and undignified faces while waiting for the need to pass. It was instances like these that Heather was seeing in him more and more often. No matter how well he covered it up, she somehow managed to see things. She noticed the abnormality. And then she worried, which put Valerie in a place to feel guilty for any number of things, least of which the fact that he had yet to tell her of his true nature.

So now here he was, in a car, with nowhere to run for at least another thirty minutes before they got to her home. And she was asking the question.

"Are you okay?"
Valerie kept his eyes on the road. "Perfectly fine."
"... Okay." Heather sat back in her seat and stared out the window. Val took the moment to grit his teeth and silently sigh. He didn't like hiding things from her, he wished she could understand that There were just some things he HAD to hide, things he couldn't let her know. Especially not now when everything was so off kilter, what with the bond and his mood swings and fully dysfunctional personality. Heather didn't need to hear about what his diet consisted of or what his night habits were, much less the chaos that was currently his life. He just had to keep her ignorant until he sorted things out.

"No, seriously. Val. What is going on with you?"
Then again, he was dating Heather White. Heather didn't leave things alone ever. "Because, I mean, I could ignore it when it was just the first few days, and even after a week or so... But you keep brushing me off and saying it's nothing, when it's clearly SOMETHING. If you're going mental, I'd really appreciate it if you'd tell me."
Heather White also had a way with words.
"I am not going mental."
"Then why are you acting strange?"
"It's complicated."
Silence. Not all silences cut, but this one did. "I see."
Val sighed. No, Heather, you really don't see. I wish you could, but you can't, that's just the way this has to-

"VAL! LOOK OUT!"
Valerie saw the man stumble directly in his path at the same time he heard Heather scream, but it was her voice that put his foot on the brake. Too late. Even for Valerie, the ensuing THUMP! of flesh and bone hitting steel and paint was sickening.

Heather immediately unbuckled her seatbelt the moment the car had stopped and dashed out the door. Valerie followed quickly behind her, keeping an eye on the surrounding traffic that might not stop even for pretty teenage girls in skirts, heels and pantyhose.

"Oh god, oh god, is he breathing?" Heather knelt beside the victim's crumpled form and felt for his pulse, carefully brushing his bloodied hair aside. The scent of the blood told Val what he needed to know - shifter, some kind of cat - and he breathed a sigh of relief. If the man wasn't hurt TOO badly, he could still walk away from this unscarred.
"Heather, please call an ambulance. I will stay with him." Heather nodded, biting her lip in her intense worry and went back to her purse in the car. Valerie kept a bit of distance from the body, examining it with his eyes before he dared use his hands. Odd, he smelled no alcohol, but the man had stumbled in front of the car as though profoundly drunk. Val wished his mental abilities were stronger. Just because he could sense nothing didn't mean there wasn't anything to find.

He waited, then, while Heather dialed frantically, and the city traffic honked its anger at being delayed. Even without the questions from Heather, this was shaping into a very bad day.

Damn Ferraris!  Damn idiot drivers, damn vampires!  

Darren saw the car in the instant before it struck him, even with the driver hitting the brakes at the last second.  That had perhaps kept him from flying over the windshield or getting squished by the car tires.  He'd ended up getting tossed forward a few feet from the sheer force of the car, and he just laid there at first, stunned.  The vampire had nearly drained him, so his head had already been spinning, but this just had him completely gone.  He might have even blacked out for a moment there, but he regained consciousness only a moment later.

To find a man staring down at him.

He attempted to jump up and bolt again, but his body wasn't having any of that.  He couldn't even tell what was broken and what wasn't at that moment, considering he hurt everywhere.  He tried to peel himself off of the pavement, though he wasn't having much luck with that.

"N...no hos...hospital," he managed, well aware of the sort of trouble he could be in if some ambulance took him in and found that he wasn't just healing, but there was something wrong with his blood type.

"Heather, cancel that." He sent it to her telepathically, so she would think she had heard him yell over the noise. She returned to him, phone to her ear and expression a mask of disbelief. "Are you crazy?! He needs a doctor!"
"No, he doesn't."
"Val, what the hell-"
"Heather, please."
She glared at him. Glared at him until he was sure the ends of his hair and clothes would catch fire.
"Val, there is so some shit you are not telling me, and if you do not explain to me what it is right now so help me God I will-"
"He's a shifter. He'll heal on his own." Something about this boy was famliar, desperately so. Val looked at his face and felt intense concern wash over him, though he couldn't understand why. The bond? Why would Connor or Ade feel concern for this man? Unless they knew him...
Oh, please don't let that be it. Val stirred up enough trouble with them on his own, without the help of his shifter-dented Ferarri.

"He's a what?"
"Werecat. Of a sort. Please, Heather, I don't have time to explain." Valerie turned back to the victim, wiping some of the blood off the man's face with his expensive shirt sleeve. He had no idea why it mattered to him that there not be blood on that face. "Is there someplace where you want to go? SingleEarth?"

Yeah, he'd heal on his own.  Eventually.  For the moment, about all he could manage was trying to push just his upper body up, and he was failing at that.  Really, all he wanted to do was just lay down and pretend everything was okay until he stopped hurting.  In the middle of traffic that wasn't such a good idea, though at least the man standing nearby had started talking to the girl about him not getting to a doctor, though.  It might have struck him as odd that the man had listened so easily, but he wasn't thinking about that currently.

He was thinking about the vampire, and where she was.  Would she come after him now that he was unable to get away?  Oh, God no.  He needed to get up, and he started trying to get off the ground again with a whole new sense of panic and urgency.  He wasn't healing almost at all, it seemed.  With the massive injuries and insane blood loss from her feeding from him, it was like his body didn't know what to take care of first.  He was feel pretty lightheaded already, probably from lack of blood and some sort of head wound or five.  

That didn't halt his pathetic, but determined attempts at getting up, though.  It was impossible to determine whether Val reaching down to wipe some of the blood from his face made him feel any better or worse, but he looked up at the man with wide green eyes.  Where did he want to go?  Well, he wanted to go home, for one.  He didn't know if Mars would be around, but he wanted to go there.  Or maybe to the Hollow.  Dave would take care of him.  He didn't know much about Single Earth, though he definitely didn't want to go to some strange clinic.  

He opened his mouth to answer, but his thoughts were starting to swim again, probably from exerting himself when he really didn't have the strength or health right then to do so.  He promptly lowered himself back to the ground to ride out the dizzy spell, and forgot what he'd been about to say.  Val was on his own.

Valerie had been skimming the shifter's thoughts for some kind of clue when the mention of a vampire came up. He immediately raised his head and looked carefully around, doubting he would see anyone but being careful nonetheless. Whoever she had been, she'd done a number on him, and Val couldn't count on her being done with him just because she'd sent him to an almost certain death. Val needed to get himself, the shifter and his girlfriend out of here. Now.

"What are you doing?" Heather demanded when Valerie began pulling off his coat. He placed it over the young man and mopped more blood away, fear clogging his throat as he watched its endless flow. This was definitely some kind of aquaintance of his bondmates, although whose, he couldn't say. Ade was a wolf, this man was a cat. There was some resemblance to Connor (dammit), but Connor was human. But who was to say this wasn't an infected elavie? He couldn't be sure.

Whatever. There was no time. People had begun to stop their cars and gather from the sidewalks, and Valerie was sure that someone must have called the police by now. Hellcat's Hollow had been extremely prominant in the shifter's - or Darren, as Val had learned, and thinking the name brought fresh pain to his chest - mind. Val would take him there. And hope that doing so didn't end up being a fatal mistake.

"Val, what are you-"
"Open the back door. Quickly."
Heather stood there, staring as he lifted the body with unnatural ease and faced her. There was blood all over his coat and his clothes, and he knew just by her expression that the picture he made wasn't the slightest bit familiar, trustworthy, or safe. He didn't have to read her thoughts to know she was scared.
"Heather... please. I promise I will explain."
Hesitation. Then she went to the car and opened the rear seat door, allowing Valerie to slip Darren in and put a seatbelt around him to keep him from sliding around. He wouldn't look at Heather as he retrieved a bottle of water and handkerchief from the glove compartment, took them to the spot on the pavement where Darren had lain, and mopped up what blood he could.
"Hey, hey, buddy!" A man from the crowd grabbed his shoulder. "Where do you think you're taking that kid? The ambulance-"
"The boy is in good hands." It was a strain, but he managed to at least partially muddle the minds of half the people there. With enough confused stories and descriptions, hopefully the police would never trace Darren or Valerie's car. Grudgingly, he had the bond to thank for this leap in mental ability; he never could have managed that kind of power on his own.

Heather was waiting for him in the car, silent but with renewed courage. She was a strong girl, very brave. Valerie might not be the best boyfriend, but Heather was about as good as a girlfriend could get.

"I will explain. I promise."
"You'd better."
Valerie glanced back at Darren, silent* and bleeding, and sighed. He wouldn't call Ade or Connor yet. First, the Hollow.


((*Unless Darren says something.))

Right then, he actually just couldn't say he cared enough to worry about what Val was doing more than to notice it hurt.  Everything hurt though, so could he really complain?  No, not with the amount of blood he'd lost.  He didn't have much to spare after Purezza drank most of it, and what little he had left was spilling out onto the pavement and this guy's coat.  At least he wasn't on the ground anymore, though.  That was a definite improvement, no matter where he ended up.

Once he was in the car, he started fading out for real.  He was more comfortable, his head was swimming around and he finally just...let it all go for a little while.  Maybe when he woke up, he wouldn't hurt so badly.

((Continued [a href=\'http://midnightmayhem.ourdarkarts.net/index.php?showtopic=718&st=0&#entry19208\' target=\'_top\']here[/a].))