Enter Sandman |Complete|

[Jared Bastian]

Jared Bastian

Prompt List

• Mirror
  
• Autumn
  
• Break
  
• Stuffed Animal
  
• Magic
  
• Sacrifice
  
• Dread
  
• Tears
  
• Breaking the Rules
  
• Choose Your Own Adventure! - Kick to the Head

Note: All of Jared's prompts come with a language warning.

[Jared Bastian]

Autumn
This post takes place in the past.

Halloween had never been Jared’s favorite time of the year, but Angela had a way of making any time of the year better than he was used to.  He hadn’t done much to admit it, just because of pride, but she was probably the absolute best thing that had ever happened to him.  He was too cynical to think that she was going to be his ‘other half’ for the rest of their lives, but that just wasn’t how he thought.  He was so used to being disappointed that he wasn’t even at a point of considering telling her just how much she meant to him.  He was just enjoying it while it lasted, while being pessimistic enough to ‘know’ that it wouldn’t last.

Too bad he was right.

That didn’t matter for Halloween, however, and on Halloween night, that was all that mattered.  Some friend of his had decided to throw a party, costumes required, and he’d talked Angela into going with him (which hadn’t taken nearly as much effort as he’d been thinking).  She’d actually seemed surprised that he wanted to go, and he could only attribute that to the costume thing.  He wasn’t much into playing stupid little games like that, and any sort of dressing up was unpleasant for him.  He’d taken her to a nice restaurant once, and he’d been pissed that he’d had to dress nicely for the whole day prior (even if he hadn’t complained to her).  This one involved a hell of a lot of drinking, though, so he excused the costume requirement and assumed that he wouldn’t care much after a couple of drinks.

Besides, Ryan had also gone, and he’d pulled off some ridiculously nasty zombie get-up that Jared got a kick out of.  The guy had scared a few girls earlier, which had definitely been worth the trouble of getting dressed up.  Angela was worth it, too.

She didn’t usually play much with the fact that she was actually a gorgeous woman, at least where dresses and frilly things were concerned, and the only play on her name that was ever used was Jared calling her ‘Angel’ in his better moods (and during/after sex).  He certainly hadn’t expected her to dress up as one for the party, or for her to look quite as amazing in that long, silky dress as she did.  Normally, he’d have pushed for something shorter and sexier, but the way that material clung to her form, he didn’t think she could have done better.  The only issue he had was that he couldn’t come up behind her like he liked to do, because he’d get a faceful of fake feathers.  That was fine, though.

It meant that he could wrap her up in his arms from the front, which left plenty of opportunities for unapologetic ass grabbing and some nipping at her neck, which was only more amusing to him, given the fake canines he’d attached to his own to go with the dark make-up someone had put around his eyes.

“Get off of me, you leech!” she shrieked when he did exactly that, both the biting and the groping, but he laughed and kissed the spot he’d bit at, only holding her tighter when she squirmed.  He had no idea that she could have broken his hold at any time and had chosen not to, just as he didn’t know anything about real vampires or his girlfriend’s opinion of them.

“You know you love it!” he told her with a fanged grin, completely oblivious of what that looked like to her.  What he didn’t say was just how much he loved it, and just as there was so much that he didn’t know about her, there was something that she didn’t know where he was concerned.

He would never, ever do anything to hurt her.

[Jared Bastian]

Break
This post takes place in the present.

Someone had told him that Akkan vampires don’t tend to last long.  He’d been pissed about the whole situation, pissed at that bitch vampire, and made some pissy comment about knowing why they didn’t last long, because he wanted to kill her for this.  He’d had no real idea what that person was talking about, not in actuality.

Now, he did. 

Everything sucked for him anymore, and there was no pun intended there.  Everything he’d cared about, he couldn’t go near.  His car was lost to him, and he was fully intending at this point to either destroy it or give the keys to someone who might appreciate it.  He was still staying in his own apartment, but he’d had to hide shit that he’d normally really liked, just because being around them made him hurt.  It made it tempting to go visit his mother, since he hated her enough that he could totally handle a visit and some human contact without getting a migraine.  That definitely wouldn’t solve his problems, though.  Actually, it might only make them worse, since he was bound to get into a massive argument that could only end badly.  Being a vampire, he didn’t really trust himself not to hurt her.

What he wanted, and didn’t want to think about, was Angela.  He’d never been the obsessive sort and he’d still claim that he wasn’t obsessed, but he couldn’t stop himself from thinking about her.  Naturally, that always ended with him pissed off and with a headache, but that didn’t stop him.  It was almost as though he couldn’t let her go just because he seemed to be forced to.  He missed her more than he wanted to admit to anyone else, and the more he missed her, the more he wanted to go see her, the more miserable and in pain he was.  It was never-ending, and the only solution seemed to be to go to her.  Considering that only hurt him more, there was no relief.  He did what he could to forget about her, but that really wasn’t working.  He could only distract himself so much, though Keith had been helpful in that department.  Getting beaned with a bible and kidnapped could take your mind off of a girl pretty quickly.

It hadn’t lasted, though.  Now, he was back to his usual haunts and habits, and now, he felt like he understood why Akkan vampires didn’t last.  If they weren’t already crazy, just the circumstances they found themselves in regarding everything they cared about would be enough to drive them absolutely insane.  He wasn’t the most sane of individuals to begin with, even if he wasn’t what someone would truly consider mentally unwell, and this was making him crazy.  He’d already been angry and hateful, not to mention pessimistic, and this had only worsened his outlook.  What did he care if someone died when the only people he cared about caused him pain every time he thought about them?  The fact of the matter was that he didn’t, and that was going to draw attention to him.  He was either going to need to resign himself to avoiding contact with them, develop masochistic tendencies, or just keep pushing himself to the breaking point.  Something was going to give eventually.

The question just happened to be how much else he’d break in the process if he snapped.

[Jared Bastian]

Tears
This post takes place in the past.

This didn't happen often, and Jared might have actually thought he deserved it if he actually stopped to think about the whole situation.  He had called a pretty big dude's girlfriend a whore, and even if it was true, he probably shouldn't have. 

At least, he shouldn't have done it without having a crew of his own on call.

He decided, not for the first time, that if his immediate world was going to hell in a handbasket, he was going to rain all over everyone else's parades.  He took a HELL of a beating, but he wasn't the only one, and his only real saving grace was probably that he'd had two other dudes swinging at him simultaneously and he couldn't get to his knife in time.  Once a third and fourth jumped in, he would have lost that knife and probably ended up dead.  Instead, he did everything in his power to stay on his feet, all the while raining blows on any body parts in his immediate sight.

That really didn't last long.  He landed a few good hits, a few that he could feel all through his arms, and the 'victims' worked together to knock him off of his feet.  Once he was on the pavement and trying to shield his face (while he kicked at legs nearby, which was surprisingly effective), it was only a matter of time before he took enough damage that his attention turned from fighting back to mostly just trying to protect his aching body from anymore hits.

It was Ryan's voice that broke through the chaos that was around and over him, and he knew things had turned up.  "GET THESE FUCKERS OFF OF ME!" he hollered, well aware that Ryan and whoever was with him would likely already be working on exactly that, and he wasn't wrong.  The bodies that had formerly been focused on beating his ass seemed to scatter, and he shot an arm out to grab a nearby ankle, dropping the guy on his face against the pavement.  There was a sickening sound, both of impact and vocalized pain, and the dude was dragging himself onto his feet again to take off.  Jared let him.

"Dude, you look like SHIT," Ryan informed him, offering him a hand up, and Jared just gave him a dark look before accepting it.  He gingerly touched his cheekbone, which wasn't just bruised and painful, but came away bloody.  He was bleeding from somewhere around there, which wasn't all that surprising.

"Thanks," he snapped, obviously pissed as hell.  Hopefully, Ryan had noticed that he'd also busted up some faces before he'd been overwhelmed.  He knew he'd gotten the one guy pretty good before his friends jumped in.  "Fuck!  Those assholes fucked my shirt up."

He actually liked that shirt, and it was torn up from the way they'd been grabbing at him.  Fucking girls, pulling on clothes.  "Hey Ryan, you know anyone up for a surprise ass-kicking run tonight?" he asked, and it wasn't hard to imagine what he was thinking.  One hit after the other, beat some ass and then move on to the next.  Those fuckers were the reason he had tears in his shirt, and he didn't have many nice things.  He was going to kick some ass.

[Jared Bastian]

Stuffed Animal
This post takes place in the past.

As ridiculous as it was, Jared was used to his mother having new guys all the time and being generally useless by the time he was four years old.  By the time he was six and in kindergarten, he'd learned that the neighbor kid's mom would give him peanut butter and jelly sandwiches after school if he came over and acted cute at her, and he'd get actual dinner out of the deal if he'd help clean up afterwards.  As a young boy who was pretty much always hungry, he took that deal as often as he could.  The lady was nice to him, even if she wasn't his own mom, and he liked her.  He tried telling his mom about her, just because he liked her and wanted to share that with his mother (whom he still loved at that point, just because she was his mother), but he learned fast just how bad that could be.  She'd gone off on a tangent about how he should go live with 'that bitch' if he liked her so much, to which he'd explained to her that he didn't want to, and that he wanted to be with her.

Stupid decision there, but he didn't know better yet.

He even handled her 'bad nights' pretty well, usually knowing that after a certain point, he needed to make himself scarce.  This night was no different, except for one little thing.

A teddy bear.

He'd never really had one before, nor had he really had much of a birthday, but the 'second mom' he had seemed to think that it was horrible that he didn't really get excited for birthdays because they didn't do much for them at home, and she'd given him the bear just a few days before for his birthday.  His mom had forgotten until two days afterwards that it had even been his birthday.  He wasn't quite old enough to put up a 'tough act', so he really liked that bear, and he'd made the stupid mistake of leaving it in the living room.

His mom and Jim were in there, and he didn't even want to know what they were doing, but it involved needles.  He hated needles, and he hated the smells that were always around when they were drinking and smoking, so he tried to stay away from there.  He wanted that bear back, though.

He snuck out there, knowing better than to be noisy about it, but it wasn't like he really had much of a chance of getting in and out without being noticed.  He'd snatched the bear up before being seen, however, and it was Jim that caught him by the arm to demand to know what he was doing out there.  He explained quickly about the bear, staring up at the man with wide, dark eyes, and the last thing he wanted was naturally what happened.

Jim snatched the teddy bear back out of his little hands, laughing at him for being such a baby, and the bear was last seen being chucked into the trash can.  Jared screamed his six-year old rage at the asshole, which only got him cuffed upside the head, but it was the start of the Jared that was destined to be a very, very cynical, aggressive adult.  He cried, seethed and hated Jim for the next few hours, and only crawled out of hiding once he was certain that both Jim and his utterly useless mom had fallen asleep.  He didn't return to his room until he was satisfied that the bear was cleaned off and properly out of plain sight in his room.

It was never well-known, but keeping that bear hidden away from anyone who might steal it away again became common practice for Jared.  Even Angela, who definitely knew more about him that just about anyone else, hadn't been shown, though it wasn't particularly hard to find at this point.  He just had it shoved into the back of a drawer, out of plain sight but not far away.

[Jared Bastian]

Dread
This post takes place in the past.

He had a bad feeling about the whole situation when he pulled up to his house and saw the lights on.  For most 18 year olds, there would have been a few things wrong with this situation, one being that he was driving his own car.  The other was definitely why he had a bad feeling upon seeing the lights on.  Normally, his mother was in her room by this time, doing god knows what, and not out and about in the house, and he didn't want to deal with her.  Most kids his age would have been worried about getting in trouble, but in his case, she was the trouble.

He knew he might be wrong, though.  She might have just left the lights on when she went into her room, and there was always the chance she'd fallen asleep with Tony still in the living room.  Jared didn't see his car in the driveway, though. 

He wasn't even going to consider that Tony might have gone home and his mom might have gone to bed for a peaceful night this once.  It just didn't happen like that, not in his life.

When he walked in, it was obvious that he was right just from taking in his surroundings.  The place he'd cleaned up just that morning before school was totally trashed, some of their few glasses strewn across the table with a good number of them broken.  From some of the marks on the wall, he was guessing that was where they'd impacted.  The glasses weren't the only things that looked as though they'd been thrown, and besides the fact that the place was a wreck, his mother was still awake.  She looked up from her drink when he walked in, her face red and tear-streaked, and for an instant, he felt bad.  She must have gotten into it with Tony, and he wasn't there to throw the jackass out this time.  He should have been, even if he usually hated the bitch, just because she was his mother. 

"Mom, are you okay?"

"What the fuck do you care?  You're never here!"

"No.  You're just high, drunk or passed out when I'm here."

"Quit acting like you're better than me, you little asshole!  You live in this shithole just like I do, and I know you've been fucking stealing from me!  Just like Tony, you worthless fucking bastard!"

"It wouldn't BE a shithole if you'd stop TRASHING it, you dumb bitch!" he finally snapped at her, and it was due to a combination of factors.  She'd compared him to Tony, who he hated, and she'd accused him of stealing, when he'd been functioning mostly on his own for a hell of a long time.  He'd bought his own car from working, and he paid his insurance, all because he worked hard.  She wouldn't know what that was like if she saw it.  The only reason she worked was to afford her 'fun' anymore, since he helped pay for everything else. 

Needless to say, calling her a 'dumb bitch' was all that was necessary to throw the whole situation over the edge once more.  He didn't know that the cops had already been there to get Tony out, but they didn't seem pleased to be coming back.  Jared didn't blame them.  If he hadn't lived there, he wouldn't have ever wanted to come back, either.  He still didn't want to go back, and he'd turned 18 only recently.  When the cops told him to go somewhere else for the night to let his mother calm down (even though he HAD pushed her when she came at him and he didn't deny it), his first instinct was the fight the decision.

Then, it occurred to him what this was.

He shut his mouth, which was in his best interests if he didn't want to get arrested, went inside with one of the officers following to make sure that the situation didn't explode again, and he packed everything he cared about in his room into his car.

He left that night, and never talked to the bitch again.

[Jared Bastian]

Breaking the Rules
This post takes place in the present.

Reilly Arun had been very specific in the 'rules' that Jared was to follow.  Jared, who had only just at that time found out about vampires, witches and hunters, just when he'd been attacked and drained by a vampire and turned into one, was given instructions to keep Reilly himself from going after him.  Why would Reilly bother going after him?

To kill him.

If he didn't follow those rules, Reilly had declared that he would kill him.  New to the whole supernatural world, Jared had agreed, though with a rather caustic general reaction.  He'd felt that he had every right to be pissed over the situation, considering he'd have been much more capable of handling things if he'd known that there were psychotic VAMPIRES out there who might want to fuck his whole world up.  He'd followed those rules for awhile, not willing to risk having Reilly, or anyone else, after him when he didn't know how to function as he was.  Now, he just didn't care.  He couldn't go anywhere near Angela (or anything he gave a shit about) without getting a splitting headache, and that generally made his already cynical outlook even worse.  He really didn't care if Reilly got pissed.  The dude wouldn't be the first.

She was beautiful, which was part of why he'd chosen her.  Long, dark hair, dark eyes and petite.  She wasn't perfect, not exactly what he wanted, but she would do.  The biggest thing wrong with her was how easily she smiled at him and disappeared out the door with him.  It was too easy without that fight and aggression.  Even when he pinned her to the wall outside, kissing up her neck, she giggled and it just wasn't right.  She didn't fight when he bit into her, the vampiric ability to keep a victim complacent completely rolling her, and he didn't care if Reilly's 'rules' had included not feeding from the same person more than once and not draining a person completely.

He drained her, dropped her, and though he was well-fed and pleased with the meal he'd just gotten, it still wasn't right.  He was missing something, and he knew exactly what it was.  He just couldn't have her.

[Jared Bastian]

Mirror
This post takes place in the past.

It was raining.  That in itself was bad enough, but Jared would have preferred to be at the shop where he didn't have to DEAL with the rain, at home in bed with Angela (who he was assuming for imagination's sake that he could have talked into staying in bed), or somewhere other than the side of the road playing 'back up' for Ryan's dumb ass while he did something that was the kind of illegal Jared didn't usually go for.  He stole cars, but he tended to stay out of the drug mess for the most part.  He did more drinking to make up for it.

He watched Ryan finish up in his rear view mirror, part of the deal being that he stayed in the car so that he wasn't in the thick of things if something went down.  A little distance made for better reinforcements.  Not that Jared really thought anything was going to happen, but the other guy wasn't really the most trustworthy.  Jared just watched, waiting for Ryan and the jerkoff to go their separate ways, and it was only when he saw the other car taking off and Ryan slowly making his way towards Jared's car that he relaxed enough to be an ass.

He waited until Ryan was right behind him before he popped the car out of park and floored it.  With the mud he was sitting in, he spattered the hell out of the front of Ryan's body before the car got enough traction to start forward like that, and he'd released the gas by then. 

He also locked his doors.  There was no way the newly-born Mud Monster was getting into his car.

Ryan stood there, looking horrified and like he didn't believe what had just happened for an instant before rushing Jared's window, and there was no way in hell he was getting inside.  "You fucking ASSHOLE!  Open the damn door, I'm gonna kick your ass!" he howled, smacking his muddy hand on the window, and Jared just felt reassured in his decision NOT to let Ryan in his car.

"Dude, fuck you!  You're fucking filthy!  There's no WAY I'm letting you in here," he returned, grinning rather proudly.  "Wait, hold up for a sec."

Ryan didn't hesitate in his yelling and pounding, which was fine with Jared.  He had to whip his phone out and snap a quick picture.  He'd be sending that to Angela later.

[Jared Bastian]

Sacrifice
This post takes place in the future.

He wasn't sure if Ryan would want to kill him or laugh at him, or maybe some weird mix of the two.  He didn't care, but he just hoped his best friend didn't want to pity him.  That was the shit he couldn't handle, refused to handle, and hearing it in the thoughts of those around him just managed to piss him off.  The fact that pity usually came from those people with a touch of fondness (he'd never say love) didn't help, since it made his head feel like there was a fire starting up.  It'd have been nice to say that it was being an Akka that made him so pissy, but that'd have been a lie.  He would have hated being pitied just as much as a human, and had.  He had no use for pity, and it didn't make him feel better, so they could all stuff it.

The amazing thing about what he was doing was that it hurt -- a lot.  Naturally, that should have meant that he didn't do it, which was something you learned as a small child.  If it hurt, burned or caused serious discomfort, you avoided it.  He'd been known to ignore those simple rules on occasion to piss someone off or because he was pissed, but that wasn't the reason here.  It was making his head feel fucked up, wanting to hold the precious little thing in his arms and feeling such pain for it, but he was enduring it for as long as he could stand it.  It was a bittersweet understanding that Grace had started to cry just a moment before he broke into her room (again), but that she'd stopped as soon as she realized he was there.  He'd wanted to blame it on her feeling the presence of a predator, but he could see it in her mind that it wasn't true.  She was a shifter, could probably smell him but wasn't acknowledging it because her little mind didn't know it, and there was something about him that she liked (could it be love?).  He could feel it the moment he entered the room, and it only increased as he gently lifted her into his arms, spiking in his mind so harshly that he had to sit down so he didn't risk dropping her.  He'd worn gloves and a long-sleeved shirt to avoid skin contact, knowing that was more than he could handle, but that didn't save his mind from the flames that were licking through it. 

She reached up for his shirt, grabbing a loose fold of it in her little hand, and he managed a smile through the ache.  He'd always hated children, regardless of the age, but there was something about this one.  Maybe it was because she was Ryan's baby girl, probably the closest Jared himself would ever get to a family (and he WAS maturing, albeit slowly because of circumstances, to a point that he might have wanted one), or maybe it was just something about her.  He'd never experienced unconditional love (love, yes, that was what it was), never, and here it was in his arms.

Who knew it could hurt so damn much?

He'd winced, ridden the new wave of pain as he leaned down and gave her a quick sweep of his lips on her forehead as a kiss, and eased the now sleeping child back into her crib.  He was just settling her back in when Ryan's sleepy ass wandered in, and Jared was torn between regarding him with more venom because of his pain and less because Grace made him feel mellower.  She hurt, god did she hurt, but for the first time in his life, it was a pain that didn't make him feel like fighting back.

"You can just put your ass right back in bed, Chief No-Pants," he drawled, ignoring the pain that was slowly lessening with some distance between him and Grace, but he couldn't hide the cold sweat that had broken out if Ryan got close enough in that dim light.  "I took care of the kid's bawling."

"Yeah?  How'd you do that, tough guy?" Ryan snapped, but Jared could tell that the old nickname really didn't piss him off as much as he was pretending.

"Natural fucking charm, how else?" he asked, just a little smugly.  He knew it baffled Ryan as much as him that Grace actually liked him.  Well, maybe it baffled Ryan less, but that was Jared's problem.  "She's giving me a fucking headache, so I'm gonna jet.  Got some shit to take care of."

Ryan snorted, but he didn't argue.  He also didn't repeat his offer for Jared to show up at Frost if he needed to.  Jared knew it, and would either take the help or not.  As for the 'shit to take care of', there was a vampire in the area that wasn't being too quiet, but none of the guilds had gotten any offers for it and it hadn't gotten bad enough for someone to take it upon themselves to get rid of the thing.  Jared was going to be that someone, because it was just too close for comfort. 

There were some things worth protecting.

[Jared Bastian]

Magic
This post takes place in the present.

He didn't believe in it all his life.  Naturally, that didn't mean something couldn't hurt you, just because you didn't believe in it.  Hell, he didn't believe in going and sticking nasty fucking needles in your arm to make your problems disappear (to come back worse than before), but that didn't mean his life didn't suffer because of someone else doing it.  Vampires were no different, witches and people who could change into god damned animals, none of it any different.  Somehow, it all existed whether he'd believed in it or not, as if his life hadn't been difficult enough before.  It made him wonder what else was possible that he hadn't believed in.

Angela.

He'd told himself since they started seeing each other that she was alright and he didn't hate her, and of course, the sex was amazing.  They got along.  He hadn't believed in anything more.  The last few times he'd talked to her before that vampire got at him, they'd yelled at each other.  That sure as hell wasn't promising, and now?  Now, all he got from her was pain.  Constant fucking pain, a headache that wouldn't cease until well after he was away from her and a burning like he was touching something that was too hot with every bit of skin contact, and that wasn't encouraging, either.  He liked her, but he definitely wasn't going to be able to endure sex with her anytime soon, and it wasn't like they liked each other that much.

Right.  He'd tried believing that, but it was just another of those things that was going to fuck his world up without taking his thoughts into consideration.  He could tell himself that he didn't love anyone and nobody could love him all he wanted, but he'd had people explain how Akkans worked, and he'd experienced it himself.  Angela looked at him and his headache spiked, just like it shot through his brain whenever he even thought too hard about her.  It made thinking into something undesirable, since his thoughts always seemed to want to turn to her like some kid who thought that electric fence felt good.  It didn't feel good, not to him, but it happened every time.  Even worse?

He couldn't keep himself away from her.

He'd ignore her for nights on end, pretending he hated her and sometimes believing it (belief meant nothing), but he'd finally find himself hiding in the shadows outside her house or across the street, following her into a bar and sticking to the edges of the room, even shadowing her hunts.  Anything to be close and make sure she was alright.  It hurt and he hated himself for being so weak (so fucking weak), and just sitting there, enduring, made him feel like he must be a moron.  It was worth it, however, to watch her settle into sleep.  It was worth it to watch the worry and the anger slip away from her features for some peace.  That was when it hurt the most, and he didn't know if it was because she was thinking of him, or if it was his own fault.  It could have been both, but he was blaming himself.  It was there in the way the moon's light shone in her window, touching her face just right, and that spike in his head dug itself in deeper.

This was a magic he hadn't wanted to believe in, but it was going to hurt him whether he believed or not.

[Jared Bastian]

Choose your own Adventure! - Kick to the Head
This post takes place in the present.

Wow, was he stupid.  It actually impressed him, on some sick level, that he could still amaze himself with his own stupidity.  He'd once thought he was pretty smart, definitely ahead of most of the losers out there who thought the world wouldn't crush them like an ant if they stopped fighting for a second, but he'd finally come to the conclusion (like being a kid again) that he was a total fucking retard.  Why?

Good question.

Because he was honestly stupid enough to be stalking, yes, stalking, an Arun witch, and he'd actually jumped into one of her hunts because she'd looked like she needed the help.  He'd put himself in bodily harm, suffering mental harm just from being so close to her and actually risking himself for her, and what did she do?  Stab the vamp he'd grabbed for her, and whipped around to nail him in the side of the head with a roundhouse that effectively made him see stars.  Even as a vampire, which he'd learned had toughened him up by a lot, she had to have fractured his damn skull with that.  He was bleeding, that was for sure.

The screaming match that followed, over the body of a dead vampire, hadn't gone much better, and he was actually trembling from the pain in his skull (both from the proximity and the blow to the head) by the time he called her an 'ungrateful, psychotic BITCH' and told her to go fuck herself.  She'd screamed her own colorful phrases, and he wasn't sure who was more pissed upon leaving, but he was willing to bet on himself.  Pain had always managed to translate into pissiness, then rage.  He wasn't about to hurt her, however much he wanted to, so he went looking for the most seedy place he could think of.

He found the biggest guy in the place, embedded the idea that he'd insulted the guy's mom and fucked his girlfriend into his brain, and enjoyed the seemingly unprovoked attack.  It was refreshing and familiar, being screamed at by a bartender who was threatening with the cops and a baseball bat, and taking the fight outside was exactly what he'd wanted.  When the big guy insisted on it, he was more than willing to oblige. 

All bets were against Jared, he knew that much because he was smaller and not built like a fucking truck, but he absolutely pulverized the guy.  He wasn't even hungry, besides the fact that he couldn't eat him with his friends around, but he could beat the living hell out of him.  The fight (not much of a fight when you were guaranteed to lose with your first swing) ended when the big guy's head found itself between a curb and Jared's foot, and the vampire couldn't help the satisfaction of impact.  He didn't crush it, not with so many witnesses and Angela's cousin so eager to fuck his world up more than it already was, but he heard a crack.  Fractured skull, imagine that.

He fucking loved a good fight.