Vision, Chapter 6
Title: Vision
Fandom : Moonlight
Characters : Mick, Josef, Beth, Simone
Rating : R, for some sexual content and strong language.
Summary: 15th in my post-"Sonata" series. Beth is blind, and Mick tries to help her any way he can.
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters; no copyright infringement intended.
If you want the full story from the beginning, updated more frequently, go here:
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6647700/1/Vision_A_Moonlight_story
Chapter 6
“Okay,” I asked Simone, who sat in the blue velvet wingback chair near my bedroom window. “What does one wear on her first night of vampire training?”
“Something stretchy, and comfortable.”
I dug through my hastily packed bag, realizing that if I stayed with Simone and Josef much longer, I’d definitely need more clothes. I pulled out a pair of dark jeggings, a soft blue t-shirt, and sneakers. I held them up for my friend’s approval, and she nodded at my choice. I sat heavily on the bed, picking up my cup of blood from the nightstand. I was always hungry, and she and Josef had me feeding around the clock like an infant. Simone said drinking from a freshie satisfied you better, for longer, but the thought of biting someone made me feel sick. I could see why Mick had sworn off them. Until we began sleeping together, that is. Mick. I sighed. Just thinking his name brought on such a mixture of emotions that it made my head swim.
“Simone, may I ask you a personal question?”
“Of course.”
“After you were turned, did you…want Josef more…I mean sexually…?”
She laughed. “Oh, my God, I can’t even tell you…I used him like a prostitute for days after. I felt like a total slut, myself, I wanted sex so much. I didn’t hear many complaints, however. Why? Having new thoughts about Mick after seeing him?” She gave a knowing smile, and I looked away, angry at myself for feeling this way about a man I was so furious with.
“Beth? It’s okay, you know. That’s normal, from what I’ve heard. How did Mick react to seeing you in all your vampiress glory?”
“I think we were both taken completely by surprise. When I looked at him, the sexual energy slammed into me like a truck. I mean, I wanted to jump him right there, push him against a wall and-“ My former self would have been blushing with acute embarrassment by this point.
“I understand completely.” She paused a minute, then: “Well, why didn’t you?”
“Huh?”
“Why didn’t you go ahead and attack the man? He’s a gorgeous specimen, and you love him. I bet that would go a long way toward mending your relationship.”
“No,” I said, standing up to change into my “training clothes.” “Sex isn’t going to fix this, Simone. It might make me resent him even more, this sexual power he has over me now.”
“Come on, Beth. Give the guy a chance to make this up to you. Great sex would be a start.” I gave her a glare, but she just chuckled at me. “Try to look at it from his point of view. Had it been the other way around, wouldn’t you have done everything you could to keep him from dying?”
I really hadn’t considered this. I still loved him-I couldn’t deny it. But would I change another person into a vampire? I don’t know. I mean, even now the thought of sucking someone’s blood was abhorrent to me. I couldn’t imagine draining someone dry, killing them and taking them away from heaven to live in this purgatory of darkness.
“I don’t honestly know, Simone. My mind is still not what it was. I feel so…unsettled. Out of sorts. Strange. I don’t like feeling so out of control.”
“It’s only been a day,” she said soothingly. “You just need time, and training. Mick taught me the fine art of vampire climbing and jumping, remember? He’s a great teacher. Did he say where you are going?”
“No, but it’s almost dark. He should be here any time.” From a distance, I could suddenly hear his old Mercedes lumbering up the long driveway. Simone had heard it too, and smiled. She sensed my nervousness and rose to let me finish dressing.
“Come down when you’re ready. I’ll let him know you’re on your way.” She hugged me impulsively. “Don’t worry. Just go with what you feel. Listen to what your heart is telling you.”
“What heart?” I asked, bitterness creeping into what I had planned to be an amusing comeback. She shook her head in chastisement.
“Stop it. Thinking like that is only going to make things worse.”
She left me alone then, and resolutely, I bent down to tie my shoes, annoyed when my new strength caused me to easily break a shoeless.
##############
Seeing him again was even harder. He was so beautiful, and I wanted him fiercely, almost as much as I craved blood now. He’d been waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs. His aura this evening shone green, matching those sexy, chameleon-like eyes of his. I’d done a little searching on the internet, and I found to my surprise that many other people saw auras, and that the colors had come to mean many things to different people. Josef said he would call a man he knew to further teach me, but until then, I was relying on what I’d read. If I recalled correctly, green meant someone was feeling helpful, and even healing. This afternoon he’d been outlined in deep blue, which meant moodiness and a sense of purpose. All sounded like an accurate description of Mick.
I pushed those romantic notions aside, reminding myself how angry I was. If I held onto that anger, I wouldn’t have to face what I’d become. It would be my shield against the world. My shield against Mick.
“Beth,” he said simply, his eyes burning into mine almost feverishly. That voice of his had always made me shiver.
“Mick,” I replied hesitantly. “Are we ready to go?”
“Yeah. Come on.”
I glanced over at Simone and Josef, who had been chatting with Mick while they’d waited for me. I followed Mick out the door, trying hard not to laugh as Josef called after us.
“Have her home at a decent hour, will ya? And no making out at the drive-in, or I’ll know. You hear me, St. John?”
Mick did chuckle as he opened the car door for me, waving back at our two friends who stood like concerned parents in the doorway. I climbed in, the full moon bright above us as we drove off in his convertible. I could smell the unmistakable odor of blood, my senses drawn to the back seat. A cooler was there, no doubt containing the macabre necessities of a vampire picnic. I slouched down into the seat and watched as we drove past several Hollywood Hills mansions on our way back down to the freeway. Neither of us said a word, but the sexual tension simmered between us, making me tremble and curse to myself at my lot in life.
All around us, cars containing humans came tantalizingly close in the traffic. I could hear the drivers’ individual hearts beating, felt my mouth water at the distant smell of their warm blood, noted their multicolored auras as we passed. I was also amazed at how well I could see in the dark. I realized Mick didn’t need headlights at all to see where he was driving, that he likely did it to follow the law and to avoid others running into us. It was like having on night vision goggles, and I found myself smiling when I saw all the nocturnal animals scurrying in the desert around us.
We drove for about an hour, exiting the main interstate for a sign pointing the way to old Highway One. I could smell the ocean on the breeze. We finally stopped at a narrow turn out at the top of a cliff. Far below, the Pacific beat violently against the rocks. I looked out past the beach and saw the spires of tall rock formations, remnants of ancient mountains that the wind and water had worn away. Signs everywhere warned against the dangers of swimming or surfing, of sliding rocks and dangerous undertows. This was where he was taking me?
I got out of the car before he could come around and stood in the wind, breathing in deeply though it seemed unnatural now to do so. It felt good to be outside. I hadn’t been out much in the last three months, and certainly hadn’t been to the beach since I couldn’t remember when. Cars sped past us, and Mick motioned for me to follow him to the edge of the cliff. It was a long way down, but it didn’t plunge headlong. There were different levels of rocks and sand, like stair steps for giants, leading down to the rocky beach. It wasn’t a place where many people would attempt to gain access. But apparently, that didn’t hold true for vampires.
“You ready?” He asked.
“We’re going down there?”
“Yes. We’ll jump it one level at a time. It looks far, but you won’t fall if you take it slow.”
“I don’t know…” I hedged, my human fears still ingrained in my psyche.
“Even if you do fall, you’ll still be okay. Don’t be afraid. You can do this. You have to overcome your fears, Beth. That comes by a leap of…faith.” He smiled gently at me, and deep down, I knew how symbolic this was of our relationship, of our own personal fears. At the time, however, I was too busy holding on to my anger and my walls to embrace what he was saying.
“You go first,” I said. He nodded, stepping closer to the edge. Then, he jumped, landing solidly about ten feet below.
“Come on,” he called, looking up at me.
I was a vampire now. I was physically capable of doing this. I won’t die. I can’t die, not like this.
I closed my eyes and jumped out into the abyss.
MICK
She landed a foot from me, stumbling a little on the rock-strewn terrain. I automatically reached out to steady her, and the contact made me tremble a little myself. She stepped away, opening her eyes and looking in wonder into my own. I saw a glimpse of the old Beth, and it warmed my dead heart to see it.
“I can’t believe I did that!” she exclaimed, looking up from where she’d come, then down to where we were heading.
“Yes. Very good. You ready for the next level down? It’s a little farther.”
“Okay.”
“Try keeping your eyes open, this time,” I advised. “You need to be able to see where you’re going so you can get your footing. I’ll go first again.”
And we continued like that, two more levels down, until we reached cold, wet sand. The tide was coming in, and we skirted the bottom of the cliff to avoid the advancing waves. Ahead of us, a natural rock bridge joined with part of the larger cliff, connecting with a rock formation offshore. I had chosen the beach rather than the city, knowing that she wasn’t ready for human contact yet. Also, it was beautiful here, and the crash of the surf always seemed to calm me. I hoped it would help Beth find some peace, herself.
“You want to practice jumping up now?”
“What? Up there?” she asked, looking up twenty feet to the top of the bridge.
“That last jump down was about twenty feet. You can make this easily.”
“But that was down…” she said. “Isn’t going up harder to judge.”
“A little. It’s wider up there than you think. I’ve made jumps like this a million times-you’ve even seen me do it.”
“Yeah, but that’s the point. You have done it a million times.”
I laughed. “Beth, right now, newly turned, you’re just as strong as me.”
“Really?”
“Don’t get too excited. That will wear off in a couple of weeks, and then you won’t be able to kick my ass anymore.”
“So,” she ventured, her tone neutral, “I could kick your ass right now, if I wanted?”
It was hard to tell if she was kidding or not. I decided she wasn’t. “Yeah, you could. I’d let you, if that would make you feel better.”
She looked away from me, out into the sea. “It wouldn’t,” she said at last.
I blinked back sudden tears, cleared my throat, then turned on my teacher voice again, trying to move beyond personal feelings. “Okay. To jump up, just bend your knees to start the momentum, then get a bead on where you want to land. Tell your body what you want it to do, and it will do it. Watch me.”
I jumped straight up, landing gently atop the smoothly hewn surface of the bridge. I turned back to look down at her, holding out my hands. “Your turn.” She hesitated, and I could sense her fear.
“Come on, honey,” I said, forgetting myself with the endearment, “you can do this.”
She bent her knees like I’d instructed, and pushed off of the ground. Her jump was perfect, but, unfortunately, it was just a little short. Before I knew it, she was holding onto the smooth rock near my feet, her legs dangling into space.
“Mick!” she screamed.
I reached down and grasped her hands with mine, pulling her the rest of the way up. She could have swung her legs up the rest of the way easily, but I knew she was too frightened to remember her new strength. I set her down next to me, and she stood there, shaking and looking down in horror.
“I almost fell,” she stuttered.
I smiled gently. “And you would have landed on your feet like a cat,” I reminded her.
“Oh,” she said in surprise, looking down again. “Wow.”
“You okay?”
“Yeah.”
“Let’s walk over to that rock formation out above the water. It’s only a little ways.” I headed in that direction, picking my way carefully over the rock, calling behind me for her to watch out for the slight incline ahead. I’d gone about fifty feet when I realized she wasn’t close behind me. I turned back, and she was right where I left her, frozen in place.
“Beth? Is something wrong?”
“No. I just-well, I had a little vertigo, that’s all.”
“Totally understandable. Your human brain hasn’t caught up with your vampire senses yet. Just start walking, and try not to look down. I’m right here. You don’t have to be afraid to fall anymore.”
I locked her eyes with mine, willing her to cast off her fear and come to me. Our new connection was stronger by far than our old one, but while our blood called to each another, her mind was still closed off to me, and it hurt; I can’t tell you how much. But My Beth was strong-willed and determined, and while she’d lost some of that over the last few months, I could see her confidence growing again, and I realized that no matter if she never loved me again, she was going to be okay now. Tentatively, she began to walk.
We had to do a little mountain climbing once we got to the end of the bridge, but the face of the giant rock had plenty of natural handholds. About ten feet up, and we found a flat surface, suitable for sitting and taking a rest, though, of course, neither of us was physically tired.
The moon was beautiful above, and I was struck at how lovely she was in the moonlight. We sat on a little outcrop, the sound of the waves crashing beneath us, occasionally spraying us with a light, refreshing mist.
“I know how you feel, Beth,” I began softly, after we’d sat in the most comfortable silence we’d had in weeks. “After Coraline turned me, I was furious. I wanted to die, and I told her this, just like you told me. I was disgusted with myself and what I had become. I felt like killing her, but I knew I couldn’t make it without her help. This dependence on her made me hate her all the more. This is why I don’t blame you for how you feel; I’ve been there myself. I had loved her, had made her my wife, but she betrayed me. You told me you didn’t want to be turned, and I did it anyway. It was selfish of me, as selfish as Coraline wanting to keep me with her forever. But, God help me, I’m not sorry for it. I’m only sorry to see you hurting like this.”
“I don’t hate you, Mick,” she said softly, tears sliding down her cheeks. She swallowed and looked over at me, and our deeper sexual attraction made me feel weak with longing. I wanted more than anything to reach out to her, to pull her close to me and make love with her in the moonlight.
“I love you, which is why this is so hard,” she continued. “I-I can’t seem to release this anger. It’s been building since my fall in Tahoe. My sight had been taken from me. I had begun to realize that I was going to be blind the rest of my life, and I was trying to let you go, letting you be free of me.”
“What? Why? We love each other. I was willing to go through this with you, to be with you as long as we could. Hell, I was going to marry you. It didn’t matter that you were blind.”
“It mattered to me. You were smothering me, Mick. And I hated the world, and even you, for making me feel so dependent on you. Then, I awaken to find you had turned me into what you’ve been telling me for years was a curse. Yesterday, when I said those awful things to you, I meant them.”
I grimaced, but held her gaze. “And what about today, now that you’ve had time to think? You still mean them?”
There was a beat or two of silence, then: “Not everything,” she conceded. But she wasn’t going to clue me in on what specifically she meant.
She stood up now, and I could see she wanted to leave. I stood up beside her, the moon so large that high on this rock in the middle of the Pacific, I felt like I could reach out and touch it. But, like the moon, Beth was deceptively close. Our eyes still clashed, the fire between us palpable in the face of our heightened emotions. Unable to resist anymore, I pulled her into my arms. She was too shocked to move, so I brought my lips down on her
Our passion flared like gasoline on a fire, and my tongue slipped past her lips to plunder her mouth in a kiss that went on forever. Our hands tangled in each other’s hair, our equal strength drawing us as close as we could be while still fully dressed. Speaking of which…my hands drifted down from the ends of her long hair to her waist, then beneath her t-shirt, smoothing over her cool back, then around to the front to cup her breasts through her bra. She gasped into my mouth, and I ground my pelvis into hers, my thumbs on her nipples, circling and tugging while her own hands settled roughly on my ass.
It had been so long since we’d been close like this, but now, it was like it was our first kiss all over again. I guess it was in a way-our first kiss as two vampires. It didn’t take me long to remember that I couldn’t hurt her physically anymore, so I poured out my passion with none of the restraint I had used when she was human. I didn’t have to let go of her lips to let her breathe, didn’t have to slow or ease my movements to accommodate her weaker nature. She was strong and she was giving as good as she was getting. Her hands kneaded the muscles in my butt, making me become painfully hard against her. We inhaled each other’s arousal, sensed it was building by the second, but when my hands found their way inside her stretchy jeans, she pushed me away with such force that I flew into the side of the rock, sliding down to sit at an awkward angle against it. I felt the pain of rock shards poking into my back, drawing blood that soaked into my Henley.
Beth was standing there, her nostrils flaring at her first scent of vampire blood. To another vampire, our blood was like an aphrodisiac. She advanced on me, pulling me roughly to my feet, her hands going unerringly beneath my shirt to find the wetness pouring from my body. She drew her hand away and looked at it, my blood smearing her fingers. Tentatively, she brought them up to her mouth and tasted.
“Beth-“ I breathed shakily. Then she was turning me around, pulling my shirt off over my head, her soft tongue lapping at the blood like a kitten at a bowl of milk. I shuttered with new arousal, my hands braced against the side of the rock. She moaned helplessly, reaching around to unfasten my belt, then unzip my jeans. I felt the scratch of Beth’s fangs against my wounds, at the same time her hands encircled my freed erection.
“Jesus! Honey, slow down, or I’m gonna-“
I felt the bite in my side and I hissed through my own extended fangs. I allowed her to drink a moment, feeling like I was going to climax at any second. But I didn’t want this new first time to end like this, so quickly, without first enacting my recent fantasy of taking her up here in the moonlight. With vampire speed, I spun around, taking her off guard so that she automatically detached from my waist. I caught her up by the arms and took her mouth again, tasting my own blood on her lips and on her tongue. This time, she didn’t stop me as I pulled down her pants, then her panties, lowering her body and entering her the moment she touched the ground. She arched against me, pulling me more deeply inside with internal muscles that had my eyes crossing with ecstasy.
Each time I moved, her hold relaxed then re-tightened, and I was well on my way to the most monumental orgasm I’d ever had. Then her nails dug into my back, drawing more blood, and our movements became frenetic. I could feel her trembling within on the verge of her own release. With one last thrust, I came with a roar, burying my fangs into her neck as she clamped down on my bicep with her own. I growled again, her bite adding another layer of erotic sensation.
After a moment, I released her, falling heedlessly against her chest. Her own fangs slipped out of my arm and we lay on the rock, panting as if we were still human.
So much for Rule Number Three.
A/N: Bet you weren’t expecting that, were ya? I’d love to hear what you think, so please log in and review. Ch. 7 is already up at fanfiction.net. Please click on the above link. Thanks!