~05
So, I've decided to write a story. Yes, it might be fanfiction. Of my own fandom. Shut up, don't judge me.
I'm not sure how long it'll be yet, but I thought I'd post the first installment, to see if there is any interest at all. (I hope there is~) I've titled it A New Lease on Life, because I've never titled anything before, and apparently I'm not too good at it. Deal.
She hadn't told anyone she was leaving. Had avoided patrol duties since the day she'd begun considering it. Leah was not a weak girl, but if her alpha had ordered her to stay, she couldn't have disobeyed. And not only because that was the nature of wolves.
There were things she enjoyed about her life: the feel of wind rushing through her fur, the thrill of a fight, wrestling like puppies with her brothers; the uncertainty of survival was a drug when you were built to hunt something truly dangerous. She knew, in leaving, that she would have to give up those parts of her life.
She couldn't risk allowing her pack of brothers into her head, couldn't risk letting him back in there. If he decided to order her back, it would be for naught. Leah could no longer be a wolf and, given it was the only thing that gave her true joy, the decision to leave almost wasn't worth it.
Except that it was a worse thought, to stay in rural Washington. Seeing Sam almost every day and having him in her mind, hearing her thoughts even more frequently. Knowing how vividly he loved her cousin, and also knowing that although he loved her, that love was simply not strong enough. Grew weaker, she convinced herself.
For only her brother-the one that was pack and blood-would she have stayed, which was why she told not even him that she was leaving. Not to mention, his thoughts would have betrayed her before his lips ever could. It would be better for him, and for the pack, if they did not have to suffer her pain along with her.
Packing her car at night would be no guarantee against being seen. She chose a night when Quil and Embry were on patrol. While they were no less thorough than the rest of her pack, they at least had no authority over her and couldn't tell her what to do.
Looking around her room that night, Leah was disappointed to find precious few things she regretted leaving behind. A hiking backpack stuffed with as many of her clothes as it would fit, a blanket and pillow, a photo album…these were the things she carried out to her car. All in one trip, to better avoid detection. They all barely fit into the back seat-Trans Ams were not built to accommodate running away, apparently.
Her stuffed tiger-Ha! Cat…-much the worse for wear in the twenty or so years she'd owned him, received a place of honor in the passenger seat. Strapped in fastidiously. Leah was too old for him to still have a name. Nonetheless he did.
She closed the car door with a loud slam, just because she could, because she was beyond their ability to stop her. It wasn't until she noticed the dust her tires were kicking up as she tore off the reservation that it was an uncharacteristically clear summer night. Perfect driving weather for one who didn't want to slow down. Ever.
It was with a mix of relief and disappointment that the girl noted the lack of lupine shadows emerging from the forest behind her, not even their curiosity piqued. Ah well. Perhaps even with all her careful planning, they'd expected this after all.
With all of the aspiring actresses that flocked to the Southern California area, Leah found it strange that there were any waitress positions available in the greater Los Angeles area. Of course, she had a grim determination that many of the other dewy-eyed, optimistic applicants had not yet developed. She was not one likely to give up and go home, and perhaps her employer enjoyed the prospect of at least semi-permanence.
She kept to herself, going to and from work, and doing little else. Los Angeles was more than what she was used to. She had chosen this place for the weather, almost always placid and warm, and for the way she could lose herself (and never be found) in the bustle of a very large city.
Leah was a social creature. Even having abandoned her pack, a lone wolf she was not. However, the city at night was overwhelming, sometimes the walk home could be nearly unbearable-a veritable sea of scents, sweat and pheromones dancing in her nostrils. The part of her that had always had an outlet before was now caged, and those nights, it took all her restraint not to transform and seek a mate she had no hope of finding.
She didn't live in the best neighborhood, but that fact had never been a risk. No one was safer than a werewolf, even one that would not-could not-shift. Even untransformed, she was stronger and faster than most men, and she held herself with such confidence that there had yet to be any challenge to her strength.
Months passed like days, in monotonous repetition, only broken by the occasional urges to run wild, wind through her fur. These surprisingly grew easier and easier to suppress, until Leah barely felt the pull at all.
And then, one very unlikely and remarkable evening, the girl caught a scent that almost pierced her through in its familiarity, and an unwelcome familiarity at that.
Leah had been scheduled to close, and she walked home in the comfortable glow of streetlamps. They cast long shadows and did not penetrate alleys, but she whistled softly as she walked. She smelled it before she saw it and she froze, holding a sustained note that grew shriller, before it cut off entirely. Her nose wrinkled as she attempted to pinpoint direction; she wasn't afraid, even knowing it had probably been hunting her long before she'd noticed and tried to start locating it.
At least there was no one else on the street nearby, by some stroke of luck. No hostages, no innocent bystanders, no casualties. She dropped her purse on the sidewalk, freeing her hands and letting them hang loosely at her sides. Her demeanor was calm, her breathing and heart rate even and unhurried as she backed into a nearby alley, taking stock of her surroundings and her person as she did.
Leah was wearing a skirt-it was part of her uniform-but also sensible shoes, so it wouldn't hamper her movement at all. There was nothing nearby that could be used as a weapon, she noted almost distractedly. But after all, what sort of weapon could she really use against a creature that she normally would have ripped apart with her teeth?
Leah closed her eyes-it was too dark in the alley to see clearly, anyway-and let her nose and ears tell her the story. The rank scent of the creature had grown stronger, closer. It wasn't bothering to disguise or mute the sound of its footsteps, though she knew it could have. The soft scuff of sneakers, a slight tinkling of metal…some kind of jewelry…a charm bracelet, maybe? The step was light enough that Leah thought this leech was probably female. Too bad that fact didn't reduce the threat at all…
"You smell like an animal," came a cool, disdainful voice, a handful of steps in front of her and a handful of ice cubes down Leah's back. The vampire had stopped moving, and it was easier for Leah to control the urge to put more space between them. She opened her eyes to see…no more than a girl, by physical standards. It was a lie, of course. Even in the almost darkness, she could tell the vampire was wearing bubblegum pink and acid-washed jeans. Lean wondered if the leech thought she was fooling anyone. Well…perhaps it worked on those that couldn't smell the overwhelming stench of vampire.
"I think you know I won't be playing Little Red Riding Hood to your Big Bad Wolf," the creature added, after Leah made no response except to clench her fists slightly.
Why couldn't it have been something less deceptive? A man perhaps, or at least someone bigger than her. Pigtails would not have been out of place on this SoCal wannabe, and the only reason Leah could take her seriously at all was her cold, no-nonsense voice. And then the vampire planted her hands on her non-hips, and Leah barely controlled the urge to roll her eyes at the juvenile behavior. "Well? Let's see it, then."
"See what?" Leah's words were more growl than speech, and her fingers clenched even harder as she checked herself, her self-control. She did not want them in her head. Not now, not ever again. She had a life here; it wasn't much of one, but at least it was her own, without unwelcome communal thoughts and emotions.
"I know what you are," came the answer that she'd been expecting. "Color me curious. I want to see it before I tear you apart." The vampire's tone had taken on a sense of grim amusement, almost certainly affected for Leah's benefit. "You don't have a chance of surviving, of course, but at least you'd put up more of a fight that way."
"You don't know much about werewolves, do you?" Leah snorted, with more courage than she felt. "I'm more than a match for you right now." It was a bluff and not much of one, since it would soon be proven to the contrary, but she hoped it would make the leech more wary.
However, if the vampire was at all ill-at-ease, it didn't show as she advanced. Leah backed away, step for step, cursing internally in a way that would have made a sailor proud.
Leah hadn't been expecting any warning, but she was vaguely surprised by just how little there was. The vampire was fast; she could follow the creature's movement with her eyes, but her human body was not designed to fight vampires, and her reactions were sluggish, far too slow.
Her breath left her lungs explosively as she impacted the far wall of the alley. An arm like stone across her throat made regaining that breath increasingly difficult. Leah felt like her nails would break off as she tried to dig them into her attacker's skin, instinct winning out over common sense that would have told her such an effort was futile.
"Oh yes, you're quite the match for me," the vampire teased. Too close, far too close. Leah's nostrils burned with the stench with the too-shallow gasps she managed to steal. "And still nothing. You aren't being very sporting at all, I'm afraid…" The creature's dark eyes seemed almost to glow a deep, bloody crimson in the shadows, or it could have been Leah's imagination since clearly the creature was hungry. "I'm going to tear your throat out. Doesn't that inspire any sort of self-preservation instincts?" She waited, expectantly, for a response, and seemed disappointed when the only one she got was Leah's teeth, bared in a growl. "My bite is far worse than yours," the vampire hissed.
Underneath all of the defiance, all of the bravado, Leah was terrified. Damned bloodsucker could probably smell it, too. What did it matter if she transformed and killed this vampire-and she knew she could-if Jacob or Sam were in her head even a split second and told her to return to Forks? Shifting was a last resort, one she was certain she didn't need to use yet. There was still another way; she simply needed to find it.
The arm at her throat slackened marginally, and Leah sucked air greedily. Looking at the vampire without seeming to be. If this bubblegum pink monstrosity had had any evidence of annoyance in her expression, it had been replaced with thoughtfulness. She didn't like that look, because it promised bad things to come, but she also knew that if the vampire had lapsed into thought, she was also likely concentrating less on the here and now.
She acted before she'd had an opportunity to think it through, and perhaps that was the only reason she was successful. It was not any sort of overpowering, but sheer surprise was Leah's advantage as she braced her back against the wall, drawing her legs up tightly against her body. Planting her feet against a flat, rock-hard stomach, and kicking as hard as she could. She landed in a crouch and then was off like a shot, before she could even take measure of what had happened to the vampire-whether she'd sent the creature flying, or simply pushed her out of the way.
She ran as fast and as hard as she could, knowing the leech was in no way incapacitated, knowing that she had seconds, if that. Vampires had rules, though. They couldn't hunt in populated places without the risk of revealing themselves; she simply had to get to one.
And, of course, she'd overestimated her chances. A surprisingly heavy weight landed on her back, bearing her down. Her hands, knees, and one cheek scraped on the pavement from the impact, but she didn't make a sound, not even when she felt grit grinding into the raw abrasions.
Her silence was broken by a scream when teeth-not the razor-sharp fangs you see in movies, but teeth-dug into the join of her neck and shoulder. It hurt, of course it did, but Leah instantly focused not on the blunt teeth themselves, but on the lancing, burning pain arcing up the side of her throat, down her arm. It felt like acid in her veins, spreading like fingers. So it was only afterwards that she realized the body on top of hers was as still as death, though those teeth were still buried in soft and pliant flesh.
No, she thought through a thick red haze of molten agony, not still exactly. The vampire was stiff with restrained motion, and Leah had no idea why the leech had not gone into a feeding frenzy, mouth full of blood.
Then, as suddenly as she'd been taken down, the weight on Leah's back disappeared. She turned her cheek, rested the undamaged one on cool pavement, and regarded the vampire blearily. She was so far away now. Wasn't she hungry? Didn't she want to finish the job?
"Why don't you shift, Mutt?" the leech called, her tone hard, determined. "It's the only way you're going to save yourself, now." Was that really what this was all about? The vampire didn't seem nearly as threatening from so far away, Leah noted distractedly.
The warm ooze of her blood was an almost comforting sensation in comparison to the burn of what she knew was venom, searing too quickly through her body. It must have made its way to a larger blood vessel.
But her head was soothingly vacant of any thoughts but her own, and even those were coming slowly. Leah closed her eyes and smiled.
~To be continued~
I'm not sure how long it'll be yet, but I thought I'd post the first installment, to see if there is any interest at all. (I hope there is~) I've titled it A New Lease on Life, because I've never titled anything before, and apparently I'm not too good at it. Deal.
She hadn't told anyone she was leaving. Had avoided patrol duties since the day she'd begun considering it. Leah was not a weak girl, but if her alpha had ordered her to stay, she couldn't have disobeyed. And not only because that was the nature of wolves.
There were things she enjoyed about her life: the feel of wind rushing through her fur, the thrill of a fight, wrestling like puppies with her brothers; the uncertainty of survival was a drug when you were built to hunt something truly dangerous. She knew, in leaving, that she would have to give up those parts of her life.
She couldn't risk allowing her pack of brothers into her head, couldn't risk letting him back in there. If he decided to order her back, it would be for naught. Leah could no longer be a wolf and, given it was the only thing that gave her true joy, the decision to leave almost wasn't worth it.
Except that it was a worse thought, to stay in rural Washington. Seeing Sam almost every day and having him in her mind, hearing her thoughts even more frequently. Knowing how vividly he loved her cousin, and also knowing that although he loved her, that love was simply not strong enough. Grew weaker, she convinced herself.
For only her brother-the one that was pack and blood-would she have stayed, which was why she told not even him that she was leaving. Not to mention, his thoughts would have betrayed her before his lips ever could. It would be better for him, and for the pack, if they did not have to suffer her pain along with her.
Packing her car at night would be no guarantee against being seen. She chose a night when Quil and Embry were on patrol. While they were no less thorough than the rest of her pack, they at least had no authority over her and couldn't tell her what to do.
Looking around her room that night, Leah was disappointed to find precious few things she regretted leaving behind. A hiking backpack stuffed with as many of her clothes as it would fit, a blanket and pillow, a photo album…these were the things she carried out to her car. All in one trip, to better avoid detection. They all barely fit into the back seat-Trans Ams were not built to accommodate running away, apparently.
Her stuffed tiger-Ha! Cat…-much the worse for wear in the twenty or so years she'd owned him, received a place of honor in the passenger seat. Strapped in fastidiously. Leah was too old for him to still have a name. Nonetheless he did.
She closed the car door with a loud slam, just because she could, because she was beyond their ability to stop her. It wasn't until she noticed the dust her tires were kicking up as she tore off the reservation that it was an uncharacteristically clear summer night. Perfect driving weather for one who didn't want to slow down. Ever.
It was with a mix of relief and disappointment that the girl noted the lack of lupine shadows emerging from the forest behind her, not even their curiosity piqued. Ah well. Perhaps even with all her careful planning, they'd expected this after all.
With all of the aspiring actresses that flocked to the Southern California area, Leah found it strange that there were any waitress positions available in the greater Los Angeles area. Of course, she had a grim determination that many of the other dewy-eyed, optimistic applicants had not yet developed. She was not one likely to give up and go home, and perhaps her employer enjoyed the prospect of at least semi-permanence.
She kept to herself, going to and from work, and doing little else. Los Angeles was more than what she was used to. She had chosen this place for the weather, almost always placid and warm, and for the way she could lose herself (and never be found) in the bustle of a very large city.
Leah was a social creature. Even having abandoned her pack, a lone wolf she was not. However, the city at night was overwhelming, sometimes the walk home could be nearly unbearable-a veritable sea of scents, sweat and pheromones dancing in her nostrils. The part of her that had always had an outlet before was now caged, and those nights, it took all her restraint not to transform and seek a mate she had no hope of finding.
She didn't live in the best neighborhood, but that fact had never been a risk. No one was safer than a werewolf, even one that would not-could not-shift. Even untransformed, she was stronger and faster than most men, and she held herself with such confidence that there had yet to be any challenge to her strength.
Months passed like days, in monotonous repetition, only broken by the occasional urges to run wild, wind through her fur. These surprisingly grew easier and easier to suppress, until Leah barely felt the pull at all.
And then, one very unlikely and remarkable evening, the girl caught a scent that almost pierced her through in its familiarity, and an unwelcome familiarity at that.
Leah had been scheduled to close, and she walked home in the comfortable glow of streetlamps. They cast long shadows and did not penetrate alleys, but she whistled softly as she walked. She smelled it before she saw it and she froze, holding a sustained note that grew shriller, before it cut off entirely. Her nose wrinkled as she attempted to pinpoint direction; she wasn't afraid, even knowing it had probably been hunting her long before she'd noticed and tried to start locating it.
At least there was no one else on the street nearby, by some stroke of luck. No hostages, no innocent bystanders, no casualties. She dropped her purse on the sidewalk, freeing her hands and letting them hang loosely at her sides. Her demeanor was calm, her breathing and heart rate even and unhurried as she backed into a nearby alley, taking stock of her surroundings and her person as she did.
Leah was wearing a skirt-it was part of her uniform-but also sensible shoes, so it wouldn't hamper her movement at all. There was nothing nearby that could be used as a weapon, she noted almost distractedly. But after all, what sort of weapon could she really use against a creature that she normally would have ripped apart with her teeth?
Leah closed her eyes-it was too dark in the alley to see clearly, anyway-and let her nose and ears tell her the story. The rank scent of the creature had grown stronger, closer. It wasn't bothering to disguise or mute the sound of its footsteps, though she knew it could have. The soft scuff of sneakers, a slight tinkling of metal…some kind of jewelry…a charm bracelet, maybe? The step was light enough that Leah thought this leech was probably female. Too bad that fact didn't reduce the threat at all…
"You smell like an animal," came a cool, disdainful voice, a handful of steps in front of her and a handful of ice cubes down Leah's back. The vampire had stopped moving, and it was easier for Leah to control the urge to put more space between them. She opened her eyes to see…no more than a girl, by physical standards. It was a lie, of course. Even in the almost darkness, she could tell the vampire was wearing bubblegum pink and acid-washed jeans. Lean wondered if the leech thought she was fooling anyone. Well…perhaps it worked on those that couldn't smell the overwhelming stench of vampire.
"I think you know I won't be playing Little Red Riding Hood to your Big Bad Wolf," the creature added, after Leah made no response except to clench her fists slightly.
Why couldn't it have been something less deceptive? A man perhaps, or at least someone bigger than her. Pigtails would not have been out of place on this SoCal wannabe, and the only reason Leah could take her seriously at all was her cold, no-nonsense voice. And then the vampire planted her hands on her non-hips, and Leah barely controlled the urge to roll her eyes at the juvenile behavior. "Well? Let's see it, then."
"See what?" Leah's words were more growl than speech, and her fingers clenched even harder as she checked herself, her self-control. She did not want them in her head. Not now, not ever again. She had a life here; it wasn't much of one, but at least it was her own, without unwelcome communal thoughts and emotions.
"I know what you are," came the answer that she'd been expecting. "Color me curious. I want to see it before I tear you apart." The vampire's tone had taken on a sense of grim amusement, almost certainly affected for Leah's benefit. "You don't have a chance of surviving, of course, but at least you'd put up more of a fight that way."
"You don't know much about werewolves, do you?" Leah snorted, with more courage than she felt. "I'm more than a match for you right now." It was a bluff and not much of one, since it would soon be proven to the contrary, but she hoped it would make the leech more wary.
However, if the vampire was at all ill-at-ease, it didn't show as she advanced. Leah backed away, step for step, cursing internally in a way that would have made a sailor proud.
Leah hadn't been expecting any warning, but she was vaguely surprised by just how little there was. The vampire was fast; she could follow the creature's movement with her eyes, but her human body was not designed to fight vampires, and her reactions were sluggish, far too slow.
Her breath left her lungs explosively as she impacted the far wall of the alley. An arm like stone across her throat made regaining that breath increasingly difficult. Leah felt like her nails would break off as she tried to dig them into her attacker's skin, instinct winning out over common sense that would have told her such an effort was futile.
"Oh yes, you're quite the match for me," the vampire teased. Too close, far too close. Leah's nostrils burned with the stench with the too-shallow gasps she managed to steal. "And still nothing. You aren't being very sporting at all, I'm afraid…" The creature's dark eyes seemed almost to glow a deep, bloody crimson in the shadows, or it could have been Leah's imagination since clearly the creature was hungry. "I'm going to tear your throat out. Doesn't that inspire any sort of self-preservation instincts?" She waited, expectantly, for a response, and seemed disappointed when the only one she got was Leah's teeth, bared in a growl. "My bite is far worse than yours," the vampire hissed.
Underneath all of the defiance, all of the bravado, Leah was terrified. Damned bloodsucker could probably smell it, too. What did it matter if she transformed and killed this vampire-and she knew she could-if Jacob or Sam were in her head even a split second and told her to return to Forks? Shifting was a last resort, one she was certain she didn't need to use yet. There was still another way; she simply needed to find it.
The arm at her throat slackened marginally, and Leah sucked air greedily. Looking at the vampire without seeming to be. If this bubblegum pink monstrosity had had any evidence of annoyance in her expression, it had been replaced with thoughtfulness. She didn't like that look, because it promised bad things to come, but she also knew that if the vampire had lapsed into thought, she was also likely concentrating less on the here and now.
She acted before she'd had an opportunity to think it through, and perhaps that was the only reason she was successful. It was not any sort of overpowering, but sheer surprise was Leah's advantage as she braced her back against the wall, drawing her legs up tightly against her body. Planting her feet against a flat, rock-hard stomach, and kicking as hard as she could. She landed in a crouch and then was off like a shot, before she could even take measure of what had happened to the vampire-whether she'd sent the creature flying, or simply pushed her out of the way.
She ran as fast and as hard as she could, knowing the leech was in no way incapacitated, knowing that she had seconds, if that. Vampires had rules, though. They couldn't hunt in populated places without the risk of revealing themselves; she simply had to get to one.
And, of course, she'd overestimated her chances. A surprisingly heavy weight landed on her back, bearing her down. Her hands, knees, and one cheek scraped on the pavement from the impact, but she didn't make a sound, not even when she felt grit grinding into the raw abrasions.
Her silence was broken by a scream when teeth-not the razor-sharp fangs you see in movies, but teeth-dug into the join of her neck and shoulder. It hurt, of course it did, but Leah instantly focused not on the blunt teeth themselves, but on the lancing, burning pain arcing up the side of her throat, down her arm. It felt like acid in her veins, spreading like fingers. So it was only afterwards that she realized the body on top of hers was as still as death, though those teeth were still buried in soft and pliant flesh.
No, she thought through a thick red haze of molten agony, not still exactly. The vampire was stiff with restrained motion, and Leah had no idea why the leech had not gone into a feeding frenzy, mouth full of blood.
Then, as suddenly as she'd been taken down, the weight on Leah's back disappeared. She turned her cheek, rested the undamaged one on cool pavement, and regarded the vampire blearily. She was so far away now. Wasn't she hungry? Didn't she want to finish the job?
"Why don't you shift, Mutt?" the leech called, her tone hard, determined. "It's the only way you're going to save yourself, now." Was that really what this was all about? The vampire didn't seem nearly as threatening from so far away, Leah noted distractedly.
The warm ooze of her blood was an almost comforting sensation in comparison to the burn of what she knew was venom, searing too quickly through her body. It must have made its way to a larger blood vessel.
But her head was soothingly vacant of any thoughts but her own, and even those were coming slowly. Leah closed her eyes and smiled.
~To be continued~