Bloodstream: Under Your Skin 2/7
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PART 2:
You can be a sweet dream or a beautiful nightmare
Either way I don't wanna wake up from you
-Sweet Dreams, Beyoncé
Adam woke up around two that afternoon and stretched out like a cat, even though that was more Tommy's deal than his. Thankfully the sun was not shining into the room, because before Tommy left he'd remembered to close the blinds. He sometimes forgot because the sun wasn't an issue for him, so he wasn’t always considerate of how much it bothered Adam.
But the peace and quiet of a dark room didn't last long, because once again there was some commotion in the hallway. Adam was really starting to wonder if they’d moved into the wrong building or something.
Someone was out there, cursing up a storm and kicking or pounding on something. Adam really didn't want to get out of bed, but he also really didn't want to lie there and listen to all that noise all day, so he grabbed his sleep pants that he'd kicked off that morning, looked at the missing drawstring still tied to the headboard and reached for some jeans and a T-shirt instead.
He pulled open the front door and looked out into the hallway, glad that the sun wasn't shining as brightly into the hall as it had been earlier that morning, and saw the same girl with the red/pink/purple hair that they'd seen earlier, glaring at her door.
"Umh, is there a problem?" Adam asked her, and she looked up from her door glaring to stare at Adam and then went back to glaring at her door.
"Locked out. Forgot my keys. This has been the best day ever," the pink haired girl mumbled to him, and she didn't sound as feisty as she had the night before when she was banging on their wall.
"Oh. Would you like to, I don't know, wait in our apartment while you figure out what to do about that? I'm just saying, might be more comfortable than beating up your door or something."
"I know what you are," she told him, looking at him with distrustful eyes.
"I know what you are too. Well, kinda. And if you know what I am, why would you want to make that much noise when you knew I would be sleeping?" Adam asked her, showing that he didn't exactly trust her one hundred percent, either. He was just trying to be nice to a neighbor.
"Don't try anything funny if I come inside," the girl told him, and pointed a finger at him.
"Wouldn't dream of it."
"Okay. My name is Allison. Allison Iraheta," the girl with the pink hair told him, holding out her hand, and Adam grinned as he shook it, before opening the door further to let her in.
"Sorry about the mess. We just moved in. Like last night."
"Yeah, dude. I kinda noticed."
"Oh, right. Sorry about that. I was having trouble falling asleep."
"No problem. Just don't make a habit out of it, or I'm really gonna have to do something about that." Adam just looked at Allison like she'd stepped out of a bad mobster movie."What? I totally could, man."
"Sure, okay."
"Don't doubt me, dude," Allison told him, and sat down on the plain, red sofa in the living room as Adam closed the door.
"Have you called a locksmith, a super or whatever?" Adam asked her, because, yeah, he said she could stay, but he didn't want her to stay for like the whole day. They had plans.
"No, I was just gonna sit here and wait forever for something to magically happen to my locked door. Duh, what do you think?" Allison asked him, rolling her eyes at him and putting her feet under her, her shoes sitting on the floor.
"Sorry, just asking," Adam told her, because, really, he was being a nice neighbor, and she was bitching back at him. He could just throw her back out.
"Yeah, well. Now ya know. Sorry, just having a bit of a bad day. Didn't mean to like bite your head off or anything. So where's your boyfriend? I mean, he is your boyfriend, right?" Allison asked him, looking around the place even though most things were still in boxes, so it wasn't like she could get a good picture of their home life.
"What do you think?" Adam bitched back at her, after he sat down in a white arm chair that was on the other side of a glass coffee table.
"Going by those sounds last night? Boyfriend, lover, fuck buddy, friend with benefits, who knows," Allison told him, with a shrug of her shoulders, like she didn't care what they called it.
"Boyfriend. He's out dealing with some stuff. Sunlight's not an issue for him," Adam told her, and, well, it wasn't that he was jealous but sometimes he wished he could go with Tommy.
"That's a little weird, I've never seen a vamp who didn't have issues with the sun. So, are you like him or...?" Allison asked him, and, man, she had a lot of questions.
"No, I can't stand the sun well. I mean, I guess I can stand it a little better than a lot of other vamps but I can't stand being in it for a long time or anything. I'd rather avoid it."
"Oh, huh. Cool. So, how did you two love birds meet?" Allison asked him, twirling some hair in between her fingers and smirking. Oh, she could get annoying if she wanted.
"Forest party thing. Well, that was the first time. But it wasn't like the time he turned me or anything. That came way later," Adam told her, maybe jumping ahead a bit.
"Wait, so he's both the guy who turned you and your boyfriend? Wow, heavy stuff. And he's some kinda special vampire. What's up with that, dude?" Allison asked him, and if she was sitting closer to him she probably would have poked him.
"I don't know, he doesn't really talk about that stuff," he told her, which was true because Tommy didn't like to talk about his past. Usually Adam was fine with that and all, but sometimes he wondered, especially since he was getting the feeling that once again they were sticking out like sore thumbs, even as a different species.
"Have you tried to get him to talk about it?" Allison asked him, like she was suddenly a shrink or something.
"No, he'd tell me if he wanted me to know," Adam bit out, and he was pretty sure about that. Maybe he'd say something if he asked now, but who knows. Maybe he didn't want to even know.
"Okay, whatever. So, what do you mean first time? How many times did you two meet before he like turned you?" Allison decided not to pursue the lack of communication thing, and got back to when they met.
"I think it was like three times. This first time was ..."
Adam should have known better than to believe Brad when he said that this forest party would be just what he was looking for. He'd expected a more hippie like feel, just people being all free minded and more in touch with nature.
No, instead it was just high school kids getting high and drunk off their asses, talking about stuff they thought was highly intellectual but was actually pretty mainstream pop culture.
He really just wanted to find Brad, who was younger than his own twenty years. They really connected at least eighty percent of the time, but this wasn't one of those times. He'd driven them here, so he didn't want to just leave and have Brad stranded in the dark woods with stoners and drunks.
"Do you know where Brad is? The cute little brunette boy in the almost painted on t-shirt and pants that leave nothing to the imagination?" Adam asked one of the more aware looking stoners. He waved Adam in a direction that would take him deeper into the forest.
Oh, great. That wasn't creepy at all, Adam thought, wishing there was another alternative to walking into the densely wooded area.
He looked up from the stoners, and saw a blond guy not that far away. He looked slightly older than the rest of the people around, but not much. He was lean, dressed almost completely in black, and noticed when Adam looked at him. Because when Adam had looked him over and looked up at his face, the guy's brown eyes were amused and looking straight at Adam.
Adam dropped his head and thought, Oops, caught.
He was about to say something when he heard the stupid stoners giggle, and maybe it wasn't even related to him, but he heard snippets of their conversation; "Silly... Won't be happy... Catch of the day."
He thought he really should have gone to find Brad, and not been checking out guys who were totally out of his league. Sure, he'd been told he wasn't that bad to look at, but really, he had eyes that couldn't decide if they wanted to be blue or gray and mousy brown hair that faded into the background. He tried to keep in shape, but it wasn't easy. He couldn't see anything remarkable or memorable about himself.
He turned around to go in the direction the stoners had pointed him in earlier, but before he could even take a step, this really cute, short black girl with close cropped hair popped up out of nowhere in front of him.
"Hey, could you tell me where I can find the beer? I'm Sasha, by the way," the girl told him and smiled a really sweet smile, but there was something about her eyes that kinda freaked Adam out a little bit. She looked like just about anyone at this party, maybe a little less stoned and more sober, but that could change soon.
"Umh, Adam. I think it's just over there somewhere, but it might all be gone by now, for all I know," he told her and pointed in a direction away from the supercilious, condescending stoners from earlier with their snide comments.
"Oh, great. Thanks. See ya around, cutie," she told him and winked at him. Then she was gone as fast as she had popped up in the first place. But again, Adam was blocked on the path he wanted to take by someone.
Except this time it wasn't Sasha or someone else he'd never seen before, but that cute blond guy from earlier. And he was looking Adam over, and he was smirking. Adam didn't see how anything good could come out of this.
"Hi," blond guy said to Adam, who was still a little shocked that the guy was in front of him, and he thought he maybe saw Brad just over his shoulder.
"Umh, hi. The beer's over there, if you were looking for it," Adam told him and pointed him in the same direction he had just pointed Sasha.
"Oh, thanks. But I'm not looking for the beer," blond guy told him, and lifted up his beer bottle. "My name's Tommy. What's yours?"
"Oh, sorry. Umh, Adam. That's my name," Adam mumbled to Tommy, looking at their feet because they were kind of close together.
"So, you liking this party? I'm not so sure what to think about it," Tommy asked, and took a sip of his beer. Adam didn't know if Tommy was trying to stay sober, because it definitely looked like a sip, not a real drink. Maybe he was just a slow drinker.
"Eh. I'm only here because a friend of mine dragged me here and promised it'd be fun. But so far, not really. I don't even know where he is," Adam told Tommy and looked around again. He saw who he thought could be Sasha with a black guy with dreads and a white girl. They seemed to be busy talking to someone, but Adam couldn't see who it was.
"Ah, yeah. I've been to better ones. Do you want to get away from this crappy music so we can talk without shouting?" Tommy asked Adam, who'd given up looking at the ground and the seemingly interesting state of their shoes and was looking at Tommy with decidedly wide eyes.
"Umh, sure. I guess. why not? We won't be missed," Adam told him, hinting at some underlying bitterness there and started to follow Tommy who was trekking further into the dark forest.
Adam had an inkling that what Tommy was after wasn't just talking, but why not. He wasn't opposed to experiencing something new, whatever it may be, with a stranger in a forest.
"So, you like any movies or anything?" Adam asked Tommy in an effort to break the silence, which was getting a little creepy in the dark.
"Yeah. The bloodier, the better. Horror, ya know," Tommy told him, looking over his shoulder at Adam and smiling, but there was something wrong with that smile. Adam found it to be just a little unsettling, something a bit like a predator looking at helpless prey.
Maybe this had been a bad idea, maybe Adam should have turned back and found Brad. But they couldn't hear the music anymore or see the bonfires that had been lit. All of a sudden Tommy stopped and turned around so abruptly that Adam almost bumped into him.
"Do you want to feel something amazing? Like once in a lifetime amazing?" Tommy asked Adam, and crowded him up against a big-ass tree. Tommy seemed to radiate a certain cockiness and confidence in himself.
Thinking that Tommy had some new, designer chemical cocktail, Adam decided if it was a once in a life time occurrence, why not? "Umh, uh. Sure, I guess." He'd partied on coke before and even dropped a few hits to enhance certain experiences. This party was going nowhere, fast, and anything that might make it better was something he was willing to try.
Adam looked at Tommy's hands expectantly, waiting for him to pull something out of a pocket, but Tommy only stood still, his body never faltering in its mission of keeping Adam trapped against the massive tree trunk.
More than a few seconds passed before Adam realized that Tommy wasn't planning on handing him anything. He usually wasn't that slow, but he found himself distracted by what he felt pressing against his thigh. “If you mean the boner you're sporting, it's impressive; I'll give you that. But once in a lifetime amazing? I don't think so.”
"Not quite, pretty boy,” Tommy practically hissed in Adam's ear. “There are more exciting things than sex, better ways to get off.” Tommy licked Adam's neck, and something about the way he did it sent a shiver all the way through Adam's body. When Tommy ended it with a small nip, all rational thought left Adam's mind. He could feel himself slipping away into nothingness, only the primal desire to feel remained, and it scared the shit out of him.
Adam decided he'd had enough and pushed against Tommy's chest in an effort to move his new friend out of the way. He wasn't really in the mood for a quick fuck in the woods tonight, and whatever Tommy had done unnerved him to the point of a mental confusion of raw impressions. But he felt like he was pushing against a brick wall. How the hell could this little guy be so strong?
With growing panic, Adam realized that he was trapped against the tree, and unless Tommy decided to let him leave, he was gonna stay right where he was. Just as that thought struck him, he heard Tommy's voice. Only it wasn't exactly the same voice he remembered Tommy using before. It was more, somehow: more authoritative, more sure, more in control--just more.
"Adam, look at me. Look in my eyes, Adam.” And there was no way that Adam couldn't do what this new voice of Tommy's was telling him to do. It was a command that he felt in his very core, maybe in his very soul.
He looked down into Tommy's eyes, and the world stopped. Maybe he should have been afraid of what he saw, but instead he felt as if he were cocooned in his darkest wishes and desires. Tommy's eyes flashed with a fire of intensity that excited something in Adam, something he'd never before realized he'd craved. The red glow whispered of power, power to stand on his own like he never could before. Adam could feel assurance in the blazing depths of those eyes; assurance that was not only the master of its own fate, but master of all it chose to hold dominion over. There was no more worry over laughter behind his back. Being the odd man out wasn't a cause to carry shame any longer. Being different wasn't something to try and deny, but a reason to celebrate.
He looked into Tommy's eyes, and he saw a twisted comfort and truth. He saw the ruination of civilization and the birth of creation. He felt Tommy's hand on his chest, and he felt a lover's touch with the power to crush. He heard Tommy's voice and saw the beauty of the words float past on the wings of a dove. He felt the pressure of Tommy's lips on his throat and felt empowered enough to give himself over completely to another. His mind rejoiced in the immunity from daily concerns that was being granted to him at the same time as his body quivered in anticipation and his knees buckled under the weight of this new freedom.
Adam was mesmerized by the whorls and swirls that collected and clouded below the surface of Tommy's eyes. He could sense the secrets of power and life itself hidden in their depths, and he desperately wanted to share in that knowledge. He was lost in the vast expanse between life and the living, and he found he was content to stay.
Tommy felt when Adam gave himself up to the glamour, and he sank his teeth into the soft flesh covering the pulse point. As his teeth felt the parting tissue, he sensed a surge of power unlike anything he'd ever experienced. He tasted the excitement of the living in Adam more so than in any of his previous victims. He found himself on the brink of intoxication before he'd even broken the wall of the vein that carried the blood he could hear calling out to him, its siren song seductive in its promises.
Tommy let his teeth slide through the slight covering and into the warm, wet richness that was Adam's blood. This was what he lived for; this was his home. This was his last connection to the living, the excitement of life. He always felt emotions being reborn when he fed. His life existed in the shadows except when he was infused with the energy of fresh blood. But this time, this human, carried almost more than he could take in. He vowed to savor it as long as he could.
Adam felt the warmth of Tommy's lips on his neck and the press of the sharp points of Tommy's teeth. He'd been lost in the seduction of Tommy's eyes, but the fire of emotions that blossomed in his blood brought him to hyper awareness. He felt the surge of knowledge of all things ancient and powerful flow through his body as a new and strange excitement was born where Tommy's lips met his skin. He felt himself floating not only through space, but through time as well. He was all-powerful, all-knowing, yet insignificant. He saw the warp and the weave of life from creation to annihilation. He could almost see the universe--from the smallest particle of the atom to the totality of existence--everything that has ever been and ever would be--all in one instant. This was what he wanted his life to be. This was where he wanted to stay.
The more Tommy drank of Adam's blood, the more he felt the thrill of the living run through his veins. He saw the grand beauty in the fragility of human life. He rejoiced in the freedom of the spirit of this human whose life he was feasting upon. He felt himself being aroused beyond the simple bloodlust that had driven his desires for so long. He'd never felt this type of connection with one of his victims before, and it stirred something deep within himself. He wanted more; he wanted it all for himself.
Tommy knew the limits of human endurance. He knew how much this new plaything could give before it was used up. The thought of leaving this man nothing more than a cold and decomposing corpse circumvented Tommy's desire to feed until the last drop of blood was drained. There was more to this human than simple sustenance for him. There was a dark and brooding beauty that called in a voice that Tommy heard loudly and clearly. There was a power that no human should have, and it confused Tommy. He wanted more, but he wanted answers first.
Tommy ripped away from Adam, licking his lips, but in that messy sort of way that just smeared blood around more than licking all of it away. Maybe he didn't need answers, perhaps he just needed to get away from this... boy who was messing with his head.
"Wha... Why did you stop?" Adam asked in a drowsy, dreamy voice. His fumbling hands tried to guide Tommy's head back to his neck, which was still bleeding freely. "Hey, where are you going? Come back, I want more. Is there more? I want all of you."
But Tommy just kept walking away, subtle tremors going through his body from the recent feeding and the conflicting emotions of wanting to drain the boy dry and wanting to turn him to keep him as a playmate to have fun with forever.
He glanced once over his shoulder and saw Adam still slumped against the tree with his bloody neck, blood seeping into the collar of his gray T-shirt and looking like he was about to pass out.
"So, wait... He just left you there? Why didn't he just like kill you or something?" Allison asked Adam, who just shrugged and was about to continue when Tommy entered the apartment, looked at Allison on the couch and then at Adam, seated in the white chair.
"There's a guy outside in the hallway, doing something to your door. You might want to check that out?" Tommy told her, as she got up and walked past him out into the hallway.
"What's up with making nice with the next door Were?" Tommy asked Adam, who stood and moved to the couch instead. Tommy sat down next to him, putting his head on his shoulder.
"Allison got locked out of her place, I said she could wait here until someone showed up to help her with it," Adam murmured, running a hand through Tommy's hair and wondering if more sleep was in order. The sun was still up, they could use that as an excuse. "Plus, I couldn't really sleep while she was having a fit in the hallway."
"And why did you tell her about the first time we met?" Tommy asked him, nuzzling Adam's neck and flicking out his tongue for a quick lick.
"I don't know. She asked?" Adam told him, and stole a quick kiss before Allison walked back into the room and pretty much jumped up and over into the white chair that Adam had occupied before.
"Break it up, lovebats. And tell me the rest of the story," she told them, grinning, and rubbing her hands together. She looked too excited, if you asked Tommy.
"You know, Allison. We can't actually turn into bats, or really anything. We're not shapeshifters," Tommy told her, and she just waved him off and rolled her eyes. That should be more annoying, really, but it wasn't for some reason.
"Continue the story, dude," She told Adam, but he just looked at Tommy, who in turn looked right back at Adam.
"Well, like he probably told you, I left him behind there, to bleed to death or who knew what. I went back to the friends I was traveling with who had helped me distract his friend so I could get Adam alone," Tommy told her, after Adam had shrugged his shoulders and stood up to get something from the kitchen.
"Oh, so Sasha was with you?" Allison asked him, folding her feet under her body and looking at him all eager, actually on the verge of too eager.
"Yeah, and these two other guys. I spotted them all huddled together talking when I got back to where the main crowd was, but I got kinda blocked by this tiny, brunette guy asking me about Adam."
"Brad, my friend I had been looking for earlier. Who I found out later had been delayed by Tommy's friends so he could get me alone. So when I thought I saw him? I had, but only for a short moment and then I dismissed it to talk to pretty boy over here," Adam told her, as he came back with a bottle of water. Which was okay, a little weird, but maybe vampires needed water just like humans or it was to fake some normalcy.
"He asked me if I had seen him. I said no. Then he said he saw me leave with him earlier, so I lied some more and said that Adam had left with someone else after we had talked. I don't think Brad believed me, but he let it go and left in the direction I'd just come from," Tommy told Allison, taking off his jacket and throwing it on the empty chair next to him.
"He found me, all passed out and bloody. He helped me home and cared for me. He was a great friend. He didn't try and make me talk about what happened or anything. Well, until years later when I had become a bit of an asshole," Adam interjected, sounding slightly nostalgic and not at all worried he had apparently been an asshole once.
"Yeah, you were a bit of an asshole around that time. Even I could see that. Anyways, I got back to my group and Sasha saw some blood I had missed in the corner of my mouth, wiped it away and asked if I had a good dinner." When Tommy said that, he reached up and kinda wiped at one corner of his mouth, like he was reliving it in his mind's eye.
"Wow, thanks. Also nice to know that was all I started out as," Adam told him, rolling his eyes and poking him in the ribs, before taking another sip of water. That just earned him a glare from Tommy.
"Am I telling this, or are you?"
"Well, I started it, but be my guest."
"Man, you guys bicker like an old married couple. How long have you two been together?" Allison asked them, and she had her chin in her hands like this was the best story ever, and it was starting to unnerve them both a bit.
"Not that long. If you don't count the whole brief meetings through the years. But back to the point, usually what Sasha said wouldn't annoy me but it did this time because I was still wondering why the fuck I didn't just kill him," Tommy told Allison, and glanced over at Adam, who was now slumped on the sofa and more playing with the water bottle than drinking from it.
"Oh gee. Thanks," Adam muttered, while tearing off the label from the bottle and balling it up, throwing it at Tommy's face.
"Shut up. It was getting late, they'd all fed, and LP even had some blood in one of his dreads, so we left. Or well, it was more I stormed off, and the three of them followed me. They always followed me."
"But why you? What made them follow you. Because you're like a different vampire, more powerful or something?" Allison asked him, making vague gestures at where Tommy was seated on the couch, and while Adam was kinda all over the place, he was all sitting up with a straight back and this serious aura about him.
"Yeah, I guess. They moved on later, once I had Adam. Something about not being as much fun as I used to be or something. I ate a waitress on the way home that night, but she was nothing compared to him even though I had drained her dry after the few sips of Adam's blood." Which was just stupid, he hadn't calmed down since he took up things with Adam, maybe it was just that they didn't like the thought of Adam being his number one priority instead of where they should eat that night.
"Man, that's weird," Allison told him, looking at him intently and then at Adam who had sat back up and was looking at his cellphone and then out the window. Yeah, the drapes were closed, but he didn't see sun straining as hard to get in anymore.
"Something like that. But story time is over, sun is going down and we're going out tonight to check out the nightlife here to find some food, so you need to like get out, go to your own apartment or something." Tommy told her, standing up and making it very clear that yes, they wanted her to leave now.
"Yeah, yeah. I can take a hint. I need a nap bad anyways." Allison got up from her seat, bounded over to Adam and hugged him and then kind of looked Tommy over before waving and leaving. "I want to talk to you more though, mister," She said, as she left and pointed at Adam, laughing as she left to go to her own place.
>>>>
PART 2:
You can be a sweet dream or a beautiful nightmare
Either way I don't wanna wake up from you
-Sweet Dreams, Beyoncé
Adam woke up around two that afternoon and stretched out like a cat, even though that was more Tommy's deal than his. Thankfully the sun was not shining into the room, because before Tommy left he'd remembered to close the blinds. He sometimes forgot because the sun wasn't an issue for him, so he wasn’t always considerate of how much it bothered Adam.
But the peace and quiet of a dark room didn't last long, because once again there was some commotion in the hallway. Adam was really starting to wonder if they’d moved into the wrong building or something.
Someone was out there, cursing up a storm and kicking or pounding on something. Adam really didn't want to get out of bed, but he also really didn't want to lie there and listen to all that noise all day, so he grabbed his sleep pants that he'd kicked off that morning, looked at the missing drawstring still tied to the headboard and reached for some jeans and a T-shirt instead.
He pulled open the front door and looked out into the hallway, glad that the sun wasn't shining as brightly into the hall as it had been earlier that morning, and saw the same girl with the red/pink/purple hair that they'd seen earlier, glaring at her door.
"Umh, is there a problem?" Adam asked her, and she looked up from her door glaring to stare at Adam and then went back to glaring at her door.
"Locked out. Forgot my keys. This has been the best day ever," the pink haired girl mumbled to him, and she didn't sound as feisty as she had the night before when she was banging on their wall.
"Oh. Would you like to, I don't know, wait in our apartment while you figure out what to do about that? I'm just saying, might be more comfortable than beating up your door or something."
"I know what you are," she told him, looking at him with distrustful eyes.
"I know what you are too. Well, kinda. And if you know what I am, why would you want to make that much noise when you knew I would be sleeping?" Adam asked her, showing that he didn't exactly trust her one hundred percent, either. He was just trying to be nice to a neighbor.
"Don't try anything funny if I come inside," the girl told him, and pointed a finger at him.
"Wouldn't dream of it."
"Okay. My name is Allison. Allison Iraheta," the girl with the pink hair told him, holding out her hand, and Adam grinned as he shook it, before opening the door further to let her in.
"Sorry about the mess. We just moved in. Like last night."
"Yeah, dude. I kinda noticed."
"Oh, right. Sorry about that. I was having trouble falling asleep."
"No problem. Just don't make a habit out of it, or I'm really gonna have to do something about that." Adam just looked at Allison like she'd stepped out of a bad mobster movie."What? I totally could, man."
"Sure, okay."
"Don't doubt me, dude," Allison told him, and sat down on the plain, red sofa in the living room as Adam closed the door.
"Have you called a locksmith, a super or whatever?" Adam asked her, because, yeah, he said she could stay, but he didn't want her to stay for like the whole day. They had plans.
"No, I was just gonna sit here and wait forever for something to magically happen to my locked door. Duh, what do you think?" Allison asked him, rolling her eyes at him and putting her feet under her, her shoes sitting on the floor.
"Sorry, just asking," Adam told her, because, really, he was being a nice neighbor, and she was bitching back at him. He could just throw her back out.
"Yeah, well. Now ya know. Sorry, just having a bit of a bad day. Didn't mean to like bite your head off or anything. So where's your boyfriend? I mean, he is your boyfriend, right?" Allison asked him, looking around the place even though most things were still in boxes, so it wasn't like she could get a good picture of their home life.
"What do you think?" Adam bitched back at her, after he sat down in a white arm chair that was on the other side of a glass coffee table.
"Going by those sounds last night? Boyfriend, lover, fuck buddy, friend with benefits, who knows," Allison told him, with a shrug of her shoulders, like she didn't care what they called it.
"Boyfriend. He's out dealing with some stuff. Sunlight's not an issue for him," Adam told her, and, well, it wasn't that he was jealous but sometimes he wished he could go with Tommy.
"That's a little weird, I've never seen a vamp who didn't have issues with the sun. So, are you like him or...?" Allison asked him, and, man, she had a lot of questions.
"No, I can't stand the sun well. I mean, I guess I can stand it a little better than a lot of other vamps but I can't stand being in it for a long time or anything. I'd rather avoid it."
"Oh, huh. Cool. So, how did you two love birds meet?" Allison asked him, twirling some hair in between her fingers and smirking. Oh, she could get annoying if she wanted.
"Forest party thing. Well, that was the first time. But it wasn't like the time he turned me or anything. That came way later," Adam told her, maybe jumping ahead a bit.
"Wait, so he's both the guy who turned you and your boyfriend? Wow, heavy stuff. And he's some kinda special vampire. What's up with that, dude?" Allison asked him, and if she was sitting closer to him she probably would have poked him.
"I don't know, he doesn't really talk about that stuff," he told her, which was true because Tommy didn't like to talk about his past. Usually Adam was fine with that and all, but sometimes he wondered, especially since he was getting the feeling that once again they were sticking out like sore thumbs, even as a different species.
"Have you tried to get him to talk about it?" Allison asked him, like she was suddenly a shrink or something.
"No, he'd tell me if he wanted me to know," Adam bit out, and he was pretty sure about that. Maybe he'd say something if he asked now, but who knows. Maybe he didn't want to even know.
"Okay, whatever. So, what do you mean first time? How many times did you two meet before he like turned you?" Allison decided not to pursue the lack of communication thing, and got back to when they met.
"I think it was like three times. This first time was ..."
Adam should have known better than to believe Brad when he said that this forest party would be just what he was looking for. He'd expected a more hippie like feel, just people being all free minded and more in touch with nature.
No, instead it was just high school kids getting high and drunk off their asses, talking about stuff they thought was highly intellectual but was actually pretty mainstream pop culture.
He really just wanted to find Brad, who was younger than his own twenty years. They really connected at least eighty percent of the time, but this wasn't one of those times. He'd driven them here, so he didn't want to just leave and have Brad stranded in the dark woods with stoners and drunks.
"Do you know where Brad is? The cute little brunette boy in the almost painted on t-shirt and pants that leave nothing to the imagination?" Adam asked one of the more aware looking stoners. He waved Adam in a direction that would take him deeper into the forest.
Oh, great. That wasn't creepy at all, Adam thought, wishing there was another alternative to walking into the densely wooded area.
He looked up from the stoners, and saw a blond guy not that far away. He looked slightly older than the rest of the people around, but not much. He was lean, dressed almost completely in black, and noticed when Adam looked at him. Because when Adam had looked him over and looked up at his face, the guy's brown eyes were amused and looking straight at Adam.
Adam dropped his head and thought, Oops, caught.
He was about to say something when he heard the stupid stoners giggle, and maybe it wasn't even related to him, but he heard snippets of their conversation; "Silly... Won't be happy... Catch of the day."
He thought he really should have gone to find Brad, and not been checking out guys who were totally out of his league. Sure, he'd been told he wasn't that bad to look at, but really, he had eyes that couldn't decide if they wanted to be blue or gray and mousy brown hair that faded into the background. He tried to keep in shape, but it wasn't easy. He couldn't see anything remarkable or memorable about himself.
He turned around to go in the direction the stoners had pointed him in earlier, but before he could even take a step, this really cute, short black girl with close cropped hair popped up out of nowhere in front of him.
"Hey, could you tell me where I can find the beer? I'm Sasha, by the way," the girl told him and smiled a really sweet smile, but there was something about her eyes that kinda freaked Adam out a little bit. She looked like just about anyone at this party, maybe a little less stoned and more sober, but that could change soon.
"Umh, Adam. I think it's just over there somewhere, but it might all be gone by now, for all I know," he told her and pointed in a direction away from the supercilious, condescending stoners from earlier with their snide comments.
"Oh, great. Thanks. See ya around, cutie," she told him and winked at him. Then she was gone as fast as she had popped up in the first place. But again, Adam was blocked on the path he wanted to take by someone.
Except this time it wasn't Sasha or someone else he'd never seen before, but that cute blond guy from earlier. And he was looking Adam over, and he was smirking. Adam didn't see how anything good could come out of this.
"Hi," blond guy said to Adam, who was still a little shocked that the guy was in front of him, and he thought he maybe saw Brad just over his shoulder.
"Umh, hi. The beer's over there, if you were looking for it," Adam told him and pointed him in the same direction he had just pointed Sasha.
"Oh, thanks. But I'm not looking for the beer," blond guy told him, and lifted up his beer bottle. "My name's Tommy. What's yours?"
"Oh, sorry. Umh, Adam. That's my name," Adam mumbled to Tommy, looking at their feet because they were kind of close together.
"So, you liking this party? I'm not so sure what to think about it," Tommy asked, and took a sip of his beer. Adam didn't know if Tommy was trying to stay sober, because it definitely looked like a sip, not a real drink. Maybe he was just a slow drinker.
"Eh. I'm only here because a friend of mine dragged me here and promised it'd be fun. But so far, not really. I don't even know where he is," Adam told Tommy and looked around again. He saw who he thought could be Sasha with a black guy with dreads and a white girl. They seemed to be busy talking to someone, but Adam couldn't see who it was.
"Ah, yeah. I've been to better ones. Do you want to get away from this crappy music so we can talk without shouting?" Tommy asked Adam, who'd given up looking at the ground and the seemingly interesting state of their shoes and was looking at Tommy with decidedly wide eyes.
"Umh, sure. I guess. why not? We won't be missed," Adam told him, hinting at some underlying bitterness there and started to follow Tommy who was trekking further into the dark forest.
Adam had an inkling that what Tommy was after wasn't just talking, but why not. He wasn't opposed to experiencing something new, whatever it may be, with a stranger in a forest.
"So, you like any movies or anything?" Adam asked Tommy in an effort to break the silence, which was getting a little creepy in the dark.
"Yeah. The bloodier, the better. Horror, ya know," Tommy told him, looking over his shoulder at Adam and smiling, but there was something wrong with that smile. Adam found it to be just a little unsettling, something a bit like a predator looking at helpless prey.
Maybe this had been a bad idea, maybe Adam should have turned back and found Brad. But they couldn't hear the music anymore or see the bonfires that had been lit. All of a sudden Tommy stopped and turned around so abruptly that Adam almost bumped into him.
"Do you want to feel something amazing? Like once in a lifetime amazing?" Tommy asked Adam, and crowded him up against a big-ass tree. Tommy seemed to radiate a certain cockiness and confidence in himself.
Thinking that Tommy had some new, designer chemical cocktail, Adam decided if it was a once in a life time occurrence, why not? "Umh, uh. Sure, I guess." He'd partied on coke before and even dropped a few hits to enhance certain experiences. This party was going nowhere, fast, and anything that might make it better was something he was willing to try.
Adam looked at Tommy's hands expectantly, waiting for him to pull something out of a pocket, but Tommy only stood still, his body never faltering in its mission of keeping Adam trapped against the massive tree trunk.
More than a few seconds passed before Adam realized that Tommy wasn't planning on handing him anything. He usually wasn't that slow, but he found himself distracted by what he felt pressing against his thigh. “If you mean the boner you're sporting, it's impressive; I'll give you that. But once in a lifetime amazing? I don't think so.”
"Not quite, pretty boy,” Tommy practically hissed in Adam's ear. “There are more exciting things than sex, better ways to get off.” Tommy licked Adam's neck, and something about the way he did it sent a shiver all the way through Adam's body. When Tommy ended it with a small nip, all rational thought left Adam's mind. He could feel himself slipping away into nothingness, only the primal desire to feel remained, and it scared the shit out of him.
Adam decided he'd had enough and pushed against Tommy's chest in an effort to move his new friend out of the way. He wasn't really in the mood for a quick fuck in the woods tonight, and whatever Tommy had done unnerved him to the point of a mental confusion of raw impressions. But he felt like he was pushing against a brick wall. How the hell could this little guy be so strong?
With growing panic, Adam realized that he was trapped against the tree, and unless Tommy decided to let him leave, he was gonna stay right where he was. Just as that thought struck him, he heard Tommy's voice. Only it wasn't exactly the same voice he remembered Tommy using before. It was more, somehow: more authoritative, more sure, more in control--just more.
"Adam, look at me. Look in my eyes, Adam.” And there was no way that Adam couldn't do what this new voice of Tommy's was telling him to do. It was a command that he felt in his very core, maybe in his very soul.
He looked down into Tommy's eyes, and the world stopped. Maybe he should have been afraid of what he saw, but instead he felt as if he were cocooned in his darkest wishes and desires. Tommy's eyes flashed with a fire of intensity that excited something in Adam, something he'd never before realized he'd craved. The red glow whispered of power, power to stand on his own like he never could before. Adam could feel assurance in the blazing depths of those eyes; assurance that was not only the master of its own fate, but master of all it chose to hold dominion over. There was no more worry over laughter behind his back. Being the odd man out wasn't a cause to carry shame any longer. Being different wasn't something to try and deny, but a reason to celebrate.
He looked into Tommy's eyes, and he saw a twisted comfort and truth. He saw the ruination of civilization and the birth of creation. He felt Tommy's hand on his chest, and he felt a lover's touch with the power to crush. He heard Tommy's voice and saw the beauty of the words float past on the wings of a dove. He felt the pressure of Tommy's lips on his throat and felt empowered enough to give himself over completely to another. His mind rejoiced in the immunity from daily concerns that was being granted to him at the same time as his body quivered in anticipation and his knees buckled under the weight of this new freedom.
Adam was mesmerized by the whorls and swirls that collected and clouded below the surface of Tommy's eyes. He could sense the secrets of power and life itself hidden in their depths, and he desperately wanted to share in that knowledge. He was lost in the vast expanse between life and the living, and he found he was content to stay.
Tommy felt when Adam gave himself up to the glamour, and he sank his teeth into the soft flesh covering the pulse point. As his teeth felt the parting tissue, he sensed a surge of power unlike anything he'd ever experienced. He tasted the excitement of the living in Adam more so than in any of his previous victims. He found himself on the brink of intoxication before he'd even broken the wall of the vein that carried the blood he could hear calling out to him, its siren song seductive in its promises.
Tommy let his teeth slide through the slight covering and into the warm, wet richness that was Adam's blood. This was what he lived for; this was his home. This was his last connection to the living, the excitement of life. He always felt emotions being reborn when he fed. His life existed in the shadows except when he was infused with the energy of fresh blood. But this time, this human, carried almost more than he could take in. He vowed to savor it as long as he could.
Adam felt the warmth of Tommy's lips on his neck and the press of the sharp points of Tommy's teeth. He'd been lost in the seduction of Tommy's eyes, but the fire of emotions that blossomed in his blood brought him to hyper awareness. He felt the surge of knowledge of all things ancient and powerful flow through his body as a new and strange excitement was born where Tommy's lips met his skin. He felt himself floating not only through space, but through time as well. He was all-powerful, all-knowing, yet insignificant. He saw the warp and the weave of life from creation to annihilation. He could almost see the universe--from the smallest particle of the atom to the totality of existence--everything that has ever been and ever would be--all in one instant. This was what he wanted his life to be. This was where he wanted to stay.
The more Tommy drank of Adam's blood, the more he felt the thrill of the living run through his veins. He saw the grand beauty in the fragility of human life. He rejoiced in the freedom of the spirit of this human whose life he was feasting upon. He felt himself being aroused beyond the simple bloodlust that had driven his desires for so long. He'd never felt this type of connection with one of his victims before, and it stirred something deep within himself. He wanted more; he wanted it all for himself.
Tommy knew the limits of human endurance. He knew how much this new plaything could give before it was used up. The thought of leaving this man nothing more than a cold and decomposing corpse circumvented Tommy's desire to feed until the last drop of blood was drained. There was more to this human than simple sustenance for him. There was a dark and brooding beauty that called in a voice that Tommy heard loudly and clearly. There was a power that no human should have, and it confused Tommy. He wanted more, but he wanted answers first.
Tommy ripped away from Adam, licking his lips, but in that messy sort of way that just smeared blood around more than licking all of it away. Maybe he didn't need answers, perhaps he just needed to get away from this... boy who was messing with his head.
"Wha... Why did you stop?" Adam asked in a drowsy, dreamy voice. His fumbling hands tried to guide Tommy's head back to his neck, which was still bleeding freely. "Hey, where are you going? Come back, I want more. Is there more? I want all of you."
But Tommy just kept walking away, subtle tremors going through his body from the recent feeding and the conflicting emotions of wanting to drain the boy dry and wanting to turn him to keep him as a playmate to have fun with forever.
He glanced once over his shoulder and saw Adam still slumped against the tree with his bloody neck, blood seeping into the collar of his gray T-shirt and looking like he was about to pass out.
"So, wait... He just left you there? Why didn't he just like kill you or something?" Allison asked Adam, who just shrugged and was about to continue when Tommy entered the apartment, looked at Allison on the couch and then at Adam, seated in the white chair.
"There's a guy outside in the hallway, doing something to your door. You might want to check that out?" Tommy told her, as she got up and walked past him out into the hallway.
"What's up with making nice with the next door Were?" Tommy asked Adam, who stood and moved to the couch instead. Tommy sat down next to him, putting his head on his shoulder.
"Allison got locked out of her place, I said she could wait here until someone showed up to help her with it," Adam murmured, running a hand through Tommy's hair and wondering if more sleep was in order. The sun was still up, they could use that as an excuse. "Plus, I couldn't really sleep while she was having a fit in the hallway."
"And why did you tell her about the first time we met?" Tommy asked him, nuzzling Adam's neck and flicking out his tongue for a quick lick.
"I don't know. She asked?" Adam told him, and stole a quick kiss before Allison walked back into the room and pretty much jumped up and over into the white chair that Adam had occupied before.
"Break it up, lovebats. And tell me the rest of the story," she told them, grinning, and rubbing her hands together. She looked too excited, if you asked Tommy.
"You know, Allison. We can't actually turn into bats, or really anything. We're not shapeshifters," Tommy told her, and she just waved him off and rolled her eyes. That should be more annoying, really, but it wasn't for some reason.
"Continue the story, dude," She told Adam, but he just looked at Tommy, who in turn looked right back at Adam.
"Well, like he probably told you, I left him behind there, to bleed to death or who knew what. I went back to the friends I was traveling with who had helped me distract his friend so I could get Adam alone," Tommy told her, after Adam had shrugged his shoulders and stood up to get something from the kitchen.
"Oh, so Sasha was with you?" Allison asked him, folding her feet under her body and looking at him all eager, actually on the verge of too eager.
"Yeah, and these two other guys. I spotted them all huddled together talking when I got back to where the main crowd was, but I got kinda blocked by this tiny, brunette guy asking me about Adam."
"Brad, my friend I had been looking for earlier. Who I found out later had been delayed by Tommy's friends so he could get me alone. So when I thought I saw him? I had, but only for a short moment and then I dismissed it to talk to pretty boy over here," Adam told her, as he came back with a bottle of water. Which was okay, a little weird, but maybe vampires needed water just like humans or it was to fake some normalcy.
"He asked me if I had seen him. I said no. Then he said he saw me leave with him earlier, so I lied some more and said that Adam had left with someone else after we had talked. I don't think Brad believed me, but he let it go and left in the direction I'd just come from," Tommy told Allison, taking off his jacket and throwing it on the empty chair next to him.
"He found me, all passed out and bloody. He helped me home and cared for me. He was a great friend. He didn't try and make me talk about what happened or anything. Well, until years later when I had become a bit of an asshole," Adam interjected, sounding slightly nostalgic and not at all worried he had apparently been an asshole once.
"Yeah, you were a bit of an asshole around that time. Even I could see that. Anyways, I got back to my group and Sasha saw some blood I had missed in the corner of my mouth, wiped it away and asked if I had a good dinner." When Tommy said that, he reached up and kinda wiped at one corner of his mouth, like he was reliving it in his mind's eye.
"Wow, thanks. Also nice to know that was all I started out as," Adam told him, rolling his eyes and poking him in the ribs, before taking another sip of water. That just earned him a glare from Tommy.
"Am I telling this, or are you?"
"Well, I started it, but be my guest."
"Man, you guys bicker like an old married couple. How long have you two been together?" Allison asked them, and she had her chin in her hands like this was the best story ever, and it was starting to unnerve them both a bit.
"Not that long. If you don't count the whole brief meetings through the years. But back to the point, usually what Sasha said wouldn't annoy me but it did this time because I was still wondering why the fuck I didn't just kill him," Tommy told Allison, and glanced over at Adam, who was now slumped on the sofa and more playing with the water bottle than drinking from it.
"Oh gee. Thanks," Adam muttered, while tearing off the label from the bottle and balling it up, throwing it at Tommy's face.
"Shut up. It was getting late, they'd all fed, and LP even had some blood in one of his dreads, so we left. Or well, it was more I stormed off, and the three of them followed me. They always followed me."
"But why you? What made them follow you. Because you're like a different vampire, more powerful or something?" Allison asked him, making vague gestures at where Tommy was seated on the couch, and while Adam was kinda all over the place, he was all sitting up with a straight back and this serious aura about him.
"Yeah, I guess. They moved on later, once I had Adam. Something about not being as much fun as I used to be or something. I ate a waitress on the way home that night, but she was nothing compared to him even though I had drained her dry after the few sips of Adam's blood." Which was just stupid, he hadn't calmed down since he took up things with Adam, maybe it was just that they didn't like the thought of Adam being his number one priority instead of where they should eat that night.
"Man, that's weird," Allison told him, looking at him intently and then at Adam who had sat back up and was looking at his cellphone and then out the window. Yeah, the drapes were closed, but he didn't see sun straining as hard to get in anymore.
"Something like that. But story time is over, sun is going down and we're going out tonight to check out the nightlife here to find some food, so you need to like get out, go to your own apartment or something." Tommy told her, standing up and making it very clear that yes, they wanted her to leave now.
"Yeah, yeah. I can take a hint. I need a nap bad anyways." Allison got up from her seat, bounded over to Adam and hugged him and then kind of looked Tommy over before waving and leaving. "I want to talk to you more though, mister," She said, as she left and pointed at Adam, laughing as she left to go to her own place.
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