Fresh Air

[holiday_pirner]

The library had been stultifying. Holly tried to get settled with her books and do her impression of someone studious, but it just wouldn't work. Her foot kept tapping of its own accord, her eyes drooping, the drone of whispered voices enough to lull her into impending sleep.

Instead, she found a postage stamp-sized park, a stretch of scrubby grass that resembled straw more than anything. Still, it worked for her purposes. Holly had gone back to her hotel room briefly to grab a threadbare sheet, a bottle of Coke from the vending machine, and her new pair of sunglasses.

The brunette fashioned herself a little picnic spot, taking a long sip of soda and flipping open her first book. She figured it was best to start by reacquainting herself with the classics, and so Holly dove into Bram Stoker's Dracula.

The sun was pleasant on her skin; she had packed about five bottles of SPF 30 before heading off to the desert. Every few pages or so, she glanced around surreptitiously. So far, she was alone. If the trend continued, she would roll herself up a spliff.

It wasn't half bad, as days went.


[Thread Open to Echo]

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[wolfs_daughter]

She'd shifted. In public. In front of witnesses. Mama was going to kill her.

Echo had broken the speed limit all the way back to Searchlight, the van's engine protesting her heavy foot on the gas pedal as she prayed for a lack of state troopers on the highway, and she was so scared and panicked that she'd sweated through her shirt by the time she reached the trailer park. She'd then spent that night and all the next day hiding inside while she waited for the cops - or animal control - to knock on her door. Had that store had video cameras?

She'd finally risked venturing outside when nothing happened for twenty-four hours, and she was very conscious of how her legs felt now that she was walking fully upright again. Maybe she would go to the community center and see if the television there was running any special news reports about a wild dog fleeing from a store in Las Vegas. It might even end up in the newspaper. Echo looked down at her thankfully normal-looking arms. No fur. Could she ask Emmeline to recommend something? Maybe some shaman could help her.

She detoured towards the town's little park instead of the community center, saw another brunette thumbing through a book. The corners of the hybrid's mouth fought with the rest of her face to fashion a smile, then gave it up because it felt weird. Maybe the other woman didn't watch television, or at least not the six o'clock news.

Act normal. No one knows you're a freak unless you show them.

"Hell of a hot day to be out here with no shade," she remarked, and thank God her voice sounded normal. "Hope that's an interesting book."

[holiday_pirner]

Holly's head jerked up at the sound of another voice. She placed her thumb against the page to hold it. "It's a re-read, actually, but yes. This was one of my favorites when I was younger." And wasn't that wonderfully ironic?

She tucked her bare legs under her, the sheet rubbing against her skin. Her idea of a picnic outfit had been a Joy Division t-shirt with the sleeves cut off, a denim skirt, and her most comfortable white trainers.

"It's not so bad. I might actually get a tan. Of course, the odds are just as likely that I'll turn into a walking lobster, but pessimism is so 1981, yeah?"

Holly gave the other girl a smile.

[wolfs_daughter]

Echo smiled back, but it was a little twitchy. At least the other girl had spoken to her normally, hadn't screamed and run away. That probably meant she hadn't been identified by the authorities. She noticed the title of the book when it came into view, and she relaxed another reluctant inch.

"I read Dracula when I was in seventh grade." Papa had never told her anything about vampires other than to avoid them, that they were natural enemies, so she wasn't sure if she'd ever seen a real one. "It was kind of hard to get through, if only because I'm not much for horror, but it was for a school assignment."

She took a step closer, noted the bedsheet. "You must be staying at one of the motels," she said, pointing in that general direction. "Most people have lawn chairs and stuff to laze around in when they want to read and possibly get a tan."

[holiday_pirner]

She put the book down beside her. The girl seemed a little nervous, but then, not everyone was as comfortable talking to strangers.

Holly pulled her bag onto her lap, rooting around for something. "You're perceptive," she said. "I'm staying at - oh, what's it called. The Kay."

She patted an expanse of white next to her with her free hand.

"Go on then, pull up a chair."

[wolfs_daughter]

The hybrid could smell the suntan lotion as she took up space next to the other girl, and she looked for something else neutral to say. God, she hated small talk.

"I moved into the trailer park after I tried the motel for one night. I had to leave because the toilet wouldn't stop running. But the park's a nice enough place now that they fixed my air conditioner. Are you just passing through or are you planning to stay a while? I thought tourists went to Vegas."

[holiday_pirner]

"I did the Vegas thing already. It was...interesting." Holly smiled to herself, still looking into her bag.

"I'm here to stay for as long as I need to." And she was hoping to see Daniel again, though maybe somewhere more well-lit, like the diner.

She pulled out a packet of clear rolling papers. "Listen, do you smoke? If not, that's cool, but I like doing it outside."

[wolfs_daughter]

'Interesting'. That was a good word for it. How about makes-you-piss-your-pants?

"Go ahead, I don't care." Echo had tried pot because her parents had had a fairly liberal viewpoint about drugs, but it just made the Wolf hungrier than normal. If the other girl was about to roll one of her own , she had no objections. It might even make her calm down to have a puff, provided the stranger was inclined to pass it.

"My name's Echo." Because she had to introduce herself if she was going to sit here. "What's your name?"

[holiday_pirner]

She opened up a small metal tin, keeping it partially out of view inside her bag, and went to work.

"That's a cool name," she remarked, rolling the paper and twisting the ends together.

"Mine's Holly."

Bringing it to her lips and passing the flame over the end, Holly sucked in. She held the smoke inside, offering the joint to Echo.

They were still alone in the park. Holly could hear a bird chirping in the distance.

[wolfs_daughter]

Holly. Holly was a pretty name. It reminded Echo of Christmas. The hybrid reached out and plucked the joint from the other brunette's fingers and took a judicious puff, tightening her diaphragm to hold the smoke in. Smoking up wasn't going to be the thing that killed her.

"Thanks," she said once she'd exhaled through her nose to form two grayish contrails. "I really needed that. Like, you have no idea how much."

Saying it might mean she'd have to make up a story to explain, but she was used to telling tales. If she could get high now and then, it might teach her to be friendly. "Why are you staying as long as you need to?"

[holiday_pirner]

She tilted her face up toward the sun for a moment, then turned back to Echo. "Having a rough day?" Holly stretched her legs back out in front of her. They were still rather pale. She wondered briefly if she could pass for a vampire. Minus the sun part.

The other woman was good company. She had a calming effect. Holly watched a light breeze roll in, rustling the dog-eared pages of her books.

"It's a long story. Well, not so much long as in hard to explain. Someone kind of told me to come here."

She pulled out a bag of crisps. "But I came prepared."

[wolfs_daughter]

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

Echo scratched at a spot on the back of her neck, felt the breeze ruffle her hair. Maybe if she smoked some more, she'd find the nerve to go see Emmeline again. Would it be poor form to show up mildly stoned?

"How did you prepare? Are you on a quest or something?"

[holiday_pirner]

Holly was in the middle of taking another toke when she giggled, which turned into a brief coughing fit. She nudged the bag toward Echo. "I meant with the food, silly."

She watched a hawk fly overhead, glad it was far above them. She hadn't been putting it on with Daniel; birds really did give her the creeps.

"A quest would suggest I knew what I was doing. The more time I spend here, the more I realize I'm not sure exactly what I'm trying to find." Holly realized she was drifting into the nonsensical, and Echo would have no idea what she was on about.

"No, let's solve your problem first. You'd be surprised what I believe these days." Her eyes drifted toward the cover of her discarded book.

[wolfs_daughter]

The remark made Echo snort, and she hit the joint again, wondering how strong the stuff was. How much food did she have in the fridge?

"There's this girl," she said abruptly, because she didn't want to talk about the Wolf just yet, not after what had happened the other day. "Well, she's not really a girl, she's a woman, but it's kind of all the same since I still can't talk to her. I get all nervous and stammery, even more than usual, and it's just ridiculous. She'd think I was slow in the head."

She had never been able to talk to her parents about girls because it made her feel weird, but Holly was close enough to her own age that she'd at least sympathize even if she didn't have the same feelings. She'd been good enough to share her dope with a stranger, so she probably wouldn't flip at the mention of lesbianism.

"I'd like to see her again, but I'm not sure if I'd be able to talk while I was around her."

[holiday_pirner]

The bag crinkled noisily as she opened it. Barbecue flavor for her impromptu picnic. "Oh, right. I'm good at this." Holly thought for a moment as she ate one of the crisps.

"First off. How many times have you seen her? Do you work with her? Because the dynamic is always different depending on the situation," the brunette rattled off knowingly.

[wolfs_daughter]

"I've only seen her once," Echo admitted, and she had to duck her head because she was blushing. It was a little embarrassing how quickly she'd become smitten, but even if she couldn't wear her heart on her sleeve that didn't mean she could get Emmeline's face out of her head. The toe of the hybrid's sneaker scraped through the loose dirt at the edge of the bedsheet, making a small groove.

"I wanted to draw her, but she'd have thought I was weird if I gave her this picture of herself out of nowhere, so I made her a clay cherub and gave her that instead. I didn't even have the guts to give it to her in person, I had to leave it at the shop she owns." Echo raked a hand through her hair, her eyes fixed on the park's sparse grass. "I'm so pathetic."

[holiday_pirner]

She handed Echo the bag. "Listen, you're not pathetic. I think people get too caught up in the right way to feel. There is no right way." She leaned down to scratch an itch on her calf. Everything felt more acute when she was stoned.

"This person, do you know if she's attracted to other girls?" Holly had to cut right to the heart of the matter. She knew from experience it saved a lot of heartache that way.

What, like having a crush on a vampire?

[wolfs_daughter]

"I didn't ask. How could I ask? She'd have wondered why, and then I'd have had to explain."

The crisps tasted extra salty on Echo's tongue as she crunched into them, or that might just have been the pot. "She owns Peddler's Rest, the little occult shop in town. I went in there because I was having an issue with getting to sleep, so she made me a tea mixture. It really seemed to help, too." Which reminded her, she might need to get some more of that regardless of her crush, because last night she'd had a terrible nightmare about that thing finding her somehow.

"I was so shy when I was younger that my teachers thought I was autistic," she told Holly forlornly. "I've gotten...better...I guess, but talking to people normally is still kind of an effort." She held up the joint, which still smoldered between her fingers, then passed it off to Holly. "This helps, but it's only a temporary solution."

It would have been easier to explain the Wolf now, but she didn't know where to start. "I have this...issue, something separate from the shyness."

[holiday_pirner]

Holly brightened, plucking the spliff from Echo's fingers. "But that's not a bad thing. It means there's a chance. Hope." This was to be her last hit; she wasn't looking to get wrecked.

"Teachers can be really dense sometimes," she said sympathetically. She swept a bit of ash off the front of her shirt. "You're an artist, right? Well, artists are sexy. Believe me. Don't sell yourself short just because you get a little tongue-tied."

That turn of phrase took a moment to sink into Holly's consciousness, and she had to stifle another giggle. "What's your issue? I bet it isn't as big as you think it is."

[wolfs_daughter]

Echo looked at Holly full in the face, and despite the fact that she had a slight buzz going, apprehension was just at the edges of it. If she let it out, just a little, could she keep it reigned in? The other day had been an accident, a freak occurrence brought on by stress and panic, which was why she'd run instead of standing her ground. She still didn't know how she was going to explain herself to her parents.

"I dunno, it's pretty big," she said, putting some more of the crisps in her mouth to chew them up carefully. There would be munchies later, she just knew it. Just a little. It doesn't have to hurt this time. The hybrid sighed quietly, let the Wolf off of it's leash by a single notch.

Her eyes changed color immediately, going from their normal dark brown to a molten gold hue as her nose began to alter into a snout. And then she roped it in, because the rule was, 'Never in public.' Echo touched her face to make sure she was back to normal, stared into the middle distance while she ate some more crisps.

"So. Yeah. That's it."

[holiday_pirner]

Holly watched this display silently. She stubbed the joint out, and carefully put the roach away. She took a few moments to deliberate on what she would say next. The last thing she wanted was to hurt Echo's feelings.

"So you're worried that the owner of an occult shop will be weirded out by you?"

[wolfs_daughter]

Echo laughed softly, but she was looking at her shoes rather than at the other girl now. "If I'm lucky, she'll only be weirded out that I'm attracted to her. Papa says wolves mate for life. The other thing isn't exactly something I talk about with anybody except my parents."

She kind of wished she had the joint back, but it was better to quit after a few hits unless she wanted to stagger back to her trailer. "What makes you so easy to talk to? It's usually like pulling teeth to get me to say anything.You must have zero stranger danger."

[holiday_pirner]

Holly tugged at a blade of yellow grass. "Oh, I love talking. And listening. Listening helps." One of the blades clung to the back of her hand, and she blew it off, watching it flutter into the air.

She let out a laugh, her head tilting back. Her ponytail tickled her shoulder. "Stranger danger? What's that?"

[wolfs_daughter]

"It's generally what parents teach their kids," Echo said, and one eyebrow went up a bit. "My parents had special reasons to want me to be careful, which is how my shyness really helped me in some ways. When you can't talk to people, you stand a greater chance of being safe from them."

Maybe Holly had never met a stranger, which could be a blessing in its own strange way. The hybrid kind of envied people who could put more than two words together. "So now that you know my dirty secret, what's yours?"

[holiday_pirner]

"Hmm. I can see the reasoning behind that." She regarded Echo curiously. "But it also keeps the best things from happening, doesn't it?" Holly sat up straighter, recognizing she was about to prattle on about something that might not make any sense.

"The way I look at it, it's like a blank notebook, right? When you're starting a new term at school, and you're sad the holiday is over, but it's also kind of exciting because everything is blank and new. It's not all marked up with Biro, with pages falling out.

"That's what starting with someone new is like."

Holly thought about deflecting Echo's question, but decided it wouldn't be fair. "My dad died, and I think something foul went on. He was part of this council. It involves vampires somehow. But I think I might like a vampire. And I'm wondering if I'm being regressive by liking someone who has the ability to kill me."

[wolfs_daughter]

Echo just listened, nodding slightly in some places when it seemed appropriate, because it really was like pulling teeth to get her to talk. She at least understood the concept of being friendly and open, even if she was no good at it herself. Maybe if Holly hung around, she could take lessons or something.

When the flow of words stopped for a minute, the hybrid lifted one hand as if in a 'time out' gesture. "Wait. You met a vampire? Face to face? And they didn't try to eat you?" Dark eyebrows drew together as she tried to make it parse, even as she wondered if she wasn't being a hypocrite considering her genetic make up. But Papa had said that vampires were the enemies, not just of weres but of the living in general.

Where she did sympathize was on the subject of the other girl's father being killed. She couldn't imagine how she'd react if someone harmed one of her parents, what she'd do in the aftermath. Why would that have brought her to Searchlight, though?

"Do you think a vampire did it?"

[holiday_pirner]

Holly smiled a little grimly. "No. He didn't try." But he thought about it. She tried to feel afraid, but it was hard. When she thought of him, it wasn't the bumpy forehead or the fangs in her mind's eye. Maybe that was a mistake, but she couldn't help but feel that there had been worse in her life.

And that was frankly sad.

"They told me he was shot. I mean, it could just as easily be a lie, but I don't think a vampire did it. He would have known about vampires. He would have been too smart to be killed by one."

Holly's tone of voice sounded suspiciously like she was trying to convince herself.

[wolfs_daughter]

"Papa says vampires can't help being evil, that even when they try to do good they can't manage it," Echo said quietly. "He's probably really biased, but he's also lived for a really long time. I don't know this...guy...you met, but maybe you should be careful."

A bit worried that she sounded too censorious, the hybrid said, "This council thing you're talking about is a big mystery to me. There are people who go out and try to find vampires? On purpose? Do they study them, like in a lab or something? I don't know much of the lore, but that seems really dangerous."

[holiday_pirner]

The brunette averted her gaze. She didn't like hearing that, but she appreciated Echo's concern. Even if it did make her stomach prickle in a funny way.

"I don't know much about it, either," Holly admitted. "He didn't ever tell me about it. I had to find out on my own." She perked up. "But your dad might, though. Could you ask him?"

And maybe she'd give that occult shop a visit. Both for her own edification, and to see what got Echo so excited.

[wolfs_daughter]

Well. She'd kind of walked into that one. And she did have to speak to her parents anyway. If they were already going to be upset with her, she might as well ask them for some useful information. Echo scratched her upper arm, handed the last of the crisps back to Holly.

"I have to call him anyway," she said with an abashed smile. "That thing I showed you? I kind of did it the other day, only by accident and a lot more of it. I need to tell them so they can tell me how to handle it. Before somebody shows up asking questions."

[holiday_pirner]

"It'll be okay, Echo. You don't always have to psych yourself out. If something was going to come of it, it would have happened by now." Holly tried to look reassuring, and patted the other girl on the shoulder.

"Besides, I think it's kind of cool. You looked bad ass like that."

[wolfs_daughter]

That made Echo smile for real, actually exposing teeth, and she nudged Holly's leg with her sneakered foot. "If you're here to find out what happened to your dad, I hope it works out for you," she told the other brunette. "Anyone who can face a vampire without flipping out is probably pretty brave. I'm sure you'll find the answers you're looking for."

She should probably be wandering back home at this point. It was late enough that she could stand to have something to eat, and she wanted food to be in reach if and when the munchies hit. "Thanks for the smoke, it was really appreciated."

[holiday_pirner]

"Oh, anytime. I love to share." Holly stood up, shaking the pins and needles out of her legs. "And if you ever need anything else, I'm at the Kay. Room 206."

She crouched to gather up her books. "I should probably get back to my room before I bake." She paused, laughing. "Literally and figuratively, of course.

"I'll see you around, Echo."