Indecision

[holiday_pirner]

There was a light positioned over the Kay's office that illuminated a square of orange. Holly was standing in that square, examining the vending machine's offerings. She had gone down to the ice machine with her little plastic bucket. It sat on the ground next to her feet as she sorted through the small pile of change in her palm.

The brunette found two quarters, deposited them, and pressed the rectangular button for an orange. She heard the machine come to life, but then it stalled. Holly bent to check for the soda. "Again?"

She banged her hand against the machine in a halfhearted attempt to get the thing moving again.

Since her memorable night out at the club, Holly hadn't strayed far from her motel room. She flipped through the few television channels, paged idly through some magazines, and re-painted her toenails about 5 times.

Holly had settled on emerald green.

Now she stood there, not wanting to go back to her room, and not wanting to venture out into Searchlight. She stared at the taunting, magnified picture of a Coke, beads of condensation sweating down the can.

"I hate you."

Comments

[daniel_stacy]

“Aha!”

Daniel’s voice boomed off the stucco surface of the hotel. The parking lot was hemmed in with a structure made of the same buff-colored material, which he guessed was meant to make the place look like a Spanish mission with wall unit air conditioning. The real effect was magnified noise.

“Found you.” He pointed at her. “Only took me three trips. And they say I’m not a natural hunter! I don’t know what they’re talking about.”

He stepped between Holly and the Coke machine and rested his spine against the box. He leaned his weight on it and tipped it backwards until it struck the building. A can of something – no guarantees on the variety – tumbled through the inner workings of the machine. Being a vampire made it easier to rock it, but Daniel was no stranger to stolen snack change. In college, one of the dorm machines always refused to relinquish his Doritos.

[holiday_pirner]

Holly straightened, turning at the sound of his voice. "Oh. Hi." She watched, interested, as he pushed the metal box. She leaned down to retrieve whatever had fallen. Dr.Pepper. It would do.

She popped open the can. "I was starting to think you wouldn't show up."

The brunette tilted her head, soda mid-path to her mouth. "Wait, what do you mean hunter? Did you track my footsteps in the sand, or something?"

[daniel_stacy]

“No. It’s much grosser than that.”

Daniel tapped his nose. When vamps turned, he had learned, they talked a lot of trash about blood tasting as good as ambrosia, food of the gods, but the crescendo of his olfactory senses had surprised Daniel. It should’ve been obvious, taste and smell being tied together, but his ability to hone in on fragrances shot through the roof. After changing, the scent of blood made him salivate like Pavlov’s dog. Once he caught Holly’s scent, it was easy to narrow down where she rented a room; the 13-square-mile town had two motels.

“I mean, you don’t smell gross. That’s probably impossible,” he reasoned. “But you do have a smell and it was on my shirt.”

He watched her hold the Dr. Pepper can. A dribble of moisture found its way to her skin and began rolling down the back of her hand. He doubt she noticed.

He snapped back to attention. “Now you’re picturing me sniffing everything. That’s not sexy. Did you notice me rescuing you again?”

[holiday_pirner]

She nudged the empty ice bucket with her toe. Holly had forgotten what she needed it for. "I suppose that makes sense. And I don't think it's gross. It just seems...practical."

The brunette wondered what Daniel had recognized on his shirt. What had she been wearing? Clothes from home, washed at her father's house because the washing machine at her flatmate's never seemed to work right.

Holly looked from the can, to Daniel. "Funny how that happens."

[daniel_stacy]

Daniel pulled on his earlobe and watched her fidget with the ice bucket. Another thing his nose told him: Holly wasn’t scared. Whatever he said in the alley convinced her he wasn’t going to bite her – a feat, considering he wasn’t sure he could keep the promise long-term. He had never tried.

“I’m not the smartest guy around, but it just occurred to me. Maybe you’re setting me up.” He waved a hand. “Hear me out. Your wallet gets stolen, I jump in to buy your earrings. The machine takes your quarters, I get your can of soda. Now I’m out here in East Bum-fuck…” He indicated the bleached parking lot, the empty highway. “What’s your plan?”

[holiday_pirner]

Holly laughed, the bucket finally tipping over from her boot pushing it. "You don't trust me?" Her eyes drifted up, meeting his. Chaos and coincidence had always interested her. She liked to set things in motion and watch what happened next. This felt different.

"I don't plan, never have. I do things, and they either end up okay, or I get into loads of trouble. People always tell me, one day I'll get myself into trouble I can't get out of."

She brushed stray strands of hair out of her eyes. "Don't worry. You're safe with me." She gave him an ironic smile.

[daniel_stacy]

“So you say, so you say,” Daniel mused. Balancing on one foot, he stretched his leg and stuck his toe in the bucket, setting it upright. The whole exchange reminded him of playing soccer. “I was taught that women are always trouble. But I, too, am I risk taker, and since I’ve already gotten myself dead,” he rubbed his chest, where his heart no longer beat, “What’s the harm in hanging out with you? Just don’t move up to lost cars. I’m not made out of money.”

Actually, that was getting to be a sticky point with Deanna. He needed cash. She didn’t want to part with hers. Kept insisting he make his own way in the world. When he asked how the hell he was supposed to get a job with an expired driver’s license, she laughed in his face and suggested that, with a mindset like that, Daniel was doomed to give handies in men’s public bathrooms.

So far, he had no better ideas.

He didn’t like the idea of stealing credit cards off dead tourists. The cops would track him down in no time. He’d wind up frying in the one jail cell in Nevada that came with a window.

[daniel_stacy]

Daniel balked.

“You— what?!”

He searched the faded wallpaper in the room in a futile attempt to make that compute. Deanna, his nightmare of a sire, had lured Holly into her hotel suite. Overnight. He hadn’t even done that. Wow, that was upsetting. The worse part, he immediately suspected that Mommy Dearest had done it on purpose. Had she seen him with Holly? Smelled him on her? Found out that her progeny spent time with a human and didn’t bite her?

All of that was interesting, sure, but the baffling part? Holly had lived to tell.

“Wait a minute!” Wait a goddamned minute! He squatted in front of the brunette and lifted her hair, and then he tipped her face back and forth. No bite marks. Unless they were somewhere else…

“So she didn’t bite you?”

Please tell me you didn't let Deanna bite you under the clothes.

[holiday_pirner]

She stared at him, smoothing down her hair. Not that she quite minded him touching her, but it was a bit odd. "No, no biting. I slept on her couch. She seemed quite concerned about me, actually."

Holly cocked her head to the side. "Why are you so freaked out? She didn't seem so bad. A bit handsy at times, but..."

Daniel's words from before came back to her. Blood sluts. Right. "Oh."

She shook her head, catching his hand in midair. "I'll make sure to be more careful with whom I spend the night, in the future."

[daniel_stacy]

“Yes. Please do,” Daniel said.

Deanna was concerned. Ha! Yeah, right. She was never concerned about anyone but herself. Less than a week ago, she was offering him up as cannon fodder. Him! Her supposed 'son'.

“You! You are really insane!” he said, exasperated. “You sleep in strange people’s hotel rooms. You walk down dark alleys with men you just met. You let me in here!” He pointed at his chest and let his hand fall on his thigh with a light slap. “Not that I’m complaining about the last one... or the second one, but what are you doing? Do you want to be a vampire? Because Deanna…” He laughed. “Deanna. You’re lucky she didn’t make a scarf out of your lower intestines, then give it to me as a present.”

[holiday_pirner]

"Ew."

Holly wrinkled her nose at that.

"I get bored. I told you, I don't plan anything. I do things that feel good. It's a rush." She shrugged. "I don't particularly want to be a vampire, no."

Then she smiled, because she couldn't help it. "Maybe I am insane, and you were right. I am setting you up. This is my evil lair."

[daniel_stacy]

From his crouch, Daniel looked around the motel room. There was a bad framed print of a cowboy on the wall, a collection of lamps illuminating the mottled condition of the carpet, and probably a King James Bible in the nightstand. “It does look pretty evil,” he admitted. As if to punctuate, a nearby tenant slammed a door and shouted, “Fuck!” at the top of her lungs.

“Nice neighbors,” he said. “Think they could sell me some coke? I’m kidding. Mostly kidding.”

[holiday_pirner]

"No, you've got it all wrong. I'm the coke dealer. An evil coke dealer. Yeah, when customers don't pay, they end up in the Mojave."

Holly smiled, gestured to him. "You can get up, you know. I feel like you're about to propose to me."

She put her cigarettes back down. "Plus, I kind of want to kiss you." The brunette listened as angry footsteps clomped past her door.

[daniel_stacy]

He scowled. “You are evil! You could give lessons.” An unwanted mental picture of the Prime Minister in a Cross Your Heart bra and enormous panties popped into his head. The more colorful part of his imagination supplied the seductive consumption of a tea biscuit, crumbs sticking to her mouth.

He blinked and gave Holly the once-over, attempting to substitute her in the same outfit.

“Rule Brittania.”

[holiday_pirner]

"I'm sorry." She attempted a serious face, then immediately started laughing again. "No, I'm not."

Holly leaned back, the pillow sliding down. "What if I had met you eleven months ago? What was that Daniel like?"

It surprised her, the thought that maybe she didn't mind he was a vampire. Was she insane? Stupid? Colossally tunnel-visioned? At various points of her life, all of the above could have applied to her.

[daniel_stacy]

“Uhhh…” Daniel squinted and rubbed his forehead. “Kind of a jerk?” There was no question about it. He remembered how he spent his time in high school: hanging out with jocks and preps, chasing girls who played hard to get, sleeping with their friends, crashing his graduation car accidentally-on-purpose. Later, in college, mellowing out with too much pot and the sudden, remarkably shallow realization that everybody was his friend and deserved an equal amount of using. Not long after flunking out as a sixth year senior, he met his maker, so to speak. Karma was a vampire. It hadn’t escaped Daniel’s notice that he went out in a shockingly justified way.

Was it possible that dying made him a murderer who was also nicer to people?

“You would’ve gotten a whole lot more of this.” Daniel put his fingers on either side of her face. He gently combed a lock of hair behind her ear and murmured, “Hey baby… Do you believe in love at first sight, or do I have to walk by you again?”

[holiday_pirner]

"People actually say things like that? In real life?" Holly's foot kicked the television remote off the bed. It landed with a soft flump on the faded carpeting.

"I prefer honesty. If a guy is fit, and we understand we're just having fun, then it's fine. But the ones who lie, who think they should tell you what you want to hear." She shook her head gently.

Impulsively, she kissed him again.

[daniel_stacy]

He cradled her head and kissed her back. He had no clue what Holly found attractive after that admission, but he wasn’t going to question it, not with ‘zig-zag mouth’ open for business. Daniel tried not to listen for her heartbeat, even though he liked getting the inside track on what made it thump faster.

‘Future reference: Always stuff your face before dropping in on her, and brush your teeth.’

“How about this?” He bumped his nose against hers. “I’ll tell you the truth, even if the truth is that your veins look very appealing tonight.” He smiled. “You had to be a pale girl.”

[holiday_pirner]

She licked her lower lip, eyes cast downward. She could see his mouth, the way the corners curved up when he smiled. Dimples.

"On one hand, points for originality. I don't think I've ever heard that one before." A tuft of his hair was still messed up from before. She tried to fix it.

"The truth, for me, is that I'm only here because this lady made of darkness came through the walls of my hotel and told me to. In exchange for a lock of my hair."

Holly touched the spot from where she had cut.

[daniel_stacy]

“Huh, I’d like to see that.”

Daniel reached out and traced her ear, all the intricate crests and hollows. In the past, he wouldn’t have given two shits about a girl’s ear, but in the past year, it caught his interest. The tiny hairs in the lobe were highly reactive to touch. There was a network of itty-bitty capillaries in which he heard the blood swooshing when he fed.

“All I know’s what D told me,” he said, tilting his head to watch his finger. “There’s nine of ‘em. They’re all girls. If you kill one, another one pops up like a whack-a-mole. She says there’s one in town. I dunno, vampire grapevine bullshit.”

[holiday_pirner]

She felt her skin tinge hotly at his touch. She wondered if her ears looked red. It was momentarily distracting, but a thought was trying to force its way through.

Julianna had been sent to Las Vegas. There was rumor of a slayer. The woman was there on council business. The only thing Holly had to figure out was how to use that to get information.

"Doesn't that worry you?"

[daniel_stacy]

“Nnnnope.” He leaned closer to take in the fragrance of her hair, and then breathed out along the path his finger had taken. Just because respiration wasn’t necessary didn’t mean it wasn’t useful. He kissed the soft patch of skin behind her ear and, low and behold, there it was. Swish-swish… Man, he wished he wrote poetry. He’d pen one called Ode to Circulation.

Daniel supposed the slayer ought to frighten him. If he were caught feeding, she’d ram a stake through his heart in the time it took to swallow.

“I keep a low profile,” he mumbled. “You worried about me?”

He put his fingers alongside her neck, where he felt the rhythmic jump of skin.

This is torture. What the hell am I doing here, foreplay? Biteplay? Something play...

[holiday_pirner]

"Um...what? Maybe."

She blinked, her head tilting to the side. Even she could hear her own heart beat now, blood rushing through her head like she had just taken a hit of something.

Holly sat still, wanting to move, to do something, but her body couldn't decide on what.

So she took off her t-shirt.

[daniel_stacy]

“Holy shit, Holly.” Daniel took in the sight of her and rubbed his mouth, muffling his next words. “You’re killing me.” All too serious, he heaved a sigh and bent his head to her bare shoulder, making contact first with his nose, then his open mouth. When he found he could taste her skin without clamping down, he adventured a little higher… Higher, still, until he discovered the raised track of her jugular vein. The tip of his tongue mapped it, pressed down hard to count the beats.

Maybe this was a test. Could he separate sex from feeding?

Daniel hooked his index finger into the middle of her bra. The tug was playful. “Got any plans for the next hour?”

He was determined.

He was going to get an A on this test.

[holiday_pirner]

She rested her hands on the points of his shoulders. He was solid, the material of his shirt incredibly soft in contrast. Holly shivered a little; she could feel her toes shifting inside her boots.

The skin underneath his mouth prickled. Her eyes closed briefly, concentrating hard on that sensation. Finally, she opened them.

"Yeah, I think I do." Holly pushed down on his shoulders, settling one leg on either side of his hips.