Sugar Baby

[tiny_dancer81]

It turned out that Dane either lied about Theresa losing the craving for coke or that he just didn't know she wouldn't, because she'd been a vampire for four years and she still wanted the high. It might have been just psychosomatic, the way other vampires drank alcohol despite the fact that they could barely taste it, but the fact remained, she was still a user of the white powder. Just through a filter now that her heart was no longer beating.

The brunette was currently parked in the lounge of one of the Strip's higher-end hotels, scoping the bar area and nursing a margarita. She'd had a fake ID made back in California when she was alive, and now that she was in Las Vegas there was no one to recognize her and say that she was presumably only eighteen. She'd only been in Sin City for a few months, having packed up what she could comfortably carry and get the hell out of Hollywood after Dane got torched.

Fucking vigilantes. Dane hadn't been the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he'd been her sire and he'd promised to take care of her. Theresa resented having to start all over, if only because it had meant she'd had to go back to turning tricks. She had no other skills except for theft, and she wanted to lay very low for a while, just in case one of those bright boys from Hollyweird managed to track her here.

( That School Girl Look )

Inked

[wolfs_daughter]

At least this time she'd showed up in broad daylight.

In Searchlight's library, there had been a book about the symbolism of tattoos, tribal and otherwise, and Echo had read it in one sitting while sitting in the same spot she and Holly had shared. It had given her a lot of food for thought, and she'd mulled it over while cleaning out the van to find something to show Devin when he brought her his next few chapters. Would it help? She didn't know. Her parents had never had anything to say about getting tattooed, either for it or against it. She still hadn't called them.

The drive up the highway made her palms sweat, but she'd deliberately gone early enough that there was no chance of darkness falling while she was in Vegas. As long as there were no shadows, there was no place for that thing to hide. She hoped.

( Symbolism )

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."

Research Project

[st_clare]

Being a bit of a history buff, Julianna had been curious enough about the history of Searchlight's mines to expand her search for information, and that was what had led her back to their library. The pamphlets she'd picked up were serviceable, but they were also meant for the odd tourist on the way to a bigger city. She wondered if she'd be able to get access to the town's official records.

She was currently seated at a back table, books stacked in front of her as she studied a surveyor's map from the year of the last gold strike. This had apparently once been a boom town, although the population rose and fell at intervals. When the money ran out, the people must have run out.

The Watcher's stomach growled, but she ignored it. She wanted to finish looking over this map, then skim through some of these books. Besides, she had a bag lunch waiting for her in the car, since the only place that sold food was the diner on the highway and she didn't want to risk indigestion. Stimulation of the mind could come before the feeding of the belly.

Julianna carefully re-folded the map and set it aside, then selected one of the titles from the stack she'd pulled from the shelves. She'd stay until they closed, then bring whatever she hadn't managed to get to back to Las Vegas with her. In a town this size, she'd probably be back before dark.