A Vampire's Conundrum

[tiny_dancer81]

Theresa was grouchy.

While Halloween was a favorite time of year for her, the same could not be said of Christmas, which just reminded her of when she was still human and living with her parents. There was a reason she had started to run away. And the holiday music just made it worse.

Things at the Dive had been going all right. The New Year's Eve show was being put together, and she'd discreetly made sure that The Frayed Nerves would be playing later in the set this year. There had been some griping, but she'd smoothed it over before Mike could get wind of it.

Not that she had returned Maddy's phone call. She'd listened to the message repeatedly, but never called the other brunette back. Now that it had been so long, trying to make contact again would probably make her look weird. But when she was weird, maybe that wasn't so bad.

She knew the reasons she was blocked about it, which was why she was knocking on Daniel's door tonight. She'd deliberately been walking a wide circle around his neighborhood on the off chance that she might run into Holly, but she'd done some recon earlier and found the mortal not around. Maybe they were on the outs too?

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[daniel_stacy]

Daniel looked through the peephole. No one was there. He was about to walk off, convinced it was a prank, when sense got the better of him and he checked again, this time going onto his tiptoes to get a better angle. “Oh. Hey. Short girl.” He undid the latches and opened the door. “No, you can’t crash on my couch, but you can come in.” The vampire walked to the pile of unsorted laundry on his armchair and found a Ramones t-shirt, which he pulled over his head. Even though Theresa didn’t swing his way, he was convinced he needed clothes on in her presence or she might give him a titty-twister or comment on his lack of sufficient chest hair.

[tiny_dancer81]

"I have my own place now. I have a real job to make the rent and everything."

She was relieved he'd put on a shirt, if only because she'd had enough of half-naked men to last her for the next century. The armchair was too full of clothes to sit in, so she took up a piece of the aforementioned couch instead. His living room was almost as tiny as hers.

Theresa knew what she wanted to say, but she didn't know how to start. It wasn't like she was Daniel's buddy, and she'd been avoiding his part of town purposely so she wouldn't have to deal with his not-girlfriend. But sometimes it was better to ask a non-friend certain things, because then you wouldn't hear bullshit that someone thought might make you happy.

"I need to ask you something, and I need you to not laugh."

[daniel_stacy]

That twigged his sense of humor. He couldn't help it. It was like daring a person to say nothing for the next five minutes: suddenly they were dying to run their mouths. He laughed and shook his head. "I can't promise anything, but I'll try," he said on his way to the fridge. Inside the door was a plastic bag with a spout on it that reminded him of a water bed plug. It was full of animal blood, which he had purchased from a local butcher and found absolutely disgusting. He took a sip. He was still 'clean' and wondering why nobody gave out chips for it, because by his way of thinking, it was on par with a drunk trading in scotch for an eternity of shirley temples.

He wiped his mouth on his arm.

"I make an ass of myself on an almost weekly basis. What am I gonna do, judge you?"

[tiny_dancer81]

Theresa chuffed out a laugh, both at Daniel's expression and at what he'd said, then settled back a bit on the couch. The humor helped. There was a scuff mark on one of her shoes. She reached down and rubbed at it with her thumb.

"Did you ever want to bite Holly?"

The diminutive vampire was looking at a point just beyond his shoulder when she said it, then lifted her eyes to his face. Given how young a vamp Daniel was, the answer was probably 'yes', but given whatever kind of relationship he might behaving with the mortal, it made him the only one she knew to ask the question.

"How do you not do it?"

[daniel_stacy]

He took another gulp and wet his lips. “I mean, yeah.” He closed the pouch and set it back inside the refrigerator. “Pretty much every time I see her, I think about it.” The vampire shut the door and came back into the living area. He climbed onto the back of the couch and sat up high, which felt less familiar than plopping on the couch next to Theresa.

Daniel scratched the back of his head.

“I think about how white her neck is, what she’d taste like – at least, the parts of her I don’t already know.” He allowed for that with a one-shoulder shrug. “I think about the way her breath would sound in my ear. Worst of all, I think about how awesome she’d be as a vampire.”

He picked up the remote control so it wouldn’t get lost in the cushions. He ran a thumb over the buttons, not pushing anything, just making patterns on the keypad. “How do I not bite her? Uhhhh… I don’t know, I just don’t make it an option. I don’t try to bargain for it or make excuses for it. I just think how much I like having her around, and if I killed her she’d be gone. If I turned her, I’d be no better than my sire and she’d probably hate me as much as I sometimes hate my sire. Again, counterproductive.”

[tiny_dancer81]

"Is that how you knew you liked her, that you didn't do it?"

She was watching him play with the remote. She hadn't said the real thing yet, but she was working up to it. The arm of the couch was worn in places. She ran the palm of her hand over one of the spots.

"I kind of met this girl."

It was a mumble, and Theresa was looking away again. Sex was easy, but the emotions that could be attached to it were something she knew almost nothing about. She didn't even know if she genuinely felt something for Maddy or not. She knew that she thought about biting her - thought about it a lot - but was that her definition of a crush or something completely different?

"I don't know what's up about it, 'cause I don't usually feel it that strong unless I'm starving. I can't decide if I'm confusing it with something else or not."

[daniel_stacy]

“Aaahh…” Daniel hemmed over it a moment. “No, I don’t think that’s how I knew. It’s because I got worried about her. I actually, y’know, gave her speech once. I can’t remember why, but I know I did it, and it was—” He wrinkled his nose. “Noble.”

He tossed the remote in the air and caught it. The power button must have gotten pressed, because the TV did that crackling thing that indicated it was getting juice. He hoped nothing too provocative was on the last channel.

[In vampire terms, ‘provocative’ could be translated to mean ‘sentimental’.]

“Maybe you’re wrong about both. You’re not hungry and you’re not into her, but there’s another reason you really want to bite her, something you haven’t thought of yet, like uh... Does she have a particularly pronounced jugular vein? Does she remind you of a girl you had a crush on in middle school?” His expression soured. "Or your mom?"

[tiny_dancer81]

"Please don't be gross."

Theresa looked at the television to force herself to stop making that face, played with the ends of her hair. "She's not all bottled up, at least she wasn't the two times I've seen her. She washes cars to make the rent, for fuck's sake. And okay, so she's cute. But I don't know why it's different."

There was a silence, during which a commercial for a car dealership came on. The salesman had hair that rivaled that of a televangelist. Hadn't Nehru jackets gone out of style with disco? The vampire snorted.

"I killed when I first rose, but I only did it once. One thing Dane said that wasn't half-assed was that not all of us have to leave trails of corpses in our wake. He really kind of sucked as a sire, but that he was probably right about. So I don't know if she'd be safer if I left her alone or if I should just try to control myself."

[daniel_stacy]

Daniel stared at the commercial, too, with its dizzying array of fonts and colors. ‘NO MONEY DOWN!’

“My sire says that people have different purposes. Some are for eating, some are for fucking, and some are for both. She’s a piece of work.” He flipped channels, going from an episode of Cheers to static to a workout video with Richard Simmons and a gaggle of women in leg warmers. “I really am starting to think that my inner demon’s on spiritual happy pills. I just don’t have that… throat-ripping… you know.” He morphed into vamp face and snarled, then back out again.

[tiny_dancer81]

Theresa actually giggled watching Daniel's face shift from vampire to human and then back, but her eyes were serious. She couldn't look at the aerobicizing women on the TV screen. Seeing all those legs moving in step with one another made her feel weird.

"When you live the way I was living before I was turned, you learn to keep your head down and stay out of sight. Maybe that's why I don't see the point of killing for kicks, because it probably causes hassle that I don't need. Maybe I'm not mean enough either."

The one exception to that was the walking turd who'd torched her sire. What there'd been of her relationship with Dane was complicated, but his final death had left her alone and without guidance. If he'd been around, she might have been able to ask for his advice on how to un-knot this current dilemma.

"So what's new in your world? If you're still paying the rent on this place, I guess that means you figured out the art of theft."

[daniel_stacy]

“No, actually,” he held up a finger and dropped the remote control in the process. It bounced off his kneecap and into Theresa’s turf, “I got a job at Ragnarok. You are looking at the club’s newest bouncer. I had to wheel and deal with the boss on my uniform. She actually suggested a jewel-encrusted speedo. I had to convince her that it would be taking the word ‘bouncer’ way too literally. Balls just…” He made a hand-to-hand juggling motion. “Flying around.” He squinted an eye. “You know, I think she may have just been fucking with me, now that I’m telling you this. Anyway, once D finds out I’m employed, she’ll shit a brick.”

[tiny_dancer81]

"Yeah, you want to keep the banana hammock hidden."

Theresa had heard about Ragnarok since she'd been employed by the Dive, but she hadn't been yet. Maybe she'd swing by at some point, possibly after new year's. She couldn't believe it was almost nineteen eighty six.

"I also got a legit job, working at a bar called the Dive. I'm helping book bands and promote the place. You should come to the new year's show. It should rock."

[daniel_stacy]

“I know the place. Last time I went there, I got into a verbal sparring match with a werewolf,” he said. The television was stalled on the workout. Daniel realized that all he needed to do to get into a killing mood was watch that Simmons guy clap his hands and get pumped. Fuck’s sake, all that hyper energy was obnoxious. “So that’s a straight business, isn’t it? I mean, do they know what you are?”

He picked up a pillow and tossed it in the air.

[tiny_dancer81]

"I kinda had to tell Mike, the manager," Theresa admitted with a sheepish smile. "He told me I needed to come in while the sun was still up, and I had to explain why I couldn't do that. I swore on my own dead heart that I wouldn't bite the customers on the property. I think he'd have liked it better if I'd promised not to socialize with the patrons period, but he didn't take it that far. I don't always think about biting."

She wondered if the werewolf Daniel meant was tied to the were she'd met at the Seventh Circle, the one who wouldn't give his name. Did shape-shifters instinctively know each other the way vampires did? "One thing I do like about winter is that the days are so short. I'll be glad when Christmas is over, though."

[daniel_stacy]

“Yeah, me too, if only because I don’t know what I’m doing.” He said. Daniel tossed the pillow again, this time nearly nicking a ceiling fan blade. He was glad he missed; last time, the pillow flew into the bookshelf and broke a framed game ticket signed by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. “Holly’s been kinda hard to reach lately. Don’t get me wrong, I like what we’ve got going. We don’t stick any labels on it, so it’s whatever we need it to be, whenever we need it. But that doesn’t solve the mystery of whether or not I should get her a Christmas present.”

The truth was, he had already gotten it. But that didn’t mean he should have.

“I made the mistake of not getting Deanna one last year. I’m not a fan of history repeating itself. Alright, give me that.” He grabbed the remote control and commenced with the channel surfing until he came across Magnum, P.I.

[tiny_dancer81]

The last thing Theresa wanted to talk about was Holly. Although it did strike her as in character if the human had gotten bored or decided she was tired of Daniel. Given the way she'd reacted to a comment that had been trying to be helpful, she probably ditched people all the time.

But she actually started at what the other vampire said next. Deanna Seriously? It wasn't necessarily a one of a kind name, but Theresa had a strong memory of those fingers in her hair.

She wasn't going to put herself in the middle of Daniel and his sire. What she did on her own time was her business. At least it wasn't confusing to her.

"Magnum's okay, but James Rockford is bitchin'."

[daniel_stacy]

“What?” Daniel squinted and shook his head, as if the math did not compute. “Are you kidding me? Tom fucking Selleck. No one can grow a mustache like that without looking like an extra from a 70s porno flick and yet somehow, that guy manages it. You know what? If I found out Tom Selleck was in a 70s porno flick, I’d rent it.”

[tiny_dancer81]

"You are skeeving me out. First the mom thing, and now Tom Selleck?"

Theresa pushed at Daniel's shoulder when she said it, but both the remark at the push were playful. Maybe it was because he was as directionless as she was, but she actually liked him just a tiny bit. Having a feeling about anything was brand new at this point, which was why she was struggling with it.

It'll be a whole new year soon. I'm kinda looking forward to it."

[daniel_stacy]

Daniel considered his interest in a Selleck smut flick to be purely scientific. Any man who could grow a mustache that majestic had to have a nuclear-grade bush, he was sure of it. But yeah, scientific.

Unless that gay vampire thing was catching up to him at long last. Huh. Yeah, time for a change of subject.

“Here’s an idea. Make not biting that chick your New Years resolution,” he said, punctuating it with a jab to her upper arm. “And I’ll make mine… um…” The guy was stumped. Never one for direction or goals, coming up with any kind of long-term plan was the stuff of work. “I’ll think of something later.”

[tiny_dancer81]

"Yeah. I'm going to need a plan if I see her again. I should have returned her cal. She probably thinks I'm the biggest jerk ever."

Theresa settled back against the cushion, watched Magnum get out of his stylish car. He didn't have Rockford's appeal to her, but he was cool enough, she guessed.

"I should have brought beer."