Damn Good Coffee

[tiny_dancer81]

Theresa had taken to hanging out at Cool Beans even when Maddy wasn't behind the counter. They served good espresso, and their pastries didn't get stale from sitting in the glassed-in case for ages. A small portion of her paycheck was going into the register at Page Turners, providing her with paperbacks. She had a major crush on Jackie Collins' Lucky Santangelo.

The vampire was currently taking up space on one of the couches near the back of the establishment. There was a book in her lap and two empty cups on the table to her left. The plate that accompanied the cups was sprinkled with crumbs from a blueberry scone. Even though she couldn't really taste food anymore, she liked the play-acting that eating involved.

The bell above the shop's door jingled, and Theresa glanced up from Lucky's adventures in the mob to see if she knew who had just stepped inside.

Comments

Re: Damn Good Coffee

[melodymagic]

Melody sat there, the slight widening of her eyes the only indication on the outside that she was different. Her mug was still in her hands, fingers holding it steady. She had talked to Jazz, her boss in the magic shop, about meeting Daniel and the woman told Melody, 'Yeah, there're some vamps who don't bite, but don't you go thinkin' they're all like that. They're the rarity and most'll sooner sink the fangs quicker 'n you can blink. Even you.'

"It's something you can explain?" Melody said, a little blankly. Theresa was a vampire, so Melody was wondering what needed to be explained, exactly. And she wondered if Maddy knew.

Re: Damn Good Coffee

[tiny_dancer81]

"Uh..."

That was a good question. How did you explain it? Theresa knew how she'd ended up dead at eighteen, but she doubted Melody wanted to hear all the details. The vampire took a drink of her espresso, tried to gather her thoughts cohesively.

""I'm not...not all of us are one way," she said finally, and one small shoulder went up and down in a shrug. "It's better to live under the radar. Easier, y'know? Shit, the whole reason I came to Nevada is because somebody torched the one who made me. I was looking to avoid trouble, not cause it."

Re: Damn Good Coffee

[melodymagic]

"One way," Melody repeated, figuring Theresa was referring to the way of blood-sucking killers. She had read a little more about them, not much of it very reassuring, and it was only her experience with Daniel that stopped her from getting up and leaving, and making sure she was not alone on the street. She cleared her throat, looking down at her hands before back to Theresa.

"How old are you, really?"

Re: Damn Good Coffee

[tiny_dancer81]

"You mean when I died? Eighteen. My ID says I'm twenty-four, though. I had that made after I got fangs."

Theresa shrugged again. As the eternal teenager, she'd come to terms with always looking the way she looked. She would never grow old and get wrinkles, or look in the mirror one day and find a gray hair. In some ways, it wasn't that bad.

"I know what you're thinking, or at least I think I do. Some of us really do just want to get along, though."

Re: Damn Good Coffee

[melodymagic]

"So you've been a... " She stopped, glanced around the shop, and lowered her voice, knowing she had a habit of speaking loudly when she was surprised, or curious.

"... you got your fangs when you were eighteen, and that was six years ago?" she asked, trying to figure that part out. It was pretty easy to see Theresa had been young, but it didn't mean she wasn't a few hundred years old.

Re: Damn Good Coffee

[tiny_dancer81]

Theresa scooted towards the opposite end of the couch when Melody nearly blurted out the word 'vampire', then warily settled back when the other girl refrained. She was imagining pitchforks and torches, or at least puddles of gasoline.

"Five, actually," she said after giving it a minute of thought. "I figured it would be best to say I was almost into my mid-twenties so I'd be closer to Dane's age. That way people wouldn't ask so many questions."

She realized as soon as she'd finished the sentence that she sounded as if she'd liked the son of a bitch, and a sheepish smile crossed her face. "The bond's a thing that can't be helped, even when you'd rather not feel it."

Re: Damn Good Coffee

[melodymagic]

"So you do have some sort of bond with your sire?" she asked. Yes, she'd read the books, but she also liked to hear it first hand, because that information was about as good as you could get.

"And yours was man called Dane?" Her curiosity was slowly making her forget all her concerns, just like it had when she was talking with Daniel. Or at least with Theresa it was happening more easily, probably because of her experience with Daniel. "But you said he's been... he's gone. So that's gone, right?"

Re: Damn Good Coffee

[tiny_dancer81]

The diminutive vampire looked down into her cup. Did she grieve for Dane? He was the asshole who'd murdered her, and there had been times when she'd wanted to immolate him herself. But he'd been the only family she had left, one that didn't always ignore her. So yeah, she did grieve, however muted that grief might have been

"There's a hole where the bond used to be," she admitted in a low voice. "It's really hard to explain. It's like...Siamese twins, only you're linked here."

She tapped her chest, above the place where her heart no longer functioned. "If one dies, the other feels the string being cut. After that it's, like, a void. I don't know why, it just works that way."

Re: Damn Good Coffee

[melodymagic]

The description made Melody frown with puzzlement. She had come to believe that vampires basically didn't 'feel' anything, and the way Theresa was talking made her rethink that.

"So you do sort of feel something?" Melody asked, head tilted a little to one side as she studied Theresa a little more openly. "I mean, do you feel happy, or cranky, or sort of tired, or depressed, or stuff like that?"