100% Freshie Chapter 9 --PG-13

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librarian_7
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100% Freshie Chapter 9 --PG-13

Post by librarian_7 »

Disclaimer: The characters from Moonlight are copyrighted by CBS, and no infringement is intended.

Special note: This work takes place in the world of Moonlight, but your favorite vamps are not the main focus. Sorry about that; try to enjoy the story anyway. You might be surprised.


100% Freshie

Chapter 9


Three Months Later…

Danni was getting desperate. She’d been standing outside Club Valis for hours, hoping to spot a familiar face, and the short, stylish jacket she wore wasn’t really enough to keep her warm in the late night chill. She wondered if she should flag down a cab and head over to Pulse! instead. She’d had better luck getting in unescorted there, these last few weeks. And she really, really needed to get into one club or the other tonight.

It wasn’t good for her, she knew that, but she needed it. She needed a vamp, needed the sweet surcease from the pain that burned along her veins and into her tired brain. It didn’t matter so much who, as that she found someone to bite her. She could always close her eyes and pretend it was Will. She could pretend to herself it was like it had been before—but if she thought about that now, if she let it upset her now, the doorman would sense it, and she’d never get in. She shifted nervously on her high heels. She had to get in.

Danni smiled brightly around her, trading greetings with acquaintances. Someone asked in passing about Hunter, and Danni shrugged. “She didn’t feel like coming out tonight,” she replied, as she had been saying for some time now. Sometimes she told people that Hunter had gone to whichever club they weren’t at. Or, oh, too bad, you just missed her. How was she supposed to tell people Hunter spent her days and nights so sunken into depression she could barely take care of basic needs. How was she supposed to tell people Hunter was still mourning Will, mourning the loss of his presence in her life. Danni couldn’t stand spending her evenings essentially alone in that huge apartment, with Emma gone, and Hunter living only inside her own dreams.

A car pulled up, and Danni’s heart leaped when she caught sight of a blond head, but a second glance told her the vamp was a stranger. Nevertheless, as he tossed his keys to the valet parking attendant, Danni pushed over to the ropes, hoping to catch his eye as he made his way into the club. And the vamp did scan over the willing crowd, smiling crookedly. His sardonic gaze seemed to convey that he knew the prime stuff was already inside. Danni saw a dark-haired girl catch at his arm, try to slip her card into his hand. He looked into the girl’s eyes, and whatever he saw there must’ve been persuasive, because he laughed, and pocketed the card. Not too persuasive, however, because he withdrew his arm from her grasp, and continued inside, alone.

A few minutes later, a group of girls came out of the door, arms companionably linked, which did not disguise the fact that they were all weaving and staggering a little. A passerby might have assumed they were all drunk, but Danni could see from their pallor and their eyes, somehow haunted and dreamy at once, that they’d all been bitten, and quite recently. She was eaten with envy, it twisted in her gut. But it was a good sign, even so—it meant the doorman would be choosing new people to go in. She looked around, gauging the competition, and pushed at her hair, thinking she looked as good as any freshie out there.

Another vamp arrived, a woman flanked by three very possessive, and very decorative, young men. She didn’t spare so much as a glance over the crowd, but stalked in with that long-legged, gliding, predatory stride Danni had come to associate with the vamps. She envied them that walk, and tried to practice it herself, when she was unobserved, although she knew she didn’t have it quite right. Emma would have laughed at her for that, but then, she hadn’t seen Emma for months. Not since she had answered Will’s call, and the two of them had abruptly dropped off the radar. That was another thing not to think about right now, if she wanted to project happy, eager, willing thoughts and get herself inside this club. Still, she couldn’t help remembering, if only briefly, the hail of criticism that had hit her as soon as the three of them had gotten home that evening.

Maybe they were being discreet, not starting in on her in the taxi. Maybe she had been too stunned with her experience, and the others too speechless with anger, for the recriminations to begin. But as soon as they got home…

“What were you thinking?’ Hunter hissed at her. “You let him kiss you. Right in front of Will.”

“Any other vamp would have been bad,” Emma chimed in, “but Josef Kostan? My God, Danger. I still don’t believe it, and I was there.” Emma slammed her purse down on the coffee table and dropped heavily onto the couch.

“I’ve never seen Will so angry. Don’t you know, don’t you realize, freshies have been killed for that sort of thing. Or—or ostracized.” Hunter was pacing the room, flexing her hands as though restraining herself from grabbing random objects to throw at the wall.

Danni felt the tears rising to her eyes. “I didn’t ask him to kiss me. I thought Will wanted me to go with him. I thought he wanted—“

“What he wanted,” Hunter said bitterly, “was for you to get bitten by some other vamp. I don’t know why he likes it—maybe he doesn’t think it’s good for us to get too used to just him. Maybe he just gets a kick out of the idea.”

Emma frowned at her. “So maybe Will has some commitment issues. That’s not the point. Dammit, Danger, there is a huge difference between you going off somewhere and coming back with fresh wounds—“ and at that Danni could not stop her hand from stealing to touch the new marks on her wrist “—and bringing it back to the table.”

“Kissing. Sweet lord. Kissing,” Hunter interjected. “These vamps, Danger—these vamps don’t kiss us. They don’t take us to bed.”

Danni looked at her. “Are you seriously telling me you wouldn’t fall onto the nearest flat surface if Will gave you the slightest encouragement? Are you telling me you haven’t?”

Hunter’s face became scornful. “I’m not telling you I wouldn’t. I would in a heartbeat. If he ever asked. But that’s not the point.”

“And I know he’s feeding, I know we’re dinner—but can you say with a straight face that what he does to you—what any vamp does to any of us—isn’t sexual? I know the way it makes me feel, and I know the way I’ve seen you look, afterwards. No one feeds a vamp out of the goodness of their hearts. If that was all it was, we’d be at the Red Cross. Not at Pulse! Go ahead. Tell me I’m wrong about that.”

Emma laughed, but it was a harsh, unpleasant sound. “Of course it is. And it is for him, too. Any fool can see that.”

It was Hunter who pressed in with another question. “So why would you let Josef kiss you, right in front of him?”

Danni flinched. “Like I had any real choices? He just did it—how was I supposed to stop him?” She was crying, now. “I mean—you saw it—he just did it.”

“Yeah, we saw it. We saw every bit of it.” Hunter sat down in one of the armchairs and covered her face with her hands.

Emma laughed again, her eyes feverishly bright with emotion. “You’re so lucky he didn’t do that at his table. His freshies would have scratched your eyes out. Faction would kill you for that. And she’s the nice one.”

And it had gone on and on. Danni had long since lost the euphoria of her experience, and instead felt only remorse and, then, finally, anger. If Will hadn’t encouraged her to—if he had only told her to keep herself for him. She hadn’t sought out the other vampire, she hadn’t really wanted to go with him. And she certainly hadn’t wanted him to kiss her as he had. Even if the memory of his mouth on hers was so strong she could still taste him as she thought about it.

They’d still been up, arguing and scolding, when Emma’s phone rang. Danni’s heart had gone suddenly cold. She feared—she wasn’t even sure what she feared. Whatever had crossed her mind, what Emma told them wasn’t what she expected.

“Will is going away for a while,” Emma said, and a swift, fierce joy had flooded her face. “He’s leaving tonight. And he wants me to go with him.”

Hunter looked up, her beautiful green eyes wide with shock. “But—“

Emma shook her head. “Only me. He said for you not to worry about the apartment. You can stay. Both of you.”

Hunter slid to the floor with the force of her racking sobs. She was already withdrawing into her grief, her loss.

Danni stood, fighting against renewed tears. “Maybe I should go instead. Would it help if I just left?”

“No,” Emma shook her head decisively. “He said it’s not your fault, Danger. He just—he didn’t really explain. But he said it’s not your fault, and you should stay.” And by sundown, Will was gone, vanished, and Emma with him.


Now, standing outside Club Valis, Danni could still hear Emma saying, “Not your fault.” But they all knew it was, that what had happened had precipitated Will’s decision. Hunter had rarely spoken to her, to anyone, since that morning. Danni wondered a few times if Will had chosen Emma to take away because she meant the most to him, or the least. She could see it working either way. Either way, however, Will had left her just as she had fallen under his sway, and he had left her with this burning hunger to recapture the way he had made her feel. She had no choice but to seek him in the embraces of others.

Even Josef, who had favored her with his attention three times now, didn’t quite bring the magic she had felt with Will. And his three exclusives, if not outright hostile, had been decidedly cool towards her. She particularly felt the loss of Lucky, perhaps the only freshie friend she’d had outside of Emma and Hunter. Danni felt so very alone, and the only solace she had, she’d found under the fangs of the vampires.

And that brought her mind back to the present. She had to get in this time, she just had to. More freshies came out of the club, giggling and unsteady, and she could see Steve, the doorman, scanning the crowd, checking his clipboard, making decisions on who would be allowed to enter. She gave him her most blinding, enticing smile. Come on, Steve, she thought, what do I have to do? What do I have to be that I’m not? There’s not a more willing freshie in this crowd.

Steve looked around, drawing in a deep breath through his nose, sorting through all the scents being offered to him. He began to make his choices, opening the velvet rope to let in the chosen few. He looked at Danni, and nodded curtly.

Her heart almost skipped a beat from joy. She was in.
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francis
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Re: 100% Freshie Chapter 9 --PG-13

Post by francis »

Danni seems to be on a drug with the vamp addiction. And Hunter is depressed. Will, you really did a number on them.
Why do Emma and Hunter blame Danni for what happened? It’s not as if she had much of a choice. And now even Lucky is shunning her. I can feel how alone she is.
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choccyterri
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Re: 100% Freshie Chapter 9 --PG-13

Post by choccyterri »

:hug:

Dear Lucky, I just wanted to leave you a few lines as I'm reading this story... :heart:

Sometimes, you can forget how much you knew and loved a place, or a group of people... and although you've said that the vampires in this story aren't our main characters, it's taking me right back to the streets of Los Angeles, as they were in our little show. I can feel the night air around them all, I can completely relate them to the show that we grew to know and love. The one that brought us all together.

Thank you for taking me back there Lucky. :heart: I'm going to carry on reading, and find out what happened to Danni, and Will, and maybe even we'll see Josef again soon, but I wanted you to know, and remember, how powerful your words are, and how talented you are, and how much you have affected our little bit of the Moonlight universe, always.

Take care. Lovely friend :heart:
Image

“It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.”
― Marcus Aurelius.
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