NaNoWriMo story Idea

[MACKENZEE HEDGLEN]

Ok. I have this idea for my NaNoWriMo novel, and I'd like some feedback, if hats ok. I read the Twilight synopsis, for the first book, and I think my idea is different enough

First off, I don't like all the vampire superstiions, so I'm changing alot about them

Like, Vaampires only need to drink blood once a month, or something like that.

So, there's this girl, who just lost her mother. (her mother is killed by a werewolf attack, but since most people dont believe in werewolves, the officials just tell her its suspicious)She's an orphan now, because her dad died when she was younger. Like, really young. What happened is her dad, before he had a daughter, met a vampire, or saved a vampire who was fighting with a werewolf...yea, lets go with that. So he, what shot, stabbed? the werewolf because he thought he vampire was a human. anyway, the vampire gave him a blood oath to protect his family as he protected him. then disappears. Man shrugs it off.

Now, present day. Girl is shipped to an orphanage, where werewolf clan somehow finds her. Vampire is dead, but his son nephew....heir? feels the call and rushes to the place and saves her. Her drags her, kicking and screaming back to his coven, who refuse to grant her refuge because she insulted someone. so, he has to drag her, kicking and screaming to the sister coven, on the other side of the country, all the while dodging werewolves....and a bounty hunting team......

So yea. Thats all I got for now. I'm not sure if they're going to fall in love. I've got a funny motel make-out-to-avoid-getting-killed scene, but who knows.

[Write or Die]

"Are you insane?"

Kael turned around, eyebrows raised. "Not the last time I checked. Are there any signs I should be looking for, in particular?"

Amory's eyes narrowed. "Im being serious. How can you say that!"

He smiled. "Easy, darling. You just open your mouth."

The trees around them rustled slightly in the breeze, and Amory glared up at the taller boy. "They're people, Kael. They have feelings too."

"Yea, but Mory," kael started. "They're trying to kill us. What part of that don't you understand?"

"You don't know that!" she screamed, throwing her hands into the air.

"I cannot believe you!" Kael growled, angrily pushing off the tree he had been leaning on. "Were you looking or were you temporarily blind when that werewolf tried to rip your throat out through your throat?"

"He didn't mean it! He was fine to me before. It's their Alpha, can't you see?" Amory cried, looking up at him with pleading eyes. "How do you know he doesn't hurt them everytime they fail?"

Kael's eyes were hard. "So we're supposed to just surrender and let them kill us?" he hissed.

"Isn't there some way to help them?"

"I don't know, Amory, and I honestly don't care." He gripped her arms and gave a gentle shake. "All I know is that anything that tries to hurt you in any way is going to be ripped to shreds in the most painful way I can think of."

[MACKENZEE HEDGLEN]

“Come on, c’mon, c’mon, c’mon!” Kael hissed, wishing the girl could move faster. But she was a fudging human and they weren’t built for speed. He growled, and pulled to an abrupt stop.
Amory crashed into him, and he took the opportunity to grab her face, pressed their lips together and breath out.
She sputtered, predictably, panting and choking and pushing him away with her feeble little arms. “Stop it,” he snapped, pushing them away roughly. “Breath in.”
She didn’t listen. He resorted to pressing her nose closed with his thumbs and forcing the air into her, and when she took the first breath, breathing in more. He was taking a risk here, a risk that could very well spell death for them both. But there wasn’t time to stop and think about the consequences. All he knew was that they needed to be gone now, and dammit he would do whatever it took to get it done.
They stood there, for what seemed like an eternity. Amory couldn’t wrap her mind around the concept. Kale was breathing for her. It should have been completely gross and violating but it wasn’t. It was the most incredible feeling she had ever felt in her life. She wasn’t sure if it was the temperature, the fact that this was technically her first kiss or the adrenaline running through her veins, but Amory was both lightheaded and hyper aware of everything going on around her. She could hear the trees rustling in the wind, feel Kael at every point their bodies touched, she could feel his chest rise and fall as he breath in, out…in…..out… her heart raced and she felt like she could rip up a tree and tear it to shreds. There was nothing but Kael and then everything snapped into focus and all she wanted to do was
“Run,” Kael rasped, fighting the lightheaded feeling seeping through him. He grabbed Amory’s hand and sprinted. He didn’t know what he was feeling more, relief that she was actually able to keep up with his vampire speed, or the desire to kick himself for not kissing her when he had the chance. Yes, they were running for their lives, but that didn’t change the fact that one did not lock lips with a cute girl to exchange air. He skirted a giant tree that marked the halfway point, and grinned a self-satisfied grin.
That was promptly swiped off his face.
A screaming vampire leapt out of the tree cover, hurtling itself to land on Amory’s back, dragging her to the forest ground. Kael was after them immediately, fighting off the woman who had somehow turned Amory’s back into shreds. But the girl was giving as good as she got. Someone sliced into his thigh, and Kael growled, feeling his fangs descend from his gums. The dull, heady feeling was starting to creep through his veins again, locking him into the ‘kill, kill, kill’ state of mind. He separated the two, and Amory rolled away and into a crouch. Before either of them could move there was a rushing of wind around them, and suddenly they weren’t alone.
Nearly seventy Coven members stood around them, fangs bared and claws extended. Kael knelt, one hand fisted in the shirt of the young woman who had attacked them, and gaze around at him. He was in deep, deep doodie.
“Kael Orson,” one vampire intoned. In the dark the group seemed to perpetuate, it was difficult to see who had spoken. Kael, however, knew who had. He had attracted the attention of the Elders. Oh Goodie.
He stood, moving to position himself in front of Amory. “Elder Dragan, May the Mother smile upon thee.”
The Elder shook his head. “What have you done, Childe.”
Kael forced himself to remain standing upright, when all of his training, his very being screamed for him to prostrate himself. “Followed my Blood, Elder,” he said, careful to keep his tone respectful. “I could do nothing else.”
There was a rustling through the crowd at this statement, though the ten elders remained stoic, unmovable. At length the tittering gave way to eerie silence, and Elder Dragan responded. “Explain.”
At this, Kael swallowed nervously. All he had were assumptions and suppositions, and the heady feeling that was humming at the ready in his stomach even now. “I think my Sire, Orpheus, may have sworn a Blood Debt to this girl’s family.”
“You think,” another Elder asked. It was clear that whatever Kael said after this point was moot in this man’s eyes. He was already wrong.
“Yes, Elder. I have no concrete proof, other than the Call I felt earlier this evening that lead me far outside our region, the same call that overtook me not too long ago.”
Dragan straightened, if possible. “So it was you that killed my son.” It was not a question, yet Kael knew an answer was mandatory. He dropped his eyes. Behind him, Amory stopped breathing. “Yes, Elder.”
The area was silent, even the trees having somehow sensed the tension of the situation. “You killed your own brother over some…..mortal, Kael Orson?” A woman asked. Elder Yuta was a short woman whose wide, flat features never gave way to a smile. She had always given him the impression that she would like to gut him like a fish, then eat him like one.
“Please, Elder,” he pleaded. “It was not my choice.”
“And what of the girl? Does she not bear some responsibility – “
“No, she hasn’t done anything – “
“She reaks of vampire – “
“What have you done?”
“Leave her out of this, please.”
“Blood-traitor!”
“Should be put down, I say.”
“Kael, maybe we should – “
“ENOUGH!” Silence fell on them like a blanket. All eyes rested on Elder Dragan, who stood above them looking as powerful as every one of his seventeen hundred years. “I believe you, Kael Orson, son of Orpheus the Trickster.”
He nearly wept with relief. Dropping to his knees, he managed a “Thank you, Elder.” The crowd was still each waiting to hear what else the Elders might say. Surely the matter hadn’t been put to rest as yet.
And suddenly the Elder moved, gliding from his spot in the formation to appear before Kael, bending low and gripping him by the neck, and lifting him from the ground to hang in mid-air. “I have also decided that you must die, Childe.”


“NO!” Amory screamed.
“Someone shut her up,” Dragan snarled.
“’Mory, run,” Kael gasped. She stared at him in horror, even as vampires glided towards her on silent feet, radiating mavolence. “Go!”
She spun, and fled. Heart hammering in her chest, Amory moved faster than she had ever thought possible, passing trees and huge ugly boulders as a blur in the night. It was the adrenaline, she decided. Combined with vampire breath it gave her a bit of an advantage. But not much.
A screaming, snarling, biting, scratching thing crashed into her newly-healed back, and Amory felt rage bubble up from somewhere. She was sick of things trying to kill her. Sick of it. With a snarl, she reached back and yanked the bloodsucker off of her, throwing her to the ground with enough force to snap its neck. Before she could make more than a step forward, another one was on her. Then another one, and another. Soon there were so many Amory couldn’t think straight over the pain and the screeching cries of murder. Terrified beyond thought, Amory screamed.

He couldn’t see when Amory ran, but he could hear it. At least half of the gathering ran after her. Dread settled like lead in his stomach. He’d failed, and now Amory was going to die a horrible death. His mind wavered, the world around him sinking into eerie black and white for the briefest second before he wrenched himself back to sanity. No, he would not fight back. Elder Dragan had passed judgement. He would not struggle, he would not resist, he would not fight. He would ignore the humming in his veins.
But Amory…
Amory was dead, he was sure of it. There was no way she had survived, even with the extra speed he gave her. There were too many vampires, and they were all out for blood.
His blood. Amory was His.
But was she? She might have been. But she was dead now. They would have killed her quickly, since she was mortal, and a trespasser. Amory was gone.
You would know…
Would he? Kael wasn’t sure. He wasn’t sure about anything but that he was about to die.
“You know the old ways, Kael Orson,” Dragan said, still holding him aloft.
Kael closed his eyes, as he had been taught. He did know the old ways. Eyes closed, head bowed, no matter what the circumstance, hands clasped at the waist… He arranged himself appropriately, forcing himself to concentrate on the Elder, waiting for the blow…
“Kael Orson, you disrespect me even in the hour of your death?” The question was soft and silky, ice cold, yet hot as burning coals. He didn’t know what to do? He could not open his eyes less he worsen his fate, yet if the Elder said he had done something wrong…
“Elder?” he ventured, cautiously.
“Your canines, Childe,” the Elder chastised, giving him a little shake. “Surely you will retract them before I lose my patience?”
He tentatively touched a tooth with his tongue. How could he retract them. He was basically fighting the instinct to rip the Elder to shreds. Why couldn’t they understand that – “
A scream, high-pitched and filled with terror sounded through the air, and it was enough.
Kael twisted, breaking Dragan’s hold on him with one hand and plunging his arm deep into the ancient body to grip the elder’s still heart with the other. As he fell to the ground he let the dead organ drop, as the vampires around them converged on him. The world sank into stark contrast and kael howled, his blood singing for him to kill, kill, kill.
Someone jumped at him and he reached for them, ripping the head off and slamming the body into another. He fought for what felt like hours, slashing and biting and tearing till he had a clear path to the trees, and he took it.
In the eternity that passed after Aamory screamed and when the first set of teeth sank into her arm, she did nothing but fight. Twisting, turning, biting, kicking, fighting everyone and everything that came at her because she couldn’t die, she couldn’t die, she couldn’t die. Dying was bad, it wasn’t something she wanted and if she died then it would put all of Kael’s hard work to waste and Kael was good and Kael. She snarled, and ripped her arm away before smashing her fist into the ugly face that thought she was some nutritional supplement. Amory screamed again, more anger than fear this time and kicked at something that was trying to get into her pants. She was bleeding, she knew, and it was driving the vampires mad. Their faces stretchd and elongated in grotesque fashions till they didn’t even look humans. If she never understood anything ever again, she was glad she finally understood why Stephanie Meyers chose to make Edward sparkle: the real things were freaking hideous.
A heavy something smashed into her stomach, sending her to the floor, gasping for breath. They were on her immediately, cutting and biting and snarling. The short, flat-faced Elder appeared suddenly, sitting on her chest, fangs bared and smiling smugly. She raised her clawed arm high, and all the others froze. Amory couldn’t breathe. Just before the rushing arm grazed her neck, something flew through the trees, and ripped the woman away.
Kael had never like Elder Yuta, which was why he took great pleasure in ripping out her throat with his bare hands. He jumped up, snarling, daring the others to approach him. But they were backing off, all of them, backing away slowly as if he were a dangerous monster hell bent on ripping them to shreds.
Which he was, truly. But so were they.
Amory struggled to sit up, fighting to get air into her lungs while her back screamed bloody murder. She coughed, and Kael turned to look at her. Vampires around them turned and fled, but she wasn’t paying them the least bit of attention. All she could focus on was the black eyes staring intently at her from a face covered in crude, dark swirling patterns. She didn’t know what it was but it was definitely not her Kael. She took a deep breath and screamed.
Kael winced, and rushed forward. Amory screamed more, and scrabbled back. “What the hell is wrong with you?” he snapped. His voice came out raspy sounding and deep, and he added it to the list of things he had to be confused about tonight. The remaining vampires scattered, leaving them alone in the cool night air. Amory was still staring at him like he was about to rip her to shreds, which, considering what he had just done to two Elders of the House of Carven Boan, was a pretty safe assumption.
Except that she was his, and he couldn’t hurt her if she tried.
“What’s the matter?” he asked, ears still alert for any approaching danger. “Calm down, Amory.” But she whimpered, and moved further away. And suddenly he understood.
Amory was afraid of him. It was like a wave of icy cold water had just been poured down his back. His blood hushed, his head cleared, and in three seconds he was on his knees.
Her heart felt like it would give out at any minute. What the hell had happened to him? “Kael?” she asked voice trembling. Was he still him? Would he change back to normal, now that the other vampires had left?
In short order she found out, as he crawled over to her the minute she said his name. And like a movie effect, his features morphed back into the face she had known for the last few hours: thick, slightly arched eyebrows set over deep brown-blue eyes, his short nose smooth and unwrinkled like it had always been. She gazed at his lips, and shuddered. Those lips had been on hers, pressed, connected, but never, never kissing. She locked gazes with him again, and leaned forward.
“’Mory?” Kael breathed. Surely she wasn’t…
“My back, it’s… your breath…I …” her voice gave out, and tears sprang to her eyes. This was so completely, irrevocably messed up. Why did she even want to –
And suddenly his lips were on hers, and a rush of warm, thick air flooded her mouth and Amory made herself breathe. She hung onto him like he was the only thing tying her to the ground, hands clasped in the fabric of his jacket, pressing her lips to his with as much fervor as he pressed to hers. For infinity, they breathed, neither willing to let go and face the reality of what had just happened, neither wanting to do anything other than hold on, hold on…

[RHYS SPRINTER]

He was two feet from the door when he smelt the blood.
He was inside in less than a second, bags thrown away from him as he stood, eyes narrowed to slits and nostrils flared, trying to find exactly where the scent was coming from. The bathroom. Kael growled. It wasn’t unusual for the scent of blood to come from a bathroom occupied by a teen-aged girl, he knew that. But this wasn’t woman blood, this was living blood. He rushed to the bathroom door, and flung it open.
Amory lay in the tub, eyes unfocused and wrists, covered in wide, even slashes of pain, running freely.
Kael swore, and picked her up. Out in the main room, he set her on the bed, and climbed on top of her, his knees on either side of her stomach. Not wasting any time he grabbed her head, pressed their lips together and breathed, forcing the breath down her throat and into her lungs. His brain seemed frozen, and he was having trouble drawing breath, but he breathed, forced his brain to concentrate and his lungs to cooperate and pulled in a huge gulp of air and breathed out into the slack lips of the one person who was even remotely close to his.
It seemed to take forever, Kael breathing in and out, pushing life into the slack figure under him, but finally Amory’s eyelids fluttered, her hands feebly twitched on their unblemished wrists. Kael pulled, back to sit on his haunches, eyes intently watching her face as she blinked once, twice, then a flutter of half blinks that brought her eyes into focus just as they settled on him.
“Kael?”
“What the hell is wrong with you?” he shouted at her, ignoring the way her voice sounded so frail and broken. “What the hell do you think this is? You don’t get to die! You don’t get to take the cowardly road out. I’ve been busting my ass all night trying to keep you alive! You don’t get to throw that away!”
Amory sat there, pressed into the flat pillows, not really feeling anything. “My mother’s dead, Ka – “
“Yes!” he screamed, gestulating so wildly he shook the bed. “She died to keep you safe! You don’t get to ignore that.”
“She died because of me, Kael. Can’t you see? Why can’t you understand this?”
Kael pressed his hands into his eyes, making little bursts of light dance around on his eyelids. “You idiot” he hissed. “Your mother would have died anyway.”
She stared at him in disbelief. “How can you say that?”
Kael heaved a sigh, and choked back a scream. How the hell was he supposed to do this! His hands fisted in the sheets beneath his knees of his own accord, and because it would take more energy than he possessed to look into Amory’s eyes, he spoke to her stomach instead.
“I think your dad may have rescued a vampire from a werewolf at one point. The werewolves have sworn vengeance, and since your dad is already dead…..”
They were quiet for a moment, no sounds except the occasional car pasing outside and Amory’s breathing breaking the silence.
“I thought that was just a story.”
Kael looked up, confusion, and a bit of wariness, clear in his eyes. “What?”
“My dad told me a story like that once, when I was little,” Amory murmured. “I didn’t think he was serious, he said he was just trying to scare me…” She trailed off, eyes gazing into the unfathomable void that was Kael’s shirt.
So he was right. He hung he head, and took a breath, forcing the tension in his body to get the hell out. He had to get a better grip on his head. They couldn’t afford any distractions, not when there was so much riding on his concentration. Speaking of which…
“You can’t do this again.” He had startled her, both in the speed of his actions and the strength of his grip on her wrists. “I am a vampire. Beyond that, I am Forsaken. Let me tell you what that means.” His grip tightened, and he pulled her closer to his face. “I have nothing now. I have no family, no Coven, no Elders to protect me from humans or myself.” He took a trembling breath, and shook her, frustrated with her lack of response. “I am nothing, do you understand? If a Hunter were to barge in here now and blow my head off, there would be no vengeful clan hunting them down for all eternity. I’ve killed my own Blood, so now I have no Blood, got it? Not only am I completely alone, but there’s nothing stopping me from ripping into your skin and sucking you dry and I do not need the temptation of you swinging all your blood in my face!” And that was really the heart of the matter,t he thing that scared im witless. He could handle being on his own. He was a big boy; in many ways he had felt like that even when living in the Coven. He knew what it was to have nno one to turn to, had known since his relatives turned his back on him. It was familiar; he could deal with it.

He could not deal with the potential danger he posed to Amory. The fact that he could snap at any moment and harm the girl sent sharp, tingly, contradictory waves of emotions through him. He couldn’t harm Amory because then he would be worse than Forsaken, worse than the living dead, and he didn’t think he could handle the heartbreak.
He blinked, and his head cleared long enough for him to see the expression on Amory’s face. Not that he could figure out what it was. He pushed her arms away from him roughly, and bounded off the bed. Grabbing one of the bags he’d thrown aside after his shopping trip, Kael stormed into the bathroom, and slammed the door.
Amory let her eyes slide closed. There were so many emotions flowing through her she couldn’t properly feel any of them. Mostly there was regret, but regret for just what was confusing. She regretted her mother’s death, true, but Kael had explained a bit, and it seemed as if she and her mother had always been living on borrowed time. Suddenly things made perfect sense; why she was never allowed to go to a sleepover, why her mother put up with Mrs. Horowitz every attempt to be friends…..why she had been forced into archery lessons for an entire year, even though she refused to do anything in it. Her mother had bought her a beautiful, sleek wooden bow, and had bought, traded and searched like a mad-woman to find Amory the biggest selection of carved arrows in the district. She had thrown the set across the room when her mother had given it to her, and it had made its home under her bed for seven years, but it was as good as new. She’d grabbed the thing after changing her clothes, and stuffed it into a tube bag. It had been the only thing she had taken from her house. She couldn’t decide whether to be sad or relieved.
She regretted trying to kill herself. Now that she’d calmed down she could see that it really was a dumb thing to do. Problems didn’t get solved by taking your own life; all that really did was create more problems for the people she’d leave behind. And Kael didn’t deserve that. He didn’t. She had thought that she couldn’t live with the guilt. Everything had felt like it was piling on top of her head, sitting on her chest, suffocating her, everything was her fault and she couldn’t do anything right and did she really think that she could do this? She had expected to die, had wanted to die, because for the first time in her life she had problems.
She regretted making Kael angry, scared, and disappointed, whatever he was now. She regretted that look in his eyes. She regretted putting him in the position she had, and wished there was something she could do to fix it.

[Treysaur]

"Will you shut up?" said girl asked, a bit of amusement coloring her voice. He looked over, surprised, to see her fighting a smile as they passed under a thin patch of tree leaves, the moonlight filtering through to dapple her skin and hair. She was beautiful.
"I'm sorry," he murmured, his mouth going dry. "I didn't realize I was speaking aloud."
"Yeah, you were always dim-headed like that."
Kael spun, reflexively pushing Amory behind him, even as she drew an arrow and notched it. The thin young man behind them smiled, showing off his fangs.
"I never thought I'd see the day when one of the Boar turns its back on the House." He shook his head in exaggerated sorrow. "Why'd it have to be you, Kael? Why it have to be you?"
His hard, derisive laughter bubbled up and filled the space they had been boxed into. Around them, people emerged out of the shadows, forming a rough circle around them. Amory spun where she was, holding her bow ready to strike.
"Is the circle some kind of secret fascination with you people or something?" she asked. Kael could almost grin, if his good mood hadn't been rapidly waning; her voice didn't even tremble once! It was something he had to make sure they celebrated later, once they got the hell out of the mess they were in.
His eyes met the cold gray ones of his old tormentor, and Kael felt a tingle of apprehension. Raegan was an unmerciful twat, one who had taken great pleasure in beating him up or just generally making him miserable for as long as Kael had been a member of the Coven. Add the fact that he had been the youngest, and therefore the preferred of all the Children before Kael's entrance to the fact that he was Elder Yuta's favorite pupil, and you had all the motivation a young vampire would need to make his life hell.
But things were different now. Kael was alone. There was no one to run to, no one to curb the sadistic little freak when he got too rough.
"Kael?"
The sound of her voice jolted him from his thoughts, and a hard, cold weight settled in his stomach. Amory. How the hell could he protect her from Raegan and his minions. "Still here, Ams," he said softly. He could feel the edge of her arrow holder pressing int his back, and felt a tiny ray of hope spring up in his chest. "You any good with that thing?" he asked, trying to sound casual.
"You think I'm going to tell you ‘no’?" she asked incredulously. Kael almost laughed and would have, if his stomach hadn't fallen to somewhere beneath his feet. If Amory could think he sounded like an idiot even now then it couldn't be as serious as he was making it seem.
"What's the matter, Kael?" Raegan taunted. "No retorts, no snarky comments on where I should go stuff myself, really? What," he said, walking forward till he reached the light. "Are you scared?"
Kael didn't answer, except to pull the kukri blade from its hidden sheath. There wasn't much he could say. he wished his heart was still beating, since that would explain why his hands were trembling and his knees felt weak. flashes of him being mercilessly beat on and ridiculed by the idiot standing in front of him raced through his mind, and no matter what he tried, he couldn't think of anything else.
Around her, the assembled vampires stood in their circle, as silent as the dead, which she supposed they were, so it kind of fit. But they just stood there, and it was starting to freak her out. And Kael wasn't being his usual obnoxious self, and that frightened her more than anything. She met the dead eyes of the girl standing directly opposite her, and smirked. Rule one of winning, as taught by her father: always smile; it confuses the enemy.
"How about you just stand aside, Kael?" the first vampire said from somewhere behind her. That Kael wasn't even moving worried her more than anything. And that vampire's voice was really starting to work in her nerves. "Take a seat and watch me bleed your little human slut dry, why don't you?"
"Kael, do me a favor and shut him up?" she asked in a sickly sweet voice.
Raehan’s cold laughter sounded again, and Amory grit her teeth. “She’s cute,” she heard him say. “where’d you get her?”
Kael flinched. He didn’t want to, but it happened. Raegen looked at him with those cold eyes, frigid amusement burning in their light. He hated him. Kael hated him and hated how he made him feel. Amory tensed behind him, and his skin tingled. This time, he wasn’t going to get beat up. This time was going to be different.
“I’d say the same place your dad found your mom,” Kael said, fingering the handle of his blade, “but this girl’s not some low class cribhouse whore.”
“I thought cribhouse whores were the definition of low class?” Amory murmured.
“No, no, dear. There’s a difference.”
“Very good,” Raegan clapped. “That was almost insulting. Its like you’re not even scared of me anymore. I think ‘ve lost my touch.” In one instant he blurred and reappeared in front of Kael, his fist smashing into his chest. “That’s not going to work.”
Blood seeped from the wound as Kael reeled, stumbled away from where he stood back to back with Amory. Around him, the silent vampires moved, converging on them in a creepy wave of black. As he watched, Amory let loose an arrow, and had another notched before the first had time to sink into an oncoming chest. His vision faded, swinging back and forth to black and white and blanking out completely. He blinked, just in time to see Raegen wrap an arm around Amory’s waist from behind, sick smirk on his face, before the world went red and his blood took over.
He was warm.
He moaned, shifting around to curl up around the something that was heating his stomach. A hand stroked his cheek, traveling to run through his hair and then down his arm, leaving a trail of tingly awareness where it touched his skin.
Then it was gone. He shifted again, wiggling his toes and finding he wasn't wearing shoes. That wasn't so bad. Shoes weren't very condusive to sleeping peacfully. his eyes itched, even clsed, so he rubbed them, and then reached to scratch his stomach. And froze.
He wasn't wearing a shirt. That wasn't SO unsual. He was a guy. he went without shirts. He reached lower, and his eyes snapped open.
"I'm naked!"
Someone laughed, and his eyes flashed around till he found the source. Amory sat on a wide couch behind him, legs crossed and eating something out of a huge bowl Steam wafted up and obscured her face, but he could see her eyes glittering at him. "I was wondering when you would realize that."
"Why aren't I wearing any clothes?" Kael sat up, pulling the blanket up to his chest. Amory giggled again, and Kael fought the blush that crawled up his neck. His heart was dead, he wasn't supposed to be able to blush!
"Here," she came over, and set the bowl in his lap. He pulled up his knees, and glared at her through squinted eyes. "I'm missing something really, REALLY big right now, 'Mory." She nodded, and sat down next to him on the bed. "Are you going to tell me?" he was starting to get annoyed with her smile.
Amort tilted her head to the side. "Do you now that in your Forsaken form or whatever you don't have a, um, little Kael?"
"What?!" His face was definitely red now.
"Mmmhmm!" she beamed, biting her lip to keep from laughing. The expression on his face was hilarious. "It's totally not there. And before you saything else, I wasn't looking. You were jumping all over the place fighting off those vampires, and at one point you grabbed one off my chest, and you know, you were NAKED, and........"
His eyes were bugging out of his head. Amory laughed, and uncrossed her legs.
"My.... my......GONE?"
She threw her head back and cackled. "That's not funny, Amory!" She laughed harder, taking great pleasure in making him uncomfortable.
"Eat your soup, Kael, while its hot."
He sputtered for a minute, before he could formulate something to say. Somehow he'd managed the full Forsaken form, supposedly, since his genitalia was gone. he assumed his skin had shaded to grey as well. "You don't have to laugh so hard, you know."
Amory gave him a wide smile, and headed towards a tall chest of drawers nearby. "The look on your face was funny. Deal with it."
He looked around, fingers clenching and unclenching around the hot bowl of soup. "How'd we get here?" He knew this place. He'd lived here for the last half century. But it was far....so very very far from where they had been.....
"You ran. After you went all beserk and killed everyone you picked me up, threw me over your shoulder and ran." She pulled out a pair of boxers, and held them out to the light. "You actually have clean ones. I'm impressed."
"Excuse me?" That only caused her to giggle more, so he saved his glare for when she wasn't apparently completely high on something.

[Treysaur]

"What?" she asked, rummaging around in another drawer. "Most guys I know don't place much emphasis on clean underwear. Basically, if it's not stained in blood or odorous bodily fluids, its good enough to wear."
Kael wrinkled his nose. "That's disgusting."
You're telling me." Amory threw a shirt onto the bed, then turned to him with her arms crossed. "That soup's not going to eat itself, you realize?" she said, arching an eyebrow at him.
"Yeah, I'll eat it, ok? Just relax for a minute. I'm not going to whither away if I don't eat!" he said, twirling the spoon around in the thick mixture in front of him. The broth smelled heavenly, and all he really wanted to do was drink it down, realy. But Amory was being a bit too mothery, and a tad too not-like-Amory........It was almost as if......
"Figured it out, have you?"
He flung the bowl away from him and had made it to the opposite side of the bed in the space of a heartbeat. Damn the fact that he wasn't wearing anything, he backed up, putting as much distance between he and the Amory look alike as he possibly could. "Where is she?"
The girl, rolled her eyes, reaching up to unbutton her shirt. "She's right here, honey. All you want," she slid across the bed, shedding her shirt along the way, "is right here."
Kael stood, frozen. This was so wrong. This woman wasn't his Amory and she was showing him Amory's skin and her underthings and she suddenly didin't have any pants on and he was NAKEd and she smiled at him but it wasn't the smile he wasnted because she wasn't Amory and it was WRONG because he couldn't hurt her, couldn't push her away because she had Amory's face and eyes, and lips and they were coming closer and her chest was pressed against his and lips and kissing and NO!
He flung her across the room, not caring if she crashed into the wall on the other side. This was wrong. She was not Amory and she didn't have the right to touch him that way and NOONE was going to treat his Amory like that. NOONE.
His blade sang to him, but wouldn't come. He hissed, and advanced to where the Amory clone was picking herself up. The vampire really should have been more resilient, but she seemed to be having more difficulties. "What the hell are you doing?" he reached down and picked her up by her hair. He didn't pay attention to the blood leaking down her dark chocolate skin. It wasn't Amory's, so he didn't care. "Where IS she?"
The vampire coughed once, and smiled a bloody smile. "Should be dead by now. harry and Gere won't take too much sass, you know?"
And just like that his blood sang in his veins again. They had her. A growl crawled its way from deep in his throat, and he could feel his body shifting. She was HIS, they weren't allowed to have what was his. And if they... if they... he couldn't even finish the thought. His clawed hands fisted around the woman's arms, and he pulled her close. "Tell me where she is, or I will kill you?"
She tilted her head forward, and pressed a kiss to his nose. "You're going to kill me anyway, love, don't pretend. It's good I got a bit of what I wanted all this time though." she smiled. "You're much better in bed than I thought you would be."
He growled again, and gave her a not so gentle shake. "Sarah." The bit of him that was still human recoiled at the thought of what she was talking about, but he didn't have the time, nor the inclination at the moment to get into it. "Where. Is. She." Most vampires he'd come across had been mostly scared crapless at the sight of his Forsaken form, and that was before he had ever gone grey. Sarah was different. She didn't seem to care. Maybe it was because she was so close to dieing. Kael couldn't be sure. He only wanted the information he was sure she had, and he wanted it now, before he lost patience.
"You have a shed, don't you?"
He dropped her roughly, and cast himself out of the room, his claws leaving deep gauges in the walls and floor. The door he tore off the hinges, and then he was out in the night air.
And he could smell her.
Rage filled him, pulling at his senses and tighteneing his musles and clouded his mind and all he wanted to do was rip and tear and KILL the ones who DARED to touch HIS Amory. She was HIS, and he was going to make damned sure they knew it.
It had been a very stressful two days for her. Kael had sort of blacked-out after Raegen had hit him, still conscious enough to hear but not enough to do anythiing more than mumble and fidget in agitation. Personally, AMory didn't know whether she was more worried for him or herself.
She had taken down three vampires before Raegen had pulled the bow from her hands. As soon as she was disarmed all the others sort of froze, like they were brainwashed or something, and stood waiting for instructions. They were brought here, Kael being dragged the whole way and Amory stuck with raegen breathing down her neck. Literally. He had taken to touching her inappropriately about an hour into their trek, and no matte rhow much she fought him, he always gained the upper hand.
She'd never felt so violated in her life.
But she felt more anger than anything else. Amory knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that she was going to drive Kael's freaking long blade into Raegen's chest and pull out his heart. What she would do after that was still up in the air. Maybe feed it to Kael, if she thought he''d go for it.
Thinking about Kael hurt. He had heard her screaming and crying all along the way, and she could hear him, thrashing about and mumbling, but not able to do much else. The few vampires left had taken pleasure in dragging him across ever jagged rock or path they came across, when they weren't outright beating him.
It had been hard for her to take. She couldn't understand just how, or why Kae; had fallen so quickly, so easily, until Raegen explained.
"He's allergic to poison ivy, you know," he had said conversationally, as if his hand wasn't in her shirt, inches away from the breasts she was guarding. "That's why he's so out of it. It would have killed him, if he hadn't been turned. But he has, and now he's like this." He had laughed, and tried to pull her hands away. "You know I'm geting tired of this, right?" the look inhis eyes had scared her, and she couldn't respond. "I'm going to run out of patience very soon and break your arms, Amory. Then I could do whatever I wanted to you, and neither you or Kael could stop me."
That's where she was now. Her arms weren't broken, but they were tied. her chest was bare, and she lay curled up on the forest floor. There were twigs and small stones presseding into her side and shoulders, but she refused to move. Moving meant giving Raegen more access to her skin, and that was not something she ws prepared to do.
"Do you think Sarah's killed him yet?" Raegen sat near her head, occasionally running a hand through her hair. She had had to fight to get away from him earlier, when his hands had strayed and hit and hurt, and she still felt the effects fo what he did. It didn't make her more open to talking to him, something he completely ignored. "She's been madly in love with him for the past two hundrd years. I think she's getting her time's worth out of him, how about you? DO you think he'll buy her disguise?"
Sarah, a pale, blue eyed thing with stringy black hair, had lit up like a candle when Raegen ahd told her her mission. She'd attatched herself to Amory by the lips, and she could only watch as Sarah turned into Amory, complete with dirty new shirt and ripped jeans. And then Sarah had kissed her, her stale, dead breath invading her mouth and it was all Amory could do not to gag. Not that it would have mattered. The Amory clone had skipped away, looking far too pleased with herself. She'd grabbed Kael and dragged him out of th eforest. She didn't know where they went, and for the first half hour she couldn't tear her mind away from the possibility that Kael wasn't ocming back to get her.
Raegen ran a hand through her hair again, pulling out bits of leaves and stones. "A pity you aren't more accomodating, Amory-bug," he said softly. She grit her teeth, and forved herself not o move. He'd stolen Kael's blade and had it strapped to his belt, and it was dangerously close to her in this position. "You would have made a good whore, I know." he reached over and squeezed her bum. "Your ass says so."
There was the sound of a twig being snapped and then the world descended to madness.
And snapping, snarling, howling thing had torn itself form the cover of the forest and set to tearing Raegen apart with a vengeance. Amory squeezed her eyes shut tight, and pushed herslef away from the fighting, into the trees. It wasn;'t much, but it was better than being in the line of potential crossfire. She pulled herself into a smaller ball as the fight carried on, howls of rage and triumph sounding occasionally over the battle cries of enraged vampires. Her heart raced, but then it had been racing for a while. She wanted to cry, but couldn't bring herself to take the breath that was needed to form a sob. She just breathed, and tried to block everything out. That heavy, hopeless feeling was falling on her again, and because she had promised, even to herself, that she wasn't going down the road she had taken earlier, she tried to force her mind to shut up, just for a moment, so she could BREATHE.
But breathing made her think and Kael, and thinking of Kael made her think of how it felt to fall asleep with his arms around her, and that made her think of raegen putting his hands where they didn't belong, and that wasn't somehting she needed to be thinking about. She thought about her mother, and how she would probably be loading her dad's old gun, if Amory had came home and told her about raegen. She could imagine her picking out the black patent leather boots fromt he back of her closet, the 'killing boots' her mother would say......the ones she wore when she was laying mousetraps and sprinkling ant killer on their front lawn. Thinking about her mother hurt, but it was a hurt she preferred over the thoughts trying to find voice in her head. it made her think of her old life, about Dustin and sleepover and flick marathon nights on the weekends. About making cookies and looking through clothing catalogues to laugh at the fake smiles the models wore. She wouldn't be able to do that anymore......Her mother was gone. Her mother was gone....her sort-of ex best friend.....her sort of protector that she mayby sort of liked was across the way ripping a scumbag to shreds.....Everything about her life lately was just messed up.
There were footsteps coing her way. Amory held her knees tighter, and pressed her back to the tree behind her. If it was Raegen she was going straight for his eyes,no matter how much stronger he was than her. He was going to have to kill her, because there was no way she was going to let him continue what he was doing. There was absolutely no freaking way and -
"'Mory?"
The tone was questioning and concerned, but the voice was not Kael. She knew he was probably in his Forsaken form, but she couldn't get the image of the fake Amory out of her mind. What if Raegen had ...... "Amory it's me. Kael. Are you alright."
Her heart hammered in her chest. how the hell was she supposed to trust this. A hand settled on her knee, and she felt the tension drain out of her without her consent. Raegen would never have touched her there; it was too far away. He wouldn't miss an opportunity to touch her skin.
"Shirt?" the sound of her voice frightened even her, shaky and soft and taut with pain like it was. If this was how she sounded when she was pushing everything away...
"No shirt, babe. Sorry. No clothes at all, really." Kael watched her with concerned eyes. She didn't even lift her head. She stayed curled in her ball, and she hadn't even said anything about him being naked. It made him furious and feel helpless all at the same time.

[pottsforthewin]

“Can’t sleep.” Her breath was warm as it rushed across his ear and neck. Her shirt had ridden up where he had rubbed at her back for hours. Her skin was warm to the touch, and she didn’t seemed fazed by the gentle strokes he made there. The bruises on her skin were fading, something ghe supposed was due to the left over breath he gave her.
“You’re realize I’m going to get you back for this in the morning?” Amory murmured. Kael smiled, and pressed a kiss to her shoulder. He didn’t mind. He probably should, all things considered: their age difference, the fact that she was emotionally unstable, they were running for their lives and he was planning a major battle to take place within the week, but he didn’t. If he was to die anyway, he’d rather spend his time living, thanks.
Amory shifted, sliding lower into the space between his legs. Her eyes were black in the dim light, but Kael didn’t much care as long as she kept looking at him. “This is weird.”
“Kind of. When you live for four hundred years your definition of weird tends to change.”
Her eyes mapped his face, searching for something. He sat still, and let her search, hoping that she found whatever it was that she needed to see. After a while, Amory broke the silence.“How’d you die?”
“I had a friend,” Kael began. “He was a bit of an idiot. He, his father was a farmer, and like other children, he helped out as soon as he was old enough. But he hated it. He wanted out of the world we lived in. He’d talk about setting sail and discovering treasure in some distant land all the time, he’d laze about and daydream whenever he had the chance. He wanted an easy way to make money.” Kael trailed off, fidgeting with Amory’s blanket and looking out the door into the moonlit forest. “One day he told me he found it, the perfect job. He wouldn’t tell me what it was, and he’d go missing for a few hours every night, but he always had a full days wages when he came back. I started to believe him, then. Kept at him for weeks, but he still wouldn’t tell me. Then his parents finally started getting suspicious, started to pressure him about what he was doing. He refused to say, and they accused him of having, of giving himself,” Kael said, flustered. “They started to lock him at home, only bringing him out for religious services at the meetinghouse, and holding these extra meetings to pray over him when he started to get restless. Only, the money never stopped showing up, and at night when they checked on him they said he had the same flushed look about him. Then one day, he disappeared. Right out of the house. No one knew where he was, and his parents were frantic. The entire colony was called to daily prayer sessions. One day I was late, and there was this man leaning against the miller’s building. When he caught me looking at him, he grinned, turned around and started walking away. I followed him, and he led me into this forest. My friend was there, as I got closer I could see him, on his knees, begging the man to bite him. He ignored him, and told me this wasn’t supposed to happen, but that he had no choice but to kill him, or turn him. I didn’t understand what he meant by Turn, really, but I didn’t want my friend to die. So I pleaded for his life. I begged him to take my friend back to the village, and I would take his place.” A hand ran across his chest, and Kael pulled Amory closer. “It was the longest minute of my life when he took him. He came back, and said “This is going to hurt,” then he bit me. It didn’t hurt, at all. I felt like I was falling, only up, and when he let go he had to catch me. He said “Go to your parents, childe”, and then he disappeared.”
“he just left you?” Amory asked.
Kael shook his head, his eyes sad. “My friend was better in three days, and couldn’t remember anything. I kept quiet for a week, then I told my mother.” It made his chest hurt, to think of the woman who had given birth to him. It hurt. “She packed me a bag with some food, put my cassock on, pulled the hood up over my head, and then she looked at me. She said I had been visited by the devil, and because I had let him partake of my flesh, I had to leave. She swore to never tell anyone, and cried. And I left. I went back to the forest, just sort of wandering through the trees, and he was there. He took me home.”
They sat in silence for a while, both lost in thought, till Amory broke the silence again.
“Do you think this could work?”
He didn’t have to ask what ‘this’ was, and he was amazed that she could ask it. It seemed so….impossible from his side of the fence. But he wanted it, he did. And really all he had to do was reach out and take it. “I do.” He said simply. It was really already his. “We can make this work.”

[pottsforthewin]

“They want me to go to rehab, baby, but I told ‘em no, no, no.”
Amory groaned, and rolled over. The singing person laughed, and Amory felt them lean over her right before her blanket was tugged out of her grip. “Time to get up, Darling.” The woman sang. “You’ve been asleep for far too long. Your boyfriend’s starting to get just a teeny bit restless.”
“I am not,” Kael snapped. Amory rolled over again, to see him sitting beside a knee high pile of shredded grass. His forehead was creased in a deep frown, and his general demeanor frankly screamed “I’m pissed off”.
Curious, Amory sat up, only to have Kael snap at her to lay still just as a sharp pain shot up her leg. She looked up, and he seemed more furious than ever.
“Sorry,” she winced. A part of the blanket she’d been covered with was wrapped around her leg, and any move to unravel it sent bone deep shocks of pain through her. “What happened to my leg?”
“Werewolves.” Kael moved to kneel over her, pushing her hands away from the bandaged limb and rewrapping it.
Amory stared at him in disbelief a minute before pushing him away just as sharply.
“What the hell is your problem?’ he snapped.
“I could ask you the same thing!” She looked at him, searching his face for some kind of clue as to what the hell had happened while she had been out of it. She couldn’t find anything more than a smattering of irritation and a whole lot of anger. Further down was worry, and just seeing it made her heart race. “What. Happened?”
Kael looked at her, his jaw clenched. He didn’t want to tell her. That would make it real, and then they would have a whole set of other problems to deal with besides trying not to be killed. He didn’t want to tell her and the fact that she wanted him to made him angry. Couldn’t she see that he didn’t want to go into it?
“Kael.” She said, glaring up at him. “Tell me what happened.”
He ground his teeth, meeting her gaze with a cold expression on his own as he thought of a way to get out of this. At least for the time being….
“You got bit by a werewolf and your hubby thinks you’re going to turn into one and your whole epic love adventure is going to be flushed down the toilet.” Mrs. Horowitz said absently from where she was cleaning a set of knives a few feet away. Feeling their eyes on her, she turned, and her eyes widened. “Oh, I’m sorry. Was I not supposed to say that?” An innocent smile slid onto her face and she bat her eyelashes at them. “Oops.”
Kael swore, and ripped up a patch of grass viciously. “Thanks so much for that, really,” he snapped.
Amory felt like she had missed some giant piece of a puzzle. “Kael, why do I feel like I’m missing something?”
He spun around, eyes flashing. “What could you possibly be missing?”
“Oh I don’t know,” she began. “Maybe the tiny bit of information that would explain why you won’t even look at me. Why you’ve suddenly turned into this harsh freaking, “ she stumbled for a minute, trying to find the right word. “Vampire!”
Kael threw his head back and laughed, the cold, hard sound making gooseflesh crawl up her arms. “Sorry to disappoint you, lovely,” he said mockingly. “But I am a vampire.”
“And that changes anything how?” She screamed, waving her arms around. “You’ve been a vampire for as long as I’ve known you! For centuries before we even met! Why the hell are you changing now?”
“I’m not the one who changed. You are!”
“I have not!” Amory stumbled to her feet, forgetting about her injusred leg. She screamed, a spasm of pain rocketing through her. She faltered, headed towards the ground, tears springing to her eyes. She crashed into a strong, warm chest, sturdy arms wrapping around her and lifting her up, up off the ground. Her injured leg was elevated, and she pressed her face into the curve of his shoulder. “I’m still me, Kael,” she shouted. He winced, but she couldn’t see it. “I’m still Amory. My blood’s still warm. My hair’s still black, I still look like a chocolate bar, I still love you…”
Both of them froze, and Mrs. Horowitz cackled evilly from where she stood. “I’ll just leave you two alone, shall I?” she said happily, picking up a set of knives and turning away.
Amory had never really been the typical teenager, but she knew that this was the perfect OMGWTF moment. Her heart was pounding and she could barely breathe. Kael hadn’t said anything. Sure they had had that weird…sweet, intense moment the night before, but that didn’t mean he –
“I love you too.”
Wide brown eyes met hazel and the world seemed to freeze. Kael didn’t know just what he was supposed to be feeling, but the lightheaded, walking on air feeling he was having had to be a good thing. He looked down, feeling his face heat up, and squeezed her closer to himself. “You don’t have to stare at me l – “
She cut him off, leaning forward to press her lips to his. There was no sharing breath, just the feel of warm lips pressed together, of skin and heat and that weird intangible glow of wonder that swelled up from their souls. Lips moved to press to noses, cheeks, foreheads, patches of skin tender enough to be graced with the gifts.
The moment basked in heady weightlessness that seemed as if it would never end, until Amory broke the silence.
“I’m not a wolf,” she mumbled, lips moving lightly against his cool, tanned skin.
“Hopefully,” Kael murmured. His eyes slid closed, and he rested his head on her shoulder. “It won’t change anything, though, if you were.”
“Really, now?” she said sarcastically, looking down at him with an eyebrow raised. “The fact that I might turn into a monster once a month doesn’t bother you in the slightest?”
Kael shrugged, and rolled his eyes. “I’ve been led to believe girls did that anyway, so – “ He never got to finish that sentence.

[RHYS SPRINTER]

The night was cool, especially so for the height of summer, the dark sky above inky black against the bright artificial lights of the city. Few people were about, mainly drunkards and club hoppers, weaving their various ways through the damp night air. The streetlights reflected off cars and storefront windows, casting wide circles on the sidewalk, like pale yellow islands floating in a dark sea.

A young man slipped out of a doorway, the pulsing beat of song dance song filling the air before the door swung shut. He casually checked his pockets, absently smiling to himself, and then ambled along the street, his stomach filled with rum and greasy food. The night had been a good one, filled with dancing women and loud music. His girlfriend would be furious, he knew, but he was just drunk enough not to care.

Nearly half a mile away a large gray wolf played with its cub, hidden beneath a thick thatch of shrubbery near the edge of a small pond in the middle of the neighborhood park. The smaller furred body bounded in circles before the other, and turned to pounce on a giant paw. The elder wolf shifted, giving a canine laugh as it brought its foot up to roll the cub away, before gently pinning the struggling pup to the ground. Tiny, infantile growls sounded in the still cover of the bushes as the cub fought against its father’s hold, tiny paws waving about in the air. A large nose pressed into his neck and huffed, warm breath of his father coursing through the young werewolf’s fur.

The paired played for a while longer, completely oblivious to the unrelenting stare of someone not ten feet away. Tall and thick, a peculiarly dressed man watched them from under a mass of messy blonde hair turned murky brown in the shadows that clung to him. From the pocket of his long overcoat came a small, bound notebook, which he flipped through carelessly before coming to a stop near the end. After staring at the page for a moment, he returned the book to its place and from a slim pocket of his vest pulled a gold pocket watch, its chain trailing into the depths of his vest. It was but a moment before the man’s hands were free once again, and but another before he began to move.

With the silent grace of a cat, he crossed the distance to the two frolicking canines, a frightening glint lighting his eyes as he anticipated the fight ahead. It was not until he was a mere two feet away that the elder wolf noticed, and launched himself at the intruder.
In the dim light available in the shadowed corner of the park, one would have been able to see the smug smile that settled on the man’s features barely a second before the wolf landed, tearing into his skin and clothing. As it was, not a soul was about, and so none saw the sneering amusement burning in bright blue eyes, save a five-year-old boy, hidden in a thick set of bushes, trapped in his wolf form.

Approaching the park, the slightly drunk twenty one year old ambled along in the night, unaware of anything beyond his blurry gaze. His route home tonight was slightly unusual as he decided the cool air was quite refreshing after the cramped atmosphere of the last bar. He took a left where he would usually walk straight, entering the park and intending to take the bridge and dawdle a bit. He had no need to rush. His apartment was boring, his girlfriend was most likely asleep, and he had the next day off; life was good.

Whistling a bit off key, he pulled out a cigarette and nibbled at the butt before he lit it. He snickered quietly at the counterproductive habit and took a pull, enjoying the cool air across his skin.

As he neared the center of the park, he heard screaming. His muddled brain puzzled over why trees would be screaming, before his legs carried him into an open area of the green, where a man was fighting for his life.

The young man stood where he was, staring at the scene in complete incomprehension. There were no wolves in the city. At least, there should not have been any. Yet there one was, clearly doing its best to tear that poor man apart limb for limb. Sweet peanuts, but it was huge! It was nearly as big as those prehistoric beasts he had seen once in a museum as a child, but those things were dead, and this thing was clearly not. He could not blame the poor man for screaming; he felt a bit hysterical himself.

However, a man’s life was at stake here. He looked around, suddenly confused as to why there weren’t sirens blaring through the night. Couldn’t people hear this man screaming? Goodness he was standing at least three yards away and his ears were staring to hurt. However, they had been ‘staring to hurt’ for the better part of an hour, now, which was why he had left that club. Which was a shame, really, since that one girl was willing to take -
Another scream jerked him back to the present, and the young man firmed his grip on his mind. Leaving a half formed thought to the drunken abyss he was quickly falling into, he charged forward, only armed with a cigarette, and a small, silver lighter.