Casefiles of a Vampire 1: 7/10?

[pdglyph.livejournal.com]

Disclaimer: Do not own WL or the men
Rating for this chapter: R for violence, language, and some sexuality



7

One of the things I disliked most about being a vampire, besides not being able to properly enjoy food anymore, was not being able to do any legal shopping.

Already disappointed with the Windy City’s disturbing lack of costume shops, I finally succeeded in finding one that had a few items for taller gentlemen, labeled ‘Fancy Dress Parties’. I nearly fainted at the prices, but since I was a robber at the moment, I decided that being so grossly overpriced was a sin, and any tips I left to take care of the damage I caused while entering would even out the amount deducted by my Undead Discount.

Happily satisfied with my purchases I left, locking the door behind me. Unhappily, two thugs jumped out of their hiding spot under a partially collapsed awning. Guess this was a really bad part of town. “Drop what you got, old man,” one growled, pointing what looked like an authentic Ruger at me while the other slapped my packages out of my hands.

I held em’ up, because even I couldn’t survive without my head.

I was just trying to catch the eye of the guy shoving me against the wall and searching my pockets while kicking my feet apart, when a large, furred bundle of claws and muscle suddenly dropped on the thug with the gun. It went off , and there was a pained ‘Yip!’ followed by growls and the mans screams that cut off rather abruptly.

When the man searching me turned to see what had happened to his accomplice, I reached around and clapped a hand over his mouth, not seeing him grab a flick knife from his pocket. Then he stabbed me. I grunted, wincing as six inches of steel found a new home in my gut, puncturing my left kidney, and grabbed his wrist. “That hurt,” I growled, showing him my teeth. “Please pull it out,”

His eyes under his floppy cap flew wide, and he began making odd mewling sounds from behind my hand. He was shaking too hard to get a good grip on the already slippery handle, so I settled for holding him to the wall by his collar as I pulled it out and let it drop. I spat on the sidewalk, wincing as the flesh and viscera knitted together almost as soon as the knife was gone, and once again I was glad that silver was the only thing I really had to look out for. However, yet another shirt was ruined. Fuck. I turned, my frown fell away to find myself smiling wide. “Hello Wayne. Great timing,”

The 7-foot tall wolf man nodded his huge head, smiling and showing off teeth that made the man in under my hand shudder and go limp. I dropped him when I smelled the sharp odor of urine, dropping him just in time to keep it from staining my own trousers. “We’ve been tracking you since Delware street,” he said, his voice gravelly.

“Why?”

“Why not?”

I suppose it made sense to him, so I shrugged. “Well, I can’t argue with the results.”

“Trouble is attracted to you, brother, and makes for a fine meal.” He gestured at the two men, one oozing bonelessly onto the concrete, the other still dripping.

I turned to see the rest of his pack coming out of the shadows, and smiled, nodding to the few I recognized. They nodded back, and a few even dipped low to rub cheeks with me or lick my hand. I didn’t understand it, but as long as they weren’t eating me, it was just jake.

Through several, horrible events that could have, and probably should have, killed us all, Wayne and I had bonded to the point where the blood we’d spilled for the other had created a brotherhood between us. No one quite understood it, simply because of his race, but we didn’t need them to understand it. We both knew that if one called, the other would come.

The Pack left quickly, since meat doesn’t stay warm for long once it’s dead, taking the unconscious man with them. Don’t look at me like that. I would have probably ended up eating them, too.

The drive home left me with time to think about the other animals we had residing currently in Chicago. Delilah… and her cats.

Things had gone sour with Delilah where they’d once been quite good. She had found out that her daughter had been taken hostage, and so did everything in her power to get her back. Noble as it sounds, she nearly killed everyone. She redeemed herself in the end, giving her life to save mine, but shortly after Brad had been killed for good, Clive and Josie, Demonic and Divine Lawyers respectively, had arrived and given Greg his back.

And for some reason he’ll never admit to me, he brought her back to life because she mattered to me.

But… she still didn’t forgive herself, and frankly, none of us saw fit to forgive her just yet, either.

It was unfair, and I don’t think any of us would have done differently if our only child’s life had been in the balance, but still… we couldn’t deny what we felt.

Time heals all wounds, they say, so us immortals shouldn’t carry a grudge for too long… ha ha…


I pulled into my drive only to find another car waiting for me there, a tall, elegant woman resting against the door. I parked behind it and got out, trying to scent who she was, because the raw power drifting around her let me know she wasn’t human.

“Uncle Colin!” a girlish cry issued forth and a young girl, looking on the younger side of 9, though her real age was impossible for me to tell, hurried forward and leapt into my arms, sending my packages to the ground.

“Ah ha!” I laughed, holding her tight and twirling her, getting giggles. “Is this the face that launched a thousand ships? Helena, you angel, what are you doing sneaking up on me for?”

Her pretty little face scrunched up as she tried to wrap her mouth around the words. She was still a smart kid, probably smarter than most, but her time imprisoned in the ‘Tween, the space between planes, had broken something in her that was taking a long time to heal. At least she wasn’t screaming at the sight of me as often. “Practicing,” she sighed, giving up what she had been trying to say with a giggle. I chuckled, beaming, I’ll admit it, at the little girl with her charcoal gray eyes, and pale gray hair with shots of black running through them pigtails trailing past the hem of her skirt. Like a black and grey tabby. “I’m going to be the l-leader of my Pride someday… and I gotta be a good… hunter.”

“Well you certainly are one now. I’d hate to see how you’d treat me when you’re a big lady,” I grinned, pressing a kiss to her cheek just beginning to lose its baby fat.

“You smell good…” she sniffed at me, squirming so she could see the torn, bloody hole in my shirt.

I frowned, knowing that when I made her look at me, that she’d have no one home behind her eyes. “You gonna bite me, beautiful girl?”

Her face twisted in confusion for a few moments before she blinked and smiled, like she’d just dozed off for a moment. “Uncle!” she insisted as I set her down, helping me pick up my packages and taking my free hand as we walked towards her mother. Inside, I was shaking my head, even as I smiled at her humming happily to herself. Poor child…

Delilah’s hair was shorter than when I’d first known her, shorn to a little above her shoulders instead of brushing past her waist. The lightening hadn’t fried it that much, but when all of us had asked her, she said it was a custom of her people way back when they had been alive that a shamed person’s honor would return with their hair. Egyptians weren’t around anymore, not like that anyway, but her family was old, and the werecats were nothing if not decorous towards the past. We respected the custom, and I honestly believed that when it returned to its former length, all would be well, but the bonds between us all were strained. For now, she looked more fashionable than when her hair had been long. “Delilah,” I murmured, nodding to her.

She uncrossed her arms, unsure what to do with them before she clasped them together. “Mr. Mochrie… what happened?” she asked, nodding to my side. I knew she could smell the blood.

“A scuffle while out shopping. Please,” I motioned her forward, “Come in, both of you.”

Her shoulders dropped just a fraction in relief, and she flashed a pale version of a smile behind her eyes before nodding, leading Helena into my house.


Once we had been installed into my downstairs house, myself apologizing for the mess, a quick shirt change, and Helena had her cup of milk and some cookies I’d baked just for her not long ago, I turned with a small but fond smile to Delilah. We stared at one another for a moment before I coughed, flushing slightly. “So, what can I do you lovely ladies for?” I asked.

“We were in town for the party, though I am leaving Helena with Laura and Linda,” Delilah murmured, smiling down at Helena as she devoured the cookies, her feet swinging from the chair. “Helena wanted very much to see her Uncles.”

“Well, Uncle Ry is still at work, but he’ll be very sore indeed to hear he missed you,” I said, shrugging in apology. It was very much the truth. Ryan and Helena had bonded incredibly since that first terrible night they’d met. Ryan was her knight, and I was her mother’s.

“Mommy! S-stay until Uncle Ryan gets home?” she asked, eyes wide and already glittering with tears.

Delilah looked to me. I shrugged, nodding with a small smile. “Of course dear, but will you be awake then?”

“Absolutely!”

She was out like a light five minutes later.

We put her in my bedroom, shutting the door with a crack of light just in case while we retired to the couch. “So how is she?” I asked once we had both settled down in front of the fireplace, crackling with a little fire, warming the place considerably.

Delilah swirled her glass of brandy around, watching the lovely liquid catch the light. “She’s better,” she sighed. “She doesn’t scream as often… mostly it’s just nightmares now, night terrors, really… of the nothingness in the ‘Tween…”

“She seems better… talking to me now instead of...” I flinched. It was something that should have never happened to her, but it made being around her very hard, especially for Delilah. I looked over at her. “And you? How are you?”

She smiled ruefully. “Better… not whole yet…” She reached up to finger a lock of hair but fell short, her face frozen before she smiled briefly. “But one has faith… One is paying, hopefully, penance, and that it is enough… the Pride is helping me pay it, as well…” To my clueless look, she continued. “They are challenging me.”

My jaw dropped. I couldn’t help it.

“Don’t look so surprised. With one’s history of betrayal, it’s to be expected.”

“But what about what it cost you to save them?” I asked, instantly indignant. “What about the sacrifices you made so they could live here without fear, and the deals you are still making for them?”

“No one wants a traitor for a leader, Colin, and that is all they will see until my hair is back.” She lifted the glass for a sip, letting me see the fern scars from when she’d taken lightening into her body to help summon a demon so we could destroy him. They were pink and fading, but some speculated she’d have them forever. We didn’t know because none of us had ever survived a lightening strike before. “There are no excuses, and one is proud, a little, of that. One…one has always tried to do the best for the Pride. For the family. We’re born into it, you see.” She glanced at me before returning her vision to a point in front of her I’d never see. “We’re born into the Pride, though we have had a few of the changed. Mutts.” Her lip curled a little before she shook her head. “And we’ve always said: Honor First in the teachings of kittens, of little ones. Family, second.” She looked at the door where her daughter was sleeping. Then she turned to me, eyes broken. “What kind of example have I given to my daughter?”

I looked away before regarding her. Her gaze made me want to squirm, but I resisted as much as I could. “That the ones you love are important, too…”

She gave me a look. “The needs of the one to the needs of the many?” She shook her head. “That is no lesson for a little queen like her…” She looked up, pain naked on her face and in her tears. “Good gods, she might not be able to lead the Pride… they’d never accept an insane, spawn of a traitor…”

“Delilah,” I gasped, shocked.

She gave me an ugly glare. “There’s no way to pretty it up, Colin. My daughter endured something, and is broken for it.”

“You’re giving up on her so fast?” I asked quietly.

She looked down, slumping in on herself. “No… no… one loves her too much to give up on her. But… one is so tired…” She shook her head, rubbing her forehead before straightening, rebuilding herself as best she could. She hesitated, looking at me, before shaking her head and taking a large swallow, setting the glass down and looking away.

“What is it?” I asked.

“It isn’t one’s place to ask,” she said stiffly.

“Delilah, please,” I set my glass down and took her hands, turning her to face me. “What is it?”

She turned those large, chocolate orbs to me, but didn’t bat them at me. They didn’t fill with tears to melt my heart, and in fact, they were cold and untouchable. They didn’t match her words at all. “Do you forgive me? Please…” she interrupted as I began to answer ‘of course!’ “Answer from your heart…”

I paused, looking at her before turning towards the bedroom, where Helena lay sleeping peacefully. I turned back to her and nodded. “I forgive you,” I said softly, and that was all she needed before wrapping arms around my shoulders and holding me close, sniffling into my collar, shaking like a fever victim.

“I’ll never betray you again…” she whispered wetly, “I swear it.”

I hushed her, stroking her hair and holding her close.

I don’t know how, but we ended up more or less reclining on the couch, myself on the bottom leaning against the armrest and a few pillows, her resting nearly on top of me. I stroked my hand through her hair, brushing it from her face as she wept silently, curling tightly around me. I wouldn’t normally have chosen such a compromising position, but in the face of such pain, all I could see was her need for contact. Everything after that was secondary, and slowly, I began to relax.

Finally, after a while, when I was nearly asleep, she began to purr. It was a feeling I hadn’t felt in a long time, and I enjoyed it immensely. It was soothing the way few things were these days. It lulled me into a doze, thick and heady like a drug, and I felt at peace.

When the purring stopped, after a few moments, and I licked my lips blinking down at her, eyebrows raised. She looked up at me with heavily lidded eyes, running fingertips along my chin in a light question. “Do you ever… wonder back to that night? Before one was a traitor, when it was just us?”

I shifted a little, blushing. “Yes,” I answered, voice thick suddenly.

“Why didn’t you take my offer?”

I blushed even harder. “Because you weren’t mine to have…”

She leaned up on her elbow, looking at me, hair creating a sweet smelling curtain. “Yes, I am…”

I ran a hand over the incredible softness of her cheek, watching as she turned into it, purring softer this time. She leaned forward, the purr vibrating deep in my own chest now as her lips touched mine and our kiss tingle with it. It was gentle and hesitant, questioning, asking permission until I opened my mouth, cupping her face and telling her with everything I had that everything was alright now.

She whimpered a little, and I tasted the salt of her tears as I licked them from her mouth, showing her I still loved her as much as I could, as much as a man like me was able to, but that I couldn’t. In her own way she understood it, but it didn’t console her. I knew she was still in her own private dungeon, and I couldn’t reach her there, but I also knew that she craved my kiss now, and she needed my comfort like air.

We parted with a sad sigh, and I ran my fingers through her hair, so horribly short, and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I’m sorry… but I can’t…”

“I know,” she whispered back, voice thick with tears. She opened her mouth but stopped suddenly, and we looked over to find Ryan kneeling nearby, just watching us. I made to move but she kept us still, and I really looked at him. His lips were wet were he’d licked them, and his eyes were wide and dilated, and his perfume… confusion and… lust?

I looked to Delilah, who turned to me, an eyebrow arched in silent question. Together we turned back to him and I held out a hand. “Ryan?” The man on his knees before us jerked and he blinked at me, then to my lips. He reached out and took my hand, crawling forward with a small wince of pain for his knees before his lips hovered over mine. I looked up at him, watching his gray-greens become all but lost against his pupils. “Ry?” I whispered, voice hoarse, when he pressed our lips together forcefully, forcing my mouth open and sweeping it for any lingering traces of Delilah. He shuddered suddenly and pulled away to grip her hair, pulling her into a kiss just as harsh and demanding as the one he’d shared with me.

I blinked, watching them, and discovered what Ryan had moments before: we liked seeing one another with Delilah, and we liked having Delilah with us… a lot.

I latched onto her neck but didn’t penetrate, keeping my eyeteeth safely out of her skin but nibbling along the sensitive flesh, reminding her of what we had shared once. She moaned in Ryan’s mouth, making him growl and getting a return growl from her. It startled him, to hear such a primordial sound coming from such a dainty woman, and he pulled back slightly.

We seemed to wake up from the spell we’d cast on one another and gave weak giggles before I brushed a hand over his cheek. Ryan turned and seemed to focus on me for the first time since he got home. I searched his eyes for some hint of anger, or of being upset, but I couldn’t find it. I frowned, and he chuckled, a boyish grin on his flushed, handsome face. We felt movement and both glanced down to where she lay on my chest.

She was rubbing her chin on my chest like she was scent marking me, watching with the impassive gaze of a cat. Whatever she saw in our eyes made her smile as, without taking her eyes from us, she grabbed two handfuls of my shirt and peeled it apart like it was made of rice paper. My breath caught, and I pulled Ryan back down, moaning into his mouth as Delilah began to lick and kiss her way down my chest.

“Mommy?”

We all pulled away so fast Ryan ended up on his ass in front of the couch, blinking, and Delilah was up and across the room, straightening her clothes, before I could blink. I sat up, walked over and picked Ryan up, both of us turning to hide our erections as I tried to put my shirt back together without buttons. I went through more shirts as a vampire than I’d ever gone through in my life. “Yes darling, what did you need?” Delilah asked, clearing her throat.

“Uncle Ryan is home?” Helena kneaded a fist against the sleep in her eyes and looked from her mother to Uncle Ryan, who had his eyes shut tight, muttering something to himself under his breath, something about bad timing. Probably to trying to calm himself down. Then he turned and walked over, kneeling down to sweep Helena into his arms.

Delilah and I stood to one side and watched him come to life chattering with the young girl in his arms, drawing a whole conversation out of her like they’d always done. She and I shared a sheepish grin, flushing over my ruined shirt as I covered it with my coat before she glanced over at the talkative pair. “He truly is a father, isn’t he?”

“He was… he is,” I nodded, smiling sadly.

“He’s a good one…” Delilah nodded, leaning into me. After watching Ryan and Helena gabble a bit more, she pulled away with a sigh. “Well, we must be going. Mommy has arrangements to make and babysitters to find. They’ve moved again,” she sighed, rolling her eyes. “One almost believes they don’t quite like being so well known to our community, but oh well, as they say. But I’m sorry, my darling, it’s time to say good night to your uncles and go wait for me in the car.”

“Yes mother,” Helena said tiredly, giving us both sleepy last hugs before taking her coat and leaving us grownups alone.

Gulp.

All three of us were reluctant to break the awkward silence, but she powered through that little problem. “This is an interesting development,” she murmured, blushing a little, her eyes to the ground.

I gave a nervous giggle, and pulled at my ear and saw Ryan blush, hiding a goofy grin. “Yeah, you could say that.”

We were silent again before she took both of our hands. “But one cannot say one didn’t enjoy it… One can say that one would enjoy having another sample sometime in the future, perhaps?” She looked between the both of us before smiling one of her quiet half smiles. “In the future, perhaps,” she said with finality, leaning forward to kiss me on the lips before turning to Ryan and giving him the same.

We shared a glance as we watched her go, then sealed ourselves in for the night before turning to one another. “In the future?” I asked hesitantly as we got ready for bed.

“In the future,” he agreed, his voice deepened and rough as he looked at me with eyes bright and glittering with new and delicious knowledge, his hands reaching out to smooth up my arm, cupping my neck and bringing me in for a kiss, tasting every square inch of my mouth and making me quake.

I shivered at it, because it was a promise, and I always liked Ryan’s promises.

Comments

[saiya-tina.livejournal.com]

YAY! New chapter! I love watching Ryan interact with a kid! He bonds so well with her! Ooh, new development in their relationship! Could it be anymore unnatural?

Lovin' this!

[pdglyph.livejournal.com]

Thanks hon! :)

Glyph made me keep the 3some smoochie scene in, but I'm not so sure about it. Seems a little out of the blue to me, what do you think?

[saiya-tina.livejournal.com]

Weeeeelll, maybe a little. It could probably work, but it just kinda pops out without a hint. I mean, I'm no critic by any standards, but I have to agree with you, it does seem a little out of the blue.

[pdglyph.livejournal.com]

Damn... that's what I was wondering... damn. I need to just trash this whole chapter. Oh well, can't hit it on the head all the time XD I think I'm gonna do a serious bounce, anyway. So screw it XD

[saiya-tina.livejournal.com]

No, don't scrap the chapter! It's just that one small part! The rest of it is great!

[zanderisms.livejournal.com]

I hope this new development develops more soon, that was very sexy lol.

And I love Colin and Ryans interactions with Helena.

Can't wait for more!

[pdglyph.livejournal.com]

Will develope a developing, thing, promise :D

Thanks doll

[charminglygawky.livejournal.com]

Wow, threesome with a cat. 0_0 I like!
And yeah it was a little bolt from the blue-ish but I think that adds to it. Cos they are confused by it so it isn't odd that we didn't see it coming, cos they didn't... yeah. *Gives up on explanation and reverts back to 'I liked it!'*

I love Colin's voice in this, it really fits his time and it never wavers the line "as long as they weren’t eating me, it was just jake." made me laugh, a lot!

[pdglyph.livejournal.com]

XD! Well, Glyph argues that it isn't quite out of the blue because Colin nearly shagged her in the previous story... twice.

But thank you for the comments. They equal love :D

[charminglygawky.livejournal.com]

They do equal love, I adore your writing, alot. XD