Title: Grey Street
Author: Crazy_Girl_Mary
Email: crazy_girl_mary@yahoo.com
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: female/vamp male
Feedback: It’s a beautiful thing! -crazy_girl_mary@yahoo.com-
Summary: She’s on the run but only when the man chasing her allows it to be so.
Author’s Notes: This is not a sequel to The Long Journey Into Darkness. It just follows the same theme. I hope to make this a series. This part is unlike LjiD because I had a different couple in mind, and I’m going to delve into the occurrences before the fic as it progresses.
I’m including the back story I left out in the first part of the series because I think it tends to the story, being a story in itself, and adds a different aspect, although I liked the lack of back story in the first one and the option for the reader to freely create their own to accord with the characters, so I think in the third and probably final story I’ll have it with no back story again.

Part IV: Missing Person


My eyes burn with disuse as I open them to the hotel room. I can still see his eyes, centering flames, in the middle of my vision. The dreams are reminders that lap back and forth in my mind, sometimes these memory waves break, and the white foam that washes up on the beach only brings up half of the water that was involved in the initial push. I’m thankful for half a serving, a dream large enough to amass that entire sorted history would surely be a tsunami, and I’m not ready to brave one of those at the moment. Not that I haven’t braved it all so many times, but the smaller waves are easier to swim through, even when they come in quick succession.

I get dressed and ready to leave slowly. Inside maybe I’m dreading going back to my apartment to grab a few items before running again. I have to run, it’s what I do, and I don’t know how to face him, or the police. I close and lock the motel door behind me and look out into the gray sky. Such a ugly depressing day, it suits, and I wonder if he’ll be venturing out a little earlier because of it. Figures that my procrastination should bite me in the ass.

The owner watches me carefully as I enter the lobby with my small bag and the key to return. I thank him, and turn to the exit. That’s when I see it, the small flier pasted in the window, it’s facing out, but I already know what it is. I glance back at the clerk who has stuck his head back into the crumpled sports section before I pull it off of the glass and exit the building. I stare back up at me, motionless and confused, from the Xeroxed copy. Apparently I am a MISSING PERSON, and there’s a hefty $25,000 reward for anyone with information leading to my recovery. The picture is from the warehouse, and I can tell by the quality and placement that it’s a still from a hidden video camera, like surveillance in a convenience store. I try to figure out when it was taken as I walk towards the subway station. It proves rather difficult considering that I am the only one in the picture. There are no hands on my shoulders and no vampires advancing, they are as invisible on camera as they are in a mirror. I fold the flier up and put it in my pocket.

I’m completely baffled by it. My first thought is that the police are looking for me because of what Jeanine told them, but they wouldn’t have a picture from the camera in that vampire lair, and they wouldn’t report me missing so early or order such a large reward for a few questions answered in a case so preposterous to begin with. Then I think he did it, but he wouldn’t resort to such drastic measures this early, and I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t have to. If he came to that motel to put up a flier, he would know I was there, he would smell me. Not that he would ever do something so human and unoriginal, I think wryly, he’d rather make bodies until I come around, until I have to face him.

I spot a few more fliers as I walk past dark storefronts to the subway station. On the subway, I pull my coat collar up and try to sink into the coat as far as I can and disappear among the riders, should anyone connect me to the fliers. I hope to be long gone before anyone makes the connection, and with that kind of money, I’ll need hope.

Nearing my building, it’s clear that I won’t be getting anywhere near there. Just outside the subway station a group of rough and tough looking guys, possibly off duty cops or fire fighters or something, are pushing the fliers onto anyone who walks by, making people take them, and not leaving any room for difference. I quickly take one from the first guy, trying to stay hidden behind my collar and a few stray locks of hair, and then quickly put it in front of my face as I pass the others.

I glance back to make sure they aren’t staring at me or following me and I know immediately it was a mistake. The one who gave me the flier is watching, and he is completely blatant about getting out his cell phone right away. He doesn’t motion to his buddies, not yet. I cross the street and head for the subway station, remaining calm and composed, but frantic inside. I don’t want to deal with the cops, or anyone else, and if they know better they won’t want to deal with me either.

I walk down the steps two at a time and as a young man passes he grabs my arm and begins to pull me lightly back up the steps to the street. I turn and pull away, “Don’t touch me.”

“Just come without a fight, save the deaths of any innocents.” He doesn’t look for a second like he cares about the innocents, and it strikes me how young and mild I would’ve thought him if he hadn’t been so bold, that’s if I would’ve noticed him at all.

He may not look like much, but the group fighting their way down the stairs sure does. I don’t think they’re fire fighters or police officers anymore. I don’ think this has anything to do with the cops. I rip my arm back away and turn to rush down the stairs, but I’m only met by another group of burly men struggling up the stairs. I pull my stake out and start towards them. The stake seems to send a slight shake of fear through their eyes, but they aren’t vampires, they are each huffing and sweating in their effort. I turn the stake around and bash the butt into the first one’s head, he crumples easily to the ground but they are now on all sides of me, and they take me down quickly. I feel and see the feet and fists all over my body. I’m being killed by an angry mob, and they aren’t even vampires, better still they aren’t him… imagine that.

The pain wakes me despite the whispered words, faint yet throbbing, inside my skull. I open my eyes. The harsh white light shocks them closed and heightens my head throb. As the words persist and grow louder and louder, I figure I have to open my eyes and maybe I’ll know what those words are. Once my eyes adjust the light isn’t as bright as I expected, and it’s source, a dim fire yards away is the only source in the massive apartment.

“Ah, she stirs… what is your name girl?”

I turn my head to the face that accompanies the decidedly arrogant yet pretty voice. He’s leaning casually against the wall, which I’m chained to, staring deep into my face for the answer to his question while sipping scotch from an elegant crystal glass.

A door on the other side of the room opens and a burly looking vampire comes in. He’s wearing his game face and holding a struggling girl by the throat, “I found her! I found the little bitch in the picture Sol!”

The woman is sobbing and shaking, and the chains binding me rattle as I try to rescue her. In this meager effort my body quickly let’s me know I’m far too damaged to be rescuing anyone. He’s still watching my face, and his eyes let me know he hasn’t looked away, and doesn’t plan to.

“Sol… are you busy man? Cause I can keep her in the other room until you’re ready for her.”

“Go,” he orders simply. His voice is stern and commanding without the effort of raising it. The lesser vampire takes that as a deep sign, and leaves quickly, the girl still struggling meekly.

“Your name?” he asks lightly.

I don’t answer. “I would really like to know who I’m dealing with here.”

My lips stay tight and I glare across the room, not bothering to meet his eyes again. The room is massive, in an elegant yet contemporary style, with sparse furnishing and cinder block walls painted a silver gray color to match the rest of the furniture. There isn’t a scrap of wood in the entire massive room, and probably the whole building, smart move for a vampire.

“Fine,” he says. “Do you know who I am?”

I have no idea who he is, but I’m sure he’s going to let me know. “It doesn’t matter.”

“No,” he says. “I suppose you’re right.” He walks over to a table and puts his glass down. “You’re obviously not the type to answer the questions I want answered so I guess we’ll get right down to business.” He’s a beautiful shell of a man, with a vampire inside, just like him. Although, he- Sol- is not quite in the same league as he is, he’s in a league all his own.

“What do you want?”

“Well up until a few hours ago, I wanted you, returned alive.” Me. What else is new? “Now I want to repay you for the damage you caused me.”

He picks up a remote and flips on a huge television and my face pops up on the screen. His voice stirs unwanted desire through my body and I imagine what he looked like where I can’t see him on the screen. I watch, like a stranger, as I kill the invisible men. The footage looks like some badly constructed fight scene for a movie where the monster will get dubbed in using special effects. “We’ve had a lot of trouble with hunters these past few years, but never one so costly… or so pretty.” He turns the television off again. “Four of my top minions were killed in that room, and I’m highly upset.”

He doesn’t look upset. He looks the same as he’s looked since I opened my eyes, handsome and bright. Even his wrinkled white half buttoned-up shirt, and light gray slacks with bare feet make him look very foreign in this cold room. I can imagine him on a beach somewhere, drinking beer and talking about babes and cars, he even has the tan, which is very uncharacteristic for his kind. Only his eyes, and his aura give away his nature, and he seems to have the confidence of an old vampire.

“It’s so lucky to have caught you alive, because usually they kill themselves if they think they might be captured. Word gets out, no one in this entire city, as massive as it is, would risk a death at my hands.” He pauses and smiles for the first time. “Not from around here huh?” he asks and I don’t know if he wants an answer or not.

“So I’ll tell you what I do to the vampire killers I have the pleasure of capturing alive. I torture them, until they can’t take anymore, rape and sodomize them past the point of breaking, and feed from them; all this while keeping them very much alive and in pain. Then, when I’ve had my fill, I let the boys each have a go or two.”

He’s been walking ever closer to me during his tirade and his fingers grip my chin roughly and hold it up so he can look over my face. “Though, I’ve never had someone so pretty or talented, or someone who has to pay for so many crimes. It could take months, maybe years for me to have my fill of you. And I’ve been toying with the idea of turning a hunter, wouldn’t that just be your worst nightmare?”

It would, and he knows it. Even worse then becoming his minions fuck toy. The imagery has my stomach turning, me naked and chained inside of a dirty cell while the vampires line up to have a run with me; all screaming, feeding, and coming all over.

He lets go of my chin and I pull my head back and spit in his face. I’m not really sure why, just because it’s the only thing I have left. He wipes away the pitiful spit I managed to force from my dry mouth and cracks me roughly across the face. I hear my own head crack into the cinderblock like thunder inside my brain. I already feel like I’m drunk, all off balance, and now I feel like I’m underwater, looking up at the man that’s going to end my life.

“I’m going to enjoy this,” he says as he withdrawals a key from his pants pocket and makes to unlock my waist first. A large cuff is tight around my waist and holding most of my weight. As he pulls it open my whole body sags and the weight is left solely to my arms, which are shackled straight up. He unties them too and I collapse to the floor, unable to stand. I have no idea, where my balance and strength ran off to, but it’s pretty clear they’re long gone.

I won’t go down that easy, without at least a lame attempt to rise again, and I manage to kneel before him, but I know I can’t go any further than that. He grabs the shoulders of my jacket and pulls me easily to my feet. I’m completely helpless and gripped by fear as he drags me to a large steel coffee table. He swipes the few items off of it, throws me down, and straddles me heavily. I guess he wants to get right to the rape, how giddy.

He pulls my arms out of my jacket and I find his wrist and squeeze it with all my strength but he just pushes it off. “Even if you weren’t drugged, you wouldn’t be able to hurt me.”

I’m drugged, that explains a lot, but not everything. He yanks the long jacket out from beneath me. “I wonder if the stake you used to murder my men is still in here,” he says sticking a hand in the first pocket. “We could have a lot of fun with one of those.”

I’m beyond thankful that it’s not, I don’t know where, but I remember I took it out. I feel like clouds are passing through my head, and the drugs must really be kicking in because the pain is completely dulled and I actually feel kind of good, despite my situation, and my fear. But unlike normal fear, adrenaline doesn’t have my blood flowing and my senses heightened because the drugs have dampened them. I’m forced to just lay here and watch.

He’s holding an envelope he withdrew from a pocket. I stare up at it and the name Solomon in beautiful thick black calligraphy swims into my view. “What’s this?” he asks. “You do know who I am?”

“Not mine,” I manage to spit out.

He looks over the letter then brings it to his nose and inhales deeply. “In the video there was a male voice, a vampire is on your side.”

At the mention of him I close my eyes and he floats into my view, all dapper in his suit. The sight of him, the feeling of a strong body pressed against mine, and maybe even the drugs have my entire body warming and singing to him. Maybe subconsciously I know I can always blame the drugs for my lust seeping through, but that doesn’t mean I don’t hate myself still for allowing it to be brought to Solomon’s attention.

I slowly open my eyes and he’s staring down. “Seems as though I’ll find out hmm?” He opens the envelope and pulls out a letter. I watch helplessly as his eyes scan over the paper. It only takes him a few seconds to read it. Then he looks down at me as if for the first time, and a smile playing on his lips. He stands and picks up a cell phone from the floor where it landed and dials a few numbers.

“Tell the guards company is coming, don’t give him any trouble, he’s an old friend of mine,” he says into the phone with a smile. Then he hangs up and sits on a chair next to the table to look me over. I try to get up as he dials a second number, but I’m only able to raise my head and one arm, and I know after I’ve done it that it wasn’t discreet at all. He lets a little laugh out and says, “Don’t bother honey, you won’t get anywhere.”

“Well hello to you too,” he says into the phone. “Yes… oh a lovely time… negotiations are my favorite thing, you’re well aware.” I turn my head to see him better, and his face is bright with happiness. “Finally a chance to play games with you. Who could resist?” He stands up and starts across the room to pour himself another glass of scotch. “Well don’t keep us waiting.”

He hangs up the phone and turns back to me. “Well it looks as though your fortune is about to change. Lucky you have friends in high places, no higher than mine, but that man’s got a mouth on him, and very convincing too.”

“He did it,” I croak out and he cranes his neck and then comes closer.

“What?”

“He killed your minions.”

He considers this for a second. “Either way. I didn’t much care for them, they were just in the midst of some important negotiations, but sometimes there are more important things then business.” He runs his fingers threw his spiky hair in a grooming manner and then goes over to turn down the fire, leaving the room in an even darker more somber glow. “He should be here in a little bit, and then we’ll decide what will happen.”

He moves over to an entertainment system and opens a record player. I can see him leafing through a record collection for the right music and I know it’s now or never. He can’t capture me, not again, not ever. He’s taking his time with the records and setting the music. I use my hands to hoist my body into standing position and the ground spins and swirls below me as I take a step towards the massive doors. He’ll turn around and catch me if I don’t move quicker, probably catch me anyway, but I won’t go down without a fight, so I take a few more steps. They start to come easier as I sway along.

A few feet from the door it’s pulled soundlessly open and he is standing in front of me, in a suit even more beautiful then the one from before. He asks, “Come to meet me at the door love?” His eyes smile as he closes the cold metal slab behind him and steps into the room. He grabs my arm and starts to walk towards the center of the room. His pulling has me spun around easily and I know it will be easier just to take the steps with him than to fall and hurt myself even more.

Solomon poured him a glass and is waiting on the large couch for him to take a seat. He sits me down on the couch across from our host and then takes his jacket off and sits next to me, straightening his pant legs and turning his attention to Solomon. It’s all so foreign and amazing how normal this could all be if they weren’t vampires, and if I wasn’t a drugged captive who they both want to torture.

“Solomon, you’re looking well,” he says politely, sizing up the man before him as he picks up his drink and takes a sip.

“And you, as always,” he returns with a smile and a delicate sip of his own drink. They’re like snobby socialites and there is an air of slight disdain in the room, overshadowed by deep respect and desire for each other. It surprises me because I didn’t think he could respect anyone.

He puts a hand on my thigh like a gentle lover who wants to let a room or bus full of people know I’m his girl. There’s no need other then to make me hot, to make me wish for a different kind of want in a different kind of world. “So, about this…” he says lightly.

“Must we talk business, it’s not everyday I have a guest as entertaining as you.”

“Yes, I know, and I gave my word I would visit more, but I’ve been busy.” He looks then at me as if to emphasize what he’s been busy with.

“Well I’m doing you a huge favor here, giving up something so fine… so I would like to see something fine in return. You will keep your word.” Solomon’s statements are more certainties, like he has some power over him, either that or a definite weakness for him, which is far easier to believe.

He simply nods, his fingers squeezing my thigh a little tighter for the moment. My head is still swimming around the room, and the waves inside it are threatening to crash and break in unbearable sequence if I should fall asleep. I try to hold my eyes open wide and my head up straight to prevent this.

Solomon stands and turns away to walk over to the liquor cabinet. “Take your whore and leave,” he says forcefully.

He stands now, his posture forceful and threatening. “Is that any way to talk to an old friend? Especially one of my bearing?”

Solomon turns, and for a moment I think there are tears in his eyes. He’s worse then a spoiled little valley girl, fucking whiner. “Oh don’t try that intimidation bullshit on me!” he whines. “I have just as much power and force as you do!”

“That may be true,” he returns stepping forward. “But I am not crippled by my passions, and I’m certainly very capable of retribution.”

Solomon steps forward in a challenge. “You won’t kill me.”

I stare at his back, longing to see into his eyes and know what he’s thinking, what Solomon sees that has him so sure. I want to see that too. I want to be so sure that he won’t take my life. “You’re right,” he says lightly and then turns and starts towards me. “I would be far more likely to bestow a fate worse then death on such a betrayer.” Then he lifts me over his shoulder and starts out of the room.

I try to kick and fight but I know my movements are less than weak. All of the waves swimming in my brain threaten to wash out all over the back of his suit jacket if he continues to bounce me like he is. I feel pins and needles all over and a tight face as all the blood rushes to my head. I realize I’m going to pass out only seconds before I do.




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