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 VI: Fail to Fall


People are looking at me with cautious hungry eyes, looking at me like I look at myself. They see the same thing I see, a body oozing with sometimes unwanted sexual expression, and they see a dirty beaten broken girl. Perhaps they see an easy victim, despite my strength and knowledge I am one, but not theirs… his only.

I stumble on bloody feet past the drug corners and the prostitute windows. This isn’t the safest place in the world to be but it’s far better then his. The hungry eyes follow me wherever I go, wanting to meet mine, wanting to pull mine in and suck mine dry. I look at the ground, my senses dulled by choice, if he’s following me there’s nothing I can do so what’s the use of my early warning system?

I don’t know what to do or where to go, shoeless feet, moneyless pockets, directionless walk. A hungry man walking past gets touchy with his dirty hands. “Hey baby, busy tonight?” he asks, running them over my chest. I uppercut him, then bring my elbow back into his face, and he drops to his knees with a groan where I can easily walk past him. The rest of the people on the sidewalk stare in wonder and glee, or quickly pass to the other side of the road.

Walking, that’s all I can think of. I barely notice my surroundings, not the sirens, the storefronts, the watchers, the concrete yards, not until I see the bridge looming in the distance. I keep contact with it, but really with nothing, until I feel the metal grates at its middle section below my feet. I place both hands on the railing and take a good strong look down at the roiling black river below.

I don’t know how long I’ve been there for, wondering what kind of death that frosted black oblivion promises, or if I’ll even be able to go through with it. I don’t hear the soft approaching footsteps… but I hear the voice clearly. “Wouldn’t do that if I was you.”

I turn slowly to meet the steady eyes of a pretty young blonde, smoking a cigarette and exchanging her glance between the ledge and me. I don’t answer her, just look back to the water. She doesn’t take a hint, probably wouldn’t take the suggestion to get the fuck out of here, even if I threw it at her. She walks right up next to me and leans against the railing looking down as well.

“I work down there,” she says pointing with her glowing cigarette to a little dive right on the river’s edge. A few lights visible through black curtains illuminate the windows. “People jump all the time,” she says lightly. “Most of the time they die, nothing striking… but every once and a while, more than you’d think probably, the people survive with some really nasty injuries. Smarts too, well most of the time. One guy I saw managed to swim ashore down river, walked his bloody broken ass back up here for a second try.”

I glance over at her, curious to see what truth and perhaps mild compassion look like in the face of a young streetwise beauty. She just looks intelligent and composed. “A broken limb collection will give you plenty of time to reevaluate life’s worth.”

She pulls out a soft pack of smokes from her jacket pocket and offers me one. I raise a hand to refuse and she lights up again. “So what’s your deal?” she asks through cigarette clutching red lips. “Man trouble?”

“You could say that.”

“You wanna get a coffee and I can show you the survivor pictures? We keep ‘em up on the wall.” She smiles and turns, looking confident, like she knows I’ll follow. I do, because I have nowhere else to go, or nothing to do, and because despite my desire she has temporarily swayed me away from my quick, convenient, and apparently high-risk suicide attempt.

Her name is Lil. She doesn’t say if it’s short for something or just a nickname and I don’t ask. I don’t really care. The coffee she poured me is barely warm and blacker then the night and the river, but it’s starting to bring me back to my senses. She gave me a pair of shoes from her apartment upstairs and she says I can stay at her place for the night. I watch vacantly as she wipes the dirty vacant tables and serves mainly coffee to the vacant guests. The door swings open and I glance over, wondering if it will be him. It’s not, just a middle-aged greaser. He’s got long dark hair twisted into dreadlocks, uneven tan skin like a fisherman, and big brown eyes. He looks around the room, his eyes resting on me for a moment, then he smiles at Lil.

“Hey Jimmy,” she says lightly. “Grab a seat and I’ll get you a drink.”

I’m not surprised when he sidles up next to me and pulls out a stool. He looks around cautiously before pulling a baggy out of his weathered jacket pocket and placing it on the counter. There are about twenty small white tablets inside, tablets I would mistake for Tylenol if Jimmy weren’t so damn guilty looking.

“How you been Lil?” he asks.

“Pretty good,” she says over her shoulder as she pours him a cup of coffee. “You?”

“I been okay.” He looks over at me. “Who’s the stray?”

Lil puts the coffee cup in front of him and I don’t try and disguise my staring. “Jumper, picked her up about an hour ago, poor thing didn’t even have any shoes or any place to go.” She smiles at me before drifting off into the kitchen where we can still see her through the old order window that probably hasn’t been used in years.

He smiles a deceivingly warm smile and I notice his high cheekbones and beauty behind the jagged dreads and facial hair. “And I’m sure you were all too happy to offer.” He’s still staring intently at me, and I refuse to budge under his scrutinizing and attractive gaze.

“She’ll only break your heart,” he says finally, and I’m not sure whether he’s talking to me or about me.

He takes the plate of scrambled eggs that Lil places in front of him and shovels a few heaps in, narrowly avoiding his mustache and goatee with every bite. “You look familiar, have I slept with you before?” he asks with a cunning smile. He’s obviously not your average innocent fisherman.

“Easy Jimmy, be easy,” Lil advises with a smile. “This one’s got fight in her, I can tell.”

I look back to her, wondering if she would protect me, then back at him, wondering if he really has the balls to try. He smiles. “Yeah, definite fight,” he answers, looking away and pushing the plate and the pills Lil’s way. “What do you got for me baby?”

She reaches in the pocket of a small apron around her waist and pulls out a thick wad of cash. “That should about cover it huh?”

He counts it, an appreciative smile building on his plush lips. He takes out a slim metal compact with a fanged cobra coiled on the front and removes a hand rolled cigarette, among other things I expect. He gestures the case to me but I just stare blankly. “She’s not a smoker,” Lil informs him.

“Looks smoky to me, and hot to boot.”

Lil giggles at this and smiles my way. “Come off it Jimmy,” she says with a laugh.

“You sure you don’t wanna stay with me tonight Kitten?” he asks me, stepping close to my stool. As he does he raises one palm to my cheek, so close I can almost feel it but our skin never touches. The intoxicating herbal smell billows around me. I’m half a mind to flatten him to the ground as an answer but I just stare into his big brown eyes, so beautiful… beautifully dangerous. “Damn shame,” he says after going without an answer.

When he leaves, the few remaining diners aren’t far behind and Lil closes the curtains and locks the door before turning up the jukebox. Jazz music floats out and she dances as she finishes cleaning up. I haven’t moved from my spot at the counter and she doesn’t ask me too, just cleans around me as she dances. The whole scene is surreal, if her outfit was less revealing and more vintage, and if the diner weren’t in downright disrepair, it would seem like I traveled back in time.

Part VII: Ecstasy and It’s Extreme Opposite


She dances happily with the mop as she cleans, slinging back strands of hair that fall before her eyes. I watch her from my seat where I’m slumped and feeling damn good too. I run my fingertips up and down my own arms and, the hairs rise and send trillions of tingles through my entire body. I’m feeling damn good.

I never was one for drugs, but not like I have anything to lose now. I look back up to the girl and she’s watching me with those eyes. They aren’t the eyes she used to lure me in, now they’re the same eyes that I saw on the street, hungry and happy. She thinks she made me willing but I was this way when she found me. A couple of pills won’t change that, they just strengthen the process, perhaps redirect my lust slightly.

I would normally want him at this time, feeling like this. I want to be touched in any which way by anyone and if I had a choice it would be him… but she’s here, and she’s cute, and she’s not him. Not him in the sense that I will truly hold the power… but she doesn’t know that. I don’t even know that, I don’t know what I know, except that I know that I want him… God I want him and it’s wrong, and I’m wrong, and maybe that’s why he wants me. Maybe he’s always known how wrong I am, and that’s why he’s wanted me before I knew I could even be wanted or want someone so hideous back.

She’s moved on to wiping the tables, and seduction with it. When her and her rag near the booth where I relocated, her hips still swaying with the music, she pulls her shirt over her head and begins to run the rag over the table in circles. She stares deep into my eyes, surprisingly full breasts rising and falling inside the small bra she wears. Her short blonde hair is tousled on her head, the short spikes sticking every which way. Sweat lightly coats her pale skin and her eyes are hooded with high and lust. With senses simultaneously heightened and dampened, I stand from my booth and walk around the table until I’m only inches away from her.

I was never really the one to initiate, especially with another woman, which is an all-new experience entirely for me, but I go with it, go with the drug, go with anything, go with her, into the bedroom where she leads me. The bedroom where I find something new and exciting, but more importantly sex that can take my mind off of him and satisfy me of him all at once.

The sun is already setting when I open my eyes to it. I glance around the room for a while. Where am I? Where is she? Where are my pants? I sit up and see my clothes folded neatly at the bottom of the bed. Rather maternal of her. I dress quickly, and the dull noise from the diner downstairs is starting to draw me out. I find a small bathroom and check my appearance out of habit more than concern before descending the rickety old wooden stairs into the stock room. From the stock room, I find the kitchen, and then the main room, where she is sitting behind the counter with a newspaper in her hand. There are a few people scattered at the tables and the counter, eating the same shitty food, and seeing the same shitty scenery. They look permanent, like they belong here, but the man sitting at the table in the far back with Jimmy sure does not belong here. He doesn’t belong anywhere but the metal room where I first saw him.

Dread swells in my chest and I turn quickly to go back into the kitchen. I look around frantically for anything I can disguise myself with, or any back door to escape out. There’s nothing there. I decide it’s best to just go out there and face him. I can take him. I’m not drugged this time. I’m not overwhelmed by vampires this time. This time is different. This time the odds are mine.

I walk out of the kitchen swiftly and instead of making a beeline for the door I walk right over to their table and sit down next to Jimmy. They both stare at me, pleasantly surprised. “What a pretty little snitch,” I say lightly running my finger down Jimmy’s earlobe, my talking lips only inches from his cheek.

“Couldn’t help myself love,” he answers without any trace of remorse, hunger for me still tainting his eyes and voice.

I turn my attention across the table to the ancient, strong, evil, beautiful vampire seated there. “And here I thought I’d never have the pleasure again… gotta love those happy accidents.”

“You broke our agreement, and now I’m going to break you… and damn if I’m not going to love it,” is his calm answer. He doesn’t look happy, probably not happy to be here. But, in my arrogance I guess he’s not happy because he knows he can’t touch me, I’m protected.

“You wouldn’t dare,” I challenge calmly.

It happens in an instant. I’m on the floor before I even see him move, his hand is wrapped around my throat, and I’m pinned to the hardwood floor beneath his legs. His face is only a breath away from mine, and his anger is making my hair stand on end. “Wouldn’t I?” he rasps down. “You dared to leave your protected little hole in the ground. Your master dared to allow you.”

“I have no master!” I scream.

“You do now!” he counters before standing and pulling me up with him. His hand doesn’t release my throat and I don’t try to fight him, not until I can get a better reach. I stare into his eyes as they stare into mine, locked, both searching for flaws, for weaknesses. I find none, but does he?

He lets me go and looks over Lil, who’s standing horrified behind the counter, before I know for sure he found my weakness in my eyes. “Should I bring her with me?” he asks Jimmy with a laugh.

“She’s not worth the trouble,” he answers.

Solomon releases his hold on my neck, steps back a bit, looks at me, and inhales deeply. “Sure smells like she was worth it to you.”

Jimmy chuckles at this and stares over my body. “Oh I got a funny little drug that’ll make even the straightest girls purr.”

“What would he think? What would he say? Do you think it would disgust or excite him? Anger or disappoint him?”

“Why don’t you ask him yourself?” a voice from behind me retorts my retort before I get a chance and quickly draws all eyes. I don’t turn and look. I know who the voice belongs to. He steps into the room and I’m drawn to turn to him, even against the will screaming inside my head to avoid the sight.

He walks over to the counter and smiles at Lil, who steps back against the wall uselessly. He smiles seductively at her and reaches over the counter himself to draw out a gun. He points it at her and I gasp and start towards her slowly but he just grins and empties the bullets out onto the floor at his feet before tossing the gun back behind the counter; and the sounds echo on hollowly. He knew it was there. He’s been to this place before. Last night? Last year? Did he know I would come here? Did Lil? Could I be more confused?

His eyes in mine only create more confusion, but they only linger there slightly before moving above mine to my new captor’s. I realize his hand is back around my throat and that is why I wasn’t able to move all the way to Lil. Jimmy is at my side. He’s beautiful and he’s human, but he’s evil, and he’ll die, and I don’t really have sympathy to give him, its spread far too thin.

I hear the smugness in the voice behind my neck. “How does it feel to know that your little whore escaped your sanctuary to run to the arms of a cheap trash little dyke?”

Solomon’s anger and hatred is almost malleable and so is what he returns. “We are no longer friends Solomon,” he answers, and despite his low tone, his statement is all threat. “Let her go and leave. You’ll need all the time you can to prepare for the fight you’ve earned yourself.”

“Strong words considering you’re on my coast, and far from your minion armies,” Solomon answers, his grip on my throat not wavering. “My armies however, they couldn’t be closer at hand.” With those words a rush of vampires enter the door behind him. They are hungry and itching for a fight. There’s far too many of them for even him and I can’t see myself bothering to save a life that pretty much belongs to him from here on out anyway. Lil will die, I’m sorry about that because I’m pretty sure she’s innocent, and even without that I can tell she’s too scared to have worked with either of them.

He doesn’t look like he plans to fight, which is smart because this is a battle even he couldn’t win. I’m in no position to help, mostly because I don’t really care anymore. “Like you… so scared,” he retorts to Solomon, his stance still collected. It’s more than obvious there’s a past between them but I can’t figure it out for the life of me and really I don’t care. Nothing about their past has to do with my involvement in the horrible present. The only thing I have the energy and space to worry about is death.

“Not scared… prepared.”

He looks into my eyes deeply, gesturing for my fight. I’m surprised to see it were only moments before he looked complacent. Together, we could probably give them a nice proper fight for our lives, if not escape, but I don’t have the fight in me, nor do I have the desire to fight at his side. I look down to the floor to avoid his gaze, embarrassed even to be letting him down after a life so full of helping and saving others. I never was any good at saving myself, and when push came to shove, they all died… only he remains. Perhaps this means I should be grateful his death is fast approaching, even if it is accompanied by my own.

Solomon’s lips touch my ear as he rasps his final threat. “Doesn’t seem like you’re going to fight… pity, I had so looked forward to breaking your pretty face up a bit.”

Jimmy laughs at this. He’s the schoolyard pussy. It’s so apparent now. Always following along with whatever the bigger kids say or do. Never stirring away from the popular consensus. Inside he must be scared… I hope he’s scared to fucking death, but no one seems to smell his fear.

“I’m sure you’ll have a grand time of it later,” I return, finally looking up from my feet and meeting his hooded eyes. Solomon steps forward and makes a rapid gesture to his men, who step forward and surround his rival. He doesn’t look like he’s going to fight, just stares at me until his counterpart blocks him from my view.

“You’re in no position to be sure of anything but your death. There’s no telling how I may deliver it… but you can count your lucky stars if there’s not a little face breaking involved.” His words are accentuated with the sounds of fists and feet behind him. Solomon and Jimmy each grab an arm and I don’t struggle as they lead me from the diner. I stare back and catch a glimpse of Lil sneaking into the kitchen undetected before my eyes lock onto the crowd of Solomon’s minions kicking and punching a limp form at their feet.

Then we’re outside and I’m in the back of a limo with Solomon and Jimmy, and then I’m stuck with a needle and falling asleep. Great… more drugs. No telling what shape I’ll be in when I wake up. Not if I wake up, I know I will. Wishing for an unconscious path to death would be like wishing upon those lucky stars Solomon talked about… ludicrous to a girl like me with a knowledge like mine.




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