Drink You Alive~The beginning (Pre Chapter 1).

[Geek]

"I want to see your eyes." I thought it was a medical check until I saw the intensity of his gaze.

He twirled and dipped me effortlessly.

In a twisted vampire way, this was a date. Sure, he and his family may have to rip my head off and light me on fire, but until then, I was going to enjoy the dance.

"Unforgettable in every way

And forever more, that's how you'll stay

That's why, darling, it's incredible

That someone so unforgettable

Thinks that I am unforgettable too"

He had begun singing softly to me along with Nat.

"You're trying to distract me from all these tasty vitals around us."

He stopped moving me altogether. He gently put one hand behind my head and lifted my chin with the other.

"There is only you in this room." He placed his soft lips on mine.

When he started to kiss me, I was intoxicated. The combination of the taste of his lips and the smell of his skin reminded me of something.

Home. Here, with him I was home.

I hugged him so quickly, he had to try and slow my movements to make me less of a vampire. He turned our hug back into dancing.

I leaned up to look back at his face. All at once I couldn't take it. I needed Edward to be Edward again. As Nat poured his velvet voice over us, I reached up and ruined the fauxhawk. His messy hair returning to its normal carefree style. I snapped off all the collars and chains and dropped them on the floor. He looked at me with an interested smile, but let me continue my mini make under. I kissed his nose as I wiped away his guyliner, just a little bit next to the lashes was left when I was done. He twirled me and dipped me again. Nat's song was taking shape for us.

As we danced close to a table, I grabbed a white shirt that some guy had left on the back of his chair. I pulled it over his arms, stealing little kisses when I leaned close.

I gently let my fingernails graze his stomach as I worked the buttons of his ridiculous vest open.

"How are you going to manage this? You already put the shirt on me." His smile was daring me.

I reached to the sides and ripped the vest apart. I let it drop, shredded on the cement floor.

There. That's better. I love you just the way you are.

The thought tripped on the tongue of my mind.

Oh. God. Did I just think love?

"I am thinking love, too." Heaven. Maybe I am totally dead and he is my heaven.

A dream.

His strong arms locked around me. I felt like I could look in his eyes forever, right here, in this stinky human club, and never have another need in the world.

It's funny how quick dreams can turn to nightmares.

Everything occurred at once. The song ended. The entire club tripled in its population and Alice's body went ridged in the middle of her dip from Jasper.

I looked out on the crowd. I recognized the instant people as spirits, for my eyes only. I had never in my human life had so many coming at me at once. They were all in varying degrees of transparency and panic.

Edward looked focused and seemed to be reading Alice's mind, and any other mind that might have danger in store.

"I need to get some distance from you, I can't hear with all your spirits." Edward looked so frazzled and torn. Emmett stood close next to me and took my hand.

"Hey, bro, I got her." Emmett pushed Edward away.

Edward made his way over to Jasper and Alice, who seemed to be coming out of her trance.

It took me a second to realize I had a job to do.

I whispered, "Come to me." And all the spirits drifted right in front of me and began talking all at once. "Fire, help, my son's here, get out, don't you leave without my granddaughter!"

"Silence!" I gave them all a hushed whisper. I pointed to one of the less panicked spirits, an older gentleman. "What is going on?"

His voice was dignified and heavily accented with England. "There are men setting fire to this building, and possibly rigging a bomb. They are very fast. Not human."

I though this information for Edward and whispered it to Emmett. I saw his mind starting to assess the exits.

I looked back to the spirits. I saw in the group a girl I knew in High School. She had died tragically in a boating accident soon after graduation.

She got straight to the point. "Karen's in the arms of a monster, and he's coming here."

I looked towards Edward. How he comprehended all of this at once, I did not know. Or if he even was. I wished I knew what Alice was seeing.

Jasper was on a cell phone speaking in vampire rapid.

He came straight to me and looked in my eyes, sparing me a moment with his warning, "Do the unexpected. Newborns are always easy to predict, so whatever you want to do, do the opposite."

I watched as he pocketed the phone the cell phone screen clearly showed that he had phoned Carlisle. He faced the crowded room and sent waves of calm out. I imagined he was using the strength he usually reserved for Alice to prepare the room for a disaster.

Alice and Edward started to herd people out of the exits. Emmett looked over his shoulder and put his fist through the glass protecting the fire alarm on the wall, he pulled it and the lights in the club turned on. The music was blasting, so none of the humans heard the sirens alerting them to danger. Smoke started creeping in through air vents and doorframes.

This whole place was about to blow.

I looked towards Emmett. "We have to help them"

Emmett looked down at me. "Sweetheart, you'll kill more than you'll save, letting you loose in here is a whole 'nother disaster."

He looked so strained. I could tell he wanted to help. That he could help, I was holding him back.

"Fine, listen, I'll get myself out and run all the way to the apartment. Carlisle has blood there for me. You need to help them. You can save so many." I tried my best to keep an even voice. I knew I was borrowing from Jasper when I sounded so reasonable. I also did not think I was lying. I was really going to do just that.

"Alright, go, run through walls if you have to." Decision made he leaped away from me and punched a hole in a nearby wall.

 

[Geek]

I turned to do the same when a face stopped me, a smiling face amid all the chaos. In my peripheral vision I could see Alice, Emmett, Jasper, and Edward carrying humans out the holes they had created through doors and windows. They had such courage and restraint, with blood all around them. I was so proud of them.

But straight in front of me was Rick. Smiling from ear to ear like a new father. I dropped my gaze to his arms. He held a seemingly-dead Karen effortlessly. As I watched, he captured one of her fingers and broke it. She came alive with screaming and kicking. When she looked in his red eyes, she fainted.

What had he done so far to make her faint just for seeing him?

He mouthed, "Tag, you're it" and bounded up to the second floor balcony, he kicked out a window, and was gone with her.

This is a trick.

All these people in danger and these glorious, brave vampires working feverously just so Rick could taunt me with the life of my best friend.

I knew it was a trap, but I leapt after him, not even trying to act human anymore. I heard an exclaimed, "Holy ####" and I knew I looked like I was flying, not jumping.

I didn't care, I went out the window Rick had kicked out moments before. I stood out on a fire escape and looked around me with all my heightened senses.

How in crap's sake was I going to follow this monster, this tracker?

As I stood on the fire escape, I saw Emmett run out into the alley all Die Hard style, holding what looked to be two bombs. He dropped them in the club's dumpster. Then he stood there looking at it and then looking around.

I'm sure we were both wondering what the hell he was going to do with the dumpster.

He looked up. I waved.

"Maybe, bury it!" I said out loud.

No need to shout, he could hear me just fine. He nodded and I gave him a lame thumbs up. As I was staring through the slats in the fire escape landing at him when my focus changed from the now digging Emmett to the little drop of what looked like blood at my foot. I wiped my finger on it and tasted it.

Karen. How do I know it's hers?

It tasted just like her, fun, happiness, and laughter. Fresh and clean. I followed the trail with my eyes.

Up.

The rooftop.

Again.

I jumped, leaped, and grabbed. Her blood trail was getting alarmingly larger, I hopped the buildings like stepping stones.

This bastard was full up on crazy.

The trail stopped near a huge air conditioning vent atop what appeared to be a bank.

I waited.

I wasn't following someone. I was being lead.

Rick started laughing. I turned my head and took in the sight of him, leaning casually against the brick wall that protected the staircase into the building.

"You took so long, I was getting bored. This whole scene is pathetic. It's a shame that it's so easy to punk eight vampires. I didn't even try hard. You're all honestly effecting my buzz."

His long brown hair was loose. The black trench coat hung open to showcase shirtless rippled torso. His jeans had a thick leather belt with a skull and crossbones buckle. He had well-worn, black combat boots on his feet.

I'm sure one look at him would disintegrate the panties right off a woman until they saw his eyes.

The eyes were all wrong. Despite the ridiculous color that marked him as poison like a tree frog, you could tell that they had never housed compassion. Not once had his eyes sought anything but his own twisted pleasure.

My vampire experience was extremely limited, but I had a feeling the one nudging my unconscious friend with his boot was outside of the bell curve of evil.

Karen's arm had a huge laceration. The trail maker. She was a useless pawn to him. The rage that filled me was so intense I almost staggered. Almost.

"Are all your soft vamp friends saving humans? Isn't that cute. It's like buying ice for the fridge when the power goes out. They're all warm puppies and rainbows, aren't they?" His words were deep and seductive.

This was his pleasure, the mental torment. Any pain was a cherry on his ice cream.

"Oh, yeah, they're the wimps. Your pansy ass had to light a crap load of fires and hide bombs just to get past them." I was thankful for the vampire venom in me that kept me standing straight and sounding calm.

Karen moaned.

Rick looked down at her a glanced back up at me, flirty with anticipation.

"You may be slow, but you have a sharp tongue." He smiled as he held a foot above Karen's neck.

"Let her be." I said it quietly, but my threat was injected in every word.

"You want to save her. Aww." He said it like he was talking to a baby that crapped its pants.

"Then save her!" He shouted and kicked her body towards me at the same time.

I reacted out of instinct and caught her. I heard an awful cracking sound as she landed against my rock hard body. Like Lennie and the mouse, I couldn't be gentle enough if I tried.

I looked at her to see if she was injured.

The simple brilliance of his action hit me.

I was the most dangerous thing to Karen on this rooftop. The human thoughts of all our happy memories together took the fast train out of town.

His voice was all around me, honey and knives.

"She'll taste so good. See that part of her neck?"

I couldn't look anywhere but at her neck.

"The young ones, they have a snap to the skin that curls you toes. The blood comes so fast, you have to suck hard to make sure you don't spill a drop."

Spilling a drop seemed sacrilegious right about now.

"If you lick her neck first, you can taste just a hint of salt."

I didn't want to crush her, so I held my body very still. I tried to tell myself it was because I didn't want to hurt her. But he knew different. He could talk right to the evil he had introduced to my bloodstream.

"I'll wake her for you, darling. You can watch as the life drains from her eyes. And she'll scream so loud, when she thinks you're here to save her, and then she sees, that no, you won't save her."

The venom was pooling in my mouth as he was speaking for me.

He was in both my ears preaching to the choir of one that was huddled at his feet.

I was mesmerized by the blue pulsating vein in her neck. I opened my mouth. I was long beyond reason. A small drop of venom escaped my bottom lip and came to land on the delicate spot I was staring at. It began to smoke and turn an awful reddish black.

 

[Geek]

Karen's eye snapped open and took me in. The pain of the venom was intense; I could feel her whole body wreathing with it, trying to get away.

"Sasha?!" Disbelief and pain.

"Doesn't that feel good, baby?" He was purring in my ear.

"You will not kill a human tonight, I promise." Alice's words came through the thick fog of need.

How could she have been so wrong?

I felt the hit to my back and reacted from a part of my brain that wanted to protect my prey. I curled my body around Karen and was pushed into a violent summersault.

I was getting ready to bound away with her when I was backhanded. The force was like a getting hit by a mountain.

Edward took my moment of surprise to steal my friend from me. He was holding her and watching me.

It was obvious that Edward had ##### slapped Rick off the side of the building.

Edward smiled at my thought, trying to bring reason back to me. I felt like a shark being asked to perform a piano recital in the middle of a blood bath frenzy.

Get her out of here. Keep her safe. Don't let me kill my best friend. Please.

He looked down at Karen who again passed out.

Blood loss? Fright?

"Stay alive. Do what ever you have to. Stay alive." His whisper was so urgent. I nodded and he was gone.

I heard the landing behind me. Immediately Rick had me in a headlock. His anger almost had a smell.

His forearm felt like a thick log.

"#####. That God damn bastard has pissed me off too many times." Rolling fury was coming off his whole hard body.

"Well, if you would quit getting beat like the red-headed step child, maybe you wouldn't be such a looser." I was proud I had gotten the last part of my insult out of my mouth before he kicked me so hard in the back I couldn't talk anymore. I slid across the roof and landed against the metal air conditioner with a huge bang. A me-sized dent was now a part of the rooftop ambience.

He was leaping through the air before I could scurry to my feet.

He lay right on top of me, holding my arms above my head.

His mouth twisted into an evil grin. Then his face slid into a more confused, thoughtful look.

Jasper's words floated into my head.

"Do the unexpected. Newborns are always easy to predict, so whatever you want to do, do the opposite"

What was my instinct?

My instinct was to knee his balls so hard they popped out of the top of his head like reindeer antlers.

What was the opposite?

I fluttered my eyelashes and tried to smile.

"Why are your eyes blue?" He was curious and wanted to know.

Instinct?

After installing his brand new antlers, I also didn't want to tell him why my eyes were blue.

The opposite?

I told him, "We think it's because I can talk to ghosts."

He readjusted his grip to hold my wrists with one hand. He touched my face with his other hand.

Instinct?

Bite his fingers off and spit them into his evil mouth.

The opposite?

I smiled at him like he was my prom date.

"I think that is complete bull####. Interesting bull####. But bull####."

"You have such a way with words, you're like Shakespeare."

Oops. That was instinct.

"There's that sharp tongue. Maybe you could give me a little kiss with it?" He licked his lips. He smelled like old glue.

Instinct?

Fling him off of me and into Brooklyn.

Opposite?

Nope. Sorry Jasper, that just wasn't happening.

"I'll prove it, get off of me." I tried to not sound anxious about it.

I knew I failed when he said, "I think I'm comfy right here, Princess. Prove it to me from beneath me, where you belong."

"Rick's mom, come to me" He watched me like I was a freak in a circus.

Thankfully, the vampire in me called so powerfully that even the reluctant ghosts had to come.

A haggard, sad looking woman was standing above us. She looked confused for a moment, and then spotting the rear end of her son, she set her face in a hard way.

"What do you want to know?" I tried to sound professional. He was shifting more than necessary for a vampire, so the words were harsh.

"Um. Let me see. Ask her what her favorite nickname for me was." He was smiling at me again. He obviously thought it was all a joke.

I looked to his mother.

"#######." She said it with a raspy smoker's voice. I waited a beat, thinking she was insulting me. "That's it. I called him '#######'. Because he is one." She threw up her hands.

I started laughing. Rick tilted his head and smiled along with me.

"Come on, John Edward, tell me what ol' mom had to say." He raised his eyebrows in expectation.

"Turns out your mother has the same nick name for you that I do. '#######'." Rick used his hands to push himself off of me and stand above me.

"That's real cute. Funny. Really. Almost a shame to kill you again with that funny god damn personality."

Despite his words I knew the nickname hurt.

"That's quite a relationship you had with your mom." I was able to sit up and cross my legs. I felt the aches healing. The injuries from Edward gave me courage. I knew he had been here.

Rick's mom opened a floodgate of words.

"Please. Calling him an ####### is being nice. That boy was pure evil since the day I had his baby brother. He didn't want to share. I would catch him trying to smother his brother. All the pets in the neighborhood wound up dead in my back yard. And Lord help me when he was old enough to beat me! The happiest day in my life was when he left my house. Stayed until he was twenty-three. All he did all day was work out in the basement and shine his hunting guns. It was flat out creepy."

Rick, said wacko, was standing almost inside the image I was seeing of his mother.

I translated from one dead person to the other.

"Your mom said you were a sick, animal killing nightmare. The happiest day in her life was when your cowardly woman beating ass left town." I tried to be matter a fact about delivering the information, but it was quite delightful. I stood.

I thought his rage might pop his head right off his neck.

Rick's mom was still talking at me. "And I always hated that long hair, reminded my of his Aunt Edna. Not a pretty lady, mind you. "

"And you mother says your ugly." I delivered the last verbal blow with a little tap dance and jazz hands. Which, in hindsight was probably like waving a red flag at a bull.

Rick ran straight through his own mother and headed full out at me.

Instinct?

Run like I was on fire.

Opposite?

Stand and wait for him to hit me.

I was liking Jasper's advice less and less.

But Edward made dying worth living for so I took the hit as his shoulder smacked into my stomach.