Just a bite

[Lovely]

June 28, 2008
8:30 p.m.
Telus Park

Mack had done it this time. He'd dozed off in the office again and didn't get out on time. Now it was after sunset and the sky was getting thickly dark in a hurry as he broke away from the street to ride through the park. The park was even darker wtih the trees and outcropping of bushes, but he needed the short-cut. Despite the warm summer weather, he wore his thin hoodie loosely up over his head. He'd been splashed by enough cars in the past few weeks, he put up with it for the ride home. Someday he might see his car and it's air conditioning again, but not until he had enough cash to get it out of hock. He lowered his head down over the handlebars and started pedaling faster, trying to get past the park and the heebie feeling.

Eli was out on her own, she was prowling or what her interpretation of prowling was. She was new to this.. barely a couple days old in this new.. form. The first day she'd been kept locked up and they fed her, the second she was allowed to roam the keep and now she was able to walk 'free' in the open air. She didn't have anything planned and the gnawing empty feeling inside her seemed to be leading her to what she needed. Only she had no idea what it was, until she saw it speeding down the path on a bicycle. There was not real thought put into it, she just lunged at the guy to tackle him.. to bite him and drink the warm elixor that cursed through his veins.

Yelping as something barreled into him, the rider tumbled apart from the bike, landing a few feet away in the grass beside the path. He thought at first it was somebody's doberman or something that had hit him but as he struggled to get up, all he saw was feet and an arm and he immediately thought the worst. "Geezus... you can have my wallet. Here... here!" He said, panicked and fumbling to get to his pocket underneath the jacket.

"I don't want your wallet!" She was more graceful than her human self would have been but she was still new at this and it hadn't gone as smoothly as it could have. She spit a little grass from her mouth and rolled to untangle from her less than stellar tackle. She looked over at the man, noticing so many things about him so quickly it nearly made her head spin. "Do I look like a criminal to you?"

He backed away as the person spoke then stopped. That sounded like a gi-... He pushed his hood back so he could see. "It is a girl," he remarked, somewhat confused, though no less furious. "No, you really don't look like one, but you hit like one. You knocked me off my bike."

Well she was a girl alright and she was pouting a little, her first attempt at this and she messed it up! She hoped none of the others were around to see this, she looked at the ground. "I know.." She licked at her lips. "I ... I don't want your wallet."

"What? Look, lady, whatever you're on.. maybe you shouldn't be out here alone in the dark. - I - shouldn't be out here alone in the dark. Can... can I go now?"

"I'm not on anything!" She snapped and her blues eyes seemed suddenly brighter with the flash of anger and frustration. "..and being at home isn't any safer, you know.. " She swallowed, trying to get the nerve to actually bite him like she'd planned to, this wasn't as easy as one might think it was. "No!" She exclaimed as he asked about leaving. "You can't go.. I.. I need your help."

"My help?" He crawled a little away from tackling range and slowly got up to dust himself off. "You could have maybe tried flagging me down and asking, you know. My help with what?"

"I'm sorry.. for tackling you.. um.." Should she just tell him she wanted to bite him or whatever? Is that what vampires did? Gabriel had certainly seemed to enjoy taunting her before he'd... She flinched from the memory and looked away from the guy. How could she do that to another hu.. she wasn't human anymore but she still felt.. "It's a little hard to explain.. "

"You're between me and my bike, so I guess I've got time," he shrugged, hiding under the hoodie with his arms folded like they gave him some kind of armor.

[Lovely]

"I was.. " Her lower lip trembled and her eyes squeezed closed like she was trying not to cry, which is exactly what she was doing. "We.. were attacked.. my daughters... and I.. these.. men broke into our home.. and dragged us out.. we were sleeping and.." She looked back at him, the distress clear and genuine on her face, she shook her head a little, why was she telling him this?

He looked around the park, no sign of anyone but the two of them that he could see. His arm felt a little sore, he realized, from landing on it, probably just a bruise, but the weirdness of this made it seem worse. "You were attacked, huh? And now you're out in the park attacking people? I'm a little confused... and a little late. My dog's waiting for me. Maybe you should get in someplace safe?"

"There isn't anyplace safe!" She snapped at him again, her hands raising in a frustrated gesture and then raking back through her hair. "That's the whole point.. no one is safe.. no place is safe.. they can just come right in and.. what they did.. it makes me sick.. and I couldn't stop it.. he made me watch while he.. they're just girls.. their whole life ahead of them.. I just don't get it. Why us? What did we ever do? How am I supposed to exist like this?" She didn't actually expect this guy to have the answers for her and was mostly ranting because this was the first time she'd been able to since the attack.

"Obviously the park isn't safe," he said, stating what he felt was obvious, his arms falling down to his sides for his hands to find his pockets, and maybe his keys or something he could use if she got more nuts. "I don't know who -they- are, lady, I just know my dog's probably peed on the couch already and I shouldn't be here. I'll take that into consideration, maybe get another lock on my door, okay? I appreciate the public service, and I'm sorry things got crazy in your life, but I don't see how I can help you."

She was hungry and he thought he could just leave? She'd been helpless to stop Gabe and the others and she'd pay for it for eternity but they'd made her like them.. she was supposed to be strong now.. "No?" She said softly with a sort of 'hmph' after it. "You will in a minute." Her eyes glowed softly now and when she smiled her sharp fangs glinted in the moonlight. "I'm terribly sorry about all of this and your couch.. and just so you know.. another lock won't do any good." She lunged at him again, though now they were both standing and he could see her come at him.

He found the keys and the only other thing with them that was close to a knife that he could find. The bottle opener was half plastic with the name of the bar in big letters on the handle. The business end of it was sturdy enough and he'd sliced his own hand on it opening a beer not that long ago. The half-moon in his palm was still a little raw so he knew it would hurt if he needed it to... like now! Jeezo this woman was barking mad! She flew at him... my god it was like she actually did. She was airborne, not just rushing him and he held the keys and opener out in front of himself with the one hand and tried to beat her off with the other. "What the hell's wrong with you?!" His voice squeaked a little and his heart was pounding.

"Hey!" She scolded him, feeling the bottle opener slice into her skin, it actually hurt a little.. though nothing like it would have before. She grappled for his hand, using her strength and speed to her advantage to bring him down and hold his arm above his head on the ground. "I've been trying to tell you what's wrong with me, you jerk! You haven't been listening and you're just mean and selfish! You could have a little compassion, I've been through a very traumatic experience!"

Fear was working its way into his expression faster than the anger now. One moment he'd been standing and thought he had a good enough chance to push her off and just get back on his bike. The next moment he was looking up from the wet grass trying to wrench his own arm free from the looney lady with some f*cking weird agenda. "Yeah? I'd call being attacked in the park pretty traumatic too, lady," he spat, trying to push her off, but not getting any leverage. "I think my arm's broken. I can't move it."

"Not as traumatic as being dragged out of your house in the middle of the night and being tortured or watching your daughters be.. so stop your dang whining already! I'm being alot nicer to you than they were to us." She straddled him and kind of smiled, realizing she had the strength to hold him down. "Your arm isn't broken, I'm holding it down.. Look I don't want to make this any more painful than it has to be. Please lay still... you're my first and I'm sort of new to all this."

[Lovely]

"Your first what?!? Mugging? I told you, if you want my wallet, you can have it!" He made a solid, struggling effort to move and get her off. He didn't want to hurt her, but right now he didn't want her to hurt him, either. She was too petite to weigh him down, so he should have been able to push her off, but he literally couldn't move, she was so strong. "You're like one of those ... those people on the tv they show that push off cars in accidents and shit? Look, lady, I'm sorry, okay? I didn't do anything to you or your family. Please.. just get up, let me go and I can get you some help, okay? You got broken into? You talk to the police? Yeah.. like they're really damn helpful." He considered that a moment. At night, there had to be a patrol in the park for curfew, right? Maybe if he was lucky, someone would hear him. "MUGGER!! HELP!!!" He yelled, hoping as a last ditch, she'd get scared and just run off.

His yelling kind of set her off and she lifted her free hand to slap him, with her strength it would he a pretty hard slap across his face. "Well now you did it.. If anyone comes I have to kill them." She shook her own head looking like she was about to cry. "I'm a vampire, okay! Sheesh.. look at my eyes, my teeth.. how about the fact that I'm holding you down with one hand. " She opened her mouth so he could see her fangs if he was bothering to look or listen to her rambling.

What did he expect if she really meant to attack him? The reality of the sting in his face that felt like he might need some dental work now and the realization that he was truly in probable mortal danger made him reconsider going against anything else she wanted. She had the upper hand, literally and when she said 'kill' she wasn't talking about the kind of killing parents did when the kids stayed out too late on a school night. He caught his breath and turned slowly, feeling himself try to curl his head downward into his shoulders where his neck wouldn't feel so exposed. He didn't want to look at the teeth but one thing he knew - her hand on his arm wasn't exactly cozy and warm. He closed his eyes, muttering part of the lord's prayer that he could remember, and started feeling like he might hyperventilate any moment. "You're not. I'm dreaming... or drunk... or high... This is one of those Punk'd things, right? Great... great... roll the cameras cuz you're doing a damn good job. Just... just let me go. Please..."

She'd scared him, at least a little and he was taking her seriously now but she felt bad for it, she wasn't like the animals that had done this to her. The tears brimmed in her eyes and the cool red tinged tears slid down her cheeks. "I'm sorry.. this isn't some kind of prank.. God, I wish it was a dream.. so I could wake up and not be this.. not do this.. I'm sorry." She leaned down, using her free hand to push his face out of the way so she could get to his neck and take what she needed to stop the hunger that was eating her up and making her do this.

"NO!" He tried to keep her from turning his head, but felt his neck strain so hard she'd break it and he'd be finished anyway. Mack hadn't cried over anything since the divorce, since his daughter was made part of a bargain to keep him civil with her mother. Tears began to leak out as his eyes closed to his imminent death. He was a reporter for chrissakes. This kind of thing never happened to the bystander like him, he just filled the blotter pages after the tape had been put around the place. "Don't kill me," he whispered out, really hoping she wouldn't, but she didn't seem all that reasonable to start with. It just seemed like the thing to say - didn't everybody who was about to get chewed on by a creature that wasn't supposed to exist? Under his breath she might hear him repeat over and over that this wasn't real, it wasn't happening, though her hand held his jaw tight and crooked making the words sound strange.

She remembered begging for her life, for her daughters and how they laughed and taunted her.. she thought she was going to die and she'd been terrified. Knowing this man was afraid and feeling much like she had that night made her pause for a second. "I won't.." She promised softly before sinking her teeth into his neck to begin drinking.

He cried out again, though not as loud with the sound being sucked away a moment later as he felt the perforation, expecting it to be so much like a dog trying to rip parts off. Dizzy... incredibly dizzy and astonished that the feeling was warm but not painful where his blood gushed upward and pulsed away. He had no strength to fight after a brief moment as the panic pounded the liquid out of the opening and into her mouth and over his skin and shirt. Stearns felt a strange sense of calm. The grass no longer felt wet against his back and the bunched up jacket and shirt pressed numbly now under his pinned shoulders. "Her name's Jenna," he whispered quietly with the only sound and breath he could find. He wanted his daughter to remember him, to know something had happened to him.

[Lovely]

Eli froze at the name he whispered and though she did not let him go, she pulled away a little. He had a family.. a wife who would grieve him.. maybe they had kids too.. Eli had a family and her husband had died and now her daughters were like she was. She hadn't been able to stop it.. to protect them. "Your wife?"

"Little girl," he said in fading consciousness and the euphoric absence of blood pressure to fuel a full sentence, though his lips turned up in a slight smile of a happy memory despite shiningly wet lashes.

He had a daughter.. she felt like someone twisted her insides. She'd promised not to kill him but she'd been so hungry, she'd taken so much.. Eli leaned back down to drink more from him, remembering how Gabriel had done this to her. She was shaking a little when she pulled away again, tearing her arm open with her teeth, where he'd gouged her with the bottle opener. She brought the wound over his mouth, letting her blood flow over and past his lips to make him like her.

Stearns had no strength and barely any will to even move his eyes that began to cloud away the dark spanse of ground around them, let alone turn away from the covering over his mouth. His breathing was all but stopped and the fluid that gurgled into his throat found passage on its own into the airways that should have made him cough, but didn't. Was he truly dead? That he continued turning that thought in his mind convinced him he wasn't completely, he couldn't be. Vampire? No way, Mack. You just polished off that last bottle and you're dreaming nice and safe on the couch. He felt like his dog was licking his face, that odd and sloppy drool he felt whenever he passed out watching endless and monotonous wrestling, or races, for the score page in the morning edition. Get off, Bugsy, quit it, he wanted to grumble, but the sounds didn't come and his arm didn't move to push a dog or anything else away. The spittle felt thick and after a moment had a strange warmth and scent like a rusted pot. Blood? His eyes blinked slowly and he involuntarily gulped at the liquid in his mouth, the first hint of recovery from nearly drowning. Then the cough errupted and he began to choke into an alert and panicked consciousness. He wheezed, laboring hard for breath he couldn't get and every sound echoed louder as he coughed and pulled in more. It was not air he needed but to drink, to soothe his throat and wash down the humanity that fought to survive. He couldn't understand the hunger, the desire or the need he had no words for, only that the offered arm was his salvation that the few thoughts in his head tethered him and made him suckle to ravenously.

She wasn't sure if it would work, she'd never done this before either, but she had to try.. she'd promised not to kill him. Eli thought she'd done it wrong as he began to choke and sputter but then she felt him latch onto her arm and could feel him drawing the blood from her. It was strangely erotic and she felt this sudden and strong connection to him like he was a part of her and she was part of him. An unbreakable bond between them, she had never felt that before but had felt something similar only from the other side of it when Gabriel had turned her. Her eyes closed as he drank from her and she curled down over him tenderly, letting him suckle for several moments. Finally she pulled her arm away to let her wound heal. "Enough." She told him softly as she gazed at him in wonder. Had it truly worked? Had she really made him like her?

[Lovely]

The cloudiness had vanished and in its place was a sharpness of reality he could scarcely describe despite the built-in bank of words he called on every day for his articles. The sky was dark but still noticeably blue with dimensions and gradients he'd never noticed before. She pulled away her arm and he sought after it only as far as he could move without lifting his head. He stopped, hearing the grass beneath him shift and uncurl as he moved. More than that he heard the creatures beneath it, tunneling and chewing through roots and chaff. What he did not feel was the heat or discomfort from the dampness of his shirt, only the pressure of it and having the knowledge that it was wet, but was it hot? Was it cold? Stearns' expression finally shifted and he tried once more to get the words to form. "What did you give me?" The words were deep and muddy in his voice and he noticed then what else it was he did not feel was the rise and fall of his chest and the summer breezes tickling his nose. He wasn't breathing, but yet... "What did you do?" His expression contorted in fear-driven pain, certain he didn't want to hear the answer, or worse, to know it wasn't a dream at all.

Eli was flustered as she tried to give him an answer to his questions. biting at her own lip as she looked away for a moment. "I.. didn't kill you, you asked me not to.. so I made you like me.." She was actually afraid of him being angry with her for it, strange as that might seem. She lifted her arm, running her tongue over the wound to finish sealing it.

"I don't even know you," he bemoaned, feeling lost, very confused, exhausted and strangely exhilarated at once. She was no longer pinning him down and his thoughts slowly returned to getting himself home. Like her? What was she? Who was she? Why wasn't he just running for his bike and getting the police? He realized that answer as he sat up and the world tilted. He put his hand to the ground but he still felt it spinning like he was starving and faint. She didn't kill him? The words came back to him again - vampire? Denial rumbled up again as he chuckled, brushing his mouth with his other hand. It came away with the fresh blood. He wasn't dreaming this. He stared at the hand, unable to move any further, feeling like he should hyperventilate - but on no breath?

"You will know me.. I'm part of you now.. and you're part of me." She repeated the words Gabriel had snarled at her, but she said them more softly, more tenderly like it was something special rather than a punishment. "I'm sorry.. I didn't know any other way.. so that you wouldn't die.." She reached to curl her hand around his, trying to ease him in some way, he was shocked and it was understandable. If he didn't pull away, she would bend to his hand, gently cleaning his fingers with her tongue.

"I'm n-... not breathing, but I'm not dead," he tried to reason out. He couldn't feel the beating of his pulse that he knew usually came with panic and he began to panic more at the lack of it. Her fingers curled in his hand though it was sticky with blood he still stared at.. her blood. What if she had something? But he was dead - he had to be. He had no pulse, he didn't feel cold or warm, his breathing... what had she done if not let him die? He thought about the stories... creatures, myths, all those horror stories when he was a kid at camp.. trying to remember about them. What did it matter if she had something, if he was already dead? The logical crosshatchings began to weave neatly at first, then began colliding and making him more dizzy, the more he tried to understand. He then realized his hand was wet - Bugsy? He focused on the woman whose tongue bathed away the smear of sticky crimson on his hand - and how, for a moment, he wanted that tongue all over him. That he could feel, and the intense reaction to such desire making it more difficult for him to think or to stay still. He pulled his hand closed into a fist. If he didn't, she'd have reason to accuse him of attacking her in a moment. "Don't... don't do that," he begged, still finding air for his words and tone that would tell her exactly the effect she was having on him at the moment.

She paused for a moment, turning her face to him, searching his gaze, taking in his scent and realizing what the tone in his voice meant. It was strange again how she reacted to that thought, to what she was doing for him and how it was making him feel. Eli smiled just a little as she turned back to his hand, running her tongue lightly over the fist he'd made. "Why not.. you like it?"

[Lovely]

"No, I don't," he lied, emphatically trying to deny that he absolutely did, but he wasn't that kind of cruddy trashy guy that would force himself on anyone - or hadn't ever been before. She lapped over his knuckle and he could feel the jolt through him again, twisting his insides with that same ravenous hunger he'd awoken with, a nearly blinding need to have, to consume... He was terrified of the feeling that was bubbling to the surface beneath the common sense that was splintering away. He pulled his hand back to himself, hoping that alone would make it stop, but as he flexed his fingers tightly to his stained and unmoving chest, he knew differently - it was building and becoming worse by the moment. Angry and frightened, he pushed himself from the ground almost too hard, not aware at all of the new-found strengths he would need time to learn and become accustomed to. He'd pushed himself up into a crouch, surprising himself, but continuing on up to standing and to pick up his bike and start pedaling madly home, though his keys were laying in the grass where he'd been knocked down.

He pulled away from her and she looked hurt but she wasn't entirely surprised, nor was she when he quickly took off. She watched him get on his bike and ride off, she wasn't sure what to do at this point. She didn't have the urge to chase him down or force him to stay with her the way Gabriel had with her, keeping her locked in a room for days. It was his keys that finally made the decision for her, to follow him at least.. if he went home which it was likely he might, he'd need those to get in. Eli stood and brushed herself off, picked up his keys and put them in her pocket, then started to jog after him. She didn't plan to overtake him but didn't want to be too far behind him.

Stearns noticed more by the moment how strange his world had just become. Part of her... She'd said that and he believed it, feeling, knowing she was still behind him, like her hand would come down on his shoulder in a moment and he'd be on the ground again. He pedaled faster than he had in his life, realizing as he rode uphill that he was passing cars at the speed limit with no effort at all. He looked back over his shoulder only once or twice before turning into the lot to his building. He didn't waste the time to lock up his bike, taking it in the main door with him and clattering it down the steps to his garden level apartment. A dog was barking and he sighed, calling down the hall to the animal. "Sorry, Bugs... just a minute, boy. We'll get you outside in..." He stopped as he found his pocket empty and frantically began checking the others with the growing, sickening realization he didn't have his keys. The dog wasn't sounding convinced either, beginning to sound angry and snarling beyond the door despite his master being close enough to hear.

She'd stayed a short way behind him, she could see him and if he fully turned he might have seen her as well, she didn't think the glances over his shoulder had been enough. It didn't matter if he saw her or not, he'd know she was close. As he stopped in front of his apartment and began searching for his keys she sped up, coming up beside him quietly and quickly. He'd hear the jingle of his keys as she pulled them out of her pocket and held them out to him. "I thought you might need these." She said softly, her expression kind of shy as she tried to give him a gentle smile.

She didn't need to say anything and he didn't need to turn around to know she was behind him though the keys rattled in her hand and confirmed it. He turned only enough to see them and grab them to open the door his dog was growling behind. Cowed by a gratitude she was deserving of for the small gesture and perhaps for upholding her promise not to kill him - more or less - he softened only a little. He couldn't outpedal her and she was on foot - how did he think he was going to keep her away? "Come on in," he offered, only then remembering myths about invitations that shouldn't be extended. Too late now, he sighed, rolling the bike in ahead of himself and turning a light on.

"Oh." She hadn't expected him to invite her in but she was happy he did even if it wasn't the warmest of invitations. Eli bit at her lip as she followed him inside, she blinked at the brightness of the light, though her eyes adjusted quickly. It was so different from where she'd been and it was so much nicer in a way, it felt normal. "Thank you." She murmured in regard to his letting her come in. "It's nice.." She commented quietly about his apartment, watching him but keeping a little distance between them.

[Lovely]

Bugsy stopped growling the moment Eli spoke, running off toward the old couch to hide. The yapper was a dark blur that didn't fit behind there anymore, but he still tried.

"Bugs, I thought you needed out. You didn't pee on the couch, did you?" He sighed once more, letting the dog do tricks while he leaned his bike against the wall under the window. His hands were free again, his keys within reach in his pocket where he could feel their weight. He shrugged and looked at the girl in the light now. He scratched at a tickle of hair behind his ear, not sure what would come next. "So... thanks... Thanks, yeah, it's not too bad," he said, looking around the apartment he hadn't seen enough of lately. "Do you drink? I mean.. you know.. like a beer? Something?"

"I never really used to.. well you know every now and then but not often.. since this happened to me I've.. um.. that's a yes.. I'd like one thank you." She smiled and a touch of color hinted in her pale cheeks. She was an attractive woman, had been as a human too. She wasn't that totally glamourous hott that took alot of effort, she was more natural. Pretty blue eyes, her hair a dark auburn brown with waves and curls in it that gave it body without her having to fuss. She was in her thirties and looked good for her age even before the change which meant she wouldn't look any older than she did now. She had a nice smile when she showed it, it even retained most of her human warmth despite her body's cool temperature. "He's cute.. my girls would probably adore him.." She pointed to the dog who had run and hidden behind the couch, she hoped she hadn't scared him too badly.

"Yeah," he chuckled, looking after the dog that was still looking for a way to wiggle into hiding. He let the animal cower in distraction for the moment while he went to the small kitchen and pulled the bottles out of the fridge, his keys out to open them in a second-nature movement. He looked at the bottle opener and the mark that had been on his hand. It was gone now. "Kids are great with him," he said absently, flatly as he ran his finger over the spot that had been tender for over a week.

"Or rather he's great with kids. My girls are older.. all grown up though barely.. just eighteen.. twins. Danielle and Deanna.. " She sort of rambled for a moment, trying to keep talking as if to distract him from the countless discoveries he could make about himself in his new condition. He seemed disturbed by it, which she could understand but she felt like she had to try to make it better somehow.

All things considered, he felt he was handling this very well. He usually didn't make the ride home without feeling a little sore after coming up that hill, but not tonight. He took a large gulp of the beer. He felt nothing, not even the refreshing coolness of the beverage though it still gurgled and foamed the same. He tasted it differently with the bloody tang now and swallowed it hard, leaning on the counter to watch her as she spoke about the girls. "He's great with kids, usually great with everybody. He really never barks, or he didn't used to. They sound like great girls," he said, changing the subject back to her and her family as he decided to join her in the main room. He brought her bottle to her. "But you were attacked... like this?" He pointed to his neck.

She took the beer with a small smile, reaching to brush some of her hair behind her ear. When he asked about her attack she couldn't look at him, she couldn't even speak for a moment and she seemed to try to shrink into the sweater she had on over the simple t-shirt and jeans. "No.. not .. well it ended in a similar way but my attack was... " She gestured to the air, trying to find the words to explain. "I didn't want to hurt you.. or kill you.. I was only doing what I had to. I never intended to kill you at all.. but this is the first time I've done this and I messed up right from the start.. I'm going to have to work on my tackling.. anyway. All I wanted was.. to have a little bite, if that makes any sense. I was hungry.. The man.. monster who attacked us.. well he did it for fun. It wasn't about hunger or safety or need.. it was just plain fun for him. He got great pleasure out of hurting us and he did it for.. hours, maybe days.. I don't know it all just melted into a haze of agony."

[Lovely]

"And what am I supposed to do now, huh? Chew on Bugsy when I need a snack? Hunt down the hygenist after I go in an try to explain why I won't need a shot and she sees me with teeth like yours? Oh.. that would be part of a normal life I'm not supposed to have now, huh?" He sat down on the couch, head back to stare at the ceiling. "Just when I thought things were getting better..."

"No!" She gasped and moved as if she might snatch the dog up to protect him from his owner but she didn't since she didn't want to scare the dog more than she already had. "You most certainly will not eat the dog." She hmphed and folded her arms a little, careful of the beer in her hand. "Look, I'm sorry.. you didn't want to die and this was the best I could do. I know it's not perfect or ideal but there are alot of good things. Being strong and fast.. I'll never get another wrinkle or gray hair.. You can drink all the beer you want and never get fat.. " She sighed and moved to lean against the wall, sipping at her beer and feeling miserable. "I don't know.. I don't have all the answers or even any good ones.. I'm still figuring this out myself."

"What about that other thing," he asked, still staring upward into the clarity of designs and stains he hadn't spent much time looking at before. "When you ... well, you were licking me. Whatever you were doing, that was.. I've never felt anything like that before."

"I ah.. umm.. I don't know, I've never licked anyone else or felt quite like that.. sensations can be much more intense I guess.. and plus we have this connection.. cause I made you." She glanced over at him, playing with her lip a little and moving at a more normal speed to sit down next to him on the couch. "Would you like to try that part again?"

He turned to look at her beside him. She wasn't threatening him now and seemed shy and fairly normal, like he remembered being that morning when he'd gotten up after another sleepless night. There was still a chance this was just some lucid dream. Considering and weighing and talking himself into and out of acting on the offer, he was reminded that the dog still needed out. Bugsy was now cowering between Stearns' ankles and the couch. "I would, but the dog...," he said with a shy smile. He'd said it out loud and yes, he was seriously still thinking what he'd been thinking before he'd ridden away.

"The dog won't like it if you do?" She asked him, smiling back as she found his shy grin made him more handsome and was so tempting. She leaned just a little but held herself back from going in all the way and kissing him. She hadn't wanted to kiss anyone in years.. not since her husband had died.

Was she offering, or was he imagining that, too? Somewhere in his mind the molasses-slowed gears were churning with thoughts that he was sure weren't his. The perspective, the direction - it was like he was seeing through a lens on her side of the couch, feeling the hesitation and the hint of a forgotten longing. His wasn't that forgotten, nor that far in the past to feel this misty, or this.. hopeful? Part of her.. and she was part of him - how much a part and was she really finding him interesting or attractive enough for all that? Geezus, Mack, get a grip, it's just a damned kiss. Just let her and see what happens. Don't forget Bugsy or you'll be mopping the floor. In the space of a second the wavering tilted his decision toward meeting the offer of the light kiss.. to start with. "He really needs to go, but he's little. It won't take long," he promised, considering more than that kiss and having a hard time moving away to tend to the dog that was gnawing on one of his shoelaces.

[Lovely]

"It's alright.. go ahead and take him out." She pulled back from him slightly now that they'd shared the light kiss, her fingers brushed over Mack's cheek gently as she gave him a soft smile. She really didn't mind, the kiss was enough.. for now, maybe not for long with as much as she'd enjoyed it. It was like a hint at something more and that would be enjoyed thoroughly, it stirred things within her that she had thought died with her husband. So odd for her to meet Mack tonight, turn him and find herself be awakened by him, she doubted they would have ever met if Gabriel had not attacked her family. Fate dealt strange and frightening hands at times.

She moved away but he could still feel the kiss and how different that felt, too. She was thinking and he could even feel that as his brain began to slough off the late nap from the office, the beer, and the fog of his near-death moments. He stood up slowly this time, aware of each movement and increasingly aware of the muscular power behind each. He wasn't the kind to hit the gym regularly, but he wasn't a slouch either, and the recent biking hadn't hurt him any, but hadn't toned him or pumped him this much. What's the catch? He didn't want anyone to say what he kept denying. It was a lie! He wasn't dead! He'd never been dead and as far as he knew, he had no plans on becoming dead.. or even sleeping, he thought, looking at the warm colors in her eyes as she thought and watched him... any time in the next 24 hours, next week, or month. He grabbed the leash and the dog who was calm now, probably because he was and took another look back to her as the dog shuffled along into the hall and the leash strung out behind him around the corner. "I guess, um.. get comfortable if you want. There's some magazines, today's paper... just don't read page 14," he said, before being tugged along behind Bugsy. If she did open to that page, she'd find a small square picture of a clean-shaven and sober Stearns with an article on the week's sports highlights that he wasn't happy with, but the editor put in anyway.

Don't read page 14? That was funny and it was a sure thing that she was going to look at page 14 to find out the scoop. She smiled at him and let him go take care of his dog, who was as adorable as he was. She needed something to distract her for the short time he would be gone so she picked up the paper, trying to read other things before going to page 14.

As promised he wasn't gone long, but had stopped to get his mail on the way. He put it on the coffee table when he came in and set Bugsy loose to immediately run into the bedroom to fly up onto an immediately claimed spot on the bed. He saw her flipping around through the paper and cringed. "So now you know my life story, huh?"

"Well no, but I have the sports highlights." She smiled around the edge of the paper before she neatly and quickly folded it and put it away. "So.. you're a reporter?" She already knew that answer but wasn't sure yet what to say or how to get to know him better, it was an opening.

"That's what the paycheck says," he sighed as he sat down, turning a piece of the mail to read it better. It was a card that he picked up to consider opening. "Lowlights, actually. Half the analysis was hogwash and taken from two-week old stats, but he put it in there anyway to fill the space. I get the crime page, too, if you can believe that. No one else cares, so here's me, double duty, putting the blotter together for the sickos that read those things over their cheerios."

"I guess someone has to do it, right? Not just sickos read that.. sometimes I would but most of the time I felt better not knowing all the bad things that were happening.. maybe if I had read it more.." She shook her head and looked across the room at the wall. "Maybe if.. is a terrible thing."

[Lovely]

"There a whole lot of bad happening out there lately and yeah, maybe if you did, you'd have known. I only get what's left once the police are pretty much done and get the canned statements, you know? I wouldn't kick myself for not reading it to think it might have helped. I am sorry about your family, Eli. I had one once, too.. but it's all changed now," he said quietly, looking at the card in his hand and deciding not to open it yet.

"What happened to your family?" She asked softly, reaching up to brush her fingers over his cheek again and letting her eyes drift around the apartment which did not seem geared toward a family but more so for a man living alone. She glanced at the card he held and wondered if it was part of the family he once had.

"The big D," he sighed out painfully, putting the card back on the stack with the rest and picking up his beer again. "Heh, well I guess that's the other 'big D'. I traveled too much, she partied too much and we couldn't find a crossroads except for our little girl who gets to stay with the babysitter while she's at the bar. I only get to visit that part of town on weekends."

"I'm sorry." Eli watched him for a long moment before speaking again. "It must be hard, bad enough to have your marriage not work out but to only see your little girl on the weekends.. I can't imagine. After I lost Chris.. at least I still had my girls."

He nodded and clacked her beer bottle with his. "Thing I always said, just keep on living. Not sure what that means now," he chuckled with a crooked smile, taking a sip and sitting back. "Next thing I know I'm in a basement I never see and nothing makes sense other than getting to work on time, then I'm getting mugged in the park and bitten by this beautiful woman I invite in for beers to thank her for not killing me.. and helping me find my keys. Thing is, yesterday I would have just said thanks and goodnight, shut the door and lights out."

"Going through the motions.." She nodded and sighed, taking a long sip from the beer, licking at her lips after to chase the taste. "I know what that's like, I did it for a long time. Sometimes it felt like I was still doing just that.. until we were attacked. Then suddenly I was fighting to live and where before I barely cared what happened to me.. I knew I didn't want to die." She chuckled softly and shook her head. "If that hadn't happened, I wouldn't have been in the park tonight.. I wouldn't have attacked you or.. met you. I'm sorry about how it happened.. that I hurt you, but I'm not sorry. It's like I needed to find you... that probably sounds stupid or crazy.."

"As crazy as talking about vampires?" The question hung there for a moment while he finished his beer and stood again to get another one, or pace or something. Yesterday, he would have seen her home and convinced himself nothing more could ever happen and nothing ever would. Tonight he wasn't opening the door. "So if you're saying it's all fate and chance, don't let me start telling you about statistics and how, logistically? In the real world? Things like that don't really happen to anyone on this side of the television. At least that's what I would have told you yesterday. Tonight, I think I might say... it's not crazy. I just happened to fall asleep in my office and just happened to come by after sunset and happen to live in apartment that faces north - no direct sun ever. And the buzzing in my head that tells me the apartment next door has mice and the way McGuillicuddy's cat nearly ripped off my face when I was out with Bugs.. tells me, it's not crazy, you're not crazy and there's something drawing me as much to you."

"No direct sunlight? Hmm interesting.." She smiled, finishing her own beer and setting the bottle down as she rose, to give him another option. She came up beside him, brushing her hand lightly down his arm. "Fate has a twisted sense of humor.. but here we are."

[Lovely]

"Eh, no green thumb anyway. Anything I try to grow.. um.. dies," he said as she sidled up close and his thoughts tumbled again with her touch. The intensity of reaction from every sensation was boggling and he found it harder and harder to withstand some. "I... don't think you have that problem," he said, embarrassed, but honest as he cleared his throat.

"Some people just aren't meant to have plants." She smiled at him, brushing her hand over his arm again, this time she wrapped her fingers around his hand and guided it to her waist. "Perhaps you should try touching something different?"

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" He asked quietly letting his hand drape over her waist as she suggested. His gaze snapped up to hers and he watched her, feeling somehow he couldn't possibly be imagining the ideas in his head were entirely his own. There was an intensity in his own gaze that hadn't been there when he'd tried to fight her off and now he wanted to do everything but that. His fingers curled to hold on and pull her closer.

"I've only ever felt this sure about someone one time before and I was right." She met his gaze, the warmth and sincerity shone from her eyes as she let him pull her closer. Eli leaned to kiss him again, it began lightly like the other but she didn't pull away this time, she let it slowly deepen.

Without the pulse in his ears or having to hold his breath, he didn't have any other gauge for time or any need to pull away to capture a breath. A thought did work up to the surface but he wasn't sure whether he even said it out loud. Bugsy was going to have to give up his spot in a minute whether he liked it or not.

She enjoyed this kiss more as it went on, it was a wonderful sensation, the freedom to continue without being forced to pull away for a breath. Her hands slid up his arms and over his shoulders, one hand resting lightly against the side of his neck. She wasn't worried or hesitant about where this might lead, she knew where she wanted it to go and her thoughts ran along the same line as his.

"Gotta keep on living, right?" He muttered, finally breaking the kiss and the silence. As if sensing something, or maybe hearing them too, the dog padded out of the other room and leapt up on the couch, happily curling up and putting his head back down. Stearns shook his head.

"Yes." She said quietly, her smile faint but sweet and inviting, she glanced at the dog and chuckled. "Smart dog.." She never would have been so bold in the past but everything was different now and she wasn't going to let this moment go to waste. Eli pressed up against Mack, her smile growing a little and looking more playful as she started to nudge him toward the now empty bed.