June 25, 1969. Sunday.
Suzan Carter looked up as the nurse pushed in the strange little trolley with a plastic bassinette on top. She paused by Suzan's bed and lifting the quiet baby girl to transfer it to her mothers arms. The nurse then glanced around confused.
"There you are Mrs. Carter, you should be thrilled, she's a Cancer. You'll have yourself a helpful hand around the nest. Would you like me to see if your husband is out in the hall?" Smiling weakly.
"I don't have one." Suzan looked down to the little one. Clear hazel eyes glanced up to her mother and the baby smiled, squirming a helpless hand around.
The nurse nodded and smiled, but it was clearly only polite. The nurse didn't need to speak her disapproval for Suzan to feel it. The nurse nodded again and left.
"Well, little Anna Joe? What do you think? It's just me and you now. We don't need that selfish bastard... I think we'll do just fine." Suzan offered her daughter a finger. The baby squeezed her hand around the finger.
June 25 1990. Saturday.
The other girls from school practically dragged Anna Joe out to the bar that night.
"Come on Joe! Your twenty one tonight! It's time to loosen up!"
"I really don't think it's such a good idea....." Since she was old enough for school, she'd been in private boarding schools from her home in Houston to Paris, and back. Not that she suffered from a lack of affection or parental support, her mother was just...busy. Ms. Carter was a prolific writer, and seemed to be all the time either on tour or researching her next book.
Long story short, Anna spent her life with nuns or teachers. "Wild" behavior was something alien to her. Even with the freedom of college, Anna hadn't missed a minute of class, carried a hearty 4.0 that never dipped and kept her dorm room neat and tidy if a little cluttered with belongings.
Anna also, had a very bad feeling about the night out with the other girls. "....The whole thing just gives me the creeps."
The other girls laughed it off and dragged her too a couple of bars. Their intoxication increasing dramatically each place they stopped. Ending at Kalua, a hot night spot filled with neon colors and pop music to make your ears bleed. With each drink she watched her friends imbibe, a growing sense of dread took her. "Mary," She said to the supposed designated driver. "We have to go home... Now!"
With a dim look of confusion the girl nodded, calling the rest of the gaggle over. If anyone else had said anything, likely the group of party girls would have ignore it. Only... They'd never heard little Anna Joe lift her voice in all the time they knew her. That she shouted it just then scared Mary just a little.
June 26, 1990. Sunday.
The news papers in the area rocked with the headlines of the grizzly shoot out between two rival coke dealers at the Club Kalua the night before.
June 4, 1991
With teaching degree in hand, Anna Joe Carter graduated with Highest Honors.
September 14, 1991
AJ, as she had taken to calling herself sat at her mothers banquet table, listing quietly as her mother won another award for excellence in journalism.
"And, most of all, I'd like to thank my daughter. Come on AJ, stand up!" Awkward in the evening gown she wore she stood, cheeks flushed red. "Those who do, Teach. And I'd like to thank her for teaching me to keep writing. This book never would have happened if not for her." AJ, blushed deeper and she nodded a few times, clapping in her mothers direction while a blinding white light bounced on her for a few moments before returning center stage.
After dinner, people came, as they often did to gush all over her mother. It wasn't that AJ was jealous. Frankly, she didn't think she wanted any of these old dried up mummies reading her first book. It was more passion, she mused to herself, than the whole lot of them had in their whole live times put together. That thought, AJ berated herself for being crude.
"Excuse me... You're AJ Carter?" AJ looked up, blinking a few time.
"Y-yes, I am." The gentleman standing before her struck a handsome profile. Tall and dapper in a tux likely worth thousands of dollars. He sported the salt-n-pepper gray of most men entering their fifties and the lines in his face when he smiled further clued her to his obvious age. Still and all, he was handsome, the kind who smiled and you could almost hear the 'ting' sound.
"That's so funny. I know your mother from my residency, I never would have put you two together as mother and daughter."
"Oh Charles" She could hear her mother chuckle from where ever she had mingled too. "Just ask her to dance and get it over with. She's not like her mother, she won't bite."
AJ shrunk and flushed again. At 24, she wagered this man was at least twice her age.
Charles Hunter's expression softened a bit as he looked down at the younger women. "Look, if I'm making you uncomfortable..." He trailed off, but none the less hit her with a disarming smile and waited.
By the end of the evening AJ had learned Charles was a widower and single father. He liked horseback riding and had actually read her book. He made his living as a cardiologist, volunteering every other weekend at a free clinic in town in General Practice. (He told her it was just to keep himself well practiced. That, she took as a humble lie.) It wasn't necessarily love at first sight, like in her writing... But AJ could definitely see herself falling in like with this man.
December 21, 1991
Miles, dressed for bed in footy pajamas answered the door and looked queerly up at AJ. "Oh. 's you." AJ glanced down at the six year old and picked him up.
"Yep, you just can't seem to get rid of me these days, can yah little guy?"
Miles shook his head, then put it on the young women's shoulder "But that's okay. I like you!" And then the little boy glanced around conspiratorially. "I'm not supposed to tell you something....."
AJ opened her mouth to stupidly ask him what, when Charles came around the corner shaking his head. "There you are, you little scrapper." The mans eyes lifted to AJ's. "You know this little rascal tied my shoe laces together so he could answer the door when you came." The warm smile lifted the lines in his face as he reached out to take his son.
"I'll put him down, if you want Charles. You look like you still need to get ready for dinner... Where's the babysitter?"
Charles stopped mid-reach, his hands falling to his side. "Well, I made dinner. I thought we could eat in... That is, if you don't mind."
"Not at all." She smiled, trying to fight off the feeling she was being set up. "Come on kiddo." And she started taking him up too his room. The child started informing her very seriously how he'd surely grow up to be a Ninja Turtle in a few years, he told her this, apparently, so she'd know and not ask him why he was green.
A while later she found Charles sitting looking nervous at the bar in the kitchen. His glass of brandy half drained. 'Well, this is it' she chided herself. 'This is what you get for dragging the guy around for months and not putting out. Here comes the break up.' Resigned, AJ sat down at a bar stool next to Charles and deeply considered finishing the brandy for him.
"I ah..." He started, shook his head and started again. "Since Cynthia died.... I've worried about Miles. You know, all that talk about single parent households. I..." He stopped again and took a slow breath. "I want to make a deal with you Anna. Something of a business arrangement if you will." As he spoke he ruffled around in his pocket. "Now, don't say anything yet. Hear me out. I'm asking for Miles sake, you see. If you even wanted to keep your last name, or sleep in a different room or what ever would make you the most comfortable. I like being friends with you AJ. I wouldn't mind keeping it like that. But, for Miles sake... I'd also like you to be my wife." As he said it, he thrust a rock the size of a baseball in her face rather clumsily.
November 7, 1992
After a polite courtship, AJ finally stood in a church in a big white dress becoming Mrs. Anna Joe Sadira-Hunter. (She'd changed it from Carter for the sake of her writing career.) Her mother had given her away and little Miles stood as Charles best man. It was an unconventional wedding for an unconventional marriage.
That night, really out of courtesy, AJ lost her virginity to a man twice her age who seemed just as fuzzy about the whole thing as she was. It wasn't anything like in her books... And the more she thought about it, she liked it better that way. Who needs vampire and horror (the main focus of the two books she'd written so far) to be complete. A person to call a friend, enough money to be comfortable and a little one calling you 'Mom.' It was the perfect answer AJ had to the nuclear family.
November 9, 1995 (Two days after her third wedding anniversary )
It broke her heart to see a willful and strong man hooked up like some technological marionette in the stark blue and white hospital room. He'd gotten sick, very sick at dinner two nights back and he'd been in the hospital. AJ patted his hand gently, trying not to think about the needle sticking into him there. "It'll be okay Charles. I'm sure it's nothing."
"Mrs. Hunter?" The doctor stepped into the private intensive care unit. (It's amazing how a hospital will bend over backwards for another doctor.) "Would you like to step out here with me?" Puzzled, AJ nodded and allowed herself to be lead out of the room. She couldn't help but feel the judgmental look of the doctor. Probably assumed her some young gold digger just after an older man's money. "I'm sorry to have to tell you this... But the biopsy came back and...."
"...It's stomach cancer." She finished for him, sagging back into a chair.
The doctor looked perplexed for a moment.
"It runs in his family." She offered lamely.
"Yes of course. Now, we'll do everything we can for him. Chemo has been proven to...." She didn't hear what else he had to say. She just stared dull-eyed at the shine of the metal on the clip of his clipboard. She wasn't, all things considered, in love with Charles. But that didn't mean she didn't love him in her own way.
"...All though in all likely hood... And I'm just trying to be honest here Mrs. Hunter. At your husbands age, it isn't likely he'll fully recover."
AJ looked up and stared at the doctor for a while numb, until he excused himself.
Some time in June, 1996
Days and months blurred together. Charles spent most of his time in the hospital. He was bald from chemo and his skin didn't look right. When he smiled it looked like it hurt. She went to see him also every day, and everyday it got more painful to see such a proud man so helpless.
And then there was Miles. He just kept catching colds. By the end of the school year he almost wasn't allowed to graduate. (With some of her husbands sway, Miles was permitted to test out of his classes and graduate to the next grade.) Miles child hood hemophilia wasn't new to her. Having to take him to the hospital by herself was. So when she was finally informed she had to bring him in for a full work-up, she brought in a rather unhappy 11 year old.
"Mrs. Hunter... I'd like to speak to you." She rose, looking from Miles to the doctor, a women this time, other than that, she had trouble distinguishing one from the other. That cold fear she'd come to trust settled in along her spine and made her want to scream. Just to do something to stop what felt like the inevitable. "I'm sorry. But your son has been diagnosed with HIV. We did the blood work twice."
The room spun around her and she had to focus again on the shinny clip on the women's clip board, or she might have fallen over. "H....?"
The doctor nodded. "Why don't you sit down.... Now, we understand the birth mother is dead."
"Yes."
"And your husband?"
She shook her head. "On the fourth floor of the Hospice wing."
"Oh."
June 25, 1997
Charles waited to celebrate AJ's 28th birthday with her. She'd been cold all that day, so she asked the nurses if they could bring in a cot for her to spend the night. The glances between the nurses conformed that they seemed to know what AJ knew.
"It wasn't passion." He whispered too her, so soft she had to lean in right by his mouth. "But it was almost love. I'm glad I met you Anna."
That night AJ fell asleep touching the older man's hand.
When she woke, Charles Hunter was already dead. Having courteously slipped away while everyone was asleep. He died without knowing how sick his son was, or how weak his wife was growing.
June 30, 1997
Miles looked, to AJ, far to pale in black. It was, as she watched him slowly deliver his father's eulogy, somehow perverse to have him anywhere near all this... Death. She stayed quietly dry eyed. She'd done her crying in private. After all, Miles needed someone to hold him, not the other way around. Some of her in-laws commented politely on her strength. That was funny really... Because AJ was dying on the inside with each passing second.
Miles stood next to her in the receiving line. "You know what dad told me....."
AJ looked slowly over to the boy, she shook her head, because if she spoke, she would have cried.
"He said, 'Now son, you take care of your mother. She'll be old some day like me, and tottering around feeding pigeons and talking to cats.'" He stopped to think about that. "You didn't tell him... Did you?"
She choked once, using Uncle Victor as a convenient distraction as she shook his hand and allowed him to offer his condolences. Finally, she nodded once briefly to the boy.
He thought again for a long time. "Good." He said. "I'm glad he'll never know."
July 7, 1997
She sat somberly at her book signing. Jonathan, her editor insisted just a little time with her public would cheer her right up. She told Jonathan, politely, he was full of shit, and then did the book signing anyway.
"AJ Sadira-Hunter?" AJ looked up sharply, she didn't use her married name when working, the addition of 'Hunter' instantly put her off kilter. "I can't believe that's you. I knew Charles had married a writer, Hell, I even saw you at the funeral... For some reason I just didn't put two and two together. Charles was a good friend of mine, I'm so so sorry for your loss."
It was like looking into water. His manner and words rolled elemental from his tongue. He spoke with the same gentlemanly southern drawl Charles and Miles spoke with. Though, as he poured that accent down on her, she felt like she might just wash away with the current. This man's eyes were unfathomably dark and if he had features other then eyes and perfect sculpted lips, she'd be hard pressed to recall them.
"Why don't I take you out for coffee? I'm sure these people won't mind." And strangely, the line full of people eager to get her autograph all shook their heads and started to obediently disperse. AJ felt cold. A deep chill that settled along her spine, her instincts screaming at her to run! Run from the hunter! Run before you're consumed!
She didn’t run. Instead, she stood slowly and took his arm.
Half a bottle of Carmenere later, AJ was sitting on the floor of the parlor of a full restored terraced mansion. The place fully decorated to antebellum perfection as if it hadn’t been touched since that time. The man, who she knew by the name Dominic peered at her with those powerful eyes.
“Why do you write about the vampire so much Anna Joe?”
Curious, she hadn’t through she’d told him what the initials stood for. She shook her head and wavered a little where she sat. “It’s a metaphor. That’s all. A vehicle to indicate the monstrosity of the modern human condition. It’s just a way to take the layer of.... Sin... that coats our society like paint and internalize it.”
“So, the vampire is a sinner.”
She shook her head again, then had to hold it to stop the room from spinning. “Oh no no no. See, just like we can’t help being born into a decadent soulless society, neither can the vampire help what made him. I mean, yeah, there are the evil ones. But the point isn’t them. The point is the vampires who take that sin and fight through it... See? Like in the real world. Everything fucking sucks. The worlds falling apart and eventually everyone you love or care about dies and leaves you alone. Then you die, cold and alone. But that doesn’t matter, what matters is that you try to do right.. While your here.”
“But the vampire lives forever.”
“Only if ennui or other vampires don’t get to him first. If, however, he fights the good fight, he’ll either die and get away from the suffering, or live longer to keep doing the righteous thing.”
Dominic went quiet for a while. “AJ.... If you could live forever... Would you?”
She shrugged. “If I could figure out a way to save Miles with eternity.... Yeah, I would.” She smiled sloppily. “I’d do anything for that kid.”
July 8, 2000
After about three years of preparations, the Toreador Primogen of Houston threw one of the biggest parties the Kindred of that city had seen in decades to celebrate the Acknowledgment of his childer to Kindred society. AJ did well enough. She knew who to say thank you too and who to avoid. She knew who we’re the Elders, and to stay out of their way. She knew the traditions and could recite them when the Prince prompted her. She could recite her lineage up to her Grandsire, which was at least better than many new Kindred could do. She spoke little and kept to herself. All in all, she did just what one would expect of the childer of a respected member of City. She was just boring enough not to draw attention to herself and take the lime light from anyone else.
And then Billy Lee Black walked in, late, to the Elysium. All in all, Billy was everything a Toreador shouldn’t be. Loud, somewhat rude, uncouth and full of absolutely sordid stories about her sire’s lover. And AJ loved every moment she spent around the gun slinger. This woman, AJ decided, was a character. And like most writers, AJ loved characters.
January 16, 2001
Billy let AJ out of the car in front of Dominic’s estate. “’M sure he’ll have sumpin’ he can do.” The loud Texan was noticeably quieter than usual. Her eyes flickering over the young writer with gentle concern. AJ nodded and shakily made her way up the steps to the building. To her utter surprise, Dominic answered himself. He nodded once to Billy in her car over AJ’s shoulder and lead the trembling women in.
“You... Have to do something. I’m, I’m afraid if I do it, I’ll mess it up. I.. You have to save him!” This, she suddenly gushed, staining her sires shirt red as she clung to him impulsively.
“Woah now. Hold on little lady. Why don’t you try that again from the beginning....”
AJ shook her head. “There might not be time. It’s Miles. He had a check up. He’s so sick, the doctors say. They say it could be full blown AIDS any time now... You have to help me... You have to stop him from dying.”
Dominic was still for a while. “And you want me to curse your son to be 16 and sickly for the rest of eternity. You want him to suffer as a vampire the way you keep telling me you are?”
AJ went quiet. “I... I don’t want him to die Dominic. I’ve never asked you for anything before this...”
The Elder Toreador shook his head. “Never embrace for love AJ. That applies outside of romantic love, you know.” Slowly, he started to pet her back as he thought. “There might be another way. Let me make a phone call.... Alright?”
AJ nodded.
That night, she started to give Miles injections. She told him what her sire told her to tell him. That it was an experimental treatment they were being given because of who is father had been. That it had to be kept very very hush hush, but that it would slow the spreading of the disease. The strange red liquid made Miles nervous.
“It looks like blud.” He told her in even tone.
“I know it does. Doctor said something about the chemical the antibody is in. Don’t worry about it and roll up your sleeves.” He did, and AJ injected her son with her own Vitae, ghouling him to save his life.
February 12, 2001
The Texan Toreador whistled low and nudged AJ. "Will you lookie that? Mus' be one a them..... New York City types." AJ looked up slowly to where Billy indicated and stopped in her tracks.
Billy was right, the smooth cut lines of a New Yorker strode purposefully across Elysium in the direction of the Prince. He was tall, olive skin with black hair that shinned in the dim light of the parlor many of the Kindred of the city sat in. Even under the suit, AJ could almost feel the muscles of the man run smoothly under chilled skin, drawing tight lines of movement. His whole body moved like a predator. As if that was what he had been in life, so it was a natural cross over. She could imagine him, stripped of the fine tailored clothing, simply in black stalking through the urban wilderness. Unseen until he appeared, like a shadow, behind his victim. AJ shivered.
"......And I'll bet you the cow he's one a them eye-talians. Looks mafia sort... AJ. AJ?" AJ shook her head and looked at Billy. "Yew okay kid? That's a awful funny smile."
"Huh?" She shook her head and pulled out her notebook. "Never better." And AJ started writing hurriedly.
February 13, 2001
AJ groaned and threw a pillow at the door of her bed room to fend off the knocking. It took her a moment to realize that it was in fact Miles knocking at the door.
"Look, I'm gon tell him ta call back if you an't gettin' up."
Him, call, huh? She sat up rubbing her eyes. "I, what? What are you talking about Miles?"
A heavy sigh could be heard through the door. "There's a man on the phone. He asked fer yah."
On my home line? That was confusing as all get out. She pulled herself out of bed and picked up the phone in her bedroom. A button push and it answered her home line, rather than the business line.
"Ms. Sadira?"
The voice sounded familiar, but she couldn't place it. Thick and heavy with a New York accent. Wait... She stopped dead, (Well, undead really.)
"My name is Paulie Del Rosa, I think we met briefly last night and I'd like to meet with you. Tonight if possible."
She stammered a little. "How did you get this phone number?"
"It's not important. Look, there's a coffee shop that's empty at this hour about three blocks from your apartment building. I'd like to meet you there."
'He knows where I live? Wait, he knows where I live!' For a moment, the little writer just stood in place still. No cold feeling. No frozen gut. She trusted, perhaps a little too well, her instinct. If there weren't any warning bells going off, she'd probably be okay. "Alright." She said finally. "I'll be there in a half hour."
A half hour later AJ sat idly stirring a cup of coffee she didn't intend on drinking and staring at the counter girl who had fallen asleep on a bar stool behind the counter. It was funny, when she thought about it later, she didn't hear the little bell jingle. She'd noticed, anytime she'd entered this coffee shop, the bell had jingled. So when Paulie was suddenly standing in front of her table she almost leapt out of her skin.
"Hey.. Chill out. I was in the guys room." He said smoothly, the corner of his mouth turning up into a sly half grin. It didn't figure, but AJ let it go.
"I think the girls asleep, but I can wake her up if you wanted anything." Gesturing across from her for him to sit.
He shook his head and sat. "Nah, better off if she's asleep." He smiled again and it made her a little nervous. "Why don't we get right down to it. I need your help. Your able to tell if someone is lying too you, right?"
She blinked again. "Look, I don't know who you think you are, but I'm not pleased at all this personal information you have about me. I don't like having to be firm over the phone, which is why I agreed to talk to you here tonight. I don't want you ever calling me on my home line, I don't appreciate you finding out where I live and...."
He smiled again, easily. He gestured slowly. "I only knew where you lived because the Sheriff asked me to get in touch with you."
AJ blinked, flushing at her unnecessary anger. That, apparently caught Paulie off guard. As he sat still just staring at her cheeks for a while. It was the strangest thing, a moment that ran in slow motion. He reached out to touch her cheek, and the most shocking part, she let him. Sharply, he drew back, muscles twitching in his face as his jaw set. "You should be careful with that little trick, Ms. Sadira. It's quite..... Tempting."
Both brows arched and she sat back. "What trick?"
"Never mind." He continued looking sharply away from her, almost... Ashamed? "Can you tell if someone's lying too you?"
"Yes. It's a gift of the Blood."
"Excellent." A second voice, one AJ didn't recognize spoke and this time AJ did in fact jump out of her chair. The figure, who certainly hadn't been in the room before stood just behind Paulie. He was ugly as sin. A Nosferatu clearly. And also, as AJ's mind had a moment to process, the Sheriff of the city.
"You know Alexander, I really hate when you follow me around." Paulie said evenly, nonplussed.
"There's no crime in keeping an eye on my allies, is there Paulie?"
"What the heck is going on here. I demand an answer." Both men looked up to AJ, who was throwing something of a hamster-like temper tantrum. (Hamster like, in that she could, in all likely hood, look less intimidating only if she was actually dressed up like a small fuzzy rodent.)
"I'm sorry AJ, I really am. I had meant this to be a private meeting." Paulie leaned forward rubbing his temple. If she hadn't been so angry, she would have asked him if he wanted an aspirin.
"Unfortunately," The Nosferatu spoke again, "We don't have time for private meetings. It's this simple AJ, the city requires your assistance. Either myself, or Paulie here will call on you from time to time to meet with us to determine if we're being lied too. Do you understand?"
She recalled that the Sheriff was one of those people AJ wasn't supposed to argue with. "I.. I don't understand, why me? There must be ten other Toreador who can do it just as well."
Paulie shook his head. "Not that we can trust. As with most cities, most Kindred here have their own agenda. Out of the lot, you were the only one we knew we could get honest answers from."
"How do you know that?"
"We asked Dominic." AJ went still. You couldn't argue with that. She thought for a moment, Billy could do it too. She knew Billy could be trusted and she almost said as much, but then, she thought maybe she could spare Billy getting involved in trouble, she would.
Of course, what AJ didn't know is that they had considered Billy. However, the decided that Billy was too strong willed for what they needed. They had no way of knowing how well the Dominate would work on the loud Texan. And with her knowledge of the sabbat.....
"We'll call on you."
AJ blanched. "Is there anyway we can do it that you don't come to my home? Perhaps you can call my office line and I'll meet you somewhere?"
Paulie and Alexander exchanged a look, then nodded.
"As you like, it will most likely be me contacting you and....." Paulie looked up and around, the Nosferatu was gone. "I hate when he does that."
AJ nodded her agreement and looked back down to her coffee. "I trust I'll need to keep this hush hush, yes?"
Paulie nodded solemnly and stood. "I better be going. Just, be careful out there, alright AJ? It's getting dangerous in Huston."
She looked up, eyes wide and blinked. "Alright... I will. If you say so."
He started to leave, stopped. From behind, she watched his shoulders droop and his head bow for just a moment. He turned back to stand in front of the young Toreador. "I know this probably isn't the place or time but..." His hand drifted out again, catching her chin between thumb and finger, he tilted it up too look down right into her eyes. "Your a beautiful women, in your own way, AJ. I'd... I'd like to get too know you better." His fingers drifted from her face, hand falling limp at his side. "Would you consider meeting me for dinner tomorrow night?"
May 14, 2001
AJ watched shocked as Billy Lee Black sunk into her chair and quickly tilted her cowboy hat down over her eyes. "Aw shit. Don't look behind yah, at least, be subtle 'er what ever."
AJ blinked and turned around, and turned back confused.
"Ah said subtle, damnit AJ."
"I didn't see anything. Just that pretty blonde."
"Yeah, well, that pretty blonde is mah sires luver. Yew know, that one that hates me?" AJ paled, concern flickering in her eyes for her friend.
"We'll just lay low. I'm very sure she's not here for you."
"Yeah... Tha'd be silly. Comin' all the way frum Europe jes ta fuck with me..."
With in two days, the pretty blonde had usurped the Harpy in Houston. AJ and Billy decided it was high time to lay low.
June 25, 2001
"It doesn't look like much of a birthday cake without the candles, I'm sorry Anna." Over the last couple of months, it seemed like any waking moment AJ wasn't out with Billy getting into trouble, she was with Paulie. He had a funny way of disarming her and making her nervous. It was exciting. It was passionate. It was the first time in years AJ didn't sleep alone every night.
AJ had told him everything. About her mother. About Charles. About Miles. Her fears and her dreams. Why she wrote the sex filled violence heavy horror stories when all she really wanted out of life was a white picket fence somewhere and a big golden retriever named Champer.
For his part, Paulie told her about a childhood in poverty in New York. How crime was the only way for his family to make ends meet. His eventual run in with the mob that made his fortune, and to an extent, signed his death warrant. How, because of his dealings with the mob, he ended up getting spotted by a powerful Brujah who wanted more contacts in the mafia. Who used him as an inroad. How eventually that Brujah went Sabbat, and since then, Paulie has hunted them all up and down the east coast. They had seen each other cry. They had even once, though awkwardly, like a young couple stumbling onto sex together for the first time, feed from each other.
"Here, I've got an idea." He wrapped his hand around her waste from behind. Holding her tight to his body. With his free hand, he brought a lighter up to the candles in the cake. "Now hold on AJ. Trust me." He squeezed her tighter and lit the lighter. She almost screamed. Squirming pathetically in his arm as he lit the candles. She couldn't, of course brake free. Paulie was strong even for a Brujah and conversely, AJ was weak even for a Toreador. "It can't hurt you if you control it AJ. It can't get you unless you let it. You have to be stronger than it. Come on AJ...." It seemed like he held her there for hours, staring at the fire and struggling to get free. She begged him to let her go. Begged him to let her get away, that she wasn't strong enough, that she would get burned. He never looked at her. Never answered her directly except to tell her that if she wanted to be let go, she had to control the fear. She had to blow out the candles. Eventually, the candles burned out and Paulie left disgusted. AJ hid in her room for a few nights until Billy came around to ask AJ if she wanted to go to the bar. AJ gave her a resounding yes, and almost drank Billy under the table that night.
She never told anyone about the incident.
July 4, 2001
So it would happen, some times, AJ would get a call from the Sheriff or Paulie, saying only to meet them at the coffee shop.
It was strange, AJ could always remember leaving to go to the coffee shop. She could even sometimes remember going in. Everything after that, till she found herself walking home, was a blur. Sometimes Alexander would thank her the next night for her help. Sometimes Paulie would mention the next time they met what a big help she was being. For the life of her though, AJ couldn't recall just what she'd done to be a big help. As the incidences increased in frequency, AJ grew more and more concerned. It was around that time Paulie and AJ fed from each other for the second time.
August 1, 2001
AJ Sadira published her third book. Blood and Silk actually made the New York Time Best Seller List.
August 20, 2001
Billy leaned her head down, hand on her hat to steady it. "Look, I... I wish I didn't have ta say this AJ, but, I jes can't stand to watch you get played with."
AJ looked up from pouring her coffee. She smiled weakly at Billy and chuckled. "I know he's a little weird sometimes Billy, but I hardly think I'm being played with..."
The Texan lifted her hat and wiped her brow. "No." She said seriously. "Ah mean it AJ. Yah need ta brake it off with that guy. Jes'...trust me on this."
She sat slowly on the couch across from Billy. For the life of her she couldn't figure Billy's motives. She knew Miles really didn't like Paulie, but she didn't know any reason why Billy wouldn't like him.
"Lookit. I know it ain't easy ta hear. First, I... I got mah suspicions about him. Some things I seen and yew told me, they don't add up right. And second..." She drew in a slow deep breath, a gesture AJ had noticed, vampires rarely did. "At the last Elysium I stumbled across him 'n the Harpy.... in... a... uncomfortable position." She looked up. "Ah swear ta God I did AJ." Taking her hat off with the motion, the Texan Baptist equivalent to crossing oneself. "I told him he ain't oughtta be doin' that to ya'll." She sighed again. Serious did not seem to be a natural state for Billy. She was far to free a spirit. "They both laughed at me. Told me I could do what I liked.... That you wouldn't believe me."
AJ felt cold. Her instincts screaming against the blood that pulsed in her veins. Half of her wanted to believe Billy with every cell in her body. Half of her wanted to scream 'how dare you' and stomp out of the room. Paulie could never cheat on her! Not the Paulie she'd met all those months ago. Not the Paulie that had cried on her shoulder with guilt while talking about the first time he'd taken a human life.
But then, Paulie wasn't always that Paulie. Sometimes, he was someone else. Sometimes he was cold and distant and sometimes it almost seemed like he enjoyed seeing her squirm, afraid of him.
She stayed quiet while she thought all this. "Were you serious about going to that bar later Billy Lee?"
The Texan settled her hat back on and nodded. Softly, "Ifn' yah want."
AJ nodded. "You drive there. Let's go to a dark one. I might have to cry later."
Billy stood. "I understand."
A while later AJ sat at a table to the back of the Thirst Horse and watched Billy saunter over for another round of drinks for the two of them. AJ was the kind of drunk that ends with lots of crying and even more vomiting. Billy was her own usual brand of bubbly drunk that could quickly turn to violence or somber contemplation depending. AJ watched as a good looking man stopped next to Billy at the bar. He had one of those friendly faces that made you think you knew them, even if you didn't. She watched him say something to Billy. Billy's head bowed and she offered him a half hearted chuckle. They talked a little while and suddenly Billy had swung up to bubbly again. Drinks in hand Billy returned with the stranger. Setting them down, she hit the stranger firmly on the back.
"This here, AJ, is Henry McKnee... McNeee....Mc..."
"McNeish" He corrected gently with a thick Scottish accent.
"Anyway..." Billy said brightly. "You'll like this guy, he tells one hell of a dirty joke."
All in all, a dirty joke was the last thing AJ wanted to hear. "Aye lass. Ye stop frownin' like that e're yer lips get stuck like tha."
AJ shook her head. "I'm not much up for smiling tonight."
"Aye? Well, we'll just have ta see about that. Whadda ya say Billy?"
"Right!"
It seemed that, heavy drinkers, no matter where you went in the world, always knew the same drinking songs. This was necessary you see, a way of communicating within a peer group despite normal language barriers. The sheer absurdity of the Texan and the Scotsman singing the same song with most of the same drunken word slurs was surreal enough to lift AJ from her funk. Truth be told, after the second verse, AJ, and half the bar, were singing along too.
September 1, 2001
Instead of getting ready for the new school year, like AJ had hoped she would be, she and Billy and Henry sat on the floor in Billy's apartment floor shifting through letters and photo's and news paper clips and every other weird little bit of information they had gathered. Using AJ's hunches, Billy's knowledge, and Henry's network of friends in the city, the little coterie had gathered all the concrete proof they could to take to the Prince. It was clear to them now, without a doubt, there was a Sabbat presence in the city. It had tainted even some of the big movers and shakers in the city. They even had evidence, that the Sheriff at the very least knew about it and hadn't yet done anything.
"What if the Prince already knows?"
Billy shook her head. "Then, as it'll be public after tanight, he'll have ta do sumpthin'."
"I gotta say, I dunna know if I like tha idea of forcein' t'e Prince's hand like this."
AJ glanced up from a letter Paulie had sent her. "I trust the Prince. It's not him we need to be worried about. It's the forcing of the sabbat's hand that worries me." Billy looked up, as did Henry and a momentary hesitation went through the room. "But..." AJ went on. "If we're out in the public, they wouldn't dare touch us. If anything happens to the three of us, it would only prove what we're saying."
Henry nodded, it made sense. Billy had her doubts, but really didn't know what else they could do.
That night, after looking through the files they presented him, the Prince and most of the rest of the Primogen council, laughed the three neonates out of the Prince's office. "There are no Sabbat in Houston, Children. I'm sorry to say, why don't you go find some other mystery to solve, hmm?" Of the lot of them, Dominic stayed quiet. His eyes had flickered over the folders and returned to AJ. In the back of her mind, she could feel the wash of Dominic's words. 'Go home.' He said to her. 'I believe you three... I will do my own investigation. But go quickly, and lock your doors tonight.'
AJ paled at the telepathic communication, she took the other two by the elbows and left quickly with them.
November 15, 2001
With the help of her Sire, AJ had Miles transferred to a private school up north where few questions would be asked. She, Billy, and Henry laid low for the few weeks after the Elysium. Billy was angry. Henry was furious. AJ, was terrified.
"They'll come after me. Billy, if he is one of them, he'll come after me first."
"He'll have to get through us first." Billy said soberly, cleaning out her rifle. Henry looked up from his sword and nodded. "Aye. Tha' he will."
AJ's home phone rang. "It's alright," She said to the room who all stiffened. "It's either Dominic or Miles. Everyone else calls me on the office line." She knew it was true, so why did she suddenly feel cold right now? She picked up the phone. Nodded once and put it back down.
"It's Dominic." She said slowly. "He wants me to meet him at the coffee shop."
"Right. We'll go with yah."
AJ shook her head slowly. "No, that's alright. It's just down the block. The streets have people on them this time of night. I'll be fine. He'll be more comfortable talking if we're alone."
Billy and Henry exchanged a look. There was something... Funny in the way she was talking. She was also already out the door by the time they looked back.
"Should we follow?"
"Give her a minute, then we'll follow." Billy stood and put her guns in their holsters.
By the time they were out on the street, AJ was gone.
December 1, 2001
She'd lost track of the number of days she'd been in this black place. She could remember going to see her Sire. She could remember being grabbed from behind as she stepped out of her apartment building. Everything beyond that was unclear. It was cold here. Dark that even with her supernatural sense, she couldn't see. Worse, she was getting hungry. Very, very hungry. She'd read stories, hell, she'd written stories about vampires going crazy with hunger after long captivities. She did what she could. She thought about Miles, and how if she could just keep it together, she'd get to see him again. Sometimes, she would find a rat in the darkness. She tried not to think about what she did then. But the rats we're getting scarcer, and harder to catch. When she felt around, it didn't seem like there we're any doors, and if she jumped, she couldn't feel a ceiling. It seemed subterranean, like a basement. Other than that, she couldn't tell where she was. The space echoed when she cried.
And tonight, the darkness laughed when she cried. "I would have thought you would have chosen torpor over eating rats... AJ." The voice in the darkness was hauntingly familiar. But maybe, just maybe she was wrong. Maybe he was here to save her.
"Paul?" She said softly.
"Yeah, sweet heart." He said slowly. "It's me baby...." She could feel a cold hand on her cheek.
"You... You have to get me out of here Paul. I... I'm starving." The hand on her cheek pulled back, and slapped her with enough force to knock her to the floor where she'd sat.
"Don't you ever tell me what I have ta do. I don't think you realize baby... You're in no position to make demands."
She shivered, and tried slowly to sit up. "Oh." Was the only thing she could think to say. Her heart screamed betrayal. Her whole body urged her to jump on him. To claw his lying eyes out. To rip his tongue from his head so he could never speak false again. To eat his heart for breaking hers. The Beast demanded revenge. However, AJ knew full and well what would happen if she attacked him. He'd kill her as easily as he spoke. Reason won and she stayed right where she was.
Paulie seemed to be watching her, though she could not see him, she could feel his eyes on her. "....Your not going to attack me?"
"What would be the point? Your stronger than I am."
He laughed. "True. I'd rip your head off before you got off the ground, and then I'd drink your soul. What do you think AJ, it's kind of romantic. Your soul forever entwined with mine. You dying so that I could be stronger, as if you gave me one last gift?"
She couldn't help but snarl a little. "I have nothing more to give to you. I already gave you the important thing."
"Oh?" He asked, amusement in his tone.
"I gave you love."
Laughed ricocheted like bullets off the walls and ceiling of AJ's prison. "Love? Do you really think a vampire is capable of it? Come on AJ, you've been playing naive for too long."
She steeled herself and shook her head once. "I do, and will always believe in love. You loved me, I -know- that you did. That's why you haven't just killed me. I won't be any good in the Sabbat, you know that too. So there isn't anything to do but kill me."
He went quiet for a while. "Maybe I did. Maybe I do. However, I love the Sabbat more."
That coldness turned icy and crept up inside her to lick at her heart. "I don't understand Paulie... I thought you hunted them."
She could hear in the darkness the shifting of fabric. It sounded like he was sitting down. "I did. A foolish thing, because I hadn't been educated to the Truth. Luckily, The Dark Father forgave me, and chose me. Do you remember when I told you about that time in Washington?"
AJ nodded. "They kidnapped you didn't...." She trailed off, the ice grabbed and froze her heart in her chest.
"And they did. Held me prisoner in a place... Not unlike this. They waited, and then they started to reeducate me. They taught me all about the Glory of The Dark Father. They shattered all the lies the Elders of the Cammarilla tell you. The Antideluvians will come back some day, AJ. It will only be the Sabbat who will survive, because we will fight them. We will save the world when Gehenna comes."
AJ started shaking. "You mean, that whole time..."
"No," He said simply. "I didn't know the whole time. You see, my sire before me was also a plant. He wasn't Brujah, only willingly dominated into thinking he was so he could pass aura scans. As was I. My mistress Dominated me to forget my conversion while I infiltrated Houston. That done, she reawakened me to all that I have learned. You were very helpful in my infiltration AJ. Your aura scans helped me locate the sympathizers and kill those who weren't."
"Oh my God...."
"He has very little to do with it AJ. That's why we picked you. You wanted so much to do the right thing. You were so willing to be dominated into thinking you were doing the right thing."
"Oh my God...." She leaned forward, to put her face in her hands.
"Now now AJ," She could feel cool arms wrap around her in the darkness. "It'll be okay AJ. I'm sorry I couldn't tell you from the beginning. There was just a lot you wouldn't understand. But it's okay now. I'll show you the Truth, like my Mistress did for me. I'll show you the way, I can save you from Gehenna. We can be together forever, you and I." She felt him withdraw from her. "But first, your shaking, why don't we get you something to eat, uh?"
She suddenly became aware of the sound of breathing. Breathing other than her own. It was light and uneven, staggered occasionally by little sniffles. It was a child on the tail end of crying. The Beast stirred again. She could feel it dragging her twords the sound slowly. 'You're hungry.' her blood whispered. 'Just a little bite won't hurt anyone.'
"I'll just leave you here with lunch. Enjoy." She couldn't feel Paulie's presence in the darkness anymore. She could hear the whimpering. She allowed the Beast to bring her to the child's side, then stuffed it violently back into it's little box.
"Are you..." The child sniffled. "...Gonna eat me?"
She paused for a moment, the child's words only helping to strengthen her conviction. "No," She said softly, the way she used to talk to Miles when he cried. "I like cookies better." She touched the child's chubby cheek. "Do you like cookies?" The child answered positively. Eventually AJ pulled the child into her arms while the girl told her all about cookies. They both fell asleep after a while.
When AJ woke, the child was gone.
January 14, 2002
And it happened, sometimes she'd wake and Paulie was there to 'teach' her. Sometimes he could leave her 'meals' which she'd avoid, sticking to rats. Sometimes he'd come with bags of blood, he told her, to keep her from going into Torpor. After all, he couldn't tell her about the Dark Father if she was unconscious. Sometimes he would give her strange sermons, sometimes he would come and tell her how much he loved her, talking gently about the good times. Sometimes he would come and torture her physically or emotionally. Luckily, those times AJ could block out relatively easily.
Then one night things changed. (She assumed it was night, because she was awake.) The silence that was her normal companion was shattered by the distant sound of gun fire. Something high powered and shooting rapidly. There was a crash, and artificial light fell in through a square hole in the wall. Only, it wasn't really a hole, so much as a door had been yanked off it's hinges. A door she hadn't been able to see was there before.
She could see figures move in, though her eyes hurt from having been suddenly exposed to light. They we're speaking to each other quietly, hurriedly.
"It's alright AJ." Said a familiar southern drawl. "We're gon get you home ta yer sire.
March 2002
Dominic insisted the coterie stay with him until they we're sure AJ was alright to travel. She stayed quiet about the incident, hesitant to talk about it at all. When Dominic suggested they follow Miles up north, AJ agreed whole heartedly. If she'd been affected by her months of captivity, it didn't show. Neither Billy nor Henry seemed completely satisfied with her 'instant recovery'... But they suspected Dominic had sped it along with his disciplines. A pity that her mind was further played with, but at least this time it was for the right reasons.
Steel Valley, not far from where Miles was going to school any way seemed the sort of place they could blend in for a while. Dominic assured them he would get in touch when the Sabbat presence was exposed and removed. For now, though, he suggested a place where few questions would asked. And so far, the Valley has been just that.
Written by me, Philomena 2002
