Tales of the Vampires: Taste of Honey

Hello all! Today is my first posting day. I will be posting one part this morning and the second (and last) part tonight...

Title:Taste of Honey
Author: Tiana
Rating: R for swearing, violence, sexual references
Summary: Ian is a vampire in Washington, D.C. He finds the Slayer of the day there around 1988.
Disclaimer:I don't own any of the concepts of the Jossverse, but I am borrowing the idea of the Slayer and vampires from there.




Only a fool would have looked for her on purpose. And I’ve been called many things in the last couple decades, but fool is not one of them. Evil. Bloodsucker. Demon. Devil. Crazy motherfucker. But not a fool. I’d been on my own for about five years when I first heard the word Slayer. I remember it well. Some rumors were floating that there was a girl chosen to kill vampires. One girl. I had to laugh. There are thousands...maybe millions of us. What possible good could one little girl do against those odds? Plus, so easy to stay out of her way. I’ve got a whole planet to feast on and all I have to do is stay out of her city.

One problem, though. She seemed to have set up camp in my hometown. My city. D.C.

I’ve been away for awhile, but I’d like to hit those streets again, slip into some clubs. Dance. Flirt. Have a few bites to eat. There’s nothing like going home again. Hell, I could run into people I went to high school with and kill them. That could be fun. I never attended any of the reunions. I guess they heard I died, but not the living dead part. Actually, I guess they heard my Dad and I went missing. Never found the body kind of story. Oh well. It’s been about thirty years now. I can just see their stunned faces. ‘You haven’t aged a day, Ian! And hey, weren’t you dead or something?’ Yeah, well. Come over here and I’ll tell you a little secret.

So, like I said, I was on my own for about five years when I first heard about this girl. My Dad, who also happened to be my sire, got dusted when some fucked up wino lit him on fire while we slept. We’d been picking these guys off one by one, keeping a low profile after some trouble in Gramercy, and this drunk figured it out. Maybe knowing about vampires is what made him crazy in the first place. Anyway, he knew what to do. I woke up soaked in gasoline just in time to see my old man go up in flames. Luckily, I was fast before I was turned, so now I’m wicked quick. Stupid bum was dead before he hit the ground, but it was too late for Dad. A pile of dust, which I threw in the East River. I left NYC and never looked back. And I thought we would blend in there, fade into the city, kill at will. No such luck.

From what I can tell, it’s pretty weird to have your real Dad around as a vamp. Didn’t meet anyone else who hadn’t pretty much wiped out their whole genetic line when they got vamped. Not my Dad, though. See, he was first. Some muggers jumped he and my Mom in a parking deck. Killed her, turned him. For fun, I guess. When he came to my apartment, blood dried on his neck, smelling like death, I freaked the fuck out. But he didn’t kill me. Told me what happened. He wasn’t totally different, but he sure as hell wasn’t same old Dad, the accountant. Now, he was a killing machine. And the first targets were the street punks who killed Mom. He came to get me. To recruit me or something. Keep his family together. I didn’t have much going for me at the time. Dropped out of college, working a couple jobs. He offered me power and immortal life and all that shit. Hell yeah, I took it. Never liked having a day job, anyway. More of a night owl, and now I am professionally, I guess.

So yeah. Dad turned me. We wiped the streets with those kids, who were so strung out on who knows what, they barely felt it. Dad and I did lots of stuff together growin’ up. Taught me to play guitar. Drove me to soccer games. He was a troublemaker as a kid, before he straightened out and got a real career and family and all that. I could always see it in him just below the button-ups and khakis. Turns out he had to die to bring it all back to the surface. With a fucking vengeance. Best father-son bonding ever.

Other vamps tell me they hated their families. Killed ‘em the second they woke up. I don’t get it. Yeah, I want to tear heads off and rip throats out with the best of ‘em, but I’ve got a bit of love for my family still. At least I would if any of them were left. But I’m on my own now. No brothers or sisters, no parents. Just a fifty year old vampire in the body of a twenty year old. Who needs plastic surgery? Anyway, I still feel like a kid. The years just slide by me like so much water.

But hey, back to this...Slayer. If she had decided to go anywhere else, I would have steered way the hell clear. But D.C.? The place I grew up? No way. I didn’t want her purifying my streets. Killing all the naughty vamps. I’d just have to take her out. How hard could it be? Just one girl.

Stupid fucking question.

I rolled into town in late September. Always loved the way the air smelled in the fall there. Crisp and cool. And now, under that, I could smell the leaves rotting and the flowers dying. Who knew that being a vampire would actually make me more connected with the world? I can smell everything, hear everything. I’m aware of sounds I never knew existed when I was alive. But the first way I found her was scent. I was down in Georgetown, by the canal. Nice and dark there and all the drunk college students make easy targets. The girls mostly think I am hitting on them and they fall all over me before I tear into their soft necks.

I was moving down towards the river, where it is even more dark and deserted, when I picked up a new scent. Mostly I caught the dead fish smell coming up from the Potomac, but then, under it, something sweet. I froze, fell into a shadow like only a vampire can and tried to pick it up. A touch of sweat mixed with...flowers. Something familiar. I frowned and found myself following the scent. Staying to the shadows, but keeping it close. It drew me.

I heard noises. A grunt and a cry of surprise. Then, the bitter taste of ash floated on the breeze towards me. I sneezed. Big mistake. She called out. I ran. And I do mean ran. With the taste of her last kill in my throat.

When I slammed my way into the little rowhouse in Georgetown I had recently acquired by ‘evicting’ its previous tenants, I found myself gasping for breath. And then being incredibly pissed. First of all, I don’t breathe. Second, I ran from her. I’m the vampire. Killer of the innocent, strong and fast and lethal. And I ran. I didn’t go out again that night.

The next night, I went straight for the river again. It must have been the Slayer. No other reason for the voice of a girl in the dark to make me bolt like that. Normally, that’s what draws me near. But I heard her stalk and kill another vamp with such ease. He or she never had a chance. Something tells me there is more to the Slayer than it would seem. More than some girl with a pointy stick. It was a few hours before I caught the scent again. Strong and sweet. It would drive me crazy until I placed it. I moved as silently as I ever have. I saw her clearly once in the sickly green glow of a security light on the back of a building. She moved like a predator, all grace and death on the prowl. I could hear her breathe in the night air.

The fear turned my stomach into a knot. That she might turn on me at any second. I felt slow and clumsy in her presence. I hung back just far enough that she didn’t seem to know I was there. Farther up, I saw her prey. I recognized him as a young vamp named Lew. Thick and slow, but incredibly strong. Think he was a linebacker in high school or something. He didn’t seem to know she was there as he lumbered along. It was like watching a car wreck in slow motion to see her accelerate toward him, one hand snaking into her bag for a stake. She moved like an animal, soundless. At the last minute, she seemed to decide against the easy stake from behind and tackled him. Nice. She liked the fight, not just the kill. I heard Lew grunt in surprise as he landed face first on the street. He rolled over, and she rolled off first, landing on her feet like a cat. I realized I was stuck in place, watching. There was only a bit of light from a nearby streetlamp now, but I could see her a little. Better than a human would be able to, at least.

Smallish, maybe 5’5”. Hair back in a ponytail that whipped around her head like a snake. Dark hair, pale skin. It was about all I could make out. And deadly. I mentioned that, right?

Yeah.

I think that was what did it for me. She was absolutely deadly. Made me so fucking hot. I couldn’t decide what I wanted from her first. Her blood or her body. Maybe both.

She moved around Lew like he was standing still, kicking, punching and finally dropping him like a sack of potatoes. She stood over him, straddling him, her chest rising and falling only slightly faster than when the fight started. I saw her ponytail finally lying still on her back as she stared down into his eyes. Lew didn’t even move. The action of her staking him was so fast, I barely saw him dissolve. Next I knew, she was squatting there over a pile of dust, and her eyes were darting my way. I disappeared as fast as I could. I heard her footfalls, just barely, as she came my way. In a few quick moves, I was on the roofs, heading east. If she followed, I never knew. I never looked back.



Hope you enjoyed it. Second part later tonight...