World of Darkness World of Darkness: Attrition - Chance from Circumstance [Finished]

[The Story Guide]

Just before midnight, Thursday August 7th

She was dressed to kill and she loved that thought. Her hair and dress were the same blood red, and the hair stopped just before the dress did. Heels and hose so aptly named nude finished off the ensemble. Every male eye in the bar, and most of the female ones, lingered over her at least once.

All except one.

He'd come in like he usually did twenty minutes ago. She'd kept out of sight, stalking him from the shadows in a reverse game of cat and mouse that made her lips twitch and a thrill run up her spine.

I can do this. It's time. I found him and I know I'm right. Peter'll be grumpy, then skeptical, then impressed. She grinned. This was going to be so many different kinds of fun.

She approached him from behind, coquettishly tapping him on the shoulder. She ran her tongue of her lips and asked, "Buy me a drink?"

[Adrian Moss]

He looked at her with those sad, dead eyes just a hairs-breath before they became alive and focussed on her. His eyes flickered and she knew what they flickered to.

"Drink? Sure, as long as you know it's more than a drink I have in mind," he said confidently.

Adrian steered her toward the bar, got her order and then passed on anything for himself. For just a moment, there was that look of isolation and confusion while he waited for the drink to appear for her. He looked at her with a definite hunger, which could have been confused for something flattering if she hadn't known any better.

"We could grab a table and dance, unless you're not here to dance either, ..."

Mainly he couldn't remember if he had fed on her before. It was possible he had scored so highly up on the social food chain before. She might be a cop, confusing him and his activities with that of a drug dealer, but how could he really tell? As far as he knew, he was a dare by some of her friends to pick up the creepy guy. Whatever it was, Adrian had a bit of the hunger with him and he meant to feed. He was less than cautious.

[The Story Guide]

Quote:

"Drink? Sure, as long as you know it's more than a drink I have in mind," he said confidently.

She laughed at his confidence. "Aren't all men?" Kitten's growing teeth, when did that happen? "Aren't all men?"

Quote:

Adrian steered her toward the bar, got her order and then passed on anything for himself. For just a moment, there was that look of isolation and confusion while he waited for the drink to appear for her. He looked at her with a definite hunger, which could have been confused for something flattering if she hadn't known any better.

"We could grab a table and dance, unless you're not here to dance either, ..."

"Oh, you're going to have to dance, at least a little. I'm here for my own fun, too, and I don't charge by the hour." Her tone was still playful, teasing, and the slam against some of the more...professional girls around the bar didn't hold any heat. She ordered a Smirnoff: definitely not a girl looking to slammed and wake up in places unknown the next morning.

She set the drink down at a two-seater table and pulled him out to the dance floor as the DJ switched from pop rock to a technobeat interlude. Even with heels on she was shorter than him, but she moved with a surety and grace on the dance floor that made her seem like the only woman in world when she moved.

As the dance wore on she grinned up at him, "So, you gonna tell me your name, or do I have to guess?"

[Adrian Moss]

He smiled. She was feisty. The pale shadow of the boy he once was liked women who could speak there mind. Not that he had ever attracted any of those, but they were part of his living fantasy life. Now, the Dead didn't like the interference with this and stirred inside.

"You don't know my name?"

That answered one question. He had never fed on her before. He always used his name.

"I'm Adrian."

She wasn't a professional, which annoyed the Dead. The Dead liked the cold mutual professionalism of the working girls. You paid them and took what you wanted. They were the closest Adrian got to a willing partner ... so far.

"I'm at UCLA, but I don't like talking about school much."

Because I suck, and not in the life-giving blood in my throat way. I'm a hallow, shallow machine that eats and thinks about eating too much. Why am I even thinking about this? I should make my move.

Instead he danced.

"Who are you and what do you do?"

Not the question I wanted to ask, dammit.

[The Story Guide]

Her grin widened at that last question. "My name is Erica, if that's enough of who I am for you. As for what I do..." The beat of the song picked up and she turned away from him for a minute, dancing like a second skin to him before finishing with, "...whatever I want."

She continued to dance, flicking her eyes from him to the dance floor as they moved. She turned back to face him eventual, running her her hands lightly up his side and over his shoulders. "So, Adrian, what do you do for fun then?" Her eyes flicked out over the dance floor and back to him again. "I mean, real fun."

[Adrian Moss]

The dance is physical gymnastics and Adrian has no trouble keeping up.

"Erica ... whatever I want."

She shouldn't be hard to get outside and alone.

Alarm bells sound. He knows his luck and this is almost too easy.

"What do I want to do for fun?" he says with a vacant look.

I don't want to have fun with you Erica. I want to feast on your sweet blood ... then leave you in the dim shadows wanting more.

I don't know how to have fun, do I?

"What do I do for fun?" he repeats with more devilish attention this time. Adrian grabs her her by the upper arm and drags her off the dance floor. He drags her to a darker stretch of the wall. He wants to slam her into the wall, but he lacks the strenght, so she ends up more stumbling into it. He leans into her as if they were lovers and she can smell the mint on his breath.

"What is your game?"

He wants to keep it there, sweet and simple, but he can't stop himself.

"Hot, throbbing girls don't throw themselves at me - Ever!"

His own insecurities about his own intellect surfaces as he adds,

"Don't act dumb on me now. Whatis your game?"

[The Story Guide]

Erica let herself be man-handled into the shadows, surprise and something else flickering across her face. Unlike most girls Adrian might have known, that would have pushed him off of them, or at least yelled at him and glared, Erica simply looked up at him with her dark blue eyes and skipping heart.

"I don't act, Adrian, dumb or otherwise." Her body arched from the wall towards him, leaving her face still under his but her throat a pale expanse down the the crisscross of crimson straps that held up her dress. "My game is fun. You caught my interest. Hot guys are as dime a dozen as hot girls in LA. You're different. You're...." Her gaze lowered as she put a hand to his chest, over a heart that only beat on command now. "You're different. I'm different. I like different." She glanced back up, all tease and carelessness, "So I like you. Enjoy it."

[Adrian Moss]

Had he really been expecting any other answer?

He wanted to turn her around, and run his hands over her body. With her mind distracted by his hands on her breasts, he would bite her on the neck and feed on her.

Or, did he want to have fun?

Damnit, he was on a case right now. He had homework to do. He had enough to keep him from being a bored girls plaything.

Fun sounded good. It founded different. It sounded like something that might touch him and make him remember the few positive moments of being alive. It might give him something ... something real besides the blood.

He smiled a toothy grin with his sharp teeth barely concealed.

"This fun. I don't know what it is," he teased. "Why don't you show me what this fun is. My car is outside."

Adrian dangled the keys to his Jag. Even as he offered them, the lights gave his eyes a hellish red glow - for just an instant.

[The Story Guide]

Rather than put her off, the illusion seemed to spur her on. "Let me grab my purse, then."

She grabbed the black handbag and, as an afterthought, the abandoned bottle of Smirnoff and made her way back to Adrian. Her eyes roved over the Jag like a white glove on inspection and she dazzled Adrian with a genuine, almost girlish smile. Excitement and just a tinge of prey-fear flowed off of her like perfume as she slid into the passenger seat.

"We headed out somewhere, or in somewhere?"

[Adrian Moss]

Take her back to the house so I can eat her and bury her in the backyard.

"Erica, I don't take risks. I see it as courting trouble."

Why did I tell her that? This is going to be much more trouble than its worth.

He looks up the strip.

"If you want to drive it somewhere, you can," he again dangles the keys before her. "I don't have anywere to be before," he looks at his watch," Five o'clock."

Not that an hour before sunrise is suspicious. No.

"Me, I like to drive up to the Hills on look down at the city. I like the sense of isolation and being above it all."

He looks at his shoes.

"Kind of boring, I know."

Yeah, like that is going to help you get her alone and suck her blood.

Why did Adrian get that feeling he had back on the streets when one of the older kids asked him a question? Either answer was going to get him a beating, but still he would hesitate over the answer. Why did the pretty girl give him that sensation?

[The Story Guide]

She stopped, really stopped for the first time and looked Adrian over in that heart-and-mind way women could do. She plucked the keys from him and slid over into the driver's seat. "Get in."

She pulled her door shut, and after he did the same she revved the engine and pulled out of the parking lot. She drove swiftly, but not with the careless inattention of teens out for a lark. Her eyes were on the road the entire time, and thoughtful. The city rolled passed them, grudgingly giving way to scrub hills and half-lit highways. After the twenty minutes or so of silence she looked back over at him.

"Risks. I used to care about that too. I'm not suicidal or anything, but what's the point in just watching the world go by? You want to live, you want life? you've got to go courting it. And that's always trouble."

[Adrian Moss]

Fool, I can't eat her if she's driving.

But part of him listened to her sitting there, with all her youth, talking to him about risk and all. There was a time when he felt like that, didn't he?

"With my luck, there is always trouble. Why invite more?"

He shakes his head.

"The last time I left the risks for others to worry about, I got shot in the back. I was fourteen."

He gives her a sad, beaten smile.

"My fault really. I robbed an electronics store with a pistol and the owner followed me out the store and shot me. Dumb risk for less than a thousand in cash."

"Now its even more complicated. It's like there is this voice in my head that councils me against taking risks ... amongst other things. Now you must think I'm crazy."

[The Story Guide]

She laughed. Not at him, he realized after a moment.

"'Crazy'. I've met crazy. I've even met I-wish-I-were-crazy a few times. And one desperately-working-on-going-crazy. You're not there yet, not by a long shot." The car began curving as the roads became hairpins and cliff edges. She barely seemed to notice, taking each potentially lethal bend with ease and practice.

She was watching him more now, the way he sat and the set to his jaw, his hairline and how many lines she could trace around his eyes. She seemed about to ask him a question, the shrugged. "Everyone gets bit at some point. Doesn't mean you just lie down and act dead. Might as well really be dead then. And if you're dead but still walking around, might as well enjoy it. You ever see that episode of the X-files? The one where Moulder talks about why zombies do what they do?"

[Adrian Moss]

Dead he missed. Might as well be dead, he missed. Dead but still walking around he got.

What the hell is going on with this girl?

"X-files? No, I'm afraid I missed that one."

Hell, he barely knew what the show was and only knew Moulder from a Moulder & Scully reference. Adrian felt his world closing in again. He was out of his element.

Yet strangely he felt as if Erica was taking it easy on him.

"While you are telling me about Moulder and the Zombies, why don't you pull over and let me take over for a bit?"

All this confusion has made me hungry and I want to shut her up. I don't like thinking about these things and she's too smart for me by half. She makes me feel stupid and she's full of blood.

[The Story Guide]

She arched a brow at his question, but then shrugged and pulled the car onto a barely-there shoulder. She slipped out of the driver seat, but instead of getting back in on the other side she went and leaned against the street railing. The road dropped off to a sheer cliff and with the moon already set the city below looked like a rippling reflection of the sky above.

"Oh, it's not all that important. Just a pop culture tidbit that fit." She looked up at the stars, picking out her favorites from the strange stories her Grampa used to tell her when she was little. Definitely not the sanitized Greek myths you got in elementary school. Eventually her eyes and thoughts settled back to him. She smiled again, that real smile that seemed somehow out of place with the too-hot-for-you outfit. "We can keep climbing, if you want, but we're pretty much as alone as we're going to be out here. That's my risk. What's yours?"

[Adrian Moss]

"I risk ..."

What is my risk?

"I end up dead inside," he whispers, staring at her with those sad eyes.

"Close your eyes. Stand still," he more spoke the commands than ordered them. The risk to her was definitely increased.

Erica followed his instructions. She could here his feet crunch against the small stones on the side of the road. Adrian came up beside her and gently turned her so that her back was toward him. She felt his cool hand brush her hair aside. What she didn't feel was his breath upon her neck. Only the sense of two somethings pressed against the juglar.

Then nothing. He hesitated then withdrew.

"I think we have some climbing to do. I think I want to know were we end up."

[The Story Guide]

Quote:

Erica followed his instructions. She could here his feet crunch against the small stones on the side of the road. Adrian came up beside her and gently turned her so that her back was toward him. She felt his cool hand brush her hair aside. What she didn't feel was his breath upon her neck. Only the sense of two somethings pressed against the juglar.

He could feel the shiver that chased over her body as he gathered her hair and placed it over her shoulder. He could also feel the suppressed jump at the press of two points to her throat. Her hands tightened on the railing, but she never pulled away.

Quote:

Then nothing. He hesitated then withdrew.
"I think we have some climbing to do. I think I want to know were we end up."

When he pulled away, both from her throat and from her, she took a moment to recover. She turned to look up at him, a mix of confusion and buried disappointment in her eyes. She nodded, though, and reached up a warm hand to his cheek. "Alright," she whispered. "Are you leading or am I?"

[Adrian Moss]

With a dress like that, you're leading, Babe. I can really sink my fangs into those thighs.

Adrian coughed and looked away.

"I'll lead. The less time I have to look at you, the less I will want to eat you up."

He opened the door so she could shimy across then got in himself. The car roared to life. They took off at a good clip, but propably not as fast as Erica would have gone.

"I think I know something of what you mean, but I've never thought of it as a good thing."

He looked at her as he took the curve.

"I am terrified, and I mean terrified ... of fire. Scares the crap out of me. Anyway, my si ... friend made me stand next to a large bonfire for up to an hour, just to stare into it. I felt truly alive then. Every ounce of me wanted to be somewhere, anywhere else. Isn't that alive?"

[The Story Guide]

She shrugged, buckling her seatbelt out of habit, "It can be. It can also be just scared. Did you do anything with that feeling?"

"I mean, feeling alive is great, but being alive means doing something with that vitality. You ever here the quote 'Live like it's you last day on Earth, plan like you'll live forever'? It's kinda like a family motto for me." She leaned forward, resting her arms and head on the dashboard. "Have you ever been happy, feeling alive?"

The question was in the same somewhat dreamy tone as the rest of the conversation, but her eyes belied the intensity of her curiosity.

[Adrian Moss]

Oh, I plan to live forever.

"Me too," he whispers.

"I mean,"Adrian says louder, "I plan to live forever like your motto says. I don't so much live like everyday is my last as I live every day like the next. It's easier that way."

After a minute.

"I know this is going to sound stupid to someone like you, but I've never been sure I was happy, much less happy to be alive. The only girl I ever knew that was happy died. She died ... being ... happy, or free, or both."

"But she's dead and I don't want to be dead. Do you?"

"Or, are you afraid of being dead and walking around - like me?"

[The Story Guide]

She shrugs again, that elegant ripple down her back that seemed to encompass everything. "I think you're not really dead unless you choose to be. Everything else is just..," another shimmy down her spine, "...details."

"And you don't sound stupid. Just young." She tilted her head on her arms to look him more directly in the eye, "How old are you, if you don't mind my asking." A grin. "I'm horrible at guessing."

[Adrian Moss]

One. That will give her a stroke, right before I jump her.

"Nineteen. I've been told I look young for my age, but I don't know. Some would say I'm younger than that - that I'm a childe."

They passed a long driveway up the mountian and the lights grew dimmer. Finally Adrian got to a place were you could park by the road and look out over the city. He got out and walked to the railing.

"From here the road head back down to the Palisades."

He looks over his shoulder to her.

"I hadn't planned to explore Santa Monica til next year. Now that you know what a broken piece of work I am, is there anything else you want to know?"

[The Story Guide]

Originally Posted By: Adrian Moss

One. That will give her a stroke, right before I jump her.

"Nineteen. I've been told I look young for my age, but I don't know. Some would say I'm younger than that - that I'm a childe."

Erica gave him something between a smirk and grin. "You're always a kid to your parents. Nobody can ever guess my age either. Hell, I still get carded most places."

Quote:

They passed a long driveway up the mountian and the lights grew dimmer. Finally Adrian got to a place were you could park by the road and look out over the city. He got out and walked to the railing.

"From here the road head back down to the Palisades."
He looks over his shoulder to her.
"I hadn't planned to explore Santa Monica til next year. Now that you know what a broken piece of work I am, is there anything else you want to know?"

She walked up next to him, silently studying him for several long moments. "Why do you think you're broken? You seem to be doing better than most..." She motioned vaguely off towards the Jag, "but you've spent all night being hostile to me, I think just because I've been nice to you. Is no one ever nice to you?"

[Adrian Moss]

"Hostile to you," Adrian says defensively. "I haven't been hostile to you."

But I could be.

"I ..."

I'm about to tell her all about me, damn it.

"Beautiful people lie," he tells the Forsaken City beneath him. "They make you promises and then burn you. They cause pain. Trust me, I know. They bring all kinds of pain. Worst is, you want to trust," he looks at her, "so you tell them about yourself and they turn around and use that against you, compounding their pain."

He steps up to her and places his hand on her up arms and looks into her eyes.

"I've been hostile to you because you are beautiful and you bring me such promise that I know will hurt me. You have what I ..." he shakes his head," might want, do want, fear."

Adrian looks at her again with those cold predatory eyes.

"You have nothing I need, but everything I want."

With that he pulled her close. His head swept in like a raptor into the nape of her neck. He sank his fangs in and drank deeply, feeling the hot taste of blood pouring down his throat.

[The Story Guide]

She seemed to fall into the Kiss even before his fangs touched her skin. She went limp in his arms, a soft sigh brushing past his ear as the blood flowed between them. Her blood was sweeter than other mortals, spiced in way that had nothing to do with alcohol or drugs.

[Adrian Moss]

He didn't take too much, but he let the Kiss linger sensuously on her neck. He didn't know how she wanted the kiss, but he could animalistically feel her need for it. For just a moment, the human shade dwelt inside the raptourous moment and it transcended blood. Just for a moment.

Adrian couldn't make it last for ever. His fangs withdrew and his tongue played along her violated flesh until his barbarous passage was erased. His lips broke their seal and turned into a kiss in its own right. Reluctantly, the shadowy vampire pulled away.

She was weak so he pulled her body closer to him. The flush of life was strong on him and she felt her warmth coursing through him just as she felt her own weakness. One arm was around her waist while the other pushed her head against his shoulder and then ran his fingers through her hair.

"Easy now," he whispered. "You'll get your feet back."

His voice was gentle, caring, and patient.

[The Story Guide]

She leaned against him, her breathing still fast and her mind still dizzied from the memory of the Kiss. She hadn't really lied to him tonight, about her views on life and living, but she was a sensualist that eternally chased the next high because it was never enough. She was really now as much from blood loss as from finally having felt the perfect moment, the complete pleasure.

She finally looked up at him with an expression of wonder and awe, and utterly vulnerable. She hadn't found found where her voice had wandered off to yet so she simply leaned up and kissed him lightly on the lips.

[Adrian Moss]

The kiss was returned tenderly.

Finish her off. She knows. You know it. It threatens us, damn her.

Not tonight. Just shut up.

He kissed he again and then pulled back. His expression was a guarded nuetral. This would be the time whem she changed things and the pain would begin.

It began from within. She would feel the sun's gentle touch this morning. The fire coming from without, warming and without fear. That was jealousy and she didn't even know it yet.

The kiss.

She was warm against his body. He looked past her over the city. They still had plenty of night.

[The Story Guide]

She could feel the difference from him now, the heat from his skin and the rhythm of a heart puttering on stolen blood. Her own pulse jumped again and she pulled closer to him, taking in the faded scent of him.

This is dangerous. He's gotten what he wants and so have you. Time to leave. Peter's voice was always the voice a reason her life, and for the past jump of years she'd usually listened. She didn't care tonight, didn't know if she'd care for a while. She followed Adrian's gaze out over the city, idly running fingers up his back. "Top of the world here, huh? Feels like we could fall into the sky."

[Adrian Moss]

"Fall back from Heaven to Home. Flaws and all, I like my Home."

Adrian pulls her closer.

"I'll risk more. Promise me you'll risk less until we meet again."

If she would want to meet you again. She got her bells wrung and whistles blown. She's ready for the next challenge - a real challenge.

I'm not going to kill her.

Part of him wanted to rush down that hill and do something stupid. Something to duplicate this rush he felt the afterglow of right now. Part of him wanted to sit up here til the mountains glowed pink and orange and he had to rush home. He wanted to make this moment last.

"Yeah, I've been happy before. But thank you for reminding me of it."

He silently coaxed her into the car and took the wheel once more. Before he took off,

"You are going to have to tell me your whole name and how to get in contact with you. You are not someone I want to miss."

[The Story Guide]

She smiled and flushed, looking actually girlish and shy for the first time that night. She was pleased at that and obvious about it. "Monare. My full name is Erica Monare. You...you could drive me home, if you want."

She was hesitant now, not in control and caught somewhere between exhilarated and afraid.

[Adrian Moss]

The dead man who walked drove the car back down the mountian, but by a different route - the longer route home.

"I'm going to be a Private Investigator in a few months, Erica Monare. I never thought about it as taking a risk, but I can see that changing. I may, no can, do more and thanks to you, I probably will. I owe you one - a big one. Don't forget it."

"Tell you what you do when you aren't taking risk. Who are you when your not waking the dead?"

[The Story Guide]

Her smiled widened at that last remark, though she remained coquettishly shy. "You'll laugh." A beat, "I'm an editor. Sometimes I write. Boring, huh? But at least I pretty much get to set my hours."

She guided him through the city towards an upper middle-class area, occasionally taking the excuse to touch his hand or shoulder. She got quieter the closer they came to her subdivision, trying to hide her reluctance to turn in for the night so soon.

[Adrian Moss]

Adrian smiled in response to her smile.

"Setting your own hours ... not something to snort at, believe me."

In response to Erica's attempts to touch him, he extands a by-now very cool hand over to her, touching her cheek and running his fingers down the neck he so desires. As they get to her declared home, Adrian seems to be mulling over something. Only when he stops does he seem to make up his mind.

He pulls out his cellphone, touches a few buttons, and holds up the screen for her to see. There is a number on it.

"This is my number. Remember, I owe you one. If you ever really need someone ... call. Just don't call between say six a.m. and 8 p.m. I can't answer then. Family business sort of stuff. Any other time though. Don't be afraid waking me late at night."

Get her number, you idiot.

No. If I'm right about her I don't need to ask.

[The Story Guide]

She nodded and pulled out her own phone, dialing his. "There. Now you can call me, too." She hesitates again, then, "And, it doesn't have to be an emergency, Adrian. I meant it when I said I liked you. You don't have to be a stranger." The invitation was obvious, but she wasn't trying to push.

[Adrian Moss]

How do I say I'm not exclusive? I hunt all over the place, and it takes humans three or more days to get over what I do to slake my thirst.

"Okay. Don't expect to hear anything from me until this weekend is over, but I doubt I could forget you."

Adrian came around and opened the door for her. He helped Erica up and let her lean into him as he walked her to the door. Once there he couldn't stop himself from kissing her and nuzzling her on the neck once more.

He only looked back to her as he prepared to drive away. It was a look full of curiousity and some passion. He took off and was gone into the night.

[The Story Guide]

She stayed in the doorway until he pulled around the corner, then sighed and slipped into the house. The last thing she did was send a text to Peter.

Met the someone. Little dizzy now. Talk to you tomorrow.

As an after she added, Didn't want him leave.