A Mercy Killing? Who: Damon and Luke Where: Damon's apartment (rooftop) and then the streets of LA When: Saturday morning, early (November 21)
He was on his roof. Specifically, the wide ledge with a bottle of red wine mixed with, well...something even more red. The case that Bretton had him working on had hit a dead-end. All of Damon's suspects had solid alibis for the time of Benjamin's attempted murder and the security footage the vampire got to view was useless. The attacker never showed his or her face to the camera which either meant it was someone familiar with the club, or someone was very, very good at their homework. At any rate, Damon was hitting his head against the proverbial wall.
"Fresh is so much better." Where he'd come from was anyone's guess, but suddenly Damon was no longer alone. Luke's dry, conversational tone held its usual hint of amusement as he silently approached the other vampire. "Trust me, I know. In fact, there's a girl - " He sniffed the air and closed his eyes, a poignant smile momentarily crossing his face. "About three blocks to the west, warm, dazed, and beautifully confused. You can have the rest, if you hurry." His grin turned wolfish and completely unapologetic as he hopped up onto the ledge and slipped his hands into the pockets of his dark trousers.
Damon mockingly gasped, arching a brow up at Lucian, "You actually left her alive?" The vampire laughed, taking a gulp of the mixed wine from his glass, "I'm surprised!"
"Should I be offended?" Luke asked, though there was something about him that said he was decidedly not. "I don't kill them all. At first. What fun would that be?" He sucked in a thoughtful breath and lifted a shoulder in a halfhearted shrug. "This one will probably bleed out on her way to...wherever she's headed. Going once...going twice...you know you want it."
Draining the contents of the glass, Damon chuckled, "I'll pass, thanks." A moment of companionable silence fell between the two vampires until the younger one finally spoke up, "You know...she wants me to do something about you." Damon poured himself another glass of wine.
The older vampire chuckled at Damon's words, entirely unconcerned about what his little Slayer wanted. Or so it would seem. "As long as she's not giving it up, I don't think she has much room to be making demands." He fell quiet too before adding insidiously, "It isn't as if I planted the idea in her head. All I did was loosen the restraints."
Perhaps it was due to the amount of what he'd been drinking, or perhaps the real contents of what he'd been drinking that made Damon say what he said next, "Well...there are other things she's giving up." The younger vampire then waved the glass a bit, "She's...curious...about it. Nothing more. Bella has her morals after all."
"It has nothing to do with morals and you know it. If it were a question of morals, she wouldn't be spreading those sweet thighs for a killer, now would she?" A killer. Because that's what Damon was. Underneath that cloak of humanity he was hiding within lay his true nature. Luke hadn't forgotten it. It was important that Damon didn't either.
Damon didn't have a response for that because...there was some truth behind the other vampire's words. Deep down the younger vampire knew that he was lying to himself, that Bella was lying to herself. At that moment, looking into the contents of his glass, the only way the relationship would last was if Damon were human. And we all know how well his search to revert the whole vampire thing had turned out. Still staring into the glass, the younger vampire murmured, "When I'm with her...she makes me forget."
Luke sighed and eyed the glass with a hint of dismay. "Forgetting what you are, who you are, what you've done...it's dangerous business, Damon. This girl...she can't give you what you don't have. And what you are? It's never going to be what she needs. You're not like her...and sooner or later, her curiosity, as you put it, is going to get the best of you both."
"Is it really all that dangerous? Lucian?" Damon downed the contents of the glass and tossed it over his shoulder, the tinkle of breaking glass could be heard. The younger vampire stood, finally looking the older one in the eye. "Maybe I want to forget."
"Just because you want to, doesn't mean you can. Not completely. Not with her and not by getting wasted. For as long as you live, you'll remember what you've done. You can repent. You can atone. You can devote your existence to helping the goddamned helpless, if you choose to, but it won't undo the wrongs you've done. And let's be honest. It always felt good."
Damon, for whatever reason, thought what Lucian had said to be funny. As if it was the funniest thing in the world at that moment. But like a lightswitch, the laughter was cut short and the younger vampire grabbed the older one by the lapel of his shirt, "I don't regret what I did. We can't because we have no souls, or did you forget that?" Damon roughly let go of Lucian, "I'm bored of it, I'm tired...Lucian. People aren't meant to live forever."
Smoothing his shirt, Luke cast his friend an unamused glance. "I don't suggest you do that again. You're being highly melodramatic and if this is what the girl is doing to you, maybe I should take care of her for you." Yes, now he was just pushing buttons. But there was something cold in his blue eyes when he spoke again. "You're not human, Damon. People don't live forever. We do. In comparison, we are as gods. Are you honestly saying you would prefer to lead such a trivial existence again?"
"YES!" Damon shouted and instantly regretted it. Lucian was only saying what he thought was right. It was not his fault that somewhere along the way, Damon's sense of...whatever...had gotten skewed and twisted. The younger vampire shut his eyes, both hands lifting to run through his hair slowly and he sighed. After another moment of silence Damon finally murmured, "...Sorry."
Luke watched his friend, not saying anything as Damon seemed to try to mentally work things out. Not that it would work. "Tell me you don't crave it," he said softly. "Tell me that when she's in your arms, vulnerable, begging, when the heat of her body surrounds you and you can feel her pulse pounding through you like a bass drum, that there's not a part of you that wants to hear her scream, that wants to taste the thick, rich heat of her blood as it flows down your throat. Or don't tell me," he added after a moment. "Tell yourself. The only way she'll ever be truly safe with you is if you can honestly say it's never entered your mind."
Damon wanted very much to say, I haven't, but the words would be a lie. There had been a time or two when he was with Bella that he thought and was tempted. He'd admitted that much to her and both vampire and Slayer knew the risks. The vampire gulped and then whispered, "We both know the risks."
Now, that made Luke laugh. "The risks," he echoed. "You mean the one where you kill her? Yeah." It amused him. He couldn't help it. The younger vampire had completely lost himself in Bella and, while Luke couldn't deny a certain interest of his own, his desires weren't half as noble as Damon's. So was this his attempt to drive a wedge between the two? Possibly. He wouldn't say it was working, but he did know it wasn't something Damon would dismiss lightly. "Good luck with that. Really. You crazy kids deserve happiness."
"Don't...do that." Damon said in reply, "You're...cheapening it." Yes, he deserved happiness after having it taken away from his twice.
"She's from the future and you have no soul. How long do you think it'll last? Not that I'm not rooting for you, but you got to look at the odds here." Luke dragged a hand through his hair, honestly frustrated with Damon's inability to see the big picture. Whether he really wanted to be human again or not, that was an unrealistic desire. Getting his soul back? Yeah, okay, maybe that could happen. But actually becoming human? Wouldn't happen. Things didn't work that way. "We've been over this before. I've already told you what you should do. Since you refuse...you might as well enjoy things while they last. But don't fool yourself. When she's gone, you'll still be the same as you are today. The same as you were a hundred years ago. The same as you were when Katrina made you. You're a vampire, Damon. That won't change."
Damon sighed, closing his hazel eyes again. He opened them again a moment later and hopped off the ledge and picked up the bottle of mixed wine and started for the door that led back into his apartment. The younger vampire turned back to Luke, a crooked little grin, "You're a real mood killer you know that?" He laughed, stumbling a bit as he turned away again. Oh, yeah, Damon was a little tipsy, but was it from the wine or the blood?
"Not generally the reputation I go for, but in this case, you need a good dose of reality." Following Damon, Luke mentally heaved a sigh of frustration. Did his friend have to make things so damn difficult? This could all be easy. They could even share her. It would be a bonding experience. He ran his tongue along the edge of his teeth, aching to feel his fangs breaking through Bella's tender flesh. If anything could get Damon riled up, however, it would be some perceived threat to his lady love. "Look at you. You need it. You need it bad, my friend. And this little cocktail?" He motioned vaguely to the bottle. "It'll only take the edge off. What's stopping you? You wouldn't have to kill her. She was practically offering herself to you on a goddamn silver platter. Why won't you take her?"
He leaned heavily on the door, thinking about Luke's question. Just as it seemed Damon wouldn't answer the other vampire, he finally spoke, "Because...deep down it's not what she wants." Damon's fingers curled around the doorknob, turning it and opening the door. He paused in the doorway, an almost haunted look on his face. There were moments like these that the younger vampire wanted so very much to take Luke's advice; The demon within craved Bella's blood. To it, it was like consummating a marriage, sustaining itself on Bella's blood. The sound of a nervous pulse in his ear, the desire...the taste...But whatever humanity in Damon remained would never be satisfied with that. These two...entities within him would always be at war with each other and Luke was right...it was only a matter of time before one of them lost. Damon could only pray it would happen long after Bella was dead and gone.
"It's not what she wants or...is it not what you want her to want?" Luke's smile was taunting, wicked around the edges, and more than a little predatory. "Would it tarnish her pretty little halo if you knew she got off on it? Could you still lover her then?"
"It's not what she wants, okay, man?" Damon said over his shoulder, perhaps a little too defensively. The demon within him would love nothing more than for Bella to like him biting her, but that pesky human spark in him...Well, he didn't know about that. He turned a little sluggishly, back resting against the open door, breathing a little heavily and then looked at Luke, "That girl...where'd you say she was?"
That his friend was so defensive just told Luke that he'd managed to get under Damon's skin for the moment. "You'll never know for sure until you try." His voice was low, even - for all intents and purposes, much more rational sounding than Damon's tone. And yet, the younger vampire's question could only make Luke's smile widen. Stepping aside, he waved vaguely to the west and gave a casual shrug. "I'm sure you'll be able to sniff her out."
Damon pushed away from the door, stumbling just a little while the door closed shut with an audible click. The mixed wine bottle slipped from his grasp as he scented the air, hazel eyes closing. She was to the west as Luke said and the younger vampire's eyes opened as he listened. Not much foot traffic below and Damon scented the air again, nearly pinpointing her location. He was actually surprised that someone else hadn't finished her off yet and in a wholly uncharacteristic move, the younger vampire took two giant steps forward and threw himself off the ledge of the building.
"Always so dramatic," Luke drawled as Damon leaped from the roof of the building. He stood there for a moment or two more and then with a disgruntled groan, he followed, the air whooshing by before he landed almost silently on his feet. It was too easy to follow the other vampire, if only because it was too easy to pinpoint just where the girl was. The flow of blood had slowed, but the wound he'd left was jagged and deep enough that she'd need medical attention if no one finished her off first. Would Damon do it? Was the demon raging within? Could Luke push him far enough? One thing was certain - he wasn't going to miss this.
It wasn't long before Damon found the girl, pausing once more on the street to scent her out. He was across the street from her, watching her, listening to her...She didn't have long and it was dark enough along the street for people not to notice something was wrong with her. The girl was weak, an easy kill.
"You'd be doing her a favor," Luke said from the shadows behind Damon. "Or you could keep standing here and watch her suffer. Either way, she'll die tonight." There was an utter absence of guilt in his tone. In fact, the entire subject might have been boring to him, from the sound of it. "You need her, Damon. No matter how you might wish to fight it, what's in you, what you are, needs her."
Damon hadn't actively hunted in well over a century. He'd stopped when he became heavily involved with Roselyn and since then, he'd taken only willing...participants? "...I know..." The demon within was whaling on its cage, crying to be let out and then sang in triumph as the younger vampire stepped off the curve and stalked toward the girl.
Luke wouldn't have called it much of a hunt, but it was a start. There was an odd mix of pride and satisfaction he felt when Damon broke free of the shadows and stalked across the street. Do it, he mentally willed his friend. If he punked out now, it would only be worse next time. Did the younger vampire really believe he was strong enough to resist all of the temptations they could throw at him? And the girl herself, Bella, Damon might say she didn't want and...maybe, deep down, she didn't. But the looks she'd given Damon the night of the dinner party had practically begged him to take her, to give in to his baser urges and to taste her. How Damon had managed to control the demon, Luke really didn't know.
With an almost iron steel resistance, but slowly Luke (and even Bella) had been wearing away at it. Damon made some excuse when he approached the girl that he could help her and, as Luke said, in a way he was....The younger vampire guided the girl down an alley and when she belatedly figured out what was going on, weakly protested. Damon lightly shoved her against the brick wall, easily pinning her with a hand pressed against her chest. He stared intently back at her, lifting a finger to his lips he murmured, "Shhh..." A beat later, the girl stilled as if she'd been...compelled and Damon added, "...It won't hurt." When he features morphed, the girl didn't even scream and the younger vampire struck on the clean side of her neck.
Luke didn't follow - but then he had no need. With his sharpened gaze, he'd watched Damon lead the girl into an alley diagonal from the one where they'd been standing. In some ways, what Damon was about to do was too intimate for witnesses. In reality, it was just one more game that Luke enjoyed. Closing his eyes, he leaned back against the brick wall, a predatory smile curving his mouth. The sounds, the scent as the last of her life's blood flowed into his friend's mouth, the sound of her pulse turning sluggish as it slowed to a stop, was so much better than just watching.
Some sort of...release went off in Damon's head as the girl's sweet, warm blood spilled over his tongue and ran down his throat. With every pull of his lips and gulp, the sensation increased and he sank to the ground when the girl's knees finally gave out on her. It had been too long, to the demon within, since Damon had blood as fresh as this and it seemed entirely too soon when the girl's heart finally stopped. The vampire released the girl, his breath expunged in a harsh sigh and he gulped one last time before gently laying her back on the ground. His featured reverted as Damon rummaged through the girl's purse, pulling her wallet free and taking all the cash she had in it. The bag was dumped in the trash and the cash was passed off to a wino Damon spotted a couple buildings down from the mouth of the alley.
"Feels good, doesn't it?" Luke's voice sounded with a quiet hint of satisfaction as he fell into step with the younger vampire. He always got a rush when the life finally, literally, bled out of them. To feel something so vital grow cold and lifeless...well, perhaps it was a certain type of vindication for someone like him. "How long had it been?" How long since Damon had taken the life of an innocent?
Guilt didn't quite plague him at Luke's first question, but regret? Yes. Damon regretted his actions, but he did after all, kill the girl out of mercy. She would've bled out on the streets; best that her death sustained someone else than let it be needless and alone. However, the older vampire's second question gave him pause and Damon stopped, closing his eyes as if he was savoring the kill and replied softly, "Not since a year before..." His voice trailed away and the younger vampire opened his eyes. A muscle twitched in his jaw, "...Too long."
That was a long time indeed. "Don't forget what you are, Damon. You're a predator, just like the rest of us, and you prey on those weaker than you. No matter how you look at it, something's got to bleed in order for you to survive, and they all die eventually anyway. Every single one of them is marked with an expiration date." Luke stopped, glanced at Damon's back. "You should ask her. If it's really what she wants...how long can you deny her?" How long could any vampire resist a temptation like Bella?
Damon had started walking again, half ignoring Luke's...provocations until the older vampire asked the question. It finally hit the younger vampire that Bella had completely avoided answering that very question from Damon's own lips. What did that say about her? Was her curiosity so much so that she wanted him to? How long could Damon resist her? He gulped, closing his eyes again, "...I don't know." He admitted.
"You do know," Luke countered, his footsteps carrying him to where Damon had stopped, but he didn't pause this time. Instead, he passed the younger vampire and slipped his hands into his pockets as he continued on. It had been an interesting night, but there were other matters that needed tending before the sun rose. "However long it is...it won't be long enough. You'll have her. One way or the other. The only question is which one of you will be in control. The man who loves her...or the demon who craves every last drop of her."