When Did You Get Here? Who: Mere and Devon Where: A Bite Club When: Wednesday Night
Mere walked around the club and looked around. This was a place to get an easy meal, but it was a little grody to her. She didn't need to come to a place like this to eat. Hell, she could snatch a runaway off the street in a pinch. Still, this stuff was a lot less fuss, and no need to ditch any bodies in any dumpsters. Sadly, that was the main reason that she was here, not because killing people was wrong. Ben's words kind of made an impression on her. As long as she didn't kill anyone she cared about, then what did it matter, right?
"You've GOT to be kidding me. I'd heard you got turned... but I was kinda hoping it wasn't true." And in a total blast from Meredith's past, her vampiric ex-boyfriend Devon was standing there, looking just a bit horrified by this news. "Damn... I never wanted this life for you, kiddo."
Mere whirled around, seeing, well, kind of the last person that she expected. "Well, look what the past brought in," she said with a slight smile. "I wasn't exactly seeking this kind of life, either. Still, gotta make due."
"At least you're here... which to me says that you're at least trying to be good." He knew it was why about half the vamps here did it. Some just didnt want to have to hunt their food, others wanted the intimacy of it. But plenty didn't want 'the slaughter of innocents' on their shoulders. "Told you, a while back... there's more of us than people think." And by 'us', he meant the vamps that were trying to be good.
She just shrugged at that. "Well, it's easier than dealing with anything else." She honestly wasn't a part of the 'good' version of vampires. She tried. She really did. She just kind of sucked at it, no pun intended. OK, maybe a little.
"I'm gonna have to keep an eye on you, babe." He smiled, that old twinkle in his eye that she'd adored so much. "Make sure you don't go getting yourself into trouble."
A smile broke through for that. "I might actually need that eye," she admitted. She wouldn't talk about it past that, but a part of her still felt like she shouldn't be like this. It was just that a bigger part just did not care.
"I wasn't able to protect you... to stop this from happening to you. But I'll be damned if I'm gonna let you fall the rest of the way." His voice was dead serious, and his gaze steely.
She tilted her head slightly and looked at him for a moment. A little late for that, but that went unsaid. She couldn't bring herself to be snarky with Devon, though. He just brought out something...nice in her. What little was left. "Good luck," she said finally with a sigh.
He reached over, cupping her chin in his hand, like was going to kiss her. "I mean it. I've managed to do it... you can too."
"Have you ever...even once, by accident?" she asked him. She doubted that she'd have to say what she was leaving out, though.
He nodded, looking to the ground. "Several times. We all... mess up now and again. It's not easy. I keep myself to... certain standards now. I kill... but I find murderers. Rapists. Drug dealers. It doesn't make it right... but it makes it a lot less WRONG."
She felt a little relieved. OK, so he wouldn't knock her for fucking up once, right? "So...what have you been up to lately?" she asked, trying to move past her semi-evilness and whatever.
He knew better than to preach, or chastise... for now? He'd let her roll with it, and not harp on anything. "Not a lot. Mostly... just kind of keeping quiet, staying underground."
"I'm finally getting a band off of the ground," she said, actually sounding excited. "Well, we were until the bitch of a guitarist decided to drown her sorrows in a needle, but we're picking ourselves back up and getting going again."
"Lexi fell off the wagon?" He sighed. "Maybe coming back to the big city wasn't what she needed..."
Mere shook her head. "She was fine for a while, then she pulled away again. I think it all hit her at once or something." Mere shrugged. "We were all kind of pissed, actually. We got an awesome replacement, though. And Tina is back with us again."
"Sounds like things are... looking up for you." He said with a half-smile, not wanting to think about how bad other things were for her.
"Yeah, I guess they are," she said. "Sure, our lead singer is like, way pregnant, but she's still all band oriented, so we're still good." Skylar getting pregnant was
"You sure? You don't sound too thrilled for your singer..." he wondered if he was closing in on something... maybe one of the things that was driving her into darkness.
She shrugged. "Not too sure what to think about it, really." It kind of reminded her of one of those things that she could never do, which didn't do much more than piss her off when she thought on it too much.
"Look... together, we'll get you through this. All of it." Seeing her like this.. like HIM... broke him in ways he no longer thought he could be broken.
"Alright," she said. "You've got a challenge ahead of you, though." Might as well be honest about that.
"Hey. Look at it this way: if anything good came out of this.. at least now... neither of us is going anywhere..." Of course, he had no idea about Ben...
Not that she had any reason to mention him...not yet, anyway. Of course, in her mind, she didn't really know why she would. "Nope, I'm sticking around here for a while."
"Good. So you know...." He smiled at her again, stroking her cheek with the back of his hand. "I never stopped thinking about you."
"You didn't?" she asked, actually a little amazed. They had only split because of her moving with her dad, after all.
"No. I... left Sunnydale shortly after you did, actually. Just... went underground for a while, tried to forget everything." He gave a wry, sad chuckle. "Didn't exactly work."
"That never actually works, you know," she reminded him. "Going underground usually just gives you way too much time to think about anything.
"Yeah. Found that out the hard way. Damned vampire memory... nothing really goes away with time." He laughed, shrugging.
"So, what did bring you to LA?" she asked. "A change in scenery? Or did you really just come for little ole me?"
"I... had heard rumors of your turning. A few people saw you i concert, and well... you know how info flies." He snickered, looking to the ground. "I had to see if it was true."
"Gossip does have a way of spreading really fast," she said to him. "I'm glad to see that you're still doing OK, though. I hadn't heard anything in a while."
"Well... you left so fast... I figured you didn't want to see me. But I had to come now. Both to see if I could help you..." he looked into her eyes again, and while he was a vampire, it was clear he was still more human, more moral, than Ben could ever be. "and because I guess I was hoping that maybe your humanity had been the barrier that kept us apart."
"I didn't mean to leave in such a hurry. It was kind of a whirlwind, what with Jack finally getting a band that had a real record deal and everything." Jack had only been wanting that forever and a day. "It wasn't that you were a vampire at all. Honestly, I didn't really care once I got to know you." A part of her realized that she was far more suited to a life as a vampire than he was. Kind of strange, that.
He had actually just been thinking the same thing, really: that she seemed to be adjusting better in mere months than he had in four years. "You look great, you know."
She smiled. "Thanks, I try. Kind of sucks that I can't tan, anymore. The fake stuff just turns you orange, so it's the pale look now for me."
"Pale works for you though. Goes with the metal chick thing." He gave a big smile, wondering if there was a reason she kept skirting around the issue of them getting back together. "So... want to get out of here? Go somewhere and catch up on things?"
"It does, doesn't it? Shouldn't have a tan if you party all night and sleep all day," she said with a smirk. She thought for a second over his offer. "Sure, this place wasn't really meant for intimate talks, anyway."
"Great..." He said with some relief. Maybe she WAS still interested. He led her outside, where his beaten-up old motorcycle awaited. Hopping onto it, he motioned to the back. "At least I don't have to tell you to wear a helmet anymore..."
"Nah, not like I wear mine anymore." She still had her own motorcycle that Jack got her for her birthday her last year in Sunnydale. It might have been a death machine, but hey, it looked cool. She hopped on the back of the motorcycle.
After a short drive, they ended up at Brightview Cemetery, which was obviously quiet and empty at this time of night. "I figured... fitting place for a couple of undead lovers to grow reacquainted...."
Mere personally thought that her basement apartment wasn't that bad of a place to get 'reacquainted' either, but figured she could pull him there later, if needed. Now was time for talking. "So unlike Sunnydale, people actually stay away from cemeteries at night."
"Usually. Unless one of the now-plentiful Slayers are hunting. But... at least a few of the more eager ones know who I am by now..." He stuffed his hands in his pockets. "So... what have you been up to out here? You know.. besides music?"
"Slayers and I have a bit of a truce. I provide info, they leave me alone." She was probably not supposed to kill people, either, but didn't bring that up. "Music takes up most of my life. Meeting new friends, getting better acquainted with old ones. Such is the life of Mere."
"Your dad doing ok?" He didn't want to ask 'did he freak at your vampirism?' but the question was obvious.
"Well, he wasn't happy at first, if that's what you mean." Yeah, she kind of figured. Hell, that's what almost everyone asked. "He adjusted. I didn't try to eat him or anything. Don't really have that urge to kill all of my loved ones that some vampires seem to get."
"Well. That's a start, really. A good one." He'd never know if he had that or not... his loved ones had been killed in front of him, prior to being turned.
"I was actually really pissed right after it happened," Mere admitted. She hadn't actually told this to anyone. "I thought I knew all the types to avoid, you know? I managed to shove a pencil through the bastard's chest soon after I woke up. If he had stuck me in the ground, I'd have lit him on fire first." She was not one to dig herself out of her own grave.
"Well... as I said... the one GOOD thing about it..." he grinned, leaning over so that their faces were mere inches apart. "if you so feel inclined... we pretty much have forever now."
She smiled, but then remembered herself. "I'm not even sure if you'll want me now, though," she said, backing away.
"Like that would ever change, Meredith. Why would you think that?" He asked, reaching out to take her hand.
"I'm...I'm still not quite the same girl that you were once with," she said. It actually hurt her to have to say that she was seeing someone else now. That was something that she didn't think she'd have to deal with again.
"I think... I can adjust." He said with a playful laugh. "I'd say eternity is worth a few changes."
She sighed. "I started seeing someone else," she finally blurted out. She turned away for a moment. Was that a tear trying to escape her eye? What the hell is this? Can vampires get PMS?
"...oh." He blinked, taken a little aback there. "I mean... I'm... I'm happy for you. Just, wasn't expecting that, I guess."
"I'm sorry," she said. She truly was, right now. She rubbed at her eyes for a moment. "It's someone that I knew from Sunnydale."
"I guess... I just got here too late then." He said, trying to smile, and look happy for her. He was, actually. He was just miserable for HIMSELF. "So... who's the lucky guy?"
"Benjamin Bale," she said. "He was the owner of the Bronze in Sunnydale." She smiled a little. She really did adore Ben, even if he did encourage some of the darker urges in her.
"I'll be damned..." he said, amazed that the werewolf had managed to settle for ANY one woman, even someone like Meredith. "You do know... if he ever hurts you, I'll kill him. I don't give a damn HOW powerful his family is."
She nodded. It seemed that guys were always willing to kill for a woman these days. She just wondered how much they really meant that. "His family is only as powerful as others believe they are, though. Isn't that what power is? The fear from others?"
"Very true. But I really don't want to start a war with what amounts to a Lycan mafia family." He laughed. ""But I'd do it for you."
She smiled at him, hoping that it wouldn't come to a thing like that. Besides, the two of them *did* have forever, after all. No one said that they couldn't be together in the future.
"I admit, the thought of that.... man... even touching you turns my stomach, but... what can I do, right?" He finally admitted, shaking his head slightly.
She shrugged. She wasn't sure what to say to that. Maybe if he had gotten here sooner, but that wasn't the thing that happened, was it? "Who knows what will happen in the future," she said finally.
"Exactly. Who knows." He gave her a sad, knowing smile. "In the meantime.. consider it my mission to make sure you don't stray from the path of good."
"Alright. I'll probably need it," she admitted to him. She hadn't exactly been doing all that good so far.