I'm bringing back ghosts that are no longer there Who: Adelle, Graham, and Kismet (NPC) Where: Alley/streets of Scarlet Oak When: Late evening
With his sire as a drug dealer, that now meant that Graham was able to help out. Jezebelle kept most of her affairs in the Detroit area - smart woman - but now the task of dealing in the local area was given to the childe. And there was no better person to do the job, either. He had only grown up in the damn town, so he knew all the backways and shadowy alleys that lurked in the quiet area. Tonight was nothing major; a few bags of weed along with a small sample of acid. Whatever made people happy these days. Just as long as they didn’t get lit up while Graham was still there, he was fine. Counting up his money quickly, he stashed the bills away in his wallet and then wished the clients a good night.
“I can get used to this,” he muttered to himself, watching Kismet flutter around his head. Just don’t get caught. I don’t like the idea of you being thrown in jail. AGAIN, if I’m not mistaken! Graham simply rolled his eyes and groaned. That was the last place he wanted to be right then. Going home to Jezebelle was far more preferable in his mind. And after a few steps down the alley, he stopped. What? Did you forget something? Graham didn’t answer and instead just stood still while examining the area. It was dark, blanketed with shadows... which meant one thing. With a smirk, he focused quickly on a fixed point halfway down the alley and blinked his eyes. In that instant, he disappeared in the darkness and reappeared at the desired location. Albeit a tad wobbly, but he did it. Graham let out an amused chuckle while spinning on his feet to watch Kismet catch up. DON’T. DO. THAT. It makes me nervous! “I’ll do whatever I fucking please.” Still chuckling, he spun around and eyed the end of the alley. Slipping into the shadows once more, he jumped to the very end, though his cockiness got the best of him and he reappeared off balanced. Flailing about, he stumbled on out of the alley and collided right into the open sidewalk.
...real smooth, Kismet quipped with much apathy. “Oh, fuck off,” Graham rolled his eyes while looking around to find his missing hat.
Adelle was crazy to be out this late, but it wasn’t anything new for her really. Her late night venture a few nights prior to find somebody to strangle had ended fruitlessly, and then the night before that had been a date, the night after it a girl’s night. She wasn’t in dire need of a fix or anything, but the thought of another wrinkle drove the little brunette to actively seek someone out. So she found herself walking down the street pondering the situation. Hopefully, having met a new siren meant having a new mentor, but Kiara wasn’t as... nice as Miranda had been. Seemed. Whatever. It was with a troubled mind that she walked the dark streets in a general loop before she started to head back home.
It wasn’t like she was in real danger, right? She was a siren, and there weren’t siren weres, so being bitten wasn’t of a concern. Who could say something way more evil wouldn’t pop up though? To her knowledge, her song only worked on humans, and men at that. All it had to take was somebody with a gun driving by, or some long range magic or some crap and boom, girl would be down for the count. Another name and picture on the news with no explanation, and her friends would be dumbstruck. Yeah, she needed to get home. Taking a turn around a corner, or at least a corner she thought would lead to home, the little brunette turned her head to check if somebody was behind her when her boot caught hold of something and she went tumbling down.
A man. The murderlust in the back of her head ebbed at the discovery. “Dude, you okay?” Adelle pushed herself up and off of him, seeing as her height hadn’t permitted her the joy of actually clearing his body. Easy pickings if he isn’t. But God, where’s the fun in that? Not to mention I am NOT killing in Scarlet Oak again. Her hands went down to help him up, but he was really tall.
Graham didn’t expect to bump into someone else upon screwing up his shadow jumping and a paranoid side of him flared up only in fear that perhaps they might have caught sight of the drug deal. Calm down, she’s just asking if your ok, not about where you got your money from, he mentally told himself, finally finding his hat in reach to grab and plop back onto his head. He glanced over at the woman’s tiny hands that were extended out to him, placing a cold one into hers to help pull himself up. She didn’t have to help, seeing he could more or less jump up onto his own feet with the agility he had backing him up, but he didn’t wish to ignore her. “Pride’s broken a bit, but I think I can walk that off.” Brushing himself off and readjusting his hat, Graham turned slightly to face her.
While there wasn’t much light illuminating the area, it was enough to make every feature on her visible, and she did look awfully familiar. His lips parted at first to say something, then he instantly closed them while contorting his face. Meanwhile, Kismet flew above the girl’s head, also inspecting her. The little moth was always wary of new women that bounced into her master’s life, but what she didn’t know was that this one was by no means new. It took a second for Graham to flip through his memories and pinpoint where he knew her from and once he figured it out, those memories flooded his mind. This was the one that danced to his music in the park along with being the one who got high with him on the hood of his car while the sun rose. Ok, so having her go down on him was more memorable than the sun rising itself, but marijuana always made memories fuzzy. He also remembered trying to call her shortly after and falling short, thus he simply forgot about her and moved on.
Now she was standing right there before him. Blinking his eyes, he parted his lips once to actually have something come out, “...Del? Is that you?” He let out a weak chuckle while smiling, doing his best to mind his fangs. “It’s me, Graham.” Or maybe she had forgotten him as well. Hmm, maybe something to refresh her memory. “We met at the park? You were dancing, I was playing guitar?” They went out for Chinese, he lit her chopsticks on fire, something like that?
He was going to be okay. Damnit. The tide of the murderlust receeded back into the recesses of her mind as he pulled himself up. He placed a hat on his head, and a cold hand in hers, and she almost jumped at the feelings. He was a vampire. Overreaction, hon, calm down. He’s not a vampire, maybe he’s just cold. As the man stood up to his full height and she got a look at him though, her thoughts began to change. He seemed really, really familiar, and if she paid better attention at any time, she would remember the voice. Nobody she knew dressed like this though, and she was about to apologize and be on her way until.
Holy flipping fudge it’s Graham! But he seemed like he didn’t recognize her. Typical, right? Who could forget what they had done that morning, weeks ago? Sure, she remembered a brilliant, beautiful, intense sunrise and giving one of the longest blowjobs of her life, but really, if she was a guy she’d remember that too. Graham was pretty great at giving a girl attention too. He had pretty thick fingers and a-- Adelle turned away as the heat came to her face in memory. Now that had been a really good morning, and the morning she’d completely screwed things over with Roxy. But she had Charlene now, so hey, all was good! “Yeah, it’s me. But that’s a really horrible way to remember me. I dance everywhere. So how’ve you been? I kinda didn’t expect to see you around again, really.”
What was that above her head? “Oh, ew, a moth. Shoo! I like these clothes, thank you very much.” But she didn’t strike the thing. They weren’t really under a streetlight so she didn’t see why it would be hovering over her like this. Then it all came rushing back. Graham was warm. Like, really warm, the times they’d interacted before. But now, he was really, really cold, and there was a moth hanging around. Oh my God. “Are you okay? Not in the falling down sense, but like, the supernatural sense. You used to be really hot, like unforgettably warm.” Like Gabby, holy crap.
Aha, so she did remember him. True, the dancing bit was probably not so good to remember her by, but just blurting out ‘You sucked my dick really well’ wasn’t really... yeah, no. How long had it been now? A month or so? “Well, I was sort of hoping to see you again, but you never picked up the damn phone and-” Oh awesome, now she was acknowledging Kismet. Graham tried really hard not to facepalm, especially when the moth was probably eyetwitching over being told to shoo. In fact, he heard a low grumble coming from the moth as she flutter on back over to Graham and just perched on his hat. The hell are we staying around this frump for?! Can’t we just go already?! The moth’s thoughts were aimed to just him, thank god, but he sighed and looked back to Adelle.
It was hard to just walk away when she was asking him about if he was ok supernaturally. He had forgotten already that last time they met he was extremely warm in comparison to now. Hell, back then he didn’t even know he was a fire elemental. Probably an odd shift for Adelle to know him as some random human who was exceptionally warm to becoming a cold vampire. As he paused and mulled over her question for a second, it was then that her scent hit him. It was... different. Very different. There was some alluring edge to it that he couldn’t put his finger on, but his inner vampire was telling him that scent was not human. Interesting... She seemed human in every way, but then again, who knew.
“Um... I guess...?” His voice was laced with hesitation and confusion, completely unsure as how to go about this. He couldn’t really lie about the vampire thing, seeing she felt his dead, cold hand. That and being out late at night was a give away, too. God forbid if she caught sight of his fangs. So far everyone he bumped into was fine with him being a vampire, but for all he knew, Adelle would freak out and run away. Or attack him with pepper spray or something, hell if he knew. “Not warm anymore, no, just... sacrificed that for something more.” That’s a lame way to say you go turned, Kismet muttered to Graham, causing him to roll his eyes a bit. Damn moth never knew when to shut up.
“I didn’t pick up the phone?” He had called? Oh, crap, and she’d dropped her phone in the toilet and had taken forever to get a new one. Well, thanks to her stupidity and clumsiness she’d missed out on seeing him again. Well, either way, he was here, right now. How convenient was that? “So, you might’ve called during the time I was getting a new phone. I totally dropped my old one in the toilet. Well that totally sucks. I missed out on life for week, I think.” The moth wasn’t going away either. Come on! She liked this skirt, it didn’t need to have holes in it. She would smack it if she wasn’t so sure it could be important.
At least he’d acknowledged her about his warmth issue. Adelle was right, she’d remembered him ridiculously warm, and there he was, a little warmer than ice. He had the unforgettable feel of undeath, though she wasn’t sure she could place it on a man just from touching his hand. Whisper and Karine weren’t men, but they both did have that same aspect of undead chill to their bodies. The light didn’t permit the siren to get a look at his fangs, if he had them anyway. But vampires didn’t have familiars, as least, as far as she knew, they didn’t have familiars. Was he some weird hybrid?
“So you are a vampire then.” Score one for her junkbox of a memory. But Adelle didn’t turn to run, nor did she intend on attacking him. During their few encounters beforehand, Graham’s way of looking at the world had lit a flame in her mind. He lived like he wanted to, human expectations or no, and that was why the little brunette had wanted to see him so bad, and was willing to try marijuana for the first time with him. “I don’t want to be totally lame, but are you a good vampire? Should I like, start running?” Whisper would have her throat if she actually did it on the assumption that he was going to rip her throat out. Something about manners and stuff like that. They aren’t all bad. I don’t think Heme is around just so humans can walk in and get nommed on. If he was gonna drain her, at least her bird form would be a surprise.
...she dropped her phone... in the toilet. Well, maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing Graham couldn’t get a hold of her after all, especially when she wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. He didn’t have a single as to what sort of influence he had on Adelle in their short time together, either. As far as he was concerned, they hooked up and just never saw each other again. The idea that maybe he sparked something inside of her was beyond him. Though massive props to her if she was starting to walk down that same road in life. Graham preferred that road, even if he was starting to dwell in the shadows more and more.
And wow, she actually pinpointed that ridiculously fast. Graham stood there in shock as Adelle called him out, not knowing how to respond. He knew that even with the Light of May and everything, some people still didn’t know the signs of vampirism, aside from the fangs. She was able to figure it out with a single, icy touch. Granted, she had good enough memory to remember he was warm, but that wasn’t the point. Right as he was about to confirm the fact he was a vampire, she had to go and ask that dumb ass question. Graham couldn’t help but laugh, revealing far more of his fangs to her. The concepts of good and evil were not exactly on speaking terms with him. In fact, he flat out didn’t believe in them. There was no good or evil in Graham’s mind - only what felt right. If what felt right was deemed as evil to everyone else, then fuck them. It was his life, his decision.
“I’m just me, not much has changed, minus the typical vampire traits,” he responded while giving her a peculiar look. “Wouldn’t call me good or evil. Fuck, is that how you guys classify vampires? If they’re good or evil? The fuck even qualifies for a-” He cut himself short and just shook his head. No sense in getting into a philosophical debate with a girl who dropped her phone in the toilet. “I mean, I think that’s something you should know the answer to, not me.” Tilting his head to the side, his intense eyes focused on the tiny girl while giving her a look, “Do I make you want to run?”
There wasn’t a single soul in the world that was going to let Adelle off the hook for her mistake of dropping her phone in the toilet. Seriously, it didn’t mean she was entirely retarded, geez! It probably didn’t help that she wasn’t exactly all that smart either. Little thing had spent most of her time dancing instead of doing her homework. She didn’t plan on doing anything in life she needed to be particularly too smart about either. As long as she could dance, then well? That’s what she was going to do. If she really needed to learn, she could put it off for another fifty years or so, right?
If Graham had known why she could call him out so quickly, he probably would’ve doubled over in laughter. The little siren was a certified fangbanger now. Losing her virginity to one had cemented that touch in her mind, that undead chill that was terrifyingly addicting. Whisper’s weird magicky thing, the thing that scared her shitless and made her seem like she was going crazy without constant attention had seen that the vampire’s lifeless hands caressed her body. But then he started laughing, and the small brunette’s eyebrows knit together. “I know it’s funny, but I’m kinda serious.”
“If you’re the same person, just with a sun weakness, then I don’t think I have anything to worry about. Unless I’m like that big thing of alcohol you drank at the restaurant. Just the blood version.” Because he couldn’t drink now. Her previous vampiric encounters had made that clear. Alcohol was gone, so was human food, but she didn’t know about stuff like drugs. “I know it sounds silly. I mean, this isn’t Twilight, thank God, but you’re a vampire. You’re real, and even though this isn’t like, some totally stupid movie, there are still good people and bad people. We-- you, I mean. Are a bad creature by definition... I think. You don’t make me want to run, though, Graham. Sorry, I’m being totally stupid right now. I’ll stop bothering you.”
Wow, apparently she was more knowledgeable in vampires than he thought she was. She even caught onto the whole fact he wasn’t able to drink anymore, to which Graham shot her a nasty look. Oh, he did NOT need to be reminded of that. It was hard enough suffering from withdrawal on a daily basis. Thank god Jace’s high on everything blood was enough to take the edge off for several days now. He was going to need a far more steady supply of drugged and drunk blood so he didn’t have to always nearly kill his friend each time he wanted a sip. Thankfully for Adelle, she hadn’t been out drinking that night or else Graham would have caught onto that scent right away and then maybe she would consider running. Hard to say no to blood that was infused with alcohol.
While Adelle rambled on about vampires, Graham just tilted his head to the side and raised and eyebrow. It hadn’t really crossed his mind that vampires were bad by definition. There was a freaking vampire bar in town, for fuck’s sake, and that was perfectly fine. Well, fine enough that it was able to run legally. Besides, Graham on his own, sans vampire, was bad by definition, at least to the public eye. Adelle probably didn’t know that unless she Googled his full name or something and he planned on keeping it that way. Ignorance was always bliss. “People have always viewed me as a ‘bad creature,’” he even brought his hands up to make quotation marks in the air before dropping them back down to his side. “Being a vampire is just an upgrade in my mind.” He liked knowing he could strike fear into people instead of having them trying to attack him with a lead pipe.
Taking several steps closer to her, Graham looked over her once more and then a puzzled look was strung upon his features. “What the hell are you even doing out this late? I’m probably the least of your worries when it comes to shit that lurks in the night. You want me to walk you to your car or home or something? Shit, you’re not bothering at all.” With his drug deal out of the way, Graham was free for the night. Aside from readying his supplies for his target the following night, he had nothing else to do. Escorting a young lady was something he could do and the gentleman inside of him wasn’t going to let her walk alone either.
Another point for her junkbox of a brain. Normally, if she’d just read about vampires or saw it on television, she wouldn’t have remembered all of the details, but when you had a vampire cook specifically for you because they couldn’t eat? Yeah, you remembered that. Even if some of the information came through a drunken, vampiric blood high. If Adelle took the time to think about it, she might even question if she was becoming addicted to vampires. Wouldn’t that be a realization, that her sadomasochism was becoming a full-fledged need. If it eve dawned on her, she’d probably throw a tantrum and sing somebody into a traffic accident.
“I think you’ve said as much.” Or Roxy had inferred as much. Something of the sort, she couldn’t really remember at this point. Graham was a bad person. Sure, she didn’t know how bad, but she’d given him a blowjob on the hood of his car while the sun came. Under the influence, no less. Also, the having no home thing, and he’d just fallen out of an alley too. Yeah, normal, good people were in their homes. “But why is being a vampire better than being a human? You totally seem like somebody who’s into all the stuff that moms and dads don’t want their kids getting into. Didn’t we talk about drugs? Or you were talking about drugs and I wasn’t really.”
Adelle stood her ground as Graham took steps toward her. At this distance, if he was going to suck her dry, he would’ve moved at super speed or something. Did vampires get that? Holy crap, did all vampires get that? The siren disregarded his words, speaking at the same time as his question, “You’re not, uh... Kil... cowin, are you? Kelcorkin? Kill... Kilcrowen! Are you a Kilcrowen vampire?” Her brows knit together as she listened to what he was saying between her words. “I was just walking around town. I’d like to think that I kinda have like, a leg up on anything that would try anything. Unless some weird girls decide they want at me. But yeah, I’d really like it if you walked with me.”
Another chuckle escaped Graham while being questioned about the reasoning behind his madness. So far there were as many downsides and pluses to being a vampire. Not having easy access to his many addictions was one, along with not being able to sleep properly unless it was in complete darkness. That even reminded Graham to talk to Jezebelle about invest in a coffin at some point, maybe even a sound proof one for when the rain came back. But the pluses? Oh, they were worth it. Shit, he was a vampire for just a week and he already had his first assassin job lined up. Hopefully by the end of the year he would be accustomed to everything. “Whoever said a vampire couldn’t be into drugs, hmm?” That was all he was going to say on the matter. Besides, the second he got his hands on a schizophrenic psychic, he was going to be set for life. Or at least until the blood doll died, but still.
And there went Adelle rambling about vampire stuff again. He shot her a puzzled look, slow on the upkeep when it came to different vampires. Jezebelle and Saoirse had both mentioned something about different vampire families, each one having different ability. He also recalled Jezebelle warning him to not discuss the Shades to anyone who wasn’t involved with them. As far as he was concerned, that was only Shades themselves and Roses. Adelle didn’t fall into either of those categories, thus she was on a need to know basis and did not need to know. Kilcrowen, though? That was a new name to him, and from the way Adelle was rushing her words out, he could sense it was probably one she would run away from. “Um... no. Haven’t even heard of them until now.” With a shrug of his shoulders, he stepped closer to Adelle and rest a hand on her shoulder while gently pushing her to follow. “Come on, let’s get you home. God fucking forbid if some weird girls stalk you.” The hell was that even about, anyways?
What?! We’re walking her home?! Kismet fluttered in front of Graham’s face, making a tremendous deal out of this. Just some random girl you haven’t seen in forever? The hell?! I don’t approve of this! “I don’t think I even asked for your fucking opinion, Kizzy,” Graham glared at his familiar before heaving out a sigh and glanced down at Adelle. “Don’t mind her, she’s just overly possessive of me.” He motioned his chin to the moth that was flying around and... growling. “Kizzy came to me when I was still human - still a fire elemental. Apparently if you get turned and you still have a familiar, they decided to stick around for the long haul.” That in itself was a massive minus to being a vampire. An eternity with that thing following around? Lovely.
If Adelle knew all of what Graham was thinking, then she wouldn’t be trying to subtly drop hints of what she was. The way she figured it, she belonged with the creatures of the night, the Grahams of the world that would trade humanity for the superiority of undeath’s embrace. The Kilcrowen vampires had made her feel welcome, even if it was for some ulterior motive like her blood. So why shouldn’t she feel at least comfortable with somebody she’d briefly known as a human? “I dunno, it’s just, I don’t think you can take them, right? Oh holy crap, I almost forgot.” Whisper had drank from her when she was a good bit tipsy, and said that she could taste it in the blood. So could it be done with drugs? Could it be done with anything? If Adelle ate a steak in front of Graham and he drank from her when it hit her bloodstream, would he taste that steak too? “You can taste it in the blood...”
“I think we both hung out with vampires these last few weeks. I just wasn’t around them long enough to be turned. I can’t really say that the thought never crossed my mind.” Probably as said line she’d mentioned before, if they didn’t just drain her. But her own OCD wasn’t that strong, just minor times where it decided to mess with her. Alcohol definitely made it worse, though. But Graham hadn’t heard of the Kilcrowen, and he hadn’t mentioned which House he himself came from. It was probably better not to ask him then. Who knew what kind of things were just not meant for her ears? Speaking of things not meant for certain ears, the vampire wasn’t picking up what she meant by her statement. For goodness sake, he thought she was the dumb one, too. Did she have to spell it out? One more hint. “I can sing to the guys, but girls just don’t see the appeal.”
“OH HOLY CRAP, TALKING MOTH!!” Adelle physically jumped to the side on the sidewalk, almost colliding with a pole. As she regained her lost footing, she rose her hands in defense, as if the little thing could harm her. “Kizzy,” the little brunette repeated, testing out how the name felt on her tongue. The familiar was proof that Graham was a fire elemental, well, had been before he died. Was he really dead, or was it a moot point? Oh, whatever, he was undead now and that’s what really mattered. “So you get to live forever worrying about if somebody’s crushing your moth. See, I think that’s the part that sucks. But still, I kinda want a familiar.”
Oh yes, he could taste a variety of things in blood. In some ways it was amazing, for he was able to mix a variety of things into one ultimate high, like he had done with Jace, though at the same time he couldn’t just crack open a bottle of vodka and kick back with that and a joint in his free hand. If he wanted to dodge his intense withdrawals, he had to keep feeding his addictions, which was by far not an easy task to accomplish. A better question was why Adelle knew he could taste it through blood. Was she being used a blood doll now? Just because she was hanging out with vampires didn’t entirely meaning she was being tossed around like a bag of blood... or maybe it did.
He was just about to ask her about the whole singing bit until Kismet had gone and scared the shit out of Adelle. With a swift foot, he managed to get on the other side of her in the blink of an eye to make sure she was stable. “Worry about someone crushing her? Fuck, I worry more about her having to hang around me in general than if someone is going to squish her.” HEY! Kismet flew into Graham’s face, beating her tiny wings at him before he shooed her away. “She’s more of a clingy girlfriend you dumped ten years ago who still hasn’t gotten over you than a familiar.” Really, as knowledgeable as Kismet was, she didn’t really help out most of the time. Once the moth settled on top of his hat, poking out to glare at Adelle, he walked along her side again, resting a hand gently on her shoulder.
“So... back up a second; you can only sing to guys?” That made zero sense to him. He had heard her sing once and she had a lovely singing voice, but that was it. “Do you get shy around the ladies for some reason? And what the hell, you’ve been hanging around vampires, too?” A smirk crept onto his lips while asking the last question. Perhaps he influenced her in some way with that. He did have bite marks on his neck back then thanks to Jezebelle. And there still was one on his neck that was now a permanent scar - a reminder of when his sire turned him.
Thank somebody or something somewhere that Adelle wasn’t a blood doll. That sounded like somebody’s fantasy, a siren that could drink from and then enjoy until she ran out of batteries. It was probably happening somewhere in the world for all she knew. As long as it wasn’t her, she was fine with it. All Graham had to do was ask, really, and Adelle would’ve probably done half of what he needed on the spot. She still found him attractive, after all, and there was something about him that just made it so much more enticing. Nice, Adi, you’re fucking addicted to vampires. Could there be anything lamer than that? At least it was possible for her to be interested in something else. Just knowing that Graham was a vampire was like an extra scoop of ice cream on an otherwise perfect cone.
“If Kizzy hadn’t scared me, you moving like that would have. You’re fast. So, I take back the part about me being safe from most things in the night. All a vampire would have to do is just run out of a dark corner and I’d be gone, geez!” The little brunette giggled at his comment about Kismet though, trying to figure out if that was indeed a glare she was receiving. “See, what really sucks is that she’s so small, nobody would really think that she’s a familiar. But I think it’s really cute that she cares so much. You could’ve gotten stuck with like, a scorpion that hated you and stung you all the time. I think I’d want a dog. Oh, like a terrier!”
“Don’t worry, I’ve only been bitten like... what, three times? I was a little shaky at one point.” But that was Kikuya’s fault. The blood witch had drained her without one ounce of compassion for the siren’s situation. Something was definitely messed up in her head, that was for sure. As long as she wasn’t kicking in her door and trying to slit Adelle’s wrists for more blood, Adelle felt like the problem was solved. “One time I was drinking wine, and she said that she could taste it when she bit me. I dunno if that works for like, drugs and food, but that’d be pretty cool.” She wanted to avoid the singing question now, for the sheer reason that he wasn’t getting it. Maybe she’d expected too much. Oh what the hell, she doubted that Graham would suddenly drain her if she said it. “I,” pause for dramatic effect, followed by hop forward, then a turn to face the vampire. “Am a siren. One of the world’s most evil little most feared creatures. But I’m a cute one, right?”
Kismet actually let out a snicker when she found out she scared Adelle, to which Graham just glared on up at her. Damn moth was so full of herself. At least a scorpion would have been helpful in the fact it could sting other people on and off. The most Kismet ever did was... be flat out annoying. She did serve as a conscious for the vampire on and off, but most of the time he simply ignored her words. The mention of a dog familiar made him think of Autumn for all of five seconds, mainly because her damn familiar buried his bag of cocaine, which then led to destroying half of her house and overdosing on aspirin. “Fucking dogs,” her murmured under his breath.
Only bitten three times? She was still a newbie in comparison to Graham. Jezebelle took much liberty in biting him as many times as possible before finally turning him. A vampire’s bite just became numbing after a while. Though apparently she was well-versed in vampires enough to know that getting drunk would carry over in her blood, thus a vampire could feed from her and get drunk. And Graham was not answering that question. Don’t get ANY ideas, he mused to himself. But seriously, were people this easy to bait into giving blood? Holy shit, where had he been when that memo went out?! And while Adelle didn’t entirely answer his question about singing, she did bring up a topic that was only going to spur more questions from Graham - she was a siren.
He paused while looking over her, raising an eyebrow in confusion. A siren? The most evil and feared creature? The fuck, why didn’t he know of this until now? What the fuck did a siren do? All he knew were stories of women from mythology who sang to sailors in an attempt to seduce them and crash their ships into- OH. Wow, that actually existed?! He also faintly remembered back when Lex attacked Jezebelle, coming over to her place to initially find a cure to numb the effects of siren blood, which Jezebelle called ‘Liquid Viagra.’ Knowing both of those piece of information was enough for Graham to piece everything together, though he still didn’t want to assume anything. Besides, Adelle hadn’t tried any singing or murdering. Well wait, she had sang to him the first time they met, but nothing strange happened.
“...a siren?” Graham raised an eyebrow, partially in disbelief and partially in confusion. “Well, you certain don’t look the part of an evil and feared creature, though the cute part I can attest to. If anything, you put some truth in the myths about half naked women on rocks seducing men.” He leaned in to speak lowly to her before walking along her side, “I’d like to think that seeing you half naked was enough to know you were beyond cute.” And she was. Adelle had some unnatural beauty to hers, like she was alluring no matter what she did.
Three bites had been enough for the siren, because hell, if she wore out that terrific pain and that feeling that she wasn’t in control, then what would she have left? The feel of the sharp fangs against her neck plunging down deep, the strong, stone grip of the vampire on her body that made her feel helpless. Yeah, she definitely had a problem, but if she was lucky tonight, she could indulge. Graham was now a vampire, and she doubted that he would turn her down if she loaded herself up on alcohol, pot, whatever she was willing to get into her system that she was comfortable with. This could be bad, really, really bad. But Adelle chose to shut that out for the time being.
“Well, I think that most of the other ones get to be tall and beautiful. I got stuck with short and cute. Which by the way, totally, and like, completely sucks. We look like humans, move like humans, blend in with humans, but when I sing, men can’t help but listen. When I sang for you, I didn’t have an intention behind it.” The short and cute thing did work for Adelle. She got to wear sundresses, and teen clothing, and probably be able to pull off junior miss for the rest of her life. Downside was that she had zero boobs on her side, because yeah, those were important. “Thank you for the compliment. Last week a flipping mermaid asked me if I was a stunted human. It really sucks that I’m not going to grow anymore.”
Did Graham not know about sirens? “This street up here.” But who didn’t? Even Addison Rose knew about what they said about the entire race. Murderers that couldn’t help themselves, something that people need be wary of. Or did he not care? Since he was one of the undead, her song probably didn’t affect him anymore. Well there went a chance to test that out. “I didn’t want to kill you, so I didn’t sing with any uh... well it’s like, a thought, not an intention. Like if a siren sings to you, and she wants you to follow her or just keep you from realizing what she’s up to, she can do that. But only with men. So, like I was saying earlier? If some bad chicks decide that they want to jump me? Out. Of. Luck.”
Adelle was right about one thing: that was a bad idea. Graham was still a baby in the eyes of seasoned vampires, which meant he had zero control when it came to feeding from the source. Hell, even being around the living was enough to throw him into a fit of bloodlust when he was craving for blood. Tessa had been lucky he didn’t suck her dry strictly because he had fed the night before. Graham didn’t want to hurt Adelle or send her to the emergency room or anything. Though he knew if she offered? Well... it would be incredibly tempting and Adelle would probably shortly regret it.
Her explanation about sirens helped clear things up a bit. There were still some gaps in her explanation, but now wasn’t the time to be demanding a crash course in sirens 101. Or anything supernatural for that case. Did she mention something about mermaids? The hell?! What the fuck didn’t exist in this world?! As long as she didn’t plan on killing him, then Graham didn’t have anything to worry about. Besides, he was far faster than her and could shadow jump if he wanted to. Ok, so he currently sucked at it, but he was getting better.... slowly. “You don’t need to sing to me in order to get me to follow you,” he smirked while pulling Adelle in closer. “And if some psycho bitches jump you right now, I’ll take care of him.” Oh yeah, his amped abilities were getting to his head. The guy was going to get his ass handed to him one of these days.
“So, aside from killing men and living it up with vampires, what else have you been up to?” He said it jokingly, for in all honesty, he really didn’t care if Adelle was out killing people on a nightly basis. Hey, if she had to, she had to. Graham didn’t care. As long as she stayed away from him, it was fine. Death was necessary in life and sadly so many people turned a blind eye to it.
If only Adelle knew more about vampires, she would probably keep a bite request to herself. The others she had encountered were so practiced, so in control that she just excepted it as a fact. It didn’t occur to her that maybe the movies were right and new vampires couldn’t actually control themselves sometimes. This could potentially end with Adelle’s death, but Graham was pulling her closer and it slipped from her mind in an instant. At least he was covered up, if the brunette had to deal with an extended length of dead flesh she probably would’ve freaked a bit, and then asked him if he wanted a little to warm up. Besides, Graham used to be a fire elemental, didn’t he miss the warmth?
“Thanks for that too. You’re sweet, but in a genuine way. If other guys said that to me I think I’d gag.” Besides, Graham actually could beat the living crap out anything that jumped out at them, so there was nothing to fear for the moment. Even better, if it was human, she could sing it still and then Graham could just go all out on it. Adelle let her arm slip around Graham before a stray thought finally caught up to her. Vampires had sires, and Karine and Whisper definitely seemed to be in love. Graham probably had somebody like that now, a sire that cared about him. There went any chance at inviting him in. It wasn’t like she really expected to have him come in and hang out for a while.
“Normal girl stuff. Work, dance, friends. Really, Graham, I’m a pretty lame siren. My mom raised me to like a normal human so I have this huge fudgin’ moral code that makes me feel bad for who I am. I wish I could just get past it, ya know? To be more like you. But I have friends that I could never leave behind. If they found out about what I actually do? God, they’d drop me so fast.” She was sure of that. No matter what she had to do, her friends could never learn about her double life. Not anybody she was interested in, not even random passersby. Nobody could know. But Graham understood her, she knew that he wouldn’t judge. “It’s that building right there. The one with the light on in the living room.” Nobody needed to know she was a little afraid of the dark.
Did he miss the warmth? The fact he was bundled up in a long sleeved shirt and jacket in the dead of July wasn’t a hint? Of course Graham missed the warmth. The biting cold was still painful to him, kind of like walking around with a constant headache that pulsed through his body: bearable, though still incredibly uncomfortable. With Adelle this close, he was certain she could feel him shiver on and off. He knew he’d get used to it eventually. Only time would tell. And he did have a sire, just like any other vampire, one he loved with much passion, but Adelle didn’t need to know that. Hell, Graham was still choking on those three little words with Jezebelle, so how was he possibly going to let Adelle in on all of that?
More like me? She honestly just said that? Shit, did anyone ever say that to him? Most people hated who he was, let alone look at him as a role model for anything in life. He was quite certain if he still had a pulse, he would have blushed faintly at her words. Though at the same time, the way she was describing her situation was similar to his dilemma upon being released from jail. “... maybe they’re not your true friends if they don’t like you for who you are,” Graham remarked with an apathetic tone. “I’ve had all sorts of people come and go in my life. Both good and bad, I guess you can say. You just have to look out for yourself and live how you want to live instead of getting caught up in the bullshit of what others expect from you. I mean, fuck, if you’re always worried about how other perceive you, then all you’re doing is wearing a different mask for each situation and you start to lose your sense of self.”
As she pointed out her building, Graham simply nodded. He could see it perfectly even if the light wasn’t on in the living room. Leading her on over to the building, he leaned against the structure by the front door whle looking her over. “If you’re some psycho man killing monster, then whatever. Do what you have to do. I don’t give a fuck. Some pricks out there deserve to die, anyways. Might as well end it sooner for them. Just don’t go around lying to yourself, you know?” Then he let out a laugh while shaking his head. “Fuck, don’t listen to me, I’m just babbling now. Cute girls tend to have that affect on me.”
Maybe she’d turn on the heat for Graham. There was little else she could do besides offer herself, but she doubted he wanted the experience without anything else in her system. At least she had some form of alcohol if she decided to let him try her out. The drugs would have to be up to him though, but she didn’t expect him to be carrying anything since he couldn’t actually smoke it or snort it himself. Ugh, just the thought alone of snorting something freaked her out a little. The siren had barely smoked weed without half choking to death. What made her think that she could possible handle something that had the potential to be snorted?
“It’s not that. One of my friends knows what I am, she doesn’t know that I’m out late at night killing dudes though. I was raised to be a human, so it’s totally like a what-the-fudge-do-I-do now thing. Thinking of losing my friends to this just makes me want to cry. I wouldn’t be able to handle being totally alone.” The siren had run once, isolated herself before the economy had forced Roxy’s family to move, and Roxy was more important to her than anything else. It was just so hard when her instincts made her want to kill somebody new every week or so. At least before she’d hit her twenties she was able to go months. She seriously needed to weigh her pros and cons again. Roxy had Charlene now, and Fina had Rigby, so maybe...
As Adelle unlocked the door, she stepped inside quickly, and turned around. She wanted to see if there was truth behind the ‘invite the vampire’ in thing. “I can kinda like to think that I’m sane. I mean, as sane as I can manage. I’ve never been blinded by the need so badly that I just couldn’t think straight.” Graham thought he was babbling? Please, Adelle was a queen of rambling, there was no amount of time he could talk for that would phase her. “I dunno, you’ve got pretty relevant points. I should be the one to shut my mouth. Every time I’m with a vampire I start asking about good and evil and if I should just follow my instincts. Guess it’s ‘cause vampires have the same choice. But you know, I can’t be happy ripping apart dummies or something.” Adelle dropped her purse and shades onto the small dining table, and pointed out the couch in front of the huge television. “I’d offer you a drink, but I don’t think you want to bite me.”
Seemed like Adelle was clinging onto too much of her humanity to even be considered a siren. Shit, Graham was already losing his humanity while he was still human. He liked to think he was sane, too, but he knew fully well how quickly he lost it when he began playing with fire. The mad scientist side of him wasn’t exactly the prettiest thing in the world and he was sure there was a much darker side lingering in him. Didn’t matter if it was human or vampire - it was there. Perhaps if Adelle stopped getting so hung up on what was good or evil, then perhaps she wouldn’t worry about half the shit in her life.
“You make it sound like we know what’s good and what’s bad about everything in life,” Graham scoffed while rolling his eyes. “Maybe if you calm your shit and don’t-” He would have finished that sentence, but as he turned to walk on inside, he felt some invisible force knock him right on back out. Strong enough to sweep him off his feet and land on the ground. Kismet even let out a little trill as her master tumbled on down. Blinking in sheer confusion, he slowly got up on his feet and approached the open doorway again with caution. He tried to sneak in, but there was that same force pushing him on back. “...the fuck?!”
Didn’t Jezebelle tell you that vampires can’t enter mortal homes without being invited in first? Kismet scolded him while freely flying into the house. Your little siren friend here needs to welcome you in if you even want to come in. The moth circulated around in the room before fluttering on up to a light. Either that or you get kicked out. “Really? You HAVE to be fucking kidding me...” With a massive sigh, he looked on back to Adelle with a look that made a kicked puppy look happy. “A little help here, Del?”
If Graham had said that to her face, that she was more human than siren, she would have graced him the the biggest smile of her life. She felt like she was just a girl, acted like she was just a girl, but if she lived like she was just a girl, then she would go crazy like a siren. Maybe she was just thinking about it too much, but it was just on her mind now that they were actively discussing it. At least for the moment, Adelle could forget about it and just think about something-- what was Graham doing outside? She turned in time to see him getting up onto his feet and getting pushed back like some invisible bouncer was denying him access.
So that meant that yes, at least for his House, she had to invite him in. Which was both hilarious and probably really demeaning for him at the same time. “Uh, is there like a code word or something, or is just a general invite?” Adelle looked up at where Kismet fluttered. At least she didn’t have to worry about the moth eating her clothing, well, unless she pissed her off. Hopefully she wouldn’t be jealous if the two of them got a little physical before the night was through. “Please come in? You’re allowed in? Um, mi casa es su casa?” She waited for him to step inside before moving to close and lock the door. Bad enough there were hunters and the like, but there was a blood witch living just down the way and she wasn’t having that barge in.
“Well, the problem is...” Adelle opened the fridge and leaned in to grab a bottle of water. After closing it, she proceeded to lose her boots and kick them near the door. “If I’m a good human, I’m a bad siren. If I’m a good siren, I’m a bad human. At least a vampire can drink donated stuff and still totally be a vampire. Let’s say I totally don’t kill somebody for a few months. I’d probably look a few years older. I haven’t really changed since I was like, in high school, but I’m still gonna look like a midget with no tits either way. Boobs. Boobs is probably better there.” The siren plopped herself into the gigantic, plush couch. If Graham sat too hard she’d probably fly off. “Are you sure you don’t want anything to drink, if you don’t mind the aftereffects I could like, fix you something.” Adelle laughed to herself.
Oh, there was nothing funny about this. Graham didn’t mind getting a crash course in being a vampire, but this? Yeah, this was not what he had in mind when he signed up for said crash course. Though the second Adelle invited him in, he felt that barrier die down. Blinking his eyes, he cautiously stepped in and then examined the door carefully. Sometimes you’re better off not asking, Kismet informed Graham while she fluttered about him. He ignored the moth for now and watched Adelle kick off her boots, promptly removing his shoes as well, along with taking his hat off. Kismet instantly squeed and nestled inside his hair happily.
Graham didn’t respond to Adelle right away and instead eyed the inside of her place. Holy shit, she had this all to herself?! He knew Cherryblossom Place was where all the people with money lived in town, but damn, this was the first time he was ever inside the place. Then again, she was from California and gave off an air that she was from a well-off family, so maybe that helped. Eventually, he made his way on over to her, sitting in another seat in the vicinity. He decided to ignore Adelle’s moral dilemma, simply because he was certain that no matter what he said, she was constantly going to be returning to the “Am I good or bad?” mentality. Not only did that piss Graham off, but honestly? He didn’t give a shit. The siren was well aware of his stance on the situation and if she wasn’t going to shut up about it and not actually, you know, take advice, then Graham opted to ignore it altogether and move on.
Sadly for him, the only topic to move onto was... not a good topic. Not that he had an issue drinking blood, but he did have an issue with drinking from the source. As fucking amazing as it was, every time he drank from someone resulted in a not so good result for the donor. Hell, Jace was lucky he didn’t get drained dry like his first meal. And the fact Adelle was more or less offering herself - shit, she seemed to be willing to drink alcohol just to satisfy his tastes - was not really helping. He doubted Adelle wanted to die anytime soon and Graham sure as fuck did not want to test to see if he had any more control on the matter.
“Del. Seriously now,” his voice dropped to a whole new level of seriousness, which didn’t help when his eyes were wide with a hint of fear. “I don’t want to drink from you. You don’t want me to drink from you. Don’t worry about me.” And Graham sure as hell didn’t want to know how he’d react after drinking liquid Viagra... and he was pretty sure Adelle wouldn’t want to find out either.
“You like?” The little thing said as her undead guest took a look around. She didn’t really think much of it. Sure, the space was huge, but most of the stuff was hand-me-downs. Really lavish, really good condition. Come to think of it, the couch used to be in the living room that never really got used, and the television was from the family room before her dad had bought a new one. “It was given to me. I mean, I work for myself while I’m trying to find a dance company, but Daddy doesn’t trust his girl too far from home without like, tons of stuff. I totally couldn’t pay for this place by myself, but even my mom said she wanted me to have something good. I’ve like, lived in a dorm, I can handle small. I grew up with a twin sized bed like everybody else, and my parents didn’t let me have whatever I wanted, that was Mom really. Daddy--” her voice trailed off, and thinking back to her phone conversation with her mother the other day. He wanted to become a vampire.
She eyed Graham’s hair as Kismet swooped on down to settle in it. Though her smile was genuine, it wasn’t as bright as her smiles usually were. “I’m sorry about rambling about the siren thing. I know you totally don’t want to hear about that. I’m just a little worried about stuff, and when I’m nervous, I go on and on forever. But it’s like, ‘Really? You talk forever anyway.’ Okay, shutting up now.” Adelle fiddled with the cap to her bottle of water. She still hadn’t opened it, and didn’t even really figure she would be wanting it in a few minutes. Seriously, are you that nervous? I mean, you’ve talked to this guy for an entire afternoon before. But she had talked enough for eight years while Graham had looked around and taken a seat. Then it hit her. Graham was homeless, or had been, who knew if vampire Houses provided a place to live. “Are you living somewhere now? I have the room if you need somewhere to sleep.” She trusted him. Or maybe it was the fact that she was interested in him that made her think that she trusted him. Whichever.
Adelle was a bit taken aback at Graham’s sudden seriousness, and her brows furrowed further from her already upset disposition. Why did it look like he was somewhat scared over her offer? Her hazel eyes scanned his face, and then her face dropped so that she was eying the bottle of water that she held in her lap. “I’ve been bitten before, I can handle it.” Maybe he was trying to avoid inflicting the pain that the bite brought, but bad news, the little brunette wanted to feel that. The way that both of the vampires had held her, broke the flesh, and reveled in the blood rivaled the way that she felt every time that she offed some random man, and as addicting as both feelings were, she wanted it. He could understand, Graham had been addicted to drugs, and she was sure that he still was now. “Unless... you’re not like, sure of yourself.” On that note, if she ended up in the hospital with bite marks on her neck, Roxy was going to beat her until she actually died.
He parted his lips, ready to say that he didn’t have any place to stay, and then realized that yes, he did have a home. That of itself was a weird enough concept for him and he wasn’t sure if he’d ever get used to it. At least the company was nice and the house was just as luxurious as Adelle’s. Jezebelle definitely knew how to live it up. “Don’t worry, I have someplace I’m staying at,” was all he said on the matter. And even if he didn’t have someplace to go, he couldn’t sleep at her place. Not that he didn’t want to, but he physically could not. The tiniest sliver of light would keep him awake and he doubt Adelle had a sealed room somewhere in the house and he sure as fuck as not curling up in a chest to get some sleep.
And then she was back to the biting thing. Wow, she did not take no for an answer. It didn’t matter if she was bitten before, because Graham highly doubted it was the same experience. The fact she was alive and not phased by it was enough indication that a well-seasoned vampire had snacked on her. Graham? Not so much. He was still a newbie and had zero control over feeding from someone. As far as he was concerned, she could not handle it, unless she was wanting to die right this moment. “Not sure of myself...? Ok, first off, you should not being talking when it comes to insecurities. I’ve got my shit well under control and at least I’m not having philosophical debates with myself over whether or not I’m good or bad on a daily basis, because the answer to that is ‘Who gives a flying fuck?’ Second off, I am very sure of myself. Enough to know that it’s probably not a smart idea to feed directly from you. I don’t know how I’ll react to-” He paused to scoff and roll his eyes. “No, I know how I’ll react to fucking siren’s blood, I’m not that dense, but I don’t want to find out how well I react to it.” Graham was the epitome of a fire elemental representing lust and that definitely carried over into his vampire life. He did not need siren blood to amplify that. “You might be able to handle other vampire bites, but I’m pretty sure they’re way older and got their shit more under control than I do. And seeing that you don’t do very well at taking an obvious as fuck hint that, no, I do not want to drink from you, I’ll have you know that the last person I fed from had to punch me in the face repeatedly before lighting up a fireball in my face as a way to pry me off.” And he wasn’t even going to begin explaining how he killed off his first meal.
Though as much as Graham was saying no to her proposition, his inner vampire was thinking otherwise. It was almost like a voice whispering to him that it was ok to feed from her and that the outcome didn’t matter. What happened to Adelle didn’t matter, especially if she was being so willing. And perhaps he would have given into that desire, though there was a thread of humanity lingering in him that reminded him of Jezebelle. Part of him knew what would happen if he drank from Adelle and that would probably be the one thing that would drive away his sire. His lover. He didn’t want to fuck that up. Not now. Not ever.