Chapter Text
Introduction
15 years in one town is plenty for a dhampir, sure Chicago is bigger than most but the few humans I knew outside of the magical community were starting to wonder why I didn’t have any of the usual signs of aging, the good genes excuse had worked so far but it was time to move on.
I needed a ride, I couldn’t get use of a reliable car and the bus is my idea of hell. I couldn’t afford a flight, so car sharing was the best option. I hadn’t decided on my next town, hoping to pick someone going somewhere which sounded interesting and tagging along for the ride.
Pauly, the guy I’d had a date or two with mentioned his vampire friend was relocating to New York, sounds like my kind of town. I don’t like vamps and well, they hate me as a rule, but I could hide as human if needed so I volunteered to be his human driver when the sun was up. We met at sunset by the University of Chicago, he had been studying there for a couple of years apparently. He pulled up in a huge blacked out Corvette, noisy and inviting as hell. Pauly introduced the very attractive vamp to me as Louis-Cesare, so French you could make a caricature out of him. Can’t say I was too bothered, pretty is fleeting I find, and he soon lived up to the initial impression, gorgeous long auburn hair he wore clipped to the base of his neck with a ridiculous gold clasp, blue eyes and very chiselled features, giving him a masculine edge to the pretty eyes and hair; he was tall, over a foot on me, he also gave off the vibe of being arrogant as hell and I took in his scent, he smelled of fine whisky, cigars and butterscotch, an odd combination but not unpleasant.
The first half of the journey was pretty stunted conversation wise, particularly the several hours he was asleep in the back while I drove. He tried to take blood from me, the polite way, when he woke up but he must have got magic vibes from me somehow so he backed off before really feeding. We stopped at a café for some food for the humans and a draw from the waitress from the vampire.
He commented on my choice and large amount of food, judging my choices no doubt. What can I say, I have a serious metabolism to keep up to.
‘I’ll have the cheeseburger and fries, salad on the side please, no sauces just plain but with cheese. Can you bring me the ketchup on the side please too? Also I’ll have the apple pie, warm with ice cream, but strawberry if you have it, if not then cream, but not if its whipped in a can but if you don’t have any of them then just the pie, not heated.’
He raised an eyebrow at the order, but I shrugged back at him, leaning across the back of my chair, hey I like what I like. He watched me eat it all, a little bit fascinated, probably by how much my 5ft 2in frame could hold whilst still being in shape, I gave him a story about eating once a day but a large meal to get me through, he seemed to buy it.
I’d finished up eating and had leant back in the chair to let it digest .
‘You want to get a room?’ I asked watching him check me out for the third time, I enjoy a tumble with a cute guy every now and then and I was sure he’d be good for a night.
‘Aren’t you dating Pauly?’ He asked, a grimace across his face at the thought.
‘Oh God no, what made you think that?’ I asked
‘He seemed to think you were.’
‘Oh, well we had sex a couple of times, but nothing official.’ He looked a little confused at that and returned to the cup of coffee he’d been nursing since we arrived.
‘I take that as a no then.’ I laughed, he was arrogant in some settings, yet utterly confused by a woman coming on to him, it was surreal for a vampire, he definitely didn’t match up to any I’d met before.
He took the drive for the next portion of our trip, which would get us in to the city before sun rise.
‘We could meet up at some point when we’re all settled in the city.’ He said ‘I know what you are, I never thought to meet a dhampir.’
He bristled a bit at the name, but as he was driving was concentrating on the road.
‘You realize of course that we could never be friends.’ I said
‘Why not?
‘What I'm saying is — and this is not a come-on in any way, shape or form — is that dhampirs and Vampires can't be friends because the sex, or killing part always gets in the way.’ I looked at him while he pulled a ridiculous face.
‘That’s not true. I think we can be friends.’ He said sure of himself.
‘No you don't.’
‘Yes I do.’
‘You only think you do.’
‘How do you know?’
‘Because no dhampir can be friends with a vampire, there’s always something there, something primal, we either fight or fuck, and I don’t want to fight you… yet!’
‘Well, I guess we're not going to be friends then.’ He said, a surety in his features.
‘Guess not.’ I stuck my feet up on the dash and lit a joint, to Louis-Cesare’s chagrin; the cat was out of the bag and he wasn’t likely to judge the joint so much with a dhampir at his side.
‘That's too bad. You were the only person that I knew in New York.’ He laughed as he put his foot down, I nearly lost the joint out of the window as he did so.
He dropped me off by Washington Park, we shook hands in goodbye, a frission of power running up my arm as he did, wow, this one was way more powerful than I realised but he was showing off for the little dhampir. We said our goodbyes and I headed off to find some work.