.5

Time: 10 Days before Ch. 1.

Place: A Roadside Bar somewhere in Virginia

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The Joy of the Hunt Chapter 0 - Prequel

(Meant to be read after chapter 4, but if you start here - no harm no foul)

Featured song; Sweet Child o' Mine, recorded and written by Guns'n'Roses

(Writers; Axl Rose, Slash, Izzy Stradlin, Duff McKagan, Steven Adler)

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

She's got a smile it seems to me,

Reminds me of childhood memories

Where everything was as fresh as the bright blue sky

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Her laughter rings like the chime of small bells through his mind; it brings up images of green meadows and bubbling streams, wild horses and the crackling of a wood fire. If carefree was a sound it would sound like this. This is what draws his attention at first. He can see her from his seat in a shadowed booth at the back of the bar; she is playing pool with her friends. There is something about her, something he can't quite put his finger to. It is as if she lights up the room with her mere presence. He is not alone in noticing, glancing around he can see that she has caught the eye of several people, all men.

She is such a tiny little thing, like a miniature of a woman. At first glance he had thought this place even seedier than he originally suspected, letting underage girls in and even serving them. The glass she picked up from a side table after failing to pocket a stripe doesn't contain soda, unless they were out of tumblers and started serving soda in wine glasses. A more careful study of her reveals that she is older than he first thought; his educated guess is that she is in her early to mid-twenties. Her growth is not stunted, she is just small, while still very much a woman sporting a thin waist, ample bosom and a most delicious little ass hugged by skin-tight jeans.

He can imagine just the things that he would like to do to that ass. Again, a glance around the room at the other men mesmerized by her presence indicates that this thought is not uniquely his. Over by the bar a group of rather seedy-looking fellows are elbowing each other and comments lewdly and loudly while undressing her with their eyes. It annoys him, though he fails to see why. He is just taking a brief break from driving. He is on his way to his favorite safe-house, stretching his legs and looking for a snack. Maybe a miniature sized snack? He chuckles darkly to himself, he is no better than those ape-men at the bar after all.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Now and then when I see her face

She takes me away to that special place

And if I'd stare too long I'd probably break down and cry

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

The past week has been simply awful. First waking up in that coffin where Theo, his treacherous second-in-command, placed him. Really? A vampire in a coffin? How trite.

Then realizing that he had been betrayed. Only the loyalty of people he had valued far too little in the past had kept him alive, much less still in charge. Hunting Theo down was easy. Ripping him apart was gratifying. But, when it was all over he felt tired to the bone. That's ridiculous in itself. Vaires do NOT get tired!

Still, once it was all over he felt emptier than he ever had before. Betrayed, worthless, dirty. In the process of saving them all from the one man who he believed had loved him more than anything yet ended up hated him he had caused the one woman he loves more than anything to hate him. Not that she knows how he feels, not that he is sure that she hates him, but he assumes she does. He hadn't even been able to face her afterwards; he took the cowards way out in this as well, leaving her a note. Theo was, after all, her brother.

Ah, the conflicts of the immortal mind. And heart. Yes, let us not forget the heart.

Living for more than 3000 years had not prepared him for this betrayal, first from his best friend and then from his mate. He is reeling inside and out, his equilibrium a cause long lost, a dream after waking. Looking at the little woman by the pool table he sees innocence, a sparkle in her eye, which makes him envy her. What he would not give to possess that innocence.

Now, there's a thought.

What is to say he can't, in fact, 'possess' that innocence?

A slow, dangerous smile spreads across his handsome features at the thought. It has been too long since he indulged, too long since he was proactive instead of reactive. Perhaps taking control is just what he needs to banish this overwhelming sorrow, this feeling of abandonment and despair? The little one over there doesn't look like any of them, not like any of the conflicting women he has previously let into his long, long life. This girl has a beauty that is all her own. One with no uncomfortable memories attached. That is exactly what he needs right now.

Yes, she is a little one, isn't she? Without even noticing it he names her in his mind, the two words unconsciously becoming capitalized.

His Little One.

Still, entertaining though the thought is, he should just pick up someone to snack on and be on his way. He has far too much on his mind right now to seriously entertain the notion of breaking a new girl in, no matter how enticing. Some of Theo's henchmen are still at large, as is the traitor Theo's mate. He will need to plan carefully how to handle the aftermath of the past weeks' events.

Picking up his phone he sends a quick text to his youngest brother, letting him know which safe house he is heading to and inviting him to come stay for as long as he wants.

Once there is a plan in place to sort out the complicated aftermath of Theo's failed coup, he also has to start thinking about how to handle Her. The more he contemplates his actions, the more he realizes that the note just isn't going to cut it. She doesn't know yet, but he has plans for her. Big plans. Eternal plans. Only, they were just disrupted and he needs to get them back on track. He sighs deeply.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Yes, he should just pick up a snack, that waitress looks just about right, and be on his way. He gazes over at the Little One again, just in time to see her place her glass back down on the side table and lean over to take a difficult shot, practically laying her whole body (what little there is of it) on the green felt of the pool table to reach the white ball at the right angle. Only the tip of one of her knee high boots remain on the floor, barely enough to not make the shot a foul. However, that is not what captures his attention and makes him lose sight of his plans to just get up and go, no indeed it is not.

To his mind's eye he has no problem seeing her in exactly this position, minus the clothes, bent over the leather love seat in his 'special' room with that delicious behind that she is currently teasing him with pink from his palm, or maybe a paddle. He can imagine her gasp as he spreads her cheeks and exposes her sex to the elements, and to his erection. The mere thought of seeing just how much of his sizable cock such a tiny frame can take causes it to twitch and begin to harden, uncomfortably fast.

She makes the shot and stands back up, making a small twirl and taking a bow to her friends, circling the table to get the right angle for the next shot. Her eyes positively sparkle. He notices how blue they are and how perfectly they offset her strawberry blonde hair. Funny, that's a fairly unusual color and exactly the same shade as the women of his youth always has in his memories, in the old world. Ah, the memories! Only a few days ago he was sitting in his study in his old mansion, remembering and reliving his younger years for a full evening, right before the proverbial s*it hit the fan and spread too fast for anyone to escape it's befouling properties.

She leans over the table again, giving him a clear view of her cleavage -- her position making it seem like her ivory mounds are almost ready to escape her top. They are just perfect, not too small and not too large -- just over a handful, the way he likes it. The pale perfection of her skin makes it even harder to tear his eyes away from her glorious breasts. Speaking of harder, that's another place he wouldn't mind burying his straining cock -- her breasts seem to be just large enough to press together and fuck. Angled right he can reach her mouth so she can lick his tip on every stroke. He purrs to himself at the thought.

"Seriously Adrian, you need to stop this now!" He scolds himself. Really, there is no time for dallying right now. Sexy ass or not, curvy gorgeous body or not, sparkling eyes, pearly laughter and hair made for fisting (where did THAT thought come from?) or not, it is time to get up and go. He shrugs his shoulders and seeks her out with his eyes again, surprised to see that she is no longer at the pool table.

Lost in his quiet reverie he had almost failed to notice her leaving. When he returns to the here and now he lifts his eyes only to notice her shrugging her short leather jacket in place on her slim frame and moving towards the door. He is just about to relax as the temptation to acquire a small (he chuckles) distraction was becoming quite impossible to resist when he notices the group of men who were previously making lewd comments about her. Now ominously silent with eyes glued at her retreating form they get up as one man and follow her out the door. Being a predator himself he recognizes all the signs. No, this will not do at all! He drops a bill on the table and swiftly follows.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Adrian exits the bar, silent as death, just in time to see the men go after his Little One. She has noticed that she is being followed and is picking up her pace. The way she is walking is now just short of running, but it is not doing her any good. With just a few strides the tallest of the men reaches her and grabs her shoulder, stopping her short and bringing a frightened gasp from her.

Knowing that he is vastly superior to this group of mortals in every sense, Adrian decides to hold back for a second to see how the scenario develops. He is curious, in a slightly twisted way, to see how she handles the situation. There is no reason at all for him to take action on her behalf, yet he already knows that he will not allow any lasting harm to come to her. Still, she does not know him either -- him coming to her rescue before it is even clear that she needs rescuing would likely scare her more rather than endear him to her. His inner voice objects to the last thought. Endear him? Why would he want to be endeared to her?

Most of the men, there must be five or six of them, are lounging back in the parking lot. The Little One slaps her "captors" hand from her shoulder and tells him to...

Oh dear, she has a mouth on her, doesn't she? Adrian chuckles at her clear description of the man's heritage. He is quite sure it is not possible for bestiality to lead to pregnancy, but she seems quite certain that this is the only way this particular man could have been conceived. Apparently his mother has had intercourse with a...

No, really. Little One, that is just crude! He is glad he held off intercepting the situation, this is proving quite amusing. She is delightfully creative with her insults too, they get ever more intriguing as the man does not let her go. Creative, but not very smart. She is such a tiny little thing, and the man is quite big, not to mention already clearly out to get her. Infuriating him may not be the best way to go.

As he studies her, Adrian reminds himself that he must remember that she has a defiant and stubborn streak. He will take great pleasure in taming this one. There are many ways one can put a mouth as agile as this one to good use he thinks to himself as his cock does another happy anticipating twitch.

Another objection from his inner voice rises at this though; What are you thinking, Adrian? Didn't you just decide you didn't have time for this?

She is getting agitated now and whips her head around to try to find any kind of help or at least a witness. Finding none, she is clearly about to scream when the man forecomes her by clasping his large hand over her mouth and nose, muffling her loud cry and explicit words before they exit her mouth. She immediately lashes out with her leg, just narrowly missing his crotch. That was a lethal blow, had it connected he may have been the last in his line. Adrian cannot help but be impressed by her fierce defense although it is becoming increasingly clear that it is in vain.

The man picks her up as easily as if she is made of paper and presses her back to his chest, beginning to carry her back to the parking lot and the others. One of the men, likely the leader judging by the way the others are acting near him, lifts his body from the relaxed slouch he has previously assumed against the hood of his car and looks at her with lust filled eyes as his henchman carries her back. He grins widely, revealing a yellow grin with a missing front tooth, and slowly zips down his fly while he stares at her.

'Good catch Billy Ray!' he drawls at her captor.

"I know we said we was gonna take her away right away, but I gots to be horny watching da chase! I'mma just gonna take her over the hood here and the rest of y'all can take turns in the back of the van, m'kay?"

With that he grabs the girl by the scruff of her neck and slams her down on the hood of the car in front of him, the blow beating the air from her lungs and preventing her from crying out despite the hand over her mouth being gone, while simultaneously ripping her jeans down to her knees revealing her pink lacy boy shorts. The whole interaction only takes a second or two, but she is clearly scared now, really scared as she realizes what is about to happen.

Adrian has seen enough and forcibly silences the inner voice that tells him this is none of his business. Up until just a moment ago she was empowered and he enjoyed seeing her defiance, but there is nothing at all enjoyable in the current development. Scum of the earth, ready to force a woman. And his mother called HIM an abomination?

He doesn't realize he growled out loud until the leering comments stop and the men turn around to look at him.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

"Whaddaya starin' at, Gramps?" The leader has regained his composure after his initial surprise that they weren't alone.

"Just ya walk away now, nice and easy like, and no one will get hurt, a'ight?"

He flashes Adrian another gap-toothed, yellow grin before aiming a vicious slap at the girl's ass, forcing a yelp from her despite the little breath in her lungs. He makes sure her arm is still pushed up behind her back in a death grip before continuing.

''Cept mebbe dis li'l pussy here, that is!"

He grins and the rest of his crew laughs. Unbeknownst to him, he has just signed his own death warrant. No-one slaps that sweet ass but Adrian, and even then only when the gasp brought from her will be at least partly from pleasure.

"Oh, is that so?" the ancient vampire purrs low in his throat. "I believe the only way no one gets hurt here, but I make no promises mind you, is if each and every one of you try your best to get out of my sight with the speed of light. I believe the lady is uncomfortable with the attention you are bestowing upon her."

The unspoken threat is strong enough to make a couple of the men unconsciously step back before they perform a quick body count and realize that they are six to one. With that, courage in numbers return in force.

"That sounds like a threat, Gramps." The leader grins at Adrian. "Who's gunna make good on that, then? You and what army?"

He takes a step towards the vampire, followed by the rest of his crew. Adrian finds himself surrounded by muscle-men who apparently expect him to be frightened. From the corner of his eye he sees his Little One shakily pulling her jeans up and trying to sneak off, but her original captor grabs her by the hair and pushes her up against the car, secure in the belief that his five friends are enough to handle this lone suit.

Adrian manages to catch her eye and give her a mischievous wink before answering.

"Don't worry, Little One." He says, ignoring the muscle around him. "You are in no danger."

("From them, no. From You though?" his inner voice adds.)

"I will be with you in a second" he concludes, turning back to the pathetic human in front of him and slowly shaking his head.

"And here I was considering giving you an honest chance to live. Tell me, have you heard of the Darwin Awards?" he asks with a smirk, their answer being a state of dumbfounded silence. They are not used to their prey not being frightened of them; the lack of fear makes them feel a tad uncomfortable. Luckily, this state will not last long. In a minute they will feel a tad... dead, instead. He smirks.

"Well, I am granting said award to all of you. It means," Adrian continues with a chuckle dark enough to chill their bones "that you are too stupid to live and I am doing humankind a service by removing your pathetic selves from the gene-pool."

Without giving any of them the chance to respond, he gets to work. In a smooth motion his hands enter the chest cavities of two of the men, retracting a moment later with a still beating heart in each hand. Dropping the hearts on the pavement he then gracefully turns 180 degrees, stretching his hands out and taking two heads clean off with the motion. They land on the concrete with a sickening thud and start rolling away. One hits the foot of Little One's guardian causing an involuntary yelp to escape his lips. Good, four down, two to go.

Stepping towards the leader he backs the man up until he is flush against the car, standing next to Little One while her "guardian" stands on the other side of her. Adrian leans towards her with his arms on either side of her face. In a mockery of what a man being ready to make out with his girl against a car would have looked like his hands, instead of leaning against steel, are pressing against the chests of her two main assailants. His fingers passed the skin and separating muscle, he can feel the intoxicating scent of their blood as it trickles down their chests and his arms from his fingers.

She is frozen, wide eyed, shocked, yet... is that exhilaration? Empowerment? Yes, he thinks it is. He addresses her directly, both men frozen solid in terror and bleeding around his hands.

"Tell me, little one, is this what you want?"

She looks confused so he clarifies, wiggling his fingers slightly causing his victims to cry out in agony.

"Do you feel merciful, or is this, their deaths, what you want?"

Understanding lights up her eyes. She just nods, swiftly, still slightly out of her mind with the fear and the adrenaline

"I don't know why what I think would matter, but yes, this is what I want."

Ah, she's a fierce one, his Little One. He will have so much fun taming her. Even his subconscious has accepted the inevitability of that now and is not putting up another argument at the thought.

"Good, then you get to stay awake." He smirks at her confusion and explains; "I am hungry, and if you didn't want it I would not have forced you to watch."

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

The blood may have felt a tad bit tainted, but Adrian fed well that night.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Once sated he quickly cleans the scene up, disposing of the bodies. Although all of them need careful hiding, clearly having met their demise in a way nothing short of supernatural, the two final ones warrants extra care. They are the only ones with bite marks, after all. A freshly pressed handkerchief comes from his pocket to wipe the blood from his chin. Through it all she watched him, wide eyed.

When he is done he steps towards his car. Noticing upon arrival that he is alone at the vehicle, that she is frozen in her original position, he swiftly moves over to the passenger side and opens the door, then looks at her and extends a hand towards her, capturing her bright blue eyes with his cappuccino brown orbs.