...in spite of what was to come, Monroe Carter, whose name rhymes with martyr, would remember this as one of her happiest nights. She considered what she'd told Yan, that people were nothing more than miserable little piles of secrets...the thing is, that was especially true for the Damned, because the First Tradition and common sense demanded that the Kine, their livestock, their lovers and friends and shadows of their former selves, couldn't know.
She'd seen love between Kindred, forged over long decades of undeath but the nature of the Beast was parasitic, sick; to keep their inherent darkness from tearing them apart, some even exchanged a bond of blood but that was considered taboo.
Maybe that alone was the point; Kindred were inherently jealous of other people's happiness, and it would make perfect sense that a millenia old injunction against the sharing of blood between Vampires could be traced back to the simple envy of long-dead monsters.
What she was doing was far worse...more than simply breaking a taboo by commiserating with a Lupine (in itself a source of suspicion and a profound fear of the unknown) she was
enjoying his company
- and more than just that,
far
more than just letting herself, for once, be fully taken by his smarmy, confident charm...or sneaking kisses and intimate touches where she could
They transgressed. Utterly.
The Date of Utter Transgression - Part One:
Dinner and Drinks
" - this one here, I actually got lucky, it was the last job I ever worked." Monroe's gaze traced the starburst pattern of what were clearly bullet holes underneath his scapula. "I was doing night shift at this place - Red's Towing, you know them with the radio jingle?"
Oh how could anyone forget?
"
Illegal parkjob, tires gone a-blowing? Just give us a ring at -
doodlee-deedlee-doo -
Red's Towing!
Yeah yeah now it's gonna be stuck in my head all night, you better sing something else later." Her amber gaze watched with amusement as he pushed a paper plate laden with this...formidably large, bougie slice of pizza covered with sauteed chicken, carrots, peppers, some sort of...Thai chili something or other. She almost never
ate
food for its flavor, even if the Blush of Life restored her tastebuds because it was part of the show, just another lie to blend in.
Had she ever even
tried
something like this? Back when she was actually eating pizza for sustenance and pleasure, like all the actual food college students and GoPro-fessionals flourishing about her, options had been comparatively basic: sausage, pepperoni, green peppers or olives, anchovies if someone felt particularly adventurous...she bit into the end and marveled at the strange panoply of new flavors straight out of Chiang Mai, watching Mizrah's pulse, the little deathmetal drumbeat of his heart.
"So one night, it was 3am - yep, bad shit always happens then, hour of the wolf, and I was alone at the depot. Everyone was out driving or sick, whatever. So this guy who had a beef with the owner of the bar across the way - "
" - you're talkin' 'bout Woody and Fran's?" she interjected, swallowing faster than she needed; she'd fallen out of practice with chewing but he didn't
seem
to notice. Besides, there was something about the way
he
ate that was...
" - nah babe, they're long gone, a shady titty bar took its place. Bananagans Gentlemen's Cabaret." He had table manners, but...biting down into his own slice of pizza she couldn't help but notice the way he...savaged it, just a slight shake of his neck, his teeth flashing ivory white; marinara sauce painting them like gore. "Anyway," he swallowed it down like he'd torn it from some greater Pizza Prey-Beast, miming the whole incident using his hands. "This guy rolls up and gets out with a modded AR, starts firing full auto - doesn't hit a single person, misses everyone except me."
"What. You weren't even in the same building. Sometimes you're punchable but shootable?" Monroe reached forward and pushed her fingers into the little divots created by the hot lead
"Ricochet. Two of them, got me good." He returned to politely mutilating his food as she laughed at his expense.
"That is some poor luck Yusuf, gotta say. Least they didn't get that pretty face of yours, might not be into that if you had an extra set of nostrils." Monroe favored him with one of her rare smiles - the more time she spent around him, the more prolific they became. Her hand dropped down to caress his knuckles before snatching his...
very
pepper-dense slice and biting into it with a -crunch-.
"Oh so it's not my alluring personality and abundant knowledge that hooks you?" he teased, stealing his Scoville rich food back and finishing it.
"Hooks me he says," a slender brow forming a languid arch, running her tongue up and down a canine as she looked him over. "So hot stuff, we had our expensive-ass appetizers - you didn't have to pay for me you know, I got money." Still. It was nice, another classy thing that made her feel desirable. "When we gonna eat for real?"
Yusuf sipped from a bottle of water with natural cool and leaned forward on his elbow like he owned this table and the restaurant around him, his voice dropping down to a silky murmur that only another creature of the dark like her could pick up on. "Been choosing marks...you have too." He was right of course, as was her wont she'd been eavesdropping on the conversations around her with her acute hearing. Their fingers touched lightly as the processed, valueless human food in their systems burned away in similar fashion, leaving them both hungry: she for blood, he for flesh...both for the pleasure of each other's bodies, to watch the other enjoy the Prey; for sex was richly intertwined with the hunting habits of Clan Brujah and the Enkindled Strain.
"Yeah?" She took his hand into both of hers, turning his palm up and spreading his fingers to scratch her nails across the lines in his skin; it tickled, like she'd meant, and she kept her grip as he tried to pull away. "Who gets that cute lil' tummy of yours rumblin'?"
"Cute little tummy?!" he fumed with mock offense that made her smirk, his dark, intense eyebrows pulling downward stormily. She couldn't help but give a sardonic little titter at his expense because it was stupidly precious. He leaned back and flashed his abs at her, and she gave them an appraising stroke. "You have
no idea
how hard it is to keep an eight pack in the South, everything down here is fried and delicious." Not that it was a problem for him anymore, she'd never met a fat Lupine.
"Okay, okay Mister Abs-of-Steel," Monroe chuckled, leaning forward on her elbows and leering at him playfully like a spider admiring a shiny bottlefly. "So come on big stuff, who're you thinkin' of..." she quirked her eyebrows and snapped her teeth together in a way that got his blood pumping harder in his veins; she could feel it in his wrist, see it in the heat of his eyes.
"Well, I mean...I'm not gonna be," he dropped his voice lower, glancing surreptitiously at the banquet seated around them, "
eating
any of these people, they're just, y'know. Regular folks, I usually eat big game - damn, you thought I was gonna like..."
"Well I mean, we
are
..." Monroe trailed off with an incredulous expression, leaving the word unspoken; nobody actually wanted to