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Suzanna has known about vampires since the second grade, when Leo her very best friend in the whole wide world told her in confidence that his daddy was a werewolf and his mommy was a vampire. And then they went home from school and Leo's parents showed up at her parents' house and said they were just here to bring Leo over for a playdate ha ha ha, and his mom Nessie had brought Leo into the living room to play with her and had crouched down and told her all about the vampire world. And then she smiled and patted her fondly on the head and whispered, "If you tell anyone, then your bones will never be found." And she slid off into the dining room in that liquid way she had and told Mrs. Richardson she was awfully sorry, she'd totally forgotten that Leo had a doctor's appointment, and she'd try to bring him back some other time.
Suzanna was afraid of Mrs. Verona after that, but she wasn't afraid of vampires. She loved vampires. She wanted to turn the second she turned eighteen and could get away from her stupid parents and this stupid town and not get attention from the stupid cops. She waited with bated breath for her eighteenth birthday. Leo waited with her, though she knew he was afraid that when she was a vampire and he smelled like wet dog all the time she'd drop him like a used tissue. She told him she'd never do that because if she hurt him then his mother would hound her to the ends of the earth with a wolfpack by her side. He acknowledged the point.
And then, the month before her eighteenth birthday, the fierce urge to turn in her still-beating heart and a plane ticket to Italy in her purse, Tessa showed up and it all went to hell.
Tessa took her out for coffee and told her she'd just been passing through, but when she noticed how utterly beautiful Suzanna was she couldn't look away. She told Suzanna that she was dangerous, that she should stay away, but that she could never resist. Suzanna licked it up with a spoon. Then she made a mistake.
She said, "Yeah, you're a vampire, right? My friend's mom is a vampire. I'm turning next month, I'm taking a trip to Italy to see the Volturi and do the whole "hey Aro how's it going here's my memories" thing. Which is, like, mandatory? I think?"
How exactly was she supposed to know that Tessa was under the impression she was Aro's archenemy? How was she supposed to know that Tessa was super paranoid and thought him seeing her in Suzanna's memories would make him scour the continent on some crazy womanhunt? And how the Hell was she supposed to know that she had fucking mind control powers?
Okay, it wasn't actually mind control. Just sort of, "this lady is crazy hot and you should totally do what she says" hypnotic thing. But it was still freaky as shit. And it made something inside her say hell fucking no and her brain pulled some kind of trigger and BAM, Tessa was minus one head. And while she was lurching around like some crazy-ass zombie looking for the pieces and the coffee shop was losing its collective shit, Suzanna was puking and having the worst migraine of her fucking life and stumbling out into the street looking for Leo.
He was near enough she could find him, and she found him and said, "We have to go right fucking now."
And he said "where do we have to go?"
And she said "away."
And now they're away and Tessa's looking for them and it's a week to her birthday and she is not having fun.
Zanna and Addy
girls-just-wanna
readyourbook
Currently, Tessa is looking for them in Seattle. She called one of her tracker "friends", but the only one who could give her advice without having met the girl himself is barely better than nothing. She punches a tree, and it breaks.
taste_tester
And Addy is looking for vagrants to eat and witches to taste.
Her taste doesn't quite come with a corresponding smell, but sometimes... sometimes you can tell.
She walks past Tessa. Sometimes being a vampire near another vampire is all it takes to start a conversation, even if it starts out all "growl hiss territory snarl". Sometimes it's not; she can walk by again if she has to.
Her taste doesn't quite come with a corresponding smell, but sometimes... sometimes you can tell.
She walks past Tessa. Sometimes being a vampire near another vampire is all it takes to start a conversation, even if it starts out all "growl hiss territory snarl". Sometimes it's not; she can walk by again if she has to.
readyourbook
"Human. Supposedly my mate, though at the moment she seems a bit confused with regards to the concept."
taste_tester
"Let's see. I know someone who can find her if you have something that belonged to her and I help her out, and I know someone who can find her if and only if she has a unique name in all the world but he can't do it twice so it wouldn't be useful if she's on the move, and I know of a precog who rumor has it turns quite neatly to this sort of thing but I'm not sure you could get her to help, and I used to know of an excellent scent tracker who could probably work with anywhere she's set foot in the last month plus the good odds that you and your mate will have complementary smells but he's dead. The first two people both live in the Phillippines."
readyourbook
"Ugh. I might as well just stick with the idiot I've got, at least he's local. I know she's in the state, which is decent, it's just that there's so much damn state! Why do these people think they're not separate countries, again?"
taste_tester
"Oh, who is it you found locally?" wonders Addy. "I'm something of a student - even a conoisseur - of witchcraft. Sometimes I can make useful suggestions to help people do more with their powers, and it would probably be faster than going to the Philippines."
readyourbook
"His name's Steven, he's a few hundred miles to the east. He can find anyone who you can specify, which sounds quite useful until you realize that his definition of "find" is literally "figure out the country they're in". At least he can narrow it down to territories in big enough countries. Still, he's nearly as useless as a resource as he is as a man."
taste_tester
"Now, that's a limitation that sounds fixable if ever I heard one."
readyourbook
"If you can make that man competent, you're a goddess. I'll pay you in virgins."
taste_tester
"Oh, no, the work is its own reward. I can find my own nibbles. But I do appreciate the sentiment. Say, are you a witch?"
readyourbook
"Yes, in fact. I have enchanting beauty. One target at a time, but it can paralyze them or make them carry out my will or any number of wonderful things. It's great fun. And it's very good for my ego to have beauty that drives men mad."
taste_tester
"Oh, how interesting. Does it only work on men?"
readyourbook
Tessa laughs. "That'd be inconvenient, seeing as I want nothing to do with them. No, it works on everyone. Want to see?"
Ordinarily that'd be an invitation. The mate bond has removed that impulse, but the urge to flirt outrageously has remained, because there's no power on Earth could budge that.
Ordinarily that'd be an invitation. The mate bond has removed that impulse, but the urge to flirt outrageously has remained, because there's no power on Earth could budge that.
readyourbook
She reaches out to feel for the target. Addy has that hazy quality that they get when they don't like anything. Well, the power will be a little lower, but it doesn't matter. Tessa is irresistible.
She hits her. It's like suddenly there's nothing but that face, the most perfect object in all of Creation. Addy would move mountains for that face, fling herself into a pyre, worship at the altar of Tessa, the Beautiful, the Perfect, the-
She shuts it off. "That was the off-brand version. You're one of those asexuals, in case you didn't know, so I couldn't give you full power."
She hits her. It's like suddenly there's nothing but that face, the most perfect object in all of Creation. Addy would move mountains for that face, fling herself into a pyre, worship at the altar of Tessa, the Beautiful, the Perfect, the-
She shuts it off. "That was the off-brand version. You're one of those asexuals, in case you didn't know, so I couldn't give you full power."
taste_tester
"Oh, no, I knew, I was very curious about how the things would mix. Aren't you intriguing."
Noseboop.
Noseboop.
readyourbook
"No, but why did you touch me, did you just steal my power or something, do I need to dismember you and get it back?"
taste_tester
"No, no, you still have it! It's right there. I copy, I don't steal."
readyourbook
"So you do have my power. But that wasn't an attack." She exhales, presumably for effect. "Please do not touch me without asking first. I have had over two thousand years to get very good at dismantling people."
taste_tester
"Sure. I'll keep it till I touch another witch, is how it works, if you wanted to know. It doesn't feel, mm, very malleable, no surprise if you're two thousand, so I probably won't even want it again after."
readyourbook
"I've had some time to practice. I was quite experimentally minded with it in the early days, at first I could only paralyze someone. And often not even that. My prospective mate, there's one with potential. She blew my head off by reflex while under the full effect of my glamor."
She sighs. "It was magnificent."
She sighs. "It was magnificent."