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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
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girls-just-wanna
taste_tester
"That'd be me. And whoever else, I guess, I have the impression she does this a lot? I think she turns some of them but I said no thanks and she didn't bug me about it," says Lauren.
girls-just-wanna
"Even more helpful, I hadn't thought to ask. Thank you, you are in fact a peach." She hands back the phone.
taste_tester
"Thank you!" Addy chirps to Lauren, and she hangs up. "I can start waking up Vietnamese witches at some more civilized hour, unless otherwise you'll kill me, or something similarly incompatible with civilization."
girls-just-wanna
"No, no, we're fine. If she was actually a vampire with sound manipulation or something I'll applaud your forethought, but even a shaky reference gets you out of DEFCON Whatever. We'll still be uncivilized if the teeth come out, though, I think that's a reasonable agreement. So, what was that you were saying about improving witchcraft? Because I'm all for that if it's available."
taste_tester
"Oh good! I love your enthusiasm. I shake your hand or boop you on the nose or whatever you like, and then I have your power, and I can tell what it does. I can usually do this better than witches themselves, especially if they don't know they're witches, but I might not be able to add a lot of diagnostic quality for you in particular; we'll see. Then I figure out what its limitations are and how they can be made to go away."
"Excuse me, are we now on good enough terms with the strange vampire to give up our firepower advantage? Because I don't remember making that vote."
taste_tester
"Are you a witch too, or just a peculiar sort of something?" Addy wonders in his direction.
"I'm the other half of the firepower advantage. And the tactics guy. And not telling you what I am, because I also happen to be a suspicious bastard."
girls-just-wanna
"It's Leo's job to have a bug up his ass about my safety. Ignore him; he's twitchy, but he doesn't pull the trigger unless he has to."
taste_tester
"I don't mean her any harm," Addy assures Leo. "I am a magic geek of a vampire mimic-witch. That's more or less all there is to me."
"Oh, I'm sure. In the same way, all there is to me is "Zanna's overprotective childhood friend." We'll be fine."
girls-just-wanna
"He likes to sound ominous. Again, you can safely ignore him." She holds out her hand regally.
Leo twitches.
Leo twitches.
taste_tester
Addy looks at him, then holds out her hand, leaving it to Zanna to complete the contact.
girls-just-wanna
Suzanna rolls her eyes and pokes Addy's finger. Her power tastes like a dark beer, powerful and heady without much subtlety behind it.
Telekinesis, brute force. The strength is obvious, though it's difficult to use it at full power. There's about as much fine control as a piece of construction equipment with boxing gloves on; it can hit, it can push, it can carry, and anything else is far, far beyond it. At least with Suzanna behind the wheel. It's possible with a less... direct mind in charge, it could be persuaded to act like a hand, or at least some appendage smaller than a wrecking ball.
There are other possibilities. Perhaps it could be a sword instead of a cannon; perhaps it could be a bomb, spreading out from a point; perhaps it could pin a foe in place. The potential spreads out like the horizon.
Telekinesis, brute force. The strength is obvious, though it's difficult to use it at full power. There's about as much fine control as a piece of construction equipment with boxing gloves on; it can hit, it can push, it can carry, and anything else is far, far beyond it. At least with Suzanna behind the wheel. It's possible with a less... direct mind in charge, it could be persuaded to act like a hand, or at least some appendage smaller than a wrecking ball.
There are other possibilities. Perhaps it could be a sword instead of a cannon; perhaps it could be a bomb, spreading out from a point; perhaps it could pin a foe in place. The potential spreads out like the horizon.
taste_tester
"Oh, yum," says Addy. "Now this you could get really creative with if you were careful and thoughtful. It'd be better if you turned - I'm not sure I've ever seen a power that would more obviously be better after turning - but better to get all the obvious practice out of the way first, it'll come faster and stick just fine..."
girls-just-wanna
"I am very, very interested in turning. However, I'm also very, very interested in not being saddled with the mind-controlling crazytrain who is apparently my mate. So until she's dust in the wind, I remain tragically unsparkly. It's very irritating. In the meantime, practice sounds great."
taste_tester
"I'm not actually sure that you won't just wind up mated to her anyway even if she kicks it first," says Addy. "You'll like her if you do turn, you know."
girls-just-wanna
"I already like her, are you kidding? She's hotter than hell, she's absolutely ruthless, and she acts like she owns the Goddamn planet. That's beautiful. But when she panicked, she decided that mind-bending me was a better choice than convincing me of her point. She assumed that when I loved her forever, I'd forgive her for that. But I won't forgive anyone who tries to walk over me. If she thinks that just because we're fated eternal lovers or whatever I'll be second to her, I'll turn her into gravel. And if that means I live forever missing half my heart, it won't mean a damn thing."
taste_tester
"Huh. Well, you could pulverize her, good and proper. I'm nnnnnot sure if you can get this to generate enough friction to set things on fire, but I'm not sure you can't, and anyway there's always matches, plus whatever Mr. Secret Weapon packs."
taste_tester
"Makes no difference to me. 'M not sure you're thoroughly considering her perspective, but that doesn't make your magic any less yummy. Want to know what it tastes like?"
girls-just-wanna
"I'll let her explain her perspective when I've got more backup than Leo in case she just hits me again. And, uh, yes? Of course? Yes?"