A Mile In These Shoes (Chris!)

[Josie Ashwood]

A late model dark blue sports car screeched to a halt on the highway between Shreveport and Bon Temps, the night sky making it seem like little more than a shadow on the road. The only thing to alert to the fact that it was a real car were the bright red tail lights gleaming from behind the small cloud of smoke the burning rubber tyres had caused as the vehicle had come to its sudden stop. Pulling up on a slight angle, partly due to the force of the braking and partly due to how drunk its driver was, the car remained in a stationary position. For now.

“I said, get out of the fucking car!” Rafe, Josie's 'sometimes guy' said, leaning across the passenger seat and the girl in it to violently fling open her door. Their voices filled the air outside.

“You can't just leave me out here in the middle of fucking nowhere, Rafe,” she told him, her voice sarcastic.

“I can do whatever the fuck I like, bitch. And you're trash, anyway. You belong in the damn gutter.” He reached over, pressing the ejector on her seat belt and ripping it carelessly up over her head. The buckle clacked against the edge of the open doorway. Now she had made him scratch up his new ride. Now he was really pissed. Josie seemed to sense that this wasn't just a normal argument, and that Rafe fully intended to leave her out here in the middle of nowhere.

“Get the fuck out.” Rafe repeated, slowly. “Now.”

“Baby, don't be crazy. Let's just go back to your place and fool around a little, okay?” Josie reached over, sliding a hand up Rafe's thigh as she smiled at him suggestively. “I'll do that think you like, and-”

“Fuckin' choke on it, bitch!” Rafe spat. “I saw you talking to that fanger bitch. So you're into chicks now as well? Big fucking surprise. Slut.”

Josie changed from wheedling to Pissed Right Off in 0.02 seconds. Before she even realised what she was doing, she had pulled back her arm and launched it at her ex boyfriend's head. She punched him squarely in the nose, and he doubled over his steering wheel. “Maybe if you had a dick,” Josie said in a poisonous tone, “Then I wouldn't look elsewhere. Go fuck yourself.”

In a second she was out of the car, walking back towards Shreveport with anger fuelling her stride. The car idled for a few more seconds before shooting off down the road at a breakneck speed. With her hand throbbing and her pride more than a little injured, Josie teetered along the road in her not-so-favourite-anymore new pair of heels. Her feet hurt like a bitch.

[chrisvirani]

Being fast had its perks. While Christopher owned a car, he rarely used it if he was only going a short distance. And tonight, after work, he decided to go for a bit of a run. It had been a long start to the evening; though everyone he worked with knew what he was, some of the customers only had an idea. The vampires were out of the coffin so there was no reason to hide what he was but it made working at a human bar loads easier. Sometimes when customers found out, they expected him to be like the ones at that vampire bar, Fangtasia, and while Chris had visited the bar for his own personal reasons, he definitely wasn’t in the habit of standing around to let humans take pictures of him.

It was mostly because he sort of resented what he was. He was limited in a way that humans were not - he was limited by sun and silver. Sure, some humans were allergic to silver, he supposed, but to them, it left an instant burn and caused an extreme amount of pain. He’d taken silver for his children before and that hadn’t been the only time his body acquired that mark, though it was the only time he was proud to have that stupid little burn on his body - because he had been protecting his kids. Thankfully, vampires did heal fast.

Chris wasn’t a masochist; he didn’t enjoy bringing pain upon humans. But there were humans who were aroused by being bitten. For these reasons, he actually did visit the vampire bar. He hadn’t come from there tonight. Instead he’d come from his actual place of work where a customer recognized him from a previous night at that vampire bar. At the time he was thinking it would be great, he could get a meal. As long as it was between him and a consenting adult, it wasn’t really wrong. It was the same thing he taught his children who had been vampires for centuries now as well. But that hadn’t been what the woman intended. Instead she wanted to use him like a tourist attraction and he’d excused himself from the bar temporarily and had a bottled blood. It was synthetic of course, the TruBlood tasted like shit and Chris and his family (not nest, family) knew it. But they also all dealt with it when they had to.

So he was running, but he could overhear a conversation in a car. Heightened hearing was another perk. He had to admit, for the eternally damned, they were pretty lucky as far as senses went. It sounded like a domestic dispute and he usually didn’t get involved with that. But he was running fairly close to the road and he felt like investigating would be interesting at the very least. He was surprised, though he shouldn’t have been with the changing of the times, that he saw the woman hit the man and then get out of the car. He could smell the blood but he’d fed and he was old, so resisting wasn’t too terribly difficult. But the woman was walking by herself now and he wouldn’t have that. He could smell she was human and a lot of things could happen to a woman on the side of the road.

Christopher was nothing if not a gentleman. “Excuse me, miss,” he said with a smile as he approached her. “Would you like an escort? Women shouldn’t walk alone at night, even if that woman is capable of punching a man in the face.” He arched an eyebrow, which was about as much of a personality as a stranger would get out of this vampire at the moment. Chris wasn’t a smile-type person unless he was around his kids.

[Josie Ashwood]

She was tired, sore, sobering up and pissed right off. Her friends repeatedly told her that Rafe was no good, but he somehow managed to always make things right between them. The anger she had seen in his eyes tonight had been different: he had really scared her. While Josie wasn't exactly a model citizen and might have liked to flirt with other guys sometimes to make her beau jealous, she never followed through on it. Right in this moment she felt like heading on back to Fangtasia and finding someone – anyone – to screw just for the hell of it.

Just when she decided that was exactly what she would do as soon as someone came along to give her a ride back to Shreveport, a man melted out of the shadows from the roadside, smiling. Shocked and a little scared, it took Josie a couple of seconds to get hear bearings. As soon as the surprise of seeing someone else out here wore off, she was glad of the company. She wasn't really the type of girl who liked being alone, much less after a particularly nasty break up. The guy was well built and easy on the eyes, so she figured she had fallen on her feet again, just like she'd done so many times before.

“Thanks,” she told him with a smile of her own, the edge wearing off her anger as she sized the guy up. “I'm not particularly worried,” she added with a laugh hovering around the fringes of her voice, “But the company would be appreciated.” It was only then then she stopped walking, catching her breath for a moment and letting the past few minutes and Rafe's bullshit drama wash over her. “Sorry if you had to see or hear that,” she added. “My ex is an idiot.”

[chrisvirani]

The vampire was wearing a pair of dark jeans, a black t-shirt and a black jacket to go along with it. Chris was into black, dark colors too but especially black. His hair was in his usual spiked up do and his eyes were focused on the girl. He could see the blood moving through her veins as her heart pulsed, pushing the red liquid through her body. He breathed in once to take in her scent but didn’t get closer to her. He would be able to get enough from right there. He nodded, still not smiling. He couldn’t bring himself to smile, despite the fact that he was glad that she was allowing him to walk with her. “Are you cold? Would you like my jacket?” Again, Christopher was old fashioned to go with his old age. So old that Juliette sometimes called him Christ, partially from his age and partially because he’d ‘saved’ her in her opinion. He’d hated introducing his children to his life but he had to admit that he was less lonely with them around.

It seemed like the young woman was having a difficult night. He looked down at her shoes and decided that she looked like the type who cared about her appearance even if it cost her comfort. If Christopher could get uncomfortable, he’d be the same way. As it were, he didn’t get physically uncomfortable unless he wasn’t fed enough.

“I’m sure it wasn’t your fault. He sounded unreasonable.” He hoped he didn’t come off as an ass, Chris honestly couldn’t find it in him to smile unless his kids were around. He just wasn’t happy without them and the thought of his dead wife was more than painful. “I apologize for the eavesdropping. I couldn’t help but overhear, it’s sort of something you just do after centuries of existing.”

He couldn’t take her eyes off her shoes and wonder just how comfortable they were, not because he particularly liked them and wanted them because he had no real use for a pair of woman’s shoes and he wasn’t in the habit of stealing - he didn’t need to with his stocks going so well. But he felt bad that she was having to walk. “I don’t mean to sound too forward, but do you need assistance? I could carry you if you like. You don’t look too comfortable walking.”

[Josie Ashwood]

The strong, silent type, Josie thought to herself as they continued walking along the deserted road. She liked those qualities in a man. A man had to be strong in order to take care of his woman and to provide for her. Silence was a good sign that he could listen, too, which was another desirable trait for a man to have. She had very recent experience with the type of man who didn’t listen, and it was exceptionally frustrating. When he offered her his jacket she was pleasantly surprised. The kind of men she usually attracted were selfish, arrogant bad-boys, and up until right now that had definitely been her downfall. Josie loved guys who lived on the wild side and as a consequence she tended to get herself in hot water.

There was a lot to be said for manners, however. The summer night surrounded the pair, cool but not unpleasantly so. In her knee-length denim pencil skirt and tight 50’s style tank top Josie could understand why he thought she might be cold, and appreciated the sentiment of his offer. “I’m fine,” she told him, her smile soft in the dim light from the crescent moon high above the trees to their right. “Thanks, though.” His next statements served to make her feel a little bit better about her exchange with Rafe. He was unreasonable. When she thought about it in that light, her smile became a little stronger. A little more like her usual smile.

When she heard the stranger’s comment about ‘centuries of existing’, Josie felt her heart skip a beat. He was a vampire? Some gorgeous, mysterious vampire just happened along after she’d had a horrible break-up with some moron whose name she didn’t even want to remember right now. Her luck, it seemed, was definitely improving. She didn’t say anything for the moment, mainly because she was inwardly berating herself for not having noticed that he was undead sooner. She was obsessed with vampires for Christ’s sake, and she’d been obliviously wandering along a highway next to one for the last ten minutes.

And then he offered to carry her. A disbelieving, breathy chuckle escaped her and it was only then that she realised he had been making reference to her shoes. The temptation to say yes was almost overwhelming. Who wouldn’t want to be carried along by some tall drink of blood water and treated like some movie starlet who’d lost her way in the woods and twisted up her ankle, right? But the newfound pride she had in herself after her dealings with Rafe wouldn’t back down enough for her to actually say yes. Her feet were fine, though she did realise that picking her way along the gravel wouldn’t be good for her aesthetic image, not to mention her shoes.

“Oh!” she exclaimed, pausing in her step a little before continuing on. “I’m okay, thanks. They’re not as deadly as they look,” she added with mock seriousness that melted as soon as she forced herself to look away from him and along the highway ahead of them. “I’ll let you know if things get dire, though,’ she added with a smile. After a couple of more steps, she realised that she should probably introduced herself. She was dying (pardon the pun) to know his name, and while she didn’t make reference to his being a vampire her interest in him had definitely peaked.

[chrisvirani]

Modern women didn’t seem to need as much help from a man as the women of his day used to, even in the south it was clear that a lot of women weren’t the Belles you read about in books. Those books, Christopher had decided, were probably written by either the few women who were the ladies of the tradition, or were just trying to romanticize men. Men were plenty romantic in his day. The man’s job had been to provide for the women and children and Chris had done just that. He was still doing that though his daughter, Juliette, had declared she was going to work like the rest of the family. It had certainly thrown him for a loop at first, but now it was as if that were the normal, logical thing since the times were progressing.

He would have ran a hand through his hair if he hadn’t done it up just perfect that evening. It was frustrating. He’d lived for centuries and still knew very little about women. They kept changing and he was certain it was only to make the men in their lives angry. Though the women were beautiful, which was why, he supposed, men kept chasing and dealing with the frustration.

This particular woman seemed to not want his help. She’d refused his jacket and the awkward offer for a ride of sorts. Still, Christopher was interested in this person as a human, so he shrugged it off. He didn’t think he was better than anyone, certainly not a human. He clung so close to his humanity. He wanted to be human just like her, though that would make him dead right now, dead for centuries. Well, technically he had been dead that long, but he was still in existence.

“I apologize if I’ve bothered you. I just find it unsafe for a woman to be out alone at night. Were you hurt in any way, Miss…?” He realized he hadn’t had her name and that was sort of a startle to him. He was normally polite and introduced himself like a man should. He couldn’t smell any blood on her, but there could be some dried up somewhere or she could be bruised. Who knew what had happened before he had overheard the argument she had been having with a man who he could only hope would no longer be in this woman’s life.

[Josie Ashwood]

“Josie,” she replied easily with a smile, feeling a little bit bad that she had seemed to somehow set the vampire on edge. She wondered when he was from. His manners were so regimental and his language was stoic. He was certainly no newborn, that much was for certain. With a mind like hers it was only natural that hey eyes lingered on the attractive features of his face, sweeping down over his broad shoulders and strong form. Was he ever a sight for sore eyes. “Josie Ashwood. You’re not bothering me,” she added with a smile, her head lolling to the left as she glanced at him through the night. She had seen a couple of vampires in the open night air, but it never ceased to amaze her how obvious it was that night was their natural habitat.

“He only hurt my pride,” Josie told him, which was only a little bit true. She found it hard to be upset or even made at Rafe while being escorted by him, offering his coat and to carry her and all. If her ex could see her now then she was sure she’d be able to knock his eyes off their stalks with a big ol’ stick. “I’m done with him. We never were really that good for each other anyway.” As if to convince him, she let her smile widen just a touch around the edges. The next few steps were quiet, and she wondered whether she should make reference to the obvious . Making up her mind, Josie turned to him, stopping in her tracks for a minute to catch her breath.

“I’m not worried that you’re a vampire, you know,” she said. Perhaps it was a tad blunt, but she had never been the type to beat around the bush. “And it’s really nice of you to offer to walk with me. So thanks. Really,” she emphasized, a small smile still on her lips. It didn’t bother her in the least that he wasn’t smiling back. In her experience not everyone who smiled actually meant it, so she’d rather have someone not smile when they didn’t feel it in the first place.

“What’s your name?” she asked him then, hoping she hadn’t stepped over the line.

[chrisvirani]

There was a lot to be noticed about this woman who had revealed herself to be named Josie. Chris contemplated the name for a while, trying to decide if this was a normal name for this era or not. It occurred to him that at one time, it had been a fairly popular name, though now he was finding fewer and fewer of them and more Emilys, Ashleys, and Megans. This Josie was interesting in the fact that she was straight forward, but not to an extreme. Some humans, he had found, put on a façade that was definitely fake and overly and intentionally forward in a way that said ‘I may be human but I’m better than you.’ While Christopher maintained his humanity the best he could with his twin children, he also knew the strength he possessed and just how easy it would be to show certain humans just how not better than him they really were. Chris didn’t like to toot his own horn, so to speak, unless it was about his appearance, but he was sure that there were some humans who deserved to be put in their place, just as there were vampires and shifters who needed the same thing from time to time.

“Then why were you together, if I may ask…” Okay, so it didn’t sound like a question, but Chris had intended it that way. He saw no reason why two people should be together if they were not truly right for each other. It had been part of the reason he had followed his daughter when she was still human, because there had been something off about the person she thought she was suited for. “If you were never good together, why stick around?” There was still no smile on his face, but he was looking at Josie questioningly. His eyebrows had pulled together and along with the depth of his eyes, they were the only indication of his curiosity - the only parts of him that had shown the change in his emotion, or lack thereof.

His eyes, along with his face, had shifted forward again. “Then you seem to overlook the things that could be threatening to you. You’ve not asked where I’ve come from, how much I’ve overheard, or if I’m at all hungry.” To be honest, his fangs were extended but only slightly and not from that kind of hunger. A woman out alone at night would have been almost too much to resist for some vampires, but Christopher’s form of hunger was from finally being able to help a woman who seemed to be in need of it. “For all you know, I could have my own personal agenda for wanting to walk you home.” Of course he hadn’t, really, but it was strange to him that she had seemed to overlook these things.

Again, he looked at her, but not for long before he stared at the scene in front of them. “My name is Christopher Virani. Chris, if you’d like. It is a pleasure to meet you, Josie Ashwood.” Still, no smile, but his words were apparently sincere, which was true, but with his age and lack of emotion, he could have been just very good at lying. Most vampires were.

[Josie Ashwood]

Why had they been together? Josie supposed there was no easy answer to that question. She had fallen in with Rafe’s crowd, a group of drug users and small time crooks, straight out of highschool due to her wild nature. Consequently, she’d managed to just hook up with Rafe and that had been that. They had admittedly probably spent more time on the outs than actually together, but Josie could concede that it had never been a particularly healthy relationship. They each of them liked to make the other crazy with jealousy, and she couldn’t strictly blame Rafe. She had done her fair share of underhanded dealing as well.

“I have no idea,” she replied in an airy tone that really said she’d like to change the subject. Talking about her moronic ex wasn’t something that was high on Josie’s list of priorities as she strolled through the night with a gorgeous vamp! Her mind was diverted – although not strictly pleasantly – when said vampire made mention of just how dangerous he was. She hadn’t thought about it at all, really. But now that she did, Josie felt a little thrill of adrenaline flutter around her heart. He was right. Danger on legs. Yum.

She couldn’t help smiling at his comment about having an agenda. Really, if he were hungry or going to otherwise attack her she had reasoned that he would have done it before now, perhaps without even announcing his presence to her. She looked over at him, still smiling in a teasing kind of way. “Well,” she replied, pretending to be thinking about her answer before she gave it. “You could have. But I think I’ll take my chances, Chris. It’s not every night a vampire offers to carry a girl clear all the way to Shreveport to save her shoes, you know!”

[chrisvirani]

Sometimes, Christopher really did not understand humans, human women in particular. In the days before vampires became myths, people were afraid of them, kept their distance and protected themselves with stakes and garlic (though garlic was only irritating). Humans had a healthy fear of vampires and anything else that went bump in the night. Then they’d become myths and people forgot about them, making feeding easier, though messier because they had to hide who they were. Now, after being myths and coming back into the open, humans were all over the place. Some had a healthy fear still, others were arrogant and thought they were better than the undead (and for all Chris knew, they were), and some were just completely oblivious to the danger, sharing their company as if the vampire they were with were simply the guy next door who just happened to have a night job and slept during the day instead of the fact that the sun would burn them.

Where this Josie fit, Chris hadn’t decided. She seemed to thrive on the danger which he noticed when her heart seemed to kick up with what he assumed was adrenaline from fear, but here she was, walking at night with an unknown vampire. A thirsty one at that. Though he would never take a life by choice unless his own or the lives of his children was being threatened, he definitely had the power to. He could hide it easily. And the tempting pulse that Christopher’s eyes zeroed in on now was almost too much right now. Sure, Chris had had a TruBlood, but that stuff was horrible. It was much better to bite down into flesh and drink it fresh, without anything synthetic aside from whatever drugs might be in said human’s system.

“Then not every vampire must have been brought up right,” he said, directing his gaze forward again to avoid actually being able to see the blood run through the vein in Josie’s neck. He swallowed softly when his mouth began to water with thirst. Maybe he should have taken someone in the forest or at the bar after all. “Manners are hard to come by in this decade though, I’ve noticed.” One more glance at Josie had Christopher’s fangs gliding out to full extension. He turned his face forward again. “Sorry about that. Haven’t really eaten much tonight.” He mentally started making plans to feed as soon as he got home.

[Josie Ashwood]

Being, well, Josie meant that the girl hadn't noticed the surreptitious way that her new companion was eyeing her jugular. She simply walked along the shoulder of the road, her step every bit as confident in her killer heels as though she were in sneakers and her eyes bright in the waning light of the moon overhead. The idea that any vampire could have been brought up right would have been amusing to her before this chance meeting tonight. Chris seemed the very embodiment of vampire manners.

Still smiling, she looked up at him to comment on the apparent lack of good behaviour in her generation when she noticed that his fangs were out. Her eyes widened instantly, the sight definitely one for sore eyes. Sex and feeding were for the most part synonymous for vampires, and she enjoyed both for her part as well. Her mouth opened slightly in surprise but she soon pressed her lips together to avoid saying something stupid.

He hadn't eaten much tonight. Maybe he had approached her with an ulterior motive. I'll carry you to Shreveport if you let me drink a pint of your blood. She wondered if he could even make it to Shreveport, now. “Oh,” she replied, continuing to walk. A couple of moments of silence was all she needed to piece together her next comment, which was delivered in an unmistakably coy manner. “Go ahead,” she offered, pausing in her stride to look at the vampire. “You look like you could use something a little more robust.”

[chrisvirani]

It was said that all sorts of people lived in Louisiana and Christopher was becoming more and more aware of that every night. Outside of the bars, people, usually women, were more afraid of vampires than Josie seemed to be. Men were afraid, vampires could smell the fear, but they didn’t show it like women did. It had something to do with territory and testosterone, Chris had figured. Inside vampire bars was a different story. The bars gave humans a ‘safe’ place to chat with death, false security because all a vampire needed was a scent to track a human and an invitation in the house.

So when Josie stopped and offered her blood to him, Chris was pleasantly surprised. Not because he wanted nothing more than to sink his fangs into her (though that was an intriguing thought as well), but because it was just something he hadn’t expected. It took a confident woman to do something like that in the middle of the night, in the middle of an empty street. Chris actually smiled, sort of; the corners of his lips turned up but only to the point where he looked more mysterious there in the darkness than happy. It was nice to be surprised and refreshing that someone wasn’t afraid of him as so many humans were despite the fact that he may as well have been the poster child for proper public vampire behavior.

And since he was such a good vampire, that gave him reason to have a little fun now… right? Besides, he was thirsty, in more ways than one which wasn’t too uncommon, and she had offered. He took a second to look her over, not that looks really mattered to him anymore, not since his wife had died centuries ago. He couldn’t feel the same emotional attraction to women now, though humans did come close since sex and feeding usually went hand-in-hand.

He slowly closed the distance between them and bent down to smell her neck, taking in her scent and what still lingered from her rotten ex; maybe Chris would take care of that little issue for Josie later. His hand pulled her hair away from her neck and then trailed down her arm. He pressed his fangs to her skin but then paused and breathed a laugh. “Maybe later,” he whispered and pulled away, tucking her hair behind her ear and then began walking again. “If we get to Shreveport and you decide you’re still feeling generous.” Fangs still out, he glanced at the woman and gave her a more obvious smile. “Besides, I wouldn’t want you to feel obligated in any way.”

[Josie Ashwood]

He didn't move the way most vampires would, with little care for surprising the humans in their company. His actions were slow, deliberate, and somehow that made Josie feel even more in awe with him than she had before. He seemed to somehow have more power as a result of him being able to control his superhuman urges in this way, and she felt her breath hitch in her throat as she felt his cold breath on her neck. Her lips parted in surprise and lust, but it was horribly short-lived. When he pulled away from her Josie was unable to smother her frown, feeling a little played.

When he mentioned that they would rethink the issue when they got to Shreveport, Josie felt slightly mollified but still a bit put-out. Really! He'd just told her how damn hungry he was and she'd offered. Then again, he'd shown himself to be a gentlemanly type of guy. Maybe he was worried about giving her gravel-rash. With that thought to sustain and amuse her, Josie started walking again. She was pleased when he offered her the first real smile she had seen him wear, and she smiled back. her smile, however, was less teasing and more like the one worn by the cat who got the cream. Josie never teased when it came to these kind of things.

“Mmm,” she replied with a quick look at her escort. “I never feel obligated to do anything.”

They were about five miles out of town, now, and the walk was beginning to tell a little on her feet. She wouldn't admit to the failing, though. Josie was nothing else if not stubborn. Determined to make it to Shreveport on her own steam, she decided to keep the pace by making conversation. Although she didn't know how far she would get by laboring on those apprehensions. "So, where are you from, Chris?" she asked politely. That would do, for a start.