Dread

You mighta thought of the sea as teaming with wildlife - fish, sharks, whales and all that sorta thing - but it wasn’t like you ever got up close and personal with it, not unless you went over the side and if you did happen to tip in you typically had bigger issues, like drowning, to deal with. The shark might have ya after you drowned, but they weren’t ramming the ship like that one in those movies they tried to scare the pants off of everybody with a couple of decades ago. Nah, the biggest problem on board had been the rats. Vermin. They’d scurry through the midshipman’s cabin, biting at your fingers and toes if you weren’t quick enough to dispatch them. There’d been plenty of them down on the docks when he’d been small enough for one to practically drag him off, but he’d been in and out of the bawdy houses then, and the madams wouldn’t allow something like that to mess up their place.

Staring at Krista as he walked in, Mal saw one of those feral little shits in her. The hard eyes shining, that stillness that just dared you to reach out and just the minute you did they’d bite. Sharp little teeth clamped in your flesh as you hollered and swung them round a space that wasn’t big enough to swing the proverbial cat. He should’ve bloody known how vicious she could be after she’d had his date’s car towed. Oh, it seemed innocent enough on the surface, but it’d just been the first sign that she was cracked in a major way. Claws and teeth clinging on. Demanding, God forbid anybody who slipped a toe closer to him than she stood.

The professor was lucky Krista hadn’t gone straight to the source, so to speak. She’d have tried to take her eyes out with those claws. Nah. Scratch thought, he thought as he slowly returned the smirk she aimed at him, Krista would’ve been on her arse, writhing around as that electricity had her heart leaping like a toad on a hot plate in. Buzz, buzz, oh dear. If he’d told the prof the name of the sticky fingered little brat who’d nicked it in the first place it might still happen.

Mal huffed out a breath that only took a moment to twist into a low laugh. She was already trying to turn it around on him? Mock sniffing, Mal nodded, running a fingertip under her eye. ”Sucks when you’ve gotta work for a living and can’t pick up on the second ring every time someone needs to hear your voice.” A lie, of course, he’d pick up his phone, see the number and curse his choices in a very long life before he shoved it aside. There was only so much of her he could take most of the time, only so many hours he could spend listening to her fawning over him before he had to work out a way to quiet her for a bit - pleasurably, of course, for both of them.

Shame for Krista now, there wasn’t an ounce of pleasure she was gonna get. The prof had read him the riot act, crawling far enough up his arse about his irresponsibility, blame thrown like arrows, that shit had to roll down hill and Krista was laying at the bottom of it, almost welcoming the reaction she probably thought was going to burst out of him - leaving it all wide open for her to throw his every discretion back in his face.

The step further into the room was slow, the keys he tossed towards the dresser cracking the cheap imitation mahogany veneer. His lips pursed faintly, his eyes hardening in a way others had noticed far too late. ”Now, that sounds absolutely knackering to me. Especially when that housekeeping involves sticky little fingers, eh? Oh, and grabbing the wrong end of the stick. You must be exhausted … too exhausted for me to risk having a little nibble.” Temptation #703 since he’d figured who the hell the prof was jabbering on about - draining Krista and tossing her out like all the other problems they’d dealt with. The temptation boiled up, simmering, but refusing to reach the point of him actually bolting across the room and tearing into her throat before she could so much as squeak.

Jesus fucking Christ. Mal let out a growl of frustration, dragging his hands over his face as he glared at her over steepled fingertips. He never should’ve entertained the word, cutting it off the minute she’d started getting clingy. ”I’m the worst? I’d say you get the prize right now love,” he hissed low into his palms. The necklace that still hung around his neck, the one that hadn’t even been there when the camera had shown his chest - although that would’ve required Krista being able to see past her jealousy to notice. One hand came away from his face, his finger aimed at her like he could stop her from releasing that pent up fury at him. Leaping in his direction, clawing at his eyes, hopefully not targeted enough for her to smash something in the room to turn into a makeshift stake. There was no ooopsing her way out of that.

Verbally she wasn’t holding back any punches, the jab of the birthday comment twisting something in his chest hard enough that his other hand dropped to grope over his chest, like he was feeling for the butt of the stake sticking out. ”That says I’m not the only awful one here, love. Is that all you did it for? So I’d feel indebted to you for it. You think if i didn’t appreciate nothin’, I’d still have this on?” He fished in the front of his shirt, pulling the ridiculous pendant out of the V of his shirt where it luckily hung low enough that nobody else saw it.

”You know what’s awful? Gettin’ so jealous of some woman even takin’ a look at the bloke you’ve got your eye on that you’d fuck up her entire career without knowin’ the first thing about what went on there. Did you ever think to ask? Oh no, wait …” That’d mean Krista had a brain, one she could engage before she went straight from 0-60 on the crazy scale. Stalking forward, Mal grabbed those arms that were held rigid and shook her, his expression twisting. ”What’s wrong with you? Jesus, Krista.” And wouldn’t he get another mouthful for taking the Lord’s name in vain - probably the biggest of his crimes.

Tagged: KRISTA MAY * Word Count: 1151

The thought of Krista as a vampire was a fucking terrifying one, but in that moment Mal was tempted to turn her. Let her feel the way the hunger burned in your veins until you looked at everything with a heartbeat like a thirsty man in a desert looked at an oasis. You’d do anything for that drink. It took time to train yourself not to chase down every drop, even if it was everything you wanted. Krista as a human seemed to have the ability to latch on tighter than a Pitbull, as a vampire that girl would be draining everything she looked at, with an apology spilling from her stained lips the moment the husk hit the floor. No amount of praying was going to bring any of them back. If had a clue, she should’ve been fucking thanking him for not giving into those baser instincts. But no. Right now Krista had no gratitude for him.

Mal’s teeth gritted, that urge rolling up to bite her now in the first part of a multi stage punishment that still probably wouldn’t change a damn thing. He flashed them in a smile so tight it should’ve cracked like the dresser. ”That’s my curse, love, I’m always hungry.” Just as Krista’s was jealousy. Maybe if it had just been that with the professor Krista would’ve had less of a problem, although he suspected that little jab had more to do with Krista’s big gobbed roommate. ’Dump him, Krista, he’s a leech, he tried to chomp me too!’

Every little irritation had suddenly festered in Krista – he wasn’t about to believe that it had been there all along, usually a single word of affection would have him forgiving anything he’d done after all. Mal watched it spill out as she launched herself up from the bed, throwing his birthday celebrations back at him as though he’d asked her to go all out. He growled, hissed, sounding like one of the near rabid cats that had been brave enough to hunt those feral rats. ”No?” he asked, his brows hitching as he dropped the finger that had jabbed at her. The heat was rising in her face – maybe out of embarrassment, probably more out of this sudden volcanic explosion of temper. ”You gave me it, but somehow I wasn’t grateful enough? Am I gettin’ that right? I’m meant to fall on my knees and adore you for that gift.” There was that jab again, like someone had launched the pendant right through his ribs. He puffed out a breath, resisting the urge to rub his chest. His kind didn’t have heart attacks, or admit to have feelings that actually felt mean little jabs.

The temptation was there to wrap his fingers around the damn thing and crush it in his grip. He could’ve taken it off at any point since she’d given it to him and risked her wrath, but it still hung there, bumping against his chest as he dropped his hands and let the pendant swing. ”That’s your fuckin’ problem love. None of it’s ever enough for you. It’s always more, more, you need to give more, you need to take more. You don’t remember what happens when I actually do?” Obviously not, because nothing stuck in her head for very long. She hadn’t been the one watching a nearly dead body try and drop on top of them. The consequences never dawned on Krista, it was all about her feelings, not about what they could do to anybody else.

Think! Mal wanted to scream the word in her face, but she’d just cry at that too, crumpling in around those tears, because in the end someone would give in to them, right? The growl rushed up his throat, like Krista’s shrill voice but an octave lower. ”Yes,” he hissed, not that he’d have given much of a crap about her crawling into bed with someone else. Maybe he wouldn’t have done. That pang again. Had she honestly created her miracle and made him the first vampire who’d die from a heart attack? ”I wanted you think. This is like the panties all over again. You don’t stop, you just rush in, clinging onto the first thing that comes into your head.” She’d seen the video and had presumed he was strutting about sleeping with everybody who stumbled into his path. Cheating on her while she was decorating his room or sitting there getting some bloke to drain pints out of her to feed him.

The tears started again the minute he shook her, those big hazel eyes looking up at him like he was the monster here. Maybe he had been in encouraging this in the first place. He’d taken away her fear of him, so even now she wasn’t screaming the place down like she should’ve been. That was obviously his first mistake, but he’d piled them on endlessly since. Something of it might’ve remained, he could practically smell it was the tears rolled down her cheeks and there was an apology, right there on his tongue until she switched on him again. Jesus! And he couldn’t even fucking say it aloud, because if nothing else would, that would have her shrieking at the top of her voice. The motel owner tolerated a lot, but someone would eventually call the sheriff in.

Mal’s hands gripped her arms tighter as he pushed her back, the words stinging like a jellyfish – one of the bloody idiot midshipmen had thrown one around when they’d fetched up in Jamaica for stores and he’d got a lash of one of those tentacles – there were no welts swelling on his skin, but the nerves remembered. ”That’s your mistake love, you said it yourself, you can see why nobody bothered before.” There was something tight in his voice that he wanted to snap. Something definitely had in Krista now. She was hiccupping out those sobs again, the anger giving way to the tears. He was gonna have whiplash at the end of it all. ”Did she tell you I came lookin’ for you? You think I would’ve tried if you’d been there?” Obviously that would’ve had her melting, but Krista hadn’t been and there’d been a meal right there until it had turned on him.

Kitty. She’d obviously been filling Krista’s head with all of this. The little bitch. Mal shoved Krista back a step, throwing his hands up as he let out a road. ”What more do you want me to do for you? I saved your bloody life, I went around with this thing around my neck and you’re still pullin’ me up on everythin’ I do. Everythin’ I did before you. You think I’m gonna change overnight? That I’m gonna forget I slept with a woman before you? That’s what you didn’t see on that video. It was months before you came creepin’ into that bar. Have I gone chasin’ her or anybody that way since? No. ‘Cause I had you. That didn’t occur to you though, did it, Krista? It’s just Mal fucked up again. Maybe if you stopped listenin’ to that friend of yours you’d be able to think straight.” He sucked in a breath as he held a finger up at her again. ”You’re gonna call that school and admit what you did.” It’d likely get Krista kicked out of Whitmore, but at least that would mean no more sage advice from that little tattletale.

Tagged: KRISTA MAY * Word Count: 1246

Most blokes didn’t know how to handle the tears, didn’t want to handle them, and most women – not Krista, she didn’t have that sort of guile in her – knew it too. He’d seen the women in the bawdy houses turn them on like a tap when they didn’t like the customer they were with. Big open mouthed sobs shaking them, tears splashing down their cheeks. The moment the men pushed the money at them and ran away, it was all smiles again, pride shining in them. Krista’s tears wouldn’t melt away that way today, not even if he did fall to his bloody knees and apologise for having a past – which there was no way on earth he was doing. This was a game in a way, one that the professor had lost at when she hadn’t even known she was playing. That meant he’d throw the sodding board across the room if he had to, pieces flying until he could gather them back in.

Until he could decide whether or not all of this was more bother than it was worth. For now he had the luxury of being able to think it through and let that twinge in his chest fade before he decided whether this warranted wiping his entire existence out of Krista’s head (he’d have to send her out of town too, because apparently her piratical roommate couldn’t be trusted to keep her gob shut) or worse.

Jesus. She was still looking up at him like he’d cave at any minute, the doe eyes a compulsion on their own that would have him sinking to his knees and pressing his forehead to her stomach to murmur his apologies against her. Big, hazel and gleaming with those tears. No. Sleeping with someone before Krista had started rabidly chasing everyone else from his bed wasn’t a mistake. Her trying that in the first place was.

The news of that had released another cork, resulting in that spill of accusations from Krista. She frowned, her face squishing up in a way that might’ve been cute if it wasn’t for the rest of all of this. Indignation finally emerged in a squeak that had him cursing under his breath, his fingers squeezing in anticipation of the next wave of them. ”It’s just food. That’s never got through your head has it, because for you, all of this is tied up. No blood bags, no snacking between meals, it’s always gotta be you and everything outside of that is disloyal, even when you don’t have a bloody clue what’s happened with it.” Cause Krista was supposed to be his world, all his needs served by her like this was the 19th century again.

That little voice in his head tried asking if that was all that bad … but hey, just looked at what happened when you let yourself get in that mindset and started to need someone.

They whimpered when you pushed them away, turned on the hurt again, as though you’d slammed them down onto spikes instead of the perfectly soft bed they’d been perfectly happy curling up in it just a couple of days ago. Krista was balling up, shaking like he’d scared her – impossible since he’d pulled all that fear out of her when she’d come running back to him after that first time. Mal felt a tremble in his own chest as he sucked in a breath after that barrage of the truth she needed to hear. Only she was sodding deaf, wasn’t she. It didn’t matter that he was peppering her with the truth, only that the twisted up version of things was still in that half-empty head of hers.

The breath he drew in emerged on a groan, his finger pulled back to cover his face with both hands. Most things he erased from one life to another, but he hadn’t put Mystic Falls in the rear view mirror yet. Dark brows rose as they dropped. ”So you’ve seen me look at it, have ya? Somethin’ existin’ don’t mean it pops up in my head.” Truth was maybe he’d looked at it a time or two at the start, but now between Krista and both jobs, who’d have the time to and God, even thinking about someone else had him cringing inside with the anticipation of this. Mal had to bite back another of those groans, but his hands were already squeezing his temples, fingers tangling in his hair. ”Easier? Easier? You think this is easier than just tossin’ you aside and sleepin’ with the next one?” The laugh that rolled out of him was strained, like his patience. She had to be joking.

Like was a strong word, but it hadn’t been dislike or she’d have been compelled after that little game with the bar bunny’s car, patted on the arse and sent off to drive some other bloke nuts. He sniffed, leaving his hair standing up on end as he dragged his fingers away from it. ”You get to be it when you actually put some work into it and stop doin’ shit like this.” Shit that would get him dead if she wasn’t careful. How would she like that huh? Would Krista sob over his cold, grey body, or would that switch in her head flip as she went after her next obsession until that disappointed her too.

Mal’s lip curled as Kitty was brought up again. He shifted his weight, then stumbled back a step as Krista pushed him. He could’ve held her off for days, but he went with the movement as she went to squeeze past him. ”No, course she don’t, cause she’s too busy yappin’ in your ear, twistin’ you up. There’s a big difference between lyin’ and gettin’ you hatin’ me.” Getting the school to kick the professor out, because it wasn’t gonna be Krista packing up her bags. If it was she’d probably be begging him to fix it the same way she had the shop lifting charges. ”Apologise to you?” Mal scoffed, stepping close to her again. ”You’re gonna get her fired, but that’s fine, ain’t it Krista? Means you get me all to yourself again.” Which she would’ve done if she hadn’t gone pulling all of this shit. Now …

He huffed a sharp breath out through her nose as he dogged her footsteps to the door. All he’d learned was that somehow Krista had him suffering indigestion, that discomfort still there in his chest as he reached for the door. ”I’d say the same love. At some point you’re gonna wake up and realise what you’ve done and it’s gonna be too late for sorry.” Mal opened the door, swallowing like he could get rid of that feeling in his chest as he gestured her out. With the way Krista’s moods see-sawed, she’d be back in an hour all sniffling apologies. Fucking sap he was, he’d open the door, and teach her the lesson she wasn’t getting this time, even if it had her sobbing into his throat.

Tagged: KRISTA MAY (Should you stay or should you go now?) * Word Count: 1176