Manipulating Fate (Carousel Series #2)

Chapter 2: Los Angeles, CA | 1987

Ruby dozed on and off, fitfully, through the evening. She felt the moon rise, blaze down on the city, and begin to wane. David hadn't moved from his bike all night. Ruby felt his reluctance to talk about it. He'd told her everything, between his memories and voice, and what more could he do?

She also felt he was afraid to really get attached. On a level higher then they were already on.

"David?" Ruby still croaked but it was beginning to go away and return to what she remembered her voice sounding like.

"Hm?" He didn't get up, seemed to be tinkering on a valve. Ruby wanted to see herself; she hadn't seen the aftermath, nor looked in a mirror in nearly two weeks. But where was a mirror? "What Ruby?"

And then she was standing beside him, next to the bike. At first she thought nothing of it but then she realized. The shock kicked her knees out from under her.

"Whoa, baby." David grabbed her arms and steadied her. "You move a lot faster as a vampire then as a human. Can be pretty disorienting at first. Very much in your case, since you haven't been on your feet for quite a while."

"Dizzy." Ruby whimpered. David held her up.

"Just wait till you practice flying." He was trying to bring some humor in the grim situation. She felt that inside him. But she wasn't able to laugh. "Now, what were you needing?"

"I want to see me. Myself."

David pursed his lips and seemed to think. His thoughts were much more shielded, better hidden from her then her own from him. It miffed her, as she wanted to know. Wait. Why did she want to know? Ruby closed her eyes to make the room stop spinning like the carousel back home on the Boardwalk.

"I don't know if that's a good idea Ruby. As amazingly as it is, how well you've healed..."

"David." Ruby's voice was her own again, and the sound held a tone of no argument. David was impressed.

"You know I would almost think you stole that power to use against me. Here." He tipped the side mirror on his bike up. Ruby got to see herself for the first time in a fortnight.

She was the same, really. Same eyes, hair color, face. But she also saw how pale she'd become, much more then ever. Months of sleeping the day away in the cave had made her paler then a typical human living in California, but now she was dead white. It was becoming though, didn't seem unusual.

Her gaze traveled down, to her neck where the Blood vampire had attacked her. Thin, silvery lines were all that remained, traces of the brutality. They were cobweb fine filaments, blended into her skin like veins in marble. She would forever have them; bare the hard birth she'd made into becoming a vampire. And now there was also something behind her eyes; something inhuman.

"But this is only part of you now Ruby. It's like a mask you wear at Halloween." David's voice was only a whisper but it filled her ears. "Show yourself. See yourself." Ruby started to glance at him, then steeled her self. Ruby slid into her vampire self.

Her face wasn't as angular as the Boys' when they were vampires, but the heavy brow was prominent. Her cheeks became sharper and less round like she normally looked. Gone were her eyes, replaced with the yellow animalistic eyes the Boys all shared. It wasn't scary like it had been the first time the Boys had all shifted in the tree on the hill. It felt almost normal. She'd been around the Boys so long now.

"Ruby." David slid a finger against her lips, prodding. At first she didn't understand what he was doing, then realized he was trying to get her mouth open. Slowly she let her jaw fall and reveal her fangs. They were much like David's, just smaller as to fit her own anatomy. They glistened like deadly pearls against her pink lips.

"Would it be weird to say... they're pretty?" she touched her tongue tip to the point of the left and felt blood instantly well. They were razor sharp.

"No." David smiled. He had not shifted into his vampire form, but she could tell it was always just below the surface. "But now, you must see this. Don't be scared Ruby." He bit his own finger and held it, blowing on the blood droplets that formed on his finger pad.

The scent hit Ruby's nose instantaneously and everything heightened for a moment before dropping away and leaving only the invisible strings that pulled her towards the blood. She felt like she was going to drool, the hunger was a massive force inside her, shoving like wild horses running on the empty Plains. All she could see, feel, hear, think, smell was the blood.

"You're worse then I thought." David scowled, licking his finger and healing the wound before Ruby leapt on him. "But I can't take you hunting here."

"Why not!" Ruby's voice was louder then she intended, but it wasn't her fault. The beast inside was far more in control.

"Because your hunting ground must be based in Santa Cruz. Your first kill has to be in your territory, as to establish it as your territory. I'm not gonna screw that up. And no, no more questions about my past tonight." He turned and sought out a screwdriver, his back to her. Ruby had had only a fleeting thought about David's life before Santa Cruz, but he'd caught that?

It was harder to force the beast away, to go back to her self. But she overcame it, became the Ruby Marko had kissed goodbye and sent off to Los Angeles. Assuming she'd come back safe and sound to him.

She wavered a bit, a large yawn forming and forcing out between her lips. "Why am I so tired?"

"Sun's coming up." David had collected everything and straightened his work space. "You'll get better... you won't drop on your feet after a few years like you will now." Again he caught her and helped her towards the mattress.

"When can we go home David?" Ruby yawned again.

"Soon, I'd say. You're still making remarkable progress for being clinically dead two weeks ago." A wry smile passed his lips as he laid her down yet again. "Now sleep and I'll see you in the morning."

Ruby shivered, wishing she had the bed covers that made up the sleigh bed back in the cave. Wishing she had Marko, as cold as he'd been, snuggled in beside her. "David?"

The Lost Boy had started to sit in the dirt beside the mattress, his guard post for the past fortnight, but stopped. "No. I can't do that. Please, don't make me do that."

"I wouldn't David. I'm just cold." Ruby watched him. She hadn't really thought of actually asking David to lie on the mattress beside her, cuddle her like Marko, had she? David kept his gaze averted but shrugged off his trench coat and draped it over her once more.

"Goodnight Ruby." Instead of the dirt he slipped into the air and perched upside down from the exposed pipes for the night, like a human bat. He wasn't asleep right away, Ruby felt that much, but rather watched until she slid deep into unconsciousness before going there himself.