Santa Carla Chronicles 2

Double Down (Be Kind, Please Rewind)

[A/N: This story was written as an assignment for the 2005 Remix/Redux3 fanfic exchange, for Carla, based on the first story in her Protector Series, "Second Chances".  I chose to remix the story and write it from David's POV.  The character of Anna belongs to Carla and was used with her permission for this remixed version. You can find the original version of "Second Chances" at http://www.lostcave.net/fanfic/viewstory.php?sid=156 and be sure to check out the rest of the Protector Series!]
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***

I blinked and my life flashed before my eyes. It was rather truncated, skipping the years before I was a vampire and focusing specifically on the last year... more even the last months really. I kept waiting for the world to refocus, but I only saw the skipping images before me: when we'd met Star, taken her and Laddie in, initiated them into the Lost Boys.

Then there were images I did not know: A dark haired boy, bringing him to the Cave, initiation; a dark night on the railroad trestle. Then a strange house. A young blonde boy... no! Three young boys: two blonds and one dark. Blinding swirls of the lights from the Boardwalk.

My head ached but the images came faster. There was a hunt. The Surf Nazis ripped to shreds and burned on a bonfire by our hands. I felt my own mouth move giving an ultimatum to the dark haired boy Star seemed to like. Immense pain washed through each cell of my body as the young blond staked Marko. Our betrayal. Our pain. Our anger. I was shaking with the overwhelming emotion. My right hand burned, caught in the sun! NO! Not the sun! Then healing darkness. Revenge!

Blurry shapes, the dark haired boy again: punching me, throwing me around a room I'd never been in before. No! Not the sharp horns! NO! Not death!

Just as suddenly my eyes reopened and I was still sitting on my bike, exhaling smoke from my nostrils. I wasn't shaking, I wasn't angry, and I wasn't in pain. Odd. I had ceased to dream years and years before. The images dissolved from my minds' eye like shredded tissue, finally and utterly disappearing forever.

***

Star was late. She was supposed to meet us ten minutes ago. Where the hell was she? The boys were restless; we'd yet to feed that night. Paul was getting overly obnoxious when I picked up her scent.

"Let's go boys." I called. Down the back street to the alley. Our engines roared through the night lit by miles of neon. Entering the alley I gave a cursory glance. It was Star but she wasn't alone. A good-looking blonde girl was with her. I gave a nod and our customary fun began. The boys and I bore down on the two girls, blinding them with the headlights on our bikes. Working as one, we all swerved at the last second, cutting around the girls in a semi-circle, trapping them. I heard them scream, their voices piercing above the engines. The blonde dropped into a fighting stance. A tough girl huh?

We cut the engines as one and the roar died quickly in the alley. The blonde stayed in her stance, looking like she'd take us all on at once. I smirked inside, letting it carry over onto my lips for a second. Then it all just amused me.