Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Eureka)

[Aaron Hunter]

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[Eureka]

Such a tempting question. Eureka wished the male were human. Show him her fangs? She’d show them right into his neck. It was a nice looking neck. She could imagine it all shiny with man sweat, salty with that natural human oil. The green of her eyes was sharp as she stared, wanting the vein beneath to be pumping steady and fast; wanting that blood to be hot and satisfying.

The way he asked, it was as if he didn’t believe her. The way he asked, as if he wasn’t one too. Eureka snorted; he’d sauntered closer and she closed the gap. She dropped what she was doing and stood close enough for their breath to mingle, if they needed to breath. She narrowed her eyes, before her upper lip curled back. There, plain as day, were the fangs that never retracted, as the fangs of her kin did. Sharp, and real. The gaps in between were red with fresh blood. The thick cruor had a tendency to stick.

”Yes, I am a vampire. You are, too. And if you don’t know it yet, it’s something you’d better learn. If you want to laugh at me, you can go right ahead. I’ll be the one laughing when you fall apart,” she said with a leery grin. And then she shrugged her shoulders, turning away from the male and back to her tent. Without realising it, she’d halfway got it made. She beamed at her progress, and continued where she had left off.

”And what makes you think I want to freshen up? I like my tent. What’s it with everyone wanting me to freshen up? I’ll go play in the fuckin’ rain if I need to freshen up. A nice long swim in the lake out there,” she said, gesturing to the city and somewhere to the north, where she knew the lake to be. Probably in the complete wrong direction, but she knew how to get there. Her nose followed the scent of the damp, of the fresh water. She’ll be sad when Winter comes around again. She didn’t like Winter on the roof.

But it wasn’t winter yet. And she had a tent, for when it rained. And everything would be just dandy. Maybe she’d find some super glue, somewhere – glue this guy’s window shut so he didn’t come up and disturb her when the sun went down.

Of course she never put her back to him. She kept her eyes glued to his physique, narrowed. Slightly curious, but curious in a distractible way. Maybe she wouldn’t glue his window shut. Maybe he could be fun to play with.

[Aaron Hunter]

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[Eureka]

Upon turning, a switch was flicked within the redhead. The vampiric blood entered her system at the exact right—or wrong—time. Her entire life had been lived beneath a thumb; the thumb of her parents, dull and expectant. Lazy assholes who took advantage of the fact that they had offspring that could take care of them. One single offspring who hates them, but felt like she had no means to actually get away from them. Of course she did. Of course she could have just moved out, could have crashed on a friend’s couch. Something. Except that she never really had any friends. People tended to avoid the girl who came to school wearing second-hand clothes, tattered and moth-eaten, and clean only if she herself cleaned them. The girl who got so skinny because she rarely had any food to eat. Because her parents often forgot to buy food for her lunch. She only filled out a bit when she got the job at the grocery store – when she earned meagre amounts that she could use to feed herself—though of course, then, she was expected to feed them, too.

All the silent rage had gathered at her core until she’d finally snapped. That customer at the grocery store had been in the wrong place at the wrong time, and he had sassed the wrong girl. She had snapped. All the violence and hatred bubbled to the surface, and once it was out, Eureka was free. Something broke in her tiny mind and that was the point at which Chad chose to turn her. A wild, feisty, carefree girl whose hatred of the people who populated this Earth knew no bounds.

As a human, she’d been deprived of human touch. She had been a mistake that her parents didn’t want. A pet on their doorstep that they begrudgingly sheltered. She had got no love from them. No cuddles, no embraces, no soothing coos when she cried. She’d been forced to be tough, like a child living in the wild. Now she was appreciative of the skills she had gained. She did not need to depend on anyone else. She did not want to depend on anyone else. It wasn’t something she’d cry on anyone’s shoulder about. Why would someone cry about something when they had nothing better to compare it to?

All physical touch that Eureka indulged in these days was instinctual. The way she liked to rub herself up against a person if she liked them, if only to claim them as her own. But, like a wild cat, if that person then tried to touch her, she’d lash out. She would go to them of her own accord. She would instigate. If they tried, it would be to their detriment. Not if she didn’t want them to.

She could safely say, however, that no man had ever touched her like Aaron was touching her now. The tips of his fingers tentative, gentle. Her body tensed, eyes wide as she lost focus on whatever it was she was doing. This close, she could properly see the colour of eyes – a caramel brown. There was a depth to them that was rare in others. A swirling mass of unknown emotions. He was quiet, and still.

Eureka’s initial urge was to gouge those pretty eyes out. But something stopped her. Something she couldn’t identify. A yearning she didn’t know existed. An instinctual need that had never been sated. But here there was an opportunity. Instead of pulling away, Eureka leaned into the touch, nudging her cheek into Aaron’s palm.

”Eureka,” she said. Her body was still tense. But she at least had refrained from lashing out.

”My name,” she clarified. ”Is Eureka.”

[Aaron Hunter]

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[Eureka]

Eureka had no idea what the man was thinking as they sat there for a few long moments, looking at each other. He seemed lost, somehow. Eureka couldn’t remember anyone ever looking at her like this. Never, as if she were something beautiful, something to be cherished. There were moments with Niklaus. Moments he’d tried to touch her in ways she didn’t agree with. But he hadn’t looked at her as if she were something precious. He had looked her like meat. Like entertainment. Like one animal might look at another when following his own mating instinct.

Eureka remained tense, but relaxed. Relaxed, like a cat coaxed into affection but ready to flee at any second. She was fascinated by Aaron’s fascination. She was caught in the heady stare, the softness of his brown eyes. They weren’t just brown. They were caramel. Hot caramel. The kind of caramel that wasn’t too sweet. The kind that melted on one’s tongue. Her eyes drifted over his features, touching upon his lips as his thumb grazed hers. His skin was sallow and pale, but that was to be expected. Malnourished, even, and suddenly she wanted to take his hand. She wanted to take him down, find some human in some apartment nearby and show him how to drain them dry. She wanted to see his skin brighten. She wanted to see him at his full potential.

The suggestion was there, on the tip of her tongue.

But then Aaron pulled away. Suddenly. Violently. As he stumbled backward, so too did Eureka. Her hand reached for something, anything, to use as a weapon. She remained balanced, on her all fours. When Aaron next spoke, it almost accusatory. Where Eureka’s features had softened for a few moments before, now they were hard again. Hard and confused.

”How the **** am I supposed to know?!” she said, almost with a hiss.

”How am I supposed to know what happened to you?” she said. The former thought had not left her mind. She knew what Aaron was, and Aaron was in the dark. Without any further hesitation she headed for the skylight that Aaron had come from. She dropped down into the apartment and she stalked toward the door. With her hand on the handle, she waited for Aaron to follow. She waited until she saw the slightest sign of him before she disappeared out into the hallway, nostrils flaring. Searching for the nearest living bag of hot blood.

[Aaron Hunter]

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[Eureka]

Almost as if on cue, the elevator heralded the arrival of company. Eureka had heard Aaron following; calling out to her, asking where she was going. Ludicrous questions, in her opinion. Why not just be patient, and wait and see? Follow, and he could be rewarded. The reward was in that elevator, and Eureka bounced on the balls of her feet as she waited for the doors to open.

Aaron followed her out into the hallway and she flashed him a triumphant grin. They wouldn’t have to break into anyone else’s apartment. Their dinner was coming to them, delivered straight to their door. When the door opened, the woman on the other side was taken aback by the wild woman waiting to greet her, with her manic eyes and sharpened canines. Probably accustomed to such insanity in this city, the woman mumbled something that Eureka couldn’t understand – was it an apology? Maybe just a quiet ‘excuse me’ as she tried to shuffle past Eureka.

She made it out of the elevator door before Eureka had her shoved up against the hallway wall. She did not hesitate. She did not warn or ask questions – not of the woman, or of the male who followed her. She had noticed that he was hobbling, that he looked almost panicked by her sudden escape. Did he think she was running away from him? Entirely possible. But he was a vampire and did not know it, and she was almost gleeful to think that she could show him. That, by her hand, he would get his first taste of blood.

The woman struggled in Eureka’s gasp, curse words falling from her lips. It wasn’t until Eureka’s canines ripped into her throat that she tried to scream, but Eureka roughly covered her mouth to muffle the sounds. Her heels thudded against the hollowness of the wall, her eyes wide and full of fear and panic. Eureka’s favourite. Adrenaline was like a hot spice, infusing the blood with a taste that could not be rivalled.

Rather than feast on the woman herself, however, she let the small tear in the skin flap open. Hot, bright red blood bubbled from the wound even as it smeared Eureka’s lips. She had already fed – the campers out in the wilderness. She was not hungry, even if the blood was enticing. No, this was for Aaron.

”Quickly,” she gasped, like an eager fisherman who needed help with her large, juicy catch.

”It’s going to be wasted,” she said, feeling the hot blood spill over her arm, as she had it pushed against the woman’s chest to hold her tight against the wall. She watched Aaron with avid expectation. Surely, this was a meal that he would not be able to resist.

[Aaron Hunter]

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[Eureka]

Adrenaline kicked through Eureka’s system. Not only her own, but borrowed adrenaline given to her by the terrified human. She had consumed it, and was resisting the urge to consume the rest. It wasn’t usual for Eureka to care for others; she was not a mother hen who took in strays. Strays, as far as she was concerned, could learn to take care of themselves. There was something about Aaron, however, that she couldn’t put her finger upon. Something about the way he looked at her; the way he touched her, back on the rooftop.

If there was one thing that Eureka trusted above all else, it was her instinct. Instinct told her to do what she could for Aaron. Reason came into it, too. The guy lived in the apartment below her drop-off point. The rooftop she landed upon every single night. Below it, a man who could either provide her comfort and a certain amount of security in regards to the knowledge he now had, or he could cause her a lot of trouble and discomfort. Whatever else he was to her she didn’t think about. Not with his tongue against her skin. Not when she wanted him so badly to rip into this woman’s neck.

But he was a voice of reason. Of course, he was not an animal. Less so than Eureka was. She saw no problem with eating a person in a hallway, but her instinct, again, kicked in. Hadn’t she had this thought before? The instinct was for survival, and she’d had hunters on her trail before. If any of them ever discovered this place, and the roof she landed on every night without fail, then she’d be done for. They’d be on her like a rash. And she didn’t fancy finding out what it was like to die.

There was also a selfish urge that fuelled her next movements. The way Aaron panted, the way he had almost nearly given in to his animalistic instincts. It was something she wanted to watch, and she didn’t want them to be interrupted. She wanted to drag this woman’s bleeding body back into their apartment (yes, she thought of it as half hers already, due to the fact that she semi lived on the roof) and watch him feast.

”Fine, fine,” she said, exasperated. She wasn’t in any hurry, but she manoeuvred the woman’s laxing body so that she could toss it up and over her shoulders. So that she could carry it back to the apartment. The blood, thankfully, did not drip onto the floor and give away their trail – she nudged the door open and carried the body over to the dining table. She was none too gentle as she tossed the woman down onto the wood. To Eureka, the woman was not a human. She was not someone to be merciful toward. She was just a blood bag. Flesh and bones. Food.

”There. We aren’t in the public, now. Now you can take her blood at your own leisure,” she said with a minx-like grin, gesturing to the body on the table as if it were the most inviting buffet in the world. The body. Not Eureka herself. Not her arm. Not unless this man wanted to turn into a Necurat.