A Savage's Light

A/N: I admit it, the name \'Tuomos\' is based off of \'Tuomas\'. Y\'know, from Nightwish. I actually hinted at it...remember Tuomos was wearing a Nightwish shirt when Victoria first saw him? (He kind of stinks at fitting in with the normal people...) Exactly. And they both have long hair, but Tuomos\' is longer. That\'s where the similarities end, though.

A lot of stuff might seem pointless in this chapter, and probably the next few, but I need to develop the relationship between Victoria and Tuomos. And, no, it\'s not going to be a romantic one. If I decide to throw any romance for Vic in, it\'ll be someone around her own age.

~

See Introduction for Warnings and Disclaimer.

A Savage\'s Light

Written by Ficcy

Chapter 4: Fooling the Preps

But speaking of killing, that\'s what my head was doing to me right about now. Why had I drank so much? It was my own fault for doing it to myself...but why had I done it? Everyone says that people my age, even girls, will do things like that. But seeing that many would smoke or do drugs, I\'m kind of glad all I did was drink too much...

Now I was in one hell of a bad mood, and I was ready to kick anyone\'s sorry arse, even if no one did something wrong to me. And there was only one other living being here, besides my useless gerbil who spends a lot of time sleeping and self-mutilating. Or at least that\'s what it always looks like he\'s doing. It\'s okay, though. My whole life, I had always wanted a depressed rodent.

Anyway, that one living being was Tuomos. And I was ready to give him hell for no good reason.

\"What are you doing here, anyway?\" I snapped, \"Shouldn\'t you have left hours ago?\"

\"And do what?\" he asked, \"Leave you to kill yourself or something? Or crash into the walls? Or throw up? The list goes on.\"

\"I\'m nineteen years old! I\'m not a kid anymore! I can take care of myself!\" I said angrily.

\"And I\'m one hundred two years old. Who\'s the smarter one now? If either of us has seen more of life and hangovers, it\'s me. So back off. I don\'t have to stay here to help you, so don\'t take me for granted.\"

One hundred two? Well, at least I had discovered a new vampire fact - they don\'t die of old age. Either that, or they just live longer than normal humans due to slower aging. Either way, they definitely age slow. Tuomos looked about thirty-two...but he was really over the hill. Or, at least, that\'s what my grandmother would say if she was alive.

\"Whatever,\" I said, and, despite how sick I felt, walked away.

A few minutes later, I was laying out on one of my pool rafts lazily. This time, I was wearing an actual swimsuit. The least revealing one I own, in fact. Looking back on yesterday\'s close call, I knew better than to skinny-dip. Especially now that Tuomos refused to leave, saying that I hadn\'t finished my training as a half-vampire.

\"Are you going to slouch around all day or get ready to practice hunting?\" I heard him say.

\"What the hell? I\'m sick!\" I said loudly and angrily. One of the neighbors peeked over the wooden fence, curious about the sudden loud noise in our normally peaceful neighborhood.

\"Well,\" Tuomos smirked, \"If I remember right, you said that you could take care of yourself, and that you\'re not a child anymore. So you shouldn\'t let illness hold you down, and this time, you\'re going by yourself.\"

I muttered just about every vulgar insult I knew under my breath.

I had decided to head for a more remote forest, on the college campus. There were trails in the woods, but people rarely walked them. I would be able to go unnoticed there, at least for an hour or two.

But, unfortunately, that means I had to walk on the campus. I must have been cursed with bad luck, because the group of popular girls - Samra, Jackie, Michelle, and Christina - were sitting on the grass, gossiping and dissing the uncool girls. There was no alternate route - I would have to walk by them.

\"Hey, Victoria!\" Samra, who was their leader in a way, called out, \"What are you doing here? No, wait...why aren\'t you in college this year? You used to talk about how you planned to go to this one.\"

I had to think of an excuse. And fast. \"Er...\" I said, \"I\'m married.\"

Samra\'s eyes widened in shock. \"You?\" she snorted, \"Married? As if! First of all, no one would marry you. You\'re a dork. And hardly anyone is married at your age. And think about it, no one except for people with awesome luck get to marry their high school boyfriend. And you never even had a boyfriend. And you can\'t fall in absolutely true love with someone and then marry them in barely a year...\"

And she went on and on, for at least forty minutes, describing the reasons why I couldn\'t be married. The other three girls agreed with every last word she said, but never gave any background proof of why they agreed with her. I guess that\'s how preppy cliques are.

So much for my excuse. Now I was stuck...I was in their clutches, and they weren\'t about to let me go. And just when I started to panic, realizing that there was nothing I could do now...

...Tuomos arrived. \"Hey,\" he said to me, not angrily or accusingly, but in a more doting-fatherly way, \"You should\'ve been back ages ago. Are these four giving you trouble? There\'s some alleyways around here, I can kick their asses for you...\"

I could read the looks on their faces like books - they were clearly thinking: She IS married! To a hippie! A violent hippie!

I silently vowed to myself that if I ever did marry anyone, I would elope. If word got out, there would be trouble for me, since these three already thought I was married. But at least I had been saved conveniently from their stupid doubt.

\"Yeah,\" I said after hesitating, \"They\'ve been bothering me a bit. But it\'s nothing to worry about.\"

And we walked away, leaving the preps dumbfounded.

To be continued