Chapter 10: Blood Doll
Author Note: Yo! It's Hamtaro! Just wanted to tell you that there'll be a little vote at the bottom of the chapter, and that we will soon grow out of this 'foundation' phase with little DC characters and plot lines.
Enjoy the chapter!
----------------
Vampire Rule N°9: A blood doll is a human who freely lets a vampire drink from them, blood dolls seek a perverse thrill from the vampire's Kiss or might entertain an emotional connections. Do not waste such a valuable resource.
. . . . . . . . . . .
"Thanks for dropping me off, Bubs," John leaned against the pick-up window, and gave some parting word to the nervous wreck inside, "We'll have to continue our discussion later, there is still much we have to work through, so stay out of trouble."
"No promises," Bubbles joked, but there was hiding the worry in his eyes, "Good luck with your lady friend."
"Won't need it."
Just like that, he was gone with the rumble of the motor and the manly smell of engine fumes, leaving John Harker alone in Grand Avenue, a couple streets down from Pauli's Diner and his 'girl trouble' as some would put it.
It all seemed to futile, when he knew the kind of issues he'll eventually run into in this messed up world, or just the demands of the vampire system that played on his greed and lusts for power to make him undertake greater and greater tasks.
[Task: Recruit Retainer]
[Task: Expand your Domain]
[Task: Drink the Blood of a Metahuman.]
All of them so much more complicated than dealing with a civilian girl's doubts and insecurities, more subtle than the manipulations needed to absolve someone of their guilty conscience.
However, he was the one who choose to make her his blood doll, bulldozing his way into her life, so it was his duty to make it as smooth and pleasant as it could ever be.
He walked leisurely, appreciating the city in a less depressing setting than the misery of the East End with it's desperate fiends, ten dollar hookers and children playing gangster with real guns and real dope.
There he found her standing below the flickering neon lights of Pauli's Diner, for the first with casual clothes instead of the horrible but somewhat kinky yellow waitress uniform.
He liked her better like this; wearing blue jeans and a red flannel shirt under a vintage leather jacket but somehow along with tasteless, cheap jewellery but somehow making it work in her favour.
He'd like her even without the cigarette in her lips though.
It might have a certain aesthetic, an attractive restless woman leaning against the wall, trying to conceal her doubts and worries and bracing herself for a painful talk.
But that wasn't what he wanted for her.
'A happy life,' John thought, putting words on what he did want for her, 'I owe her that much.'
She eventually saw him, but by that time it was already too late, the vampire was upon her.
There was nothing a frail human woman like her could do to stop him, nothing to save her from the public embarrassment of being picked up and twirled like a little girl.
She yelped, her cigarette falling down in the process, after which he merciless crushed the poison and that horrible fire that made him feel weak and vulnerable and all sorts of things a creature of the night should never be.
"People are looking!" Max hissed to no avail.
"Let them look," He answered calmly.
Lucky for her, he was no Dumbledore.
He put her down to appease her half-hearted protests and pleas, she already learned that punches and threats would only make him double down, but he still didn't allow her to leave his arms.
"Hi there." He whispered, his chin resting on the crown of her hair, knowing full-well how much she enjoyed being pampered like this, though she'll never admit it.
"Hi," She answered in a subdued voice, conflicted between the desire to just give in and let him hold her some more, enjoy his protection from the harsh world out there, or doing the reasonable thing.
Reason won in the end, and she stepped out of the embrace before he could decide to slide his fangs into her neck and turn her serious talk into a much more enjoyable one.
She stayed there in silence, her plans and rehearsed speech and all the arguments she played in her hands crumbling now he stood in front of her.
"You alright?" He asked, cupping her cheek as if she was made of glass, and she know that to him it might as well be the case.
John Harker was strong, that was a fact Max understood intimately.
Maybe that was why he never showed any concern about his person, any fear, she saw no chink in his armour in all the night they spent together talking and laughing and doing things that would make her mother puke and wonder what she did wrong to raise such a corny mess of a daughter.
Her boyfriend on her other hand, was all chink and no armour.
That might be one she agreed to go out with him, he was such a nice guy.
That's what made it all worse.
She spent the last week being held and caressed and cajoled by another man, she went on dates and shared secrets and fears and hopes that no one else knew, not Earl and not the new rich girl gone broke and certainly not the guy who was supposed to know all this.
Things that left her mouth before she could even notice.
And if the man in front of her had wanted to, she knew she'd go even further.
That was bad.
"No," she answered truthfully, John deserved the truth, "I'm not, I...I told you I had a boyfriend, but we did—we did what we did, and it's not right."
He stayed silent, lips thin, looking at her with those bright blue eyes of his.
Those eyes that told her he planned many great things, endured things she couldn't even imagine, that promised her that he could handle all her problems if she just let everything go and become his.
"We need to stop?" She wanted to affirm it, but it came out more like a question, a whimper.
"No, we don't." John said with a smile, perfectly relaxed, wiping off tears on her face that she didn't even notice, his grin widening when she couldn't help but lean into his touch.
"I'm really sorry sweetheart, I would have taken care of our little problem earlier if I knew it would bother you so much," He lied through his teeth, acting earlier would be rushed and might've not ended in his favour.
Their relationship had to grow beyond a simple emotional affair, she needed to feel the guilt of betraying not only her soon to be ex-boyfriend but also her principles.
The principles she held dearest, the ones built on spite and disgust at her mother's foolish actions, that she wouldn't betray her partner and hurt them like the many man Mrs Black had played and hurt.
She had to compromise everything to be with John, and she had to do so willingly, to consider all her options and decide that he was worth more than anything else she might possess.
Only then would he swoop in and absolve of her crimes, by showing her that this 'boyfriend' of hers was so much worse, a disgusting and wretched thing.
So that she might push all the blame on him, and be freed from the emotional burden.
Everyone wins at the end, except that poor sod.
It might be callous, but what did you expect from someone who drinks blood to survive? At least he had the decency to properly seduce and then take care of his blood dolls instead just taking what he wanted, bleeding them dry then throwing them away when they inevitably broke.
"Why don't you call him? We'll do things properly this time," John closed the distance and leaned down to kiss her temple, "I don't want to lose what we have."
Yes, he will make sure to give her long, happy life.
----------------------------
Yo! It's Hamtaro!
Got a new chapter for you guys, so where are me stones?
The Max Arc is advancing, and we got less drugs and more vampire stuff. Soon, we'll be done setting up the stage and we'll be able to start going full DC, the whole point of the fanfic.
Leave a comment, drop a couple stones if you can and give me all the criticism and suggestions you've got!
Now I need your opinion on something, one of our cute little readers made a bloody interesting suggestions:
Should we let our Johnny Boy make Ghouls? Ghouls are minions who drink the blood of a vampire, giving them superior physical capabilities, regermination and agelessness as long as they get their fix regularly. They are loyal to the vamp in question, being bound by his blood.
Yes:
No:
Pancakes:
Now you go have a nice day.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone