American Vampire: Death Race (2 of 4)

[espanolbot]

Previous part,
http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/4746220.html#cutid1

The death race between Travis Kidd and the vampire who kidnapped his sort-of girlfriend Piper run out of road and fly off a cliff.





..."That were are no such things as monsters."

Travis and the vampire continue to charge down the road, and Travis flashes back to earlier that evening. He was in a motel practicing martial arts to rock music (as you do), when he heard a thump come from the room next door. He went to check it out, only for the person inside to try shooting him through the door itself.

Luckily ducking out of the way just in time, he kicks open the door to find someone diving out the window opposite while wearing a cape. He tackles her into the swimming pool, demanding to know who sent her... only for it to turn out to be Piper again. She apologises for shooting at him, saying that she thought that the vampires had found her again.

Travis tells her to go, as he nearly ended up shooting her by mistake, but she says that she doesn't have anywhere else to go. The Francises, her vampire foster family, had bought her six years ago to act as their caretaker, bringing them boys to eat night after night. She doesn't know where to go or what to do... but she does know that the vampires occasionally talked about him.

They didn't know who he was, per se, but rumours were starting to circulate and for the first time, they were starting to get scared. She reasons that if they're so scared of him, the most sensible place she could be is with him as he'd be able to keep her safe. Travis admits that they have every right to be scared of him, considering the number of vampires he'd killed over the years, the advantage he has though is that he's not scared of them as he's got nothing else to loose.

Hence she CAN'T stay with him, as it would give them some leverage to hold over him. He isn't scared to die, but he doesn't want to risk putting people at risk either...

Back in the present, Travis has chucked a molotov cocktail at the vampire's car, and wedging the gas pedal down, he's able to catch Piper as she manages to jump from the trunk to the relative safety of Travis' vehicle.

Comments

[tugrul]

Skinner Sweet? *gasp!* I thought he was one of the good guys. ;_;

[md84]

The problem with text is that it's impossible to tell if something is sarcastic.

That is sarcasm right?

[tugrul]

I gasped because I was actually surprised. :p I didn't know Skinner Sweet was bad from previous stories here. Or do I remember it wrong?

[md84]

He's the closest thing the series has to a main character, and he's also a pretty unrepentant psychopath.

[tugrul]

She better find that gun soon then.

[espanolbot]

The thing with vampires in the AmVamp 'verse is that (besides the Carpathians, who appear to loose all the good qualities that they might have had as humans, leaving them motivated by greed and a desire for power), they mostly stay the same as they were when they were alive for the most part. Pearl, for example, didn't go evil in the forty plus years she was with her human husband, while Calvin, an African American member of the Vassals who was accidentally infected during WW2, just continued hunting vampires as normal.

Skinner, meanwhile, was a psychopathic bandit, thief and murderer when he was alive, and becoming an immortal superbeing only made him worse. Really his one saving grace is his soft spot for Pearl, but even then it's kind of up in the air whether it's out of genuine good feeling, obsessive stalking, or he just likes having her around to keep him amused.

[md84]

'The thing with vampires in the AmVamp 'verse is that (besides the Carpathians, who appear to loose all the good qualities that they might have had as humans, leaving them motivated by greed and a desire for power), they mostly stay the same as they were when they were alive for the most part.'

There is one strain of vampirism that destroys any trace of humanity in its victim and reduces him/her to a feral monster. That seems to be the only one that does so.

It is true that the American vampires' personalities don't change much after becoming a vampire, though being forced to live with a thirst for blood can't be too good for one's psyche.

[zechs80]

Yeah, he was a monster before he was a vampire and was even more one after he became one. Espanolbot have you posted Skinner's origin on SD yet? The thing about Skinner is he's the most trollish vampire there is.

[espanolbot]

Not yet, though I think that I'll post it next as it leads more or less directly into the Cash storyline in the 1920s.

[md84]

The weirdest thing about Skinner is that he still has a sweet tooth even after becoming a vampire.