A Million Miles Away *Daniel*

[dan]

"You wouldn't even know it's a name, it's native to my planet, much like Estelle is to Earth.

"Fine," he said good naturedly, moving out to stand at the edge of the hill and over look the city. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

For a moment, Danny thought he saw a flash of purple skin not too far away, but he forced himself to ignore it. The idea had been to come out here to relax, not spot game. There would be no hunting tonight. Besides, he had more than likely imagined it.

"So what's an alien princess doing on earth then?" he asked, looking back at her over his shoulder. "Shouldn't you be in a crystal palace surrounded by guards or something?"

[rayne5]

Vayila shifted a little, rubbing her shoulder through the warm jacket. No, at the moment she didn't feel like telling him her real name, she wanted to know him better first. When he made the comment about the crystal castle she laughed a little. "Because I'm not ready to be queen." She simply replied. That was true, she knew the moment she set course for home, she would be given the title Queen of Yaeevin. Vayila wasn't ready for that just yet. She felt that she was still young, and wanted to explore the universe.

She plucked at the grass and looked up at him, wondering if he would sit down, or just stand for the rest of the night. "Why are you so interested in me?" She questioned, feeling that small hint of authority.

[dan]

"Because I'm not ready to be queen."

Danny raised an eyebrow. Queen. Well of course, the term 'princess' sort of implied that she was heir to the throne. But Queen... of whole planet... that sounded like a lot of responsibility. No wonder she was here.

He ran a hand through his hair, quickly scanning the surrounding area to make sure he actually had imagined the vampaneze before turning his back on the sky line. He watched Estelle for a long moment, wondering what it must be like to be her, a young woman - he assumed - avoiding the inevitable.

"Why are you so interested in me?"

Danny shrugged. "You're beautiful. You're an alien. And you won't tell me your real name. What's not to like?"

[rayne5]

She touched her cheek, flattered. That was a mouthful, beautiful, an alien, but she couldn't deny that she enjoyed hearing it. Vayila wondered what was so different about the man, why he thought she was pretty, even with her yellowish, pale, shimmering skin covered in spots, and milky eyes. According to Earth beings, that was not beautiful, that was a deformity. She looked to the side, away from him. "If my skin could show other colors, my cheeks would be very pink." The Earth beings seemed to have a word for that. "Blushing, I think is the word?" She added, looking up through her lashes and smiling slightly.

There was no denying, she had a thing for Earth men, and she had yet to figure out why. This one, especially.

[dan]

Danny laughed as she explained that if she could, she would be blushing. It amused him to think that a 'lowly' vampire like him could make a princess blush. He would have to remember that one.

"Yeah, blushing's the right word," he told her.

He reached out to touch one of the spots on her cheek. "And I'm not just saying that by the way." Danny smiled before glancing behind her and swearing under his breath as he spotted a vampaneze edging it's way towards them.

With a sigh, he reached into his boot and pulled out a knife, casually tossing it over Estelle's shoulder and directly into the vampaneze's heart. "Sorry," he said, moving past her to collect his knife.

[rayne5]

She smiled, she hadn't expected any sort of physical contact. Although it was welcome.

Vayila was happy that she got the word right. Yet when he pulled out a knife, her heart stopped. She always feared men like that, the ones who seemed kind and gentle, but inside they had no sympathy. She hoped he really wasn't like that, but with that knife, what could she expect though now?

She jumped up and nearly fell back down. Vayila had nearly a million thoughts running through her mind. Her planet usually wasn't too violent, but she always had armor on there. Here she was relatively defenseless, save for her telekinesis, although it was mainly technological.

"Please, do tell me that wasn't meant for me." She said breathlessly, the nice moment the two had shared gone.

[dan]

With a forceful tug, Danny removed his knife from the Vampaneze's heart and wiped the blood off of it and onto his jeans. He glared at the creature as he replaced the knife back into his boot. They always showed up at the most inconvenient times.

"Please, do tell me that wasn't meant for me."

"What?" he asked, standing back up and looking at her, afronted. "No, of course not. For starters, I don't miss. And secondly, why would I put a knife in your chest?"

Well, unless she was secretly a purple skinned murderer, but that wasn't something one could hide from Danny very well.

"No it was for this guy," he said, giving the corpse a nudge with his foot (or it might have been a kick). "Fifth one today... it's like they're looking to be slaughtered."

[rayne5]

Vayila looked over at the body slumped over on the ground. It wasn't a very pretty sight, although she was always exposed to it. Still, she hated the sight, and she couldn't understand why he said something about slaughtering.

"It is my belief that everyone wants to live, why would anyone want to be slaughtered?" She questioned, trying hard not to look at the blood on his pants. He was brave though.

Vayila was slightly startled when he said he didn't miss, that was a sign she had better stay on his good side. Wrapping the jacket around her tighter, she pulled her knees close to her chest. "Couldn't you compromise with him instead of killing him?" She continued, glancing up at the stars.

[dan]

If it hadn't been so morbid a conversation, Danny might have laughed. He hadn't literally meant that the vampaneze wanted to be slaughtered, they just seemed to be appearing around him a lot lately - and that tended to not be very good for their health.

"Couldn't you compromise with him instead of killing him?"

He raised an eyebrow at her. "You really are from a different planet," he said, slightly amused. He actually found it endearing that she had no idea what was going on in this world. "He's a Vampaneze," he explained. "A cousin to the vampire, only everytime he feeds, he kills."

Danny still did not understand why they did that. It's wasn't as if purple skin was attractive... at all. And they didn't actually need that much to survive. It was some freaky religious thing or something.

"Everytime," he said again, more softly this time as he remembered briefly his mother being murdered in front of him. It lasted only a moment though before he snapped back to the present. "And judging from the blood stains around his mouth, he had just finished off murdering some poor bastard... it also looked like he was planning on sinking his teeth into your pretty little neck so... you're welcome." This last said with a wink.

"So to answer your question: no, I can't compromise with them." And it really was a case of "can't" not "won't".