Fangtasia

Title: Fangtasia
Author: ExcentrykeMuse
Fandom(s): Twilight Saga / True Blood
Pairings: Bella/Eric Northman, (one sided) Bella/Edward, Pam/Angela
Rating: PG13
Word Count: 4k
Warnings: mentions of vampire sex, cheating, Edward bashing, age difference (1000/18) (100/18), explicit language, no Sookie, no Bill, no Jake, is Lauren kinda nice? Where are we in the TruBlood timeline anyway?  Do we even know when the Vampires came out of the Coffin?  What’s the timeline?
Prompt: for Roxanne Hall who asked for Bella/Eric Northman.  This had several false starts.  I even went back to a fragment I wrote back in 2012? 2014? that was Bella/Godric for inspiration.  So didn’t help.  I also binge rewatched Seasons 1-2 of True Blood.  Great watching time.  I might have to binge watch Seasons 3-7 as my watching got sporadic somewhere around Season 4 when it originally aired.  Roxanne Hall, let me know next prompting cycle if you want a sequel.  This is very much open for a sequel.
Translation: Min Kärlek (Swedish) – My Love

Fangtasia

Vampires were out of the coffin but Edward wasn’t a vampire.  At least, not the kind of vampire that slept in a coffin at night and left bite marks on your neck.

It had been Jessica’s idea.  She said Bella needed a real bachelorette—without Cullens.  She suggested Vegas, but Angela had whispered in Bella’s ear a month before the wedding that they should go to a vampire bar.

Bella had looked over at her in shock.  Angela wanted to go to a vampire bar?  A minister’s daughter?

Angela was blushing.  “No, really,” she whispered.

Bella blinked.  She leaned over to Jessica and whispered the idea in her ear.

Jessica leaned back and stared at Bella.  “Do you want to bring Alice and Rosalie?”

“No!” Bella insisted.  They were all wearing bikinis and sunning themselves on First Beach.  Alice and Rosalie, obviously, weren’t there.

Jessica raised her sunglasses and looked into Bella’s eyes.  She turned to the side and whispered into Lauren’s ear.  Lauren popped up from where she was reclining on her towel and looked over at Bella.  “Really?  A vampire bar?” she practically screamed.

“Shh!” Bella hushed, looking around.  She didn’t want one of the wolves hearing.  She knew they didn’t like the Cullens and she assumed that extended to the vampires who had come out of the coffin two years earlier.  “Don’t spread it around!”

“No one’s here but the boys,” Lauren whined.

Bella rolled her eyes.  “Well, we don’t have to tell them.”

Angela sat up.  “I know this place, but it’s out of state.”  She bit her lip.

Jessica looked over and glanced from side to side.  “But that’s perfect.  We don’t want to go to Seattle where someone from Port Angeles might be there.  Plus, a real bachelorette is a trip to Vegas or somewhere.  How do you know about all this, Angela?”

Angela blushed a deep shade of red.  “What does that matter?”

Bella was interested to know more, but that was neither here nor there.  She leaned over to her friend, and asked, “Well, what’s this place called?”

“Fangtasia,” she whispered back. 

Lauren leaned over to hear better.

“It’s got a five star rating on google.”

Bella wasn’t sure if that was a good or a bad thing, but Angela was now getting a little more comfortable with the conversation.  “I have a brochure.  I know—I know someone who went there.”

Jessica squeaked.  “Someone from school?”

“Someone from church,” Angela admitted.  “He had—vampire sex,” she whispered, her ears now a bright red.  “He said it was amazing.”

Bella was going to have vampire sex as soon as she walked down the aisle with Edward.  At least, she thought she was.  According to Jake, Edward and the Cullens weren’t technically vampires.  They drank blood, but they weren’t vampires.  They were ‘Cold Ones.’  The vampires who came out of the coffin, if the wolves were to be believed, were the real deal.

“Do we want to have vampire sex?” Lauren asked realistically.

“Well, no,” Angela admitted, “but that doesn’t mean we can’t go and have a look around and drink some TruBlood.”

Jessica pulled a face.  “We can do that here.”

“Not with actual vampires as our date,” Lauren put in thoughtfully.  “What does the bride think?  This is your bachelorette.  I’m sure the Cullens,” she said reproachfully, “have offered to take you to Paris.”

The Cullens hadn’t, actually.  Edward had a stronghold on her and wouldn’t let her out of his sight.”

“No,” Bella admitted, “and I kinda want to see a vampire.” A real one, actually, though she didn’t say this out loud.  She ran a finger through the sand, thinking.  “I’ll get Edward to fund us.”

“We can pay our way,” Lauren insisted snottily.

Bella looked at her sternly.  Angela’s father was the local pastor.  He wouldn’t be able to send her to Vegas or Florida or wherever this was and he wouldn’t be able to afford a hotel.  Plus, they would need clothes.  Bella also didn’t want to be a burden to Charlie.

“Edward will fund this,” she stated firmly.  “He wants me to have ‘normal’ experiences.  He was fucking obsessed with the idea that I go to prom and have the ‘teenage experience’ even though I had a broken leg.  I got this.”  She put up her hand to stop any further conversation.  “Leave this up to me.”

Jessica opened her mouth, probably because she felt like she should protest, but Bella said, “Zip it.”

Angela squealed.  “We’re going to Fangtasia!”

“One thing,” Jessica said, becoming suddenly serious, “we must swear ourselves to secrecy, even you, Bella.  You can’t tell Edward where we’re going.  We can’t tell anyone.  We have our reputations to think of.—Think of Angela.”

Jessica, Lauren, and Bella all looked at their friend.  It was true, she was the minister’s daughter.  They might not all be good church goers, but her reputation was important.  We didn’t want the wrath of Reverend Weber on them.

“Okay,” Bella agreed.  “I don’t mind lying to Edward.   I’ll just tell him we’re going to Florida and that Alice and Rosalie aren’t invited.”

“We’ll go there anyway or somewhere like it when we fly in unless we’re roadtripping,” Lauren said snidely.  “It’s not like you’re lying-lying.”

“Road trip,” Angela decided.  “Easier to cover up.  We’ll just need to get hotel reservations.”

“I’ve got a credit card,” Bella admitted carefully.  “I won’t even need to ask permission.  And I’ve got the beast,” she said thinking about her monster of a bullet proof car.  “We’ll road trip in that.”

“We just need to go shopping on Edward’s dime,” Lauren said, suddenly liking the idea of charging clothing to Edward.  “What do you wear to a vampire bar?”

“Black leather,” Angela whispered, blushing again.  “Lots of make up.  Black eyeliner.  Heavy eyeshadow.  We need to look adult.”

“Right,” Bella said.  “It’s Monday.  We’re all off for the summer before we go off to our lives in September.”

“And it’s July.  We have a month before the wedding,” Jessica reminded everyone.  “We’ll go shopping tomorrow, and we’ll leave Wednesday.  We’ll check the brochure out and we’ll hopefully get there for Saturday if we leave tomorrow night.  We can take turns driving.”

“We need maps.  Plenty of maps,” Angela realized.

“My parents are members of AAA,” Lauren put in helpfully.  “There’s a branch in Port Angeles.  I’ll get us all the maps we’ll need.”

“Pack tonight,” Bella instructed, “tell everyone we need to, shopping tomorrow on our way out, and we hit the road as early as we can tomorrow afternoon.  If we shop tomorrow morning, we should be good.”

“Okay,” Angela agreed.

Jessica stood up, brushing sand off her legs.  “Well,” she said when no one stood with her.  “What are you waiting for?  Let’s get going!  Bella has a fiancé to tell!”

Bella, Angela, and Lauren quickly got up and collected their towels, putting on their shorts and t-shirts before loading into Jessica’s car to caravan back to Forks.  The boys could get home on their own.

Not even bothering to change when she got back to the house, Bella got into the beast and drove over to the Cullens house.  She was sure she was going to find Edward there.  She kicked off the last of the sand on her sandals as she approached the door, knocked for politeness, and walked right in.

A blur hurried before her and Alice appeared before her.  “Going on a trip, Bella?” she asked in a friendly tone.

“Oh,” she answered a little awkwardly.  “Am I going to have a good time?”

“All I know is that it’s a road trip with your high school friends.  A last human ‘hurrah.’  I’d say I was jealous, but I’d hate to pretend I was eating food for an entire week.  Where’s the destination?”

“Florida—we think,” she added quickly.  “Is Edward here?”

“Upstairs,” she answered in an upbeat tone.  “I think he’s listening to music.”

Bella smiled.  “Thanks, Alice.”  She climbed the stairs, and light came in through the walls, which were several planes of windows.  The entire house was just one large window, opening out into the forest.  It was what Bella loved about the house.  It was so open and free. 

Edward’s door was open and she leaned in the doorway, watching Edward recline on his divan, listening to some album on his headphones.  He looked up, his ethereal face so beautiful, smiling at her.  He looked like the perfect statue.

Quickly taking off the headphones, he told her, “I saw in Alice’s mind that you’re going on a road trip with Lauren.  I thought you hated her.”

“Angela convinced me I needed a bachelorette.  I thought you wanted me to have human experiences.”  She came in and sat down by his feet.

He propped himself up on his elbows.  “I do,” he agreed.  “I want you to have the world.”

“We’re going shopping for clothes tomorrow morning, because Lauren doesn’t have enough clothes, and heading out straight after.  We’ll be back in a week or so.”  She gave him a lopsided grin.

Edward looked at her adoringly.  He practically stole her breath away.

“If you don’t come back, I’ll be sure to track you,” he warned, and her heart skipped a beat in fear.

He looked at her oddly, obviously hearing her heartbeat, but she tried to laugh it off.  “Just don’t break my leg.”

“Never,” he told her, leaning forward and kissing her.

His lips were stone cold.  She tried to suppress a shiver.  She was tired of being cold in summer.  Bella wondered if Edward would still be cold once she was turned into a vampire herself.  Wait, no.  She caught herself.  She would be a ‘Cold One.’  Would she be forever cold?

Ever since Edward had left her on the forest floor, she had had a chill embedded in her heart, and she couldn’t get warm.  The feeling of his stone cold skin just reminded her of that shard of ice, and she hated it.

She leaned back and gave him a soft smile.

When had she become such a good actress that she could fool Edward?  Or was he even paying attention?

He ran a hand down her arm and she wished she were wearing a sweatshirt.

Edward climbed into her window that night, like he did every night.  He wouldn’t be climbing into her window tomorrow night, she promised herself, because she would be on the road.

Charlie was glad she was going and acting like a normal teenager.  He saw her off happily as the four friends packed themselves into the monster, and they drove off into Port Angeles.

Shopping in Port Angeles should have been tiresome, but Angela proved to be a secret vampire fashionista.  She had shown them all the Fangtasia brochure—they were going to Louisiana, not Florida—and they bought leather dresses and leggings, trying on heavy make up at the mall and going wild with Edward’s credit card, then they took to the road.

They took turns driving not stopping until they crashed Friday morning in Shreveport in a hotel, falling asleep on two double beds in a motel two miles down the road from Fangtasia.  Lauren got them up at six and they went to a local restaurant for dinner before piling back into the motel room to get ready.

“Pictures!” Lauren demanded as Bella was applying the last of her eyeshadow.

“I don’t think I have this quite right,” Angela murmured as she laced up her bustier.

“No,” Jessica insisted as she came up, blush brush in her hand.  “It’s absolutely perfect!”  She put a little more blush on Angela’s cheeks before setting the brush and blush aside.  Then she turned to the laces.  “You just need a more elaborate bow so that someone can enjoy unlacing you.”

“Are-are you sure?” Angela squeaked.

Jessica grinned at her.  “I’m absolutely positive!”  She then started to retie the bow at the bottom.

Bella looked over her shoulder and then inspected herself in the mirror.  She was wearing a matted black leather dress with no sleeves that came down at her waist in a v-shape and then flared to her knees with knee high boots.  She was wearing fingerless black lace gloves.  Her hair was put up in a bun at the base of her skull with two curls framing her face to show off her naked neck.  She’d done her make up simply with pale grey eyeshadow, black eyeliner, and black mascara.  Not liking lipstick, she was using a pale pink lipgloss.

Her phone vibrated.  It was Edward.  She declined the call.

Turning to the room, she smiled at Angela.  “You look great.”

She smiled tremulously.  “D-do I look like vampire bait?”

Bella shared a look with Jessica who had just finished with Angela’s hair.  “Yes?”

Angela relaxed.  “Good.  Ben said he didn’t want to put up with a virgin.”

The bottom of Bella’s stomach went out.  “Oh, Angela.”  She reached out to her.

“Don’t cry, darling,” Jessica said.  “You’ll ruin your makeup.”

Lauren just sighed from where she was putting on bright pink eyeshadow.

“I love him so much.”

“Edward is just like that, too,” Bella confided, feeling bold given how many hundreds of miles there were between her and Edward.  “He won’t have sex with me unless I marry him.”

Lauren gasped and dropped her eyeliner.  Turning, she demanded, “Is that why you’re marrying the bastard?”

Bella blushed.

Angela grasped her hand.  “You look like vampire bait, Bella,” she promised.  “If you want a vampire to bite you, I know it will happen.”

Confused, Bella asked, “Do I want a vampire to bite me?”

“Yes,” Jessica answered, now fixing Bella’s hair.  “It’s supposed to be euphoric.  It’s even better during sex.”

“You’re losing your virginity tonight,” Lauren commanded, pointing at Bella.  “None of this Edward Cullen crap.  He doesn’t deserve you.”  Then she pointed at Angela.  “You, too.  Vampire or not.  Virginity, gone.  We’ll go back tomorrow if we have to.”

“Has the sun set?”  Jessica asked, looking out the window.

“The bar opens at ten,” Angela said, her voice having a bit of a tremor.  She checked her cell phone.  “It’s half past.”

“Good,” Lauren said, putting her dark red lipstick in her purse.  “We’re ready to go. We’ll show up in Bella’s monstrosity of a car and catch everyone’s attention.”

Bella’s phone vibrated again.  It was Edward.  She declined the call.

They piled into the monster and drove down the road, Bella being sure to rev the engine as they drove to the front of the car, rolled down the windows to look out at everyone waiting, before going to park. 

“Is that an F430?” a fangbanger asked and Bella smirked as she walked up with her posse to the front of the line, everyone parting for them.  It wasn’t even a question.

“Why?” Bella asked, channeling her inner Rosalie.  “Do you want a ride?”

She came up to the vampire who was manning the door and stood with Jessica at her side and Angela and Lauren behind her. 

The vampire, who was a beautiful woman with blonde hair and dark eyes, was wearing pink.  “Breathers,” she sighed.  She held out her hand.  “I can’t read human ages.  I need to see your identification.”

Bella took out her purse and showed her driver’s license that read she was eighteen.  They were all eighteen except for Lauren who had already turned nineteen.

The vampire sighed and demanded, “left hand,” before stamping all of their left hands with a stamp that couldn’t be seen in regular lighting.  Her eyes lingered on Angela for several long moments, her fingertips skating against her pulse point in her left wrist, before moving onto Lauren.

They were all admitted.

It turned out that stamps on the left hand meant they couldn’t drink alcohol, not that Bella minded.  They were all under legal drinking age.

They all got cokes or Shirley Temples before finding a table. 

Bella looked around wondrously, looking at the vampire bartender.  He was pale, but his eyes were a deep black, and he wasn’t unusually beautiful like the Cullens.  He also didn’t have dark bags under his eyes.  It was strange.

She saw another vampire dancing and shuddering fast on one of the platforms, clearly showcasing his superhuman speed. 

These vampires were out and proud in a way the Cullens could never be.

There were even humans walking around with puncture marks in their necks.

Angela was blushing and whispering something to Jessica.

That’s when Bella realized it.  She was being regarded by a vampire who was sitting in a chair on a dias.  He was pale, paler than any vampire in the club.  His blond hair was long and to his shoulder and humans kept on coming up to him and offering themselves to him.

He even kicked one away from his chair.

This caused Bella to smile to herself.  She liked the confidence on him.

The vampire from the door shuddered in front of them and snapped her fangs at them.  All four of the friends jumped in surprise.

“Breathers,” she greeted, sounding bored.  “What brings you here tonight?”

Bella swallowed and wasn’t sure how to answer.

It was strangely Angela who spoke.  “I-it’s Bella.  It’s her Bachelorette.”

The vampire smiled, retracting her fangs.  “We have a bride,” she sighed.  “Let me see the ring.”

Bella carefully extended her left hand.

The vampire took it and inspected it, shifting the hand in the light to let the large diamond sparkle.  “Oh, yes.  I remember seeing this.”  She sounded bored again.  “I remember thinking it was a period piece.”

“It,” Bella felt her throat stick and she cleared it.  “It belonged to Edward’s mother.”

“Dead, is she?”

Bella hesitated.  “Spanish Influenza.”

The vampire looked up in shock, not releasing Bella’s hand.  She turned her head slightly to the dias, as if listening, and then turned back to Bella.  “You smell like a virgin bride.”

She swallowed again.

Her phone vibrated.  Bella ignored it, not even bothering to take it out of her purse.

The vampire in pink turned her head to Angela.  “You smell like a virgin, too.”

Lauren leaned forward.  “They both want to get bitten.”

Angela squeaked.

“Do they?” the vampire asked, sounding a little more interested.  “How—unoriginal.”  She refocused herself on Bella.  “Eric would like to speak to you.”

Bella glanced back toward the Dias.  “Is that—?”

“Yes, that’s him.”  She released Bella’s hand.  “You can show him your—” she paused, licking her lips, and looking back down at Bella’s left hand “—ring.”

Nodding, Bella glanced over at Jessica.  “I’ll be okay,” she promised.

“Don’t think about Edward,” Lauren instructed, twirling one of Bella’s curls with her finger.  “He’s making you marry him for sex.  He’s not worth it, even if he gives you a credit card and expensive Ferraris.”  She then gave Bella a little shove once she’d come around the table.  Bella glanced back in exasperation before carefully walking up to the dias.

Eric—for his name seemed to be Eric—was drenched in shadows, but he looked up as Bella approached.

“What’s your name, human?” he asked, his voice dark and seductive, nothing like Edward’s voice.

“Bella,” she answered.  “Bella Swan.”

He indicated a chair to the side of him.  “And you’re getting married to a man whose mother died of Spanish Influenza.  Interesting.”

“Edward,” Bella answered carefully, “died of Spanish Influenza as well.”

Eric had been looking out over the club but at this pronouncement, he turned and regarded Bella.  “Explain, human.”

“The local Quileute tribe calls them,” and then she bit her lip carefully, worried.

Eric stared at her.  Making eye contact with her, he commanded, “You will tell me.”

She nodded.  “Of course.  I don’t mean to be—coy.  I just, don’t know how you’ll react.”

He looked at her oddly, and then motioned that she should continue.

“They’re called—‘Cold Ones.’  They’re very cold to the touch.”

Eric leaned back and looked thoughtful.  “And you would willingly marry a blood drinker that would poison you if he ever lost control?”

She shrugged and looked back at her friends.  It seemed the vampire in pink was still talking to Angela.  “He’s a vegetarian.”

Laughing a deep, humorless laugh, Eric regained her attention.  “That’s more ridiculous than a vampire mainstreaming and remaining monogamous with a human.  A Cold One cannot become a vegetarian and drink only from animals.  Animal blood sickens.”  He leaned forward toward her.  “Your blood is virginal.  Your friend said you intended to change that.”

Bella glanced at him with her large brown eyes.  “Are—are you cold to the touch?”

He smiled to himself.  “Quite warm.”  He didn’t prove it, however.  Changing topics, he looked her up and down again.  “A witch told me tonight would be auspicious.”

“A-A witch?” Bella breathed.

“There are witches,” Eric told her, leaning back in his seat.  “Where are you from, Bella?”

“Washington State.”

He seemed moderately interested.  “And you came all the way to Louisiana for your bachelorette?”

“Someone from Angela’s church came here and said it was good.”  Bella looked down at her hands and blushed.

Eric raised an eyebrow.  “We’re being talked about in churches now?  Wonders never cease.—Where are you staying?”

“The Shreveport Motel, down Route 9.”

“What room?”

“I’m staying with my friends.  We all have one room.”

Her phone went off again in her purse.

Eric was staring into her eyes.  They were so incredibly blue.  “Tell me the room,” he commanded.

“I told you.  I’m staying with my friends.”

He looked at her oddly.

“If I got a room, would you join me?”

She looked at him speculatively.

“Every virgin deserves a bed.  I don’t think you’d enjoy my coffin—unless,” he asked suggestively, “you would?”

“No,” she told him, looking him over, “a bed would be nice.  Can you bite me somewhere where it won’t show?”

“Your husband will notice on your wedding night.”

“By then it will be too late.”

“True.—Yes, I can bite you in the groin.  It’s so delicious there.”  An unholy light entered his blue eyes and Bella found herself enraptured.

Bella considered for a moment.  Then she held out her hand.  Seeming to understand, Eric placed his phone in it and she programmed in her number.  Handing it back, she asked, “If there’s nothing else?”

“I think Pam is going to eat your friend.”

Bella looked over at the table where the vampire in pink was just now leaving, Angela blushing to her ear tips.  “I think Angela wants to be eaten.”

He smiled to himself.  “I will see you later, min kärlek.”

“Yes,” Bella agreed, standing.  She turned and walked back to her friends and had to keep herself from squealing. 

Angela rushed up to her and hugged her around the neck.  “I get to have sex in a coffin tonight,” she whispered into Bella’s ear.

“So do I,” Bella whispered back, “unless I want a bed.  I haven’t decided yet.”

Angela pulled away and looked into Bella’s eyes.  “What are you going to tell Edward?” she asked seriously.

Bella looked over her shoulder and saw that Eric was watching her closely.  Turning back to Angela, she admitted, “That the wedding might be off.”

Angela jumped up and down, screaming.  “The wedding might be off!” she shouted, turning back toward the table, doing a happy dance.  “We can return our ugly dresses we bought for the ceremony to try and one up Rosalie!”

Lauren gasped.  “I spent three hundred dollars!  It’s non-refundable!”

“We’ll go to an ATM tomorrow,” Bella promised, coming up to her two other friends and hugging them.  “And I’ll buy you tickets back to Washington.  Maybe I’ll roadtrip ‘til I go to Dartmouth—without Edward.”

“Do you think?” Angela asked.

Bella glanced back over her shoulder.  “Unless I get a better offer,” she murmured to herself.

Eric was still looking at her.  Somehow, she thought a better offer would be forthcoming and she’d be staying in Shreveport for more than a Bachelorette weekend.

Her phone vibrated in her purse.  She pulled it out to make sure it wasn’t an unknown number.  It was Edward.  She ignored it.  She’d make sure to block the number as soon as she set up her rendez-vous later that night.

THE END