Part 2
#2 of Vince's Story
(Finally part two. The usual, underage, bugger off. Of age. Enjoy. Although nothing in this one other than plot and language and a little fighting. So enjoy.)
Part 2 The Ghosts of a haunted pasts.
Vince had done well. There had been lots of races won, many parties he's attended. He had grown in popularity as well. It's been three weeks since he first came to LA. Three weeks since he won his first race. He was asleep in his house, having only gotten home a few hours ago. Suddenly he was awoken by the ring of his cell phone. Vince shot up in bed and reached for the night stand. He opened up the drawer and reached in. This cell phone of his, Vince treated as if it was his most prized possession. Only one person on the planet had the number to this phone. He quickly opened it and answered the phone.
"General Gummer. Sir." He said.
"Easy there kid. You're not in the service anymore; you can lose the formalities son." Answered the General.
"Sorry Sir. Force of habit really." He answered mildly.
"Oh don't be so down. Lighten up a bit. You're out of the service. You can do whatever you want, say whatever you want, as long as its legal and you don't reveal anything you shouldn't, that is. Anyways, I just wanted to catch up with you. See how things were going." Said Gummer.
"Things are going good, I met some people, been out to a couple of parties. Sir." Answered Vince.
"You don't sound to happy."
"No sir. I miss being in the service. I knew what to do, and when to do it." Said Vince.
"I doubt that. You asked for this, remember."
"Ya, I remember. But, now. I just don't know what to do with myself." He said.
"How about some company?" Asked Gummer.
"You mean you? Umm... Sure thing General. I'd be honored, but I wouldn't know how to entertain you." He said.
"Son, we're both from the North East, how bout I fly in, and we watch some good 'ol fashioned hockey?" Asked The General.
Vince hesitated, and he thought to himself, --Why would the general want to pay a visit? Was it his superiors pressuring him to make sure I haven't said anything?--, "Sure thing General. When will you be in?"
"I'll be flying in my chopper tonight, around 1600 hours." Answered the General.
Vince silently cursed himself. He forgot about how the general would give someone short notice before a surprise visit. He looked around, and groaned quietly as he saw the place was a mess. He looked at his watch; it was 8:15 a.m. This gave him enough time to clean the place and get to the base in time to pick up the general. Actually, it gave him more than enough time.
"Sure thing General. I'll be there to pick you up. 1600 hours. Which base will you be landing at?" He asked.
"I'll be landing at Edwards." He answered.
"The Air Force Testing Facility? That's not your forte` is it General?" Asked Vince.
"If you were still in the service, I could answer that."
Vince knew enough to know when not to press the general further. "Ok. Edwards it is, at 1600 hours. I'll see you there Sir." Said Vince.
"Affirmative. Don't forget to bring you I.D. Colonel." Said Gummer, and before Vince could respond, the General disconnected. With a growl Vince shut the phone and put it back in the draw. He got up and stretched, he then put on a pair of shorts and a black tank top, things he usually wears around the house. He was about to head into the basement when he heard a car pull into his drive way. And by the time the driver gets out of his car and starts towards his door, Vince is already opening his front door to see who it is, his right arm folded behind his back, hiding the Dan Wesson .44 magnum revolver. He quickly realizes who it is and quickly places it on a hidden shelf above the door. It was his friend Pushrod.
"How's it goin' ya lazy lizard?" Called Pushrod as he walked up to the door.
Vince inwardly bristled at being called a lizard, it was a pride thing.
"I'm doing well, about to head downstairs and do a little workout. You should join, you're pretty scraggly. Even for a coyote." Vince said, firing back a little insult of his own.
"Haha. You so funny." Said Pushrod, his voice dripping with sarcasm. He stepped inside and for the first time, saw Vince in something other than a suit or baggy clothing.
"Holy shit dude, you eat steroids for breakfast or what?" He said, quickly taking in the sheer size of Vince's muscular form.
"Naw man. Military. Two tours in Iraq, Marine Corps." Answered Vince.
"No shit? You were a marine?" asked Pushrod. "How do you think I lost my wing? Skydiving?" He said.
"I don't know man, I never gave it much thought. I figured a wreck or something. What happened?" He asked.
Vince sighed and looked at him,
"This is a secret, between you and me. Absolutely no one is to know this, but it was an I.E.D. I don't want to advertise that I'm ex-military. If I hear that you told someone, I'll kill you myself." Said Vince, then after an awkward pause, chuckled.
Pushrod laughed nervously, and followed Vince inside the house and down into the basement. As they walked, that was when Pushrod noticed all the scars. There were a lot of them, as far as he could see. They were at least two dozen thick white lines that appeared from under Vince's tank top. They came out of the shirt and went halfway up his neck, and down his right arm to the elbow. Pushrod shivered, he could only imagine what Vince had gone through. They entered the basement and Pushrod saw all the equipment that Vince had. There were free weights, machines, treadmills, stationary bikes, almost everything.
"Damn. Work out enough?" He asked.
"It helps, especially with what I've been through." Stated Vince. Vince immediately went over to the free weights and picked up both the 50 lb weights and started doing curls, as he did so he said,
"Feel free to start with whatever you like." Said Vince, as he continued curling the free weights. Pushrod went to the bench press and looked at the bar that still held the weights on it when Vince last used it. Pushrod balked at the sight of it. There was close to 500 lbs on it still. Vince noticed Pushrod's look and set down the weights to go help him.
"Here, let me help. How much are you gonna do? 250?" He asked.
Pushrod shook his head, "Naw man, more like 150."
"Damn, you need to work out more. I can't remember when all I could do was 150." He said as he pulled the weights off, as if it barely weighed anything. Finally they both worked out, Pushrod found it extremely awkward. For Vince barely said anything, and the look in Vince's eyes were terrifying to Pushrod, he could see something in those brilliant emerald green eyes of his friend, something dark, something terrible. It took longer than Pushrod had wanted, but they finally stopped and Vince offered to let Pushrod use the shower first. Pushrod took his shower, followed by Vince. When Vine got out he got dressed, in black long sleeve shirt with navy blue shorts. He grabbed his keys and dropped them into his pocket and then grabbed his wallet. He went into the living room, where Pushrod was watching the TV. Pushrod looked up and said,
"Hey bruh, you ready to get out of this house and join the land of the living?"
Vince shrugged and said, "What did you have in mind?"
"Go to the mall, cruise around, and pick up some chicks. Ya know? I mean you've been here for awhile, and you've still got nothing on your arm. I'm starting to wonder about you." He said.
Vince growled and said, "What do you mean by that?"
"Well, as I said, you have no girls. I mean, it's not like none have an interest. Hell, that last party we went to, that chica there... Errr, what the hell was her name. You know, that Vixen, there-"
"Hanna." Interrupted Vince.
"Ya, Hanna. She was all into you man, and you were just sitting there, stone faced. I mean, it's ok if you're not into girls, but at least come out about it." Vince bristled and almost lunged at his friend.
"I sure as hell am not gay. But I'm actually older than you, and a hell of a lot older than Hanna."
"What do you mean? You can't be that much older than me bruh." Said Pushrod.
"Hanna was only 18. I'm fucking 32 years old. That's not legal." Said Vince. Vince fell silent.
"You sure as shit don't look in your thirties. What's your secret?" He asked.
"I'm a dragon you idiot. We age a lot slower than you mammals." He said. He also failed to mention that he being a black dragon, aged even slower than other dragons.
"Lucky son of a bitch. Now let's get out and hit the road. My car? Or your car?" Asked Pushrod.
Vince shook his head. "We'll take my truck. I want to keep a low profile."
"You own a truck?" Asked Pushrod.
Vince just smiled and walked towards the garage. Pushrod rushed to follow. When Vince opened up the door and flicked the light on, it was then that Pushrod saw the shiny black Hummer H1.
"Damn, you must got some kinda doe to have that thing." He said as he walked up to it and examined it. He quickly noticed a few things. One, the metal was unusually thick, and two, the top of the cab had a hatch on it. When he pointed at it, Vince walked up to him and said,
"Yes, it's military. I got it as a retirement gift as you will. So I painted it, and installed all the creature comforts."
Pushrod nodded his head in approval, and was about to get in when he noticed the car behind him. It was still under a cover, despite being inside the garage. He started towards it and was about to take the cover off when a black scaled, taloned hand grabbed his arm and flung him against the side of the Hummer.
"DON'T TOUCH THAT!" Growled Vince, his eyes filled with a dangerous warning behind them.
"Jesus Christ man, fucking chill!!" yelled Pushrod.
"That is not yours to touch, and nor is it any of your business to find out what it is. So get that thought out of your mind before you ask." Said Vince, then he released him.
He then walked over to the driver's side and ripped his door open and slammed it shut. At the same time he hit the remote for the garage door and started the big diesel. Pushrod carefully got into the passenger side and sat quietly. When the garage door was open enough for the big Hummer to get out, Vince through it in reverse and slammed on the accelerator, the big tires groaned in protest as they fought for purchase on the pavement, they shot out of the garage and down to the end of the driveway, where Vince then stopped, and hit the button to close the garage door. Then he backed out of the driveway and sped off. After a while Vince turned to Pushrod and said,
"Listen, I'm sorry, but that.... Thing.... In there, it is the bane of my existence. It is both my most treasured possession, and my most hated. My obsession, and yet, everything I hate."
"It's just a car." Said Pushrod.
"But it's so much more than that. There is a story behind that car that goes back to my teens." Answered Vince.
Pushrod just nodded, understanding at what Vince was hinting at.
"It's ok my man. I shouldn't have just reached for it anyways. It was my bad man. But enough of this shit. Lets here some music." He said, and he reached for the stereo and punched the power button.
The wolf cocked his head to the side, and his ears went back in a scowl as Metallica came blasting over the speakers. Vince smiled and immediately began tapping to the tune of Master of Puppets.
"Jesus man, what the hell is this!" Yelled Pushrod over the blaring speakers.
Vince shook his head and turned down the stereo so they could talk, and said,
"It's Metallica. Come on, you can't tell me you've never heard Metallica before."
"Nah man, I've heard of them. I just don't listen to that shit man. Where's your good shit?" Said Pushrod as he began searching for more cd's.
Finding almost every Metallica album as well as some other heavy metal. "Don't you have any rap?" Asked Pushrod.
"Hell no. Rap will get you killed where I come from." Answered Vince.
"Bullshit man. Where I come from, it's the same thing, but that's if your caught listening to Metallica." He shot back.
"No, no one fucks with a man who listens to Metallica, especially if that man has done two tours in Iraq in the Force Recon." Answered Vince.
"True that." Then they continued on,
Vince started singing, which drove Pushrod insane. Not because of Vince's singing voice, he had to admit, Vince had a good singing voice. No, it was the fact that he hated heavy metal. When they finally reached the mall, Pushrod leapt out of the hummer before it even stopped, to which Vince just laughed and said,
"Had enough?"
"Jesus, is that a torture technique they taught you in the Corps?" Asked Pushrod?
"If I told you, then I'd have to kill ya." Said Vince.
They both laughed and went inside the mall, and hung around, going in and out of different stores. Hanging around the food court, Pushrod doing most of the talking, telling Vince about the new turbo's he purchased for his Integra, and then flirting with some girls. After awhile he came back, and they started walking again, and as they walked Vince suddenly heard something. A voice, a voice that he picked out of the steady drone of dozens of conversations that surrounded them. He froze in his tracks and listened, Pushrod stopped and asked Vince what was wrong, to which he replied,
"Shh, I hear someone."
"Ya so do I. Actually, I hear a lot of people. So what." Said Pushrod.
"Oh shut up you stupid coyote. I mean I hear someone familiar." Said Vince.
At that same time, a dragoness who was in a conversation with a couple of her friends stopped talking when she heard a voice cut through the crowd, a familiar voice, one that she hadn't heard in nearly a decade. She turned and looked around, her green eyes searching the crowd, until she spotted another black dragon, towering over most of the mammals that surrounded him, he was talking to someone as he looked, and in that first few seconds she saw him, he had turned and their eyes met. She immediately got up from her seat and headed over towards him, walking slowly, as if she was unsure of what she saw, almost as if she didn't believe her eyes. Vince saw the woman almost at the same time she saw him. His mind reeled from the shock of who he saw.
"It can't be her." He said as he started walking towards her, as she began towards him. Slowly the distance between them closed until they were five feet away from each other, and they both stopped. Vince was dimly aware of his friend tugging on his arm and talking to him, but the words fell on deaf ears.
"Jaylene? Is that you?" Vince said, his voice wavering.
"Vince. It can't be." She replied.
Before anyone could react, the black dragoness leapt onto Vince, wrapping her arms around his neck as he caught her and embraced her as well, tears streamed down her cheeks as she cried with joy.
"I'm so glad to see you. Where the hell have you been?" She said, between sobs. Tears dotted Vince's cheeks as well.
"Jaylene, After so long, I can't believe it's you." He said softly into her ear,.
At this time, Pushrod cleared his throat, finally getting their attention. It took a moment, and in that moment, he studied the dragoness. By all standards, she was absolutely gorgeous. Tall, slim, with large breasts, a long sinuous tail that mated to a heart shaped rear, and long sexy legs. She had the looks that all the teenage boys who saw her today would go home and masturbate too. Finally the two broke their embrace, Vince gently caressed a tear away from her eye with the back of one claw. That was when he noticed his friend.
"Forgive me my friend. Jaylene, I want you to meet my friend, Pushrod." He said, motioning to the wolf.
Pushrod extended a paw towards her, and she took it and they shook hands, and she said,
"Pushrod?"
"Ya, my real name is Eric. Eric Roshak, but my friends call me Pushrod." He said.
She laughed and said, "Well, it is a pleasure to meet you. How do you two know eachother?"
"Oh, we street race together." He answered.
Jaylene looked at Vince, disapproval in her eyes.
"Does Sophina know about this?" She asked.
Vince stiffened at the name,
"Sophina left. A long time ago." He said, his voice low and sorrowful.
"Jeez, Vince I'm so sorry. When did this happen?" She asked.
"A long time ago. Right before I left." He answered.
"So that's what happened. Shit Vince. I thought you were dead. You just up and disappeared. Where the hell have you been? It's been nine fucking years." She said, then she noticed the scar on his face, and he was missing a wing. "What the hell Vince. What the hell happened to you?" She asked, as she ran the back of a claw down the scar on his face.
Vince gently reached up and took her hand in his, leaning into her touch and answered, "Iraq."
She gasped and pulled away. "You went into the military? What the fuck Vince? Why didn't you talk to me first? I mean, you disappear, I feared you were dead, only to find out your not, but were nearly killed, as I can already see." She said, angry tears flooding her eyes as she broke down and fell into his arms as he held her and gently stroked her back.
"I take it you two have a lot of history together?" Asked Pushrod.
Vince nodded and said, "I met her my freshman year in high school. We've been best friends ever since, or at least, until I was 23, and took off."
Pushrod was about to ask another question when all of a sudden a Komodo dragon pushed past him and glared at Vince and Jaylene.
"Jaylene, WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS!!!??" He said.
Jaylene jumped and spun around, Vince, out of instinct kept his arms protectively around her, holding her to him.
"Johnny. It's not what you think, this is my friend, who I haven't seen in almost 10 years." She stammered.
"Bull shit. I knew it, I fucking knew you've been going behind my back and sleeping around like a fucking whore." He hissed.
Vince growled menacingly at the words. "Who the fuck are you to talk to her like that." Said Vince, his voice low and murderous.
"Vince, no. Let me handle this." Pleaded Jaylene as she tried to push him away.
She looked towards Pushrod, who nodded and grabbed one of Vince's massive arms.
"Come on buddy, we don't need this." He said to Vince.
The komodo looked at Jaylene and back to Vince.
"You better watch it there buddy. You don't know who you're talking to, you never know, someone may take off that other wing of yours." He said to Vince, then he turned to Jaylene.
"And as for you, you two-timing whore, you're coming with me. And you're gonna learn what happens when you cheat on me." He reached out and grabbed her arm and yanked her towards him.
That was too far for Vince, and even too far for Pushrod, who went over to the Komodo and said,
"Hey bro, you don't treat a lady like that."
The komodo just back handed Pushrod and said, "Shut the fuck up."
As Pushrod hit the ground, Vince rushed forward, grabbing Jaylene and pulling her out of Johnny's grip, and shoving the Komodo away. He put himself between Johnny and Jaylene. As the komodo regained his balance he hissed angrily and said,
"Ok, you want to be a tough guy. I'll make you my little bitch, then we'll see who's the tough guy."
Vince said nothing, all he did was glare at his opponent, tensed and ready to spring. Johnny hunched over, tensing as well. The two began to circle one another, sizing each other up. Vince knew that this komodo was no match for himself, for Vince had years of military hand-to-hand combat training, while this komodo, was nothing more than an untrained street thug. Johnny sprang, charging Vince at full speed, his tactic being to knock the dragon down, where he could pin him and pummel him. But Vince anticipated the move, and when Johnny was close enough, dropped down to all fours, bringing his long tail up and around, as fast as lighting, to smack the komodo in the face, momentarily stunning his opponent and stopping the charge. This gave Vince all the time he needed, and he followed up with a left handed punch to the gut, and a right forearm to the chin, knocking Johnny to the ground, where Vince then dropped a knee into Johnny's ribs and then grabbing hold of one of his arms, twisting it around his back, and using his other arm, grabbed hold of the back of the komodo's neck. Now that Vince had the komodo in a hold, he used his massive strength to lift the komodo with one hand, clear off the ground and slammed him into a nearby wall, pinning him there. A smile appeared on Vince's face as he went into what the general called 'torture mode'. It was an automatic thing for some soldiers, and Vince was about to torture Johnny when Jaylene's voice cut through the murderous instinct.
"Vince, stop this." She pleaded.
With a growl, Vince through the barely conscious lizard to the ground. He looked up at Jaylene, his breath now coming in shuddering heaves as his adrenaline wore down.
"I'm sorry Jay." He whispered.
Jaylene approached him and hugged him.
"It's ok V. You were only protecting me. Now lets get out of here, before we get arrested." She said.
At this moment, Pushrod came up to them, he was bleeding from a gash on the side of his snout, left from one of Johnny's claws.
"I have to agree man." He said, as he casually walked up and kicked the Komodo in the face, eliciting a satisfying cry of pain as blood spilled from Johnny's mouth, along with a couple of teeth.
Vince shook his head and said, "Come on Pushrod, let's get you back to my place, and I can fix that face of yours up. Luckily I will be able to keep it from becoming a scar, but I'm afraid I won't be able to fix your ugliness."
"Fuck you man." Said Pushrod with a laugh, and the three of them walked away, and out of the mall, just in time as security went running into the food court.