Loves Old and Young
This article is a part of Spooktober 2024 and is still a work in progress. Written for the Ancient prompt.Contains very minor hints at sexual behavior at the end. "How many places have you been to?" Laura exclaimed as she looked at the small display of artifacts that Damon kept in his house. He sprawled on the couch behind her, smiling at her awe, and took a slow sip from his wine glass while still holding hers aloft. "At this point I think almost all of them," he replied. "Though several no longer exist anymore from when I visited them and are new countries, so I'm not certain how to count them." Laura Reynolds, his girlfriend of a few months, was barely twenty years old but like many of the women coming out of the 1960s she was fiery, vibrant, and vocal on civil rights. He had decided to enroll at UCLA in '62 as a History major with a minor in Latin after having spent most of his time up until then in either Egypt or several Middle Eastern countries. His entire goal had been a refresher on what had been happening across the world since he had kept his head down, especially during both Great Wars. Laura was there as a Politcal Science major and he had apparently caught her eye when he had shown up one of the many political discourses on campus in '63. She had pursued him aggressively for two years before he had finally acknowledged her tenacity and done what he had never done in all of his three centuries of life: Damon had revealed himself and all that he was to her after going on a few truly wonderful dates. "This is amazing," she breathed, fingertips reaching out to touch the carved head of a jade horse. "These are things you would normally only see in a museum." Shrugging, Damon said, "A few of the things that I've owned over the years are in museums, though they're all under assumed names or charities at this point. I spent a lot of time travelling across Egypt as an archaeologist during the twenties and thirties, and most of that was given to museums." Laura spun to stare at him and asked in awe, "Tutankhamun?" Damon laughed and held her wine glass out towards her as a gesture for her to join him on the couch. As she did, sitting with one leg folded under her, he replied, "Unfortunately, no, I wasn't on Carter's team or anywhere near it. My friend, Walter Mosley, and I were in Giza trying to see if there was anything of value in already plundered tombs." Taking a sip of his wine, he grinned against the glass as he added, "I was, however, there when they discovered a passage under the Sphinx in '26, though it was seemingly forgotten about when I came back to help consult on repairs the Egyptians did in '31." She shook her head, wide-eyed, and then asked, "How old are you? Really?" Smiling, Damon rested the bottom of his wine glass down on his knee and said quietly, "I was born the year that Cromwell finally took Ireland for the English crown. Not entirely sure of the month as that wasn't tracked during those days - especially for a family of farmers - except it was summer according to my father. So, minus that, I'm three hundred and fifteen years old." "You're ancient!" Bursting out into laughter, Damon stated, "To you, perhaps, Laura. My grandsire was there during the fall of Tenochtitlan and my great-grandsire was born around 3000 BC in Egypt." "Is that why you decided to go to Egypt?" Laura asked, her eyes as round as saucers at the revelation of how small his years were in comparison to others. "Because of her?" "Not really but it was an interesting bit of insight into who she might have once been," Damon replied. "I've never actually met any of my bloodfamily beyond my own sire and she left me after my first two years as a vampire. Most of what I know of them is what I've gathered from others over the years." He chuckled, shrugging slightly. "I've turned into as much of a historical researcher of my own kind as of mortals during my life. Sometimes I find hints of those left behind pasts, of the mortals that they were before, but only if they still use their true names. And then usually only if they were important in society." "My grandsire," he continued, "for instance, was a Jaguar warrior and I once stumbled across a fragment that I believe is his birth name. It's not the name that he's gone by since he gained his particular reputation, so few know him by it. I only know because my sire let it slip once." Laura laughed and said, "No wonder you're a history major, you're practically walking history yourself." "True but there are gaps in my knowledge," Damon pointed out. "For example, I knew about the Colonies being established as I was still in the British Isles around that time but little about their history beyond what came across the ocean. Over the 1800s I didn't stay put for very long in any one place and just saw the world, exploring cultures and sometimes running for my life when I poked my nose a little too deep." He then gestured towards the jade horse she had been looking at before and added, "I did spend some time in my sire's homeland and that was where I picked up that little beauty. She taught me a little of her language while we were together but mostly just enough to tell someone that I didn't understand them. Gambling, however, is a valid language in and of itself and I won that in a particularly vicious game of cards that very nearly got at least one man stabbed." "And you were in Egypt in the early 1900s," she stated, after taking a sip from her wineglass. "What about before coming here?" "Wandering the Middle East," he replied, "and searching for their archaeological sites. Not to catalogue them like I was doing in Egypt but simply to see what remained of them and to see if I could find evidence of my own kind in what might have been left behind. I visited Petra, the Roman Theatre of Amman, the Citadel of Aleppo, the Tower of Silence in Yzad, Masada Fortress, and so many more." Damon then grimaced and stated, "A great deal of both World Wars was spent with me dodging the parts of the war that were happening in the region. Thankfully, by the time it was the 40s, I was fluent in Masri and Khaleeji and that allowed me to get around however I needed to. I greased a lot of palms with money and words in order to keep as far away from the conflict as I could during that period." He noticed she was looking at him in confusion and asked, "What?" "In what languages?" "Oh!" Laughing, he explained, "Egyptian and Gulf Arabic." Laura stared at him in something like awe before holding up a hand, saying, "Hold on, we'll come back to that. So...Middle East." Shrugging, Damon took a sip of his wine and replied, "The war ended and I moved on. It felt like new battles were happening everywhere I looked and I didn't want to watch the region I had grown to love collapse into chaos. So, I left." Bitterly, he spat, "It infuriates me what's being done to the people of the region and I try to help as I can but I am merely a man. Admittedly an immortal one but I don't have the power to solve their problems." He then took a breath and continued, "I went to London in...'54, I think? There's a vampire who was living there then who had begun making identification papers for the Jewish fleeing in the years before the war, when that really started to matter. He made me valid paperwork for emmigrating to America and I traveled the states on foot for a while before I ended up here in California." Smiling, Damon added somewhat morosely, "The dry land and heat on this side of the country remind me of Egypt a little, so it seemed the place to settle for a while." Smiling, Laura leaned forward to set her wineglass down on the coffee table and then inched across the couch towards him. His eyes instantly fixated on one of her hands as it settled on his thigh as she stated in a sultry tone, "I've noticed that you like the heat. Like a great big cat." Damon growled deep in his chest as he keyed onto her intentions and leaned forward to set his own wineglass down, deliberately leaning into her space as he did so. She nipped at his throat and he instinctively snapped his teeth at the air, one hand flashing up to wrap around her delicate jaw faster than her mortal eyes could see. Laura's heartbeat was jackrabbit fast against his thumb as he pressed it to her pulsepoint but not from fear. There was no fear in her, not in his vibrant love. No, it was excitement and arousal that had her heart racing so fast. He pressed his lips against hers in a gentle kiss as he held her like that and then whispered, "You really should be afraid of me, love." Laura grinned and pushed forward slightly to kiss him back. As she leaned back to relieve the pressure on her throat, she said, "Why would I when I feel safest with you?" Damon shook his head slightly, shifting his hand to cup her face as the other pulled her forward into his lap. As she settled, her thighs pressed tightly on either side of his own, he said, "I feel like I should give thanks to a deity for bringing you to me at the right time but that would require me to believe in one." She laughed and stood up on her knees, leaning her body into his while wrapping her arms around his shoulders. "Pray to them all then," she suggested. Laura then ducked her head, kissing him fiercely, and whispered, "Take me to bed, Damon." "Daman," he replied even as he stood from the couch, easily lifting her in his arms with his enhanced strength. "Daman Ó Conaill was the name I was born with." "Daman," she said with a sigh, her head pressed against his. "My ancient love." Snorting, he asked, "Are you going to call me ancient to annoy me from here on out?" as he carried her towards his bedroom. He felt her smile into his temple and burst out laughing, turning his face up to kiss her. "You are! How cruel of you!" "You love me for it," Laura said with a bright laugh. Damon smiled and kissed her again, replying, "I do indeed."
Timeframe: 1965
Location: Los Angeles, California
Event: Damon O'Connell has a talk with his girlfriend Laura Reynolds about many details in his life, including how old he is and how many places he has visited over his three hundred years of life. When he sounds slightly morose from talking about his past, she makes a move to distract him from his thoughts by focusing on more carnal thoughts.
Consquences: Damon O'Connell and Laura Reynolds relationship begins to deepen, eventually leading to him even going so far as to consider asking her if she would become a vampire to be with him forever.
Eight years junior to his brother, Daman was still a child when his brother suddenly disappeared without a trace. After losing their father to illness, he managed on his own until meeting Yen Xiang Jun who would eventually become his sire in the 1670s. When she returned to her own sire, Malloy, he began to wander the world, becoming an archaeologist in the 1920s amongst other odd jobs.
A political science major that Damon O'Connell met while studying at UCLA in the 1960s, where she learned what he was and became his girlfriend for the better part of a decade. After realizing she didn't want to try and live forever, they broke things off but remained friends to the point that Damon stood at her wedding to Richard Fairfield (causing a small scandal amongst her family). They remain friends to this day.
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