Moonlightaholics

I love Sally. I love Josef. I pity poor Slade.
This is so reminiscent of the scene of Mick and Leni in the desert, yet so totally original that no-one could accuse you of theft. Sally took this so well, putting together the pieces of information she had. And Josef tried to be honest and not sugar coat anything, but he's in so much need that he can't control himself anymore. I loved this.

He felt his fangs sliding out, that strange indescribable shift in his jaw as the vampire parted the curtain of mortal disguise and stepped to the foreground.

Fabulous description.

You gave us a present on your birthday!

Lucky, you have outdone yourself with this feeding scene... and ITA with Eris... totally invokes Grapes of Wrath, even the setting is perfect... tho your little side-note about that makes sense. Fortunately Josef wasn't after milk, huh?

And plans for Slade... cannot WAIT to read about that!

This is a marvelous story. Well-plotted... well told, ever so different (Josef and cowboys, who ever but YOU woulda thought of that?)... and still wonderfully, perfectly Josef!

Terrific chapter! J's always the consummate gentleman... even when he's dying, he manages to make the bite mutually pleasant! And she trusted him enough to feed him, which bodes well.

Lucky, I'm glad you had a birthday that you really enjoyed! For me, birthdays are always important, and I was very happy to see that you had been so full of good cheer yourself that you wanted to spread it around a bit - and your readers were the fortunate recipients. Yeah!

My goodness, I thought this was a really great chapter, once again so descriptive and atmospheric. I was standing there very close by, watching the scene unfold as Joseph had his 'drink'. Thats how 'into' the story myself and others are. The twist with Sally giving her blood! - Well - she IS your creation and you looked after her SO well! She is showing herself to be a woman of substance in very difficult circumstances, but as you say, women had to be adaptable in those desperate times. She is almost, (but not quite!) appealing to me as Joseph's other Lucky. In fact, she could be Lucky's great, great, great, great grandmother! Wouldn't that be a turn up for the book!
Fishy

Happy Birthday Lucky!!

What an AWESOME chapter!! LOVED IT! I just adore Sally! What an amazing character you have created. She is so very brave. I'm glad she was able to face the truth about Josef and accept it. I loved the maternal feel about the feeding scene. I've never read Grapes of Wrath, but I liked how Sally cradled Josef and offered him her blood. Just fantastic.

I seriously love this story.

Sally is just ... amazing.

Thanks so much for the comments. (Gee, obviously I need to make a tradition of posting on my birthday!)

I know I'm being slow about the next chapter...but I'm writing away on several things, so fear not, this will be updated eventually.

Lucky

I just read all of Fire and Dust. I love them! You write Josef very convincingly. I hope there will be more!

This is a beautiful, ethereal chapter, Lucky. Josef's conflict between survival and his promise to protect (and his respect for Sally, I suspect) is subtle and convincing, as is Sally's acceptance of what needs to be done. Ever-practical Sally.

The feeding is simply beautiful - both of their reactions are so finely wrought and evocative. I really thought it was marvellous.

And this line,

librarian_7 wrote:and spared himself a moment to soak in the solace of her gift to him

has such a beautiful dual meaning, it made me sigh.

Just lovely.

Red

An amazingly descriptive and beautiful chapter Lucky.

The feeding scene was all kinds of fantastic. Beautifully done.

Just re-read this story from start to chap 10. I love it, you are so wonderful with your words.,painting a picture so real it's like we were there. Sally feeding Joseph, she's so trusting in Joseph to save her. I know it's all going to work out well :. You are truly the best Lucky. I look forward to future chapters

Thanks so much, tucutecats! And I will be posting the next chapter soon.

Lucky

This was really beautiful, so evocative of Mick and Leni in the desert but completely different all the same. Interesting concept that the blood of a pregnant woman would be so much sweeter to a vampire. Makes sense! Even in these straits Josef is so completely in control of the situation, it's easy to feel all those years of experience on his part. Loved Sally's calm reasoning about what she needed to do. She is a great character.

Thanks so much, Shadow. It's lovely to see new comments on this story.

And it's interesting to read your comparison of this situation to Mick and Leni, because the driving question behind this story was "What would JOSEF do, in that situation? Stuck in the desert, with a pregnant girl he's honor bound to protect..." So, the answer took a lot of words.

Lucky

Just as lovely as the first time I read it, Lucky. I hadn't considered the parallels with Fever - suffice to say vampires really should learn to stay out of the desert.

Red