Nothing Like the First Time (short story)
| Nothing Like the First Time | |
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| Character(s) | Damali and Carlos |
| Date | Between November 1997 and August 1998 |
| Before | Minion |
| Location | L.A. California |
| Between the Books Navigation | |
| Previous Minion Prologue |
Next Minion: Special Huntress Edition |
Nothing Like the First Time is a prequel story in the Vampire Huntress Legend Sampler that covers Damali's foster fathers attempted sexual assault, how she escaped and encountered Carlos for the first time. This version of events differs from other retellings of it during the novels as it's told from a 15 year old Damali and 17 year old Carlos' perspective as opposed to them as adults looking back or re-living the memories. The story takes place some time between November 1997 and August 1998.
Synopsis[edit | edit source]
Damali is doing laundry in her foster-parents house when her drunk foster father comes down the stairs and physically assaults her. She grabs a pipe, hits him on the side of the skull and runs, stealing his wallet along the way.
She sees something with fangs moving in the shadows. As she's running, she's encountered by 5 gang members who pull up in a car and start harassing her and attempt to steal the wallet from her. They make a circle around her, she knows that she needs to escape so she swings (and misses) at the ring-leader (Renaldo) and then swings her left arm and breaks his jaw.
Renaldo's friends tease him before realizing he was seriously injured. They make their move on Damali and in the nick of time, Carlos shows up and fires shots. He tells them off for attempting to steal from a woman/kid. He introduces himself to Damali and she goes with him. He passes his brother, cousin and friends on the front porch of his house and pleads her case to his mother who reluctantly agrees to allow Damali to stay.
Alternate version: Minion[edit | edit source]
In minion, Damali reminisces about how Carlos was the one to tell her to run away. When her drunken foster father tried to assault her, she beat him and ran. Carlos giving Damali sass for being a hip hop girl in church clothes. She ran into Carlos' open arms, thinking he might be the one, before he blew up in the drug scene. Rumors of a shootout causing Damali to back off.
Alternate version: The Hunted[edit | edit source]
Damali hits her foster father in the jaw, shattering it. She ran and encountered several gang members who confronted her. Carlos showed up in a souped up red Chevy, in a black muscle shirt, black jeans with a red bandanna wrapped around his head, brandishing a huge silver glock and told her to get in.
Differences[edit | edit source]
The alternate version in Minion is in most ways the exact opposite of the version in the VHLS sampler booklet. The version in Minion doesn't go into as much detail and is a 20 year old Damali looking back, whereas the sampler is from the perspective of a 15 year old Damali and 17 year old Carlos. In the sampler, Carlos is already in the drug scene when Damali meets him and she doesn't meet him until after the attempted assault. Damali was apprehensive about Carlos when first meeting him but seemed to know he didn't mean her any harm. In the Awakening, Carlos thinks back on how he always had an obsessive need to protect Damali upon finding out she's a Neteru.
In The Hunted, Damali's foster father is Inez's uncle while in the pamphlet, she's Inez's step father. Inez's mother sent her to the states (from Rio) to have a better life, at the age of 16 while she saved up to eventually join her daughter. Inez was there for months when her foster father decided to start taking in foster kids to mane money off of it. The Hunted doesn't go into much detail but it doesn't imply that Carlos confronted or even knew the gang members. It also implies that Damali chose to get into Carlos' car in a way that implied they were still around.
Characters[edit | edit source]
Primary Characters[edit | edit source]
- Damali Richards-Rivera (Damali Richards at the time.)
- Carlos Rivera
Other Characters[edit | edit source]
- Inez Porter-Roberts (Inez Porter at the time, mentioned only.)
- Damali's foster-father
- (Inez's step-father Pamphlet)
- (Inez's uncle The Hunted)
- Carlos' mother
- Renaldo (gang member)
- Renaldo's brother
- 3 other un-named gang members
Mentioned, but not by name:
- Inez's foster-mother
- (Inez's mother Pamphlet)
- (Inez's aunt The Hunted)
- Alejandro Rivera (Carlos' brother)
- Julio (Carlos's cousin)
- Miguel (Carlos's close friend)
- Juan DeJesus (Carlos's best friend)
Cover Art Gallery[edit | edit source]
The Vampire Huntress Legend Sampler front Cover
The Vampire Huntress Legend Sampler back Cover
Timeline[edit | edit source]
- Prologue (Original & Special Huntress Edition)
- Nothing Like the First Time (Vampire Huntress Legend Sampler).
- Marlene and Shabazz picking Damali up off the streets (Special Huntress Edition).
- Intro chapter (Original).
- Rest of the book (Special Huntress Edition).
See Also[edit | edit source]
References[edit | edit source]
- [1] Product information.
- [2] Tweet about the story of how Carlos and Damali first met, posted to L.A. Banks' Myspace blog (Dead Link).
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