Chapter Text
She ran. Like a coward. No fight, nothing. That was not like her. Not like her at all. THat was not what she trained for for so long! All those years in the military, all for nothing. She was strong. She could take many in a fight, but that day, she was helpless. What started off as a peaceful walk to clear her mind turned into the event that changed her life permanently.
Avid was crazy. Insane. There was no other word for it. Or that’s what she thought. That’s what they all thought, but that they. She was proven wrong. As she saw Scott approach the herd, she didn’t think much of it. Maybe he just needed food like the rest of them, the village couldn’t possibly supply for them all. It turned out that food is exactly what he had been up to, though not in the traditional space.
He drank the cow’s blood. Right in front of her eyes. At first, she didn’t want to believe it, she must have been seeing things, but the longer she watched the longer it became apparent to her that Avid was not, in fact, as crazy as he looked.
Her instincts were to run. To run and not to look back, to tell the others and to escape. She couldn’t possibly stand her own against a vampire, that was ridiculous. Except Scott noticed her. Noticed her as she was standing there behind some bush, like a scarecrow in a wheat field; immobile and stoic. She should have ran. She should have, but she didn’t. Maybe then, she could have saved herself, but it was too late. She ran, but she didn’t even fight. She had a weapon on her, but at that very moment, that fact slipped off of her mind completely. All she could focus on was the vampire before her, looking at her like she was some sort of a prey, which she supposed, at that very moment, she was.
She froze completely. At least her mind did. Instead of utilising years of training, she just– stood there. And let Scott drink her blood. She didn’t remember much more than that, but it was obvious what had happened when she tried to eat bread for breakfast the next day. It tasted like ash on her tongue, causing her to spit it out immediately. Her head was spinning and she was sure that she was running a fever, so instead of trying to find something else to eat, she went right back to her bed to try and get some more rest.
Oh Apo, you can’t run forever~
That’s the thing, you will not be telling anyone.
Do you like your roommate?
If you want him to stay alive and well, I’d suggest you keep your mouth shut.
Did I make myself clear?
Apo woke up gasping for air. She sat up on her bed to reassure that she really was in her room.
Right. So that happened. She remembered finally. She was threatened into silence. Or maybe not threatened, more like manipulated. Scott was a dangerous man, that one was clear. She might have not known exactly what he was capable of, but she could imagine. Still, she didn’t have to run like that. She had only known Pyro for a few days, why would she just do this for him and how was he connected to the elder vampire anyway? She would have to talk to him at some point, to figure out what was going on, but before that, she had to figure out the whole ‘i am a vampire now’ thing. Her theory was that she did fully grasp it yet, because she felt like if she had, she wouldn’t have been so calm about it.
Surviving on raw meat was surprisingly easy; all she had to do was snatch some as the others slaughtered the little livestock they had in the town and hide it in her room. If she ignored the way her stomach turned, the way her hands school and the way her eyes twitched at the sight of leftover blood, she was doing just fine. She tried hard to not focus on the more long term situation she found herself in, instead focusing on the now.
Nobody noticed any change of behaviour in her, as far as she was aware, so that was a plus, as long as she kept getting away with eating by herself, it was all good. It didn’t really help that Pyro alongside with Scott went ‘missing,’ she was one of the suspects, but seeing as there wasn’t really a time where she went outside the town with either of them, it was more because of the fact that Pyro so happened to be her roommate. Speaking of Pyro, she’d be lying to say that she wasn’t worried about him. She was not stupid, connecting the dots wasn’t difficult for her. Scott turned her into a vampire, and threatened to harm Pyro. What was there to indicate that Pyro wasn’t already a vampire and staying somewhere else? It didn’t escape her that Scott's eyes were crimson colored, almost blood-like. Really, it was pretty easy to notice, and if Pyro’s eyes were that colored as well, it would make sense for him to try and avoid the town as much as possible. That led her to another train of thought; were her eyes also red? She couldn’t really check in the mirror, she couldn’t see her reflection, but judging by the fact that none of the townsfolk noticed anything, she assumed that that wasn’t the case. In conclusion, more was necessary to acquire red eyes other than being a vampire, and she might just have the idea what it was.
If her theory was correct, Pyro was definitely a vampire, and Scott was not a good person, meaning taking him out wouldn’t be a bad thing, if only she could figure out how. And when, and how to do it so that the other wouldn’t notice. As far as they were aware, nothing like vampires existed, and thinking so would only mark one as crazy, example given Avid.
Speaking of Avid, he said he was a vampire hunter, which probably meant that he knew how to kill a vampire… She couldn’t be suspicious about it, but she could go ask him and then put a plan to work. Drift also seemed inclined to the possible existence of the unnatural, or maybe she just liked Avid, but if she could get on their side… Still, getting rid of Scott was not going to be easy, but most importantly, it’s not really going to solve the issue. It was pretty obvious that none of them were leaving, the strange beacons an indication of that, so something else had to be done to let them all out. There was a crimson red beacon, or at the very least, that was what Apo had heard from the others, that being Martyn and Cleo, and they said that the air felt heavy around those. Combining that knowledge with the fact that the air felt heavy around the town beacon for her, she realised quickly that the crimson beacons were turned by vampires.
If those really were preventing them from leaving, either all vampires would have to die, or all the humans would have to be turned. Her stomach tightened at that, filling her with an uncomfortable sensation, cold and sharp, making her shiver. Were she still a human, the choice would have been obvious, but now that she was one of the creatures of the night… Cherri was waiting for her back home– She knew that she was being selfish, she knew what was right to do, yet she couldn't decide… It’s not like the humans would all die.
She saw a small bird– no, not a bird, a bat flying on the other side to the humans and straight into the castle ahead. That was strange, to say the very least. What kind of a bat would fly like that… A thought occurred to her that maybe it was not a bat, more a vampire… One that was in town beforehand… She ran through the options in her head; the only person that hung out with, say Pyro closer, was Owen. and she also so that He, Scott, Pyro and Shelby went outside that night when Martyn bragged about turning all the beacons… So it could be Shelby also, but she wasn’t in town that very day. She wasn’t in town the day before too, now that Apo thought about it. Was she a vampire as well?
That was a lot of vampires, more than she thought there was, making the decision even harder… It didn’t take long for the humans to cross the bridge and run at the ruins, weapons in hand. And just as anticipated, the vampires showed up from somewhere underground, right on que. Scott, Pyro, Shelby and Owen. So she was right. She clocked them all. Too late, it wasn’t going to be of any help to her now. It also meant that the others knew, which meant that they were going to be more cautious about vampires, which meant that she was going to have to be a lot more careful in town. Just what she needed. Her situation was hard to manage to begin with, this was just the last straw.
She stayed in the shadows of the trees, watching as a fight between the humans and the vampires evolved. She didn’t really see what had happened to Drift, Avid and Ren as those three were chased by Owen and Shelby to the other side of the hill, but she saw as Scott fought Martyn and Pyro thought Cleo. She wished she could have helped, but it was safer that she didn’t. For herself, she couldn’t give herself away just yet. She saw Martyn fall off the cliff and almost gasped, only her hands preventing her from making a sound and giving herself away. She saw that Cleo fell too, not off of a cliff, but to the floor. She couldn’t see from her hiding spot what had happened, but she had to pray and hope that the farmer was going to be alright. Since the remaining two vampires were no longer focused on the young noble who laid below the cliff, she took it as her sign to go help him, if there was still time. Martyn wasn’t moving, but there was still a chance that he was just unconscious.
The river crossing was going to be a problem. Apo stopped before it, thinking of a way she could cross it while staying intact. She could always swim, the bigger problem was going to be getting the noble back to the other side. She remembered briefly seeing the bat—Owen—and thought that perhaps she too, could turn into a bat. She had no clue how, but she was able to figure out how her fangs worked, and that was fairly intuitive, so she had high hopes of it working out only by thinking about it. Worst case scenario, she'd waste a few precious seconds. She closed her eyes and imagined herself turning into a bat as if that would help somehow and then waited for something to happen. Nothing did. She tried again, this time thinking about how her bat form flew across the river. Still nothing. That wasn't good. One last time, she squinted her eyes as hard as she could and ran. Towards the river and it– worked? It worked! Well, that was fairly simple then. At least there was that. One good thing in a sea of the bad ones that came with vampirism; at least it was not hard to figure stuff out.
It took her several moments to recollect herself and to not fall to the river, but she managed eventually, flapping her wings sloppily. It was fairly intuitive just like retracing her fangs, but it would definitely take some practice. A lot of practice. A lot of practise she was not willing to go through. This was for emergencies and for emergencies only. Just because she could do it didn't mean she was gonna do it. She was still very much angry at Scott for making her into what she was and making her life harder in the process. She was going to show him just how angry she was and prove that she could do much more than run soon, but now she had to help Martyn.
Sloppily, she got to the other side and gripped the noble's coat with her paws. She realised then that perhaps she wouldn't have enough strength to carry him as a bat. That she should have accounted for before even attempting to fly over the river… Nonetheless, Apo tried to fly up with Martyn. She could feel the extra strain on her, making her wings hurt, but she discovered that she did have her full strength even as this little creature. Still though, her grip on the man was slipping. She only likely had a few seconds before she dropped him, if not less than that. As quickly as she could manage, Apo flew across the river still holding Martyn, and just as anticipated, she did drop him after about five seconds. It probably hurt, on the other hand, they were on the other side. Somewhat. Martyn laid half on the coast half in the water, and Apo transformed back in a way that her boots were currently full of water. Exactly what she wanted to avoid, but that wasn't important. Not right then.
Kneeling down next to the unconscious noble, she leaned in to check his heartbeat and whether he was breathing. To her relief, he was, but he wouldn't be for long if she didn't do something about the bleeding. It was only then that she noticed the red liquid pouring out of her comrades' sides. There was a bit on his head too, but that didn't look deep… One way or another, it was still enough to make her stomach twist and turn uncomfortably. It made her want to throw up immediately, but she had to get over it, if only for a few minutes. She shut her eyes and breathed in slowly in order to calm herself down, just like she was taught at the military. Deep breaths and clear her mind.
There was nothing she had on herself that she could use to stop the bleeding other than her bolero jacket that was made out of some strange fabric that was hopefully absorbent. She took it off quickly and used the middle section to plug the wound and the sleeves to wrap it around Martyn’s torso so that there was pressure on it. It was far from ideal, but it would have to do. It wasn't severe bleeding, he had a little bit of time before he lost too much blood to the point where it was irreversible, but the point still stood, she had to get him to the doctor as soon as possible.
Technically, she knew that lifting Martyn up was a bad idea, it could reopen the wound she tried to plug with the fabric, but did she have a choice? With a bit of manoeuvring, she managed to slump Martyn over her back and then she wasted no time before heading towards the town. She couldn't exactly run, Martyn was heavy, she was lucky that she spent so much time in military training that she could actually lift him let alone carry him. She had to take breaks here and there, but the town was close. So close that she could see it from where she was. That was a good sign.
“Doctor!” She shouted as loudly as she could, she was almost out of breath. She noticed that either the vampirism, or perhaps the adrenaline of the situation enhanced her strength to a degree, but it was not enough to let her carry a person and scream at the same time without breathing heavily. When nobody showed up, she decided to make a run for it. The time was slowly running out and she refused to fail at the last second. She collected all of her strength and just went full speed. Her muscles were burning, her heart was probably racing and breathing would have to wait; she had a mission and she refused to fail. Legundo was probably asleep, so he didn’t hear her yell.
“Doctor! Legs!” She shouted again with her last breath before she dropped to the ground. She was pretty sure she was having some sort of asthma attack or something with how heavily she was breathing. She tried to calm herself down, tried to slow the breathing down by prolonging each inhale. She heard shuffling from inside the house. Good.
Just as Legs opened the door confused, she didn’t wait a second before quickly trying to explain what had happened.
“Martyn! He fell of a cliff and hit his side and he is bleeding a lot and I think he might die please help I can give him blood if he needs any please just help him I tried wrapping the wound up but I didn’t do a good job—”
“Caml down. Take a deep breath." Legundo instructed as he kneeled down next to her. And she did. It probably should have helped, but what it did instead was the complete opposite; she started choking. On air?! She tried taking a deep breath again. But it didn’t seem to really help. Legundo turned to look at her with concern, but she quickly began pointing at the dying noble next to her.
“Martyn, help him.” The words came out surprisingly clear despite the catching. Was it because she had to hold her breath in? She tried doing it again as she watched Legundo pick Martyn up and carry him inside, setting him onto a bed. Apo stood up to follow him. Still holding her breath. She’d guess she wouldn’t be able to hold it for so long, given that she just ran several hundred meters with a human on her back, but it seemed that she was doing just fine, not even an indication of struggle. Well, that was certainly strange…
Just to see what would happen, Apo held her breath for ten more seconds, then ten more, and another ten and– did she not need to breathe?! Was that a vampire thing that she didn’t know about? It’d certainly be nice to know before traveling a mile with Martyn on her back!
“Okay, what is your blood type?” Legundo’s calm, raspy voice pulled her out of her head.
“O.” She answered. They tested that in the military.
“Perfect. Would you be willing to give him some blood?”
“I- sure. It’s just, can I not watch?” The adrenaline of the situation began wearing off and just at the mention of blood, Apo felt like throwing up again.
“That’s fine.” Apo averted her eyes as she felt the doctor take her arm. The sun was beginning to rise.
“I’d hope so.” Apo responded dryly. She didn’t like the fact that she was now alone with Scott going away from everyone and everything without any sort of a plan, but there was no helping it, so she might as well get a grip on herself and not act like a coward this time around.
“Okay. So how are you?” Scott asked with a smile on his face.
“Bad, thanks for asking.”
“No worries.” Apo rolled her eyes at that.
“I didn’t really tell you anything about vampirism, so I was wondering whether you had something you wanted to know.”
That was totally what this was about.
“I’m fine on my own, thanks. Is that all you wanted to ask?” Apo frowned with annoyance.
“Not really.” Scott switched to serious again. “See, the beacons are making it kinda hard to leave, and I really don’t want to stay here for longer than necessary. That being said, you have two options. Either join the vampires, or die with the town.”
“What?” It made sense what Scott said, but it was a lot at once. She had no clue how to respond to that. For the past few days, that was the thing that was living rent free in her head.
“You heard me the first time around.”
“I did.” Apo nodded. “What makes you think that you can kill the whole town?”
“Don’t underestimate me.” The elder vampire chuckled. “We both know what happened the last time we saw each other. I guarantee you, I have only gotten stronger since then.”
Apo stayed silent at that.
“Well I’ll give you three days to decide, if you fail to do so, I'll take it you are on the side of the town.”
“Right.” Apo uttered through her teeth.
“Yeah. So anything new in town?” Scott put on the cheery persona again, Apo could swear that each time he did it, it became progressively more annoying.
“As if I would ever tell you.”
“C’mon. I wasn’t there for a long time. Did everyone return safely? It would be a shame if not.” The last bit, Scott added more quietly with the ironic kind of smile on his face.
“They did, as a matter of fact.” Apo knew she should just stay quiet and not give Scott the satisfaction of knowledge, but she couldn’t help but taunt him a little.
“Even Martyn? And here I thought that was one human down. I guess it’s too bad.” At that, Apo couldn’t help but scoff a little. He did, indeed, return to the town safely. Very safely.
“Something the matter?” Scott seemed to pick up on the changes of facial expressions.
“No.”
“So let me guess, you were the one to drag Martyn all the way back here. I was wondering who was stupid enough.”
Apo had half a mind to just deny all that, but she knew that it was no use. She was a terrible liar, and Scott was good at reading people like they were open books.
“I take that as a yes. You really should learn how to keep a conversation going. I also can’t help but notice the lovely patrols you have going for yourselves, how sweet. Whose idea was it?”
“Martyn’s.” Apo didn’t see the harm in telling Scott that much, it was not like it was some top level secret or anything. The noble himself would likely brag about it, were he there with them.
“Ohh? That’s interesting. So he’s well enough to command people again I see.”
“Not commanded, he takes turns too.” Apo wasn’t sure why she said that, it was not like the noble was her favourite person in the town that she needed to defend him…
“So he’s fine enough to walk then.” The elder vampire’s brows furrowed for a second. “Did he need medical attention after you brought him back?”
Apo stayed silent again, she didn’t want to risk enclosing anything else.
“So he did. You are easy to read, Apokuna, maybe work on that if you want to avoid answering questions.” Scott remarked, but he was no longer looking at her, rather staring somewhere into the distance.
“Why does that all even matter?”
“No reason important to you.” Scott answered her question, voice distant. “Did he need a blood transfusion?”
“Wha-”
“Did you give him your blood?” Scott turned to her sharply, cutting her off. He looked angry, not at her, just in general.
“I- I did? Is that a problem?” Apo was confused.
“Not at all, just surprising.” Scott calmed down.
“It was a problem?”
“Don’t you worry about it, it’s nothing of too much importance. You should go back to town, I am waiting for the answer, choose wisely.”
“Why does me giving Martyn my blood matter?”
“Go back to town and don’t test your luck.” Scott spoke through his teeth. “Enjoy your day.” He added with his nice voice again before turning into a bat and leaving Apo alone nearby the town. The sun was already in the sky, meaning that people were likely to start waking up soon, so reluctantly, Apo returned to the town. She had a lot of thinking to do. That and she had to get a hold of Pyro. He came there during the night. If Ren weren’t there, she would have talked to him, but she couldn’t give herself away. As far as the townsfolk was concerned, she gave up on Pyro the moment it was revealed he was a vampire.