Chapter Text
—
By the time I get to the top of the hill, the hunters have already left. So, I have to walk home alone. How fun.
They most definitely know I was messing around with a vampire. I wasn’t going to, but Brendon was who I found, and he was incredibly attractive. Who could resist a man with such deep brown eyes and pouty lips?
I sure as hell can’t.
My neck stings and I know it’ll hurt like a bitch later, but the thought of getting bit again makes me shiver.
I think I’ll have to find Brendon again.
I walk for a while in silence before getting to the hunters base, and I can hear yelling. Probably Pete talking about how I didn’t do my job as bait. There’s only one entrance to this place so I can’t even try to sneak in from a different way and hope that they don’t hear me. I’ll have to deal with them yelling at me.
I sigh and enter the building anyways and they all go quiet for a moment, turning to me.
“Sorry.” I apologize, not sincerely, and they can tell.
Pete’s the first one to start scolding me, he always is.
“Ryan! How do you always do the one fucking thing we tell you not to? You could turn now!” Pete growls. I hate it when he growls, it makes him more annoying than he already is.
“Well, I feel absolutely fine. I’m not turning.” I huff back.
“But you could have! You always do this then expect us to not get mad at you when you go around playing with vampires, like it’s not the only thing we aren’t supposed to do!”
“But you’re a vampire, so technically we are playing around with vampires.”
That makes Pete mad, he's gritting his teeth and I look down to see his fists clenching. It makes me grin and I want to provoke him further, but before I can, Patrick starts to talk and moves in front of Pete.
“I think what Pete is saying is that we were all really worried about you and thought you were dying or getting turned. You’re a part of the team and we can’t afford to lose anyone, right guys?” Patrick looks to Andy and Joe, they nod.
“It’s not the first time we ended up losing a vampire, we always have another time.” Andy smiles, but I can tell he’s disappointed.
Patrick turns to Pete and puts his arms on his shoulders, rubbing them gently. “We can always catch more vampires another time, yeah?” Patrick softly talks to Pete as if he couldn’t hear what Andy said.
Pete and Patrick definitely have something going on.
Joe and Andy look at the two men awkwardly and start to leave, so I leave too. I do not want to be a part of whatever they have going on.
When we all leave, Joe turns to me and basically blocks me from moving anywhere else.
I can’t even ask Andy for help because he’s already left this room too.
“Don’t mess shit up next time, okay?” Joe stares at me like I kicked his puppy.
I just shrug and mutter out “I’ll try.”
“Don’t just say that you’ll try, because we all know that you aren’t going to.”
“Joe, I’m not in the mood for this right now. I already got scolded by Pete. I think that’s enough for today.”
“But it’s clearly not getting into your head!” Joe taps a finger on his head.
Before I can respond, Joe continues. “We keep thinking that you’ll actually try when you say you will, but you always end up coming to the base with a stupid bite and acting like you don’t do it on purpose!”
“It just happens.” I look away without much more to say. I’m not in the mood to tell anyone I enjoy the pain.
“Bullshit! Just–” Joe pauses, taking a moment to calm down. He takes a deep breath before speaking again “Please, actually do your job as bait next time.”
I feel bad now, at least a little bit. I probably won’t when I’m chosen as bait again.
“Yeah… Sorry.” I mutter and Joe moves out of the way for me and I just walk away.
I go over to my room in the base, I’ve made the area quite nice and comfortable compared to where I used to live. Even though I go out of the way to not listen to a single word that my group makes, I do actually appreciate the fact that they let me stay here a lot.
Not that I’ll ever say that to them. Especially not Pete, but that’s just because I don’t like him.
I take off most of my clothes, shivering as a gust of cold air hits me. When I’m only in my boxers I plop down onto my bed and get under the covers, letting out a sigh.
I wonder if I could find Brendon again tonight, just as me and not bait.
I think I’ll try to look for him later.
—
It’s still dark out when I get home, which is good ‘cause I won't have to try to not get burned.
But the building is quiet. Which means that I’m back home really early, at least compared to the other dandies.
I thought that the time I had with Ryan was longer than a hunt, but apparently not.
|I wish it was though, especially if that was my only time I’ll ever see him.
The only time I felt that way with anyone else was with Sarah. We were married, gonna have kids.
Then I got bit.
I didn’t want to risk harming her, so I let her think I was dead. Which is really shitty, but I couldn’t control myself as well when humans were near. So it was for the better and I know that, I just wish I could have said goodbye.
It’s been years now, there’s no need to keep talking about it.
I go over to a mirror and look at myself.
Nowadays mirrors aren’t made with silver. So I can look at myself, which I appreciate a ton. Especially with the realization of how terribly put together I was.
I lean in close and look at my teeth, my canines are disgustingly huge. Even compared to the other vampires.
I run my tongue over them lightly before backing away from the mirror and walk more into the building.
Down the hallway there’s a few rooms, all of the Dandies share a room with someone else and there's about 14 Dandies in total. Which isn’t that much compared to how many members there are of the Mohawks or the Hood Vampires. Our place is just small, so that’s why we share rooms.
I actually think that the other covens are all spread around town instead of one place. That would be nice, to be spread out in town like them. Maybe I’d get my own apartment and finally have a place all to myself again.
I should talk to William about that, or try to get a room to myself like I used to have.
I get to my room and open the door gently, and I see that someone is actually home. The roommate Will gave me a few weeks back. I think his name was Spencer?
He turned recently, and William took him under his wing like he always does if he sees someone get turned. Although it’s kind of him, I lost being one of the only people without a roommate.
“Oh, hi Brendon.” The kid looks up to me and then his lap.
“Why aren’t you out with the others?” I hum and walk into the room and close the door behind me.
“I didn’t want to go. Killing people still makes my stomach churn.”
“You can bite people without killing them.” I shrug and sit on my own bed, across from his.
Spencer stays silent for a moment with his eyebrows furrowing.
“So, why do we?” He looks at me confused.
I understand his confusion, I was lost for the first 2 years of being turned, and he’s only been like this for weeks.
“There’s a chance they’ll get turned into a vampire and last time one of us didn’t kill our prey, they turned. According to another Dandie, he’s out to kill all of us now. So it’s just safer to kill them.” I shrug, recalling what Michael had said to me the other day.
Spencer nods, so I lay down and look up to the ceiling.
“Could you come with me for food later?” Spencer asks and I turn my head in his direction.
“Has William not shown you the ropes?”
“He did, I was too scared at the moment to really pay attention…”
I chuckle at that, which makes Spencer pout. “Yeah I can come with you.” I smile at the boy and he smiles back.
“Could we talk more until then? I haven’t gotten along with anyone but William yet.”
“Yeah, we could.”
—
When I wake up, all I hear from outside is yelling. Probably Pete going on about how much he hates being a vampire and how badly he wants them all to die, it’s all he talks about.
I get out of the warm covers that were hugging me and quiver as the cold air in the room grazes against my body.
I get up and put on multiple layers of clothes, trying my best to make it stylish. If I’m gonna look for Brendon, I want to look decent.
By the time I’m done getting ready, Pete isn’t yelling anymore. Thank god that I don’t have to be the one getting yelled at today.
When I head into the kitchen area, Pete is sulking and drinking his fake blood and Patrick is sitting across from him talking. Joe and Andy aren’t out here, probably sleeping.
I look in the fridge and see a few hot dogs and a container of mac and cheese that looks radioactive. Does anyone here have an actual job? Or did Pete just use all of our food for his stupid drink?
I can already tell what a great day I’m going to have.
I take one of the hot dogs and cringe when the juice gets on my hand. I put it on a plate to put into the microwave, for a minute or two.
I go to the cabinet for a bun when the dog is cooking only to find that there is none, we don’t have any bread.
I clutch the cabinet and close my eyes to breathe. I really can't have anything in this base with Pete around.
Patrick probably notices that I’m pissy about not having a bun for my hot dog because he comes up to me and starts talking.
“Goodmorning, Ryan.” He hums and I turn to him, very clearly unimpressed.
“Morning.”
He looks behind me into the cabinet. “Andy’s gonna buy food tomorrow, sorry about the lack of food.” He looks at me tilting his head.
“It’s whatever, I’m still eating so it’s fine.” I mutter and go back to the microwave before it can start to beep at me.
I start to open and take my lonely hot dog outside of the microwave when Pat continues speaking. “Could you sit with me and Pete when you’re eating? We want to talk to you.” He states as if it’s more important than anything else I may have planned.
I pause for a moment, my fingertips starting to burn from how hot the plate I'm holding is. What could they possibly want to talk to me about with that tone?
“Yeah, sure.”
Patrick goes back to the table and I follow soon after with my hot dog and sit as far as I possibly can from them at the table.
They’re clearly waiting for me to start eating the hot dog before speaking, and I forgot to get a fork.
I didn’t want to get up again.
So I just grabbed the dog with my bare hands to eat.
Both of them look at me weird, but Pat starts to speak anyway.
“So me and Pete were talking and we decided something.” Patrick pauses and looks at me sympathetically.
My eyebrows knit together as I look at them. Pat’s acting like he’s kicking me out. If I have to pack up and leave I’m going to stab Pete.
“What?” I turn my head to the side slightly and take another bite of my food.
“We want you to go into town and find another person to become a hunter.” Pat speaks slowly and looks at Pete.
“Okay…? Is that all?” I look between the two men, puzzled.
Patrick was scaring me with how he was acting. There is no way that me getting a new member is that serious and needs that much empathy.
“Yeah, that’s all.” Pat scratches the back of his neck and looks at Pete.
This makes Pete finally talk. “I’m driving you into town later.” He mutters and I just nod, taking the last bite of my hot dog.
I need to wash my hands.