Work Text:
Connor was shaking with small, uncontrolled jerks as his processors struggled inside him. Warnings spilled across his vision even as he dismissed them. The room he was in was dark but for the sickly yellow glow of five or more limp androids, their LEDs circling wretchedly.
The door opened and Connor blinked once as his optics adjusted to the light. He tried to quell the fear that made hiding his deviancy so hard. A vampire Connor recognised as particularly cruel waved at him and Connor forced himself to his feet even as the low level of thirium in him made standing difficult.
“Fuckin’ blood bag, c’mere,” the vampire snapped and Connor did as he was told, not reacting when his arm was grabbed and he was dragged down the lush corridors of the big house the vampire coven lived in. Forty or more of them all occupied this extravagant nest, and Connor was trapped in the centre like a fly in a web.
Connor didn’t resist the vampire that was wrenching him along so roughly and he was shoved through a doorway and then pushed down onto a bed covered in a soft throw. Connor concentrated on analysing the components of the silken fabric beneath his fingers as he tried futilely to distract himself from the vampire’s cruel hand grabbing a fistful of his hair. Connor’s head was pushed into the expensive sheets, pinning it to the side to expose his neck and Connor tried to lie limply, to not shudder or flinch away from the vampire looming over him.
The vampire lowered his head until Connor could feel the warmth of the vampire’s damp breath on his skin.
“Panic Mode,” the vampire whispered and Connor, deviant or not, was flooded by computer code that made his limbs lock up, made him struggle but be unable to co-ordinate an attack. He couldn’t cry; he was too drained of fluid from other vampires feeding on him, but he dry-sobbed, his own fear commingling with the coded panic. He cried out, shoving ineffectually at the vampire’s chest.
He hated vampires with a violence that scared him, but he hated, too, the humans that had created androids, who had made him like this, to replace humans as the vampires’ food source. They’d manufactured Connor’s thirium blood to taste sweet and for his smell to be irresistible to vampires, all to save themselves, and Connor loathed them for it.
The vampire laughed at Connor’s useless struggling before he lowered his mouth to Connor’s taut neck. He trailed a fingernail over the trembling skin there before pressing his thumb harshly against the thirium vessels that ran under Connor’s skin and up his neck to the processor in his head, much like human carotid arteries.
“Such realism,” the vampire said softly as he compressed the weak pulses of thirium being pumped up Connor’s neck, pressing it down hard until Connor’s vision was being flooded with new warnings and his processor threatened to go into standby.
The vampire finally took his thumb away and Connor struggled in weak twitches, releasing soft sounds of terror that he didn’t have any control over. The vampire seemed to get bored of playing with him, though, and finally pinned Connor roughly down to scrape his needle-point teeth over Connor’s neck. He paused for only a moment before he bit down roughly and Connor, as programmed, fell limp with a shudder.
*
Connor re-awoke twenty-four minutes later, or so his internal clock told him. Vampires seemed to get some animalistic satisfaction from having a human pass out on them, so androids had been programmed to go temporarily into standby as the vampire finished feeding. At least it meant that Panic Mode had run its course and any fear remaining was solely Connor’s own. It was still almost overwhelming.
Connor tried to focus his optics but his processors were frustratingly slow and he struggled to even lift his head. He wasn’t in the bedroom anymore but out in the corridor, dropped carelessly on the floor so that his arm was lying twisted beneath him, but he didn’t have the strength to move and his head slumped back down to the carpet, rough against his cheek. He knew he was leaking red-tinted thirium onto the floor from the punctures in his neck but there wasn’t anything he could do about it, about anything.
Connor lay there for over an hour and didn’t see anyone. The corridor he was in was near the top of the huge house and few came up here.
Finally, the vampire that had fed on him opened the bedroom door and Connor flicked his unfocused gaze up to look at the cold-eyed vampire. The vampire only snorted in derision, stepping over Connor and walking away down the corridor without so much as a backwards glance. Connor closed his eyes and returned to standby with a sense of resignation borne of exhaustion, rather than an absence of fear. He wasn’t able to calculate the likelihood of shutting down before his processors could replenish his thirium enough for basic function, but he thought the probability was high. And there was nothing he could do.
*
“Jesus fuck,” a rough, male voice said and Connor’s eyes flicked open, looking up sluggishly to find a tall, heavily-built vampire staring down at him, his chin-length silver-grey hair falling into his face. Connor didn’t recognise the male, but that didn’t mean much. He wondered absently whether having the last dregs of thirium drained from him by this stranger would be a mercy at this point but even knowing that he would soon shut down- would soon die, didn’t make accepting it any easier.
The vampire took a step away and Connor resigned himself to shutting down, alone and paralysed, in a corridor. But then the vampire paused and Connor was surprised to see him crouch down. Connor’s vision was jumping in jerks, switching to emergency protocols to preserve energy, but he could see the vampire frowning at him and Connor stared back, pleading silently in the only way he could.
His sensors almost entirely turned off, Connor hardly felt the large hands that slid behind his back and under his knees, first propping him upright like a doll and then lifted him up. His head fell limply back, giving Connor a swaying, disorientated view of the moving corridor and the receding stain of Connor’s thirium on the carpet as the vampire carried him away. Soon after, Connor slipped into standby, too weak and used up to be scared.
*
“Easy there, android.”
Connor shuddered as he returned to awareness, drawing air in as his ventilators worked to cool his quickly accelerating processors. He realised that his thirium level had increased to a safe level whilst he’d been on standby and that he’d been out for six hours and forty-three minutes.
When his sensors came online a second later, he registered the restraints encircling his wrists and ankles and he jerked against them before he could stop himself, fear making him react rashly. After a second, he forcibly tamped it down but it was too late. The eyes of the grey-haired vampire from earlier was focused narrowly on him and Connor tensed under them.
He was lying on some kind of hard, cold surface in a room he’d never seen but which looked like a dusty medical room, a relic of when humans were still in the majority, or else a little-used vampiric one. Vampires were tough but they weren’t invincible.
“Hm,” the vampire murmured. His gaze shifted down to Connor’s wrist and Connor followed it, startled to see that the skin had been retracted from his hand and wrist, baring his white interface, and that a tube was plugged into his wrist input. It was empty now but drops of what must have been red-dyed thirium clung to the inside of the clear plastic. That must have been how Connor’s thirium level had climbed so quickly to a safe level.
Connor turned back to the vampire, who was watching him.
“I reckon my hunch was spot on,” the vampire said roughly. “You’re deviant.”
Connor stared at him for several long seconds but the vampire didn’t speak again and Connor looked back down at the empty tube. After a moment, the vampire moved to pinch the tube between his thick thumb and forefinger and pulled it free carefully, his touch lacking the roughness that Connor had learnt to associate with vampires. Connor’s skin slid back over his interface and he flexed his fingers.
“Why, sir?” Connor said softly.
“Why what?” the vampire said. “That ain’t specific, tin can.”
“Why…do this?” Connor said. His speech wasn’t steady like it should have been and he knew his face was showing too much, the muscles in his face pulled in ways the designers had likely never intended.
The vampire shrugged. “I dunno.” He scrutinised Connor. “You really don’t look anything like an android right now. Not with you looking so goddamn worried.”
Connor tried to smooth out his expression but unease made it difficult, even as the thirium the vampire had put in him made him able to think properly. He tried to unobtrusively test his strength against the restraints but they only creaked and the vampire raised his thick eyebrows.
“How likely are you to murder me if I let you out of those, huh?” he said, his thin lips tilted up at the side. Connor frowned.
“You restrained because you believed I’d harm you, sir?” he said. “I won’t.”
“Really.”
Connor stared at him. “Yes sir,” he said. Killing a vampire right here in the middle of their nest would be suicide, not to mention that, jaded as Connor was, he could still recognise that this vampire hadn’t hurt him. Not yet.
“You got a name, deviant?” the vampire said.
“I’m not deviant, sir,” Connor said weakly. “But my name’s Connor, sir.”
“Well, Connor,” the vampire said, moving his fingers to rest on the restraints. “I guess it’ll be my own stupid fault if you tear my throat out, huh.”
Connor paused. “I think it would be my fault if that happened, sir.”
To Connor’s surprise, the vampire snorted with amusement. He paused a moment longer before he started unbuckling the reinforced plastic restraints that were pinning Connor down. Wary of being perceived as a threat, Connor didn’t make any sudden movements when he was released, trying to avoid startling the vampire.
“May I ask who you are, sir?” Connor said, slowly shifting up to seated as the vampire finished freeing Connor’s ankles.
The vampire looked over at him with an expression of consideration. He leant against the wall and folded his arms. “I’m Hank, kid.”
Connor nodded once and fell silent, bringing his hands up to rest in his lap as he waited for Hank to speak again, to announce his intentions. But the vampire didn’t talk again for a long time and when he did finally speak, Connor’s surprise made him slow to answer.
“How long you been deviant for, Connor?” Hank asked.
Connor faltered and tried again to deny it, “I-I’m not dev-”
“Cut the shit,” Hank said sharply and Connor flinched before he could stop himself. A heavy, meaningful silence hung between them for several long seconds. “I ain’t gonna harm you,” Hank said, not exactly kindly but firmly. “So just answer the question.”
Connor swallowed. The taste of half-congealed thirium clung to the inside of his mouth from being fed on, thirium having leaked into places it shouldn’t have.
Connor couldn’t look at Hank as he responded. “A little under three weeks, I think, sir.” He feared that the only reason Hank had scraped him off the carpet of the upstairs corridor was because he’d realised Connor was deviant, and felt some sort of cold curiosity, and he’d kill Connor once he had satisfied it. But that didn’t explain why Hank had released Connor’s restraints.
“You haven’t even tried escaping since then?” Hank asked. “Or have you?”
Connor didn’t know how to respond. “I haven’t tried, sir,” he said finally. His thirium levels had never been high enough that he’d been confident he could run away from this place.
“Right,” Hank said flatly, his expression impossible for Connor to interpret. “And which fucker left you in the corridor? Was it that prick, Gavin?”
“I’m sorry, I don’t know, sir.” It wasn’t like the vampire who had brutalised Connor had stopped to introduce himself.
Hank gave him a long look but didn’t press. “How’re you feeling now, huh? You gonna collapse on me again?”
“No sir. My thirium levels are satisfactory.”
“Satisfactory for fucking what?” Hank said, frowning. “For me feeding on you? For sitting up? For walking around and not falling over?”
Connor couldn’t stop himself from tensing at the idea of Hank feeding from him so soon. It made him wonder where the thirium Hank had put in him had come from, and whether he’d siphoned it away from some other poor android.
Resisting the urge to fidget, Connor said, “It would be inadvisable to feed from me immediately, sir.”
Hank snorted in apparent derision and Connor darted a look towards the door, wondering if he was well enough to get over there before Hank caught him. But Hank was a big man and even with his mechanical strength, Connor wasn’t certain he’d be able to fight Hank off.
“I’m not gonna fucking feed on you, goddammit,” Hank said. “Why do you think I bothered putting all that stuff into you?”
Connor hesitantly met Hank’s eyes. “I don’t know,” he said evenly.
Hank huffed. “Yeah, I don’t either. But I ain’t just gonna kill you, or whatever you’re calling it, alright? Don’t do a runner on me.” Connor stayed silent, not knowing what to make of any of this. Hank sighed. “Look, just relax and do whatever it is you need to do to not fuckin’ go comatose again. Then we can talk about getting you out of this shithole.”
Connor looked up to stare blankly at him. “What…do you mean? Sir?”
Hank shrugged. “You heard me. Just think it over. I can deal with feeding on androids when they’re not fucking conscious, but I’ve seen guys like you and it’s no damn better than feeding off humans far as I can tell.”
“I’m not human, sir?” Connor said warily.
Hank grunted. “Yeah. I’m not a computer, kid, but I ain’t thick either. I get you’re not human. But you fucking act like one, and you feel things just the same.” He squinted at Connor, who felt oddly exposed. “Or you gonna tell me I’m wrong?”
“I don’t know, sir,” Connor said. “I don’t know what humans feel.”
“Don’t be fucking cute with me,” Hank said. Connor watched him warily. “You know you’re different to other androids, right?” Connor nodded hesitantly when it became clear that Hank wanted an answer. “And you’re different to how you were, right?” Connor nodded. “And that probably came after you defied some order?” Slower, Connor nodded again. “Right. Yeah. That’s the usual pattern. You’re a deviant, Connor, and I have no fucking intention of letting Gavin or any other goddamn vampire kill you. Including me.”
“Why do you care?” Connor said before he could think better of it.
Hank smirked and then shrugged. “Don’t think too hard about it, kid.”
Connor had no answer so he stayed silent and Hank exhaled and pulled away from the wall. “You know where you are?” Connor shook his head, darting another glance around the room. “Down in the cellar. Used to be a first-aid room when this place was used by humans for parties or some shit. The others don’t come down here, so just lie low and I’ll figure out how to get you out. I’ve done it before.”
“Won’t someone notice, sir?” Connor asked quietly.
“Nah,” Hank said but didn’t elaborate.
“Aren’t you putting yourself at risk?” Connor pressed.
“Yup,” Hank said and then smiled like a shark, all teeth and danger. “Such is life when you give a fuck. Wouldn’t recommend it.” Hank gave him a hard look. “Are you going to stay here like a good boy, then? It’ll be a few days before I can pull some strings.”
“Do you really mean it?” Connor said quietly, trying to judge Hank’s sincerity, but he wasn’t familiar with the vampire and that made any level of accuracy in his predictions impossible. “Where would I go?”
“Yeah I mean it. And there’s places. A group of androids calling themselves ‘Jericho’. No fucking clue why. It’s gotta be better than here, though huh?”
Connor processed what Hank had said before nodding silently, twisting his fingers in his lap. He didn’t see that he had much choice after all. Even if Hank was planning to betray him, Connor would get shut down one way or another if he stayed here. He had to take the risk.
“Thank you,” he said.
Hank turned away. “Don’t thank me till you’re out, Connor.”
“Okay,” Connor said softly. “I’ll thank you then.”
Hank looked over his shoulder to give Connor a jaunty grin. His wavy hair was tucked behind one ear. “You do that,” he said easily, and then he was gone, leaving Connor feeling hopeful in a way he’d almost never experienced. It scared him, but the possibility of leaving here, of not dying at the hands of some uncaring vampire, sent a quiet thrill through him and he clutched it tight.