Archive of Our Own

"Why? You didn't make me meet your cousins that only live an hour away, so why are you dragging me all the way to Wyoming to meet your monsterphobic family?" Nico asks with a scoff of disbelief.

"I didn't make you meet him because he's a monster hunter," I remind him, still playing with my vampires hair. "He would have killed you on the spot if he found out you were a vampire because he would have thought you 'seduced me' so you could turn me or something stupid like that."

Nico rolls his eyes, his long pale finger tracing shapes on my chest as I hold him close to my side. "What if your family finds out?"

"They'll probably flip, that's why we're gonna take a lot of precautions to keep it from them."

"What if they make up some story to the monster hunters that I tried to attack them or they say I seduced you to turn you?" Nico says, chewing his lower lip nervously.

"I won't let them find out, and if they do I won't let that happen," I say firmly. I'm very determined to keep my boyfriend safe, and not just because the other day Nico had admitted he thought of me as his sire. Being his sire meant it was my job to take care of him and protect him, and that he trusted me to do so. "I really want you to meet them. They may be assholes about monsters but other than that they're my family and I love them. They'll love you."

"If you really want me to I will," Nico relents. "But I'm nervous."

"Don't be, I think you'll have fun once you relax a bit."

"Okay."

I look down and realise Nicos been gnawing at his lip with his fangs the whole time, and since he just fed, he's bleeding slightly from where he's tore into his own flesh. "Hey hey hey! Stop that!" I demand pulling Nicos lip from between his teeth.

He flushes a little, "Sorry. I didn't mean to."

"It's okay," I say softly, wiping the blood of Nicos chin and offering it to him to lick it back off.

"Thanks," Nico says once he's got the blood back in his body.

The small puncture wounds from his fangs almost immediately heal back, not even leaving a scar since they weren't deep.

***

The drive to Wills aunts house was about 5 hours with only one stop and his mom driving over the speed limit constantly. I had drank at the very least two pints of blood so that I wouldn't immediately give off the look of a vampire at first glance but I'm still anxious. It was pretty late so the sun had gone down so at least I could take off my sweatshirt and sunglasses so I didn't look like a freak in the 100 degree weather.

"Don't worry Nico," Naomi, Wills mom, assures. "My family's not very bright, they won't figure it out."

I nod in understanding, grabbing Wills hand anyways for comfort. I trust Will, at this point he is practically my sire even if it isn't in the official sense. Technically humans can't be a sire for vampires in vampire culture, but when have I ever abided to vampire law before? That's exactly what got me kicked out of my ex sires house, not obeying vampire law.

We walk up to the front door to greet his aunt and uncle, ignoring our suitcases for the moment. Naomi opens the front door without so much as a knock and walks right in. The house is about as nice as the outside, which is to say mediocre and rustic. I mean they live in the middle of nowhere in Glenrock Wyoming, what was I expecting.

Will smiles widely as we walk into the living room where his uncle and aunt were watching Tv.

"Glad you could finally make it," his aunt says sardonically. "It's only just about bed time."

I can't help but to look at my watch in confusion, but it's Will who says what I'm thinking. "It's 8 o'clock?" he scoffs. "Don't tell me your getting that old," he adds playfully as she gets up to hug him.

I almost whine when Will let's go of my hand to hug her back, but I choke it back before it can make its way up my throat.

"What are you doing wearing black jeans in the summer?" she says turning to me. "You must be boiling."

"Uncle Dons wearing jeans," Will points out.

"But mine are loose and breathable, not skin tight like those," his Uncle Don says with a thick southern drawl, eyeing me with distaste.

I shrug, "I'm always cold."

"If Donald had it his way the house would be at 60 at all times," his aunt says rolling her eyes fondly. "Now give me a hug."

Before Will or I can protest the aunt has me wrapped in a tight hug. I immediately panic feeling trapped, but I try to take a deep breath of reason so I won't freak out, but it doesn't work. I immediately push her away as hard as I can to get her off of me but I accidentally send her falling on her ass. I lunge for Will and wrap onto him, trying to will my breathing to slow down.

"What the hell!" Don snaps at the same time the aunt says, "Excuse me!" indignantly. Don jumps up to help his wife to her feet.

"Nico doesn't like being touched," Will explains, trying to calm me down. He's rubbing my back soothingly and holding me tight just like he knows helps me when I'm having a panic attack. If I had a normal heart, it would be beating out of my chest right now. I was not at all prepared for someone to grab me like that, and I can't help but feel panicked.

"So he pushes me to the ground?" she scoffs.

The yelling isn't helping me calm down either. I am still clutching to Will like my unlife depends on it. I know I'm safe with Will but the yelling is just giving me more flashbacks. All of my senses are triggered and I can feel my fangs trying to push through my gums. Wills heart beat is pounding ten times louder in my head, and I try to focus on it instead of the head splitting yelling all around me.

"You scared him!" Will says angrily. "You shouldn't just pounce on someone you just met like that!"

"It was a hug!" she argues.

"Yeah maybe, but see how he reacted to it? Ever heard of asking, or giving more of a warning maybe?"

"Everyone calm down," Naomi cuts in, her voice calm but direct. "Kimberly, I know you didn't mean to scare him but you did. I've told you he was in the foster system his whole life and has to go to therapy for PTSD. I told you to be nice and not to touch him."

"Oh I thought you were just being dramatic," she snaps, waving her hand dismissively. "No boy is that weak."

"I directly told you that I was not exaggerating!"

"It was a hug, I wanted to hug my nephews boyfriend!" Kimberly yells. "I didn't know he would react violently."

"You scared him," Naomi says, frustration starting to creep into her voice. She is usually always the peace maker but even she has her limits. "You triggered his fight or flight, of course he reacted poorly."

"Can you guys stop yelling your freaking him out even more," Will says irritably, trying to stay calm for me because he knows when he gets upset it winds me up even more. At this point I am shaking so bad Will is practically holding all of my body weight up himself. I just want everyone to stop yelling and leave me and Will alone so I can think clearly.

Kimberly rolls her eyes, "You know, he really needs to get over this shit or he's never gonna get anywhere in life."

"Kimberly, out here now," Naomi snaps dragging her out to their dining room, Don following, and closing the connecting doors.

"Shhh it's okay," Will says soothingly, pulling me back to a big plush chair and sitting down. "You're safe, it's just me."

I do my best to just focus on the sound of Wills heart beating loudly in my ear, and the feeling of Wills breathing. "I'm sorry," I squeak in a voice barley above a whisper. "I tried not freak out, but she was holding me so tight."

"You don't have to explain yourself, I understand. It's not your fault. Mom asked you if you were okay with her warning her about your PTSD for a reason, she knew something like this could happen."

The tears finally start to fall down my face but I quickly wipe them off on Wills shirt. "I didn't mean to knock her over, I just wanted her off of me." I try to explain. I had an awful first impression with his family and he can't be happy about it. "Please don't be mad at me."

"It's okay, I'm not mad at you," Will assures. "Your okay."

The rest of the night went by with awkward conversation after she half assed an apology to me. I was more than relieved when it was time for bed so that I could stop being forced to engage in conversation I feel I have no part of. I recognised only some of the names of people they spoke about, and they all talked about things as if assuming everyone in the room already knew the stories behind them.

As I am heading up the stairs, blinking the sleepiness out of my eyes, I look up and saw a huge hydra head staring down at me. I jump so hard I send myself tumbling back down the stairs.

"Nico!" Will yells frantically from where he is in the kitchen. He runs in and sees me rumpled on the ground staring at the stuffed head in terror. "Are you okay?"

"The fuck is that!" I yell frantically. I do not like hydras. At. All. I was attacked by one once and my ex sire had to rescue me from it.

All the adults come rushing down the stairs to see what the commotion is and when Kimberly sees what I am staring at she laughs.

"It's dead," she said. "My sons a monster hunter, all the monster heads we have he got me. Besides the unicorn upstairs in our room, that one was in a zoo and died of natural causes."

"Yeah that minotaur head gave him a heart attack too," Will smiles fondly as he helps me back to my, suddenly very unstable, feet.

I stare up at the hydra warily. "Do I have to go up there?" I ask anxiously in a low voice so that only Will can hear me. "I don't want to have to walk under that thing."

"I'll hold your hand and lead you up so you can close your eyes or just look down," Will compromises.

I swallow thickly, still not fond of the idea of having to get any closer to that thing, "Yeah, okay."

Will steps in front of me and reaches back for my hands. I take them gratefully and keep my eyes firmly on my feet and my forehead against his back.

"Which one of you is going to sleep on the couch?" Kimberly asks. "Or are you gonna sleep with your mom Will?"

"Oh they share a bed at home so they can share a bed here," Naomi cuts in. Kimberly looks scandalised at the idea but doesn't argue.

Once we are finally behind a closed, and locked door, I feel like I can breath again. Which is funny because I don't necessarily need to breath, I just got in the habit to appear more human.

I take a second to assess how I'm feeling; Shaky, unstable, like I want to cry, like I want to go home, ashamed.

"I need a hug," I say weakly, getting Wills attention from where he had been digging through his suitcase.

Will smiles and moves back to me to pull me into his arms. "Gentle or hard?" he asks.

"Hard," I answer and Will immediately tightens his hold around me. I really needed this reassurance right now, even if I still have trouble sometimes asking for it. I don't feel like I deserve it, but I appreciate it none the less. "Thank you."

Will cards his fingers through my hair as he holds me tight, causing me to melt a little into the embrace. I nuzzle my head under Wills chin, causing him to chuckle fondly.

"I love you," I practically purr.

"I love you too," Will responds easily.

***

Once I got passed the fact that when he sleeps he doesn't breath, since his body doesn't actually require it to survive and he's not awake to mechanically breath, sometimes it's hard waking him up because I could watch him sleep all day. All the tension that's usually in his body and face leaves, unless he's having a nightmare but that's a different story.

I don't want to wake Nico up, but I have to or he would sleep until noon or later. It is already 9 am and my cousins birthday party is at 11:30. My uncle usually takes an hour to cook an elaborate breakfast, and it will take an hour to get to the rec centre Roses' party was at so honestly I should have woken him up sooner.

After one more long look at my beautiful boyfriend I kiss his forehead. "Good morning," I say kissing all over Nicos face to wake him up.

He groans. "Cu it ouh," his words slurring from sleep. He's absolutely adorable when he first wakes up, or when he hasn't slept in a long time.

"You gotta get up love," I say softly.

"I don wanna," Nico mumbles, trying to hide his face in my chest.

"We've got my little cousins party darling."

"Go by yourself, your family hates me."

"You only met my aunt and uncle and no one likes them anyways, and they don't hate you I don't think."

It's true they definitely already aren't too fond of him, but I wouldn't say hate. My uncle thinks he's a pussy and my aunt agrees, but I honestly couldn't care less what they have to say about him. I know how strong and brave he is, rather or not they can see it has no effect on me. I love Nico and that's all the matters to me.

Nico sighs. "It's inside right? You promised it was inside," he says, just to be sure. "I don't want to get a third degree sun burn."

"It's inside, and I packed your sunscreen don't worry. I just put it in another bottle so that no one can recognise the brand or read the label. I'll keep it in my bag when your not using it to make sure no one grabs it to use, I know how expensive that stuff is."

Nico gets that soft smile he always gets when I do something nice for him. "Thank you," he says. "You didn't have to do that, it's inside. I probably would have been okay with just regular sunscreen and a long rash guard."

"Well this way you don't have to wear the rash guard unless you want to. And I know you were anxious about getting burnt."

Even after over a year and a half of dating and even living together, Nicos eyes still water at the idea that someone did something so nice for him. I hate to see it because I know it's a product of all of his abuse growing up; From first his parents than his ex sire. I wipe Nicos tears and tilt his head up with a finger under his chin to give him a kiss.

"I love you," I remind him gently. "I'd do anything to make you feel more comfortable."

"First you made all those smoothies for me so we could tell them it was a probiotic from the doctor so so I didn't have to sneak off for blood, then you went to the trouble of putting my sunscreen in a different bottle so I'd be comfortable. What's next? Is an airplane gonna spell out some sappy shit in the sky when I step outside?" Nico snickers dramatically.

I roll my eyes. "Stop looking at me like I hung the moon. I dragged you here with me, the least I can do is try and ease your anxiety."

Nico smiles and leans up for another kiss. "I'm hungry, let's get up," he decides.

"Oh so now you wanna get up," I smirk, standing up.

Nico crawls out of bed so we can head down stairs for breakfast. Nico must have forgotten about the hydra head cause when he opens the door he just about jumps out of his skin, running into my chest.

"Fuck I forgot about that thing," he huffs in annoyance.

"I'll hold your hands again so you can close your eyes," I say kissing the top of his head(it's right in front of me, how am I supposed to resist?)

He grumbles something about stupid monster hunters, covers his eyes with one hand and holds onto mine with his other so I can lead him down the stairs. Once we're off the stairs he looks back up and we head into the kitchen.

"Finally, the brats awake," Uncle Don says thumping me on the back. "I thought y'all died."

"I peaked in to see if you guys were awake or not and Nico here didn't even look like he was breathing," Aunt Kimmy chuckles. "Thought he was dead to be honest."

Nico pauses a little on his way to the fridge where his smoothies are, but he recovers quickly and opens the fridge to grab one of the bottles. "I thought you locked the door Will?" Nico says with a false nonchalance.

"Oh that lock doesn't work," Aunt Kimmy says, waving her hand dismissively. "Rose got in the habit of locking us out of the room when she's here so Donald removed the lock itself so she'd think she locked it but she didn't."

"I wish you would have told me that," I say with a frown. "Nico doesn't like to sleep without a locked door."

"Oh it's just us in the house," Aunt Kimmy shrugs. "He's fine."

Nico comes and sits next to me, leaning back onto me instead of the back of the chair. "I'd appreciate if you would just knock and allow us to let you in. And please don't come in while we're sleeping."

"Well I didn't know you were sleeping, that's why I looked," Aunt Kimmy says, a little condescendingly.

Nico swallows his smoothie with some difficulty, clearly struggling with the idea that someone besides me saw him while he was asleep.

"Just knock on the door and if we don't answer you know we're asleep," I say. "It would make both of us feel more comfortable if you'd promise us that much respect."

"Respect?" she scoffs.

"Kimberly," Mom snaps at her. "They aren't being unreasonable."

"Why is it disrespectful for me to go into a room in my own home?"

"It's disrespectful if you do after Nico and I have voiced that it makes us uncomfortable," I try to explain. "Nico asked you nicely to please just knock, why is that unreasonable?"

"I just don't get what the big fuss is," she shrugs dramatically. "It's not like I woke either of you up."

"I just don't feel safe if the doors not locked," Nico try's to explain. "So Im just trying to-"

"Well I don't see the big deal," she interrupts.

Now I'm upset, Nico has just finally gotten good at vocalising what he needs and she just interrupted him before he could finish. Not only can I feel his whole body tense up, but I watch him put his walls back up and know he isn't going to be saying another word about it.

"You didn't let him finish," I snap at her. "He's just trying to let you know what he needs to feel comfortable in your home."

"I can put the lock back in for you if it's really that much of an issue," Uncle Don says from where he was cooking something that smells good on the stove.

"It wouldn't be too much trouble?" I ask.

He shakes his head, "5 minutes tops. I'll do it after breakfast."

Aunt Kimmy rolls her eyes and looks at me. "Why did you pick such a pansy?"

I can feel Nico starting to shake a little from anxiety and am about to rip into my aunt, but my mom steps in. Bless her heart.

"Kimberly, outside now. We're having another chat," she snaps, walking out to the patio.

"Sorry about her," Uncle Don says to us. "She's a right bitch most days."

Nico turns so he can lean his head on my shoulder, "'s fine."

I put my arms around him and rub his back soothingly. "I really didn't think she'd be this big of a problem love, I'm sorry," I say quietly to him.

He shrugs, "I'm used to it."

That struck a nerve. My aunt is effecting Nico so much because she reminded him of someone from his past.

"If she doesn't get better I'll get us a hotel room," I say with an air of finality.

"It's okay, it's just a few days," he sniffs. He reaches back over for his smoothie and takes a few big gulps. "I'll survive."

He drinks the rest of the smoothie in a few gulps, sets the bottle down and leans back onto me. After a minute or so he whispers, "I think I'm gonna go run out to the car, I'm really hungry and need those smoothies to last."

"I left a bag in the car," I respond at a normal volume, knowing he'll understand what I'm telling him to do. "Could you go grab it for me love?"

"Sure," Nico smiles, kissing my cheek and standing up to go get it.

Aunt Kimmy and Mom come back in shortly after Nico heads outside.

"Where's Nico?" Mom asks, looking around.

"I forgot a bag in the car so I asked him to grab it for me," I tell her.

She nods, "I talked to Aunt Kimmy and told her if she doesn't stop being rude and condescending to Nico we'll leave and get a hotel or just go home."

I grin, "I told Nico the same thing."

She laughs, "We always think the same things."

"Why did you choose him though?" Aunt Kimmy asks. "Hes so quiet and brooding, and not at all like you. Not to mention he's pale a ghost."

"Or a vampire," Uncle Dom jokes.

"Yeah sure," she adds dismissively, "Why would you pick a kid like that?"

I frown, "I love him, it doesn't matter why. I love him, that's what you should care about. Not rather or not he acts like you think he should."

She tuts, "Yes yes whatever."

Nico comes back in with one of my extra back packs over his shoulder. "Come up stairs with me?" he asks.

"The hydra won't come back to life and get cha," I say teasingly, even though I know he just wants to me to be there to make sure no one walks in.

I hold his hand up the stairs so he can close his eyes and we go into our room. I close the door and lean on it while Nico gets a box of blood I picked up from red cross for him from the backpack. He opens the cap, which is normally so you can poor it into a cup, and just drinks right from it.

"Jeeze, you really are hungry," I comment as I watch him chug it.

He pauses to say to me in a hushed tone, "I wanna try and look as human as possible. I can't do that if I don't have a lot of blood in my system."

I nod in understanding, "I get it love."

He goes back to chugging the big box of blood but keeps having to pause. He groans, "I feel so full, Im not giving it time to metabolise."

"Then slow down darling."

He grunts, "If we're up here to long they'll get suspicious and someone might come and check on us."

"We'll say I was looking for something I thought I brought but must have forgot or something," I decide.

He shrugs and takes another sip of blood, accidentally spilling some over his mouth. He quickly wipes it off his face and licks his fingers clean, he's never been one to waste even a drop of blood. I watch as his face slowly lites up with life as he slowly gets more and more color in his skin. I wonder if my Aunt and Uncle will notice the sudden difference but decide it's highly unlikely.

Finally he finishes the box with a loud groan of displeasure. "I never thought I'd get tired of the taste of blood," he complains. "But I kinda feel like I'm gonna throw up."

"Don't throw up," I say helpfully.

He glares at me. "Just give me a second and we can go down stairs."

As if on cue someone knocks on the door. "Everything alright?" my mom asks.

I open the door and she steps in. "He drank it too fast," I explain when she sees Nico clutching his stomach looking sad, an empty blood box in his hand.

She chuckles, "Why did you drink that whole thing anyways and that smoothie?"

"I was hungry and I want to look human," he says, with a cute little pout that causes his fangs to peak over the edge of his lips. He must have released them when he was chugging and forgot to put them back.

Mom smiles a little sadly, "You don't need to chug blood till your sick though Nico."

He huffs in frustration, "I don't want them to know."

"They won't," I assure him. "But it's not the end of the world if they do."

He looks up at me with glassy eyes. "I'm scared to die," he sniffs. "Again."

"I won't let that happen," I assure him as I pull him into my chest. "I promise."

He sighs and relaxes into my arms. "Okay."

"We should go back down, breakfast is almost ready," Mom says.

"I can't eat anymore," Nico says a little frantically. "Will he be mad if I say I'm not hungry?"

"He'll be fine," she smiles kindly.

We all go back down stairs and I say I was looking for my book because I couldn't remember if I had brought it or not, claiming I had for some reason shoved it at the bottom of my suitcase.

When we get to the splash pad it's already pretty full of people, mostly children but a few Nico and I's age too.

"The private room should be over there, according to Katherine," Aunt Kimmy says.

We follow her around the pool, the chlorine burning my nostrils so I can only imagine how bad it must be for Nico, to a door that has a big birthday sign on it. Through the glass we see a bunch of adults gathered around with twice as many children sitting around a table. We open the door and my ear drums are assaulted with the sound of children laughing and screaming.

"Will!" Rose yells running over to me as fast as the 5 year olds legs can carry her.

I smile widely and scoop her into my arms spinning her around. "Happy birthday Rose!" I exclaim happily.

She giggles and hugs my neck. "I've missed you!" she yells excitedly.

"I've missed you too!" I reply, just as excitedly.

"Grammy!" she yells moving on to the next person.

I can't help but keep smiling as I watch my little cousin bounce around excitedly. A little girl with short brown curly hair comes up to me and stares up at me with big green eyes. "Hi," I smile at her.

"Your pretty," she says.

I laugh, "Thank you, your very pretty too."

She runs back off to her mother grinning ear to ear, the little ruffles on her swimsuit jumping up and down with her.

Nico comes up and leans against me, taking my hand in his. "I think you're pretty too," he smiles cheekily.

I roll my eyes. "Jealous of a little girl Neeks?" I ask teasingly.

He scoffs, "She wishes she could pull you."

I smile and kiss his temple just as Kat and David come over.

"This must be the boyfriend!" Kat says excitedly. "It's so nice to meet you!"

"You too," Nico says, smiling politely.

David offers his hand, "I'm David, I'm Wills cousin."

"He's Aunt Kimmys other son," Will supplies as well.

"Nice to meet you," Nico responds.

Rose comes running up to her parents, "Can we go in the pool yet?"

"In just a minute baby cakes," Kat says. "The leader of all this is still making sure he's got everyone's name down."

"Why?" she asks curiously.

"So they know who was in the pool and who wasn't," she explains easily.

"Okay," Rose shrugs and goes to run off with her friends.

"So Nico, how old are you?" David asks.

"Seventeen," Nico supplies.

"So your the same age as Will," Kat thinks out loud. "How long have you guys been together now? A year right?"

"A year and a half," I supply, with a small smile of happiness on my face. I put my arm around Nico and give him a gentle squeeze.

Kat smiles, "You two look good together. You've got the whole light and dark opposing aesthetics."

At that moment Uncle Don comes in finally since he was going to the bathroom and marches right up to David and Kat. "I think I just saw a god damn mermaid out there," he says.

"They're not dangerous though right?" Kat asks her husband.

"Not typically, but we'll keep the kids away as best as we can," David says with a frown. "Fucking monsters, they're just taking over everywhere."

"Killing all of them would solve all our problems ," Uncle Don snaps.

"Could be worse," Kat points out.

"How?" David and Uncle Don say at the same time.

"Could be a vampire or a werewolf out there."

They both grunt in agreement. "Fucking vampires, I hate those sons of bitches," David says with disgust.

"They're just flat out dangerous. I don't know why the government allows those things to walk free," Uncle Don practically growls.

"My friend once dated a vampire, and we all tried to tell her he was just seducing her to turn her but she didn't believe us. They were engaged and he finally tried to turn her, she still had the scars from where she had to rip her neck out of his mouth to keep him from draining her," Kat says with a shiver of disgust and fear.

Nico is so tense next to me that if I couldn't hear my family's conversation I would have thought he had seen a gorgan and turned to stone.

"Not all vampires are bad," I argue. "Just the other day it was on the news how that one vampire had saved a kid from bleeding to death."

"One good one doesn't mean the rest of the lot are good," David says.

"Besides, no one knows if he was gonna drain the kid at first but then just realised he was being watched or not," Uncle Don adds.

"He was probably just hungry and wasn't even thinking about how his saliva could save the kid, or just thought it would be a bonus," Kat says.

Nico shrugs, "I guess your right."

"No she's not," I grumble.

"Why don't we just stop talking about his anyways," Kat interjects. "It's my daughters birthday party."

"Yes that sounds good," I say, a little bitterly. I was really hoping the topic of monsters wouldn't come up so Nico wouldn't have to hear what my family thinks of them.

Eventually they allow everyone to head out to the pool to swim, and I see that the 'mermaid' is a girl with a fake mermaid tail swimming around with her friends. I point her out to Nico and we both burst out laughing.

"That's such an obviously fake tail," Nico laughs.

"He must not have looked very closely," I add, laughing as well.

We walk over to the tables they had set up for us and I set down my bag. I pull off my shirt and put it in my bag and Nico hands me his. I grab his sunscreen out of the bag and turn to him.

"I can get your back for if you want?" I tell him.

He nods and turns around for me. I squeeze a generous amount out on my hands and start to rub it into his back for him. I tuck the bottle between my legs when I'm not actively using it so that none of my family will just grab it to use as well. It wouldn't hurt them of course, it would honestly be good for them if they burn easily, but it's so expensive Nico doesn't let anyone but him, and sometimes me on really sunny days, use it.

"All done," I say once I've gotten all of his back and neck. I hand him the bottle and watch as he starts to meticulously apply it to the rest of his body.

"You look prepared to go sit in the sun," a parent of one of Roses' friends comments. "You are aware we're inside right?"

Nico chuckles, a little nervously, "I burn pretty easily."

They laugh, "I burn easily too, I'm not judging honey."

Once Nicos done with the sunscreen I put it back in my backpack and zip it up. Just then Rose comes running up to me and latches onto my swim trunks to get my attention.

"Hey Rose," I smile down at the little girl.

She smiles at me with her big toothy grin, her blonde hair pulled back in a messy ponytail that's already wet from her dip in the pool. "Come play with us!" she asks excitedly.

"Okay give me two seconds," I say kicking my flip flops off. "Come on Nico."

Nico follows me and Rose out the kiddy area to play. He warms up to the little kids very quickly and soon enough they all are crowding around him wanting him to carry them around and throw them in the pool. We kill at least two hours playing with the kids nonstop, with only two kids running off to their parents crying because they tripped and fell.

Nico is running after a little girl and trips, but thankfully he is right in front of me so I am able to catch him. "You okay?" I ask, chuckling slightly.

"My life just flashed before my eyes," he says dramatically.

I laugh and kiss his nose, "You're adorble."

"I'm not adorable," he pouts.

"Yes you are."

"I could kill you with my bare hands."

"I know," I grin kissing the frown off his lips.

He smiles softly up at me, "Thank you for catching me."

"Of course," I smile back, letting him go. I watch him run off to keep playing with the little kids and go back to the table to get something to drink.

"Oh Will, Justin and Jess are gonna be here soon with the kids," Aunt Kimmy tells me as I grab a bottle of water.

"What!" I exclaim a little too frantically. "I thought they couldn't make it?"

"Well Jesses' client canceled so they got up early this morning to drive here," Aunt Kimmy says defensively. "Why do you seem so upset?"

"Oh no," I say quickly taking a deep breath. "I was just surprised and it came out weird."

"Justin just texted and said they're outside, I'm going to get them," Uncle Don says standing up.

I immediately go to find Nico to warn him. "Nico!" I call to him and motion for him to come over to me. He looks at me with confusion but with a small shrug walks through the shallow water over to where I'm standing.

"What?" he asks once he's in front of me.

I step closer so we won't be over heard, "My cousin the monster hunter is here."

He goes pale, well paler than normal, and I watch as terror floods his eyes. "Do we need to make an excuse to leave?" he asks, his voice cracking with fear.

"I'll do my best to just keep him away from you okay? If that proves too difficult yes," I answer honestly.

He swallows thickly, "You put one of my smoothies in the cooler right?"

"Yeah, are you hungry?"

"Not particularly but I think I need to drink it real quick," he says moving over to the cooler. He grabs his smoothie and starts drinking it, not to fast to look suspicious but fast enough to get a good amount of it down.

About the same time that he finishes it my cousins all come running up to us. Landon looks around the table as if searching for something. "Mom said we got cake when we got here," he says, when he sees everyone looking at him in confusion.

"What kind of cake is there?" the younger one, Anthony, asks. "Mom said she didn't know."

"Oh we're not having any cake yet," David tells them.

"But mom said," Landon snaps, pouting like a toddler despite his age.

Jess and Justin approach the table and the two boys immediately turn to them. "I want cake but they won't let me have any," Landon pouts, stomping his foot.

Jess looks up, "I told them if they stopped complaining in the car they could have cake when we got here."

"Well we're not serving cake yet," David says crossing his arms stubbornly, "Not our problem you promised them something not knowing if you could follow through."

Landon and Anthony promptly start throwing a tantrum, never mind them being 11 and 10 respectively.

"Just give them some damn cake," Justin says, sounding exasperated.

"They can wait with the rest of us," Aunt Kimmy says with a condescending laugh. "They don't just get whatever they want because they throw a tantrum."

"I'm too tired for this, I was chasing a stupid manticore all day yesterday," Justin says rubbing his face tiredly. "Then we got attacked by a god damn fire bird in the woods as we were trying to carry it back to the truck to dispose of it."

"Oooo can you get the fire bird stuffed for me?" Aunt Kimmy asks. "I've always loved them, they're so beautiful."

"They're vicious," Justin states plainly. "But sure, I'll call later today and see what they've done with it."

"God damn we don't need more dead monsters," Uncle Don rolls his eyes.

"But fire birds are so beautiful!" Aunt Kimmy argues.

"Whatever whatever," Uncle Don says, raising his hands in surrender, clearly not choosing this hill to die on.

Jess and Justin both turn to Nico and I at the same time. Jess smiles widely at Nico, "You must be Wills boyfriend?"

"Yes ma'am," Nico says politely.

She offers her hand to Nico and he shakes it after a short pause of consideration. "I'm Jess," she says.

Justin offers his hand, "I'm Justin." Nico shakes his hand and he frowns down at it. "Your hands are so cold."

"Oh I've been playing in the pool with the kids for the past two hours," Nico says easily, though I notice how tense he gets.

"Right right," Justin says a little warily. His eyes looking Nico up and down as if examining every part of his body.

I grab Nicos hand, "Let's go play with the kids some more." I drag him out to the pool to get him away from Justin's assessing eyes and hoping playing with the kids will distract him.

Rose runs up to me and pulls on my trunks again to get my attention. "Will you go on the big slide with me? I'm scared to go by myself," she asks, giving me puppy dog eyes.

"Yeah I'll come!" I agree easily. "Maybe Nico can come too, he'll just have to go on his own."

"Yeah that's fine," Nico says, following us up the stairs to the huge slide. I hold Nicos hand in one hand and Roses in the other as we walk up to the top.

When we get the top Rose and I go first. "Do you want me to try and make us go faster or slower?" I ask her.

"Medium," she responds after a thoughtful pause.

I do as she requests and do my best to make us go down the twirling slide at a medium speed. As soon as we come out the other end and our heads come above the water she bursts out into a fit of smiles and giggles. "Again again!" she cheers.

We head out to the edge of the pool and I watch as Nico comes out the end of the slide. He smiles at me when he sees me and wades over.

"That was actually quite fun," he muses.

I smile at him, "Did you think it wouldn't be?"

He shrugs, "I don't think I've ever been on a water slide before."

My jaw drops, "Really?"

"Yeah."

"I wish I would have done it with you then," I pout.

"Well I didn't know that or I would have told you."

"I know I know," I say grabbing his waist so I can give him a quick kiss.

"Ewww cooties!" Rose exclaims covering her eyes.

Nico and I laugh. "At this point we have the same cooties," I say jokingly.

"Gross," Rose says.

I smile and scoop her up in my arms to bring her back over to the kiddie area to keep playing. When I notice Justin is there playing with his little girl Ella I grab Nicos hand and say, "Lets go down the slide together?"

He smiles, "Sure."

We go up the slide and he takes the time to get up there to ask me about Justin. "He seemed to recognise that somethings wrong with me when he shook my hand right?" he asks. "That wasn't my imagination."

"A little, but I don't think it put you on his radar."

He nods, "Okay. I trust you."

I really hoped I wouldn't let him down.

***

Will seemed so happy to be with his family I couldn't bring my self to tell him I kept catching Justin staring at me with an assessing glare. I could feel that I was getting a mild sunburn on my shoulders but I wouldn't dare put more sunscreen on when he might recognise the smell. Monster hunters are trained to notice that sort of thing.

I about shit my pants when he tries to sit next to me when we are all in the private party room to eat pizza and cake. Will, thankfully, notices right away and calls over to me, "Hey come sit with me love," as he pats the chair next to him.

I immediately get up and move to sit next to him, leaning against him slightly for comfort. He puts his hand on my thigh, rubbing the skin with his thumb gently. I watch as Justin goes up to his father Donald and whispers something to him, then both of them turned a critical gaze towards me. I squeeze Wills arm to get his attention.

"What's wrong?" he asks.

"He knows," I whisper quietly to him. "I can tell."

Will stops breathing for a second and casually looks up to where Justin and Donald are staring at me. He smiles at them nonchalantly, but I can feel how tense he is.

"We'll get cake and leave immediately," Will decides. "It will look too suspicious to leave right now."

I nod in agreement and lean my head on his shoulder, tuning my hearing into the sound of his heartbeat. Usually his steady breathing and beating heart is soothing, but right now his heart seems to be trying to tap dance it's way out of his chest as fast as possible. Knowing how much Will is panicking only makes me feel more panicky.

We eat pizza, Will making as relaxed conversation as he can with his family and their friends, and eventually cake is served. I eat a small slice, only able to stomach a little bit more food. Will, as I expected, eats a huge piece because he has a major sugar tooth; It's a wonder he stays so skinny.

"Ready to go love?" he asks when he's done.

I nod, "Yes please."

We get up and find his mom in the crowd. "Are you ready to go mom?" he asks. "Nicos tired."

She must have been able to sense our sense of urgency because she nods her head in agreement and grabs her bag without another word. "We'll see you guys back at the house!" she announces as we head out.

As soon as we're out in the car I wrap Will up in a crushing hug and try to keep the tears from flooding out. "Shhhh, it's okay. You're safe," Will says soothingly, pulling me practically into his lap. "Your okay, I won't let them hurt you."

"What's going on?" his mom frowns at us from the rear view mirror.

"Justin knows," Will says. "At least were pretty sure he does."

"Shit," she curses. "Maybe your wrong, he probably would have done something right away if he was sure. He wouldn't have wanted Nico near all
those kids."

"Maybe," Will agrees. "Than we need to make sure he can't be sure. It'll be too suspicious if we leave now when we were planning on having that family lake day tomorrow and everything."

"That's exactly what I was thinking," Naomi sighs. "Leaving now would probably confirm his suspicions. We need to make sure he cant confirm them."

I'm breathing frantically and it's making me feel light headed so I try to just stop breathing all together. "How am I supposed to do that? I can't trick a trained monster hunter!" I exclaim, terror filling my voice.

"We'll figure it out," Will says calmly, rubbing my back. "I won't let him hurt you."

I nod, "I trust you."

When we get back to his aunt and uncles house I take the time there alone to get a box of blood to drink down quickly.

"You're gonna make yourself sick if you keep drinking that too fast," Will says rubbing my back.

"I don't know when they'll get back, I can't take chances," I explain.

"I don't think I've ever seen you drink this much," Naomi comments, concern filling her voice. "One of those boxes usually lasts you two days."

"I'm just doing my best to look more human," I say, a little irritably.

"You know we could put that in a tumbler for you so you can drink it slower," Will reminds me.

"Yeah? And what happens when someone's stupid kid knocks it over and blood goes everywhere?"

"I'll hold onto it for you to make sure that won't happen."

I sigh, "Maybe that would work. But what happens if I spill some on me, or I lick my lips not thinking about it and get blood on them? Or my if my fangs pop out?"

"Your in control of your fangs, I've never seen them accidentally pop out."

"Well what if I'm so stressed I loose control!"

"Baby," Will says gently, grabbing the blood from me. "I'm not gonna let you make your self sick."

I pout, "It's better than getting staked."

Will pulls me into his chest, "Either you let me put this into a tumbler for you, or you stop drinking it."

I sigh and melt into his chest a little. "Yes sire," I say, before I have time to process what I'm saying. I freeze a little and I feel Will tense up slightly for only a split second before holding me tighter, his face breaking out into a wide smile.

"Thank you my love," he says kissing my head.

I'm very uncomfortable with how natural that felt to come out of my mouth when addressing Will. I swore I'd never be able to actually call someone sire ever again. There was a difference between telling Will I thought of him as my sire and calling him sire.

He grabs the tumbler from the backseat and pours the rest the box into the cup. He screws the lid closed and hands it to me. "We can put some ice in it inside so it stays cold, and that way it's a bit less suspicious sounding."

I nod and take the cup taking a small sip of the sweet blood. The red cross really does have the best blood to offer, it's just really god damn expensive.

Will and I take turns taking a shower to get the chlorine off of our body's and by the time I get out everyone's at the house. Will holds my hand to go down the stairs under the hydra and out to the back porch where everyone is sitting.

"There you guys are," Wills' Aunt Kimmy says when she sees us as if it's been very exasperating trying to find us or something.

"Sorry we needed to shower," Will supplies.

"Why didn't you just shower at the rec center like normal people?" Justin asks, eying me suspiciously.

"I don't like showering and stuff in public," I answer. "It makes me uncomfortable."

He raises an eyebrow, "How come?"

"Oh it's probably his PTSD," Kimberly says in a mocking tone. "He shoved me on my ass yesterday when all I did was try and hug him."

"Kimberly!" Naomi snaps at her. "I've told you to stop being a bitch to Nico."

She rolls her eyes, "Yes ma'am."

Will find us a couple chairs and moves them away from Justin for us to sit. I put one of my legs over his lap and he rubs his fingers over my thigh and knee absentmindedly.

"Why are you guys sitting so close?" Anthony asks, staring at us from where he is sitting next to his mom.

"Because we're dating and I like to be close to him," Will responds easily.

"Two boys can date each other?" he asks.

"If they love each other they can," Jess answers.

"It's humans and monsters that can't be together," Justin supplies. "That's probably what your thinking of."

"Oh yeah no," Aunt Kimmy joins in. "That's just disgusting."

"Monsters are soulless beings, they don't actually date humans. They 'date them' to turn them," Justin says using air quotes. "Or gain their trust to kill them and eat them."

"Monsters are ugly anyways," Landon adds.

"Mermaids and vampires are actaully known to be quite beautiful," Jess says. "That's why they are so dangerous."

"What do vampires look like?" Anthony asks curiously.

"They're usually very pale," Justin starts, "Typically with dark hair but not always. A lot of them dye their hair to pass for human easier. They have very angular, sometimes described as angelic faces. Typically they're a bit smaller until they come to their inheritance at 21."

"That sounds a lot like Nico honestly," David says, eyeing me curiously.

"Yes it does," Justin agrees, with an air of false nonchalance.

I laugh nervously, "I get that kinda often. Just cause I'm small and pale."

"Hmm right," Justin says, giving me the side eye.

"Will wouldn't date a vampire, he knows better," Jess scolds, smacking her husbands arm.

I take another sip of my blood but it's a bit hard to swallow at the moment, due to the conversation.

Justin rolls his eyes and doesn't say anything, just continues to stare at me warily. For the first time I notice he is playing with a small cross on his necklace, probably one blessed by a priest, since everyone still tends to think blessed crosses are vampire repellent. Idiots. You'd think a monster hunter would know that's just superstition and actually does jack shit but apparently not.

"Just last week at work we arrested a group of vampires that had been kidnapping humans for years to be their food supply," Justin recounts. "They'd take them and keep them for years before killing them. They'd drain them just enough to kill them, but not to turn them."

"That's horrible," Kat says.

"I don't understand why people just accept vampires into our culture," David adds. "They're evil."

"That's why I always kill the vampires I find," Justin says. "They always tell us too, we're hoping to get the population so small they'll just die out. Congress is trying to pass a law banning blood banks from selling blood for vampires."

"Why would they do that?" Will interjects. "They do realise if they do that, there's just gonna be more vampire attacks because they won't have a steady food supply."

"They'll make vampire defence a mandatory class in schools, hopefully that way they'll all die out."

I really hope that isn't true. I don't want to go back to having to hunt for rabbits and birds to feed from. I've had to do it every once and awhile when I didn't notice my blood supply was low, and I always hate it. I don't like killing animals, they didn't do anything to me.

Will wisely bites his tongue as they debate about vampires.

"How do you kill a vampire?" Kat asks Justin curiously.

"They're extremely flammable, one little touch of fire to their skin and they will practically just light up like a christmas tree. Or a steak through the heart, which I don't understand since there heart doesn't even beat," he responds thoughtfully.

"How can you tell if someone's a vampire?" Landon asks his dad.

"Well besides their appearance, they are cold to the touch. Garlic won't kill them or anything but they all have a severe allergy to it, but it varies from vampire to vampire the severity of it. If they get a cut and doesn't bleed, or bleeds very little. Those are all the typical easy to spot ways to spot them."

"Garlics a pretty common allergy isn't it?" David asks.

"Not really, but common enough that that alone doesn't make a vampire," Justin agrees with his brother.

They all nod thoughtfully as if Justin had just given them a lot of very useful information. I hadn't realised I had been digging my nails into my arm roughly until Will gently takes my hand and strokes my knuckles with his thumb.

***

The next morning Nico and I go down stairs to find Justin and his family already all sitting around the dining room table. As I turn the corner I see Aunt Kimmy going to hand one of Nicos smoothies to Landon who grabs it with greedy little hands.

I lunge forward and snatch it out of his hand, "What the hell?"

"Just give him the damn smoothie," Jess snaps at me.

"These are Nicos," I scoff in disbelief at her. "They're prescribed by his doctor, Landon can't have one."

"It's just a smoothie!" Landon argues, stamping his foot like a toddler and reaching for the bottle.

I hand the bottle over to Nico who looks a bit shook from the whole situation.

"It's a probiotic smoothie, they're expensive," I try to explain. "You can't just go and drink them."

"I will literally give you the money," Jess says. "I'm just to tired to deal with his tantrums."

"Well that's too bad, because he can not have one."

"How much per bottle?" Justin asks, coming over and grabbing the bottle from Nico to examine it. "I'll pay for it."

Nico grabs the bottle back, "No, I need them."

"Fine whatever," Jess says putting her hands up defensively. She turns back to her son, "Throw a tantrum to them if you have a problem."

"Please!" he begs me.

"No," I say firmly. "I'm not gonna change my mind so cut it out."

I thought the situation was over but only 5 minutes later Landon comes sitting at the table with a big cheeky grin and cup with a straw. He takes a sip and immediately spits it out, "This smoothie is disgusting!"

"What?" I yell grabbing the cup and looking in to see my aunt had clearly just poured Nicos smoothie into another cup for him thinking we wouldn't notice. "What the hell Aunt Kimmy!"

Justin gets up and grabs the smoothie from me, and before I can process what he's doing takes a sip. He spit it back out into the cup and turns a menacing glare to Nico. "It's blood, I told you guys he was a vampire!"

Nico whimpers and try's to get out of his chair to run away from falls over onto the floor. I step in front of him to keep Justin away.

"Move!" Justin yells at me.

"No!" I yell back. "I won't let you hurt him."

"He's tricked you so he can kill you or turn you!" He snarls, he turns to his wife. "Get the kids out of here it's not safe!"

Jess scrambles to collect her children and rush them out of the house. Aunt Kimmy follows and for the first time I notice my mom is no where to be seen.

Justin reaches into his pocket and pulls out a lighter. He flicks it on and Nico whimpers in fear and tries to scramble away. "Please don't hurt me!" he begs. "I didn't do anything!"

"Your a monster, I won't let you hurt my cousin or anyone else ever again!" Justin yells, pushing me out of the way and lunging at Nico. I grab him around the waist but he's big enough he's able to catch Nicos leg with the lighter. Nico screams in agony and grabs the rest of his smoothie to dump on his leg to put
out the fire before it can spread anymore.

I wrap my arm around Justin's throat and yank him backwards away from Nico. He claws at my arm, definitely leaving long scratches in my skin. "Don't you dare touch him!" I yell squeezing tighter. He flicks the lighter open and burns my hand, but I barley feel it with all the adrenaline pumping through my body.

"He's put you under some spell William! Let me go and I'll prove it to you!" he gasps, his voice wheezing from my choke hold.

"No, you'll just kill Nico if I let you go!"

"Let him leave first then!"

"Nico get out of here!" I yell at him, realising he hasn't moved from his spot on the ground. He's clutching his leg crying and whimpering in pain, his face covered in tears. "Leave!"

"I-I can't," Nico sobs. "H-Hurts t-to much!"

"Please Nico leave!" I beg. "You can do it."

A heart wrenching sob breaks from his throat and it takes everything in me to keep my hold on Justin and not run to my vampires side. I watch as he struggles to pull himself to his feet, whimpering and groaning in pain with every movement of his leg. Finally he limps out side and out of sight.

I move one hand to grab his arm to make sure he doesn't go running off after Nico and slowly let go of his throat. He doubles over coughing and gagging and tries to catch his breath. Finally he says, "Vampires have the ability to seduce their prey."

"That's a rumour, it's not true," I argue.

"Let me guess, Nico told you that?"

"Well yes, but I've done research on vampires. Most Monsterologists agree that it's a myth. It came from the vampires natural beauty, but they don't have an actual power to seduce anyone. It's all their looks."

"That's what they want you to think," Justin says seriously. "But they do. But let's say it's not true and it really is just their looks, that doesn't mean he's not tricking you. It's against Vampire culture for a vampire to be involved romantically with humans."

"Yes I know, it's what got him kicked out of his ex sires home. He found out he had feelings for me and told him he could either kill me, turn me, or leave me and forget about me if he wanted to stay with him. Nico chose me."

"Jesus, he really has you fooled doesn't he," Justin laughs and looks at me with eyes full of pity. "He just made that story up. It wouldn't surprise me if he's in contact with his sire and they're not planning your kidnapping already."

"He's not, his ex sire was cruel and abused Nico," I growl. "I saved him."

He sighs, "I'm sorry, but he tricked you."

"No he didn't, he loves me and I love him!"

"Bring him back in here, I'll get the truth out of him," Justin says with an air of finality. "If he proves me wrong I won't kill him or report him to the other hunters."

"I don't believe you."

"You have my word, I have a truth potion in my kit in the car. We use them for interrogations all the time."

"If it's the only way to make sure you won't hurt him, fine."

"I won't touch him if he proves me wrong."

I take a second to consider this before deciding. I nod, "Fine. I'll go get him."

I go out the back and find Nico curled up into himself crying. He looks up in terror and tries to
move away until he realises its just me. "Will! It hurts it hurts it hurts," he sobs reaching a hand out for me.

I drop down next to him pulling him into my lap and trying not to jostle his leg. He clearly has a severe third degree burn on his leg, a huge chunk of his flesh burnt away, at least thankfully it's only covering maybe 8 inches of his skin. It could have been so much worse if he hadn't stopped the fire from spreading more.

"I know my love, I know I'm sorry. I'll get you to a hospital as soon as possible," I assure him kissing all over his face.

"Now! I need to go now!" he sobs.

"Justin made a deal with me," I explain. "If you'll let him interview you under a truth potion he won't hurt you or report you."

"No! Don't let him any closer to me!" Nico sobs, trying to bury him self even closer in my lap. "Please sire, don't make me! I need to go to a hospital!"

"I know I'm sorry, but it's the only way he won't hurt you," I assure him, holding him tight. "I'll be there the whole time. I won't let him close."

"He'll hurt me more," Nico whimpers. "I'm scared."

I hate seeing Nico like this.

"I will not let him hurt you, please trust me."

"I trust you," he says quietly. He's still shaking but I don't know if it's from pain or fear, probably both.

"Can I carry you inside?" I ask him softly.

He nods so I scoop him in my arms and carry him into the living room, setting him down on the couch in my lap. Every time a small weak whimper escapes his throat my heart breaks a little more, I hate seeing my vampire in pain.

Only a few minutes later Justin walks back in with a small vial of a green potion. Nico immediately starts panicking again and trying to hide in my chest.

"I won't hurt you if you take this," Justin says gruffly, stopping in front of us and holding out the vial.

Nico gulps and takes his face out from my neck and eyes it warily. "It's a truth potion right?" he asks. "Not a poison or something?"

I hadn't even thought of that so I glare at him warily, wondering how I could be so stupid to have not considered this possibility.

"I promise it's not poison or anything, just a truth serum," he says, sounding sincere.

I take the bottle and pop it open first to smell it. It doesn't smell like anything, but I'm not sure if that's a good or bad sign. Nico takes it from me before I can protest and downs it all in one gulp. My heart stops for a second as I watch Nico for any sign of discomfort, but all he does is grimace at the taste.

"What's your name?" Justin asks with narrowed eyes.

"Nico Di Angelo."

"How old are you?"

"Seventeen," Nico responds easily, though I can feel his muscles keep tensing up and his grimace keeps growing deeper.

"When did you meet Will?" Justin asks.

"Two years ago, it was our freshman year."

"What drew you to him?"

"He's pretty," Nico blushes. "And he smells good, and is really nice to everyone, even me."

"Why are you dating him?"

"Because I love him and he makes me feel loved, even though I don't think I deserve it."

He groans in pain and leans his head back on my shoulder, takings a few deep breaths to calm himself down.

"Have you ever considered killing him?"

"Not seriously," Nico smirks. "But he can be a right pain in the ass sometimes. Literally and figuratively."

I slap my forehead, "He didn't need to know that."

Justin shakes his head, probably to try and get that image out of it. "Do you want to turn him?" he asks, narrowing his eyes.

"If he wants me to in the future I will, I'd like to live forever with him but it's up to him. I'm scared of him dying and me having to go on without him," Nico admits, then his eyes widen slightly at what he just said and looks down in shame. "I didn't want to ever tell you that," he says to me quietly.

"It's okay baby," I say kissing his temple. "I'm not mad, you literally just said you'd never do it unless I wanted you too. How could I be mad at that?"

Truth is I've thought about that too. Once he turns 21 and comes into his inheritance he will practically stop ageing. He'll have to watch me grow old while he ages 1 year physically per 20 to 30 ish years. He'll have to watch me die and go on without me. I'll have to leave him alone. I never thought this conversation would come up so soon though and I'm not sure if
I'm ready for it.

Justin seems a bit at a loss for words, just staring at us with a look of confusion. His tiny monster hunter brain not able to understand the idea of a vampire and a human in love.

"I'm sorry," Nico says, curling into my arms with a soft grunt of pain.

"Don't apologise," I assure him. "We can discuss this later if you'd like?"

He nods and turns back to Justin. "Any more questions?" he asks.

"Are you still in contact with your sire?" he asks.

Nico looks at me with confusion, then back to Justin. "Do you mean my ex sire?" he asks for clarification.

He suddenly whimpers in pain clutching at his thigh as of a new wave of pain spread up it.

"Yes."

"No, I never want to see his face again. I'll even tell you where he lives if you'd like so you can kill him and rescue all his fanglings."

"Fanglings?" I ask curiously, having never heard the term before.

Nico nods, "It's what we call vampires who belong to a sire. I'm your fangling."

"Will," Justin says in shock. "You're his sire?"

"Maybe not officially if we're going by vampire law, but I consider him my sire," Nico explains.

"Is this done? He clearly isn't planning to kill me," I say irritably, really just wanting to have Nico to myself for a minute before I take him to the hospital.

"I guess," he grumbles.

"Okay, do you know where my mom is so we can take Nico to the hospital?" I ask.

"She ran to the store but she should be back soon," he says, leaving and heading out front where his family is.

Nico finally calms down a little and stops shaking so much now that he's gone. He doesn't stop completely but that's probably from the pain. His leg is now blistering and looks black and like it would be crunchy to the touch. He keeps whimpering and groaning in pain, grabbing fistfuls of my shirt as if that will ease the pain in his calf.

Only about five minutes later my mom comes bursting through the door. "What the hell happened?" she exclaims rushing to our side. She kneels next to Nico and looks at his leg with a grimace. "We need to get you to a hospital."

"Are there any monster hospitals around?" Nico asks through clenched teeth.

"I'll google it," Mom says pulling out her phone. She frowns, "The nearest one that has a monster wing is 40 minutes away."

"Are there any that are just monster friendly near by?" Nico suggests. "I don't think I can wait that long. I feel like I'm gonna pass out."

She looks and then groans in frustration, "It's 35 minutes away. We might as well just go to the one with the monster wing."

"Let's go," Nico says sitting up with a groan. "Fuck."

I carry him to the car and load him into the back. "Do you need blood?" I ask.

"It'll only come back out the wound."

"Oh right."

After about ten minutes of driving, Mom definitely going way over the speed limit, Nico groans in pain and goes mostly limp in my arms. "I feel like death,"
he informs me. "It's getting worse."

"Is there anything I can do to help?" I ask anxiously.

"Get me to the hospital sooner," he says through gritted teeth. "Burns can kill me."

"Even if it's on your leg?" I ask frantically.

He nods, "Fire kills my cells or something and spreads through my body."

"Drive faster!" I yell at my mom, my eyes welling up with tears. "Shit shit shit." I hadn't fully understood the severity of the situation until right now, and I feel like I've been hit by a truck.

"I'm trying," Mom responds, sounding a bit frantic as well.

"I feel like my whole body's on fire," Nico whines. "It just keeps getting worse."

I'm very aware of all the tears streaming down my face now. Now that I understand the severity of the situation I feel I'm going to pass out from stress and fear. I thought he was just in so much pain because he had a huge third degree burn, I didn't know it was because his cells were slowly burning him alive. He was dying.

I hold him tighter quietly crying into his shoulder. "You'll be okay," I say, more reassuring myself more than him. "I'm so sorry."

"Not your fault," he responds, trying to keep his eyes open. He groans and tenses up more in my arms. "Don't let me pass out," he adds. "As it gets worse I'm probably gonna try and convince you to just let me sleep. Don't let me."

"Okay," I say, rubbing circles on his back.

"Don't do that right now, it makes me want to go to sleep more."

I stop, "Sorry."

I keep having to shake him to keep him awake, and every time I realise he's stopped breathing my heart stops. After about the 5th time of shaking him awake he starts crying. "It hurts so much," he sobs. "Just let me sleep."

"I can't baby, you need to stay awake," I say gently.

He sobs more. "Please please just let me sleep," he begs me. "I'm so tired, I can't do this anymore."

"I know my love, but you gotta keep your eyes open for me okay?"

"Why?"

"Just trust me okay?"

"Yes sire," Nico agrees, his big brown eyes keeping trained on me. "I'll try."

I keep eye contact with Nico to make sure he's keeping his eyes open. His eyes keep trying to flutter shut but he stubbornly fight to keep them open. His face keeps contorting with pain but he always opens them right back up. If it wasn't for the fact that he has tears streaming down his face and I can see the pain and fear in his eyes, I would really enjoy this. I love just staring into his eyes, because they are so beautiful. I can't enjoy it much right now though because my vampire is dying in my arms.

"Only ten minutes away," Mom announces.

"I can't," Nico whines. "I can't do it anymore. It hurts to much."

"You can do it," I say firmly. "Your so strong, you can hold out a little longer."

"Just let me go." He sniffs back some more tears. "It's to much, everything burns."

"It's okay, your so god damn strong. You can hang on just a few more minutes."

He shakes his head, "I can't even breath."

"You don't need to breath," I remind him.

"Oh. Right," he nods.

By the time we get to the hospital he's covered in sweat, and I've never seen him sweat before. I honestly didn't think he was even capable of sweating. Mom pulls up right to the emergency room and parks the car. I open the door and carry Nico inside.

"What happened?" a nurse upfront asks, calling for a gurney.

"He was burnt by my nephew," Mom explains. "We had to drive an hour to get here for the monster unit."

"What is he?" she asks.

"Vampire," I supply.

A crew of nurses comes with a gurney and I gently set Nico down on it. He immediately reaches for my hand, "Please don't leave me."

"I won't I'm right here," I assure him. "I just need to get out of their way okay? I won't leave you, I promise."

He nods and let's go of my hand reluctantly and promptly passes out. I follow them through the hospital to the monster wing and they find a room. I watch as they hook him up to all sorts of machines and liquids. I don't understand a word they're saying which concerns me a little since I usually always understand doctors. I assume its just because I was into human medicine not monster. As long as they save Nico I didn't care, maybe I'll ask later just so I can know for future reference.

I watch as they scrape off the scabbing on his leg and inject it with something, then run some sort of topical cream on it. Almost instantly it starts to close, leaving behind nothing but a gnarly scar that I know Nico will hate.

Eventually they all stop, chatting about if there's anything else they can do. They decide they can't and turn to me.

"He should be fine, but we can't be sure," one of the doctors says. "He was pretty far in to the burning process, it's gonna be a long recovery. Does he have a sire we should be contacting?"

"Just me, he calls me his sire," I tell them, getting up to move to Nicos side. He looks even more dead than he normally does. He has absolutely no colour to his face, he's not breathing, and he's lying 100% still while connected to all sorts of machines that I have no idea the purpose of.

"Alright, he's going to need you a lot these next few days," the second doctor says. "You'll need to help him keep his strength to stay with us."

I nod, chewing my lip anxiously. I reach out and cup his cheek in my hand, stroking my thumb under his eye. He's back to being cold to the touch instead of warm which must be a good sign.

All the nurses and doctors exit leaving me alone with Nico. I know one is still there but she doesn't say anything for another minute or two.

"Your a human?" one of the nurses asks. When I turn to look at her I can tell she's a siren, they are very easy to spot.

"Yes," I agree.

"But you love him?" she asks curiously.

"More than anything," I confirm.

"Good," she nods. "We need more humans like you in this world." Then she turns and leaves.

I pull a chair up to the side of Nicos bed and lay my head down next to him. I put my arm over his stomach to hold myself close to him. I finally realise how much I'm shaking, and how badly my hand and arms hurt from Justin trying to get out of my choke hold. I look and see I've got a pretty nasty burn on my hand and I consider going to see if someone can fix it but don't want to leave Nicos side. If he wakes up alone he'll be so scared, and I would have broken my promise to stay with him.

"You have to stay with me okay Nico?" I say quietly to him, though I have no idea if he can hear me. "I can't loose you."

A few minutes later my mom comes into the room and silently takes a seat across the room from us. I hardly spare her a glance because I'm to focused on Nico.

It's nearly 7 at night when he finally wakes up. He groans and shifts and I immediately perk up to look at him. His eyes flutter open and he smiles at me sleepily. "Hi," he says, in a raspy voice.

I can't help but laugh with relief, "Hi."

"You look like shit," he smirks. "You really think I was gonna leave you alone? You can barley feed your self."

I laugh. "I love you so much," I remind him. "Never scare me like that again."

"I didn't mean to."

"I know I know." I cup his face in my hand and he leans into my touch. "How do you feel."

"Like I was almost burned alive from the inside out," he muses. "But better. I don't feel like like I'm currently burning at least."

"That's an improvement," I chuckle a little.

He grabs my hand and squeezes tightly, causing me to gasp in pain. He immediately lets go and looks at me with big frightened doe eyes. "What's wrong? Did I hurt you?"

"Nothing nothing, just from keeping Justin away from you," I gasp. "Oh fuck I forgot how much it hurt."

"Can I see?" Nico asks meekly. I give him my hand and he holds it in his gently. "Did he burn you?" I nod. "Is that from his nails?" I nod again. He chews his lip, "Can I help?"

"How could you help?" I ask.

He blushes a little, "Vampire saliva is healing, remember?"

"Oh yeah. Go ahead, i-if you want."

He brings my hand to his mouth and tentatively licks my burn wound. At first it hurt like hell but after a couple seconds all the pain went away and I watched as it healed over leaving only the faintest scar. He moves on to the scratches and licks light lines over them, causing them to heal as well. He kisses my palm and gives me my hand back.

I stare at it in awe. I always knew vampire saliva was healing but I never really understood to what extent it was. I glance over at my mom who looks just as awe struck as I feel.

"That's amazing," I say as I gape at my good as new hand.

He shrugs, "You saved me. Least I could do."

"You're amazing."

He blushes and smiles a little. "I'm not."

I cup his face in my hands and lean in to kiss him. He hums contently into kiss and reaches up to wrap his fingers in my curly blonde hair. When we finally pull away I'm gasping for air but I couldn't care less. I lean my forehead against his. "I'm really glad your okay."