Chapter Text
Rain slammed down into the mud. The darkness of the night was broken by flickering flames atop a cliff. Nico slowly lifted himself up. Pain spiderwebbed through his bones. Blood pooled in the dirt. He needed that inside him.
He looked upwards at the fire. The explosion lasted barely a second. One moment he was stepping through a shadowy gateway, and the next flames wreathed his body.
“I, William Solace, Son of Apollo The Radiance, swear upon the light of the Sun and Moon that I will always protect those in need. That I will always fight forces that seek harm, and will fight to save anyone threatened by evil-“
Will jolted awake, lifting his head up from his desk. His phone was violently ringing and neck ached from the sleeping position.
He hated dreams about his upbringing.
“What the hell, Leo, it’s half midnight,” Will’s voice sounded annoyingly hoarse.
“Hey, Will, there’s Someone injured down at the workshop, I need your help,”
Will shot up. He pulled on a jacket and a pair of boots as he talked on the phone.
“First aid?”
“I've done my best, he was bleeding and I think there’s some broken bones involved,” Even as the phone call’s quality dipped and rose, Will could hear the panic in Leo’s voice.
“Okay, keep him breathing, I’ll be there in five,”
Will hung up. His heart kinda fell slightly as he glanced across his mess of a bedroom and picked up his keys from his desk. Usually he prided himself on a clean living space, but recently he didn’t have the energy to clean.
He ran down the stairs and out the house. An old stone mansion, renovated cheaply over the last two hundred years. Two decades ago it was a hub of activity, but now there were barely any residents.
The streets were dark and cold. Old houses stood between the leering trees. The roads always took on an ominous edge at night, and Will knew more than most people about the monsters that lurked in the shadows.
The workshop was an old garage that sat maybe ten minutes away. It was technically owned by Will’s family, but Leo ended up being the only person to regularly use it.
Will picked up a key from under the doormat and entered. The large open space was always cold. Chains hung from the ceiling, machinery was littered around. A still damp trail of blood guided Will.
Leo was in the back room with the patient. He was laid across the sofa. A teenager, the same age as Will, with dark shaggy hair and pale skin. Leo had taken off his shirt and wrapped a bandage around his chest.
He had very delicate features. Will refused to be distracted. He was a Doctor, not just some teenager.
“Oh thank the gods,” Leo said as he saw Will enter.
John Doe was painted with blood and mud, the deep colours contrasting his pale skin. Leo’s army jacket was around him now also taking blood stains.
“Okay, what happened?” Will asked. He knelt down and started unwrapping and reapplying the dressings.
“Uh, I was just sitting here, doing my thing, when this guy dragged himself in, bleeding and shaking,” Leo said, his voice wavering, “His clothes were burnt and torn. He fell unconscious as soon as he entered,”
Will kept working silently. Blunt trauma, lacerations, puncture marks, burns. Really, the whole deal. Will was surprised he managed to make it this far. These injuries were some of the worse he had seen.
He was still breathing, which Will had discovered was always a good sign.
“W-what’s-“ The patient was awake, also a good sign.
“Hey, don’t worry, my name is Will. I’m here to help you. What’s your name?”
Randomly, Will checked the heartbeat. It didn’t seem necessary as the patient was clearly alive.
There wasn’t a heartbeat.
Will’s own heart sank.
“I…I’m uh, Nico,” his eyes wondered with hazy chaos, moving in unfocused and messy patterns.
No heartbeat, pale skin, alive despite severe injuries.
Leo noticed Will’s face change, “What’s wrong,”
“Leo, join me in the office,” Will said slowly.
Nico’s eyelids fluttered, it was unclear if he was even awake anymore.
Will should have known sooner, it should have been obvious.
“What, what’s going on?” Leo asked.
“Fuck, fuck,” Will muttered, “That kid, he’s a vampire,”
He should have known sooner. He was trained for this.
Leo’s face twisted with surprise, “No, shut up, there can’t be one in the town,”
“I don’t know, but that’s the only thing that makes sense. People don’t just walk off explosions,”
“I have-“
“His heart isn’t beating, Leo,”
Will looked out the window into the staffroom. Nico wasn’t doing anything, just lying there.
“Well then, what the fuck do we do?” Leo asked, and then his voice dropped, “Do we, Y’know-,” he mimed drawing a blade across his neck.
Nico just lay there. He was helpless. Just another kid like Will or Leo. Will had never actually killed a vampire before, he kinda hoped he never had too.
Will’s voice shook, “I… I think we should…” he looked down at his medic’s bag. He was lots of things, but firstly he was a Doctor, “He’ll die without help, we need to-“
“He’s a vampire, Will. He feeds on the innocent and lurks in the dark,”
“Look at him, Leo. We…we don’t know if he’s as bad as some of them.” Will opened the door again. He had put a plan together now. “I only said I’d be a hunter to help people, and I can help him right now,”
It was so fucking stupid.
Will was back at Nico’s side. The way his veins bulged, his flickering eyes were ringed with red, a vampire hungry and low on blood.
Will pulled back Nico’s lips. Fangs were obviously present.
“Your dad is actually going to kill us, then bring us back to life and then kill us again,” Leo’s arms were crossed.
“He doesn’t need to know,” Will hissed.
His heart was racing. It doesn’t matter who, he took an oath to save people. He had no reason to believe this teenager was evil.
Will pulled up his sleeves, and put his wrist up to Nico’s mouth. The fastest way to heal a vampire, blood.
“Will, are you sure?”
Will just looked and Leo, “No, but I need to do something,”
He took his other hand and pushed Nico’s jaw upwards, forcing his fangs through Will’s tanned skin.
Will winced. For a second it hurt. And then numbness spread up his arm, followed by a tingling warmth. The worst part was, It started to feel kind of nice.
Half awake, Nico started drinking. Blood dripped down his pale chin and onto his chest.
Calmness spread like a wave through Will. For a few seconds the stress he’d been feeling recently felt so unreasonable, so far away.
“Okay Will, that’s enough,” And then Leo repeated with more urgency, “Will, stop! WILLIAM!”
Will pulled his hand out of Nico’s mouth. “Sorry, Leo, I got distracted,” he felt slightly lightheaded.
“You’re an idiot, you know that?” Leo took a plaster out of will’s bag and put it on his wrist, “You know the first rule of vampires is don’t let them bite you,”
“It’s fine,” Will said, “I’ll be fine,”
They’d both had the same lessons. They both knew that a vampire's bite was dangerously addictive.