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Patrick held his side as he slowly made his way down the alley nearest to the hunter headquarters. His breaths were uneven and certain movements caused him to hiss with pain and pause.
It wasn’t just his side that was wounded, but it was the spot he could feel the most blood still seeping from.
He shouldn’t have still been out. He should have called for reinforcement before his phone was smashed and he got the shit beat out of him by a vampire that he only just managed to take down.
He should have.
He didn’t.
Patrick cried out as his foot caught something, sending him forward to the ground. His hand slipped and he could feel more tearing against his skin with the impact. A scream escaped him before a gasping sob. Spots danced in front of his darkening vision as more intense pain shot through him.
“Fuck off…” Patrick attempted to push himself up, but his arms were shaking so bad that his palms wouldn’t stay firmly planted on the loose papers and dirt beneath him. “Fuck!”
He inhaled sharply as he dropped back to his forearms. He could feel wetness spreading over his torso, weighing down his shirt and pulling it closer to the ground.
He didn’t want to die here. He could bandage himself up well enough if he could just get home. He was so close. Joe might yell at him when he caught him getting blood all over their stolen first aid kits, but at least Joe would be there and he would be safe.
“Pete…” Patrick called out, thoughts of Joe tangenting into thoughts of his turned friend. “Pete…Help…” He couldn’t think of the range of Pete’s hearing after being turned, especially with the building and walls between them.
He tried to crawl forward, but instead flattened against the ground. He felt light headed. His fingertips were freezing and that chill was slowly creeping over the rest of his hand. His arms still shook as he drew them closer to his chest. Despite his jacket, he could feel himself getting colder and colder.
“Pete…”
Patrick struggled to get his arm back down to his wound. His entire lower torso was soaking wet. It squished as he pushed against his wound. He had to get back up. He was so close to home. If he could just…
Something dropped near him. He could hear something rushing over the loose papers and kicking small pebbles to different sides.
“Patr-oh god-“
Patrick felt himself getting turned onto his side before he realized what was happening. Pete was looking down at him, one hand pressed firmly over his nose and mouth. The other hand, Patrick realized, he could feel on his chest, over his heart.
“Pete…” Patrick stretched out his hand that wasn’t holding his wound. “I fucked up…”
Pete shook his head. “No, no, it’s okay.” His voice was muffled behind his hand. There was a flash of hesitation before he pulled his hand away from his face to instead reach towards Patrick. Patrick could see his nose scrunch and red in his pupil as Pete began to pull him up from the ground.
Patrick cried out in pain, making Pete freeze in place.
“Pete I can’t…” Patrick blinked away spots of pain. “I’m sorry, I fucked… I fucked up.”
“You’re fine, Pa-Patrick.” Pete tripped over his words.
Patrick could see Pete’s eyes flickering between his face and his torso. “Blood…” He murmured, “I shouldn’t…shouldn’t have called…”
“Don’t say that.” Pete’s focus was back on his face. “I barely heard you, I thought you were just fucking with me to get me with some training bullshit.”
Patrick would have laughed if his body wasn’t in so much pain and growing so cold. They had all done it before, testing Pete’s new limits and each other’s readiness. They were always spuratic, but it had been awhile since anyone had initiated one. “Sorry.” He shut his eyes.
“Hey, stop it.” Pete’s hand was on his cheek, tapping it frantically. “Patrick, hey, eyes open.”
Patrick leaned into Pete’s touch. His eyelids felt so heavy, he couldn’t bring them to open more than a crack. “Sorry…”
“What did you get yourself into?” Pete pulled Patrick up, closer to him despite Patrick’s cries. He apologized softly, quickly repositioning a hand against Patrick’s cheek. “Stay with me.”
“More than I could handle…” Patrick mumbled, trying to take Pete’s face in. He looked panicked and scared. Lines of worry broke through usually level demeanor. Or maybe he was just imagining it through his spotted and narrowed vision. “Thank you…for coming.” He hissed the last word, feeling a bubble of warmth slip through the fingers over his lower torso wound. “Fuck…”
“Hey, hey, that’s the deal.” Pete rubbed his thumb back and forth on Patrick’s cheek. “You’re here for me, I’m here for you. Same goes for Joe and Andy, you know, if they weren’t at the movies… Weren’t you supposed to be with them?”
Patrick let out a soft sigh. “No…” he hadn’t been interested in the movie that Joe and Andy had settled on. A vampire adjacent suspense that Patrick felt they lived enough on the daily. “Was gunna get snacks…come home…”
A sudden breeze caught Patrick off guard. Pete’s hand wasn’t on his cheek. Pete wasn’t looking down at him. Then, he was laying on a cool surface and Pete was gone entirely.
“Pete?..”
Pete leaned back into Patrick’s vision. His scarf was wrapped over his lower face, covering his nose and mouth. “You’re back, that’s good, stay with me, okay? Joe and Andy are on the way back.”
“Back?..” Patrick’s blinks were slow. “Where’d…I go?”
Pete’s hand was back on Patrick’s cheek, giving him support to lean against. “I, ah, I tried to patch you up but I thought… it’s also just a lot…”
“Blood…” Patrick shut his eyes again. He tried to add something else, but it came out in a clumped, indistinguishable mutter.
“Hey, Patrick!” More taps on his cheek before he felt himself getting pulled up and held against Pete’s chest. “Eyes open, c’mon, you can’t leave me. Or-or any of us, hey…”
“Here…” Patrick mumbled, though he didn’t reopen his eyes. Everything felt so heavy. He didn’t realize how tired he had been, even with the shock of Pete’s chilled skin against him.
Pete held him tighter. “Fuck, Patrick, you lost so much blood and the hospital is so far, why didn’t you go there?” There was a quiver to his voice, “Why didn’t you call anyone?”
“Phone busted.” Patrick mumbled, “You’re safe.”
Pete’s hold seemed to grow tighter for a moment as a brief silence hung in the air. “You trust me?”
Patrick hummed in confirmation, finding it harder to form words.
Another pause as Patrick began to feel the weight of unconsciousness pulling down on him harder. Followed soon after by sound of a brief struggle.
“Keep trusting me, and don’t be mad.” Pete’s words were rushed and hard for Patrick to comprehend before Pete’s lips were on his.
Patrick inhaled sharply as a strange flavor hit his tongue. A sweet flavor? Sweetness mixed with faint copper and something he couldn’t place, but knew tasted incredible. He leaned up into the connection, finding enough strength from it to bring a hand up and grab hold of Pete’s shirt.
The slide of their lips felt effortless as that sweetness seemed to coat them as well. It was slick and cool, addictive in a way that didn’t really make sense to him. He had never kissed Pete before. Pete would always tease and steal kisses on his cheek more before turning than any time recently. It almost made him dizzy to keep tasting that sweetness on his lips, but he couldn’t pull away.
Maybe if had more strength left in him he would have pulled away. The sensation was strange and would make him want to cringe away from it if he could focus on it long enough…but that taste. That sweetness kept him pushing back into it. He wanted more of it. It was all he could think about. Above his pain. Above the chill that had been setting in. He just needed more.
He gasped as Pete pulled away, eyes snapping open. He gazed up at Pete, breathing fast and heavy as that sweet taste lingered on his tongue. He watched Pete drag his teeth across across his bottom lip, tearing it open and causing a deep red to begin forming before he leaned back down to Patrick.
Patrick pulled him hungrily back, taking in more of the sweetness without fully registering why Pete’s kiss tasted better than anything he had ever tasted before.
He felt so warm. The tiredness he had felt just moments ago was replaced by a buzz that made his lips tingle against Pete’s. He could feel Pete’s hand tangling in his hair. He could feel heat in his cheeks. He could feel his heartbeat accelerating. He couldn’t get that taste out of his brain.
He needed more.
It tasted so good.
Why was his heart beating even faster.
It tasted so good.
He needed more.
His chest was starting to burn from the racing of his heart.
He needed more.
It tasted so good.
Why did his heart stop beating.
It tasted so good…
Patrick’s head fell back, now being the one to break the connection. His vision was blurred and his breathing still heavy. The sweetness still making his lips tingle as his gaze cast up at the ceiling.
Pete looked down at Patrick, tears falling down his cheeks. “I’m here, Patrick.” He whispered, wiping some of the dripping blood away from the corner of Patrick’s mouth as he watched Patrick’s eyes cloud over. “That’s the deal. I’ll be here through all of it… I’m so sorry…”
Pete turned as Andy and Joe burst into the space. They were both panting, panic in their eyes as they took in the scene of Pete holding Patrick. Blood coating the counter. Blood soaking both of their clothes. Patrick staring up at the ceiling in Pete’s arms, not seeming to even recognize anyone entering the room.
“I thought you said he wasn’t dead.” Joe cried out, seemingly unable to make himself move further into the room. Tears were welling in his eyes as his eyes, gaze locked on Patrick.
Pete held Patrick a little tighter. “He was gunna be gone.” He pressed his lips together to fight back a sob. He could taste an intense copper still on his lips, but the cut was already healed. “Dead and gone. This was the only way to make him only one of those things.”
“It’s hardly been any time…” Andy leaned back against the wall by the door. “We had just separated. He should have been safe…”
Pete looked back down at Patrick, resting still in his arms. “I’m so sorry.” He brought Patrick closer and rested his face in his chest. “I’m so fucking sorry…”
Pete felt frozen holding him like that. He could feel no sensation of a heartbeat. He couldn’t hear Patrick’s blood flowing. His breaths were spaced and growing further apart.
Until his breathing stopped.
Until his heart began to beat again.