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“All right, cher.” Benny stared at the barrel fort that was just big enough to hide the stowaway. “Time to come out and explain yourself. He counted backwards from ten. “Right then.”
Moving two barrels produced a young man with soft hair and gorgeously complicated eyes. Benny already hadn’t planned to cause too much trouble as long as his stowaway didn’t do something stupid, but something about this kid had him thinking thoughts he had no business thinking. The young man held up his hands. “I… I’m sorry. I didn’t really have much choice.”
“Always a choice,” Benny countered. “For example, I could make you walk the plank, but I’m choosing not to. I could only let you stay if you let my crew feed, but I’m choosing not to. I could’ve thrown you off the ship before we got far enough out that you could’ve swum back to shore, but I chose not to… and a couple of my crew are giving me hell for it, so you know.” Benny smirked at the look on the guy’s face. “Yeah. I’ve known you were here the whole time.”
“Um.” He cleared his throat. “More concerned about what you meant by feeding on me. Because we’ve still got four days, and I need to know if I need to jump overboard to save myself from a worse fate if you change your mind or your crew changes it for you.”
“Heh. Don’t worry about that; my crew’s bound to me by more than the word of a pirate.” He couldn’t blame the guy for being skeptical, but then again, it wasn’t like Benny and his crew tried to make any secret of being pirates when they’d pulled into harbor. He had courage. What he didn’t have was a critical piece of information. “Me and my crew… we’re vampires. By feeding on you, I mean my crew gets a special treat instead of the bottled blood we take on short voyages like this one. Not enough to kill you, just enough for a morale boost.”
“Vampires are supposed to be extinct. That’s what everyone I know says, and these guys… they know what they’re talking about.”
“Hunting a vampire to extinction’s damn near as hard as hunting pirates to extinction, cher, and you got just as many guys who wipe out one nest or crew and love to boast about it. I promise you, we’re still here.” Benny grinned, letting his fangs slide into place. “Got a name?”
“Sam Winchester.”
Well, shit. “You ain’t John’s… from your age, guessing son?” If he were, that certainly explained how this guy knew about vampires and why he wasn't showing any more fear than he had been before the fangs came out.
“I am. I know you can’t have crossed paths with him, or you’d be beheaded and Dad might be more skeptical about the claims of extinction, but you know my father’s reputation?”
“Oh yeah.” Every vampire did. Everything that tried to exist outside of the human world did. “Puts me in a bit of a bind here, Sam… your old man gonna come after you, or did he kick you out and tell you to get off his island?”
“…Kinda the latter?” Sam winced. “I got accepted to Stanford. Full ride scholarship.” Benny let out a whistle. Stanford was one of the best universities in the world, especially for people with an interest in non-human studies. Scholarships were hard to come by if you didn’t already have the money or connections. “I told my dad I was going, and he told me that if I left, I shouldn’t plan on coming back ever. I left anyway. You’re not going to have a problem with him over me stowing away on your ship.”
“Everyone always says John Winchester’s a real piece of work, but that’s low, even for his rep,” Benny growled. “The hell is his problem?”
Sam just shrugged. “Me and him have been butting heads pretty much since I turned thirteen, maybe he’s just happy for the excuse to get rid of me.”
“Okay. Makes sense why you’d pick this ship to hide out on, and you’re not taking any food we were relying on. Be a bit hypocritical to get mad about you stealin’ from us. Any of the crew causes problems, tell ‘em your dad’ll come looking when you don’t make it to school safe and they’ll back off real quick once they hear who your dad is. Mind if I come visit any time we’re in port nearby?”
Sam shook his head. “That’s it? You’re not gonna try to feed, or let your crew?”
“Nah. Unless you’re offering, no one here’ll touch you. Come out on the deck and get some fresh air. You look like you could use it.”