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Adrenaline was still running through Guy's system from the fright of nearly being torn apart by that hellish creature in the basement, just a few minutes prior.
Checkers, Jasper had called it. Guy was surprised that thing even had a name to begin with. Seemingly it had been human, once, but there was certainly nothing human left in the scratching, guttural sounds the creature had made while looming over him with bared teeth, nor in those horrifically sharp claws, which had been so dangerously close to carving out his face.
Guy squeezed his eyes shut a couple of times to focus back on the present at hand, trying to stifle the images that kept swirling in his mind, accompanied by the now more distinct thoughts coming from the staff in the building. It appeared his close encounter with that creature had taken a toll on even that little ability he had developed to block the background noise in his head. He pinched the bridge of his nose as the elevator announced with a chime they had reached their destination.
As he followed Jasper back to his rooms, despite his efforts to keep a calm facade, Guy could feel his hands shaking, luckily out of the other's sight. His traitorous heart though kept hammering in his chest at a worrisome rate, regretfully very much within the vampire's hearing range.
Jasper himself had not uttered a word since they left the basement, which Guy didn't know whether to interpret necessarily as a good sign or not. There was no doubt Jasper could hear Guy's frantic heartbeat as they walked along the corridor, but he clearly had no intention of commenting on it. Yet. Or maybe never. Maybe he was just silently enjoying himself while playing with Guy's emotions as a cat would with a cornered mouse. Whatever the case, Guy had no other option but to follow him back into his apartment.
Jasper closed the door behind them. The clicking sound of the lock did nothing to reduce Guy's uneasiness as he stood in the vampire's living room.
"Come," said Jasper after a moment, making his way across the room and gesturing for Guy to follow him.
Guy hesitated just a second before following the other deeper into his apartment. They reached a familiar door, opening onto the room where Guy had spent the previous night; but Jasper went past it and eventually turned left at the end of the corridor. He kept a door open for Guy, who entered the room only to freeze in his steps a moment later as he realized Jasper had led him into his master bedroom.
"Well, don't just stand there and look stupid. Bathroom's over there," urged him the vampire.
"What?"
Jasper arched one eyebrow. "Should I worry about a concussion as well as a nasty scratch?" He pointed at Guy's forehead.
Guy unthinkingly brought his hand to his temple and the sharp pain from touching the open wound finally ground him enough to come back to his senses.
"Fuck..." he muttered, looking at the red stains on his fingers.
"Go on then," Jasper nodded towards the bathroom, "let's get you cleaned up. You don't want that to get infected, do you?"
They moved into the bathroom. Jasper had Guy sit on the edge of an alcove bathtub while he searched for a first-aid kit in a cabinet by the door.
Unlike the rest of Jasper's apartment, which presented strikingly warm hues, green was the predominant color in the bathroom. It provided the room with a colder appearance, which probably should have made Guy even more uneasy, but for some reason it had the opposite effect of calming him down, at least partially. That, and the fact that the background voices in his head had suddenly disappeared, Guy realized with no little surprise.
"You should take this off."
Jasper's hands were suddenly on his shoulders, making him startle and almost fall into the tub. He had moved next to Guy without the latter noticing, as he was too distracted taking in the peculiar design of the room.
"It's all dusty from downstairs," continued Jasper, eyeing Guy's checkered shirt. "Give it here. I'll have it washed in no time."
Guy reluctantly took off his shirt and handed it to Jasper. He could have sworn he had glimpsed the vampire sniffing the warm fabric right before tossing it on a nearby chair, but he had probably been mistaken.
"Mmh."
"What?" asked Guy, raising his gaze to stare right into Jasper's azure eyes.
"Nothing," Jasper shook his head, the corners of his mouth twitching up almost imperceptibly. "It's just- black suits you very well."
Guy looked down at his plain black t-shirt. He had never paid much attention to the way he dressed, as long as he kept warm. It felt strange being complimented over something so trivial, especially coming from Jasper. He wasn’t even sure how to react.
"Thank you," he eventually replied, a little crease of confusion forming between his eyebrows.
"Here," Jasper handed him a piece of gauze. "Press this on to stop the bleeding, I'll be right back."
As a matter of fact, it took him less than a second to stand once again in front of Guy, holding a tablet in his hand. He offered it to Guy, who continued applying pressure to the wound with his right hand.
"What's this?" asked Guy in a steady voice, finally more in control of himself.
"The Westcroft," replied Jasper as he took a seat on the green recamier and rummaged through the first-aid kit. "The vampire we're looking for is there."
"Staying in some swank hotel. Getting turndown service," commented Guy with sarcasm.
"No. Running the place," corrected the vampire, his tone practical as ever as he prepared a disinfectant wipe. "The only vampire coven in town operates the Westcroft. It's a front. A hotel for mortals that immortals own and sometimes patronize."
Guy was not particularly surprised. "Easy to go looking for fresh blood when it's sleeping under your roof." It made sense, from a vampire’s perspective.
Jasper stood up and reached to check Guy's forehead. "Let me see."
Guy lowered his hand holding the gauze and tilted his head slightly back and to the side, allowing Jasper to inspect the wound.
"The whole coven's a bunch of underworld thugs that think they're strong," reprised Jasper while disinfecting the scratch, "like to wave guns around. Seen way too many Guy Ritchie movies." He patted the disinfectant wipe on Guy's temple, combing back his hair with his left hand, sliding it then towards the younger man's nape for unnecessary support. "They deal in whatever pays. Drugs, guns, black market shit. Usually, the spooks at the Mother House pick up constant chatter for them, but all of a sudden they go silent. Wanna guess why?"
"Wait," interrupted Guy looking up sideways as the older man kept working on his wound with uncharacteristically gentle fingers, "so you're going in there to get the book?"
A sharp pain. Guy groaned and instinctively flinched back, raising his arm in reflexive defense. Maybe not so gentle after all, he thought.
Jasper, apparently unbothered, slowly withdrew his hand from where it had rested up until that moment at Guy's nape.
"No, Guy," he said calmly. "You."
Guy held back a very dissatisfied and explicit retort, instead wisely opting to stay quiet for the time being.
"I can't go in there. They know who I am," explained Jasper. "I wouldn't get past the lobby. But you,” his eyes glinting for a moment, “you're just a civilian who can read vampire minds without them knowing."
That earned Jasper a shocked look from Guy, eyes wide with surprise as he asked under his breath, "How'd you know?"
"I know a lot of things," Jasper's reply came in an equally quiet tone.
Guy's gaze fell slowly to the side as he considered the implications of what he had just learned.
"Call it a perk of the office." Jasper ruffled Guy's hair with nonchalance, his amusement at the younger man’s shock clearly transpiring right before he turned around to dispose of the used wipe. Guy was too stunned to pay attention to any of this. Let alone the fact that Jasper knew about his ability, but the idea of walking into a den of vampires with absolutely zero backup simply couldn't sit well with him, to say the least. There was no way he could pull this off.
"Okay, no, look. I go in there, they'll find me out. They'll rip my face off."
"How will they find you out, huh? You've been trained, haven't you?"
Guy did his best to hold back a scoff. If only Jasper knew about the extent of his training, or better lack thereof, he wouldn't be making such decisions so lightheartedly. To be fair, he probably wouldn't even have kept Guy around that long, so maybe on second thoughts it was actually a good thing that Jasper didn't know in meticulous detail how short-lived Guy’s training had been with the Talamasca, all things considered.
"Besides, we'll have backup just in case,” Jasper reassured him.
Guy was still not convinced.
“Hold still." Jasper was about to apply a suture plaster on Guy's forehead, but he hesitated with his hands half-way there, seemingly pondering the matter.
Guy had no idea what could have possibly given the vampire pause and simply looked alternately from the plaster back up to the other's face, waiting.
Jasper eventually discarded the plaster. "I shouldn't do this. It's kind of against the code or whatever," he muttered almost to himself. "But I like you."
Guy slightly squinted his eyes at him, visibly on the fence. Jasper brought his hand to his lips and bit down on his own thumb, drawing a drop of blood that quickly pooled on the pad of his finger. He reached towards Guy's wound, but the latter jerked back and grabbed Jasper's wrist to prevent him from touching him.
Jasper asked then in a placid voice, "Do you want a scar?"
He didn't trust Jasper. How could he, after all? The vampire had killed his predecessor and created monsters on a whim in his basement.
"Come here. It doesn't hurt."
It would be simply insane to trust a vampire. Especially this one.
"Just, trust me."
Yet Guy felt pulled in by that soft reassuring whisper, unwillingly leaning forward as Jasper's palm cradled once again the back of his head, fingers gliding through his unkempt hair.
Jasper delicately swiped his thumb across Guy's temple, spreading his own blood right onto the wound, almost pushing it inside. But it didn't hurt, just as the vampire had said. Guy could instead feel a faint tingling on his skin, which in an instant spread from his forehead all over his body like an electric charge.
Taken aback, Guy immediately shot up to his feet and hurried to the nearby sink, leaning against the polished ceramic for support, his breathing ragged. He didn't notice Jasper turning around and licking away the traces of Guy's blood from his own thumb, eyes closed in intent contemplation.
Guy raised his gaze to his own reflection in the mirror, swiping back his hair to reveal his now perfectly healed forehead. There was not even a single trace of blood, not his nor Jasper's. He took a few long, deep breaths, still hunched over the sink, while Jasper came to stand right behind him with renewed composure and confidence.
"You know, it's just recon. All you gotta do is figure out where they're hiding the book. Then I'll send in some real shit-kickers to actually get the thing." Jasper spoke with a levity that was strikingly discordant with Guy's turmoil of emotions.
"What then?" he managed to spit out, staring at Jasper’s reflection in the mirror. Weird. He had always thought vampires didn’t have any.
Jasper waited a few seconds before replying. "Information is power, Guy."
Guy slowly turned to look at him.
"Information is all there is."
It finally clicked. "You're gonna use the 752 to bring down the Talamasca."
"Once and for all," nodded Jasper.
"How?"
"That book contains the whereabouts of every vampire alive today.” Jasper stepped closer. “And do you know how many vampires there are right now in the world?"
Guy had literally no idea. "No."
"Not enough."
Jasper gave Guy a meaningful look then turned around to go sit back on the recamier, tidying up the mess of used gauze and wipes. Those two simple words had been enough to convey Jasper’s intentions in regard to the balance of their worlds, mortal and immortal. An already precarious equilibrium Jasper was clearly resolved to tip in favor of the vampire side. It was definitely not what Guy had signed up for when he had first decided to approach Jasper. It was one thing to make the Talamasca pay for what they did to him and his mother and probably many others; but destroying the organization altogether… that was a completely different matter.
Guy's heart increased the pace as he tried for a cautious approach. "I think, uhm... maybe I gave you the wrong idea…"
It was an understatement.
Jasper momentarily stopped what he was doing, an alarming smile forming on his lips as he said, "See, now I'm back to feeling like this is a set up."
“No—”
“ ‘I’m gonna make them pay’,” mocked Jasper, using Guy’s own words. It sent cold shivers running up the young man’s spine. “ ‘They ruined my life—’”
“It’s true! All of it.” Guy wrapped his arms protectively around himself, goosebumps all over his skin.
“You think you’re special?!”
Jasper’s sudden outburst caught him off guard. His gaze shifted towards the vampire who was staring right back at him, his azure eyes sparkling with stifled rage. Guy couldn’t hold the intensity of that stare and quickly averted his gaze, looking anywhere but at his interlocutor. He could feel waves of anger and frustration pulsing in his chest and throbbing along his own veins, mixing with a discrete amount of fear. The latter was familiar. But there was something peculiar about the rest of his feelings, almost as if they weren’t his own. Foreign, in a way.
“You know, they didn’t all die.” Jasper’s voice reached him in a resigned whisper. He didn’t look at Guy as he spoke. “Mergu’s coven. It was a blended family, some vampires some not. One young mortal wasn’t home the day that Vesel hit them. And when this kid, this— this boy… came back, he found his whole family massacred.”
Something in Jasper’s tone spurred Guy to close the distance between them with careful steps. He suddenly felt drawn to the other like a moth to a flame.
“And then he ran,” continued Jasper as Guy sat in front of him on the edge of the tub, “got himself to Central America. Then to Texas, where he grew up alone, fending for himself.”
“You,” whispered Guy in disbelief.
“I had nothing.” Jasper finally looked him in the eyes. “No home. No identity. Nothing.”
Guy’s gaze drifted to the side, staring into the void as he thought of his own childhood, spent alone, with no real family nor friends. Never truly belonging anywhere. Hearing Jasper recount his traumatic experience brought back memories Guy wished he had forgotten. He could nearly see himself reflected in the much older figure sitting a few inches apart from him, an invisible string connecting them together.
“The world was fucked up. But I finally found the dark gift after years of searching.” The smile was back on Jasper’s lips, although it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “That’s what they do, Guy. They break families apart. Mine. Yours, too.”
Guy’s mouth quirked up in a dry, bitter smile.
“I know what you’re going through. And that’s why I won’t let you down.”
There was a definiteness in those words that spoke of long years spent in solitude, mastering up the necessary strength and means to actually back up any promise made and eventually accomplish it. Guy knew that Jasper meant what he had just said. His vision became glazed with unshed tears and he shook his head, helplessly.
“How does all this help me?”
“Your mother’s been in hiding, what, sixteen years now? What’s it gonna take for her to come out into the light?”
There was no need to answer that question. Guy knew exactly what Jasper’s point was.
“We gotta destroy these assholes.” Jasper’s tone was resolute, merciless.
Guy bit his lower lip. He felt a tear running down his cheek.
“Guy, I promise you, it’s the only way that you will ever see her again.”
The anger had completely dissolved, leaving room to what felt like compassion, a compassion that was written all over Jasper’s face.
Eventually, Guy nodded once. Jasper smiled. His hand moved to caress Guy’s cheek, swiping away the tear with his thumb.
“Good boy.”
That should have made Guy angry, but truth was he felt almost an excited thrill as Jasper spoke those words. I’m not your fucking boy, either, he thought, but something inside him said otherwise. And that realization made him angry. And scared.
Jasper was still smiling at him. Then, he brought his thumb to his lips and sucked the tear he had collected from Guy’s cheek, leaving the latter completely frozen.
Jasper hummed, savoring the taste. “You’re a truly sweet boy, aren’t you?”
Guy opened his mouth to reply but it took a while before any words came out. “I- I wouldn’t know about that…”
Jasper’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “No? Well then, allow me to show you.”
With achingly slow movements, he leaned over towards Guy’s face, like a panther stalking its prey. His ice-cold palm was almost refreshing against Guy’s burning cheek. It was clear what Jasper was about to do, yet Guy didn’t find the strength -nor will- within himself to prevent it from happening.
Jasper’s lips were suddenly on his, cold, like the rest of him but surprisingly soft. After a moment, he pried Guy’s mouth open in a kiss and Guy was able to taste the saltiness from his tear as well as something else, a more metallic flavor, which twisted his guts with mixed feelings. It resonated with the pulse in his veins, throbbing just like a few minutes before. Guy had no clue about what it could possibly be, he only knew that his body craved more. Without even realizing it, he grasped Jasper’s arm in an attempt to pull him in, closer. More, was the sole thought occupying the entirety of his mind. He felt like he was no longer in control of his body, an obscure need now driving him to an even more obscure goal.
However, just as suddenly as it had arisen, the rush of excitement vanished in the moment Jasper drew back and severed their connection, leaving Guy gasping for air, somewhat embarrassingly.
“W-What the hell was that?!” blurted out Guy as soon as he was able to form a coherent sentence.
“That, my dear, was all you.”
Jasper patted Guy’s cheek twice, then stood and circled the bathtub, first-aid kit in hand. Once he put it back in the cabinet, he turned around to cast one last quick glance towards his guest, then left the room, closing the door behind himself.
“Fuck…” Guy muttered for the second time, passing a hand across his face.
I wish, came the foreign thought from the other room, and something told Guy it wasn’t probably meant to be overheard.
Probably.
***