Chapter Text
Abolish looked back at the pins on his fridge every once in a while. He still wasn't sure how Shelby had managed to pin him down so precisely; he thought he'd done a good enough job at keeping to himself.
Shelby and Scott were by no means people he'd consider friends. Scott had caught onto his presence and watch over them unfortunately quickly, but Abolish always kept himself far enough away that they never had many options in order to find him.
Once portable phones had been invented, he did, reluctantly, give them his number. Scott was still actively hanging out around vampire's spaces; his intel was as good as any other agent's.
Most things he — and Shelby, inevitably — sent Abolish weren't intel, though, and his complete lack of response to anything not relating from couldn't seem to work in getting them to stop.
Shelby particularly spared no expenses in the amount of messages she sent him. Articles she found interesting, cool clothes she was thrifting, pictures of the sunset, inspirations for his personal fashion. He couldn't help but be fond of it, sometimes; it had led to him almost blocking her number multiple times.
Relations, of any kind, were dangerous. Even friends. Granted, Shelby wasn't likely to die anytime soon, but with her living with Scott and the danger that one brought with him wherever he went, them accidentally making some enemies wasn't off the table.
Now more than ever Abolish pulled away from the two of them. The gratefulness was so strong it almost hurt, words he couldn't even begin to express clogging his throat every time he looked at the enamel pins on his fridge.
Shelby kept sending him letters. He'd gone back the week after their first letter, just in case. Knowing them, there was a non-zero chance they'd just keep writing, knowing it was another way to reach him. He knew exactly whose letter it was when he picked it up and saw the novelty wax sealing it, a swirl of glittery pink and silver that must've been a pain to get right.
He would've let that letter rot if it were up to him, but he could tell the post office worker was getting annoyed at his hesitation, so he picked it up and shoved it into his pocket, determined to throw it out the moment he sat down.
Attachment was dangerous for both parties involved. He was already way too fond of Shelby for his own good.
Abolish arrived back to his apartment and sat down, carefully pulling the envelope open as to not break the seal. The message was innocuous. A quick word about the pins, saying how glad she was that Abolish liked them and identified with them. A sentence or two about how her week had been and Scott's therapy antics. And then, like it was nothing:
"Talk to you next week! -P.S.: you don't have to answer all of these. I just like having a pen-pal :D"
Sighing, Abolish put the letter down, wishing he'd never opened it like he said he'd be going to. That Shelby wanted to use him as an additional outlet was fine, that much he didn't mind. He just wished it didn't seem to matter as much as it did to him, for some unknown reason.
He'd already spent far too much time in New York; split black and white hair wasn't exactly discreet, no matter how plain his clothing was, and he could tell the shift had already started to happen, people talking about the vampire hunter who just wouldn't die. He couldn't do reconnaissance anymore without being spotted and met with either fear and suspicion or bravado and venom.
Now could be a good time to move, like he did every few years. He'd broken that rule now to stay in this city, to be able to keep a closer eye on the Oakhurst vampires, but that task might just have to be relegated to someone else.
The feeling of belonging he was getting from this apartment told Abolish everything to know about the attachment he'd let grow into something far stronger than it should've been. Because of it, now, he didn't want to leave.
New York was somewhere he could truly get lost in. For so many decades after Oakhurst his hair, his stance, his composure had brought unwanted attention to his person, putting the spotlight onto the one person who never wanted to be under it in the first place. Here, now, he could fade into the crowd without so much as a second glance.
Shelby kept writing. Every week there was a new letter in his post box, sealed with a mixture of glittery inks. She told him about her day, her week, about the books she had read or the one she was writing, about Scott's latest tantrum or one-night lover.
Abolish wasn't sure why, but he started going to the post office to pick up his mail weekly, instead of waiting until the end of the month to take all of them to read at once. He was pretty sure they weren't even mailing them but dropping them there for the employees to put the envelope directly into his box.
It had become, unwittingly, the highlight of his Mondays, when he'd go pick up the mail. Sitting down and reading the meaningless words Shelby had decided to direct at him that week. Sometimes there were pictures inside, polaroids printed of neat things she'd found on walks or in stores, or doodles, little drawings of anything and everything with copious amounts of stars and sparkles framing them.
The nice thing about this whole endeavour, at least, is that she wasn't texting as much as she used to, waiting for the weekly mail to tell him about things instead.
Shelby and Scott never actually called him. Texting he could tolerate, since his phone had never left silent mode from the moment he'd bought it, and stayed more often than not on do not disturb.
So when Shelby called him, Abolish picked up.
There were a few seconds of silence after he picked up and answered. He could hear them breathing heavily, multiple pairs of footsteps running.
Running after her?
She rattled off the names of the street she was on, out of breath, as well as the last few ones she'd crossed and the direction, she was going in, then hung up.
Abolish bolted.
They were being hunted.
He grabbed what he could in the least amount of time to gear for a potential fight against either humans or vampires then bolted out the door, all but slamming down into his car. From where he lived, it would be easier to get there by car, especially so late at night.
If it had been day, he'd rather have run the distance.
He parked in anticipation of the distance; he'd rather have to go backwards than to try to catch up. Standing around the corner of a building, he waited, and listened.
Footsteps, running. They were coming closer.
Shelby nearly slammed right into him as he rounded the corner, immediately pushing her behind him and to the side. The assailants were human hunters, just like he'd expected. It was a shame.
His sudden appearance scared them off as least for a moment, making them stop in their tracks.
There were two of them. One was holding a gun.
"Why are you after her?" Abolish asked, the calm of the question throwing the wanna-be hunters off-guard, stunning them for a second.
The one with the gun stuttered a bit before finally managing to answer. "She's a vampire!" He yelled. "She's dangerous, she's gonna kill you!"
"I think you're the one most likely to kill me right now," Abolish pointedly replied, eyeing the gun the dumbass was waving around.
A quick glance over at Shelby showed her collapsed against the wall, holding their leg — there was blood on their stocking, teeth gritting with pain.
"From what I see, you're running after a girl you've already shot once, calling her names and asking me to stand aside so you can kill her properly," he continued, letting the tension seep into his voice. "I'm calling the police."
"Please do," Shelby whispered behind him, voice shaking with fear. He wasn't sure how much of it was acting. "Get them away from me, please."
The hunters looked at each other. The one with a gun put it back in its holster.
Abolish took a very careful look at their faces to engrave them into his memory. These two were dangerous.
He took out his phone.
The two men ran for their lives, rounding a corner as soon as they could to break his line of sight. Good.
As soon as he was sure they wouldn't come back he turned to Shelby, whose face still betrayed an immense amount of pain. They were trying to clutch both their side and their leg at the same time, it wasn't working.
"Can you walk still?" Abolish asked. He needed to get them out of the street as quickly as possible.
Shelby shook their head. "Silver," they explained. "Bullet's not gone through all the way."
Without a word, Abolish picked her up, going as fast as he could to get her to the car. She leaned against him, tension easing out of her as much as it would while she was still actively in pain.
"You're strong," they giggled, the thought immediately followed by a hiss of pain as the laugh moved their ribs, pain rippling through.
Abolish had always been fascinated by her ability to see the best in any situation. She'd gone better at not letting it blind her over the years, but seeing her laugh with two silver bullets lodged in her body was quite a sight.
She said nothing when he dropped her in the car, shifting around to get into an approximate sitting position and putting on her seatbelt.
Logically, Abolish knew Shelby wouldn't die. They certainly were in a lot of pain, but as much as silver hurt, it wasn't lethal and never would be. Still, he had to stop himself from speeding through every red light he came across.
Carrying them up the stairs wasn't the easiest task, but he could thank his half-vampirism for helping him gain a lot more strength he realistically should have.
He laid Shelby down on the kitchen table, running to the bathroom quickly to get the first aid kit. His was one he'd tailored specifically to himself and included, amongst other things, everything he needed to get the bullets out.
She was still laying down when he came back to the kitchen, but looking around curiously.
"Why did you bring me to your place?"
"Scott would fuss," Abolish answered.
Maybe, if she knew where he lived, that would be the push he needed to finally move out like he should've done years ago.
He gave them a leather scrap to bite into — extra thick, to account for the fangs — and started working to extract the bullet from her side, carefully pulling fabric out of the way to access the wound.
The bullet had hit her in the gut, just below the ribcage. With how much the organs could've moved it, he was surprised at how easily it came out; silver could burn its way deep into the body if shaken too much.
When Abolish dropped the bloody piece of metal in his hand, he was surprised to feel none of the characteristic tingle of silver against his palm, even after wiping at the blood.
That didn't matter right now.
The second one had struck her leg, grazing the bone as it did. They were lucky it didn't hit and fracture it; they would've been dead before he could've ever reached them. That one was even easier to take out, a straight path down the wound.
This one didn't feel like silver either.
Shelby took a breath when he was down, pushing herself up with shaky arms. She didn't seem any less in pain than before.
"Do you think these were silver?" Abolish asked. It was a useless question, because the bullet hole hadn't close up during the chase or the car ride. There was no way these weren't silver, and yet...
"They absolutely were," she answered, moving so her legs would hang off the table. Their hands were clutching at the edge, their grip white knuckled as they tried to hide the pain.
The wounds weren't closing up, either, despite the silver — or what he supposed to be silver — taken out of them.
Abolish handed them one of the bullets. They reached out to feel it carefully, frowning at the contact.
"It doesn't hurt."
"You're not healing," Abolish replied.
"It doesn't... feel the same. It doesn't burn anymore," Shelby added, trying their hardest to pinpoint the feeling. "I think it's spreading," they added, voice thin.
Fuck.
Abolish had heard of the 'breakthroughs' made in silver research. Some people had figured out how to coat weapons in an alloy of silver that would shed off the other metal when in contact with water, spreading the poison throughout the target's body.
It was an extremely cruel thing. The organization had strictly banned the use of weapons using this substance and required its agents to immediately report anyone using it or crafting it, so it could be disposed of properly.
He never thought he'd actually come across people using it.
"This is gonna be awful," Abolish warned, taking the disinfectant out of the first aid kit. Shelby stared as he readied up a wipe for it, confused.
"But it's never gonna get infected, no? It'll heal quickly enough..."
"Not this time," Abolish sighed. "Those bullets were coated with some nasty silver compound. Your body will have to push it through naturally, which means you won't heal as well during that time. Better keep these clean and give your blood less work."
She gave the disinfectant wipe one last, mournful glance before nodding, taking a sharp breath as it came into contact with the skin. Next was wrapping, although that didn't require too much attention to detail. The wounds weren't bleeding. It was mostly for convenience, so that the exposed tissue wouldn't come into contact with too many contaminants.
When all of the wrapping and dressing was done, Shelby hopped off the table, testing their bad leg immediately. It nearly gave out under them; they hadn't been holding onto the table, they'd have collapsed.
"Careful," Abolish warned, watching them get a better handle on their limitations.
This was way over his paygrade. Watching Shelby limp over to the couch, he leaned on the kitchen table, wondering what his next move was.
It would be easy and harmless enough to let her go back to Scott, now that the worst had been addressed. Scott would look after her while she processed the silver, if at all. She wouldn't be in his way.
The problem was that he'd never actually seen this silver compound in action. The things he'd heard about it were far from pretty; Shelby definitely wasn't in the clear. Abolish didn't particularly fancy having to carry her all the way back down the stairs and up to her own apartment.
Keeping them here to monitor was the easiest solution. He just didn't like the thought of having another person in his space for what would likely be multiple days, if not weeks. Especially not someone as clingy as he knew Shelby could be.
"What are you thinking about?" Shelby called from the couch, looking at him upside down, their head hanging from the armrest.
Without answering her, Abolish picked up his phone and, for the first and hopefully last time, call Scott.
The vampire picked up immediately. "What's wrong?" he asked, knowing this to be a very bad omen indeed.
"Shelby's fine," Abolish started. "She got attacked by some hunters, but she's with me right now."
There was a moment of silence on the other side.
"Why are they still with you then? They're fine, they can come back, no?"
"Not really," Abolish replied, wincing in preparation for the other's indignation. "There was a compound on the bullets —"
"Bullets?"
"Yes," he continued. "There's some silver compound running through their bloodstream as we speak, hindering all of their abilities. They're staying with me until it flushes out so I can monitor the situation."
Silence, again. Scott had taken to shutting up whenever he thought what he was about to say wasn't appropriate instead of apologizing afterwards, so Abolish appreciated the economy of words. It took the vampire a good few seconds to properly formulate what he wanted to say.
"I can't come see her, can I?" he asked, already resigned to rejection. Abolish's address was almost taboo with how secret he kept it from them.
"You can talk to her," Abolish offered instead, moving to hand over the phone to Shelby.
They greeted him with the same amount of cheerfulness as they always did, only this time it was stilted, tightened with hurt.
"I'm going to sleep," Abolish whispered to Shelby, who gave him a nod and promptly returned to her talk with Scott.
This was a fucking mess.