Wolverines

When Hunter awoke again, it was to the sound and sight of Amon talking on his cell phone. The vampire scribbled something down on a piece of paper and hung up the phone, jumping when he realized Hunter was sitting up and watching him.

“Fuck! You startled me.” Amon came and sat down on the edge of the bed. He reached out and ran his fingers through Hunter’s sleep mussed hair. “Are you okay?” Hunter shrugged listlessly and reached out to take his cell phone back from him. Amon let him take it and kept talking, “That was Nancy’s mom. I guess the people at the hospital told them that Nancy died on impact.” He watched, but Hunter gave no indication that he was listening to him.

“Which means, at least she didn’t suffer, right? And the funeral is going to be soon, in a couple days, but they don’t know when…” He continued talking.

Hunter looked up, then. “Do you think they’re going to bury her?”

Amon blinked, “I haven’t a clue.”

“She didn’t want to be buried, she doesn’t like tight spaces. I always had to hold her hand in elevators. She wanted to be cremated and then have her ashes spread in the Rockies.” Hunter stared at his hands while he spoke.

“How come? Was she from there?” The Vampire asked gently.

“No… But her family took her on a vacation up there once, and they spent a summer driving through the mountains and camping and visiting the towns. She was only there the one time, but she said it was the most beautiful place she’d ever seen. She used to talk about someday going back in the summer and climbing together up one of the huge mountains, and startling all the goats and having a big snowball fight when we got high enough for it.”

Hunter blinked rapidly then, eyes shining with unshed tears, “It’s like those mountains were some totally untouched place for her, like heaven on earth, that’s the way she used to talk about it. And we always meant to go there, but we had school and we were young and always blew our money on stupid things instead of saving for the holidays. And then we wanted to go after high school but my parents moved off to Florida so she, Ben and I all moved out together. And none of us have our post secondary education, none of us can save for anything, never mind a big trip to BC. Fuck, we all lived from paycheque to paycheque.

“I guess, I just… Wish that we’d gone there. I wish that we’d had a summer snowball fight on the top of a mountain, and gone to college together instead of living in that shitty little apartment instead. I wish that I’d saved money in high school and bought a car instead of wasting my money getting high with Ben and buying fuckin’ videogames. I wish that, when I kissed her goodbye that last time, I would have told her how much I loved her. And that I wanted to grow old with her, and have a big, dumb SUV and maybe raise a kid and have a dog. I mean if we had a daughter I even would have let her name her Callisto, even though that’s a… Terrible… Name…” Hunter broke then, choking back a sob and curling in on himself.

“Shh,” Amon rubbed Hunter’s back, “It’s going to be okay. We can call her mom back and tell her about the cremation, and we can see if they’ll let us take her ashes to BC, okay?” He cupped Hunter’s face with his hand and raised his face up so he could kiss his tears away, “Nancy knew how much you loved her… Still does, I’d imagine.”

Hunter sniffled and loosely wrapped his arms around Amon’s shoulders. He hated crying, he hated telling people too much and letting them in to close to him. There were things he’d kept even from Ben and Nancy. But he hurt now, and Amon was warm and strong and fantastically unembarrassed by Hunter’s emotional display.

“Do you… Do you think she’s in heaven now?” Hunter sniffled again and rested his head on Amon’s shoulder.

“Babe, if there’s a heaven, I guarantee she got put on the expressway straight to it.” Amon nuzzled his face into Hunter’s hair.

“You really think so?”

“I know so.”

***

Ben and Lysander were sitting in a mostly empty internet café and going through the cell phone photos that Ben was going to send to his email inbox.

“Maybe that one? That way your friend doesn’t look involved.” Lysander pointed at a photo of just the head and shoulders of one very pissed off looking dude. Personally, Lysander thought it was incredibly insensitive that Ben had stood there and taken photos while his best friend was unconscious and kinda covered in his own puke, but he wasn’t going to say anything just then. People did things in the heat of the moment they regretted later.

“Yes, that’s a good idea…” Ben’s face fell slightly as it dawned upon him, looking at the photos, just what kind of a state he’d abandoned Hunter in. Guilt gnawed at him as he sent the photo with just Amon to his inbox.

“Lysander, do you think…” Ben frowned, “That Vampires can control minds?”

“I don’t know.” Lysander played with his tea bag and watched the hot water turn red, “I guess it’s possible. Why?”

“Well… I mean. Hunter is the straightest guy I know, and then this leech shows up and all of a sudden he… Lets him touch him. And I can’t figure out why.” Ben glared at his cell phone as he spoke.

“Maybe he can’t either.” Lysander ventured, “Maybe’s he’s confused. It’s only been a couple of days right? He probably doesn’t get it anymore than you do.”

“I guess so.” Ben reluctantly agreed, not wanting to rule out foul play in his friend’s recent actions.

Ben still looked disturbed as he frowned at the computer screen, and so Lysander continued: “Ben, sometimes people just want one another. Gender isn’t as important a factor in relationships as a lot of people think, you know. I mean there are lots of guys out there that get obsessed with athletes or actors or rock stars… They’re called “man crushes”, you know? And I’m not saying that’s the case here, but it’s a possibility, right? I mean I don’t know either of them enough to say. Maybe it’s just sexual, maybe Hunter’s going through the gay-exploring phase a little bit late?”

“I guess so… I mean it’s possible…” Ben’s frown deepened as he checked out the photo that had arrived, safe and sound, in his gmail inbox. He opened a new tab and pulled up Google, and began searching up Vampire and goth type forums.

Lysander watched Ben work, thinking the other man was only sort of listening to him, “I mean there’s a lot to be said for wanting to explore possibilities and play both sides a little. I mean and if Hunter is Bound to this Amon guy like you said, and they’re going to be stuck together for a while, maybe it’s only natural to check things out. If the guy’s already all over his neck, and if Hunter thinks that feels good, then maybe he’s just curious to find out what else might feel good, right?”

“It’s possible…” Ben nodded and looked over one of the top forums on the list. This forum seemed a bit different than the first two. It didn’t look like it was for video games, fandoms or role playing. These people actually seemed to want to pretend they were Vampires online. It looked promising and Ben wanted to get this thing going, so he clicked the “join” button, taking a few minutes to think up the corniest Vampire screen name he could think of that wouldn’t already be taken.

He settled finally on LORDsucksalot, set a password and made sure the settings had his email hidden from the rest of the board. He opened another tab to upload the photo he’d taken to his photobucket and started a new thread in the general section.

He totally tuned Lysander out then, typing like a mad man as he tried to use Amon’s stupid, mean voice while he went all about all these people he’d killed. He made them as detailed as he could, so that anyone that cared to look could go and find the relevant news articles. When he’d finished that, he moved into the photo section and uploaded the photo, making sure to put up a big paragraph about how hot and awesome “he” was.

“There.” He turned to grin at Lysander, who had been reading over his shoulder the entire time. It was something that usually annoyed him, but this time he’d barely noticed. He was drawn up short at the strange look on Lysander’s face. “What?”

“Ben… You think Amon is a mind controlling Vampiric murderer, right? That murdered Hunter’s girlfriend and may be coming for you?” Lysander had thought this might be an okay idea for Ben to vent, but the things Ben had been writing, the way he had been writing was a little unreal. This wasn’t a joke.

“Yeah.” Ben frowned at that. Isn’t that what he’d been saying?

“You left him alone with your friend. After he’d just been totally devastated. Ben… You need to go home now and get Hunter. Because if all of this is true… Then Hunter is completely vulnerable to him now.” He watched as Ben’s almond shaped eyes widened dramatically.

“I’m a fucking idiot.” He whispered.

---
A/N Not as long as I wanted. All I can say about the Easter party I was at last night is FUCKING AWESOME DRUNKEN GONG SHOW. That and work is why this took so long to write. God. This definitely concludes my drunken adventures for a little while, at least. So if this chapter didn't pretty much confirm it, Wolverines takes place in Canada. For those that don't know the Rockies are a wonderful stretch of mountains that boarder between BC and Alberta. Beautiful beautiful place, can't wait to drive through again this summer. I'm also pleased to announce that it looks as though Ben's brain might be working right again. Thanks for reading! xoxox

@JtheChosen1: I know I definitely wouldn't mind a nice slice of man like Amon stalking me at work =D

@Celestial Charisma: Thanks very much! =) Hope this chapter was up quick enough for you, I know it wasn't for me ;)