Wolverines

The Vampires Paige was close to were funny like that.

Invite them to “dinner” and a movie and they’d show up in town three months later, but mention “Blood War” and they showed up the next day. Paige had already received a text message from Yolanda, a voluptuous Etruscan woman that had just checked into a five star downtown hotel. Yolanda was not her real name, but one she had chosen as times had changed, just like Paige had.

Paige enjoyed her simple apartment life, but Yolanda preferred a more lavish existence. Last time she had heard, Yolanda had eight handsome male Thralls that doted on her every whim, one of which was an artist whose only task was to paint her portrait daily and throw compliments at her. Another one’s sole duty was to massage her feet.

Not Paige’s idea of a good time, but it took all sorts. Yolanda was vicious when coaxed from the couch, and an intelligent woman despite her intense hedonistic attitude. Paige chuckled softly and put some frying pans in the oven for storage before wiping down the counters. She didn’t know who all was coming, but she had a few ideas. She’d had text messages from a couple other Vampires that were excited about coming over. None of the individuals that contacted her came as a surprise, until someone crawled in through her kitchen window while she was washing out the sink.

There was no ruffle of fabric, no noise as he let himself down on the kitchen linoleum, but the air suddenly grew charged. A human would never have noticed his presence until it was too late. His scent had changed a little over the last two centuries, but she found that now it appealed to her even more than ever. She continued washing the sink, though it took a good deal of will not to run to him.

“How did you go from being a princess to scrubbing out sinks?” He wondered. His voice had changed again, meaning the person that voiced it had changed again. When she had met him his voice had been soft and wondering. After she changed him it had been bitter and melancholy. Now it was dry and sarcastic. She supposed his mushy heart must have hardened a good deal in their time apart.

“I was never a princess.” Paige said calmly.

“You were one, to me.” Was his soft reply. His years away from his home land had all but banished the English accent from him. Paige rinsed her dish cloth and wrung it out before placing it over the divider that separated the twin sinks.

She did turn to look at him then, taking in the sharp, black modern clothes and designer sunglasses. His skin was pale, paler than hers even and it was further pronounced by all the black clothing and his ink black hair, but he wore it well.

“Why did you come here?” She asked him, leaning back on the sink.

“Am I not welcome in my Blood Mother’s house?” He quirked an eyebrow and slouched back, resting his hands through his belt loops. “You sired me, and now you do not want me?”

Paige raised her eyebrows and began to move towards him, transforming instantly from a teenaged girl cleaning her kitchen into a predator stalking her prey. “Aren’t you? It was not I that made you leave, nor I that kept you away for two hundred and fifty years.”

He backed up the two steps for his back to be against the wall when she got close enough to loosely coil a hand around his throat, “If you think you can enter my house uninvited after all this time, my sweet, and demand that I feel bad for mistakes made long ago then you are out of luck. And if I am to believe, then, that you have spent your entire undead existence despising me and cloaking yourself in bitterness then you are also out of luck, for I have no pity for you then. So if your only purpose in finally deigning to grace me with your presence is subjecting me to your stabs and cynicism, if your only purpose in being here is to ‘fight the good fight with me’…” She leaned over him, inhaling the scent of his anxiousness. She tightened her grip around his throat, “Then you have made a big mistake, my Blood Son.”

“Paige, do we have any… coffee?” Hunter finished lamely. Fresh from the shower and in clean clothes Amon had packed for him. Hunter had heard the murmur of voices from the kitchen, but he hadn’t been expecting to see Paige pinning and almost strangling another teenager. Another Vampire? He glanced between the two of them.

“Top cupboard on the right, dear.” Paige called to him, not taking her eyes off the other Vampire. She reached up and plucked the sunglasses off his face, putting them on top of her own head by means of storage, so she could have a look at those big blue eyes of his. “Tell me why you came, Oberon.”

He smiled at her, then. The same radiant smile that had drawn her to him. “Blood War?” Was his only reply. And she knew he was lying, but when he smiled like that she still found she could forgive him almost anything.

***

“That was odd.” Hunter commented as he stepped back into the guest room. Their bedroom now, he supposed. He tried not to let himself dwell on the implication that came with that. He and Amon were a unit now, in truth they had been before. Thrall and Vampire. They were becoming fast friends now, friends with… Benefits. But it wasn’t like they were a couple; Amon didn’t sleep anyways. They were simply crammed into a small apartment and they had to share. That was all.

“What’s that?” Amon asked, wrapped in only a towel after his shower. The dry wall was “fixed”, but frankly Hunter thought it looked worse now than it did before.

“There’s another Vampire in the kitchen, I guess. Paige was pinning him down, then he said he was here for the Blood War. And then they got quiet and sat at the kitchen table and just kind of watched me while I made coffee. Kinda freaky.” Hunter admitted, taking a sip of the coffee had had gone out to make. He’d loitered in the hallway while it brewed.

“Oh. Who was it?” Amon asked, dropping his towel on the floor, totally unconcerned with his own nudity. He started digging through a drawer for some new clothes. Hunter caught his eyes lingering on the Vampire’s exposed backside and strong legs and glared down at his coffee instead.

“I don’t know. I think she called him Oberon, but she didn’t offer to introduce him.”

“Huh. I know who that is.” Amon realized after a moment, “Paige mentioned him once when we were high and swinging on a swing set. I asked her if she’d ever Sired anyone and she told me Oberon.”

“So he’s… What the fuck were people on that board saying? Your brother?”

“My Blood Brother? I dunno. Paige isn’t my Blood Mama, she just kind of took me in.” Amon shrugged and grabbed a pair of old, slightly torn jeans. It didn’t look like Amon was making a fashion statement so much as he didn’t feel like wearing anything nice around the house. Hunter tried not to notice that the Vampire didn’t bother with underwear. “I should go say hi anyways, I guess.” The Vampire decided.

“Okay.” Hunter said, and watched Amon stride bare chested out of the room. When the Vampire left Hunter set his coffee mug on the night stand and dug through his bag for the thing he’d spotted when looking for clothes. There.

He pulled the picture frame out and looked at a photo of him and Nancy smiling together, in a bright and sunny park. It had been their two year anniversary. Hunter resisted the urge to do something girly like hug the photo and sigh, instead carefully setting it down next to his coffee mug. The picture had been missing for a while, but what it was doing in his bag was a mystery to him. Still though… They’d been happy. All three of them, since it had been a big Canada Day park function and Ben and his mom had been there too. Ben had taken that particular photo, but there was another one of the three of them together that Ben’s mom had taken.

Ben…

Hunter picked up his cell phone, noting that he had no more missed calls, but he had a few text messages.

The first one read, “I’m sorry for being such a douche bag and bailing on you. I know I’m a huge asshole, please call me.”

Hunter agreed with this whole heartedly, as bailing had been a douche move and Ben was being a huge asshole. The second one read, “Hunter, I know you’re pissed off and you should be, but I did something really bad. Please call me, please. A Vampire with a fucking eye patch just broke in.”

Hunter felt his heart skip a beat then. Ben didn’t know Hunter knew about the message board thing; what else could his friend be talking about? The text message was from last night, when Hunter had still been ignoring his phone and especially Ben. There had been no more calls after that last text.

Feeling dread in the pit of his stomach, Hunter called him back.

“Oh my god, Hunter!” Was the first thing Ben said, “Are you okay? I’m sorry, so sorry, please just listen-“

“Ben.” Hunter interrupted, “I know about what you did. On the message boards.”

“Wh… How?” On one hand Ben was glad for this, as it meant that he didn’t have to explain that one too much.

“A lot of real Vampires hang out on there, including Paige.” It occurred to him that Ben had no clue who that was, “Amon’s… Vampire mentor?”

“God Hunter… I’m so sorry. I – I was out of my damn mind when I heard about Nancy, and I just… I don’t even know what I thought I was doing. I know sorry isn’t enough right now, but you have to listen, because a freak with an eye patch broke in last night looking for Amon. He wants to kill him.” Ben stammered out.

“Well I figured that much, apparently they’re having some kind of a Blood War or whatever the fuck they’re calling it. Ben I… Can’t go back to the apartment. Paige said she’d take care of it, said she’d get rid of our lease.” Hunter shoved away the urge to feel bad for kicking the roof right out from over Ben’s head like this, remembering what Paige had said. She was right; this was all Ben’s fault. “She’s sending some guys over tomorrow morning to take care of it, so…”

Ben shook his head, even though Hunter couldn’t see it, “I’m already out.”

“Yeah – wait, what?”

“After that guy came in and scared the living fuck out of us we hid in the apartment bathroom with a couple of steak knives until dawn. I fucking lucked out because the guy I was with has this house with a spare room to rent, so we moved like all my shit out during the day.”

Hunter felt angry then, for no good reason that even if he hadn’t been planning on bailing on the apartment, Ben already had, “So… What, you’re just leaving completely?”

Ben could hear the anger in Hunter’s voice, “Well what the hell was I supposed to do? I know I fucked up, Hunter, but I’m not going to sit there and let them find me and kill me.” Ben remembered the Vampire’s promise of immortality and shuddered. Never. He’d kill himself first. “Besides you said it yourself she’s gonna end our lease one way or another, so what does it matter?”

Hunter resisted the urge to keep fighting about the apartment and ran a hand through his still-drying hair. “I guess it doesn’t fucking matter at all, does it?” Hunter interrupted before his friend could say anything more, “What the fuck were you thinking?”

“I just – there was proof pointing to the fact that Amon committed other murders, and you know he wanted you all to himself and can’t stand you wanting anyone but him, and I just… I guess I blew it all out of proportion, I fucked up. I mean he’s been manipulating all of us since he showed up, he lies…”

“Yeah well, I trust him a lot more than I trust you right now. And you want to know something? That’s your fault, not his. He was there, you weren’t. He’s not the one that killed Nancy, okay? No – listen to me, seriously. He. Did. Not. Kill. Her. Regardless of the guy’s faults, he was around when I needed a fucking friend the most, and where were you? Stabbing us in the back, you motherfucker.” Hunter was almost yelling now, his anger building on itself until it was almost an inferno. How dare Ben pull this kind of stunt and try and justify it to him?

“Hunter, I’m so-“

“And you know what? I’m glad you found a nice new friend to go live with, I hope you have an awesome time playing video games and going to work and pissing around while we’re over here fighting for our lives, because of your bullshit.” He said bitterly. Amon may have been jealous about Hunter, but at least he could admit it. Ben, on the other hand…

“Hunter, please-“

“No, I won’t ‘please’.” Hunter seethed into his cell, “I’m hanging up the fucking phone. Bye.” He clicked the off button before Ben could reply and fell back on his bed. Ben was his brother, or was supposed to be. Brothers didn’t do this kind of shit. Brothers didn’t lie to you for years about why they wanted to hang around you so much… God. Ben was gay for him. It still blew his mind.

Fuck.

***

The three Vampires, now joined by Jacques were all sitting at the kitchen table. Jacques had helped himself to a cup of coffee and waited patiently while the Vampires eavesdropped on Hunter’s phone call with Ben. Not that they had to work very hard of it; the younger man had been furious, and even Jacques had heard his yelling at one point.

Jacques could tell when the phone conversation ended as the Vampire’s eased off their hard listening in an almost visible motion.

“I couldn’t hear Ben’s side of the phone call.” Amon admitted. Not through a couple of walls he couldn’t.

“Miles, that fucker that’s leading their side of the War has already made an appearance.” Paige explained, “Ben found a safe house though I guess, the little prick. Oberon, if you are truly here to help then you will go to their old apartment and see what clues you can pick up, see if you can’t stalk Miles to find out where his stronghold is. Return tomorrow night with your information.” Oberon said nothing, merely nodded once before standing, plucking the sunglasses off Paige’s head and going back out the window he’d come in through.

Paige watched after him for a moment before turning to the other two men, “Amon, go chill your Thrall out. He can’t leave the apartment, and I don’t want him having a hissy fit and going crazy from boredom all night.”

Amon frowned and looked at the window Oberon had gone through, “Can’t I do something important?”

Paige gave him a warning look, “Don’t question my orders, Amon. Not during a War. You misbehave and I’ll give you a spanking.”

Amon didn’t think she meant it in the fun way this time, so he simply nodded and left the kitchen. At any other time in his life he would have rebelled, fought against being ordered around, against being controlled. But then, he reflected, nobody had ever earned his respect before, and regardless of how he felt about it his life depending on obedience just then. It never had before.

Didn’t mean it didn’t piss him off.

***

Ben came back upstairs from the basement of Lysander’s house once he’d taken a few minutes to compose himself.

Lysander was in the kitchen talking to a guy that had introduced himself as Auri. He’d noticed Ben moving in during the day and had stopped to make friendly chit chat with Lysander. After they’d been talking for a little while Auri had laid claim to the second room available for rent. He didn’t have a lot of cash with him, but he’d given Lysander fifty dollars and swore he would allow himself to be kicked out if he didn’t have a job by the end of the week.

Ben thought it was sketchy as fuck, given what was going on right now. Not only that but the guy had willingly admitted he’d basically just drifted into town and had no where but the streets to go.

As if Lysander could say no to someone like that. Ben couldn’t even be angry at him for it, since he supposed he counted as one of Lysander’s charity cases too. Though, since they’d done a bit more than just hide last night, Ben hoped he was a little bit more to the blond than that.

Ben stepped into the bright, sunny kitchen. At least they knew Auri couldn’t be a Vampire, but there was something about him that seemed off to Ben. He was dark haired, dark eyed and bore a healthy tan along with dimples that showed up every time he smiled; which as far as Ben could tell was almost all the time. He seemed nice enough, and maybe Ben was just paranoid, but still. Something about the way that guy moved…

Lysander was sitting at the table, drinking tea and wearing another sweater despite how warm the kitchen was. Auri was talking to him animatedly while throwing things, seemingly at random into a frying a pan. At least, Ben hoped, maybe this guy could cook. Ben’s cooking prowess was limited to Kraft Dinner, instant noodles and bologna sandwiches.

Lysander smiled when he saw Ben, the force behind it dimming some when he saw the look on his face. “How did things with Hunter go?” When Ben had seen Hunter on his caller ID he’d all but flown from the room in his haste to get a little much needed privacy with his friend. If Ben could still call him that.

“Not good.” Ben sighed and sat down. “They already know what’s going on, so…” He glanced at Auri, unwilling to say anymore in front of the stranger. Lysander raised his eyebrows but said nothing, instead just playing with the string of his tea bag. Auri either didn’t notice the weird trail off or decided it didn’t concern him, but either way, Ben was pleased when the newb didn’t pay them any mind.

Lysander reached out and took Ben’s hand, squeezing it comfortably, “It’ll be alright, Ben. He’s just raw right now, he’ll come around.” Ben looked down at their joined hands, noticing for the first time that Lysander had several scars across his knuckles, and a few thinner, faded ones on the back of his hands. He gazed at them and wondered how Lysander could always be so hopeful about everything. He didn’t get it, but he was grateful for it.

“I hope so.”

--
A/N So chapters seem to be getting a bit longer as more characters are coming and more is going on. New editions to Team Hunter and Team Ben! Anyone that's read Shuffle or Sleepwalker will know who they are. On that note I think I'm finished Shuffle. I just realized it the other night but that's all I want to do with it for now while I focus on Hunter and Ben's stories. Anywho, thanks so much for reading!

@JtheChosen1: Ben is getting a lot of shit in this story, isn't he? It's not all bad though, he gets Lysander, right? As for Hunter, well... Hunter is angry, and he's grieving. Can't really blame him for being pissed off given the circumstances.