VampirexHunter - Let's go out with a bang~

[TimmyTheVampire]

Tim followed Aled a bit like a helpless pup, sticking close to his side, always hiding the in the taller man's shadow. Not that he didn't want to stand upfront and be a man about this, he also didn't want to get in everyone else's way. When Chris nodded to him, Tim just blinked calmly, nodding back softly. He didn't really like Aled trying to make Chris 'be gentle' but then, he couldn't bring himself to argue. Chris looked like all he had to do was tap Tim on the top of the head and he'd be in agony.

-----

As they road on the train, Tim looked like a child, continuously staring out the window. Well, he had been locked up for 100 years. God, how things changed, but the beauty of the countryside never stopped. He felt like asking the train to just keep going forever. In fact, Aled nearly left him on the train when he got distracted. Tim was happy he could get Aled's scent easily through the human crowd and get back to his side before he really noticed the vampire was missing. He didn't enjoy the van ride as much, but that was life. As he was sat down, and less distracted, Tim made a better look of his messy trousers, turning them into shorts just above his knees with a little help from a dagger Chris let him have as a bit of protection. It wasn't a lot, he knew that, but Tim didn't know how guns worked, or what they were...

It was weird, Tim stayed completely silent the whole time. Just listening. He needed to learn, any questions could wait until later. He thought it'd be better to listen and get in information in, instead of questioning it and causing a fuss when Aled and Chris realized what it really meant to not have any idea of what the world had really become of the 100 years.

[TimmyTheVampire]

Bump? x2?

[Erranruin]

Aled had enjoyed Tim's enthusiasm and had kept an eye on him throughout the trip, however he had kept his watchfulness to himself. He knew the lad would need to develop some backbone to live around him and too much coddling could hamper his progress. So when he got lost, Aled kept walking and when he managed to find his way back, Aled pretended not to notice.

At the run down cottage the Hunters gathered around Chris to hear the plan. Aled had remained still and silent far away from the fire but his sensitive ears could easily pick up their conversation. He liked Chris's plans, they were simple and strong but easily changed and with lots of options. Everyone could always communicate with eachother, within signalling distance.

This time it was a minor reconnaissance mission, a few enter the town and discover the covern's lair. They took a long time on the details, longer than normal. Aled knew why. Truthfully it would be best to send him in alone, the vampires might even welcome him. But none of them wanted to ask, they all hated relying on him, hated sending him in alone and therefore having to feel grateful to him. It rankled them so much.

Slowly he got up and cleared his throat to get their attention.

"Sounds to me like I'd be the best for the job, no need to risk more than one."

A collective sigh of relief was felt throughout the lot of them, since he'd offered there was no need for guilt.

"Thank's Quin, I owe you one." Chris was a little better than the rest but his words were meaningless. If this meant he owed Aled one, then Aled was owed at least 20 years from Chris.

"I'll go just before dawn, 'got caught out in the sun' trick."

The Hunters nodded, then paid him no more mind, letting him sink back into his corner.

[TimmyTheVampire]

Tim sat and listening, given an extra bottle of blood to help since, since he had to build up strength fast. It was mostly Chris's idea.. Though he went a long with it. He didn't want to be a little weakling forever. And for him that was even more plausible. He didn't ask questions, though he kept getting distracted.. Something about this place sounded familiar. Very familiar.

Though hearing Aled pipe up from the corner, Tim didn't stand but bit his lip slightly, wanting to go with him. "I'll go too" He said softly.

Everyone looked at him mockingly. He knew they would, but he had to start sometime, why not now with something simple like information gathering? And with Aled, what could go wrong?

"I'm a full vampire, noticing me with Aled they might let us in. And I've got to start doing this kind of thing soon. Even on my own at some point. Might as well go and learn now while it's a pretty low-risk thing." He reasoned, Chris beaming.

"Let the kid go"

Tim was surprised Chris would help him reason, but he was glad, someone had faith in him. Even if he was little. He could get into better hiding places, and Tim's curiosity got at him. This place.. He wanted to know.

[Erranruin]

Aled had to bite back an instinctive 'no' as soon as Tim spoke. It sounded reasonable to normal ears but Aled disliked the idea of dragging the kid into what was basically a warzone. He sighed and listened to Chris, recognising it was less of a suggestion, more of a command. He looked at Tim for a long time. In truth he also didn't trust the lad fully yet and didn't particularly want to discover his suspicious nature was justified in the middle of a delicate mission.

Still he had his orders and with a sigh he relented.

"Alright, someone get him a weapon and some gear, we'll go in about an hour."

[TimmyTheVampire]

Tim found it very strange how supportive Chris was to him, and how he was taking care of him, for the most part. He found it rather nice though. Someone he knew would have faith in him. He sighed lightly, praying in didn't let let himself in for a big let-down.

As gear was shoved on him, he wriggled in it, finding it a strange weight but not one he couldn't cope with. The offer of the gun made him recoil though. Tim had never seen one before.. let alone anything else. He hesitantly took it. He didn't know why.. He could've just said no. Then again, they would've looked weird at him, and he'd to have had to explain. That would've been embarrassing..

Other than that, he looked pretty ready to go, mentally too. Ready to be useful and not the sniffling little kid Aled met in the rain..

[TimmyTheVampire]

Bump x 2...?

[Erranruin]

A small shaft of the sun's light broke the horizon and Aled winced. He quickly moved to Tim and shielded the lad with his coat before his skin could burn. Chris came up to him carefully with an odd look in his eye.

"If you dont have the smell of fresh blood on you, how will they react?"

Aled was momentarily taken aback by the question but he just shrugged and said "They might be suspicious but there is not much we can do about it, unless you want me to go tear a few hearts out?" The comment was meant in jest but the hunters visibly recoiled from him. Chris on the other hand looked pensive and then, after a moment, slowly offered his bare wrist. "Might as well cover all bases."

Aled stared in thoughtful silence for a moment then hurriedly covered the windows and doorframes of the house in blankets to shade them before returning and grasping Chris' wrist firmly. "This wont be pretty if you want me to be realistic." Chris snorted with amusement. "I'm not a woman, Quin, I can cope with a bit of blood." Aled wasn't going to question him any further, the pull of fresh blood from the vein a little too much to resist. He pulled the wrist to his mouth, Chris suddenly no longer a human person to him, just meat, just prey, not worth pity. His fangs dug in harshly, piercing tendons and veins and scraping against bone. Vaguely he heard Chris gasp in pain and felt his body tense, trying to reject what he was doing. Aled was messy, drawing on the blood with abandon, crimson trails snaking their way down his chin and some splattering onto his face. With an inhuman effort he pulled away, staggering back to put as much space between him and Chris before he drained him dry.

Everything was silence, horrible gut clenching silence as everyone stared in horror. Aled broke the quiet quickly. "Time to go I'd say." And without waiting for Chris' approval he dashed away, throwing his coat around Tim and pulling him along. Hopefully the close proximity would infuse Tim's clothes with the metallic blood smell as well and they could both be accepted in. They reached the village just as the sun began to gain real height and found little holes in their cover, the small burns and weakness they both felt adding to their story nicely.

It was easy for Aled to find the covern's base, a bomb shelter door with strange scratches and the smell of blood clinging to the wood. He beat upon it insistantly and after a few moments wait a small hole was uncovered and a tentative eye looked out from it.

"Why do you disturb us, night-brother?"

Night brother? An ancient covern this was, to use such outdated terms. Aled remembered being called Night-Brother only once or twice in his lifetime. He nodded to them politely but tried to accentuate his panting and weak appearance.

"Will you give us sanctuary? The sun caught us unawares while we were feeding."

At that precise moment a droplet of blood fell from the corner of his mouth and dripped into the hole. Such perfect timing. The eye blinked and then the door was swung open and the pair were hurried inside.

[TimmyTheVampire]

Seeing the light, Tim's first instinct was to try and use shadow of him arms to protect his face. He sighed in relief as Aled tucked him under the coat. He kept it over his head, just letting his eyes peer out slightly. He heard a couple of sniggers. He hated that..

Then he looked up to Aled and Chris talking. Fresh blood?..Well.. He had a point. Tim wasn't much of a drinker of blood from humans, and Aled hadn't eaten in a while. Things would look suspicious if they waltz up all clean and smelling like a barn from near by.

Some of the other hunters looked to Tim. He looked more of a 'placid' eater and less likely to do it until someone fainted. Aled was more used to blood though, Tim cringed whenever he saw it now, knowing it's full strength now. Even knowing that was going to make him stronger didn't help.. He decided to stick to the bottled stuff he was given.

As Aled ran around to cover up the gaps in the walls, Tim stood out of the coat lightly, letting the heavy leather rest on his shoulders. This was the part where he cringed. Not even looking, just hearing made him want to heave. How could people do this?...No. How could vampires do this? They make themselves out to be pure Royalty when it came to comparison against the humans. Sure, they had their wealth build up from a couple of cents back a few hundred years that turned into a large sum by this time. That didn't make them better. Made them animals. Worse than any werewolf, or bear, or 'monster' he'd ever met. Even Aled.. He couldn't look up at him properly just after that.

He shivered in the silence. Hearing that they were leaving, he opened his mouth to say something but the coat was pulled back up over his head and pulled outside. He clung to Aled's side, already starting to get used to the fact that this is what they had to do. He shook his head under the coat. Aled wasn't bad. He was a good person.. Just.. Grumpy when hungry.. Yeah.. That's all it was. Just hunger. Even humans get like that when they're hungry..Right?

Getting up to the door was easy. That voice.. behind the door.. He recognized it. He'd been here before. Sedated. In a crate. These people were ancient. If you wanted antiques, these people still used them and were easy to steal. He remembered getting caught and 'punished' badly. He shivered lightly, shaking his head again. Keep your cool, kid. This is just the beginning, freaking out now won't help anyone. So what you're scared. This, is nothing to what the future wants you to do so suck up and stay calm.

And this is where he paid that pep-talk inside his head would really work. Hurried inside, he felt a chill come over him. He looked up form out of his coat and it was easy to see that this was no normal hiding place, at least by Aled's standards. 'Pets' chained to the wall and being used so openly, wine every where, slung out human bodies from the night had been sucked dry and thrown to the side like an old rag. However, there was one bit of true 'sanctuary' in this place, and Tim knew where, and who. He deliberately slipped out from under Aled's arm. One of the females in the corner helping to serve dropped what she was holding and nearly burst into tears. he was tackled by her and held close, the other females nearly reacted the same. "Oh, our baby!" One cooed, taking his armor off him. Thankfully he put the gun at the back of his pants under the shirt Aled give him to hide it.

The guard at the door looked suspicious. "You know this.. boy?" "Of course we do!" the first woman smiled, stroking through his hair so lovingly. "We all got so worried when we heard about the house, you alright?" She smiled warmly, checking him for any bruising or illness. "How?" The guard growled, not really liking most of the women stopping their work. "He's our baby! Regnis gave him to us.. Oh, are you alright?" Another joined in, kissing his head and treating him like a baby. Tim managed to 'force' his shaking habit out and shook his head and sniffled. Easy little kid act. Sometimes being a wimp wasn't such a bad thing. Putting 2 + 2 together, they realized Aled must've saved him and started fawning over him as well, taking them deeper into the covern to 'hide' them.

"Stay here, little one. Don't go running off" A woman cooed, leaving them in what seemed to be another 'function' room, empty as day light had only just broken through and the vampires had just come in from their own hunts. Left alone, Tim winced slightly, half turning to Aled. "Told you.. I've been here before.. The women here are all Regnis's pets.. I was given to them one time as a pet.. But they all mother'd me instead of what he wanted.. So took me back. Ever since, if I found my way here somehow, with him or not, they'd hide me in the rooms to stop him from.. well.. you get the point.." He explained slowly, sighing and rubbing his bare arms. It was surprising how warm the armor was really.

[Erranruin]

The women's fawning made Aled blanch, he hated women. To him they were more annoying and disturbing than the corpses and almost corpses thrown about and the slaves chained to the walls. He had seen a very few coverns like this, completely debased creatures taking advantage of whatever they could. But this was the worst he had seen. He wondered what the Hunters had been doing all this time when places like this still existed. They were bustled into the empty room and left alone which was a great relief. He took a few moments to check the walls and floors for secret openings or any way to listen in on them. Once satisfied, he turned back to Tim.

Aled blinked slowly, blood still dripping from his mouth and his eyes still a swirling, glowing crimson. He looked ferocious, wolf-like, but his crimson eyes were soft as he looked at the hurt little boy standing before him. Aled had seen war and carnage and so much bloodshed that he felt as though his mind was numbed, yet he still saw the gutted, slaughtered faces piled in the mud when he closed his eyes. But Tim had seen his own war, lived his own carnage. Aled wondered what he saw when he closed his eyes. Slowly and gently he stepped forward, pulling his coat off and wrapping it tightly around Tim's shivering frame, his hands lingering on the boy's shoulders and giving them a gentle squeeze.

The twittering women annoyed him, they had no love for their little baby. He was cute so they pampered him. He wondered if they would protect him just as much if Tim's cute face was mutilated by their master. It worried Aled, Tim was too pale even for a vampire, he wasn't getting used to blood as quickly as Aled would have liked. He lifted his hand and thumbed a smear of blood from his chin, gently caressing Tim's face as he wiped the blood onto his lips. He withdrew a moment and then turned his wrist towards Tim's diminutive teeth.

"Draw from me, you are too weak and we may need to fight our way out."

He saw Tim tremble and saw the fear in his eyes as well as a little revulsion which he ignored. Quickly Aled wrapped one arm around his shoulders and pulled him into a fierce hug, exposing his neck to Tim's mouth.

"Listen boy, I'm a gruff and uncivilised man and I dont have words to comfort you but I can help you with my actions and support you with my presence. I'm offering my blood to you freely, it isnt a disgusting thing, its not a foul thing so long as the other person says yes. So please, take it."

He kept Tim in a gentle yet firm grip, not letting him go yet not forcing him too close.