Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Jerry Dandridge, the fabulous vampire, had been sitting in the dark and – for want of a nice human vein – biting and picking at his nails for quite some time when, suddenly, a dim light began pulsing in the blackness. Moments later, none other than Max Fairbanks, long ago known as Radu the Fair, materialized in front of him.

“Oh dear,” Jerry sighed. “You too, huh?”

Max blinked at him from behind his unnecessary glasses like a huge, befuddled owl. Then recognition dawned in his eyes. “Jerry!” he said in bemusement. “Whatever brought you here?”

Jerry sighed again. He knew that he sounded theatrical, but he didn't care. “Women, I guess,” he replied vaguely.

Max was quiet for a moment. “Me as well,” he admitted at last.

“Again?” Jerry smirked.

“It was not the first time for you either, so do not look so smug, my friend.”

“Well, in fact” –

Jerry was cut short by a second newcomer. “Jesse!” he greeted, but only after a considerable moment of hesitation. “What an … unpleasant surprise. I never expected to meet you here.”

Max inclined his head in a polite, if cautious gesture of welcome.

Jesse Hooker looked around himself, bewildered, while dusting off his coat with mechanical movements. “Aye, Jerry. Max … Where exactly is … here?” he asked.

“Oh, I forgot,” Jerry replied pleasantly. “You're still so young, and it's your first time …”

Jesse furrowed his brows at him. “I fought for the South, man.”

“Yes, yes, we know that, my friend.” Jerry beamed at him even while brushing him off dismissively. “But it's just that Max and myself are a little bit older, you know … by a few hundred years or so.”

“But where are we?” Jesse inquired again. “I remember us on fire, Diamondback and me … Homer all burnt … Severen destroyed …” He sounded distraught.

“Do not worry, Jesse,” Max said. He had been trying for a soothing tone, but failed at it for lack of genuine emotion for the Southerner. “I am sure they will join us soon. It is always like this, you know. My boys preceded me this time. They must be around here somewhere …”

Jesse's face knit in confusion and annoyance. “Ya still haven't told me” –

“This is limbo, Jesse,” Jerry interrupted him. “You know we're immortal, yes?”

“O' course!” Jesse snapped. “Dontcha lecture me on” –

“Well, we truly are,” Max interceded. “We can never leave. We cannot … pass on. So when our bodies are destroyed, we linger.”

Jesse raised his eyebrows. “Here? In this … this … What exactly is this?!”

Max shrugged. “Nothing, I guess. It is completely insubstantial. Only darkness. We can see and touch each other, but there is nothing else. There is a feeling of direction though, and something like solid ground.”

“And what're we supposed to do here?” Jesse inquired, bemused.

Jerry smiled at him. It wasn't altogether friendly. “To wait. To regroup.”

“Ya mean … We do leave here again?”

“Of course,” Max replied in Jerry's stead. “We always leave and enter back into the world. It is just a matter of time.”

There was some commotion beside them. Several lights appeared and morphed into four seemingly young men almost simultaneously. Max's face lit up into a huge smile. “Boys,” he said fondly, extending his arms and moving to embrace every one of them. Marko came first, then Dwayne, Paul, and finally David. They didn't seem to share Max's enthusiasm though and appeared as bewildered as Jesse had been upon his arrival.

“Boys,” Max told them, his voice beaming with affection and pride, “there is no need to worry. I will explain shortly where we are and what we are going to do, but first: meet Jerry and Jesse. Jerry, Jesse, these are my boys: David, Dwayne, Paul, and Marko. They have been with me for eighty years now. It was my brother who sired them, but since Vlad met his – if only temporary – end and decided to return to our native land … well, they are mine now. – Boys, this is Jerry Dandrigde, a fine English gentleman who originates back in the seventeenth century, and this is Jesse Hooker, a valiant American who fought for the South back in the Civil War. These two and I have met on a few occasions during our long lives, especially Jerry and I, although it grieves me to say that we have not found the time for a family gathering in the last century or so.”

“I guess we could call this a family gathering,” Jerry mused. “Or rather, a gathering of the tribes. Even if the circumstances are not entirely agreeable.”

“We could,” Max acclaimed.

“That mean we havin' a party?” The rough, fevered voice sounded out of a newly expanding light. Severen molded himself from the darkness and was instantly eyed with interest and appreciation by Max's boys. Shortly afterwards, Homer appeared, and Dwayne fixed his dark gaze upon him. Next was Diamondback. She was greeted by Jesse with a shout of joy and a bear-hug.

Meanwhile, Jerry had returned to picking his nails. “Are we complete then? I guess it'll be no use waiting for Billy. He was not a vampire, after all. Maybe I should have chosen a hellhound instead of a demon as daytime protector. But then again, Billy was so much more than just a guardian to me …”

“What a pity,” Max commented, not sounding overly empathetic. “But, alas, my faithful Thorn couldn't help me either. I wonder what became of him … – Ah, and there is one thing I want to clarify, since David is now here. Actually, it was not the woman I chose who proved to be our downfall, but a girl who reminded my boy of a certain Russian princess that” –

“Don't talk 'bout her!” David snapped at him. “Don't you think I despise myself already enough for this? For choosing her, when she caused all of my brothers to be killed, as well as you and myself?”

“Women …” Jerry sighed. “Maybe we should concentrate on boys solely. It never seems to work out with women …”

Jesse leered at them. “Dontcha include me in yer sappy tirade. Ya just have to choose the right kind o' woman.” He drew Diamondback closer, who barked out an approving laugh. She wore a smirk almost identical to his own.

“I see,” Jerry commented dryly.

Max then explained in short the rules of the place to his boys and the other newcomers.

“So how long will it take till we go back?” Homer asked. “This here place seems kinda boring …”

“It depends on the severity of the damage done to your body,” Max answered.

Homer's face fell. “I don't think there's anything but ashes left of mine …” he muttered, distressed.

Severen stepped up to him and slapped him on the shoulder. “Dontcha worry, kiddo. I betcha there ain't much of any of us left.”

Homer grimaced, perhaps at the word 'kiddo', perhaps at the gruesome thought of all of them in ashes.

“Maybe not of your bunch,” David interjected. “I, on the other hand, left a fairly intact body behind – at least as far as I know.”

Jerry's eyes lightened up with interest. “Maybe we could use that to our advantage. If you're able to return sooner, you could do some scouting for us … We're all planning on revenge, aren't we? On getting back what belongs to us? On getting even with the ones who wronged us?”

“I'm not” – David began, but was immediately cut off by Max.

“That is a formidable idea, Jerry. Let us see … I, for one, want my Lucy back. She had nothing to do with our destruction.”

“Michael's mine,” David instantly claimed. “Star can go to hell, for all I care – and I want the heads of those slimy tadpoles on a platter. I might spare Sam, if I'm in the mood for it.”

“I want Laddie,” Dwayne added briskly.

Max shook his head. “Child vampires are bad news.”

Homer huffed, throwing him a dirty glare.

“No, Homer, not even you can deny that,” Max chided. “Especially not you.”

Homer did not deny it. “I want Mae dead,” he said instead. “Mae and Caleb. And I wanna” –

“Hell, yeah!” Severen interrupted. There was a mad glint in his eyes. “I wanna rip that asshole's balls off and swallow 'em in front of his eyes. Then I'll plug his eyes out and eat 'em like grapes. Then I'll” –

“I am sure we all got the picture, Severen,” Max cut him off. He seemed slightly disgusted.

“And I want that lil girl, Sarah,” Homer calmly continued.

“As I said before, Homer” –

“It ain't yer place to lecture me, Max!” Homer's eyes were ablaze with anger. “I'm older than Jess, and just because I accepted his protection and yer older than me and all don't mean that yer 'bove me and I gotta listen to yer crap. Jess knows what I am, what we are. He don't try to pretend otherwise – as ya so foolishly do.”

That certainly rubbed Max the wrong way – or the right way, in that it annoyed him just as much as Homer had intended. But before he could step up to the challenge, Jerry interceded.

“Guys, guys … We're all friends here, aren't we? Instead of flying at each other's throats, we should rather hold a war council to decide what to do with our real enemies – the ones that almost destroyed us. Sending David out to scout” –

David looked miffed. “I will not” –

“Silence!” Max roared at him. “Listen to your elders, for hell's sake! If you had listened to me, we would not be here in the first place!”

David gave him his best patented smirk. “Really? I thought it was just the other way round …”

For a second, Max morphed. He hissed at David, who took a step back and held his hands up in mock surrender. “Okay, okay, I am listening.”

Jerry, who had send suffering looks into the darkness above while they had been at it, started anew. “David, if you'd be kind enough to scout for us while we're still stuck here, we'd all have a fairly good chance of making effective plans for revenge. I take it that most of us had their bodies severely damaged?”

There were sinister nods and sounds of affirmation all around.

“So it'll likely take our earthly shells years to heal or rebuild themselves so far that we can make use of them again. For that time, we will be forced to stay here – together, as it seems. So we should try and make the best of it. Meanwhile, David could monitor our foes in the outside world, and when the time comes, we could all go after them – together.”

A part of the vampires present had apparently already taken to this idea. Severen had edged towards the Lost Boys, while Dwayne had stepped away from the group to get closer to Homer.

Homer grinned up at Dwayne provocatively. “I'm no child,” he told the Lost Boy. “Even if I look like one. I don't need someone to cuddle and coddle me.”

“So what?” Dwayne shrugged at him, leering.

“So I'm older than you, chief,” Homer rebutted, his dirty smirk turning feral.

Dwayne shook his head slightly at the mocking title, a look of annoyance on his face and an unmistakable warning in his eyes. He didn't like insults aimed at his ethnicity. In fact, he didn't like to be insulted at all.

Severen stepped up to Homer, and put a hand on his sibling's shoulder. “Dontcha pick a fight, bud,” he chided. “Older ya may be, but he's still stronger.”

Jerry was impatiently tapping his fingers on his knee. “I was just explaining my, I dare say, rather ingenious plan, so could you three kindly shut your traps and postpone whatever indecencies you're planning until I've finished?”

Marko chuckled from behind a gloved fist, while Dwayne, Homer and Severen all turned their angry glares at Jerry.

Ignoring them, Jerry continued with his musings. “So, who's on my personal death-worthy foe list? Let's see … That crackpot Peter Vincent, of course, that despicable Brewster boy, then his mum, because it would be cruel to take her only child and let her live … I want Ed back, for he would make … well, not a replacement for Billy, but maybe a halfway decent servant … At least he's loyal … Then I want my Amy back …”

“Excuse me, Jerry …” Max interrupted him politely. “Would you care to tell us what happened to you before we make plans together? We do not know who those people are you just mentioned. What exactly brought you here?”

It did not go unnoticed by Jesse that Max asked for details from Jerry where he had shown neither interest in Homer's ramblings nor elaborated on his own experiences. He was just about to say something, which would have been rather unfriendly, when his spouse beat him to it – but in a slightly different spirit.

“Oh yeah, let's swap stories!” Diamondback chimed, plopping down on the invisible ground next to Jerry.

“That would actually give me a chance to figure out why everything went so spectacularly wrong with Lucy and her sons in the end,” Max said.

“Very well,” Jerry stated. “I guess I start, then …”

It took them a while to tell their respective stories, but at long last, everyone present understood the burning rage and need for revenge all of them were consumed with.

“It is simply unbelievable,” Max said, shaking his head, “what can happen to you if you are kind enough to share the gift of immortality with an unsagacious human.”

“With what?” Severen asked, befuddled. “Say that in English again?”

“He means,” David explained helpfully, “that we've gotta be very, very careful who we introduce into our families – choose the wrong ones, and they'll burn your asses to cinder.”

“Yeah, that 'bout right, man,” Severen agreed dolefully. “And I even gave him one of my spurs … that dirty, bitchin' motherfucker.”

“I must say,” Jerry stated, looking at each of the Lost Boys in turn, “that you died rather creative deaths. Especially you two.” He nodded towards Paul and Dwayne. “I mean … most of us burned. That's fairly common. But being electrocuted … well, at least you exploded in the end, Dwayne. Melting in a tub full of holy water, on the other hand …” He visibly shuddered.

Paul hadn't said anything up until now, which was quite unusual for him, and had kept close to his brothers, to Marko in particular. “Yeah …” he muttered lowly. “It wasn't fun.”

At this, Marko huddled even closer to him, squeezing his shoulder. Paul leaned into him, closing his eyes.

Max frowned. Could a vampire be traumatized? Paul didn't look well at all.

“Are you alright?” he asked carefully.

To his dismay, Paul shook his head.

“Can I …” Max hesitated. “Can I help you somehow?” He half expected one of the others, especially Jesse's gang, to poke fun at Paul, but everyone remained silent – Paul included.

It took his boy more than a minute until he spoke up. “I dunno.” He seemed to almost choke on his words.

“Aw, poor baby,” Diamondback cooed. To Max's alarm, she got up and went over to Paul. Max had only met her twice before and had gotten to know her as a vicious and volatile woman. He could hardly believe that she had any maternal qualities. But apparently, she had. She went on her knees in front of Paul, who looked at her in bewilderment, and pulled him into her arms.

Max shared a confused glance with Marko.

“Don't bottle it up, sonny,” Diamondback spoke into Paul's mane of hair. “Let it all out … Ya'll feel better – promise.”

Paul was shaking in her arms. With a sudden jolt, Max realized that his boy was crying. Actually crying.

There was an embarrassed silence all around, only broken by Paul's sobs, which were muffled against Diamondback's voluptuous bosom.

It was David who spoke first. “I'm really glad,” he said, his voice rough, “that we've not been separated. I didn't know this place existed. When …” His voice caught. “When we lost you, Marko … I thought it was forever.”

He shared a long look with Marko.

“And then … Paul, when you died … when I felt you … dissolving … I couldn't bear …”

Paul didn't look up, to engulfed in his own emotions, but Dwayne wordlessly laid a hand on David's shoulder.

“After that …” David continued with an effort, “after that, when I heard your screams, Dwayne … I … when I confronted Michael, I didn't want to win the fight. I … I just couldn't imagine to go on without you all. I wanted to cease.”

Astonished, Max watched his strongest son, the leader of his boys, fall apart in front of his eyes. Then, as if in a domino effect, Dwayne and Marko came undone as well. His sons embraced, kneeling down to include Paul, who was still weeping in Diamondback's arms, and now there were actual tears in all of their eyes.

Max felt a lump in his throat, but he drew himself together forcibly. It wouldn't do to lose face in the presence of Jerry and Jesse.

As he turned aside to gauge the reactions of the other vampires, he saw to his surprise that Jesse had his arms slung around Severen and Homer's shoulders, keeping them close. Homer didn't look too happy about it, but Severen leaned against their leader as if it were the most natural thing in the world. And maybe it was. Max had always known that Jesse was fiercely protective of his family, but he hadn't expected him to display any emotions of this kind in public.

When he turned to Jerry, he noticed that the other vampire seemed rather forlorn. Jerry was the only one who had arrived without anyone else, after all. They shared a long glance with each other. For both of them, it wasn't the first time that they had come to at this place, but they had always been alone, biding their time in the dark with only their own thoughts for company until they could reenter their earthly shells. It was strange to be here with others, family, friends, and rivals alike.

Max wondered what would come out of it.

Chapter Text

Really, David didn't know why he had agreed to do this. Alright, in fact, he did know. It would help him to get his brothers back, here, into the substantial world, and it would help him to get his revenge. He was looking forward to both. But everything else … Frankly, it was just a giant pain in the ass.

It hadn't taken his body long to heal to a degree where he could reenter it. There had been a distinct pull that had made him aware that it was time for him to go. He had been loathe to leave his brothers behind, but since he was the only one who could ensure their return into the material world …

It felt strange to be on his own for the first time in almost a century.

David's first way after digging himself out of a shallow grave in the Emersons' horse pasture and snacking on an unsuspecting hitchhiker to refuel his batteries was to Max's, in order to meet up with Thorn. The hellhound awaited him on the front porch, as if he had known exactly when David could be expected. Thorn was certainly able to care for himself, so he looked reasonably well fed, but a little depressed. He hardly growled at David, apparently aware that he was destined to be the creature's new master – at least for the time being.

“Well, Thorn,” David muttered, scratching the hound behind the ears, “it looks like it's just the two of us for now. Max sends his best regards … Your new task is to help me find the remains of the others, and to guard them while I set out to … well, to do what I have to do.”

When David made a round through Max's house, checking if everything was alright, he found out how long he had been gone. Max always kept a tear-off calender in the kitchen, and by comparing the date on the top page with that on the display of the radio clock in the living room, David realized that only a little more than two weeks had passed since that total train-wreck he didn't care to think about at the moment.

David already had a good idea where he would find what was left of his brothers and Max's bodies. There had been two other mounds of earth close to his own grave, and he had almost felt his brothers' presence there. Only Marko had been absent, so David expected to find his remains still in the cave. That was where he headed next, a rather unhappy looking Thorn tugged safely into his arms as he flew over to their hideout.

Everything was as they had left it. Well, almost everything. David noticed that most of Star's and Laddie's stuff was missing, along with a few small objects that had belonged to either himself or his brothers.

'Someone was out for memorabilia,' he thought and somehow, it made him feel sad. He was sure that it had been Star and Laddie, or maybe even Michael who had taken the things. If the Frog brothers had been out for trophies, they would probably have done something disgusting, like breaking out their fangs or ripping out their fingernails to wear them on a necklace. He made a mental note to check the remains of his brothers for missing teeth and claws.

David made his way down through the tunnel. At the end of it, he took a moment of respite and steeled himself for the gruesome sight that he knew awaited him. Sure enough, there on the ground was Marko – or rather, what was left of his earthly shell. He lay there as he had died, bent double from the pain of the staking. His clothes were still intact, but his body had shriveled to that of a several centuries-old mummy, the skin dried up and brownish gray, clinging to the bones tightly.

“Ah, man …”

David knelt down beside Marko and let his hand hover over his dead brother's face. It helped little to know that Marko was still around someplace save. Could he dare to touch him or would the slightest contact turn him to ashes? Very carefully, David laid his fingertips on Marko's cheek. Thankfully, he did not crumble, but he felt like badly groomed, creaky old leather.

“We get you whole again. Don't worry.”

David felt very strange talking to Marko's empty shell, especially since he knew that there was another version of his brother in some weird limbo, enjoying himself and probably worrying very little about his earthly remains. But still … it was just so sad to see what had become of this body they had both been very fond of.

Sighing, David stood and headed back into the main cave. He gathered several sheets and draperies from Star's bed. Thorn was watching him intently.

“You're right, old chap, it's time for another flight.”

The hound made an unhappy, whining sound, but allowed David to lift him up and into his arms again.

The night air was rushing past them, the waves crashing hungrily against the cliffs below. Then David made a sharp turn and flew up into the hills, towards the Emerson property. Soon they saw lights shining from the windows of a house. Someone was at home, rustling about in the kitchen. David landed in the shadows without a sound. The house had been patched up already, as it seemed. Behind the kitchen window, there was Sam, dancing around with a pot and a spoon. The tiles were clean, without a trace of vampire blood. Shortly after, Lucy came into view. She was wearing an apron and smiled fondly at her youngest without him noticing. Suddenly, her gaze turned to the window and out into the dark. She frowned, took a few steps towards the wall and drew the curtains closed.

David blinked in amazement. Had she somehow sensed him? It was hardly possible. Michael, Star or Laddie might, with the thin traces of vampire blood that were still in them, but the ones who never had been more than mortal? Highly unlikely.

Maybe it had just been a coincidence. David sincerely hoped so. He wasn't looking for trouble – at least not now. All he wanted to do was bring his brothers home. Well, and to take care of Max's remains as well.

With all the stealth he was capable of, David sneaked into the shed to borrow a spade. Then he strolled towards the horse pasture, Thorn at his heels, slipped through the fence, crossed the meadow and located the spot where he had dug himself out. It was a fair distance from the house.

He started with doing his best to smooth the earth over again that he had disturbed earlier. Since it had only been two weeks and the weather had been hot and dry, nothing was growing on the little mound as of yet, but it was still obvious that the soil had been turned anew.

Michael or his grandfather or whoever it had been had actually gone through the pains of digging three individual graves for them. David had been buried right in the middle. A few feet away, behind where his head had lain, was a fourth, significantly smaller hill. It seemed there hadn't been much of Max left to bury.

David hadn't noticed when he had left his resting place in a hurry, but there were actual flowers on the graves – on each of them. As he rearranged his own, he picked a bunch of withered marguerites and bluebottles from out of the earth and placed them back into the now dirty glass in which they had been put by he didn't know whom. Maybe Star, maybe Laddie, David thought. He was uncertain how he felt about this. Putting flowers on their resting places might have been a conciliatory gesture, if it had been done by Star or one of the Emersons. Or maybe it was a sign of real grief. Did Star mourn them? Did Michael? Was Lucy missing Max? He was almost sure that Laddie was mourning all of the Boys.

'Poor chap,' David thought. Maybe he could leave Laddie a hint? But no, it was too dangerous. Laddie was just a little boy. He would go and tell Star, and it would be The Alamo all over again.

After evening out the earth on his grave, David went to work on the one to the left. It turned out to be Paul's. David winced as his spade made contact with bone. The hole wasn't very deep. He bent down to remove the rest of the soil with his bare hands. He didn't want to cause any more damage.

All that was left of his brother was a skeleton. Some of the bones were still held together by sinews and ligaments, and his boots, clothes and embellishments had been placed at his side. It reminded David of a prehistoric burial plot. Again, it was undeniable that someone had taken care. There were even some now rotten flower petals scattered among the earth which must have been strewn directly on the body, or on what was left of it, before it had been covered up.

'Star,' David thought. 'Or maybe Lucy. She seemed nice enough to do such a thing.'

He spread one of the sheets on the ground and gingerly lifted Paul's skeleton out of the hole and onto the fabric, followed by all of his things. He took great care to gather up even the tiniest of bones. After he had smoothed the earth over again, he tied the sheet into a bundle and heaved it up. It was very light.

“Be a good boy and keep watch here while I bring Paul back home, okay?”

Thorn lay down beside Max's little mound, panting and looking up at David expectantly.

He hesitated.

“You're probably right. I should take Max too while I'm at it.”

Separating Max's ashes and fragments of bones and teeth from the earth proved to be difficult and took more time than David had expected. In this case, there were no clothes or shoes left, only a gold ring. Finally, he was able to bundle Max's remains up as well.

Looking up into the sky, David judged that he had no more than three hours left to fly to Hudson's Bluff with what was left of Paul and Max, return to Dwayne's grave and dig him out, fly over to the cave again and initiate the healing process.

He groaned wearily. Alright, maybe he would leave the last part for the next night. His body was not fully healed yet, and the exertion began to take its toll.

David traveled back to the cave as fast as he could, leaving Thorn on site to guard Dwayne's remains. He bedded Paul next to Marko in their sleeping lair, taking the time to straighten out all of his bones on the sheet and to arrange his things neatly beside him. For Max, he couldn't do much more than open his bundle and stare at the mound of ash and the occasional tooth and fragment of bone in there, all still mixed with a considerable amount of earth.

“I'll be back shortly, and I'll have Dwayne with me,” he promised before he took to the air again.

Excavating Dwayne was a nasty business. He was all in pieces, and even though their flesh didn't rot and worms and maggots were repelled by it … It was no fun to bring one of the people who were closest to you up in parts.

“Fuck …! Couldn't you at least have shut your eyes, man?” David cursed as he cautiously took out the bigger part of Dwayne's head. His cranium was buried a little deeper.

“Gross …”

Normally, there wasn't much that grossed David out – but this was Dwayne, his brother.

Even Thorn appeared to be a little disquieted. He had started whining a few minutes ago, and he became even more agitated as David wrapped Dwayne's remains and began to even the earth on his grave.

“Don't fuss about, Thorn. I'll be done here in a” –

Then he smelled it. Human. Blood.

David froze.

A twig broke under a foot.

David whirled around – and there she was: a tiny, fragile, mortal thing in a flowered skirt and a white blouse.

Lucy Emerson.

She looked absolutely terrified, standing there wide-eyed and shaking, but David knew instantly that she had come because she had suspected to find him or one of his own here, walking the earth again.

Very brave – and very foolish.

After a few moments in which they simply stared at each other, she spoke in a thin, trembling voice: “Have you come for my sons?”

David hesitated. He still wanted Michael, after all. But not now. He replied: “No. I've come for my family. To take them home.”

“I saw you exhume Dwayne …”

He was astounded that she had learned the names of his brothers and even knew who had been buried where. It made him curious. “The flowers … was that you?” he inquired.

Lucy shook her head, then nodded. “Well, yes … but … in fact, it was all of us. Even Sam … You won't hurt Sam, will you?”

David stayed silent for a moment. “No,” he then said. “I won't.”

“You promise?” Her eyes were huge and pleading. Yet there was a steely resolve behind her apparent vulnerability. David had no doubt that she would fight like a lioness to protect her sons, even if it were the devil himself who came to claim them.

He didn't know what possessed him as he replied: “Yes. I promise.” After a pause, he added: “We never meant you any harm. Neither you nor your sons.”

She continued to stare at him, disbelieving and wary.

David had no idea why, but he actually felt the urge to convince her of this. “I liked Michael. I really did. I wanted him as a brother,” he tried to explain.

“You … you did?” she asked, still doubtful.

“Yeah. I'm not … you know.” He coughed, somewhat uncomfortable. “I have … feelings as well. We all do. Max's sympathy for you was genuine too.”

“I …” She shook her head, closing her eyes for a second. “I know that,” she stated, her voice soft.

“He wanted you to be his spouse, and us to be your sons … When we circled you on our bikes in front of Max's store, we were checking you out. As our mum, I mean.”

Lucy tittered nervously. “You scared me,” she said.

“That was part of the idea,” David admitted, displaying a lopsided smile.

She shook her head again. “Look, David … That's your name, isn't it?”

He nodded.

“Look, I really did like Max, and I had nothing against you and your brothers, other than that you gave me a little scare with your antics, but … but you tried to …” She faltered, then started anew. “You tried to change my son into … what you are. Max wanted to turn me into … into a … That's … I cannot …” The words failed her again.

David's smile evened out. “If you succeeded in turning us into humans, would you regard it as doing us, or the world in general, harm?”

At first, Lucy looked puzzled. Then understanding dawned in her eyes.

David chuckled. “No, of course you wouldn't. Because you're human, you think that being human is fine and being a vampire is an abomination. But being a vampire, I think differently, as did Max. See what I mean?” He smirked at her, but not in an unfriendly way. “You're an intelligent woman. I'm sure you get my point.”

There was silence for a minute.

Then David said, “I must be off now. Can I trust you not to unleash anything unpleasant on me? Like, the Frog brothers?”

Lucy hesitated for a heartbeat. Then she answered, “No … I mean, yes. I won't tell them.” She exhaled audibly. “I won't tell anyone, if you promise to leave my family alone.” Her voice sounded sincere.

“I'm going to leave the state,” David said in reply. Somehow, he didn't want to lie directly to her face, so he chose to evade an honest answer to her plea. “I'm not gonna be around for a while. And, anyway, as I said before: I mean you no harm at all.”

He bent down, picked up the bundle that held Dwayne's remains and slung it over his shoulder, tying it securely. “Come here, Thorn.”

Very slowly, the hound trudged up to him. The look of reluctance on his face was near comical.

“Oh, he's cute …” Lucy said, almost laughing. “If he doesn't try to kill me …”

David grinned at her. “He was Max's guardian. Now he's mine.” He patted Thorn's head. Then he held his arms out, and the hound jumped right into them. “Gotcha!” Thorn whimpered in reply. “He doesn't exactly enjoy flying,” David explained.

“Oh … I see.”

They both stood there, regarding each other uncertainly.

David spoke first. “Well, I guess that's goodbye then …”

Lucy hesitated. Then she said, “David, can I …” She made a step in his direction. Thorn raised his head and growled.

Lucy smiled nervously. “I just wanted to …” She extended her hand.

David stared at it in puzzlement. “Oh …” he then said, shifting Thorn's weight on his arms and disentangling his right hand. “Sure. – You don't bite her, Thorn!”

Her hand was delicate and a bit sweaty. He shook it carefully, a little worried that he might break something. “Goodbye,” he said.

“Goodbye, David.” She was smiling at him again, but this time with less nervousness and more warmth.

David released her fingers and gripped Thorn tightly, taking to the air. When he had gained maybe thirty feet of height, he looked down again.

Lucy was still standing there, all alone in the dark, and smiling up at him.

Chapter Text

Jerry was bored. Terribly so. Time passed strangely at this place, but he had the feeling that he had been here for ages. The others should have offered some entertainment, but frankly, for the most part, they were just annoying. Alright, he had to admit that there had been some interesting conversations with Max. But Max was someone you better took in small doses. Being stuck with him without respite …

For there was none. Night and day didn't exist here. The vampires never got tired, other than in the “exasperated” sense (Jerry got that a lot). They didn't feel the need to sleep. In fact, they were unable to. Falling asleep here meant that your body was ready for you and that you would wake up in the material world once you opened your eyes again.

That was what had happened to David after a relatively short amount of time. At least, it had felt short to Jerry – perhaps because he had come to know David as less pesky than most of the others. He was smug, but he was also intelligent, and he made for a good conversational partner if one didn't expect too much. But David was now down there, or out there, or whatever you liked to call it, so the only bearable persons left were, apart from Max, Dwayne and maybe Marko. Jerry wasn't quite sure about the latter yet. If there was trouble, the boy was always in the thick of it, but when it was quiet, he seemed sensible enough.

Hopefully, David would do a good job at preparing all of their returns, even if he had been a little unwilling to act as their proxy, so that they all could leave here as soon as possible. Admittedly, Jerry would have been satisfied enough if he could leave and the others stayed stuck for a few more decades, which was, after all, customary for vampires who had burned or exploded.

“Fuck off, Severen!”

Oh no … Paul and Severen were at it again. There was no privacy here, everyone was visible and within hearing range to everyone else all the time. The only thing you could do was squeeze your eyes shut, plug your fingers in your ears and make “nanana” noises. If Severen and the Lost Boys were involved, you needed to make them pretty loud though.

“What's your problem, man? Why can't you leave us alone?” Marko complained. The remaining three of Max's boys had been sitting on what served as the ground, playing cards. They had borrowed the deck from Jesse, who always had one with him – which was lucky, since there were only the things here they had carried directly on their bodies at the moment of their destruction. They didn't have much to do, and playing cards was at least a bit of a distraction.

Severen had apparently taken to ruin the game for the Boys, snatching cards and announcing loudly who held what. He was always stirring up trouble, and seemed to be happy if he got a split lip or a bloody nose for it. Severen appeared to be as much of a masochist as he was a sadist.

Jerry expected another brawl as Paul and Dwayne jumped up, grabbed Severen by the shoulders and pushed him down on his back between them. But Jesse's boy apparently thought that funny. He was laughing maniacally as Marko climbed over his legs and on top of him. Severen didn't even try to stop him by kicking out. However, he shut up instantly as Marko licked once over his face.

“Stop being an ass,” Marko warned, but he was smirking as he said it. “Or else we eat you.”

Severen snickered. “Yer welcome any time, Curly.” He stuck out his tongue – first in a gesture of provocation, then as a kind of invitation as he licked over his own lips lewdly.

Marko cuffed him lightly on the head. “You dunno what you're asking for, man.”

Homer made a noise of disgust. “Yuck … we gotta watch this?”

“You're free to shut your eyes, lil old man,” Paul replied, sniggering. He and Dwayne still had Severen firmly by the shoulders.

“And yer just jealous anyway,” Severen added in a mean voice, leering at his sibling.

Homer huffed and turned on his heel to go and sulk somewhere in the darkness. Severen's grin grew even wider at this.

Max, Jesse and Diamondback were a little further off, even though you couldn't really put much of a distance between you and everyone else here, watching the events unfold with wary, yet slightly amused eyes. If their young ones became to much of a nuisance, they were on them in less than a second, but if they just scuffled and fooled around, they usually let them be.

While Homer made an act of being appalled, Jerry himself was quite interested. He missed Billy, he really did.

Meanwhile, Dwayne and Paul had let go of Severen. Instead of using his chance to get away, he had stayed exactly where he was, his dirty smirk sending out a very obvious invitation. Subsequently, the four youngsters had started to crawl all over each other, hissing, growling, purring and, incongruously, giggling. For them, everything was a game, no matter if it was fighting, feeding, killing or sex.

Soon, the scent of blood was in the air. Jerry could almost taste it on his tongue. He stared at the heap of moving bodies. He longed for –

“Wanna taste?” a husky voice asked. Severen winked at him from under Dwayne, who had currently embedded his teeth in his neck. Severen's pupils were huge, his eyes fevered. He was practically drooling with lust.

Jerry couldn't really say no to such a generous offer. It would have been quite rude to decline.

As he rose to join the jolly foursome, Jesse's voice stopped him in his tracks. “Don't touch my child, Jerry,” he warned. “Not if he's not” –

“Are ye deaf, Jess?!” Severen growled. “I fuckin' called him over, 'kay? So quit your parental fussin'. It don't suit you anyway.”

Jesse rolled his eyes and, just like that, returned to his conversation with Max and Diamondback without another word or even another glance at Severen.

Well, young vampires were wild and volatile by default. If you thought it a good idea to get a whole bunch of them, you probably got used to their annoying ways after a few decades or so. Jerry had seen enough youngsters back in his days in Europe. He had been cured from the idea of building a family a long time ago.

Without a word, he knelt down beside Severen, who grinned at him lewdly and struggled to get his arm free from where it was buried under Dwayne's bulk. Dwayne was no longer feeding off him, but appeared to find it comfortable to lie on Severen, chest to chest. The feeling of comfort probably originated from what they were doing with the lower part of their bodies.

Marko and Paul were cuddling close to them, so close that all of their bodies were touching. They didn't seem to do much at the moment, but they had evidently taken a nip from Severen already.

The latter was obviously enjoying himself the most of them all, wriggling under Dwayne, hissing and moaning. As Jerry took his wrist and used his teeth to taste him, Severen groaned in approval. The blood flooded Jerry with a whirlwind of lust, arousal and a lot of tumbled, flighty and mostly gory pictures from Severen's unlife.

This was quite exciting. Finally, Jerry had found the entertainment he had longed for.

“So that's what ya call cultivated, huh?” Jesse gibed. Apparently, the bastard had decided to watch them after all. “Drinkin' from another vampire, ruttin' on the floor, rollin' around in the dirt? Real classy, Jerry.”

Being cultivated, as in being able to blend in with humans and walk around undetected, had been the subject of many a talk since they had arrived here. Jerry and Max both were worried, to say the least, that Jesse and his family with their rabid ways of living and killing might cause their race to be exposed. They weren't thrilled by the prospect.

“You talk …” Jerry replied condescendingly as he let go of Severen's wrist and put it down with due diligence. He didn't care much for Jesse's opinion, and he was pleasantly dazed from the blood.

They made for a strange bunch, the ones assembled here.

Max was really old, born in 1435 in Wallachia, which was now part of Romania, Europe. Back then, his name had been Radu, and later on, he had been dubbed Radu cel Frumos – Radu the Fair. He had grown up in a time of war, and had been offered as a hostage, along with his older brother Vlad, to the ruler of the Ottoman empire by his own father. By then, he had been no more than seven years of age. The procedure wasn't uncommon at the time if one ruler wanted to ensure the other of his loyalty. Usually, they swapped sons or other important family members, who might well rise to top positions in their new environment.

While Radu soon won the trust and love of the Ottomans, especially that of the Sultan's son Mehmet, Vlad did not. He hated the Ottomans with a passion, and his brother's friendship with Mehmet and his ascension at court caused him to despise Radu as well. While Vlad eventually returned to Wallachia to take his rightful place on the throne, Radu stayed and even converted to Islam. The latter proved to be very convenient when Radu became a vampire, for neither crosses nor holy water or sacramental bread could cause him any harm. He somehow even managed to pass this immunity on to his sons, if only in diluted form. Crosses didn't faze them, but holy water had been proved to be rather harmful. As far as Jerry knew, sacramental bread had not yet been tested.

As Vlad's star fell, Radu ruled Wallachia himself for several short amounts of time. He was forty when he died, or rather turned. Two years later, he went and almost killed his brother in a vain attempt at reconciliation. He could only save him by changing him, which made the devout catholic Vlad not any fonder of him. Their ways parted again soon enough, and while Vlad stayed at Wallachia, too entwined with his country and its people to leave, Radu, who's eyes had been opened by the Ottomans to the beauty of the world, of foreign countries and strange folk, ventured out and traveled the world for centuries. Vlad only crept out of his hiding place in a decrepit Transsilvanian castle briefly to pay a visit to England in the late 1890s, which went spectacularly wrong. It had been Max who had saved him and put him together anew – quite literally. That was where he got his knowledge of vampire regeneration from.

Barely recovered, Vlad had set out again – this time for the New World. Being dusted and newly formed hadn't done him good. He wanted to take the world over now by building an army of vampires. The first ones he chose for this task were four young men, a close-knit group of petty criminals living on the streets of Santa Carla, California. Currently, three of them were still kind of making out with Severen next to Jerry. However, before Vlad's plans came into action for real, he was accidentally – or, for some of the ones concerned, conveniently – killed in the 1906 earthquake in a Santa Carlan hotel. Max, how he chose to call himself at that time already, had been hot on his heels, and arrived just in time to pick up the leftovers – David, Dwayne, Paul and Marko.

As for the boys, they had been a ragtag band when Vlad had bumped into them accidentally.

Dwayne was part Native, part Irish American. His father had hastened away to god knows where after knocking Dwayne's Huron mother up, maybe not even realizing that he had fathered a child, and she had been left to live with the shame. Dwayne had been born in Kansas and grown up as the oldest among three brothers, five sisters and a bunch of other relatives. Fed up with being regarded as 'the bastard' by everyone, he had left for California at nineteen, finally ending up in Santa Carla, where he earned his living with staged fights and as a trickster. He still continued to do so as he met up with David and the others, who had already been together for a while then, but their criminal activities grew more elaborate with their numbers.

Marko was the son of Slovenian immigrants. Badly malnourished and too poor to afford a doctor, his parents and both his sisters had died of some contagious disease, leaving him the sole survivor of his family at the age of six. He had been put in an orphanage, but had made a run for it after a few weeks. After that, he had lived on the streets, begging, stealing and, a little later, selling his body to survive. He had been only fourteen when he ran into David. Actually, he had tried to pick David's pockets. Instead of beating him up or calling the authorities on him, David had formed a bond with the boy.

Back then, David had only been sixteen himself, the sole surviving child of jewish immigrants from Germany. David had ran away from his parents and New York, breaking the bonds his strict father had imposed upon him, and only just arrived at Santa Carla. He was in dire need for friends, and Marko was just the man – or boy – to show him everything necessary to survive on the streets.

A little more than a year later, David and Marko had encountered Paul. He had been a runaway too, a farmer's boy from the Midwest, who had stolen one of his old man's horses to flee from a life he hated. His father had reported him, and so he was already a wanted man at barely eighteen years of age.

The three of them instantly connected. It was another full year before they joined up with Dwayne. From then on, they roamed the streets of Santa Carla together, plotting mischief and raising trouble wherever they went. When Vlad froze them into their youthful bodies for eternity, David and Paul were twenty, Marko eighteen, and Dwayne twenty-one. Shortly after, Max took over as their surrogate father, and things developed from there.

So the formation of Max's clan had been quite accidental, and for eighty years after, neither he nor his boys had turned anyone. In fact, Max hadn't turned anyone throughout all of his five-hundred years of vampirehood. Only lately had he developed a longing for a wife, a spouse, a comrade to share his eternity with. Jerry had some experience with this feeling, and also with the almost inevitable disaster it caused.

Max had recounted that Vlad had had some women at his castle in Wallachia, but they seemed to have been his underlings rather than his lovers. He had also turned a woman in England, but she had been killed by vampire hunters. Then he had made another attempt with a friend of hers, and he himself had been killed by vampire hunters.

Somehow, this sounded eerily familiar to Jerry.

Max, apparently either unable or unwilling to learn from his brother's mistakes, had tried to change a woman at his long-time residency Santa Carla a little less than a hundred years later … and had been killed by vampire hunters. That was why he was here now.

David and his boys had picked up a runaway girl from out of the gutter, taken her in to make her one of them, and …

'Let's not even go there,' Jerry thought.

Then there was Homer, the little pervert, who had turned a young woman because he wanted a spouse, which could obviously never have turned out well, considering that he was stuck forever in a prepubescent body and with an, at best, only half grown-up mind, and had subsequently resulted in all of his family being killed by … well, not exactly vampire hunters, but humans.

Jerry supposed he would rather not try and turn a woman again. After all, trying and actually succeeding in changing Charley Brewster's girlfriend Amy into at least a half vampire had resulted in him being killed by … well, guess what. And just because she had reminded him of someone he had known and loved back in his mortal days, centuries ago … how very foolish of him.

Effectively, Jesse was the only one of them who had ever tried and succeeded in turning a woman and winning her over for an extended amount of time. If Jerry had it right, those two had been together for more than a hundred years now. But all of Jesse's clan were rather close-fisted in giving out information on themselves. Jerry only knew that Jesse had been born somewhere around 1820 on a farm in Missouri, fought in the Civil War for the South, on a man-of-war, actually, been severely wounded and picked up and changed by Homer in 1863.

Homer didn't know his exact mortal age at the time of his own turning – something between ten and twelve. He had been a street urchin, and a female vampire had snacked on him and left him to turn without any explanation or guidance at all, deserting him the minute she was done with feeding. The boy had managed to survive on his own for two or three years. Then he had chosen Jesse to be his protector and somehow instinctively managed to turn him without any knowledge at all, apart from the one he had gathered himself in his miserable and lonely nights.

Some years later, they must have decided to add Diamondback to their group, though Jerry was unsure as to whom had chosen her and why. Had it been Jesse, desiring a spouse? Or had it been Homer, wanting a mother? During her stay here, Diamondback certainly had demonstrated that she regarded both him and Severen as her sons. She ordered them around quite a bit. To Jerry's amazement, Severen heeded her most of the times, while Homer continually butted heads with her. But Homer butted heads with everyone, so that was unsurprising.

Severen, on the other hand, who at a cursory glance appeared to live for causing trouble, was quite well behaved when it came to listening to his vampire parents. But then again, the manners of all of them were abysmal, so maybe he obeyed them just because they came up with even better and gorier ideas than he and listening to them meant having more fun still …

As for Severen's age, Jerry had no idea. He had asked, and Severen had tried to turn it into something of a truth-or-dare guessing game, which Jerry had flat out refused. The only thing he knew was that Severen was their youngest and had been turned after Diamondback, but that could have been any time between 1865 and 1927, when Jerry had first met Jesse and his gang and Severen had already been amongst them.

Jerry himself had been born in London in 1687, the second son of a wealthy cloth designer. His human years had been a little boring, if agreeable. He had learned his father's trade, married at decent looking, good-natured merchant's daughter at twenty-five, sired eight legitimate and, as far as he knew, three illegitimate children, of whom, in total, six reached adulthood. He had been turned at the age of forty-two by a mostly homosexual vampire who found him desirable and kept him as a companion and pupil for the next five decades.

Reuben had been two-hundred years old already, originally a seafarer from Antwerp, Brabant – now part of the Netherlands –, a good-looking guy who had been in his early thirties when turned. He had been well educated and courteous, a good friend and a skilled lover, and they had traveled Europe together until Reuben had felt that it was time for him to move on and make himself another companion. Jerry had grieved for quite some time, but then he had settled for self-reliance and made camp in Verona, Italy. He had managed to evoke a demon right out of the pits of hell in 1794. Jerry had named him Billy, even though he had been known as Louis Antoine before. Since then, Billy had accompanied him on all of his travels, his daytime protector, his nighttime companion. They had switched towns every few years. In Berlin, Germany, in 1814, Jerry had encountered Max for the first time, and they had formed a kind of bond.

When Jerry had decided to go and explore the United States in 1920, he had contacted Max first to get his advise. To avoid detection, Jerry had moved all over the country, starting in New York and going clockwise from there, never staying in the same place for more than a year. He had seldom met other vampires, maybe once every five years, including two unpleasant run-ins with Jesse and his gang and three fairly pleasant visits from Max. He had never desired for a vampire companion in all those years. There had been Billy, after all. Only when he saw Amy, who reminded him so much of not his wife, but of one of the two women he had sired illegitimate offspring with, the one person apart from Reuben that came close to a 'true love' in his life, had the thought of possessing and turning someone taken root in his mind.

But no, Jerry thought, he would not try it again. The error rate was just too high, and the price for failure was destruction and subsequent boredom for an unspecified amount of time at this stupid, annoying place. Maybe he could manage to evoke another demon instead …

Next to Jerry, Severen groaned, satisfied and content, and stretched out rather obscenely as Dwayne rolled off of him. “Ah, that was good, men. Real joyride …”

Max's boys snickered their agreement.

Alright, Jerry thought. If the young ones were that motivated, it might still turn out not to be so boring in the end.

Chapter Text

David stayed at Santa Carla for four nights. The first, he needed to unearth his brothers. The others he used to initiate their healing. Each night, he gorged himself on human blood, and then, returning to the cave, he literally drenched the bodies of his brothers with his own.

Max had told him that the best way to restore a destroyed vampire was to nurture his remains with the blood of a vampire sibling, so David did just that. However, he was a little hesitant to do the same to his mentor's ashes. He'd rather have his brothers back first and discuss with them what was best to be done. And even though Max had said that it would take him longer than the others to heal since his body had been practically dusted, David was not so sure about that. Max had more than four-hundred years on them, and that might make him mend much faster than Dwayne, Marko and Paul. So David decided to postpone the start of Max's revival a little. In the end, his old man would never know …

The fifth night came, and with it the time for David to leave. He stood in their sleeping lair, looking down upon the bodies of his brothers, which he had arranged neatly beside each other on sheets and draperies from Star's bed. There were already signs of improvement. Marko's skin had changed color a little and was slightly more yielding to the touch, and his face looked less gaunt. The hole in his chest was closing. Dwayne's body seemed to make an effort to reconnect its components, with torn veins and sinews and broken bones unsheathing as if trying to reach for their counterparts. David had ripped a sheet to shreds and bound the pieces of Dwayne tightly together to make it easier for his brother to patch himself up. Then there was Paul, who now exhibited a thin layer of flesh on the bones that had been completely bare only a few nights before. All the same, it was still clear that it would take him longest to heal. Well, apart from Max, whose ashes were bundled up securely again in a remote corner of the cave, out of David's eyes and thoughts for the time being.

Thorn was sitting beside David, thumping the ground with his tail.

“Well, buddy,” David announced, “I gotta be off. It might take me a while to get back here, maybe eight or nine days. I'll make it seven if I can. Meanwhile, it'll be your job to look after our family. You think you'll manage?”

The hound gave a short bark of affirmation.

“Alright. Then I …”

But David still lingered. He was loathe to leave his brothers' bodies behind with only Thorn for protection.

The last few nights, he had stalked the Frogs as well as the Emersons to find out if they were up to something.

However, Lucy seemed to be true to her word. She apparently hadn't told anyone that David was back. At least none of the people he observed were showing any signs of particular anxiousness.

Sam acted as if he was completely at ease, with only short outbreaks of gloominess. Once, amazed, David had watched him place flowers on Dwayne's now empty grave. Every time he followed the boy, David imagined killing him. To his own surprise, the thought wasn't very satisfying and became even less so with every additional night he kept watch on Sam. The boy seemed so tiny and breakable, not a match for him at all. At the end of the day, David had to admit that Sam just had tried to protect his family, which was something he could understand and relate to.

Lucy's father was as weird as ever. No surprise there. Against him, David held no special grudge. When the old man had driven his pickup through the wall of his living room, he could have had no idea what had been behind it, and the victim of his unsecured cargo could easily have been his daughter or one of his grandsons instead of Max. It had been a stupid and desperate move, and Max's death had been quite accidental.

Star and Laddie were still staying with the Emersons. It looked like they hadn't told anyone that Laddie might be missed by his San Franciscan hippie family. But then again, his parents might be too drugged up to remember that they had lost their little boy on a trip to Santa Carla. Laddie certainly had never shown any inclination of going back to them, enjoying his carefree life with the Boys thoroughly. Now he seemed moody and sad, and Star wasn't quite able to cheer him up. However, he appeared to have taken at least a little to Lucy and Sam, even though he knew that it had been Sam who had shot his favorite brother Dwayne.

Michael and Star were still sorting things out, as it seemed. One night, David had observed them on the Boardwalk together. Happy was not the word to describe how they were acting. Both appeared despondent and absent-minded and not altogether fond of each other. The demise of the vampires had not driven them closer, but apart.

Then there were the Frog brothers. Sam had visited them every evening during David's observation. Surprisingly, there was little talk about vampires or any other supernatural beings – other than comic heroes, that was. They all seemed to be very intent on not mentioning what had happened. At the moment, the boys didn't appear to be a threat. Still, as far as they were concerned, David had not given up on his plans of revenge. The Frogs had had no business with David and his Boys, they had not been threatened by them in any way, shape or form, but they had still made it their purpose to venture out and annihilate them – for money, of all things. No, those two, David wanted dead. But he would keep them for later – which would also serve the purpose of not making the Emersons nervous. For David still wanted Michael, and Max would still want Lucy when he came back …

At long last, David pulled himself together. He nodded towards what was left of his brothers' shells. “I'll be gone now. But not for long … and Thorn here will guard you with his life while I'm on the road.” He sent the hound a pointed look before patting him goodbye and leaving the cave, grabbing his new leather bike-bags on the way out.

Up on the Bluff, his Triumph was waiting for him at its usual hiding place in an extensive shrubbery, a few hundred feet away from the stairs to the sunken hotel. David strapped the bags on, pushed the bike out of the bushes, straddled it and started the engine.

'Goodbye, Santa Carla,' he thought. And, 'Oklahoma, here I come …'

xXxXx

Although he was speeding, it took David almost three nights to cover the roughly 1,500 miles to his first destination. He needed some time to find a suitable sleeping place each morning before sunrise, after all. The second night, he killed a teenage girl who tried to hitch a ride with him. She looked as though she was running from either something or someone terrible. Bad luck for her that she ran into David of all people. But then again, David mused as he hid her body a little away from the road in the forests surrounding Flagstaff, Arizona, her head severed and hidden elsewhere to prevent her from coming back as a vampire, it might have been worse. At least he had made it quick.

When he finally reached the small town near Lawton, Oklahoma, where Severen had been blown up by Caleb, David was appalled by the total bleakness of the place. He got directions to the Colton farm from the man at the gas station, even though the guy acted a bit doubtful of the young biker. David drove on and on on a road through dry grassland that seemed to stretch on forever. When he could see the buildings of the farm on the horizon, he parked his bike in the next barn available and went the rest of the way by air. He didn't want them to notice his approach.

It was two hours before dawn, so he expected everyone to be asleep. The first room he glimpsed into through the window was the master bedroom. Only one person was sleeping in the double bed, a middle-aged man who must be Caleb's father. He was restless, moving around a lot and even mumbling to himself in his dreams.

The next peek David got was of the little girl. She looked no older than eight.

'That petty creep …' David thought, feeling distinctly reluctant to do anything that brought Homer anywhere near this child. Sure, David and his brothers sometimes ate children, but that was something entirely different from what that little sicko had in mind.

David sneaked past two or three other windows before he found the one he was looking for. In the room behind it, a young man was lying in his bed. His sleep seemed to be untroubled. He was almost as still as death, but David saw the slow rise and fall of his chest. This must be Caleb – and he was definitely human.

There was only space for one person in the bed and no one else around, so David assumed Mae to be in a guest room. He found her in a small and spartan chamber to the back of the house. Unlike the others, she was awake, and David had to duck quickly to avoid being seen. Mae still must have noticed something, for she came to the wide-open window and looked out. She was a delicate creature with light blond hair and a forlorn look in her eyes. She reminded him a little of Star, or maybe even Lucy. But something was off about her.

David frowned and inhaled deeply, tasting the air with his tongue.

There was a distinct scent of vampire on her.

xXxXx

The next night, David was at the farm again, but much earlier – the sun had just set half an hour ago. He perked his ears to locate the Coltons in their home, then sneaked to the corresponding window to spy on them.

The family was assembled around the table, eating dinner. Mae was missing, but she was the center of the conversation.

“I don't know what to do anymore,” Caleb's father said. He sounded weary. “You were just fine after one single transfusion, Cal. Now, this girl's gotten three already, and she still can't go out into the sunlight the second day after. And it's gettin' worse.”

Caleb's little sister spoke up. “Maybe it's because Caleb wasn't with them for long. Mae said she was with them for years. Maybe that's the thing.”

“Maybe,” her father nodded. “Maybe there's just so much time to fight the virus or whatever it is, and when that time's passed, there's no way back. The transfusions seem to slow down the process, but I think she's returnin' to what she was.”

Caleb was mushing his potatoes with a vengeance. “But what're we gonna do? If she turns back … We can't keep her, daddy. She'd be dangerous. I was with them, I know what they're doin' … what she did …” He glanced at his sister. “And with Sarah here …”

His father audibly exhaled. “You're right. I'm glad you see it my way. Maybe a dialysis would help, but I can't do that, and we can't take her to the hospital … It was dangerous enough to have Rainer sneak the blood out. He could get into a hell of trouble for that. And anyway, honestly, I don't think there's a cure for this … thing.”

The men looked at each other. Then Caleb's father said, “Sarah, darlin', go fetch another package of grape juice from the cellar, will you? Thanks.”

Eagerly, the girl followed his bidding, bouncing through the room and out of one of the two associated doors on her tiny feet.

As soon as she was gone, the old Colton spoke in a hushed, urgent voice, “We can't heal her, we can't keep her – and we can't let her go. You told me what they're capable of. We can't unleash that on the world again. And she'd spread it …”

Caleb bit his lip. “I know,” he admitted. “But …”

“No, Cal. There's only one way to deal with this.”

His son still seemed reluctant. A world of conflicting emotions was visible on his face. At long last, he nodded, slowly and deliberately. “Alright. But I'll do it.”

“You're brave, son. Very brave. I'm proud of you,” his father replied, reaching over and placing a hand on his arm.

David heard light footsteps on the other side of one of the two doors to the room. They were not Sarah's, for she just reentered with the juice through the second door. Apparently, David had not been the only one listening in on the Coltons.

Quietly, he made his way to the window of Mae's chamber. It was wide open once again. The girl was currently occupied with stuffing things, mostly clothes, into a backpack. She appeared to own so little that she couldn't even fill it.

When he had taken everything in, David retreated further into the shadows. Shortly afterwards, Mae came to the window, swung her legs over the sill and jumped out and into the backyard. There was already, or still, a not entirely human grace to the way she moved. Hurriedly, she strode towards the road, not aware of being watched. As soon as he knew that she was headed away from town, David took to the air again to retrieve his Triumph from the barn where he had left it. Then he drove down in the direction Mae had taken. She turned to look at him the instant she heard the engine, stepping into the road and sticking her thumb out.

David stopped beside her. “Need a lift?” he asked, smirking. It was simply unbelievable how easy this turned out to be.

Mae looked him up and down. “Well … maybe …” she teased, even though David knew that she was desperate to get away from here as fast as possible.

His smirk widened. “Well …” he mocked back, “maybe, if you find me and my bike to your liking, you might be glad to hear that I like you and I'd take you anywhere – within reason.” He winked at her.

May laughed, a rich, bubbly sound. “Thanks, I guess. I'm Mae, by the way.”

“My name's David.” He stretched out his hand, and she shook it. Her grip was firm. “Hop on then, Baby Blue.”

She paused. “Baby Blue?” There was something vulnerable in her eyes.

David shrugged. “You look like it, a little.”

She smiled, but it seemed sad. “Well … maybe I am, a little.”

Then she climbed on and put her arms tightly around him. It seemed she was no stranger to being on a bike. David took off at moderate speed, and she leaned into into him with her whole body.

'No better way to get close to a chick than taking her for a ride on a bike,' David thought, amused.

Yet, he only drove a short distance before he slowed down and came to a halt again.

Mae looked at him over his shoulder in puzzlement. “Somethin' wrong?”

“No,” he replied. “Everything's peachy. – Get off.”

Her face knit in suspicion. “Why?”

“Cause I wanna give something to you.”

She was distinctly wary now. But there was also a glimpse of the predator under her frail demeanor. If need be, she would defend herself fiercely. Again, she reminded him of Lucy. Maybe Max's choice hadn't been as bad as David had initially thought. If Lucy's sons hadn't interfered …

Mae humored him and dismounted, if rather reluctantly.

David got off himself and, smiling, turned to face her. “You're hungry, aren't you?”

She looked even more confused. “Why, yeah, but …”

He raised his wrist to his mouth and bit down hard. Blood welled up under his lips. He extended his hand towards her. “Drink, then.”

For a moment, she stood there in utter shock. Then the vampire in her took over and she grasped his hand, locking her mouth onto his wrist and drinking in hurried gulps. She must have been parched.

After a while, he drew away, leaving her whimpering with bliss and longing.

“Now look at me.” He gave her a glimpse of his other self, then let it smooth over again. She gasped. David knew that her clan didn't change that way. They only had one face – apart from the fangs that showed just when they were about to strike.

He locked his eyes with hers. “I got a message from your family.”

Mae looked as if she was about to faint. “They … they're not …?” she stammered, her lips trembling.

“No,” he replied. “Their bodies were destroyed, but they themselves are not. They're waiting for their chance to return – and you'll give it to them.”

With that, he grabbed her wrist and cut it deep with a fingernail-turned-claw, shaking her hand to scatter the droplets of blood on the asphalt. Unnoticed by her, he had stopped his bike right at the place where Jesse, Diamondback and Homer had been burned to cinder.

Mae struggled, but stood no chance against him. “What're ye doin'?!” she cried out in fright.

“Gathering up the ashes.”

As if on cue, a wind took up from out of nowhere. It was like a little tornado that covered a radius of maybe a hundred feet around them. It carried what looked like a lot of dust with it as it drew ever more concentrated around the place where they stood. Then all movement ceased and the dust dropped down in front of their feet, exactly where Mae's blood was still hitting the ground in thick splashes.

“Impressive,” David mumbled. “You stay here,” he told Mae, who appeared as if she couldn't move even if she wanted to, frozen by fear as she was.

David went over to his Triumph and took a big tote bag, a hand-broom and a dustpan out of the bags. Then he calmly swept the ashes up and put them into the tote bag, storing everything on his bike again, mounting it and revving up the engine.

He turned to Mae, who had observed his doing, too shocked to utter a sound. The cut he had inflicted had already stopped bleeding. “Well, what are you waiting for?” he asked. “Get on again.”

As if in a trance, she followed his order. When she had tightened her arms securely around him, he sped up instantly in the direction of the town, intent on leaving this bleak, boring place as far behind him as fast as possible. They only had to gather up Severen in passing before they could travel on to Iowa, and then, hopefully, back to Santa Carla and his brothers without further ado.

Chapter Text

They made it to the abominable Midwestern town of Rancho Corvalis where Jerry had last resided in just one night, even though they had to stop twice on their way. Once it was in order to scratch Severen's remains off the road. This time, Mae did not fight David as he demanded her blood to lure her brother's ashes from out of hiding. It didn't surprise him. Of all her siblings, Severen had obviously been the one closest to her. When they had still been at that strange place outside of time and space, Severen had given Homer a black eye for calling Mae names. David put Severen's ashes, which had assembled readily enough in front of their feet, into a separate bag, but stuffed it into the one that was already filled with the remains of his family.

The second stop was forced upon them by two state police officers who had them pull over for speeding. Meals on wheels – how convenient. The burning car they left behind could be seen for miles on the almost empty, straight road. After feeding, Mae had been much less fidgety, molding into David contently as they raced through the night.

Rancho Corvalis, Iowa, was a place David hated upon first sight. It seemed even bleaker than Caleb's hometown, but with an appalling, suburbian cleanliness on top of it. They cut it close to dawn, finding a sleeping place in an abandoned house, or rather its storm cellar that was accessible from the outside, only half an hour before the sun rose. David was not altogether happy with the place – it seemed hardly safe enough. Regardless of how tired he was, he decided to postpone his rest until later that day, when he had gained a feel of the place, of its sounds and scents.

Mae, being as young as she was, could not fight the pull of the sun for long. Although still a little distrustful of David, she snuggled up to him and fell asleep, her head on his chest. David was neither amazed nor disturbed by this. It was natural for vampires to huddle together, especially if they had no opportunity of resting securely above the ground.

While Mae slept, David studied her face, lost in thoughts. What had Homer seen in this girl that had made him change her? Maybe it was her apparent frailty and innocence – as in the little girl he was after now. But if that innocence had ever existed, it was long since gone from Mae, as was any frailty she might have possessed. Now she was a tough girl all around. David had to admit that he had come to like her, even if he didn't know when or how this had happened.

In some ways, Mae reminded him of Star: a little lost, searching for someone to cling to, yet not without fire and a mind of her own. But unlike Star, Mae had adapted and actually taken the final step to becoming a vampire. Severen had told him that she had been with them for roughly four years, taking her first victim two nights after Homer had bitten her. When she had chosen Caleb however, he had refused to kill, and that was probably the reason why his father had been able to turn him back via a transfusion of healthy human blood. Until he had heard that story, David had believed that the only way to change a half-vampire back was by killing the head of the pack. Now he knew that an alternative existed. That knowledge might come in handy one night.

It was long past midday when David finally closed his eyes and allowed sleep to take him.

As the sun set, he awoke. Mae was still nestled up against him, sleeping soundly. He snagged for his bags which he had placed a little to his right, trying not to wake the girl as he did so. In the morning, he had not payed much attention to the layout of the town, his sole intend on finding a safe place for the daylight hours. In his luggage was a note on which Jerry had drawn a rough sketch of his neighborhood and another of the footprint of his house. David stared at the paper for a moment before he laughed out loud. It seemed that, by sheer accident, they had stumbled right into Jerry's cellar. There must really be lucky star shining down on his quest.

Mae woke from his laughter, and he showed her the drawing, pointing. “That's right where we are, and I didn't even realize as we got here.”

She smiled at him, still a little sleepy. “Swell! We go and explore then?”

Jerry had said that his casket was down in the cellar, but they didn't find anything remotely like a coffin. Since the secret door connecting the basement to the rest of the house had been destroyed by Jerry's enemies, David slung his bags over his shoulder and they ventured out together. He picked the lock of the backdoor, and they got in without a problem – the house had long been abandoned, after all. It seemed that Jerry had spent more than two years in limbo before the others had arrived, and apparently no one had been keen on buying the “murder residence of Rancho Corvalis”.

In the house, they were greeted by a foul smell – not dust and mold, as David would have expected, but rotting meat and … sick dog? The moment he thought it, a huge wolf jumped out of a room and into the corridor, baring its teeth and growling menacingly at them. On second glance, it didn't look so imposing: it was half starved, its rips and pelvic bone protruding, its fur matted and lackluster. Even though it threatened them, it seemed to be afraid itself.

“Edward?” David asked slowly. “Ed? Is that you?”

Jerry had warned him that his youngest sibling might still be around, and that he had the ability to turn into a wolf at will. David had passed this information on to Mae while they had stalked out the cellar, so she wasn't surprised by the encounter either, even if she seemed a tad nervous now. Jerry and Ed's ability to take on the shape of an animal interested David a great deal. Maybe, with Ed's assistance, he could somehow learn it himself and teach his brothers about it.

The wolf appeared confused at being called by its name. It ceased its growling and fixed David with a hungry stare.

“My name's David, and this is Mae,” David tried again. “I come with a message from Jerry. Although his body has been destroyed, he's still out there, and he worries about you. I'm here to do what I can for the both of you.”

The wolf whined. It sounded pitiful.

“Are you hungry?” David asked. He had bought some dog biscuits for this exact scenario, and now he took a packet out of his pocket and ripped the plastic away. He threw one of the goodies to the wolf, and the animal eagerly devoured it.

“Want more?” David cooed. He knelt down, biscuit in hand. “Come here, boy.”

Slowly and warily, the wolf edged closer to him until it could snap the biscuit out of David's fingers, jumping back quickly while already munching on it. The same happened with the third one. The fourth biscuit, it took without retreating, and David was allowed to carefully pet its head while it was chewing on numbers five and six.

David chuckled quietly. There really wasn't much of a difference between a dog, a hound of hell and a vampire in wolf-skin – at least not where chow was concerned.

“Ed,” he tried anew as the wolf stared at him expectantly. “Can you change back? You were not born as a wolf, remember? You were human once, and now you're a vampire. I want to talk to you, and that's difficult when you're not able to answer.”

The wolf sat on its haunches, panting. Suddenly, it seemed to stretch and expand, turning into a grotesque mixture of wolf and man. It looked to be painful, and Ed was whimpering in a distressed way while he did it. Then the wolf was gone completely. In front of them stood a young man, as starved as the wolf had been, his long hair tangled and matted. He was dirty, he stank – and he was stark naked.

Mae made a tiny, embarrassed giggling sound, but then quickly became distraught. “Oh, look at ya!” she cried. “Why, when was the last time you ate something? 'part from the biscuits? You look half dead!”

Ed blinked at her in confusion. David guessed that it had been a long time since he had seen the world through these eyes and not through the ones of the wolf. According to Jerry, he had been slightly off kilter already when he had been turned and hadn't gotten any better as a vampire. Being this young and left without guidance had apparently not done him any favors either. Maybe he was already beyond help, his mind gone completely. If that was the case, David might have to kill him.

Ed made a coughing sound. “Hrch …” He tried again. “I … I don't g-go out m-much.” His voice was raspy from disuse, but his words were intelligible.

'Ah,' David thought, relieved. 'Not a lost case, after all.'

“Why not?” he inquired, keeping his voice calm and reassuring.

Ed shrugged, seeming to shrink into himself a little. “Too d-dangerous,” he was almost whispering now. “Eat m-mainly rats and c-cats … B-Brewster's still living n-next door. He k-killed Jerry. He'd k-kill me too.”

“You sure? About Brewster, I mean?” That was a valuable piece of information.

“Oh yeah.” Ed nodded fervently. “He'd kill me w-without second thought.”

David noticed how Ed's stuttering lessened with each sentence he spoke. But whether or not Charley Brewster would kill this kid if he had the chance to do so was of little concern to him. “No … I mean: He's still living here?” he clarified.

Again, Ed nodded eagerly. “Y-yeah. He and his m-mum. And he's still with Amy. I see them sometimes, through the w-windows …” He trailed off, a fey look on his face.

'Dear me …' David thought. 'He's really been holed up here as a wolf for the last two years, all by himself, munching on rats and stray cats. It'll be a hell of a job to teach and integrate him.'

Well, fuck, whatever … on to the main chapter. “Do you know where Jerry's remains are?” David asked.

Ed stared at him, suddenly distrustful again. “You really a-are a vampire, are you?”

Without a word, David offered him a glimpse of his other face.

Where at least a little shock might have been expected, a satisfied, not altogether sane smile appeared on Ed's face. Nevertheless, the boy asked, pointing at Mae, “And her?”

“She doesn't change like that. She's from a different tribe.”

Ed looked surprised. “There are d-different kinds of vampires?”

David sighed. A hell of a job indeed. “Jerry really didn't have much time to teach you, did he?”

“No,” Ed replied. He cast his gaze down, staring at his dirty toes, wriggling them a little.

David sighed again. He was definitely not looking forward to this. “Well, I guess that'll be my job then, at least for the time being.”

Instantly, Ed's face lit up like a roman candle. “You … you … really?” he asked, his voice squeaky.

David nodded, mentally rolling his eyes at the gruesome prospect. “Really. But now I need to know where you put what's left of Jerry. His body can be restored, but only if we can make use of his ashes.”

Ed grinned at him, all happy with his own ingenuity. “Oh, I put them someplace safe. I destroyed the casket. It was too conspicuous, see? And his ashes … well, follooow meee …” he singsonged.

It turned out that Ed had stashed Jerry's ashes in a wooden box in a crevice behind the stairs. Almost reverently, he pulled it from its hiding place and held it out to David, who took it and chanced a peek at its contents.

Yup. Ashes alright.

“Great,” he stated without much enthusiasm, opening one of the bike bags and putting the box inside. “Looks like we're complete then.” He patted both of the bags. “We can start on our way back this very night.”

Ed's face fell. “You … you're leaving?”

“Yes,” David replied. “As soon as we can. This place is mind-numbing.”

He briefly and longingly thought of Santa Carla and the Boardwalk, the many people, the lights, the music, the ocean … Oh, how he missed all that – and most of all, his brothers.

Ed's eyes had started to look watery. “You … you're going to leave me behind, ain't you?” he whispered, his voice on the verge of breaking.

“No,” David replied courtly. “We won't.” He didn't like emotional displays of that kind. The kid certainly would be a nuisance, but David had given his word to Jerry … “Mae will help you wash and stuff, while I organize transport. I'll be back shortly, and I expect you to be at least halfway clean and completely dressed by then.”

As if realizing for the first time that he was naked, Ed looked down at himself, dumbfounded. David chuckled at his expression, but Mae took the boy by the hand. “C'mon,” she said, her voice soft. “Let's look for clothes first …”

Satisfied that Ed would be cared for and Mae would be too preoccupied to make a run for it, David left the house to search the streets of Rancho Corvalis for a suitable vehicle. He found a nice sidecar attached to a Harley in a backyard, and made short work of unfastening and removing it. It was weighing less than half of his bike, so it was no problem for him to lift it up into the air to take it with him. He had never particularly liked Harley drivers anyway.

Back at Jerry's, he first fixed his new sidecar to the Triumph. Then he went over to the house next door to catch a glimpse of that Charley guy and his girl.

As it turned out, they were snogging on Charley's bed, the TV blaring in the background. The room was decorated with horror memorabilia, and the show playing was Peter Vincent's Fright Night. David only recognized it because Jerry had given him a detailed description. Anyhow, not much seemed to have changed in the life of Charley Brewster. He appeared to be a total teenage cliché, interested in girls, movies, and maybe even school. If David would have to watch him for an extended amount of time, he would likely die from boredom. Fortunately, it was entirely up to him how much time he spend with observing Jerry's enemies. So he jumped down from the windowsill on which he had been sitting and returned to the other house.

Inside, he was received by a newly cleaned and dressed Ed and a very smug-looking Mae. She had managed to partly disentangle the boy's hair, which was now reaching down over his shoulders in wet strands. He was dressed in what must once have been Jerry's clothes: black jeans that had been cut at the seams to fit them to his shorter stature, and a cream-colored button down shirt. He wore no shoes though.

“My paws hurt in shoes,” Ed shrugged as he noticed David's frown. Then something seemed to dawn upon him. “Do I … do I have to go out?” he breathed, horrified.

'Satan's balls …' David thought, already bugged out. How was he going to survive this? They would be on the road together for at least four nights, not to mention hunting and sleeping arrangements – and everything that would come after their trip.

In the end, Ed took off his clothes again and changed back into animal form, for he felt much safer that way. As a wolf, he jumped into the sidecar and made himself comfortable, turning around several times. Mae bent over him as soon as he had settled, making cooing noises and patting his head, laughing as he licked her hand.

David sent an exasperated glance heavenwards. These were going to be fun times for sure … He strapped the luggage back on, which currently contained four vampires in tote bags and one in a wooden box, apart from a dust-pan, a hand-brush and a vast assortment of dog biscuits.

Oh, how he longed for Santa Carla and his brothers!

Chapter Text

Before they left Rancho Corvalis, David felt the need to do one last thing.

“Wait for me here,” he commanded his wards who where already beside the bike, or, in Ed's case, snuggled safely into the side-car. “I'll be back in a minute.”

Then he flew up to Charley Brewster's window and banged on the glass. His greeting was answered with terrified shrieks.

“Brewster!” David bellowed, his orange eyes glowing like the pits of hell, his sharp teeth glinting in the blue light of the TV. “I got a message for you. Ed says hi, and you're not cool anymore.”

Charley, lying half-naked on his bed with Amy, stared at him through the window, open-mouthed, pressing his bare-bosomed girlfriend tightly against him.

“Jerry says hi also, and it isn't over yet. You're running out of time, boy! – Oh, and Amy … Jerry sends his love. He'll see you soon. Have a nice night.”

With that, David let himself drop down, roaring with deliberately diabolical laughter, and flew back over to the others. Even as a wolf, the awe on Ed's face was unmistakable.

xXxXx

David had thought that it would be bad to travel the States with a chick and a wolf in a sidecar. He soon found out that he had been wrong.

It was worse – far worse than anything he could ever have imagined. Ed was constantly whining if David stopped or accelerated, barking at oncoming traffic, and once even puked in the sidecar because David was going faster than Ed's stomach could follow. It went without saying that David made him turn into human, or rather vampire form and clean up at the next opportunity.

Both Mae and Ed were so young that they needed to kill every other night. Frankly, David didn't know how Ed had survived for so long on animals. Maybe it had helped that he had stayed a wolf during that time. The rules might be different if you moved around in the body of an animal yourself.

David, being as old as he was – eighty years as a vampire – could go for a fortnight without killing, as could his brothers. Max with his five centuries had gone without feeding for over six months more than once.

But Mae and Ed were only four and two years old, respectively. If they were forced to do so, they might go without blood for four or five nights in a row, but it would drive them mental and weaken them dangerously. Ed might hold out even longer if he stayed a wolf, but David wanted him to try and keep his humanoid form for as often and as long as possible. So David planned on both of them eating someone every other night.

For Mae, that was fine. She was already an apt killer, roping her victims in with a smile and some gently teasing words, and then striking quickly and unexpectedly. Whoever had taught her had done so well.

Ed, on the other hand … The wolf was a good hunter of small critters, but only over short distances. His tactics reminded David more of a feline than a canine, probably because Ed had been restricted to Jerry's house, laying in wait for careless cats, rats and cockroaches.

After quite a bit of prompting, the boy admitted that he had only offed one single human in the two years of his vampire existence, and that it had still been under Jerry's guidance.

Since Ed was badly malnourished, David wanted him to make a kill the very first night they were on their journey together. On a lonely strip of road, he stopped his Triumph and bade Mae to hop off to try and halt an oncoming car while he busied himself with the bike, feigning a breakdown. Ed the wolf watched them from out of the sidecar, his tongue lolling.

Two cars and one truck passed them by till they got lucky. The second trucker took pity on them – or an interest in Mae – and hit the brakes. The man who got out of the vehicle was in his late forties or early fifties, with shoulder-length graying hair and a long, well-kept beard. His brown eyes were sparkling with humor.

“Hey there, kids! Need some help?” he asked, his gazed fixed on Mae as he spoke, only shortly flickering over to David.

“Yeah,” she said, smiling. “Thanks for offerin'.”

She beckoned him, and the trucker followed her over to David and the bike. The man raised his eyebrows at the sight of Ed the wolf. “Mighty big dog you got there. But he ain't well fed …”

David got up from where he had knelt next to the motor and moved around the Triumph. “No, he ain't,” he confirmed, stretching out his hand as if for shaking. The trucker took it, and in one quick move, David had him pinned, the man's back to his chest. The guy was no lightweight and tried valiantly to put up a fight, but he could hardly breathe in David's crushing embrace.

“Ed,” David ordered, “turn and eat.”

He heard the man gasp in shock as Ed changed from wolf to boy and advanced on them.

“I … I don't really know …” Ed stuttered, not very eager. “I mean, how to …”

“You just need to choose a vein and bite down. I'll hold him still.”

The guy grunted, apparently very unhappy with David's plan.

“Hurry up, Ed. It's not nice to keep them waiting.”

David was only half joking. If it wasn't personal enemies, he and his brothers were usually quick with their kills – or they did it while the humans were too high on booze, drugs or sex to really comprehend what was happening to them.

To speed things along, David cut the man's neck with a claw. The response this provoked in Ed was rather unexpected. Until then, David had never seen the boy's vampire face. He had seen Jerry's, but, as he had been assured by Max, not at its ugliest. The way Ed looked was … grotesque. Repulsive. David was rather thankful now that he had been sired by Vlad, not Jerry. At least Vlad had given him and his brothers some sexy vampire faces.

Ed was very close now. “I'm sorta sorry, you know,” he told his victim, his voice distorted due to his rather ugly teeth. “But since you noticed I'm a bit scrawny, I guess you won't mind help me gain a little weight.” He cackled shrilly. It sounded as if he bordered on the edge of insanity.

David gripped the trucker even harder, and Ed buried his teeth in the guy's neck, tearing out a huge chunk of meat and gulping the resulting flow of blood down greedily. Behind him, Mae was fidgeting, clearly hungry herself. In David's iron hold, the trucker sobbed, cursed and pleaded, growing weaker with every heartbeat pumping out his blood. When he was almost unconscious, David pushed Ed away and motioned Mae over. She gathered the man from out of David's arms and laid him down in the grass beside the road. Then she attached her lips to his neck, touching his shoulder consolingly while she fed.

When the guy was dead, David carried him over to his vehicle and placed him in the driver's cab. He shooed Ed back into the sidecar and revved the engine before he allowed Mae to set the truck on fire. That being done, she quickly jumped on, and he took off fast. Seconds later, the truck exploded behind them in a huge ball of fire.

xXxXx

When they were near Lawton, Oklahoma, David wanted to take a little detour to give Caleb and his father a greeting similar to the one Charley had received. But Mae wouldn't let him, first arguing, then pleading with him, almost in tears. In the end, David succumbed. As she thought he didn't look, he noticed a rather smug expression on her face.

xXxXx

Sleeping arrangements were problematic, to say the least. David was okay with Mae cuddling up to him. Since it was natural for vampires of the same family or pack to search physical contact while they were at their most vulnerable, and since they were supposedly a pack now with David as its leader, he didn't push Ed away either. If only he would have managed to stay in humanoid form! Ed went to bed as a boy and turned into a wolf as soon as he was fast asleep. It seemed as if it cost him a conscious effort to stay on two legs, and when he let go and succumbed to sleep, he automatically reversed into animal form. David hated to bolt awake because a rather big wolf had coiled up on his body and tickled him somewhere inconvenient with its fluffy tail.

Then there was the incident where Ed the wolf somehow managed to get his leg into a snap trap as they diverged from the road once again to hide yet another bloodless corpse in the woods. The metal cut him through to the bone, and he howled as if he had been staked. Mae pulled the trap open and freed him, but he would not calm down, trying to snap at his wounded leg, yelping and whimpering like nuts. Eventually, David just lifted him up and crushed him to his chest to force him to calm down, and was subsequently rewarded by being bitten.

“Ow!” he yelled, almost letting go of the struggling wolf. “Screw you, Ed!” He half felt like throwing the annoying creature to the ground and kicking the lights out of him, but instead of it, he just strengthened his grip on Ed. “Damn, will you cut it?! You're a vampire. You'll be healed in half an hour, dingbat!”

At this most unsuspected and exciting news, Ed started to lick David's face frantically.

“Yuck!” Disgusted, he all but threw the wolf into Mae's arms, wiping his mouth with his sleeve. “You take him! I've had enough.”

Even though she seemed still to be a little worried about Ed's injury, the girl couldn't help but giggle as she received the now considerably happier package of wolf and pressed him against her bosom firmly. “It'll be alright, Eddie,” she cooed. “I'll take care of ya.”

“I bet you will,” David grumbled.

xXxXx

At long last, after four nerve-wrecking nights, they finally reached Santa Carla. David was overjoyed to be back in his town. While Mae admired the cliffs, the beach and the ocean, Ed yelped excitedly at the faraway lights and sounds of the Boardwalk.

David had hidden his bike at the usual spot on the Bluff. They were descending the steps down to the cave now, Ed hopping merrily along on four paws.

“Turn back, Ed,” David admonished. “Or there may be trouble with Thorn.”

Mae looked at him questioningly. “Thorn? Who's” –

At that very moment, something white and fluffy threw itself at David with lightening speed, almost causing him to topple over.

“Ow! Thorn! What the hell – uh …” The rest of David's words was suffocated by a huge, smelly tongue on his face.

'I don't believe it!' he thought, both dumbfounded and disgusted. 'When did he turn like this?! Fuck, he's almost like Ed!'

“Oh, cute!” Ed squealed. Apparently, he had done as David had ordered and changed back into something on two legs.

Mae tittered as Thorn sniffed her up and down. Satisfied, the hound turned towards Ed. He took a little longer with him, maybe confused by the mixture of vampire and animal scent.

“It's fine, Thorn,” David told him. “They're both pack.”

At this, the hound whined excitedly and bounced down the steps, leading the way to the cave.

“Why the hell are you so fussy?” David grumbled. “I never got the impression you were particularly fond of me …”

As soon as they entered the cave, he got the answer to his question. In addition to Thorn, there was something else moving around, crawling on all fours into their general direction, apparently navigating by scent and hearing only.

“Marko!”

David rushed forward. His brother didn't look too well. At his shout, Marko lifted his head, and David saw that his eyes were completely white. His face was emaciated, as if he hadn't fed in months.

Hurriedly, David knelt down beside Marko and cut the vein on his own neck open. “For you, brother.”

Marko didn't need further prompting. While he drank hungrily, David cradled him in his arms, holding him tight. Something was pricking in his eyes. David wiped at them. His hand came away wet. He stared at the clear moisture on his fingertips. For a moment, he closed his eyes. Then he kissed the top of Marko's head, his soft, honey-colored curls. He had no words for his joy.

When Marko had drunk his fill, he drew back and looked up at David. His irises were green again, his eyes seeing. “So …” he started, a slow smile spreading on his face. “Won't you introduce me to the others? Especially to the pretty lady?” He winked.

David couldn't help it, he had to kiss him again – but this time, squarely on the mouth. Marko's lips quivered against his as Marko tittered, but then his brother kissed him back.

“Ooohooo! Sexy, boys!” Ed yelled and applauded, and David could practically hear the tenderness in Mae's little laugh.

Maybe they would make for a good family, after all.

Chapter Text

In limbo, the vampires followed their now everyday routine. Jesse, Diamondback and Homer were playing cards. Severen and Paul were horsing around, with Dwayne watching them, an amused smile on his face. Max and Jerry were deeply immersed into a philosophic conversation on life and death.

If, out of the bunch of vampires present, Jesse would have had to choose new members for his family, it would have been Paul – and Marko, if he would still have been among them. At least those two knew what the word fun meant. As for the others, Dwayne was okay, if a bit taciturn, and David had been quite the show while he lasted in this here place.

Yep, Max's boys were alright. Paul in particular got on smoothly with Severen – which meant that they scuffled a lot and had a blast while doing so. Marko had often been involved as well. Dwayne seemed to hold back – maybe because he thought he had to look after his brothers in David's stead now.

It was obvious that these boys were ruled by David, not Max. Max rebutted them from time to time, or held boring sermons, but these boys lived for David, not him.

To Jesse, Max was just an interfering old busybody. Sure, he was ancient, but Jesse still knew a lot more about this land than Max. He had been born in Missouri in 1819, and he had been turned in 1863, since then roaming the States forever. Max, on the other hand, had only come here in 1906.

Jerry was little better than Max. Worse, if possible, for he displayed his arrogance and assumed superiority openly, while Max always tried to cover it up with politeness. Now that Jesse actually thought about it, that didn't make Max better than Jerry – it made him worse, because it made him a disgusting lying so-and-so on top of everything else.

Ah, screw them both. Jesse just couldn't decide who of them was bugging him more.

They both envied Jesse and his family for their freedom, for how they lived true to their nature – that much was clear.

Max had been stationary for a long time, and that meant hiding and conforming. Jerry was, one might say, temporarily stationary since he had come to the country in 1920, switching residence every year. They both dedicated a lot of their time and energy to blending in with humans. They had to chose their victims carefully and restrict their feeding. Jesse would never dream of doing so, much less of forcing such a humdrum lifestyle on his family.

While Jerry lived mainly on prostitutes and other beautiful if tainted women, David and his boys fed off the riffraff of the streets. Max, being as old as he was, could go without killing for months if he wanted to. To avoid suspicion, he usually did. To Jesse, that was as good as castrating oneself.

While staying at this weird place together, Max and Jerry had apparently become very fond of each other – much like Paul and Severen, who had become as brothers, if not more. One could never be sure with Severen.

Jesse was torn out of his contemplation by Dwayne. The young vampire came up to them and stood opposite Jesse, watching their game of poker for a while, which had continued all through Jesse's musings. He didn't need much of his attention on the cards to win. Dwayne stayed silent while he observed them. Unlike Severen or Homer, he never deliberately disturbed anyone, waiting patiently until his presence couldn't be ignored anymore and someone asked him to speak up.

After two more rounds, Jesse prompted, “Something the matter?”

Dwayne nodded solemnly. “I told Max and Jerry already, so you should know as well. I'm gonna leave soon – I've been tired a lot lately.”

Jesse supposed this was good news for Dwayne, but for him, it meant that a livable person left and the percentage of numskulls rose. He jerked his head in Paul's direction. “He gonna cope?”

“I hope so,” Dwayne replied. “Either way, there's no choice. His body must be off far worse than mine. None of us saw what was left of him, but it can't have been much … He'll likely still take a fair time to heal.”

“Right then,” Jesse said, putting his cards down and extending his hand. “Farewell, Dwayne. I'll tell Severen to be sweet to yer brother.”

Dwayne shook hands with him. “I'll tell him myself. And whoop his ass if he ain't.”

Jesse refrained from telling him that Severen would probably enjoy a good whacking.

Homer grinned. “Shake on that.” He spit in his hand before he offered it to Dwayne. Always had to make a show of himself, the little nagger. Dwayne rolled his eyes, but took Homer's hand nevertheless – above such childish play, as it seemed.

Diamondback rose and gave Dwayne a warm hug. “Take care, boy.”

“I will.”

Dwayne went over to Paul and Severen, who were once again wrestling on the ground – their favorite pastime, as it seemed. Both were growling and laughing, and Paul wore his vampire face as he playfully clawed at Severen. They reminded Dwayne of two rather large, rather deadly kittens.

“Yo, Severen,” he stated, nudging him lightly in the ribs with his boot to get his attention. “I guess I'm leaving. Screw with Paul, and I don't wanna be you.”

Severen chuckled at his threat, but Paul seemed a little miffed. He looked up at Dwayne with huge eyes, feigning innocence. “Aw … But what if I want him to screw me?”

Dwayne cuffed him playfully on the shoulder. “Your choice, bro. But don't come to me complaining afterwards if you miss certain body-parts because he bit them off …”

Paul snickered. “I won't. And I think he won't – bite something off, that is.”

Severen just smirked at him. If he was Paul, Dwayne wouldn't be so sure about the integrity of his body.

All at once, Paul became serious. He looked Dwayne in the eyes. “I'm gonna miss you here …”

He did have to make this even harder, didn't he?

Dwayne stretched out his hand and pulled him up from the ground. They embraced for a long time. “Me too. Miss you, I mean. Don't take too long.”

“Not up to me, is it?” Paul laughed, not very happy. “But I'll do my best.”

They let go of each other, and without further ado, Dwayne lay down on the ground and closed his eyes. The last things he heard as he drifted over to sleep were the booming laughter of Jesse, who had apparently won the poker game, and the pissed off, whiny complaints of Homer.

xXxXx

In Santa Carla, the vampires were all down on a small strip of beach close to the cave. The sun had just set, and there were still hues of orange and pink painting the sky and reflecting upon the water.

Thorn and Ed were frolicking around in the shallow ripples of incoming waves. Ed was in wolf form, and Mae was dancing around between him and Thorn, laughing joyously, throwing sticks and playing tug-o-war with a piece of rope she had found among the flotsam.

David, Marko and Dwayne were walking close to each other. Dwayne had arrived a week ago, three months after Marko, and he was still somewhat fragile. Even though he hated to admit it, abrupt movements hurt him a great deal, and he was far from his usual agility and swiftness. They didn't know how long it would take for all of the ruptures and fractures in his body to heal. For the time being, he fed every night to speed the process along.

After they had strolled for a while in silence, watching Mae and the two canines fool about, Dwayne finally spoke up. “She makes for a good sister,” he said. “Far better than Star.”

Marko nodded his affirmation. “She's cool. Not a wuss.”

David smirked. “Yeah, she's cool.” He sent an approving glance in Mae's direction. “And what do you think 'bout the other addition to our family?” He chuckled, jerking his head in Ed's direction.

Marko laughed. “Well, as long as he's a wolf …”

“He's a far better wolf than a vampire,” David confirmed, snickering. “At least he gets on well with Thorn.”

“Thorn seems to enjoy having a buddy to play with,” Dwayne said.

“He does.”

They continued their walk. The waves were licking up the beach, whispering and hissing as they kissed the sand, and the last straps of colors from the sunset were quickly devoured by darkness.

Over the past few weeks, David had found his urge for revenge somewhat waning. He already had two of his brothers back, after all, and Paul's body looked as if it would be ready to house him again in a few months. There was a new sister, and there was Ed … who currently was more of a pet than a brother to them. David didn't long for Star, and he thought that it would only be prudent to let Laddie grow a little before they took him back. Against Lucy and her father, he and his brothers held no grudge. Sam was half forgiven, even by Dwayne, for he had only tried to protect his family against what he believed to be a deadly threat, and they all could relate to that. As for Michael … David still desired him, but he could wait a little longer. Even the Frogs were not that important to him anymore. He still planned on killing them, but they would stall with it until Paul was back, for he had the most reason to hate them.

Once or twice, David had even entertained the weird thought that they could maybe make some sort of truce with the mortals who had become so intermingled with their lives – reveal that they were back, but leave those particular humans at peace. Maybe Michael would be more willing to succumb to David's advances if they allowed him and his family to stay mortal. Star and Mae were a little alike, maybe they could become friends. Laddie could visit, and Lucy –

“So …” Marko's voice ripped David out of his musings. “What about the others? When are you planning to start with their healing, David?”

David stopped in his tracks. His gaze wandered out over the ocean and lingered on the darkening horizon. “Well … I'm not sure. We still have to get Paul back, and with Dwayne, Mae and Ed needing to feed this often … It'd be unwise to add any more strain to the human population at the moment, don't you think?”

Dwayne looked at him quizzically. “So you're not planning on helping them get back any time soon?”

David shrugged. “I got my own family to think 'bout. With Paul, we'll be six. We'll take a high toll on the mortal population as it is. If we had to slaughter even more to drown the ashes of six vampires in blood every night … I don't think it'd go unnoticed. We'd have the FBI all over the place in no time.”

“What 'bout Max?” Dwayne inquired. “He'll be pissed to high hell if he ever finds out that you stalled on purpose …”

David raised his brows. “How should he ever find out? We won't tell him, will we?”

They all snickered, thrilled with their little conspiracy.

They continued their evening stroll in silence once more. David was watching Marko, who fumbled with the patches on his jacket, lost in thoughts. “I miss Severen,” Marko suddenly stated. “He's … something else.”

David and Dwayne exchanged a glance.

“Well, maybe …” David mused. “When Paul is completely healed, and we go back to our usual hunting patterns … Maybe we could nurse one at a time.”

“It would take years that way to get them all back,” Dwayne observed. “Decades, likely.”

David smirked. “We're not pressed for time, are we, Boys?”

They all laughed.

Marko bent down and picked up a piece of driftwood to throw it for one of the four-legged creatures. David laid a hand on Dwayne's back, and they all went to join Mae, Ed and Thorn at the shoreline, where land and water met under a sky full of stars and promises.

xXxXx

The end … for now. ;-)

xXxXx