The Rumanceks where driving home in the rain from the lawyer, everything had gone to shit. Peter was hitting the inside of the car in anger.
"I don't have $20,000." he took a frustrated shaking breath "I don't have $20. I don't have shit!" Peter was lost, he didn't know what to do.
"Well…" Destiny wanting to help her dear cousin drew out what he wanted to say. "I got about $500 dollars stashed and bunch of junk jewelry we can sell on eBay" She said tried to be optimistic.
"So basically, we're fucked" it wasn't a question as much as a pessimistic statement.
"Basically" Destiny agreed.
They drove for a while in silence before she said what her first thought was.
"It's not like you don't have friends in Hemlock Grove." Peters facial expiation changed immediately. Peter felt like he wanted to throw up. Friends? He and Roman have been many things, but the word 'friend' does not really apply. Allies? Sure. Fixations? Absolutely.
Really, Destiny should know better. She knows what lies beyond the curtain of Romans normalcy. What dangers exist in the world of the supernatural.
Roman Godfrey is one of those things, not bound to go bump in the night. He could go in bright daylight and be a monster and nobody would noticed. Sure, so is Peter, but Peter knows what he is. He know his and the worlds limits for what he can do in bright daylight. He's worked his whole life to control the change and his wolf. But Roman was always a livewire, all passion or pain. Unaware of what and who he is, and made him unpredictable.
"No." he said as he had turned to look Destiny deep in the eyes to get his point across.
"Maybe this is an opportunity to mend fences" she said it was they drove past the town line, back to what he had so desperately tried to forget. The people he left behind him was still there, even if they were in the ground they still haunted him.
"Peter?" Destiny said "Peter?" she said again, really trying to get his attention.
"What? What?" he asked like waking up form a dream.
"We are gonna figure this out. Lynda is gonna be fine." Peter knew his mother was tough and could handle a lot, but he knew Destiny was wrong, he knew it in his balls. That was why he knew what he need to do and he needed money fast. He needed Roman. That was why he the next day found himself out of the new house of the Godfrey heir. Checking and checking again to be sure that address was the right one. Peter felt out of plaice ringing the door on the modernistic house.
Peter was mentally preparing himself for the meeting, he felt like a coward for not coming back sooner or ever saying goodbye. Standing there, everything went through his mind, he decided to nock to get it over with, because the waiting was killing him.
As he nocked the door buzzed open for him. He opened the door and carefully walked in. Nobody was in sighed, so he looked around to see if he could find the person he was looking for. It was first when his eyes had swiped the first floor they follow the stairs op to the next floor. That was where he found him standing at the top of the stairs. Roman was standing in shadows. This was not the same Roman Godfrey who he skipped classes and smoked joints behind the school with. This wasn't the same Roman Godfrey who he felt comfortable watching him shift. Who he trusted his life with. No this was a creature who know what it is. Roman stands there like an emperor, all power and command. He knows he is a predator he is just like, Peter knew he to be. He knows what he can do. How the world could bow to him. All put together and confident with his hand in his pockets as waiting on Peters arrival.
Every cell in Peter's body screams danger, and the wolf is clawing in his stomach to leave, to run. To leap and hide from the monster before him.
"Nice digs." Peter didn't know whatever else to say. And when Roman just stood there glaring at him. Literally looking down at him and silently judging him. So Peter did what he was best to he didn't followed his instincts.
"Look, I know things were bad when I split-"
"Fuck you" Roman's words are like a knife, sharp and frigid. They are like death.
"Just hear me out."
"Not interested." He cut Peter out.
"Please"
"We're done." Peter feels like his blood has become ice to match the tone of the room. He can imagine Roman using that same tone of voice while slitting his throat. The coldness, the power, the control—it reminds Peter of Olivia.
"Lynda is in jail. I need your help." A silent 'please' hangs in the air. Peter wonders if Roman can smell his desperation. He waked forward; he felt like he was begging on his knees with Roman on the stairs above him. Peter finds himself tearing up, his whole body a tension of panic. He steps forward again, trying to appeal to the humanity that he remembers in Roman. There had always been that sweet side to the boy who didn't know he was Upir. A side that smiled and smirked and laughed. Warmth.
"No" The bitterness and satisfaction shined out of Romans hard eyes. Peter was ready to beg if that what he needed to do to save if mom.
"Fuck. Be mad at me. But this is Lynda we're talking about."
"Sounds like she fucked up. Not my problem."
"She was always good to you. She's not gonna make it in there."
"What do you want me to do about it?" He sneered with an amused gleam in his eye.
"I need money…" It pained Peter to ask this of Roman "… to hire a lawyer." Peter's practically sobs. He lowers his head, almost a bow. A surrender, a sign of submission.
"So you came here to beg?" Roman scoffed in an empty laugh.
"Can you please lone me $20,000? I'll pay you back."
"I always like your mother." Roman acutely smiled even if his eyes was still hard and taunting. "She baked cookies. My mother never baked cookies." And then the hard façade was back again.
"I can shoot you the dough, but I'm not gonna do that, I'm not gonna give you shit."
"Maybe you forgot I saved your life?" Peter grasped after straws
"Shelly saved yours. She died alone" Roman stated to descending down the stairs "And when Letha died, and I needed you, you tucked your dick between your legs and ran away like the little fucking bitch you are." It was hard to hear the truth it hurt. But Roman was right, Peter had acted like scared dog. Running away.
Standing face to face, both with shining eyes and Peter with a tremble lip, holding back the sobs.
"Please Roman, I will do anything." He said as he let the tear fall down his cheek.
Roman was thinking, he knew his hunger had become way worse, he needed more blood that he could buy form the old man. And standing thing close to Peter he could basically taste his skin. Feel the vibration in the air of his beating heart. If Peter where to take advantage of him he could do the same to him. they were standing nose to nose close enough to kiss if that was Roman wanted from him, but it wasn't. Roman wanted more. His voice was dead as he spoke.
"Take you shirt of."
"Roman, please?!"
"I said take your shirt of." Peter gave him an enquiring look, but said nothing. He just unbuttoned his shirt and let glide down his shoulders. Catching it with one hand for a second before letting it drop to the wooden floor. Roman could see the unwillingness in Peters eyes and told himself he didn't care even if he did.
"I want something in return." Roman said as he laid a hand on Peter chin so his fingers clawed around his neck.
"What?" Peter barely spook, it was more of a whisper.
"You," he said in the same hushed tome as the werewolf before him. Roman could see it in his eyes, the confusion and hesitations. However, Roman didn't wait on Peter to finish trying to understand. Roman just struck like the snake he is. The blood wasn't sweet like some of the girl he had nibbled at, neither was he sour like the old man's blood he was buying. It was spicy and rich on flavor. He tasted like wild game. Moreover, the taste wasn't the most satisfying about the whole ordeal. Peter made a shrieking sound as he bit into him. The reaction he made by trying to step back, struggling really, until he actually managed to push the Upir away. It felt like an eternity to Roman, but in real live time, it was just a few moments.
As Roman drew back, he tried the spilled blood away from his check and lips with the back of his hand. He stepped back and turned his back to Peter.
"Go pack your things, from now on you live here."
"Roman! What The Fuck!?" Peter wasn't hurt or begging any more, he was pissed standing with a hand and the healing, jest still bleeding wound in his neck.
"You did say anything, Peter." He turned around and looked Peter directly in his eyes. As if daring him not to take the deal. Daring him to be to proud to sell himself for his mother's freedom. It was first when the flame in Peter eyes died out to something smoldering before Roman spoke again.
"I will get your mother out of jail, legally or bribed out. But the moment you leave Hemlock Grove without my peasants I will personally track her down and end her were slowly. Do you understand?"
"Yes"
"Good, then I will get my lawyer to get her out."
"Tha-"
"Now get the fuck out."
"You said"
"Get the fuck out of my house!" and Peter did, drying the fallen tears as he ran to the car. Driving to the diner where Destiny works to tell her.
"Hey you" she said greeting him as he came to it at the counter. By the look on Peter face, she assumed it didn't go well.
"Well, it was worth a try." She tried to keep the optimism. Then she looked at him and saw the red spot on his white shirt.
"That's just it, he's a fucking prick."
"What did he do to you?" she asked with concern, because she knew Roman had a sadistic streak.
"He'd get Lynda out but only if agree to pay him back in blood." First Destiny looked confused until she registered what he meant.
"NO!" She exclaimed "absolutely not! He is an upir, the gods now that he will do to you. Tell me you said no?!"
"No I didn't. It's the only way I can think of. You have to at least think about it."
"Okay" she wiped the counter ones more before she tried to lighten the mood by changing the subject.
"Are you hungry?"
"Starving." He said and dung into to the plate she sat down before him minutes later.
note:
I'm not sure I wanna go all in on this one, because it was just something I had stuck in my head and I had to put words to it, to leave me alone.
I properly gonna make more chapters with time…. Properly….