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Sunlight.
It was sunlight to wake Kate Fuller up. Not that it was exactly something new for her…what was new, was that it wasn't her bed she was waking into.
She opened her eyes, and tilted her head up from the pillow; she looked around, knitting her brow for a second.
Where the hell was she?
It took her a moment, before the previous night's events came to her, and when it happened, she couldn't help gasping.
Seth.
Seth Gecko had appeared out of nowhere the previous night and he had saved her life, distracting the vampire that was about to feed on her. Out of instinct her hand went up to her neck, and although she rationally knew she hadn't been bitten, she couldn't help sighing in relief.
She had fainted. She had dropped like a sack of potato.
Kate Fuller had never fainted. Ever.
She hadn't fainted when her mother had died; she hadn't fainted when Seth and Ritchie had aimed their guns at her, and although being scared out of her mind, she hadn't fainted when her life had been fucked up that night at the Titty Twister.
She had been alone for the last six years of her life, she had fought, and she had never fainted. Zoning out to go catching butterflies in her mind, yes. Fainting? Nope…no way. Not her. Never.
Until the previous night.
What the fuck had gotten into her, the previous night? She thought she had stopped being the damsel in distress six years before…instead she had fucking fainted!
She shook her head. It didn't matter, it had happened, and she had learnt long ago not to cry over spilled milk.
She tilted her head down, noticing she was still dressed, the only things missing were her weapons, her coat and boots, which she spotted right away on a chair next to the bed.
Not that she was surprised. Seth Gecko was a killer, a bastard, but in a way…he was a gentleman.
Even when things had gone to hell, that fateful night, she had felt safe with him.
The shadow of smile formed on her lips as she got up from her bed, and she couldn't help blinking in surprise when she realized two things: she had slept, all night long, without nightmares. And she was hungry!
Kate was really hungry…for the first time in a very long time. For the past six years, part of the discipline she had imposed on herself, had been about food. She had to be strong; she couldn't afford the luxury to skip meals, not if she wanted to be efficient. The fact that food turned her stomach, that she didn't even feel its taste, was just a minor detail for her.
She put on her shoes, while she still smiled. It was strange to smile, after all that time. It was strange to feel her lips stretching…in a smile and not, as she had gotten used to, in grimaces of pain after her training or patrols.
She stood still for a few seconds, while she tried to decide whether to take her gun or not. Eventually she decided to take it. That gun had been her best friend for the past six years; the only object that had real value to her, more than once it had saved her life.
And besides, it had been Seth's.
She got out from the little bedroom, only to stop in her tracks, when she saw Seth: he was sleeping on a couch, his feet on a chair, his head tilted down.
Now that she could see him more clearly, she noticed how pale he looked. It was almost as if he hadn't been spending a lot of time under the sun. Kate had noticed the two guns, the special belt with a few stakes in it; she had seen a cross, as well. It was half hidden under his black coat. Was it possible…. that he too hunted vampires?
She took another step into the room, and started when Seth leapt on his feet, producing from seemingly nowhere a small gun and aiming it at her.
"Fuck, Kate, I was about to shoot you!" He said.
Kate arched an eyebrow. "And good morning to you too, Seth" She said.
Seth blinked once twice, before he put the gun away.
Kate took another step, getting close to him. She had dreamed that moment for six years, despite herself. She had hoped for six years to see him again…and now that she was in the same room with him, she couldn't say a word.
She wanted to hit him, for leaving her alone, after fucking up her life.
She wanted to throw herself into his arms and kiss him, until she was breathless. Until they both were.
She wanted to thank him for saving her life, the night before.
But her voice refused to cooperate. She couldn't say a word.
Her body refused to move. She stood still, looking at him.
She cleared her throat, and still couldn't talk, the words just wouldn't come out.
It was Seth who talked, he did it, as he went to the kitchenette and asked, "Slept well?"
Kate lightly nodded, shaking herself out of her momentary numbness. "I did…." She said. She stifled her hands in her jeans' pockets while she added, "Thank you…for yesterday…you know, for…"
Seth arched his brows, saying, "I was in the neighborhood…"
"Isn't Canada a bit far from El Rey?" She asked.
Seth shrugged his shoulders, as he took a pack of chocolate covered snacks from a cupboard and opened it and threw a couple of them at her. She smiled when she noticed the light smile on Seth's lips when he saw how effortlessly she had grabbed the snacks.
"El Rey wasn't that great…" He said after a second, and there wasn't trace of smile on his face or in his eyes while he said those words. He took a couple of snacks as well and came back to the small living room.
Kate slowly chewed on the first of her snacks, savoring its sweet taste, after a second she murmured: "It looked like it was the most important thing in the world for you"
Seth's eyes became darker for a second, he discarded his snack, throwing it on a table and said, "Life is fucking strange, you know?"
Kate toyed with the snack's wrapper while she said, "Tell me about it…"
Silence. Again. Kate didn't know whether to shoot the man between his eyes or close the distance between them and kiss him senseless.
There had been men for the past six years. There had been men she had fucked on the backseats of cars, pickups or in motel rooms' beds. There had been quick fucks, with faceless men. She had just known their bodies, for a few hours, without strings, without being attached to anyone.
There had been quick fucks that in her mind hadn't been very different from her sessions of training. She had needed them to keep dreams and nightmares away, to spend the hours that separated her from the night and the hunt. Had she wanted those men? She wasn't sure about that.
Did she want Seth?
Yes. She did…she wanted him…but she couldn't afford that luxury, so she put those thoughts aside, especially when Seth casually said, "So…you're a vampire killer?"
Kate shrugged her shoulders. "Yep…" she just said.
She sat on the couch and was surprised when Seth took some steps and sat next to her while he asked, "Why?"
"Why not?" She asked in return.
Seth looked at her as if she had grown a second head…or a third eye right in the middle of her brow.
"Because…" He started, but didn't continue, he tilted his hands up and shook his head.
"It wasn't what I wanted…" She started, but stopped in mid sentence. How could she explain that to him? Maybe he had thought that she had gone home, that she had come back to the States, finished school…and she had thought about it as well, for a few hours, until dusk came. Things changed, though, when she found herself fighting against other vampires, royally pissed off at her for what had happened the night before.
Somehow they had known she had been involved in what had happened…and had wanted to make her pay.
She didn't remember what had exactly happened that night. It was still a blur to her. She just knew that after that night, fighting vampires had been the only thing that made sense to her, the only thing she was really good at. The only thing she wanted to do.
"What about you?" She asked, instead.
Seth blinked and asked, "What about me?"
"Do you always go around carrying stakes and a cross, or you just happen to have them handy?"
Seth tilted his head on a side, she saw him tightening his jaw before saying in a low voice, "I hate those mother fuckers…"
Seth had uttered those words matter-of-factly, as if they explained everything.
And incredibly enough they did. It took her just a look, to grasp details that she had missed, details of Seth's face, on which there were lines damn similar to hers. They were lines caused by too many patrols, too many nightmares, and too much fear.
"I've been in El Rey for a few months…once the local vampires were toast, I managed to leave town…and started looking for them elsewhere…"
Kate nodded at the man's words. She recalled the way Seth had fought that night, how he had refused to give up, until the very end. She recalled the way she had hung onto him for dear life, while they were surrounded by vampires.
He had left her, driving away on a red car, only to keep doing what he had started that night…just like she had done.
Yep she thought life is fucking strange
"That's why you're here in Canada?" She asked.
"I heard about a very big colony," He explained.
Kate smiled, for a second, before saying, "Me too…I've come here a few days ago…so far, no traces of it, though…"
Seth curtly nodded at her words. "Getting there has been a bitch, and to make it worse, so far?" He shrugged his shoulders adding, "nada de nada."
When later on, Kate thought about that morning, she mostly recalled how Seth and she had talked, for hours, about their experiences for the past six years, about the vampires they had killed, the places they had gone to…about their favorite weapons.
She recalled, later on, that they had both smiled. A lot.
She recalled that she had thought that they had been two lonely people, for damn too long…and that they had both felt, for the first time in a very long time, home.