Logan woke to find James curled up in the sheets, arms around Logan's torso and head on his shoulder, snoring. Logan ran his left hand, sporting a silver ring with tiny rubies to match James' on his ring ringer, over his face and through his hair. He slipped from under James and James slumped to the bed without even shifting.
Logan looked out the window to see a few people walking on the sidewalks of the city. A threesome of vampires sported steaming cardboard coffee cups, filled with blood, Logan knew, and a couple of humans walked by them with a nod.
He didn't bother replacing his boxers as he went to make some hot tea for himself. Yes, he didn't NEED it, but it still tasted good.
James woke up an hour later to hear Logan singing in the shower. It would be a good day- Logan only sang when he was in the best of moods.
He got up and got dressed before sitting down to watch Spongebob reruns. It was 2013 now, but GOD, he had always loved Spongebob.
"Good morning, my love," Logan said, hugging James' neck from behind the couch. "Watching that dumb cartoon again, I see."
"Spongebob isn't dumb. Spongebob's cool."
"Mmm-hmm," Logan said, hopping over the back of the couch to sit beside James. "How about we go for a little trip back to Weston today?"
"Why d'you wanna go there?"
"I just like to visit and see all of the changes," Logan shrugged. "Do you want to?"
"Yeah, I'll tag along," James smiled.
Logan read the paper a little bit as he and his new husband sipped their morning blood. They had to travel a bit to get married in a state where same-sex marriage was legal, but James wanted it so badly Logan didn't mind.
"Okay, well let's leave in ten," Logan suggested.
"PLEASE be careful, baby, PLEASE. You know vampires around here don't deal with hunters very well," Carlos pleaded, following Kendall to the door.
"I'm always careful," Kendall said.
"You have extra stakes?" Carlos checked. Kendall opened a flap of his jacket, revealing three wooden stakes.
"Don't worry about me," Kendall said reassuringly. "I'll be back with some pretty little rubies to buy you dinner with."
Carlos smiled nervously and nodded. He hated Kendall's job. Kendall protected Weston from vampires.
Weston had never accepted vampires into the community, and made a law that they weren't allowed or they would be killed. The town had been overturned for a while by vampires and lots of people were dying, so they simply were not allowed anymore. Kendall was one of three hunters in the area and most days they didn't come up with anything, but some days they did. When they killed one, they took their ruby ring and left the body to be burnt to ashes by the sun. Kendall and Carlos were doing pretty well for a twenty-one and twenty-two year old couple- they got their money from the rubies Kendall got and Kendall's pay checks. Carlos was in college studying to be a marine life trainer.
Needless to say, the thought of his two-year boyfriend going out and facing big bad vampires every day scared the hell out of Carlos. Sure, Kendall was strong. He worked out every day. But still, vampires were impossibly strong and some were very violent.
"Have a good day," Kendall grinned, kissing Carlos' cheek before turning to leave.
He casually exited the apartment building and into the rain- it was absolutely pouring outside, the gutters flooding already at noon. He knew he probably wouldn't bust any vampires today- it was rare that he ever did. He wasn't sure why Carlos was especially worried today- Kendall did this every day.
"James, get under the umbrella," Logan hissed over the rain at his husband, who was ahead, dancing in the downpour. Logan nodded to a blonde guy, who was aimlessly walking around without an umbrella, and turned his attention back to James. Weston was very different from the 70's, when he last visited without James. Now there were restaurants everywhere and fancy stores and fancy cars and people inside coffee shops with laptops and iPhones.
"Logie, come dance with me!" James called.
Logan opened his mouth to say something, but suddenly he was tapped on the shoulder. He turned to see the same blonde guy he just nodded politely to.
"Excuse me, are you from around here?" the guy asked, caramel green eyes looking down at Logan.
"Um, yes. Originally," Logan said. He didn't know the vampire-human relationship here nowadays, so he tried not to show his fangs.
"You're a vampire?"
"Um…"
"It's okay, I won't tell," the guy said secretively.
"I should be going," Logan said, backing away a little to show that he was ready to end the conversation. "It was nice meeting you."
The guy waved and went on his way- the opposite way he was originally going- toward James. Logan thought nothing of it as he stopped to tie his shoe, figuring if anything the guy would make friendly conversation with James.
When Logan stood back up, he found that James was gone.
"James! This is not funny!" he called over the rain, slowly walking again, kicking the rainwater beneath his feet.
"LOGI-" Came a scream, suddenly cut off and muffled.
"James?" Logan asked, senses going into overdrive as he sped up his paces. He heard sloshy scuffling coming from an alleyway- an alleyway he recognized as the one Delilah died in. Logan was running now, folding up the umbrella and soiling his clothes and hair as he neared the alley.
There, in the same spot Delilah had been pinned, James was pinned against the wall, the blonde guy's hand over his mouth and a stake in his stomach. His hazel eyes turned, panicked, to Logan and squeezed shut, a bloody tear drop exiting one eye and getting washed away by the rain immediately. He had finally gotten the hang of not hurting humans.
Logan dropped the umbrella and pushed the black hair from his eyes.
They guy stabbed another stake into James' sternum.
"HEY!" Logan roared, storming over to the guy.
"Back up and wait your turn," the blonde guy said simply. More bloody tears fell and were washed from James' cheeks as the guy prepared another stake- this one for the kill.
"He is NOT a voo-doo doll!" Logan said dangerously, hand shooting out for the base of the guy's skull. In a panic, the guy thrashed behind him with the stake, landing it in Logan's side.
"Go, James," Logan said, pulling the stake from him and tossing it onto the flooded concrete.
"Logie…"
"GO, DAMMIT!"
With that, James pulled the stakes from himself, dropped them, and scuttled to the end of the alley.
"Vampires aren't allowed in Weston," the blonde said, face forced to the rain as Logan guided him to the wall. Logan then pressed the side of the blonde's face to the bricks- hard. "It's my JOB to kill you."
"You don't TOUCH him," Logan growled in his ear. At this point, he was ready to rip this guy's head off. He had never faced this before- for some reason, people rarely ever tried to kill James, and if they did he got out of it on his own. Right now, Logan's only thought it "Protect James!"
"What're you gonna do? KILL me? There're cameras everywhere!"
"Are there cameras in this alley?"
"Yes."
"You're lying!" Logan roared, pounding the guy's cheek into the wall. The guy was silent, telling Logan that there were no cameras.
"Logie, let's just go. We should get out of town ASAP," James said over the rain.
"If you just leave right now, I'll leave you alone," the guy negotiated.
"Not saying I'll leave YOU alone."
"You should. I'm a law officer and I have a boyfriend at home a- a fiancé."
"C'mon, Loge," James said, not wanting Logan to hurt this guy. He had a boyfriend at home! He was getting married!
"Fine," Logan growled, roughly letting go of the guy and backing away. The guy raised his hands and backed down the alley, showing that he was not going to do anything.
Kendall backed down the alley. These two vampires were a cute couple, and they meant no harm. Besides- Carlos would be upset if he found out that Kendall endangered his life just to get some bounty. This shorter vampire seemed like a no-bullshit kind of guy, and Kendall didn't want to mess with him. Now would be a great time for the stake-shooter, but he left it at home.
Something shifted in the back of his jacket. Oh, Carlos. He packed an extra-extra stake? Well… If these two tried anything funny, he would use it.
The taller of the couple pointed out to the open, disappointment in his eyes. To Kendall's surprise, he then made his way quickly down the alley, despite the shorter one's calls of protest.
Kendall's hand wrapped around the extra stake in the back of his jacket as the tall one approached. He didn't seem to be a threat, but none of them could be trusted. One single move to touch Kendall, and he would be staked.
"I hope your wedding turns out fantastic," the tall vampire said sincerely.
Kendall felt guilty- Carlos really wasn't his fiancé. He only said that to save his skin. Yeah, he planned to propose soon, but not yet. His eyes flickered to the shorter vampire coming up behind the taller one, about five feet.
"And I'm sorry about him. We're sort of over protective of each other, but he's never done THAT before," the taller one said. "I'm James, he's Logan."
The guy reached out a hand to shake, sending Kendall into panic mode. When Kendall didn't shake his hand, the guy patted his shoulder.
The stake drove deep into the guy's chest- barely missing the heart, Kendall knew.
In one swift motion, the shorter one pulled the stake from his surprised partner, pushed him away, and plunged the black-soaked instrument into Kendall's heart.
"How's it feel?" the guy hissed. Those were the last words Kendall heard, besides a "LOGAN!" in the background as blood flooded his mouth and he struggled to breathe, eventually toppling over into the dirty rainwater.
James grabbed Logan's shoulders and shoved him away, kneeling in front of the dead guy whose blood stained the rainwater and his shirt. James left the stake in his heart.
"OH GOD! OH GOD! NO! HE HAS TO GET MARRIED!" James screeched frantically, taking the limp body in his arms and biting down hard on the guy's neck, through his shirt on his shoulder, the other side of his neck, on his wrists and upper arms.
Logan stood back in shock, eyes huge.
He just… KILLED… a person. A human. Something he vowed to never do again. But… But he was trying so hard to kill his James and James was so sweet to him. Just look at him now- James was so sweet he was frantically biting this guy in attempt to change him.
"James," he said quietly, a hand on James' shoulder.
"SHUT UP LOGAN!" James growled, violently shrugging the hand away. Logan's mouth fell open. Well… That's a first.
James pressed his ear to the guy's chest, listening, hearing. Hearing a very slight pulse. YES! That's all he needs! James was calm now, knowing the venom would spread and the guy would be okay and be able to get married.
James probed the body for a wallet, where he found an ID with an address. The guy's name was Kendall Knight and he was twenty-two. Sure enough, there was an emblem of a black heart, a brown stake stabbed into it, signifying that Kendall was a legal officer and could kill him.
He didn't tell Logan that the guy still had a pulse. He just picked up the body and turned.
"We're taking him to his fiancé," he said quietly, passing Logan. "He- he's gonna make it…"
"WHAT?" Logan hissed, following behind James. "JAMES!"
"What was I supposed to do?" James asked, whirling around, the guy in his arms swinging loosely. "He's engaged! He's in LOVE, Logan! I couldn't let him die."
Without waiting for a response, James turned back to exit the alley, tilting the guy's head down so he wouldn't drown from the rain.
AAH!
Yeah, yeah, Logan and James fought a little. They've been together for like sixty years, what do you expect?
Hmm… How's Kendall gonna react to being the one thing he hates more than dinosaur-shaped chicken?