Michael lowered his hands, revealing his half-mutilated face, and blinking his one remaining golden eye down at Paul. "You mother fu-" he was just about ready for another round, when David reached forward to grab his arms and pin them behind his back.
"Let me go!" Michael spat and hissed, kicking his legs out as David dragged him away from Paul, who looked like he was just about ready to lose consciousness and was simultaneously very pleased with himself.
"Calm down, Michael. Do you want to kill him?" David asked dryly, keeping Michael held close to his chest with a vice-like grip. Try as he might, after the fight with Paul especially, there was no breaking it. But still, he gave a few more kicks and growls for good measure until he finally relented and slumped in David's grasp, head hanging low.
"You need to learn some breathing exercises, Mikey," Marko grinned as he spoke, approaching Paul and kneeling down to poke at the other vampire's face. Paul cracked his eyes open and hissed at him, not in the mood to be messed with at the moment, after practically getting his ass handed to him on a platter.
"Aw, Paulie not feeling good? Tell me...which was worse, having Star beat the shit out of you and make you her bitch...or Mikey just barely managing to do the same thing? Huh?" Marko cackled, stumbling back when Paul tried to lash out at him and give the smaller pack member an injury to match Michael's. But he didn't have enough steam left in him to do much, and only managed to lazily slash his hand through the air before letting it drop down beside him with a weary grunt.
"What do you mean by that?" Michael lifted his head and glared over at Marko, and then back down at Paul, confused.
"Look at her, does she look like she just got raped?" Dwayne asked as David finally released his childe so Michael could turn towards Star, who was sitting meekly at the couch now fiddling with a cigarette between her knees and refusing to meet his gaze. She looked flawless. Unmarred. What's more, there was a slight blush creeping from her bare neck to her cheeks, and that was what ultimately clued him in.
"Star? What do they mean by that?" Michael demanded, raising a hand to cover his wounded face again. It wasn't healing very fast, and especially not after the scuffle on the ceiling. He'd need more blood soon, and he could already feel a deep lethargy washing over him while his body struggled to recover.
"I..." Star looked up at him with a guilty frown, "I'm sorry, Michael. I couldn't help myself. I just...he attacked me, and I lost control, and then I was...doing stuff with him. And I didn't know why or what I was doing until it was all over...and...when you came back, I didn't know what else to say!"
He couldn't believe this. He couldn't believe she'd...well, for one, apparently banged the hell out of Paul, judging by that scar on his neck and the lack of a real fight he'd put up on the ceiling...but for another, the fact that she'd basically acted like some kind of manipulative bitch by lying to him like that! And if it were anyone else, he'd give her a piece of his mind for playing that sick game with him. But this was Star. The one person right now who he thought he could wholeheartedly trust and believe in. It almost hurt more than the gauged-out eye.
It was like tossing a match on a kerosene drenched stack of newspapers. The anger burned fast, strong, and quick. And now...it was gone. All that was left were the blackened remains. The ash. The scraps. He felt hollow. "Star..." Michael just shook his head, running his hands through his hair. "I can't talk to you right now." He backed away from her, and glared around at the others, who were watching his breakdown with morbid curiosity. They wanted to know what he'd do next. See who he'd lash out at. They'd wanted this to happen tonight...that was the whole reason they'd gone to feed Thorne. This wasn't just about Star or Paul. And here he'd thought most of the mind games were finally over.
Michael snorted in disgust, striding out of the lobby towards some unseen destination deep within the heart of the sunken hotel, and refusing to look at or speak to any of them. He honestly had nothing left to say, and no punches left to throw. And here he'd thought dying should somehow get rid of most of his emotional teenage hormones. Some things just never changed.
Marko flopped down on the couch beside Star, watching Michael leave with a raised eyebrow, "damn, think we pushed him too far?"
Dwayne shrugged, "didn't honestly think he'd be happy about Paul's little plan."
"Speaking of which, Paul, how bad do you have to fuck up for Star to own your ass, of all people? Seriously." David knelt beside the semi-conscious vampire, lifting up an arm and inspecting his injuries. He'd need some blood pretty soon, or it was going to be one hell of a day trying to sleep. He didn't look like he'd have the strength to hang for more than five minutes.
"She had knitting needles! She cheated!" Paul insisted groggily, his head lolling up so he could make grumpy eye contact with the pack leader.
"Star," David called towards her, and she looked at them both guiltily. The emotional thoughts rushing through her mind right now were enough to make David roll his eyes in overdrive if he didn't know it would only make her even more ridiculously melodramatic. He did not miss being as young as them, that was for fucking sure. Always sad or upset about one thing or another, never looking at the big picture. It was getting on his nerves.
"What do you want, David?" Star asked quietly, and if he didn't know better, he'd think there was a bit of attitude sneaking into her tone. But surely she'd learned not to talk back to him by now.
"You broke it. You fix it," he snapped at her, "owning a Paulie is a lot of responsibility. You've got to feed them, water them, take them out for walks..."
"Fuck you," Paul slurred up at David, irritated. "She just got lucky."
"Lucky?!" Star asked, incredulous, even as she stood up to cross towards David.
"Have your little bitch fit with each other later. Star. Feed him," there was no hint of warning in his tone, but there also wasn't any room for argument. Star glanced towards Paul and then back up at David warily, gauging whether or not it was worth getting her neck snapped by disobeying his orders. But her will to survive had gotten entirely too strong as of late for her to risk it, so she simply gave him a curt not and slid towards the cave wall to kneel beside Paul, holding out her wrist in front of his face. He didn't need to be told twice. She flinched when she felt the sharp pain in her wrist, but didn't react otherwise. It didn't hurt as much as it had when David gave her his warning out in the field with only a scarecrow as a witness to the proceedings between them. Nor did it hurt as much as it had when she'd been drained to the point of near-death before she and Michael had made their fateful agreement at the bar.
Honestly, she didn't want to admit it...but it felt kind of nice.
David patted her on the head, before turning away to head in the direction Michael had gone, "have fun, kids. Got a few things I have to deal with before bed," he called behind him.
Dwayne crossed towards the couch and flopped down beside Marko, watching him depart.
"Everyone's getting mated these days. Kinda makes me feel left out," Marko mused. He looked at Dwayne. Dwayne looked at him. They both gagged.
"Not in a thousand years, Marko," Dwayne shook his head.
"Yeah. Don't worry. I'm saving my sweet little ass for someone with tits, thanks," Marko sneered.
"I'm saving mine for someone with a brain," Dwayne replied dryly, punching Marko's shoulder.
Michael sat with his legs dangling over the chasm they'd made their new sleeping quarters. Below were gigantic chunks of shattered foundation, stained brown and black by several decades of water dripping down through it, as well as several pipes embedded on various levels stretching below. It didn't look like the most comfortable place to sleep, but it had been just fine for their purposes. He dropped a small pebble into the chasm and listened to it click against the walls until the sound faded into the distance. He didn't really know how deep it went, but he supposed he could find out if he really wanted to.
Right now, he just wanted to turn his brain off. He wanted to forget about the last week as if it had never happened. And frankly, thanks to Stars little episode tonight, he wanted to forget about the last two years too. Funny thing, though, he really was beginning to. Not entirely, mind you, but the specifics were becoming a little fuzzy. He couldn't remember what he'd worn last Friday, or the name of the waitress at their favorite dive they'd found in Louisianna and went back to every time they cruised through. His memory had never been this bad before. It was kind of scary, trying to think about it too much. Did it have something to do with being dead? Was he eventually going to forget more stuff? The important things? Family?
He threw his head back with a frown, fully planning to scowl up at the ceiling, but instead finding his one good eye meeting the gaze of two very amused ones above him...belonging to none other than one of the very last few people he wanted to see at this exact moment.
"What do you want?" Michael grumbled, looking back down at his lap and picking up another pebble to throw into the chasm.
"Mind if I join you?" David asked, dropping down beside him. Michael snorted. Fucker didn't even wait for his answer.
"I don't get any of this," Michael sighed, leaning back on his elbows.
"What?"
"I don't get any of this," he repeated.
"What's to get?" David asked quietly, grabbing a pebble of his own to drop into the chasm. "I've already told you everything. You think too much."
Michael snorted, "first time I've heard anyone say that."
The pack leader turned to look down at Michael, a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips. With all his anger burnt out tonight, he was fairly mellow now. Kinda like he was when they'd just barely met, after the punch and before the bridge. Taunting, torturing, fighting aside...this really was how David preferred him. Much funner to be around in the long run.
"Okay, I admit we all went a little too far tonight. Didn't think you'd get that worked up about it," David smirked, staring back down into the chasm and dropping another pebble.
Michael shifted beside him and glared up at his master, a slight frown on his lips, "you manage to somehow get the love of my life to fuck an idiot, and then she tries to make me kill him...and you don't think just maybe I've got a reason to flip my shit about it? What the hell is wrong with you?"
"...'love of your life'? Really, Michael? You two barely did more than cuddle and pet for two years, but now suddenly she's the 'love of your life'?"
Michael scowled, "technically, yeah. I died, and I was in love with her. Therefore: love of my life."
David laughed, "nice logic, there. So...by your reasoning...the whore I used to see on Bussey street for my weekly handies every Sunday was my soulmate. I guess that Clap she gave me was a poignant love letter. Get the fuck over yourself, Michael. If she was really that important, you'd have done a lot more to protect her when we came chasing after you two."
The younger vampire's healing socket seemed to twitch with a raw nerve, and he was amazed to discover there was still some level of irritation David could pull out of him, even when it seemed practically impossible. "I did my best."
"And here we are," David spread his arms wide, "just me and you."
"What do you want, David?" Michael sighed, sitting up and getting prepared to stand and find another room if he had to, if it meant getting away from him. David reached out and grabbed Michael's neck, pulling him close.
"Drink," he ordered, pressing Michael's face to his throat.
"What?!" the younger vampire exclaimed, trying to struggle and push him away.
"You've got a lot of healing to do tonight, if you don't want a massive headache in the evening. Drink. If you wake up tomorrow hungry, you're not gonna be too picky about who you try to eat. If your little brother shows up here looking for help, I'm not stopping you from chowing down. So do it now, and you won't have anything to regret later."
"You son of a..." Michael grumbled in a muffled voice against David's neck as he dug his teeth deep into his master's flesh. It was liquid fire, infusing him from the very center of his being. Not like that awful coffee he'd bought from the gas station, nor like the 'wine' he'd had when he first met David, nor even like human blood...which admittedly, was pretty damned good on its own. This was even better. And he hated to admit it, but drinking from his master's neck right now made him want to do other much more intimate things...he stubbornly forced them from his mind. Whether he was saving himself for Star anymore or not, he still didn't want a damned thing to do with another guy...and definitely not David. Never David.
A sly smirk spread across the blonde's face as he closed his eyes and ran his fingers calmly through his mate's hair. Sooner or later, Michael would crave these moments. And the more he could be forced to drink, the quicker it would come to pass.
And when everyone finally turned in to sleep that morning, Star didn't realize she was closer to Paul than David. Nor did Michael notice he'd somehow ended up sleeping right beside his master, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Authors notes: Damn. How did all that angst sneak in here? Ah well. Teenagers = dramatic. Vampire teenagers = apparently 10x worse. Just to clarify, there is no way in hell I'd ever pair Marko with Dwayne. So just get that out of your head right now.