So, I started writing this in 2011, and I haven't updated it since 2015. This is the one fic that I really regret not having finished, and I'm set myself a challenge. This year will be the year I put that right. After all, I couldn't leave Edgar as a half vampire forever, could I? I mean, I'm cruel to my favourite characters, but I'm not that cruel.
Please bear with me as I get back into the swing of things with this fic. I'm really excited to finally be working on it again. I'm not sure if anyone who used to read my Lost Body fic on here back in the early 2010s will still be around on here, but if you are, I hope you remember this one. It's certainly plagued my thoughts for the past 7 years or so...
The gravel road was too much for the truck's suspension, and Alan felt himself jarred and shaken by every bump and pothole they drove over. He could only imagine how Daniel felt, still injured and forced to ride in back.
It was the only way though. Sitting close to them, the temptation would have been too strong. In his weakened, blood-drained state, half vampire blood might even be better for him than human. It would definitely be better than the cow blood that Alan had supplied him with. He had said himself, what he needed was a transfusion. Half vampire blood would replace what he had lost instantly, without the need for his body to convert it into something else.
He glanced behind him, trying to see through the small window that separated the cabin of the truck from the back, but he couldn't see the other half vampire. He hoped he was still there. If he ended up around people in this state… Well, it would be bad, to say the least.
Next to him, hands gripping the wheel tightly and tension visible in every muscle of his body, Edgar glanced in his direction. "He okay back there?" he asked.
Alan shrugged. "I think so."
"Are you okay?"
That was a far more difficult question, and one that he didn't have the will or the energy to think about right now. He turned his attention forward and stared out the front of the truck into the sharpness of the night.
"Alan?" Apparently Edgar wasn't willing to take his silence as an answer.
He nodded.
Edgar turned his own attention back to the road, looking unconvinced. Alan wasn't surprised; they had never been able to lie to one another, not about the things that mattered. It was one of the reasons why Sam had been convinced that they were telepaths.
Not to mention, as far as lies went, it wasn't the most believable.
"We're going to fix this," Edgar said. He spoke in a low murmur, under his breath, and Alan wasn't sure who he was trying to convince, Alan, or himself.
Alan turned his attention internally, listening to the creature growing within him. It was in its infancy still, too weak to have any real power over him, but he could still feel it within him, stretching its limbs and baring its fangs as it began to hunger. A wave of despair washed over him at the return of the familiar sensation, and instinctively he quashed it with forced blankness and indifference.
Pride that he had not lost that hard-won ability was also quashed just as quickly.
He was hungry. Not in a way that would put anybody in danger, not yet, but soon he was going to need to feed.
Edgar checked his watch impatiently as he pulled up outside Alan's home. He shifted the truck into park as Alan unfastened his seatbelt, opened the door, and jumped out. His brother slammed the door closed behind him with enough force to shake the whole truck, then disappeared into the back to retrieve Daniel.
"You sure you're going to be okay here?" he asked through the open window, as he watched his brother and the badly beaten half vampire walk to Alan's door. "They know where you live, remember."
Alan turned back briefly, and nodded. "They've done what they wanted to do, they won't be back. Just go."
He didn't have to be told twice. Edgar shifted into drive, slammed his foot onto the gas and sped away through the streets of San Cazador. He didn't like leaving Daniel alone with his brother, but he needed to get Zoe, and there wasn't enough room in the truck for all four of them. At least, not without someone sharing the back with a starving half vampire, and that simply wasn't acceptable.
He checked his watch again. Ten minutes until the store closed. Not that that would make any difference to the vampires, of course. A locked door just meant that they would have to come in through the window instead.
He pressed harder on the gas and accelerated around a corner. A group of surfer kids shrieked as they dove out of the way. Edgar treated them to a glare and kept on driving. It felt strange to be behind the wheel again. Flying under his own power would have been quicker, but he needed to collect Zoe and get her to safety. He had thought about carrying her. He would probably be able to do it, but there was no way that Zoe would allow it. She had more sense than that.
The brakes squealed in protest as he came to a dead stop outside the Book O'Neer. The lights inside illuminated the interior of the shop in the darkness outside, and Edgar could see Zoe accepting payment for a stack of comics. There were a few other customers inside too, wandering around, flicking through back issues and lining up to pay.
Edgar leapt down from the truck and ran to the door. He pushed it wide open with a bang, and stood in the doorway. "Okay, everyone get out!" he said.
Every eye in the place turned to look at him. Nobody moved.
"Are you all deaf?" Edgar stepped further into the store. "Leave!"
Two boys in their mid-teens shared a glance then backed away from the comics they had been flicking through, and quickly escaped through the door behind Edgar. Zoe glowered at him from behind the cash desk. "Edgar, what are you doing?" She handed the man bugging the comics his change and bagged up his purchases. He glared disapprovingly at Edgar as he hurried out of the door.
"We need to move," Edgar told her, approaching the desk. "Now."
One of the two remaining customers in the store, a guy in his mid twenties, dressed in a way that Edgar assumed probably counted as fashionable, and with his face set into a sneer, turned around from the shelves of new issues and looked Edgar up and down as though he was trying to decide how much of a threat he was.
The guy had no idea who he was dealing with. As a human, Edgar knew he would have been able to wipe the floor with him. As a half vampire… well it might not work out well for either one of them.
"The store closes in five minutes," he said. He had a drawl to his voice, one that sounded exaggerated, like he was trying to emphasize how much he didn't care about the guy ordering him out. "I'll leave then, if the lady asks me to. I suspect she probably won't though, because I doubt she wants to be left alone with you. Until then…" he waved the comic he had been flicking through in Edgar's direction, then turned a page.
Edgar took a step toward him menacingly. "Until then, what?" His fists clenched. "Until then you're gonna stand there and read a book you've got no intention of paying for. I used to hate guys like you back when…"
"Edgar!"
His attention snapped back to Zoe. She had stepped around the desk now, and was standing with her arms crossed and a nervous expression on her face. Her purse was slung over her shoulder with her hand inside, and he could see that her fist was clutching a stake inside it tightly.
The guy with the comic wore an expression of pure terror. He took a step backwards, trying to get away, and hit the display shelf. Around him, several comics fell to the ground. Edgar unclenched his fists. He could feel it inside him, the vampire rising to the surface, and he knew that it was visible on his face. His tongue touched fangs, and he fought the urge to turn away in shame. Instead, he took a step closer to the man, then leaned in threateningly. "Leave," he said, calmly and quietly.
The man whimpered, edged sideways, then ran for the door still clutching the comic book so tightly that the cover creased in his hands.
Edgar took a deep breath, and tried to will his face to return to normal.
"So," said Zoe. She was, he could see, still holding the stake, but less tightly now. "And chance of an explanation? That guy isn't exactly our best customer, but he does occasionally buy from us, and he has friends. You've just lost me a lot of business."
"We have to get out of here," Edgar told her. "I'll explain on the way." He turned and headed for the door, expecting Zoe to follow him. "The vampires have started to move against the people I know, they're probably going to come for you to…" he broke off as an angry shout echoed around the store.
Edgar turned, his own stake already in his hand, to see the other customer, the one that he had forgotten about. His eyes were read, and his mouth full of fangs, and he was advancing quickly on Zoe.
Zoe reached quickly. She pulled the stake from her purse and held it out threateningly toward the vampire. Without taking her eyes off it, she reached into her pocket with the other hand, and retrieved a bottle of breath spray. She pressed the pump on the top, and filled the air in front of her with slightly minty scented holy water mist.
As the vampire screamed in pain as the holy mist burned its skin, Edgar took advantage of the situation to rush forward, slam into the vampire from behind and push it forward. The vampire's body in front of him protected him from the worst of the holy water. He landed on top of the vampire and held it down as smoke began to rise from its burned skin.
Edgar raised his stake to finish the creature, a split second too late to make the killing blow. Zoe leaped forward with a speed he didn't know she possessed and forced her stake down through the vampire's back, directly into its heart.
The vampire shrieked as it began to crumble, beginning at the site of the wound and spreading outward its body turned to thin gray dust that scattered on the weak air currents to settle all around the room.
Zoe waited until the dust had settled to take a deep breath. She looked up at Edgar a little sheepishly. "Okay, maybe I'll forgive you for scaring my customers away."
"Apology accepted, now can we get out of here?" He got to his feet, offered her a hand and pulled her easily to his feet. "I doubt he's the only one coming, we need to move out now."
Zoe brushed the dust from her clothes and nodded her agreement. "At least this one didn't get blood and entrails all over the store. It should be an easier clean-up in the morning."
"You know," Daniel said unhappily. "I like cats. By which I mean that I used to have one as a pet, not that they make a tasty snack." He shook his head, staring accusingly at Alan. "I can't believe you made me do that." He was slumped on the sofa in Alan's apartment. Edgar's t-shirt and a borrowed pairs of sunglasses covered the worst of his injuries.
"Better a stray cat than one of us," Alan told him. "I didn't have anything else to give you, and you were hungry."
Daniel shook his head. "I still am. There wasn't enough blood in it to make much of a difference anyway."
Seated at the table in Alan's kitchen, Zoe screwed her face into an expression of disgust. She waved her hands in the air in front of her as though she could erase the conversation from her memory like a chalkboard. "Ew!" she announced.
"Yeah." Edgar paused his pacing, halfway between the kitchen and the bedroom. He looked at Alan, recalling against his will the horror show that his home had been once, not so long ago, and wondering whether it would be that way again. "I couldn't agree more."
His brother appeared unconcerned by the topic of conversation. He was different now than he had been before. His years as a half vampire had changed him, left an indelible stain on him that no amount of sunlight would ever remove. Over those years in the darkness he had changed in ways that Edgar couldn't even begin to imagine.
He wondered what long-term effects his own time in the shadows might have.
"I need to get to that vamp neighborhood," Edgar said. He resumed his pacing, walking a line across the middle of the room that created an unconscious barrier between Zoe and his brother on one side, and the still ravenous Daniel at the other.
Daniel placed his head in his hands. "I'm going to be hearing that cat's scream for years," he said.
Edgar spun to face him and glared. "Yeah, well, you're the one that wants to be a half vampire, so maybe you should quit moaning when you have to drink blood." He shook his head, disgusted. "Why are you even here, anyway?"
Alan stood quickly, pushing his chair backward with the backs of his knees as he did. "Because he's not safe out there at the moment. Not to mention he's also a danger to the general population. We talked about this."
They had, of course. And Edgar knew all of this. He was just angry, and something about the half vampire's distress over a cat with everything else that was happening, just rubbed him the wrong way.
"And," Daniel added, "because I'm going to help you kill those vampires. I'm not going to let them get away with doing this to me."
There was no way in hell that the half vampire was going into battle with them. He was untrained, undisciplined, and unpredictable. Not to mention that despite everything that had happened between them, and everything that had happened to Daniel, he couldn't be 100% sure of his loyalties.
Edgar suppressed the urge to tell him so. There was absolutely nothing to be gained by getting into an argument. Everything was wearing on his nerves right now; he was hungry and over the course of the last twenty four hours, everything had turned to shit. Staying in control was getting more difficult by the second, and they had to concentrate on forming a plan.
"But hey, if you want me out of your hair, you could always give me a transfusion," Daniel suggested. "That's one of the perks of being a half vampire. I don't have to worry about blood type, and I can take it orally."
"You've got to be kidding."
"No. What I am is starving," Daniel told him. "It'd really take the edge off. Doesn't have to be a lot."
"And then you'd shut the hell up and let us get on with making a plan?"
Daniel placed the palm of his hand over his heart and nodded.
Edgar crossed his arms. He couldn't believe he was actually considering this. He shot a glance at Alan for input.
His brother shook his head. "Too risky," he said. "If he couldn't stop, he'd kill you. What's more, a half vampire would still count as a first kill. If you die, he turns."
A definite no, then.
"You always have to suck the fun out of everything," Daniel told him. "He slumped further in his chair. "But yeah, I guess you're right."
Edgar relaxed, just slightly.
Daniel moaned. A quiet, unhappy sound. "I need to feed though. I can't believe you didn't… I told you you'd make a better hunter as a halfie, Al."
That was it. That was too damned much. Edgar spun on his heels and turned the full force of his glare in Daniel's direction. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"Your brother told me he walked right through vamp central a couple of days ago and didn't even notice. Even in this sorry state I could tell that street was full of vampires. If he'd been able to sense them then, you guys might have been able to deal with them before they grabbed me, and I wouldn't be feeling like this."
"Shut up," Edgar told him. "We don't even know it's the same place yet."
He didn't know whether Daniel had sensed the change in Alan, whether Alan had told him while Edgar had been collecting Zoe, or whether it was just a coincidence that made him say what he had, but either way, that kind of talk wasn't going to help his brother any. It wasn't going to help anything. They needed to focus, without the distractions.
He closed his eyes and tried to think. If the vampires were using homes on a street to hide out, they must have either killed the people living there, or enthralled them somehow. Someone would have noticed if a whole street full of people had suddenly stopped showing up for work or answering the door or the phone. That many disappearances in one community would be national news by now.
That meant that the vampires were likely there by invitation. Or at least that they were co-existing somehow with human captives.
"Okay," Edgar said. "Alan, Zoe, you've been there before, right? Did it look like there were still people living in the neighborhood?" His gaze flicked briefly to Daniel, who was staring with apparent interest at Zoe. "Quit looking at her. She's not food."
Daniel frowned, still looking at Zoe appraisingly, as though he was trying to figure something out. "No, she's not," he agreed. His gaze moved to Alan, back to Zoe, and finally to Edgar. "Nobody is. Strange company you keep, for a hunter." He looked to Alan again, and his expression softened slightly. "When did it happen, Al?"
Alan looked away, folded his arms and set his jaw. He didn't reply.
As Edgar watched, Zoe turned to look at him too, eyes widening as she realized what was happening. She reached out to touch him on the arm; a misplaced gesture of comfort, and he flinched and moved away.
"I'm sorry," Daniel told him. "For the 'better as a halfie' dig. It was supposed to be a joke… well kind of. If you'd told me, I never would have said it. Not that it isn't true, you understand. I just wouldn't have said it. I like to think I have a bit more tact than that."
Alan swallowed. "It's fine… I'm fine."
"It's not fine," Edgar told Daniel. "Now shut the hell up unless you've got something useful to say, or get out of here and take your chances."
Alan turned back to Edgar, suddenly determinedly on topic. "The people were all still there. It just looked like a normal neighborhood. There were people in the street; a family. Kids. You're right, we don't know it's the right place but if it is… You think they've all been renfielded?"
Edgar nodded. "Kids. Shit. I didn't even think of that. Now I want to kill those bastards even more." He turned to Daniel. "You said you could sense the vampires? How many were there?"
Daniel shrugged. "Who knows? It's not an exact science. Plus, I was a little preoccupied, what with the kidnapping, and beating and the blood draining and the holy water torture. All I know is, there were a lot of them."
"A lot like what? Ten? Twenty five? A thousand?"
Daniel shook his head. "More than ten. It's really not as easy as you seem to think."
Edgar let out a frustrated sigh. "I've got to go there," he said. "I need to check it out for myself."
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that Alan was looking at him doubtfully. He turned to look back, waiting for an explanation. "You won't be able to tell," Alan said softly.
Edgar's glare hardened. "Tell what?"
Alan took a breath. He glanced at Daniel, then at Zoe, then finally turned back to Edgar. "You won't be able to sense the vampires. Not like Daniel can. Not unless they want you to. It takes years before you become that attuned to things. I don't think I'll be able to either, not anymore."
"Good," Edgar said. He leaned against the wall and looked around the room. "I don't want to be able to sense vampires, and I don't want you to be able to either." The thought of it made him shudder. He didn't mention that he had already started to notice things. The night he had fled his trailer after the fight with Alan, he had found a vampire simply because the monster inside him recognised its own kind. That wasn't the kind of thing he would ever be able to talk about.
Daniel glanced around the group, then raised a hand like a schoolkid with a question. "I might have been distracted by the torture before, but I'm feeling much more focussed now." He looked across the room at Zoe, and smiled. His teeth, fangs tucked away for the time being, were artificially white, and despite the damage to the rest of his face, he looked like a commercial for cosmetic dentistry. Zoe didn't seem to mind. She smiled back.
Well, that was just great.
"Like Alan said," Edgar told him. "You're a danger right now. What if you bit someone?"
"Says the guy who just threatened to kick me out. After everything I did for you, I might add." Daniel gave him a withering look. "I've been a half vampire for twelve years. I'm not going to start killing people just because some little upstart coven decides to mess with me. I like to think I have more self control than that, and I value my sparkling personality way too much."
Edgar shook his head. He knew bloodlust, and he didn't care how impressive it was that Daniel had made it to his door without giving in to it, if he was still hungry, he wasn't trustworthy. "Call me crazy, but I'm not willing to take the risk."
Daniel shrugged. "Fine. Okay. Probably a good call. Wanna come with? We can swing by my butcher first, we could probably both use a feed, seeing as you gave me your entire supply."
Edgar hesitated. They would be safer if they stuck together, but splitting into pairs was acceptable. All four of them descending onto the street would look suspicious, even if the vampires weren't watching. A single escort was the best bet, and of the three of them, he was the best choice.
Zoe was out of the question. She was on the vampires' hit-list, not to mention he didn't want her getting too close to a starving half vampire. Alan… he glanced over at his brother. His expression was far away, Edgar didn't want to know what was going through his head at the moment. Th have to go through this once was bad enough. To become human again, only to have it taken away for a second time… Even thinking about that hurt.
He frowned, considering. Alan met his gaze. He looked as though he wanted to protest.
"Yeah, why not?" Edgar agreed quickly, before Alan could stop him.
Alan got to his feet, shaking his head. "No," he said.
Edgar stared at him.
"Too risky," he added. "For both of you."
"You've got to be kidding me."
Alan shook his head. "They might have expected Daniel to turn when they dropped him in the middle of town, but they probably know that he hasn't. And they know we're hunters. If we're right, and they're on that street, they'll be ready for us."
"They don't know we've guessed their secret hideout," Edgar told him.
"Still, going during the day will be safer. Maybe if we wait a couple of days too, they might get complacent."
Edgar felt a stab of pure rage at that. "A couple of days? Do you even care that they got you? Because it doesn't seem like you do. Why do I get the feeling that this bothers me more than you?"
Alan looked at him, and his face was a mask. "Maybe because I have more practice at this than you do."
Edgar felt himself flinch at that. He thought about the vampire inside him, how it would manipulate his emotions, twist them to fit its own agenda in an effort to gain control and force him to slip up. He thought about how he had learned, even in just the past week, to smother it in a kind of artificial calm. Sometimes, it even worked and the feelings he was desperately trying not to feel went away.
Alan had been doing the same thing for five years. Now that he thought about it, it was a miracle that the man that had come out the other end bore any similarity at all to the brother he had once thought he had lost forever.
And now, Alan had been forced into the same position again. Because of Edgar.
Edgar took a deep breath. He reached out and touched the wall in an effort to steady himself, trying to calm his inner vampire once again as it ceased upon a moment of weakness to try to rise to the surface. The horror of it weighed heavily on him. How could he have thought, even for a moment, that Alan didn't care.
"I'm sorry," he said.
Alan's face was still a mask as he shook his head dismissively. "Don't go," he said. "There are too many things that could go wrong."
On any other night, Edgar might have backed down. Might have. Probably wouldn't, but there would at least have been a chance. Tonight, he was itching for a fight. He almost hoped that the vampires would be there waiting for them.
If you enjoyed this chapter, a comment would be so appreciated, they give me so much encouragement.
Thank you so much for reading.