A/N: Hey, this update didn't take long! I'm starting to really get into writing this and there will almost definitely be sequel and probably a prequel or two = D
Chapter 3: Bring It On, Twilight
About three things Tony was absolutely positive. First, Loki was a vampire. Second, there was a part of him, and Tony didn't know how dominant that part might be, that thirsted for his blood. And third, he was unconditionally and irrevocably a douchebag.
Case in point was how when they stopped for dinner that night Loki decided to subtly dump pepper on top of all of Tony's food so he started sneezing uncontrollably and couldn't taste any of what he was eating.
When asked why, Loki just shrugged and said "Why not?"
They made it midway through Minnesota by just after midnight and Tony decided he needed to sleep, so Loki made a repeat of last night, heading out to hunt.
Tony had discovered from his research into vampires that human blood is what they really crave. Kind of obvious, really, but he now knew that all the animal blood in the world wasn't nearly as sweet as drinking from a human, which explained why for all his self-control Loki kept leaving such messy hickeys in the heat of the moment.
But it couldn't happen again. It was the reason Steve had left in the first place.
Loki got back while Tony was asleep, knocking on the window with hands all bloody and scratched.
"What the hell happened to you?" Tony said blearily.
"Dinner bit back. A wolf decided I was rather easy prey and ambushed me, but it did not account for me striking back and breaking its neck." He said with a fey, bloody grin.
Loki was tough; you had to give him that. Even if Tony's suspicion was right and Loki was only about thirty years old, he seemed like he was much older, a kind of unearthly ancient feeling. Though if Loki used to help his father on hunts, being trained to kill from youth could be partially accountable for that.
"What was a wolf doing this far south-east?" Tony said confusedly.
"I know not, just that he was delicious." Loki chuckled, opening the car to climb onto Tony and bite at his jawline, leaving little smears of wolf blood.
"Oh, hell, no. If you're going to bite, we're not having sex. Steve'll throw a bitch fit." Tony said, hoping his pathetic willpower could hold up under the hot glare Loki was giving him. "I want him back, and if that means no hot kinky vamp sex, then fine."
His dick was going to kill him.
Loki snarled at him, pinning his hands down with his superhuman strength, and said "What if I do not care for your opinion?"
Tony felt a spike of fear. "I'm serious, Loki. Get off me."
There was a tense moment where Loki's incongruously hot rotten breath washed over Tony's face. Then Loki climbed off him to wriggle into the front seat and continue reading with his night vision, leaving Tony to wonder what the fuck was going on in his life.
-O.O-
They set off before dawn, Tony having a breakfast of cold pepper-inundated pizza and a swig of scotch and Loki eating nothing.
For the first time, Tony pondered what Loki was sacrificing to stick to Tony's schedule. He wasn't feeding much, but seeing as Tony had no idea how often vampires needed to feed this may have meant nothing. But Loki wasn't sleeping, probably because he usually slept during the daytime and Tony was talking with him then, and Loki had sworn off attacking humans, at least until the deal was fulfilled. He must have really wanted that new identity and safehouse, which meant to Tony that Loki was fully prepared to burn the fragile bridges he held between himself and the vamp community on the whole.
Tony also couldn't fight his concerns about the Alpha's control over Loki, if there was any. The last thing he needed was Loki turning on him.
"My, this silence is most unusual." Loki said with a low laugh.
"Sorry. Just thinking." Tony said. "We'll be there by this afternoon."
"I am aware of that. I've plenty of time spent roaming the country."
"'Cause you used to be a hunter." Tony pointed out suddenly.
It wasn't a question, and Loki didn't reply scathingly or in the negative, just said "I was never one of you." in a way that suggested he'd never fitted in.
"...Well, okay. Tell me about where you've been." Tony said, wanting to hear Loki talk some more with his odd accent and manner of speech.
"I traveled to Alaska once, in the winter," Loki said with a fond half-smile, and told Tony about how it wasn't sunny for very long, so he could spend lots of time outdoors, and nice and cold how he liked it, but then a hunter named Hank came after him for killing someone's moose and he had to leave or be killed. Then about hiding out in New Mexico, and California, and even Quebec and then Nova Scotia for a spell.
Before he knew it they were gliding into Hoople in the late afternoon. Tony checked into the same motel that Steve had been in and told Loki to stay there and get some sleep.
"But-" Loki protested.
"No buts." Tony frowned. "You look like shit. Go to sleep. I'm heading out to do a few jobs and drive past the Alpha's mansion so I can get another look at what we're up against."
Loki rolled his eyes and plonked face first onto the single bed Tony had allocated him.
Tony took a minute to admire how not-scary he looked while relaxing before getting in their - no, his - crappy Corolla and driving out of the parking lot.
-O.O-
The main reason Tony had gone out was because this would be first significant span of time he'd been out of Loki's company for the last two days and he wanted to ring Bruce.
He parked in a campground and rang the familiar number.
"Hello?" Bruce said gently. Tony liked how quiet Bruce was, even if the man was rumoured to have one hell of a temper. It was a nice grounding point for the craziness that was his life.
"Hey, Brucey boy. It's me." Tony said brightly.
"Oh, hi, Tony. What do you want?" Bruce said, his tone lifting a little in recognition.
"Can't I just call socially?" Tony teased.
"No. None of us do. Have you found Steve?" Bruce said.
"Working on it. How are you?" Tony said airily.
"Fine. Tony, cut to the chase." Bruce deadpanned.
"Okay. What can you tell me about the Burison family?" Tony asked.
"This doesn't have anything to do with your conversation last time about that vampire, does it?" Bruce replied. "You should probably keep away from him. From what I heard, that guy's brain is a bag of cats."
"Maybe. Just tell me." Tony said cagily.
"Hmm." Bruce said. In the background, Tony could hear his ancient A/C and Bruce himself furiously typing his way through his archives. Bruce had been the first person to properly make use of the technology available to hunters and consolidate information on, well, everything pertinent to hunting into a database so he could help people. He lived to give, trying to make amends for a destructive past.
But hey, every hunter had a history, even the ones who looked the most innocent. Look at Steve.
"Okay." Bruce said finally. "Burison family, led by semi-retired hunter Odin Burison, married to Frigga Burison, and father of Thor Burison, active hunter, and Loki Burison, missing and presumed dead."
"I knew that bit. Anything else?" Tony asked.
"Not much, they're pretty private. Apparently Odin pretty much spearheaded the anti-vamp movement in the late 20th century, and his son still makes a point of hunting them." Bruce said.
"Holy shit." Tony said in shock. No wonder Loki couldn't fit in with other vamps very well if his family had massacred them all, never mind his acidic personality. And it also was no wonder that Loki couldn't stay with his family if they were known for slaughtering vampires on sight.
"Nothing to do with the vamp, right, Tony?" Bruce said dryly.
"Look, Bruce, I'm wrapped up in some crazy shit right now. Can you make an amendment to Loki Laufeyson's file? I made a promise." Tony said quickly.
"I can, of course, but what...?" Bruce said, a little confusedly.
"Just write that Loki Laufeyson is under the protection of one Anthony Edward Stark and any hunter that nabs him will have to answer to me." Tony said.
"Tony, could you please tell me what's going on? What's happening with Steve? What does Loki have to do with any of this?" Bruce asked.
"Bruce, I will drive to New York when this is over with a bottle of your favourite liquor and explain the whole thing, but for now, don't worry your fuzzy little head about it." Tony promised.
Bruce made an acknowledging hum as Tony heard him typing. "Should I change Loki Burison's entry too?"
"I don't have any real proof they're the same person, so we'd better leave it. What do you have on the Alpha Vampire?" Tony asked.
"...Just about nothing. He keeps his head down. No location, no nothing. He could be dead for all I know." Bruce said.
"Ah. Okay. Thanks, that's what I needed to know. I owe you a drink, Brucey boy." Tony said, saying his goodbyes and hanging up.
Well. That was more than Tony would have guessed at.
He started his car and drove to the head vamp's house, next to an old monastery. It was a big old house, so classic Dracula that it was almost hilarious.
Almost, because there wasn't much funny about his best friend being leeched dry just because he'd never gotten any. Or maybe there was, seeing as Tony's sense of humour had gotten a bit weird while hanging out with Loki.
Loki. He was the key to getting into that house and getting Steve out again, seeing as any human trying to help Steve would probably be eaten or at the very least laughed out of the whole place.
Tony turned around and headed back to the town for some dinner.
-O.O-
Loki wasn't a sleeper. Despite not doing anything more than a light doze for a few days, he only needed a few hours to get him back on his feet with his stomach rumbling and the familiar lustful desire for blood roiling through him.
He hated the feeling and all it signified. It was just another way to be reminded he was a monster.
That didn't change the fact he had to drink the stuff. Reese's Peanut Buttercups and Cup-A-Soups weren't exactly tolerated by his system; once upon a time, he'd tried to eat human food and had been very ill.
Loki scrawled a note and left it on the bed:
Gone hunting. Will return in good time; worry if I do not return by 11pm.
-L
Figuring that said enough, he slipped out and locked the door with his key, slipping out into the night.
They were on the outskirts of town, near the forest that Loki assumed had been where Tony had caught and 'interrogated' that vampire that had told him where Steve was.
Emphasis on the quotation marks. Loki hoped Stark would keep the deal and not simply behead him and throw his corpse in a ditch. The mortal didn't seem the traitorous type, in fairness, but there was no accounting for how Rogers would act, seeing as there was no love lost between the soldier and the vampire.
Loki had barely made it out of eyesight of the town when he felt a heavy blow to the head and slumped to the ground, unconscious.
-O.O-
Tony made it back to the motel room by around 10pm after eating a burger and having a few drinks at a bar to question the people there about the large house by the monastery. And because he wanted a drink. Whatever.
He had been propositioned by a few girls - the rugged charm was evidently still going strong - but he had turned them down under the assumption that Loki wouldn't put up with Tony fucking someone in the bed next to him.
When he got back, the little room was conspicuously empty, and Tony panicked for a second until he saw the note on the bed.
By 11, though, there wasn't a trace of Loki, so Tony grabbed his pistol and his knife and set out for the woods where he'd probably been.