It's some five or six months later, on the job, Scud camped out in his trailer in the rain while Blade and the Blood Pack run around inside the club trying to find Nomak, and isn't that just the perfect little unholy union? Scud's already a little on-edge, what with Whistler being back in full paranoid force and the added fact that the whole 'double agent' thing is turning out to be a lot harder than it seemed when he signed on. The last thing he needs right now is his old bosses 'accidentally' mentioning his former trade to his new boss. He watches the monitors intently, tries to stay calm and casual by spliffing up and knocking back a few Krispy Kremes, tries to make his hands stop shaking. He's finally feeling halfway to decent when a voice comes in over Blade's mic.
"Daywalker."
Scud's head whips around, the joint falling from his lips as he stares, uncomprehending, at the screen where Blade faces Nyssa, who has completely dropped her badass warrior-chick attitude and is cowering in the neck-lock grip of the boss-Reaper, Nomak himself. It's not the situation, so much, that has Scud agape. It's the voice. That voice, it's unmistakeable. That's the voice that whispered apologies into the familiar's ear; those hands at Nyssa's throat are the hands that so carefully fumbled over the human's body; those scarred, pale lips were at his throat and did not bite.
Nomak and Blade have finished their conversation; Nyssa is gone and blows are being exchanged between the two vampire killers. The Reaper snarls, jaw snapping wide and snakelike tongue whipping out, and Scud understands why that snarl made even the Blood Pack back down.
He has to stop this fight, he realizes, because they're gonna kill each other for no good reason when they should be on the same damn side. He's got his hand on the door, ready to run over there, when a thud on the roof of the trailer tells him he's not alone. Before he can so much as blink, Reapers are swarming over the camper like ants, clawing and kicking at the glass.
"Shit!" He yells into his mic, "Guys, I got Reaper action! Dubya, you read me? Whistler! Where the fuck are you, man?" Dammit, the one time he needs the old man's paranoia on duty and he's nowhere to be found. Scud revs the engine, slams the vehicle into a wall, trying to scrape his uninvited passengers off, finally hitting the UV brights and sending them scattering.
"Oh fuck..." He takes a few minutes to let his heart start up again before grabbing his walkie and shouting, "Silver don't do shit; use your UV lights!"
The Reaper invasion ends as abruptly as it began; those facing the Pack inside the club scurry away or burn up. Blade is calling for a sound-off over the comms and Nomak has apparently vanished.
Outside, though, it's still raining, and Scud is watching the exits of he club desperately, scanning the gray sheets of runoff for-
-there. Through the downpour, a hooded figure darts blurrily toward the shelter of a nearby building, probably heading for the sewer to regroup.
Fuck it. Scud's not gonna miss this chance. He rips the trailer door open and goes tearing through the rain, not giving a shit how cold and wet he's getting as he yells at the top of his lungs, "Nomak! Nomak!"
The figure pauses, turning, for just a second; it's just long enough. Scud puts on a burst of speed, his Converses slapping through the mud, and catches the hooded being by the arm, sending them both crashing through the doorway of a vacant, graffitied building. Of course, the Reaper's defenses immediately go up, and he recoils, hissing, his back hitting the concrete wall. The human throws his arms up, palms open, displaying his lack of weaponry.
"It's okay, man, it's- I just needed to..." He lowers his hands, brings his eyes up to meet Nomak's.
The pale vampiric creature is breathing heavily from his fight with Blade and his sudden scare. His eyes are deep and wild and for a second Scud wonders if the Reaper has forgotten, if he's just going to kill the familiar right now. Then Nomak's nostrils flare; his pupils dilate as they travel quickly over the human's body; his breath catches and he swallows hard.
"You."
Oh yeah. He remembers.
"Me? You!" Scud blurts, shaking water from his vision. "That was... I can't fuckin' believe that was you! I mean, just- what- why, man?"
"...'Why' what?" Nomak asks warily. His voice is hoarser than it was the last time, like he's swallowed sand and barbed wire.
"Why the fuck would you... I- back then, y'know, why didn't you just fuck me and snuff me? That's what any of the others- any of these other fuckers, they'd've screwed me and killed me and not thought twice about it! You're..." The human throws and exasperated hand up. "You're supposed to be some kinda mindless eating machine, not... I never thought- jesus, I never thought you were the one who- do you have any idea how long I tried to find y-" He cuts himself off, takes a breath, trying to force out words that make sense. "Just... why, Nomak?"
Hearing his name seems to jolt the Reaper; he blinks and sucks in a breath nervously. "Because I had been... where you were before."
The weight of his admission takes a few moments to sink in. Scud looks at him and feels something crack inside him. "You were... They..."
Nomak nods. Hesitantly, his arm moves, fingertips reaching up to brush damp hair away from the human's jay-blue eyes. Scud makes a tiny sound and steps forward, melts into the taller man, letting his hands grip Nomak's dirty coat and his face burrow into Nomak's chest. The pale being seems frozen, unsure, but his hands come up slowly to rest on the familiar's shoulders, which shake from cold or fear or stifled sobs. No warmth radiates from the Reaper's form, but his arms are firm and real and his heart thuds above the sound of the storm, safe and hidden inside its bone cage, and Scud's wanted this since that night; wanted to find the one vampire that was still human. The irony, of course, is that he turned out to be neither vampire or human. It would make Scud laugh if it didn't make him want to cry.
"You should go," Nomak murmurs at last, making no move to release the familiar. "They are looking for me... if they find you with me, they-"
"Take me with you," Scud says quickly, tightening his grip and turning wide eyes upward pleadingly. "Please, I'll just go with you, we could just leave the city, the fucking country, I don't care-"
The Reaper shakes his head, eyes full of pain. "I can't. It would be too dangerous-"
"Did you not hear me? I said I don't care!" The human's hands clench into fists. "It's all shit here anyway; I'd be safer with you than I am gettin' tossed between Blade and the Pack! I want to go with you. You- you like me, I know you do. I'm good; I'm really good, and I mean, not just at sex- I mean, I'm really good at sex!" He babbles in a nervous panic. "But I uh, I'm also good at other stuff. I can help you." His trained instincts kick in and he leans forward, nuzzling along Nomak's jaw, trailing his mouth over the bisecting scar down the Reaper's chin and feeling him shudder. It's a different shudder than the one he's used to- driven not by hunger but by a sudden spike of unexpected pleasure. "Take me with you," Scud whispers one more time, insistent, his palms moving over the sensitized skin under the hooded man's rain-soaked shirt.
Nomak arches slightly into the warmth of his palms, touch-deprived, and tangles his thin, strong fingers into Scud's hair, pressing their foreheads together. "When my father is dead," he says at length. "When it's over, if I live, I will come for you. Stay with Blade; stay safe. For me." His fierce, Arctic blue eyes lock onto the human's river-blue ones. "I will find you. I promise." His head tilts, lips parting, and halts, trepidatious, an inch away.
Scud closes the space eagerly, merging their mouths, his tongue slipping past the rows of perilous teeth to meet the long, barbed coil of muscle inside the Reaper's mouth. Nomak moans quietly, poisonous fangs tucked away, then gasps when the human bites at his own lip, slicing it. A drop of carmine wells up and is swiped away by the vampiric being's tongue.
The familiar moves his hands downward, smoothing over the pale man's torso and sliding around to settle on his ass, squeezing appreciatively and thoroughly enjoying the startled noise that reverberates from his partner's mouth into his.
The Reaper's head snaps up all of a sudden, pulling free from the kiss to stare with wild eyes into the curtain of still-falling water. "They're coming," he says with sad certainty.
Scud shakes his head bitterly, squinting against tears of anger at the shitty cards they've been dealt by circumstance. "You better find me," he reiterates. "You don't find me, it better be 'cause one or both of us is dead. Hear me?"
Nomak almost smiles, canting his head forward in assent. "I promise you," he repeats, withdrawing his hands. "Now go." He kisses the human's cheek once, chaste, shy even, and steps back, melting into the shadows.
The familiar watches the empty space where the Reaper stood for as long as possible, waiting, both hopeful and fearful that at the last second Nomak might change his mind, might turn around and come back for him.
He hears his name being called in the distance, ducks back through the doorway and toward the trailer. He makes up some excuse about looking for Whistler, which everyone seems to buy- they're mostly preoccupied with finding any stray Reapers left from the fight. It isn't until hours later, after the fervor has died down and they're back at the stronghold and he isn't really needed at the moment that Scud runs his tongue over the cut in his lip, tastes the copper tang left there, closes his eyes, and weeps.