FicWad

“You’re not serious?” Joe asked, his brow creasing with the words. “Chicken?”
“No,” Patrick laughed. “But it does taste surprisingly good. I mean, I wouldn’t recommend it for you, vampire taste buds are, apparently, well… a little different.”
“Can I ask another question?” Joe asked hesitantly.
“Sure,” Patrick replied, with concern, detecting the uncertainty in Joe’s voice.
“You,” Joe began, “you seem to be taking this really well. I mean… you’re accepting it better than Pete. Way better than I could. I… I guess what I’m trying to say is, I’m surprised.”
“Hmm, yeah,” Patrick nodded. “I can’t really speak for Pete, he’s got other issues, but there’s something inherent about the change that makes it feel normal.”
“But you don’t seem so…”
“Angry?” Patrick offered.
“No,” Joe agreed.
“You see Pete angry and you think he’s angry at what he is. I realise now that that’s not the case. That’s the easy part to deal with.”
“What’s the hard part?” Andy asked, joining the conversation.
“I’m not the one that has to accept this. You do.” Patrick admitted. “Yeah, I want to drink blood now and provided I keep a check on myself and do the right things, you’ll be safe. And I know that, but, you can’t trust me any more, not fully and I know that too. That’s the hard part. I wouldn’t have bitten you, Joe. I was just a bit overwhelmed when I first woke.”
Joe smiled and nodded.
“So why is Pete so angry but you’re not?” Andy asked, still unsure whether the question had been answered.
“Pete’s angry at Beckett and his coven. How can I be angry at the person who turned me?”
“Pete?”
“And me for making him do it,” Andy added.
Patrick smiled. “I can be angry at Beckett for what he did to Pete in the first place, and for forcing Pete’s bloodlust to make him try to kill me. But I understand that you both did what you did because you wanted to save my life.”
“But, real food, daylight and all that other stuff?”
Patrick offered a small shrug. “You’ve got to understand, it changes your priorities. You’d think you’d miss all that, but… it’s not there. I’m still me, but with different needs.”
“How do we know it’s still you?” Andy asked with a frown.
“Well,” Patrick sighed. “You don’t and I can’t prove it to you. You’ve read my notes, so I guess you know my theory on why Pete isn’t evil.”
“He tried to eat me!” Andy grumbled.
“He probably won’t even remember that,” Patrick observed. “He would have been really out of it at the time.”
“Well, it’s not something I can forget in a hurry.”
“Can you forgive him?” asked Patrick, partly for Pete, partly testing the waters for his own condition.
“Well, if he’s back with Beckett, it’s probably better if I don’t. He can’t be trusted, no vampire can! I… Patrick… I… I’m sorry! I didn’t mean you.”

Patrick lowered his eyes. Andy’s contradictory responses reminded him of how they had all been when Pete first returned to them. How they wanted to trust him, but couldn’t. Patrick nodded his understanding.

“It’s okay. When you’re ready to, I hope you’ll just accept it.”
“And if we can’t or we don’t know when?” Andy asked hesitantly. “Or if you’re really not?”
“Well, then I hope you’ll kill me.”

Andy and Joe’s eyes widened at the words. Of all the things they had expected Patrick to say, that certainly wasn’t one of them.

“Kill you?” Joe managed to say.
“Yeah,” Patrick nodded sincerely. “I don’t want to stay chained up forever. If you can never trust me, then you at least have to release me that way.”
“I can’t do that,” Joe shook his head.
“Then I hope you trust me,” Patrick’s expression was a mask of sincerity. “This is not how I want to spend eternity.”

Andy took a deep breath at the words; it was quite an ultimatum.

“Can we get you anything?” he asked finally.
“Umm… I could probably manage another one of those,” Patrick replied pointing at the empty glass.
“Er… yeah,” Andy nodded, “there’s plenty left.”

*

Pete withdrew slowly from Beckett’s wrist and, licking his lips clean of all remaining blood, looked up expectantly. He was surprised to see that Beckett appeared almost asleep. Leaning back in the chair, eyes closed, a slight smile on his handsome, boyish face.

Pete’s eyes opened wide as suddenly, he realised where he was. Recoiling, he dropped Beckett’s hand, causing the vampire leader to open his eyes once more. Staring at Pete, Beckett frowned at the shocked expression on Pete’s face as he still knelt beside him.

“What’s wrong, Peter?” Beckett asked as his frown deepened at Pete’s response.
“M… Master,” Pete recovered quickly, trying to hide his shock and discomfort as he came to his senses once more. “I thought something was wrong. When I looked up… you were…”

Beckett smiled, accepting Pete’s explanation.

“You’ve forgotten, haven’t you?” he smoothed Pete’s hair as he spoke. “I need to do this to make you strong enough for my task, but it drains me.”
“What is my task, Master William?” Pete asked, keen to know why he had been fed Beckett’s blood for so long.

Beckett’s mouth lengthened into a broad grin as he thought about the plan he had spent almost two years perfecting.

“Next week, there is a Coven Leaders meeting. All six leaders will be there. I have told them that I am bringing you, my rogue vampire, with me. That you are now back under my control and I am presenting you to them as a gift. Initially, it was supposed to be for forgiveness of one of Brendon’s more serious transgressions, but we do not mention that name in this Coven any more. Nevertheless, I will hand you over.”
“Master?” Pete ventured, assuming he ought to sound shocked by the proposal.
“Don’t worry, you will be returning with me. I will show them how you are changed by your drinking of human blood in front of them. A nice touch would have been to have you kill one of your hunter friends, but no matter, I have something almost as good. The human girl you were originally going to take as your first kill, she is here and will serve well enough. What the Coven Leaders don’t know is that after drinking my blood for so long, human blood will, temporarily, make you far stronger than you could imagine. Most of the leaders are less than one hundred years old; they will be no match for us. Between us we will kill them all and I will give their seconds the ultimatum – serve us or die. My Coven will reign supreme above all others, there will be no one to interfere with my plans beyond this city.”

Pete stared up, open-mouthed. Beckett’s coven was already universally known and feared. The idea that they may move on other coven’s territories and weak havoc in other cities, spreading their own brand of terror and corruption on a state, country or even worldwide basis was unimaginable. And what had he meant about Brendon? How could he have fallen so quickly from grace?

“We have to wait?” Pete replied, playing the part to fool Beckett.
“Not yet, I’ve waited nearly two years for this, I can wait a few more days.” Beckett shook his head, his jaw length soft brown hair falling gently across his pale cheeks. “First, I think we should announce your return to us.”

Without his hat, cape and all the other trappings of decadence he loved so much, he looked so much younger. Perhaps, as a young vampire starting his own coven, he felt he needed his props to command respect. It was not until later that he realised that it was power and the ability to instil fear that commanded respect in the vampire world. Those qualities he had in abundance. The guise he had created for himself only added to his air of self-importance. He was a vampire to be feared, and he would use Pete to show how much.

“Ah!” Beckett smiled at the soft knock on the door. “Perfect timing. Enter!”

The door opened to reveal Spencer, holding a struggling human boy, roughly in his mid-teens. Pete tried hard not to react, but he knew instinctively that this was to be Beckett’s meal. He couldn’t sit back and allow Beckett to kill the boy, but without giving himself away, what could he do? It was time to tell Beckett who really released them. Perhaps with some judicial use of the truth, Pete could divert Beckett and avoid telling him that, despite his supposed new-found allegiance, his friends were still alive and… relatively well.

Rising to his feet, Pete scowled at Spencer who stared back wide-eyed and stunned in return.

“You have this traitor bringing you your food now, Master William?”
“William, what is this?” Spencer appeared both angry and confused, throwing the frightened young boy to the floor at Beckett’s feet.
“Traitor?” Beckett turned a furrowed brow towards Pete.
“Shut up, Wentz!” Spencer snapped. “William, he’s lying to you! Don’t listen to him.”
“I saw your face when you walked in, Spencer, before he said a word. Peter, why is Spencer a traitor?”
“William!” Spencer cried. “Don’t! He’s trying to trick you!”
“He was the one who let them go!” Pete announced. “I was draining Patrick when they tasered Brendon, then me. When I woke up, I was in chains and locked in a cage in their base!” He continued, leaving out some crucial points.
“You fed from Patrick? Human blood, that could explain it,” Beckett said as, in his mind, the explanation for Pete’s return presented itself.
“No!” Spencer cried. “It means nothing! He’s lying!”
“Peter,” Beckett flicked a finger in Spencer’s direction. “Stop short of killing him.”

For the first time in the entire conversation, Pete didn’t have to pretend. Glad too, that Beckett was distracted from the boy, who had now crawled to one side, huddled in terror.

“My pleasure!”