FicWad

The rest of my night was spent watching Ryan. Neither of us said anything to each other. He seemed to understand that I wasn’t going to willingly spend time bonding with a vampire.

Once dawn broke he moved into a small closet and stayed there. I decided I’d go through the place to find some way out of there. There had to be something I could do. I sure as hell didn’t feel safe there. Sure the parasite had locked himself in a closet and the sun was up but I still didn’t have any weapons. I could take him for sure but I’d feel a hell of a lot better if I had something to protect myself with.

I searched through the lone dresser and found only clothes until I reached the bottommost drawer. Inside there were a bunch of random trinkets. They didn’t look like much but it was weird. I looked back at the closet door to make sure that Ryan was still inside and rummaged through the drawer some more. In the very back I found a small wooden music box. The box itself was stained a dark mahogany. When I opened it a small ballerina popped out and began twirling while playing a soft tune. It looked just like the one I had in my parents’ home…

A sharp knock came from the closet so I quickly closed the box and placed it carefully back in the drawer. At the bottom there were a few bobby pins, upon finding them I smiled to myself. I quickly walked to the door and worked on picking the lock. It took a few minutes but the lock eventually gave and I sighed in relief. Before leaving I wrote a quick note to Ryan.

I don’t trust you in the slightest. You may have been a good human but you’re a parasite now. You leave this place and I will find you. I will kill you, and I promise it will be the most painfully, agonizing death. It will not be a quick one.

I left the note on the table and walked out into the bright sunlight, smiling to myself. I pulled my boots off and silently made my way back to the warehouse, stewing in my own anger.

By the time I got back I was more than pissed off. I all but ran up the stairs into the meeting room, knowing Patrick would be there. When he saw me he looked confused. “Jack, I—I—what? I have the only key?”

I sucked in a deep breath, doing everything I could to control my anger. “Do not underestimate me Patrick. You ever pull a stunt like that again and I will kick your ass into next Tuesday.”

He nodded his head. “Understood.”

I glared at him. “We need to talk about Ryan.”

He rolled his eyes at me, knowing where this conversation was going. “Yeah, yeah, you don’t like him I get it. But Jack you don’t have to like him. We can learn so much about the vampires with Ryan on our side! I know you don’t think there’s a cure but I do and I know that I can figure it out.” He stopped talking and looked me dead in the eye. “Jack there is so much that we don’t know about vampires, so much left that we have to learn.”

I clenched my jaw and against my better judgment, I agreed with him. I took in a deep breath and chose my next words very carefully. “You’re right. We do have a lot to learn about them. Maybe…using him for testing isn’t such a bad idea. I’m not saying there is a cure,” I added quickly, “but there is a lot we don’t know. We need everyone’s opinions though. Go get Pete and Spence, I’ll find Gee.”

I ran up the stairs, knowing he’d probably be on the roof. It’s where he spent a lot of the time. He said he liked to be able to keep an eye on everything. He was leaning against the ledge, looking out over the vacant lot and smoking a cigarette. I sidled up beside him and just stood with him, looking out at our desolate view. Our warehouse was on the outskirts of town. For a few miles the only things around us were rundown buildings and empty houses. It wasn’t really the prettiest sight but there was something I liked about it.

“Patrick and I have something really important we need to talk about.”

“The date for the wedding already picked out?” He joked.

I rolled my eyes. It was ridiculous how often the guys joked about it. Patrick and I were nothing and they needed to get that through their thick skulls. “We’re at each other’s throats, not each other’s privates.” Gerard chuckled and took a drag from his cigarette.

“Well what is it then? Is there a little Stump in the oven.” His eyes glinted playfully and I was so ready to hit him.

“Jesus Christ Gerard, one more joke and I’ll push you over the edge. Come on.” I gestured for him to follow and thankfully he obliged.

We walked down to the meeting room where Trick, Spencer, and Pete already sat. Patrick and Spencer were huddled together over a few sheets of paper and talking in hushed whispers. Pete had his feet on the table and was leaning back. When Gerard and I entered they all looked over at us. Patrick stood up and walked over to me. “So we really need to talk to you.”

“Getting married?” Pete joked. I glared at him, wishing his chair would fall over or something of the like.

I ignored his statement and pushed Trick to go on. “So I’ve been keeping something from you all. I knew that you wouldn’t approve so I didn’t say anything.”

“Damn straight we wouldn’t approve,” I mumbled under my breath.

Patrick glared at me. “You wanna tell ‘em?”

“Patrick’s been keeping a vampire locked up in an abandoned building,” I said, never taking my eyes off of him. I turned back to the guys and bit back a smile at their reactions. Pete was staring at us angrily while Spencer and Gerard had more shocked expressions.

“Very bluntly put Jack, thank you.” The sarcasm was very clear in his voice. “After the initial panic of the disease my friend came to me for help. He’d been turned so I found him a place to stay. I started running tests on him hoping there’d be something I could find but so far they’ve all come out inconclusive.”

Pete looked livid at this point and I didn’t blame him. I was pretty pissed off myself. “What the fuck Patrick! How dumb can you be?” Pete shouted angrily.

“Hey, whoa uncalled for Pete. Yeah it’s pretty dumb but…he could be right. I’m not saying there’s a cure like Patrick seems to think, but it could be really beneficial to us. I mean there’s a lot that we don’t know about them.” Pete had gotten up in the middle of my speech and was now standing dangerously close to Patrick with a scowl on his face.

“I say we kill the bloodsucker now and be done with it.”

Patrick’s mouth dropped open. “That’s my friend, no way!”

“Yeah, well he’s a parasite now. You know what we do with parasites?” Pete was now in Patrick’s face, his upper lip curling over every word. “We kill them.”

Gerard stood up and pushed Pete back. “Both of you just shut up, Jesus.” He pulled Pete back to his chair and continued standing. “You both have a point ok? Yeah, the vampire could help us, and yeah he could be dangerous, but if Jack thinks it’s a good idea then…maybe it’s worth a shot.” His words didn’t make either Spencer or Pete relax.

“Should we put it to a vote then?” I asked quietly.

“Why bother? Two against three—you’ve got lover boys one and two over there on your side.” Pete said angrily.

I glared at him. “I don’t like it any more than you do, Pete, but it’s a good idea and you damn well know that. If you’re gonna be a dick then we don’t need your approval on this.” Pete got up and stormed out of the room. He was seriously pissed now but he was being a dick. He needed to calm the fuck down. Yeah what Patrick did wasn’t the smartest but he didn’t need to be an asshole about it. I sighed in annoyance. “Can someone please go soothe his ego.”

“I’ll be back.” Patrick stated before leaving to find Pete.

I turned to Spencer. “You’ve been awfully quiet.”

His jaw clenched and he was quiet for a long time. “I don’t like it Jack.”

“I don’t think anyone does, Spencer.”

He sighed. “I guess I can’t stop you guys can I?”

“Even if I wasn’t on his side Patrick wouldn’t give up, you know that.”

“Then I guess it doesn’t matter what I say.” At that he got up and left.

I sighed and sat down in Spencer’s empty chair, crossing my arms over my chest. “Why is everyone so fucking hard to please?”

Gerard sat down net to me. “Well think about it from Pete’s view. After what happened to his family wouldn’t you hate those things too?”

“Gee, I do hate them. Believe me I know what it’s like. His family was killed, that’s gotta suck but that doesn’t change this from being a good idea.” I pointed out. “Don’t get me wrong, Pete has every right to feel the way he does, I just don’t think he should ignore something good because of his anger.” Fuck Patrick put me in a tough situation.

We sat in silence for a few minutes before Gerard spoke up. “Jack we do need to talk about something.”

I looked at him, raising an eyebrow. “What is it?”

“Jo and Mikey need to learn self-defense.”

“What?” It was more of a growl than a question.

“Jack, it needs to be done. They need to know how to protect themselves.”

“No.”

“Jack—”

“No. Get Pete to teach Mikey if you want but Jo will not learn.” I didn’t even want to think about Jo out there fighting. I didn’t care that she was almost exactly like me; I could protect her just fine. I wouldn’t let her out alone anyway. I knew our warehouse wasn’t the greatest but at least I knew where she was.

“Jack, you know they’re ready for it.”

“No Gerard! They’re not and you know it. Mikey can learn if you want, it’s your decision but it’s different for Jo. I can actually protect her!” Gerard stared at me angrily. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“I know exactly what you meant. Maybe you don’t think Jo is ready but I assure you, she is. Maybe you should take your head out of your ass and follow some of your own advice.” He got up and angrily left the room.

Great. I was just pissing everyone off today. Gerard was, of course, referring to what I’d said about Pete. This was different though. Training Jo was not a good idea. Training meant sending her out on her own and sending her into dangerous situations. It will be a cold day in hell before I let that happen.