Categories > Celebrities > Fall Out Boy > Bloodlines
Pete didn’t know what to make of Kara. She was extroverted and loquacious in the same way he used to be; all easy smiles and braying laughter to keep the listener enthralled and the conversation easy. She had all the right moves, looking into his eyes just long enough to draw him in, but not so long as to disturb him. Repeating his name with every other sentence to make him feel as though the attention would always squarely be on him so he wouldn’t ask her about herself. She even handed him a handkerchief from her backpack when she noticed his discomfort with her smell, smiling apologetically.
The song and dance made him uncomfortable not just because she was a vampire hunter, but also because it was so familiar. With everyone he’d ever met, regardless of how close they’d become, Pete would play the same game, taking on the part of the tantalizing, enticing enigma. Did he find her transparent because she was laying it on too thick or because he knew all the tricks? He wondered if he used to be this obvious when chatting up new people, and if they could see the same sadness in his eyes he saw in Kara’s.
She suddenly nudged him impatiently, expression curious. He shook himself out of his stupor, stumbling slightly, but she didn’t miss a step. Patrick’s directions were clear enough that even a newcomer like Kara understood them.
“Are you going to answer my question?” She tilted her head in a coy kind of way, pursing her lips, and Pete realized he was staring too intently. He just shook his head in confusion, causing her to repeat exasperatedly, “Who are these guys again?”
“Some dudes I’m in a band with,” he replied, voice muffled from the handkerchief. “They’re all really cool and accepting…usually.”
Kara smirked at this, “Being the ‘accepting dudes’ you say they are—do you think they’ll want to learn too?”
He hadn’t considered that. Knowing his bandmates, they’d… What would they do? They sure weren’t cowards or anything, but he imagined fighting vampires required more than courage. He wasn’t even sure he wanted them to learn to fight. The thought of his best friends in danger made him feel sick to his stomach.
Seeming to take his silence as a response, Kara quirked an eyebrow and nodded. She looked as though she was annoyed for a moment before brightening just as quickly.
“Well, it’d be their decision, wouldn’t it?”
Pete nodded at this quickly, but the subject of his friends immediately put him on edge. How would they react to the fact that he was a vampire? Patrick seemed pretty calm about it on the phone earlier, but the pessimist in Pete attributed that calm to surprise that their bassist was even alive.
Well, kind of alive.
In truth, being a vampire wasn’t like the stories he’d read when he was younger. Of course there was the smelling humans thing, but the only scent he could definitively detect was Kara’s. Any others were just in the general, unidentifiable background. The same went for hearing; he’d always thought it’d be like bat ears or something, but was basically like living with hearing aids all the way turned up. The tiniest pin drop wasn’t annoying, but still noticeable.
The thing that really felt different was his sight. It was like he’d upgraded to HD. Looking at Kara as she walked ahead of him (he wondered if he always slowed down when deep in thought), he saw every strand of her hair, every pore on the back of her neck, the minute strand of cotton freeing itself from her shirt. But at the same time the big picture was incredibly clear. The normally average streets of Chicago looked especially grubby now.
Would any other changes be so…mundane?
“A lot of the big changes for vampires come at about a year after they’re turned.”
Pete supposed he’d spoken out loud. He moved to catch up with Kara. By this point, they’d reached a shadier point in the streets and the warehouse was visible ahead, the head of a street lined with vacant or condemned lots. That was new.
“Why doesn’t it happen all at once?”
Kara hummed. “Well, changing is more gradual than it seems, I guess. Your bloodlust will get worse before it gets better, and you haven’t really reached your peak physical ability yet. Not to mention that you won’t even be awake half the time.”
“W-What?”
They’d approached the door of the warehouse, finally, and Kara turned toward him, knocking at the same time.
“You’ll be able to stay on a 24-hour schedule easily a few months from now. But for the moment, when dawn hits, your body will shut down.”
She said it so matter-of-factly, like she wasn’t talking about him passing the fuck out on a daily basis beyond his control. Maybe this disturbing fact was par for the course for her, but he still had so much to get used to—
The door opened slowly, revealing a face Pete was grateful to see: Joe didn’t look like he’d changed that much, so Pete couldn’t have been trapped for too long. He still had those bushy brown curls that coiled and twisted every which way, a perfect representation of his erratic personality. A personality that often conflicted with the calmness always present in those deep blue eyes, which were now set on Pete like they couldn’t believe what they were seeing.
Pete didn’t know who moved first, he just knew that his arms were wrapping around Joe’s lean torso and Joe’s arms were snaked around his, and Joe placing his face in the crook of his neck, breathing shallowly like he wasn’t breathing before. At close proximity, Pete got a whiff of Joe, subdued and sweet, and he became thankful for the handkerchief. But if Joe cared about the danger of getting near a vampire’s mouth, he wasn’t showing it.
“Joe, is it—”
The door opened wider, and Patrick appeared, ruffling his strawberry hair and putting a fedora over it. Pete caught his eye over Joe’s shoulder, and the human visibly stiffened. Pete was only able to open his mouth before Patrick lunged forward, enveloping the two others in a bear hug.
At that moment, Pete didn’t care that the scents of friends (and he couldn’t tell if Patrick actually smelled sweeter than Joe or if he just smelled stronger) were intermingling so closely to his nose. He didn’t care that his throat was dry as a bone or that his mouth was salivating. He could control himself just a bit longer, if it meant that he could stay in this embrace.
Kara cleared her throat awkwardly. The trio released one another sheepishly, still smiling. Pete felt like his grin could light up a city as he gestured to her.
“This is Kara. She’s the hunter I told you about.”
Continuing the trend of being unsettling as shit, Kara made no indication that she’d ever experienced or perhaps just didn’t care for normal introductions. Instead, she bluntly asked,
“So are you guys at all shocked that your friend is a vampire?”
Patrick simply blinked, bewildered. Pete couldn’t help but shoot her a sidelong glare; this girl didn’t know him for twenty minutes and didn’t know his friends for more than five, and yet she felt entitled to question them? Granted, it was a fair question, but he was starting to miss the overly-familiar charming routine she had going before.
“He’s our friend,” Joe replied as though it were obvious.
“He is your friend,” she repeated. She made the very concept sound alien and bizarre. Pete started to wonder if he’d like her as much as he did before they’d arrived. “But he’s also a vampire.”
Joe seemed, in his very Joe way, not as annoyed as Pete or as dumbfounded as Patrick. He just gave her a half smirk that was somewhat sad. Pete decided he definitely didn’t like this look on his friend.
“Those two things aren’t mutually exclusive,” he shrugged. “He’s been our friend. Nothing’s changed.”
Pete felt a great affection swell up in his chest at the words. He didn’t care what anyone said; the best feeling in the world wasn’t belonging, it was feeling Not Alone. He moved to step over the threshold of the door to hug his friend, but felt himself barred from entry by some invisible force.
Patrick’s eyes widened, but his face softened with a look from Kara. Her face had yet again changed from the blank stare she was giving Joe to that charismatic grin. It seemed to be working its curative powers on the redhead.
“Doesn’t Pete live here with you guys?” She looked sly, and Pete struggled to see the joke.
“I guess you both live here now,” Patrick responded curiously.
She nodded and gestured with a hand as if to tell Pete to try going in again. Clearly, she knew something he didn’t. Well, obviously she knew a lot of things he didn’t. But this was something she seemed to expect him to know.
Ignoring the headache he was giving himself, Pete jumped toward the threshold, expecting to feel that invisible forcefield again. Instead, he collided into an unsuspecting Joe, bowling him over.
“Lesson number one,” Kara said triumphantly, stepping over the threshold herself, “a vampire must be invited into a place of residence their first time visiting. Unless, of course, it’s their place of residence. Where can I sleep?”
An impressed Patrick led her up the staircase that was conveniently by the doorway, leaving Pete to help Joe up. A thought occurred to Pete.
“Hey, where’s Andy?”
The song and dance made him uncomfortable not just because she was a vampire hunter, but also because it was so familiar. With everyone he’d ever met, regardless of how close they’d become, Pete would play the same game, taking on the part of the tantalizing, enticing enigma. Did he find her transparent because she was laying it on too thick or because he knew all the tricks? He wondered if he used to be this obvious when chatting up new people, and if they could see the same sadness in his eyes he saw in Kara’s.
She suddenly nudged him impatiently, expression curious. He shook himself out of his stupor, stumbling slightly, but she didn’t miss a step. Patrick’s directions were clear enough that even a newcomer like Kara understood them.
“Are you going to answer my question?” She tilted her head in a coy kind of way, pursing her lips, and Pete realized he was staring too intently. He just shook his head in confusion, causing her to repeat exasperatedly, “Who are these guys again?”
“Some dudes I’m in a band with,” he replied, voice muffled from the handkerchief. “They’re all really cool and accepting…usually.”
Kara smirked at this, “Being the ‘accepting dudes’ you say they are—do you think they’ll want to learn too?”
He hadn’t considered that. Knowing his bandmates, they’d… What would they do? They sure weren’t cowards or anything, but he imagined fighting vampires required more than courage. He wasn’t even sure he wanted them to learn to fight. The thought of his best friends in danger made him feel sick to his stomach.
Seeming to take his silence as a response, Kara quirked an eyebrow and nodded. She looked as though she was annoyed for a moment before brightening just as quickly.
“Well, it’d be their decision, wouldn’t it?”
Pete nodded at this quickly, but the subject of his friends immediately put him on edge. How would they react to the fact that he was a vampire? Patrick seemed pretty calm about it on the phone earlier, but the pessimist in Pete attributed that calm to surprise that their bassist was even alive.
Well, kind of alive.
In truth, being a vampire wasn’t like the stories he’d read when he was younger. Of course there was the smelling humans thing, but the only scent he could definitively detect was Kara’s. Any others were just in the general, unidentifiable background. The same went for hearing; he’d always thought it’d be like bat ears or something, but was basically like living with hearing aids all the way turned up. The tiniest pin drop wasn’t annoying, but still noticeable.
The thing that really felt different was his sight. It was like he’d upgraded to HD. Looking at Kara as she walked ahead of him (he wondered if he always slowed down when deep in thought), he saw every strand of her hair, every pore on the back of her neck, the minute strand of cotton freeing itself from her shirt. But at the same time the big picture was incredibly clear. The normally average streets of Chicago looked especially grubby now.
Would any other changes be so…mundane?
“A lot of the big changes for vampires come at about a year after they’re turned.”
Pete supposed he’d spoken out loud. He moved to catch up with Kara. By this point, they’d reached a shadier point in the streets and the warehouse was visible ahead, the head of a street lined with vacant or condemned lots. That was new.
“Why doesn’t it happen all at once?”
Kara hummed. “Well, changing is more gradual than it seems, I guess. Your bloodlust will get worse before it gets better, and you haven’t really reached your peak physical ability yet. Not to mention that you won’t even be awake half the time.”
“W-What?”
They’d approached the door of the warehouse, finally, and Kara turned toward him, knocking at the same time.
“You’ll be able to stay on a 24-hour schedule easily a few months from now. But for the moment, when dawn hits, your body will shut down.”
She said it so matter-of-factly, like she wasn’t talking about him passing the fuck out on a daily basis beyond his control. Maybe this disturbing fact was par for the course for her, but he still had so much to get used to—
The door opened slowly, revealing a face Pete was grateful to see: Joe didn’t look like he’d changed that much, so Pete couldn’t have been trapped for too long. He still had those bushy brown curls that coiled and twisted every which way, a perfect representation of his erratic personality. A personality that often conflicted with the calmness always present in those deep blue eyes, which were now set on Pete like they couldn’t believe what they were seeing.
Pete didn’t know who moved first, he just knew that his arms were wrapping around Joe’s lean torso and Joe’s arms were snaked around his, and Joe placing his face in the crook of his neck, breathing shallowly like he wasn’t breathing before. At close proximity, Pete got a whiff of Joe, subdued and sweet, and he became thankful for the handkerchief. But if Joe cared about the danger of getting near a vampire’s mouth, he wasn’t showing it.
“Joe, is it—”
The door opened wider, and Patrick appeared, ruffling his strawberry hair and putting a fedora over it. Pete caught his eye over Joe’s shoulder, and the human visibly stiffened. Pete was only able to open his mouth before Patrick lunged forward, enveloping the two others in a bear hug.
At that moment, Pete didn’t care that the scents of friends (and he couldn’t tell if Patrick actually smelled sweeter than Joe or if he just smelled stronger) were intermingling so closely to his nose. He didn’t care that his throat was dry as a bone or that his mouth was salivating. He could control himself just a bit longer, if it meant that he could stay in this embrace.
Kara cleared her throat awkwardly. The trio released one another sheepishly, still smiling. Pete felt like his grin could light up a city as he gestured to her.
“This is Kara. She’s the hunter I told you about.”
Continuing the trend of being unsettling as shit, Kara made no indication that she’d ever experienced or perhaps just didn’t care for normal introductions. Instead, she bluntly asked,
“So are you guys at all shocked that your friend is a vampire?”
Patrick simply blinked, bewildered. Pete couldn’t help but shoot her a sidelong glare; this girl didn’t know him for twenty minutes and didn’t know his friends for more than five, and yet she felt entitled to question them? Granted, it was a fair question, but he was starting to miss the overly-familiar charming routine she had going before.
“He’s our friend,” Joe replied as though it were obvious.
“He is your friend,” she repeated. She made the very concept sound alien and bizarre. Pete started to wonder if he’d like her as much as he did before they’d arrived. “But he’s also a vampire.”
Joe seemed, in his very Joe way, not as annoyed as Pete or as dumbfounded as Patrick. He just gave her a half smirk that was somewhat sad. Pete decided he definitely didn’t like this look on his friend.
“Those two things aren’t mutually exclusive,” he shrugged. “He’s been our friend. Nothing’s changed.”
Pete felt a great affection swell up in his chest at the words. He didn’t care what anyone said; the best feeling in the world wasn’t belonging, it was feeling Not Alone. He moved to step over the threshold of the door to hug his friend, but felt himself barred from entry by some invisible force.
Patrick’s eyes widened, but his face softened with a look from Kara. Her face had yet again changed from the blank stare she was giving Joe to that charismatic grin. It seemed to be working its curative powers on the redhead.
“Doesn’t Pete live here with you guys?” She looked sly, and Pete struggled to see the joke.
“I guess you both live here now,” Patrick responded curiously.
She nodded and gestured with a hand as if to tell Pete to try going in again. Clearly, she knew something he didn’t. Well, obviously she knew a lot of things he didn’t. But this was something she seemed to expect him to know.
Ignoring the headache he was giving himself, Pete jumped toward the threshold, expecting to feel that invisible forcefield again. Instead, he collided into an unsuspecting Joe, bowling him over.
“Lesson number one,” Kara said triumphantly, stepping over the threshold herself, “a vampire must be invited into a place of residence their first time visiting. Unless, of course, it’s their place of residence. Where can I sleep?”
An impressed Patrick led her up the staircase that was conveniently by the doorway, leaving Pete to help Joe up. A thought occurred to Pete.
“Hey, where’s Andy?”
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