FicWad

Two
9:15 AM

"I saw you talking to Frankie earlier," Jeff said, his eyes trained carefully on the spray-painted back of the My Chemical Romance bus.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah." Jeff glanced at him. "What'd you say?"
"Why?"
"You know why," Jeff said, tapping his fingers impatiently on the steering wheel. "What did you tell him?" When he asked the question this time, there was a hard edge to his voice.
"I didn't tell him, if that's what you're worried about."
"You need to."
"I-what?" His friend's words caught Trent completely off-guard.
"They should know," Jeff said quietly after a moment. "They all have a right to know."
The rain was coming down more heavily now, beating down on the top of the bus.
"I can tell Frank... I don't know if he'd believe me." Trent caught his bottom lip between his teeth and looked out the window, staring at the rain-drenched desert. The parched sands seemed to soak up the rain-probably the last that it would get for months to come. "You would have to come."
"I can.... I'll tell Gerard."
"We need to tell him before we get into Santa Rose," Trent said softly, now looking over at the man beside him. "They can't go in there and not know what's going on."
He saw the color drain from his brother's face suddenly.
"Jeff? What's-"
"They've gotten more hostile," Jeff whispered. "I only just remembered. With Krishna leading them now..."
Trent froze. "Oh, God."
Everyone knew how Krishna hated newcomers. Why hadn't he remembered this? He was leading the band into almost certain death... and they had no idea.
He couldn't let this happen.
"I-we-can probably keep him at bay long enough for you to tell them," Jeff said. "You can convince them?"
"I'll try."
Silence.
"Good-they're turning," Jeff said. Trent looked up and saw that the My Chemical Romance was turning into another truck stop. There was a sign just to the right of them that said 'Welcome to Santa Rose'.
They followed them in. Ray got out and knelt next to the rear left tire.
"Got a flat?" Jeff asked, pulling up beside them and rolling down his window.
"Yeah," Ray said. "Fuckin' thing, I just replaced this one a month ago."
"We have some spares if you need one," Trent said.
"Yeah, I could use one. I don't think we have any."
Jeff got out and went to the back of the bus. Trent got out, too, and lit a smoke, watching Frank get out of the bus.
"Fuck, don't tell me we have a flat," Gerard groaned, getting out after Frank.
"Okay, I won't tell you," Ray said, straightening up.
Frank walked over to Trent, taking a long draw on his own cigarette.
"Hey, kid," he said, stopping beside him.
"Frank, can I talk to you?"
"Sure."
"Over here."
Frank raised his eyebrows but followed Trent until they were almost behind the stop. "What's up?"
Trent paused for a moment. This had to be handled delicately.
"We-you-can't go into Santa Rose," he said finally.
"Why not?"
Trent took even longer in responding this time. He took a brooding draw on his cigarette. "It's not safe for you."
"Why the hell not?"
"It's just not," Trent said quietly, staring him in the eyes. "Trust me on this, okay?"
"I will if you tell me why it's not."
Trent closed his eyes. "It's better if you don't know."
"I don't care. Tell me."
"Frank..."
"Tell me."
"Fine," Trent snapped. He bared his teeth and Frank backed away, his dark eyes wide.
"No fuckin' way."
"Yes fuckin' way," Trent said simply.
"Those are fake. There's no way..."
Trent sighed and brought his hand to his mouth. When he moved it down, blood was trailing in a thin stream down onto his wrist. There was a short cut between his thumb and index finger.
"You believe me now?"
"But-no-what's this got to do with Santa Rose?"
"The entire town. Everyone-everyone is like me."
Frank shook his head. "No. No, that's not possible. That's just not possible."
Trent caught his wrist and, with surprising strength, pulled the older man towards him. Frank's face drained as Trent positioned his mouth just above his vulnerable throat, his fangs just barely pricking the skin, twin beads of blood growing at the surface.
He pulled away, leaving Frank looking shaken and scared. "Believe me now?"
"But... you're out in the daytime... and you sleep at night..."
Trent shrugged. "I'm inactive. We all are."
"We?" Frank choked out. "There are... oh, my God." He was silent for a moment. "All of you?"
Trent nodded slowly. "All of us. Frank, listen to me. If you go into Santa Rose... you'll be killed."
"Why are you telling me this?"
Trent shrugged again. "Believe it or not, I'm fond of you. I have this nasty habit of preventing people I like from dying."
Frank stared at him for a moment. "You're serious, aren't you?"
"Dead serious."
Frank leaned against the side of the building. "So, tell me more about these vampires. I'm going to assume that they're not the I vant to suck your blood kind."
"Not really," Trent said. "I'm not, am I?"
"Next question. Who's in charge?"
"Apparantly-Jeff told me this-there's a younger vampire name Krishna that's taken over. There was a pretty violent power struggle when we lived there. I'm pretty sure we were the last two full humans in Santa Rose while it was going on." He was silent for a moment. "Krishna was the one who turned me into... what I am. Krishna's not called Los Lobo for nothing. He's ruthless, vicious. Bad idea to oppose him."
"You said full humans," Frank observed. "So there are... part humans?"
Trent nodded. "Half-vamps make up about a fourth of the town. Some are half-humans, some half-weres. There are even a few shape-shifters... Most of them were sold in, though. Very few of them want to be associated with vamps. At least, the western blood."
"Weres?"
"Werewolves," Trent corrected himself. Frank's eyes widened.
"There are hardly any pure vamps left. Most of them are-or were-from ancient families, so most of them were killed off in the power struggle. I don't think Krishna himself is pure-blooded. Almost everyone has some sort of other blood in them-most of them are like me. Human... once," he amended bitterly.
"Sounds like these guys mean business. Does anyone oppose... Krishna?"
"Yeah. There's a rival who opposes the killing of any humans that come through the town. He's got a few followers that are gaining strength to go up against Krishna. Unfortunately... he's not in Santa Rose much."
"Who is he?"
Trent smiled thinly. "Me."
Frank's eyes gleamed suddenly. "You-you're the one who could... save everyone from Krishna?"
"After the former leader of the rebel faction was killed in a revolt," Trent said slowly, "I was chosen by the rebel council. Some of them thought that I was too young-hell, I thought so, too-but they think I'm doing a good job. There was a revolt planned for this week... Tomorrow night. I remembered it in the bus... and I knew I had to stop you from coming here."
"Who was the leader before you?" Frank started pacing, back and forth in front of Trent, who was leaning against the side of the building.
"Her name was Kali. Legend has it..." He sighed slightly and looked down at his shoes. "Legend has it that there was once some sort of romantic involvement between the two. Krishna was unfaithful to her... and when Krishna became the new leader and started killing and enslaving humans, she did something about it.
"When he began to make more vampires... she started the three branches of the rebels. First there's Helada, the Eastern branch. They're ineffective now, but that doesn't matter because there are only a handful of people. There are plenty of people who oppose Krishna... they're all too cowardly to do anything about it except the people in my division."
"You said three branches," Frank observed, leaving the question unspoken.
"The second and most effective is Sangre," Trent continued, "which is the group directly in Santa Rose. Then the third is stationed farther south, Piedra."
"Helada... Sangre... Piedra," Frank murmured. "Frost... Blood... Stone."
Trent nodded. "Spanish was Kali's native language. To her, I suppose it was fitting."
"How many are there?"
Trent raised his eyebrows. "Didn't catch that."
"How many vampires are there? The ones under Krishna."
"Too many. At least two hundred... three quarters of those in Santa Rose alone."
"How many rebels are there?"
"Counting me, my brother, David and Chris... I'd say... fifty, give or take."
"You forgot us," Frank reminded.
"You're not helping."
"The hell we're not," Frank said quietly. "You need us. You need help."
"I can't let you get killed for our sake."
"Why are you so certain you'll lose?" Frank stopped pacing and his brow furrowed. "Why are you so certain you won't get rid of this guy once and for all?"
"There are too few of us and too many of them," Trent said simply. "If we attack-sure, we might make a dent, we might scare him, but we'll lose. And I'm a marked man now. The rebels will lose their leader. Everything will be lost."
"Come on, don't be so pessimistic."
Trent turned to face him head on. "You want to help us? Okay. Here's what you're up against: A force three times our size, with a much older and much more experienced leader. Admitted, we have better weapons, admitted, we have a braver force than they do. But none of that matters if they can crush us-and they can."
Frank sighed. "How powerful is Krishna?"
"He's not that powerful-he's powerful, yes, but only a little more than I am. It's his advisor that's going to complicate things. Sutara is her name... she's as mean as a viper and twice as deadly, also incredibly loyal to Krishna. There are some who say that her mother was a serpiente shape-shifter and she inherited her poison eyes from them. They say never to look a serpiente in the eyes. Remember that if you ever encounter her."
Frank shuddered. "Can anyone else kill with their eyes?"
"There are a few serpiente, but not many. Sutara is the only one who would kill you outright, just for looking at her strangely." Trent paused. "If we killed Sutara... half of Krishna's force would be gone."
A long silence fell as Frank contemplated all that he'd been told. "Why are you guys even with us?" he asked finally. "Why are you a band?"
Trent actually smiled. "I-we-like what we do. Albeit, we aren't very good at what we do, but we like it."
"There's more to it than that."
"Well, yes," Trent admitted, "part of it is the contact we get with other vamps throughout the tour. We're recruiting in every city."
He expected Frank to be surprised by the news that there were vamps in every city they'd been in. Apparantly the older man was past surprise.
"Frank!" Someone bellowed. "Where the hell are you?"
"Oh, damn," Frank mumbled. "That's Ray. Listen," he said suddenly, "can we talk later tonight? I can try and talk to Gerard-he'd listen to me-and I can bring him if you bring one of your guys."
Trent nodded. "See you... tonight at eight? I've got more to tell you."
"Yeah. See you then."
"See you."