Work Text:
Someone was following him, and had been for a while. Not too long, Avid didn’t think so, at least- but long enough that he was on high alert. Nobody followed someone that long with good intentions. Nobody watched without announcing their intentions and then everything was fine.
He’d just wanted to check one of the crypts for a tome, he was meant to meet up with Apo pretty soon after that, it wasn’t meant to be a problem.
He glanced up at the treetops overhead, trying to be subtle about it, grasping the tome in his pocket tightly, like the magic within it would be enough to save him from whatever they may have wanted with him.
And then Apo practically materialized out of the shadows, and he didn’t cry out in surprise, despite them startling him by just- appearing out of nowhere! Like Owen was always doing, and he didn’t like being startled, it wasn’t fun or funny, not for him, at least- limiting his response to slightly widened eyes, before letting himself relax.
Maybe it was just her, that was all he’d noticed, and she was all quiet because she was military, nothing important. He pushed away the lingering feling of eyes on his back, tried to push away the treacherous thoughts of vampires and betrayal and spying- Apo wouldn’t let anything happen to him, and he was probably just being paranoid again anyways, even if his intuition with vampires had always been right so far-
But, it wasn’t a vampire, even if Apo’s face was tight, something in her eyes that made Avid wonder…
“Hey, Apo!” He waved her over, pulling out his book. “I found one! I was thinking we could head back to town and then consume our books together?”
“We don’t have to go back to town.” Her voice was flat, practically monotone.
Avid furrowed his brow. Something about her just felt- off. “Well, we don’t have to, I could eat it right now- did you already eat yours?”
A quiet breath. “I- yeah. That’s… it was that night vision tome Drift ate. I’m sorry- I don’t know what’s gotten into me, you should head back to town.”
“I should? You’re coming back with me, right?”
She was quiet, eyes closing and gaze drifting to the ground.
“Apo?” Avid took a step towards her, even though every instinct in his body was telling him that there was a danger here- she was acting weird, the last time someone acted this weirdly, she tried to kill him, but Apo wasn’t her, and he was trying to be less paranoid, so he approached her, put a hand on her arm. “Hey, did something happen?”
There were tears in her eyes as she glanced up at him. “Please,” She choked out, “Please just go.”
“I’m not just going to leave you out here-”
Leaves crunched under someone’s boots, and Avid’s blood went cold. “I’m so sorry,” Apo whispered, tears welling up again, “I didn’t want to, I swear to you I-”
“It’s pretty late to start worrying about the lives of vampires now,” Shubble’s voice was cold, though there was a slight, nervous waver to it, like she was reciting words she didn't really mean. “Last time I saw you, you wanted all of us dead.”
Avid turned, fumbling and pulling out a stake, seeing Shubble standing there, soft yellow eyes gone red, arms crossed and fangs visible.
“Get- get away from us.”
If she were still human, he might have said hurt flashed across Shubble’s face before she schooled it into something more blank. But she was a vampire; vampires don't feel. “I’ll go away, but first I need something. Apo?”
Avid turned back to glance at Apo, who was still silently staring down at the ground, though they sucked in a sharp breath as they heard their name.
“I’m not going to let you hurt them!” Avid snapped, taking a step towards Shubble- and a hand came down onto his arm. Apo. Pulling him back, away from Shubble, who was just staring at him, eerily blank, not even bothering to move away from him, despite the fact that he had a silver sword and a wooden stake, and he could definitely kill them if he wanted.
“Don’t- don’t hurt her.”
“She’s a vampire,” He hissed, “And she wants you, probably for nefarious vampire purposes!” And he had to protect Apo. He was the vampire hunter, he was the closest thing any of them had to his partner, he couldn't let another person become a vampire.
“Hey, we’re not all mean and that’s not a very nice stereotype!” Shubble’s blank mask shattered, for just a moment, before clearing their throat, bringing their tone back to their previous grimness. “I mean, sure I do. A human would assume that.”
Avid wondered who’d told them to act like that, if they’d chosen to independently, or if Owen or one of the others had lectured them on the importance of theatrics. Or maybe this was just one more way vampirism changed a person fundamentally. And then he remembered that it didn’t matter, he didn’t care, he couldn’t care, not again. They were evil, the rest of it didn’t matter. It didn't matter if he could still remember talking to Shubble, the horrified devastation of realising what they were- it didn't matter.
Another hand on his arm, and Apo stared at him with eyes that were still shiny from tears as they held him, delicately.
“I’m meant to protect people,” She said, and it wasn’t clear if she was talking to herself, him, or Shubble.
“Yes, you’re meant to protect people, and you can’t do that if Shubble turns you into a vampire, so we should get out of here. C’mon, Apo-” He tried to tug his arm away, pull her with him, deal with the vampire- two versus one, he was sure Shubble would let them go, whatever she’d done with Apo.
Apo’s grip on his arm tightened, and they let out a soft, broken laugh. “I really can’t, Avid.”
They leaned down, brought their face down towards his arm, and, before he could process any of it, they pierced his skin.
The shock registered before the pain could, took root as he just stared at them for a moment of awful silence other than a wet sound as they- as they tried to drink from him, because they were a vampire, and he was nothing more than a walking blood bag for them.
The pain hit, and it hurt, there were fresh, deep wounds in him, but that wasn’t important, what was important was making sure that, if there was any way he could avoid being turned, he wasn’t, so, with his arm that was still holding the stake, he brought it up-
He hesitated. Maybe, if Avid had just been a bit faster, if he’d brought it down, maybe he could have killed them as well.
As it was, another vampire’s hands wrapped around the stake and yanked it out of his grip as Shubble frowned at him, glancing between him and Apo for a moment, something unreadable in her eyes, before tossing it away and turning so that he couldn’t see her expression at all.
“There you go, Scott and Owen’ll be proud of you,” Shubble encouraged as they turned, and it wasn’t clear if the gasping sound Apo made was a response or a sob. It didn’t even matter, really, as Avid tried to pull away, even though that made the flesh tear more, in even worse ways, tears of pain and anger and horror beading up at his eyes.
They held on tight, gripping him with what felt like inhuman strength, a sort of desperation to them as they drank, not pausing even a moment for air, colour he hadn't even noticed was missing returning to their cheeks, before Apo finally pulled away, heavy breaths in her lungs, tongue swiping across her still-bloody lips, looking horrified but nonetheless covered in his blood, which still spilled down their chin and onto their clothes.
“I’m so sorry, please don’t cry, I- I didn’t turn you, I swear, I- I had to, this was the best thing I could do to protect you-”
“You drank my blood.”
She reached a bloody hand towards him. “But- you’re alive.” She glanced back at Shubble, or maybe not just at Shubble, maybe this was some sort of initiation for her, and all the vampires were watching, waiting to swoop in and kill him once this was over.
He swiped the tears out of his eyes quickly, glaring at her, at his blood on her hands. “I should never have trusted you,” He bit out.
“It’s over now! That’s all I had to do, I’m still the same person, I just-”
“You’re a vampire who just attacked me, unprovoked, that doesn’t sound very much like the Apo I knew.” His voice only trembled a bit as he took a step back.
“You’re not listening to me, I swear I can explain everything-”
He backed up another step, and that was when Owen decided to reveal himself, claws lightly puncturing Avid’s skin as he was grabbed, Shubble still watching on silently and Apo with wide eyes taking a step towards them, one hand going to her sword.
“Do you understand now, Apo, why we had you do this?” Owen’s voice was light, almost amused, and Avid thrashed.
“If you guys don’t let me go, my friends are going to-” A clawed hand came to cover his mouth, but he kept going, albeit muffled, “Come and get me!”
“Humans hate us, all of us, it doesn’t matter why you do the things you do.”
“I hurt him, I can’t blame him for being-”
“You saw the way he regarded Shubble, even when she’d done nothing wrong. What makes you think he wouldn’t have treated you the same way, whether you revealed it by fang or by word?”
“He wouldn’t- let him go! Let him leave, I did what I had to do, it’s over now, I’m- we’re not the monsters he makes us out to be, I thought that was the whole point!”
Owen chuckled darkly. “Oh, no, I absolutely am, make no mistake. The point was to show you that you’re not any less of a monster than we are, just because you don’t want to be.” And then, for the second time, fangs punctured Avid, though, this time, claws first slashed through all the bandages on his throat, white falling to the ground, soon to be stained red as Owen drank.
Avid tried to pull away, tried to escape, tried to be strong, but he hadn’t even been able to get Apo to leave him alone, and she hadn’t wanted this in the first place, whereas Owen seemed to take a certain pleasure in draining him half to death.
Silver flashed through Avid’s vision, and then Owen was falling back, and he stumbled away quickly, seeing Apo standing in front of Owen, newly-bloodied sword in their hand. “You said he’d be alright,” She growled.
“And he would have been, I wasn’t going to kill him-”
“Avid, get out of here. I can deal with this.” He was pretty sure he heard her muttering something under her breath about duty as well, but he felt like he’d been dunked underwater, and his vision was swimming.
And the vampire, the creature of the night, regardless of whether they’d decided to save him in the end, was still a monster, so he let himself run, ragged breaths tearing themselves from his lungs as he crashed through the underbrush, not even entirely sure he was going the right way, just that he had to get away, as far as possible, everything that had just happened still unprocessed.
The lights of Oakhurst were the closest thing to a comfort he could have received, glancing back at the treeline, seeing nobody, and he was- he was safe, and Apo had said he wouldn’t turn (and Owen had no intentions of turning him, he’d said so himself), so… he would be okay. He was going to be alright.
He could have cried for relief when Drift, Martyn, and Abolish came into sight. “I know who another of the vampires is!” He gasped out.
“Oh my God, we need to get him to a doctor-”
“Are you alright?”
“It’s Apo! She’s- she bit me!”