Anti-Venom

Night time in Key West is so much different to night time in Chicago. For starters, there is barely any traffic; in Chicago the streets are busy 24/7. There are no subway trains roaring through even the quietest of hours. There aren't even any drunken fights going on. The only real noise is that of the waves hitting the shore a few blocks away, and the crickets chirping their little tiny hearts out. 

For Patrick, it feels like the eerie calm after a major disaster. He thought they were safe here. He thought he could keep Gwen and his child safe, but he couldn't; and he has the burn on his back to prove it. As he sits out here on the porch, he can't help but think about everything that unfolded earlier; not to mention the fact that they lost Brendon. 

He can't help but blame himself for all of this. Andy really was right, he's a monster. 

He can't go in that house, he can't face them. No, he's much better off out here. Sat out here on the no longer scolding hot concrete, alone..... not alone. A rat is approaching. A great big 5,7" tall rat. 

"Gee well you look like you could do with a beer." The "rat" declares. It's none other than the boy Patrick once thought of as a brother, Pete. 

"If you're here to hurt me any more then please, just go. Go away. Because I really, really cannot take anymore. Please?" Patrick insists and demands. But the other vampire simply stands there, tilts his head, and then holds a bottle of bud out towards Patrick. 

"I don't want it." Patrick replies. "Please just fuck off back to wherever it is you came here from. Go back, you're not welcome here."

"Look just because we're on opposite sides, doesn't mean I can't offer you a drink." Pete insists, and then takes a step back as the door opens. For a second, the boy standing there goes to call out, but Patrick gets up with lightning quick speed, covers the boy's mouth, and gently closes the door. 

"It's okay." Patrick tells Spencer, "He's not here to fight." 

"I don't care!" Spencer hisses. "He helped kill your baby today and they took Brendon!" 

"Took Brendon?" Pete asks, and then opens his own beer bottle and takes a swig. "What are you talking about? We have Matthew not Brendon."

"No, you don't." Patrick informs him. "William and Ryan switched the twins over. They knew Brendon's the Stronger seer."

"But that wouldn't make any sense. They really enjoy picking on the weaker ones." Pete shakes his head, and then offers the unopened bottle of beer to Spencer.

"Pete he's fifteen."  Patrick sighs. 

"Oh, sorry." The older vampire apologises, and puts the beer down. 

"Okay dude pass me it." Patrick changes his mind, which makes Pete smile and hand him the other bottle of beer. 

"You're accepting that?!" Spencer asks in complete shock.

"Spence, me and Pete may be on opposing sides but we can still be friends." Patrick answers his young friend. "Besides, the promise I made was to protect Gwen. Pete won't go in that house anymore because he knows you and I will kill him off for good if he does." 

"Yep." Pete nods, and takes a swig of beer. "Especially if I'm on my own I'm a gonner." 

"You realise if Andy comes out here, he'll kill you." Spencer continues his ranting, and expressing big his unease. 

"So I'll promise him I'm not coming in, can't break a promise to a hunter." Pete shrugs, and watches as Patrick decides to down near enough the entire bottle of beer, which gains quite a considerable laugh from the older vampire, and some jumps of excitement. 

"Rick." Spencer sighs with disgust. 

"Look, my baby was killed today." Patrick replies. He lowers the bottle and tilts his head a little towards Spencer; his tone is cold. "I promised a hunter that no harm would come to Gwen, yet it did; and I could do fuck all about it because a cross was being burned into my back. If I want a drink with a friend to try and forget about it a little, then I'm allowed that." 

"Some friend." A new voice speaks... the exact voice they hadn't wanted to join in. The three of them turn now to look towards the house next door, and right there on the door step stands Andy, wearing nothing but a pair of knee length shorts.

For a moment Pete stands frozen, as he realises the very stupid mistake he's made in coming here. He's alone, he's got a warlock to one side of him and a hunter to the other. He's in a lot of trouble. 

"I should go." He slurs, and goes to take a step back, but the hunter is on his way over. Patrick stands too now, and takes a step closer along with Spencer. 

"Try moving." Spencer tells him. So Pete does, but he can't. 

"Look if William and Ryan have Brendon then surely they'll know I'm here because he'll see..." Pete panics.

"Oh they know." Patrick tells him. "But to them you're just collateral damage."

"No." Pete shakes his head. "No your wrong, I mean something to them I-"

"You mean nothing to them." Patrick continues. "Just like I meant nothing to them, just like Shana means nothing to them. You're a pawn in their game, if they lose you they don't care. Guess what neither does that bozo down there!" 

Patrick points down with both hands at making that statement, and then very quickly and swiftly captures Pete in his grasp, and turns him to face Andy. 

"So you're going to make him a promise." Patrick hisses. "You're going to promise him that you will spend the rest of your damned existence protecting Gwen's next baby. You're going to promise him that you're on our side now, that you serve him and all future hunters for all eternity should you be here for eternity. Most of all you're going to promise him you'll surrender your free will."

"And if I don't?" Pete asks, and very suddenly feels an intense burning at his core. When he looks to Spencer, he sees the boy's eyes glowing orange. 

"Okay I promise." The vampire whispers. 

"I'm sorry, I'm stood over here, I'm gonna need you to say that to me." Andy tells him.

"I promise." Pete replies. Only then does Spencer stop his act, and Patrick let's Pete go. 

The grief that fills Pete's being as he's let go is overwhelming, he stumbles a little, and then lets Patrick guide him to sit on the porch step. Patrick remembers this feeling. He felt it when he first became immortal. It's the feeling of a promise to the hunter. It hits you like a ton of bricks, and it becomes deep seated in your mind that you no longer have free will. It's one heck of an awful feeling, to know that you are basically now a slave to the hunter. He has you where he wants you, and if you disobey him, you die a horrible, treacherous death. He didn't outright hand over his free will to Andy, his promise just kind of led him down that path. But Pete has just outright Handed over all free will. 

"I need a drink." Pete sighs. 

"What you need is to come inside, with me and Spencer. You can drink from Spencer. His blood will give you everything you need and more."

Without words Pete nods, and then gets up to follow Andy and Spencer over to the other house. 

"Call me over as soon as she and Matthew wake up." He instructs Patrick, who simply nods, and goes back into the house he is staying in. 

Once inside the other house, Andy wastes no time in confining Pete to the basement; it’s the very same treatment he used to give Patrick, so why would he treat Pete any differently? Once down there, they are joined by Spencer, who brings over a bag that looks as though it could contain some sort of first aid kit over to Andy.

Full of both curiosity and a kind of fear, the vampire has to ask his captors; “So, how does this work do I-”

“You shut up.” Andy cuts Pete off. “That’s how it works. “You shut up, you learn your place. If you don’t want to die for good, then you shut the fuck up.”

Pete doesn’t reply, he doesn’t speak back, he doesn’t say anything. He can feel the effects of the promise he made taking form. No matter how much he wants to fight back and speak out, he won’t. He won’t break the promise he made because it’s against his own self interest. That’s how the whole thing works. It’s like his mind is now automatically set to really take his own self interest into account… keep the promise, lose his free will, but keep immortality. Break the promise and it’s all over, he certainly doesn’t want that. But then, if he has no free will, then what sort of existence is that?

“That’s the sort of existence Angels such as Joe, and believe it or not William have.” Spencer tells him, as if he read his mind. Pete looks to him confused, and looks around as if to try and assure himself that he didn’t say anything out loud.

“I can hear your thoughts when I want to.” Spencer tells him. “I’m about to give you my blood, I need to know you aren’t going to spend all of your time constantly lusting after it before I do give you it.”

“William’s not an angel.” Pete tells the boy, “He’s a demon, Satan’s most trusted demon.”

Pete watches as Andy secures a tourniquet around Spencer’s upper arm, and places a foam cylinder in the boys hand, which Spencer then starts repetitively squeezing.

“Keep going, can’t get a vein yet.” Andy tells him casually.

“Demon’s are to Satan what angels are to God.” Spencer replies. “Angels don’t have free will, they do as they’re told, when they’re told to do it.”

“Pfft. God doesn’t exist.” Pete shrugs.

“Your precious Satan exists.” The teenager replies. “Why wouldn’t God? He just doesn’t exist in the way religious groups believe. It’s like a unity thing. Without good there can be no evil, without evil there can be no good. They exist because they keep the world in balance.”

“So tell me oh wise fifteen year old.” Pete continues. “If your precious God exists, then what the fuck created him?”

“If your precious Satan exists then what the fuck created him?” Spencer counters.

“Touche.” Pete smiles a little.

“I like you.” Spencer smiles back. “Besides, I don’t follow any god, or any devil. I personally don’t like either of them. They claim to be so much more than they are. And Jesus? Don’t even get me started on that guy. Con artist, major con artist. He can walk on water but he and his father can’t provide half the world with food? And can’t stop millions of kids dying needlessly? God is a dick, Jesus is a dick, and Satan is, well he’s an open and honest dick but he’s still a dick.”

Spencer winces as Andy pushes a needle into his skin. He’s been through this so many times before, but he never gets used to it, not deep down. The blood drains rather quickly, straight into a pouch that Andy has readied, and then into another pouch. As Andy begins to fill the third, Pete can see the effect it’s having on Spencer.

“Hey, hey kid you okay?” He asks. “Hey dick head stop, this kid’s the only friend I’ve got in this house and you’re hurting him.”

“He’s not.” Spencer replies drowsily. “Used to it.”

Pete looks from Spencer to Andy and then back to Spencer again. He sits forward, and actually takes the boy’s hand. “I don’t need this much.” Pete tells the boy.

“Not just you.” Spencer tells him. Pete moves now to sit next to the boy, a move watched through very judgemental eyes belonging to Andy. He manouvres Spencer to rest his head on his shoulder, and tells the boy to sleep. Spencer simply nods, and allows himself to drift off.

By the time Andy has finished, four pints have been drained, just under half of the blood from Spencer’s body is gone.

“You do this to him a lot?” Pete asks Andy, who doesn’t answer, he just removers the needle and the tourniquet from Spencer.

“Hey I’m asking you a question.” Pete demands now.

“Oh don’t go all caring on me. Your type care for nothing and nobody.” Andy snaps, and hands two of the pouches to Pete.

“Is that what you think?” Pete asks, “Is that honestly what your dad taught you? It’s wrong, that is so wrong. Vampires we, our emotions are so much stronger than you humans. If we love someone, then we really, really love them, if we feel scared, it’s not just scared that we feel, it’s tenfold what you would feel. So don’t tell me I don’t care. Don’t tell Patrick he doesn’t care. Because we do. We care a lot.”

“He needs to go up to his room.” Andy tells Pete, and then moves to pick Spencer up.

“I’ll take him.” Pete replies. “If he’s going to be my food source, the least you can do is let me take care of him. You made me promise you a load of shit, but I’m asking you to make me this promise. Let me look after him. Let me watch over and protect him. He lost a best friend today and I was ripped from mine. So you promise me now, that I can take care of him, and you won’t confine me to this basement.”

“That’ll make you happy?” Andy asks.

“Yeah.” Pete replies.

“Fine.” Andy sulks. “I promise you can do that and I won’t be a dick towards you for doing it….. but I still don’t like you.”

“Oh just fuck off.” Pete sighs, and then picks Spencer up to take him to his room.