Anti-Venom

She hasn't seen him for years, gone are the glasses, and the somewhat geeky clothes. He's wearing black boots, black skinny jeans, a white t shirt and a black leather jacket. His face is flawless, far from the teenage boy she remembers; and his eyes, those blue eyes are so much more striking than she recalls. But it's him, it's really him.

"What, where the fuck, what?" She cannot form words, however there is no hesitation in opening the door. He steps in without an invitation, not that she'd stop him; she just slams the door behind him and turns to rest her back against it.

"The fuck? You left!" Is all she can muster after a few moments.

He raises his hands in slight defence as he stands awkwardly in the living area, but she doesn't give him a chance to talk. She just goes over and smacks him across the face.

"You think you can just show up out of the blue, and just, just, what the fuck are you doing here?" She seethes. "You were gone! For years! I needed you and you were nowhere and now you think you can just..."

"Gwennie-" He tries to interrupt.

"No don't Gwennie me, I don't go by that name anymore-"

"No, you go by Leah on the streets. I know." He raises his voice a little. "I've been watching your every fucking move so don't feed me the riot act I already fucking know!"

She quietens now and stands down. She's never heard him raise his voice like that before, and it startles her. Rather than fight back, she just goes to sit on the couch, and signals for him to join her.

It's the first time he's been back in here for ages. She's done a good job of keeping the place together. The kitchen is as clean as it looked on the day she moved in, and the furnishings look relatively new still, the slightly damp smell of the place and the off white/brown walls and ceilings give its age away though. The brown leather couch they're sat on is different though, as is the little coffee table in front of it, neither were here last time he was.

"So what? Have you been stalking me or something?" She asks after a few minutes of stoney silence.

"Something like that." He mumbles. He reaches for her hand then, but she pulls it away.

"I guess I should start with I'm sorry." He carries on, she says nothing. "I um, I didn't plan on what happened and-"

"None of us ever do Rick." She replies. "I didn't plan on being a whore, but look at me now. You know, I had so much planned. I was going to go to college, I was going to make something of myself because nobody in my family ever has and- why are you smiling?"

"Because your brother told me exactly what you'd say word for word." He replies. "And believe me you are so special."

"I'm sorry, my brother?" She asks, "Is that where you've been? You ditched me for Andy?"

"Not exactly." He replies. "I kinda made him a promise when we were younger. Believe me, by me staying away from you, I've been keeping that promise."

"You promised to stay away from me?" She asks, incredibly confused. "I don't understand, Patrick I really don't understand, I was a better person with you here, you were all I needed and then you left, you met Pete and you were an ass hole, and then you vanished. You weren't even at your dad's funeral you-"

"I'm dead Gwen." He cuts her off with a calm and even toned voice. She just looks at him, eyes wide with disbelief and confusion. She goes to carry on but he stops her, and takes her hand. "Look at me Gwen, really look at me."

So she does, she takes in his entire appearance again. His pale complexion, his temperature - he's ice cold. His bluer than blue eyes.... Which are turning to red. She gasps a little, but not much, she's captivated.

"I'm dead Gwen." He speaks calmly again. "I've been dead for 3 years, and your brother knew that was going to happen; that's why he made me make promises."

She shakes her head now, and scrunches her eyes shut, as if shaking out an imaginary voice. Which is when he hears a voice in his own head.

'They're coming. Get her out of there.'

Without another word he gets up and goes to look out of the window. A white BMW X3 is driving up the street, coming toward the trailer. He turns, and goes back over to her, his eyes now bright red, and his calm demeanour gone. He kneels before her and clasps both of her hands above her knees.

"Gwen we have to go you're in danger here." He tells her, sounding urgent, yet captivating at the same time... But not captivating enough.

"No, I don't have to go anywhere with you, you left me!" She insists, and just as he's about to respond; time runs out.

She flinches as the door is kicked in, and looks up as a new person enters; the very person he left for years ago. He hasn't changed, he looks exactly the same way he did when she first saw him. He's still got dark eyes, he's still got dark hair... He's not aged, not one bit.

"Dude I said I'd give you a ride. Did you think we were gonna make you do this Alone?" This newcomer speaks, to which Patrick moves to stand in front of Gwen, as though he's guarding her.

"Oh come on I'm not gonna hurt her." He goads with a huge grin on his face. "That's your job."

'Get her out of there!' Patrick hears that voice again.

'He's already here!' He replies in his mind.

"Hey Gwennie. Man I've heard a lot about you." The dark haired man beams as he pulls up a seat from the dining table and turns it to sit on it resting his chest on its back.

"Pete." Gwen grumbles. Having not seen this person for years, she'd rather have never seen him again, yet here he is in her home.

"He told you what he is yet?" Pete smirks as he asks. Patrick doesn't speak, he simply reaches for Gwen's hand once again and she takes it.

"I have a pretty good idea." She answers. "And I'm not scared."

"You know, we originally wanted you dead but he hasn't stopped going on about you." Pete taunts. "On and on and on. I mean, you can imagine how happy he was when we told him we wouldn't kill you, just play with you a little, maybe accept you. Your brother would be so pissed off."

Patrick watches as Gwen visibly softens, her eyes captured by Pete's glowing red ones.

"Pete." Patrick growls in warning.

"Relax, I ain't gonna hurt her. You are." The older man repeats his earlier words. He reaches out and takes Gwen's hand from Patrick.

"Pete stop it!" Patrick continues to growl.

"Relax." Pete speaks calmly, "A little enchantment never hurt anybody..... Except sleeping beauty, and Snow White, and perhaps this little beauty."

Patrick watches with unease as Pete raises her hand to kiss the back of it, and then runs his other hand up her top. Gwen does nothing to stop him, she just stands there, seemingly in a trance. But then suddenly, Pete stops dead, and Gwen snaps out of it.

"What?" Gwen asks as she looks up and around, and then over to Patrick.

"Come on." Is all he says to her. "Come one we can't stay here."

He grabs her hand and pulls her up, before grabbing her a pair of shoes quickly. Sensing his urgency, Gwen slips the shoes on, and clasps hold of his hand as they leave the trailer. He takes her over to a black Porsche 718 Cayman.

"Holy shit this is yours?" She asks as Patrick opens the door.

"Get in." He tells her. "They're waiting for us."

"Who's waiting for us?" She asks as she gets in and he shuts the door. He doesn't have an answer, instead he just gets in the car and starts the engine. The speed he drives at is easily more than 80, but nobody else is moving, literally all traffic is stalled, all movement is stalled. It's like somebody has pressed a pause button somewhere.

"Rick I'm scared." She tells him as he carries on, but he says nothing until he pulls into the very high school they both attended, where two vehicles wait. One is a dark grey BMW, the other is a red Ford F-150. Beside the grey BMW, three figures stand; all male. One of them Gwen immediately recognises as one of the boys who Patrick hung out with when he was with Pete. His name is Joe. He's relatively tall, long curly brown hair and blue eyes. The other two are smaller, clearly just kids, one is bigger built than the other, with chestnut brown hair; he stands with his legs slightly parted and his arms by his sides, palms up; and his eye firmly closed. The other boy has dark hair, dark eyes; a bit like Pete only paler skin. All three of them wear dark denim jeans, and dark hoodies or jackets.

"Joe." Patrick greets as he parks and gets out of the car. The older of the three then comes forward and greets Patrick with a hug.

"Oh shoot Gwen you must be freezing." Joe states as he sees Gwen getting out of the other side of the car dressed only in a t shirt and short pyjama bottoms. "Here take this."

He removes his jacket, revealing his tattooed arms; and hands it to Gwen.

"My name's Joe." He introduces himself properly. "This young man to my left is Brendon, this guy to my right who currently cannot make any contact with us is Spencer. He's what's currently keeping you safe and this city frozen."

Gwen just looks at them all, completely overwhelmed and confused.

"He's a warlock." Patrick clears things up for her. "Brendon here, is a seer, and Joe, well, Joe's their minder if you like."

"Guardian." Joe corrects.

"If you want to get technical lets just say you're an angel of sorts." Patrick smiles.

"Right." Gwen nods, still overwhelmed. "Warlock, seer, Angel, and vampire. Anyone want to tell me what else exists?"

"You did figure it out then." Patrick gets in quickly as he crosses his arms and lowers his head.

"Gwen I don't have long to explain because Spencer can't hold the city like this much longer."Joe starts With an urgent tone. "You're in a lot of trouble, you have been since you were born. You see, as you've figured out a lot of so say mythical creatures exist. Some good, some bad."

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Patrick asks.

"Well you're the vampire." Joe retaliates.

"Okay fine whatever." Patrick steps back down, and let's Joe carry on; however Brendon butts in.

"Guys Spencer can't hold it." He tells them.

"Andy's waiting for you up in Milwaukee, it'll be far enough away from here for tonight. Go, take the Ford, just go, get to safety." Joe urges. "Gwen your brother will explain more, we'll meet you up there, Patrick take her, go!"

Without another word, Patrick grabs Gwen's hand again and drags her over to the Ford. As they both get in and Patrick starts the engine, they see the boy - Spencer - collapse to the floor, and the whole city comes to life again.

"You okay?" Patrick asks as he drives.

"Um." Is all Gwen can muster. "I honestly don't know what the hell is going on."

"Like me to explain things properly?" He asks, "We have a 2 hour drive."

"Please do." She stutters.

"Well, where do I start?" Patrick asks himself. "You and Andy, you share a father. When Andy was a kid, he had a form of cancer that led him to lose the ability to have kids. He was about three years old. For your dad, that was disastrous. Your dad was a hunter. He hunted down all the dark creatures, all the bad and sent them for judgement, aka to hell. He was the police of the supernatural world. It's not something he chose, it's a gene he was born with, that he passed on to Andy and before Andy's illness, he'd have passed it on to his own son had he had one. But the illness happened. By that point Andy's mom had been killed by believe it or not, Pete. So your dad got with your mom. She had you, which was actually great because even though you're a girl, you're still a carrier of the gene meaning your first born will be a boy, and he'll have the gene passed on to him. Your dad was killed not long after you were born. Andy was nowhere near ready to take over, he was literally 6 years old. So it gave the wrong people the right amount of time to put things in place to try and prevent you from having a baby. They'd been watching over you, they watched you move to Bella Luna, they watched our friendship. Your brother knew from seers and Joe, what would happen to me. When he came to visit Bella Luna that time, he made me make promises to him; and when a vampire makes promises to a hunter those promises can't be broken. I wasn't a vampire then, but because they knew I would be, they knew I couldn't break those promises. I promises to protect you, I promised to watch over you, I promised to keep you safe from supernatural harm, and I promise that I'd father your first born."

"But you're a -"

"Yeah." Patrick nods. "I'm a vampire. Which means, your son, our son, will be half that, he'll be immortal. An immortal hunter. Their biggest fear. Pete hangs out with this guy named Gabe, a guy named William, and a boy named Ryan. Ryan believe it or not, is the devil's son. His mother died giving birth, and his father, is of course trapped down in hell. Your father and Andy are Ryan's biggest enemies. He doesn't look strong, but he's a classic case of looks can be deceiving. William raised Ryan, he's a demon, a bit like how Joe's an angel; and to much of the dark supernatural world he's the pope. So Ryan has learned from the best. He and Pete knew what they were doing when they got into my head. Originally, they were going to have me kill you while I was in my first year as a vampire. But Joe infiltrated them, and talked them into getting me to turn you, and to watch your brother fall apart at the seems. Of course that appealed to them, but it was never going to happen. Of course now, the night they thought I was going to turn you, we've run off. They're going to be after us, they want us both dead."

"So that's why you came back? To get me pregnant?" Gwen sums up.

"No!" Patrick quickly replies, "Well yeah, but no, no I came back because I love you, and Andy knows how much I love you, so does Joe, and well, regardless of whether I could break those promises or not, I want to keep them. I have to keep you safe. I couldn't stay away."

"You love me?" Gwen asks.

"Have done since we were kids." Patrick shrugs.

"You know why it hurt me so much when you left and even more tonight when you came back?" Gwen asks him, "It's because you broke my heart, and I didn't want you to break it again. Promise me you won't break it again."

"I promise." He replies as he slips a hand over to hers.

"I love you too. Always have." She tells him. He smiles then, and focuses on the road. Eventually Gwen falls asleep, and he covers her with Joe's jacket for warmth, until they finally reach her brother's house.