I Hope They Taste of Me Forever

Hunter and I got closer. It didn’t take long. He was kind of like my escape. He still had a strong grip on humanity, and he’d talk with me about ridiculous nothings that were a million miles away from the vampire issues we usually had to deal with. He was my friend; my good friend. He was closer to me than he was to the others. Although he remained polite and genuine in their presence, it was me who he’d really open up to, and I to him. It was a good feeling, having someone to talk to. If the others wanted to know something, it was usually to assist in hunting purposes somehow. I knew that I could talk to them, but it felt weird. And if Pete wanted to know something, he’d storm right into my brain to get it, but that’s just who he was.

Pete. He’s something else, and he certainly doesn’t approve of my friendship with Hunter. He’s still very suspicious, having never retrieved answers to why Hunter’s mind was one that he was incapable of infiltrating. ‘Incapable’ was a word that would never particularly sit well with Pete.

Anyhow, the next part in this sequence of events has nothing to do with Pete and Hunter’s little friendship issues.

Perhaps if Hunter was there, things would have turned out differently. Perhaps if Hunter was there, I’d have a different tale to tell. But as life has it, Hunter wasn’t there and things didn’t turn out differently. Maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe not. Who knows? And why waste life away with regretful ‘what ifs’?

The reason Hunter wasn’t hunting with the rest of us that night was because a few nights before, he’d gotten himself stuck in a pretty sticky situation. He’d tried to take on seven fully grown, very muscular hood vamps single handedly. Very foolish, in my opinion, but I never found out whether or not he’d intended an act of bravado or whether they’d all taken him by surprise. Either way, he’d tried to fight his way through them, and as expected he received multiple injuries along the way. Unlike Pete, who could have finished them all off in a minute (and who did end up taking care of the remaining five), Hunter was only human. The main injury was a broken ankle which Patrick had set up in the usual fashion, and told Hunter that he’d just have to take it easy for six weeks and then it would be fine. Seriously, the cleverness of Patrick Stump never ceases to amaze me. Doctor, scientist, writer… he’s a regular Leonardo Da Vinci.

So that is the reason that Hunter wasn’t with us on this particular night. It seemed like a beautiful night. Stars were bright, or as bright as they can be in such a polluted place, against the hazy dark blue blanket of sky. The industrial division of the city was as dingy and dangerous as it always was, but my spirits were higher than they had been in a long time. I had a best friend. I had an occupation, of sorts. I had a kind of unconventional family. I had a… Pete. I suppose I could consider him a friend, but it’s certainly more complicated than that. We don’t fight as much any more. Not really. We bicker just for the hell of it, but nothing serious. The fact that he once almost strangled me seems so far away. Overall, everything was looking pretty good. And to be honest, it kind of felt nice to be just Pete, Patrick, Joe, Andy and I again. Just for a little while.

We got caught up for about half an hour by an unexpected gang of punk vampires. I think that they attempted to ambush us, but it didn’t work out as well as they had hoped and we steadily took them down. One thing about those punks though is that they are vicious. If they want to cause you pain, then they can damn well deliver it. Even if it’s just from pulling on your hair or crushing your toes from underneath their black leather stiletto stripper heels, they can hurt you. They’re not so good with long term damage, but when something hurts that much you’re not really thinking of the future.

Anyway, we got rid of them eventually, and came out looking like a mess. Andy had scratches and fingernail marks leaving a nasty red trail all up his left arm, and a bleeding hand that still clutched a small crossbow. Poor Joe had a small chunk of his afro missing and cuts all over his face. Patrick had managed to stay relatively harm-free, only a burn from some form of cheap material - that I assume came from one of the vampire’s clothing - that ran up the inside of his right arm. Pete, if he had been harmed at all, had healed up already and the only sign of his distress was the rips in his plain white t-shirt, giving me a better view of his chest and abs. At first I tried not to look, but he smirked at me anyway and I knew he read my mind, so I turned away with a scowl. As for me… well, I’m not quite sure how much of a mess I was seeing as I don’t actually carry a mirror around with me on my hunting missions, but I’ll try to paint a picture of what I assume I looked like. Hair closely resembling a bird’s nest, cuts and bruises decorating my face, shoulders, and upper body in general, sweaty forehead, tired face, and bright blue eyes. That’s what I’d guess.

After thinking about all this, I smiled to myself as we began walking again. I shrugged into the large bright purple and blue hoodie of Pete’s that I was wearing. Oh, and guess what? I didn’t even steal it. He lent it to me. Yeah. That’s how weird things have gotten.

We were walking around where the industrial area and the remainder of the urban city met, so some of the streets were more crowded with nightlife and some of them were dark, quiet and more likely to be occupied with vampires. We got some strange looks from some of the people on the busier streets, but we didn’t particularly care. This was Chicago; they’d probably seen weirder. As usual, my mind began to wander. I was happy. I was really, truly happy. I mean sure, nothing’s perfect, but I couldn’t remember feeling so good.

Ando so of course, just as I was beginning to feel good again, it had to come crashing back down.

We’d pretty much given up for the night and started heading back home. We made idle chatter, but nothing that required too much thought. We were all pretty tired. And so we were all taken by great surprise when a tall, muscular figure dropped with a swift thud from the dumpster behind us. We were quick to react, but our opponent – flying solo – was quick and managed to punch Andy, crushing his nose and sending him tumbling to the floor and out of the way. I could barely register what was going on, but from what I understood Joe received a painful kick in the ribs, leaving him winded and bent over, gasping for air. Patrick was the furthest away from the violence, fumbling with a stake or so in his hands, but he wasn’t fast enough. My eyes darted around frantically; from what I could tell in the shadows, this guy wasn’t a vampire. This meant that Pete could have taken him down in a second. So why hadn’t he?

I glanced up to where Pete was, but was surprised to see him looking at the challenger with wide, shocked eyes, holding his hands out cautiously in front of him as the stranger slowly advanced. My gaze shifted to the man and immediately I had as little breath as Joe.

It was Matt.

It was my brother.

I know it sounds ridiculous to say, but things really did seem to be in slow motion to me right then. I don’t think Matt had yet realized that I was there, too focused on his task at hand.

His task was to kill vampires.

My friend was a vampire.

And Matt had his sights locked on Pete’s chest.

Matt seemed to saunter towards Pete, but I knew that it was my shock that made things seem so slow. But the point was that I knew what was going on. Matt already had a stake out and was making his way towards Pete.

“No!”

Of course I wasn’t thinking. How could I be rational in a situation like this? I just reacted on my first instinct, regardless of Patrick’s cry, and flung myself onto Pete’s chest, between him and my brother’s twisted face. Pete, when he realized what was happening, tried to push me away but it didn’t matter when I spun around to face Matt, stopping him in his tracks as his gray eyes widened in alarm.

“E-Elle?” he choked, taking in my appearance.

I didn’t understand straight away why he questioned it, but later I realized that I must have looked a lot different to the last time he’d seen me. I was stronger now, not the frail girl I once was. I was stronger mentally, too. My eyes weren’t as dull as they used to be; not as dead as his were. My hair was longer, blonder, and styled with a fringe sweeping across my forehead. I wasn’t the orphaned girl who never spoke anymore. I had determination, I had things to say, I had some sort of life. And I had been through a hell of a lot more than he could imagine.

I nodded affirmative.

He shook the astonishment out of his eyes and a frown returned.

“Move out of the way, Elle.”

“No.”

Okay, the astonishment was back. When was the last time that I ever flat out refused him?

“What? What do you mean ‘no’? Get the hell out of my way and let me do my job!”

Wow. What a warm welcome, huh? You can tell that Matt missed me awfully these past eighteen months.

“No. Don’t hurt him.”

Now, in any other situation Pete would be pissed off that I was saying things like this and undermining his power, but in this case I was kind of saving him. Matt’s enraged eyes narrowed, glaring knives at me.

“You… you’re protecting him?” he asked in disbelief.

I didn’t say anything. Here comes the explosion.

“But he… he’s a vampire! He’s a fucking vampire! Why the fuck are you protecting him?! Have you forgotten everything we stand for? Have you forgotten who killed mom and dad? You’re throwing everything away to befriend some bloodsucking parasite?”

He was all angrily in my face now, and was upsetting me more with every word. The guys were watching on in fearful fascination, but I was paying no attention to them at this point. I put my hands in front of me and shoved him away from me, adding to his surprise.

“Fuck off, Matt. Yeah, okay. Vampires killed our parents. But it wasn’t Pete. Our parents are dead. They died a long time ago. And you have one shit-awful way of dealing with that fact. There’s nothing you can do about it. You didn’t even grieve, you just jumped straight into revenge mode, and still today you haven’t shed a single tear or acknowledged distress. You’re fucking messed up over this, and even killing the entire vampire population wouldn’t be able to fix that. And what the hell is ‘we’? What did ‘we’ stand for, Matt? Did ‘we’ stand for abandoning each other, leaving the other for dead in the hands of enemies? Is that it? Is family loyalty supposed to resolve everything? Please, Matthew, enlighten me. What the fuck are you trying to say?”

Whoa.

He stood gaping like a fish for a few moments, but quickly snapped himself out of it.

“What does it matter anymore? You’re alive, aren’t you? And you’ve changed a hell of a lot. These fuckers have corrupted you.”

“No, Matt. These ‘fuckers’ have saved me. And I’m sure as hell not about to let you kill one of the most important people in my life.”

“And would you let them kill me?” Matt quipped. “I’m your brother. If situations were reversed, would you let your precious little vampire tear me to shreds?”

“No, I wouldn’t. Can you say the same for me?”

He couldn’t answer to that. He’d left me. He’d left me when he thought I was in the clutches of the Dandies. He’d left me for dead. And he knew it.

“You left me to die,” I whispered.

“I…I…” I don’t think I’d ever heard my brother stutter and stumble over his words until now. “That guy told me they were going to save you.”

He gestured to Patrick.

“Yeah, and you pushed them away and refused help. You ran away from our apartment. You left me.”

There was nothing he could say.

I felt a horrible ripping inside my chest as Matt coughed to clear his throat before snapping his eyes back up to me and changing the subject.

“So this is it. You’re not going to stand aside and let me do my job. You’re choosing them over me.”

“Matt, there doesn’t have to be a choice…”

“No,” he cut me off sharply. “This is good. They can have you. I don’t want you anymore. No sister of mine goes running around with vampires. As of this moment, I don’t have a sister.”

Before I got the chance to reply, before I even got the chance to feel anything, Matt had thrown the wooden stake to the ground and run away, leaving us in an unsure silence as the Chicago wind whistled around the mouth of the alley. Eventually, I coughed to clear my throat, hoping to feel something other than numbness.

“Let’s go home.”