I Hope They Taste of Me Forever

I woke up, only to find I had no fucking idea where I was. It was some kind of room… no shit genius… but I immediately felt weird. The walls and floor were concrete and very plain, giving a creepy abandoned-mental-institution kind of feel, only without the padded cells. Admittedly, there was a window, but the beautiful view of a graffitied brick alleyway didn’t hint at all to where I might have been. My head hurt a little, but it wasn’t too bad. My stomach rumbled, and I tried to remember the last time I ate. That’s when the last few days all came rushing back to me. Hunting, being kidnapped, thrown in a cell, tortured by Beckett, mysterious rescuer…

Wait what?

I blacked out before I left the mansion. I had no idea where that guy had taken me. I could be in an even worse situation than I was before… although being held captive by the Dandy clan is hard to beat…

And where was my brother?

Groan. Why were all these questions having a party in my head? And why were the answers so inconveniently uninvited to this party?

I stood up slowly and my head span. Black and white blotches blurred my vision, but after a few moments the dizziness subsided. I knew I would have to leave the room at some point, but I was a little afraid. What was I going to find? Who was I going to find? Would it be good or bad? I guess that not being tied up was generally a good sign, but you never know.

Cautiously, I walked out the door and into a plain concrete hallway. How informative. There were three more doors – plain and white, like the one I had emerged from – but I didn’t dare open them. Thankfully I didn’t need to. At the end of the hallway was a sharp corner, which I followed slowly by instinct.

The first thing I thought when I saw the large space in front of me was 'Wow. Furniture.' It seemed somewhat unexpected from what I’d seen of this place. The room was decorated with two old-but-comfortable looking red couches, blue carpet, a television, desk, laptop computer, and scattered with several other characterizing additions, such as a drum kit in one corner. One wall that I assumed was once plain grey concrete was now splattered with an assortment of different colours of paint. The place had so much character. When I came to in that boring room, this is the very last I would have expected. It was much more interesting that mine and Matt’s apartment. This one room made up for the lack of… well, anything in the rest of this place. Whatever this place was.

All of the details, however, were not what got my heart racing as I peeked around the corner. No. What made my palms sweat were the three people sitting casually on the couches in the room. All three men had features that I immediately distinguished them by. One had long, orangey-brown hair, glasses and facial hair that seemed somehow unusual to me, although I couldn’t quite explain why. One had a mini-fro, enough said. And the other was slightly chubbier than the other two but not noticeably so, and tufts of strawberry blonde hair stuck out from under his hat. This last one was tiredly rubbing his glasses on his shirt to clean them. Although none of these men were looking at me, I couldn’t shake the feeling of eyes upon me. The ringing in my ears grew fainter and I found myself able to hear what they were saying.

“… but that still doesn’t answer the question! What did Beckett want with her?”

I’m going to take a random guess and say that this ‘her’ is probably me.'

“I don’t know.”

“She’s a pretty little thing. Maybe he…”

“No. He may be many things, but we all know Beckett’s not like that.”

“How do we know that this wasn’t a trap? She could be working with them, for all we know…”

“I doubt it. She’s the other Williams.”

Other Williams, huh? Matthew dearest would love that. I didn’t quite realize that this was so important, but it seemed to shut the other two up. I heard a low cough that sounded more like a grumble, but I couldn’t tell who made the sound. However, this was the moment the three heads turned to look at me. I didn’t like it. They looked some sort of mix between shock and wary and… some other emotion that I couldn’t place.

“Who are you and where am I?” I asked in the strongest voice I could muster, but even I heard my voice quaver and I didn’t doubt for a second that they could see past the façade. I swear I heard someone laugh, but maybe I’m just insane.

“Don’t worry,” the guy with the fro said, jumping up from his spot on the couch and walking towards me. I walked backwards. I don’t trust easily. Noticing my movements, the guy stopped and held out his hand. “Hey. I’m Joe.”

“Elle,” I introduced myself stiffly, not taking the hand he held out to me.

“Okay,” he smiled awkwardly, withdrawing his hand. “Well these losers here are Patrick, Andy, and Pete.”

Oh, okay… wait, what? There’s only two…

“She didn’t know I was here,” a deep voice sounded and my head snapped towards the dark wall it had come from.

Stepping out of the shadows, a well-built, dark eyed guy with black and red hair came into view. He was wearing black skinny jeans and a big red hoodie with some kind of design on the front, and I knew immediately that this was the guy who had ‘saved’ me last night. Not that I’d admit it to him, because of the cocky grin spread upon his face, but his sudden appearance scared me shitless.

“Someone loves being all mysterious…” I mumbled, watching his smirk get bigger. As it did, though, I noticed that two of this guy’s teeth were more pointed than the others. It took me a second, not wanting to believe it, but then it hit me.

“What the fuck is going on here?” I raised my voice. “Why the fuck is there a vampire here? What do you want with me?”

“Someone has a mouth on them,” The vampire shot.

"Someone has fangs on them," I retorted.

“Look, let me explain…” Joe started.

“I’m not stopping you.”

“Okay. Well, I don’t really know where to start… Trick? A little help?”

I gathered that ‘Trick’ was the strawberry blonde/hat man, since he took over from there.

“Okay, um, well since Joe was so vague before, I’m Patrick… that’s Andy…”

“Yeah yeah, whatever,” I really didn’t care how short I was being, I just needed answers. “That’s nice and everything, but I get your names. Let’s move on, shall we?”

“Okay. Uh, so yes, Pete is a vampire, but he’s good. We swear.”

“Really?” I asked. “And how can you be so sure of that?”

“Well we were his best friends before he was turned, and we still are now. We know.”

“Okay, well look, I’ve been tracking vampires for years now and…”

Maybe it was a white lie, but then what would you call my association with vamps?

“So have we,” Joe argued.

“What?” I asked.

“Look,” the vampire glared at me. I refused to use his name. “Why don’t you shut up, we’ll answer your questions, and then you’ll answer ours?”

“Fine,” I glared back. I could tell that this vampire was not someone I was going to get along with. “So what’s your story?”

“Basically,” Patrick started. “Beckett turned Pete years back. Pete wants revenge. We work as a team and take down vampires. This abandoned warehouse serves as our hideout. We’ve got small connections outside us four, but not too many know about what we do. Unfortunately, Beckett does and is dead set on having Pete join the Dandies. You with me so far?”

I nodded. “So what about… you know, the whole blood sucker thing?”

The vampire growled but I ignored him.

“Pete drinks a blend we created that quenches his thirst and keeps him in control.”

“Okay. So what does this all have to do with me?”

“We’re not quite sure,” Andy hesitated to answer. “We stormed the Dandy mansion with the intension of killing Beckett’s right hand man Carden, but we discovered that he was keeping you and your brother and so we changed our plans to get you out of there.”

“How did you know who we were?”

“Please. Everyone who knows that vampires exist knows that your brother exists. He’s made quite a reputation for himself. Being hunters, we know more about him than most would. We knew that you existed and we knew what your brother looked like. Andy saw Beckett talking to your brother, who was in chains, I overheard the other Dandies saying something about a girl, we put two and two together and so Pete went to find you and get you out of there.”

“Why did you want to get us out of there? Just because we share the same enemies, doesn’t make us friends.”

“We know. But… you may be able to help us, and we may be able to help you. Exchanging information, as it were.”

“And you don’t know why they kept me there at all?”

Yes, I changed the subject on purpose.

“We’re working on that.”

There was silence throughout the room. This was all so… weird. I wasn’t used to anything out of the ordinary. Well, vampires have been ordinary to me for years. All those years, it had just been the same routine. Days spent sleeping in the small apartment and nights following my brother around the dangerous city after vampires. Now I was… here. In some abandoned warehouse with four people I’d never met before in my life with absolutely no idea what was going on around me. It was different. Is it weird to say that it kind of excited me rather than made me afraid?

“Patrick?” I asked quietly.

He and Andy were facing each other, but Joe and the vampire were looking directly at me. I didn’t like it. Patrick just seemed to be the guy with all the answers, and he wasn’t staring creepily at me, so I asked him.

“Yeah?” he looked up at me, probably shocked that I’d asked him permission before continuing with my somewhat angry questions.

“Where’s my brother?”

No one answered. I didn’t take that as a good sign. They all turned away from me; even the vampire.

“My brother?” I repeated.

Patrick opened his mouth to speak, but the vampire interrupted before he could begin.

“Beckett’s still got him.”

I didn’t know how I felt. A mixture of emotions, really. I tried to block them all from my mind, but knew they’d come back later. I could feel these next-to-strangers exchanging looks, but I kept my head down and ignored it. Minutes passed before I got a hold of myself and snapped my head up. The others looked up at the sudden movement in the still atmosphere and I cleared my throat.

“Well. I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, but I think it’s about time I go home, so if you don’t mind…”

“Not so fast,” the vampire stepped in between me and the door that I presumed would be my exit. “We’ve answered your questions, now you have to answer ours.”

“I never said I would.” Did I? “Now let me leave.”

“You’re not going anywhere,” he snarled, baring his fangs.

“Uh, Elle?” Joe interrupted. “He’s right. It’s dangerous for you to go back to your home right now. We overheard some of the dandies talking. They know where you live.”

What? How could they know? That’s ridiculous. Isn’t it?

“You’re also really weak,” Andy added. “You barely have the strength to walk right now. You’ve got nowhere to go, nothing to do when you get there, and no one to help you.” Ouch. That stings a bit. “Let us look after you.”

“That’s a nice offer and all, but I don’t need anyone, and I need to get my brother back…”

“Then let us help you.”

“I don’t even know you.”

“Give us a chance.”

I shook my head. “I’m sorry.”

I stepped through the doorframe when I felt a pair of cold, strong arms wrap around my middle as I was hoisted up over the vampire’s shoulder.

“Put me down!” I yelled. “Let me go!”

“Not a chance,” he said gruffly, walking back down the blank hallway I’d emerged from ten minutes before. I pounded my fists on his back and kicked like a five year old, but it didn’t get me anywhere. Hopefully I aggravated him further, though. The vampire threw me down on the bed I’d woken upon before, but before I could stand up his rough hands were pinning me down at my shoulders. My eyes darted to the window, but the vampire noticed.

“Not going to happen. That window’s secured shut and if you were so desperate that you’d break through it, there’s a bit of a drop.”

“Fine,” I huffed.

I didn’t like this. The vampire was so close to me. He was touching me. I didn’t like the way his dark hazel eyes didn’t give away anything. I didn’t like how he wore such casual, cool clothes. I didn’t like the fact that he was insanely attractive, no matter how much I tried to force the thought out of my mind. I stopped struggling, and he must have realized that I wasn’t going to try and escape any more, because he lifted himself from restricting my movement. I turned over so my back was facing him and closed my eyes, hoping he would leave and sleep would come soon. After a few minutes, I felt the bed shift as he stood up and the rustle of his clothes as he began leaving the room.

“Hey vampire?” I called out after him.

He turned around and looked at me irritably. Apparently he didn’t like his new nickname. I smirked quickly, but let it drop so he knew that I meant what I was saying. I couldn’t bring myself to look him in the eye, though.

“I never really said thank you for, you know, saving me and all.”

He didn’t say anything. The bastard’s going to make me say it.

“So, uh, thanks, I guess. I really do mean it.”

I finally brought my eyes up to meet his and saw his face grow into a small smirk.

“Just doing my job, human.”

I narrowed my eyes at him in a glare as he laughed and left. 'This is going to take some getting used to.'