Chapter Text
Austin never bought into the Twilight bullshit.
He did have to admit there was a certain beauty to it; a macabre beauty, yes, but beauty nonetheless.
Vampires and healthy young men weren’t so different, after all, if you really thought about it—hunting in the night, lusting after pure innocent maidens, with their soft, tender skin…the only difference between a vampire and a man, of course, being the definition of what ‘lusting’ was.
Technicalities.
From one pretentious writer to another, Austin could see through it, through the obvious parallels between men and vampires. Why women loved the stories where her lover wanted to eat her, and had to resist the temptation. Drinking blood and giving into those beastly desires was just a writers more poetic and metaphorical way to say ‘he wanted to fuck her,’ and anyone who thought it was something deeper or literal was full of shit.
But unlike vampires in the stories, Austin had been doing just fine on the blood of tweakers and losers. More than fine, in fact—he was doing a service. As his dad used to say whenever they’d pass by the janitors mopping up some hobo’s vomit or shit: “somebody’s gotta do it.”
And Austin always knew he was going to be a somebody.
Unlike most vampire media would have you believe, he didn’t cream his pants when a young woman walked by, the smell of her sweet, sweet blood filling his nostrils. He didn’t taste the difference between a female tweaker or a male tweaker. When he was draining their blood, that sweet nectar always tasted the same… though sometimes, if he were lucky, there’d just be a little added oomph.
Which brings him to another great point. Who would even want the blood of some pure innocent maiden, anyway? There’d be no little extra ‘treats’ in her blood, nothing to give him a little bit of a buzz afterwards. No, he imagined drinking blood so pure would be akin to drinking flat soda, and he’d only miss the sting of the carbonation on his throat as he feasted.
And so Austin never bought into that Twilight bullshit.
But the fact remained that he wasn’t an actual vampire, so perhaps he was being too hard on those old coots, who had a picky diet of strictly beautiful maidens. Austin was still a human, after all, with human senses. Perhaps if he had the nose and tongue of a vampire, he’d know if a lovely maiden’s blood truly tasted better than the average joe.
“…Do you need something?”
Those words snapped Austin out of his web of thoughts. Austin raised his eyes lazily, and with great effort. It was bright out, you see—not with sun, oh no no, but even the light gray that engulfed the whole town was more than enough to make him squint in order to take in what was ahead of him.
The voice he had heard belonged to a woman, and the question hadn’t been aimed at him. Ahead of him, a woman looking to be in her mid-twenties, was backing away from one of the Nosferatu’s.
Or the pale ones, as others liked to call them. Really, Austin wished they’d just all agree to call them Nosferatu, since that’s clearly what they were, but Belle had told him again and again that it wasn’t a good idea. He knew why, of course, since the name would only draw attention to the fact that they craved blood, but still.
So anyway, the girl—bless her soul—continued to ask it what it wanted as it got closer. Really, bless her. Austin couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows as he watched. Most people went straight for the run and gun it route, screaming bloody murder as they went.
But once the guttural snarl escaped its throat and it closed in on her, even she had a limit to the boundaries of her personal space, and the girl turned on her heel to run. Nosferatu sprinted after her with its gangly and awkward limbs, and Austin continued to follow them with his eyes, while he considered following them with his feet.
It wasn’t something they did often, but he could piggyback off of their kill. Whenever the Nossy’s killed someone, since they didn’t mess with the non-failures such as Austin, they’d back off if you got close, reluctantly allowing you to drink the blood of their kill.
It was risky since the Nosferatu’s didn’t have much discretion and would kill in public places, but even if the body was found, you’d just be able to, rightfully so, blame them. It wasn’t a lie, but you’d just have to make sure that you wiped the blood off your mouth before the cops showed up.
The slight rumble in his stomach and potential promise of blood was what spurned Austin to follow, as the Nosferatu chased the girl into what he now saw was an alley. In no hurry himself, he peeked in to get a look at the situation, realizing that a few of the Nossy’s other friends were already at the other end of the alley, boxing her in.
Austin couldn’t help the low whistle that escaped his lips, and he almost clapped. He didn’t realize they could be this coordinated, though it may have also just been a coincidence.
The girl turned from one side to the other, and then again, turning and turning as if she would find a secret route out if she just kept spinning like a dreidel. Her long and straight caramel coloured hair followed her like a wave, nearly slapping one of the Nossy’s in the face.
Austin was surprised to find himself still standing there admiring their formation, when he realized he had actually been zoning out and staring at something else. He was staring at her eyes, large, brown saucers, the size only accentuated from the glossy shine of her tears, reflecting the light around her.
He continued to stare, chocolate melting into chocolate, so obnoxious they were practically screaming at him to look into them.
He must still have drugs in his system. First the long vampire tangent earlier, now getting literally lost in someone’s eyes and zoning out. The only thing that finally made him snap out of it was when she squeezed her eyes shut, bracing for her violent fate at the hands of the Nossy’s.
“What brings you to town?” Austin called out to her, causing the Nossy’s to stop.
At his question, so casual and airy, as if he were meeting up with an old friend he hadn’t seen in who knows how long, all the Nossy’s turned slowly to look at him. Funnily enough, the gal he actually had intended the question to be for was the only one who didn’t pay him any mind. She continued to squeeze her eyes shut, curling in on herself.
Now, that wasn’t very smart, Austin couldn’t help but think. Didn’t they teach you to make yourself big when larger creatures attacked you? Like bears—you were supposed to spread your arms, yell like crazy, and hope that your batshit display scared them off.
This girl had it all wrong, all wrong. He was surprised she’d even lasted this long. Really, she was already naturally short, but she was hunched to make herself even smaller. Was she asking to die? And her slight shoulders, already narrow, looking even smaller as she held her arms to her chest and hugged herself.
The Nossy’s parted reluctantly as Austin continued to approach, slinging an arm over those oh so small shoulders. Seeing as she still hadn’t opened her eyes and had probably been expecting to be torn apart by now, his comforting gesture seemed to have the opposite effect, and he heard her shaky intake of air and a slight whimper when he did so.
“Tsk, tsk,” he really couldn’t help but shake his head now. “If you’re gonna lay down and show your belly this quickly, you aint gonna last long here.”
Hearing human speech instead of a snarl seemed to make her finally realize that the arm around her shoulder was, in fact, friendly, and she dared to finally open her eyes and bring her head up.
Once she seemed to understand her mob of pale attackers were backing off, it was Austin’s lucky turn for those big ol’ browns to fall on him next.
Oh, how they lasered into him! He gave an easy smile in return. “Sorry to interrupt this shindig. You never answered me, though. What brings you to this humble town?”
“I—I,” she stammered, trying to answer him, but if the tremors he could feel radiating off of her and into his arm were anything to go by, he wasn’t going to get an answer just yet. Not a coherent one, at least.
Austin made a shoo-ing motion with the hand that hung lazily over her shoulder, clicking his tongue at the Nossy’s for them to scram. He didn’t even have to say a word before they all slunk off to find a new target.
“Walk and talk.” Austin declared then, urging her onwards with the arm still around her shoulder as he began to move down the street. The girl looked behind her and over his arm to get a last look at the Nossy’s. The turn of her head sent a bit of her hair into his face.
Strawberry, he thought.
Normally he didn’t worry about normalcy, or the appearance of it. But, at the moment, he deemed it best to resist the urge to dive deeper into her hair and huff more of the scent.
“Thank you—what, what were those?” she looked up at him, and he noticed she made no movement to release herself from under his arm. Guess he probably seemed like the beacon of normalcy and protection when compared to the Nossy’s, and he struggled to hold his laughter in at that.
“Ah, those guys? Don’t mind them, they just get a bit carried away,” Austin said nonchalantly, not missing the way she looked at him from his peripheral. Even from the side, he could feel the pressure of her eyes boring into him.
“Don’t mind them? They just—” Now that she was no longer overcome with fear and threat of immediate assault, the girl seemed to realize she may have just walked from one danger into another.
He didn’t blame her—his attitude certainly didn’t scream ‘savior.’ She finally wriggled out from under his arm, and Austin smirked, snapping his fingers to give his now lonely arm something to do. “They just tried to kill me!”
“Tried, being the key word. Those guys try and try and try, but are destined to a life that never succeeds.” He turned to her, scrunching his face up in mock pity. “Sad, huh?”
The girl only stared at him, blinking rapidly, before turning to storm off.
Right, yes, she was very scared, silly him. He should have been more sympathetic to her plights.
“Hey,” he called to her retreating form, dirty blonde hair mixing mutely into the rest of the sandy landscape of the town. “I said hey,” he deftly snatched her wrist, so small in his hand he idly wondered if he could break it just by squeezing hard enough. She didn’t struggle against his grip and easily came back to him, as if she hadn’t really wanted to leave in the first place.
Something about her meek surrender and return to him stirred something in him, and he laughed, throwing his arm over her once more. As he suspected, she didn’t shake him off again.
“Look, sorry ‘bout that. How about I walk you to where you need to go?” He offered, looking down at her from the corner of his eye. She looked up at him then, relieved. Clearly that had been why she hadn’t stormed off. Even if she was angry with him and didn’t understand what was happening, she at least understood it was better to not be alone.
Not so surprisingly, the girl had asked to be taken home.
Austin knew the house, and judging by the cars in the driveway, it was still the same old couple that lived here. He wasn’t sure what the situation was, but she must be a relative of some kind, since the geezers who lived in that place seemed too old to be her parents.
“Thanks again,” the girl said at her doorstep, fidgeting with the bottom of her navy sweatshirt awkwardly. It seemed now that imminent danger and adrenaline was out of her system, bits of her true personality were shining through, and she refused to look at him straight on.
Austin had to wonder if it was because she was ashamed to have let some strange man walk with his arm over her for so long, even if he had been the one to save her. Or maybe she was worried about the people she lived with seeing him—with his eyeliner, tight black pinstripe pants, zebra patterned button up that revealed his chest, along with his black fur sweater that hung loosely off of him.
With the cross and Jesus combo on the top of the door…right, he was starting to get the picture. Modest little Christian raised girl, seen coming home with someone of his ilk. She couldn’t just send him off, of course, as he was her gracious savior.
But everything else about her other than actual words were screaming at him to go away, and it made him grin so hard he was worried his caps might pop off.
“Well then, have a great afternoon,” Austin bowed with great extravagance and flourish before spinning on his heel to leave. He could feel those big brown eyes penetrating the back of his fur coat as he walked off, taking note of how long it took for him to hear the closing of the door as she watched him leave.
He couldn’t help but sigh and shake his head as he strolled off. Girl like that, she’ll be dead by tomorrow.