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take a bite of my heart tonight

Summary:

What’s a fledgling vampire to do when he finds a werewolf injured in the woods?

Notes:

Wrote this for a Wrencus Zine a while back, and in the spirit of Halloween I am remembering to post it it! I love these boys (and the whole gang) and I miss them every day… I think I am feeling a replay soon…

Title from Animal by Neon Trees

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

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Marcus definitely has Everything under control.

There is nothing he can’t handle about having an injured werewolf he found in the woods laid out on a chaise lounge in the house he’s “borrowing”. He’s been in crazier situations even before he was turned into a vampire, definitely. Probably.

He goes to get the first aid kit.

He’s never actually seen a werewolf before tonight; he’s pretty new to the whole supernatural bit. It had been weirdly hard to approach him when he’d seen the man stumble and collapse in the woods. Maybe that was something the movies had right, an instinctual dislike between vampires and werewolves? But Marcus didn’t like to judge a book by its cover, and who passes up the chance to help someone AND meet a real werewolf?

First aid kit in hand, Marcus kneels next to the werewolf, and stares at the blood soaked patch of fur on his side. There had been quite a trail of blood in the woods, and he wonders nervously how much blood a werewolf could safely lose, but he tells himself firmly that the movies are also right about them being tough sons of bitches (ha!).

He doesn’t even have time to decide to start trying to clean off the dried blood before the wolf starts to shift, still unconscious. The werewolf gives out a small whimper, and then slowly recedes down to the form of a man.

Marcus turns to glance out the window and sees the moon has been obscured by a large cloud. Huh. He really wouldn’t have thought the movies had that one right. Still, it’s going to make dressing the wound much easier, so he’s not complaining.

He turns back to get started, but pauses to take in the man’s face - serious eyebrows set over tired looking eyes, a port wine mark splashed across one side of his face.

He doesn’t realize he’s been staring until the man starts to twitch, groaning and reaching down to clutch at his side. Marcus catches his wrist lightly, and he furrows his brows before opening slightly cloudy eyes.

“Careful,” Marcus says, “I don’t know what the damage is yet, you probably shouldn’t touch it.”

“Who th’ fuck ’r you?” the man slurs.

“Uhh…”

But Marcus doesn’t have to come up with an answer before the man gasps in pain and tries to clutch at his side again. “Fuck, nev’r mind, if you’re gonna kill me jus’ do it, this shit hurts,” he says, squeezing his eyes closed.

Marcus winces and finally turns his attention back to the man’s injury, where he quickly spots the real problem - a small silver knife stuck in his side. Praying that it’s a worse idea to leave it in than pull it out and that werewolves can lose a Lot of blood and be fine, Marcus grips the handle and pulls it out as quickly and gently as possible.

The man lets out a huge breath and immediately relaxes back against the chaise, face going slack with relief.

Marcus grins, reassured that that was the right call. “Better?” he asks.

The man slowly blinks back up at him, eyes catching on Marcus’s smile, which he mirrors back with a lopsided one of his own. “‘R you an angel?”

Marcus cannot contain a loud snort, and immediately loses it. “Really, dude? A prequels reference?” he manages to gasp through his giggling.

He manages to sound indignant even though he’s clearly half delirious, saying, “Hey, ’ve been stabbed tonight, cut me some slack!”

Shaking his head in mock disappointment, Marcus replies, “And you’re already making puns about it. Alright, Mercutio, do you think I need to sew this up, or do werewolves really have super healing?”

“Ehh…” he cranes his neck to get a look at his side, and Marcus follows his gaze. Even after everything, it still catches Marcus off guard to see the wound is already closing up on its own. The man sighs, “Should be fine.”

“Whoa.”

“S’pretty cool, right?” he says, eyes fluttering closed.

“Yeah, but maybe you should get some sleep anyways. You lost a lot of blood tonight. It wasn’t pretty out in the woods earlier.” Should Marcus bring up the hunters he saw looking for this guy? …Nah, probably best not to stress him.

“Whatever you say, Doctor… uh, name?”

“It’s Marcus,” he answers with a small smile.

The man blinks his eyes open and they catch on his smile, again, a dazed look on his face. “Marcus. Why are half my instincts telling me to fight you?”

Marcus blinks, “Well, I’m pretty new to it, but uh, I am a vampire. Not sure if all that ‘werewolf-vampire-eternal-supernatural-rivalry’ stuff is real, but it’s my best guess.”

“Oh no, it definitely is,” he says with a knowing nod. “I’m Wrench, by the way.”

“Nice to meet you, Wrench. If only half your instincts are telling you to fight me, what are the other half saying?”

Wrench’s own smile turns a little goofy at that. “To flirt with you,” he practically sighs.

Marcus blushes, gives a sheepish laugh as he replies, “Ha, maybe that’s the blood loss talking.”

Wrench hums doubtfully at that, “Hmmm, no, I think that’s the vampire-werewolf thing too. We’re like, monster Romeo and Juliet!”

That gets a proper laugh out of Marcus, asking, “I thought you were Mercutio?”

Wrench manages to look very pleased with himself even as his eyes are drifting closed again. “I can be Mercutio and Juliet! I contain multitudes…”

“Mmhm. Clearly it’s hard work to be so talented, maybe you should get some actual sleep now, huh?”

“Well, if you insist…” he replies, releasing one long content sigh before immediately beginning to snore.

Marcus shakes his head, smile turning fond as he looks down at what has to be the most ridiculous man he’s ever met.

~*~

With Wrench resting, Marcus wanders into the kitchen, wondering if there’s any food around he could scrounge up. It had been a while since he’d needed to eat, but Wrench will probably need something sooner rather than later. He decides to start with some hot chocolate, since he’s always found it both comforting and delicious.

Of course, that’s when he hears a window on the other side of the house shatter.

Damn. He really thought he’d made a clean getaway earlier, even despite being weighed down by an entire werewolf. Maybe he shouldn’t have underestimated the expertly kitted out hunters - any group with that many stakes, crosses, silver knives, and even a crossbow, are probably experienced enough for basic tracking. Oops.

Marcus moves through the house like a shadow, making no noise, thoughts racing. Sure enough, when he gets in view of the shattered window, two of the hunters from the woods are pushing their way inside. Swearing silently, Marcus immediately forces his mind into planning mode.

Well, maybe he can lead them away from here and lose them in the city? Then loop back around and take Wrench somewhere else…

And then he has to jerk wildly out of the way as the third hunter lunges at him from behind. Marcus doesn’t know how she got inside, but he does know that that stake came way closer to his face than he was comfortable with.

The hunter wheels around to face him again, and Marcus has just enough time to notice that the other two are coming up behind her to have her back, before he has to jump out of the way again as a stake comes sailing at him. After that, he figures running is his best option.

He heads back towards the kitchen, anxious to keep them away from Wrench, and maybe if he can get through the dining room and out the patio he can lead them away-

He gets tackled to the ground in the middle of the kitchen. How is a human so fast?

“Don’t move,” she says harshly, and he swallows as he feels the point of a stake in his back. “Tell us where the werewolf is.”

Cautiously, he responds, “Listen, guys. I really think you should consider that maybe not all monsters are monsters, you feel me? I don’t hurt people, and I won’t hurt any of you if you’ll just let us go-“

“Let you go? Yeah, right! Listen buddy, everyone knows vampires and werewolves don’t get along, so we have a very strict no vampires allowed rule on our side of town. So tells us what you did with the wolf, or we can make this very painful-“

“Why does it smell like hot chocolate in here?” one of the other hunters interrupted, looking around the kitchen.

“Oh no, it’s burning!” Marcus shoots up unthinking, and the hunter who had him pinned tumbles off him as he runs to turn the burner off.

Unfortunately, this was the wrong move in a room full of antsy hunters. He turns back around and sees the stake coming at him like it’s slow motion, but before he can get out of the way, a huge shape barrels into its path.

Then, as quickly as he entered the room, Wrench shifts back into human form, removing the stake from his shoulder as he goes.

“Ow.”

“Wrench!” the hunters all shout.

“Hi guys,” he says, sounding pained.

Marcus begins to put some pieces together. “You uh. Know these people?”

Wrench gives him a shaky grin. “Marcus, meet my friends. Guys, this is-“ he slumps over mid sentence, clearly not taking verticality very well yet despite the super healing, but Marcus steps forward in time to catch him. He shoots Marcus a grateful blushing smile, continuing, “This is Marcus. He helped me out.”

“Oh.” The hunter says awkwardly.

One of the guys who’d come in through the window steps forward and offers his hand. “Sorry about the confusion. I’m Horatio, and this is Sitara and Josh.”

“Hi,” Josh says, while Sitara waves sheepishly and adjusts the strap of her crossbow.

“So… you guys weren’t trying to kill him in the woods?”

“Why would you think that?” Sitara demands.

“Um. No, that makes sense,” Josh says, as he and Marcus both pointedly look over their equipment.

“Oh… right. Sorry. No, it wasn’t us, there were these other hunters- it doesn’t matter, we sent them on a wild goose chase. We were just trying to bring Wrench home.”

“Well, thanks for not staking me,” Marcus says, giving Sitara a reassuring smile.

“Yeah, NO thanks for staking me!” Wrench exclaims, hand to his forehead as he leans even more heavily into Marcus.

Josh rolls his eyes and Horatio shakes his head as Sitara replies, “Oh, boo hoo, it’s already healed. I am sorry we didn’t get to you sooner.”

“Seems to have worked out though, huh?” Horatio says with a significant look at the way Wrench is swooning into Marcus’s side. “And we thought all vampires hated werewolves.”

“Well,” Marcus says, looking sidelong at Wrench, “I think this vampire might be pretty into werewolves.”

Wrench whips his head over to look at Marcus, but his eyes don’t quite focus after the sudden motion. “Guys,” he stage whispers, “Is he flirting back? I’ve lost too much blood to tell.”

“Gross, I’m going now,” Josh declares, turning immediately for the door.

“Ugh, same,” Sitara follows him out of the room.

“Horatio, dude don’t leave me hanging, I really can’t tell!”

Horatio backs away, saying, “I think you should just ask him directly, Wrench.”

He follows the others out, and Wrench very tentatively looks over at Marcus. “Sooo…”

Marcus grins. “I am definitely giving you my number. You can call me as soon as you aren’t lightheaded just from standing up.”

Wrench’s answering grin is huge. “Doctor’s orders?”

“Absolutely doctor’s orders.”

Notes:

This small piece was inspired by my red string board style idea for a Vampire the Masquerade AU for wd2. Maybe someday I’ll even write some of it.

Happy (technically belated) Halloween! >:}3c