by Martha Woods
“He has… he had a way with words.” Damon looked sadly at Tristian’s body, so broken and lifeless that it was hard to say that he’d ever been alive at all. “You’re responsible for everything that you did, but if Tristian got his claws into you early… you didn’t have a hope of thinking anything otherwise.”
“He was good, he had me convinced that there was nothing redeeming about you. I thought for sure that any emotions that you’d shown, any good deeds you might have done were purely to fool everyone around you, but after seeing what you just did… that complete, raw despair that a vampire could show over a human being, that pure love that was so easy to see it’s a wonder you can ever feel anything else at all… I’ve been part of interrogations for damn near thirty years, I know when someone’s lying when someone is faking to get sympathy, and that wasn’t it.”
“So, what?” I asked, “You saw the error of your ways through the power of love? Sorry, but that doesn’t take away what you’ve done.”
“No, I don’t think it does. If I was wrong about you, then that means that I was wrong about everything else, if I was wrong about everything else, then I killed a completely innocent person for no reason at all.” He clenched his fist, feet grinding against the ground and his face dipping low. “I damned my soul for absolutely no goddamn reason, I took a son away from a mother and father, I stained your name in the pursuit of the biggest nothing of my life. And for that… for that there need to be consequences.”
None of us quite knew what to make of that, especially Davis, who had turned to look at him with a look of complete surprise on his face. “Sir? What are you talking about?”
“We made the wrong choice, we were on the wrong side of this. I’m going to turn myself in, clear Amy’s name and try… try to give everyone involved in this some kind of peace.”
“Turn yourself in?” I asked, “How are you going to do that? Just say that you got involved with some hunters and tried to kill some vampires, they’ll laugh you out of the building.”
“No, I’m going to say that the men laying dead in that building there are involved in arms trafficking, I got tired of my wages not being raised in the last few years and got involved with them to make something for my retirement. You found out and… I had to do what I had to do. Even got a few of my fellow officers involved as well, just to make sure I was covered.”
“What the hell are you doing sir?” Davis had one hand on his pistol, something that I was watching very carefully for the slightest movement. “We can just get out of here, let her take the fall for everything! We’re still home free, we can still get out clean!”
Rick stopped, looking at Davis out of the corner of his eye and speaking calmly, “You don’t agree with my plan?”
“With respect? Hell, no I don’t! Malcolm didn’t die just for you to turn us both in at the end of the day, I’m not going to rot in some cell just so some bitch can go home with her boyfriend!”
“That’s a shame,” Rick said, turning to face him and nodding slowly, “That’s a real shame.”
His pistol left the holster faster than I could even blink, two shots burying themselves in Malcolm’s chest before a third snapped his head back, his body falling back stiff as a board and into the already bloody water coating the asphalt. Of all the outcomes… this was one that I hadn’t been anticipating.
“Uh… wow,” Joseph said, “A strange way to begin your redemption.”
“Malcolm and Davis were two of the weeds in our department that I’ve tolerated for far too long if nothing else I can make sure that some of them are cleared when I go down. It might be the last decent thing that I do.” He threw his gun off to the side, taking slow steps towards me and kneeling in front of me. “Amy? Is this ok?”
“I… yeah Rick, yeah this is ok but… why? Why do all of this?”
“Because I finally saw what was right in front of me this whole time, and it wasn’t some… juvenile, asinine desire to be the hero who saved humanity. It was that I’m just a broken-down old man, who couldn’t face that the world is different from the one that I learned about when I was a boy. I saw something new, something amazing, and rather than embracing it I turned away from it in fear, and in doing so I almost killed you. I need to make peace with that and with the fact that… the world will be a better place, with fewer people like me taking up space.”
“Rick?” I dropped the gun, shuffling forward to grip his arms. “What do you mean?”
He laughed gently, looking at me with that sad look in his eyes. “Let’s not pretend,” He said, “We both know how long cops last in jail, especially ones as high up as me. I’ll be lucky if I make it more than a month, and at this point… at this point I can’t really feel it in me to care too much about that. It’s about time in my opinion.”
“Nom no you could get protective custody, or reach a deal or… or something, don’t-”
He pulled me in, wrapping his arms around me and squeezing as hard as he could. “Just forget about me Amy, move on with your life, move onto something better than all of this, don’t end up like me. You have people who care about you, who’ll be there for the rest of your life, don’t squander this chance.” Pulling back, he regarded me one last time and flicked his head backwards, “Now go, get out of here, and don’t look back.”
As much as I wanted to push the point, to try and convince him that there was another way to do this, I couldn’t ignore the sound of sirens any longer, a max of three minutes before they reached the hotel and tossed the whole place like the warzone that it was.
“I won’t forget you Rick, I’ll... I’ll visit you sometime, ok? I’ll visit as often as I can!”
“If you want to,” He said, bowing his head to hide his tears, “Don’t get too attached though.”
Wordlessly, I gestured for everyone else to join me, all of us walking out of the alleyway and leaving Rick behind with the two bodies. I couldn’t help but feel that I was leaving part of my life behind, and with the bewildered realization, I realized that I wasn’t the only one. Linking my fingers with Damon’s and leading him towards the van, I just had to hope that he could adapt to his new life.
We might not have given him the choice to keep living, but we have the choice to give him a life. It’s our responsibility to do so.
Chapter 8
“Hey, Damon, wake up.”
Pressing on his chest, it was still incredible to feel no heart beating under the skin, no faint rush of blood, no… no nothing. His chest still rose with shallow breathing, though I’m suspecting more and more by the day that he only does it out of habit. I can’t really blame him, I happen to like breathing.
“Damon, come on, the sun’s just about to go down.”
“Oh come on…” He moaned, turning over and trying to cover his ears with a pillow. “Just give me a few more minutes alright? I’m not used to this vampire crap yet.”
“Are you still not up?” Vincent asked from the doorway, a cup of coffee in his hand and his hair still wonderfully untamed. “You’ve been asleep for hours, I was worried that you’d died in your sleep.”
“Not just yet, though maybe if I did you would stop bothering me about getting up. And why are you both so perky all of a sudden?”
“Well,” I started, dragging my finger along his thigh and hooking it into his boxers, “It’s the first official alliance meeting tonight since… everything else went down, it’s a very big night to be excited by. And since you haven’t really shown yourself since you got turned… I guess we’re just excited to show you off now that you’re starting to get used to everything.”
“Show me off huh? Like a show pony,” He laughed before we could worry about if we’d stepped on his toes, “Don’t worry, I’m… starting to get used to everything, but it’s just a lot to take in right now. I’ll come to your weird club meeting, but if things get too heavy I’m going to come back home.”
“Weird club meeting? Damon you’ve been to these before, it’s not like you’
re some new arrival.”
“I know, but now that I’m a vampire I thought that I had to be aloof and dickish. At least, that’s what I’ve learned from watching Vincent interacting with people.”
Vincent rolled his eyes, finishing his cup of coffee and placing it down on the side table. “Remind me not to be nice to you from now on.”
“I don’t think you need the reminder… Amy what are you doing?”
I dragged my fingers in his waistband, pulling them slowly down but refraining from revealing him all the way just yet. “I just figured… we have a few hours until the meeting… why not kill some time?”
For a moment he looked like he was going to refuse, but one look in my eyes and the hungry desire resting in Vincent’s and he found himself speechless. Well, aside from one very important word.
“Alright.”
* * *
“Oh my god, oh my god right there!” I was sat up on the bed, squeezed in between their chests while I tried to fight against my desire to just let my mind go blank and for everything to turn white, though it was rapidly becoming a losing battle. “Don’t stop, please!”
Damon grinned in front of me, grabbing the back of my head roughly and pulling me against his lips, muffling my screams of pleasure when Vincent grabbed my hips from behind and thrust even harder than he had been before. It was a sensation that I still haven’t gotten fully used to, being between two men was… so exhilarating that it was hard to describe, but I knew in my heart that it wouldn’t feel nearly as good if it wasn’t these two men specifically.
I’m not stupid, I know it would still feel pretty good, but these two just knew exactly what to do to unravel me completely. And, well… there was the small matter of love I suppose…
“You’re both so good!” Scraping my nails down Damon’s back, I twisted around to claim Vincent’s lips for my own, the practiced scrape of his fang against my lower lip making me shiver right down to my core like always. “You taste so good…”
“I taste like you,” He said, smirking with each word, “I think you remember that quite vividly…”
I had not in fact forgotten about that, it’s quite hard to forget that it wasn’t just their cocks that they were good at using on either side of me, but why live in memory when you can still live in the moment? “Maybe I do,” I said, “I think that you should be making me remember this right here, right now.”
“Oh?” He raised his eyebrow, fingers digging into my hips so hard that his nails broke my skin. “Your wish is my command.”
I wasn’t quite sure what he was doing when he swept his hand over my hips, dipping his thumb along my back until he was pressing it at the tight ring that he was currently occupied with thrusting into like his life depended on it. When he pressed it slowly inside, right alongside his hardened length and stretching me out even further, it was all I needed to unravel right then and there and throw my head back in ecstasy.
Damon grunted as I tightened around him, so close to finishing himself that he looked over my shoulder at Vincent to make sure that he wasn’t the only one. Right as I was peaking in my climax, this close to losing my mind completely, the two of them surged in and claimed one side of my neck each, drinking deeply and making the fire that had been burning inside me turn into a complete inferno, my vision going blank and my mouth dropping open wordlessly as they milked every ounce of pleasure out of me that they could with every suck of their mouth against me.
Damon was still new to being a vampire, and no matter how much he drank he was hungry, so it was only fair that I take care of him as best I could. But at that moment, with my tongue falling from my mouth and words almost failing me completely, I could only mutter one slurred, borderline incoherent word. “Stop…”
They both pulled back instantly, their eyes still clouded over with lustful hunger and itching to drink more, but one look at the complete lack of sense on my face was enough to convince them otherwise. Thankfully they didn’t pull out of me, I was far too sensitive for that and I didn’t have it in me right now to feel them spilling out of me, the most I was capable of what shivering and leaning limply against Damon’s chest while I waited for the trembles to stop.
“Wow, there there,” He giggled, patting my back comfortingly, “I know that we get carried away sometimes but… wow, that was new, huh?”
“I think that maybe both of us at once and both of us at once may be too much to handle right now.” Vincent shivered against my back. “Not that I have it in me to complain, quite the opposite in fact.”
“Yeah…” I sighed, finally able to make words cooperate with me again, though heavy thinking was still going to elude me for quite some time, “That was… really good. I think I’ll get used to it eventually.”
Reaching up, I ran my hand through Damon’s hair and gave him a reassuring smile. “We said we would take care of you right? That means both of us, and that means in every way.”
He blushed, as best vampires could at least, before covering my hand with his own. There were so many words swimming in his eyes, so many promises and declarations that he couldn’t pick just one.
Instead, he settled for practicality. “As much as I would love to sit here all night and look into your eyes, I think we should start to get ready for the meeting. It’s going to be hard for you to give your speech if your legs don’t work properly.”
“Yeah,” I laughed, “Yeah, I guess it would be.”
“And…” He paused, oddly shy about his feelings since he’d been turned, though neither of us was ever going to rush him. “Yeah, I just wanted you two to know that… yeah.”
“We understand.” Vincent and I nodded, squeezing his hands in comfort and nodding. “We understand.”
“Good, good… now Amy?”
“Yes, my love?”
“Can you please get off me?”
* * *
“So, now that you’re not a cop anymore… what do you think you’re going to do?”
I tapped my chin, ever since I’d tendered my resignation with the station and had the pleasure of giving everyone there some very dirty looks, I’d been coasting by on their bill until I decided whether or not I was going to sue them for damages. It wouldn’t be hard, and I wasn’t exactly hurting for money but… it would probably be the shot in the foot that they needed to actually clean up their act for once.
“You know… I’m not sure. Joseph offered me a position at the top of one of the companies he has his hands in, it would effectively be a no-show job to pay the bills while I focused on the alliance but… I don’t know. I think I’ll take it and if I don’t like it I can always change my mind, right?”
“Top staff come and go all the time from these places, it wouldn’t be too much of an inconvenience if you decided to do the same.” Damon shrugged. “Besides, if you don’t try it how do you know right?”
“True, very true.”
Vincent took my hand on my other side, running his finger along my knuckles and bringing my palm to his lips. “Have… you spoken to Rick recently?”
I sighed, that was one of the things that I didn’t want to be reminded of, but there was no point in ignoring it. “I spoke to him a few days ago, he’s adjusting to prison but… he doesn’t have long, he refused protective custody and… yeah. I know it, he knows it, I think now we’re both just waiting.”
Damon squeezed my shoulder, leaning in and pressing a kiss to my cheek. “As bad as it sounds, it’s what he wants. It’s not what you want to hear, it’s not what you want to happen but… it’s what he wanted to happen. That counts for something at least.”
“I know, I know, it’s just… he was my mentor, for so many years. It’s just going to be hard to forget that anytime soon.”
“You shouldn’t,” Vincent said, “You should remember what he did for you, what he did to you, and what he did in the end. If you want to respect his memory, and I know you do, you need to remember everything about him, not just the rosy parts.”
�
�Yeah…” I shook my head, forcing a smile back on my face and pulling them closer as we reached the doors. “Enough of that, let’s try and have fun tonight. I have a good feeling about all of this.”
As soon as we opened the doors we were surrounded by our friends, all of them trying to get a look at Damon now that he’d had time to get used to the looks and wasn’t so self conscious about how pale he was. I swear, Cara almost swooned.
“Alright, everyone stand back please,” I laughed, “You’re going to suffocate him, I don’t want anyone dying tonight.”
“Sorry, sorry!” Cara giggled, “I just… it’s good to see you three! It’s been a while since that night.”
“Not exactly the most pleasant note to end on either,” Alexis drawled, Tabitha nodding alongside her, “I expected you to come back to the mansion with two vampires, not three.”
“Well, happy little accidents no?” Joseph reached out, pulling Damon aside and walking towards Ivanka and Mika, who offered a small wave at our group. “Come Damon, I have some things that we need to discuss.”
“Aww…” Faye sighed, “I was just about to say that he didn’t look like total shit.”
“I’m sure he would have appreciated the compliment.” I reached out to Tariq, smiling when I saw that his arm wasn’t in a sling any longer. “Looks like you’ve healed up well, love really is the best antidote huh?”
“Oh,” He sputtered, blushing as he looked over at Cara, “I don’t…”
“She’s just being a dick Tariq, don’t worry.” She rolled her eyes, pressing a kiss to his cheek before grabbing my hand and pulling me through the crowd. “Now you need to get your butt up on stage, the meeting isn’t the same without you to introduce everyone.”
