The Curse

[GnomesAteMyCake]

Her heart pumping, (Oh, traitorous heart...) erratically, Alice tried to squirm away from the enraged Vampire before her, his hands tight enough on her wrists to leave symmetrical bruises on her fair skin. Turning her head, foolishly giving Gavin better access to her neck, Alice squeezed her eyes shut, her brain turning.

He hates me, I know he does....but this? Really, this much? Something's happened to make him this way-

There was a shout of anger, and the pressure at her wrists disappeared and she could breath again, the body that had been pressing her into the wall ripped away. Opening her eyes, her face a picture of shock, Alice watched as Logan grabbed the Vampire by the scruff of the neck and throw him bodily down the stairs, the clanging and echoing of Gavin's body hitting the steps vibrated around the small stairwell. Sinking to the ground, Alice covered her mouth with her hands as the two monsters grappled, Logan's strength outweighing the slimmer man, who didn't appear to want to hurt the werewolf anyway. The girl gasped as Logan planted his fist in Gavin's stomach, her honey eyes wide with fear.

"L-Logan..." Gavin pleaded, the pain and desperation clear in his voice.

"Get out." Alice winced at the coldness of Logan's voice, and even though Gavin could have done anything for her, she felt her heart pull a little for him at the look on his face; it looked like Logan had just given him the death sentance, but worse. "LEAVE."

The next thing Alice was aware of was a pair of large hands smoothing over her wrists and pushing her hair from her face, Logan's yellow eyes peering at her. She heard Gavin scramble from the stairwell. "Are you alright?" Logan asked softly.

"How..." Alice tried, but her throat was tight and all that came out was a dry croak. "How....could you? He's your....friend! He didn't do anything, and as much...as I hate him, you can't send him...away." Meeting Logan's eyes, Alice bit her lip, choosing her next words with care. She'd been acting cold and flippant since Logan re-entered her life, and that wasn't going to change, but he had just saved her, and she didn't want to appear ungrateful when she felt the exact opposite.

"Don't get me wrong....I'm h-happy you stopped him from ripping chunks outta me....but this is his home. He hasn't got anywhere, anyone else. I'll be fine-" she said detirminedly, using Logan's advanced bulk to pull herself up. "Cup of tea, good night's sleep, I'll be fine. Take me to my room, then go find him and fix things. You guys are...." pausing, Alice looked guiltily at the floor. Freaks.

"...You guys are a family. You have to stick together."

[GnomesAteMyCake]

"...Gavin?" Lance gasped, locking eyes with his lover. For a moment, the two of them were cemented together, each unable to move. Lance's stomach dropped at the way that the vampire was unable to stand up straight, indicating more injuries. He could see the blood from his bulletwound seeping through his shirt; he just hadn't been given enough time to regenerate. And his face....

Gavin wrenched his storm-blue eyes from Lance's green before barrelling from the room, his head lowered as he pushed past two young lycans and headed to the right, out of the building. "Gavin!" Lance shouted after him, attempting to run after him, but was held back by Lily. "Lemme go, Lily! I have to go to him!"

"Sweetheart, leave him. He's upset still. You've not given him any time to calm down-"

"No! He needs me, he does!" Lance insisted, pulling against the woman's superior strength but getting nowhere. Growling, Lance continued to fight her, his eyes wide. He was heading out, he was heading out.....

"Lily, please! I need to go to him," Lance whimpered, his eyes tearing as he looked up at the woman. "What if he's gone? I can't lose him, I can't..."

~~

"I can see Gavin leaving the building, Callum. He looks kinda beat up from the fight I just told you about."

"Good. You may proceed, Melissa. Take him to the gift we provided...it should remind him of himself..."

"Yes sir." Manic, standing from her position on the roof of the building across from Logan's HQ, slipped the headset from her ears to rest aorund her neck as she headed for the fire escape, dropping a few levels as she spiralled downward, keeping an eye on the injured vampire that ducked into an alleyway to the right. A grin blossoming over her face, she leapt to the ground, her injured arm bent awkwardly as she stood from her crouch and ran after Gavin, her step light and bouncy, her white hair washed and styled and for all the world looking partly sane. She'd even put a eye-patch over her crooked eye, which impared her vision but made her so much more approachable.

Letting out a small huff of laughter, Manic sprinted down an ajacent alleyway, skidding to a hault in front of Gavin when the two intersected.

"Hey handsome," she purred, putting a hand against the wall and leaning aginst it casually. Gavin looked at her with disgust and anger as he pushed against her mangled arm.

"Fuck off, Manic. You really don't want to be fucking with me right now."

"Who said anything about fucking? Well, maybe not now..." she smirked, relishing in the look of condensed rage Gavin shot her over his shoulder. She raised her hands in surrender. "I kid, I kid....I've come to you with a proposition."

"I don't want to hear anything you've got to fucking say, bitch."

"Now now...." Manic grabbed Gavin's shoulder and pushed him against the wall, her hands on his shoulder's as she laid her body against him, nudging her knee between his legs and pressing her chest against his. "I've come strickly for business." Dispite the look of replusion on his face, Gavin stood still, as she knew he would; out of all the races, Vampire were the most easily swayed by sex.

"Alec knows what happened in there. And before you ask, it's because I told him. You're better than Logan, Gavin....you know that. Remember the terror we used to inflict?" Breathing against Gavin's neck, Manic licked the shell of his ear before continuing to whisper sins to him; "Do you remember the orphanage? Now that was a night! All that blood, the mother screaming, 'oh, don't hurt the children...' but we did it anyway. You know why?"

Manic pushed back, noting Gavin's elongated fangs. She pouted slightly, cocking her head. "It's because it was fun. It was so...much....fun." She rocked her leg slightly, rubbing against Gavin. "You could have that fun again, Gavin....you don't have to try and be what you aren't. You can be the monster you are with us."

"Forget Logan."

"Forget Lily."

"Forget Lance...."

"....And come with me. I've got something special for you." Grabbing the man's hand, Manic dragged him further into the maze of alleyways, taking rights and lefts at apparent random, but eventually coming to a stop at a dead end. There was a woman tied to an old wooden chair, her hands tied behind her back and her feet bound to the chair legs. She was alive, and she was crying. But best of all...

Aside from her bright blond hair and slightly squarer jaw, she looked like Alice.

Putting her hands on Gavin's shoulders from behind, Manic raised herself on her toes, putting her lips to Gavin's ear and whispering serpentine evils into his head.

"It's poetic, isn't it? Everything you want is right in front of you." Revenge, hunger, release...

"All you have to do is step forward.... and take it."

[Rose]

Gavin’s jaw trembled open and his breath came out erratic. He looked over the woman slowly, cautiously, his eyes trailing down her figure. Her pulse was singing to him like a sweet siren and his body shuddered while his heart cried out desperately for him not to be a fool. He barely remembered his past, his clan leaving him in a bloody fog like a drug user. He recognized the road back to that life before him, but he couldn’t turn from it as easily as he wanted to.

This was why Logan had forbid him from drinking blood. It was a moment like this his faithful leader had been preparing him for. But Gavin never listened, did he? And what did Logan know? Why did they even trust him?

Gavin found his feet slowly taking him forward. Despite the inaudible steps, the woman looked to Gavin sharply, sensing danger like a deer feels the hunter in the long grass. Tears rolled down her cheeks, over the tape that kept her gagged. The vampire paused for a moment, a flicker of hesitation. That looked had floored him, made his heart jump into his throat. He didn’t want to hurt her. He hadn’t wanted to hurt Alice either, had he? But he did….part of him did want to hurt her, to be rid of her, to make her feel what he did. Gavin twitched and tore his eyes away from the woman, closing them tight.

Manic must have realized she was losing Gavin. She crossed the distance to the woman and the smell of blood erupted in the small space. The vampire’s eyes shot open and he spun to face them. Manic had leaned down, drawing her fangs over the woman’s throat. She bit in, taking a mouthful of blood. The sight, the smell taunted him and he gasped, clenching his fists tighter. Manic moved slowly, walking over to him and taking his shoulders. She leaned in, pressing her mouth to Gavin’s. As she kissed him, blood spilled into his mouth. Gavin moaned through the kiss and his hands went to her neck, gripping her tight enough to break the skin with his nails. The vampire held her crushingly close as he kissed her roughly, his tongue darting around her mouth with hunger, tasting every drop there. Used up, Gavin threw Manic aside and looked to the bound woman, his head tilting to the side as his steps gently carried him to her once more.

“Shhh…..don’t cry.” Gavin slid onto the woman, straddling her waist as she stared at him in horror. His pale hand reached up, wiping away her tears with a little pout. He shook his head.

Gavin grabbed her face and threw her head back, pressing his face to her bleeding neck. He drew his tongue over the pulsing blood and shivered with a little gasp that somehow turned into a small laugh. The woman tried to scream through her gag and struggled feebly. Gavin started laughing louder, his shoulders trembling with it as he tasted her blood, but without warning he had pulled away, his hand flying to her throat, crushing her windpipe. The vampire’s eyes were dark, his lip curled over his fangs as he choked the life out of the gasping woman.

“I said shut up.” Gavin snapped the woman’s neck swiftly and put his mouth back to her neck, groaning as he drank more blood than he could stand, more blood than he had had in the past few years combined. As he stood, the vampire pushed down the cold, drained body and went to manic, shoving her hard up against the wall. There was no love his eyes. There was nothing at all as he kissed her roughly once more, pressing her body into the wall. His fingers tore at her clothes desperately, yanking her shirt over her head. She opened her mouth to speak but Gavin clasped a hand over it, stopping to look at her darkly.

“No. Don’t talk.” And he pressed her back to the wall, yanking his jeans down.

[GnomesAteMyCake]

Lance was frantic.

He knew he was over-reacting, that Gavin had been gone for fifteen minutes, but he couldn't help himself; sure, this had happened before, but he'd never been the cause for it.

Pacing around the kitchen, Lily watched him with a look of pity, glancing at Logan every now again as if asking his permission to allow the boy to go and look for his lover. Even now Logan seemed clueless; either that, or his thoughts were somewhere else entirely. He simply stood by the red-haired woman, looking at the wall as if it were the most interesting thing he'd ever seen.

"Right, that's it," Lance finally muttered, running a hand through his red hair and heading for the door. Lily reached out and grabbed his sleeve, tugging the younger boy to here before he fixed her with a blazing look. "Lily. Let me go."

She looked up at Logan, who nodded. Sighing, she let him slip through her fingers, the boy disappearing through the door as soon as the material of his t-shirt left her fingers. Sighing, she cupped her hands around her drink, looking up at Logan with a small look of guilt.

"I shouldn't have let him go," she muttered, her faced pained as she regarded her leader. "He loves him, you know."

~~

Bursting out onto the street, Lance span around in a slow circle, his face raised as he searched out Gavin's tell-tale scent, a scent he could tell from all others no-matter where he was. And there, suddenly, it was; hedaing down the road, Lance tore after it, pausing every now and then to pinpoint the direction he needed to head in, weaving down alleyways and through gates untill he reached a dead end...and the heady scent of blood.

His head reeling at the overpowering smell, so fresh and reminding him of the night previous, his eyes dilated as he realised what had happened. Falling to his knees, he peered at the woman, bite marks clear on her snow-white flesh, a puddle spread about her from where Gavin had clearly missed the odd drops.

"Gavin..." he whispered, his voice weak and broken as he stared at the carnage, wishing that everthing his senses were telling him were completely wrong. "Why.....what happened to you..."

From somewhere nearby, he heard the slamming of a car-door. His head snapping up, he pushed himself to his feet and barreled back the way he came. He knew he was just being paranoid (he hoped he was being paranoid), but dammit he had to make sure.

He rounded a corner and onto the main road as a black van started up and began pulling away from the curb, the dark head of the man he loved clear in the back seat.

"Gavin!" Lance shouted, his voice shrill and heartbroken as he pushed harder, tearing after the van as he stripped himself of his shirt. He'd never attempted to Transform this quickly but now was no time to be doubting himself. Leaping forward, he willed his body to change, wished for it harder than he ever had in his entire life...and it was paws that hit the floor, followed by his hind legs slithering out of the now baggy jeans as the thin wolf gained speed, his tongue lolling from his jaws as the sound of his paws syncing with the pounding of his heart.

One block, two.... after tailing the van for ten whole blocks, red dots swam before his eyes, the wolf part of his brain telling him to stop running while the human part screamed that if he did he'd loose Gavin forever....

All it took was a crack in the road and a mis-placed paw for Lance to pitch forward, a loud yelp falling through his teeth as he skidded across the tarmac, his fur protecting him from harsh damage despite the bruising across his chin that was bound to bloom.

Panting, his vision swimming before his eyes, Lance watched in dispair as the van rounded a corner and was lost to the city. A heart-wrenching pain began to fill his chest like water, like tar, making it hard to breathe as a mantra pulsed through his head; Gavin's gone, Gavin's gone, he's gone....

Tilting his head back, Lance took a deep breath and howled, long a hard, the sound slowly transforming to a scream at the boy turned back into a human, his hands and feet bleeding from his manic charge across the city, tears streaming from his eyes as he felt as if his world was crumbling and his heart was lost, somewhere in the van that was taking Gavin away.