Now, Tony was seventeen. He went out hunting with Rookery every night, and he hated it so much. He understood why Manny had left all those years ago. One thing he didn’t understand was why Manny hadn’t left sooner. Tony had thought of leaving so often, so if Rookery ever suspected that the teenager was having doubts, he would tell Tony if he ever left, he would hunt him down to the ends of the earth. Just like a vampire. That scared Tony, because he knew Rookery would do it. He had raised the boy from three years old, so he practically owned him, and wanted to get as much use out of him as he could.

Tony still stayed up some mornings at his window with the InfraDead, looking for the beautiful vampire, hoping he could see it again. Just one more time. One more time was all that Tony wanted. He was just scared that he’d be seeing the vampire again when he and Rookery were out vampire hunting.

He had never gotten used to watching vampires die. When Rookery went to finish off a vampire they had captured, Tony always stayed behind, refusing to leave the truck or look at the creature tremble as the last breath left its body. He never could look at it because of the guilt. No one should ever have been killed for what they were, and Tony wanted to run away screaming each time he heard the wailing of the vampires. 

Then one night Rookery went out alone. Tony was so happy to get a little rest during the night, and he was deeply asleep, dreaming about being free, going wherever he wanted. He had  driven so far away from Rookery that he wouldn’t be able to be found, with a certain vampire holding his hand along the way. He could almost feel the wind blowing through his hair, the sun capturing his freckles, smiling over at the immortal in the passenger seat. He was suddenly shaken awake by Rookery, opening his eyes to look into hysterical inky black pools. 

“I’ve caught one tonight Tony, and I want you to tag along with me,” he rubbed his hand maniacally, grinning from ear to ear at Tony.

“You want to go now?” Tony rubbed his eyes blearily. The blond glanced over at the digital clock on his nightstand. The red light blinked 3:00 am. He groaned inwardly.

Rookery held Tony by his shoulder. Tony winced at the near gentle touch. “Yes, I want the vampire to be alive when you kill it.”

The teenager’s head snapped up, all the breath leaving his lungs. He had never killed anything in his life, and he would not do it now. Especially doing a thing he was so against. “M-me… kill… it? By myself?” Rookery let out a dangerous, sharp bark of a laugh. 

“Of course by yourself!” the man bellowed, tightening his grip tremendously on Tony’s shoulder. “Why, you haven’t killed one single vampire since you started hunting with me, and it’s completely out of the question to skimp out if you’ll be doing this for the rest of your life… which you will. I’ll be making quite sure of that.”

Rookery’s eyes narrowed for a fraction of a second before he stood up, patting Tony’s head as he let go of the boy’s shoulder. He strutted out of the room, thundering down the stairs with a bang on each step. 

Tony sat up, not getting out of bed. He pulled his knees up to his chest, rocking, trying to reassure himself that it was going to be alright. Everything’s going to be okay. He eventually slid out of bed when Rookery honked the horn of his truck, impatiently calling his name from the driveway. When he had pulled on a pair of jeans and a stiff maroon sweatshirt, the blond teenager couldn’t help but peek through the window one more time, looking for that vampire he had seen so long ago. He sighed when he looked out into the empty sky, turning quickly to rush down the stairs, hopping into his shoes. He climbed into the truck, breathing shallowly and looking to the road ahead as Rookery sent them speeding off into the night.

Rookery tossed the InfraDead into his hands, and when it started up, it immediately began pinging, a red dot of a vampire appearing to be deep in the forest ahead of them. Tony’s stomach dropped. They were already so close to the vampire, and Tony had no idea how to get out of this one. He wasn’t ready. The old man turned on the radio, cranking up the volume as he sang along to the song, banging his palms on the steering wheel. Rookery veered off the road, onto a path he had made before that led straight to the vampire he caught.

Speeding down the mountainside, the truck bounced and jolted down the steep decline. Tony grabbed onto anything in his vicinity that was somehow grounding, eventually settling for the seat he sat upon. Rookery sang louder still, jamming his foot on the gas farther after each rock they dangerously bounced off of.

When the truck finally hit the ground, it kept rolling, nearly straight into a tree before Rookery turned the steering wheel sharply to the right. Tony was so scared. His heart pounded in his chest and his breath quickened. He couldn’t do this. 

The truck bounced along Rookery’s premade trail, eventually crawling to a stop, stuttering as he turned the ignition off. Climbing out, Tony could see a figure not too far in the distance squirming against a tree. Rookery placed a hand on Tony’s chest, signaling him to stop.

“Wait right here. I’m just going to rough him up a bit before you have your fun,” he chuckled, humming to himself as he grabbed an axe from the back of the truck. He dangled it carelessly from his hand, swinging it as he continued to hum, approaching the vampire. Tony followed Rookery nevertheless, keeping his hands in his pockets and his eyes stuck to the ground.

He heard rough smacks coming from the tree where the vampire was tied up, painful groans emanating from it. As the blond teenager approached the small clearing, he lifted his head to get a closer look at the vampire. His heart dropped when he saw it and he stopped dead in his tracks. His breath caught tightly in his throat. 

It was him. The vampire. The one that had intruded his dreams since the day he saw him. And Tony had to kill him.

He was even more breathtaking up close, his jawline jutting out in a fine, harsh angle, thick black eyebrows curving in a subtle arch. The color surrounding his glinting maroon eyes made it appear as if he was wearing the most vivid dark indigo eyeshadow splashed across his lids. His purple-gray skin shone in the moonlight, reflecting all the light that was left in the blond’s bleak world. His lips were pressed together in a tight scowl, and he clenched his teeth as the man turned towards him again, showing off long sharp fangs when Rookery began to approach him. His hands were bound in cuffs locked around a tree branch. He was bound tightly in a thick rope that contained him when he flinched as Rookery hit him, this time with the blunt part of the axe. Tony gasped as the man swung once more, hitting the vampire again, leaving a spot of blood on his forehead, a red stream dripping down his face. 

The vampire spit out blood, letting it run down his chin. Dropping the axe on the ground, Rookery triumphantly grabbed a handful of the vampire’s hair, jerking its head up so it would look into his crazy eyes. The blond clutched himself, looking away.

“You think you’re so tough, aye boy?” he cackled in his face. “You’re nothing but a creature of the night, you’re a monster. You disgust me and my partner. And that pitiful boy over there is going to have his little fun with you next. I hope you say your prayers now, vampire, because you aren’t going to live past tonight. Oh! Who am I kidding? You aren’t even alive to begin with!”

It was all too much. This was all so very wrong, and Tony couldn’t take it any longer. He couldn’t listen to or watch such an atrocious thing happen to anything in the world, especially not a vampire, a creature the teenager had admired all these long years. Especially not to the vampire of his dreams.

“Stop!” both the vampire and the hunter looked up at Tony, the vampire giving a confused and dazed expression, and Rookery’s of complete and utter hatred. Tony’s vision swirled as he felt a wave of panic engulf him. He came to when Rookery slapped him in the face, sending him to the ground, a red mark burning on his cheek.

Tony heard the grass crunching underneath Rookery’s feet as he approached him. A cold, strong grip enclosed around Tony’s arm, yanking him up. 

“Look who’s acquired feelings now! Little Tony Thompson has finally grown a pair of angel wings, wanting to save this lowly thing from what it deserves. Come along, you brute,” his foul garlic musk stung Tony’s eyes. “You’ve got to do your part in this, you know. You’re going to kill this varmint, and you will like it, there’s no getting out of it this time.”

“You’re lucky I don’t treat you like that vampire brat over there,” Rookery pointed an accusing finger at the vampire, who was snapping in and out of consciousness, his head lolling to the side, eyelashes fluttering rapidly. “You… you’d be dead without me, stuck in a boring old home with people who don’t care about what you are, you’d be so bored you would die. Here, here you are someone, you are someone that works for me.”

“S-so I’m nothing without you? With- without you I wouldn’t be going to high school, getting a scholarship, not killing things or god knows what? I wouldn’t be having a good childhood, or be happy? Ever? Would I just be miserable because you weren’t there to ‘guide me?’” Tony winced as he tried to sit up.

“YOU ARE A GENIUS!” Rookery screamed, getting the vampire’s attention, who looked up in shock to stare at Tony. The blond teenager could feel his face heat up with both pairs of eyes burning holes into him. But suddenly Tony was being pulled up again, snapping to his feet, nearly doubling over from the sheer force of the strange man’s pull. “Now that vampire will die by your hand tonight whether I have to guide you through the motions or not.”

“R-Rookery… I can’t kill something, I can’t kill anything, and you know that. I’m not fit to be a vampire hunter.”

He grabbed a fistful of Tony’s deep red sweatshirt, wrenching the blond towards him another time. “Yes, I know that. You have always been weak, ever since you were a child. I tried to fix that but you were too much of a hassle. I let Manny take care of you because I thought Manny could help, but he turned out to be broken just as you are, too soft for anyone to ever want you. You will always be a scrappy little boy who can’t deal with death the way a true man like me could ever possible do it,” Rookery let go, plastering a wide smile on his face.

“Now, are you ready to kill your first vampire?”

Tony gulped, glancing towards the gorgeous vampire, who only stared back. “I- I- y-yeah… I’m ready to… to… kill… him…” 

“Good, my boy!” the man clapped Tony on the back, causing him to flinch at the contact. “Now the fun can really begin!”

He pulled out a large wooden stake from behind his back, presenting it proudly to Tony, like a cat who had just killed a mouse, showing the dead thing to its owner. With a shaking hand, the teenager grasped the weapon, watching Rookery’s tobacco stained teeth glisten in the moonlight. He clutched it so tightly that his knuckles turned white, the groves of the wood digging deep into his skin. With the older vampire hunter’s hand on his shoulder, Tony walked up to the vampire, who was calmly waiting for the two to approach.

Tony winced when the being looked up at him, glaring daggers into the blond teenager’s heart. He felt sick to his stomach, shuffling towards the vampire with Rookery’s hand still glued to his shoulder. He swallowed, raising the stake up to the immortal.

“That’s it…” the man praised. Tony hated the fact that killing a vampire was the only way he would ever truly make Rookery happy. Nothing else had done it. 

The stake trembled in Tony’s hand, he couldn’t possibly do this, but he had to. Rookery pushed the teenager forward a bit, egging him on. He raised the stake up to the vampire, ready to bring it down, when he swore he could see a little part of the glaring vampire’s expression full of pain and fear for what he was about to do. Suddenly, Tony had an idea. It was a small one, and not very smart, but it was an idea.

“What are you doing, you imbecile?” Rookery yelled when the blond teenager stopped and turned around to face him.

“You know what I’m doing,” Tony replied calmly, taking the stake in his hand and hitting Rookery full in the face with it, with all the force he had. The blow sent him tumbling to the ground backwards, hitting the earth with a thud. He rolled to his side, holding his face in his hands.

“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?” Rookery cried, looking up into Tony’s now confident eyes.

“I’m tired of everything you have done,” he nearly whispered, picking up the axe that was resting on the tree. “I’m tired of you ‘being there’ for me, when you’re clearly not. I think Manny was probably the one who ever cared the most about me. You never cared. You just wanted a slave to do your bidding, someone who was tied to you for life.” 

The teenager scoffed when he was met with radio silence from the ancient man in front of him. “Well, I don’t want to have anything to do with you anymore. I’m sick of pretending I actually care. You were never even close to a father to me.”

And with that, Tony lifted the axe, bringing the blunt side onto Rookery’s head. He collapsed to the ground, lying unconscious. Even knocked out, Tony hated him. He hated every aspect of him. God, he wished Rookery was still awake so he could punch him again.

Dropping the axe, he leaned over Rookery, checking his pulse. The man was breathing shallowly. Tony blew out a sigh of relief; he didn’t want what he had had nightmares about doing to come true. Grabbing a ring of keys looped around Rookery’s belt, the blond rushed over to the vampire. While Rookery was still knocked out, he wouldn’t do any damage to them.

Tony tried several keys to unlock the handcuffs, growing more frustrated with each one that didn’t fit. He tried to ignore the fact that he was blushing deeper with every brush of his hands on the other boy’s. The vampire grunted each time there was no click as well, growing uncomfortable with his arms suspended like that. The cuffs finally opened with a sharp clink, falling open to the ground. The immortal dropped his arms with a sigh of relief, rubbing his sore wrists while Tony got to work untying the thick rope. The knot was so complex, and rookery would be waking up soon anyway, so Tony picked up the axe again, swinging it at the tree. It stuck into the thick wood, cutting the ties of the rope in the process.

As soon as the rope fell to the earth, the vampire leapt up and was gone, flying into the night. Tony watched him go, dumbfounded. He hadn’t even been able to talk to him, not that there was much to say anyways. He had wished to see the vampire again, but not like this… not like what just happened.

The blond teenager grabbed as much rope as he could find to bind Rookery up. Finding a long line of cable, he dragged Rookery to the tree where the being had just sat a minute or so ago. Deciding against leaving Rookery out to die, he wrapped the cable around the vampire hunter. 

With all the repressed anger that he was still holding inside, Tony tightly bound Rookery, hearing him groan in discomfort. He pulled Rookery to the truck, tying him onto the back where the man had thrown many captured vampires onto. He would probably be unconscious for another few minutes, so Tony sat on the ground, taking in everything that had just happened. He shut his eyes for a few minutes. He put his head in his hands, taking a few deep breaths before standing up. He climbed into the truck, starting the engine.

With the adrenaline wearing off, Tony realized just how exhausted he really was. Sleeping in nearly all day due to the late nights didn’t help the fact that he wasn’t used to it, even if it had already been a year of this messed up routine. He laid his head on the steering wheel, taking more deep breaths. He didn’t know what he was going to do now. He obviously had to get far, far away from Rookery, but he didn’t know how.

Looking up, Tony felt a light tap on his shoulder, sending him flying into the truck door. He yelped when a sharp pain rose in his arm, clutching it. Glancing harshly over, he blew out a sigh of relief even though his heart tightened when he saw the vampire sitting in the passenger seat. He had really thought it was Rookery who had miraculously appeared in the seat next to him.

Still panting heavily, Tony looked at the vampire in shock. The being cleared his throat and looked at the floor. Tony relaxed, placing his hands in his lap when he realized he wasn’t going to bite him.

The vampire cleared his throat again. “Umm… I… uh…” he rubbed the back of his neck, struggling with his words. “You- you saved my life.” 

“I- yeah, I guess so,” the blond teenager responded awkwardly. 

“Why… why would you do that for me?”

Tony inhaled sharply at the question. “I… I… ‘cuz no one… no one deserves to die, I guess. Not even a vampire, even if you’re not technically alive,” Tony giggled mostly at himself. “You didn’t do anything to me, and you shouldn’t have been punished for just being who you are.”

Tony could have sworn he saw a dash of color fly across the immortal’s cheeks, but it was probably only the light. “… I suppose so… hey- what’s yo-”

“Brother? Where are you?” a young girl’s voice called from the darkness. The vampire shot Tony a pained glance and flashed an apologetic smile. Tony’s heart began to beat wildly in his chest. No. This can’t be it already. Don’t leave again.

“I… suppose I’ve got to dash. I’ll probably see you around,” and with that, he was opening the door to the truck, flying out of view, gone.

Tony leaned his head back in the seat, rubbing his eyes. His head was pounding, and he needed to go home and sleep. But he had to get rid of Rookery first. The teenager glanced in the rearview mirror to see Rookery still knocked out. Letting out a long sigh, he turned the truck around, speeding out of the forest, down the narrow road. He kept glancing at the mirror to check on Rookery, and also to check for the vampire.

Seeing a lone bus stop just on the outskirts of town, Tony pulled over. He got out, unstrapping Rookery from the truck. He dragged the unconscious man onto the road, struggling to move his body. The teenager was eventually able to prop him up against the bench. Tony wasn’t worried that Rookery would make it back to him. That disgusting man was so narcissistic that he wouldn’t be able to keep himself from informing the people that came across him of what had transpired not even an hour ago, vampire and all. People would definitely think he was crazy. After all, Tony had believed that he himself was going crazy when Manny had shown one to him when he was little, pointing one out as it soared through the night sky.

Making sure Rookery was sitting up enough so that he wouldn’t fall into the road, Tony climbed back into the truck. The teenager turned the key in the ignition, jumping at the low rumble of the vehicle. It bounced down the road as he drove back to the house.

Turning slowly into the driveway, Tony hopped out of the truck, running to the door. He didn’t know what he was going to do. His hands shook as he tried to insert the key into the lock. What was he going to do? He needed to move out of the tiny blue house, so Rookery wouldn’t find him. 

The blond raced up the stairs to Rookery’s room. He knew Rookery had a safe in there somewhere. It had to be in there. He tore apart the garlic stenched room, pulling his sweatshirt over his nose before he gagged. He crouched down, pushing aside clothes, and boxes until he uncovered a large black box. It was locked, a keypad glowing insistently at him. Tony groaned to himself, leaning back onto the floor. He raked a hand through his hair, looking up at the ceiling in exhaustion. He suddenly thought of something. The blond boy leapt up, thundering down the stairs again. He opened the door to the dim garage that Rookery had never let him inside of. 

He gasped at the array of UV lights and stakes, knives and drills. Each had a particularly ominous sheen to it, hanging on the hooks threateningly. Tony reached for a sleek silver pickaxe, snatching it off the nail it was suspended from. He ran back up to the safe, waiting patiently in the vampire hunter’s bedroom. 

He approached the coal black safe as if it were waiting for him, as if it were listening for any sudden movement, or it would jump up and disappear. Tony silently brought the axe behind him, swinging it with little noise at the box. With a sharp pang a deep dent appeared in the cool metal. The teenager cursed under his breath, taking another swing. The pickaxe hit the safe once more, and this time the door popped open with the newly destroyed lock. Tony grinned to himself, bending down to peer inside the inky emptiness.

He squinted, trying to see what was held in it. Then Tony took in a sharp breath, seeing wads of cash stacked on top of one another. It was piled up inside the safe, stacks and stacks of Euros, tens of hundreds of thousands of them neatly tucked away for all of those god-awful years. 

The money obviously hadn’t been made honestly- Rookery must have robbed a bank or something. Maybe with Manny forced to tag along, with Tony sleeping soundly in his bed, innocent and unsuspecting of what they were doing. Unsuspecting of what was to come.

The blond boy let a tear slip by, realizing how bad he had messed up. He thought he had done the right thing, but Rookery was his only guardian, and he had to run away from him. Tony couldn’t go anywhere. He had nothing. No one. He hated himself now for what he had done. He pulled himself together, getting up and grabbing as much money as he could carry, holding most of it in his sweatshirt.

He rushed to his room, dumping the stacks on the bed, going back for the rest, and returning with more money than he could fathom. Tony didn’t even want to count it, it disgusted him so much. He pried open a floorboard under his bed that he used to store hidden things from Rookery. Removing his stuffed cow and teddy bear, he shoved every last euro he had in the compartment. Tony stood up, collapsing onto his bed, already falling asleep. He would deal with everything in the morning.