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The monster you’re hunting - part 1

Ray doesn’t expect the knock on his door. It’s way too late, everyone’s already at home with Felicity being the last one to leave over an hour ago and, while she was still a bit overprotective of him – feeling guilty maybe – Ray is sure she wouldn’t stop by to check on him again. She’d just use one of the cameras around, hack into the Palmertech system, can hack into his home, shut everything down and force him to rest.

No, the knock on the door couldn’t be her, and as Ray frowns at the door, a chill runs down his spine. Chill he didn’t feel for a long time. He doesn’t have a weapon on him, not one that could help him right now anyway, but then again, the most scary things out there don’t bother to knock. It’s that more than anything else that makes him step forward, his hand curling around the doorknob. No, the worst things didn’t knock. And the terrible ones that did, they had no problem opening the door themselves.

Ray takes a deep breath, wondering if it’s not a mistake to get wood door here instead of glass one. But the wooden door meant protection from some of the creatures at least, comfort that glass door wouldn’t give him. He checks the salted line on the ground, before his hand’s pushing the doorknob down, his breath almost burning in his chest. It doesn’t get much better after the door are opened.

“Missed me?”

Ray’s tempted to slam the door into the man’s face. And while that was satisfactory in the past, it didn’t ever stop whatever bad news followed him. So Ray refrains from that, but doesn’t budge, standing in the door when the man moves to step forward.

“Not nice.” The man’s still grinning and Ray frowns.

“John Constantine.” He says quietly, as if saying his name louder than necessary might bring some kind of curse upon him. As far as Ray knows, it can. He doesn’t feel like trying his luck.

Constantine lifts an eyebrow before shrugging.

“Not like I expected a warm welcome.” He smirks, pulling out a cigarette. “Have light?”

Ray doesn't’ say anything. He keeps quiet, keeps standing in the doorway until the grin slips off Constantine’s face, his shoulders falling a bit.

“Fine.” The cigarette disappears once again, before the guy sighs. “I need your help.”

“No.” Ray shakes his head, making Constantine blink.

“No?” He repeats slowly, as if Ray doesn’t know that is the word he used.

“No.” Ray says, firmer this time. Nothing Constantine will say will change his decision. “I’ve left that life behind.” Constantine obviously doesn’t agree, because there is the roll of his eyes and the puff of smoke - Ray didn’t even catch him lighting up the cigarette - before the man snorts.

“Doesn’t work like that, love.” He says, his eyes narrowed. “You might’ve left it behind, but this life never does the same for you. It remembers you. They all remember you, Dylan.”

The name makes Ray freeze more than the rest. It’s a memento, a hook dragging him back into a life he doesn’t want - a life that took too much away from him already and he’s not prepared to get back to it. Not yet and he’s not sure if ever. “You know that’s not my name, John.” He warns and John smirks.

“You weren’t born with it, but it was your name for a while.” he says, glancing Ray over. “A name that still carries a lot. A name that a lot of things remember.”

“I don’t care. Look, John I-”

“Shouldn’t you though?” John jumps in, not letting Ray finish. “Maybe you don’t care but they certainly do. They keep whispering it in the dark, that name. Like a curse.” He says, his voice falling down an octave, staring at Ray with a look that almost burns. “Like a promise made of blood. Hers.”

He doesn’t have to say Anna’s name. Ray knows well enough he means her and he fights off the shiver that’s threatening to run down his spine.

“He’s dead.” He says, his voice firm. “The vampire that killed her is dead.” Left on the sun and as far as Ray knows there’s only one part vampire that can survive that.

“He is.” John nods. “But they are on the move. The bloodsuckers caught the scent and they aren’t letting go.”

Ray’s mind flashes over Felicity, over Oliver, Barry… over Cisco and Caitlyn and he swallows hard, his mouth opening. But John must know him better than Ray thinks, better than Ray remembers, because he shakes his head.

“They aren’t in danger. Not an immediate one anyway, but if we don’t do anything, nothing will help them. Or anyone else for that matter.”

Ray frowns.

“That sounds ominous.”

“It is.” John nods, the cigarette slipping in between his lips as he glances at Ray. “They found him, Dylan.”

John always liked his theatrics.

“Him?” Ray asks, lifting an eyebrow. Him can mean a lot of things. Ray doesn’t have any desire to think about most of them.

“Him.” John nods, finally taking the dropping cigarette. Ray sees it disappear into thin air, his stomach clenching uncomfortably. John means business after all. “The first one.” He adds and Ray’s eyes widened. No. No, he possibly can’t mean -

“Dracula.”

“Dracula is nothing more than a fairy tale.”

“Oh, is it?” Ray’s not even aware that he let go of the door, not until John actually pushes through. “You know there has to be the first one. The first to make the decision, the first to grasp at the sin and push it forward to the rest.”

“‘Grasp at the sin?’” Ray makes a face at that. “Isn’t that a bit over dramatic?” He asks, mostly to buy himself some time. Because it is overly dramatic, but if it’s true…

There are stories about the Dracula. There are bunch of stories, every nation practically has this or that lore that could be tied to the very first vampire. As much as Ray would like for it not to be the truth, it might be. And if it is…

Oh god…

“Now you’re getting it.” John smirks, looking a bit too proud of himself.

“Yeah, well why did you come to me?” Though if they are really dealing with Dracula, John will not need only him, but everyone else.

“Because I can deal with the ghosts, demons, dragons… but I can’t deal with vampires.” John pointed out, second cigarette magically appearing between his fingers. “Also, you know the other one.”

“No.” Ray shakes his head, because John ought to be joking. “I would be the last person he’d listen to. He doesn’t like me.”

“He doesn’t like anyone. He hates vampires though, thanks to his daddy. And his sister likes you.”

“His sister likes Cisco.”

“Cisco, you, almost the same thing.”

Ray can’t help the glare at that. He likes Cisco, he does, but they are both very different. John rolls his eyes and lifts his hand.

“Okay, fine. I’m sorry. I do need your help though.” The and his goes unsaid but Ray hears it all the same.

“Snart is not going to listen to me.” Ray says even though he knows that he’s going to ask anyway. If Dracula is involved… god maybe he should go out of his way to ask more people for help. “How do we know he’s back?” He trusts John. Ray’s not fond of the news the man brings but he knows John wouldn’t come to him just for anything. He wouldn’t lie to him either.

John bites into the cigarette as his hand disappears inside of his coat before he pulls out what seems to be a scale.

“Found this in his tomb. Didn’t get to see Drake anymore, but those vamps didn’t work quickly enough to hide everything before I got there.”

Ray doesn’t ask how John knew where to look. John always had the… gift. Or curse. Whatever one wants to call it. John just knows and he follows his gut and his gut always drags him to the worst things possible. It reminds Ray of his own past, and he shakes his head, getting rid of the unwelcome images. Instead he forces himself to focus on the scale.

“And this is?”

“Seems to be a part of his armor.”

“...armor.” Ray repeats, taking the scale from John frowning. “Like his defensive armor?”

“That. Or his shapeshifting ability.”

The scale glints innocently in the light of Ray’s work lamp, cold under his touch as Ray’s mind whirls.

“If this is an actual part of him… we could look at the DNA.” He says slowly, fingers running over the chipped scale. Maybe the DNA could help them - tell them more about vampires, more about Drake. Maybe find what his weaknesses are, because if the stories are true - if he really doesn’t have problem walking around in sunlight, then they lost one of the few advantages they had with Snart. That is, if Snart agrees to fight this… first vampire. Because if this vampire has half of the abilities rumored, they are going to need Snart at his best.

… Ray doesn’t really have a choice in this, does he? And John knows that very well. Ray sighs as he looks at the smirking man.

“Just in case, maybe you should drag Cisco along.”

Ray’s sure Snart will see through that right away - but that doesn’t mean that Cisco’s presence is not gonna help. If nothing else, at least Snart won’t try to kill anyone right in front of the guy - Snart’s sister will make sure of that.

***

“What do you want?”

Ray’s not even inside the safe house for five minutes when Snarts stops next to him, his eyes surely narrowed behind those glasses of his and Ray swallows. He has a feeling lying to Snart wouldn’t be a good idea - he might even hear Raymond’s heartbeat. No, Ray is not about to lie to Snart, especially not if the guy can - and most probably will - call him out on that.

“John Constantine visited me last night.” Ray says in the end, glancing to where Cisco’s talking to Lisa, showing her his newest invention. Ray’s tempted to go over and see for himself, but this right now is more important than his curiosity.

Snart makes a face and leans his head partly to the side.

“Not the kind of information I was asking for, Raymond.”

Ray can’t help the roll of his eyes. He knows Snart doesn’t think that Ray is possibly… in a relationship with John, but still. He could just let go of the teasing.

“He told me the vamps found Dracula.”

Snart doesn’t even tense at the name. He just stands there, back pressed against the doorway and his arms crossed over his chest.

“Yes.”

Wait… what?!

“You knew?!”

This time, it’s Snart that rolls his eyes.

“That little thing is a bit hard to hide from a vampire - half of not.” That… Ray should ask about that, probably, and he will, it’s just that his mind is currently preoccupied with a different idea. Before he knows it he’s opening his mouth, half glaring.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Thought you were leaving that kind of life behind, Dylan.” The name makes Ray freeze and Snart snorts, shrugging. “Yeah. I prefer Raymond as well.”

“So you knew about that too?”

Snart rolls his eyes, scoffing.

“I”m a half vampire. Not an idiot, Raymond. Normal people don’t just stumble upon this place. You had to know what to look for and follow it here the very first time you did.”

Oh. So Snart knew all the way back. Huh. Maybe John wasn’t so wrong with his assessment of Snart not hating him after all. Especially if the man let him come several times and let his sister go with him to the cafe where she met Cisco.

“So...what are we going to do about it?” Ray asks, getting his mind back on track. If Snart knew about Dracula already at least Ray doesn’t have to go through the whole explanation. Same goes for Ray’s own past life, so… all’s well that ends well, right?

“Nothing.”

Wait. What?

“Nothing? Dracula is on the loose and you don’t want to do anything about it?” Snart has to be joking. Only he doesn’t seem to be. He’s still leaning against the wall but where his body was relaxed before, it’s tensed now, his eyes narrowing slightly more behind the glasses.

“Exactly. We can’t do anything right now. What we know about Dracula are fairy tales. We have no idea who he is, what he looks like or what he can do. Jumping into a fight like that would end up with someone dead. And there is small chance of that someone being the one we want to.” He growled, his eyes moving to his sister. “And while having to feed off a freaking tube is not what I would call fun, I do not plan to end up dead. Not any time soon at least.”

The thirst. Leonard Snart wasn’t the one who told Ray about it, would be happier if Ray wouldn’t have any idea probably. But he couldn’t be angry at his sister, who was so worried about Leonard and so happy that she had someone human to talk to about all of this, that she told Ray everything. Her worries about ‘Lenny’ getting hurt. Her worries about Lenny getting in over her head. Her worries about Lenny snapping one day and - not hurting her, she wasn’t worried about that - but hurting someone else and Lenny hating himself even more because he got down on the vampire level after the whole years of fighting.

When they parted ways that night, Ray spend next couple of days in his laboratory, coming up with synthetic blood that would cease the thirst, fool the vampire genes into believing that it’s the real blood while still giving Leonard’s human side the chance to remain… human.

Snart didn’t say thank you when Ray brought it over. Not that Ray expected it, but he couldn’t help the smile from showing on his lips when sometimes later Ray’s phone rang with the message asking for more.

Leonard has a point. They shouldn’t jump into it just like that… but now that Ray knows his body is itching with the need to do something - anything at all - to stop a bloodthirsty warlord from walking around the place and killing numbers of people.

“We need to know who we are fighting against, first.” Snart interrupts Ray’s thinking and Ray frowns.

“So what. You want to stand around until he makes the first step and kills someone?”

“Yes.” Snart doesn’t even look like he regrets the words. “Because then he’ll show himself. We’ll know what he’s capable of.” The guy says, pulling away from the doorway.

“And what if his first move is coming here and killing you?” Ray asks before Snart can get too far, making the other man freeze. “You are the enemy of the vampires. It would make sense to get rid of you so they could walk more free.”

Snart doesn’t look at him this time.

“It’s logical he comes after me. But not before he feeds. He might be the first vampire, but he’s still one. After being closed off for thousands of years, he must be thirsty. Very. Thirsty.” Snart’s fangs are showing, shredding through his bottom lip and drawing the tiny droplets of blood.

Ray always found it interesting how Snart’s own blood never got him hungrier, never made him react - and Ray has a feeling that Leonard wouldn’t appreciate him trying to figure out why right now. There is also the more pressing matter of Leonard’s words.

“Wait. We’re not letting him go out and killing people!”

“I don’t think we’ll have to.”

“And- what?”

Leonard turns to him and this time he shows the fangs on purpose in an ugly grin.

“Do you really think vampires would be stupid enough not to have dozens of victims ready at hand back at their place? After he slept for so long? They wouldn't want the big vamp to drain them." Leonard shrugs and it's like it doesn't matter to him. Like it shouldn't matter to Ray either, but it does. Each and every word hits something in Ray's chest and at the end of it all, Ray can't even think. His mouth opens and closes, before he shakes his head.

"We have to do something about that!" They couldn't just let... however many people die, because vampires decided to revive some old legend of theirs.

“We can’t.” Leonard says, his eyes narrowing. “We have no idea where they brought him. Not yet.” There is a glint in Leonard’s eyes, one that makes Ray almost uneasy.

“What do you mean, yet?”

“He’s going to call. He’s already calling, but he’s still half gone. His mind still half crazy with sleep, thirst and… something else. But once he’s done feeding he’ll call.”

That doesn't even sound uneasy, it sounds ominous and Ray swallows, taking a small step closer to Leonard. He wants to see his eyes, see them better, because now that he's noticing the small things he can see Leonard's fangs piercing his bottom lip. He can see the way his hands are twitching lightly on his sides and that's not good. Not good at all.

"He'll call." Ray repeats Leonards words slowly, staring at the other man. "Does that mean - Can you hear him?"

Leonard snaps his eyes back to Raymond, blinks and the weird glints gone, just like that.

"I'm starting to think every vampire can." Ray frowns and makes sure to file that information to think about later, when his own mind won't be reeling like it is. "Right now he's just this irritating buzz in the back of my mind. Just the thirst that's slowly getting under one's skin. But if he's that thirsty, he's not concentrating."

He doesn’t have to say any more. He doesn’t have to say just what the Dracula is capable of when he does concentrate - Ray can read it in the way Snart’s shoulders are tense, the way he glances back at his sister.

“I’ll make the serum stronger.” He says quietly and when Snart looks at him, he shrugs. “We don’t have anything to lose right now and you said you could feel his thirst. It might not quiet him down, but maybe you’d be more comfortable on your end. And if things will go all crazy like in the legends, we might need more of it.” In case some humans are turned against their will.

Snart doesn’t say thank you. He never does, he just nods and Ray’s pretty sure that’s the end. He turns to leave, his mind already running with possible old contacts - Snart did say they couldn’t find Drake just yet, because whoever was responsible for digging him out had him hidden off somewhere, but… but if it was one of the big families, then there is still a chance. If Ray can figure out just who it is… it wouldn’t be a problem getting to their Familiars. They would talk. Sooner or later. Maybe Ray could drag Snart with him for the extra scare effect if it was needed.

“His thirst is not only for blood, you know.” Snart calls when Ray’s at the door, saying goodbye to Lisa. Ray frowns and turns at the words.

“What then.”

“Something older, ancient, dangerous. And he won’t stop until he gets it.”

“Is that a warning?” Ray asks, wondering if he should be touched that Leonard cares.

“No.” The man shakes his head. “Just a fact.” With that, the hideout doors are slammed in Raymond’s face, leaving Raymond staring at them, Snart’s words still ringing in his mind. Something ancient and dangerous, hm?

… maybe it was time to go through Dylan’s old contacts.

@zaritomazlovescharlie

What if the monster you’re hunting inspired

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