been feeling peckish for vampires lately, so here's this
contains vampires, blood drinking, severe sunburn, sex work
Jolly could smell burning flesh. Not simply human flesh on a funeral pyre, but the acrid stench the sun made as it tore into vampire skin. Not an unusual scent to get the occasional whiff of, sometimes clothes weren't as protective as one hoped, but it filled the air and Jolly's nose, dredging up unpleasant memories of the old vampire hunts.
A few of the humans around Jolly waved at the air around them, noses wrinkling. You knew things were bad if even humans could smell it.
Moving with the flow of pavement traffic, Jolly followed the smell. He quickly came to an alley, the sun at his back as he headed down it, towards a lone dumpster. Someone whimpered. The burning smell grew stronger. Jolly peered around the dumpster and, gripping the handle of his parasol tightly, immediately recognised the human he'd met weeks ago.
Jolly's mechanic had a new apprentice, a tall young man with flopping dark hair, round cheeks and a broad, crooked grin. Jolly liked to know the people whose services he paid for by name and Noah had been surprised but polite in introducing himself, assuring Jolly that Kath would still be doing most of his car's service and he'd be lucky if he got to do more than watch, hand her tools and change the oil. He'd seemed satisfied with that lot, eager to learn from a skilled mechanic.
Staring at the wretch huddled in the shadow of a dumpster, Jolly wondered what had happened to that man. The young vampire's eyes were focused on the backs of his trembling, blistered hands, perhaps in too much pain to have noticed Jolly. He wore only a singlet, shorts and shoes, wholly inadequate protection from the spring sun burning behind Jolly; he hadn't known he'd need more than that.
Nobody had told him.
Jolly did his best to push down the rage that wanted to overwhelm him. To abandon a vampire you just sired was deeply irresponsible. If they didn't figure it out and go on a killing spree, they would just get sick. Sick from thirst, sick from hunger when they lost the ability to digest their food, sick from sleep deprivation and fevers and nausea and...
Sobbing, Noah curled into a tight ball.
Jolly crouched in front of him. "Noah?"
Noah didn't seem to hear him.
Delicately, Jolly touched an unburned patch of skin on his arm. "Noah."
Flinching, Noah hit his head against the dumpster.
"Hey, it's okay, I'm gonna help you," Jolly assured him, though he wasn't sure Noah was aware of his words.
Jolly pulled out his phone and called Nick.
"I need a lift," he told him, quickly explaining the situation.
Nick grumbled a little, having been woken ridiculously early in the afternoon, but told Jolly he was on his way.
Next, he texted a few blood donors to see if anyone was available tonight.
Noah had stopped crying and was instead staring listlessly.
"Noah?"
He drunkenly lifted his head to look at Jolly and blinked slowly.
"I'm gonna get you somewhere safe, okay? You're gonna be alright."
Jolly's text tone chimed.
Audrey had responded to ask Jolly when he'd like a visit.
He briefly summarised, telling her to get to his place in about an hour if she was alright with working with freshly-turned vampires and promising that not only was Noah too weak to be a danger to a kitten, Jolly would make absolutely sure that she would be safe.
"I'm getting you food," he told Noah as he waited for her reply, "Real food, that you can actually keep down. I bet you haven't been able to eat lately, huh?"
He didn't look like a mechanic's apprentice anymore.
Nick showed up with his own parasol in one hand and a blanket in the other. "Shit," he commented, peering over his sunglasses at Noah, "Who did this?"
"They better watch their back," Jolly said darkly, "They can't hide from me."
He helped Nick get the blanket around Noah's shoulders to protect him from the sun and together they helped him to his feet and walked him to Nick's car. Given how pliant and incapable he was, Jolly was impressed that Noah had apparently dressed himself and left the house this morning. Maybe the sun had pushed him over the edge, from seriously ill to delirious.
They got a few stares as they took their quarry up to Jolly's apartment.
"We probably look like the world's worst kidnappers right now," Nick commented when they reached Jolly's door.
Jolly huffed a laugh at that. "Hold on, let me get my keys."
Figuring that it would make feeding him easiest, they covered the couch in the living room with a blanket and deposited Noah there.
"Home, sweet home," Nick declared, rubbing his hands as if to clean them, "Need anything else?"
"Not right now, you can get back to sleep," Jolly told him, turning the AC down, "But if you can poke around for me..."
Nick nodded, looking at Noah. "Whoever did this is getting their ass kicked."
He showed himself out as Jolly headed to the bathroom for supplies. Although he knew to be careful and wear sun protection, he kept a few things on hand just in case he got caught out and couldn't feed.
Noah looked a little better when he returned, blinking at the room around him with a furrowed brow.
"Water?" Jolly offered, holding up the glass he'd brought.
Noah opened his mouth to speak, only to start coughing weakly.
Sitting beside him, Jolly waited for the fit to pass before holding the glass to his lips.
Noah lifted his hands to take the glass, but Jolly could feel that he wasn't strong enough to hold it on his own. He instead let Noah guide him to tilt the glass enough to drink.
"I brought ibuprofen. For the pain." He helped Noah take some, giving him more water to swallow it down, then set about rubbing lotion on Noah's burns.
Although Jolly could quickly recover from just about anything with a good feed, young vampires were a different story. Freshly-turned vampires were especially weak, aside from being completely uncharted territory for Jolly. He'd never cared for one before and had himself been turned in a very different world, kept isolated until he was strong enough to protect himself. He hoped that Audrey's blood would help him heal, even this soon after being turned.
Speaking of Audrey...
"I'll be right back," Jolly told Noah as he got up to answer the knock at his door.
"Early call," Audrey greeted.
"Sorry, it's urgent." He stood back to let her in.
"You said you just found him? Alone?"
He shrugged, leading her to the lounge room. "Yep. Newly-turned and abandoned. I met him as a human not long ago."
"Does that happen a lot?"
"Never." He stopped her before they went in, lowering his voice. "Once he's had a feed, do you think you can get him talking? I wanna find out who turned him."
Audrey nodded. "I'll see what I can do."
Noah stared as they came in.
"Noah, this is Audrey," Jolly introduced, taking a seat beside him, "She's a blood donor."
He blinked at Audrey as she sat on his other side.
"Heard you've had a rough day," she said gently, stroking his cheek with a light touch as she draped her other arm over the back of the couch so Jolly could reach it, "Jolly's gonna kiss it better, okay? You just need to open your mouth for him."
Jolly sank his fangs into her arm, blood filling his mouth easily. Noah's own fangs wouldn't develop for a long time yet, leaving him to tear into flesh with rough human teeth. As Jolly's fangs retracted from Audrey's arm, her skin closed back up behind them; he didn't even leave a mark when he fed.
Taking Noah's chin, Jolly turned his head to face him.
"Open your mouth for him, Noah," Audrey prompted.
He looked bewildered, lips parted enough that Jolly could lean in to seal their mouths together, pushing Audrey's blood and his saliva to him. Noah tried to lean back, but Jolly gripped the back of his head, keeping him in place.
Noah didn't put up much of a fight; he froze for a moment, swallowed, then readily drank the remaining blood from Jolly's mouth.
"Good boy," Audrey soothed, kissing the corner of Noah's mouth when he and Jolly parted.
Jolly quickly filled his mouth from her arm again, relieved that Noah was drinking.
"Come on, he's got more for you, look."
Again, Noah needed some guidance to find Jolly's lips, but he eagerly drank once he found them, even licking into his mouth for more. He was too weak to stop Jolly from pulling away, but followed his lips to Audrey's arm closely, as if he was worried he'd lose them.
Although Audrey kept talking to him, telling him he was a good boy and stroking his hair, he lost all interest in her, completely focused on Jolly and the blood he offered. This starved, he must have been running solely on instinct. Jolly didn't even think that he knew that there were sources of blood other than Jolly's mouth.
Which suited Jolly perfectly. He didn't want Noah biting Audrey, but even if he did, his body wasn't developed enough to process blood on its own. He needed Jolly's saliva to help it saturate his body properly, he'd probably have to drain a body to get what Jolly could give him in a couple of mouthfuls.
Of course, Jolly wasn't stopping at a couple. He kept feeding Noah until Audrey's bracelet beeped in warning.
"That's me," Audrey said, looking at it to see her levels, "Thirsty one, huh?"
"I wasn't sure what to do if he was too sick to drink," Jolly replied, "Thank god."
"Think you'll call in someone else?"
"Nah."
Noah looked ready to drink his weight in blood, but Jolly didn't want to overfeed him.
"You need to sleep," Jolly told him firmly, "Give it time to soak in."
He rasped a protest, coughing again.
Audrey rubbed his back, frowning. "You're okay, Jolly's gonna take care of you." She looked at Jolly. "You looking for anything else tonight?"
"I'm good." He stood, heading to the kitchen for the stash of money he kept for home visits. He counted out a few bills and returned, handing them to Audrey. "I'm calling it a full service."
She counted the bills with a frown. "Sure I can't get you off before I go?"
He looked at Noah. He was more relaxed now, head on Audrey's shoulder as he slowly blinked at Jolly.
"I'd feel bad," Audrey told him with a pout, "You did all this work, let me give you a little something."
"Well, when you put it like that..." Jolly smiled, shaking his head. He turned to Noah. "Stay here and get some sleep, okay?"
They settled Noah on the couch and he began to doze off quickly.
"I hope I'll see you again," Audrey told him, ruffling his hair before following Jolly to his bedroom.
Although Jolly didn't get to drink from her this time, he couldn't say that Audrey had nothing else to offer. He'd been seeing her for a few years now and she knew him well, had a way of flipping a switch and becoming the perfect lay for him, calling him sir, pleading, touching him just right. Even a little low on blood, she gave him nothing to complain about and left only his slight thirst unsatisfied, though he at least still had the taste of her blood on his tongue.
They crept into the lounge room, finding Noah sound asleep on the couch. Already, his blisters looked much better.
"New vampire," Audrey whispered when they reached the entryway, "That just hit me."
"Mm. Guess I'll have to introduce him to everyone."
An unpleasant prospect. Jolly wasn't a big participant in larger vampire society, preferring to keep to the small group of trusted friends he'd surrounded himself with. Noah's sire should have had the responsibility of inducting him into their world, but unless they suddenly showed up and said they were very sorry, it probably fell to Jolly.
It was fine, he reasoned. How hard could bringing up a new vampire be?
