Hours in the Moonlight: Guileful Nightfall - 14. Power and Control
Summary: Unfortunately tracking down the rogue vampire meant one thing. Fighting the rogue vampire. And while you had help present, it was quite possible that they’d just end up making things more difficult. Especially since you still had Jamil and his issues to deal with.
Series Type: Gender-neutral reader/ Vampire AU/ series/ romantic/ angst/ angst with comfort/ fluff/ sfw/ platonic interactions too!
Trigger Warning: Vampire
Word Count: 2370
Hours in the Moonlight Master-List
Jamil came to a swift halt, letting me down as he scanned the area. I half stumbled around him, looking for Leona as my ears strained to pick up any sounds.
After a brief moment of silence, I glanced over at Jamil only to see him already staring at me as I shifted the strap of my bag. And I knew exactly what he was doing. He was waiting to see what I was going to do so he could plan his own moves accordingly.
I felt my eyebrows arch at him before I glanced down, unzipping my bag and pulling out my crossbow. I loaded it with a single stake before starting off into the shadowed building and leaving him to follow me.
He let out a sigh from behind me but followed nonetheless. Glancing around as we continued forwards before he tensed, shifting in front of me seconds before I heard it. A hissing snarl followed by the sounds of something slamming into something else.
“Sounds like your friend found the vampire,” Jamil’s voice was low as he glanced my way with one arched brow. Waiting to see how I would react and what I would do.
I merely nodded, meeting his gaze with a wholly unsurprised expression, “Sounds like it.”
With only those words, I trotted forward, using the concrete pillars as shields. Jamil followed along beside me before giving me a slight glance with a raised eyebrow and zipping forward.
I leaned around the pillar I was currently pressed against in time to see him slam into a vampire. I blinked in slight surprise, because I genuinely hadn’t expected for him to be the type to outright attack, but then I felt myself frown as I started looking around. Because despite what we’d heard, Leona was nowhere to be seen.
He had to be here somewhere, though.
No sooner than I’d had that thought, the man himself had emerged from the shadows, his eyes staying on the fight before they flashed over my way. Finding me immediately in the darkness before he nodded.
I frowned, but nodded in return. Evidently enough, there was no getting around the typical handling of this vampire. And judging from the concrete dust coating Leona’s person, he’d certainly tried to deal with this one.
I raised my crossbow, aiming carefully, and feeling my frown deepen the longer I tried to aim. Because there was absolutely no way I could hit the vampire with Jamil where he was.
I lowered my crossbow once more. Yelling would get Jamil to move, but would also alert the vampire to my location. But… Beggars couldn’t be choosers.
“JAMIL!” The young man whirled at my shout, leaping away from the rogue vampire, who also spun to look at me. Its eyes wide with insane excitement as they landed on me all too quickly as a twisted grin stretched across its face.
I jerked my crossbow back up, firing as quickly as possible before turning and running as the vampire dove towards both me and the stake flying through the air. Jamil and Leona hot on its heels.
I heard it let out something akin to a gasp and looked back to see the stake sticking out of it’s shoulder from where it had jerked out the way at the last second.
It stared at it, a trembling hand reaching towards the wood that stuck out of its shoulder before stopping mere inches from the stake.
I grimaced as its eyes snapped back up to where I stood, a grin creeping back into its face as it inhaled like an excitable monster. Its fangs glinting in the dim light provided by the parking deck’s broken, flashing lights.
I shifted though, bracing myself as I shoved a secondary stake into my crossbow and aimed.
It dove forward as I fired, willing my hands not to tremble.
Simultaneously, Jamil and Leona launched themselves. Jamil reaching for the other vampire as Leona dove after him with an annoyed sound.
And I almost dropped the crossbow as I realized what might happen.
I could only hope Leona would stop Jamil before he reached the vampire or that Jamil would be just slow enough. After all, those stakes typically went all the way through, and if Jamil was holding onto the vampire….
The stake flew through the air, slamming into its target unforgivingly as Jamil was yanked to an abrupt stop by Leona.
My eyes widened as the vampire continued forward, though, and I all but had to throw myself to the side, landing hard against my bag on the ground in a way that I was confident would leave bruises. And I was just barely in time to miss the vampire barrelling through where I’d been standing.
I stared at it though. Unable to tear my eyes away as I watched as its grimy-looking hands curl around the stake like it wanted to grasp the wood before its motions aborted and it crumpled towards the ground with an agonized sound.
I could clearly see Jamil’s unnerved expression as the vampire fell in a pile of ashes and the two stakes hit the ground between us with dull thudding sounds, and I exhaled. Letting out the breath I hadn’t known I’d been holding.
Leona let go of Jamil's collar. All but shoving the smaller man away as he practically growled at him, “Maybe trust the head-vampire’s Hunter next time and stay out of the way?”
Jamil stumbled slightly, shooting a look at Leona before looking my way.
And somehow Jamil’s expression alone told me his perception of me had just shifted. Because even if I hadn’t realized it until now, Jamil had previously been regarding me as someone he could easily control. Someone who wasn’t a grand threat but a person to be wary of.
Now though… Now he looked at me with something akin to respect, and I felt myself swallow thickly.
Leona watched him, something akin to annoyance splaying across his face until he looked at me with a huff. Shattering the silence that stretched uncomfortably between us all like it was nothing at all, “I’ll tell my clan’s head about what happened.”
Jamil blinked before he turned, inclining his head to Leona as the other man turned. Getting ready to leave in that characteristic nonchalant fashion of his as he completely ignored Jamil.
I still wondered how Leona could be so unbothered by seeing vampires get killed right in front of him. But at least this time it had gone over smoother than it had last time.
“Thank you for the assistance,” Leona’s eyebrows rose at the other man’s carefully deferent words before he snorted.
He looked at me with a slight smirk appearing on his face, “Just a bit of quid pro quo.” I frowned slightly at his words, knowing perfectly well what he meant. Our deal.
But even with his mocking sarcasm, I couldn’t deny that I did trust him far more than I did Jamil.
Me and Leona had a working relationship. Me and Jamil…. It felt like there was mutual wariness here now. A tug of war with him trying to exert more control while I reeled back to maintain power over my own choices.
I stopped the leonine vampire as he started by me, meeting his gaze as I spoke with a faint smile, “Tell Jack and Ruggie I said hi.”
He snorted slightly at my words before leaning down, his voice lowering to the point where I doubted Jamil could hear him, “You gonna be alright?”
His words caught me off guard, and I felt my eyes widen before I nodded and let go of his arm, murmuring a soft ‘Yeah’ as I broke eye contact with him. Half-surprised by his words and wondering if I should take them as genuine concern.
After all, I didn’t know how else I should interpret them, but I'd hardly expected such a thing from Leona.
His eyes stayed on me for a brief moment longer, like he was weighing my words before he nodded and turned to leave. Disappearing into the night flawlessly.
Just like a predator hiding itself in the name of a hunt.
I exhaled slightly before I looked towards Jamil, who was watching me once more and had been since I’d stopped Leona.
And I was already steeling myself for what came next. Because in light of everything that had just happened, it was time. I was going to finally confront him. I had to if I was ever going to be done with the Scarabia clan. And while I had no problems with Kalim, I was tired of this eternal game of power and control.
I walked over, first collecting the stakes and shoving them back into my bag along with my crossbow before I looked up at the young man who stood directly in front of me and now looked down at where I knelt.
There was risk in making eye contact with him. I knew that. But if I was going to assert that he couldn’t control me, then this was going to be the best way.
“I think it’s time we talked about something, don’t you?” I straightened as I spoke, shouldering my bag and holding his gaze all the while.
Jamil crossed his arms, tilting his head slightly as he gazed back at me, almost like he was sizing me up once more. Seeing if he’d missed anything in his previous evaluations.
He was a cautious man, seemingly well prepared for things, and someone a person could rely on if they could trust him. But, as of right now, that seemed like it was a pretty big if.
“Why did you hypnotize me into staying on my first day at the Scarabia clan?” If he was surprised by my words, it didn’t show on his face.
Rather, a grin spread across his face, and I suddenly felt like I was seeing the real Jamil. One that was no longer restrained by the careful mask he usually wore.
“So you did know about that,” He didn’t sound annoyed in the slightest. No, he sounded more like he was pleased to have been correct. His eyebrows rose though as he shifted slightly, “It was a precaution, that’s all.”
I frowned at his words, not trusting them for a second, “A precaution against what? It just made the Scarabia clan more suspicious.”
He leaned towards me, eyes glimmering with something when I stubbornly didn’t lean away or avert my gaze, “You still thought we were innocent though.”
“That was because of Kalim. Not you.” My tone was flat, and a frown flickered across his face that had my eyebrows arching, “He is the head of the clan, not you, Jamil. Even if you do handle a lot of the running of it.”
Jamil leaned back, that frown still on his face, “So you noticed that too….”
I tilted my head, a smile slipping onto my face, “Well, you did mention it that day in the library, and you were the one scaring the Scarabia vampires off from looking too closely at me.”
A chuckle huffed its way out of him at my words, “Yes. I made sure they’d assumed you were my prey. Though that ‘ally’ of yours from the Savanaclaw clan almost messed that up.”
His voice took on an annoyed tinge as he finished, and I felt my eyes widen as I realized exactly what he meant, “That’s why the other vampires were staring at us… They thought-”
“That I had competition because you were staying so close to him,” Jamil’s frown was deep, and I shook my head. Half-mystified and half-distressed.
How many more times were random vampires going to just assume that I went with someone specific? First it had been Vil, now it had been Jamil and then Leona in quick succession.
Ignoring me, he continued as annoyance continued to fill his voice, “Kalim wasn’t helping either with how he kept clinging on to you, though.”
I stared at him, no longer bothering to conceal my surprise, “So they thought Kalim also…?” He looked my way, watching as I shook my head before more and more pieces fell into place.
I looked at him warily, “Then when you had me pinned against the door, that was too further convince them that-”
“You were mine? Yes,” He outright smirked at me, and I almost gritted my teeth at his smug expression.
Logically, I knew he’d done it to protect me, but it also felt like it was just another way of him exerting control and flexing his power while simultaneously assuming that I couldn’t handle myself.
Before I could stop myself, irritation surged through me, and I was speaking. Stepping closer to him as I spoke in a restrained voice, “Look, I get what you were doing, and I appreciate your concern, but I don’t need that kind of protection, and I certainly don’t belong to any of you, so I’ll thank you to not pretend otherwise.”
I’d kept my voice level, even despite my frustration at both his assumptions and the way he’d guided others' perceptions of me, and his eyes widened slightly before a smile crept onto his face.
He leaned forward, causing my eyes to widen, and I even took a step back before he stopped myself. Knowing perfectly well that he’d interpret me retreating as some sort of his victory.
His face was mere inches from mine as he spoke again with a certain amused hiss to his words that had my eyes narrowing, “Understood.”
Understood… Yes, that was the situation at hand.
I understood him now. That him hypnotizing me had largely been him flexing his control of the clan and nothing else.
I could only hope that he understood that I had enough power to stand on my own in the face of his schemes, though.
Judging from his expression, he certainly understood that he could get a reaction out of me now at the very least. Though I wasn’t entirely sure that I liked that since he also appeared to revel in that knowledge just a little bit too much.
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