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Kane & Jim #56: Else
Chronological masterlist / Writing order masterlist
content: recovery and lots of it, angst, sickfic, accidental emotional whump, fear of starvation, vampire whumpee, whumper turned whumpee (turned caretaker), reunions
Whumpmas in July Day 18: "Or else"
i'm sorry for being so slow with k&j chapters! i'm going to try to be quicker with them in the future. here's one people have been waiting for for a very long time!
-
“You’re sick.”
Jim blinked, taken aback. “What?”
“You’re sick,” Kane repeated, taking another sip from the bowl. One of his last bowls before he was to start finding his own elsewhere. “I can taste it.”
“What? What kind of sick? Is it serious?” Jim asked with increasing urgency. Kane could see it in his eyes: he knew fear, and he hated to see it in Jim.
He wanted more than anything to reassure him, but he couldn’t lie. “I-I don’t know?” he admitted. “I don’t know much of human illnesses. You seem… fine?”
“Shit. Shit shit shit.” Jim grabbed his coat. “I’ll be back soon. I gotta… go to the doctor, or something. Door,” he warned.
“I’m sorry. I’m sure you’ll be okay! You can’t even feel it! You’re a healthy young man!” Kane assured him, ducking into the kitchen.
“Thanks for warning me!” Jim’s voice was laden with nerves. A flash of sunlight made Kane shiver, and he only returned to the living room when it was gone.
Kane knew what this meant: Jim would likely not finish out the week. This was his last meal given. He would have to go to vampire territory tonight, or else he would have nothing to eat come tomorrow. He had to find blood tonight, or else he’d starve. He’d go back to that horrible, empty state, always wanting, always in pain.
He knew Jim wouldn’t really let that happen, but it wasn’t fair to rely on him for blood forever, either. Kane had taken enough, with and without permission. It was Jim’s turn to rest.
Still, the fear of hunger never left him. It was a part of him now, permanently, no matter how much he fed.
And this meant one thing. The thing he’d been putting off and dreading since Jim set him free.
He would have to go to vampire territory and talk to his parents. He knew already that it would not go over well. Father would be either furious or crushingly disappointed that he’d allowed himself to be humiliated by humans, and he wasn’t sure which was worse. Mother would undoubtedly be the latter. He wondered, not for the first time, if they preferred him ‘dead’.
It shouldn’t matter. He knew now that they weren’t… good people. He could see that. He had a new family of sorts, now that Jim had taken him in.
But Jim wasn’t his legal next of kin, and Jim wasn’t the one he had to ask if he wanted his money returned so he could buy blood.
He could always get a job. But it seemed ridiculous to do when he had money sitting right there, and he would likely be found by his parents at some point anyway. There was no avoiding it forever.
Kane drank the bowl down quickly.
-
It was a flu, apparently. Nothing life-threatening, but it set Jim’s anxieties alight. His parents had died of illness, he explained.
While Kane had managed to catch it early, Jim started to devolve within a few hours of arriving home.
Kane knocked on his bedroom door. “Jim? Can I come in?”
“Ugh. Yeah,” he agreed.
Carefully balancing the tray, he entered. He found Jim curled up in bed, looking miserable.
“I’ve brought you lunch.” He’d been practicing his human food skills. He was still quite afraid of the stove, so though he used it when feeling especially brave, he mainly stuck to things that didn’t require cooking. He’d written down several combinations of foods that humans found appetizing, which could often be served in between slices of bread as a ‘sandwich’.
But he needed a tray instead of a plate, because despite his strength, he simply didn’t have enough hands to carry the six cups of water circled around it.
“Lotta water,” Jim noted weakly, grabbing a glass and taking a sip when Kane brought it close. His hand shook, the liquid threatening to spill. Kane watched it close, ready to steady it in a heartbeat if Jim needed him to.
He spoke gently, like he was worried speaking too loud would break Jim in his fragile state. “...Like I’d mentioned, I don’t know much about human illness. Most of what I know comes from you. I just remember… you wanted a lot of water, last time.”
He thought about that time a lot. How he was so close to losing Jim, because he was too proud to listen.
“Ah. Yeah.” Jim wouldn’t look him in the eye. “I remember.”
Kane set the tray down. “I should have taken better care of you,” he whispered. “I’m sorry. I mean–I shouldn’t have had you in the first place, but I did, and you were my responsibility, and I didn’t care for you like I should have.” A hint of tears in his eyes, he took Jim’s unusually-sweaty hand. “I’ll do better this time. Anything you need, I’ll be there.”
That earned a small smile from Jim. “Guess it isn’t so bad being waited on. ‘Specially because you can’t get sick, right?” The smile faded. “…Right?”
“I can’t,” Kane assured him. “You don’t need to worry. Just rest, and I’ll take care of anything you need.”
Jim huffed an almost-laugh. “You really changed, man.”
-
Liz did come over to visit come nightfall, which was good, since despite his promises, Kane had to leave. He didn’t like the thought of leaving Jim alone at night. He knew it made him scared, and Jim deserved to never feel afraid ever again. She brought a container of soup, a yellow liquid with colorful plants and large white orbs floating in it.
He waited, patient, until Liz emerged from Jim’s room. “Liz?”
“Hey. Thanks for looking after him,” Liz said.
“Of course!” The praise spread warmly through him. “There’s, um, something I wanted to talk to you about, if you have the time? Advice, I suppose.”
“Shoot,” she encouraged, flopping over on the couch.
Kane took a deep breath. “So, um, I assume now is a good time to start getting my own blood.”
“Yyyyeah.” Liz shot a glance to the stairs leading to Jim’s room. “I’d say that’s about right.”
“Blood… isn’t free. I have the money–had the money, but I’ve likely been assumed dead for many years. I’ll need to go to my parents to get it back,” he explained. “My parents are not kind people, I’ve come to realize.”
Liz raised an eyebrow, but politely refrained from making any comments about his former obliviousness. “You think they won’t give it back? Isn’t there, like, laws? This can’t be the first time this has happened with vampires, you guys are too good at not dying.”
“No! No, that’s not it, they’d give it back. It’s just, um, they’ll be… quite upset with me, I think. Especially my father.” He sighed. “I didn’t want to talk about it with Jim. I was worried he would feel pressured into giving me more blood than he’s comfortable with. I don’t know. It shouldn’t be as big a deal as it is. I’ve been through so much worse, I don’t understand why this is so terrifying. I suppose I’ve just never failed this badly before.”
“Hey, you made it out of five years with those monsters, alive. Bet there’s not a lot of vampires who could say that,” Liz pointed out.
“Ah, that’s just… not how Father would see it,” Kane said vaguely. Humans were supposed to be the weak ones. The fact that it took him five years to be freed, and he couldn’t even do it himself, would make him an utter embarrassment in their eyes.
And it was all because he couldn’t use persuasion. Everything they’d always believed about him, proven true.
Liz pursed her lips, lost in thought for a moment. “I don’t remember my parents that well,” she admitted. “I know yours suck pretty bad. I don’t think you have to admit more than you need to, right? Like, do they even need to know where you’ve really been? You could just make something up, for the sake of keeping the peace.”
“Make something up…” Kane murmured. He shook his head. “I’m not a very good liar. They’d see right through me. It’s fine, actually, the more I talk about it, the more I realize I’m being a bit ridiculous.” He forced a laugh. “It’s one uncomfortable conversation and then I can come back home.”
“You’ve got this.” Liz patted him lightly on the back, a modification from her usual clap she’d learned tended to scare him. “You’re tough.”
Kane certainly didn’t feel ‘tough’.
“Thank you. It was nice to at least… get it out of my system. Oh, and congratulations. Jim told me about you and Laken.”
Liz smiled. “After what happened, I just knew I had to say something, you know? If they could just be taken from me at any moment. Stuff happens. People die. I didn’t want something to happen to one of us before I could tell them how I feel.”
She stood. “I can give you one more night’s worth, maybe two. If you need some time to think about it and all.”
Kane startled. He and Liz had grown far more amicable over the past months, but he hadn’t expected this from her.
Maybe he should have. It wasn’t the first time. He thought of Jim, on that first night, vehemently denying Liz’s offer to provide blood, vowing to do it himself.
“...Thank you. That means so, so much to me. It’s alright, though. I’ll go tonight,” he decided.
“Good luck. We’ll be here when you get back,” she promised.
And that was all he really needed, in the end.
Kane got up, heading to the door with a quick glance back to make sure it was alright. For the freedom he’d earned, he hadn’t gone more than ten feet from the house since he’d returned with Laken. But of course, Liz made no move to stop him. “I’ll see you soon.”
-
The night was as beautiful as ever, even in the cool autumn air. He liked it better this way, in fact. It made it more comfortable to wear more clothing, the long pants and long sleeves and jacket he liked, especially when he ran. When he went this fast, he hardly felt the cold, and his mind was occupied elsewhere.
What if his parents made demands of him in exchange for their help? What if they expected him to return to vampire territory, to isolate himself out of the way in a socially-acceptable manner? Now that he’d tasted true companionship, he almost couldn’t bear to give it up. And what about Jim? Ever since Laken’s abduction, he’d been more scared at night. The very least Kane owed him was his protection.
His petty worries disappeared the instant he realized he could hear a vehicle coming closer.
Kane ran faster, opposite the sound. He’d likely been pushing fifty miles an hour before, and could make sixty if he tried–but he was out of practice, and the vehicle was faster.
A glance behind him showed moonlight glinting off a silver crossbow.
“I have permission!” he wailed as the off-roader gained, heart threatening to burst from his chest. This couldn’t happen, not again, no. Jim and Liz wouldn’t even think to look for him until a day had passed, a day that could easily be spent baking in the hot sun. “Liz Lieberman granted me permission to cross! Please, I didn’t do anything! Mercy!”
“Kane?” an unfamiliar voice called. The vehicle caught up to him, but there was no attack. “Oh shit, it’s you!” the driver said. “It’s so dark, I almost didn’t recognize you from the picture Laken showed us. Thanks for bringing ‘em back.”
Kane slowed, just a bit. “What?” he squeaked, tears streaming down his face.
The hunter in the passenger seat elbowed his partner, making quick movements with his hands that Kane could not understand. A signed language of some sort, he assumed. Though he didn’t know much about such things, other than that spoken orders under persuasion often didn’t work on humans who utilized it.
“Uh, my partner wants to know if you’re good? Like, you’re alright?” The driver asked. “Did we scare you? Sorry. Just, uh, you know, gotta be quick with the other guys. One second wasted and you miss ‘em, and that’s someone’s whole life, y’know.”
“Oh. Um, yes, you’d–you’d frightened me. I’m sorry.” Kane wasn’t quite sure what he was apologizing for. “Am I… free to go, sirs?”
“Yeah! Yeah, you can go… sir? Shoot, don’t let us keep you,” the hunter assured.
The one in the passenger seat made more hand-signs, waving him goodbye after. “Nice to meet you!” the other translated, finally driving away.
Kane picked up speed again and didn’t stop until he was sure he’d left the border far behind. He collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath.
He was so close to going back to the pain. If they hadn’t recognized him, he would have been skewered with silver–likely soon killed, not tortured, given they were from Liz’s guild, but still, he would have died in pain. No matter how hard he breathed, he felt like he couldn’t get enough air, and he wasn’t sure if it was that he’d been sprinting for too long or the sheer horror.
He wanted Jim. He wanted Jim to hold him and tell him everything was alright, that he was safe, that no one was going to hurt him. But Jim was miles and miles away, and could not help him here.
And he couldn’t cry on the ground forever. He was burning moonlight, and he needed blood.
Kane forced himself to his feet and wrapped his arms around him. If he squeezed his eyes tight, he could pretend he wasn’t alone, for just a moment.
After a minute like that, he started running once more.
-
By the time Kane reached his parents’ estate, he’d mostly calmed down. It was hard to feel as though hunters would ambush him out of nowhere when he went deep enough into vampire territory to see buildings and people. Any hunter here would be apprehended in seconds.
He touched the gate, brass-coated, though he knew there was silver underneath. There seemed to be some sort of electronic device attached to it, a new addition since his last visit, but he wasn’t sure how to use it. He could climb it, or simply shout, and one of the staff would likely hear him. If he wanted to be extra polite, which he did, he could simply stand here until someone came or went and ask to be let in.
And then that would be it. Kane would be standing face-to-face with his parents. He would accept Father’s ire without complaint. He’d had worse, he reminded himself, even when it came to the comparable. The hunters had spit on him while calling him worthless, ground his face into the floor while forcing him to decry himself as beneath them. It had been so much worse.
His hand shook against the gate.
You’ve really changed, man.
Had he? If he was still back here, ready to take whatever judgments his parents threw at him, debase himself and eagerly beg for their forgiveness, had he really changed? There were humans in there. Captive, hurt humans who he could never in a thousand years be able to free if he tried, locked away in their quarters. What happened to all his regrets? His vows that he would never associate with anything of the sort again?
What would he have done differently here before, if he’d realized back then everything he knew now?
Kane left.
-
It took him a bit to find it, he hadn’t been to this town before, but it wasn’t far, and he knew the address.
There was a different kind of dread this time. If he was rejected here, it might be even worse than his parents. But as he rang the doorbell, he knew this was what he had to do.
The man who answered looked almost exactly the same as the last time he’d seen him, thirteen years ago. The same dark skin, perfect hair, typically garishly-colorful shirt.
Bellamy’s eyes went impossibly wide, as though he’d seen a ghost.
“Kane?”
taglist in reblogs, chapter 57 coming july 30th :)
@whumpmasinjuly
#kane and jim#whump#my writing#vampire whumpee#vampire whump#sickfic#angst#recovery whump#accidental whump#whumper turned whumpee#whumpmasinjuly2024#wij24day18
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Falsely Persuaded [Kane & Jim Fanfic]
I'm in love with @whumpsday's story Kane & Jim, so I wrote a short story about Kane getting tormented, as you do.
TW: mind control, abuse, violence
Kane de Sang was having what passed for a good day.
He could remember what used to be a good night for him, before. Nights when he'd set up an elaborate bubble bath with sweet smelling soaps and expensive skin products, sinking into warm luxury that relaxed his tired muscles and washed away his stress. Nights when he drank deep of rich, satisfying human blood. Nights when he lounged in bed listening to his favorite music, surrounded by silk sheets and and down pillows and thick blankets.
A good day was different, now. A good day was a day when the hunters left him alone with his thoughts and allowed his wounds to mend instead of devising a fresh torment. Today was one of those days, when the only pain he suffered was his slowly healing burns and his omnipresent craving for blood. On a day like this, he could almost close his eyes and imagine himself at home. Or anywhere but here.
He stretched out on the cold concrete, shut his eyes, and tried to stir up memories of comforts he'd never again have.
The sound and smell of hunters approaching his cage had him scrambling, curling into a ball at the back of his cage.
"...great results so far. I think you'll find it very promising."
Kane frowned. That wasn't a voice he recognized. Someone new -- and that was usually bad news. The new folk who weren't disgusted by the idea of keeping a vampire captive often wanted to try the hunters' favorite plaything themselves.
"Well, here he is," said one of the hunters, gesturing to Kane. "What's left of him. He's all yours."
The cage door creaked open, and Kane dared to look up at the newcomer. He was a scrawny man with neatly combed hair, and he would've looked completely unintimidating if Kane didn't already know very well what any human's presence near him meant -- and if he weren't wearing a black mask that covered his nose and mouth. It was something electronic or perhaps mechanical, with blinking lights on one side and a whirring fan on the other.
"Hello," he said, his voice soft and gentle. "You must be the vampire I've heard so much about. I'm not going to hurt you. What's your name?"
Kane eyed him suspiciously. He didn't want to trust this human, but something in the tone of his voice, the way he effortlessly set Kane at ease, reminded him just a tiny bit of Bellamy.
"Kane, sir," he said, not moving from where he was wrapped in on himself. Long gone were the days when he would introduce himself with pride.
"All right, Kane. Just need you to focus, okay?"
"Focus on --" Suddenly, his mind fogged, his entire world narrowing down to nothing more than the eyes and voice of the man standing in front of him. His anxiety washed away, his pain felt distant.
It was the nicest thing that had happened to Kane in a long time.
"Good. Hold your hand out."
Kane did. The only thing that mattered was obeying this human.
"Stand up. Spin around."
"That's no good." The voice of a hunter echoed from far, far away. "He'll do whatever you tell him to anyway, 'cause he's scared of getting thrown in the sun."
Kane involuntarily flinched at the mention of the sun, although even his fear seemed hazy and hard to access in his daze. He was being so good. Surely he wouldn't be thrown in the sun.
"Well, if that's the case, I have an idea. Focus, Kane," said the man, and the thoughts were wiped from his mind once again. "I'm going to help you, okay? Follow me."
Kane sleepwalked, head bowed low, as his body automatically followed the man with the mask. Somewhere in his brain, a thought fluttered, trying to catch his attention. He couldn't trust this human. Something bad was about to happen.
Just as quickly, the thought dissolved into mist, and Kane was blank once more, climbing the stairs and heading for the door.
"Keep following me. Just a little further, Kane," said the man, opening the door to the outside.
Kane saw the light. He panicked, his brain pulling away. But he was just a split second too late. His body took one step outside, and the searing heat of the sun burned his foot.
Whatever spell he'd been under was broken as he scuttled backwards, trying to get far, far away from the treacherous sun, grabbing at his foot, already blistering from even that short exposure. He looked up at the man, whose eyes no longer looked gentle or kind, and he realized exactly what had happened.
Persuasion. He'd been under persuasion. The humans were trying to figure out how to use persuasion on vampires.
His eyes widened with horror as he processed it all. He'd felt so good, like all he wanted to do was obey, and he'd willingly walked into the sun -- just for a second, but what else could they make him do?
He thought back to all those times he'd watched vampires with their persuaded humans, burning with envy. How many times he'd seen his father effortlessly command his empty thralls. How many times he'd wished desperately he could have done that to Jim, watched that defiant light go out of his eyes as he became Kane's mindless slave.
As he looked up at the man with the mask, he realized what every human must feel when they're at the mercy of a vampire. Now he knew what it was like to know that at any moment, your body and mind could betray you, following the commands of your enemies.
Bellamy had been right. He'd been right all along. Kane had spent so many years coveting his powers, bitter that his former friend never used the persuasion abilities that any other vampire would kill to have. But he'd been right about how terrible the power was, and Kane would never get a chance to tell him that.
The hunters were all laughing. "That's a neat trick," one of them said. "But we don't exactly hunt in the daytime, so getting them to walk out into the sun isn't going to work."
"Oh, that's not a problem," said the man with the mask. "I'm sure you'll have better ideas for using this than I will, but here's one way I thought it could be used on the hunt."
Kane shrank back into his corner. They were going to do it again, of course they were. It wasn't enough to burn and cut every part of his body, they had to take his mind as well. His mind, the one place they could never fully reach, even if they threw him out into the sun. The place where he could sometimes retreat into better days, imagine himself a little blood and comfort.
"Calm, Kane," said the man, and he felt the unnatural peace wash over him again, his feeble attempt at fighting it not making a bit of difference. The human was all that mattered.
"It's hard to get vampires to do something harmful to themselves, even under strong persuasion. You have to do it in an indirect way for best results."
Kane sat in his corner, glassy-eyed and enraptured, waiting for what the human would tell him next.
"There, Kane, just stay still. Just stay completely still. Don't move a muscle."
Kane didn't dare to twitch even his eyelids as the man moved closer. He'd be good, he'd be so good, good and obedient and --
Blinding, searing pain radiated from his side. Kane screamed out in pure agony, tears streaming down his cheeks as blood dripped over his stomach and pooled on the floor. The doctor's eyes were smiling as he twisted the silver knife he'd stabbed into Kane. He pulled it out, leaving Kane to collapse in a growing puddle of his own blood.
"Oh, I like that! I like that a lot," one of the hunters was saying, as Kane's head swam and fuzzed.
"I can give your group one of the prototypes. You can try it out, see if it helps you," said the man with the mask. "If it works, this could be a real breakthrough in fighting vampires. Not only that, but if we better understand persuasion, we could even help people who have been taken."
"That's real good work you're doing, doctor."
"It's the least I could do after my husband was taken."
"Sorry for your loss. My son was taken, too -- that's how I ended up in this business. Want to stab him a few more times, or...?"
"Oh, no, that won't be necessary."
"You hear all that, leech?" One of the hunters walked over to him and kicked him in the fresh wound, making Kane howl in pain. "We're gonna do to you what you filthy bloodsuckers do to us. You didn't have persuasion, so we went and got you some. Isn't that nice?"
Kane only sobbed. Maybe if they used persuasion enough, his mind would go like a human's did, and he wouldn't have to suffer any more.
But until then, he knew that the hunters would make him suffer plenty.
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Home Sweet Home?
@whumpsday has this excellent ongoing story, Kane and Jim, which I have read many times (master list here). A while back he posted an AU where Kane's friend Bellamy saves him from the hunters (here) and it made me wonder how it would go if Bellamy tried to save him from Jim instead. Last Friday I decided I should just write it. And, because I have no chill, it is 11,531 words long.
Hilariously, on Sunday @whumpsday actually posted a version of this idea as well (see here). I'm so glad I'd already started writing or I'd have chickened out. His version is set much closer to the beginning of the story. I didn't tie mine to any particular story events, but I was envisioning it being set closer to the events of Basement or Heat Wave (or a bit after that) when Kane and Jim have had time to build a routine.
Because this is an AU fanfic I may have made errors in the lore and unfortunately Bellamy is a bit OOC to make the story work. Please indulge me.
Home Sweet Home?
Summary: Bellamy tries to do a nice thing and everyone has a bad time about it.
Words: 11,531
Content Warnings: recapture, PTSD triggering, begging, vomiting, it as a pronoun (briefly), panic attacks, interrogation, kidnapping
Apparently, tumblr will only let me have one 'read more' link per post, so please be aware this is a VERY long scroll.
******
Bellamy wasn’t supposed to be there. He tried to remember how he got involved in this at all as he stared at the blank and bloodied hunter at his feet.
Things had gotten a little out of hand.
The hunter had been caught near the border, that much he knew. The vampire who’d caught him wanted the finder’s fee more than a personal bloodbag. The farms pay very well after all and keeping a personal human was logistically challenging.
Bellamy had been passing by when the kerfuffle at the gate started. The finding vampire’s persuasion slipping. (He didn’t seem to be very good at it, Bellamy thought). The realization growing over the hunter’s face. His desperate struggles.
It was a sight to see, so he stopped. A spectacle’s a spectacle, even if this was sad. The farms usually kept any…unpleasantness behind closed doors.
Bellamy had recoiled when the intake worker waved him over. He’d been so tempted to refuse to be an extra pair of hands for this. Helping the farms was not something Bellamy was at all interested in. Frankly, he was rooting for the human.
But then the hunter said, “Fuck you, you deserve to be in our fucking cells alongside that other fucking leech!”
What could he say? Bellamy loved a mystery. Almost as much as he loved drama. A captured vampire? One who was kept alive? Who? Why?
Bellamy couldn’t help but imagine Kane for a moment, slain on the border. Probably not by this individual human, but by hunters like him. His heart sank. Had they called him a leech while he lay dying? Perhaps this human, out of all of them, deserved less mercy than he generally held for the species.
Given the obvious hunter attire, the farm intake attendant had insisted on asking the human questions. Perhaps it knew the movements of other humans near the border. Such information could be useful. When Bellamy offered to keep him talking, the worker had accepted, and they’d retired to a small room off the gate. And now he was looking into the persuasion-calmed eyes of the human and wondering how his day had turned out like this.
“It’s resistant to persuasion I swear!” The finding vampire kept complaining as though that was the problem.
The intake worker just rolled his eyes at Bellamy before making the first vampire wait outside. He’d had Bellamy ask the hunter a series of questions about the border. His hunting associates. Their plans and movements. Any new tools. The worker took notes while the human droned. Finally, finally Bellamy got to ask the question that had brought him here.
“The vampire in your…cells, is it still alive?”
Bellamy saw the worker scrunch up his nose in disgust. Who cared about a vampire weak enough to be caught by humans?
“Dunno, we gave it away.”
“What did you do to them before they were sent away?” Bellamy asked since the worker was starting to look impatient. That made him click his pen. Techniques were something worth noting. The life of a weak vampire wasn’t.
The human began the most horrifying list Bellamy had ever heard. His wildest nightmares were never this vicious. His imagination couldn’t have conjured the dreadfulness necessary. The worker’s pen moved rapidly as he took notes with wide eyes.
“And then we strung him out in the sun on this rack. We told him we’d come get him at nightfall, but we lied. The guys thought it would be funny to tell him that so he’d think an end to the pain was coming when it wasn’t. We left him for a week instead. The next time we hung him out for a little tan Chris told him that if he was silent the whole time, we would bring him back in at nightfall. He always screamed when he sizzled though…”
Bellamy swallowed hard.
“Why would you do this?” He asked before he could help himself.
“It was fun. It was what a leech deserved for all the pain they cause.”
Bellamy noted with bitterness how the hunter couldn’t seem to separate this one vampire from the actions of vampire society as a whole.
“Well now,” the worker snapped his notebook shut. “This has been enlightening. I think given this one’s…resistance to persuasion he’ll have to be moved to the Awake section. I wonder how many of these techniques could be adapted to use on humans? I’m particularly interested in this choking device he mentioned. Perhaps with acid to simulate the effects of silver?”
The worker gave Bellamy a sadistic smile that he was meant to share. Just two psychopaths with an inside joke. The torturer becoming the victim and having his methods used against him. How droll! Bellamy managed to choke down his bile long enough to produce an unconvincing smile.
“Just one more question. When you sent the vampire away, where did you send it?”
“Gave the bloodsucker to his victim. Famous guy. Almost no one comes back once the leeches get ‘ya, but Jim Lieberman did. He deserved to end that fucker himself. Well,” the human chortled, still bespelled, “and the leech gave less sport after a few years. Less fun that way.”
Bellamy’s whole body went cold at the name. Caroline. He needed to talk to Caroline.
“Thank you for your assistance today, sir. In recognition of your help, we’d like to give you this gift certificate. It’s good for a month supply of blood packs.”
Bellamy took the envelope out of the worker’s hands numbly. “I must be getting home now,” he heard himself say. “Have a lovely evening.”
Bellamy didn’t remember walking out of the office. He didn’t remember the trip home or coming in the door. The next moment he had he was sitting on his kitchen floor. Caroline kneeling beside him, a look of concern written all over her face.
“Years ago, we went to a party and met Kane de Sang,” he said softly. “His human asked you to call someone for him. Did you end up doing so?”
“Yeah, sure. Oh Bel, what’s going on?”
“What was the name of the person he had you call?”
“Elizabeth Lieberman.” Bellamy supposed it had been a weird enough occurrence for the details to stick in her mind even all these years later.
“And his name was Jim, right?”
“Yeah, her brother. He just wanted me to make contact. Pass along a message. What’s this about, Bel?”
“I think…I think Kane might be alive. Or…if he isn’t, I know who killed him,” Bellamy whispered at his hands. Caroline clapped her hands to her mouth. She didn’t need to ask to know what he was going to do next.
~
It actually took weeks. Bellamy was nearly out of his mind with stress as he tracked down the house of Jim Lieberman. Procuring a phonebook had been risky and, as it turned out, fairly useless. Unlisted.
Hunters near the border had been more forthcoming. Liberal use of persuasion certainly helped. Frustratingly, they never seemed to know exactly where Jim lived now. Tidbits of information leaked out though.
There was a book about him. About surviving Kane. People admired him for it in human society.
His sister was a hunter and some of them had met her in passing. She lived close to the border for work.
All the hunters who knew about the situation assumed Jim killed Kane once he had been given to the human. They all seemed to think this was justice.
More than one confessed to having met the vampire without persuasion. One was able to confirm that he’d called himself Kane. Bellamy hadn’t needed proof exactly, but it helped lighten his burden to know he was on the right track.
He asked each hunter who had met Kane what they’d personally done to him. He wouldn’t make the mistake of treating every human as though they were responsible for his friend’s pain, but he would find out which ones were.
Those ones died bloody.
~
Elizabeth Lieberman’s house wasn’t as hard to find as he’d feared. He observed it carefully over several nights, retreating over the border before daybreak each time. No sign of Kane or any other captives. No sign of her brother. He’d tried to follow her car once, but he was no tracker. It wasn’t like he was practiced at any of this.
On the fourth night of hunter house watching, Bellamy saw the pink-haired person leave alone. They were dressed as a hunter, and they usually came and went with Ms. Lieberman. Bellamy assumed this was a colleague. Maybe they would know where their hunting partner’s brother lived? Or have clues Bellamy could follow?
It was the work of a moment to slip into the front seat of the hunter’s car.
“Drive away,” he commanded to the startled human. Driving under persuasion was probably unsafe, but the road had few cars. It was after dusk in a border town after all. He directed the human until they were on a wooded lane, far from any houses. “Pull over.”
“Where does Jim Lieberman live?”
The hunter rattled off an address immediately. Bellamy blinked. He dove for the glovebox and was pleased to find what he needed. With paper and a little pencil in hand, Bellamy asked again.
Bellamy swallowed hard. He had what he needed. Finally. But there were more questions to ask.
“Do you know of the vampire that was given to Jim?”
“Yes.”
“Is he still alive?” Bellamy’s voice broke on the last word. His persuasion wavered for a moment under the onslaught of his emotions, but he held it with difficulty.
“Yes…are vampires technically alive? Like the old movies would call them undead, but my science teacher in school said they’re just a different species…He’s whatever he was before though.”
Bellamy stared at this strange human. What an interesting mind. He had never had one muse while under persuasion before. For a second, it distracted him from the momentous news just imparted.
Kane was alive. Alive. Not slain all those years ago. He still had a chance. But there was more information to glean here before he made his move.
“What have you personally done to Kane?” He asked, steeling himself for the answer. These were always the most monstrous of tales. He would have nightmares once this was over for sure. Hell, he’d already started having them.
“I beat him at Uno,” the hunter said. “I let him win at Monopoly. He had a good grasp of real estate and he seemed like he could use the confidence boost. But there are no friends in Uno.”
Huh. That was…unexpected.
Bellamy felt suddenly cheered by the turn of events.
He had a location. Kane was alive. Kane was alive.
Maybe this hunter could drive him to Kane? No, running would be faster. It didn’t sound like they were culpable for the atrocities his friend had experienced. To be sure though…
“Did you hurt the vampire? Did you hurt Kane?”
“No…no need. Jim had things well in hand.”
Bellamy frowned. That didn’t sound as good. Still. Bellamy hated to kill. Until recently he’d never taken a life. It didn’t sound like this was one he needed to take at least. And if Kane said they were one of his tormentors, well, Bellamy could always find them again.
“Forget what questions I’ve asked you.” He had to put more oomph into this command than most. It wasn’t good for a mind to delete memories, but it shouldn’t do lasting damage to their brain. He couldn’t risk the Liebermans getting tipped off. He couldn’t risk Kane.
Bellamy dropped the persuasion once he was out of reach getting out of the car.
“Holy fuck!” the hunter yelled as they came to, already scrambling for the weapons at their belt.
“Thank you for the ride. You’ve been most helpful,” Bellamy said, leaning through the car door. “I hope you have a pleasant rest of your evening.”
The hunter stared at him incredulously before he vanished into the night. Jim’s house was further from the border. He had to move if he was going to get there and back before daybreak. Bellamy ran faster than he ever had in his life.
~
Jim stared at the garbage bags Kane had neatly piled by the door during this afternoon’s chores. Kane had seemed nervous about him opening the door while he was still upstairs, even in the next room. The sun was so close. So, Jim had put it off. He meant to take them out earlier, before full dark. But he got busy and forgot. Only they needed to go out. They were in the way, and they kind of smelled. If they were a touch stinky to him, he wondered how bad they smelled to Kane’s superior senses. Probably awful.
The garbage cans were just outside. Around the corner of the house. It wasn’t far. He was home. It was safe here. They weren’t that close to the border. Surely, he could manage taking the garbage a few steps away from his door. He wasn’t some baby, scared of the dark. He could do this.
Only, when he went to heft the bags, they were so much heavier than Kane made them look. Duh. It would take two trips. Jim suppressed a groan.
~
Bellamy crouched in a tree near Jim Lieberman’s house. No sign of Kane. Although someone was walking around inside. Someone was home.
The way here had been more perilous than he’d expected. Apparently, this area was well-patrolled by hunters. He’d had to skirt around a few groups. Hopefully, Kane was up to travelling, or this might get complicated.
The door to the house opened. Jim Lieberman stepped out onto the lawn, something in his arms. He was older than Bellamy remembered. It was strange watching the way the years gradually left their mark on Caroline, but this was even more jarring. Humans changed so rapidly.
There was nothing for it but to ask, Bellamy supposed.
~
Jim felt the crawling sensation of being watched as he walked towards the bins, huffing a little.
It’s all in my head, he thought to himself. Just the hypervigilance talking.
Still, as he put the lid back on he chanced a glance at the woods at the edge of the lawn. Nothing. Just limbs creaking in the light breeze. The feeling was so intense though. He walked quickly but stiffly back to his door. Trying not to sprint.
A weight lifted from his shoulders as he closed the door behind him. Nothing bad happened. Nothing bad was going to happen. He was home.
Jim felt silly. He was glad Liz wasn’t here to see him fussing over walking ten paces from his door. Honestly, he should be able to do better than this. This was pathetic. He was pathetic. Jumping at shadows.
He resolutely picked up the second bag of garbage, thankfully much lighter than the first. He could do this. He opened the door with one hand and looked straight into the eyes of a vampire.
Jim had time for a single moment of pure terror before his mind slipped away.
~
Bellamy only had one question for Jim. “Where is Kane?”
Jim blankly pointed at a door made of silver. It was locked, but it was more of a latch situation than one where you needed a key.
“Open it,” Bellamy said softly.
Kane was already waiting at the bottom of the steps, frowning towards the door. He’d probably heard something was happening.
“Bellamy?” His voice came out high pitched with shock. It was the sweetest sound Bellamy had ever heard.
Then Kane’s eyes rolled up into the back of his head. And. He. Just. Crumpled.
Bellamy was at his side in an instant, cradling his friend to his body. Kane was alive. Alive. Now he just had to get him home.
Bellamy carefully picked him up. He was far too light. He felt thin in Bellamy’s arms. Insubstantial. Not how Kane should be.
He scanned the room for anything of note. It looked almost like a bedroom, if one ignored the silver door and the restraints sitting by the stairs. No torture devices though. Perhaps a positive sign? After the horrors he had heard, however, Bellamy was not willing to make assumptions about how Kane had been treated here. How he had suffered over the years! It was too much to bear thinking about.
Nothing stood out as an object he needed to take with them. Maybe the papers on the desk? Bellamy wished Kane would wake so they could discuss it. Discuss anything. Everything.
Like what Kane wanted done with the human still standing, hypnotized in his own kitchen.
Looking at this cell, Bellamy didn’t think Jim fell into the same mindset as the hunters who had confessed to him so far. But that didn’t mean he hadn’t hurt Kane. At the very least, he was keeping him against his will.
Kane deserved to have his say against his captor. But Kane wasn’t awake just now to have that moment. That closure. The angry, bitter Kane he’d seen at the reunion would want revenge. But time had passed. Things could be more complicated than Bellamy knew.
All Bellamy knew was that he wouldn’t take that choice away from Kane. Whatever was going to happen next had to be because it was what Kane needed. After all Bellamy now knew he’d suffered, Kane deserved that much agency.
Jim’s terrified face appeared in his memory. Begging for help. Begging for consideration from the first kind vampire he’d met. Jim probably didn’t deserve what Kane might do to him. Probably.
Without input from either of them, it was impossible to do anything here. It would have to wait.
The sun would rise, and they would be trapped here for another day unless they moved now. They had just enough time to get back to Vampire Territory if they hurried. But Kane was out for the count and the woods were full of hunters.
Bellamy tapped his foot impatiently. He could wait out the day. Hopefully Kane would wake up, and they could plan together. But his friend was angry and impetuous and might refuse his help. Jim’s hunter sister might come to visit. Or other human visitors. They would be trapped by the sun and unable to escape if set upon before night fell again. Kane was too fragile and too important for such a conflict. No, they needed to leave.
Bellamy eyed the keys by the door. They could take a car. Running would be faster, but not if he were carrying Kane and dodging hunters. Bellamy was useless at driving though. It was impractical when he could just run normally, so he’d never really gotten good at it. Caroline enjoyed driving, so occasionally they would go out in a car. But she would drive. This did not solve his problem.
Jim could drive. He owned the car after all. A car with a human driving wouldn’t stand out as much as two vampires running through the woods for sure. Jim and Kane still needed to have a conversation. So, Jim would come along. Solved.
Bellamy was pretty sure he could convince Kane to return Jim to Human Territory once they’d talked. So long as he really wasn’t as bad as the other hunters…and if he was, well.
“We’re going for a drive.”
~
Jim woke up in his bed. No…not his bed. Not the one in his room, in his house, in his home. He woke up in his bed back in the human quarters of Kane’s house.
Oh, so it’s going to be that dream, he thought. Still half-asleep, Jim furrowed his brow at a hole in the wall. He didn’t remember that one. Kane always had him plaster over the holes he punched in the walls. This one was un-mended. It was also dusty. As in, there was dust in the hole like it had been punched years ago.
Jim rolled over. His pillow was dusty too. The bedspread under his hands, coated in a layer of grime that came off on him as he moved. Jim sat up slowly. Dread pooling into his stomach. The floor had dust bunnies. Kane would have never allowed it to get like this when he lived here. He would have been ordered to clean it.
The bed creaked in a terribly real way as he tentatively put his feet down on the very real feeling floor. Jim pinched himself as hard as he could. Still here.
Jim leaned over the side of the bed as all the dread in his stomach came pouring out his mouth in waves of vomit.
He was back.
~
Kane was dreaming of home. Home in the hateful house, in the hateful territory, with no one and nothing.
Except not so much. In this dream, Bellamy was sitting beside his bed, stroking his hair.
“Bel?”
“I’m here, darling. You’re safe.”
Kane let the words wash over him. This was going to be a good dream. He sagged back onto the silk sheets, relaxed for the first time in so long. His eyes slipped shut again.
~
Jim heaved until his stomach had nothing left, then he heaved some more. Finally, belly aching fiercely, he curled in on himself, pinching his arm over and over. He had to wake up. This couldn’t be happening.
His breath came faster and faster until it wasn’t coming at all. He sat up, gapping like a landed fish, heart pounding. His vision blackened around the edges until darkness took him.
~
Jim woke up on the floor of his room in Kane’s house. He sat up in panic, but the room was empty. He gingerly rose to his feet, checking himself for injuries as he went. He was as whole as he’d been at home…so far.
His head hurt as he strained to remember. Making dinner at home. Locking Kane in for the night. Routine good nights. Nothing had felt amiss. Taking…taking out the garbage.
The vampire on his stoop. Holy shit. Oh, God. He’d been taken. Right from his house. His knees went out from under him, and he ended up on the floor again with a thump.
That’s going to bruise, Jim thought, feeling a little hysterical. If he really was back under a vampire’s thumb, bruised knees would be the least of his worries very soon.
Nausea roiled him again, but there was nothing left in his stomach to lose. He needed to think. He needed a plan. Panic couldn’t keep him safe here. He needed to find a way to be safe.
The room hadn’t changed much since the last time he was there. His things were as he left them. The few books he’d been allowed stacked by the bed. The record player sat in one corner. The walls had a couple of new holes that he didn’t remember. Probably Kane having a tantrum after he’d escaped. The dust made sense if no one had been here since Kane…
Who had taken him? The vision of the vampire on the stoop swam in his mind’s eye. He had only seen him for a moment before the hypnosis had sunk in, and the horror of it all was making it hard to think clearly just now. His memory felt blurry.
Why take him back to Kane’s rather than to their house? Another shudder of horror ran through him. If this was supposed to be psychological torture, it was working.
Jim pushed himself off the floor. He needed out of this room. He couldn’t feel his body, but he could see himself moving towards the door that led into the kitchen. The light bulb flickered when he hit the switch but didn’t immediately go out. That was good. This room had no windows. If he were plunged into darkness just now, Jim knew he would flip.
This room was the same. Dusty. Unused. Small signs of damage. The kitchen table had been kicked into splitters at some point. Another reminder of the power of Kane’s rage Jim did not need to see right now.
He dug through the debris for something—anything—to use as a stake. The wood was rotten soft though and most of the pieces were small. He found one that might work at the very bottom of the pile. He poked at the end experimentally. It bent a little.
Jim suddenly pictured trying to stab Kane, old Kane, in the heart and having the wood bend rather than impale him. He dropped the stake like it burned him. Too risky.
Jim staggered to the door that led into the vampire’s part of the house. He knew it would be locked. It was never left unlocked. But everything else here was surreal so maybe…
It was more that he had to try. He would never forgive himself if he didn’t at least check and it turned out he had a chance. He reached towards the doorknob—
“Which arm did you use to open the gate?”
Jim flinched and spun wildly to look at the room. Empty. Still empty. But he’d heard…It was Kane’s voice. But Kane from back then. Tears slid down his face.
He wasn’t here. He wasn’t.
But he was…somewhere. Actually, that was a great question, where the fuck was Kane? Still in his basement at home? Wondering where breakfast was? When Jim was coming down?
Liz would find him, Jim comforted himself. When Jim didn’t answer the phone for a bit, she would come around to see what was up. She would find Kane. He wouldn’t be trapped in the basement, slowly starving.
Jim left the door untouched for the moment. He would try again when his arm stopped shaking. Instead, he went to the fridge.
Unsurprisingly, it was empty. Cleaned out at some point. Still running though. The building had power at least. Why he couldn’t say, he was just grateful. He checked the cupboards. A few tins and boxes of dried goods. Very expired. Maybe if he was desperate and no one came…
Jim’s eyes slid to the door again. He needed to know. He rubbed his bad arm as he walked towards it. Kane wouldn’t need to know he tried the door. No one was even here to see him do it.
Jim touched the doorknob. He swallowed hard and twisted. It rattled. It didn’t turn.
A sob choked him. Jim squeezed his eyes tightly but the tears escaped nonetheless. Right. He was locked into the human quarters of Kane’s house. Just like he’d been for five years. Just like he was in every goddamn nightmare.
He resisted the urge to crawl under the bed. It didn’t help. Kane—or his new mystery vampire master—would just drag him back out. No, he needed to be smart about this.
Jim jammed himself into the corner of the room as hard as he could. He drew his knees up under his chin and buried his face. He would be smart about this once he could stop crying.
~
Kane woke up again. This time was more confusing. The sheets were still silk. Bellamy was still sitting by his bed. His bed. In his house. In Vampire Territory. He felt the first pang of alarm go through him.
“Good...” Kane trailed off, hoarsely. What time was it? Was it a good morning or a good night or…?
“Hello there.” Bellamy smiled gently down at him. He sounded real. “Back with me, darling? I must confess, I have no idea why you’ve been unconscious this long, or truly why you lost consciousness in the first place. I suppose it was a shock seeing me. It’s been a while.”
Kane let those words wash over him, only semi-taking them in. Back with us. A shock. Seeing Bellamy.
“You…you were on the stairs. The basement stairs in Jim’s house. You were in Jim’s house!” The alarm pang was now a clarion call echoing in Kane’s brain. He couldn’t think through it.
“I came as soon as I could. I swear to you, darling. The moment I knew there was a chance you were alive, I was on my way. I am so sorry that I didn’t know about your situation earlier.”
Kane’s eyes filled with tears. His friend had come for him. Even after decades of hostility and silence. Even after all the things he’d said during their fight at the reunion. God, and his situation—
“Bellamy, you were right,” Kane blurted. “You were right about everything. Humans. Vampires. Me. I was a monster. I deserved what I got.”
Even as he said it, Kane could picture Jim shaking his head. Jim’s voice in his head telling him torture was wrong, even for him. No one had more right to hate him than Jim, and even he thought what Kane had been through was too much, taking things too far.
Bellamy shook his head ardently. “No! No, my friend, you didn’t deserve that. No one does.”
“You know?” Kane hated how small his voice came out. How he automatically shrank into the bedclothes.
Bellamy nodded mournfully. “The hunters I questioned gave me some details. Not all that you’ve suffered, I’m sure, but enough to know that the monsters in this situation don’t have fangs.” Bellamy hesitated before adding, “I’m sorry I learned of your experiences without your permission. It was not my intention to pry.”
Kane huffed out a bitter laugh. Privacy was something he hadn’t been afforded with the hunters. Anyone and everyone could watch what they did to him. It was a spectator sport. Not a secret. Still. Having another vampire know felt…strange. Like he wasn’t wearing enough clothes. Kane reflexively pulled the blanket closer to his body. He always felt better covered.
“If we could keep the details between us, I’d prefer that,” he said finally.
Bellamy immediately crossed his heart. “In the interests of full disclosure. I first heard the story from a bespelled hunter. He didn’t name you, but I pieced together enough to guess. A worker from one of the farms also heard the story, but he wasn’t paying much attention to your part of it. He just wanted to know what weapons they’d used.”
A bitter knot formed in Kane’s chest. It was good that it wasn’t a public story in vampire territory—another thing to mock him with— but it was also a reminder that vampires didn’t care about what happened to the weak. And Kane had always been weak. He knew that now more than ever.
Bellamy cared though. He cared enough to put the pieces together. He cared enough to track Kane down and stage a rescue. He cared enough to keep his secrets. Kane’s eyes filled.
“Oh, darling, I’m so sorry,” Bellamy murmured.
Kane couldn’t help it. He reached for his oldest friend, desperate for connection. Bellamy scooped him into his arms like they were seventeen again. Kane bawled into his shirt, wailing with abandon.
~
Jim lifted his head from his knees at a faint sound from above him. Crying? Maybe? He shuddered. If there was truly someone else in the house, he was running out of time. He needed a plan.
Jim tried to think. Attacking was suicide, and he wasn’t ready for that. Escape was impossible for the moment. The door was locked. He had no idea what time it was. He was days away from the border and very likely to run into another vampire while on the run. He’d been insanely lucky the first time. Maybe he could try again but not right this moment.
Jim swallowed hard. If he couldn’t escape, then maybe he could negotiate. There were a lot of small things that would make being here…more bearable was not the phrase for that. Less of a screaming horror?
Perhaps his new master would be reasonable, Jim thought dully. He was a trained bloodbag after all. He knew how to behave. Jim flinched at the very thought.
Then he flinched again when a new thought followed on its heels: why wasn’t he still hypnotized? Did it just wear off? Would the vampire come back, and Jim’s mind would just be gone again?
His breathing began to speed up again in panic. He pictured the zombified humans at the reunion, shambling mindlessly after their masters. The conversation about long-term effects of persuasion. After a few weeks under, there might not be much of him left to come back.
Jim wiped angrily at his eyes. He couldn’t lose it. Not now.
Kane’s brother had wanted him at the reunion. Wanted him because he was un-hypnotized. Because he was still capable of fear and pain.
The bile rose in his throat again. If that was why his mind was his own just now…he was in for a painful captivity. Then again, if it meant he kept his mind…
Jim weighed both sides. Both options sucked so much. None of this was fair.
It was probably too much to hope for that the vampire would let him use a blood-draw kit to feed them. Jim felt woozy at the thought. Maybe, maybe they would let him use a knife rather than bite him. Watching him slice himself might count as entertainment. He clutched at his neck. He just couldn’t bear being bitten all the time again. Or at all.
Okay, okay. Jim squeezed his eyes shut. Focus. Small things he could ask for. Negotiate for maybe. Kane had always been reasonable about some things. Food, for instance. Maybe the new vampire would be as well. No need to panic yet.
What could he ask for?
~
Kane’s sobs subsided eventually. He lay, cradled in Bellamy’s arms. Feeling safe, fully safe. When had he last felt like that?
Kane’s eyes drifted shut. That much emotion was exhausting. A shudder ran through him.
“Are we in my house?”
Bellamy cleared his throat awkwardly. “Yes, I—I bought it after you…um, died. It’s not very well taken care of. I’m sorry for that. I couldn’t bear to be here, but I couldn’t bear to leave it with your family either.”
Kane leaned back so he could look at Bellamy’s face. “Died? So, they think I’m dead?”
Bellamy nodded gravely. “You were believed killed in Human Territory. Many are after all,” he added quickly.
Kane appreciated his friend’s attempt to soften this. He assumed everyone would think he was dead. It was a little humiliating that the last chapter in his story was being killed by humans while incompetently trying to kidnap one without persuasion. The Kane from a decade ago would have been mortified. But now…he’d had so many greater humiliations. He just didn’t care. Okay, a small part of him twinged, but it was easy to suppress.
“I’m sorry,” he said instead. “Bellamy, that was the one thing I wanted to tell you these past few years. You were right about everything. I was an ass, and I’m so sorry.”
The tears began to pour down his face anew. Bellamy clutched him closer, rubbing circles into his back. A comfort which made Kane feel like he was about to shatter.
“I’m sorry too,” Bellamy whispered back. “I shouldn’t have pushed you that day. I knew how much a reunion like that must have meant to you. How stressed you must have been. It was the wrong time to rehash old arguments. I lost my head.”
Kane gave a watery laugh. “Can we start over?”
“Why, yes, good sir,” Bellamy put a false joviality into his voice. “So lovely to meet you. I’m Bellamy Verta.”
“I’m Kane—” he broke off, unable to finish. He hadn’t been a de Sang in…well, had he ever really been?
“Wonderful to meet you, Kane.” Bellamy saved him, his eyes kind and knowing. Kane’s lips wobbled. He was a mess.
“I should get up. What time is it?” Kane blinked around for a clock. He was reluctant to leave this intimate, dream-like bubble of Bellamy comforting him. Bellamy being here at all. But it was exhausting, feeling all these things he’d tried not to feel over the years.
“Middle of the afternoon, I’m afraid. We got to the house around daybreak, and I had to hustle us inside.”
Kane felt cold. He’d been that close to being outside during the day? A bubble of hysteria welled through him. He pushed it away as hard as he could. Bellamy didn’t let that happen though. Bellamy kept him safe.
Kane opened his mouth to thank him when his eyes landed on a familiar green jacket. He pointed at it wordlessly.
“Oh that? I took it off you before putting you to bed. It didn’t look comfortable to sleep in.”
Kane’s heart sank.
That’s yours to keep, alright?
Sure, Jim had given him. But it was his father’s. A precious possession.
Kane’s eyes filled again. Jim was so generous. He’d been nothing but kind to him. He deserved the world. Not for a vampire to steal his deceased father’s possessions. He still remembered how upset Liz had been when she’d first seen him in it. She’d capitulated once Jim argued for him to have it, but he remembered the fury in her eyes that he was even using it.
And now he’d run off with it, without even asking. It…it needed to go back. The thought hit him like a train. He needed to return it to Jim at the very least. He needed to thank Jim for all his kindness. Again. As many times as it took. He needed to make things up to him.
The thought occurred to him that he didn’t really want to be back in Vampire Territory. The safety of a land with no hunters appealed, to be sure, but he wanted to be safe with Jim. Somewhere free of the judgement and scorn of his family and peers. He was better off dead to them. Jim’s presence had almost become a safety blanket for him, and it felt weird to simply leave. This had been such an overwhelming moment—waking up in his house with Bellamy—that it had taken his mind a bit to catch up.
Bellamy was looking between him and the jacket with concern.
“Jim,” Kane whispered. He was unable to finish the thought. There were so many things he needed to say about Jim—to Jim— he couldn’t figure out how to begin.
“Oh!” Bellamy’s face lit up. “He’s here! Downstairs. When you’re ready to face him. I’ll come along for support if you like. He can’t hurt you; I promise.”
Kane sat up abruptly. “Jim is here?”
~
Kane’s hands shook as he unlocked the door to the human quarters. It creaked ominously as he swung it open. Bellamy gave him a supportive thumbs up from just out of view. It kind of helped. Bellamy had never been featured in his nightmares.
But this was a nightmare.
Jim was huddled in a corner, trying to make himself as small as possible. Kane knew that position intimately. He had dust in his curls. Tear-tracks were visible on his dirty face. He stared at Kane with wide, shocked eyes.
Kane had sworn he’d changed. That this would never happen. Yet here they were.
Then, to Kane’s abject horror, Jim began to crawl. Slowly, jerkily, he moved to kneel in the same place where he used to always await Kane’s breakfast bite. Jim tilted his head to the side, assuming the position.
Kane could see his full body shaking even from the doorway. Jim’s heartbeat was racing. Jim was afraid. Afraid of him. He hadn’t changed at all. In spite of everything, he hadn’t made anything right.
~
Jim was floored. The familiar click of the lock was enough to send him spiralling. But the sight of Kane in the doorway? That was the last thing he expected.
It was almost on autopilot that he moved to where he was expected to be when his master came to see him. It felt like a dream. He was literally living one of his nightmares.
Kane took a half-step towards him and that was all it took for him to snap out of it. In a reflex born of years of trauma response, one hand flew up to clutch his neck protectively. Trying to block the site of his scars. His soon to be torn open scars. A sob tried to burst out of his chest at the thought.
His other arm wrapped around his torso, attempting to protect himself from the blows to come. He was with Kane, with Kane. Oh, God.
He knew he needed to drop his arms. Not fight this. Not put up a resistance. He needed to demonstrate he could be a good bloodbag, and quick, or he would be in for a world of pain. But he couldn’t make his arms move. He clutched at his neck hard enough to bruise. It wouldn’t stop his hands from being ripped away, but he just couldn’t. He couldn’t.
~
Kane could see Jim’s chest begin to heave as he started hyperventilating. The room spun for a moment. This was always how it went in this nightmare. Jim, in his house, in pain, terrified and hating him. Then the hunters came. Kane would try to protest. Say he was making it right, taking Jim back. They never believed him. He always ended up having to go back to his cell. To the burning.
Kane stumbled backwards. Away from Jim. Away from the vision of what would happen to him next. He couldn’t be here. This couldn’t happen again.
~
Jim watched with wide eyes as Kane wheeled around and disappeared back the way he came. The door to the vampire side left hanging ajar in his wake. Jim tried to get his gasping breath under control. He couldn’t afford to pass out again so soon.
Another face peered around the doorframe at him. The vision of the vampire from his stoop collided with a memory and suddenly he knew who had taken him. (Them?)
The handsome vampire from the reunion. Kane’s friend. The one he’d been so furious with. The one that had a human who was there by choice. Jim swallowed hard. Maybe he could work with this.
The vampire looked between Jim and wherever Kane had gone to. “Well, this is terribly awkward.”
Jim blinked back tears, unable to respond. The situation as he knew it had just altered completely. He was back in Kane’s house, with Kane. The last memory he had of Kane in this place was him standing in the shade of the house screaming at him. Ordering him to return. Telling him what he’d do to him if he didn’t.
He hadn’t.
Jim’s body was shaking violently, and he couldn’t seem to get it to stop. Mentally, he reordered the list of requests he’d managed to come up with for his captor. Assuming his captor was reasonable. Keeping his ankles moved much higher all of a sudden.
Jim sucked in a breath, then another. Kane was different now. Right? It wouldn’t necessarily go back to how it had been. Things had been chill between them for some time. Maybe even friendly. To himself, sometimes, Jim could admit he and Kane shared a bond. Few other people could understand what they each had gone through. It was a weird bond, born of horrible circumstances, but it was something.
Or at least, Jim had thought so. Would it survive this though? Would Kane take the opportunity to go back to how things were now that he was in control again?
Jim could argue that he hadn’t done anything particularly terrible to Kane while he was captive in his basement. Maybe the new version of Kane would be more amenable to requests?
The only other vampire in the equation was one who seemed to like humans a little. Or at least, was less openly cruel with them. He didn’t really know the guy after all. But that was promising.
“I don’t think I’ve seen Kane that overwrought before,” the vampire said conversationally. “And I’ve seen him plenty worked up over the years.”
Jim’s mouth moved wordlessly. He didn’t know what to say here. His ankles, his life, his sanity was resting on how well he navigated this next conversation. And he had nothing.
“Please,” he said finally, his voice already breaking. He didn’t know what he was pleading for. Mercy? Nothing had happened yet. But God, it could. And he didn’t know how to live with that.
The vampire scrunched up his nose. “Perhaps it’s best if you come to the living room. We can all have a chat there more comfortably.”
Jim pushed himself to his feet with a wobble. His body knew a vampire’s command even while his brain was still playing catch up. He was grateful when the vampire turned to lead the way rather than make him walk past him. A shudder wracked his body at the very thought of being that close to a strange vampire. Again.
Please, please, please. Jim chanted in his mind. I can’t do this again. I can’t go back to before.
~
Bellamy had no idea what to do with this. Mr. Lieberman looked petrified. He’d expected Kane to take the lead here, to tell them what he needed out of this situation. Kane had melted down instead. So now, he had to direct this somehow. Gods, how he wished Caroline were here. She was good at this sort of thing. Or, better than him at any rate.
Luckily Jim seemed content enough to trail behind him. He seemed like a reasonable person. Rather scared just now, but that was understandable. What Bellamy really wanted to know was what Jim—or the others—had done to make Kane react like this, and how could he make it right.
“My goodness, darling,” Bellamy gasped as he came into the living room. Kane was curled into a ball on the couch, mumbling under his breath. Bellamy could hear him clearly, but they weren’t really words. More like sounds with an aspiration to be words one day. Kane stared forward, unseeing. Lost in whatever vision his mind had conjured.
Bellamy took a seat on the other side of the couch from Kane. Jim sank to the floor on the other side of the coffee table, semi-kneeling. He hugged himself tightly and watched the two vampires with round eyes.
“Well, I must confess, I’m not sure how to proceed here. I’m Bellamy. We met before, but you might not remember.”
“At the reunion, sir,” Jim said softly. “You had a human who was unhypnotized.”
“That’s right. My darling roommate, Caroline, was good enough to accompany me to the event. I’m glad you got a chance to meet. And your name is Jim, yes?” Bellamy figured some small talk might ease the tension. Provide time for Kane to return to earth.
“Yes, sir.” The human’s eyes flicked from him to Kane and back. “May—may I ask h-how we came to be here, sir?”
“Yes, I suppose you would have questions.” Bellamy resisted the urge to correct Jim’s formal language. Kane had been insisting ‘his human’ speak like that at the reunion, so perhaps it was a habit best left for now. “I heard my dear Kane might be alive, so I came to check. I’m sorry I startled you so much. Normally, I would ask permission before using persuasion, but I’d had a bad run with hunters in the area. I was worried to start a conflict with you, one that would perhaps draw attention. You understand, right?”
Jim just watched him with those big eyes. He swallowed and nodded, jerkily. He reminded Bellamy of a puppet on strings.
“Well, after you were under, I went to see Kane. I’d planned to wake you up once I’d discovered how he was. But he, unfortunately, lost consciousness upon seeing me, so I was unable—”
“Wait, Kane passed out?” Jim’s brow furrowed. “Has that happened before?”
He directed the question to Kane, seeming to forget his terror in his concern. Kane did not respond. He simply began to rock back and forth.
“O-kay,” Jim said.
“Yes…so Kane was unconscious, and I had to make a decision. So, I brought you both back here where we could be safe while we sorted it all out.”
Jim stared. Bellamy twitched in his seat. Mentally, he was willing to concede that while he and Kane were safer here, Jim certainly wasn’t. That was a tad unfair. He didn’t say this aloud though. The reproach on Jim’s face was enough.
“Alright, so…I’m back,” Jim’s voice broke. He wrung his hands in his lap. “I know I haven’t done anything to—to earn them yet, sir, but may I make requests?”
That seemed to get Kane’s attention. He stopped mumbling and his eyes flashed to Jim, although he still struggled to focus them. Jim flinched at the attention.
“I’d love to hear them,” Bellamy said. Anything to keep this conversation moving until Kane could handle it.
Jim cleared his throat. He glanced quickly from Bellamy to Kane, before lowering his gaze to the coffee table.
“Uh, okay. Umm. Food. There’s no food in the kitchen and if—if I’m to stay then I’ll need some. It’s a necessity,” he added, a touch defensively.
Bellamy nodded. Logical request. He’d have thought of it once he was done nursing Kane.
“A c-clock,” Jim continued. “Any clock will do. Just something to know what time it is.”
Bellamy glanced at Kane. “There aren’t clocks in your side of the house?”
That seemed odd. Granted, he’d never dreamed of restricting Caroline to one section of the house, so the positioning of clocks had never come up.
Jim shook his head, giving Kane a quick furtive glance. Kane had gone back to rocking.
“Okay, I’m sure one won’t be hard to find.” Bellamy shrugged. He wasn’t really sure how long Jim would be here for, but if it mattered to him, they could find a clock. Maybe it held more significance for humans to be near one? He’d have to ask Caroline. Cultural differences could be so interesting.
Jim swallowed hard. “Ummm, look. Last time—I—I ran. And Kane had said he’d….” Jim choked. Bellamy leaned forward, concerned. It made Jim flinch and shrink from him though, so he leaned back. “He said he would make sure I couldn’t run again. Like by smashing my ankles—”
Bellamy looked at Kane, appalled. “Really, darling.”
“—and I just wanted to say that there are other ways,” Jim finished with a squeak. “Restraints and stuff. See, if my ankles are crushed, I won’t be able to cook or anything for myself. I’d need help for a lot of basic tasks. That’s a lot of extra work for…for you. But if you used restraints, I’d still be able to do those things. It would save so much effort for you. Win-win!” Jim spoke quickly, a tone of desperation creeping into his voice. Bellamy felt his heart break.
~
Jim couldn’t tell if his sales pitch was working at all. He felt on the edge of hysteria, clutching at the last thread of his sanity with desperate hands. Kane looked like he wasn’t even here. Bellamy was listening at least, but who knew if he was actually receptive. Or if Kane would let him have a say in what happened to Jim next. Was he Kane’s human again? Or this Bellamy guy’s?
Jim thought of the one thing he really wanted above all else. It was risky to ask for it, but maybe…maybe. Bellamy was looking at him strangely now. An expression in his eyes Jim couldn’t read.
This may be his one chance though. He had to take it.
“Sir? There was one more thing.” Jim hated how his voice kept cracking. How he couldn’t hide his terror at this situation. Even if they were still just talking. Bellamy nodded encouragingly though.
“I know Kane doesn’t have a phone…but at the reunion Caroline said you do,” Jim started slowly, but the words came faster and faster. “I want to call my sister. Just once. Please. I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye last time, and this time she won’t even know what happened. Please, please. Just one call. Just—just to tell her.” His voice broke for real this time. Jim couldn’t help it. He started weeping.
That seemed to cut through whatever episode Kane was currently experiencing. He sat up abruptly, a move that startled Jim into falling sideways to the floor.
“No,” Kane said, the word crackling with power and anger.
“No to all of it? Or just the phone call?” Jim squeaked, terrified.
“No,” Kane repeated, seemingly so angry he couldn’t continue right away.
Jim shook so badly he thought his body would fall apart. But this was for Liz. He had to try. He pressed lower to the floor, abasing himself.
“Please, please! Just one call! I c-can’t. I need to tell her. I need to. There’s nothing I could say that could get me rescued. Please, man. Sir! Sir,” Jim corrected himself rapidly. “Master?”
Bellamy looked from one to another, alarmed. “Kane, darling…”
“No,” Kane took his head violently. “You’re going back.”
“Back?” Jim repeated. He looked from Kane to Bellamy to the door to the human quarters behind him.
“Right now,” Kane said with so much rage that Jim scrambled for the door to his side of the house. If Kane wanted him out of his sight, he was gone.
The move seemed to confuse Kane though. His expression shifted from outrage to befuddlement. Jim froze against the doorway to the human quarters, still half on the floor. Unclear on his orders. He hadn’t actually been dismissed. Kane might chase him. Beat him. He curled in on himself. There were too many options. He didn’t know what the right answer was.
“It’s still daytime, darling,” Bellamy murmured. “We have a few hours.”
Jim whimpered from his ball. They could do so much damage to him in a few hours. Please, please, God. Please, Mom and Dad. I just want to go home.
~
Kane didn’t know what to do. His arms hung uselessly at his sides. At some point he had stood up because he was on his feet now. Jim was crumpled into a ball in the doorframe, making small, distressed noises. Bellamy was looking at him in alarm. Probably seeing him for the monster he was for the first time.
Kane felt sick. He…he had to fix this. But how?
Against his better judgement, he walked slowly towards Jim who watched him with huge eyes from between his fingers. His horror at the situation had come out as anger and now Jim was scared. Kane had scared hm. Like he’d sworn to never do again. He tried to think what Jim would do if their situations were reversed.
“Jim,” he said softly, using his name purposefully. “It’s okay. No one is going to hurt you.”
Jim curled tighter like this was trap.
“It’s okay,” Kane repeated.
“Please,” he whimpered, “Please, I’ll do anything you want. I’ll be good, ma-master. Please.”
Jim tensed, clearly awaiting a blow. A continuation of the rage from a moment ago, only directed at him. But Kane hadn’t been angry at him. He was angry for him. He needed Jim to know that.
“The only thing I want you to do is calm down. You’re going home.” Kane turned to Bellamy. “Is my car still here?”
Bellamy shook his head. “I don’t think so. I bought the building as is, with all its objects included, but I didn’t look for a car.”
Kane sighed. “We’ll have to carry him then. I’m sorry, Jim.”
Jim looked a little dazed. “Wait, what?”
“You’re going home,” Kane repeated, trying to keep his voice soft but firm.
“R-really?” Jim’s eyes somehow got bigger. Then, to Kane’s horror, he began to sob anew. “I can—I can—go home?”
He looked at Kane with so much painful hope that Kane’s heart broke. He nodded.
“Thank you. Thank you!” Jim gasped out.
“We’ll only have to carry him to the border. We drove his car that far. It was only last night. I assume it’s still there,” Bellamy put in.
Kane nodded. Jim looked from one to the other, almost frantically. Like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing but was desperate to hear more.
“We’ll go as soon as the sun sets,” Kane told him, as reassuringly as he could. “I can’t…with the sun. The burning,” his voice wavered.
Jim nodded immediately. Of course, Jim understood. Jim always understood.
“I’m very sorry, Mr. Lieberman. It was not my intention to frighten you unnecessarily,” Bellamy said. “I was unable to facilitate a conversation between you and my dear friend while we were still in your home. I was hoping you both could come to some closure before departing each other, so I had brought you here simply for that conversation. I intend you no harm.”
“Me either,” Kane added, in alarm. “You know that right?”
Jim seemed to be calming down. “Yeah…yeah, man, I know. It was just…waking up here. Back.”
Kane shared Jim’s flinch at the thought. That was a horror beyond anything Kane thought he could survive. Waking up back in his cell. Back at the mercy of his tormentors. Jim was stronger than him. He would have been begging for death already.
Jim swallowed hard. “I—I can really go home tonight?”
Both vampires nodded.
“Oh, thank fuck.” Jim buried his face in his knees, seemingly in relief this time.
Closure, thought Kane. Something about that bothered him.
“As I said, it will be a couple of hours,” Bellamy reminded. “Perhaps, since we are waiting anyway, you two could discuss anything you feel needs airing?”
The two of them stared at each other for a long, awkward moment.
Bellamy cleared his throat. “I’ll excuse myself and wait upstairs. Unless you need me?”
He directed this last part at Kane. He shook his head. He was safe with Jim.
Did…did Jim know he was safe with Kane?
~
Jim sat back against the wall; legs stretched out in front of him once the other vampire left. He was going home. He was. To be sure though…
“You, you promise you’ll take me back? As soon as it’s dark?”
“I swear it,” Kane said with vehemence.
Jim nodded to himself. Okay. Okay.
“I’m going to—” Kane pointed at the couch. Jim waved an acquiesce. The silence between them stretched awkwardly again.
“It’s weird being back,” Jim said finally, looking around the room. He’d spent so much time here. It was familiar, but off. Old clothes that didn’t fit very well anymore.
“Yes,” Kane said. It had to be weirder for him, Jim mused. This had been his whole life.
“Is…is there anything about Vampire Territory that you missed? That you’re excited for?” Jim tried.
“No,” Kane admitted. “I didn’t have much here. …the lack of hunters, I suppose.”
Jim grinned half-heartedly. “I won’t tell Laken that.”
“Please don’t,” Kane agreed with an almost troubled expression on his face.
“They wouldn’t take it personally,” Jim said, aiming to reassure reflexively. “They’ll miss you during the next board game night though.”
I’ll miss you. The thought popped through Jim’s brain unbidden. It startled him to realize it was true. He’d gotten used to having a roommate after all this time. Granted it was a hostage situation, but still. The house would be weird with just him in it.
“Bellamy seems…” Jim actually didn’t know how to finish that sentence. “…like a good friend. Or someone who could be a good friend. Not that it’s any of my business,” Jim added quickly, remembering their fight the last time.
Kane’s expression softened. “He is. He came for me. I don’t know if he’s any good at board games though.”
Jim suddenly pictured the flamboyant vampire pitted against Laken in Uno. That would be a sight to see. He half-smiled at the mental image, but part of him was sad it would never happen. Jim glanced at Kane, who seemed absorbed in his thoughts. He seemed…like Kane. Like the Kane Jim knew. Not the old one. It was probably safe to say…stuff.
Jim tried to picture this as one of their last conversations, and it gave him an odd sense of panic. Like there were things he needed to say, would be upset he didn’t say later, but nothing came to mind exactly. The anxiety of losing his chance felt paralyzing.
“Hey, umm,” Jim swallowed. “I wanted to say…I didn’t keep you locked in my basement out of like, revenge. I didn’t really plan it. I just didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t want to let you go and have you take another human or something.”
“I wouldn’t do that,” Kane said immediately. “I will never kidnap another person. If nothing else, know that…please.”
Kane stared at his hands in his lap.
“I believe you.”
Jim was a little surprised to find that he did. Kane looked up and met his eyes searchingly. His shoulders slowly lowered as he found whatever he was looking for.
“Jim, I—I know I’ve said it, but I need to say it again. I’m so sorry for what I d-did to you. I know I can’t ever fix it, but I wish I could. More than anything.”
“I know, man.”
Jim fidgeted. He wasn’t in danger so long as Kane was acting like the Kane he knew. And Bellamy didn’t seem all that threatening personality-wise. But Jim would never be able to relax while in this house.
Part of him wanted to ask to go outside. Get some air. Demonstrate he really wasn’t trapped here. But if he saw that gate right now, he might lose it. And he couldn’t be sure his instincts wouldn’t take over and he wouldn’t just book it. That would be a stupid move when he—allegedly—had a secure trip back to Human Territory planned. Jim took a careful breath. So long as Kane kept his word.
Kane looked weirdly miserable for a guy who just got rescued after years of captivity. Jim felt his heart twinge against his better judgement.
“I—I hope the basement wasn’t terrible for you,” Jim blurted out, no idea where he was going with it. “I know it was…prison and all, but I hope it wasn’t like, awful. The idea wasn’t for you to suffer.”
“I’d have deserved it…if you had wanted to make me suffer.” Kane’s voice was steady, sure of what he was saying, but he shivered at whatever memory his statement dredged up. “I made you suffer after all.”
Jim started to say there was a difference. Kane hadn’t tortured him…but he kind of had. Just…there were degrees here. Kane could have been worse than he was. That didn’t make any of it right. Just…
“No one deserves to suffer like you did. That was wrong. Nothing you’ve done could have warranted it.”
Some tension seemed to bleed out of Kane at the words.
“I’m still sorry,” he said. “For everything, but especially that you had to come back here. Look at all this again.”
Jim gave a shaky laugh, looking around the room. “It’s surreal. But as long as it’s temporary…I guess. I’m going home soon.”
He couldn’t help but glance at Kane as he said it, reassured when Kane immediately nodded.
“It’s weird, man. For both of us. It kinda felt like I handled it better than you did. Coming back,” Jim tried to tease him, lighten the mood. Some part of him knew he was testing the waters. The Kane he knew nowadays could take a gentle joke. The old Kane decidedly could not. Which was he speaking to?
Kane slumped. “Yeah.”
Jim drummed his fingers on his knee. He remembered Kane from back then. Angry. Bored. Friendless. Lonely.
Granted it seemed he had at least one friend now, but…this probably wasn’t exactly a joyous homecoming. Somehow Jim doubted Kane’s family would be knocking down his door in excitement. Kane didn’t have a Liz.
“It was…it was the nightmare,” Kane said in a small voice. “This is how it starts. We’re back here and I’m trying to make it right. Only I can’t. I can’t move. Or you can’t. Or we can’t leave the house. T-then the hunters come. And they take me b-back.” His voice got progressively quieter as he spoke until Jim found himself leaning forwards to hear.
“I’m back here in my nightmares too,” Jim admitted, not for the first time. “You’re…how you were before. And you’re furious with me and I’m trying to fix it but nothing is working. And—and…” Jim sucked in a breath. He dug his fingers into the doorframe to ground himself. “But it’s all dream logic bullshit. That’s not real. I mean, this is but…”
Jim waved a hand at the room, unsure of how to finish. Kane was nodding though.
“It wasn’t…it wasn’t like that when we were together at your house though,” he said, voice still small. “It wasn’t—”
He seemed to search for a word. Jim let him. He didn’t what adjective described that either.
“We were better than we’d been,” Kane settled on finally.
“Well, the bar was low, but yeah—” Jim cracked a half-smile. “—yeah, we were.”
They sat there for a moment in a silence more comfortable than before.
“The basement wasn’t terrible,” Kane said suddenly. “You—you said before that you hoped it wasn’t terrible for me. It wasn’t.”
“Oh,” Jim nodded vaguely. “That’s…that’s good. I knew I wasn’t the worst captor you had, but it’s good to hear—”
“You were the best,” Kane interrupted. “You’re the best human I’ve ever met.”
“Well, Laken.” Jim tilted his head jokingly considering. Kane could be intense sometimes, and it was good to head him off at the pass before he spiralled. It might weird out his friend if he started calling Jim a god.
“Laken didn’t save me like you did,” Kane said, still serious but not spiralling. “They weren’t the one spending time with me every day, feeding me every day. They weren’t…”
Kane trailed off. Jim knew this wasn’t about Laken.
“They weren’t your friend, the way I was,” Jim said. The words sounded firm coming out of his mouth. Like they weren’t the most insane thing he might have ever said. Like they weren’t the most insane thing to have ever happened.
Vampires and humans were not friends. Sitting in this house, Jim was about as far from his comfort zone as he’d ever been save his original captivity. Maybe it had broken his brain?
His words certainly seemed to have broken Kane’s. He was staring at Jim with an expression he couldn’t read. Jim felt a twinge of panic. Was that too far? Sitting in this living room, pushing Kane, had literally never ended well for him. Oh, fuck. Oh, God.
“I think liv—being in your basement—” Kane said, choosing his words with evident care. “—was one of the happiest times in my life.”
Suddenly neither of them could really look at each other. This was weirdly embarrassing.
“You could come back,” Jim said. The words out of his mouth before he’d even thought them through. “If—if you don’t want to leave, you don’t have to. Don’t get me wrong,” Jim added, hurriedly. “I know there’s no power I’ve got that could force you to come back. But if you wanted to be there…”
Jim shrugged. “Just an idea.”
“I could…” Kane seemed to be working through the idea. “No hunters?”
“No hunters,” Jim confirmed. “Fuck those guys.”
Kane twisted a throw pillow in his hands. “Just like before?”
“Just like before. Well, I guess we could discuss the ankle restraints since running off won’t be as much of a concern.”
Kane shrugged one shoulder. “I never minded them.”
He went back to twisting the pillow. Jim glanced at the door, wondering how soon nightfall was. He so wanted to be out of here.
“I think…I think I’d like to come back,” Kane said quietly.
“Alright, man. If that’s what you want.”
A sudden thump from above them abruptly reminded Jim they weren’t alone. The thought occurred to Jim that vampire hearing is very good. Was Bellamy able to hear this whole conversation and was just politely pretending not to?
Kane seemed to have a similar thought. “We should talk to Bellamy.”
~
Many hours later, Jim watched the dawn break over his backyard. He cradled the phone in his hands for a moment before dialling.
“Hey, Jim, what’s up?” Liz’s voice sounded tired. She was probably just getting home from a shift. “Did something happen?”
“I need to see you.”
“Jim, are you okay? What’s wrong?” She sounded much more awake now.
“Something’s happened. Nothing’s wrong. I need to see you."
****
And that's a wrap! Thank you for reading this very long piece. Please excuse any typos. I wrote much of this in one sitting and editing it was a beast.
#kane and jim#whump#whump fic#whump stories#whump story#k&j#whumplr#recapture#emotional whump#vampire whump#long post#my writing#whumpsday#vampire whumper#vampire whumpee
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Yay I finally drew something for my favorite whump series!
Here's a Kane doodle for @whumpsday hope you like it :)
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Kane and Jim - The Final Apology
This is a fanbit that I haven't been able to kick out of my head for months now, so I suppose it must be written. Takes place in @whumpsday 's series about Kane and Jim, a fair amount of years after Jim got Kane from the hunters. It's a little flowery, but everyone deserves to have a bit of flowery writing now and again. (despite the title sounding so final, no one dies XD)
.............................................
Time is a great healer. It was a cliche almost as annoying as a little sister trying to ‘borrow’ your newly unwrapped presents at Christmas, but it was fairly true. There would always be scars, but the wounds would heal. It was slow enough that you probably wouldn’t even notice, until one day you realized they didn’t really hurt anymore only because you could remember how debilitating the pain had once been.
The evening was warm, and after taking a nap that afternoon to get away from the summer heat, Jim wasn’t ready for bed yet. Instead, he took a stroll out in the garden and then sat down at the patio table, listening to the sounds of the soft wind in the trees and the frogs out in the creek.
He could hear Kane moving around in the house before coming out, his eyes glinting slightly in the dark as he set a drink down by Jim on the table.
“Thanks,” Jim murmured as Kane sat down in the other chair.
“No problem,” Kane replied, leaning back and looking up at the stars.
Time was a great healer. Jim was no longer so paranoid going outside at night (probably helped by Kane not being out to get him and even protecting him on occasion), the silver door had been removed from Kane’s basement room, and the two were often found outside in the evenings. Jim couldn’t remember the last time he or Kane had accidentally given each other a panic attack. Those days of fear and uncertainty felt like so long ago.
He was not subservient to Kane, but Kane was no longer timid either, nor did he see Jim as some merciful deity. They were equals. They were equals and just that fact by itself was more satisfying than Jim could have ever imagined.
As this was an evening for reflecting, it seemed, Kane was thinking along similar lines. He thought back to all of the fear that he’d put Jim through, and all of the torture he himself had been forced to undergo. It had always haunted and plagued him, invading his thoughts as if people were whispering to him every day, telling him that he deserved it or that he would never be worthy. Voices he remembered from captivity.
However, time was a great healer. But it wasn’t the only healer. He was ready. It had taken him years, more than a decade to get to this point, but he was willing to take that last step. Forgiveness had already taken place between the two of them, but forgiving yourself was harder. And the most difficult part was letting it all go.
“Jim.”
“Yeah?”
Kane turned, able to see his friend clearly in the darkness. “I am truly sorry.”
There was a moment of confusion, and then Jim opened his mouth to brush the apology off as he had done hundreds of times before, but he quickly stopped himself. He could sense the power in the phrase, more meaning behind it than he had even heard on the first day he’d had Kane. Instead of the assurances he offered so many times when that phrase came up, he replied, “I know. Thank you.”
Kane took a deep breath and let it out slowly, along with all the tension in his mind and body, forcing himself to fully and truly let everything go. He wasn’t ever going to fall to old habits, he wasn’t going to harm another person for his own gain, he wasn’t ever going back, so there was no need to keep it all fresh in his mind, as though he needed a reminder to keep from going backwards. He didn’t need it anymore, so he let it go.
Jim picked up his drink, almost a bit dazed. It was the final apology. It was the true apology. A much younger Jim had daydreamed about killing Kane and making him understand what he had done had been so viscerally awful, that he needed to give his soul to make it up to Jim. He’d wanted to wring that apology from a cold, nearly dead throat, but he’d always known he would never get the apology that way. After seeing Kane after picking him up from the hunters, he had assumed he would never receive that dream apology, but here it was years later given to him with the sounds of frogs and wind.
Time is the great healer, but it is up to each person to finally let the memory of the injury go and not only be healed, but to be free.
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whumpmas in july day 22: comment on a new story
oh, i was so excited to check out something new!! 😍😍😍
the story i chose to comment on was @whumpsday’s Kane and Jim series! 💖💖💖 i have seen my mutuals reblogging it time and again but i myself have never read any of this series for myself! 😩
fellas…it’s already sooooooo juicy??? a former whumpee turned caretaker (presumed whumper) of his old whumper??? and its vampire whump?? god that’s delicious, can’t believe i haven’t given this series a try sooner😍😍😍 i have started to delve into this tale in chronological order (as the masterlist brilliantly provides) and i am very aboard the angst-train now, hehehe 😈😈😈
have a very merry @whumpmasinjuly everyone! 💖💖💖
@whumpmasinjuly-archive
#so cool to finally delve into a new story! 😍 it’s been a while!#kane and jim#whumpsday#whump#whumpee#whumper#caretaker#whumpee turned caretaker#whumper turned whumpee#vampire whump#whump community#wij24day22#whumpmasinjuly2024
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@whumpsday’s Kane and Jim series is part of the reason I even made a whump blog in the first place, so take this cover for an in-universe book ✨ (ps HI MILL <3 )
#kane and jim#whump series#anoma art#no one had ever done a book cover for the Jim Lieberman story before which I thought was a shame#bc like. a best selling thriller about a guy surviving a vampire in the 80s??#the book cover has GOT to be very fun#anyway pls read k+j so u can share in my brainrot
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Tried to draw @whumpsday's Bellamy and Liz! Hope it's not too far off from what they actually look like :D
#whump#whumpblr#kane and jim#fanart#soda's art#genuinely don't remember if they've met in canon yet ahaha sorry#I was binging the series a bit today and like it's good go read it :D
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@whumpsday @not-a-space-alien Liz in KJ x MMSS 2.0:
In order: Jim, Liz, Valen
#whump art#this image immediately came to mind while reading it#could not resist#tried to add Kane#but only two of them could make#just imagine Jim is laying on top of Kane#or kane is in Liz’s backpack#whumpsday#not-a-space-alien#valen the vampire#kane and jim#Liz oc#shitpost#kinda?#art#my art
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Kane & Jim #55: Feeding
Chronological masterlist / Writing order masterlist
content: recovery, vampire whumpee, whumper turned whumpee, whumpee turned caretaker
happy 2 year anniversary to kane & jim~! hard to believe it's been 2 whole years since i started writing...
wrote while listening to melodies of refresh by tenno gabni
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Kane woke and looked to the door. Just like every morning the past week, it was a normal door. No silver. No lock.
He changed and washed his face, creeping upstairs with the hesitancy of someone who knew he wasn’t allowed, despite knowing full-well that he was: Jim had made that clear. He felt too quiet, his ankles free of chains.
It was early morning, early enough that the sun hadn’t risen yet–that terrifying tell-tale glow didn’t shine from behind the curtains. Jim wouldn’t be awake for hours, resting upstairs while Kane slunk around in the dark, in his own house.
Kane couldn’t fathom how much trust that must have required. He still couldn’t believe he’d earned that much.
The fact that Jim was still feeding him his own blood was a miracle in itself. He’d given a time limit of one month. One month for Kane to get used to freedom, to going out on his own, traversing society like a normal person after years as a prisoner. An adjustment period, Jim had called it, his mercies never-ending in the face of Kane’s fear of running to and from the border on his own.
There was no way Kane could ever repay it, not in a thousand years. But he at least had to try.
He turned the knob on the stove. It was something familiar, having owned a stove himself for heating up the contents of blood-packs in his time before he came to own Jim. Human stoves, like their food itself, were more complicated: four burners instead of one, all with dials offering various degrees besides just ‘on’ or ‘off’.
And it was something he hadn’t done since before.
The circle of flames flickered to life, blue and hot and threatening.
He quickly turned it back off, luckily managing to control his strength and not break the delicate knob.
Deep breaths, Jim had said, more times than Kane could count now. Look at me. You’re okay. No one’s gonna hurt you. You’re safe here, remember?
Kane took a deep breath in, playing Jim’s soothing affirmations through his head, exhaling slowly. That’s it, there you go, the memory of Jim’s voice encouraged. You’re alright. No hurting.
After a few more of those, he turned the burner on again. The flames flicked back to life, and Kane watched them silently.
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Jim woke, shook off the nerves, and marked another day off his calendar. Seven days down, twenty-one more to go, and then no one will take his blood ever again.
He could stop it now, if he wanted to. He knew he could. Kane hung on his every word like he was some kind of divine prophet. But once he stops, Kane has to start getting blood from vampire territory, and he’d have to talk to his parents to get the money to buy it… and it was too obvious he wasn’t ready.
Jim knew that feeling, going from years of captivity and isolation to suddenly being a person again. He knew how hard it was, even with support. There was no reason for Kane to have to rush into it immediately. The guy could barely go outside at night on his own he was so afraid, and he was a vampire. No, a month’s time would do him well.
Still. He couldn’t help but count the days until it was over.
As he stepped into his slippers and headed downstairs, he stopped in his tracks, hearing someone futzing around in the kitchen.
It was going to take Jim a while to get used to that, Kane roaming freely in his house. At night, even. He knew he could ask Kane to leave once he finds his bearings, but… despite the deep-seated terror, he knew he was safer with Kane here than without. Kane brought Laken home, after all. If any vampire came for him, Kane would save him, too. At least, he hoped so.
He continued down. “Kane?”
“Good morning!” came the cheery reply. That set Jim’s nerves at ease, at least. Right. Kane was friendly, now.
“Morning. You sleep okay?” Jim asked. As he made his way through the living room toward the kitchen, he noticed a distinctly… delicious smell. That couldn’t be right.
“Better! And you?” Kane appeared in the doorway, a big, fanged grin lighting up his face. It was a sight Jim had already long gotten used to by now, one that brought him pride instead of fear.
He shrugged. “You win some, you lose some. Hey, are you, uh… cooking?”
Kane held out a hand. “I am! Please come sit?”
Now he was smiling, too. “Haha, okay.”
Jim took his hand and let Kane lead him to the kitchen table, where a plate full of blueberry pancakes sat. They looked a bit off–undercooked, a little torn up–but the fact that they were there at all was astounding.
He sat down. “How did you even do this? You don’t cook.”
“I watched you,” Kane admitted sheepishly. “In the mornings. I really wanted to make you something, and I didn’t want to waste food by just guessing and doing it wrong, so I started paying close attention, and this seemed like the easiest thing to copy… are they okay?”
“Well, let’s see!” Jim cut into one– definitely undercooked. It oozed out around his knife, but Liz’s failed attempts at cooking had given him ample practice in this field. He popped it in his mouth without a care. “It’s great, Kane. Especially for your first time ever cooking anything. Thank you.”
Kane brightened up even further at the praise, sitting in the chair adjacent. “I know it’s not the same at all, but I wanted to feed you too, somehow. Like you feed me. I was wondering… if you could teach me to cook?”
“You don’t have to–”
“I want to,” Kane insisted. “I really, really do. But I don’t want to impose! I can always ask Laken.”
Jim cut away the less-done bits of the pancake he was working on, scooping up another bite. “Alright, if you’re really sure. Yeah, I can teach you. Doesn’t human food smell, like, really bad to vampires, though? Like it’s rotten or whatever?”
“I’ll manage.” Kane bore no obvious worry of the issue. Clearly, a bad smell was not something that registered to him as a concern any longer. “Thank you.”
It wasn’t until Jim had finished his breakfast and was about to get up that Kane spoke again, the smile fading from his face. “There was something else, actually.”
“Oh?” Jim put his plate and utensils back down.
Kane got down from his seat to kneel on the floor.
“Kane, buddy,” Jim said softly, sliding into that placating tone he always used when trying to calm the vampire down from one of his panics, “You don’t have to do that.”
“I know. It’s– it’s to show respect. Please.” As Kane looked up at him with those intense red eyes, Jim could see no fear at all.
“Well, okay then, I guess. What’s up?” he asked.
“I want to thank you. For everything,” Kane spoke carefully, as though each word was precious. Rehearsed. “For taking me away from the hunters. For not hurting me, even though you could have, even though you had every reason to. For helping me calm down when I panic. For feeding me, your own blood, even though it’s so hard for you, just so I wouldn’t starve. For giving me clothes and bedding and music and happiness again. You gave me my life back, but I owe you so much more than just my life. Because without you, I wasn’t dead, I was– I was there. And you saved me.”
Tears welled up in Kane’s eyes as he stared up reverent, overcome with emotion. “And I was thinking about all the times I’ve apologized to you, I was too afraid to do it right. I was just– I really was sorry, I’ve been sorry for a long, long time, but in those moments, I’ve always just been focused on not being hurt… but you would never hurt me. I see that now. Jim, I am so, truly sorry for hurting you. For every single time I hurt you, big and small, for those five years and since, I am so, so sorry. I was unimaginably cruel to you, and no one deserves that, but especially not you. I know that back then I told you the opposite, but I was wrong. You deserve to be happy! And I took that from you.”
Kane placed a hand over his heart. “And I swear to you, I will make it my life’s mission to give you back that happiness. I am loyal to you, Jim. Forever.”
He put his hand down. “That–that’s all. Thank you for listening.”
Jim sat in silence for a moment, absorbing it all. Wasn’t this why he’d originally taken Kane in? Wasn’t that the excuse he’d used– he wanted Kane fear-free enough to have an actual discussion about back then, without him devolving into a terrified, sobbing mess? He could do that, now. How long had he been waiting to hear Kane admit that he hadn’t deserved it after all? Fifteen years?
Oh, he was so unprepared for this conversation. He needed all kinds of psyching-up before they could have that talk.
“You don’t have to say anything,” Kane added quietly. “I just wanted you to know.”
“Right. Yeah,” Jim said, snapping out of it. Just because Kane was ready didn’t mean it had to be now. It could be any time, when he was ready, too. “That’s… wow. Hey, it’s okay,” he tried, far more comfortable comforting Kane than the other way around. He grabbed a tissue, handing it to him. “I mean, not the–not what you did. I mean it’s okay now. Um, thanks, is what I mean, I guess. For really apologizing.”
Kane wiped his eyes. “It’s the absolute least I could do. Everything I have is something you’ve given to me. Nothing hurts anymore.”
“Good.” His sincerity brought a smile to Jim’s face. “You know, maybe cooking isn’t the best idea if you’re afraid of burns? It’s not gonna happen every time, but even I get myself once in a while. Just thought I should warn you.”
“You give me blood,” Kane pointed out. He didn’t elaborate. He didn’t need to. “Plus, you’ll be there. Right?”
“Yeah. I’ll be there.” Jim patted him on the shoulder.
Kane smiled back up at him. “Then I’ll be okay.”
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taglist in reblogs
#kane and jim#whump#my writing#vampire whumpee#recovery whump#whumper turned whumpee#whumpee turned caretaker
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Gotham’s Finest Family & Friends By freelance illustrator, Gabriel Larragán
#Gabriel Larragán#antygabo14#dc comics#batman#bruce wayne#alfred pennyworth#kate kane#helena bertinelli#dick grayson#jason todd#tim drake#damian wayne#duke thomas#barbara gordon#harper row#luke fox#stephanie brown#cassandra cain#selina kyle#jim gordon#fan art#redesign
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Leverage 2x12 - "The Zanzibar Marketplace Job"
[ID: A Leverage gifset. Sterling walks into the bar that the crew is in, and and Nate briefly looks up to meet his eyes before saying, “Eliot, I’m gonna ask you not to do anything violent.” Eliot frowns, “What? What are you talking about? I only use violence as an appropriate response.” Sterling is revealed standing behind Eliot.
Sterling smiles and says, “Hello, Nate,” and Eliot’s expression freezes before slowly gaining intensity. Eliot shoots out of his seat and delivers a strong right hook to Sterling’s cheek.
Eliot looks furious, and the camera freezes over Sterling’s shocked face before swiveling to Parker and Hardison standing at the bar. The bartender starts to move away, but Hardison hands him a wad of dollar bills and shakes his head. The camera stays on Parker and Hardison, who smile with clear amusement and appreciation. End ID]
ID courtesy of @princess-of-purple-prose
#christian kane#leverage#eliot spencer#alec hardison#aldis hodge#parker#beth riesgraf#nathan ford#timothy hutton#tara cole#jeri ryan#jim sterling#mark sheppard#the zanzibar marketplace job
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Gotham Tarot Cards
Will be linking explanations as I make them.
The Fool: Harley Quinn
The Magician: Duke Thomas
The High Priestess: Barbara Gordon.
The Empress: Poison Ivy
The Emperor: Bruce Wayne
The Hierophant: Lucius Fox
The Lovers: Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn
The Chariot: Damian Wayne
Strength: Cassandra Cain
The Hermit: Alfred Pennyworth
The Wheel of Fortune: Gotham City
Justice: Jim Gordon
The Hanged Man: Jason Todd
Death: Jason Todd
Temperance: Barbara Gordon
The Devil: Ra’s Al Ghul
The Tower: Bane re: Knightfall
The Star: Dick Grayson
The Moon: Scarecrow and Arkham Asylum
The Sun: Duke Thomas
Judgement: Harvey Dent
The World: The Batfamily
Stephanie Brown: Six of Swords, Page of Wands, and The Two of Pentacles (was a contender for the Fool and the Star cards, but ultimately the characters who were chosen were better fits)
Tim Drake: Two of Pentacles, Page of Swords, and Seven of Wands. (Was considered for The Magician, The Fool, and the Hierophant cards, but ultimately the characters who were chosen were better fits)
Kate Kane: Queen of Swords, Queen of Wands, and Nine of Wands (Was a contender for the strength and high priestess card, but ultimately the characters who were chosen were better fits)
Luke Fox: Page of Pentacles, Knight of Swords, and Ten of Wands (was considered for the emperor, and the chariot cards, but ultimately the characters who were chosen were better fits)
I do plan to eventually get to the explanations of the minor arcana as well. Though it’s slow coming, as I debate the characters, do some research on them, and deep dive into the meanings of the cards.
#dc#batman#gotham#batfam#batfamily#dcu#alfred pennyworth#lucius fox#jim gordon#bruce wayne#harvey dent#kate kane#luke fox#barbara gordon#dick grayson#jason todd#cassandra cain#stephanie brown#tim drake#duke thomas#damian wayne#poison ivy#harley quinn#poisonquinn#ra's al ghul#bane#scarecrow#tarot#gotham tarot#arkham
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Leverage S01E12 The First David Job/S02E12 The Zanzibar Marketplace Job.
#leverage#eliot spencer#jim sterling#christian kane#mark sheppard#hey when eliot makes promises he follows through#sterling really should have seen that coming#ghostly'sgifs
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Jim Morrison par Art Kane, 1968
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Batfamily Superpowers
Alfred Pennyworth: Gun
Bruce Wayne: Genre awareness
Dick Grayson: Performer
Jason Todd: Gun
Barbara Gordon: Smart ass
Tim Drake: Chameleon with a stick
Cassandra Cain: Cocky little bitch
Kate Kane: Gun
Stephanie Brown: Dies on every hill, picks every battle
Damian: Vicious mockery
Duke: Has never been yelled at for holding the flashlight wrong
Jim Gordon: Gun
#batfamily#batman#batfam#stephanie brown#bruce wayne#dcu#tim drake#barbara gordon#cassandra cain#jason todd#dick grayson#duke thomas#damian wayne#alfred pennyworth#jim gordon#kate kane
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