we're going nowhere, tyler

She had to wonder about the sanity of some of the creatures out there, she really did; why in the world would a vampire choose to wander around in front of a church, of all places? Jo knew that crucifixes didn’t actually affect most of them, but that didn’t change the fact that there was something very wrong about such a monster being near a church. At least it wasn’t inside it, she guessed; that was something, because she thought that the priests would probably not be too happy about her wandering inside with a stake in one hand and gun in the other. Most people in general probably wouldn’t have wanted her around like that, but that was just too bad. Hunting was what she did, and with as many creatures around as there were, there was no way that Jo was going to be going anywhere unarmed. It was entirely unreasonable to think that she would, in fact, given that killing these things was exactly what she did for a living. There were too many vampires around, and given that this one had killed people, Jo didn’t feel in the slightest bit sorry about killing it. She wouldn’t have done even if there hadn’t been a trail of bodies leading her to it, in fact; vampires needed to die. Maybe there were some out there who didn’t feed from people, they’d discussed that possibility, but it didn’t change what they were, it didn’t change what it was in their nature to do. If they didn’t kill now, then they would in the future – and given how completely out of control and animalistic they’d been until recently, Jo was pretty sure that most vampires would have killed someone. All of that, it wasn’t making them worse than they really were, it was just showing their true natures, and she didn’t understand why people found that hard to get. Vampires were monsters, end of, and she would hunt them. It was a little monotonous, now, a little boring to always be hunting the same thing, but this was what she was meant to do.

The problem with it being dark, of course, was the fact that it was harder to see the monster that you were tracking, and Jo didn’t want to use her torch in case it darted off at that super fast speed vampires seemed to have and she lost it forever. Sure, there were other vamps, other nests to take out, but she’d been chasing this one for what seemed like a while, now, and she wanted to get it. It had killed someone, she’d seen it happen, and if Jo let it get away, then who knew how many other people it would kill. It wasn’t something that she wanted to think about – she didn’t want to think about how many more people, all over the country, were being killed because vampires could now walk freely instead of having to stick to the shadows. It was worrying, without a doubt, but Jo couldn’t focus on the world, or even the entire city at once. It was a case of taking down each individual vamp, each nest, and hoping that that would mean at least one person got to keep their life, instead of becoming dinner. And this vamp—Jo was going to find him, because seeing one dead body tonight was more than enough. Of course...that meant that she actually had to find the thing, and she sighed, switching the safety off her gun as she stalked around the side of the church in search of it; the gun was loaded with wooden bullets, which, while she knew they wouldn’t kill any species of vampire she’d come across yet, would definitely hurt enough for her to get close enough to stake the thing – hopefully not with vampire guts ending up all over her, because she still hadn’t gotten used to the fact that that could happen. Where was the thing? Jo ended up on the street again, which was completely deserted; this was one of those roads without houses, just a few churches dotted along, quiet for NYC, and she sighed, running a hand through her hair, when she spotted movement out of the corner of her eye, turning and firing wooden bullets at it without even thinking. “Hey! You’re going nowhere, fangy.”

AND IF I ONLY COULD, I'D MAKE A DEAL WITH GOD, AND I'D GET HIM TO SWAP OUR PLACES
be running up that road, be running up that hill
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If people were afraid of walking around after dark in a less populated area because of vampires, Tyler wasn’t one of them. Not being a regular human helped in that regard; not that he thought that people needed to walk around paranoid either. Because, what were the chances a vampire was just going to slaughter someone walking down the street like nothing. While he was sure there were probably some evil enough (not to mention stupid) to do it, he didn’t think it was going to happen all that often. He wasn’t an expert on when and where vampires killed, but he didn’t understand the point of living life completely paranoid. And being a werewolf, he could defend himself and didn’t carry the same scent as a normal person, so he didn’t have to worry about anyone jumping him for his blood. Tyler didn’t have a narrow opinion on vampires. It wasn’t as if he knew a lot of them. He dated one, so naturally his opinion wasn’t going to be anti-vampire, but at the same time, he was aware that there were horrible ones and that vampires generally didn’t like werewolves. He might not buy into the strange rivalry, but he knew to be careful. While he thought vampires had a right to live if they weren’t hurting anybody, he didn’t know how he felt about them being so public. If it were him, he wouldn’t have wanted that type of attention. He didn’t want people to know that werewolves really existed and he wasn’t looking for that extra attention. It could probably do more bad than good. Because, even with the supporters of vampires there were still a lot of people that wanted to kill them. He didn’t see how it was helpful and hence, hoped it didn’t happen for werewolves too. He didn’t understand what the point of vampires going for it was. It didn’t really change anything except for human perception on them. If anything, it made it harder for the vampires that were trying to keep to themselves and weren’t bothering anybody. If it were him, he wouldn’t have liked it. But, he wasn’t a vampire, so that really wasn’t an issue to him in the least bit.

And Tyler’s night had been completely uneventful so far. At least, that was until something seemed to catch his trail—which was awkward given he hadn’t done anything to alert anyone to him. There’d been something else before, too fast for him and gone before he realized it really. There was barely even a scent to catch, but he was pretty sure there’d been a vampire somewhere close by. Gone now, but it had been. And that wasn’t the worry, it was noticing suddenly someone creeping in the dark. He could see better than the human could in the dark, which was an advantage he didn’t think that he was going to need tonight. It was the gun that he saw first and immediately quieted, moving slower, because he didn’t know what the hell they were after. It could have been the vampire, but given there was no vampire and just him, he didn’t want to take the chances of drawing attention to himself. So, he made a quick move around a church when she wasn’t looking, using his supernatural speed to ease himself behind the wall of a church just as he heard the gunshots fired. His breath hitched a moment. Damn it. He refused to answer her, although he knew it was obvious that he was there. It sounded like she was talking to a vampire, but at the same time, he wasn’t going to risk it and wind up shot. Who the hell carried guns around shooting at people anyway? Vampire or not? Hunters, he guessed. Which wouldn’t bode well for him anyway. He pressed his back against the church, just behind one of the corners, where he’d darted fast enough to miss the bullet. He wasn’t under any delusions that she probably knew exactly where he was after that, but he wasn’t going to make it easier. Instead, he glanced around, trying to figure out if there was an escape. There really wasn’t a lot of room to run, not unless he went back out to the street, which would put him back where he was to begin with.




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template by lowearthorbit of caution

tagjo
words726
lyricskate bush
notes

Jo wasn’t afraid of the dark. She’d have had every right to be, because she, of all people, knew exactly what was lurking out there, but she wasn’t. There was no point to it; she hadn’t been a fan of it when she’d been a little girl, but she’d grown out of the nightlight phase when she’d been reminded that her daddy was a hero who went out and killed monsters for a living, so of course he’d made sure to check under her bed and in her closet, and killed any that were there too. Jo had always felt safe in the dark, after that, because she had always been surrounded by hunters, good men (and the occasional woman) who spent their entire lives killing monsters. If they did that, then there was no need to be afraid. When she’d been little, there had always been at least one hunter staying with them, and she knew that her mom had guns, that her mom could fight just was well as any man that came through those doors, and now—now Jo was the hunter, she was the one who fought the bad things, and of course she got scared sometimes, she was hardly infallible, but when she was scared, it was of the fact that she was trapped and there was no way out, or she had no weapons against something that wanted to eat her, or was huge and scary, or something...not the dark. Jo wasn’t afraid of the dark, not even now, when vampires were everywhere. She was the hunter, after all, they were the ones who were running from her, and of course hunters had died, doing their jobs, she knew that because she had been one of them, but it didn’t change the fact that she was the one with weapons, here, the desire to kill, the one who’d been tracking, and the vamp was the one who had just kept on running away. But she’d find it. It might have gotten out of her way when she’d shot, but she’d seen that flash of movement, almost faster than the eye could see. It was still here.

She didn’t know why it was, honestly, but Jo felt certain that there was still someone else in the immediate area; if she’d been a creature that could move fast, then she’d have gotten the hell out of here if she’d known that a hunter was around, not wanting to risk her chances. Hunters were stubborn, after all, that was something that she wasn’t afraid to admit, because it was obvious to anyone who knew her even slightly that she was stubborn, and there was no way that Jo was just going to give up before she’d had a change to look at things here thoroughly, do another exploration of the church grounds, see what she could find. And sure, she had no extra-special senses, she didn’t know that there was anybody else here, still, but she was sure of it. That was just something that came from having been hunting vampires for a while, now. There were times when it felt as though they were the only things that they hunted, and sure, Jo hated that, because she missed hunting other things as well, but at the same time, at least she had perfected killing them, she knew how to hunt effectively, she’d learned more about all the different types – and just had to hope that she didn’t come across one of those that could only die if you beheaded it, because it was harder to carry some kind of machete or huge knife around that could actually do that than it was to carry guns. Jo always carried a gun, at least, and her knife, and ever since she’d woken up, she’d added a stake to that collection too. You could never be too careful. Right now, Jo had that stake in her left hand, her gun in her right, and she looked around her for a moment before she darted around the corner she thought the thing had gone around, gun ahead of her. Bingo. “Hey there.” Her tone was sickly-sweet, but her smile was almost predatory. “Don’t run, or I’ll shoot.”

AND IF I ONLY COULD, I'D MAKE A DEAL WITH GOD, AND I'D GET HIM TO SWAP OUR PLACES
be running up that road, be running up that hill
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Being afraid of the dark wasn’t something Tyler really had ever considered. It was normally a little kid thing, not something he carried with him as he grew up. He couldn’t even remember if he had ever been afraid of the dark. Maybe when he was little enough that he wanted a light from the hall or a smaller light in his room to keep it from being pitch black. But, you grew out of that, because monsters didn’t exist. At least, they hadn’t for him. Monsters were never real to him. Werewolves and vampires were creatures in movies that he didn’t have to be afraid of. Life was normal for him. Of course, there were bad people that existed, he supposed that people should fear, but he lived in a small town and hardly thought about things like that. In some ways, it still felt a little surreal that vampires were out in the open. He had just learned that they existed really; it hadn’t been that long ago that they were fictional to him. It wasn’t long after he knew them to be real that they had come out to the public. And frankly, he didn’t know if it was the best idea. He might not have bought into the feud with vampires, but he didn’t think they were all good, just like he didn’t think they were all evil. What he thought was that it complicated everything. Wasn’t it better off when people didn’t know? It might have also saved him being chased by someone who wanted to hunt a vampire. Though, he supposed they were out there even before this happened. Hunters didn’t seem to be anything new, but the last thing he wanted was to be killed because someone thought he was a vampire or because they knew what he was. Either way, Tyler wasn’t looking to wind up shot or injured tonight and so he tried to hide out of sight.

Apparently it wasn’t good enough, however, because he didn’t stay alone for long. He wanted the person to just give up and find someone else to go after. Well, he kind of hoped she didn’t go around chasing people with a gun, but he didn’t want to be shot at. When she came around the corner he’d darted behind, however, he looked straight to her, to the gun and took a step back. Immediately his hands were raised, as if to try to show that he wasn’t a threat. “Whoa, hey,” he attempted to say. Of course, it made him nervous, although at the same time frustrated. He supposed that he could have tried to run. It was possible that he could get away without being shot if he really tried for it. But, he wasn’t taking a lot of chances and actually hoped he could get out of this by claiming that he wasn’t a vampire. Because, he honestly wasn’t a vampire at all. “Look, you’ve got the wrong person.” He informed her. Though, he didn’t know how convincing that was when even a vampire could say that. “I’m not a vampire.” He didn’t think that he was off on the assumption that she was hunting a vampire. All the signs seemed to point to it, not to mention there had been a vampire in the area until not too long ago, but as far as he could tell, there wasn’t one now. Which didn’t help him any, because if there was he could point off in that direction. Not all vampires were bad anyway, though he would hope that if she was chasing one, it had actually hurt somebody.





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template by lowearthorbit of caution

tagjo
words611
lyricskate bush
notes

Jo might have been tired of the fact that whatever they did, vampires still were sticking around, there were still too many of them to really be able to do anything about, but at the same time—a hunt was a hunt, and there was no way she could deny that she loved hunting. It didn't matter what she was hunting as long as she killed some evil SOB, after all, and given that she rarely ended up chasing something before they hurt a person or terrorised a town, she was confident that the vampire she was chasing deserved to die. Hell, vampires in general deserved to die; they were monsters, and sure, there were some around who controlled themselves and didn't drink blood, but the whole thing where they'd gone completely crazy just proved that they couldn't control themselves forever – and when they slipped, it was worse than an alcoholic having a drink again, because when a vampire fell off the wagon, they drank blood. Human blood, from people, and Jo couldn't ever think that that was okay. There was no such thing as 'oh, just one drink doesn't hurt anybody', because it did hurt people. Even if the person they were drinking from didn't die, they were still hurt by the fact that they'd had someone's fangs in their neck, and Jo couldn't think of a time when she was going to think that it was okay for a vamp to feed like that. She didn't even think it was okay if the person agreed willingly; come on, for crying out loud, just because someone was delusional enough to think that vampires were good, it didn't mean that it was okay for that to be taken advantage of. Nobody deserved to have their blood drunk by a freaking monster. And there was no way that she was ever going to think differently on that; even if her parents hadn't been hunters, if she hadn't been brought up to kill them, Jo didn't think that she'd believe vampires were good. How could they be, when they needed human blood to survive?

And so she really didn't feel bad about what she was doing here; this was just her job, and while killing this one vamp wasn't going to mean that the city was suddenly safe from all of them – things never worked that way, especially not with a species of animals that were now widely accepted and allowed to live like people, fewer and fewer people being aware that they were monsters until they were already hurt – Jo still believed that every little helped, and this was the best way to go about doing it. Hunting them a few at a time worked, she rarely ended up more than a little bruised, while they ended up dead, and frankly, that was how vamps should have been. They were dead already, after all, weren't they? Their human lives had ended a long time ago, and that was what counted. She scoffed at the man, not lowering her gun for even a second. Was he dumb? There was no way that she was just going to take his word for it, because why the hell would she? Anybody could go around claiming that they weren't a vampire, and sure, most of the vampires she'd seen were stupid, but this stupid, really? Jo wasn't just going to give him the benefit on the doubt, after all. She was a hunter, and that wasn't what she did. Instead, she kept her gun pointed at the guy's chest (wooden bullets wouldn't kill a vampire, but they'd hurt like hell), shaking her head. “Sure, and I'm just gonna take your word for it,” she replied sarcastically; at least she had him trapped, now. If he wasn't a vamp, she'd find a way to prove it and let him go, and if he was, then she'd kill him. Those were the two scenarios, here, and she didn't see any other way this could go. “Prove it.”

AND IF I ONLY COULD, I'D MAKE A DEAL WITH GOD, AND I'D GET HIM TO SWAP OUR PLACES
be running up that road, be running up that hill
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Did the Great Revelation spark more fire in vampire hunters? Tyler honestly didn’t know if there had always been so many around or if it was normal for a vampire to be attacked in New York City. Of course, he wasn’t a vampire at all, but it made the whole coming out process seem even more ridiculous. He didn’t see how the publicity helped. He didn’t even believe that all vampires should be hunted. As a werewolf, it was expected to an extent. But, he didn’t feel that way about them. He didn’t think about vampires and grow angry or think that the needed to continue on with an age old feud. If anything, he wanted nothing to do with it. He dated a vampire for crying out loud. And he knew that she wasn’t evil and would never hurt anybody if she had the choice. He didn’t think that vampires were complete opposite of people. Some were, sure. There were evil vampires, but it wasn’t all of them. And he didn’t think that it did them any good to come out to the public. He didn’t really see the point of it. All he knew was that he would have loathed it if it had been werewolves that let themselves be publically known. He didn’t want anyone to know what he was, let alone strangers. And he thought that most vampires probably didn’t want people to know what they were either. Well, that’s what he would have assumed before now. He didn’t know, really. He couldn’t speak for all of the vampires or even all of the species that seemed to be popping up. All he knew was that it didn’t look like it did a lot of good for anyone involved. Maybe some of the vampires in power, but not really.

And if the vampire had killed someone, then he wasn’t against what the woman was doing. Though, since she had the wrong person, he was completely against it. He didn’t feel like being shot because she thought he was a vampire, thanks. Not that a gun would have killed a vampire anyway. He supposed it could have been loaded with wooden bullets, in which case it would have been extremely painful for the vampire involved. He eyed it warily, as much as he was eyeing her. He didn’t know how she expected him to prove it entirely. Except that he didn’t have fangs, which really, with vampires they didn’t show their true face at all times anyway. It wasn’t as if just showing her that he didn’t have a shifted face did any good. “But you’ll risk shooting an innocent guy?” He asked. Really, he wondered how she could be so damn positive. She was wrong. Now, he was something different than human, but not a vampire and he wasn’t about to share what he actually was. Because who was to say a vampire hunter wouldn’t kill a werewolf just as quickly? He didn’t want to take that chance. What he wanted was to get out of this completely alive. Not exactly wants that were surprising either. Most people wanted to preserve their life and Tyler wasn’t an exception. It wasn’t as if he was evil anyway. He didn’t hurt anybody and he wasn’t at all what she thought he was. “How? You want to wave blood around and see if I shift?” He asked, mildly sarcastic about it. But, really, it was easier said than done. If she had a way for him to prove it, then he could. He might not have been fully human, but he did want to give her that impression. Werewolves might not be any better than vampires in her mind.



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template by lowearthorbit of caution

tagjo
words622
lyricskate bush
notes

How did you prove that somebody was a vampire? That wasn't something that Jo knew, honestly. She didn't know how you could look at a person before you and just find some way to say whether they were human or not. Not all vampires had a reaction to holy water or vervain, not all were repelled by crucifixes or silver, some of them had reflections, some of the didn't. It was a whole mess, and there wasn't a single thing that they all seemed to have some adverse reaction to – not even a stake in the heart, because she knew that there were some around who couldn't be killed that way, and had to be beheaded instead. The only thing was blood, and Jo wasn't overly keen on the idea of having an open wound by someone who might be a freaking bloodsucker, in case they decided to just go ahead and eat her. That generally wasn't something that anybody wanted, was it? It was harder to fight someone off if you were already hurt, especially when they were trying to eat your blood, and Jo didn't particularly want to risk it, because she was the hunter, here, not the hunted; she had no idea how much good wooden bullets would do against somebody who was trying to eat her, mostly because she'd never been eaten before. Torn apart, sure, but the hellhounds hadn't wanted to drain her dry, or anything, they were just vicious, invisible doggies who liked to tear people's skin from their bones. Not fun, not fun at all – Jo was terrified of them, now, just the mention of them, even, and she wasn't the greatest fan of real life dogs either. She wouldn't run screaming, or anything, but she wasn't going to be cooing all over them and begging to pet them either. Fortunately, she didn't know anybody with a dog. Pets were a little difficult to take on a hunt with you, after all, unless you'd spent forever training them.

Someone needed to discover something that all vampires would react to, Jo decided; she could have gone through her pockets, thrown all the various items at him and seen which ones made a difference, but that would have taken forever, and if he truly was a vampire, he was hardly going to stick around while she faffed about doing that, was he? Jo needed something that was much less hassle, but she couldn't think of anything. What did she do, then? She wasn't just going to stake some guy and hope for the best, because she could kill a person, by doing that, and Jo was not going to have human blood on her hands. She killed creatures because they were evil, because they hurt people; she protected the humans, and she couldn't risk hurting them by accident. That just wasn't an option, as far as she was concerned, not something that she was going to do. “I'm not gonna shoot you 'til I know, but I'm not just going to lower my weapons,” she admitted; she couldn't shoot him, but she had to be prepared. If he took off, she would shoot, simple as that. No way she was going to let a vampire get away; there were too many of them in the city as it was, and this one had killed people, she'd seen the bodies. “Sure, I'll cut myself so that you can leap at me and tear my throat out,” she muttered, sarcastic, because of course she wasn't going to do that. Jo wasn't a complete idiot—but he did have a point. She couldn't prove it. Unless...she frowned, thinking a moment, before drawing a knife (not her dad's, though) and holding it out to him, handle first. “You cut yourself. If you heal quickly, you're a vamp.” She'd just have to take the chance that he'd use the knife to attack her instead; it was easier to defend against than teeth that had latched onto her, after all.

AND IF I ONLY COULD, I'D MAKE A DEAL WITH GOD, AND I'D GET HIM TO SWAP OUR PLACES
be running up that road, be running up that hill
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Of everything that could have happened tonight, to be hunted down by a hunter and mistaken for a vampire was very last on the list of what he wanted to happen. If she decided to test him with a vampire’s usual vulnerabilities, she’d find that he wasn’t one. But, there was apparently more than one species out there and so the list was long. The only problem with a test of abilities was that he wasn’t human either. He was faster and stronger than a human, not to mention he had enhanced healing too, which could give the appearance of a vampire to someone who didn’t know what he was. And he wasn’t about to admit to a hunter that he was a werewolf. Tyler wasn’t suicidal. He wasn’t looking to be staked by an overzealous vampire hunter that thought she had the right creature. She didn’t, but it was a matter of proving it without coming across as anything other than a normal human. He didn’t trust her. But, who was going to be overwhelmingly trusting of someone that was wielding a gun and hunted vampires? At least, when you weren’t that human yourself. Even though he knew he wasn’t evil and that he didn’t hurt people, he couldn’t count on someone else to understand that or to even believe him. It was better if it was a secret an Jo had managed to put him in a difficult place where keeping it a secret started becoming harder bit by bit. What he wanted was to find a way to take off, to avoid more of the conversation and her tests. What he hoped was that she would figure something out and it would be easy to prove he wasn’t a vampire so he could get out of there without any damage done.

“You’re holding them up for no reason,” and while he hadn’t proved yet that she was, it remained to him that she had no reason to point it at him. He wasn’t a threat. He could probably understand why she would think so, but he was more frustrated with the idea that she cornered him with it than trying to empathize with why she thought he was a vampire. There had been a vampire, but she missed out on that kill. It was probably long gone by now. She was probably wasting time with him, but didn’t even realize it. He was relieved that she wouldn’t shoot him prematurely, at least. He wasn’t looking forward to the gun firing off, so the longer that he could prolong that, the better. Hopefully, it would be a prolonging that lasted forever. He would find a way out of this situation, as tough as it was. “Or, I won’t tear your throat out, because I’m not a vampire.” He retorted and he wouldn’t. The smell of her blood wasn’t going to do anything to him. Okay, so in that case, he probably couldn’t blame her. Given how easy it would be if he was a vampire to try to use that to his advantage or if he was, he could lose control. But, knowing what he was, he was positive that wasn’t going to happen. And he thought it was the best course of action, especially over her next suggestion. He eyed the knife in her hand and didn’t reach out to take it. “No. I’m not cutting myself to prove a point.” Vampires weren’t the only ones that healed quickly. Unfortunately, it also made him look guiltier. But judging by that standard, when he did heal quickly, she’d decide he was a vampire and he would either have to explain what he actually was or she would already be trying to kill him like a vampire. Neither of those were what he wanted so instead, he avoided taking the knife, his arms folding instead. “Try something else.”




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template by lowearthorbit of caution

tagjo
words653
lyricskate bush
notes

Unfortunately for him, Jo wasn't just going to take his word for it and believe that he wasn't a vampire. There weren't a lot of people that she trusted without question, and some guy she'd never met before certainly wasn't on that list. Maybe he really was just in the wrong place and the wrong time, but there was also every possibility that he really was a vampire, and Jo wasn't just about to go ahead and take the risk, let him walk free only to find him a few days later, standing over a dead body and grinning about the fact that he'd gotten away with everything. No chance in hell; she wasn't that dumb, and okay, maybe she was in a difficult position, given that she couldn't actually prove what he was, but she wasn't going to let him go without attempting to find out, either. She would have been piss poor at her job if she'd done that, after all, and she had come out here chasing a vampire. She'd found him; it was a logical conclusion to make, that he was the vampire she was searching for, and all this time that she wasn't staking him was more time he had to figure out how to get away from her. He could run off, couldn't he? He was faster than she was, she wouldn't be able to stop him—but she hoped that she had blocked his route out of here, at least a little. She didn't want that to happen. If this guy was human, then she'd apologise, of course she would, even if he did seem to actually know more about vampires than the majority of the general public did, and if he was the vampire she'd been after, then she wanted him dead. She wasn't just going to trust his word on it, for crying out loud. It wasn't like there was something that stopped vampires pretending to be human, after all; any monster could say those words, and this was the guy that she'd been chasing out here, she thought. But now he'd made her question it. The last thing she wanted was to stake some innocent guy and find herself guilty of murder.

She hadn't had doubts, until he's started talking; she should have staked earlier, really, shouldn't she? She was getting sloppy; this wasn't how it was supposed to be. Chasing a vampire was easy. Usually, she ended up following them to their nests and killing them there. This chase had come about differently, but the goal had been the same, follow it, hope it led her to other vampires, and kill it – as well as the others, if there were others. Now she was...having a chat with it? No, thanks. Jo didn't become friends with vamps, she didn't want to be their friends or get to know them. She wanted to kill them, it was as simple as that, and she didn't believe that they could be good, either. Why would she? This town was filled with families who'd lost someone to vampires, and she didn't give a crap about the new law that made it technically illegal to kill a vampire. They weren't people, how the hell could there be that kind of law about them? She wasn't going to stop – she was just going to make sure that she didn't get caught by any kind of cop. Simple as that, really, wasn't it? Vampires needed to die, and ultimately, they were going to kill people, no matter how much they claimed that they had themselves under control. It wouldn't last. It never did. “I'll be the judge of that,” she replied, even if it did seem that they were at a little bit of a standoff here. She couldn't shoot, in case he was human, and she couldn't leave, in case he was a vampire. Dammit. “Not gonna risk it,” she said, and she sighed, taking the knife back and putting it away again. “You know that makes me think you're guiltier, right?” If he'd had nothing to hide, wouldn't he just have gone ahead and cut? She didn't know; she'd never had to prove that she wasn't a vampire. She scoffed, shaking her head, saying sarcastically, “Sure, I'll just get out my universal vampire testing kit. There ain't a way to prove it for all the different species.” Not beyond a stake in the heart or cleaver through the head, anyway.

AND IF I ONLY COULD, I'D MAKE A DEAL WITH GOD, AND I'D GET HIM TO SWAP OUR PLACES
be running up that road, be running up that hill
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It was the wrong place and wrong time, really. He had pretty awful luck to end up in this situation. He wasn’t a vampire, so technically he wasn’t guilty of what she thought she chased him for. The creature that she wanted was long gone by now. And if she acted too quickly and brashly then she was going to end up attacking the wrong guy. What he couldn’t do though was prove it, because there wasn’t one test that was going to work. What he wanted was for her to give it up. If she couldn’t prove it and neither could he, then they were at a stalemate, right? And what was letting one person go? He guessed that if he was some evil vampire then it would be dangerous. But, he wasn’t that! Hell, not even all vampires were evil. Tyler wasn’t dead set against them, not the way that his species was supposed to be. He wasn’t looking to keep up age old rivalries. He just wanted to be how he always was; the same Tyler that he had been before he was a werewolf. Of course, having a girlfriend for a vampire helped with his ideas on them. They weren’t all bad. Just like werewolves weren’t monsters. And how was he supposed to know that she was solely a vampire hunter and when she found out he wasn’t human that she’d assume something of him? Tyler could hope that she only knew about vampires, but he figured hunters were a little smarter than that. And his speed, strength and healing abilities might look like that of a vampire for someone who didn’t know what he was or what werewolves were capable of. And he didn’t want her to mistake him for one more than she already was. This was bad enough.

Too bad he didn’t help his case at all. The knife trick wasn’t going to work. If he cut himself it wasn’t going to heal slowly. It was going to heal quickly and he was going to end up looking like a vampire. Now, he just looked completely guilty. But looking guilty and being guilty were two different things and he was relying heavily on that idea right now. Hopefully she knew the difference and still wasn’t going to try to kill him without some kind of complete assurance that he was what she chased. And he knew she’d never get that. He wasn’t a vampire. And it was frustrating to have the accusation over his head when all he wanted to do was get out of the situation. He imagined that he could try to shove her out of his way to take off. He was faster than her, after all, but he didn’t want her trying to track him either, or shooting as soon as he tried. Tyler was internally looking for a quick escape that would be safest for the two of them. “You’re a vampire hunter, right? If I try to attack you, you’ll know what to do. Shoot me or stake me or whatever. But I’m not gonna try, so it’s really not a risk.” He tried to reason. It was the best idea, he thought. Though, maybe he could also be a vampire with one hell of a good amount of self-control. But, he wasn’t. He might not be purely human but he wasn’t a vampire and he didn’t know how to prove it. And because of it, he was going to end up in this standoff for who knows how long? He didn’t know if she would eventually give up or what would happen. He hoped so, because that would have been easier. But, somehow he doubted she was going to. “Well, then that’s a problem for you, not me,” Tyler replied. Yeah, copping an attitude with someone who could try to kill him, that was smart, really. “And I’m not guilty, I just don’t feel like cutting myself.” So that he couldn’t be proven to be anything more than human. He was in a tight spot here and completely uncertain about what his next move should have been. Though, it looked like he wasn’t the only one.


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template by lowearthorbit of caution

tagjo
words703
lyricskate bush
notes

Jo had honestly never thought that she would actually miss the days when they'd been hunting demons all the time; she'd loathed it back then, wanted to get back to fighting monsters that weren't all black eyed sons of bitches, because it had seemed as though they were taking over. Fast forward two years (that she hadn't lived through), and now they almost exclusively seemed to be hunting vampires. That was just as bad, really. Worse, perhaps, because at least there was a sure fire way to tell whether someone was a demon, in throwing holy water at them. If they weren't, they could just be let go, if they were, it was time to recite an exorcism – and there were devil's traps, too, to keep them in one place, and aside from the fact that they couldn't go in a house without invitation, Jo hadn't found something that worked similarly for vampires. Holy water only affected one species, as far as she could work out, so though she had a flask of it in her pocket, it wouldn't make much difference. Why did there have to be so many different types of vampires, huh? Why couldn't there be just one type, so they were easier to detect, easier to kill? Hey, for that matter, why couldn't there just be none at all? Jo happened to think that that would be even better, when it came down to it. Who really wanted vampires in this world, what good were they really doing? They were going around killing people for fun, or to eat, people who hadn't done anything to deserve it. Jo was never going to think that was a good thing. If they ate people on death row, or something, she might have felt differently about it, but that didn't happen, either. No, they had to go for the dumb teenage girls, the ones who should have had decades of life ahead of them. God, she wished she was fighting something that wasn't such an epidemic at the moment, something that she had a sure fire way of detecting. Why hadn't anybody invented a vampire detector yet? That would be a good thing to do, instead of trying to make freaking synthetic blood to help the monsters.

But the guy was right, of course; she didn't have a way to prove that he was a vampire, because there was no way to do so. No magic 'Christo' like there was for demons, and God, when had demon hunting become one of the easier things for them to do, huh? She knew that Lucifer was around, that meant that there had to be some somewhere, didn't it? Maybe she'd go hunt them down; it would be better than stalking vampires around churches and then not being sure whether or not the guy she stumbled across was actually a vampire. She missed monsters that were animals, too, instead of ones that pretended to be close to humans. The ones that didn't speak, the ones that couldn't reason their way out of anything. There was a lot about vampires to dislike, there really was, even looking past the whole drinking human blood thing – and that was something that she would never look past, because they were monsters, end of story; nothing good came from a species that drank blood, did it? She didn't see how it could, or how anybody could believe that it would. How the people in power had actually come to the point of letting it happen...she suspected that compulsion had happened, and it wasn't like that was good, either. “I don't trust you,” she replied, because she didn't. Maybe there were some vampires who could control themselves around fresh blood like they claimed they could, who knew? It wouldn't entirely exclude him from being one. Still, she sighed, and suddenly cut a gash in her arm without warning, quickly putting the knife away and switching her stake to the uncut hand, holding it up, ready just in case. “Why are you lurking around in the shadows at night, then?” She asked, and she felt that it was a logical question, really. Most people didn't just skulk.

AND IF I ONLY COULD, I'D MAKE A DEAL WITH GOD, AND I'D GET HIM TO SWAP OUR PLACES
be running up that road, be running up that hill
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If this was what happened when vampires went public, Tyler didn’t see the point of it. Of course, it was worsened by the fact that he wasn’t a vampire. And this wouldn’t have been much of a problem if he didn’t happen to also be a different creature. He would have easily cut himself and put to rest any assumptions that he was a vampire; but he couldn’t do that out of fear that she’d make the assumption and try to kill him. And if that happened, then he would have to tell her what he really was and in doing that, he might wind up hunted anyway. He couldn’t trust her, because she was chasing vampires around in the dark, trying to off them. Honestly, he thought it was ridiculous to label all vampires evil. He didn’t even buy into the vampire and werewolf rivalry that was supposed to exist. He decided that it wasn’t going to be something he followed. And he didn’t know if she was solely a vampire hunter; he assumed most were, just by the popularity of vampires. But, there was a chance that she wouldn’t take to him either, which he would have hoped that wasn’t the case, given that he was human most days out of the month. One night a month, he turned into a monster and he made sure that he was out of the way and chained up to keep from hurting people. Tyler couldn’t know how evil the vampire she had been chasing was. All that he knew was that it had been there, but it wasn’t now, so she really was standing around hunting the wrong person while the vampire could have been getting away to feed again. It was counter-productive going after him, but at the same time, he should probably be able to see where she was coming from in her assumption. It didn’t mean he liked it, however. Who would?

It would probably be a lot worse for vampires if there was one test that would prove what they were. And he didn’t want that either, really, except that it would be convenient for him right now. He didn’t want to think about her attacking someone that was innocent, like Caroline. She was a vampire and to think that the hunter probably wouldn’t have given a second thought to killing her was pretty unsettling. Hell, she was pointing a gun at him and he wasn’t even a vampire. She just wasn’t aware of that little fact. “Well, I don’t trust you either, but I’m stuck here.” Tyler replied, because he really didn’t trust her not to get too quick on the trigger. When she cut herself, Tyler’s eyes were only on the cut for the second that she used the knife against it and then looked right back at her to meet her gaze and shrugged. “See? I don’t care about your blood.” And he didn’t, since he was nothing close to a vampire and human blood didn’t seem appealing in the least bit. He knew that some vampires could be strong enough or have enough control not to be affected openly when someone bled. So, it wasn’t a test that really proved anything too strongly. And with that, he actually took a slow step forward, not threatening, but under the assumption that maybe he could get past her now that he proved he didn’t want to drink her. The question had him pause mid-step however. “I’m not lurking. I was walking, then you showed up, so I went over here.” Into the shadows, to hide because she seemed to be under the assumption that he was a vampire. It made sense to him.



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template by lowearthorbit of caution

tagjo
words622
lyricskate bush
notes

Jo was never going to stop hunting. Hell, death hadn't been able to stop her, had it, because here she was again, still hunting, and it might not have been planned that way, she might not have wanted to be brought back to life, but she wasn't going to whine about the fact that she'd been dragged out of Heaven, but get on with her new life and try and do some good in the world. With the way that things were right now, she thought that the world really needed it, to be quite honest. It was actually pretty worrying to think that all these vampires had been around before the Great Revelation, just in secret; there were so many of them, and it was easy to see that now that they were flocking to New York, but if there had been this many that she hadn't known about, how many more were there out there in all the other cities? She had always thought that vampires were a pretty minor problem. There might be a nest here or there that needed to be taken out, but for the most part, there were bigger things for them to worry about. Now they were at a time when demons seemed to be a lesser issue? That was more than screwed up, without a doubt, and Jo just wished that they could go back to the time when vampires had been living in secret, the general public had been in ignorance, and it had been a hell of a lot easier for her to do her job – without having to worry about the fact that she could now be arrested for making the world a safer place. How screwed up was that? Sure, maybe she broke the law by breaking into places, or getting money, or carrying firearms or whatever, but for it to be against the law to kill monsters? They were taking over, without a doubt, laws like that just proved it, because nobody in their right mind would have passed something like that unless they were being deeply influenced by the monsters that it served. For crying out loud! They were monsters. How many more people needed to die before people saw that?

She hated how public they were, how it was acceptable for them to go to human places, how so many people were just befriending them and totally ignoring the fact that they drank human blood to survive. Maybe they didn't hurt anybody right now, but they would at some point in the future, Jo could almost guarantee that. It was in their nature, it was what they were, and saying that they could survive from the fake TruBlood crap was just the same as suggesting that humans live off plastic food for the rest of their lives; it just wouldn't happen. Even if scientists somehow added nutrients to the plastic, it still wouldn't be the same, and sooner or later, everyone would revert back to their burgers or salads. Vampires were exactly the same, except they'd revert back to killing people, and that wasn't something that Jo could let happen. Now, if a vampire wasn't killing, then the chances were that she would never find it, unless it was living in a nest with a bunch of vamps who were chowing down on innocent people; they had to leave bodies behind for her to be able to find them, and therefore she was never going to feel bad about what she was doing. There was no such thing as an innocent vampire, at any rate. They were monsters, for crying out loud, monsters who ate people. They weren't innocent, and they never would be. “And I'm not going anywhere 'til I'm sure,” she replied, and yeah, she'd feel bad if he really was an innocent person, but how the hell was she meant to tell that? Better to be like this towards a human than let some vampire get away to kill another person, after all; if he was human, and he had any sense, he'd understand. She frowned as he had no reaction to her blood; Jo had been so sure that he was a vampire, and now he had no reaction and she was bleeding? Great. Just great. She sighed, lowering her stake. She'd been wrong this time, then. At his answer, though, she scoffed. “If you were human, you'd have just kept on walking, not hidden in the shadows like you've got something to hide.”

AND IF I ONLY COULD, I'D MAKE A DEAL WITH GOD, AND I'D GET HIM TO SWAP OUR PLACES
be running up that road, be running up that hill
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Not every vampire was a monster. Tyler didn’t dispute that there were evil vampires; to say that there wasn’t was ridiculous. There were. But, that didn’t mean the entire species were nothing more than monsters. It wasn’t as if only vampires were capable of evil. After all, humans were just as capable and they didn’t lump them all together. He knew it wasn’t the same, but it was close enough and Tyler was well aware that they weren’t all monsters. And according to species, he probably should have been more suited against vampires, but he wasn’t. He didn’t cave into the idea that they were all what he was supposed to be rivaled against or prepared to kill if he had to. He didn’t want to take part in hating them, because it was pointless. He didn’t think that all of them were monsters any more than he thought that all werewolves were and they weren’t. He wasn’t fully human, but he was still human most of the month. He had an advanced healing, speed and strength, but aside from that, he wasn’t any different from anyone else. In fact, he was still the same teenager that he had been before. He was forced to mature a little, but that was just about it. He still had all of the token worries, about his girlfriend and about school. These things still mattered to him and for crying out loud, his girlfriend was a vampire. So, to say that they were all monsters was just ridiculous. They weren’t. And he hoped that some hunter wasn’t going to come in off the streets and go after her too. There wasn’t a point if they weren’t hurting anyone. Though, he couldn’t speak for the vampire that she had been hunting. He didn’t know whether or not it killed anyone; all that he knew was that it wasn’t him and that he had managed to get himself cornered into one hell of an unlucky situation.

It was hard to convince her to drop it and leave. He didn’t expect to be able to do it just by informing her that he wasn’t a vampire and hoping that she believed him. If he was a vampire, then that would have been awfully convenient. He knew he could probably try to force her back, to fight and run because he was still stronger and faster than a human. But, there were risks in it and Tyler would much rather get out of this without alerting her to what he was. Whether it was to what he really was or just giving her more of a reason to think that he was a vampire. He was nothing like a vampire and yet, it seemed that those similarities were serving him badly tonight. Because if he didn’t heal just as fast, he could have cut himself and solved this already. He was impatient, but he kept his calm and waited to see where she’d go with it once he didn’t react to her blood. Since he didn’t attack, he thought that hopefully, it would be over. Of course vampires could have control, but he hoped that she didn’t think that he would be one of those. “Aren’t you sure enough yet?” He asked, the impatience sinking into his tone. At her question, he shrugged. “I’m not a vampire. Maybe you just surprised me.” He replied, trying to get around that he did have something to hide. He hid for a reason, but not because he was a vampire. And as far as he was concerned, it wasn’t any of her business what he was. He didn’t want to risk that coming out and having to deal with someone who was anti-creature, in general. And really, if he was some killer vampire, wouldn’t he have attacked her by now? He thought that if he was, then he no doubt would have. But, there were always arguments for either side. It wasn’t clear either way.


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template by lowearthorbit of caution

tagjo
words667
lyricskate bush
notes

What was she meant to do, here? If she let him go, she could be releasing a vampire back into the environment in which it would kill – one who had great control, which meant that they were older and stronger and more powerful, and the damage that they caused would ultimately be far greater than that caused by those vampires who were newly turned and had no impulse control whatsoever. But if she made him stay, forcing conversation because there wasn't much else to do, she could be doing that to an innocent person, and they'd hate her forever. How did she deal with that? This was a dangerous world, and Jo had to do what was best for it, she had to do what she thought was right so that people could be kept safe, and maybe he'd understand that, if he really was a human that she was inconveniencing. It wasn't like Jo wanted to be a bitch about it, but at the same time...he could be a vamp, for all she knew, and she wasn't just going to let him wander off without being sure that he wasn't. There were enough vampires around as it was, after all—far too many, and Jo wished that they were dead, she wished that they would just get the hell out of her world, because they weren't supposed to be in the public eye like this, they weren't supposed to be getting rights and making names for themselves or anything like that, not even slightly. They were monsters, and she genuinely didn't understand why people had trouble seeing that. They drank human blood. Even those that claimed not to do that drank something that was a substitute for it instead, and come on, seriously? It was what they were, and they should have been hiding out in the shadows, not pretending to be human. They were only doing it to get close to people, she was sure of that.

She couldn't let that happen; did people not realise that the death toll had risen exponentially since vampires had been granted all-access parties, did they not correlate the two things? For God's sake, how dumb could they be? People were dying, and it was because of the vampires, because the media led them to believe that the things could be trusted, because people were thinking that it was okay for them to befriend things that simply wanted to eat them for dinner. Some of them were smart about hiding the bodies, but it was not okay; vampires and humans weren't supposed to be friends, it was as simple as that. Monsters couldn't be trusted, not ever, and they were always going to be monsters; even the few 'good' ones, the ones who didn't drink straight from the neck, were monsters. They didn't have souls, they didn't know what it was like to have a conscience, and sure, it was sad to hear how they'd been turned, sometimes, but they should have been dead. So should she, of course, but Jo had come back as a human, at least. If she ever got turned into a vampire, she was expecting her friends to stake her in the heart. She wanted to be staked; she was not going to live as a monster, no way in hell. She hoped (prayed) that it wouldn't happen, though. Jo did not want to become a vampire, not ever, thank you very much. “Vampires can have control. Limited, it's gonna break eventually, but they do.” She fully believed that; no matter what a vamp claimed, it was still just a monster, it would still slip sooner or later, and then people would be dead. “And you wouldn't have hidden if you hadn't known what I was. How do you know about hunters?”