ships in the ocean

”Be ready to pull me out,” Luc warned the girl. Who knew how Hector had taken to what his best friend and the teenaged witch had done to him. That feeling of betrayal could leave you filled with anger and hatred even without a virus raging in your system, burning away any self-control and sense you might’ve had. One look at his face might be enough to have Hector trying to remove his heart the way he had done so many others of late.

Dragging in a breath, Luc shut his eyes and nodded to the girl. Out of all of them he could probably survive the most damage, and deal out the most too, if he had to. Once upon a time he would’ve celebrated this – the monster who had slaughtered his parents, who had ordered his sisters cut down tortured, left uncertain who he could trust as he slowly tore himself apart. Forgiveness had crept in though, what had ended up between him and Hector a friendship that had endured through numerous hardships and what they had believed was each other’s deaths. Now it was concern cutting deep not glee. Hector had to come out of this.

By now Magnus’ boy had probably explained some of what had happened – if he’d kept his faculties too. He’d have said Magnus should have seen what was coming for Lincoln, but when you were that close to someone you didn’t want to see what was right there in front of you. You didn’t want to believe that they were slipping away from you. It tore something out of you when you realised you were powerless against it, but if you didn’t fight against it the regrets were worse. There was something you’d missed, something you could’ve done earlier, before there was a pile of bodies outside your door and hunters were likely sniffing around them like dogs around trash cans. Hector would’ve been a juicy treat for one of them, the empire he’d built and the people working for him free game.

Before the witch had come up with their temporary solution he’d taken over the running of the club anyway. Sooner or later others would start to realise that something had changed there, but for now, with the help of the other staff, it would be business as usual there. If any more of them ended up infected that would change, the little piece of paradise Hector and the boy had been tucked into ending up crowded.

Luc wasn’t sure what the state of things on this side of the stone would be like, but this didn’t seem too bad. Opening his eyes he’d found himself in the middle of a town, run down perhaps, empty. It probably would’ve been like a vacation for the pair of them if it wasn’t for being out of their minds. The last time they’d been seen both of them had been too dangerous for their own good. Now he felt a thin shiver roll down his spine. Hector hadn’t flown out of him and torn his throat out on arrival at least.

It took ten long minutes to spot the light that glowed behind the windows of one the small homes. The door opened under his touch – why lock it when there seemed to be nobody else here? Easing inside, Luc spotted the boy’s hoodie on the couch. He was probably in the right place at least. The house appeared to be empty for now, but at some point one of them would appear. Sinking down on the couch, Luc dragged his hands over his face. If they couldn’t find a cure soon this might end up being home for a long time.

His head came up as he heard the door to the room open. Luc met Hector’s eye, freezing as the frown cut deep on his familiar face. There seemed to be sanity behind those dark eyes at least. ”You’re looking better,” he drawled lightly, as though Hector had just been suffering through a case of chicken pox instead of a sanity stealing virus. Throwing his hands up lightly, he waved off the idea of him being locked in here. ”Not yet. If you did manage to infect more than the boy, it hasn’t been long enough for any of the symptoms to show up yet. You should probably stay over there though, just for safety’s sake.”

The smile that touched his lips was short lived. He propped his forearms on his knees almost like he was settling in. ”I wanted to check in on you, make sure you hadn’t entirely lost your mind in here. We’re hoping to land hands on a cure soon. This bodes well for us finding one.” If Hector could be relatively normal in here they might be able to replicate that outside. ”Is the boy the same? Or is he out there looking for someone to feed from?” The two of them could probably feed from each other, but sooner rather than later that would become a problem. Vampires didn’t do well when they weren’t finding some sort of satisfaction from blood.

Tagged: HECTOR DACRE * Word Count: 857

Being shuffled aboard Hector’s boat had been about as close to captivity as he’d ever suffered through and after years of spending all his time with his parents and siblings even then had been a struggle. He’d desperately wanted off of the boat, to somehow get back and see if he’d been wrong and any of his family had survived. They were dragons, that should have meant they could survive any fight. Hector and his people had been ruthless though, the weapons they had used forged in a way that had guaranteed death. Forgiving the man for that had felt unforgivable, but in the end he’d done it. As much as it galled him to say it, he’d flourished under Hector’s leadership.

Strangely, becoming top dog had never sat with him the same way. The isolation it brought left him itchy in the end, the yearning to be a part of a team building until he’d been unable to rid himself of the itch. Like a dog with its tail between its legs, he’d crawled back to Ingrid and had found more than he’d expected when Hector had seemed to come back from the dead in the same tiny town. The coincidence had felt like anything but one. Glancing around the living room, feeling like he’d walked into one of those soap operas as much as a horror film, Luc wondered how Hector would deal with it now. He had the boy for company, but none of them had been able to tell if he’d be walking into a situation where the two of them were tearing each other apart. This seemed like anything but.

Luc’s lips curved into a faint smirk. If it came to it, he supposed one of them could come here to stay, but it seemed as though Linc and Hector were coping in each other’s company for now. ”Or the boy could take the couch,” he tossed back. ”The youngest always gets the worst berth.” That had been true as a boy when he’d been relegated to the trundle bed in his parents’ room, and on board of Hector’s ship. The smallest on the crew, he didn’t take up much space, so why give him all the comfort?

At least Hector had some measure of that while he was trapped in here. The witch and Magnus had seemed certain that there was a cure out for this. Luc wasn’t sure he believed so much, but he wasn’t about to do what the foolish Canadian vampire had suggested and just kill Hector. ”Are you worried we were just going to toss you in here and lock the door?” he asked, a grim humour to his voice. ”We couldn’t guarantee what it was going to be like for you in here, but it was always going to be temporary. I’m sure Magnus will be glad to hear you’re back to your old self for now at least.” And the boy too. That would likely be Magnus’ second question once he was out. Luc wouldn’t be able to admit that he had seen the boy for himself, not unless Linc came back soon.

”You’re both human again?” Luc’s eyes widened as he craned forward, as though there would be some obvious sign of it. Hector had been a vampire so long that he had probably forgotten what being human was like, but Lincoln was freshly turned. This was probably a relief to the boy. ”There’s food here at least?” He wasn’t sure whether they’d be able to bring a care package in. The witch could probably figure out some way, but as far as he could tell it was just his spirit that was just sent here now, while his body remained out there in the real world.

Hector had always come off as strong, almost impervious to damage. A man who batted away the verbal slings and arrows with just as much ease as the physical. Never soft enough to spend half his existence apologising for his crimes. Hearing the word sorry from him now felt strange. Luc nodded as he accepted it though, his smile drifting back for a friend. ”You weren’t to know,” he assured him. ”The virus changed your behaviour, made you do things you usually wouldn’t. There’s nothing to apologise for in that. I’m still here, the boy is too.” How Linc would feel being trapped with the man who’d almost killed him was another matter.

Mon dieu. He hated seeing Hector brought so low. Luc dipped his head slightly as Hector cleared his throat, giving the man time to recover. Hector was usually all confident, but this virus had brought him low. ”In one piece, at least,” Luc quipped lightly. ”Kit has the upstairs in hand. Magnus is helping with the paperwork where he can. We’ll manage with the people we have. Is there anything we need to know to keep it running? I know that what’s there isn’t all there is.” Hector would understand what he meant. Hector’s business practices were never going to be perfectly transparent, especially when Mystic Falls’ finest had already been sniffing around.

Tagged: HECTOR DACRE * Word Count: 856

Luc didn’t imagine he’d been a joy to live with in those first couple of years after his parents had died. Sullen and rude, he’d fought against doing anything Hector had ordered him to. The rest of the men hadn’t been treated much better. It was a miracle he hadn’t had his throat slit with the same weapons that had killed his family, his body tossed off of the ship to join theirs. Still, he’d had the benefit of a childhood spent sailing. It had softened the blow in a way, the labour of sailing the ship providing a distraction. For someone like Lincoln – a kid raised in a city, apparently not well – it would’ve been a misery. If the kid wasn’t clinging to the rail, paralysed by sea sickness, then he’d have been raging at the idea of a night spent swinging in a hammock, or not seeing the land for months. Luc chuckled lightly before the sound trailed off, if only those were the biggest problems they were facing now.

If it had come down to it, could he have staked Hector in the heart? Perhaps, it would’ve been a kindness to do it in Magnus’ stead. The old vampire would have been devastated to do it, but Luc imagined Magnus would’ve done it if he had no other choice. Perhaps he would’ve waited too long to come to the decision that he would have to, though. When it was someone you cared about, you held off and paid a price for it ultimately. Luc huffed out a breath, glancing around the room. ”Not as torturous as you thought it might be down there? I don’t know, being alone feels pretty bad to me.” The town had seemed abandoned from what little he’d seen of it. At least neither Hector or the boy were in here alone. That had to be a relief to the both of them and it would be to Magnus when he got back too.

The news that they were both human while they were trapped in here would come as more confusing news. He was unsure of how the crystal was supposed to work and wasn’t entirely sure the witch knew either. Luc’s brow furrowed before he snorted out a laugh. ”I imagine there’s been a learning curve to that. Has it been so long that you’ve forgotten how to be human?” Not for the boy. Linc was a brand new vampire, perhaps only a handful of years spent as a vampire. For him this probably felt like a vacation. If they had their way it would be short lived, Cassie would find a cure and then, unfortunately, they would just have to live with what they had done while the virus had raged through their bodies. Luc shook his head faintly, shrugging at Hector. ”I assume everything in here is powered by the magic the stone is imbued with. All of that is down to the girl." A heavy weight for young shoulders.

What he had almost done to his closest friends seemed to be weighing on Hector. He’d held himself back when he’d ripped himself a stake off of his desk, but just a short time later his fist had been buried in the boy’s chest. Luc knew he couldn’t absolve Hector of that, but he could forgive him for the threat against his own life. ”The virus made certain you couldn’t. Do mad men know that they’re insane? You’re yourself again now, and that’s all that matters.” At long as they were still looking for some sort of a cure. This wasn’t like an infected wound, there didn’t seem to be a way to just lance or bleed it from the body. It had woven itself into Hector’s mind, changing the usually self-controlled man he’d always known into someone far more reckless and dangerous.

Luc tried to look for the signs of the man he’d always known in the one sitting in front of him now. On the surface Hector looked different, softer somehow, but inside he seemed to have returned to himself. It was a relief to see, as was the smile that touched his face. Thanks to his new crew, the business would still be there when he was freed. ”That archaic then?” Luc joked dryly. The two men probably shared a mindset when it came to business, the same way the two of them seemed to with so much else. ”That I can handle.” His own business holdings hadn’t exactly been for public viewing either. Noting Hector’s instructions, Luc huffed out a breath. Perhaps it was better he handled the blood supplier, who knew what Hannya would do to him. ”Noted. I’ll put on the charm if I need to. I imagine Kit has all other ordering handled. I’ll put in whatever time I need to there. Is there anything you need here?” There was a good chance he couldn’t bring much in with him, if anything at all. The mechanics of how this worked had gone over his head enough that he’d just waved the girl on with putting him into the stone temporarily.

Tagged: HECTOR DACRE * Word Count: 858