Out for Blood

Plastic crinkled against Linc’s fingers as the flow of blood out of the bag finally stopped. It had emptied far too soon, just like the bottles his parents had probably left him with. That was the story of his life, wasn’t it? Never enough.

Like a toddler, Linc tossed the bag in the direction of the door to join the other three he’d drunk today. Leave it to Magnus to pick it up. He’d probably huff and puff about it, reminding him of how he should have respect for him and the home he’d been given, but eventually he’d cave and pick it up. Beneath that crusty surface was a man soft enough to feel the verbal weapons that’d been flung at him lately.

”You think you’re better than he was, but you’re just foolin’ yourself. Keepin’ me locked up here like a prisoner. You’re a monster and you just don’t care enough to admit it.” The words had been spat out like bullets as the fresh blood bags had been stocked in the fridge this morning. He’d waited until Magnus was at the door, leaving with a reassurance that they’d found something to help before he’d tossed the verbal grenade. ”If this was how you treated Edward it was no wonder he thought you were a shitty dad.”

Linc flopped back on the couch, staring listlessly at the television. He’d been tempted to tear it off the wall, but the part of his mind still capable of logic had warned that doing that would probably lose him his phone and any other luxuries he had in his cell. Right now his phone felt like the only thing keeping him sane.

He glanced at the basement door again, half contemplating clawing his way through it before he brought his phone to life. Each time the panic felt it was slipping around his neck and cutting off his air he’d message Cassie. There might’ve been doors separating them now, but she was still out there and they were still... A smile touched his lips. Magnus was gonna have a fight on his hands if he did try and take the phone. He wasn’t about to sit through another lecture on what he was allowed to do in his house, as though a grown man still had to listen to his dad’s rules about girls under his roof. Fucking hypocrite, as though he hadn’t been banging his son’s wife in their marriage bed.

I miss you.

While he’d been stuck it in here, he’d said the same thing a hundred times in different ways. At first, he’d just been told to stay at home to get over Hector nearly killing him, but once he’d killed the woman in that alley it had become being locked up at home for everybody else’s sake. Meek little Linc wasn’t wringing his hands over killing people anymore and that was a massive problem.

Trailing his tongue over his lower lip, chasing the taste of blood, he didn’t wait for Cassie’s response before he was typing again. Magnus’ll probably have to go to the shop at some point tomorrow. You could come over. It’s lonely down here. All I keep thinking about is you. Lonely and oppressive. Day by day the four walls were gonna gradually shrink down enough that he’d really lose his shit. Forget lashing out at the people trying to hold him back, he’d tear the place apart one brick at a time.

It felt like it was hours later when he finally heard a car pulling up outside. Either Jo coming home from Whitmore, ready to try and mother him like he was a lost little lamb who needed one. Like Magnus she was just trying to make up for what she’d fucked up in her human life. He wasn’t some replacement for her own sons, the ones she’d walked away from without a second thought. Linc eased to his feet, hearing the door shut. Footsteps, the quiet babble of voices, and then the whisper of skin on the door handle that sent him blurring up the stairs.

Anger at Magnus for leaving him sitting there on his own all day gave way to a beatific smile. Cassie. He could smell her before the door even opened far enough for him to see her. Like sunshine and candyfloss, a sweetness that was always on the border of overwhelming him. ”He let you come,” Linc whispered. Was this Magnus’ way of trying to force him into an apology? Give him a treat and expect him to be so grateful for it that he’d say sorry.

Expecting to be knocked back, beyond the door of his cage, Linc took a half step forward, reaching for Cassie. Fingers curling at her hip, the press of skin so warm beneath. He could practically taste it, the same way he had on his birthday when he’d trailed his mouth all over her. His pulse pounded in his ears hard, but it wasn’t enough to drown out the sound of Cassie’s. His gaze dropped slowly, to her mouth, over the delicate line of Cassie’s jaw to her throat. Maybe she was talking, but he wasn’t drinking in her excitement the way he usually was. He was hungry and it’d been too long since the night he’d stopped that woman talking in the alleyway. Too long since he’d drunk from the vein instead of those stupid fucking vampire juice boxes.

”I’m not gonna bite,” Linc muttered before he snorted and launched himself at Cassie. Fingers fumbling for the back of her neck, veins already crawling beneath his eyes and his fangs grazing the pale skin of her throat. A little nibble wasn’t the same thing, especially since he’d repeat it on his knees after.

Tagged: CASSIE LUANNA * Word Count: 964