zeegoeshere

Have You Heard The Music Died
By Zee
Summary: Pencey Prep feels like it was forever ago; Frank used to be so into that shit before half the Jersey punk scene got eaten.
R, slight Frank/Bob. 7,119 words. Content some readers may find disturbing.
Disclaimer: Um, vampires aren't real.

Notes: Number four in Weekenders, which is a series title that only makes sense to me, but I figure it's at least better than A Little Less Anne Rice, A Little More Joss Whedon. This won't make sense without reading the first three--start here. Thanks to jamjar for the beta.


***

"Fucking shit."

Frank looks up. Gerard sounds annoyed, almost disgruntled, as the last vampire he was fighting slumps to the ground with a stake in its chest, blonde hair spilling over it. Behind him, Frank hears the wet sound of Ray pulling his axe out of something.

"This is wrong. This is--" Gerard waves a hand at their surroundings, at the concrete room empty of everything but bodies and some crates. "Brian got bad information. This place *clearly* has nothing to do with Gabe or any of the higher-ups. This was just a nest for the lowlifes, a bunch of losers who aren't even connected to him."

Frank looks down at the vampire he's kneeling over, its eyes unfocused and bloody. Almost finished. Gerard has a point: none of these put up enough of a fight to be anyone important, and none of Gabe's bunch would stoop to stay in a place like this, anyway.

"Shit," Gerard says again, kicking a crate viciously. "This was a waste of time."

"Hey, there's one less nest in the world now," Ray says, shrugging.

Frank nods. "Just because these were nobodies doesn't mean they weren't killing humans."

He brings his hands up, inspecting them. The new gloves have held up--the extra leather padding across his knuckles is scuffed but not broken. They're Ray's invention, he didn't like that Frank split his knuckles open on fangs every time he started whaling on a vamp; Frank didn't care about the damage, but Ray had worried that Frank was going to seriously fuck up his hands if he kept fighting the way he did. Frank likes the way the gloves feel, likes the extra weight they give to his punches on top of the protection they provide. He's going to ask Ray about adding spikes over the knuckles. The vampire he's just finished hitting moans feebly.

"I'm sick of picking off the small fry one by one," Gerard says, running a hand through his hair. "We're going to lose if we keep fighting this way."

"We just got done wasting this bunch and you're already stressing about next time?" Ray says, his voice beginning to get exasperated. "Save it for later, man, let's just go home."

Gerard says nothing, just walks out. Frank shakes his head and stands up, pulling a stake from his boot to finish it off, but Ray is moving forward with his axe up, and Frank steps away as it swings down to sever the head.

***

The sun is coming up when they get back to the school. Ray parks the van in their usual spot and Gerard goes in first, pushing open the double doors. They never lock any of the entrances--there'd be no point, locks don't keep vampires out, and no humans would think to fuck with them.

Their steps echo down the halls, loud on the linoleum floor, and even after all the time they've been using this place as headquarters, being here still brings back the old paranoia that a truancy officer might be around the corner, waiting to bust Frank. It's October and sometimes Frank thinks he hears other people in the building, all the kids that should be sleeping through their classes and the janitors that should be scraping gum off the desks and chairs, but it's just the five of them.

"You're back already?" Brian says, looking up the instant the three of them troop through the office doors. Brian uses the principal's secretary's desk as his own mini-headquarters, his information center. There's his big-ass ancient desktop, a couple palm pilots, a ton of wires.... there's whatever Brian needs to get all his work done, Frank doesn't even know what half the machines are there for.

Gerard walks straight back to the fridge, popping open a beer and pouring what looks like half down his throat. Frank answers Brian, who's giving Gerard a reproachful look. "There were only seven or eight, and they barely put up a fight. No one important."

"Fuck," Brian says, rubbing at his eyes with the heel of his palm. "I was wrong."

"Not your fault," Ray says, putting his axe in the pile of weapons they have in the corner. Frank remembers the shelf of 'don't do drugs' pamphlets used to be in that spot when he went to school here.

"Of course it was my fault, I was the one that gave you guys the tip about who'd be there," Brian snaps, hunching back over his computer and typing furiously.

"The nest was probably connected to Gabe in some way. We'll just have to find out more," Gerard says, wiping his mouth before taking another long gulp. "Is Bob okay?"

"I managed to drop dead in the two hours you've been gone, asshole," comes Bob's voice from the principal's office. "Of course I'm fucking okay."

"You could've caught fire again," Gerard calls back, tossing the empty can in the trash and getting another one. "Or broken the other leg, I don't know."

"Blow me!" It's amazing how Frank knows Bob's flipping them off right now, even though he can't see him. Gerard laughs, and Frank grins.

Ray sprawls on the couch by the door, Gerard passes him a beer and sits next to him, and Frank goes down the hall to the principal's office, to Bob.

He's lying in bed with his leg propped up looking cranky, but then he's looked cranky all the time since he broke it. "I'm not made of glass," is the first thing he says when Frank comes in, closing the door behind him.

"I know you're not. Gerard just gets that way," Frank says, although he pretty much shares Gerard's constant worry for Bob right now. They don't *really* know that Bob's cast is correct or that his leg is healing okay--the closest thing to a doctor left in town was a med student, and Frank's heard that she either left or got eaten a few days ago.

Bob is scowling like he knows what Frank is thinking. "You should've taken Brian with you. I don't need a fucking baby-sitter."

Frank laughs and climbs onto the bed next to Bob, and Bob scoots over. "The three of us did just fine. One more on our side and it would have been boring." He peels off the gloves and tosses them at the foot of the bed; Bob's good leg moves to bump against his as Frank leans back.

***

Gerard is still drunk at noon--still *drinking,* and he started at dawn. From the big bottle in his hand, Frank guesses that he moved from beer to whiskey.

"Something's not right," Gerard says. His voice is--not slurred, exactly, but it sounds like he's putting a lot of effort into *not* letting it slur. "It's been too quiet lately, too--it feels like they're biding their time for something. Planning or some shit." When Frank sits down next to him, Gerard passes him the bottle, and it burns just a little going down his throat.

"You just want to be busier. You're fucking bloodthirsty, man," says Ray, who's sharpening stakes and critically surveying their pile of makeshift weapons. Frank can practically see Ray making a mental tally, thinking about what they need more of. Most of their weapons are crafted by Ray, and he's gotten pretty good at it in the three years.

"And they're not?" Gerard shoots back, taking the bottle from Frank. "We've hardly heard anything, apart from Sarah last week, and she probably just finally flew the coop. It's like. It's like they're not eating."

"Of course they're eating. Christ," Frank says. Just because they haven't found the corpses...

"Yeah, but they're being quiet about it. Or." Gerard pauses and Frank can tell it's the kind of deliberation that comes from being wasted. He tips the bottle back again. "They're planning something. They must be."

"Nothing's come down the wire," Brian says from behind the computer. He looks and sounds tired; Frank knows he didn't sleep when they were out because he was playing the lookout, watching out for Bob in case the vamps attacked. Not that he would've slept anyway, probably.

Gerard mutters something unintelligible. Frank can hear the 'schnik, schnik' of Ray whittling wood. The bottle of whiskey is about 3/4 gone.

"Brian, you should get some sleep," Gerard says, his voice more clear.

"Gerard, you should sober up," Brian parrots back, and they're both glaring at each other. Frank slumps low in his seat and snags the bottle from Gerard, taking a sip. He really doesn't feel like watching anyone bicker right now, and he doesn't feel sleepy; the nap with Bob was pretty short, but it's enough to leave him feeling wide awake.

"I'm going out," Frank says, almost before he decides that he is. Gerard looks at him, his eyebrows coming together in a frown and his mouth opening to protest. "Gee, it's broad daylight," Frank adds, cutting him off.

"Be careful," Gerard still says, stubborn.

Frank takes his bike instead of the van. It's not as fast as a car would be to get away if he does somehow find trouble, but he likes the wind on his arms and legs.

***

Frank has already biked across town and is heading back when he sees it. He stares, his mind so stuck that he forgets to pedal and has to fumble and put his foot hastily down when his bike just comes to a stop.

It's lying in the shade of a tree with its eyes closed as if it doesn't have a care in the world, and Frank hadn't realized that they could be in shade--he thought they couldn't be outside during the day, period. It's body is long and pale and stretched out languidly, and Frank thinks that Maja is still one of the most beautiful things he's ever seen.

Its eyes snap open when Frank's foot hits the ground, and suddenly it's standing, moving with a grace and speed that Frank's eye is too slow to catch. It steps forward, almost into the light and Frank doesn't have anything on him he could fight with so he forces himself to turn away and push off from the street, biking away as fast as he can and breathing hard.

He takes a long route home in case he's being followed (not that they can be out in daylight, but--whatever, paranoia stopped being irrational a long time ago), pedaling hard enough that his legs are shaking with the strain by the time he comes to a stop in front of the school. He drags the bike through the doors, yelling for Gerard before they've even swung shut, because this is big, this is fucking serious.

"Hey! Hey, you were right, they were getting ready, or lying low, or whatever, because it's back. It's back, Maja's here!" He flings the door to their office open ahead of him, panting on the last word. Gerard is passed out on the couch with his cheek on Bob's thigh, and he snorts awake when Frank bursts in, looking up and around blearily. Ray and Bob are passing the whiskey bottle back and forth; Bob raises an eyebrow in Frank's direction and Brian straightens up from where he was slumped over one of the computers.

"Wha?" Gerard says, wiping his mouth. Frank feels like the dramatic impact of his entrance has been distinctly lessened.

"Maja. I saw it on my ride, she's back, she's alive. It was fucking lounging in the *shade,* out in the open." Frank rubs his chest where it burns from the exercise.

Gerard sits all the way up now, staring at Frank, and Bob has lowered the whiskey bottle, looking anywhere but at Frank.

"No fucking way," Gerard says. "I thought--"

"That we killed it, or at least scared it away for good?" Frank says bitterly. "It looked good as new."

"Fuck," Gerard says, standing. "This must be it, this must be why things have been quiet, they've been--I don't know, getting ready for it or waiting for it or something. Shit."

"That's what I said." Frank looks at Bob, who is now contemplating the whiskey label.

"We haven't seen that vampire for six months, and it doesn't keep a low profile," Ray says. "Why now?"

"Exactly. What're they up to?" Brian is already typing away, facing the computer and frowning.

"I don't know, fuck. I got out of there as soon as I saw." Frank takes Gerard's abandoned seat next to Bob. Bob stiffens just slightly when Frank touches his wrist.

There wasn't even any lasting damage done, the burns mostly healed fine, it's not like Bob came all *that* close to dying. The only scarring is in a spot only Frank gets to see. But the disappointing knowledge that they *didn't* manage to kill Maja in that fight burns a little at the back of Frank's tongue.

"She won't be staying in the same place she was last time," Bob says. "Sh--it's not stupid, they're not stupid."

"They'll be gunning for us," Ray says, frowning, rubbing the back of his neck. "We did enough damage the last time we targeted Maja's crowd for them to really want payback."

"More than usual, you mean." Gerard snorts and shakes his head, wisps of hair falling in front of his face and his teeth digging into his lower lip. "Fuck, we've been wondering why they never tried too hard to take us down after we almost killed the bitch in the first place. Now they're probably ready."

Gerard sounds almost excited, spoiling for a big fight. Frank, though, Frank admits to himself that he's scared of Maja. He doesn't want it and its supporters near any of them; he doesn't want to walk the halls of this place at night twitchy and tense, wondering at every moment when the onslaught will come.

"We can't wait for them to make the first move. We can't wait for them to finish organizing around Maja's return," Ray says.

And of course, Gerard jumps to agree. "Yeah! Yes, exactly." Gerard turns his whole body to stare at Brian, his eyes gleaming. "We have to--we have to know more, and then we have to get them. For good this time."

"I'm glad you know that we can't jump into this blind," Brian says with narrowed eyes and pursed lips.

"Of course I know that. What--Brian, what the fuck?"

Frank recognizes the turn to belligerence, and he doesn't want this. He realizes that he's finally tired.

"I'm going to bed," he announces, and Gerard swivels his attention to him. "Nothing we can do about this at the moment, right?"

"No, you should get some sleep," Brian says, looking at Gerard. Gerard sits heavily down in Frank's seat as soon as Frank stands up.

***

Frank wakes up to Gerard's hand on his shoulder, shaking him back and forth. "Hey," Gerard's voice rasps as Frank blinks his eyes open to darkness. "Hey."

"Patrol?" Frank says, pushing up to his elbow. His brain feels muzzy, and he makes out Gerard nodding in the dim light. The alarm clock radio across the room gleams 10:05 pm.

"'m coming," Frank mumbles, doing his best to slip out of bed without disturbing Bob. Gerard nods again and exits the room to wait outside as Frank grabs a shirt and his shoes.

Brian isn't at his desk when they walk out, and Ray seems to have gone back to his room as well. Looking at Gerard, Frank is pretty certain that he hasn't slept at all; he seems to be a few steps above sober, the kind of slight drunkenness that Frank knows he prefers to work under. Frank grabs the keys to the van and a few stakes--Gerard is already loaded up, fidgeting impatiently waiting for Frank--and they head out.

They stay mostly silent as Frank gets behind the wheel. Gerard smokes, blowing out the window with his lips a round 'o', handing the cigarette to Frank without a word. Frank rolls down his own window and breathes it in deep and passes it back.

Patrols have been subdued and almost boring the past week, with whoever's on duty only finding maybe two isolated, young vampires a night. Usually it's a matter of seeking out chaos and violence and deciding which group slaughter they can interrupt and manage to get out alive. The air feels still and warmer than it should be tonight, and Frank can smell car exhaust and garbage and the stink from the river.

"They've tried to stamp us out before. They've tried really fucking hard," Gerard says, flicking the cigarette butt out the window. "They're not gonna succeed this time, either."

Frank drums his fingers on the steering wheel and slows down the van some, peering into a shadow in the park. But it's just a squirrel in a bush. "You don't think so? You think we can keep really pissing them off and get away with it?"

"We haven't just been pissing them off," Gerard says, turning to glare at Frank. "We got Maja to leave the city."

"We were *supposed* to kill her. And she's just fine now, but look at us."

"Bob's going to be fine, come on," Gerard says. "We're going to get through this and we're going to win."

"Thanks for the pep--" Frank skids the van to the side of the street and Gerard is jumping out before it's even come to a complete stop, jumping towards the scene Frank had noticed. Two vampires hunched over a man, already dead, a body on the ground next to each other.

Gerard is already on the first one when Frank gets to him, and the satisfying shock travels from Frank's knuckles through his elbow and arm and shoulder when he hits the other one. The vampire stumbles back, surprised, and Frank kicks viciously at his knees, making him stumble and yell before he darts in and stabs the thing in the heart. The other nice thing about Ray's gloves is that they're great for keeping the splinters out of Frank's palms.

When Frank stands up Gerard is shaking his off: the vampire's arms were wrapped around his shoulders almost in an embrace, and when the thing slides off him and onto the ground it leaves a smear of blood on Gerard's shirt. Gerard kneels next to the body on the ground, reaching to its wrist, and Frank crouches as well.

"She's still alive," Gerard says, turning her gently over so Frank can see. It's a girl, can't be more than thirteen, blood trickling from her neck.

"Barely," Frank says, taking her pulse. "Here, I'll take her."

Frank carries the girl and sets her carefully in the back seat, getting a towel and pressing it to the wound in her neck to stop the bleeding. Gerard is getting the body, already approaching stiffness, and dragging it into the back of the van. They'll bury him later--right now they need to get the girl back to headquarters, get her better care.

"Fuck," Gerard says in the front seat when they get moving. He's holding his hands out, a look of distaste on his face, and Frank smirks. They're bloody and dirty and gross, and Gerard looks distinctly unhappy to be unable to wash them.

"We need to put hand sanitizer in here," Gerard snaps when Frank laughs. "Or at least fucking paper towels, jesus."

"Since when are you so fastidious?" Frank says, speeding around corridors.

"I just don't like being drenched in them," Gerard says simply, and Frank feels a slight chill creep down his spine.

***

The girl dies in the night. Brian finds her wallet and ID: her name was Christina Blaine.

"At least we kept her from being turned into one of them," Frank points out when Gerard's face looks tight.

"Yeah," Gerard says. "I'm going to get some sleep."

Frank opens his mouth, because they should really bury the bodies as soon as possible, but the hollows of Gerard's eyesockets are a dark tired purple and his eyes are bloodshot. He needs to go to bed.

Frank and Bob and Ray take both bodies to a classroom they haven't been using, setting them on the linoleum and covering them with a plastic sheet to keep them until it's time to bury them in the school soccer field, the unofficial graveyard for everyone they couldn't save. There's no wallet on the man and no other identification; Frank guesses he's somewhere in his fifties, with a full head of dust-colored hair and a goatee, just a few wrinkles.

"Shit," Bob says suddenly as they're standing over him. "Shit, guys, look." He points to the man's mouth, and when Frank looks he sees the smear of dried blood on his lips.

"Fuck," Frank says. "You think--?"

"It's probably his, he looks pretty beat up," Ray says.

Bob shakes his head, grim. "He doesn't have a split lip, and it's already clear that they bit him." He motions at the two neat holes in the man's neck. "And Frank, you said they were both standing over the body, even though it was already dead, when you saw them."

"You think they made him drink?" Ray looks back down at the man, a sickened expression on his face.

They all stare at the man's face. In three days he could be sprouting fangs and walking around trying to kill them.

"We should- " Bob makes a cutting motion at his neck. "We can't take the chance."

The first and only time they took that chance had been with Mikey. After that, they all know that it's better to take the head off a corpse than to watch a friend--Gerard's fucking *brother*--come back as a monster. Better to take care of it pre-emptively.

They take the man out on the cement lunch court in the back. Frank remembers drawing crude pictures with permanent markers while eating cafeteria food back here freshman year. Ray gets his axe.

***

"Someone's looking for us. Well, for you," Brian says, glancing from the computer screen to Gerard. "Asking where to find Gerard Way."

"Yeah?" Gerard smirks, twisting the cap off his beer. "Have they tried looking up their own asses?"

"Word on the street says that it's a group of vampires *and* humans," Brian says, ignoring Gerard's immaturity.

"Say 'word on the street' again, it's so cute when you do that," Bob says from the couch.

"Oh, this is all really funny," Brian snaps, his voice high, and Frank wonders if Brian would catch on if they tried to put sedatives in his coffee to give him a full nights' sleep. "People sniffing around Gerard and trying to find us out, that's always a real knee-slapper."

"We'll deal with whoever it is if they actually manage to find me," Gerard says, shrugging and taking a sip. "If they're being obvious enough that we've heard about it, they're probably way too stupid to either find me *or* come after me."

Brian pinches the bridge of his nose, and Ray comes over to put a hand on his shoulder. "Just keep an eye on it if you keep hearing things," Ray says. "If it's something, we'll deal."

"Yeah, just keep listening to the word on the street!" Bob says, and Brian chucks a pen at him.

***

Frank doesn't think. He sees the vampire step out into the streetlight with a gang around him and he moves, gunning for the one closest to him, slamming his forearm into its throat. Out of the corner of his eye he sees Gerard hitting the vampire that had been moving toward him, slamming punches into it and then knocking it to the ground, straddling its waist and reaching for a stake.

"Gha-ack!" Frank's vampire splutters, and Frank hears the wind go out of it because of the pressure on its windpipe--so, not vampire, human, and Frank steps away like he's been burnt. He takes out his switchblade, holding it out in front of him as a warning as the guy splutters and coughs, clutching at his throat.

There are two others in the gang, both humans, plus the vampire on the ground, which Frank assumes Gerard hasn't staked yet simply out of confusion. The vampire starts laughing, and Gerard punches him twice.

"Hey!" one of the humans, the shorter one, says and rushes forward towards them, but Ray holds his axe up menacingly. The kid stops, glaring at all of them and shooting a panicked look at Gerard and the vampire.

The vampire turns his head and spits blood out on the sidewalk. "Don't stop there, you were just starting to turn me on," it says, its voice thick with sarcasm. It's just lying there instead of fighting back, and Gerard makes a sound halfway between a hiss and a yell and grabs its hair, lifting its head and slamming it down on the concrete.

"What the *fuck!*" the kid yells, and the guy with long hair moves forward faster than Frank can quite catch, grabbing Gerard's shoulders and yanking him back, a hand around his throat. Frank and Ray are both there, along with the first guy Frank got and Frank gets an elbow hard in the face, and dimly hears "Stop it, we're good guys! We're on the same fucking side!" during the scuffle.

Frank feels someone yank him out of the way, the short kid with the red hair and the flushed face grabbing his shoulders and glaring. "You're Gerard Way, right? Or you guys are with Gerard Way?"

"I'm Gerard," Gerard says, wiping blood from his mouth and giving the vampire a look of revulsion. The one that attacked him has let go, standing next to him and still looking ready for a fight, but Gerard doesn't pay him any attention. "Wanna give me a reason why we're not killing you?"

"Uh," says the kid, letting Frank go and looking taken aback, but the vampire grins, his teeth flashing.

"I'm a *good* vampire, see. Like Glinda."

"Pete," the other guy, the one who started the fight, says. Gerard's eyes are narrowed and he's staring only at the vampire, and Frank feels like another fight is going to break out.

"How about you explain who the fuck you guys are and why you were looking for us?" Frank says, hoping to distract Gerard from a possibly inadvisable kill spree.

"We're from Chicago," the guy whom Frank originally got in the throat says. "Uh, I'm Joe. This is Patrick, Andy, and uh. Pete," he says, motioning towards Glinda last.

"Yeah, not so much an explanation," Ray says sharply. Gerard is still just staring at the vampire.

"We're fighting vampires, too," one of the guys--Patrick, Frank thinks--says. "We had to leave Chicago because it got taken over by--actually, you might have heard of them." Patrick peers at Gerard. "William Beckett's the head of the action, along with vampire gang-leaders named Travis and Maja--"

"You've met Maja?" Ray says sharply, and Gerard looks at Patrick for the first time, surprised. "She was in Chicago?"

"I wouldn't say 'met,'" Andy says. "She's been involved in trying to kill us a few times, that's all."

"She's been up here?" Patrick says, frowning.

"Maja's *from* 'up here,'" Gerard snaps. "One of Gabe's offspring."

"Gabe? Gabe Saporta?" The vampire seems to be serious for a moment, its voice sharp.

"What, is that your daddy?" Gerard sneers through gritted teeth, and the vampire takes a step forward, shoulders hunched and tense.

"So as I was *saying,*" Patrick continues loudly. "The vampire gangs in our city have basically completely taken over. We barely escaped our lives. We came to Jersey because we *heard* that maybe, you know, Gerard and his gang were trying to do some good up here." There's a definite accusatory tone in his voice. Ray is looking at him with a slight frown on his face, his head tilted.

"Then what the *fuck,*" Gerard yells, "are you doing with this motherfucking *thing?*"

Patrick jumps at Gerard, suddenly and obviously without much thought--it's easy enough for Frank to grab him and pull him back. "That *thing* saved my life after he was turned," Patrick snarls. "Not to mention every fucking time *since* then."

"Look, I wasn't kidding about being a good guy," the vampire says, looking alarmed and serious again, eyeing Patrick struggling in Frank's grip. "I don't bite people, I'm looking for, you know, revenge on the guy that bit me, and I'm trying to fucking redeem myself. I'm on your side, okay? I'm just--I'm trying to kill as many vampires as I can."

"How fucking noble of you," Gerard says.

"I think we should hear them out," Ray says, and Gerard and Frank both stare. "We could use more people on our side."

"We're doing just fine on our own!" Gerard says.

"We've come all this way basically just to see you," Joe says, pissed. "I mean, seriously."

"It can't hurt to hear them out," Frank says. And the three of them can probably take these guys if it comes down to a real fight, he doesn't add.

"For fuck's--fine," Gerard says, rolling his eyes. "Fine, let's collaborate with vampires, awesome."

"Let's take them somewhere," Ray says.

"Not *home,*" Frank says incredulously as Patrick says, "Oh, like we're just going to be taken?"

"Not home, we'll take them to the park," Gerard says. "That way, if we don't like what St. Vampire here has to say, we can just let the sun come up."

"No *fucking* deal," Patrick says, finally shoving Frank away from him, but the vampire reaches out to touch his shoulder.

"Fine, lets go," it says, shrugging. "Thanks for hearing us out."

***

They're all sitting on the grass, except for Gerard, who paces behind the vampire for almost the whole time it talks. Ray never really lets go of his axe, either. They both occasionally nod during the explanation, faking casual as if the idea that anyone else could be out there fighting--as if they're not entirely alone--isn't big fucking news.

"...the Chicago PD reported us as terrorist suspects, which made getting here more difficult," the vampire finishes. "We couldn't fly, obviously, so it's been a nighttime road trip of good times and avoiding any law-abiding citizens that watch the news." It licks its lips and cracks its knuckles, and Frank can tell that it's trying for casual as much as Ray and Gerard.

Which is kind of a strange thought. Frank realizes abruptly that this is the first time he's listened to a vampire talk, first time he's had something close to a conversation with one of the things. He swallows a nasty taste at the back of his throat.

"Vampires kill humans," Gerard says when it finishes. Gerard has stopped pacing. "They're evil. They don't have the capacity for any kind of human feeling--that switch gets flipped when they turn into monsters. There's no such thing as some kind of 'good' vampire."

"It's not that simple," Andy says. Patrick is glaring at Gerard, his lips pressed together in a thin white line. The vampire glances up, over at Frank and meeting his eyes. It would look human if it weren't for the gleam of teeth; its skin is browner than Mikey's had been, but Mikey had always been pale. That was what made it the hardest: how he'd still looked like the Mikey Frank met at a hardcore show six years ago, how the screams still sounded like him up until they stopped. Frank really wishes, for Gerard's sake, that Mikey had died silently.

"It is that simple, actually," the vampire says, twisting around to look at Gerard. "In most cases, anyway. It's kind of an automatic personality transplant when someone turns. I was--unnatural." Its smile is twisted, the shape of its mouth distorted by the bulk of fangs. "I'm wrong by their standards."

"You're wrong by anyone's standards," Gerard says, voice cold.

The vampire stares at Gerard, its nostrils flaring, and then it stands up. "Okay. Fine. We were obviously full of shit to think you could help us." It turns away, towards its humans. "Back to Chicago. We'll find a way to take William down, Andy, maybe we can stay with your cousins again?"

"How come you haven't killed them?" Frank says, unaware he was going to say anything until he did. The vampire turns to him, looking confused at first. "You need human blood. How have you been riding in a car with them without taking a bite, regardless of any morals you try to have?"

The vampire doesn't say anything. Patrick stands up, looking furious, but his voice is steady. "We discovered a way to make this--synthetic blend, almost. It's a substitute for human blood and we think it might--" Patrick throws the vampire an apologetic look. "It's largely responsible for keeping the blood lust at bay and making him more human than any of the other ones we've run across."

"More human, well, *that's*--" Gerard scoffs, and then vampire yells and dives at Ray and then the air explodes with bullets.

Frank hits the ground automatically, rolling towards bush cover in the dark. He can hear tires squeal and shots still in the air and some people--no, no, those aren't people--yelling in glee. Frank stays as still as he can as the noise dies down, as the two cars that targeted them screech around the corner and away. He doesn't let himself breathe.

He can make out the others all crouching low in the dark, Gerard closest to him, Patrick and Joe huddled together, Ray--

Ray makes a furious sound and throws the vampire off of him, and Frank reaches for a stake but realizes suddenly that the vampire was actually trying to cover Ray: Ray was the closest to the gunfire, the first one they tried to hit. It's possible that the vampire saved Ray's life.

Frank gets to his feet and hears someone cursing under their breath, hissing and panting in pain. He turns and it's Andy, clutching at his shoulder which is black with blood.

Gerard is already there, crouching next to him. "Fuck," he says. "We should--we need to get him back, Brian can take care of this better than we can, and then we can get that med student when we've gotten him time." He looks up, meeting Frank's eyes, and for a second Frank's thoughts flash no no dangerous not our home, but then Andy chokes and moans and Frank nods.

"Andy!" The vampire sounds shocked and he's immediately shoving Gerard out of the way to kneel, the two others behind him. "Andy, oh fuck, oh fuck--"

"He's gonna be all right," Ray says, looking at the vampire with an unreadable look on his face. "We've got to get the hell out of here, though, they'll probably come back, we need to get him home to take care of him."

The vampire reels, staring at Ray and opening his mouth like he wants to retort, but Gerard says, "You carry him, you're stronger than humans. Frank, you drive."

***

Andy passes out on the way as the vampire hovers over him. Ray and Gerard are doing what they can, staunching the blood flow, but none of them know enough to get a bullet out without making the damage worse.

The vampire grabs Andy as Frank pulls into the school parking lot, and all four of the newcomers notice their surroundings and frown a little as they rush inside, but they don't comment on the strange location for headquarters. When they get into the hall Frank sees Bob hobbling outside the main office doors, and Frank opens his mouth to yell at him for being on his feet, but Bob beats him to it.

"Where the *fuck* have you guys been?!" he yells. "What the fuck have you been *doing,* we didn't know--Frank, you have a motherfucking cell phone, why didn't you fucking use it?"

Gerard and the vampire brush past him, and Frank finds himself getting grabbed by the shoulders, Bob looking livid. "Frank--"

"Later, we got shot, we have to--"

Frank sees Bob's eyes go wide at 'shot,' and over his shoulder Frank can see Brian standing up, noticing Andy and the bullet wound. Frank sees it as he notices what the vampire is, sees him jump back with a "What the fuck?"

"We're dealing with it later," Gerard says, jerking his head in the vampire's direction. "Right now this guy needs medical help."

Ray, Patrick and Joe are clustered in a circle around Brian and Gerard; the vampire is still supporting Andy. Brian stares at it, his jaw working, before he nods. "Fine. Okay. Let me take him, he can go on one of the beds."

"What is going *on?*" Bob says as Brian disappears with Andy. "Who the fuck are these people? Why the fuck have we let *that* in here?" The indignant fury in his voice stumbles slightly as he hisses in pain, taking weight off his leg to lean on the doorjamb. He's still glaring at the vampire, and Frank can see the tension in the muscles of his shoulders and back.

Frank puts a hand at Bob's side. "It claims to be a good vampire." He can't keep the sarcasm out of his voice, but he also can't help but remember the blurry image of the vampire throwing itself on Ray as shots rang out.

"We met them and then Maja gave us a nice little drive-by," Gerard says when Bob opens his mouth, probably to yell again. "They seem to be changing their tactics. How nice for us."

"Oh, real nice," Patrick snarls, at the same time that Joe snaps "Andy got *shot.*"

"Brian's taking care of him," Ray says. "He's going to be okay."

"We won't let him *not* be okay," Gerard says in his Serious General voice. "It was our fault he got targeted, you're right. He's our responsibility now."

No one really seems to know how to react to that. Patrick looks down at the floor, Joe folds his arms and glares down the hall to where Brian and Andy are. Frank can't help but thinking that the vampire looks kind of hungry.

"Get your weight the hell off that leg," Frank says, poking Bob hard in the side. Bob swats him away and Frank pushes at his shoulder. "I'm serious. You're practically about to pass out from pain, you pansy."

Bob glares, but stomps to the couch and slumps down onto it, never taking his eyes off the vampire.

The time until Brian comes out, wiping bloody hands with a towel, does not pass quickly. "He's going to be fine," he says. "It just hit his shoulder, no major damage to anything, and I got the bullet out. I'll get in contact with our med student if she's still in the area. Now, could someone explain to me why we're apparently inviting vampires in?"

Patrick is the one to go through their story this time, rattling off the details as fast as he can, impatient. Frank gets the feeling he's given up on convincing them of anything.

Frank watches Bob's eyes get wider and wider as Patrick talks about the vampire situation in Chicago, Bob's fingers clenching on the arm of the couch. Frank knows that Bob convinced his parents to move out of the city, out to somewhere rural and safe when the vampires hit, just like they all did, but it's still Bob's hometown. Frank doesn't know what to say, doesn't know how to offer comfort; he just watches Patrick talk and stays quiet, hesitant to reach out.

"Wait a second," Brian says suddenly, interrupting Patrick. "You're--familiar. Wait, are you guys--this is going to sound crazy, but did you used to sing?"

Patrick stares, and the vampire laughs, abrupt and sharp. "Uh, yeah...?" Patrick says. "We were a band. The four of us, I mean. We were called Fall Out Boy."

"Yeah, I remember now, you had that one song--where is your boy tonight, I hope he was a gentleman..." Brian trails off singing as Frank, Ray, Gerard and Bob stare at him.

"Yeah," Joe says, laughing. "Yeah, that was us."

"Yeah," and Patrick's actually smiling. "But we had to stop when our bassist got--" he glances at the vampire and doesn't finish the sentence. The vampire doesn't look at him.

And that's, huh. Frank hadn't thought of vampires as humans that used to play bass. Pencey Prep feels like it was forever ago; Frank used to be so into that shit before half the Jersey punk scene got eaten.

"So you were in the Chicago music scene," Bob says, his voice sounding stilted. "Do you know what happened to--" he stops and his jaw works, and Frank knows why. They all made the decision to cut themselves off from all friends, all family, even casual acquaintances when they got into this. Bob looks away from Patrick and down at the floor.

"You saved my life," Ray mutters, breaking the silence. "The vampire did," he says in a raised voice. "He knocked me to the ground right as I would've been shot."

The vampire just shrugs.

"Andy should stay here for the night," Brian says. He hesitates, looking at Gerard, but Gerard just raises an eyebrow back. "And if you guys--fuck." Brian rubs at his face and neck, a frustrated tic. "If the vampire stays here, one of us is going to stand guard outside where he sleeps. That's the deal."

"Fine," the vampire says, sounding almost as tired as Brian. "Thanks."

"There are plenty of empty classrooms," Brian says. "And you should be safe here."

*

Music: Have You Heard by Thea Gilmore (title song), Riches and Wonders by The Mountain Goats, and Kill All Your Friends by My Chemical Romance