Chapter Text
Coy was the only vampire that he knew which couldn’t stay conscious at the sight of blood. He discovered this when he’d outgrown fruity flavored plasma packs and his dad took him out to hunt for his first human.
He was 16, and being a teenager would be the longest period of Coy’s immortal life, once you drink the blood of your first human your cells stop aging. His dad froze at 24, he had to grow his beard long down his neck in order to keep suspicions from raising about his everlasting youth.
Having a teenage son, his parents had to put on an act of the perfect nuclear family until his high school graduation. He only had one more year until the life he knew was over.
Coy never had a bunch of friends. He refrained from getting too close to people, knowing that inevitably he would outlive them and they would eventually realize that he’s been sixteen for about a decade too long. They could take to the police, start a riot with pitchforks and set fire to their white picket fenced house.
Most vampires don’t really live in the gothic mansions, on high mountains with frail black branches sprawling across the yard. If they did, It would be like alerting the entire community that they’re a pack of blood-suckers.
When Coy graduates high school and rids himself from this small town, he and his parents would join the rest of their relatives in a home where they all lived together. It was technically a mansion, but it wasn’t close to the gloomy darkness he’d anticipated.
Coy never minded his own loneliness. It’s true that vampires never develop the passion for socialization that an average person does. What he did mind was the body that he would be frozen in.
Before his dad took him out on his first real hunt, he stripped himself of his clothes and stared at himself in the mirror. He had thin limbs that seemed to project each of his bones, he looked like he could be snapped like a carrot.
Coy's mother told him not to mind his body, that it was beautiful in a way that a mother has to tell his son. He just wishes that they decided to place him in a sport long before he decided for himself to neglect the unnatural strength he was gifted with.
He could probably lift a car with one hand if he really tried, but being the sensitive skinny kid that he was, he’d cry every time something got hurt because of him. Whether it be a flower or an animal or another kid. He couldn’t control his strength so he withheld it from himself. It would’ve been nice if he’d gotten the physical benefits of his strength, but unfortunately it was more about magic than muscle mass.
“Are you sure that you’re ready for this, honey? We can wait until we’re sure you aren’t due for another growth spurt, maybe you can even be as tall as your uncle Jimmy!” Coy’s mother clasped her hands together as she looked between Coy and his father standing in the front door. It was wishful thinking, Jimmy was well above 6 feet and had a snazzy mustache, Coy was nothing like him. But he couldn’t admit that his stomach was churning and if he did anything more than nod his head yes and no he would surely projectile vomit.
“Coy’s well due to becoming a man.” His father patted a hand firmly on his shoulder. He was a lot stronger than Coy but it actually showed, with his huge arms they hardly looked related.
With that they walked out into the night in a tense silence.
“You’ll know when you see the right victim. Make sure that they’re not too big, but don’t be cruel, your mother wouldn’t forgive me if your first kill couldn’t defend themselves. Be a good man, as well as a strong one.”
Coy tried soaking in his advice, but the contradictions made his brain fuzzy. How could he be a good man at all when he’s actively hunting for a human? He wasn’t a man at all, he knew he was a monster.
“I wish that I could stay, my unusually pale son—“
“You know that I have sensitive skin, dad. The sun makes me itch.” Coy defended, but was silenced by his father bringing a finger to his lips.
“I have to be back to your mother before she goes to coffin. You will do just fine, Coy. You are a Von Piso.” His father patted him on the shoulder once again and his usually cold eyes held a sorrowed glow that told Coy he didn’t have much faith in him at all. Plenty of young vampires don’t survive their first hunt, especially skinny twink vampires like Coy.
“You really have to leave, Dad? What if I don’t— what if they rough me up?” Coy scratched the back of his neck, trying to stop himself from implying outwardly that he didn’t fully believe he would make it home. His dad was playing patient at the moment, but Coy knew since birth that he was silently resented for his cowardice. As their only son, he’s obliged to bring pride to the Von Piso family name. Yeah, right!
“You are to believe in yourself, or you are to die at the hand of a human.”
His father jumped into the air and spun into a bat with a poof of dust. He flapped his wings and Coy was suddenly alone in the center of a stone road.
He gulped hard and racked his brain on every library book about vampirism he’s ever checked out. He’d always throw in a romance novel or a storybook to keep the librarians from sniffing him out, maybe they would even confiscate his card, he got it laminated.
He scratched at his arms and the only sounds he could hear were the mosquitoes buzzing past and the crickets rubbing against each other in the bushes. Bugs weren’t interested in Coy, since the human blood he was born with was replaced with his vampiric acid during vampire puberty, he hadn’t had a mosquito bite since around 14. Yes, he was a late bloomer.
The town was silent and the moon and yellow streetlights illuminated the empty roads. He was standing in the town square like he was stuck in the mud, and it was exactly how it sounded. A square of stone path, splitting off into roads with houses built hundreds of years ago and in this area of town were well taken care of. There was a fountain in the center that sputtered water from the head of a gargoyle.
Coy managed to pick his feet off of the ground and started stalking around carefully. His soft footsteps echoed and Coy didn’t want to be out in this cold dark night for any longer than absolutely necessary.
“Hello?” A voice called from behind him, and he went completely rigid. He didn’t turn around immediately. The voice belonged to a boy, or a man more like. Coy was to be more accurately described as a boy.
A hand was placed on his shoulder that turned him around. It was a brunette man with sharp blue eyes, looking at him like he was wounded.
“Are you okay? Why are you alone out here? Wait a minute— Coy? Coy Von Piso?” And with that, Coy recognized him from their public high school. Kill me, he thought, if Coy were to choose him for his first victim, it could be more likely tied back to him because they were classmates.
His name was Anthony Po— short for Pomeranian, like the dog. But his friends called him Anthony. He had lots of friends, and Coy figured he was to refer to him as Anthony Po. He was in his math class, gym, and art. Coy wondered if Anthony Po knew this. He could’ve, but Coy already assumed that he wouldn’t have known his name.
“I—uh—“ Coy sputtered and ran through a thousand things to say in his head but none of them were really made of words. Just random syllables and pictures that he tried to make sense of.
“Hi.” A dumbstruck smile hit Coy, and he cringed as Anthony’s concern was replaced with caution and maybe fear. Was Anthony afraid of him? He figured that he had to look a little intimidating, with his checkered shirt tucked into his jorts under the eery half full moon.
“Do you need help?” He willed away his fear for the genuine will to help Coy.
Coy stood there for a moment, opening his mouth like he was about to speak.
“You’re on the basketball team, right?” He offered, trying to knock down his guard. He was told that in these moments, his vampiric instincts would take over, even on his first hunt, and it would simply come to him, like breathing.
But as Coy waited for his violent urges to settle in he realized that he would have to take matters into his own hands.
“Yeah, I don’t think I've ever seen you at a game.” He offered a charming smile, the kind that made the cheerleading team drool over him. He had sharp teeth and a hairy chin.
Coy decided to lunge at him before he could let himself think, he held his breath and tackled him to the ground.
“What the hell?!”
Coy attempted a vicious growl, but he was painfully aware of the fact that he resembled more of a stubby weiner dog than a terrifying monster. He moved on before Anthony could have time to judge him for it and used his sharp front teeth to slice at his neck while Anthony was attempting to fight Coy off of him.
“Gah!”
Coy’s strength finally kicked in and he grabbed firmly onto Anthony's forearms beneath him, and raised his head to get a better view. Maybe if he could soak in his first hunt then the rest of them wouldn’t be so bad.
Coy knew that after this, hunting would have to become a regular thing. He wasn’t sure that he was truly ready for it at all, or if he would ever be, but he had a gut feeling that if it weren’t now then it might not be ever.
Oh gosh, Coy thought to himself once he got a good view of Anthony beneath him. He didn’t get a firm bite on his neck, instead leaving a cut on the side and dark red blood slowly dripped onto the rocks beneath him.
His jaw was tense and his body was twitching like he hadn’t accepted the fact that he was overpowered yet.
But Coy Von Piso knew that blood has always given him the woozies. Ironic, isn’t it? It’s like those cases of humans being allergic to water that he would spend too much time thinking about, how do they even survive? The idea interested Coy because maybe if humans didn’t need to digest water, then it was possible the same went for blood on the other side of the coin. But then his mother told him that was in fact not how it worked and he was let down.
Coys face drained of all its color which truly wasn’t saying anything at all. His head started spinning as he stared at the pumping blood, he could hear Anthony’s heart beating and his insides smelt like a 5 star restaurant. Coy's senses betrayed him, all of the informational overload to his brain made everything spin.
“Catch me—“ Coy mumbled before his eyes rolled back and he fainted directly on Anthony’s chest.
When Coy’s body went limp and his grip on Anthony released, he was quick to roll from underneath him and use his jock reflexes to bounce back to his feet very quickly.
He stood there for a moment, catching his breath and panting like he had just ran a marathon. He touched the slice on his neck that had already closed, and winced slightly as it wasn’t finished fully healing, maybe for another 30 seconds.
Instead of running to the police station two blocks down— because everything in this town was two blocks down or less— Anthony crouched over Coys unconscious body. He couldn’t help his curiosity, and reached out to touch his face.
His impossibly pale skin was freezing cold, like his body had no sign of live. Anthony at first assumed that Coy had died, right on top of him, and his body was decomposing at an impossible fast speed.
Anthony had seen somebody die before, somebody like him, and their bodies begin decomposing immediately. Their skin goes as cold as ice and their blood pools to the bottom within seconds, turning the body bruise colored. Which hadn’t happened to Coy yet, but Anthony had enough sense to know that no human in the summer could possibly be this pale.
He touched his lips, pulling them up to reveal two elongated canine teeth. Anthony’s face was now drained of his color, he traced the teeth with his finger and touched the sharp point.
“Those teeth… he’s so strong… I don’t think I've ever even seen him lift his backpack without straining himself…”
Anthony stumbled backwards once he realized what this meant. Coy Von Piso, the boy who had a doctors note every day of gym class which everyone assumed was due to his wimpyness, was a werewolf. Just like Anthony. It was the only possible logical answer.