Mark let out a groan as he lowered himself onto the ground, pain spiking through his leg. The sun had finally set, the last few strands of sunlight illuminating the room with a dim glow as he leaned back, resting his head against the wall of the cabin. He had found this small shack, abandoned, just inside the town’s limits. He often tried to find abandoned and forgotten homes with each town he came across, usually able to locate one easily, though sometimes he would have to make his own shelter if nothing was available. He didn’t like to stay at an Inn. Too many people around, and it would be much harder to hide injuries and such. Mark leaned over to his bag grabbing some cloth, twisting it around a piece of wood he had grabbed on his way back. His wounds were about to start healing, and this was the best way he had figured to muffle his screams short of knocking himself unconscious. He closed his eyes as he waited, thinking back to the information he had gathered. After Jack had left, he made the jump on the other vampires, taking one out before they realized what was happening. It was a rough fight. They were pretty experienced fighters for sure, whether that was form before the change or after, and it took a while but he had managed to kill one more and pinned down the other to interrogate him, but not without sustaining his own injuries. Mark grimaced a bit at the memory. As much as he despised these creatures, he would never be okay with the idea of torturing another being, but he did what he needed to do. He was already damned as it was, so it wasn’t like he was about to get any worse. He managed to finally get the location of their hideout from him after a few rounds with his stake. Turns out Mark hadn’t been that far off. They were another 100 or so yards north from their position in a cave, entrance concealed with branches and shrubbery. After getting the number of men they had hidden away, Mark killed him too, then burned the bodies.

He groaned as he felt his muscles contract, signifying the beginning of his injuries starting to mend, and stuck the cloth and wood in his mouth and braced himself. He’s gone through this process a few times over the years, but he still was never fully prepared for the pain. It felt like being shot, which unfortunately he had gotten the pleasure of experiencing, but over and over again, in every part of his body. He screamed through the gag in his mouth, head pushing painfully into the wall behind him as the pain started to spread through his body. He strained his muscles reflexively as his body endured the pain. After a few minutes, though it felt like hours, the pain started to focus in on his leg and wrist, and it intensified.

Too bad this process never healed his raw throat afterwards.

Mark was laying on the ground, panting and covered in sweat. It was night now, all light from the sun fully dispersed, and the first few strands of light from the moon were seeping through. Mark had his eyes closed, as he focused on the sounds of life around him; crickets chirping, owls hooting, wolves howling. It relaxed his mind and body, hearing the sounds of nature, things he never heard so clearly before as a human. If he focused hard enough, he could even faintly hear the lapping waves of the ocean as they smashed against the shore. He found it odd that the sound of the sea could bring him such comfort, given his fear of it, the unknown depths below, and the terrifying strength of its current. After all, it had only taken the power of a small creek bank to take his brother form him, imagine the power that lay beyond the rocky shores. With his eyes closed, he pictured the ocean, but rather than dark, black waters, filling him with dread, he was met with a deep blue, shining as light bounced off the surface creating the most beautiful sparkle. His eyes flew open as those soft blue waves morphed into deep blue eyes, and a kind warm smile.

Jack.

Mark sat up slowly, flexing his leg and wrist, all pain now gone, no trace of the injuries. Stretching out his left leg, he brought the other up to his chest, wrapping his arms around it, and stared off into space, eyes losing focus as he thought about the small and loud Irishman.

He examined the feelings he had before, when he first laid eyes on the man. He didn’t understand why he reacted the way he did, why his heart pounded, his stomach churning, but not in an unpleasant way. He had never experienced these feelings before, at least not this intense. The closest thing he could compare it too was when he and Lukas had been on a hunt back in Germany, and had the help of a friend of Lukas who worked in the same line as him. Her name was Isabelle and he had been captivated by here from the start, like a school boy with a crush. She had been thoroughly amused by him, and gave him quiet the damaged ego by the end of that hunt, much to Lukas’s immense pleasure the bastard. But even then, it was more of the feeling of lust and endearment. What he felt in those woods, what he was feeling right now, just thinking of Jack, nothing could compare to it. He felt a connection to him, something deep within him stirred, something in his soul, if he even still had one, yearned for Jack. And it scared the hell out of him. He let out a huff, berating himself a little. He was being overly dramatic. Yearning in his soul? God he sounded like some love sick poet who’s had a few to many. Still, he couldn’t deny the feeling that were there, and he couldn’t deny that Jack had felt something too. He knew he did. But what could he do about it? Tomorrow he would finish the hunt, and move on to the next. He’d never see Jack again and that’s how it should be, fore more than one reason. Mark worked alone, and even so, Jack was human, mortal.

Not a monster like him.

Mark let out a sigh, lead settling in his gut as he made his way over to the bed he had set up out of some left over linen he found around the cabin. They smelt funny and were full of dust that no amount of pounding could get out, but it was better than the ground. He settled in, feeling the tendrils of sleep start to overtake him, and as he fell under, he found that rather than screams, blood and terror greeting him in his dreams like they did every night, he was met with a lilting accent and eyes full of the ocean.

The sun was shining today, an odd thing for the season and location, but Mark certainly wasn’t complaining. He loved the sun, always had. He had been dismayed by the idea in the beginning that the sun light would bother him, but it didn’t take him long to get past the discomfort and be able to enjoy the feeling of warmth on his skin, at a higher intensity than before as well. Though right now, basking in the sun would have to wait. He was in the forest on his way to the cave described yesterday by the others, so he could finally finish this hunt. He passed the area he had been at before, and started heading north. He was about 50 yards in when he noticed tracks in the grass, about the size of a person foot. These wouldn’t be from the nest, they wouldn’t be this reckless in tracks this close to their hideout. Was there another person out here? Did one of the victims escape? He studied them further, and no, these were heading towards cave. Mark stood back up now wary of the idea of a person being here. Why would they be here? An image of Jack flashed in Marks mind but he swept it aside quickly. Jack wouldn’t be stupid enough to come back here after yesterday.

Right?

Mark couldn’t decide if he really was surprised or not when after traveling a little further he came upon said man sneaking through the woods, albeit poorly, and felt a couple different emotions flare up in him at the sight. He chose to let anger be the primary one for the moment. He walked up behind Jack as he was wading through thick mud left over from the rain yesterday spoke loudly without warning.

“What they hell are you doing out here Jack?”

Jack let out that same high pitched yelp as before, immediately trying to turn around but his feet got caught and twisted in the mud and he pitched forwards, and would have gotten a face full of mud if Mark hadn’t dove forwards, catching him and pulling him from the mud. Mark pushed him up against a tree, both hands gripping at Jacks shoulders as he stood almost pressed against him.

“Jesus Christ man! I think ya really are tryin’ ta kill me!” Jack screeched and Mark smacked his hand over his mouth.

“For fucks sake Jack, YOU’RE the one that’s going ta get us killed if you don’t shut yer mouth!” Mark spoke with an intensity he hadn’t had in a while, but between the fear he felt for Jack, the feeling of lighting in his body at his touch and proximity to him, and the anger that was being fuelled by both things, it was all he could do not to snap. “You need to keep your voice down do you hear me? The kidnappers could be anywhere around here.” Mark kept his hand over Jacks mouth until he was sure Jack got the message. Jack stared at Mark, eyes wide as saucers, cheeks tinged red. He nodded in understanding. Mark removed his hand slowly, still gripping Jacks arm as he held him against the tree. He felt Jacks warm breath against his hand as he pulled away and he had to fight the urge to shiver at the feeling. Both of them were breathing heavily in the moment with various emotions running through them, eyes locked with each other once again. Mark placed his hand flat against the trunk of the tree beside Jacks head, his eyes flickering down Jacks face to his lips and back. He felt himself leaning forwards slightly, frowned, before pushing himself back off the tree, releasing Jack on his way and ran his hands over his face.

What the hell Mark.

Jack let out a long breath and ran a shaking hand though his hair, his cheeks still red. Mark felt something burn low in his stomach as Jack pulled his hand back revealing his short but slightly tousled hair and flushed face.

Okay, moving on.

“What are you doing out here Jack? Do you even realise how dangerous it is out here? I told you to leave this alone.” Mark was trying very hard to keep his cool with the emotions running rampant through him. Jack was still flustered but he could see determination set in his eyes as he argued back.

“This is my town, my people, and I want ta help Mark.” Mark actually felt his knees go a little weak at hearing Jack say his name for the first time. The way it rolled off Jacks tongue, the pronounced ‘R’, the rough ‘K’, he never thought he’d love hearing his own name that much. He mentally shook himself. He was letting himself get far too distracted, and right now that could get them killed.

“I’m worried about the people in my town, my friends an’ family, an’ I was worried about-” He cut off abruptly, blush retuning full force to his face and Mark refused to let a smile slip. He needed to be angry right now.

“I know ya want to help Jack, but ya don’t understand what we are up against right now. Please, go back to the town, I will handle this then I’ll come back and-” Marks words were cut off as he was thrown to the ground from behind. He landed with an oomph, and felt knees digging into his back. His head jerked up at the sounds of Jack yelling his name. Two men had grabbed Jack and were dragging him away, despite his desperate attempts at fighting back. Marks heart clenched at the fear in Jacks eyes, but quickly gave way to another emotion as his view was cut off by someone standing in front of him. He felt hands in his hair pulling him up as Mark groaned in protest. Two others stood beside him each taking one of Marks arms, hands digging into his skin like claws. He came face to face with his attacker, a sneer on the man’s face.

“So you’re the little shit that’s been tracking us everywhere we go. God, you have been driving us up a wall, being such a pain in the ass. You fucking hunters think you’re so much better than us, but all you’re going to do is get yourself killed.” The man spat at him as he brought Marks head down against his knee. He felt his nose break on impact and tasted blood in his mouth but he ignored that. It was nothing compared to the rage he felt at seeing Jack get dragged away, and the fear in his eyes as he called for Mark.

It had been a long time since he felt anger like this.

He looked back up at the man, and he gave a cold smile. He watched as the man visibly flinch at the look before composing himself and ordered the other two to hold him still as he brought out a stake from his coat. They brought Mark to his knees, pulling him back by his hair and exposing his chest as the man in front of him brought the stake up to strike. “That little Irish boy will be a nice snack for us before we move on again.” He mocked as he moved to strike.

Oh, wrong thing to say.

As he brought the stake down, Mark dropped his shoulder to the left hard, bringing one of his captors down with him covering him as the stake was driven into their back. They screamed and released Mark as he dove at his other captor’s knees taking him down. He grabbed his own stake and using both hands slammed it down forcefully into the man’s chest. Taking it out as he stood he looked back at the last man who had retrieved his own weapon form his friends corpse, with unadulterated fury on his face. The man was trying to keep his face passive, but Mark could see the fear seeping through the cracks.

“I’m sorry,” Mark started as he moved around him, like a monster staking its prey. “But who’s going to get themselves killed here?” Mark moved in closer and the man stepped back. “Because it seems like the only people getting themselves killed, are idiots like you,” He flashed forwards, shoving him against the tree, the same one he held Jack against only minutes before, but this time, the current he felt pulsing through him was anything but positive. “Who think they can get away with your bullshit.” He spat at him, pulled back and drove the stake into his chest. Mark dropped the body to the ground, wiped the blood off his face and set off to the cave.

Set off to get Jack.