FIC: Closed My Door To Dreams, 1/1, Part I
Title: Closed My Door To Dreams
Author: get_on_top86
Team: Guitar
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: ~18600
Prompt #: 2 - The Supernatural
Summary: A werewolf makes ex-hunter turned cop Adam Lambert go back to a life he doesn't want. When Kris Allen, a shadow from his past shows up, he re-evaluates everything he knows.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Notes: Written for the Summer Heat Wave. While it's not ser in the Supernatural universe, it does use its lore and premise. Still, you don't need to know the show to understand the fic.
Closed My Doors To Dreams
I. Adam
“So, what do you think?”
Adam looked at his partner for a second, keeping his eyes away from the scene before him for a bit longer. There was nothing much to look at, really, because whoever had done this must have been one morbid fucker, if the state of the body was any indication. He took a deep breath, put his hands inside his jacket’s pockets where they curled, forming fists. Then, he looked back at the body. There was too much blood around, mostly dry and on the walls, and Adam had to suppress not only a shudder, but also the sudden rage forming somewhere low in his stomach.
His partner, Anoop, pressed a hand to his elbow, squeezed a little even, and motioned towards the back of the alley where a couple of officers were trying to shoo back the cats that had followed the smell of dead flesh. Adam grimaced. He half closed his eyes, his shoes scratching the ground when he took a step forward. Still too much blood. The woman’s body was barely recognizable, and Adam had to look back again.
The press was there already, too, all of them bugging the cops for just one ounce of information while they held their cameras, ready to get just a nice picture of the massacre before them. Sometimes Adam had a hard time dealing with this part of human behaviour.
When Anoop looked at him, too smart eyes boring into his own with that intense stare that Adam had learned to recognise as impatience, he coughed, shrugging then a little. There was nothing much to think about this business right now. They needed autopsies, reports, interviews, and whatnot. Sometimes he really missed the old job, where it was just Brad and him jumping every stupid protocol and solving cases in a week, tops. But that had been different. That had been… another life, one that he didn’t care for anymore.
Adam didn’t regret his choices, he had never been the kind to dwell too much on the past, but he had grown up in a certain way, and sometimes it was hard to forget. When Brad had died and he had started being best friends with a bottle of whisky, when not even Kris and his wonderful, adorable eyes had been enough to shake him out of his depression, he had decided that it was time to leave it all behind. He had taken his car, his weapons and his past, and had forged himself a new life. A few false records, a couple of contacts here and there, and he had ended up a cop in a not too small but certainly not big anonymous town. Now, four years later, as a detective, things were slightly different, if death was still a big part of his life.
He stood straighter, and looked back at his shiny Mustang parked across the street. It was time to go home, maybe to get drunk and sleep this off until he could chew on it tomorrow.
“Nothing much to do here anymore, huh?” said Anoop next to him, making Adam’s eyes focus on him once again. He was one of the few people Adam had met that was good at deciphering his silences.
Anoop was a tall but skinny guy, and his intellectual (almost bordering on geeky) appearance made him easy to approach, so much that he almost always ended up playing the role of the good cop. Adam had never pictured himself playing the bad cop, but the girls in the office insisted that when he didn’t do the eyeliner thing and scrunched his face just so, he totally pulled of the menacing badass thing.
He shrugged again. “Yeah, I think I’m heading home. Want a ride?”
“Sure, yes.”
“But no whining about the music,” Adam warned, one finger pointing at Anoop even as they started walking towards the car.
Anoop groaned behind him, hiding his hands inside his jacket’s pockets. “Not another David Bowie lesson, please.”
“Look at you, honey, disregarding my teachings on the glorious genre of glam rock.”
Anoop groaned yet again, and Adam let himself smile just a little. Anoop was the only one who got to whine about his music, and Adam wondered about that as they walked towards car, feet heavy on the ground. Adam was glad that they had learned to adapt to each other, even after their initial friction. Despite his depression and mood changes, Adam was still an unrepentant queen with a flare for the dramatic, and Anoop was a prep kid who hadn’t seemed to be ready to deal with that. A couple of snappy words and some shared secrets over a bottle of whisky, though, had given them some sort of middle ground, and it seemed that they had grown attached to each other. In the end, there was a lot more to both of them that just their appearances.
They drove through the dark streets, cars whooshing past them faster than they should, and the city lights casting shadows inside the car. It had been a long while since no one other than Anoop or Tommy had sat shotgun in the car. Adam set his lips into a thin line, not thinking of Brad, lost to the darkness, or of Kris, wherever he was.
“Everything all right, man?” Anoop had a soft, rumbling voice that filled the car with ease, and it startled Adam out of his thoughts.
Adam looked at him for a brief moment, turning then his eyes back to the road. Once again, he shrugged.
“You look thoughtful, is all,” murmured Anoop, not insisting more on the subject. Anoop had always been good at knowing when to push a subject, and when to shut his trap.
Adam quirked his lips to the side in an almost smirk, and saw a mirroring expression in Anoop’s mouth through the corner of his eyes. It occurred to him how little he truly knew of the man, how little the man knew about him. It was better like this, probably, keeping it strictly business. Then again, Adam did like him, and he knew Anoop worried about him in a way that only his family had done before. Adam knew he had to be grateful for that, and he was.
Fifteen minutes after the first screech of the wheels against the asphalt, Adam stopped the car in front of a big building, its red bricks shining even in the pale light of the moonlight. Anoop nodded his thanks, stopping before opening the car door to look at Adam one more time.
“Megan and Matt said to bring you home for dinner some day, so you tell me when.”
Adam smiled at him, genuine this time. Megan was Anoop’s girlfriend, a sweet, crazy woman who adored Adam and never got tired of telling him just how handsome and thin he was, proceeding then to feed him in the same fashion she fed her own son. Adam loved her in a way that he had never loved any woman before.
And then there was Matt, the official roommate who everyone knew was nothing but the third one in the weird Anoop/Megan/Matt relationship. He was cute and loud, and he made Adam laugh which, given the way life had treated him, was something he truly needed.
“Sure thing, ‘Noop.”
“Have a good night, Adam. See you tomorrow.”
“See ya.”
*********
Adam yawned all the way to the forensics department, cursing the fact that his body seemed to assimilate caffeine so easily. The three cups of black coffee he had had this morning should have kicked in already, but the effect had been lost somewhere without Adam noticing. It pretty much sucked. Maybe clubbing last night hadn’t been such a great idea, but then again, he couldn’t be held responsible for what he did when Tommy pouted.
He shrugged a little when Anoop eyed him curiously, but then they were both crossing the huge metallic doors that protected the place, and Adam was shivering involuntarily. Even after all these years, he still found morgues to be creepy, chilly places. Their steps echoed against the pristine white walls as they walked towards the doctor, who had the body out already. Even before they stopped walking, Adam’s eyes were already eying the purplish flesh of the woman, her shrunk features, small breasts and long legs, along with the now sewed cuts that covered almost all of her body. Adam had the fleeting thought that she had been an attractive woman.
Anna Browne, white Caucasian female, twenty-two years old, single, working as a secretary for some important lawyer firm, described as nice and shy by her friends and co-workers. Adam had read her file, but as always, there was nothing much in there to tell him who Anna had been, or who might have wanted to do this to her.
When the doctor started rambling, Adam didn’t pay much attention, knowing that anything he might have wanted to hear would be in a report that was already on his desk. He didn’t like reports much, they didn’t tell him anything. He had to see things with his own two eyes, keep the images burned in his retinas and turn them there until they told him something. His eyes stayed on the body, scanning every inch, every muscle, every cut, and before he had time to realize it, he was reaching a conclusion he should have reached as soon as he had seen the state of the body.
“Hey, doc,” he said then, his eyes going up towards the thin, small man that was Doctor Logan. The Doctor looked at him with something akin to a glare, but Adam just smiled sheepishly, his expression the face of innocence. “Was her heart ripped out?” he asked, looking at the threads that kept the body sewed together. Man, it was plain nasty.
“Actually, it was. But how did you know?”
Adam nodded, hid his hands inside his pockets. “Just a hunch.”
After they were done with the forensic, they got in the car, where Adam drove under Anoop’s directions. Still, he almost passed half of the streets the man pointed at, focused as he was on his own ideas. It had been a long time since he had seen a werewolf, and damn if Adam wasn’t feeling that old rush inside his guts, the one that was telling him to go home and get some silver bullets out. His past as a hunter was something that he continuously tried to forget, but his instincts always kicked in. Any case, there was no point in looking for this thing until later that night. He didn’t know who it was yet, anyway.
Adam dared one look at Anoop when he noticed him shifting in his seat, looking at the window so all Adam could see of his face was a shadowy profile. Anoop hadn’t said a thing, not this time, but Adam knew that he suspected him of not being exactly what he claimed to be: a normal boy raised by a loving family whose only wish had been to fight in the name of the law. What Anoop thought exactly? Well, Adam couldn’t know, but he was sure that ‘Noop’s smart eyes could read in between the lines of Adam’s lies.
A few minutes later, while they were trapped in the city traffic, Anoop turned towards him again. There was a frown between his eyebrows as he regarded Adam. “Have you ever seen anything like this before?”
“No, never.” Adam was quick to answer, knowing the question would come up eventually. He smiled, trying for charming even when he knew he had no affect whatsoever on Anoop.
Anoop answered with a non-committal sound and went back to staring out the window. Adam eyed him carefully. It wasn’t the first time they ran into something supernatural, and even if Adam trusted the man as much as he could allow himself to, he wasn’t sure he wanted to tell him the truth about his past. First rule of the family: do what you do, shut up about it. Adam saw no point in dragging Anoop into something like that, much less now that Adam didn’t hunt anymore. In his experience, everyone who got involved in that world ended up jaded, and all he wanted for Anoop was for him to be a good cop and enjoy his life with Megan and Matt.
It was almost noon when they reached their destination. Adam parked the car with a swift move, turning off the radio and then stepping out of the car. As they walked towards Mrs. Browne’s house, Adam spied the neighbourhood. It was a nice place, all big houses and white picket fences, and Adam could imagine the ad campaign: A place for your kids to grow up! Large backyards, perfect for pets and barbecues! It all made Adam a little sick, but then again, he couldn’t fool himself: even when he had dreamed of a normal life, something like this had never been part of it. A big stage, cool clothing and a nice boyfriend to come home to, maybe, but certainly not white picket fences.
Mrs. Browne’s house was a nice example of what was easy to find in a neighbourhood such as the one they were in. It was so perfect that it sickened Adam, made him wonder about how parched were the lives of the people living in a place such as this, just how many open wounds a pretty house like this hid. It was the kind of place that homed people who would turn his back on him the second the saw him wearing a bit of eyeliner, the kind of people who would make their children lie just to keep up the perfect family image. Definitely not the place of his dreams.
Adam’s eyes scanned the place, bright orbs sending photographs to his brain, that he would later recall and stash somewhere in his head. There was nothing remarkably original inside the house, and now that Adam knew exactly what had killed Anna Browne, there was nothing that could inspire his interest in the place.
Mrs. Browne broke down the moment they entered the living room, even before she could play the nice housewife and offer them something to drink. Adam fought the instinct that asked him to roll his eyes. Some of the times Kris had called him an insensitive bastard, he had been right… And it wasn’t that Adam didn’t care, just that he couldn’t handle women crying, much less when he needed to get some information out of them. He cringed internally, wondering when he had become such a heartless person. He used to care, or at least he used to try to care, but bitterness seemed to be consuming him more and more.
Anoop touched his elbow, squeezed. It was the usual way he had of obtaining Adam’s attention. They walked a couple of steps away from the crying woman and Anoop signalled upstairs with his eyes, looking then back at Adam.
“Why don’t you go talk to the girl, Adam? I’ll stay here.”
Adam grinned, nodding. At least Anoop knew how terrible Adam was with these kinds of things. Then again, women felt way more comfortable talking to Anoop’s kind brown eyes than to someone that looked as different as Adam did. It’s not that Adam didn’t try, toning the make-up down to just foundation and wearing casual but regular clothes, but he guessed something about him screamed I like glitter and leather, so sue me. And not that he couldn’t charm the ladies, but sometimes he just didn’t feel like trying.
Anna had a little sister called Kathleen, she was fifteen years old, and she probably knew more about Anna’s life than her mom did. Adam climbed the stairs, keeping his hands inside his pockets and thinking that the girl probably knew if her sister was hanging with someone strange, or maybe if she had some sort of diary that could lead him in the right direction. It was a fact that little sisters and friends often knew a lot more about a person than parents did.
A few minutes later, Adam found himself sitting on a way too small bed (seriously, who fit in that thing?) and surrounded by more dolls than he ever wanted to see in his life. Dolls were creepy, all right. Kathleen was a sweet girl, and she was in that age in which a simple quirked smile from Adam made her blush, which is not to say that she gave any information easily. She would squeal and giggle, but whenever she was approached about the subject of her sister she would frown and turn a tensed jaw in Adam’s direction. It was as if she could turn from a happy teenager to an angry, scarred grown up woman in no time, and Adam felt sad thinking that what had happened to her sister would change Kathleen forever.
Still, he insisted and insisted, and despite Kathleen’s protectiveness towards her sister’s memories, Adam managed to extract the tale of a dangerous looking guy that Anna had been dating from her. Mysterious and attractive, with a weird glint in his eye that Anna always said made him sexy. Kathleen told him that his name was Daniel, and Adam knew he had found his werewolf.
***********************
Back at the station, Adam sat grumpily behind his desk and examined the picture that Kathleen had given him. There was that Daniel guy, his arm around Anna’s shoulder. They were smiling. Adam was right: Anna had been an attractive woman, not extremely pretty but sweet-looking.
He couldn’t be sure that Daniel was his guy, of course, but with werewolves the smallest of clues was always something. Luckily enough, they seemed to almost always go for people that were a part of their lives, rather than just random people, so he had a good chance here. He knew where his hunting grounds were, and he had a suspect; he guessed it was enough to go on. He would be the one hunting tonight.
An angry Anoop dropping a folder on his desk brought him out of his reverie. Adam jumped a little, leaving the cup of coffee he had been drinking next to Anna’s report and pushing Daniel’s picture inside his jacket’s pocket. Anoop was fuming, though, and not paying much attention to his antics.
“What’s up, ‘Noop?” he asked, trying for casual and coming as nervous. Anger was a rare emotion in Anoop, and quite frankly, it scared Adam a little. Maybe it was because the calmed ones always exploded more outrageously than the quick-tempered ones, or maybe just because the angered look didn’t fit Anoop’s soft features at all.
“Something wrong?” Adam prodded when he got no answer.
Anoop turned in his direction, pressing both hands to his desk and sighing. “Forget about the case, man, the feds are taking over.”
“The FBI?” Adam raised one eyebrow, sitting back on his chair.
Anoop just nodded, still fuming and possibly mulling the situation over in his head. Adam was sure Anoop had fought with the Captain about this, and that that was why he was so angry. For all her endearing comments, Kara could be a bitch when she wanted to, and Anoop and she had always been good at butting heads.
Any case, there was no way of turning this around now. If Adam had learned something during his years in the force, it was that ranking was fundamental: if the feds wanted the case, then there was nothing they could do. In any other situation, he would be fuming right next to Anoop, and maybe even presenting his own complaints to Kara, but not this time. Once Adam had finished with the werewolf, there would be nothing for the feds to find. It even played in his advantage, not having to keep Anoop’s smart nose out of his business.
“Hey, calm down, would you?” he said finally, surging forward and pressing his elbows to the desk. Anoop was leaning back on it, staring at the wall in front of Adam’s cubicle, where a big round clock ticked away. Adam kept talking, though, knowing by past experience that Anoop was listening. “Last time this happened the Cap was so angry that she threatened to have you suspended, so just-”
“What, Adam? Just what?”
“Chill out, man. Suck it up.” Adam shrugged. “We have worse problems.”
“Oh, yeah? Like what?”
Adam shook his head, half closing his eyes in a resigned gesture. “Your fashion, of course. Lime-green sweaters? Really, honey?”
Almost immediately, Anoop’s shoulders were shaking with uncontained laughter, and Adam scored himself a mental point. From anger to laughter in 0.1 seconds; he was good.
“You fucker,” replied Anoop finally, shoving at him. “Megs says I look sexy.”
“Yes, well, the girl’s in love, can’t blame her for her lack of judgement.”
Anoop fake-glared at him steadily while putting an offended hand on his chest, and then he was chuckling. Adam joined in the laughter, and soon enough the anger seemed to fade completely away from Anoop’s demeanour. He would still feel raw, and Adam knew it, but at least the initial reckless rage was gone.
“Hey, I’m going to get a drink with the guys later, wanna come?” Adam asked after a while.
Anoop shook his head. “Not tonight. I have to get home early at least one day a week. But hey, how does Saturday sound for a boring lunch with your partner? Megan misses you, and she keeps nagging me for details about your diet.”
Adam rolled his eyes, shaking his head at the same time. “She just wants to fatten me up. Tell her to keep the calories to a minimum.”
“Will do.”
******************
Later that night, Adam sat at a booth in their usual pub surrounded by who he guessed could be called the guys. It was just like in the movies, all the big, macho guys from the department getting together to have a few (or too many) beers while bitching about the feds and their superiors, repeating over and over what they’d do if they wouldn’t be risking their jobs. In the midst of all that testosterone, there was Tommy, who liked to look at Adam from behind his beer and roll his eyes at all the big egos in the room.
Adam didn’t join the boys as much as they’d like, which meant that they always gave him a weird look, something that reminded him that he wasn’t a part of the gang, one of them. He didn’t really care, not when he liked sparkly stuff and pretty boys, and all these guys seemed to enjoy was beer and pool. He had nothing against them, but it was nearly impossible for them to find a common ground. He smirked when Gokey gave him a look from above his beer, clearly stating his displeasure with Adam’s presence; Adam would have been worried otherwise, since all their dynamic was based on mutual displeasure.
He took the last swig of his drink (something fruity and bright, and he would be lying if he said he didn’t ask for it just to piss the beer-drinking gang). Then, he removed his eyes from Gokey’s and looked to his right, giving Tommy a small apologetic smile right before he stood up.
“I have to go, boys,” he said, smirk playing on his lips while he threw some money on the table. No one answered. In fact, they merely looked up. Adam shrugged, grabbed his jacket and pulled it on while he walked towards the door, nodding slightly towards Ed, the owner. He was almost outside when Tommy’s voice, along with a tiny hand on his shoulder, stopped him:
“Leaving so soon?” he asked, teeth worrying his lower lip.
Adam shrugged again, smiling down at him. Tommy was not an actual cop, but a techie, which meant that he wasn’t looked down upon for his lack of formal clothes or the way he styled his hair. And thank the Lord, because Adam loved his stupid haircut that almost always covered his pretty eyes. Adam liked Tommy, with his pretty face and his no bull-shit attitude. He liked that he was a techie that played guitar, he liked his nail-polish and his eye make-up, just as much as he liked his insistence that he was straight. The first time they had shared a bed, Tommy had claimed that Adam had sex magic powers, and that his sexuality hadn’t even stood a chance in his presence.
Adam leaned down, and pressed a kiss to his cheek, leaving one hand on his shoulder. “Sorry, got things to do.”
“Things? Or boys?”
Adam laughed, an open if low sound. Tommy was straightforward, but Adam had a hard time not finding him adorable when he was looking at him so sternly and with his hands on his hips.
Tommy had had a disastrous affair once, and it seemed that since then he had resigned himself to half-assed relationships and one-night stands. Given Adam’s own destroyed heart, they had chosen to share their loneliness occasionally. They went out clubbing, they drank and they fucked, and that was all there was to it, and as far as Adam was concerned, it was one of the most honest relationships he’d ever had. Not that he didn’t enjoy the random bar hook-ups, but when it came down to it, he was much more comfortable with Tommy’s easy banter and calloused hands.
“You know you’re the only one, babe,” Adam said after a while, smile parting his lips and hip jutting forward.
Tommy snorted, rolling his dark brown eyes. “Sure I am, Adam, sure I am… So who’s gonna take me home now, huh?”
Adam eyed the table from where some of the guys were looking at them, and tightened his hold on Tommy’s shoulder instinctively; it wasn’t that they had an exclusive thing, but Adam was protective of him.
“Gokey there looks like he might be interested,” he said, watching him grimace with an amused twinkle in his eyes. “Hey, you know that attitude of his has to be overcompensating for something, honey.”
“Ugh, don’t even.”
Adam chuckled, squeezing Tommy’s shoulder. “Maybe I could just take you home now.”
“Won’t break your plans for the night, stud?” He crossed his arms over his chest, and Adam shook his head, smiling. “Then let me get my jacket.”
Adam watched him leave, his tiny, round ass swaying all the way back to the table, where he said his goodbyes among a chorus of laments from the guys. He didn’t understand why they found Tommy’s make-up so endearing, but his own so menacing. If it was a size matter, then they had never witnessed Tommy’s mean streak.
As Tommy came back to him, he found himself thinking that maybe, in another life, he would have been the guy for him. He was a perfect match, he was pretty sure of that, but as much as he believed in fate, he was going to have to defy it if Tommy was its answer for him. He cared for Tommy, probably more that he wanted to admit to himself, but that didn’t stop him from wondering about Kris every night, and it didn’t stop him from calling him for a few strained words every month.
Once inside the warm cocoon that was Adam’s car, Tommy slapped his hand before he could put on some music, and when Adam groaned he just mumbled something about it being nice to let the guest pick the music. Tommy was some kind of musical guru, always spouting dates, album names of every period, every genre. Adam was sometimes amazed, and it didn’t hurt that Tommy’s favourites were some of Adam’s as well.
“So, what plans do you have, huh?” Tommy questioned after a while. He was staring outside, though, the night-light casting yellow shadows over his features.
Adam shrugged noncommittally. “Nothing important.”
“Sure thing, stud muffin.” Tommy looked at him for a second, one eyebrow raised while one of his hands went to remove his hair from his own face. He did that: it was one of the unconscious gestures Adam had gotten used to by now. “Thanks for the ride, though.”
“You should really get a car. I mean, there are some places with pretty good deals and nice rides and-”
“But you know I can’t afford it, Adam.” He looked at him this time, his tone whiny and his lips turned into a pout. Cute, really, the way he almost always did that to get into his pants. Not that Adam needed a lot of convincing.
They didn’t say anything more for a while, content to just ride side by side. They were comfortable enough to share silences, and Adam liked that, made him think that Tommy deserved a lot more than he actually had. He had told him about his financial situation and how half his money went home to his family, making him save every penny in order to survive. He would probably be able to handle gas expenses once he got a car, but the initial payment would be a bitch on his finances. Maybe Adam could do it for him, buy him a nice, cheap car that gave him a little freedom. He had the money, and pretty much nothing and no one to spend it in. And hey, he was living the way he was because of his family, and Adam saw nothing but a kind heart in that.
By the time they reached Tommy’s building, Adam had already made a resolution. He hadn’t had the means or the time to do something nice for someone before - at least something that didn’t imply salting and burning - and the idea of knowing that he could do something so simple and yet so important for someone that he cared about brought a grin to his face. When Tommy said goodbye to him with a kiss to his cheek, Adam turned and pressed their lips together for a brief instant.
“Sure you don’t want to come in?”
Adam groaned, tightening his grip on the steering wheel. “Can’t, really can’t. So keep your tempting little self away from me.”
“Fine, then, some other time.”
“Definitely, yeah.”
Tommy smiled and waved goodbye, putting a little extra sway to his ass when he walked towards the door of his building. Yep, Adam’s life wasn’t so bad, after all.
*****************
His apartment wasn’t a terribly nice place, but it was cosy enough and packed up with stuff he had acquired over the years. There were clashing pieces of furniture and kitchen appliances that Adam would never learn how to use, but he was kind of proud of his CD collection and of the racks he had filled with books. There were posters here and there, too, of old and new idols, and an extensive movie collection that he had started by buying a copy of Velvet Goldmine.
So now he had CDs; Bowie, The Beatles, Adam Ant, Lady Gaga… Classics and new waves, and maybe one shameful album of The Archies lost in between the collection (what? They sounded good in all their cheesy glory). The books… well, Adam had never taken the time to sit and read before but once he had, he had found out that he liked it. There were some crazy stuff in those things, and now they were scattered all around the place.
Tonight, though, as he walked inside the place, the last thing on his mind was the half-read copy of Battle Royale that rested on his bedside table. He walked into the room and went to his closet, where he kept his weapons stashed. He only carried his official gun these days, so he had to rummage through what Tommy had called an unhealthy amount of boots before he found the silver bullets and a suitable gun. It was hunting time, and Adam found himself surprisingly excited.
The ride towards the place where Anna’s body had been found, and what Adam assumed were the werewolf’s hunting grounds, felt short and rushed. Adam listened to some Goldfrapp, singing loudly and trying to calm his nerves. Werewolves were strong and unpredictable, and Adam hadn’t done the confident monster hunter thing in a long while.
When the wheels screeched to a stop, he was bustling with contained energy, much like a vain little kid with a new cool jacket. He was surprised to find himself thinking that he missed it. The rush and the chase, the heat and the power, and the idea that the world would be rid of one nasty little fucker by the time he got the job finished.
As it turned out, there wasn’t much of that.
Adam had been cruising the streets for about half an hour when he heard a noise: something akin to a growl. As he run, gun pressed tightly inside his fist and blood pumping fast inside his veins, he could hear trashing, moaning, maybe kicking. If the thing killed or bit someone before he got there… And then, he heard the shot. He stopped in his tracks, dumfounded for a second. Then, he was back to running. Adrenaline had kicked in, and Adam was now being lead by pure instinct, a primitive reaction that he had learned back in the days, when he was starting to hunt. It came now every time, even when he wasn’t behind a supernatural creature but behind a human crazy enough to kill another one; it was exhilarating, liberating and brutal. There was nothing but the hunt right then, and the thought made Adam run even faster.
Finally, he slowed down when he came to a barely illuminated street where a man laid on the ground, gurgling sounds coming from his bloody throat. Adam caught sight of a figure running away, his steps echoing in the empty street as he jumped over a garbage bin. The man on the ground gurgled again, one hand coming up and reaching towards the sky; Adam hesitated for a second, his eyes on the empty street where the third figure had been seconds before, but he finally ran towards the man who fought for his life. Adam crouched, ready to examine a nasty bite. Instead, he saw that the blood was coming from what was clearly a bullet wound. He stared, dumbfounded, and right before the man died in front of him, Adam realized that he was Daniel, Anna’s boyfriend, the werewolf.
So, it looked like someone had stolen his hunt.
**********************
Interlude I (Adam)
Adam doesn’t remember not knowing about monsters. He doesn’t remember being afraid of the old urban legends his classmates feared so, because what he does remember is being terrified by the the true stories. Vampires, ghouls, ghosts, and on and on the list goes… He always knew, because dad was a hunter, and he made sure his family was aware of what was lurking in the dark.
Unlike Neil, who had been ready to go out hunting since he was old enough to stand, Adam had never liked the idea. He got the necessity of it, the whole saving people, getting rid of the unnatural creatures that plagued the world. Maybe he was selfish, maybe not good enough to dedicate his life to some holy goal, or maybe his head associated hunting with sports, which had never been his strong suit. Whatever it was, what Adam wanted was the light of a stage, the fantasies of music.
Dad never pushed it, letting him peruse his theatre career, letting him turn into the weird fag who liked musicals, and letting him grown into it, fight the crowds of haters and begin the road of becoming his own person. He started taking Neil on small hunts when he was old enough, but he never missed one of Adam’s plays.
Life was easy most of the time. Adam fought bullies and closed-mindedness, but he didn’t fight demons or wendigos. Life was good.
And then, tragedy stroke. To the date, Adam doesn’t know what did it. All he knows is that one day he had a loving family, and the next day he had nothing but himself, an orphan at the age of fifteen, lost in a world full of monsters that he had always been too coward to fight. A month after the death of his family, he escaped his grandparent’s in his dad’s car, the one that had all his weapons stashed in the trunk.
Three years later he had given up every dream of bright stages, and all he had to prove that he was alive was a nice set of scars. There was the one on his back from that shifter in Illinois, the one on his knees from the ghost in San Francisco, the one on his stomach that nearly touched his navel from that creepy Frankenstein-like guy who had wanted his liver in Kansas. He had also gotten himself a nasty drinking habit, which he only supported thanks to his fake ID’s and credit card scams. Not bad for a kid, he guessed.
He met Brad on his nineteenth birthday, when he was well on his way of self-destruction. Brad was of the opinion that fashion and hunting were not exclusive, and with the right kind of nudging, he brought glitter back into Adam’s life. He made sure Adam changed his hair colour (strawberry blond, just isn’t fitting for the whole hunting in the dark thing, sweetie), learnt how to put on eyeliner, and remembered what it was like to actually enjoy life. They hunted, sure they did, but they also went to crazy clubs, drank fruity drinks and laughed as if life was worth living. For two months they did the crazy sex thing, and when that brought nothing but tears and heartbreak, they settled for epic friendship.
Two years later, he met Kris Allen. It was not one of those love at first sight kind of things, but with time, with random encounters that didn’t feel random at all, and with Kris’s twang sweet like honey on his ear, Adam fell in love. It seemed like no matter how much time passed, how dangerous the hunts turned, how much they refused to just travel together (a fact that made Brad roll his eyes continuously) Kris Allen and Adam Lambert kept meeting in the middle.
Three years later, Brad died. It was stupid, fast and unavoidable, and it left Adam broken inside, quiet and desperate, unable to even scream away the pain inside his chest. He searched Kris, and lay on his bed for two weeks. After the biggest fight in the history of Kris and Adam, Adam pulled some strings, got himself a job as a cop and abandoned hunting - and Kris - for good. After all, there was only so much heartbreak one person could take.
Continued II
Author: get_on_top86
Team: Guitar
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: ~18600
Prompt #: 2 - The Supernatural
Summary: A werewolf makes ex-hunter turned cop Adam Lambert go back to a life he doesn't want. When Kris Allen, a shadow from his past shows up, he re-evaluates everything he knows.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Notes: Written for the Summer Heat Wave. While it's not ser in the Supernatural universe, it does use its lore and premise. Still, you don't need to know the show to understand the fic.
Closed My Doors To Dreams
I. Adam
“So, what do you think?”
Adam looked at his partner for a second, keeping his eyes away from the scene before him for a bit longer. There was nothing much to look at, really, because whoever had done this must have been one morbid fucker, if the state of the body was any indication. He took a deep breath, put his hands inside his jacket’s pockets where they curled, forming fists. Then, he looked back at the body. There was too much blood around, mostly dry and on the walls, and Adam had to suppress not only a shudder, but also the sudden rage forming somewhere low in his stomach.
His partner, Anoop, pressed a hand to his elbow, squeezed a little even, and motioned towards the back of the alley where a couple of officers were trying to shoo back the cats that had followed the smell of dead flesh. Adam grimaced. He half closed his eyes, his shoes scratching the ground when he took a step forward. Still too much blood. The woman’s body was barely recognizable, and Adam had to look back again.
The press was there already, too, all of them bugging the cops for just one ounce of information while they held their cameras, ready to get just a nice picture of the massacre before them. Sometimes Adam had a hard time dealing with this part of human behaviour.
When Anoop looked at him, too smart eyes boring into his own with that intense stare that Adam had learned to recognise as impatience, he coughed, shrugging then a little. There was nothing much to think about this business right now. They needed autopsies, reports, interviews, and whatnot. Sometimes he really missed the old job, where it was just Brad and him jumping every stupid protocol and solving cases in a week, tops. But that had been different. That had been… another life, one that he didn’t care for anymore.
Adam didn’t regret his choices, he had never been the kind to dwell too much on the past, but he had grown up in a certain way, and sometimes it was hard to forget. When Brad had died and he had started being best friends with a bottle of whisky, when not even Kris and his wonderful, adorable eyes had been enough to shake him out of his depression, he had decided that it was time to leave it all behind. He had taken his car, his weapons and his past, and had forged himself a new life. A few false records, a couple of contacts here and there, and he had ended up a cop in a not too small but certainly not big anonymous town. Now, four years later, as a detective, things were slightly different, if death was still a big part of his life.
He stood straighter, and looked back at his shiny Mustang parked across the street. It was time to go home, maybe to get drunk and sleep this off until he could chew on it tomorrow.
“Nothing much to do here anymore, huh?” said Anoop next to him, making Adam’s eyes focus on him once again. He was one of the few people Adam had met that was good at deciphering his silences.
Anoop was a tall but skinny guy, and his intellectual (almost bordering on geeky) appearance made him easy to approach, so much that he almost always ended up playing the role of the good cop. Adam had never pictured himself playing the bad cop, but the girls in the office insisted that when he didn’t do the eyeliner thing and scrunched his face just so, he totally pulled of the menacing badass thing.
He shrugged again. “Yeah, I think I’m heading home. Want a ride?”
“Sure, yes.”
“But no whining about the music,” Adam warned, one finger pointing at Anoop even as they started walking towards the car.
Anoop groaned behind him, hiding his hands inside his jacket’s pockets. “Not another David Bowie lesson, please.”
“Look at you, honey, disregarding my teachings on the glorious genre of glam rock.”
Anoop groaned yet again, and Adam let himself smile just a little. Anoop was the only one who got to whine about his music, and Adam wondered about that as they walked towards car, feet heavy on the ground. Adam was glad that they had learned to adapt to each other, even after their initial friction. Despite his depression and mood changes, Adam was still an unrepentant queen with a flare for the dramatic, and Anoop was a prep kid who hadn’t seemed to be ready to deal with that. A couple of snappy words and some shared secrets over a bottle of whisky, though, had given them some sort of middle ground, and it seemed that they had grown attached to each other. In the end, there was a lot more to both of them that just their appearances.
They drove through the dark streets, cars whooshing past them faster than they should, and the city lights casting shadows inside the car. It had been a long while since no one other than Anoop or Tommy had sat shotgun in the car. Adam set his lips into a thin line, not thinking of Brad, lost to the darkness, or of Kris, wherever he was.
“Everything all right, man?” Anoop had a soft, rumbling voice that filled the car with ease, and it startled Adam out of his thoughts.
Adam looked at him for a brief moment, turning then his eyes back to the road. Once again, he shrugged.
“You look thoughtful, is all,” murmured Anoop, not insisting more on the subject. Anoop had always been good at knowing when to push a subject, and when to shut his trap.
Adam quirked his lips to the side in an almost smirk, and saw a mirroring expression in Anoop’s mouth through the corner of his eyes. It occurred to him how little he truly knew of the man, how little the man knew about him. It was better like this, probably, keeping it strictly business. Then again, Adam did like him, and he knew Anoop worried about him in a way that only his family had done before. Adam knew he had to be grateful for that, and he was.
Fifteen minutes after the first screech of the wheels against the asphalt, Adam stopped the car in front of a big building, its red bricks shining even in the pale light of the moonlight. Anoop nodded his thanks, stopping before opening the car door to look at Adam one more time.
“Megan and Matt said to bring you home for dinner some day, so you tell me when.”
Adam smiled at him, genuine this time. Megan was Anoop’s girlfriend, a sweet, crazy woman who adored Adam and never got tired of telling him just how handsome and thin he was, proceeding then to feed him in the same fashion she fed her own son. Adam loved her in a way that he had never loved any woman before.
And then there was Matt, the official roommate who everyone knew was nothing but the third one in the weird Anoop/Megan/Matt relationship. He was cute and loud, and he made Adam laugh which, given the way life had treated him, was something he truly needed.
“Sure thing, ‘Noop.”
“Have a good night, Adam. See you tomorrow.”
“See ya.”
*********
Adam yawned all the way to the forensics department, cursing the fact that his body seemed to assimilate caffeine so easily. The three cups of black coffee he had had this morning should have kicked in already, but the effect had been lost somewhere without Adam noticing. It pretty much sucked. Maybe clubbing last night hadn’t been such a great idea, but then again, he couldn’t be held responsible for what he did when Tommy pouted.
He shrugged a little when Anoop eyed him curiously, but then they were both crossing the huge metallic doors that protected the place, and Adam was shivering involuntarily. Even after all these years, he still found morgues to be creepy, chilly places. Their steps echoed against the pristine white walls as they walked towards the doctor, who had the body out already. Even before they stopped walking, Adam’s eyes were already eying the purplish flesh of the woman, her shrunk features, small breasts and long legs, along with the now sewed cuts that covered almost all of her body. Adam had the fleeting thought that she had been an attractive woman.
Anna Browne, white Caucasian female, twenty-two years old, single, working as a secretary for some important lawyer firm, described as nice and shy by her friends and co-workers. Adam had read her file, but as always, there was nothing much in there to tell him who Anna had been, or who might have wanted to do this to her.
When the doctor started rambling, Adam didn’t pay much attention, knowing that anything he might have wanted to hear would be in a report that was already on his desk. He didn’t like reports much, they didn’t tell him anything. He had to see things with his own two eyes, keep the images burned in his retinas and turn them there until they told him something. His eyes stayed on the body, scanning every inch, every muscle, every cut, and before he had time to realize it, he was reaching a conclusion he should have reached as soon as he had seen the state of the body.
“Hey, doc,” he said then, his eyes going up towards the thin, small man that was Doctor Logan. The Doctor looked at him with something akin to a glare, but Adam just smiled sheepishly, his expression the face of innocence. “Was her heart ripped out?” he asked, looking at the threads that kept the body sewed together. Man, it was plain nasty.
“Actually, it was. But how did you know?”
Adam nodded, hid his hands inside his pockets. “Just a hunch.”
After they were done with the forensic, they got in the car, where Adam drove under Anoop’s directions. Still, he almost passed half of the streets the man pointed at, focused as he was on his own ideas. It had been a long time since he had seen a werewolf, and damn if Adam wasn’t feeling that old rush inside his guts, the one that was telling him to go home and get some silver bullets out. His past as a hunter was something that he continuously tried to forget, but his instincts always kicked in. Any case, there was no point in looking for this thing until later that night. He didn’t know who it was yet, anyway.
Adam dared one look at Anoop when he noticed him shifting in his seat, looking at the window so all Adam could see of his face was a shadowy profile. Anoop hadn’t said a thing, not this time, but Adam knew that he suspected him of not being exactly what he claimed to be: a normal boy raised by a loving family whose only wish had been to fight in the name of the law. What Anoop thought exactly? Well, Adam couldn’t know, but he was sure that ‘Noop’s smart eyes could read in between the lines of Adam’s lies.
A few minutes later, while they were trapped in the city traffic, Anoop turned towards him again. There was a frown between his eyebrows as he regarded Adam. “Have you ever seen anything like this before?”
“No, never.” Adam was quick to answer, knowing the question would come up eventually. He smiled, trying for charming even when he knew he had no affect whatsoever on Anoop.
Anoop answered with a non-committal sound and went back to staring out the window. Adam eyed him carefully. It wasn’t the first time they ran into something supernatural, and even if Adam trusted the man as much as he could allow himself to, he wasn’t sure he wanted to tell him the truth about his past. First rule of the family: do what you do, shut up about it. Adam saw no point in dragging Anoop into something like that, much less now that Adam didn’t hunt anymore. In his experience, everyone who got involved in that world ended up jaded, and all he wanted for Anoop was for him to be a good cop and enjoy his life with Megan and Matt.
It was almost noon when they reached their destination. Adam parked the car with a swift move, turning off the radio and then stepping out of the car. As they walked towards Mrs. Browne’s house, Adam spied the neighbourhood. It was a nice place, all big houses and white picket fences, and Adam could imagine the ad campaign: A place for your kids to grow up! Large backyards, perfect for pets and barbecues! It all made Adam a little sick, but then again, he couldn’t fool himself: even when he had dreamed of a normal life, something like this had never been part of it. A big stage, cool clothing and a nice boyfriend to come home to, maybe, but certainly not white picket fences.
Mrs. Browne’s house was a nice example of what was easy to find in a neighbourhood such as the one they were in. It was so perfect that it sickened Adam, made him wonder about how parched were the lives of the people living in a place such as this, just how many open wounds a pretty house like this hid. It was the kind of place that homed people who would turn his back on him the second the saw him wearing a bit of eyeliner, the kind of people who would make their children lie just to keep up the perfect family image. Definitely not the place of his dreams.
Adam’s eyes scanned the place, bright orbs sending photographs to his brain, that he would later recall and stash somewhere in his head. There was nothing remarkably original inside the house, and now that Adam knew exactly what had killed Anna Browne, there was nothing that could inspire his interest in the place.
Mrs. Browne broke down the moment they entered the living room, even before she could play the nice housewife and offer them something to drink. Adam fought the instinct that asked him to roll his eyes. Some of the times Kris had called him an insensitive bastard, he had been right… And it wasn’t that Adam didn’t care, just that he couldn’t handle women crying, much less when he needed to get some information out of them. He cringed internally, wondering when he had become such a heartless person. He used to care, or at least he used to try to care, but bitterness seemed to be consuming him more and more.
Anoop touched his elbow, squeezed. It was the usual way he had of obtaining Adam’s attention. They walked a couple of steps away from the crying woman and Anoop signalled upstairs with his eyes, looking then back at Adam.
“Why don’t you go talk to the girl, Adam? I’ll stay here.”
Adam grinned, nodding. At least Anoop knew how terrible Adam was with these kinds of things. Then again, women felt way more comfortable talking to Anoop’s kind brown eyes than to someone that looked as different as Adam did. It’s not that Adam didn’t try, toning the make-up down to just foundation and wearing casual but regular clothes, but he guessed something about him screamed I like glitter and leather, so sue me. And not that he couldn’t charm the ladies, but sometimes he just didn’t feel like trying.
Anna had a little sister called Kathleen, she was fifteen years old, and she probably knew more about Anna’s life than her mom did. Adam climbed the stairs, keeping his hands inside his pockets and thinking that the girl probably knew if her sister was hanging with someone strange, or maybe if she had some sort of diary that could lead him in the right direction. It was a fact that little sisters and friends often knew a lot more about a person than parents did.
A few minutes later, Adam found himself sitting on a way too small bed (seriously, who fit in that thing?) and surrounded by more dolls than he ever wanted to see in his life. Dolls were creepy, all right. Kathleen was a sweet girl, and she was in that age in which a simple quirked smile from Adam made her blush, which is not to say that she gave any information easily. She would squeal and giggle, but whenever she was approached about the subject of her sister she would frown and turn a tensed jaw in Adam’s direction. It was as if she could turn from a happy teenager to an angry, scarred grown up woman in no time, and Adam felt sad thinking that what had happened to her sister would change Kathleen forever.
Still, he insisted and insisted, and despite Kathleen’s protectiveness towards her sister’s memories, Adam managed to extract the tale of a dangerous looking guy that Anna had been dating from her. Mysterious and attractive, with a weird glint in his eye that Anna always said made him sexy. Kathleen told him that his name was Daniel, and Adam knew he had found his werewolf.
***********************
Back at the station, Adam sat grumpily behind his desk and examined the picture that Kathleen had given him. There was that Daniel guy, his arm around Anna’s shoulder. They were smiling. Adam was right: Anna had been an attractive woman, not extremely pretty but sweet-looking.
He couldn’t be sure that Daniel was his guy, of course, but with werewolves the smallest of clues was always something. Luckily enough, they seemed to almost always go for people that were a part of their lives, rather than just random people, so he had a good chance here. He knew where his hunting grounds were, and he had a suspect; he guessed it was enough to go on. He would be the one hunting tonight.
An angry Anoop dropping a folder on his desk brought him out of his reverie. Adam jumped a little, leaving the cup of coffee he had been drinking next to Anna’s report and pushing Daniel’s picture inside his jacket’s pocket. Anoop was fuming, though, and not paying much attention to his antics.
“What’s up, ‘Noop?” he asked, trying for casual and coming as nervous. Anger was a rare emotion in Anoop, and quite frankly, it scared Adam a little. Maybe it was because the calmed ones always exploded more outrageously than the quick-tempered ones, or maybe just because the angered look didn’t fit Anoop’s soft features at all.
“Something wrong?” Adam prodded when he got no answer.
Anoop turned in his direction, pressing both hands to his desk and sighing. “Forget about the case, man, the feds are taking over.”
“The FBI?” Adam raised one eyebrow, sitting back on his chair.
Anoop just nodded, still fuming and possibly mulling the situation over in his head. Adam was sure Anoop had fought with the Captain about this, and that that was why he was so angry. For all her endearing comments, Kara could be a bitch when she wanted to, and Anoop and she had always been good at butting heads.
Any case, there was no way of turning this around now. If Adam had learned something during his years in the force, it was that ranking was fundamental: if the feds wanted the case, then there was nothing they could do. In any other situation, he would be fuming right next to Anoop, and maybe even presenting his own complaints to Kara, but not this time. Once Adam had finished with the werewolf, there would be nothing for the feds to find. It even played in his advantage, not having to keep Anoop’s smart nose out of his business.
“Hey, calm down, would you?” he said finally, surging forward and pressing his elbows to the desk. Anoop was leaning back on it, staring at the wall in front of Adam’s cubicle, where a big round clock ticked away. Adam kept talking, though, knowing by past experience that Anoop was listening. “Last time this happened the Cap was so angry that she threatened to have you suspended, so just-”
“What, Adam? Just what?”
“Chill out, man. Suck it up.” Adam shrugged. “We have worse problems.”
“Oh, yeah? Like what?”
Adam shook his head, half closing his eyes in a resigned gesture. “Your fashion, of course. Lime-green sweaters? Really, honey?”
Almost immediately, Anoop’s shoulders were shaking with uncontained laughter, and Adam scored himself a mental point. From anger to laughter in 0.1 seconds; he was good.
“You fucker,” replied Anoop finally, shoving at him. “Megs says I look sexy.”
“Yes, well, the girl’s in love, can’t blame her for her lack of judgement.”
Anoop fake-glared at him steadily while putting an offended hand on his chest, and then he was chuckling. Adam joined in the laughter, and soon enough the anger seemed to fade completely away from Anoop’s demeanour. He would still feel raw, and Adam knew it, but at least the initial reckless rage was gone.
“Hey, I’m going to get a drink with the guys later, wanna come?” Adam asked after a while.
Anoop shook his head. “Not tonight. I have to get home early at least one day a week. But hey, how does Saturday sound for a boring lunch with your partner? Megan misses you, and she keeps nagging me for details about your diet.”
Adam rolled his eyes, shaking his head at the same time. “She just wants to fatten me up. Tell her to keep the calories to a minimum.”
“Will do.”
******************
Later that night, Adam sat at a booth in their usual pub surrounded by who he guessed could be called the guys. It was just like in the movies, all the big, macho guys from the department getting together to have a few (or too many) beers while bitching about the feds and their superiors, repeating over and over what they’d do if they wouldn’t be risking their jobs. In the midst of all that testosterone, there was Tommy, who liked to look at Adam from behind his beer and roll his eyes at all the big egos in the room.
Adam didn’t join the boys as much as they’d like, which meant that they always gave him a weird look, something that reminded him that he wasn’t a part of the gang, one of them. He didn’t really care, not when he liked sparkly stuff and pretty boys, and all these guys seemed to enjoy was beer and pool. He had nothing against them, but it was nearly impossible for them to find a common ground. He smirked when Gokey gave him a look from above his beer, clearly stating his displeasure with Adam’s presence; Adam would have been worried otherwise, since all their dynamic was based on mutual displeasure.
He took the last swig of his drink (something fruity and bright, and he would be lying if he said he didn’t ask for it just to piss the beer-drinking gang). Then, he removed his eyes from Gokey’s and looked to his right, giving Tommy a small apologetic smile right before he stood up.
“I have to go, boys,” he said, smirk playing on his lips while he threw some money on the table. No one answered. In fact, they merely looked up. Adam shrugged, grabbed his jacket and pulled it on while he walked towards the door, nodding slightly towards Ed, the owner. He was almost outside when Tommy’s voice, along with a tiny hand on his shoulder, stopped him:
“Leaving so soon?” he asked, teeth worrying his lower lip.
Adam shrugged again, smiling down at him. Tommy was not an actual cop, but a techie, which meant that he wasn’t looked down upon for his lack of formal clothes or the way he styled his hair. And thank the Lord, because Adam loved his stupid haircut that almost always covered his pretty eyes. Adam liked Tommy, with his pretty face and his no bull-shit attitude. He liked that he was a techie that played guitar, he liked his nail-polish and his eye make-up, just as much as he liked his insistence that he was straight. The first time they had shared a bed, Tommy had claimed that Adam had sex magic powers, and that his sexuality hadn’t even stood a chance in his presence.
Adam leaned down, and pressed a kiss to his cheek, leaving one hand on his shoulder. “Sorry, got things to do.”
“Things? Or boys?”
Adam laughed, an open if low sound. Tommy was straightforward, but Adam had a hard time not finding him adorable when he was looking at him so sternly and with his hands on his hips.
Tommy had had a disastrous affair once, and it seemed that since then he had resigned himself to half-assed relationships and one-night stands. Given Adam’s own destroyed heart, they had chosen to share their loneliness occasionally. They went out clubbing, they drank and they fucked, and that was all there was to it, and as far as Adam was concerned, it was one of the most honest relationships he’d ever had. Not that he didn’t enjoy the random bar hook-ups, but when it came down to it, he was much more comfortable with Tommy’s easy banter and calloused hands.
“You know you’re the only one, babe,” Adam said after a while, smile parting his lips and hip jutting forward.
Tommy snorted, rolling his dark brown eyes. “Sure I am, Adam, sure I am… So who’s gonna take me home now, huh?”
Adam eyed the table from where some of the guys were looking at them, and tightened his hold on Tommy’s shoulder instinctively; it wasn’t that they had an exclusive thing, but Adam was protective of him.
“Gokey there looks like he might be interested,” he said, watching him grimace with an amused twinkle in his eyes. “Hey, you know that attitude of his has to be overcompensating for something, honey.”
“Ugh, don’t even.”
Adam chuckled, squeezing Tommy’s shoulder. “Maybe I could just take you home now.”
“Won’t break your plans for the night, stud?” He crossed his arms over his chest, and Adam shook his head, smiling. “Then let me get my jacket.”
Adam watched him leave, his tiny, round ass swaying all the way back to the table, where he said his goodbyes among a chorus of laments from the guys. He didn’t understand why they found Tommy’s make-up so endearing, but his own so menacing. If it was a size matter, then they had never witnessed Tommy’s mean streak.
As Tommy came back to him, he found himself thinking that maybe, in another life, he would have been the guy for him. He was a perfect match, he was pretty sure of that, but as much as he believed in fate, he was going to have to defy it if Tommy was its answer for him. He cared for Tommy, probably more that he wanted to admit to himself, but that didn’t stop him from wondering about Kris every night, and it didn’t stop him from calling him for a few strained words every month.
Once inside the warm cocoon that was Adam’s car, Tommy slapped his hand before he could put on some music, and when Adam groaned he just mumbled something about it being nice to let the guest pick the music. Tommy was some kind of musical guru, always spouting dates, album names of every period, every genre. Adam was sometimes amazed, and it didn’t hurt that Tommy’s favourites were some of Adam’s as well.
“So, what plans do you have, huh?” Tommy questioned after a while. He was staring outside, though, the night-light casting yellow shadows over his features.
Adam shrugged noncommittally. “Nothing important.”
“Sure thing, stud muffin.” Tommy looked at him for a second, one eyebrow raised while one of his hands went to remove his hair from his own face. He did that: it was one of the unconscious gestures Adam had gotten used to by now. “Thanks for the ride, though.”
“You should really get a car. I mean, there are some places with pretty good deals and nice rides and-”
“But you know I can’t afford it, Adam.” He looked at him this time, his tone whiny and his lips turned into a pout. Cute, really, the way he almost always did that to get into his pants. Not that Adam needed a lot of convincing.
They didn’t say anything more for a while, content to just ride side by side. They were comfortable enough to share silences, and Adam liked that, made him think that Tommy deserved a lot more than he actually had. He had told him about his financial situation and how half his money went home to his family, making him save every penny in order to survive. He would probably be able to handle gas expenses once he got a car, but the initial payment would be a bitch on his finances. Maybe Adam could do it for him, buy him a nice, cheap car that gave him a little freedom. He had the money, and pretty much nothing and no one to spend it in. And hey, he was living the way he was because of his family, and Adam saw nothing but a kind heart in that.
By the time they reached Tommy’s building, Adam had already made a resolution. He hadn’t had the means or the time to do something nice for someone before - at least something that didn’t imply salting and burning - and the idea of knowing that he could do something so simple and yet so important for someone that he cared about brought a grin to his face. When Tommy said goodbye to him with a kiss to his cheek, Adam turned and pressed their lips together for a brief instant.
“Sure you don’t want to come in?”
Adam groaned, tightening his grip on the steering wheel. “Can’t, really can’t. So keep your tempting little self away from me.”
“Fine, then, some other time.”
“Definitely, yeah.”
Tommy smiled and waved goodbye, putting a little extra sway to his ass when he walked towards the door of his building. Yep, Adam’s life wasn’t so bad, after all.
*****************
His apartment wasn’t a terribly nice place, but it was cosy enough and packed up with stuff he had acquired over the years. There were clashing pieces of furniture and kitchen appliances that Adam would never learn how to use, but he was kind of proud of his CD collection and of the racks he had filled with books. There were posters here and there, too, of old and new idols, and an extensive movie collection that he had started by buying a copy of Velvet Goldmine.
So now he had CDs; Bowie, The Beatles, Adam Ant, Lady Gaga… Classics and new waves, and maybe one shameful album of The Archies lost in between the collection (what? They sounded good in all their cheesy glory). The books… well, Adam had never taken the time to sit and read before but once he had, he had found out that he liked it. There were some crazy stuff in those things, and now they were scattered all around the place.
Tonight, though, as he walked inside the place, the last thing on his mind was the half-read copy of Battle Royale that rested on his bedside table. He walked into the room and went to his closet, where he kept his weapons stashed. He only carried his official gun these days, so he had to rummage through what Tommy had called an unhealthy amount of boots before he found the silver bullets and a suitable gun. It was hunting time, and Adam found himself surprisingly excited.
The ride towards the place where Anna’s body had been found, and what Adam assumed were the werewolf’s hunting grounds, felt short and rushed. Adam listened to some Goldfrapp, singing loudly and trying to calm his nerves. Werewolves were strong and unpredictable, and Adam hadn’t done the confident monster hunter thing in a long while.
When the wheels screeched to a stop, he was bustling with contained energy, much like a vain little kid with a new cool jacket. He was surprised to find himself thinking that he missed it. The rush and the chase, the heat and the power, and the idea that the world would be rid of one nasty little fucker by the time he got the job finished.
As it turned out, there wasn’t much of that.
Adam had been cruising the streets for about half an hour when he heard a noise: something akin to a growl. As he run, gun pressed tightly inside his fist and blood pumping fast inside his veins, he could hear trashing, moaning, maybe kicking. If the thing killed or bit someone before he got there… And then, he heard the shot. He stopped in his tracks, dumfounded for a second. Then, he was back to running. Adrenaline had kicked in, and Adam was now being lead by pure instinct, a primitive reaction that he had learned back in the days, when he was starting to hunt. It came now every time, even when he wasn’t behind a supernatural creature but behind a human crazy enough to kill another one; it was exhilarating, liberating and brutal. There was nothing but the hunt right then, and the thought made Adam run even faster.
Finally, he slowed down when he came to a barely illuminated street where a man laid on the ground, gurgling sounds coming from his bloody throat. Adam caught sight of a figure running away, his steps echoing in the empty street as he jumped over a garbage bin. The man on the ground gurgled again, one hand coming up and reaching towards the sky; Adam hesitated for a second, his eyes on the empty street where the third figure had been seconds before, but he finally ran towards the man who fought for his life. Adam crouched, ready to examine a nasty bite. Instead, he saw that the blood was coming from what was clearly a bullet wound. He stared, dumbfounded, and right before the man died in front of him, Adam realized that he was Daniel, Anna’s boyfriend, the werewolf.
So, it looked like someone had stolen his hunt.
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Interlude I (Adam)
Adam doesn’t remember not knowing about monsters. He doesn’t remember being afraid of the old urban legends his classmates feared so, because what he does remember is being terrified by the the true stories. Vampires, ghouls, ghosts, and on and on the list goes… He always knew, because dad was a hunter, and he made sure his family was aware of what was lurking in the dark.
Unlike Neil, who had been ready to go out hunting since he was old enough to stand, Adam had never liked the idea. He got the necessity of it, the whole saving people, getting rid of the unnatural creatures that plagued the world. Maybe he was selfish, maybe not good enough to dedicate his life to some holy goal, or maybe his head associated hunting with sports, which had never been his strong suit. Whatever it was, what Adam wanted was the light of a stage, the fantasies of music.
Dad never pushed it, letting him peruse his theatre career, letting him turn into the weird fag who liked musicals, and letting him grown into it, fight the crowds of haters and begin the road of becoming his own person. He started taking Neil on small hunts when he was old enough, but he never missed one of Adam’s plays.
Life was easy most of the time. Adam fought bullies and closed-mindedness, but he didn’t fight demons or wendigos. Life was good.
And then, tragedy stroke. To the date, Adam doesn’t know what did it. All he knows is that one day he had a loving family, and the next day he had nothing but himself, an orphan at the age of fifteen, lost in a world full of monsters that he had always been too coward to fight. A month after the death of his family, he escaped his grandparent’s in his dad’s car, the one that had all his weapons stashed in the trunk.
Three years later he had given up every dream of bright stages, and all he had to prove that he was alive was a nice set of scars. There was the one on his back from that shifter in Illinois, the one on his knees from the ghost in San Francisco, the one on his stomach that nearly touched his navel from that creepy Frankenstein-like guy who had wanted his liver in Kansas. He had also gotten himself a nasty drinking habit, which he only supported thanks to his fake ID’s and credit card scams. Not bad for a kid, he guessed.
He met Brad on his nineteenth birthday, when he was well on his way of self-destruction. Brad was of the opinion that fashion and hunting were not exclusive, and with the right kind of nudging, he brought glitter back into Adam’s life. He made sure Adam changed his hair colour (strawberry blond, just isn’t fitting for the whole hunting in the dark thing, sweetie), learnt how to put on eyeliner, and remembered what it was like to actually enjoy life. They hunted, sure they did, but they also went to crazy clubs, drank fruity drinks and laughed as if life was worth living. For two months they did the crazy sex thing, and when that brought nothing but tears and heartbreak, they settled for epic friendship.
Two years later, he met Kris Allen. It was not one of those love at first sight kind of things, but with time, with random encounters that didn’t feel random at all, and with Kris’s twang sweet like honey on his ear, Adam fell in love. It seemed like no matter how much time passed, how dangerous the hunts turned, how much they refused to just travel together (a fact that made Brad roll his eyes continuously) Kris Allen and Adam Lambert kept meeting in the middle.
Three years later, Brad died. It was stupid, fast and unavoidable, and it left Adam broken inside, quiet and desperate, unable to even scream away the pain inside his chest. He searched Kris, and lay on his bed for two weeks. After the biggest fight in the history of Kris and Adam, Adam pulled some strings, got himself a job as a cop and abandoned hunting - and Kris - for good. After all, there was only so much heartbreak one person could take.
Continued II