Pull Me Out From Under Part III
Pairing: Jared/Jensen
Rating: NC-17
Wordcount: 3.5k (for this part, 15k total)
Warnings and kinks: Torture, noncon, abuse (not between J2), character death (not J2), Vampires
Summary: From a prompt over at the kink meme:"Jared's a hunter. He's never had any qualms about killing things that go bump in the night but one night he goes back to another hunter's lair/house/whatever for a beer and sees that he's keeping vampire!Jensen prisoner and using him as a slave as well as beating/torturing/raping him whenever he wants." For the full prompt, go here.
Disclaimer: I don't own Jared, Jensen, or anyone else. This is fiction.
This was originally written for this prompt over on the spn kink meme.
They stop at a motel only a quarter of an hour after sunrise, as soon as Jared notices Jensen wincing at the sunlight. They get a room with two beds and Jared throws Jensen a bag of blood from the cooler in the trunk before settling down to enjoy his own dinner. A part of him had missed road food, burgers and chips and occasionally, when he was feeling particularly brave, tacos from a roadside truck. Tonight’s fare is a huge burger and fries, plus an extra order of onion rings. Jared eats like he always does - with abandon and a complete disregard for anyone who might be watching. Jensen doesn’t even stare anymore.
Jared can’t seem to drift into sleep. He handcuffed Jensen to one of the beds, muttering an apology as he did so. Jensen hadn’t said anything, just let himself be moved this way and that while Jared figured out how to secure him in the most comfortable position. Jared couldn’t help but notice that Jensen’s skin was warm and soft, not at all the cold hardness he was expecting.
The alarm clock reads 11:13 AM when the moaning starts. It’s soft at first, so soft Jared thinks he’s imagining it. He turns to face the other bed and finds Jensen shifting and pulling at his shackled wrists, tossing his head and whining.
“No... Please, don’t. Please, please please don’t please, no, please stop, oh God please, no.”
Jared’s out of bed before he knows what he’s doing. He sinks down onto Jensen’s bed and awkwardly places a hand on the man’s shoulder.
“Hey... Jensen, hey, wake up, man. You’re just dreaming, you’re okay.”
Jensen struggles, crying out loud now, tears streaming down his face. Jared tries to restrain him, afraid he’ll hurt himself.
“Stop! Please stop, please, don’t, no no no.”
Jared gives Jensen a gentle shake. Jensen tenses and starts to pull even harder at his cuffs before opening his eyes. When he sees Jared, he freezes, eyes scanning the room. Jared can see the instant he realizes where he is and who he’s with. Jensen relaxes minutely, though his eyes stay warily on Jared.
“Sorry,” Jensen mumbles, voice still raspy from sleep and crying. He’s still shaking hard, shrinking away from Jared’s grip on his arms. Jared releases him reluctantly.
“You okay now?”
Jensen nods but Jared notices he’s still straining his wrists against the cuffs, the skin there getting rubbed raw. Jensen doesn’t even appear to notice he’s doing it.
Jared wants to uncuff him. Actually, he wants to wrap himself around the curled-up ball that is Jensen right now and shoot anyone who comes near them. He shoves that instinct down with the reminder that the moment he stops being vigilant could be the moment this vamp rips his throat out.
Jared goes back to bed with the unsettling feeling that he might be in over his head with this one. He resolves to start putting more distance between himself and Jensen when they wake up, to start treating him like what he really is, maybe even figure out what he’s going to do with the guy.
***
Jared doesn’t like Washington - too much rain - but at least the motels are usually decent. He leaves Jensen in the room while he goes to interview the victim’s girlfriend and parents. It’s grueling work that leaves Jared exhausted. He stops by the morgue to investigate the body; unfortunately, it looks like a standard heart attack. He got a call about this case because healthy 25 year old men don’t drop dead of a heart attack, especially not one week after their childhood best friend does the same.
Jensen’s sitting at the the small round table in their motel room when Jared comes in around 7. His wrists and ankles are cuffed but not locked to anything else - it’s daylight, it would hurt him too much to go outside. He’s obviously been reading the case file, Jared’s research is spread all over the table and he’s poring over one newspaper article. He looks up when Jared walks in, a brief smile crossing his face before he looks down again.
“What are you doing?” Jared asks, a little more sharply than he meant to. He’s not used to seeing someone touch his personal belongings, especially a case file.
“I - I thought I could help. Look, did you -”
“What, you think you’re a hunter now? You don’t just go through someone’s research.” Jared crosses the room in long strides, gathers the papers into a pile and stuffs them back in the file.
“Sorry.” Jensen’s voice is so soft, so apologetic, and Jared feels a pang of guilt. He knows he’s overreacting but the sight of Jensen surrounded by Jared’s case - well, it felt like irrefutable proof of how ingrained Jensen is in Jared’s life now.
“Look, I just... You’re not here to help with the case, alright?” Jared tells Jensen, and for a moment he’s afraid Jensen will ask what he is here for.
“I know. I’m sorry, really. I won’t do it again, I promise,” Jensen says, all wide eyes and sincerity.
“Good.”
Jared reaches for the article that’s still loosely clasped in Jensen’s hand. He glances at it before stuffing back into the file and hesitates. It’s an old article, from five years ago, long before the killings started. The only reason Jared has it is because it mentions the first victim - something about a scholarship.
“Why were you looking at this one?” Jared asks.
“Look on the back. I think it’s his sister.”
Jared flips the paper over and finds an article about a local teen going missing. There’s no name, but there is a brief mention of her brother leaving town to study on a full scholarship, and how hard it is for the parents to find themselves unexpectedly alone.
“So?” Jared asks, putting on a skeptical face. He’s not stupid: any new information can be useful, and this is definitely new information. Doesn’t mean he wants his vampire doing his job for him. His?
“So his sister was definitely dating the second victim. Rob. He left town too, not long after, right? There was something in there about him living in Seattle,” Jensen says, gesturing to the file, the motion restricted by the handcuffs. “They were dating when she disappeared, and then her brother left town, and her boyfriend left town, and then a week after they return for the first time both of them die.”
Jared stares at Jensen until he starts to fidget.
“I mean... It seems weird, right? Like a little too much of a coincidence?” Jensen asks uncertainly.
Jared nods, still staring. It’s another moment before he manages to snap out of it.
“They ever find the sister?” he asks, sitting down beside Jensen and laying the file back out on the table. He looks up to catch the expression of relief on Jensen’s face before Jensen turns back to the file.
“Maybe,” Jensen says. “They found a body a year later, in the river after a big storm. Police said they thought it washed out of the sewers. ‘Tentatively identified as Isabel Porter, 17 year girl reported missing one year prior.’”
“Buried?” Jared asks, and Jensen looks puzzled. “If it’s a vengeful spirit, I gotta salt and burn the bones.”
“Oh. I don’t know where they buried her, that wasn’t in the article.”
Jared nods. It’s no big deal; town this size, there’s probably only one cemetery and it wouldn’t be the first time Jared has to search for a grave. He’s actually pretty good at it at this point: he can tell a four-year-old grave from a ten-year-old one without checking the dates.
“I’ll go when it’s dark. People don’t generally like strangers lurking around their graveyards, burning their dead.”
Jensen nods and Jared starts to clear up the papers, carefully this time, his anger gone. Jensen’s just sitting there, so awkward and apologetic and Jared wonders how long it would have taken him to solve this case if it weren’t for him. Maybe only a day a or so, but who knows how many deaths that could be?
***
When Jared returns from the graveyard, smelling of dirt and smoke, Jensen’s sitting up waiting for him. He’s cuffed to the bed, but only by his ankle so he still has some range of motion. His wrists are cuffed together too and he’s twisting the sheets between his fingers when Jared walks in.
“Did you get it?” Jensen asks immediately, and Jared grins.
“Yup. Vengeful spirit, getting back at those who wronged her, the usual. Salted and burned,” he adds triumphantly. Jensen smiles and Jared wants to feel it against his own mouth, wants to bite softly at it until Jensen laughs quietly into him, wants to - He tears his eyes away with considerable effort.
“Gonna shower, then we can take off tonight. No need to stick around, and something’s killing old people in Oregon.”
Jensen murmurs his assent and Jared goes to wash the earth and sweat off himself, and if he spends a little too much time imagining what a vampire’s mouth might feel in some interesting places, well, it’s not like anyone’s around to see it.
***
Oregon’s rainy too, and the Djinn that’s feeding on the last traces of life lingering within the residents of the Dorena Nursing Home is a bitch to kill. Jensen stays in their motel room while Jared tracks it to its lair: a pretty little house with a white-picket fence around its perfectly manicured lawn. Creepy.
Jared has the silver knife he needs to finish this one off, but it taunts him for a while, threatening to drink his “boyfriend” and make Jared watch. That gives Jared pause, and the Djinn takes advantage of his hesitation to attack.
Jared buries the knife to the hilt in the Djinn’s belly, but not before it grabs onto his bicep with an iron grip. There’s pain, and a weird tingling feeling, like warmth seeping under his skin. Jared throws the Djinn away from him and watches as the light starts to leave its eyes.
“We’re gonna kill you for that. You and your little boyfriend,” it rasps out, before its eerie blue eyes finally roll back into its head.
Jared tries to make sense of that. Boyfriend. Jared doesn’t have one of those. The room is swimming slightly, and when it pulls back into focus there’s something else tickling his brain, something weird and wrong. We.
It all falls into place and Jared scrambles to his feet, still a little dizzy but far too preoccupied to care. He runs out into the rain and throws himself into his car, fumbling for the keys to start the damn thing. It feels like minutes before he’s peeling down of that picture perfect street and back to the motel.
***
The door to their room is hanging off its hinges so Jared kicks it down the rest of the way. His eyes are slow to adjust to the dim room, sluggish like the rest of him.
Jensen’s flat on the bed, held there by his cuffs while the Djinn kneels over him. Blue eyes meet Jared’s and it freezes, nostrils flaring. Jared has just enough time to see its palm pressed against Jensen’s neck and jaw before it lunges for him with an anguished scream.
It doesn’t bother trying to protect itself, just presses its hands to Jared’s face, fingertips digging into his cheeks and temples while Jared slashes clumsily at it with the silver knife. He knows he hits flesh when it groans in pain, but then he’s falling to his knees, strength leaking out of him as the Djinn lets him go.
Jared looks up and is satisfied to see that its wounds are deep, almost certainly fatal. He’s less pleased to find that he doesn’t have the strength to pursue it as it stumbles out the door, leaving behind a trail of blue blood.
The world tilts again and for a moment it’s like there are two motel rooms, one superimposed upon the other, two beds and two Jensens on them. Another shift and everything’s back. Djinn must be dead, Jared thinks. A Djinn’s poison only works when it’s alive.
Jensen lies perfectly still while Jared uncuffs him, muttering apologies and curses. He can’t believe he let this happen - well, he can. Djinn are notoriously dangerous and Jared’s never tried hunting with a civilian in tow before Jensen. Still. What was he thinking, bringing Jensen along on a hunt and ignoring the dangers? He left him handcuffed, for fuck’s sake. Jensen didn’t have a chance in hell of protecting himself, and it's all Jared's fault.
It’s not until Jared is checking an uncuffed Jensen over for injuries that he really notices Jensen isn’t moving.
***
***
The Djinn hadn’t bothered knocking, just kicked the door open, which is why Jensen thought it was Jared at first. It seemed like a Jared thing to do. It laughed when it saw Jensen was handcuffed; slung a leg over him and straddled his torso. It wasn’t until it had tugged Jensen’s shirt up and pressed its hands to his skin that it noticed Jensen’s not human.
“That’s okay, I can kill you the traditional way,” the Djinn purred, pulling out a knife. It dropped the weapon when the door was kicked open a second time, and Jensen could see it scenting the air. Jared was standing huge in the doorway, breathing hard like he’d been running, and covered in blue blood. The Djinn screamed and launched itself at him, and then Jensen couldn’t see what was happening, only that a moment later Jared was on the ground and the Djinn was gone.
And now Jared’s unlocking the cuffs, berating himself under his breath like he’s failed Jensen in some horrible way. There’s something wrong, like a bad taste only in Jensen’s mind instead of his mouth, and he’s pretty sure it’s coming from Jared. It’s not until Jared looks down at his face and his eyes go wide with panic that Jensen really starts to feel afraid.
“What?” he asks, and Jared scrambles back off the bed to his duffel. When he comes back up it’s with a stake in his hand and the bottom drops out of Jensen’s stomach.
“Jared?”
Jared’s blinking, shaking his head, and that’s when Jensen sees it: a blue tinge to his eyes, a trace of cobalt under his skin.
Jared’s advancing on Jensen like he’s a trapped animal and for all that Jensen’s spent these past few weeks convincing himself that Jared won’t kill him, he’s not so sure right now.
“Jared... Please,” Jensen begs, backing into a corner. Jared shakes his head again, like a dog trying to rid its ears of water, and when he looks up it’s with a puzzled expression on his face.
“Jensen?” He sounds confused, like he’s not sure what he’s doing there, and Jensen takes an involuntary step towards him. The blue flares up in his eyes again and he snarls. “Don’t come any closer, bloodsucker.”
Jensen freezes. A month ago, he would have welcomed that stake in his heart without a moment’s hesitation. Now... Now he knows what it’s like to be warm. To not be hungry all the time. To sit on a soft couch and watch Jared sharpen his knives, safe in the knowledge that they won’t be used on him.
He doesn’t want to die.
Jared takes another step forward, trancelike, and stumbles. Jensen takes the opportunity and dives for the door. He makes it in one piece, without any sharp wooden objects lodged in his heart. He shoots one last glance back to find Jared staring after him, head tilted to the side like he’s not sure what he’s seeing. Then Jensen’s gone, down the road and out of town. He doesn’t stop running until he’s on the shoulder of the freeway, thumb sticking out, and it’s so familiar he could almost laugh. Just like the first time I ran away, Jensen thinks.
And just like that first time, all those years ago, he doesn’t realize his mistake until he’s already climbed into the first truck that stops for him. Only this time, it’s not a set of vampire teeth bared in a grin that give it away; it’s the smell - the rank stench of alcohol and unwashed hunter that Jensen will never fail to recognize.
Jack.
***
Jensen opens his eyes to a dank, damp cell. The walls are slimy and the floor is filthy, rough cement strewn with dirt and what look like small bones. His shoulder is tingling where he’s lying on it, both arms pulled behind his back, bound at the wrists. Jensen waits patiently for the feeling to come back to his hands and tries to shift into a more comfortable position while last night comes back to him.
The Djinn... And then Jared attacking him... Jared was ready to kill him. And Jensen ran. He should have stayed, should have found a way to beg, to make Jared see that he wasn’t a threat. Instead he ran and got on the freeway and - God, he should have known Jack wouldn’t just let him go. Jensen may not have been worth shit to Jack, but the hunter got off on owning Jensen... He never would have let Jensen get away.
Footsteps in the hallway alert Jensen to Jack’s presence. He can smell him, recognizes the sound of his wheezing breaths and little hum he lets out as he unlocks the door to Jensen’s cell.
“You awake, Leech?” The question is made irrelevant by the accompanying kick to Jensen’s ribs. He lets out a quiet “oof” but doesn’t bother replying otherwise. “C’mon, don’t be like that. You and me, we’re gonna have some fun just as soon as I finish setting up.” Jack kicks Jensen again, harder this time. “We’re gonna have so much fun you’ll never leave me again. Not even for that sasquatch who calls himself a hunter.”
“Jared?” Jensen bites his lip, but it’s too late. Jack grins.
“Don’t worry, if he comes for you, I’ll be ready. It’s all set up, all he has to do is walk in here and I’ll have him.” Jack leans down to put his fleshy lips against Jensen’s ear. Jensen holds back his shiver of disgust. “I’ll break him like I broke you, and then I’ll kill him. And I’ll make you watch.”
***
Jared wakes up with what feels like the hangover of his life. Pounding headache, Sahara-dry mouth, full body aches - the works. It’s only after a cup of coffee and a shower that he starts to parse out what happened the previous night.
He vaguely remembers killing the first Djinn... then it must’ve poisoned him, and he came back here because -
Jensen. He came back to the motel because the Djinn knew about Jensen. The first Djinn’s poison should have worn off almost immediately - their poison only lasts as long as they’re alive - but there was another, and it was touching Jensen. Jared’s memories get steadily fuzzier as he tries to recall what happened next - blue fingertips digging into his face, the satisfying tear of flesh against his knife, struggling to focus enough to uncuff Jensen... And then - there - a flash of Jensen’s face, distorted, needle-sharp teeth protruding from stretched lips, eyes dark and feral.
Why would Jensen vamp out?
It hits Jared like a ton of bricks: he didn’t vamp out at all. Djinn’s poison makes you hallucinate. It’s supposed to be good things, but Jared - and every other hunter - knows a Djinn can control hallucinations any way they please. Jared’s never experienced it first hand before this, he didn’t know, didn’t realize what he was doing. Jensen must’ve been so scared.
Jensen. He’s gone; Jared remembers him running for the door just as the edges of Jared’s vision were starting to darken.
Jared’s halfway out to his car before it occurs to him that there’s no real reason to go after Jensen. Jared’s known for a couple of weeks now that the vampire isn’t dangerous to humans, even if he hasn’t admitted it to himself. The fact is, Jared’s been willfully ignoring the fact that Jensen doesn’t actually need to be supervised by a hunter 24/7.
He sits in his car for a good half hour, fighting down the urge to track Jensen down. It would be so easy, too - Jared knows Jensen just well enough to find him in a couple of days, maybe less. Jensen doesn’t need that, though. Jared can’t just keep him on a leash like a dog, can’t track him down anytime he manages to get away.
Jared starts the car and pulls out of the motel parking lot, firm in his resolve not to go after Jensen. It’s for the best. It’s definitely for the best.
He pulls onto the freeway - little more than a dirt road out here - and breathes in the clean, fresh air of morning and the taste of freedom. He glances in the rearview for the traditional sight of the the town disappearing behind him; another case done. This time though, it feels like he’s lost something.
Jared’s mama always told him he jumped into things too quickly, didn’t think before he went and got himself into trouble. As he’s whipping the car around on the deserted freeway and heading straight back the way he came, he thinks to himself, Why start now?
***
Part IV
Rating: NC-17
Wordcount: 3.5k (for this part, 15k total)
Warnings and kinks: Torture, noncon, abuse (not between J2), character death (not J2), Vampires
Summary: From a prompt over at the kink meme:"Jared's a hunter. He's never had any qualms about killing things that go bump in the night but one night he goes back to another hunter's lair/house/whatever for a beer and sees that he's keeping vampire!Jensen prisoner and using him as a slave as well as beating/torturing/raping him whenever he wants." For the full prompt, go here.
Disclaimer: I don't own Jared, Jensen, or anyone else. This is fiction.
This was originally written for this prompt over on the spn kink meme.
They stop at a motel only a quarter of an hour after sunrise, as soon as Jared notices Jensen wincing at the sunlight. They get a room with two beds and Jared throws Jensen a bag of blood from the cooler in the trunk before settling down to enjoy his own dinner. A part of him had missed road food, burgers and chips and occasionally, when he was feeling particularly brave, tacos from a roadside truck. Tonight’s fare is a huge burger and fries, plus an extra order of onion rings. Jared eats like he always does - with abandon and a complete disregard for anyone who might be watching. Jensen doesn’t even stare anymore.
Jared can’t seem to drift into sleep. He handcuffed Jensen to one of the beds, muttering an apology as he did so. Jensen hadn’t said anything, just let himself be moved this way and that while Jared figured out how to secure him in the most comfortable position. Jared couldn’t help but notice that Jensen’s skin was warm and soft, not at all the cold hardness he was expecting.
The alarm clock reads 11:13 AM when the moaning starts. It’s soft at first, so soft Jared thinks he’s imagining it. He turns to face the other bed and finds Jensen shifting and pulling at his shackled wrists, tossing his head and whining.
“No... Please, don’t. Please, please please don’t please, no, please stop, oh God please, no.”
Jared’s out of bed before he knows what he’s doing. He sinks down onto Jensen’s bed and awkwardly places a hand on the man’s shoulder.
“Hey... Jensen, hey, wake up, man. You’re just dreaming, you’re okay.”
Jensen struggles, crying out loud now, tears streaming down his face. Jared tries to restrain him, afraid he’ll hurt himself.
“Stop! Please stop, please, don’t, no no no.”
Jared gives Jensen a gentle shake. Jensen tenses and starts to pull even harder at his cuffs before opening his eyes. When he sees Jared, he freezes, eyes scanning the room. Jared can see the instant he realizes where he is and who he’s with. Jensen relaxes minutely, though his eyes stay warily on Jared.
“Sorry,” Jensen mumbles, voice still raspy from sleep and crying. He’s still shaking hard, shrinking away from Jared’s grip on his arms. Jared releases him reluctantly.
“You okay now?”
Jensen nods but Jared notices he’s still straining his wrists against the cuffs, the skin there getting rubbed raw. Jensen doesn’t even appear to notice he’s doing it.
Jared wants to uncuff him. Actually, he wants to wrap himself around the curled-up ball that is Jensen right now and shoot anyone who comes near them. He shoves that instinct down with the reminder that the moment he stops being vigilant could be the moment this vamp rips his throat out.
Jared goes back to bed with the unsettling feeling that he might be in over his head with this one. He resolves to start putting more distance between himself and Jensen when they wake up, to start treating him like what he really is, maybe even figure out what he’s going to do with the guy.
***
Jared doesn’t like Washington - too much rain - but at least the motels are usually decent. He leaves Jensen in the room while he goes to interview the victim’s girlfriend and parents. It’s grueling work that leaves Jared exhausted. He stops by the morgue to investigate the body; unfortunately, it looks like a standard heart attack. He got a call about this case because healthy 25 year old men don’t drop dead of a heart attack, especially not one week after their childhood best friend does the same.
Jensen’s sitting at the the small round table in their motel room when Jared comes in around 7. His wrists and ankles are cuffed but not locked to anything else - it’s daylight, it would hurt him too much to go outside. He’s obviously been reading the case file, Jared’s research is spread all over the table and he’s poring over one newspaper article. He looks up when Jared walks in, a brief smile crossing his face before he looks down again.
“What are you doing?” Jared asks, a little more sharply than he meant to. He’s not used to seeing someone touch his personal belongings, especially a case file.
“I - I thought I could help. Look, did you -”
“What, you think you’re a hunter now? You don’t just go through someone’s research.” Jared crosses the room in long strides, gathers the papers into a pile and stuffs them back in the file.
“Sorry.” Jensen’s voice is so soft, so apologetic, and Jared feels a pang of guilt. He knows he’s overreacting but the sight of Jensen surrounded by Jared’s case - well, it felt like irrefutable proof of how ingrained Jensen is in Jared’s life now.
“Look, I just... You’re not here to help with the case, alright?” Jared tells Jensen, and for a moment he’s afraid Jensen will ask what he is here for.
“I know. I’m sorry, really. I won’t do it again, I promise,” Jensen says, all wide eyes and sincerity.
“Good.”
Jared reaches for the article that’s still loosely clasped in Jensen’s hand. He glances at it before stuffing back into the file and hesitates. It’s an old article, from five years ago, long before the killings started. The only reason Jared has it is because it mentions the first victim - something about a scholarship.
“Why were you looking at this one?” Jared asks.
“Look on the back. I think it’s his sister.”
Jared flips the paper over and finds an article about a local teen going missing. There’s no name, but there is a brief mention of her brother leaving town to study on a full scholarship, and how hard it is for the parents to find themselves unexpectedly alone.
“So?” Jared asks, putting on a skeptical face. He’s not stupid: any new information can be useful, and this is definitely new information. Doesn’t mean he wants his vampire doing his job for him. His?
“So his sister was definitely dating the second victim. Rob. He left town too, not long after, right? There was something in there about him living in Seattle,” Jensen says, gesturing to the file, the motion restricted by the handcuffs. “They were dating when she disappeared, and then her brother left town, and her boyfriend left town, and then a week after they return for the first time both of them die.”
Jared stares at Jensen until he starts to fidget.
“I mean... It seems weird, right? Like a little too much of a coincidence?” Jensen asks uncertainly.
Jared nods, still staring. It’s another moment before he manages to snap out of it.
“They ever find the sister?” he asks, sitting down beside Jensen and laying the file back out on the table. He looks up to catch the expression of relief on Jensen’s face before Jensen turns back to the file.
“Maybe,” Jensen says. “They found a body a year later, in the river after a big storm. Police said they thought it washed out of the sewers. ‘Tentatively identified as Isabel Porter, 17 year girl reported missing one year prior.’”
“Buried?” Jared asks, and Jensen looks puzzled. “If it’s a vengeful spirit, I gotta salt and burn the bones.”
“Oh. I don’t know where they buried her, that wasn’t in the article.”
Jared nods. It’s no big deal; town this size, there’s probably only one cemetery and it wouldn’t be the first time Jared has to search for a grave. He’s actually pretty good at it at this point: he can tell a four-year-old grave from a ten-year-old one without checking the dates.
“I’ll go when it’s dark. People don’t generally like strangers lurking around their graveyards, burning their dead.”
Jensen nods and Jared starts to clear up the papers, carefully this time, his anger gone. Jensen’s just sitting there, so awkward and apologetic and Jared wonders how long it would have taken him to solve this case if it weren’t for him. Maybe only a day a or so, but who knows how many deaths that could be?
***
When Jared returns from the graveyard, smelling of dirt and smoke, Jensen’s sitting up waiting for him. He’s cuffed to the bed, but only by his ankle so he still has some range of motion. His wrists are cuffed together too and he’s twisting the sheets between his fingers when Jared walks in.
“Did you get it?” Jensen asks immediately, and Jared grins.
“Yup. Vengeful spirit, getting back at those who wronged her, the usual. Salted and burned,” he adds triumphantly. Jensen smiles and Jared wants to feel it against his own mouth, wants to bite softly at it until Jensen laughs quietly into him, wants to - He tears his eyes away with considerable effort.
“Gonna shower, then we can take off tonight. No need to stick around, and something’s killing old people in Oregon.”
Jensen murmurs his assent and Jared goes to wash the earth and sweat off himself, and if he spends a little too much time imagining what a vampire’s mouth might feel in some interesting places, well, it’s not like anyone’s around to see it.
***
Oregon’s rainy too, and the Djinn that’s feeding on the last traces of life lingering within the residents of the Dorena Nursing Home is a bitch to kill. Jensen stays in their motel room while Jared tracks it to its lair: a pretty little house with a white-picket fence around its perfectly manicured lawn. Creepy.
Jared has the silver knife he needs to finish this one off, but it taunts him for a while, threatening to drink his “boyfriend” and make Jared watch. That gives Jared pause, and the Djinn takes advantage of his hesitation to attack.
Jared buries the knife to the hilt in the Djinn’s belly, but not before it grabs onto his bicep with an iron grip. There’s pain, and a weird tingling feeling, like warmth seeping under his skin. Jared throws the Djinn away from him and watches as the light starts to leave its eyes.
“We’re gonna kill you for that. You and your little boyfriend,” it rasps out, before its eerie blue eyes finally roll back into its head.
Jared tries to make sense of that. Boyfriend. Jared doesn’t have one of those. The room is swimming slightly, and when it pulls back into focus there’s something else tickling his brain, something weird and wrong. We.
It all falls into place and Jared scrambles to his feet, still a little dizzy but far too preoccupied to care. He runs out into the rain and throws himself into his car, fumbling for the keys to start the damn thing. It feels like minutes before he’s peeling down of that picture perfect street and back to the motel.
***
The door to their room is hanging off its hinges so Jared kicks it down the rest of the way. His eyes are slow to adjust to the dim room, sluggish like the rest of him.
Jensen’s flat on the bed, held there by his cuffs while the Djinn kneels over him. Blue eyes meet Jared’s and it freezes, nostrils flaring. Jared has just enough time to see its palm pressed against Jensen’s neck and jaw before it lunges for him with an anguished scream.
It doesn’t bother trying to protect itself, just presses its hands to Jared’s face, fingertips digging into his cheeks and temples while Jared slashes clumsily at it with the silver knife. He knows he hits flesh when it groans in pain, but then he’s falling to his knees, strength leaking out of him as the Djinn lets him go.
Jared looks up and is satisfied to see that its wounds are deep, almost certainly fatal. He’s less pleased to find that he doesn’t have the strength to pursue it as it stumbles out the door, leaving behind a trail of blue blood.
The world tilts again and for a moment it’s like there are two motel rooms, one superimposed upon the other, two beds and two Jensens on them. Another shift and everything’s back. Djinn must be dead, Jared thinks. A Djinn’s poison only works when it’s alive.
Jensen lies perfectly still while Jared uncuffs him, muttering apologies and curses. He can’t believe he let this happen - well, he can. Djinn are notoriously dangerous and Jared’s never tried hunting with a civilian in tow before Jensen. Still. What was he thinking, bringing Jensen along on a hunt and ignoring the dangers? He left him handcuffed, for fuck’s sake. Jensen didn’t have a chance in hell of protecting himself, and it's all Jared's fault.
It’s not until Jared is checking an uncuffed Jensen over for injuries that he really notices Jensen isn’t moving.
***
***
The Djinn hadn’t bothered knocking, just kicked the door open, which is why Jensen thought it was Jared at first. It seemed like a Jared thing to do. It laughed when it saw Jensen was handcuffed; slung a leg over him and straddled his torso. It wasn’t until it had tugged Jensen’s shirt up and pressed its hands to his skin that it noticed Jensen’s not human.
“That’s okay, I can kill you the traditional way,” the Djinn purred, pulling out a knife. It dropped the weapon when the door was kicked open a second time, and Jensen could see it scenting the air. Jared was standing huge in the doorway, breathing hard like he’d been running, and covered in blue blood. The Djinn screamed and launched itself at him, and then Jensen couldn’t see what was happening, only that a moment later Jared was on the ground and the Djinn was gone.
And now Jared’s unlocking the cuffs, berating himself under his breath like he’s failed Jensen in some horrible way. There’s something wrong, like a bad taste only in Jensen’s mind instead of his mouth, and he’s pretty sure it’s coming from Jared. It’s not until Jared looks down at his face and his eyes go wide with panic that Jensen really starts to feel afraid.
“What?” he asks, and Jared scrambles back off the bed to his duffel. When he comes back up it’s with a stake in his hand and the bottom drops out of Jensen’s stomach.
“Jared?”
Jared’s blinking, shaking his head, and that’s when Jensen sees it: a blue tinge to his eyes, a trace of cobalt under his skin.
Jared’s advancing on Jensen like he’s a trapped animal and for all that Jensen’s spent these past few weeks convincing himself that Jared won’t kill him, he’s not so sure right now.
“Jared... Please,” Jensen begs, backing into a corner. Jared shakes his head again, like a dog trying to rid its ears of water, and when he looks up it’s with a puzzled expression on his face.
“Jensen?” He sounds confused, like he’s not sure what he’s doing there, and Jensen takes an involuntary step towards him. The blue flares up in his eyes again and he snarls. “Don’t come any closer, bloodsucker.”
Jensen freezes. A month ago, he would have welcomed that stake in his heart without a moment’s hesitation. Now... Now he knows what it’s like to be warm. To not be hungry all the time. To sit on a soft couch and watch Jared sharpen his knives, safe in the knowledge that they won’t be used on him.
He doesn’t want to die.
Jared takes another step forward, trancelike, and stumbles. Jensen takes the opportunity and dives for the door. He makes it in one piece, without any sharp wooden objects lodged in his heart. He shoots one last glance back to find Jared staring after him, head tilted to the side like he’s not sure what he’s seeing. Then Jensen’s gone, down the road and out of town. He doesn’t stop running until he’s on the shoulder of the freeway, thumb sticking out, and it’s so familiar he could almost laugh. Just like the first time I ran away, Jensen thinks.
And just like that first time, all those years ago, he doesn’t realize his mistake until he’s already climbed into the first truck that stops for him. Only this time, it’s not a set of vampire teeth bared in a grin that give it away; it’s the smell - the rank stench of alcohol and unwashed hunter that Jensen will never fail to recognize.
Jack.
***
Jensen opens his eyes to a dank, damp cell. The walls are slimy and the floor is filthy, rough cement strewn with dirt and what look like small bones. His shoulder is tingling where he’s lying on it, both arms pulled behind his back, bound at the wrists. Jensen waits patiently for the feeling to come back to his hands and tries to shift into a more comfortable position while last night comes back to him.
The Djinn... And then Jared attacking him... Jared was ready to kill him. And Jensen ran. He should have stayed, should have found a way to beg, to make Jared see that he wasn’t a threat. Instead he ran and got on the freeway and - God, he should have known Jack wouldn’t just let him go. Jensen may not have been worth shit to Jack, but the hunter got off on owning Jensen... He never would have let Jensen get away.
Footsteps in the hallway alert Jensen to Jack’s presence. He can smell him, recognizes the sound of his wheezing breaths and little hum he lets out as he unlocks the door to Jensen’s cell.
“You awake, Leech?” The question is made irrelevant by the accompanying kick to Jensen’s ribs. He lets out a quiet “oof” but doesn’t bother replying otherwise. “C’mon, don’t be like that. You and me, we’re gonna have some fun just as soon as I finish setting up.” Jack kicks Jensen again, harder this time. “We’re gonna have so much fun you’ll never leave me again. Not even for that sasquatch who calls himself a hunter.”
“Jared?” Jensen bites his lip, but it’s too late. Jack grins.
“Don’t worry, if he comes for you, I’ll be ready. It’s all set up, all he has to do is walk in here and I’ll have him.” Jack leans down to put his fleshy lips against Jensen’s ear. Jensen holds back his shiver of disgust. “I’ll break him like I broke you, and then I’ll kill him. And I’ll make you watch.”
***
Jared wakes up with what feels like the hangover of his life. Pounding headache, Sahara-dry mouth, full body aches - the works. It’s only after a cup of coffee and a shower that he starts to parse out what happened the previous night.
He vaguely remembers killing the first Djinn... then it must’ve poisoned him, and he came back here because -
Jensen. He came back to the motel because the Djinn knew about Jensen. The first Djinn’s poison should have worn off almost immediately - their poison only lasts as long as they’re alive - but there was another, and it was touching Jensen. Jared’s memories get steadily fuzzier as he tries to recall what happened next - blue fingertips digging into his face, the satisfying tear of flesh against his knife, struggling to focus enough to uncuff Jensen... And then - there - a flash of Jensen’s face, distorted, needle-sharp teeth protruding from stretched lips, eyes dark and feral.
Why would Jensen vamp out?
It hits Jared like a ton of bricks: he didn’t vamp out at all. Djinn’s poison makes you hallucinate. It’s supposed to be good things, but Jared - and every other hunter - knows a Djinn can control hallucinations any way they please. Jared’s never experienced it first hand before this, he didn’t know, didn’t realize what he was doing. Jensen must’ve been so scared.
Jensen. He’s gone; Jared remembers him running for the door just as the edges of Jared’s vision were starting to darken.
Jared’s halfway out to his car before it occurs to him that there’s no real reason to go after Jensen. Jared’s known for a couple of weeks now that the vampire isn’t dangerous to humans, even if he hasn’t admitted it to himself. The fact is, Jared’s been willfully ignoring the fact that Jensen doesn’t actually need to be supervised by a hunter 24/7.
He sits in his car for a good half hour, fighting down the urge to track Jensen down. It would be so easy, too - Jared knows Jensen just well enough to find him in a couple of days, maybe less. Jensen doesn’t need that, though. Jared can’t just keep him on a leash like a dog, can’t track him down anytime he manages to get away.
Jared starts the car and pulls out of the motel parking lot, firm in his resolve not to go after Jensen. It’s for the best. It’s definitely for the best.
He pulls onto the freeway - little more than a dirt road out here - and breathes in the clean, fresh air of morning and the taste of freedom. He glances in the rearview for the traditional sight of the the town disappearing behind him; another case done. This time though, it feels like he’s lost something.
Jared’s mama always told him he jumped into things too quickly, didn’t think before he went and got himself into trouble. As he’s whipping the car around on the deserted freeway and heading straight back the way he came, he thinks to himself, Why start now?
***
Part IV