Chapter Text
Abolish realized too late that the next few stairs down the Crypt were missing. Even worse, he smacked his head on a block of silver someone had hung from the tunnel ceiling over the pit.
The hunter flipped and caught himself on the lip of the stairs as he fell, not strong enough to pull himself up, but enough to summon all the wool he'd been carrying and drop it into the trap.
For surely that's what this was, a trap. Though for humans or vampires, Abolish couldn't be sure. With that damn block of silver it would work on either.
His vision filled with black spots as he lost the fight with gravity, slamming unceremoniously into the cold stone floor at least three stories below. His last hope before the spots overcame him completely was that the wool would prevent him from breaking his back.
A few hours past, the sunset shone a fading light over the pit, but it wasn't high enough to reach the unconscious man below. No, it wasn't the sunlight that woke Abolish, but the cold.
If Abolish didn't believe in luck before, he certainly did now. That fall should have killed him. There was no actual explanation for why it hadn't. The cold was coming from his leg. If he had to guess, it had slipped off the thin pile of wool and touched the freezing stone floor.
He groaned when he opened his eyes. The very act was dizzying, making the world do flips. But he'd survived worse... then he tried to sit up.
An actual scream wrenched from him and he slumped back, sweating and shaking as he processed the influx of sharp pain. Okay. Upon closer examination and gentle testing, Abolish could be sure he hadn't broken a rib. But the fact that the bruising had made him scream was reason enough for concern.
It was almost comedic what happened next. All he tried to do was move his leg back onto the wool when it sent a different flare of pain through him. This time, the hunter grit his teeth and willed himself not to scream. If a vampire found him like this... they wouldn't hesitate. Well... maybe some of them would.
Attempting to assess the situation was giving him a headache, but Abolish went through all the mental exercises he knew to be sure he didn't have a concussion. The fact that he remembered them all was a good first sign.
Heavily bruised chest, a cut on his forehead that had healed, but coated his face in annoying dried blood, and sharp pain in his left leg that led to heavy suspicion of a break.
Damn. He'd really done a number on himself, hadn't he?
Abolish took a painful breath in and very slowly sat up against the wall. He'd managed to fall in a corner, which was good. It meant more stability. He summoned some water and drank it slowly, taking gentle sips so no sudden movements hurt him.
He'd just started thinking about how to escape when the sound of flapping wings drew his attention. Abolish prepared himself, grabbing for his stake. His heart sank when he realized it had been shattered to smithereens in the fall and wouldn't be effective anymore.
A bluish-grey bat swooped overhead, and Abolish's eyes widened when its entire right side slammed into the silver. A loud shriek pierced his ears as the little thing tumbled down into the pit, bringing with it the faint scent of burning fur.
Abolish hesitated. On one hand... that was a thousand percent Scott. There was not chance in the world this bat wasn't the elder vampire. But... the hunter bit his lip to keep from crying out as he leaned forward and picked it up in one hand.
It stirred in his touch, curling into his fingers slightly. Abolish blinked when the bat- Scott- used his tiny hands to cling to his wrist.
This was so different, so much more undeniably vulnerable from how Scott usually was that for a second Abolish wondered if this could be someone else instead. But the coloring was unique, no one else was associated with blue the way Scott was.
All that aside, Scott was in bad shape. His body was literally giving off smoke and the tiny wheezing, needless breaths he took rattled. Abolish knew he couldn't turn back to his usual self for a while since he was injured. This was... bad. Really bad.
'Focus,' he commanded himself and whispered to the bat, "Scott?"
Scott nuzzled his little face into Abolish’s fingers, very obviously dazed and sluggish. Abolish picked him up in both hands and couldn't help but smile when Scott glowered at him with that tiny face.
"I'm going to fix this as best I can," Abolish promised.
Scott gave a tiny nod and his eyes shut sleepily.
‘Fix this.’ How the hell was he going to do that? He couldn’t move… no one knew where he was… he only had food, nothing to build with…
His best bet was to fix Scott up and pray whatever shred of compassion Shelby had managed to drag from him would save his life when the other vampires came to save their sire.
Purely guessing- hey, he may know about vampires but he wasn’t a doctor!- Abolish softly dug through the fur until he found where Scott’s shoulder was. If his suspicions were right, this was going to be very dangerous, and not something he would ever think to do on his own. As stated, he wasn’t a doctor, but Scott likely dislocated the thing smashing into that damn block of silver. If his vampirism tried to heal it before it was reset, that could be immensely painful. He didn’t have a lot of time, if any. It had likely already started “healing”.
Oh, it was definitely dislocated. Steeling himself and trying to remember the time he watched one of the organization’s doctors do this, Abolish rotated the little arm with gentle but firm pressure. It popped back into place and he exhaled shakily, relief coursing through him.
Scott let out a squeak of pain and opened his eyes. His head swiveled to stare at the hunter.
Abolish watched anxiously, more focused on the wound than anything. He didn’t really know why… but he was too committed now. And Abolish was anything if not stubborn.
After a few seconds, a little noise of pain escaped Scott. He curled in on himself, almost like it was involuntary. But nothing popped out of place, there was no sign that something had gone terribly terribly wrong. Now it was probably just the overwhelming ache of a reset wound setting in.
That was good. That would go away soon.
Abolish summoned a potato and ate it quickly, worn out and ravenous from his own pain and the stress of the procedure he’d just done. Reflecting on it now, there was a ninety-nine percent chance he would have killed Scott there. Not that it would have really affected the vampire, but it would have made killing Abolish his first priority the second he regenerated… respawned… reincarnated? Whatever. He was getting tired.
Too tired to even lie down, praying that he would wake up when someone came to the rescue, and hoping against hope it would be one of the villagers, Abolish dropped his head onto his shoulders and sank into sleep.