Basic facts of life one: Vampires killed Roman's birth parents. This wasn't some dark backstory leading to him becoming a vampire hunter; the reason was nothing so mundane. They didn't kill his parents for blood or some mindless sport. They killed as a warning to their employers to pay up a ransom to some wannabe crime lord. Said crime lord died rather soon after and got buried with a spike of silver in his chest to stop him from turning.
Vampires killed people every day, but there weren't mindless beats; they felt passion as warmly as the living. Roman knew this. Walter enjoyed a fight whether he got fed at the end of it or not. Roman needed to stop interacting with Walter if he wanted to remain with a beating heart, but that was a problem for another day.
Fact Two: Roman got raised and adopted by a lonely man who adopted a new child everything the previous one left the rest for longer than a month. Possibly an unfair statement, but Romas returned during reading week in university to find a new brother. Jaxon left for two months to visit his birth family when Theo appeared and the others weren't much better.
Fact three: Rue hunted monsters and put them down or returned them to someone to fix them. A teenage werewolf could be forgiven for losing control when they didn't have full control of a shift. A nest of demons draining every left drop of life left from people at nursing home couldn't be.
Roman followed in his adoptive father's footsteps - all of them did. Rue tried to stop them. It didn't work. His attempts honestly caused more issues than they solved. By the time the youngest, Dale, joined the family, Rue didn't fight his involvement but put strict rules in place in the name of safety;
Fact four: A month ago, they'd come downstairs to find Rue feeding off Dale. Rue was a vampire. Dale was also a vampire. Unsurprisingly there had been a lot of confusion and chaos after that discovery. His brother and Roman had attempted to capture their father, but he'd escaped with Dale in tow. Dale complaining loudly in the act but the two vanished into the night with nothing to trace where they'd turned to as an alternative den.
Jaxon had theorised that a hunt had gone wrong and they'd failed to show up in time to save Dale from being turned. Then Walter wanted into the house, made himself comfortable in Roman's bedroom and declared them all idoits.
Rue was born a vampire.
There was a whole information dump of information that summed up left them with the knowledge that a) Rue's parents were vampires, b) they riled the underworld of the city until hunters killed them leaving a power vacuum and c) the underworld wanted Rue back as its King and were willing to do anything to accommodate this.
That fourth fact of life messed Roman up a lot.
"See my problem is, how did none of us notice for so long? Dad went out in daylight, ate food and I never saw him drink blood," Jaxon said over the comm line, the sound of dripping in the background.
The same questions had been cycling in Rue's mind too. He was the oldest, he'd been with Rue the longest, but he'd never suspected a thing. The only thing strange about Rue was his lack of communication skills.
"No chatter on the comms, he'll hear us," Theo said, serious while on a mission and this one counted.
"I have questions that need answering!"
"Questions that we can ask Rue when we capture him, which is not going to happen if you keep clogging up the airwaves!"
A moment of silence passed as everyone sat in their own thoughts.
"See, the someone could have mentioned! The wolves are our closest allies. Surely one of them must have smelled that Dad was a leech."
"Oh my fucking God. Jax, zip it!"
"Normally, I'd be on your side Jax, but we know the answer to those questions, and I'd rather have Rue back than listen to you wax about them again," hissed Sadie. She wasn't with them but was back at the house, monitoring the situation from a safe distance. Also, she had a university exam in the morning.
Rue could walk in daylight because his parents had been ancient ones. Dale had some sensitivity to the sun, and his children would likely be the same as any normal vampire. All vampires could eat human food - they couldn't digest it, but they could eat it. Walker thought they were all idiots about the third thing. Clearly, Rue must be consuming human blood, or his powers wouldn't work. And they'd have a feral father but Roman didn't want to think about that too closely.
Could he kill the man who saved him?
Vampires left victims alive all the time though most were traceable. Suck houses or hospitals reporting homeless people drained of blood, most vampires could be tracked via their food. Unless Rue had a ability to make people forget, but they'd still be tracks - wouldn't there?
Possibly fact five but who knew anymore which facts counted as big fact of life and which didn't: Upon being caught, Rue fot super protective of Dale, his baby vampire, and escaped into the night in a vampire fod. They hdan't seen or heard from Rue or Dale since - ignoring the occasional save when things went south. Pin in that bit for later.
Rue had been in contact with the underworld. Walter being evidence of this. The distrubance of Rue fleeing from his found family left ripples in his wake. Rue kept the communites calm and safe. Either he needed to continue his role as guardiain of the night or step up as King.
Their father who knew how much wach of them hated vampires, decided that rather than facing them, the best option was to hide like a coward and never speak to them again. Some people would consider this an unreasonable expectation. For Rue, it wasn't that unexpected.
Leading to their present situation. Rue would be stalking a gang tonight. He'd continued his work on other gangs so logically he'd attempt a run at this one too. They'd taken the gang out and dealt with them. They were going to capture Rue tonight and drag him home to have words. Firm words that Roman wrote down least he forget them. Jaxon planned to shout until nothing else came out. Theo had a slideshow entitled 'Why not telling us from the beginning was a (very) bad idea'.
It ended with a slide stating that they all loved Rue very much and if he could stop hiding from them, they'd been much happier. Please.
Roman didn't know the girls plan. That was a bridge to cross once they had Rue at their mercy. For now they waited with Jaxon continuing to mention questions with no answers or answering that he found unacceptable. Walter didn't know everything. Walter liked to play games with them and give half answers. Walter refused to leave.
"What's our plan for our youngest bat?"
"We probably shouldn't call him that anymore. Might count as offencie now that we now he sort of is one."
"Dale is easy."
"For you, maybe."
Roman winced. Dale behaved for him, occasionally. He didn't behave for anyone else apart from Rue when it took his fancy.
"I'll bundle him up next to Dad and force him to watch movies when we are talking to Dad," Jaxon said as if things would be that easy. Not the worst idea in the world. Roman planned to hug Dale for a long, long time once he had his claws on him. This whole experience couldn't have been easy for him.
"Targets spotted, meeting underway in the warehouse."
The comm lines turned quiet.
Walter gave Roman some scent bombs laced with something that would be irresible to vampires. Roman couldn't smell a thing but Walter swore it would draw Rue towards them and into the trap. Did Roman trust Walter? Oddly when it came to things like this - yes. What did worried Roman was if the trap was too much. Theo had designed it orginially to kill an out of control vampire, not to capture one. A lot had changed but it would injury Rue - enough for them to move him to a containment cell.
The nerves vanished as thhe lights flickered and a famliar face popping into a view. Too small to be Rue but very much family. Fuck. They hadn't planned for if Dale found the trap first. The baby vampire fluttered over the ground towards the lure with wary curiousiyt. Roman's throat closed up, his chest tightening as he watched the car wreak about about to happen.
Dale was a child! A vampire child but far too young to be hit by the trap.
He moved near the box, studying it. Jaxon and Theo cursed in his ear, niether of them close enough to interfer. . The trap sprung. Nothing could stop the resulting choas.
"Dale, get down!"
The boy's head snapped in his direction before obeying, the click of the trap loud. Dale screamed. Roman moved, trying to get over to Dale before the worst of it hit. Someone shouted at him over the comm. He didn't have time. The arrows would hurt, the silver would burn but the focused UV light trained to come on could kill Dale in combination with the rest.
Roman reached him as the lights turned on. He stuffed Dale under him, the boy small enough that Roman could keep the worse of the light from him. Sticky blood leaked over his fingers as he clutched Dale to his chest. At least one arrow hit his younger brother. Two hit him. He couldn't remember how many they set. Dale clutched back, his hands buried in Roman's coat to keep them safe.
A metal clang and the cage fastened around them, trapping them in place. Dale trembled underneath him. Roman had a mouth full of blood and his ears were ringing. The light beamed down, trapping him as bad as the cage. He couldn't let go of Dale until the light off off.
That failed to stop the roar of a furious monster ripping against his sides. He dared to look up at the beast, red eyed and beserek from his child being injuried, closer than he'd like.
"Roman."
Fury didn't seem to quite encapulsate the tone in Rue's voice. They'd fought before. Had screaming matches that Jaxon spoke about with shudders. He'd heard Rue addres sthe worse of the worse with that tone but never had it been directed at him.
"Dad," Roman tried, blood splattering on the ground. The light flickered off, leaving the normal dim blubs of the warehouse. He tried to lower Dale to the ground, but Dale hissed in pain. Rue raored again, the metal vibrating.
"Garlic salt," Theo reminded, his voice not too far away and as frightened as Rue. "Don't put Dale down yet."
Rue hissed at the others, not seeing them. The berserker rage clouded his vision. Dots filled Romans. The metal creaked again as Roman fist crushed one of the bars, the silver sizzling as it burned Roman's skin. Great idea everyone - almost kill Dale and get Dad so angry that he couldn't tell if it was them. Just a shame the goal involved returning Dad to the family.
Roman didn't know what to do.
[part 2 coming]