vincturi

The vampire rolled his eyes. "A simple please would be nice. Do they not teach manners anymore."

"They do, I just don't care. Gimme." Peter said, making a grabby motion with his hand. "Please." He tacked on with the tone of a bossy child.

"No, last time you had it, you got yourself upset over things you were looking at. It would be wise if you did not have it for a few days." Aro frowned. "Or ever."

This did not seem to make Peter happy and he tried to reach for Aro's chest, knowing the phone was in the inner pocket of his suit jacket, but the vampire stepped back. "Peter, stop it."

"God, you're such an ass, just let me have it!"

"Stop being a child about things, you do not need to upset yourself over things again."

"But what if I want to!" Peter snarled, the feeling of cold was rather heavy now as the ghost tried once more to reach for Aro, who suddenly moved across the room in the blink of an eye.

Aro narrowed his eyes. "And why would you want that? I do believe it is not healthy for humans to be emotionally stressed over things they read online."

Peter huffed, looking away. "So? Everyone does it, it's normal. Perfectly, fuckingly, humanly normal."

Ah?

"And what do you mean by that?" Aro asked, curious.

Peter complained often about his new life, unlife?, but seemed to just take it in stride, adjusting when he found something new to be interested in about his situation. But when he did speak about human things, it was mainly to complain or say what he didn't miss about it.

However, there were those moments, like now, where he'd slip, his act of 'whatever I can deal with this' breaking just a bit, showing that he was not dealing with this.

"Like you'd understand." Peter snipped. "You're a vampire, you don't get how it is to be a human. It's all... ya know, stress and bitchin', and wantin' other people to be angry like you are over stupid things."

He was floating off the ground, arms crossed, Aro could see the dark, red spot on his neck where he had left his killing mark become a bit larger. A sign that Peter was slipping, showing more of the damage, looking a bit more like his corpse had looked upon death.

"A perfectly normal human thing to be some dumb fuck that wants to be angry and upset over some petty bullshit cause someone said you looked ugly in a selfie you posted. Or that your opinion on something was a load of crap, or that... I dunno, that you're just some useless waste of space with no purpose anymore."

Aro was surprised that Peter's last bit there made his dead heart clench, did Peter feel... normal, human, when he spoke so poorly of himself like that?

What a miserable way of thinking, thought the vampire as he approached the ghost. "Please don’t talk about yourself like that." He found himself saying, his voice calm, oddly sympathetic.

If the others heard him speak like this...

Peter looked at him, frowning, confused. "What do you care? You don't really think all that highly of humans anyway."

"True, but you speak of yourself as if you are worthless."

"Wasn't... wasn't talkin' about myself, just bein', ya know, general about stuff."

That was a lie and they both knew it. "Peter, you know you are not the way you speak of yourself. You are not a waste of space, actually, you don't take up any space at all like this."

This made the ghost laugh, oddly enough, but Aro pressed on. "And you have a purpose. Otherwise, you wouldn't be in this realm still, yes? I am to assume that, based on what you've told me and of what humans consider normal for restless spirits, that if you don't have a purpose, you have no ties to the mortal world?"

Peter looked at him, biting his lip. "What's my purpose then?"

"From what I can tell, it's to be a pain for all vampires, especially for me."

Again, this got a laugh out of Peter, the blood spot shrinking, he looked a little less dead. "I guess that's a good reason to still be hanging around."

"For you it is." Aro sighed and reached into his jacket, holding out the phone.

Peter looked at it, almost taking it, but then shook his head. "Probably... not a great idea right now. Maybe I'll have a better time messin' with your creepy twin bodyguards."

"If that's how you get your entertainment around here..."

A grin came to Peter's face, the room felt a little less cold. "Well, my entertainment mainly comes from making your life a living hell, considering that appears to be my purpose now."

Aro rolled his eyes at this.

--

His human was smart, he would know better than to betray him, but there were those in the coven who didn't like that Aro had a 'human pet' of sorts as a lover, one with a strange, natural immunity to any vampire's gift.

It was possible someone in Aro's coven has sent word to this clan leader, a heads up that they were coming to take the leader out.

And now Aro found himself in the hands of a vampire whose power was immense strength, stronger than even Aro himself, which was impressive. This man must have been a very powerful man when he had been a human, and now he was using it against Aro, trying to crush him to death.

A simple decapitation would have more dignity, Aro thought as he felt pain in his body, he feared his body might crack. But being crushed between two, large, meaty hands by a vampire of a lower rank than him... oh, that was just cruel!

It was almost frightening to be in a position where Aro didn't have the upper hand, especially because his own gift was useless, what would he even gain from reading this man's memories?

Aro wheezed, fuck, he swore he heard something snap, and sharp pain shot up his trapped arm. He could hear someone shout his name, was it Peter?

The hunter was busy with the lower ranked vampires, his hunting skills had vastly improved, he was actually a threat to Aro's kind now. He wondered if Peter had a moment to help Aro out, though if he was saved by a human...

Oh, which was more embarrassing, death by crushing by some lomux of a vampire, or being saved by a human?

Even if said human was his lover.

Suddenly, the crushing vice grip around him eased up and Aro gasped, though he didn't need air, an unconscious action. He looked, seeing that the vampire was confused, and that Peter was now there, his arms tightly around the vampire's waist.

"What?" He heard the leader said, surprised that his strength seemed to have drained, his grip was like that of a sickly human's.

Aro easily stepped away from the vampire, only to move forward and grab him by the head, and with one twist, the head flew right off, landing somewhere in the room.

Peter released the body and it crumpled to the floor. The human was panting, looking to be running on adrenaline, covered in blood and scratches, but seemed fine. Aro noticed that the remaining vampires had been dealt with, the ones Aro hadn't killed himself.

He was surprised, Peter had taken on five vampires on his own before...

"You saved me." Aro said, shocked by his admission.

Peter ran a hand through his messy hair, looking embarrassed. "Yeah, well... I wasn't gonna let some musclehead be the death of you, Aro. Wouldn't be good for your reputation, 'n stuff..."

Aro stepped around the body on the floor, lifting Peter's chin, before kissing him on the lips. "Thank you." He said against the human's mouth. "You have done well today, my dear."

His freckles cheeks were red from more than just exertion now. "Don't get sappy on me now, vamp, it's beneath you."

"If you say so." Aro smiled. "But again, thank you."

"Ngk... it's weird, stop thanking me."

"Well then, I shall stop saying it, but I will show you my gratitude later." Aro said, kissing him on the cheek.

--