Bite Me.

14.

The room was filled with a silence louder than the likes of which Eren had ever heard before. He watched as Levi kept shooting glares at his brother, clearly angry with him for inviting the boy in.
'So, tell me,' Archer said at last, sitting back on the sofa next to Eren and casually draping an arm round his shoulders, making him feel more uncomfortable than he'd ever even before. 'Why did you save him, brother? He isn't exactly anybody special. No influence, no power... What made you do it?'
'I didn't want blood on the carpets,' Levi offered a wry smile, not even looking at Eren.
'Eren, did you know that my brother, despite his two hundred years, has never stopped his friends from feasting upon somebody?'
'Wait... Did you- did you say two hundred years?' Eren looked to and fro between them, trying to detect a slip in the facade. No way. It was just not possible. Marzia had said he was about thirty, although she hadn't been sure. There was just no way that he could be that old. He certainly didn't act it.
'Of course,' Levi shrugged, as if it was obvious fact. 'I was born in the year 1796. Christmas Day I was dumped at an orphanage, where I later met my brother.'
'No way!' Eren shook his head. 'You're taking the piss. I know you are.'
'It's true,' Archer confirmed. 'I was born in the year 1797. I'd give you my birth certificate but, unfortunately, I never had one.'
'So you were turned around the year 1815?'
'Precisely. Is that all? This is rather tedious...' Levi yawned, sipping at his black tea. Now that Eren watched his actions closely, he could see that he didn't quite have the air of a modern teenager. He more seemed like an aristocrat in a movie. But he couldn't wrap his head around it. Vampirism, he could kind of half deal with it. But Levi being 220 years old? No way. And he didn't look a day over nineteen. Ugh, this was creepy. He realised that they were both staring at him, their twin black eyes searching him for signs of something. He was about to ask what the problem was when Archer's fingers ran down his neck, and he realised he was feeling for a pulse.
'Brother, I am parched,' he said this with a strange expression, his head tilted and his eyes twinkling to clearly display his entertainment. 'Allow me to borrow just a little.'
'No!' Levi immediately bellowed, then realised he was just playing into his games. This would not do. 'Whatever. Go for it, I don't care.'
Archer grinned and turned, pressing his fangs into Eren's skin eagerly. Eren awaited the feeling he forgot he had missed eagerly, but was disappointed when the boy moved away.
'I don't enjoy sharing,' Archer confessed. 'That was exactly the reaction I expected. You're still trying to convince me you care so little. Perhaps if you had not reacted at all, I might have believed you, mon frère.'
'Tu est-' Levi stopped himself. He wasn't falling into this trap.
'You're French?' Eren looked at him in surprise, trying to cheer himself up after being left cold. He wanted to distract himself from his body's sudden craving for that ecstasy to flood his senses once more.
'Yes. He forgets it sometimes, but we were born and raised in Paris,' Archer smiled fondly. 'For some reason, he refuses to speak our mother tongue. Perhaps it reminds him of when he still had emotion.'
'I am going to kill you one of these days,' the dark-haired brother threatened.
'No you won't. Now, speaking of feeding, you look like shit personified. When did you last feed?'
'Sunday, I think.'
'Fucking hell, Lev. Eren, be a bloodwhore for my brother, will you? I'm going to go take a nap and give you two some privacy.'
Once he was gone, Eren sat on the sofa awkwardly, shifting around under the glare of Levi, who stood up and came to sit next to him.
'I'm not that hungry,' he muttered, shaking his head at his brother's concerns. He could see that the boy didn't want this. 'Don't get get so anxious. I'll survive a few hours, so go home.'
Eren felt guilty leaving him in such a state; he did so want to be bitten, truthfully. But at the same time, that talk from Armin about drugs earlier had set him thinking. Was this like an addiction?
'I'm surprised,' Archer hadn't left; of course he hadn't. Even this was just another of his little tests. It seemed to have pleased him. 'And while I am impressed by your selfless action, it's not an intelligent one. Drink, brother.'
But Levi sent Eren on his way, keeping a watchful eye on his brother. They remained in silence for a long time, a confrontational one in which they were just waiting for the other to strike first. But the tension of pensive waiting prevented them from saying a thing. The unsaid words suspended in the thick atmosphere like dust motes crawled down their throats and choked their windpipes. They just didn't know how to communicate like they used to. Though he concealed it well, Levi wanted nothing more than to give up the façade and revert to his past self. But if he did, he may run the risk of sacrificing all the power he had worked so much to acquire, and he wasn't sure he knew how in the first place. He couldn't remember what happiness even felt like at this point.
Archer sighed dramatically and knelt down in front of him, looking into the dark eyes that stared blankly back at him as if searching for something- perhaps hope of his brother's emotions returning.
'It's okay to care, Levi,' he said quietly. 'It's okay to want somebody. For once in your life, stop trying to destroy everything that is good and give yourself over to your emotions.'

Eren looked back at the house, not entirely convinced that he wasn't going crazy. He was somehow caught in the crossfire of a blood feud between two 220 year old vampire brothers. One of them supposedly ruled over London's supernatural scene. Why was he so special that he had been chosen for this position? What had he ever done that was so awful the universe had conspired against him and decided that this was a suitable punishment? He had a right mind to run back and try and solve their issues altogether somehow just so he could be free of them once and for all. If only he could kill them... He shuddered at just how like them he had become- seeing murder as a plausible answer to a question. He really needed some distance from all of this. He sat down on the grass verge outside the huge wrought-iron gates at the end of the driveway and texted his mum asking her for a ride home. He'd managed to leave his wallet in Levi's house, but he didn't feel comfortable going back. She grudgingly turned up 15 minutes later, and as soon as he clambered in next to her, he knew something was wrong. May was in the back of the car, her eyes red-rimmed and for some reason his mum wasn't demanding answers as to why he was here rather than coming home directly after school as usual.
'What's happened?' He frowned as he buckled his seatbelt.
'Daddy's home,' May whispered, her voice small and whispery. He felt bile rising up in his throat; May's dad was not the kind of guy you wanted hanging around a kid. Or anybody who couldn't defend themselves against his fists.
'He's on probation,' his mum explained, gripping the steering wheel so hard her knuckles turned white. 'He doesn't have anywhere else to go, so he's staying with us.'
'Mum, why did you agree to that? He isn't safe- he'll just knock you around like he always does!'
'He's my brother,' she told him firmly.
'So what? He doesn't act like one. He was in prison for a reason. If he lays a finger on you or May, he's leaving.'
'I will not treat my brother like that.'
'So you'd rather he beat me and May?'
The car lurched forwards suddenly as she slammed her foot down violently.
'You don't understand, Eren. I still love him- he's my brother! He used to protect me when our dad got drunk, and I will return the favour.'

Mick Jaeger was scum. He was the layer of dirt you find on the shoe of a tramp. He wasn't even that; he was the lowest of the low. Eren couldn't stand the man, with his permanent alcoholic breath and slur and flying fists. Whenever Uncle Mick came to stay, the house was quiet except for him shouting at his mum. Occasionally, he would turn his anger on his daughter and nephew. When this happened, chaos would ensue. Eren usually ran for cover in the park with his sister, and they'd stay there until the early hours of the morning when they could he sure he'd fallen into a drunken stupor and couldn't see further than a metre in front of his own feet.
Now, he was claiming to be sober despite holding a can of lager in his hand, and he had grown a beard.
'Eren,' he grunted when the tall boy ducked past his reaching hands. 'I jusht- wanted to shay hello!'
'He's got homework,' Carla excused him, giving him a look that said 'go tog your room now'. It took every ounce of strength in his body to leave his mother alone with that brute, but he knew if he didn't the situation would only escalate from there. The house was going to be a minefield for the next few weeks.