Death Bite (Peterick)

Part 21: May Nothing but Death Do us Part

Pete's POV:

There was this overwhelming feeling fluttering in the pit of my stomach. I wasn't positive what it meant, but I knew that I was completely and emotionally invested in Patrick. The images of the boy in a total sexual bliss twirled inside my head and reminded me of the intimate session I was involved in hours ago. The memory was burning a hole in my brain as I looked out the window of the car at the passing scenery of trees and open fields. It hurt to leave him.

He was still fast asleep in my arms, but too much time had gone by. William had been expecting me to be back early to leave with Mikey, so with a heavy, dead heart I laid him to rest on his bed and sneaked out of his home around the wee hours of the morning. Now I was in a stolen vehicle with Mikey and Brendon. Brendon sat next to me, enjoying the view of the world outside the city. He had told me he had never been anywhere else.

William actually approved of Brendon coming with us as long as he took up a job with an ally gang stationed there. What the job was couldn't be disclosed to me, but Brendon had said he would be able to help me in my quest for the hunters far more efficiently. There was an awkwardness hanging over me and Mikey while he drove us. He was quiet the entirety of the ride, though I kept catching his eyes on me through the rear view mirror. We didn't need rest stops, aside from the few where we got out to stretch our limbs, and had been on the road for a good nine hours straight. It felt like an eternity in the silence.

He finally spoke up right around one of the times he stopped on the side of the road.

"When we get there it's going to be heavily guarded. I've been informed by the gang up in Washington that they'll be able to help us get through by causing a distraction. Brendon, you'll be going with them to complete some tasks. Pete and I are going to go with the rest of them to the White House."

Mikey's icy gaze slid over me as he lit a cigarette and leaned against the hood of the car.
"You've got to prepare yourself mentally. I predict absolute chaos as soon as this starts. There will be guns, lots of them, but we all know guns can't kill us unless the bullets are blessed by a priest. Those government shitheads aren't knowledgeable enough about us yet to really be aware of that. It'll be easy to get rid of them. Who we really need to worry about are the hunters, but I trust you both can handle them."

He sucked in the toxins of his cigarette and looked up at the cloudy sky. Brendon got back inside the car after a few minutes of stretching. I sat next to Mikey.

"Do you have some sort of grudge against me?" I asked.

"No."

"Mikey, I can tell when there's something wrong."
"Hm. I don't know. I told someone I loved him, and he can't say the same, so I guess that bothers me a whole lot."
"I'm sorry I left you there. I don't think I ever formally said that, but I can't force my feelings for you. It wouldn't be real," I told him.

"Fuck, Pete, I know. I know I shouldn't let it get to me right now of all times, but I can't help it. For twenty something years I've been fantasizing about your return. It's ridiculous, really, but I forgave you a long time ago, and I thought we could be as happy as we were before it all was taken away from us."

"You know William did this to us."
"What are you saying?"
"He ruined your life just as he did mine."
Mikey shrugged with his cigarette propped in between his fingers.
"I forever serve him in turn for being changed. I can't really question the morals behind my transition."

"You know what's right and wrong, though. This...what we're about to do can't be right. We're doing his awful bidding like mindless freaks, and for what? So that he can continue to be in control of us?"