Simon Lewis and The Avengers

Raphael Santiago

He awoke as Nick entered, gun in holster.

"I had my men scour the city, using 'Kyle's' apartment as an epicentre and none of them, not a single on of them reported a magical café." Fury stormed.

"It was a clever lie." Simon lied. "It was a lie to get you to leave so I could feed."

Nick fumed and pulled his gun to hand.

"I wouldn't do that." Simon stopped him, pushing his fear aside.

"Why not?" Fury kept his gun up at Simon.

"Because I could be bluffing, there may or may not be a downworlder bar. You need me alive - as a vampire to know for sure."

"You'll heal." Fury's trigger finger twitched.

"I might not. Blood is my energy, if I lose too much of it before I heal, I'm dead. Properly and forever." Simon tempted Nick. In response, he huffed and put his gun back in its holster.

"I suggest that you get back to your chair and take an earned nap. I'm not going anywhere and I won't need anything until tomorrow or the day after." Simon put as much encanto into his voice as possible, not difficult for a healthy daylighter on a worn out human. Nick wavered a moment and then seemed to decide on leaving. Bruce and Steve watched in astonishment -and slight fear- at Nick. Obviously this didn't happen often.

"What- what just... what?!" Steve spluttered.

"Never mess with a well-fed, well-rested vampire." Simon summarised.

"Did you just hypnotise the director?" whispered Bruce, not too softly.

"Its difficult, and its called an encanto. Last time I managed one, I convinced my mum I wasn't drinking blood." Simon looked back on the moment bitterly.

"But..." Bruce spoke cautiously, "But I thought that didn't work."

"Encanto lasts for a few days, in which I got most of my essentials out of the house. Then, when I returned, my mum screamed at me, barred the door and threw things.
"When I first did it, me and my mum were equally confused as she walked over to the couch and fell asleep. The next day she remembered nothing so I went to my sire and asked about it. Turns out I had accidentally encantoed my mother. Though it wasn't very strong. I'm not even remotely sure how long he'll forget."

"Lets hope a while." Steve raised his eyebrows.

"Sire?" Bruce seemed to be processing still.

"The person who turned me." he shortened.

"Why do you still talk to him? I thought you hated vampires." Bruce responded.

"Oh, I do. But their my blood, literally. I couldn't blame him either." Simon rushed to explain. "When a vampire turns a human, there has to be an exchange of blood. First, I was trapped as a rat in the vampire lair - don't ask, I drank a faerie potion at a warlock party. I bit the vampire that held me -Raphael, his name was- to escape. When that happens, you get called to your sire again. I was barely conscious, just walking into the mansion of the dead. There I was ripped apart by the vamps, my blood reaching Raphael and I died. When I came to, I was starving and buried so I clawed my way up to the surface, where Raphael fed me and I became a fledgling vampire. Story of my life, midcrop." Simon finished, to his comfort.

"That's tough." Bruce whistled.

"Its a hard knock life." Simon quoted.

"Did you just-" Steve's mouth curled into a smirk, lightening the mood.

"Don't judge me." Simon smiled. "I'm immortal so I hear we're allowed to re-live the classics shamelessly."

They all broke into a laugh and the conversation dispersed into a whir of pleasant topics, though Bruce looked far away - as I his thoughts were somewhere else. Simon suspected he was thinking about something Simon had said, but was at a crossroads about whether to bring the matter to light or if it would be safer not  to. Eventually, he grew restless and spoke up in between an opinion exchange  of Sherlock Holmes: Conan Doyle edition vs Steven Moffat adaption.

"If I may ask, what did you mean by 'his name was Raphael'?" Bruce asked and Simon dreaded to explain.

"He... he died." Simon knew that wasn't enough. "It will be easier if I start at the beginning." Simon said, Bruce nodded.

"My warlock friend, Magnus, was paid to find Raphael Santiago when he disappeared. Magnus is the sort of person to go to if you need help because he's one of the most powerful warlocks in the world. He took the task and searched the vampire's lair for a boy by that name, but he'd already been turned and drank his friends. He'd even killed the vampire who'd taken him, who was one of the oldest vampires ever. Needless to say Magnus was extremely shocked. Raphael came to live with Magnus and train to be human again; wear a cross, say the word 'God', eat food, he even ran across graveyards until he was oven baked. Eventually, he could return to his family but him and Magnus stayed good friends: the high warlock of Brooklyn and the king of the vampires - who'd 'a thunk it?
"Fast forward a few decades, me and my friends are on a mission in one of the hell dimensions to free Raphael and Magnus from some really bad people there. However, Magnus is told to stake Raphael for his own freedom. He, of course, refuses and Raphael is staked any way. Him being my sire, means I felt the wooden stake through my own heart on the other side of hell. And that's the end of Raphael Santiago." Simon finished glumly. There was a silence a moment and Bruce began to shake his head.

"High warlocks, king vampires, hell dimensions!" Bruce pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'm just surprised you don't have PTSD."

Simon pursed his lips and looked to the floor in shameful humiliation.

"Well..." Simon metaphorically scratched the back of his neck.

"You have PTSD, don't you?" Bruce said with a combination of bored assumption and astonishment. Simon nodded solemnly.

"Sheesh." Bruce passed a hand over his face and Steve mirrored his attitude, putting his weight on the other foot.

Silence engulfed them for who knew how long, though Simon couldn't sleep or feel up to talking. Bruce kept opening his mouth to speak but decided against it every time.