Chapter Text
Oh god, it hurt.
The cuts in her skin from the blade Carlos was wielding stung but it was whatever venom that was injected in her veins that made her want to scream in pain until her throat was raw. Still, she stubbornly refused to give her captors the satisfaction.
She wasn't sure what they had done to her when they let the serpent bite her as she laid strapped to yet another altar but she could feel the snake’s poison flowing through her veins like molten lava.
“Untie the straps but make sure she doesn't get away.” Carlos commanded two men dressed head to toe in black as he strode towards Kate once again with his knife, waving it in front of her face to taunt her.
“Things may not have gone exactly as planned but at least we have you. You will make an excellent replacement for Santanico.” He tilted her chin up until she was forced to look into his eyes. “In fact, you are an upgrade. Her beauty was her power but beauty is only on the surface.” He points at her heart. “Yours comes from within. You have a light.”
Kate struggles against the two men who hold her as the knife inches up to her throat. This it it. This is what I get for killing Daddy. I’m so sorry. The blade drags down her neck, breaking the skin but still not deep enough to kill her. Blood trickles down her chest as he drags the blade closer to her heart.
“Easy, Katelyn. Once the ceremony is done you will be trapped in this temple but you'll be treated like a goddess.” He speaks as though he’s giving her a gift but it only makes her feel sick.
No. Please no.
But just as he begins to push the knife into her chest the fiery pain in her veins fades away and is replaced with ice.
“No.”
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The slowly rising sun was like a flame against her skin but she couldn’t stop, if they caught her she would be trapped in that temple. I could do what Daddy couldn’t. Put a stake through my own chest and hope that God forgives me.
But then Seth comes storming out of the temple, looking furious and throwing down his jacket when he reaches the car. He stands there defeated, his head down and looking still for the first time since he barged into her life.
So she runs to him, because he’s the only one left in this world who knows what she’s gone through. He’s my only hope.
She crashes into him, hugging him and begging for help as she buries her face against his chest. He grabs her by her arms and pushes her back to see her. “Kate! Jesus Christ, what happened?” He looks over her and it’s only then she remembers she’s covered in blood, both her own and the ones who were between her and her escape.
“Carlos… he wanted me to replace Santanico.” She looks up at Seth, feels the tears stinging her eyes. “Please, Seth. It hurts.” His gaze meets hers and she holds her breath as she waits for him to answer, watches as his expression softens and how he shakes his head as though he’s trying to clear it.
He looks down to where his hands grip her arms, eyes wide when he sees grey smoke billowing up off her skin. “Fuck, you’re burning. Fuck.” He reaches into the car for his discarded jacket and drapes it over her. He leans down, sees her peak out from under it to look up at him. “Feel like keeping me company?”
“Yeah.”
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She isn’t sure how long they’ve been driving for.
She’s been huddled under Seth’s beat up jacket since they left, even after he finally managed to figure out how the roof of the convertible works to block out some of the sun. “Stupid car for a mexican vampire to have anyways.”
She doesn’t talk. Seth doesn’t say much either, just little quips when he can’t take the silence anymore. He looks over to Kate, hoping for a reaction, something to know she’s okay but she stays quiet and hidden under his jacket.
It isn’t until he parks in a shady spot outside a worn down gas station that she comes out from under her hiding spot. “Want anything?” Kate shakes her head ‘no’ as she stares down at her hands.
He comes bursting out of the doors a few minutes later, bags in one hand with a gun in the other. He tosses everything into the car and hops in the idling car. “Cover up! Quick!” Kate hides again as Seth peels out onto the gravel road.
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The sun has almost set when Kate puts on the sweatshirt Seth stole for her and pulls up the hood blocking out the last of the fading sun. She sits next to him on the hood of the car as he downs a bottle of water.
“Thank you for the sweater... and everything else.” Even as she tries to hide behind the hood he can see the tears rolling down her cheek before she tries to discreetly wipe them away. He pauses, trying to figure out the right move to make because for the first time in years he’s speechless.
Because even Seth knows “Sorry, I kidnapped you and your family which ultimately lead to your dad dying, your brother becoming a culebra and you… well, whatever did happen to you” is not going to cut it.
It also reminds him yet again that something isn’t right about what happened to Kate. She quietly told him all the grisly details of what Carlos did to her. Things that almost made him turn the car around, go straight back to that shitty excuse for a bar and stake Carlos himself but as satisfying as it sounds, he wants to put as much distance between them and that place as possible.
He’s also pretty sure whatever Carlos did to Kate didn’t work, at least not entirely. He was with Richie after he became one of those snake faced assholes and Kate is different. She burns in the sun but it’s slow unlike the ones who sacrificed themselves in the temple. Painful but still slow. There’s no scales, no claws and no accidental transforming into someone else like Richie.
She has fangs. She found out by accident when she was yawning earlier, could feel them come out and he heard her yell out in surprise. But even her fangs are small, not long and menacing like the others. There is only one thing that shocks him after everything he saw in that temple.
Her eyes.
Her eyes take his breath away. They don’t turn yellow like the others did, like a warning to stay away. Kate’s eyes almost sparkle when he looks into them. Tiny golden flecks are dotted throughout her usual green and when the light hits them they glow like stars. Every time he looks into them he has to be shaken out of it like he’s in a trance. He’s not sure whether it’s a power she's gained or if it’s just him but he’s almost afraid to look now.
“Are you- uh… thirsty?”
She stills when he says it and he immediately cringes, wishes he had found a better to bring it up. “Sorry. Just seems better to know now so we can plan.” She furrows her brow at that but he shrugs, picks at the label on his bottle. “Been thinking about it. I could steal some blood from a hospital. Had some other ideas but didn’t think you’d want anyone being hurt for it.”
She stays silent so he wants to kick himself for even bringing up what he knew would be a tricky subject but when he finally looks over at her she looks shocked. Shocked but not appalled. Her eyes still sparkle but it’s from tears this time. She seems to smile though, even if it’s so small he isn’t sure it’s really there.
But then she shakes her head and the smile grows bigger. “That’s a smart plan but right now I’d just like a water.”
His grin is even bigger than hers when they clink their drinks together and watch the stars come out.
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Kate drives through the night while Seth sleeps. They’re pulled over on the side of an unpaved road when she wakes him. “Sun’s coming up.” He yawns and mumbles something about caffeine under his breath when she tosses a red bull into his lap. “Figured you might need a boost so I stopped awhile back.” He grunts a sound that she assumes means thanks before they switch seats.
Kate sleeps all day.
At first, he thinks she must just be tired from the last few days. Do culebras need sleep? Is she even a culebra? She hasn’t been asking for any blood. I should have watched more vampire movies. He tries to shake her awake when he finds a shady spot outside yet another rundown gas station but she shrugs him off. “Seth, I’m tired.” So he leaves her to sleep under his jacket once again.
He flips through the radio stations to drown out his thoughts but all he can find is talk radio in Spanish. The silence makes his skin itch but when he talks to Kate he gets no response. He continues on until the sun starts to set then pulls into the first motel he can find. It makes the Dew Drop Inn look like The Ritz but there’s a bar across the street and a flashing sign that reads “color tv” so he decides it’ll do.
He asks for a room facing west and ignores the curious look from the old man running the front desk. “Don’t want the sun waking me up in the morning.” Or burning Kate but no one needs to know that. He takes in their few belongings before he wakes up Kate. “Rise and shine. Or at least come sleep in an actual bed.” She stays still in the front seat.
“Come on, Kate. We’re both tired and I need to shower.”
Nothing.
He knocks on the window she’s resting against.
Nothing.
“Kate. This isn’t fucking funny.”
Silence.
The only sound is his heart pounding so hard in his chest it feels like it’s about to burst. He can’t stop his hand from shaking as he reaches for the door handle.
He barely catches Kate from falling to the ground when he pulls the car door open. “Kate!” She’s lifeless in his arms and he desperately pushes down his panic as he rushes her into their room. He sits her on the edge of the bed and gently smacks at her cheek to wake her up.
She’s so pale.
“Kate! Please!” The words almost come out as sobs as he keeps trying to wake her. Her eyes finally flutter open when he grips her shoulders, shaking her. Her grips her chin to force her to look at him. “Look at me, princess. There you go.” She struggles to focus, blinking slowly like she’s forcing her eyes to stay open.
“Seth?” She struggles to get his name out, voice rough like sandpaper. “Right here. What’s wrong?” She starts to fall forward towards him but he wraps his arms around her, lifts her onto his lap as he sits on the bed. She leans against his chest to stay upright while he rubs circles along her back.
“You need to drink, don’t you?” She stills, eyes wide as she looks up at him in fear but she finally nods slowly before she looks away. He turns her chin back towards him. “Hey hey, it’s okay. Got a plan, remember?”
Before she can even question him he’s unbuttoning his shirt, holding her steady with one arm as shrugs his shirt to the floor. He sees the look of disbelief on her face when he speaks.
“Drink from me.”