34. I Have You

T urney eyed the building they were approaching. The Blue Duckling was in a less busy area of the park, away from the rides and games, near other restaurants that appeared to already be closed for the night.

As far away as he was still, Turney could see the building well enough to tell that it wasn’t closed, as in closed for the night, but closed, as in never opened.

Fancy though it was, the scaffolding around the outside told him that the restaurant was still under construction. It had been painted in various shades of blue, with wooden panels accenting between the windows. Beyond the windows were large paintings of ducks in fancy outfits. The unlit sign above, in silver cursive lettering, read The Blue Duckling.

“This…”

“Don’t say it.” Octavius sighed.

“I—what the hell?!” He gagged, coming to a stop as he covered his nose and mouth, trying to block out the scent that was suspiciously coming from the direction of the building.

The vampire hissed. “That’s…”

“Lavender?” He choked. It was so strong, his eyes were starting to water, and there was still like a football field between them and The Blue Duckling.

He glanced around. “Does no one else smell it?”

None of the humans seemed to be reacting to it at all, and it didn’t appear as if there were any paranormal near enough to. Then again, they’d probably run in the opposite direction once they caught the scent, to avoid the oncoming headache he felt.

The humans passing are eyeing me oddly now though…so there’s that …he thought sarcastically.

“It's likely they can smell it… But it probably just seems like a strong perfume to their senses.” Octavius walked on, saying, “Let’s go.”

Sighing, he followed. The smell grew stronger the closer they got. On reaching the restaurant, he frowned as there was obviously not a single light on inside. On top of that…it was silent… He heard nothing. “She said she’d be here, but…”

“I know… I don’t hear any sort of heartbeat inside. And I can’t smell anything over the lavender.”

“This is?—”

“Don’t say it!” Octavius huffed.

“Fine, after you,” he mocked, grandly waving him forward.

The vampire chuckled. “Rubbing off on you, am I? But I can understand it is fun to be dramatic.” Octavius tossed his head with a hmph, and turned the handle on the door. It opened easily enough, since it was apparently not locked.

But the vampire didn’t step inside. Instead, they both gagged as the scent increased tenfold.

“Oh, God…”

“Let’s…go,” Octavius said stiffly, as he stubbornly walked in.

His nose wrinkled as he swallowed hard, desperately wishing the whole ‘once it’s in there, it’s in there’ thing wasn’t true, and that stopping his breathing would help.

Ugh…it wasn’t that he hated lavender… Turney just didn’t love it enough to want to be punched in the face repeatedly with it.

“Hell.” Groaning, he followed his crazy boyfriend inside, into what was DEFINITELY a trap.

The inside was unfinished, with drop cloths everywhere and paint cans scattered about. Frankly…it didn’t make much sense that a Park Operations and Events Manager would be working here… But then…trap…so…

Passing what looked to be the dining area, they followed a hallway back, finding a secondary ballroom in the same state as the others. Turney was pretty sure that Octavius was leading them towards the source of the smell…because it was growing stronger with each step. Either that or it was just slowly filling his every pour to the point that he was now just breathing in pure lavender.

Exiting the ballroom, with tears dripping down his face from the strength of the smell, his shoulders tensed when he caught the scent of something just as unpleasant as the lavender, but in a very different way.

“Oh, hell…” he cursed. As they turned a corner, they…found the source of the other scent, confirming what he’d already assumed.

Octavius didn’t stop at the sight of a dead body like Turney had, but then it was Octavius, so…why the hell would he?

He eyed the deathly pale, brown-haired woman in a business suit, who was slumped back against a door at the end of the short hallway. Meeting her wide open, unseeing gaze, Turney felt… sad seeing her there. Yet…more off-putting was the fact that the irritation he felt…was stronger.

How could he be irritated at a poor dead woman? Maybe he was just irritated that he was right… Ugh, Turney wasn’t sure he could deal with finding out, at this very moment, that he’d already begun to feel less about others dying… He didn’t want to lose that side of himself… Turney didn’t want to NOT care about the lives of those he didn’t know.

“I’m guessing that is Alissa Grant…” he said slowly, trying to push the thoughts away, which was easy to do under the onslaught of the smell.

The vampire didn’t respond, he just moved ever closer to the body.

“Octavius,” he said as the man leaned in. “We definitely should leave.”

The male waved his hand dismissively. “We will…in a moment.”

“Octavius, I feel I shouldn’t have to tell you how bad it would look if anyone caught us here.”

The vampire suddenly gasped, straightened up as he spun, his blood-red eyes now boring into him fearfully. “We need to go! Now!”

Turney yelped when, without pause, Octavius swept him up into his arms and started running back the way they came.

“O-Octavius!” he cried, gripping the man’s shoulders. “What’s?—”

FLICK!

Turney heard the sound, but didn’t have time to even think about what it meant, as fire instantly burst out of the very seams of the building. Flames spread along the walls quickly, eating away their path as it leapt out at them, seeming to be reaching for Turney. At least, that’s what it felt like as Octavius carried him through the burning heat at an inhuman speed, the lick of fire igniting wherever it touched him.

Scarlett stood frozen. The words Min-ji had just said to Theo were muted nonsense, lost to her under the abject bone-shaking terror that swelled up inside. It wasn’t her own, though hers met it quickly.

She choked down the scream. Tears forming in her eyes, she barely had the foresight to block her rising emotions from her neophyte before she lost control. For the first time in many centuries, Scarlett’s thoughts disappeared as her zombie side broke free of its own accord.

Octavius’ heart raced as he ran. The only thought in his head was that he had to get Turney out. Reaching the front door, and finding it engulfed in flames, he didn’t slow down. Sending it flying open with a kick, the hinges broke, and it flew through the air as he leaped out of the burning building with his precious zombie.

His heart clenched as his panic rose on realizing that Turney was on fire. The man was attempting to put them out as tears of no doubt pain silently ran down his face. Except with each touch of his hand, the zombie instead spread the flames more and more.

Dropping to his knees, he quickly grabbed Turney’s hands. Closing his already charred palms around the man’s burning flesh, he yelled desperately, “Stop. STOP. STOP!” when the zombie tried to pull from his hold.

He held on, own eyes tearing up as he rasped, “I have you…I have you.”

Turney stopped fighting him and just stared back, his gaze filled with fear and pain. The man let out a soft whimper of agony that sent a bolt of pain through his chest, while Turney’s face crumpled as the fires on him continued to burn him down to the bone.

Octavius held on, and he kept holding on until the flames went out. Only then did he move to smother the others, working frantically, uncaring that his burns grew worse with each one he extinguished. The melting flesh under his touch would have sent any human screaming in agony, if it hadn’t already killed them.

As much as he knew he needed to get them out of there, he couldn’t, not with Turney’s life in danger. So, he ignored the humans he felt growing nearer behind them. He even ignored the frantic feminine cry as someone finally caught sight of them.

Octavius flinched back as foam suddenly sprayed over them. When it doused the last of the flames on his love, he sagged with relief.

“Stay here.” The woman who’d brought the extinguisher gasped, her words almost a sob. “I’ll bring help!”

“Thank the Gods and Goddess above for those with empathy,” Octavius whispered as she rushed off.

“I…I-I’m fi-fine…” Turney stuttered. His incredibly brave, precious zombie, hiccupping through the tears, sent him a trembling smile.

“You will be…” Taking a shuddered breath, Octavius, uncaring about his own pain, lightly brushed the tears from the man’s cheeks. “You’ll heal, I promise. Just as fast as you burned.”

The man sniffled, before suddenly he frowned, his brow pinching in clear confusion. “It stings a bit…but… No, it really…hurt…before. But now…”

He smiled. “Just as quickly, like I said.” Octavius swallowed. “Come, we need to…” He trailed off when he heard an ambulance’s siren. Well, he supposed, with human empathy came…human help…and problems.

“I think…it’s too late to run…” Turney said slowly, his voice already sounding stronger than it was seconds ago. Though he was trembling still, it was likely out of unsettled fear rather than pain now.

Zombies burned fast and deep…but once the flames were out… Well, he hadn’t lied, they healed just as swiftly… Which was going to make receiving human medical care a pain to deal with.

“Your hands…” Turney gasped in horror, looking like he wanted to touch them as new tears began to fall.

Octavius couldn’t say his hands felt great. Mostly they felt as if thousands of needles were scraping over them rapidly on repeat, but…it was not a pain he couldn’t tolerate. Or really even the worst pain he’d ever felt.

“Shh, I’ll be fine. We will get through this.” He helped Turney to his feet, ignoring his protests over him touching him with his damaged hands. “We need them to deal with the wounds now rather than later.”

While his own skin would remain blackened until he consumed blood, easily passing human scrutiny, he knew from past experiences that the zombie’s melted and charred flesh would quickly begin to flake off, revealing healthy…pale skin right underneath. It was, in fact, already doing so.

“Ahh hell,” Turney groaned. “We are about to go to jail—again.”

“What?” He frowned while spinning around. His eyes widened as he saw two unfortunately familiar men rushing towards them. “Oh… you’ve got to be kidding me.”

“I don’t want to say ‘I told you so’…but…this was…”

“Don’t… Just don’t,” he whined, before plastering a pained expression on his face as Detective Banks rushed ahead of his partner.

The man stumbled to a stop just inches from them, his eyes looking at least concerned, and then a bit panicked, as he no doubt noticed the extent of their wounds. Thankfully, he was too panicked to notice the skin already flaking off of Turney, and that new skin was starting to show beneath.

“Y-you both…get back and sit down,” the man gasped, before practically dragging them both away from the still burning building, towards Detective Robins, who had stayed back.

“It’s not as bad as it looks,” he said slowly, while Turney remained silent.

Only minutes had passed, but there was no hint of pain on the zombie’s face anymore… Yep…they really needed to get away from these two and into an ambulance, so he could at least attempt to avoid having to mind control, and alter the memories of a whole fucking crowd.

Robins, who was not looking very concerned or friendly, ground out, “Why am I not surprised to find you two here?”

Octavius gave a fake smile up at the man, as Banks made them both lay down on the ground. “I wish I was. How did you two get here so fast?”

The man scoffed. “We got a call about a dead body… You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”

“Fucking hell, I told you it was a trap!” Turney cried out stubbornly.

“Ugh, you just had to say it.”

While Robins’ eyes narrowed, Detective Banks snapped, “Really, Jason?! They are severely burned. We can ask questions later, they need medical attention now!”

“They seem fine to me,” the man huffed, looking away when the ambulance finally pulled up, and two paramedics jumped out.

“You can arrest us later,” Octavius said with a strained smile.

As the paramedics knelt beside them, the police backed up, and he closed his eyes, switching to ‘super vamp’ mode. Octavius moved just barely, but it was enough that at least some part of him bumped up against the two medics. He instantly began to change their perception of what they were actually seeing.

“Both of you, back up!” he made the man nearest him snap. Octavius had to do some fun mental gymnastics to make the human think he had decided to say that, and the following, “You can ask your questions later.”

It was…going to be…a long, long night , he thought with an inner sigh… But they were alive. His zombie had been hurt, he’d been scared…probably still was…but he was alive. Octavius was also alive…alive and enraged.

With his eyes still closed, he grimaced at the bitter taste that spread through his mouth when he swallowed down the burning pit of fury inside of him, as it almost forced a scream from his lips.

Octavius was fine with being put in danger. Fine with his own life being on the line. Fine with being hurt and broken. But…his Turney? His zombie’s life… His precious Turney, who was sweet, kind, and more empathetic than he would or had ever been?

No…that was not something he would, or could, allow to pass without returning the anguish.

Octavius clenched his burned hands, ignoring the pain and the fussing of the paramedics.

Aurelius…I hope you’re prepared for the consequences , he thought with a low hiss.