Chapter Text
Scott had been thinking about Oakhurst a lot in the last year.
With time, greif became easier, lighter. A pain that was present but not a forefront. It had never truly been as consuming as Drift's, or Shelby's. But it had been there, and for someone who stood as cold and blank as he did, flickering only with irritation or contentment, it was more that he could handle.
Everyone had a piece of them burried in Oakhurst. Most of them a corpse. Cleo had the doctor, Apo had Martyn, even M had the militia that he would visit. Those pieces were corpses, dead, with graves.
Scott had more than a corpse burried in there. Scott had thousands of years of violence that he shed and dug into the soil, still alive, bleeding and squirming. Or, at least, as alive as a vampire could be.
You didn't built graves for the unliving. And not until recently, almost two hundred years later, that violence had no grave. Let to rot in the water, let burried under the obelisk, left to simmer in the air. It was in one of their many trips to visit what the new coven had burried, that he found Shelby building a grave. Crying over it. Almost, almost reaching regret.
She had asked if Scott had been quick with it. If the violence Scott had shed suffered as Scott ripped it from his skin. Scott couldn't lie to her. It had hurt them, even if he was confident that they weren't hurting now, getting there definitely did. Scott had treated him like a ragdoll when he had dragged them down the corridor and out of Shelby's claws.
He couldn't stop himself from thinking about it even after they left again. About Pyro. About what he had been before Scott made him the master piece, the center, of a collection that showed centuries of his casual, all-consuming violence.
About a brown haired, blue eyed scholar that tripped over his words and over his feet. That had rich, sweet blood. The person Scott drowned in shallow, muddy water to make himself a gun dog.
It ate at him for six more months before he decided it was enough punishment. That he had to confront his violence.
He had called Abolish. He had asked Cleo and Pearl. He had talked to Shelby and Drift. They had made a decision, formed a plan.
And now he was here again.
Rose bushes trailed up high, devouring the remains of the obelisk, where a beacon once sat. Clinging to it like blood to white cloth. The forest was the same, dead and dark. The lake was shallow and murky. It was cold, as it had been that night.
Scott now considered that Pyro wouldn't have appreciated this to be their final resting place. It had just been the first place he thought of when he had to move them off the crypt due to it flooding all the way back in 1893.
This was where Pyro was made, but a place Pyro didn't hold dear at all. The why they had hated this place seemed stupid through their time together, now he understood.
Abolish set the bushes ablaze. The strong smell of petrol mixed with smoke of green leaves burning up in what would be otherwise clean pure air. Untouched by the fuels of modern times. Cleo and Pearl stood to the side.
The fire rose up high. Devouring the branches and sprawling black roses. Crackling and roaring as it consumed everything alive in that small little island in the middle of the lake.
Scott hadn't been one to use mental bonds back when he turned Pyro. He saw it as unnecessary. It wasn't until a few years later that he started to pull down the walls and let himself feel and be felt through them.
It was mostly a good thing, as connection and bonding usually was but right now, it was causing a splitting headache. Pearl let out a soft hiss, and Cleo drew their fangs. All reactions to the wave of secondhand hunger and sharp cold terror passing through a newly placed bridge between their minds and Pyro's.
Abolish frowned, watching at them confused. He was Owen's, so he lacked the connection causing the pain. He held up his gun, Scott waved his hand dissmisively for him to lower it.
He forced a wall between Pyro and everyone else but him. He needed the bond now, if only to push calmness through it and attempt to quiet down Pyro's frenzy.
He grabbed one of the shovels and started to dig, followed quickly by Cleo as they recovered. Abolish just stared gun tightly at hand, and Scott had seen the amount of stakes in Pearl's belt.
His clothes quickly became ruined, caked in ash and mud. A loose root even catching and pulling loose a thread of his shirt. He even broke a nail in the dig.
It didn't take much longer for them to hit the stone of the coffin. It was not six feet under. Scott hadn't had that care.
Pyro jumped out the second Scott moved its lid, biting down around Scott's neck.
Scott felt himself choke on his own blood, but he also felt Pyro's hunger like it was his.
They curled up, purring as they drank. Scott put an arm around them, passing his fingers through their hair. It wasn't comfortable, but he deserved more than getting bitten.
He pushed more calmness through, and Pyro fought it every step of the way. He felt them stabilize, slowly succumb to the calm.
"Are they... okay?" Cleo asks, popping her head over the hole.
Scott couldn't speak with the damage on his throat. But Cleo's voice made Pyro finally let go. He was well fed, the blood of modernity was so much better in quality, so healing took him no time.
Pyro lunged back to make space between themselves and Scott. Looking confused and bearly keeping themselves from panicking.
"Uuh. Is he feral?" Pearl dreads. "If he is feral we are going to have to put them down, Scott."
"He's fine. He was just starving." Scott said defensively. Crawling closer twoards his fledgling. At the very least, he wants them to have a chance.
He could feel Pyro's dread against his skin. Their feelings like his own. Pyro's panic flusirshed like bruises under his confusion, and Scott was unsure how toprh the situation.
"Well," Cleo took a step and grabbed Pyro to yank them off the coffin, and away from the hole, "one way to find out."
Scott held back a growl as Cleo held Pyro tightly in place. Abolish shined a torch into Pyro's eyes, watching the ways the pupils reacted. Pyro hissed and flinched away, but Abolish nodded.
"He's fine." Abolish confirms tonessly. "Scott is right. He just needs some blood in him."
Abolish sombers, leaving a space of silence. He pursed his lips and frowned. "I didn't even remembered he had blue eyes."
There is a quiet sense of restlessness around. Everyone here knew what they were getting into, but actually digging up something so long burried was deeply unatural. It felt so deeply unholy in a way that vampirism wasn't even at the level of, to rise up after dying was a thing. To come back after ceasing to exist two centuries was very different.
Well, Pyro never stopped existing. He slept in the very back of Scott's mind. Alive but made a corpse. Laying in wait. The possibility was open, but just now did he managed to gather the courage to confront the pain he had caused.
"Let's stop griming, we need to move." Cleo said stepped twoards the lake water, and dragged Pyro a step closer with her.
Scott lunged to grab him instead, grabbing them into his arms and carrying them over the water.
Pyro sceambled to hold onto him. And Scott shushed gently as they shriked. No one said anything, just following silently.
Mud stained his clothes, his shoes ruined under between the mud and the water. His pants as well had been caked with dirt, he was filthy and it was disgusting. But as he felt Pyro hold tighter onto him whenever they felt like they were going to touch the water, it was worth it.
Scott will protect them now. He'll make up for everything he did wrong.
Scott sat Pyro on Cleo's couch and pretended not to grim as their mud covered clothes stained the cloth of the furniture.
Pyro had put no resistance. He had just allowed everything to happen even as he was dragged around. Which was great, but they were expecting more of a fight. More of a reaction at all.
Scott could see exactly what Pyro was feeling through the bond. He could see the sharp edge of hatred and the massive burning, shivering sphere that was rage, all tenited and covered over with bright blue fear that could only come from someone expecting their execution.
Scott had put distance between himself and the connection. Had he not he would be hissing and snapping at everyone in this room, he assumes Pyro isn't because of pure survival instinct. It was a simple principle, don't anger a beast. Or perhaps it was the waves of calmness preventing the panic of their brain from bleeding into their physical reactions. Whatever it was, it was quite convenient.
"Scott." Pearl called his attention away from Pyro. She had a wet cloth between her hands that she offered up. It took him a minute to realize it was so he could clean his blood off his neck.
He grabbed it with a quick thanks and watched the dark merlot of his vitae stain the white of the cloth. He had known Pyro would be starving waking up. That's how fledglings worked, and he would have two years to stand of it. He knew he would most likely be bitten. He didn't expect them to go straight for the throat, or for him to actually manage to get his fangs in. It was fine, of course. He wouldn't blame a fledgling for being hungry. Not this time.
A hiss made him snap back to where Pyro sat. A sharp stab of alien apprehension digged onto his side. As he saw Abolish rise his gun.
"Wow! Wow!" Cleo put themselves between Abolish and Pyro. "That was on me, that was on me." She repeated frowning.
Pyro had pushed to one of the corners of the couch, he eyed the weapon frantically looking an awful lot like a cornered shelter dog. He could probably recognize it as a firearm, but it was obviously far from the handheld guns he should know, or even the rifles of the era.
"You don't approach a wild animal from behind." Pearl pointed out.
He felt himself frown, so he quickly passed a finger to smooth the wrinkles of his face. "Don't call him that." He said calmly.
Abolish sighed and locked the gun once again. He was looking at Pyro with suspicion, it bordered more accusatory than defensive.
"I hadn't expected to see you on edge, Abolish." Scott pointed out, half expecting for the idea to be shut down.
Instead, Abolish half smirked. "Me neither. Old habits, I guess."
"Try to keep those habits in check," Cleo reproached, "Especially with a gun in your hand."
Abolish huffed. "You can't really blame me." He looked at Pyro as if expecting them to jump and start attacking at any moment.
"You have to at least try not to kill him. Especially when he hasn't done nothing yet." Pearl spoke, pressing a hand to Pyro's back, who arched away from the touch like a pesky cat.
Pyro's gaze nailed in Pearl. Confusion so clear in his face it bordered on pathetic.
Scott kneeled in front of Pyro and grabbed his hand, or tried to, they quickly pulled away. An explanation was clearly needed, and he could provide.
He went through explination on what the roses did, how placing them above a vampire tomb caused them to hibernate. About how Oakhurst ended, the doctor's sacrifice, Scott's promise.
He tried again to hold Pyro's hand, this time tighter, so they couldn't flinch away. "I am a much better person." Scott whispered in promise, "And I will help you be better. I will mend everything I've done wrong, Pyro. I am going to give you exactly what you always deserved."