Chapter Text
Not long after everything with Rookery making a certain redhead question the older man's motives, Maney had decided against continuing to use his inventions to help the man harm the vampires. He'd approached Tony not long after to talk, explaining that with everything that had happened he simply didn't want to cause any more harm when Rudolph and his family weren't doing anything nefarious. Tony of course passed this along to Rudolph and the two met with Maney despite the possible danger to both parties. The inventor had erected quite the compound around his home and shop to track and keep out vampires, turns out the poor man is terrified of them and knows many will likely want to kill him after what he's done to help Rookery so this was the only way he felt safe. Tony didn't completely get it but it seemed Rudolph did, after all the boy was certain his rather angry brother would likely have his fangs in Maney the moment he let his guard down even if the rest of his family wouldn't attempt to harm him.
Rudolph liked the odd little inventor well enough. His dad always talked about how some humans would attack vampires out of fear rather than an actual need or want to hurt or destroy them. The way Maney avoided his gaze, jumped if Rudolph moved too fast or got too close, and was too nervous to really speak to Rudolph directly showed the young vampire that Maney likely did all of this out of misguided fear rather than any true hatred. The inventor only came out of the protection of his base during the day and Tony and Rudolph had met him at sunset to help him feel safer even if it had to be a bit closer to the end of it to avoid the light hurting Rudolph. They'd spoken for a while, Maney apologizing profusely and talking about how he knew that nothing he could really say or do would fix things. Regardless the man wanted to try and when Rudolph brought it up to his family his father thought the action commendable. The vampires still didn't trust the ex hunter of course but Rudolph didn't mind being a go between and speaking with him with Tony around to help out. His parents were of course worried out of their minds but knew Rudolph could handle himself, especially with Tony by his side.
It wasn't until after the Sackville-Bagg family was made aware of the change that Maney started noticing the feeling of being watched at night. He'd grown used to it to some extent, but not to the point that it was an every night thing like it had been lately. Little did he know the oldest of the Sackville-Bagg children, Gregory, had let his curiosity get the better of him. At first the rather volatile vampire had reacted with disbelief at the news that Maney had actually apologized for his hand in harming the family. He doubted it was true and refused to believe the inventor had anything but bad intentions. As time went on though, the oldest couldn't help being curious about the red head. Humans had never been something that interested him like they did Rudolph, in fact he much preferred the idea of vampires being able to feed from humans again rather than skulking around in the shadows. Regardless, after meeting and interacting with Tony and his parents the vampire knew things were a lot more complicated than the rather black and white view he'd always had.
So why was he so interested in hanging around the ex vampire hunter? He wasn't sure. He couldn't exactly talk to him with all of the safety precautions the mortal had up and active at night. Not to mention Rudolph had explicitly warned him away from interacting with the red head, saying he wouldn't do anything but scare him more or make Maney rethink his choices. He didn't like that his younger brother was right, and seeing how the ex hunter interacted with Rudolph, who's a lot less angry and intimidating than himself, tells the older vampire that interacting would likely do exactly that. Still, the vampire hung around.
After weeks and weeks like this, Gregory had fallen into a sort of routine. He still wasn't sure why he felt the draw to do this, that is until one night when the lights and electronics protecting the mortal's home turned off. They were momentarily brought back, likely thanks to a backup generator, but unfortunately we're soon down again. Gregory pauses, red eyes widening at the realization that the young man is very much vulnerable without the protection of all of his inventions. Even from this far away he can see the human panicking, trying to get things to come back on but to no avail. It doesn't take long for Gregory to pick up the smell of his kind nearby, clearly about to take advantage of the humans' vulnerability and get back at him for years of pain and suffering from when he worked with Rookery.
Gregory told himself he didn't care. After all one of the man's inventions almost killed the vampire, why should he help him? Don't the other vampire clans he's wronged deserve some kind of retribution? The vampire growls, trying to push aside the idea that Maney had technically confronted Rookery when he'd had second thoughts about hurting Gregory, trying to push aside any idea that the man might be worthy of being helped. Unfortunately for the rather irritated vampire he found that simply letting the man die made him feel sick to his stomach even if he didn't understand why. Kicking off of the tree branch he'd been crouched on, the young vampire flies over to the compound, easily getting up to the actual house without the lack of weapons and bright lights designed to ward his kind off. The garlic irritated his nose of course but it didn't seem like the human had thought to use enough of it. He flies up to the window he'd noticed the human in earlier and taps on the glass, causing Maney to jump and immediately look over at him with wide, fear filled eyes. Gregory can already tell this isn't going to be easy
“Calm down mortal, I'm not going to do anything.” Gregory soothes, well sort of. He tries to make his tone gentler but it's not exactly the male's strong suit and it definitely doesn't have the desired effect. Maney stares at the vampire, frozen in place and absolutely terrified, expecting him to simply break in and drain him. “Are you going to open the window or do I have to do it for you?” The vampire asks, though it comes out more as a threat. Gregory mentally kicks himself for that one. He's trying to calm the man down but can't seem to do anything but make things worse. “Suit yourself.” The vampire finishes, before forcing the locked window open with his inhuman strength, causing poor Maney to be even more terrified, the redhead now backing into a wall on the other side of the room.
Gregory climbs into the open window with an irritated sigh before looking over at the human in front of him. “Look human. I have no love for you or Rookery but my brother and Tony seem to care a great deal for you so I can't just leave you to the other clans to get ripped apart.” Maney looks at the vampire, confused but still unfortunately frozen where he stands as his hazel eyes frantically dart around, looking for some sort of escape from the rather grumpy vampire. Gregory is doing his best to be patient, trying every tactic in the book to not be irritated by how terrified the mortal is but he can smell the other vampires getting closer and knows they're not members of his clan. He may have tried to stay and defend the human here but with how many he can smell he highly doubts he'd actually be able to. An irritated growl emanates from the vampire, causing poor Maney to flinch.
“Look, I get that you don't trust me but I can smell other vampires coming. If I don't get you out of here neither of us will last long. I'm going to grab you and fly out of here. Scream and I'll rethink my decision not to drain you dry, got it?” Another threat, damn he can't seem to not threaten the human can he? He doesn't have time to think of the repercussions of that right now and just needs the mortal to actually listen to him. Thankfully, Maney eventually nods.
Gregory cautiously approaches the redhead, able to hear his spastic heartbeat and feel him trembling when he touches him, easily picking him up bridal style and going towards the window. It all happens so fast that Maney doesn't react much besides flinching at his touch and staring up at the vampire with wide eyes while they fly. Maybe if he weren't so terrified of Gregory this first time flying might actually be nice. Before he knows it though the flight is over and Gregory has landed in a nearby graveyard, keeping the mortals hand in his and leading him into a nearby mausoleum. It's around this time he notices how incredibly cold Gregory’s hand is in his. He's never talked or interacted with vampires before other than trying to take them down, much less touched one. Of course he knows they're cold to the touch, he's an ex hunter why wouldn't he know? It's just startling to feel first hand.
Being in the mausoleum puts Maney on edge, feeling like a vampire could pop up around any corner and attack. It's around this time he realizes he hadn't brought any of his protective equipment, too caught up in the moment and terrified for his life. He knew what Gregory thought about him and couldn't completely blame him. After all he did almost kill the vampire multiple times and him deciding to stop hunting vampires didn't change that. Rudolph had definitely told him to steer clear of the oldest Sackville-Bagg child, but it's not like he'd had much of a choice at this point.
Gregory lets go of the human as soon as they're in a deeper part of the mausoleum. He knew there wouldn't be any vampires here and figured the smell from how often he hung out here and the scent of death all around them would likely mask the humans odor. He turns to look at the redhead, noticing him anxiously looking around the place before his wide eyes find Gregory's red ones. As soon as they do the human looks away, backing away from him and making Gregory roll his eyes.
“You're going to have to stay down here until sunrise mortal, so you might as well get used to the idea of being around me.” Gregory explains before glaring and baring his fangs, causing Maney to flinch. “And if you try anything I'll give you something to fear, got it?” The vampire threatens, immediately getting a nod from the terrified redhead.
“Wh-Why here?” Maney asks, voice trembling a bit from fear. Gregory has always scared the shit out of the ex hunter and he wasn't about to try anything, not that he really could anyway. After all he had no weapons and no way to defend himself…..that did nothing to help his already frazzled nerves.
“I had to cover up your smell. Otherwise they'd simply follow the trail. Here it's difficult to get away from the stench of death so they won't smell you underneath that.” Gregory explains, looking down at the human before taking off and flying up onto a nearby gargoyle and landing. Maney lets out a breath of relief he didn't know he was holding due to being so close to the vampire. “Figured that would help.” The vampire teases, catching both himself and Maney off guard. Maney hesitantly looks up at him, trying to figure out how to phrase his next question and not set the easily angered vampire off.
“Wh-Why did you help me?” The man decides on, Gregory's piercing red gaze landing on him again and sending a shiver down his spine.
“Look mortal, as much as I'd like to sink my fangs in that pretty white neck of yours for hurting my family, Rudolph and Tony would skin me alive and my father and mother seem to have forgiven you as much as they can.” Gregory explains, glaring down at him. Maney tries not to let what the vampire says scare him any more than just being around him already has while Gregory tries to figure out why the hell he called the humans neck pretty.
“W-Well….thank you.”
“Yeah. Whatever mortal.”