Chapter Text
Bill knew this was bad. He had been feeling like shit ever since he had gotten jumped downtown a few days ago, but he figured it was just residual aches from getting beaten up. Come to think of it, he didn’t remember too much about the attack. He did remember hearing someone calling as he passed by, and he had stopped to check since it sounded like they were hurt. Unfortunately, he realized pretty quickly that it had been a ruse and that he was in big trouble. The figure in the shadows had slammed him against the wall of the alley, and then… what had happened next? Bill wasn’t sure, but now that his head was finally starting to clear three days later, he put a hand up to his neck and felt his throat. It was tender, but he couldn’t feel anything too out of the ordinary. He shuffled into the bathroom to get a better look, and realized that his throat had 2 pretty scary looking scars along the side that looked suspiciously like fangs. Well shit, he thought, of course the week that Ted is away schmoozing for the label is the week I get attacked by a vampire.
“Bogus,” Bill said out loud to the empty apartment.
Now that he was up and moving around, he did a quick assessment of the rest of his body to make sure he didn’t have any other egregious injuries. Considering how faded the bite mark looked even after just three days, he didn’t really expect there to be much left over from the attack. And he was right. Aside from being completely freaked out and a bit sore at the neck, he was physically fine.
Bill leaned into the bedroom and looked at the bedside alarm clock. 2 AM. If he wasn’t mistaken about what was going on, then that seemed about right. Since he had been attacked on Tuesday, that meant it was now the early hours of Saturday and Ted would be back later that afternoon. That gave Bill a few hours to figure out how to tell him what was going on and maybe find something to eat. Oh this was certainly a non-non-heinous situation; he needed to find somebody to feed on so he wouldn’t go straight for Ted’s throat as soon as he walked through the door. Figuring out how to tell him could wait. Right now, he needed blood.
He left the apartment and wandered down the stairs into the parking lot. Where could he go to find someone to feed on? He didn’t know how this worked, he had no idea if he could just bite someone and take a little bit or if he would have to kill people to sustain himself. It was late enough at night that he probably wouldn’t be able to get into any of the bars around San Dimas, but maybe he could find someone on their way home? He really did not like this situation one bit. He certainly didn’t want to kill anybody if he could possibly avoid it, but then the only other way he could think to get someone to let him bite their neck was if he was sexy about it or something. And that was heinous for a host of completely different reasons. For one thing, he felt creepy enough that he was doing this at all, let alone that he was entertaining the notion of trying to get up close and personal with someone under false pretenses.
He also couldn’t decide if Ted would be more upset if he just went for it and bit a stranger or if he tried to seduce them first. Bill didn’t want to think about the look on Ted’s face when he told him about what he had been up to the night before regardless. He needed to do something, though, and he decided that seduction would probably be the least odious of paths to take to get fed quickly and (hopefully) painlessly and go home to sleep until Ted got back that night.
During his internal struggle, Bill had been getting thirstier and thirstier. He didn’t realize how bad it was until he saw a hapless squirrel scamper by, dashing over and grabbing it, draining it in less than a minute. He dropped it, horrified, but with the desperate edge taken off. He knew that he was going to need more blood if he was going to be safe around Ted later, but at least he had this as a backup plan if he couldn’t find anyone.
Bill had been standing next to the van for about 15 minutes when he finally got in and headed downtown. He parked in the Circle K lot and walked over to the area where the bars were letting out for the night. He tried to look casual leaning up against a darkened storefront, but nobody was paying him any mind as they walked by. He thought back to some of the vampire movies he and Ted had watched over the years to see if he could remember anything that might be helpful in this situation. He thought about how some vampires could hypnotize humans into doing what they wanted by looking deeply into their eyes, so he tried that on the next person who walked by.
She looked like she was in her 30s and was carrying her purse in one hand and heels in the other as she walked down the street. Bill took a deep breath and made eye contact with her as she walked by, staring at her and trying to project calming energy and the desire to come closer and talk to him. She started a little when she noticed him looking at her and walked away a little faster, turning a corner. Bill shook his head and sighed. He figured that it wouldn’t work so well on the first try.
He tried again on a young guy in a funky patterned shirt who was close behind the first woman. This time the guy stopped and looked back at Bill. He wandered over and stood a couple of feet in front of him.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hey,” Bill replied, trying to squash the anxiety building in his gut while still maintaining eye contact with the stranger. He smirked at him and looked up through his eyelashes, trying his best to look sultry. It seemed to be working, because the guy was looking right back at him with the same expression on his face. “Wanna come with me, dude?”
“Yeah, sure,” he said, following Bill with a slightly dazed expression into a shadowy area down the street from where Bill had been standing.
Bill looked into his eyes once they were obscured by the darkness and said, “You’re totally going to enjoy this, dude.” He held on tightly to the stranger’s biceps and leaned in mouth at his neck before biting down and beginning to feed. The stranger gasped but stayed relaxed, and was soon sounding like he was really having a good time. This glamour thing was pretty great, actually. With every pull Bill felt better and more like himself. He forced himself to stop after a couple of minutes since the entire purpose of this method was to not kill anyone. The stranger’s eyelids were fluttering as Bill gently lowered him to the ground where he slumped a little bit. Then he wiped his face and ran to the Circle K to buy some apple juice and band aids real quick. He left the drink and the first aid by the guy’s side as he looked around to make sure he hadn’t been spotted and got back into the van to drive home.