Now Look at What You’ve Done
Matt slammed the door of the office shut. “Karen?” he called, recognizing her pulse-smell-heat-bones-breathing as the only one currently in the office. They technically agreed that Sundays were free days, but most of the time all three could be found there anyway, even if they weren’t actually working. He didn’t know what Foggy was doing- or, possibly, who. It didn’t matter now.
Karen jolted up, clearly alarmed at his… rather loud and aggressive entry. “Matt? What is it?”
“I need your help,” he said, practically throwing his briefcase into his area.
Karen seemed almost frightened by this, but he couldn’t bring himself to regret it- he didn’t have the emotions to spare. “What do you need?” She said, her voice no-nonsense and steady even to his experienced ears, despite her unease.
“I’ve been tracking a guy for a while,” he said, “And I always seem to track his position down a little too late. So, I’m going to see if I can find him during daylight hours- but Daredevil loses his advantage in the sunlight, and Matt Murdock is, you know, blind, and if I’m seen wandering around as either… Problems.”
“So, you want me to come with you as you track him down so it looks less suspicious?” She summarized, tucking one long strand of hair behind her ear.
“That about sums it up, yeah,” he agreed.
“Let’s go.” She snapped her purse shut and linked their elbows together.
At first, it seemed fruitless. They were simply wandering in the throng of busy people, all shoving and trying to get wherever they needed to be as fast as possible.
Matt hated it. So many scents, smells, sounds, touches from so many strangers was enough to drive him mad, and that was without fully extending his powers like he was now. He was reluctantly grateful for Karen’s help- if he had to track down this monster while navigating the crowd, he didn’t know what would have happened. As it was, she was holding up the majority of his weight and almost dragging him along. She was oddly strong.
He hated being reliant on anyone for anything, but if he had to choose someone, it would definitely be one of his best friends.
Thankfully, Karen seemed to know better than to try and get his attention for updates. She was so smart and observant- definitely one of the best decisions he had ever made was trusting her.
Besides, though he’d never admit it, it… settled something hungry, lurking and growling under his skin, to be so close to them. He didn’t think it was a Vampire Thing though. It was probably just him, being unnecessarily difficult as always.
He tried to sort through all the information his brain was giving him, but it was a lot. There was a reason he preferred to keep his Daredeviling at night- and it's not just because of the advantage the darkness gave him, considering he didn’t need the light in the first place. No, the main reason was because of how much calmer the majority of the city was. It made it easier to filter through. There was such a contrast between those causing trouble, those needing to be saved, and those sleeping. Now, just about everyone was awake and doing things, so his environment was constantly shifting, pulsing with the numberless masses of life pouring around and through him.
It was giving him a migraine. He, as usual, ignored it. It was the least of his worries.
They had walked several blocks and crossed several streets before he stopped where he was, pulling Karen to a standstill as well.
“There,” he hissed, and began stalking in the direction, making Karen stumble before she adjusted like the wonderful person she was. The vampire was smart, he had to give it credit. It had buried its scent in a perfume shop. A p e r f u m e s h o p.
What it hadn’t planned for, was him being able to hear its heartbeat from such a distance. Or that, once he knew where to… well, look, he would find the scent buried in the artificial cloying fumes of the store.
“Who’s there?” Karen whispered, her hand going to her purse where he knew she kept her gun.
“That won’t work on him,” he told her softly, suddenly pulling her to the side. He really hadn’t thought this through, had he. He was too emotional to think straight. (Stick would have been so disappointed.) “Look, Karen,” he said hesitantly. “Whatever you see, whatever you hear, don’t interrupt. I will try to answer whatever questions you have after. Just, I need you to be safe, okay? You don’t know what I’m fighting.”
Karen was trembling. Despite this, he wasn’t surprised when she spoke up, her voice laced with iron and passion. “I’m not just going to stand by and watch- I’m not helpless, you know that, I wouldn’t like in Hell’s Kitchen if I couldn’t-”
“No, Karen!” He forced himself to not shout, but his voice revealed the tension he was feeling anyway.
She stared at him, drawing back angrily, preparing to protest again.
“Karen. You don’t understand what’s happening. You can’t go in there without knowing, and I have no time to tell you- I don’t know when it,” he spat out the word, “will leave. I have to go now, before it-” he whirled around, almost losing his glasses with the sharpness of his turn. “There it goes!”
The creature sensed him, and jolted up, beginning to run.
He was faster.
He tackled the beast into an empty alleyway, conveniently there as it always was in New York.
It hissed and struggled, but he simply hissed back, wrestling with it on the ground.
Maybe, at some point in its life, it was a he, but it was feral now. It was no human, no vampire. All it was now, was hunger.
He knew there was nothing left to save when it tried to latch onto his neck. First, the neck was the worst place to bite, if only due to the force of the blood that would come out. That cliché was unrealistic- people just thought it was sexy and dramatic.
Really, it was one of the biggest signs of a feral vampire.
The other was when it tried to bite another vampire. Vampire blood was simply not the same as human blood. They could not fuel each other with their blood. In this way, it was much like the majority of dog food out there- it cost more energy to process than it gave them. It was just empty.
He pinned it to the floor only for it to squirm away suddenly.
And oh. It smelled Karen.
She’d followed him, despite his explicit instructions to stay away.
He snarled at it, diving to catch it just as it leapt at her, sensing the human blood pulsing warmly in her veins, unlike his cold, sluggish, thin blood. She was a much more attractive target for that reason only- she would sate his hunger. (She was probably more attractive in general though. He bet all of his friends were insanely beautiful, if only because they were to him. That was one good thing about being blind- he never judged anyone by their looks. If they acted ugly, they simply were ugly. If he liked them, they were pretty. Sometimes he thought the world could stand to look at people the same way he did.)
Matt barreled into the vampire, stabbing it in the heart with a silver blade. The creature had already died a long, long time ago. It was simply an unnatural, rabid husk, and he needed to keep it from hurting anyone else, put it out of its misery. It was in pain, and there was no returning from the bestial mind once a vampire goes feral. It had to go.
That didn’t stop the strangled sob that escaped from his mouth as the vampire, whimpering and gasping, squirmed around his blade, trying to escape, dying a slow death. Maybe it was faster than it would have been, but it didn’t make it any easier for him. This was his brother, a fellow Turned. It wasn’t it’s fault it was feral. He couldn’t hate it- him. It was a him. He couldn’t hate him for it. Matt forgave him as he died, mumbling a prayer to God for the man’s soul, pleading for mercy and justice. He bowed his head as the vampire took in his last stuttering breath, and pulled out his silver knife, rubbing his thumb over the cross insignia over the handle.
The vampire crumpled to dust, and blew away in a sudden wind gust like some overly dramatic movie.
“W-wha-what was that,” Karen stumbled over the first word before pushing past her shock. She was so, so strong.
Matt panted, but lifted his head, trying to think of how he could possibly explain this.
The chance was taken from him when he noticed the blood dripping from her neck.
It was contaminated with something… other.
In his panic, the vampire had injected a special toxin in her, which was made partially with his own blood.
“I don’t- don’t feel great. That man bit me!” She cried, outrage overtaking her sudden dizziness as the toxin worked through her system faster than it ever should, realistically- vampires didn’t do realistically though, so this was normal.
“Karen..,” Matt whispered, his voice rasping from the sudden dryness in his mouth. “You- you got Turned.”
Omake:
Matt was snarling with frustration by the time they made it back to the office, kicking the door shut so hard it made all their appliances rattle.
Foggy jumped- Matt was so angry he hadn’t even registered his presence.
“How can there be nothing?!” He hissed, stalking in a circle, ripping at his hair.
“What is going on here?” Foggy cried.
“Matt’s been looking for somebody every night but hasn’t managed to track ‘em down yet, so he was trying to find them in the daylight,” Karen sighed. “But he’s got nothing. What are you even looking for, Matt? Maybe I can help.”
Matt sank down to the floor, putting his back against the wall. “I- you wouldn’t believe me,” he finally mumbled tiredly, pulling his legs in tight and wrapping his arms around them.
“Hey, I’m sure that’s not true,” Karen comforted him, coming to pat his arm soothingly. “Right, Foggy?”
“No more secrets, buddy. Out with it. I’ll let you explain before making my judgment,” Foggy said softly. He had been working at understanding Matt.
“I’m looking for a vampire.”
That night, when Daredevil haunted the streets, he caught the scent. He followed it where it led, amazed that it was such a clear trail.
He was excited by the prospect, if more in a viciously-pleased way than a delighted way.
That is, until he realized where the creature was heading.
He growled, like he never had before, finding a rage hidden deep within he had only directed at Fisk and the worst of the worst.
The vampire was heading to Karen’s house. There was no way this wasn’t personal. And there was no way that he was going to let it get away with this.
It was almost as if it knew about his extra senses- even for a vampire- with how careful it had been so far. It had gotten reckless, tonight, however- its mistake.
Its last mistake, if he had any say in the matter.
He crashed through Karen’s window, not thinking of the cost when the goal was only her safety.
He was ready to fight until the confusion hit.
“Karen?” He called softly, tilting his head like a confused puppy, trying to understand what he was sensing.
Blood-ancient-sterile-evil lay in a pile at the foot of her bed, but it wasn’t a vampire. There was no heartbeat, no breath, the shape was all wrong judging from the faint echolocation from the quiet sounds only he could hear reverberating through the otherwise silent house, and the heat coming from it was-
Like it was a garment, worn by a vampire, recently discarded.
Had this just been a goose-chase? Had the vampire appealed to Karen’s kind, trusting nature and walked her home, before giving her… its coat? To keep her warm?
No, she had her own coat. She wouldn’t go out without it. Besides, it wasn’t as if she normally left the house after hours- and he knew she’d gone home.
So why was it here?
A shower turned on, and he headed to the sound, recognizing the familiar song of Karen.
“Karen?” he called, opening the door. She wouldn’t care even if she wasn’t wearing a robe- had never before. He couldn’t see her anyway, and couldn’t sense anything more than he always could- and he was always clinical in his reception of senses about… the body. No one could consent to his perception of them- not even him, so he had trained himself to exclusively think of it in the scientific, professional sense- if even that couldn’t be avoided.
(And he was incredible at avoiding things.)
She gasped softly. “M-Matt?”
He was too busy inhaling, recognizing the scent of blood-dust-hostile-VAMPIRE coating her skin.
“Karen. Please. Please tell me- tell me its not you,” he begged, emotions leaking out of his voice, though he knew the rest of him was stiff and hard as one of the stones built into the orphanage.
She hissed and lunged at him, her teeth elongating, pushing out of her gums like he had heard some of the mutants’ bones or nails doing. “Your fault!” she snarled, swiping wildly at his cheek and drawing blood. “You shouldn’t be here!”
“Karen, please,” he whimpered, clutching his cheek, stumbling back. If she was his enemy- the ground wasn’t solid, safe, anymore, because she had been solid, safe.
“Why?” he pleaded, when she only swung at him again, her teeth bared in a soundless threat.
“Its the only way! I’m so h u n g r y,” she roared, shoving at him with vampirical-strength.
Unbalanced, he slammed into the half-opened door, then fell on the ground, the door swinging open with the force of her push.
She stood over him, bending down. “You should have known better. Should never have come here. We could still be friends,” she spat, cold fury radiating from her voice.
And oh. She was going feral.
This was it.
He either had to talk her down, get her into a Vampire Help Center, or he had to choose.
Choose between his best friend, who meant more than anything to him.
Or everything else he had ever loved, ever cared for, ever protected.
He made his decision.
**notes beginning cuz theyr too long~
Btw, the omake is 1000% inspired by my bestie. Mael was glancing thru, u know, like normalll, cuz bestiiiieeezzz, and i hadn’t written that karen got turned into a vamp anywhere. Id just wrote one of matt being all ‘Karen!!!!! <3<3<3 shes so cool’ bc, uk, hes a simp for all of his friends and no i dont take criticism (he just <3s them so much ok??), and mael knows only what ive told them ab ddverse,, and so mael knows shes an absolute Queen and Boss and totally epik, so she would obv be a super cool and competent villian, r?? So my bestie reads matt being a Simp and goes “omg omg omg shE’s the vampire isnt she?!!” thinking im laying it on thick as foreshadowing/to make the *plot twist* more dramatic. which, mind u, was nOt a plan in my cute lil fluff ficc,, but that idea deserved at least a LITTLE blurb as to what it Could Have Been. (btw readers, what does omake actually mean???)
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OH AND LOLLL i forgot to mention what matt did with his things i never wrote that into the chapt and im too tired to edit it in-
So he flung his cane b4 fighting, and i dunno, tucked his sunglasses in karens purse or smth. I swear i had that in my mind it just didnt translate to Words XD XD XD i was keeping track i swear. (i also debated making his Super Nice Father Lantom-Gift glasses be broken in this endeavor. Then i remembered i was writing this for FLUFF, not ANGST. Oh well.)
Aaaanyway. This is done!!!!! 99% of the plot+angst? GONE. Fluff? Here we COME. >:D (lol there was sooo much more plot and angst than i thought- and theres still a wiiidddle bit mooorrreee) so!!!! :D