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Pyro loved Shelby.
Truly, he did.
But… then he’d see the way Scott smiled at her, or placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, and he’d feel his blood run cold. What did she have, that he didn’t?
And he knew it wasn’t the same, it wasn’t even comparable — he tried to rationalize it, or de-rationalize it, but then she’d giggle, content in her happy little bubble, and-
In bed, Pyro twisted the stake in his hand and could hear his heart racing. From across the hall, he heard Shelby’s soft snoring, and placed the stake down, feeling the sudden urge to protect her, to hold her.
He crept through the crypt, heart racing even though it didn’t need to pump blood anymore, until he reached Shelby’s room. She looked so peaceful as she slept. Pyro sat on the edge of her bed, and brushed some hair out of her face. I’m doing so, he revealed two neat bite marks — from when he was turned, he realized, heart sinking. By the cleanness of them, it was probably Scott’s bite, a thought which made resentment swirl in the pit of his stomach. For reasons he couldn’t himself properly comprehend, he turned her over ever-so-slightly, revealing even more bite marks, and slash marks and-
Pyro put the blanket over Shelby again, feeling a familiar resentment wash over him. Of course his wounds had healed, but hers, the evidence of what had happened to her, of what he’d done to her-
“I’m sorry,” he murmured, brushing the hair he’d caused to fall over her face out of it again. “I’m sorry, Shelby.”
She let out a “hmm” in her sleep. It meant nothing.
Pyro opened her chest before he left, but her fanfic was nowhere to be found. He felt a pang of annoyance, but at least he knew what he was going to do tomorrow.
~~~
“I know how we can get Shelby alone,” he told Owen quietly the next day, clutching the book in his pocket like his life depended on it. Owen gave only the slightest nod, a promise to talk more later.
“Her book?” Owen asked when ‘later’ arrived. Pyro nodded, unable to shake off some embarrassment.
“She doesn’t want anyone to read it,” he mumbled.
“Did you?” Owen asked, smirking in amusement. Pyro shook his head.
“How noble,” Owen sneered, decidedly less amused than before.
~~~
Abolish had snuck into the castle and killed Shelby.
Pyro almost couldn’t believe his and Owen’s luck (if it could even be called that). Scott was, unsurprisingly, seething (to which Pyro’s stomach turned — he couldn’t help but wonder how his sire would respond it been him caught beneath Abolish’s blade). So was Avid, and Drift in her way, and almost everyone in the palace, in fact. Poor, angelic Shelby, he thought, then felt guilt wash over him again.
When he and Owen found her, though, Shelby was more concerned about her missing fanfic.
Everything was going so well it was almost sickening.
None of that stopped Pyro from pulling Shelby into a tight hug and apologizing profusely into her hair, to which she let out a surprised giggle and quickly assured him that he didn’t do anything, it wasn’t his fault!, which was decidedly not as comforting as she thought it was.
“We think we know where your book is, Shelby,” Owen said in his ominous way. Shelby’s attention snapped to him, and Pyro’s grip on her tightened.
~~~
Pyro and Owen led Shelby to a — and there was no way to sugarcoat this — hole in the ground, where there was a chest containing Shelby’s fanfic and Shelby’s fanfic alone. As she walked towards the chest, farther and farther away from the light, Owen filled it in, blocking the only exit and rendering any of Shelby’s screams useless.
Pyro looked between Owen, Shelby, and the now-covered entrance, feeling nauseous. He walked over to Owen to say something, anything, but Owen lifted a finger and Pyro obeyed.
Owen started towards Shelby, and Pyro rushed a step ahead of him, putting himself between Owen and Shelby, though he knew it was already too late, that he’d already made his choice.
“What is this?” Shelby’s voice, faint, came once they’d reached her. Her back was facing to them, because of course it was.
“We don’t think you have what it takes to be a vampire, Shelby.” Owen said simply, and in a flash brought a stake down into her back.
Pyro had read somewhere that corsets were strong enough to deflect knives and sometimes even swords, and all at once decided that that couldn’t be true, because Owen’s stake broke through Shelby’s corset and tore straight through her skin, and stakes were so much duller than knives.
Shelby screamed and whirled around, clutching her fanfic like a scared child clutched their teddy bear. She looked up towards the entrance — or rather, what had once been the entrance — and her eyes widened, before Owen stabbed another stake, this time into her side.
Shelby seemed to decide then to make a run for it, and dashed for the once-entrance. Owen chased after her, eyes wide and crazed with something like bloodlust.
Shelby started digging at the place where they had entered — at least, it’s where Pyro thought they had entered (evidently, Shelby thought so too — Pyro had to stop himself from smiling at that thought) — and Owen pushed her to the ground. He raised his stake above her throat, and only then did Shelby’s screaming stop — her eyes got bigger than even before, and her mouth remained open; it seemed she was simply frozen.
Before Owen stabbed her, though, he turned his head to Pyro.
“You’re either with me,” he said coldly, “or against me.”
And it wasn’t until that very moment that Pyro understood what being against Owen would entail, especially now.
So, in a sort of daze, Pyro pulled a stake out of his bag and strode over to Owen and Shelby. Owen put his own stake away and instead focused on making sure Shelby couldn’t escape his grip, turning her to where Pyro was now kneeling.
Shelby’s screaming stopped again as their eyes met, and Pyro quickly realized that her lip was trembling and that her face was glimmering with tears. Just like when she’d been turned, he realized with a start, and had to stop himself from flinching.
Shelby’s mouth opened slowly, and Pyro closed a hand over it in panic. Still, he knew what she was thinking- saying- trying to convey-
If they worked together, they could probably get out. And she was probably right. But, trembling, he raised his stake above her neck anyway, and she didn’t scream when he brought it down, only squeezed her eyes closed a moment before it made contact.
A beat or two after Pyro tore his best friend’s throat open, Owen released his grip on Shelby’s shoulders, watching from a cool distance as Pyro removed the stake slowly, and then quickly pulled his dead friend into his arms.
“How long do you think we have?” he asked, not turning to look at Owen, who gave a noncommittal hum.
“A while,” he settled on after a moment, and Pyro nodded slowly.
~~~
He made her a grave. Buried her with her fanfic, in her human clothes and now-broken glasses. They were the only thing she had of value, after all. He sat at the foot of it for a very long time, surely exceeding Owen’s cryptic “a while”.