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Miles was hungry.
It was a type of hunger that sank so far into his bones that it felt like jaws crushing his fragile skeleton to dust. It permeated everything he did and kept growing. Miles wasn't hungry for food; he ate plenty of that.
No, he craved blood.
It's been months since the defeat of Spot. Like he told Miguel, Miles did his own thing and brought the villain down without losing his dad. And by some miracle, it didn't destroy everything he loved and held dear.
His universe was blank, and he decided what he wrote down on the page.
Miguel was furious. Furious at what, Miles wasn't entirely sure. Furious at Miles for succeeding? Furious at himself for not being able to do the same? It was anyone's guess as to why the dark and brooding Vampiric Spiderman was mad, but that anger started dissipating over time.
Not long after Spot's defeat, Miles joined the Spider Society. Some anomalies still ended up in the wrong universe and needed to be taken care of before they wreaked havoc on a dimension that wasn't theirs. Miles was fine taking down villains, but he never once joined a mission involving a cannon event. He adamantly refused whenever he was assigned one, and eventually, Miguel got the message.
As time passed, Miles started to notice changes in himself. His sight got sharper, and his prescription vanished. He had heard of Spider-People not needing glasses after being bitten, so he chalked it up to a delayed powerset kicking in.
Then the smells hit him. Everyone had a different scent. The smells only worsened when someone was injured, which seemed to happen often on missions. Unsurprisingly, 4 teenagers didn't have the best planning skills and instead usually chose the option of diving in head first and hoping for the best. That option led to more injuries than necessary, but they always succeeded.
The first person's scent he noticed was Gwen's. It was after a Doc Oct variant swiped at her leg with his claws and tore the suit and flesh under it. It was then that Miles realized it was blood he had smelled this whole time. The scent of Gwen's blood hit him like a punch to the face. It smelled of oranges and vanilla.
It vaguely reminded him of his favorite popsicles growing up, Orange Creamsicles. Miles fell to his knees against the onslaught and just so happened to avoid one of the Doc's arms whizzing past his head. He tried to blame it on his Spidey Sense, but he knew he was lucky.
He shook his head and stood back up. He had to focus. If he didn't, Miles would end up severely hurt or, worst case scenario, dead. He screwed his head on straight and jumped back into the fight. If he held his breath every time Gwen got close to him before her leg was patched up, no one was none the wiser.
The following person's blood Miles noticed was Hobie. Despite the older teen always going on about not liking consistency, Hobie joined every mission the kids went on. He also tended to use his own body to shield Miles and the others against attacks they couldn't dodge, like letting a Lizard variant sink her teeth into his arm instead of Miles's head.
Blood spluttered like a geyser as Hobie shoved the reptilian woman off him and looked back at Miles.
"You good mate?" Hobie's lenses quirked a bit in question as Miles struggled against the sudden rush of Cedarwood and lemongrass assaulting his nose.
He shakily gave the older teen a thumbs up and looked anywhere but the blood gushing down the punk's arm.
"Yeah, all good. Thanks." Forcing sound out of his mouth was difficult as he tried not to breathe. Luckily, Hobie's attention was drawn to the villain as it lunged at Pavtir. There was a rush of fresh air when he swung away to assist the other kid, and Miles was grateful for it. He was nearly at the point of passing out.
Pavtir was Miles's safe person for a while. He didn't get hurt as often on missions since he was always incredibly nimble and hopping from place to place. Miles naturally gravitated toward him when everyone else was in rough shape.
Unfortunately, that safety didn't last forever when Pavtir hobbled over to Miles, clutching his side. Miles stiffened as the scent of tea washed over him. Lavender and Chamomile filled his nose as he stood awkwardly beside Pavtir, waiting for the portal back to HQ to open.
"You okay, man? Looks pretty bad." Even if Miles felt like he was drowning in the smell of tea, it didn't stop him from worrying about his friend. The other boy smiled, his lenses squinting, and he let go of his side to stand up straighter.
"All good, bro. After a quick trip to the med bay, I'll be right as rain." The movement and the release of his wound made Pavtir's scent ten times stronger.
Miles covered his face and pretended to cough before regaining his composure. "Good, that's good."
The portal opened, and Miles was glad for the distraction.
Next were the teeth and the overwhelming hunger. His canines grew longer and sharper every day as the weeks went by. He tried filing them down, but the sound of a nail file on teeth was too much for him, and they grew back again by the next day. His mother started questioning him when she noticed he had cleaned the fridge in a week.
No matter how much Miles ate, he was never full. He had a scary thought one night as he lay awake in hunger. His teeth and ability to smell blood all led him to conclude that he might be becoming a vampire. If that were the case, would blood satiate his hunger? It was something Miles couldn't think about for too long, or he'd spiral down into a panic, so he pushed that thought to the back of his head.
It was on a mission that was supposed to be easy, that everything reached a boiling point. Miles, Gwen, Hobie, and Pavtir were chasing a Green Goblin variant down a train tunnel when everything blew up in their faces.
Literally.
Despite the variant being from a Medieval-looking dimension, he could still create extremely powerful bombs. The bombs blew out the tunnel's supports, and the ceiling came crashing down around them.
Their collective spidey sense drove them to the middle of the collapsing structure. Slabs of concrete slammed to the ground and encased them in rubble. Thankfully none of the slabs crushed them, but they were effectively trapped.
None of the kids could remain conscious for long and passed out as the concrete settled around them. Miles was the first to regain consciousness. He pulled off his mask and pushed himself up. He bit back a cry when a jolt of pain ran up his side. He must have broken a rib.
Miles crawled over to his friends and checked them over. They were hurt, but nothing looked life-threatening. The smell of their blood all mixing together made Miles's mouth water. He clamped a hand over his mouth and squeezed his eyes shut. He should have moved away from them, but he was using so much energy not to sink his teeth into any of his friends that he was frozen.
Miles doesn't know how long he sat there, frozen like a statue and just listening to the sounds of his friend's breathing. Maybe it was minutes or hours. Time seemed to blend as he fought the horrifying urge to drink his friends' blood. Finally, the sound of voices caught his attention, which was enough to distract him as he turned toward them.
They started faint but grew louder as people seemed to be approaching the collapsed tunnel. Miles sighed in relief. It sounded like Jess and her team. They were saved. Miles watched as the rubble slowly cleared away, and dim light poured into their little air pocket.
The boy squinted at the brightness, even if it wasn't much, and his sense of relief was immediately replaced by panic as someone reached for his friends. A snarl ripped from his throat, and he lunged at the person. Whoever it was must have had a spidey sense because they dodged out of the way before Miles could claw at them.
Miles put himself between the opening and his friends and hissed at his rescuers. No one was touching them. They were his! His friends, his brood, his everything. He wouldn't let anyone near them, no matter what.
Miles bared his fangs as red filled his vision. Nothing mattered except keeping his friends safe from danger. He'd fight anyone who tried to hurt them.
Miguel was never the best with kids. His daughter's behavior used to stump him repeatedly, and he hadn't improved his skills since he lost her.
It was even harder to handle kids when they also had spider abilities. The four youngest of the Spider Society were the worst-behaved children Miguel had ever had the misfortune of mentoring. They rarely listened to what he said and blatantly disregarded his orders if they thought they had a better idea.
All of them made Miguel want to tear his hair out, and he'd have lost it a long time ago if it wasn't for the little things that made it all worth it. Like how Gwen would tuck herself into a corner of his office with headphones on. She'd tap a drumstick against her leg as she learned the part in the new song her band was playing.
The rhythmic tapping should have grated on Miguel's nerves, but instead, it helped him concentrate. He found he completed work much faster on days Gwen decided to quietly practice in his office.
Pavtir would intentionally seek him out when his grandma made something new to try. He'd come barreling into whatever room Miguel was in and shove a food container at him. Miguel would never admit this out loud, but he liked everything Pavtir's grandma made. It was spicy and burned in a way that reminded him of his mothers cooking.
He seemed to be the only Spider Pavtir interacted with that could handle that level of spice. It might have been why Pavtir was always so eager to give him new things to try.
Hobie never interacted with Miguel the same way twice, going on about consistency unless he was tired. If Hobie was tired, he'd crash on Miguel's moving platform. The slow ascent and descent of the giant platform always lulled Hobie to sleep in a matter of minutes. It's gotten to a point where the punk has made his own little makeshift nest behind Miguel's nest.
It was filled with pillows and different kinds of blankets. Guitar picks were always littered about, and nine times out of ten, if Miguel was missing something, he'd find it in Hobie's nest. It strangely put him at ease to see one of the kids sleeping soundly. So many times, Spiders were kept awake by nightmares, and the kids weren't spared from that. If being on his platform kept those nightmares away even a bit, then Miguel supposed he could overlook a few stolen pieces of technology.
Miles was a different beast altogether. He and Miguel clearly did not get off on the right foot, and every so often, shame would ridicule Miguel as he remembered how he hunted the kid down like an animal. For a while, Miles avoided him, which was completely understandable. He only spent time around Miguel if one of his friends was with him. Eventually, however, the tension between them seemed to ease. Even if just by a little bit.
Miles's Spanish made Miguel want to sigh until his whole being was swallowed up. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. It had too much of an American accent attached to it, and his conjugations were atrocious. The kid started warming up to the Vampire when Miguel pointed out a mistake on the kid's homework one day. He somehow got roped into helping Miles with his assignment for the entire afternoon. By the time they were finally done, the kid no longer looked like he wanted to bolt whenever Miguel looked at him. Since then, Miles had been coming to Miguel for help on schoolwork he didn't understand or to talk to him to get some practice.
It had been a while since Miguel just spoke with someone about nothing in Spanish. The last time he conversed with someone like this was when he'd talked with his daughter. Miles reminded him a lot of her. They had the same eyes and smiles that lit up their whole faces. Miles laugh was ugly, and he snorted more than anything, but it was much better than when he was upset. His laugh meant he wasn't scared, he wasn't crying, and he wasn't lost. It meant he felt safe, and it strangely made Miguel feel warm inside. To think he'd ever be a safe place for this kid was ridiculous, but somehow he was. It made him realize he was a safe space for all the kids. That realization might have made him choke up a bit if he wasn't so busy brooding all the time.
That was why his stomach plummeted when he got a call from Jesse saying the kids, his kids, were hurt.
"We've tried getting closer to help, but the Morales kid won't let us near them." Jess sighed over the watch's intercom.
"He won't let you get closer? What do you mean?" Confusion overwrote Miguel's panic for a moment.
"You should come to see for yourself. I don't think anyone except you can reason with the kid right now." The line went dead, and the coordinates for where Jess and the others were lit up on Miguel's watch.
Miguel didn't hesitate to don his mask and slice open a portal to where they were. He sucked in a breath when he exited the portal to find a collapsed train tunnel. A dozen or so Spiders surrounded a convexed section of the rubble with a hole dug out in the side, but none of them got any closer. Jess motioned him to the hole, and Miguel's lenses quirked a bit before he headed over to it.
The smell of blood hit him like a megaton, making his heart beat like a jackrabbit's. That was too much blood for one person to lose, but he had to remind himself that four people were inside that pocket. They weren't losing as much blood as his senses wanted to tell him. As he peered into the opening, he was taken aback. Three of his kids were unconscious in a pool of blood, and the youngest was crouched in front of them with scarlet eyes.
White fangs were bared at him as Miles hissed. His nails had grown long and sharp like Miguel's, but his suit didn't accommodate them, so it was torn to shreds at his fingers. Somehow Miles had turned into a full fledge vampire under his very nose. He doubted the kid had taken to feeding, though, so he must be starving. It would explain why his vampiric instincts were going haywire. Miles couldn't see the Spiders as allies; he only saw them as enemies. He must be protecting his friends. Even when starving, the kid thought of others before himself. What will Miguel do with him?
"Morales? Can you hear me? I need you to listen. No one is going to hurt you or your friends." Miguel even deactivated his mask to prove he didn't mean any harm. He slowly made his way into the opening and toward the kids.
Miles scrambled away from him and back toward his friends. He wasn't trying to attack just yet like he had with the other Spiders. Perhaps he could sense Miguel was much stronger than he was and figured his best course of action was defense rather than offense. Miguel made sure to telegraph all his movements and carefully knelt down so he wasn't towering over the kid.
"Miles. I know you're hungry, and I know you're running on instinct right now, but you need to let us treat them. If we don't, then they could die." Miguel kept his voice low and gentle. Miles's crimson eyes, which didn't match his daughter's at all right now; they looked more like his own, darted toward the other teens. Miguel could tell the kid was struggling. He was sure Miles knew somewhere deep in his head that resisting help only made things worse, but Miguel also knew firsthand how hard it was to fight one's vampiric instincts.
Miles still wasn't moving from his spot, so Miguel took a deep breath and gambled. He reached for Miles and the kids. Miles immediately hissed at him, and when the older man got too close, the kid lunged at him. Miguel purposely drew back his suit on his arm and grunted as Miles's fang plunged into his skin. The kid growled at the other until blood started filling his mouth. Miles's eyes widened, and he tried to dislodge his teeth but couldn't.
"You don't have to fight it. You can drink as much as you want. It might not taste very good, but it should help your hunger." Miguel watched as big, fat tears spilled down Miles's cheeks as the kid gulped down mouthfuls of blood. The poor thing must have been starving for weeks. Miguel chastised himself for not noticing any of the signs. He should have recognized the change much sooner. He had been too busy managing the Spider Society to focus on what was happening with Miles.
Miguel wrapped an arm around Miles and hugged him close. The kid let Miguel move him away from the other teens, and the older vampire nodded at the Spiders. Finally, they could enter the pocket and pull the young Spiders out. Miguel watched them carefully place each kid onto a stretcher before taking them out of the rubble. He looked down at Miles and coaxed the young vampire into letting go of his arm. He picked his kid up, careful of any injuries Miles might have, and carried him out of the collapsed concrete. Miles wrapped his arms around Miguel's neck and kept his legs tightly locked around his waist as he was carried toward the portal.
It wasn't hard to tell that the kid had fallen asleep after finally satiating his hunger. When Miguel stepped through the portal and returned to Spider HQ, he didn't bother answering any questions anyone asked about why he was carrying one of the kids. Instead, he followed the Rescue Spiders to the Medbay and monitored them closely as they treated the teen's wounds. Thankfully, none of them were life-threatening, and the teens should regain consciousness within a few hours.
Miguel carefully unwrapped Miles from his person and laid him down beside his friends. The kids seemed to curl into each other almost immediately, and some part of Miguel had him refusing to leave the room. Even after everyone else had left, he stayed to watch over the kids, his kids.
Maybe he wasn't too great with kids, but he was learning to be.
His kids were worth the effort, after all.