Aftershock

Summary: SPOILERS. Frankie survives being bitten by the vampires. Edward punishes him for Frankie’s betrayal and turning his brother against his will
Warning(s): Spoilers for the film Daybreak; spanking; some violence; AU in that the ending scene is changed slightly

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Edward knelt beside his brother, looking at the blood coming from Frankie’s neck. His brother... who had finally redeemed himself by sacrificing his life so that Edward and Audrey could escape.

Even though he knew it was useless, Edward still couldn’t keep himself from reaching out and lightly pressing two fingers against the pulse point in his brother’s throat. It was something he did entirely unconsciously.

Out of the slaughter, only a few soldiers remained – human now. Each was staring round with a look of shock on their faces. Edward didn’t blame them. He’d refused to drink human blood, and only relied on animal blood to sustain him. He would have foregone even that; save for the knowledge of starving vampires and, later, the realisation that starving himself of blood would result in him becoming a much worse monster.

Frankie’s pulse jumped under Edward’s fingers, and he jerked his hand back. For several moments, Edward couldn’t do any more than stare at his brother. Was it wishful thinking? With that sort of wound in his neck, how could Frankie be still alive? He must have lost a lot of blood...

“Hey. Look who I found skulking around outside.” Lionel came into the room, herding Chris in front of him with his crossbow digging into the vampire’s back. He looked around at the bodies lying on the ground and raised his eyebrows. “You were right,” he said to Edward. “For most of them, seeing a human sends them into bloodlust.”

“Ed? We have to leave...” Audrey stumbled over to Edward. She’d found some cloth somewhere and had bound it round her wrists. “We can probably find another safe house and regroup there; have a place to offer to those vampires who want to become human again.”

“Frankie’s still alive.” As he spoke, Edward ripped some of his shirt off – it would have been easier if he’d still had fangs. Then, he carefully wrapped the material round Frankie’s neck; though not too tightly, since he didn’t want to cut his brother’s breathing off.

“Are you sure?” Audrey looked doubtfully at Frankie, but crouched down next to Edward. “What do you need me to do?”

“I can carry him. Help Lionel with Chris. You’re right; we need to get out of here.” Edward wasn’t too sure that bringing Chris with them was such a good idea, but he’d rather not leave a potential enemy behind them. And even though his supposed friend had betrayed them, Edward hoped that giving him the cure would make him go back to the way he’d been before.

Or maybe not... Edward knew that, though he wasn’t a vampire any longer, he could never go back to the way things used to be.

Lionel grunted, and dug the crossbow deeper into Chris’s back. “Sure we should bring him with us?” he asked Edward, raising his eyebrows. “Seems to me that we’d be better off leaving him here.”

“We should take him with us. At least then we’ll know where he is.” Edward lifted his brother, surprised – in spite of himself – at how little Frankie weighed. Of course, all of them had been living on a liquid-only diet. There was nothing to stop vampires from eating normal food; but it held no sustenance for them.

“We’d better get everyone out of here before any vampires decide to brave the daylight and see what’s going on.”

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When Frankie woke up, his neck was hurting even worse than when he’d been bitten to turn him into a vampire. Was this death? Surely it wasn’t supposed to hurt this much.

After several moments, Frankie finally managed to force his eyes open. He found himself staring up at a wooden ceiling, and blinked several times.

“You’re awake. Good.”

Frankie whipped his head round to stare at the corner of the room, where his brother was sitting. “Are you dead as well?” he asked, voice croaking slightly.

“You’re not dead.” Edward picked up a cup of water and brought it over to his brother, helping Frankie to drink some. “I don’t know how you survived... but you did.” His voice shook slightly, and he closed his eyes.

The water helped – but not a great deal. When he finally felt able to speak, Frankie cleared his throat. “Ed... I’m sorry.” He was furious to realise that there were tears standing in his eyes.

“Frankie... you saved my life,” Edward said wearily. “It doesn’t matter what happened before. I’m just glad that you’re alive and no longer a vampire.” He paused briefly, and then continued, “There are a few other soldiers who survived the blood frenzy. They’re human, but still seem to be in shock. At least this is a safe place; more or less.”

A part of Frankie felt disappointed that his brother wasn’t angry with him. He didn’t even know why. Maybe he felt like he deserved Edward’s anger. Well, there was no ‘maybe’ about that. He did deserve Edward’s anger. He deserved – even wanted – his brother to make him pay for what he’d done – whether it was by beating him up, or by Edward taking his belt to him once when they were teenagers and Frankie had done something stupid.

“You should get some rest,” Edward said when Frankie didn’t say anything. He walked towards the door.

“Wait.” The word left Frankie’s mouth before he could stop it.

Edward paused and turned round. “You really need to rest. You came very close to dying three days ago.”

Three days ago? How long had he been unconscious for? “I’ve been resting for long enough.” Frankie struggled into a sitting position. “I betrayed you. I turned you into a vampire when it was the last thing you wanted. You’re really just gonna let that go?”

“What do you want me to do?”

Frankie hesitated briefly, struggling to decide whether this was what he really wanted or not. But he knew that he had to put things right between them; somehow. “You remember when we were teenagers, and I took the car for a ride after I’d been drinking? Do you remember what you did to me after that?”

“I remember,” Edward said quietly. He studied Frankie for several moments, and then seemed to come to a decision. “Stand up, turn round, and put your hands on the bed.”

Glad that he was finally going to pay the price for what he’d done, Frankie slowly did so. He was wearing cotton trousers – something that wasn’t going to offer much protection for the thrashing he was going to receive. “I really am sorry,” he said quietly, hoping that he could get Edward to understand that if nothing else.

“I’m not doing this for me, Frankie. As far as I’m concerned, anything you owed me is paid in full. But if you think that you need punishment to be able to move on, then I’ll punish you.”

Frankie felt Edward’s hand on his back, pushing him down. He tensed a little as he felt something solid resting on his backside, and clenched his fists in the bedcovers. There was no point in saying anything. When he felt the belt leave his bottom, he clenched – but nothing could have prepared him for the line of fire that landed across the middle of his behind. It seemed to hurt so much more than before.

Edward paused – probably to let Frankie absorb the full force of the blow – and then landed the next ones directly on top of the first; as though he’d put a mark to show where to target.

The next few blows landed directly below the previous, and Frankie buried his face in his arms, trying not to let out any whimpers. His hands itched to reach back and rub the furious sting; but he kept them firmly in front of him. He was sure that having a belt lashed across his hands would be much worse than having it lashed across his bottom.

Edward continued landing the belt, continuing his pattern until he’d reached the tops of Frankie’s thighs and Frankie was sure that his bottom was hot enough to fry eggs on. Then, he heard Edward drop the belt onto the floor. Thinking that it was over, Frankie started to push himself up; but Edward’s hand on his back stopped him.

“Not yet.” And with that, Edward began smacking his hand down on Frankie’s bottom, heating up the areas which had been relatively left untouched by the belt.

Frankie had been able to keep relatively quiet during the whipping with the belt; but the spanking was what started the tears. He started moving around – not much, just a little – but still the hard hand fell, until the first few sobs were torn from his throat.

“I hope that’s enough for you, Frankie; cause I don’t want to do this to you anymore.” Edward pulled his brother to his feet, and close to him for a tight hug.

The End