Weak Spot

Weak Spot

Part 1 | Part 2 - Interview With the Vampire

Pairing: Nancy Wheeler x vampire!fem!Reader

Summary: When there are some suspicious deaths that seem to be traced to some unknown bloodsucking monster, Nancy obviously has to investigate. What happens when she finds out the culprit is her girlfriend?

A/N: This was such a passion project for me so I really hope people like it! TW: slight mentions of period-typical homophobia and very slight suggestion of SA.

The most beautiful sound you’ve ever heard was Nancy Wheeler’s heartbeat. It thudded inside her chest with rhythmic purpose and ingrained itself in your mind so that you would relish it for hours even after you’ve kissed her goodbye for the day.

It was all you could focus on that particular day when she was surrounded by towers of books from the occult section of the library. Her nose was buried in one with stern concentration as she sat across from you on the picnic bench, her focus only being torn away from the book momentarily to scribble notes down in her journal.

You pretended to be reading your own book but your brain was too consumed with the calming thumping of Nancy’s heart. It was starting to make your throat burn with thirst. When Nancy reached up to scratch her throat, you had to stop yourself from physically whimpering and retracted your fangs that threatened to emerge.

It wasn’t your fault, really. It was a flaw in your biological design. You were thirsty and only one thing was going to quench it. Blood.

Sheer instinct meant that if you didn’t have any ounce of self-control, then you would have bitten Nancy and taken her blood long before now. It wasn’t as if you didn’t have such easy access to her neck. Often when you were kissing it, her heartbeat quickened with excitement and she’d let out whiny moans, forcing your fangs to protrude and graze against her skin teasingly. But then you stopped yourself. You couldn’t let yourself become so much of a monster that you’d hurt Nancy. Despite your transgressions and centuries of drawing blood from countless victims, there was nothing in this world that would let you kill Nancy and drink from her.

Frequently, you were ridiculed by your vampiric peers for your infatuation with your little human pet. They mocked you for your inability to cause her harm and your insistent protection of her. If any of them tried to get a rise out of you they knew to dangle the idea of them paying Nancy a visit in front of you and suddenly you were ready to kill for her.

She was your weak spot.

“You’re doing it again.” She warned, snapping you out of your daze and allowing you to meet her doe eyes which stared back at you with innocence and humanity.

“Doing what?” You asked, trying to shake the fixation on her thudding heart.

“Staring at me.” She smiled cheekily, clearly proud of herself.

“Can’t help it, baby. You’re just so beautiful.” Your response was sharp and witty because you were a predator who was centuries old and had mastered the art of acting normal around humans. It made Nancy’s cheeks flush which she attempted to hide with her curls. Then, it was your turn to be proud of yourself.

“Anyway!” Nancy announced, moving on from the sweet embarrassment you’d caused her. “You need to listen to this.”

You cringed a little in anticipation of what was to come next. Hawkins had been haunted in recent times by a mysterious killer who had left their victims drained with blood and with peculiar bite marks on their neck. Naturally, your inquisitive and curious girlfriend - who had fought and won against monsters - had to investigate. She was spurred on even further when the police took nothing to do with it due to the victims being wanted for horrific crimes.

If anything, her tenacity should have made her more endearing to you. She reminded you of a young woman you’d known while in Salem whose sharp wit and intelligence had earned her a cruel and fiery fate; condemned before you had the chance to turn her into an immortal.

Nancy’s enthusiastic thirst for knowledge was one of the many things that had made you fall in love with her. The difference in these circumstances was that you were the culprit of these hideous crimes and your girlfriend was researching into ways to put a stop to you and your kind.

“It says here that vampires are undead creatures who feed on the vital essence of humans, generally by drinking their blood. They cause mischief and deaths in the neighbourhoods which they inhabit and are thought to be highly intelligent, allowing them to hide in plain sight.” Nancy explained fervently, looking up at you with bright eyes in hopes you would see this as much of a eureka moment as she did.

Rather, you stared back at her with feigned apathy. It was painful to do this to her since all too often, Nancy was told to stop being so bossy or had been mocked with the nickname “Nancy Drew”. The last thing you wanted to do was dull her enthusiasm but you had to in the interests of self-preservation.

“Nance, vampires? Really?” You replied with a slight smirk, as though her conclusions had been completely ludicrous.

“I know it sounds crazy but up until a couple of years ago I would have thought that the very idea of the demagorgon was ridiculous and look what happened there!” She rationalised with you, clearly set on this idea. You couldn’t argue with her logic and more frustratingly, you couldn’t even deny that she was right. Once again, Nancy Wheeler had cracked the case with her absurd cleverness and determination.

“I mean, when you think about it, all of those bodies were found the same way! Bite marks in their neck and completely drained of all of their blood. It’s too clean! Human teeth wouldn’t leave the same indent and an animal would have mauled the person to death. Likewise, neither a human nor an animal would suck the blood out of someone. It has to be vampires; it has to be.” Nancy continued in her attempts to convince you, oblivious to the fact that she was actually preaching to the converted.

For the first time in decades, you were actually nervous. None of your human companions had ever become suspicious about vampires before. Admittedly, your family had been careless in littering bodies in a town that had been ravaged with monsters in recent years. Even then, you’d never met anyone as smart or determined as your girlfriend.

“You seem to have it all figured out.” You laughed, conveying confidence but with dire hopes of changing the subject soon. But Nancy was on a roll with her research and was about to present you with a horrifying revelation.

“It says here, you need to stake them in the heart to kill them.” She said with a stomach-churning glee and it was hard to not lose it then and there. Swallowing thickly, you focussed on the anxious bouncing in your leg or the squeeze in your hands as you clasped them together, hoping to distract yourself. You looked down at the table in front of you to avoid Nancy’s gaze. She had already pieced together quite a lot of this puzzle, if she could see the terror in your eyes, you were sure that you’d be exposed too.

Your girlfriend wanted to murder you and you could do nothing about it.

“Nancy, I’m not sure I’m in love with the idea of you getting a wooden stake and going on a vampire hunt.” You eventually offered as she furiously scribbled down more notes. The protective girlfriend angle was the safest bet to try and throw her off your scent. Sadly, it was incredibly futile.

“Baby, I’ve fought monsters and won, I’ve been to the Upside Down and made it out alive. And I had no head start on them. I had to figure it out myself. At least now I have some leads!” She exclaimed.

If it wasn’t so gut-wrenching that your girlfriend was making plans to stake you in the heart, you might have found some humour in the fact that Nancy believed herself to be so prepared but had inadvertently been sleeping with the vampire enemy.

“Okay, be careful. I know you’ve done your research but if vampires exist, they may be hiding some tricks up their sleeves.” You muttered, standing up to leave as you couldn’t take this anymore.

“Oh, don’t worry, I know what I’m doing.” Nancy replied with a wink. “See you tomorrow.”

You nodded slightly in response and gave her a quick wink, something you both did in order to show affection in public to keep yourselves safe. Not only were you hiding your vampiric self from your girlfriend; you were hiding your queer self from 1980s Indiana.

As you walked away from her, you lamented that one of those identities was going to have to be revealed soon. You were going to have to outsmart Nancy before she sent herself on a suicide mission trying to hunt you down.

She would have found out about you eventually; whether that be observing the fact you are not aging or she identified in you vampire traits from her books and figured it out. The thought of losing her was unbearable. But you had lived long enough to know that the truth always comes out.

***

You decided that when you revealed your identity to Nancy, you were going to have to catch her off-guard rather than be in a situation she might have prepared herself for. Hence, you found yourself standing in her garden in the early hours of the morning while your girlfriend was sound asleep in her bed.

Rolling your eyes back into your head, you walked into Nancy’s dream to seek permission to enter her home. You took a minute to adjust to your surroundings and quickly realised she was having a nightmare. Her beautiful heartbeat was thudding angrily and irregularly which rung out in your ears.

The sky was crimson and dark thunderous clouds settled over a dreary Hawkins. Nancy stood with an assault rifle, aimed at a hungry demagorgon that made its approach to her with ease. Your poor girlfriend was trembling with fear and unable to action any plan that she did so with ease when she was awake. She pulled the trigger multiple times but no bullets fired from the gun. Panicked, she started to stumble back to get away from the beast and tripped over a rock on to her back. Her little whimpers as she tried pathetically to push herself backwards away from the monster broke your heart.

Tampering with people’s dreams was a curious ability you had. Whilst your counterparts had used it to enslave their victims, creating in them a false sense of security and establishing a bond of loyalty from human to vampire; you were about to use it to fight off the demons in your beloved’s head.

Nancy cowered from the demagorgon by covering her arm over her eyes. All of a sudden, its hungry growls and towering shadow disappeared and when she dropped her arm, you had taken its place. She looked up at you with relief and stood up to come face to face with you. Her heartbeat began to regulate itself, now being in the presence of the one she loved.

Before she could say anything, you put your hands on her shoulders and asked, “Nancy, can I come in?”

She furrowed her eyebrows in response to the peculiar question, “what do you mean?”

“Please, let me into your house. Tell me I can come in.” You pleaded with wide eyes and an ever tightening grasp on her shoulders.

“Of course, you can come into my house. You’re always welcome.” She said with a confused expression.

It was all you needed; you would explain everything to her cognizant self. You stepped out of her dream and into your own vessel again. You climbed the tree next to Nancy’s window with ease and entered her bedroom where she was starting to stir from her strange dream.

You set about turning her lamp on so she wouldn’t rouse to you lurking in the darkness and took your place leaning your back against the wall with your arms folded.

When Nancy did eventually waken, her eyelids fluttered as she took a quick scan of her room and then landed on you. At first, she seemed happy to see you and gave you a lazy smile. Then the realisation set in that you weren’t supposed to be there and she shot up from her place on her bed and stared at you in stunned shock.

“H-how did you get in here?” She asked with trepidation. You could tell by the rhythm of her heartbeat that she was nervous.

“You let me in. You told me I was always welcome.” You explained calmly, looking back at her as though nothing was wrong.

“Yes, in my dream!” She exclaimed and her lip started to quiver. It was endearing really, for once Nancy wasn’t understanding something on her first attempt. You were going to put her out of her misery soon enough.

“Did your books not tell you about vampires being able to control the dreams of humans? Or that they need permission before they enter a dwelling?”

Again, your words were calm and your posture was relaxed. Unlike some of your peers, you didn’t feel the need to make a dramatic spectacle when revealing yourself. Especially not to Nancy. You didn’t want to mock her, you just wanted her to understand.

Nancy did eventually understand and she recoiled in horror. She scrambled backwards from you, getting off her bed at the other side and backing against the opposite wall in fear. It was hurtful really, she looked at you with extraordinary dread and her chest rose and fell dramatically. Little whimpers escaped her lips, just as they had done when she faced the demagorgon in her dream.

“Nancy…” you began, taking a step forward towards her but she cut you off.

“Don’t come any closer!” She yelled and you obeyed her wishes, staying planted in your spot and raising your hands in surrender.

“Okay, I’m staying here.” You tried to assure her but it was fruitless. Nancy’s desperate eyes darted between you and her closet as her body made tiny movements to inch closer to it. Suddenly, it became obvious to you what she was doing.

“Nance, your guns aren’t going to work on me.” You sighed, dropping your hands to your sides. “You can’t kill the undead.”

“I can with a stake, remember?!”

Nancy’s breathing became ragged as she became frighteningly aware of her own humanity or rather, your lack thereof. That, and her heartbeat were the only sounds that filled the room. She swallowed thickly and pressed her back further into the wall as if she would be able to pass through it if she pushed hard enough.

You tried not to take her death threat too personally, she was terrified after all. Perhaps she thought that you’d intended to do with her what had been done to those victims she had been investigating. How was she to know that you’d never do that to her?

“Would you kill me, my love?” You asked in an unnervingly sweet tone which made Nancy gulp. She took in your calm frame and tried to identify the monster in you from those books she’d read earlier. The vile illustrations from folklore depicted bald and gaunt creatures, with pointy ears and sunken eyes. Their arms were long and awkward, with knuckles that dragged along the floor. Their sharp teeth sat in an overbite horribly over their bottom lip. They were ugly, soulless beasts.

You looked nothing like them. In her mind, you were the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen. You made her nervous and embarrassed but at the same time you validated her and made her giddy. You were the sophisticated and elegant vampire that was borne out of fiction. She loved you and she knew she didn’t have it in her to kill you.

“Are you going to kill me?” She choked out, still staring at you in fear. Whilst she knew of her own limits when it came to you, she had not yet ascertained yours with her.

The question struck you like a blow to the head. The fact she had thought you capable of such a thing was a harrowing reminder of your true form. Nancy had made you feel human and grounded you to the earth like your time on it was limited. She had instilled in you a new appreciation for life and had made you savour every moment.  

Often times, she’d make you forget what you really were until you felt the need to feed again and the agonising burn returned to your throat giving the sensation of dehydration and desperation. When the hunting instincts set in, you were Nancy’s human no more.

Except, when it came to her, you could control it. It was the only time you were able to suppress that deep desire for warm blood. Usually, the sound of a thudding heartbeat was enough for you to attack but hers was different. Despite how hard it was to refuse your natural instincts and endure the scorching thirst, when you heard the beating of her heart you swore to protect it.

“No.” You answered her question firmly. “I’m not going to kill you.”

“You killed those people though, didn’t you?!”

“Yes,” you sighed. “But they were bad people, Nance. Scumbags. One of them was that guy who tried to grope you at the Hawkins Post. He’d done even worse things to other girls! I couldn’t let him get away with that!”

Nancy’s face softened a little at your admission. Whilst she did still believe that you had no right or authority to make decisions on who gets to live or die, the fact that you had at least a fraction of a moral compass confirmed to her that you weren’t a lost soul. The girl she’d fallen in love with was still stood before her.

“What is this then?” She gestured between you both with her hands, trying to gather all the evidence she could before she was to decide what she was going to do.

“It’s love, Nance. I love you. You’re my soulmate.” You explained and your voice reached a higher octave. Although you had been calm before, when it came to expressing your feelings for Nancy you got a little more desperate. You needed her to know that there was nothing untoward when it came to your relationship. It was pure and organic, unlike anything else you’d ever been used to.

Nancy’s shoulders fell like she was giving up on something. On what you were not quite sure of but you gave her a pitying look and resisted the urge to take her in your arms so as to give her the space she needed.

“I don’t wanna be a vampire.” She whispered. “I don’t want to be a monster.”

She instantly regretted her words as soon as she saw how wounded you were by them. You sighed, looking down at the floor to try and collect your thoughts.

“People in this town would call you a monster if they found out you liked girls, baby.” You muttered and it sent a sharp pain through Nancy’s chest when she realised you were right.

“But don’t worry, I wouldn’t make you do anything you didn’t want to do. I just wanted to tell you what I am before you tried to murder me.” You were mumbling now, confidence shattered by Nancy’s verbal attack.

At this, she inched forward towards you, taking tiny reluctant steps but still finding her way to you, nonetheless. She took your hands in her own and softly caressed your knuckles with her thumbs. In this moment she realised she couldn’t hear your heartbeat or see the pulsing of the veins in your neck or even hear you breathe.

Nancy wondered why she had never noticed any of this before, having fallen asleep on your chest many times. She’d never seen you sleep either. In fact, she tried to remember if she had ever seen you eat.

She stared into your eyes, trying to understand why none of this seemed to occur to her while she had been researching your kind. It seemed so obvious and she had explored every line of thinking. How could she overlook that which was staring her in the face the full time?

Nancy’s head ached with the amount of ferocity she put into trying to conjure up a memory of you doing something that she could distinctly say was human. The only thing she could think of was the love you showed her. You provided her with stern protection in public, always looking over your shoulder to keep your identities safe. Then in private, you showered her with affection so that she was left in no doubt you loved her.

With great tenderness, you’d pepper kisses all over her face, whispering “you’re mine, I love you so much,” and Nancy would return the words to you with the same vigour. She meant it every time she said it to you and she meant it now.

Despite now having years of monster hunting experience and being armed with the knowledge of how to kill you, she was unable to do it. The huntress’ mind refused to categorise you with the beasts she had fought previously. Her love was not the same as them and suddenly she found her own sense of protectiveness over you.

Just as she was your weak spot and you had sworn to never hurt her, you were hers and she was unable to see anything monstruous within you.

“I’m sorry, I don’t think you’re a monster.” She whispered as your foreheads met and her nose brushed against yours.

“I’m sorry for not telling you.” You responded, reaching up to brush some hair out of her face and tuck it behind her ear. You kept your hand lovingly on her neck, tracing your thumb along her cheek.

“I love you.” She said and pecked your lips delicately, as if anything firmer would shatter you. Maybe it would have.

“Still?” You asked, being bruised and vulnerable by her earlier consternation towards you.

“Can’t help it, baby,” She giggled, thinking back to your conversation earlier that day. “You’re just so beautiful.”