26-Apr-2001
Title: Blood That Cold 3/?
They were together now. Sexually, he didn't know, nor did he think it really mattered. No experience he'd ever had, or been told, had given him the impression that sex meant anything to vampires. Mentally, though, was the most important thing, and in that they rallied as one. Against him. That much was evident in the way they would glance at each, something passing between the two, and then turn their gazes, equally intense in such opposite ways, upon him. Yuy alone was impossible to read, to predict, but Yuy it was somewhat easier to guess at Yuy's actions when he placed some of his responsibility on someone else. When he depended on another being for at least a bit of what he used to place solely on his own shoulders.
A blood-chilling smile contorted the ageless lines of Saisa's face. While trusting Duo Maxwell was, in a number of ways, an incredibly intelligent decision, if analyzed by the right mind, it could prove to be Yuy's undoing.
Excellent.
He still hadn't entrusted the knowledge of Rial to Duo. While most of his was sure he could, a tiny part still clung, with the single-minded desperation of one drowning, to the belief that he could trust no one, that he couldn't rely on anything, couldn't lend half his task to someone who was likely as not to screw it all up.
However, Duo had proven to be most dependable, more than he had even hoped. He had reluctantly revealed that he had an outside contact, but hadn't mentioned any names, no solid facts that could be manipulated by a sharp intellect into identities, or even faces. And Duo had not even hinted to another that he knew anything more than the rest of the den about the silent, blue-eyed specter who reveled in his shroud of mysteries. Of course, he was sure there were many x-rated explanations for the amount of time he spent with the long-haired vampire, he didn't mind, for it gave a smoke screen of rumors that none would be foolhardy enough to attempt to pierce.
He'd been unsure, at first, whether to let Duo follow him tonight, or reveal immediately that he'd always been aware of his shadow. The decision was basically made as he simply went too far to turn back, as his current route was far too suspicious. Besides, he reasoned with himself, he needed to trust Duo. Fully.
So he let Duo follow, though he perceived quickly that, had he been alert to his follower as soon as Duo appeared, and had he not kept that fact at the top of his mind, he not have even known Duo was trailing him, so silent he was.
Rial was there; exactly on time as he had consistently been each of their five meetings. There was sign of his having been followed; Rial himself didn't seem suspicious or nervous. Of course, Rial always had excelled at hiding himself.
He stepped into view, close enough to a slender shaft of moonlight that it cast shadows to play, almost surreal, across his face, but not enough to really illuminate his features.
"Heero?"
Of course. He'd forgotten that all Rial had left of a vampire's heightened senses was memories, like a ghost of last night's dream flitting through your conscious, maddeningly recalled but untouchable.
"Mouchiron," he replied, stepping fully into a light that, while almost too bright for him, would be just enough to give Rial evidence for recognition.
Rial nodded. "And?" One arched brown eyebrow and a slight tilt of his head indicated the foliage behind Heero.
Heero tried now to show his surprise at how easily Rial had detected his trail. Apparently he'd underestimated the newly turned human. Whether it was humanity in general he held in too low regard, or this one particular specimen, he couldn't say.
Duo took the initiative, stepping into narrow, bright beam with an easy grin on face before Heero could call him out. "I guess the game's up, then," he tossed casually, with a complete lack of surprise that made Heero suspect he hadn't been trying to hide all that well.
Before Heero could say anything, try to formulate a frantic explanation, Duo's eyes widened in shocked recognition. "Rial?" he cried, mouth dropping open in comic surprise unbecoming to one of his foreboding status.
"You still haven't told him?" Rial asked, his expression slightly condescending.
"No," was the only explanation offered.
"But - But..." Duo sputtered, looking even more flustered. After a moment of totally helpless mock despair, his eyes hardened. "Explain."
Heero looked to Rial, who gazed back coolly, his green eyes expressionless.
"Where's your partner?" he growled. Rial understood immediately left the explaining up to the more verbose as he was wont to do anyway.
"Not too far. Two and half miles."
Rial was obviously human now. That much was entirely evident in the darkened tone of his skin, from more than exposure to the sun, the way that he moved, still fluid, but without the innate, lithe, flowing gestures of the supernatural.
However, that wasn't to say that he wasn't in excellent shape. He ran in outstanding pace back to... Wherever it was they were going. Neither Rial nor Heero had volunteered and more information.
He'd slowed while they were still thick in the forest, although Duo could barely make out a white stucco wall, not too far in the distance. He didn't know the place, but Heero apparently did.
"He's here?" the blue-eyed vampire hissed, practically snarling at Rial, who was either ambivalent to Heero's glares or did a damn good job at pretending to be. Either way, he didn't reply, but led them quickly, by the main gates looming black and foreboding, and around the high stone wall to a small, cleverly concealed door hidden by vines. He paused briefly, and Duo assumed he was punching in some sort of code. The door opened quickly, soundlessly, and Rial stepped assuredly in. Duo followed after Heero, moving closer to the reassuring, familiar presence. He was astonished to find that Heero appeared to be doing the same, lurking in uncommon proximity. In spite of his lost and confused position, he smiled.
"Close your eyes," Rial said, an insufficient warning before he deftly fingered a silver plate near the door, and bright fluorescent lights flickered on in a solid, blinding line down the hallway.
"Oi!" Duo cried as his hands went instinctively to his eyes. He glared at Rial, aware that Heero was doing the same beside him.
"I hope I didn't look like that," Rial said flatly, turning to lead them down the long hallway. Duo blinked. Rial sounded almost as if he'd been teasing them... He hadn't known the green-eyed man long, but he'd never been the jocular type. Either being human seriously changed someone, or something else had shifted the young man's psyche.
The harsh artificial light hurt his eyes, which had adjusted long ago to the dark of night and the dim illumination lent to the caves by the occasional lantern. His pupils gradually adjusted to the excess light, thought it seemed he constantly was forced to squint, as his level of comfort was still below the shine afforded by the fluorescent bulbs.
He and Heero followed Rial dumbly, absorbing as much as they could through their enhanced senses. Duo couldn't perceive much, except that the place was kept very clean, and not many people used the corridors. He could only detect three or four distinct scents, all of them recent. Only a tiny amount of dust drifted through the air, no sounds floated through the halls to greet them... In fact, it seemed not at all inhabited.
"Where are we going?" Heero asked with an edge to his voice that clearly implied he wouldn't accept anything but an exact answer.
Rial ducked inside the next door they ran across before Heero could press further, leaving it open in an obvious invitation. However, Heero didn't follow him immediately, hesitating and beckoning Duo closer.
"Did you get anything?" Duo asked, gaze darting inside the door but keeping his head inclined toward Heero.
"Not really. This part of the house isn't used a lot. It's too clean, and only three people have been through it in the past months." Heero's breath blew in light gusts across his cheek, ruffling his bangs and slightly startling him. At this proximity, something that would usually be considered above the bounds of decency, he noticed that Heero's chest was, indeed, moving rhythmically. As his own was, but he'd never given any merit to the observation when made of himself, largely because he'd been breathing all sixteen years of his life, and the lack of change wasn't atypical. But the action was disquieting in its humanity, something he'd never associated with Heero.[1] The simple rise and fall gave a new dynamic to the sullen vampire, brought him into a different light. Duo blinked, realizing that he was suddenly blushing at Heero's propinquity.
"We should go," he muttered, slipping past Heero before any protest could be offered, his mind racing in sudden confusion.
Wufei eyed the former vampire as he breezed into the room where he'd kept Wufei and Quatre waiting for half an hour, calmly settling into a chair without an explanation. he narrowed his eyes, leaned forward in the chair, fully prepared to trust the barely natural young man who he found so untrustworthy.
Before he could question the green-eyed young man, though, his attention was fully drawn to someone else. Or rather, two someone elses.
Their movement was entirely mute, even on the luxurious white carpet that covered the floor. Each motion was deliberate and graceful, with no extraneous energy expended in any slight swing of a slender arm or perfectly formed leg. Each was beautiful in a chilling, macabre way, aesthetically perfect forms combined with the danger of a cocked gun, the bullet in an unknown chamber. Russian Roulette of the worst kind, your weapon boasting a disarming beauty and lethal power at the same time.
Both looked to be in their late teens, though it was hard to tell through the supernatural gleam tinting their features. The one in the lead had a thick rope of golden brown hair reaching all the way down his back, and Wufei found himself wondering whether it continued to grow in his current state of being. His face was almost cherubic in its rounded silhouette, an attribute compounded by unusually large eyes of an equally remarkable shade of violet. The other fairly exuded an aura of 'don't touch,' but was equally as pleasing to the eye. His face was more angular, centered by hard, deep blue eyes and framed by sloppily arranged hair of a dark brown hue. Both possessed unnaturally pale skin that on most would be disquieting, but simply seemed to add to their feral, ethereal attractiveness. Obviously Trowa's 'contact,' though he'd been told nothing of a second. His eyes flicked suspiciously to the long-banged young man, but once again any effort to speak was left stillborn ! by another's action.
"You must be Heero," Quatre interrupted, rising smoothly to his feet and crossing the room with hand out held. His aquamarine eyes flicked briefly to Wufei, and he was struck with the doubtless notion that the Winner heir knew exactly what he had been about to do, an idea that both thrilled and unnerved him.
The golden haired young man stopped in front of the darker of the two, hand still in the obvious pose of one expecting it to be shook.
His query eyed the outstretched appendage, his expression meaninglessly slack, as his posture appeared.
"I am," he said in a rough voice that seemed to be vying with Trowa's for the most monotone. He ignored, however, Quatre's hand, keeping his piercing blue gaze locked on the other's face.
"Heero's not exactly a touchy-feely person," injected the other vampire, mischief lighting his curiously bright violet eyes. His lips twitched upwards in the hint of a smile.
"I see," Quatre replied uncertainly.
"And besides," continued the anonymous vampire, "it's rather disconcerting for both parties." He lifted his own hand, uniformly, unnaturally white, into he and Quatre's view, wiggling to slender appendage, the jocular statement on his face not faltering.
Wufei's throat tightened at the display, the boy's differences suddenly seeming wrong. There was something profoundly disturbing to be found in watching the young vampire, mimicking easily the jovial actions and expressions of life, but seemingly mocked by his own unworldly form. The stark white flesh suited Heero's cold demeanor, but was simply unsettling on this other, a constant reminder of supernatural forces that made Wufei's skin crawl.
Perhaps it did Quatre's, as well, for his face tinted slightly and he managed to stammer out a greeting and inquiry of the other's name.
"Duo Maxwell," the long-haired vampire replied jauntily. "And don't mind Heero. He's not so bad once you get to know him."
Quatre seemed unsure of what to reply to offer, but was saved by Trowa's doubtful snort.
"Ah, Rial my man," Duo said, his attention totally diverted from Quatre, who used the opportunity to recede to a more assessing distance. "I do believe you owe me an explanation."
Trowa nodded, leaning forward in his seat. "That I do. I should start, though, but saying my name isn't Rial."
"It's not?" One chestnut eyebrow arched questioningly.
"No. It's Trowa."
Duo glared at Heero accusingly. "Did you know that?"
Heero blinked once, a slightly surprised expression flitting over his face before it was quickly shunted aside. "No." He met Duo's reproaching gaze evenly, brilliant blue eyes calmly challenging violet.
Duo looked away first. "Good." He gestured vaguely towards Trowa. "Continue."
"A few months ago Heero and I jointly decided that Saisa was gathering too much power, taking his small band beyond the bounds any of could remember it previously occupying. He was turning more than he should have, and seemed to be preparing for something bigger. We decided that we couldn't let him do that, but we also couldn't do anything on our own, so we eventually decided that we would need outside help, after it became apparent that none of the other vampires would be opposed to Saisa's plan. We weren't sure how to do that, because we didn't think anyone would trust... well, a vampire. We needed a human middleman, but didn't have one.
"After searching through god-knows-where, Heero came up with a way to make me human. It's uncomfortable, and against all vampire instincts, but eventually I did it. First we pretended that there was a rising rivalry between us, over some issue no one knew and even tried to understand. When I disappeared, they suspected it was because of Heero, and no one thought more of it except to stay out of his way. I contacted Quatre then, but kept visiting Heero, at that same place you saw, Quatre got Wufei, and the rest you know." He appeared a bit put off, perhaps from having said in one string more words than Wufei could remember hearing him utter in total, and relaxed again into the chair.
"So," said Duo reflectively, nodding in the perfect appearance of one digesting information for the first time. His consideration seemed still centered on Trowa, but that was immediately contradicted by the way his head swiveled to face Heero. "You knew about that, didn't you?" His eyes were narrowed, expression even more severe than before.
Heero nodded, not at all fazed by Duo's apparent wrath. "I did."
Duo grunted noncommittally. "We'll discuss that later." The shadows in his eyes deepened once more, coalesced, but were then banished back to wherever hid all his ranging emotions, and he abruptly turned to face the other occupants of the room, effectively ignoring his fellow vampire.
"So. Now that we're all here, what do we do now?"
End Part 3
Geh. Bad part... x.x It was hard as hell to write... >.< I really REALLY hate this part...
Notes:
[1] I made my vamps breathe, because, well... The reason they need blood is to transport oxygen, the same reason we need blood. No point in sucking it out of people if it's just gonna sit there! Actually, that's still flawed logic. Damn.
It really is true how people come up with weird name variations for banned songs on Napster. I just found the craziest ones for Nirvana... 'Come As You Are' is one of those banned songs, btw.
Ryan Harbin
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