03-Oct-2000
Disclaimer: Standard... So there!
Well, I seriously adapted the old vampire legends and superstitions to fit this, and I know. So please, no flames about how 'That's not what it is!' or 'Vampires don't do that!' Besides, there's about five hundred takes on everything about vampires, anyway. There's 'Interview with the Vampire,' then there's 'Buffy...' I've taken concepts and mixed them from both of those and more. I know what I've changed, I know why I've changed it. For instance, the vampires... Have blood. o.0 They have the blood they've eaten and not used up. Which is, when you see one refer to their blood, what they are referring to. NO, it's not a plot hole so big you could fly a frikkin Gundam through it. ^^;;;;
I use first person narration because it alleviates some confusion as to who I'm referring to in some situations, because I tend to write loooong sentences.
Prepare for a healthy dose of yaoi! Bwhahahaaaa!!!
Warnings: yaoi, blood sucking, general darkness (YAAAY!)
Pairings: 1x2/2x1
Spoilers: It's vampire thingies piloting Gundams... Riiiiiiiiight.... ¬.¬;; None, obviously.
The long thing in italics is a dream. Thoughts will be in '' and also italicized.
I watched in morbid fascination as Saisa trailed a long fingernail up the victim's arm, over the shoulder and to the neck, reveling in the chill it caused in her. Saisa loved to do that, to just touch the one whose blood he was soon to have until they relaxed, and then he bit. He claimed it tasted better that way. Personally, I had yet to find a preference to who, when, where... Blood is blood. Sometimes I was not sure if I even enjoyed it anymore, or if I just drank because to do so would mean my end. I've never been religious, never will be, so I wasn't not in a hurry to finish things.
Not to say I never enjoyed it. Sometimes the feeling of it was pure ecstasy, a moment I could just pause in forever, ignoring the victim's terrified and agonized struggles, their screams, just indulge in the feeling of it sliding, warm and thick, down my throat. Sometimes it was best when the victim passes out, so I didn't have to waste any strength to hold them down or otherwise subdue them.
Before me Saisa finally bit, the victim's back arching in terror and pain, although mostly terror. By now their brain was mostly in shock, anyway. She was simply held for five days, made to stay in a small cell. Another one of Saisa's favorite things, to fast for several days, even a week, and then have everyone we've collected all at once.
Saisa took his fill, and most of the others crowded in viciously to feed, their fangs sliding quickly into place. I waited. After two or three, most were satiated and it was much easier to drink. There was less pushing, and I didn't feel the need to hurt any of them. What they mostly don't realize is that I can hurt them. My previous... Engagement... Had me in better physical condition than many of them are now, and the boosted reflexes, strength, and all around skill had put me much further ahead of them than most realized. Saisa realized, I'm almost positive, but hasn't brought it up. To do so would only point out a weakness of his own, and I don't want his position anyway. I prefer to remain more unnoticed.
The others finished quickly with the first. Whether she was drained or not, she was too close to death to be worth the risk. We weren't stupid. They moved quickly to the next, another woman, although that one looked much older. I remembered her. They brought her in a little before then, murmuring blessings as if she thought they would harm us. Myths tend to circulate and expand with each person. Soon, I was sure a nun's habit will be reputed to destroy us instantly. After that, the moon. A slight rumor grows. Ah, well. Surviving those things would just make us more feared, and I didn't think any of us minded.
That day they were going quicker than usual, sucking the second quickly. I was ordered to bring the next, someone they'd just gotten today. I tilted my head slightly toward Saisa - I only took orders from him - and went to do as he bid.
I didn't know what I was looking for in the forest, especially so far from where'd I'd left the stolen motorcycle, but something drew me. The further in I got, the greater the feeling was. I ignored the steadily growing, also unexplained feeling of dread that accompanied. I needed to continue at that same time that I knew if I did, it could mean my death. I didn't know how I knew that. I just... Did.
And that feeling only - and quite justifiably, I feel - intensified when two very quick, very strong things jumped out of the trees. I wasn't even through congratulating myself on evading their first move when the other had me, bands of iron holding me in place. I think the scariest part, though, was the total lack of sound - outside of my own terrified gasping, I mean. They moved without so much as a whisper of cloth, not a broken twig. They made no noise as they studied me.
"He'll do," one of them said in a nails on chalkboard growl, a voice that raised the hair on the back of my neck. Blackness came quickly after the initial sharp pain.
I came to in the same blackness. I couldn't see my hand when I was sure it was right in front of my face. I touched my nose, just to make sure. My breath came faster as I realized that I couldn't see. I couldn't see... I was breathing even faster still, struggling to get free from bonds I realized I had, anchoring my legs and arms together.
My breath, sucked in desperately, echoed through my head as my seizures stilled. Bruises were beginning to form, rings around my wrists and elbows under the bonds, as well as around my ankles. They hadn't used the most secure way to tie me, but the tightness of the bonds made up for it entirely. I stilled, calmed my breathing, but my heart continued to thump against my chest, I could hear it in my eyes and feel it in my wrists.
Suddenly I felt tired again. I hoped I hadn't hit my head, but didn't have much more room for coherent thought before the darkness closed again.
He was speaking to me... I couldn't tell what he was saying, it was lost in the wind, strong enough to whip my hair out of its braid and steal the words out of our mouths from a foot away. The wind was dark, swirling black that slowly blanketed us until I could see nothing but wayward strands of my hair, torn loose and flapping wildly.
Who the hell was he? It has just occurred to me that I didn't know him at all... Tall, with shoulder length blond hair and black eyes. I frowned around a mouthful of hair, my shouting having long stopped.
Suddenly the wind quieted. My hair stopped moving abruptly to fall around my face and shoulders in a tangled mass. I made a face at it, then turned to the man, my mouth opening once more.
He was staring at me, black eyes slitted, the malevolent face half hidden by the hair. I think what was most disconcerting, though, was the figure with him, entirely black except for gleaming deep blue eyes, wild, beautiful eyes that sucked him in and scared the shit out of him as they stared. The figure's fingers were on the blond man's neck, almost possessively, and in return, the blond man's hand was twisted around and up to rest on the black figure's shoulders.
"He's perfect."
"Aa."
I screamed.
Yuy came in and unceremoniously dumped his burden on the table. The boy had been asleep - or unconscious, they hadn't been particularly gentle bringing him in. Either way, he woke up now, focusing his eyes on Yuy's form backing away stiffly. Several other moved forward, eager to drink, but I motioned them back, warning them with my eyes, a glare almost worthy of Yuy. They scuttled back. They were all afraid of me, I knew. Midnight killings of all who'd opposed me, thinly veiled threats to those about to... What I'd never tell anyone was that I didn't kill them. Surprising as it may have been to some, no, it was not myself. Not that I didn't know. No one would ever know that, either.
The boy sat up slowly, wide blue-violet eyes surveying. I suppose we're an interesting sight, about two dozen skinny, pale beings in a darkened room with no windows and few material comforts. It didn't appear to faze him though; he nodded once and subsided, until his gaze hit myself. The eyes - such large eyes - widened, and he leaned, maybe even unconsciously, away from me. Excellent.
I approached slowly, even slower than usual, not walking straight to him, but circling slowly, like a vulture. I didn't miss the irony in that comparison, either.
His eyes flickered desperately, looking for some sort of exit. There was none. The only entrance into this room was through the floor. Even if he could find it, he wouldn't escape. In his current state, he wouldn't make it past the first of us. Although if he was made one of us, he would be excellent... I'm sure the same thing had occurred to Yuy. Always calculating, that one. Who would be better than whom if it came to a fight, who to avoid. His capabilities, in fact, were far above most here... Maybe even - although I'd never admit it - my own. He didn't say anything about his life, but it must have been difficult to make him what he was. He was only fifteen when he was made, and I don't know how long he's been with us - could be one year, could be one hundred. Although I'm sure he knows. I bet he's kept track of every day he's been here. Although whether he laments or smiles inside - he never smiles - I don't know.
I almost sighed Saisa prepared to go through the familiar routine with this new victim. However, he differed almost immediately from the normal routine, to circle around slowly. I narrowed my eyes. What the hell was he doing now?
Unlike most, this boy wasn't hysterical. Oh, he was scared, but he showed it by guarding himself, tensing muscles prepared to jump and run, or fight. He could try. Normally by now, the person is quivering in a ball, creating their own dark fantasy of what we are. I was sure he was, also, trying to figure the same, but he appeared to be rational.
Saisa strolled almost lazily around him. The boy shrank away from him, moving slowly in the same circle as Saisa. So, Saisa wanted to play, did he? This one certainly seemed capable. He was in about the same physical shape as I had been... Before, although the situation was somewhat disabling him. However, no matter what physical shape he was in, no human would be able to fight one of us... The realization hit me hard - Saisa didn't want to play with him - he wanted to make him! Shit... The making of another was bloody and agonizing for the person involved. Generally one of our worst memories is the making, although most, afterward, couldn't have been more satisfied. I refrain from using happy for a reason.
A swift movement dragged my gaze from the floor. Saisa, disdaining the usual period of fooling with the victim, had struck, burying fangs in the boy's neck. I looked away, but didn't know why.
Something about this one struck me differently.
I wasn't sure whether Saisa thought he was doing me a favor by having me watch the new one or not. Did Saisa expect me to give him my blood when he woke up starving?[1] I frowned at the thought. It would leave me weaker than I wanted for too long... But, as I'd stressed to myself before, I couldn't go against Saisa. So I waited.
I groaned. It was either that or scream, and I was quite proud of myself for not screaming. I didn't hurt, and that was what scared the hell out of me. I couldn't remember much of the past hours, but I did remember being bashed around quite a bit. All experience had taught me that, when knocked unconscious, you wake up with a hell of a headache.
But I was hungry. Hungrier than I'd ever felt in my life. My stomach hurt like hell, and I was - I was trembling! I inhaled quickly, trying not to panic.
"Ohayo." It rang in my ears, too loud. I jerked to the sound, focusing onto a lone figure in the dark.
"Who?" I whispered, my voice hoarse to the point of barely being recognizable.
No answer, a bare whisper of cloth on cloth as the figure approached. I realized that, despite the dark, I could still see him. Sort of. It wasn't like real vision, with strangely muted colors, and he seemed to move too slowly.
"I'm hungry," I whispered, to cover up my unease. He made a brief noise, of assent or disdain, I couldn't tell.
"I know." A low voice, nasal in a strange way. But a nice voice, fitting of the strange figure in front of me. A glint of bright blue, too bright for this barely colored world, and the stark paleness of skin, an arm held out to me. I looked at him.
"What am I supposed to do? Eat you?" I tried to laugh.
"Aa." I forced a laugh again.
"I'm serious, man, I'm hungry as hell. Either give me some food or leave!" I was always cranky when I was hungry. I was then and I knew it, and I wasn't in the mood for any of this bullshit. They were like some crazy cult! Suddenly, though, I wanted out. I'd put up with their crazy fucking ritual for a long time. I'd been a pretty good sport, in my opinion. But now I was leaving.
I narrowed my eyes at the strange-voiced[2] intruder, and jerkily shoved myself upward, ignoring the flash of dizziness from both pain and hunger. I stumbled slightly, but masked it to look as if I had simply taken a rather threatening step towards him. No reaction. I frowned and started again, swaying as I did, and I was not happy about that. My head was pounding, and my stomach ached so bad that I felt like keeling over right there, but I ignored both as I tried to muscle my way past him. Fat chance. I was two feet away from him when he grabbed me, one arm holding me in place, more unbreakable than anything I'd ever experienced. Before I could even struggle, he flicked his wrist, and I was held against his chest by the neck, his wrist stifling any chance of breath or protest. Wait a second - Had I been breathing?
"This won't kill you anymore," he whispered into my ear, in what would have seemed to outsiders a lover's murmur. "But it sure is uncomfortable."
I did the only thing my overly stressed and undernourished brain could come up with - I bit him. Harder than I'd thought I could bite, tearing through skin ands reaching blood almost immediately.
The something else took over. Something primal, out of my control. I fell to the floor, carrying him with me, and sucked at his wrist, grabbing it with both hands and pressing it to my mouth, even as my logical mind screamed a hysterical contradiction. I don't know how long it was before he jerked away, a move I was suddenly sure I could have prevented had I not been so shocked.
He rubbed at his wrist, and when he removed his hand, the wound that I was sure had been gouged and gaping was... Not there. I was in disbelief and growing fear as he calmly sucked the remaining blood off his hands, and walked out.
"Hey!" I was still on the floor, shaking in shock and sheer confusion, and he wasn't helping.
"Nani?" He half turned back, enough so that I could see the annoyance plainly scrawled across his face.
"What the hell did you do to me?" I whispered as I staring at my hands, quickly becoming a red too stark against the black and white contrast of my skin and clothing.
A snort of disbelief. "What do you think? He turned you." was the only reply. And then he was gone, his indifferent last comment seeming to echo as I curled into a ball on the floor, mind and heart in turmoil to deep for me to even the dribble of blood the remained on my mouth and chin.
End Prologue
Notes:
[1] All will be explained... I promise.
[2] *shrugs* Personally, I LOVE Hikaru Midorikawa's voice, but Duo's supposed to be kinda out of it...
Ryan Harbin
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