This life would kill me If I didn't have you
I couldn't live without you baby... I wouldn't want to
If you didn't love me so much... I'd never make it through
'Cuz this life would kill me... This life would kill me if I didn't have you
-Lyrics to 'If I Didn't Have You' performed by Thompson Square
Crimson Bonds Part 23
The celebration at the Barton-Yuy Clan residence was carried inside Heero and Duo's home. Opening the front door and stepping aside, the Japanese Vampire allowed the rest of their family in ahead of him.
As soon as the distracted hoard was filtering inside to fill the living room, Wufei took the opening to have a private moment with his wife. Gripping her wrist and pulling her in a blur of themselves to scale their way to the second floor.
Stowing them away in the closest room and closing the door behind them, he gave her no time to react before he crushed himself against her with a searing kiss.
Gladly giving into his whims, Anna's widened eyes closed as she sighed deeply and latched onto him every bit as fiercely while regaining ground in the battle between their exploring tongues.
Automatically having their bodies pressed together with no space between them set every one of her senses on fire. Her hips moving forward, the movement brought on a deep growl of need from her husband and he ground his own pelvis back against hers to set the tempo of their desperate kneading.
Unable to hold himself back any longer, Chang panted heavily when he broke away only for his fangs to grow in. Craning his neck downward to plunge them into his Chosen's neck, he heard her cry out in rapture at his immediate drink of her blood. Acting out on her need that had completely taking over, instinct brought the Siren's sharp teeth on for an almost violent bite that pierced the scales of her partner's exposed nape.
Grinding, moaning, toes curling, drinking deeply and their hands feeling up everything they were able to reach, the overwhelming flood of euphoria and emotions became too much for the pair as their muffled screams of their joint climaxes wracked the tight knot that was their limbs and frames. By the end of their trembling, the Vampires reluctantly recoiled their fangs and rested their foreheads together as they gasped for air.
Anna reached up to wipe away the shimmer from her eyes, laughing wildly, "H-holy shit. We haven't had that intense of a bonding in quite a while."
Chuckling, Wufei nodded, "This was the longest we'd been parted in a long time." His smile fading a bit, he pressed a soft kiss against his bride's lips and breathed, "God, I've missed you." The redhead smiled lovingly, caressing a scaly cheek while he reverently ran a hand over the white trim of her kimono's V-neck.
"Thank you for wearing this," Chang grinned widely in sincere appreciation. It had been a gesture of adoration and belonging that his Other had displayed by dressing in his people's traditional dress. By her ear, he purred, "As much as I love seeing you in something from my culture, all I can think about is getting you out of this." He emphasized his longing with a firm squeeze of her buttocks that made her gasp sharply.
Kissing the new bite mark in her skin, the scaly Infected snickered, "But not until we have some real time so that I can do a proper job of welcoming you back."
Nearly coming undone at the sultry stare boring into her gaze, Anna swallowed roughly. "Well, far be it for either of us to rush such a thing," she managed to giggle. Holding her husband fast against her once more, she initiated another fiery kiss to tide them over until he could make good on his promise. By the time their mouths parted, it was Chang who struggled to regain his senses.
Smirking, the Siren gestured down to his nether region where a noticeable wet spot darkened the jeans covering it and told him quietly, "I'll keep the others busy to give you time to clean up." She pecked the sheepish smile on his face and slowly peeled herself free. With a smug wink, she slipped from the room and closed the door to the sound of his amused chuckling.
Out in the hallway, Anna gave herself a once over to adjust her lilac robe. Pulling the collar higher to conceal the fang marks in her neck, she took one last second to tighten her bun and released a deep sigh. Head high and steps light, she hummed cheerfully to herself and headed off to return to the rest of the family.
* * * * * *
The sound of that happy tune that Berg had whistled haunted Lucie as she stared up at the ceiling of her bedroom.
Sleep wouldn't come to her... not with her mind running around what could possibly be on the other end of the chain that she had seen hanging in the old man's lab.
What could have warranted being contained in such a way? For such a thick and powerful restraint, there must have been a reason for the measure of safety. And how long had that person... or thing been in the base? From the very beginning while Septum had managed to keep it from his entire staff up until that evening thanks to his scientist's slip up?
Convinced that she was not about to rest until she had the answers to her questions, Aisley sat up on the edge of her mattress as she turned on the lamp on the nightstand beside her.
Gripping the sheets and comforter beneath her, she gritted her teeth. How Millers had managed to keep something so clearly ominous under her nose without so much as having her catch a whiff that he was hiding something irritated the proud Hunter in her to no end.
Nothing got past Lucie. But somehow this had. And all thanks to a man who she never would have credited with the ability to keep secrets from a child let alone her.
Rushing to change into jeans, sneakers and a plain black t-shirt to fit her dark mood, the beauty caught a glance of the time from the clock on the wall. It was only closing in on three o'clock in the morning, but this was not about to wait another minute. Not when Aisley had her mind set on something.
Storming out of her quarters, Lucie stomped her way around the labyrinth of catwalks until she reached the upper floor that she had sought out. Her feet coming to an abrupt stop before the closed door that was far from any other in the entire base, she raised her hand in a tight fist and banged it loudly against the entrance three times in a wordless demand.
The muted sound of frantic shuffling could be heard before the swoosh of the door as it slid open. Standing there, bare chest and fleece sleep-panted legs peeked out from his partially closed robe, Millers' half-lidded eyes blinked rapidly at the sight of the Hunter glaring at him.
"Lucie?" he frowned deeply. "What's wrong?"
Pushing herself inside, Aisley growled under her breath, "You've been holding out on me." By the time she spun around in the middle of his living space, the door was already closing once more as he secured the front of his robe. Still coming alert, his confusion only deepened in the light of the hot anger aimed at him as his best agent snapped, "I thought that you and I had an agreement to be upfront with each other about everything."
Millers opened his arms at his sides, shaking his head, "What in the world are you talking about, dear? If you would be a little more clear to what has you so worked up-"
The Hunter closed the distance between them so that they were nose-to-nose, cutting him off by her speed and the reddening of her face. "I want to know what you have chained up in Berg's laboratory," she hissed.
She felt a bit of satisfaction in seeing the shock that washed over the researcher's face. When his mouth opened and closed a couple of times without a sound, she pressed, "I saw enough to prove you have something in captivity here. I want to know what it is and you're going to tell me."
Folding her arms across her chest, Lucie smirked, "Otherwise, I'll have to spread it around the team that you are willingly harboring a threat to us. I can't see another reason to why it would need to be chained up."
Dry-washing his face, Septum took a few calming breaths to steady his spiked anxiety. Sighing in defeat when it became all too obvious that he was not about to get away from this conversation without coming clean, he lowered his hands heavily at his sides. "Alright," he conceded, his voice soft and apologetic. "You have my word that I will tell you everything. Hell, I'll even take you down the laboratory in a couple of hours myself."
"You'll take me now," Aisley corrected, taking a couple steps back in the process to give them some personal room. "If you want me to willingly stay on as a Hunter, you'll show me the respect that I deserve of full disclosure- just as you swore you would from the beginning."
Without hesitation to stay in her good graces, Millers agreed, "Very well. I will take you straight away once I have had a chance to get into some real clothes." The corner of his mouth curling up, he added, "That is so long as you do not have a problem with that, of course."
Lucie always did get what she wanted. She supposed that she could spare a few minutes to allow the researcher to change. She gave a tight nod to which Septum quickly made his way past her to close himself in his bedroom.
Making herself comfortable on the 'living room' sofa, the blonde eyed her surroundings, but not really taking the details in as she pondered what she was about to learn. Surely no other Hunter had been prelude to what she had managed to talk her boss into revealing to her.
Drumming her hands on her bent knees, her mind ran wild again over the possibilities.
Whatever it was, it would undoubtedly put her in even better rank with Septum than where she stood already.
Her thoughts drifting once more, Aisley silently wondered what it might take for her to be in the same favor with a certain Hunter whom she had been vying after from the time she first laid eyes on him.
* * * * * *
Sleep was just as elusive for Broderick as it was for Lucie that night.
Locked away in his private quarters, the handsome young man sat at his living space's desk to go through the months and months worth of notes he had saved into his laptop. Running over the histories that he had gathered on every member of the Barton-Yuy Clan, he propped his head up on his hand as his heavy-lidded eyes rolled over the words on his screen.
To say that Dawson had taken quite the interest in the family would have been an understatement. But then, that was the way that he worked in his hunt. Get into the enemy's head so that finding and dealing with them was easy. But this particular family had caught his curiosity like no other Vampires in his past.
And that was all thanks to what that idiot Barnett had found on them.
Ever since learning about that family the Infected had saved from the concentration camp, Broderick's world had turned on its end. For such an act to have gone unrecorded spare for the survivors was both incredible and confusing for someone who had gone most his life feeling nothing but hatred for all blood suckers.
Hanging onto his belief that there must have been some motive that benefited the Clan, the Hunter realized that there was only one way for him to get to the bottom of what that was...
...he had to get his hands on the diaries that Mark had boasted that he had brought back to Septum.
Never before would Dawson have considered betraying his employer's trust, but this was something that he had to do for himself if he could come to grips with what he needed to do in securing the Hybrid.
At least... that was what he told himself.
Closing out the individual mug shot images of the Clan, Broderick paused at the last image of Heero Yuy. Boring deep into the cobalt-and-gold eyes peering back at him, he chewed on the inside of his cheek.
Much like Chang Wufei, the Hunter had the feeling that he would have respected the Original were he still human. Perhaps it was the rich Asian-Pacific heritage that the two Infected shared that made him feel that way.
For such decent, loyal standards that their people were brought up in, much of that had been embedded into him from his upbringing to his joining the elite union of the Hunters.
Catching himself as being a little more fixated on the whole family than he'd intended, Dawson closed out of his photo capture and closed his laptop. Finally, a wide yawn from the tiredness that had set in was all the sign he needed to know it was time to retire for the night.
As he headed for his bedroom, turning out the lights along the way, he hardly had enough energy to remove his shirt before falling into his bed and left the rest of world behind him.
* * * * * *
"Aw. Do we really have to go to bed?" Ian pouted up at his mother.
Smiling, Anna squatted down so that they were at eye level before she pulled him into a tight hug. "Yes, son," she told him. "It is well past bed time for you and your siblings now." Her lips pressing and holding a kiss to his forehead, she reassured, "We'll have plenty of time to catch up again before and after class tomorrow."
Not wanting to leave but aware that he was not going to win an argument there, the child sighed dramatically, "Oh, alright." He laughed when the Siren sent him into a laughing fit when she tickled his side.
Alongside his wife, Wufei took up their embracing and kissing their kids good night as Isabel, John and Carol corralled them from the living room. "We'll make sure they're all tucked in," their eldest girl told them, winking with her arms holding Rosie up against her.
Pecking her cheeks as they thanked her on her way out, the pair soon noted that Charles had remained behind as the last of their brood. Chang grinned widely as his son slowly approached for the first time since his return.
The young man reached up to run a hand through his shaggy, red locks and swallowed roughly. "Dad, I... that hunt was... I mean," he stammered, unable to say how much it not only meant that his father gave him the opportunity as well as how very different the experience was from anything that he had imagined it would be.
Wufei took a deep breath and nodded in understanding. Cupping the back of his son's neck, he pulled him close. "I know," he whispered sincerely by his ear. "You get now why your mother had such a hard time agreeing to let you see that? You know why we do whatever we can to keep you and the others from having to experience that kind of danger?"
Nodding against his shoulder, Charles sniffled and wiped away the stray tear that had crept past his defenses as he straightened himself. "Yea," he breathed, voice thick. Smiling to the Irish Infected who was drying her own face, he praised, "I'm really glad I got to see you in action too, Mom. You're pretty badass."
Anna's head fell back with her laughter at the sentiment as Wufei, Trowa and Midi snickered. "Just be sure to never piss me off enough that the badass side of me comes after you," she giggled as she wrapped her arms around her son. Patting his back, she said quietly, "You did great out there, sweetheart. I love you."
"Love you, too, Mom and Dad," the young immortal grinned back. Partaking in another one-armed embrace with the scaly Vampire, he murmured a 'good night' and stepped out of the room to follow the others back to the safety of their home.
Her blue-and-gold eyes staring off after him, Anna smiled wistfully, "Heh. My kid things I'm a badass Mom."
Chang draped an arm around her shoulders and kissed her cheek, chuckling deeply, "And rightfully so." He was rewarded with a brilliant grin and a sound kiss for that.
From a couple of flights up, a familiar voice called, "Are the kids off to bed?"
Smirking, the redheaded Infected replied, "Yes, Duo. You and Heero make yourselves decent and get down here so we can have our meeting." No sooner had the remark finished did her brothers appear in the doorway, each wearing a pair of bite marks in their necks and sated smiles thanks to their couple of hours of alone time.
Trowa smirked, "Good of you to join us again." His cheeks reddening, Maxwell nudged his snickering Vampire in the arm. His green-and-gold eyes settling on the so named Dream Team, Barton commented, "So earlier, the two of you had some wind of what the Senate had voted for in regards to the registration from what little the kids already know. The rest of it we thought it best if we sat down to discuss-"
"Discuss what? Tracking arm bands?" the Companion frowned in confusion. "Something that there is no way the Senate would allow to go unregulated or monitored so that it doesn't get out of hand?"
Huffing out a laugh, Anna shrugged, "Yea. If that's all we have to worry about, we got off easy! Our records are going to be adjusted and from this point on, we'll remain on the list that we should have been on all along. No big deal."
Their jaws hanging open and eyes widening, the rest of their family looked on them in surprise for the aloof... and yet rightfully lighthearted take on the news. Of course there would be regulations to fall on the regulators so that the tracking devices would not be abused in any way. Yes, it would have been nice to not have to be watched at all, but the tide could have taken on far worse consequences.
It had been just as Heero and Wufei had expected of their lovers, a laugh off of the announcement a with feeling of letting go and moving on.
Shaking his head, the Japanese Original snorted, "God, it's good to have both of you home again." Chang and their Latin cousins joined in the chorused laughter to follow.
* * * * * *
Septum made good to lead Lucie to the laboratory as soon as he'd finished changing into a simple assembly of blue jeans and a white shirt. Walking a couple of steps ahead of the Hunter, he peered over his shoulder to request, "I need you to assure me that what you are about to see will stay between you, me and Berg. You'll have your explanation to why I had kept this from you and all the others soon enough. But I need to know that you are not about to betray the trust I am showing you."
"You mean the same trust that you should have had with me all along," Aisley retorted. To her surprise, the researcher actually glared in warning at her. Clearly, this was a very big deal... one that would surely keep her in the best of favor with him. Smirking, she shrugged, "Fine. I won't tell another soul."
Aware that it was not as though he had much other choice but to take her word for what it was, Millers nodded and took to the last catwalk lit by the dim backup lights. Coming to a stop before the closed laboratory doors, he pressed his hand to the reader in the coinciding wall. With a bright chirp in recognizing his identity, the double doors slid open and the lights within flashed on to fill the lab.
Lucie winced at the offensive brilliance bouncing off the white ceiling, walls and beige colored floor as her sight needed to adjust from the darkness she had spent most of her morning in. Blinking rapidly, she followed her employer inside so that the doors could close behind them. Frowning deeply, the immediate room was completely vacant of any tables or trays of equipment that she had caught a glimpse of only hours before.
Even the floor had been mopped up of any hint to the blood that had dripped onto it.
"This way," Septum said quietly, pushing open a glass door in the furthest corner.
All but running up behind him to keep up, Aisley's eyes widened at the sight of the maze of glass rooms inside. Sparse of any furnishings save for one long, white bed covered by simple, white linens in each broken off space, she came to the startling comprehension that the half dozen rooms were in fact holding cells.
One would have been enough for the Hybrid that they were after, but... "Why so many?" Lucie heard herself ask out loud before she even knew that she had used her voice until it was echoing off the empty corridor's clear walls.
Chuckling deeply, Millers glanced back at her as he answered simply, "One should always be prepared for anything. Finding our target is about to be much easier on us, but that does not mean that we will be so fortunate when it comes to capturing him. We may need room for... other guests who pose a problem in securing him. That and we could also stand to bring in motivation for him to be cooperative with us."
That made sense, Aisley had to admit to herself.
She froze when the scientist brought her to the last chamber and came to a halt himself. "Good morning, Pet," he greeted the creature sitting on the floor in the furthest corner. Legs pulled close to its chest and head of loose, shoulder-length hair falling in front of his lowered face from the bright lights shining down on it, the captive slowly raised its head to reveal a pair of narrowed eyes.
Gasping at the sight of the silver rings wrapped around those violet irises, Lucie's back locked rigidly as she gasped sharply.
In little more than a whisper, Septum told her, "Allow me to introduce you to our Hybrid's twin brother... Solo."
TBC...
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