I still think bout you, I still dream bout you,
I still want you and need you by my side,
I'm still mad about you, All I ever wanted was you,
Your still the one, Your still the one
-Lyrics to 'Still the One' performed by Brian McKnight
Crimson Ties Part 65
Twin. Chosen. Other. Companion. Hybrid. Reformer.
Duo was beginning to have so many titles he was beginning to wonder which really defined who he was... what meant the most to him in this world that was spinning more and more out of control. He was having a hard time remembering the living that he had once been, even though he had only been turned recently.
But the moment he and Yuy were sealed up in their room, it was all too clear from that moment which of his roles was the most important in his existence...
Companion.
Heero's Companion, to be more to the point.
As soon as their eyes met when the Vampire closed the door behind him, a love and deep concern radiating from his golden eyes, like every other time when they would gaze on each other, Duo felt happier and more precious than he ever could have imagined.
Solo, the Others, the close calls and losses of the attacks and the rest of the world were completely forgotten. All that Maxwell wanted was to soak his lover in and to have his Vampire completely surround him. With that, the hybrid closed the distance between them to claim the Infected's mouth in a fiery kiss.
Immediately Heero became any and everything that his Chosen needed and asked of him without hesitation or complaint. Returning the passionate kiss, he gave all that was in him to bring whatever peace and reassurance he could offer.
The clothes between them were shed in frantic and violent motions just before they made it to their bed. Panting heavily when he found himself lying on his back as his Vampire straddled him, Maxwell pulled his partner down for another long battle to be waged by their tongues. Finally breaking away, he stared deeply into his lover's eyes and breathed, "Take me. Please."
Grunting, Yuy was all too happy to oblige. However, not before he took the time to caress, kiss, lick and nip every bit of his lover that he could. Trembling from his desire, Duo cried out when he felt the Infected fill him at last.
A rhythm that both creatures were happy with was soon found and they melded together in a mass of muscle and flesh linked not only physically, but spiritually as well. Then some time into their prolonged love making, when it was clear that neither of them were going to last much longer, Heero's fangs grew in so that he could bite into his Companion's neck and drank.
Back arching, Duo screamed in pleasure and plummeted into the oblivion of ecstasy that engulfed him. His cry muffled against his Companion's skin, the Vampire followed right behind with his own orgasm.
Still gulping down air, Yuy carefully retracted his fangs and nestled his face against the nook of his Chosen's shoulder. Remaining conjoined like that, the pair latched onto one another as they whispered words of appreciation and love.
Eyes closed as he tried to collect himself, Duo heard and felt the shift as his Vampire reached towards the nightstand to open the top drawer. Sagging heavily against the arm that cupped the back of his head, he opened his mouth to slowly take mouthfuls of Heero's blood.
The sheer rapture of the warm sensation flooding him along with the return of the emotions that he had held back up until then suddenly became all too much for Maxwell to fight and the tears slipped from his sealed eyelids.
When he pulled back to see the droplets running down his Companion's face, Heero whispered sadly, "Oh, love." He made quick work of cleaning their chests before he settled beside the hybrid so that they could cling to each other.
"'m sorry," Duo mumbled against the cool shoulder that his face was buried in, his whole body trembling almost violently. The last thing that he'd wanted was to ruin the wonderful moment they had just shared. It was the last time he wanted to show his weakness.
Arms tightening all the more around his Chosen, Yuy urged quietly, "Shh. Don't you ever be sorry. You take whatever you need from me, even if it's just my arms to hold you." A whimper escaping him at that, Maxwell gave into the last of the reserves of his grief.
The time passed as the couple continued to just hang onto one another, the Companion releasing his tears and whimpers without holding anything back that needed to get out. And through it all, Heero ever remained the strength that he needed between his whispered assurances and soft caresses.
Gladly taking in every bit of his Vampire's unconditional love and endless support, Duo managed to tame even the tallest of the raging waves in the churning sea of his wracked emotions. Allowing him that time to fall apart so that he could be picked up, he came to feel even more for Yuy when he didn't think it possible before.
Once the clouds passed at last, the hybrid pulled his dampened face back to peer up at his partner for the rest of their existences. "God, I love you so much, 'Ro," he breathed. Shaking his head, he sniffled and stated, "I... I don't think the word 'love' justifies it."
Chuckling softly, the Infected replied, "I understand what you're saying, as I've always found it difficult to tell you just how precious and important you are to me." Eyes drifting closed, he pressed their lips together in a sweet kiss that said far more than his words ever could.
"I adore you, Duo," Heero whispered, their lips brushing together when he pulled back just enough to speak. "With everything in me."
Silver-and-violet eyes shimmering all over again, Maxwell basked in the warmth of that sentiment, a wide smile spreading across his heart-shaped face. Quickly leaning back up, he began a much more heated kiss that tempered the fires of their passions all over again.
As their hands roamed freely all over each other, Duo panted when their mouths parted. "It's a damned good thing neither of us needs sleep," his husky voice commented as he straddled his lover's lithe waist with a mischievous smirk as he unraveled his braid. "'Cause it's going to be a long night if I can help it."
Purring, Yuy ran his hands over his Companion's legs and up his taut abs. "I'm more than game for whatever you have planned for us," he grinned wickedly.
* * * * * *
Two muffled voices cried out in rapture in the master bedroom of the next mansion.
Pulling his head from between his wife's trembling legs, Wufei panted heavily along with her as they lay facing each other on their sides. Down at the bottom half of their bed, Anna took in the last drops of cum seeping from her husband's fading erection before she collapsed.
Around the pair, the bed beneath them and the room arrangement was in complete disarray from their intense, vigorous coupling. Catching the breath that she didn't need, the redhead sighed deeply, "That was not a bad start to the depravity I intend to lay down on you."
She yelped and moaned loudly when the scaly Infected surprised her by burying his fangs into the side of her thigh just beyond her groin. Taken aback by the unexpected drink from her blood, the Irish Vampire's back arched after only a few long gulps as she screamed in the wake of another powerful orgasm.
Chang snickered thickly as he stretched back, fangs retracting. "You were saying?" he smirked.
Recovering swiftly, Anna spun her naked body so that they were face-to-face and wrapping their arms around each other. Gold-and-blue eyes closing, she dug her fingers deep into her partner's loose hair and initiated a heated deep kiss that had them both moaning at the taste of themselves in their lovers' mouths. Smiling, the redhead said quietly, "I was saying that ye are in fer a time tenight."
His whole frame shuddering, Wufei bit his lip roughly. "God, you know what that accent does to me," he growled before taking her lips in another fiery kiss.
A sudden thought coming over her, the redheaded Infected's eyes shot wide open and the flames of her desire went tepid as though doused by ice water. In a rush, she scrambled backwards from her Chosen until she reached the edge of the bed with a horrified look.
Stunned at the abrupt change, Wufei sat up and watched his frightened bride pull her legs against her bare chest. "Anna?" he frowned worriedly. Slowly crawling towards her, he asked, "What is it, love?"
"W-we have no idea what powers I might have," the Irish Infected whispered, eyes still enlarged and skin paling. Meeting her husband's gaze, she swallowed roughly and shook her head, "What if I lose control and hurt you with whatever it is? I would sooner end my own existence before I could ever hurt Duo and yet we all know how close I came to killing him when I'd lost all of my will power." The mere thought of how near death her brother had come at her hands had her shuddering.
Understanding her concern, Wufei smiled warmly.
As he sat before his partner, he brushed aside some of the locks of her sex-mussed hair from her face. "Anna," he began softly, "you gave me one of the greatest gifts in not only saving my existence, but by preserving it with your wish to never see me harmed again. There is not another creature in this world that I am safer with than you."
The scaly Vampire paused, smile faltering when there was little reassurance in the redhead's demeanor. "It's really bothering you, the not knowing what you're capable of, isn't it?"
Biting her lip, Anna sighed in admission, "Yea."
She pulled her legs closer against herself as she shrugged, "At first, I thought that it was fast healing, but from Heero telling me about the nasty cut he gave himself healing in seconds, it seems that it's just another perk to Duo's blood. And I just want what I have to be something that will be really beneficial in our fight against the Others without harming the beings I care about."
Eyes growing, she asked, "What if what I have is just a waste on something that would be completely useless, like me being able to turn into a cat or something lame like that?"
Unable to help himself, Chang blinked in a dumbfounded silence before his head fell back as he roared with laughter. Blinking, the Irish immortal pouted and ducked her head behind her knees to hide her embarrassment.
Wufei calmed himself, smile still in tact as he reached forward to gently cup his lover's face in his scaly hands to lift it and bring their gazes to lock. "You'll never have a clue just how absolutely mad I am over your adorable self even after all this time, my Celtic Rose," he chuckled.
"If your new talent is that you become a cat," he smirked as he rested their foreheads together, "then you'll be the most beautiful cat in existence and I'll find the best damned scratching post that I can for you."
Laughing along with him, the Irish Infected launched herself at her husband to knock him onto his back and locked their lips in a deep kiss. When she pulled back, she continued to hover over the scaly Vampire, grinning, "God, I love you so much. You always know the right things to say to cheer me up."
Arms behind his head to act as a pillow beneath his head, Chang shrugged, "I've had a few years to practice."
His smile fading a bit as he took on a more serious tone, he reached up to cup the side of his bride's face. "Whatever ability you have, I'm convinced that it's going to be something amazing that we'll all need when it comes to light. And I'm not afraid of whatever it is because you're the last person who could ever hurt anyone you love."
Pushing himself up, Wufei pulled the redhead close to claim her mouth in a long, passionate kiss that sent shockwaves coursing through their naked bodies. Their voices moaning and groaning, their hips began bumping and grinding together in the rise of their desire.
The former soldier finally pulled away, panting, "All I care about at the moment is becoming one with you because I'm going to implode if we don't soon." Nipping at his shivering lover's neck, he whispered thickly, "I do remember you mentioning something about you having planned more acts of depravity that you intend to lay down on me."
Before she could lose herself all over again just from the delicious tone in her Chosen's words, Anna growled deeply and attacked. Were he still in need of the air, the scaly Infected would have had it knocked from his lungs from the sheer force at which he was pushed back against the mattress.
With a wicked snicker as her husband blinked up in surprise at her, Anna pulled her long hair back off her shoulders and purred, "Ah, don't worry. I was not about te ferget that..." Fangs growing in, she slinked back down onto the trembling Infected beneath her to breathe by his ear, "Now... where were we?"
* * * * * *
Zechs and Noin stood before the prisoner in the holding cell of their basement. Leveling him with heated glares, the two Vampires' could feel their blood boiling in their contained frustration and fury as they stared at the smirking face of the Other that was seated casually in the chair before them.
This was a first for them- a captive that they couldn't touch.
Covering the lithe blonde's body from his neck down were spikes that jutted out of his flesh so that their sharp tips glistened under the glow of the overhead light. A smug smirk on the blonde's face, his silver-and-brown eyes sparkled with amusement.
"What's the matter?" he asked, his tone taunting and as prickly as the long thorns that protected him. Raising an eyebrow, he chuckled, "Disappointed that you can't get at me the way your friends did when they tried to kill me?"
Lacing his hands together behind his head of shoulder-length hair, the former living snickered, "Pretty impressive, wouldn't you say? If that coward of an Infected, Yuy, hadn't snuck up on me the way that he did there wasn't a chance he could have taken me. By knocking me nearly senseless until I got here, there was no way I could defend myself."
"Coward?" Zechs breathed in disbelief, eyes grown wide in shock. Gnashing his teeth as his fangs grew in, he shouted, "Heero's the coward in this!?! You and your friends attacked an orphanage of helpless clergy and children! I fail to see how that act could possibly be considered honorable!"
Her lip curling up in a snarl, Noin hissed, "Further more, it was not Vampires that attacked you in that alley, Josh. However, keep up that cocky attitude and I'll be happy to find a way to grind down those quills of yours so that I can have my way with you."
The other rolled his eyes and snorted, "Of course it wasn't Vampires that broke nearly every bone in my body and left me for dead. That's just the thing you'd want me to believe." He shook his head, "If it hadn't been for Solo, I wouldn't be alive. So there's nothing you could do to me that would get me to talk."
"For being so concerned with your well-being, I don't exactly see Solo or your friends coming to rescue you," Zechs deadpanned, folding his arms across his chest as his fangs retracted. "It's not as though they don't know how to find us now. And yet here you are, left behind to face us alone."
Josh bit his lip at that, a glimmer of something resonating from that sentiment. Gathering up his resolve, his silver-and-brown eyes glared back at the Infected as he snapped, "All for the better of the whole. I'm only one of the many. I'm sure that if he could, Solo would have found a way to bring help to get me out of here."
Smirking, Lucrezia replied, "Sure. You keep telling yourself that, kid." That said, she turned on her heels to lead her husband from the room so that their prisoner could mull over his situation a little longer on his own.
Beyond the door, Treize and Lady Une were standing before the double mirror that peered into the cell. Closing the door behind him, Merquise sighed deeply, "He's going to be a challenge, that's for certain."
"I'm sure that Catherine would be able to find a way of breaking through those spikes of his with the weapons that Treize and Wufei managed to spare from Howard's base," Treize stated as he continued to stare on the creature seated inside the holding room.
After making sure that his interrogators were not returning, Josh retracted his dangerous quills back into his body.
For the first time, the Other's confidence slipped and a deep frown marred his face as he lowered his head, wrapping his arms around his frame to make him look more like the frightened young man that he really was.
Suddenly feeling a bit of compassion for the being, Treize and lady Une shared saddened expressions. "But I don't want any harm to come to him... not any more than what he's endured already," the Councilman ordered his agents.
Frowning, he sighed, "He's been through enough as it is. There has to be a way past his defenses without breaking him any more than he already is. Better to show him that our kind is not made up of the monsters he believes us all to be."
Though they were far from creatures who looked forward to bringing any pain to another being, Zechs and Noin couldn't hide their frustration over the decision. Agree with it as they might, there was little time to be waiting and hoping for something that would bring them closer to finding Solo and his creations.
Her brown-and-gold eyes widening, Lady Une turned to her family and said, "I can contact our agents to see if they have come to find any Vampires that have been affected by Josh's disappearance. They should be able to recognize a picture of their intended Chosen. We can pass along images from his missing person's report that we'd obtained from our last hunt."
"Which could take days, weeks to find that Vampire... if they still exist at all," Lucrezia muttered under her breath. After constantly chasing these creatures, she was approaching the end of her patience.
For months now, the hunts produced nothing in finding the Others. Countless Infected and livings had been at the mercy of Solo and his brethren. Howard and Father Maxwell were dead. The base housing the Preventer's primary resource for weapons had been destroyed. Anna and Midi nearly lost their existences.
The hunters had become the hunted.
Something had to give.
And that was when it came to Noin like a bolt of electricity that shot up her spine. Fighting to keep herself from showing her surprise, the short-haired Preventer swallowed roughly to keep any sound that might come from her down.
Maybe Josh wouldn't come forward with any information... but if they had a mind-reader...
Khushrenada kissed his wife's cheek with a wide smile. "Brilliant idea, love," he praised. "We'll work together in getting the word out as quickly as we can for the possible Chosen linked to our 'friend.' Until then, we'll give him his space to think things over more."
Bowing her head out of respect as her cousins and leaders walked ahead, Noin bit her lip when her husband draped an arm around her shoulders to usher her back down the long hallway.
"I am no happier about this waiting than you are, my heart," Zechs commented softly once the other Vampires were well out of range to hear him. "But Treize is right and we have no other choice."
Noin put on her best unaffected smile as she looked up to meet his sympathetic gaze. With a firm nod, she responded, "Yes, I realize that our hands are tied for now."
'For now,' she repeated to herself in thought.
* * * * * *
The following morning...
"Alright. Thanks for the heads-up, sis. We'll see you when we head back home, then." There was a pause before a chuckled, "Yea, love you too, brat."
Closing the flip to his cell phone, Duo peered over his shoulders to look on the passengers in the back seat of the car that they were riding in.
"Okay. Wufei, Anna, Trowa and Relena are all in place throughout the campus," the Companion announced. "Considering how they know the layout of the campus, they'll all be able to stay hidden while always keeping a close eye on all of us throughout the day."
Physically easing with sighs of relief, Quatre and Catherine grinned at the news. Even Heero's grip on the steering wheel loosened a bit.
A concerned frown spreading across his face, Maxwell focused on his redheaded classmate to ask, "Are you sure you're up for returning right back to school after..." His voice trailed and he shrugged at not knowing the best way of finishing his thought.
Giggling, Bloom nodded, "I'm more than fine for this. The distraction of classes and getting to see my friends after the break will help a lot. The funeral's not for a few more days yet, so I can use this as part of my healing process."
The weapons expert raised an eyebrow, smirking, "Are you sure *you're* up for returning back to school now that you're a Companion?"
Gesturing to the gold band that shimmered in the dull sunlight on his classmate's exposed arm, Winner smiled, "Yea. You've never been one who liked attention. Between that ring along with how you can get away with just jeans and a short-sleeved t-shirt in this cold, you're going to stand out now more than ever before."
Duo let out a quiet groan and sank in his chair at the reminder of what he'd already been dreading. Luckily his contacts would keep anyone from noticing his most unique change.
Easily steering the car through the twisting and turning road leading through the snow-capped forest that surrounded the campus, Heero snickered and freed the hand between them to hold tightly to his lover's for a firm squeeze. "You'll be just fine, love," the Infected reassured.
Shrugging, Yuy added, "Give it half century and you'll hardly even notice the stares that you'll be receiving anymore."
With a half-hearted glare that he wasn't fooling anyone with, Maxwell snorted at his partner, "Thanks a lot for that, 'Ro. I feel so much better." His Vampire just chuckled as their friends fell into outright laughter. The corner of his mouth curling up, the braided immortal gave the hand in his own a squeeze.
Only minutes away from their debut as an official Vampire and Companion pair, no doubt the whole student and faculty body would hear about it before the day was out.
* * * * * *
Noin always considered herself a reasonable person.
She had every good intent on why she was about to drink from the bag of blood in her hands. And yet she still felt guilty for doing so behind her family and friends' backs. There simply was no time for discussion or weighing in on what was right and wrong when there was an answer to their problems within their grasp.
Midi was staying with Treize and Lady Une in their estate fixing up Catherine's new room and she had left her mansion easily accessible to a Vampire. It gave Lucrezia more than enough time to sneak into the storage locker for the stored blood supplies. And Duo's bag was right at the top of the mix for the taking.
Taking a deep breath as her fangs grew in, the Infected took up the last bit of resolve she needed.
Her thoughts focused on her desired gift, she sank her teeth through the plastic and drank.
TBC...
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