This is a sort of teaser, I guess. Real chapters will start soon. Um, don't worry if stuff doesn't make sense, it will all eventually be explained.
Oh, yeah. Um. 'M not dead, and updates on my other stories should be along sooner or later.
Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or any of the characters. I do own the plot and a defective immune system.
Her head cracked against the pavement, and everything went vague and fuzzy.
"Sam. SAM." She blinked rapidly, trying to clear the haziness. Darkly lined luminescent green eyes hovered just above her, haloed by snowy white hair.
"You again?" She growled, struggling to shove him off of her.
Well, that explained her unexpected flight. He leaned back smugly, his arms framing her head like a cage, holding her wrists down like shackles. He settled casually on top of her; his long, lean legs straddling her hips.
"Yes, me. Honestly, Sam. You're the one that brought me on this little excursion. Don't look so surprised to see me."
She grimaced. "I'm surprised because I thought I made my position-" Phantom snorted, his tail flicking in amusement as he gave her a significant look she decided not to read too far into.
She glared at him, and he feigned innocence as only a cat could. "-On your little proposition very clear."
He narrowed his eyes. "You may not get the choice, Sammy. I'm through playing nice."
Indignantly, she opened her mouth to reproach the use of the hated nickname when outside noise came filtering back in.
Screams. The sound of some kind of weapon firing - and finding it's mark. The sounds grew in magnitude until the auditory melee surrounded her. He'd somehow been shielding them from the noise before, but now…People were dying. Whatever had been aiming for her when Phantom first pushed her down had gone on a rampage.
She jerked against the suddenly menacing grasp of the person whom she'd long been deceived into holding closest.
"Let me go!" She struggled harder, suddenly bordering on hysteria. "People are dying! Can't you hear what's happening to them?"
His gaze was cold. "I hear it better than you, Sam." His white cat ears laid back against his skull for emphasis. Pissy feline.
She heaved and jerked with all her strength. "Then why aren't you DOING anything? How can you just let that happen?" She bit her lip, hard enough to draw blood. Her unfocused eyes burned with tears as the screams seemed to grow louder, tearing down all shreds of self-control.
"Let me GO! I have to do something… ANYTHING!"
His eyes burned with intensity as he glared down at her.
"What can you do, Sam? Hm? You're just a human. You don't have any special powers. You don't even have your own guard."
He lowered his face till his velvet lips brushed her ear as he whispered, "But that could all change, Sam. You know what you have to do."
Her lips trembled with the harshness of her breathing, but she said nothing. It seemed so hard to speak with the sound of their screams pounding inside her skull.
"SAM." Phantom snarled into her ear. The sharp command in his voice cut through everything: it cleared it's way down to her very core, lodging inside her soul and carving itself a place. "You know what you have to do, Sammy. SAY IT!"
"Fine!" She sobbed. Anything. Anything to stop the screams.
Phantom shifted, pressing even closer to her as his green eyes flashed, and his lips curled into a wicked smile against the shell of her ear. "Tell me what you want."
Sam clenched her violet orbs shut, trying to block out the gloating expression of her captor - and savior - as he lifted his face back to hers. "I-i want... you... to Seal the pact..." 'But that's NOT what I want! I don't want to do this. Please. Please don't make me do this!' Her mind cried. But the words spilled out, as hard as she tried to force them back.
"You'll have to be more specific," Phantom prodded, his voice laced with ill-contained excitement.
"I want you to be mine. To serve me loyally and faithfully above all others; to guard my interests and well-being with your life; all for as long as I should require you to do so." Bitterly, she recited the hated contract from memory: the practiced words forced from her mouth as fast they would go without slurring. Her jaw locked as the last syllable left her lips, tear-burned amethyst eyes glaring defiantly at the sky as she avoided looking at Phantom.
But she saw, out of the corner of her eyes. His poison green eyes glowed.
"One more thing," he proclaimed in a gentler tone. Her eyes snapped angrily to his. She'd said the damn words! What more did he-
"Just to Seal the deal," he informed lightly, with far too much energy to strictly business.
But it was the only warning he gave before his mouth closed gently over hers.
Sam's eyes widened in shock. Her lips parted in a gasp that he swallowed away, and he took the opportunity to dart his tongue into her mouth for a split second.
She tasted the coppery tang of her own blood, mingled with the taste of something foreign and other. Dimly, she decided it must be his taste: light and elusive, with a hint of the tofu she'd given him that morning.
It only lasted for a second: Phantom pulled away before she could recover her temper and bite him - or something equally terrible - but even as he did, she could feel that something had changed.
Her head was throbbing painfully, and she was too frozen in her haze to react as he lifted her left hand to his mouth. He placed a gentle kiss on her palm, and it seared into her skin like a brand.
"What is it you desire... Master?" The weight behind his words went unnoticed.
Her entire frame shook with the force of her sobs, and she wrenched her abused hand from his grip to clutch it to her chest as her eyes squeezed shut. "J-just make the screaming stop," she begged resignedly, turning her face to the pavement.
She didn't see his expression soften, turn so much gentler as he placed a tender kiss on her temple.
"As you wish."
Things will make sense after this gets rolling. Reviews encourage good things!