We Have Demons
Author: Jusrecht

Characters/Pairings: Dino/Hibari/Dino, Dino/OFC, some Mukuro/Tsuna/Gokudera in later chapters

Diclaimer: KHR belongs to Amano Akira.

Warnings: AU with vampires, violence, mentions of sex, angst.

Notes: Yes, I am aware of my habit of leaving long, unfinished stories hanging BUT. I can't stop writing new ones ;____; Humor me, please.
Millions of thanks to electricsong and istrill LJ for the beta-reading ~

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Chapter 0: A Pebble in the Water

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Dino took in a deep breath. Rage forced curses onto his tongue and only the rush of biting cold air into his lungs prevented their birth. Before him, his wife stood straight and firm, wild victory dancing in her eyes.

"I may be your wife," Carlotta said, spat the words at the gleaming marble beneath her heels, "but I am my father's daughter first."

Dino longed to strike her. He remembered his mother, a sweet woman—a woman whose pleasure in life had simply been the love of her husband and son, until the devil tempted her. He also remembered Carlotta in his bed, her fingers in his hair, her reckless moans as he pinned her down and made love to her. She was not a sweet woman, but he had thought—naively, foolishly—that they had something, that they could build something out of their convenient, loveless marriage and make it more than an extension of a thorny pact between two Families.

But certainly not this betrayal.

"You can count yourself lucky that none of my men is dead," he said through gritted teeth, refusing to think about Giorgio, half of his body riddled with bullets, "or I'll have you sent back to your father paying for his mistakes."

Her eyes narrowed. She might feel threatened, but she would never back down from a fight—Carlotta was a woman of steel and blood and a tongue of barbed wire. "You are my husband. It was your duty to help my father."

"Your father didn't need help," Dino snarled, feeling the last of his self-control slipping. "All he needed was a hammer to smite his enemies for him and if I had known, I wouldn't have agreed!"

"And you wonder why I didn't tell you," she sneered, laughing. The sound of it made him want to strike her face and fuck her over his desk until she screamed.

It was the thought that finally drove him out of his office, leaving her alone with her sour triumph and a slammed door. She was still laughing, her high-pitched voice carried past thick walls and timbers. "Like always! Just run to that whore you fuck every night!"

Dino would have laughed if there was still anything left in him but strangling fury. In the thick midst of it, all he could think of was Tsuna, a gentle voice and a kind face—Maldera is a powerful Family, so a union will no doubt be advantageous for our alliance, but Hayato said that her father, Giuseppe, wasn't to be trusted. And then he had smiled, a regretful smile of sold innocence. Not that trust is important much in this case, Dino-san, but please be careful.

It had been Carlotta who had asked, pleaded with him despite her dignity and proud arc of lips. She had not cried and for him it had made most of the difference, the final push he had needed to make up his mind. There were only so many ways a drug deal could go wrong and a show of strength from the Cavallone would reduce the risks greatly. Her father and brother's life were at stake, surely her husband could do something about it.

Or so he had thought. Perhaps he had only fooled himself into believing. Perhaps he had been in love.

Dino clenched his fists, his treads faster. He encountered no one on his way down. The manor echoed the cold sighs of the wind and offered no comfort but that of shadows. His men knew to stay away when their boss was having a row with his wife, but at the bottom of the stairs, Romario stood waiting, hands plunged deep into his pockets.

For once, the face of his right-hand man came not as a pleasure for him. Dino strode past him without a word, finding no explanation he cared to give with bile still clogging his throat. He was not, however, unaware of the tailing footsteps, each one echoing his perfectly, unfailing.

"Follow me if you want, but stay out of my way."

"Bernardo–"

"I'll deal with him later," he snapped, turning around only to find a car key offered instead of an advice thrust upon his face.

"As you wish, we'll follow in another car," Romario said solemnly.

A tiny spark of gratitude made its way into a tight smile as Dino took the key, saying nothing. Familiarity guided his feet to the black Lamborghini, a best friend, a constant friend during his moments of terrible temper. He slid into the driver's seat and habit took care of the rest.

The streets were empty this late into the night, miles outside Naples. He filled silence with the deep roars of engines and screeching of tires. Anger slowly drained out of his muscles with each shifting of gears, replaced by adrenaline's fiery sharpness. In the back of his mind, his wife's betrayal lingered—but of course she would choose to help her father and brother, he could not fault her for it, but she had lied and that he could not easily forgive.

Dino hated drugs; the memory of his mother under their clutches was a jagged abyss that would separate him from drug trafficking for the rest of his life. But the Maldera Family had no such qualm and his wife had asked for his help–

Reborn would have laughed at his stupidity. A boss should have known better.

When the darkness around him suddenly gave way to light, Dino's eyes widened, first with surprise and then terror. His foot stepped on the brake on instinct, but not quickly enough—he saw the shadow, the face, white on black, and then heard, felt the sickening thud of a body colliding with his car.

For a moment, the world tumbled off its axis and left him drifting, numb, aimless. As the car skidded to a halt, the race of thousand hooves filled his heart and Dino scrambled off the car as soon as he could move again, if only to escape from the thunderous silence. The air was filled with a sweet scent of flowers, tinted by a mellow pink half-light which cast a dreamlike haze about the scene. Above his head, around him, trees and branches locked and intertwined, forming a cage that blurred the night beyond into nothingness.

His hand shook slightly when he crouched and touched the unmoving shoulder—a man, no, a boy, or a young man at least, with dark hair and clothes that reminded him to a costume party. There was no response, not even a twitch or a groan.

"Hey," Dino tried to speak, voice faint and throat scraped dry by panic. It was one thing to kill for his Family, but to run over a complete stranger only because anger disabled his reflex was even more stupid than falling into his wife's trap. Romario would have his head once he heard about this.

He didn't expect the boy's eyes to fling open, at once full of black hostility and anger as teeth sank into his hand. Surprise would have immobilised him, but habit quickly took over. Dino reached inside his jacket for a handgun and fired once at the boy's left arm—only to see the gunshot wound closing in mere count of seconds, leaving a patch of pale skin unscathed under a torn sleeve.

The second, third, fourth shots followed as his fear thickened, but neither inflicted any more damage than the first; even the last one between those eyes, now redder than blood, left not even a scratch. Dino momentarily thought about the whip he had left behind on his desk and felt a pang of regret. He could have tied this… creature down, instead of finding himself completely helpless, unable to struggle against the inhuman strength that pinned him down flat against the ground.

The boy-creature smirked—a smirk he wasn't likely to forget in a lifetime—and those teeth tore into his neck.

End Chapter 0

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