(sigh) Yes, I know. Why the hell is DVG starting another story when she still has yet to finish her last Gundam Wing fic, and is in the middle of another epic in another fandom?
I can't help my muses. They just attack my creative juices and force me to do their bidding. Honest.
This is going to be a completely different vision of the supernatural world. Where 'Midnight Masquerade' was traditionist vampires... we're now entering the blessedly versatile, endlessly intriguing world of Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series.
Disclaimers: I do not own any rights to Gundam Wing or Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter. They belong to their wonderful, god-like creators. Though I have spent a more than healthy amount of money on their books, manga, anime, and other related stuff... it doesn't give me any rights to their greatness.
Warnings: Supernatural violence, sex, both heterosexual and homosexual, vulgar language, crossover fiction, vampires, lycanthropes, and other fun preternatural beasties.
I'm not even going to try to list any permanent pairings. The main ones may stay the same... but I can't guarantee there won't be any partner swapping/bed hopping.
Enjoy.
Moonlight Path
The phone was ringing.
'Damn. Maybe if I ignore it, it'll stop.'
"Will you answer the phone?"
Duo burrowed down further under the covers. "You answer it. I answered last time."
"It's on your side of the bed." Wufei's sleepy chuckle breathed warmly against his naked back.
Grumbling, Duo scooted far enough over to reach the phone. "This better be good."
"Well, hello to you too, Duo," Sally's voice replied amusedly. "I'm sorry to disturb your much needed beauty sleep, but it's rather urgent."
He chose to ignore the joke. See? Not childish all the time. "What's wrong?"
"There's been a report of some unusually violent attacks near you two. The police say they think it's animal attacks, or disguised to look like them, but the bodies mysteriously vanish before any further analysis can be made."
Duo was definitely alert now, and he could sense Wufei paying close attention behind him. "Animal? Isn't this more Trowa's area of expertise? And why are they calling Preventers in for some inner-city problem?"
Sally sighed heavily. That wasn't a good sign. "They aren't equipped enough for this kind of situation. The reported incident near you is only one of several disturbing accounts that have been cropping up all over, on Earth and in the colonies. The number of victims isn't significant, but the number of similarities and the wide range of locations are. We need to find out what's going on, now, before it turns into something worse. Trowa and Quatre are on vacation, we can't reach them. You know how they like their privacy. Relena is at a conference in one of the reported areas, so you know where Heero is."
"I got it. Send us the specifics and Wufei and I will go check things out," Duo said, sitting up and stretching. "We'll let you know what we find out as soon as we can."
"Thanks, Duo."
He hung up after saying goodbye.
"What's going on?" Wufei was already up and pulling on some clothes.
"Knowing our luck, it's some sort of weird, twisted vigilante group trying to make a name for themselves." Duo frowned. "But I'm not sure. Sally said it's some bizarre, vicious animal attacks happening all over the Earth Sphere. Whatever it is, we gotta fix it before it goes public."
"Naturally," Wufei agreed, walking around to the other side of the bed to face his violet-eyed partner. "I'll skim through the reports while you get dressed."
Duo smiled and stood, planting a kiss on him before Wufei went out of their bedroom. His well-practiced hands smoothed tangles out of his thigh length, chestnut hair, twisting it into its customary braid. He hadn't planned on becoming a Preventer after the wars like the other Gundam pilots had. He had wanted to return to his quiet salvaging life. But Wufei had called him in for his expertise on some matters during the dismantling of Mariemaia's remaining mobile suits and he never looked back. Maybe it had been his friendship with the others was stronger then his want to return to a quiet life. They had fought so hard for this peace that they were all willing to sacrifice the rest of their lives protecting it.
Or maybe it was how good Wufei looked in uniform. (Just kidding.)
They had become partners after Wufei had called him in to help. Duo didn't remember exactly when they crossed the line from work partners to something more, it just happened. One minute they were working together, then suddenly they were living together, sleeping together, and telling each other 'I love you' and meaning it. It was as if it were the most natural thing in the world, that it was meant to happen, because it was just that comfortable and normal. Which, given the lives they had led, said a lot.
Duo came out into the living room a few minutes later, greeted with the smell of fresh coffee. Wufei sat at the computer, eyes darting over the screen as he sipped out of his mug. Another sat on the desk next to the keyboard, already sugared and creamed and waiting for its sweet toothed owner.
"I love how you can read my mind," Duo grinned, leaning his butt up against the desk and picking up the cup.
Wufei's gaze slid from the computer to Duo, a smile spreading across his face. "You're welcome." Then it was back to business. "I've read a few different reports; it's hard to discern any sort of common pattern. There's no pathology here."
Duo took a huge gulp of his sugared caffeine like it was his calming breath of air. "But there's still some sort of connection."
"Yes. All the wounds of the victims are varying types of bite and claw marks. Some are neat, they don't look like they've been attacked at all, except for two puncture wounds over the jugular and they were completely drained of blood. Where it went, your guess is as good as mine. Other have had their throats ripped out completely...missing body parts...gnawed on body parts..."
"Like they were eaten alive?" Duo suddenly looked green around the edges. "That's just fucking gross. Who dropped us into the middle of a B-level horror flick?"
Despite the severity of the situation, Wufei couldn't stop himself from laughing. He would never understand Duo's love for ancient American fright films, and him trying to rationalize the problem by comparing it to one of his old movies was funny. Who said he didn't have a sense of humor?
"This isn't your Dracula or Wolfman or zombie movies, it's just another one of our many deranged vigilante groups trying to make a name for themselves to disrupt the peace," Wufei said, still chuckling.
"Do you really think so?" Duo asked seriously.
"There are just too many of these similar attacks for it to be random," he nodded slowly. "Claws can be reproduced with the right kind of specialized knife and there are many ways to remake these different bite types."
"I wish we would get something a little more challenging then these little vigilante groups every once and a while," Duo complained, pretending to sound bored. Wufei gave him a dirty look and Duo put his hands up defensively. "I was just kidding, honest. So where in town are we going to check out?"
Click. Click.
"Downtown. Most of these incidents have occurred in the empty seaport warehouses and the neighboring red-light district," Wufei had the decency to blush slightly, which Duo did not.
He snickered. "So we're gonna spend the rest of today and tonight wandering around a bunch of seedy strip clubs, prostitutes, and abandoned warehouses? Sounds like a good night to me," Duo remarked amusedly.
"Not all the warehouses are abandoned, just the ones that were used during the war for military purposes. Their military equipment is almost completely dismantled, so it won't be long before they're reopened," Wufei said needlessly, purposefully ignoring the thought of wandering around the red-light area.
"I'll break you of that modest streak yet," Duo smirked mischievously, finishing his coffee. He looked at the list of warehouses listed as being around the crime scenes. "Definitely the empty lots right now. Great. No filling out that stupid breaking and entering paperwork after we're done tonight."
One of the few technicalities of being an upstanding government official. Though really it was a bonus, because of their rank in the Preventers, they were able to bust in and check any place they wanted to without a warrant as long as they had some sort of concrete suspicion. Une highly recommended a warrant first, but if you didn't it, there was a form to fill out while writing the report afterward that will save the department from getting sued.
"Not like you couldn't break in and leave without anyone knowing it at all." It was Wufei's turn to smirk.
"Yeah, but Une hates when I do that," Duo replied, put out. "She thinks I'm undermining her neat, orderly world of legality and stupid paperwork."
"It's not that, and you know it," Wufei said reasonably, exiting out of the report Sally sent them and moving away from the computer. "We can still be the bad guys. One wrong move and we are turned into the terrorists we fight in the eyes of the people we are fighting to protect."
As he spoke, Wufei walked over to the coat closet by the front door and opened it. A small stock of weapons of several different types and sizes were stored in neat shelves. Duo sighed. Wufei was right, he usually always was. Even as defenders of the peace that they helped build, they all tread that fine line between heros and monsters to the public.
Duo joined Wufei in the closet. "We'll, let's lock and load. The quicker we clean this mess up, the quicker we get to come back home and go back to bed."
"Let's start on neutral ground, that's where three of the five attacks were."
Wufei nodded, putting his radio earpiece in place as they slid out of the car. Duo took in the surroundings as they walked casually down the sidewalk.
Thankfully, it was Friday, so the area was more crowded than usual with people going to the clubs, bars, and other more questionable holes-in-the-wall. Nobody would pay attention; they were too focused on their own destinations and whoever was going with them. Duo glanced at himself and Wufei. They were inconspicuous, Duo wearing black pants and a slightly loose black shirt, topped off with black leather boots and jacket. Wufei was wearing dark blue jeans and a just as dark blue shirt under a dark windbreaker with running shoes. He had lost one too many pairs of his usual black slip on shoes during the first war, since then Wufei had invested in several pairs of tennis shoes and solid boots. Their jackets neatly concealed their guns from view, nothing but two guys out for a night on the town, just like everyone else.
No one even blinked as they abruptly turned off the main road onto the wide road that separated the red-light district from the warehouses. Once safely ensconced in shadowy darkness, Duo and Wufei both drew out their guns. Years of these kind of operations make a person cautious, almost paranoid. They were no exception, though they definitely leaned more towards the paranoid side than cautious. Rather be safe than sorry.
The two peeled away from the cover of darkness as they approached the entrance of the closest warehouse.
"Number A-01. This is where the majority of the attacks occurred, right? One in the back, one on each side, in between the other buildings," Duo breathed into his earpiece microphone.
"Yes," Wufei replied, speaking in the same breathy light tone. "Search around, then we'll go in the back way."
With a glance and a nod to each other, they separated. Duo headed down the left side while Wufei took the right. Duo absorbed everything as he crept down the side of the building. The warehouse under scrutiny had been the first to be bought up for 'renovations', as everyone was now calling the stripping of war production factories. According to the report, this factory had been used for repairs during the wars, now it belonged to an anonymous private investor that planned on building a club inside and extend the overcrowded red-light district. At the moment, the private party was still waiting for the final inspection from the Preventers to make sure all wartime machinery had been removed. Then they could do whatever the hell they wanted to the place. Whoever this private owner was, they weren't going to be happy if they found out about these murders surrounding their property. Duo chuckled as the mental image of a big, fat, filthy rich entrepreneur throwing a temper tantrum filled his mind.
"What's so funny?"
Duo shook his head, then realized Wufei obviously wasn't going to be able to see it on the other side of the warehouse. "Nothing. I'll tell you-"
He cut off suddenly. The hairs on the back of his neck were raising, his skin crawling in a way that only meant something was very, very wrong.
"Duo?" Wufei's voice managed to sound concerned, even through their flimsy earpieces.
"Do you have the heebie jeebies bothering you as much as they are me right now?"
There was a brief second's hesitation and then Wufei replied, "Yes."
Duo instantly slammed his back up against the wall, giving him full views of all directions without leaving himself open. Left, right, straight across, up, then the whole process over again. Nothing.
"Shit. We really must be getting more paranoid as we age," Duo sighed, pushing away from the wall but not able to push away his 'heebie jeebie' feeling. "I could have sworn someone was there."
"Oh, but I am."
Duo whirled around, gun automatically sighted on the man behind him before he even looked. The skin crawling sensation from before was nothing compared to what he was feeling now. The guy had to have been six foot tall or more, built like a basketball player, slim but all toned muscle and very solid. This made him at least twice the size of Duo, if not three times, despite the lean physique. No, Duo had not grown much since the wars ended, and he didn't think he was ever going to. At least he had made it to five foot eight. Oh well, back to the problem at hand.
The man had long silky blonde hair that hit him mid-back, which wasn't very hard to judge because he was shirtless. All he was wearing were a pair of skin tight jeans, no shoes. Duo couldn't make out eye color or facial features in the shadows.
"Duo? Duo, what's going on?"
His reply choked in his throat as the blonde man cocked his head to the side slightly, as if he were listening to something. "Duo, that is a very interesting name."
"How in the fuck did you hear that? Or, better yet, just who in the fuck are you?" Not very eloquent, or professional, but hey, no one has never, ever snuck up on him like this before. Duo was always the one doing the sneaking. And somehow this guy was able to hear the radio in his ear. Impossible. So he was pissed, and justifiably so.
The man merely smiled calmly. "I am your new best friend."
Before Duo could respond with another vulgar phrase, he was blasted with the feeling of hot air, his skin crawling like it was made up of a billion ants underneath the electric current of wind. Time clicked into slow motion, Duo's finger was frozen over the trigger as the blonde man let out a feral, cat-like snarl and launched himself at him.
Lightning-quick, Duo found himself flat on his back with blood roaring through his head in panic, the man on top of him pinning him down as if he weighed nothing. The blonde's body sang with tension, then Duo dimly realized that there were things moving under his flesh that just wasn't normal.
"My masters will love a pretty one like you."
That was it. His gun was pressed against the man's stomach. Slowly, terribly too slowly, he pulled the trigger, his ears filling with the sound of gunshots, Wufei's frantic calls, inhuman roaring, and his own voice screaming, "Jesus fucking Christ!"
Flesh melted away into black fur, human face stretching, contorting into feline. An explosion of gunfire sounded, too far away, as scalding clear liquid and blood soaked through Duo's clothes. But Duo had forgotten all about his own gun again, all he could do was stare into the eyes of the panther on top of him.
More gunshots, much closer this time. The panther hissed, tearing razor sharp claws into Duo's shoulders and slashing them down his chest and stomach, not enough to damage anything vital, but enough to cause a lot of pain. The clear liquid and blood from the panther's wounds mixed in with the bleeding claw gashes.
As quick as it appeared, the man-turned-cat vanished, and the last thing Duo saw before blacking out was Wufei's anguished face hovering over his.
Yes, I seem to have this perverse need to torture and abuse poor Duo. But don't worry, all the boys will be getting a taste of it this time. Hehe.
Reviews are very much appreciated.