Disclaimer: I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit. All forms of feedback eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.
Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh GX & Digimon Adventure 02
Title: Night Walking
Characters: Camula, Vamdemon, Darkness, Taniya
Romance: Camula x Vamdemon/Vamdemon x Camula
Word Count: chapter 1: 1,257||Story: 1,257
Genre: Romance, SupernaturalRated: PG-13
Challenge: Written for the Diversity Writing Challenge, section H39, write a what-if scenario (what if Vamdemon arrived in the world of GX after his defeat in 02 episode 50); Written for the Halloween Trick or Treat Advent, day #22, write a crossover with a halloween theme; Written for the Word Counts Set Boot Camp, prompt #31, 9,539; Pairing Diversity Boot Camp, prompt #27, forbidden love
Notes: This takes place on Halloween of 2003, one year prior to Juudai attending Duel Academia.
Summary: Halloween is a night for disguises, for pretending to be what you're not. Camula is no longer alone and doesn't want to pretend to be. But Kagemaru doesn't take resignations very well. In fact, he doesn't want to take hers at all.
Halloween wasn't the longest night of the year, which was the night vampires loved the most as it allowed them to hunt for the most amount of time, but it was still one of their favorite nights. On this night, they could wander wherever they pleased and no one was surprised to see them or even bothered to look out for them all that much. No matter what they wore or what they did, they didn't stand out in any way, which made hunting so much easier.
But easier didn't mean they needed to be stupid about it, which was why Camula released her latest victim and dropped him onto the grass where he lay panting and gasping. He would be all right with time, assuming he took the effort to tend to himself. If he didn't, it wasn't her problem.
What mattered to her right now was the blue-eyed vampire who stood only a short distance away, releasing his own victim and licking his lips to get the last traces of blood away from them. He looked so much better than he had when they'd first crossed paths weeks earlier. A steady diet of good, strong human blood made so much of a difference.
"Delicious," Vamdemon said, strolling over to her and offering his arm. Camula accepted it with a content smile, enjoying the solid feeling of his existence next to her. He was like and unlike her, close enough so that she no longer felt any need to serve Kagemaru's interests, different enough to entice her in ways she'd never thought she could be before him.
"What else shall we do tonight?" she asked as they left the two still living bodies behind. In times past she would've let them lay where they were, dead or not. But anyone who spread tales of actual vampires on tonight of all nights would be considered to have simply had too much to drink. Even the bites could be explained away. She'd learned long ago that in these times, people did not want to believe in vampires. It made her life that much easier.
"Are you still hungry?" Vamdemon wanted to know. Camula considered it; she'd fed fairly well tonight, though the sun hadn't been below the horizon for a good hour or two as of yet.
"Not at the moment," she decided. Just because the world would mostly wave off anything tonight wasn't a good enough excuse to feed completely indiscriminately. "Why don't we just go for a walk?"
Vamdemon smiled, a sight that in other times and places may well have sent chills down the spine of whoever he was with. But Camula found it more than a little enticing. She almost wished that they'd found a way into his former world; it would be well worth any trouble to be able to take his enemies and bend them to his will.
She had no enemies here, none save the human race itself, and so long as she had Vamdemon, she didn't really want to make any other vampires. Not the slow way, not from humans. She didn't know if the two of them could have children of their own, not yet. Perhaps once they sorted that out. It would take time; they were still getting to know one another.
As they walked down the street arm in arm, they were accompanied by more people in costumes of every type. Camula wasn't even certain which city they were in, but it was clearly rich with people enjoying tonight and dressing up as people they never were and never could be. She even saw a few vampires, but they were all fakes. Even now that tugged at what heartstrings she had left, and only Vamdemon's presence kept her from lashing out at them.
"Perhaps when you're feeling like it, we could have a snack or two from them," he murmured, reading her thoughts as easily as if they had been printed on her skin. Camula's lips curved upward, her fangs gleaming in the streetlights.
"You do know how to show a lady a fascinating time, don't you?" She began to lean upwards, looking forward to the touch of her lips on his, when a familiar and unwanted voice spoke up.
"What do you know? There are more of you. Well, one more, anyway."
Vamdemon's hands pressed on her shoulders but she turned around anyway, knowing exactly what she would see when she did. And just as she'd guessed, there he stood, head to foot in black, a sharp-edged mask concealing his features, and a hint of a cocky smirk on his lips.
"Darkness." This was not how she wished her Halloween to go. This was to be a pleasant, wonderful time with her new beloved, not having to put up with Kagemaru's minions.
He tilted his head forward, smirk upgrading by a fraction. "Camula. And this is?"
Vamdemon kept his arms around her, staring at him with distaste and disinterest both. "Vamdemon, Lord of the Undead."
"Really." Darkness didn't even look remotely disturbed by that. "I am Darkness." He offered no titles or anything else. One of the many things that annoyed Camula about him during their short acquaintance was the fact he thought his existence should make up for not having a reputation.
What was even more annoying was how completely relaxed he looked at the moment. He lounged against the nearest wall, watching both of them.
"Exactly who is this, Camula?" Vamdemon wanted to know. She glanced from one of the other to them; it wasn't hard to figure out why Darkness was there, anymore than she would have wondered about Taniya or Abidos or even Amnael.
"This is Darkness. He works for my old employer, Kagemaru. And I suppose he's here because Kagemaru wants me to return." Camula's lip curled when she was done. "Which I have no intentions of doing."
Darkness leaned forward, eyes glinting behind his mask. "And why is that?"
"Because I have no reason to!" Camula spat the words at him, eyes flaring scarlet and furious. "I've found what I wanted and I didn't need him to do it." Her hand closed harder around Vamdemon's. "He can find someone else to duel for him. I'm not interested anymore."
Darkness shrugged, a simple rise and fall of his shoulders. "What you are or aren't interested in doesn't concern me. He wants you to come back. I suppose he wants your resignation to his face. I don't actually care. But he sent us to find you and now that I have, you're going to come back and explain all of that to him." He bared his teeth in something that wasn't even close to being a smile. "Bring your new friend along. I'm certain Kagemaru would love to make his acquaintance."
Camula held Vamdemon even closer. The way he said that did not ease her rage in the slightest. "I have nothing else to say to him." She was the Queen of the Vampires, even if she were the only one of her kind left in the world. She did not come and go at the whims of humans.
Vamdemon's arm tightened around her. He did not waste his time with threats, but delivered the coldest of cold looks to Darkness. "Leave."
"Oh, I don't think so." Darkness shifted to his feet. "I see you're going to make this interesting." Behind his mask, his eyes gleamed bright. "Thank you. I think I'm going to enjoy this."
And then there was only laughter.
To Be Continued
Note: Thank you for reading and I hope that you enjoyed the chapter. Please let me know what you thought of it if at all possible.