AN: Okay, so some elements of this are AU, adding a darker feel to the Dragon Slayers (namely Gajeel). Just giving a heads up. This is also going to be a two-shot!
Rated M for a reason.
Maiden.
The forest was dark, just the way he liked it.
The looming canopies shrouded the soft glow of the moon above, casting disfigured shadows onto the crisp grass beneath. It was spring, and the vibrant colours of the folage and fungi would have been breath-taking against the dark background.. that is, if they weren't coated with a layer of thick, hot blood.
The scent hung heavy in the air, choking and intoxicating him.
Since the dawn of time, dragon's have always fed upon humans, that much was common knowledge. Weather it be a dragon guarding a princess; a rogue dragon poking fun at a farmer by stealing his sheep for quick snacks, and when said farmer appeared.. well, he didn't stay around for very long once he did show. They were feared - and sometimes worshipped - for a reason. They were creatures of enormous size, strength, intelligence and grace, and just like any other creature, they came into heat.
A dull gurgle resounded through the silence.
Ofcourse, he didn't feed off of their flesh per se. Their blood, however, was a completely different story, the iron in it provided him strength and eased his spiking rage. It worked as a narcotic, wiring him, though he could never overdose. He was an animal by nature, a human by sight; and the time always came for him to flee Magnolia to seek refuge in the forest - amongst the wilderness where no human bounds could maim or harm him. Now, a female dragon in heat would always go out of her way to show her colours, impress any male she deemed worthy of breeding with. She would ooze pheromones so sweet they tantilized the nose and blurred the senses of logical thinking, and she would be positively flocked with attention.
As for a male dragon: things got complicated.
Bloodlust was not something completely unknown to him, oh no - quite the opposite actually. He didn't fear what said emotion brought upon him.. He revelled in it: the surge of power coarsing through his veins, the familiar coppery taste oozing from his lip as his fangs enlongated and sharpened. He was not in his right mind, tonight. Every sense was so acutely enhanced, his muscles were tense and his mind was blurry with heat. He couldn't even string a sentence together in his head without it invoking something else in him, something that told him he needed to shut the fuck up with the talking already and get laid.. 'lest he wanted more innocent blood to be spilt. A male dragon does not need to breed like wildfire every season they're cycle comes into play - unlike females - but only so many of those occassions can be ignored before said 'slayer would lose all logical thinking. All sense of morality would be thrown down the shitter and, well...
Gajeel had completely, and utterly lost the plot.
"Fuck." He'd uttered darkly against the throat of some faceless woman in a moment of sanity - seized his hold on her jaw and she dropped to the floor with a dull thud. The noise didn't stir him in the slightest, and his eyes slammed closed against the onslaught of the drake within him. The colours flittering behind his eyelids made his head pound, and his heart was squeezing so tight he thought his chest was about to burst.
As if all of this was her fault. Bitch.
Something hot and so deliciously painful shot from his heart at the thought of her. He could literally taste the insanity on his tongue, like the drip of a drug. Smouldering and captivating all of his senses in turn - something so fiercely addictive that he would do anything to get another hit. The Iron Dragon wasn't always like this.. some sort of demon weilding death and sex as his weapons. No, he'd been "normal". Breeding and feeding to his hearts content; he'd touch here, taste there.. and oh how that smelt good when that perfume was everywhere. His hand fisted in his mane of midnight hair, he fell to his knees, unphased by the dead eyes watching him. Small trembles wracked his shoulders and his breathing was heavy through his clenched teeth.
Can you feel that?
Didn't she get it? Didn't she know that he was literally losing his mind over her? He could barely control his own body - his fist slammed into the ground with a painful crunch - because of that fucking smell she was giving off everytime he was around. He couldn't quite put his finger on what exactly it was about her that drove him crazy, she wasn't exactly the most well-endowed female ever. Nor was she a breath-taking goddess; not a nympho who was nothing short of fuckable and sexy. Heck, she wasn't even a classic beauty.. But something about that petite body, something about those perky breasts, something about that tight arse drove him mental - how he could just ram his di-
Ah shit.
All seemed dark against the glowing crimson of his eyes in that moment, a wave of something unknown washing over him. In the blink of an eye his mind went blank and he could barely register hiding the used corpse beneath some thorny folage as he took to silently perching upon a tall branch.
"Levy-chan! You can't be serious!" A voice cut through the silence, echoing in his sensitive ears. It was her alright, he would've doubted it had it not been one of those idiots calling out her name like some lovesick fool.
His insides were screaming at him to kill them.
"I'm very serious, Jet! Master told us we need to find him, he's been missing for days!"
They were getting closer to him, and the tell-tale needle-sensation all over his skin got the blood pumping erratically in his ears. Shrouded in the shadow, Gajeel pondered for a moment, his animalistic side was shrieking profanities more colourful than the forest and he felt his fingertips almost splitting as he clung to the tree for dear life.
Or, her dear life.
"Good riddance, i say! As if Fairy Tail needs a monster! He'll be the death of us one day, Levy! And you know it-"
SLAP.
A grin slowly unsheathed itself upon his face as he felt the aura shift around him. The warmth of the group slowly evaporated, and fury poured from her every orifice.
"Do not tell me what i do and do not know, do you understand me?" Her tiny lungs howled as she came into plain view. Her screaming emphasized those pert little tits of hers as her chest heaved.. Ofcourse he'd be staring at her body as they drew near. As if he'd be trying to clean up the murky puddle of black-red liquid pooling on the.. everywhere beneath his hiding place.
"W-what is this?" Droy cried as the toes of his shoes were slick with the now-cold lifeblood, resulting in deep rumble that resembled a laugh resounded through the forest.
She stopped dead in her tracks. The land was painted red, the air was thick and the heavy aroma made her gag. She felt Jet and Droy tense beside her, observing the horror dripping from the trees and gloomily sparkling on the earth. She fretted on the inside, wringing her hands.
She felt something burning into her soul, and caught a glimpse of movement in the willow tree ahead of them. She stumbled forward in a haze to catch it.
"Lev-!"
Silence.
Her body went rigid. She felt something hot creep up her neck. Felt something ghost over her cheek in the breath of a second, then it vanished. Whimpering, she turned all-too quickly to fall into the comfort of her team-mates. She was scared, though she wouldn't admit it. The oxygen here tasted different, the magic pulsing through her was not her own, the wind carried the putrid stench of rotting blood and something foreign to her. Jet and Droy would help, they'd pull her close, stroke her hair and take her back to The Guild.
But she needed to find him!
When Levy turned, the other two members of Shadow Gear were nowhere to be seen. She couldn't move, her eyes widened to the size of dinner plates and her pupils dilated.
"J-Jet.. Droy!" She called out into the dark, her hand squeezing the fabric over her heart as tightly as she could. A tiny bead of sweat rolled down from her brow and the beating inside of her chest became erratic. "You guys! This- This isn't funny..!"
Nothing. Even the wildlife of the forest ceased to exist in that moment, and the silence was deafening her.
"Tch."
She cried out, and a hand snaked around from behind her to cover her mouth with it's palm. Her eyes screwed shut and she felt herself shivering violently. Oh this was it, she was so done for this time. Jet and Droy were nowhere to be found amongst the post-slaughter, and she even secretly found herself praying, deep down, that a certain dragon slayer would come to her rescue like he had countless times before.
"Ever the damsel in distress, aren't we?"
Her breath hitched beneath his hand. She knew that voice. She'd know it anywhere. The offending appendage holding her voice hostage pulled back, and in that instant she spun around to drown in a stare as hot as lava. His clothes had damp patches that were slowly drying an off-brown colour and his knuckles were swollen and turning purple - but he seemed alright.
"Gajeel.."
Without thinking she threw her arms around his midsection, burying her face into his shirt. He inhaled deeply, then stopped breathing altogether. She found herself falling the next moment, landing ungracefully on her bottom. Levy glanced up at him with a wounded expression.
"Don't."
She paused.
"Stop looking at me like that, damnit. Don't touch me."
He turned his back on her, inhaling audibly, a shake wracking through his body as he did so.
"B-but i like touch-"
Before she could finish her sentence, a mouth had decented upon hers and her whole world spiralled into blackness.
Part one finished! :)
Ah, sorry for any spelling/grammar errors, my spell-check is being a complete arse. I might have to invest in a beta reader.. If anyone's interested, drop me a PM.