A Turk Vampire

Chapter 1:

"You're too late, Turk." The vampire rose, laying the girl on the floor, her blood staining his fangs.

Reno, shaking as anger started mounting inside, immediately knelt at his girlfriend's side. "What did you do to her?" the redhead responded, his voice barely a whisper. He touched her pale face, his fingers nimbly running down to the piercing at her neck. His tone rose in anger: "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO HER?!"

The vampire smirked, wiping the red blood from his face. "Oh, nothing."

"You call this nothing?!" Reno spat angrily, trying to clot the blood with his handkerchief.

"Can't help it if I was hungry."

"You've killed her, you bastard."

"Don't be an idiot. She's not dead. Just paralyzed." The vampire shook his head. "She'll still be the same person, except for the vampiric side."

Reno glared at him. "You could've picked anyone else but her. Damn it, you could've bitten me instead . . . I wouldn't have cared. . . ." /i

"Reno?" The familiar tone of voice, almost too chirpy for his ears, aroused him from his horrid memory. "Reno, wake up. Tseng's gonna be so mad if you we don't show up on time." Leave it to Elena to wake him from his catnap. Only when he was ten minutes from being late to their meeting.

"God, I'm awake." Reno jerked his head up pulling himself out of the chair. Yawning, he sleepily adjusted his goggles and rubbed his eyes. i How can anyone be so cheery? ii he wondered irritably.

"Come on, then." Elena gripped his jacket collar, forcefully dragging the redheaded Turk down the hall to their meeting room. Reno glared at her. It had been like this for several days now. Since he'd lost his girl, his mind was set on revenge against the vampires - damn blood-suckers, as he put it. Little did he know their mission would give him a chance for vengeance.

p After their debriefing from Tseng, Reno realized how perfect this was. Their mission was simple: they were being sent to the Midgar ruins to eliminate any of the creatures that were believed to be lurking at night. Vampires.

p "I think this is suicidal. I can't understand why we couldn't hire or send someone else to do this." Elena squirmed nervously. She hated vampires, he knew. Even the thought of getting bitten made her uncomfortable. Just as uncomfortable as the helicopter seats.

"Elena, calm down. We're qualified to handle this kind of thing." Tseng responded wiping his sword blade with an old cloth. Reno wrinkled his nose without looking back at his team. He figured it was better not to ask.

"Yeah, 'Lena. Besides, we're the Turks. Those blood-sucking bastards don't know what they're up against." His tone rose a little, a smirk forming on his lips. His partner, Rude, glanced up at him, noticing the smirk. He knew of Reno's grudge against vampires. "If you wanna stay behind, then that's your problem."

"I don't want to get killed, Reno. That's it."

"Reno, shut it, do your job and get us there." Tseng shook his head.

"This . . . your personal vendetta?" Rude asked.

Reno nodded. "You know me better than that, Rude." Revenge was the only thing on his mind.

p Standing in the dark shadow of the ruins gave him a slight shiver. Still the fear of the night didn't faze the redhead for even a second. He tossed the earpiece away, scowling. It had been Tseng's idea to use this outdated thing. It wouldn't do him an ounce of good anyway. He never used it.

A low hiss startled Reno slightly. Drawing out his EMR, the redhead attacked some large animal-like thing, stopping it with an electric shock. The thing that fell landed on the ground, whimpering like a child. The moonlight mixed with the darkness messed with the Turk's eyesight, making it hard to see.Something leapt at him, knocking him down onto the scrapped metal. Growling in pain, Reno forced himself to his feet. "What the hell was that?" he wondered aloud as something sharp came close to his neck.

"Not this time, vampire." The Turk kicked whatever or whoever it was, as the sound of more hissing caught his hearing. More of them . . . three this time. Something was amiss, he realized. There should've been a thud where the creature- vampire or whatever –had fallen.The next thing he heard was gunshots. He collapsed, lying on the ground as his EMR rolled from his grasp. Grasping his side, he felt a sticky liquid run through his fingers. Dark red color staining his hand. His blood.

Damn it . . . Reno felt his eyes close slightly as throbbing pain burned his insides. . . . I can't die . . . not now . . .

Veronica watched the human collapse from the shots. Dante, once again, overdid it. Three would've been fine, but five was overdoing it. Slowly, she came towards the victim, hearing his thoughts. . . . I can't die . . . not now . . . The man's scent was familiar, almost too familiar.

Who is he/i the vampress wondered, her hand tracing the side of his face. Gasping in shock, she recognized the scars on either cheek. It can't be . . . the scars . . . it is. Reno, why does it have to be you . . . She loosened the goggles, tossing them aside, and kissed his forehead. It had been so long since she'd seen him. Please answer me, she begged, holding him tightly in her arms. The Turk stirred, wincing slightly. He groaned unable to see her or her features in the moonlight.

"Reno, can you hear me?"

"Who . . . what are you? Human or . . . vamp-" The redhead cringed coughing up blood. The vampress wiped the blood from his lips, licking it off her fingers. The taste was sweet to her lips, but fought her instincts. Instead she wiped the rest of the blood from his injuries, but he was fading so fast it seemed to mean nothing.

"An old friend," she responded, ". . . who won't let you die . . ." He was seconds from death, and it was now or never. Death, she concluded, wouldn't touch him. The vampress pulled the redhead's neck close to her mouth and bit down hard, sucking almost every last ounce of his blood, hoping to save him from mortality.

. . . Reno . . . please forgive me . . .

Pulling away, she covered the marks her fangs had made with her saliva, sealing the slits on his neck. She undid her cloak, just as several gunshots rang out and fled, leaving the Turk laying there, his shape hidden by her cloth.

Tseng cursed under his breath. The only vampires he, Rude, and Elena had seen disappeared before either of them could get a decent shot at them. Reno was unable to be contacted by the earpiece he was given, which meant the redhead had gotten rid of it by any means he could think of, and that he was MIA.

"That was my last bullet," he mumbled to himself. Neither Rude nor Elena could get a hold of their missing teammate. Elena had found Reno's goggles stained with blood while Rude was still out looking. Their team was exhausted from the mission, – a failed one at that- and at this rate, it would be one that lasted more than a single day. In two more hours, if Reno hadn't been found by then, they would continue tomorrow after resting for a while. Sleep was something they all needed.

"Sir," Elena tried to stifle a yawn. "Do you think those vampires got him?"

"It's possible he might've been taken, but I'm not jumping to any conclusions. We need to regroup for tomorrow's search." He returned his gun to its holster and retrieved his sword from the helicopter. "I take it Rude isn't finished searching yet."

"No, he hasn't." Elena responded.

Rude came across a red something. Cloth perhaps or maybe blood? He approached the spiky, furry -he didn't know what for certain- thing and slowly knelt beside it. This fiery red color was attached to something covered by a dark velvet cloth. That concealed something was in the shape of a person. A young person at that. Probably a vampire's victim left to die.Drawing back the cloth, the eyes behind his sunglasses widened.

"What the hell . . ." The supposed victim with fiery red hair was the one person he had gone to look for. His partner.