A/N: A batch of cookies has gone out to just a kid 1993 for guessing Matt's profession! For those of you who guessed incorrectly or didn't guess at all, all will be revealed in this chapter!

Chapter 8: Wake Me Up Inside

Mello had been making me write in a hand made leather-bound journal of our travels so as to practice my Italian. I had been doing just that when Mello and Matt left.

"Near, darling."

I looked up from my writing to see Mello and Matt standing by each other in the doorway.

"I know I said I wasn't going to leave you alone but Matt insisted," Mello looked at Matt stonily and Matt smirked. "We hunt together."

I smiled reassuringly at Mello. "I'll be fine Mello, really."

Mello reached over and gave me a kiss on the cheek. "The doors are locked darling. Be careful."

"I will Mello, have a nice hunt." I waved.

Mello smiled and waved also, and with the two were gone.

I sighed, returning to my writing.

Some time later I was changing into a shirt without ink blotches on the sleeves when I began to feel the sense I was being watched.

I headed into Matt's studio, the only windowless room in his flat. Even if it sounds ridiculous, it made me feel better that I couldn't be seen from the outside. The person who was hunting me though, wasn't obstructed by walls.

I sat at the back of the plain white room, huddling in the shadow of the canvas of a half finished painting he was forging. I stayed there for some time, merely spacing out and thinking idle thoughts.

Footsteps. I heard footsteps in the flat. I started to smile, they sounded like Mello's footsteps. They were sharp yet controlled; alert as well, the kind of footsteps he would use when he was walking like a mortal. I was convinced Mello was home. Until I heard the mad cackling.

"Come out; come out where ever you are Nate!" I heard him turn in the hallway; he was heading for this room. "Even if you don't want to play games you've already lost!" I saw his feet enter the studio from under the canvas. "Because I've already found you!"

My heart was racing and my breath coming in little gasps. When he stood in full view my mouth opened in a silent scream.

"So help you God." He stated ceremoniously, the rabid gleam in his eyes never leaving.

He pushed me to the floor, straddling my hips. I broke into a cold sweat, my rational fear system seemingly abandoning me. I was so afraid I could not think.

I think he chuckled at my hopelessness. "Mihael's a little busy right now, and he's not keeping his vigilance up. So in other words," he deadpanned the next bit, "He can't save you."

I let out a whimper as B.B. leaned down, his body now completely on top of mine. "We're going to have a lot of fun together, you and me." He said huskily into my ear. He licked at it a little, and then bit down sharply with his two fangs. I gasped at the intensity of the pain as I felt blood trickle out.

"Just do what you want!" I sobbed, past all rational thinking.

B.B. frowned, no, pouted, and then got off my body. "No, no, no Nate! I'm not going to rape you… Here!" He waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

I groaned as B forced me to sit up, he was tying my hands with a rope. "Now don't think you can get out of this." He said as he worked. "Because I'm a blood drinker and you are a mortal." He emphasized his point by securing the last knot, partially cutting off circulation in my wrists. B pulled out a dirty rag. "I don't want you screaming for help either." He tied it over my mouth and around to the back of my head, sufficiently gagging me. I suppressed the urge to throw up, the rag may be disgusting but choking on my own puke would be worse.

B roughly pulled me to my feet, and with an iron grip on my arm led me out of Matt's flat.

I furrowed my eyebrows as he led me into the coach that waited for us.

"I paid him a lot of money. So he won't question me or tell anyone about this."

I frowned inwardly at this as B.B. pushed me down on to the seat of the coach. B sat down also, pulling both his legs close to his chest, almost in a crouching position.

"Now Nate, we're going to be traveling far, far away the next couple of nights. I don't want you to know where we're going, so I'm going to make sure you sleep the whole time."

"And how are you going to do that?!" I would have spat, if my voice wasn't muffled and distorted by the rag.

Suddenly B.B. punched me in the face. More blood spilled onto my trousers, more pain swept over me.

"You're lucky I like you Nate!" B.B. hissed angrily. "I could have torn your nose right off your skull easily!" My eyes widened at the image. "But we can't mar your pretty face, now can we!"

I fumed silently. "Now back on topic." B began. "One of my rules of kidnapping is that the hostage can't ask questions." BB paused. "However your question will be answered through my actions… So I guess it doesn't matter." He bit down on his thumbnail, making a sharp clicking sound. "I'm going to drink from you every time you begin to wake up again. So I'll get my hunting in, and you'll stay unawares!"

I groaned as B turned his head, bearing his fangs into a wicked grin.

Before my brain could register it, B.B. had lunged at me, his fangs tearing into my neck.

The last thing I heard was B.B. moan, "Mmm… Nate your blood tastes so good!" before I left reality.

I was vaguely aware of B still sucking blood out of me as I unwillingly recalled moments of my early childhood. The abuse from my mother. Happy times with Aurore. The death of my father. The move to France. The abandonment of my mother. My whole life before Mello came to my eyes. Then I saw other things. Decrepit feudal manors. Open pastures. The transformation of Italy into the Renaissance unfolded before my like a majestic butterfly. Then later it became France just before the revolution. I saw the poor, the people dying. Then after I was in Versailles, the infamous queen Marie Antoinette before me. I saw the revolts and riots. Then I saw the openness of untouched land, most likely the west part of America. There were memories of how the American Indians dealt with the mysterious deaths of their tribesman, and I wondered why B did it. Why he kill all those innocent people? The return to Paris. It was now. I had seen B's life flashing before my eyes, and mine own as well. I wondered why this was.


There was on odd lurch in his stomach as Mello's final victim of the night slumped to the ground. Something was not right.

"Hey Mel, why the grim face? 'Victim had a depressing life?" Matt swayed slightly in place, he had just taken the blood of a drunk mortal.

"No, Matt. Something is not right."

"Is that so?" Matt asked, turning serious.

Mello cast out his mind, checking the flat for Near. Mello gasped, the immediately began to scale the wall in front of him. The wall would have been impossible for him mortals to climb, but to Mello it was one of the first skills he had acquired as a vampire.

"Mello! Have some decency and wait for me, will you?" Matt called from below. Mello ignored him, now gliding from one rooftop to the next. He continued like this, not caring about mortals seeing him, with Matt scrambling behind him.

Mello jumped down from the top of a three story building moments later, not pausing for a millisecond to confront the woman who lived in the house next to Matt's. The woman squeaked at the sight of Mello's fatal-for-a-mortal jump, and clutched her chest with her hand in surprise.

"Woman, has anything odd happened since just after sundown?" Mello asked tersely, not bothering with common courtesies.

"Why yes I think so…" A glazed look came over eyes, as if she had trouble remembering. Her tone was dazed and confused.

"Ah…" She paused, slowly recalling the events of the night. "A child was kidnapped, yes that was it… I don't know why I didn't do anything, you see I was outside doing my laundry at the time…"

That was all Mello needed to know. As the woman had talked her mind was open, and images of B.B. and of Near was thrust into Mello's accepting mind.

Mello turned away from the woman and barged into Matt's flat.

"Near hid in the studio and then B came in…" Mello muttered under his breath, retracing B's steps. "He then came in and saw Near behind the canvas… and then-" Mello choked on his own words at the sight of Near's blood on the floor.

In the meantime Matt stood in the doorway of his own studio, unsure of how Mello would react.

"I'm not good enough Matt," Mello whispered, his eyes fixated on the small blood stains. "Not good enough to protect one single mortal…"

"I wouldn't say that…" Matt said, still standing in the doorway.

"I'M NOT GOOD ENOUGH!" Mello screamed at such a volume that mortal's could not hear. Matt flinched at this, his own ears slightly pained. He also heard the tinkle of falling shattered glass from the other room…

"Mello you're being ridiculous!" Matt reasoned, taking the emotionally broken Mello in his arms. The blood tears were running down his face once again.

"He's just one mortal." Matt whispered in what he thought was a soothing tone. It had the opposite effect on Mello however.

"Matt I'm leaving." Mello said icily, shrugging off Matt's hold effortlessly.

"You only just got here last night!" Matt cried, desperate to keep Mello with him.

"Time is irrelevant." Mello stated a rather intimidating monotone. "When it comes to spending my life with you. However, time is of the essence when it comes to rescuing my love."

"Is that so?" Matt's voice also took on cold airs.

"Yes. I wish to leave before Near and B.B. leave my range of mental communication."

"Well… Goodbye then." Matt added half heartedly as he watched Mello leave his flat.

Mello left Matt's flat in a grim mood. As he walked his pace gradually increased. Merely moments went by before Mello was running as fast as his powers allowed. He loved to run like this, with movements so quick and deft that mortals couldn't see him at all. He was an invisible wraith.

Before long his legs had carried him out of Verona, out on the open road and headed eastward.

"I will find you Near!" he cried into the night, his legs still pumping him on. "I will find you and when I do I'll put a stop to all this madness! We'll be together forever Near! I will find you! I love you!" He pledged from the bottom of his heart.

The rest of the night Mello ran trying and failing to catch up to B. When the time came to rest for the day, Mello sunk deep into the earth as the Old One once did millennia ago.

His consciousness fading Mello prayed to the Old Ones, the first of his kind the idols of all their children.

L… Naomi Misora. I am your child, one of many, but you are still listening. You are gentle and listen to all your children.

There is a mortal who I love dearly. I wish to transform him into one of our kind, but he is not ready yet. As I was teaching him, preparing him for his future duties, your Backup kidnapped him from me.

I know B.B. is considered to be a failed project by you two, and that is why I believe you will help me. I am not being foolish and greedy in this cause; I will protect my love even greater then before, and will repay you immensely if you help me.

Please, I do not believe I can save him alone.

As Mello finally slipped into darkness he thought he heard a faint, I will help you Mello… But he couldn't be sure, the sunrise was coming on, and Mello's thoughts were cloudy. One thing was sure though, he had to save Near.