Ashes to Ashes

Chapter Ten

By Mell8

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Ginny:

"Don't," Draco's voice hissed into my ear. "You'll give yourself away if you do."

"But Josh," I whispered back. "He's going to be attacked."

Draco turned me around to look at him before he spoke again. "Didn't Josh teach you how to fight?" Draco asked with a curious expression on his face.

"Well, yeah," I answered. I already knew that Josh was one of the best fighters Dante had.

"So then I'm sure he's more than prepared to handle a few idiot kids," Draco finished with a serious tilt to his head that accidentally emphasized his neck and the vein underneath.

He caught where my gaze had focused and laughed. His hand went out to stroke my hair away from my face as he tilted his neck towards my mouth.

"Hungry?" he asked.

"A little," I admitted. I didn't want to take blood from him. Okay, I did, but it just felt awkward. His blood was powerful and every sip ignited something inside of me. I wasn't sure if I wanted him to see me like that. I enjoyed our friendship and I didn't want to ruin it by hurting him or by letting him know just what his blood did to me.

"So drink," Draco whispered as he led my mouth to the throbbing vein just under his skin.

I couldn't resist. His blood smelled so powerful and it was being offered to me freely. My mouth opened and my fangs pierced his skin with deceptive ease.

The blood flowed strong and wonderful under my lips and down my throat. This wasn't just blood from his wrist that had already traveled from the heart, through the lungs, and down the arm. This was blood straight from the heart and heading up to the brain. This was blood rich in oxygen and powerful in intent.

I moaned low in my throat as the blood reached my stomach and began flowing into my body. I couldn't help molding myself to Draco's front with my hands around his head and neck, keeping him right where the blood flowed best.

This was the true elixir of life.

"You're going to kill him if you take much more," a voice snapped, pulling me from my euphoria.

A hand went around my lower jaw and pinched at the joint. My mouth was forced open and my fangs were gently pulled from Draco's neck.

My brain heard the words and understood, but the blood was so good that my body didn't want to move away. I fought against myself to let the hands freeing me from Draco do their job.

Finally I was away from the blood and reason started to filter back.

"Draco?" I moaned.

"He's fine," Josh's voice said from above me. "I've stopped the bleeding. Come into my office so we can talk."

I shook myself free from the trance of blood that I had been in and quickly followed Josh, who was holding a nearly unconscious Draco. I carefully stepped around and over the unconscious students lying in front of the office door, stakes carefully broken by their empty hands.

Josh gently laid Draco down on his desk and sighed.

"Ginny, haven't you learned anything?" he snapped. "You could have killed him!"

I heard the reprimand and knew that Josh didn't understand. Draco's blood wasn't like everyone else's. I couldn't control myself with that power in my mouth.

"His blood calls to me," I snapped back. "I could control myself when I took from his wrist; I thought I'd be okay with the neck."

"His blood calls to you," Josh said, but this time his tone was different.

"Yes," I replied. "It's so strong, powerful, and it makes me forget anything except the blood."

Josh nodded to himself. "Then you can heal him."

"How?" I said eagerly. If I could help Draco after hurting him just for offering me some blood, then I wouldn't feel so badly about this.

"Give him some of your blood," Josh said.

"But I don't want to turn him!" I gasped. The give and take of blood was how a vampire was made and I certainly didn't want Draco to join me. He had too many other problems to deal with right now.

"Turning requires both intent and complete blood loss. Draco is only weak, not dying," Josh explained.

"So?" I asked. "How would my blood help him?"

"There is one person in the entire world whose blood calls to each vampire. You have found yours. This creates a special relationship between blood donor and vampire. The vampire takes the more powerful blood and becomes stronger. In return the vampire gives some of this stronger blood back, which makes the donor stronger and healthier. Draco would instantly feel better and be completely recovered from his blood loss."

"What's the downside?" I asked. "So far it just sounds like I get more power and Draco doesn't feel ill."

"Draco's life will be tied to yours. From the first taste of his blood returning from your veins he will join you in immortality. However, if more than a month goes by without this exchange, he will begin to age rapidly until his death."

"I couldn't do that to Draco!" I gasped. I would like to spend the rest of my life with him, yes. He was handsome and a great friend. He was someone I got along with very well and I did love him.

I had never thought about it before, but it wasn't just his blood that drew me to Draco. If his personality had been abhorrent then I could have foregone his blood. But Draco was someone who I understood and who understood me in return. He had pledged himself to my protection and I enjoyed having him at my side.

"You would leave him weak like this?" Josh asked incredulously.

I looked down at Draco and grimace. His face looked pale and weak from the blood loss and he lay limply, like he was dead. Could I leave him like this?

"It's his choice," I said resolutely. "I wouldn't want to tie Draco to me for eternity if he hated me."

"Ginny," Draco whispered softly. His hand shakily rose into the air and clasped my own hand. "I want you forever. If you'll have me?" he laughed.

"Are you sure?" I asked as I held his hand and bent over to see his earnest face.

"Absolutely," Draco said calmly.

"There is no turning back," Josh warned.

Draco just smiled. "Do it."

I reached for the vein on my neck with my free hand and sliced open a small cut with a nail. I bent over Draco and hissed in pleasure as his mouth latched on and began to suck.

It was wonderful. The pull of blood felt just as good as when I had taken it in the first place. I collapsed on top of Draco with a groan and let his arms circle around my back and pull me closer to his body.

"Alright, kids!" Josh said, exasperated. "If you let him take too much, Ginny, you'll have the opposite problem."

I forced myself to draw away from Draco and caught his eyes with mine. The intensity in his grey orbs let me know that everything he had told me about his feelings were barely a mere tip of the iceberg. He loved me too.

III

Draco:

I felt wonderful. Heck, I felt more than wonderful. I felt as if I could jump out of the Astronomy Tower and fly. I felt like I could jump in the air and touch the rafters and the enchanted ceiling in the Great Hall.

I felt wonderful and I knew that it was a deceptive strength. I could definitely lift heavier things, just as I could run faster, but I knew that if I jumped from the Tower I would plummet and if I tried for the ceiling in the Great Hall I would just look like a fool.

Ginny's blood had done this to me. Ginny's love had done this to me.

She had cut her own neck with a fingernail and bent over my prone and weakened body. Her blood had dripped across my lips and down my throat. And I had tasted the sweetest ambrosia.

Her blood was strong and powerful, much like she described mine to be to her. But her blood also contained her emotions. As I sucked on her neck and drank her blood, I felt her arousal, her anxiety, and, most importantly, I felt her love.

I wondered when I had started to love her, rather than just find her to be a good friend. Was it when we first met outside the Gryffindor Portrait Hole and we became tentative friends? Or was it when we took that bath together and all I could think about was how pretty she was and how disappointed I was that there were so many bubbles?

Could it be at the dance, when she looked so radiant in her ball gown and so graceful as she swayed to the waltz, when I had defended her from Potter and met her Sire, Dante, and when I promised to myself that I would protect her, even from Voldemort?

Ginny had taken my blood and I had taken hers. We were tied together in the most ancient of bonds, and I was happy.

"Draco Malfoy," Josh called from the front of the classroom. "Are you paying any attention to my lecture?"

"Of course, Professor," I answered with an inward wince at my lie.

"Really?" Josh sounded surprised. "Very well, tell me which Dark plant I was just describing."

"Umm," I answered. I had no clue.

"Stay after class, Mr. Malfoy," Josh said with a sigh.

He turned back to the class and continued talking about the Venemous Tentacula. I sighed and went back to my musings. Professor Josh just wanted another excuse to speak with me again.

After class I walked up to his desk and waited while the rest of the students filed out of the door.

"Draco," Josh said carefully. "I didn't get a chance to speak with you about Ginny the other day, so listen closely now."

I turned all my focus on Josh and waited with bated breath for him to collect his thoughts. Josh leaned back in his desk chair and sighed.

"If you know anything about the Upper Class of Vampires, the High Society, you will know that our ruler is never a female. For hundreds of thousands of years the leader of the vampires has been a male of quite a bit of power."

"But Ginny-" I gasped. Ginny was a girl and she was supposed to become the next ruler of the vampires. Why was Dante breaking tradition like this?

"Yes, she surprised all of us. Dante was out for a walk and found her just a few feet from his front door. He took her blood and was going to leave her there, but then she spoke to him in his mind.

" "I don't want to die," she whispered without using her voice at all. "Please, change me into what you are. Change me into a vampire." " Josh laughed.

"Dante is extraordinarily powerful, but he had never experienced anything like her. He would have left her there, he had heard of Legilimency and knew she was a witch, but one of the powers the leader of vampires inherits with the position is prescience. As Dante started to walk away he saw a vision of Ginny, beautiful and deadly and saving all of vampire-kind. He knew he didn't have a choice."

"So he changed her," I nodded in understanding. "And you're here to watch over her."

"No, I'm not," Josh shook his head. "Ginny hasn't shown any other signs of mental powers. She doesn't seem to have any powers beyond those Dante's Childe would inherit. You, however, have caught Dante's attention.

"I am here," Josh said with a grim smile, "to whip you into shape, Blood Childe."