Ashes to Ashes
Chapter Eleven
By Mell8
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Ginny:
Draco had vanished. Well, not really. He was always around, but I certainly hadn't spoken with him in a week. He had taken my blood and then Josh had sent Draco to bed and had kept me after to explain just how important it was for Draco to have regular infusions of my blood. Since that night I hadn't seen Draco except across the Great Hall during meals.
I didn't feel like Draco was purposefully avoiding me. Still, I couldn't help feeling that he regretted our bond.
I could still feel his powerful blood working its way through my system. Josh had said that when Draco's blood was beginning to wane in my veins, my blood would be waning in his. When this happened, Draco would begin feeling weak and not long after he would start the aging process that would kill him.
I had weeks before I absolutely needed to see Draco again, but I wanted to see him right now.
I saw him leaving the Great Hall after dinner that night so I quickly made my excuses and followed him out.
"Draco," another voice called ahead of me. I rounded the corner and saw Draco's old girlfriend, Daphne Greengrass, standing in front of Draco with her hands on her ample hips.
Daphne was wearing a low cut shirt that emphasized her generous breasts and slim figure. Her long, luxurious brown hair was tied back in an artful curl that framed her heart shaped face. Her only poor feature was her crooked nose, but if I were being charitable, I'd say that hers was a button of a crook.
I looked down at my robes and sighed. Dante had bought me new ones that fit correctly, but my breasts were much smaller than Daphne's. I was thin. Having a diet of only blood was conducive towards very little excess fat. Still, my hips weren't wide and my hair was a mess.
Draco had Daphne to look at and be with. All he got from me was my blood.
I turned to leave them alone.
"Draco, where have you been?" Daphne was asking as I left.
"I've been busy, Greengrass," Draco snapped. "What do you want?"
"I thought you might was to hang out," she simpered. I could hear the lust oozing from her voice.
"No thanks," Draco said with a shake of his head. "My girlfriend wouldn't like it."
I froze in place. His girlfriend? Could he mean me?
"Your girlfriend?" Daphne asked incredulously. "You're full of shit, Draco Malfoy," she snarled. "Don't you dare lie to me!"
"I don't even care to be speaking with you. Why would I bother lying to you too?" Draco asked coldly.
Daphne sniffed and slapped Draco across the highest place her slight frame could reach, his chest, before spinning on her heel and sashaying down the corridor and out of sight. I poked my head around the corner and watched Daphne's well shaped behind twitch as she huffed away.
Once Daphne was gone, I turned my attention to Draco just in time to see him wince and gently rub at the place where he had been hit.
I gasped in alarm. Was Draco weakening already? Were his bones aging? Did he need my blood?
I rushed forward to check.
"Ginny!" Draco gasped as a smile bloomed on his face. "I'm so sorry I haven't seen you. I've been so busy-" He stopped talking as soon as he realized I wasn't listening to his excuses.
I pushed his shirt up to his neck and gasped. His entire torso was covered with a large, angry purple bruise. I looked at the bruise, then at Draco's sheepish face, and let out a giggle.
"You're supposed to duck," I laughed out. I remembered this lesson of Josh's very well. Admittedly, my bruises healed much faster than Draco's did, but the lesson still stuck. If something was coming at you at a high speed, hit the ground. Otherwise you're liable to get something painful to the face, chest, or even legs if Josh was in a particularly vindictive mood.
"Ducking is a new concept, apparently," Draco grumbled as he pulled his shirt down.
"Why are you training with Josh anyway?" I asked curiously.
Draco looked to the side and I saw a slight blush tint his cheeks. "Josh thinks I'm something important. He wouldn't really explain it."
"Important how?"
"He called me a Blood Childe," Draco shrugged.
"Well, I'm a Childe and we share blood…" I mused.
"Either way," Draco grumbled as he led the way to a hallway filled with abandoned classrooms and dust. "Because of it I'm getting beaten up and knocked down, and all this other fun stuff.
"Let me heal you," I said softly as I followed Draco into an empty classroom.
"Could you?" Draco whimpered. "I hurt." He pouted like a child before grinning at me.
"Ginny," he went on softly. "I really just want to spend time with you. It's just with all my homework and training with Josh it just seems that there isn't enough time."
"We're making time now!" I said happily as I settled onto a desk next to Draco.
I was elated. Yes, Draco had asked for blood, but his main goal was to be with me. He wanted me for more than just the power I could give him and that made me very happy.
We talked late into the night about everything. Draco told me about his family, particularly his father, and about how he was forced into working for Voldemort. His home life had been good before the Dark Lord returned. Since then his father had gone on a rampage, forcing both Draco and Narcissa to obey and serve.
I had already known Draco didn't like what his father was doing from seeing him at the ball and then seeing what had been done to him before he returned to school. But knowing about it was much different than hearing it first hand.
I told Draco about the night I had been changed. It had been stupid to go wandering so far from home in the middle of the night, but I like what I am now and didn't regret it.
By the time we ran out of things to tell each other about, Draco was yawning and I was ready to lie down for a while.
Draco was about to stand up and leave, but I brushed my hair off my neck with a questioning look in my eyes. Did he want my blood or not? I wouldn't mind a sip of his.
"Not from the neck," Draco said with a grin. "We couldn't stop last time."
"Oh yeah," I grumbled sheepishly. I held up my wrist as Draco held up his own. I carefully sliced my wrist with a sharp fingernail as Draco brought his wrist up to my mouth.
I bit just as Draco started to suck.
The combined feelings of Draco's powerful blood filling my mouth and Draco's soft mouth pulling my blood from my vein sent my mind and body overboard. It felt so good and I whimpered as I forced both my mouth and wrist away from Draco.
"So good," Draco whispered as he drew back from my wrist. His lips were stained red and he licked them experimentally. He looked at me and laughed before bending forward and licking off a dribble of his blood that had fallen through the corner of my mouth.
Then he kissed me.
Draco's kiss was better than his blood. His lips were strong and soft against mine, and the electric feeling of this new connection sent my knees shaking and my body falling against Draco's.
He pulled away, gasping for breath.
"Draco," I breathed.
"Ginny," he smiled back.
"You're out past curfew," a new voice interrupted.
I looked up and sighed. "Hi Josh."
Josh shook his head at us. "When I heard you were both out alone, I got worried that you were draining each other again."
"This is a different type of drain," Draco said with a salacious grin.
"I'm sure," Josh sniffed. "But you, Mr. Malfoy, have an early morning meeting with me so you should have been in bed hours ago."
"Alright," Draco sighed. He smiled at me and brushed his lips against mine one last time before he left the room.
Josh waited until Draco was completely gone before he turned to glare at me.
"You have to be careful!" he snapped. "Just because he has some of your blood in him, doesn't make him indestructible."
"No," I said softly. "But it does give him a new title, Blood Childe." I looked at Josh curiously, waiting for him to answer. He just smirked.
"Go rest in bed for the remainder of the night," Josh finally said.
He ruffled my hair as I walked past him. I scowled at him, but let it go. I really did want a rest. Draco's blood made me feel stronger, but I wanted to let it go throughout my body unimpeded, and that meant rest.
III
Josh watched Ginevra walk out of the room and couldn't keep the frown off his face.
She didn't know or understand. She was assuming that Blood Childe meant that Draco was simply a person who was taking the blood of the Childe of the leader of the vampires. She didn't have the knowledge or training to even theorize beyond that.
Josh would have to write to Dante to ask for more vampire reference material for both Ginny and Draco to study. It really wouldn't do to have such an ignorant person rule the vampires for the next few thousand years.
Being a Blood Childe made Draco special, but it wasn't exactly in a good way. Yes, the Blood Childe took blood and gave it. But he also had to protect his source of the blood because if Ginny died, Draco would too. Only, Draco would die painfully. To avoid that, Draco would have to protect Ginny at all costs, even chancing his own life at times.
The Blood Childe was the sacrificial lamb for Ginny. He would step into danger to protect her. He would die so Ginny could live. Draco would bleed his blood to protect the Childe; Blood Childe.
That was why Josh didn't like seeing them so emotionally attached. Sharing blood happened a lot more than Ginny thought. Sharing kisses between donor and doneree only meant that when Draco was killed, Ginny would probably do something drastic in return.
Dante would not be amused to hear this revelation.
Josh sighed and sat down on a nearby desk as Dumbledore walked into the room. Dante was weakening. It was part of taking on the role of leading the vampires. When your time to rule had passed, you weakened until you were killed by your Childe or by another upcoming vampire, or you handed over the reins of power and lived the rest of eternity as a subject of the new ruler.
It was why Dante had created a Childe in these difficult times. There was no one else to pass the leadership to and Dante had wanted to ensure that even when he was gone, the vampires would not fall to evil again.
Ginny had been the answer at the time and with her Blood Childe protecting her, she might have a chance.
Still, Dumbledore didn't know any of this and the weekly meetings he insisted upon with Josh were getting annoying.
"Has your master's answer changed?" Dumbledore asked as soon as he saw that Josh's attention was on him.
"My master's answer lies with the Childe," Josh replied. "She is not ready, so Dante is not ready to make a decision."
"Very well," Dumbledore sighed. "But the war is growing in amplitude while Ginevra pretends to be a regular school girl. You were brought here for a reason. Isn't it time?"
"Soon," Josh grinned. "There has been a complication with what Draco is going to be in her life. As soon as that is sorted out, I will begin."
Dumbledore nodded and walked back to the door. "Do not tarry," he said as he walked away from Josh. "There is less time than even I hoped for."
Josh sighed and nodded at Dumbledore's back as the old man walked sadly away.
A.N.
I have to ask, what do you think of the budding relationship between Draco and Ginny. Is it too sudden? Is it too much? Did you understand the Blood Childe explaination?
Thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing! I really appreciate all the encouragement.
Mell8