A/N: This one's short again but I love it. Goku is starting to remind me of Lenny from "Of Mice and Men."

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball Z or anything affiliated with it.

-MalRev

Lethal

14: Born Again

I woke up screaming.

Hot, gnawing pain traveled straight down the entirety of my spine, spreading out in tendrils throughout the rest of my body. I'd been in pain before. Sometimes I misstepped and took a bullet to the shoulder or broke a bone, but none of that compared to the agony I was in at that moment. My arms and legs were bound and tied to the posters of the bed to keep me from freeing myself as I writhed and shrieked. I prayed for death. Vegeta could come kill me if he wanted to.

My eyes rolled back in my head as I once again balanced precariously on the brink of unconsciousness. Goku left my lying on my stomach and cold air tortured the gory wound on the back of my neck. I knew it was still leaking blood. Whenever I moved, a trail of crimson ran through my hair and across my face. My left cheek was numb, resting in a puddle of my own fluids. The ropes holding me in place burned me severely whenever I had a panicked fit and tried to free myself, but I couldn't stop.

Goku had done exactly what he promised not to do. I couldn't say I was surprised. It still hurt my pride to know I had put my faith in someone who could so easily stab me in the back. Yet I couldn't summon up the appropriate level of anger I should've felt—no matter how hard I tried, I only felt mildly irritated. Mainly, I was angry with myself for going to his house alone. Goku was a good person at his core. It was the people around him that were a negative influence. Bulma must have known him for a long time and figured out exactly how he could be manipulated.

Through the pounding in my ears I heard the door open. It shut shortly after and big fingers moved my hair to check on the bite. I hissed and turned to snap at them like a snake. It was Goku. I could tell by how clumsy he was in such a delicate area. He made a nervous sound and poked around a bit more, clearly unhappy with how he had torn apart my neck. My mind was angry but my heart wasn't.

Sharp fangs ripped through my skin; the pain was so intense it nearly blinded me. A scream sort of ripped out of my throat like it was being dragged from the bottom of my gut. Goku bit down and held on for a while but decided it wasn't working how he wanted it to and started gnawing on me. He covered my mouth with one hand when I refused to be quiet and used the other to hold my shoulder in place. The biting moved on to the junction between my neck and shoulder—I thought I felt something snap.

"This isn't right," Goku said. "Why is there so much blood?"

I must have lost a gallon of blood. It was everywhere. It poured down my face, over my arms and drenched Goku's fingers. He didn't mind, though. He licked his hands clean every now and then before returning to tearing me apart. There was nothing remotely sexual about it. I felt like an antelope caught by a particularly sadistic lion. There was no escape from my hell.

A chair squealed on the floor as Goku pulled it up to sit at my bedside.

"I want you," he whispered into my ear.

"Burn in hell."

"We're already there."

My eyes opened to see Goku shaking a thermometer with a slight frown. He flicked it a few times with his fingertips and opened his mouth, a signal for me to do the same. I kept my mouth firmly clamped shut and stared at him with as much disappointment as was possible. It would be easier if I played the sympathy card instead of getting angry and yelling at him. He gently pressed the back of his hand to my forehead, furrowing his brow as he waited for my temperature.

"I need medical attention," I rasped.

"Don't be silly. Vegeta does this all the time. You're okay, just kind of bloody."

"There's an open wound on my neck. If I get an infection, I'll die."

"Relax, Videl. I'm telling you, this is a normal thing Saiyans do and none of our women ever died from it. As long as you lie here and stay calm, you'll be—

"I'm lying in a pool of my own FUCKING BLOOD!" I screamed. "I am NOT okay! I am NOT a Saiyan! I am a human woman and I intend to stay that way, so STOP. Bring me back home right now and maybe I won't tell the police. Or they'll let you off easy because you're obviously handicapped!"

Goku's smile disappeared. "But… you said you liked me."

"That doesn't mean you can rip me apart and tie me down to your bed!"

"You'll hurt your neck if you try to get up and move." Goku pressed a straw to my mouth and I instinctively started drinking. "It'll heal over in a few hours and then you can clean up and we can do whatever we want. When you move it breaks open the scabs."

"Give me one of those beans," I said.

"Nope, that's going to make the effects of the mark go away. You'll have to bear with me for a while."

"You said there was no effect; that it was just for show."

"I might have stretched the truth a bit."

My throat constricted and I worried I might add tears to the blood beneath my cheek. Why did Goku keep lying? More importantly, why did I keep giving him second chances? He scratched his head, looking at my neck in confusion, and placed the cup on the nightstand. What if Vegeta had been lying the entire time and there was no such thing as a "mark?" Goku clearly had no clue what he was doing and I'd probably end up getting an infection in my spine if I didn't convince him to let me go.

Goku leaned down to lick the biggest wound on the back of my neck, making me start screaming once again. He lapped up the blood running down my cheek without hesitation—he was enjoying it. Soon his mouth moved to the other wound and I felt his teeth scrape on my skin a few times. I worried a few times that he might bite me again but he stopped after a few minutes and leaned back, wiping my blood off his mouth. His teeth were still long, giving him a seriously creepy appearance.

"See? I can clean it up," Goku said. He was smiling broadly.

"What's going to happen to me?" I whispered.

"The same thing that happened to Bulma. You gain some of my characteristics and you're more attached to me. It's not anything weird. We can't read each other's thoughts or teleport. Well, I can teleport but that's not because of you."

"Is that why Bulma is psychotic?"

"Yes. Vegeta's evil grew on her." Goku looked sad for a moment but quickly brightened. "Anyway, I think it's safe for you to move now if you want to take a shower."

There was a tearing sound and my arms went slack, soon followed by my feet. The sensation didn't immediately return so Goku carefully turned me on my back and put me in a sitting position. I shakily reached back to touch my neck and drew my hand away to see blood coating my fingers. If I was still bleeding, I would need a transfusion sooner or later. Goku sat beside me happily and took my hand to lick off the blood; he closed his eyes and wrapped his mouth around my fingers. I was too woozy to protest so I laid back and waited until he was done.

My vision blurred. "How can you do that? Blood is disgusting."

"I've seen more blood than you can imagine. Green blood, blue blood, red blood; it's all the same. I'm de…desensitive…?"

"Desensitized."

"Yes, that." Goku reached over me to pick up a cloth off the nightstand, which he used to wipe the grime off my face. "It's a part of you and it helps make our bond stronger."

"It makes you look like a vampire."

"I guess you're right. But the Saiyans were a primitive race so it makes sense they'd do something gory and violent to claim a mate. It's too bad the method Earthlings use is so inconsequential." He smiled even more at the word he used, proud he didn't need help with it. "What does a piece of paper really mean? Nothing. At least this encourages growth and happiness. Marriage makes you miserable."

"Gaping wounds don't make me like you more."

Goku just kept smiling.

Reviews/comments/questions

TFSrules- 40 chapters of evil Bulma!

Cottoncandy101- Poor Goku is a pushover. ):

super saiyan 4 chichi- Well thank you! I felt bad putting Chi-Chi on the backburner all the time. She's under a lot of pressure, between raising her sons and not having her husband around to help her. And Goku isn't really... uh... dependable. In this he and Shenron are already one but the Dragon Balls still scatter. So if someone uses them, Goku and Shenron show up. I was too lazy to include that, heehee.