Vacuous Heart of Blood

Author: MoonStarDutchess

Chapter 24: An Aftermath

Disclaimer: I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist and gain no profit from this fanfiction. The only thing I own is my idea.

AN: Formatting when I uploaded went a bit out of whack again. I fixed all the mistakes I caught.

His fingers glided through his hair as he paced back and forth in front of the large four-poster bed. He made no effort to stay silent in his walking. He wasn't wary of waking her. After the night they had, she would be sleeping deeply, both because of her changing and the rough fuc—He groaned and sat down on the bed. He fell back and placed his palms over his face. Fuck. It wasn't just fucking. Oh no Roy boy. That was all out making—

"Don't say it."

"How did you know I was going to say something?" she said.

He moved his hands and turned his head to the left, all the while suppressing his surprise at the fact she was awake. He felt the same awkwardness that came the first time he had sex. Yes, comparing that first time with the current situation was very fitting. He'd never changed anyone before and especially hadn't ma—he couldn't say it! Not even in his head. Luckily, he didn't have to say anything.

"Oh shit, I didn't hurt you did I?" She got on her hands and knees and crawled over to him. She sat down on her knees.

"Of course not. Why do you ask?"

When she reached up to touch his neck, he flinched. "You're neck is bleeding."

He moved his hand to hers and brought it down. "Um… yeah. It'll stop."

She lifted her other hand to her mouth and ran her fingers across her lips as the fingers on her other hand twined around his. "I bit you?"

Roy focused his gaze in the opposite direction when she ran her tongue over her red, swollen lips. "Yes, you did. But I bit you too so . . ." He hated feeling so awkward.

He felt her hand pull away and looked at her. She was touching her neck and lips. Her body was completely exposed to him, without shame, and that made it difficult to resist taking her again. And in an even rougher way now that her body could take it.

"I feel stronger." She looked into his eyes. "But really uneasy for some reason."

Roy forced himself to calm down as best he could. "Yeah, that's normal."

"You changed me?"

She smiled and Roy wanted to groan. Her features were more pronounced, her eyes brighter, her skin smoother and tougher. Her smell. Oh gods, female vampires possessed a sexual scent that drove him wild. Riza's was even more potent because she was hi… his—"My venom turned you." The term "change" wouldn't be completely accurate now because he went far beyond a mere changing!

"I thought you were planning to change me later." She smirked and lowered her hands to her lap.

Gah Roy, keep it together. "You drank my blood." Her stomach rumbled at the mention of blood. He would have laughed if the situation hadn't been of such great consequence.

"I just took a sip. I was…um… I was caught up in everything."

"That's evident by other bite marks on me." And he enjoyed every single bite, claw, and bruise that was on him.

She blushed. "Sorry but you were really rough last night too." She grinned. "I have bruises in places I didn't think could bruise."

Roy pushed back the memories of the previous night, and stood. "I'm going to get dressed."

He constantly repeated a mantra about staying calm. If she knew he was mad, she would—"Did I do something to make you angry?"—notice.

"No," he answered.

"You act like you're upset that I drank your blood."

He didn't respond. He was more upset with himself for enjoying her drinking and taking her blood like it was a fine wine. He walked over to a six-drawer bureau, removed his clothing, and dressed without a word spoken to her or a glance in her direction.

"Damn it, you always shut up when I don't want you too."

He forced his lips down when they started to move into grinning position. "You need to go read up on vampires from proper books. Pinako has the texts down in her living area. I'm going to have some breakfast.

"I hate it when people avoid my questions." She got off the bed and went over to him. "If I did something wrong then—"

He slammed the drawer on the chest shut, the entire bureau rocking back and forth because of the jolt. "I'm not fucking mad. Just do as I say and go read the goddamned books!" The volume of his voice gave her a headache and she could feel herself growing angry. Before she could say anything directly to him, he stalked out of the room as if he was about to go hunt and kill something.

"Fine you brainless bloodsucking gobshite!" She folded her arms across her chest and went back over to get into bed. She'd sleep a bit more and give him time to cool off. Then maybe he'd talk to her like a reasonable hu…vampire being.

She couldn't figure him out. He'd been more than happy and willing to bite her last night. He was exhilarant when she bit him; his undivided and merciless attention to stroking and kissing every part of her body showed that.

She reached up to stroke the bite mark once again, shivering as her fingertips brushed the scar. Roy wasn't the type to overreact to a menial matter. There had to be something far more to the situation that he was willing to say.

And she wasn't going to be able to sleep with that on her mind. She flung her legs over the side of her bed. If there was something bad going on with them, she had a right to know about it.

She paused when her feet hit the floor. He wasn't exactly keeping anything secret from her. He told her to go read up on vampires, and never forbid her from asking Pinako if she knew about the blood issue. She huffed. It didn't matter whether he forbid her or not. She'd do what she wanted but . . . but he did save you and he is nice enough to help you out with your dilemma of sudden vampire citizenship.

Riza hated her conscience sometimes. Maybe the reason he didn't just tell her why he was upset was that he was uncomfortable talking about it. Yet that didn't make sense because he was forthright about everything so far. That fact added to the evidence that his unease was something worth worrying over. Still, just because he was forthright didn't mean that he didn't have issues. She was blunt and still uncomfortable talking about what the bastard doctor did to—she squeezed her eyes shut as if it would ward off the memory, and swallowed the saliva forming in her mouth.

After a moment, she opened her eyes and moved to put on some clothing. It was then she realized her suitcase was missing. They'd forgotten it in the forest. She sighed and cast an eye to the clothing lying on the floor; it still looked wearable. Considering the rush he'd been to get her out of it, she was surprised it wasn't shredded. Walking over to the fabric, she picked it up and examined it for mud or dust. Thankfully, it wasn't as messy as she figured. She shook the fabric, a bit of dust flying into the room. She'd go get her things later or if it still wasn't safe, ask Roy to do it. She doubted he would allow her to go on her own.

Her body stiffened. Ask his permission before leaving? She wasn't a helpless prisoner there, and if she wanted to leave, she could. She immediately squashed the insurrection side of her personality. She was new to this world, and he wanted to make sure she knew everything she needed to function optimally. It wasn't concern because she was a helpless woman; it was because she was ignorant in the ways of the vampire.

I need to learn how to stop overreacting.

She let her more mature manners take over, then got dressed, and made her way down the stairs. She met Pinako at the bottom. The woman smiled and laughed. "So he changed you fully? You look quite different."

"I do?"

"You haven't looked in a mirror?"

"He doesn't seem to have any in his room. Oh, he told me to ask you about vampire books."

The woman put her hands in her apron pockets and grinned. "Yes, he offhandedly mentioned it as he was stalking past. He has a black cloud over his head."

"Come again?"

"Witch slang. It means that he was in deep angry thought."

"I see."

"Any idea what he was angry about?"

Riza shook her head and stepped down from the last step, keeping her hand resting on the balustrade. The world around her suddenly looked as if deep smog was engulfing it. She made no mention of it to Pinako. "He wouldn't say anything in detail to me no matter how much I prodded him."

"Oh well. You go down to the basement. I was about to get some breakfast so I'll bring you down some."

"Please, you don't have to go to that trouble. I can have it up here. Maybe I can help you a bit. I'm good in the kitchen."

"You're a guest and Lord Mustang would throw a conniption if you were to do anything like that." She ushered Riza to the door that led to her rooms. "No no, dear. You go downstairs and I can bring it."

Riza pulled away from Pinako's hands and grinned. "It's because he's in the kitchen isn't it?"

Riza suddenly realized it wasn't the case. In fact, she didn't hear anyone else in the house or smell anything but the food wafting from the kitchen. She was glad that her sense of smell had returned, but wasn't sure if that was exactly a good thing.

"He was in there earlier, but then left like his ass was on fire," Pinako said. "He does that when he's stressed."

Riza's lips fell into a frown and she nodded. She felt guilty for being the source of his stress. "I see."

"Go on downstairs, I'll be down in a moment and you can ask me what's on your mind."

Riza turned and went through two double doors and down a set of dark wooden steps. This area seemed much brighter than upstairs.

At the end of the steps, an orange glow shone through the cracks of what looked to be a very heavy door banded together with steel rods. She easily pushed it open, crediting her vampiric strength to making it seem lighter.

When she went inside, she expected to see dusty shelves, cobwebs, and cabinets stacked full of various potion bottles and unorganized books. Instead, it was no different from the rest of the house, which she'd also expected to be less than comfortable. She walked over to one of the bookshelves, and trailed her hands along the bindings, finding all of them organized alphabetically and by subject. There were so many she didn't know what to choose, so she decided to let Pinako make suggestions. She moved over and sat down on the chair in front of a small coffee table, leaned back and closed her eyes. Chills overtook her body and she felt it slacken. Sounds dulled around her and before she could realize it, Pinako was waking her.

She forced her eyes to open, her lids still weighed down with sleep, and straightened in her chair. "I'm sorry Pinako. I didn't even realize I was falling asleep."

"Oh don't worry. It's normal." She motioned to a tray in front of Riza and then went around the table to dig into her own breakfast.

Riza picked up her fork and began eating. She felt her stomach gurgle almost immediately after she took the first bite. She opened her mouth to ask the question preying on her mind, but a whiff of blood distracted her. She picked up the mug beside her tray, and took a sip.

"So what is on your mind? You wanted to ask me something."

Riza didn't waste any time. "What does it mean when a vampire drinks another's blood?" Her heart dropped when Pinako froze in the action of lifting her mug of, what smelled to be tea, to her lips. The older woman sat it down, leaned forward, and released a curt, nervous laugh.

"Why in heavens would you ask something like that? He didn't tell you already?"

Riza sat back against the chair roughly and folded her arms, her temper inching up a bit. "If he covered it then I wouldn't be asking now would I?"

Pinako leaned towards her even more and her eyes fell to Riza's neck. "He . . . changed you but… he drin—drank your blood as well?"

"Yes."

"And you drank his?"

"That's right."

For a good thirty seconds, the room was dead quiet. Then Pinako belted out with a laugh so loud and hard that it made Riza's ears hurt. "Oh my…I knew this would happen eventually just from the way he looked at you."

"Huh? What?" She scooted up to the edge of her chair and let her arms fall to her sides. "What did you expect to happen?"

Pinako continued to laugh heartedly. "I expected it to take years. My god that boy works quick!"

Riza began to question the old woman's sanity, but instead chose to devote her inquisitiveness to something more pressing. "What exactly did you expect to take years?"

Pinako's laugh faded into a sporadic chuckle then ceased altogether. "He should be telling you this."

"He told me to come to you and get damned books. Bastard wouldn't talk. All he did was drink blood. It shouldn't be a big deal." Riza left out the part about how she thought for a mere moment that she connected spiritually with him. It was a corny, romantic cliché to think that. She didn't want Pinako to think she was an idiot.

"The big deal wasn't that he drank your blood dear or even that you drank his. It's that it came directly from your bodies and during sex."

Riza shook her head. "I understand that but what are the repercussions?"

Pinako sat back and looked at Riza. "It's hard to just come out and say it."

"Please, I much prefer you do."

"To put it simply. You got married."

Riza's lips formed into a straight line and her eyes stared ahead as her body stiffened. "Wh… What do you mean marr… no… I know what you mean by married but… um… what… I…"

"She means that by societal standards, and by blood, you're my wife."

Riza darted her gaze to where the voice came from. Roy stood at the door, his hair disheveled and his posture slouched as if he finished running a marathon—an extra hard vampire marathon that is.

Wife? Wife? Wife? Wife! She forced herself to stay calm as her inner self raged like the worst thing possible in the world happened to her. "Wife?" She spoke with a forced calm that she knew didn't fool him.

"Let me take these trays, and leave the two of you alone."

"No, these are your rooms Pinako. I'm sorry for sending her down here like this when I'm the one that should be talking with her."

Pinako raised an eyebrow at him.

"Yes that was an apology and no you aren't hearing things." He walked over to a bookshelf, and chose three books after browsing the selection. "I'll be borrowing these," he said then walked to stand near Riza. He held out his hand. She looked at it, then up at him before placing her grasp in his and getting to her feet. "Come on."

"Wife?" she asked unable to process anything in her brain except that single word. One she never wanted to associate herself with unless she was in love. "Wife?" she repeated.

"Yes wife!" he snapped, showing he was just as upset as she was over the entire situation. Normally she wouldn't let him lead her the way he was, his hand was gripping hers so tightly it would've shatter into bone fragments if she'd been human.

With every step they took, the word faded less, being conquered more and more with the realization that she no longer belonged to herself. She was his wife, his mate, his to control. She was angry, hurt, and scared. She didn't know she could fell all those things at once.

She felt a loud screech festering at the bottom of her throat, but when they went arrived at the top of the stairs and entered the room, her thoughts about independence and marriage disappeared. She grabbed his arm and turned so that her face buried against his chest. "My eyes. Everything suddenly went darker but they are burning. It didn't hurt this bad when I first came down here."

"It's getting darker at a later time now, so the sun is still out. Right now, it's at an angle that makes the room brighter than it was when you first woke. Your eyes are better suited to seeing at night, that's why your vision appears darker in the day."

"And the burning?"

"Eyes adjusting. They'll get used to the change eventually."

She noticed that his voice was calmer, informative, and she could only hope he was equally as informatory when speaking about their—she swallowed—marriage. "Come on, it's darker in the study."

She kept her eyes squinted as he led her into the room. The burning ceased when they entered the darker environment. He let go of her, sat the books down on a table, then went over and flopped down on a black settee situated in front of the fireplace.

When she saw his state, the urge to yell about her upset disappeared into her stomach, making it feel heavy. Her shout wasn't going to improve anything. She went over and sat down beside him. "Please explain this to me more. I'm trying not to be upset but it's proving to be exceedingly difficult."

"What's there to explain that Pinako hasn't already told you? If two vampires drink each other's blood, straight from the body, then they're mated. Their minds interconnect and a bond is formed."

Riza looked to her right and gave a quick nod. "So that's why…"

"Why what?"

She turned back to him. "When we um… came together…I felt like there was something more than with the other times. I thought maybe I imagined it."

"I see. Well you weren't wrong." His posture slouched even more. "Definitely not."

"So that's why you were in a panic last night in the woods when you thought I might have bit you?"

"That would have made a painful one-sided bond in your case, and I wouldn't have been able to change you into full vampire."

"But why'd you let me bite you in bed then? Why'd you drink my blood?"

"I started out with the intention of just fucking you until you couldn't move." He paused when her cheeks heated up. "You were very alluring last night. Then when I entered you, my body lost control. I bit you, envenomed you and got a tiny drop of your blood on my tongue. I was so obsessed with you that I didn't notice I was drinking more. Then before I knew it, your teeth were in my neck and you were drinking. I was so wound up that I didn't even think about pulling you away."

"So basically you started it and I pretty much accepted."

"Yes."

Riza sat back and placed her hands on her lap. "Something as simple as that? I don't see the issue. It's not as if people have to know that we bit each other."

"But we'll know it."

"Okay, I need more explanation."

"In short, our emotions are connected. You're distressed. I can feel it. I feel yours very strongly right now."

"I don't feel anything from you right no—Wait! Does this bonding mean you can control my emotions?

"No. "

"Why can't I feel yours then?"

"I'm pureblood and been a vampire longer so I adapt more easily."

"Figures," she muttered and crossed her arms over her chest.

He straightened and moved his arm to rest behind her. "If it's any comfort, I'm not used to having a mate. I'm just as ignorant as you on that."

"We can't divorce or something?"

"Once you're bonded there's nothing to be done. It's even a faithfulness detector. If your mate cheats, you know about it."

She didn't care about that. She wasn't exactly planning to screw every man she came across. Just one she fell in love with.

But you aren't in love with Roy here and you had sex with him.

He's different. He's… well he's Roy. And I was desperate to be spoiled after all.

That doesn't excuse last night.
I was horny.

Okay, that excuses it but look what your hormones got you into.

She shut up her thoughts and redirected them to something else. "I'm betting there's even a built in radar right? Like we know where each other is at all times."

"I have no idea about that. I didn't think it would ever happen to me so I never bothered asking or reading about it."

"Maybe it's in one of the books you brought in." She retrieved the books then went over and sat down on the floor in front of the fireplace. She looked up at him. "It's warmer here."

He grinned and moved to sit beside her. "Give me one of those books. I guess I'll learn more as you do."