Blood Lust
by Madame Bomb
Zuki Week – Day 3 (March 31st)
Prompt: MODERN AU
Rating: M
Summary: When Suki's vampire stalker shows up wounded in front of her apartment building, she finds herself helping him despite herself.
Notes: This is a preview of a longer AU I'm planning to write after I finish the Smoke Demons Saga. It's a supernatural romance AU series. It's gonna be kinda nuts and VERY AU, but I've been dying to write it for a long time. Zuko just makes such a great vampire. I've dabbled with this idea before in "Never Say Die" too.
The rain was cold, trickling down her neck and sending shivers down her spine. She hunched her shoulders, fists jammed into her pockets, red hair plastered to her face. Her breath steamed in the cold air; this rain was going to turn to ice soon.
She clenched her hand around her weapon, just in case, always ready.
She hurried her pace, splashing through puddles as she crossed the nearly empty streets. The flickering lights from a half-dozen neon signs threw rainbows across the silvery wet pavement. Her eyes flicked to the side, wary as she passed alley after narrow alley. She was always on alert in this neighborhood, even during the day.
But at night?
Strange things happened in Ba Sing Se at night, and she'd seen too many of them to ever believe that she was safe from them. Not even in the rain. Not even with her training and experience.
There were things with teeth in this city. And they were hungry. A woman walking alone at night was an easy target for those hungry things. Just being out, rain or no rain, was asking for trouble.
Suki smiled as the rain trailed down her cheek. She was used to hunting trouble, and she usually found it, but tonight she just wanted to get home, take a warm bath, and relax with a cup of tea in front of the TV.
The hungry things could have the cold and rain tonight. She was off-duty.
And hopefully my stalker won't show up again, she thought darkly, but a shiver coursed up her spine the next moment. She bit her lip, crossing the street and approaching her apartment building. If he keeps it up, I really will put him out of his misery...
She felt heat in her face at the thought, and her stomach roiled with uncertainty at the thought. She never quite knew what to make of the man who had been dogging her steps for the past month.
Except he's not a man at all, is he?
Suki tried to push him out of her thoughts as she started up the steps to her building, but it wasn't easy. She found it almost impossible not to think about him. He'd certainly made it his personal mission to dog her steps since the night they'd met. The night he'd saved her life...and she'd nearly killed him for it.
And why didn't you? she asked herself, shaking her head as she fished into her pocket for her keys. She'd been asking herself that question for weeks, and she was no closer to an answer now than she had been the night she'd met Zuko. She should have killed him, by all rights.
But he'd saved her.
And she hadn't been able to bring herself to do it.
"Suki..."
She started, whipping around immediately and pulling out the stake she'd been keeping concealed in her pocket. She stopped, staring at the scarred man—the vampire—standing in the pool of soft yellow light beneath the battered light pole across the street.
Their eyes met across the distance, blue to gold, for one hot moment.
Then Zuko collapsed forward into the street, clutching at his chest. He landed with a splash in a puddle of water that was slowly rimming with ice, groaning in pain. She saw blood in the water, deep red, almost black.
She should have turned tail and run into her building. She should have left him for dead—he was already dead—but she didn't. She couldn't. Her heart leaped and she shoved her stake back into her pocket, running back down her stoop and skidding into the street.
She slipped on ice, going down on her knees before him. She rolled him over immediately and saw that he was unconscious.
"Zuko? Zuko!" she shivered, breath steaming before them, water dripping down her lips. She cupped Zuko's pale face, her fingers caressing the big burn scar on his eye as she tried to get him to look at her. Her hands touched his chest, and they came away bloody. "What happened to you?"
Every warning bell in her head was going off. She should run, leave him in the street. He was trouble, a vampire. She killed vampires.
But Zuko wasn't like other vampires. He wasn't like anyone she'd ever met.
He had saved her life.
And that meant that she owed him.
It wasn't easy but she managed to drag him across the street, out of the bloody puddle and onto the sidewalk. He wasn't exactly light; he was tall and muscled and outweighed her by at least forty pounds. She wasn't a lightweight though. Her martial arts training had put muscle her frame, and she was used to fighting outside of her weight class.
She wasn't used to dragging heavy ass vampires though. She usually just tossed them into walls and put stakes in their hearts. Moving the body afterwards was never an option; vampires turned to dust after they'd been staked.
Zuko was very much not dust though, and getting him to the steps proved a sweating, straining ordeal. Streaks of blood pooled in the puddles on the sidewalk as she dragged him to safety. The air grew colder and colder as she worked, until the rain turned into the promised ice.
It stung her skin and fell on the street in little icy pellets. It made everything that much harder; her boots slipped and slid as she got him up the steps. She unlocked the door of her building and threw it wide, praying that none of her neighbors decided to walk their dogs. The last thing she needed was a nosy neighbor witnessing her dragging a bloody, unconscious vampire into her apartment.
Because that was exactly what she was going to do. And wasn't that a stupid idea? Probably the dumbest thing she could ever do.
And yet here she was.
"This would be a lot easier if you didn't weigh a ton, you sexy dead asshole," Suki grunted, her foot slipping on the icy step. She went down, sprawling across Zuko's chest. She was surprised to find herself face to face with him.
And his eyes were open.
"You think I'm sexy?" he whispered in a thready voice, his wet hair half in his face.
"And an asshole," she said. "You left that part out. What happened to you?"
"My father..." he said and then his eyes fluttered shut again. She grabbed his face and shook him.
"No! Wake up you jerk! You're bleeding in my damned lobby! Come on! Help me out here... Zuko! I live in a fucking walk-up! I can't drag your undead ass up two flights of stairs!"
He opened his eyes again, but his expression was unfocused.
"You sound worried about me," he said, and his mouth curled into that half-smile that made her feel like she wasn't getting enough oxygen all of a sudden. She could see his fangs and they were sharp and white and hungry.
"I'm worried about my neighbors finding me with a bleeding man in the lobby. Come on," she said, getting up, and dragging him into the lobby the whole way. She closed the door, and then helped him to his feet. It wasn't easy, but at least he was conscious.
Getting him up the stairs was even harder. He leaned on her the whole way, and nearly passed out again about four times. By the time she got the door of her studio apartment open, he was weaving on his feet, barely conscious.
They started into her apartment, but Zuko stumbled back like he'd been physically pushed. She caught him before he could fall, and saw the little smile on his lips.
"You have to invite me in," he whispered, meeting her eye.
"I shouldn't," she said tightly, and he laughed, the sound tired. There was blood on his lips.
"You really shouldn't," he said, and then he crumpled. She caught him, shoving her shoulder beneath his arm. He groaned, his head falling forward onto her neck.
Shivers shot through her as she felt his mouth against her skin. He groaned and she felt a shudder go through his body. Fear rode hot and tight through her; this was dangerous and stupid. What was she doing?!
"Come in, Zuko," she said against every instinct she possessed. She hoped she didn't come to regret it. She had a feeling she would, but the damage had been done. She'd deal with the consequences later.
She really hoped there would be a later.
They stumbled across her threshold and she guided him over to her sofa. Her apartment was a studio; a tiny space with a little kitchenette and just enough room for a couch, a bed, and a little table by the windows that looked down into the street. It wasn't much, but it was home. And it was safe.
Having a vampire, one of the unnatural creatures she had sworn years ago to hunt down and kill whenever she could, in that safe space should have felt wrong, like a violation.
But Zuko seemed too injured to be a threat at the moment. She turned on the lights, and then ran into her bathroom and grabbed the well-stocked first aid kit from beneath her sink. Hunting vampires had taught her a lot about first aid over the years; if you were going to hunt monsters you had to get good at stitching yourself up afterward.
She grabbed a towel and came back into the room to find that Zuko had his head in his hands, his wet hair falling forward like a slick black curtain.
"I'm getting blood on your couch," he said, looking up at her.
"Wouldn't be the first time," she said grimly, coming over to him. She shrugged her jacket off and tossed it aside. "Let's get your coat off."
Zuko moved slowly, obviously in pain as they peeled his leather jacket off. He started to pull his black t-shirt off too, but stopped, grabbing at a hole in the shirt, the one that was dripping with that dark blood. Suki tugged the shirt off for him, feeling heat in her face as she did so.
It had been a while since she'd undressed a man in her apartment.
This isn't sexy, you idiot, he's bleeding, she admonished herself, avoiding his eye as she crouched before him to study the wound in his chest.
"Holy shit," she mumbled as she saw just how bad the wound was; if he'd been human he'd have been dead in the street before she'd gotten to him. That much was clear. "How are you alive right now?"
"Missed the heart," he said softly, pressing his balled up shirt to the wound. "But only just. And I'm not alive. Not technically."
"Believe me, I know," she said darkly, pushing his hand away. "Will this heal?"
"It should, but only if I feed now," he said and then he looked up, his eyes on her.
Suki jerked away from him immediately, her jaw clenching. Her heart hammered hard in her chest. "Is that why you came here? To kill me?"
But Zuko shook his head. "Suki, I could have killed you the first night we met. I saved your life. I would never harm you."
"You're a vampire," she, shaking her head. "Vampires are evil."
"I'm no more evil than a shark is evil," Zuko said. "I drink blood, but that does not mean I must kill to do it. Many vampires kill because they lack the capacity or skill to resist draining their victim of blood. It is...difficult to control the urge to drink until the heart stops, but not impossible. Like an alcoholic who can't take just one sip of whiskey, they want more and more until the bottle is empty."
"I'm not a bottle of whiskey," Suki said harshly.
"And yet, I've been drunk on you since we met," he whispered, reaching out and touching her face. She shivered at his touch; his skin was cold and it had nothing to do with the rain and ice. "I should not have come here after the attack. I could not stop myself."
"What happened to you?" she asked, opening the first aid kit. She was trying not to think about how sharp his fangs were, or of the way he was looking at her so hungrily. And she was definitely not thinking about what he'd said about being drunk on her. Oh no. She was not going to think about that at all. "You mentioned your father? I didn't know vampires had fathers."
He laughed softly, and then clutched at the wound in his chest, his scarred face tight with pain. "We're not born of the shadows. I was human once. I had a mother. She died before I was turned. And my father... My father and my sister are also vampires. We do not get along."
"If he put a stake in your chest then I imagine you don't," she said, pulling out bandages. She pressed a large non-stick pad to the wound and blood immediately soaked through it. "Why did he try to kill you?"
"An old grudge. He wasn't trying to kill me, though. If he wanted me dead, I would be dust. This was a warning to stay out of his business. I'm afraid I have been a disappointment to him for centuries."
Her hand stilled and she looked up at him in shock. "Centuries?"
His lips curled up in the corners as he put his hand over hers. "I am older than I look."
"I'll say," she mumbled, heat in her face. "Centuries, huh? You've been killing people for hundreds of years."
"I do not kill," he said, shaking his head. "I told you, it is not necessary. I learned long ago how to resist the kill. I do not want to be a monster. My family, they are not like me, however. They revel in death and glory in the kill."
"So you're a cuddly vampire?" The skepticism in her voice was biting. Zuko laughed.
"Hardly," he said and she saw his fangs again, just a flash of them. "But I am not a danger to you."
"Yes, you are," she said softly. "I swore to kill vampires, Zuko. I've been hunting your kind for years, ever since I was a teenager. I hate vampires. And yet... You saved me, and I brought you into my apartment when I know better. I shouldn't have done that, but I did. That's dangerous. You're dangerous, Zuko, and not in a way that I know how to fight against."
"I won't harm you, on my honor," he said and it sounded like an oath.
"I want to believe that, but..." she trailed off, and then turned back to the first aid kit.
"What did vampires take from you?" he asked, surprising her. She looked at him and then away again.
"My friends. I was in high school. My friends and I sneaked out to party at this club. We had fake ID's, and we took Tam's sister's car. There was a band playing at this club that we wanted to see. We were fifteen and stupid, and the vampires killed every single person that club. They killed my friends in front of me, drained them dry."
"You dI'd not die."
"Not from lack of trying," Suki said, pushing her hair back from her neck and showing him the ugly scar there. She knew he'd already seen it though; it was hard to miss. The vampire who had bitten her had ripped at her neck to get at her blood. He'd been half a beast, growling and snarling and chewing at her neck. She still had nightmares about it. "I should have died. I nearly did. But I lived, and no one else did."
"And so you decided to get back at the monsters who took your friends from you," he whispered, reaching out with his blood-streaked hand and touching the scar on her neck. She jerked away immediately, letting her red hair fall back to cover it as much as she could. "You're brave, Suki."
"I'm stupid and I clearly have a death wish," she said bitterly. "I go out on the streets every night looking for a fight. One of these nights I'm not going to make it home, and a part of me doesn't even care. Not if it means that there's one less monster out there killing innocent people."
"You nearly did die, the night we met," he said. "If I hadn't been there you would have."
She knew it was the truth. She'd seen her death in the heartless eyes of the vampire who had had her pinned down. Zuko had pulled him off of her, and staked the vampire himself, but not before she'd seen that he was also a vampire.
She'd been so confused that night; she'd never been saved by a vampire before. And the way he'd looked at her...
Ever since that night he'd been showing up on her patrols of the streets, watching her from rooftops and fire escapes. He'd helped her out once or twice, even though she didn't want him to. She hadn't been able to bring herself to attack him, even though his behavior was nothing like what she had come to expect out of vampires.
Zuko was different. She didn't know what he wanted from her. She just knew that over the past month he had been showing up in her life more and more, and when she'd found him in the street she'd been unable to walk away.
He was different, but he was still a vampire.
"There is more in this city than just vampires, Suki. There are creatures who change their shape for those of wolves. There are demons. And angels of pure light. You are fighting a war you cannot win."
"You think I don't know that?" she shot at him, cocking her head. "I've seen a lot of scary shit in this city, Zuko. Things that give me nightmares. I know what I'm getting myself into."
"You really don't," he said, shaking his head.
"So why did you save me that night?"
He looked thoughtful for a moment and then his gaze was far away, as if he was remembering something from long ago.
"You smelled like flowers in the sunlight," he whispered, and his eyes hit hers again. She felt pinned there before him, trapped in the gold of his gaze. "You still do."
She had a feeling that wasn't the complete truth, but she wasn't in the mood to challenge a bleeding vampire. She pressed a second bandage to his wound and it came away less bloody than it had before. It was healing before her eyes, but she'd seen vampire wounds heal faster. He needed blood.
"Why did you save me tonight?" he asked.
"I owed you," she said, taping the bandage down. "And you're... You're different."
"So are you. You're like no one I've ever met, Suki. You've been kind to me tonight. It's been a very long time since anyone was kind to me. Thank you," he said awkwardly and she saw pain in his eyes that had nothing to do with his wounds.
Suki sat back on her heels, biting her bottom lip. She met his eyes for a moment and then wrung her hands for a moment.
Oh, this is a bad idea... she thought, but she'd already made up her mind. She'd deal with the consequences later. If later came.
"You need to feed."
"Yes."
"You can control it? You don't have to kill?" she said as Zuko's eyes flicked from her face to her neck.
"No, I do not. I will not. Especially not you," he said. "I give you my word, on my honor."
"What am I doing?" she mumbled and then pushed her hair back. "On your honor, then. You need to feed and I'm full of blood."
"Are you sure?" he asked, but she could see the hunger in his eyes. Panic hit her and she nearly ran out of the room. But she'd already made up her mind. And she trusted him.
She didn't know why, but she did. She hoped she wasn't wrong about him.
Oh, please don't let me regret this...
"I wouldn't have offered if I wasn't," she whispered. "Do it."
He stared at her for a long moment; she could hear her neighbor's TV through the thin walls, and the ice hissing against her windows. Her heart was beating hard. She knew that he could hear it.
He scooted forward on the sofa, and his chin tilted a little.
"Come here," he said in a voice that ran fingers of desire up her spine. She tried to ignore it, just as she had since meeting him, but it wasn't easy. Not when he was looking at her like that. Like he wanted to devour more than her blood.
She started to sit down on the couch beside him, but Zuko stopped her, pulling her into a standing position before her. He looked up at her, his face level with her stomach. His eyes were hot and wanting.
"It will be easier if you sit in my lap," he said and his hands settled on her hips, pulling her forward.
"It will?" she said, brow arching.
"I can hold you more securely that way. You may panic and hurt yourself otherwise," he said seriously. "My teeth are very sharp. I could hurt you against my will if you jerked at the wrong moment."
"What am I getting myself into?" she said and then took a breath. Oh well. In for a penny, in for a pound.
She settled into his lap, straddling him with her legs on either side of his hips. The hands on her hips slid to the small of her back as she settled into place. Her hand touched his chest, to the right of the bandaged wound that had made him collapse in the street.
"What if you drink too much?"
"I will not," he said soberly. "And I will heal you afterwards."
Suki stiffened, her eyes widened. "Heal me?"
"My blood will heal the bite without leaving a scar," he said softly, looking at her neck.
"Can all vampires do that?"
"Yes. Our blood can heal almost any wound, if it is not mortal," he said, stroking his thumb across the old bite mark. "I always heal my bite marks."
"Who are you out here biting?" she asked, and felt a weird sort of jealousy.
"No one who doesn't want it," he said, and she saw his fangs flash again, his amusement clear in his eyes. "Relax."
Relax? She was definitely incapable of that at the moment. Relaxing was not an option when she was sitting in a hungry, wounded vampire's lap feeling like she was about to come out of her skin if he kept looking at her like he wanted to take her to bed.
Or maybe that was just what she wanted.
She blushed, looking down at his chest. She had been trying very hard not to look at his naked chest, but she couldn't help herself now. He was beautiful, his skin like white marble stretched over steel. She lifted her eyes to his. His face was inches from hers, his lips parted. The scar on his face invited her regard this close up. It was an unusual thing to see on a vampire; most vampires didn't have scars. They healed too quickly for that.
He must have gotten it when he was still human, but she couldn't imagine how such a burn might have happened. She was afraid to ask.
"I will not harm you," he whispered.
"You promise?"
He nodded, and pushed her hair back behind her ear, exposing the ugly bite scar on her neck. His fingers slid over it. "The vampire that did was newly made. It is not easy when you are reborn to control your instincts when the blood lust is on. It takes many years to learn control, and some never do. They do not want to."
"But you do?"
"I did not ask to be what I am. This was done to me."
"By your father?"
He looked at her, startled, and she knew that she was right. "There is a lot you do not know, Suki. I am putting you at risk just being here, but I could not stop myself..."
"I guess I can't stop myself either," she said, biting her lip and then pushing her hips against his. His eyes slammed shut at that, and he trembled. "And maybe I don't want to?"
Zuko cupped her face and she took a shaking breath, afraid and thrilled at the same time. She didn't know what he was thinking, but she had a feeling she could guess. There was more than blood lust in his eyes as he looked at her, and there had been since the night he'd saved her.
He pulled her closer, until her chest was against his, her hands between them. His arms tightened on her trunk, keeping her there against him.
"Hold very still," he whispered, his mouth hovering over hers. Then he moved his head, sliding his nose down her neck on the opposite side of the ugly bite scar. Her pulse raced, heart galloping with fear and wild with desire. She knew it, and so did he. She knew he could smell it, and couldn't pretend being this close to him wasn't doing things to her she couldn't control.
He kissed her pulse point, and shivers burst to life on her skin. He was cold, so cold. Suki's eyes fluttered shut. She ignored the warnings, the fear, the memories of her first vampire.
She trusted Zuko.
She didn't know why. But she did.
He bit her, his fangs sinking into her neck like a hot knife through butter. She expected pain, but it didn't come. She held still, breathing shallowly, as Zuko moaned. He pulled his fangs out and she felt his tongue stroke across her skin.
She could feel her blood flowing then, could feel the hot flood that came out of her with each pump of her wild heart.
Then his mouth sealed over the wounds, capturing all of the blood with a hard pull that made her gasp. His arms tightened again, keeping her from pulling away. Her mouth opened in a wordless pant, eyes shut tightly.
"Oh my God..." she breathed as Zuko drank from her. The pull of his mouth was deep, and she could feel it shivering little fingers of desire down her skin. Her nipples hardened against his chest. She felt her body clench and her hips pushed forward again, back bowing.
Zuko gave a growl, the sound all animal, full of desire.
Desire for her, or her blood, she wasn't sure.
She was pretty sure it was both.
He took another deep, hard pull, and then jerked his face away. She saw his face then, saw the hard light in his eyes. She knew that look; she'd seen it on the faces of a hundred vampires over the years. She expected him to lose it then, to go for her again, to tear at her neck the way that first vampire had done.
But he licked at his bloody lips and pricked his thumb with his fangs. Blood welled on the end of his thumb and he pressed it against the bite mark he'd made. She didn't stop him, as he smeared the blood across the bite marks.
The bite marks sizzled, fiery heat filling her. She gasped at the heat of his blood, surprised by it. She had thought it would feel cold, but little fires raced through her veins, bringing heat tingling to her cheeks.
The desire in her sharpened, like a white hot blade, digging deep into her fiery heartas the bite healed with a burn. Suki shuddered, her eyes on his ruby lips.
"In another hour you will not even have a mark there," he said, licking his lips. He looked up at her and she took in a sharp breath. "Thank you, I can feel my wounds healing already."
She kissed him.
She hadn't intended to do it. She'd started to thank him for healing her, but before the words left her she'd leaned forward, claiming his lips with her own. She tasted her blood, sharp and coppery, in his mouth as he immediately cupped the back of her neck, kissing her back.
He kissed her like he'd been dying to do it. Like he was going to devour her like he'd threatened from the first moment they'd met.
Suki freed her arms from between them and threw them around his shoulders. Her hands sank into his hair wet hair, moaning into his kiss. Every warning signal and stop sign in her head was thrown completely out the window as his hands gripped her and his kiss seared across her senses.
It was exactly what she'd thought it would be like, when she'd allowed her fantasies to break through her good sense. Kissing Zuko was dangerous. More dangerous than letting him drink her blood.
She was vaguely aware of him shifting, lifting her against him and then settling her down on the couch on her back, with him on top of her. Her thighs clasped his narrow hips, his mouth diving against hers, his kiss drugging and deep.
His wound seemed to be much better; it wasn't slowing him down in any case. His hips pushed between her legs and she felt his grow hard as her blood rushed through him. She felt heat race to her skin at that, but it just drove her hips upward, grinding against him.
She found herself biting down on his lower lip, pulling on it. Zuko pulled his head back, letting her tug on his lip. When she let it go, she saw the flash of his eyes. Then he drove her head back down into the cushions, kissing her with avarice.
Her hands ran down his back, feeling the marble skin, the stretch and pull of his muscles. He was still cold, but he warmed beneath her touch, alive with need. For her.
This was madness, but when had her life ever been anything but insane?
Zuko's mouth move to her neck, but he didn't bite her again. Instead he kissed at her skin, sending shivers down her body. Her hands tangled in his hair, holding him to her, half of her wanting him to bite her again, the other half wanting nothing more than to peel the jeans from his hips.
"Zuko..." she mumbled, and her need was plain in the desperate edge in her voice. She turned her head and found his neck. She bit down on his skin and he hissed through his teeth, then jerked back from her.
His fangs were out again, gleaming between his wet lips. His eyes were jewel-bright, swirling with emotion and need. Suki panted beneath him, her damp t-shirt rucked up her stomach, showing off the hard-won muscle of her lower belly. Zuko lifted up onto his knees, his tangled hair flowing down his shoulders.
"Suki..." he started and then he bit back a curse, pain in his eyes. "I can't do this."
"What?"
He was up and off of her before she could so much as blink, scooping up his torn and blood-soaked t-shirt. He pulled it on over the bandages and then grabbed his jacket.
"What are you doing?" she asked, pushing herself up off of the sofa cushion, her head spinning with desire and confusion. "Zuko, where are you going?"
He grabbed his jacket. "I shouldn't have come here, Suki. I'm putting you in danger."
"You said that before. I don't care!"
He turned on her with a curse. "You should! There's a price on my head. My father is coming for me. He'll do anything to take me down, including killing anyone who tries to help me. If he knew that I was here tonight... He'd torture you, Suki. He'd tear you limb from limb. Just to hurt me. Just because he'd enjoy it. And if he knew that I cared about you... There's nothing he wouldn't do to you. I can't put you in danger like that."
"I'm not afraid," she said, getting up off of the couch.
"You should be!" he said, his face tortured. He backed away from her, but not toward the door this time. He moved toward the windows that faced the street. "You should be afraid, Suki. Of my father. And of me."
"You won't hurt me. I know you won't."
"I hurt you just being here. If he finds out...if he had me followed... I'll never forgive myself. I should have stayed away from you from the start, but I... I couldn't stop myself."
"I couldn't either," she said, rushing forward. "I think you know that. You're a vampire, but you're different. You are, Zuko."
His eyes squeezed shut tightly. Then he put on his jacket. "We can't do this, Suki. I can't be the reason something happens to you. I won't."
"You can't just leave, not after you kissed me like that! I know you don't want to."
He stopped at the window, silhouetted against the light coming in from the streetlight below. He turned on her with his eyes filled with regret. Her heart ached as she saw the tortured expression on his face. "What I want... It doesn't matter. I want you safe. And you won't be if I don't leave now. I have to stay away from you from now on. You won't see me again."
"What if that's not what I want? I don't want you to go."
But he shook his head sadly and opened her window. He slung one leg over and looked back at her. "You don't have a choice. Stay safe, Suki."
Then he dropped out of the window and out of sight. Suki rushed to the window, but by the time she had crossed the little room, the street was empty. Ice glistened on the sidewalks and on the street, and dripped from the streetlight. Bitter cold rushed into the room, cooling her heated skin as she breathed in the damp night air.
"Dammit," she cursed, her heart aching. She closed the window and leaned her head against the glass, breathing deeply. Her hand crept to her neck. She couldn't feel a wound, just a warm ache beneath her skin.
She could still feel his mouth against hers, hot and drugging, tasting of her blood and desire. He'd wanted her as much as she'd wanted him and she knew it. Her skin felt overheated, a buzz in her veins. She'd been feeling this way ever since she'd met him, and this had just made it so much worse.
Because now she knew. She knew what it was like to kiss him. She had seen the gentle need in his eyes, the honesty. He hadn't hurt her. She didn't think he ever would.
She wasn't afraid of his mysterious father, no matter what Zuko said. She had come up against nasty vampires before and she'd defeated all of them.
This was not over.
Not by a long shot.
(end?)