NOTE: the Millennium Items in this have slightly different powers. Example: the Millennium Eye. All will be explained in due time.
Chapter Three: Same Disease
Shivering. He couldn't stop shivering. The cold was so intense it burned. It washed over him in sickening waves and slicked his skin with sweat. A cool, long-fingered but small hand draped across his forehead. He tried to speak, but he couldn't. His tongue rolled uselessly. His mouth was so dry… he was so thirsty.
"Don't worry. I know what you need," a deep voice rumbled, vaguely familiar.
Soft flesh brushed his lips. Liquid, cool and bitter, coppery, gushed along. He choked. It was strangely viscous. But, after the first gulp, the others came easily. After a couple swallows, the flow tapered, until it was only a few drops. Thirst quenched, he drifted off on the tumultuous waves of restless unconsciousness.
Kaiba stirred. Even with the heaviness of sleep, his limbs felt light. He slid them along the silken sheets and sighed through his nose. So soft. They smelled really good, too. He turned onto his side. He stretched, back arched, toes curled. His eyes fluttered open.
Where was he?
He jolted upright, and the sudden movement made nausea crash into him.
"You're awake," a deep voice said.
He whipped his head around. A dark bedroom. A canopied bed. An old, ornate chair in the corner with a stranger perched upon it.
"Who the hell are you? Where the fuck am I?" Kaiba said in a raspy attempt of a growl.
The man snapped his heavy tome shut, and with a graceful, lazy wrist, set it upon the end table next to him. He sat in elegant repose, one leg crossed primly over the other, one elbow propped on the arm of the chair and his chin upon his knuckles. "My kin have come to call me Yami. My human acquaintances know me as Yugi. It matters not how you address me."
Both of those sounded Japanese. But those angular, exotic eyes alluded to mirages and palm-laden oases. "What the hell is that supposed to mean? Then what's your actual name?" He couldn't help but eye the man's hair. It was wild like the mane of some noble beast. Kaiba wanted to bolt up, punch this man, and escape. But even with the airy sensation over his body, he felt lethargic and weak.
Violet eyes blinked slowly. "It's one better left to the sands of time."
Kaiba pressed his palm to his forehead. His skin was surprisingly cool. "Okay. Where the fuck am I and how did I get here?"
The man, Yami, Yugi, whatever, just stared at him for a moment. "How much do you remember, Seto Kaiba?"
He wasn't too surprised that this stranger knew his name. He was a famous CEO of a multi-billion dollar corporation. "I remember… driving. To Industrial Illusions. I had a meeting with-" he paused. This stranger did not need this information. He could be a corporate spy.
"Maximillion Pegasus," Yami finished.
"Hn."
"Do you remember what happened during your meeting?"
He remembered the haze. The slipping consciousness. "That bastard drugged me."
"Not quite. What else do you remember?"
Kaiba grumbled. It was hazy. The flash of gold. A mouth full of razors. The serpent tongue. The drug had made him hallucinate, he was sure.
"That was no hallucination," the stranger said.
"What?"
"Pegasus used his powers and accosted you. He used his stinger to drain you of your blood."
Kaiba gripped his hair. "What, like some vampire legend bullshit? Yeah right. Sorry, I left my superstitions at home with my holy water and wooden stake. It's fucking stupid. And how do you even know about that?"
Yami chuckled. "I was there."
That voice. The voice from his waking memories. It was there too, when he was lost in the dark, drugged recesses of his unconscious.
"And I assure you, this is not some 'vampire legend bullshit.' It is very real. More so than you can imagine."
"I'm not going to be fooled by your hocus-pocus nonsense. You're either part of this hallucination, or you're a kidnapper trying to disorient me. Well, guess what, either way it's not working." He sat up straighter, moved toward the edge of the bed. "You're going to let me leave or suffer the consequences."
The stranger arched an eyebrow. "Touch your neck, Kaiba. The left side."
Though he curled his lip with defiance, his hand automatically followed the man's orders. Sure enough, there were two puncture wounds, like bad mosquito bites. He touched the other side. Four more, evenly spaced like the vertices of a square.
He snarled. "That proves nothing. For all I know, you just stabbed my neck with a goddamn pencil. Or I'm hallucinating."
Violet eyes flashed to crimson, surely a trick of the light. "Perhaps that doesn't, but this will." Fast as lightning, the stranger bolted from his chair. He rushed upon Kaiba, and his strong hands latched onto his shoulder and shoved him back to the mattress.
Wide blue eyes stared up in shock. Black clad Yami's form, shadows that raged and danced like some wicked inferno. Crimson glowed down upon him. The back of a clawed, deathly cold hand traced down his cheek. Kaiba squirmed, but those hands gripped his wrists and pinned them to the mattress. His skin tingled; they were sucking the heat out of him. Black smoky wings unfurled, arched high above both of their heads.
The shadow figure hunkered down low. "A man as smart as you should know that one cannot physically interact with his hallucination." That deep voice resonated, the syllables susurrated like the wind at midnight.
Kaiba shook, his every nerve trembled. "H-Holy shit."
The monster growled. It withdrew as suddenly as it lunged, and, before Kaiba knew it, Yami was relaxing back into his chair.
Kaiba stayed laid back. His quaking fingers curled into the sheets. "This… this is one fucked up dream." His voice was but a hollow whisper.
It was the only explanation. Hallucinations can't be physically touched. But, for a dream, it seemed so vivid, so… crisp. There was an inkling of doubt that he could conjure a figment as lurid as the… monster before him.
"Whether you believe it or not, I must tell you what transpired," Yami began. "Pegasus is Strigoi, one of the many varieties of vampire. He was either attempting to enthrall you, or turn you into one of his spawn. Perhaps only kill you. I did not have the chance to ask him." The last sentence was rather wry in tone.
Kaiba shook his head vehemently, though he couldn't bring himself to speak.
"He has an artifact called the Millennium Eye. He used it to amplify his own powers. I imagine he was trying to render you unconscious, to control your body to do his bidding, like some soulless puppet."
Kaiba covered his face with his hands. No, he didn't want to listen to any of this. It was ridiculous.
"Fortunately for you, they don't work quite as well on humans as they do us."
"Us?" Kaiba snapped.
Yami's eyes narrowed. "Yes. I thought you'd gather that I, too, am one of the Children of the Night. Though Pegasus and his ilk are but a mockery of my power. Now, you, too, are one of us. I bit you, drained the last of your blood. I hoped that my bite would overcome that of Pegasus, but we have yet to see if I prevailed. I have little doubt I did."
Kaiba hissed and bolted upright once again. "What?! Are you insane?!"
"Don't believe me? You are most stubborn. Notice, even when you trembled in fear your heart remained still in your chest."
Kaiba scrambled, pushed both of his hands to different pulse points.
Nothing. Nothing but silence and cold flesh.
"The heat of your human body has dissipated to the cold of the grave. You are undead now."
Kaiba trembled, shivered deep to his core. It felt as if his whole body were about to shake apart. He stared, unblinking, at his pale, twitching hands. "Wh-what have you done to me?"
Yami's deep voice drew nearer. "The options were limited. Would you rather be dead? Though you have your precious Mokuba to protect?"
Blue eyes snapped up to violet. "How do you know about him?"
"Your call to him was what drew me to you. So strongly you clung to his image that you narrowly escaped the clutches of death." Yami's voice grew quiet, gentle, understanding. "He's very important to you. I understand the struggle of protecting loved ones."
"You know nothing!" Kaiba hissed.
"More than you. I have had thousands of years to love and lose."
"Shut up!" He rocked back and forth on the bed. None of this was happening. It was all just a dream. He would wake up and he would realize that he fell asleep at his desk.
Cool hands rested upon his shoulders, and he tore himself away. "Don't touch me!"
"Your mania is predictable. Please, rest."
Kaiba bolted up, though vertigo pounded behind his eyes. "Let me out of here!"
"I cannot do that."
Kaiba made for the door, but Yami was there in a flash.
"I do not want to do this, but if you do not calm down, I may have to force you."
Kaiba lunged at his captor. Yami ducked beneath his arm and grabbed him by the throat. He hardly squeezed, but already the edges of Kaiba's vision were feathering black. His body slacked, and lithe arms encompassed him before he collapsed to the floor. Before his eyes slid shut, all he could see was a blood red glow.
Yami sighed as he held the limp man in his arms. "I can already tell you will be a handful." Hopefully, Yami won't need to forcefully sedate him frequently. He shifted his hold and stood. Seto Kaiba was draped in his arms like some distressed damsel.
He settled the fledgling back onto the mattress. He hovered over his charge, and with one slender finger, lifted Kaiba's lip. The canine was just barely extended, though the tip was much sharper than the normal human's. He gripped Kaiba's lower jaw and opened his mouth.
He frowned a little.
A slightly elongated tongue. Hopefully the only remnant of Pegasus' influence.
He let go of the fledgling's face and patted his cheek. He deftly undid his wristband and dragged a clawed nail across the dark veins there. His face remained passive, though his flesh split and dark red blood welled.
He cradled the back of Kaiba's head and tilted him forward. The moment his blood touched those sleeping lips they parted. Never had Yami been more glad that vampires could drink in their sleep. He petted the disheveled brown locks as Kaiba supped. Before long, the wound knitted closed, and Yami licked clean his wrist.
He moved back to the chair, sat, and opened his book.
END PART