DISCLAIMER – I do not own Gundam Wing.
Chapter One
"Jackass," Duo muttered to his captors as he was dragged through the damp and dungeon-looking castle. It was right out of a storybook, he thought. The whole Count Dracula living in some dark and foreboding stone castle. And he thought that was just a stereotype. Until now.
"Move it, vermin," one of the vamps holding his arm hissed, showing off his elongated incisors and growling menacingly. Normally, Duo would be scared at the closeness of the vampires around him. And this was one of those normal times. Duo was terrified.
He glanced to his side as the vamps took him down the long corridor in the basement of the castle. It was obviously an old jail or dungeon area. The wide stone hallway had to gutters on either side, looking more like an underground road than an indoor passage. On either side of him, black iron bars caged in various creatures, from sniveling humans to the most demon-like vamps he'd ever seen. Those things looked more like beasts than the humans they used to be. One particular creature was snarling and chewing on the bars in an attempt to get out. It reached through the bars and tried to grab him as they passed, making its own blood spill into and flow down the gutters as it cut itself on the recently sharpened metal bars. Duo shuddered.
"Master," the vamp holding his left arm hissed, bowing and getting on his knees. His captors took him with them to the ground as they paid homage to the stern-looking Chinese vamp in front of them. Duo's wide violet eyes widened even more than when he'd seen the bloody demon a couple cages down. In the middle of the indoor road, Chang Wufei stood waiting for him. He'd seen pictures. Duo knew exactly who this guy was the moment he saw him. After all, he and the other Night Hunters had been chasing this exact vamp for the last three years.
Chang came forward, his arm appearing from beneath his black cape to reach out and grab Duo's wrist. Duo tried to get away. But Chang had an iron grip and kept a strong hold on his wrist while pushing Duo's long-sleeved shirt up to reveal his forearm.
"I don't know who you are," Chang said with a remarkably human voice, for being the leader of a horrendous society of vamps… "But I know what this means." The vamp glared down at Duo's arm, seeing the tail end, literally, of the large winged dragon tattoo that snaked around his forearm and up to his shoulder. He didn't need to see past the vermin's elbow to know what the rest of the tattoo looked like.
"Can we eat him?" one of the vamps asked in a quiet voice.
"No," Chang replied. "His link to my old comrades will draw them out of the shadows. We'll be able to kill them easily using this one as bait. That will end any slayer threat to our clan. And then we have only the Pureblood to find." He looked aside to a figure in the cage on his left. "Do you hear that, traitor? After I kill the human slayers, your precious Pureblood will be all alone and vulnerable to attack…"
Duo flinched as he heard the low growl emitted from the cage. A girl stood inside. Correction, a vampire stood inside. Odd to see a female vamp, his mind sidetracked for a moment. But she looked the part. Her pale ivory skin contrasted completely with her long dark hair, dark brown eyes, and black garb. But her eyes didn't seem to focus correctly as she glared at Chang through the bars. Her lips were curled into a very scary snarl.
"Step closer and say that," she challenged, coming closer to the bars. It looked to Duo like she had been in there for a few days.
One of the vamps behind Chang stepped forward, taunting her by running his hand back and forth across the bars in front of her face. "She's too deep in the lust to think straight," he commented, looking at Duo. "Perhaps she'd feed on this rat."
Chang's eyes lit up at the idea. It was perfect. The traitorous woman vampire refused to feed on humans, preferring the blood of her own kind and absorbing their strength. Now that she was becoming consumed by her bloodlust after being held in his dungeon for the past six days, Wufei was torn between breaking her spirit and tempting her to eat a human or using the little rat to destroy his biggest threat – the group of slayers he'd once been a part of. Too hard to choose.
"Let her choose," Chang ordered. "Throw the vermin in. If she eats him, fine. We'll still starve her till she becomes a beast like the others. If she doesn't, fine. We'll still use him to pull out our enemies and destroy them. Then starve her into a beast." He smiled at the prospect. This was the best way to torture two souls. He'd sleep well today.
Duo didn't even have time to register what was happening to him before he was thrown harshly against a stone wall and heard the loud clang of the gate being shut again. As soon as he gathered his senses, he immediately ran to the bars, as if running head first into metal was the only way to prove he'd really been thrown into a cell. Chang was already gone, along with most of his vampire cronies. Only that a few remained, including that one that had taunted the girl in the cell.
The girl in the cell! his mind screamed at him to remember. Duo turned around slowly, seeing the dark creature behind him. His knees felt weak and he turned back to the bars. The taunting vamp brought his hand up again, this time brushing the bars in front of Duo's face, just trying to make him angry.
"She'll eat you, you know. Little rat won't even last until tomorrow," the vamp said with a sneer. "Your blood will wash down the gutter. You're nothing but a meal, waiting to be eaten."
Without warning, Duo felt something swift beside him and he backed away from the rush of air that brushed against his cheek. With eyes wide, he watched as the girl vamp held tight to the teasing vamp's wrist, making blood drip as she dug into him with her nails. The teasing vamp looked terrified, trying desperately to get his hand back by clawing at her grip. He whimpered as he tried to break free. Viciously, the girl vampire leaned down, licking the blood dripping from his wrist. Smiling. Then she bit him.
The blood-curdling scream echoed through the stone hallways, making the beasts and other creatures of the dark dungeon howl and snarl in response. Duo just stared, having never seen a vampire consume the blood of its own kind. It was an ancient decree, the traitorous act of cannibalism among the undead. It was strictly forbidden. And here she was, doing it. Soon, she let go. The victim vampire cradled his arm against his chest as he whimpered and ran away.
Wiping the blood from her lips and chin, she merely looked at Duo before retreating into a corner, pulling her legs up and wrapping her arms around them as she sat.
"I won't hurt you," she said, her voice seemed so different now that she wasn't snarling or growling at someone.
Duo just backed away from her, seeing the fresh blood as it trickled down the gutter outside the cell bars. He was locked in a cell with a vampire. He shuddered as he backed away, not stopping till he hit the wall farthest from her and the gate to the cell.
"I understand," she said simply. Duo's heart ached a little. She seemed hurt that he'd been so scared of her. And really, he had no reason. Chang had called her a traitor. He'd seen her feed off of another vampire with his own eyes. That meant she wasn't a threat, right? Maybe.
"How long have you been here?" he asked, his voice shaking with fear and cold. The stone floors and walls weren't too comforting and warm, he noted.
"Five days, six nights. About to be six days," she replied, looking up as if she could see the sun rising through the stone ceiling. Duo shivered more violently, trying to fight the damp cold that seeped into his bones. "You're cold," she stated. She visibly hesitated for a moment before continuing, "Together, we'd be warmer."
Duo thought about it. Sitting next to a vamp and being warm…or sitting alone and getting hypothermia? Well, with the first choice, he'd at least have a chance of her not killing him. He didn't think hypothermia was so generous. He got up from the floor and walked over, sitting with his back against the wall next to her.
She didn't move to warm him, figuring any advance might be seen as a threat. So she stayed where she was with her back against the wall and her arms around her legs as she set her chin on her knees. "What's your name?" she asked.
She seemed more and more human the longer Duo looked at her. Maybe she had a chance of undergoing that strange transition thing that Trowa had wanted to perform on Chang back when he'd first been captured. "Duo," he said. "Duo Maxwell."
"And you're a Night Hunter?"
"Yes."
"I've seen you and your friends before. Many times. We both hunt Chang," she said, her voice slightly muffled by the fabric of her pants. "Why do you hunt him? And why did he not kill you?"
"He used to be one of us. This tattoo," Duo said, shoving his sleeve up to show part of the tail again, "was his design. All of his fellow slayers got it, proving they were friends in combat for life. Chang wants to use me to draw Heero and Trowa out of hiding. They hunt him, specifically." Duo didn't know why he was telling her this. She just seemed…seemed easy to talk to. If that were possible.
"Heero and Trowa?"
Duo yawned. It must be closer to dawn than he thought if he was already getting tired. Like the vampires, he and his fellow slayers slept during the day and hunted at night. But they hunted vampires instead of innocent human beings. "They were friends with Wufei during the war. All soldiers together…" he yawned again, not noticing that he'd slumped down on the wall and put his head on her shoulder.
*******
The loud clang of metal made Duo jump in his sleep. The gate of the cell had been thrown open and that same teasing vamp from earlier stood in the cell, looking down at him. Fear caused the adrenaline to rush through his body, giving him the speed and strength to scramble quickly to the far side of the cell again. As far away from vampires as he could get.
He looked at the girl vamp. Funny, he'd never learned her name. And he sure as hell didn't remember falling asleep. She had her eyes shut and he could see her mouth moving as her soft voice reached his straining ears. She was chanting something. Chanting something in a language that Duo didn't understand.
The intruding vamp walked further into the cell, holding out something long in his hands. Duo recognized it as his katana, an instant before the vamp let go of the sheathed sword and dropped it to the ground. Duo's eyes went wide again as he stared. The vamp dropped to his knees, laying his head back before the girl vampire, offering his neck. She stopped speaking and opened her eyes, standing up from her place on the floor. With achingly slow movements, she stepped forward and leaned down, her mouth getting wider as she brought her lips back and exposed her long canines.
Voices shouted from down the hall and both she and Duo snapped to attention. With a frustrated growl she pulled Duo's sword from it's sheath and slit the neck of the vamp on the floor.
"Come on," she snarled in Duo's direction. "They've noticed your weapon is missing. I'm sure they've figured out what happened. We need to leave this place." She stepped forward, holding Duo's katana in both outstretched hands, meaning it to be a peace offering. He came to her slowly, reaching out and grabbing a hold of his weapon. Instantly, he regretted his trust as her hand clamped down around his wrist, keeping him from being able to run back to the corner.
But she didn't want to return to the corner. Duo gasped and fought to keep his feet from tripping as she rushed out of the open gate, down the hallway to the door at the end. She was pulling Duo behind her as she ran, not giving him a chance to argue against it. Then he heard them. The snarls coming from behind as two vamps gave chase. The door at the end of the hallway was flung against the wall as they darted inside, meeting the spiral staircase.
The staircase was also something out of a dream, Duo noted. The stone steps twisted around a central column in the large tower, but there was no railing on the stairs. Only a big empty space between the outside edge of the stair and the wall. One could easily fall to their death from the third or fourth floor. He was aware of her changing her grip on his wrist, but didn't catch what she was doing until she had both his arms wrapped around her neck from behind. Duo didn't understand. It was like she wanted to carry him on her back.
"Get on my back!" she said, yelling because of her own adrenaline rush and the sight of blood but a few minutes ago. She was so hungry, but she ignored the pain for now. A little hop from the person behind her warned her that he was about to jump up and wrap his legs around her waist. Once Duo was settled, she didn't bother to tell him to hang on. She only concentrated on the next task at hand.
Duo gasped as something beneath his stomach moved. He looked down between his body and hers to see wings appearing to grow from between her shoulder blades, appearing through tears in the back of her shirt. He shook his head and closed his eyes, wanting to wake up from this nightmare. But when he reopened his eyes, large skin-covered wings existed from her back, flexing slightly to either side of him. Duo tightened his grip as they flapped once or twice before they were lifted off the ground, soaring up around the space outside the staircase.
They made for the ceiling. Knowing it was probably simply a shingle roof, she could plow right through it. She tried to ignore the snarling yells from their pursuers as they ascended the stairs. She held one hand on Duo's arms wrapped around her throat. Flying with someone on your back was tiring, and she wasn't sure how long she could last without having eaten for a week. The taste of the idiot who'd been close enough to get caught wasn't enough to quench the thirst that pulled on her. She'd have to be careful until she got a full meal.
Wings just didn't exist, Duo told himself. They really didn't. Only fairytales told of Pureblood vampires who'd been graced with the ability to sprout wings. But the Purebloods were dead, and this was simply not happening. It couldn't be. He ducked his head down as they got closer to the ceiling.
Bright daylight streamed down into the tower as they burst through the roof. Duo looked behind them, seeing the two pursuing vamps turn to paper-like ash as they died with contact to the sun's rays. He stopped, gripping firmer to her neck. She was alive. She was a vampire. She had wings. She was a daywalker. Things just didn't make sense. Nothing made sense. She'd saved his life. She'd eaten her own kind. She was…was…just not real.
She faltered in her flight as she felt the human on her back go limp. Carefully landing in a darkened alleyway of the city so as not to be seen, she pulled the man off her back and set him on the ground. He was more of a boy than a man, she noted. And he looked about the human age of 18 or 19. His long rich brown hair was neatly braided down his back and reached his waist. Her back ached suddenly, bringing her back to the here and now. Flying always hurt her back if she hadn't done it in a while. Six days and nights counted as "a while" in her book. She knew she had to get back to her master. She knew he would be worried and searching for her. But she had to take care of the human in front of her.
She knew where he lived. She had followed his group home once before she'd been captured. And now she was glad to have spied on them. Taking his unconscious body in her arms, she made her way through the streets to the basement they claimed as living quarters.