I do not own Gundam Wing.
Chapter Seven"That Chang is desperate. He promised the Triad he'd bring them the last Pureblood within three years of his takeover. If he does not deliver, they will tear him apart." Jina continued staring up at Heero in their close proximity to one another. She wavered again, her eyes rolling back before she shut her eyes.
"What's wrong?" Heero asked her, keeping his hands on her shoulders.
"I don't think you want to know. Quatre. Its hot in here, isn't it?" she asked suddenly, backing away and shrugging out of her wool coat.
"Everything is cold in St. Petersburg," Heero told her. "And what about Quatre?"
"Did you know we're connected, the two of us? Quatre and I have lived together so long, fed from each other so often that we can actually feel each other?"
"I didn't know," Heero admitted.
Jina staggered backwards until she bumped into the bed, sitting down on it. "You know now. I can feel him."
"Feel him how?" Heero walked closer to her, sitting beside her on the bed and turning to face her more completely.
Suddenly, Heero's breathing was inhibited as Jina's mouth pressed against his. He felt the weight of her body resting in his lap as she threw one leg over him and straddled him. Heero did not fight against her.
She pushed against him, making him lay back on the bed. Heero only opened his eyes when Jina pulled away, sitting up on him and throwing her head back as her wings reemerged. He moaned as her hips ground into his, and he was unable to stop his own hands from reaching up and grabbing her to pull her back down on top of him.
After kissing him deeply, Jina's mouth migrated to his neck. Heero ignored the slight pain of her teeth between her soft kisses. He could feel the tiny stings from his jaw to his collarbone. She started to pull away. Her warm wet tongue ran across his neck, covering the small nips she'd placed there.
Jina was gone. Coldness replaced the warmth that had been laying on top of him. Heero's eyes opened to see Jina standing a few feet away, holding one hand to her mouth in shock as she watched him. He sat up.
"What's wrong?" he asked, confused as to what would make her change her mind so quickly.
She didn't answer, but shook her head as she took a few more steps back. Jina's mouth looked a little more red than usual, her lips more than their usual shade of pink. Heero put a hand up to his neck, feeling moisture there. Part of that was from her mouth, he knew. And part of that was from his blood.
Remarkably, it didn't bother him. He had actually liked it. Pulling on the sleeve of his jacket, Heero used it to wipe off his neck. The cuts from Jina's teeth were too small to need any first aid. In fact, they had already stopped bleeding.
"What's wrong?" he repeated.
"I didn't mean to," she started to say.
"Didn't mean to what?" Heero asked, beginning to get frustrated. Leading a guy on like that was not a nice thing to do. "Mean to do what? Kiss me? Push me down on the bed? What exactly did you not mean to do?"
"You're angry with me."
"No shit I'm angry with you. You can't just do that to a guy and then quit…"
"I'm sorry," she said softly, reaching down to pick up her dropped jacket.
Heero sighed. "I'm really not angry with you," he told her. Jina started buttoning the jacket closed, covering most of her light ivory skin that he'd been enjoying looking at. Heero decided to screw the apologies and show her how much he was not angry with her. Stepping closer, he lifted her chin and kissed her mouth gently, tasting part of his blood that lingered there.
"We can't do this," she said, closing her eyes again as she fought against Quatre's influences on her body. Jina stepped back away from Heero, her outstretched hands against his chest to keep him an arm's length away.
"Why not?" Heero breathed, trying to reach out and touch her, but she avoided his hands.
"I'll kill you."
"It wouldn't be a bad way to go," he said, adopting a Duo-like smile.
"I didn't mean that." Jina glared at him.
"What did you mean, then?"
She stepped back, tossing her bangs from her face and taking a deep breath. "If you come after Quatre, I'll have to…"
Heero blinked. Trowa had told him to ask questions before carrying out his punishment. Perhaps he should. "Did Quatre kill my parents?"
"Quatre has killed no one." Her answer was quick and her voice calm.
"Is it possible that you didn't see him?"
"No. He does not go anywhere without my accompaniment. I make sure of that."
Heero sighed. "Did you?"
"Kill them? I don't know. I've killed many people in my lifetime. You will have to tell me more about it, if you want a correct answer." Jina went to sit back down on the bed, feeling a long story coming on.
"I'll keep it brief," Heero promised. "My parents were poor, farmers outside of Kyoto. When I was young, about seven or eight, they were attacked in the night. Vampires were pounding on our door, trying to get in. I remember being scared. I remember running to my mother and clutching to her skirts. She smiled down at me and shoved me in the wardrobe closet, telling me to lock the doors from the inside and not to come out until everything was quiet. My father had been a vampire hunter. That's his sword that I use," he said, nodding to the sword he'd left sitting on the chair by the door.
"What happened?" Jina encouraged.
"They were overpowered. The vampires dragged them outside, and that's where it gets confusing. There were screams, horrible screams." Heero sat down on the bed next to Jina, putting his hands to his head as he remembered the bloodcurdling screams of his mother and the vampires. "My father was still alive though. And more vampires came after him. I could hear them calling as they tried to hunt him down. And then there were more screams. I remember hearing some voices that I didn't recognize calling out and running from a Pureblood. They said that the Pureblood took their meal…and….and…I don't remember any more after that."
Jina sighed and wrapped an arm around Heero's shoulders, trying to remember what happened that night, if it were her. She was also trying to fight her hormones, influenced by Quatre's little tryst downstairs.
"I don't remember everything that I've ever done, Heero," she admitted finally. "But I do know that those vampires were probably talking about me. We lived in Japan for many years, hunting down the oldest and most powerful vamps I could find. And we would have been near Kyoto around that time."
Heero tensed under her arms.
"But I know that I would not have killed innocent people like your parents. Only if they had been changed would I have…"
"Please," Heero interrupted. "Don't mention that they could have been turned." His head hung low and silent tears fell onto his thighs.
"I'm sorry, Heero. I almost wish that I had done it, so you could avenge your parents and feel at ease." Jina held him closer.
"I've been chasing a phantom, all this time."
She lifted his head and kissed him gently. "We have work to do tonight. Do you feel up to it?"
"Do you?" he asked, remembering her near fainting spell earlier.
"I am stronger now. Time helps. And blood." She cast him a quick smile, reminding him of her nipping episode earlier.
"I can't wait until this is over," Heero admitted, wiping his face clean and gathering his sword.
*******
"Where have you two been?" Duo asked, waggling his eyebrows as Heero and Jina walked up. They had all gone to the same streetlight they'd been under last night, after meeting with Wufei in the alleyway.
"The more scandalous question is, where is your sister?" Jina said, looking at Trowa.
"With your master, I presume," he answered. Cathy was old enough to make her own decisions. And she always did go after the dangerous type. She had been dating Wufei for almost a year before he had been taken. Trowa was actually glad to see his sister moving on and finding someone else, but the vampire bit didn't please him entirely.
"And where are we going?" Heero asked, ignoring his idiotic partner in crime who was still nudging him in the side and wanting details.
"I know." Jina didn't surprise anyone with that announcement.
"Heero?"
"What Duo?"
"What's on your neck?" Duo said as he reached up to touch the small tears in Heero's skin.
"Nothing Duo."
"Uh huh, sure."
"Walk Duo," Heero instructed, quickening his pace to travel beside Jina.
"Yes sir, Mr. I-like-it-rough," Duo said, giving a mock salute. Hilde hit him in the back of the head.
"It isn't far, actually," Jina ignored the battle between Hilde and Duo and continued to lead the Night Hunters through the St. Petersburg streets. "We were very close to him last night. Quatre should have been more careful out here." Jina stumbled as she walked, making Heero nervous as he steadied her.
"You shouldn't be out here. You're still not ready to fight," he warned.
"I'm ready. I have to be." Jina stopped abruptly, making Duo run into her back.
"Sorry," he apologized. "Why'd you stop?"
"We're here."
Everyone spread out, standing side by side to look up at Chang's castle. And it was a castle. Duo wasn't lying when he said it looked like the stereotypical scary castle he'd seen in every vampire movie ever made. The large stone walls held tall windows and large pointed steeples with red roofs. The stone was dark, a charcoal gray which seemed as black as the dark surrounding it during the night.
Heero swallowed the lump in his throat. He'd been waiting to meet Chang like this for three years. He'd wanted to save his friend by releasing him from the damnation of vampirism. But now that he was here, he was scared shitless.
"Let's get moving," Jina said, squeezing Heero's hand for a moment to get him back to reality. She smiled up at him, despite their certain doom.
"I'm beginning to think this is a bad idea," Duo admitted quietly. Hilde just hit him again.
"You said you wanted to come and do this," she reminded him.
The hair on the back of Heero's neck stood on end and he began reaching for the hilt of his sword. Jina was already baring her teeth, her short broad sword held in front of her and ready. Someone was already coming, whether the Hunters were ready or not.
But these weren't vampires. The sun hadn't quite disappeared behind the low mountains surrounding St. Petersburg, so vampires had yet to emerge for the night. These were human pets, promised the everlasting life of a vampire if they only did what their master instructed. Little did they know that most masters killed off their human pets before ever granting them their wish of immortality.
"Tainted humans," Jina growled. She didn't like killing anyone but other vampires, but she'd kill the pet of a vampire if she needed to. Except she never fed from one.
"You mean, these aren't vampires?" Duo asked, confused as he unsheathed his sword.
"No." Jina stood her ground, spreading her legs and settling into a defensive stance. "They are humans who are ruled by vampires. True vermin." She growled deeper, her eyes flashing red for a moment before settling back into a dark maroon color.
"But they're in our way," Duo insisted, not wanting to kill other humans.
"And they will remain there until we remove them," Trowa said, readying his own broadsword.
The pets advanced, coming dangerously close to vengeful Hunters. They taunted and teased as they drew closer, intending to keep the intruders off their guard.
"Such a motley crew, too bad they will not again see the light of day," the one with green hair and a long blue coat said.
"And look at the little females," another commented, referring to Hilde and Roddy who had their small swords held in front of them. "They pretend to be fighters."
"But the women are no match for the acting of these serious ones," the one with green hair said again. He was obviously the ringleader. He pointed his sword in Trowa and Heero's directions. "These might break if they try to have any fun."
"That is no contest to the play our most prized actress is putting on," the one with the red jacket said, finally speaking. "A vampire who runs with a pack of humans. How pathetic."
"No more pathetic than humans who seek to become vampires," Duo countered, getting annoyed quickly. Patience was not his greatest virtue.
Heero ignored most of the bantering exchange. His focus was on Jina, and how she wobbled even as she stood in that protective stance. Watching her intently, he noticed how her eyes blinked slowly, closing for a few seconds before reopening. She was tired, and needed nourishment. He wished he could have given her more at the house. He wished he could have helped her more. And he was frustrated.
"Kill them, Jina," he said, giving her permission to kill the non-vampires. She didn't waste time.
"Thank you," she whispered before the low growl in her throat erupted into a roar and she rushed at the stunned human pets.