Under a Blood Red Moon

By: Lady DeathAngel

Disclaimer: don't own them, don't sue me

Warnings: More violence and language.

A/N: So, here's another chapter. ^.^ I did a bit of character developing (Yay!), but there's still a long way to go. Who knows what secrets are lurking and waiting to be discovered? Well . . . I do. ^.^ But this is all you get for now. :p J/K Anyway, as I often say, read, review, and enjoy!





Relena Darlian sat in her stuffy chair in front of her blank tv screen and sulked for most of the afternoon. At around three she got up, went to the kitchen and ate a banana and then made her way back to what she had deemed the sulking chair. And there she sat until eight when her stomach grumbled loudly. She ate another banana and then moved back to the chair and fell asleep sulking.

She didn't wake up again until she heard a loud hiss just outside her door. She frowned and got up, grimacing at the way the muscles in her neck bunched together painfully and the way her back cracked as she rose.

"Note to self," she muttered. "Once done in the sulking chair, move on and sleep in the sulking bed. You'll wake up happier that way."

Considering the fact that it was very late, she assumed that the hissing noise was just her neighbor and close friend, Meiran's cat Teeny. She wouldn't have minded watching the small thing for the night so she opened the door, waiting to see a white and black blur fly past her ankles. She didn't see the blur, but what she did see almost made her pass out.

"Oh my . . ." She blinked away her shock rapidly and went to slam the door on the . . . thing in the doorway.

She was sure she'd locked it out. The door was closed and the locks had turned and everything. But all of a sudden the door flew back as if it'd been hit by a gale force wind. The big wooden projectile took Relena backward with it, until first she and then it connected with the wall across from the entry way, and following it into her apartment was the ugliest, *scariest* monster she'd ever seen.

"Mmmm . . . so hungry." It said softly. "Too hungry to change. Need blood. Your blood."

Relena was too dazed to register the fact that this . . . thing was talking about killing her. All she knew was that that time in the sixth grade when the vain daughter of a state senator had gone to the same dancing studio as Relena and pushed her off the stage mid-forte and she'd thought she'd cracked a rib? She so hadn't cracked a rib. But this time she was positive that she had.

"You so pretty . . . your blood smells so good . . . must drink . . ."

Relena gasped as she felt the creatures hot and rancid breath on her cheek. A long, slimy tongue darted out and traced a pattern on her cheek and she thought she would throw up. She barely had time to breathe a sigh of relief when he withdrew his tongue before his lips were on her throat and then he was *biting* her. She screamed loudly as he sucked at her throat. God it hurt so bad. It felt like he'd inserted red hot tubes into her neck and he was drawing out her life with them.

She couldn't seem to stop screaming either, and the . . . thing was, if the brutal backhanded, closed-fisted slap he administered was any indication, really pissed that she wouldn't shut up. It needn't have worried though. Within minutes black and red tendrils began to swirl on the edges of her vision. Her body felt light and airy and just not *right* and her head ached as did her muscles, her organs, even her *toenails*.

And then, as suddenly as the whole thing had started, it stopped. A loud sound rang through the entry way and the thing released Relena with an unearthly shriek. Warm liquid landed on Relena as he tore out of the room, sprinting past Meiran who had shot the thing. Relena could feel her own blood still trickling down her neck but amazingly enough it didn't hurt too bad anymore.

"Oh my God . . . Relena, are you okay?"

Relena couldn't even manage a nod. Instead she coughed and she felt something make its way down the corner of her mouth. More blood? Probably.

"Relena, Relena stay awake okay? Please just stay awake. You'll be okay. I called for help and they'll be here any minute and you just have to stay awake!"

Relena cracked open her eyes and wanted to insist that she wasn't going anywhere. She would have, if she'd had the energy, insisted that she was too spoiled a bitch to die before she'd sampled all the joys being the daughter of the mayor could bring. But she was very tired and the most she could do was keep her eyes open and concentrate on breathing.

It seemed to take hours for the ambulance to get there. Relena didn't really know though. She heard the sirens and allowed her eyes to drift shut. And as she fell into the black void of unconsciousness she made a silent vow. Never again would she sulk when her dad told her something was for the best. Because damn did she wish she'd had that bodyguard there with her before this had all happened.



~*~



The next day the story was, once again, all over the papers. Every single tabloid, information magazine, webzine, gossip column, and credible work of journalism was buzzing about the latest attack. An attack that had happened only twenty-four hours after the one before it. Suddenly it was very hard to ignore the first paper that had reported that the suspect was probably an ethereal creature of fantasy.

After all, one eye witness said that she had seen a man sucking on her friend's neck and she'd been sure she'd seen blood on his mouth when he'd sprinted past her. Of course, all of this information was supposed to be classified and no one knew how it had gotten out. All that anyone knew was that Meiran was bound to get her ass chewed off by her irate co-worker.

Chang Wufei didn't disappoint.

"How the hell could you possibly encourage such disgustingly false rumors?"

Meiran, the only woman in the city who had a temper to match that of Wufei's, narrowed her eyes at him.

"I didn't *encourage* anything. I told Lieutenant Noin what I saw. She promised it was classified so it's not my fault that she turned out to be a lying bitch. Now get off my case!"

Wufei had opened his mouth to retort but it was just then that Quatre Raberba Winner, owner of the paper called to him. Wufei spared her one more hate-filled glance before he swept away.

"God what an infuriating bastard!" She said loudly, falling into the chair in front of her desk and staring at her blank computer screen. "You'd think he'd show a little sympathy after what I've been through . . ."

"You know he only acts the way he does because he's attracted to you." A deep voice said.

Meiran looked up into the bright eyes of Duo Maxwell. She crossed her arms over her chest and harumphed.

"So you always say."

"Only telling you the truth. You should take my word for it you know. I have known the guy for a while."

Meiran couldn't argue that. This town was small enough for everyone to know everyone, but it was different with the men and women who lived in Lakeside manor. With the exception of Trowa Barton, his sister Catherine, and their companion Midii, they had all known each other for years. Quatre and his sister Dorothy had opened up their large home to first Trowa, Catherine, and Midii, and then to Heero Yuy, and then to Duo and Wufei.

Since then, they had all been pretty synonymous to one another. Duo and Heero owned a garage together, Wufei worked for Quatre, and Trowa and Catherine worked for Dorothy's theater company. Midii stayed home all day, but she was seen often enough in the presence of Trowa and sometimes Duo and everyone knew that she was part of that 'group'.

Anyway, point was Duo did have a point. And as much as Meiran wanted to think that Wufei was attracted to her, she found it awfully hard to believe. Not because she was ugly or anything, but just because Wufei wasn't that interested in women. Not that he was interested in men, but he wasn't interested in women either. And he certainly wasn't interested in Meiran.

"Well, as much as I'd like to chat," she said dismissing the subject. "I should probably get to work on the student submissions."

"I understand." Duo said. "I'm pretty sure Wufei'll bite my head off anyway, since I was supposed to meet up with him and Quatre . . ." He looked down at his watch and then grinned. "Five minutes ago. Guess I'd better go then."

He waved nonchalantly at her and then waltzed toward Quatre's office. She sighed and laid her head in her hands. She really hoped this meeting wasn't about her. Because it wasn't her fault, it really wasn't. She totally hadn't thought that that Noin woman would haul off and tattle on her ass. Hopefully, they would understand.



~*~



"Look guys, I can't stay long alright? I've gotta jet set ASAP. Heero and I both have appointments at the hospital."

Quatre nodded.

"Yes Duo, I know. Heero told me. But when you go to see Ben make sure that you talk to him about the victims. He's been wanting to tell us something important for a long time but we just haven't been able to go see him. Make sure that Lucrezia Noin isn't around and I also want you to talk to Sally Po."

Duo grinned. "That should give Heero enough time to do his thing, no?"

Quatre nodded again. "But we can only hope it isn't too late. I wish we'd been able to reach her last night but . . ." He let his voice trail off and Duo clapped a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"Quatre my friend, don't worry yourself over it. Shit happens. Take it in stride."

Quatre smiled at him and then waved a hand toward the door.

"Well, you'd better go. Heero's waiting for you and he isn't happy."

Duo made a face. "Yeah, yeah. Tell me something new once in a while would ya?"

And then he was gone. As soon as the door had shut behind him, Wufei turned an uneasy gaze toward Quatre.

"What are we dealing with here?" He asked wearily.

Quatre sank into the chair behind his desk and shook his head.

"I don't know Wufei, I really don't. But hopefully the information that Duo gets will help us figure it out."



~*~



As Duo and Heero made their way to the hospital, Duo's seemingly good mood evaporated. Heero didn't question the reason for it. He knew all to well just what Duo's problem was and it happened to be a roommate of theirs.

Dorothy and Duo had never been on the best of terms. The blond headed vixen had brazenly seduced Duo centuries before and then discarded him, only to turn him into a man of the night. Something not human. Something not alive. And he hated her for it. She hated him as well. She thought she'd given him a great gift and she hated him for not appreciating it.

The fact of the matter was, if it weren't for Quatre, Duo would have killed Dorothy long ago. And no one would have missed her, maybe not even Quatre. Dorothy was a power hungry, evil woman who cared for only one thing other than taking over the night world. Her little brother. Funny way of showing it she had though. She'd turned him as soon as she'd been turned and now he hated her as well as all of the other ten, twenty, or maybe it was fifty people she'd turned.

Dorothy was the most infamous vampyre among the vampyre community. And no one dared stand up against her. Except for Duo. They hated each other with a venom that surpassed the hate that anyone in history had had for one another. And that hate had only escalated earlier that morning.

They had all been entertaining themselves with an old board game when Dorothy's banshee howl echoed loudly through the halls of the manor.

"Hmm . . . sounds like her royal Bitchiness ran out of blush again." Duo had muttered, studying the board. "Too bad too. She's all the more fun to laugh at when her cheeks are painted redder than a whore's lips."

No one dared laugh at Duo's jokes, although they all wished they could. That was the thing with Dorothy though. She had this hold over everyone except Duo. That was just one other reason she hated him. It was a good thing they hadn't laughed anyway. Dorothy swept into the room a few seconds after Duo's comment about her cheeks and she looked ready to commit murder.

Although, Duo had thought cocking his head to the side and thoroughly enjoying the fact that when she was really mad (like she was at that moment), her cheeks pinched in and her lips thinned into a fine line and she was really, *really* ugly, Dorothy always looked in the murdering mood.

"I can't believe this . . . this . . . this trash!!!"

She was, they all decided, well past righteous indignation. Now she looked completely affronted, only they didn't know why. They all had their theories of course. In fact, most of them had to do with a certain braided young vampyre and the fact that he had probably done something horrendously funny to Dorothy (at the old crone's expense to be sure), but that wasn't the case at all. It was something far more serious although Duo didn't seem to think so.

"If you mean the fact that the entire town thinks that vampires are running amuck and killing poor, young, innocent girls, don't look at me. Heero was always the one with the jailbait fetish."

She narrowed her eyes at him, an unholy flame igniting in their grey depths. A flame that only lit when Duo was around.

"I'm glad you think this is amusing Maxwell, but I assure you it is not. How dare they spread such rumors? Such lies! No one should be able to get away with degrading us that way, no one!"

Duo had sat up bored and stretched.

"Face it Doro, you're just upset because someone else is out their killing people and getting the credit for it and it ain't you."

Dorothy was completely at a loss for words. She just glared at Duo and then glared some more. Duo just stared back at her.

"I can't believe you." She finally said. "You are willing to let them accuse us of such things? Like we'd ever do such things?"

"Well, let's think about this logically, shall we? In 1812 you killed thirteen people in one town and they blamed it on the seamstress because her second toe was longer than her first and you didn't care. So, the fact that they are saying a vampire did this is no surprise to me. Because I know that none of us," he spread his arms, indicating everyone but Dorothy. "Would ever do something so evil, but you . . . you are evil at heart and I wouldn't put it past you. At least this time they've almost got the right killer."

"Are you sure you aren't just trying to put the blame on me? Maybe you're enjoying some of your more base guilty pleasures?"

Duo's lips lifted into a smirk.

"Enjoying some of my more base guilty pleasures would involve one night of completely mind-blowing sex with a gorgeous woman, not sucking some poor girl dry and leaving her dead."

Dorothy didn't back down, however. She just propped her hands on her hips smugly.

"Then maybe you attacked the Darlian girl using the unknown assailant as a cover. We all know you don't want Heero to be her bodyguard. But eliminating the body means there's no need for a guard."

Duo had rolled his eyes heavenward.

"Think before you point fingers Dorothy. One, I am way to stealthy to go barging into her apartment, especially by blowing the door of its hinges. Two, if I *had* tried to blow the door of its hinges I would have killed her accidentally and you know it. Three, I happen to value my friendship with Heero and would never do that to him. Four, I have already talked to someone about the garage so it's not like I'll be missing Heero all that much. And five, I'm not you."

Dorothy would never win this fight and she knew it. Duo had had her pegged since the first night he'd slept with her. He'd known she'd had an agenda, he'd known he was being used. She was that see-through. He'd only done it because . . . well . . . it'd been so long he couldn't remember. But ever since they're first meetings he'd been able to read her like a 'See-Cat-See-Cat-Run' book and she knew it.

So instead of confronting him out loud she decided to deliver one last telepathic blow.

All of a sudden Duo's mind was filled with images. He heard screams in his head. Someone was calling for help. A small body was laid out on a rack, broken and bloodied and . . .

'I almost got her once.' Dorothy's smug voice echoed in his mind as he fell to his knees. 'If you push me to it, this is what will happen next time.'

She'd kept pressing the images of Hilde being tortured, maimed, beaten and whipped and . . . Duo couldn't take it, he clutched the side of his head and howled while Dorothy threw back her head and laughed. Her laughing stopped however when Duo's hand closed around her throat.

"You touch her ever again," he said in a low whisper full of sinister promise. "And I'll kill you."

But all she did was grin up at him and lift her slim shoulders in a shrug.

"You don't let go of me," she croaked. "And I'll kill her first."

He dropped her and then left the room with a wave of his hand. The rest of them had all watched with wide eyes. Midii was clutching Trowa like a life support, her face buried in his neck. Catherine had grabbed onto Heero's hand and he didn't seem to mind. Wufei put an arm around Quatre's shoulders as he looked at his sister sadly.

The other woman noted the silence but opted not to do anything more. Instead she disappeared just as quickly as Duo had. And thus another day had begun.

All of them knew that something was different between Duo and Dorothy now. Dorothy had crossed a line and they wouldn't have argued if Duo had killed her right then and there. But he hadn't. He couldn't. As much as he hated her, he'd couldn't kill her unless he absolutely had to. He'd made a promise to himself years before to stop being a killer and he wasn't going to break that promise just because some bitch had threatened Hilde.

Not that Hilde wasn't worth it because she was. She'd been worth the surprise attack that Dorothy had sprung on him when he'd saved her the first time, and now all grown up and so pretty and smart, she'd be worth dying for a second time.

Anyway, Heero understood Duo's sullen silence and so he didn't press Duo for information or anything. Instead they just walked to the hospital, each lost in his own thoughts. Each wondering what would happen next. And each fearing the unexpected turn their lives could take.



A/N: Hmmm . . . well, what did you think? Please, please *please* review! I need the feedback. ^.^; Anyway, hope you liked it. The next chapter should be up soon. Bye! ^.~