Yaay! Another chapter! I know I promised this one sooner than this, however, my computer's hard drive decided to crap out on me (again), and with not having the time to sit for three days straight trying to reconfigure the hard drive, it had to wait until after graduation. But here it is! In all its glory, and I made it a bit longer and all sorts of fun stuff to make up for the delay!
Enjoy!
Heero had risen that evening with a tight, cold knot of apprehension in his chest.
Odin had not spoken a word to him on the way to his underground apartment, despite his ominous greeting. He had decided to make Heero wait until after they rested to tell him what he was doing in the city, in the typical nerve racking fashion of the elitist vampires. Odin reminded him very much of Lestat, a theatrical, melodramatic vampire he had read about in a novel by some human named Anne Rice.
Poor humans didn't know just how close to the horrific truth they actually were when they wrote their romantic fantasies of death and intrigue.
Waiting uncomfortably in the living room, Heero immediately tensed as Odin came out of what had used to be Wufei's room. "So are you going to tell me what in the hell is going on now?" he demanded immediately, trying to mask his unease. "Why did Noin call you here?"
"Lucrezia didn't call me here," Odin said, raising an eyebrow.
"What?" Now Heero was even more confused. "But J told me just last night-"
"He was mistaken. You of all people should know I don't deal with the petty affairs of the underworld," he smiled. "Especially since I really wasn't fond of Treize or Milliardo, but your mother threw a fit about it. I only followed her here to make sure she doesn't get herself into any trouble and thought I would stop in and see you. I haven't seen you since you abandoned the family."
The last few words in his reply went unheard as Heero sat there shell shocked beyond belief, the sick knot in his chest clenching painfully.
'If this is what it's like to have a heart attack, then I pity mortals.'
"She's going to kill me..." he muttered aloud.
Odin laughed heartily. "Oh, come on now, you really don't think that I would allow your mother to kill our only son, do you? And it's not like -you- were the one who killed them, right?" he chuckled amusedly. "Then you -would- be in quite the bad spot, caught in the worst act of betrayal."
"Yeah...right." If Heero could have shriveled up into a ball and disappeared, he would have at that moment. "Listen, I have to go to the club and make sure everything is in check before we open tonight, so..."
He had to go. He had to find a phone and call Duo and Wufei. Two days was too long of a wait to see them, who knows what his parents could do to them by then?
"That's fine, that's where Dorothy is staying anyway, I'll just follow you," Odin smiled again.
'Fuck.' Heero swore mentally as he threw on his leather jacket and walked out of the apartment, not even pausing to check if his father was following behind him.
Now his mind was working overtime. There was no way to escape seeing his mother, especially now that Odin had found him. And to have Noin harbor her upstairs in the Midnight Masquerade...
'Fuck.'
He could not talk his way out of going to the club and finding an alternative method of communication because he was stuck with his father, who was expecting him to lead him straight to their destination.
Maybe...maybe she would not be downstairs yet. If he hurried up, he could get there and use what precious little time he had to call the slayers and warn them.
'No, that wouldn't work. Dorothy is too much of a socialite to skip greeting the first arrivals, and she'll want to get acquainted with everyone on the staff,' Heero thought irritably, his hope slowly going down the drain as he mentally repeated the word 'Fuck' over and over again.
The nightspot had not open for business yet when they finally got there, with Heero all but kicking the double doors in. "Noin and Une's apartment is through the doorway behind the bar," he told Odin abruptly, pointing to the said spot. "Now, if you would excuse me, I'm going to talk to Quinze about tonight-"
Heero had not even given his father the chance to respond before he retreated to the office area behind the stage, locking the door after him.
/Hello/
Quatre's soft voice coming so soothingly through the receiver calmed his nerves considerably.
"Quatre, this is Heero. I know this is very odd, but the situation is an extreme emergency. I need you to tell Duo and Wufei to NOT find me at the Dragon in tomorrow night. DO NOT COME. They CANNOT come here to the club either. None of you. Do you understand me? Stay as FAR away from me and anything associated with me as possible."
/But, why- Heero, what's going on/
"I can't explain. Please, just tell them, and find a way to keep yourselves safe until I can call again."
/But- Heero? Heero/
He dropped the phone back down into its cradle and rubbed his face roughly. That probably wasn't the best way to handle things, but hopefully they would listen, because it was too late now to call back and fix it as a delicate knock resounded balefully through the office.
"Heero, dear? Why don't you show some manners and say hello to your mother? I know you are in there."
Quatre placed the receiver down gently after the vampire had hung up on him, looking apprehensively over at Trowa, Duo, and Wufei, whom were all staring right back from the kitchen table with the same expressions.
"What's wrong, Q?"
"I don't know, Heero wouldn't say. All he said was to not meet him at the Dragon tomorrow and to stay away from any of the places you three meet up at, that it was an extreme emergency that you listened to him," the blonde replied reluctantly.
"Like hell we won't!" Duo replied instantly, furious at being told what he could and could not do. Which was exactly why the empath had been reluctant to relay the message. "There's obviously something seriously wrong going on, so we gotta help him!"
Wufei stilled his lover's tirade with a touch of his hand on the other's shoulder. "He knows we would do it too, and that is why he told us to stay away. Never in all the time I've known him has he acted like this, if it's so important to Heero, then leave him alone," he reasoned. "I assume he also said he would call as soon as it was safe, right?"
Quatre nodded silently.
"Then it has something to do with this whole underground fiasco and he's trying to help -us- out by distancing himself for a while until the whole thing is back under control," Wufei shrugged.
"Isn't this what we decided the last time we were in a 'fiasco' like this and he ended up -needing- our help?" Duo retorted.
"Yes, and we all almost died as well," Trowa indicated calmly.
"SO? Isn't that part of our job description anyway?" he shot back, sarcastically brandishing one of the stakes off of the sheathe he had been reloading.
"True. But Duo, let's wait a little while, we have to go see Irea and my other sisters tonight anyway. So we can find out the whole problem so we don't go running headlong into battle uninformed," Quatre replied, ever the diplomat that he was.
The braided slayer puffed up indignantly for a second, then promptly deflated in defeat and heaved a heavy sigh. "Fine, fine, we'll wait. But if we find out Heero's dead because of all this, it's all your fault."
"I think you're being a bit over the top here, wo ai," Wufei shook his head amusedly, patting his shoulder. "Heero is a big vampire, he can handle himself."
Really, the Asian was as worried as his partner was. This was all too much of a coincidence to not worry. First, Duo starts having nightmares and headaches, then Irea and the others show up unexpectedly, his own wretched nightmares, and now Heero is suddenly vanishing from their friendship to protect them from what is going on.
What IS going on?
Both Duo and Quatre were right though. They were slayers, they could handle themselves just as well as a vampire could, however, it was best to give the situation a good debriefing before they jumped into a world of blood and massacre.
"Well, c'mon then, let's go and get this over with!" Duo insisted impatiently, strapping the sheathe he had been loading onto his boot and standing up.
'I wouldn't be so excited if I were you...' Trowa thought, shrugging outwardly as they all gathered their things and left.
Irea's hideout was not too far away from their own, and they were greeted by a very surprising occupant. After Quatre knocked, a tall, slender woman with curly reddish brown hair answered with a broad smile as her eyes alighted on Trowa.
"Catherine?" he asked, pleasantly surprised. "I thought you were in Europe on a mission."
"I was, until my mission brought me back," Catherine's smile dimmed. "I am the one who brought Irea all of her information on this underground situation. At least, the updated information anyway."
They entered the den where Irea and a few other sisters were waiting. The men quickly settled in to vacant spots as Catherine returned to her seat by Irea.
"I suppose we should get right to the point, it's after sunset and we don't have much time to waste talking when there are people to protect," Irea said in welcome, all business. She gave Quatre and Trowa the slightest of looks before continuing, "First, we'll start with the origin of the situation."
"As we all know, vampires live in a society very much like the archaic Middle Ages, monarchy-based. The most powerful and influential vampires are called sovereigns, their equivalent to kings and queens that govern different hot spots all over the world and keep some semblance of order-"
"-and what they don't keep in order, -we- do," Duo added with a smirk, causing Irea to chuckle midsentence.
"Yes, indeed. Anyway, as with all monarchy-based societies, the sovereigns like to...squabble, which leads to vampire wars sprouting up in the middle of all those hot spots all over the world. This time however, one of the more powerful of the sovereigns has made quite the unexpected move and is coming here. Which we absolutely cannot have. Unexpected can be apocalyptic given the very tenuous line we both, vampires and slayers alike, walk. We manage to keep the outside world from knowing about us, and if we can't control this unexpected move, then we're in serious trouble."
"And so we come to the origin," Irea sighed. "This happened before, a few years ago. Wufei, I don't know how much you know, but I'm sure Quatre, Trowa, and Duo have told you as much as they know."
"Yes," Wufei nodded, though he frowned slightly as Quatre shifted uncomfortably, thinking no one had noticed. However, he quickly dismissed that thought as Duo curled up closer to him on the couch.
"Do we really have to talk about this?" Duo asked, his face working to conceal his upset.
"Yes, Duo, we really need to talk about it," Irea said sympathetically. "Because we think the same sovereign from the attack on the Maxwells is the one here now-"
"WHAT!" Now he was on his feet. "The same one? Why? If it is the same bloodsucking bitch that killed off my adoptive family then I want to be the one to personally cut her fucking head off!" Duo's eyes flashed with violet flames, his hands clenched into fists at his sides.
Wufei stood up and placed his arms around his waist, willing the braided slayer to relax in his embrace. "Come on, wo ai, let's just listen to what they have to say before jumping ahead," he said gently, coaxing him back onto the couch.
Irea was clearly reluctant to continue. "I'm sorry Duo," she said sincerely. "But it must happen because...well, you really don't know -everything- about that night."
All the sisters and Catherine were looking uncomfortable now.
"Tell me, have you been having nightmares and headaches again?" Catherine asked, taking over.
"How do you know that?" Duo replied, his tone suspicious.
"Hey, I haven't said a word," Wufei remarked before he could glare at him. "We do live in the same house as an empath though. Quatre and Trowa asked me about it yesterday." The other couple nodded in agreement.
"So what's that got to do anything?" Duo demanded, turning his frustration back to Catherine and Irea.
"That's why we know this sovereign is the same woman as before," Catherine answered. "We didn't find you by chance going through the house like we let you believe. When we found you, the sovereign had you in the middle of the Blood Exchange."
All of the red anger that had been burning in Duo's face drained to a sickly white pallor. "But- but I'm here, I'm a slayer...I'm not one of them-"
Irea bit her lip. "That's true, but it's the only reason you were able to become a slayer without being born one, like in a family such as mine and Quatre's, or Catherine and Trowa's. You are part of our community that we call Tainted, slayers who were able to learn the arts because they were either once a vampire, like Wufei, or they were given an incomplete Blood Exchange. In your case, you were bitten, but we drove the sovereign off before she could give you her blood to turn you."
"That's insane!" Duo protested feebly, still looking like he was about to fall into a dead faint any second.
"I wish I could agree with you, wo ai..." Wufei said apologetically. "But I've heard about this from Heero, except with humans drinking vampire's blood and getting the same effects so they could seek justice for their dead loved ones."
"That's another way," Catherine assented.
"Did- did you two know about this?" Duo turned towards Quatre and Trowa.
"No, we didn't," the empath said with a pained expression, his hand massaging the area above his heart. "I swear."
"We thought it was best left in the dark to everyone," Irea added. "I really am sorry Duo, we were never going to say anything, but given the situation...with her being back in town, we had to forewarn you in case she tries to seek you out and finish what she started. Make sure you went into battle prepared and all," she ended rather lamely.
"So is there any other news to give me to make my night any -better-?" Duo cracked sarcastically, struggling to stop shaking in shock by gripping the edge of the couch cushion tightly.
"Don't focus on the reason you came into this life, just think about how you feel now," Trowa replied profoundly. "Just think, if it didn't happen, you wouldn't be here, you wouldn't be living with me and Quatre, you wouldn't have Wufei, or Heero. And you wouldn't be able to play with all the fun weapons we get to."
He started laughing, at first slightly hysterical, but soon it was a normal Duo laugh as he released his grip on the couch. "Eloquent pep talk there Trowa, lemme tell you," he snickered.
At least this ended on a light note, eh? Won't be light for long...(evil cackle)
Anyway...some reviews...
LadyDragonWolfKnight: I'm glad you're still enjoying my story! Yeah...it does seem kinda weird now that you mention it...but hey, it's the effect that counts! (sweatdrop)
CrimsonVampirissEm: Heylo! I'm sorry it's taken so long to get back to you...I'm glad you like my stuff! I don't care if you use any of these ideas, I was inspired by Mercedes Lackey for the empath thing, and all this slayer stuff is a combination of Laurell K. Hamilton and the Blade movies, so there you go. I'll check it out once you get it posted!
Mako-chan: I know...I am a horrible fangirl when it comes to fics like this. (sigh) I really hate abusing my poor Fei and Duo...but it's fun, in a sick, twisted sort of way! I know Dorothy is icky, but I couldn't leave out our favorite icky character...since I killed off Relena anyway. Noin has just gone mental, and poor Une has to suffer for it...maybe I'll fix it...I dunno, there's a bunch of things that I had planned out that didn't quite come out as I had planned as I wrote, but you know how that feels, eh? Once you're on the roll, your mind has a way of its own. But there will be more Quatre and Trowa, I promise! I will have a scene that will make all 3x4 fans drooling...mmm...yummy yaoiness...But my updates will be much more frequent now because I'm out of school, just hope my computer doesn't die on me again, at least not before I get my new computer in a few weeks...(heart)
WingedBonnie: I'm glad you like both of my fics! I'm sorry it's taken so long to update, but I'll be rolling out chapters a lot faster now!
Reviews make measly authors like me VERY happy indeed, so please leave one! Flames will be used to roast my marshmallows with! Buwahaha!