A/N: Ach! Sentences! How many times am I gonna pull these lines to pieces?
Jail Bird
The vampire woke up to find himself in someone's arms. He moved to escape but his captor was just as fast and quickly grabbed him back.
He struggled to breathe in her tight, feathery hold. It was a proper vampire griplock and he was going nowhere for as long as she held him like this. "Can we talk about this rationally, my dear?"
"You're not well, Darkwing." She stated matter-of-factly.
"I can still be rational!" He tried again but she still wouldn't let him go. "Look, if you're not going to bite me then kindly let me go!"
"Gr-agh!"
It was the voice of the rat that had defeated him so simply earlier and the vampire looked up to see him standing before him.
"Why are you always so stubborn, Darkwing?" The rat gestured widely, looking up as if imploring the roof for an answer. The vampire looked up too and saw he was back at his tower ... how had they known to come here? How did they find him in the first place?
"Why must you al-ways-ar-gue?" The rodent held his hand to his unusual hat in distress, his voice rising and his electrical field fritzing with his heated emotions. "I-just-don't-get-you!" Darkwing swallowed hungrily, watching the other's energy field rippling like a tide surging to take on the coastline.
"Elmo, calm down" said the woman from behind. The sound of her voice had the effect of closing a window from an electrical storm.
"Woopsie, am I making him you-know-the-aech-word?"
"Probably, but the problem is you're making me you-know-the-aech-word and I don't have time for that sort of thing right now, luminary."
Elmo's heart-rate skittered for a moment and he blushed.
While these two talked, the vampire observed three others in the room behind the rat; the plant-duck Bushroot, the red witch ... and the child Gosalyn.
"If I make you so angry why didn't you kill me, Elmo?" The vampire asked him.
"Well, I tried, Darkwing." The rat answered in a calm, honest voice. "But as usual, I didn't account for your rotten good luck."
"He-ey! Wait just a cotton-picking minute here!"
Gosalyn put her furious self between Darkwing and Elmo and turned to face the rat with a swish of her cape. "You said you were just going to help him, Megavolt!" She growled.
"Megavolt?" Bushroot came and stood next to the rat. His eyes met Darkwing's for a moment before returning his attention to the rodent. "Were you just saying you tried to kill Darkwing, Megs?" Bushroot addressed the rat, "But I thought you'd reformed?"
"I have!" Megavolt insisted, looking at them both. "Aw, don't give me that look; Darkwing asked me to do it!" Megavolt whined.
"Oh and you listen to everything dad says? Sheesh." Gosalyn grumbled in disapproval. "Well count yourself lucky, buster, because if anything had happened to him ... then you'd have ... me ... to deal with, and I can tell you right now that it-wouldn't-have-been-pretty!"
Megavolt gulped nervously at her. "Yes sir-ma'am Quiverwing!"
Gosalyn, now going by the name of 'Quiverwing', turned to her dad and checked him over for sign of damage. Her prodding fingers causing him to suffer a sudden ticklishness. She stepped back and her sharp green eyes went soft as she regarded him. "You are okay, right Darkwing?"
Her protectiveness overwhelmed every other feeling anyone else was having in the entire tower and made them all look empty to compare.
He nodded back down at her in a swell of affection. "Sure; I'm fine, sweetie."
"Sweet!" The woman behind Darkwing derided. "Now there's an adjective of contention."
"Hey, hey!" Gosalyn's father pushed against her grip in retaliation. "There's nothing wrong with having a little spirit!" He gazed at Quiverwing. "She's perfect just the way she is!"
Quiverwing hugged him from below. "Thanks, dad."
"What happened to you, Bushy?" Megavolt asked Bushroot at this moment.
"It was ... er ..." Bushroot glanced at Darkwing and then to the rat again. "I'm alright."
Darkwing licked his beak. "You wanna go another round, Bushy?" He chuckled at having gained the delicious plant-duck's attention again.
"Um ... uh ... that is ..." Bushroot stumbled across his nerves looking to find an answer to such a formidable question.
"Look, Darkwing, let's try and focus for a moment alright?" The woman behind him said briskly. "You're sick. We want to help. How about it?"
"Well, I'm all for getting better ..." he paused; 'minus the memory part'.
The woman whose name was still unknown to him must've caught his pause because her hold of him stayed fast.
"So if that's all, then why have you still got me in a vampire griplock, my dear?" He asked. "We could be friends instead," he tacked on hopefully.
She sighed. "It's for your own sake that I'm holding onto you, Darkwing."
"Oh! You make no sense!" He grumbled in frustration.
The red witch stepped in front of Megavolt. "Dark, let us help you, please."
"Witch." Trapped in the vampire griplock he had the distinct feeling like the woman with no name might be serving him to the red witch like some sort of tribute. For Quiverwing's sake he needed to stay alive but the decision was no longer his. Back away he couldn't. Run, he couldn't, hide he couldn't. Trapped in the arms of the other woman he gulped as he looked up at the looming red witch.
The vampire took a fearful breath and the smell of the red witch's spicy trade filled his nostrils making him stiffen even more. "You don't want to help me; you did this to me in the first place with your spells."
"No, Dark!" Her eyes widened as though unbelieving. "That wasn't me!"
"Da-ad, don't you remember her?" Quiverwing said looking up at him, "that's Morgana! You two have only been dating for like months!"
"Morgana, please. Step back." The woman behind Darkwing urged and the red witch obeyed.
"Thank you." The vampire was quietly grateful and sighed in great relief.
"Come with me, Quiverwing." Morgana held out her hand, "Felicia will look after Darkwing for the moment now. She can't do it with us here."
"Yeah ... okay." Quiverwing begrudged the gentle order with a great deal of self-discipline. "Don't worry, dad, you told me before that Felicia's on our side." The child gave him another reassuring hug. "And if she tries anything funny she knows she'll have to deal with me." Quiverwing shot Felicia a fierce warning look and then turned away.
Quiverwing took Morgana's hand and they quietly vanished through a glimmering portal.
Felicia looped her fingers more loosely around the vampire's shoulders and he felt her unusual presence growing in his mind.
Wind whipping, waves crashing, clouds gathering, sky darkening, lightning flashing, thunder roaring, raindrops tumbling, deluge pouring, down pipes babbling, water puddling, clouds parting, sun glistening, rainbow casting, breeze ruffling...
"Exotic creature" the vampire murmured, feeling his whole body relax amidst her mental montage. He sighed, enjoying the taste of her.
Miles away back in reality he heard Bushroot murmur softly. "Oh, gosh. Megs, Felicia's doing the same thing to him ... Th-that Darkwing did ..."
"I didn't guess it worked on other vampires too ..." Megavolt muttered back.
"Let me help you, Darkwing." Felicia crooned into his ear. "What do you say?"
"Okay, Felicia." He answered dreamily.
'Come.' She let him go and they walked off into the depths of the tower to the little room together.
'Lie down.' Felicia coaxed him in a reassuring mental voice, placing her hand on his chest. He lay down on the bed and she sat beside him with her hand on his chest, her mental voice lingering reassuringly in his mind.
The vampire startled as Lupisei's vines began coiling around him; realising all-at-once that Lupisei could restore his memories and make him return to being that fiend that had stolen a child and killed her parents...
"Hush, steady on, Darkwing! Lupisei's your friend. It won't do anything you don't want it to, okay?" 'Be a little more gentle on him, Lupisei. That's it.'
The plant tightened its tentacular vines around him, hooking in and merging their energy fields together.