Progress: 6 of a proposed two digit sum
General Notes: I know, it's been ages since I last updated, and for that, I apologize. Unfortunately, things have been a little hectic with finals coming up and all that (I really shouldn't be writing that…finals begin in under two weeks). I just had my German oral exam last Friday, which turned out to be a lot faster than I thought it would be. I kind of regret being so nervous and not ranting enough, I had so much to say, and I didn't say it. My argument also got a bit repetitive because I was recycling material, but seriously, I would be damned if I tried to remember more of my detailed study than I did. I swear though, if I hear anything even vaguely resembling "das Verhältnis des Menschen zur Natur" or "die Loreley" and how she lures sailors to their deaths by bloody brushing her bloody blond hair, I'm going to freak.

Anyways, I hope you people enjoy this chapter! It's unbetaed, unfortunately, and I would do it, except I'm thinking I should do some maths before I arrive at the stupid exam room with nothing going through my head except Carmen. It'll probably be another while before I update again, considering finals, and then the titrations nationals competition (don't ask me how we qualified, all high on chocolate and drunk on air), but I'll update again ASAP!

As usual, you guys know the drill. Read and please review! I thank all the people who have been reviewing thus far! You guys rule!
Music: Some German rock song by some guy I don't know; Superman – Five for Fighting; Unwell – Matchbox Twenty; Bent – Matchbox Twenty; Mockingbird – Eminem; Holding out for a Hero – Frou Frou; Clowns – TATU; Sign – Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Original Soundtrack; Another Inspiration – Chrono Cross Remix; Memories in the Rain – Kurosaki Ichigo and Kuchiki Rukia (can't remember for the life of me what their seiyuus are); In the End – Linkin Park; Tomorrow – SR-71

Aeternitas

By Assassin, AKA Fishie

Chapter Six

'Somebody's coming.' Heero said quietly, surprising Duo. 'No…four.'

'Yea.' Duo gritted his teeth, watching with a sense of hopelessness. 'Puppets.'

Completely undeterred by the heavy rain, a group of four vampires zombies driven only by their hunger for blood and the possible order of their master, marched towards them awkwardly. It appeared that one of them had broken a leg, and two others sported broken arms. Duo suspected they were the trophies of their unsuccessful struggle back when their minds were still human, back when they still had minds.

'One of them is lame.' Heero murmured.

'Yea, and two others have broken arms.' Duo added, still wondering how Heero knew.

'Fight or flight?' From the way Heero was speaking, no one would have guessed that he and Duo were currently the targets of four vicious zombies.

'This is going to do wonders to my ego.' Duo muttered, tugging sharply on Heero's wrist. 'Run!'

They took off immediately, running as fast as they were able. Behind them, the vampires chased, splashing through the sidewalk. Duo was purposefully leading them in a circle, so that they could head back towards his house. Vampires just were not the sort of thing you brought to your friend's homes. Unfortunately, it did not look like they would get anywhere, for they had only just managed to get back to where they were before when the vampires caught up with them.

It was obvious who they were after, although Duo for the life of him could not understand why. Vampires generally left each other alone unless some horrible sin against the vampric laws was committed, and in his case, he had vandalized none. Hence, the vampires were after Heero. However, why four lackeys were being sent after one human was beyond Duo, save that he was the only human within the area who was outside. Duo decided that that had to be the reason, just as he was shoved roughly over. In an instant, dirty rain water filled his lungs, forcing him to choke as he climbed unsteadily back to his feet. Heero was doing pretty well on his own, throwing the vampires aside as best as he could blind. Duo leapt into the fray quickly, ripping another of the vampires away from his friend with a strength he did not know he had. Heero let out a growl as one of the vampires latched themselves to his neck, punching the creature in the face and breaking the bones there with a sickening crack. However, the vampire did not react. Now immune to pain, the vampire latched on, opening its mouth wide and revealing a set of white teeth and a particularly long pair of fangs. Duo quickly raced over, pushing his hand in between the vampire's mouth and Heero's neck just as it leant in for a bite.

Twin cries filled the night as Duo yelped, feeling the sharp teeth tearing through his hand, and the vampire screamed in pain. Apparently, vampire blood was highly poisonous to other vampires, the braided boy observed as he tried to shove the vampire away. Heero promptly broke the creature's arm, freeing himself and allowing Duo to push the zombie to the ground. The vampire thrashed, clawing at its face as it tried to scream despite being submerged in water. The other three vampires paid it no mind as they continued closing in, eyes shining with lust. Duo watched them with distaste, feeling his protectiveness over Heero increase. The Japanese boy in question narrowed his eyes, one hand fumbling in his pant pocket for something. The thought suddenly hit Duo, Heero was searching for his keys. He always had a pocket knife clipped there, insisting that it was for self defense should it ever come to that. At that moment, Duo could not think of a better circumstance for self defense.

One of the vampires leapt over quickly, lunging for Heero. Duo quickly pushed the Japanese boy out of the way, ending up half submerged in the over flooded street while the vampire held him down. Meanwhile, the two other remaining vampires lunged at Heero, tackling him onto a flooded lawn. The blue-eyed boy kicked one of them hard in the face, twisting its neck in a way that might have killed a normal person, but did nothing save leave the vampire attacking with its head fixed on an odd angle. The other vampire meanwhile clawed at his arms, holding them down while preparing for its feast. Heero let out a small cry as he pulled his legs in and caught the vampire in the chest, kicking it aside. The other vampire lunged quickly over, head fixed in a permanent one-eighty degree turn. Heero quickly flicked open his pocket knife, shoving the metal into the vampire's heart. The creature screeched, flinging backwards with Heero's knife still stuck in its breast. Heero pushed himself off the ground quickly, running straight into the shrieking vampire and ripping the knife from it. Blood gushed out from the wound in torrents before the creature collapsed, still twitching, to the ground.

Duo felt himself drowning slowly, and the urge to survive pulsed adrenaline through his veins. With a silent roar, he shoved the vampire off his chest, making full use of its broken arm. Air rushed back into his lungs immediately, broken only by Duo's own attempts at ridding the water from his throat. The other vampire, seeing Duo incapacitated, raced over and tackled an unprepared Heero to the sidewalk. Duo let out a yell, racing over and ripping the vampire off his friend with the help of Heero's own kick. The Japanese boy sat up quickly, breathing heavily and spitting water out of his mouth. Duo grabbed his knife just as the remaining two vampires came running over, slashing one of the vampires in the neck while clamping his bleeding hand across the open jaws of the other vampire. Both vampires cried, but only one fell. The other one, despite its bleeding neck, continued lunging towards them. At that moment, Heero seemed to decide that they had done quite enough, for he grabbed Duo by the wrist and ran as fast as he could after a brawl. The vampire tried to chase them, but collapsed after a few steps, its screams gurgling through the water.

Hearing the vampire fall behind them, Heero let out a sigh of relief while Duo followed suit, feeling as if he had drunk enough bad water in the past ten minutes to last a lifetime. In the distance, Duo heard electricity returning and the streetlamps springing on. Knowing that the consequences would not be pretty if some nosy neighbors happened to see them walking by, with clothes bloody, a knife dangling from one of his hands and four corpses behind them, Duo urged them into a run once again. Heero did not protest, although his footsteps were heavy and his movements not nearly as fluid as they usually were. Duo sensed that they were both injured, and come time when the endorphins finally wore off, they were both going to be in a fair bit of pain.

In all his life to date, Duo did not think he had ever been more grateful to finally reach home. It was by far his most dramatic entrance, which was why it was such a shame that Howard was not home to witness it. The back door was flung open, crashing into the wall and springing back, only to be pushed back by Duo's free hand as both he and Heero staggered inside. They marched into the lounge room as one after Duo locked the door behind them and turned on the lights, still supporting each other and trailing mud, blood and water all over the floor. With a sigh of relief, both of them collapsed on the floor before even reaching the couch.

'Now there's excitement…' Duo muttered, eyes staring unfocused at the ceiling. Heero gave one of his expression-filled grunts, his breathing still heavy.

It was as he was lying there that the first pangs of pain spread from his numb body. At once, Duo felt his bleeding hand hurting, as well as his wrists and chest. Luckily, nothing else appeared to be bleeding. A glance at Heero told a different story.

The Japanese boy had managed to pull himself up into a seating position with his back against the base of the couch. He was currently ripping off his already ripped shirt, exposing a bruised torso and multiple gashes running along his arms. His neck was badly bruised where one of the vampires had grabbed him, and his cheek was cut. He had not been bitten, but was spilling enough blood for an adequate meal. Duo felt guilty at not being able to protect his friend, but Heero, appearing to know what he was thinking, waved it off unconcernedly. Recovering his breath, Duo launched himself off the ground and scrambled into the bathroom to fetch a small basin, which he filled with cold water, a hand towel and the first aid kit. Heero greeted him with a nod when he returned, and insisted on bandaging Duo's palm first. The braided boy protested, but to no avail. Still frowning, he washed his hand quickly with a shred of bandage from the first-aid box, and wrapped it up in white material. Heero smiled slightly, satisfied, before letting Duo help him with his wounds.

What happened next almost proved to be Duo's fall.

He was leaning in to inspect the wounds on Heero's left arm when a foreign scent enveloped his senses. In all his life, he had never smelt anything so good, so unique, and so absolutely desirable. Without realizing, he leaned in towards the smell, the scent so sharp and vivid he could almost taste it. His eyes glazed over with desire as he searched for the source of the delicious smell, his mouth watering, his fangs growing…

'Duo?' Duo blinked, taken aback by the voice…Heero's voice. With a start, he realized that he was holding tightly to Heero's arm, his mouth barely an inch from a trickle of Heero's blood, currently streaming down his arms. He blinked again, surprised by what he appeared to be doing, what he was going to do. He was going to drink Heero's blood! His best friend's blood! Did he not say he did not need blood, did he not go through so many years of his life without blood? He was a vampire, but he did not drink blood, never felt even the slightest urge to drink the substance. But was that not what he was about to do?

'Sorry.' He said quickly, pulling away and reaching for the towel. Heero frowned slightly, but did not offer any other comments. Duo felt his own face heat up. What was wrong with him? But still, he could remember the smell from that moment, that undeniably beautiful scent that drove him into a moment of bloodlust for the first time in sixteen years. Unconsciously, Duo flicked his tongue at his fangs, noticing how unusually long and sharp they were. Sitting there now, wetting the towel and dragging it over Heero's arms, he did not feel or smell what he did a moment ago at all. So why had he fallen so deep into lust? Silently, Duo berated himself. Not drinking blood was his last defense, especially with Sacreds and other hunters closing in on the area, how could he even think of destroying that?

But then, as he helped Heero bandage his arm, the realization hit him. Perhaps that smell was what the other vampires had been smelling. That would explain why four converged on the one person at once! Heero's scent was definitely one which would drive any vampire into bloodlust, especially a group of wandering puppets searching for blood. Duo usually did not pay attention to scents, but dared to open himself slightly at that moment, just to confirm his own suspicions. He immediately smelt the stench of dead blood, and located the source to be his and Heero's clothes, but that smell was completely overwhelmed by the scent Heero was giving off. Almost immediately, he felt desire cloud his senses as that incredible scent surrounded him. By the time he finally managed to wrestle some sense into his mind and switch off the awareness, he had tackled Heero over and was leaning over the boy's neck, his fangs a mere millimeter from piercing the blue-eyed boy's skin.

Duo pushed himself away quickly, one hand over his mouth and his eyes wide with shock. Heero sat up slowly, his own eyes showing only a sliver of shock and fear. Considering it was Heero, the emotions meant a lot, which was why Duo was on the floor in an instant, apologizing profusely and hitting himself in the head. Heero scrambled over quickly, stopping Duo's self-punishment and intoning in a soft, gentle voice that Duo had heard only a few times in the past, that it was okay. The voice had a hypnotic quality to it which soothed away some of Duo's distress, while Heero slowly wrapped his arms around Duo's form, holding Duo tightly.

No words were necessary; Duo was forgiven, and from the way Heero held him, there had not been a moment when the blue-eyed boy had felt otherwise.

They were on the couch again, breakfast propped on the coffee table before them and the television turned on the news channel. Heero was highly curious as to whether there would be a report on the events of the previous night, except only the heavy rain and the blackout were mentioned. The four vampires had never been discovered apparently. Leaning back in Duo's couch with a slice of his mother's cake in his hands, Heero frowned, unsure whether the lack of discovery was a good thing. It meant that he and Duo were not going to be in any trouble, especially for supposedly killing four people. However, having vampires just randomly disappear brought unease to his mind. Perhaps it was the effect of being so militaristic for his younger life, but a dead person was only when their stone-cold corpse could be seen. Despite reassuring himself otherwise, a part of Heero's mind still insisted that the vampires were alive and very well. He sighed within his mind at the memory. Where had Quatre Winner the Vampire Slayer been last night when the actual vampires were around, Heero thought bitterly. Perhaps if the blond and the rest of his organization spent more time hunting down actual dangerous vampires instead of harmless individuals like Duo, then there would be fewer deaths.

Harmless individuals like Duo…Heero glanced over at the braided boy sitting next to him, currently with his breakfast sitting on his stomach and wolfing the food down like a starved man. It would have been a lie for him to say that he had not been frightened at all when Duo fell into bloodlust, or so he assumed. He had never seen Duo like that, never seen anyone like that. The glazed look in Duo's eyes, the hunger, and the elongated fangs…Heero had had such an image when Duo first told him he was a vampire, however, the actual concept of seeing Duo bent over him, hungry for blood, was more frightening than anything Heero had ever seen.

But Duo did not hurt him, just like he knew he would. Heero smiled in his mind. His fright the previous night was mostly due to shock, and slight disbelief. But he trusted Duo, possibly more than the other boy knew. He knew Duo would not hurt him, knew that what forced Duo onto him had been Duo's vampric instincts and not his conscious mind. Besides, Heero thought calmly, if Duo ever needed or wanted his blood, he would give it to him. Anything to keep the boy next to him happy.

Quatre Winner's face flickered unbidden across his mind again, and Heero scowled. On second thought, he may have to reconsider that previous line of thought. Quatre was after Duo, but Heero had the suspicion that he would not be allowed to do anything unless Duo drank his blood. After all, the Arabian Hunter appeared to have only bothered him in the past, and not Duo. If he was so bent on killing all vampires, then he would have at least tried to kill Duo. But he had not, and Heero knew that that was because the blond Hunter was not allowed to.

'TV sucks.' Duo muttered sleepily, changing the channel quickly while reaching for his breakfast and shoving some food into his mouth. Heero gave him a disapproving look, but the braided-boy ignored it as usual. Duo's eating habits were definitely not going to change any time soon. 'Stupid, crappy Sunday morning programs.'

'Or lack there of.' Heero shrugged. 'Change it back to World News.'

'Heero.' Duo turned to give Heero a most dry stare. 'We've been watching the news channel over and over and over and over and over every time we turned on the damn TV! But not this morning!'

'Duo…' Heero fixed his best friend with an equally dry look. 'You're watching Sesame Street.'

'Damn straight!' Duo grinned proudly. 'Oh lighten up,' he added when he saw Heero's unfazed expression. 'It may be a kiddy show, but at least it's better than watching more news.'

Heero was silent for a moment, giving Duo the impression that he had given up, before reaching over and tugging the remote out of Duo's lax grip. The braided boy gave him a most irritable look when he switched the channels again, but did not say anything more. Heero place the remote back on the coffee table when he was done with a warning air, cautioning Duo against changing the channel again if he knew what was good for him. He need not have bothered, for Duo's eyes were fixed firmly on the television screen, giving the electronic box his complete and undivided attention. Heero leaned back against the couch, letting a small frown cross his features as he realized what had captured Duo's attention.

It was a report on another two deaths at a nearby high school, although the victims this time were both boys. There would have been nothing terribly unusual about their deaths, had both of them not died at the same time in the same place, and at such a young age. They had both apparently fallen asleep near the benches just off the school oval, and never woke up again. The police were unable to explain the cause of death, while the only anomaly discovered was some slight hemorrhaging in both boys' ears. Apart from that, they were both perfectly healthy, and their expressions relaxed.

'It's a High Vampire.' Duo murmured after a moment, catching Heero's questioning look. 'There are a few ways to kill a vampire, and from there, one can tell who was behind it. A Sacred or Hunter would normally use weapons ranging from arrows to swords, with Sacred weapons more likely to contain a core of Holy Water and Hunters' silver. Mages, although they are rarer nowadays than black diamonds, summon the elements, but the type of element and strength of the attack all depends on the mage. However, a High Vampire kills by playing a special melody. The melody and instrument differs between High Vampires, however is always referred to as the Song of Death, and any vampire who hears it (aside from the one playing it), will instantly grow weary and fall asleep, never to wake up again.'

'The ear hemorrhaging tells you that it was the Vampire music which killed them?' Heero asked.

'Not only that.' Duo frowned. 'You probably won't see it, but there is a mark on their necks. It's a brand which claims their deaths as belonging to a specific High Vampire, a sort of warning to all other vampires in the area to be on their guard and watch what they're doing.'

'So those two violated the Vampric laws?' Heero asked, watching the TV with narrowed eyes. Duo nodded grimly.

'They're definitely responsible for some of the deaths we've been seeing on TV, but I doubt that they are the only ones.' Duo groaned. 'Damn, I definitely know why Howard told me to be careful now. This whole place is going to become a war zone soon!'

Heero watched Duo fret with worry, uncertain what he could do to help. Duo frowned, settling his breakfast down on the coffee table before grabbing his hair in desperation, looking more lost than Heero had ever seen him. After a moment's uncertainty, Heero reached over and grabbed Duo around the shoulder. The other boy stared at him in confusion for a moment before Heero dragged him over into a hug, wrapping his arms gently around Duo's body. The boy relaxed instantly, reaching around his friend and hugging him tight.

'It'll be all right Duo.' Heero murmured against Duo's hair. The braided boy nodded into his chest, muttering something along the lines of thank you. Heero smiled in his own, non-smiling away as he continued to hold onto his best friend. During times of distress, it was always good to have somebody to hold onto, he told himself, even if the words of comfort were fake and they both knew it.

Endnotes:

Not much I want to say. Random small slice of action scene and some Heero-Duo ness. Hope you guys enjoyed it!

Assassin