Title: Blood of the Snake, a Get Backers fanfic
By: retroelectric
Warnings: Mature Themes, Vampirism, Horror/Supernatural, Strong Language, Yaoi,Alternate Universe
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Get Backers. This is a Get Backers fan fiction, ideas purely fan-made speculations based off the relationship between the Get Backers duo and infused with several elements inspired – and not stolen off the Vampire Chronicles Universe by Anne Rice. It is also important to note that this does not contain ANY of her characters, thus this is strictly NOT a Vampire Chronicles/Get Backers crossover. In this way I do not breach any of Anne Rice's policies regarding fan fiction on her work.
Chapter 17
"Very well. I'll tell you what I really am."
Cadmus moved several steps closer to Akabane, and smiled, with a slow, subtle curving of his pale lips. The dark-cloaked man didn't back away. His slight hitching of breath gave his nervousness away as Cadmus pushed his hard chest lightly against Akabane's.
"I see blood-lust brewing in your eyes," He whispered huskily. "And it is different from the blood-lust which I normally feel. I drink blood out of necessity, but you draw blood out of weaker men, cutting them down purely for your own pleasure, do you not? I can hear those disgusting, murderous thoughts rattling around your head, despite your so-called 'defense'." He laughed humourlessly. "My cherub has better mind defense than you."
"You protect your mind from any mind reader by means of confusion, do you not?" Cadmus murmured idly, as though talking about the weather. "You think of several different things at once, and that forms a barricade against what you are really thinking. Despite all that fancy riff-raff that you possess, I can still penetrate your mind, and I am able to know what you're thinking right now. You're thinking that all of this is impossible, right?"
Akabane's eyes widened slightly under the brim of his hat, his slender body tight and tense. Then he looked up and met Cadmus's iridescent violet eyes.
He finally spoke after a long moment. "You're very fascinating, Cadmus-kun. And now all this," He gestured with one hand, "Is making me impatient to find out what you really are."
Cadmus smiled, meeting Akabane's eyes. "All right. I'll humour you, Kuroudou. I'm a vampire who is more than three centuries old. I have powers that you can never imagine, an immortal who is invincible by all means." He backed away, and folded his arms. "Are you... satisfied?"
"I could be satisfied, but I'm afraid that the part about your powers is a bit vague for me to comprehend. I'm intrigued, though. Are you affected by garlic and crosses, and is it true that you vampires can turn into bats?"
"Aren't you going to find out yourself?" Cadmus said mildly.
"Is that an invitation for us to begin battle?" Akabane asked amusedly, smiling.
Cadmus laughed, unfolding his arms and letting them hang by his sides. "If that's what you want. I'm not really into this battling thing as you and the rest of them seem to be, but I can be persuaded to defend myself."
"It's a waste," Akabane said after calculating the other man with his cold killer's eyes.
"What is?" Cadmus asked, although he already knew what was coming.
"It's a waste for you to have those powers, whatever they might be, and not use them to your advantage."
"I do use my powers to my advantage, Kuroudou. It's just that I don't use them for killing people for sport. It's despicable."
Akabane's posture stiffened again as though he felt the sting of Cadmus's hidden meaning. "And yesterday wasn't? How very contradictory." Akabane hissed, and drawing out two scalpels from his body. He whipped them up as if he was going to throw them at him. "This is enough talking for now." After a long moment of stillness, Akabane looked up from under his hat as he heard Cadmus laugh loudly.
"Y-You can't possibly think that you can kill me by using mere scalpels, Kuroudou-san," Cadmus said disbelievingly, between choking breaths of laughter.
"Feh. You're always so damn cocky, Cadmus," Ban said breathily from across the room as he delivered a final blow to his victim. The dark-haired male grinned at him as the man fell at his feet. Ginji was likewise done with Tenma's bodyguards and he grinned boyishly, giving a thumbs up to Cadmus.
Akabane growled softly in well-hidden anger at the distraction. "Do pay attention to me, Cadmus-kun."
He flung his scalpels in one quick motion aiming at Cadmus's neck. Cadmus's ears perked as he heard a rushing noise and he quickly moved forward, the scalpels narrowly missing his nape of his neck. The sharp blades cut cleanly through his lustrous long blond hair and it fell to the ground in a soft motion.
The smile was instantly wiped off Cadmus's face. "Told you, Cadmus-sama!" Ban said in a somewhat affectionate jeering tone. "Anyway, that is a good look on you; the cute short hair. It's less 'seventeenth century', if you get my drift." The Jagan user grasped Ginji around the waist with one arm and half-dragged him away from the two men.
"Ban-chan!" Ginji hissed hotly, giving a cursory glance at a shock-stilled Cadmus. He attempted to wriggle away from Ban. "I need to help Cadmus-san out – let me go!"
"Baka," Ban drawled, "It's time that you start listening to your own advice." He tightened his grip around Ginji. "Weren't you the one who said that Cadmus can take care of himself?"
Ginji frowned. "I know that, but he doesn't know what Akabane-san is really capable of!"
"Shut up, lover. Just be a good boy and watch. It's going to be a spectacular show, I just know it!" Vivid spots of colour showed up on Ginji's cheekbones as he heard Ban called him lover, but he nodded and remained compliant in his arms.
Cadmus's violet and grey eyes were veiled and humid, Akabane noticed, and he was tense and expectant for the vampire's next move. His scalpels thrummed excitedly in his body. The next thing he knew was that in a blink of an eye, Cadmus had disappeared from his sight. He listened closely for any movement, half-hoping that a flock of bats would appear. But would it? He wondered, doubting himself.
Ginji's head whipped up as Akabane let out an uncharacteristic short scream. Something had slammed him face-down into the ground with inhuman force. He grappled clumsily on the ground, attempting to right himself as quickly as he could manage and to remain in an invulnerable position. Showing your back to the enemy was plain stupid, he thought frantically, a wholly different sort of fear overpowering his senses. This sort of fear was what he wanted in his battles, the rush of adrenaline through his throbbing veins.
Akabane's thin lips curved upwards, and he had only managed to twist his body. His back was to the ground, his chest still vulnerable when Cadmus reappeared on top of him, his knees on either side of his waist. He couldn't move, Cadmus had locked him in. It was pure undiluted fear he felt at the exact moment and his heart skipped two beats. It had indeed been long since he'd felt such a rush like this in a battle, and he looked wonderingly at Cadmus. He fancied that anger was puffing across those icy violet eyes, subsided.
He stared, enticed at the messy lustrous hair falling into those violet grey eyes. His blond eyebrows were knitted together, giving him a look of a parent frowning upon the actions of his insolent child. The skin of the vampire was marble-like as he saw Cadmus's hand flick out to knock off the hat off Akabane's head.
"He's really fast." Ban commented of Cadmus, and Ginji nodded.
The Transporter's mouth was open in an 'o' as a foreign realisation knocked himself off-guard. He saw the sensuous glint of long white fangs behind Cadmus's lush mouth.
"You're beautiful," Akabane whispered inaudibly.
Ginji coloured again. "Er, Ban-chan, what's Cadmus-san doing to Akabane-san...? It looks like he's... ehem..." Ban shushed him for a moment, and scrutinised the two men on the ground.
"Am I?" Cadmus said, barely hearing the feverish whispers from Ban and Ginji as he brought a hand down onto Akabane's chest. "Or you're merely saying this to keep me off-guard, to impale one of your cursed scalpels deep in my body simply to see what happens next?"
"No idea..." Ban concluded. And they were silent for a moment as Akabane's mouth murmured something inaudible.
"Yes, yes I am," Akabane murmured, a lust of a different sort clouding in his eyes. His pink tongue sneaked out to moisten his suddenly dry lips.
"Then do it. You can't hurt me." Cadmus said dispassionately.
Akabane's breath involuntarily hitched. "I've never had anyone... so powerful... give themselves up so easily before," he gasped.
Cadmus's eyes glinted. "I wouldn't call this giving up, if I were you."
One scalpel flashed out and cut through Cadmus's wrist as though it were paper. Akabane looked on in a sick sort of pleasure and fascination as the detached, bleeding limb twitched feebly on the ground.
"Cadmus-san!" Ginji screamed, eyes widening at the flowing crimson blood and clawing at Ban's arm around him.
Cadmus picked it up and fixed it back on the copiously bleeding junction where wrist and arm met. The muscles knitted together, healing instantly and Cadmus flexed his fingers as if proving a point to Akabane. He wiped the blood off his fingers on the rough cloth of his pants.
Akabane was still staring at him as he spoke languidly. "You know, I've read somewhere before that some Makers hurt their fledglings by cutting off their limbs and rendering them immobile, as a form of punishment. It keeps them weak, but it doesn't kill them. I guess I have proof of that now."
"And my real fun starts now, does it not?" Cadmus bared his dagger-like fangs and bent forward, ripping at the collar of Akabane's coat harshly. The Transporter's pale shoulder and neck were revealed, and Cadmus heard and saw the throbbing pulse in his neck.
Akabane half-groaned half-whimpered as Cadmus sunk his teeth viciously deep into his tender flesh. Ban winced, remembering the sensation and stared entranced as Cadmus drunk on the killer's blood.
The hot blood exploded to life as it slid down Cadmus's throat. It was a feeling indescribable. He thought to himself how he should stop now before he actually killed Akabane, it wasn't his intention to kill anyone – just to scare them, maybe.
Upon seeing Cadmus's fangs embedded deeply in Akabane's neck, Ginji frantically willed himself to be stronger and finally broke free from Ban's grip. Ban made a small sound, but Ginji ignored him as he ran and fell to his knees near Cadmus. He tried to pulled him forcefully off Akabane.
"Don't do it, please..." Ginji cried pleadingly, electricity slightly crackling around him. He wrapped his arms around Cadmus's shoulder, attempting to pull him away and tears were welling in his brown eyes. Cadmus noticed all of this in the haze of the lust he felt.
Cadmus finally extricated himself from a grey-faced Akabane. He glanced at the expression on Ginji's face and brushed off Ginji's arms from around him. "I'm sorry, Ginji. Don't cry, please." He wiped off the tears from Ginji's face, and then walked away from Akabane's prone body, feigning indifference as his shoulder brushed Ban's.
Ginji remained, crouched. He looked at Akabane's grey lips and closed eyelids, and shivered a little as he got up. He walked briskly to catch up with Cadmus and Ban. They shut the illuminating door behind him, and walked on in grave silence to Gen's pharmacy.
"You can't kill me like just like that as well," was what Cadmus heard distantly. He didn't have to think long to know it was Akabane.