Just a warning—this is by far the most graphic chapter in this story, as it contains notable violence. But they are vampires, I'm afraid.
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He found him in the woods. He was lying on his side, pale against the wet earth. Asleep.
"Where did you sleep, Satoshi? Where did you spend your days?"
Three days without him. Three days, quite possibly, without blood. Krad lifted him, hoisting him over his shoulder. The small body was light, as he knew it would be. A smear of wetness came off his clothes and stained Krad's hand. Blood? Krad looked at it. Had he fed? He licked it. No, this was Satoshi's blood. Then he had been wounded. The fear he had sensed the day before…
He checked the boy over for wounds. Nothing visible—no, idiot, here, a huge gash across his stomach. Rough, like something had ripped through him. There was a spot that was deeper, and Krad smelled…deer? Had Satoshi tried to hunt a stag? The wound was deep and still bleeding, and Satoshi's weak aura showed how much blood he had already lost. It was almost sunrise, but Satoshi needed blood now. It couldn't wait for their return home. He took off his coat and shirt, tearing the second and binding the wound as carefully as he could. Satoshi shivered slightly. Krad wrapped the coat around him and lifted him again, trying to think where they could spend the day.
He carried Satoshi swiftly to the old house he had spent the midday in. As he lay the boy down on the old floorboards, he felt the slight drowsiness that accompanied dawn for an older vampire.
"Hang it—How will I get you to feed now?" He leaned his head against the wall in frustration. "I was too slow…I'm sorry, Satoshi."
The boy twitched and moaned a little. Krad examined the wound and saw that the blood had soaked through the makeshift bindings and was pooling on the coat. He couldn't wait, he had to wake him somehow.
"Come on, child, wake up." He nudged at Satoshi's aura, unsure how hard to push. Satoshi grunted and moved his head slightly. He was still far too young to stay awake in the daytime; Krad knew he'd never managed it beyond sunrise. But now…
"Satoshi." Still kneeling, he leaned over the fledgling and placed a gentle hand on the wound. Healing it now would take most of Krad's power and his blood, and Satoshi needed as much of the latter as he could get. If he drank it, it would heal him and replenish his strength. Krad's magic could only close the wound, not replenish the blood that Satoshi would die without. But if the blood loss continued…
He leaned down closer. "Satoshi, I'm sorry. I only hope I'm making the right choice now."
He concentrated on Satoshi's aura, connecting his own power with the boy's through the tie of their shared bloodline. As his energy began to flow into the fledgling, the boy's aura rippled slightly with recognition. The faint light of Satoshi's mind brightened ever so slightly. Krad opened his eyes to see that Satoshi had opened his own and was staring at him, his blue eyes dark with pain. His voice was more of a breath than a word.
"Krad?"
The weakness of his whisper shot a different pain through his sire, sliding like an invisible knife into his heart. Satoshi looked so close to death, as close as he had when he had last been human. His eyes were weak, faint and nearly lifeless.
"Satoshi."
"Krad, I'm…sorry…"
"Don't worry about it. I need you to drink now, Satoshi, and don't try to resist, alright?"
Satoshi watched the proffered arm with dazed eyes. Krad was surprised when he didn't complain or refuse the meal, but instead opened his mouth weakly, fangs elongating for the bite. He trembled as he sank into the flesh, and Krad leaned down further to allow him better access to the veins. Satoshi nursed the vessels slowly at first, so weakly that Krad hardly felt the strength flowing out of him. Soon, though, the heat of life in the food awakened his instincts, and his body recognized its desperate need for sustenance.
Then the boy attacked the wrist with furor proper to a starving vampire, eyes growing wild as he lost all reserve. Soon he was hissing and opening new wounds with messy, tearing bites. He seized the arm with his hand as though afraid his prey would try to escape and sucked greedily at the escaping blood, running his tongue quickly and roughly over the wet surface of the arm.
Krad watched him, his eyes narrowed with the pain of Satoshi's messy eating. Normally he would have stopped him minutes ago, but this time it wasn't enough. Satoshi's hunger still raged and needed to be filled before he could regain his strength. Krad was used to pain, although his fledgling's violent fervor alarmed him. He had never fed without being magically forced to, and now, watching him experience a feeding fully for the first time, Krad realized that Satoshi had almost no control, if any. The blood loss only compounded the problem. His wound had already healed over, but-
Krad's thoughts were interrupted when the boy stopped gnawing on his arm. He looked down and saw Satoshi's eyes, glowing with inhuman light, staring straight into his own. He had just a moment to register the complete lack of recognition in those eyes before he blocked the clumsy pounce. Teeth aimed for his throat sank into his hand and Satoshi growled as Krad grabbed his arms and easily pulled them together behind the boy's back, pushing Satoshi down into his lap in a swift motion. Satoshi hissed and twisted, enraged at his denied meal.
This was bad, but it couldn't be avoided. Even with only his instincts to keep him in check, Satoshi should have recognized his sire and restrained his feeding to the offered arm, but any feelings of subservience for the older vampire were now overridden by his raging blood hunger. Satoshi didn't even know himself any longer.
"I miscalculated again," Krad said softly, as he offered the struggling fledgling his other hand. "I'm sorry." He was beginning to feel slightly anemic. Satoshi growled and bit into the wrist, stabbing angrily through the unmarked skin. Krad winced again but let his child distract himself with the new blood. Dizziness began to make his vision blur. He sensed for Satoshi's aura and found that it was more robust than ever. Pulling back his hand, he pushed Satoshi's head down and away from him. The young vampire grunted in animalistic frustration. Krad leaned to speak softly into his ear.
"That's enough. Sleep now, little one."
The Satoshi that was not Satoshi anymore huffed and shook. His wild eyes widened before rolling back in his head. His sire caught him and wrapped the coat back around him. Then he laid him back down and watched him sleep until sunset came.
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D
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A
This chapter is insane. I apologize. I always put Satoshi in situations where he has no control, because control is so important to him. But this is out of line. And Krad is a vampire, but how can he have so much blood in him? Have you ever noticed how much vampires seem to bleed in stories and things? They're like the Black Knight from Monty Python, only their limbs grow back. (Heh. I'm definitely going to sleep now.)