Title: Dark Inklings
Author: Jmaria
Rating: FR-15
Disclaimer: Joss owns all things Buffyverse, Christine owns all things Darkverse. I merely mash em together.
Summary: Two worlds of hunters collide, and each seems to bring the other a bit of the salvation that was needed.
A/N: Actually had most of this finished by the time I posted the last chapter, but the muses just flew the coop and wow, how awesome are two big cups of coffee for shaking the hamster cage they currently live in, huh?

Dark Inklings

Chapter One: The Unlikely Match

Vi felt the eyes on her before she'd even made it out the door. Lots and lots of speculating and even a dangerous pair or two of eyes all focusing on her. And she really hated the feeling. She was never the one everybody focused on and she was so grateful for that fact. When it was the Five of them, Dawn somehow always was the focal point. Vi was the background detail girl, not the one who got eyes plastered to her lacking body and bland features.

And she certainly was lacking around this crowd. The small gathering of people and Josef in the inn's hall had been stacked with gorgeous people. The only legitimate reason she could think of for all of that attention was that Josef had somehow relayed her stupid cover story from the woods back to them. That or they were all wondering how some as plain as her could be gifted with such power that only their beautiful race should possess. It stung her pride and her heart.

"Vi?" Dawn stood in front of where she had stopped, not even aware of said stopping. "Are you okay?"

"What?" Vi's eyes blurred as she saw the concern in her friend's eyes.

"I can kick the crap out of Josef for scaring you, Vi," Dawn smiled wickedly at her, in a thinly veiled attempt to shake the sorrow from her. Vi smiled at the thought of Dawn trying to protect her.

"Dawnie, aren't I late to meet Prince Charming?" she sighed, shaking the thought of being watched away.

"Right, the prince and his consort are waiting for us and we can leave Josef and his family all behind us."

"His family?" Vi peeked back over her shoulder at the green haired hunk and the equally stunning group.

"Yeah, the couple on the left are his uncle and aunt, Byron and Antoinetta, and on the right - you know, the hovering couple are his parents, Vlad and Eleanor."

"No way, they're way too young," Vi breathed quietly, her heart fluttering a bit as Josef's eyes caught hers. He was frowning at her, as if he didn't like something she'd said or done. Which was just stupid.

"Yeah, they're at least eight hundred years old. Probably older," Dawn sighed, pulling her onward. "Think Spike old multiplied like three times."

"And - and Josef?" Vi blushed faintly at the mention of his name, even as said mention slipped over her own lips. Dawn merely snorted.

"Josef's a baby compared to them. He's only twenty-three or so. He can barely manage his powers. The prince is meeting us in here," Dawn pushed open the doors to see the sitting room the prince was using. "Sorry we're late. Vi got intercepted by some bad puppies."

"Puppies?" Vi groaned, remembering the old code word for vampires. Then she got a look at the Prince of the Carpathians. Oh, yeah, her ho-hum looks were gonna get on famously here in the land of drop dead gorgeous.

?

Josef watched her being led off by the human liaison and caught the sadness that poured over her. His parents were pulling at him, and all he wanted to do was race after her and hold her tightly to him. She was perfect, the one the gods had granted to him alone - and now she was thinking of him in a diaper. Josef frowned. That stray thought could not be good.

"Josef, you are young. You are mistaking lust for lifemate, that is all," his mother said quietly, turning him away from the girl's direction.

"Mother, I've felt lust, this is not it," he sighed, looking pleadingly between his uncle and father for support. But he wasn't getting much. They thought him still a child, and while he understood the fact that it was partially his own fault it still irritated him. "She is my mate, I can feel it."

"That is impossible, Josef," she shook her head. "You are too young to have found your lifemate. It has -"

Never happened before? It used to happen all the time. Weren't my birth parents such a case?

They were of a different generation. You have not yet reached maturity.

Perhaps I was not destined to wait as everyone else was. I feel it in my very core, this girl - this slayer was born for me.

And do you also think the moon and stars were hung for you, boy?

Josef argued, not trusting himself to word it properly when he could think it at them so much more clearly. Bryon countered.

"No, I know they were not!" Josef yelled, anger at their disbelief too great to be contained any longer. "But I know that she was brought into our lives to complete the missing -"

"You know nothing of the missing half of your soul, impudent pup," Bryon ground out.

"Bryon, there's no need -" Antoinetta tried to soothe her mate.

"He has not waited the centuries the rest of us endured! It's as Eleanor says, he is mistaking lust for lifemate."

"Perhaps I am only better at reading the signs."

His head lifted suddenly, and before they could get another word from him, Josef tore off down the corridor. Something was not well with his lifemate. He could feel it in his bones.

?

"Am I supposed to curtsy or Your Highness him or something?" Vi hissed to Dawn.

"No. I don't think," Dawn chewed her lip nervously.

"You don't think so?"

"Well, I've never done it."

"What exactly did you do?" Vi asked her suspiciously.

"When?" Dawn murmured, glancing back over her shoulder.

"I don't know, the first time you met with the Prince?" Vi snapped.

"She called it pulling a Willow, I believe," Mikhail Dubrinsky gave Vi a smile that would have melted a weaker woman. Vi was lucky she wasn't a gooey mess. Yet. "You must be the infamous Vi."

"Oh, that so doesn't sound good. I deny everything she told you."

"You deny then that you are a compassionate and level-headed young woman gifted with grace and agility?" Mikhail chuckled.

"Well, when you put it that way, then no. I claim all the nice pretty things she said about me," Vi grinned back at him, shooting a glance over at Dawn. And suddenly she felt eyes on her back, close to piercing through her jacket. Dawn was frowning and Mikhail was looking over her shoulder curiously.

"You should not be so close," the newcomer practically growled. Vi carefully turned around, trying to put her body between the newcomer and the Prince. She so didn't like the tone of the voice behind her. She was shocked to see Baby Josef standing there behind them.

"I'm not going to hurt the Prince," Vi murmured looking between Dawn and Josef.

"I wasn't talking to you," Josef said between clenched teeth.

"What?" Dawn's eyes shot open wide as she looked back over to Mikhail and Vi.

"A Mated male should not be so close to another male's lifemate," Josef ground out.

"And whose lifemate is the Prince close to?" Vi asked in disbelief, knowing the answer but so not wanting to hear it. Because it just could not be true. Not at all.

"Mine," Josef growled, his eyes leveling to hers.