"Oh dear God Courtney! Will we ever get there!?" Duncan demanded for the forth time that night.
"Oh Duncan," She replied with a cheerful smile and darted further ahead. "You truly are a silly man!"
Duncan sighed and shook his head. As a vampire, even a very new one at that, he couldn't understand why Courtney was making him wade through the thick underbrush of a Mexican jungle just like any normal human would. At least not when he could speed through it so fast it wouldn't even cause a rustle in the leaves.
"Come on, Duncan. The temple is just up ahead... and I'll make it worth your while if you reach it before sun up." Courtney called from out of sight seductively.
"Why me! Why out of all the reasonably good looking vampire men in the world with super hot vampire girlfriends do I have to be the only one whose girl actually makes him trek through a God forsaken jungle just like a human?" Duncan asked himself but kept moving onward.
"Duncan," A voice whispered out of nowhere into his ear.
"Are we close yet?" Duncan asked hopefully.
"No, but sunrise is so we will just have to take cover here." Courtney declared, already shimmering away and darting into tiny cracks in the dirt until she reached a spot deep beneath the Earth's surface where she could take her natural form once again.
Duncan sighed loudly but followed her, using his vampire instincts to guide him. Unlike Courtney, who had been doing such things for decades upon decades, Duncan had a much harder time of becoming mist. His color was more of a pale silver than a bright gold like his little love's.
"Man, we won't even have time for a make-out session let alone a quickie." He complained, trying to lose himself in his vampire instincts.
"Duncan, come up here my love." Courtney called softly down through the layers of Earth.
Duncan sure does take forever to do this. Courtney worried. I'm not even sure he's getting any better...
"Okay, I'm here! I'm here!" Duncan announced, twenty feet back from where he should have come up. "Awe man," Duncan exclaimed looking around him, "I already walked this! Now I'm going to have to do it again." He complained loudly, throwing his hands up in the air.
"They say it is always easier the second time around." Courtney called helpfully now thirty feet up the non-existent trail.
"I got to admit, I really do love that woman." Duncan muttered to himself as he tried to cover the same stretch he'd covered hours before faster than his first time around. Surprising himself, Duncan's pace was faster.
"Duncan, look at it. Isn't it the most beautiful thing you've ever laid eyes upon?" Courtney asked, throwing her hands out as she surveyed the ruins of a long since forgotten Aztec temple.
"I would say yes, but I've seen you, so no. This temple is not the most beautiful thing I've every laid on." Duncan wiggled his eyebrows.
Courtney laughed, just as intended. "Ha, ha." She murmured sarcastically and kissed his cheek. "But really, I was alive when this project was begun... and when it was finished several human lifetimes later." Courtney's voice sagged and Duncan recognized that fact that she was remembering being human. She always got quiet when she remembered what she called the best days of her life.
Courtney moved closer to examine the structure. "I think that enough of the outer structure is still intact that we will probably have to ceata inside." She glanced at Duncan's puzzled face. "It is Romanian for mist." Duncan just gave her a blank look. Courtney sighed and continued. "We have to 'shimmer' inside to have a look around. Understand that better?" She asked with a frown.
He just smiled and nodded, completely unaware of Courtney's teasing disgust. "Sound's like fun! What are we looking for anyways?" Duncan asked, approaching the ancient ruin and running a hand over the stone carvings that symbolized ancient writings.
"I'll tell you when I find it." Courtney told him in an ever so scolding tone.
Duncan grinned in her direction. "Whatever you say, Princess."
She turned away, trying to hide her smile brought on because of Duncan's teasing manner.
Once inside the structure of the long ago built temple, Courtney looked around and hung her head.
"What is it, Princess?" Duncan asked, wrapping his arms around his woman protectively.
"Nothing, it's just... this place use to be so marvelous! So grand and golden! So beautiful and not it is... it is just not." She finished sadly, letting Duncan support her height as she sagged against him.
"Tell me about it." Duncan said after a pause, knowing instinctively that was exactly what Courtney needed him to say.
"Well, through there was once a chamber dedicated solely to tamed jaguars. And over in the room opposite was the bird chamber. You can almost still see the wire from the giant cage." She whispered, lost in her memories as she walked slowly towards the rooms she was talking about but not quite entering them.
"Where's your room?" Duncan murmured into Courtney's ear.
"I don't have one here, silly! This is a temple to the god's!" She exclaimed seriously but not scoldingly.
"Oh," He grumbled defeatedly.
"But... if you come though here I'll show you where the alter of birth is... I'm sure the god's wouldn't mind us... worshiping them there..." Courtney spoke in a very suggestive tone.
Duncan's head popped up and he grinned. "I don't think they'd mind at all..." He ran his hand down Courtney's arm and the stopped at her wrist, a look of fear crossing his handsome features. "We... is it possibly... you can't... we can't..." Duncan stammered incoherently, a horrified expression crossing his handsome face.
"We cannot produce a child. It is not possible. I am not pregnant." Courtney replied calmly, blinking her large black eyes sweetly.
Duncan relaxed and sighed loudly, completely relieved.
While he was preoccupied with his feeling of relief Courtney whispered, "At least not yet..."
Leaving Duncan asleep for the day, Courtney risked a journey back into the temple just before the sun breeched the sky.
She glided across the ground smoothly and swiftly, showing her respect for the god's by not using her ceata powers to move faster. Courtney walked until she reached the base of a large stone jaguar. The statue was inlaid with turquoise and gold, but that wasn't what she was after.
Instead Courtney moved briskly to the back of the giant stone cat and pushed a hidden block into the wall. A door in between the cat's front paws ground open and Courtney bounded through.
Once inside Courtney dropped to her knees for only a moment before rising and gliding across the vine-covered ground. She came to a halt at a much smaller copy of the jaguar above her. This jaguar was made of gold with onyx spots. The cat had one emerald eye and one sapphire eye. Its tongue was made of a hugely large ruby. Around the golden creatures neck was a thin gold band seemingly untouched by the ages.
Courtney dropped to her knees once again before rising to remove the slim gold necklace and place it around her own neck. The door to the chamber had long since closed, trapping Courtney in with only one way to get out. Courtney gathered her power, and hindered by the thin chain around her neck, she shimmered into a fine gold mist.
As her mist rose it changed colors from green to blue to red, the exact colors of the jewels in the jaguar figurine.
Courtney returned to Duncan's side and pressed a kiss against his sleeping face.
She was happy to be home.
This one-shot is just supposed to be about Duncan and Courtney, nothing more, nothing less. I kind of added a little bit of history on Courtney's part in here too.
Review to tell me what you liked/didn't like.