Dante smiled. Tony was calling him again. Well not calling for him exactly but he was screaming out his loss and fear to the world.
To be precise he was having a nightmare. Again.
A nightmare filled with dark haired women with bullet holes in their heads and bullet proof jackets around their chests, exploding cars, tearful elevator farewells and hanging off the side of a building. An endless nightmare of being unable to breathe, of drowning, of falling, of burning, of running.
It was time. He would meet Tony in the dream world. The cross over was strong and hopefully Tony would associate him with the ending of painful things rather than as a blood sucking immortal. Dante could soothe away his terror of the night.
He was the terror of the night.
Dante paused. There was another voice. It was small but this time it was calling his name. Almost like a question.
Dante?
Dante quested out with his mind searching for who made the call.
The Boy.
Dante stood. A decision needed to be made. He couldn't attend both of them and the Boy had already distracted him from Tony once before. Still ……..the Boy called for him specifically while Tony simply needed comfort from someone.
Who should he choose?
Tony woke from his nightmare bathed in sweat, panting. That was a bad one. He ran his hand over his face, calming his hammering heart. This was no good. He needed to get his sleep.
He knew what it was. There had been that moment today when he had been facing a loaded gun…again and he had wondered just when his luck would run out. It hadn't and he had survived another day.
But each time he came to that instant it brought back the memories of all the other moments when he shouldn't have survived and did.
Tony got out of bed with a sigh. The first night was always the worst and he knew from experience that it would fade away. He opened his bathroom cabinet and pulled out the sleeping tablets.
He and Ducky had a private arrangement. He would talk to Ducky when it got too bad and Ducky got him some prescription sleeping tablets. Off the record.
He never abused them but sometimes he needed to just forget. Tony washed his face in cool fresh water, swallowed the tablet and climbed wearily back into the comforting warmth of his tangled blankets.
Soon he could give himself up to peaceful oblivion.
Dante cursed. Tony had taken medication and the dream world was now closed to him. He couldn't cross through into a mind closed down in that way.
It looked like it was to be the Boy tonight who would receive a visit. Dante found with surprise that he didn't really mind the exchange. The Boy didn't delight Dante with the vast out pouring of emotions the way Tony did but somehow he did make him feel.
And it was his own distant emotions the Boy re awakened rather than living through the violence of another's. Curious.
Tim awoke to find Dante standing in the dark beside his bed smiling down at him. Tim frowned in confusion.
"I think I was just dreaming about you? We were talking about the stars."
Dante smiled "You are still dreaming about me, Timothy"
"Oh? Am I?"
Suddenly Tim found himself dressed and standing beside Dante looking down at himself fast asleep in his bed.
"Oh so I am"
Tim looked at Dante who was dressed now in a modern suit complete with a black silk shirt which had several of the top buttons undone. He looked immaculate like he had just stepped out of one of Tony's catalogues. Perhaps that's where he got the image from?
"Nice shirt"
"Thank you. Would you like one?"
Suddenly Tim found himself wearing an identical outfit including silk shirt. He felt the silky material between his fingers with surprise.
"This is a very real dream"
Dante soothed "You have an excellent imagination"
Tim nodded. That was true.
Tim considered his apparently magic, handsome, pale, late night companion. "Are you a vampire?"
Dante smiled "Yes I am"
"Oh….now why am I dreaming about you being a vampire?"
Dante attempted to look thoughtful.
"Well perhaps because I was wearing a vampire costume when we met at the party and now when you are dreaming about me you associate me as being a vampire?"
Tim nodded yes that would make sense. He looked down at himself asleep in the bed. He was definitely dreaming although it seemed a very strange dream.
"Ok so now what?"
Dante smiled. "Since you are dreaming….and we can essentially do anything in your dream……how about I show you a few things?"
Tim smiled "Ok"
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Dante grinned as the two of them ran breathless down the narrow cobbled streets of Victorian London following the wild shrill whistles of the Bobbies as they chased Jack the Ripper.
Tim's eyes were bright and the chill night air curled from his warm mouth as he eagerly followed Dante's nimble form through the pools of light thrown out by the dim street lights.
It was all a strange dream game to him but this was from Dante's memory. He had been there. He had been a silent observer to the human horror as he slit the throats of his victims and let their blood drain uselessly out into the cold night. Dante had remembered regretting the waste and knew that his own actions would have to be more careful as the people of London looked around in fear.
But that had been all.
But this time with Tim at his side he was able to taste the excitement, feel the fear in those they passed, feel the tremor of desperation as they drew close to their prey and disappointment as once again he slipped through their grasp.
Timothy's large expressive eyes took it all in. The stench of the streets piled with refuse, the glitter of gold broaches against velvet jackets, the soot of the coal on everything he touched and he heard the drunken carousing of the bulging taverns as they drunk away their fear.
It made Dante gasp in a way the running would not. The Boy just felt so much. Everything was a cause for excitement and was taken in and filed away for later consideration.
Dante smiled at Tim's breathless joy. This was better than he had imagined. He was so open to him, to his mind, not realizing how they were joined and how if he wanted to Tim would never wake up from this moment. He would die alone in his bed and no one would ever know why.
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Abby felt Tony release his nightmare and she breathed a sigh of relief. It was hard to sleep when she felt his discomfort so clearly. She always had in her dreams.
She felt all of them. They were an uneasy group of people to love. They all had torments to bare. Pain that Abby felt in the darkness when she dreamed.
Gibbs was restlessly dreaming again of his little girl playing on the swings, Ziva saw people who had died in her arms, ones who had trusted her to keep them safe and who now haunted her solitude.
Normally McGee was the quietest. He had few dreadful visions to haunt him. Perhaps that was why she had found rare rest when they had lain together and he had held her tight while she slept safe in his arms.
Even now as friends they were close. But tonight something was wrong. Abby wasn't sure what it was but he was in danger. He didn't know it but whatever he was doing was very bad, very dangerous.
She cried out to him to warn him.
"McGee!"
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Tim cocked his head and looked at Dante.
"Did you hear that? I could have sworn I heard Abby calling my name?"
"Abby?" Dante asked the question but linked as they were, the image popped into his head of the Goth girl from the party.
A Dream Walker? Interesting.
"Perhaps it is time we went back."
Dante didn't want Timothy assailed with visions of death and soulless eternity by an anxious Dream Walker. He wanted to do this again, share his mind and re experience everything through his eyes. If he was frightened of him it wouldn't be the same. The fear would tinge everything and Dante had tasted enough fear to last a lifetime.
Tim pouted disappointed and an instant later he was back standing beside his bed. Tim yawned tiredly and rubbed his eyes sleepily after his adventurous night excursions.
"Why am I yawning? Aren't I asleep?"
Dante smiled "Yes you are."
And like that he was.
Dante stood and looked at the Boy while he slept, so vulnerable, so defenseless. He could hear the rich blood rushing through his young veins as he stood. He would need to eat soon the urge was coming upon him.
But first the Dream Walker.
Abby heard him coming for her in her sleep and at first she was afraid. Dante soothed her with fingertips like velvet and draped his mighty wings around her covering her in his power.
"Do not be afraid Dream Walker. When he is with me……in that way……. I will do him no harm."
Abby sighed in her sleep, relaxed and dreamt of vast leathery bats wings shielding her from harm.
"Thank you"
(Thanks to those alert and commenting. Please let me know if you like or what you think as this is a bit different for me and im curious. Precious)