Dante cursed as he was woken by Tim's furious panicked struggles. He had been away from mortals too long. He had unthinkingly brought Tim to the place HE felt the safest and most comfortable. He had forgotten that being in the confined space of a coffin wasn't necessarily pleasant for a human accustomed to bright open spaces to breathe.
"Shush Companion, you are unharmed" Dante attempted to sooth Timothy's panic and held him tight in his arms as he had done when they had been joined.
Timothy's terror escalated as he felt cold arms creep around his chest and hold him as he struggled. Suddenly, deprived of oxygen in his hyperventilating panic he fell into blessed unconsciousness.
Dante sighed. Well this wasn't going as well as he would have liked.
Tim sucked in a deep breath and opened his eyes to find himself in his bed. He panted furiously and looked around. Familiar bed, familiar door frame, familiar clothes in a neat pile on the floor, familiar smell of cleaning products and his aftershave.
A nightmare. He had just had a nightmare. He was going to be fine. Tim ran his hand over his face and noticed he was trembling from head to foot and covered in a fine sweat. Tim forced his pounding heart to slow down and took in several deep slow breathes.
Dante stepped out of the shadows with a smile as he watched Tim slowly calm down.
Hello Timothy
Tim blinked. Dante? He had heard him speak but he hadn't opened his mouth. He had heard him clearly inside his head?
"I was…. I was having a nightmare wasn't I? About being buried alive? And you are here because…… I don't ……I don't actually know how you fit into all of this."
Actually Timothy….THIS is your dream. Being in your bed, wearing your favourite t –shirt, feeling awake ISN'T real. Your real body is actually many miles from here in my coffin which is in a sealed room far beneath my home in Georgetown.
Tim gaped as he tried to wrap his mind around what he was being told.
"But this ….this feels real. This smells real. I can feel the texture of the sheets under my hands. "
Timothy…I brought you here because it would feel familiar to you. I needed you to feel safe so your mind would be open so we could talk together in this way. I need you to believe me. I need you to remember.
"Remember?"
But sudden he did. He remembered Dante looking more like a demon than a man as he slid his bone white fangs into his flesh. He saw himself sprawled out helpless across the top of the cold marble crypt in the graveyard weeping to the stars. He remembered the agonising rush as his blood burned white hot. A thousand images, faces, places flashing into his mind as he saw into the immortals ancient mind as he was touched with his power.
He knew instantly that Dante while
not the eldest of his kind was far from young.
Once he had
wallowed in violence, pain and fury rejoicing in the emotions of his
prey as he experienced them through the taking of blood and the
draining of their lives. As his strength grew through the years, his
need for violence lessoned as his crazed blood lust slowly abated and
he found himself slowly withdrawing even further from the mortal
world.
The creature before him who had no heart beat of his own now quenched his thirst for blood from those that committed acts of violence on others, stumbling magically into his dark path as they fled their actions. Sometimes there were even those that called to him in the night asking him to end their lives and free them of their pain. He did not choose his meals this way because it was 'nice' or 'right'. There was no guilty or innocent or those more or less deserving of death. It was simply easier.
Dante did not have a moral compass of good and bad the way Tim did. He existed and he was mighty and that was enough. He had operated outside of the human world as a distant observer for many of Tim's lifetimes and it was only the overwhelming desire for a Companion that had sent him out searching through the endless darkness.
Tim realised with a bitter jealous twist that it had been Tony who had called Dante to the graveyard that night when they first met. Tony's pain had been what had lured him but it had been Tim's mind and all he held up in wonder which had captivated the immortal.
All this information absorbed in an instant as the mortal man and immortal vampire had been linked mind, body and soul had overwhelmed Timothy's senses and he had released his physical self into Dante's care as he collapsed into unconsciousness.
All this Timothy knew in an instant.
I remember
Dante smiled in pleasure as his companion touched minds with him for the first time. Tim's eyes widened as he felt an echo of Dante's pleasure touch him faintly.
Good. There is still much I need to show you…….much you need to learn about me. Now I can do it mind to mind……. but first there is someone you must speak with. She is concerned for you.
Who?
The one you call Abby.
Abby?
Dante opened himself up and Tim could feel a faint battering at the edge of his awareness, which seemed somehow familiar. 'Abby' he breathed and then Tim looked around him in surprise as his bedroom dissolved and he found himself looking down at Abby in her open coffin. Her eyes were closed but she seemed to be muttering to herself, anxiously.
"Abby?"
"McGee?"
"Yes. It's all right. I am fine"
"You're fine? You were screaming. I could hear it"
"I had a fright."
"You had a fright? Are you serious? You were screaming and then I could feel you fade away. I felt you disappear! Where are you? I have been up all night worried about you. I checked your apartment, phoned you a zillon times and nearly put a BOLO out on your car"
"I ….think I passed out. Buts its ok I'm fine now. I'm with a friend."
"Who?"
Tim tried to smother his smile at the jealousy and suspicion he could feel from her.
"Its no one you have met before. Please Abby I need to go but I want you to know that I'm fine. Please don't worry about me."
"McGee. I can hear you talking in my HEAD. I know we are close but come on this is ridiculous. Something Hinky is going on and don't think we aren't going to talk about it……..
Tim smiled and kissed her phantom cheek. "I promise that once I understand it you will be the very first to know about it"
Tim felt Abby relax back into a true sleep as her own exhaustion overwhelmed her and watched the scene before him fade away.
Tim looked at Dante curiously.
She will not remember the conversation you had. She will only know that she felt relieved and that you have not been harmed.
Come companion. There is much to show you. Are you willing to return with me?
Dante stood in front of him, his hands on his shoulders and leaning forward, his blue eyes sparkling he brushed his cool lips against his cheek. Tim's skin tingled where Dante had touched it although it was far from unpleasant.
Tim took a deep breath and considered. He had changed. No he was changing. He could feel it. Something had been unlocked inside of him and he could feel whatever it was slowly unfurling in the pit of his belly. It felt strange but not foreign. There were other things as well, a stirring in the back of his mind but Tim somehow knew that these other things were a result of Dante's touch.
Is this you? Have you done this to me? Tim quested out as he tried to isolate the new sensation he felt.
No Timothy……..that which you feel is you.
Me?
Tim furrowed his brow and tried to concentrate. How could he be doing it to himself? Or was it something he had always had and his recent contact with Dante's power had simply released it?
It wasn't anything he had any ability to describe as he had no comparison. He simply felt different. He was still Timothy McGee but if he shut his eyes it was white in the space behind his eyes now instead of black.
I do not understand it myself, Timothy. There was a force greater than I expected at our connection and I felt a power beyond my own interacting with mine. Perhaps as we go we will understand it together?
Dante could feel Tim's hesitation and uncertainty as he truly understood the extent of Dante's dark powers and desires for the first time. He felt suddenly swamped in his own mortal insignificance and it made him afraid. What could this mighty creature truly need from him? How could he not know what was happening to him? What was he hiding from him?
I do not…in fact I cannot hide anything from you now so know that I speak the truth. Look into me Companion and know that I do not hide what I know from you. I wish only to share it with you.
Tim cocked his head and 'looked' and he knew instantly that Dante was telling the truth. He might be hundreds of years older than Timothy could ever hope to be and a thousand times more powerful but there were still things he did not fully understand. And one of them was him.
I will come with you
And so Timothy McGee NCIS Special Agent lay down in the dark cool embrace of one long dead and allowed his mind to run free through the world and all its magic's.
While his own power began stirring within him.