"Dante!" Was the last thing Tony heard Tim scream into the darkness before a strange whoosh sound and then something that sounded like demon cats shrieking and spitting at each other.
Tony pounded after his friend and rounded another corner only to see a brilliant flash of light which dazzled and hurt his eyes. He threw his arm up to shield himself and stood there for an instant blinded. When he could see again he peered through the murky darkness.
"McGee!" Tony's heart lurched as he saw the crumpled form of his friend laying in the dirty gutter.
He knelt down beside Tim's unconscious body and awkwardly rolled him over onto the pavement checking for a pulse with trembling fingers.
"Thank God" Tony released the breath he didn't realize he had been holding as he felt the soft beat of Tim's heart but then he hissed as he saw the slash mark across Tim's neck now gently trickling blood.
The light from the street light was too far away to give Tony a good idea of how deep the cut was and he slapped his hand over Tim's neck trying to stem the flow of warm blood while he pulled out his phone.
"Gibbs? McGee's down. Get an ambulance. I don't know. Hit on the head I think. Unconscious.."
At the sound of Tony's voice Tim groaned and then as he struggled to breathe with Tony compressing this throat, his eyes flew open in shock.
Tony snapped the phone shut on Gibbs, all attention on his friend and hesitantly released his blood covered hand from Tim's neck.
"Tim? Are you ok?" Tony peered down with worried eyes.
Tim blinked up at him in confusion with pain filled eyes.
"Are you ok Tony? He didn't get you?" Tim rasped in alarm as his eyes traveled up and down Tony trying to see if he was ok.
Tony smiled and shook his head at Tim's response. His first thought after being attacked and coming around on the pavement would have to be checking to see if someone else was ok. Tony sat down positioning himself so he was pillowing Tim's head in his lap. He carefully smoothed away Tim's fringe off his forehead and looked nervously at how pale McGee was.
There was something almost grotesque about the scene as the blood continued to softly trickle from the deep scratch across Tim's pale neck. The blood seemed to shine in the dim wash from the street light and Tony had seen too many horror movies to not wonder what was coming next.
Location – Alone in a cold, dark, dirty alley.
Enter Screen Left – Best Friend (horrified) stays with victim only to become the next victim as the evil works its way into the blood stream.
Cue Screaming.
Tony mentally head slapped himself for imagining McGee was about to turn into a werewolf or something ridiculous. Where the hell was Gibbs? It was dark and McGee needed to get to a hospital. He needed to keep it together. McGee looked up to him to get him through this sort of stuff.
"What are you worried about me for? You're the one laying down on the job." Tony was jovial and tried to distract Tim as he carefully ran his hands over Tim's head and found the large lump at the back of his head that accounted for the unconscious state he had found him in.
"How's your neck?"
"What?" Tim's voice was small and dazed. Tony decided it would be a good idea to keep him talking as he still didn't sound all there.
"Your neck. It's cut although not at deep as I first thought."
"My neck?" Tim raised his fingers to his neck and stared at his sticky blood covered fingers with a sort of horrified fascination.
Tony swore under his breath. That was probably not a good thing to do.
"Dante?" Tim whispered softly searching internally for the connection he could always feel for the vampire.
Timothy! Come to me my Beloved! You are hurt! You are safe now the other is destroyed. Be mine again. Timothy! Come to me. Let me heal you. Mine. Companion. Beloved Companion. I had to leave before He saw me. Forgive me! Timothy. Come to me…..
Suddenly Dante was everywhere swimming through Tim's mind anxiously as he sort reassurance that he was truly unharmed.
Tony watched alarmed as Tim seemed to zone out and his eyes rolled back into his head.
"No NO! No you don't McGee! No passing out on me. You hear me McGee! You are staying awake and you are staying here."
Tony repeatedly but gently slapped McGee's face and suddenly he was back his eyes alert and he blinked rapidly up at Tony.
"Stop slapping me Tony" Tim grumbled still in a daze and he tried to unsuccessfully slap Tony's hand away from his face.
Tony grinned the relief showing in his eyes.
"Don't EVER do that to me McGee!"
"Do what?" Tim queried confused as Dante battered at his senses demanding that he come to him while Tony insisted that he stay here.
Everything seemed to hurt. Why couldn't they just let him sleep?
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The Vampire watched the two men from a distance, his eyes so dark they were almost black and they stormed like the restless sea. So the whispers had been right. Dante, once one of the most dangerous of the undead had gone and got himself a companion. And it seemed not just any mere mortal but a true bonded companion.
Some Vampires had mortal amusements and sometimes even blood slaves they referred to almost jokingly as companions but this one had called out to him through the night and Dante had come. More than that Dante had fought and killed for him ripping through the blonde vampire with a viciousness that was terrible to see.
How romantic.
It was almost sickening how it was weakening Dante. It explained why his kills were less, his presence once stamped across the city in blood now barely a timid whisper.
Still it did present an opportunity. But he would need to be cautious and he would have to plan carefully. Dante was still a force to be reckoned with and while he wasn't one of the Eldest he was stronger and older than he was.
The blonde vampire was young and foolish. He had been alive when Dante dropped out of the night with a screech of rage, reached into his chest and tore out his heart. The vampire had crumbled to ashes in an instant leaving Dante's vast anger unsatisfied as his companion lay unconscious and bleeding at his feet.
Lyric tasted the air thick with the sweet scent of the bloodied companion, stirring now to his feet with the assistance of the other man as more of his friends arrived.
He almost licked his lips at the imagined taste of the gentle green eyed man. Glorious rich sweet blood. No wonder Dante hadn't been able to resist. When Dante was dead and he came one step closer to becoming one of the Eldest he would take the companion to be his blood slave. He too would feed on the sweet riches of his lifeblood, growing strong and magical until Dante's once perfect companion was just a soulless husk chained in the dark too far gone to scream.
Lyric titled his head and almost smiled. He hadn't smiled in a hundred years and the sensation felt strange and foreign. He watched the weak and pathetic humans for a moment longer before he swept up unseen into the dark night, his mind already spinning as he made his plans.
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Abby cried out in the night at the horror. She had heard from Gibbs about the attack on McGee and been assured that he would be ok. He was being kept over night in hospital for observation and she would be able to see him in the morning.
She knew that news like this always made her dreams restless. She had thought this time they might come from McGee himself as he processed his trauma or from Tony as he worried endlessly over his younger team mate. Perhaps she might even see things from this mysterious blue eyed other she seemed to be getting lately.
Instead she got images from another source but they were so powerful and clean she couldn't refuse them.
An unfamiliar man his naked body painfully skinny and broken, manacled hand and foot to a brick wall in the near darkness his body covered in weeping scabs and sores. There were black creatures swarming over him, draining him, weakening him to near death yet again before they left him slumped on the ground laughing cruelly as they left.
It was only when he lifted his head and Abby saw his huge green eyes in his pale sunken face that she knew who it was meant to be. McGee. But his once familiar eyes were dead and there was no spark of life left in them as he hung somewhere between hell and eternal living torment as his captors refused him the peacefulness of death.
Blood slave.
The title popped into her mind and she knew that was what the creatures called those they called into service to feed their rampant desires for both blood and cruelty.
Abby wept uncontrollably, curled up around herself in her white nightgown while she shook and gasped for air. For the first time she was truly frightened of her gift. Was this Tim's future?
(As usual please review and let me know your reading. Keeps me encouraged and enthused. Thanks Precious. Are the bits of violence in the last couple chapters enough I should bump it into M? Please let me know as I do not want to offend.)