Come to me!
"No. I can't. I'm busy at work. We have a case." Tim whispered under his breath and resisted reaching out to touch Dante's mind as he answered him.
You cannot always have a case on?
"Yeah well this one is important."
You always made time for me before? What is wrong? Why won't you come to me Companion?
"Nothing. I just….I have to go."
He could hear the confusion and the longing in Dante's voice and knew he was the cause but he couldn't bring himself to naively abandon his recent resolve and run back to the creature that seemed to hold his very soul in his hands.
Tim bit his lip and closed his mind off to Dante's call. It was a trick he had learned recently and lately he had been giving it a lot of practice.
He just needed more time. Time to try and make sense of what he needed to do. The questions swirled around his head and he couldn't seem to stop thinking. Over and over again until he felt sick with anxiety.
Could he go back to how he was? Was it already too late? Did he really want to? What if he didn't? What did that mean about him that he would throw what had been his life away on a fantasy? Could he give up on a possible wife and children for strong cool arms and flashing eyes?
Would the changes he had felt in his senses reverse themselves if he stayed away from Dante's touch long enough?
Could he give up on a mortal life…..without being an immortal himself? Could he straddle the two worlds or would he be true resident in neither one? Would he too become cold and distant to the world like the others that watched? Or would he simply wither and die old and disappointed?
A deeper idea stabbed at him like a stake to his own heart. What if he truly gave himself over to Dante heart and soul to be his Companion and Dante found then another? Would he have to watch unable to be free himself while the immortal picked another? A boy child to explain to him the exciting new age in which he found himself?
Tim pushed the thought away as he felt an almost physical pain in his chest at the anguish of that idea. He shook his head and tried to clear his mind. The case. He needed to concentrate on the case. Tim straightened up and walked into Abby lab attempting to look focused and attentive.
"Hey McGee. " Abby's voice dropped low and she whispered with a conspiratorial smile at her friend "So how is that delicious boyfriend of yours?"
Tim winced and closed his eyes. Dante.
"Please don't call him that Abby"
"Why? I was just teasing. What's wrong?" Abby realized that Tim looked a little unwell and he had dark circles under his eyes. Surely the case had been treating him that bad?
"It's just….he…..I……."
Tim trailed off as he tried to express his doubts. How could he possibly explain? There had been flashes of concern over where his life had been headed since this whole thing had started. It was one of the reasons he had been so keen to talk to Abby about it. But now that she did know about Dante he wasn't even sure how to express the growing anxiety he could feel building in his gut.
He realized that essentially he had been swept away by the drama and excitement of it all. And the romance of it too in a way. It had been a long time since someone had wanted to hold him and share things with him. To comfort him and tell him that everything would be alright. To kiss him…..
Tim squelched that thought immediately. He didn't want to think of Dante's soft but cool dry lips on his. It made the protective shield he was holding around his emotions concealing him from Dante's enquiring touch too hard to maintain.
There was just so much at stake. This was his life and now he realized his future as well.
He had been so excited to share his discoveries with Abby and tell her of all the wonders he had seen and experienced. Dante had so quickly become his everything.
It had only been when he was sitting with Tony in the bar the other week that he realized that this wasn't some exciting fair ride where he could simply get off when he felt giddy to stand on solid ground again.
This was his life.
He was at the crossroads and he wasn't sure if he was ready to do his deal with the devil. Or demon as the case maybe.
And so slowly the wonders of both his old life and his new were being poisoned by his fear and indecision and he could actually feel himself physically sickening from lack of sleep and too little food. His mind chased itself around in his head until all logic seemed scrambled.
Gibbs talked to him and he couldn't understand him. Tony laughed and Tim couldn't hear him. Ziva touched his arm in concern and he couldn't feel her. It was like he was a bold explorer of a new world who discovers incredible wonders but realizes too late that he has also brought with him pain, death and disease.
Abby watched growing increasingly alarmed as Tim who had been standing there while trying awkwardly to construct a sentence instead started to silently weep pure glistening tears of utter sorrow. His face crumpled in despair and his big eyes implored Abby to instinctively understand his pain. He was lost.
"What am I going to do?" Tim's voice whispered broken and ragged.
Come to me now COMPANION!
Dante reached out lightening fast in desperation and pulled at Tim.
Tim staggered almost as if he was pulled sideways and collapsed shaking to his knees.
"McGee!" Abby cried with alarm and rushed to her friend's side.
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The Vampire Dante wept. He didn't realize it but he cried glistening droplets of scarlet blood that slowly trickled down his icy pale cheek and stained his white linen collar.
The night was growing cold and once again he was spending it alone.
The longer he went without drowning in Timothy's mortal emotions the colder and more distant Dante felt himself becoming. Days had now slowly turned into weeks since he had last buried his fangs into his Timothy's sweet flesh. Too long. It wasn't a want anymore it was a need.
His demon side stalked the city restlessly waiting for his Companion to come to him as he eventually must. Did he not realize they were bound together? Why did he make him wait?
Dante took the blood of others to survive, ones who cried out to him in the night to release them of their pain but it wasn't the same. It enabled him to exist but nothing more. There was no connection, no thrill, and no surge of life or love from these willing victims. Just their blood.
He felt himself being sucked back into the isolated vacuum which had sent him out looking for a companion in the first place.
The thought that he had briefly not just smiled but laughed seemed foreign to him and now all he felt was a cold anger and a growing emptiness. Would he succumb to the shadows again? Would he once again consider his own non existence as a relief?
Dante seethed quietly. No. He was Dante.
Dante flexed his wings and snapped the air like a whip crack. No. Once the city wept in fear of him and now he was being spurned? What was he some sort of lap dog to be played with and then abandoned when it wasn't convenient anymore? He wasn't TAME! He was an immortal who stalked the night with power in his veins and death at his hands.
Well NO MORE!
He had a Companion and he would come to him. There would be no more of these mortal concerns. Timothy belonged to him heart and soul and he would bring him back to his side. He had waited long enough!
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Tony stretched his arms above his head groaning as it looked like another long night at his desk. If only they got a hit on the BOLO or Dwight would just run a red light or something. Anything.
"Huh?"
"What is it Tony?" Ziva asked tiredly from behind her own monitor as Tony got up from his desk and curiously looked out the window at the black roiling clouds gathering above the building.
"Wow it was all clear skies a minute ago and now it looks like one hell of a storm is on its way."
(To those of you reading and reviewing a big thank you as its keeping me inspired to write this AU story. Big scene coming up that I hope you like. The confrontation. Precious Pup Oh yeah a storm is coming alright.)