Pain.

It consumed him.

Tim threw his pride away and screamed out as fire lanced through his body.

Dante!

He staggered back as movement exploded around him. Gibbs was running, Abby was screaming and Tony seemed to be trying to wrestle with someone. Then all he could see was the ceiling and his own blood soaked hands.

He tried to project what he had seen to Dante so he would know the others were in danger as well, even as his mind screamed its panic. He clutched tightly to the bond that linked him to Dante for support and suddenly Tim threw back his head and screamed his terror.

Dante was burning. Dante was trapped. Dante couldn't help him.

No! Please No!

Tim was being torn apart from the inside as he could feel Dante's rage, fear, panic and desperation over his own as Dante called for him. Tim gasped as he felt Dante send what felt like golden light, flooding him with strength through their bond. The warmth seemed to fade as quickly as he received it though as his blood continued to flood out across the cold hard floor.

Something deep inside of him sparked and he shuddered in pain. White light flared across his eyes and every muscle tensed in anguish. He felt like his cells were exploding and separating, tearing themselves apart. Something was happening. Was this what dying felt like? Shouldn't he already be dead? There was so much pain. He couldn't breathe. Everything was growing black. If he just closed his eyes….

That strange sensation he had felt unfurling deep in his gut the day he was jumped by the four men down in the docks started to glow until it burned white hot.

No. He had to FIGHT!

Tim didn't know if the thought was his own or Dante's. He couldn't seem to distinguish between them as they grabbed tightly onto each other and held on, each writhing through their own suffering.

"Please! Please you must let us help him" Abby begged as she watched Tim twitch and writhe and choke slowly on his own blood.

The man who shot Tim looked past her shoulder silently and then cocked his head, considering. Outside the last of the sun's fiery rays sank below the horizon with a hiss of displeasure.

"There is nothing you can do for him now. You may go"

Abby was released and with a sob she ran to Tim's side followed a split second later by Tony who barged past the men angrily.

Abby carefully knelt beside Tim and he lolled his head to the side and looked at her, his green eyes anguished. He was covered in so much blood from so many wounds she didn't know where she needed to compress down on.

"Oh Tim. Please hang on!"

Tim smiled at her as his eyes fluttered shut.

Dante…he whispered

Suddenly Abby heard it. It was a distant screech of sheer rage.

And it was growing louder.

Abby looked up at Tony who like herself was trying to frantically stem the flow of blood still gushing out of Tim's body.

"Tony? I think we need to leave Tim for a minute."

"What? Are you crazy?" Tony glared at her, Tim's blood soaking his shirt up to the elbows.

"Dante's coming" Abby hissed in growing alarm.

Tony jerked his head up and looked at the man with his gun trained on them and the other two armed men facing down a furious Gibbs and Ziva. Then he looked at Tim's face as he lay helpless on the floor. Tim was smiling softly even as fresh bright blood bubbled up through his lips and his eyes seemed to be focusing on thin air. Tony felt a fine tremor through the floor he was kneeling on and then the glass vials in the fridges started to rattle in their holders. The air seemed to be filled with static electricity and he felt his scalp prickle. Tony cocked his head and frowned as he too heard the strange and yet distressing sound. Abby's voice was soft over the distant growing cry.

"Dante's coming. And he's angry. VERY angry. And I don't think it would be a very good idea that there should be anyone between him and Tim"

Abby flicked her eyes at the three intruders and Tony slowly nodded. They both stood and carefully walked backwards away from Tim.

"We're just going to uhhhh discuss his condition over here" Tony grimaced awkwardly to the gunmen.

Tony and Abby started heading towards the distant corner of the lab and with vigorous head flicking they indicated that Ziva and Gibbs should join them. The vacant eyed men remained where they stood but followed their progress with their guns.

Gibbs frowned but he had seen Tony and Abby whispering and figured they must have a plan.

"What's going on?" Gibbs ducked his head and whispered into Tony's ear.

"We're just going to duck down behind this lab bench……"

Gibbs glared "That's your plan? Hide?"

"Trust me Gibbs it is a very good plan" Tony reached up and pulled Gibbs down behind the large solid lab bench.

Dante…

Tim's soft whisper could be heard through the lab and suddenly the wall closest to the intruders exploded violently outward showering the lab with debris and mortar dust.

Gibbs started to look over the bench and Tony and Abby both pulled him back down as a howl of inhuman tormented rage tore through the air. It was a sound that stood up every hair on their bodies.

Suddenly there was a very loud human shriek and a wall of thickened air seemed to pulse around them followed by the distressing sound of bodies exploding outward with a thick wet splatter.

Abby screwed her eyes shut and wrapped her arms around her long legs, blinking back her tears. Tony pulled Ziva tightly into his arms while Gibbs balanced on the balls of his feet waiting to move and defend his team in an instant.

A deep wail started up followed by a dragging sound and then there was a metallic clatter as something hit the floor.

"Timothy! I am here"

Abby hearing Dante's human voice, soft and anguished lifted her head up. Slowly she uncurled herself and looked over the blood stained workbench.

What she saw broke her heart.

Dante still partially transformed between his human and vampire form was crouching down carefully gathering Tim's broken body tenderly in his strong arms. Bloody tears poured down his pale beautiful face as he looked down into his Companions increasingly glazed eyes. His mighty leather wings had made the scraping sound as they trailed through the pools of blood leaving strange drag marks through the scarlet. An ancient short sword lay abandoned in the pool of Tim's blood beside him, its sharp silver blade shining eerily under the industrial lights of the lab. Tim reached up and stroked Dante's face lovingly as his bloodied hand trembled. Then as Dante watched Tim's eyes rolled back into his head and his arm dropped down to hang limply his side.

Dante threw back his head and roared at the loss of his Companions touch as Tim slipped into unconsciousness.

NO! There had to be another way. It couldn't end like this. Thousands of years he had waited and he would not lose his one Companion now.

He had to take the chance.

His decision made Dante stood with Tim cradled in his arm and reaching down picked up his bloodied sword with his other hand. Closing his eyes Dante quested out far and wide gathering up his power until it shimmered around them both like crystal glass.

"Dante?"

Dante quickly turned his head and looked at the tear stained face of his Companions dream walker friend. He was not the only one to love his sweet Timothy. She didn't even need to say anything for Dante to know what she asked.

"I will keep him mortal if I can"

There was a rush of air that blew papers swirling through the lab from Abby's office and with blinding flash of light Dante was gone leaving an absence that seemed to swallow them all whole.

The sudden silence screamed and pounded in their ears as the remains of Gibbs's team slowly, cautiously stood up and looked around. A few short minutes had past since they walked in to see Abby and yet everything had changed.

Tim was gone.

Gibbs stared. He walked out from behind the large solid bench currently dripping in gore and blood and turned around slowly, taking in the huge smoking hole in the wall that seemed to lead to nowhere, the blood and body parts of the intruders splattered across the lab like some gruesome water balloon and the complete disappearance of his young team member. Bits of scattered singed furniture and equipment still smoked from where it had been burnt while computer discs and caf pow containers lay melted to tables like twisted modern art.

"What the FUCK was that???" Gibbs turned to Abby demanding an answer.

Abby bit her lip and flicked a glance at Tony. There wasn't much chance of hiding it now.

"Well Gibbs THAT was Dante. He's a vampire"

"Dante is a what?"

"A V A M P I R E. You know drinks blood, magical powers, mythical being that sort of thing?" Abby cringed. This wasn't exactly the conversation she had been hoping to have with Gibbs today.

With a crackle of power Lyric suddenly appeared in the center of the room and surveyed the bloody carnage with delight as the four humans stared at him in surprise.

"You called dearest?" Lyric smirked evilly as Abby's initial smile of delight and relief faded into one of horror. Wearing a blood red silk shirt with the sleeves rolled up and black tailored trousers his pale skin gleamed under the lights and he flashed his fangs savagely at her.

His eyes. Those weren't the warm brown eyes she had fallen in love with. They were hard and bitter and he sneered contemptuously at her as he walked carelessly through the pools of blood towards them, splashes of scarlet covering his expensive leather shoes and dribbling off.

"What no welcome for me my darling?"

Lyric tilted his head.

"Oh shit"

Tony swore as he found himself slammed into Gibbs, Ziva and Abby and somehow restrained. They struggled but seemed to be unable to free themselves from whatever was binding them together.

Lyric flicked his hand and they found themselves dumped on the blood splattered floor together.

"I thought I would make you more comfortable. There is someone I am waiting for. And when he gets back I don't think he's going to be very happy. Such a shame. Losing part of your soul like that"

Abby shook her head, tears she thought she had exhausted springing again to her eyes. Terrible thoughts started to constrict her already pained heart. Oh my God! What had she done?

"No Lyric no! Please tell me it wasn't you? Why?"

Gibbs squirmed furiously, trying to free himself from this madness.

"Can somebody Please tell me what the HELL is going on?"