Deliverance

Groaning against his withering strength, Zero hauled Yuuki away from the dead man and lay her on her back, ripping off her shirt to examine the her shoulder. The wound was still there, her eyes still faintly red, even after all that blood…that meant the bullet was still inside her body, and until it was gone, no amount of blood would heal its destruction.

"Zero, please, get my phone, we have to call a doctor—"

"Shhh. Let me worry about this."

"You're injured really badly!"

"I'll be fine," he growled. "I have the power of three purebloods inside me."

"But—"

"For God's sake, Yuuki, be quiet!"

Yuuki's voice fell away, and those tortured dark eyes stared, shocked, at his, pushing that familiar stab of guilt in the pit of his gut.

He raised her upper half into his arms and kissed her bloodstained lips. "His bullet's still inside you. I'm going to have to dig it out so you can heal, okay?"

Yuuki nodded, the sobs starting to heave again. "O-o-okay."

"Shh, Yuuki. Just settle down."

She squeezed her eyes shut as he gently pushed a finger into the wound, cringing against the pain of his search for the cruel bit of metal. "Ah…oh, God…ow…ow!"

"I'm sorry, Yuuki, I'm so sorry…" He pressed his lips into hers to distract her from the pain. The tip of his finger found a hard, slimy object, and he sighed in relief—he'd found it. It was lodged deep, stopped only by the upper half of her scapula. But he had to get it out or his blood wouldn't heal her.

He stood and limped into the kitchen, clutching the bloody hole in his hip. God, he'd been shot three times—it didn't matter how many purebloods he'd fed upon. Unless someone came by soon, even if he managed to save her, he was sure he wasn't going to make it.

But he wasn't going to sacrifice any precious time making emergency calls.

"I'm sorry, my love," he muttered as he grabbed the paring knife from the drawer, speaking to both his wife and his unborn baby. "I'm sorry I can't be there for you."

Blood trailed all across the tile on the kitchen floor as he stumbled out. He felt his energy swirl down a drainpipe. He practically fell to his knees at Yuuki's side when he got back to the living room.

"Zero! Oh, God—" Yuuki tried to sit up but only managed to put herself through excruciating pain. Her hand walked across the floor and found his instead. "Zero, we need to call a doctor, right now!"

"I'm—okay, Yuuki," he whispered, raising the knife to her wound. "Don't worry."

"Wh-what are you doing?" she cried when she saw the blade. "Zero—!"

"Shh," he said, slicing the tip of his left index finger and touching it to her lips. "Just suck on my finger and don't look."

She took his finger in her mouth and turned her head away, hardly soothed by the taste of his life dancing on her tongue.

He pulled the knife through her skin quickly, opening about two centimeters from the wound to create a hole big enough to slip two fingers in. She cried out and arched her back, but didn't push him away.

"I'm almost done, Yuuki," he whispered, probing for the bullet once again. "Hang in there."

It was difficult to get the slippery object to stay between his fingers once he found it, but he squeezed the metal as hard as he could and carefully lifted it up. She sucked in a pained breath through clenched teeth and clutched his wrist in a deathlike grip.

"There. It's out." He sighed in relief as the metal clinked onto the wood next to them. Yuuki whimpered and he wiped the tears from her cheeks.

Without the bullet's acting as a stopper, the blood began to flow freely from her skin, and Zero didn't know if he could give her blood faster than it would drain away. Panicking, he tore off his shirt and wrapped it tightly around her shoulder, praying it would provide enough pressure to stop the flow.

"Now," he said, pulling her into his arms and guiding her lips to the one bullet wound that went all the way through—the one in his neck. "Take it."

"W—what?"

"So your shoulder will heal! We'll call for help once you're stable, okay?"

"But you'll die if I do that!"

"Goddammit, Yuuki, don't you get it? You're in labor, you're losing blood—and if you die, our child dies too!"

"But…I'm going into labor right now! Even if I die, you could still save the baby!"

Zero clenched his teeth in despair. Time lost was life lost. "Yuuki, listen to me! I've been shot three times, and one is in my lung. If I die first, she'll die before help can get here!"

Yuuki turned away and wiped her tears away with her good arm. Zero softened a little and turned her face back to him.

"What if we drank each other's blood? You know, at the same time. Then we'd keep it flowing through the both of us, it'd provide life for both of us…we'd be sharing a bloodstream. We'd be okay until someone got here."

"But you're bleeding from three wounds. You'll keep losing blood anyway! I couldn't—"

"Would you rather that blood be on the floor or flowing through our baby?"

Yuuki sniffled, defeated. "All right. But please…" She wrapped her arms around his chest and squeezed him as tightly as she dared. "I want you to bite me before I start."

"Don't worry, I will."

"No, I want to feel your fangs under my skin. I can't lose you again, Zero! I can't handle that!"

"I promise you won't lose me." He guiltily bit back the "even though I'll likely die" part and bit into her neck. Salvation poured into his body and, for the first time in years, he found himself struggling with the instinct to drown in her blood. The tang of her grief, the salt in her anger, the sweetness of her love. Instead he tore back. "There. Now do it!"

Wiping away her tears, trying desperately to be brave, Yuuki put her mouth to the wound on his neck and the spell overcame her, taking away all sense of reality to leave her with only the instinct to protect her child. Relieved at her mental absence, Zero let up on her blood—she wouldn't notice if he was taking less than she. He would have stopped completely, yet something held him back, something other than the long-lost urge to consume all of her, to make her a part of him. An intense feeling, a sense of nirvana slowly growing as her blood floated over his tongue, starting as a faint nebula and expanding until it became a supernova, shining light into every cell in his body. It reminded him of the zenith of the night he'd lost his virginity, powerful and cruel in how it pushed him to the very limits of his physical capacity; it was as though he was one with her again, as though all three of them were joined in an inseparable bond, a single entity that could never come unglued. It pulsed through his brain as her felt their blood merge in his veins, and he felt himself falling, falling...

This was all—he was dying. Maybe there was still a chance for him, maybe his love for Yuuki would salvage his soul, and maybe he'd still find beauty and happiness after his body disintegrated into nothing. Maybe his spirit would stay with hers in this bond he felt, and until the day she died he would be there to protect her and she would feel his love even when no one else was there to give theirs.

"Call for help when you're finished," he said, unaware of the powerless shudder of his voice. "And give our baby my love."

And, relishing the strong feeling of her heart beating under his skin, he closed his eyes and let darkness capture his soul.

Thirty seconds later, Kaname burst through the door.

--

WARNING. BULLET REMOVAL IS AN ADVANCED MEDICAL PROCEDURE AND IS CONSIDERED EXTEREMELY RISKY EVEN BY MOST DOCTORS. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME.

No, seriously. DON'T.