Honeythief
Chapter Two
"I'm supposed to be the stronger one. You always seem to prove that theory wrong." – Honeythief, Halou
)O(
Raven struggled against the vice-like grip around her wrists, feeling her power drain with each suckle from his mouth. Despite the fact that she knew this was dangerous, and she knew Robin was only acting on whatever new instincts he now possessed, she couldn't help but feel… sexy. There was something oddly exhilarating and arousing about him feasting on her. Something incredible and feminine. Every cell in her body was telling her to respond, to give into the darkness he was offering.
Raven forced her mind back into focus; she really shouldn't be thinking things like that right now. There was a deranged vampire feasting on her; this was not the most romantic of occasions. Trying to remove him from her neck and put distance between them, she pushed her hips against him.
Dark red stained her cheeks as her body connected with his. Apparently, he felt the same kind of arousal at their unholy union. She shook her head and pushed at him again, ignoring the whispers of shivers that ran down her spine. "Robin! Stop this! I can't help you if you aren't going to cooperate."
He growled, but his hold on her didn't lessen.
"Robin. If I lose any more strength, I cannot help you. Do you understand this?"
The lips stopped moving against her neck. There was a strange breathy sound, as if he were trying to sigh. He picked up his head, and ran his tongue along the wound, effectively closing it. Raven breathed a sigh of relief; no marks, thank the Goddess. The worst had stopped, now how could she get him to let her go? His hands were still wrapped like shackles around her wrists, and instead of drinking her blood, he had now taken to nuzzling the underside of her jaw, as if wallowing in her scent. Raven sighed and rolled her eyes to the ceiling. This was going to take a lot longer than she had anticipated. And be ten times more annoying.
"Alright, Robin. We've got a few options here."
His tongue slipped out and stroked her neck, sending another wave of shivers through her body. Raven wondered if he was just hungry again, or if he was trying to acknowledge that she was talking to him. She tugged at her wrists again, but his grip still hadn't eased. She couldn't use her powers, because he'd already zapped most of her energy away, and she was pretty damn sure that he would be able to stop her if he really wanted. "Robin? Are you listening to me?"
His tongue stroked her again. Obviously he was listening; he sure wasn't acting like it.
"Fine. Here are my options, take them or leave them as you like." Stroke. He really should stop that. "One, we can stay here in this dilapidated shed." She didn't really like that option. "Two, we can find a hotel somewhere until you regain… you." She really didn't like that option either. "Or three, we can return to Titan Tower and sort this mess out with the rest of out team."
Robin finally picked up his head and shook it. For a moment, Raven swore she saw a glimmer of fear. Of course there was every reason to be afraid. Why wouldn't he be? He was afraid of what the team would think of him, of what he was now. She felt a sliver of pity before frustration took over again. "Well, I'm not staying here so I can sleep on the floor with rodents and termites. So, I guess that leaves option two."
Robin frowned, the tips of his fangs poking out from his mouth.
"You're still hungry aren't you?"
He nodded.
Something in her clicked and she raised a suspicious eyebrow. "Why aren't you talking?"
"Can't." Raven wasn't sure why she hadn't noticed it before, but his voice was garbled, as if he were speaking through a broken speaker. He dropped his hands from her wrists and raised them to his throat. Raven couldn't see anything in the dark. It looked like just a throat to her. He made that strange, breathy sound again and dug around in his utility belt for a flashlight. In the faint light of the LED bulb, Raven saw the numerous marks and scars that lined his pale throat. Whatever attacked him must have murdered his vocal chords. Robin caught her gaze again. "Vampire."
Raven reached out and touched his throat, feeling the ridges of the scars. It must have been incredibly painful. Her heart softened as he turned away, ashamed. "He did that to you?"
"Her."
"Her?"
"Jinx."
"Jinx did this to you?"
Robin nodded, still looking like a child who'd been caught doing something wrong. Raven wanted to reach out and comfort him, but she was sure that if she did, he would have started snacking on her neck again. She sighed and Robin looked down at the floor before meeting her eyes again. "Waited."
"Yes, you should have waited, otherwise this wouldn't have happened. We were looking for you for over three hours, Robin. Do you know how much you scared us? Starfire is probably cursing my name right now because she can't find you. I had to send them halfway across the city so they wouldn't follow me." Raven was about to say something else, but forced herself to stop. There was a torrential storm of emotions coming off Robin, and if she said anything else she would have sent him over the edge. If that happened, there was no telling what he would do.
"Sorry." Robin backed away from her and fell to the floor with an undignified "plop". He stared up at her as if to say 'what now?'. Raven sighed and slid down the wall, feeling exhausted. This was just too much too much to handle, and now she had virtually no powers to speak of, at least not until her body regenerated more blood cells. But Robin was worse off; she could feel the hunger rolling off him in waves. The confusion, despair, regret; he was just a storm of emotions and it was beginning to effect her. She imagined that she would have to make her move soon.
"If you take any more of my blood, Robin, I'll be powerless for the next few days." Raven waited for him to look at her. After a few long moments his eyes met hers again and he nodded, still sheepish and ashamed. "I can do one of two things here. I can send out my astral self and fix your vocal chords so you can speak, or you can drink from me until you're full and we can figure this out like two mildly sane people." She paused, giving him time to weigh the options. "Either choice will still leave me powerless, and I can't do both right now. You have to make the decision. I'm willing to help."
Robin nodded and let a few minutes pass before he barked out another garbled word. "Hunger."
Raven sighed and rolled her eyes. She figured he'd pick that option. Vampire or no, he was still a man ruled by his stomach. Watching him, she ran her fingers through her hair, her own stomach twisting in knots. There was the strangest, black feeling in her heart, as if she'd just signed her own death warrant. She was giving herself freely to him, and the Goddess only knew where it would lead. Heaven or Hell? "Alright then." Picking herself up, she dusted off her cloak and stood in front of him. "Well, let's go get that hotel room."
Robin frowned. "People."
"Oh no, you made that choice. It's either there or the tower, because I am not hiding out in this." She waved her hand around her, wondering if the rest of the roof was going to slide off soon. There was another long pause as she waited for him to speak. Raven growled under her breath and glared at him. "Look, Robin, if you want my help, you follow my rules."
Robin stood up and dusted off his own cape. His gaze met her glare and he tilted his chin up, silently questioning her allegiance. Raven growled again and made a mental note to punch him for that later. He pointed to the east wall and grumbled, "Wayne."
Raven thought about it for a second. It was far away, safe, and Bruce would be there to take care of him. On the flip side, with Robin and Raven gone, it would leave Jump City vulnerable to attack, and Raven didn't want to risk it. She shook her head. "No. I am not going to Wayne Manor. It's Jump City or nothing at all."
Robin pursed his lips and glared. "Shack?"
"You shut up." She reached out and grabbed his hand, starting for the whole where the door used to be. "Let's go, Robin, before I lose my patience."
"People." He tugged on his arm, pulling it out of her grip. His fear washed over her and it took Raven a second before she could regain her composure. Robin shook her shoulder. "Hunger."
"I know you hunger people. But if we get into the hotel room, you can drink from me until you burst." She turned around and raised a speculative eyebrow. "Or, we can go back to the tower, and hide in the basement until you're ready to talk to the others."
Robin flushed and looked away, shame lining his eyes again. "Starfire."
"Will understand."
He shook his head, frowning. "Fear."
"She'll fear you?" Raven sighed and rubbed her temples. If she had to put up with any more of this, she was sure she'd kill someone. "You don't know your own girlfriend very well."
He frowned again and looked away, rubbing his arm. "Aqualad."
It took Raven an extra minute before she figured out what he meant. The shock hit her initially before giving way to frustration. She rolled her eyes again, feeling ready to pull her hair out. This was not happening to her. Not now. "Oh for the love of… am I actually having this conversation with you? You just turned into a freaking vampire, and we're talking about Starfire's relationship status. Get a grip, Robin. I'm seriously losing my patience now."
Robin glared and started for the hole in the wall. "Hotel."
"Now, we're getting somewhere!" Raven followed him out of the shack, wondering if it would fall down behind them. The fog had started to clear a little, but it was still dense for the most part. If Robin got too far ahead of her, she knew she would lose him. Raven watched as he started down the slope behind the shack. How, was her biggest question. How had this happened to him? How had he managed to get caught in a struggle with a vampire? How did Jinx become a vampire? Raven wasn't really all that surprised to learn that vampires were real. Similar creatures had existed on other worlds for millennia, what would be so different from earth?
Pushing her questions to the back of her mind, she followed Robin down the slope. In the distance she could see the faint light from headlights from passing cars on the road. His motorcycle must have been hidden down there. Raven looked over at Robin, who was still sour over losing the battle for his humanity, and sighed. She reached out to touch his hand, but Robin snapped it away as if he'd been burned and stared at her, shocked. Raven stared back at him. He'd never been one to shy away from her touch before, what was so different now?
Oh, right. He was a vampire.
"I'm sorry, Robin… we'll find a way to fix it, I promise." Raven tried to touch him again, but he took a step back. Robin looked confused and frightened again. Whatever happened to him hadn't just affected his body, but had scarred his mind as well. He was hurt, scared, suspicious and a whole slew of other things Raven was catching. She settled on giving him a smile. "There has to be a way to fix this, it can't be permanent. We'll figure it out."
He nodded and looked away, frowning. "Touch."
"You don't want me to touch you, do you?" Raven sighed as he nodded again. "Why?"
"Hurts," he mumbled before continuing down the slope. Raven sighed again and followed him, feeling more confused by that statement than any other garbled response she'd gotten yet. Why, oh why had he chosen to munch on her? This would be a whole lot easier if he could talk more. If he could at least communicate properly. The scars on his throat were proof enough that it was probably torture to talk as much as he was. She didn't envy him.
Raven chased after him, worried she'd lose him in the fog. "Why does my touch hurt?"
"Hunger." He answered quickly, refusing to look her in the eyes. There was a long silence before he managed to bring his gaze up to hers. He touched his neck, frowning. "Stop. Hurts."
"Fine." Raven rolled her eyes. "But I'm going to have you write a novel when we get to the hotel. I need to know everything you do before I can even begin to address what to do." Robin glanced back at her and nodded, but it didn't do much to ease Raven's nerves. She rubbed the back of her neck, the ache in her head getting worse. Goddess help her, she was sure to kill the Boy Wonder before the night was through.
)O( )O( )O(
Raven looked around at the finery and sighed, feeling out-of-place amidst all the silks and brocade. Robin was sitting on the edge of the sofa closest to his room, watching her as she poked her head into the other rooms. He had been kind enough to at least get them a suite with two separate rooms, so she wasn't in fear of Robin deciding to snack on her later. Even still, this was really quite ridiculous. It wasn't necessary to blow Titan money on something like this. The Presidential Suite for Goddess' sake? She turned and looked at him. "Did you really have to choose this hotel? And this penthouse? Why couldn't a standard room do?"
Robin picked up a pad of paper and a pen. Why? Don't you like it?
"It's fine… I just don't feel like we need all this." Raven fell back onto the sofa across from him and watched as he wrote on the paper.
I just figured you might like somewhere nice to stay, since we might be here for a while. I imagine you'll get pretty tired if you're going to be my only food source. Ha ha. Robin wasn't smiling, and Raven highly doubted he meant the comment as a joke. His face was pale and she could see the pain and frustration in him from trying to keep his hunger at bay. He rubbed his forehead and wrote something else. Thank you, Raven. I knew I could turn to you.
"That's what the creepy girl is here for, isn't it?" She sighed handed the pad and pen back to him. At least she was getting more than one-word answers now. She examined his crest-fallen face and wondered if there was anyway to bring Robin back, or would he always be like this? Would he always be a vampire? Raven chewed on her lip, but shook her worries off. She couldn't think about that now, there was business to attend to. "So, tell me what happened."
Robin frowned and rubbed his forehead again, as if trying to recall the memory. There were a few, long minutes before he managed to get the pen back to the paper. It's hard to remember what exactly happened. I know I followed Jinx into the clearing around the shack. It started off as a pretty standard fight, her spells against my martial arts. Typical. But half-way through, something seemed to go off in her and she went after me harder. She kept attacking me relentlessly, but I still got a few good hits in. My memory gets hazy here. I know she crushed my throat, and I could feel all my blood leave my body. I thought I was going to die.
Raven felt her heart rise to her throat as he continued writing.
She stood over me and spit off some nonsense about how she felt so alone, how there weren't any others like her. And when I felt my life leave me, she slit her wrist and spilled some of her own blood into my wound.
So that was it. Jinx was a vampire. It made sense when you really thought about it. After all, she did have some pretty amazing powers. You didn't get powers like that from a freak accident at a nuclear power-plant. Raven looked up into his eyes and raised an eyebrow. "So, that must have been how she changed you. But, then what?"
Robin started to chew on his lower lip, but his fangs punctured the skin and he winced. Raven was proud of him; he'd done really well so far. When they checked into the hotel, he hadn't attempted to eat any one in the lobby, guests or otherwise. He must have started gaining control over his hunger, but Raven knew he must also have been dying. She wanted to reach out and comfort him, but he would have shied away from her touch again. Raven sighed and watched as he continued to write.
Fire. I felt fire. My whole body was on fire. I didn't know what happened or how to stop it. I felt like I was going to burst into flames at any point, and then… blackness. He paused and tapped the pen against the paper before finishing. I must have been out the entire time you guys were looking for me. I don't remember anything else, except you. You woke me up, calling for me. He looked into her eyes and Raven found herself wondering when her heart would start beating again. Thank you.
"You can stop thanking me, I haven't figured anything out yet." Raven leaned back into the sofa and pondered their predicament. She was going to have to look things up in her books, but they were all the way over at the tower and she feared leaving Robin alone in his current state. There was no telling what he would do if she didn't keep a close eye on him. She could ask Cyborg to bring the books over, but then she wondered how he would take the change of their leader. And how would Robin feel when he saw his best friend feared him?
This was one hairy situation.
Robin put the pad of paper in her line of vision. Did you tell anyone?
Raven shook her head before speaking. "No." Pause. "Well, Cyborg guessed it all on his own. But, Star and Beast Boy are oblivious."
Robin nodded, looking surprisingly calm. I figured Cy would figure it out.
"He only knows it was something dark." Raven said, taking a long, slow breath. Her nerves were taking a beating today and she needed to calm down. "He said that if you asked for me it was something the others couldn't comprehend." She watched as Robin nodded, his expression unreadable. There were a few minutes of peace and Raven glanced at the clock. There were only a few hours until dawn came, and she wondered if all those silly myths were true. Would dawn kill him? Or was it just a hoax? She imagined that they'd figure it out soon.
I hate to ask, Raven. Robin looked into her eyes and Raven felt her heart hiccup again. Whatever he was doing was driving her body insane. He needed to stop looking at her as if she were a delicious snack. But, the hunger is eating me alive. I need to… He couldn't finish writing, and looked away, ashamed.
"It's fine, Robin. I promised to help you, no matter what." Raven forced a smile, despite her fears, and pulled up her sleeve, exposing her forearm. Robin blinked for a second, staring at the flesh, before he frowned and turned away. He picked up the pad of paper again.
No. It doesn't taste the same. There isn't as much oxygen in your limbs.
"Are you serious, Robin?" Raven rolled her eyes to the ceiling, feeling as if nothing could go right today. She picked up an eyebrow and stared at him for a moment, he returned the glare, obviously not going to back down from his preference. Raven sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. "Are we really going to argue over what part of my body you want to drink blood from?"
Robin pursed his lips and raised the paper to her face. 'Yes' was written across the whole page and underlined five times. Raven growled and threw the pad at him, but he caught it easily, his gaze never breaking from her face. They stared at each other for what felt like an eternity before Raven had to give in. She wasn't going to torture her team leader because she didn't like him feasting on her neck.
"Fine. But, I swear, I'm going to punch you in the face."
Understandable. Robin put the pad away and moved to sit next to her. Everything felt suddenly awkward, as if this was more than just a simple exchange of sustenance. It felt as though they were going to indulge in few, more physical sins, and break a couple heavenly laws while they were at it. Raven felt her face flush and her heart skip a few beats as his fingers toyed with the zipper at the back of her uniform. He pulled it down a few inches and peeled the skin-tight fabric off her neck and left shoulder.
Somewhere in the back of her mind Raven acknowledged that she was glad it had been the day before laundry day. That had forced her to put on the only attractive bra she owned, and the delicate, black lace straps looked pretty against her pale skin. There was another, long pause as Robin looked into her eyes, seeking her acceptance of what he was about to do to her. Raven saw his fear again, along with the shame and discontent. His emotions trampled her sane thoughts, and she couldn't do anything but nod, allowing him access to her body.
Raven really expected him to just sink into her neck and keep the situation as no-nonsense as possible. But she should have known better than that. She should have known that there was nothing left to keep this situation normal. Nothing to even hint at sanity.
Robin's fingers slipped under her bra strap and pulled in off her shoulder. He pressed his lips to the exposed skin, kissing slowly along the elegant line of her shapely shoulders. His tongue slipped out and dipped into the raw, red crease her bra strap had made. The sensation of it made Raven forgot where she was and what was supposed to be happening. Her head lolled onto the back of the sofa, exposing her vulnerable throat. She felt Robin's hunger, his arousal, and it only fed her own emotions more.
Robin kissed his way up to her jugular and he licked once. Twice. Three times, before sinking his fangs into her neck, and sending Raven into bliss.
)O( )O( )O(
So, there it is. I hope everyone enjoyed this installment of Honeythief. I wanted to express my delight with everyone who enjoys this story. I'm glad people like it. I also have some clarifications to do.
What I meant by "I think it's pretty funny", was not an expression slap-stick comedy, but quirky teasing of the 3.99 Harlequin novels. I feel like a Teen Titans/Vampire story is really kind of silly in its own right, but after doing some searching today, I've discovered that there really aren't any good ones out there, so I hope this fills the void with its unique quirkiness.
TA DA! Well, I hope you enjoyed it and leave a review or feedback. I love to hear what you think.
