Weeks went by and the team settled into a routine. Tony did as Gibbs asked and stopped fighting them about letting him drink from them. It was decided that because Jimmy knew the places that would work at the yard, he would be lunch. And because Tony was drinking from him five days a week that he would be more of a snack than a full meal. His new nickname had become Mesimeriano, the Greek word for lunch.
The group tried other things to help Tony through this as well. Ducky tried giving him blood intravenously, while it helped, it seemed the pint wasn't enough. The headaches stayed and the smell that appeared when he was underfed stayed as well. They tried on weekends when they weren't on call to see if drinking it from a cup or something helped but like the intravenously it wasn't enough. Abby and Tim kept looking on the internet to see if they could find anyone who Tony might be able to talk to. What confused the whole group was if this was a genetic anomaly, why all the secrecy. Ducky and Abby had drawn several vials of blood from Tony and found that it was all his, in type and DNA. Nothing of Tony's five donors was present and looking over his DNA profile Abby couldn't tell what might be the anomaly.
Ducky checked them over every weekend to ensure they were all healthy enough to continue allowing Tony drink. Even with Abby's announcement that they should call it drinking everyone in the group would flip between drink and feed.
~~~****~~~~
About a year after Tony changed he had a visitor at his door. When he got home from a very tough case, standing in front of his door was a person who screamed vampire in every theatrical sense of the word. It was Abby's night to come home with him so she was there and instinctively stepped behind Tony pulling her small gun from her coffin purse.
Tony tipped his head to the left and looked at the person in front of him. Tony still couldn't identify whether they were male or female and when they spoke it didn't help to answer the question.
"I see you brought home dinner."
"I brought home a friend yes." Tony answered without saying much.
"Well we will see. We have much to discuss neophyte."
"Excuse me."
"Hm yes much shall we go inside?"
"No we shall not, mom taught me not to talk to strangers, so good bye." Tony squeezed past the vampire and pushed Abby in. "She also said to be careful who you invite in because they might never leave again." shutting the door in the persons face.
"Tony that wasn't nice they might be able to help."
"Abby he it she whatever was leering at you like you do a Cafepow! after a really bad case, so you know like what you were doing 20 minutes ago."
"I was not." Abby said indignantly.
"Yes you did and that's beside the point. No I'm not talking to them, it called me a neophyte."
"I called you a neophyte because you have no idea what you are." Abby and Tony heard through the door.
"I have a feeling they aren't going away Tony, you better talk to them." Then she quickly signed that she would text McGee to call Gibbs and tell him what was going on. Tony nodded and waited for a moment for her to send the message. When she was done, he sighed loud enough to be heard by the other outside as if to say he had finally decided his friend was right.
Opening his door he found them leaning against the opposite wall, Tony stood back and said, "You better leave when I tell you to and my friend is not for you in anyway, and I don't care if you have some sort of hierarchy or rank system or whatever, I'm not joining shit."
"Alright Tony." They stepped into the room and waited for Tony to shut the door.
"Do you want something to do you want some water or coffee or tea or…"
"I'm fine but thank you for offering. Let me introduce myself I am Michele and to clear up and doubts I am a man, I was born in France, hence the name."
"Alright Michele what do you want?"
"You are a hard person to trace, your searches where very good and secured very well."
"I do what I can." Tony said not wanting to let on that he hadn't been the one searching. Abby wisely stayed quiet. "Why all the secrecy by the way if it genetic? Then it's not like Hollywood vampires that infect."
"Because sometimes genetics scares also, have you not seen what governments try to do with telepaths and the like?"
Tony thought for a second, even though Gibbs had made him tell the team, no one suggested they run and tell Vance.
"Fine so what do you want?" Tony asked once again.
"It was decided I should be the one to talk to you about your condition." Michele said with an eyebrow raise.
"Fine talk, what don't I know from a year of on the job training and your website?"
"I think your friend should go this is for our ears only."
"Hm no I think she'll stay right where I know she's safe thanks. Wouldn't want to send her home and have your friends waiting for her outside my door."
"We are not like that Tony."
"So tell me what we are like."
Michele tried to stare Tony down but after years with Gibbs, there was no one on the planet who Tony would fold to. Michele shook his head and sighed, "Alright we are Hemolagnias, we have to have sex in order to drink blood." Abby looked at Tony they both knew Tony had drank blood without sex.
"Explain exactly what you mean by sex." Tony said.
"Intercourse as if there is any other sex."
"What about oral sex?"
"No." Michele said with a confused look on his face, "You can drink without being in your partner?"
"Let me ask you a question can you make your teeth come when you want?"
"No," Michele said, "none of us can."
Tony looked at Abby and Abby shrugged.
"Uh I don't think I'm a Hemolagnia then."
Michele quirked his head and said, "Excuse me?"
Tony stood up and opened his mouth clearly showing his teeth speaking around them had gotten easier over the year so he did, "I have always been able to I think I mostly figured it out about six months ago. But they were always out before I was in." Tony said bluntly.
"How wait I do not understand this is not."
"It is, I haven't drank since this morning but here they are." Tony slid his finger over the fang hard enough to make it bleed. He licked the blood off and stilled for a moment and the teeth were gone.
Michele stepped back, "You are not like us, you are different. You what do you do."
"What do you mean?"
"How do you live your life? What have you changed?"
"Nothing really I don't drink beer as much, I still work during the day, I wear long sleeves everyday now though. I eat everything why what aren't I suppose to be doing?"
Michele looked very closely at Tony and asked, "Do you take from either sexes or just one?"
It was Tony's turn to furrow his eyebrows, "Both actually what does this have to do with anything you said partner?"
"We all pick one sex and only drink from that one; I drink solely from woman but Markus drinks from men. We cannot drink from the other sex. Before the anomaly showed I preferred men over woman I have never heard of a bisexual drinker."
"How old are you all of 12?" Tony joked.
"A hundred and twelve actually."
Tony stopped dead and Abby gasped.
"So we are immortal then?"
"No the aging process is extremely slowed I was 19 when my life changed. I looked even younger then. I have aged considerably in 93 years."
"No Tony, how will oh Tony." Abby cried.
"It's okay Abbs, we will…we knew it could be like this, it will be alright."
"No it won't Tony." Abby broke into tears and hugged him before pushing away and disappearing to his bedroom.
"I do not know if it will be the same for you Tony, you do not seem to be the same, there are a few others older than myself. I will ask them if they know of anyone who could call their teeth at will and who could and did drink from both." At just that moment Gibbs and McGee walked in.
"Boss don't." Tony said seeing the look on his boss's face. Gibbs was angry and McGee was scared.
"Tony let me ask one question before I leave you."
Tony turned back to Michele and his gut clenched he knew what the question was and he was afraid for his friends.
"What." he said softly.
"How many know of you?"
Tony tried to decide if he should lie, but in the end, he didn't think it would matter. "Six."
Michele looked surprised, "How long have they known?"
"Six months."
"One more, how long since you have changed?"
"A year."
"Do you feed from all six?"
"No only five, one of them is older and I didn't want to put that kind of strain on him nor do I find him attractive in anyway."
Michele nodded, "I will be in touch." And with that, he was gone.
McGee dropped to the couch, "What was that all about?"
"Uh they found me through your searches. I don't know how they got this address when we were searching form Gibbs place. I didn't want to ask I didn't want to tell him I wasn't doing it."
"You weren't going to tell him we all knew were you?"
"Not at first but I have a feeling he would have known it was a lie from the daggers you were staring at him."
"Tony." Abby said from the bedroom he left.
"Yeah baby he left Tony." said pulling the Goth into his arms. "He's gone, it will be alright we have time to figure stuff out."
"Figure what out?" Gibbs asked.
Abby sniffed and said, "Tony stopped aging last year."
"No he said we age much slower."
"He was a 112 Tony."
"That guy was over 100?" McGee said with a raised voice.
"McGee damn it, these wall are not that thick, that's why you're not allowed over here anymore for dinner."
Tim's face went bright red, the onetime Tony had fed from him at his apartment found the neighbors beating on the walls because it turned out that little Timmy was a screamer.
They had been pooling their resources to find a house with enough bedrooms that they could all live together but they hadn't found one they all liked yet.
"So what did you learn Tony?"
Tony dropped on to the chair and Abby curled up on his lap. Jethro sat on the coffee table, "I'm not supposed to be able to make my teeth come out like this, and I'm not supposed to be able to feed from just oral sex. It also sounded kinda like maybe this was supposed to have happened years ago the way Michele looked when I said it happened a year ago. I don't know, I think I was supposed to be younger oh and I'm not supposed to be able to drink from both sexes."
"Did you learn what you were supposed to be doing?"
"No he kinda got hung up on the other stuff. I think he's going to go back and tell them I'm not one of them more or less. He said he would ask to see if there were any others like me, the teeth, and both sexes thing."
"He didn't know about us did he?" McGee asked.
"No not till you came in. He knew I had both male and female partners."
"Speaking of partners you and Abby need to go eat because we are suppose to be looking at that house on Marine in a little over an hour." Gibbs said.
"Yeah I know I'm just not hungry."
"Tony, are you trying to hurt my feelings?"
"No Abby, I love you and you know it. I just don't feel like drinking I don't have the head ache or anything."
"Still you wouldn't want it to hit while we're looking at the house."
"Yeah alright Abbs let's go play Drak cu la." Tony said his teeth slipping out and he did his best Béla Lugosi impersonation, "I vant to suck your blud." Abby just giggled and ran to the bedroom.