Chapter 7
Vlad stared at the blood on his hands as he tried to stop Danny from bleeding out on the operating table.
No matter what he did, the new towels kept getting soaked through and he quickly reached out for another one to try and slow down the bleeding enough for him to stitch him up, only for his claws to suddenly lengthen causing him to back away from Danny's body in shock as new gashes seemed to form.
For a second he was afraid that he had been the one to hurt Danny to such an extent, and the sudden feeling of his core shattering at the thought was enough to have him suddenly sitting up in bed.
It took a few moments for him to realize that it had merely been a dream as he ran his hands over his chest to try and remove the phantom pains in his core, only to freeze as he encountered warm flesh instead. He shouldn't be able to feel his core without concentrating on it, and yet...
He laid back again with a relieved sigh knowing that it had just been a dream.
He ran a hand over his face as he allowed his other hand to reach for the empty side of the bed where he sometimes placed his phone, it seemed like it would be another one of those sleepless nights.
Except…his hand didn't make contact with cold, hard plastic, and instead, the heat of another body froze him in place before sending him toppling out of bed in his haste to figure out what was going on.
Absentmindedly he noticed that he still had his sleep pants on, given that he'd transformed into Plasmius in the middle of the night after tossing and turning and finally deciding to tell Daniel about the attacks….immediately.
Which, now that he wasn't being driven by the fear that Danny's cluelessness about the situation could get him caught, seemed like a really stupid idea and it made sense that the younger man had acted the way he did.
Now if only Vlad could erase the feeling of catching Danny by surprise and holding him in place…again…because any more of it was surely going to worsen the way in which his traitorous body and mind reacted to the young man.
He shook his head at his own thoughts, 'No, the closest I will ever get to at least being able to talk normally with him, would be to keep on protecting him and to show him that I haven't returned to my old ways. That would be enough.'
His mind easily revealed it to be a lie, but Vlad stubbornly stuck to it as he finally glanced at the bed to try and determine why another person was invading his space and how he would be able to get rid of them.
The sight of a bandaged Danny laying there caused his heart to almost lodge itself in his throat before the memories of what happened in the Ghost Zone got pushed into the forefront of his mind.
He took a moment to compose himself as the memories from both the dream and reality caused his power to flare up even in human form.
He doubted that he would ever be able to fully describe it, but the burning anger he felt at seeing that some of the ghosts had been able to injure the younger halfa when the shield collapsed, felt like it was being shadowed by something dark...
And the sheer possessiveness he felt toward the younger man despite not having any relational link to warrant the depth of the feeling, would normally have him testing his sanity, but given that it was Danny they were talking about here...well...he'd never truly been able to think straight when it came to the only other halfa in existence.
He couldn't exactly recall anything after feeling the shield collapse, but he was sure that Skulker would be able to fill him in on what happened, later.
For now, though, he needed to check on Danny to ensure that none of his wounds required serious medical attention.
The dark feeling remained for a bit as dark thoughts continued to swirl through his mind, but then he found that he grew calmer as he slowly walked closer to check on the younger man.
Once he was certain that the wounds weren't life-threatening, though he was sure Danny wasn't going to be going to school for the next few days, he turned and found a letter on the bedside table next to Danny.
Given that it was covered in Skulker's energy, he opened it before scanning over the few messy lines that the Hunter had written:
Got you and Phantom out. His wounds weren't too bad. He mainly just passed out from exhaustion.
Skulker
Vlad turned to find his phone on the bedside table on the side that he usually slept, but before he even had a chance to move to pick it up, the sudden sound of people running echoed through the hall and he turned into Plasmius without a second thought before crouching between Danny's still-sleeping form and whomever had dared to enter his home.
It was too soon after the attacks in the Ghost Zone and Plasmius immediately decided that he wasn't taking any chances this time.
He was just about to release a deadly blast as the door opened, but the sound of Jasmine's panicked voice had him freezing in place and the blast disappeared mere moments before it fully slammed open.
Plasmius was quite sure that there would have been a hole in the wall if it hadn't been equipped with a doorstop.
Not that he cared about the door itself, but he was very sure that Danny would be quite upset with him if he annihil-ahem 'relocated' his friends and sister if they woke him with their thoughtlessness after what he'd been through.
He was distracted from his thoughts, however, when Jasmine and Danny's friends noticed the fact that Danny was both injured and on his bed.
Naturally, they immediately decided that he was the culprit and Jasmine leveled a rather impressive-looking glare at him as she aimed one of their parents' latest weapons at him.
Given that the weapons mostly either failed to work at the best of times or completely exploded at the worst, Plasmius couldn't resist rolling his eyes before he crossed his arms and allowed Plasmius to fade away.
Though there was a brief moment where he felt Plasmius resisting and he wondered whether it was because his ghost half was still in protector mode.
The faint rumble in his chest confirmed his thoughts, but he decided to dwell on it later as he addressed Danny's three minions, "I suggest you stay quiet. Daniel needs rest to recover and I will not have you jeopardize that with whatever silly notions you've come up with after noticing that he wasn't home."
The trio looked surprised for a moment but didn't move and Vlad motioned toward the door, "If you want an explanation for his current state, I suggest we take this to the living room."
They walked out of the room slowly while still keeping an eye on him, but the moment he moved to follow, something inside him refused to go further than the door and he frowned as he glanced back at Danny.
Sure he didn't really want to leave, but the sooner he could get the trio to calm down, the sooner he can return to keeping an eye on Danny.
Then there was also the fact that both of their energies had depleted a lot sooner than they should have in the Ghost Zone…and he had a sneaking suspicion as to why.
For now, he found that his energy levels were back to normal and he allowed Plasmius to briefly flare up in order to cast another shield around Danny, causing the trio to tense before they looked between the two of them in confusion.
He sighed before forcing himself to walk out of the room after only glancing back at Danny twice…maybe he needed to do it again…just in case.