"When Love Bites Back "

Written By: Hemlock Inyx

Disclaimer: This chick does not own any of the Gundam Wing characters because they belong to Bandai and Sunrise. I am borrowing them for this fict and will return them in good (if somewhat sticky) condition.This fict is written out of love and not for profit, don't sue. Thanks and enjoy!

Rating: NC 17

Warnings: yaoi, lemon, alternate universe, vampires, violence, suicide, mild-ooc

Pairings: 2x5, past: 1x5, 2xH, 2x3

Summary: He wanted one taste of passion… Duo Maxwell’s sexy voice seduced him every night with his late-night radio talk show. So Chang Wufei couldn’t pass up the chance to be his personal assistant—despite Duo’s insistence that he was a vampire. Vampires didn’t wear faded jeans. And they were dark and brooding, not vibrant and fun. Yet…with one glance of his silver violet eyes, Duo could hypnotize him. With one nibble of his passionate lips, he could bend him to his will. Duo insisted Wufei had nothing to fear from him. But why then was Wufei so conscious of his exposed neck?

" When Love Bites Back "


Chapter 11

Duo flung his pullover over his head and stood bare-chested, watching Wufei fold his shirt and lay it over a chair back. Shaking fingers reached for the zipper on his pants before he wiggled out of them, then folded it over his shirt. Suddenly shy, he stood before Duo in white silk boxers. The white against his smooth skin made the tan he had started look deeper.

"Don't move," Duo said hoarsely. "Let me look at you." Embarrassed color flooded Wufei’s cheeks and his eyes lifted to Duo’s, anxious for approval.

"You are so beautiful" Made helpless by the sight of him, Duo stared.

Unlike vampires, Wufei’s skin was rosy, an exciting blend of strawberries and caramel. Groaning softly, he inhaled the intoxicating manly scents of him, shampoo, soap and cologne, the sweetness of toothpaste. He heard the steady rising cadence of Wufei’s heartbeat in his ears, and the scent of blood pounding beneath the surface of his trembling skin reeled through his senses, a musky beckoning of desire.

"Oh, Gods!" Duo’s gums burned and ached, and he felt his teeth extending as his arousal deepened. Shoulders and thighs swelled and flexed. "We can't do this," he whispered, staring at Wufei in an agony of mounting desire. "It's too dangerous." For once, his turmoil was so great that he didn't notice his lisp.

"We love each other," Wufei whispered, his voice as soft as his wonderful velvet eyes.

"It isn't that easy," he answered in a raw voice. Swallowing another groan of desire, Duo stared at him in the light that glowed past the curtains. As if his gaze were a caress, Wufei’s nipples stiffened and rose like hard buds.

Heat radiated from Wufei like the heat Duo remembered from the sun, drawing him like a moth to a flame. There was danger in what they were about to do, but his excitement was so intense that he no longer thought about unpleasant possibilities. All he could think about was how much he wanted to hold Wufei in his arms and how much he needed to sink into him and become a part of him.

Short of breath and trembling, he watched Wufei hook his thumbs in his boxers and slide them down his hips, and his erection throbbed with such power that it pained him. It had been so long--so long!--since he had felt physical pain, since he had wanted anyone so deeply and so strongly that the pain of control overpowered his entire system.

But this wasn't just anyone. This was his friend, his companion, his love. Despite his vow that he would not become attached to another mortal, despite his intentions and his efforts, he loved Wufei with an intensity that pained him.

He loved his quick bright intelligence, his courage, his compassion. He loved the way his smile lit up a room, and the sound of his laughter. He loved his stubborn persistence in the face of obstacles. He loved the way his glasses slid down his nose and the way his glossy hair bounced against his cheeks. Most especially, he loved it that Wufei accepted him as he was, serious or acting foolish, with teeth extended or without.

When Wufei finally stood naked before him, his cheeks burning with passion, Duo moaned softly. "Wufei, I love you. I love the look of you and everything about you. I'm doomed."

"We're both doomed," he whispered.

Duo unzipped his pants and kicked out of them. Male pride swelled when Wufei stared at him, then gasped. His eyes widened then darted away, and finally returned.

"Oh, my," he said faintly, swaying.

Taking him in his arms, he crushed Wufei’s naked heat against his cool body, the contrast exciting and almost painful. His nipples were like pinpoints of fire against his chest, kindling an explosion of urgency in the pit of his stomach.

He dropped his head to his throat and a wave of dizziness overwhelmed him as he inhaled the lush ripeness of his skin; heard the blood racing in his veins just beneath his cheek. The heat and the scent of Wufei teased his nostrils. The need to taste Wufei swept him like a tidal wave as he covered his neck and shoulders in kisses. Wufei’s buttocks tightened and his erection grew rock hard.

When the urge to puncture became so great that his whole mouth ached, Duo lifted Wufei in his arms and carried him the few steps to the bed, then laid him on the sheets and looked at him with hungry burning eyes.

"I love you," he said hoarsely, struggling to breathe.

Wufei lifted inviting arms to him; his eyes like pools of dark ink. "I loved you the first time I saw you."

Stretching beside him, Duo took him into his arms, longing to kiss his parted lips. But he couldn't. There were things mortal men could do with their lips and mouth that he could not. He couldn't kiss his lips, couldn't lick his chest or suck his nipples into his mouth. But he could use his hands and his fingers with a skill perfected by the centuries.

Deliberately keeping his mouth away from the silken temptation of Wufei’s throat, fighting for control, Duo stroked and teased him, caressed and fondled, explored and tantalized until perspiration floated on his hot flesh like dew on a peony. He brushed his erect nipples with his palm, sweetly torturing him, rolled them gently between thumb and forefinger. He flattened his hand on his lower belly and maintained an erotic pressure until Wufei writhed and twisted and sobbed his name. Then he wrapped his hand around his hardness and slipped his fingers down the cleft of his bottom.

Duo brought Wufei to the edge of orgasm with his hands, again and again, stroking him inside and out while he gasped, then rested before he began again.

Only when Wufei was trembling with lust and whimpering his need, did Duo gently ease his legs apart and thrust into him. The ecstasy of feeling Wufei close tight around him, hotter than a furnace, drawing him deep, deeper into his body caused Duo to cry out. With each powerful thrust Duo’s mind soared toward rapture, toward a joining with the universe.

Gasping, sucking air into his lungs, his blurred gaze fixed on the vein throbbing on Wufei’s throat. He felt Wufei’s hips lifting to meet him, felt his legs wrapping around his buttocks and his fingernails digging into his shoulders. He felt his hard heat trapped between them, felt his breath on his cheek. But he saw only Wufei’s throat.

His lips twitched and his teeth burned like needles of fire in his gums. The lust to rip and tear and taste blinded him. Everything that he was screamed at him to slash and drink, to take from Wufei as he was giving to him.

Duo yearned to taste his life, his soul, to drink him into him. He craved the rapture of fulfilment that Wufei’s blood could give. Swept by passion, he saw only the thin tissue of rosy, caramel skin between him and the rich red blood that roared in his ears.
As he approached climax, his mouth opened instinctively and his teeth extended a final distance, a reflex beyond his control. His body shook with an urgent need for release, driven by an almost desperate need to suck and drink.

As his body erupted, Duo veered away from Wufei’s bared throat and he buried his teeth in the pillow beside his head. Trembling violently, he collapsed on top of Wufei, pushing the torn pillow aside. Wufei’s arms stole around him, and he held him tightly until both of them stopped shaking.

"I have never experienced anything like that," Wufei whispered, gazing into his eyes. "I feel like this is the first time I've ever made love. Everything before was mere imitation.'' Tears of joy glistened on his lashes. "It was nothing like this."

Duo spooned him into the curve of his body and held him, still shaking, while he waited for his teeth to recede. Which they showed no signs of doing as his emotion still ran high.

He'd forgotten what it was like to hold a person after making love, a person he deeply cared about. The glow of physical satisfaction clung to Wufei’s body, and his eyes and mouth were soft. At this moment, he felt their spirits merge in perfect accord, believed he could almost read his thoughts and share each beat of his heart. Holding him close, Duo felt as connected as when they had joined physically. Perhaps more so.

He nuzzled the back of his neck, firmly in control now. His hand stroked the arch that curved from waist to hip.

"You know, of course, that we've just complicated our relationship a thousandfold." He couldn't change it, wouldn't if he could, but admitting his love for Wufei deepened the complexities of a relationship that was already problematic.

Lifting Duo’s hand, Wufei pressed it against his chest. "Somehow we'll work it out," he murmured in a happily drowsy voice. "But first, I'm going to doze for a minute. You wore me to a frazzle. Don't let me sleep more than thirty minutes. We need to pack and catch a cab to the airport."

Duo watched over Wufei as his lashes closed and he sank into sleep. He envied him the ability to sleep after sex. Just as he could not remain awake during daylight hours, he could not sleep during the hours of the moon. Leaning his cheek against Wufei’s hair, he gazed toward the window and listened to the sounds his body made, as unique to each individual as a fingerprint.

If he were a mortal, he could have slept with him, could have shared his time of vulnerability and dreams.

Shock stiffened his body. This was the first time since becoming a vampire that he had longed for mortality.

A light shudder ran over his body and he cast a panicked glance around the room, reassuring himself that he could see. Slowly, as objects became sharp and clear, his heartbeat quieted.

Regaining mortality was not an issue, not for him.

Closing his eyes, he let himself feel the imprint of Wufei’s warm body against his. It would solve everything if he agreed to become a vampire.

But the idea saddened him, and he amazed himself by rejecting it at once. Surprised and frowning, he tried to understand why he didn't want Wufei to join him forever.

The word forever caused a wave of loneliness to slam across his stomach.

He loved him too much to ask him to accept the devastating solitude of immortality. And he didn't want him to lose the sunshine he loved. Or suffer the indignities every vampire had to endure. Or the fear of discovery. Or accidental death.

Wufei should give himself to a man who would grow old alongside him and tease him about the silver appearing in their hair. He should have a future that included the children he wanted to sire. He deserved a complete life, not a half life lived in shadows.
Duo closed his eyes against the pain of imagining Wufei with someone else, and he wrapped his arms around him. He did not want him to become a vampire because he loved him enough to know that he would be a vampire like Quatre; miserable, he would long for those things a vampire could never have. He was a man who needed sunlight to grow and thrive.

Duo was the wrong man for him.

But Wufei was the right man for him.

* * * * * * *

"I’m sorry I wasn’t able to show you Paris," he said shortly before they were due to land in Budapest. "There are so many things I wanted you to see and wanted to see again myself."

Wufei squeezed his hand. "After we've found the crystals and this is over, we'll return to Paris."

For the first time since Wufei had met him, Duo seemed subdued. He gazed at him with the eyes of a man in love, and that made his heart sing. But his expression was also sad, which he didn't understand.

He tilted Wufei’s chin up to him. "We're flying into a storm, Renfield. The Council of Six will be enraged that we filched the bank's files. The minute we stole those files, the council—through the bank—lost its primary influence over the vampire community. The only thing they have left are the crystals."

"I love you." Wufei couldn't keep his mind on business when Duo was looking at him as if he were the most precious thing on earth, as if he desired him again as much as he desired him.

"Pay attention," he said, smiling.

Leaning over the seat rest, he kissed him quickly, while his teeth were retracted, then smiled as he hastily lifted a hand to cover his mouth and turned his head away from the other passengers. His lips were surprisingly sweet and soft.

"Right now the council doesn't know if I saw the deed. We're about a day ahead of them. It's going to be all right." A wistful smile curved his lips. "I wish we could really kiss ...."

"I wish you weren't so damned stubborn," Duo said, stroking the back of his hand down Wufei’s cheek. "I wish to hell that you'd gone home to Denver."

"Whatever happens will happen to both of us," Wufei said, hoping he didn't sound frightened.

But he was. He hadn't forgotten Zechs Merquise and the ancient menace glittering in his blue eyes. If he hadn't loved Duo with all his heart and soul, he might indeed have hightailed it for home. But he loved Duo with all his heart.

They completed the flight in silence, each wondering if a mortal and a vampire could sustain a workable relationship.
Each secretly, despairingly, concluded it was impossible.

* * * * * * *

Their route from Ferihegy International Airport to the Ramada Grand Hotel on Margit Island took them through Pest, situated on a flat sandy plain along the left bank of the Danube.

From Wufei's fourth-floor room, he could see lights twinkling in the windows of insomniacs who lived on the Buda side of the city, which climbed the slopes of the Buda Hills. The bridges connecting the combined cities were strung with lights that reflected in the glassy waters of the Danube.

"In the morning you'll have a clear view of Buda Castle and the spires of Matthias Church," Duo commented, standing in front of the suite's windows. "For centuries, this area has been noted for its medicinal waters." A humourless smile curved his lips. "The thermal springs on this island are reputed to cure everything from stress to bronchitis to colitis."

Wufei came up behind him and wrapped his arms around his waist. "I'm not here to take the waters," he murmured, smothering a yawn. "I'll get up early, grab something to eat, then go straight to the Mineral Museum."

Instantly, he turned and gripped his shoulders. "Listen to me. Your days as 007 ended in Paris. I don't think you understand how dangerous our position is now." His electric violet eyes bored into his. "We're in the council's backyard. This is their turf. I don't want you acting on your own--not here."

"If the council is as well-informed as you suggest, then by tomorrow they'll know we're in Budapest. If we wait to act until tomorrow night..."

"That's exactly, what we're going to do. I checked while you were unpacking. The museum stays open until 9:00 p.m. We'll have time before it closes to check it out together."

"By then the crystals will be gone," Wufei stated flatly. "Here's what I figure our plan should be. I show up at the museum first thing in the morning. The curator has probably been told to watch for me. But the council will he asleep in their lairs. There won't be anyone to make a decision."

"You aren't getting the picture," Duo said, making a gesture of frustration. "Believe me, they already have a plan in case you and I show up. We're talking about the Council of Six here, not a bunch of politicians who can't make a decision. Someone will be waiting for us."

"Did you hear what you just said? Waiting for us. I think you're right. If the council has a plan, it's designed for us. I don't think they'd expect you to send me in alone."

"Because I won't. Damn it! Suppose you go waltzing into the museum and the council has arranged to have a half-dozen men waiting for you. I could spend the next century searching the castles in this area, trying to find you, and still fail. That is, of course, if they decide not to do away with you immediately and if I manage to elude the council myself."

Wufei fell into step beside him, matching his stride as they paced up and down the living room of his suite.

"There's a couple of things we're overlooking," he argued. "No one has found these crystals in centuries, so we can assume they're well hidden." He spread his hands. "The crystals are probably in a vault beneath the museum or sealed behind a wall--something like that."

"All the more reason to wait. By showing up, all you'll do is inform the council that we're in Budapest and we know about the museum. Someone will remove the crystals before you and I have a chance to return and search the cellars."

Wufei fought for patience. "You've indicated the council will discover we're in Budapest anyway. So I might as well scope out the museum. Then, when you and I return together, we'll know what we're up against"

"Renfield, you're driving me crazy. I absolutely forbid you to go to the museum alone."

"Please, Duo, be reasonable. We have a small window of opportunity before they know for certain that we're here. After that..." Wufei threw out his hands in frustration.

"If you want me to beg, Wufei, you win. Please give me your word that you'll take the waters or sightsee or whatnot. But promise you'll wait for me before you go to the museum."

Wufei stopped in his tracks and his mouth fell open. When he recovered, he dropped into a chair and just looked at Duo.

"You called me Wufei. You’re really scared aren’t you?"

Duo sank to his knees in front of Wufei’s chair and wrapped his arms around his waist, dropping his head to his lap. "I'm begging you not to place yourself in danger! If I've involved you in something... I'd never forgive myself!"

Wufei buried his fingers at the base of his thick braid and gently tilted his face up to his. "My dearest Duo," he whispered, gazing at his emerging teeth. "Now that I know the signs, your emotions are as transparent as glass."

A pained smile made his teeth appear even longer. "I haven't had this much damned trouble with my teeth in a hundred years!" He stroked Wufei’s cheek and his rich deejay's voice dropped. "It's your fault, Renfield. You do things to me that no one has done."

Wufei glanced at the antique clock above a brick fireplace and rapidly calculated the time remaining until dawn. His fingers strayed seductively over the buttons on his shirt.

"I can think of some things I'd like to do to you," Wufei said in a husky voice, his eyelids dropping. "How long will it take you to reach your friend's lair? How much time do you have?"

Duo, too, glanced at the clock, then pressed his head against Wufei’s belly. A low groan rumbled up from his chest. "For you, I'll risk a sunburn."

By the time Duo left him naked and smiling on the rumpled bed, a faint line of pink had spread across the eastern sky.

"Hurry," he whispered. "Keep yourself safe." Then he groggily set the alarm for eight o'clock and instantly fell into an exhausted sleep.

* * * * * * *

It took three cups of room-service coffee before Wufei felt as if he could function. Even if he ignored the effects of jet lag, he'd had only a handful of hours' sleep since they'd arrived in Europe. The pace was beginning to catch up with him; he felt as if he were wading through molasses, operating in slow motion.

But fatigue wasn't going to keep him from paying a visit to the Mineral Museum. Despite Duo's warnings, he was utterly convinced that by noon today someone would remove the crystals from the museum's vault. If that was where they were stored. With a bit of luck, he'd get to them first.

As for the danger, an upset stomach and a case of nerves told him the danger was very real. Eventually a confrontation with the council would occur, and it could end badly. Very badly.

Pacing back and forth across the tiled bedroom floor, Wufei glanced at the telephone and tried to decide how Duo would feel about calling in reinforcements. His intuition said his pride would rear up and object.

"Which is just too bad," he said finally, lifting his chin. He knew he was overstepping himself, but it wouldn't hurt to have some backup. Just in case. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he placed a transatlantic call.

"Hello, Renfield? This is Renfield. We need to talk," he said, finding the energy for a tired smile.

* * * * * * *

After changing dollars into forints, Wufei discovered Budapest was actually rather easy to negotiate. Bus stops and subway stations were equipped with route maps that even a bewildered tourist could decipher.

After figuring out how to get from Margit Island to the Mineral Museum, Wufei drew a deep breath, then purchased a day pass and located the bus that would take him to Vaci utca, a street located in an area noted for the sale of folk art objects.

During the bus ride, he discovered what a beautiful city Budapest was. Medieval contrasted with modern, the juxtaposition oddly charming. Summer flowers dripped from window boxes, flowed neatly through numerous parks. Castle ruins protruded above the thick foliage on Buda Hills; beautifully designed government buildings extended along the banks of the Danube. The river itself was a disappointment. Wufei decided Strauss must have been color blind if he thought the Danube was blue. The river was wide and impressive, but blue it was not. The water was olive brown.

Rather sooner than he would have liked, the bus stopped at his cross street and he stepped onto the sidewalk before a row of shops. Peering past the branches shading the narrow street, Wufei searched for the museum. When he finally spotted a wooden door with a small brass sign beside it, his heart sank.

The building was the oldest on the block, a seventeenth-century four-story edifice built from weathered stones and blackened timbers. All in all, there was nothing welcoming about it. In fact, the building had a forbidding aspect. There were no windows on the ground floor, nothing but the small sign to indicate this was a museum or that it was open to the public. Wufei watched the entrance for twenty minutes during which time no one entered and no one exited. The hair rising on the back of his neck suggested this was exactly as the owners wanted it. Stepping inside would be like walking into a spotlight. No way could he hope to lose himself in a crowd.

Facing a display window filled with hand-carved nesting dolls, Wufei thought hard, searching for a solution. But it was difficult to focus his mind. He kept thinking about how a bug must feel a second after it stepped onto a spider's web.

"Stop being so cowardly," he said to his reflection in the glass window, trying to buck up his courage. "You are a man who has consorted with vampires. You have ridden a Harley. After that, how hard can it be to walk into a museum and take a quick look around?"

Hard. Very hard.

Because he felt conspicuously American and very out of place, because he couldn't yet bring himself to approach the museum--and because his nerves had risen in direct proportion to the sinking of his taste for adventure--Wufei stepped into the doll shop.
Immediately, he found himself surrounded by youthful voices calling to one another in the Queen's English. One of the teenagers bumped him, apologized with a smile and darted away.

A rosy-faced, very British matron smiled and apologized for the boisterousness of her students. "Our tour is nearly finished, you see," she explained, obviously pleased to discover another English-speaking tourist. "We're shopping for mementoes now. Tomorrow we return to London.''

Inspiration struck. Wufei followed the woman down a narrow aisle and finagled an introduction, learning that Mrs. Billingsgate was headmistress of a very small, very exclusive girl's school in London. "I'm sure you must have taken your delightful young ladies to the Mineral Museum just down the street. I'm told it's a must-see whenever one is in Budapest."

Mrs. Billingsgate's eyes sharpened and her carroty eyebrows soared toward a bun crowning the top of her head. "The Mineral Museum?" She riffled through a sheaf of papers that she withdrew from an impressively large handbag. "Good heavens, I can't find a thing about it! It's famous, you say?"

Wufei looked aghast. "I can't believe you'd come all this distance and not visit Budapest's Mineral Museum?” He made a tsking sound with his tongue and gazed at the teenagers calling to each other across the aisles as if he believed their trip to Hungary had been a total waste. "Oh, my. May I inquire who organized your tour?"

Mrs. Billingsgate's deepening flush suggested it was she who had arranged the student's itinerary. She hesitated, glanced at her watch. "You say the Mineral Museum is on this block?"

"Only a few steps away," Wufei confirmed, swallowing a shout of relief. "I'm going there now."

"I'd hate the students to miss anything that... You're quite certain this museum is famous?"

"I'm surprised you haven't heard of it. Rather shocked, actually. I understand they have the world's finest collection of, ah, of quartz." Wufei smiled brightly. "To have missed the Mineral Museum is to have missed Budapest. Or so I've been told."

Mrs. Billingsgate made up her mind. Moving forward like a clipper ship under sail, she marshalled her students, saw them through the purchase of hand-carved trinkets then herded them out onto the sidewalk.

"Students, this is..." she paused and looked at Wufei expectantly.

"Mr. Citadella," Wufei said, repeating a name plucked off a signboard.

"Mr. Citadella has spared us an oversight by informing me of the world-famous Mineral Museum, which is only a few steps away." Mrs. Billingsgate beamed. And introduced a half-dozen teenaged girls who looked remarkably alike to Wufei.

Two minutes later, Wufei, Mrs. Billingsgate, and a half-dozen noisy teenage girls invaded the silent musty entry of the Mineral Museum. It required a moment for Wufei's eyes to adjust to the dim interior.

The first thing he saw were three burly men standing in an archway. If these men were interested in minerals or knew anything about them, then he was Alice in Wonderland.

~ * ~

Chapter 12

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