"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 3

Wufei hung his coat in Heero's hall closet, then walked through a small living room and into the kitchen. Wearing the denim apron Wufei had bought for his twenty-eight birthday, Heero gave him a kiss on the cheek before he returned to the salad he was making.

"You're late," he remarked, extending his wineglass for a refill as Wufei removed an open bottle of Chablis from the fridge. "How long does it take to say, 'no thank you, I'm not interested'?"

Wufei took a long sip of the wine then slid onto one of the oak stools in front of the counter. He hesitated, then straightened his shoulders. "I accepted the job."

"What?" Heero looked up from the cutting board with a surprised frown. "I thought we decided you'd turn it down."

"We discussed the offer but I don't recall deciding anything." One of the problems with Heero was that he seemed to hear only his own opinion.

"This decision affects both of us, wouldn't you agree?"

"Duo upped the offer to sixty thousand a year. That's twice what I was making at Cabot and Cabot." Wufei plucked a piece of lettuce out of the bowl and turned it between his fingers. A few months ago, he would have pointed out all the things they could do with that much money. But sadly, he wasn't thinking in terms of ‘we’ anymore.

"We should have discussed it further before you made any decision," Heero said angrily.

Turning his engagement ring on his finger, Wufei watched Heero chop tomatoes for the salad. Each piece came out precisely the same size as the others. The slices of carrot and cucumber were also the same uniform size. Words such as uptight and inhibited came to mind as he watched Heero at the cutting board. What depressed him most was knowing he cut vegetables the same way.

"Sixty thousand doesn't begin to compensate for the lack of personal time," Heero snapped. After throwing him a glance, he turned the chicken breasts marinating in his secret sauce, splashing the counter, which he seldom did.

Sixty thousand was about what Heero made as a computer programmer at Petro Industrial, but Wufei tactfully refrained from asking if that point bothered him. He suspected he knew the answer.

Heero pushed the chicken aside. "This is going to wreck our entire routine!"

"Heero... when was the last time you rode a skateboard?"

He stared at him. "I beg your pardon?"

"Do you ever do anything impulsive just because it feels good? Do you ever wish for a little adventure in our lives?"

"What are you talking about? And what does this have to do with you deciding to work slaves hours?"

"I missed so much when I was growing up," Wufei said in a low voice, examining the piece of lettuce he was tearing between his fingers. "I used to lie in bed, wishing I could go to school like other kids. I'd plan all the wonderful things I was going to do if I ever got well. Somehow I never got around to doing any of those wonderful things."

"Wufei, you're not making sense.

Wufei lifted a hand, counting down on his fingertips. "We have dinner at your place on Tuesday nights, at my place on Thursdays, On Friday nights we do laundry together. On Saturday we go bowling with Walker and Sylvia, on Sunday we rent a couple of videos. That's our life together. I have this awful feeling that's all it's ever going to be."

Heero continued to stare at him across the counter. "I thought you liked our routine. We aren't impulsive types. We're mature adults. I think we're beyond skateboards, don't you?"

Irritated and upset, Wufei slid from the stool and paced in front of the countertop. "I've never had the chance to do anything exciting. By the time I was well enough to live normally, I was in college, working to pay tuition when I wasn't burning the midnight oil. I went straight from college into a job to support myself. Heero, I've never had the time or the money to do anything interesting. Everything has been so serious most of my life that I'm not sure I could do something frivolous even if I wanted to. But I'd like to give it a try."

"What in the hell brought all this on?"

He stopped pacing and looked at him. Heero was a good-looking man, solid and dependable, known and predictable. On their twentieth anniversary he would tell Wufei, as he frequently told him now, how nice it was that theirs was a mature and settled relationship with none of the childishness or tempestuousness they noticed in other couples. He let his hands drop to his sides and met his frown. "I'm afraid I'm going to go through life quietly without a single spontaneous moment, without ever leaving a ripple. I'm never going to do anything silly or adventurous or exciting. The things I dreamed about as a child are never going to happen."

His interview with Duo had hit him like an earthquake. Not because he pointed out things he had never thought about, but because he'd mentioned the very things he'd been wrestling with in his mind.

Wufei raised a hand. "You're thinking this doesn't sound like me. You think Wufei Chang is a quiet sheltered type who likes life orderly and predictable, and unexciting. And you're right."

"Then--"

"But there's something in me that wants--just once--to do something wild and interesting and out of character."

Heero looked thunderstruck. "Like working for a celebrity?"

"I don't know what I'm missing or looking for," Wufei said, frustration thick in his voice. "I'm such a stick that I don't even know what's possible! But... something! I'd like, just once, to feel an overwhelming passion, to be swept away, to do something outrageous and thrilling. Can you understand that?"

"I don't understand any of this! I thought routine was as essential to you as it is to me. I thought you were too mature to be star struck by some radio host. For God's sake, Wufei!"

"Oh, Heero," he said softly, looking at him and trying to imagine him zooming across the kitchen on a skateboard, or tossing back his head and shouting a Tarzan yell.

It wasn't that he wanted Heero to be like Maxwell, he really didn't. Duo was too unpredictable, too physically charged and strange. He suspected that living with Duo Maxwell would be like riding the first car of a roller coaster. Thrilling, frightening, full of chills and excitement. That wasn't what Wufei wanted. But he wanted a tiny piece of those feelings. He wanted to know that a few surprises were at least possible. And he wanted to experience a grand passion. These feelings probably went a long way toward explaining why he felt so drawn to Duo. And why he had begun to dread the future that Heero represented.

"It isn't going to work with us," he said softly. Tears sprang to his eyes. "I'm sorry. You haven't done anything wrong, I just..." Wrenching at his finger, he twisted off his ring and with a shaking hand placed it on the countertop. "We met at the wrong time. I need to sow some wild oats before I settle down to a lifetime of bowling on Saturday and videos on Sunday."

"You?" Shock widened Heero's eyes. "Wild oats?"

He tried to smile through the tears blurring his vision. "Mild oats might be a better phrase in my case. But I have to do it, Heero." Blinking, Heero looked at him, standing there in his apron, his tie perfectly knotted above the denim bib. "This has been coming for a long time. If you're honest with yourself, I think you'll admit this isn't a surprise." Turning, he almost ran to get his coat.

"Wufei, wait! We can sow some oats together." He followed him, wiping his hands on the hem of the apron. "We'll... I don't know... we could fly to Washington D.C., and tour the museums. Would that help? Or we could--"

Wufei placed a hand against his cheek and laughed through the tears sparkling on his lashes. "Oh, Heero. You don't understand. And why should you? I don't understand myself." He bit his lip and watched his fingers tremble against Heero's cheek. "If you don't find someone else, maybe later we can... or maybe it just wasn't meant to be. I... I'm sorry!"

He ran out the door, scraped a thin layer of ice off his windshield, then slid behind the wheel. Heero stood on the porch of his condo, wringing his hands on the apron hem, saying something that he couldn't hear. But he didn't come after him. By now, pride was starting to kick in. Heero wouldn't beg him to take back his ring.

Wufei sat in the cold car for a moment, gripping the steering wheel and waiting for a wave of regret to break over him.

Instead, he suddenly felt as if a weight had lifted off his shoulders. He had a new job and the potential of more money than he had dared dream of earning. His future was not planned down to the last predictable minute; suddenly tomorrow was open-ended.

Anything was possible. For the first time in his life, Wufei almost felt footloose and fancy-free. Ready to do something interesting and exciting.

IT WAS NEARLY NOON before Wufei overcame the feeling that he was trespassing and stopped tiptoeing through Duo's house. The first thing he'd done, silently, like a thief casing the joint, was walk through each of the beautifully decorated rooms, inspecting them in daylight.

He discovered that most of the wall hangings were priceless originals, which shocked him deeply, and the display pieces were exquisite, expensive works of art. If these lovely pieces had belonged to him, Wufei decided he would have wanted someone looking after them, too. His presence began to make sense.

The bedrooms and sitting room on the second floor had an unused feel about them, and Wufei was about to return downstairs when he peeked inside a door and discovered an entire apartment.

Feeling like an intruder, but curious, he stepped inside. If this was the Renfield apartment, Duo had not exaggerated its comfort and appeal. It was as elegant and comfortable as the rooms downstairs. He explored a sitting room and small library, a homey kitchen and a large beautifully appointed bedroom.

A row of photographs along the bedroom wall caught his attention and he examined them with a growing sense of unease.

The first photograph showed two young men about the same age. Duo stood touching a champagne glass to that of a green-eyed man wearing an army uniform. Both men were smiling-secret, intimate smiles-shaking hands beneath the raised champagne flutes.

In the next photograph, the second man had aged about ten years and was leaning against the hood of a 1956 Cadillac, talking to Duo who sat cross-legged on top of the hood.

Biting his lip and clasping his hands together, Wufei moved down the row of framed photographs, his heart accelerating as he watched the second man age.

The final photograph showed Duo and the man he now guessed was his previous Renfield standing in front of a blazing birthday cake. The second man was white-haired and stooped in this photograph. Traces of the young soldier were still visible in the old man's eyes, but he relied on a cane now, and it was clear that he was ill. The knowledge shadowed Duo's eyes, too. Both men faced the camera with half smiles as if they knew there would be no more birthdays, no more photographs.

The framed pictures recalled half a century of a man's life, depicting him growing older, ageing as the years passed.

But Duo looked the same--vigourous, bursting with youth, about age twenty-five. In each of the photographs.

Trembling, Wufei returned to the first picture, studying it for signs of trickery. The photograph, half a century old if it was genuine, had begun to yellow and fade at the edges. If the photo was a fake, as it had to be, it was a damned good one.

Suddenly Wufei felt an overwhelming urgency to leave his predecessor's apartment. Hurrying, he almost ran down the stairs and into a large sun-washed kitchen.

Here he found another puzzle. The refrigerator and cabinets were not almost bare--they were totally empty. If one had peeked only at the kitchen, one would have assumed the house was unoccupied. Aside from two dozen crystal glasses, there were no dishes or silverware, no pots or pans, not a crumb of food anywhere. The microwave, ultramodern cooktop and double ovens gleamed as if they had never been used.

Wufei stared into an absolutely empty refrigerator, then shut the door with a frown. Hands on hips, he turned silently to stare at the basement door.

After a long hesitation, he tiptoed forward and, as quietly as he was able, he turned the doorknob.

The door, which was not wood but metal, was securely locked.

He stared at it a minute, feeling the hair prickle on the back of his neck.

"Stop it!" he whispered. "You're giving yourself the willies. There's a perfectly good explanation for the photographs.''

As for the lack of utensils and food, well, he already knew that Duo maintained the vampire fiction in his personal life as well as his public persona. At least sort of. Last night, in his tuxedo, he'd looked more like Wufei's idea of a vampire than he had the night before. Elegantly formal, his dark chestnut hair shining in it's braid, even the gold earring had seemed right somehow. Much more persuasive than jeans and a baseball cap.

A tiny shiver thrilled down his spine, after which he gave himself a shake.

He was too smart, too practical, to let himself be unnerved by a few weird things that Duo had set up to further his professional persona.

And he was far too savvy to develop a crush on his boss. Those things never worked out. Plus, Duo might be fascinating and enigmatic, but he also had a screw loose. It didn't surprise him that he'd found no trace of a woman in the house. What woman would get involved with a guy who never let himself be seen in the daylight, who lived the pretence of being a vampire? Of course, he could always be gay. He certainly could flirt with the best of them. Wufei blushed and shook his head.

Speculation was not what he had been hired for, Wufei decided briskly. Straightening his shoulders, he took a moment to fix his bearings in the huge house, then marched off to find his office and the disorganized mess he was itching to jump into.

As long as he paid him, it wasn't his place to tell Duo Maxwell how to live his life. Still... the photographs in the Renfield apartment were an unnerving mystery.

"HI. HOW'S IT GOING??"

Wufei jumped then looked up in surprise. The sky beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows was black, lit only by the distant glow of street lamps. At some point it had started to snow again. Postcard-perfect snowflakes floated past the panes.

"What time is it?" he asked, laying aside his glasses and pressing his fingertips to his eyes.

"Almost seven."

Duo came into the large office, selected a CD from a stuffed cabinet and popped it into the player. Eric Clapton burst across the room, wailing about cocaine. Strumming an air guitar and mouthing the words, Duo danced to the edge of Wufei's cluttered desk. Tonight he wore tan jeans and a cream-colored cable-knit sweater. His hair, still damp from a shower, was pulled back and secured with a rubber band at the neck. The pirate's earring gleamed in the light over Wufei's desk.

"Making any, progress?" he asked, smiling at the loose strands of hair that had pulled away from Wufei's tail.

"It doesn't look like it, but I am," he said, watching Duo do a spin to the music, still strumming the invisible guitar. He had seen the sloppy boy in the baseball cap, the elegant man in the tuxedo. Now he was seeing someone between those two. How many Duo Maxwells were there?

He bent over, strumming madly on the air guitar, lost in the music to the extent that he added his own rich smoky voice to Clapton's. A shiver of physical awareness shot through Wufei's body. If he dismissed the words of the song, the music itself was disturbingly sensual, reaching for something base and elemental and Duo, lost in the song, emanated a sexuality so powerful that tiny goose bumps rose on Wufei's arms.

When the song ended, Duo adjusted the sound level so low that the music was almost inaudible. He smiled at him. "I like to start the day with something that jump starts the senses. So, any questions so far?"

"Only about a million," Wufei admitted, trying not to stare at him. Flustered, he patted the side of his head, looking for the pencil he had stuck behind an ear. "I spent an hour talking to your investment broker in New York City. Everything's fine on that end, but your records here are a mess." He felt a jolt of shock whenever he considered the extent of Duo's wealth. It didn't seem possible that someone his age could have amassed such an unthinkable fortune. He had to believe it was family money stretching back over several generations.

"Have you eaten anything today?"

He tried to remember. "I ordered some things from King Shoppers, but if they made a delivery attempt, I missed hearing the doorbell. Damn."

"Come on, get your coat. I'll take you out for a bite to eat. What are you hungry for?"

Suddenly recalling that he hadn't eaten all day, Wufei felt ravenous. Giving him a grateful look, he pushed back from the desk. He hadn't put much of a dent in the disturbing clutter, had added his own scribbled notes, in fact. It was going to take weeks to straighten out Duo's affairs.

Happily, he thrived on creating order out of disarray. "I could use a steak."

"Aaaargh!" Duo grabbed his heart and staggered around the room, reeling in mock pain. "Don't ever-not ever-mention a stake to a vampire! Cruel man! Is this any way to treat a person who's offered to buy you dinner?"

"I meant the cow kind of steak," Wufei said, smiling at Duo's foolishness. Standing, he flexed his shoulders, easing the kinks from sitting hunched over for too long, then reached for his coat. "You have a couple of messages. One of the promoters working on the Fund for the Homeless wanted a publicity photo to promote a fund-raising dinner."

"And you told him?"

A blush of embarrassment colored Wufei's cheeks. "I felt like an idiot saying this, but I told him vampires can't have their pictures taken. There are no publicity photos."

"Good boy," he said, smiling. Duo focused on his blush. Rattled by his intense attention, Wufei riffled through a short stack of message slips. "Most of these I can take care of... oh, Dorothy Catalonia is in Denver and wants to meet with you. Her assistant said it was important." Wufei observed Duo's reaction from the comer of his eyes, wondering who Dorothy Catalonia was.

Duo groaned and looked for a moment as if he had a chest pain. Then he stood in front of the windows, frowning and watching the snowflakes, fingers thrust in his back pockets. "Did anyone leave a message from Zechs Merquise?"

Wufei buttoned his coat and drew on his gloves. "Isn't he staying here?"

"No," Duo said shortly. He watched him wrap a wool scarf around his throat. "I just remembered your fiancé. Do you have time for dinner or will that cause a problem?"

"There won't be a problem."

"I don't want you to think that you have to have dinner with me because I'm your employer. If Heero's waiting, we could--"

"Look, if you were just being polite, if you have things to do, we don't have to go out. The items I need to review with you will only take about fifteen minutes. The rest can wait."

They studied each other across the office, then Duo laughed, the rich dark sound sparkling through the room. "Look, Renfield, do you or do you not want to get something to eat? If you do, I'd like to take you to dinner. There's a Sizzler not far from here. I'm told they serve a mean steak."

"I'm starving. But would you rather go someplace that serves breakfast-type food? Maybe a pancake house?"

"I've already eaten." Duo touched his elbow, turning him toward the door. "I'm glad you're wearing khakis."

"Really?" Wufei looked up at him in surprise. "Why is that?"

"You'll be more comfortable on the Harley."

He stopped dead in his tracks. "We're going to ride a motorcycle?"

"Vroom, vroom." Duo gripped imaginary handlebars and reared his arms. "There's nothing better. You haven't ridden one?" he asked with a grin.

Oh, God. He wasn't ready for this. He wanted a taste of excitement, but he wanted to approach the experience slowly, sneak up on it. Just the thought of riding a motorcycle made his knees shake.

"Don't you own a car...?"

"I own several cars, but I seldom drive them. I don't like to drive. Except the Harley."

"We could take my car," Wufei suggested hopefully.

"Come on, Renfield, jump out there and try something new. You'll love it."

Pride and indecision swept him along on the wave of Duo's enthusiasm. It wasn't until Wufei was standing in the snowy driveway, wearing a borrowed helmet and watching Duo kick start the cycle that he realised how hard his heart was pounding and how much he did not want to do this.

"Look, I'm just not an adventurous type," he said in a pleading voice, listening to his heart thud with apprehension. "New experiences be damned. Motorcycles scare me to death."

Duo ignored him, or maybe he didn't hear him over the rumbling growl of the engine. "Hop on behind me. Wrap your arms around my waist and let your body relax." When he didn't move, Duo tilted back his helmet and lifted a challenging eyebrow. "Loosen up, Renfield. Give the world a shake and see what tumbles out. Live a little."

God. Wufei shifted from foot to foot, clenching his fists and biting his lips, disgusted with himself. Here was his first opportunity to do something unusual and exciting and all he could think about was hightailing it out of here. Frowning, he stared at Duo's black helmet and leather jacket, thinking he looked as if he'd been born riding a Harley. Finally, driven by pride more than anything else, he forced one unwilling foot forward and then another.

Shaking, Wufei swung his body onto the cycle, found the footrests, then hesitated, looking at his hands as if noticing them for the first time. He didn't know where to put them, wished there was a graceful way to chicken out of this experiment. He had been crazy to think he wanted an adventure.

"Around my waist, Renfield."

Wufei sighed and rolled his eyes. Then gingerly he leaned forward and wrapped his arms around Duo's hard body. He didn't give off much warmth, but he was weak with gratitude to have something to hold on to.

"Don't show off with any fancy stuff, okay?" he shouted above the rumble of the engine. "I'm freezing and scared to death."

Wufei heard Duo's laugh as he yelped and they roared out of the driveway. For the first block, Wufei clung to Duo as tightly as print on paper. He started to relax a little as they rode down the second block and he decided they might not die on this outing. By the third block, he had opened his eyes and dared to look around him.

For one stunning instant, Wufei was swept away by the lack of constraints. There was no ceiling or sides to block his view, nothing between him and the exhilarating flow of cold air and snowflakes, the moulding of his body and Duo's, and the strangely erotic vibration of power rumbling between his legs.

By the time they roared into the Sizzler's parking lot, Wufei was imagining how he and Duo looked to the people in the cars they passed. He knew what he thought when he saw a couple riding a motorcycle. He thought they must be wild and strong and afraid of nothing.

Flushed with excitement, his heart pounding with elation, he swung off the cycle, feeling brash and daring and about ten feet tall. For the first time in his life, Wufei wished he owned a leather jacket. If Heero could see him now, he'd fall over in shock. Yes, he thought, swaggering slightly as he took off the helmet and headed for the door of the restaurant, I'm a motorcycle man. That's me. The pocket protector has got to go.

The snowy ride left him feeling exhilarated, drunk with his own bravery and the sheer feverish joy of freedom. Wufei felt as if he had spat in the face of fear and destruction and walked away unscathed. Maybe he was adventurous after all.

Duo examined Wufei's blazing eyes and the swagger in his step and he laughed. "Renfield, I believe there's hope for you, yet."

It was warm inside the Sizzler, the air thick with the scent of grilling steaks, onions and smothered potatoes.

Wufei ordered coffee immediately, then a salad and a steak. He still felt the glow of cold and excitement on his cheeks.

"Just coffee for me," Duo told the waiter.

"That's all? Do you have a kitchen in the basement?" What he really wanted to talk about was the ride on the Harley and his personal triumph. Wufei couldn't have been more amazed by himself if he had just sprouted wings. In his wildest dreams, he had never expected to jump on a Harley hog. And he couldn't wait to do it again.

"In a manner of speaking." Duo made a silly face at a three-year-old sitting at the next table. "Which brings us to the topic for tonight. There are things you need to know about vampires."

But Wufei was thinking how hard, yet supple, Duo's body had felt. Wrapping his arms around Duo's waist had been part of the wild excitement of the Harley ride, pressed against his back and buttocks, his legs spread and clamped against his thighs, feeling the power of the engine beneath him and knowing he was utterly in Duo's control... The memory of these things brought a thrill of color to his cheeks.

Wufei made himself look away from the hypnotic intensity swirling deep in Duo's violet eyes and poked at his salad. "What do I need to know?"

"Pay attention, Renfield, this is important. I have a suspicion that your mind is drifting."

"I'm paying attention," he said, and tried to push away the memory of moulding himself against Duo's hard body, of feeling his muscles move and slide beneath his hands.

"Okay. For starters, the stuff about photographs is bogus. A camera records whatever is in front of the lens. If I'm standing there, it's going to photograph me just like any other object. The same with mirrors. Vampires are not invisible to mirrors or cameras. All that is fiction, part of the myth."

Wufei frowned, recalling the photographs in the second-story apartment. "But you don't want people to know that vampires can be photographed, right?"

"Correct. As far as the public is concerned, we'll play into the myth and pretend vampires are invisible on film. We don't have to pretend about sunlight. Sunlight is lethal for us."

To a sun worshiper like Wufei, this part of the pretence was difficult to accept. "I can't imagine living without sunshine. Don't you miss it?"

A shadow crossed his expression, then Duo grinned. "Hell, no. Haven't you heard that UV rays can give you cancer?"

"So where did your tan come from?"

"A tanning bed," he answered promptly. "In the basement. One that filters out UVs. I don't know how it works, but it does. This is the best time in history to be a vampire, bar none. Advances in every field have made our lives much easier, believe me." He tasted his coffee. "Next thing... It is true that a vampire has enhanced senses. I see perfectly in total darkness." He gazed out the window. "You can't know what that means to me," he added softly. After a minute he resumed speaking. "I can smell a neighbourhood cat two houses away. And I can hear a pin drop next to that cat."

"With hearing that acute, there must be a lot of noise going on in your head," Wufei commented, playing along.

"In the beginning, the noise damn near drives a vampire crazy. But eventually, you learn how to tone down the background sounds or bring them to the forefront when you need to."

Wufei looked at his coffee cup, fascinated by how seriously Duo took all this. "I thought vampires couldn't eat normal food."

"I can eat mortal food. My body will still process it. But mortal food tastes the same whether it's lobster or dog food. It tastes like paper. I might drink a cup of coffee or eat something to be sociable when I'm with mortals, but I derive no nourishment or particular pleasure from it."

"Which brings us to the biggie, the one thing that everyone knows about vampires." Wufei put down his fork. "Listen. You aren't going to tell me that you drink human blood... are you?" The bizarre nature of their conversation suddenly struck him and he cast a surreptitious glance toward the other booths and tables. No one appeared to be listening to them.

"Renfield? Look at me." Wufei met his eyes and his heart sank. He didn't think he wanted to hear what was coming. "Whether we like it or not, all God's creatures form a link in the food chain." He nodded at the steak the waiter had served Wufei a moment earlier. "It isn't pleasant to ponder where your dinner came from. And it isn't pleasant to think about where my dinner came from. But we've both been provided a means to survive."

Wufei gazed at the juices running out of his steak. He pushed the plate aside and averted his eyes. "Duo, you don't... I mean, you just couldn't possibly..."

"I'm going to say this once, then I'd prefer not to speak of it again." He spoke in a low strained voice. "To survive, I've done things I'm not proud of. I've used mortals to keep myself alive. There was no choice, Renfield. I've never killed anyone, but I've undoubtedly traumatized the hell out of countless numbers." He leaned forward and caught Wufei's chin so he couldn't look away from him. "Now I belong to an organization that supplies blood to people like me. I haven't attacked a mortal in fifty years."

Shocked, Wufei gazed into his eyes and felt as if the restaurant had melted away around them. "If you're making this up, you're crazy. If you're not making it up, then you're..."

"What I say I am."

"Cursed," he whispered, his mind flooded by images from every vampire movie he had ever unwillingly watched.

"No!" Duo shook his head and gazed hard into his eyes. "I absolutely do not believe that my kind are cursed, I'm not a religious man, but I believe in a God. And I believe that all God's creatures have equal worth in his eyes. He didn't create vampires merely to doom us to eternal damnation. We are his children as are all other creatures on this earth, the predators as well as the prey."

"I don't think I want to talk about this."

"Birds eat insects, cats eat birds, and right on up the chain. Humans are shocked by any suspicion that they aren't the end of the chain. Most would rather believe in some supernatural evil than accept the possibility that God created something that feeds on humans. But, Renfield, listen and remember this. Vampires are not supernatural, and we're no more evil than the cat who pounces on a bird or the lion who brings down a gazelle. We've done what we've done over the centuries because that's how we were fashioned, and blood is our only means of survival."

Wufei's heart was running away in his chest. His hands shook and his mind reeled. "You really are crazy." he whispered.

He started to stand, but Duo reached across the table and caught his wrists. The power in his grip startled him.

"Sit down, Renfield. Please. Tell me honestly-and I want you to think about it-do I frighten you?" Immediately he released his wrists and sat back in the booth, his hands cupped around his coffee mug.

"This kind of talk is frightening," Wufei said slowly, staring at him. Images rushed through his mind. He remembered Duo on the skateboard, catching a snowflake on his tongue, bebopping around the office strumming an air guitar. Against that benevolence were the photographs he had seen, and his insistence on living a delusion. "But I'm not sure about you. You don't seem threatening, not exactly, yet..."

"Then don't run away from me. Give me a chance because I need you. I know the blood requirement disgusts and revolts you. It disgusts and revolts many of us, too. But we've finally found a way to survive without endangering mortals." A strange look came into his eyes and he seemed about to say something else, then changed his mind.

Neither of them spoke for a full minute. Then Wufei released a breath he hadn't realised he was holding. "Look, most of your delusions seem harmless enough, but if you're actually drinking blood in the basement..." A shudder racked his frame.

"One thing you need to understand.,, you are in absolutely no danger from me. None at all." Duo straightened his shoulders and met his appalled gaze directly. "I do drink blood. I must in order to survive. But you'll never see it happen, you'll never be exposed to that part of my life. I promise you the blood comes from voluntary donations. It is legitimately purchased from the national blood-bank supply. To me, it's no more offensive than that steak you're eating."

Wufei didn't shy from the sight of blood. But the thought of someone he knew actually drinking it caused a long queasy shudder to ripple through his stomach.

"Oh, God. Yuck!" Jumping up from his seat, Wufei dashed for the nearest bathroom.

~ * ~

Chapter 4

Back to Hemlock Inyx's Index

Back to GW Authors Index.