NaNoWriMo 2009 - Blood Soaked Lovers [ 7 / 10 ]

[dr_harbinger]

Title: Blood Soaked Lovers
Rating: NC-17 / MA
Fandom: Star Trek XI
Pairings: Implied Kirk/Sulu, some more slight McCoy/Chekov
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Not the characters nor the song titles
Warnings: oocness, mild angst, some version of "racism"
Summary: It looked like, on this mission, he was certainly going to have to be more human than human

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CHAPTER SEVEN: MORE HUMAN THAN HUMAN

The trip back to headquarters that day was rather uneventful, even if McCoy did manage to get that skittish kid a seat next that Asian boy he was so attached to and have ended up having to take a seat in the back of the truck with them anyway, just in case. He knew better than to worry for his life. These were children who were raised as slaves of his kind. They probably knew the strength and speed of a vampire at night, when they had a distinct advantage. However, he did keep his eyes out the back of the truck, watching the vehicle that moved behind them with a careful eye, looking for any sign of the real enemy coming up on them. He had made sure, along with a few professional spell casters, that no evil entity could touch any part of the cars with their bare skin without burning but there were other, more modern ways to kill than simply touching.
It took all night but by the time they reached their headquarters, just outside of Moscow, the doctor couldn’t help but feel a bit relieved for the fact he could get out and stretch his legs. He wasn’t used to sitting that still for that long on such an uncomfortable bench though he supposed the kids he had been riding with were hardly better off. He could tell, as some of them started to wake up from their long night sleeping on wood, that they’d probably be sore for the day. Oh well. It would be a dull ache compared to what most of them had been through, he was sure, getting out of the truck first when it was stopped and turning around to help the little ones get down. At least some of them trusted him.

After getting the kids some proper clothes, the younger ones were all recorded into the massive search database as found and were brought to various transports to be taken back to their homes. The young men who wanted to leave were given a similar sort of treatment though the few that stayed were left “unfound” and escorted to another area to be registered. It was while McCoy was aiding the registration folk by doing some relatively quick but thorough physicals not all that far from the “recruiting” table that he started recognizing some of the faces of the patients he was scanning through. He had all but groaned when he recognized that Asian kid, Hikaru Sulu, come in to get his physical done. He had known, even then, that that meant Pavel Chekov was signing up too.

Months had passed since that point and Leonard McCoy had managed to gain the trust of quite a few of the former slaves while carefully watching their weight gain as they filled out again while he made sure the psychiatrist assigned to each one was doing their job. He made sure not to let his bare hands touch any of them, hiding what he was from all the once slaves he could to make sure they didn’t panic during his treatment, all but Chekov. He still seemed nervous and reluctant to be touched but he allowed it as long as the doctor stopped when he said so. The surgeon had to admit he was rather impressed that a kid who had spent so long under such harsh conditions was able to bring himself out of the conditioning so… unusually quickly.

When the day finally came for a new assignment, this time to a small village in Romania, the doctor couldn’t entirely hold back the boy he felt at this. He was getting sick and tired of dealing with the same few people day in and day out. Besides, from what he had gathered from the general notes before the briefing, this was more a recon mission than anything else. He could do that. He had become an expert in blending into groups of people. Plus, according to the list of people on this particular mission, a short one indeed, Jim was going too. That would make things a lot easier.

As he kept reading on his way to the briefing room, though, that sense of relief faded away eventually into frustration. God dammit! The other half of the team, since a recon mission was rarely less than four and never more than five, was a pair of former slaves. That meant the majority of the night hours he’d have to spend watching them to make sure they didn’t get drunk and dragged off somewhere. He was a doctor, not a babysitter! Surely these Federation idiots would know that much!

He had just walked into the briefing room when he felt the touch of a silver blade against his throat immediately made him hiss and try to take a step back, to get away from the burning sensation. His lips pulled back into a purely instinctual snarl, revealing his long fangs while his hazel eyes flashed red momentarily. It took a full moment for him to focus his instinct on the man holding the blade against his neck. “You had better put that thing the fuck away, Ensign.” His tone was cold and a hand flexed at his side though didn’t move otherwise. “Just because I swore to do no harm to my patients doesn’t mean I’ll just let one kill me without a fight.”

The curly haired teenager smirked and pulled the blade away, slipping it back into it’s sheath in his knee high uniform boot. “So,” he said, his voice sounding stronger and much less shaky than it had when he had first signed on, “You do hawe a veakness.” He turned and walked back towards his chair, not sitting in it but rather leaning against the table. Now that Leonard had a chance to look around, he could see that he was earlier than he had thought he was. No one was here except the ensign and himself.

Sighing and running his hands through his hair, undoubtedly mussing it up but not really caring at this point since he had just gotten out of an eight hour surgery, even though his shift technically ended two hours into that. He was exhausted and achy and just wanted to have his usual cold glass of blood before he went to sleep for a while. Now he had a burn on his neck he had to let the blood treat as well. As he took his seat next to where the kid was standing he glared at him tiredly while he leaned back in the chair. “You could have just asked or something. If you had done that ten years ago I probably would have snapped your arm without thinking.”

A blond eyebrow tucked into the soft, dirty blond curls that fell over his eye. “Vould you hawe ansvered honestly?” Leonard thought the kid’s attitude could use an adjustment but now was hardly the time to do it. That haughtiness was going to get his skinny ass in serious trouble one of these days.

“Surprisin’ly yeah, I would’ve.” He rested his arms on the arm rests and let his hands fall into his lap. “Since we’re fightin’ for the same team why not let you know that kind of thing? Allies cover up for each other’s weaknesses.”

Pavel harrumphed and crossed his arms over his chest. “I do not consider you an ally. You are vone of zem. You vill turn against all zese people ewentually and I vill be zere to make sure you die. Nozing ees vorse zan betraying somevone’s trust in you.” The anger that blazed in those eyes the doctor knew was directed at someone else, someone from a long time ago. Whoever it was, he figured, had better hope this kid doesn’t find him.

“Don’ worry your pretty head about that one, Ensign. I got Jim to make sure that doesn’t happen.” He had made sure, when he and the mortal man became friends, that the human had learned how to hold and use a gun and a silver blade and where to aim and with how much force to ensure this fuckin’ monster that once a day reared it’s ugly head and demanded blood stayed dead. He even made the man promise to, if necessary, throw him out into sunlight should he lose his mind. Why couldn’t a vampire’s death be something less painful? “You’ll have to fight him for the honor to be the one to take me down if you’re really that dead set on it.”

Chekov’s smile was a tight one as he turned and too his seat, leaning forward in his chair instead of back against the table. For such a young thing, he looked tired and not just the kind of tired a decent night’s sleep would bring. “You hawe no idea ze number of times I vanted to be ze vone to kill Lord Spock. I vanted to be ze vone to carwe him up. I vas hees faworite and he made sure eweyone knowed it.”

Leonard wasn’t entirely sure how to respond to that. A few ideas came to mind as to what it could mean to be the favorite of someone like Lord Spock but he really didn’t want to find out which ones were true and which weren’t. Besides, according to Pike, the kid had been brought before the ancient vampire at ten years old. He didn’t even want to contemplate what kind of sick fuck decided that a ten year old was going to end up doing what this brat did. He did however, smile a little bit to himself at the butchered English word. “It’s ‘knew’, kid. ‘Everyone knew it.’”
Before the ensign could bring himself to answer though, the door to the conference room opened and in stepped Jim and Hikaru, both with their hair still wet from the shower with towels around their shoulders and bright smiles on their faces as they continued chatting amicably. Both had golden shirts on, signifying that they were with the strategists and other tactical positions of command, though the Japanese man, according to his wrist, had somehow made full lieutenant next to Kirk’s commander rank. McCoy felt kind of odd being in a room full of command line folk while he was dressed simply in his science blues but whatever. He was here for a reason.

The two of them took their seats next to each other with the ease of long time friends and whatever conversation they had been carrying on before they had walked in was continued with the ease Bones knew that Jim always had with the new guys. Despite knowing for a fact that he was Kirk’s oldest and therefore more than likely best friend, it was hard to ignore that slight feeling of jealousy and abandonment that floated up from his stomach into his chest. He was well over a hundred years old, dammit! Something like that shouldn’t bother an old man like him anyhow.

He was pulled out of his thoughts over just how well Jim and the new gut got along by suddenly being addressed by the blond hair blue eyed man in question. That annoying smirk on his face that usually meant he had a plan going that was more than likely going to be embarrassing for one of them was present in full force. Sighing deeply, the vampire pinched at the bridge of his nose. “What the fuck is it Jim?” When was Pike supposed to be here anyway?

“Remember that little bet we had? That if I was still the winner by the end of the night I could make you do anything I wanted?” That shit eating grin was scary indeed.

McCoy’s head snapped up, his dark eyes narrowing. “Yes…” Any suspicion not in his tone reflected itself in his expression, an expression he knew full well the other could read.

The blond’s grin grew bigger. “Well I won. You gonna follow through with your end of that little deal?”

“Depends. You got any witnesses to back you up?”

“I got a few.”

“Let me fix that. A few witnesses that were sober enough at the time to legitimately remember if your words are true?” That pulled a snicker from Sulu, who leaned back in his chair and just watched the interaction gleefully. Pavel didn’t say a thing though it wasn’t hard to tell he was hardly impressed.

Before Kirk could answer that remark, though, the door to the conference room opened again and admitted Captain Pike, dressed in his own golden tunic with three silver bands on the sleeves. He looked somewhat relieved to be in the room but why that was the doctor could only guess. After all, he thankfully didn’t have to deal with any kind of admirals directly. Still, he did hear horror stories and those were more than enough to go off of usually. Perhaps he could recommend the man a decent masseuse here at headquarters for after those meetings?

“I do hope all of you have had a chance to look at your mission files,” the old man said and he eased himself into the chair at the head of the small table. Sulu and Kirk nodded and turned towards the files that lay closed on the table while Leonard continued to scan through his. He already got the gist of it but there were some details to clarify. It was the entire reason why they actually had to sit down and talk about this for a while presumably. “And as such you all know this is going to be a basic recon mission in Romania. We’re looking for evidence of werewolves this time.”

“Werewolves?” Hikaru asked, as if startled by the word, “Those things exist? I thought they were just stories the vampires told us to keep us from going outside at night.” The physician within the vampire present noted the way the boy visibly tensed and noticeably hesitated on the word. Not too unexpected but still possibly a give away while in enemy country.

Pike seemed amused by the kid’s disbelief. He smiled as he leaned his head against one hand. “You didn’t think vampires were the only existing ‘myth’ did you?”

Before there was any hope of retort the smile and amusement disappeared. “Back to business then gentlemen. Since this is recon, you all will have to go undercover and that means we need to set up a cover story for you. The admirals have come up with the official story but knowing a certain recently promoted commander,” the pointed look made Jim do a ‘who, me?’ gesture, “the official story will have a slight deviation in it. Better to get this kink figured out now while you all are at base than out in field later.”

Leaning forward in his seat, Pike opened up his own file and flipped through the information the recon group had, going for the official information none of them had. Bones took this opportunity to lean back in his seat, close his eyes and just listen. He would envision was his commanding officer was describing while he said it, testing each angle to make sure it made sense, at the very least to him. These humans just didn’t have the experience he did when it came to acting.

“The story that we’re officially going by is that Father McCoy is a traveling priest who is making his way west to his new parish. His friend, James Kirk, is accompanying him on the journey to make sure he gets there okay and Hikaru and Pavel are priests in training that are under Father McCoy’s tutelage.”

Pavel’s snort from next to the doctor made the vampire want to wrinkle his nose in annoyance. “And vhat makes you zink zat ze Doctor vould make good priest? He ees von of zem. Ewen eef he can touch holy objects, vhat vould he know about vhat to do vit zem?”

Even with his eyes closed Bones knew that Jim was opening his mouth to make a smartass retort so he jumped ahead and beat the prick to it. “I was a priest when I was turned into a vampire, Ensign,” he all but snapped, trying to keep the majority of his attention focused on the image of the three of them in long black cassocks with silver crosses -well, the other two with silver crosses, his would remain iron- and Jim walking with them in plain clothes with relative ease, “I’ve been a priest far longer than I’ve been a doctor. I know what I’m talking about.”

Whatever the response from the kid was, he never saw it nor heard it as Pike continued as if he hadn’t just been interrupted. “The four of you will be staying at the Poor Man’s Inn, a rather shoddy place that works well for our wanna be conveyed image of poor traveling men, and will be staying there three days. Your excuse is to take in the sights while you’re there before you continue on your way.”

Bones frowned at this. “That’s a pretty see through cover there, Captain. That’s the best the admirals could come up with?”

“Afraid so. They’re military commanders, not novelists.”

The group sat silently for a second or two before Jim came up with something. “How about this then; since Bones can’t step outside while the sun is up, we could just say he got a chill or something from the walk and spend the three days there trying to ‘nurse’ him. That way no one questions why he won’t visit with anyone during the day and he can just slip in and out at night to do his own thing while the rest of us get some down time.”

Leonard opened his eyes and glared at his friend who finally had a serious expression on his face. “And what’ll we do when insist on having a doctor come up to check on me? I don’t exactly got a pulse or body warmth. I can fake a lot of things but those I have no control over.”

Kirk pondered for a long minute but surprisingly it was the youngest man at the table to come up with the suggestion. “What eef ve said zat you are seeck from exposure to cold?” That drew everyone’s attention to him and while he looked mildly uncomfortable to the vampire, he continued as if he was just thinking out loud. “Zat vay eet ees nozing serious, ve could treat eet ourselves, and giwe good reason vhy hees skeen ees too cold.”

McCoy thought about it for a long while. It was easy to pretend he was cold. He was a dead thing. While he had trouble judging what was too cold and what was too warm acting always cold could most certainly help. Besides he knew full well his extremities were as susceptible to frostbite and other such conditions as normal humans. He just couldn’t lose them nearly as easily. Besides, he would certainly get them warm enough quickly enough once he got to the village. “Certainly seems like a sound plan.” He could hear the high fives going around but turned his attention back to the notes. “So while we’ve got this ruse going, we got a clue what we’re lookin’ for in middle of nowhere?”

“The three nights you four will stay there will be the three nights of the full moon. General reports from the area state that not only is there a werewolf amongst the people there but that there is an Ancient that lives out in the woodlands not too far from said village that the werewolf obeys the commands of.” Pike closed his folder and rested his arms on the table turning his stern grey gaze. “Without bringing undue attention to yourselves, you need to look around and take note of anyone or anything suspicious then report it all back to us.” He turned a pointed look on Kirk. “No matter what happens, you aren’t going to give yourselves away as Federation officers. Is that clear?”

“Even if one of us is attacked or the townsfolk are in trouble?” Kirk all but snapped in reply. McCoy knew that the man’s protectiveness over his own people, even a small group, was similar to that of a parent protecting his children. The responsibility of command, and therefore the safety of the members on his team, was a burden he took very seriously.

“Even then, Kirk. In fact, if one of your people get jumped or bitten, bring ‘em back to headquarters ASAP. We have no idea what kind of mutations of diseases those things carry other than the obvious and while McCoy here is immune to that much the rest of you most certainly are not.” There was a pause while the older man closed his folder and folded his hands so they pretty much rested in his lap. “Are there any further questions about this matter?”

After a few minutes of silence the older human man sighed and waved his hand at them. “Alright then, go. You’re all dismissed. Your ride to Romania leaves at sixteen hundred hours.”

There was a shuffling in the room as the four of them made to stand and gather their things, but none of them said anything until they were in the corridor outside. Bones didn’t talk with anyone as he headed to his quarters, rather he just listened as Chekov said some things in a low, harsh tone in fluent Russian, way too fast for the doctor to understand, to the pilot who sounded just as angry as he snapped back in the same tongue while Jim’s English poked through the flurry of odd sounding words in an effort to soothe the clearly irritated teen and his now irritated older lover. The doctor was glad his rooms were coming up first. He really didn’t want to get in the middle of this argument when he had things to pack and small rituals to perform. It’d be stupid of him to not make some more holy water and bless the silver they were going to use on this mission now before they were on the road.

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The flight from Russia to Romania was an uneventful one just as switch from a plane to a small truck that would take them three miles outside the village they were supposed to get to and let them walk the rest of the red was downright dull. It had only been once they were in the truck that any of them bothered to change their clothes and even then that had been an event in and of itself, since there was only enough room for one of them to change at a time. In order to protect the modesty of his friends, McCoy had lain down and closed his eyes, pretending to sleep while he was indeed listening. Jim was making some wisecracks about the boys’ bodies as they changed their shirts but it was easy to tell from the way one comment sounded somewhat strained that the thinness of Chekov hadn’t entirely faded and that the scars on both the former slaves’ backs disturbed him somewhat still. He couldn’t blame the man. The kid may have grown up without a dad and relatively neglected by his mom but he had problems, even now, with anything of the sort happening to others and this qualified as such… in it’s own twisted way.

When he was sure the coast was clear, the vampire opened his eyes and looked around, just to make sure, before sitting up, apparently too suddenly, thereby startling a distracted Sulu. Kirk snickered but Chekov glared. It hardly mattered all that much. “Now that you girls are dressed, y’all mind if I change?” He reached underneath his seat to find the bag he had his priest’s robes in with the collar and the crucifix. When he heard no protests and looked up just long enough to see everyone shake their heads, he went ahead and took off his science blue doctor’s tunic and the black shirt underneath it. He didn’t shiver in the cold but he did feel the weighty stare of at least two sets of eyes on him.

He kept his eyes down as he ground as he slipped the heavy robe over his shoulders and buttoned it down to his waist, knowing he’d get the rest once they’ve hopped out of the truck itself. He then added the white, stiff Roman collar, carefully tucked underneath the black of the robe and the crucifix, which he kissed out of habit, although it did make his lips sting. It’s weight felt comfortable as he stood in the small compartment, letting the black robe flow down to his ankles before sitting down again and finishing buttoning it up. Once that was done he hiked it up a bit to un-tuck his pant legs from the Starfleet boots, deciding they would do as regular winter boots and would help in the story that he literally had cold feet. In a separate bag he had his Bible, the holy water, a silver blade or two and a hanging crucifix he always carried with him when he was playing the priest. By the time he was done and looked up at the others, the kids were staring at him in awe. “What?”

That made both boys turn their eyes away though the vampire could smell the faint tingling of human lust in the air. He wanted to roll his eyes but didn’t. One would think that after all those kids had been through, that they would even contemplate something like that. However, if he really thought about it, that would explain the lust. Normal human beings were raised to find dead bodies disgusting or, at the very least, completely unappealing. These two, especially mister Chekov, however, had spent so long being trained to think the cold, moving corpses of the vampires were sexually appealing that it, undoubtedly, had become a conditioned fetish. For the ensign, it was undoubtedly worse since he had been taught since the very beginning of sexual interest that was what he wanted. The priest/doctor knew he would have to keep an eye out for these two during the daylight hours if not for their safety, at the very least for his.

The truck eventually pulled to a stop along the road and group of four hopped out, the three human’s breath immediately condensing in front of their faces, making all of them bundle a little bit more into their jackets, hats and scarves. While Bones couldn’t tell just how cold it was relatively, the wind felt biting against his too pale skin and so he donned the additional “human” clothing that would hide just how impervious he really was to these freezing temperatures. As long as he kept his face covered when he approached the village, there would be no way for these simple, backwater folk to tell he was not human.

The driver of the truck motioned for him through the snow and McCoy waded through the thick, white blanket of frozen flakes, not really caring what the younger men were doing at the back of the car. They had only a few hours to get to the town before sunlight came and cooked his delicate skin. If he stayed in it long enough, that good ole phrase he always recited at funerals would definitely become his reality in a far less pleasant way. “Yes Sergeant?” he said gruffly when he was close enough to most certainly be heard by human ears. He was handed a PDA that was already open and simply requiring his code. He typed it in and watched as a message appeared on the screen in Pike’s untidy scrawl.

It was a simple order really. He was given the right to incapacitate Kirk by any means necessary should the brash young commander get too big for his breeches out here and try to pull heroics. As if he didn’t know that already. He frowned as he signed the message with the stylus and sent it back before logging out and handing it to the sergeant who nodded. “Y’all finally done back there, girls?” He called back.

“Fuck you and your pretty ass Bones,” Kirk yelled back, his voice distinguishable only because McCoy had the superior hearing of his kind, “but yeah, we’re ready.” The doctor in priest’s clothing rolled his eyes and stepped away from the truck, tapping it’s side as a sign that the driver could get out of here. As it started moving he walked back to the group of four, more than a little annoyed with how Pavel was still shivering in his clothes and that Jim and Sulu were far too occupied with figuring out who would carry what to bother with the clearly freezing ensign.

Coming up beside the young man, the doctor slipped a hypo out of his robe’s pocket and without warning injected him. There was a sharp cry and the instrument was knocked him his hand before a foot came flying towards his face from a kick, which he caught after a second. “Whoa there!” he said sharply, “What’s with you today kid? That was just a little human stimulant. Help you keep warm while we walk. You looked cold.” He let go of the foot and shoved it aside, watching the much smaller man stumble before reaching town to retrieve the shot.

“I do not need help from an abominashun like you,” came the accented response that was all but a hiss, “not vhen eet comes to some zing as human as keeping varm.”

Bones laughed softly as he put the hypo away in his pocket once more, his hazel eyes watching Kirk and Sulu finally don their bags. “You forget kid I was human one day way back when too.” He looked over, taking in how the young Russian looked in those clothes and he had to admit to himself it only made the kid look like some kind of puppy. “I remember a thing or two about keepin’ others warm.” Ignoring the nagging feeling in the back of his mind that the choice of words had been meant to be more suggestive than he consciously wanted them to be, the vampire lifted the heaviest back and slung it easily over his shoulder. It looked like, on this mission, he was certainly going to have to be more human than human.

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PART SIX: DRAGULA

PART EIGHT: DAS OMEN IM KREIS DES BÖSEN (THE OMEN IN THE CIRCLE OF EVIL)