Defending the Shadows, 2/5. NC-17.
Title: Defending The Shadows
Author: Eustacia Vye
Author's e-mail: eustacia_vye28@hotmail.com
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Natasha/Bucky
Disclaimer: Not mine! Some comic backstory is incorporated into characterizations, but this is still primarily based off of the movieverse.
Spoilers/Warnings: AU to the MCU. Inspired by this gifset on Tumblr. Warning for mentions of suicide, violence and mayhem in line with various vampire myths where they don't sparkle.
Summary: In the years since a virus turned some of the infected dead into vampires, hunters rose and formed groups to protect the living. It kept the vampire numbers lower than they would have been otherwise, but they were still far too dangerous. Natasha Romanoff, newly transferred to New York City, knew all this. But some of her beliefs were about to change.
Prior chapter:
One - The City That Never Sleeps
Two - Naming A Shadow
Natasha came to in a dingy pile of blankets on top of an old mattress. The air was dank and musty, dim light provided by subway track lighting and a lantern. She was lying in an alcove along the tracks, space that likely had once been set aside for transit workers repairing the tracks or electrical lines. While there was a lump on the side of her head from where it had connected with the wall, there were no other injuries. No bites or scratches, nothing broken. She even had all of her weapons, even the tactical knife she thought she had dropped on the tracks.
She wobbled a bit when she got to her feet, but at least remained standing. No radio or phone signals this far into the tunnel, so she couldn't get a message out.
Just as well. She didn't know where she was anyway.
Gradually, Natasha stretched and rolled all major muscle groups, taking stock of herself again. Hungry, but no rumble of subway cars yet. The first cars started at five thirty this time of year, so she guessed she was only out a few hours at most.
When she got to the edge of the alcove, the shadow was there. She tensed and had a knife ready, but all it did was stand and smile, flashing white teeth. Including fangs.
The shadow was a tall male, with pale white skin, shaggy long dark hair, dark eyes, and dark baggy clothing that hid the planes of his body from view. She vaguely remembered feeling hard muscle beneath the clothes, the strength to pull her off the platform. His eyes flicked to the knife in her hand, but he remained very still.
"Hello, Natasha," he said after a long, tense moment. "I'm Bucky."
"Who the hell is Bucky?" she asked, tone harsher than she intended.
His jaw tensed. "I think Steve would've mentioned me. James Buchanan Barnes, one of the Howling Commandoes."
"He apparently left out vampire in the description."
"Steve doesn't know," Bucky said quietly. "It would kill him if he did."
Natasha saw the way his left arm hung at his side, almost as if it didn't work properly. "Did I do that?" she asked.
Bucky shrugged. "You didn't help it, no."
"Look, Bucky-"
"I'll need a new one, I think."
That threw her. "Wait, what?"
"The scuffle that killed me a few years back..."
It suddenly clicked for Natasha. "All they found was your arm."
Bucky nodded, and undid the voluminous layers of coat, sweater and shirt. He had a well-defined musculature, and the left arm was of a skin tone that was several shades darker than his. Around the shoulder where the donor arm was fused to his torso, injected veins and thick scar tissue was present. It was an angry red, the edges of the donor arm looking almost necrotic.
"It's dying," she observed.
"I got it a year ago," he said, nodding. "They guy was dead already."
"Is that supposed to make me feel better?"
Bucky sighed. "I thought about dying, you know. Killing myself, walking into the sun. some do it on their own, when they're tired of this, apparently. But I couldn't do it. So here I am."
"Here you are," she echoed. The knife in her hand was a comforting weight as she warily contemplated him.
"I've been patrolling. Helping."
"Helping."
"Yeah." He flashed her a beautiful grin, one that made her very aware of his bare chest and the tight fit of his jeans. "Funny how there didn't used to be an echo in here."
"You're a real funny guy, eh?"
"I try to be. Not much else to do if I'm supposed to be around forever, right?" he asked. "Brooklyn's pretty much covered now that I took out a few of the bigger nests."
"You? You cleaned out Brooklyn?"
"Destroying the group that turned me was easy. They didn't expect it. And if I wasn't going to kill myself... Well, what else do I know how to do? Not much. So it was easy to move around the stations and alleys, saying I was new, getting into their hideouts, then killing them all. Kept me going for a while. Now there's only the occasional straggler into Brooklyn, and the humans can handle that pretty easily."
"So that's your plan in the city?"
"Got nothing else to do."
"And the deaths up here we're looking into?" she asked archly.
"New nest moved in from Jersey. I've been picking off the new ones, but they've been turning some of the security guys that die in their feeding frenzies."
"How many in the nest?"
"I don't know."
"I don't believe you."
"No, I really don't know. I'm pretty sure it's more than ten, but I really don't know."
More than ten. Good God, a nest that size could kill them all.
Bucky moved forward, almost faster than she could see. She nearly sank the silvered blade deep into his abdomen, but he twisted away at the last moment. His vampire arm circled her, the human one catching her wrist. "Promise me you won't tell Steve."
He was still handsome, with an intense gaze and utter sincerity as he spoke of Steve. Bucky had to have been devastating in life if he was this ridiculously pretty in death.
Natasha realized two things-one, she found a dead body hot, and two, that he was waiting for an answer from her, and she had no idea what to say.
"They're going to want to know why I was taken. And why I wasn't harmed," she temporized.
He smiled, blindingly bright and beautiful in the gloom. "Well, I didn't want you to see me, but somehow you did-"
"Not clearly!" Natasha blurted.
"You can't tell Steve that I just wanted you to promise me you won't tell on me. Which sounds utterly ridiculous when I say it out loud," he chuckled.
"So what excuse would you have me give?" she asked archly.
"If you agree, I'll point you toward a smaller group of baby vamps you can kill. They're affiliated with the larger group, sort of, so it would be plausible for you to know about them."
"More than ten," Natasha said quietly.
"Yeah. Sorry I can't give you actual stats. But I take out a few of them when I can. But every time I do, they recruit more. Cut off one head, two grow back, it feels like."
"And they're hiding in plain sight."
"Pretty much. I think the main resting place is in Morningside Heights, near Columbia University."
"The kids," Natasha breathed.
Bucky nodded solemnly. "Steady food and recruit supply."
"For what? Why recruit so many?"
"They're not content with the dregs of society or the occasional house that forgets to lock up. They want it all. I hear the idiots talk before I kill them. They think vampires are better than humans, and humans should be no more than servants or cattle."
"Get enough Goth kids..."
"Exactly. And to hide in plain sight, obviously a few buy into it."
"Human servants, probably fooled by the promises of forever."
Nodding, Bucky let go of her and stepped back. "You're a clever one, Natasha. Some of Steve's other teammates aren't, but those don't last too long."
"You keep track of Steve," Natasha observed.
"We grew up together. I got him out of a bunch of scrapes, and it's my fault he's in this mess."
"He's capable of doing that all on his own," Natasha informed him. She steeled herself against the sound of his laughter. He sounded so... ordinary. A sexy man living in the subway rather than a ravenous monster she had to put down.
"You are very in control of yourself," she remarked.
"I haven't lost hope that I have a purpose yet." He suddenly grabbed her and pulled her flush against his bare chest. The move startled her so badly that she dropped her knife. Her hands were against the skin of his chest, cool and smooth, not feeling too different from living skin at all. He dipped his head down to her neck, skimming his lips across the neck guard at her throat. Natasha couldn't move him at all, even if she wanted to.
And to her horror, she didn't want to.
"I know what I am, Natasha. I hear your heartbeat, I smell your blood. Your carotid's right here. I could take a sip, or I could drink it all down. I know I'm a monster. I know I haunt nightmares." Bucky stepped back abruptly, turning his face away from her. "I know. But if I destroy the bigger monsters, if I save innocent lives, then maybe I can make up for it. Maybe I can be better than what those monsters made me into."
"Redemption," Natasha murmured. "That's what you're talking about," she said, feeling a little weak in the knees.
"Yes, I guess."
"Then get me to vampires I can kill and let me do my job."
Bucky nodded, then pulled on a sweater. Leaving the other layers behind, he led her through the tunnels. Natasha kept track of which way they turned, the better to figure out where they were when she got a chance to look on Steve's subway map. She kept an eye on Bucky, admiring the way he moved, the fluid grace in his steps. They were deliberate and heavy, the purposeful steps of a killer. Hers were quiet, stealthy, a dancer turned assassin.
He nodded at her when he led her to an open area close to a subway platform. There were three vampires there, thin and gaunt, clothes in tatters. They whispered among themselves, something about promises and that Schmidt was a bastard for not keeping them. Natasha tried to creep closer to listen, but they suddenly stopped and sniffed. Crap, they could smell her.
One of them, the most able of the three, rose to his feet. Natasha slid two of her throwing knives out and threw them at the male and female vampires sprawled across the ground, too weak to get up and attempt to feed from her. They choked as the silvered blades entered their throats, and all but ensured they wouldn't join the fight against Natasha. Though Bucky claimed to be an ally, she couldn't rely on that. In fact, he hung so far back, he was nearly invisible to her eyes.
The stronger male was upset by Natasha's preemptive attack. "Kill you, bleed you," he rasped. "Heal them."
Natasha ran forward, tactical knife in hand. That startled him, and she was on him before he could get out of the way. She launched herself forward, tucking into a half somersault. That brought her legs up so that she could clamp his head between her thighs as she swung around. It felled him to the floor, and her knife was buried in his heart in the next instant. A twist of her wrist ensured that the silver really penetrated the heart, and she could see blackening veins shoot up his throat. The silver coming into contact with vampire blood corroded it, rendered it inert, and the decay that the virus arrested began to set in. Really old ones turned to dust, apparently, but newer ones just looked ashy and rotted, black veins in the throat and temples easy markers of silver death. Just to be sure, Natasha yanked out the knife and severed his head from his neck and kicked the head away as she stood up.
The two weaker vampires had blood pooling around them, spilling down their torsos. It wasn't enough to kill them just yet, so Natasha decapitated them and tossed the heads aside. She pulled a face at the clotting vampire blood on her suit, but that couldn't be helped.
"Doesn't SHIELD usually want the heads as proof?" Bucky asked, coming up behind her.
Natasha whirled around, managing to mask her startled expression from him. She hadn't heard him move at all. If he truly wanted to kill her...
"Hey. If you need the heads, I'm sure a shirt or something could hold 'em."
"SHIELD doesn't collect heads as proof. Any collected heads in the past was for research, but I contaminated these with silver. They're no good to study."
"Study," Bucky scoffed.
Natasha snorted. "How else are you going to learn about them?"
"Them. You mean vampires. As in, better ways to kill them."
She looked at him, taking in his flat voice and blank expression. "Well, yes," she replied blandly, refusing to apologize.
At least he didn't mean for her to be ashamed of her profession. "I could tell you what I've learned since I was turned."
"Maybe," she said in a low tone. "And the turning process itself is still fairly mysterious. Not everyone bitten turns."
Bucky nodded. "They call it a virus. I don't know, maybe it is." He extended a hand to her. "Come on. You should start heading topside. Daylight's coming, so you'll be safe enough."
"But the questions you could answer..." she began, frowning.
"You know where I sleep. Sort of." There was his charming smile again, making her think very inappropriate thoughts. "We'll meet again soon, Natasha."
"You seem awfully certain of that."
"I can always find a phone to call you from, if you prefer, but I know your scent. I can find you."
She stilled. "You can track me?"
Bucky moved slowly enough that she could track his movements. "Your scent drives me crazy, Natasha. I'll put in the effort to find you."
An odd thought occurred to her. "Are you flirting with me?"
"Depends. Is it working?" he asked, grinning.
"You're an idiot," she declared loftily. That didn't diminish his grin in the slightest. "But we'll need to keep patrolling the Upper West Side and Morningside Heights now."
"Good. Take care of Steve in the daytime, will ya? He can be so stupid sometimes, and I can't be there anymore."
"I'll see what I can do... I'm not the only one who can do that."
"But you I can talk to."
"Because you want to do your bad flirting?" she asked archly.
"Because you didn't know me before. You don't compare me to what you used to know."
"I've heard stories about you. You were an idiot then, too."
Bucky laughed out loud, delighted. "Maybe. C'mon, let's get you aboveground and safe."
Natasha followed him and easily made her way back to the tower. The others were immensely relieved she was alive, and that the tower physician confirmed she hadn't been bitten or scratched, and the blood on her suit was all vampire.
If anything, the tower residents and ancillary staff were in awe of her and her growing reputation. She tried not to feel guilty for not telling them the truth.
***
Natasha went through a fairly punishing training session with Steve and Clint. The archer was in a fairly protected spot, picking off targets and making snarky comments. Steve had his pistols and his shield, and stood beside Natasha as Tony's robotic models attacked them. At the end of it, Natasha gave Steve a sour look. "I liked killing those weaklings last night better than this."
Steve laughed. "Yeah, but they won't always be weaklings."
That reminded her. "Wait. They were talking about a big bad named Schmidt, and a bigger nest. More than ten vampires, at least."
He blanched, and turned to look over at Clint, who was approaching from his perch. "Jesus. A nest that size..."
"A master? I mean, there's stories of that..." Clint began.
"I'm more concerned about numbers. That many in the Upper West Side..." Steve began.
"We can try to pick them off," Natasha began. "Patrol the area more frequently, maybe."
It had nothing to do with Bucky, she told herself. It was a matter of shutting down a large nest.
"Silver might not be enough," Clint said, looking worried.
Steve nodded. "Tony and Bruce might have ideas."
"If we grab one willing to talk?" Natasha asked.
"Could we even trust it?" Steve replied, shaking his head.
"They might lie just to screw up our efforts," Clint added.
She'd thought of that, of course, but didn't think Bucky would lie. He had been a hunter for years before he was turned, after all, and killed plenty of vampires. If she could trust his word, that was. She hadn't actually seen him do it.
"There's too much we don't know," she sighed.
"Definitely true. If we know more, we could do a better job putting them all down," Steve replied. "As it is, against such a large nest, we'll need to recruit. I'm not going to lose anyone if I can help it," he said, jaw set and voice stern.
"See if Sam can come up sooner," Clint suggested.
"We'll need other seasoned people that know the city. We can't afford weeks to acclimate like we did with me," Natasha suggested in grave tones.
"Makes sense. Maybe Jan would be willing to come back in," Steve murmured. "And the twins. Tony will fight, maybe Rhodey."
"Tony made armor for Pepper, if she wants to," Clint reported.
"Rhodey's girlfriend Carol might help out," Steve added with a nod. "So that might be a good start in attacking uptown."
"All right," Natasha said, nodding. "While you contact them, I can patrol at night, make sure it's what those three said it was. Can't trust dying monsters, after all."
"Still, any edge is a good one," Steve said. "Recon only. But if one gets too close, dust it." He turned to Clint. "You, too."
"Captain, it would be my genuine pleasure."
Natasha nodded crisply at them both. "Yeah. It'll be fun."
Steve shot her a dubious look, but nodded. They needed intel, and this risk was the best way to get it.
***
It was easy enough to get Clint to separate to explore more territory. "I trust you," he said, making her feel vaguely guilty. "I don't have to worry about you taking care of yourself."
"Does that mean I should worry about you?" she snarked.
Clint laughed. "Maybe. I'll take on rooftops and look that way. You'd be surprised what you can see while you're up there."
"I'll stick with ground level," Natasha told him.
"See? Perfect matchup. We make a great team."
"Yes, we do," Natasha agreed. Oh, that was definitely guilt now. "Check in every fifteen," she said, patting the pocket she kept her phone in. They had them on vibrate, and agreed to use texts unless something really odd was happening.
They took separate avenues and walked up and down the streets, looking for signs of vampires. It was at 96th and West End Avenue that Bucky caught up with her, pressing her into the wall of an apartment building. He breathed in deeply, lips curling into a smile, eyes wide and luminous in the dark. "You smell delicious."
"That is not as hot as you hope it is," Natasha replied.
He signed dramatically. "You're breaking my heart."
"Better that than driving a stake through it."
"You are so cold, Natasha."
"As cold as a Russian winter."
"Yet still I soldier on to win your affections."
"Because you're an idiot."
"Because I'm smitten," Bucky returned, grinning like a loon.
Okay, the banter was fun. She hadn't had good by-play like this since Nicholai, his smooth nineteen year old self seeming so suave to her innocent sixteen year old self. Alexei had been so stoic, and had used his strength and stamina to woo her, not his wit.
"Anything useful for me, Barnes?" she asked, almost sorry to cut out the flirting. But she was on a mission here, and she had to stay on point.
He sighed dramatically, then yanked her wrists over her head, leaning in. "Our senses are easily overwhelmed. Sweat, perfume, smoke, whatever. Cover your scent, they can't track you."
"They'll track the scent used to cover me up," she said, annoyed. She refused to feel alarmed that he had her pinned in place and at his mercy.
"Work in a team, cover all of you, scatter. They won't know who to follow," he replied easily.
"What else?" she asked, not wanting to admit it was a useful piece of advice.
"Overwhelm the senses," he repeated. "Even bright lights in the eyes can give you a few seconds' head start."
"Not exactly helpful, Barnes."
"You know silver is poison," he said, grin sliding off his face. He was all business now. "There are other ways to kill. Beheading, fire, stakes... Those would kill humans, too. UV burns, I don't know why."
"I asked about that. Bruce said it interrupts the viral replication," Natasha replied. "So if your body can't heal the damage, you die."
"Good to know," he said quietly. "Bleeding out will work, too. Starving only works if they've been without food for at least two weeks, like the three from last night."
"Who'd you kill, then?"
A flash of pain crossed his features. "Not... human. The more we use our powers, the more we need the blood to repair the damage it does. But drinking from vampires? Well..."
"You can do that?"
"Yeah. Not sure why, but it makes me feel stronger, less hungry for blood. Kinda like protein bars instead of candy."
"So you tank up on vampires?"
Bucky nodded. "It's something they punish with death."
"They have rules?"
"Sure. Don't go making new vampires without permission, don't drink from dead bodies, don't kill vampires, that kind of thing. I think the dead body rule is because it's gross."
Natasha wrinkled her nose. "Sounds like it."
"Well, blood clots rot pretty quickly," he said. He shrugged and let go of her wrists. "But it's possible to drink from willing humans without killing them."
"Jesus. Where would you even find..." Her voice trailed off at his expression. "What?"
"Footsteps two blocks down. Best if I go for now."
"Text me next time."
He paused, considering that. "Let me get a phone."
"If I get you a burner?"
Bucky grinned at her. "You feel the connection, then."
"I feel annoyance at not being able to do my job."
"You do your job," he disagreed. "Very well. You impress me."
"Those yesterday didn't put up much of a fight."
"I know. But the ones last week did."
Natasha froze. "Have you been stalking me?!"
"I call it reconnaissance. I wanted to know the kind of woman I was dealing with."
"And?" she prompted.
"You're a good friend to Steve." He shot her a wistful smile, then inclined his head. "A good ally, if you let anyone see it."
Before she could ask what he meant by that, he disappeared from view, melting into the shadows of the alley. Not long after, Clint came down the alley, concern etched onto his features. "You didn't check in," he told her accusingly. "The last check in, when you texted you were heading this way..." He finally noticed her odd expression. "What?"
"We may have an ally," she said quietly.
"What wannabe superhero are we talking about?" Clint scoffed, laughing.
"No, not human."
The laughter dried up "Natasha..."
"He's killing them, just like we are. Hunting the stragglers, thinning the main nest."
"It's a trick," Clint warned.
"I don't think so. He's pretty upset about being a vampire."
"It was a scam to let you let him go," Clint said.
"No, I think it's for real. I haven't seen anything else out tonight, have you?"
"You're changing the subject," he accused.
"No, I think we have things to discuss as a group."
"I don't like this."
"Trust me, neither do I. But this might be useful in the long run, and I have to think of that."
Sighing, Clint nodded. They took a circuitous route to the tower, but Natasha knew Bucky wouldn't be very far behind if he wanted to follow her.
She wasn't sure what to think about that.
***
As expected, nobody liked the idea of getting information from a vampire about hunting other vampires. Even Bruce was hesitant, though he admitted it was a golden opportunity if it was real. "Fresh tissue samples or blood to work with? That would be fantastic."
"To make a vampire cure?" Natasha asked.
Bruce paused. "It's a virus, like a prion, almost, in that it replicates itself and completely overwrites the host DNA in its entirety. To overwrite that..."
"If it could spread as fast as the vampire virus did..." Tony mused. Pepper sighed and handed him a tablet to sign a contract. "I wouldn't mind being out of a job."
"I think we'd all love that," Steve commented. He fixed Natasha with a firm expression, disapproval clearly evident. "But it all comes down to whether or not we can trust one monster to help us get rid of the other ones."
"On that point, I think he was being honest with me."
"Did you even get a name?" Clint asked.
"No," Natasha said, hoping they bought it. "I was busy making sure it wasn't a scam to eat me."
They accepted it, nodding at intervals. "All right, then," Steve said after a moment. "We'll need to track him. Figure out a way to contact him."
"Give him a code name like the rest of us?" Tony snarked.
"Why not?" Natasha said. "Give him a separate name, and share what he tells us with Jane, Fury and the rest of SHIELD." The entire room was silent, watching her. "He confirmed the large nest on the Upper West Side. It's why he came to me, so I could get a team to wipe them out. I don't think he wants to take over the area."
"Jesus," Clint sighed. "I never thought of that."
"So what do we call him?" Tony asked.
"That's the least of our concerns," Steve sighed.
Natasha thought a moment. "The Winter Soldier." All eyes swiveled toward her. "He moved like he's military, and he had a winter coat on."
"It's as good a name as any," Steve said after a moment.
"Sounds dramatic," Tony remarked idly, leaning over to pour himself more scotch. He paused and retreated at Pepper's stern expression and sharp shake of her head.
"I suppose vampires are something like drama queens," Clint remarked, shrugging.
"Why else would one help us?" Natasha asked. "No one would believe one like this exists, you know. So he's a ghost. He doesn't have a legal identity anymore, and can't stay with the humans. He's killing vampires, so he can't stay with them. He doesn't have anywhere else to belong, has no other purpose."
The words obviously moved Steve, who nodded at her. "We have other lines, so we can set one up for him. But I don't want him able to track the rest of us online or by the phones. There should be one contact person for him."
Again, all eyes turned to Natasha, and she sighed. "I guess I'm it."
"New kid on the team," Clint teased.
"He already picked you," Tony pointed out.
"But be careful," Steve cautioned.
Bruce put his hand up. "Program me in, too. I want information. Kills, physiology, tissue and blood samples if I can get it. I can design something better to kill them, maybe. Silver's getting too expensive." He looked to Natasha. "But maybe she's on to something. Maybe I can find a way to reverse this. If I understand how the original virus really works, then maybe I can undo it. We don't have to kill them, we just have to reinfect them."
Natasha looked around the room. "Then I guess we're really doing this."
Everyone looked solemn at the prospect, but it couldn't be helped. Sometimes concessions had to be made in order to win the war.
It was just as well that no one there asked Natasha to like this plan, because she really didn't. Something at some point was bound to go wrong. She just hoped it wouldn't all blow up in her face and kill her.
***
***
To Chapter Three - Making Contact
Author: Eustacia Vye
Author's e-mail: eustacia_vye28@hotmail.com
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Natasha/Bucky
Disclaimer: Not mine! Some comic backstory is incorporated into characterizations, but this is still primarily based off of the movieverse.
Spoilers/Warnings: AU to the MCU. Inspired by this gifset on Tumblr. Warning for mentions of suicide, violence and mayhem in line with various vampire myths where they don't sparkle.
Summary: In the years since a virus turned some of the infected dead into vampires, hunters rose and formed groups to protect the living. It kept the vampire numbers lower than they would have been otherwise, but they were still far too dangerous. Natasha Romanoff, newly transferred to New York City, knew all this. But some of her beliefs were about to change.
Prior chapter:
One - The City That Never Sleeps
Two - Naming A Shadow
Natasha came to in a dingy pile of blankets on top of an old mattress. The air was dank and musty, dim light provided by subway track lighting and a lantern. She was lying in an alcove along the tracks, space that likely had once been set aside for transit workers repairing the tracks or electrical lines. While there was a lump on the side of her head from where it had connected with the wall, there were no other injuries. No bites or scratches, nothing broken. She even had all of her weapons, even the tactical knife she thought she had dropped on the tracks.
She wobbled a bit when she got to her feet, but at least remained standing. No radio or phone signals this far into the tunnel, so she couldn't get a message out.
Just as well. She didn't know where she was anyway.
Gradually, Natasha stretched and rolled all major muscle groups, taking stock of herself again. Hungry, but no rumble of subway cars yet. The first cars started at five thirty this time of year, so she guessed she was only out a few hours at most.
When she got to the edge of the alcove, the shadow was there. She tensed and had a knife ready, but all it did was stand and smile, flashing white teeth. Including fangs.
The shadow was a tall male, with pale white skin, shaggy long dark hair, dark eyes, and dark baggy clothing that hid the planes of his body from view. She vaguely remembered feeling hard muscle beneath the clothes, the strength to pull her off the platform. His eyes flicked to the knife in her hand, but he remained very still.
"Hello, Natasha," he said after a long, tense moment. "I'm Bucky."
"Who the hell is Bucky?" she asked, tone harsher than she intended.
His jaw tensed. "I think Steve would've mentioned me. James Buchanan Barnes, one of the Howling Commandoes."
"He apparently left out vampire in the description."
"Steve doesn't know," Bucky said quietly. "It would kill him if he did."
Natasha saw the way his left arm hung at his side, almost as if it didn't work properly. "Did I do that?" she asked.
Bucky shrugged. "You didn't help it, no."
"Look, Bucky-"
"I'll need a new one, I think."
That threw her. "Wait, what?"
"The scuffle that killed me a few years back..."
It suddenly clicked for Natasha. "All they found was your arm."
Bucky nodded, and undid the voluminous layers of coat, sweater and shirt. He had a well-defined musculature, and the left arm was of a skin tone that was several shades darker than his. Around the shoulder where the donor arm was fused to his torso, injected veins and thick scar tissue was present. It was an angry red, the edges of the donor arm looking almost necrotic.
"It's dying," she observed.
"I got it a year ago," he said, nodding. "They guy was dead already."
"Is that supposed to make me feel better?"
Bucky sighed. "I thought about dying, you know. Killing myself, walking into the sun. some do it on their own, when they're tired of this, apparently. But I couldn't do it. So here I am."
"Here you are," she echoed. The knife in her hand was a comforting weight as she warily contemplated him.
"I've been patrolling. Helping."
"Helping."
"Yeah." He flashed her a beautiful grin, one that made her very aware of his bare chest and the tight fit of his jeans. "Funny how there didn't used to be an echo in here."
"You're a real funny guy, eh?"
"I try to be. Not much else to do if I'm supposed to be around forever, right?" he asked. "Brooklyn's pretty much covered now that I took out a few of the bigger nests."
"You? You cleaned out Brooklyn?"
"Destroying the group that turned me was easy. They didn't expect it. And if I wasn't going to kill myself... Well, what else do I know how to do? Not much. So it was easy to move around the stations and alleys, saying I was new, getting into their hideouts, then killing them all. Kept me going for a while. Now there's only the occasional straggler into Brooklyn, and the humans can handle that pretty easily."
"So that's your plan in the city?"
"Got nothing else to do."
"And the deaths up here we're looking into?" she asked archly.
"New nest moved in from Jersey. I've been picking off the new ones, but they've been turning some of the security guys that die in their feeding frenzies."
"How many in the nest?"
"I don't know."
"I don't believe you."
"No, I really don't know. I'm pretty sure it's more than ten, but I really don't know."
More than ten. Good God, a nest that size could kill them all.
Bucky moved forward, almost faster than she could see. She nearly sank the silvered blade deep into his abdomen, but he twisted away at the last moment. His vampire arm circled her, the human one catching her wrist. "Promise me you won't tell Steve."
He was still handsome, with an intense gaze and utter sincerity as he spoke of Steve. Bucky had to have been devastating in life if he was this ridiculously pretty in death.
Natasha realized two things-one, she found a dead body hot, and two, that he was waiting for an answer from her, and she had no idea what to say.
"They're going to want to know why I was taken. And why I wasn't harmed," she temporized.
He smiled, blindingly bright and beautiful in the gloom. "Well, I didn't want you to see me, but somehow you did-"
"Not clearly!" Natasha blurted.
"You can't tell Steve that I just wanted you to promise me you won't tell on me. Which sounds utterly ridiculous when I say it out loud," he chuckled.
"So what excuse would you have me give?" she asked archly.
"If you agree, I'll point you toward a smaller group of baby vamps you can kill. They're affiliated with the larger group, sort of, so it would be plausible for you to know about them."
"More than ten," Natasha said quietly.
"Yeah. Sorry I can't give you actual stats. But I take out a few of them when I can. But every time I do, they recruit more. Cut off one head, two grow back, it feels like."
"And they're hiding in plain sight."
"Pretty much. I think the main resting place is in Morningside Heights, near Columbia University."
"The kids," Natasha breathed.
Bucky nodded solemnly. "Steady food and recruit supply."
"For what? Why recruit so many?"
"They're not content with the dregs of society or the occasional house that forgets to lock up. They want it all. I hear the idiots talk before I kill them. They think vampires are better than humans, and humans should be no more than servants or cattle."
"Get enough Goth kids..."
"Exactly. And to hide in plain sight, obviously a few buy into it."
"Human servants, probably fooled by the promises of forever."
Nodding, Bucky let go of her and stepped back. "You're a clever one, Natasha. Some of Steve's other teammates aren't, but those don't last too long."
"You keep track of Steve," Natasha observed.
"We grew up together. I got him out of a bunch of scrapes, and it's my fault he's in this mess."
"He's capable of doing that all on his own," Natasha informed him. She steeled herself against the sound of his laughter. He sounded so... ordinary. A sexy man living in the subway rather than a ravenous monster she had to put down.
"You are very in control of yourself," she remarked.
"I haven't lost hope that I have a purpose yet." He suddenly grabbed her and pulled her flush against his bare chest. The move startled her so badly that she dropped her knife. Her hands were against the skin of his chest, cool and smooth, not feeling too different from living skin at all. He dipped his head down to her neck, skimming his lips across the neck guard at her throat. Natasha couldn't move him at all, even if she wanted to.
And to her horror, she didn't want to.
"I know what I am, Natasha. I hear your heartbeat, I smell your blood. Your carotid's right here. I could take a sip, or I could drink it all down. I know I'm a monster. I know I haunt nightmares." Bucky stepped back abruptly, turning his face away from her. "I know. But if I destroy the bigger monsters, if I save innocent lives, then maybe I can make up for it. Maybe I can be better than what those monsters made me into."
"Redemption," Natasha murmured. "That's what you're talking about," she said, feeling a little weak in the knees.
"Yes, I guess."
"Then get me to vampires I can kill and let me do my job."
Bucky nodded, then pulled on a sweater. Leaving the other layers behind, he led her through the tunnels. Natasha kept track of which way they turned, the better to figure out where they were when she got a chance to look on Steve's subway map. She kept an eye on Bucky, admiring the way he moved, the fluid grace in his steps. They were deliberate and heavy, the purposeful steps of a killer. Hers were quiet, stealthy, a dancer turned assassin.
He nodded at her when he led her to an open area close to a subway platform. There were three vampires there, thin and gaunt, clothes in tatters. They whispered among themselves, something about promises and that Schmidt was a bastard for not keeping them. Natasha tried to creep closer to listen, but they suddenly stopped and sniffed. Crap, they could smell her.
One of them, the most able of the three, rose to his feet. Natasha slid two of her throwing knives out and threw them at the male and female vampires sprawled across the ground, too weak to get up and attempt to feed from her. They choked as the silvered blades entered their throats, and all but ensured they wouldn't join the fight against Natasha. Though Bucky claimed to be an ally, she couldn't rely on that. In fact, he hung so far back, he was nearly invisible to her eyes.
The stronger male was upset by Natasha's preemptive attack. "Kill you, bleed you," he rasped. "Heal them."
Natasha ran forward, tactical knife in hand. That startled him, and she was on him before he could get out of the way. She launched herself forward, tucking into a half somersault. That brought her legs up so that she could clamp his head between her thighs as she swung around. It felled him to the floor, and her knife was buried in his heart in the next instant. A twist of her wrist ensured that the silver really penetrated the heart, and she could see blackening veins shoot up his throat. The silver coming into contact with vampire blood corroded it, rendered it inert, and the decay that the virus arrested began to set in. Really old ones turned to dust, apparently, but newer ones just looked ashy and rotted, black veins in the throat and temples easy markers of silver death. Just to be sure, Natasha yanked out the knife and severed his head from his neck and kicked the head away as she stood up.
The two weaker vampires had blood pooling around them, spilling down their torsos. It wasn't enough to kill them just yet, so Natasha decapitated them and tossed the heads aside. She pulled a face at the clotting vampire blood on her suit, but that couldn't be helped.
"Doesn't SHIELD usually want the heads as proof?" Bucky asked, coming up behind her.
Natasha whirled around, managing to mask her startled expression from him. She hadn't heard him move at all. If he truly wanted to kill her...
"Hey. If you need the heads, I'm sure a shirt or something could hold 'em."
"SHIELD doesn't collect heads as proof. Any collected heads in the past was for research, but I contaminated these with silver. They're no good to study."
"Study," Bucky scoffed.
Natasha snorted. "How else are you going to learn about them?"
"Them. You mean vampires. As in, better ways to kill them."
She looked at him, taking in his flat voice and blank expression. "Well, yes," she replied blandly, refusing to apologize.
At least he didn't mean for her to be ashamed of her profession. "I could tell you what I've learned since I was turned."
"Maybe," she said in a low tone. "And the turning process itself is still fairly mysterious. Not everyone bitten turns."
Bucky nodded. "They call it a virus. I don't know, maybe it is." He extended a hand to her. "Come on. You should start heading topside. Daylight's coming, so you'll be safe enough."
"But the questions you could answer..." she began, frowning.
"You know where I sleep. Sort of." There was his charming smile again, making her think very inappropriate thoughts. "We'll meet again soon, Natasha."
"You seem awfully certain of that."
"I can always find a phone to call you from, if you prefer, but I know your scent. I can find you."
She stilled. "You can track me?"
Bucky moved slowly enough that she could track his movements. "Your scent drives me crazy, Natasha. I'll put in the effort to find you."
An odd thought occurred to her. "Are you flirting with me?"
"Depends. Is it working?" he asked, grinning.
"You're an idiot," she declared loftily. That didn't diminish his grin in the slightest. "But we'll need to keep patrolling the Upper West Side and Morningside Heights now."
"Good. Take care of Steve in the daytime, will ya? He can be so stupid sometimes, and I can't be there anymore."
"I'll see what I can do... I'm not the only one who can do that."
"But you I can talk to."
"Because you want to do your bad flirting?" she asked archly.
"Because you didn't know me before. You don't compare me to what you used to know."
"I've heard stories about you. You were an idiot then, too."
Bucky laughed out loud, delighted. "Maybe. C'mon, let's get you aboveground and safe."
Natasha followed him and easily made her way back to the tower. The others were immensely relieved she was alive, and that the tower physician confirmed she hadn't been bitten or scratched, and the blood on her suit was all vampire.
If anything, the tower residents and ancillary staff were in awe of her and her growing reputation. She tried not to feel guilty for not telling them the truth.
***
Natasha went through a fairly punishing training session with Steve and Clint. The archer was in a fairly protected spot, picking off targets and making snarky comments. Steve had his pistols and his shield, and stood beside Natasha as Tony's robotic models attacked them. At the end of it, Natasha gave Steve a sour look. "I liked killing those weaklings last night better than this."
Steve laughed. "Yeah, but they won't always be weaklings."
That reminded her. "Wait. They were talking about a big bad named Schmidt, and a bigger nest. More than ten vampires, at least."
He blanched, and turned to look over at Clint, who was approaching from his perch. "Jesus. A nest that size..."
"A master? I mean, there's stories of that..." Clint began.
"I'm more concerned about numbers. That many in the Upper West Side..." Steve began.
"We can try to pick them off," Natasha began. "Patrol the area more frequently, maybe."
It had nothing to do with Bucky, she told herself. It was a matter of shutting down a large nest.
"Silver might not be enough," Clint said, looking worried.
Steve nodded. "Tony and Bruce might have ideas."
"If we grab one willing to talk?" Natasha asked.
"Could we even trust it?" Steve replied, shaking his head.
"They might lie just to screw up our efforts," Clint added.
She'd thought of that, of course, but didn't think Bucky would lie. He had been a hunter for years before he was turned, after all, and killed plenty of vampires. If she could trust his word, that was. She hadn't actually seen him do it.
"There's too much we don't know," she sighed.
"Definitely true. If we know more, we could do a better job putting them all down," Steve replied. "As it is, against such a large nest, we'll need to recruit. I'm not going to lose anyone if I can help it," he said, jaw set and voice stern.
"See if Sam can come up sooner," Clint suggested.
"We'll need other seasoned people that know the city. We can't afford weeks to acclimate like we did with me," Natasha suggested in grave tones.
"Makes sense. Maybe Jan would be willing to come back in," Steve murmured. "And the twins. Tony will fight, maybe Rhodey."
"Tony made armor for Pepper, if she wants to," Clint reported.
"Rhodey's girlfriend Carol might help out," Steve added with a nod. "So that might be a good start in attacking uptown."
"All right," Natasha said, nodding. "While you contact them, I can patrol at night, make sure it's what those three said it was. Can't trust dying monsters, after all."
"Still, any edge is a good one," Steve said. "Recon only. But if one gets too close, dust it." He turned to Clint. "You, too."
"Captain, it would be my genuine pleasure."
Natasha nodded crisply at them both. "Yeah. It'll be fun."
Steve shot her a dubious look, but nodded. They needed intel, and this risk was the best way to get it.
***
It was easy enough to get Clint to separate to explore more territory. "I trust you," he said, making her feel vaguely guilty. "I don't have to worry about you taking care of yourself."
"Does that mean I should worry about you?" she snarked.
Clint laughed. "Maybe. I'll take on rooftops and look that way. You'd be surprised what you can see while you're up there."
"I'll stick with ground level," Natasha told him.
"See? Perfect matchup. We make a great team."
"Yes, we do," Natasha agreed. Oh, that was definitely guilt now. "Check in every fifteen," she said, patting the pocket she kept her phone in. They had them on vibrate, and agreed to use texts unless something really odd was happening.
They took separate avenues and walked up and down the streets, looking for signs of vampires. It was at 96th and West End Avenue that Bucky caught up with her, pressing her into the wall of an apartment building. He breathed in deeply, lips curling into a smile, eyes wide and luminous in the dark. "You smell delicious."
"That is not as hot as you hope it is," Natasha replied.
He signed dramatically. "You're breaking my heart."
"Better that than driving a stake through it."
"You are so cold, Natasha."
"As cold as a Russian winter."
"Yet still I soldier on to win your affections."
"Because you're an idiot."
"Because I'm smitten," Bucky returned, grinning like a loon.
Okay, the banter was fun. She hadn't had good by-play like this since Nicholai, his smooth nineteen year old self seeming so suave to her innocent sixteen year old self. Alexei had been so stoic, and had used his strength and stamina to woo her, not his wit.
"Anything useful for me, Barnes?" she asked, almost sorry to cut out the flirting. But she was on a mission here, and she had to stay on point.
He sighed dramatically, then yanked her wrists over her head, leaning in. "Our senses are easily overwhelmed. Sweat, perfume, smoke, whatever. Cover your scent, they can't track you."
"They'll track the scent used to cover me up," she said, annoyed. She refused to feel alarmed that he had her pinned in place and at his mercy.
"Work in a team, cover all of you, scatter. They won't know who to follow," he replied easily.
"What else?" she asked, not wanting to admit it was a useful piece of advice.
"Overwhelm the senses," he repeated. "Even bright lights in the eyes can give you a few seconds' head start."
"Not exactly helpful, Barnes."
"You know silver is poison," he said, grin sliding off his face. He was all business now. "There are other ways to kill. Beheading, fire, stakes... Those would kill humans, too. UV burns, I don't know why."
"I asked about that. Bruce said it interrupts the viral replication," Natasha replied. "So if your body can't heal the damage, you die."
"Good to know," he said quietly. "Bleeding out will work, too. Starving only works if they've been without food for at least two weeks, like the three from last night."
"Who'd you kill, then?"
A flash of pain crossed his features. "Not... human. The more we use our powers, the more we need the blood to repair the damage it does. But drinking from vampires? Well..."
"You can do that?"
"Yeah. Not sure why, but it makes me feel stronger, less hungry for blood. Kinda like protein bars instead of candy."
"So you tank up on vampires?"
Bucky nodded. "It's something they punish with death."
"They have rules?"
"Sure. Don't go making new vampires without permission, don't drink from dead bodies, don't kill vampires, that kind of thing. I think the dead body rule is because it's gross."
Natasha wrinkled her nose. "Sounds like it."
"Well, blood clots rot pretty quickly," he said. He shrugged and let go of her wrists. "But it's possible to drink from willing humans without killing them."
"Jesus. Where would you even find..." Her voice trailed off at his expression. "What?"
"Footsteps two blocks down. Best if I go for now."
"Text me next time."
He paused, considering that. "Let me get a phone."
"If I get you a burner?"
Bucky grinned at her. "You feel the connection, then."
"I feel annoyance at not being able to do my job."
"You do your job," he disagreed. "Very well. You impress me."
"Those yesterday didn't put up much of a fight."
"I know. But the ones last week did."
Natasha froze. "Have you been stalking me?!"
"I call it reconnaissance. I wanted to know the kind of woman I was dealing with."
"And?" she prompted.
"You're a good friend to Steve." He shot her a wistful smile, then inclined his head. "A good ally, if you let anyone see it."
Before she could ask what he meant by that, he disappeared from view, melting into the shadows of the alley. Not long after, Clint came down the alley, concern etched onto his features. "You didn't check in," he told her accusingly. "The last check in, when you texted you were heading this way..." He finally noticed her odd expression. "What?"
"We may have an ally," she said quietly.
"What wannabe superhero are we talking about?" Clint scoffed, laughing.
"No, not human."
The laughter dried up "Natasha..."
"He's killing them, just like we are. Hunting the stragglers, thinning the main nest."
"It's a trick," Clint warned.
"I don't think so. He's pretty upset about being a vampire."
"It was a scam to let you let him go," Clint said.
"No, I think it's for real. I haven't seen anything else out tonight, have you?"
"You're changing the subject," he accused.
"No, I think we have things to discuss as a group."
"I don't like this."
"Trust me, neither do I. But this might be useful in the long run, and I have to think of that."
Sighing, Clint nodded. They took a circuitous route to the tower, but Natasha knew Bucky wouldn't be very far behind if he wanted to follow her.
She wasn't sure what to think about that.
***
As expected, nobody liked the idea of getting information from a vampire about hunting other vampires. Even Bruce was hesitant, though he admitted it was a golden opportunity if it was real. "Fresh tissue samples or blood to work with? That would be fantastic."
"To make a vampire cure?" Natasha asked.
Bruce paused. "It's a virus, like a prion, almost, in that it replicates itself and completely overwrites the host DNA in its entirety. To overwrite that..."
"If it could spread as fast as the vampire virus did..." Tony mused. Pepper sighed and handed him a tablet to sign a contract. "I wouldn't mind being out of a job."
"I think we'd all love that," Steve commented. He fixed Natasha with a firm expression, disapproval clearly evident. "But it all comes down to whether or not we can trust one monster to help us get rid of the other ones."
"On that point, I think he was being honest with me."
"Did you even get a name?" Clint asked.
"No," Natasha said, hoping they bought it. "I was busy making sure it wasn't a scam to eat me."
They accepted it, nodding at intervals. "All right, then," Steve said after a moment. "We'll need to track him. Figure out a way to contact him."
"Give him a code name like the rest of us?" Tony snarked.
"Why not?" Natasha said. "Give him a separate name, and share what he tells us with Jane, Fury and the rest of SHIELD." The entire room was silent, watching her. "He confirmed the large nest on the Upper West Side. It's why he came to me, so I could get a team to wipe them out. I don't think he wants to take over the area."
"Jesus," Clint sighed. "I never thought of that."
"So what do we call him?" Tony asked.
"That's the least of our concerns," Steve sighed.
Natasha thought a moment. "The Winter Soldier." All eyes swiveled toward her. "He moved like he's military, and he had a winter coat on."
"It's as good a name as any," Steve said after a moment.
"Sounds dramatic," Tony remarked idly, leaning over to pour himself more scotch. He paused and retreated at Pepper's stern expression and sharp shake of her head.
"I suppose vampires are something like drama queens," Clint remarked, shrugging.
"Why else would one help us?" Natasha asked. "No one would believe one like this exists, you know. So he's a ghost. He doesn't have a legal identity anymore, and can't stay with the humans. He's killing vampires, so he can't stay with them. He doesn't have anywhere else to belong, has no other purpose."
The words obviously moved Steve, who nodded at her. "We have other lines, so we can set one up for him. But I don't want him able to track the rest of us online or by the phones. There should be one contact person for him."
Again, all eyes turned to Natasha, and she sighed. "I guess I'm it."
"New kid on the team," Clint teased.
"He already picked you," Tony pointed out.
"But be careful," Steve cautioned.
Bruce put his hand up. "Program me in, too. I want information. Kills, physiology, tissue and blood samples if I can get it. I can design something better to kill them, maybe. Silver's getting too expensive." He looked to Natasha. "But maybe she's on to something. Maybe I can find a way to reverse this. If I understand how the original virus really works, then maybe I can undo it. We don't have to kill them, we just have to reinfect them."
Natasha looked around the room. "Then I guess we're really doing this."
Everyone looked solemn at the prospect, but it couldn't be helped. Sometimes concessions had to be made in order to win the war.
It was just as well that no one there asked Natasha to like this plan, because she really didn't. Something at some point was bound to go wrong. She just hoped it wouldn't all blow up in her face and kill her.
***
***
To Chapter Three - Making Contact