[fic] Simple Things 17
Title: Simple Things 17
Rating: 16
Pairings: 39, 58
Genre: horror
Warnings: cannibalism is discussed, vampirism is in effect
Summary: People want simple things. Sanzo wants his efforts recognised. Goku wants a home. Hakkai wants his friends to clean up after themselves. Gojyo wants beer.
Author notes: This fic is sponsored by Twilight, enabled by moshesque and eyesofshinigami, and also sister (gee_nekoi), for keeping Twilight and sparkly vampires in my head by talking about them. XD For the record, this fic is a sparkle-free zone.
Most of the vampire lore in this fic (extra row of fangs, hidden in the tissue above maxillary teeth, beheading, the fact that they are not technically dead) I stole from Supernatural.
This needs sharing: Buffy versus Edward Cullen. :) It's a really good video, in a spirit I tried to establish for this fic.
LXIV.
Gojyo found Colombia to be bloody hot. “C’mon,” he told Yaone over his shoulder. He was sitting over a phone in the brightly lit kitchen of le chupacabras’ hacienda, his arse on one barstool, his feet on another. “I’m a Brit. There oughta be fog and chilliness for me to be happy.”
“There is the morning mist,” Yaone said. She held a squirming furry creature in her arms, one with teeth and nails if the scratches on her skin were any indication. Gojyo, whose knowledge of biology allowed him to distinguish between cows and horses and rats and dogs, and Chihuahuas in a good light, had no clue what it was, aside from mammalian. “Right before dawn.” She picked up a knife and slit the creature’s throat, holding it over a bowl until it could bleed no more.
“You can keep your dawn,” Gojyo grumbled. He punched in the number again as Yaone skinned and portioned the animal. “Damn it!”
“Is he still not replying?”
“No phone calls, no texts, no emails, I’m starting to suspect he don’t wanna talk to me.”
“Maybe he’s shopping.”
“For two days? You know, if he weren’t colour blind, I’d suspect he hopped to Paris for a new wardrobe, but we all know who’s got the fashion bug in this relationship.”
“I almost forget what colours look like,” Yaone confessed. “Clothing is such a problem. Perhaps I could borrow you for a while, when you aren’t busy?” Yaone filled the sink with water and salted it, then placed the edible (by human standards, Gojyo was drooling at every knobbly bit) parts in to soak. “We spend plenty of time in the hotel, and I’m beginning to suspect the long looks we get might have something to do with the colours being mismatched.”
“I am willing to bet that any and all looks you receive have more to do with you being tall and fabulous. Trust me, no guy is gonna agonize over a mismatched scarf when he’s looking at you.
Yaone laughed. “Still, even if it isn’t me, Kougaji needs someone to look into his closet. I’m not what you would call proficient with newest fashions.”
“Sure. Lemme know when you have time, better yet, come to London. We’ve got plenty there, and if British fashion is not your cup of tea, Paris is not far.”
“I’ll be looking forward to it.” Yaone set up a blender and poured the blood inside, along with copious amounts of acacia honey and ice cubes. She pressed start and for a few seconds Gojyo couldn’t hear the dial tone. “Drink?”
“Yeah, thanks.”
“Kou!” Yaone called. “Come on over, I’ve got drinks.”
Kougaji appeared in the doorway, followed by Sanzo. Gojyo tried Hakkai’s mobile one more time. Still nothing. “Fuck. Why the hell is he not responding?”
“Hakkai?” Kougaji asked accepting a frosty glass from his wife.
“Yeah. I sent an email to Goku too, no luck either.”
“Goku’s not replying?”
“Chill, Sanzo. He’s probably out with Pip.” Hitting on her, if he’s got any sense, Gojyo thought, but didn’t say. Now was not the time to antagonise Sanzo.
“Hakkai is alone with Goku and they are not replying?” Sanzo asked, and only now was Gojyo starting to notice the sheer wrongness of the situation.
“It ain’t like we made a promise to keep in touch every three hours.” He hoped the words didn’t come out defensive. “From what I recall Goku dumped your arse and Hakkai ain’t keen to talk to you either.” He didn’t say that there had been an email from Goku every couple of days so far, studious in ignoring the reason Gojyo was on the other side of the world.
“I’m surprised you’re even here to begin with,” Kougaji said.
“Shut up.”
“Just saying. Hakkai had the right idea about the rules. I am surprised he let you off with just a warning.”
“Hakkai is a big softy.” Gojyo sipped at the honeyed blood. It was passable. Yaone ruled the house with an iron fist, which of course is what one needs when they try to convert a vampire to abstaining from human blood, but she made an effort to make the abstaining as close to painless as was doable.
“Why haven’t you considered turning Goku?” Yaone asked. “It would solve most of your problems, wouldn’t it?”
Gojyo opened his mouth to explain just why was that not feasible, when he caught sight of Sanzo’s face.
“He wouldn’t dare,” the vampire growled.
Gojyo wasn’t so sure. “I’m gonna go back,” he said hopping off the barstool. “It’s probably nothing, but since Sanzo is in safe hands here, I might as well go.”
“You don’t want to keep an eye on him?”
“I’ll be back,” Gojyo said just as Sanzo voiced his objection to being babysat. “Hopefully with Hakkai. We all need a holiday.”
“I’m going too.”
“Sit your arse down, Sanzo. Hakkai said you are to stay put, or you might lose your head.”
“Fuck him and his orders!”
“Right, he said it might happen.” Gojyo reached for his mobile and scrolled through the notes. “In that case, he told me to ask you whether they are still coming to claw at your skin, whatever that means.” He watched Sanzo, to whom the question must have made sense, judging by the sudden paling of his visage. More bizarrely, Yaone and Kougaji too reacted. “What? You get it?”
“It’s better if you don’t know,” Yaone said, with a forced smile. “Trust me.”
“Okay…”
His mobile beeped. “Finally!” Gojyo opened the text message. “Come back,” he read out loud, “take Sanzo with you.”
Sanzo’s hands twitched.
“Damn,” Gojyo said. “I just drank the jetlag under the table.”
LXV.
Hakkai wondered how was he not surprised when Goku knocked on his door the weekend following Sanzo’s exile. “Hello, Goku. I’m sorry to say Gojyo is out. He won’t be back for a while.”
“’s okay. I wanna speak to you.”
Now this was a surprise. “Come on it, then. Tea? I might have some cookies, too.”
“Yes please.”
Goku sat down on the couch and stared at the cast iron tea set Hakkai laid before him. He took a cookie and chewed it, but it was the action of someone who needed employment for his hands, not taste buds. “What can I do for you?”
“Sanzo isn’t dead, is he,” Goku said, taking a sip. He didn’t look at Hakkai and he didn’t make it a question either.
“No. He’s not.”
“So much for your rules then.”
“He is away from here,” Hakkai said. “I sent Gojyo after him, to make sure he is settled.”
“And what then? Will you keep him locked up, wherever he went? Or is Gojyo gonna stay there forever, making sure Sanzo ain’t gonna come running back to finish me off, now that he knows he can?”
Hakkai smiled. “You are overestimating your influence.”
“Am I?” Goku turned his luminous eyes at him and Hakkai was forced to admit there was no overestimating the power the boy’s scent and expressive eyes had. “Tell me, Hakkai, am I really that tasty? You ain’t ever tried to hurt me.”
“I have, shall we say, control.”
“That’s your reason? It kinda sucks.”
Hakkai focused on his cup. “You are right. The reason I haven’t made an attempt at your life, is that I have sworn off feeding directly from humans, back in the eighteen nineties. Sanzo hadn’t. That makes a surprising difference when it comes to control.”
“Then how do you eat?”
“Syringes and blood bags.”
“Oh.” Goku took another cookie. “Why didn’t you kill Sanzo?”
“I owe him a great debt.”
“I hate ta rain on your parade, but the whole second chance thing don’t work in real life. I get it, he saved your life, you’re grateful, but he killed a kid.”
“He did more than save my life,” Hakkai said. “He saved me.” He took a deep breath. This was going to take more explaining. He understood the need Goku had to know, but he hated delving into the darkness of his past. “When I was turned, the circumstances were less than ideal. I had committed… atrocities, I think, is the only word to describe my acts sufficiently. In my grief and anger I murdered people - innocent people - for the sake of quenching my own thirst for vengeance, people whom I didn’t even see as food. Don’t get me wrong, even today I wouldn’t say I am a moral man. But the thing I was then, neither vampirism nor grief is enough to explain.
“Sanzo saved me, back then. We didn’t know one another, and yet he hunted me down and instead of putting me down, as he should have, he dragged me out of the dark pit I had burrowed myself in.” Hakkai turned to face Goku, because this he needed to understand. “I let him live because what he did for me exceeded saving my life. He helped me find my soul back and I owe it to him to return the favour.”
“What were ya plannin’ to do about it?”
The obvious answer would be to have Goku made into a vampire, but Hakkai could hardly admit it. At least no to his face. “I have been working on the details of the plan. In any case, Gojyo is with Sanzo in Colombia, they are with Kougaji and Yaone. He will be safe and he will be well fed there.” He took a sip. “Now, what are you doing here? Did something happen?”
“I’ve seen a vampire today,” Goku said. Hakkai’s tea threatened to spill. “I was on the underground, with about a million other people. I saw her teeth in the window. She was standing on the station as I left, and she looked like she was seconds away from pouncing.”
“Oh.” Hakkai could find no more words.
“I didn’t know there’s girl vampires.”
“Of course there are. But I don’t think you’re here to talk about gender distribution.”
“Hakkai, do people change when they become vampires? I don’t mean the teeth, I mean - are they different? Was Sanzo ever nice?”
“I wouldn’t know. I was born the same year he was turned.” At this point Hakkai felt he might have an inkling of where this was going. There was the feeling of satisfaction, hot in his veins, spreading throughout his body.
“Hakkai… I need ya to turn me,” Goku said and the world snapped into place. Sanzo will be saved, and Hakkai would finally see his debt paid. He wasn’t counting on Goku making the choice out of his own free will, but it was a godsend. This was all that was needed to resolve the mess. Whatever Sanzo’s feelings on the heavenly scent being vanquished, this was what had to happen. Best of all, however Sanzo felt about the change, if Goku arrived at the choice on his own, Hakkai couldn’t be held responsible. Still, Gojyo would hurt him if he didn’t ask, “are you sure you want this?”
“Of course not! I never wanted anything less in my life!” Goku clenched his hands into fists. “Except… dying. I don’t wanna die, Hakkai, and the woman in the train tonight, she said she’s gonna come for me.”
“You’ve talked?”
“She kinda mouthed that in my direction. I don’t wanna spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder.”
It would have been a very short life, in any case, Hakkai thought. “Turning into a vampire is permanent. Just because you feel that way now, doesn’t mean you will want it tomorrow.”
“Oh, fuck you! Ya think I ain’t been thinking about it? I don’t wanna do it! If there was something else I could do to stop looking like a sugarplum to you freaks, I would’ve done it already!”
“Sanzo is not going to be happy.”
“Fuck him, too! This ain’t about him, this is about me! So either you do this, or so help me, I’m gonna do it myself!”
Hakkai smiled. “How, pray tell, are you going to acquire enough vampire blood to turn yourself into a vampire?”
“I was hopin’ I wasn’t gonna need to,” Goku admitted. He set his cup on the table. “Are you gonna do it or not?”
“Yes,” Hakkai said. Of all the people to see things his way, Goku was the very last, but he was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Hakkai would discourage him no further, however. Whatever Goku’s reasoning, this was about Sanzo, too, and he needed Goku, if he were to have his soul back.
“Okay.” Goku relaxed, thought his hands trembled. Hakkai felt his heart flutter in sympathy. The poor boy was so young and terrified of the magnitude of what he’d just demanded. He’d be more terrified if he had understood the full ramifications, but Hakkai couldn’t afford to delve into detail.
“You might want to prepare yourself. Call your family, call your friends, make arrangements with the university…”
“I applied for a leave of absence. I told Pip I’m gonna travel. Called my uncle.” Goku clenched his hands into fists. “Do it.”
Hakkai smiled and leaned into Goku. To his credit the boy didn’t flinch nor move away. “I shall,” Hakkai whispered, his mouth brushing the shell of Goku’s ear. Goku shuddered. “But not here.”
LXVI.
Goku had thought about becoming a vampire ever since he’d realised he was involved with one. How could he not? He liked to think of himself as a social creature, and though he’d been accused of having the attention span of a goldfish on drugs, his emotional attachments tended to last. The idea that Sanzo would, in a matter of years, look to be his junior bothered him greatly. More than that, the idea that Sanzo would, in a decade or so, be so much younger than him, that was truly disturbing. Goku wasn’t blind nor was he stupid. Neither Sanzo nor the rest of them acted like the old men they were, which meant the whole vampire (or werewolf) thing did something to the brain.
It was stupid not to think about it earlier, before he got in so deep. Goku bit his lip. He hated himself for considering it, hated himself more for making the decision. Vampires were colour-blind, he told himself. No more movies with explosions, no more t-shirts with loud prints, no more sparkly Christmas trees. Vampires ate weird. Vampires were freaky. Vampires fucking killed people! Goku didn’t wanna be one. He didn’t want to look at Pip and think of how good her blood would taste. He loved the food; he loved the coffees and the teas, just as they were. Hakkai left his tea overnight to steep, sometimes. He said it was an approximation of the taste he remembered from when he was human.
Goku’d considered taking his chances. Yeah, so that fellow came close to killing him awhile back. Maybe he could learn to fight them off. He was no weakling, he could hold his own in a melee, though that wasn’t an experience he was eager to repeat. He could study karate or kung fu or whatever else there was, he could start walking around with the machete underneath his arm. Hell, he could buy himself an Austin Healey and travel the country killing vamps along the way.
Goku gave that a moment’s thought. With a machete in hand he at least had a fighting chance. Except… the vampires were so fast, he’d have to be psychic to stop them. He got the drop a couple of times, what if there were more? What if they were rational, and not crazy like Sanzo that one time, and that creep?
No. The answer was that there was no way in hell he stood a chance against a Gokucidal vampire. Even if he wounded one of them he was at a disadvantage, because then the vamp was stronger than him, faster than him, and angry as holy fuck. Whichever way he looked at it, he was doomed.
This was the conclusion that brought him to Hakkai’s door, to the surreal conversation and, just now, an eerie phone call.
Goku watched, just a little confused, as Hakkai picked up the phone. “Good evening, Clarice,” he said into the receiver. “I am well, thank you. I hope you are too.” A brief pause. “I need two plane tickets for Dundee, or Aberdeen. Splendid. Yes, leaving as soon as I can get to the airport. That would be myself and Goku Son. You’re very kind, thank you.
“Goku,” Hakkai turned to him. “Get me your passport, please.”
A little dazed, Goku fetched his passport. Hakkai rattled the number to the lady on the other side of the line. “Also, I shall require a vehicle when I arrive,” he told Clarice. “A Jeep, if at all possible. Thank you Clarice.”
“Where are we going?” Goku asked, his shaking fingers tight on his wallet.
“To the cabin. It shall be much safer there.”
“Ya think people would try and stop you?”
“Safe from you,” Hakkai said with a small smile. “Newborn vampires are unpredictable and hungry. You will be easier to control in a limited environment.”
If Hakkai ever won awards, it sure as fuck wasn’t for making people feel comfortable. Goku was already having second thoughts. They never went away, to be precise, but the stronger they got the sharper was the image of the vampire teeth. The woman in the underground, with her wavy black hair and a smug smile, stood with her mouth half-open in anticipation and the promise of a swift and violent death in her eyes.
“I take it you are ready to go?” Hakkai asked, and Goku nodded. He had poured more thought into this than he had ever given anything in his whole life. He was as ready as he would ever be, which is to say not very. Given the circumstances, this was the best he could hope for.
LXVII.
Goku was shaking by the time they reached the cabin. Hakkai didn’t rush the journey - it was swift enough - he took the scenic route, giving Goku all the time he had to spare, in case he would change his mind. He hadn’t.
“How does this work?” Goku asked, when they reached the cabin.
“I will inject you with my blood,” Hakkai said. “The more I give you the faster the transformation will occur, though I have to warn you, it will not be pleasant.”
“Yeah. I get that.”
“Make yourself comfortable.” Getting syringes on the plane was of course impossible when travelling with just the hand luggage, so Hakkai had purchased several in a drugstore along the way. He torn open the packaging of the biggest one and tied a scarf around his bicep, to find a vein. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Goku look away when the syringe broke the skin. Managing one-handed was a chore, but Hakkai drew the plunger out with his thumb, watching the dark red liquid fill the barrel.
He repeated the process until all the syringes he’d bought were full of blood. Goku was watching him and the panic hormones his body exuded got denser by the minute. Hakkai relished it. Soon the human responses would be gone, leaving Goku as devoid of smell as himself and Sanzo. It was a pity, but when it was his life at stake, sacrifices had to be made.
“Ready?” Not enough of a pity to change his mind, however.
“No,” Goku said, gripping the fabric of his shirt in an effort to quell the shaking of his palms. “But what other choice do I have?”
“Saying no, for instance.”
“Not gonna happen.” Goku grit his teeth and Hakkai gently laid his hands on Goku’s shoulders. He pushed Goku into the small room he’d occupied over Christmas. “Let’s make this more comfortable. Lie down.”
“Should I strip too?”
“If you wish.” Hakkai acknowledged the sarcasm with a raised eyebrow. “It’s not necessary. I’d rather appreciate you staying clothed, it would save me some explaining where Gojyo is concerned.”
Goku kicked his shoes aside and climbed into the bed that he’d gotten quite familiar with over the course of Christmas. “Will it hurt?” Goku asked in a small voice.
“Yes,” Hakkai said. He crawled over Goku, seating himself close enough to feel the warmth of his skin. He held up a syringe.
“You ain’t gonna disinfect my arm first?” Goku asked, when Hakkai wrapped his arms around his bicep and squeezed, drawing out the veins in the elbow.
“What’s the point?”
Goku let out a squeak when the needle pierced his skin. Hakkai pushed the plunger. For a few moments there was no reaction, then Goku started trembling. “It burns.”
Truth be told, Hakkai was hoping Goku wouldn’t survive the procedure. The eternal life of a vampire was no fate to wish upon a friend. Add to that the fact that Goku volunteered…
“I am sorry,” Hakkai said, taking the second syringe. He wasted no time in pleasantries. He pulled down the collar of Goku’s shirt and stabbed his chest with the syringe, flooding his heart with vampire blood. “Don’t hate me for this. At least you will have a fair chance now. Trust me when I say death is preferable.”
Goku, beyond speech now, in all likelihood couldn’t understand a word. He was shaking, the corner of his mouth stained with blood from a lip split by chattering teeth.
“Hurts,” he whimpered when Hakkai prepared another syringe.
“I’m sorry. You shouldn’t have to go through this.”
“Did it? For you?” Goku did his best, but the shaking was getting worse. Hakkai sympathised.
“I’m far from judging something as subjective as experience, but I daresay it was worse. I had no idea what was happening, and I was given no choice.”
Goku snorted, which Hakkai took to mean that choice wasn’t involved. He was dead wrong about not having an alternative, and if he lived, Hakkai would be sure to tell him that. Taking his chances as a human would perhaps be noble and earn him commendation of those who valued species purity, but in terms of logical decisions it would have been foolish. He’d got lucky with the stray vampire, that he held him off long enough for Sanzo to arrive. The woman tonight would have faced no such obstacles.
Goku wouldn’t appreciate the knowledge now, not when his body was wracked with tremors. He cried out again, when Hakkai injected another dose of blood into his other arm. Two more, he told himself, setting aside the empty syringe. But these would have to wait. Hakkai lay down beside the child and took him into his arms.
This was a sound choice, Hakkai told himself. This was the choice that guaranteed Goku’s survival. There was precious little comfort in that, precious little comfort Hakkai had to offer, but what he could, he would provide.
Master Post :: Next Part
Rating: 16
Pairings: 39, 58
Genre: horror
Warnings: cannibalism is discussed, vampirism is in effect
Summary: People want simple things. Sanzo wants his efforts recognised. Goku wants a home. Hakkai wants his friends to clean up after themselves. Gojyo wants beer.
Author notes: This fic is sponsored by Twilight, enabled by moshesque and eyesofshinigami, and also sister (gee_nekoi), for keeping Twilight and sparkly vampires in my head by talking about them. XD For the record, this fic is a sparkle-free zone.
Most of the vampire lore in this fic (extra row of fangs, hidden in the tissue above maxillary teeth, beheading, the fact that they are not technically dead) I stole from Supernatural.
This needs sharing: Buffy versus Edward Cullen. :) It's a really good video, in a spirit I tried to establish for this fic.
LXIV.
Gojyo found Colombia to be bloody hot. “C’mon,” he told Yaone over his shoulder. He was sitting over a phone in the brightly lit kitchen of le chupacabras’ hacienda, his arse on one barstool, his feet on another. “I’m a Brit. There oughta be fog and chilliness for me to be happy.”
“There is the morning mist,” Yaone said. She held a squirming furry creature in her arms, one with teeth and nails if the scratches on her skin were any indication. Gojyo, whose knowledge of biology allowed him to distinguish between cows and horses and rats and dogs, and Chihuahuas in a good light, had no clue what it was, aside from mammalian. “Right before dawn.” She picked up a knife and slit the creature’s throat, holding it over a bowl until it could bleed no more.
“You can keep your dawn,” Gojyo grumbled. He punched in the number again as Yaone skinned and portioned the animal. “Damn it!”
“Is he still not replying?”
“No phone calls, no texts, no emails, I’m starting to suspect he don’t wanna talk to me.”
“Maybe he’s shopping.”
“For two days? You know, if he weren’t colour blind, I’d suspect he hopped to Paris for a new wardrobe, but we all know who’s got the fashion bug in this relationship.”
“I almost forget what colours look like,” Yaone confessed. “Clothing is such a problem. Perhaps I could borrow you for a while, when you aren’t busy?” Yaone filled the sink with water and salted it, then placed the edible (by human standards, Gojyo was drooling at every knobbly bit) parts in to soak. “We spend plenty of time in the hotel, and I’m beginning to suspect the long looks we get might have something to do with the colours being mismatched.”
“I am willing to bet that any and all looks you receive have more to do with you being tall and fabulous. Trust me, no guy is gonna agonize over a mismatched scarf when he’s looking at you.
Yaone laughed. “Still, even if it isn’t me, Kougaji needs someone to look into his closet. I’m not what you would call proficient with newest fashions.”
“Sure. Lemme know when you have time, better yet, come to London. We’ve got plenty there, and if British fashion is not your cup of tea, Paris is not far.”
“I’ll be looking forward to it.” Yaone set up a blender and poured the blood inside, along with copious amounts of acacia honey and ice cubes. She pressed start and for a few seconds Gojyo couldn’t hear the dial tone. “Drink?”
“Yeah, thanks.”
“Kou!” Yaone called. “Come on over, I’ve got drinks.”
Kougaji appeared in the doorway, followed by Sanzo. Gojyo tried Hakkai’s mobile one more time. Still nothing. “Fuck. Why the hell is he not responding?”
“Hakkai?” Kougaji asked accepting a frosty glass from his wife.
“Yeah. I sent an email to Goku too, no luck either.”
“Goku’s not replying?”
“Chill, Sanzo. He’s probably out with Pip.” Hitting on her, if he’s got any sense, Gojyo thought, but didn’t say. Now was not the time to antagonise Sanzo.
“Hakkai is alone with Goku and they are not replying?” Sanzo asked, and only now was Gojyo starting to notice the sheer wrongness of the situation.
“It ain’t like we made a promise to keep in touch every three hours.” He hoped the words didn’t come out defensive. “From what I recall Goku dumped your arse and Hakkai ain’t keen to talk to you either.” He didn’t say that there had been an email from Goku every couple of days so far, studious in ignoring the reason Gojyo was on the other side of the world.
“I’m surprised you’re even here to begin with,” Kougaji said.
“Shut up.”
“Just saying. Hakkai had the right idea about the rules. I am surprised he let you off with just a warning.”
“Hakkai is a big softy.” Gojyo sipped at the honeyed blood. It was passable. Yaone ruled the house with an iron fist, which of course is what one needs when they try to convert a vampire to abstaining from human blood, but she made an effort to make the abstaining as close to painless as was doable.
“Why haven’t you considered turning Goku?” Yaone asked. “It would solve most of your problems, wouldn’t it?”
Gojyo opened his mouth to explain just why was that not feasible, when he caught sight of Sanzo’s face.
“He wouldn’t dare,” the vampire growled.
Gojyo wasn’t so sure. “I’m gonna go back,” he said hopping off the barstool. “It’s probably nothing, but since Sanzo is in safe hands here, I might as well go.”
“You don’t want to keep an eye on him?”
“I’ll be back,” Gojyo said just as Sanzo voiced his objection to being babysat. “Hopefully with Hakkai. We all need a holiday.”
“I’m going too.”
“Sit your arse down, Sanzo. Hakkai said you are to stay put, or you might lose your head.”
“Fuck him and his orders!”
“Right, he said it might happen.” Gojyo reached for his mobile and scrolled through the notes. “In that case, he told me to ask you whether they are still coming to claw at your skin, whatever that means.” He watched Sanzo, to whom the question must have made sense, judging by the sudden paling of his visage. More bizarrely, Yaone and Kougaji too reacted. “What? You get it?”
“It’s better if you don’t know,” Yaone said, with a forced smile. “Trust me.”
“Okay…”
His mobile beeped. “Finally!” Gojyo opened the text message. “Come back,” he read out loud, “take Sanzo with you.”
Sanzo’s hands twitched.
“Damn,” Gojyo said. “I just drank the jetlag under the table.”
LXV.
Hakkai wondered how was he not surprised when Goku knocked on his door the weekend following Sanzo’s exile. “Hello, Goku. I’m sorry to say Gojyo is out. He won’t be back for a while.”
“’s okay. I wanna speak to you.”
Now this was a surprise. “Come on it, then. Tea? I might have some cookies, too.”
“Yes please.”
Goku sat down on the couch and stared at the cast iron tea set Hakkai laid before him. He took a cookie and chewed it, but it was the action of someone who needed employment for his hands, not taste buds. “What can I do for you?”
“Sanzo isn’t dead, is he,” Goku said, taking a sip. He didn’t look at Hakkai and he didn’t make it a question either.
“No. He’s not.”
“So much for your rules then.”
“He is away from here,” Hakkai said. “I sent Gojyo after him, to make sure he is settled.”
“And what then? Will you keep him locked up, wherever he went? Or is Gojyo gonna stay there forever, making sure Sanzo ain’t gonna come running back to finish me off, now that he knows he can?”
Hakkai smiled. “You are overestimating your influence.”
“Am I?” Goku turned his luminous eyes at him and Hakkai was forced to admit there was no overestimating the power the boy’s scent and expressive eyes had. “Tell me, Hakkai, am I really that tasty? You ain’t ever tried to hurt me.”
“I have, shall we say, control.”
“That’s your reason? It kinda sucks.”
Hakkai focused on his cup. “You are right. The reason I haven’t made an attempt at your life, is that I have sworn off feeding directly from humans, back in the eighteen nineties. Sanzo hadn’t. That makes a surprising difference when it comes to control.”
“Then how do you eat?”
“Syringes and blood bags.”
“Oh.” Goku took another cookie. “Why didn’t you kill Sanzo?”
“I owe him a great debt.”
“I hate ta rain on your parade, but the whole second chance thing don’t work in real life. I get it, he saved your life, you’re grateful, but he killed a kid.”
“He did more than save my life,” Hakkai said. “He saved me.” He took a deep breath. This was going to take more explaining. He understood the need Goku had to know, but he hated delving into the darkness of his past. “When I was turned, the circumstances were less than ideal. I had committed… atrocities, I think, is the only word to describe my acts sufficiently. In my grief and anger I murdered people - innocent people - for the sake of quenching my own thirst for vengeance, people whom I didn’t even see as food. Don’t get me wrong, even today I wouldn’t say I am a moral man. But the thing I was then, neither vampirism nor grief is enough to explain.
“Sanzo saved me, back then. We didn’t know one another, and yet he hunted me down and instead of putting me down, as he should have, he dragged me out of the dark pit I had burrowed myself in.” Hakkai turned to face Goku, because this he needed to understand. “I let him live because what he did for me exceeded saving my life. He helped me find my soul back and I owe it to him to return the favour.”
“What were ya plannin’ to do about it?”
The obvious answer would be to have Goku made into a vampire, but Hakkai could hardly admit it. At least no to his face. “I have been working on the details of the plan. In any case, Gojyo is with Sanzo in Colombia, they are with Kougaji and Yaone. He will be safe and he will be well fed there.” He took a sip. “Now, what are you doing here? Did something happen?”
“I’ve seen a vampire today,” Goku said. Hakkai’s tea threatened to spill. “I was on the underground, with about a million other people. I saw her teeth in the window. She was standing on the station as I left, and she looked like she was seconds away from pouncing.”
“Oh.” Hakkai could find no more words.
“I didn’t know there’s girl vampires.”
“Of course there are. But I don’t think you’re here to talk about gender distribution.”
“Hakkai, do people change when they become vampires? I don’t mean the teeth, I mean - are they different? Was Sanzo ever nice?”
“I wouldn’t know. I was born the same year he was turned.” At this point Hakkai felt he might have an inkling of where this was going. There was the feeling of satisfaction, hot in his veins, spreading throughout his body.
“Hakkai… I need ya to turn me,” Goku said and the world snapped into place. Sanzo will be saved, and Hakkai would finally see his debt paid. He wasn’t counting on Goku making the choice out of his own free will, but it was a godsend. This was all that was needed to resolve the mess. Whatever Sanzo’s feelings on the heavenly scent being vanquished, this was what had to happen. Best of all, however Sanzo felt about the change, if Goku arrived at the choice on his own, Hakkai couldn’t be held responsible. Still, Gojyo would hurt him if he didn’t ask, “are you sure you want this?”
“Of course not! I never wanted anything less in my life!” Goku clenched his hands into fists. “Except… dying. I don’t wanna die, Hakkai, and the woman in the train tonight, she said she’s gonna come for me.”
“You’ve talked?”
“She kinda mouthed that in my direction. I don’t wanna spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder.”
It would have been a very short life, in any case, Hakkai thought. “Turning into a vampire is permanent. Just because you feel that way now, doesn’t mean you will want it tomorrow.”
“Oh, fuck you! Ya think I ain’t been thinking about it? I don’t wanna do it! If there was something else I could do to stop looking like a sugarplum to you freaks, I would’ve done it already!”
“Sanzo is not going to be happy.”
“Fuck him, too! This ain’t about him, this is about me! So either you do this, or so help me, I’m gonna do it myself!”
Hakkai smiled. “How, pray tell, are you going to acquire enough vampire blood to turn yourself into a vampire?”
“I was hopin’ I wasn’t gonna need to,” Goku admitted. He set his cup on the table. “Are you gonna do it or not?”
“Yes,” Hakkai said. Of all the people to see things his way, Goku was the very last, but he was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Hakkai would discourage him no further, however. Whatever Goku’s reasoning, this was about Sanzo, too, and he needed Goku, if he were to have his soul back.
“Okay.” Goku relaxed, thought his hands trembled. Hakkai felt his heart flutter in sympathy. The poor boy was so young and terrified of the magnitude of what he’d just demanded. He’d be more terrified if he had understood the full ramifications, but Hakkai couldn’t afford to delve into detail.
“You might want to prepare yourself. Call your family, call your friends, make arrangements with the university…”
“I applied for a leave of absence. I told Pip I’m gonna travel. Called my uncle.” Goku clenched his hands into fists. “Do it.”
Hakkai smiled and leaned into Goku. To his credit the boy didn’t flinch nor move away. “I shall,” Hakkai whispered, his mouth brushing the shell of Goku’s ear. Goku shuddered. “But not here.”
LXVI.
Goku had thought about becoming a vampire ever since he’d realised he was involved with one. How could he not? He liked to think of himself as a social creature, and though he’d been accused of having the attention span of a goldfish on drugs, his emotional attachments tended to last. The idea that Sanzo would, in a matter of years, look to be his junior bothered him greatly. More than that, the idea that Sanzo would, in a decade or so, be so much younger than him, that was truly disturbing. Goku wasn’t blind nor was he stupid. Neither Sanzo nor the rest of them acted like the old men they were, which meant the whole vampire (or werewolf) thing did something to the brain.
It was stupid not to think about it earlier, before he got in so deep. Goku bit his lip. He hated himself for considering it, hated himself more for making the decision. Vampires were colour-blind, he told himself. No more movies with explosions, no more t-shirts with loud prints, no more sparkly Christmas trees. Vampires ate weird. Vampires were freaky. Vampires fucking killed people! Goku didn’t wanna be one. He didn’t want to look at Pip and think of how good her blood would taste. He loved the food; he loved the coffees and the teas, just as they were. Hakkai left his tea overnight to steep, sometimes. He said it was an approximation of the taste he remembered from when he was human.
Goku’d considered taking his chances. Yeah, so that fellow came close to killing him awhile back. Maybe he could learn to fight them off. He was no weakling, he could hold his own in a melee, though that wasn’t an experience he was eager to repeat. He could study karate or kung fu or whatever else there was, he could start walking around with the machete underneath his arm. Hell, he could buy himself an Austin Healey and travel the country killing vamps along the way.
Goku gave that a moment’s thought. With a machete in hand he at least had a fighting chance. Except… the vampires were so fast, he’d have to be psychic to stop them. He got the drop a couple of times, what if there were more? What if they were rational, and not crazy like Sanzo that one time, and that creep?
No. The answer was that there was no way in hell he stood a chance against a Gokucidal vampire. Even if he wounded one of them he was at a disadvantage, because then the vamp was stronger than him, faster than him, and angry as holy fuck. Whichever way he looked at it, he was doomed.
This was the conclusion that brought him to Hakkai’s door, to the surreal conversation and, just now, an eerie phone call.
Goku watched, just a little confused, as Hakkai picked up the phone. “Good evening, Clarice,” he said into the receiver. “I am well, thank you. I hope you are too.” A brief pause. “I need two plane tickets for Dundee, or Aberdeen. Splendid. Yes, leaving as soon as I can get to the airport. That would be myself and Goku Son. You’re very kind, thank you.
“Goku,” Hakkai turned to him. “Get me your passport, please.”
A little dazed, Goku fetched his passport. Hakkai rattled the number to the lady on the other side of the line. “Also, I shall require a vehicle when I arrive,” he told Clarice. “A Jeep, if at all possible. Thank you Clarice.”
“Where are we going?” Goku asked, his shaking fingers tight on his wallet.
“To the cabin. It shall be much safer there.”
“Ya think people would try and stop you?”
“Safe from you,” Hakkai said with a small smile. “Newborn vampires are unpredictable and hungry. You will be easier to control in a limited environment.”
If Hakkai ever won awards, it sure as fuck wasn’t for making people feel comfortable. Goku was already having second thoughts. They never went away, to be precise, but the stronger they got the sharper was the image of the vampire teeth. The woman in the underground, with her wavy black hair and a smug smile, stood with her mouth half-open in anticipation and the promise of a swift and violent death in her eyes.
“I take it you are ready to go?” Hakkai asked, and Goku nodded. He had poured more thought into this than he had ever given anything in his whole life. He was as ready as he would ever be, which is to say not very. Given the circumstances, this was the best he could hope for.
LXVII.
Goku was shaking by the time they reached the cabin. Hakkai didn’t rush the journey - it was swift enough - he took the scenic route, giving Goku all the time he had to spare, in case he would change his mind. He hadn’t.
“How does this work?” Goku asked, when they reached the cabin.
“I will inject you with my blood,” Hakkai said. “The more I give you the faster the transformation will occur, though I have to warn you, it will not be pleasant.”
“Yeah. I get that.”
“Make yourself comfortable.” Getting syringes on the plane was of course impossible when travelling with just the hand luggage, so Hakkai had purchased several in a drugstore along the way. He torn open the packaging of the biggest one and tied a scarf around his bicep, to find a vein. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Goku look away when the syringe broke the skin. Managing one-handed was a chore, but Hakkai drew the plunger out with his thumb, watching the dark red liquid fill the barrel.
He repeated the process until all the syringes he’d bought were full of blood. Goku was watching him and the panic hormones his body exuded got denser by the minute. Hakkai relished it. Soon the human responses would be gone, leaving Goku as devoid of smell as himself and Sanzo. It was a pity, but when it was his life at stake, sacrifices had to be made.
“Ready?” Not enough of a pity to change his mind, however.
“No,” Goku said, gripping the fabric of his shirt in an effort to quell the shaking of his palms. “But what other choice do I have?”
“Saying no, for instance.”
“Not gonna happen.” Goku grit his teeth and Hakkai gently laid his hands on Goku’s shoulders. He pushed Goku into the small room he’d occupied over Christmas. “Let’s make this more comfortable. Lie down.”
“Should I strip too?”
“If you wish.” Hakkai acknowledged the sarcasm with a raised eyebrow. “It’s not necessary. I’d rather appreciate you staying clothed, it would save me some explaining where Gojyo is concerned.”
Goku kicked his shoes aside and climbed into the bed that he’d gotten quite familiar with over the course of Christmas. “Will it hurt?” Goku asked in a small voice.
“Yes,” Hakkai said. He crawled over Goku, seating himself close enough to feel the warmth of his skin. He held up a syringe.
“You ain’t gonna disinfect my arm first?” Goku asked, when Hakkai wrapped his arms around his bicep and squeezed, drawing out the veins in the elbow.
“What’s the point?”
Goku let out a squeak when the needle pierced his skin. Hakkai pushed the plunger. For a few moments there was no reaction, then Goku started trembling. “It burns.”
Truth be told, Hakkai was hoping Goku wouldn’t survive the procedure. The eternal life of a vampire was no fate to wish upon a friend. Add to that the fact that Goku volunteered…
“I am sorry,” Hakkai said, taking the second syringe. He wasted no time in pleasantries. He pulled down the collar of Goku’s shirt and stabbed his chest with the syringe, flooding his heart with vampire blood. “Don’t hate me for this. At least you will have a fair chance now. Trust me when I say death is preferable.”
Goku, beyond speech now, in all likelihood couldn’t understand a word. He was shaking, the corner of his mouth stained with blood from a lip split by chattering teeth.
“Hurts,” he whimpered when Hakkai prepared another syringe.
“I’m sorry. You shouldn’t have to go through this.”
“Did it? For you?” Goku did his best, but the shaking was getting worse. Hakkai sympathised.
“I’m far from judging something as subjective as experience, but I daresay it was worse. I had no idea what was happening, and I was given no choice.”
Goku snorted, which Hakkai took to mean that choice wasn’t involved. He was dead wrong about not having an alternative, and if he lived, Hakkai would be sure to tell him that. Taking his chances as a human would perhaps be noble and earn him commendation of those who valued species purity, but in terms of logical decisions it would have been foolish. He’d got lucky with the stray vampire, that he held him off long enough for Sanzo to arrive. The woman tonight would have faced no such obstacles.
Goku wouldn’t appreciate the knowledge now, not when his body was wracked with tremors. He cried out again, when Hakkai injected another dose of blood into his other arm. Two more, he told himself, setting aside the empty syringe. But these would have to wait. Hakkai lay down beside the child and took him into his arms.
This was a sound choice, Hakkai told himself. This was the choice that guaranteed Goku’s survival. There was precious little comfort in that, precious little comfort Hakkai had to offer, but what he could, he would provide.
Master Post :: Next Part