Moon Child

by Christina Moore

  Tristan laughed and then moaned. His head hurt, and his chest. Hell, his whole body ached with the truth of his near death by freezing. “No shit we need to talk.” He shut his eyes and sighed, resting his head back. “Now’s probably not the time though…” Was it ever?

  “No, it is.”

  The firmness, the determination in Ash’s voice pulled his attention to her again. There was a fire in her eyes. “What’s changed?” Tristan asked, confused and not sure he was reading the situation right.

  Ash stood and lifted a leg over the edge of the tub. Tristan eyes widened when he realized she was climbing into the tub with him. It wasn’t exactly built for two and Tristan wasn’t exactly a small person, so it was a tight fit. “Everything,” she whispered and stopped, hovering over him, her knees pressed against his hips to either side.

  “You offering to warm me up again?”

  She smiled naughtily and leaned down to put her face just inches from his. Her hesitation made Tristan frown until he realized that it was up to him to close the space between them. She was seeking his validation that everything was okay.

  He smiled, slipping his hands up her back, tangling his fingers into her wet hair. After a quick check to make sure that his cheek was no longer cut on the inside, Tristan parted his lips ever so slightly and let a breath out that Ash took in as their lips met. Ash immediately sunk into his embrace, gentle and finally warm, pushing her fingers into the tangled mess of his salty, mused hair under the cap.

  “Mmm,” he moaned when she pulled back. He licked his lips and met her eyes. “I needed that.”

  “I know what else you need…”

  Thinking he knew what she was saying, he grinned big. What better time to feel alive than after cheating death, yet again?

  Ash stopped shifting around and looked at him, sighed and shifted again to stand over him. “Not that… well, perhaps later,” she amended, flushing. She stumbled as she sloshed her way out of the tub. “I um, when we are done with our current troubles, I was hoping we could return to my old home. There is a book there I hope to find.”

  “A book?” he asked surprised. “Really?”

  Ash turned to face him, dripping a big puddle onto the bathroom floor. That’s when Tristan realized that they were back at their room. “How did we get back here?”

  “We drove back, it was a short trip.”

  Uneasy, Tristan sat up a little. The water was cooler than he would have liked but he wasn’t ready to get out yet. He was still cold and considered how much trouble it would be to fill the tub again with hot water. “What happened after I passed out?”

  “Desmond returned and guided us out of the cave and to the surface.”

  “What took him so long to get back?”

  Ash frowned, stifled a little shutter. “Mermaids.”

  “No shit,” he said simply. One of those mysterious heikō. Mamoru hadn’t said much about them but their mere mention. Guess neither of them expected to cross one anytime soon. Tristan was looking forward to reading Mamoru’s journals on the seven races of shinwa and heikō when the group was done here.

  “Chrysanthe and Silas were waiting for us on the shore.”

  Tristan thrashed in the tub, trying to sit up in a rush of panic. “Ash, they’re—”

  “I know. Mamoru told me everything on the way here. Do not worry so, Desmond and Mamoru are with them now.”

  Tristan looked to the closed bathroom door as if he meant to see beyond it. “They’re here?”

  “Yes. And I fully intend to get to the bottom of them, but before that we need to talk.”

  “Ash,” Tristan sighed. “Now’s really not—”

  “Please. Tristan, I cannot—I need this.”

  He took in a deep breath and held it a moment, studying her weary expression. Letting out his breath in a long sigh, he nodded.

  Ash visibly relaxed and motioned to the tub. “Is the water too cold?”

  He shrugged, tugging at his almost too tight jeans. He’d really like to get out of them. “I could stand it to be a tad warmer.”

  Ash took in a deep breath, opening her mouth as if winding up to call out but the bathroom door opened before she could. Desmond marched in, looking grim and stiff. His hair was matted and messy and he still looked a little rough with his shirt missing and his shorts ripped near the hip.

  Ash refused to leave Tristan’s side for even a moment, but she did get a chance to talk privately to Desmond while the American was still passed out. She had to know if Desmond fed his blood to Tristan or not. She suspected he hadn’t but needed to hear the words. The conversation quickly turned into an argument fueled by Desmond’s jealousy that left the Scotsman pouting about it since. But Ash was satisfied that Tristan hadn’t been compromised.

  Desmond glanced darkly at Ash under the hair fallen into his face, handing her a knife and then marched over to the edge of the tub. Tristan shifted, trying to be ready for whatever was about to happen and then gave a little noise of amazement as the big vampire plunged his hand into the water and it instantly heated up to a comfortable, toasty one-hundred eight degrees. With a grunt and a look of what Tristan could only read as discontent, the vampire left, shutting the door behind him.

  “Okay…,” Tristan breathed out and slumped. God, the water felt almost good.

  “Never mind him.”

  Tristan smirked. “Never really do.”

  Ash harrumphed. “Here, let me help you.”

  He was confused for a sheer moment between her words and then Ash was tugging at his wet clothes. “Yes,” he groaned. His whole body hurt but with that pain came the delicious truth that he was still alive. He didn’t need to be told, or lied to, to know that he was close to dying in that frigid water. “Fuck, it’s good to be alive.”

  Ash’s mouth hardened and she lifted the knife towards Tristan.

  “Hey, wait a minute.”

  Ash gave him a sour look. “You will not be able to pull your pants off, the jean has shrunk and are cutting off your circulation. This is the only way. Deal with it.”

  God, always calling him out. He smiled to himself because somewhere inside, he liked it. She could be bossy when it mattered and it worked out in Tristan’s favor, usually. “Fine,” he said, giving up on the idea of saving his jeans. He could buy more, whatever.

  Ash nodded and proceeded to cut the shrinking pants free. She moved precisely and quickly. Tristan let out a sigh as the pants, and boxers, came free, not realizing how tight they’d really been. “Thanks,” he said, slipping back down into the water.

  She sat on the floor next to the tub so that her head showed just above the rim, but she wouldn’t look into Tristan’s face. Ash sighed, resting her cheek on the side of the tub. “Yukihime came to our room in France after we dispatched Lucien.”

  Tristan stiffened, looking up to meet her eyes.

  “She returned most of my memories.”

  Tristan sat back in the water, resting his arms across the top of the tub and sighed.

  Ash tilted her head to the side, considering Tristan. “But you already knew that, didn’t you?”

  He tilted his head slightly to the side. “Why didn’t you tell me?” He didn’t sound angry at all, and really, he wasn’t right then. After all that Mamoru had told him about the vampires, about Ash, the things he saw from Desmond, he understood his vampire lover so much more now than he thought he ever would. He was grateful to that knowledge even if it left with him a pervasive sense of sadness.

  She looked away to rest her chin on her pulled up knees. “I wanted to tell you before, but I was so afraid. I could not risk losing you. But now I understand.”

  “Understand what?”

  “That I was wrong. That you would not look at me with hate, disgust, fear… That you truly love me for me.”

  “I really do,” he whispered, staring up at the ceiling. “I’ve been saying that all this time.”

  “Yes, you have. But fear, it makes even the strongest of us w
eak. The things I remember now… She did not return all of my memories, that much I can tell, but it was enough. I nearly bolted rather than accepted the way of things.”

  He understood, she wasn’t doing it out of malice or even a sense of sadism, but because of fear. Of any emotion, Tristan understood fear. He lived it every day, the possibility of “what if”.

  “Tristan, I knew who and what you were the night I first came for you. I knew you were the Uruwashi and that your destiny was linked with mine. I knew that I, we were meant to love each other.”

  “What?” he asked, carefully sitting up and looking over the edge and down at her.

  She shook her head, refusing to look up. “The fruition of the prophecy hanging over your head, that fate is tied to my loving you.”

  “No,” he said, shaking his head. “No. I can’t accept that. I can’t accept that I love you all because it was fated. That’s fucking stupid. I’m of my own mind and make my own decisions.”

  Ash lifted her head and smiled. “Perhaps so, but it has still come to pass. When I remembered again, I had nearly left because I had already fallen for you. I think I loved you from the start. I had watched you for a long time Tristan, I know you better than you think.”

  “Wait, you were watching me?”

  She pivoted on her knees, turning to face him. “I was trying to keep Malik from killing you. I nearly had lost you too just nights before I made myself known to you… There was a vampire waiting for you in your apartment. You, being you, came home utterly intoxicated and I had only just managed to arrive on time to kill the beast. After that, I knew I had to fully intervene. That things had become serious.”

  “Why? Why risk everything for me? Is my prophecy really that important?”

  “If Lilith says it is so, yes.”

  “So… simple English here, I was an Uruwashicicle half an hour ago. My brain’s still trying to defrost.”

  “I knew about you and your fate. I rescued you because I believed in you and your place in our world. I also knew that I had feelings for you before I had ever even spoken a word to you. Yukihime saw this as a weakness as I am more want to turn from love rather than embrace it. She forced me to get to know you even more than I would have allowed if I had remembered you. And then, in France, when I was on the verge of walking away from it all, she showed me what I needed to see yet again. Or rather, what she thought I needed to.”

  “She’s playing you, Ash.”

  “Of course. And while it makes me angry to no end, I understand why.”

  Tristan sighed, not sure how he felt about the whole thing.

  “But, I have decided. There is no point in fighting fate. Besides…” She sat up, leaning in closer. “I do not have to be a slave to it. My love for you may be fated, but it is real, the first real love I have felt since—” She stopped to bite into her lip and shake her head. “I will not walk away from our love. I will no longer fear a fate I cannot control.”

  Tristan tilted his head towards her. “Live in the moment, then?”

  “Yes,” she whispered, from a breathless inch away. “Every moment.”

  He sighed as their lips met in a light embrace. Wanting more, he reached up to grab her, but sensing his hunger, his need, she was already pushing herself over the tub. She may have felt human, but her instincts were still strong, especially when it came to lust.

  The water sloshed over the sides as she settled herself on Tristan, straddling his waist. Her hands went to his chest and up to his neck to settle on his cheeks, his own digging into her hair, fisting the damp strands. She moaned into his mouth, forcing her tongue in. It surprised Tristan and he hesitated, his eyes slitting open to look into hers. She stared back, unwavering and unafraid. It was the first real kiss they’d shared. Even in France, when she let her hunger drive her into his arms, she never fully let herself go. But with her inhibition, Tristan knew there was still a firm line she wouldn’t cross.

  Tristan’s lip held between her teeth, safely out fang’s way, Ash slowly pulled back. “No,” she said softly. “I still will not bite you, but I will fight to control my hunger and be with you.”

  “You can’t read my mind right now, can you?” She still felt empty to him.

  Her eyes darted away. “Not as of yet.” She looked back to him. “That woman will fix me or so help the Goddess I will show her how ruthless a long term non-practicing vampire can be when she decides to practice again.”

  “You—you’re going to start feeding on people again?”

  Seeing the worry, jealousy and fear in Tristan’s expression, Ash sighed, sitting up. “It is the only way I can see to keep you safe. As I am now, I am no better than a human. And I have realized, these few days like this, that I hate it. I want to be whole again. I see the error of my old way of thinking. I need to evolve and change or just give up and die.”

  Tristan frowned. Ash’s sudden non-vampiric state sounded an awful lot like Yuki’s meddling again.

  “I do not think this was Yukihime’s plan.”

  “Seriously, how are you doing that?”

  She smiled. “I can read your face. I have lived a very long time and have learned to read any nuance. Besides… you are so honest.”

  “I hate lies.”

  “Yes. I agree. Which is why I have so much to tell you. Right now, this very minute though… you were right, is not the time, but I fully intend to tell you everything I remember the moment we are free of bothersome guests again.”

  Desmond, he thought but then realized she might have meant the elf and pythia. Regardless, they all needed to go, not to mention Genoveva being at the top of the list. Tristan considered her a moment, wondering how much truth she was actually going to tell him and ended up sighing heavily. He lifted his hand between them. “Deal.”

  She started at the odd gesture before smiling again, slipping her hand into his. It was a human gesture, shaking on an agreement. She was okay with playing human for a little longer. But she was more than ready to start being vampire again. In the very back of her mind though, the place she shoved things she didn’t want to think about, she wondered who was manipulating her into this life changing decision by spelling her like this. That it could be Yukihime in any form just didn’t seem plausible anymore.

  For Ash to go back on human blood again was a huge decision, maybe one that she wouldn’t have otherwise made if she hadn’t realized how weak and pathetic she was. Even without the spell riding her, cutting off her motonō and seikonō powers, she was a weak creature, not befitting the name of vampire, the title of Master of Earth.

  “Hey, you uh, you won’t kill those you feed from, right?”

  Ash took her hand back, squelching a frown. “No. It is not necessary to kill to fulfill one’s hunger. But…” She licked her lips nervously. “It is a bonus pleasure for us. I am ashamed to admit I have tasted many deaths and the elation they give.”

  Tristan shifted in the tub to sit up straighter, forcing Ash further down on his lap. “But Mamoru said you’ve never killed anyone voluntarily in your life.”

  She flinched, having not realized that the man saw that when they’d had their little tryst more than a year ago. “Yes. That is the truth. Every life I took I was forced to do so. But that does not mean their deaths are any less my fault. That I had not enjoyed the taste of those lives even as I wept for their damned souls.”

  “Just means I don’t have to kill you,” Tristan said with a smile. He meant is as a joke but Ash’s unblinking stare made his core shiver with the knowledge that she could easily kill those she fed from. It was infinitely harder for her to abstain of their deaths than to take them. It’s why fledglings killed so many in their early years.

  She let out a huff, forcing herself to relax. “If I do lose sight of my values, I fully expect you to kill me.”

  “Ash, I was just kidding.”

  “I wasn’t.” Her eyes were sad when they looked into his. “Promise me that you will. If I lose all of my humanity, the mor
als by which I have to live by, that you will be the one to stop me. Please,” she added at his extreme hesitation to answer. “It is important to me that you do this for me.”

  He shut his eyes. He knew that no matter what he’d never be able to do it. “I can’t promise something I don’t think I can do.”

  “That is an honest answer… not the one I wanted, but honest.”

  “Sorry,” he whispered.

  Ash stood in a rush of water. It was getting cold again and Tristan felt warm enough that he was tired of being in the tub. “I will get your clothes.”

  He nodded as she disappeared into the other room, dripping water behind her. With a groan he climbed out of the cooling water and nearly stumbled. His muscles ached in protest and he felt heavy. But overall, he was okay. And hungry as the smell of hot food found him. His stomach rumbled and he shuffled out of the bathroom.

  The bedroom was warm and dark. A pile of wet clothes sat in the middle of the floor and a naked behind stuck up from behind the bed. Tristan smirked, getting a big eyeful as Ash rummaged around in the bag at her feet. With a huff she lifted the bag to the bed, turning and flinched when she saw Tristan standing in the doorway in just a towel.

  He grinned big. “Hello, nurse.”

  Ash flushed ever so slightly, a shy smile on her lips. “We are low on clothing.”

  “I’ll say,” Tristan said as he went to her and took her into his arms. Letting go of the towel made it fall to the ground so that they were both standing there completely nude.

  Feeling Tristan’s warm, damp flesh against hers, she let out a shaky breath of desire. “As tempting as the offer is right now, we cannot.” In fact, now would have been the perfect time to finally take that last, aching step in their relationship since Ash had no blood hunger. Maybe she could prolong forcing Chrysanthe to remove the spell—just a little bit longer. Not that she believed the child could help even a little bit.

  “I know,” he said in a low, husky voice even as he lowered his face towards hers.

  She didn’t resist his kiss, instead encouraging it with a little nudge of her hips against his. Holding her tightly against him, he started to rock them from side to side, a slow dance to music that existed only in Tristan’s head.