Dark Whispers Sheridan and Cain 2009

by Unknown

  “Yes,” Yun hiss, reaching out to caress Dai’s face. “The bitch needs to pay for her betrayal. Shall I avenge you or would you like to do it personally?”

  “Dai, please no! They made me do it! I swear!” Susan backed up against the wall, almost tripping over Brandt’s body, which was now being gnawed by all but one of the demons. The remaining one was closing in on Susan, its clawed hands reaching out, its serrated jaws snapping. “Don’t let these things get me, Dai. Please.”

  “Oh, do shut the fuck up, you sniveling bitch,” Sakurai told her as he strode in the door, kicking aside the bodies of more demons who’d tried to intercept him in the outer walkway. He stood just inside the doorway, his arms folded across his chest. “In the event you hadn’t noticed, Yun, Daisuke ismine.”

  “Tsk, tsk.” Yun wagged his index finger at Sakurai while he grabbed Dai from behind. “You don’t take care of your children very well, Elder.” He wrenched the nail from Dai’s back.

  “Fuck!” Dai cried out. Shit—it felt like his spinal cord had been ripped out along with the nail, the pain was so bad. He crumpled to his knees, too weak to support his own weight. Yun caught him by the back of his shirt before he could pitch forward facefirst onto the blood-soaked cement floor.

  “The mortals wanted to use him as bait, Sakurai.” Yun snorted and held the nail up with a patronizing air. “So much for him being ‘yours’. How does that saying go —’finders keepers’?” Laughing darkly, he stepped backwards and dragged Dai into the shadows with him.

  “Dai!” Susan screamed.

  “Cocky little shit,” Sakurai cursed. He started after them, but the demons weren’t interested in their mortal snacks anymore.

  They turned on Sakurai, clawing at the back of his coat, his face, his hands. Snarling, their faces twisted in evil grimaces, more of the devils darted from the shadows outside to tear at him.

  Sakurai tore through them, sending bits of flesh and their black, reeking blood in sprays. But as one fell, another split into two to take its place. Though they were small —the size of young children—it was almost too hard to handle them in his human body, Sakurai realized. But shifting into wolf form would leave him drained, and he was still worn after changing Dai.

  “Fuck!” He roared his frustration, slicing through two more of the demons in the process. Oh, he was going to have to teach Daisuke a few hard lessons after this.

  The pain began to ebb, but Dai wasn’t about to let on to Yun, the fucker, so he let himself be dragged into a subbasement apartment and tossed onto the middle of a sectional leather sofa. Mikail came slithering out from somewhere, a plush velvet robe in place of his customary red leather. There was a thin, young guy, clad only in bloodspattered boxers, draped on his arm.

  “Quite the commotion going on out there, Yun. Is it really necessary?”

  Yun sneered. “Apparently, Master Sakurai is a tough old bastard. Our little guard dogs have their hands full, it seems. The Mistress is here?”

  “Yes, she’s occupied herself with a few other young ones.”

  Dai sprung from the sofa and tore into the side of Yun’s neck, managing to get a few deep swallows of the vampire’s potent blood before he was thrown off and slammed into the wall hard enough to dislodge a hunk of the sheetrock covering the bricks.

  “I don’t think this one is going to be much easier.” Mikail chuckled as he gestured to Dai, who was already starting to pull himself up.

  With a snarl, Yun wiped the blood away from his neck. “A weakling wouldn’t have made for good amusement, anyway.” The blood kept gushing from the wound and he clamped his hand over it.

  Dai licked his lips, tasting the fluid and swallowing it. No way was Yun’s blood as powerful as Sakurai’s, but it was giving him some of his strength back.

  “How does it taste, Daisuke? Good?” Yun laughed, his dark eyes glittering. “Some of your brother’s is in there. You should arrest yourself for committing incest, Detective.”

  “You fucker!” Dai roared. He started to charge forward then dropped to his knees as he recognized the flavor of Wei’s blood on his tongue. It had the same unique smell he recognized as his own. Dai couldn’t keep it down, and threw up.

  Yun was suddenly next to him, lifting him off the floor and slamming him down onto the sofa.

  “You weren’t ready to become a chiang shih,” Yun said quietly. “Look at you--so young, so vulnerable.” He caressed Dai’s cheek and then clutched his throat tight enough to cut off Dai’s air. “But not vulnerable enough.”

  Dai bared his fangs and clawed at Yun’s hand. The older vampire narrowed his eyes.

  “I was going to fuck you first and then kill you—the same way I killed those women in the apartment across from yours . . . the same way I killed your brother,” Yun said. “But if I’m a little more careful with the way I take your life and don’t damage your body too badly, I can fuck you just as well after you’re dead.”

  He relaxed his grip a bit and Dai continued to glare at him. “Why did you kill Wei?”

  “Yes, Yun, why did you take it upon yourself to kill Wei Qing Chen?”

  Yun released Dai and stepped away. Dai sat up and looked toward the rear of the cavernous room where Mistress Viktoria stood, clad in diamond-studded black leather. Mikail shooed his little plaything away and respectfully bowed his head.

  “Enough insincere shit from you as well, Mikail. Don’t think I haven’t been aware of you two trying to usurp my authority.”

  “Mistress—”

  “Enough!”

  She folded her arms across her waist and cocked her head a bit to the side. “Well? I want an answer.”

  Dai watched as Yun stared at Mikail and he thought he caught a fleeting hint of the thoughts they exchanged. Mikail’s eyes glittered with fear but he shot across the room. Viktoria held up her hand, sending a jolt of power that shattered Mikail’s thighbones and sent him crashing to the floor.

  Yun growled and in the next instant Mikail was hurtling forward, slamming Yun into the back cement wall. The smaller vampire’s bald head cracked open on impact.

  Yun shoved Mikail’s limp body away and rose, glaring at Viktoria. “‘Why’?” he spat. “Because he was a weakmortal—-one you were getting too attached to, Mistress.”

  Viktoria narrowed her eyes. “That’s very presumptuous of you, Yun. That displeases me very much.”

  “Too bad,” Yun said coldly. “But I don’t think there’s anything you can do about it now.”

  Viktoria’s laughter echoed off the walls and jostled the crystal chandelier overhead. “You are an arrogant bastard, Yun, and that’s one of the things I used to like about you.”

  Yun lunged but she held up her index finger and he stopped short as if frozen in place.

  Taking advantage of Yun’s situation, Dai leapt to attack the Mistress, only to find himself tossed by unseen hands back onto the sectional sofa with enough force to tip the middle section backward and flip him onto the floor.

  “Don’t interrupt, boy. I’m busy,” Viktoria told him. “Stay out of my way and I’ll spare you because of Wei.”

  “You’ll spare him because if you don’t you’ll have to deal withme.”

  Dai hauled himself up to see Sakurai in the doorway like some dark, bloodspattered avenging god of war. His shirt and pants were ripped, his long hair matted, his skin covered in blood and blackened gore.

  “I should have fucking killed you all the first day I was here.”

  Viktoria grinned. “But you didn’t, because you realize what a waste that would be. You and I are a lot alike, my friend. We could work well together.”

  Sakurai swiped his hair back from his face. “You and I are nothing alike. You’re no better than the worthless bitch I drained out there.”

  Viktoria gave a disappointed little huff. “Oh well. You’ll just have to die too, then.”

  “I thought you were smarter than that.” Sakurai didn’t crack a smile for once. “Trying to intimidate me doesn’t e
arn you brownie points. It only pisses me off.”

  Breaking free from whatever power Viktoria used to hold him, Yun made a strangled noise in the back of his throat. “My little ones—you killed them all!” he cried out, his gaze darting up and down Sakurai’s blood-drenched clothes. “My demons!”

  “They were in my way,” Sakurai whispered coldly.

  Yun lost his self-control and lunged at Sakurai this time. It was just the opportunity Dai needed.

  Bending down, he picked up the iron nail Yun had discarded on the floor. The metal burned like a bitch, but Dai clenched his jaw, darted forward and pierced Yun’s temple with the three-inch long spike. The vampire screamed and almost fell, but Dai caught him by the hair and held him up.

  “This is for Wei, you fucking bastard,” Dai growled. Gripping Yun’s shoulder with his other hand, he gave a violent wrench and twisted Yun’s head right off his neck.

  Yun’s blood rose like a geyser, drenching Dai like a summer cloudburst.

  “Daisuke!”

  Sakurai’s voice came from behind him and Dai turned. Mikail was inches away lumbering toward him, his head still split, his brains hanging out, his gait unnatural and stilted. But the fucker was unreal, catching Dai off guard by flying through the air and knocking him back into a glass table that shattered beneath him, cutting into his upper thighs and back.

  He grabbed a shard of the glass, severed Mikail’s head from his body and threw the corpse off him. Dai pulled himself to his feet, glaring at Sakurai who watched impassively, his glance straying only occasionally to Viktoria. “What the fuck are you waiting for? Kill that bitch!”

  “I don’t know why I didn’t notice it sooner,” Sakurai said, walking slowly from the door toward the calm female vampire at the head of the room. “Surely it’s been within you the entire time.“

  “It has,” Viktoria said with a faint smile. “But I’m not surprised you didn’t notice. Men can be so oblivious, can’t they? Be they mortal or immortal. Especially when it’s something that defies all logic.”

  “What the fuck are you two blabbering about?” Dai demanded.

  Sakurai stared at him coolly. “Listen, Daisuke. Concentrate on the heartbeats in the room.”

  “What stupid shit.” And yet Dai found that he couldn’t help but do so. There was his heartbeat, matching Sakurai’s, there was Viktoria’s, slow and strong as well, yet different. And there was another. Fainter, yet similar to hers. He looked around. Both Yun and Mikail were dead, nothing emanated from them now.

  Suddenly there was another, very strong, very steady, and very much like Sakurai’s. Dai looked over. Even Sakurai seemed surprised now.

  Viktoria smiled. “So many secrets you’ve missed, Master Sakurai.” She raised her hands overhead and the chandelier and wall-mounted lamps exploded one by one, sending out blazing showers of sparks, hot enough to set the cloth furniture and carpet runners to smoldering. With a snap of her fingers they began bursting into flames, the rolling waves of fire separating Dai and Sakurai from Viktoria.

  She disappeared through a door in an alcove. Coughing, Dai tried to leap the flames, but Sakurai grabbed his jacket. “Let her go.”

  “No!”

  “Yes.”

  An explosion rocked the building upstairs in the main club and they made a run for the lower club above the subbasement. A fire burned there, too, consuming the demons Sakurai had slaughtered, as well as the bodies of Diaz and Brandt and Susan.

  Don’t grieve for her. She had many sins upon her soul, Daisuke.

  The wail of sirens in the distance made Dai wince as the shrill sounds invaded his head but he concentrated again upon the drawing beat of Sakurai’s heart and made it out through the flames and smoke and into the narrow walkway. Instinct drove him to leap as his lover did and they ran across the rooftops until they were away from the arriving fire and police vehicles.

  They dropped down into a dark alley and Dai realized there was no way they could get home before the sun came up. Sakurai laughed and knocked him in the head as he’d done earlier.

  My blood is strong, pet. Even though you’re young and by my usual standards, weak, you can survive the exposure long enough.

  But look at us. The blood. You think no one will notice?

  Sakurai grabbed Dai’s shirt and yanked him forward so their noses practically touched. “I trust this clueless attitude of yours is due to the injuries you’ve suffered.”

  Dai was about to slug him but then he realized hewas acting clueless. He’d felt Sakurai’s presence near him all during the viewing and funeral services for Wei and yet hadn’t seen him. No one seemed to have seen him. “We can make them not see us.”

  “Exactly.” The exhalation of breath from Sakurai’s whisper tickled Dai’s lips and though he hadn’t expected it he wasn’t about to refuse the kiss that followed.

  * * * * *

  Dai’s cat was waiting for him outside the bedroom window when they returned to the apartment, a pink silk thong clutched in his jaws. Sakurai chuckled and pulled off his boots as Dai opened the window for the cat to come in. “Dude, I do not even want to know how you got this.” The cat gave a trilling meow in reply then nuzzled Dai’s hand before leaping from the window ledge to run to Sakurai.

  The elder vampire scratched the cat then headed toward the bathroom. “I’m getting a shower. Join me.”

  Dai considered telling him to fuck off but only for a moment. Though they were both too worn out to do much other than actually bathe, the simple act of doing it together was satisfyingly intimate, as was lying in bed sipping jasmine tea as the sun fully rose outside the shaded bedroom window.

  Setting his empty cup on the nightstand, Dai turned onto his side and studied Sakurai’s regal profile. “Why did you do it—let her go like that?”

  Sakurai looked at him questioningly. “You heard it. You had to have heard it.”

  “The heartbeats? Yeah. Yours, mine, hers and two others. I guess Mikail’s little boyfriend and some other wannabe in the building?”

  Sakurai pinged him on top of the head with his index finger and Dai growled.

  “What did you notice about those ‘two others’? Surely you took stock of them. And here’s a hint, they were not wannabes as you call them.”

  Dai sat up, not liking thisyou better not be a dumbass attitude he kept getting. He closed his eyes a moment and thought back to it. “One was like hers, but not exactly. It was very quiet and now that I think about it, faster. And there was another, it reminded me a bit of you, but slightly different.”

  Smirking that aggravating yet now sexy smirk of his, Sakurai reached out and smoothed back damp strands of hair from Dai’s forehead. He let his fingers trail down to brush over the red wound lingering from the iron nail. “The former was quiet because it was within her. It would appear that somehow she’s become pregnant—by your late brother.”

  “No fucking way!”

  Sakurai shrugged. “It is what it is, Daisuke. I admit it’s something I’ve never encountered before.”

  “This is just too fucking unreal. Wei’s kid being born to a vampire?”

  “She’s a most unusual vampire, to be sure, and that explains the presence of the other.”

  “It reminded me of you. You know who it is, don’t you?”

  “Kuro,” he said simply, draining his cup then leaning over to place it inside Dai’s empty cup. Dai grabbed a handful of Sakurai’s hair and pulled him into a slow kiss, surprised his lover allowed it.

  The kiss led to another and another and then into a steady exploration with mouths and hands and teasing bites until both were pleasantly spent and sated from the exchange of blood and fluids. Dai drifted quickly to sleep, his head upon Sakurai’s shoulder.

  Welcoming this gentle intimacy more than he could have imagined, Sakurai rested his chin lightly against Daisuke’s head and closed his eyes. He couldn’t help but be reminded of those long ago nights when he and Kiyoshi had shared this same type of pleasure . . . until
the night Kuro arrived and changed their lives forever.

  How could it be? How could he have survived? Sakurai had killed him with his own hand, had watched his severed head fall down the mountain in Tibet. He’d kicked the body off the other side of the mountain himself, as well. Kuro couldn’t have survived. Hecouldn’t have, and yet he obviously had.

  If it was vengeance Kuro wanted, he could have had it. What was he planning? What was his connection to Viktoria? Did he have a hand in this unusual pregnancy?

  You think too much. Go to sleep.

  Sakurai laughed and pinched Dai’s naked ass beneath the sheet. Insolent bitch.

  Admit it. You love it.

  Yes, I do, actually.

  Sakurai closed his eyes and let the tiredness lull him. All the questions running through his mind would have to be answered, but not today. All that mattered now was what he’d found in a most unexpected way.

  Daisuke Matsui was all he wanted. All he needed.

  ~The End~