SS3 -Ch3-

Sitting at the table, Gus felt rather strange.

Dunyasha was late.

Only by five minutes, but she was still late.

It didn’t actually fit with her personality at all. Not with any part of her that he knew of. In fact, he was actually starting to get nervous.

There was really only two options from here that this would fall under.

She’d set him up and he was about to be attacked again. Just like the last time he went to dinner with Dunyasha.

“She didn’t set us up though. She was just as much a victim as we were. In fact, we weren’t even the target,” Indali argued.

“Fine, fine. You’re not wrong,” Gus admitted, reaching into his jacket to run a finger over Indali’s handle. He felt better having her on his person again. “Just a little unnerved.”

“I think your other thought is more correct. Something happened. Something that prevented her from texting you. As I think she would have by now,” Indali continued, though her voice had an odd tinge to it. “Stop fondling me already.”

Realizing he was casually stroking Indali from frame to the butt of her handle Gus pulled his hand out of his jacket.

“It’s not that I mind, in fact we both know I enjoy it, it just looks odd right now,” Indali quickly added.

To be sure, she was right. A man with his hand in his jacket at an empty table didn’t look quite right.

“If she doesn’t show up, we can go to the firing range again. I think I’d like to be there in my projection as well. Talk to you face to face,” Indali offered.

Thinking on that Gus realized that wouldn’t be a bad idea. He did enjoy the shooting range and going with someone was always a plus.

“Sure. We can-”

“Hey Gussy, miss me?” asked Mark as he sat down across from him.

Dressed in his “Fed suit” that he wore often now, Mark was exactly as Gus remembered him last. And still just the perfect icon of what people would expect of a Fed agent.

Tall, dark hair, blue eyes, muscular, handsome, and with a bit of danger to him. Gus couldn’t deny that Mark was a handsome man and likely could pull women to himself with a smile.

To Gus, Mark Ehrich had for the longest time been the only man on the planet Gus would willingly lay down his life for.

The only man who’d walked out of a desert with him, propped him up when he needed it, and got him back onto a stable track and life.

He owed Mark.

Deeply.

“I did, Durh. I did. And I’m not against going to dinner with you. But you’re not as pretty as the person I was expecting,” Gus said casually with a smirk.

“What? I’m definitely as pretty as Dunyasha,” Mark said, looking offended. “Well… she’s got me beat on her figure, I mean, wow. But I’m just as pretty!”

“Fin’s prettier than you are, too,” Gus said, putting his elbow on the table and then putting his chin in his hand.

“I… yeah, okay. Fin is definitely prettier,” Mark said, relaxing in his chair. Then he chuckled. “She wanted me to say thanks for dinner last week. Wants to invite you and everyone over on… Monday? Yeah, Monday. Dinner. She’s planning on cooking up a storm.

“Megan… Megan will be there, too.”

Gus winced at the idea of Megan being dragged around from parent to parent, but that’s how a kids life would go when their parents divorced.

And Mark didn’t seem to be looking back in any way shape or form. He wasn’t just running after the beautiful siren known as Fin Dresch, his boss, but sprinting along with her. They were in lockstep and dashing ahead as far and as fast as they could.

With Fin already being pregnant, in fact.

If Gus has to be honest, he actually liked Fin. She fit Mark well.

But he’d thought Kelly had, too.

“Sure, not a problem. We can come over I’m sure. And knowing you, Durh, you already asked Mel. Are we going?” Gus asked.

“Yep!” Mark admitted with a grin. “Apparently your family is brining the desert course and appetizers.”

Snorting, Gus nodded his head at that. It sounded about right. It didn’t bother him either.

“Is Dunyasha okay?” Gus asked, getting straight to the heart of the issue. With Mark here, it meant that Dunyasha had done something, or something was done to her.

Mark winced at that, his eyes still holding Gus’.

“No, she’s not. Someone tried to kill her about an hour ago when she left her house,” Mark murmured. “She-”

A waiter appeared at their side, looming over both Gus and Mark.

Before the waiter could open his mouth Gus had already sunk a thread of power into the dark corners of the man’s mind.

Reading the thoughts and intentions there even as Indali practically leapt into Gus’s palm, he found that there was nothing sinister here.

Just a young idiot who couldn’t read the mood and had walked up on two men who likely weren’t radiating a welcome presence.

“Could I-”

“I’ll have the chicken parmigiana. I’ll also need an order of steak diane. If you don’t mind, I’ll need both to go. So just box’em up,” Mark said with an easy smile, looking up to the waiter. “My husband will have the barbecue burger with onion rings. I know, it’s odd to come here for such a thing, but what are you gonna do? I love him and he treats me well. Also make that burger to go. We won’t be able to stay, but here’s my card to cover everything.”

Mark had already pulled a credit card out and was holding it up to the waiter.

The waiter looked from Mark, to Gus, back to Mark, then took the card and left.

Letting go of Indali, Gus let out a huff and looked to Mark.

“What? He wouldn’t believe we’re not married if I’d just called you my boyfriend,” Mark said defensively. “And besides, we’d make a cute couple.

“Now… Dunyasha. She’s… I was going to say alright but she’s not. She’s in critical condition in the Fed hospital. Stable but… critical.”

Gus ground his teeth together, his jaw flexing as he chewed on nothing.

“Yes, you can visit her, I’ve already given approval for you to go see her,” admitted Mark. “But… was she working on anything for you? Was that why you were meeting her? I only knew to come here because she told me you were here before she went in for surgery.”

“No! No… it was just dinner,” Gus said and pulled out his phone quickly. Unlocking it he flipped over to Dunyasha’s message history and held it out to Mark. “She just wanted to have dinner. She asked me out. That’s all.”

Mark glanced down at the message, then looked up to Gus. Then he shrugged his shoulders and grinned.

“No need to prove it, Gussy. You know I love you. I trust you. If I could have your babies I would. I’d cheat on whoever I was with just to make you smile and give you endless children,” Mark said, leaning back in his seat.

Frowning, and feeling off-base, Gus let his phone sink to the table.

“You’re… very strange sometimes, Durh,” Gus said finally. “And I mean that as someone who truly cares about you.”

“I love it when you get mooshy with me. And no, I’m not that strange. Not really at least. I just have a much better grasp on reality than you do,” Mark said and tapped his fingers against the table. “Like the fact that you’re going to go see Dunyasha after this. And the burger isn’t actually for you, it’s for your partner who’s waiting out in the car.”

“My… partner?” repeated Gus. He hadn’t asked anyone to come along with him.

He actually trusted Dunyasha.

“What? Oh… oh! Well, geeze, now I just look like a stalker myself,” Mark said with a chuckle. “Serafina, you know the tech genius you stole from me, is outside waiting in her car. She clearly doesn’t quite understand how a stakeout should be conducted but… she’s out there. Her glasses really reflect the screen on her phone. Made her stand out.”

Sighing, Gus put a hand to his head and contemplated the situation.

It sounded like Chloe had been paying attention to his texts and had told Serafina. Or Serafina had hacked into his phone and read his messages.

When he thought about it, the latter seemed more likely.

“I can have your car taken back to your house. I had a driver bring me here,” Mark said with a wide smile. “It’ll give me a chance to drop of Chloe’s official pardon paperwork as well. She’s a free lady starting today. Completely in the clear. If she suddenly divorces you though I’m going to be so angry I’ll… I’ll… well, actually nevermind. I don’t have to do anything if she does that. Melody would handle it.

“I mean, it’s not like she hasn’t killed people and disposed of bodies before. That and I can give Mel back her blue-platter. Was rather nice of her to wrap up left-overs for us like that. Was delicious. Fin caught me around two am dancing in the kitchen that night while eating.”

The conversation was changing far too fast for Gus. He felt like he was still at the part where Serafina was watching over him from her car outside.

Pulling his phone back to himself he looked to the screen.

Flicking it open to his message history with Serafina he tapped in a message.

I know you’re out there. I’m bringing you dinner. Don’t go anywhere. You can eat it while I drive us over to the hospital.

Dunyasha was hurt. I want to see her and see if there’s anything I can do for her.

You want a drink with your meal?

Gus hit send and looked back to Mark.

“-that’s about when Fin stole the fork and ate it all herself. I mean, I know she’s pregnant, but isn’t it too early for her to start eating everything? It was mine. I’d heated it up for myself,” complained Mark. “Then… then to top it all off, she found my cookie stash. I went to get one last night and they were all gone. How does a grown Siren eat two packages of cookies in one night. Hm? Hmmm?”

“Oh. I told her where all your stashes were,” Gus said with a chuckle. “Remember all those condoms? Yeah. You’re welcome. I also sent her all the photos I have from our deployment.”

“I… you did?” Mark asked, his voice growing quiet a bit more subdued.

“Uh huh.”

“And… and the one with the uh… the… dress?”

“That one, too. She thought you were very progressive.”

“Gus… that’s not fair. They were just condoms and-”

“There isn’t a room in my house that doesn’t have them somewhere. They’re everywhere. Because Melody decided that during the one week she isn’t on birth control, the mood could strike her at any time. I blame you”

Mark held a hand out at Gus.

“What the shit, you should be thanking me, not blaming me! Man, I need a harem. I’d just be at it all day. So deep in women. So deep. Need four houses.

“Fin won’t even let me talk about it,” Mark grumbled, folding his arms in front of himself. “The one time I brought up you and Mel she just stared at me. Stared at me and then finally said, ‘Mark, I’m the only woman in your life. I’ll not tolerate others.’ And that was it. I mean, really now. I could make her feel special even if I was at wife number ninety-four.”

Gus only shook his head, grinning. There was no way he could ever really be angry at Mark.

Or even annoyed.

Gus’ phone vibrated in his hand causing him to glance down at it.

“Okay. Uhm, can I just have water? I need to cut down on sugar where I can. Can I have salt as well? There’s never enough salt.”

Smirking, Gus nodded his head and typed in his reply, even as Mark continued to complain about not having a harem.

***

Walking up to the private room in the ICU ward where Dunyasha was supposedly at, Gus looked to the two men in suits in front of the door.

“Gustavus Hellström. Here to see Dunyasha. I’m a friend of Mark Ehrich and Dunyasha both,” Gus said then shrugged his shoulders. “And Fin Dresch, too.”

The two agents who were staring at Gus had a nearly identical reaction. Both of them reached for the door to open it.

“Of course,” said the first. “Be as quiet as you can.”

“Please respect her health, she’s in a lot of pain,” said the second.

Nodding his head in thanks Gus walked into the hospital room.

A series of machines were whirring and beeping away. Sitting in a bed in the middle of all those machines, was Dunyasha.

Her black hair was messy and ragged looking. Only one dark brown eye was visible but it was watching Gus.

He’d once thought she’d looked like the beautiful type of woman climbing her way to the top of a corporate ladder or selling million dollar homes on her looks and charm alone.

The reason only one of her eyes was open was that a bandage covered one part of her face and her other eye. She was nearly nude given the number of things attached to her skin all across her body. The barest of modesty had been afforded to her, a gown barely covering her well developed figure.

From what he could see of her she was chewed up from what looked to be fire. A lot of her skin had an angry and ugly redness to it that didn’t look good at all.

“Gus,” croaked the vampire, slightly turning her face away. “No. Don’t want you here.”

“Too bad. You stood me up. Had to go find my date,” Gus said, coming over to her. “And now that I’ve found her, I plan on spending the evening with her.”

Dunyasha made an ugly noise at that, somewhere between a chuckle and a groan.

“Not how I wanted our evening to end,” hissed the vampire.

“Yes, I’m sure your pretty self had hoped to partner feed from me. Likely after sex,” Gus said coming to stand beside her bed.

“Before sex. And then again, after. Then sex again. Maybe feed during it,” admitted Dunyasha, slowly turning her face back to him. “Not anymore though.”

Now that he was closer, he could see there were likely burns under that bandage. He could see the barest hint of red streaking out from under it along with what looked like some greasy substance.

“Not so pretty now,” said Dunyasha, then lifted up a hand and pulled back part of the bandage. “No amount of blood or magic will heal this.”

The covered eye wasn’t damaged. It was missing.

Half her face was also burnt quite badly. To the point that she looked almost like a melted candle. All the hair on that side of her head was also gone, and likely wasn’t going to return given the amount of scar tissue that would develop.

Gus didn’t recoil from her. Instead he inspected the damage, even going so far as to take the bandage from her and hold it back.

Peering into the empty eye-socket he could see that the interior had been scooped clean. Likely by the doctors looking to give her a chance to heal cleanly.

Vampire regeneration could be a tricky thing. An eyeball could have regrown itself inside her skull if it went wrong. Or she could have grown back three.

There just wasn’t a way to tell or predict such a thing.

So the medical recourse chosen was to remove the eye entirely and give her a chance to heal without it.

“Oh, I don’t know about that. I think you’ll look rather sexy with an eye-patch,” Gus murmured. “Ex-Coven leader turned Fed agent and dangerous blood mage. Definitely eye-patch worthy.

“As to the skin… I think you underestimate your own power as a blood-mage. Chloe was quite adamant with me on the way over that all you need is some higher powered blood to get you going, no matter how bad you’re hurt.”

Dunyasha grunted at that, pulling her head away, the bandage falling back into place.

“I’m afraid I won’t be getting much in the way of ‘high powered blood’ any time soon. I burned all my contacts to get into the Fed to… to chase you,” muttered Dunyasha.

“Well, let’s talk about that,” Gus said, looking around the room. He spotted a stool and dragged it over. Setting it up next to Dunyasha’s bed.

Using this as an opportunity to poke into her head, Gus picked up the thread he’d left inside her mind previously as he’d dragged the stool over. Those small filaments could take years to dissolve on their own.

“You really joined the Fed just to chase me?” Gus asked as he sat down and looked to her. In her mind he could practically see her mind run around in a short panic.

Only to collapse on itself in its current pain med induced haze.

“Yes. I did,” Dunyasha groused, slumping into her bed. In moving she’d exposed her chest and her left arm. Which looked like a terribly burnt and wizened piece of muscle rather than anything else.

Reaching down she grabbed the blanket with her right arm and pulled it, and her gown, back up.

“Like some love-sick, idiotic, school girl, I gave up everything to chase you. And this is the price I’m paying. They burned me with acid and beat me,” said Dunyasha. “Dumped holy water on me, too.”

It was all true, too.

He could see the attack happening in her memories. Her reasons for doing what she did, and what she’d hoped to get out of it.

Gus had been a unique existence in her life. One that’d shattered her previous convictions and expectations. That he alone had fostered a change in her mind and what she wanted.

“Now I’m… I’m what you see. And the ‘high powered blood’ as you called it, is infinitely out of my reach. By the time I’d get any, it’d be too late to heal the damage. The vampire regeneration would have locked me into what I am,” Dunyasha explained. He could see in her thoughts that she had contacts on her computer that she could use, but no one would respond to her even if she tried. There wasn’t a point to it. “And the Fed doesn’t have any. Mark and Fin already checked for me. Their blood-stocks were at one of the Fed buildings that blew up.”

Grimly, Dunyasha’s single brown eye turned back to him.

Ah, this would be why Mark made sure to come see me. High-powered blood, indeed.

“Going to be locked into what you see me as now. So much for… everything,” said the blood-mage.

Even as he continued to peer into his mind, he saw only layer after layer of depression and sadness. There was no resentment toward him, only regret.

“I would,” Indali said from her corner of his mind.

It took him a moment to realize what she was referring to.

The thought of feeding her directly from himself had flittered through his mind only seconds ago, after all.

To partner feed her.

“What about the blood of a Boogieman?” Gus asked, pulling his coat off at the same time.

“I mean… what about it?” asked the vampire.

“Is that high-powered?”

“Yes but… the only contacts I had in the Council obviously won’t be talking to me.”

Gus got a deep flash of multiple people she’d just mentioned. People that he’d desperately like to get a hold of. Once more he got the impression she had their contacts on her computer at home.

“Mm. I’d like to talk to you more about that later, and about a case I’m working,” Gus said, rolling up the sleeve of his button down shirt. “For now though, I’m going to partner feed you.”

Dunyasha smiled with one side of her mouth, the other side not moving very much.

“I’m flattered, Gus. But I don’t… I don’t need any blood. I’m full. Human blood wouldn’t do much for me but… but I’m truly flattered,” Dunyasha murmured, her single eye’s path trailing down toward her lap.

“Humor me,” Gus said pulling his carry-knife free from his belt. “I’m sure you’ll find me delicious and that you can’t get enough. Chloe can’t.”

Sighing, Dunyasha nodded her head fractionally and then shook her head.

“Fine. If this isn’t pity feeding then… fine.”

“Definitely not pity,” Gus agreed. Cutting himself in the same spot as always, he didn’t waste any time and simply pushed his wrist straight up toward Dunyasha’s mouth.

“Gus, I’m sure Chloe, a foul mouthed knuckle dragger if ever there was one, wouldn’t know proper manners. But you shouldn’t just shove it at my mouth you know. I’d at least like-” Dunyasha’s words trailed off and her nose twitched several times.

Sniffing his blood.

Then her tongue came out and ran up along the bleeding wound he’d made.

Looking up to him, Dunyasha’s single eye widened.

“Sure you don’t want me to just shove it in your mouth?” Gus asked playfully. “I could always j-”

Dunyasha’s mouth closed down around the cut, her right arm coming up to loop around his forearm. Holding it in place against her shoulders, she began to make odd hiccuping noises.

She began to drink as deeply as she could from him, pulling at him as a drowning man would a life preserver.

Her thoughts tripped over one another in their need to get to the top first.

That she was partner feeding from him, that he was a Boogieman, and that he was a telepath. One that was actively reading her mind she guessed.

And had apparently accepted all that she was and her thoughts throughout. Even when he met her the first time.

Power and strength began to well up from inside her with every hard gulp of his blood. She could actually feel her body begin to mend itself. As if it was an engine running out of fuel and suddenly found a new tank to pull from.

Gus was about to tease her when he noticed the trail of tears falling down from her one eye. She was watching him now as she fed.

Crying, sobbing over his arm, and drinking from him as fast as she could, Gus could hear Dunyasha’s thoughts as they went screaming around in a circle over and over.

That he was listening to her thoughts, and still fed her.

In a never ending loop, all being bowled over by a deep and vast amount of gratitude.

Right. Not a time to tease her.