Disclaimer: Trowa Barton, Midii Une, Episode Zero and Gundam Wing are the property of Sotsu Agency*Sunrise, etc. This story, like most of my others, is not for children, this one contains blood and evil! Inspired by a gorgeous piece of vampiric fanart by the talented Great Saiyagal. Check it out here
By Midii Une
When she moved in her sleep the
ribbons of hair slid across her throat like strands of golden silk. Midii struggled restlessly with the twisted
sheets, the morning racket her brothers made calling her from far away, pulling
her rudely from the cloudy gray dream world and the last lingering embrace of
night.
Her blood seemed to tingle, as if it
buzzed with the effects of some exotic drug.
She had an unusual awareness of it hot and pulsating in the veins close
beneath her skin. Trowa injected
himself into her dream as she slid further beneath the blankets determined to
stay with him this time, even in dreams he was always elusive and enigmatic,
downright frustrating. It was different
this time, his face became clearer, unearthly somehow, the lines as perfect as
if he were carved from the purest white marble and those eyes like jewels, but
alive and burning with undisguised lust.
Her breath caught in her throat and she felt trapped in morbid
fascination as she stared into the deep green eyes that seemed like endless
wells of turbulent water waiting to drown her.
Someone was calling her name,
desperately trying to get her attention but she hung onto the dream
tightly. Long, white fingers reached
for her throat, she could feel a touch as icy as that imagined hand from the grave
stroking her skin. There was sticky
liquid trickling down her neck and shoulders and her thumb started bleeding
again from the place she had hurt it in the graveyard, dark red and seeping
beneath the bandage.
“Midiiiiiiiiiii!!! Wake up,” a petulant, boyish voice called.
He stepped back as his sister’s eyes
flew open and she grabbed convulsively at her throat.
“Oh my God, oh God,” she gasped
breathlessly as her fingers trailed through cold sticky fluid that seemed to
cling to her skin. Her eyes focused on
her brother as her heartbeat came back under control, the dream adrenaline
fading. The young boy stood looking at
her with his shirt buttoned crookedly and a slopping glass of orange juice in
his hand. She smelled the fruity
fragrance everywhere and she could tell he’d spilled it on her when he was
trying to wake her up.
Damn, damn, damn, she thought,
getting out of bed and pulling a robe over her nightgown. She’d dreamed that Trowa was finally looking
at her as if he wanted to eat her up only to be rudely awakened to clean up a
sticky mess.
The every day flurry of feeding
several younger brothers and getting herself to work doused the strangely
erotic dream of Trowa in a flood of mundane little details.
It wasn’t until lunchtime under Hilde
Schbeiker’s relentless quest for gossip that she remembered to look at the
bandage on her injured thumb. It had
bled through again. Hilde shrugged off
the little wound.
“You must keep opening it when you
use your hand,” she said, barely glancing at it as she dug in her purse to find
Midii a new bandage.
“That’s what Trowa said last night,”
Midii sighed.
“Trowa?? You saw Trowa last night,” Hilde pounced, leaned close to Midii
over the table and whispered persuasively, “tell me everything.”
She wrinkled her nose as the other
girl’s face grew all dreamy.
“You’re too much,” she said, throwing
up her hands in exasperation. “I hate
to tell you this but he really doesn’t know you’re alive and the way you act
like he’s God’s gift to women or something doesn’t help. You should play hard to get.”
“He gave me a ride home last night,”
Midii protested, trying to deny the truth in Hilde’s words.
“And then what,” Hilde snapped.
Midii chewed her lip. Hilde was right, she was always right. He’d
dropped her off and then nothing.
She was saved from the embarrassing
and inevitable confession by the timely arrival of Duo Maxwell, the self-styled
God of Death who in peacetime had been relegated to filching French fries at
lunchtime and generally being a cheerful playboy Preventer.
He squeezed his chair in between the
girls and promptly shoved the last quarter of Hilde’s peanut butter and jelly
sandwich in his mouth and mumbled frantically.
“One more time hot shot,” Hilde said,
desperately trying to decipher his words. “Did you say you want to take us out tonight?”
“Yup,” Duo winked, sliding an
experimental hand along the edge of Midii’s skirt under the table enjoying the
blush that crept up in her cheeks. “You
girls look bored and I’m just the guy to put a little excitement in your
lives.”
“I know,” Hilde said, looking at
Midii mischievously. “Why don’t you
invite Trowa to come along too?”
“Hilde,” Midii whispered violently,
her blush deepening.
Hilde was instantly sorry she’d
brought Trowa up as it turned Duo’s thoughts to her rival for his affections.
“Great idea babe!! He can bring that
gorgeous sister of his and she knows the owner down at the Club Crimson. I’ll pick you ladies up at 9 and we’ll meet
them down there,” Duo said before disappearing with a wink and a toss of his
chestnut braid. They could hear him
whistling the intro music to Cathrine’s circus act as he went.
“Damn,” Midii and Hilde chorused
together, glaring at each other.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cathrine leaned forward slightly as
she peered through the rain-streaked windshield to try to get a better view of
the road before her. She hadn’t wanted
to go out tonight, she’d been unable to sleep for worry about Trowa. Duo had called and although that was usually
a welcome interruption in her life she’d just been about to turn him down when
Trowa appeared from his bedroom as suddenly and silently as a ghost. He’d taken the phone right out of her hand
and uncharacteristically accepted Duo’s invitation.
That stupid, infatuated little Midii
Une was sure to be there. Duo loved
being surrounded by girls and Hilde and Midii trailed in his wake whenever he
went clubbing. If she hadn’t been so distracted
by Trowa’s odd behavior she would have felt satisfaction that the one Duo
really wanted to be with was her but she had more important things on her mind
than flirting with the braided hunk tonight.
She had her sights set on Midii, she vowed to corner her at some point
and find out exactly what she’d been doing in regards to her beloved brother.
Thinking of him, she spared a glance
at Trowa. He was staring intently at
the raindrops as they slid with tantalizing slowness down the smooth wet
glass. The brake lights of the cars in
front of them turned the drops red as blood as they oozed along the foggy
window. She thought she saw him moisten
his pale lips with his tongue as he looked at the rain before shaking herself
and placing her attention back on the road.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Duo, Hilde and Midii shivered beneath
the overhang of the roof outside of Club Crimson, the cold torrents of rain
sweeping beneath the paltry shelter with every gust of the October wind. Duo put his arms around the girls and pulled
them closer, it looked as if he was trying to keep them warm but the two
slender bodies actually provided him shelter from the cold and wet. Duo Maxwell, ever the gentleman, grinned to
himself as he allowed let his fingers roam down to pinch Hilde’s ass while his
other hand accidentally grazed the exposed round swell that rose from the
plunging neckline of Midii’s dress.
Midii pulled away, as if Duo’s
playful touch offended her. She stepped out into the rain with almost
mechanical steps as if pulled by an unseen force. She stood in the full force of
the storm, the wind tearing her shiny red vinyl raincoat open and blowing it
back so it framed her figure swathed in clinging black velvet beneath. She threw her arms wide and tilted her face
to the rain, the moisture instantly causing her black mascara to pool in sooty
puddles beneath her eyes, making her look sad and tragic.
A white face containing burning
emerald eyes stared at her from across the street, he could see her heart
beating and the throbbing pulse at the side of her neck despite the distance. His eyes narrowed as Duo and Hilde pulled
her back beneath the roofline, the murmur of their scolding voices like the
irritating buzzing of insignificant bugs.
“Ugh, it’s cold,” Midii said dazedly,
blinking her eyes slowly and shuddering.
“No shit when you go out in the rain
like that,” Duo muttered, shaking his head and brushing the water from her
drenched coat off himself.
He forgot Midii’s “blonde moment” and
his violet eyes lit with childish glee, as Trowa and Cathrine appeared beside
them.
“Cathy-babe,” he chortled happily,
letting his gaze linger on her voluptuous figure. “You’re looking good tonight! Gonna pull some strings and get
your pal Duo in out of the rain?”
He cocked an eyebrow at his friend,
grimacing before he spoke.
“You look like shit Trowa man,” he
said, possessively taking Cathrine’s arm and pulling her close. “Pardon my saying so but you look like death
warmed over. Maybe you really are sick today,
maybe you shoulda stayed home.”
Midii missed Cathrine’s glare and
stared in lovestruck awe at the object of her desire. How could Duo say he
looked bad, she wondered. Maybe a
little pale, but that was probably because of the cold. The weather that had been so lovely last
night had turned ferocious. His eyes
were on her as well, the gaze like that of the man in her dream and she caught
her breath as he seemed about to take her hand. Instead Hilde sighed loudly in annoyance and dragged her bemused
friend in out of the rain before they got left behind.
“Hey Hilde,” several male voices
chorused as soon as the small, dark-haired young woman stepped into the
maelstrom of flashing red lights and throbbing sound. She grinned, it was a table full of former comrades from her OZ
days, they were waving frantically for her to come and join them. There was no way she was going to sit with
Duo if he was going to ogle Cathrine Bloom all night. No use letting the night become a total waste and it would be a great
opportunity for Midii to start showing Trowa he wasn’t the only man alive.
“Let’s tell Duo we’re ditching his
party,” Hilde whispered to Midii, leaning in close to be heard over the
pulsating rhythm. “I’ve had it with
him.”
Midii nodded half-heartedly and they
squeezed their way to the table where Duo sat next to Cathrine his arm resting
on the back of her chair and his fingers toying with her bouncy auburn curls.
Hilde opened her mouth to give Duo a
piece of her mind but Trowa beat her to the punch, rising from his chair with
his usual elegance of movement that seemed somehow eerily enhanced. Midii looked like she was about to melt into
a puddle and even Hilde had to admit to herself that he did seem more
interested than usual.
The thirst he had seemed to feel since waking up in the cemetery that morning
seemed to intensify as she walked up to the table, the flashing red lights that
gave Club Crimson it’s rather obvious name caressed her milky skin and cast
enticing shadows around her throat. He
wanted to see all of her and it didn’t matter that they were surrounded by people,
she was the only one in the room for him.
He stepped toward her and slowly
eased the bright scarlet raincoat off, letting it drop to the floor. The tight black velvet dress that molded to
her body like a glove and blood-red lipstick made her parted lips look like an
opening rose. An ebony cross rested on
the soft pale skin between her small breasts. The smear of black mascara
beneath her eyes made them look deep and endless but he ignored all these
things to let his eyes trace a pale violet vein that pulsed gently beneath her
skin.
Midii felt her heart skip a beat, he
was touching her face with his fingertips and staring at her so hard, as if
he’d never really seen her before. She
made a soft little sound and leaned forward as his hand traveled along the side
of her neck and stroked the skin that stretched tautly over her collarbone.
She would taste so good beneath his
lips, sweet and warm, her body pressed so close, he could feel how it would be,
her heart pounding so fast, then slow, then stopping . . .
“He’s going to kiss me,” she thought,
a shiver of delight coursing over her body as she shut her eyes. His other hand was exploring her face now
and she made a soft sound of ecstasy, oblivious to the show they were putting
on for the others in their group. Midii felt his grip tighten on the little
chain that held the ebony cross she wore and she swallowed, he was so gentle
but she knew that he was so powerful beneath the façade as if their were
restrained violence and passion hidden behind the mask he wore. She gasped and opened her eyes as she felt a
sharp tug and her throat burned with quick searing pain.
He had stepped away from her and was
looking at her in the same old way, as if she were glass and he could see right
through her at something more interesting.
He opened his hand and the little black ebony cross was nothing but
powder. It spilled to the floor like so
much sparkling dust.
“You shouldn’t wear crosses, they
carry bad memories,” he said, turning away from her, his hands shaking. He had
seen it there as he peered through his lashes at her skin so close beneath his
lips. It was so black against the
whiteness of her skin and it brought back memories in a rushing, unstoppable
tide of alien emotion.
But he’d lied. The memories weren’t bad and they were more
like feelings. She was someone he never
wanted to hurt yet he could have ripped into her in front of all those people,
torn her throat out and . . .
“Excuse me,” he muttered, making a
pretense of going to the bar and ordering a drink.
“What a jerk,” Hilde sputtered,
staring from him to Midii, whose face showed shock and confusion. Several rubies of bright red blood beaded on
her neck where Trowa had ripped her necklace off.
“Pretty weird,” Duo agreed. “Even for
Trowa.”
Hilde rounded on him, her blue eyes
sparking fire. “You’re a jerk too! Come on Midii let’s go to the girls’ room
and check that scratch.”
She took hold of the other girl’s
hand and dropped it. Blood had leaked
from the small gash on her thumb and streaked her palm like crimson tears. She was starting to think Midii should have
gotten stitches in that stupid cut; it kept bleeding all the time.
“Oh my God, I’m so embarrassed. I
just want to go home Hilde. He hates
me, he’ll always hate me. What was I
thinking,” Midii said, staring at herself in the mirror as Hilde dabbed at the
blood on her neck with a wet tissue.
“Just because Trowa and Duo are jerks
doesn’t mean we can’t have a good time,” Hilde said stubbornly as Midii tried
to repair her eye makeup. “A bunch of my old friends are here, guys who used to
be OZ cadets that work for Preventers now.
Come on, it’ll be fun. Still, I
can’t believe how Trowa acted and to think I used to have a crush on him! We’re through with those guys Midii, we’ll
find a new crowd.”
“I’m a stupid fool,” Midii continued ranting, glaring at herself in the
mirror with self-hatred. “I made a wish
yesterday, an impossible wish. All I
ever wanted is for Trowa to love me, to need me like I need him. I should have known it could never
happen. Why couldn’t I see?”
Cathrine stood just inside the door,
her head reeling with Midii’s words.
What had that girl’s desperation led her to? She had always considered her obsession with her brother harmless
but something was wrong, horribly wrong.
He’d slept the day away, as silent and still as a corpse and he hadn’t
eaten for hours. The gypsy tales of her
childhood about the power of wishes and curses spun in her head as she stared
at the oblivious blonde girl.
Midii and Hilde turned, hearing the
soft sound of dismay from the doorway.
Midii flushed bright red, her face
burning hot, wishing she could sink through the floor. Now Cathrine knew about her foolish,
desperate wish. A wish that would never
come true. She’d be sure to tell Trowa
and he’d think even less of her than he did now.
Cathrine grabbed for Midii’s arm as
Hilde pulled her out the door, trying to convince her all she needed was a
stiff drink.
“Midii! It’s important, we need to
talk. What did you do? What did you do
to my brother,” Cathrine hissed, grabbing Midii’s arm and digging her brightly
painted nails into the other girl’s soft skin.
“Back off, Trowa’s the one that hurt
her, not the other way around,” Hilde said, part of her anger due to the fact
that Cathrine had distracted Duo from her tonight.
Duo squirmed uncomfortably as
Cathrine glared daggers at Midii and Hilde as they parted at the ladies room
door. He liked Hilde, he really did,
but could he help it if he preferred Cathy?
She was just so damn sexy. Why
couldn’t they all have a good time together just because he preferred one girl
over the other? And Trowa hadn’t helped
by buttering up Midii then slamming the door in her face. That had been really cold.
Finally the other Gundam pilot
returned from the bar. He held a glass of Merlot that he obviously hadn’t
tasted a sip since the red liquid swayed dangerously back and forth near to
overflowing. Trowa had natural grace
however and only a few drops of the wine spilled on the white tablecloth. He
saw again the drops of blood on Midii’s throat, the hurt in her eyes, his hand
gripped the fragile glass tightly until it shattered, spraying the wine over
the table along with shards of crystal.
“Oh Trowa! Are you okay,” Cathrine
cried, jumping up and prying his hand open.
She gasped, he was perfectly fine, not a scratch on his hand although
Duo was yelping as he pricked his finger after trying to brush up the
mess. Trowa stared at him as he popped
the bloody finger in his mouth and sucked on the wound.
“What’s up with you tonight, Tro,”
Duo asked as Cathrine hurried to the bar to get a rag to clean up with. “Do you like Midii or not? It wouldn’t take much effort for you to get laid
here pal. She really likes you. Hilde
told me all about it. Still there’s no
call to be nasty to the girl if you don’t like her. You could do worse, I’ve given her a try and she’s really
sweet. Tasty dish, y’know?”
Trowa ignored Duo, whose finger had
stopped bleeding, and let his eyes follow Midii’s movements. He stared at her wanting her to look at him
but she only spared him a glance before turning away and lifting her chin
haughtily. Hilde pulled her out on the
dance floor with her and it wasn’t long before the two of them had attracted
partners from the table where Hilde’s old friends sat.
Duo sighed.
“I really don’t get you man, you’re
staring at her like she’s the best thing on the dessert tray but you’re not
making your move.”
Trowa glared and Duo turned away
first although he’d stared down the best death glare he’d ever come up against
in Heero Yuy. Tonight Trowa was
downright scary. He got up with a
muttered excuse and intercepted Cathrine and taking her out to dance. He
cuddled her close, sitting next to Trowa had given him the creeps.
With Cathrine in his arms Duo quickly
forgot his misgivings about Trowa’s bizarre behavior. She was holding on tight and the way her body moved when she
danced was more intoxicating than wine.
He tightened his arms around her tentatively, grinning with satisfaction
as she clung tighter to him in return and he felt her molded against him, the
softness of her crushed suggestively against him and her breath warm against
his ear.
“Oh Duo, you have to help me,” she
whispered urgently. “I’m so worried
about Trowa.”
“Forget about him tonight,” Duo said,
anxious to take advantage of Cathrine’s odd compliancy. She was usually so feisty and something of a
tease. Tonight she didn’t seem to mind his inappropriate advances.
She shivered and he stroked her cheek
comfortingly, landing a kiss right behind the tender touch and following it up
with another.
“Mmmmmmmmm,” Duo groaned as her mouth
opened tentatively beneath his, the movement of her soft lips encouraging him
further.
“I’m going to need your help in this
Duo,” Cathrine thought as she lost herself in his strong, warm embrace. There was going to be a battle ahead. A battle for her brother’s very soul and she
needed an ally. But there was something
else too, the easy attraction she felt for the fun-loving Gundam pilot was becoming
something more serious.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Trowa swirled his finger through the
spilled wine, he didn’t want to eat or drink. Duo had discarded a basket of
chicken wings and nachos but the food seemed as unappealing as the water
Cathrine had given him to drink this morning.
He felt like he was dying inside and Midii was the cure. His feelings for her had taken on an urgency
that ripped through his soul and seemed like they would tear him apart.
Did what he felt for her have a name,
was it one of the emotions that Duo and Cathy and other people felt and
expressed so easily? Midii was a riddle
from the moment he saw her. She was
someone he was supposed to kill, someone he was trained to kill, an intruder, a
spy, a traitor but his heart refused to obey common sense and asserted itself
as it never had before. There was a
person inside him, the soldier’s alter ego, that had always wanted to protect
her from that very first moment.
That person was still there and he
realized that what he felt did have a name.
Love.
“Too late,” he thought. “What were
you waiting for? Did you expect her
just to exist in a void without emotion like you until you came to your
senses?”
Too late, too late because now he had
changed, something had altered in him since the accident in the graveyard and
she had become mixed up in it. Duo’s
phone call earlier that evening had shaken him out of a dream of blood and
death so real that he had almost screamed with the horror of it.
She and Hilde moved with easy grace,
their skin flushed with the heat and energy of dancing. A man he recognized from headquarters handed
Midii a drink before circling around her and pulling her back against him, his
face pressed against the softness of her hair, the tip of his nose nuzzling the
fragile skin of her throat. Trowa’s
vision seemed to zoom in, he could see each black eyelash as she closed her
eyes and rested back against her partner.
He saw in perfect detail the dark stain beneath her eyes from the
mascara that had run in the rain, the parted lips of her red mouth and the
man’s lips taking advantage of the smooth flesh so close. She was so trusting, sweet, Duo said. Was that how she would taste? He could imagine the softness of her skin
beneath his own lips, his teeth grazing at that delicate pale flesh until blood
ran down in crimson rivulets. He knew
the taste, hot and distinctive, she had gotten her blood on his face before the
accident. He would close his mouth over
the wound, he could hear her make a sound of pained surprise then her thudding
heartbeat in his ears, fast and frightened then slow and sluggish.
He stood up so fast that the stool
he’d been sitting on crashed to the floor. With a swirl of his coat he seemed
to disappear into the darkness.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hilde’s plan wasn’t working, Midii
thought as she danced mindlessly, playing the fiasco with Trowa over and over
in her mind. It seemed for a moment as
if he’d been watching her but then he had left. She remembered the previous evening in the graveyard and closed
her eyes. She had wished that he loved
her, wished that he needed her. So much
for wishes, it seemed like every hope of being with him was futile. She had known it as a child but the final
realization was finally sinking in. He
couldn’t love her or anyone it seemed. His emotions were a casualty of war,
used up by the overwhelming sorrow of an abandoned child. She let Hilde’s friend Willem Van Zehn spin
her expertly, she’d seen him at the office, blonde hair, blue eyes, wholesome
good looks and no mystery that he was definitely attracted to her. She rested her head on his shoulder sighing,
she was so tired, tired of being alone, tired of struggling for Trowa to notice
her.
“He doesn’t know you’re alive,” Hilde
had said.
Her stubborn hope still resisted
surrender. There had been something
different tonight and there was one other thing that Midii knew was true. She had shared kisses and touches with other
men, Duo sometimes after one drink too many, and even Van Zehn tonight. If Trowa’s emotions were a casualty of war
then that meant for her as well that a life with love in it was not in the
cards. From the very first moment it
had only been him for her and there could be no substitute.
“Thank you but I think I’m going to
call it a night,” Midii told her partner, putting distance between herself and
the tall blonde man.
She looked around for Hilde but she
was very occupied with a man she’d told Midii had been her unit chief on L2
back when she first met Duo during the war.
He was a nice-looking man with wavy brown hair who always wore a serious
expression and he seemed to think the world of Hilde. It seemed after Duo’s latest hijinks with Cathrine that Hilde was
regaining her interest in her former commanding officer.
“How are you going to get home,” Van
Zehn asked. He could see Midii scanning
the dance floor for her friends and he thought that if she didn’t want to dance
anymore there was no reason their evening should end. He’d seen her around the halls at work; she was an ex-Alliance
spy whose talents were being wasted in the word processing department because
she insisted on being stationed at the French bureau here in Paris. He didn’t think she would be averse to
getting to know him a little better. It
was a cold night out and if he took her home there’d be plenty of opportunity
for a cuddle or even more.
Midii read the thoughts in his eyes
easily.
“I’ll get home fine on my own,” she
assured him. He leaned in close and she
let him kiss her goodnight, testing her theory. She felt nothing as he kissed her expertly, just the right
mixture of firmness and softness in his lips, mouth slightly open but no tongue
on the first try. There wouldn’t be a
second. After tonight she felt dead
inside, barely feeling the cold as she walked out alone to find the nearest
Metro station to take her home.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The young man’s breath misted around
him, it was after midnight and cold.
He’d ended up alone the night wasted on a girl that however pretty had
turned out to be as cold as the weather.
Sad really, but it seemed like since the war more and more people turned
out like her, people who merely moved through the world instead of living. He’d been watching her awhile and thought
she’d been different.
Van Zehn tightened his jacket around
himself, watching his buddy Jamie Hunter walk off down the street with
Hilde. He wished them luck, Hunter had
been mooning over Hilde since the war and she was a girl who looked like she
still knew how to live. If only Midii,
the girl he’d danced with tonight, was more like her. It was as if something had come over her out on the dance floor and
suddenly her heart wasn’t in the evening anymore. He could still smell the scent of her on his clothes and a few
strands of long blonde hair clung to his dark jacket and he wished things could
have turned out differently.
He turned suddenly, startled. It felt like someone was watching him from
the shadows but when he turned to look no one was there. There was no telltale mist of breath in the
frigid night to show that anyone had been.
His heart thudded in panic as he turned back to walk away only to come
face to face with a tall, forbidding figure.
Van Zehn flushed and stuttered a terse greeting. It was embarrassing to be caught by surprise
like this by a superior officer.
It was the former Gundam pilot with
the piercing green eyes, the one who always completed every mission as
efficiently and emotionlessly as a robot.
“Where’s Midii,” Barton asked and Van
Zehn had a flash of memory. Earlier
that night he’d seen Midii with him.
Remembered how odd it was that he just dropped her coat on the dirty
floor and she had just stood there, totally entranced.
“She went home,” Van Zehn said,
taking a step back. Barton was
uncomfortably close and seemed to be trying to stare a hole through him. Maybe he’d read Midii wrong after all. Maybe she and this guy were involved and
tonight had been some little lovers’ spat.
God he hoped not, he’d hate to be on a Gundam pilot’s wrong side.
“Good, she’ll be safe at home,” Trowa
said softly, so softly that Van Zehn had to strain to hear him. He wanted to
run, he had to fight the urge his body was planting in him to flee. A base instinct formed when some ancient
ancestor had faced a wildly dangerous carnivore and just as appropriate at this
moment although Van Zehn didn’t realize it until it was too late.
Trowa’s eyes slid to the man’s
throat, he saw Midii before him, saw her as she had looked when his hands slid
her coat off and touched the velvet dress and her even softer skin. The soft female fragrance rising from her
hair and her skin and the fluttering pulse beating in her neck, slow and
steady. The pulse in the man’s neck was
fast and frightened, it beat harder and faster as he sunk his teeth into the
tender skin and drew out the blood in voracious, insatiable gulps, the scent of
Midii filling his head.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Midii rushed along the strangely
quiet and deserted halls of the Preventer Headquarters in the LaDefense
district. She took a discreet sip of
her coffee as she headed for her cubicle.
Was she really that late, she wondered.
Sleep, when it had finally come, had been full of disturbingly erotic
dreams and the scratch on her throat from her broken necklace stung painfully
as she walked.
People were staring at her as she
slipped into her chair and her vidcom was beeping insistently. She pushed the button and found herself
staring at a pale, wild-eyed Hilde.
“Oh Midii, I’m so relieved to see
you. Did you hear what happened last night.
It’s so horrible,” Hilde said, speaking quickly, her words a jumble.
“I was late I didn’t turn on the news
this morning,” Midii said. “What
happened?”
“That guy you were dancing with last
night was murdered right outside the club!
I’m so glad you got home alright, they’re saying it must have happened
right after you left him,” Hilde said.
“It was awful, his throat was ripped out as if he was attacked by an
animal and he bled to death.”
Midii gasped and put her hand to her
own throat, shaking her head in disbelief.
Duo hesitated in the doorway. Midii was the last one who’d positively seen that dead guy last
night. He wished like hell that Heero
and Wufei weren’t posted to space headquarters right now. He didn’t want to play the bad guy. He liked
her, but he couldn’t let it stop him from finding out what had happened last
night.
He took a deep breath and stepped
inside, his violet eyes sober and serious.
She could so very easily have killed that guy for making a wrong move,
she looked fragile and helpless but that wasn’t necessarily true. She’d fought in the war just like the rest
of them and her record showed she could be just as deadly when provoked.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Next—Insatiable Part 3: Life and Death
