Blood Moon

Chapter 1

Jou panted harshly, skidding around another street corner, making the mistake of looking behind him as he turned. He stumbled in the rubble, pitching forward as his ankle twisted. Jou just barely managed to get his arms out to brace himself in time, turning the fall into a controlled roll, ending up back on his feet.

He grimaced at the pain that flared up his leg, but he didn’t stop running, even though it was now at a slightly slower pace. The brief tumble had cost him precious time. He could now hear the pounding footsteps of the men pursuing him, gaining on him with his every slightly hobbled step. Jou pushed himself harder; there was no way he could afford to be caught. Jou took one more desperate corner, being sure to keep his footing this time, keeping an eye on the rubble.

With his attention directed elsewhere, Jou never saw the hands that reached out of the shadows to grab him, one gripping around his middle, pinning his arms to his side, the other clamping tightly over his mouth. He was yanked backwards, into a solid body, before being dragged into the dark entrance of a building.

Jou struggled violently, but he couldn’t dislodge the arms that felt like steel bands around his body. He managed to land a kick against his captor’s knee, unfortunately with his injured foot. His pain laden shout was muffled by the long fingers across his mouth. His captor trapped Jou’s legs with one of his own, pulling him tighter against a lean muscled frame. A smooth voice hissed in his ear, “Stop struggling. Do you want to get caught by the slavers?”

Jou went still, realizing two things. First, his captor obviously wasn’t a slaver. Secondly, his kick hadn’t done any actual damage, he hadn’t even heard the other man grunt at the impact, never mind the fact that he hadn’t even budged. He’d been silenced at just the right moment as well, as seconds later the footsteps of his pursuers thundered past.

Actually, Jou had noticed a third thing as well. The solid, male body he was being held against was making his stomach flip, and Jou cursed his hormones for their horrible timing. He twisted futilely, trying to pull his body away, the contact distracting Jou from the real problem on hand. He finally managed to jerk his head to the side, dislodging the hand just enough, teeth snapping, clamping down around two of those slender fingers.

His captor sucked in a surprised breath, the arm around Jou’s middle shifting, tightening before throwing Jou roughly to the ground. He landed in a heap, ankle banging against the stone, making him see stars. Once his vision cleared, Jou looked up at the other man, his breath catching in his throat at the sight, resisting the urge to flinch.

Jou didn’t think anyone had ever glared at him quite like that before, not even his father. The tall brunette he was faced with had fixed him with an icy glare, blue eyes narrowed, pinning Jou to the spot, even as he brought the injured fingers up to his mouth. Jou’s stomach lurched again at the motion, staring transfixed as the digits were lightly sucked, before being pulled back out with a barely audible pop. The other’s glare intensified as he realized Jou was staring. “What is your problem, Mutt? I try to give you a hand and you nearly bite off my fingers.”

Jou snapped out of it at the insult, jumping back up to his feet, ignoring his ankle, hands clenched at his sides, blonde hair falling into his eyes. “Nobody asked for your help, ya jerk! I would’a been just fine on my own.”

An eyebrow raised in disbelief. “You’ve got to be kidding me. If I hadn’t interfered you’d be at their mercy right now,” After a brief pause, as well as a smirk accompanied by an ice blue gaze sweeping down Jou’s body, the other continued. “And judging by just how pretty you are, you’d be in some real trouble.”

Jou flushed, although he wasn’t quite sure if it was from anger or embarrassment, or even the remembered fear from his chase. Jou was far too aware of what happened when you were in any way attractive and caught by the slavers. “It wouldn’t have been the first time I managed to get away.”

The brunette scoffed, waving a hand as if what Jou said was insignificant. “All the more reason that it looked like your luck was about to run out.”

Jou sighed, his fists relaxing, his indignant anger draining out of him, shoulders slumping in defeat. Honey colored eyes closed briefly, before he reluctantly opened his mouth. “Thanks, I guess.” The words were stiff, the one they came from not used to saying them to strangers. “I guess I do owe ya.” This was uttered even more reluctantly. “My name’s Jou.” Then, almost to make himself feel better, Jou muttered under his breath, not loud enough to be picked up, “Although you’re still a jerk.”

In the next moment Jou found himself pushed up against the dusty wall, the taller man’s body hemming him in, long arms on either side of his head. He leaned closer, until their foreheads were nearly touching, until short brown hair tickled his face. That infuriating smirk was back, and Jou shivered, uneasy, he hadn’t even seen him move, and all of a sudden he was across the room.

“Since you’re rude enough not to ask, I’ll let you know just who your savior is. My name is Seto Kaiba.” He watched as the smaller boy’s eyes widened at the name, satisfied that he recognized it. Wanting more of a reaction he continued. “I think I’ll take my payment for saving you now.” At the same time this was said, Seto brought one hand down to slip under the jean jacket and white shirt, to splay his palm over the soft warm flesh beneath.

Seto watched in amusement as a blush streaked across the younger man’s face, his taunt body freezing at the touch, those golden eyes widening even further in shock. Seto leaned even closer, lips hovering over the others. He slid his hand lower, sliding under the waistband, fingertips brushing the sharp jut of a hipbone.

Jou’s breath hitched, unable to look away from the almost hypnotizing eyes boring into his. In a distant, distracted part of his mind, Jou wondered why he wasn’t moving, why he wasn’t trying to stop Kaiba. He needed to move, needed to get away, couldn’t let the other man take advantage of him like this, no matter how attractive. Jou concentrated, putting everything he had into moving, but his hand didn’t do more then twitch at his side, unable to obey his mental commands.

Just as Seto was about to close the remaining distance between them, he stiffened, eyes darting to the doorway before grabbing Jou and dragging him further into the shadows, a small growl escaping his lips. Now that their eye contact had been broken, Jou found he could move again, although his limbs felt weak and shaky. He slumped down to the ground, his legs not willing to support him, stance widening, and Jou took a wary glance up at him, not knowing what was going on.

Kaiba’s eyes were narrowed, face pinched in concentration, like he was listening to something. Jou strained his own ears, but didn’t hear anything. He frowned, confused, he hated not knowing what was going on. “What the hell is wrong with you? There’s nothin’ out there, this whole neighborhood’s empty.”

Seto’s reply was a sharp look shot in his direction, along with an angry, “Shut up, Mutt!”

Jou’s anger flared again, and he was about to answer back when he heard it, and his face lost its angered flush, growing pale in seconds. The slavers knew he hadn’t left the area, and they’d called in reinforcements. “Shit. They brought the dogs back with ‘em.”

Jou could distantly hear the barking, but it sounded like it was coming closer every second. It wouldn’t take very long before they caught up, the dogs would sniff out his position easily. Although it didn’t look like Kaiba was getting ready to run, it looked like he was ready to face the slavers head on. Once the barking was close enough to be accompanied by shouting voices, Jou started to tremble, even though his body still wouldn’t cooperate and get up off the concrete.

The flash of blue-white light he saw next had Jou’s head whipping to the side, eyes widening at the sight before him. Lines of the blue-white light could be seen crackling across Kaiba’s clenched fists. Jou watched fascinated as it arced between knuckles, wrapping around the arms of the suit jacket Kaiba wore. “You?...No way!” Jou couldn’t force any other words past lips gone numb with shock. He couldn’t really be seeing what he was looking at, could he?

Without answering Jou’s mostly unasked question, Kaiba shot him another glare, accompanied by the order, “Stay here,” before stalking through the doorway, back into the crumbling openness of the street.

Jou stayed put as long as he could, before curiosity forced him to move. This basically meant he was crawling his way across the floor after about thirty seconds. Making it the ten feet to the doorway was enough to leave him exhausted, so Jou slumped against the doorframe; he still had a perfectly good view from where he was.

They’d been found, although thankfully the dogs were still on leashes, Jou could see their muscles straining, drooling jaws snapping in their lust for human flesh. Jou tore his eyes away from the canines, away from their sharp teeth, focusing back on Kaiba. There was no way he was going to miss the show that was coming, if the power he could feel rolling off the brunette was any indication of what was to come.

Kaiba waited, until all eight men were gathered around them in a loose semicircle, one of them stepping forward. Kaiba sneered at the man, disgusted by the ugly, muscled, hulk of a man. Kaiba’s hands were folded behind his back, and he’d lowered the power flowing through him to just a trickle, so the men before him had no idea what was about to happen to them. “Where’s the boy?” A gruff voice ground out.

Kaiba ignored the question, rolling his shoulders in preparation. “Yer real stupid to be protecting him. Just give us the boy and I’ll think about letting you walk away from here.”

He smirked in response, allowing the power to surge through him, the light crackling back to life. At the same time Kaiba brought his hands from behind his back, he growled. “You made a mistake trying to pick up this kid, because you’re too late. He already belongs to me.”

Jou caught the slavers looks of surprise and fear, but only for a moment, before Kaiba unleashed the power. The resulting flash of light startled Jou, and he had to squint against the brightness. He gasped, sure that he had stopped breathing as he took in what was happening in front of him. The blue-white light had completely surrounded Kaiba, swirling around him gently before streaking forward in another brilliant flash. Jou’s eyes widened and he forced himself not to blink, refusing to miss a second of what was going on. In a matter of moments the light was starting to take shape, towering twenty feet high, and as Jou watched in awe, the swirling light began to solidify. The shadowed form of a hulking dragon stood in front of the now cowering slavers. It tilted its head back and let out a piercing roar, at the same time its form came fully into view.

Jou flinched at the sound, even as his heart started hammering wildly in his chest, the combined power of Kaiba and the dragon pressing down on him. Jou now knew exactly what they were faced with, and in barely more then a whisper, breathed out, “Blue Eyes White Dragon. Kaiba can summon a Blue Eyes.”

If Jou had thought the pressure was hard on him, he could just imagine how bad it was for those it was truly directed at. The dogs were flat on their bellies, heads between their paws, whimpering pitifully, and their owners weren’t doing much better. A few were down on one knee, not able to stand under the pressure. The rest were still on their feet, but only just, bowed over, hands resting on their thighs, close to collapse.

While the dragon itself was impressive and hard to look away from, it was the caster of the beast that really caught Jou’s attention. Kaiba was standing straight backed and proud, his fondness for the Blue Eyes evident on his face. He wasn’t showing any signs of strain from holding the dragon in this world, and Jou was impressed. It was incredibly hard to summon a Duel Monster from the Shadow Realm, and even harder to keep it here. What made it even more impressive was the apparent ease with which Kaiba had summoned one of the most powerful of Shadow Beasts.

Jou frowned though, when the Blue Eyes continued to do nothing more then stand there, stomping slightly, the tremors enough to be felt by Jou where he sat. He gave another startled gasp when he realized why the dragon wasn’t moving. Its great head was turned in Kaiba’s direction, staring intently at the brunette. It was waiting, not willing to move until its master commanded it. Jou had seen others summon monsters, and even he’d managed it a few times, but every time the monsters had always done as they wished, the summoner not strong enough to control it, only bring it forth. But it was clear Kaiba had complete authority here.

With a wave of his arm, Kaiba set in motion the destruction of the slavers. The Blue Eyes let out another roar, before letting loose a blast of blue light, swinging its massive head from side to side, enveloping all the slavers in its glow. Jou cringed at the sound of their choked screams, and nearly gagged at the smell of burnt flesh that hit his nose.

He did gag when one of the men managed to stagger into his sight. Jou was never gladder that he hadn’t had anything to eat lately; dry heaving at the state the man was in. His skin was red and blistered in some spots, and that’s where he looked the best. The whole left half of his body was melted; skin hanging in charred clumps off of exposed bone, the white horribly obvious amongst the pulpy red remains. Bile rose in Jou’s throat when he took in the man’s face. The lower part of his jaw was burned away, teeth exposed in a horrible parody of a grin. The left eye was bulging in its socket, close to popping out. From the other one Jou could tell the eye should have been blue, but was instead blood-red, all the veins having burst. The arm that still had flesh remaining was outstretched, as if asking Jou for help as he staggered forward. Jou shrunk back as he got closer, silently hoping for him to just drop already. He clamped his eyes shut, not wanting to take in any more gory details as he got closer.

Jou sighed in relief at the squishy sounding thud that came a moment later. His eyes cracked open again, and he was glad to see the man had landed face down, he looked nearly normal from the back. Tearing his gaze away, Jou focused back onto the dragon, just as the light from its blast faded away. The man who had made it away from the attack had fared the worst. All the others had been burnt to a crisp, completely beyond recognition. Both the men and the dogs were nothing more then skeletons, with the odd blackened bit of flesh remaining.

The Blue Eyes tipped its head back, a roar of victory sounding out, before looking once more towards Kaiba. Jou noticed the slight smile on Kaiba’s face, and more warmth in those blue eyes then he’d seen yet. Kaiba nodded his head in thanks before letting the power dissipate, releasing his hold on the dragon. It faded slowly from sight before disappearing; one last roar lingering in the air after it was gone.

Kaiba’s eyes closed briefly, as the power settled back inside him. He turned back to the blonde who was still in the doorway, the smile on his face turning into a scowl. “I thought I told you to stay?”

“Uh, well you did, but I wanted to know what was going on.” Jou felt properly chastised, and grinned sheepishly at the taller man.

“You were safer where you were. You don’t follow the commands from your Master very well, do you Mutt?”

Jou bristled once again at the insult, not about to take this even if the bastard had saved his life. “I’m not a dog, you prick!” Pushing himself up with the help of the doorframe, Jou startled to hobble away. “Look, thanks again for saving my life, but I gotta get back, my friends are gonna be wondering where I am by now.”

A slim eyebrow rose, watching Jou struggle to walk, his ankle obviously still causing him a lot of pain. Kaiba sighed in exasperation, and in a few quick strides was at Jou’s side. He grabbed the blonde, ignoring the very doglike yelp he gave as Kaiba swung him into his arms, slinging one arm around his shoulders, the other hooking under his knees. “Wha! What do you think your doing?”

Without even looking down at him, Kaiba answered. “You now owe me twice for saving your skin, there’s no way I’m letting you go without payment.”

Jou blushed, remembering just what Kaiba had been after earlier as payment, not sure if this was something he’d be able to pay up or not. Jou was startled out of his thoughts when he realized they weren’t moving anymore. “Why’d you stop?”

Kaiba’s eyes rolled, and he sighed again, something he’d done often since meeting the smaller boy. “I don’t know where your little friends are now, do I?” The reply was sarcastic, aggravation clear in his voice.

Jou blushed again at how stupid his question must have sounded. Of course Kaiba didn’t know where to go. “Just follow these streets heading east ‘till you get to the warehouse district. I’ll point it out from there.”

Kaiba nodded, turning and heading in the right direction. They walked in silence, Kaiba preferring the quiet and Jou too exhausted to talk, even though he had a ton of questions he wanted to ask. After a while Kaiba felt a faint thump against his chest, and a quick glance showed that Jou had fallen asleep. Kaiba shook his head, shifting the blonde in his arms so he’d be more comfortable. He continued to follow the directions he’d been given, all the while ignoring the fact that he knew they were being watched.

********

Meanwhile, outside of Domino, deep inside a forested glen a black haired vampire stood contemplating the woman in front of him, spiky hair pulled up into a high tail. Bright green eyes took in every detail of her naked body, following every curve. Otogi licked his lips, tongue running over pointed fangs, breathing in the heady scent of her fear.

He could hear her heart thumping madly, listening as her panicked breathing left her chest heaving, breasts jiggling. She was scared, her terror only exciting him further. It was almost a pity she was tied to the tree, and he briefly entertained the idea of untying her just for the thrill of the chase. In the end Otogi discarded the plan. She was weak, wouldn’t be much of a challenge at all.

She started to shake as he came closer, brown eyes wide in her fear. He tutted as she struggled to get loose the closer he got, before long she was violently pulling at her bonds, to the point where the scent of copper soon hit the air. “Now, now, we can’t have you wasting any of that, darling.”

He reached her then, one pale hand reaching out to cup a soft cheek. He tilted her head up, reveling in the trembling of her frame, his now strangely glowing eyes staring transfixed at hers. He felt the shaking slow and then stop altogether, as his thumb gently stroked her face. Otogi smirked as she relaxed, going limp in the bonds. He brought his other hand to rest at her hip, sliding slowly up her side, caressing warm flesh, watching as his chilled skin left goose pimples in its wake. His hand slid up further, until the mound of her breast rest in his palm. A thumb flicked out, teasing a delicate pink nipple to hardness.

A glance at her face showed her mouth tipped open, cheeks flushed with pleasure; the only thing wrecking the picture was the glassy far away look to her eyes. The hand on her breast slid lower, moving between her legs, sliding between the now slick hidden folds. “That’s much better, this is much more fun when dinner is more cooperative.”

He chuckled darkly, moving his hand back up to tightly grip her hip, the hand on her cheek repositioning just under her chin, tipping her head back and to the side. Deceptively gentle, he pushed her hair away from her neck.

All signs of gentleness vanished in the next moment, as he bared his fangs and quickly sunk them into the exposed neck before him, tearing through fragile veins, with no regard to being neat about things. He swallowed the precious fluid that spilled forth, at the same time releasing his hold over the woman. Glassy eyes snapped back into focus, going wide in shock, mouth opening in an ‘o’ of surprise and pain, but no sound escaped her throat.

He drank greedily, being sure to waste almost nothing, although a line of red trickled down her throat, spilling down the swell of her breast. That was the only drop he let fall, sucking harshly to catch the rest. Otogi closed his eyes in enjoyment as his favorite part of his meal started. The heartbeat pumping her blood into his mouth was starting to slow, its faltering beat skipping every now and again, growing weaker with every mouthful he swallowed. Finally, with one last hitching breath and shudder of her body, she went still in his arms.

He straightened slowly, licking his lips, cleaning away the last traces of blood. Leaving the woman’s corpse where it was, moving instead to the throne in the middle of the small clearing. He flopped down in the stone, swinging his legs up over one of the arms, lounging comfortably before addressing the shadows of the trees. “You can come out now Ryou, Bakura.”

The smaller albino scrambled out of the trees, sinking to one knee in front of the throne with his head bowed before his darker half had even emerged from the trees. The darker half sneered at his light for his obvious deference to the black haired vampire. Bakura took his position next to Ryou, also sinking to one knee, although reluctantly, and without bowing his head.

Otogi waved a hand, giving them permission to speak. Ryou spoke first. “My Lord, we believe we have good news for you. We’ve been following Seto Kaiba as per your orders.”

Bakura took over from there. “It seems that this time he might have actually found what we’re looking for.” Here he paused, though Otogi knew he wanted to say more.

The green eyed vampire master quirked an eyebrow, urging Bakura on silently. “He’s young, but seems to have potential, he didn’t show any visible problems when Kaiba summoned a Blue Eyes. The pressure was nothing to him.” Almost as an afterthought he added, “Plus he’s pretty. I think you’d like him.”

Otogi was silent, reaching beneath his shirt to finger the stone around his neck. “Things might work out in our favor yet.” He glanced up at the moon, visible through the gap in the trees. “Although we’re running out of time for the cutoff this year. The ceremony must be completed ten days from now if we’re going to succeed.” His gaze dropped back to the two white haired vampires, whom he considered for a moment. “Continue to watch them. If it turns out he’s the one we need, make sure Kaiba cooperates. So make yourselves scarce for the time being, don’t let out little pawn know you’re around. And send word to Mai, I want Marik and Malik there with you.” The tone of his voice was a dismissal.

The two nodded in unison, before getting back to their feet and slinking back into the shadows, leaving their Lord alone once more. Otogi was aware that Bakura knew his taste, and was looking forward to meeting the boy. Maybe he’d finally be able to play first before he ate.