Night's Omen

Valerie refrained from breathing a tell-tale sigh of utter relief when he was at last alone, but it was a close thing. There were few other times in his life when he had been so relieved to be alone again, and that included the aftermath of the horrible accident involving his car and the unlucky Darren. Which, come to think of it, had only been short while ago in the grand scheme of things. Why were all his traumatic experiences occuring so recently in such a short period of time?

Well. Val found himself a tree to stand beside and ran a hand through his hair habitually. He felt better here, out in a forest of trees rather than a forest of people, particularly vampires. Now he remembered why he had become - in Roch's words - a hermit in years past. Maintaining a precarious social status quo could be incredibly exhausting. Already Val could feel that the fullness of his appetite had begun to wane, and was again urging him to find something or someone to feed on. Preferably Connor, but Val wasn't sure he was in the mood to go back and push his luck, even if Connor, too, would at the very least also be relieved by the contact.

Running his hands through his hair wasn't enough. Val pressed some fingers to his face and ran his tongue over a sharp fang. Yes, definitely in the mood for a snack, and the physical contact that would put this blasted strain on the bond to an end. Damnable thing.

Valerie wasn't the only one who was irritated and wanting to get out of the mess of people, though Connor made a sincere effort not to go to Val.  His problem was that, for whatever reason, he couldn't locate Capri in the throng of people.  She was either trying to work her (sometimes questionable) diplomacy skills to deal with a problem as the party wound down to its close, or she'd gone home.  He was hoping that Christian had given her to okay to get out of there, considering she really didn't need to be out all night watching vampires party while she was pregnant.  That meant he was out of people to find and relax with.  He'd call her in the morning, since he didn't want to risk waking her up that night.

Thus, he ended up following the odd sort of 'trail' he seemed to have to Valerie, and found the vampire well outside of the party's boundaries, leaning on a tree.  "I'm not going back in there.  Your vampire friends can kiss my ass," he told the vampire firmly, immediately reaching up to mess up the 'sophisticated' look of his hair, and he pulled that damn mask off.  He felt better already, but he needed a change of clothes to make it really work.  Of course, he wasn't about to admit that he might have felt better because he was near Val again.  Somehow, he thought that was a result of Aristide's magic, and not typical to a bloodbond. 

His hair was sticking up in a million different directions when he found a different tree to lean on, and he suddenly gave Val a 'look'.  "I thought you promised to feed before this mess.  You are NOT allowed to do that here, Val!  There are hunters from all three guilds not that far away, and someone could wander over at any time."

Yeah, it was a small chance, but he wasn't risking it.  Just in case.  Either it would end with that secret being blown out of the water, or Valerie getting his head blown off for 'attacking' Crimson's leader.

Oh, goody, the first and last person Val wanted to see. The purpose of getting away from the party had been to get away from the PEOPLE, including Connor, but of course the human just couldn't let Val have even that. He was almost relieved by Connor's sharp words; it gave him something to direct his frazzled nerves at.

"I doubt anyone, even a vampire, would want to put their fangs anywhere near any part of you. Much less your ass." See? That felt great. Val was feeling more emotionally whole already. He made a scoffing noise in his throat at the massacre that Connor was making of his dignified hairdo. The man could have at least waited until he got home and to a shower, but no, he had to share his Neanderthal tendancies with the world. And then on top of that he had to jump to conclusions and start throwing accusations everywhere. Set against his own tree, Val returned the look.

"If you hadn't noticed, I haven't been hungry up until now, and as you also may have noticed by my total lack of jumping upon you, I can control it. Either drive us someplace discreet and volunteer, or shut up." The mention of biting tended to end conversations with Connor, or at least give them a small breather. Val wasn't blind; he knew that his bloodbond hated, despised, how much he enjoyed being fed upon, and would avoid the subject like the plague as long as there was a way out and he was given the choice. In better moods, Val feigned civility and kept from bringing it up, but in fits of irritation he was prone to mentioning it, or even acting on it if just words weren't enough to scare Connor into backing down. It was a petty tactic, but it hadn't failed him yet, and until he found something better or they reached some sort of agreement (highly unlikely) Val would use his weapon so long as it stayed sharp.

Val had long since abandoned his own mask, a thin black thing that hid his eyes like a pair of raven wings. Pulling it from his pocket, he toyed with it, as it allowed him to divert some attention from Connor. "This would all be so much easier, Connor, if you would just trust me."

Connor actually hadn't been trying to be too antagonistic from the start, but Valerie's attitude certainly didn't help his.  Thus, he wasn't going to hold back much, either.  Besides, Val's stress was bleeding (pardon the pun) into him, and he wasn't so happy about dealing with Val's friends and enemies all night, either. 

"Speak for yourself.  You seem awfully fond of my throat," he snapped, but that was actually the end of it from him.  Val's demand that he either drive them someplace discreet and volunteer or shut up got him, and he shut up, at least for a moment.  The vampire was right in that mentioning that particular topic shut him up pretty completely, considering he didn't know for himself what he really thought of that, so he couldn't truly argue anything involving it.  Sure, he'd noticed that he hadn't gotten any pangs from Val needing to feed all night, but he'd also been extremely distracted right up until that moment.  He was worried he just hadn't been paying enough attention until it got to be a pressing matter.  Besides, he wasn't going to claim he was an expert at dealing with any of this.

Val wasn't the only one who went and found something to distract himself with, but Connor's turned out to be loosening the collar on that ornate costume, just for comfort's sake.  He hated ties for the same reason, because he didn't like having something pressed so tightly on his throat.  Of course, if he wore more clothing like that, it'd certainly be a different story, but he wasn't about to do something like that of his own free will.  It'd be Val, if anyone, who made that happen, and not without a fight out of Connor. 

"Well, excuuuuuse me if I've spent all of my adult life killing vampires and most of my teens training to kill them and find it uncomfortable to be in this situation.  Maybe if you give me a reason to trust you, that could work out," he pointed out bitterly.  As much as they both seemed to enjoy fighting with each other, it wasn't really something that was sure to bring them closer together or make either of them trust the other. 

Valerie glanced up from his mask and over at the disgruntled Hunter, debating whether to continue that line of teasing or not. He was too tired and it was too late for him to feel like pressing the blood feeding issue seriously, but that didn't mean he couldn't keep up the verbal chase. Watching Connor flinch and twitch was usually too easy a source of entertainment for him to pass up.

"I do speak for myself, mon petit repas.[1]" Since re-discovering his French, Val was finding it impossible not to slip little pet names into every other sentence. That in itself was a game, seeing how often Connor understood what he was being called. "I'm just saying. Don't complain of my hunger if you won't feed me yourself."

He was distracted for a moment by Connor pulling the shirt collar down. Thump, thump, thump, went the blood in mortal veins. It was doubtful the Hunter would appreciate the expression being directed at him just then, were he to look up and notice. Valerie wasn't doing it to make him nervous; the sight and sound really did go straight to his stomach. As he had told Connor, there was no chance of him losing his control, but that didn't mean a hungry man couldn't watch a plate of food go by. And it was more than just the blood. Connor had found him through their bond, their link, that thing that made them want to be near. The night had not been easy on either of them, and loathe as they may be to admit it, some time of physical contact would soothe the bond's endless, muted scream.

If Connor would just get over that distrustful, jumpy nature of his... "Any reason I give you, you'll only use to find yet another fault. I see no reason in satisfying your demands when the chances of succeeding are zero."



[1] My little meal

Unfortunately, Connor didn't know 'repas'.  He got the rest and knew the French was a pet name, which irked him, but he couldn't really complain if he didn't know what it meant.  He had the feeling it wouldn't be something he liked if he could understand it, though he had to wonder where all the French was coming from all of a sudden.  Was it because they'd run into those other French vampires?  Perfect, Val had to go and reclaim his French-ness just in time to irk Connor with it.

At least he didn't notice the way Valerie was staring at him as he loosened his collar, which was for the best.  He was just trying to make himself somewhat more comfortable, and seeing a vampire staring at his pulse wouldn't quite accomplish that.  He felt the fact that Valerie was thirsty, though.  "No, I'm not offering, but you might want to take care of that soon.  I don't want to have to explain to people why I feel like staring at their throats like that," he told the vampire, though most of the nastiness from before had faded.  He didn't want to get into it over Val feeding because he didn't want to offer his own throat.  He was still way too torn on that issue, and he didn't want to encourage it.

Really, Val may have had a point regarding Connor's ability to trust, but he also might have been surprised.  Connor was pretty set in his beliefs, but the hunter wasn't the sort to FIND something else to believe when he knew the truth.  He didn't mind denial so much, especially where Val was concerned, but he had troubles forcing the truth out of his head when he was presented with it.  Val's opinion was fine with him, though.  He didn't really want a reason to trust Valerie.  Trusting a vampire who liked chewing on him, and who was this much trouble, wasn't his idea of a smart move.  Of course, the fact that they might be permanently stuck where they were was a sobering thought.  Eventually, they were going to have to address that issue.  They couldn't go on like this for long.  "You might be right, but at least the feeling's mutual.  It's not like you trust me, either," he pointed out.  He could bet that if Val went into a situation and Connor was his only form of protection, the vampire wouldn't trust him with it.  Neither of them trusted each other, and what reason had they given each other?

There was no snappy comeback from Connor in response to 'ma petite repas'. Valerie was certain that had the man understood the name, he would have been a little more biting in his response. Good. Val would be using that name again.

There was no need to follow up the line of conversation involving Val biting Connor, since for the moment he wasn't interested in pressing his luck. Later, maybe, but not currently. Perhaps not even tonight, at all, for all that Valerie was having to make a sincere effort not to fixate on the skin beneath the loosened collar. Tastey... enticing... warm.

Hm. He might be hungrier than he thought.

"You might be right, but at least the feeling's mutual.  It's not like you trust me, either."

Valerie snorted quietly. "Of course I am right." He wasn't offended by Connor not trusting him. It would be an exercise in futility, not to mention stupidity, especially when he didn't trust the human, either. "And you haven't quite given me reason to trust you, either. Especially after that display tonight." He gave the Hunter a sidelong look, a depreciating one that Connor would not like being on the end of. "I was... grateful for the support, make no mistake, but you need to curb whatever defect it is that blinds you to your own mortality and makes you taunt vampires who could cut us both down with a thought." He glared, just a little. "What, exactly, were you thinking?"

After that display?  Val couldn't possibly mean that he was this pissed off over the situation with that female vampire!  He hadn't really done anything wrong!  "What the hell did you expect?!  She was being a total bitch, and you think I'm about to just take that shit?" he demanded, now actually angry with the vampire.  Before, he was just irritated, but this was enough to hit that limit. 

Grateful for the support?  Well, at least THAT was something, or Connor would have been seriously pissed off.  "How is it a defect that I don't take a load of shit from every vampire that shows up and wants to bash on us?!  Part of being strong is making others realize you're not going to be abused.  I'm a human who took leadership of Crimson when there are shifters, witches and vampires who wouldn't have wanted me to have it, and part of it is attitude!  You give off weak vibes when you let someone else walk all over you."

There was no way Val was going to agree, but Connor wasn't about to just let him be right.

Valerie's glare went up a notch from 'slight'. "Actually, yes, I did, as I will expect you to do with any vampire who outclasses us until such time as we can afford to speak our minds. Did it ever occur to you that your behavior reflects directly on me?"

"How is it a defect that I don't take a load of shit from every vampire that shows up and wants to bash on us?!  Part of being strong is making others realize you're not going to be abused.  I'm a human who took leadership of Crimson when there are shifters, witches and vampires who wouldn't have wanted me to have it, and part of it is attitude!  You give off weak vibes when you let someone else walk all over you."

A sigh. "Sang et enfer, le petit." [1] Val left his tree at last, walking to Connor and stopping two feet away; closer than socially accepted distance, further away than invasive. Barely. "Yes, you are the leader of Crimson. You are an accomplished Hunter with a reputation for intelligence, determination and getting the job done. You hold the respect of your Guild and others besides." It was cheap and it was mean, but Valerie then brought up his hands and clapped them slowly, mockingly, together. "Félicitations.[2] Now recall how, when you are at my side, you are none of these things. You are a human; a bond. You are mine. Perhaps my methods are not to your liking, but this is how it is." His gaze flickered, again, to Connor's open collar. This close to the skin, Valerie could almost smell the blood. "I do not 'give off' weak vibes, mon ami, I am weak. Before you, I kept myself cloistered away because acting as you do would not have pushed my position, it would have gotten me killed. As your attitude will get me killed - will get us killed -  if you continue to let it run free." A fang glinted as his upper lip curled back in a faint snarl. "Do not act that way ever again."

[1] Blood and fire, little one.
[2] Congratulations.

Yes, Connor was all of those things, and as such, he was NOT taking shit from vampires.  He'd been tolerating it this long out of a desire to at least ATTEMPT to make the bond work.  Even just a little.  As he saw it, he did NOT have to take shit from Valerie like this, either.  Val hadn't taken him as a bond by force or through friendship or anything else that involved Connor either voluntarily or forcibly accepting Valerie's authority. 

As far as he was concerned, they were equals in this mess, and he wasn't taking this.

"You can give me orders when you can make me obey them, leech," he snapped, shoving Val hard enough to give them both some space.  He needed it in case Val TRIED to force the issue.  "I'm not anyone's, especially a vampire's, and I am not weak.  You can cower and live in fear, but I won't do it.  Go.  To.  Hell.  Asshole."

Unlike the first time, in that alley where Val had grabbed him, Connor's hand slid towards the knife he had on him with the full intention of using it if he had to. 

The time for talking was over. Valerie could see that in Connor's eyes and threatening stance. The Hunter was done listening to him; they had reached a point where there were few to no words left.

Then, Connor shoved him. Hard. Sent Val for a trip backward that would have had him on his backside in the dirt if not for supernatural reflexes and balance. Oh, that was the last straw. Val's lips weren't curling just to show fang, anymore, he was well and truly furious. He didn't like their situation any more than Connor did, but if it was going to end in something other than their mutual deaths, one of them had to learn some humility, and Val was going to go out on a limb and say that it most certainly was not him.

Connor wanted to be made to take orders? "Fine." Valerie's appetite wasn't getting any smaller just sitting around waiting. Connor was making moves to pull out the nice shiney weapon, yes, although Val doubted even anger would make the Hunter forget that his fate was tied to Val's. He wouldn't aim for the heart or head, not if he was smart, and Val had just pointed out that Connor was hardly an idiot. Not being much of a fighter, he wasn't sure he could avoid that blade entirely. But for the sake of making this very essential point, he would risk getting stabbed.

He gave no warning for the mental blast that was suddenly sent Connor's way. Valerie was stronger but still not the strongest, and Connor wouldn't be blinded by the pain of it for long. So the vampire took the opportunity presented by Connor's momentary flinch and moved in close with blinding speed. One hand went for the hand near the knife, the other deep into Connor's hair and wrenching back and to the side. Thanks to the bond, speed and strength were no longer catch-all advantages over Connor, but there was still one thing, or rather, two, that Val had which Connor didn't.

He set those sharp, delicate advantages right along the Hunter's neck, a prick away from the artery. He wanted to make that prick; the scent from this distance was intoxicating, his body KNEW this position, knew what it meant, and wanted to take that next step forward in the age-old bloody dance of vampire kind.

Valerie stayed the urge. His lunging forward had backed his prey into the tree, and he used that by putting every ounce of weight into not only keeping Connor still, but making him embarrasingly uncomfortable as hell. Valerie had no problem with being pressed this intimately close. "Force is not the only way to make you obey me and remember your place, Connor," he said, lips a scant breath from warm skin. "But if that is what you understand, then I can be persuaded to use it as well." Fingers gripped and twisted the yellow hair. "I was going to be kind and take care of this later elsewhere, but you try my patience. Enjoy." It was all the preamble Connor got before Valerie's teeth went that last inch forward and finished the job. Valerie let it be euphoric for them both, but went at it ravenously as well. Maybe a pint or two gone would put Connor in a more agreeable mood.

Connor had gotten fast due to the bond, and he'd always been pretty quick even for a human, but the last thing he was expecting out of Val was the mental blast that shot right through the bond at him.  The portion of him that was pleased just to be relatively close to the vampire was the part that was suddenly searing him, and 'flinched' wasn't quite the right word.  There may not have been much in the way of outward indications that it had hurt him, but just the fact that he hadn't had the time to deal with Val's sudden attacks made it obvious that he'd been hurt, if only temporarily.

Because of that sudden agony and loss of functionality, Connor suddenly found himself pressed between a tree and Val's body, which wasn't exactly his idea of a good thing.  Of course, having his dominant wrist in an iron grip and his head wrenched around by his hair didn't exactly look much better to him.  He absolutely froze at the fangs at his throat, and found himself once more in the confused, torn state over whether or not that was a good thing or not.  His heart sped up, as always, though whether it was in fear or excitement was lost on him.  He knew how it would feel, unless Val wanted to be a complete asshole (which would be dumb on his part), and that was the part that had him wanting it.  The bond desired that satisfaction, and Connor could never truly deny that he enjoyed the euphoria of the bite.  That was part of why he never wanted to be bitten.  Of course, there was still the part of him that wanted to gag at the thought of being chewed on by a bloodsucker, but that voice was slowly getting quieter each time.  He was going to have to stop Val from doing this, and soon.  This time, Val wasn't asking, though Connor would really have preferred it if he did.

Considering the way Val had him pressed, rather intimately, against that tree, Connor had nowhere to escape to.  When the vampire's fangs pierced his skin, all memories of the pain and argument that had angered him so much completely faded, and the sheer pleasure the vampire's bite and the bond inspired overwhelmed him.  Val had one arm restrained and his head wrenched around to give the best access, but the hunter's other arm reached up around the vampire's shoulders in the closest thing to an embrace that Connor would ever grant any other man, nevermind Valerie.  He was going to be pissed at himself for this, but that would come after he had the chance to think about it.  Right then, especially with as long as the vampire held him, he wasn't going to be considering it for quite some time.  His free hand actually twined itself in Val's hair almost like one might do during a heated kiss to urge their partner on as a soft cross between a moan and a gasp slipped free from his lips.

Definitely not thinking about it, but Val had made a point.  No pun intended.

It was never this good with anyone else. Val found that to be a rather mundane and probably wrong-sounding way of putting it, but it was the truth. Any human could be bitten and bled, but only Connor could fill him with this much relief, could be this wonderful to feel and hold and hear. Connor's presence was everywhere, his scent soaking in to Valerie's pores while his blood gushed down the vampire's throat, liquid Connor to settle in his stomach and spread through his every vein. He wanted to own this essence. He needed to own it. It was his. If he weren't so concentrated on the meal at hand, he would have smirked at the hand in his hair. Connor was completely, utterly, totally gone.

Valerie took his time finishing, there was no rush. Connor always appreciated the drawn out pleasure, besides, at least until his working mind caught up with him. Thanks to the hard suction of Valerie's appetite on Connor's neck, the Hunter now had something resembling a hicky right over his jugular, where a slowly healing wound leaked the last of the blood for Valerie to sweep away with his tongue. He would readily admit that he enjoyed Connor's taste. Not the most exotic or unique, to be sure, but a delicacy in its own right, a haugty, heavy mix of sweetness and spice that flowed smoothly over the tongue. Connor was like eating a firecracker. Val savored the remnants of the meal as long as he could, waiting for the inevitable explosion.

"Delicious as always, sang de mon coeur[1]," he whispered into a darkly flushed ear. "I know you enjoyed it as much as I did." Drunk on blood and feeling like being an ass, he licked Connor's ear. "This isn't your world to walk in freely, Connor, no matter how much you want to. It owns you. I own you. Neither, I assure you, is something you can fight."

[1] Blood of my heart.

Oh, it was definitely wrong of Valerie to word it in such a way as that, but fortunately, it wasn't said out loud.  Not that Connor would have freaked out about it initially, but at least he couldn't say for sure that it was mutual.  The only other vampire who'd fed from him had been Tabitha, and she'd hurt, so he didn't know if she could have made it feel this good.

Probably not, but he was allowed his denial.

Yes, Connor was entirely out of his mind, and not even in an insane manner.  He just couldn't think, and therefore, didn't.  He just clung to Val as the vampire continued to drink his blood, obviously taking his time, and he couldn't even consider a complaint over it just yet.  He would, eventually, but he was going to have to rise above that comfortable, pleasant feeling that Val had given him.  Once the vampire was done drawing it out, anyway.  Val always 'cleaned up' after biting him, which was a pleasant sensation to him, but hardly 'appropriate', but licking Connor's ear was purely to be an asshole.

It felt good, though.

He couldn't deny it, and Val had to be in his head enough after all that blood to know it, and so he wouldn't deny it, even later.  Why deny what both parties know to be the truth?  He hated it, though not so much right then, but that didn't mean he could really get away with denial later on. 

His heart rate had slowed due to the missing blood, making him a bit slower to return to his proper state of mind and hesitant to do anything drastic.  Instead, the arm had had been holding Val (ineffectively, if the vampire chose to resist) to him didn't leave its place around the other man's shoulders, and he actually rested his head against Val, taking a moment to actually recover with those silky, satisfied whispers running through his mind.  He didn't even seem to take offense to the French pet names any longer.

"This isn't your world to walk in freely, Connor, no matter how much you want to. It owns you. I own you. Neither, I assure you, is something you can fight."

Right then, he was willing to believe the vampire.  He'd just TRIED to fight, that much he remembered right off the bat, and Val had just completely overwhelmed him and proceeded to show him why he shouldn't fight.  That didn't mean, especially when things cleared up, that he'd stop being disagreeable, but Val had made a point that Connor hadn't wanted to accept.  He still didn't want to, but even some of the habits that die hard could eventually be crippled.

"This doesn't mean you win," he returned, voice quieter and with less conviction than before.  "You're not my Master."

Val still had some fighting left if he was really going to try to control this one, but the doubt was there.

The bloodsucker side of Valerie could never help but enjoy the pliability of a human body after a satisfying bite. Connor was wonderfully alive against him, a warm package of flesh, breath and heat that pulsed with the same blood that now churned through Valerie's gut. Best of all, Connor wasn't wiggling angrily or spitting nasty sarcasm. He was... quiet. Acquiesing. Not that Valerie would have him be like this always, but as a vamipre he liked the rush of power, the feeling of ownership and control. It was even more enjoyable in that he didn't get moments like this very often, being as weak as he was, never using this kind of force with his meals for fear of drawing attention. This, now, this was a meal he had won. This body, this blood, it was HIS.

That feeling only made Connor's reply all the more amusing and ironic. Valerie chuckled softly in his ear.

"Oh, not for now, I'm sure. You still have some fight left." His grip on Connor's hair was no longer so tight, though still nowhere near to letting go. It felt as though Valerie were the only thing holding Connor upright. If he were to let go and step back, would the Hunter catch himself, or fall face first to the forest floor? "And I would not presume to ask that you call me Master. The term is too Midnight, for my tastes." If he WERE more of the Midnight persuasion, he would have bitten Connor again to keep him just on the edge of lucid. But that would be the sort of manipulation he attempted to avoid, and wouldn't build trust, besides (although 'trust' was a lost cause at this point). No, he had made his point, or at least part of it. It was evident in Connor's voice and the weakenss of his body that the reality of their relationship was, at least, beginning to sink in.

Valerie carefully extracted his hand from Connor's hair and himself from Connor's grip before the Hunter could decide to push him away. He didn't want to have to make his point twice. "There is an understood relationship between a vampire and his bond: you belong to me. You can accept that, or you can fight it, and force my hand. I'm not getting killed because of you."

Remember that bit about denial?  Forget it.  Connor, as he became more aware again and Val withdrew to leave him leaning on the tree, was perfectly able to build up some instant denial regarding his situation.  So, Val could essentially turn off his refusals by pulling a move like that.  That didn't mean that the vampire was in charge.  Connor could stop an argument by stabbing Val in a lung just as easily.

He suddenly found it to be rather ironic that Valerie's throat had been slit to save his soon-to-be bloodbond's eyes, and now Connor was getting his throat chewed on fairly regularly.  Val needed to not whine about the throat incident again.

He ended up snapping a simple 'shut up' when Val made his comment regarding Midnight's preferences, but it was the rest that caught his attention.  An understood relationship?  Oh, Connor understood their situation, since he wasn't willing to call it a 'relationship'.  "Considering this isn't a normal bond, I don't care what the 'understood relationship' is.  I don't belong to anyone but myself, and you are going to have to accept that," he told the vampire, though he still hadn't regained his full 'angry' tone.  HE was still feeling a bit subdued and floaty, but he could think again, which was what was helping him with the 'discussion'.

"I haven't been killed yet, so I see no reason to change my ways just because a cowardly vampire is stuck with me now."

Val forgot all about how he tried to be above Midnight's vampires and wished he was at Connor's neck again, so he could give the man a good, hard chomp and a piece of his mind. No sooner were the initial words out of Connor's mouth than Val wanted to scream. He didn't give a damn how Connor felt about their bond. There wasn't time or room enough in vampire power and politics to give a damn about how Connor, or Valerie for that matter, felt about the bond. What part of this was so difficult to understand?

Seriously!

And then came the 'cowardly' comment, and oh, that was just it. Val valued the difference between prudent and cowardly, which was a huge difference, thank you very much, and Val was not in the mood to be called names that didn't even apply to him. The only thing left in him that felt the least bit of okay was his stomach and the godforsaken bond over which they were arguing, because between the blood and the fighting it had gotten its cursed fill of contact. And if that wasn't just perfect irony, that he grew riled while the object of his irritation was sated, then Valerie had no idea what was.

"Do not TEMPT me," he hissed in response to Connor's reasoning regarding his own death. "How you ever got to be the head of a Guild is beyond me, as you clearly care for nothing but yourself!" That was what got him the most, that Connor wasn't ignoring the consequences, just the people - or person - that they affected. Valerie was going to end up a corpse thanks to this man, probably taking 'this man' with him, and the man in question couldn't seem to find it within himself to care. "Don't think that by ignoring this you can make it go away. Whatever life you had before this bond is infected with it, now, and it's never going to be the same again! You can't go back to knifing vampires in alleyways as though nothing has changed!"

The more time passed, the more aware of things Connor was, especially with his temper rising again, and thinking once more of how he behaved when Val bit him was enough to make him want to gag.  That he felt far more weary than before only served to prove to him that vampire bites weren't something he wanted, since anything that could weaken him like that was to be avoided.  If Val could take enough to make him feel that way without him even noticing or caring, then it was something that had to stop.

"You are a vampire, for starters!" he finally stressed, getting just as frustrated as Val was by this point.  There were some things that Val didn't understand.  "And not only that, but you're a vampire that's been biting me, which by all rights means I should kill you.  Do you understand that?  I care for my hunters and for NORMAL people just fine, but vampires don't get included there." 

Even better was Val telling him that his life was going to be damaged by the bond, as though Connor hadn't already noticed.  "Don't you think that I know getting stuck with you like this is going to mess up my entire life?  I have a pregnant girlfriend who hates vampires even more than I do, and if she ever sees the god damn marks you've been leaving on my neck, she'll kill both of us.  Even if I just tell her about this bond she'll probably leave me, and when she eventually finds out she'll be pissed because I didn't tell her sooner.  Don't even bother telling me that my life is screwed, because I already know it," he told the vampire, his voice rather bitter as he finally unloaded on him.  Val thought that his life was messed up?  So Val was getting more powerful, and was stuck wanting to be around a human more often.  Connor had to deal with that regarding Val, he was more than likely immortal when everyone he cared about wasn't, his values were consistently being stomped on each time Val fed from him, and if a majority of the people he knew found out, they'd freak on him.

The last thing he needed was to deal with more troubles from Valerie, but they were there nonetheless.  "And now you're going to try to exert some control over me because you don't like the way I feel about vampires?  I haven't met one that didn't either screw my life up worse than it already had been, or want to do it, so I can't say I give a shit what the newest asshole vampire wants out of me."

Valerie could have been an asshole again and told Connor to stop whining, but the truth of it was that he was taken aback by the vehemence of the other man's words. It was one thing to imagine that Connor might have a reason for being as difficult as he was, and another thing completely to hear the whole ragged story in one breath. There was a lot in there which Valerie hadn't known or bothered to find out. He had known about the girlfriend, but not that she was pregnant, and having never met the woman could not have imagined her to be a source of distress for the man dating her. The gist of what Valerie caught was that he, Valerie, and the bond that connected Connor to him were putting a very dangerously crooked kink into the Hunter's straight-and-narrow plans that already allowed for very little deviation from their beaten path. Keeping those plans upright when they threatened to come tumbling down was wearing heavily on Connor. Valerie could accept that.

The rant hadn't given Valerie a complete one-eighty perspective or opinion on his feelings regarding Connor's situation, but he couldn't avoid the somewhat blunt blow of insight. It seemed Connor had been under more stress than Valerie had previously given him credit for. The right thing to do would be to apologize for adding to it, and then back down and offer to help however he could. But Connor wouldn't accept that kind of sugar-coated generosity, and frankly, Valerie was still a little too angry to feel like offering it. The best he could do at this time was to lose some of the patronizing in his voice, fold his arms and offer, if not a whole olive branch, then at the very least a leaf.

"I can't change what I am," Valerie said. The next thing to address would be the biting, but that might have to end in an apology on his part, and he couldn't give that right now, so he moved on. "Neither of us is under the easiest of circumstances, and it only wastes energy if we fight this. To survive, we must play the game, at least for now. I am not your enemy, Connor, unless you force me to be."

"'Play the game'?  So basically, I have to pretend that I'm not who I am, because you can't change, so that the other vampires running around don't take offense?" he demanded, and it was pretty clear to him, at least in his mind, that he was exactly right.  If Val couldn't change, and that somewhat made sense, even if Connor didn't want to admit it, then that left the lowly human in the bond to make the sacrifices.  He might as well just kiss everything else goodbye.

He could try, though.  "Fine, if we're going to stop fighting, it's going to be with a compromise.  I'm not going to be the only one caving," he insisted, glaring at the vampire and daring him to argue.  "I'm not going to take a load of shit from a bunch of leeches.  I may be stuck as your bloodbond, but I'm still a hunter.  I will try to shut up and let you handle situations your way first, if you think you can fix them better.  Otherwise, I'm stepping up so we don't get walked on.  Got it?"

That would be a start, even if there were a million other things they had to address.  Considering the start of this problem, that was the most logical point to hit first, though.

That was it in a very crude but effective nutshell, Val thought, shrugging and giving an affirmative nod. He didn't like being included in the explanation of the problem, but Connor was beginning to calm down and Val didn't feel like jeapordizing that by arguing the point further.

"Very well." A compromise meant they were getting somewhere. He was in agreement with Connor's thoughts, though he didn't know it; there were other things to work out, but this wasn't a wholly terrible place to make a start. Again, Val nodded. "I can agree to that." He doubted, though, whether they had an understanding of when Val's compromising opportunity ended and when Connor's chance to muscle his way through began. Val was fairly sure that Connor would get restless of making small talk long before his vampire counterpart. "I would advise caution in your methods, but otherwise, I see no reason to refuse you the opportunity.

"Was there anything else?"

No, Val couldn't know that they were actually on the same page for once, but that could eventually come later.  At some point, they might actually trust each other enough to leave their minds open, but this wasn't that time.  Val probably could have forced his way into Connor's thoughts, but that wouldn't help the trust issue.

"I know you don't trust me, but I'm really not as stupid as you seem to think," he pointed out, a little grudgingly.  He wasn't going to get them killed just for the hell of it.  True, some vampires wouldn't like taking attitude from a human, but that hadn't gotten him killed yet.  He wasn't going to just throw his own life away without a fight, and he wouldn't expect anything less from Valerie.  He would attempt to exercise a bit more caution, though. 

"I want to know what you expect of me in this mess of a bond, before it gets more out of control than it already is."  Since they were fighting, and now trying to compromise, he saw no reason not to 'negotiate' the terms of their situation now.

Considering the display earlier with Diana, Val might beg to differ on the issue of Connor's intelligence, but not now. Now, it seemed, they were finding it in themselves to be, if not friendly, then civil. Which meant a lot of holding their tongue on both their parts. Valerie was still wary of Connor again finding something he wanted that Val wouldn't be willing to give, and their temporary truce descending into another mess of shouting, blood and fangs. It had happened before and he woudn't put it past them to make it happen again.

He wanted to groan at Connor's second response. Here it was, their opportunity to again dig themselves into a hole. Some of that exasperation came through in his voice. "It's difficult to say, since it is, as you said, a 'mess of a bond'. Power shouldn't be shared as we share it, or gained. There should be no question as to who recieves the authority." He blew out a breath that was just as tired of the argument as his tone. "I expect... not complete obedience, but at least some consideration. I would like you to trust me to be doing this the best I know how." Saying that last bit had been like carving the words directly out of himself; grudging and painful.

He was trying to be civil, really he was.  He had been most of the night, except right before Val bit him., and as with every other time the vampire had used his fangs to deal with an issue, it worked.  Mostly.  At least he wasn't going for that knife of his again, and they were sort of talking nicely to each other. 

"But there is a question about authority," he pointed out, catching the 'should' and rolling with it.  "As long as you're not expecting serious obedience, I said I'd try to back off and let you handle things.  I don't like it, or the fact that all those vampires get to look at me and think that I'm just your property, but I'll deal with it."  The end was said in a lower, not so pleased tone, and only because if they were compromising, he knew he had to give in, too.  If Val tried to be too bossy, he'd fight back, but otherwise, he'd try to cooperate. 

"The biting," he carefully brought up, aware that if they kept on the other topic, they'd just run in circles.  He didn't want to give in completely.  "Are you going to keep doing it?"

Ah, yes, of course. The biting. Couldn't have a heart-to-heart talk without bringing up that little stake in the chest. Difficult as it might be for Connor to believe it, Val was having almost nearly the same amount of trouble with that topic as the Hunter. Maybe not the same troubles, to be sure, but with each forced feeding, more and more of Valerie was beginning to wonder if this wasn't how the vampires of Midnight had begun their dark paths to torture and slavery.

At first, biting Connor had been a way of relieving stress; pure, malicious self-entertainment. It had moved from there to something that he would wheedle out of Connor when he was especially hungry, but in recent months it had slowly become a sort of cruel punishment. Valerie didn't like where this final incarnation of his feeding habits was headed. It would seem like a good idea at the time, a quick method of getting his way, whether that meant convincing Connor of something or simply shutting him up. But then, a lot of bad ideas felt perfectly reasonable at the time of their implimentation. Val recalled the Nazi slaughter of millions (he had stayed as far the hell away from the war as possible) in the mid 1900s. To a struggling nation, it had SEEMED like a good idea at the time. But in the end it had just been a massacre.

Just some minutes ago, it had seemed like a good idea to force Connor against a tree and perform what amounted to psychological torture, but in retrospect Valerie wasn't sure if he shouldn't be ashamed. Even if he HAD been correct in his argument.

It was a lot to go through one vampire's head, but the time that passed between Connor's question and Valerie's answer was minimal. He sighed, crossing his arms further and looking away from Connor into the emptiness of the trees. "I don't know." It was the most honest answer he could give. The problem was that biting Connor came with mixed feelings for both of them. For Val, it could be either the ultimate intimacy between vampire and bloodbond, or a punishment intended to drown Connor in the feeling he hated most, enjoyment of a vampire's bite. As for Connor, the man either enjoyed the sensation and the closeness the same as Val, or he shied away from danger it represented and the horrible reminder that he wanted something he had made it his life's work to hate. The whole cycle of pain and pleasure was twisted and sick, in Valerie's disgusted opinion. It should have been a fulcrum for them, a joining point, a place for them to be close, at one; whole. Instead, they made it their demon to slowly destroy them from the inside out.

Lacking anything else to say, he asked quietly, "Do you want me to stop?"

"This would be a lot easier if one of us had a clue," he grumbled, sticking his hands in his pockets and leaning back on the tree, almost as though it would steady him through this.  Obviously, it wouldn't.  He had a point, but even if he could just get over his own hang-ups, it'd be easier.  He couldn't imagine not hating having a leech drink his blood, though.  He didn't want to be food for some other creature, even if it felt good.  Even if it could potentially make them both stronger, and more of a 'team'.  He was still being eaten.

It felt wrong just thinking about it, but he couldn't deny that it felt as amazing as it did.  It was why, every time Val got that close and hesitated, he couldn't say whether or not he wanted it.  He couldn't decide, because he was at war within himself over it.  "I don't know, either.  I hate being food for any vampire, not just you, but..."  He trailed off, because really, did Val need him to explain the other part?  It felt good.  It felt right, to part of him, just as it felt absolutely wrong to another part of his being.  He'd been worried about that all his life, even without the bond, having heard of humans becoming addicted to vampire bites.  He'd never wanted to deal with something like that, and here he seemed to have it even worse. 

"I can't honestly say I don't want you to do it again," he finally admitted, staring purposefully at something other than Val.  A leaf.  Good choice.

Again with the sighing, but Val wasn't sure how to make himself stop. This was a sigh-inducing sort of conversation. Neither of them would look at the other, preferring instead to admire foliage. The forest had probably never recieved so much attention before in its life.

"Then... we have a problem," Val said, stating the obvious. "What are we going to do?" The question could very well be rhetorical. Valerie certainly didn't have any answers, and he didn't know if Connor did, either. "I don't have to do it, Connor. The bond doesn't require it, and you're certainly not the only person in the city with blood." Between suffering the confusion of the bite and resisting the longing for it, Val was almost positive that Connor would choose to long from afar. "That doesn't mean I don't enjoy it as well," he added. "It makes the bond feel... whole. But if you tell me now to end it... I will." He wouldn't admit to his fears regarding his other reasons for biting his bloodbond, but this, at least, he could.

He wanted to tell Val to end it.  He wanted to tell him to go to Hell, and find some other idiot to feed off of, and a million other things along those lines, but there was one thing he couldn't deny.  There was a part of him that wasn't entirely tiny that didn't want to tell Val to stop.  Val was right, the bond didn't require it, but the bond required closeness and the biting seriously helped with that.  Not to mention, thinking about it ending didn't sit entirely well with him.  It made him want to refuse to stop him right off the bat, but he remained silent.  It was something he had to decide carefully, because it was going to be a big deal.

As far as he knew, they were stuck like this forever.  Meaning, so long as Val lived, he would.  Or vice versa, technically.  That could be a VERY long time, and really, which did he feel less comfortable with?  Physical closeness or biting?  He really didn't want to be getting all cuddly and cozy with a guy, but was biting better or worse?  He hadn't ever actually thought about it, since he'd always fought against the idea on sheer principle.  The bond would require one or the other eventually, or drive them both more batshit than they were.

"Will you...try something?  Without being a complete ass?" he asked, looking at the vampire finally with a wary expression.  Like he really didn't want to ask this, but did so anyway.  "Will you bite me, not for long, but just so I can figure out what it's like without fighting with myself over it?"

If he couldn't stop feeling so entirely torn on the issue, he'd be telling Valerie to stop, but if he could handle being fed from, by just this vampire and no others because of the bloodbond, then maybe they could escape other problems.  Including Val biting him out of spite.

The look that Connor recieved for that was the full embodiment of Valerie's amazement that the Hunter had requested such a thing. Not because he didn't believe how much Connor enjoyed being bitten, but because Valerie had - apparently - underestimated Connor's initiative in overcoming his own fears. Valerie simply hadn't thought Connor capable of getting past his prejudices long enough to try something new. Maybe that was a lesson for the vampire; maybe he had been assuming himself to be the only mutable element in the bond, and overlooked a number of hidden qualities in Connor, as well.

If they could make this piece of their bond work, it would overcome some difficulties, not only in their physical blood relationship but in their understanding of the power balance between them, and their mutual understanding and - respect? -  for each other. It almost comforted Val that Connor was "stepping up," as it were. It meant Val could perhaps take a bit of a breather from the weight on their shoulders.

Val nodded, carefully. "Very well." He took a few steps in Connor's direction but stopped a short distance away, unsure as to whether Connor wanted Val to come to him or for himself to go to Val. Already, Val felt they were in new territory. They had no procedure for voluntary feeding.


((A gift to you before I head off to work. ^^ ))

That was absolute truth, that they didn't have a procedure for voluntary feeding, and Connor was just as edgy about it as Val was.  That look he'd received, like Val might be wondering if he'd gone mad, wasn't entirely comforting, but other than watching the vampire rather warily, he remained where he was.  He didn't have anymore ideas as to how to go about this than Valerie seemed to, which was unfortunate on both of their parts. 

He already didn't like 'new territory' with Val, since it seemed to equal both of them being uncomfortable and unsure about the other, and that was just annoying.  He liked being confident enough in himself to handle just about anything, and this uncertainty was going to drive him nuts.  So, Val had stopped before reaching him, obviously not sure what to do, so Connor sighed, closed his eyes, and counted to three just to draw up enough nerve to do what was apparently necessary.  When he opened his eyes, he slowly closed the distance between them, though he still looked like he might bolt at any second.

He was going to TRY not to hold any prejudices in this one.  Trying didn't mean he'd manage it just like that, but at least he was making the attempt.  If he could manage it, then he hoped he could make a decision.  If he couldn't make himself even a minute amount more comfortable with it, then he was going to tell Val not to do it anymore.  It was as simple as that.  Being torn on the issue wasn't going to be his permanent state of mind.

"I don't really know what I'm supposed to do," he pointed out, since he only had the times Val had grabbed him and bit him for reference.  Those times, Val had completely invaded his space, and he'd ended up grabbing onto the vampire like an anchor, so he slowly, obviously uncomfortably, grabbed the vampire's arm with his left hand.  His right arm when around the man's shoulders, which wasn't his favorite part, and he tilted his head to the side to offer up easily access for the vampire.  His heart was hammering worse than usual, probably because of the nerves associated with doing it willingly, but he was otherwise silent right up until he felt the slightest movement out of Val.

"Just don't drop me or anything."  Not that he really thought Val would, but he had to get SOME sort of gripe in there, or he'd have felt like he was giving in FAR too easily. 

((You need to be online more often!))

Valerie was upgrading his opinion of Connor more and more by the second. There were definitely some hidden depths to this man that he hadn't considered the remote possibility of. The Hunter was nervous, but he was working through it, getting right up where he hated being the most - close to Val - and even going to the trouble of exposing his neck. To be honest, Val had no idea what to do with such a generous gift, one of blood AND trust.

Rather than stand there like an idiot, he took Connor's cue and carefully placed a bracing hand at the other man's side, nearer to his ribs than his waist. Val felt it would be smarter to not copy him completely, as it would give the impression and add to the fear that Connor was a prisoner. Or, perhaps worse, make Connor feel as though he was trading in his heterosexuality for the chance to keep their bond from self-destructing, and this was not at all the case. This wasn't a courtship, it was a... a dance, and they were partners in it. Valerie wouldn't deny that he DID want to be the one wearing the pants here, and in some cases he probably would end up doing so, but outside of speicial circumstances, the nature of their peculiar bond didn't want to let them do that. It was their own personal diversity that kept them distant and unequal, not the bond itself. The bond wanted them to be close and mutually comfortable. Sharing power and growing it together, instead of hoarding it or twisting it for their own means.

Valerie was too used to being a weakling loner to readily accept that idea. But if he worked on it... who knew.

He was grateful to Connor for trying to dispell their uneasy mood with a stab at humor. He chuckled quietly, shaking his head slightly in affirmation. "Vampire strength, Hunter; you have nothing to fear." A bit of a lie, Connor had a damn lot to fear and they both knew it, but if they got through this sans disaster than he might have at least one less vampire on the list. Val pressed his lips to the already closed vein on Connor's neck, not really a kiss as much as savoring the pulse. Doing this felt different already. Piercing the skin felt more casual, the taste of the blood less violent. Not a forced tribute, but an offering.

Val tried to let Connor keep his senses while still feeling the best he could feel. The sensation wasn't meant to be overwhelming, but on the off chance that Connor did succumb and start to fall, Val had a free arm standing by to catch him.

Oh, he had a lot to fear, and he knew it.  Anytime you played with a vampire like this, there was the chance of something horrible happening, which was why it involved so much trust to do it voluntarily.  He wanted to give in to the panic and his racing heart and get out of there like the little survivalist voice in his head told him to when he felt Val's lips at his throat, but all he did was tighten his grip on the vampire as a result of his nerves.  If he kept telling himself it would all be fine, he might almost believe it.

Almost.

He chose not to respond to Val's remark about vampire strength and fear, instead just trying not to hold his breath and failing as he waited for the bite.  As the outright pleasure washed over him, he released that breath he'd been holding in a long sigh, and rather than trying to steel himself against the tidal wave that was Val's influence like he usually did, he did his best to just relax and let go.  It took a moment, or what seemed like a moment to him, to be able to manage that, but the whole point of this experiment was that Connor was GOING to succumb, and he was going to do it intentionally.  He'd have truly appreciated Val trying to leave him with his wits about him on other occasions, though.  Ironic that it would get switched up on him.  He tried not to fall, not really wanting Val to have to catch him, but he couldn't have both situations, and his body relaxed against Valerie sooner rather than later.

So far so good.  If he could keep himself from having a panic attack when this was over, then maybe they could make some progress in a direction that involved them not killing each other.

Yep, there he went. Valerie caught Connor around the waist and continued feeding without missing a beat. His feelings about this bite differed greatly from what he had felt earlier when he had pinned the Hunter to the tree. That bite had been an angry one, and he had used its natural intimacy as a punishment instead of a tool for building trust, as it was meant to be in a bond. That bite had made him afraid that he was slowly becoming what he hated most, a vampire who enjoyed inflicting pain and using his natural advantages to bend others to his will. He had let the rush of new power go to his head. He had been arrogant. He had been stupid. He was not going to do that again.

Fortunately, there was no anger in him now. Connor was in his control and Valerie's only intention was to make that an enjoyable and unthreatening experience. Which, strangely enough, was having the effect of making this a pleasant experience for Valerie, as well. He was certainly liking the contact with Connor a whole lot more now than before. Letting go was something he would probably do reluctantly.

Yes, Connor was entirely in Valerie's control, and that scared him some, actually a lot, but that was precisely what he was trying to get over.  He had a feeling that in the long run, getting over this would make life easier for both of them.  If he was right about this whole situation, and he hoped he wasn't but had the feeling he was, then he was going to be stuck with Val for a very long time.  Fighting constantly would never work, and make them both miserable. 

Not that he was really considering any of that right then.  No, not at all.  At that precise moment, he was swimming in an ocean of endorphins, and didn't care that he was being held up by a vampire, who also happened to be another man, and it didn't bother him that his arms were wrapped around the guy.  It might freak him out a little later to realize just how much he was enjoying this, but he was.  He couldn't deny it any more than he could deny the fact that not only had he tilted his head as far as he could to give Val access to his throat, but he'd essentially buried his own face against the vampire's neck and shoulder through that comfortable, relaxing sensation of pleasure.  This was lacking the suddenness and excitement of the other bites he'd endured from Valerie, and that care they'd both been taking seemed to have translated into a gentler sort of pleasure.  It didn't feel any less good, which was obvious from the way he'd lost his feet but was still somehow keeping as close to the other man as possible, but it was less...violently so. 

Again, the scariest factor was that he'd just let the vampire suck him dry if Valerie wanted to.

It was Connor's total surrender to Valerie that made the biting such a huge act of trust. Valerie COULD suck Connor dry if he so pleased; kill him right here, dispose of the body somewhere outside the country and find someplace secluded to live out the remainder of his life, which would suit him just fine. These were morbid thoughts to be having about the man whose neck he was currently up to his fangs in, but then again, Connor wasn't completely wrong about vampires and their killing instincts, especially Val. The vampire would be the first to admit that he had killed in the past and would do so again, and in most circumstances wouldn't feel too bad about it once it was over.

Murderous thoughts notwithstanding, Val was not here to kill Connor. It was often surprising to himself and others the concentration it took to make sure he didn't kill his victim. Being an expert at ending life didn't make one practiced in preserving it. Valerie ended the pleasurable assault long before he had taken enough blood to be of concern. Connor would notice that he had lost blood, but not so much as to make him panic or weaken him. Just enough that he couldn't write the incident off as never having happened.

Always the gentleman, Valerie cleaned the bite while his bond was still lost in euphoria, then waited patiently for Connor's senses to return. It was important that he remain without tension in his body for Connor to feel. Valerie had kept up his end; he had not forced this, nor had he made it an unpleasant experience. But that was easy. Connor had a more difficult task ahead of him. Valerie wished he knew of some way to help soften the transition from bite-induced bliss back to hard reality. If Connor were a woman, Valerie might have stroked her back, or said something soothing in her ear. But this was Connor, and Connor would probably appreciate tender coddling like a bullet in the foot. Especially coming from Val.

So Val did the best he could. He stayed relaxed, he kept his grip, and maybe he did let his fingers make a few gentle movements over the small of Connor's shirt-covered back, but only because they'd been doing that since the bite had begun.

It was definitely in Val's favor that Connor couldn't read HIS thoughts while he was thinking about just how easily he could kill the hunter and be rid of the body, since that'd probably result in a lot of trouble.  Connor, especially when he was trying to be cooperative, didn't take death threats very well.  Even just in a thoughtful manner such as it was, that would have been enough to put him on his guard.  Val was lucky.

Connor would believe, without a problem, that it was difficult for a vampire to stop before killing the victim they were feeding from, which was part of his problem with the whole situation, but he'd already been fed from enough times that he really didn't think Val was going to just give up and suck him dry.  After all, if Connor remained alive this time, there were fairly decent chances that it'd happen again.  Connor didn't like that fact, but he was just about beyond denying it by that point.

He was vaguely aware of Val licking at his throat, cleaning up any stray blood, and slightly more aware seconds later of the vampire's fingers just about stroking his back.  Even worse was that he had no idea when Val had started doing that, and it didn't even occur to him to make the vampire stop.  He was still floating around in his brain, still hanging onto the vampire and being held, and his face was still resting against Val's shoulder, his breathing steady as he slowly tried to pull his thought processes back to the present.  He had just a little too much trouble in doing that to make himself comfortable, but the bite itself felt good enough that he had trouble telling himself that it wasn't worth it if he really thought about it. 

Slowly, ever so slowly, he started regaining his full thinking capacities, though his ability to stand on his own and his awareness of his surroundings returned first.  Finally, his usual reasoning skills resurfaced, and he stiffened slightly upon taking note of just how wrapped around Val he was, and the vampire stroking at his back.  Oh, God....

He didn't freak.  He made it a point not to freak.  He would NOT freak. 

He took a deep breath as he slowly, making sure it didn't look like he was freaking out, disentangled himself from the vampire, and left it to Val to stop with the fingers on his back.  He wasn't going to freak out.  He promised himself that. 

Well, Val hadn't yet been punched, yelled at, or violently shoved away, so they were making progress. Connor was visibly distrubed by how wrapped up he'd gotten in Val during the feeding, but Val had been expecting that. He tended to take that reaction in stride these days, rather than offense. Maybe some day they could work out how else to sate the need for blood and contact without ending up twisted around each other. Just to make Connor feel better, of course, since Val had already proven he wasn't as bothered. Giving into the bond's need for physical contact didn't cause Val as many emotional dysfunctions as it did his counterpart.

"Your wound is healing." Safe, neutral commentary was best. Val released Connor step for step as Connor backed away, letting go no more or less, although he did stop the involuntary back touching as it was causing some tenseness in the muscle there. "How do you feel?"

It was really for the best that Val didn't take offense when Connor freaked out over being too touchy, since it was entirely a Connor-issue.  He knew it was something he should get over, and that he really didn't have any reason to feel like that about it, but he couldn't help it.  He didn't care if guys wanted to be all over guys, and he could even deal with it in his presence since he just wouldn't focus on it.  If the situation involved him all over a guy or a guy all over him, that was when it got to him.  Thus, their current predicament. 

He was trying, though.

"Um, can't say I'm ever going to be cool with finding myself all wrapped up like that, but I'm not freaking out," he answered, as though saying it out loud would help.  It almost did, but not quite.  He wasn't touching Val anymore, and his hand went up to touch his throat, where Val was indeed correct: the wound was healing.  Good.  "I feel a little tired, I guess, but it's not bad.  I'm not going to pass out or anything, so that's fine."  He'd passed out due to blood loss before, so he knew how it felt.  He'd actually been fed from to the point of passing out, which was part of what he was trying to get over with Val.  He was doing okay, he thought.

Oh, right.  He had to make a choice, didn't he?  That had been the whole point of that situation.  He ended up leaning against the tree while his head finished clearing out.  He wasn't paying attention to the way being fed from ended up with him all curled around Valerie, but focusing instead on how it actually felt.  During and after.  He couldn't deny that it felt amazing, and he also couldn't say that it felt horrible afterwards.  The only problem with the 'afterwards' was Connor's dislike of intimate contact with a man.  Val, other than doing that stroking on his back, seemed to be trying to handle things in the least uncomfortable way he could, and Connor couldn't even really argue that he'd hated Val's hand there.  He hadn't had a problem with it until he started thinking.  Did that make it wrong?  He didn't know.  It was just too confusing.  What he needed to decide was if he was telling Val to stop, or giving him permission to keep doing it.  Really, he couldn't imagine anything that could satisfy the bond's need for closeness without them sleeping together or something, and THAT was not something he was ever going to be okay with.  He knew that.  This was definitely better.

"Okay, you can keep doing that," he admitted, fairly reluctantly, but he still said it.  "I don't hate it, just the idea of it, and it feels good.  I'll get over it."  Or at least, he'd try.  It was their best option.  Being food was better than a bed-partner or a snuggle buddy.  He had 'cuddled' with another man ONCE, and they'd been in danger of freezing to death after being stranded somewhere.  Neither of them talked about it, since it hadn't been cuddling for anything but warmth, and that was the only reason he'd have done it.  Being food was more comfortable for him, even if he'd lived his whole life trying NOT to be food.

Funny how things will change.

"Um, can't say I'm ever going to be cool with finding myself all wrapped up like that, but I'm not freaking out."

Val nodded. That had been his guess. He felt contratulations were in order for Connor keeping it together, though he doubted they would be appreciated. "We can try to work around that. I do not necessarily have to bite that particular spot." Val didn't have to send Connor spiraling into bliss, either, but again, that would be something to work on later. The biggest question had been whether or not Connor would let Val near him with fangs at all. So far it seemed the answer was 'yes.'

Still... perhaps Val should be clear about Connor's rights regarding the other end of the spectrum. While the Hunter was overcoming fears, Val was going to have to work to create a trust that he had been actively working to break before it was even there. He didn't want to go back to forcing Connor into each and every bite. "Very well." A pause. "However... Understand that I will accept your refusal, as well." Perhaps it was a bad analogy, but Val felt like some kind of molester apologizing for forcing himself on Connor. Should he? It wasn't his fault Connor's first reaction during a bite was to get cozy with the vampire gnawing on him. Val just ended up being the one in the awkward position of having induced the bliss that made Connor get cuddly in the first place, so it looked like it was his fault.

So the whole thing was just awkward no matter how they looked at it.

This whole situation was a mess, as far as Connor was concerned.  He liked the biting because it felt as good as it did, even if it went against everything he'd been trained to believe all his life.  Taking that bit out would make his discomfort regarding the closeness away, but it might eliminate the closeness that pleased the bond at the same time.  He didn't know if it was the act of feeding or the physical closeness, or perhaps the mix of the two, that did it.  Besides, he couldn't imagine that he'd want a vampire gnawing on him if it didn't make him feel good enough to forget what was actually happening.  They'd have to try it out. 

Really, he was just hoping that he'd be capable of refusing later on.  Sure, he could be all indignant and say that he didn't want Val to do it anymore, but he liked it.  A lot.  He wondered, based on how rarely he said no already, if he would ever do it later on.  If he stopped fighting it, why say no later?  That'd be like having sex with someone all the time, then suddenly stopping and saying that you've decided to save yourself. 

And there was Connor's problem.

He associated, whether he liked it or not, the feeling and intimacy of being fed from with sex.  He couldn't help it.  Val's analogy really wasn't all that bad, because Connor made the connection in his own mind, which was why he was having issues with it being a male vampire.  Of course, he didn't like female vampires at all, so that would have been even more cruel right then.  It really WAS awkward no matter which way they looked at it.

"Thanks, I guess.  I don't see how saying 'no' later on is going to do anything, but thanks for the offer," he said with a shrug.  This was awkward.  "Like I said, I'll get over it.  It could be worse."  Much worse.

With so much tension in the air, Val fell back a bit on his old, cynical self and snorted. "That is certainly true." Things were so much easier when Val could just bully Connor. This whole paying attention to feelings crap was going to give him some kind of vampire heart condition. His bond with Hiroshi had never been this complicated, mainly because when Val swept the boy up into a hug and sank his teeth into his neck, there was no awkward part afterward where Hiro doubted himself into a frenzy or got twitchy about how much he enjoyed being so close to Val. Hiro didn't even react the same as Connor, in fact he was far less clingy. Connor reacted like there was something fun coming next... which was the reason he freaked out over it.

Well. More silence, and wasn't this still awkward. In the spirit of further dissapating the tension, Val put a hand in his pocket and observed some trees away from Connor. "So. Unless we have anything further to discuss..." Valerie really hoped not. "Perhaps we should call it a night."

Connor actually might have thought it was easier when Val could just bully him, too.  Considering the hunter never took crap from Val without returning it just as much (except for the biting, there was no human equivalent of that. At least, not anything Connor was willing to do), it wasn't exactly a bad thing to him when they were arguing.  It was much easier to fight and antagonize each other than it was to take each other's preferences into consideration.  It was especially easier for him to get angry after being bitten, since it made him feel both uncomfortable and embarrassed.  Of course a child wouldn't react to something like that the same way, especially with Connor's fixation on sex.  If he wasn't dating someone seriously, like Capri, then he was sleeping around.  The only exceptions were when he was badly wounded, and since he'd been marked up by that bitch, Tabitha.  It was a little awkward to have a one night stand with designs carved into your back.  Naturally, the level of pleasure Val and the bond could put into that bite made Connor subconsciously think sex.

He really, really wished that wasn't the case.

Awkward, yes, very awkward.  At least Val wasn't being an ass over it.  "Yeah, I'll be hating myself in the morning for not getting to sleep earlier, I'm sure," he remarked, trying not to seem at all awkward.  It wasn't working, even if they'd seemed to have made some progress with that experiment.  "Uh, thanks, Val.  For not being an ass about that.  And, good night."

Someday, Val would have to put Connor and Hiroshi in the same room and introduce them. It would be an interesting experience to say the least. Both his bloodbonds, but each having a very different relationship with Valerie.

Val refrained from mildly commenting that he had no place in particular to be tomorrow and could sleep in as late as he wanted. With as little as he technically had to get done, it was sometimes astonishing that he didn't get bored out of his mind. The next day wasn't even a school day,* so he wouldn't have to drive Heather home. There was only so much that a vampire could do in one city to amuse himself. Outside of eating the locals, that is.

He said his "Good night" in response to Connor's. Then, after a momentary contemplation, he added, "You're welcome." They had both given each other a lot to digest (some in more ways than others) and could do with some time away from each other. Mentally and emotionally, at least; the bond, as always, still insisted on staying together. Val often wondered if they would get along better if they didn't feel so obligated to be in each other's presence.

Their farewells said, Val took that as his cue to turn and head off into the trees. He was parked some distance from the party location for safety reasons, not trusting a huge mass of vamps and Hunters and god knew what else in one location, not even when they all swore to behave themselves.


((*I'm too lazy to look up and see if it was mentioned what day the party's taking place on. <_< ))

What was this?  They'd managed to say their goodnights and NOT try to kill each other or horribly insult one another?  It was truly a step.  In the right direction, Connor could only assume, though who knew?  At least Val hadn't mentioned anything about having a lot to 'digest' out loud, or that step might have included backpedaling a bit. 

Connor actually waited a moment after Val turned off towards the trees, just thinking about everything that had happened, and he sighed, running a hand through his hair.  He'd ruined it earlier, partially because he couldn't stand feeling all neat for so long, and then part of it was to annoy Val.  He could admit that now.  He straightened it a little, ensuring that he didn't have any blood on his throat or collar, and straightened himself.  More than likely, he'd have to face one or more of the hunters, and he couldn't do so looking a wreck.  He couldn't even blame this on a tryst in the woods, considering his situation with Capri.  There was no excuse that would work here, and so he was going to do his best to avoid NEEDING one. 

He was just intending to check back in with a few people, proclaim that he was tired, and head home.  He actually WAS kind of tired, considering he'd been snacked on not once, but twice, but it wasn't anything extreme enough to call for instant attention.  He was done for the evening, though.

Val didn't feel it immediately, but only because he wasn't paying attention. Once he was paying attention, however, it was impossible to miss. And once he deciphered what it was, it sent an icy wave through him that froze the blood settling in his gut.

Something was hurting Connor.

~*~

The decision had been made before the Masquerade, whom the target would be. It was only luck that their prey was weakened. The brunette who had been hiding in Adele's shadow smirked to herself and murmured a thanks to Valerie for making his bloodbond easier prey.
"Couldn't have done it without you, Valencia."
It wasn't the brunette who appeared first in Connor's vision, however, it was another female vampire who hadn't been present at the party. The brunette hadn't exposed ALL her aces. That wasn't smart, and the master had no time for her mistakes. She watched from some distance away as her underling laid in the first attack. If the underling fell, no matter. There were others. Their instructions had been that they were allowed to toy with him, so long as they left him dead. Some of the brunette's vampires, who were newer than the rest, would find accomplishing that against Crimson's leader to be trouble.

There was a problem with the way trouble presented itself to Connor, and that problem involved the fact that they were close enough to the party itself that he wouldn't have thought a vampire would be stupid enough to try an attack, and he couldn't be sure if the woman before him even WAS a vampire.  He learned the error in not assuming the worst answer to be correct in both of those questions rather quickly.

He made a very good attempt at getting out of her reach when the woman launched herself at him, his hand immediately shooting for the knife he'd worn hidden on himself that night.  He was surprised to find his fingers brushing over an empty sheathe, and his eyes widened in sudden alarm and pain intermingled as the vampire's second blow struck her target.  He took a backhand in the face, and felt long nails catch his cheek.  He reeled, just from the strength behind it, but it wasn't as though he'd never been hit by a vampire before, or that he was just any normal human anymore.  He knew he was in a load of trouble, though.  He didn't have a weapon on him, and he thought fast about where that knife could be.  The last time he remembered touching it had been the first time Val had him smashed against that tree, and right after drawing it, he'd been bitten.  He didn't remember having it at all after that.  Had he dropped it and forgotten to retrieve it?  That seemed likely.

Surprisingly, he didn't even think to call out for Val, but he wasn't shielding, either.  He was tired, unarmed and under attack.  He was not ready to die.  He didn't have the time or effort available to expend on shielding. 

She was coming at him again, spurred on by the scent of his blood on the air, and he smirked somewhat from his kneeling position on the forest floor.  He pulled one leg up to plant his foot on the ground and simply waited for her to reach him.  At the last second, he stood, swinging a rather thick branch as he did so to use the momentum from standing as well as from her attack, not to mention his swing.  This wasn't a metal weapon, so he had no illusions about its strength, but he knew it had to hurt her when it completely shattered against her body.

It hurt him just to have been connected to it on one end.

The force of the blow reverberated through both of his hands and into his arms, which hurt like hell, but it had to have hurt her worse.  He got out of the way FAST, lest he get mauled just when he thought he might be doing alright.  He didn't get far before agony tore through his left leg, and he was suddenly on his face in the pine needles and dirt. 

Not good.

Val sped towards the source of Connor's pain in response to some feeling he couldn't understand and wasn't in the mood to. Even with the strained sort-of truce between them, something still pulled him to respond with ferocity when he felt his bloodbond being threatened. The bond, yeah, that had to be it. It wasn't as though Val actually cared what happened to Connor.

Connor had so better be in a real shitload of trouble for the mental circles Val was beginning to run in.

~*~

As it turned out, Connor was in a shitload of trouble. Val saw red for the split second it took to get between his bondmate and the other vampire and send her for a one-way trip into the nearest tree. He was lucky she was young and still mostly weaker than himself. He was also lucky that he'd had the element of surprise. There were other auras in the air, and probably some that were there but hidden, and he wouldn't catch them off guard again.
"You had better be able to stand on that," Val said of Connor's injured leg as he pulled the man out of the dirt. Maybe it was just him, but he felt stronger being near Connor. Not strong enough to take on everything that came out of those trees, but not as invalid as he had been in fights past. "What did you do this time? Who was she?" It wouldn't occur to Val that the attack was unprovoked.

Really, Connor thought his ass was about to get torn up, or eaten, by that bitch.  He wasn't used to having help show up in the nick of time, and that was actually a refreshing change of pace.  He was still conscious and not in danger of bleeding to death or suffering some massive injury yet.  Sure, his leg felt somewhat like chop meat, but hey, that'd heal up.  No broken bones, so far as he knew. 

It was very nice to catch Val sending that crazy lady airborne and into a tree, as well.  Connor was willing to say that he was impressed.  See?  Val didn't HAVE to be a victim. 

"Of course I can," he muttered regarding standing, and he was going to stand no matter how much it hurt.  He even brushed some of the dirt off of his clothes, as though it wasn't a big deal.  The leg hurt, but it was usable, and he wasn't having Val carry him out.  That'd be embarrassing.  Being blamed for being attacked wasn't any better, though. 

"What?!  I didn't do anything!  She was just there all of a sudden, and she jumped at me!" he snapped back, obviously unhappy.  The people chilling out in the trees didn't need to see them disagreeing, but Connor couldn't recognize the presence of auras as well as Valerie could.  He could use common sense, but that didn't leave him sure as to whether that woman would have attacked alone, or if there was someone else involved.  That was up in the air, depending on motive.  He didn't know what the motive was, considering he hadn't done anything to provoke her.  "I've never even seen her before, Val."

I dropped my knife while you were chewing on me.

He didn't bother to push the thought through that the bitch was lucky he had, or she'd have gotten a knife to the chest instead of that branch, but he didn't think he needed to.  He snuck a peak at his former attacker for a moment, trying to get a good look at her now that she wasn't trying to kill him.  He still didn't recognize her.

"Good." Val wasn't going to carry Connor unless he absolutely had to. It would be undignified.

An impressive distance away, their attacker was getting woozily to her feet. Valerie frowned in disappointment; he had hoped her spine would snap. "Then she is either the underling of someone else you have angered, or she is an idiot. Débutants sourds-muets," he scoffed. He was playing up the idea that he thought she was alone, even if he knew that those around them wouldn't buy it. Some of them were displaying their auras because they were too young to hide them. Some were doing it to indimidate.

It was working.

Connor being unarmed was not what Val wanted to hear, but as that was apparently his fault, he chose to ignore it. She is not alone. There are at least three other presences I feel in the trees, though I doubt that is all there are. Most are fledglings like the one here. The rest... I cannot tell.

"Bastard, you weren't supposed to be here," Val heard the vampire girl mutter to herself. Ah, so this had been planned. Still, her words confused him; why would whoever sent her think that Val would not rush to his bloodbond's aid? Did he and Connor really present themselves as that broken of a pair?

...Probably.

Sudden movement from another young aura. The vampire by the tree was still cracking bones back into place, but she would be back at them soon, and they were about to get company. Better warn Connor-

And then Val found out what it was like to play american football. Without warning he was tackled and sent rolling, the vampire who had jumped him going along for the ride and pummeling Val along the way. This vamp was stronger than the last, and old enough that he had been able to hide himself from Val. Not good. The message was loud and clear: the enemy wanted to separate them.


(("Dumb fledglings."))

He initially took Val's appraisal of his attacker to heart, assuming that if either of them had a chance at being correct in evaluating how many vampires were in the immediate area, it'd be the vampire.  He didn't realize at first that Val was trying to mess with the vampires in hiding, or that there WERE any, but he DID know that he hadn't pis-- ooooh.  There HAD been that Diana woman.  He'd pissed HER off, he was pretty sure.  This would have been an awful lot of effort just for that, though.

Huh.  That would suck.

He decided right then and there that if they both survived this, he was going to stop trying to piss off people who might kill BOTH of them for it.  He was used to having his own life threatened because he didn't like to shut up, but it wasn't fair to Val to put him in that situation.  Of course, getting himself killed might kill Val at the same time, but they didn't know that for sure.  There was the chance Val wouldn't die if he did, especially this early.  Considering Val's explanation of their surroundings, that was a chance they might have to take sooner rather than later.  It was a little disappointing to Connor to have to consider it, but he wasn't afraid.  Just...irked.

Val wasn't supposed to be there?  Connor's eyes darted to Val, assuming that it really HAD meant that it was his fault they were being attacked.  It hadn't occurred to him that they might have attacked him because they thought he was the weaker of the two.  Unarmed, he had to admit that he was, though he still wasn't helpless.

He didn't have the chance to prove his ability to do anything as that vamp attacked Val, though he made the point clear that he wasn't complete cannon fodder when he smoothly fell backwards in a split second to avoid a similar attack from someone else.  Hunter skills added to bloodbond-enhanced speed worked out to his advantage, but he wasn't dumb.  That was already five vampires.  The three youngsters, the first attacker, and the surprise guy.  Connor couldn't take on four vamps completely unarmed and already hurting some.  Val looked busy.  So, change in plans.

"HEY!  LEECHES, HEY!  Come on, you goddamned bloodsuckers, come and get me," he shouted, throwing a rock he'd found on the ground directly at the one tussling with Val.  He had to find SOME way of getting its attention, after all.  He seemed to have managed that, but just in case they changed their minds, he flicked the whole group off with both hands, turned and shot off into the woods. 

Had he mentioned he could stand?  His leg felt like it was on fire, but Connor had never been an entirely normal, sane individual.  Who could kill sentient beings for a living and not have something slightly off?  He got a thrill from dangerous situations, and the pain in his leg as he ran through the woods as fast as he was physically capable of running only spurred him on.  It reminded him of just how much worse it would be if they caught him.  He didn't wan to be caught. 

You better be getting the hell out of here! he shot at Val as soon as he heard the sounds of pursuit, and he knew they weren't going to let him go easy.  If his blood smelled and tasted even HALF as good to these vamps as it seemed to be for Val, they'd follow just because he'd gotten scratched by a few branches and a thorn bush he'd almost run into nearly immediately. 

At least he had the sense to run TOWARDS the party, even if he knew he'd never make it.

Connor's rock got the vampire's attention, in an offended, outraged sort of way. The attackers didn't seem to have expected Connor's... lack of conventional strategy when it came to combat. Frankly, Val was getting more and more the feeling that the vampires had been expecting them to lay down and die on command. Sometimes his race embarrassed him.

Connor wasn't far behind, though. Val was no fighter, but with the leech distracted he managed a well-aimed punch and a shove that got the blasted weight off him. Just in time to see Connor flip the vampires the bird and tear off into the woods.

Val would murder the Hunter himself.

"Ce mal," Val's remaining attacker cackled, sounding amused. "She was right, you are getting stronger." Though on his side, the vamp managed to kick Val in the face before the latter could duck. This one was indeed powerful, and Val saw stars. It was more instinct than combat intelligence that got him twisting away from the second kick, this one sweeping through where his skull had just been.
"And faster."
"Lâches mous, you fils des chiennes." Val wiped pain and blood from his eyes. "Attacking a man when he's weak."
"I thought I said you are not weak?"
Instead of correcting him (he'd meant Connor), Val teleported the heck out of there. Connor had some pissed off vamps on his tail and was going to be in serious trouble very soon.

~*~

Teleporting was an exact science, one which Val wasn't bad at. He appeared exactly where he'd meant to, right in Connor's path. Val had had two meals from his bloodbond tonight and felt refreshed enough to get them both out of there without a hitch. All he had to do was grab Connor and go.


(("That hurt."
"Gutless cowards" "sons of bitches"))

Connor might have resented the 'weak' comment out of Val, but he couldn't have argued it.  He definitely wasn't up to his usual level of acceptable trouble, which would have included these assholes, and he'd been unarmed.  That hadn't happened to him in a very, very long time.  He was intending to make this the last.

He kept running until he seriously thought his leg might give out, even though he knew they were just playing with him.  They were vampires, and he was hurt.  They could have caught him by that point, if they really wanted to.  They were waiting for him to fall, which was part of the reason he fought so hard not to.  He knew that if he got close enough to help, they'd take him out before he got there, and hopefully Val was either gone to someplace safe, or cooking up some sort of plan for getting them out of there alive.  At this point, Connor would have been alright with either, considering it WAS his fault, but he had a preference, and that was anything that involved him not getting torn up by a bunch of vampires.  It seemed the only fitting end for a hunter, but he wasn't ready yet.

Fortunately, Val wasn't ready to just leave him there, either.  Connor wasn't quite expecting to have the vampire appear right in his path, though.  That would explain why he hadn't been looking up at the right moment, and why he didn't have the chance to stop when he did.  He slowed down, a surprised look in his eyes, but it wasn't enough.  He hoped Val had braced himself, because when they impacted, Connor himself had to wince.  He twisted mid-step to put his back to Val, in the hopes of not hitting the guy in the chest with his shoulder or arms trying to save him some hurt.  It seemed to go against anything he'd learned to put his back into a fall instead of trying to save himself with his arms or shoulders, but hurting Val would be worse for their situation, and his leg just about gave out right then, anyway.  He was going down whether he liked it or not.

Teleporting was an exact science. Connor, on the other hand, was not. Val should have prepared himself for something like this to happen, but in the heat of the moment his only thought had been to get out of there, in whatever way possible. He had not been thinking about Connor's current level of distraction, the pain in his leg, and how little warning Connor was actually getting before he would have had to slow down. In Val's defense, he hadn't been certain of how far to go, either, and had had to make the distance judgment in a matter of seconds. At the very least, he appreciated the effort Connor made to not break his ribs when he crashed into the hapless vampire. It was not the first time Connor had sent his vampire partner headlong into the ground, though it was the first time he hadn't done it on purpose.

Val had been facing Connor when they impacted, fortunately, so he only got the proverbial wind knocked out of him as they hit the dirt. Later he would be furious to find mud smeared down his best jacket and matting his carefully groomed hair. For now, he concentrated on not getting headbutted by the back of Connor's skull, and once that was done he grabbed a handful of whatever part of Connor was nearest - an arm, he was fairly sure - and teleported them both to the first out of the way location that came to mind.

So maybe the Ramsa High School parking lot wasn't the best of choices. Shut up. He spent a damned lot of time here, and the place was empty.

"Get... off," he gasped, tipping sideways to help Connor along with that. "What the hell kind of strategy was that?"

Connor just about had the wind knocked out of himself with this stunt, and he coughed a little as Val pushed him off.  He rolled fairly easily off of the vampire, just trying to catch his breath (Val didn't NEED to breathe, but he certainly did).  Val's question had to wait until he could talk, and he wasn't bothering to get off of the ground.

Sorry, pavement.

"It was a strategy that included getting them away from you long enough for you to do something useful.  Like this.  Besides, it was my fault they attacked me, anyway.  You getting killed over it would have been stupid.  Where are we?" he asked, changing the subject.  Val would likely jump right back to that subject, but hey, he tried.  He didn't say anything regarding himself getting killed over it, and he personally hoped Val didn't have anything to say, either.  He knew he'd be disappointed, though.  Val always seemed to have something to say.

Glancing around, he didn't need Val to tell him where they were, but the vampire probably would, anyway.  They were at the High School in Ramsa.  What the hell?  Why had he taken them there?  Connor could understand why Val even knew where it was, since his girlfriend went to school there, but why would he go there after a fight?  It totally blew his mind.  Val was going to need to be taught a few things about fights and what to do afterwards.

Valerie grunted. "So you decided to get yourself killed instead. Genius." With Connor no longer crushing him, he was able to get to his feet and brush some of the dust off his clothes. He could feel something wet and goopy splattered all over his skull and determinedly put it out of his mind. Later, he could pick the disgusting bits of leaves and mud out of his gorgeous hair LATER. Now, he had to keep Connor from picking on him for his choice of location.

Wait- nope, too late. At least it was just a simple question. "Ramsa High School. Inquire further and I bite you." He wasn't in the mood to explain why this was the first "safe" place to have come to mind. The reason was cheesy and dumb and too complicated to verbalize this late at night after a run in with murderous youngsters.

Val had had his share of crappy Hallow's Eves, but this one, by far, sucked the most.

"Now that we are no longer in danger of our lives, care to elaborate why this was your fault?" Val didn't know for sure if it was Connor's fault. Connor had just mentioned that it was his fault they had been attacked, so Val was going to run with that until they discovered otherwise.

"Ah, but I didn't get myself killed.  It makes all the difference," he replied, in much better spirits after escaping death.  Nothing like having a bunch of vampires on your tail and escaping them to brighten your day.  Or night, whatever. 

"Ramsa High School.  Man, you're giving me some serious pedophile vibes, here," he remarked, mostly joking.  Mostly.  It made sense, but it didn't sound good that it was the first place he'd thought to go.  Connor hadn't 'inquired', either, so he was safe from that threat.  It worked perfect.  It was like he was more on his game than before the Great-Mad-Dash-To-Not-Die.  Not at all unusual that he was thrilled with the near-death experience and Val was pissed.  Connor hurt, but he was happy to be alive.

As for why it was his fault, he was surprised to hear the question.  Surprised enough that his good humor faded some, and he just looked confused.  "I don't know.  I mean, they attacked me, not you.  And I did piss off that bitch, Diana.  Maybe they were hers.  I don't know of anyone else I pissed off.  Did you?" Maybe it wasn't his fault, after all, but that would be out of the ordinary.  Only Tabitha had attacked him that first time without it being his fault.  He didn't need another one of those.

Not dying would make a difference to someone who was still alive. Val, who was the immortal undead, could no longer identify.

He should have known that Connor would ignore the request completely, even with a threat attached. Was nothing sacred? Val turned his face away to hide a blush that, thanks to Connor's blood, had strength enough to color his cheeks. "Heather insists that I drive her home every day. I spend a lot of time here." That wasn't the whole truth. Val spent a lot of time here because he was, technically, stalking the girl, although he'd begun to do much less of it lately, in light of certain developments. He also came early a lot, so he could sit in his car and contemplate deep thoughts.

He also didn't have a life.

"If Diana were to attack us, I imagine she would have done it herself," he replied, thankful for the change in topic. Concentrate on the problem, not the messed up ways he occupied himself these days. "And the vampire I fought with..." Should he mention certain linguistic details? It would almost certainly put the blame on Valerie, because who ELSE would have a mass of French vampires after him? Connor would probably laugh his damn head off. Merde. He could keep this to himself, except the vampires had targeted CONNOR. He had a right to know.

"... The vampire I fought... He spoke French." Val sighed a sigh that was half groan. "So it is entirely possible they are connected to me." If they were, Val was going to be mad. He had made a career of not making enemies.

Connor dropped the issue of Heather and the school, simply because he didn't really have the right to say anything about it after the time he spent with Lore.  He wasn't going to throw stones.

Not at Val, anyway.  He liked throwing stones at other vampires, obviously.

"Oookay," he remarked, listening to the comments about Diana, and not knowing who else it could be.  He didn't have any other vampires who'd bother to do that.  Unless...they'd never found Tabitha's accomplice.  They had no way to identify him.  Could it be him?  That thought was enough to make Connor himself pale a little, though when Val finally dropped the bomb about the language issue, he relaxed a little.  That was better than it being Tabitha's friend.

"Okay," he repeated, though not nearly the same.  "So, it's your fault for a change.  I can handle that.  Any idea who would want to attack me out of your old friends?  I mean, I just met them, and I don't think I pissed any of them off, did I?" he asked, completely ignoring the fact that he was still sitting on the pavement.  His leg hurt and was probably bleeding, but he wasn't going to worry about it until they were done.  He wasn't standing, either.  Looking up at Val, however undesirable that was, could be better for now.

"I did not say it WAS my fault, only that it might be," Val said, bristling. He was really uncomfortable with the thought of being in trouble, especially with his own kind, since the majority of them were more powerful than him without trying. He got lucky sometimes on a one-on-one basis, but if a really strong vamp took a crack at him? Not a chance.

But he couldn't deny the coincidence of meeting his old friends, who happened to be French, and then getting attacked by vampires who spoke French so soon afterwards. He was an idiot of he ignored something so obvious. "They are my old friends, Connor, as in I may not know them anymore. Although that's not to say such behavior would be out of character." Vampires killed humans and each other for power reasons more often than not. The mere fact that Val had acquired another bloodbond might be reason enough for any one of them to decide to get rid of him, and he explained as much to Connor. "Our strength is nowhere near what I remember of theirs. Still, that doesn't mean they wouldn't kill us for our POTENTIAL threat." The life of a vampire sure was glamorous. What Val wouldn't give to be considered lower than dirt again. Vampires generally ignored weaklings.

Val might have been all bent out of shape by the idea that it might be his fault that Connor was attacked, but Connor was nowhere near bothered by it.  It was a rather refreshing change of pace for him, though the next time they attacked, he might not be so innocent in it all.  He HAD tossed up two birds at them.

That was the problem with vampires, especially.  They were too damn proud.  Connor could flick off a hunter and they might get nasty, but they'd get over it.  Those vampires would remember it.  Maybe he shouldn't have done it, though he didn't really regret it.  They were vampires, and they were not Val.  That was all that mattered to him.  Vampires who were not Val weren't likely to get much of a good reception.

"Wonderful, you used to hang out with homicidal maniacs who might think that we might get powerful, and might thing that they might kill us.  I'm glad we're clear on all that," he remarked in false cheer.  "I really hope they don't expect us to take that sitting down."

The fact that he was currently sitting down wasn't lost on him.  Sometimes, irony was fun.

Connor's cheerful response to a near-death experience just might end in Val murdering him instead.

"No," Val agreed, annoyed, "they expect us to resist. Live prey that thinks its got a sporting chance is far more entertaining to hunt and kill." Despite knowing that this was just Connor's way of dealing with nerves, Val wished he could at least pretend to take the situation seriously. Sarcasm didn't help as much as, say, making useful suggestions on how to not die. "Adele, I remember, could spend months taunting her prey." It hadn't seemed so bad then as it did now, probably because Val hadn't been the target. Of course, the times had also changed, and it was getting harder and harder for a vampire to hide his or her kills. Roch and Val had, between the two of them, cleaned out entire manors of aristocrats and left the peasants to speculate on the deaths before burning the place to the ground and declaring it a manifest of devilry or witchcraft. That was before science and technology had come along and inventing things like DNA testing and hidden camera surveillence. Fledglings of this century were enchanted by their own powers and their mysterious thrall over mortals, but their sires remembered days past when bloodsucking had been a private joke played on hapless locals.

Val had preferred those days. It had been easier to get lost in the crowd.

The mud in his hair no longer felt as wet, though that didn't change the fact that Val desperately needed a shower. Connor was also a mess, covered in scratches that leaked blood, and discheveled from a number of activities, the least of which being his hand continuously destroying the shapeliness of his hair. Val itched to attack that messy mop with a comb. "Unless we find solid proof, however, I would prefer not to pin the blame on friends I have not seen in a century and will take offence to being accused of attempted murder."

"Damn.  No wonder I'm so popular with the homicidal types," he murmured, thinking back on the number of times he'd been attacked.  He never made it known that he was aware that he didn't have a sporting chance, but that confidence hadn't let him down much in the past.  The few times that it had, he was still glad that he'd fought like he had.  He wasn't going to just lay down and take anything.

"Well," he started, also beginning the effort to get up off the ground.  His leg was sore from the injury as well as from pushing his muscles to their limits so that he didn't die.  "I hope it's someone who wants to take months hunting us, because it gives us more time to figure out who it is and how best to kill them.  They'll get their resistance."

The way he looked at Val, his tone may have been light enough to suggest he wasn't taking it seriously, but the look in his pale blue eyes should have stated otherwise.  Connor was a hunter, a Guild Leader, and he was NOT a vampire's prey.  He fully intended to kill whoever had decided their time was up, and Val would be best to go along without a fight on that one.

"If you flip off all your opponents, than I am not surprised by your popularity, either." A target's confidence was more appealing when it appeared honest. Arrogant prey was irritating and dealt with accordingly to teach it a lesson, unless it would be more of an insult to deem it too unimportant to kill. Val hadn't begun to differentiate among prey like that until he met Adele, and later Roch. Angus had possessed the necessary sadistic streak, to be sure, but not the patience.

Val noticed how gingerly Connor put weight on the injured leg. It was a testament to the Hunter's determination and willpower that he had run for so long on it. Val also noticed the look in Connor's eyes. Now that was an expression he could respect. It conveyed Connor's years as a Hunter and a Guild leader, as it was supposed to, and showed that his light-hearted attitude was only surface deep. The vampire still doubted that Connor understood the full implications of their situation, but he could tell that Connor did understand that the situation had two options: us, or them. It was a relief, at least, that even if Connor didn't understand - or conform to - vampire politics half the time, he could deal with a life or death situation involving the night's creatures without batting an eye.

Speaking of which... It would probably be prudent to get out of the parking lot and indoors. Connor needed to go home and bandage himself up, and Val needed to go home and take that shower. And then do something that didn't involve Connor or his own kind or anything remotely related to the last few hours. "We should be safe for the night. Which is fortunate, as you are somewhat... shredded." He took a second to assess his own strength. Again, thanks to Connor and despite the earlier brawling, he had plenty of power left. "I have strength enough to transport you to a desired location and still make it back to my car. Where do you want to go?"

Naturally, Connor had thought that his problem might have been that he made too tempting of a target, but he couldn't help himself.  Rolling over just wasn't his style.  He certainly wasn't arrogant, though.  Just...disrespectful at times.  Especially around vampires.

When Val mentioned being safe for the night, and him being shredded, his eyes shot back up to the vampire.  For a second, he was still thinking like a hunter, but it changed just as fast, and he pulled a smile, though it still wasn't his usual, genuinely amused expression.  "Shredded?  You haven't seen what I call shredded, yet."

As for where he wanted to go, that much was obvious.  "How about you just drop me off at my place?  I could probably walk there from here, but it'd take a little while longer than usual tonight.  Mitchell would want to know what the hell happened if I showed up at the Guildhouse, and he knows I was at that party.  Being chewed up by leeches after that thing was supposed to be safe isn't good for inter-species relations, or so I hear," he remarked.  Yeah, it was supposed to be safe, but they HAD been outside the 'safe-zone', where the hunters had been guarding.  Capri might be irritated that he hadn't shown back up to talk to her, but he didn't have a lot of options.  If he went back to the party all bloody and unable to walk right, it'd be worse. 

"I'm still sleeping with a gun, and I'd suggest you stay aware of what's going on around you, too.  Just because we think they're done tonight doesn't mean they are."  He wasn't getting jumped again, if he could help it.

In Val's opinion, Connor probably didn't want to know how the vampire had applied the term "shredded" to live people during the weeks following his abandonment by his sire. It wouldn't make for a solid foundation for trust.

Funny, Connor's other choice of words. There was only one vampire who had actually 'chewed' on him tonight, and it hadn't been the attackers. Val nodded. "Where, exactly, is your place?" Having to ask the question made him realize that he had seen Connor at his place of work, but not his acutal home. It was strange that he would potentially get to see it now. Connor having a real home made him more a real person, somehow.

And again with the reminder that they were in danger. Val wasn't as used to his life being in peril the way Connor was, and it put him on edge to think that about it. Even if the Hunter's advice was seasoned and reasonable, it still irked Val to hear it. "I'm always aware of what's going on around me." It was how he had stayed OUT of trouble for so long, until a certain Hunter had gotten tangled up in his life.

"You don't know where I live?" he asked, somewhat surprised.  With someone else, he'd have probably made a joke about the first date or something, but not with Val.  There was just too much going on with their mess to make those kinds of jokes.  He shot off an address, watching for comprehension, and shrugged. 

No, Connor wouldn't have wanted to know about the term 'shredded' in Val's early immortality, but he'd also been 'shredded' far worse than now many times before.  He was injury-prone, some might say.  He just thought that those people neglected to notice how well most of his hunts went.  What was the fun in talking about the smooth hunts, when the ones that went wrong were so much more interesting?  Assholes.

Naturally, he hadn't meant that the others had literally chewed on him, considering they hadn't, but he was thinking more along the lines just being attacked.  'Chewed up' as in like a woodchipper, which just caused lots of damage.  He meant it in an exaggerated sense, of course.  Val just liked to worry, he was thinking.

The hunter appraised the vampire for a moment, something which usually would have happened before a very different scenario, and finally nodded.  "Okay.  They might attack you at home."  And how would he know this, as a good guy?

"I certainly would."

Val would have given Connor a withering look had he made the first date comment. More for Connor's benefit, though, since they'd already established that Val wasn't actually bothered by getting up close and personal the way Connor was. It was just easier not to remind the Hunter at every turn that the guy he was stuck with didn't mind being in his personal space (as long as it involved blood).

"Okay.  They might attack you at home."

Really, Connor could shut up about that at any time. Val hadn't been on anyone's shit list like this in ages, which was saying a lot for a vampire, and after the night he'd had - both the awkward bond conversation and the being smacked around part - he was good and ready to drop the subject. And even if Val was attacked in his home tonight, he would have at least preferred not having been reminded of the possibility beforehand.

"Then by all means, do, get rid of me before my friends do," he said bad-temperedly. Val-fear translated into bad moods. "Although hopefully they'll go for you first, since you seem to be dearly looking forward to it." He held up an irritated hand for Connor to take. "Am I taking you to your home or not?"

No, reminding Connor that he didn't mind being up close and personal wasn't for the best, since Connor hated it and any implications it might have held.  He didn't care if those implications involved him being food for a vampire or the object of a man's affection, since he hated both a LOT.  He could deal with the former better than the latter, though.

See, this was part of where they differed, besides the obvious points.  Connor would prefer to know what was possibly a threat well beforehand.  Val didn't want to know, and was getting cranky.  So, he'd be honest.  Honesty was always best.

"I didn't say I WANTED to, even if you make it tempting sometimes," he returned, shaking his head and accepting the hand.  "Yes, take me home, and hopefully they'll stop by sometime tomorrow.  I want to sleep tonight."

Really, he would prefer it if the vamps came after him than Val, since he would be armed at home and better trained in dealing with them.  Val would probably be taken off-guard, and that was bad.  Besides, they'd attacked him specifically before, so he could only assume they'd do it again if they got the chance.  That was alright, since he was ready for them. 

He hoped.  After he fixed his leg.

Val ignored Connor's sarcasm - at least, it sounded that way to him - and teleported them to a shaded alley near the address described. He just wanted Connor gone right now. Bond-related breakthroughs notwithstanding, it hadn't been the best of nights. Val was ready to get back on his own turf and be alone. What he really wanted was to go spend a weekend with Hiroshi; it was what he usually did when life got annoying, difficult or complicated. But he'd tried that once, and Connor had gotten on his ass about it, not to mention simply being away from Connor had made Val's experience less than pleasant, as well. It defeated the purpose of a relaxing vacation when he spent the whole time feeling like he was about to die.

He had dropped Connor's hand as soon as they appeared, though not in a disgusted manner, just letting the other man go. He wasn't in the mood to keep holding on just to freak Connor out. It was too late and Val was feeling too gross. Damn, but he wanted that shower.

Connor wasn't complaining about anything just then, even Val assuming he was being sarcastic when he REALLY wasn't (Connor was a very honest guy when he could get away with it).  He'd take it, and deal with letting Val know that he wasn't kidding later.  Right then, getting home was a good thing.  He was going to go pass out on his couch and ignore injuries, the necessity for cleaning, or anything else like that.  He just wanted to sleep, really. 

He DEFINITELY wasn't going to complain about Val letting go of his hand.  He wasn't into hand holding, and with guys, it was a NO NO.  Somehow, Val had gotten away with it long enough to zap them to the hunter's house, but that didn't mean Connor hadn't minded.  He still didn't feel comfortable with what was required of them, even if it didn't involve anything super obscene.  Just biting.  He wasn't going to volunteer for anything like hand holding.

"You can come in if you want.  You've got a little..." he paused, gesturing to the back of his own head without stating what it was.  He knew Val had to have noticed, so he offered to let him in if he wanted.  Or not.  He really didn't care, because he was passing out.  Val could do what he wanted.  "I have a sink, and a shower.  You know, all those cleaning things you like.  Soap."

Yeah, he was being an ass.

Hm, mayhap some of that vampire mind reading had rubbed off on Connor. Or maybe Connor was getting to know his vampire counterpart too well, which right then Val couldn't tell if it was a good thing or not. HE certainly wasn't amused. Personal hygiene was serious business. He might even have taken Connor up on that offer, had he not been made fun of.

"I have a shower - AND soap - at my own place. I don't need yours." He was grouchy, he knew. Val got kinda... bitchy... when people got between him and his domestic comforts. Especially when those comforts were going to help him forget this crappy night. He stopped himself just short of making a crack at Connor needing a shower as well. Instead, he nodded curtly. "Goodnight, Connor."


((ahhh, short, but I'm running to a class that's at 2:30))

"Fine, suit yourself," he said with a shrug, sounding like Val was making a mistake in not accepting his offer of a shower.  Just to be annoying.  Val deserved it for many, many things that he'd already done and had yet to do.  Connor was going to give him a hard time as often as he could get away with it.

"Goodnight.  Thanks for the looooovely evening.  We should go get attacked again sometime soon.  It's always a blast," he returned with that same false cheer.  It annoyed Val.  That was enough reason. 

Val was close, THIS CLOSE, to snapping back something along the lines of, "Very well, I WILL," but at this point it would have done him more harm than good. Getting into a catfight with Connor was all well and good when Val had the upper hand, but with Connor in this mood, Val would just get madder and madder until Connor gave it up and laughed. And then Val would have to bite him again.

It was that or leave, and he would be too angry at that point to find running away a viable option.

"You're welcome," he replied sarcastically. "Now go inside." For reasons he totally wasn't going to vocalize, he planned on waiting until Connor was safely inside before leaving. Why? Maybe his pride wouldn't be able to handle his bloodbond getting attacked on his own doorstep. He'd have to smack his head against a wall, daily, for the rest of his life, if Connor died that way.

In a strange way, Connor had the power in this situation, and he liked it.  Val disliked fighting and danger.  Connor didn't.  It gave the hunter an edge over the vampire, or actually, it gave the human an edge over the vampire, since he wasn't much of a hunter were Val was concerned.  If he was, he'd have killed Val a few times over for all the trouble he'd been already.

He was almost tempted to argue, considering he just didn't like doing anything Val told him to, but he actually didn't.  He knew just as well as Val did how bad it would be if he was attacked on his own doorstep, but he also knew that it was just as likely that he'd be attacked inside his own home.  Vampires could get in, and they could hide until he wasn't paying attention.  He'd fight back, but it wouldn't really make that much of a difference at that point.  Maybe he could at least get to a weapon.  Val didn't seem to understand, but that was alright.  Connor would take care of business as only he knew how.

"Alright, whatever.  See you later," he said by way of dismissal as he popped his door open, not wanting to accept too easily that order.  "Night."

Val didn't answer verbally, only nodded, and waited until Connor had shut the door and locked it before teleporting back to Mayhem. Once inside his home, he stood in the doorway, leaning against the solid wood and taking that much-needed moment to wish this all away. It wouldn't go away, but he wanted it to. His life had taken crazy turns at times, but not for a long time, and he had gotten used to the peace just as Connor had barged in and changed everything. Now they were deep in it, and there was no going back. Val was well and truly stuck with more conflict than he ever could have wanted.

The shower helped a little. It didn't soothe his problems away, although it did get rid of the dirt, and feeling clean at least made him feel like he could handle the situation without screaming. And... it gave him time to think about the other things that had happened tonight, the things he had talked about with Connor and the agreements they had come to. He thought about how full he was, how much power had coursed through him from this feeding alone. Given that, he would miss Connor's blood if the Hunter had decided he couldn't handle the bite. Val wondered if regular 'donations' from Connor could result in a feeling like this all the time, if by feeding on Connor he could raise his natural power level.

It was a heady consideration, and wonderfully tempting. What would it be like to have real power, the kind he had seen others posess but given up on having for his own long ago?

Sleep came surprisingly easy that night.