Old Flame

"And I still think you're bloody crazy," Aimer said to Jay. Well, technically Aimer didn't say anything, since dragons have a terrible time properly prounouncing english words while in their native form. Dragons have developed a form of short range telepathy for communication with non-dragons. It used to be "for communication with lesser races", but after a few humbling battles through the ages, the phrase was changed.

"I'm telling you I smelled her," Jay insisted, peering over Aimer's side in an attempt to see. Jay was perched on Aimer's back, and Aimer was flying in a cloud to avoid being seen. It was the black of night, but...

"If I get seen because you thought you smelled a girl you once knew, we are in a heap of trouble," Aimer pinted out to Jay, only a hint of his Irish accent coming through. After spending enough time with the likes of Jay and K, his accent had nearly disappeared. Jay took great pleasure in pointing out how he'd helped "Americanize" Aimer. Aimer sometimes fantasized about chewing on Jay's head. They had a wonderful friendship.

"Look, I don't know how good your sense of smell is, but mine is frankly incredible," Jay told Aimer. "I have to be able to tell, by smell, if my prey is actually safe to drink from with very good accuracy. It's usually strong enough to let me know if I'm drinking from another vampire's flock. I can tell when K is walking towards me from blocks away if he's upwind, because I can recognize nearly everyone by smell alone."

"Great," Aimer laughed. "All my impressively large olfactory glands let me do is locate a carcass at several miles, or the general location of what are probably prey herds."

"You eat roadkill?" Jay laughed, then grabbed desperately for a hand hold when Aimer "forgot" Jay was on his back and dove into an aerobatic flying roll.

"Not normally no," Aimer informed Jay while returning to gliding. "Pushy, obnoxious vampires aren't on my usual menu either, though perhaps tonight I'll make an exception."

"Bah. If you did that, who would help you through your intro to computers class?" Jay laughed.

"K would," Aimer said dryly.

"Ahh, yes, but who would make it more fun?" Jay asked with a big superior grin. Aimer sighed, but did not reply. They flew quietly for a while, the only sound being Jay's deep breaths.

The night was beautiful. It was dark and clear and ever so slightly cold. Premium flying weather except for one, minor, detail. There were almost no clouds. That makes flying stealthily a little difficult for a dragon with a thirty-five foot wingspan, but Jay had called in a favor that Aimer could not ignore. Besides, even with the sparse clouds, the night was wonderful for flying. This time Aimer really did forget that Jay was there when the aerobatics began.

"Hey!" Jay protested, clinging desperately to a pair of scales. Aimer snickered, but said nothing. Then Jay froze and took several quick breaths.

"Now, dive! Get me down there!" Jay insisted. Normally this would be harder, because Aimer would have had to look very carefully to find both a safe place to land and a place where he could get from sky to ground in as little space as possible. It's hard to miss a dragon diving from the skies. However, thanks to their wizard friend K, Aimer had learned to make himself invisible for short spans, just long enough to land. Seconds later, Jay and Aimer, now in his familiar human form, and horrible pants, were on the ground in a lightly forested area.

Aimer rolled his eyes as he followed after a rapidly sniffing Jay. Jay moved now, not so much like a dog on a hunt for a bone, more so like a wolf on the hunt for dinner. Given that Jay was supposedly looking for an old flame, Aimer wasn't quite sure how to take that reconcile that mental image. After a few minutes, Jay froze.

"Don't move," Jay told Aimer. "Give me five minutes. If a girl runs through here, grab her till I get back, ok?"

"I'm not very fond of holding lasses against their will," Aimer pointed out. The red-glowing glare Jay turned on Aimer was enough to cause even the dragon to take a step back.

"Just do it," Jay commanded before running into the forest. Aimer shook his head. Jay had even managed to make his command a true command by accident with his mental powers. Aimer was able to shrug the half-hearted attempt off fairly easily, but now Aimer was just worried Jay would go and get himself hurt. Aimer sighed and leaned up against a tree while he waited. After maybe three minutes passed, something ran towards him making a great deal of noise, obviously not Jay.

"Perhaps he's startled a deer," Aimer mused as he stood up away from the tree. His surprise was total when a young woman, dressed as goth as goth could be, stumbled into the clearing eyes glowing a silver color, fangs and claws partially extended.

"Excuse me lass, could I-" Aimer tried to calm the woman down, but when she noted his presence, a desperate look crossed her face and she leaped to attack, swinging her claws wildly. Aimer was used to Jay, who moved with frightening speed and ferocity. This slow and seemingly desperate woman was nothing like the Jay he knew, as far as Aimer could tell. In an effort to not hurt the woman or get himself hurt in the process, he pulled upon a suggestion from one of K's ex-girlfriend, and grabbed the woman by the forearms just under the elbow. This grip made it almost imposssible to reach anything with claws, and was helpful for stoping lunges with teeth. Holding Jay in place like this even Aimer would have struggled, but with this woman it was no more than holding a squalling babe.

"Please calm down, lass. I'm not for hurting you," Aimer assured her, but she still struggled, trying to jerk her hands away. It was only when Jay seemed to materalize next to Aimer with a concerned look on his face, that the woman suddenly froze. She looked terrified.

"Nancy?" Jay asked hesitantly, quietly. Her frantic demeanor suddenly diminished as she looked at Jay. The glow in her eyes dimmed.

"You..." she said, her mouth hanging open in surprise.

"Yep," Jay replied. "Me." He sounded flippant, but Aimer could tell that he was anything but. Aimer was just about to let go and introduce himself to the young lady when she desperatly tried to throw herself at Jay, eye blazing.

"It was you!" she screamed, her feet scrabbling at the ground as she tried to escape Aimer's grip. She even managed to drag Aimer a few feet before he dug his heels back in. Jay's surprised and dismayed face was sight Aimer never expected to see. However, given the angry woman in his arms, Aimer was a bit busy to pay too much attention to his friend.

"Lass, please! No one here wants to hurt you," Aimer tried to calm her down. She snapped her blazing eyes to Aimer and growled.

"You're the one who grabbed me, you maniac," she snarled back at Aimer. She wanted to be angry, but Aimer's nearly magical charm with people was not to be denied.

"As much as I'd like to be grabbing at a lovely young lady, such as yourself, these are hardly the circumstances that I would hope for," Aimer told Nancy in a very reasonable and friendly tone. She calmed slightly. "I only hold you like this, because I'd rather not spend my evening bleeding because of a case of mistaken identity. I'd gladly release you if you would but promise not to attack me again." Aimer smiled a wide smile that softened Nancy's expression. Then her eyes narrowed.

"Can I attack him?" Nancy asked. Aimer wasn't quite sure if she was serious or not. However, Aimer let nothing impede the potential for humor.

"I'm fairly certain he can fend for himself," Aimer replied with a laugh and released Nancy from his grasp. "Though the only reason I've stoped holding you for him is because you've asked, and I have such a hard time turning down such a beautiful woman. I'd rather keep ye all to me own, but a gentleman I must be." Jay smirked and rolled his eyes at Aimer's little speech, but no one could deny that it managed to calm Nancy down enough to not immediately try to kill Jay. Aimer was not an unattractive man unless you looked at how he dressed.

"Nancy, are you ok?" Jay started what was likely going to be a string of questions, but Nancy started shouting almost immediately.

"Do I look like I'm fucking ok?" the young woman sobbed, her eyes glowing as she held up her still clawed hands. "I have claws, and fangs, and everyone hates me! I can't even hide because my stupid eyes glow now. And it's all because of you!" Then she started screaming. "It's all because of you and your stupid problem! Tell me you love me and I find out you want to kill me? What the hell is wrong with you? I hate you!"

"Kill you?" Jay yelled, mostly so he could be heard. "I never wanted to kill you!" Though Jay didn't actually say "you idiot", the implication was very strong.

"Why would he want to kill you?" Aimer asked with by far the most reasonable voice here. "He seems to be quite the pussy-cat when I spend my time with him." Nancy turned her silver glare on the Irishman, but it weakened quickly as her face shot from anger to fear.

"You're one too, aren't you?" she whispered, backing away. Aimer exchanged a glance with Jay.

"One what, lass?" Aimer asked calmly. At least Nancy stopped backing away..

"A vampire," she said. Aimer laughed.

"No, I've a much bigger problem then that," Aimer told her. Jay snickered in the background. "But, you have my assurances that you are safe with both of us. Now, would ye be willing to tell us what exactly is going on?" Nancy's legs seemed to fail her and she thumped to the ground. She wrapped her arms around her knees and sat there hugging herself, silver tears rolling from her eyes.

"Nancy, what's wrong?" Jay asked, moving to touch her, though he backed off when she snarled at him.

"Why are you crying, dear lass?" Aimer asked in a voice that women simply couldn't deny. Jay took a moment to remind himself just how much he hated Aimer's voice when women were involved.

"Because of this," Nancy replied between sobs. "Because of him."

"Lass, that's technically an answer, but as of now, I have no earthly clue what is bothering you," Aimer told the young woman.

"I think I know," Jay said sadly. "She is a vampire, and she somehow blames me for it." Aimer frowned at Jay, thinking he was perhaps jumping to conclusions, but the sobbing Nancy nodded her assent, then buried her face in her hands.

"Did you...?" Aimer gave Jay an inquisitive look, but Jay shook his head emphatically no with a disgusted look on his face. As far as Aimer knew, Jay had never given unlife to another vampire. Aimer had also almost never seen a subdued sad Jay either, so tonight was a night of discovery for Aimer. Nancy's sobs slowly weakened. The two boys waited in silence for her to decide to speak again.

"It's his fault," Nancy moaned, eventually breaking the silence.

"How is it my fault?" Jay asked a bit hotly. Oh, these two have history, Aimer thought to himself. Nancy glared at him through her tears.

"How long did we date before I found you out?" she demanded. "How many times did you tell me you loved me before you turned out to be a liar?"

"I wasn't lying!" Jay insisted. This merely incensed Nancy.

"You were going to kill me!" she screamed at him. Aimer took a step back after that shrill scream. "That's what vampires do. That's what they all do." Nancy was starting to cry again, but Jay managed to cut it off this time.

"Like hell they do!" Jay yelled. "I have never, ever, killed someone I was feeding from. Ever! Not once. Less than ten have ever even realized I was feeding on them, and only one still has that memory. And I wasn't feeding on you at any point to begin with! My flock and my friends are totally separate. I never feed on a friend." Jay paused, his anger dying down. "I never feed on those I love either."

Nancy looked at Jay, mostly in disbelief, but glanced to Aimer for confirmation. Aimer nodded his asscent. Nancy, frowned, essentially asking Aimer to confirm aloud without actually saying anything. Aimer sighed.

"Lass, I have never seen him feed," he told her. "Not once. His very best friend in the world has only seen him feed once, and even then it was only in a time of duress. I couldn't point someone he's fed on out in a crowd if you paid me a pot of gold coins."

"And he's never fed on you?" Nancy asked quietly.

"Oh, he'd find me a difficult meal if he tried," Aimer laughed. Jay smiled at that, and punched Aimer in the arm.

"Why?" Nancy asked. Jay and Aimer both hesitated. In the way she asked, they both knew she was very serious and very desperate. Her stability, even her sanity, hinged on this question being answered just right. Aimer sighed, and looked to Jay for permissions. Jay's eyes widened, and he shrugged.

"You're no help," Aimer grumbled, then he looked into Nancy's eyes. They were desperate, but for the first time, almost hopeful. Aimer never broke eye contact as he changed. When he was done, Aimer's long lean body circled the small clearing they stood in. Aimer cringed and shuddered, which on a his size dragon involves millions of scales ruffling, worrying that he had frightened this timid young woman. But her open mouth and eyes filled with wonder calmed him down. Aimer gave his body a little shake and preened his wings a bit.

"No wonder you aren't afraid," she said, tentatively, then more confidently running her hands over Aimer's scales.

"I'd have nothing to fear, even if I wasn't a dragon," Aimer told her again, firmly, not using his mouth though. Trying to speak in english in this form out loud scared even Jay.

"Why not?" Nancy asked, looking up into Aimer's eyes again.

"Because Jay's an soft-hearted idiot," came a harsh irritated voice from the edge of the clearing. Aimer looked up as K crashed into the clearing muttering curses to himself. Jay grinned.

"Nancy, meet my best friend, Kristoph," Jay told her. K scowled.

"Call me K," he insisted. "Anything else is far too much typing." K joined the group, gave Aimer a withering look, then turn a slightly friendlier glare on Nancy. "Now, tell me why I had to find my way out here in the middle of the goddamn forest in the middle of the goddamn night so I can find some chick oggling a dragon who should know better than to be in this form." Nancy looked slightly worried.

"Don't worry," Jay leaned in closer to Nancy, who for the first time didn't back away, "K's not always like this. I kinda woke him up and called him here." K snorted.

"There was no 'kinda' you asshole," K told Jay darkly.

"Why did you call him?" Nancy said to Jay, actually continuing to remain calm. Aimer took this moment to return to his human form.

"This should be good," K said, while glowering at Jay.

"Because he's a plain old human," Jay replied. "He can vouch for me. Also, he's enough of a jerk when he's tired that he's distracting your irritation with me onto himself."

"Have I set you on fire lately?" K said, mostly to himself.

"You're human?" Nancy demanded, turning to K.

"Uh-huh," K responded shortly.

"He's never fed on you?" she asked, referring to Jay.

"No," K responded shortly again. Then, after taking a look at the young lady's tear stained face, he sighed and continued. "And I've only ever seen him feed once, during an emergency. Jay was very embarrassed about it too. He never wants his friends to see him feed. Not that I get why, but that's just him I guess." K seemed to be a bit more reasonable now that he realized why he was here. Nancy stared at K for a moment, then burst into tears again.

"Oh, great, I'm making chicks cry," K rolled his eyes, then glared at Jay. "This was totally worth getting out of bed for, asshole."

"Lass, why are you crying?" Aimer asked gently, this time touching her arm. When she didn't jerk away, he sat down beside her and hugged her to him. She sobbed for a moment. Jay looked a bit jealously at Aimer till K swatted him in the back of the head, prompting an irritated look, followed by a look of understanding, followed by a look of contrition, followed by another swat to the back of the head. Jay glowered at a suddenly beaming K.

"I'm such an idiot," Nancy said quietly. This quieted the letters of the alphabet.

"How can you say such a thing?" Aimer gently rebuked her.

"No, I am," she insisted. "After I found out what Jay was, I never went anywhere without a cross and garlic. Then one day another vampire found me, listened to my story, then turned me into this as some kind of sick joke."

"What, unwillingly?" K broke into the conversation. He looked pissed. Nancy nodded mutely. Jay's eyes suddenly blazed red.

"Who was it?" Jay asked in a horrible voice. Nancy cringed away from him, and Jay visibly had to control his anger. When the glow left his eyes, he looked to Nancy again and asked, "Who was it that changed you?"

"Why?" Nancy asked.

"Because no wise vampire ever turns a person against their will," Jay told her. He was trying to control his anger, but red was starting to seep into his eyes. "That is unforgivable."

"Weren't you going to turn me?" Nancy suddenly asked nastily.

"No! I wasn't!" Jay insisted hastily, mortified. The red glow had totally dissipated. "I would never curse anyone like this."

"What was his name?" K asked this time, his voice had a deadly serious quality to it that stopped everyone in place. When everyone looked at him, they found a very intense and angry look on K's face.

"I think it was something like... Raz," Nancy told him, her voice soft and hesitant.

"Rasputin?" Jay asked. When Nancy nodded, Jay shot to his feet and stalked away, shaking with anger. K growled, and pulled a pda and portable keyboard out of his pockets. After attaching the two, he began typing furiously.

"What's going on?" Nancy asked Aimer.

"Now, my friends are overreacting," he told her calmly. "But if I'm not mistaken, Jay is facing away from you because he's too angry to think and doesn't want to scare you. K, on the other hand, is signing Rasputin's death warrant."

"You're goddamn right I am," K replied, not looking up from what he was doing.

"All because Ras turned me into this?" she asked. Jay stormed back up, somehow controlling his anger.

"Because Ras took your free will, turned you against your will, then obviously let you out on your own after playing with your mind," Jay replied. "He's probably been stalking you and watching you blunder through unlife." Then Jay froze. "Have you ever fed on anyone?"

"Only animals," Nancy replied, starting to cry. "But I had to kill them to do it. I didn't want to, but I couldn't stop myself." Jay tightened his fists so hard that his claws burst through the backs of his hands, he stalked away again, lighting up the forest with his rage.

"Don't worry babe," K spoke up. He had a self-satisfied look on his face as he returned his geek-gear to his pockets. "Ras won't be around much longer. He'll never do this to anyone ever again."

"See, it's good to have friends like us," Aimer told Nancy giving her a friendly squeeze." She smiled. Jay started to say something, probably comforting and friendly, but then he froze and looked into the air.

"Except when old friends show up," Jay informed everyone with a snarl before suddenly seeming to disappear as he ran up a tree so fast neither Nancy nor K could follow. Aimer looked up to see Jay fighting with a white shade floating above the trees. Whatever he was fighting threw Jay into the ground hard enough to break several bones. A ghostly white monster floated down from the sky, his claws streaming with Jay's blood.

"Rasputin I presume?" K asked in a very dangerous tone of voice. Aimer had guessed that based on how Nancy had suddenly started panicing, desperately trying to crawl away from the white monstrosity. Rasputin looked much like Nancy, very pale, with silver eyes. Rasputin, however, was much better dressed, all in white, and practically glowed in the dark.

"Silence mortal," Rasputin turned his silver eyes on K. At first nothing happened, then K clenched his fists. Aimer realized that the vampire was trying to dominate K's mind.

"Stay here, love, this won't take but a moment," Aimer told Nancy, who looked to him in fear. Then her eyes widened as she realized what Aimer had in mind. Rasputin and K were locked in mental battle, Rasputin clearly the stronger, but as yet unable to break through K's formidable mental defences. Their fight was so intense that Rasputin did not notice Aimer take his true form until he saw Aimer's tail whipping through the air. To his credit, Rasputin caught Aimer's tail and held it away from his body, but to Aimer's credit, the ground was much harder than Rasputin. Though the broken monster healed quickly, as soon as Aimer's tail was clear Jay pounced on the vampire and the two tore at one another with a vengence.

K shared an irritated glance with Aimer. With Jay in the way, dealing with Rasputin became difficult. Aimer could not breathe fire, nor K use his considerable magical repetoire without possibly endangering Jay. And it appeared Rasputin had the advantage. He was likely older, looked to be faster, and stronger. His wounds healed faster than Jay's, though both their sets of clothing were fast being destroyed. Things looked bad for Jay.

Then Jay tore Rasputin's head off and kicked the body away. The head gasped horribly and the body disolved to ash. Jay growled at the very surprised looking head and pulled back his hand for one final blow.

"Jay!" K called sharply. Jay stopped instantly, and looked to K as he stalked over. By the time K had reached Jay's side, all Jay's wounds had healed.

"Give me that," K insisted, swiping the still living head away from Jay. Jay was so surprised he only stood and blinked.

"Can you talk?" K asked the head. Rasputin's eyes swivelled grotesquely towards K and his face crinkled in confusion. K rolled his eyes, and looked at Jay. "You. Translate." Jay blinked more, then shook his head and stared at the severed head of Rasputin.

"No, he can't talk, but yes, he can understand you," Jay told K with something of a smile on his face. "He's in quite a bit of pain, so concentrating is difficult."

"Whatever," K shrugged, and turned back to the head of Raz. "Did you turn this girl against her will?" K was never one for mincing words. And this time it was likely with good reason, since Rasputin's neck was slowly healing downward. In time Rasputin could have completely regrown his body. And Rasputin knew it.

"Answer him or I'll tear out an eye," Jay told the head. Rasputin's silver eyes turned to Jay filled with fear, then unfocused. Jay growled and reported, "Yes, he did, and he's proud of it. It was the most amusement he's had in a while, as he described it." K nodded and pulled out the pda again. He poked at it for a moment.

"Lass, why have you not put your claws away?" Aimer asked the strangely calm Nancy, trying to distract her from the horrible sight of a living severed head.

"How do I do that?" Nancy asked, confused. "I thought they were permanent."

"Rarely they are, but normally not," Jay informed her. "You should be able to do anything Rasputin could, so theoretically you can put your claws and fangs away at will, do his creepy eye thing, float around, all kinds of stuff." Nancy stared at Jay open mouthed. Then she looked at her claws. Nothing happened initially, but after a moment or two they slowly slid back revealing normal human hands. Nancy followed the same tactics with her incisors, and shortly her teeth looked perfectly normal.

"I doubt flying will be that easy," Jay laughed, "but I bet you'll pick it up." As Jay spoke, K beeped. Or more accurately, his pda beeped. K took it out again and poked a few times. Then he grinned evily.

"Put Ras on the ground please," K requested of Jay. The eyes of the severed head took on a terrified expression and began to cast about, looking to the others in the clearing, probably begging for help. They found little sympathy.

After Jay dropped the head unceremoniously to the ground, K stood over the head. He thought for a moment, then elbowed Jay and glanced at Aimer. When he had both their attentions, he spread his fingers wide, thumbs touching, and pointed his fingers at Rasputin's head. Jay and Aimer, both recognizing what K was up to, laughed.

"I don't know, K, do you think 1D4+1 damage will be enough?" Jay chortled. K gave him annoyed smile, but a smile nonetheless. When K looked down, his expression turned serious, and a gout flames shot from his fingertips completely enveloping the severed head in fire. When the flames ceased nothing remained of Rasputin's head but a fine pile of ash. As K turned back to the group, a stiff breeze blew all the ashes, both from the head, and from the body, into the air and out of sight.

"As you can see, Rasputin won't be doing that to anyone else, ever again," K gave Nancy a little bow. "Now I'm going back to bed." And with that K turned and crashed back out of the clearing. K was not a master of the covert.

Aimer turned and watched as Nancy and Jay shared a moment of intense embarrassment, then turned and walked several yards away so they could have some privacy. Aimer grinned at Jay's fortune. His grin faded as he listened.

"We can't be together can we," Nancy asked of Jay. They were hugging, they had been kissing, but that was what she asked first. Jay sighed.

"No, we can't," Jay told her. "The only thing I can think of that you can guarantee in a vampire is that no vampire wants to spend any more time than is absolutely necessary in the presence of another vampire."

"So even though we're able to spend eternity together, we aren't," Nancy sounded disappointed.

"Yeah," Jay replied. They were silent for a moment.

"I'm sorry I tried to kill you," Nancy said quietly. Jay chuckled.

"It's ok, I get that a lot," Jay replied wryly. Another quiet moment, then, "I love you Nancy. I'm sorry things turned out this way."

"It's not fair," Nancy whined. Then she sighed and looked deep into Jay's eyes. "But you did something tonight that I'll never forget. Even if we can't be together, I'll think of you like I always should have: fondly." Jay smiled.

"That means a lot to me," Jay told her, and they separated. "Be careful out there. And try to find some friends like us, ok?" Nancy nodded mutely, then she turned and walked softly away. Aimer, ever the soft-hearted one, stood blinking away the moisture in his eyes.

"I take it you heard all of that," Jay asked when he walked over to join his dragon friend.

"Aye," Aimer said huskly. "I'm sorry, my friend." Jay shrugged.

"After this long, I'm getting used to not getting the girl," Jay said, sadly. Aimer clapped him on the back.

"Well, there's only one cure for a situation like this," Aimer said, "One that is mystical, magical, and has been passed down for generations in my family." Jay raised an eyebrow, as Aimer grinned. "Home-brewed whiskey." Jay laughed, and the two friends walked out of the clearing and into the night.