Title: Vampire's Kiss
Author: Amiroq. the KiTfox
Email: fitchett@netaccess.co.nz
Size: 42K
Rating: PG
Codes: A, slight V; K/T
Summary: A vampire is aboard Voyager. Appropriate chaos ensues.

Disclaimer: The Great Bird of the Galaxy is kewl. Paramount is... *partially* kewl. I'm not.

Authors Note: In research for this story, I did surveys, read 'horror' novels, found out what blood tasted like (I won't go into details...) and blew my brain cells on a whacked out book from the Uni library. Any feedback would be great after that: write to fitchett@netaccess.co.nz

	Vampire's Kiss
		c. Amiroq. 1999

B'Elanna scrolled down the page, silently murmuring the words of the PADD: 

'...The vampire may prefer darkened atmospheres, or flinch in bright light.

'Most have some kind of medallion to ward off the powers of good, and a cross to symbolise Jesus Christ may be used against them'--

The door chimed then, and she jumped. Closing down the program, she called out hurriedly, "Come in!"

"Are you alright?" Harry asked uncertainly.

"Great." She brushed past him toward the door, and he turned to follow. "What's this surprise in the holodeck about, anyway?"

"You'll see when we get there." His lips brushed the back of her neck, and she shivered.

***

"Please turn to your medical channel."

Kathryn did so, sensing the tone of the EMH's voice. "What is it, Doctor?"

"I'm afraid to report that Ensign Murphy did not survive the coma. He passed away a few minutes ago."

Harry looked up briefly from his console, a worried expression crossing his features.

***

The first thing B'Elanna saw on entering Sickbay was Harry sitting on a biobed. Her first thought was that whoever had attacked Murphy had got to him, too, but that he'd escaped. But the grim looks on everyone's faces didn't match that theory. Neither did Tuvok's brief, though concise, explanation. She'd been called away from Engineering because they needed to check some information with her. Harry's DNA had been found on Murphy's body. Where had he been at 1547 two days ago?

Her lover's eyes revealed nothing when she looked at him, noting the security guard behind him. Where *had* he been? For a moment she couldn't remember, then it suddenly came to her as though it had surfaced from the muddy pools of his eyes. "He was.. asleep in my quarters. He'd just gotten off shift, and he was tired, so I let him stay while I did some work. He didn't wake up until I had to leave at 1830."

Tuvok nodded. "You are sure about this?"

"Absolutely. I remember watching him sleep."

He exchanged a look with the Doctor, writing what she had just said on a PADD, then nodded once more. "That will be all. I may need to ask you some more questions later. For now, I suggest you return to your quarters to get some rest."

She nodded as well, suddenly very tired. This couldn't happen. Not only was it impossible - he couldn't be in two places at once - but it just wasn't the sort of thing that happened to people. The prospect of the oblivion of sleep was very appealing right now.

***

B'Elanna rolled over again, pulling the covers with her. She lay like that for a moment before Harry pulled them back in his sleep, and she had to move closer to him to get back under them properly. Finally she sighed, got out, and wrapped a robe around herself. "Computer, activate file 'Torres-Omega4' and display on console 47C."

The computer beeped in reply, and she sat on the couch to study the text in front of her. '...Most have some kind of medallion to ward off the powers of good, and a cross to symbolise Jesus Christ may be used against them if encountered and discovered. There are also many stories in which a vampire is weakened upon tasting or smelling garlic, although this is held as more of a belief than a real weapon.

'Most texts around the Federation also state that a vampire can never enter a building without permission, or-'

"B'Elanna, what are you reading?" Harry's voice was tense behind her, and she spun, surprised.

"Harry! I didn't realise you were awake!"

"I can see that." He walked around the sofa and sat next to her. "Why are you reading about *vampires*?"

She blushed, and looked away to avoid his steady gaze. "It's.. nothing. I- I just wanted to do some research."

"You're a terrible liar, Lanna. What's the matter?"

Maybe I was wrong after all, she thought. Maybe.... She shook her head. "I told you, Starfleet, it's *nothing*."

"You think there's a vampire on Voyager." His tone was lighter, and when she glanced up she realised he was smiling.

"Harry, it's not like that!" she protested. "It's just nothing, okay? Get over it."

"Nothing? According to the computer, file 'Torres-Omega4' has been activated 29 times. It doesn't sound like nothing to me."

"Harry! You *know* I hate it when you tease me."

He grinned at her. "But it's fun," he told her. "And you're so easy to bait."

"So, I'm a fish hook now. I thought I'd be the catch."

He leaned over and nibbled her ear gently. "You even taste like a fish."

She laughed, glad the subject had been dropped, and more than a little embarrassed to have been caught redhanded.

***

The next day at lunch B'Elanna sat alone, one table over from where the Captain did the same, so she easily heard the conversation that ensued when two crewmen from the lower-decks approached the captain nervously. "Captain, we think we know who killed Ensign Murphy," the younger one said.

Kathryn looked up. "You do?"

"Well, not exactly," the second clarified. "We do know that it was a vampire."

The expression on the captain's face changed very quickly at that. "A.. *vampire*," she repeated.

"Oh, we aren't crazy or anything. We had them back home. I know a lot of people think they're just stories, but they aren't. They live a real long time and you can't catch em out real easy, so that's why they haven't been found in a real long time. 'Xcept, back home, there were plenty of em, and one of them told us how to find them all. They don't *try* to harm folk, not all of them."

"You're trying to tell me that a *vampire* is on this ship?" They nodded emphatically. "And it's been killing my crew."

"Well, yeeaah." 

B'Elanna wondered how the woman could get so many syllabols into the word.

"They're reasonably easy to get rid of once you find them," the younger one said. "The most dangerous thing about them, is that if he kisses you, you belong to him."

"If he *kisses* you?"

"Yessir. Or her. They can be hers."

"I... see." She pushed her plate aside. "Do you have any idea *who* this vampire might be?"

"No, sir."

"Alright. I'll take that into account," she said, in a tone that B'Elanna knew meant that she wouldn't, but anything to get rid of these crazy crazy people was fine by her.

B'Elanna stood up, thinking, and left the messhall.

***

The PADD hit the wall with a loud bang and dropped to the floor. B'Elanna growled, not bothering to retrieve it. Instead, she glanced at her console, and spun it round a bit so she could see it properly. She had spent some time going over crew records finding out who the two crewmembers had been, and now was as good a time as any to see what they could tell her.

She typed out her message quickly, keeping it brief and to the point. 'I heard what you told the Captain. I want to know more. What else did he tell you?' Then she sent it, covering her tracks so quickly that no one would be able to uncover them again - perhaps not even her. The message had been sent to the older of the two, Diosa McCormick; the younger was Cassie Williams. B'Elanna had heard of them both, and figured Diosa would be the better one to ask.

She had her answer by the end of her shift - Diosa had sent a reply to the nonexistent console B'Elanna was at, not knowing who she was. 'It's good to know we aren't alone in this, whoever you are. I attached a file me'n'Cassie put together containing everything we know about the subject. If you find out who it is, tell us straight away, and be careful. Some of em can be dangerous - you never know.'

She opened the attachment and skimmed it quickly. Most of the facts she'd already read seemed to be there, and a few others she hadn't ever heard of, as well as a list of commonly held misbeliefs - vampires *could* eat garlic, they weren't scared of crosses or sunlight, and they did have reflections. However, it was true that they couldn't enter a building without invitation, and they generally didn't like ginger. She nodded. Some of the things here... they were extremely familiar somehow. She hit 'reply', on an impulse, and started typing, not wanting to use the voice controls lest someone hear her.

'Thank you for the information,' she wrote. 'I was hoping that I was wrong, but now I'm sure that I *do* know who it is. I don't want to believe it, as I don't think he ever meant any harm, but the fact is that it's'

"Ensign Kim!" Carey's voice rang out throught Main Engineering, and she jumped, turned, and saw him turn away from her office and head for Carey, giving her enough time to delete the message and close files before he answered the Second's question and arrived.

"Harry." She folded her arms carefully studiying him intently. He frowned, walking in further - enough that the door shwished shut. The sound in the quiet room made her jump slightly.

"B'Elanna? What's wrong?"

She stood up, feeling the comforting weight of her phaser against her hip. There was no way she was going to use it - not on *Harry*! - but just the thought that she wasn't defenseless made her more confidant. "I think you know. About Ensign Murphy. And Lieutenant Iosefa."

He shook his head slowly. "What are you talking about?"

"Stop it, Harry. I know your secret."

"I don't *have* a secret! What's this about?"

"The superstitious might call it vampires. Others cannabilism. Both are as bad as the other."

He stepped back as if he'd taken a good hard box around the ears. "That's crazy-"

"Don't. I'm not the only one. There's at least four others that know about this." There probably wasn't - in fact, as far as she knew she was the only one that suspected him. But it stopped him from making any more protests.

"Who told you?"

"I didn't need anyone to tell me. I worked it out myself."

He took a step toward her, and she took one back to balance it. "B'Elanna, don't do this to me. I can't help it anymore than you can help being half-Klingon." He hesitated, then whispered, "I'm sorry."

"You *killed* them, Harry!"

"I never meant it to get that far-- I didn't realise. I was desperate. I didn't mean for them to *die*." He tried to move toward her again, and she backed off, knowing she'd be getting close to the wall soon. "There isn't a single *second* I don't regret that. I don't like hurting people. I never did."

"Get out."

"B'Elanna--! How would you feel if I left you because you were half-Klingon?"

"That's different. I never killed people in cold blood."

"But you did kill people. And you would have done the same as me, in my position."

"I would *never*--"

"You would. You don't know how it feels, after a few months. Like you're being eaten alive. You can hardly move without pain. You never want to hurt anyone, but after a while it isn't even you thinking. You don't even know what you're doing until it's too late. And all you can do is pray that it will be okay, that they'll pull through, that no one will listen to their ravings, if they remember anything. You don't *know*!"

"How long?" The question tore itself from her throat, almost ripping the soft tissue on some subliminal level.

He hesitated slightly before answering. "I was born in about 1000BC."

"Three and a half *millenia* ago?"

"It sounds crazy, doesn't it?"

"Not so crazy as everything else I've been hearing."

"B'Elanna-- I'd.. understand, I think... if you wanted to.. break up. But, um, some of the colonists...." He stepped toward her again almost hopefully, and this time she didn't step back. "Don't tell anyone? Please? You don't know what some of them would do."

"It seems there's a lot I don't know."

"I'm sorry," he whispered, turning. When he reached the door, he glanced back at her, and said, "Just for the record.... I still love you. I always will."

"Harry.... Are you really going to give up this easily?"

"But you said--"

"Tell me something. Vampires - or whatever they're called - how did they come to be? Was it some twisted experiment, or what?"

He shook his head slowly. "We're as natural as any other life-form."

She hesitated, folding her arms, staring at the floor. "So I guess you really can't help who you are."

"No."

"Promise me you won't ever hurt anyone."

"That would be like you promising not to ever replicate food. Or pick fruit or vegetables. Or kill an animal to eat. I can't do that."

"Can't you replicate blood?"

He shook his head. "I tried. It doesn't work. And anyway, it would look suspicious if I kept doing that."

"What if--"

"I've been through this, B'Elanna. Over and over. There's no what ifs." Then, quieter, "There's no other way."

"There *has* to be!"

"I could try to stop. I might even manage for a few months, like the other times. But it would be like you not eating. I'd die, eventually."

She was silent a moment, thinking. "We come across planets often enough. No one would notice, I think, if you disappeared on shoreleave for an hour or so."

"That's what I've been doing. But sometimes Tom drags me to some bar, or I have to stay behind and work, or *something* comes up."

"I can cover for you. I don't know."

"Does this mean you aren't leaving?"

She had to smile at the hopeful note in his voice. "C'mere." He obeyed. "What actually happens if we kiss?"

"Ah, The Kiss." His tone was now highly sarcastic. "Half the reason we've stuck around for so long. Most don't care how they use it. I do."

"What happens?"

"It forms some kind of emotional bond, one that doesn't have a human equivalent. It's really strong, and humans can't break it. Because you aren't as strong - mentally - as us, our will overpowers yours."

"You keep saying 'us'. Who *are* you, anyway?"

"As a race, we lost our real name over time, just like we lost our identities. I think we evolved on Earth around the same time as humans, and we looked the same enough that we could pretend to be the same race. No one ever proved we weren't, or found evidence to suggest we ever existed, but you know the stories. Personally, I was born in China around 1000BC, like I said, and moved around a lot, mainly living where I looked enough like the natives not to arouse supicion, until the 19th and 20th centuries, at least. Name anywhere on Earth, and I bet you I've been there."

"Were you in Germany during World Wars 1 and 2?"

"Hell, no! I went to South America for that. About the only place I could manage to get to that wasn't involved. But I went to Germany in, um, the 16th century."

"Ok, how about New Zealand? Been there?"

"Yeah, in the Chinese Revolution. I kept going back to China, I don't know why, but I left every so often when there was trouble or just when I got the urge to travel." He grinned. "I stayed in New Zealand right through the millenium change. There was so much hype, just because it was going to be the first place to see the sun. But you know, if I'd gone to America in 1996 I could have met myself."

"What about Antarctica?"

He nodded. "And the North Pole. Didn't like either of them."

"Is there *anywhere* you haven't been?"

He laughed. "Told you so."

"Harry..." She hesitated, then leaned toward him. He stopped her with a hand on her shoulder, but she got the feeling he could do too much with just his little finger.

"Didn't you hear me before?"

"I heard. Your will overpowers mine, can't break the bond, I *know*."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

He paused, then took his hand away and kissed her gently, for perhaps a little longer than the circumstances necesitated. When he started to pull away, B'Elanna stopped him. "Don't move," she whispered hoarsely.

"We shouldn't be doing this here," he reminded her, although the tone in his tone tried to disagree. "Someone could walk in...."

She hesitated, then nodded. "You're right. Fine. Um, I'm off-duty in a couple of hours, I guess... your quarters?"

"Yeah. I'll see you then."

***

"England."

"Huh?" B'Elanna turned away from the stars peeking in through the glass saucer of a porthole and gave Harry a questioning look.

"You asked if there was anywhere I hadn't been. England."

"Oh." She wandered back to his bed and draped herself over him, or over the blankets, kissing him softly. "What now?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"What happens now? I.. didn't entirely mean what I said about other people suspecting you, but there are people who are pretty sure there's a vampire on board. It could be dangerous ground from here on."

"It has been all along. I can handle it."

"That's the problem. It isn't just you, Harry. If these colonists find out, it won't just be you they burn at the stake, hopefully metaphorically. It's going to be *very* obvious that I knew all along and was covering for you. I'm not three millenia old, either. I could easily slip up."

He rolled her over onto her back, then got off to untangle the blankets. "Yeah, I suppose. I'm just used to doing things myself, that's all."

"I can imagine."

"I'll think of something. Trust me."

She let him finish with the bedclothes before curling up next to him, her head in the crook of his shoulder. "I do, Harry. But they're so *close*..."

"Ssh," he whispered. "It'll be fine. I promise."

***

B'Elanna groaned quietly and let her head sink to the cold, hard surface. It wasn't fair. All this shit going on in her life, and she still had to make sense of the damned reports that her completely inept staff were giving her.

A timid voice startled her from her wallowing pool of self-pity. "Chief?" It was Ensign Williams. "I- I shouldn't be here. But I have to warn you... Mack told them."

"What?"

The slight brunette came into the office enough to let the door close, but looked as if she thought B'Elanna would bite her head off if she came too close. Embellished stories from friends who worked in Engineering did have that effect sometimes, she thought tiredly. "I don't know how, but Diosa found out that Ensign Kim was the vampire. She told Mack, and he told Commander Chakotay. They're doing some big meeting thing right now."

"Do you think they're taking it seriously?"

"Mack said some stuff.. I don't know. He can be pur-retty convincing sometimes. I'd worry, if I was you."

"Thanks for the warning." She stood up, dropping the PADD onto the console as she left the claustrophobic space, Cassie following.

***

Ten minutes later Harry gave her a quick kiss before ducking into a pre-made holodeck program, dating back to the start of their voyage. Obviously he always had a way out. This one was merely designed to get some time. He'd left his commbadge in his quarters, as had she, and now, as the meeting was adjourned and a security team close, he was escaping into a holographic shifting maze. The idea was that the securists would get lost, while he would leave by the exit and continue to the transporter room while they figured out how to break the many locks on the program. Sometimes it paid to be a brillant computer programmer.

He was gone just in time, as the security team rounded the corner, Janeway at its head. She seemed mildly surprised to see B'Elanna standing defiantly in front of the holodeck doors, but recovered enough to manage her Death Glare with Command Voice. "Move," she ordered.

"No," B'Elanna answered.

"You're only making this worse, Lieutenant. Step away from the door before I have you shifted forcibly."

She didn't understand, B'Elanna mused while staring her in the eye as one might a rebellious dog, that she had no say in the matter. B'Elanna could no more move than Janeway could defy gravity. After a few moments she felt a mental weight being lifted, however, and stepped aside reluctantly. Janeway didn't give her even another look as she led the team in.


One minute forty seven seconds later Harry came out and they started running. Ten metres away from the transporter room they realised that Janeway had dispatched a second team after being trapped in the holodeck, and that this team was now surrounding them, with every gun in their posession pointed straight at them.

Damn.

---

He'd known she would be there. Even though, when he'd been 'questioned', he'd been told she'd denounced him, he'd known. After all, they didn't entirely believe the stories about vampires. They didn't *know* that she couldn't leave him, denounce him, or step away from a door if he didn't want her to.

So he knew she'd be there.

"You shouldn't be here," he told her, taking off his uniform jacket, turtleneck - B'Elanna noted with anger that the solitary pip that had been long overdue for a partner was gone - and shoes, and lying down on the bed.

"I don't care." She lay with him, curled up in the warmth of his body heat. She hesitated, then asked, "What did they do?"

"You tell me first."

"Replicator priviliges revoked for two months; confined to quarters, messhall and Engineering for a week starting after my next shift."

"Demoted to crewman, off the senior staff, two weeks solitary confinement in the brig starting tomorrow then two weeks confined to quarters only, replicator priviliges revoked for three months."

She growled quietly. "It's not fair."

"I know. And there's another problem. You know that locket I have? The silver one with the jade symbol?"

"Yeah, the one that meant death and was supposed to ward against it."

"She confiscated it. There's actually two things in it I need - the jade and the soil inside."

"Why?"

"Jade symbolises death, you know that. Because it protects the wearer from death, I can't die, at least from old age, while I have it. After a week without it, though, at this age, I'll die. The soil is from China, and the same goes. I'll get weaker and weaker, as long as I don't have it, until I die."

"And since you'll spend *two* weeks in solitary confinement..."

"I won't. Either I'll die, or she'll take me out."

"Don't you have another?"

"One. But she'll just take that, too. She doesn't understand!" He rolled over partway and held her tight - a little too tight, maybe forgetting his own strength. "Do me a favour. Hold on to it for me, and if you hear word I'm in Sickbay, take it down for me."

"Where is it?"

"In the jewelbox on the mantelpiece."

"I promise."

"Thanks." He let his hold loosen, brushing an imaginary lock of hair from her face, then said quietly, "You should go."

"Yeah." She started to stand then looked at him with a sort of half smile on her face. "See you in two weeks."

***

By the fourth day, things were happening both inside and outside the brig. Inside, the guards had started to notice things. Some things, of course, they attributed to vampirism and a few crossed themselves when they left and entered. Other things went unexplained. Why was he getting so sick? They already knew he should be able to survive the two weeks without blood *easily*, without any side effects. Rumours started. People started saying he was claustrophobic, in a strange vampire way, or maybe he was dying? And that the Captain knew. She knew, and yet she made no effort to move him to sickbay.

When the rumours reached the crew, the second thing happened. Murmurings or discontent sprang up. Seeds of doubt were planted. Some higher officers started to get the cold shoulder - Tuvok, Chakotay, the Captain. Except for the group of colonists who had only known the worse vampires, most of the crew couldn't care less whether Harry was human or not, or what he needed to survive. After five long years on the same ship as him, they had only noticed two deaths, both entirely accidental, which he had paid for dearly already with remorse, written all over his face, according to the various securists assigned to the brig. Was the Captain going to let him die in there?

B'Elanna listened and learned, remembering names and faces of those who were most vehemently on his side, and who gave the most accurate information. Not that she would need accuracy, as it would be all over the ship when - or if - he finally was transferred to sickbay. After her shift, listening to rumours while she worked with micro-spanners and plasma coils, she took the most direct route back to her quarters, the only route she was allowed, and wrote down what she knew.

Early on the sixth day she heard what she'd been waiting for with every cell of her body.

She was stopped halfway to Sickbay. Was she ok? Chakotay asked. She wanted to speak to Harry. *Oh*. He was too sick to see anyone, she was told. She could come back in a few days, maybe.

She folded her arms. "I need to see him *now*."

"Why?"

"Because he'll die otherwise. And because half the crew would mutiny as soon as they heard if he died." That, of course, was a huge understatement. Probably only about ten to fifteen of the crew fell under the 'I hate Harry Kim' category.

Chakotay considered this comment carefully, drawing on his experience with her to try to work out whether she was bluffing. "How could you possibly stop him from dying when the Doctor has no idea how?"

"The *Doctor* doesn't know anything about what's happening. I do."

"Alright. Straight in and out. You aren't supposed to be anywhere near Sickbay."

She shrugged him off and continued, aware but not caring that he was following her. If he wanted to think she was dangerous, let him. It just went to show what a terrific friend he was, after all.

He was in a bad state; that she saw as soon as she walked in the door. He was lying curled up on a biobed in the surgical bay, obviously unable to move, let alone get up and hurt anyone, yet when the Doctor saw her and Chakotay and came out, she saw the flicker of a forcefield, and had to force back a growl. At least he wasn't still in the brig.

As she stood watching, Chakotay said something briefly to the Doctor, and the latter approached her. "I hear you've turned expert on medicine, Lieutenant. Would you care to share this new-found knowledge?"

"I would have cared to share it a while ago, if the *Captain* had thought it prudent to let him come here sooner," she snapped, biting the words and her lip in her anger. She walked a few steps toward the force-field, then stopped. "Let me in."

He looked even worse close up. His skin was the grey of death, pulled taut across his thin face, and she could see pain etched in his expression, contrasting angrily with his comatose appearance. She winced, feeling what she could only describe as an aura of suffering, and slipped the pendant around his neck quickly, needing to get away from him. But at the same time, she knew he must have been in pain at least a hundred times greater than what being near him made her feel, and wanted to stay with him until he woke up. If he woke up.

The decision was made for her by Chakotay, telling her that if she had finished would she care to go back to her quarters, and she told him no she wouldn't, but she'd have to, wouldn't she? and walked out without waiting for him to follow her.

***

A week passed. She heard a lot, working quietly and diligently for once, even though her confinement had passed; that he'd been sent to his quarters, rather than the brig, after he got better and was dismissed from Sickbay; that the Captain was scared of him. Maybe starting to believe, in something if not vampires. What else could explain the way she hid away from the ship, the crew that had supported *him*, and not her and her witch-hunt?

When two weeks had passed since the first day he'd been put in the brig, she went to his quarters. She put up a fight to be allowed in, and eventually the guards decided they may as well let her, and found Harry folding pieces of paper, origami cranes scattered all around him, littering almost every surface in the room. "This is what you've been doing all this time, hey?" she asked quietly when he glanced up.

He laughed bitterly. "Apparantly, if you fold one thousand cranes your wish will come true. What's happening?"

"Most of the crew's on our side. Someone actually told me they'd support me if I was going to mutiny. They all think the Captain's scared of you, and I think I see why. She's hiding away in her quarters or ready room all the time, now, and Ensign Culhane got confined to quarters for a week a few days ago for not following an order."

He frowned, silently finishing his crane - a light blue colour - before answering. "I never wanted this to happen."

"I know. Things were fine *before* all of this."

"People are going to get hurt." He looked up at her with serious eyes. "It doesn't matter what you say, things are going to go too far, someone's going to mutiny, and it's all going to be my fault."

"Don't say that!" She crouched down next to him, slipping her hand over his. "It's not your fault, Starfleet. Don't say it."

"It's true, B'Elanna. If I had never been here, or if I'd been more careful, or if I'd just left the ship or *something*, I'd never have been caught and none of this would have happened. It's *my* fault."

"Harry... when Tuvok was asking me about Murphy, when I said you were asleep... where *were* you, really?"

"Deck eight. You never thought I was asleep until Tuvok asked you. You were looking right at me, remember? It was kind of easy to place the suggestion in your mind that I was in your quarters."

"You rat!" She grinned at him to show she didn't really mean it, then sobered up quickly. "Do you... Is there a way you could make me... like you? A vampire?"

"You're crazy."

She shook her head. "No. No, I've been thinking about it, and... I don't want to live without you. I want to live forever with you, or at least a really long time, and... Hell, I don't know. I just know I *want* this."

"But... *now*? What would you do for blood? Everyone's going to be on guard now."

"You haven't heard the latest. Diosa McCormick was feeling guilty, she's the one that told Mack Daamen, who told Chakotay, and she and Cassie organised some sort of blood pool or something, discreetly so the Captain couldn't interfere, and apparently there's about at least a litre from every crewman on our side."

"How many's that?"

"About ninety, if my sources are right. I think Cassie said there was about a hundred and *thirty* litres in there."

"How did they manage that?"

"Tom helped grudgingly, and the Doctor. It's all in a dis-used storeroom behind Sickbay."

He looked at her seriously. "You've really been thinking seriously about this, haven't you?"

She nodded. "Please?"

He hesitated. "It will hurt. A lot."

"I don't *care*, dammit. Whatever it takes."

Another pause. "See if you can get about a half a litre down here. If you can do that, I'll do it."

She hugged him, getting to her feet. "You're the greatest. I love you."

"Me too," he called as she left.

***

Chakotay strode down the corridor, ignoring the looks from some passing crewmen that almost bordered on insubordination. He was too caught up in his thoughts to worry about that right now, instead wondering what B'Elanna could have been doing in Harry's quarters for the past seventeen hours. He'd always wanted to protect her, like a younger sister, no less now that Harry had pulled her into this... whatever it was. Probably some weird cult. There were no such things as vampires, anyway, not on a Federation starship in the middle of deep space in the year 2375, not on European Earth in the Middle Ages.

Harry was in the process of hanging strings of five paper cranes, all the same colour on each thread, from the roof in a seemingly random pattern when he went in. "Where's B'Elanna?" he asked, noticing the sharp tone in his voice and not particularly caring.

Harry nodded to the bedroom, a piece of thread between his teeth, then took it out and elaborated. "I didn't want to wake her. Tom said she hardly slept at all when I was in the brig." He said it matter-of-factly, as if he was talking about a vacation he'd taken or something.

He looked at her, sound asleep, and sighed. "Tell her to report to me when she wakes up." He walked out without waiting for a response.

As soon as he was gone, Harry put down his cranes and went into the bedroom. B'Elanna stirred at his approach, smiling a little in her sleep. When he caressed her soft skin gently, she woke up, groaned, and buried her head under the pillow. Harry grinned. "Headache?"

She nodded, resurfacing. "It feels like someone's opened my skull with a hacksaw, taken out my brain, played catch with it for a few hours and put it back in."

"Feeling nauseous at all?"

"A little."

"Surprisingly, that's a good sign. Just a moment." He moved out of her field of vision for a moment, then returned with a cup of something, putting it to her lips and tipping it, practically forcing her to drink. From the taste, she realised it was blood. Actually, it tasted pretty good, and soon she was downing it eagerly. #Just don't think about it,# she told herself.

"If you still feel sick in a minute or two, tell me." He settled down next to her, draping one arm across her waist, and she buried her head under his jaw, enjoying the feeling of being protected that his closeness gave her. Pretty soon, her head- and stomach-aches both dissipated, disappearing somewhere in her train of thought, and when she realised she nipped him gently as if to say, 'hey, I'm ok, I love you'.

"Feeling better?"

"Mmmhmm." Her fingers found the collar of his top and fiddled, teasing them both until he pulled away reluctantly.

"Chakotay said to tell you to report to him when you woke up."

"How's he to know? He didn't bug your quarters or anything, did he?"

"No. Well, actually, yeah, but I took care of that."

"How did you know?" She half-sat, leaning on her elbow.

"I heard it. Listen." She did, hardly moving except to breathe, and pretty soon she smiled. 

"I can hear the engines. And the replicator going next door."

"Three doors down, actually. What about Milano and Jackson? Hear what they're saying?"

She listened, trying to pinpoint their voices on the deck below. "Something about the Captain. Doing her *in*? What?"

He nodded. "They've been planning a mutiny, I think. It wasn't too serious before, but... I think you should talk to them."

"I will." She kissed him gently, then pulled back before he could get the chance. "I should go see what Chakotay wants."

---

She returned later, a confusing mess of emotions and noises and smells swimming round inside her. Every sensation, every *thought* seemed to be about ten times stronger now, and she got the feeling Chakotay had gotten rather suspicious each time she'd got distracted by some noise she shouldn't have been able to see, or when she'd seen a Security PADD and had read it from the other side of the room. He hadn't known what she was doing, hadn't even thought it possible, but to all appearances she zoned out on him, and he obviously linked that to what she'd been doing in Harry's quarters... whatever that might have been.

The security guards had changed since she'd left that morning, and she recognised their replacements as Ayala and Gennaro - the latter was for the mutiny, as she recalled, though Ayala seemed to be dubious and had taken no sides, that she'd heard. She nodded briefly as she passed.

Harry had apparently given up on the cranes; although there were still a lot scattered round, he'd managed to get most of them hanging from the roof, which was rather remarkable given how long it had been since he'd started. He was now studying a dagger, wavy-edged and similar to, although quite different to at the same time, Klingon daggers. "What's that?" she asked, sitting down next to him and allowing him to put an arm around her.

"A ritual dagger. It's used for Ultimate Prey, among other things."

"Ultimate Prey?" She smiled a little. "Sounds like something out of a bad horror novel."

He laughed, handing it to her. "No! Ultimate Prey is the person who, basically, is either going to be killed by you, or kill you. It's one of the few parts of our culture still around," she thought she heard a touch of sadness in his voice when he said that, and leaned her head on his shoulder. Consciously, she thought she should probably be upset or repulsed or *something* by the idea, but it just seemed... natural, somehow.

"How do you know who it is?"

"There's a ritual you do. I need a candle. Just a moment." He got up and went into the bedroom for a minute, then returned with a blood-red candle and a Starfleet-issue matchbook. Clearing a space, he sat down and lit the candle. "Sit like this," he instructed, "and look deep into the candleflame. Try not to think about anything else. Just look past the flame. Through it, I mean."

She nodded, slowing her breathing.

"The flame is like a window to the spiritual world. Look through it, and you can see the one the Shikha has chosen for you, your Inuktu. Remember the face you see. Don't ever forget it. Keep it in your mind, heart and soul as long as you live. When you get the chance, let your instincts release themselves and your destiny unfold."

A figure was forming, beginning at the wick and growing larger. Soon she could make out details - a Starfleet uniform, red; dark hair. A tanned face.... An inky tattoo. She stared, shook her head, blinked, and the image was gone. For a moment she thought maybe she'd imagined it. Her Ultimate Prey wasn't, couldn't *be* Chakotay! He'd saved her life more times than she could count. He was her mentor, her brother and father, her friend. Was she supposed to kill him? Or be killed?

"Bad news?" Harry asked softly. She nodded slowly, staring at the now harmless flame that had just sealed her fate. Kill or be killed. Neither choice particularly appealed to her.

---

The clash came sooner than either of them had expected. B'Elanna was in Harry's quarters with him, talking about religion and history and New Zealand (he mentioned dying his hair platinum blond while he was there, which sparked off a *long* discussion... or else, other things they could do with their mouths...) when Lang came in, looking over her shoulder down the corridor guiltily. She tossed Harry a phaser, but didn't seem to know what to say. It wasn't necessary anyway. He looked at the gun in his hands, then back up, and followed her out of the room.

"Most of the senior staff is on the Bridge," Foster told him. "Tom Paris and most of the others are on our side, but the Captain, Chakotay, Tuvok, Ayala, and Strickler aren't."

Harry nodded, heading for the turbolift, B'Elanna following half-hesitantly, half-blindly, Lang and Foster behind them. They seemed to have appointed Harry in charge, which he would have objected to in any other circumstances. Now, he just wanted to get this all over with with as little bloodshed as possible. A difficult goal, in a mutiny. Lang filled them in on the brief ride - Janeway wanted to head toward the Wieron system, although claimed that the reason was supplies, not because they had added that they would deal with any 'criminals' she had on board; Tom objected, then gave in after Brooks had sent him a copy of the game plan. They were on their way now, but wouldn't arrive for another few hours.

The first thing they saw when the turbolift doors opened, Lang and Foster in front, was Tom turning and standing quickly, taking out Tuvok first. Ayala ducked quickly behind the Ops console, and Janeway and Chakotay were in her ready room. That was where Harry and B'Elanna headed, keeping sheltered so as not to be hit. They were coming out, and as Chakotay pulled his phaser out B'Elanna knocked it away, then flew at him. Harry was further back, and ignored her as he moved toward Janeway.

Phaser out, she shot a few times before managing to hit him on the shoulder, and by then he was close enough that she could see the wound fester and heal in a matter of seconds. "Oh my god," she whispered, stunned enough that he could grab her by the arm and pin her to the bulkhead. His grip was strong, she could feel shooting pains up and down her left arm where he held her, and couldn't help but cry out when he tightened his grasp deliberately.

"I should kill you now," he told her quietly.

She managed a hoarse, pleading 'no', pain evident in her eyes and muscles, breath heaving. He stared into her granite-grey eyes, trying not to enjoy the fact that she was trying to break away but couldn't, held in place by some mental force, then let her go, roughly pushing her against the hard wall. "Take her to the Brig," he ordered, and Lang and Foster immediately stepped forward, phasers trained on her. The fighting was over, here, with only one major casualty on their side. "Brooks, do something about those bodies, please?" he asked, not wanting to look at them. There were too many. It was his fault. Instead, he looked toward B'Elanna to see her covered in blood - Chakotay's blood. His throat was torn out, along with some other things. The carpet around him was stained dark red. B'Elanna had a scratch on one cheek, and was leaning against the bulkhead, eyes closed and looking like she might collapse, or cry, any minute. He took a few steps toward her, hesitated, and completed the journey to put and arm around her. "I'm sorry," he whispered.

"How many times do I have to say it, dammit? It's not your *fault*!"

"He was your Inuktu, wasn't he?"

She nodded miserably, unable to say anything else, and let herself collapse into his arms. Even Tom decided it would be better to let them be for a while. Eventually, she pulled away, wiping her face on her sleeve and trying to ignore the blood that came off it.

"Tom..." Harry paused. "You're the senior member on board."

His friend looked at him incredulously. "Oh, come on, Harry, almost everyone on board this ship is just waiting for *you* to take that chair, not me. You *know* this wouldn't have happened if it had been me."

"It doesn't matter. I'm leaving."

"No. No way, Har. You can't just leave now. Everything's gonna fall apart now, don't you *see*? No one's going to agree on anything. We need you; they'll listen to you." There were murmurings of agreement among the remaining three crewmembers.

"I'll stay long enough to get it organised. Then I'm leaving." At Tom's doubtful look he added, "It'll be fine."

FINIS