Hellish Attraction

”Mm, so you do remember me. I knew all it would take was a little time and some friendly nudges in the right direction.” Purred the voice in Hakkai’s head, sounding utterly delighted. ”Imagine, Gonou! We are so wonderful together! Puppet and puppet master! The things we could do! The ways I could make you suffer!” The voice took on a darker tone followed by an amused chuckle.

“K-Kouryuu! G-get away from me!” Hakkai forced the words out and shoved away from the blonde, the palm of his right hand pressed firmly to his right eye.

Sanzo stumbled back at the abrupt change in atmosphere and sudden reaction from Hakkai. He was about to question what had happened, with a few choice words, of course, but what he saw silenced him for the time being. Deep green vines raced across Hakkai’s skin with stunning speed, winding around his entire body, or so he assumed. They covered his face, neck and hands. He couldn’t see the rest of Hakkai but he wasn’t going to strip the vampire just to satisfy a mild curiosity. So, he would just assume they did and move on.

All the blonde could do was watch as Hakkai struggled with his vampiric form. Ears extending to delicate points, fangs protruding, claws sharpening… The most interesting feature, apart from the vines, of course, was the single golden eye. As far as he knew, vampires tended to keep their typical eye color when they transformed. He filed that curiosity away for a later time and took another step back as Hakkai seemed to be losing the battle with himself.

“Shit! What the hell did you do to him?” Gojyo had obviously awakened and followed the sound of voices into the living room with Sanzo and Hakkai.

“What do you mean what did I do to him?” Sanzo snapped back.

“Those vines are new.” Gojyo stated and rushed to his best friend’s side, bracing him by his shoulders. “Oi, oi! Get a hold of yourself, Hakkai!”

Something snapped in Hakkai’s golden eye and he whirled around quickly, shoving Gojyo against the closest wall, hand clamped tightly around the redhead’s throat. “You’re an impure being! Not even worthy to be cattle, like the humans! Don’t touch me!” The vampire hissed before Hakkai could stop the words from slipping past his lips. His eyes widened and he recoiled from the half breed, letting him drop to the floor, gasping for air.

“Gojyo! I-I’m sorry! I—Ah!” Hakkai doubled over again before he could finish. Slowly, his head lifted again, a wild and fearful look took over his features as he darted off, fleeing through the window.

Gojyo stumbled towards the window, trying to follow his friend but by the time he reached it, all trace of Hakkai was gone. The redhead slammed his fist into the wall and cursed.

“Dammit! What the hell is going on?!” Gojyo seethed then turned to the human. “How did this happen? I want answers right now!” He demanded and walked threateningly towards Sanzo.

“Che! Don’t blame me, you bastard!” Sanzo snarled right back, not being one to take accusation very kindly. False or otherwise. After a pause, he relented and spoke again. “He was talking about this Chin Yisou creep, telling me about his past before he zoned out. When he seemed to come back to the world, he shoved me and told me to stay back.” The blonde fished his cigarettes from his pocket and slipped one between his lips, lighting it. He needed the nicotine. He’d been needing it a lot more recently since he’d become involved with all these vampires.

“I won’t pretend to know Hakkai… the real Hakkai as well as you do, but I know that that didn’t sound anything like the Hakkai I know. He’s never expressed any ill feelings towards you or humans, as far as I can tell. So, why don’t you tell me what’s going on, hot shot.”

“What makes you think I know any more than you do?” Gojyo shot back but was met with a fierce virulent stare of amethyst eyes.

“Allow me to clarify, then. What did he mean when he called you an impure being?” Sanzo spat, sick and tired of all these secrets.

Gojyo had hoped Sanzo wouldn’t look too deeply into that. He remained silent for a few minutes. When it was obvious Sanzo wasn’t going to budge until Gojyo answered him, he spoke, “I’m… half vampire.”

“So, it’s true then? Children of a vampire and a human have hair and eyes the color of blood.” Sanzo spoke. “Do you drink blood or eat food?”

Gojyo sighed and plopped down on the couch. “Both. I can eat food every day of my life, it will sustain me, but I lose my vampiric powers. If I want to maintain my enhanced abilities, I need to drink blood. Otherwise, I’m just a normal human.”

Sanzo nodded, pleased by the release of information. He was finally starting to learn something about these vampires. Not that this information specifically would help him tend to Goku much, but it was a start. He looked the half breed over carefully before asking his next question.

“So, which do you usually consume?”

Gojyo growled in slight annoyance. “What business is that of yours?” He snapped. The nerve of that guy!

Sanzo’s eyebrow twitched with impatient aggravation. He did his best to remain calm and not shoot the idiot where he stood. “Do you think you can take Hakkai if it comes down to it?” Sanzo forced the words out, tightly restraining his anger.

“Oh…” Gojyo thought about that for a moment and shook his head slowly. “Even if I had been drinking blood, I don’t think I could stop him if he was fighting earnestly. We’ve sparred before, but he’s always been gentle. Damn bastard apologizes every time he gets a hit in like I’m a child.” Gojyo grumbled. “I may not be a pure blood, but I can take a hit or two!”

“So, you’re useless too.” Sanzo wasn’t entirely sure what they were going to do then. Gojyo couldn’t overpower him and Goku couldn’t do it without releasing his own vampiric form. If they couldn’t overpower him, then perhaps they could talk him down and convince him to submit long enough to force back whatever is controlling his behavior. That would require looking into some of his Master’s old books. He wasn’t much of a priest, but he had learned some of Koumyou’s old charms and Koumyou had often told him he had potential.

Gojyo was about to retaliate to the useless comment when he heard soft footsteps approaching. Both the men turned to face the sleepy monkey, rubbing his eyes.

“Nnn… what happened? Did I miss breakfast?”

“Bakazaru!” Sanzo snapped and whapped the boy upside the back of the head with the magically appearing paper fan. “We’ve been over this! You are never to take your limiter off!”

“Ow!” Goku rubbed the back of his head, glaring at Sanzo stubbornly. “I didn’t! It jus’ sort’a happened!” He defended.

Sanzo popped him with the fan again. “It doesn’t just happen!”

“Ow!” Goku yelped again and moved out of reach of the evil blonde and his accursed fan. “I didn’t take it off! I saw that guy and…” Goku stopped and thought about that for a moment. He didn’t remember what happened after that guy showed up. That guy’s energy was scary. There was something different and dangerous about it.

Sanzo’s amethyst eyes narrowed slightly. “What guy, Goku?”

The boy looked up, surprised. “Oh. This guy with this really weird energy. I turned around and he was jus’ there. He said somethin’ but I didn’t hear him. And that’s all I remember.” Goku said and shook his head. “Wait, he called me somethin’ strange…” Goku tried to remember what the man said before things went fuzzy. “Seiten Taisei.” Goku said and nodded to confirm it.

Sanzo nodded. Something about that name rang a bell but he couldn’t quite remember what it meant. He was more concerned about this man Goku was talking about. Could this have been Chin Yisou? Or was there someone else they needed to worry about?

“Goku, if you see this man again, don’t hesitate to say something.” Sanzo told the boy and he nodded.

“Oi, Sanzo… Where’s Hakkai?” Goku asked, looking around curiously. “I thought I felt his energy before but…”

“I told you, stop calling me Sanzo!” Sanzo flicked his spent cigarette into the trashcan angrily. He’d only gotten a few good puffs out of it before all this chatter let it burn down to the filter. “He’s gone. We need to get him back.” Sanzo answered simply.

Gojyo snickered to himself at the blonde’s reaction to the little nickname. “Yes, your precious Sanzo-sama upset him.” Gojyo jumped at the sound of gunfire and a bullet buzzed past his ear, barely missing him.

“I’ll kill you if you start that too!” Sanzo snarled. The blonde turned away, ignoring Gojyo’s spluttering curses, and slipped a key out of his pocket. He unlocked a door that Goku didn’t even know was there until now then looked back at the other two. “Are you two idiots coming or not?”

“H-hai!” Goku chirped and rushed towards Sanzo as he entered the room. Gojyo silently followed.

Sanzo led the way down into a cellar that looked like it hadn’t been entered in a century or two. Bookcases lined the walls filled with ancient looking books and strange artifacts that Gojyo didn’t recognize, but something about them made him feel uneasy. He glanced at Sanzo and Goku and noted that Goku seemed to feel the same way. Some of the items in specific almost even hurt just to look at.

“My Master was a priest.” Sanzo stated without looking back at the two immortal beings. “He dealt heavily in a sort of holy magic that could be used to subdue vampires. He kept two scriptures with strong heavenly powers. He said he was to be their guardian, and protect them for the sake of humanity.” Sanzo pulled one of the green and white scriptures out of a locked drawer. It was rolled up tightly and somewhat dusty.

“What does it do?” Goku asked, examining the thing as closely as he could with excitedly curious eyes. “It jus’ looks like a rolled up cloth to me.”

“That’s because you’re just a monkey. You wouldn’t know better.” Sanzo remarked and slipped the scripture into his pocket without answering Goku’s question.

“Oi, I thought you said there were two.” Gojyo stated, leaning closer to glance in the now empty drawer. “I only see one.”

“That’s because the other was stolen.” Sanzo growled and slammed the drawer shut.

TBC