Personal Demon [Cassie]

[Cassie Vimes]

Before she could really comprehend what exactly Rickie meant to be for Dacian’s own good, he’d kicked out at the vampire’s head. Cassie whimpered, turning her head away and squeezing her eyes shut as Rickie’s foot connected. Her grip on his arm tightened instinctively as her knees felt suddenly weak. Since when had a kick to the head been good for anyone? Rickie’s version of helping was so beyond skewed Cassie was starting to think Silas really had sent him to finish the job. And she was just standing here letting him do it.

Suddenly furious she wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand then prodded one accusing finger sharply into Rickie’s shoulder. ”You’re the monster.” Cassie spat, lips curling into a snarl not unlike Dacian’s. ”You need help. You need your head examined! What the hell kind of backwards approach to medicine are you using? Why couldn’t you just stupify him like any other normal wizard would have done?”

Her eyes strayed back to Dacian’s unconscious form, taking in his blackened, blistered skin. There was no point berating Rickie now the deed was done. She was drained, her head was head pounding and her shoulder was throbbing in time to her heartbeat. Cassie needed to try to swallow her anger and get the job done. Let Rickie go through whatever morbid process he needed to be satisfied. Then she could throw him out of her room and sleep for a week.

Scrabbling at the cotton pads she managed to grab a couple before the dropped to the floor. Cassie knelt beside Dacian, fingers trembling as she watched the process Rickie followed them mimicked his movements. At first she hesitated, her fingers light on Dacian’s skin, but she soon learned that would only mean having to go over the area again more thoroughly. Cassie wasn’t truly listening as Rickie spoke, but the constant stream of steady explanation had a calming effect, making the situation feel a little surreal.

Her breath caught as she finally looked up from her task, eyes on Rickie’s blood-soaked and tattered shirt where Dacian had bitten into him. Cassie wasn’t stupid, she knew how much that had to hurt, it was written in the barely masked discomfort on his face. ”Are you okay?” She asked tentatively. ”Perhaps you should patch that up? Dacian is tougher than he looks, he can wait.” Cassie cast a guilty look in the vampire’s direction, then shrugged it off. She’d seen him go through enough to know he would pull through this.

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[Rickie Connery]

Monster huh? Rickie had been called a lot of things over the years but that, that was a new one. “Monster? Who said anything about monsters?” he asked curiously. Wracking his brain he couldn’t remember whether he’d called the vampire a monster; actually he was pretty sure he hadn’t. Rickie even managed a weak smile but quickly got rid of it, Cassie wasn’t done yet. When she poked him in the shoulder the man jumped a little and blushed. A woman in this state was something he hadn’t had to deal with since school, it seemed so long ago.

Instead of replying straight away he busied himself with working on Dacian. She had said he needed to be examined, that there was something wrong with him. He frowned, there was absolutely nothing wrong with him considering he’d just come back from an active warzone. Other people had told Rickie he needed help, thrown around the words post, traumatic and stress a lot, most of them had ended up with a broken jaw. Her comments about his way of working and the wand made him stiffen. Rickie hadn’t held a wand in a long time. Being reminded of that fact made him think of his past. Of the person he had been, the boy that had died from shrapnel wounds and the man that had replaced him.

“My methods may seem ‘backwards’,” he shot at her, “it’s probably because I’m not a doctor, I’m a medic. And I couldn’t stupefy your friend here because I haven’t held a wand in a long time. My old one was broken and I haven’t really gotten around to buying a new one. Oh and also, if I did have a wand I still wouldn’t have done it. The last thing this guy needs is to be flung across the room.” Looking back to where he was working on Dacian, Rickie frowned. Why should he explain himself to this girl? But that girl was showing him a little concern over his stomach wound. “I’ll be alright,” he dismissed quietly, sucking in air sharply from the pain when he moved.

Dacian gave a small groan which distracted Rickie from Cassie for a moment. “Damn it we need blood-packs,” he cursed to himself. They were running out of time. Without giving it a second thought the man strode across the small room, pinched the rope tassels of the curtains off the wall and shifted Dacian a little so his hands could come easily together. It was then he tied the vampire up as tightly as he could, compared to the other more significant burns on the rest of the body a little rope burn would definitely go unnoticed.

“I know you probably don’t trust me but I have done this before. When he wakes up he will be intent on bloody murder and I mean that in a literal sense. His body needs blood to heal and fight off any bugs the Betadine doesn’t kill. Unless you want to give your life to this man’s cause he needs to be restrained until I can scrounge some blood from somewhere,” but where? He could always go to the school or floo-powder himself to St. Mungo’s. Risk seeing Adrian or being Court Marshalled and thrown in prison? St. Mungo’s it was then.

“Alright,” he breathed, “I’m going to duck to St. Mungo’s for some blood. I suggest you get out of this man’s way, my room next door is open.” Rickie took out a white armband with a red cross on it and wound it slowly on his left arm. Hopefully the healers wouldn’t ask questions, they’d just give if they knew he was some form of medical personnel. Pushing himself off the floor only brought more pain and he almost collapsed again, clutching at his stomach. He felt the warm, sticky sensation of blood on his hand. It was bleeding heavily but still he ignored it as he stumbled to the nearest fireplace.

“Please, please trust me. You’d be surprised how many vampires there are in the army,” he said earnestly, stopping to look back at Cassie before disappearing in a rush of green flame.

Ooc: He won’t be long, he’ll be back in time for his next post.

[Cassie Vimes]

Cassie turned an icy glare on Rickie, his retort riling her up just as she’d resigned herself to following his instructions. He was so arrogant. So… fucking mental! If he was just a medic why had he even gotten involved? He could have told her Dacian needed medical attention, she could have politely told him to sod off and that would be that. Instead he had to barge into her room and now he was trying to defend his frankly moronic actions. Just because he didn’t use magic didn’t mean it wasn’t a viable option.

”Yeah, because kicking him in the head is soooo much better.” Cassie muttered under her breath, turning her head away from him. Her fingers were trembling again, this time with the effort not to snap and start shouting at him. She was too tired for another argument, it seemed like her whole life had been one argument after another recently. Cassie gave a little nod as he shrugged off her concern. If Rickie wanted to suffer she wasn’t going to stop him, at this point she felt a little suffering was well deserved.

”What are you doing?” She asked, looking suspiciously at Rickie as he crossed the room to her window. This was no time for him to be staring stoically out the window in a manly and brooding fashion. It became all too apparent as he returned, tassel from the curtain in hand. Cassie’s lips tightened into a thin line of worry. Should she try to stop him? He’d probably just kick her in the head too if she did. All in the name of helping of course.

”There’s a spell for that you know.” Cassie pointed out with a frown, wondering how anybody could possibly think the muggle way was better in situations like this. ”No.” The refusal was out of her mouth before Rickie had even started leave. She winced as his hand came away from his abdomen red with blood, but remained stubborn anyway. ”Dacian won’t hurt me.” Cassie insisted.

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[Dacian]

Under normal circumstances, Dacian would not hurt Cassie. Under less than normal circumstances, Dacian was unlikely to hurt Cassie but right now, Dacian was beyond caring who he hurt. He was in pain, and he was hungry. That just about exempts anybody from his slim streak of mercy. The vampire woke with a grunt in the flash of green from the fireplace, his head rolling as if he’d only just taken the blow.

No sooner was he conscious than the growl started up again deep down in his throat. His skin felt strange, tingling, and it smelt as if someone had drowned him in something antibacterial. His jaw chose that moment to voice its complaint, and Dacian’s growl deepened. He tried to move his hands only to find them tied. He attempted to get up, but he could barely curl his legs under him let alone stand up on them.

The company of a heartbeat reminded him of his hunger, and he licked his chapped lips. “Cassie.” He breathed, tilting his head to pinpoint her location by the sound of her pulse, his growl fading. “Cassie, come here.” There was something in his tone, something silken that was never present when he talked to Cassie. It might be a tone used to calm frightened animals, or to coax them to you. There was no preternatural power in it – that was a talent Dacian did not possess – but he was banking on Cassie being gullible enough to come within range.

“Why am I tied?” He asked, innocent. Saliva was building in his mouth. The man with the fists and feet was gone, and Cassie was easy prey. She was almost willing. All he had to do was ask and she would feed him. He licked his lips again, turning his head to look in what he thought to be her direction. “Help me, Cassie, it all hurts so much.”

[Rickie Connery]

Just as he’d thought, St. Mungo’s hadn’t asked any questions as to why a strange man with a medic’s patch was carting around a box of blood. It was probably due to the fact that Rickie didn’t encounter anyone while he was there. The hospital had been practically deserted and by some small miracle the man had encountered none of the security that were wandering the halls. An elderly patient had spotted him, assumed he was one of the healers and had proceeded to follow him all the way to the blood fridge complaining about how her son never visited her or something along those lines. Rickie was a little too preoccupied to actually listen to her.

On his way back from the storage room the man had managed to swipe some healing potions, anaesthetic cream, a roll of thread and some needles used for stitches and add it to his box alongside the blood-packs. Why a magical hospital had those things who knew? Probably because the worlds of Muggles and Wizards were slowly integrating but Rickie didn’t really care. He was just happy to have found what he needed with minimal fuss.

With another flare of green flame Rickie was back where he’d started. All the way back to the hospital’s fireplace he’d found himself hoping that Cassie had gotten herself to safety; he didn’t want to have to treat her too. The last thing he wanted to see was a girl as beautiful her falling victim to what would be an extremely hungry vampire. Back in Cassie’s room he surveyed what was going on.

As he’d suspected the vampire had woken up while he’d been away and was now looking at Cassie in a way that only said ‘lunch’. The man limped to Dacian and unceremoniously shoved a pack of blood into his mouth, making sure the fangs pierced the plastic. “There, that’ll keep you happy for awhile,” he sighed, collapsing practically next to Dacian on the floor. This was definitely not where he’d seen his night, setting up blood-transfusions for a severely burnt vampire. Expertly he set up several blood-packs and slid in the needles into Dacian’s arm that would deliver more of the much needed liquid straight to his body.

Now Dacian was done, the vampire was out of the way and now it was Rickie’s turn. He needed to stitch himself up but here probably wasn’t the best place to do it but his room felt like it was so far away. “I’m really sorry,” he sighed to Cassie, grimacing in pain. He’d given her a fright and a half and had made her think he was a monster. As far as first impressions went, if it was even possible to fail one he’d failed his spectacularly. Not brave enough to look at her, Rickie grabbed the numbing cream he’d stolen from the hospital and began to rub some of it into his stomach wound and then threw the tub over to Cassie. “Rub that over the lightly burnt areas once he’s untied.

Once you’ve calmed down with that blood in your system you can be untied. You were tied to make sure you didn’t hurt Cassie or yourself,” he said to Dacian, watching him warily. Rickie thought he really should go but he’d need help himself getting up and back to his room and he was reluctant to ask for it.

[Cassie Vimes]

With a flash of green light Rickie was gone and Cassie let out a small shuddering breath, her shoulders slumping as she felt herself relax. Even though he’d tried to explain his reasoning for everything she couldn’t even begin to understand what he was doing to supposedly help Dacian. He’d lost all rights to be trusted when he’d kicked the vampire in the head. From any angle, even from the angle of a clearly insane medic, she couldn’t see how that had helped.

She gasped as Dacian said her name, turning away from the fireplace to stare at him wide-eyed. ”Dacian.” Cassie gasped, tears welling in her eyes. Rickie had warned her that he would be ravenous with hunger. While she hadn’t actually seen Dacian attack him, she’d seen the after effects, she knew what he was capable of. He didn’t sound ravenous though, he sounded like he was in pain. She hesitated as he called her over, taking half a step without thinking about it, then pausing.

”It was Rickie, I didn’t know what to do.” She explained, desperately needing him to understand and forgive her. ”Please Dacian, I’m so sorry.” Cassie’s face was twisted into a miserable pout, each pleading sentence from Dacian chipping away at her resolve to stay away from him. If Rickie was much longer she wasn’t going to last. Even as she thought it she found herself walking over to Dacian, stopping just short of arms length and crouching down. This was Dacian, he wouldn’t hurt her. He’d promised.

Luckily for both of them Rickie returned at that very moment. Limping past Cassie to give Dacian the blood pack he’d picked up as he’d promised to do. Cassie found she was slightly relieved, it was much easier to be angry with the bartender than agonise over the state that the vampire was in on her own. She hugged her knees, watching him slide the needles into Dacian’s arm to supply yet more blood to his burnt body.

”That’s okay.” Cassie managed a weak smile at Rickie, much more understanding about the whole situation now that it was almost over. ”I’m sorry too. I may have overreacted a little bit.” She apologised, watching him tend to the bite wound on his stomach. It looked nasty, how had even walked before? ”Do you… Can I help?” Cassie asked, suddenly feeling guilty, no wonder he’d kicked Dacian in the head, it was a perfectly sane reaction to being bitten.

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[Dacian]

She was coming closer. Just a little bit more. He inclined his head, listening so intently to her heartbeat. He strained on the rope, but he hadn’t the strength to break it. “It’s alright Cassie, just untie me. I—” The flash of green penetrated the milky film over his eyes and Dacian released a throaty snarl. And he’d almost been free as well. He opened his mouth to unleash a string of vicious curses at the other man, kicking out as his came near. “Untie—!” He started loudly, only to have something plastic shoved in his mouth and his jaw forced closed on it.

The vampire struggled, trying to spit the object out. Only when it was falling to the floor did he realise what the purpose of it was, the contents of it flooding his senses. Blood. Gasping hungrily, he thrashed as the man fixed something to his arms, feeling the tingle of blood restoring his tired muscles where the uncomfortable things pricked him. “Damn it.” He bared his teeth, falling to his side as he sniffed out the packet he had dropped and lapped at the holes in the plastic where his fangs had pierced it.

The blood was cold, but at least it was human. The tang of it brought him back from that edge of bloodlust, and his struggles lessened as he tried to worm him way out of the bonds. “Damn it, Cassie, let me go.” His voice was its usual irritated grumble, and he glared in her general direction. He was purposefully ignoring the man for now. He knew at least Cassie was on his side, and he tried not to think of how close he come to charming her into being all three courses and then some.

Rickie was an anomaly. By rights, Dacian should be furious with him. He was, but some clever spark of logic also motioned that the other man had helped him in his less-than-conventional way. He’d found him blood, from where he wouldn’t know until he could see enough to read the labels but it was help nonetheless. Some noble sensibility dictated that he should respect that, even if he wasn’t happy about it.

The vampire sniffed, feeling more than a little degraded trussed up like some swine for the roast. He could still smell the man’s blood, and his lip curled as Cassie offered her help. “He’ll survive.” He grumbled, more growl that speech. He huffed, shifting awkwardly on his side so he was looking more in Rickie's direction. “Untie me.” He said again, his voice reserved this time, calmer. “I’ll drink from the damn packets and if you trust my word enough after that, I’ll help you with the wounds.” If the boy knew enough about vampires to fetch him blood, then it was likely he knew the advantages of having him assist with sealing the wound. If the decision was made quick enough, the bite wouldn’t even scar.

[Rickie Connery]

Rickie was exhausted, nothing like wrestling with a vampire, losing a bit of blood then going and stealing some to tire someone out. He returned Cassie’s weak smile and nodded. They had both been a bit brash in their actions and words but it was to be expected. Seeing someone you cared about be hit in the face and knocked out cold was sure to get you a little angry. Rickie understood, it was nothing new to him. “It’s alright,” he sighed, still smiling.

“Unless you know how to sew, or a good healing spell, I’ll be ok,” he smiled again and shrugged. It looked like he was going to be stitching himself up. He’d never actually done that before but he’d stitched up other people so he was sure he could handle it. The numbing cream had taken away most of the pain which was a welcome relief but still the man was bleeding.

Again he ignored his abdomen in favour for checking on the blood flowing into Dacian. It was made apparent that the vampire had come back to coherence, the bloodlust was gone. Even as he asked to be untied Rickie was way ahead of him. Before he finished his second request for freedom the ropes came off. As suspected there was a little rope burn but not as much as Rickie had thought there would be, that was good.

“I trust you; so far you haven’t given me a reason not to. Biting me was understandable, you were hungry,” Rickie said quietly, shrugging. Absently he began to warm another blood-pack in his hands, taking aboard what Dacian was saying. But still, did he trust the vampire enough to help him in return? Of course he did but he didn’t like asking for help. He didn’t think he was above it, he was just so much more used to giving it.

Eventually Rickie nodded, “Alright,” he breathed, lifting what was left of his shirt. There was really no point in wearing it anymore but by lifting it up to about his chest he’d already shown the two people in the room enough scars. He looked away, embarrassed and hoping that no questions would be asked. He also didn’t want to see the looks on their faces, especially Cassie’s, the look of horror and them pity he always got whenever people spotted his scars.

[Cassie Vimes]

Cassie let out a little gasp, shocked that Dacian’s demeanour could change from hurt and pleading to cursing and writhing in a matter of seconds. She was suddenly immensely grateful that Rickie had returned so quickly and that he knew what to do. Without him Cassie would likely have ended up as vampire chow before dawn. She let out a shaky breath and shook her head, her expression apologetic as she looked at Dacian. ”I can’t, not until Rickie says its okay.”

The events of the last few minutes had forced Cassie to do a complete turn around in attitude, going from fighting Rickie’s every attempt to help them to leaving the situation entirely in his hands. She was more that willing to give Dacian her blood, especially as even after all the evidence to the contrary she still didn’t think he would try to hurt her, but she wouldn’t risk him biting Rickie again. She already felt guilty enough about the first time, she didn’t need another on her conscience. Thankfully her it was only a matter of moments Rickie was untying Dacian himself.

”I don’t know any healing spells,” She admitted sheepishly, finding it easier to focus on what Rickie had said that look at Dacian. She felt a little embarrassed even though Rickie had as good as told her he didn’t use magic any more and Dacian had already made it very clear he had no love for it. Cassie had never bothered to learn anything past what they taught her in school and healing magic was a little advanced even for N.E.W.T.S.

”And my sewing skills leave a lot to be desired.” She looked down at her hands, feeling helpless. What use had she been? Absolutely zilch. If anything she was a liability. ”No!” Cassie found herself blurting as Dacian offered to help heal Rickie. Surely it was just another plot to get more blood. ”I mean,” She corrected herself, realising she was doing herself no favours with Dacian right now. ”How do you know its safe? I don’t want anybody else to get hurt.”

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[Dacian]

The boy was cool under pressure and probably a good healer but damn, he was dense. Trusting a vampire? It was a wonder the kid wasn’t dead already. He flexed his newly freed hands, keeping his eyes turned away from Cassie. She finally understood the danger he posed, and instead of being pleased about that, Dacian felt mildly thwarted. It meant she feared him. Maybe not much, but it was enough to inspire a little guilt masquerading as ire. He’d never wanted to scare her – not after the kindness she treated him with – not really, but it seemed he couldn’t help what he was, and there was no taking it back.

Now free, he itched to close his hands around the other man’s throat. Kicking him in the head he could understand but just because he was superhuman didn’t give him balls of steel. Dacian resisted revenge for the moment, distracting himself by tugging out every one of those pins stuck in him and collecting the bags at his side. The first one was slowly leaking blood onto the floor and he snatched it up, finding the puncture holes and sucking the blood through them. It was bloody degrading, but at least he wouldn’t be trying to bite Cassie again.

Sightless eyes downcast, turned mostly away from her, Dacian growled back a response to her concern. “I have other options now – you are both safe enough. What’s the matter, don’t you trust me any more?” He huffed bitterly, ripping the packet a little more to drink the blood faster.

With one pint down, Dacian was amiable enough to help Rickie. “Give me some gauze, some cloth, something to clean the wound with.” He said, shifting stiffly away from the wall. Taking what was offered, he spat onto it and followed the sound of the man’s heartbeat to find him. He didn’t need his eyes to find the wound, he could smell it. He used the gauze to wipe at it, spitting on it again before handing the piece to Rickie. “Wipe it all, work the saliva in. Give the gauze back when it dries out, you need more than that.” If it had been Cassie, he would have had no qualms licking the wounds but there was no way in Hell he was licking Rickie.

The vampire shuffled back over to the packets he’d collected and snatched one up. It was cruel. To drink cold blood from a packet when there were two warm-blooded humans in the room. Dacian gritted his teeth concentrating on emptying the last of the second packet and ignoring the aching burning pain seeping in as some of the lesser burns began to heal and the nerves slowly restored themselves. The extra pain at least meant he was healing, and he could endure it – he’d been through worse.