Fighting has never been a dance. It's fucking chaotic. Dangerous. A razor's edge. One slip, and it could mean death. And that's humans. Fighting a vampire is another world; they're strong and fast, but Milton taught Kane from childhood the importance of precision. A punch to the gut and an opponent, even the supernatural, will instinctually bow forward, leaving an opening. A punch to the nose is blinding. A kick to the groin-well, that goes unsaid.

And the important aspect of winning against any vampire is to keep moving and never allow a grapple.

Kane falls hard to the floor. The strong hands of a living statue hold his wrists down. Damn.

He'd been winning the fight without a doubt. His bloodied knuckles had met Kiernan's face, and the vampire had reared back, leaving an opening. Kane would have laid into him until he couldn't use his hand anymore, but then the fucking door burst open.

Axel is a beast. When he's rushing and snarling like an animal, he's a bit fucking distracting, and Kane slipped up.

A gunshot goes off. A scuffle. Kane thinks: Lucas is fighting Axel; the dresser shakes; something hits the ground with a heavy thud; but Kane can't look because he's busy fighting for his life.

Leaning so close that Kane can feel hot breath over his snarling face, Kiernan's fanged smile is bloody as the vampire whispers, "Don't worry, Rainer. You'll have a warrior's death; I'll make sure you're in agony for days before Gabriel turns you."

Kane snarls. Fuck that. He knees Kiernan so hard that his entire leg throbs, and even a century-old vampire is adverse to the pain that accompanies a knee to his groin. Kiernan sucks in a wheezing breath, and when his grip loosens, Kane shoves his fingers into Kiernan's eyes, not to blind him but to dig for the sole purpose of causing agony.

The feeling of squishy wetness is disgusting; blood spurts across Kane's face, but it's all worth it to hear Kiernan's howls of pain.

A punch to Kane's cheek leaves his vision speckling black.

And then there's the barrel of a gun shoved against Kiernan's head, and the vampire freezes. The room quiets almost instantaneously.

Kiernan looks down at Kane with bloodied eyes, slowly healing, and a subdued fury in the quivering snarl on his fanged lips. The vampire grits, "Reid-"

The gun whacks Kiernan across the face with such ferocity that blood from the vampire's mouth drips in thick globs onto the front of Kane's shirt and makes a warm slide over the exposed skin of his throat.

"Get off of him," Reid orders shakily.

Behind Kiernan, near the busted door, Axel watches the exchange with tension in his form, and not far away, Lucas leans against the dresser, keeping distance from the bruiser vampire and wiping blood from his lips. Lucas's gun is gone. He looks battered, but Axel looks like shit. Face fucked, nose askew, and blood staining the front of his shirt and jeans.

And hell, Kane wishes he hadn't missed that fight.

Kiernan looks up at Reid, and the predatory slowness of the act has every instinct Kane possesses, telling him to kill the vampire that's about to rip their throats out.

The gun is shoved against Keirnan's forehead. "Up," Reid orders coldly, "or I'll blow your head off."

There's a tension in the air that isn't from the gun or the threat of death. Reid's eyes in the dim lighting appear bluer, but there's a darkness to his pupils. And Keirnan frowns ever so subtly and says carefully, "Put the gun down."

There's no dimness to Reid's gaze that Kane had been holding his breath for. "Get off," Reid growls; he doesn't sound like himself, and that's what Kane blames for his shiver.

Like a puppet on strings, Kiernan rises. The vampire's look of utter shock would be hilarious if Kane wasn't sharing the same notion, and even Reid looks a bit shaken. Although Reid doesn't lower the gun because he's playing the part of a proper badass and keeping the barrel pointed at Kiernan's head.

Then, both Reid and Kiernan's eyes widen in tandem. Axel looks sharply at the door.

Kane's on his feet before he's even thought it through, his training taking over, and he's glad for it because he's ready for the forms wearing masks that are suddenly rushing into the motel room. He narrowly misses the swipe of a blade, dodging, steel mere inches from removing his head from his neck.

He sees Lucas grappling for a shotgun as it's cocked. Kiernan's quick to shove Reid stumbling back, saving the idiot from the glint of the same blade that had almost killed Kane moments prior, precise, going for Reid's arm to rid him of his gun that clatters to the motel floor anyway when Reid falls on his ass.

It's chaos.

And suddenly, Kane's fighting with Kiernan by his side. A mutual understanding to protect Reid, even if it's for vastly different results. Somehow Azrael's vampires got the jump on them, but there's not enough time to contemplate how that's fucking possible because they're in the thick of it right away.

Kiernan holds his own, punching and not stopping even when his foe falls to their knees or the floor, using his fist as effectively as any hammer, caving skulls and splattering brains.

Near the door, Axel snarls and kicks the knee of a rushing vampire; the audible snap can be heard above the din of fighting.

Kane tries to grab the gun clipped to his back, but a vampire with a mask of snarling teeth is grabbing for him, and he has to focus on dodging. Scrambling, he grabs a fallen sword, and the weight is familiar.

Blood. It's the only thing Kane knows for what feels like an eternity. Keep moving. Dodging. Push through the pain. Heavy breaths. Splatters of warmth across his face and front every time the arc of his blade rends. His biceps burn from the strain of thrusting and slicing.

From his peripheral vision, he can see Lucas has relinquished the vampire of his shotgun and uses the last reserves of his magic to conjure a pinkish barrier around Reid, stopping a vampire with a gnarly blade from nearing the idiot.

Thank fuck, and with a loud, earsplitting shot, Lucas fires the shotgun, defeating everyone for a few moments of ringing eardrums and rattling teeth.

The vampire's head explodes into bits of skin, brain, and flesh.

A puff of drywall dust fills the air.

Reid laughs at the sight. His fair hair is stained with blood. But his deranged hilarity dies abruptly as a vampire stalks towards him with intention. And because he's not a complete idiot, Reid is quick to crawl for his gun, which had clattered beneath the kitchenette table.

He won't make it.

Lucas is in the thick of a fight with a catlike vampire that's faster than his brute strength, and he takes a nasty kick to the stomach. There's no shimmer of the protecting barrier around Reid any longer; Lucas is dry; magic finished.

Kane growls, thrusting his sword into the gut of a vampire that had dared try for an easy kill while he was looking away. The vampire grabs Reid's ankles and yanks the idiot flat, giving Reid a faceful of motel carpeting. Kane unclips his gun with steady fingers and shoots the bastard.

The vampire's green jacket speckles blood. But he doesn't react to the bullet embedding into his shoulder; the creature's in kill mode, a predator lost to bloodlust.

And a second later, the monster is flipping Reid onto his back and igniting a struggle for the gun that Reid holds against his chest, refusing to relinquish it. The visual is a nightmare of Kane's worst imagines.

Ignoring the pain erupting to burn his shoulder, Kane rushes over fallen bodies, and his boots splash pools of blood.

Reid's gun goes off.

With a hard kick to his shoulder, the vampire is off of Reid, tumbling ungracefully with a growl. And Kane's quick to stomp on the bastard's back before the creature can rise.

The vampire is twitching with each shot that's mashing his brains, until Kane's gun clicks empty.

The asshole's body remains deathly still.

There's movement near the open door. Hannah stands on the threshold. She's still wearing her pyjamas, barefoot. Her brown eyes widen as she takes in the carnage. It's grisly. Body parts. Blood. Twitching dead. Even Kane's iron stomach churns just a tad.

There's an off-putting sensation about Hannah that he's grappling with. But then he's choking down genuine bile at the sight of Reid clutching at his stomach, blood seeping through his shaking fingers.

The gun went off, and Kane's entire world was that one thought replayed.

Kane drops to his knees and crawls over Reid's prone form. "No," he breathes, like denying it would make the horrible truth go away.

He shoves Reid's bloody hand away, ignoring Reid's sharp inhale when the air agitates the injury. The hole in Reid's lower stomach is substantial. If it was anyone else, Kane would shake his head and name them a loss cause; the hospital's too far away, and with the road blocked, the ambulance would be too late.

"Ow," Reid rasps like the idiot he is, because only he would react to being shot with a simple ow.

Sitting back on his heels, Kane grasps fistfuls of his hair, tugging until it's agonizing. "No. No. Fuck." He doesn't know what else to say. He's going to pass out. He wishes for a vulnerable moment that Milton was still alive. He'd lay a comforting hand on Kane's shoulder and bring everything into focus.

Kane can't think. His trying. No thoughts are coming except that Reid's going to die.

"Kenneth," Reid rasps, his chest rising and falling rapidly. He reaches out, and Kane scrambles to grasp Reid's clammy hand so tightly that it hurts.

For a moment, Reid's hand feels smaller, as if they're kids again, and he's clutching Kane's fingers even though those same fingers had just smacked the idiot silly seconds before.

"I'm here," Kane whispers stupidly, because of course he is.

People are talking; there's a hand on his back; he thinks it's Hannah; no one else would dare. Then someone's speaking to him in a deep voice near his ear-maybe Lucas-yet Kane can't make out any tangible words. The fight is over, and everything else but Reid is static.

Then Keirnan drops to his knees at Reid's side, and everything focuses. The vampire lays a bloody hand on Reid's cheek. Kane must be really out of it because he doesn't have the initial gut reaction to chop Kiernan's hand off; instead, he has a desperate swoop to his stomach and the urge to beg the vampire to do something-anything-just don't let Reid die.

"No," Reid rasps, weakly shoving Kiernan's touch away. He tries to growl, but it's a gurgle, and blood seeps from his lips.

Kiernan pushes Kane's hands away from where they'd begun to pressurize the wound instinctually. And then the vampire's hands hover, because it doesn't take a doctor to see how bad Reid's state is and will be in mere minutes.

Sick to his stomach, Kane doesn't stop the vampire from laying his cold palms on Kane's bloodstained cheeks. Kiernan's speaking urgently, too close, but Kane can't hear because he's feeling airy and not himself, staring at his hands covered in Reid's blood distantly.

It's happening again. He's going to lose Reid, just like he lost his dad, unable to do anything. He's powerless. He's weak. He can't protect anyone.

The bullet was from Lucas's gun. It would have burst on impact. The world slowly returns, first with static and then the ragged breathing of someone dying. Reid. Kane can hear the sounds of him dying-the wheezing as his body fights to take another breath.

Kane hears himself say shakily, "The bullet is..."

"Oh, I know," Kiernan says darkly, grasping Kane's chin. "Trust me." He's obviously holding Kane's watering gaze so his vampiric entrancement can settle, and Kane doesn't fight, letting the dark power slither and take over. "Focus, Rainer. Nod for me."

When Kane nods, dazed, Kiernan huffs and looks at Reid, whose lashes are fluttering shut. The vampire decides something in that passing second, his expression steeling.

"There's no other way," Kiernan says grimly. "Now it is. Let's get him on the bed."

Kane wants to protest; he could; the heaviness of the entrancement has waned since Kieran's attention was diverted. Kane doesn't.

He dissociates while hefting Reid's legs. It feels like a betrayal, but he endeavours, resisting Reid's struggles that have a sock-clad foot whacking Kane's chin and clacking his teeth.

Kane thinks numbly that Reid might actually hate him for this.

They drop Reid onto the creaky motel mattress of crumpled sheets.

"No," Reid snarls, kicks, and thrashes.

Axel is quick to subdue Reid's wrists. And that's when Reid turns downright feral, snarling and biting, and the disturbing sight has Kane's heart aching even more than the sight of the bullet wound.

Reid shouts curses that make even Kane flinch.

Kane's surging forward, but soft fingers grasp his shaking hand, halting him from protecting Reid from everything that's making him struggle so fiercely.

A soft hand is lain against Kane's cheek, and Hannah is staring into his eyes with a strained smile, blood on her lips, and a nasty bruise purpling her chin. His worry ebbs for her, but it's overshadowed by the background sounds of Reid desperately calling out for him.

"He needs you to be calm," Hannah says gently. Her eyes are teary, and he has to resist the urge to embrace her. "He's...he'll be okay."

She's right. Kane takes a deep breath. Somehow, in less than a few weeks, Hannah's carved a place for herself on the small shelf that holds Kane's precious things. He's in love with her. The realization is a pebble in a vast ocean of his tremulous emotions, but nevertheless, it's significant and gives him a surge of newfangled strength to weather the nightmare that's to come.

"He won't die," Lucas says shakily, and when Kane looks, heart in his throat, the man's standing bloody in the middle of the carnage, and he's not looking at the weak struggle taking place on the bed, gaze averted with a clench to his jaw.

"Lucas..." Kane whispers shakily.

Lucas runs his fingers through his hair. He's shaking. His gaze falls on Kane, and there's a seriousness to his eyes that has Kane's stomach churning. "Don't take his blood. Trust me."

Kane's about to ask what the fuck that means, but the feral noises from the bed blank out all thoughts. The sight of Kiernan with his fangs deep in Reid's throat has Kane seeing red, only kept from setting the entire room on fire by the quiet hiccups that become Reid's protests and Kane's heart breaks.

Axel is trying to calm Reid with soft murmurs, keeping a firm hold of Reid's wrists. He holds Reid's watering gaze, and Kane will forever be grateful for that surprising gentleness.

Kiernan's drawing back when Kane crawls onto the bed with shaking hands. Kane's bloody palms cup Reid's cheeks, and dim blue eyes stare up at him, half-lidded and tired. Skin paler than snow, on the edge of death.

"Reid," Kane chokes.

Reid rasps, "Let me die. Please. I don't want to keep...just let me go."

That has Kane's eyes tearing. He can count how many times he's cried in his life on his fingers. It was the first time he'd come back from limbo, and he was scared of the impenetrable darkness. When Milton died. For Reid, Kane really thought that he'd lose the idiot to those damn pills. And Kane cries now because, fuck, he's about to betray Reid's last wish. There's no way.

"Kane," Kieran says urgently. "There's no time."

Ignoring Kiernan, Kane whispers, "Please, Reid." And Reid's dimming eyes seem to refocus at the sound of Kane's voice, his bloody mouth quivering. "Please, take his blood. Hate me if you have to, but I can't lose you. Not you." Then he says, so softly that it's almost lost beneath his own ragged breaths, "Do it for me."

Reid breathes, "Don't leave me." They both know he means more than just this.

Axel let go of Reid's wrists. There's no point in holding them any longer. Reid has no strength left to fight. And Kane clutches Reid's limp fingers, holding them tightly.

Kane knows Reid won't lose his life tonight, but even so, Kane's scared, afraid of the part of Reid that will die. The bright humanity that's always blinded Kane, infuriated him and had him reaching out to try and steal a bit for himself.

That preciousness will fade away.

Kane knows that as Kiernan shoves his bloody wrist against Reid's slack mouth and Reid's half-lidded blue eyes shift to an unnatural black that shivers the air, life will never be the same after tonight.

"I'm right here," Kane whispers as the fingers gripping his hand tighten with renewed life. "Always."

The Dark City Chronicles will continue in—The Demon's Scion.