Nightmare

She closed her eyes as his fear level rose, and she smiled, then ran her nails down the length of his slender throat as she encircled it with her fingers. Garak threw himself against the forceshield and howled as he burned himself and bounced backward into the arms of the others.

Julian couldn't stop the whimper that left him as she traced the jugular vein with her tongue, nor could he stop the sharp cry that left him, or the agonized backward toss of his head as her teeth pierced his throat. Her grip was one of iron, and she wrapped him in her arms in a mockery of a lover's embrace. He trembled and gripped her shoulders as she drained his blood. The protests silenced as the moments passed, and Julian knew the watchers hadn't really believed, up until that very moment, what she was.

Suddenly, his knees buckled and his arms dropped to his sides as his body collapsed forward. Without breaking the hold her arms had on his weakened body, or the grip her mouth and teeth had on his neck, she lowered him to the floor.

*I'm so tired.* He thought as he sank to the floor held tightly in her arms.

*I know. It will pass soon.* She thought into his mind, and he started.

*You can hear my thoughts?* He asked, and he felt her smile.

*We are bonded. Soon we'll be together for eternity . . .*

*You . . .you mean to take me across? You won't let me die?* He asked, and she almost moaned as the strength of his fear passed through his blood.

*Your death would be a waste. I don't like to waste useful things. And you are most useful indeed. You are handsome and will make a wonderful addition to my . . . collection.*

*No.* He pleaded. *Please, don't do that.* Tears suddenly poured down his face. *Please, kill me. Don't make me live in your darkness. Don't make me live with death. I . . . I can't do that. I'm a healer . . . you'd make me a mockery of everything I have ever
believed in.*

She scowled as his blood went slightly acrid as it ran over her tongue.

*You will live forever. You could be anything you wanted to be.*

*Except alive.* He slowly opened his eyes and looked over her shoulder at Garak, who tried to fight his way out of Sisko and Dax's arms. *I can't live without him.*

*You could bring him over.*

*I wouldn't condemn anyone to live like this. Especially someone I love.*

*He doesn't love you.* She hissed, suddenly very angry, and he sighed softly as lethargy crept over his body, and he went lax in her arms.

*I know.* He smiled as he felt his body go numb.

*And knowing that, you don't hate him?*

*No. I don't even hate you . . .*

*You will if I bring you across.*

*No.* It was very hard for him to think, and he blinked his eyes to clear them. *You are as you are. Just as Klingons and Romulans and Cardassians are. All species . . . are as they are. Wish different, yes, but my wishing won't . . . make it . . . so. When you bring . . . me over . . .I will find a way . . .to escape you. I will . . .die then. But not . . . hate.*

He turned his head slightly and gazed blearily at those in the cell. "Take care . . .of . . . Garak," he forced himself to say, and his lips trembled. "Take care . . .each other.
Garak . . . love . . . you."

"I know, Julian," he answered quietly, and Julian smiled brightly as the warm wave of love suffused his entire being at Garak's revelation, and he felt only a peaceful contentment, even as he lay dying in the vampire's cruel embrace.

She jolted back as if she'd been shot, and almost literally ripped her teeth from Julian's neck. Suddenly, she spit out a mouthful of vile tasting blood that had made her almost violently ill. She swiped her hand across her mouth, which left a bloody smear
on her pristine cheek.

"Hate!" She suddenly screeched and gripped his face painfully between her fingers. "Hate, damn you!"

"I am . . .damned." He sighed. "But I'll never . . .hate. Not . . .not when I . . .I love."

"I'll rip them apart with my own hands, and then you'll hate me!" She screeched, and he sighed.

"Pity . . . you. Not . . . hate." Julian smiled again at Garak, then murmured as he grew weaker with each passing moment. "Fin . . . finish what you . . . started if you . . . must. I shall never hate you."

"I will finish you, and I will MAKE you hate me!" She bent over him one more time and viciously sank her teeth into his neck. His entire body went rigid with the vicious pain she inflicted on him, and his eyes never left Garak even as he let out a shrill, though weak, shriek of agony.

Bloody tears suddenly ran from her eyes, and she gently withdrew from his neck as his blood ran down the sides of her mouth and over her chin. "I . . .I cannot drink." She whispered, her tone bewildered. "I feel . . .I feel sick." Her sides suddenly heaved, and she fell to the floor on all fours and shuddered.

"Your love . . .the very purity of it has destroyed me. The one thing I wanted to take, you gave freely, and now I have killed myself. How completely ironic," she gagged, shuddered, then crawled to his side and stroked his hair. "I have not felt love in so long that I had forgotten it's power. Forgive me?" She asked, and he smiled slightly as he looked first at Garak, then at her.

"I . . .do." He whispered and without warning, she exploded into powdery fragments of dust and was gone. Julian lay on the floor, and watched, strangely pain free as the ceiling above him darkened.