Deadly Temptation

Naples, Florida

Christian and Dean stood at the banister looking down from the loft looking for signs of Dmitry’s presence. Christian could sense the rage emanating off his master, and for the first time, he was truly worried about his and Dean’s safety.

“I can smell you,” Dmitry hissed from the darkness. “Why don’t you and the little bitch come down here and face me?”

Christian put his arm up in front of Dean, “Stay here Dean.”

“You can’t face him alone,” Dean argued.

“For once Dean, do as I say,” Christian pleaded with his troubled Childe. “This won’t take long…”

“I saw what he did to you in Canada,” Dean interrupted. “He will kill you.”

“You got that right,” Dmitry replied from the living room.

Christian slowly walked down the stairs looking back over his shoulder making sure that Dean was staying in place. He knew that it would take all the strength he had to beat Dmitry in a fight, and he didn’t need the distraction of trying to keep Dean safe. He stepped off the landing and turned towards his Sire’s dark form. “It has finally come to this? Must we fight to the death like gladiators in a pit?”

Dmitry turned on a lamp and the room was filled with a soft light that cast shadows upon the walls, “It has.” Dmitry looked up at the loft and saw Dean, “You let him come between us…and now it is time to end this.”

“You mean to destroy us both?” Christian asked feeling the tension radiating through his body.

“You’ve left me no choice,” Dmitry frowned. “You have betrayed me, gotten me nearly destroyed, and you forced me to kill my own Childe.”

“I didn’t force you to destroy Sicily. You did that on your own accord,” Christian argued. “Can’t you see that something is not right with you?”

Dmitry smiled, “It’s true that I may be a tad more aggressive, but I have enjoyed getting reacquainted with my true vampire nature.”

Christian looked up worriedly at his Childe, “Kill me if you must, but allow Dean to live…to live as a human once again.”

Dmitry laughed boisterously, “You want me to let him become human again? Let the loss of Sicily and Constantine be for nothing?”

“He has suffered so much,” Christian explained. “He deserves to be let go if I am gone.”

“But he doesn’t deserve to be let free if you are still alive, right?” Dmitry asked bitterly. “You don’t love him Christian. You’ve only wanted to conquer him; to own him, not to love him.”

“That’s not true,” Christian argued stepping dangerously close to his maddened Sire.

“Isn’t it?” Dmitry challenged. “I can sense his misery from here, but you seem to be oblivious to it. If you truly loved him you would have let him go along time ago, or at the very least put him out of his misery; and that is what I intend to do once I’m finished with you.”

“And I will do everything in my power to keep you from doing just that!” Christian growled as he threw himself at his master. The two vampires crashed into the coffee table smashing it into bits and pieces. Christian wrestled his Sire onto his back and bent down to bite the other vampire’s jugular, but Dmitry was able to toss Christian across the room into a wall causing the paintings and their glass frames to crash to the floor.

“You don’t have the strength to beat me Christian!” Dmitry roared as he picked the other vampire up from the ground and threw him across the room once again causing Christian to crash into the large picture frame window that overlooked the ocean. Dmitry smiled coldly when he saw the other vampire lying outside covered in glass, “Make no mistakes Christian…tonight you die, and there won’t be any resurrections for you.”

Christian struggled to stand up ignoring the shards of glass that stuck in his hands, “I could say the same about you!” Christian jumped through the place where a window once stood and threw himself at Dmitry once again.

Dean watched from the loft as the two powerful vampires fought to the death. He knew better than to get in the middle of the duel, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself as he slowly made his way down the stairs watching as Christian threw Dmitry into the brick mantle above the fireplace. The older vampire’s head was bleeding from the blow, and he charged angrily at his Childe.

Christian could smell his Sire’s blood and felt pride in the fact that he had wounded the more powerful vampire, “Not so tough after all.”

Dmitry lashed out and slapped Christian’s face wrenching the other vampire’s neck in the process, “Don’t get cocky Christian….we’ve only just begun.”

Dean stood at the bottom of the stairs waiting to see if his assistance would be required. He would do as Christian had instructed; keep out of the fight, but he wouldn’t let Dmitry destroy Christian without some sort of resistance.

Dmitry bent down and picked up a pointed piece of wood from the smashed coffee table and held it in his hand.

Christian couldn’t help but laugh, “You know that won’t kill me.”

“You’re right,” Dmitry smiled, “but this will hurt like hell.” He jumped at the younger vampire, knocked him to the floor, and stabbed the other vampire in the chest with the stake.

Christian roared in pain as the wooden stake splintered into his chest cavity. The pain was intense, and he could feel and smell the blood as it began seeping out of the wound.

Dmitry bent down determined to rip his Childe’s throat with his fangs, but he could sense that Dean was approaching and whipped out his arm to catch the infant vampire by the wrist. “Bad boy…trying to sneak up on me like that.”

Dean tried to wrench his wrist free from Dmitry’s grasp and moaned in pain when he felt the bones in his wrist being crushed by the other vampire. “Dmitry…please.”

Dmitry stood up and yanked Dean into his arms, “Please what?”

Dean’s left wrist throbbed in agony as the other vampire continued grinding his broken bones together, “Kill me…put me out of my misery.”

Dmitry’s snarl turned into surprise, “You want to die?”

Dean felt the pressure on his wrist lessen and sighed in relief, “I’ve begged Christian to do it but he can’t, but I know you can.” Dean ran his uninjured hand over Dmitry’s handsome face ignoring the grunts of complaint coming from Christian, “Destroy me before I become a monster.”

Dmitry stared into Dean’s beautiful green eyes and felt the familiar longing for the other being once again, “I should keep you alive just so you would be tormented for eternity. That would be a just punishment for what you have done to this family.” He ran his hands through Dean’s hair cupping the other vampire’s face in his large hands, “You could be my little bitch for eternity…doesn’t that sound like fun?”

For an answer, Dmitry felt Christian’s fangs ferociously tearing into the back of his neck. He cursed himself for being careless with his injured Childe as Christian began ripping the flesh from his neck.

Dean watched on in despair as Christian shoved Dmitry to the floor on his back and began chewing and ripping at his Sire’s neck in an attempt to drain the blood from the older vampire’s body.

Dmitry clawed at his Childe’s back trying to get the enraged vampire off of him. He could sense that Christian’s desire to protect Dean was overwhelming, and he had great difficulty pushing the other vampire off of his weakening body. However, he did manage to shove Christian away and he began crawling himself towards the kitchen in an attempt to escape the other vampire. He held his hand to his neck which was now oozing blood from three different bite marks, and he could feel Christian yanking at his ankles pulling him backwards into the other vampire’s clutches.

Christian’s chest injury was still bleeding, but he had managed to pull the stake out, “Where are you going Dmitry? I thought this was to be the last night of my life…shame on you for trying to escape.”

Dean watched in dismay as his Sire dragged the other weakened vampire by his ankles…pulling him into his bloody death.

“It didn’t have to be like this Dmitry,” Christian explained as he turned his Sire back onto his back smiling in glee when he saw the blood gushing from his Sire’s shredded throat. “But you couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you? You had to mettle in my affairs, and you had to…”

“Thu-wump,” Christian heard the strange sound a split second before he felt the piercing metal hit him in the back.

Dean recognized the sound and the arrow sticking out of his Sire’s back instantly. “Nooooo!”

“Thu-wump,” the crossbow fired once again hitting Christian in the back with a second silver-coated arrow.

Dean looked at his Sire in horror as the second arrow penetrated Christian’s heart, “Christian!”

Christian smiled tenderly at Dean before falling over sideways off of Dmitry and onto the floor. Dean made an attempt to crawl over to his fallen Sire, but a hand on his shoulder stopped his movement. He looked up and saw Sam holding the crossbow and aiming it at Dmitry and Christian. Dean wanted to kill Sam at that moment; an urge to get revenge radiated throughout his body, while another part of him wanted to hug Sam and thank him for killing his worst nightmare. He knew he wouldn’t interfere with his family’s duties, but he felt so guilty not helping Christian and Dmitry as his father approached.

Sam watched on as Christian’s body twitched in pain from the silver poisoning posed to shoot another arrow if necessary. He watched as John approached the vampires with the machete in his hand. It was obvious that both vampires were on the verge of dying, but John wanted to be sure. He raised the machete above his head, ignored Dean’s pleas and whimpers to stop, and in one strong stroke beheaded his son’s tormentor.

Dean cried in a mixture of relief, anger, and guilt as he saw Christian’s head separated from his body. “Oh God…no!”

Sam held Dean in place and could feel his brother’s sobs racking his shoulders, “It must be done Dean…you know that deep inside this has to be done.”

Specs of blood dotted along John’s hands and face, and he lightly kicked Christian’s head away from his body, “Of course he does. That’s the only thing keeping him from attacking us both.” John approached Dmitry seeing the other vampire covered in blood, “Damn kids can be a real pain in the neck, can’t they?” John lifted the machete in the air and prepared to behead Dmitry as well.

“Wait!” a voice boomed from the broken out window.

Sam and John looked over and weren’t surprised to see Alexei standing at the window. Dean for his part only stared in shock at this dead Sire’s body.

“Spare Dmitry and I will spare all of you,” Alexei offered.

“Why, so you can heal him and he can come hunt us down for revenge?” John asked.

“Surely, you know that none of those weapons can destroy me,” Alexei began as he walked towards his fallen family. “We both know that this is the only way you’re walking out of this house alive.”

John had no doubt in is mind that the ancient vampire could survive just about any attack, and he wasn’t willing to risk his family’s life, “You let all three of us go and promise to never mess with us again?”

“I’ve already lost so much…Sicily, Christian…, please let me keep my Childe, and I will let you keep yours,” Alexei reasoned.

John looked over at his children; Dean staring comatose at Christian, and Sam looking down in concern at his brother, “You got a deal, but if I ever see Dmitry near Dean again, I will not hesitate to destroy him.”

“Understood,” Alexei replied stepping closer to Dmitry. He bent down and cradled his nearly dead Childe in his arm, “I will chain him to me if it becomes necessary. My family has learned from this tragedy; let’s hope yours has as well.”

John wearily watched the vampire taking care of his Childe knowing that the ancient vampire could still kill them all if he so chose to, “Before you leave, I need to know something.”

Alexei stood with Dmitry in his arms already knowing what it was the human needed to know, “He will convert back to himself…if he has not taken blood from a mortal.”

“You can’t tell by looking at him if it’s too late?” Sam asked in doubt. “If you’re so strong you would be able to tell, right?”

Alexei smirked at Sam, “Yes, I can tell, but I find it quite amusing that you will have to wait until the sun rises to discover the truth.”

Sam gripped the crossbow tightly in his hand, but John stepped over and put his hand on Sam’s arm keeping his son under control. “If he hasn’t taken blood he will be human in the morning; no after effects of the changing?”

“That’s correct, now…it is time for us to depart.” Alexei walked away with his Childe in his arms. He swiftly walked into the kitchen, out the door, and out of the Winchester’s lives forever.

Both Winchesters looked down at Dean who was still in shock. John knelt down in front of his son, “You think it’s safe to take him with us tonight?”

“If we leave him alone even for a few hours he could do something stupid,” Sam reasoned. “If he hasn’t attacked us yet he won’t attack us later.”

“You sure about that,” John asked in doubt. “We killed his Sire. Once he gets over this shock, he could react less than favorably.”

“We could always chain him to the bed or something,” Sam offered. “We only have a couple of hours until sunrise. I think we can handle him.”

John took Dean’s shaking hands in his hands, “Dean, look at me son.”

Dean’s eyes avoided John’s scrutiny.

Sam stepped in front of Dean so that Christian’s body was now out of Dean’s sight, “Dean, look at Dad.”

Dean’s eyes slowly trekked over until they looked into John’s eyes, “That’s better Dean. Sam and I are going to take you away from here, alright?”

Dean nodded in understanding, “Don’t…don’t forget to…don’t forget to burn the body.”

John watched in remorse as tears began sliding down Dean’s pale face, “Sam’s going to take care of that, okay? I just need for you to come out to the Impala with me.”

“Please Dean, do as Dad says,” Sam pleaded. “I’ll take care of this mess and meet you guys out there, okay?”

Dean allowed himself to be pulled to his feet, “Is this really over?”

John looked lovingly into Dean’s eyes, “We’ll know in a couple of hours. Did you take a human life?”

“No,” Dean replied looking at Sam who was in the process of dragging the vampire’s corpse across the living room floor. “He tried to make me, but I held off hoping you guys would find me.”

“That’s great Dean,” John beamed. “Then all we have to do is get you through the next couple of hours and we’ll be in the clear.”

Dean stared at Christian’s disembodied head feeling an unfathomable sadness gripping his heart, “This isn’t going to be easy to get over, is it?”

“Of course not,” John reassured his son. “If you did get over it quickly I would know that something was wrong with you.”

Dean looked at all the blood on the floor; Dmitry’s powerful blood, and felt his fangs beginning to descend on their own, “Please get me out here.”

“Of course,” John replied escorting Dean out of the beach house and towards the Impala. As he walked Dean into the cover of darkness, he couldn’t shake the fear that something more was to come. Dean was after all still a vampire; a vampire who had denied his craving for blood for nearly two weeks…and the sun was nearly three hours away. Would his son be able to deny the urge without Christian in the picture? It had been Dean’s refusal to please his Sire that had kept him from feeding, but now there was no Christian to deny; only two humans, two warm bodies, two blood-rich mortals…would Dean be able to resist such temptations?

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I know this was short for me, but this was where I wanted to end this installment. There are only two parts left to this series. I am anxious to end this epic that started nearly two years ago, so expect an update rather quickly. As always thanks to all who have supported this creative process over the last two years.
Feedback is very much appreciated and is motivating…
Darkestangel