Claimed

Authors note: Many thanks to my beta Robert, who has worked his magic on this fic. (Did that sound dirty to anyone else or do I just need to get my mind out of the gutter?)

Chapter 17 Life and Death

“You betrayed the king,” Vladimir shouted, his nail still carefully pressed against Draco’s neck.

“Let Draco go,” Harry demanded, his voice holding an edge of violence brought on by just getting his love back only to have him stolen and threatened.

Draco squirmed in Vladimir’s grasp, but the vampire held him tightly. The rest of the guard and the council remained perfectly still while Harry walked slowly toward the vampire and his victim.

“Not another step closer,” Vladimir warned. “I’ll bleed him dry before you can reach us.”

“You just heard them: it is the king who betrayed me, betrayed all of us,” Harry snarled. “Why are you doing this?”

“They lie,” Vladimir hissed.

“That may well be the case, but my mate has nothing to do with it,” Harry replied levelly.

“No, but you do, and this measly human is the way to you,” the vampire replied.

“Let. Him. Go.” Harry growled through gritted teeth, magic curling around his fingers.

A wave of tension flowed through the room, as if spreading one by one through every vampire as they watched the standoff. The council was very eager to see what the Chosen One was truly capable of and the guard looked ready to defend both their captain and themselves.

“If you cast a spell, you’ll be endangering him as well,” Vladimir noted, sounding very confident.

“You know first hand that isn’t true, Vlad,” Harry replied with a dark grin, thinking of the fire had used on Vladimir’s clothing at the castle. Harry looked menacing, his fingers twitching at his sides, and his bright emerald eyes seemed to glow with the magic inside of him.

Vladimir’s eye flicked to Harry’s powerful hands but said nothing.

“Last chance, Vlad. I’d rather not kill you, but you know I will,” Harry said, already prepared for it.

“You can’t kill me,” the vampire replied. “And I told you not to call me Vlad,” he added, beginning to slice into Draco’s pale neck with his nail.

At the same time that Vladimir punctured Draco’s throat, Harry whispered ‘Inanis Vita’ his right hand cast in the direction of the vampire’s head. A sharp hissing gasp filed the room, like a punctured balloon as Vladimir’s eyes widened before drying up and shriveling into nothing. His once beautiful skin began to crack and shrink, and he was forced to release Draco as his body began to collapse in on itself in a smoldering wave of dust.

Draco shrieked as one of the other guards latched himself to his already wounded and bleeding neck. Harry set the legs of that guard on fire, but he merely looked back at Harry and snarled before trying to pull Draco’s throat back to his mouth.

The slight distraction was all Harry needed to shoot a carefully placed Reducto curse at the vampire’s head, reducing him to a pile of meat on the floor.

With lightning speed he scooped Draco up and held him close, blocking off the wound with his hand so that he would lose no more blood. The blonde hung limp and unconscious; his platinum hair was matted in crimson and his eyes held no gaze.

He took him over to the elders who all looked around in dismay. The rest of the king’s guard was being held back, but a few of the council seemed disturbed by the two lying in heaps across the room.

“You killed them,” Tipal whispered.

“They left me little choice,” Harry responded defensively. “I will not sacrifice Draco to save one of them.”

“Yet you may have,” Isabella told him and tried to take Draco from Harry’s arms. Harry felt a brief spike of anger course through his stomach and stepped out of her reach, yanking Draco away.

“I’m only trying to help,” she assured him, but Harry could fill the doubt swimming at the back of his mind. Eventually, though, he grudgingly allowed the older vampire to inspect his beloved.

“There is nothing we can do for him, sister. The boy must be turned,” Isabella told Harry after a moment’s investigation.

“I can’t do that, he never gave me permission,” Harry sobbed. There had to be some other way, he just couldn’t change Draco in this manner, it wasn’t right.

“Your choices are very limited here, Harry. You can either save him by turning him into one of us, or let him die. He’s lost too much blood to be healed through normal means,” Elizabeth told him gently.

Harry wanted to scream.

He had killed two vampires to save his beloved, and now he would be taking Draco’s human life and either letting it go, or exchanging it with a darker future. Draco would be livid with him, but Harry couldn’t bear to let the boy die, he would never forgive himself.

“Didn’t you say I’m the only successful hybrid between vampires and wizards?” Harry asked curiously. “Won’t changing him kill too?”

The council bowed their heads and remained silent as they exchanged thoughts. Finally Elizabeth’s eyes pierced him and she looked hopeful. “It is a possibility, but we feel that he was made for the transformation, the same as you.”

They led him down the hall and to a private chamber where Harry was able to place Draco on a soft and downy bed. “What do I do?” Harry asked, feeling lost and confused.

“He needs your blood,” Beatrix answered.

As the door shut behind her, leaving the boys alone, Harry ran a sharp nail over his wrist, mesmerized as crimson blood welled to the surface and then began dripping down his arm. He held it over Draco’s mouth and let drop after drop fall onto the blonde’s lips and tongue.

A sharp intake of breath startled Harry as Draco’s tongue flicked out to catch the tiny red droplets and his eyes widened in shock and awe. Harry knew the boy could feel the power flowing into him from Harry’s blood and began to feel slightly more hopeful that the transformation would be successful.

Draco latched onto his wrist and began drinking the blood directly from the wound. It was the most erotic feeling that Harry had ever experienced and he had to shut his eyes against the onslaught of images, things he hadn’t seen since he first dreamed of Draco naked and writhing beneath him.

He placed a firm hand against Draco’s chest and pried him off of his wrist as he started feeling a twinge of weakness float through him. “Enough,” Harry hissed when Draco wouldn’t let go.

Smoldering gray eyes met his, ringed in a metallic silver that hadn’t been there before. Draco let go of his wrist and stared curiously up at his mate for a moment before his lips crashed into Harry’s with violent fervor.

Harry could taste his own blood mingling with the flavor of Draco on his tongue, and as he let the blonde pull him down into his embrace, he nearly lost all faculties under the assault. Draco was powerful, greedily eating at Harry’s mouth, devouring him as he began ripping off Harry’s clothing with a force that had not existing in the boy before.

A quick movement had Draco pinned to the bed, and Harry pulled himself just out of reach. “Draco,” he breathed.

“Harry,” the boy whined, trying to kiss him again.

“Are you okay?” Harry asked, worried about the effects of the transformation and wondering if Draco was in his right mind.

“I could be better,” he purred, putting all his strength into pulling Harry back against him.

“I turned you, you’re a vampire now,” Harry told him carefully. “I’m sorry,” he added.

Draco rolled his eyes and gave up the fight to kiss Harry again. “I was dying,” he told him. “I understand.”

“But-“ Harry began to protest, not understanding how Draco could be so ambivalent to Harry transforming him.

“I feel like my whole body is on fire Harry, and you’re the only one who can put it out,” he moaned. “Please, I want you, I need to have you; just give in.”

Harry took a deep breath and let the unmistakable scent of Draco wash over him. He tore down the walls he had erected when he thought of how badly he could hurt Draco in his frail human form and let himself feel the passion that he had felt at their first meeting.

He dove at Draco’s mouth, resuming the fiery kiss where they had left off and quickly disbanded their clothing across the room. Like silk their bodies meshed together, fitting like some ancient puzzle given the form of the two immortals, light and dark, mates for eternity.

Harry took Draco in deep but gentle strokes and he watched as the blonde’s eyes fluttered shut in anticipation of their climax. After trying to keep Draco safe from this very fate, he finally let himself fulfill their twin destinies by bonding with him in carnal passion.

“I love you,” Draco whispered, and Harry returned the sentiment as their bodies each reached orgasm, shuddering through them like a rocket.

Harry blinked as he felt another consciousness merge with his own, and suddenly he could feel every ounce of bliss that Draco was feeling in addition to his own.

“Harry?” Draco asked curiously, still panting even though the need to breath had left his body.

‘I’m here,’ Harry responded without speaking aloud.

“I thought that was what I was feeling,” Draco responded, not understanding his powers enough to be able to talk through his mind.

Harry ran a fingertip along Draco’s bare torso and smiled over at him. “We’re inseparable now,” he told Draco, not sure how the boy was going to take the news in their post coital state.

“It should have always been that way,” Draco replied, snuggling against Harry’s rock hard chest.

“I agree,” he said, kissing Draco’s lips lightly.

The door slammed open and though they made no move to truly cover themselves, Harry lifted his knee slightly to block their intruder’s view of Draco.

Snape stood in the doorway sneering at him. “They want to know what you did to those other vampires. I recognized reducto, but not the other. What did you do to Vladimir?”

“I drained him,” Harry replied. “I extracted his life force.”

“And did what with it?” Snape asked incredulously.

“Gave it to Draco, used it to make him like me,” Harry answered honestly.

“You bonded with him didn’t you?” he asked, looking dejected.

Harry nodded, reading the disappointment and plans to change his decision running through Snape’s mind, and he chuckled. “I love him, Severus. I will still protect you though, you don’t need to worry.”

Snape sighed with visible relief. “I’d like to stay, but I don’t want to be given over to some crusty old vampire,” he told Harry.

“I’ll see what I can do,” Harry chuckled.

“They want you to stand against the King’s army with your power,” Snape informed him.

“I know,” Harry replied with a solemn nod, having already plucked that information from Snape’s mind.

“Will you?” he asked softly.

“I’m not sure yet,” Harry replied honestly. “I have to destroy the king though.”

“For the council?” Snape asked.

“The king ordered Vladimir to kill Draco. I took that order from his mind as I took his life force. I now know everything that he did.”

“Is that a lot?” Snape chuckled.

“A thousand years worth of knowledge, now locked inside my mind,” Harry replied with a nod.

“Is there anything helpful? Anything I can relay to the council?”

“The king sleeps,” Harry whispered. “The rest of us do not, but the king, he sleeps in his Golden Tower because he is too weak to stay awake.”

“That could certainly be useful,” Snape mused.

Harry agreed, though he wasn’t sure to what extent he could use the information just yet. Snape left them alone again and Draco let Harry feel how worried he was.

“I don’t want you risking yourself. Let’s just leave, we can go back to the manor. Our parents miss us I’m sure,” Draco whispered.

“There is no way out yet, but if I kill Crispan, then the council said they’d let us go,” Harry placated him, though he was worried how honest the council members were.

“You don’t trust them,” Draco said, repeating Harry’s own thoughts out loud.

“No, I don’t. I don’t trust anyone but you at the moment,” he mused and smiled at the intense joy that filled Draco’s mind at his words.

“Promise not to leave me,” Draco begged.

“It would be impossible for me to leave you,” Harry told him, smiling lightly, and Draco knew from Harry’s mind that it was true.

Authors Note: I'm in the process of packing and moving into my new house, so writing time is starting to lag. I've posted a poll regarding this problem on my yahoo group (which you can find on my profile) and anyone wishing to weigh in can join and add their two cents.