yellowhorde (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
yellowhorde) wrote2007-12-02 01:37 pm
yellowhorde) wrote2007-12-02 01:37 pm
Entry tags:
(fic) The Hunted - Chapter 6/? - PSoH
Disclaimer: I don’t own Petshop of Horrors and I make no money from this or any other fanfic I write.
Pairing: Leon x D
Category: Supernatural/Alternate Universe
Rating: R
Warning: Violence, Language, Sexual situations, Hermaphrodite!D
Title: The Hunted
Author: yellowhorde
Notes: This was written for NaNoWriMo 2007
Leon walked into the lobby of the Four Seasons Hotel and immediately felt out of his element. It was like stepping into an entirely different world.
Chandeliers graced the ceiling, giving the entire room a warm, inviting glow. The marble floor was polished to a high reflective gloss that almost made the floor look like it was wet, even though Leon knew it was not. Alcoves spaced at regular intervals featured dark wood end tables and richly framed works of art and small, comfortable sofas with a European flare flanked by end tables with matching lamps lined the walls and offered sitting room without adding a sense of clutter.
Giving a low whistle, he made his way across the vast lobby to the front desk. He tugged at the collar of his only dress shirt and adjusted his tie nervously wishing he had worn a sports jacket, or even owned one for that matter. He couldn’t help but feel that any minute one of the employees would approach him and demand to know why a nobody like him was doing fouling the interior of their hotel. Of course, nothing like that was going to happen – he hoped – because this place was pure class and they wouldn’t give the bum’s rush to a potential patron, even if he looked a little scruffy around the ears.
The luxury hotel was located in a quiet palm-lined residential neighborhood less than a mile from the world-renowned Rodeo Drive and Robertson Boulevard. Towering palm trees and other tropical plants dotted the expertly maintained landscaping. He didn’t know how those landscape guys managed to keep so many plants not only alive, but thriving. He couldn’t keep a simple houseplant alive, not even that weird plant D had given him last year.
The front desk clerk smiled brightly when she saw him approach the front desk. Her skin was softly tanned and her wavy brown hair was pulled back from her face with a series of golden combs. A few tendrils had fallen loose around her ears and the effect was very casual sexy without going over the top. Her smile seemed genuine enough and didn’t pick up any negative, insincere vibes from her as she greeted him. Maybe she was genuinely pleased to see him. It would be a nice change of pace. In Los Angeles, no one was ever happy to see a police detective, not even an off-duty one.
No, that can’t be, he thought with a touch of resentment, she’s just doing her job.
“Welcome to Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills,” she practically trilled. “My name is Trisha. How my I help you?”
“Yeah, Trisha, my name is Leon Orcot and I have an appointment at seven with a Mr. Li Hua.”
The front desk clerks smile had been sunny before, but now she practically beamed. “Certainly sir, I’ll call his room to announce you’re arrival.” She picked up a cream colored phone, punched some numbers on the number pad, held the phone to her ear and waited. Almost instantly the line was picked up.
“Mr. Hua?” She asked, speaking in a friendly but respectful manner, “Mr. Orcot has arrived. Should I send him up right away?”
“Yes, sir, right away.” Trisha glanced over at Leon and smiled reassuringly, almost as if she sensed how out of place he was feeling as he gazed at the display of opulence all around him. “Thank you, sir. And have a wonderful evening.”
She hung up the phone and turned the full force of her smile to Leon again. Her smile was so bright he kind of wished he had brought shades. There was simply no way teeth could be that white. Either it was a professional whitening job, or those weren’t her real teeth. He was leaning toward the former because, given her youthful appearance, the latter was highly unlikely.
“Mr. Hua and his guests are ready for you now, Mr. Orcot.”
Guests? As in more than one? Leon found that he was mildly alarmed at the idea, what guests? I didn’t read anything about there being any guests. He could actually feel his stomach clenching up. Ah, shit, I’ve got a bad feeling about this.
“The room is on the sixteenth floor, the presidential suite.”
She gave him the directions to the elevator then instructed him on how to get the suite before sending him on his way. She had assured him that he couldn’t miss it. How in hell could he miss it? It was the fucking Presidential Suite for Christ’s sake! And there were only four other suites located on that floor, so it seemed highly unlikely that he would get lost. And if he couldn’t find his way, not that it would happen, but if it did, he’d just ‘eennie meenie minie moe’ it and go through a very short process of elimination.
Leon was the only person to get on the elevator and it didn’t stop once on the way up to the sixteenth floor. So he had plenty of time to examine the little butterfly-like feeling in the pit of his stomach. He wasn’t very good at dealing with people in a polite, social environment, but he wasn’t some shrinking violet, either. So why was he suddenly feeling so uncertain?
The answer, of course, was obvious: This meeting was well and truly beyond his comfort zone. If this Li Hua had offered to meet with him either at the police station or at his office it wouldn’t have bothered him in the least because that was the familiar thing to do, the every day, normal thing and well within the bounds of his experience. A lawyer asking to meet him at a luxury hotel suite, or any other non-work related environment was well and truly in the realms of the unbelievably insane.
“What if he wants to make a pass at me?” Leon wondered aloud. The idea was so ridiculous he couldn’t help but snort laughter. “Yeah, right, like that would ever happen.” Ridiculous or not, his laughter helped calm him down a little and therefore served its purpose.
When the elevator doors slid open, he made his way along the hotel corridor. He needn’t have worried about getting lost for there were helpful yet discreet signs on the walls to guide him to his destination. When he reached the door to the Presidential Suite, he put an ear up against the door. Very faintly, he could hear the sound of voices in conversation, he couldn’t make out any words just the rise and fall of voices engaged in civil conversation just on the other side of the door.
Stepping back and taking a deep breath, he rapped his knuckles smartly against the solid wood door three times. The conversation stopped and there was the sound of a deadbolt being released and then a thumb latch.
A rather thin, white haired Oriental stood before him wearing an expensive, well made three-piece suit in charcoal gray. Standing in front of him, Leon felt like a ragamuffin in comparison with his polished but still obviously scuffed black leather shoes, dark denim jeans, and white dress shirt and tie.
The man’s eyes traveled down the length of his body, taking in every detail but not in a sexual manner. And he smiled, full and honest. Though Leon was obviously not in the same league, his smile, like the front desk clerks, showed no sign of insincerity or judgment as far as his clothes and personal appearance went. He was willing to bet they would both make fantastic poker players.
“Mr. Leon Orcot, I presume?” The man bowed slightly and Leon wasn’t sure if he should bow or shake his hand. He’d been in Los Angeles for twelve years, had been dealing with the inhabitants of Chinatown for going on four years and still he never knew whether it would be more appropriate to shake hands or bow. In this case, he decided to just keep his hands down by his side.
“Yeah, that’s right. And you’re Mr. Li Hua?”
“Indeed, indeed.” Mr. Hua made a sweeping gesture toward the interior of the suite, indicating that Leon should come inside. “Please, won’t you come in? We’ve been waiting for you.”
Mr. Hua stepped back and opened the door a bit wider to allow room for Leon to pass. As he stepped over the threshold he found himself in a black marble foyer that opened up to a rather spacious living room, which featured rich neutral shades with strong accents of black and gold. The furniture had a Euro-Asian feel to it and looked like museum pieces he had seen in books back when he had been a child. There was also a dining area that featured a baby grand piano, black, of course, and a decorative fireplace. The far wall was graced with a floor to ceiling black lacquer Oriental panels depicting tranquil scenes from inlaid mother of pearl.
“Wow, this is some set up, isn’t it?” Leon exclaimed, his eyes trying to take in every detail. Hell, he could fit his entire apartment in the living and dining room area.
“Do you find it acceptable?”
“Huh? Acceptable? This place is fu-” He just managed to cut himself off just in time and managed to make the necessary transition relatively smoothly so he didn’t come off sounding like a clodhopping pheasant, “fabulous!”
He turned to the smaller man, his face a mask of confusion. “But I don’t understand why you’ve invited me here.”
Mr. Hua’s smile faded, but he resurrected it with only a slight hesitation. “Your mother did not tell you…” He trailed off, perplexed.
“My mother,” Leon said in a tight voice, “has been dead for the last seven years. What exactly are you saying that she was supposed to tell me?”
A familiar voice from behind him said, “Why, about our contract, of course.”
Leon whirled at the sound of that voice, “What the hell are you doing…” but stopped when he saw that he was not addressing who he thought he was and that fact alone blew his mind temporarily out of the water.
The man who stood before him wore a black cape and cowl that covered all but the bottom section of his face, but the nose and lips were the same. The ‘I’m so superior’ smile was the same. He stepped forward until he was close enough to stare into the depths of the shadows that the cowl cast over the other man’s face. His eye widened and he sipped in a gasping breath for the face was the same, exactly the same. Only the eyes were not D’s eyes…
Leon had always assumed that D’s strange eyes, one purple, one golden, were the results of color tinted contacts or perhaps some extreme form of heterochromia, which was often a sign of some sort of mutation or genetic weakness. Now that he thought about it, the possibility that D might have a genetic weakness would go a long way to explaining the strange sickness D had suffered from on that first Christmas, when they had helped ‘give birth’ to that three headed dragon’s egg. It was a debilitating sickness that had manifested itself on a few other occasions, though he had never offered a word in explanation.
The man who stood before him now had eyes that were actually, honest-to-God purple. Given the fact that their faces were identical, he could only assume that they were closely related to each other. It was the only way he could rationalize away the uncanny similarities.
How can that be, Leon’s mind raved, what… are they twins?
“Who the hell are you?” he demanded, rallying his senses quickly. “And what are you doing here?”
That smug, superior smile widened a touch as if its owner were amused and trying to hide it. “I am,” he replied haughtily, “Count D, and none other.”
“Count D?” Leon echoed faintly. Then realization hit him square in the face and he almost literally reeled back in shock. “You mean, you’re Count D – MY Count D’s grandfather?”
“That is correct, Mr. Detective,” A soft voice spoke to his left and when he turned toward direction of that voice, and found yet another familiar face, he froze.
Count D, his Count D, stood demurely by one of the doors that opened onto the living room. Leon’s best guess was that he had either emerged from one of the two bedrooms or the powder room. It didn’t make any difference which room he had come from, the idea of him being in any of them did next to nothing in as far as easing his mind.
“W-what are you doing here, D?” He demanded heatedly, and this time firm in the knowledge that he was addressing the correct D, or at least the familiar one. His D - and it certainly sounded rather strange to be using a possessive in front of the other man’s name – was still wearing the elaborate red gown he had been wearing earlier that day when he and Jill had visited him at his shop. His posture was rigid, head bowed, and his small hands clasped in front of him like a small child being taken to task in front of his classmates.
“And what do you mean when you said that this guy,” he jerked his thumb toward the other D, “is your grandfather?”
“It is true, Mr. Detective,” D murmured, raising his eyes to meet Leon’s squarely and with the barest hint of defiance. He glanced toward the other D and inclined his head slightly, a show of respect. “The man that stands before you is my tsu fu, my grandfather.”
“Don’t you bullshit me, D!” Leon yelled, now red faced and furious. “Don’t you dare fucking start bullshitting me like this.” He jabbed an accusing finger at D’s ‘grandfather’. “This guy doesn’t look a day over thirty. Don’t you find that a bit odd? Because I sure the hell do. There is no way you could be his biological adult son let alone his fully grown grandchild!”
“Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth, Detective,” D’s own voice was on the rise and if things continued they would end up screaming at each other at the top of their lungs. God knows it wouldn’t be the first time.
Leon turned to face the other man, unable to wrap his mind around what he was hearing. It was impossible… wasn’t it? “But if that were really the case, then that would mean that you and your so-called grandson…” he paused, horrified, “aren’t human.”
Angry again, feeling somehow betrayed and unable to properly explain why, he whirled on his heels and stalked over to D; he stomped right up close to him so that they were toe to toe, so close that the other man had to tilt his head back in order to meet his blazing eyes.
“You’re not human,” he repeated vehemently stressing each word as his hands curled into fists at his sides. His flesh showed white half moons at the knuckles. “You’re just another kind of monster, aren’t you? You’re just another kind of fucking monster!”
D sipped in a breath of air and his widening eyes caught and reflected Leon’s rage. But for one moment he thought he saw something else, for one fleeting moment he thought he had seen hurt in D’s eyes, but then it was gone and he was left wondering if he had actually caught that brief glimpse of pain or if he had just imagined it.
“We are not monsters, Detective Orcot,” Tsu Fu D’s voice was cold as he approached Leon, and his eyes slivers of ice. “One thousand years ago, our ancestors lived in a remote area of China known now as the Kunlun Mountains, which is one of the longest mountain chains in all of Asia. We were friends to the animals and the sacred beasts.”
He now stood beside the other D and it was like staring at a reflection in a mirror, they were that much alike. The only differences he could see were in their attire, and the way in which they held their bodies. Tsu Fu D held himself with a pride that bordered on arrogance, while D stood there, hands clasped in front of him, looking oddly docile.
Leon had never seen his D adapt such a posture before but it seemed to be second nature to him in the presence of his grandfather, the outwardly appearance of a loyal and obedient grandson. He wondered if D even realized he was doing it or if this meek display had been slowly instilled by his grandfather over who knows how many years.
God, it sounds funny to call him that! Tsu Fu doesn’t even look old enough to have raised one child, let alone two! Leon’s mind still whirled from all he had been told but he couldn’t dispute what he was seeing, two D’s each one exactly the same as the other. It was impossible, fucking impossible.
No, he mentally corrected himself, shaking his head as if to clear it. They aren’t exactly the same, there were differences, damn it. He peered at them closely, watching them, getting a sense of them as individuals and not carbon copies of each other. Then he realized, now that he was actually looking and thinking, that they were different, not only in the way they dressed and held themselves, but in their personalities as well. They were subtle, these differences, but they were there. It was as if a lifetime’s worth of different experiences, in completely different eras, had left invisible yet discernable marks on them in ways that could only be sensed, not seen.
“Men came to us,” Tsu Fu D continued, easily picking up the thread of his story, “They sought out our knowledge, our expertise, even our very presence. They came in droves, drawn to our kind like flies to honey, a deadly attraction. They made offerings to us in return for what we would have freely shared with them, had they but asked – the prophecies of the sacred beasts, the knowledge of the ages.”
Tsu Fu D hovered very close to Count D and yet he did not touch his grandchild, not even to place a reassuring hand on his shoulder. And D really did look as if he needed some sort of reassurance or comfort from the other man because his eyes kept darting between his grandfather and Leon only to be drawn again to the old man. They held something very close to beseechment and an open, honest confusion.
You think they’d have embraced or something after not having seen each other in so many years, Leon thought.
D had often spoken of his grandfather to him during his long absence, and Leon had no reason to doubt that D had been telling the truth about his grandfather’s globe trotting adventures in search of rare and mystical creatures. He had even sent back the occasional gift, like the kimono he had sent back to D after visiting Japan. That gesture alone showed that there must be some sort of attachment between the two, a bond, if you will. You would think that they would show each other some sort of affection, and yet now, standing side by side, they seemed almost as distant as strangers.
No wonder D’s such a cold bastard, Leon thought spitefully and was immediately sorry.
D couldn’t help how he was raised, and any child growing up in such an unloving environment would be emotionally challenged, either cold and distant or clingy and needy. The only time D shows emotion is when he was angry at me, he realized, then stopped. That wasn’t entirely true, damn it. He had been pleasant, even warm to his younger brother Chris on the few occasions they had met. And the other day when he was at the pet shop and D touched his hand…
Leon pushed that thought away because he remembered all too clearly how he had reacted to that touch. It was fucking embarrassing. And it hadn’t been the first time he had felt that way in D’s presence. Something about that man compelled him, called out to his baser needs and desires, a siren song of lust. He had always brushed it off with the excuse that he hadn’t gotten any in, well, damned near forever and he was getting desperate. But at night, when he pleasured himself while looking at the many gorgeous, voluptuous poster girls he had scattered at strategic locations throughout his small apartment, it was D’s face he thought of. D’s slender, pale body he fantasized about…
Breaking off from those thoughts, he discreetly searched the room looking for what may be the only other ‘real’ human in the suite, Li Hua. He found the other man in the fully stocked kitchen, pouring a deep garnet colored wine into several ornate crystal goblets. As he watched, the other man set the wine bottle down, corked it, and set it aside. He then withdrew a small bottle from the inner pocket of his suit jacket and added a several drops of clear liquid to two of the drinks.
“As time passed the humans learned to love us.” Tsu Fu D intoned solemnly. “But hate walks hand in hand with love as my people soon learned, and mankind’s gratitude turned to envy… and fear. And, as you already know, Detective Orcot, it has long been human nature to destroy what they did not understand.”
Leon, distracted from the suspicious actions of the other man, found himself nodding in agreement to D’s grandfather’s statement even as he recognized the insult Tsu Fu had no doubt intended. He couldn’t deny the truth in his words and that made him feel both sad and angry at the same time.
“Our people were slaughtered… by the humans. Only one man, our distant ancestor, survived the massacre.”
Tsu Fu turned his head toward D, his voice held the faintest note of accusation, “Have you forgotten, I wonder?”
“Hmm?” Surprised, D met his grandfather’s penetrating gaze. “I remember,” He assured the other man, “You’ve told it to me many times, Grandfather.”
Tsu Fu fell silent for a moment and it seemed that he had been saddened by his grandson’s answer. Leon could kind of understand, sort of, because even he knew that remembering the recitation of an event didn’t mean you necessarily remembered the event itself. And as far as he could tell, Tsu Fu had been asking if Count D actually remembered events that happened many, many years before he had been born, and, quite frankly, that was impossible.
Wasn’t it?
“Look, this is fascinating, really,” Leon interrupted impatiently, “but what in hell does all this have to do with me?”
“Agitated again, I see,” Tsu Fu murmured with a shake of his head. “Such a temper you have, young man. It may one day be your undoing.”
“Whatever,” Leon retorted, “and wouldn’t you like to be around if it did.”
“No, I would not wish to see such a fate befall you, Detective.” Tsu Fu murmured. “It would be most…” he paused as if searching for the correct word. “Inconvenient, shall we say?”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
Instead of explaining, Tsu Fu switched the topic so quickly it almost made Leon’s head swim. “Tell me, Detective Orcot, how well do you remember the events after your attack, I wonder?”
“And what the fuck does that have to do with the price of rice in China?” He snapped, confused.
“Just answer the question, please.”
“Hell, I don’t know, I was just a kid! I don’t really remember much.” And he didn’t. But more importantly, he didn’t want to.
Angry at the sudden change to a very personal topic, Leon absently accepted the wine goblet Li Hua silently handed him from a tray he held balanced on his hand like a waiter as he materialized almost like magic beside him.
“You look like you could use this,” he smiled solicitously The aged lawyer handed a goblet to first Tsu Fu D and then Count D before taking one himself and setting the tray down on a nearby table.
Mumbling a quick thank you, Leon threw his head back and took several large gulps of wine. The almost overpoweringly sweet tastes of plum, blackberry fruit and dried herbs assaulted his taste buds along with the unmistakable flavor of rich, dark chocolate.
“Holy shit, D,” he exclaimed in disgust, “Even the wine you drink could send a person into a diabetic coma. Christ! What the hell is this shit?” He set the goblet down on the tray to the raised brow astonishment of both Mr. Hua and Tsu Fu D.
“It’s Les Clos de Paulilles Banyuls, Detective Orcot,” Mr. Hua replied slowly. “It is not to your tastes, I presume?”
“You presume right, good buddy. You wouldn’t happen to have any Scotch on hand, would you?”
The lawyer sent a questioning glance toward D’s grandfather, who merely nodded and sipped at his own wine, obviously savoring the overly sweet taste. “Yes, of course, sir, one Scotch coming right up.”
“And why don’t you make it a double on the rocks while you’re at it?” Leon called after him as Li Hua made his way back toward the kitchen. Then he added, almost under his breath, “I think I’m going to need it.”
One look at Count D confirmed what Leon already suspected, the man had been, as always, appalled by his uncouth behavior. He opened his mouth, no doubt to deliver one of his scathing tongue lashings on manners and proper decorum, but one glance from his grandfather silenced him before a single word of a no doubt memorable tirade could escape. Turning his face from his grandfather, he took several large sips of wine and looked unhappier than Leon had ever seen him.
With a drink, a real drink, not that fruity, so-called wine, in his hand, Leon continued his line of thought. “Like I said, Gramps, I don’t really remember a lot that happed after the… uh, attack.”
Leon cleared his throat and took a swallow of Scotch to hide his discomfort. It burned down his throat and pooled like heavy heat in his stomach. It wasn’t a lie, exactly. He remembered pain and fear and a confusing jumble of claws and teeth. And afterwards, when he was in the hospital, it was worse, somehow. Moments of lucidity were lost between confusion and panic and there were times where he literally felt as if his body was trying to tear itself to pieces.
One of his clearest memories was of his mother, crying as she held his hand. He couldn’t remember what she had been saying only that it must have been very important, whatever it was. She removed a safety pin from her pocket, unfastened it, and used the sharp end to prick the tip of his finger. A bead of blood welled, so red against the paleness of his skin. It had hurt, yes, but it was really a tiny hurt in a whole sea of pain.
Still talking, slow and calm, she took his hand into hers and pressed the tip of his finger against a stiff piece of paper. It left a small comma of blood next to a straight line near the bottom which bore her signature. When it had dried, she slid the paper back into a manila folder and tucked it away into the leather confines of her travel bag.
Sniffling back her tears, she had removed a large vial with a cork stopper from the depths of her jacket pocket. The contents had been liquid and a hideously ugly green. Somehow he knew she was going to ask him to drink it just as he knew it would taste horrible, because it must be medicine and all medicine tasted like crap. He had been old enough to know that much at least. She held it to his mouth and the first taste had indeed been horrible, bitter and almost chalky. Making a soft whimpering sound, he had turned his head away from the vial and this caused her to cry all over again. Cry and beg him to drink it all, every last drop.
In the end, his mother had to add over ten sugar packets to the vile mixture to get him to drink it. But drink it he did, every single last drop, just as she wanted him to. He remembered that it had burned going down, and he had wanted to cry out against the pain as it erupted in his stomach and spread feverous tentacles throughout his body. But in the end he simply caught his tongue between his teeth and bit down to keep himself from giving in and crying like a little baby. And after that he slept for what seemed like a very, very long time.
Tsu Fu smiled in an indulgent manner, as if he knew that Leon remembered more than he was letting on, but that he was willing to overlook the matter… at least for now.
“Well, as it so happens, I do remember certain events. You’re mother’s visit to my pet shop in the middle of the night for instance.”
Choking on his Scotch, Leon glared at the other man and felt his stomach churn uneasily. His mother had gone to Count D’s shop? And had signed one of his goddamned contracts? Jesus Christ! Hadn’t anyone tried to warn her that she would be playing with fire? Obviously no one had, otherwise he wouldn’t be standing here in this room right now listening to this bullshit.
Images from the various cases he had worked over the years – cases where the victims had somehow broken the terms of their contract with Count D and had ended up dead– flashed through Leon’s mind one after the other. He shuddered to think that he might somehow be joining their unfortunate ranks. The man-eating rabbits, the mermaid, and more, so many more, a veritable nightmare and it had all pointed back to Count D and his goddamned animals. He had never been able to pin anything to the tricky bastard, but in his heart he knew he was on the right track. If only he could prove it…
“She was horribly distraught,” Tsu Fu murmured, and his lips tilted in an infuriating smile, the exact same one he had seen D wearing on so many occasions. The one he wore when he was up to no good. “She came to me, in the middle of the night, desperate to save the life of her only child. You see, the doctors had all but given up hope on your ever recovering. But your mother would not give up. Single-minded determination is one of the traits I admire about your people, you know.”
He paused and sipped his wine, draining the goblet, closing his eyes and reveling in the taste of it. When he opened them again, Li Hua was at his side with another glass. “More wine, sir?” he asked, accepting the empty goblet that Tsu Fu D handed him.
“Yes, thank you, Li. It is rather fine, isn’t it?”
Li Hua handed him a fresh goblet and Tsu Fu smiled at the other man, much in the same manner an owner would smile at his faithful dog. It sickened Leon to see such a smile directed at another human being. No, it infuriated him. His fingers tightened around his glass, but he sensed that now was not the time to shoot his mouth off on the matter.
“Indeed it is, sir,” Li Hua replied graciously, even though Leon noticed that he had barely touched his own glass.
“What were the terms of the contract?” Leon asked hollowly. There really was no point in beating around the bush with this. “And what’s in it for you?”
“Why the survival of my people, of course,” Tsu Fu replied simply.
Leon’s brow knitted in angry confusion. “Talk English, man, you’re not making any sense.”
Tsu Fu sighed and shook his head. He then began speaking slowly and carefully as if he were speaking to a particularly dense child. “In exchange for the serum that guaranteed your survival, your mother agreed to allow you to become my grandchild’s mate.”
“Grandfather, no!” D whispered. His face, already pale, was now paler still. “You don’t mean to tell me that you intend to give me,” he pointed toward Leon with a look of disgust, “to that man, do you?”
Tsu Fu turned on his son and for the first time his voice betrayed anger. “And what would you have me do, child? We simply cannot continue on as we have been doing for these past centuries. The risks are simply too great.” His voice softened, but his eyes remained sharp. He reached out and stroked his fingers along the outline of D’s face.
“You are our last hope. This must be done, child, a sacrifice for the greater good.”
D bowed his head, chastised. “Yes, Grandfather, I understand. Please forgive my impertinence.”
Almost as if on cue, Li Hua was at his side, offering a fresh goblet, which D numbly accepted.
“Whoa,” Leon snapped, snapping out of his own shock. “Don’t I have any choice in the matter? I mean, come on! I can’t marry Count D. He’s a man for Christ’s sake.”
Tsu Fu turned to him and his face betrayed his annoyance. “I am not asking that you marry my grandson, Detective Orcot-“
“Well, good, because it isn’t happening, you hear me?”
‘-I am merely asking that you have sexual congress with him in order to produce an heir.”
“What the fuck?” Leon reeled back. “You are a sick, twisted bastard. Your grandson is a dude! And that means that He. Can’t. Have. Children.”
“That isn’t exactly true, Detective,” D broke in quietly.
“What?” Leon leaned over and slammed his scotch glass onto the tray then straightened up and glared at D, “the fact that you’re a guy or the fact that your gramps here is a sick, twisted fuck?”
“Detective, please!” D set his own empty glass on the tray, it was getting quite crowded, that tray what with all the various glass and stem ware, a regular party. “This is no laughing matter. The future of my people is at stake. Please do not treat this as one of your crass jokes, because, I assure you, it is no laughing matter.”
Leon held his hands up in a defensive position, “Hey, whoa, calm down there, D. I’m just trying to deal with this situation, you know? It’s… it’s a bit strange.” He finished lamely.
“If you would have a seat, Detective Orcot,” Tzu Fu gestured toward the sofa and chairs arranged around a square, black lacquered table. “I’m sure everything can be explained to your satisfaction.”
“Sure, yeah,” Leon mumbled and sat down in an overstuffed cream and gold armchair while the Ds took the matching couch.
Li Hua took the tray and its burden of goblets back to the kitchen then returned and took one of the black and gold patterned chairs that were located to the right of the sofa. Again, although the Ds were sitting side by side, they seemed to make a point of not coming into contact with each other. But this time he thought it had more to do with the fact that D was obviously upset about the news his grandfather had dumped on him.
He remembered that D had mentioned earlier in the day that he had an important meeting with his grandfather to ‘discuss his future’. Did he know about the whole arranged marriage/sex thing or was it as much a shock to D as it was to him? Or was he just upset about finding out who his grandfather had chosen to be his future ‘mate’?
“Only a single man, our distant ancestor, survived the genocide,” Tsu Fu began. “This understandably made fining an acceptable mate extremely difficult.”
“Yeah, I’d say,” Leon agreed, “It would be hard to make babies when the last surviving member of your species… er, race, was male.”
“Indeed, our race would have died out long ago if our ancestor had not also been a hermaphrodite.”
“Really?”
Leon wasn’t able to keep the astonishment from his voice and facial features any more than he was able to keep himself from glancing over at D and wondering if everything his grandfather was telling him was the truth. A hermaphrodite D? The very idea blew his fucking mind. D caught his glance and turned his face away but not before Leon caught the color splashed across his cheeks. It occurred to him that D must have known, or at least guessed what his thoughts had been.
Slightly embarrassed, but still enormously curious, Leon cleared his throat and returned his attention back to Tsu Fu. “But it is extremely rare for hermaphrodite species to self-fertilize, isn’t it?
“Yes, it is. But it didn’t pose an insurmountable problem because we can also reproduce via parthenogenesis.”
“You mean like lizards?” Leon leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, fascinated despite himself. He had studied biology in high school and had even taken a few courses in college so he wasn’t a complete newbie on the subject. Coming face to face with a humanoid-like species that could reproduce through parthenogenesis was something he would never have dreamed possible outside of the science fiction and fantasy section of the book or video stores.
Tsu Fu frowned. “I suppose that you could say the concept is similar, yes. Facing a lack of acceptable female mates, our ancestor was able to reproduce asexually, which produced an offspring that was identical in all inherited respects to him.”
Tsu Fu laid one long fingered hand lightly on D’s thigh. D didn’t look too happy with the contact but Leon couldn’t blame him there. He wouldn’t like it if his old man was touching his thigh in such a casual manner either.
“We are all duplicates, Detective Orcot, quite similar to clones. Our blood, or more precisely, our genes are passed directly from father to child, and do not mix with the genes of any other.”
Leon nodded his head. “That makes sense, I guess. It would have been necessary to take such a drastic measure, but wouldn't mating with a partner still be the preferable means since the genetic material of the offspring would be varied? I understand that not having a truly compatible mate could lead to self-fertilization... but wouldn't that pose problems in the long run?”
The other man removed his hand from D’s thigh, much to D’s obvious relief, and smiled at him like he were his prized pupil. “Yes, there have been problems and that is exactly why we need you, Detective.”
“You need me to breed with your grandson in order to strengthen your race genetically?”
“That is it, exactly, Detective.”
Again, he glanced toward D and was able to catch his eye for a moment, and the look in his eyes was not an entirely friendly one.
“You know,” Leon said, “it’s pretty obvious that your grandson isn’t really into the whole idea of having his mate chosen for him. Couldn’t you just go out and find your own boy toy to play house with?”
Tsu Fu smiled but Leon wasn’t able to read the emotion behind it. It was always so hard to tell with D and it was even worse with his grandfather, the original master of the unreadable expression. “I have already chosen my ‘boy toy’ as you so delicately put it.”
He reached out and touched Li Hua’s knee with something very much like affection, then removed it again just as quickly as if public displays of affection were off limits. But then again, he was old and had been raised in a distant generation where it had been considered inappropriate to show affection in public.
Leon couldn’t believe that Tsu Fu and Li Hua were an actual couple, but apparently it was true. He wanted to ask how long they had been together, but quickly decided that he really didn’t want to know.
“Unfortunately, neither my son nor I can carry our family line any further than we already have.”
“And why’s that? You would think that that the three of you having your own mates would be the best possible solution.”
“It would have been but for one simple fact that while our race may have a long lifespan when compared to the life span of you humans, we only go into estrus - or heat as you humans so delicately put it- once in our lifetimes. Once our cycle has passed us by, we become incapable of impregnation via sexual intercourse and are left with no means to reproduce other than parthenogenesis.”
Tsu Fu stroked his hand along the length of D’s hair. “My cycle came and went many, many years ago, as has my son’s. My grandson, however, has just started going into his cycle. I cannot accurately tell you how long it might last, it could be days or weeks or even months, but once it has passed, it will never come again.”
Leon didn’t know if what he said next was due in part to the alcohol he had consumed, the fact that he was secretly sexually attracted to D, or because he rather liked the idea of Count D and his grandfather, or anyone else for that matter, actually needing him. In a way, he would be a hero for helping to save a dying race. He’d be an unsung hero, sure, but a hero all the same. And what warm blooded American male never dreamed about being a real-life hero at least once in his lifetime?
“Sure, I’ll do it,” he heard himself saying, as he stood up and stuck out his hand as if to shake and seal the deal, “I’m your man for the job.”
TO BE CONTINUED…
CHAPTER 07
Pairing: Leon x D
Category: Supernatural/Alternate Universe
Rating: R
Warning: Violence, Language, Sexual situations, Hermaphrodite!D
Title: The Hunted
Author: yellowhorde
Notes: This was written for NaNoWriMo 2007
Leon walked into the lobby of the Four Seasons Hotel and immediately felt out of his element. It was like stepping into an entirely different world.
Chandeliers graced the ceiling, giving the entire room a warm, inviting glow. The marble floor was polished to a high reflective gloss that almost made the floor look like it was wet, even though Leon knew it was not. Alcoves spaced at regular intervals featured dark wood end tables and richly framed works of art and small, comfortable sofas with a European flare flanked by end tables with matching lamps lined the walls and offered sitting room without adding a sense of clutter.
Giving a low whistle, he made his way across the vast lobby to the front desk. He tugged at the collar of his only dress shirt and adjusted his tie nervously wishing he had worn a sports jacket, or even owned one for that matter. He couldn’t help but feel that any minute one of the employees would approach him and demand to know why a nobody like him was doing fouling the interior of their hotel. Of course, nothing like that was going to happen – he hoped – because this place was pure class and they wouldn’t give the bum’s rush to a potential patron, even if he looked a little scruffy around the ears.
The luxury hotel was located in a quiet palm-lined residential neighborhood less than a mile from the world-renowned Rodeo Drive and Robertson Boulevard. Towering palm trees and other tropical plants dotted the expertly maintained landscaping. He didn’t know how those landscape guys managed to keep so many plants not only alive, but thriving. He couldn’t keep a simple houseplant alive, not even that weird plant D had given him last year.
The front desk clerk smiled brightly when she saw him approach the front desk. Her skin was softly tanned and her wavy brown hair was pulled back from her face with a series of golden combs. A few tendrils had fallen loose around her ears and the effect was very casual sexy without going over the top. Her smile seemed genuine enough and didn’t pick up any negative, insincere vibes from her as she greeted him. Maybe she was genuinely pleased to see him. It would be a nice change of pace. In Los Angeles, no one was ever happy to see a police detective, not even an off-duty one.
No, that can’t be, he thought with a touch of resentment, she’s just doing her job.
“Welcome to Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills,” she practically trilled. “My name is Trisha. How my I help you?”
“Yeah, Trisha, my name is Leon Orcot and I have an appointment at seven with a Mr. Li Hua.”
The front desk clerks smile had been sunny before, but now she practically beamed. “Certainly sir, I’ll call his room to announce you’re arrival.” She picked up a cream colored phone, punched some numbers on the number pad, held the phone to her ear and waited. Almost instantly the line was picked up.
“Mr. Hua?” She asked, speaking in a friendly but respectful manner, “Mr. Orcot has arrived. Should I send him up right away?”
“Yes, sir, right away.” Trisha glanced over at Leon and smiled reassuringly, almost as if she sensed how out of place he was feeling as he gazed at the display of opulence all around him. “Thank you, sir. And have a wonderful evening.”
She hung up the phone and turned the full force of her smile to Leon again. Her smile was so bright he kind of wished he had brought shades. There was simply no way teeth could be that white. Either it was a professional whitening job, or those weren’t her real teeth. He was leaning toward the former because, given her youthful appearance, the latter was highly unlikely.
“Mr. Hua and his guests are ready for you now, Mr. Orcot.”
Guests? As in more than one? Leon found that he was mildly alarmed at the idea, what guests? I didn’t read anything about there being any guests. He could actually feel his stomach clenching up. Ah, shit, I’ve got a bad feeling about this.
“The room is on the sixteenth floor, the presidential suite.”
She gave him the directions to the elevator then instructed him on how to get the suite before sending him on his way. She had assured him that he couldn’t miss it. How in hell could he miss it? It was the fucking Presidential Suite for Christ’s sake! And there were only four other suites located on that floor, so it seemed highly unlikely that he would get lost. And if he couldn’t find his way, not that it would happen, but if it did, he’d just ‘eennie meenie minie moe’ it and go through a very short process of elimination.
Leon was the only person to get on the elevator and it didn’t stop once on the way up to the sixteenth floor. So he had plenty of time to examine the little butterfly-like feeling in the pit of his stomach. He wasn’t very good at dealing with people in a polite, social environment, but he wasn’t some shrinking violet, either. So why was he suddenly feeling so uncertain?
The answer, of course, was obvious: This meeting was well and truly beyond his comfort zone. If this Li Hua had offered to meet with him either at the police station or at his office it wouldn’t have bothered him in the least because that was the familiar thing to do, the every day, normal thing and well within the bounds of his experience. A lawyer asking to meet him at a luxury hotel suite, or any other non-work related environment was well and truly in the realms of the unbelievably insane.
“What if he wants to make a pass at me?” Leon wondered aloud. The idea was so ridiculous he couldn’t help but snort laughter. “Yeah, right, like that would ever happen.” Ridiculous or not, his laughter helped calm him down a little and therefore served its purpose.
When the elevator doors slid open, he made his way along the hotel corridor. He needn’t have worried about getting lost for there were helpful yet discreet signs on the walls to guide him to his destination. When he reached the door to the Presidential Suite, he put an ear up against the door. Very faintly, he could hear the sound of voices in conversation, he couldn’t make out any words just the rise and fall of voices engaged in civil conversation just on the other side of the door.
Stepping back and taking a deep breath, he rapped his knuckles smartly against the solid wood door three times. The conversation stopped and there was the sound of a deadbolt being released and then a thumb latch.
A rather thin, white haired Oriental stood before him wearing an expensive, well made three-piece suit in charcoal gray. Standing in front of him, Leon felt like a ragamuffin in comparison with his polished but still obviously scuffed black leather shoes, dark denim jeans, and white dress shirt and tie.
The man’s eyes traveled down the length of his body, taking in every detail but not in a sexual manner. And he smiled, full and honest. Though Leon was obviously not in the same league, his smile, like the front desk clerks, showed no sign of insincerity or judgment as far as his clothes and personal appearance went. He was willing to bet they would both make fantastic poker players.
“Mr. Leon Orcot, I presume?” The man bowed slightly and Leon wasn’t sure if he should bow or shake his hand. He’d been in Los Angeles for twelve years, had been dealing with the inhabitants of Chinatown for going on four years and still he never knew whether it would be more appropriate to shake hands or bow. In this case, he decided to just keep his hands down by his side.
“Yeah, that’s right. And you’re Mr. Li Hua?”
“Indeed, indeed.” Mr. Hua made a sweeping gesture toward the interior of the suite, indicating that Leon should come inside. “Please, won’t you come in? We’ve been waiting for you.”
Mr. Hua stepped back and opened the door a bit wider to allow room for Leon to pass. As he stepped over the threshold he found himself in a black marble foyer that opened up to a rather spacious living room, which featured rich neutral shades with strong accents of black and gold. The furniture had a Euro-Asian feel to it and looked like museum pieces he had seen in books back when he had been a child. There was also a dining area that featured a baby grand piano, black, of course, and a decorative fireplace. The far wall was graced with a floor to ceiling black lacquer Oriental panels depicting tranquil scenes from inlaid mother of pearl.
“Wow, this is some set up, isn’t it?” Leon exclaimed, his eyes trying to take in every detail. Hell, he could fit his entire apartment in the living and dining room area.
“Do you find it acceptable?”
“Huh? Acceptable? This place is fu-” He just managed to cut himself off just in time and managed to make the necessary transition relatively smoothly so he didn’t come off sounding like a clodhopping pheasant, “fabulous!”
He turned to the smaller man, his face a mask of confusion. “But I don’t understand why you’ve invited me here.”
Mr. Hua’s smile faded, but he resurrected it with only a slight hesitation. “Your mother did not tell you…” He trailed off, perplexed.
“My mother,” Leon said in a tight voice, “has been dead for the last seven years. What exactly are you saying that she was supposed to tell me?”
A familiar voice from behind him said, “Why, about our contract, of course.”
Leon whirled at the sound of that voice, “What the hell are you doing…” but stopped when he saw that he was not addressing who he thought he was and that fact alone blew his mind temporarily out of the water.
The man who stood before him wore a black cape and cowl that covered all but the bottom section of his face, but the nose and lips were the same. The ‘I’m so superior’ smile was the same. He stepped forward until he was close enough to stare into the depths of the shadows that the cowl cast over the other man’s face. His eye widened and he sipped in a gasping breath for the face was the same, exactly the same. Only the eyes were not D’s eyes…
Leon had always assumed that D’s strange eyes, one purple, one golden, were the results of color tinted contacts or perhaps some extreme form of heterochromia, which was often a sign of some sort of mutation or genetic weakness. Now that he thought about it, the possibility that D might have a genetic weakness would go a long way to explaining the strange sickness D had suffered from on that first Christmas, when they had helped ‘give birth’ to that three headed dragon’s egg. It was a debilitating sickness that had manifested itself on a few other occasions, though he had never offered a word in explanation.
The man who stood before him now had eyes that were actually, honest-to-God purple. Given the fact that their faces were identical, he could only assume that they were closely related to each other. It was the only way he could rationalize away the uncanny similarities.
How can that be, Leon’s mind raved, what… are they twins?
“Who the hell are you?” he demanded, rallying his senses quickly. “And what are you doing here?”
That smug, superior smile widened a touch as if its owner were amused and trying to hide it. “I am,” he replied haughtily, “Count D, and none other.”
“Count D?” Leon echoed faintly. Then realization hit him square in the face and he almost literally reeled back in shock. “You mean, you’re Count D – MY Count D’s grandfather?”
“That is correct, Mr. Detective,” A soft voice spoke to his left and when he turned toward direction of that voice, and found yet another familiar face, he froze.
Count D, his Count D, stood demurely by one of the doors that opened onto the living room. Leon’s best guess was that he had either emerged from one of the two bedrooms or the powder room. It didn’t make any difference which room he had come from, the idea of him being in any of them did next to nothing in as far as easing his mind.
“W-what are you doing here, D?” He demanded heatedly, and this time firm in the knowledge that he was addressing the correct D, or at least the familiar one. His D - and it certainly sounded rather strange to be using a possessive in front of the other man’s name – was still wearing the elaborate red gown he had been wearing earlier that day when he and Jill had visited him at his shop. His posture was rigid, head bowed, and his small hands clasped in front of him like a small child being taken to task in front of his classmates.
“And what do you mean when you said that this guy,” he jerked his thumb toward the other D, “is your grandfather?”
“It is true, Mr. Detective,” D murmured, raising his eyes to meet Leon’s squarely and with the barest hint of defiance. He glanced toward the other D and inclined his head slightly, a show of respect. “The man that stands before you is my tsu fu, my grandfather.”
“Don’t you bullshit me, D!” Leon yelled, now red faced and furious. “Don’t you dare fucking start bullshitting me like this.” He jabbed an accusing finger at D’s ‘grandfather’. “This guy doesn’t look a day over thirty. Don’t you find that a bit odd? Because I sure the hell do. There is no way you could be his biological adult son let alone his fully grown grandchild!”
“Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth, Detective,” D’s own voice was on the rise and if things continued they would end up screaming at each other at the top of their lungs. God knows it wouldn’t be the first time.
Leon turned to face the other man, unable to wrap his mind around what he was hearing. It was impossible… wasn’t it? “But if that were really the case, then that would mean that you and your so-called grandson…” he paused, horrified, “aren’t human.”
Angry again, feeling somehow betrayed and unable to properly explain why, he whirled on his heels and stalked over to D; he stomped right up close to him so that they were toe to toe, so close that the other man had to tilt his head back in order to meet his blazing eyes.
“You’re not human,” he repeated vehemently stressing each word as his hands curled into fists at his sides. His flesh showed white half moons at the knuckles. “You’re just another kind of monster, aren’t you? You’re just another kind of fucking monster!”
D sipped in a breath of air and his widening eyes caught and reflected Leon’s rage. But for one moment he thought he saw something else, for one fleeting moment he thought he had seen hurt in D’s eyes, but then it was gone and he was left wondering if he had actually caught that brief glimpse of pain or if he had just imagined it.
“We are not monsters, Detective Orcot,” Tsu Fu D’s voice was cold as he approached Leon, and his eyes slivers of ice. “One thousand years ago, our ancestors lived in a remote area of China known now as the Kunlun Mountains, which is one of the longest mountain chains in all of Asia. We were friends to the animals and the sacred beasts.”
He now stood beside the other D and it was like staring at a reflection in a mirror, they were that much alike. The only differences he could see were in their attire, and the way in which they held their bodies. Tsu Fu D held himself with a pride that bordered on arrogance, while D stood there, hands clasped in front of him, looking oddly docile.
Leon had never seen his D adapt such a posture before but it seemed to be second nature to him in the presence of his grandfather, the outwardly appearance of a loyal and obedient grandson. He wondered if D even realized he was doing it or if this meek display had been slowly instilled by his grandfather over who knows how many years.
God, it sounds funny to call him that! Tsu Fu doesn’t even look old enough to have raised one child, let alone two! Leon’s mind still whirled from all he had been told but he couldn’t dispute what he was seeing, two D’s each one exactly the same as the other. It was impossible, fucking impossible.
No, he mentally corrected himself, shaking his head as if to clear it. They aren’t exactly the same, there were differences, damn it. He peered at them closely, watching them, getting a sense of them as individuals and not carbon copies of each other. Then he realized, now that he was actually looking and thinking, that they were different, not only in the way they dressed and held themselves, but in their personalities as well. They were subtle, these differences, but they were there. It was as if a lifetime’s worth of different experiences, in completely different eras, had left invisible yet discernable marks on them in ways that could only be sensed, not seen.
“Men came to us,” Tsu Fu D continued, easily picking up the thread of his story, “They sought out our knowledge, our expertise, even our very presence. They came in droves, drawn to our kind like flies to honey, a deadly attraction. They made offerings to us in return for what we would have freely shared with them, had they but asked – the prophecies of the sacred beasts, the knowledge of the ages.”
Tsu Fu D hovered very close to Count D and yet he did not touch his grandchild, not even to place a reassuring hand on his shoulder. And D really did look as if he needed some sort of reassurance or comfort from the other man because his eyes kept darting between his grandfather and Leon only to be drawn again to the old man. They held something very close to beseechment and an open, honest confusion.
You think they’d have embraced or something after not having seen each other in so many years, Leon thought.
D had often spoken of his grandfather to him during his long absence, and Leon had no reason to doubt that D had been telling the truth about his grandfather’s globe trotting adventures in search of rare and mystical creatures. He had even sent back the occasional gift, like the kimono he had sent back to D after visiting Japan. That gesture alone showed that there must be some sort of attachment between the two, a bond, if you will. You would think that they would show each other some sort of affection, and yet now, standing side by side, they seemed almost as distant as strangers.
No wonder D’s such a cold bastard, Leon thought spitefully and was immediately sorry.
D couldn’t help how he was raised, and any child growing up in such an unloving environment would be emotionally challenged, either cold and distant or clingy and needy. The only time D shows emotion is when he was angry at me, he realized, then stopped. That wasn’t entirely true, damn it. He had been pleasant, even warm to his younger brother Chris on the few occasions they had met. And the other day when he was at the pet shop and D touched his hand…
Leon pushed that thought away because he remembered all too clearly how he had reacted to that touch. It was fucking embarrassing. And it hadn’t been the first time he had felt that way in D’s presence. Something about that man compelled him, called out to his baser needs and desires, a siren song of lust. He had always brushed it off with the excuse that he hadn’t gotten any in, well, damned near forever and he was getting desperate. But at night, when he pleasured himself while looking at the many gorgeous, voluptuous poster girls he had scattered at strategic locations throughout his small apartment, it was D’s face he thought of. D’s slender, pale body he fantasized about…
Breaking off from those thoughts, he discreetly searched the room looking for what may be the only other ‘real’ human in the suite, Li Hua. He found the other man in the fully stocked kitchen, pouring a deep garnet colored wine into several ornate crystal goblets. As he watched, the other man set the wine bottle down, corked it, and set it aside. He then withdrew a small bottle from the inner pocket of his suit jacket and added a several drops of clear liquid to two of the drinks.
“As time passed the humans learned to love us.” Tsu Fu D intoned solemnly. “But hate walks hand in hand with love as my people soon learned, and mankind’s gratitude turned to envy… and fear. And, as you already know, Detective Orcot, it has long been human nature to destroy what they did not understand.”
Leon, distracted from the suspicious actions of the other man, found himself nodding in agreement to D’s grandfather’s statement even as he recognized the insult Tsu Fu had no doubt intended. He couldn’t deny the truth in his words and that made him feel both sad and angry at the same time.
“Our people were slaughtered… by the humans. Only one man, our distant ancestor, survived the massacre.”
Tsu Fu turned his head toward D, his voice held the faintest note of accusation, “Have you forgotten, I wonder?”
“Hmm?” Surprised, D met his grandfather’s penetrating gaze. “I remember,” He assured the other man, “You’ve told it to me many times, Grandfather.”
Tsu Fu fell silent for a moment and it seemed that he had been saddened by his grandson’s answer. Leon could kind of understand, sort of, because even he knew that remembering the recitation of an event didn’t mean you necessarily remembered the event itself. And as far as he could tell, Tsu Fu had been asking if Count D actually remembered events that happened many, many years before he had been born, and, quite frankly, that was impossible.
Wasn’t it?
“Look, this is fascinating, really,” Leon interrupted impatiently, “but what in hell does all this have to do with me?”
“Agitated again, I see,” Tsu Fu murmured with a shake of his head. “Such a temper you have, young man. It may one day be your undoing.”
“Whatever,” Leon retorted, “and wouldn’t you like to be around if it did.”
“No, I would not wish to see such a fate befall you, Detective.” Tsu Fu murmured. “It would be most…” he paused as if searching for the correct word. “Inconvenient, shall we say?”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
Instead of explaining, Tsu Fu switched the topic so quickly it almost made Leon’s head swim. “Tell me, Detective Orcot, how well do you remember the events after your attack, I wonder?”
“And what the fuck does that have to do with the price of rice in China?” He snapped, confused.
“Just answer the question, please.”
“Hell, I don’t know, I was just a kid! I don’t really remember much.” And he didn’t. But more importantly, he didn’t want to.
Angry at the sudden change to a very personal topic, Leon absently accepted the wine goblet Li Hua silently handed him from a tray he held balanced on his hand like a waiter as he materialized almost like magic beside him.
“You look like you could use this,” he smiled solicitously The aged lawyer handed a goblet to first Tsu Fu D and then Count D before taking one himself and setting the tray down on a nearby table.
Mumbling a quick thank you, Leon threw his head back and took several large gulps of wine. The almost overpoweringly sweet tastes of plum, blackberry fruit and dried herbs assaulted his taste buds along with the unmistakable flavor of rich, dark chocolate.
“Holy shit, D,” he exclaimed in disgust, “Even the wine you drink could send a person into a diabetic coma. Christ! What the hell is this shit?” He set the goblet down on the tray to the raised brow astonishment of both Mr. Hua and Tsu Fu D.
“It’s Les Clos de Paulilles Banyuls, Detective Orcot,” Mr. Hua replied slowly. “It is not to your tastes, I presume?”
“You presume right, good buddy. You wouldn’t happen to have any Scotch on hand, would you?”
The lawyer sent a questioning glance toward D’s grandfather, who merely nodded and sipped at his own wine, obviously savoring the overly sweet taste. “Yes, of course, sir, one Scotch coming right up.”
“And why don’t you make it a double on the rocks while you’re at it?” Leon called after him as Li Hua made his way back toward the kitchen. Then he added, almost under his breath, “I think I’m going to need it.”
One look at Count D confirmed what Leon already suspected, the man had been, as always, appalled by his uncouth behavior. He opened his mouth, no doubt to deliver one of his scathing tongue lashings on manners and proper decorum, but one glance from his grandfather silenced him before a single word of a no doubt memorable tirade could escape. Turning his face from his grandfather, he took several large sips of wine and looked unhappier than Leon had ever seen him.
With a drink, a real drink, not that fruity, so-called wine, in his hand, Leon continued his line of thought. “Like I said, Gramps, I don’t really remember a lot that happed after the… uh, attack.”
Leon cleared his throat and took a swallow of Scotch to hide his discomfort. It burned down his throat and pooled like heavy heat in his stomach. It wasn’t a lie, exactly. He remembered pain and fear and a confusing jumble of claws and teeth. And afterwards, when he was in the hospital, it was worse, somehow. Moments of lucidity were lost between confusion and panic and there were times where he literally felt as if his body was trying to tear itself to pieces.
One of his clearest memories was of his mother, crying as she held his hand. He couldn’t remember what she had been saying only that it must have been very important, whatever it was. She removed a safety pin from her pocket, unfastened it, and used the sharp end to prick the tip of his finger. A bead of blood welled, so red against the paleness of his skin. It had hurt, yes, but it was really a tiny hurt in a whole sea of pain.
Still talking, slow and calm, she took his hand into hers and pressed the tip of his finger against a stiff piece of paper. It left a small comma of blood next to a straight line near the bottom which bore her signature. When it had dried, she slid the paper back into a manila folder and tucked it away into the leather confines of her travel bag.
Sniffling back her tears, she had removed a large vial with a cork stopper from the depths of her jacket pocket. The contents had been liquid and a hideously ugly green. Somehow he knew she was going to ask him to drink it just as he knew it would taste horrible, because it must be medicine and all medicine tasted like crap. He had been old enough to know that much at least. She held it to his mouth and the first taste had indeed been horrible, bitter and almost chalky. Making a soft whimpering sound, he had turned his head away from the vial and this caused her to cry all over again. Cry and beg him to drink it all, every last drop.
In the end, his mother had to add over ten sugar packets to the vile mixture to get him to drink it. But drink it he did, every single last drop, just as she wanted him to. He remembered that it had burned going down, and he had wanted to cry out against the pain as it erupted in his stomach and spread feverous tentacles throughout his body. But in the end he simply caught his tongue between his teeth and bit down to keep himself from giving in and crying like a little baby. And after that he slept for what seemed like a very, very long time.
Tsu Fu smiled in an indulgent manner, as if he knew that Leon remembered more than he was letting on, but that he was willing to overlook the matter… at least for now.
“Well, as it so happens, I do remember certain events. You’re mother’s visit to my pet shop in the middle of the night for instance.”
Choking on his Scotch, Leon glared at the other man and felt his stomach churn uneasily. His mother had gone to Count D’s shop? And had signed one of his goddamned contracts? Jesus Christ! Hadn’t anyone tried to warn her that she would be playing with fire? Obviously no one had, otherwise he wouldn’t be standing here in this room right now listening to this bullshit.
Images from the various cases he had worked over the years – cases where the victims had somehow broken the terms of their contract with Count D and had ended up dead– flashed through Leon’s mind one after the other. He shuddered to think that he might somehow be joining their unfortunate ranks. The man-eating rabbits, the mermaid, and more, so many more, a veritable nightmare and it had all pointed back to Count D and his goddamned animals. He had never been able to pin anything to the tricky bastard, but in his heart he knew he was on the right track. If only he could prove it…
“She was horribly distraught,” Tsu Fu murmured, and his lips tilted in an infuriating smile, the exact same one he had seen D wearing on so many occasions. The one he wore when he was up to no good. “She came to me, in the middle of the night, desperate to save the life of her only child. You see, the doctors had all but given up hope on your ever recovering. But your mother would not give up. Single-minded determination is one of the traits I admire about your people, you know.”
He paused and sipped his wine, draining the goblet, closing his eyes and reveling in the taste of it. When he opened them again, Li Hua was at his side with another glass. “More wine, sir?” he asked, accepting the empty goblet that Tsu Fu D handed him.
“Yes, thank you, Li. It is rather fine, isn’t it?”
Li Hua handed him a fresh goblet and Tsu Fu smiled at the other man, much in the same manner an owner would smile at his faithful dog. It sickened Leon to see such a smile directed at another human being. No, it infuriated him. His fingers tightened around his glass, but he sensed that now was not the time to shoot his mouth off on the matter.
“Indeed it is, sir,” Li Hua replied graciously, even though Leon noticed that he had barely touched his own glass.
“What were the terms of the contract?” Leon asked hollowly. There really was no point in beating around the bush with this. “And what’s in it for you?”
“Why the survival of my people, of course,” Tsu Fu replied simply.
Leon’s brow knitted in angry confusion. “Talk English, man, you’re not making any sense.”
Tsu Fu sighed and shook his head. He then began speaking slowly and carefully as if he were speaking to a particularly dense child. “In exchange for the serum that guaranteed your survival, your mother agreed to allow you to become my grandchild’s mate.”
“Grandfather, no!” D whispered. His face, already pale, was now paler still. “You don’t mean to tell me that you intend to give me,” he pointed toward Leon with a look of disgust, “to that man, do you?”
Tsu Fu turned on his son and for the first time his voice betrayed anger. “And what would you have me do, child? We simply cannot continue on as we have been doing for these past centuries. The risks are simply too great.” His voice softened, but his eyes remained sharp. He reached out and stroked his fingers along the outline of D’s face.
“You are our last hope. This must be done, child, a sacrifice for the greater good.”
D bowed his head, chastised. “Yes, Grandfather, I understand. Please forgive my impertinence.”
Almost as if on cue, Li Hua was at his side, offering a fresh goblet, which D numbly accepted.
“Whoa,” Leon snapped, snapping out of his own shock. “Don’t I have any choice in the matter? I mean, come on! I can’t marry Count D. He’s a man for Christ’s sake.”
Tsu Fu turned to him and his face betrayed his annoyance. “I am not asking that you marry my grandson, Detective Orcot-“
“Well, good, because it isn’t happening, you hear me?”
‘-I am merely asking that you have sexual congress with him in order to produce an heir.”
“What the fuck?” Leon reeled back. “You are a sick, twisted bastard. Your grandson is a dude! And that means that He. Can’t. Have. Children.”
“That isn’t exactly true, Detective,” D broke in quietly.
“What?” Leon leaned over and slammed his scotch glass onto the tray then straightened up and glared at D, “the fact that you’re a guy or the fact that your gramps here is a sick, twisted fuck?”
“Detective, please!” D set his own empty glass on the tray, it was getting quite crowded, that tray what with all the various glass and stem ware, a regular party. “This is no laughing matter. The future of my people is at stake. Please do not treat this as one of your crass jokes, because, I assure you, it is no laughing matter.”
Leon held his hands up in a defensive position, “Hey, whoa, calm down there, D. I’m just trying to deal with this situation, you know? It’s… it’s a bit strange.” He finished lamely.
“If you would have a seat, Detective Orcot,” Tzu Fu gestured toward the sofa and chairs arranged around a square, black lacquered table. “I’m sure everything can be explained to your satisfaction.”
“Sure, yeah,” Leon mumbled and sat down in an overstuffed cream and gold armchair while the Ds took the matching couch.
Li Hua took the tray and its burden of goblets back to the kitchen then returned and took one of the black and gold patterned chairs that were located to the right of the sofa. Again, although the Ds were sitting side by side, they seemed to make a point of not coming into contact with each other. But this time he thought it had more to do with the fact that D was obviously upset about the news his grandfather had dumped on him.
He remembered that D had mentioned earlier in the day that he had an important meeting with his grandfather to ‘discuss his future’. Did he know about the whole arranged marriage/sex thing or was it as much a shock to D as it was to him? Or was he just upset about finding out who his grandfather had chosen to be his future ‘mate’?
“Only a single man, our distant ancestor, survived the genocide,” Tsu Fu began. “This understandably made fining an acceptable mate extremely difficult.”
“Yeah, I’d say,” Leon agreed, “It would be hard to make babies when the last surviving member of your species… er, race, was male.”
“Indeed, our race would have died out long ago if our ancestor had not also been a hermaphrodite.”
“Really?”
Leon wasn’t able to keep the astonishment from his voice and facial features any more than he was able to keep himself from glancing over at D and wondering if everything his grandfather was telling him was the truth. A hermaphrodite D? The very idea blew his fucking mind. D caught his glance and turned his face away but not before Leon caught the color splashed across his cheeks. It occurred to him that D must have known, or at least guessed what his thoughts had been.
Slightly embarrassed, but still enormously curious, Leon cleared his throat and returned his attention back to Tsu Fu. “But it is extremely rare for hermaphrodite species to self-fertilize, isn’t it?
“Yes, it is. But it didn’t pose an insurmountable problem because we can also reproduce via parthenogenesis.”
“You mean like lizards?” Leon leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, fascinated despite himself. He had studied biology in high school and had even taken a few courses in college so he wasn’t a complete newbie on the subject. Coming face to face with a humanoid-like species that could reproduce through parthenogenesis was something he would never have dreamed possible outside of the science fiction and fantasy section of the book or video stores.
Tsu Fu frowned. “I suppose that you could say the concept is similar, yes. Facing a lack of acceptable female mates, our ancestor was able to reproduce asexually, which produced an offspring that was identical in all inherited respects to him.”
Tsu Fu laid one long fingered hand lightly on D’s thigh. D didn’t look too happy with the contact but Leon couldn’t blame him there. He wouldn’t like it if his old man was touching his thigh in such a casual manner either.
“We are all duplicates, Detective Orcot, quite similar to clones. Our blood, or more precisely, our genes are passed directly from father to child, and do not mix with the genes of any other.”
Leon nodded his head. “That makes sense, I guess. It would have been necessary to take such a drastic measure, but wouldn't mating with a partner still be the preferable means since the genetic material of the offspring would be varied? I understand that not having a truly compatible mate could lead to self-fertilization... but wouldn't that pose problems in the long run?”
The other man removed his hand from D’s thigh, much to D’s obvious relief, and smiled at him like he were his prized pupil. “Yes, there have been problems and that is exactly why we need you, Detective.”
“You need me to breed with your grandson in order to strengthen your race genetically?”
“That is it, exactly, Detective.”
Again, he glanced toward D and was able to catch his eye for a moment, and the look in his eyes was not an entirely friendly one.
“You know,” Leon said, “it’s pretty obvious that your grandson isn’t really into the whole idea of having his mate chosen for him. Couldn’t you just go out and find your own boy toy to play house with?”
Tsu Fu smiled but Leon wasn’t able to read the emotion behind it. It was always so hard to tell with D and it was even worse with his grandfather, the original master of the unreadable expression. “I have already chosen my ‘boy toy’ as you so delicately put it.”
He reached out and touched Li Hua’s knee with something very much like affection, then removed it again just as quickly as if public displays of affection were off limits. But then again, he was old and had been raised in a distant generation where it had been considered inappropriate to show affection in public.
Leon couldn’t believe that Tsu Fu and Li Hua were an actual couple, but apparently it was true. He wanted to ask how long they had been together, but quickly decided that he really didn’t want to know.
“Unfortunately, neither my son nor I can carry our family line any further than we already have.”
“And why’s that? You would think that that the three of you having your own mates would be the best possible solution.”
“It would have been but for one simple fact that while our race may have a long lifespan when compared to the life span of you humans, we only go into estrus - or heat as you humans so delicately put it- once in our lifetimes. Once our cycle has passed us by, we become incapable of impregnation via sexual intercourse and are left with no means to reproduce other than parthenogenesis.”
Tsu Fu stroked his hand along the length of D’s hair. “My cycle came and went many, many years ago, as has my son’s. My grandson, however, has just started going into his cycle. I cannot accurately tell you how long it might last, it could be days or weeks or even months, but once it has passed, it will never come again.”
Leon didn’t know if what he said next was due in part to the alcohol he had consumed, the fact that he was secretly sexually attracted to D, or because he rather liked the idea of Count D and his grandfather, or anyone else for that matter, actually needing him. In a way, he would be a hero for helping to save a dying race. He’d be an unsung hero, sure, but a hero all the same. And what warm blooded American male never dreamed about being a real-life hero at least once in his lifetime?
“Sure, I’ll do it,” he heard himself saying, as he stood up and stuck out his hand as if to shake and seal the deal, “I’m your man for the job.”
TO BE CONTINUED…
CHAPTER 07