Moonlight and Gold #1 Why? (1,118 AD)

[eiahmon]

Title - Moonlight and Gold: Why? (1,118 AD)
Rating - PG
Disclaimer - I don't own Joachim and Leon, but I wish I did. Walter would be nice to have too.
Summary - Rather than let Leon go at the end of AMoS, Joachim turns him. What happens after that? Well, you'll have to read and see.

Why?

Joachim looked down at Leon, torn with indecision. Leon was lying in his arms, wrapped in blankets, in the final stages of the fever that had seized hold of him three weeks before. The vampire could hear Leon's breath rattling in his throat and his heart faltering as it struggled to keep beating. He was growing cold, and it was then that Joachim knew that there was no hope for it.

Leon was dying.

Joachim gently brushed Leon's sweat soaked hair back from his forehead and sighed. Leon had repeatedly refused all offers of blood, which would have cured him in an instant, saying that Joachim’s blood was stolen, and that he wanted no part of it. And now it was too late. Leon had been ill for so long that there was no way of knowing what kind of long term damage the fever had done, and Joachim’s blood could only do so much. Silvanus’ blood would be able to restore him to full health, but Joachim knew that he old vampire wouldn’t do it; it was he that had advised Joachim to stop offering his own and had warned him against forcing Leon to take any.

“He has already had one friend betray him.” he had said “Would you want to make it two friends?”

Joachim had accepted Leon’s decision then, but now, with the blonde’s death mere hours away, if that, he knew that he could no longer abide by it. True, it was too late for blood, but there was something else he could do. He knew that Leon would be furious with him and would likely never forgive him, but he owed Leon for saving his life.

Joachim tried to convince himself if was for that reason that he carefully pushed the blankets and the collar of Leon's nightshirt away from his neck. He traced with his eyes the dark blue vein that he could see running under the pallid, wasted flesh of Leon's neck, and before he could talk himself out of it, he leaned over and sank his fangs deep into it.

Despite how frail Leon was, the blonde stiffened in his arms and cried out weakly, and Joachim did his best to ignore it as he drank. He could taste the sickness, the fever, and Leon’s fear, for he seemed to know what was being done to him. He began to feebly struggle, but the vampire was easily able to restrain him, and soon Leon stilled, too weak from his illness and the blood loss to fight any further.

Joachim kept one ear on Leon’s struggling heart, and once he heard it began to fail, he raised his head and licked the bite wounds to heal them. He then bit deeply into his left wrist and held the bleeding wound to Leon’s mouth. Leon whimpered in pain when the drops splashed down onto his raw throat and began to heal the damage there, and then he began to choke when more poured in that he could swallow. Joachim cursed himself for forgetting the difficulties that Leon had with swallowing and sat him up and leaned him against his shoulder, which allowed him to reached around with his other hand to gently stroke his chin and neck. With a small whine of distress, Leon swallowed the first gulp, and that healed the damage to his throat enough to allow the next mouthful to go down easier.

A few minutes later, Leon relaxed and lapsed into unconsciousness with a small sigh. Joachim took his wrist away, and the bite healed instantly, allowing him to nestle Leon securely in his arms and stand up from the chair with him. He walked over to the bed and gently laid him down, before he spent a moment looking him over. Leon's breathing and heartbeat had slowed to nearly a standstill; certainly no human would know that he still lived. With a grim smile of satisfaction, Joachim pulled the blanket over his head and went to inform Kalina, Elias, and Sara that Leon had died. Later, he would smuggle Leon to his own house, where he could turn in safety.

*****

It had been astonishingly easy to spirit Leon away. He had simply removed him from his coffin before he was taken to the church to be buried and taken him to his own small house. He then returned to Leon's house, filled up the now empty coffin with heavy rocks, and no one was the wiser. He had already decided not to tell Leon’s family what he had done, though he wasn’t sure why. Part of him knew it was because he was frightened of how they would react. The three had easily accepted Joachim’s presence in their lives, as well as Kerwin and Matatias, but there was no telling how they would react if they were to find out that their husband and father was a vampire as well. Leon would be devastated if they rejected him, so no, they were better off not knowing.

After the funeral, Joachim returned home, and there he bathed Leon, dressed him in a clean nightshirt, and put him to bed. Ella and August had said not a word when he had carried Leon into the house, and a quick glare that promised pain if they ever divulged what had happened to him ensured that they never would.

For the next five days, Joachim stayed by Leon’s side, leaving only to hunt, and watched as the color faded from Leon’s skin and his hair gradually lightened to an even lighter blond. He did not regain consciousness during the transformation, and Joachim had to remind himself that Leon had been near death when he was bitten, while he himself had been in perfect health.

Towards sunset on the fifth day, Leon twitched ever so slightly, and a low moan escaped from his lips, and Joachim could plainly hear his heartbeat stuttering to a stop as he struggled for air.

“Don’t fight it, Leon.” he said softly, not even sure if he was being heard, “Just let it happen.” Leon gasped for air, and his heart abruptly stopped, and one dark blue eye opened a tiny crack, and Joachim flinched back from the accusation he saw there, before Leon went limp on the bed as he died.

Barely an hour later, the newly created sire/child bond flared to life, and a few seconds later, Leon’s heart restarted, though it was much slower than it had been before and would remain that way until he fed. With a sigh, he began to breathe again, and then his eyes opened. They were a dark blue, almost violet, and he blinked them a few times, as if he was trying to focus them before he sat up and looked around.

Leon had been to Joachim’s house many times, but now he was looking around like he was seeing it for the first time, which in a way, he was. Perhaps he was seeing the individual threads in the curtains over the windows, or perhaps the detailing in the silver candle holders on the wall, or maybe he was looking at the fine grain in the wooden slats that made up the floor. He looked around the room for a few more minutes before he turned to Joachim.

“What happened to me?” Leon asked, and Joachim was pleased to hear his voice, strong and healthy instead of the weak rasp that it had been before. He smiled at his child and sent him a burst of comfort down the bond. Leon received it, and his eyes widened in sudden realization and horror. The bonds between vampires had been explained to him, so he knew full well what he was feeling. He scuttled across the bed away from Joachim, as he reached up with one hand and felt the tips of his fangs.

“Oh God, what have you done to me!” he cried out, and his horror echoed down the bond to Joachim, who was suddenly flooded with guilt, but he pushed it away. He had one very upset child to deal with before he could deal with anything else. He stood up from his chair and walked around to the other side of the bed.

“Leon -” he began, but he was cut off.

“Stay away from me!” Leon cried as he pressed himself back against the headboard, and he threw his hands out as if to ward off a blow. “Don’t come any closer, you monster! Why did you do this to me!”

"Leon, you have to calm down."

"Calm down! How am I supposed to calm down when you've turned me into this! Why, damn it! Tell me why!"

Joachim reached out to gather Leon to him, but the distraught child scrambled away from him, back across to the other side of them bed, and then down onto the floor, where he scooted back into a corner and huddled there in a ball of misery. Joachim took a steadying breath; getting angry at the child would do no good. Many, especially those that had been turned against their will, found the transformation traumatizing, but they always settled down eventually. Sooner or later, Leon would calm down and accept his new life.

At least, that is what Joachim told himself as he walked around the bed, and, before Leon could run away again, he reached down and easily picked him up off the floor. Leon screamed, rattling the windows, and Joachim idly thought that that meant that Leon was already fairly powerful, but he ignored that in favor of restraining the struggling child as he kicked and screamed and fought to get away. He sat down on the bed and wrapped his arms around him, trapping Leon's arms against his body, and still the child struggled, screaming in rage, horror, and confusion.

"Hush Leon," he crooned, sending calming feelings down the bond "It's time to quiet down." He could feel Leon shaking, and the bond told him it was caused by the intense thirst that newly born vampires feel, so he sat him up and pressed his face to the large vein in his neck.

Instinctively, Leon bit down, but then he seemed to realize what he was doing, and he recoiled in horror, but Joachim's hand on the back of his head would not allow him to move away.

"Drink, Leon." Joachim commanded, putting some of his power behind the words, and Leon, unable to resist his sire's direct command, began to cry as he drank. Joachim took his hand away from Leon's head and relaxed his embrace a little; he knew that thirst would keep Leon from even contemplating trying to get away until he was done feeding.

“I know that you never wanted this, Leon” Joachim said softly “and words cannot express how sorry I am. I never planned on doing this, but you were so close to death and I.. I just couldn’t let you go. I love you, child; I didn’t want to lose you.” Leon finished drinking and leaned back and relaxed into the arms that held him. He did not try to get away; he did not struggle. Instead he looked up at his sire with dark blue eyes that were filled with heartbreak and betrayal. “I’m so sorry, Leon.”

“You’re not sorry that you did this to me.” Leon whispered as tears tracked their way down his face “You’re only sorry that I hate you for it.”

Joachim winced, and Leon said no more. Worn out by his earlier fight, Leon fell asleep in his master's arms, and Joachim bowed his head and tried to ignore the faint echo from the bond.

Why?

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