MULDER THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
Round Two, Part Four

*Kieron *.

Frohike had left the apartment, expecting Krycek to follow orders- the way he always did. But the vampire just sat, motionless in the shadows that twilight cast, holding his head in his hands and remembering.

"Kieron..."

A whispered word that echoed with the sound of a thousand screams.

// It was Ago. When... why would they care? All times were as one, all nights held the same darkness. Did it matter? It was Ago. He was... not as he is now. He enjoyed life- death- more, and every day he regrets that enjoyment. The pain he caused.

Kieron was a boy when he first caught the vampire's eye. Smaller than many of the others, with his pale golden hair and eyes causing scornful comments from children that didn't really know the meaning of the words they used. Little though he was, he had spirit- he was always in fights, bruises lending him a little credibility.

The vampire would watch from the shadows of the room he kept- in an alley narrow enough to make worry about sunlight laughable. And once or twice, when the winter closed in, he would walk past the children at play, before their mothers would call them in for dinner. Sometimes he would catch a curious golden stare, and would smile. Anticipating.

The child grew. And he stayed, refusing the invitations to move on that came from admirers human and demon alike. He watched as the limbs lengthened, heard the high voice crack and then steady, saw the boy become a man. And a man he was, long before the children with whom he had once played. His father...

They never found the body, drained of blood. He had decided to claim the boy, and any threat to his property was not to be tolerated. So one night, as the man left his house smelling of booze, and of sex and the blood of a boy to those that could sense it, the vampire struck. He enjoyed it, in those days. He kept the man alive for seven days and nights- and killed him on Kieron's 18th birthday. //

Alex shifted uncomfortably on Mulder's couch, hating the memories that nothing could erase. There was something... so like Kieron in Mulder's eyes. A look of lost innocence, of stolen childhood. The look aroused the same feelings of protection that it always had, but this time it was the human in Alex. It was the demon that had craved Kieron, had wanted to claim him, possess him, as Sire to Childe. The demon that had wanted to destroy any that had threatened his boy... that had loved him.

With Mulder it was different. It wasn't the desire to turn him, to keep him. He wanted at all costs to keep him alive, healthy. And if that meant that he had to kill his only Childe...

Deep inside, his demon roared.

// "Dark black."

"I'm sorry?" The young man looked into the shadows from which the whisper had emerged, straining to see the person that had spoken. He stepped back involuntarily as a match flared in the darkness.

"Kieron. It means "dark black"." The brief light had left a face imprinted on his memory, its unearthly beauty highlighted by the darkness surrounding. He blinked rapidly, trying to clear his sight of the afterimages. The other man walked closer, silent in the blackness. He wore black clothes, and his dark hair meant he almost disappeared in the night- only his pale face gave him away, and his eyes that blazed green.

Kieron dropped his eyes hurriedly, realising that he was staring. He didn't want the man thinking he was a faggot- he was bigger than Kieron. And he looked like he knew how to handle himself in a fight.

"Cat got your tongue?" The voice sounded amused, now.

"How... how did you know my name?" The question didn't seem important. He felt like he was struggling through treacle, couldn't form any coherent thoughts. His eyes were drawn to the other man's face again, and there they stayed; fascinated by the cruel smile that twisted the beautiful mouth.

"I know more than you could possibly imagine."

"I... where are you from?" That didn't really make sense, it wasn't what he should be asking- Hell, he shouldn't be asking anything. He should be leaving, quickly. Too bad his feet wouldn't obey him...

"Around... Everywhere."

"I've never been anywhere." The dark-haired man quirked his eyebrow, his smile widening.

"I could show you..." And it wasn't until much later, until after the pain and the rapture and the change, that he thought to ask his Sire's name.

"Alexei." //

There was a soft scratching from the front door, but he didn't hear it, lost in his memories.

Kieron was more wicked than he could ever have hoped. He was like a cat-cruelly beautiful, torturing his victims mercilessly before he grew bored and drank. Alexei would have done anything for his Childe, and Kieron loved his Sire with a passion that never faded in all their years together. And then... he became enamoured of Spender's ideals. He tried to convince Alex to join them, but his Sire was too much his own man. So they had parted. And Kieron never even knew that he had changed, that he was Alexei no more.

He rose from the couch and turned to the door, then froze in shock.

"Kieron!" The boy was as beautiful as he remembered, and even now he felt the stirring of something that before Mulder he hadn't felt in a long time. "How did you...?"

" "Hi there, Mr Mulder. I just moved in down the hall, and I was wondering... Could I borrow a screwdriver? See, the..."

"Sure, come on in." The vampire's impression of Mulder's monotone was eerily exact. He smiled at his Sire, a smile that didn't change the cold expression in his eyes. "Did you think I didn't know? That I wouldn't figure it out? How could you do this to me? How could you betray your kind to the Slayer?!"

The younger vampire snarled. He leapt at his Sire, his eyes glowing yellow in the darkness of the apartment.

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