Ch 8 - Side effects



	Nabiki woke to a chill breeze blowing across her legs.
She sat up, not really remembering where she was. After a few
seconds, it all came back to her...

	Akuji was a monster, A Ravener like Kasumi and Auntie
Nodoka had fought. Unlike the first ravener's mindless
brutality and hunger, however, Akuji had a most dreadful
intelligence. He had stabbed her and very nearly raped her. She
had...

	Nabiki couldn't help but chuckle. She had torn the
disgusting 'probe' off Akuji's body. Hopefully, he'd die from
the wound.

	Still, Auntie Saotome must be made aware of his presence.
If there was one, there must be others.

	Looking around her, she wondered where she was. She was
wearing a yellow tunic, and surprisingly, she felt fairly
clean. There was no blood caked on her like before.

	She recognized the tunic as Ryouga's.

	Nabiki sniffed the air. She could smell him nearby. It
was much easier now that she had...

	"Oh my God..." Nabiki muttered. "I drank Ryouga's blood,"
she realized.

	"Hmm?"

	She looked behind her to see Ryouga tending a fire. He
was looking up at her with a sheepish expression.

	"I hope you don't mind... Your... dress was ruined. I..."

Nabiki saw the lost boy blush furiously.

	"I took it off you, and tried to scrub you up as best I
could. I didn't look at you or anything! I promise!"

	Nabiki raised one eyebrow in speculation. Ryouga had
actually managed to wash her body without a nosebleed? It was a
fairly gruesome scene, she realized.

	Turning away from the wanderer, she pulled the tunic up
to see that the wound had almost completely healed. There was
only a pinkish-white scar where the skin was thickening over
the break.

	"No. It's okay," Nabiki answered. "Do you have any idea
where we are?"

	"Not really," Ryouga admitted. "I wouldn't swear to it,
but I think we're still in Tokyo."

	"That's good." Nabiki let her gaze rest on the young
man's face. Sure enough, there were still dark black bruises on
either side of his neck. And a smell... a smell of...

	Nabiki's train of thought derailed as Ryouga's blush
intensified at her gaze. She smiled weakly, adjusting the
tunic, which was about thigh length on her.

	"Let me look at those," Nabiki commanded, scooting her
weakened body next to the boy.

	"Um, no! It's okay, really! You don't have to--"

	Nabiki cut him off, placing a finger on one of the
bruises. "I made them, moron. Do they hurt?"

	Ryouga shook his head. Nabiki wasn't sure if that would
always be the case, however, since the boy seemed mostly immune
to pain anyway.

	As she got closer to him, however, a familiar, insistent
feeling started to burn in her body.

	"Mmm..." she hummed quietly, remembering Kasumi's problem
with their 'gift'. It was apparently Nabiki's problem as well.
Not that she minded, but... Ryouga?

	"I appreciate you helping me," she thanked him. "I don't
think I would have survived without you."

	"'S no problem, really."

	"So I bet you've got a few questions right now..."

	"Yeah... Is... Is Akane a vampire, too?"

	Nabiki raised her eyebrows in surprise. For some reason,
it infuriated her that Ryouga should mention her sister at such
a time.

	"No. She's thinking about it, but hasn't decided yet,"
Nabiki informed him. "Are you a vampire hunter?"

	"No! I mean... of course not. You're not... *evil* are
you?" Ryouga asked seriously.

	"No, not evil. The guy who stabbed me was, though."

	Ryouga nodded.

	"Can I ask you something," Nabiki continued.

	"Yeah?" Ryouga answered meekly.

	Nabiki let her finger rest on Ryouga's naked shoulder
next to the strap of his thin, black undershirt. The burning
intensified.

	"Did it turn you on for me to drink your blood?" she
asked, putting a purr into her voice.

	"What?!?!" Ryouga's blush, if anything, became more
intense. She could clearly see how pink his ears were becoming.
"W-w-why w-w-would a-anything l-like t-that h-happen?!?" Ryouga
asked nervously, cringing away from her.	

	*I can't believe I said that,* Nabiki thought to herself.
No wonder Akane's never seriously considered him.

	Still shocked at her own behavior, Nabiki found herself
drawing closer to the boy.

	"It's okay... I'm... It's a side effect, I think.
Drinking blood... excites us," Nabiki explained, clutching at
her head. She couldn't believe she was telling Ryouga all this,
but she felt indebted to him. Nabiki hated being in debt. "I'm
just a little wound up."

	Ryouga gulped and nodded. He sat back down, careful to
leave several more inches in between them.

	"It's just that... I just can't get it out of my head how
badly I want you," Nabiki rambled, not noticing the effect it
was having on the boy next to her.

	"I mean.. I've just been near-fatally stabbed, and I
can't think of anything else but your... body and... Ohhh...
your arms around me."

	Ryouga twitched.

	Nabiki could barely help herself. It was all she could do
to keep from reaching in between her legs to quench what she
was feeling.

	Ryouga, nervously backing away from her, stumbled and
fell on his ass.

	Starting at the noise, Nabiki turned to see the young
man. The look of fear in his eyes only intensified her desire.

	"I really can't understand why Akane doesn't just eat you
up..." Nabiki breathed. "Would you like that? To be eaten, I
mean?"

	Ryouga's eyes narrowed to terrified little dots, and,
losing the battle he had been waging all night, a tiny trickle
of blood ran down his face.

	Nabiki crawled over to him on all fours. "Maybe I should
just take you away from Akane... Hmm?"

	Ryouga just eeeped, and tried to scramble away. He
couldn't tear his eyes away from Nabiki's though. It was like
he was a deer, frozen in a pair of glowing brown headlights.

	"I want you, Ryouga," Nabiki murmured, leaning in close
to Ryouga. Her face near his, she leaned in and licked the
blood off his lips. "Nnn..."

	"Gya-gya-gya-" Ryouga mumbled incoherently.

	"Mmmm... You saved my life tonight, Ryouga-kun. How can I
ever repay you?"

	Ryouga moaned in terror. Nabiki moaned in desire. She
wrapped her arms around him and pressed her lips to his.

	He was frozen in that instant, but he could feel Nabiki
passionately kissing him. Her tongue forced his lips apart and
darted inside his mouth.

	His eyes open in shock, Ryouga could do little to resist.

	Her body was pressed into his, her breasts squeezing up
against his chest. He very dimly realized that she was wrapping
her legs around his back.

	Ryouga realized that this was only really the second time
he had been kissed by a girl who wasn't his mother. The first
time was when Akane kissed P-chan of course, but that was
chaste... innocent even, when compared to what Nabiki was
doing.

	He couldn't really believe that there was a girl in his
lap, sucking on his tongue, with her legs wrapped around him.

	It was rather a shock to him, then, when she collapsed
against him and started shaking.

	"Gyah," Ryouga mumbled, trying to regain his senses.



* * *



	"Where is it!?!?" Ryouga shouted angrily, adjusting the
unconscious girl in his arms again.

	"What'cha lookin' for Pig-bo-- Oh shit."

	Ryouga looked up to see Ranma in his undershirt and
boxers sitting on a stone wall in the darkness.

	"Is that Nabiki? What happened."

	"Ranma!" Ryouga shouted. "You have to help me! Nabiki's a
vampire and she got hurt and she bled a lot and I think she's
dying again and we have to go to the Tendou Dojo right now!"

	"Whoa, slow down, P-chan." Ranma leapt down from the wall
and placed two fingers against Nabiki's throat. "Damnitt... I
knew somethin' like this was gonna happen. C'mon, let's get her
inside. My mom prob'ly needs to see this."

	He took Nabiki from Ryouga's arms, and leapt the wall.
Ryouga followed him, finding that they were now inside the
Tendou's yard. They ran up to the house, and inside.

	Ranma laid Nabiki down on the tatami and pushed a pillow
under her head.

	"Mom! Akane, Kasumi!" He shouted, running his hands over
the girl's body, looking for obvious injury. "What happened,
Ryouga?" he asked angrily.

	"She's a vampire," Ryouga stated in a panicked tone.

	"I know she's a vampire, moron! How did she get hurt?"

	"S-she... I didn't see who hurt her. Someone stabbed her,
all the way through. She was running from them and ran into me.
It was outside a hotel, I think. She drank some of my blood,
but then she tried to make me kiss her and then--"

	"Calm down, pig boy... She drank your blood and then--"

	Ryouga shook his head in worry and bafflement. "She was
healing, but then she had some kind of seizure. I don't know
what happened."

	The other two Tendou girls as well as Nodoka happened
down the stairs at this point. Soun and Genma weren't far
behind.

	"MY LITTLE GIRL!!!!" Soun screamed.

	"She's a vampire, Tendou-san!" Ryouga informed him.

	"WHAAAT?!?!" Soun yelled, sprouting a full blown
Anything-goes Demon Head at the boy.

	"Soun, calm down!" Nodoka commanded. "What happened,
here, Son?"

	"Someone attacked her," Ranma clarified. "We don't know
who, yet, but she was pretty badly hurt. She drank some of
Ryouga's blood to try to heal, but somethin' went wrong. She
had a seizure or somthin'."

	Nodoka grimaced as Genma quietly explained the situation
to his friend. Soun's eyes widened in horrified shock as his
training partner pointed to Nodoka and his eldest daughter in
turn.

	Nodoka pulled up the tunic, to see the circular wound on
Nabiki's lower abdomen. "How much blood did she lose?" Nodoka
demanded.

	"Most of it... I think," Ryouga replied sheepishly. "She
bled a lot before I saw her, and a whole lot more while we were
running.

	Nodoka shook her head and bit her lip. "How much of your
blood did she drink?"

	Ryouga shook his head and shrugged. He just didn't know.

	"It looks as if she's gone into a kind of shock," Nodoka
explained, holding her head to Nabiki's chest. "I've seen it
before. Losing a lot of blood... was she active after she drank
yours?"

	Ryouga blushed and nodded again. "She was asleep for an
hour, but when she came to, she was movin' around and stuff."

	"It's very simple," Nodoka stated. "She's gone into shock
like anyone else would after losing a massive amount of blood.
Drinking Ryouga's blood helped her to heal, and gave her a
boost of energy, but with her blood pressure so horribly low,
she won't survive without more."

	"She needs a transfusion?" Soun suggested.

	"She needs blood," Nodoka clarified. "About five pints.
Neither mine nor Kasumi's will work, either." Nodoka produced a
knife from the sleeve of her night-gown and fixed Soun and
Genma with hard stares. "She'll die without it. Any
volunteers?"

	Soun stepped forward. "Anything. Anything for my girls."

	Nodoka nodded, and took his hand. "Kneel over her," she
commanded.

	Soun nodded and kneeled next to his daughter. Nodoka
cleanly slashed his wrist and pressed her own lips to it. She
then forced Nabiki's jaw open, and let Soun's blood trickle
into her open mouth.

	Interminably, his arm continued to bleed, and he grew
very slightly paler. Finally, Nabiki's eyes fluttered open.

	"Daddy?" she asked weakly.

	"Shh... Daddy's here." Soun whispered. He placed his free
hand on her jaw, holding it open. Placing the wound directly in
her mouth, Soun smiled briefly once.

	"This was the 'secret' Kimiko was keeping for you?" he
asked quietly.

	Nodoka nodded.

	Soun shook his head as his daughter began to suck at his
wrist. "I never imagined. My daughters..."

	"Your girl wouldn't be alive tonight if not for the
'secret'" Genma countered.

	Soun nodded thoughtfully. "I guess not."

	After a few more minutes, Nodoka pulled the man's arm
away from his daughter's bloody lips. Soun's eyes widened
slightly as Nodoka licked the slash, and began to bandage it.

	"The saliva will close the cut," Genma explained. "It
doesn't work unless she drinks some of the blood as well. I've
never seen anything like it.

	"Husband?" Nodoka prompted.

	Genma nodded, loosening the front of his gi. He kneeled
next to Nabiki, who was struggling to sit up.

	"Lay down, girl," he prompted.

	Nodoka shook her head. "It's better if she can draw the
blood herself," she stated.

	Genma nodded again, wrapping his arms around Nabiki's
slim shoulders, and helping her upright. He tilted his head to
one side, letting Nabiki's head rest on his shoulder.

	After a few seconds, Nabiki weakly managed to close her
mouth on the older man's neck.

	Several minutes passed in silence as Genma held Nabiki up
as she continued to feed. Finally, she let go Genma's throat
and lay back down on the floor.

	Nodoka, her eyes holding a guarded expression, fixed her
son with a firm expression.

	"Ryouga has already given of his blood this evening,
Ranma. Will you?"

	Ranma's eyes widened in shock. He had been watching the
proceedings with something very akin to disgust, but had not
turned away.

	It galled him, though, for his mother to compare him to
Ryouga.

	"Yeah..." Ranma capitulated. "Just because she's hurt,
though. It's a martial artist's duty."

	Nodoka exhaled heavily, as Kasumi began to clean Genma's
neck with a clean cloth.

	Not really knowing what to do, Ranma picked Nabiki up by
the shoulders like he had seen his father do. He lay her head
on his shoulder, and nervously began to wait.

	"You don't have to, Ranma" Nabiki whispered. "It's okay
if you don't."

	"Just do it and get it over with," Ranma snapped
irritatedly. He looked down to see a weak, fanged, smile on the
girl's lips.

	"Thank-you, Ranma. Remember it, 'cause you'll probably
never here me say it again."

	Ranma rolled his eyes as he cocked his head to one side.

	He could feel Nabiki gingerly probing his neck with her
teeth. When she actually bit him, it only stung for a second,
like a scratch. The only indication that he could feel that he
was bleeding was a slight wetness around her lips.

	It was, he had to admit, very pleasant. An aura of peace
and calm seemed to spread out from the girl through him. After
a minute or two, he realized that he was gently caressing
Nabiki's back as she drew his blood. For just a few seconds,
Nabiki was the center of his world.

	After what was either an eternity, or just a second,
Nabiki pulled away, trying to sit up under her own power.
Quietly, calmly, he laid Nabiki back down.

	"She's probably all right now," Nodoka informed the
group, but I'd like for her to get a little more, just to be
safe. Akane?"

	The girl jumped as Nodoka said her name, pointing to her
own nose.

	"It doesn't hurt, daughter," Soun said quietly.

	"I just..." Akane looked at Ranma, who had turned away
from the scene and was staring out at the darkness through the
open shoji. He was rubbing absently at the growing black mark
on his neck.

	Akane tilted her head to one side, and clenched her eyes
shut.

	Nodoka suppressed a chuckled, and helped Nabiki over to
her sister.

	"Not too much," Kasumi warned, now cleaning Ranma's neck.
"Remember how much smaller she is than the men."

	After several more minutes, Nabiki let go her sister's
throat and lowered herself back to the ground on her side.

	She lay there for several seconds, feeling the blood
begin to rush around her body.

	The smell... It was undeniable. Akane, who was now
allowing Kasumi to towel off her neck as well, had that same
pork smell that Ryouga did.

	The only pork Akane was ever around, though, was P-chan.

	Her mind was currently in confused state. It whirled with
memories of Akuji and the pain in her belly, burning desire
from all the wonderful blood she had just drunk, and light
lightheadedness from the wound. As her eyes opened again, to
see her concerned family members looking down on her, a jumble
of half-said clues and taunts finally came together in her
mind.	

	Her eyes sought out Ryouga.

	"She needs rest," Nodoka stated. "I think our questions
can wait until tomorrow."

	Soun nodded, and started to scoop his daughter up.

	"Nn-uh," Nabiki complained drowsily. "I want Ryouga-kun
to tuck me in."

	"What?" Soun demanded, staring at the uncertain youth
with undisguised animosity.

	"He saved my life, Daddy," Nabiki explained. "There are
some things that I need to say."

	Soun grimaced, but gestured to Ryouga. "You heard her,
boy."

	Ryouga nodded and nervously lifted the girl off the
floor.

	She made a quiet sound of appreciation and snuggled
closer to the confused young man.

	Nodoka and Genma's expression's both widened in surprise,
and Soun grit his teeth.

	"I trust you will be a gentleman, *alone* with my
daughter, in her *room*," he threatened.

	Ryouga 'eeped' and nodded desperately. He started to run
towards the kitchen.

	"Wrong way," Nabiki corrected. "Up the stairs."

	Ryouga turned and jogged up the stairs, careful not to
jostle the girl. At her instruction, he opened a door, and laid
her down on the bed inside. Gingerly, he pulled the covers up
to her chin.

	"Close the door," Nabiki commanded.

	Ryouga ran over and shut the door. He stood right next to
it, a terrified expression still plastered on his face.

	Nabiki giggled, and motioned him closer. "Come here,
Ryouga-kun,"

	"W-what do you want to say?" Ryouga asked.

	Nabiki grinned.

	Ryouga's eyes widened in terror. It wasn't a nice grin.
It wasn't even a sexy grin. It was a very, *very* evil grin. It
had fangs in it.

	"I know you've been lying to my sister, P-chan."

	Ryouga froze in shock.	"You... know."

	"Jusenkyou, right? Like Ranma and Uncle Saotome." Nabiki
pushed the covers away from her. "It can't go on," she informed
him.

	"B-but... I'm.... I... l..." Ryouga began to twiddle his
fingers in embarrassment.

	"In love with my sister?" Nabiki guessed, keeping her
evil grin up the whole time. "I rather doubt it. It's an
infatuation and you know it."

	"It... No!"

	"If you want me to keep your secret, you'll have to stop
sleeping in her bed," Nabiki informed him.

	"But..."

	"I'm not finished. You *owe* me," Nabiki said happily.
"And I expect payment."

	"What-what do you want?!?!"

	Nabiki sat up in bed and grinned wickedly. "You're mine,
Ryouga-kun! All mine..."


* * *

	Ranma sat alone on the balustrade outside the shoji and
stared up at the star-lit sky, one hand across his knees and
the other on his neck where Nabiki had taken his blood.

	"I'm very proud of you, son," his mother's voice came
from behind him. "I know how hard this is being for you."

	"I didn't do it because I like the situation any better,"
Ranma replied angrily. "I did it because Nabiki was hurt, and
that's it."

	There was an injured silence behind him.

	"Ranma... I love you, son, and I wish you would talk to
me."

	Nodoka's plea was answered with silence.

	"There's another one of those monsters out there, isn't
there?" Ranma finally asked.

	"Yes, there is,"

	"And we're... You. You and Kasumi and Nabiki are gonna
have to take it down to keep it from killin' and rapin' and
makin' more of 'em."

	"Yes, we are."

	"And there ain't a damn thing I can do about it, is
there?"

- To be continued...

* * *
Chris Jones - guilty@arn.net
The Ranma 1/2 Gallery - http://cyberwheel.simplenet.com/ranma

It's 1999. Do you know what your children are?