A/N: Okay, finally another chapter. :D It's not a big deal, but please note that I'm now going with the Anime on having Kain's power be fire. Actually, I originally thought the same thing but was afraid that having the cousins be "Fire and Ice" would be a little too cliched. So glad it wasn't! ;D See the notes in my bio section for info about review responses. Thanks everyone for your patience!

Chapter Eight: "Hold Me Together"

Zero woke slowly when he felt a stirring against him. His sense of time had totally been compromised by now, but it was dark, possibly late at night or early in the morning. It was hard to tell because the sky was overcast and there was no glimpse of the moon or stars to help judge the passage of the night. Zero's keen hearing told him that most of the camp was sleeping, but there were enough sounds of movement here and there to tell that there were plenty of guards about. One hand slid instinctively to his chest, but he already knew, even before his fingers found only torn fabric and smooth skin that his wounds had closed and disappeared while he slept. He still didn't feel great, but he felt much better. Despite his critically injured state, he'd ingested a lot of blood earlier and his system seemed to finally be catching up to its more normal regenerative condition.

The hunter pushed up onto his elbow, looking down towards the body curled beside his. He could only hope that the same would be true for Kaname. He could hear the reassuring sound of the other's steady heartbeat and had felt him move a moment ago, so at least Zero was no longer afraid for the pureblood's life.

Kaname was curled against him, face partially buried against Zero's side and the first thing Zero saw was the pureblood's back. What was left of his shirt had pretty much disintegrated or been torn off during the fight, so his upper body was mostly naked. Although streaked and caked with dried blood, both his own and others... Zero felt a deep swell of relief inside him when he saw that the raw mess that had been Kaname's back for so long had finally given way to normal flesh and bone once more. The new skin still looked somewhat vulnerable and tender, but it was a sure sign that Kaname too, had fed enough to give his body the jump it needed to start returning to normal.

A small, unbidden shudder ran through Zero. Fed... yes, Kaname had fed all right, and the image of that wasn't going to be able to be exorcised from Zero's mind anytime soon. Zero had seen vampires on a rampage before. In his line of work; he'd seen it fairly often. But those were usually mad ex-humans. It was disturbing to see them act like that, like beasts, but what he had seen earlier was different. Kaname wasn't insane, and his actions had held none of that kind of crazed intensity. There had been a terrible sort of natural grace to his actions, as if he had merely been revealing a deeper, primal side of himself that Zero had never seen surface before. Kaname hadn't even looked human with his eyes burning and his lips pulled back to reveal the rows of razor sharp fangs glittering in his mouth.

Zero swallowed softly. The truth was Kaname wasn't human. Zero wasn't really either anymore, but he had been, it was still a part of his transformed biology. More than any other level of vampire however, purebloods retained the essence of their true species. Zero knew that, he'd always known that. Vampires wore human skin simply to blend better with their prey. But it had been a while since he'd had had to face that the sensual lover who drove him crazy and the caring friend who had taken grievous injury and shielded Zero with his own body in order to keep the hunter alive, was from a race of predators that viewed humans like cattle.

Zero's fingers stroked gently through Kaname's tangled hair, thumb ghosting over the now unmarred skin where the entry wound from the bullet to the head he'd taken had been a few hours before. Yes... Zero couldn't pretend there wasn't still a part of him that pulled away from that thought, that cringed at

the foreignness of knowing that the lips which kissed him so tenderly and the fangs that pleasured him so deeply could so very easily tear him apart and devour his flesh if Kaname so chose. But Kaname didn't so choose, and that was the crux of the matter, wasn't it? The pureblood normally acted more 'human' than most vampires did. Zero knew it was for he and Yuki that Kaname all but denied his heritage when they were together. He had come to realize how much that meant Kaname treasured them.

Zero treasured Kaname too. Yuki and Kaname comprised his world, his family, his heart. But sometimes... sometimes Zero couldn't forget what Kaname was, couldn't help worrying when he saw the pureblood kissing Yuki's neck. He wasn't sure if he was more worried that Kaname would lose control in a moment of passion and bite her, or that Yuki would decide she wanted him to. He knew she'd at least thought about it. Hell, she had thought about being a vampire since they were kids. He told himself it was only protectiveness he felt, not any hint of jealousy or possessiveness... but maybe there was a little of that too. Was it because he didn't want anyone else drinking Yuki's blood like he did? Or was it because he didn't want Kaname drinking anyone's blood other than his? A confusing quandary and maybe in truth it was a bit of both. It wasn't like it was always easy for any of them to keep their tangled relationships straight. But all things worth having were worth fighting for, and Zero couldn't imagine ever losing either of the people he loved.

In this small moment of peace though... the faces of the dead, of the humans both he and Kaname had killed today came back to haunt Zero silently. He supposed it had rattled him more than he wanted to admit, seeing Kaname like that earlier. His current, rambling line of disturbed thoughts was proof of that. But his own actions disturbed him too. Kaname wasn't the only one who had bathed himself in blood out there today. Zero was a hunter, death was his job, and he was a vampire, killing was a natural instinct. But neither made it any easier. Neither ever made it feel right. It had been a battle for survival. Zero knew he'd do it again if he had to, but... that didn't mean it wasn't going to haunt him for a while. More ghosts to add to the collection that sometimes kept him from sleeping when he was alone.

Kaname shifted against him with a soft, groggy little groan, pulling Zero from his troubling thoughts. The hunter leaned back a bit, hand lightly cupping the pureblood's cheek. His thumb unintentionally stroked the soft, bloodstained skin. Zero realized with a small start of concern that Kaname's eyes were open, but unfocused. The brown orbs stared somewhat vacantly through Zero, which sent a new spike of alarm through the ex-human's chest.

"Kaname?" he murmured softly. "Kaname!"

Kaname's eyes moved as if with difficulty, hazily almost-focusing on the hunter. "Zer...o..." the words were soft, slurred, and Zero's worry increased. Physically, Kaname looked better than he had in days. But the vacancy in his eyes was scaring the crap out of the hunter.

Kaname's hand fumbled clumsily for Zero, tangling in the front of the torn and soiled shirt he was still mostly wearing and hanging on tightly. Kaname blinked slowly. Thinking and forming words seemed to be taking a monumental effort. "Head... hurts..." he mumbled softly. Only one side of his mouth was moving.

Kaname stared, sluggishly transfixed. There were things crawling all over Zero... they looked like lizards with butterfly wings. One ran right over Kaname's hand, but he didn't feel it. Some part of his mind knew they weren't real, but he didn't understand what was happening. Nauseating flashes of light popped in his vision. The pureblood groaned softly again, nearly a whimper, and closed his eyes. "Make it stop..." he slurred in a soft, anguished, almost child-like plea.

Pain lanced Zero's heart at the softly plaintive sound, so very, very unlike his normally controlled lover. He cradled Kaname's head carefully; shifting it first left and then right to get a better look at him, trying to see if there were still any visible signs of injury and attempting to contain his growing horror.

The skin of Kaname's previously injured temple was now smooth, flawless as ever under the grime, but Zero's memory flashed back to when he'd dropped beside him on the ground earlier – the ugly hole showing jagged white bone and dark blood that splattered around the wound... but there had been only one injury, hadn't there? The shot had not been a through and through, there was no exit wound. Only now did Zero actually comprehend that that probably meant the bullet or bullet fragments were still lodged in Kaname's brain. That explained why the pureblood looked like he'd had a stroke.

Kaname's body had healed itself around the foreign objects, encapsulating the twisted fragments of metal and repairing the damage they had caused. But there was no way for his body to expel them, and his mind was having to adjust and compensate, attempting to build new neural pathways to replace the severed ones, other parts of his brain trying to compensate for those areas that had been rendered unusable. The result was that Kaname's senses were all firing wildly out of whack and he felt like he was going crazy, unable to trust the input he thought he was receiving. The worst part was that he was just aware of reality enough to know that something was very wrong.

Zero could hear Kaname's breath quickening in quiet panic as his friend obviously began to perceive that all was not as it should be.

"Zero... what's wrr...rong with me?" Kaname struggled with the words, managing to keep the raw fear in his voice at least somewhat contained, which was no small feat given his current mental state.

Zero didn't know how to answer. He didn't really know the answer, although he had some guesses. "You were shot in the head, Kaname, I think you're still trying to heal, that's all. Just give it a little more time. Shh..." he soothed softly, with much more confidence than he felt.

Slowly, Zero sat up, wincing at the uncomfortable tug of pain in his chest at the movement. His fingers stroked lightly through Kaname's hair again as he looked the other vampire over. Outwardly, Kaname didn't appear injured anywhere anymore. But inwardly was obviously another story. Zero knew the dull throb in his own chest meant he was in a similar state, although the pain wasn't sharp enough to cause any concern in him right now.

Zero saw that water and food had been placed in the cage with them at some point and reached for the jug of water. He took a few deep swallows, realizing now that he was thirsty, and then carefully lifted Kaname a little and tipped it to the pureblood's lips, helping him drink some. Kaname tried to hold the jug, but his normally quick and skilled hands were clumsy and without strength, so Zero curled his fingers over Kaname's, helping him steady the vessel.

The hunter couldn't help a hot, helpless stab of rage and anger, although he couldn't figure out entirely where to direct it. It wasn't fair! Why couldn't they catch a break? Kaname had been badly hurt for what seemed so long now. The plane crash had left him so broken, and just when he was finally recovering from that, now this. Zero hated to see the pureblood going through all this hell, it tore him up. His own emotional reserves were running on empty and he just wanted to scream at the universe for being so colossally cruel to them. Darkly, he could almost wonder if this was somehow their punishment for defying the laws of nature and surviving the plane crash in which they should have perished. Fortunately, Zero believed that fate was what you made it, but still... there was a worn, raw feeling of desperation that had settled on the hunter's heart. He didn't know how many close calls he and Kaname had left in them anymore. He couldn't admit it, because he had to be strong for Kaname, but he was afraid, angry and utterly wearing out.

A faint whisper of sound nearby made the hunter's spine stiffen slightly. Automatically, he checked that he and Kaname were still inside the anti-vampire circle he'd drawn on the filthy floor of the cage around them. Of course, they could hardly have accidentally left it, but it was an instinctive reaction.

Red eyes glowed in the darkness outside the bars of their small prison. Salvaje was back. Or maybe he'd never been very far away. The ex-human peered at them silently with intent, hungry eyes, drawn by the scent of Kaname's blood, held captive by his own increasing hunger as surely as Zero and Kaname were being held captive in the cage.

Slowly and deliberately, the Level E circled the cage, reaching experimentally through the bars like a tiger testing out how to get at its prey. Obviously, he was thus far restraining himself from tearing through the bars to try to get at them, but Zero could tell from the other's face and mannerisms that that control wouldn't last forever. Zero knew from experience that these were the most dangerous E's. When they still retained just enough of their sanity to make them clever and dangerous, but were on the threshold of losing all their restraint.

Kaname mumbled something incoherent, his face creased in pain. Carefully, Zero slid an arm under the pureblood's shoulders and pulled him up, letting the other vampire lean against him and holding him protectively close as his wary gaze tracked Salvaje.

Salvaje's red gaze followed Kaname silently.

"I'll kill you if you try to touch him," Zero warned softly, stating a fact, not making a threat.

"You'll kill me anyway, hunter," Salvaje returned, his voice low and reverberating slightly with the eerie, double-tone quality sometimes possessed by those in the final stages of the fall. He knew what Zero was because of the charm he'd used on him earlier, a mistake Salvaje did not intend to repeat. "Or you'll try. Even though, you are like me. How pathetic, you should defend the one who stole your life. But then, that's always our fate, no? Unless we break free..." his eyes flashed. He grinned, chuckling unpleasantly and revealing white fangs. "But then you call us mad and hunt us down."

Zero was used to having his own ex-human status thrown at him and did not outwardly react, although his jaw tensed silently and his grip on Kaname tightened just a bit. Kaname wasn't the one who had turned him, although it was a commonly made misassumption. But he wasn't about to go into all that with Salvaje, instead, his gaze simply locked with the other ex-human's.

"I hate whatever bastard who did this to you, but it doesn't excuse all the innocent lives you've taken or will take as you lose yourself. You are mad, Salvaje, and deep down you know it. You can feel everything that is really you slipping away... it's not living at all anymore at that point, trust me..." Zero's eyes were haunted. He knew. He'd almost been there.

For a brief moment, there was an answering flash of pain and despair in Salveje's expression, a single solitary glimpse of the soul that knew Zero was right and wanted to escape, but then it was gone and the beast snarled darkly. His claws extended and he ran them slowly across the bars of the cage, scoring the metal deeply and creating a soft but nerve-grating sound.

Kaname shuddered, the sound jarring his jumbled senses. His fingers knotted in the front of Zero's shirt again as he sat, slumped sideways against the hunter's chest, Zero's arms supporting him and keeping him close. The pureblood's eyes were open, but they were half-lidded and glassy, betraying the fact that he wasn't all the way there. Kaname was aware enough to be in pain, but not aware enough to really understand what was happening around him and he only partially heard Zero and Salvaje's conversation.

"Zero..." it was a faint, lost whisper. Salvaje froze at the sound of Kaname's voice, red eyes narrowing as he gazed hungrily at the two prisoners huddled in the center of the cage.

Zero squeezed Kaname's shoulder gently. "I'm here, Kaname," he murmured, his silver gaze still warily tracking the 'E circling their cage. The half-crazy vampire licked his lips with a small shuddering inhale that Zero recognized all too well.

In a way, Kaname had been right once, long ago, when he said that perhaps Zero sympathized with the plight of the Level E vampires. It had made Zero incredibly angry at the time, but even if he did not exactly sympathize, he at least understood them, much better than any other hunter ever would. Looking into Salvaje's eyes, Zero knew he was seeing a reflection of where he would probably already be if not for Kaname's continued intervention. This man may or may not have been a good person once, but it didn't matter now. Salvaje's humanity was gone; he'd already all but lost himself to the madness of insatiable blood lust.

Zero may feel sorry for Salvaje, but he knew better than to let that interfere with his judgment. There was no saving vampires once they fell this far, no cure that could reach them. The only mercy you could truly show them was to put them out of their misery and ease the torment of the broken soul that could no longer control its body. Zero would want someone to do the same to him if it ever came down to that point. He had actually come down here in the first place to put this Level E down, and he would not hesitate to do whatever he needed to in order to keep Kaname safe.

Kaname shivered, whimpering weakly through his teeth, fingers twisting feverishly in the front of Zero's shirt as if he could pull the hunter closer, or as if Zero could hide him from the phantom agony in his head and the twisted, unreal hallucinations dancing around him. The hallucinations played like nightmares on his deepest fears and hurts. He was surrounded by blood. Yuki was there... Yuki was dead. Zero was dead. Their throats were ripped out. He'd killed them. His fault.

"No, no, no, no..." the soft, desperate little half-sobs were repeated like a mantra as Kaname rocked agitatedly against Zero, his body shaking. His skin itched like he was covered in bugs. His fingers slid free of Zero's shirt and Kaname scratched his own arm feverishly, almost drawing blood.

Zero held the pureblood tighter, trying to still his agitated movements and catching hold of his wrists to keep him from hurting himself. He rocked Kaname gently back and forth, murmuring soft, formless words of comfort, heart unbearably tight as he looked down at the pureblood's pained face and his vulnerable form. His actions seemed to calm Kaname a little and the pureblood pressed the side of his face harder against Zero's chest as if to assure himself the hunter was real. Even though Zero was still gently but firmly restraining his wrists, an action that in this muddled state would normally trigger a response to fight, the pureblood relaxed against the hunter in a gesture of pure trust.

Kaname's completely open dependency on him stirred something deep inside Zero and his throat swelled closed a bit. Harkening back to his thoughts a few minutes ago, the hunter couldn't help thinking briefly that in the end maybe it didn't matter so terribly much that this man who had captured his heart was from a different race. What was race? Where and how did you start drawing the lines of separation at species, creed or color? The pureblood had a heart and a soul just like he did, didn't he? And Kaname had been through far too much recently. Every fiber of Zero's being ached only to protect him, to try and shield him from any more pain. The resolve that came with that desire replaced the ragged hopelessness and echoes of guilt tugging at Zero's psyche, lending him strength.

Until today, the young hunter had not intentionally taken life other than those of insane vampires, but in this moment, Zero knew in his heart that he was willing to kill for Kaname. It was not a realization he took lightly, but if given no other choice, he would dispatch anyone who kept him from getting the pureblood out of this safely, no matter the cost to his own soul. Kaname was trusting, depending on him, and Zero would do anything for him.

As if sensing Zero's thoughts, although he was in reality responding to seeing a pureblood vampire in such a weak state, Salvaje gave a cruel, hard little laugh.

"There was a fight here," Valdez observed as he and his men panned flashlights across trees bearing bullet scars and ground that had been trampled by many feet and stained by blood.

It was a sharp observation for a human when working in the dark like this, but of course the small company of vampires that Valdez and his men were tagging along with didn't need to be told. They'd smelled the blood long before they reached this clearing, and for them the scene of the fight was as easy to see as it would be in daylight, even though the light of the stars and moon had been obscured by gathering storm clouds several hours ago.

Aido tried not to be irritated as the humans' flashlights kept cutting across the landscape and making him have to blink to keep adjusting his eyes.

"I smell Kaname's blood here, and Zero's," the blonde murmured to his cousin as they surveyed the area, but that too was hardly necessary. Kain, Takuma and Seiren all knew those scents well enough to be picking them up just fine on their own, causing a thick layer of tension and concern that was almost palpable.

There were no bodies, but the scent of multiple blood donors was so strong here, it was impossible that no one had died, so the bodies must have been removed. The blood wasn't fresh, but it wasn't too old either.

"I know," Kain murmured back. Both cousins kept their voices low, however, to avoid Yuki hearing them.

Yuki was standing quietly on the outskirts of the clearing with the members of the medical team. She was exhausted, it was too dark for her to be much good, and she knew to simply stay out of the others' way at this point. She rubbed her arms, folding them across her chest. She was a little chilled by the cool breeze being stirred up by the gathering storm overhead, but mostly she was trying to stave off the leaden sleepiness that was aching behind her eyes, making her stomach feel thick and her eyelids heavy. She knew everyone else had been up more or less as long as she had, however, and tried hard not to let her weariness show.

The searchers had been following the trail left by Ramon's group for hours, keeping a rapid pace, the unerring skill of vampire trackers never once losing the trail in the darkness, much to the cautious surprise of Valdez and his men. The night was starting to wane now and it was bringing an increased urgency to everyone in the vampire party. But the discovery of this stretch of blood soaked earth had tensions ratcheted up to new dimensions.

Had the fight been centered around Kaname and Zero? Or had they been incidental to it? Takuma saw Valdez puzzling over what looked like claw marks on one of the bullet-pocked tree trunks. The soldier was obviously trying to figure out what kind of animal left a mark like that.

Takuma frowned as he looked away across the still, silent landscape. He didn't wonder, he knew. Those marks were made by vampire talons. Unless there were more vampires about, which he doubted, that meant that either Kaname or Zero, or both, had vamped out at some point during the fight here. The fact that they would have revealed themselves while in a group of humans like that worried him. Damn it... what happened here?

Seiren appeared silently at his side, having just been conferring with the extraction team. "I don't like this," she said quietly, her keen eyes darting around the clearing. "I don't like the way it reads. I'm not so sure Kaname-sama and Zero-san were with these people of their own volition," she murmured, referring to whomever the mysterious group was that they had been tracking for the better part of the night.

Takuma nodded slowly, he was starting to fear the same. "The trail continues on?" He inquired, anxious to continue.

"Yes," Seiren confirmed. "But there are a number of trails converging on and leading away from this area. I've got people checking it out to try and make sense of the comings and goings. It looks like one party met another here. I don't know if that was the cause of the fight or the result of it."

"We should move away from here while they check it out," Takuma suggested. The strong scent of blood everywhere was not doing any of the vampires any favors and it was blotting out their ability to smell anything else from the surrounding jungle.

Seiren had started to nod in agreement when the radio she wore over her ear crackled with an urgent report from one of her scouts. Her face tensed and she just had time to turn and shout out to the others. "Fall back! Get to cover!"

Gunfire erupted from the trees on the far side of the clearing. Ramon kept his camps well protected from surprise attacks, circling them in ring after ring of perimeter guards and sentries, spaced out for miles and miles. The outermost ring had been alerted to the presence of the newcomers, and upon seeing that not only were they kitted out for some kind of covert operation, but they had a large contingent of the local military with them, the perimeter guard immediately assessed them to be a threat.

Seiren grabbed Takuma and pushed him down as the gunfire cut over their heads. They both moved swiftly, falling back with vampire speed to better defensible positions. Seiren whipped a sniper weapon from her back and snugged it to her shoulder. This was such a crude, ungraceful form of fighting really, but one had to be prepared for everything. She fixed the crosshairs on the far tree line, easily picking out a target without really needing the magnification provided by the scope. After the first moment of surprise, she knew she didn't have to worry about Takuma again; he was quite capable of taking care of himself. It was the humans with them they were going to have to worry about.

Valdez and his men responded slower to the warnings, but executed their own swift rush for cover with trained efficiency, already returning fire into the trees as they retreated.

The instant the trouble started, Kain and Aido quickly appeared by Yuki's side, hustling her and the medical team towards the thickets where Takuma, Seiren and Valdez's men had taken cover. The members of the extraction team, spread out following the different trails, were swiftly making their way back to defend the others and the soft crack of sniper rifles whined along with the automatic fire.

The medics with them weren't fighters though and Seiren wasn't so sure about Yuki, Kain and Aido either. She looked back over her shoulder as they joined them. "Keep back and keep down," she warned them, although that's what they were already doing.

Kain and Aido held their self-appointed places at Yuki's side, looking slightly vexed that they couldn't do more, but at the same point knowing they needed to protect Kaname's beloved with their lives. At this stage, there wasn't much they could have done anyway. Takuma was in more or less the same position. He wasn't carrying a firearm, he normally didn't need to. In their own right, each of the vampire nobles was capable of being a deadly weapon just by themselves. But for the most part, their skills were more useful in close combat rather than at a distance. The real impediment at the moment though, was the presence of Valdez's platoon. They could not use their powers in a mixed group like this without giving themselves away and the situation wasn't quite desperate enough yet to warrant it anyway. Frustrating as it was, they had to wait and let this conflict play out via more human methods for the moment.

A sudden hustle of movement from elsewhere within the camp dragged Zero's attention away from Salvaje and Kaname. Shouts were quickly being raised and it sounded like everyone was being roused from their sleep. The abrupt, uncertain charge of tension that had filled the air was almost palpable, and even Salvaje seemed to feel it, his attention wavering a little.

Men were running here and there. The rumble of jeep and truck motors being started mixed with the clamor of many voices speaking at once. The smell of vehicle exhaust and human agitation swirled around the camp. Something had happened or was happening, and Zero frowned, trying to sort through the rumbling murmur of voices and discern what was going on. The fact that he didn't know the language most of them were speaking, however, was not helpful. From what little he could gather, it soon became apparent that an alarm had been raised and the camp was evacuating for some reason.

The change in atmosphere made Kaname tense again as he rested against Zero, the new influx of sounds, smells and sensations difficult for his healing mind to sort out. He closed his eyes, cutting off at least one sense. He breathed tensely through his teeth. He might have been imagining it, but he could almost think he heard the faintest echo of gunfire in the distance, just audible to his sensitive hearing. He couldn't be sure of anything right now, however, and even if it was real, it was very far away.

Presently, Ramon and a number of other men paused by the cage. Ramon looked like he'd been recently woken and was out of sorts. One of the other men posed a question that Zero didn't understand, but seemed to carry the gist of "what about them?"

"Load them into one of the trucks. Keep a close eye on them. If they try anything, kill them," Ramon replied in a language Zero could understand, obviously for the benefit of the captives. If the army had found their position as the first panicked reports seemed to indicate, then they had no time for games. "Take Salvaje with you too. If there's any trouble, let him have them," the guerilla leader added rapidly but coolly, as if he were doling out rations. He'd already seen that the silver haired one was a match for Salvaje, but given the combination of Salvaje and the guards he wasn't as worried as he should have been.

Salvaje grinned wickedly and Ramon quickly moved on, having more important matters to worry about. He didn't stop to really look at the captives in the dark, or see past the grime and bloodstains to realize that they were no longer as critically injured as they had been when they entered the cage hours before.

As the cage was unlocked, Zero quickly released the anti-vampire circle he'd set around he and Kaname, smudging the lines with his foot. The two vampires were dragged roughly out of the cage. Kaname was uncharacteristically lagging a few steps behind what was happening as rough hands jerked him away from Zero. The loss of familiar contact plunged him into a dizzying array of sensations, sights and sounds as he was dragged forward, stumbling and limping unevenly. There was a strange pain in his left calf, or at least, he thought it was pain. He didn't know, it was all a jumble of unqualified sensation. Loud voices were talking, pounding in his head like razors, words fragmenting into gibberish. He couldn't hear Zero's heartbeat anymore. There were too many sounds, too much input. Where was he? Where was he?

Zero protested harshly as Kaname was pulled away from him and they were both dragged towards different waiting trucks. He was terrified to realize that they were going to be separated. Kaname was stumbling and blinking like a drunk, the lost, confused, almost frightened look on his face clearly saying he had no idea what was happening and was in no condition to protect himself.

There was the vague outline of a truck ahead. The headlights snapped on and Kaname's hands flew up in front of his face, the pain of the sudden light on his optic nerves blinding him. He stumbled, his breath quickening, heart racing as the unknown hands holding his arms tightened, rough and brusque as they kept him from falling, forcing him forwards. Kaname started to thrash, pulling away from the men holding him with strength that surprised them.

Zero's heart leapt into his throat. They couldn't afford to start anything again, not with Kaname in this extremely vulnerable condition and the whole camp already on alert. Their last battle had been disastrous; they wouldn't survive another without a much better strategy on their side. He forced himself not to simply yank away from his captors, knowing that would only exacerbate matters.

"Kaname!" he tried to get the dazed pureblood's attention. Kaname looked like he was starting to freak out, and if he unwittingly started using his powers, or showing his teeth, Zero knew these men would put him down for good. "Kaname, calm down, it's okay. Please, it'll be okay!" he tried to soothe as he was jostled roughly forward.

Kaname heard Zero's voice and recognized it, he tried to go towards the sound, but the hated hands were there again, tugging at him, voices shouting painfully, making his head ring, he wanted to kill them just so they would all shut up. Desperation was threading through him. He wasn't sure what was reality and what wasn't. All he knew was that these men were trying to take Zero away. He couldn't let them! He started to struggle in earnest, hazy panic and rage clouding his thoughts. The guards couldn't hold onto him but one of them struck the brunette vampire a sharp blow to the back of the skull with the butt of his rifle. The blow itself wasn't so bad, but it jarred the fragments inside Kaname's head. Crying out in pain, the pureblood crumpled to his knees, clutching his temples as lights exploded sickeningly before his eyes. Reality fragmented and swirled, it was all lights, sounds and sensations that had no meaning. Kaname retched, nauseous and disorientated.

"No!" Zero's cry of horrified protest went unheeded in the general chaos as he saw Kaname go down. The guards were obviously on the brink of panicking themselves now, already agitated by the midnight evacuation and having good reason to be afraid of these beasts they were transporting. Things were degrading quickly and this time Zero did yank away from his captors, vampire speed getting him to Kaname before any further blows could fall. He grabbed the pureblood's hunched form; clutching him protectively to his chest and curling forward both in an attempt to calm him and to shield him from the others.

"Stop! Stop it!" he rasped desperately to their captors as he held Kaname's body to him. He winced as a rifle butt landed harshly between his shoulder blades, shooting pain down his right side. The pureblood was jerking in his arms like he was having a seizure, which he probably was.

"He doesn't understand, you're scaring him! Let me stay with him and he'll be all right!" Zero pleaded, trying to appear as non-threatening as possible to assuage their captors' fears.

Unwittingly, it was probably the best thing he could have said. These men already thought they were some kind of animals. Having only seen Kaname either unconscious or gravely injured and traumatized, they thought Zero the more sentient of the two. The fact that Kaname did indeed stop struggling and simply rocked in Zero's arms as the silver haired vampire held him made them relax a little.

"All right," one of their captors snarled in a halting cadence. "But you control him or I shoot you both. Get him in the truck!"

As carefully as he could, Zero rose and tugged Kaname to his feet with him. Kaname swayed, clutching Zero's arm, but he stumbled along obediently at Zero's urgings, allowing the hunter to guide him and seeming calmed by the soft, murmured assurances Zero whispered in his ear.

A few minutes later the two vampires were settled in the open back of one of the trucks along with several guards and a silent, watchful Salvaje. The other guerillas seemed wary of the way Salvaje's eyes continued to glow in the darkness, but they also appeared to have seen it before and simply tried to give him a wide berth, obviously not pleased to have to be in the back of this particular truck.

Zero's left wrist was handcuffed to Kaname's right, while the hunter's right wrist was handcuffed to the metal bar running along the back of the truck bed. Zero smiled grimly as he pushed his back into the corner and cradled Kaname carefully against him. When Kaname recovered enough to be in control of his faculties again, he was going to be insulted that these men felt Zero was a bigger threat. They had no idea how strong it meant Kaname was that he was moving and conscious at all with the kind of brain damage his body was attempting to repair.

The truck lurched to a start, bumping away across the rough terrain and joining the other vehicles as they made their way along the sketchy outline of a dirt road leading away from the quickly emptying camp.

Salvaje watched Kaname, Zero watched Salvaje and the guerillas nervously watched everyone. Just as they started to really pick up speed, warm, fat drops of rain started to fall from the cloudy heavens. Zero gave a soft, grim exhale. He didn't know where they were going, but this was going to be such a fun little ride.

The gunfire from the rebels in the trees was starting to abate. Yuki, crouching near Kain and Aido found that at least she wasn't feeling a bit sleepy anymore, although she did feel incredibly useless back here, not to mention anxious. Whatever was happening, it couldn't be good that this trail had led them into a firefight. The whole situation was surreal. She was afraid, yet at the same time she wasn't entirely because on some level it was all almost too foreign to be real. It was as if she was in one of those movies that Zero liked to watch. Rain was starting to fall and she wiped her dampening hair away from her eyes.

Valdez gave a sideways glance towards the foreign 'allies' mingled amongst his own men. Everyone was intent on the firefight with the insurgents. Whether or not there were any survivors to be found would probably be answered once this pocket of resistance was dealt with. However... he wouldn't get a better chance than this to deal with the searchers. He gave one of his men a silent nod and received an equally silent affirmative.

Seiren frowned in sudden concern, finger slipping to her earpiece. "I've just lost contact with Echo Six and Echo One," she told Takuma quickly, referring to two of the extraction team members by their number designation. Almost as soon as she spoke, they saw the dark shape of another one of their team nearby jerk suddenly and slip to the ground as a streak of bullets caught him... not from the enemy in front of them, but in the back, from the supposed comrade kneeling right behind him.

The downed vampires might probably live given time to recover, but for the moment, they were out of commission and the remaining members of the search party found themselves in the undesirable position of suddenly being betrayed at a most inopportune moment and surrounded by enemies.

Valdez's men opened fire all at once at point blank range. Yuki ducked, but even before she hit the ground, Aido was on top of her, rolling her away with vampire speed. Kain was suddenly in the tree above where they had been standing and flames blazed to life in the brush below, blazing a hot wall of fire between their betrayers and his cousin and Yuki.

In the sky overhead, lightening crackled. At first, that was not an unusual sight considering the storm, until one thick tongue touched down directly in the middle of the bloody field before them, momentarily blinding most of the humans in the area. Several smaller arches of electricity leapt outward, catching the pair of Valdez's men that were standing closest to Takuma and Seiren.

Aido sprung back to his feet, tugging Yuki up with him, an indigent scowl darkening his face as he gazed through the wavering wall of fire his cousin had cast protectively around them. "Those backstabbing little bastards!" he growled, ice gathering around his hands instinctively.

Well, at least now their enemies were right here where they could reach them, and there was no longer any reason to hide their powers or their natures. The element of surprise was not about to work quite as well for Valdez as he had anticipated.