Disclaimer: I do not know the BSB, nor do I claim to know their orientation. The following is entirely a figment of my imagination. Warning: There are M/M situations. All under 18 are advised to not continue reading.
Otherwise, I would like to say a BIG THANKS to all of you who have kept with me during this entire story. I hope I don't disappoint! :)
It felt cold. I couldn't see. Total darkness. My arms searched for Nick's warm body, only to be disappointed. Damn those vivid hallucinations. My body was strewn in some sort of damp chamber. It smelled of death in here, numbing any sort of lewd thoughts that would have formed in my mind.
Wash away the dirty thoughts! I closed my eyes, hoping for some relief from this obsession with Nick's body. How could the Almans and vampires conjure up such a dirty chant. If I felt this desperate, what was Nick feeling at this time? Hopefully just as desperate as me, I thought ashamedly.
My eyes slowly adapted to the darkness, and I could tell that there was something else in that room with me. I approached it swiftly, hoping that speed would be on my side. To my chagrin, whatever it was was unconscious. It was ugly and dirty. I pinched my nose in disdain as I started to move away.
But it grabbed my ankles mercilessly. "Please don't leave, gentle one."
I shook my head. "I'm no gentle one, believe me!" I hollered as I pulled my leg away.
"No!" the figured cried out desperately. "Please don't leave. I need your help!"
"I have my own problems!" I tried to pluck his fingers off.
"No! We must fight them! We must escape!" the figure cried one last time, before I calmed down, realizing that he must be in the same boat as I was.
"Fight?" I asked dumbly.
"Escape first," he replied.
"What are we escaping from?" I asked hesitantly.
The figure shook his head. "They planned it all . . . this tragedy! They knew all about the consequences . . . but they went ahead and planted the seed!"
I shook my head, deathly confused. "What seed? What tragedy?" I knew this creature knew some secret. But he wasn't cognizant enough to talk clearly.
The creature scuttled around, nervous. "They knew how to create a body. They must have known. Yet they didn't create the body out of love . . . those selfish bastards. They created one that they could ensnare his soul . . . and DAMN if it ain't the exact replica. How did they know? How could they have sculpted it so wonderfully, to give it a set of attitudes. I mean 'it' has the intelligence and the sex appeal. But wow! The innocence was amazing."
Now I was completely lost. But one thing was for sure--he was talking about Nick! "Excuse me?" I said with an attitude, knowing that this guy was the key!
He looked at me like I was some lunatic. His eyes widened with wonder, but like everyone else seemed to be doing these days, he ignored me and continued with his soliloquy, pacing back and forth. "I mean . . . look at his face . . . and his skin feels so . . . so smooth!"
"Hey hey hey, back off!" I cried in agitation. "Stop talking like he's some sort of prize. Okay? Leave your disgustingly dirty hands off of him."
The guy turned to look at me, once again with that bewildered and annoying look on his face. Then he snorted and smirked. "Hmmm, figures." He replied. Once again, he was talking to himself and pretending that I was invisible. He placed his thumb to his chin, trying to decide what kind of idiot I was.
I stared at him defiantly. "What figures? You selfish fiend." I turned the other way and started to look for a way out.
"The only way out is underneath you," the guy finally addressed me.
I ignored him, yet allowing my feet to feel the floor cautiously.
He laughed. "You're too easy a prey for them. You believe everything I say? It's a wonder how you could match my intelligence."
I smirked, sensing the kind of game he's playing. "It doesn't take too much intelligence for me to beat you in the game of love."
He stared at me, bewildered, but within seconds, that cocky smirk of his came back. He knelt down and placed a hand on what appeared to be a trapdoor, sliding it aside with little effort to reveal a passageway. He looked up at me, his cold face only looking more sinister with every heart beat. Then he disappeared!
I ran towards the trapdoor and saw his form disappear in the darkness. Without further thought, I too jumped down the trap door, surprised that my feet found nothing substantial until a good thirty seconds later when I fell into a cold cold body of water. I pushed myself towards the surface, surprised to find that I was inside a gigantic cave! How . . . when did this happen? Was I that unconscious to not be able to know that people have thrown my body into some sort of dungeon that was located inside a huge cave?
I suddenly heard that sinister laugh from that guy I had mindlessly followed down here. "No, silly. Don't you see? This is an underground cave in the same palace that your stinkin' vampires live.
"You're no vampire?" I asked, but I knew he wasn't.
He laughed. So predictable. "I'd commit suicide before admitting that I belong to those creeps. "I'm your arch enemy," he snorted.
An Alman! My senses became so much sharper as I tried to hide my fear. I had never seen one before. I don't even know their tactics. How do they steal people's souls? And now I'm trapped in the middle of nowhere with one. But why? Why was he captured? How was he captured?
He stared at me closely, his eyes locking with mine . . . and I could tell that he would never have been captured if he didn't want to.
"That's right," he answered my thought. "Those insignificant beasts have no talent to lure me into any trap. But they did help bring me closer to the one person I've been wanting to track down for you don't know how long."
My blood ran cold. Tracking down? I stole a glance at him. His eyes were slitlike, but his smile was difficult to decipher.
He laughed. "Follow me if you wanna find Nick," he said to me.
Did I look crazy to him? Follow him? He was leading me into a trap. I'd be damned if I followed that nutcase. I turned away from him and started running in the opposite direction. I'd find Nick on my own, without his interference. That would probably be safest for me.
But to my chagrin, I felt his hand upon my shoulders, pulling me back in his direction. He pulled me into him until our noses were touching. "You challenged me to a game of love. I accept." With that, he shoved me into the waters and started to turn away and head further into a cave.
At that moment, I understood one thing. This guy loved Nick! I could tell from the fury in his voice, from the lack of hesitation in his actions . . . from the accusatory nature of his face. He was angry at the vampires!
I didn't hesitate any longer. I followed him, knowing that he would lead me to Nick. It appeared that we were running for half a day, dodging strange, exotic creatures along the way. I didn't know if we were getting any closer to Nick. I couldn't smell his scent whatsoever.
Then I felt a wift of something . . . I could sense a certain fear radiating from my leader.
"Daniel," he offered his name, quietly.
"What's going on?" I asked worriedly.
"I don't smell his scent either."
We finally stopped in front of cemented door. Daniel barged through ferociously, tearing the door down without hesitation, but he was unsuccessful. He quickly looked to me, beckoning for my help.
We put our heads together and directed our energy towards the door, finally toppling it over. I quickly headed after DAniel into the room. My lips quivered. Nick! His body lay lifelessly on top of a bed of jade, only clothed at the groins. One of his arms fell to the side of the jade bed. But what frightened me the most was the deathly look on his face, throughout his body. I grabbed his hand, fear-stricken even more when it was cold as ice. I felt for a pulse and could only feel a few rare pulse beats after a few minutes.
"What did they do to him?" I asked.
He ignored me once again and ran out of the room. Great! I wasn't gonna leave Nick like that. I grabbed his body, my fear peaked because of the coldness. I didn't care anymore what Danny boy was doing. I wasn't going to leave Nick's body as fodder for anyone's pleasure. I pulled him onto my shoulders, feeling his cold skin plastered against me. I felt that chill radiating down my spine. Before leaving the room, I noticed a white viscous fluid where Nick had laid. I didn't know who that belonged to, but I felt queasy just thinking that Nick was sexually serving anyone in any way prior to this.
I heard some screams in a room nearby. My guess was that it was Daniel, wreaking havoc.
"Imbecile!" I heard another voice . . . a female voice, one which I didn't recognize. It sounded neither old nor young. Then I heard the sound of fighting. I looked around where I was trying to memorize location. Then, I saw a cupboard. I placed Nick's body on the ground, and using my powers, I shrank Nick's body to that of a kid's. With one firm grasp, I pulled it up and placed it gently in the cupboards . . . like taking a child to bed. I formed a blanket out of the layer of dust in the castle and placed it around Nick's small body, veiling him from anything that could come across him. I blew a kiss to him as I closed the cupboard. "I'll be back! I promise." With a nod of the head, I disappeared into the room where Daniel had entered.
I had not paused for a moment to think of the stupidity of my actions. No. I barged into the the room like a blind man without his cane. And all that came before my eyes was a vision so exotic that I had to take a few seconds to recollect my thoughts.
In a small glass bottle where one single flame was at the opening, there lay trapped a soul, one that could only have belonged to Nick. His essence was that of a pure little boy, formed from a cloud of smoke, being trapped in a small transparent soda bottle. And hovering in front of the bottle . . .
I gasped. Kevin?
"Kevin?" my lips quivered, unable to believe the strangeness of the scene before me.
Kevin immediately stared at me as soon as he heard my voice, but the guilt in his eyes had told me the story. His breathing started to become labored. "Brian," he said huskily, his eyes not quite dark yet oh so mysterious.
My eyes quickly flitted towards Nick's soul, ensnared in a tiny bottle. That must have done the trick because Danny suddenly clobbered Kevin from behind, shoving the bottle onto the ground. I quickly dove towards the battle, ready to grab it when I felt ten other bodies flinging themselves towards the bottle, throwing me aside. To my relief, the bottle was in my right hand, burning and searing my flesh. I could have cared less. I ran like the wind, forcing my way out of the room. I felt Kevin's essence not too far away.
Yet instinct told me that the farther away I was from Kevin, the more chances I had of recovering my Nick in one piece. I fled like a madman around the corridors, not really knowing where I was headed. Alas, my lack of direction finally caught up to me as I saw the Sons and the Queen right smack in front of my view, along with a woman I did not recognize. All looked stern beyond belief.
I stopped in my tracks, clueless as to what to do next. I held the bottle with Nick's soul firmly in my hand. If anything, I would die while embracing Nick.
"Run," I heard a whisper from behind me. "Towards the opening on your right," the voice continued.
What the hell? Who was giving me these absurd pieces of advice. There was nothing but a wall on the right!
"It's camouflage," the voice continued in my mind. "And this is Nick's voice!" I turned to look down at the bottle, only to see Nick's soul staring at me with this intensity that made me believe. I turned to the right and ran like the wind. I was almost there! I could have sworn I was just a few feet away from that opening, when I felt a big energy field crash into my body, making me fall down and dropping the bottle onto the ground. I heard the sound of the bottle shattering into a thousand pieces. I looked up only to see the condensed soul that was Nick disperse into a cloud of smoke and then disappear.
And when I finally had the chance to look behind me, I saw the approaching forms of the Queen, her Sons and that woman.
That woman . . . there was something strange about her air. She was no vampire, yet she stood proudly among the royal family. She smiled royally, too, her white teeth sparkling. However, her smile looked crooked, and it didn't take me too long to realize that the smile was her way of showing her anger. Before I knew it, she had flung a burst of lightning at me, making my mind go numb and my skin crawl.
She laughed wickedly. "Dear Brian," she said with an ominous voice. "Thank you for returning my Nickolas back to us. But what you have done just now is a great disservice to both the Alman and vampire community."
She gazed at me dangerously. She was going to destroy me. I could see it in her eyes. She raised her hands and I could see her bony knuckles in the dim light. I slowly inched my way back, not really sure of what she was doing. Her powers were much different from the vampires. I could not tell where her source of energy came from. Hence, I did not know how to block her impending attack. And just as I was about to attempt an escape, I heard a voice.
"Please, don't!" Kevin! What kind of confusing role was he trying to pull?
"It's not Brian's fault," Kevin continued. "He didn't know. He never knew a single thing, your highness! He's a very young vampire! He doesn't know about the plans. Give him a chance. He's very powerful. He can one day grow up to be a supremely powerful leader for the vampires. Please don't Princess."
Princess? That oafish lady? As if hearing my thoughts, she glared at me. "Your cousin has been a deterrant in our affairs. How is it that he will one day lead the vampires?" The princess remarked snidely.
Kevin seemed undeterred. "He's young, but he did help convince Nick to remain with us. He has a very strong hold on Nickolas, bordering on love. Nickolas is bound to Brian. I have seen the way Nickolas looks at Brian. He's infatuated. Brian had succeeded in capturing his heart. Princess . . . not many among our kind has this innate ability."
No. I will not go along with this. Kevin made all my emotions seem dirty and horrible. However, I held my tongue. I had to remain alive . . . in order to see Nick again.
The Princess stared at Kevin doubtfully before casting her glare at me. "I can't see what Nickolas sees in this 'thing'." She nodded at me condescendingly.
Just then, one of the Sons neared her and placed an arm around her waist. "I can't see it either, my love."
Then, it dawned on me. I didn't know how, but I just knew. These were the people who had created Nick!!!!! She . . . she had to be the princess of the almans . . . and he? The prince of the vampires. Together, they had conceived Nick. My head spun. I didn't know how I knew it. I just did. It was a mutual agreement between the two royal family. There was no war between the Almans nor the vampires. It was a story created . . . but why? Was it to lure Nickolas from America back to Sangria? Everything had been staged. From Nick's childhood . . . to his life with Backstreet . . . to his return to Sangria . . . to his capture! Why hadn't I seen it before. I look towards Kevin, his eyes revealing a sympathy for my ignorance. Howie . . . Kevin . . . both of them knew about this.
My thoughts were interrupted by a cackle. "Yes . . . " The princess laughed. "So you figured it out, my young one. It is true we have conceived Nickolas. Only by blood of both vampire and alman are we able to create a hybrid like him, a body strong enough to capture the ancient spirit of the one who created us all. It had been a struggle, but we had nurtured him while at the same time finding a way to lure the ancient spirit into his body. We had tried so hard to weaken his mind to the point that it would create a depression in him, enough to suck the ancient spirit into his body."
"And so you hurt him? You humiliated him? You raped him?" I cried out in exasperation.
She twisted her eyebrows in mock confusion. "Not only that . . . in those dark hours of the night . . . in the land of the Almans where he was born and raised, I let the guards pay him a visit every night, making sure that he could not sleep, making sure that each night would be filled with lewd pleasures by the guards. Whatever sadistic measures were necessary to whip his body into the condition that the ancient soul was, we would do. We mimicked every last torture save that which caused the ancient soul to die. It was a difficult job, but someone had to do it."
I shook my head in disgust. "But he's your son!"
She cackled. "I don't carry much interest in having a son that's a hybrid with a vampire. However, he's just another body with an attractive shell. Nothing more. You shouldn't be too pained by his exterior. He was not able to feel any emotion . . . at least not until we were able to capture the spirits from the Mountains into his body. Prior to that, he was more like a robot you could say. We had programmed for his body to respond so that humans would not find him odd. His previous interactions with you were programmed. It wasn't until the ancient spirit inhabited his body that he became something more!"
"No!!!!" I refused to believe it. He had feelings prior to the spirit entering his body. He had!!!! It wasn't my imagination. He had felt every last humiliation, had tasted every emotion known to man. I saw the sadness in his eyes. He couldn't have been programmed for anything. He had a soul, prior to us coming to those volcanoes. I had felt it!
The Alman princess cackled once again. "He was amazing, wasn't he? The guards thought so, too."
I gazed coldly at her, too maddened to speak. But she too looked at me in fury and continued, "But you have ruined everything. And for what? For his love? He is but a wandering soul! Through him, we could have channeled so much power, power that we could use to rule this world."
I shook my head in disbelief. Even for a soul without a body, they would not let go of. And for them to use a body as pristine as Nick's to entrap this ancient soul? That was plain cruel.
"Cruel? Or clever, my dear boy," the Alman Princess hissed.
I closed my eyes, willing the rage to go away, but my anger soon reigned. I felt this massive source of energy from within me, uncontrollable, unbearable. All was white. I then heard a small yelp, and when I opened my eyes again, I was no longer in the dark cave in front of the Alman princess.