He moved delicately through the permanent dark that was his world. Careful hands reached out lightly to skim surfaces and lead his way through the lab to his friend's side. His master had yet again rearranged everything and was no doubt watching his slow progress now as he felt new pathways to the raspy breathing that was his beacon. It amused the doctor vastly to keep him on his guard and never let him get comfortable. Rooms were shifted without warning on a regular basis so he was never sure of himself or where his next footfall should be. Eros's small fingers slid along the edges of tables searching for the ends and if there was space to go forward, his blind eyes wide and unblinking. Several times his he had gone forward to only find the way blocked and had to retreat and feel his way to another opening. He had been forbidden to call upon Daniel himself for aid. Daniel had he been awake would have called his name and told him where to go and where to turn. As it was almost an hour had passed and Eros still struggled in the maze of countertops and cages but he patiently worked on determined to reach the other slave's side.

Daniel woke with a start at the loud clank of metal against metal and turned a head leaden with pain towards the sound. His vision cleared and the white blur settled itself into the clean lines of his comrade's robes and form. He smiled weakly at his friend and called his name in a gentle whisper.

"Go back two steps Eros and then come to the right." Eros elongated ears twitched at the low sound and he smiled in the general direction of his friend.

"Daniel you are awake now. I come to visit you, you are all right?" Eros inquired his voice thinned with concern. He followed the directions given to him and then advanced forward in small steps until he reached the other's side. He felt along Daniel's body until he reached his face and could cup it in his hands; a small frown on him at what his fingers told him.

"Daniel what have they done to you? You do not feel like you. It is you but it is also not you." Daniel waited patiently while Eros hands roamed the planes of his face and ran through his hair. He watched his friends face as Eros detected all the minute changes and unsaid emotions ran across the pale complexion like water. Crystalline eyes with the barest tinge of blue widened and narrowed and the long main of his white hair swayed as he shook his head in astonishment.

"Daniel?" He queried again the soft pads of his fingers tracing once again his cheek and jawbones. The tiny tips of his fingers catching the exhausted tears that slid from Daniel's eyes.

"I don't know Eros. They injected me with something. I feel different Eros my skin feels strange to me like I'm wearing someone else's coat. I can see and hear things I couldn't before. Eros, I'm scared. I…I don't know what this means." Eros stroked the cool cheek beneath him in a soothing manner. Daniel voice shook around the words because he was all too afraid he might just understand what it meant despite his statement otherwise. Eros head snapped up and for the first time in his life Daniel heard something the instant Eros had. He turned his face into the palm of his friend knowing the brief respite was already over. The clips of the doctor's shoes rang clearer as he approached. Daniel closed his eyes blocking out the site of him for as long as he could. Eros stood beside him quietly waiting knowing better then to back away.

"How quaint and touching. You both paint such a pretty picture, such luscious creatures that you are." Daniel regretfully opened his eyes and looked up into the bulging red of the doctor's. Dr. Webber laid a cold hand against his forehead and peered down into his eyes intently as if checking something. Eros stepped back and put his arms behind his back hands clasped together as if bound and bowed his head blank eyes fixed to the floor. Daniel's gut twisted for the slave he knew all to well the dangers if one did not appear properly submissive at all times. He had to little time to dwell on their joint fate though as his now overly sensitive ears picked up the approach of the dragon. Webber walked around the table he was spread upon to make room for his employer and went to his own concubine. His fingers tangled in the long soft white hair of the young male curling into a fist near the base of his skull and yanked hard bringing the slave down on his knees. Daniel turned away from the abuse and looked to his master. Wu Long smiled around a mouthful of sharp teeth at him once their eyes met.

"Awake and ready are you? Is he ready doctor?" Wu Long asked barely repressed excitement in his voice. Dr. Webber nodded and released his grip on Eros's head.

"Yes, he's ready when ever you are. It's been several hours and no ill effects save for ones I'd rather think you'd appreciate are evident. You may proceed at anytime with the impregnation, although I warn you it may take several attempts before it holds. If that's all will you excuse me as I have matters of my own to attend to?" Daniel's heart skipped a beat and then heaved in his chest and despite the uselessness of it he lunged against his bonds. Wu Long laughed at him but turned serious as he looked at the doctor.

"Before you go what ill effects? Anything serious?" He asked a bit of anger flaring beneath his hide if anything untoward had happened. Dr. Webber appeared not to notice the change in tenor more preoccupied with harassing Eros then concerned with Daniel his response thrown back casually.

"Oh, nothing serious as I told you. I stripped the donor tissue as I said I would and added a few odds and ends to the mix. He's more beautiful now and more sensitive to your touch, although wounds will heal faster he'll feel the initial pain more. He will be physically weaker then before as well, I made sure to reverse the agent that gives me and my kind additional strength and there is a residue of empathy but not enough to let him read someone, more then likely it will just make him vulnerable to your emotions and unable to control his own. Initially that's all I found. You are satisfied are you not?" Wu Long leaned in close to Daniel his yellow eyes boring into his slaves widened panicked ones as Daniel encountered first hand the slight empathy able to feel in his bones the lust in the dragon's body.

"Oh, that's more then fine. You're excused Webber." Wu Long hissed close and hot against Daniel's cheek. Daniel's world narrowed down to the creature above him and the strange quivers running through his body. He felt the loss of Eros's presence in the back of his mind only dimly. A strange keening erupted from his throat and the animals in their various cages around the room went mad with the sound hearing the call of a kami in distress but unable to aid. Wu Long closed his eyes and breathed in the new scent that clung to his bed servant, and intoxicating mix of Daniel's own scent and the pheromones of a kami. He nuzzled against his neck lapping at the skin reveling in the taste of salt and sweat. Almost with out thinking he unhinged his jaw and sank both sets of his fangs into the juicy flesh drinking in and issuing forth at the same time. Daniel hissed beneath him and jerked hard twice before his body succumbed and went limp. Wu Long worried his throat more lapping the wounds with his tongue until they started to close up. Wu Long pulled back to watch as Daniel's tissue healed itself. If all went as well as this regenerative external healing within the slave then he would have what he so desperately wanted and he would have it soon.

Wu Long removed the bonds that held Daniel and carried the dead weight back to his own chambers. He spoke to him as he walked in a calm low manner of what was to be and his part in it. He spoke of the honor of bearing a child to him and how he would be revered for it if only Daniel would accept his fate and not require the cage and restraints to keep him in his place. His hands were gentle as they cupped the warm paralyzed form to him. His caresses almost tender as he laid his concubine in the center of the bed and placed the leather collar around his throat. Instead of ripping his clothing Wu Long removed them one piece at a time and folded them laying them to one side. Daniel stared into the high vaulted ceiling unable to blink or move against the venom coursing through him. His chest rose and fell slowly as his body fought to continue breathing irregardless of what he would have wished. He would have wished for death if he could but even that was taken from him. Daniel cried within himself the tears unable to breach his eyes as Wu Long worshipped him with his hands and mouth making love to him in direct contrast to the violence Daniel had come to expect.

"I can make it good for you Daniel. I will adorn you with the finest clothes and jewels. You will be beautiful forever and will want for nothing. Give me what I want willing Daniel and I will protect you and covet you." Wu Long whispered against his ear fervently and his mind screamed against the assault unable to shake the truth of the emotions rolling from Wu Long. Emotions that made promises of his words as he parted Daniels legs and knelt between them preparing him for entry; warm oil slid into him and made the glide of cold fingers in him an easy thing. A pillow was pushed beneath his hips after Wu Long had stretched the opening and his fingers were replaced with the heavy erection between his legs. Daniel felt the final cracking breaks in his mind as the master he feared in pain and torment pumped into and out of him in slow steady strokes that were designed for pleasure. The organ warmed by his own internal temperature filled him like a glove and every inward push hit the gland inside and sent electric pulses through him. His own arousal Wu Long took in one large hand bringing him to the edge whether he wanted to or not and taking him with him as his insides were flooded with semen. Daniel moaned in his throat the betrayal of all that had kept him sane. Cruelty made the weight of his enslavement bearable and that cruelty had now come to an end with the burying of live seed inside newly formed walls. Wu Long collapsed against him and forced his knees under the pillow and raised Daniels hips even further to keep what he had released from spilling out. He withdrew after long moments had passed and the venom began to wear off.

Wu Long left the bed searching for his robe and sleep pants. He came back to Daniel with a drink in one hand and a bowl in the other. He lifted Daniel's head and helped him sip the liquid carefully. He cleaned the splatters of semen from his chest and stomach then dipped lower to clean between the still parted legs. He took the bowl of water and rag away and returned again with a robe for Daniel pulling his arms through it and securing it about his waist. Wu Long pulled his larger heavier body beside Daniel's and turned him on his side so he could hold him. The chain pulled tight and in annoyance Wu Long snapped it flinging the end over the headboard.

"You will behave won't you Daniel? You won't make me punish you or lock you away. You feel our child already, I know you do, just as I know you won't endanger a child will you?" Daniel sobbed quietly and lay still in the embrace his limbs able to move but still heavy. Wu Long stroked his hair and kissed the nape of neck affectionately able to feel the final dregs of resistance slipping from the young man.

"Shhh, the worst is over for you. I won't beat you or hurt you again save you make me. I promise. Sleep Daniel and in the morning you'll start a new life and soon I will have my betrothed as well and you will never be alone and my line shall prosper." With that Wu Long sank just the tips of his fangs into Daniel shoulder enforcing his will with one of his other venoms and he watched over the human as his eyelids drifted closed and did not go to sleep himself until Daniel was deep into his dreams.

In another room of the sprawling complex Eros raised blind eyes to the moonlight and mourned for his friend. His master had told him all that had happened and all that was to happen and heavy grief settled in his breast. Daniel had wanted to believe escape was possible even if that escape meant death but even death was to be denied him. Eros pulled pale knees up and rested his chin on them. He moved carefully around the welts on his back adjusting to the sting in his skin and mulled things over in his mind. Daniel would not do anything to injure a little one, no matter how it came into being and would be physically to weak to attempt leaving from what he had been told and overheard. The new properties his body had been given meant he would heal if he tried to take his own life and that left only one route open to him; true submission. Eros long pointed ears folded back against his head in sadness. Daniel was the only purpose of his life, he waited the long weeks between allowed visits in dreary drudgery and acceptance for the few moments he could have with him. Eros vowed in his soul to do whatever he had to too stay as close to the human as he could and to take the abuse he suffered with quiet dignity if it allowed him to keep the connection; silent tears fell and he cried himself to sleep.

Speeding through the darkening streets Jill watched in horror as Ning curled into himself and gasped long fingers curled around his head. Ning moaned as he felt a part of himself awaken in the human and rivulets of shock wrapped around his nervous system as he felt Daniel being recreated with his blood. He knew when the human body bent and twisted internally and the second his grandchild was conceived. He screamed in Chinese for grandmother and then went limp in his seat his mind shutting down as he took the overload of empathetic information from the soul of the altered human his agony screeching through the shared neural connection.

Jiaoshu jerked out of his sleep and immediately wrapped a protective arm around his stomach panic swirling through him. He cried out for Leon silently and crawled into his beloved's arms as soon as the door swung open. Leon pulled him from the bed and carried him to the couch and settled down hugging him close. The baby inside of him turned and twisted its new mind reaching out for the new conscious it could feel in Daniel's body so many miles away. Nana stood trembling her face ashen and closed. Q-Chan had pulled Alan against him in a crushing grip and the surprised young man petted his back offering comfort despite not knowing what had happened. Jiaoshu looked at his grandmother his mismatched eyes wide and alarmed.

"I have a brother….but how?" He asked her in Chinese. Nana shook her head and clasped and unclasped her hands.

"I do not know but I suggest we find out." Nana whispered back and reached for the mind of her grandson when all she could touch was swirling black emotions she pulled back and turned to Alan.

"Alan, tell me. You have watched the Dragon who does he hold closest to him?" Alan kept stroking the kami in his arms as he thought about it.

"What do you mean by close? His right hand man is Dr. Webber otherwise known as the creepy guy. Um, other then that he keeps what he calls a valet. I've tried to get to him a few times but Wu Long keeps him in his personal chambers and you can imagine how many times I've been able to wander around in there. Poor kid's little more then a very abused sex toy. All I know of him is his first name and that's Daniel." He told her thoughtfully chewing his bottom lip. Nana paced restlessly her mind spinning.

"Alan this Dr. Webber, can you describe him?" She asked trying to put pieces together in her mind and inkling of what it might be coming to her.

"Sure, he looks a lot like you guys but it's inverted somehow. I mean you guys are all breath claiming stunners where as he makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. He's got buggy red eyes and his skin's all wrong and too tight across his facial bones. It's like his just a shell and something squishy is inside." Nana nodded falling silent. Q-Chan pulled himself out of Alan's arms and took a shaky step towards her.

"It is him, isn't it Mother?" Q-Chan questioned. In all their race only a few had been turned to evil but only one had been born of it and he survived yet where others of their kind had come to an end. If he and the dragon halfing had formed an alliance it bode nothing but darkness to the world around them. Nana met his worried gaze her eyes clear and angry.

"It must be my son, no one else in this world has the knowledge to do such a thing but one of our own and there isn't one among us who would but him." Leon growled at the words feeling the discordant fear through Jiaoshu.

"So now what?" Leon asked the group around him. Nana smiled at him without humor.

"Now detective the stakes go even higher as we must not only protect what you hold in your arms but also save the one who was made." Leon grinned then and so did Alan.

"Does this mean I can finally kick this Wu Long's ass?" Leon asked her. Alan laughed and shot back. "Only if I don't do it first." The two cousins straightened their backs steel in their voices. Nana could feel the heat of battle rising in them in slow hot tide. Warriors in arms and unafraid she settled her senses around the two and breathed in deeply what they were.

"Oh, yes Leon, it is time, time indeed."