Daniel laid in the great bed shivering. His insides were twisting and rolling trying to adapt to the life he held inside him and a clammy sheen of sweat covered him as he braced himself against another wave of wrenching pain and nausea. Small shrills escaped through his clenched lips as it hit; his body going rigid at the crown of the spasm then involuntarily gasping and hiccupping for air as it passed. His muscles trembled and twitched in exhaustion from the constant repetitive seizures; a million needle points of agony radiating from them.

Wu Long watched the concubine from his desk across the room. Spread before him were detailed blue prints of Leon's apartment buildings showing all the entrance ways and various pipes and shunts between the walls. His intentions had been to spend the morning searching for a chink in the armor that would let him find passage in but hours ticked by with his eyes blankly staring at nothing. He couldn't keep his mind from wandering back to Daniel. He couldn't keep himself from opening up his empathetic abilities to check on him or from pulling back at the intense misery that the boy emanated. Fears and emotions he could never show in the light of day played within him as he kept vigil over Daniel. It was precarious thing to care for someone in his position and not something to be done lightly. It was the first and hardest lesson he had learned when taking up his trade.

He knew himself to be a cruel man and had reveled in the power and blood, after all he was dragon if only by half. It wasn't long into his adulthood that he recognized and accepted that he did not want a lover of equal strength in his life. The infinite pleasures of keeping and breaking someone called to him instead. The first though had been a young wild thing whose family had offered him up to the dragon in sacrifice; an exchange to stay within his good graces. Wu Long could still here his screams and curses as he struggled against him; could still remember the warmth of his blood breaking across his lips. The only pleasure he denied himself was coming inside the human's warm walls pulling out at the end his semen burning through whatever it touched. Wu Long had finally beaten him into submission over the years and towards the end of his life had become compliant and meek. He had ceased his efforts to find escape and in return Wu Long had removed the chains that bound him; trusting in his submissiveness to keep him by his side. Wu Long had showered him with fine clothes and jewels; gifts to please his eye and to lessen the sting of the blows he dealt him. A beautiful garnet ring to settle inches from blossoming bruises on his hands and arms and regal gowns that covered the red puncture wounds on his throat and body. The human had sat at his feet quietly an elegant glimmering jewel that he showed to the world. It had proved to be his undoing when a neighboring warlord had breached his defenses and attacked while he was away on business. He arrived back to find his home in shambles, his supplies pillaged and his beloved concubine tied and displayed for the public. He could still hear the screams as they plundered his naked body on the very altar his parents had left him at. The rage and helplessness still alive within him; his memory still clear of how he came upon them and their drunken revelry as they laughed at the Dragon's Whore. He still saw in his dreams the soft black hair flowing over the altar side as his concubine turned his head to meet his master's eyes for the last time. He was mere feet away from saving him but not quick enough to stop the descent of the knife into his throat the warlord still pummeling his sex into his dieing body.

Wu Long had hunted down and killed them all. The cracking of their skulls a temporary balm to the weird unknown ache in his chest but not enough to completely ease it. The human warlord that had so foolishly rose up against him he punished in kind. Bent double over the altar his head pillowed on the cold flesh of the dead concubine the man had pleaded for death. Wu Long forced entry into him letting his rage take him into his other form doubling him in mass. He ruptured the warlords internal organs with his girth and the acidic nature of his ejaculate dissolved him from within. A slow agonizing death for all to see and know as the dragon reclaimed his throne. The body of his concubine he burned till nothing was left and the winds carried the soot away. He never again made the mistake of letting his emotions be known. As cruel as it seemed his very coldness to Daniel protected him from a world that would do much worse than beat him for pleasure; a world full of enemies that would only take what profited someone and would only destroy what someone cared for.

Wu Long's pulse beat sluggish in his veins as he sat slumped in his chair. He hadn't fully prepared himself to care. He had known that Daniel meant more to him than his predecessors. He knew the first month when he couldn't bear to punish him but so much and no more. On the bed Daniel twisted and arced as another spasm went through his body. Wu Long winced in sympathy despite himself, finding no pleasure in the torment and tried to shut out the image.

The next moment found him flying across the room and onto the bed in panicked response to the choked retching coming from the young man. Alarmed Wu Long hurriedly flipped Daniel over in his arms and held his head over the bedside. The thin body convulsed several times emptying Daniel's stomach and dry heaving when there was nothing left. Daniel's mouth moved in a silent scream of agony more unnerving than any sound he could have made. Wu Long's whole body tingled with fright and a rush of adrenaline. His heart hammered in his chest at the reality of what would have happened if he had not been there. Daniel couldn't kill himself by injury but he could drown and would have had he not been turned over.

Wu Long carefully laid the boy on his side after the worst of the tremors eased and went to page the doctor. He explained very calmly what was happening and listened patiently while Webber answered him and placated him with reassurances. Daniel lay on his side, his breathing shallow and uneven, the lines of exhaustion clearly marked on his body. Wu Long stood watching him, the white noise of the still open intercom popping in the air. He was caught in a moment of absolute stillness. His chest seemed to be a hollow drum of skin pulled to tight over bones. The second translucent lids of his eyes slid over his pupils after he failed to blink, unwilling to break his stare. The moment shattered with pad of his feet on carpet as he crossed the room to the boy and lifted him in his arms.

Daniel's lay limp against him, an exhausted ragdoll with no fight left in him. Wu Long carried him through his bedchamber and into his bath. Normally going through the archway into this room caused trepidation and fear but Wu Long's sixth sense only picked up abject misery coming from Daniel. Wu Long took careful steps in his mind open to the slightest twinge that the boy might have. Webber could placate and coo all he wanted to, it didn't hide or change how close the boy was to losing his child. The cross cutting of Daniel's genes was the only thing preventing it as the kami part of him raced to repair and mend the damage to his body.

Wu Long's bath was much more then the name implied, in the truest sense it was his lair rebuilt for his convenience. He had it carved out of the rock his complex was backed against and the walls were more then twenty feet high, the top shrouded in darkness. Water trickled down the rough cut stone and shimmered in the yellow glow of numerous heat lamps. In the center of the room steam rose in ghostly tendrils from the surface of a deep basin that was fed by a naturally occurring hot spring. On the other side of it Wu Long had built his nest consisting mostly of hay, fur and various tanned skins; littered around the nest were various bones and skulls of animals and some unfortunate humans, the pieces often cracked and split where he had sucked out the marrow. It was here that he liked to be the most, where he didn't have to cling to his humanoid form and it's associated behaviorisms. A half smile curled his lips, memories of Daniel's first visit to the bath and the full nature of its owner rising in his mind. Many of Webber's experimentation had been for the sole purpose of forcing Daniel's human frame to endure being used by Wu Long in a less then human state and Wu Long only released himself to the transformation inside the walls of his artificial cave.

Wu Long waded into the water his black jeans and shirt clinging to him. He walked out as deep as he could with the boy in his arms. Daniel's robes swirled out in the water around them, a paleness against its inky depths, the back of his head tilted into the water as well as his feet. Daniel sighed as the heat liquated into his skin and relaxed fractionally. Wu Long let Daniel's body sink below the surface keeping just his head and shoulders resting on his forearm. He cupped and scrubbed water with his free hand into Daniel's hair cleansing it of the sweat and residue of his seizures. Daniel's eyes fluttered but remained closed. Wu Long knew he was aware and Daniel knew he knew but he let the infraction slide for once not interested in punishment. He just held him there and let the steam and warmth ease Daniel; there was a bit of choking when Wu Long forced water into his mouth to rinse out the bile but it passed quickly. Wu Long stayed until he felt Daniel's mind begin to blur and slide into deep sleep. Satisfied that the worst of the pain had been purged from the boy's body and content he was resting Wu Long backed out the water and carried him around to his nest and laid him down on one of the furs.

He worked the wet heavy cloth of Daniel's robe open and pulled it from him. He stopped then squatting back on his haunches and marveled at the beauty exposed to him. Daniel gleamed against the dark brown of the fur, luminescent and supple. He had been a performer before Wu Long found him and took him; part of a traveling family of tight rope walkers, jugglers, flying trapeze artist, and acrobats. Daniel had performed nightly a dangerous routine where he was lowered from the ceiling on a single rope and would soar above the heads of the onlookers in a sinuous dance of twining rope about his body and releasing it strategically. The grace of a trained dancers body still clung to him despite his long imprisonment and it still held the same power to entrance the dragon. Insecurity fluttered in him tickling his spine and nervous unease bloomed in its wake. Wu Long responded to it by sending the outer door of his den down shutting out the world in a nearly impregnable fortress and carried Daniel back into the deepest recesses. He curled around him, keeping Daniel between the wall and himself; keeping him safe from the harm of others if by nothing else then cold dense strength of his own flesh.

Across town Ning was very slowly and carefully reaching out with his grandmother's aid to the boy that now hovered in his mind. Careful tendrils of thought and well being were being projected out to the waif like figure they could all feel on the edges of their joint reality. A neural net was being methodically constructed to throw around Daniel to strengthen him until they could reach him and it was up to Ning to reach him as his sire. Very slowly the faded light that was Daniel turned towards the stronger light of Ning and Nana and Daniel's subconscious reached hesitantly out to them. Leon and D also opened up there bond to the net as well as Q-Chan once contact had been made and surprisingly it was to D that Daniel's subconscious anchored. Inside the walls of their collective thought Daniel's timid energy spidered delicately around Jiaoshu and gently touched upon the strong healthy life growing inside him.

[Like me?] Stuttered across the links, uncertain and scared.

[Yes, like you.] Jiaoshu gave back to him, his manner calm and reassuring.

[I am afraid.] Sympathy welled up in the kami and Leon's strong arms wrapped around him instantly. Privately to Leon, Jiaoshu murmured his anguish that one so frail should be so alone. Far away in the back of the detective's mind he remembered one of his first encounters with enigmatic petshop owner and how gentle he had been with a little boy who had lost his parents and then the confliction of the murder he had come to ask him about. It had taken Leon far too long to understand the balance of his actions…that in some instances to sell love, hope, dreams and happiness it occasionally meant that someone else be made unhappy, someone who's pursuit of happiness hurt others.

Leon's own strong signature came through the pathways and brushed against Daniel's his compassion gruff and his desire to help, to defend ringing clear. Daniel's light quavered under it but then seemed to grow a brighter at the resolution in Leon to reach him.

Daniel faded away not strong enough to keep up the link emotionally but everyone was left with a sense of hope- of his hope that maybe not all was lost. A moment of silence descended on the mixed entourage of human, kami, and demi –god. Alan smirked at Q-Chan and asked if he knew how to do the Vulcan mind meld as well, which earned him a withering glare that he just grinned even harder at. Ning wrapped himself around Jill and clung refusing to let go. Nana had her hands full of Tet-chan, who had accompanied Jill and Ning to the apartment, and was currently snorting under his breath about wasting energy on a stupid human.

Leon knew from past experience what the sudden surge of hormones in Jiaoshu meant and backed into the kitchen keeping the hungry kami at arms length. Jiaoshu smiled at him in much the same way he smiled at customers he was fixing to sell a particularly nasty pet to and continued to advance on him, hips swaying as he walked.

"Hungry Leon. You promised you would make more cookies. You are going to make them for me aren't you?" Jiaoshu asked purring as he nuzzled up against him. Languid arms wrapped around his neck and it was all Leon could do to keep standing.

"I know, I know. Damn't D I can't make you anything with you laying on me. Now let go!" Leon grumbled loudly, his hands on D's arms as if to pull him off if he had to but it was all in show and Jiaoshu knew it.

"Make me more now?" D asked his lips pressed to the wild pulse in Leon's throat. Leon groaned and then caved in.

"Yes, now but if you don't let go it won't be. We'll be back in the bedroom again you keep it up you rotten spoiled minx." D purred louder and licked a line of sweat on Leon's neck for a response. He would have done more but Nana's armed wrapped around him and pulled him back.

"That's enough child. Let him be. You go sit down and keep Tet-chan company and I'll help Leon get cookies and supper underway." Nana told him in a stern no nonsense voice and chased him out the kitchen. She grinned at the pout setting in on her grandson's lips. He was going to be impossible through out the entire pregnancy and Leon was in way over his head.

"Go on out." And with a gentle shove she pushed into the living room.

"All right Leon. I think it's about time you show me how to make these wondrous cookies, ne?" She asked the disheveled blonde with a glimmer in her eye.

"And then Leon, after my grandson is in bed and safe, you and me and some of the others are going to take a little trip and do some scouting. I think it's time your cousin and I got to know one another better and perhaps share some stories regarding Wu Long." Leon nodded and began to pull out the ingredients for cookies, determination set in his face.

"So we go tonight then?" Alan asked from the doorway having an uncanny ability to know when he was being talked about. Q-Chan stood directly behind him. Nana looked at her son hard sizing up the fast pace of his affections. She had been speaking in Chinese and knew Alan didn't understand a word of it. Q-Chan had the decency to blush lightly at having not only eavesdropped but translated as well.

"Yes, Alan tonight. You will help, ne?" Alan nodded and came further into the kitchen.

"Course I'll help Nana. Now do you need me to actually bake the cookies or just eat the dough as you guys whip it up?" Q-Chan smacked him upside the back of his head but Nana just laughed and pulled him in.

"You are trouble are you not?" She liked the boy. He had spunk and drive and was certainly nothing if not entertaining. Alan laughed and started pulling out bowls and measuring cups.

"I am that, with a capital T. Seriously, any knowledge I might have is yours. You'll need it the place is a fortress." The kitchen filled with the sounds of discussion as Jill, Ning, and Tet-chan entered the conversation. Ideas bandied back and forth over the top of the mixer and spoons clattering. Jiaoshu came in and sat quietly after being given the first bowl of fresh cookie dough to drop onto the cookie sheet. Everyone pretended not to notice as one drop went on the sheet and one went in his mouth; Leon eventually taking the nearly licked cleaned bowl away when he was done and giving him another.

Leon watched Ning and Tet-chan and they in turn watched him. Tet-chan with flat out suspicion and jealousy glared at Ning when he wasn't glaring at Leon. Ning paid him scant attention his entire attention taken up with Leon and son and what he had done. Regret was etched in the purple of his eyes and when Leon motioned for him to follow Ning slid from his seat to follow. Jill squeezed his hand in passing giving her love to him. Nana watched their silent departure as well. She nodded at the human woman in silent understanding. There was one battle that needed to be fought before they challenged the dragon if they were to present a united front.