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Part One
About three things Steve Rogers is absolutely positive.
First, that Bucky Barnes was a dhampyr. Second, there was a part of him - and said part seemed to be waking up more and more every day - that thirsted for his blood. And third, Steve was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with the Jerk and so, if Bucky was going to get any fancy ideas about staying away because he was “dangerous” and “Steve, do you have any idea how bad a combination vampire genes and ex-master assassin skills are?” — well.
Super soldier here and no, Steve was not planning to suddenly change his name to Bella any time soon and no, Tony, Sam is not the “Jacob” in this relationship.
Sam is staying out of this conversation, thank you very much.
Bruce would appreciate it if one of them started with the actual story soon, before he decided turning into a big green rage monster was a better idea. Because both Bruce Banner and the Hulk agreed that one of the things that made them Very, Very Angry was having their teammates getting hurt. And nobody with half a working brain wanted a Big Green Rage Monster getting angry in their general direction.
So Steve was getting ahead of himself and he really should start at the beginning, since Bucky wasn’t going to be moving from his place as Steve’s pillow and backrest and for the moment, was doing the Very Sensible Thing of Not Leaving Steve.
There’s a gentle tug on Steve’s hair. “You’re my own personal brand of vampire catnip. Also very persuasive. I ain’t goin’ anywhere, punk.”
"I’d hunt you down and kick your ass if you did, you jerk."
"Sir yes sir!"
"I can’t believe you just said that, James." This from Natasha who has decided that facepalming is the only Sane Reaction for this.
"Well, technically speaking he really is vampire catnip but considering it’s Steve, are you actually surprised?”
Bruce actually growls.
So Steve gets himself to a proper beginning. It starts with a word.
Teufelsschloss
Teufelsschloss is a name that the Germans gave to a certain castle in Romania.
The name means Devil’s Castle and naturally, there was a story that went with it. Sometime in World War II, a squad of German infantry came to that Castle with every intention of converting it to a base of operations. The castle was in a good defensible position and was, amazingly, not in a state of complete disrepair. The general had ignored the superstitious mutterings of the peasantry about Walpurgisnacht and that the German invasion had awakened the “Dragon” of Romania.
The general and his men were never seen again.
This might have simply persisted as a ghost story in the surrounding villages except for one thing. The General’s name was Georg Von Grunn. He actually existed. Official records had showed that said general was most likely killed by a Romanian resistance group and the rest of his men finished off by wolves. Considering what actually happened, it wasn’t quite a lie.
And all right, for the record, Steve and Bucky were not on covert ops. In fact, they weren’t even planning on doing anything remotely dangerous because they were simply on vacation. Tony had even called it a “second honeymoon,” at which point Bucky had said, “We haven’t even had a first honeymoon yet!”
"To say nothing about the wedding," Steve had quipped.
Eventually he and Bucky will probably get around to making honest men out of each other but this is digressing. The point of the vacation was to wander all over Europe, sometimes passing by places where they’d been during the war - the whole nostalgia thing was pretty inevitable. And sometimes it was just going somewhere new, somewhere different, enjoying each other’s company and being on an adventure that didn’t involve blood, bruises and the end of the world. And amazingly, the two of them had managed to stay completely out of trouble and had a lot of fun - posting photos and sketches on their respective blogs as evidence - until they got to Romania.
The annoying part of this was that it wasn’t even the first supposedly “haunted” castle they encountered on this trip. Pretty much most of the historic castles they’d seen had a bloody history and ghost stories to go with it. This castle wasn’t exactly on the radar for anyone wanting to go on a “vampire tourist tour.” The language of the old country was, thankfully, one of the few things that was never brainwashed out of Bucky. Steve learned mainly because he’d hung around Bucky’s family so much as a kid and to be honest, Bucky’s Grampy apparently had a soft spot for him and considered him just another grandson. So Steve learned the language of “our motherland” too - never mind if he was actually Irish.
This led to double takes and then amusement among the locals when they heard the very American Steve speak Romanian very fluently.
So when Steve and Bucky heard this particular story in a certain Transylvannian village, the two of them had exchanged looks and mutually decided to check it out.
In broad daylight, thank you very much. They’re not that stupid.
Of course, Steve had his shield. And it’s really, really not best to think about how Bucky managed to be a walking armory despite the fact that they were on vacation. The plan was pretty simple: drive on the road until it wasn’t possible to go on wheels, continue on foot, see the Castle. Explore a little bit, maybe take a few pictures and get the hell out of there before the sun went down. Steve and Bucky had figured that it would take them a couple of hours to get there from the village they were staying in, especially if they started in the early morning but it was reasonable to assume that it would be just a day trip.
What they didn’t expect was to run into a terrorist cell who had just moved in, with every intention of using the castle as their new secret base. Obviously, they were not expecting Captain America and the Winter Soldier to walk into their lair. But they’d played it smart. They had let Steve and Bucky walk right into the supposedly “ruined and abandoned” castle before springing their trap.
It had been a good idea too, except that they were dealing with two super soldiers who were very determined not to end up killed or taken prisoner. Steve, especially, was not going to allow these goons to get their hands on Bucky and attempt the whole “brainwashed super assassin” thing all over again. Bucky, on the other hand, was just as equally determined not to allow Steve to get himself hurt, killed or worse.
They’d almost made it out of the Castle when someone got a lucky shot and clipped Bucky on the leg. He went down. Steve had grabbed his arm and managed to deflect the first tranquilizer dart with his shield. He got the second one as well. But there was a third and a fourth and it was lights out.
Part Two
When Steve wakes up, he is pretty much bracing himself for the worst.
Yes, they are in the castle dungeons. Creepily enough, the place looks like it had been last repaired a few decades ago, instead of hundreds of years.
Yes, both he and Bucky are in the same cell and they are both sporting chains. Bucky is, in fact, sitting in the farthest corner from Steve, one knee up, the other leg down and it is still bleeding a little but Steve can at least tell that it isn’t an arterial wound. Steve can’t see his face; Bucky has buried his head in his arms.
Steve takes a quick assessment. They are unguarded, which was, in itself highly alarming and unusual. He gives the chain binding his wrist an experimental tug - it is strong but nothing that a super serum enhanced soldier can’t handle. So of course he rips them out and gets free.
Were their captors thinking that Steve wasn’t going anywhere with Bucky wounded? Whatever version of the serum Zola had given the Winter Soldier allowed Bucky to at least heal at nearly the same rate Steve did. He needs to check, see if Bucky has gotten any sort of medical attention at all.
"Bucky?"
"Don’t. Come. Near. Me."
The eyes looking at him are not the eyes of his best friend and lover. They are the eyes of a predator and said predator is very, very hungry.
Bucky moves fast, faster than Steve has ever seen him and he’s on his back, pinned down by all of Bucky’s weight. Instinct should be telling Steve to flip him off - Bucky is dangerous in a way that he hasn’t been since he was the mindless pet assassin of the Red Room and HYDRA, perhaps even more so.
But Bucky’s nuzzling against his neck, soft Romanian endearments purred against his skin with the very faintest hint of sharp, sharp teeth and dear God, it’s taking everything in Steve not to just close his eyes and let him take…
Hands on Bucky’s head. Lift. Look at once-blue eyes turned gold and seeing fangs peeking out from a pouting mouth that Steve has always been hard put to resist kissing.
“Bucky.”
There are flickers of blue slowly creeping back amidst the gold of his eyes. Steve takes it as a hopeful sign. Bucky tries to move away and this, right here, is going to be edited out of the story he’ll be telling the Avengers.
Like an idiot, Steve rolls on to his side but keeps Bucky near. They’re lying on the floor, facing each other - as if they were back in their apartment in Brooklyn, huddled together on their bed, as if Steve was still the 90 pound asthmatic and Bucky was not a wounded ex-assassin suddenly displaying vampire traits.
Bucky protests and this time, his words are in Russian, which Steve has enough of a handle on to understand. The fact that Bucky is addressing him by a Russian diminutive of his name, interspersed with endearments and disjointed phrases of “can’t hurt you, want you, need you" is enough to convince Steve of what he’s about to do.
He reaches out to touch the curve of Bucky’s jaw, thumb brushing against the cheekbone. He asks, in the same language, “What do you need?”
Bucky turns his head to nuzzle at his hand, then his wrist, lips pressed to the pulse and the message is clear.
The sane thing, the really, really sane thing to do was anything but what Steve did next.
He hauls his lover close, kisses him slow and sweet, lets Bucky nuzzle at his neck again and all the time Steve’s telling him “Yours” in all the languages they’ve learned together and with every touch.
There isn’t any pain, only pleasure, when Bucky sinks his fangs into Steve’s throat and drinks deep.
***
Part 3
Listen to them, the children of the night! What sweet music they make…
It turns out that the terrorists who’ve captured them had met the exact same fate as the Nazis did all those years ago.
The Devil’s Castle is one of the strongholds of the Dragon of Romania, who would never have stood for invaders on his homeland. Old Blood and ancient birthright goes deep into the very earth of this land, remembered by stone and when Old Blood is spilled, memory will wake.
And so do the Undead, when the sons of the Dragon are in peril.
Steve learns about all of this much later, when Bucky shakes him awake, definitely human once again and very much healed from his wounds. Also, Bucky is furious and Steve quietly resigns himself to the fact that they are going to be arguing about this, just as soon as they’re both out of the haunted, vampire-infested castle.
The super soldier serum, as always, lets Steve recover quickly. When he checks a lot later, there isn’t even a real wound on his throat, just a mark that can’t be mistaken for anything more than a lovebite. The shield is found along with Bucky’s own weapons, amidst all the blood and carnage, mute evidence that the terrorists fought and lost against a horror they were not expecting.
It’s an eerie sight when they both step out into the courtyard and are confronted with the castle’s real inhabitants. There are few standing here and there wearing ragged remains of Nazi uniforms.
Steve is conscious of the stares in his direction, the naked hunger and thirst and he lifts his shield threateningly. Somehow, he senses the attempts at his mind, at his heart - the invitation to step away from Bucky’s side, the enticements….
This time, he fends it off easily.
And Bucky snarls out a harsh reprimand that sends the lot of them to their knees in obeisance.
The two of them walk out together and the vampires fade away as the sun rises.
***
Their argument, once Steve and Bucky had made it to safety, lasted about all of ten minutes, covering how much of an idiot Steve was, and how Bucky was even now more dangerous than he’d ever been as the Winter Soldier and “oh by the way, what the unholy fuck were you thinking when you let me drink your blood, you fucking punk?”
The response to that was Because I trust you.
Because in those moments when Bucky had first manifested his vampire side, Steve had felt safe and loved and very much wanted, had heard himself be called “mine” and “beloved” and that it had not taken him long to realize that he was not being regarded as prey but as a mate.
So Steve had known, in fact, that he would awaken and that he would be perfectly fine.
And really, it wasn’t the first time Bucky had reacted that way. What happened at Kaldenstein was making a hell lot more sense now.
The remaining hour or more after the fight that they spent making up…. well, that was nobody’s business but theirs, thanks.
***
There was really just one thing to say, after Steve retold the carefully edited version of this story to the Avengers. Leave it to Tony to nail it.
"Does this mean I can call him Count Buckula now?"
Epilogue:
Nobody could say that Nick Fury didn’t have the rare ability to make profanity a language all its own, distinct from English but infinitely more satisfying.
As in: I recognize that the Council has made a decision, but given that it’s a stupid ass decision, I have elected to ignore it.
As in: I have had it with these motherfuckin’ snakes on this motherfuckin’ plane.
As in:
The cats nestle close to their kittens now.
The lambs have laid down with the sheep.
You’re cozy and warm in your bed, Barton.
Please go the fuck to sleep.
And as of this moment:
Can someone please fucking explain to me why someone has decided to shove motherfucking giant stakes up the asses of several very unlucky motherfuckers all over Europe? I’d be sorry for them, only each and every one of these sons of bitches apparently pulled the strings of the Winter Soldier when he was still a hostile.
There were pictures. There was a video. At some point, Tony had to excuse himself to go and be violently sick in the bathroom and he refused to be ashamed of it. Not that anyone was going to rag him for that. Even Natasha flinched and they all knew she, out of all of them, had probably seen enough of this kind of ugly.
Bucky’s eyes were eerily blank, in the way they’d been when he was still deep under HYDRA’s control. He only visibly relaxed when Steve laid a hand on his arm, a gentle touch, grounding him.
Each and every one of the impaled victims had once given the Winter Soldier his orders. They’d ordered for men, women and even children to be killed for whatever insane goal they had, for whatever twisted ideology they believed in. Or lack of it. They’d seen him as nothing more than a machine, a weapon, to be taken out, dusted off and used at will. Much like Alexander Pierce had done.
They’d thought they would never be held to account for what they had done. Never be judged and punished accordingly.
Bucky finds himself smiling and it’s not a pleasant expression, not in the least. There was, really, only one response to give to that.
"Grampy always did love me best."
- end -