Title: Reinventing the Heartbeat
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Josef Kostan/Mick St. John
Fandom: Moonlight
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1,411
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the lovely Josef Kostan or Mick St. John, unfortunately. Please do not sue.

***

"Josef?"

Mick's voice rang out in the empty building; he could sense Josef's presence here, but there was something very off about the air in this place. There was an overpowering scent of blood, and Mick dreaded finding out just what had happened here.

He hoped that he wouldn't have to clean up some kind of mess that his boyfriend had made -- but that didn't seem like Josef. It he'd done something that had turned unexpectedly bloody, he could always be trusted to dispose of the evidence himself.

Well, not with his own hands, Mick corrected himself as he took a few steps forward, looking around him cautiously. Josef would never do that, unless he was particularly bored and looking for some amusement. He would hire someone to clean up the mess for him.

This wasn't something Josef had caused; Mick could feel it. No, there was something more sinister at work here. This wasn't anything that Josef would do -- but it was a situation that he could have been led into without realizing what was happening until it was too late.

A sudden foreboding seized him; he could feel his heart speeding up, then slowing down. Some feeling of dread clutched at him, its dark shroud wrapping so tightly around him that he almost felt as it he was being suffocated. He could barely breathe for a few moments.

Josef had to be here. Mick could sense him.

Josef .... and yet not Josef. Something was wrong, terribly wrong. And whatever it was, it was up to him to put it right. If Josef was hurt in any way, if anything threatened him, Mick would do anything to stand between Josef and imminent danger.

Whatever was wrong, the feeling became much more acute as he made his way further into the abandoned building. He knew that Josef was here -- so why couldn't he feel his boyfriend's presence more strongly? And why didn't Josef say something?

Moving into the next room, the scent of blood intensified until Mick could feel his fangs start to push out involuntarily. His vampiric senses reached out -- then stopped him dead in his tracks when he heard a quick, pained intake of breath.

There was another vampire here. A vampire who couldn't speak or move -- probably because they'd been staked and were paralyzed, helpless until someone found them. If someone found them before they expired from the pain and the prolonged paralysis.

Could it be ....? Moving more quickly, Mick took a few steps forward, his eyes adjusting to the nearly pitch-blackness of the room. His preternatural sight moved around the room, finding what he sought lying underneath an opened window, the gauzy curtain blowing inward with the breeze.

Josef.

The relief at finding his boyfriend immediately turned to horror when he saw the state that Josef was in. Someone had pushed a stake into his chest -- not just a stake, but one so large that there was at least an outside chance that it would leave a scar.

Mick ran across the room, dropping to his knees by his boyfriend's side and gazing into Josef's eyes. He was still there, still alive; his mouth was open in a soundless scream, his face contorted with the pain of the paralysis that had taken over his body.

Mick caught his lower lip in his teeth; he knew that he had to remove the stake from Josef's chest, and do it quickly. There was no telling how long the other man had been lying here, unable to move or to help himself, the paralysis caused by the stake slowly incapacitating him.

Grasping the stake, Mick hesitated for a just a moment, his eyes meeting Josef's. The other man didn't move, didn't give him any indication of what he should do -- but he knew that he had to pull the stake out before Josef could speak to him.

Ordinarily, he'd be able to say something, gasp out a few words -- but if he'd been in this state for a while, he could be close to losing consciousness. And given the size of the state that had been plunged in his chest, the sooner it was out and he could heal, the better.

Closing his eyes, Mick hauled at the stake, pulling it out of Josef's body with one swift movement. Grimacing in distaste, he threw it aside, hardly hearing it clatter on the dusty floor as he took the other man into his arms and cradled Josef against his body.

"It's okay. You're going to be okay," he whispered, the words as much for himself as for Josef.

"I'll be fine, Mick. It's not like I haven't been staked before," Josef whispered, his breath hot against Mick's skin. "You've seen vampires in worse condition than this, and they've come back okay. And they weren't as strong as I am."

"No, but they didn't have the relationship with me that you do," Mick told him, loosening his grip on the other man to look into those eyes and convince himself that Josef was all right. The wound in his chest had already healed, the gap closing as though it had never been there.

The only evidence that there had ever been a stake in his chest was the blood all over his shirt -- and the gaping hole in the fabric. Mick placed a hand over Josef's heart, wanting to reassure himself that it hadn't been punctured, that his lover wasn't permanently harmed.

"Relax, Mick," Josef told him, his voice soft. "I'm okay. This has happened to me before, y'know -- and I've actually taken a stake through the heart, like a lot of other vampires have. I'm not reinventing the heartbeat here. I'm far from the only one who's dealt with this."

Mick nodded reluctantly, acknowledging the truth of Josef's words. But he still felt uneasy; he was almost sure that whoever had done this to his boyfriend was still lurking somewhere in the shadows with more stakes handy, ready to jump out at them at any moment.

He wanted to get them out of here before that thought turned into self-fulfilling prophecy.

It was hard to get to his feet with Josef clasped in his arms, but somehow he managed it. The other man struggled to his feet along with Mick, holding a hand to his chest and wincing. "I think I'm going to need a whole lot of tlc when we get home," he muttered, leaning against Mick.

"We're not going back to your place," Mick corrected him, slipping an arm around Josef's waist and pulling the other man against him. Josef might want to pretend that he could walk by himself and that he wasn't in pain, but Mick knew better.

"I doubt anyone's there," Josef said, shaking his head and glancing at Mick. "But if it'd make you feel better, I'll stay at your place for a while," he relented, as though he knew that Mick was going to take him there anyway. "It might be safer in the long run."

"I've got a feeling that you know more about who did this to you than you're telling me right now," Mick said with a frown, supporting Josef as the two of them made their way to the door. "But I'm not going to push you. You'll tell me when you want to."

He could feel the other man's heartbeat syncing with his, beating a slow, steady rhythm. Maybe Josef wasn't reinventing the heartbeat, but Mick couldn't help feeling a profound relief that their hearts could still beat in time, and that Josef's hadn't been damaged.

He was going to find out who'd done this to his lover, he vowed, casting a glance behind them as he opened the door. There wasn't a hint of movement in the room they'd just left; whoever had attacked Josef was long gone, leaving no trace behind.

Whoever they were, wherever they were hiding, he would find them.

And he would make them pay for hurting Josef, if it was the last thing he ever did.

***