Chapter Text
Kai could tell he was on the hazy edge of a dream. Colors and sounds he couldn’t quite remember danced around in his head. He remembered a forest with trees, green, leafy and tall, stretching so high he couldn’t see the sky above him. A blur of black. A flash of orange light. Blonde hair tickling his neck. Claws. Fangs. Red eyes. Monsters. They wanted something from him? What did they want? He didn’t have anything of theirs… Did he? And then the sharpest pain he had ever felt right from the crook of his neck. It was like an explosion was happening behind his eyes. And then everything went black. It wasn’t the black blurs from the forest though. This was proper darkness.
The darkness of death.
No… that wasn’t right. Kai wasn’t dead. He was just asleep for what felt like a really long time. Because he was waking up now… right?
Yeah… Kai could feel himself properly waking up now, the fuzziness from his dream getting fuzzier until it was completely gone and he had forgotten what he had been dreaming about for the time being.
He was lying down in a bed, hopefully his own, and he could feel himself breathing. The slow rise and fall of his chest, his eyes twitching behind his eyelids. He was awake now but he couldn’t seem to get himself to open his eyes. He felt like there was something important about the dream he was just having… something he should probably remember…
The forest. The darkness. The blonde hair. Vampires. Vivian. Cole’s look of abhorrent terror. Shit!
Kai bolted upright, eyes flying open and gasping hard as he immediately reached for the necklace he always wore. He recognized immediately that he was in the guest bedroom of the Bounty, it wasn’t quite his own bed but it was better than probably any other alternative. And his necklace was still there around his neck, sitting on his bare chest. A simple golden chain with a simple golden charm from his father. Kai sought after the comfort fidgeting with the necklace always brought him as he tried to control his breathing. He felt like he should have had a fever, or been violently ill, but his body appeared to be fine, except for his ragged breathing. He rolled the charm of his necklace in his palm, which should have been soaked with sweat. It was dry. What was wrong with his necklace? Kai realized it was ice cold.
No. It was just a dream right?
Kai moved his hand from his necklace to the crux of his neck. His hand shook as he did. There was gauze taped to his neck. He ripped it off. Four, bumpy scabs appeared under his finger as he ran them down his neck. But then that meant-
He moved his fingers to his mouth too quickly.
“Ow!”
A cut appeared along his middle finger, blood seeping out slowly. He had barely touched his teeth. He ran his tongue carefully across his teeth as he stared at his finger. Yeah… he definitely did not remember his teeth being like that. He inhaled. That was a mistake. The smell of the blood from his finger wafted straight up into his nose and boy was it strong. The metallic scent clouded his sinuses and the back of his throat and into his mouth. It felt like the smell was traveling behind his eyes and into Kai's brain. It was so strong it smelled sweet. The sweetness and iron swirled around in Kai’s head. Kai licked his chapped lips, careful to avoid his sharp teeth and realized with horror what the smell of his own blood was making him feel.
Hungry.
What. The. Fu-
At that moment the clicking of his doorknob and opening of his door made him jump way harder than it should have, but the quietness of the room made the sounds piercing.
Cole had stopped dead in his tracks with his hand still on the doorknob. His blank expression was quickly placed with one of relief and it looked to Kai as though he was about to start crying. Kai wasn’t exactly sure what he would have done at that moment if Cole HAD started crying, because as soon as he entered the room it started to smell different.
“Kai!” Cole stammered, realization and relief finally leaving his body in the form of words. “Kai, First Spinjitsu Master you- you’re… you’re-”
As Cole started talking, Kai could only focus on two things. Trying not to let his face show the fear that was running through his body. And breathing through his mouth the best he could. Because as Cole had walked into the room and Kai had taken one too many deep breaths through his nose, he realized why things started to smell different… Each of the ninja smelled different. Kai knew this. He knew that his sister smelled like sea salt and the pavement after it rained, and he knew that Jay smelled like ozone and car oil. But Cole, standing in front of him right now and saying something Kai still hadn’t been paying attention to, smelled different. He smelled even more like himself. Even from across the room on the bed Kai could smell the earth and clay that radiated off of him.
And something else too. The sweet, iron-like smell that was still coming from his finger, was also coming from Cole.
Kai continued to breath through his mouth and stare right through Cole. He realized with a shudder than ran through his neck and down his spine that he was restraining himself. He gripped the bedsheets in front of him. How long had he been asleep? When was the last time he had eaten anything? When was the last time he had drank anything? His throat felt dry and his stomach ached as he swung his legs off the bed and slowly turned away from Cole. He couldn’t look at him anymore, unsure at this point if he might actually surge forward and kill him.
Kai took another snaky breath in through his mouth and made a silent confession to himself.
He was a vampire.
And he was thirsty… hungry… tormented by whatever new desire was running through his body. And the closest thing that would fill that desire was Cole, who had taken another hesitant step into the room. Panicking, Kai blurted out the first thing he could think of as to not kill his friend as quickly as possible.
“Cole?” He said as evenly as he could. Cole stopped talking.
“What, Kai?”
“Leave. Go get Lloyd. Please.” Perhaps bringing another one of his teammates into this wasn’t the best idea, but he needed Lloyd. He trusted Lloyd would know what to do. And hopefully not smell so… strong.
“Right.” Cole said flatly and left the room swiftly. Kai could only imagine what look had been plastered across his face. Cole always wore his emotions on his face too easily. Kai was almost glad he wasn’t looking when he sent Cole away… What would he even think was going on here? Kai squeezed his fist shut and breathed through his nose again. The… tempting smell had subsided somewhat. Kai ran his tongue over his teeth again. His new fangs. He relaxed his shoulders as best he could as he heard another, lighter, pair of footsteps making their way quickly down the hallway.
“Kai! You’re awake…” He heard Lloyd sigh from behind him and slow to a stop in the bedroom once he saw Kai turned away from him on the bed. Kai tempted a breath through his nose. Lloyd’s scent had always been somewhat ambiguous, but for now he smelled like tea. The sweet smell was there too, but not nearly as strong. Kai ventured a question right away.
“How long was I asleep?” Kai turned his head to just barely look at Lloyd out of the corner of his eye. Lloyd seemed to understand his urgency somewhat.
“Three days. Are you okay? You look-” Kai could hear him take another step forward.
“Don’t!” Kai said as evenly as he could. “Just… don’t come any closer. I don’t want to hurt you.” Kai gripped the bed next to his legs.
“Right… I get it. You must’ve figured out what happened to you by now.” Lloyd said empathetically.
“Yeah… yeah.” Kai was definitely not in the headspace to be processing all of THAT right now.
“Where are we?” Kai asked, “I can feel the Bounty moving…”
“We’ve been traveling north from the tea shop, we weren’t sure what to do about… you. So we’ve just been drifting for the past couple of days. We’re over a mountain range right now, I think.”
“So we’re somewhere… remote? We’re nowhere near Ninjago City?”
“Yeah…” Lloyd sounded confused and asked hesitantly, “Why?”
“Are we able to land?” Kai ventured again, he knew Lloyd probably wasn’t going to let him go this easily…
“Kai… I don’t know if that’s the best idea-”
“Please! Please Lloyd, I- I don’t want to hurt anyone who’s on the Bounty right now. I’m not really sure what’s… what’s going on.”
Kai heard Lloyd shift his feet and swish his tail behind him. He hesitantly looked over his shoulder. Lloyd’s eyes were cast downward in thought, a hand covering his mouth pensively. Kai noticed a bandage covering one of his biceps. He instinctively felt a growl growing in his throat and his hands turning hot. He lifted his hands away from the bedsheets quickly before he could cause any real damage. So he still had his elemental powers, that was good… or was it? Before Kai could process that line of thought any further, Lloyd spoke again.
“Alright. We’ll land. Do you need anything? Food? Water? Just at least tell me what you’re going to do once we land so I don’t lose my mind once you do it.”
“I’m just going to… run. Hike. I don’t know! But all I do know is that I need to get away from the Bounty. I just need to be alone, NOW. And I don’t need any food. I’m not hungry…”
At least not in the way you’re thinking of, but Kai kept that to himself.
“But I’ll take some water with me, okay?”
“Fine, and take a sword too at least. I trust you to handle yourself out there, but just in case.”
Kai couldn’t believe Lloyd was letting him do this. He felt like the equivalent of a caged animal about to be set free, who knows where, in the mountains of Ninjago… but just as long as he was away from the Bounty… away from Cole. Kai squeezed his eyes shut in remorse as he thought of Cole as Lloyd left the room while saying something about going to tell the others. First Master he hoped Cole hadn’t been saying anything important. He couldn’t even bear to look at the black ninja. Why did he smell like THAT? Did it have to do with his element? Did it have to do with… them? Their bond? Kai knew it was no secret that besides his sister and Lloyd, Cole was probably the next in line in terms of who he was closest to. Then why hadn’t Lloyd smelled so strong? Was it because he… he…
Kai shook his head and tried to squeeze his eyes shut tighter. He couldn’t think about Cole like that right now. He knew. He knew that Cole liked him just a little bit more than everyone else, and it truly made his head swim sometimes. But now? That Kai was like THIS? Who knew what Cole would think of him. Kai stood from the bed and rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands. He found a fresh red gi laid out for him on the other side of the bed. He grabbed it and started dressing quickly. Despite what he told Lloyd… he was starving.
***
Lloyd made his way back through the lower deck of the Bounty, poking his head into their usually shared bedroom. Color coded bunk beds lined the side walls and Jay was sitting in his top bunk, reading a book. All Lloyd had to do was wave one hand in a gesture to follow him to get Jay to jump out of bed and follow him down the hall. Nya and Pixal were at the hull, Zane on the outside deck and Cole was already sitting at the kitchen table, hands folded covering his mouth and one leg bouncing anxiously. Lloyd let all of the ninja settle down at the table before he began talking at the head of it.
“Kai’s awake, and we’re going to land the Bounty.” Lloyd supposed he should just start off strong rather than try and hide anything at this point. A ripple went through the team as whispers and gasps went down the table. Cole kept his hands to his mouth and only merely glanced at Lloyd. Nya stood to start down the hallway toward her brother.
“Nya don’t. Not yet anyway.” Lloyd warned holding his hand out to stop her. She stopped, albeit confused.
“Why? He’s my brother, if anything I have the right to see him!” Nya folded her arms.
“He seems really on edge. I don’t want to upset him any further than he already seems to be.”
“Does… does he know what happened?” Jay asked sheepishly.
“Yeah… I think he does. I’m not sure if he knows how, but he seems to know what he’s… become.” At that moment, Cole stood and slammed his fists on the table. If he had done it any harder, the table surely would have splintered.
“He’s a vampire, dammit! And what the hell are we going to do about it?!” The question didn’t seem particularly directed at Lloyd… but nobody answered for a moment regardless. Lloyd inhaled.
“We’re going to land… and let him off the Bounty.” Lloyd answered. There was more uproar from just Cole and Nya this time.
“This seems highly unusual…” Zane muttered.
“What?! Why?! Are we just going to let him, what, run away into the mountains?” Jay fumed.
“Lloyd! You have to let me see him first at least!” Nya cried.
“You can go see him before he leaves Nya, I promise. But just be cautious. I think it would be safest for all of us if we let him off of the Bounty for now.” Lloyd answered after the initial shock was gone.
“Why?” Cole said through his teeth. His fists are tight balls leaning on the table.
“Because we have to let him hunt.” Lloyd said firmly.
His gaze made its way around the kitchen table. No one seemed to be able to object to that.