A/N: Okay, I hope you won't hate me for this AU fic, but a very good friend of mine asked me to write this for her and since she was there for me through one of the toughest times in my life, I couldn't say no to her...This is set during the Big Bang Job, even though it goes AU as soon as Eliot and Hardison meet with Moreau... it's a vampire/werewolf AU and it's slash... so yeah... if you don't like that kind of story, you probably should turn around now.

And just for the record, I loved "The Big Bang Job" and wouldn't change it for anything... Eliot going all Neo was brilliant *g*

But for this story I had to change it... so I hope you can forgive me...

Maybe you will like it... I really hope you do... and comments would be most appreciated *smiles hopefully* but please don't forget that English isn't my native language, so there are surely some grammar mistakes... I hope they aren't too bad.

And I'm not sure if the dialogue I took from The Big Bang Job is totally correct, so please forgive any mistakes...

And I also hope I haven't stolen any ideas, since I haven't read many vampire/werewolf AU's, no matter which fandom... and I probably wouldn't have written one if my friend hadn't asked me to do so, so if I'm stealing any storylines please let me know and I'll change my story... and I still haven't been able to see every episode, so sorry if I got some details wrong *sheepish smile*

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IMPORTANT SUMMARY (Please read): Werewolves and vampires are a part of the society, even though they are more powerful than humans, but generally humans get along with them very well. Werewolves and Vampires mostly keep their distance from each other, since there's a peace treaty between them, which has existed for three hundred years now, ever since the Eldest vampires found a way for the vampires to go outside even during daytime.

Werewolves can change whenever they want to (I'm using Tanya Huffs Blood Ties definition of werewolves here, so yeah o.O) and they life in packs with an Alpha (just like real wolves do) and all Alphas together decide about law and punishment... the circle of Alphas can only decide important things when they're all gathered... every werewolf is allowed to ask the Alphas to gather to plead their case.

Vampires still have a king, who is a descendant of the first vampires and hence very powerful. Every vampire can challenge the king for the throne, but it most likely results in their death, except the vampire is of the same blood and possesses equal strength.

The vampire king's son has the first right to challenge his father for the throne.

It's very rare for Vampires and Werewolves to want to mate with a human without turning them... and if a human gets the offer to become the mate of a werewolf or a vampire it's a big honor... gender doesn't matter if a werewolf or a vampire look for a mate...

The Leverage Team exists and they have done all the cases they have done in the series, only Nate is a vampire and Sophie is too and they have fought and worked together with vampires and werewolves on some cases...

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SUMMARY II: Nathan is a vampire prince, who has yet to find his true mate... he has set his eyes on one of his team members, but since only Sophie knows his secret, he's afraid to pursue his chosen one... until Damien Moreau, an Alpha Werewolf appears and sets his sights on Eliot, Nate's chosen one... and well, Vampires are possessive bastards, but unfortunately so are Werewolves (AU & Slash, please read the A/N)

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Disclaimer: None of the Leverage characters belong to me and I just borrowed them for this little story... this story doesn't mean to offend anybody… this is just for fun… and not for money either...

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In the Darkness

Chapter 1

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"Why did ya tell them your real name?"

Hardison stared at Eliot, still in disbelief after what had just happened. The team made an effort to avoid giving anyone their real name.

He could see Eliot's shoulder tense and his eyes were a little downcast.

"Just stick close to me, okay? This might get messy," The Hitter murmured, still avoiding to look at his teammate and friend.

Eliot didn't like this situation one bit and he wished to be everywhere but here, so that he could just forget about Damien Moreau and everything that he associated with the name.

Under normal circumstances Eliot would have come alone to confront Moreau, but to be honest, he was a little afraid what seeing Damien Moreau again after all those years would do to him.

And with Hardison there to protect, Eliot had someone else to focus on other than only Moreau.

He still ignored Hardison's gaze on him while they were escorted down to the pool area to meet with Damien Moreau.

The little staredown with Chapman, his replacement, helped Eliot to further focus on what was important and also helped to ignore the churning of his stomach as soon as Moreau stepped out of the sauna.

Eliot saw Moreau stop in surprise for a second when he unexpectedly came face to face with his former enforcer again.

But the tall, dark haired man recovered quickly and Eliot saw his eyes flash yellow for a second and Eliot resisted the urge to take a step backwards.

He had a reputation to uphold after all... and showing Moreau that he was intimidated by his presence was equal to signing a death sentence for Moreau, because the wolf in Moreau would take advantage at every sign of weakness.

Yes, Damien Moreau was a werewolf... a powerful pack leader at that... that was what made him so good at what he did and gave him the undivided loyalty of most of his men.

Eliot had found out the hard way to never mess with an Alpha as strong as Moreau, especially when you were only human.

And Eliot had fled from Moreau as soon as the older man had made it clear that he wanted Eliot to be his mate.

There was just no way in hell that Eliot would mate with a wolf or a man like Moreau was one, no matter that it was an honor if an Alpha chose a human as his mate.

It wasn't that Eliot was totally against mating with a werewolf, or a vampire for that matter, he had worked for Alpha vampires too after all and he had had his fair share of offers to get mated with a werewolf or a vampire, even though he had no real idea why.

But he had never really been interested in submitting to the ones that offered, because he was an independent man and not willing to submit to just anybody as a mate.

And Moreau, even though he was one of the few people that managed to intimidate Eliot and could probably, well no more like certainly force him to submit, there was no way he'd get involved with a man like Moreau, who didn't care who got killed as long as it gave him money. And even though Eliot certainly was no saint and had done his fair share of terrible deeds, there were things even he shied away from... even though he'd been forced to cross that line once while he still worked for Moreau, that was shortly before Damien had first told him he wanted to mate.

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This was another reason why Eliot had tried his best to avoid a confrontation between his team and Damien Moreau, especially between Nathan and Damien, because he knew that would only end in disaster and the death of one of the two and Eliot feared that it might be Nate's death.

The Hitter focused his attention on Moreau and when he saw the predatory glint in Moreau's eyes, Eliot realized that it would end in disaster anyway, now that Moreau had seen Eliot again.

He was well aware of the fact that the werewolf was still not over the fact that Eliot had refused to be mated with him and it had taken six months to shake off Moreau's men from his trail and now he had willingly stepped into Damien's life again.

He was forced to watch passively as Moreau's men, well some of them were werewolves too, cuffed Hardison to a chair.

Well, at least he was still free, even though he wasn't exactly sure if that was a good or a bad sign.

Not showing emotions at the rough handling of his friend was the hardest thing Eliot had done in quite a while, except having to face Moreau again.

But Eliot needed to stay calm, because the last thing he needed, was for Moreau to find out how exactly the Hitter felt about the team, that they were so much more than just people he worked with.

That would give the other man even more of an advantage than he already had.

"You work alone," Moreau stated and Eliot was surprised to hear a hint of accusation in his voice, because this was the reason Eliot had given Moreau for refusing his proposal, stating that he was a loner.

And then he had fled before Moreau had decided that he didn't care about Eliot's wishes and would have forced him.

"Thing's change," he replied, forcing himself to still remain calm, his arms crossed in front of his chest, so that nobody could see that his hands were shaking slightly.

There was another flash of yellow in Damien's eyes and Eliot was well aware that the other man's wolf was still not really over the fact that the Hitter had refused his proposal.

The small talk Eliot and Moreau had exchanged had obviously helped Hardison to get over his shock that his teammate and the crime lord knew each other.

The Hacker fell back into the role he had chosen, complete with horrible french accent.

After Eliot had made it clear that he was only guarding a middle man, telling Moreau that he would be gone as soon as the job was done, Hardison got back into conversation.

He informed Moreau that his supposed client wanted in on the auction on whatever Moreau wanted to sell.

But the werewolf barely looked at Hardison while he talked, his predatory eyes remaining on Eliot, even while he listened to what the Hacker had to say.

Eliot squared his shoulders, refusing to show Moreau how much of an effect he still had on him.

But he barely managed to stop himself from jumping into the pool when Moreau pushed Hardison into it and then try to kill the wolf, which would probably only result in his and Hardison's death.

So all he could do was remain calm and trust his friend to hold on until him and Damien had finished talking.

At least he knew the kind of games Moreau liked to play and he was pretty sure that he didn't want to kill Hardison, at least not since he still thought he was a possible client.

And even though his voice was even when he explained to Moreau about his supposed client, his panic increased with every passing second and he was relieved to hear the splashing of the water behind him, because that meant Hardison was still alive and conscious.

And the Hacker depended on Eliot to find a way out, so the Hitter didn't hesitate to agree when Moreau ordered him to kill Atherton as a test of loyalty.

He could do that if it meant to keep his team, his new-found family, safe.

As soon as Eliot nodded, Moreau's lips twitched into a predatory smile and he took a step closer to Eliot, extending his hand to seal the deal.

Eliot raised his own hand and shook Moreau's, even though he didn't want to.

"After it's done Chapman will bring you back here and I'll give you the information about the auction," Moreau growled, his voice low, squeezing Eliot's hand tighter, making even the Hitter wince in pain, since Moreau's wolf gave him a severe advantage strength-wise if Damien let him lose even just a little.

This told Eliot that the meeting after the kill was non-negotiable and even though he didn't really want to meet with the Alpha werewolf again, especially alone, he could only nod.

"I'll be here," he replied, hoping that his voice didn't betray his uneasiness.

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Moreau grinned, this time it was clearly his wolf showing through and he still didn't let go of Eliot's hand as if he wanted to prove something, but to the Hitter's relief Damien nodded to one of his men and the man in question threw the keys to the handcuffs into the pool.

Eliot could breath more freely again when he heard Hardison cough and climb out of the pool, soaking wet but okay otherwise.

"What message I should bring back to my employer?" Hardison questioned, drying his face with a handkerchief that was also soaking wet and Eliot was honestly impressed that his younger team member was able to hold his own and not completely freak out after nearly drowning.

The Hitter knew that he would need to make it up to Hardison that he'd put him in such a dangerous situation.

Moreau only laughed and pointed at Hardison, while still staring at Eliot.

"I like this one," he stated and Eliot saw the bait behind his words and it took all his willpower to still remain calm and not tell Moreau that he would kill him, if his wolf ever came near Hardison in any way, no matter if it got himself killed too.

When Eliot refused to take the bait, Moreau sobered a little and became all businesslike again.

"Glad we could strike a deal... reminds me of the old great."

With one last look at Eliot Moreau turned around, dismissing the two and Eliot quickly ushered Hardison out of there and to safety, ignoring the other man's ramblings and rantings, his mind still reeling with what had just happened.

He had the sudden feeling that they were really in over their heads this time and Eliot didn't really want to think about what Nathan would say when he found out that Eliot had knowingly put Hardison's life in danger.

Eliot now regretted that he had gone to strike the deal with Moreau, because he probably had made things even more dangerous than before by awakening the most dangerous of instincts in Moreau's wolf, since he was pretty sure that the werewolf would still love to claim him as his mate.

He ran a wary hand over his face, avoiding to look at Hardison, trying to figure out what exactly to tell the team when they got to the meeting point.

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Nathan Ford was anxiously waiting for Eliot and Hardison to return from their meeting with Damien Moreau, only half listening to Parker's and Sophie's discussion about the plans they had stolen from Atherton.

Nate hadn't liked the idea of Hardison and especially Eliot going anywhere near Moreau, but he knew it was necessary to complete their job and finally bring Moreau down.

He hadn't liked Eliot's behavior after it became obvious that they would have to go after Moreau.

And then there was the fact that Nate, for the past two months or so, didn't like to let Eliot out of his sight for long periods of time.

He knew exactly why that was the case, even though it was still hard to acknowledge the fact.

Nathan Ford was a vampire, a powerful one at that, a descendant of the most powerful vampire families, his ancestor one of the first vampires ever.

But not many people knew that, not even many vampires knew how powerful Nathan was, since he had never made an effort to work his way up in vampire society to challenge their current king and his own father for his right to the throne.

Nate just wasn't interested in that kind of power. He enjoyed his current job much more and loved the people he worked with. They had become some sort of surrogate clan, even though only Sophie knew his secret, since she was a vampire too, a dominant one, leading to them often fighting about leadership of the team.

Until one day Nate had become tired of that and had dropped his vampire family name. When he had done that Sophie had needed a few months away to come to terms with the fact that she worked with the future vampire king and she had left the team for a while.

But then she had decided that working with Nate could only be to her benefit if he decided to one day take what was his birth right and she had come back.

And Nathan had been glad for that, because he genuinely liked Sophie and for a while had contemplated making her his mate just to appease his father.

But he couldn't do that, not when he had found the one he wanted to be mated with.

Eliot was, as far as Nathan knew, completely unaware of the fact that he had become the object of Nate's affection, and even worse the possessiveness of his vampire side.

His demon had wanted to claim Eliot as his mate more than once since they'd started working together, the desire ever increasing for the past months.

But Nate had always reigned his vampire in, because his team, well except Sophie, didn't know that he was a vampire and he didn't want to upset and maybe use them if they didn't want to work with a vampire, especially since Parker hadn't had the best past with vampires.

He just didn't want to upset the balance of the team and lose the people he had started to consider his clan.

And the most important reason why he hadn't made his move on Eliot was, that he was pretty sure that Eliot wouldn't want to be claimed by Nathan.

He was too independent to submit to anyone and he only would do so if he really wanted to or if he was forced.

And Nate wasn't even sure if Eliot liked men that way.

But lately, every time Eliot came home after a date with some girl, smelling of her perfume, it was nearly impossible for Nate to reign in his vampiric side and to stop himself from bending Eliot over the nearest available surface and mark him until only Nate's scent remained on his Hitter and until Eliot knew exactly who he belonged to... his vampire wanted Eliot to know that he belonged to Nathan and nobody else, even if he wasn't aware of it yet.

And despite Eliot being a strong man and an exceptional fighter, Nathan knew that the younger man wouldn't have a choice but to submit to Nate if he gave his vampire free reign.

He knew what he was capable of doing and had used his powers sometimes to avoid cons going wrong, for example when Mitchell Kirkwood had sent his two goons to beat the shit out of Nate, his vampire side had persuaded them to knock each other out instead.

But Nate would never do something like that to Eliot, he would rather sent him away than hurt him like that.

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So he tried to reign in his vampire and ignore his desires as much as he could, but he still couldn't help the ever growing possessiveness where his Hitter was concerned.

Why this was the case, Nathan didn't really know.

Eliot was only a human and it was a rare thing for a vampire to find a human that he wanted to mate with without the desire to turn him into a vampire too...

Well, Nathan had known from the first moment that he'd laid eyes on Eliot, that this human was special.

Maggie, his ex-wife, well by human standards at least and a vampire too, who he had loved, but had never wanted to take that last step and mate with her for real, marking her as his, had told him when she had seen how Nate felt about Eliot when they'd worked together, to go for it and to find happiness.

She had told him that it was his right as a future vampire king, here Nate had protested and told her that he didn't ever want to be king, to mate with a human and that she too had felt that Eliot was special when she had first seen him.

But Nathan still didn't understand why he felt so drawn to Eliot and he had promised himself to talk to one of the Eldest about it, a circle of vampires that had answers to almost all questions and kept their prophecies and traditions, what this need to mate with his Hitter meant. Three hundred years ago the Eldest had also found the serum that allowed all the vampires to walk in the sun as long as they drank a cup of it an hour before sunset.

And until Nate had answers why Eliot appealed to him so much, he sure as hell wouldn't try to seduce Eliot into his bed, or so he thought... since he had no idea how drastically things were about to change.

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Nathan let out a breath of relief he hadn't even realized he had been holding, when he saw Eliot and Hardison walk towards them, both looking unhurt... not that breathing was necessary for him anyway, but he still did it for appearance sake.

But Nate's eyes narrowed when he sensed the tension between both men and saw the way Hardison glared at Eliot.

Nathan concentrated on his Hitter to find out what was wrong and then a scent hit him... it was clinging to Eliot and his eyes narrowed even more, his vampire going mad with jealousy and anger.

It was the unmistakable scent of a werewolf... and not just any werewolf... no, it was the scent of a powerful Alpha.

His jealousy rose even more. An Alpha had dared to touch his potential mate, had dared to start to lay claim on Eliot... and Nate fought all his instincts to hunt that werewolf down.

He once again reigned in his vampire side because he knew that right now he couldn't let his demon run wild or it would only end in disaster.

At first he needed to find out what exactly had happened and then he could decide what to do about the werewolf... he didn't even know if Eliot was actually aware that he had encountered an Alpha werewolf... it was hard for humans to detect a vampire or a werewolf and even though Eliot knew exactly what to look for, Alphas had the ability to mask their wolf even better than normal wolves.

"Tell'em what you did, Eliot."

Hardison's sharp voice brought Nate out of his thoughts and helped him to concentrate on their job.

"You risked my life."

Those words made Sophie, Nate and Parker stare at Eliot in shock and they all hoped that Eliot would defend himself.

But instead he only told them, without really looking at anybody: "We're in. Moreau is gonna give me the details of the auction tomorrow."

That was even more of a surprise and Sophie of course asked why Moreau would give the details to Eliot and not to Hardison.

The Hitter didn't really answer, instead he just insisted that they were in and they needed to make a plan.

But Hardison obviously didn't want to let this go and his next words stunned the rest of the team into silence.

"Eliot worked with Moreau back in the day...a lot."

As soon as the words were out of Hardison's mouth, Nathan made the connection and his eyes narrowed, jealousy returning full force.

Moreau was the werewolf he had smelled and he had dared to touch Eliot, trying to claim him... and they had a history...

Eliot didn't even try to stop Hardison. He just stared into space, obviously lost in a memory.

And Nate stood up from the bench he had been sitting on and let out his anger and jealousy for once.

"We've been chasing Moreau for six months and you didn't tell us."

Nate's words were relatively calm but his eyes told a different story and if Eliot had dared to look Nate in the eyes right at that moment he would have seen the red gleam in them.

When he finally did, Nathan had reigned in his vampire again.

"'cause I was trying to find a way around it, alright," he defended himself, but for once Nathan wasn't willing to hear him out.

"So you were protecting him?" Nate questioned, the jealousy barely contained in his voice, anger and rage rushing through him in waves.

And there was also the fear that Eliot might chose to accept Moreau's offer to become his mate... it was an honor after all... but Eliot's next words stunned him into silence.

"I'm protecting you... cause last time I checked that's my job."

Nathan's anger quickly turned to compassion. He knew how hard Eliot worked to protect them all... how many bruises he had endured for the team.

And suddenly Nate felt guilty... it was his job to protect his clan and he had left that responsibility solely to Eliot because he was too much of a coward to tell them he was a vampire.

His voice was almost soft when he assured: "Look, we can handle Moreau."

And somehow he was confident that they could... his team had two powerful vampires on their side after all.

Eliot merely stared at him and his voice was guarded when he spoke again.

"We're out of our league, Nate. Everyone of Moreau's men has innocent blood on their hands, every one of them... every one of them are worse than me..."

Eliot stopped for a second, his voice shaking when he finally continued: "The worst thing I ever did in my entire life I did for Damien Moreau and I... I'll never be clean of that..."

Nathan's heart went out to Eliot. He had never seen the Hitter so vulnerable and Nathan knew that it had been incredible hard to admit that to his team.

And the look in Eliot's eyes when he pleaded with Parker not to ask him about what he had done would hunt Nate for quite a while.

And the vampire in him raged, wanting him to claim Eliot, to show him how much he was loved and appreciated and then go after Damien Moreau and rip him apart for putting that hunted look in his chosen mate's eyes.

Eliot's next words did nothing to ease the rage inside of him.

"And after I went against everything I ever believed in, no matter what horrible things I've done, I wasn't ready to cross that line, Damien told me that I had passed the final test and he offered me to become his mate. That's when I left his organization, much to his displeasure..."

"His mate?" Hardison stared at Eliot and something seemed to have clicked in his brain... something he seemed to have missed earlier and suddenly his anger vanished.

Sophie was on her feet.

"Moreau is a vampire?" She questioned, not sure what to make of this new development, because if he was, things would get a lot more complicated.

Nathan, who barely had control of his vampire right now, shook his head.

"No, he's a werewolf... an Alpha," he growled, taking a step closer to Eliot, who only stared at him, searching his face for something.

"How do ya know?" he questioned, his stance getting defensive.

"I can smell him on you... and let me tell you, I don't like his smell on you... not one bit."

Nathan knew that his voice was even more of a growl right now and finally he gave in to his vampire for right now... his eyes turning red and his fangs were showing.

Eliot took a step back and his eyes widened.

"You're a vampire," Parker piped in, hurt and betrayal in his voice.

But Nathan ignored her for now, he'd deal with that fallout later. Right now only Eliot mattered.

"But he will never claim you as his mate."

Nate was breathing heavily and Eliot took another step backwards, feeling intimidated for the second time that day, not sure what to make of Nate's sudden behavior and the reveal that he was a vampire.

Nathan obviously didn't like Eliot putting distance between them, because Eliot suddenly felt himself backed up against the huge tree behind him, Nate pinning him there, his mouth directly beside Eliot's ear.

"He'll never claim you as his mate, because you belong to me..."

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to be continued if you don't hate me now and are still interested...