āā¦Just you and me, my love.ā
How those words ripped through his soul, elevating him to peaks higher than he ever thought he was truly capable of attaining.
Oh, God ā part of him was mortified at the speed for which it had happened. This was bordering on ridiculous ā unheard of. Love at first sight? Lovers eloping into the darkness together, forever after a single night of passion spent in the otherās arms?!
Would he sober when he came down and began to consider the complexities of his actions and their entangled repercussions?
But what harm could this possibly bring?
Two hundred years the coven leader of Paris ruling with an iron will so tyrannical they spoke his name in hushed whispers, if they dared speak it at all, for fear he would come and execute them in the night. Or worse ā in the day. For hearsay said Armand, the fearsome creature was now so powerful in his pristine bloodline that he was capable of walking the daylight hours.
(Exaggeration, he could withstand a half hour prior to dusk outside of direct sunlight, and it weakened him considerably and left him gasping and breathless. But they did not have to know the truth of it. Let the rumour mill perpetuate his legend until he became a God in their minds.)
He deserved this.
He deserved this love. This happiness. This elation. For all the torment and suffering he had endured. For the death and blood and gore and torment. For the depravity and starvation and rape. For the plights into listless depression, for the loss of his will to live, for the eventual insanity that followed and the contemplations of throwing himself into the flames.
He deserved this now.
This was his time.
His season.
His city.
Alafair was his lover, eternal. Not a fledgling, not of the same bloodline. Not a fawning, power-dazzled leech of a creature meaning to test his wits and whiles against him nor capture his attention with ragged seduction to secure survival in his city.
No.
He loved this boy. And that was all there was to it. He could not begin to allow himself any other contemplation. He wore his heart on his sleeve. He fell hard, fast and brutally.
This was alright, wasnāt it? He could be selfish for once? He could disengage from the duties he was saddled with to find happiness?
Well fuck them all. He would treat the situation as a vampire. Take it by the throat in the tearing grip of his fangs and consume it whole.
He was a man in love. And men in love are never entirely rational.
āJust you and me.ā He echoed now, turning to his side, entangling his legs between his loverās and taking his own caress to the curve of that ribcage. His fingers dancing over the peaks and valleys of every articulation beneath that now flushed, overheated skin.
Alafair was alive as he was. Both of them positively blooming in rosy cheeked elation. Their colours healthy, glowing. Young men in the peak of their youth. Warm and wet and content in the otherās arms.
Oh, how he folded into those kisses and returned them with his own. Worshipful, ardent, endless in his dedicated attention.
He purred, moaned sweetly. Stroking tender lines from the swell of hip and thigh, down between his loverās legs to the rich, moist manhood he had embraced with is throat, to the flat expanse of his belly. Over chest and nipple, over collarbone and neck, pausing now to cradle his flushed, radiant face against his own warm palm. The pad of his thumb tracing the line of his lower lip, mapping these curves into his memory.
āSo beautiful⦠So very, very beautiful.ā Again, he came for those kisses, soft and sweet, chasing that tongue that demanded his attention. Sucking against it with pleasured groans of scintillating satisfaction. His own fingers now coming to entangle them in the silken strands of his loverās tawny curls. How soft they were. How brilliantly they reflected the light. And those eyes⦠Those eyes penetrated the depths of him.
āI love you, I love you, I love you.ā His thoughts a continuous mantra.
āStay with me, beloved. I will enfold your body and mind in pleasures so absolute you will never again surface from their depth. I am transcendent in this moment with you. Nothing could possibly hurt me⦠Nothing could come close. Oh Alafair, Iāve never felt like this before. Ever. No one has made me feel what you have.ā
Closer he shifted so as their hips were now flush and their malehoods were nestled against each otherās.
āI havenāt words articulate enough to dare attempt paint a picture of the ecstasy youāve immersed me in. Would that I could never surface again. Stay here with you for an age in these very rooms, feeding and loving each other in an endless cycle.ā His voice pleasure hoarse and sweetly roughened.
āTonight you unleashed me⦠let my passion burn unchecked. I did⦠I wrecked you beloved. And I want you like this⦠exactly as you are in this moment, preserved for all eternity. Look at you⦠at meā¦ā He took his loverās hand, entwining their fingers before his face and smiling.
āWe are human right now. Completely and utterly human. See? See how plump and rich and warm our flesh is? This is how we must stay always. Especially you beloved, for you are young and tender and require consistent blood. Never will I allow you to suffer in hunger. Never will I want to gaze upon you pale and drawn and weak with need. No⦠No, you will be kept plump with fresh blood, pampered and served upon hand and foot for that is my will and my will is law.ā
He kissed those fingers now, one after the other. Beaming in pride, in pleasure.
āMy needs for blood are reduced with age. I find I can go a week without feeding before I start to feel the effects of hunger. Rare now that I kill darling. I used to take reckless pleasure in the hunt. Indiscriminate as my prior conditioning had me. Not only the evil-doer would I take, but any and every wretch that crossed my path in a dark alley. Male or female, sinner or saint. I would tear open their throats and slake myself in their blood. Four sometimes six a night if it suited me. But never children⦠never them. Too tender⦠too sweet.ā His eyes clouded for a fraction of a moment before clarifying again and refocusing on his lover. Now he took his hand and placed it atop his powerfully beating heart, enfolding it with his own palm.
āThen I came to my senses,ā He continued, āAnd only the evil-doer would I take. You can sense them. You can hear their thoughts and given time you will be able to see them as well ā like pictures in your mind. Moving paintings. Like the new moving pictures they invented, did you read of this marvel? Lestat took me to see it⦠A film, they call it. And they project it in a dark room upon a white sheet with light⦠amazing!ā He laughed, giddy and excited. āAll these things now we can experience together. And I will teach you our ways. My ways. That you might grow strong and powerful and knowledgeable, and none will touch you. I will hunt with you nightly, show you all the finest places where you might sink your stunning fangs into the richest veins. And how to better dispose of the bodies as they fall at your feet⦠But my darling, murder for food need never be your only avenue. For as you see tonight ā with these hapless mortal boys at our side,ā He paused, reaching over his lover to take Arjuunās arm, lifting the limb as it lifelessly hung by the wrist, then letting it drop again.
āWith the skill of the Mind Gift, you may manipulate their thoughts, their perceptions, their reality. You may put them under the spell of your compulsion, call them out to you from wherever they might be and feed from them, seduce and drink, taking only measured mouthfuls. Draining them as you did this night ā so perfectly, stopping well before the veins collapse or their heart fails and then, restoring the wounds, breaking their trance and returning them to the streets from whence they came. None the wiser. Like this you may go through dozens in a single night. Never to be hungry again.ā
Again he laughed, content and rich and human sounding. What a laugh. Like a mortal boy. As he was right now. A happy mortal boy.
āLook at them,ā He chuckled, gesturing vaguely at the boys who slept soundly at their left and right, they sandwiched between their bodies. āSee the force of my spell upon them? I have entirely taken over their minds and bodies. Blood in mortals replenishes quickly if you keep them fed, hydrated and rested. They will feel dizzy and nauseous temporarily. Fatigued, foggy-headed and sluggish. But their vitality will return in time and we may feed and fuck with them as often as we desire. Whores like these⦠I like them best of all. Their inhibitions are lowered. I have a standing account with this club. Sameer is a business partner. I keep his pocketbooks filled to keep these pets pampered and fed. He directs his clients to our theatre. I direct them back to his doors for after hours entertainments. We prosper in this manner. He does not know the truth of our nature. He never will. I am merely Armand Marius to him. Proprietor and Theatre Director. This is how everyone in Paris knows of me. And trust me⦠I am exceptionally well-known. In high circles and low, and everything in between. Though I keep myself in the shadows and mysterious. I send envoys and emissaries to speak on my behalf. Lestat is the theatreās co-proprietor and the other blond, Santiago, he is our second in command. Director and Manager when either of us are indisposed. He handles business when we other otherwise engaged⦠And it seems like, over the next week⦠You and I will be extremely engagedā¦ā
His eyes twinkling in mischief, in wonder and excitement. He was a boy again. A rosy cheeked boy in the bloom of youth. Free and seeking adventure under Mariusā careful hand.
āMmmh⦠no coffins tonight. This room will serve as our temple of love. But our temple is sacred land and these pretty pets have out-served their purpose. Remember, beloved, when the flowers wilt, replace them.ā
He snapped his fingers sharply. And in that moment both Arjuun and Vivaanās eyes snapped open.
āYou have pleased and pleasured us greatly young men⦠We are satisfied. Go now, bathe yourselves, attend to your meal and drink. Rest for the next three days hence before attending your service. Go ā and lock the doors behind you. Bolt us in tightly and ensure we are not disturbed the entire day or night.ā
The boys nodded sleepily. Their eyes hazed. Their skins slightly damp and pale. Their minds a marsh of wooly sluggishness but they understood the command.
āYour will is law, Masters. It will be done. Peace be upon you.ā
āAnd also with you.ā Armand replied. He never so much as turned his eyes to acknowledge them. For his gaze was entirely consumed in the beauty of Alafairās face. His warm fingers caressing his cheek tenderly.
The boys left on silent footfalls. The sounds of the service and main doors by which they had entered being bolted and locked.
And now they were alone again. Completely and entirely alone⦠in the otherās arms.