STORY EXCERPT

Blood.

Blood. Blood. Blood. Blood. Blood.

He had gone without for weeks now, but he still wasn’t particularly hungry. He didn’t even particularly want it. He saw beautiful crimson glasses filled to the brim in his mind, glinting in dancing candlelight, felt it filing his lips as he gulped down swallow after swallow, but he felt nothing of the excitement that he used to. Cas sniffed and scrubbed at his nose until it was sore.

He looked up through swollen eyes when Henry spoke again.

“Are you hungry, Cas? I could go and fetch you someone. I’ll get rid of them after too. I don’t mind. If that’s what you need, I’ll do it,” Henry said with a slight quaking in his voice.

Shaking his head with vehemence, Cas lay back down across the bed and pulled the covers round him. He didn’t want to look at Henry anymore. Gorging was not going to help him. It was pointless. He drank for sustenance, and a little ache of an empty gut wasn’t going to hurt him anyway.

Henry huffed out a breath then mumbled something about going to get himself something and that he would be back soon. Cassander didn’t respond as he rolled over to face the wall, staring at the peeling paper.

The door banged shut.

Cas sighed and closed his eyes. He was just glad that Henry hadn’t turned the lamps off. It was quiet, but the flickering shadows across the walls gave him the sense that he wasn’t alone. The shadows didn’t question him. The shadows didn’t coddle him. And most of all, shadows couldn’t hurt him.

What an idiot. He didn’t want to be on his own but couldn’t bare anyone near him. He didn’t want to talk, yet he had too much he needed to say. He desperately needed to sleep but couldn’t bring himself to close his eyes long enough. He needed his strength, but he didn’t want to eat. Goodness, he was ridiculous, and now, even Henry was becoming bored of his antics. Cassander wished he could change. He wished things could go back to the way they were before Sebastien had darkened their doorstep again.

His sire had abandoned him, and now that he knew why, he felt even worse.

Why did he have to ask?

* * * *

Henry stepped out into the chilled air.

Looking to the sky, he ran his hand through his neatly cropped hair and clicked his tongue. His chest ached. Leaning back against the door, he pulled a cigarette from his jacket and placed it to his lips. Sliding his hand back into his pocket and fishing around, he pulled out a crumpled box of matches. Pushing the tray out, he took one of the few red-tipped sticks out and dragged it along the coarse brown paper. It sputtered noisily and burst into flame with a crackle of yellow. Raising his hand, he held it to the tip of the cigarette and took a deep breath in. The familiar smell of tobacco wafted around him as he filled his lungs with the sweet, warm smoke. Sucking hard on the cigarette, he stared into the flame, allowing it to burn all the way down until it was black and shriveled. Flicking it to the ground, Henry sighed.

All he wanted to do was help Cassander. At first, he thought he would snap out of it. That maybe the silent pauses and the staring off into space would eventually cease. But it hadn’t. He frowned as he took out another cigarette. Not even trying to get him to socialize with Gareth had worked. In fact, he had sat at the dining table with a face like a slapped arse. Every time Gareth spoke, he had pulled a face, and if Gareth addressed Henry directly, Cassander huffed and folded his arms like a petulant toddler.

Henry let out a sound that seemed to sound more like a growl than the groan he had anticipated. After all the steps he had taken in trying to help Cas get back to some kind of normal, he had just gone and ruined it by pushing him to do something he was not ready to do. It was obviously too soon for Cassander, but how long could he need?

Chucking his cigarette to the ground, he crushed it into the cobbles with the toe of his shiny shoe.

Cassander had to snap out of it soon. Henry felt a sudden pain in his stomach. But what if he didn’t? What if Henry spent the rest of eternity with a man who could barely look at him, let alone touch him?

ADULT EXCERPT

Henry gazed around at the quaint country cottage. The rooms were small, with low ceiling beams that brushed the top of his head as he walked in, but it was warm and welcoming, and it was just what he needed at the moment. What they needed.

After stoking the hearty fire in the hearth, he placed the poker back on the rack and turned to Cassander with a smile.

Cassander admired the view too, but from the way he was licking his lips, Henry knew it wasn’t the sweet little room he was thinking about.

Henry flushed as his cock stood to attention. Well, yes, it had been such a long time, and it wouldn’t be long before they had to leave the little villa in Tuscany and return to London. He loved the city—he grew up in Edinburgh—but the luscious, rolling hills of the Italian countryside gave them the peace and quiet they needed to begin to restore their relationship.

Henry bit his bottom lip as Cassander slid out of his jacket and placed it over the back of the armchair, his tight shirt clinging to his lithe muscled torso. This was definitely a very good way to start repairing a damaged relationship.

Cassander was unpinning his gold cufflinks when Henry slid his arm around his waist and pulled him toward him. They collided in a flurry of teeth and tongues as they devoured one another with abandon. Cassander’s fingers dug into Henry’s big, round shoulders as he deepened the kiss, sucking his tongue into his mouth.

Henry pulled away, leaving Cas with a slight whimper as he pulled his jacket off and yanked his shirt over his head, his eyepatch coming off in the collar of the top as he dropped it to the floor. Cassander gave a lopsided smile and placed his hand on Henry’s jaw, staring at him with huge eyes. On tiptoes, he pressed a flitter of a kiss on Henry’s open lips then another and another, and then he placed a hand on the back of his head and pressed his forehead against Henry’s and closed his eyes.

Henry moaned and closed his eyes too. They were both warm from their recent feed.

A twitch in Henry’s trousers brought him to, and he made quick work of unbuttoning his trousers and sliding Cassander out of his shirt. He smoothed his hands over Cas’s alabaster chest, tweaking his rosebud nipple before taking each into his mouth and circling his tongue round them. Cas flung his head back, raking his nails over Henry’s broad back. Glistening red scratches disappeared as soon as they appeared.

Cassander pulled his trousers down and his prick hopped out, its red glossy head nodding. He took it into his hand and stroked, slowly at first, then quicker as Henry grazed his teeth over the hard nubs of his nipples and blood dribbled into his mouth, careful not to take too much. Cas was only just recovering, and it seemed even a dhalian wasn’t completely immune to poison, although he still had yet to find out what would actually happen if he didn’t heed Melody’s warning. He grabbed his own straining cock. That was a thought for another time.

Henry picked Cas up, wrapping his legs around his waist, his muscles working easily, remembering how they used to do this all the time. Cassander’s cock was trapped between their abdomens, and he gasped sharply and shuddered when Henry pressed him against the window. Henry chuckled as he grabbed his cheeks and spread them wide. He kissed Cassander passionately again.

Locating Cas’s quivering hole with his finger, Henry rubbed circles over the taut flesh until he gained entry. Adding a second finger, he smirked when Cassander groaned into his mouth.

“Just do it, please, for god’s sake.”

Henry snickered and gripped his cock. Pressing it against the warm, inviting hole, he slid in. So slowly that Cassander vibrated with anticipation by the time he was in to the hilt. Henry sighed and dropped his head onto Cas’s shoulder, lapping at his neck, tasting salt.

“I missed you so much,” Henry whispered.

He thrust, enjoying every pound that brought his name tumbling from Cassander’s shaking lips until his trapped cock spewed satiny cum all over their chests. Henry crushed his eyes shut and wailed at the ceiling as Cassander’s arse strangled his throbbing cock.