BlackRoses28

By the time Damian awoke, it was several hours past sunset---or what would have been sunset had they been topside. The demon lights changed slightly with the passage of time above, going from a crisp yellow during mid day to a softer blue at night. It wasn't dark in the kitchen by any means but the light source was different, a bit cooler than its earlier predecessor.

Rhion decided it was a nice touch, it didn't make him feel like a cave dweller and Whisper had told him of places, outside the Shyle palace---further below ground where there were gardens and meadows with skies that hung overhead. She said the demon world rested below them like a little piece of Damascus in the heart of a living world.

These lands had their own moons and suns---their own fields, rivers and streams. Hell, they even an ocean or two. And animals, ground beasts and flying winged creatures that were beautiful to her eyes. There were many wondrous things here, she'd said---things that only thrived in the heart of a demon world.

Though after she'd pointed out that this land stretched for hundreds of miles in every direction---just below them, he wasn't sure "a little piece" was the proper description. It was no wonder the girl had never left the demon lands, she had herself a full-size continent to explore here.

Damian had slept long enough for Rhion to have readied an army of sweets, fed Whisper and Correth twenty times over and have dinner prepared and sitting on the stovetop waiting for De.

The only indication that the boy was awake had been the sound of the shower as he'd flipped it on. By that time Rhion had come full circle, he was back to baking brownies. The first batch was cooling on the counter and the second was about ready to be mixed up and put on to bake.

Correth was smiling and chatting with him easily as he bundled up the goodies Rhion had given him. Whisper was yawning and making her final farewells. "Remember, anything you need---!"

"We'll see you tomorrow afternoon, Lord Rhion---bid the Prince a firm hello from us." She waved sleepily at Rhion her arm snagging Correth and dragging him along before he'd even finished tying up his horde of gifted treats.

Rhion listened as the shower switched off, waiting patiently for De to make his way into the kitchen. It wasn't long before the boy emerged, hair still damp and dressed only in a pair of black silky drawstring pants that hung low on his hips. It was a look that would have screamed feminine on some boys Damian's age but on the young vampire prince it proclaimed the exact opposite.

Rhion raked his eyes over the lean, perfectly sculptured body---silk and steel---and yet somehow soft when he was wrapped up in an embrace. It was part of the puzzle that was Damian.

The boy looked flushed, and a bit out of it still---his eyes slightly clouded over as though he were still caught inside that vampirc hunger. "There's bloodwine." Rhion motioned toward the bottle he'd sat on the counter earlier.

The crimson elixir had always helped Joss, not as pure as the stuff from a vein (according to the vampire) but it seemed to do the trick.

De poured himself a glass silently, his eyes following Rhion's every move as though he might suddenly disappear. De had never studied Rhion so closely, or so silently before---it was as if he were trying to figure out something while simultaneously willing himself to drop the subject.

"Correth and a servant girl named Whisper. They cleaned up, and helped me with a little cooking. Oh, and gave you greetings through me; nice, polite kids." De seemed to chew on that, his brain working through the implications in slow motion.

Rhion eyed him, not sure how to gauge this seemingly new mood. "Are you alright, De?" The boy nodded before turning the glass up and emptying the contents. Immediately he refilled it as though he planned to get good and drunk on the stuff.

When he stepped around Rhion to snag the bottle, he pressed close, touching him with the length of his body when he didn't need to.

The boy could turn on the charm, play the seduction card but this didn't seem to be his game as he moved around Rhion and placed his glass on the counter before turning and hoisting himself up there to nest himself right in the center of Rhion's baking supplies.

"Are you SURE you're feeling okay?" Rhion really was confused, De had barely spoken to him and at the same time hadn't taken his eyes off him since he'd entered the room. "You don't have a fever, do you?" Again the boy only shook his head as Rhion reached up to feel De's slightly flushed face.

He'd never seen the boy with color of this kind in his cheeks and when he felt the skin it was warm but not hot---normally De was a bit on the cool side. Joss had never been but then again Joss drank blood fairly regularly and De obviously didn't.

He started to comment, but a few seconds after he'd touched his face, De's eyes slipped closed and he breathed in deeply as if he were trying to take in all of Rhion's scent at once. When he opened his eyes his concentration was that much more intense. "You smell good."

"It's probably the brownies." Rhion's voice was rough and throaty to his own ears. Something in De's voice, a primal compliment of sorts had sent a rippling wave of heat straight down to his groin, making him have to breathe a little deeper in order to speak.

De looked down at the bowl, reached out and snagged a finger full of the brown batter and sucked it off intently, his eyes strangely serious. "No, that's not it." De wasn't being seductive intentionally ---in fact he really truly seemed to be trying to figure it out.

Without so much as a word of warning he snatched the bowl from Rhion's hands and sat it on the counter beside them, while simultaneously pulling Rhion close to him with the other.

Rhion expected the kiss, that much had been blatantly clear in De's movements but what he hadn't anticipated was the thoroughness that De had tasted him with or the time he'd poured into that tasting.

In a few brief moments De's legs were wrapped securely around Rhion's waist and his chest was pressed as close to Rhion's as he could get. His hands spilled over the blond's clothed skin like he was soaking up every fabric covered curve.

Rhion was worried over De's odd behavior, but he was also a young man and a very healthy one. He returned the kiss with interest, growling softly as his blood fired and his passion rose. De's approach was so strange, so calm yet determined, it damn near drove him insane! To be touched like this. Felt over so thoroughly, as if every inch of his skin mattered in some nearly mystical way.

Rhion cut that thought off hard, pulled the seemingly fragile body tight against him, lifted De roughly into the cradle of his arms. Their mouths separated finally only so Rhion could drag in a huge shuddering gasp of air. He didn't dare look at what he held. He didn't. That warm, clinging bundle might disappear from his arms if he stared too closely, asked for too much too soon.

"I'm glad you're feeling better," was all he said in a voice he tried to make less husky, the trace of amusement even partly real.

De studied him with the same interest, actually seemed to weigh his words. "Yes," he said softly. It could have meant anything.

He wasn't entirely sure where De was coming from with this or why things had taken such an abrupt turn but he wasn't going to complain.

Part of him realized that *this* was the real Damian, the one that lay hidden behind all the hurt and loneliness, the one that wanted so desperately to be free but couldn't quite make that final leap over the wealth of damage that had been done to him.

"We need a bed." De's words were desperate as he pulled back and kissed the corner of Rhion's mouth and then worked his way down his jaw, finally coming to rest over the sharp edge of Rhion's collarbone. He suckled hard, marking Rhion thoroughly but the sweet sting of fangs never came.

That was alright, Rhion had bled a little for Kef---for Joss---and the two of them together had taught him the art of intimacy with a blade. For vampires, pain had layers---some of it was sweet, seductive and could be swallowed like a well-aged wine.

Those kinds of pains were more akin to pleasure, but on the flip side vampires could also feel the bad kind of pain more intensely than humans. Their nerves were far more attuned to the world around them, their senses far sharper. It made sex an almost religious experience according to Joss---but it also gave torture a frightening twist.

It was one of the reasons young vampires were taught to endure pain as part of their training---something that sounded reasonable when Joss explained it---but yet wasn't reasonable at all when Rhion had witnessed it first hand.

He wasn't ready to test De's relationship with pain, and since the boy seemed to believe that he deserved to suffer---well, Rhion couldn't trust him to share what felt good and what didn't at this point---but Rhion could bleed a little for De.

Before he worked his way to the bedroom, he grabbed a knife from the kitchen counter. It was harmless metal; the kind that wouldn't mark even a human immortal for long but for a few moments after each cut the blood would flow.

De didn't bother to unwind himself, or make it easier for Rhion to maneuver them toward the bedroom. Nor did he flinch when the length of the blade pressed against his back when they stumbled.

Rhion hadn't broken De's skin nor had he intended to, but the idea that De utterly trusted him with a blade---well, that made Rhion uneasy! Maybe the blade wasn't truly dangerous for shallow cuts but anything that drew blood on a vampire posed a potential threat, especially when that vampire was already weak from a demon thrashing.

Blood loss was a vampire's greatest weakness and the idea that De didn't mind Rhion with a blade out of sight, pressed up against the sensitive skin of his back---that thought either moved Rhion to no end or worried him to the same lengths.

It wouldn't have been the first time De had allowed Rhion the opportunity to hurt him, welcomed it---hell even asked for it. And that idea made some part of Rhion ache with hurt.

*I want to make you feel something ELSE, dammit! Something other than hurt. I understand the pleasures of pain---as an occasional diversion. But on a day-to-day basis---*

It was a strange, non-sexual thought, and given the current circumstances he banished it for later consideration.

When they got to the bedroom, De allowed Rhion to peel him off and toss him gently onto the middle of the bed. When De looked up at him his gaze hadn't faltered, he still looked at Rhion as if he'd suddenly become the center of the world and all the light in existence radiated from him.

De's eyes slid over the knife, noting its presence but not reacting to it. He waited, allowed Rhion to fall to his knees on the foot of the bed between his spread legs before he surged up and pulled the other boy down into a deep kiss. He wasn't mindful of the blade, and he didn't seem concerned about Rhion's intent---which was enough to move Rhion to action.

He didn't want the boy to believe for even a second that his desire was to hurt him, no matter how much that idea didn't seem to bother De.

He pushed the boy back, and in almost the same movement used the blade to open a two-inch cut just across his collarbone. For a split second De looked shocked---as though that was the last thing he'd been expecting Rhion to do with the knife but the smell of fresh blood quickly eradicated the look.

De rose up, practically crawling up Rhion and latching on almost desperately. One arm wrapped around his neck, while his body pressed itself firmly into Rhion's side, leaving plenty of room for De to wrap his hand around Rhion's dick while his body tried desperately to melt into Rhion's side.

It was a kind of need that De had never shown before. And it quickly became apparent how much blood a hungry vampire could draw from such a small wound before it closed.

For a couple of seconds Rhion's head swam and then he found himself being turned and slammed down onto the bed as De used Rhion's momentary weakness to physically separate them.

The boy looked drunk, he swayed for a second---and a soft almost purring growl escaped from between his lips as he snatched the blade from Rhion's hand.

"Fool human!" The words were supposed to sound dark and powerful but instead they just sounded sexy to Rhion's ears.

He smiled up at De, his hands reaching out to take the blade back---or offer up a wrist---he wasn't really sure which as he pressed the firm length of himself up against the inside of De's thigh---the boy faltered, his eyes slipping closed as though he couldn't control his own body.

For an instant Rhion thought he was gonna get his way, but then De raised his arm, the blade making its trek toward his own wrist as though he meant to bleed himself instead of Rhion

And that was one thing Rhion wouldn't have. It wasn't that he didn't welcome the taste of De---in fact he almost longed for it. It was a taste he had never forgotten, and no one---not Joss, not even Kef, had ever tasted as intoxicating as Damian Leviathan had all those years ago.

But the boy (his boy) had bled enough today and no matter how the memory lingered on his brain he couldn't let De spill even a single drop---not until he was better.

He snagged the boy and flipped him back over, putting himself on top again while pinning De's hands over his head.

It was a game of grappling---only a much more grown up version than the one they'd played together as children.

De didn't look so much surprised by the new course of events as he looked turned on. His eyes grew darker, and Rhion watched as his breath quickened and as his pulse increased--- as much as Damian tried to assert his control over every given situation (do what he was meant to do as an alpha in vampirc culture)---it was suddenly obvious to Rhion that he liked being dominated.

Rhion had been taking about half of what Damian said and did at face value, while shoving the other half away and filing it under vampirc ridiculousness. He hadn't stopped to think about how many of the boy's actions were primarily defensive in nature.

Now that he thought about it all most everything De did was probably geared toward survival in the vampirc culture.

De wasn't supposed to like being man handled---but he did! And that's why one time it was okay, and the next he was jumping down Rhion's throat for it. Instinct and natural desire warring against his social upbringing.

This was something Rhion had already known, but somehow it was suddenly very clear to him.

"Maybe it's not such a bad thing, my being stronger than you." He heard the cocky tenor in his own voice, watched De glare---and yet the desire in his eyes deepened.

"You're a bastard!" De didn't mean a word of it; the fact that he was pressing his whole body up and into Rhion confirmed it.

"My parents were married." Rhion said this as he dipped down to kiss De's neck, the boy turned his head giving Rhion plenty of room to chew on the tender flesh. And the shiver that ran along De's body about undid Rhion's reserve.

The kid was damn sexy, despite all his personality quirks. He was the kind of sensual being that you just couldn't create through study and practice---it came natural, it was in every move---in every look.

Full of rage on a battlefield, or smiling up at a lover in the bedroom, De had the corner market on sex appeal.

"I need to touch you!" And he really did, his whole body said that he was desperate for it---even his tone was pleading and Rhion suddenly realized for all the tricks Joss had taught him, he'd still left a great deal of the vampirc society a mystery.

Was there something going on here that Rhion didn't understand? Was there more to De's whole safety restraint explanation than them simply being friends? It seemed a little foolish in Rhion's mind, since many an enemy had once upon a time been called a friend.

In the immortal world alliances changed every couple of decades. People grew and learned, not over a mortal lifetime but over the span of generations. For De's genetics to remove his one physical advantage simply for the sake of friendship---well, it just didn't make any sense. Not unless it was something De could dial up or down at will---and that didn't seem to be the case, at least not where Rhion was concerned.

Maybe it had something to do with their childhood? It seemed a little far-fetched since the boy didn't even seem to remember him---but then again?

De half whimpered/half growled and the sound of it pulled Rhion's attention back to him. "Daydream later!" The boy tugged at his imprisoned hands forcing Rhion to notice how delicate his bone structure was---how fragile he felt.

"All right, I will," Rhion said firmly. "But you don't bleed anymore tonight---promise me."

There was a pause, and then De reluctantly nodded. It seemed for a moment he might agree to anything, so long as it meant he got to touch Rhion. It was a thought that pleased the older human, made him firmer in his commitment to Damian.

The two of them had shed their clothing somewhere between the kitchen and the bedroom---it half amused Rhion that he couldn't remember precisely when or how. But damn, was his aching cock grateful for it as it was pressed between both their naked bodies.

De gasped too at the feeling of Rhion's desire against his own, and arched against his lover, hands still moving frantically over Rhion's body. Not as if he were in a hurry, rather as if he needed, wanted to feel everything at once.

To make up for lost time? The thought wisped through Rhion and was gone but not forgotten. Logged somewhere in his Book of Damian, as he pulled away a little to smile down at the boy whose eyes stared almost dazedly back at him.

"But don't be insulted, I do wanna taste you." Rhion swooped down, nipped the boy's neck very gently and pulled back at once, grinning as De growled in dangerous exasperation. "Another time. For now---you've bled enough, let me do the giving." A strange calm had come over him, a heady sureness akin to the knowledge an oracle owns. Yes, there had been enough of De's bloodshed tonight. More than enough hurry, and strain, and tension.

He bit hard on his lower lip with strong white teeth, tasted the copper wine of his own blood. And brought the kiss to De this time, cupping the boy's head in his hands to steady it before fastening his mouth over those sweet, already breathless lips.

The boy jerked. Rhion closed his eyes, drawing Damien's gasp of pleasure and desire into his mouth, making that breath his own and then feeding it back. He felt the hot probe of De's tongue swiping his blood gently from his lips and groaned aloud as the offering was accepted without argument. Indeed with trembling, breathless eagerness.

Moving without haste, holding the kiss as he moved with almost vampiric grace, Rhion moved over De's body and re-arranged the boy's legs with strong, coaxing hands. At the blond's firm, almost commanding touch De let his own lips fall from Rhion's tenderized mouth. The boy drew in a deep, shuddering breath and lay back wantonly on the lavish bed. "Hurry up," he said thickly. "You must be trying to kill me, you slow bastard!!"

"Maybe." Rhion smiled at this proof that the Damian he knew was still firmly lodged in this sexy, needing creature. He moved between De's spread thighs, but then did nothing for some moments but rub his lover's lower stomach in soothing circles, ignoring the throbbing cock almost touching his hands. "But really, De, patience is rewarded. Just let the feelings take you and don't rush it. I PROMISE, I'm just as interested as you are!"

De raised his head slightly, staring at his over-calm friend with narrowed, burning eyes. Why did Rhion love to tease him so much at serious moments? that look seemed to say. Then his eyes dropped to Rhion's engorged, slightly jerking cock---which definitely seemed to confirm Rhion's remark. A slow smile curled the prince's blood-tinged lips, and he lay back with a raspy little chuckle.

"What?" Rhion said softly, pressing one hand flat on De's lower belly and finally taking himself in hand with the other.

"You're actually---lecturing me about how to enjoy sex! ME!" Rather than becoming angered, De seemed to find this richly amusing. There was no taint of irony or indignation in his bewitching voice, only humor.

Trust. And memories, not as pictures in the mind maybe. But there anyway, ghosts of feeling in heart and flesh.

"You're right. How silly of me. It's much more instructive to show than tell!" His warm, husky voice held a curl of wickedness even De could not have bettered.

Rhion smiled down at his almost-laughing lover, and pressed suddenly into his body with tender ferocity, spearing him like a conqueror even as his hand continued its soothing, stroking caress just above the place where their bodies now joined.

De arched into it, his body trembling enticingly, his lips whispering something---a prayer maybe? Rhion couldn't quite tell because it was in the ancient vampirc tongue but he picked up a word or two---and the implications were satisfying, but almost too sappy for a vampire.

De had never placed a verbal title on Rhion in the universal tongue, but in his own language he'd called Rhion his 'lover' and he'd meant it.

That was stepping in the right direction, and Rhion found a deep satisfaction in the knowledge that De felt strongly enough about him to say it---even if he did think Rhion himself was oblivious to the fact.

That was all right, as long as Rhion understood---got the significance---then he could leave the boy his emotional defenses.

De met each caress, each kiss that had followed that first thrust as though he'd earned each and every one of them---was entitled!

And maybe he was on some level? They had a connection, something deep and profound that seemed to cross all the known boundaries of the world.

When Rhion had went to the crucifixion he'd been prepared to defend the boy with his life---to kill those he'd very recently sworn his friendship. He'd tried, but sheer numbers had overwhelmed him and yet it was more than brute strength that had stayed his sword that day.

Fate herself seemed to call for the boy's physical death---the fact that she'd intended to give his life back to him, well that piece of information she'd held onto like a greedy bitch! Otherwise Rhion would have never left him---almost didn't.

Even when the winged devils had appeared, and perched themselves at the foot of the cross to sit as guardians until Lee arrived---even then Rhion had wanted to stay---wanted to die by his side--- but something had pushed him away, urged him into the shadows and back to Lessa.

Some part of him had known that blood was about to flow, and he'd waited---never really believing it was over. At the time he'd thought it denial or stupidity but now that he looked back on it he'd known that the boy would come back to him! And he'd known that death would be hot on his heels---and that part of him had laid in wait, held him back until the killing was done.

And this, even after all those years of spurn, of De not remembering him---how could he feel so much for someone who couldn't even recall their time together?

One look at the boy beneath him, as he bent down to scoop him up into his arms told him it wasn't rational, that it was deeper than anything he could imagine.

He'd never told anyone about the strangeness of his thoughts---not always but just sometimes. Nor had he every told anyone about how he'd known people long before they'd actually met---not memories exactly, but he knew things about them, things that seemed to stand out from a jumble of other things. It had started in his early teenage years---shortly after he and Damian had met---it was as if the world around him had awakened!

The strange insight had kept him on an obscure path----one that he realized now, had brought him full circle and straight back to Damian!

Something about these moments of clarity, of greater knowledge made Rhion uneasy, so he pushed them away, while pulling De closer.

The boy melted into his chest, warm and alive---full of passion and desire---just like he should be!

De made some little sound, velvety and oh so silky sweet. Rhion could practically taste the honey on the air that surrounded them. It was one thing to wanta be close to someone it was another to want to melt inside of them and become part of their very soul.

This boy was his! Every part of his body and soul screamed it! It was always there, but usually as a whisper in the back of his head---and a whisper could be ignored but now the thought was loud enough to shatter his soul, it crashed into him with each and every thrust as though it needed him to acknowledge it---to realize it for maybe the first time.

"Synn'dera." De's softly spoken word, whispered against the moist flesh of his lover's throat was heard and understood---he'd said in his own language what Rhion had only been thinking!

Again, Rhion bit down hard on his own lower lip; this time without planning anything or wishing to tease. His arms tightened around De and he convulsed in an ecstasy so fiercely right, so impossibly good that only the understanding of what De had whispered could have triggered such an explosion in him, of proportions almost magical.

He shuddered back to himself in stages, colors spinning in his brain, his muscles utterly melted.

De nestled in his arms, soft and warm---by feel, nearly boneless. His sleeping breath was a gentle moist caress against Rhion's throat. His total relaxation, a pledge of trust too profound to contemplate.

Rhion felt a silly, impossibly sappy smile forming on his face. He quelled it sternly, reaching for something more appropriate to---well---what? A sometimes warrior? An apprentice cook?

He hadn't quite found the face for that yet. But he knew he would like the feel of it once he did.

After a few moments of holding De close and tasting his breath in a series of gentle, unfelt kisses, he arose to begin the cheerful tasks he'd allotted himself.