Chapter Five

Nico stretched his hands up to the ceiling and admired himself in the bathroom mirror. He was sure he’d never felt this good in his life. His body hummed with ready energy and strength, but it wasn’t so much that the vibration grated. He felt good. His muscles moved smoothly. His hip pain was gone. His knuckles didn’t ache when he made a fist.

It had to be the endorphins. He’d never had this much sex in such a short amount of time. He was surprised he had it in him, frankly. If the answer to his chronic pain this whole time was just “have more sex…” well, he wasn’t going to complain!

Nico scanned his unblemished skin in the mirror—clean, finally, and unmarked. The bruises he’d thought he’d seen under all the blood had just been his imagination, clearly. His neck was whole and untouched. He’d thought he’d have a hickey at least. Nico shrugged. Don’t look a gift horse and all that.

He found boxers, a pair of jeans, and a black tshirt laid out for him on the foot of the bed. A metal band logo spread across the back of the shirt forming two vampire fangs that dripped blood. Nico smirked. He had a bit of a theme, didn’t he?

He ran his hand down his neck again, remembering the way Dimitri had bit him that last time, striking hard and fast. Drinking like Nico’s blood was all that sustained him. The memory made him warm all over. He’d exercise that one for a while…

He found Dimitri in the living room. He’d put his slacks back on, but his shirt was a blood-soaked loss and he was stuffing it in the trash when Nico spotted him. He admired Dimitri’s muscle-corded back from the doorway of the bedroom.

Dimitri stiffened and spun, his face twisted with anger. He hissed, all fang. “You need to get control of your thoughts. You’re spilling desires all over the place. I can’t think.”

In a flash Nico was just as furious. How dare he. “How dare you barge in like you own me. Like you can take what you want whenever you feel like it.” Nico shoved off the doorway and stalked into his kitchen, pointing at Dimitri’s chest. “How dare you stalk me and break in. While you’re high one some cocktail that makes you assault people.” The anger was flush and blazed hot. It felt good to indulge in, to rub his thumb over an injury again and again to feel the spike of it.

Dimitri loomed, his hands wide and freshly covered in blood from handling the shirt. Nico’s blood. “Don’t try to claim you didn’t enjoy it.”

“You’re lucky I did!” Nico leaned up. “It could have been anyone else and they’d have screamed their head off. You’re lucky I’m into that shit. What if you’d attacked some rando?”

Dimitri’s face was twisted with anger, his red eyes flashing. “I would have killed them!”

“And you’re proud of that?” Nico scoffed. “You’re lucky I’m alive!”

“I’m the one who’s supposed to be dead!” Dimitri screamed, fingers pointing hard into his own chest. “I didn’t come here to fuck you, I came here to feast before I died.” Dimitri’s eye flicked to Nico’s throat and back up. Down again. His hands flexed like he was stopping himself from grabbing Nico and biting him all over again.

But Nico’s thoughts weren’t on sex or biting. He’d been thrown entirely out of the anger at Dimitri’s admission that he should be dead. That was the last thing Nico wanted.

Dimitri looked away, turning his head hard to the side and taking a step back like Nico was a temptation he had to physically remove himself from.

Nico shook his head in confusion, his voice softer. “What do you mean you’re supposed to be dead.” The anger had fled all at once, like it didn’t even belong to him in the first place. It was weird. He gave his body a shake.

“How much do you remember in the shower? After I bit you? After you came, what happened?”

Nico’s brows drew hard together. He sketched his memory over the sex—it really was very good—and focused on the aftercare. Dimitri always provided thorough aftercare when they were both satisfied. He frowned. “You… didn’t cum.” His attention flexed entirely inward as he replayed the events. “You put me down in the tub. You looked… afraid.”

Dimitri’s voice was a hard whisper. “What happened after that?”

Why hadn’t he remembered this before? It was like the sex lived larger in his memory, more attractive. He struggled to focus on what happened next. “There was… heat? I—“ Nico shook his head, refocusing on Dimitri’s serious face. “I had some kind of overwhelmed episode. I can’t remember the details. I think you held me?”

Dimitri nodded. “It wasn’t your fault, it was mine.”

“Dimitri, you know my health is a crapshoot—“

“No. Listen.” Dimitri flashed closer in a blink. It wasn’t a step forward so much as a teleport. He grabbed Nico’s shoulders. “You didn’t have an episode—or whatever you call it. You were flooded with power. From me.” He stared hard into Nico’s eyes. “I am a vampire. You are my Sire.”

Nico stared back for a heartbeat. Two. Three. He was waiting for the punchline. The ha, just kidding. Something. The moment stretched out until revealing the joke would have been awkward and still Dimitri didn’t take his words back.

Nico cleared his throat. “You’re a vampire.”

He said it more like a statement, like he was trying it on for size. Not that he actually believed it.

Dimitri closed his eyes. “How have you been explaining my fangs all this time?”

Nico wanted to shrug, but this felt too serious. Like Dimitri actually believed himself. Was he still high. “You filed them or have permanent caps or something.”

Dimitri went down on one knee in front of Nico. He opened his mouth wide, so he had a great view of his upper teeth. There were only two fangs, where the canine teeth should have been. Hadn’t Dimitri had more fangs? Nico thought he remembered a pair on the bottom, too. Or were there more?

There were only two now. And the definitely weren’t filed. The tip of each fang stretched well beyond the other teeth. Nico reached up to touch, then hesitated. He met Dimitri’s eyes and saw encouragement. Nico focused. He put his thumb on one fang and dragged upward to catch Dimitri’s upper lip. He exposed the gum and realized immediately these weren’t capped teeth either. The structure of the bone underneath was clear and it bulged at the root like the fang needed extra support.

It would if whoever Dimitri was biting struggled against him.

Nico slid his thumb back down. The tooth thinned at the tip, like a needle, and became nearly translucent. Not at all like a human tooth.

Was he really buying this story? That Dimitri was a vampire and he’d been sucking Nico’s blood this whole time? And hiding it under the excuse that he was just as kinky as Nico? Had he been lying— Nico snatched his hand away, but he wasn’t faster than Dimitri.

Dimitri grabbed his wist and put a hand to Nico’s cheek. “No. I’ve never lied about this. I crave you, Nico. Not just your blood.”

It felt true, somehow. Nico narrowed his eyes. “How do you know what I’m thinking?”

“It’s the bond.” His hand on Nico’s cheek slid down to his chest, just over his heart. “You’re my Sire. And right now you’re sending everything you think and feel down the connection to me.” Dimitri shook his head a little. “So when you walked in here and thought about sex again, I felt the same thing.”

“And you got angry,” Nico said, starting to understand.

“And you felt that and became angry, too. I’m sorry. I’ve had a lot more experience with this and shouldn’t have spilled over like that.”

Nico nodded a little. Maybe he was starting to believe it. “It felt like I was being driven by it. I had to be pissed, I didn’t have a choice.”

“It’s a compulsion,” Dimitri confirmed. “Which is why we need to work on your end.” He tapped Nico’s heart. “So you stop sending them to me.”

Nico grabbed Dimitri’s hand with his own. “Is that why you came here to feed? A compulsion?”

Dimitri sighed. “No, that was more like survival instinct. A vampire needs more than blood to survive. We also need a connection to our Sire. It’s a power connection, one that sustains us.” Dimitri pointed at himself. “A vampire gains power by feeding on blood.” Then he pointed to Nico. “And a portion of that power is tithed to the Sire, to keep him strong. The Sire gains power from feeding and other ways.” Then his hand waved off into the distance. “And a portion of that is tithed to the King.”

He brushed Nico’s cheek with one thumb and said, his voice softer, “My Sire was killed. When that happened all the vampires of the Court, including me, fell into a blood frenzy. I wasn’t thinking about anything except feeding in order to fill the hole where my Sire’s connection used to be. It’s a fatal condition. There is no cure. You can’t drink enough blood to feed the hunger, that only delays the process.” He looked down. “By killing my Sire, the entire Court was doomed to die.”

Nico tipped Dimitri’s face back up with a touch on his cheek. He couldn’t help but feel protective and worried. This was Dimitri on his knees admitting he hadn’t been in full control. “But you’re not dying now.”

“No. Because somehow you have forged the Sire connection. You are my Sire, Nico. That means anything you want, any desire you send down the bond, is a compulsion I’m forced to obey.”

“And it can go the other way?”

Dimitri gave him a wan smile. “Normally, no. A vampire who has become so powerful that they can turn new fledgling vampires and thus become a Sire has the utmost control over the bonds they forge. You… are very new.”

Nico squinted. “Am I a vampire now?”

Dimitri snorted. “No. Sorry.”

Nico shrugged. “I like being bitten more than doing the biting anyway.”

Dimitri reached out to yank the closest dining chair toward him and sat in it. He pulled Nico in between his knees and held his hands, his red eyes steady. When Nico didn’t say anything right away, he let the moment be silent without pushing. Nico couldn’t help but spin back to the moment Dimitri had slammed the apartment door open. He’d looked ragged. Nico had thought he was high on drugs. Putting it in the context of a blood frenzy made it more alarming, not less.

He’d been on the menu for real. Dimitri’s final meal.

He skipped forward through the events. There was a numb sort of wash over the latter half of the attack, when it had turned into sex. He vaguely remembered trying to do that. His memory was clearer a bit later, when he’d been burning with desire.

Then again in the bathroom—it had felt so abrupt. So all-consuming.

Nico met Dimitri’s eyes, his own wide with realization. “Did you not want to have sex again?” His heart plummeted with fear. He’d seen Dimitri in the mirror behind him, soaked in blood, and he’d instantly been hard for him. “Did I ra—“

Dimitri kissed him. Not gently, but with tongue and nipping teeth and blood so abruptly, Nico was derailed.

“No. Stop that thought right there.” He grabbed Nico’s head and tilted his own until their forheads touched. Nico licked at a scratch on his lip. “That was a compulsion, yes, but it was so strong for both of us because I wanted the same thing. I crave you with every inch of my soul, Nico. There hasn’t been another person in my life so perfectly attuned to me. That didn’t start today.” He kissed Nico again, ran his lips down Nico’s cheek and pressed fangs to his throat. He whispered harshly against Nico’s skin, “I’ve come back to you again and again because I need you. You. Your body. Your blood. They way you never hesitate to take my fangs. Neither of us had any reason to stop.”

He yanked Nico forward so he spilled into Dimitri’s lap on the chair, chest to chest, biting as much as kissing. Nico’s body tightened with arousal. He spread his knees and ground himself against Dimitri’s bulging crotch. He tried to focus on their conversation, but he could feel something pulling in his chest, like a muscle knotted up with tension. That connection Dimitri talked about. Sire to vampire.

He couldn’t stop himself from rutting and every delicious bit of friction made that connection hum inside of him.

Nico gasped for air. Dimitiri buried his face in Nico’s neck. His hands gripped Nico’s ass and pressed their bodies together. He arched off the chair for even more contact. Nico held on to the back of Dimitri’s neck and gulped.

“So, I’m your Sire now?” he asked breathlessly.

“Yes,” Dimitri hissed.

“How does that work? Being human, I mean.”

“I don’t know. I didn’t think it was possible. I came here to sate my blood frenzy. It’s likely I would have killed you. The bond gave me some higher thought so I could stop your bleeding.” Dimitri opened his mouth against Nico’s throat and rubbed the face of his fangs against the skin like they were little erections of their own, getting off on the friction. It made Nico shudder with pleasure.

He moaned at the hazy memory of Dimitri fucking him at the edge of consciousness. His blood smeared over them both. “You were pretty brutal when you first showed up,” he panted. His hips kicked against Dimitri’s, restricted by the jeans. His cock ached. His asshole clenched. He whispered, “Like an animal.”

“Did… I fuck you dry?”

“No, you gave me a few licks. Minimal.”

“I’m sorr—“

It was Nico’s turn to grab Dimitri’s face and moan into the kiss. “It was so hot. Don’t apologize, it was perfect—oh, god.” Nico writhed against Dimitri’s body. He felt a slip of precum wet his boxers and shuddered. “Fuck, fuck, if you don’t want to do this again you gotta tell me right now.”

Dimitri shut him up again with another kiss. They got Nico’s jeans and boxers off somehow. But only got as far as opening Dimitri’s fly before Nico pressed his ass against him. Nico was dry. Dimitri’s cockhead lodged against his hole and didn’t move, but the pressure of it made Nico cry out with need. He knew it wasn’t possible, but he wanted Dimitri to shove himself in.

Dimitri’s hands crept under his ass. His fingers dug in close and pulled his cheeks apart. He nudged his hips upward rhythmically, like he could fuck Nico dry somehow.

Nico had to grab his own balls and squeeze. The edge had come up so quickly. “Why can I do this again so fast?”

Dimitri grunted. “Every Sire can generate power from something other than blood. They start to crave it like a drug.”

“Like sex?”

Dimitri huffed a breathy laugh. “More like torture and pain.”

Nico moaned as Dimitri’s cock teased him. “You’re definitely torturing me right now.” Nico began to laugh when a thread of precum wet the head of Dimitri’s cock and he suddenly slipped inside. Not far, barely the widest point of the head, but he used that half inch to fuck Nico from below.

Nico shivered. His breath hitched. “I think I’m addicted to your cock.” He felt something spool up in his belly, beside and intertwined with the arousal. A need so fundamental he thought he might die without it. “Fuck me, Dimitri.”

Dimitri picked Nico up and lay him on the dining table. He held one of Nico’s legs wide and dropped to his knees. He plunged his tongue into Nico’s ass.

Nico arched. His legs trembled. But Dimitri pulled his tongue out and brushed his fangs on Nico’s inner thigh instead. Nico’s breath caught.

“It’s one of the early signs of becoming a Sire that a vampire can generate power from something other than bloodletting.”

Nico didn’t give to shits about the lessons anymore. “Dimitri, fucking bite me. Bite me. Bite me and use my own blood to fuck me.” The idea alone almost made him cum. He squeezed his shaft, trembling.

Dimitri hit hard and drank deeply. He’d taken so much blood today Nico should have been dead twice over, the pressure reduced to a weak dribble. Instead Nico felt it squirt as strong as ever, and Dimitri’s tongue worked on his skin as he drank it down.

The power surged.

“Fuck yeah. Feed on me. Feed on me until I cum.”

Nico could feel it rising. His arousal spun hard and tight. He worked his cock, but it hardly needed the encouragement. Dimitri’s mouth sucked at his thigh, the power filled up his chest. It crashed like a wave and he belatedly remembered to fumble with the thread of it and push it into the bond in his chest. To send it down to Dimitri.

Dimitri’s grip tightened to bruising. His teeth pressed deeper. He sucked harder.

Nico arched up off the table and came in long, stringy ropes.

The power sang in his veins.

Dimitri swallowed his last mouthful and licked the wound closed on Nico’s thigh. His mouth was stained red when he stood up again between Nico’s knees, his fangs and tongue glistening with blood. He licked two fingers and Nico watched with wide eyes as he dropped them down and stroked against Nico’s asshole.

Nico’s whole body shivered. He still trembled with his climax. Cum dripped down his chest. Dimitri bared his fans with pleasure. “My Sire gains power from being bitten,” he whispered. “My fangs in your flesh make us both stronger.”

His tongue snaked out to lick down one fang, then the other. Nico watched, mesmerized.

Dimitri’s fingers pressed suddenly, in, twist, out. The only preperation Nico wants. Dimitri traded fingers for cock and leaned in. He forced the hole to stretch slowly, one tiny muscle at a time. Bearing down like an inevitability. Nico’s breath caught. Dimitri dragged his thumbs on either side of Nico’s hole and spread him open so he was entirely exposed to Dimitri’s eyes. Nico felt the long shaft of his cock slide home.

He wasn’t even moving yet, but Nico’s breath started to hitch. His cock, just spent, throbbed as it rose again.

The power coiled again in his gut and Nico couldn’t tell it apart from arousal. Maybe it was the same thing. All he knew was he wanted more. Faster. Now. He wanted to drown in that wave again and again. It was more than an addition, it was an obsession that had taken hold of him. He never wanted it to let go. There’s nothing else in the world but Dimitri’s cock spearing him as deep as it’ll go.

Dimitri fucked him on the dining room table with only Nico’s blood and a few licks for lube and Nico couldn’t help himself. He screamed for more. Begged for it. Faster. Harder. Dimitri’s hands held him fixed while his body thrust. The pressure to cum again built even faster.

Golden power rose in his chest. Nico funneled it through the bond to Dimitri and Dimitri cackled with glee. His rhythm hiccuped and his voice was a fierce grin. “My Sire gains power from being fucked,” he hissed with pleasure. His red eyes gleamed with promises of future railing. Nico could feel himself tipping close—

Dimitri suddenly yanked himself free. Nico gasped with the loss. Everything inside him clenched hard. The power trembled at the edge of another crest but couldn’t fall.

“Being fucked,” Dimitri said, “But not from cumming.” He grinned viciously. “Think you can hold back? Can you take my cock until we’re overwhelmed with power?”

Nico nodded, eyes wide.

He felt Dimitri’s intent through the bond only a flash second before the vampire climbed over his body and onto the table. His blood-coated cock fell heavy and thick on Nico’s lips. A cock framed by his black slacks pealed open at the fly.

“Open,” Dimitri hissed.

Nico opened. Dimitri’s hot cock, sticky with his own blood, slid over his tongue and down his throat. Nico’s eyes rolled back. The power, hovering at its crest, overflowed.

Dimitri’s cock plunged deep and the power welled up right behind it. Thrust, power. Thrust, power. Nico drowned in it. He couldn’t tell which way was up, or even if he was breathing. There was only the thrust of Dimitri’s shaft on his tongue and the knowledge that this was where he belonged.

“You’re going to swallow,” Dimitri said, his fingers raking through Nico’s hair to hold his head steady.

Nico couldn’t speak, but he tried to send his thoughts through the bond. Yes. Harder. More.

Dimitri’s cock choked him. When he came, it was a flood Nico rushed to swallow. The wave of golden power swamped him entirely.

When he surfaced, Dimitri was licking the overflow from Nico’s lips.

And Nico’s cock lay heavy, dark, and throbbing against his thigh.

Nico croaked on a question, so he tried sending it through the bond instead.

Dimitri chuckled as he pet Nico’s hair, his face close. “You don’t gain power from your climax. I think I’ll leave you wanting more…”

Bastard.

Dimitri grinned, full of fangs.

Nico cleared his throat and tried to talk again. “What if I gain power from fucking you?”

Dimitri licked his lips, then gave Nico’s cock another long look. Nico stroked it slowly, from base to tip, rolling his thumb along the wet top.

“A valid hypothesis,” Dimitri finally admitted.

He plunged down on Nico’s shaft unexpectedly. He thrust two fingers into Nico’s ass at the same time. Dimitri’s throat closed on the head of his cock like he had no gag reflex at all and was happy to swallow Nico whole. He bobbed his head expertly and scratched his claws down Nico’s balls.

Like a gunshot, Nico came screaming Dimitri’s name. His whole body rattled with the speed of it.

But the golden wave-crest never rose.

Dimitri swallowed everything Nico gave him, then licked his lips clean as he stood. He gave Nico a considering look. “No power when you do the fucking.”

Nico lay on the table, exhausted, staring up at the ceiling as his whole body twitched and he tried desperately to bring his heart rate back down to double digits.

“Pity,” he said flatly.

Dimitri laughed. Nico gave him a leisurely smile. He felt far too much like the cat who’d just got the cream. His body hummed pleasantly with power and sex. His breath was still a little desperate, but he took Dimitri’s hand when he offered to pull Nico off the table.

His knees buckled. Dimitri caught him easily, swinging Nico up into his arms like a bride on her wedding night. His face had become immediately serious. “Are you hurt? Your hips or knees bothering you?”

Nico let his head fall to Dimitri’s shoulder. “I’m ok, just shaky from cumming…” He had to count on his fingers and things got a little hazy around the middle. “Four times?”

“Five?”

Nico laughed. Dimitri carried him to the tub. “It’s been a lot.”

“A new Sire will try to consolidate power when they first Rise. Like a new vampire’s bloodlust when they are first turned. It’s an instinct. We’re a power-hungry lot.” He set Nico down in the tub and turned the water to warm. Then he finally dropped his slacks to the floor.

Nico sat up far enough for Dimitri to tuck in behind him, cradling Nico against his chest as the water rose. “What do you do with it? The power. Just horde it like a dragon?”

Dimitri ran his fingers down Nico’s arm idly. “You’re not entirely wrong. It’s called cultivation. I take all the power you’ve given me, and what I take from your blood, and I condense it down into something smaller. More concentrated. When I’ve accumulate enough of it, I’ll tier-up. It makes me stronger, faster, and I can wield power in other ways. In my case, I’ll grow my second set of fangs.”

“Wait.” Nico struck on a memory. “You did have more fangs before. I thought so. How many? What happened?”

“I was an eight-fang. Four sets of two, two on top, two on bottom. The most powerful vampire in my Court except my Sire, also an eight-fang.” Dimitri stretched up to grab Nico’s bar of soap from the shelf and lathered it in the water. “When my Sire died, I believe I consumed all of my accumulated power to feed the blood frenzy and stall for time. It’s called a blood frenzy but it’s really an all-consuming hunger for power. Vampires just get that power from blood…” He stroked his hands up Nico’s leg and back down, a gentle touch, but not a sexual one. Just full of tenderness and care. “I don’t remember doing it, but I must have lost my fangs when I ate through all that power. I had to restart my cultivation when you overflowed into me, like I’d never had any at all.”

Nico scrubbed the bar of soap into a cloth that Dimitri handed him as he sat with all this information. He washed his face.

Dimitri cared for him. He soaped Nico’s body gently. He ran his firm hands up Nico’s thighs. He wrapped on hand around Nico’s cock, but not to play, just to clean every inch. He slid his soapy fingers down Nico’s taint and across his hole where he inspected the skin carefully, looking for damage or pain. There was none.

He soaped Nico’s back and scrubbed shampoo through his hair so that by the time Nico was clean he also felt floaty and warm with attention.

He turned in the tub to return the favor. Soap and careful hands down Dimitri’s arms, his legs, his cock and balls, even his hole. He scrubbed Dimitri’s hair with shampoo and a touch of conditioner, enjoying the gentle come-down and focus this routine allowed.

A final rinse. Toweling dry.

And once again clean, bundled in towel, Nico leaned into Dimitri’s arms. He felt floaty and warm. Comfortable. “I really like this part, too,” he said softly.

Dimitri hugged him close, one cheek on top of Nico’s head, and said, “Me, too.”

Nico twisted so he could look up at Dimitri, eye to red eye. “I want to help you get your power back.”

“You just want me to bite you with more fangs.”

“Maybe.” Nico grinned.

Dimitri smiled at him, his eyes twinkling. “It will be my pleasure, Sire.”