by N. R. Walker
He wanted to kiss him, to fuck him and bite him. But his throat burned and he wouldn’t be distracted. He focused again, only this time on the th-thump-thump of blood pumping through veins, and there was no stopping him.
Alec appeared in front of a man covered with gold chains and rings, who had a small kid by the shirt collar up against the wall, telling him he would deliver the package or die.
Alec grabbed the man’s shoulder and threw him backwards. The man smashed into a concrete wall, and Alec could hear bones snap and internal organs pulverize before he slid to the ground, very, very dead.
“Oops.”
Cronin burst out laughing, the small kid took off and two other gang men ran out to meet them with handguns pointed directly at their heads. Alec felt no fear. In fact, he’d never felt more alive. He smiled at them and they both recoiled instantly. Then Alec remembered his fangs.
“Oh.” He looked at Cronin and pointed to his own mouth. “I’m gonna have to learn how to do that retract thing.”
Again, Cronin laughed and set after the two men who had turned to run away. He grabbed them both by the necks, rendering them unconscious, and led Alec farther up the alley until they were completely concealed by night. He pushed one of the men to Alec.
Cronin tilted the man’s head to the side and spoke softly. “Watch me.” He slid his lips over the pulse point on the man’s neck. “You will know where to bite.” And with a quick flex of his teeth, he punctured the skin and was drinking.
Alec was growling. He couldn’t help it. He licked his lips, wanting to taste, not only the free-flowing fresh blood, but Cronin’s mouth, his lips, his tongue. Alec lifted the man to his lips, feeling the pulse and lifeblood just under the skin. He pulled back his lips, and with what he was sure was much less grace and finesse, he bit into his neck.
The taste was hot and metallic, tangy and sweet. It was luscious and it was everything, and he drank quickly, draining the piece of shit human in seconds. And Alec knew he would do anything to taste it again.
Cronin was staring at him, his black eyes were on fire, he licked his lips as though he could taste the blood Alec was drinking. Then he pushed Alec up against the wall behind him, kissing him and gripping him everywhere. It was frantic and intense, pure want and need.
Alec spun Cronin around so he was pressing him against the wall, and kissed him as hard as he could. Cronin seemed to enjoy Alec’s newfound strength, moaning with every push and touch. Alec put his hands under Cronin’s ass and lifted him, spreading his thighs so Alec’s hips were pressed right against him. And fully clothed, they writhed and rutted against each other, kissing and tasting, growling and gripping until Cronin went rigid against him and came.
Alec could not only feel his own pleasure, but he could feel Cronin’s too. It barreled through him, Cronin’s orgasm and his own, and Alec pushed the pleasure out from himself, reflecting it back to Cronin again and again, both of them coming and coming until Alec couldn’t stand up.
Before he fell to the ground, Cronin must have leapt them, because they landed on the bed in Cronin’s New York City apartment.
Both men lay on their backs, gasping, growling, grinning. “What… what… was that?” Cronin asked.
“I um, I’m not sure. When Jodis touched me earlier, I reflected her power back to her. Well, I reflected your pleasure back to you, then back to me and then back to you.” Alec shrugged. “Well, I think that’s what I did.”
Cronin laughed and held his hands up. “My hands are still shaking. They’ve not done that since I was human.”
Alec snorted. “So, we’re gonna have some fun with these new powers, yes?”
Cronin sighed and rolled over to face Alec. “How do you feel?”
Alec thought of everything he felt. “Amazing. Energized. Very sexual,” he said, and Cronin laughed. “I feel jittery. Nervous, confident, happy, relieved. Overwhelmed.”
Cronin kissed him softly. “I think you’ve taken to everything extremely well. Better than anyone I’ve seen.”
“I have so much to learn, so much to get used to. It’s very overwhelming.”
“And I will teach you everything. Eiji, Jodis, and I will teach you all we know.” Cronin stared at him, his eyes shone with wonder. You are more remarkable than I can say.
“I am remarkable because of what you make me,” Alec answered.
Cronin’s eyes widened. “You hear my mind?”
Alec reached in the depths of Cronin’s mind, seeing flashes of different times and places, long ago and far away, like snippets of cinematic masterpieces. “I see everything.”
Then Cronin must have remembered their times in bed, because Alec was bombarded with not just explicit visuals, but how it made Cronin feel.
“Oh, Jesus,” Alec panted. He squinted his eyes shut. “I’m gonna need to learn how to block that out.”
Cronin laughed. “Or not.”
Alec rolled off the bed and went to snatch the lube from a bedside table, only to be left holding the entire now-broken drawer in his hand. His strength was bewildering to him, though Cronin burst out laughing. It was the freest sound Alec had heard from him yet. Alec plucked out the small bottle of lube and carefully threw it on the bed, then pounced on Cronin, and pinned his hands to the bed. Matched in physical strength, like Cronin had done so many times before, Alec ripped Cronin’s clothes from his body, then his own.
Cronin laughed, but the sound became a moan when Alec pushed Cronin’s thighs apart with his own. “You belong to me now,” Alec said, holding him down. His fangs were pulsing with want, his cock thick and aching. He smeared lube over his cock, giving himself a few strokes, and the new vampire sensations made him hiss. It was so much better….
Cronin’s chest arched forward, his head pushed back, and he exposed his neck to Alec. “Make me yours, Alec. Take from me what you will.”
Alec pushed against Cronin’s hole with his cock and kissed him hard, making Cronin whine and plead. He was stronger than Cronin now, he held him tighter, and he maneuvered him like he weighed nothing. And from the sounds Cronin made, he clearly liked being manhandled.
“Have me, please, I beg of you,” Cronin whispered. “Alec, please.”
Alec sunk his cock into Cronin’s ass in one hard push and sunk his teeth into his neck. Cronin was his, for every whim of pleasure, to do with what he wished.
As he was to Cronin.
It was a pleasure so divine, so raw, and so complete. He was inside him, in every possible way. He was so deep inside him, he tasted his blood on his tongue: a taste so delectable, so perfectly designed just for him.
Cronin gripped his arms, his back, and his ass, not having to restrain his strength anymore, and begged—he begged—Alec to fuck him harder.
So he did.
And then they made love, and then Cronin fucked Alec, and then they made love again, and Alec wasn’t sure for how many days it lasted.
Whatever it was, however long, it was not enough.
They were lying on the bathroom floor, taking a moment to catch their breaths. “I have some pretty special powers, apparently,” Alec said with a laugh.
“I’ll say.”
Alec snorted but was serious for a moment. “I can feel it. An energy bubbling in my bones. I can’t describe it, but I’m kind of scared by it.”
Cronin frowned and squeezed his hand. “Don’t be afraid, m’cridhe.”
“My heart. I love how you call me your heart,” Alec repeated.
“It is true.”
“Oh, that reminds me.” He touched the new scar on his chest. “You stabbed me in the heart. Is that something we need to talk about?”
Cronin laughed, long and loud. “How long are you going to remind me of that?”
“Forever.”
Cronin hummed contentedly. “I’ll be truly disappointed if you don’t.”
EPILOGUE
~Six months later~
It had taken s
ome getting used to, but Alec was getting the hang of his powers. There was no use hiding them from the world; word had spread quickly that the one who had stopped Queen Keket, Genghis Khan, and their master Rilind from their quests of destruction had been reborn a vampire.
The stories of his untold powers soon followed.
There had been no sign of ill-regard toward him, in fact quite the opposite. Most people, or vampires to be exact, came from around the world offering gifts and thanks.
From the beginning, Alec had insisted on a counsel to show he would use his powers responsibly, for the betterment of vampires and humans alike. Cronin, Eiji, and Jodis would always hold rank on this counsel, but a leader, or spokesperson, from every continent would join them for meetings to discuss and raise any questions or concerns they may have.
The vampire population as a whole were pleased to have a unified counsel, governing laws and holding accountable the most powerful vampire to have lived. And they were even more pleased that it was Alec’s idea. Alec had no doubt a time would come when someone thought themselves good enough to stand against him, but for now there was peace. Beautiful and soul-soothing peace.
Except for the time Alec accidently set fire to Jodis’ favorite sofa, or the time he zapped Eiji with electricity—even though it was Eiji’s idea to see how funny it would be—and Alec put him through two walls. Yeah, it was funny. Until they saw Jodis and Cronin’s faces, then it wasn’t funny. Well, not while they were around anyway.
The first thing Alec learned to do was block the thoughts of others. Not only was it a huge violation of their privacy, but there was shit Alec just didn’t want to see. Or hear. As if vampire hearing wasn’t enough to get used to, but full visuals of half the population of New York City was enough to make Alec want to live in Antarctica for a while.
Alec would sometimes use it to talk to Cronin, though only with his consent. And while mind reading had its advantages, in that Alec could see the true intentions of the hundreds of vampires he met, it also meant he could hear the thoughts of the humans he fed from.
That only happened one time. The very second time he fed—a mental picture slide show of life and happier times—and within an hour of that child-murderer’s body hitting the ground, Alec taught himself how to block thoughts.
The others believed it might not be possible for him to learn such things so quickly, but Alec just shrugged. He told Cronin, “It was like having a hundred tabs open on your computer and simply muting one while all the others were fully functioning.”
And once Alec learned to see how his mind worked, then everything became a whole lot easier. Cronin had thought that meeting so many vampires too soon might have been confronting or overwhelming, given Alec’s ability to read and transfer their own talents, but the opposite was true. It helped him understand his own powers. Just a few minutes after meeting them, he had a better understanding of how to control fire, wind, water, other people, reflecting, transferring, the list seemed endless.
And there was a list.
Jodis had started documenting and recording all the talents Alec encountered and accrued. The list was long, and in all likelihood, it would be never-ending. Jodis would get excited and quickly write down every new thing. Alec didn’t mind though. In fact, he adored Jodis and Eiji. They were like a sister and brother to him now, and Alec would be eternally grateful for their help, their friendship, and for how much they loved Cronin.
Alec hadn’t been apart from Cronin at all since he was changed. Not a minute. Which was what made this separation so hard.
There was no pain like there used to be when they were apart, but the yearning to be with him again was hollow and uneasy.
“How you holding up?” Eiji asked, now standing beside him.
“I’m okay,” Alec answered quietly. He stood in their New York apartment, in his and Cronin’s bedroom, in front of the single shelf along the end wall. Upon it was the ax and helmet Cronin had with him when his human life ended. And now next to those was the stone plate, still stained with his human blood and mercury, that he held when his human life ended.
Alec was yet too scared to touch it. His mental strength was easy to understand, but his physical strength was something he had to work on. He had crushed countless pens, a football, his laptop, faucets, and a vase he didn’t dare ask the age of. So he admired the stone plate with his hands behind his back.
“He has so many trinkets from the last twelve hundred years,” Alec said, referring to the wall of artifacts in the living room and the ones in his office. “He’s done so many amazing things.”
“Alec, you have the sun-disk of Ra, an ancient Egyptian God, and the stone plate from the First Emperor of China to start your collection. I think you’re doing okay.”
Alec snorted. “Sounds so bizarre, doesn’t it?”
Eiji studied him for a moment. “What is the real reason for this melancholy? Not having second thoughts are you?” he asked with a smile.
Alec didn’t even answer that. He rolled his eyes. “It’s not melancholy. It’s just… I don’t know what it is. I just want another twelve hundred years with him, or twelve thousand. I didn’t ask for these powers, and if given the chance, I’d give them away.”
“Why?”
“Because of the risk they pose to him, to you, and Jodis.”
He shook his head. “Risk? You mean awesome adventures. There hasn’t been a dull moment since the day we met you.”
“Gee, thanks.”
Eiji grinned. “You’re most welcome.”
Alec laughed quietly. “I still owe you driving lessons. Don’t think I’ve forgotten.”
“How about we wait until Cronin stops having conniptions every time you leave the house?”
Alec snorted. “I know it’s tradition to be late, but speaking of leaving….”
Eiji grinned. “I’ve kept you here long enough. He’ll start to think we’re up to no good if we don’t get there soon.”
Alec reached out and touched Eiji’s arm, closed his eyes and thought of Cronin. Alec didn’t need to think of a place to leap, if he didn’t want. He could think of a person and turn up to wherever they were. He could also leap another person without touching them, with or without their consent. If he wanted to, he could have leapt Eiji to the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Not that he would. He threatened it once, but that was only because he’d lost to him at backgammon. That might have also been the sofa burning incident, but at least it didn’t involve someone being thrown onto another continent without their consent.
Cronin had made him promise he would never do such a thing.
Cronin.
Cronin….
Alec leapt to where Cronin was.
And that just happened to be in the middle of the Calanais Stones in Scotland. There was a gathering of their closest friends. Alec saw Kennard first, Jacques, Jorge and Adelmo, even Bes from Egypt, and Eleanor who had become a close companion to his father, Kole. They’d been inseparable over the last six months, and this made Alec very happy. And Jodis stood at the top of the circle and held her hand out for Eiji.
It was midnight, the stones were illuminated by the stars, and the moon shone a spotlight on the red-haired vampire who stood in the middle. And what Alec saw took his breath away. Cronin was waiting in the center of the circle, dressed impeccably in a kilt, white shirt, black barathea jacket, and traditional brogues.
Alec had no clue he was going to wear a kilt. They’d talked about suits, organized suits, even bought and paid for suits.
Yet there he stood wearing a kilt.
Alec blinked back tears as he walked into the center of the stones to meet him. How he’d managed to keep this a secret, Alec could only guess. “A kilt?”
“Traditional tartan,” he said.
Alec took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “You better be real traditional underneath that kilt.”
Everyone laughed and Cronin blushed.
K
ole stepped into the circle then, to officiate. It was Cronin who asked Kole for his blessing to wed his son, but he also asked if he’d like to perform this ceremony. Cronin had said it would mean more if Alec’s father would be the one to see them wed. Kole cried and hugged Cronin a lot, but of course he said yes.
Kole held his hand out to Cronin first. “Your sash?”
Alec walked behind Cronin and took Cronin’s jacket off for him, and waited for Cronin to unpin the tartan sash. When he’d handed the long strip of red tartan to Kole, Alec helped Cronin back into the tight fitting jacket and slowly, savoring every second, walked back to face Cronin.
They each held out their right hand, and Kole wrapped the sash around their wrists and ceremoniously tied the material in a knot. And Alec saw what it was. Red plaid, wrapped around their hands. What Jorge had said all along was right. ‘When the red hand holds the key, forever is in the stones.’
Alec and Cronin both turned in unison to look at Jorge, and the little boy bounced on his toes and clapped his hands.
“Jorge saw it. Jorge saw it.”
Adelmo put his hand on the boy’s shoulder, shushing him like a father would a son, and everyone laughed.
Eventually, Kole cleared his throat, getting back to the ceremony.
"Upon this day, your hands we bind,
A symbol of your hearts entwined.
To witness this, we ask of thee,
Your union forever blessed be."
Cronin grinned and leaned in to kiss Alec quickly. He was just beaming happiness, and everyone who looked on smiled at his obvious joy. He unwrapped his and Alec’s hand, then in what was a traditional show of the joining of clans, with a bowed head, he offered his tartan sash to Alec.
Alec’s eyes welled with tears as he took the plaid cloth. “I am honored to be your husband.”
Cronin took hold of Alec’s face and kissed him, interrupted again by Kole clearing his throat. Alec looked to his dad to see that he was holding a folded cloth. Not just any cloth. The MacAidan tartan. Alec took the small piece of old material, no bigger than a handkerchief, and holding it out to Cronin, he bowed his head.
