"C'mere. God, the way you taste," he murmured, kissing and licking along Philip's bared shoulder to his neck. He tasted of flesh and sweat, heated by the steady pulse of blood; it was most beautiful combination of those flavours that Thomas had ever encountered.

Philip was, indeed, like nothing Thomas had ever encountered. Namely, he had an interest in talking with Thomas after they'd fucked. He liked to wrap his arms around Thomas's waist and sigh about the idiots he communed with, letting Thomas contribute and tell his own tales. They laughed and kissed for the pleasure of it. It was dizzying.

Philip, to his thrill, liked to skirt a bit on the precipice of pain when they touched; he liked to bite at Thomas and be bitten back. It was a terribly endearing gesture, which Thomas thought spoke well of Philip.

Thomas had always had an aversion to killing - when he drank of someone, they were essentially unharmed, but did tend to do best with the visit of a doctor after. He didn't want to hurt Philip unless he wished to be.

The third time they'd been together, after they'd collapsed in a heap from their exertions, Thomas had looked at him for a long while. Finally, he managed to ask if Philip was happy. He had meant with him, specifically, but Philip had only laughed.

"Am I happy? Christ, do you often fuck like that when you're sad?"

Now, at their fourth encounter, Thomas would be more to the point of what he wanted to know. He ran his tongue between Philip's collar-bones, which made Philip sigh appreciatively, mussing Thomas's hair in an effort to guide their mouths together.

Thomas, instead, looked down at him for a moment. Philip's dark irises were nearly lost in his lust-hewn pupils and he looked like the image of eroticism as he leaned up for a kiss. Thomas acquiesced this time, mouths meeting feverishly. He wanted all of him, everything that came from his mouth and his prick and his neck. Everything Thomas could swallow. He needed to have him.

"Are you glad to be alive?" Thomas gasped, pulling away suddenly.

Their gazes caught for a moment, Philip waiting to regain some of his breath before he answered, grinning, "I'm quite glad of it at the moment."

At that, Thomas sank his teeth into Philip's neck.

The taste of his blood was as exquisite as the rest of him, mingling as it did with the sweat and skin tastes that lingered on Thomas's palate. They all struck different chords as they filled him and he felt so wonderfully warm. Philip moaned above him and he felt its vibrations as he drank.

He pulled away when he'd had enough to aid in his end, licking the blood off his teeth before he bit his own fast-healing tongue and pressed it into Philip's mouth.

"Ah, Christ," Philip said, starting away from the kiss.

"No, shh, it's fine," he reassured against his lips. "Like - like blood brothers."

Thomas wound his fingers tightly into Philip's hair and pulled him back into the kiss, sharing his own blood between them. Soon enough, the new blood sent the proper impulse to Philip's brain, as he rolled him onto his back and opened Thomas's mouth wider beneath his own. Thomas ached with desire at the sheer ferocity.

"What - " Philip began, swiping his tongue over his own kiss-painted lips, "What did you do?"

At their next encounter, Thomas was relieved to see that much of Philip's upset had worn away with the week. Philip seemed to be particularly adept at, essentially, shrugging himself into the roles he was given.

"You know," Philip said, in greeting, "it's rather funny. Only those who commit sins are meant to die, aren't they? And we shan't. In a swoop, god casts a loving eye upon sodomy."

"You ought to go to the House of Lords with that," Thomas added, wrapping his arms around Philip's waist. He slowly pressed him backward, against the wall. "How could they argue with god?" He place a soft kiss on his lips.

"Oh, I'm sure that would go over a treat. 'I'm an abomination of nature in two distinct ways - are you chaps absolutely sure none of you have a soon-to-be wealthy daughter?'" He paused. "Can I even have an heir?"

"I don't know," Thomas said. He'd never gone to bed with a woman before, he hardly knew if they could get a woman with child as they were. He reasoned for a moment, before he settled upon, "I can't think why not. We don't come blood."

At that rather graphic image, Philip pulled a face. "Thank Christ. We'd never be able to go to bed with anyone."

"Not more than once, anyway. But we'd never be forgotten."

"I don't think I'd like to be remembered for a thing like that," Philip laughed.

He looked so lovely - his eyes brighter now within his new, more vibrant being. His grin lit them further and Thomas was almost loath to kiss it away. Yet kiss it away he did, haphazardly joining their mouths as Philip led them to his bedroom.

As lips met a greater and greater expanse of bared flesh, Thomas sank happily into Philip's bed, being bitten at and biting hard enough to draw blood