AN: Writer's block has been a bitch lately, so I thought I'd come back and pay my respects to my first real vampire obsession in the hopes of drumming up some inspiration. (It worked a treat, btw) For now, this is just a one-shot, but I do have a proper story brewing in the back of my head to which this is an extract. If people like, I shall continue :)

Just be clear, this fanfic is based 100% on the video game and has no relation to any of the extended lore (with which I am only marginally familiar). Buuut, since this is basically glorified smut, I don't think there'll be much conflict anyway XD Enjoy!

LAMB OF THE ANARCHIST

A VTM:B FANFICTION

FELIX MARLOWE – CAIN

ONE

The city was deep in its melancholy. A song of sirens. Gunshots. The gasping of a prostitute somewhere in the alley below, and, over it all, the pat of rain as it spat against the grimy windowpane. Santa Monica. I was a long way from home… and yet, this place fit me so painfully well. The blood. The violence. The rage. It was as if I were born for vampirism.

A knock at the apartment door shook me from my reverie. I turned, brow furrowing as I felt for the power beyond. Brujah. Older. Softer. A spark of foolish joy reanimated dead passions. I rushed to fumble with the lock, scolding myself as a silly schoolgirl crush put a little colour back in my cheeks.

"Nines…"

He stepped inside without invitation and crowded the tiny room. A paper bag was tossed onto the counter in offering. I felt like a whore.

"You didn't have to bring me anything," I insisted, taking the gift and transferring the blood packs within into the fridge. "I know how to hunt, y'know?"

He locked the door behind him and shook water from his hair. "I was raised to know it's rude to turn up to a lady's house empty-handed."

I scoffed at his chivalry – the echo of a bygone time he pretended not to miss.

"Besides… LaCroix's got you jumping through hoops meant to kill. Figured you could use the help."

The genuine undertone made me pause. My heart gave a whimper. I shut the fridge and hid the tremor behind as sensual smile as a girl like me could manage. "Careful," I purred. "I'll start to think you give a damn."

Nine's didn't laugh it off like he was meant to. There was no witty retort. He didn't even make a half-arsed effort to hide the truth. I shoulda known better. He was too honest to bullshit me… no matter how much I wished he would. "So what if I did?"

No baby. Don't go there.

My smile faltered, and, for a fleeting moment, he saw the agony I was trying so hard to hide. It made him step towards me, hand reaching to brush my face with tenderness no creature like us ought to be capable of.

I didn't like it – this tenderness. It made my gut squirm with guilt. But I wasn't willing to give up my prize…

I grasped the buckle of his belt and used it to yank him close. His attempt at affection was dislodged. Arms went around me instinctively as my lips crashed against his.

Flesh sang in relief to feel him pressed up against me. The solid bulk of toned muscle. The cold of his skin. The feel of Brujah prowess and presence that made my every nerve hum in anticipation. I ran my hand through his rain-soaked hair. I felt the chilly moisture of his sodden shirt bleed into my own and shuddered. He took my gasp as an opportunity to wage war on my mouth. Tongue against tongue. No need for air. The taste of his most recent kill lingered like a euphoric scream. No one could kiss like a vampire.

I was pushed back, my hips knocking against the countertop. He broke away for a moment, steel blues searching my face for the consent he always looked for.

My hand came down from his hair to run along his jaw. My thumb traced the shape of his lips. "You're a fool, Nines Rodriguez."

He braced his hands on the counter either side of me and leaned in to fill my world. I was trapped against him. A slight sneer wrinkled his lips. A flash of primal power in his eyes threatened and thrilled. "Why? You gonna betray me, Ash?" At least he wasn't stupid enough to trust me completely.

"I don't want to…" My heart confessed before I could stop it.

"Then don't."

Cool lips brushed a slow, taunting trail down the length of my neck. Eyes rolled shut in pleasure. The smell of his cologne was so tantalisingly close. It was getting harder to focus on conversation – to remember what I was saying and why it was so important. His fangs scraped against skin. It was the only warning I got before the bite.

I grasped the back of his head and pulled him as tight against me as he could be. All thought emptied from my head, leaving only instinct and passion behind. The beast growled through my teeth, then purred as he bit harder. God, I wished I belonged to him. I wished I was mine to give. I begged him to lie to me – to make me believe that I was – just for today… Something about the plea made him snap.

Clothes were torn from my body. The sudden air prickled at my skin. I could taste my own blood on his lips. Broad hands grasped my waist and lifted me up to sit on the rough countertop. It was cold and coarse against my now naked arse, but I parted my legs obediently and waited for him to step between them.

Nines took the time to throw off his shirt first. I watched with greedy eyes as his vest was peeled away from his chiselled torso. Pale, masculine skin glistened from the wet of the rain. My toes curled, scraping against the worn cupboards below as droplets fell from his hair and ran down his shoulders to outline each rippling muscle.

I ran my hand up my own thigh, itching to touch; to feel just a momentary flash of sensation. I bit my lower lip as I dipped fingers between my legs and found myself already drenched with want. How did he do this to me? What was it about him that reduced me to a gooey puddle of desperation?

His glazed eyes took in the sight of me, perched where I'd been put, legs spread and already squirming against my own hand. He stepped up, snatched my wrist, and drew my fingers into his mouth with a long, sensual curl of his tongue. Eyes closed as he savoured the taste. I breathed his name in prayer, wrapped my arm around his neck and deprived him of my fingers so I could steal another deep kiss.

He pulled my thighs around his waist. I gasped instinctively as the cold of his belt buckle collided with the heat of my core. He smiled in a way that told me he knew exactly what he'd just done… then leaned down to take a taut nipple between sharp teeth. The denim of his jeans chafed as I tightened the grip of my legs. My head hit the cupboard behind with a thud. The merciless side of his nature took control.

His tongue fluttered and flicked at my chest, lulling me into pleasant bliss before slicing with the sharpness of teeth. I cried out, the pain blossoming like pleasure over my skin. Blood trickled slow into his mouth. He devoured it with the hunger of an animal.

Sensation crashed over me. My hips sprang forward against his belt buckle. A loud moan I was ashamed to call my own echoed through the apartment. I grasped his head and pressed him closer. My other hand ran down his back, gripping, then scraping nails up to his shoulder.

I felt Nines smiling against my skin. One of his hands tickled the back of my thigh and lifted my leg while the other kept a tight hold on my waist. The cold rings on his fingers kissed as he squeezed the flesh appreciatively. I was pulled, coerced into abandoning the pleasure of his buckle to brace my foot against the countertop and spread wider on a promise of something better. It was a promise he delivered. Those crafty fingers followed the path to slip deep into me.

I moaned in relief and rolled my hips against the intrusion. Lips descended, raining kisses against his hair. Nails dug ever so gently into flesh. We held the moment. The only movement, the rocking of my hips and him shifting to pay equal homage to my other breast. Pleasure trembled through my blood, as soothing as it was enflaming. I rested my head against his, embracing him.

My brow furrowed with a burst of passion that was frighteningly far from simple lust.

"Ashley…" He released my nipple and withdrew from my body. His forehead was pressed against my shoulder. Whatever I wouldn't confess to feeling… it poisoned him too. It was more than I could face. It was more than I would admit. Fear gripped my heart as the melancholy of the night threatened to rob me of our moment.

I reached down and fumbled with the buckle on his belt. "Fuck me, Nines." I was meant to be a command but came out more a quivering plea. Whichever, it renewed his need. He lifted his head and took over unfastening his jeans and shrugging them off his legs with whatever underthing's he'd been wearing. He gripped my thighs and yanked me to the edge of the countertop, angling my body just so. Bracing my hands against the edge, I leaned back, giving him all the space he needed.

He lined up and pressed the head of his thick erection against my welcoming entrance. Then, he glanced up, checking for consent as always. Idiot vampire. More brawn than brain. I rested my forehead against his, touched our noses, brushed his lips with mine. He sheathed himself, and I cried out.

Chivalry was forgotten against primal need. He set a punishing rhythm only a Brujah vampire would be capable of. My hands flew up, seeking something to grip only to scrape against the bare wood of old cupboard fronts.

Nines, apparently noticing even through the descending frenzy, grasped my wrists and pulled them around his neck. At his urge, I slipped off the countertop entirely and into his waiting arms. I clung to him as he walked us back and tumbled down onto the old bed.

The frame creaked in protest. I let out a shrill cry as I was impaled fully on his length. Nines was on his back, his hands bruising against my hips. His lip curled into a demanding snarl as he moved me. I leaned forward, bracing elbows against his shoulders so I could run fingers through his hair and kiss him.

But he turned his head to escape my passion. "Bite me," he demanded.

"But-"

"-Bite. Me." Desperation hid behind his steely eyes, and I could not deny him.

Against better judgement, I sank fangs into his throat and felt the vibrations of his moan ripple through my teeth. Holy gods of hell! He tasted like fire. It burned like strong alcohol as it went down. My head spun like I'd done several rapid shots of tequila, then, just as I thought I might pass out… euphoria hit.

Endorphins flooded my body as I shuddered through intense orgasm. At the same time, the raw power of Nine's eighty-something-year-old blood blazed through me and sparked against what he'd drunk from my veins. For a single blinding moment… We were one and the same. I could taste the fight that drove him on. I could feel his passions. It was a flash like lightning. Fleeting. Beautiful. A force of nature. I clung to it, wanting to live forever in that single second…

But it was already passing. Nines and I came down, rolling our hips together through every last tremor until out bodies were utterly spent.

I hid my face in the crook of his neck, ashamed of the tears flooding my eyes. I struggled and scraped for composure… but it wouldn't come. I was broken. He'd ruined me.

His hand came up to run soothing touches through my hair. He'd felt the wetness on his skin, I was sure. I shook him away. I didn't want it. It didn't help. If anything, it made it harder to put myself back together and find something vaguely whole. Instead, I took in his scent. I imprinted the memory of this onto the deepest most human part of my heart, then…I locked it away.

His hand had taken to running up and down my back instead. There was a long moment of quiet before he trusted his voice. "I'm your first?"

My brow furrowed in confusion. "Don't be stupid." I managed to wipe my face clean relatively subtly before sitting up on him again. My momentary lover gave a slight grimace – his body still too sensitive, I suspected. "I'm a modern girl, Nines. None of that chastity bullshit you grew up with."

But Nines was already shaking his head. "I meant since the embrace. I'm your first vampire? The way you were going on about Jeanette, I was sure…"

"I did do it with Jeanette," I insisted.

Nines propped himself up on his elbows with a frown. "Did you bite her?"

I wrinkled my nose. "You know she's a malk, right? I'm not stupid. I never bit her, and I never let her bite me. It was just… y'know… physical."

The smallest of smiles curled the corner of his mouth with smug pride. A hand was run down my body, from collar, over my breast to my hip. He squeezed in a way that was all too possessive to be comfortable. "That's the intimacy I'm talking about, doll."

"Don't call me that." I moved off him, my body immediately lamenting the loss of his, and shifted to perch on the edge of the bed.

"Ash…?"

My clothes were a ruined heap on the floor. "You owe me a new pair of jeans." I moved to get up, maybe snatch some spares from my trunk and retreat into the bathroom to wait for him to leave…

But Nines caught my arm and held me back. "Hey! Don't you shrug me off again, kid."

For half a second, I was torn. My heart ached. That schoolgirl crush begged me to turn, settle into the embrace he offered and be soothed by it… but what was vicious in me was terrified I'd lose my bite. And since my bite was all that seemed to be keeping me alive… Well… that and his gun.

How many times had he saved my sorry arse now? Many more than he knew, I thought. Guilt squirmed as I was reminded of all he didn't and couldn't understand. I felt like a traitor. I wanted to tell him the truth. I wanted to warn him. I opened my mouth to speak… but no sound would come out, no matter how I tried. Fuck!

The hesitation cost me my choice. He came up behind me, arms wrapping tight around my shoulders. Gentle lips renewed tantalising kisses over my neck.

I glanced towards the window. Dawn was coming. If I was going to kick him out, it was now or never.

"Don't trust me, Nines…" I managed. "Please. Whatever you do…" I found the courage to look back at him, catching his sharp eyes. "Do not trust me."

He gazed at me for a long, hard moment, but eventually, he gave a tiny nod.

Relief let the tension drain out of me. The guilt was satisfied – for the moment. I leaned forward, elbows against knees. "One day I'll be straight with you," I promised. "I… don't want that day to hurt you any."

Nines turned and laid back against the pillows properly. "Sure. I'll keep my guard up. Now, will you come to bed already?"

I turned a glare on him, a biting retort ready to order him out of my apartment… It died on my tongue. He rested with his hands behind his head, hair tousled and wearing nothing but his jewellery. Whatever he insisted, he looked every inch the vampire prince, even on my shitty old bed. The blushing schoolgirl begged a moment of weakness.

With a roll of my eyes, I gave in.

Getting to my feet, I went around the room to board up the windows. I checked the lock on the door was secure… then laid back down and curled up against his cool chest. My fingers fiddled with the charm on his necklace, my sleepy, satiated mind half wondering what it was.

I could feel the smug smile on his face as keenly as I felt his hand going through my hair again. I nuzzled a little closer – even threw my leg over his – and took blissful comfort from his presence. I closed my eyes and allowed sleep to threaten, all the while promising myself I'd kick him out first thing come nightfall.

SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION: I now write vampire novels for my bread and butter, so if you like my work, come find me on Facebook, Fictionpress, Inkitt or DeviantArt for more sexy yet vicious creatures of the night ;)