The vampire lord Hannibal was five hundred years old. He had learned long ago to hide his true self from humans and to pass as one of them. Once he was in conflict with a powerful witch called Bedelia. Before he took her life she cursed him. "You will find your true love," she said. "He will end you."
She died with a smile on her perfect face. So Hannibal avoided amorous contact with men, and vowed nevers to fall in love with one. He hardened his heart.

*
He came to Baltimore to toy with men's lives and feed from their despair. He become a psychiatrist and so he had access to needy souls to dominate. He made them kill each other for his own amusement, and he ate them if they were rude. He courted the fair and intelligent Alana Bloom, and she endangered sympathy in him, but not love. He was asked to help Will Graham and saw no harm in it. Even as Hannibal started having wet dreams about the human's beauty and intriguing mind he told himself it was no danger to his life.
Will's disease made him clay to mold into intriguing shapes. It was no problem that he wanted Will as his own bride.

Bedelia's shape came to him at times, her ghost having access to his domain. Humans even saw her.
"See?" she said.
"See what? You are dead."
"Will Graham is very pretty, no? You love him."
"I do not..love him."
"Yet," said Bedelia. "Your time has come, vampire."
"No. I am eternal. "
Bedelia laughed, a silvery sound that chilled his bones.

*
Hannibal became Will's friend, even as he framed him for his crimes and deceived him. Will did not want to love him, but Hannibal's glamour compelled him. All humans must love him or die. He dreamt of killing Will, to end his own suffering. To eat and maybe honor the brave human who so intrigued him. He would be safe if Will was dead.

*
Will's knife did not find his heart in Florence, and so Hannibal had his chance.
"You are.." Will began, tied up and half nude because Hannibal liked him so. He only had his boxers on, and the blood smelled divine as his pale skin glistened in the light.
"What am I?" he asked, used to worship from humans.
"Death, "Will said. "The red death that will drown us all. You are not human. "
"No, " Hannibal said. "I am not."
"Vampire?" Will asked.
"I am. I came to have your blood."
"To kill me."
"I do..love you."
Hannibal reached for the frail human and brought his lips to the pale skin, to caress and suck. Hannibal knelt between his legs and bared Will's already hard and glistening cock. Will moaned as Hannibal sucked him, and he found untold pleasure. He came, and Hannibal drank him down. Hannibal moved up to caress Will's throat and bite into it. The blood was sweet as the semen had been. All Will's liquids were sweet to him like divine ambrosia.
He drank the blood and then found himself feeding Will his own blood. He found a vein, and opened his own artery to feed Will his lifeblood. Will drank from his hand.
"You.." he began. "Made me you are."
"Yes." Hannibal confessed.
"I can't be.." Will said and somehow he knew he was. Hannibal pushed him down and took him hard on the floor, riding his lover like the master he was. Will didn't struggle much, only pushed back against the invasion. Virgin he was, and so Hannibal had him for his own.

*
And so they fought the dragon, and they barely live though they were the same now.
"This.." breathed Hannibal. "is all I ever wanted for you, Will." He avoided his beloved's eyes and breathed. "For both of us."
"It's beautiful," Will said and drew him into an embrace that would never end it seemed.
Will knew he had lost and if he lived he would end more lives. So he drew Hannibal off the cliff and Hannibal did not resist. He might die in the waves as Bedelia had promised and she would live again.
Hannibal had Will and so he did not care. If he was going to hell, so was Will. They would never be apart.