Danny couldn't stop thinking about it.

It wasn't obsession, it wasn't fixation, it was a drive, just pure motivation crawling up through his bones and burying his consciousness. It was a need, and oh, he needed. He needed it so badly.

"Daniel."

Danny's wide eyes refocused; he realized Vlad had been trying to get his attention for some time. "Sorry," he mumbled, his focus sliding down and away even as he spoke.

Vlad was just as distracted, though for a different reason. "I wish you wouldn't look at me like that." He sounded ragged, his breathing rough. Danny was noticing things like that now, and he couldn't seem to stop.

"Like what?" Drowsily said, as Danny was licking his lips and trying to figure out just what he was so hungry for.

"Like I'm a piece of meat." Vlad snapped. His flare of anger faded quickly though, and then he just seemed uncomfortable.

Danny blushed at that, making a point to lean in the opposite direction from Vlad. He smacked his lips before speaking, without realizing it-his mind was moving so slowly, he needed some time to catch up. "You're crazy, Vlad," he managed eventually. Eloquent it was not, but it was just so hard to think around his hazy mind. "I'm not looking at you like...anything."

Vlad's response was to stand up, so quickly his chair clattered to the floor, and abruptly shift into his ghost form, glaring at Danny the entire time.

He hadn't been expecting that. Danny put a hand to his mouth, where it tried and failed to stifle a groan. "Vlad, don't." He whined; he was whining. His grip on self control was rapidly disappearing, because he couldn't stop feeling things-he felt blood welling up and pounding in his fingertips, pulsing behind his eyes, filling in the holes left by his hunger. This was beyond the sensory, it went through his whole body. He could feel Vlad too, just a short distance across the table, could feel him pulsing and beating and he could almost-taste- "Stop," he whispered, inches from the brink.

Vlad spread his arms. Danny was too distracted to notice the way his hands shook, or the stiffness in his voice. "As ever, my means are entirely at your disposal...whatever that may entail." He leaned a little closer; Danny moaned again. "Daniel, please. Make use of me."

Danny was so desperate he didn't need to be asked twice. In fluid motion, he climbed over the table, grabbing Vlad's collar and pulling him close, gasping. Just to be near was heady enough; he nuzzled his face into the crook of Vlad's neck and closed his eyes, high on the scent of him.

Something, some semblance of sense, niggled at him. "Won't it hurt?" he asked breathlessly, wrapping his hands around Vlad's neck.

If he had his doubts, Vlad was too committed to confess them now. He obligingly tilted his head to the side, allowing Danny to press himself closer. He didn't know if it was the boy or himself trembling. "There are worse things than pain."

"Vlad, no..." Danny didn't know what he was begging for anymore. It was all he could do to stop himself from sobbing, breaking, and worse things he wasn't quite ready to admit himself capable of.

Sensing his doubts, Vlad's voice took on a more forceful tone. "Daniel. You have to." He braced himself, lips tight, eyes fixed and repeating the words to himself.

Slowly, slowly, Danny turned his head and bit down.

He hadn't expected his teeth to be sharp enough, subconsciously, but he was just barely aware of the texture of Vlad's shoulder as he tensed his jaw.

And it was bliss.

Ghost flesh wasn't quite the same as human flesh; it wasn't similar to meat at all, really. Danny found immediately that it dissolved when removed from the whole, reverting itself to pure ectoplasmic energy that lit him up inside like fire. It was soothing and invigorating at once; it felt like every cell in his body was sighing and screaming.

The shock overwhelmed his system, and he was slack-jawed as his salvation took hold, ectoplasm dripping from the corner of his mouth and falling back onto Vlad.

Danny's mind started flickering back to life, making connections it hadn't made since the hunger had started, and breaking them in the same second. One bite had only whetted his appetite. If the hunger had been strong before, it was worse now.

He rolled his knuckles into the back of Vlad's neck, moving his mouth to the wound and licking up the ectoplasm bleeding from it. Then he bit again, and again. The instant his teeth hit the flesh, it melted into his mouth, incomparable to anything he'd ever experienced. He let it drip from his mouth and the plasma would mingle with the fresh, pulsing ectoplasm and Danny licked it all up. He wasn't sure whether he was sucking or biting when Vlad made a sound, a wordless cry, reminding the human part of Danny that there was somebody underneath him. The warning was lost, though.

Danny was too far gone, at that point, to recognize Vlad. Power was sewing its way through his body, slashing its way through his thoughts. He had forgotten what it was to feel this strong. Vlad's outburst cut through to that core, and its response was this: destroy him. There was a life in his hands and he could crush it, could crush him, could eat him all up and make him watch as he did, bit by delicious bit.

He could mark every part of him.

With that in mind, Danny shifted, taking a bite from the middle of Vlad's chest. When Vlad put up a hand to stop him, Danny laughed and kissed his palm, before taking some of that too, eyes closed with the rapture of it all, smearing ectoplasm on his chin.

His teeth were glowing as he grinned at Vlad. His eyes were glowing, too.

But the glow in his eyes died as did his high, staring with confusion at Vlad's chest. Underneath the holes, he was breathing shallow, measured breaths. But every few breaths something inside of him would hitch and halt and the realization was worming its way through Danny's skull that Vlad was scared. He only had to look down at himself to see why.

Danny was glowing green all over, smeared and stained, and he didn't know if Vlad was being still on purpose or if he truly had been overpowered. Aghast, Danny tried to slough the ooze from his arms and to wipe his mouth with his shirt, but his efforts only made everything worse. All he'd done was make everything worse. He hated feeding, but if he had to do it-how could he lose control so utterly with someone who was only trying to help? He had no desire to hurt Vlad, and yet he'd been absolutely willing to ruin him for his taste alone.

The worst part was that, even as he cried, the hunger was growling in his stomach again, unsatisfied with its taste and already clouding into the edges of his mind.

Tears streamed down his cheeks, carving little pathways through the ectoplasm there. "I'm sorry, Vlad, I'm so sorry."

Vlad struggled to sit up, his hand clutched to the wound in his shoulder. His hands were all covered in ectoplasm too, oozing out and around his fingers. He cringed slightly as he reached his other hand out to Danny- "Are you feeling any better?"

"No," Danny said evenly, his eyes starting to lose focus again. He began licking his fingertips. "I don't feel better at all."