Camera flashes sparkle like diamonds as the sun retreats behind the clouds to welcome the warm, encroaching night. A congregation of beautiful humans and varying flavors of vampire elite gather en masse at the front entrance of the nightclub, their lengthy queue bleeding into the street.
A small booth ensconced in an alcove of thick, silk brocade, intimately lit by one single votive couches Zero in lush shadows. He can feel her here. Somewhere. His resolve to stay far away since her turning erodes away with each tick of the clock. Thoughts of her silky curls between his fingers ignites the skin along the back of his neck. Memories of his calloused fingers gently exposing her neck, the itch in his mouth as he waited to break the porcelain skin beneath his lips as she pressed in close at his own throat.
Yuuki breaks the threshold of the nightclub and realizes his presence like animals sense an oncoming storm. Surrounded by a churning sea of willing donors, all of them hoping to be her inaugural meal as a newborn vampire, all she can think about is drinking from the man who promised to killed her when next they would meet; to cut her teeth on a meal that would satisfy two hungers that have been burning in her hot, slow and deep since her awakening.
Their search is brief. When their eyes meet, Yuuki disengages from the entourage-slash-security detail that constantly buzzes around her these days, to join Zero at his hiding place. His shadows welcome her, eagerly enveloping her in their ambience. "You shouldn't be here," she warns in a low voice. He doesn't bother to look contrite with spread palms or a lowered gaze. Instead, he smiles roguishly into the glass he raises to his mouth, not bothering to make direct eye contact with her, "But here I am."
The soft burble of the bottle refilling his glass is barely audible over the crashing bassline in the moment that stretches between them. "If you want me to leave, then just say so, 'Princess'." Yuuki raises an eyebrow at the dismissive use of her new title, but otherwise says nothing. She hails a passing waiter for an extra glass, then pours herself a drink with what remains in his bottle. He rests his arm across the back of the booth, making a show of the Bloody Rose snugly tucked in its holster. She slides into that intimate space, her fingers turning his head toward her with a feather-light touch. "I'm just saying: Bad things happen when you and I are in the same place."
Turning into her touch, he leans forward, their lips millimeters apart. "Maybe I want something bad to happen." He closes the gap, the kiss that follows is searing, but cruelly brief.
When Yuuki stands, he assumes she's about to leave in a fiery huff. Instead, she hikes up her long dress to straddle his lap. His hands remain on the tiny table behind her as her arms enfold him to practically bury his face in the hollow near her pulse, "Don't say I didn't warn you." Her blood is so close, he is helpless to resist. His lips and tongue taste her neck, devouring her scent and reveling in the mutual crush of their bodies against eachother.
Yuuki starts unbuttoning his shirt, tracing the lines of his 'Hunter's Mark' tattoo with fingertips, then fangs, inciting him to moan involuntarily. His hands find hers, attempting to slow her excitement, until her fangs nick a trickle of blood from his lip, a harsh red smear blazing amid the contrast of soft silver and lavender.
Slowly, heads and eyes of strangers turn to seek the source of blood in the air. Zero starts to stand, his hands still on the table, framing Yuuki with his arms as she feverishly claims his mouth again. "Yuuki..." he warns, "we should go. Right now."
They escape before inciting a frenzy by use of a nearby fire exit that has been long since disconnected. Before long, Zero and Yuuki crash through the door of Zero's spartan safehouse apartment and into his bed.
She presses into him in earnest, yearning to bury her face in the crook of his shoulder and neck. Mewling sounds of pleasure and her desire escape her as he moves south first, pulling her panties aside to descend upon her like a man dying of hunger. Yuuki's gasps of surprise evaporate into rumbling moans when he finds her center. Her thoughts become erratic, skipping like a record and recanting the same verse of an ardent song that calls for this passion, his body against her's, for his blood in her mouth.
His ministrations slow and he pauses from his current task to beckon her to a sitting position. He unbuttons the rest of his shirt and discards it to the floor before unzipping the slinky champagne-colored dress that flows around her like water turned into fabric. She extricates a couple of carefully placed bobbypins from the pile of curls sitting atop her head sending dark tendrils spilling down her back in sweet, mahogany waves across the bedspread.
She can hear his heart beating with powerful urgency in his chest as she turns to face him and guides his fingers to her mouth. Her sharp teeth pricking him like a needle before sucking the blood that beads there. She moves to his wrist, intent on a bite that would produce more than just a couple drops to whet her appetite, but he impatiently grunts in refusal before snatching his hand away.
Yuuki bites her own knuckles covetously, completely captivated at his how his muscles bunch and move under his skin as he stands to remove the last of his clothes. Waves of electrifying lust roll down her spine and shudder in her belly as she crawls toward him on hands and knees.
Zero opens his mouth to tease her about "seeing something she likes", but she doesn't allow him the time. Her mouth engulfs him and his eyes pinch shut in ecstasy. The caresses of her hot mouth nearly topples him to the bed; he steadies himself by gripping firm handfuls of her hair.
The silence of the room is filled with the hush symphony of groans and sighs. She pulls him down to lay beneath her, teasing him to near climax before bearing her teeth and biting down on his femoral artery. The rush is hot and sweet, within minutes, her head is light and she pulls away. His voice sounds faraway and raspy as the world comes into brighter focus now that she finally fed. Sounds, smells, and new preternatural senses keen into clarity, along with a warning voice who tells her that this game has gone on long enough. An invisible string that ties her to a new life tugs insistently inside her, encouraging her to leave before something really bad happens.
Though a light fatigue threatens to settle over Zero, but when Yuuki eagerly yields to his embrace, putting aside the feeling in her stomach in favor of the thrill of Zero's kiss, she wraps her legs around him and grabs the back of his neck, he is reinvigorated. Her lips burn a brand across his mouth with his own coppery blood as he enters her.
His thrusts are deep and intentional at the start, reveling in how she drags kisses across his cheekbone and into his hair, his pace quickening with each of moan of his name from her lips, each new fistful of his hair gripped white knuckle tight in her hands. He flips her around to take her from behind, holding her against his chest with a hand around her throat. She openly begs him for more, and harder.
To drink from her.
He complies instantly; the first gush of blood over his tongue becoming the catalyst to his complete unraveling.
Eternity and milliseconds stretch and smash together as his body surrenders to the sublime, white hot light behind his eyes. His jaw locks in a silent scream over her throat, time and movement shuddering into complete blissful collapse with a few final thrusts and a couple more greedy mouthfuls of her essence.
With each gulp, venomous whispers in her blood find a voice; cancerous echoes of recently uncovered memories scream to the surface. He breaks away, his hunger quelled for the first time in months, but rather than feeling fulfilled, something ominous fills its place. The onslaught of emotions make him feel abnormally vulnerable in the warm silence.
Yuuki silently frets at how his pupils have dilated to pinpricks. She kisses him tenderly, wrapping his sinewy arms around her petite frame in hopes of anchoring him in the present as his mind tries to claw his way back to bliss. The surety of what he thought he already understood abandons him; his fight or flight response sets in before he can succumb, his confusion coagulating into anger, icy and piercing, stinging deep in his chest. He can't compose himself enough to mask the fleeting wince that passes over his face for just a moment, the pain so sharp and burning in his lungs. Each successive breath becomes a measured inhale, threatening to tear its way from his mouth, every exhale more ragged than the last.
She murmurs half-truths against his palm that rests on her cheek, knowing there are no words that can retract this betrayal. Unable to reconcile the turmoil in his mind, he cleans up, gets dressed, and goes to the door. He pauses with his hand on the doorknob. "You knew that would happen," his voice wounded and reluctant.
"I ...tried to warn you." She imagines her younger self burying her face in her hands and crying bitterly as her world falls apart yet again. Today's Yuuki simply sets her mouth in a firm line and stares at his back.
He nods imperceptibly, noting with a glance over his shoulder how bright the crimson glow in her eyes has become, "It would be better for the both of us if you're not here when I return, 'Princess'."
It's only when the door finally shuts and she hears his retreating footsteps disappear down the hall that Yuuki redresses herself and disappears into the waiting night via the window.