Title: Best Laid Plans
Author: a.lakewood
Fandom: The Forsaken
Pairing: Nick/Sean
Rating: hard R or NC-17
Summary: Sean makes a decision about the pursuit of Nick's Forsaken without Nick's input and makes sure he gets his way.
Feedback: is lovely. Email me at or visit the LJ at http: had had the idea floating around in his head for somewhere around a week. And he knew that, regardless of how close Nick's pills were coming to being useless or how cold his Forsaken's trail had become, Nick would never go for it. So, he decided that Nick would not be let in on this plan of his.

They were back in the desert southwest when the opportunity presented itself. The hotel they'd decided to stop at for the night only had one vacancy. And it had only one bed. "Do you want to keep going or..." Sean trailed off, looking over at Nick.

"There's not another town - or a hotel for that matter - for a hundred miles" the woman behind the counter offered, tossing a suggestive glance in Nick's direction.

"I'm beat, man" Nick said, stifling a yawn. "Fucking tired."

"Yeah." Sean returned his attention to the woman. "We'll take it." After he'd paid for the room and gotten the key, he followed Nick back outside to the car to get their bags. "Looks like there's a bar or something down the street. I don't know about you, but I'm hungry as hell."

"I could eat" Nick agreed, nodding and looking at Sean with heavy-lidded eyes.

Sean noticed, and not for the first time, a different type of hunger in Nick's eyes. He wasn't quite as clueless as Nick made him out to be. He'd noticed, more times than he could count, the way Nick's steady gaze traveled over his body, always coming to rest on his neck. No matter how much Nick would deny it, the virus taking over his body was slowly manifesting itself. It was what made Nick lick his lips at the sight of blood when Sean had busted open his hand when they'd taken out that small coven in Nevada the week before. It was what caused his aversion to the sun and made him want to sleep during the day, go out at night.

It turned out that the bar was more than a bar - it was a bar and grille. Besides the booths, pool table, dart board, and a jukebox in the corner, the main feature of the establishment was a full menu perhaps only a step above the road-side-diner food they'd been eating more often than not since their journey resumed five months prior.

Nick automatically headed for a far booth, sitting where he had a good view of every single person inside the bar. Sean slid in across from him, slouching down slightly in his seat in an effort to get comfortable. "I could use a beer" he said off-handedly"I don't know about you." He flagged a passing waitress over to their table.

The waitress was about the same age they were and looked at Nick the same way the woman at the hotel had. "What can I get you boys" she questioned, hovering a little closer to Nick than what was necessary.

"I'll have a chicken sandwich with fries and...What kind of beer do you have by the bottle"

"Oh, geez. Just about all your big names: Budweiser, Busch, Coors, Rolling Rock, Heineken. But we've got a new one - Dos Equis. I highly recommend it."

"That sounds good."

"And what about you" She turned to Nick.

"I'll just have a cheeseburger - rare - with a side of fries."

"And to drink"

"I'll have what he's having, I guess."

"Okay. I'll be right back with those beers."

A couple of minutes later, when they'd been served their beer, Sean noticed that Nick was sitting a little rigid, looking more alert than usual. "What is it"

Nick nodded towards the other side of the bar where three men sat with a younger woman in a booth. She looked a little more than a lot drunk and the man - very pale, Sean noted - beside her was extremely focused on her neck.

"Are they..."

"Yeah." There was a glimmer in Nick's eyes that Sean recognized as anticipation and, like Nick, he was looking forward to killing some vampires.

Sean realized that the now-impending fight would help out greatly with the plan in his head. They'd waste vampire ass, come back to this bar to celebrate, and everything would be that much easier later on.

And that's pretty much how it went down: waste vampire ass and celebrate. It had been awhile since Nick and Sean had had a decent fight - that coven in Nevada was mostly fledglings that weren't in control of all of their strength yet so the fight was pretty close to one-sided. But these three. Sean used the analogy of a Timex watch once they'd killed off the last one. They took a licking but kept on ticking. The fight got up his adrenaline, made his outlook on the whole night a little more optimistic.

The entire thing had been a whole lot easier to imagine in his mind than it was to really put it into action. Nick was across from him, much of his upper-body on the table as he leaned on it drinking his sixth or so beer. The look on his face showed how pleased he was - after fights such as the one they'd just experienced, Nick had told him of feeling a sort of high. It reinforced his belief, more recently becoming something resembling a hope, that they'd find his Forsaken and dust the bastard.

As long as Nick was drinking, Sean kept buying rounds. He would go through with his plan if it was the last thing he did - though, he hoped it wouldn't come down to that. An hour or so later, Sean could tell that Nick was pretty far gone. He was smiling and laughing easy, head resting on the hand not holding his beer. He openly leered across the table at Sean.

Sean was still pretty sober - only feeling enough of a buzz to be able to go through with what he was about to do. He took a deep breath then, and in what he hoped was coyness, he looked at Nick through his eyelashes. He leaned a bit closer to the other man. "Do you, uh...want to take this back to the hotel"

Nick's eyes widened perceptibly. "Take this back to the hotel" he repeated.

"Yeah." Sean reached his hand out to take the beer bottle from Nick, fingers brushing when his hand lingered near Nick's for a couple of moments.

In the last few seconds, it seemed Nick's eyes turned three shades darker, and were glittering brightly, pupils dilated with what Sean deduced as lust. Nick quickly finished the last of his beer. "Yeah" he echoed. He slid out of the booth and stood, swaying on his feet a moment before Sean was there to steady him.

Deliberately slow, Sean snaked an arm around Nick's waist. "You okay"

Nick looked at him a little uncertainly and leaned into him slightly. "I think so." He straightened and Sean backed away.

The sigh at the loss of contact Sean heard escape Nick's mouth reaffirmed that, yeah, he could do this and it would work. Tossing enough cash onto the table to cover their last two rounds and a nice tip for the waitress, Sean followed Nick out of the bar. The temperature outside had dropped significantly since they'd returned from the fight earlier in the evening when heat still radiated from the ground. Now, the chill in the desert air caught Sean by surprise and it made him wish he'd brought his jacket with him. The cold at his back was soon replaced when he was pulled backwards into the shadows against a very warm body. Sean didn't even have to turn around to know who it was - he recognized Nick's scent of sweat and cologne and the alcohol on his breath that was tickling the fine hairs at the back of his neck. Heat was coming off of Nick's body in waves and Sean melted against him; melted deeper still when Nick's mouth closed over the sensitive skin just below his jaw and ear. "We should...the hotel..." He tore himself away from the heat of Nick's body and Nick's mouth, tugging the other man in the direction of the hotel.

Sean had the room key in his pocket and he fumbled getting it out and into the door. "Hurry" Nick whispered harshly against his ear.

Once inside the seclusion and darkness of their room, Nick shoved Sean up against the wall and claimed his mouth in a searing, bruising kiss that left Sean gasping for air and painfully hard in his jeans. When Nick's mouth trailed down his neck, Sean bit his bottom lip - partly to hold back the moan caused by the things Nick was doing to him with his hands, but also to make himself bleed.

Nick's mouth found his again and Sean felt Nick's body stiffen beneath his hands at the taste of Sean's blood. But Sean held him close and kissed him hard when he started to pull away. Nick gave in to the virus and started sucking on Sean's lip. Soon, his need for the sweet sanguine fluid throbbing and rushing through Sean's veins became immense and overpowered his thoughts. Sean caught a glimpse of Nick's eyes when he pulled back - there was something animalistic, primal, hungry, there. He tipped his head back and a little to the side to expose his throat, knowing what Nick wanted. "Please" he begged. Closing his eyes, he threaded his fingers through Nick's shaggy hair and pulled him closer. Even though he was expecting it to hurt, the pain of Nick's blunt teeth cutting into his flesh was enough to make his vision go dark and his knees weak. But at the same time, it was one of the most erotic sensations he'd ever felt. Nick held him up, cradling him between his body and the wall, slowly rocking his erection into the hollow spot between Sean's hip and groin, his movements syncopated with every draw from the wound he took. "Nick" he gasped, feeling lightheaded and euphoric and terrified all at once. With his hands still tangled in Nick's hair, Sean gave the other man a gentle tug, hoping Nick would get the idea and back off a little.

Nick took the hint, pulling Sean away from the wall and pushing him roughly towards the bed. Still dizzy and a little weak in the knees, Sean collapsed backwards onto the mattress as soon as he stumbled into the footboard. He felt his blood slowly trickling from where Nick had bit him a little above the juncture of his neck and shoulder. Sean's name was a growl on Nick's lips as he straddled one of Sean's thighs, leaning over to kiss him again.

The taste of his own blood on Nick's tongue, strong and coppery and sickly sweet, stirred something deep inside him. Even though the virus that was no doubt making its was into his system was not yet active, the fact that he had previously been infected made him more susceptible to the want and the hunger. The bloodlust was somewhat familiar, but terrifying and exciting, too, as the virus awoke from its brief dormancy. After Nick's mouth left Sean's, his tongue almost tenderly lapping at the blood still dripping from the wound, Sean couldn't resist the temptation rising up from somewhere deep and dark in the pit of his being. He pulled both of the shirts Nick was wearing off at the same time, impatient and not wanting to waste one minute. Then, as his hands started working the button and zipper of Nick's jeans, his mouth latched onto the closest expanse of skin - the spot just behind where Nick's clavicle and shoulder met. Simultaneously, he grasped Nick's throbbing cock in his fist and bit into the flesh above a tight cord of muscle. Liquid warmth flooded his mouth from the wound he'd inflicted.

Nick paused, all of his movements ceasing, his body hovering a fraction of an inch above Sean. As abruptly as he stopped, he started again - pulling off Sean's t-shirt and working on his jeans. Soon enough, they were both naked, sweat-slick bodies sliding against each other and fitting together in something close to perfection. Sean felt Nick roughly enter him in one swift motion - it was unexpected and sent a wave of pain through his body that ebbed back to settle where it had originated from. He wrapped his legs around Nick's body and was the first to move. When Sean started thrusting up into him, Nick started uttering unintelligible sounds in a slightly hoarse voice. Sean tried to hold back his orgasm, tried to last longer, but the way that Nick was hitting that spot...Nick followed soon after, collapsing onto Sean's chest, still inside him. Sean rolled them over with what little energy he still had and separated their bodies. He started to get out of the bed, but Nick grasped his arm firmly and pulled him back down next to him. "Stay."

Sean knew Nick meant for it to be a command, but it sounded more like a plea. It also made him wonder if Nick somehow sensed that he would be leaving - not just going to the bathroom to get cleaned up, but really leaving. He'd abandon Nick in that God-forsaken hotel room and continue with their mission, pursuing Nick's Forsaken. "I'll be right back" he said quietly, pressing a kiss of promise to Nick's bloodstained lips and brushing another against his feverish forehead. Sean pushed the sweaty hair clinging to Nick's brow away from his eyes, letting the backs of his knuckles graze Nick's flushed cheek.

He could feel the virus slowly spreading through his body, the beginning stages like the flu, making his skin feel sore and hot all over and his stomach a little queasy. After rinsing off quickly in the shower, cleaning the various bodily fluids from himself, Sean wrapped a towel securely around his hips, wet two washcloths - one warm and one cold - and grabbed another towel before returning to the bed where Nick was half-asleep. A faint smile crossed Nick's lips when he saw Sean coming out of the bathroom. Sean put the cold washrag on Nick's forehead, hoping to soothe the fever, then began to clean Nick's body starting with where he had bit him.

By the time Sean was done cleaning off Nick's body, he'd thrown two washrags away and had rewet the one on Nick's forehead three times. He knew at that point, the night edging closer to dawn, that if he didn't leave soon, he'd never be able to. He dressed in his last set of clean clothes, stole a week's worth of pills from Nick's leather knapsack, then sat in the chair closest to the bed to watch Nick sleep for awhile. He wanted to make sure to memorize everything he could about Nick in case either one of them didn't survive the week. There was a big chance of that happening. Nick was getting so close to turning - the cocktail of medications he'd been on for the past two years would be completely ineffective in a week's time. And Sean. He knew that there was a chance the pills wouldn't even work on him. But, somehow, the infection felt different this time. Maybe it was a different strain of the virus. Maybe he had some sort of immunity towards it. Maybe it was because it had been Nick who had bit him.

Glancing at the alarm clock on the night table beside the bed, Sean rose from his chair. It was 2:17am and he wanted to be at least a state away by lunchtime. After suppressing the urge to give Nick a final kiss goodbye, Sean slung his bag over his shoulder, set the car keys down on the table along with what little cash he had left, then he headed for the door.

It was silent outside and the still air retained its chill from earlier that night. The door closed with an audible click that sounded so final. It reminded Sean of the snap of a book's spine when it's closed – finished with that chapter.