Author's Note: Another thoroughly unbeta-ed chapter. Because I'm just a rebel like that.
Lesson in the Dark
Lesson One: Feeding
Lucius was a sight to behold, standing before the open window through which moonlight poured like water and the sounds of horses clopping floated. Even in the dark apparel he had retrieved from the room he kept in the small inn across the square, Harry was in awe at the beauty of this man; in his white garments, Lucius had always emitted an ethereal glow, but in this black clothing, it was almost as if he was an angel trapped in this world, gentle and marvelous but entirely misplaced in the dank attic of a lower-class family with their unwanted ward.
Only, he stared back at Harry with equal openness, the look on his face expressing just what Harry felt - as if he was lucky to be in this very spot, with this very person.
"You looked at me that way every night…" Lucius breathed. "How can you still, after all these years?"
Harry was sure that the man hadn't meant for the disbelief to mingle with the wonder in his voice. "My love couldn't fade for you even if twenty years passed, or when fifty years pass, or even a century, Lucius," he answered with a smile. "But you must know that, or you wouldn't be here."
"You were only a child when you knew me; how can you still be so sure?"
"I grew up with you, Lucius - or at least, the thought of you. And whatever has happened since then, I'm sure the man I loved then can't be so different from the man I love now."
Lucius made a small sound and came to sit beside Harry. "And I see your eloquence has only increased," he said half-teasingly as he held his hand to the boy's cheek.
He knew what would happen if he just leaned forward, pressed his lips to Lucius' smiling ones, and from the look in those grey eyes, the man seemed to be following the same line of thought, but Harry couldn't quite bring himself to care about the consequences.
Lucius' resolve seemed to break at the same moment; their mouth crashed together, and Harry felt himself pressed to his bed, felt the length of Lucius' body against his own in overpowering passion. A cool hand slipped beneath his simple tunic to tease at the hardening nubs on his chest. Harry groaned and arched up into Lucius, momentarily breaking the contact with the man's lips. He panted when his tunic was shoved upwards and wet kisses pressed to his chest, crying out and tugging at Lucius' hair to stop the powerful pleasure, to reclaim that furious mouth and prevent the noises coming from himself.
But when he saw Lucius' face - the wild look in his eyes and the dangerous, protruding fangs - he gave a shudder and pulled the man to him, letting his tongue run along the sharp point of one of the teeth.
Lucius drew back even as Harry felt the cut on his tongue. The man passed his own tongue over his eyetooth, squeezing at Harry's jaw with one firm hand. He knew what Lucius expected; he opened his mouth guiltily and stuck out his tongue to allow the man to heal the cut with his blood. Before Lucius could retreat again, Harry sucked at his tongue, swallowing the taste of the vampire's blood and, when there were no traces of it left, savoring the taste of Lucius until a hand pressed him down to the bed again.
"Wait," Lucius whispered breathlessly, holding a hand up and turning his head away. Harry could see his chest moving heavily beneath his fine black clothing, and he struggled to keep his own breathing even. "Harry, why did you…? Your tongue…"
The boy flushed with embarrassment. "I don't know. There's just something - Your teeth make me…"
Lucius seemed to have finally found the calm he sought. He turned to Harry again, his eyes boring into Harry's like a physical force. "Do they excite you, Harry?" Lucius asked in a low voice.
He nodded mutely, trying to decipher the look in the grey eyes and failing to do so before the man's lids shut and he stood, slowly extracting himself from the mass of limbs they had become. Harry heard Lucius take in two deep breaths as he sat on the windowsill, facing away from Harry. He feared some reprimand waited for him on the other side of this silence, so he remained in his position on the bed, looking after Lucius warily.
"Luckily for you," he began lightly, leaning against the frame of the window, his dark form at odds with the white moonlight coming in, "Our first lesson has to do with the vampire's primary weapon. I want to take you with me to feed." He turned to Harry again, the look in his eyes lightened with that same contained passion, and though the hand he held out to the young man was steady. "Will you allow me to show you all I can tonight? Will you be open to everything I have to teach you?"
Harry tried not to show how eager he was as he stood swiftly and held the pale hand tightly in his, though Lucius smiled fondly at him and he knew he thoughts were written on his face. He leaned against the broad chest as a long arm wrapped around his waist. Lucius kept their clasped hands to his chest and he leaned forward as if to lay a kiss on Harry's lips.
"Keep your eyes open," he murmured.
He didn't have the chance to question him before Lucius suddenly pushed out of the window, straight into the hard ground below. There was no time to scream - because suddenly, they weren't going down, they were soaring towards the clouds.
Lucius had tucked Harry's head against his chest, and he felt the wind whipping at his hair and clothes, biting at his skin where his clothes or Lucius' arms didn't cover him. He could see, through his narrowed, watering eyes, that they had left behind his little village, moving towards the larger town nearby. It was exhilarating to be so close to heaven; it felt just like standing on the edge of the cliff at the end of the road, with the wind coming off the shore and feeling like he could reach up and collect the stars themselves.
He barely noticed when they descended onto a strange village, still mesmerized by the night sky. Only the feel of the ground under his shoes startled him into the realization that in a matter of moments, Lucius took them though half a day's journey.
"Did we really just -?" He flushed when Lucius stroked down the side of his face, smiling down at him lovingly. "What is it?" he asked automatically, his brow furrowing.
"It's nothing, love, I just…" And he turned his head away almost shyly, making Harry want to chuckle. "I've lived for so long… and I've never shared that with anyone, you see - the gift of flight."
Harry grinned and nudged Lucius' arm, burrowing himself against his side as they started walking towards the cluster of houses. They had never been outside the walls of his home before, and Harry planned on making the most of it while he could. No one could see them, no one could judge them - but being able to walk with Lucius this was on the road was something he knew he'd cherish, so exhilarating was it. "I could have never imagined that look on your face," he teased. "Are you embarrassed, Lucius?"
"Please," he scoffed, though the corners of his mouth twitched. "A Malfoy is never embarrassed."
"Malfoy?" He warmed at the ease with which Lucius, who had never offered much of himself, now gave such ancient information with ease. "Is that your family name?"
"Yes," he murmured distractedly, his eyes roving over the empty road. "I never could quite shake it."
"I'd like to hear about them someday," he offered gently, knowing too well how volatile the subject of family could be.
An elegant raise of an eyebrow, and Lucius hummed in agreement.
"What are you looking for?" He cringed at how put-out he sounded, though he was, not used to ever having to share the man's attention.
Lucius smirked, recognizing the petulant tone. "Relax, my love, I'm only trying to find our prey." At the wide green eyes, Lucius corrected, "Rather, I must show you how we kill. You won't possibly be able to hunt as you are."
The reminder of their purpose was bracing. Whenever Lucius took Harry's blood, it had only ever been brief tastes, never enough so Harry felt the loss, and certainly not enough to quench a vampire's thirst.
"What was it like for you first time?" he wondered.
As well as the man hid his sudden anxiousness, he heard the lie clearly: "I don't quite remember; it was very long ago… I'm sure it was terribly messy."
Without pressing him for the memory, Harry went on lightly, "By the way, how old are you? You didn't answer the first time."
Now, the man chuckled and shook his head. "Trust me when I say I'm much too old for you." Before Harry could reply to the ambiguous answer, he sensed Lucius tensing beside him. A darkness came into his eyes as he narrowed in on a shaded alleyway. "Here," he whispered as he led the curious boy out of the open.
"I'll need you to stay here, Harry."
The words were said calmly; the hands which pressed him to the wall were careful; the lips on his were loving. All these things only heightened the feral light in Lucius' silver gaze.
"Try not to make too much noise, hm?"
He smiled, and Harry caught the sight of those deliciously dangerous teeth for just a moment before Lucius caught his lips once more. Those tendrils of heat were quickly becoming familiar to Harry, and he was disappointed when Lucius drew away, taking that pleasure with him.
Then he was gone.
But no, not gone - he simply vanished into the darkness of the alley, returning heartbeats later with a portly man in hand. Lucius shoved the man against the wall, following in that moment when the stranger's head bounced on the wall and he began to bleed.
Harry recoiled briefly before he saw Lucius nuzzling at the man's neck, murmuring under his breath something only the man could hear. Whatever it was, it made him cry out and cause his knees to give way, both amended when Lucius clapped a hand on the trembling lips and used his own body to support the thick man.
He didn't know if it was the sight of Lucius in this simultaneously strange and natural element, or if it was the phantom memory of that body pressed against his own, but the heat had returned to Harry's lower abdomen, and he could scarcely breathe when Lucius' free arms pressed to the man's neck. His eyes were wide and frightened, bulging out of his head as Lucius seemed to squeeze with gradually increasing force.
When his eyes darted to Harry for a second, only the briefest moment, Lucius struck.
One hand still over the man's lips and the other pressed up to his shoulder, Lucius bent over the tender flesh under the quivering jowls, hiding the sight of the fangs breaking the skin, but Harry knew the exact moment the blood touched Lucius' tongue. Both frames stiffened, in pain and in pleasure, and the man whimpered and Lucius groaned and Harry tried to keep his panting quiet because the sight of Lucius feeding, drinking from someone other than himself, taking those deep pulls and making those sounds-
Harry clutched desperately at his aching lust, pumping his hips unconsciously when Lucius pushed the sagging, dying man higher. He was so frightened by this feeling, but was just like when Lucius had touched him, and he rubbed at the bulge the way Lucius had and - Oh - he bit down on his lip when his love moaned again - God, yes! - before he pinched at a nipple, recalling and reliving that sensation of centralized pleasure in such a strange area of his body.
When Lucius had finally finished with his meal, he lifted his head and let the corpse collapse on the ground. Harry threw his head back when he saw the blood dripping from Lucius' lips. He watched as, still looking down at the lifeless body, Lucius raised a hand the gather the remaining precious fluid, savoring the taste as he lapped it up slowly. Harry didn't understand quite what was happening when his lust overflowed into something material, staining his trousers with a damp heat; he didn't care. He shuddered and pressed his hand against his crotch forcefully until it became too much. He let his hands fall to his side and shut his eyes, wanting to burrow in that pleasure and never leave it. What was that?
He was still trying to catch his breath when Lucius turned to him, ears catching the irregular breathing. "Harry?"
And though Harry wasn't sure he could explain it himself, Lucius seemed to know exactly what happened, because he immediately glanced down at the stain, his nostrils flaring and his jaw clenching.
"I just -"
Whatever was on the tip of his tongue disappeared when Lucius suddenly dropped to his knees before him. He grasped the young man's hips and - there was really no other way to say it - he began to devour Harry. His tongue lapped over the stain in Harry's breeches, his nose rubbed all over the area, making the boy wince at the over-stimulation but Lucius would not let up.
"Please," he choked out.
He massaged Harry's thigh, purring, "You're young, my heart. It won't take long at all." He pressed his lips to the young man's left hip, then right, alternating between side as he drew closer and closer to his middle. His tongue shot out to taste the wetness still on Harry's trousers, and his cock gave a lively twitch. "There we are," Lucius laughed gently, his eyes gleaming hungrily. "Awake already, aren't you?"
He tugged down Harry's trousers, burying his nose in the patch of hair before licking at it, taking in the remnants of Harry's pleasure. The sensation of Lucius tongue on him was even more intense than Harry's own hands, or even Lucius' hands on him.
"One of the drawbacks of drinking is that you never quite manage to end the thirst."
Looking down, Harry was thrilled and excited by the sight of Lucius' pointed teeth hovering over such a intimate area. He gasped and clutched at the wall behind him, trying not to lose himself, hoping Lucius would forgive him when he did. One hand suddenly shot out to grab Lucius' head, digging into the fine blond hair as he thrust himself into Lucius' laughing mouth.
He felt the man closing around his flesh, even as the man stared up with him, that same hunger in his eyes that he had upon seeing the drunken stranger.
And then he swallowed.
For the second time that night, Harry's body seemed to thrum with his pleasure. His soul soared from himself and burst into the night, and he was sure he would never feel so consumed with his own desire as he did just now. When he came back to himself, Lucius was standing tall, holding him up, keeping the boneless mass of man from sliding to the ground.
"I'd never… felt anything quite like that."
Lucius smirked. "I suspected as much, love."
For a moment, they were locked in the warm gaze, sated and loving both. Harry leaned up to press a closed-mouth kiss to Lucius' lips, too uncertain as to whether he could stomach the taste of someone's blood and his own release over the pure taste of Lucius.
"This went differently than I anticipated." Lucius leaned his forehead against the young man's, eyes half-shut and glittering.
Harry gave a half-smile. "You didn't expect me to bring myself off watching you feed from a stranger?"
Lucius raised an eyebrow and straightened. "Crudely put, Harry… But that was decidedly not the reaction I hoped for."
The change in the vampire's tone gave Harry pause. "Did you want to frighten me?" The silence came as tacit affirmation.
"… Are you angry?"
He pressed his lips together and turned away, and Harry was prepared to extract himself from the secure embrace - I'm a freak, aren't I? - when Lucius crushed him to his chest suddenly.
The man breathed into his hair a phrase so little-heard in his life: "I'm proud of you."