Mick groaned, a deep, guttural sound more akin to a growl, and clung to Josef's back. Fingers gripping, and nails digging into sweat dampened flesh.
Josef had kept him hovering on the edge for what seemed an eternity. Hours passed. Time seemed to merge. Mick bucked his hips, desperate for more stimulation. Cock lying rigid, and heavy along his abdomen. His stomach slicked with pre come.
"Josef, please…"
The rest of Mick's plea was swallowed by Josef's mouth crushing against Mick's own. Josef's slow, torturous build up of arousal continuing relentless. Rapid fire thrusts alternated with more languorous penetrations. Josef bought Mick to the very brink of anticipation, and then took him back down. Over, and over again.
"Josef, for God sake…" Mick's voice took on a desperate edge as he wrenched away from Josef's kiss, and repeated his plea.
For the briefest of moments, Josef considered putting Mick out of his misery. Pleasurable as it was. Instead he stilled for a moment, pausing to brush strands of hair, wet with perspiration, from Mick's brow. It was an age ago it seemed, that they had done anything like this; drawn things out, spent hours mapping each others skin with lips, and fingers, extended their pleasure.
Granted there was an ulterior motive behind the added attention, but Josef was enjoying the night's events far too much to bring proceedings to a close just yet.
And then Mick mewled; an inhuman sound that sent a shiver of delight coursing down Josef's spine, and threatened to break through Josef's own carefully guarded control.
Too late. Josef hurriedly withdrew from Mick's space, eliciting another chorus of mewling snarls, and deep seated groans of frustration in the process.
"Turn over, and get on your hands and knees," His own need weighing in on him, Josef issued Mick a heated instruction, and waited for Mick to scramble into position.
"Oh Jesus, fuck," Mick gasped, and bit down on his lower lip, fangs drawing blood as Josef took him from behind. "Don't stop, don't you dare stop."
"Trust me, lover," Josef grinned at the pleading desperation in Mick's voice, and stepped up the pace, "there's no chance of that, not this time."
Mick snaked a hand behind Josef's head, and twisted his face to meet his. Mouths pressed together in an awkward clash of lips, and fangs.
Josef broke the kiss moments later. Letting his eyes fall shut and concentrating on Mick's increasingly incoherent vocalisations. Listening as Mick whimpered and growled with abandon. Josef's hand gripped the top of Mick's shoulder, seeking leverage, the other drawn under Mick's waist. Fingers closed around Mick's cock, stroking Mick's length in sync with the increasingly frantic pace of their coupling.
And then Mick was near howling with the force of the orgasm that swept through him. Fangs bared in a grimace of pleasure. A hand reaching for Josef's arm, those same fangs buried deep into the flesh of Josef's wrist.
Josef could see Mick struggling to fill his lungs with air. Mick's breathing falling ragged around his bite, coming in staccato pants, and gasps. And Josef would have reminded Mick, in his own cheekily condescending way that Vampires didn't need to breathe; if it weren't for the fact of his own orgasm crashing in on top of him.
"Wow," was all Mick could think of to say in the aftermath, his body still humming with residual pleasure.
"Worth the wait then was it?" Josef chuckled, and ran a finger over the two small, rapidly healing puncture wounds on the top of Mick's shoulder created by his own fangs.
"Mm," Mick murmured a non committal reply, and tucked his fingers under his chin. Head turned to one side as he lay on his stomach and reveled in the feeling of Josef's body pressed close against his own. Josef alongside him, a leg draped across Mick's thighs.
"Have I ever told you how utterly fascinating your body is to me?" Josef caressed a hand over Mick's back, pads of fingers tracing planes and angles of musculature, "you remind me of a sculpture."
"Really?" Mick smiled like a man who had heard those same words many times before.
"Yes, really." Josef snorted a laugh at Mick's nonchalant response, and then casually added, "by the way, I told Roisin she could move back in with us. You don't mind do you, Mick?"
It was a rhetorical question. The announcement made as if he were remarking on item of only passing interest.
"Mm," another non committal murmur, and then Mick suddenly turned over, and sat bolt upright. Josef's words having registered. "Wait, what did you just say?"
Josef took one look at Mick's thundercloud expression, and berated himself for his miscalculation. He had hoped a nice, long fuck session would have thrown Mick off guard, allowed him to casually drop the news without repercussion. He was wrong.
"…So when exactly were you planning to discuss this with me, Josef?" Mick was on his feet then, pulling on jeans and shirt from the pile of crumpled clothing at the end of the bed, "Or was that it? You just make an announcement, and expect me to go along with it…"
"…Mick -"
Mick turned, and shot Josef a disdainful look, "And I suppose that display of yours just now was meant to soften me up…"
"…Like you've never done the same thing to me before, Mick." Josef raised his eyes skyward for a moment, and managed to look perfectly indignant. "Where are you going?"
"Outside, for a walk, the air in here seems to be getting to me."
Josef mimicked Mick's words with exaggerated, mock annoyance, as Mick turned heel and strode from the room. A display of sheer immaturity, and Josef knew it. And then he was off the bed, and hurriedly redressing, his attitude shifting contrite.
"Yes, I know. I fucked up, forgive me?"
Josef hesitated for a moment, and then took off after his husband.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Aren't you cold?"
Mick looked up to see Nadya Domilenski staring at his barefoot and open shirted appearance. A look of puzzlement fallen over her features as flakes of snow fell around them.
"No," Mick offered the young gypsy girl a polite smile and a shake of his head, "I sleep in an industrial freezer. This is comfortable for me."
"In a freezer?" Nadya tilted her head, and pursed her lips, "with the other one? He sleeps in there with you also?"
"Josef?" Mick smiled once more at Nadya's apparent naivety, "Yeah he sleeps in the Freezer with me."
"Must be a big freezer…"
"…Custom built.-"
"- So how do you have sex? A giant freezer it would be very uncomfortable."
Ok so maybe the girl wasn't that naïve after all.
"Ah, we have a bed," Mick fidgeted with the cuffs of his shirt for a moment, and averted his eyes, "for…that."
"So Vampires can have sex?" Nadya's curiousity over rid Mick's obvious hesitancy, "I did not think that was possible? You have no circulation so how…"
"…It just works, ok?" Mick hurriedly interrupted, pre-empting Nadya's question. His reluctance to discuss such matters evident, "Can we talk about something else, please. It's late, what are you doing out?"
"Collecting plants," Nadya waved a dismissive hand, "my Grandma Simza, she is superstitious. I tell her, 'there is a perfectly good market in the city we can buy whatever we need'. But no, I still have to pick plants at night."
"So what's your Grandmother brewing up this time," Mick raised curious eyebrows, "another special recipe?"
"My brother he has a cold. She is making him a poultice." Nadya shrugged, and then sat by Mick. Understanding what he had meant by the words, 'special recipe. "Was it very hard, when he was unwell?"
"Yeah, it was." Mick chewed on his bottom lip, and looked pensive. And then he was drawing breath to speak, and blurting out a litany of fears, and doubt. Words rushed forth in a rapid fire relief of vowels and consonants.
"I think maybe," Nadya placed a hand on Mick's arm, and directed Mick's gaze towards Josef standing in front of then, "you should be speaking those words to him."
"He already heard." Josef smiled. His gaze locked on Mick.
At first, Mick pretended not to notice. Turning to Nadya and stammering out a sheepish apology. He hadn't meant to burden her with his troubles. He hadn't thought. He was embarrassed.
Nadya brushed Mick aside with all the jaded attitude of a teenager trying to pretend she had heard it all before. Before Mick had a chance to respond, she had said her goodbyes, and headed back into the shadows.
Mick at least acknowledged Josef's presence then, wadding up a ball of snow and half heartedly striking Josef in the chest with it.
"Right," Josef pretended to look nonplussed, and brushed the powder flake fragments of ice from his clothes. "Do you feel better after that?"
Josef took a seat on the low garden wall, next to Mick. His arms wrapped around Mick's waist. Head rested against Mick's back. For a few moments neither one of them spoke. And then Josef broke the silence.
"I'm sorry."
"It doesn't matter." Mick forced a smile, and waved an unconvincing hand.
"Of course not, Mick," Josef snorted a wry laugh, "which is exactly why you're sitting out here. In the snow, in the middle of the night, brooding."
"I like snow." Mick's tone was just shy of petulant.
"Remind me to buy you a snow machine for your birthday." Josef quick witted, and pressed on, "Why didn't you talk to me, Mick? You talk to a practical stranger, but you couldn't come to me?"
Josef's fallen expression matched the hurt tone in his voice.
"How, Josef?" Mick turned to face Josef then. "Tell me how. Everything I can't forget, you'll never remember."
"Then we'll create new memories." Josef shifted into Mick's space. The back of a hand brushed along the line of Mick's jaw.
"More change." Mick furrowed his brow, and huffed with frustration. "As soon as we get settled anywhere, something always seems to come along to shake things up. Beth, the Legion, Roisin. I'm sick of everything changing all the time."
"We're immortal;" Josef rested his forehead against Mick's, "change is a part of living forever. Everything around us will change eventually. You either accept it, or you go insane."
Josef shook his head and drew the line of his mouth into a wry smile. The irony of his words realised.
"Yeah, like you've done so well with that yourself." Mick replied with a sniff of laughter.
"Ouch." Josef reared back, pretending to look mortally wounded, and then shifted the conversation to matters at hand. "I'll tell Roisin I've changed my mind. We don't have enough room after all. The house is too small for three people."
"She's your blood relative." Mick sighed wearily, and tried to affect an air of resignation.
"And you're my husband." Josef shrugged matter of fact. As if the matter was settled. "See that up there," Josef pointed to the waxing moon, hanging in the sky above them then, "I'm still working on getting that for you, you know. Give me another eighty years. I should have something figured out."
"You are crazy. You know that, don't you?" Mick's faux exasperation was belied by the tender smile that crept across his features.
"And whose fault is that?" Josef quipped with sarcastic breeze, and then stood up. His hand extended. "Will you come back inside now, please?"
"Yeah, ok." Mick rolled his eyes with put on reluctance. And then smiled, and accepted Josef's proffered hand in his.
Three nights later the decision on Roisin's living arrangements was taken out of Josef's hands. Auguste Vasilescu himself, showing up unannounced. Instructions in hand, Roisin was to return to live with them.
Josef had trouble following the conversation from that point on, his mind switching to concerns about Mick. He heard something about an overall plan, and the Legion being made to believe Roisin was willing to infiltrate her own family. Beyond that, Auguste might well have been speaking an unknown language.
"Just let me know when this rollercoaster reaches the bottom of the hill, ok?" Was all Mick could manage in tired response, when Josef informed him of this latest development.
Before wandering outside for some much needed snowball target practice. Wadded lumps of ice hammered against the stone exterior of the house.
-----------------------------------------------------
"Where's Uncle Mick?"
"Concentrate, Roisin, please." Auguste tapped the silver tipped point of his cane on the floor in front of him, and then gestured for Josef to continue.
"He's just gone to the city to fetch supplies." Josef raised the sword in his hand, and then motioned for Roisin to do the same, "En Guard."
Roisin's things had been moved in earlier that day. More than a decade's worth of life summed up in a few sparse furnishings, and a rucksack filled with clothes. "I've learnt to travel light," Roisin had shrugged, when Josef had expressed his surprise.
Now with Auguste's repeated insistence that Roisin was not to lapse in her training, they faced off against one another, swords at the ready.
Josef had to admit she was good, surprisingly good as a matter of fact. Roisin was managing to hold her own against a swordsman with more than four centuries of experience. Still he held back, reluctant to release his full capabilities. Despite the impressiveness of her skills, Roisin was still mortal.
'Uncle Josef," Roisin halted, the sword in her hand pointed towards the ground. A frustrated expression fallen over her features, "stop going easy on me. I'm not a child. I need to train as close to real world fighting conditions as possible."
"As you wish." Josef arched an eyebrow, and gave a cursory bow towards his niece, before releasing a rapid fire volley of cuts.
Roisin easily deflected the first few blows, changing through, and executing a number of deflective parrying actions, before striking back with a series of mixed diagonal, and cross cuts of her own. And then Josef saw his opening. Just as Roisin dropped her arm, intent on delivering a vertical uppercut of her blade, he lunged forward. The point of his own blade neatly sliced the thin material of Roisin's shirt, and continued through to her flesh.
"Shit, are you…" before Josef had a chance to complete his sentence, Auguste was at Roisin's side. Her wound hurriedly checked, words of reassurance being spoken.
"I've had worse," Roisin turned to her Uncle, and shrugged. Before unbuttoning her shirt just enough for Josef to see the criss cross of scars that marred her chest, "that was just a scratch."
Josef stood dumfounded, and seething with rage as he watched Auguste instruct Roisin to go and tend to her injury.
"She's not a child anymore, Josef," Auguste raised a silencing finger, pre-empting Josef's planned tirade, "and there is nothing she does, that she does not wish to do. I have never forced Roisin to do anything. I don't think I could even if I wanted to. She is one of the most headstrong mortals I have ever had the good fortune to meet in my years."
There was a clear note of respect, and admiration in Auguste's voice.
"You really care for her, don't you?" Josef's anger dissipated for the moment, replaced by curiosity.
"Of course." Josef bristled at the tone of Auguste's response. Replete as it was with snapped indignation. And then Auguste lowered his voice to a more amicable level, "But not in the way you might think. I do care for Roisin, but I am merely her mentor, and protector. Nothing more and nothing less."
"If you care for Roisin, then why…?"
"…Why did I force her away from her family?" Again Auguste pre-empted Josef's words.
Josef gave a curt nod, and waited for Auguste to continue. Arms folded across his chest, and huffed expression, making his annoyance at being interrupted more than apparent.
"You haven't been listening to me, Josef," Auguste shot Josef a patronising smile, and ignored Josef's rising discord, "I have never forced Roisin to do anything she has not wanted to do. I merely offered a solution to the issues she was experiencing at that time. She was well within her rights to refuse me, and I would have taken my leave with good grace. I made that perfectly clear to her, right from the start. I saw something in your niece," Auguste turned to face Josef direct then, "right from the start. Something infinitely bright that deserved to be nurtured. And you might have seen it too. If you hadn't been so pre-occupied with playing the role of machismo alpha Vamp, whose kingdom was overthrown, and authority usurped."
"You …"
Suddenly Josef found himself sprawled out on the floor, knocked off his feet by a blow that had come out of nowhere.
"What's wrong, Uncle Josef?" Roisin stood over her Uncle, grinning, "Did I catch you off guard again?"
"Lucky break." Josef stood up, ignoring Roisin's outstretched hand as he adjusted the sleeves of his shirt, and tried to hide the surprised look on his face.
"Oh really?" Roisin arched a pointed eyebrow, and then raised both hands and gestured ante up, "Close your eyes, and try to scent me."
Josef raised a bemused eyebrow of his own, but did as he was instructed. Eyes shut he scented the air around him. Ears peeled for the sound of Roisin's heartbeat, or footsteps.
Just as quickly as he had closed them, Josef's eyes flew upon. This time there was no hiding the shocked expression on his face. Roisin had been in front of him, and then behind, and then at his left hand side. Each new position indicated by the tap of a finger on Josef's shoulder. And Josef hadn't been able to scent, or hear his niece at all. It was as if she were a ghost, or…
"Jesus." Josef clapped his hand over his mouth.
"Hallelujah." Roisin threw her hands in the air in a gesture of mock praise. A wide grin plastered across her features.
"It can't be," Josef struggled to comprehend Roisin's revelation, "You're a…"
"…A Legion assassin? Yes," Roisin finished Josef's sentence with a brief nod, "trained as one at least."
Auguste cleared his throat then. His attention directed towards Roisin. A finger tapped pointedly against the face of a wrist watch.
"I'm sorry, Uncle Josef," Roisin turned to her Uncle. Her expression steeped in contrition, "I'll be away for a few days, I have some…" She hesitated for a moment, trying to find the right words, "I have some business I need to attend to."
"Business?" Josef cocked his head, "As in Legion related business I take it."
"Yes." Roisin nodded. Her expression still couched in a mixture of apology and reluctance.
"Will you be seeing the father of your child?" The quaver in his voice belied Josef's attempt at keeping the tone of the question light.
Roisin nodded again, and averted her eyes. Her teeth chewing distractedly over her bottom lip. And then the floodgates were opening, and a torrent of words rushed forth. "I'm sorry, Uncle Josef, I never wanted…I don't have a choice, this is part of what I do. This is what I was trained for. I needed to get close to them. They had to trust me, completely. I never wanted to…not with him. Not with…"
Josef held up a silencing hand. "Don't say his name, Roisin. If I don't hear you say his name then I can go on pretending none of this is happening, and my niece isn't really sleeping with the enemy. Anything else cuts too deep."
"An illusion of blissful ignorance, hey Uncle Josef." Roisin forced a smile, and tried to convey her understanding.
"Something like that." Josef reached out a hand to brush Roisin's length of hair back over her shoulders.
And then she was gone. Headed back into a world Josef was doing his level best to pretend didn't exist.
-----------------------------------------------------
NC17: The following page will contain descriptions of a sex act occuring between Josef and Mick. Please do not read if that is likely to offend.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Mick lay alongside Josef. Josef facing away from him, his back spooned against Mick's chest.
"Hmm, what?" Josef muttered a distracted reply. He was finding it difficult to concentrate on anything but the sensation of Mick's hand roaming across his flesh.
"About Roisin."
"What about…?" Josef groaned with approval as Mick's fingers encircled his cock. A slow, steady rhythm stroked along his length.
"…She's pregnant." Mick's hand movements quickened, becoming firmer, more assured.
"Oh, that…I don't know, I should have…" Josef struggled to formulate a response. Two fingers of Mick's other hand were pressing against his anus, penetrating him. Another groan of approval elicited as Mick's fingers found their target. "Mick, can we talk about this later, please."
The frustration in Josef's voice was evident.
"I thought you might be a little more forthcoming in this condition." Mick's subsequent laughter held a distinctly wry note.
"What? I'm so overwhelmed with pleasure I start randomly shouting confession?" Josef rolled his eyes, and snorted a laugh of his own, "You idiot."
Any further words were silenced then. Josef's lips pressed against Mick's own. A hand snaked behind Mick's head, drawing him in for an awkward kiss.
Mick's hand continued to work its way along the length of Josef's cock. Fingers penetrating Josef's space pressed firmer. Josef writhing and purring beneath his attentions, Mick felt his own arousal build.
Josef broke away from the kiss a few moments later, pleading with Mick to fuck him. Words panted hot against Mick's throat.
"You sure you don't want to…?" Mick finished his sentence with a series of kisses trailed along the side of Josef's neck.
"No," Josef shook his head, determined, "I'm in the mood to be fucked."
Hands scrambled along the top of the bedside cabinet. A hurried application of lube, and Mick's fingers were being replaced by his cock. Josef's leg hooked over Mick's thigh, giving Mick access.
Initial thrusts were kept short, building slowly. And then Mick changed the angle of penetration, and began driving harder. His cock pressing repeatedly against Josef's prostate, sparks of electricity shooting along Josef's spine.
"Oh fuck, yes." Josef growled, and arched into the sensation. Mick's wrist held against Josef's mouth in anticipation, Josef's own hand now working his length. A rhythm stroked in time to the pace of Mick's thrusts, growing increasingly frenetic.
Josef felt Mick tense. Mick thrust forward one final time, and then stilled, muscles trembling. And then Mick was snarling his release. A succession of warm, wet pulsations pumped into Josef's passage. Mick's fangs buried deep into the top of Josef's shoulder.
And Josef was falling over the edge with him. Unnatural vocalisations of pleasure emanating from parted lips. Cock spasming, fingers flooded with semen. Josef's own fangs sliced into the flesh of Mick's wrist.
"Mm, that was good." Josef stretched with repletion, and then reached for the box of tissues next to the bed. Mick was still inside him, his arm draped across Josef's chest. Chin rested against Josef's shoulder.
"Are we going to discuss the issue with Roisin now, or not?" Mick shifted the conversation back to previous matters then.
"What is there to discuss exactly," Josef felt Mick withdraw, and rolled over to face him. His brow scrunched in question, "She's pregnant, and it's not like we exactly have a choice whether she's staying with us or not. And besides what would you have me do otherwise, Mick? Throw her out on the streets?"
Josef's tone was a hairs breadth from righteous indignation.
Mick ignored Josef's defensive outburst, and pressed on. "No, of course not. You just should've told me straight out what was going on. I might have felt a bit different with Roisin staying here if I'd known."
More acts of contrition were ushered, Josef's expression falling between apology and frustration. He didn't know why he hadn't told Mick about Roisin's condition. He wanted to say it had slipped his mind. Something told him that wasn't quite true.
"You sure you're ok?" Josef heard Mick asking him then, fingers brushing damp strands of hair from Josef's forehead. Mick's own expression steeped in concern.
"Hmm, sorry I was…I'm fine." Josef murmured. His reply sounding awkward; caught up in his own distraction. Taking a moment to regain his grounding, Josef repeated his reassurance. More certain this time, "Mick, I'm ok, really. Quit worrying."
Mick decided not to push the issue, noting Josef's reluctance. Instead he smiled, and nodded his acceptance. His arms drawn around Josef's neck, lips pressed against Josef's own. Mick hoped the kiss would turn into something more. He was in the mood to be fucked now.
"So who's the father?" It was a seemingly innocuous question, designed to distract. Mick feeling the need to slow his growing arousal as Josef's body shifted against his.
The expression on Josef's face told Mick all he needed to know. His ardour cooled rapidly. Mick felt as if someone had dumped a bucket of ice water over him then.
Josef made a hurried attempt at cover up. Hastily mumbling something about not being sure, Roisin hadn't told him for certain.
Mick would have none of it.
"Him, are you fucking kidding me? And you're letting her stay with us?"
"Mick, it's not like we have a choice." Josef tried to appeal to reason. As Mick continued to rant and rail.
"Bullshit, Josef. This is our house. Are you trying to tell me we don't have any say in what happens in our own home…?"
"No, look this is…"
"…I don't want to hear it," Mick stabbed a pointed finger, "I want her out of here. Jesus Christ, Josef, she's been sleeping with the man who practically ruined our live."
"Mick, I said I wasn't sure. Roisin hasn't actually spoken to me about it." Josef tried to interject.
Still Mick refused to listen. "How do we know we can even trust her? How do we know she won't turn on us given the first opportunity…?"
"We don't…"
"This is crap," Mick cut in. More exclamations of blasphemy muttered under his breath. "And you've known this all along, and didn't think to tell me? I can't believe you agreed to let her stay here. What the hell's the matter with you?"
Josef didn't answer.
Mick was off the bed then, hurriedly pulling on clothes. Josef felt a distinct sense of déjà vu. Only a few days ago he had lain in almost the same position, and watched as Mick vented his emotions, eventually storming from the room in a flurry of upset.
This time, Josef let Mick go. Figuring Mick just needed some time alone. At any moment Josef expected to hear the dull thud of packed snow hitting against the side of the house.
Josef heard the sound of Mick's footsteps, stomping heavy across the slated floor, the front door being opened. And then…
Crap
….the noise of a car engine being gunned. Tires screeching, spraying dust and gravel as Mick peeled off into the night.
Another world away a mortal girl climbed into bed, silently praying the man lying next to her wouldn't awake. Too late, the figure was already stirring. Hands reaching for her, a voice in the dark, "Are you trying to sneak into bed without saying hello?"
And Roisin did what she had done every other night. She forced a smile, and then let her eyes fall shut. Her mind drifing towards thoughts of death and torture, as Terrence shifted over her.
