Chapter 4
"So, come on." Mick pulled on his shirt and worked his fingers along the buttons. "How'd it really go with Roisin last night?"
"Better than expected." Josef ran a hand along Mick's lapels, and smiled. "She's a smart kid."
"She takes after you, you know." Mick grinned and then leant in to place an affectionate kiss.
"I don't know whether to take that as a compliment or an insult." Josef tossed back and then moved to return the kiss, drawing it out, hands gripping the sides of Mick's skull, and then moving down to trace angles of musculature across Mick's back.
"Josef." Mick gently disengaged himself from Josef's embrace. "We've only just gotten dressed."
"So." Josef's hooked his fingers into the waist band of Mick's jeans and pulled him back into his space. "We'll get dressed again."
"I've only just had a shower."
Mick's half hearted protests went unheeded as Josef's hand began to fumble urgently with the fastenings on his jeans.
"So, have another one."
"You've got an answer for everything, don't you?"
Mick admitted defeat and quickly pushed Josef's hand out the way, hurriedly working on undoing his pants himself. He watched as Josef responded in kind, and then asked. "So you think Roisin's going to be ok with all this then?"
"Yeah, I think so, she seems to be." Josef's voice was distracted, breath hitched, hands reaching inside Mick's jeans, working on freeing him from his constraints.
He spoke to soon. Just as he'd managed to wrap a firm hand around Mick's shaft, feeling him harden at his touch, an argument started downstairs.
"I need a new wardrobe." Roisin's voice was gritted, angry. "How do you expect me to fit in at my new school if I don't look like one of the cool kids?"
"You don't need a new wardrobe, Roisin." Katherine's own voice grew impatient. "There is nothing wrong with the clothes you already have."
And then Roisin opened her mouth and hollered her mistake.
"If you don't get it for me, I'll tell everyone that you're all Vampires, and they'll believe me."
Before Mick could stop him, Josef had zipped himself up and flown downstairs.
Mick caught up just in time to see Josef lift Roisin off the ground by the front of her shirt and shake her, just once, hard enough to show he meant business.
"Do not ever; let me hear you, say that, again!"
Josef's face was a terrifying visage pressed angrily against Roisin's. She took one look at his pale features, eyes cold blue and red rimmed, and dissolved into hysterical sobs.
"Jesus Christ, Josef." Mick shook his head in disbelief; arms folded across his chest, as Josef lowered Roisin to the ground and then watched her run into her mother's arms. "She hasn't seen any of us completely vamped out before, you scared her half to death."
"Good." Josef's tone was pointed, his stance defiant. "Then she won't make the same mistake again in a hurry, now will she."
"She's also not likely to sleep with the light off for the next week either." Mick shot back.
"Need I remind you, Mick, what happens to those who threaten the secrecy of the Vampire nation?"
Josef's harshness belied his distant look. Mick turned away, briefly, not wanting to see the memory revealed in those eyes.
"Uncle Mick?" Roisin wiped the back of a hand against her eyes, her sobs slowly subsiding. "What happens to people who tell secrets about you?"
Josef and Mick exchanged quick glances, Josef shaking his head. "No."
"Nothing sweetheart." Mick's gaze fixed on Josef's. "It's just important for you to remember, that's all."
Josef swallowed and nodded his approval. Turning then towards Roisin, his face transformed back to its human state, he muttered a hurried apology and then announced, "I need to go do some work," to no one in particular.
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"You ok?"
Mick leant against the frame of the door to Josef's office, his disquiet apparent.
"Yeah, you?"
Josef's tone echoed Mick's own concern. The events of past history weren't a subject they were wont to discuss on a regular basis, choosing instead to leave them where they belonged, in the past. Every so often though, something would occur that reignited old memories. Neither one of them relished talking about it when it happened.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Mick tried to nod his reassurance and then quickly changed the subject. "So I take it you did tell Roisin about our need for secrecy?" He asked, taking a step towards Josef's desk, brow scrunched and head cocked in a question.
"Of course I did." Josef shot Mick a sideways look and pursed his lips in momentary annoyance. Standing up from his seat, he walked around to the front of the desk and leant against it, arms folded loosely across his chest. "I didn't go into too much detail, but yes, I did make her aware of certain current dangers and the importance of secrecy to our community."
Mick seemed to consider this for a moment and then nodded his understanding. His face brightening, he moved towards Josef and drew him into his space.
"Hey." Mick rested his knees against Josef's and leant back. "You wanna go out and do something, take Roisin to the pictures? There's a Vampire feature marathon on at the local cinema, might be good for a laugh?"
"Not a Jean Rollins retrospective I hope, Mick?" Josef cocked an eyebrow and then snorted a laugh, when he saw the eye rolling look that passed over Mick's face. "Sure, why not." Josef said then, offering Mick a casual smile, before closing the gap between them and placing a brief, affectionate kiss on the side of Mick's face.
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"So, did you enjoy the movie?" Josef wrapped an arm around Roisin's shoulder as they walked down the street, pleased to note that she didn't flinch or pull away from him this time, as she had done earlier.
"Some of it was a bit scary, not as scary as you though, Uncle Josef." Roisin screwed up her nose in distaste. "You look like a corpse."
"A very handsome corpse though, don't you think?" Josef arched an eyebrow and smiled at his niece.
"No, just a corpse."
Josef started to laugh at his niece's matter of fact reply and then stopped dead still, ears pricked.
"What is it?" Mick's own ears pricked up, alert to the sounds around them.
"I thought I heard something?"
"Roisin?" Mick bent down to his niece's level and gently gripped the top of her shoulders with his hands. "Don't be afraid of us, ok?"
Roisin looked on then as her Uncle's, and Mother's faces morphed into their true Vampire form. The air around her seemed to change, becoming charged, as she watched the three of them scenting the air together, nostrils flaring, like predators on the hunt.
The sound hadn't come from a Vampire, that much was evident. Neither though could any of them tell if the sound had been made by human movement. The footsteps moving towards them lacked the usual smell of the Vampire, but they also lacked the typical signs of mortal approach, the heartbeat and aroma of humanity.
A human who was capable of covering their heartbeat and scent?
Josef and Mick exchanged quick glances, the answer etched in their expressions.
"Legion assassin, run!"
The deadliest members of the entire Legion, Legion assassins were highly trained and worked as individuals. They spent years perfecting certain high yogic arts that gave them the ability to hide some of the usual human attributes that would otherwise alert a Vampire to their presence. Until it was too late, that is.
"Uncle Mick!" Roisin's scream echoed through the night air as Katherine swept her into her arms and turned to run.
Josef spun around at the sound of his niece's voice, just in time to see their attacker step out of the shadows and pump six rounds of silver into Mick's chest.
Katherine froze, holding onto Roisin for dear life, as if she were awaiting instruction on what to do next.
"Roisin?" Josef's voice was firm, designed to counterpoint the terrified child's hysterical cries. "Look at me. Uncle Mick can't die, ok?"
Josef gestured to the rooftop of the Car Park above them then and hurriedly instructing Katherine to, "Hold onto her, tight, and jump up there, now!"
And then there was no more time for instructions or reassurances. Sharp metal was being drawn, arcing towards Mick's neck in a swift downward curve.
"Mum, I want to see." Roisin struggled against her Mother's arms, trying to turn around, as her Mother perched on the edge of the Car Park roof and held onto her tightly, shielding her from what was happening below.
It took Josef all of fifteen seconds to dispatch the 'would be' assassin. Never underestimate a Vampire protecting his loved ones, especially when that Vampire's name happens to be Josef Kostan. Josef descended on the mortal in front of him like a bat out of hell, knocking the sword from their hand, and tearing their throat out with his teeth in the same rapid shift of movement.
Josef stood over the prone form when it was done, grinning triumphantly as he watched the last drops of precious lifeblood drain away.
"Ok, you can come down." He called out to Katherine then, moving to draw an arm around Mick's shoulders and help him to his feet at the same time.
"I thought you were supposed to have a security detail tracking us?" Mick stammered through the pain and sickness coursing through his body, shaking as he struggled to stand upright.
"I gave them the night off." Josef's reply was hurried, distracted. "I'm capable of looking after my own family you know." He added defensively.
"I never said you weren't." Mick hung onto Josef, using him as a support.
"Keep her face covered." Josef gestured towards the child in Katherine's arms as they began to move away. "She doesn't need to see what's back there."
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"Christ." Mick gritted his teeth through the sharp stab of pain, as Josef dug the metal forceps into his exposed flesh and extracted another bullet. "You wanna try being a bit gentler next time."
"Funny." Josef bent his face to Mick's and grinned, one eyebrow arched suggestively. "That's not what you usually tell me."
"Oh ha ha, Josef." Mick drew his lips into a sarcastic smile and then gulped a few more mouthfuls from the bottle of blood in his hands, trying to offset the tremors and waves of nausea that washed over him from the silver still inside his body.
"Is Uncle Mick ok?" Roisin's voice drifted childlike towards them.
"I thought I told you to take her upstairs and keep her up there." Josef frowned his disapproval at Katherine, as Roisin took another tentative step towards them.
"She wanted to come down here and see her Uncle Mick, she's worried about him." Katherine's explanation was pointed, challenging Josef's censure.
"I'm fine, sweetheart."
Mick didn't look 'fine' to Roisin's eyes. "Are you sure?" She asked. The uncertainty in her voice was evident.
"Katherine." Josef cut in. "Take her back upstairs, she doesn't need to watch me performing surgery."
"But I want to stay down here with Uncle Mick." Roisin's protest was small and plaintive.
"Katherine." Josef's tone was firm, his gaze fixed on hers.
"But I want to help." Roisin voiced another protest, more insistent than the last.
Josef studied his niece's expression for a moment, noting both her apparent concern and the determined look behind her eyes.
'Alright." Josef relented. "Come here and hold this for me." He waited for her to move to his side and then handed her the bowl from the table next to him.
Josef sliced into the skin of Mick's back with the scalpel held in his hand and dug the forceps into him once again, eliciting another wince of pain as he twisted the metal through Mick's flesh and extracted the sixth and final bullet. Being careful not to let it touch his own skin, he dropped it into the bowl held in Roisin's outstretched hands.
Roisin watched, eyes drawn in fascination, as the skin on her Uncle's back seemed to heal magically before her very eyes.
Josef wiped a damp towel over Mick's back, cleaning away the last traces of blood and then quickly fetched another bottle of A positive.
"Here, get this into you." Josef ran a quick, tender hand along the back of Mick's neck as he handed the blood to him, and then turned to Roisin.
Holding out the scalpel for her to take, and exposing the skin on his arm, he instructed her simply. "Cut me."
Roisin hesitated, expression wary, and then drew the blade across her Uncle's flesh, watching as the layers of flesh and muscle separated and then rejoined almost instantly.
"See." Josef took the scalpel from Roisin's hand and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "I heal, just like you saw happen with the skin on Uncle Mick's back. If we're ever in another situation like tonight, you look after yourself." He squeezed Roisin's shoulder gently to ensure his point. "You don't worry about any of us, ok?"
"Ok." Roisin nodded her understanding.
"How are you feeling?" Josef turned back to Mick then, brushing a few stray strand of hair from his forehead.
"Getting there." Mick threw back another mouthful of blood from the bottle in his hand.
"Good." Josef's relief was palpable. "Finish that up and then hurry it along." He instructed then. "We're leaving."
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"Well, aren't the four of you a sorry looking sight?" Lestat leant in the open doorway, one hand raised, wrist bent, as if he were about to offer them a serving platter. "Come here, sugar." He took a step toward Josef, drawing an arm around his neck and kissing him warmly on both sides of his face. "You know you're always welcome at my place."
"Uncle Mick?" Roisin nudged her Uncle, the words mumbled out the corner of her mouth as she watched the strangely flamboyant Vampire turn heel and sashay off in front of them. "Is he a friend of Uncle Josef's?"
"Of course?" Mick scrunched his brow for a moment and regarded his niece with a bemused look, until realisation dawned on him. "Not that sort of friend, sweetheart." He snorted a laugh and ruffled an affectionate hand through her tangle of blonde hair.
Less than an hour had passed since Josef first made the announcement that they were to all go upstairs, pack whatever belongings they could carry, and be prepared to leave, immediately. In consideration of the events of earlier that evening, their house could not be considered safe for them to stay in, not for any length of time.
Lestat's house at least afforded them some protection, with its myriad of secret rooms and passages, planned into the structure of the house when it was first built some five hundred years ago. Of course Lestat had only purchased the property less than a hundred years ago himself.
"Your Uncle Mick and I were married in that garden back there." Josef placed a tender hand on Roisin's shoulder and guided her down the hallway, to the large Mezzanine Ballroom at the back of Lestat's house.
"You and Uncle Mick really love one another, don't you?" Roisin's expression was seeking, little face turned upwards towards her Uncle's.
"Of course."
"And you love me and Mum as well?" Again the same seeking expression, as if she needed to find reassurance in the answers that would be given to her.
"Of course." Josef spoke in earnest then. "You and Katherine are my only living blood relatives, I am honour bound to look after you both."
Roisin seemed to consider this for a moment and then nodded a simple approval.
"So, does this mean I get to tease you about white horses and Knights in shining armour now, Sir Galahad.?" Mick wrapped an arm around Josef's waist and drew him close, placing an affectionate kiss on Josef's temple.
"Don't push your luck with me, St John." There was no recrimination in Josef's voice, just tenderness given in kind, as he leant in and returned Mick's kiss.
"Right." The sound of Lestat's voice broke the moment. "We have hor douvres for the little lady." He made an extravagant display of presenting Roisin with a tray of cucumber sandwiches, the crusts neatly sliced off, forming perfect squares. "And for the rest of us, some O positive." He looked at Josef apologetically then. "I'm sorry it's the only kind I have in stock at the moment."
"Well, it'll have to do then won't it." Josef arched an eyebrow and grinned, then gratefully accepted the bottle being offered to him.
"What about you, honey?" Lestat turned to Mick then, placing a concerned hand on Mick's arm. "You still look a bit piqued after your ordeal, would you prefer a little something more direct from the source?"
"Not in front of Roisin." Mick waited until he was certain that his wishes had been understood and then nodded his gratitude.
"I have a room you can use." Lestat moved towards the rope of a summoning bell, hanging from the ceiling above the room's entrance door. "Josef knows where it is."
Roisin looked on, head titled, expression questioning, as the sound of the bell rang through the house and her Uncles departed from the room.
"Mum?"
"Your Uncle Mick still isn't quite well, darling. He needs to feed…properly." Katherine offered her daughter the simplest explanation she could think of.
"Him and Uncle Josef are going to hurt someone?" Roisin's voice made it clear she meant more than just hurt. She bunched her nose and looked perturbed at the thought.
"No darling." Katherine stroked a gentle finger down the side of her daughter's face and then brushed her hair back over her shoulders. "People sometimes donate blood to us, like they do at the blood bank, only…different."
"And it'll make Uncle Mick better?"
"Yes."
The answer seemed to satisfy Roisin.
"Alright." Lestat's enthusiasm was evident as he clapped his hands together and then put on an extravagant show of bowing to Roisin. "I believe some music and dancing is in order." He offered Roisin his hand and began to lead her to the centre of the room, pausing to press the play button on a particularly ancient looking piece of stereo equipment. "A proper young lady should always know how to dance the Minuet."
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"That's not how you dance the Minuet, Leonard." Josef sauntered back into the room, his arm draped loosely around Mick's waist, a grin tugging at the corners of his mouth.
"Well it's how I dance the Minuet, Miss Bitch Queen of New Orleans." Lestat shot back in rapid fire French.
Their conversation continued in the same vein, a series of quick exchanges parried back and forth.
"Uncle Josef?" Roisin cut in, gesturing an arm in her Uncle's direction. "You know you really shouldn't stand with your hand on your hip and wave your arm around like that; it looks kind of gay."
"I'll take that into consideration, Roisin." Josef's tone was politely mocking as he cleared his throat and inclined his head and then shifted his stance back to a more neutral position.
"Come on." Mick interrupted proceedings and placed an arm around Josef's waist, drawing him into a dance hold. "Let's show them how it's really done."
"The music's changed now though, Mick. You can't dance a Minuet to this." Josef leant back in Mick's arms, head tilted and forehead creased.
"Then we'll dance something else." Mick smiled simply and began to lead Josef into the start of a tango.
Roisin watched as her two Uncles glided across the floor, bodies pressed together and eyes locked.
"Mum?" Roisin turned to her Mother "Uncle Josef and Uncle Mick aren't about to have sex, are they?" Her face crumpled with concern, as if she truly believed she was about to pay witness to her Uncles coupling, right there on the floor for all to see.
"Well, sweetheart," Katherine stifled a laugh and tried to look serious, "I know sometimes it might seem as if your Uncles have trouble controlling themselves around one another, but I'm sure they'll wait until they're in the privacy of their own room for that."
Katherine smiled at her daughter, taking a moment to marvel at her precociousness as she ran a hand over the top of Roisin's head.
"Come on." Katherine said then, getting to her feet and reaching out a hand for her daughter to follow suit. "I think that's more than enough excitement for you for one night."
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"Uncle Josef?"
Roisin's voice, small and plaintive, drifted towards him as he stood in the doorway and repeated his goodnight's to her. Mick had been in earlier, her Mother and then Lestat before that. Josef had wondered if it wouldn't have been wise to invest in tickets, Roisin's going to bed had seemed quite the event.
He suppressed a grin and waited for Roisin to continue.
"You know how you said that you made Mum into a Vampire because she would have died otherwise." Roisin didn't wait to hear her Uncle's response. "I don't want you to do that for me. I don't ever want to be a corpse. Promise me you won't."
Josef had been about to explain the difference between being dead and undead, the line of his brow creased with bemusement, and then he understood. To him the pale skin and cold blue eyes of another Vampire could be beautiful, to a human child, even one as fiercely intelligent as his young niece; it was both ugly and terrifying.
He hesitated for a moment and then nodded his assent.
"I promise."
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"Where's Katherine?" Josef arched cat-like and then sank into the seat of the couch next to Mick.
"Gone to bed." Mick rested his head on Josef's shoulder, legs stretched out.
"We should probably do the same ourselves soon." Josef stroked an absentminded hand over Mick's leg.
"Yeah, in a moment." Mick glanced over at Lestat and then arched an eyebrow in Josef's direction. "I want to hear a story first."
"Oh Christ." Josef rolled his eyes and twisted his mouth for a moment, then let out a resigned breath, noting the look on Mick's face, his need for distraction still apparent. "Alright, I'll let Lestat tell you the damn story then."
New Orleans 1955
Mardi gras in New Orleans was always a colourful event. A gaudy clash of fabrics and layers of powder and paint, all tied up with a treasure trove of beads and other trinkets.
And there, sitting amongst this festival of glitz, eyes glittering, back propped against the wall of their French Quarter hotel room, was one Josef Kostan.
"Just what in the hell are you supposed to be?" Lestat stared at his friend, and then spluttered a laugh.
The freshie lying to next to Josef was dressed in Josef's suit, and quite clearly dead. It was apparent to Lestat that for some strange, unknown reason, Josef had decided it was a perfectly good idea to swap clothes with his meal.
The black cocktail dress was at least three sizes too small, but a few strategic tears in the seam line had rectified that problem. Lestat watched as Josef reached for the girl's handbag strewn next to her and rifled through its contents. Extracting a small silver compact and a tube of red lipstick, he made an extravagant display of twisting the contents up and smearing them over his lips, leaving a slash of bright red crimson across his mouth.
They had become separated in the whirlwind hustle and bustle of carnival, earlier that evening. Now, several hours and several helpings of chemical laced blood later, Josef was looking decidedly mischievous and very, very high.
"Don't speak to me like that, Leonard." Josef snapped the compact in his hand closed and then trailed a hand through the air and grinned, then announced with great flourish "I do believe I shall crown myself 'bitch queen of New Orleans'."
Josef seemed to take great delight in that remark, dissolving into a fit of hand covering mouth sniggers, eyes still glittering, bright and unfocused. He turned to the lifeless figure of the freshie on the floor next to him then and prodded the prone form with a finger.
"I think you wore her out, sugar." Lestat shook his head. "I really don't think she's getting back up again anytime soon."
"But I want someone to play with." Josef's tone was petulant, demanding. "And why is she wearing my clothes?" The expression on Josef's face fell incredulous.
"You dressed her in them, sweetie, remember?"
The look on Josef's face told Lestat that whatever had prompted him to play dress up in the first place; he had no recollection of it now.
"Well help me get her undressed, I can't wear this damn thing I look ridiculous." Josef huffed indignantly and gestured a hand along the front of the dress he was attired in.
Lestat shook his head and smiled to himself, then moved to help Josef out of the borrowed clothes and back into his own. When the task was complete, Josef leapt to his feet and announced breezily, "Let's go out somewhere," his hands gesticulating in the air above him.
"Honey, you really can't go out with your face looking like that." Lestat grinned and arched an eyebrow in Josef's direction.
"You're right." Josef nodded a curt agreement and then bent down to rummage through the contents of the freshie's handbag once again, carefully applying a layer of paints and powders that he found inside, to his skin.
"Right." Josef tossed the bag and its contents to one side and clapped his hands together then, looking decidedly pleased with himself. "Let's go."
And with that he sauntered causally out the door and back to the spectacle of the streets below, not bothering to wait and see if Lestat was behind him.
"If you ever say a word to me about this, Mick St John, I will not be held responsible for my actions."
The look on Josef's face was unmistakable, as Mick pressed his fist against his mouth and tried not to laugh.
"Yes, alright." Josef pursed his lips and rolled his eyes, then offered Mick a mock indulgent smile. "You may be amused."
Josef stood up then, brushing a hand down the front of his suit.
"Come on." He said, as he extended his hand toward Mick. "We should try and get some sleep, there's someone I believe we need to pay a visit to later today."
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"How
are you feeling?"
Josef ran a hand over the planes of Mick's back, body pressed against his, feeling angles of flesh and musculature under his fingers.
"Fine, better." Mick's reply was a distracted murmur, breath hitching as his own hands traced their way over Josef's skin.
Josef's lips sought Mick's then, claiming them for his own. Shifting the positions of their bodies, Josef locked his legs around Mick's waist, as they began to move against one another, gradually building up to a fever pitch of arousal.
Josef reached up a hand to clutch the back of Mick's neck, fingers tangling through the hair at the base of Mick's skull. He scraped his fangs lightly against Mick's throat, teasing his way along the delicate skin there.
And then he was once again seeing the quick flash of sharp metal, as it arced towards Mick's neck.
"You can't die, ever." Josef suddenly gripped Mick's face in his hands and fixed his gaze on his. "You do not have my permission."
As if his mere command of the matter willed it so.
"Josef." Mick raised himself up onto outstretched arms and looked down, his brow scrunched with concern. "Relax, you said it yourself, we're safe here."
Josef hesitated for a moment, then swallowed and nodded a quick agreement. Reaching for Mick, he pulled him back down towards him and pressed his lips against Mick's ear, whispering to him in a desperate hiss.
"Fuck me."
Mick quickly moved to obey Josef's direction. Slicking his cock with a quick application of lubricant, fetched from a bag at the end of the bed, he hooked Josef's legs over his shoulders and pressed himself against his entrance, breaching the initial resistance and penetrating him, slowly.
Until Josef grabbed Mick's arse and thrust upwards, clenching his teeth in momentary pain as he forced the full length of Mick's cock inside him in one sudden thrust.
Josef clung to Mick's shoulders, digging his fingers into the muscular flesh there and spurring him on with snarls of approval and single word commands of "harder" and "faster", as Mick drove himself into Josef's body.
"Don't ever leave me."
Josef's words were a blurted rush of emotion as the muscles in his body tensed, back arched and teeth clenched.
And then he was losing himself in an abyss of pleasure. Still clinging onto Mick's shoulders, he sank his fangs into the side of Mick's neck and rode out the waves of orgasm that tore through him.
Moments later Josef felt Mick spill into him, fangs penetrating Josef's flesh, his own body trembling as he panted and snarled through the pleasure of his release.
"Where do you think you're going?" Josef felt the sudden shift in pressure on the bed, as Mick withdrew himself from his body and then rolled away from him and got up, after they were both sated.
"Kitchen." Mick shrugged and furrowed his brow. ". I need some refreshment after that. I thought I'd see what's on offer."
"I'm coming with you." Josef's expression bore a distinct note of worry.
"What, you think I'm going to be attacked in the hallway?"
Mick shook his head and looked incredulous for a moment, then saw the determined look that had passed over Josef's features.
"Ok." The warmth in Mick's tone was clear, as he gestured for Josef to join him. "Come on then, you can help me raid the fridge."
