WARNING: M X M PAIRING/SLASH/GRAPHIC SEX! (if it offends you, don't read this chapter. We'll get back to the story in the next one. :D)

Chapter 18

I've seen love

And I follow the speed of the starlight

I've seen love

And I follow the speed of the star-swept night

- Interpol, Pace is the Trick

Edward's eyes fluttered, tried to open a few times, and then closed tiredly again.

"Edward?" Carlisle whispered, holding his face between his hands, watching him closely for other signs of conscious activity.

"I'm here," he breathed after a long pause, his voice very faint and groggy.

"Edward!" Carlisle sang, laughing in relief and pulling him fiercely into his arms. He hugged him tightly before looking down, frowning in mock sternness.

"You neglected your fairy tale literature in your education," he scolded, narrowing his eyes and growling. "Either that or I am less than princely. I've been kissing you for days. You were supposed to be back long before now." But his face was all smiles again as he planted his lips on the boy's forehead.

Edward was too weak to hold his eyes open, and he strained to lift his hand to rest it against the other man's face. Carlisle captured it with his own and kissed it fervently, pressing his cheek into it.

"I heard. Tried to come back to you," he mumbled, turning his head in an attempt to kiss Carlisle gently on the shoulder.

"You heard me?" Carlisle stopped running Edward's hand across his cheek. "Have you been awake for awhile then?"

With great effort he nodded and then sighed, mentally exhausted by the effort.

"How much do you remember?"

"Everything." His response would have been inaudible to a human ear.

"Everything!" Carlisle exclaimed in astonishment. "Could you hear us all along? How is that even possible? He was completely unresponsive. Were you trapped in your mind?

"And here I thought you were unconscious." But he was! He was completely unresponsive. The pupils failed to contract. He was mentally reviewing Cheyne's observations on the stages of unconsciousness.

"But... why did you stay silent?" Carlislee pursed his lips, mystified. "Did you not want to answer Aro? Is that why you waited so long to speak?

Edward made an effort to shake his head. "Didn't hear Aro. Not after I fell."

"After you fell?" Carlisle wasn't aware he had fallen and wasn't sure how it could possibly matter. He himself had fallen from extremely great heights and only succeeded in damaging the rocks under him. "But you heard me?"

Another slight nod. "Later, after. In the tunnel," he explained brokenly.

"The tunnel?" Carlisle was now completely lost.

"Where you were..." he trailed off, too weak to continue.

"Edward, I haven't left your side. And we have been here in this room the whole time." He was struggling to understand his meaning. "I came here three days ago and we have not moved. You were... you appeared to be unconscious and I stayed here with you."

"The light..."

"The light?" Despite himself, Carlisle was excited. His mind was shooting off in only one direction. The light at the end of the tunnel before Death!

"So…. dark. She... came. Heard you. I tried... Couldn't..." He went limp, exhausted from the effort of speaking so much.

" 'She came'... Jane?" He was alarmed for the boy.

Edward nodded.

"How - … How was she with you? You haven't been alone since …" He paused, completely at a loss for words. And then asked, "Where do you think you were, Edward?" Where did you go?

"In the water. Dark. dark..." He swallowed slowly and shifted in Carlisle's arms, still weak from his journey. "She… came," his lip trembled. "Carlisle!"

"Did she hurt you?" he hugged him protectively.

"No… showed me... she died. What they did to her. Aro saved her. She..." he trailed off, too tired to continue.

"Edward, was she in your mind? Like before?"

"In the water with me," he whispered.

Carlisle shook his head, pondering different possibilities.

But Edward was stirring again, fretful now. "Thirsty," his hand touched his throat before altogether giving up the fight to communicate and collapsing heavily against Carlisle.

Carlisle peered anxiously down at him, and then, without a second thought, tore at his own flesh with his sharp teeth. He grimaced a bit at the pain, but willingly pressed his profusely bleeding wrist against Edward's mouth to nourish his mate. The latter glued himself to the opening, sucking frantically like a starved animal.

Carlisle tried hard to focus on the pain and not the other sensations demanding his attention, but Edward's body was pressing insistently against him, growing stronger with each draught, undulating in the rapture of tasting, feeling the blood flow down and across his system.

Carlise could almost touch the electric currents coursing through the soft body coming to life against him.

Edward bit down hard, creating a deeper opening with a fresh blood stream and Carlisle screamed before he could catch himself. Best not to think about the pain, then.

Or how very weak and frightened he was feeling being drained of his own vital fluids...

He placed his free hand across Edward's forehead and pulled him back a little to try and break the death grip on his wrist. Edward fought back, tightening his hold, and increasing the pace at which he drained the body at his disposal. Carlisle kissed the side of his face. He nosed Edward's ear and then introduced his tongue to explore the cavity. As expected, it garnered the lad's attention long enough for Carlisle to break the bond and rescue his hostage hand.

Stronger now for having fed, Edward pressed closer into him, his breathing faster and more shallow. He grasped Carlisle's injured hand and pulled it across to rest on his already erect member. Carlisle moaned softly and began to stroke him through the material of his trousers. Edward pushed the hand down harder and rocked his pelvis up to meet it, rubbing his hardness against the wet, sticky, tattered appendage. The smell of the blood and the feel of the hand against him was making his head spin.

Carlisle gasped and shook Edward's hand away, freeing up his own to negotiate opening the boy's trousers.

Edward reached up with both arms to pull Carlisle's head closer, and groaned when he felt the soft hand wrap around his erection and commence its steady rhythm.

"Kiss me!" he whispered roughly, turning his head to the side to enable his mate to reach him. Carlisle greedily devoured his lips, allowing his tongue to explore the familiar hollow. The older vampire was moaning incessantly, thrusting his own turgid length against the boy in his desperate search for friction. It had been so long! Those weeks, months in the dark, imagining the feel of this body against him. He pulled back abruptly, pushing Edward down on to the soft bed and reaching to rid himself of his pants.

Edward's penis was rising up from his stomach of its own accord, and Carlisle couldn't stop himself from leaning down to lick, and then suck it. The taste was even more delicious for the long wait, and he hastily shredded his clothes to be finished with that task so he could savor the sensation tingling on his tongue.

Edward's fingers were buried in Carlisle's hair, pushing his mate's head down as he tried to muscle himself further into his throat. Without warning, the older vampire sat up - there was a loud groan of disappointment for the rupture in contact followed by several testy growls - and shed his own clothing. He turned the boy onto his stomach, spreading his legs. Edward shivered when he felt the man's tongue leisurely lick the small of his back and then slide all the way down to his opening. Like a large cat stretching its back, he pushed back and up, granting greater access. He gasped when he felt Carlisle's tongue begin to massage the rim - first one way, then the other, then up, then down, and then the whole rotation again - and then cried out in uncontrollable ecstasy when the man's tongue stiffened to enter him.

Carlisle's hand reached up to massage the sac protecting Edward's manhood, eliciting louder cries of ever increasing pleasure. Losing himself completely to the scent and the feel of his lover, Carlisle turned his head swiftly and bit the inside of Edward's thigh causing both of them to gasp - Edward in pain, and Carlisle in response to the blood spilling into and down the side of his mouth. He was mindful not to draw too much from the boy, only allowing himself to suckle for a short spurt.

He ran his fingers over the tip of Edward's penis, coating them with the free-flowing juices. Sitting up slightly, he spread the lubricant across the boy's entrance before pressing first one finger, then another, and then another into the small hole. He probed Edward for several minutes while the latter writhed in anticipation of still better things to come, and then, when he could no longer contain his own excitement, he pulled back, placing his hands on Edward's hips and drawing him close.

He thrust deep into him, moaning softly as the walls wrapped around him, supporting and massaging him. Edward initiated the motion, pushing back and pulling away so that Carlisle first felt himself wholly encompassed and next teased by the loss of contact as he was forcibly withdrawn inch by inch.

He moved his hand between Edward's legs to grasp his length firmly. The boy began to hitch, slowly at first, and then faster and faster as Carlisle quickened the pace, into the fist.

When he felt he might scream from his own building need for release, Carlisle quickly flipped the boy onto his back, placing his hands underneath his lower back and lifting his hips up off the bed, allowing himself a new angle for even deeper penetration. This earned him a series of low moans from his young lover, who began to buck wildly, grabbing and tearing the sheets in his frenzy, moving in tandem with Carlisle's violent thrusts, before crying out and releasing, his warm semen shooting across them in long spurts. The sight of his beautiful boy in orgasmic ecstasy spurred Carlisle on to his own climax.

Collapsing on the body beneath him as he rode out the waves, he leaned in to bury his face in Edward's neck, where the original scar that had claimed Edward resided. Opening his mouth, he bit down hard, marking him once again as his own.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

They relaxed in each others arms, relishing the feel and smell of one another. Edward smiled at him, his face finally serene.

"I love you!" He ran his fingers along Carlisle's jawline, stopping to linger at his lips.

I love you, too! Carlisle kissed his fingers, nibbling them lightly. I missed you so! I thought I would die without you!

"Carlisle!" Edward whispered excitedly, abruptly raising himself up one one forearm to stare mouth agape at his mate. He bent his face closer so that their noses touched. "I can hear you!" Said very, very quietly.

Carlisle was confused but took advantage of the proximity to bestow yet another kiss, on the other man's lips this time.

You always hear me, Edward...

?...

Mmmmm.

"No! I can't. Not anymore. They have cut my senses off, so that I can't hear, so that I wouldn't know what was going on around me. But I can still hear you!" His eyes blazed triumphantly. "Carlisle, do you realize what this means?!"

Carlisle drew a sharp breath as it struck him. Dear God, we have bested them.