CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
It wasn't until a deafening sound filled the chilly night and entered Levi's fogged head that he realized he wasn't hallucinating.
In the very same alley, behind the container in front of him, Eren was sitting on the ground, screaming while he watched Levi simultaneously fucking and ending the man in front of him.
As if in slow motion, he saw the brunette getting to his feet, turning around and running for his life. Before he knew he was moving, he threw the other man to the ground, gathered his pants up and run after Eren, before he could alert any other human being passing the streets this late at night.
Around the corner, he saw him rushing down the walkway and about to get into the club's front door. If he would get in there, there was no way he could get him without causing a scene.
He sprinted up to him, so fast his feet barely touched the ground underneath him and reached the brunette before he made it to the door. With one hand pressing on his mouth, the other one sneaking around his waist and picking him up from his feet, he kept running further down and into the next dark alley he came by. The man in his arms struggled like his life was on the line, which he probably did believe, and Levi was amazed that he actually had to concentrate to keep him under control. His hand still on the other's mouth, he pushed Eren against the wall, locking eyes with him.
"Sssshhht, calm it! Calm the fuck down, Eren, I won't hurt you! You-"
Eren managed to get one arm free before Levi could catch it again and pin it above his head. "Shit! Eren, stop it! You're drawing too much attention. It's me! You are in no danger, I promise! Stop screaming! I will explain everything, but please, for fuck's sake, calm down!"
As Levi watched his words sinking in through Eren's fear-fogged mind, he felt the struggle leaving the brunette's body. When he was as certain as he could get that Eren wouldn't start screaming again, he put his hands from his lips.
"Your eyes…," was all the brat said at first.
Levi closed his lids, remembering that they still must be shining like back-lighted diamonds. "Don't let them bother you." He noticed that his hands had dropped onto the other man's chest, right above his racing heart. "What the fuck are you?" he felt the bass vibrating along his ribs.
"I'll take you somewhere save and answer your questions. But you have to promise me to not scream or run again. Deal?"
Yeah, why the hell should he believe one word he said, right after witnessing what he did with that other man. Shit, he hadn't finished the job. The bastard must still be lying in that impasse-
"Okay," he heard Eren say.
Not trusting his ears, but too smart to question Eren's decisions when they were playing in his favour, he looked up at the brunette.
"Good, wait here for a sec."
Levi let go of the man in front of him and walked a bit further down the street and up to a dark green '03 Honda Accord while texting Erwin his location. He looked left and right. No one was in the alley. There were no windows on the buildings. No cars passing by.
Bending down, he picked up a hunk of rock from the ground and punched a hole in the driver's side window. As the alarm went apeshit, he stepped away from the sedan and melted back into the shadows. No one came running. The noise died off.
He hadn't stolen a car since he was fourteen and just a juvenile delinquent, but he was back in the groove now.
He walked over calmly, popped the door, and got in. The sequence that came next was quick and efficient, proving that this kind of crime was something he'd never quite lost: he ripped off the panel underneath the dash. Found the wires. put the right two together and . . . vroom.
Levi knocked out the rest of the shattered glass with his elbow and took off at a leisurely roll. Propping his arm on the window, like he was just taking in the early spring air, he leaned back, all casual.
He drove up to where he had left Eren and sighed in relief that the boy was still standing there, keeping his promise. "Hop in," he said and waited for other to follow his order. Which happened after a reasonable time of hesitation. When he got to the stop sign at the end of the alley, he hit the directional signal and came to a full-tire halt. Following traffic laws when you were in a stolen vehicle and had no ID on you was mission critical.
Half an hour and a tension-loaded silence later, Levi had arrived his destination and was now standing on the terrace of his private downtown penthouse. The night was a bitch, all March cold and April wet although Mai was coming, the bitter wind weaving around like a drunk with a nasty attitude. As he stood before the panorama of London's bridge, the postcard view of the twinkling city bored him.
Planting his palms on the terrace ledge, he leaned way over and got sandblasted in the face with a rush of icy air, his hair blowing back all fashion-model and shit. Or maybe… more like in those superhero movies the kid liked so much. Yeah, that was a better metaphor.
Except he would be the villain, wouldn't he?
He realized his hands were stroking the flat stone they rested on, caressing it. The ledge was four feet high and ran around the building like the lip of a serving tray. The top of it was a three-foot-wide shelf just begging to be leaped off of, with the thirty feet of thin air on the other side the perfect breezy prelude to death's hard fuck.
He thought back to the times he marvelled about what it must feel like. How the force of wind would push at your chest, making it hard to breathe. How your eyes would water and the tears would streak up your temples, not down your cheeks. How the ground would rush up to greet you, a host ready to welcome you to the party.
But suicide had never been an option.
Levi turned away from the urge to think that part over and went back to one of the sliders, entering the main room through one of the penthouse's three walls of bulletproof glass.
"Oi, brat," Levi had said, snapping his fingers.
"Get inside. Come on."
Eren's eyes widened and his mouth fell open with a gasp as he entered the door on top floor of one of London's well known elite-hotels. Dark wooden planks and white walls. The furniture was all sleek black, arranged on a deep slate rug. Eren walked inside, and right into an expensive looking living room with a large flat-screen on the wall. He could see the balcony from where he stood and to his right was a kitchen. All appliances were in black, hiding behind a bar counter. There was a glass table next to it, adorned with a bowl filled with fresh fruit.
But that wasn't all that was inside. In the back, at the far end, were a series of glass cases, such as you would find at a museum. He went over and checked them out.
Naturally they were dust-free, although not, he sensed, because they'd been cleaned. He just couldn't imagine there being any pollutants in the air around here, even those of the microscopic variety.
The objects inside those cases were fascinating. There was an old-fashioned pair of spectacles, a porcelain bowl of Oriental origin, a whiskey bottle with a label from the 1930s, an ebony cigarette holder, a lady's fan made from white feathers.
He wondered how they ended here. He didn't take Levi for someone who'd be interested in those things. Some of them seemed quite old, though they were in perfect condition and, what sealed the deal on them being Levi's, everything was sparkly-frickin' clean.
As Eren turned around, he saw Levi taking off his cloak with a twist of his wrist. He draped it on a chair, before going out on the balcony. Three sides of the penthouse were made up of sheets of glass, and the sprawling view of London's two halves included the downtown's shimmering lights, the dark curve of the Thamse, the stars shining above all of it. Unlike the twinkling landscape, though, the decor was minimalistic, all ebony and cream elegance. A few paintings, but no photos in sight, vases and a wine rack. And so absolutely and spotlessly clean, one could think it was an exhibition room instead of an ordinary apartment. Which was partly true, wasn't it?
From out of nowhere, something brushed against his leg, and Eren almost jumped out of his skin. Looking down, he met the jade green eyes of a black cat. The feline blinked, purred at him, and rubbed its head against his ankle.
Bending at the waist, he stroked its fur with unsteady hands. The animal was incomparably elegant, all lean lines and graceful, sliding movements.
When Eren sat down on the large couch in the middle of the living room, the animal followed him close by and curled up in his lap, instantly starting to vibrate through its entire body.
Eren saw Levi returning from the balcony again. "I see he's introduced himself."
Eren looked down in his lap. "What's his name?"
"Heicho. It's Japanese for Corporal."
"You from Japan?" it gushed out of him.
"No."
Chit-chat... more like testing the waters before heavier topics came on the table.
As the wind swept in from the glass slider Levi had kept open, Eren couldn't stop the shivering that went through his limbs. From out of nowhere, a thick and plushy blanket was thrown over his head and shoulders. "Oh… thanks", he said as Levi returned to his spot next to the armrest, looking down at him.
"So, what-? Ere started, but had no clue how to continue.
"What I am?" Levi finished his question. "I guess you figured that out by now."
Eren tried some other explanations in his head, weighing them around before he spoke again. "This can't be true. There is no way-"
"There isn't? Then did you run off screaming like a girl?"
Trying to keep his focus on the purring cat in his lap, Eren felt his body heating. Oh boy… those imagines of Levi behind that man popped up in his mind again. Especially the moment Levi discovered him spying on them.
The truth was… he didn't scream because he was scared. Neither did he run out of fear. He'd just been... yeah, startled might be the right word. Ashamed then shortly after. Frightened that being spotted would put an end to whatever he had with that raven haired man. As he listened deep within himself, he realised, he wasn't even that much surprised about what he discovered. He knew from the very moment they met that something about Levi felt different. If anything, it finally made sense now. He was different. He lifted his head, and stared right into Levi's steel-grey eyes. "You're a… a-"
The other man sighed deeply when he still hesitated. "Just say it and get it over with."
Easier said than done, dude . "A vampire."
"Congratulations." Levi walked to one side of the room and poured himself a glass of wine.
"How is it even possible?" Eren mumbled more to himself than actually asking a question.
Nonetheless, Levi answered him: "The same way almost every other species exists on this god forsaken planet. I was born."
"But- I still don't get it. Vampires are a myth, creatures made up by the horror industry..."
Levi stayed silent. If Eren was aiming for a PowerPoint presentation, he shouldn't hold his breath.
"Is this really the truth?" the boy asked again.
Why in the world would he lie about this?
"Have your parents also been… vampires?"
Levi stopped his motion as he led the glass to his mouth. "Can't tell", he said honestly after a moment of hesitation, "I don't know much about them."
"Then tell me what you know."
He hesitated again.
"You said, you'd answer my questions," the damn kid pushed. Shit, he knew there was no way around this. He went back to the couch and settled down in one the armchairs.
"Fine. But it's the truth, I know almost nothing about them. I was born in Germany, or more precisely in a place near Munich, which at that time was kind of... medievally you could say. I lived there with my mother, but since she left me when I was still young, I don't remember very much about her." Levi felt his throat tightening. "I lived on the streets for most of my childhood as part of a group of homeless and thieves. It was when I noticed I was different from everyone else that I left them. That's when I met Erwin."
Levi's mind wandered back to one night before he transformed.
He had waited in the catacombs' shadows, staying out of the flickering light thrown by the camp's fire pit. Seven deer were being consumed in a bawdy frenzy, the grown-ups slicing meat off bones and chewing like animals, marking their faces and hands. On the sidelines of the meal, the youngsters trembled with greed.
Like the others, Levi was sharpened to an edge from starvation. But he didn't stand with his fellow young. He waited in the faraway darkness, eyes locked on his prey.
The guy he tracked was fat as a hog, with folds of flesh falling over his clothes and facial features indistinct because of the puffy padding. The glutton went without a shirt most of the time, his bulbous chest and distended belly jiggling while he paraded around going after the whores or kicking the stray dogs that lived in the camp. For all his sloth, however, he was a vicious hunter. What he lacked in speed he made up for in brute strength. With hands as big as a grown man's head, he was rumored to snap the limbs of others and eat them.
At every meal he was among the first to get to the meat, and he ate with speed, though he was hampered by a lack of accuracy. He didn't pay a lot of attention to what actually made it into his mouth: pieces of flesh and streams of fat and segments of bone would coat his stomach and chest, a gory tunic knit of his sloppy ministrations.
This night the man finished early and eased back onto his quarters, a deer flank in his fist. Though he was through, he lingered next to the carcass he'd been working on, pushing others away for amusement.
When it was time for the sparring punishments to be dealt out, the group moved from the fire pit to the platform. In the light of torches, those who had lost during practice were bent over and violated by those who'd bested them, to the sneers and slaps of the others. Meanwhile, the younger ones fell on what was left of the meal while the women of the camp watched with hard eyes, waiting for their turn.
Levi's prey wasn't much interested in the humiliations.
The fat man watched for a little while, then lumbered off, the leg hanging from his hand. His filthy pallet was all the way at the far edges of where the grown ups slept, because even to their noses, his stench offended.
Stretched out, he looked like an undulated field, his body a series of hills and valleys. The animal leg lying across his belly was the prize at the top of the mountain.
Levi stayed back until the man's beady eyes were covered by fleshy lids and his hefiy chest went up and down with a slowing rhythm. Soon his fish lips fell open, and one snore escaped, followed by another. It was then that Levi closed in on his bare feet, making no sound over the dirt floor.
The foal smell of the man didn't deter Levi, so hungry he was, and he cared not about the grime on the deer's fresh muscle either. He reached forward, small hand splayed, inching towards the bone joint.
Just as he ripped it free, a dagger streaked down next to the man's ear and its penetration into the floor snapped open the man's eyes.
The group's leader loomed like a chain-mail fist about to fall, legs planted, dark eyes leveled. He was the biggest of all in the camp, and his presence inspired fear for two reasons: his size and his unpredictability. His mood was everchanging, his whims violent and capricious, but Levi knew the truth behind the variable temper. There was nothing that was not calibrated for effect. His malicious cunning ran as deep as his muscle was thick.
"Wake up," the leader snapped. "You laze while you are being robbed by a weakling." Levi cringed away, but started to eat nonetheless, sinking his teeth into the meat and chewing as fast as he could.
He would be beaten for this, likely by the both of them, so he had to consume as much as possible before the blows landed upon him.
The fat one made excuses until the leader kicked him in the sole of the foot with a spiked boot. Fatty went gray in the face but knew better than to cry out.
"The whys of this bore me. What are you gonna do about it, is my question." Without taking a breath the fat one curled up a fist, leaned over, and slammed it into Levi's side. Levi lost the mouthful he had as the impact drove the breath from his lungs and the meat from his mouth. As he gasped, he picked the piece up from the dirt and pushed it back between his lips. It tasted salty from the catacomb's floor.
As the beating begun, Levi ate through the blows until he felt his calf bone bend until it nearly snapped.
He let out a scream and lost the deer leg. Someone else picked it up and ran away with it.
All along, the leader laughed without smiling, the barking sound coming from lips that were straight and thin as knives. And then he ended it. With no effort at all he grabbed the fat man by the back of the neck and threw him against the rock wall.
The leader's spiked boots planted in front of Levi's face. "Get me my knife." Levi blinked dry eyes and tried to move.
There was a rustle of fabric, and then the leader's face was before Levi. "Get me my knife, boy. Or I will have you take the whores' place tonight."
The others who had gathered behind him cackled, and someone threw a stone that hit Levi where his leg had been injured.
"My knife, boy." Levi speared his little fingers into the dirt and dragged himself over to the weapon. Though a mere two feet from him, the blade seemed miles away. When he finally closed his palm around it, he needed both hands to free it from the dirt, he was so weak. His stomach was rolling from pain, and as he pulled at the blade, he threw up the meat he had stolen.
After the retching passed, he held up the dagger to the leader, who had risen back to his full height.
"Stand," he said. "Do think you I should bow to the worthless?" Levi struggled into a sitting position and couldn't fathom how he was going to get his full body up, as he could barely lift his shoulders. He switched the dagger to his left hand, planted his right one on the dirt, and pushed.
The pain was so great his eyesight went black. He peeled himself from the ground, rising up while trying to put no weight on his leg. With a hand that shook, he presented the dagger to the leader.
The man stared back for a heartbeat, as if he'd never expected Levi to get to his feet. Then he took the weapon and turned away.
"Someone knock him back down. His boldness offends me." Levi landed in a heap when the order was followed, and at once, agony returned. He waited for other blows to land, but when he heard a crowd's roar, he knew that the losers' punishments would be the amusement for the day, not his.
As he lay in the swamp of his misery, as he tried to breathe through the pounding of his battered body, he pictured a female coming unto him and wrapping him up in her arms. With soft words she cradled him and stroked his hair, easing him.
He welcomed the vision. She was his mother.
The one who loved him and wanted him to be safe and warm and fed. Verily, the image of her was what kept him alive, giving him the only peace he knew.
The fat man leaned down, his fetid, humid breath invading Levi's nose. "You steal from me again and you won't heal from what I do to you." The man spat in Levi's face, then picked him up and slung him away like useless debris from the dirty pallet, before Levi passed out.
About one month later, it was then he had learned, as did the whole camp, that in his blood were the components of a warrior. As so many times before, the leader had used him as his favourite object of torture. But this time he wasn't getting away with it. Without being taught, Levi's body knew what to do and had responded to physical aggression with chilling action. Even as his mind struggled with the brutality of his deeds, his hands and feet and fangs had known precisely what exertion was necessary. There had been another side of him, unknown, unrecognized… that somehow seemed more "him" than the reflection he had so long regarded within leaded glass. As Levi was done with the leader, he watched them all turn around as if nothing had happened, and he realised he felt no hatred. Usually, when the backs were turned, Levi gave free rein to how much he despised them. Now there had been nothing. He felt… nothing.
The truth was no doubt obvious: disconnected as he was now, there was nothing he could not stomach, no deed he could not accomplish, no means he would not call forth to reach an end. After that he had left the camp and crossed paths was Erwin, who taught him to use his strengths properly. Over time, his fighting had grown even more proficient… and his horror at himself had lessened.
He became a vicious, deadly opponent.
"So, Erwin knew about you? Is he also…-"
"No," Levi said. "But Erwin knew the moment we met what I was. He caught me drinking and took me in that night. He's the last son of a family once known for hunting my kind. He told me that no one had seen someone like me for a very long time, so long that the memories of my species faded over the years and decades until eventually they became legends and myths. In his family, however, they were passed on as true stories over generations from father to son. He wasn't afraid of me. He said he'd met more frightening individuals during his career than me. He also taught me how to handle the- the bloodlust."
He heard the boy swallow from the other side of the coffee table. "How does it work?" he asked. "I mean... do you need blood to stay alive?"
"We experimented with what happens when I don't get any. We tried some scenarios, but it always resulted in me getting weak, real weak. Up to the point where I was close to death, but instead of dying, I turned into a mere animal. Only the need to drink remained in me, but other than that I was an empty shell. I never remembered the details, but according to Erwin and his scientists, I didn't recognize them. I attacked everything that came near and that was it. We never crossed that line to see what happens next. He always stopped the experiments at this point."
The boy was sitting there, listening to every word he said without any other emotion showing on his face than pure interest. Levi couldn't believe that this was actually happening right now. That he sat with another person, an outsider, and told him about what he kept in secret for so, so many years. This thought overwhelmed him, but in lack of alternatives what he could do now, he simply went on.
"Erwin told me that vampires used to drink from the other gender of their own kind since their blood is way stronger and more nutritious than human blood. But as it seemed, I am a half-blood and to the chords of his grandfather's records, you never know what characteristics half-bloods develop."
"So, your mother also was-?" The brat still had trouble forming that specific word.
"I couldn't answer that even if my life depended on it. After years of training and gaining Erwin's trust, he helped me find my mother. I returned to the places I remembered from my youth and found out that she had worked as a prostitute down in the catacombs. She probably got knocked up by one of her clients, and that's how she got me. But I don't know which of them carried the other species' blood."
"Are there others like you out there?"
"As I said, Erwin told me it had been decades since someone had seen one of my kind. He was certain, vampires were extinct, if they ever existed, until he met me. And to this day I am the only one who ever crossed his way, even though he and I searched for others like me."
"According to the documents of his grandfather, the numbers simply weren't in the race's facour. Vampires didn't live forever and could be killed and the balance could be thrown off in an instant. Their population had shrunk over hundreds of years until there were only a few enclaves of left. They've flirted with extinction for a long time back then, and not just because the human kind hadn't been very fond of them from the first time.
Females frequently didn't survive childbirth, either from blood loss or soaring preeclampsia. Stillborns were common, and infant mortality was through the roof. Half-breeds have been even more rare since the species preferred to keep by his own kind. I am most likely one of the last of them."
Suddenly, the kid's face light up as if something had occurred to him just this moment. "But you do have… you sleep with…"
Eren pulled the blanket up around his shoulders. "How do you know you're not getting them pregnant? Maybe there are already others like you out there," he said, his voice trailing off at the end of the sentence.
It took Levi a moment before he realised what the boy meant by that. He'd seen with him a man tonight, so where did he get the impression he was doing women as well?
"What makes you think I swing both ways?" he asked suspiciously.
Eren tugged his head deeper into the blanket, his shoulders bouncing up. "Just a hunch." he mumbled into the fabric. Is… is he sulking?
"It's obvious to me when women are fertile. I can smell it. It doesn't really matter in the end though, since I…"
Yeah, they didn't live that long after he was done with them.
"Since you what?"
"Let's say, it's the same like with my targets. I choose those who aren't worth mourning over. Makes it simpler to do it and keep my existence a secret. It was one of the conditions Erwin made. And luckily there is a large sea I can pick from. Unfortunately, the urge to drink is linked directly to… wanting sex. They go hand in hand. There isn't much I can do about it. That's why I have to use those who'd probably make it on my list anyway at some point of time. Or just won't because nobody pays to see them dead."
That was it. The edge in him had to get dulled, and their bodies were the stone he used to grind himself down on. Filth to dirt. End of story.
"What about… I mean, do you use protection?" the brat bluntly asked.
Levi didn't see the connection between their topic and his question, but he still answered him. "I could no more get the common cold from one of them than I could HIV or hep C or any STD. And I'm not a carrier of those diseases, either. Human viruses don't affect me."
A strange silence spread between them, in which Levi watched the boy from the corner of his eye. He couldn't fathom what was going on in the other's head. He didn't even know what was on his mind right now. He felt empty, but somehow also... relieved. Maybe because Eren didn't run away again. Maybe because he'd never talked to anyone like that about all this before. He couldn't say.
When the silence didn't break and Eren remained illegible like a book with a closed cover, Levi considered how he could change both of that. "You want something to eat? I could use a bite right now." When the brat made a weird face, he added: "I am talking food, stupid. Like in a sandwich or something like that."
He headed into the kitchen, and heard Eren's footsteps following behind him. Levi went to his fridge to see if there was anything edible in his flat. The milk was still good, now all he needed was…
When he closed the fridge's door again, he saw Eren standing in the door frame. He seemed slightly out of place, but Levi knew this was due solely to his insecurity. In a short moment of dreaming, he imagined the boy in exactly that spot, but instead of night it was bright morning, the day's first rays of sunshine falling through his windows and on Eren's tan skin. He imagined him in nothing but a sweater reaching down to his thighs, his hair ruffled from the night he had spent in his bed. He would stand there, like now, but quite different. Relaxed, leaning against the door, watching him as he prepared breakfast for him. And he smiled at him. Yeah, he'd like that.
The sound of someone clearing his throat pulled Levi out of his mind. Eren. He looked at him slightly embarrassed. Shit, he must've been staring. What was he going to do? Oh, yes, the rice pudding.
Levi rummaged through his closets and found sugar and a still acceptable vanilla bean. He brought water to a boil in a large saucepan, washed the rice and drained it. While adding the rice to the boiling water, and cooking it for five minutes, he brought the milk to a boil over medium heat in a separate saucepan. "You know, I would've thought vampires only drink blood," the kid stated behind his back. He had gotten closer.
"Necessary nutrients in it, but I need food, too."
He removed the cooked rice from the other pan, drained it, and slowly dropped it into the boiling milk. Lowering the heat and adding salt, vanilla bean, and sugar, he covered and simmered everything for about 15 to 20 minutes while stirring occasionally, until the milk was absorbed.
"How about garlic?"
"Keep that shit away from me. It's disgusting, but not because it kills me. Simply can't stand this shit."
When the dish was finished, he spooned the rice into two porcelain bowls. "Sugar, cinnamon or both?"
"Both, please. What about not being able to go out during the day?"
"Did you see me go up in flames at any time? Benefit of only being half-blooded. Full-blood vampires do not do sunlight, though," he said as he garnished the bowls with brown and white sprinkles.
"What happens?"
"Second- to third-degree burns pop up upon exposure. Incineration occurs not long afterwards. But all this is just information we didn't get first hand."
Levi offered one of the bowls to Eren, and when he returned to the living room, he felt the kid's eyes boring into his back, the tension behind him increasing.
"Do you have to suck them dry to satisfy your needs?"
He couldn't tell if it was accusation he heard in his voice or if he made it up himself. "Not really, but I do it nonetheless. As I said, I cannot risk that anyone finds out about me. They would hunt me down and I would end up in some scientist's labor who doesn't give a shit about what happens to me in the end. That's why I can't let them live."
There had been times when he seriously thought about putting himself to an end. He hated what he had to do to stay stabile and not turn into a brainless animal, endangering everyone around him. But Erwin convinced him to put those needs and his abilities to a better use.
When they sat down again, Eren asked the one-million-dollar question. "What will you do about me?"
He had thought about it from the second they got into the car. "I don't know yet, to be honest. But relax, I'm not going to kill you. That's not an option." Never will be.
"Not that I ain't happy to hear that, but… why not?"
"I don't lay hands on innocent people, Eren. And you've done nothing that justifies killing you."
Eren didn't know what to do with Levi's statement. Sure, he was glad he wouldn't be watching the daisies grow from the muddy side of the earth too soon. But he still didn't get much of an answer to what was going to happen to him now that he knew about Levi's secret. Just because he wouldn't kill him, it didn't necessarily mean no one else would, did it? Or… did Levi trust him?
The thought warmed him up and his gaze wandered from the feline who had made itself comfortable on the couch in the meantime. "What about the cat, by the way? Do you really let it be all by itself the whole time you're not here?"
"One of Erwin's assistants takes care of him. She stays here when I'm not around and she keeps the flat clean and him company."
He couldn't exactly put his finger on it, but when he imagined someone else, a woman, walking through the rooms, wiping the surfaces and then settling on the couch, preferably where he was sitting right now, one of the subordinate emotions he had felt back there in the alley flared up again. Jealousy. Probably she was even someone close to Levi or at least someone he trusted. Otherwise, he certainly wouldn't let her stay here alone.
Eren felt his pulse rate raising, and his palms became sweaty, as absently, he looked at Levi's hands around the bowl he was holding. Long-fingered. Strong. The kind that could do damage. But not only.
"What are you thinking about?" Levi suddenly asked.
"Oh, ehm… nothing really." Eren attempted to lie. But somehow Levi's eyes told him that he could tell he was lying.
Trying to get away from this knowing stare, Eren rose from the couch after finishing his bowl and walked up to the glass front. The view was spectacular. High up, above the city's heads that were plunged into the night, nothing that restricted you. No walls. Only widths and skies and lights sparkling through the darkness. He bet they were so high, the air would even smell different from down on the grounds. He was tempted to ask whether he could go out on the balcony, when he felt pale lips brushing along his neck from out of nowhere, making him shiver. When had he gotten behind me?
"Levi, what are you doing?" Eren felt slim digits sinking under the hem of his shirt and spreading along either side of his waist. A rush of pleasure that had been stuffed down what felt like an eternity ago made Eren moan deep in his throat.
In mere seconds, he was spun around only to be muted by a fierce kiss that knocked out the air of his lungs. He didn't give Eren time to close his mouth before he kissed him, hard, as if somehow wanting to leave his mark on the inside of his mouth.
They easily melded their mouths tighter, Eren's hips being encouraged by Levi's hands. Eren sucked in a sharp breath, shivering while his fingers grasped at the back of the other's shoulders.
Without hesitation his arousal snapped back into play, heating him from the inside out. "Levi-" His lips cut him off again and then his tongue took over, invading, taking, caressing. As the heat roared in his body, Eren gave up the fight and savored the mad lust, the pounding in his chest, the arching between his legs.
Levi let out a low purr, as if he'd sensed his arousal. He felt his tongue retract, and then he took his lower lip between his -
Fangs. Those were fangs nipping at his flesh.
Fear threaded through his passion and thickened it, adding a dangerous edge that opened him even further. He put his hands on Levi's arms, and God, he was so hard. So strong. Eren wondered what it would feel like be held by him while his skin was pierced by those teeth that nibbled on his flesh.
As they briefly parted, watching each other through their half-lidded gazes, Levi's irises literally glowed, throwing off light that cast the room in shadows. His eyes held the colorless splendor of diamonds, shining so bright they reminded him of the winter moon on a cloudless night.
They were the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his life, incomparable to anything else.
Between his lips, he saw the tips of his fangs and was struck by a compulsion he couldn't fight. He pushed his tongue into his mouth and licked at the sharp points, feeling them rasp over his flesh. He wanted them in his skin... he wanted him to suck at him, fill his belly, live off of him.
"Le- ahh- vi. Why," he panted through his parted lips into the other man's mouth as Levi pushed their war back into Eren's territory, "why don't you take from me?"
A low growl rippled through the room as Levi's mouth went down to his neck, and Eren had a hard time to pin where it came from. "No."
"But why not? I wouldn't-," he felt that devilish tongue glide over his erratic pulse, "shit, I wouldn't mind. Honestly."
Levi pulled back, staring at him. God, he was beautiful. Breathtakingly. Those shining diamond eyes. Those parted lips. Those pointy fangs that threatened to pierce his own lower lip. Alien.
"I would never take anything from you. You are different, Eren. You don't deserve what I want to do to you."
His body heated up at those words even more, and his vision almost got white by the force of his arousal. "But I am offering."
"I can't, Eren. You're too pure. I couldn't bear the thought of soiling you like that. To treat you like all the others."
Eren wanted to protest, but the way that raspy voice kept saying his name, made him weak in the knees to a point, his legs simply gave out.
Before he fell to the ground though, Levi's arms slipped around his body and held him tight against his chest.
"Let's get back for now," Levi said as he helped him back on his feet. "The night's been long enough."