Chapter 6

"Fifty years is a long time to be with someone, even in human terms" the old Priest told Josef with a warm smile, as he gestured for him to take a seat on one of the two, well worn, leather armchairs that stood in the corner of his private office.

"Hmm, I suppose it is" Josef replied distractedly, regarding Father Patrick with some curiosity before he spoke again, "I must admit" he began hesitantly, shifting uncomfortably in his seat and throwing the old Priest a slightly defensive look "I'm more than a little surprised at your reaction to Mick, to my relationship with Mick I mean."

"You expected me to rain fire and brimstone down on you, perhaps?" Father Patrick smiled knowingly.

"Something like that" Josef let out a slightly derisive snort of laughter and shook his head, as if to indicate that he really shouldn't have been expected to think otherwise.

"Some of us are more enlightened these days than others" Father Patrick smiled reassuringly, "On that particular matter I would only ask you one thing. Do you love one another?"

Josef stared at the old Priest for just a moment, as if trying to gauge the depth of his sincerity in asking that particular question. Finally, satisfied the old Priest's curiosity was genuine, he answered with a nod of the head and a firm "Yes, yes we do" the tone of his voice leaving no room for doubt.

"That is good then" Father Patrick smiled and nodded in response, "there is far too little love in the world these days for anyone to quibble over such irrelevant matters as the respective genders of those who are in love"

Hearing Father Patrick speak those words and seeing the kind look on his face, Josef began to relax, resting back in the chair and adopting a less defensive, more open, body posture. Then, before he even realised what he was going to do, he took a breath and began to tell the old Priest the story of his life with Mick, the words rushing forth, spilling one on top of the other, as he tried to cram fifty years of history into one brief moment of conversation.

"What?" he asked when he had finished, the tone of his voice slightly challenging, the position of his body shifted back to a more defensive posture, as the old Priest merely sat there in silence looking at him with a smile on his face that Josef couldn't quite read.

"I'm sorry" Father Patrick shook his head briefly, breaking out of his silent reverie to offer Josef an apologetic smile "I didn't mean to not give you an immediate response. True love is a thing of such rare beauty I always make it a rule to sit back and admire it when I see it" He smiled graciously and breathed an internal sigh of relief when he saw Josef begin to relax once again. He waited a few more moments, until he was certain Josef was once again at ease in his presence and then approached him carefully with, "You didn't come here to talk about Mick though, did you?"

"No, no I didn't" Josef's response was low, but not so low that the old Priest couldn't hear him and he paused again for the briefest of moments, allowing Josef time to mentally prepare for any discussions ahead of them, before he asked, in the most even tone of voice he could muster, "So tell me, why did you leave the church?"

"I found God" Josef spat the words out with bitter irony, laughing as he recalled those were the exact words he had used when Mick had asked him the very same question.

"I take it God wasn't to your liking then?" Father Patrick half teased, challenging Josef to respond with a slightly too knowing smirk.

"No, no he wasn't" Josef adopted the same knowing smirk in response, folding his arms across his chest and looking smugly at the old Priest as he continued on with, "As a matter of fact considering I discovered that he didn't even exist, I'd say he was one giant disappointment."

Father Patrick raised one eyebrow and regarded Josef with a questioning look for a moment, "It seems a little odd to me" he began with a challenging smile, leaning forward in his chair slightly, "that you could be disappointed with something that you don't even believe exists in the first place"

Josef glared at the old Priest in frustration, then waved a dismissive hand in the air and countered his challenge with "It was just a turn of phrase, besides how would you feel if you'd devoted your life to something only to find out you'd be part of one of the biggest cons of human history"

"I think I'd feel like a right fool" Father Patrick answered honestly, taking a moment to smile at Josef sympathetically, as if trying to convey the sentiment that he was at least trying to understand how he might have felt, even if he himself had never experienced such a situation personally. "Tell me though," he quickly added, not giving Josef enough time to form a response to his previous statement, "what makes you so sure that God does not exist? You were a Priest after all. To go from Ordained to Atheist is more than just doing a three hundred and sixty degree turn around, it's almost unheard of in my experience. So what happened?" He leant forward in his chair even more, regarding Josef with careful interest as he waited for him to respond.

"What happened? I'm still here, that's what happened" Josef spat incredulously, rolling his eyes and shaking his head in disbelief at the same time. "Only God was supposed to be able to grant immortality, in the after life" he quickly explained when he saw the confused look on Father Patrick's face.

"Ah I see" the old Priest smiled with sudden understanding, "You expected God to strike you down as an abomination to his design and when he didn't you came to the conclusion that God could not possibly exist"

"Exactly" Josef nodded a firm affirmation and looked relieved to think that finally somebody seemed to understand what, to his mind at least, was simple logic. "Yes, that's it, that's exactly it. If God exists then I should not"

"You make it sound so simple" Father Patrick smiled at him knowingly, "but what if it isn't"

"What do you mean?" Josef shifted in his seat uncomfortably once again, looking at the old Priest suspiciously. "I've thrown out enough challenges to God over the last four centuries" he quickly added, with cocky self assurance, "challenges that have gone completely unanswered I might add, to truly know that God does not exist" He sat back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest, flashing a look of triumphant defiance towards the old Priest, who merely regarded him with simple amusement in return.
"So you're disappointed in something that you don't even believe exists" the old Priest chuckled, "then you spend centuries throwing out challenges to the same thing that you are so certain does not exist. You know for someone who is so convinced that something does not exist, you seem to be spending an awful lot of time concerning yourself with the non existent" He hesitated for a moment then brushed aside his comments with a dismissive wave of a hand, "From what I can tell" the old Priest said then, smiling at Josef as if he were about to impart some great hidden knowledge, "you've been looking for God in all the wrong places"

"And where exactly do you suggest I look for him then" Josef responded with overtones of polite sarcasm.

"Well not here for a start" Father Patrick laughed and gestured widely to indicate the surrounding Church that they were presently seated within, "or here" he added knowingly, tapping the large Bible on the table in front of them. "Both man made creations" he quickly explained when he saw the look of confusion that had fallen over Josef's face. "God, the living, knowable, tangible God, is not found within the pages of some book written by human hands two thousand odd years ago, nor will you find him amidst the hollow stone facade of any man made house of worship either"

"So tell me where I'm supposed to find him then" Josef repeated the question more harshly this time, beginning to tire of what he perceived to be Father Patrick's sudden bout of strange and heretical philosophising.

"I'm getting to that" the old Priest gritted his teeth slightly with his reply, "you've spent the last four centuries or so seeking a God you claim does not even exist, I think you can wait another five minutes, don't you?" he leant back in his chair for a moment and looked at Josef with polite indifference, waiting until he sensed a shift in his attitude, from one of hurried frustration to a more curious and open minded stance, before he stood up and indicated that Josef should do the same, smiling merrily as he beckoned for him to "Come with me".

"Alright, so where's this God of yours then" Josef laughed as he surveyed the slightly ramshackle garden the old Priest had lead them out into.

"Right here" Father Patrick looked at him with a knowing smile and gestured towards the myriad of plants and rocks and tiny creatures that surrounded them. "There is nothing on this earth that does not hold some purpose, nothing in this world that does not contain some sort of divine spark of life within it. This is where you will find God, Josef O'Dwyer"

"Kostan" Josef quickly corrected him.

"Of course, my humble apologies, Josef Kostan" he smiled with sincere grace for a moment, then continued on "Don't look for God in musty old books and cold unfeeling stone temples erected by man for the greater glory of God. God has no need of such things, why would he when the entire world, and every thing in it, is his living temple, a temple far greater than any man could ever possibly conceive of. This is God, the God of the soil, of the field, of the plants and animals and everything else in the wondrous tapestry we call the natural world. Every single time you connect with another living creature, everytime you share true joy and happiness with someone you love, every time you connect with the energies of the world around you, whether you realise it or not, you are connecting with the divine spark of all creation that some might call, God"

Josef stared at the old Priest in near dumbfounded disbelief for the briefest or moments, before he burst into peels of laughter, struggling to catch his breath long enough to speak, "You know at first I just thought you were a just heretic" he began to say, clapping his hand jovially on the old Priests shoulder when he was finally able to string more than two words together at a time without breaking into fresh rounds of guffawing, "but now it's suddenly oh so clear to me. You, good Father, are a Pagan"

"A Heathen conceivably" the old Priest smiled broadly, beginning to quote a line from one of his favourite movies, "but not I hope…"

"An unenlightened one" Josef finished for him with a knowing smile.

"No, not an unenlightened one, or at least not as far as I can help it. I moonlight on the weekends by the way" he raised an eyebrow and grinned at Josef with a merry twinkle in his eyes, then winked conspiratorially "Dancing naked around Maypoles is somewhat of a speciality of mine"

"Oh I'm sure it is" Josef replied with mock seriousness, just before he found himself once more near doubled over with laughter at the sheer incredulousness of a situation which had bought him all the way to the land of his mortal birth and childhood, only to find himself having conversations about God with what could very well be the only Pagan Catholic Priest in all of Irish Christendom.

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Back at the hotel, Beth greeted Mick upon his return with a moody "So did you find him then" sitting at a table just off to one side of the front entrance and pretending to be engrossed in a magazine that lay in front of her.

"Yes, I did" Mick replied hesitantly, then slipped into the seat next to her, "Is that any good" he asked politely, pointing to the magazine that seemed to have her undivided attention and waiting to see if he could raise some semblance of a smile from her.

"So is he coming home then?" Beth asked with faux indifference, pretending to be more interested in flicking through the pages of the magazine at random than actually answering Mick's attempts at making polite conversation "No I didn't think so" she muttered to herself and rolled her eyes when Mick's response wasn't immediately forth coming. "You want to know what your problem is Mick" she announced all of a sudden, closing the magazine in front of her with a pointed thwack of paper hitting against paper.

"No, but I'm sure you're about to tell me, Beth" Mick responded with an overly charming smile that was bordering right on the edge of being sarcastic.

"You're pussy whipped, or cock beaten or whatever the term is for your sort" she smirked at him and made a slightly dismissive gesture in the air with her hand, as if to indicate that the exact terminology wasn't important, Mick ought to know what she meant.

"My sort, Beth?" Mick let out an incredulous laugh and rolled his eyes in disbelief, "What you mean like us gay folks" he leant over towards her and whispered the words as if sharing some great conspiracy, then suppressed another burst of laughter, deciding at that moment that he couldn't possibly take anything Beth said seriously when she was using terms such as "your sort". He was also very glad, just for a moment, that Josef wasn't sitting there with them or else he shuddered to think what his response to Beth's choice of words would have been.

"That's not what I meant, Mick" Beth hissed at him in reply. "I just meant-,"

"What Beth? What did you 'just mean'" Mick's previous sense of humour at the ridiculousness of the situation quickly gave way to annoyance, he had no idea what Beth was playing at with her choice of words, a choice Mick knew she wasn't stupid enough to have just made accidentally. He got the distinct impression she was baiting him and he refused to allow himself to be reeled in to whatever game she had decided to play. "I'm sorry" he forced a gracious smile and waved a dismissive hand in the air between them, "I don't mean to be rude, Beth. I know you didn't mean it like that" he paused for a moment and then made a sweepingly polite gesture for her "to please, continue. Tell me what you think my problem is"

Choosing to ignore Mick's obvious lashings of sarcasm, "My god you're even starting to sound like him" she thought to herself with obvious disdain, Beth drew in a slight inhalation of breath and then proceeded to inform Mick exactly what she thought he needed to know, for his own good of course, "As I was saying, Mick" she began slowly, enunciating each word as if she were addressing a very small, rather naïve child, "the trouble with you is that you allow Josef to run all over you. I bet all he had to do was say the right words and give you that puppy dog eye look and you melted and came running back here like a good little boy with your tail between your legs"

"It wasn't like that at all, Beth" Mick's reply was more than a little defensive, she'd hit a nerve and he knew it, although he wasn't about to let her know that. "Josef just needs some time alone for a while, after all he's done for me it's the least I can do for him" He suddenly felt very angry at being given the third degree like this and pushed his chair back, ready to stand up and take his leave, thinking to himself as he did so, "And I don't need to justify myself to you", when he heard her telling him in that infuriatingly smug 'I know better than you do' tone of voice,

"Or maybe you just don't care as much as you think you do, Mick"

"What exactly is that supposed to mean?" he shifted his chair back sharply towards her and held her gaze with his, issuing her with a slightly menacing challenge as he glared at her with barely concealed annoyance quickly rising to anger and waited for her to respond.

"That crap on the plane, Mick" Beth spat at him, "You coming on to me like that"

"What crap on the plane?" Mick looked utterly confused for the briefest of moments before it quickly dawned on him what she was referring to, "Oh that" he started to say, only to find himself being cut off by Beth's rapid fire delivery of,

"Yes, Mick, that. If you love Josef as much as you say you do, then what the hell were you doing making a pass at me?"

"I wasn't making a pass at-,"

"Or is it just the fact that you can't admit to yourself that there's still something between us" She continued on without skipping a beat, not giving Mick any room to respond, prompting him to place his hand over her mouth in order to at least have enough time to get a word in edge wise.

"I don't know what you're playing at this time, Beth" he hissed at her, "but there is nothing between us. We've been through this before and I am not going to go through it again with you. Now I'm sorry if you misinterpreted what was supposed to have been nothing more than a bit of harmless flirting between friends and perhaps I did overstep the mark a bit"

"A bit?" Beth blurted out with an incredulous laugh, quickly falling silent again when she saw the look on Mick's face.

"Ok, ok Beth I'll give you that much" he held up his hand to signal his retreat, "Perhaps you're right and I did overstep the mark, but" he quickly clarified, "it certainly was not meant the way you've obviously taken it. It was meant as nothing more than a bit of light hearted banter between two friends. Friends, Beth. Alright? Nothing more and nothing less than that. I love Josef, I am with Josef and I am going to marry Josef, not you" his tone was final, leaving no room for argument as he finished what he had to say and stood up and began to take his leave of her, turning back only briefly to ask "Where's Ryder"

"Upstairs in his, I mean our room" Beth answered bitterly, looking as if she were suddenly on the verge of tears.

"Then I think you need to go up there and spend some time with him" Mick forced a polite smile, ignoring the threat of tears, "don't you?"

Without waiting for a response he turned heel once more and strode away.

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"You still expect to find God in the pages of a book don't you" Father Patrick approached Josef one evening, finding him hunched over yet another dusty old text from the vast array of writings stored in the Churches private library collection.

"Well I certainly haven't found any connection to the divine sitting out in the garden with you watching plants grow" Josef smirked at the old Priest then went back to pouring over the book in front of him, scouring the words, written in Latin, for that one piece of writing that he half expected would suddenly unlock the meaning he had been searching for the last four and half centuries.

"Sitting out there with me, rolling your eyes and looking bored to tears, Josef Kostan" the old Priest smirked at him in return, "does not constitute looking for the divine in what is around you in the present moment"

"No, what does it constitute then" Josef asked quite matter of fact, not bothering to look up from the page he was reading.

"A Vampire who is very stubborn and thinks he knows better than anyone else, but if he did then he wouldn't have spent the last four centuries or so looking for something he didn't even believe in, in all the wrong places" Father Patrick sat down at the table opposite Josef and gently, but firmly, pulled the book away from him and closed it with a soft resounding thud. He braced himself for a moment, hearing the resonant growl that was emanating from Josef's throat, and then breathed a sigh of relief when the sound stopped and Josef raised his head and met his gaze, albeit with a slightly challenging expression clouding his face. The old Priest paused for a moment before he spoke again. "Why don't you get out of here for a while" he said, trying to keep the tone of his voice as gentle as possible. "Go see Mick; I know you've been missing him"

It had been two weeks since Josef first arrived at the Church. Two weeks in which he had spent the days sleeping in the basement, several bags of ice procured daily from the local Hotel packed around him to try and replicate the effects of the freezer he normally slept in, and the nights hunched over a myriad of texts, both old and new, when he wasn't sitting out in the garden watching plants grow, as he put it, and being generally bored out of his immortal mind. On several occasions Father Patrick had noticed Josef sitting on the floor of the Church right at the front entrance, his forehead rested against the wooden door, his nostrils flaring as he inhaled a scent that the old Priest had rightly assumed was Mick's.

Josef looked at Father Patrick, considering his words for a few moments and then let out an almost reluctant sigh of admittance. "Maybe you're right" he shrugged and then smiled broadly, unable to suppress the grin that tugged at the corners of his mouth, all previous feelings of self righteous anger at what he thought of as the old Priests tiresome meddling, dissipating with thoughts of Mick.

"Of course I'm right" Father Patrick quipped in faux indignance. "Now go" he laughed and made a flourished gesture in the air with his hand, "seek happy nights to happy days. I also do a pretty mean Hamlet" he added with a laugh, as Josef snorted and rolled his eyes at him, "and if you don't get out of here I'll treat you to my rendition of to be or not to be" He took a dramatic pause then made a point of inhaling in a deep breath, as if he were expanding his lungs ready to annunciate the words in the most extravagant of fashions.

"Ok. Ok I'm going" Josef laughed and held up his hands in a gesture of defeat, quickly pushing his chair away from the table and getting to his feet.

"Dominus Tecum" the old Priest walked around the table and took Josef's hand in his, smiling at him gently as he spoke the words of the blessing.

"Et cum spiritu tuo" Josef responded, then slipped his hand out of the Priest's grasp and turned to leave.

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Mick was lying on the bed in his hotel room, staring up at the ceiling lost in a private reverie of thoughts of Josef, wondering if tonight he should actually go and speak to him rather than hovering around the entrance to the Church as he had done for the past ten nights, when he heard the tap at the door. Taking a moment to stretch out the kinks in his body, he got up and retrieved a couple of notes from his wallet on the bedside cabinet, then made his way over to answer the door to his unannounced visitor, money in hand ready to offer a tip assuming it would be one of the hotel staff.

"What am I a gigolo service?" Josef quipped, a cheeky grin playing at the corners of his mouth, as Mick opened the door and he saw the money in his hand.

"Josef" Mick exhaled his name in a rush of surprised awe, reaching out to caress his face gently with the palm of his hand before he clutched the back of his neck and drew him toward him, pulling Josef into his embrace and holding him close, almost afraid to let go. "I've missed you" he whispered to him, pressing his forehead against Josef's then brushing his lips gently against his cheek.

"Likewise" Josef whispered back, pressing his lips against Mick's and kissing him warmly before gently disengaging himself from Mick's arms and taking a step back. "Come for a walk" he said, holding out his hand for Mick to take and offering him a simple smile.

They walked the streets together in silence for the most part, Josef occasionally pointing out places of interest from his mortal days as a Priest in the village as he lead Mick towards the outskirts of the town and the rolling meadows of soft clover, dotted with the occasional oak tree reaching towards the sky like some ancient majestic being planted to watch over the land. Gesturing for Mick to take a seat on the ground in front one of the old oaks, Josef sat himself in-between Mick's legs and settled back into Mick's embrace, sharing a comfortable silence with him for a moment as Mick leant back against the trunk of the tree behind him and wrapped his arms around Josef's chest.

"You must be furious with me for just up and leaving like I did" Josef said finally, breaking the silence between them.

"Well yeah" Mick laughed and planted a quick kiss on the side of Josef's face, "but I understand, you needed to do this"

"Mick, come on" Josef protested, pulling away from his embrace slightly, "what I did was bullshit and you know it. I could have waited for you; we could have done this together. I didn't need to just go rushing off like I did. Be angry with me, I deserve it"

"Josef, it's alright. I said I understand" Mick reassured him, trying to draw him back closer towards his body and feeling Josef suddenly stiffen and pull away completely.

"Why the hell don't you react" he quickly turned towards Mick and spat angrily.

"What the…"

"Why don't you react" Josef repeated, his voice rising furiously. "I leave you without any warning to go traipsing off on some spiritual quest and you don't react. I kick you across a room several times and act like a complete idiot over the most trivial of issues and you still don't react. Why? Why don't you react to me? I've been trying to get a reaction from you for I don't how damn long and it never happens. Why? All I want is one goddamn sign that you're there and I never get it."

"Josef?" Mick stared at him, stunned at Josef's sudden outburst, not knowing what to do as the realisation slowly dawned on him that Josef wasn't really talking to him at all and he had just become some stand in for whatever personal demons Josef had been wrestling with these past weeks. Then, acting on pure impulse, he did the first thing that came to mind.

"You want a reaction?" Fine. Here's your reaction" he shouted back then made a sudden grab for him, pushing him down onto the ground and bending his head towards his lips, crushing his mouth against Josef's in a breathless kiss as he straddled his body and began to hurriedly remove the clothes he was dressed in, fingers moving deftly over the various buttons and fastenings.

"Mick" Josef whispered breathlessly, his previous reverie of anger broken by Mick's sudden passion for him, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean…"

"Josef. Shut up" Mick muttered in response, the words muffled as he covered Josef's face and neck with hot, wet kisses before breaking away momentarily to rapidly shed his own clothing as Josef did the same with the remainder of his own.

Rejoining him on the ground, Mick hurriedly spat into this hand, coating the head of his cock with saliva then smearing a mixture of spit and pre-ejaculate around the entrance to Josef's arse, before pressing the tip of his penis against his hole and pushing the full length of himself carefully inside him. Pausing for a moment to allow Josef's body time to adjust to the sensation of being filled, before drawing back slowly only to plunge himself back into Josef's tight passage in one hard thrust, repeating the motion again and again, slow and steady at first then gradually picking up the pace until he was fucking him as hard as he possible could.

And as Josef lay beneath him, his legs wrapped around Mick's waist, his hips moving in time to every thrust of Mick's hard cock into his body and his hand caressed the planes and shadows that the pale moonlight had cast over Mick's back as he panted and snarled his pleasure into Mick's ear, he suddenly realised what the old Priest had been trying to tell him all along. This was divinity, this was God. Not the God of musty old texts and long forgotten rituals buried amongst the centuries old stones of some man made building. This was the God of the present moment, the God of passion and love and ecstasy, the God of the now where nothing else existed but the pure joy of desire and want and need and the final connection to all of life's mysteries.

Mick felt Josef's body tense beneath him, his back arching up, every muscle in his bound trembling with the need for release and he tried to quicken the pace even more, his thrusts becoming increasingly frantic and erratic as he sensed Josef was close to climax. Seconds later Josef let out a single piercing snarl of delight then sank his fangs sharply into Mick's neck as his orgasm tore through him and he shuddered and snarled with sheer pleasure and pulled Mick over the edge with him, the euphoric sensation of Mick's fangs biting deep into the soft flesh of his throat sending Josef spiralling into another wave of climactic pulsations.

When it was over and the last residual waves of their respective orgasms had finally died away, Mick collapsed on top of him, his breathing still ragged as he whispered in his ear, "I love you" and Josef burst into peals of laughter.

"Ok, not exactly the response I was expecting" Mick pushed himself back up onto outstretched arms and looked down at Josef, lying under him and laughing almost in a state of rapture, and furrowed his brow questioningly.

"No Mick, you don't understand" Josef quickly tried to explain, in-between his sudden mirth. "Everything Father Patrick has been trying to teach me and show me for the past two weeks has just suddenly made complete sense"

"Ok. So I gave you an orgasm and you found God? Damn was I that good" Mick shook his head and let out a burst of incredulous laughter of his own.

"No. I mean yes. I mean, no" Josef waved his hands in the air in gesture of frustration, struggling for the moment to find the right words to make Mick understand what had just happened.

"It's ok Josef" Mick told him gently, as he slipped his softening cock out of his passage and rolled over to lie next to him, "I can't really profess to understand what's just happened, but I'm glad you're happy" He draped an arm across Josef's torso and rested his head on his chest, listening to the sound of his heart struggling to beat, the tones far too quiet and distant. "Josef" he said, concern clouding his voice as he sat up and pulled Josef up into an upright position with him then wrapped his arms around his neck. "I can barely hear your heartbeat, you haven't been feeding enough. Let's go back to the hotel; I'll get you some blood. And a nice white coat with buckles on it as well" he added to himself, only half joking not really certain that Josef hadn't gone completely insane in that moment.

"Mick, I'm fine. Stop fussing" Josef chided him, "Father Patrick's been letting me feed from him when I need to. I'm alright really. Let's get married" he blurted out suddenly.

"I beg your pardon?" Mick looked up at him with utter confusion, "I thought we already were?"

"No. I mean now, right now, right this very moment. I love you let's get married. Father Patrick can perform the ceremony"

"Carpe Diem hey Josef" Mick laughed and shook his head, finding himself being swept along by Josef's sudden enthusiasm for instant wedlock. "Sure why not. For better or worse, right?"

"No Mick, for eternity" Josef looked at him and spoke the words with depths of genuine sincerity. "Come on" he said then, getting to his feet and collecting both their various articles of clothing, handing Mick his with the instruction to "Get dressed and hurry up, you don't want to be late to your own wedding."

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"Josef? Josef wait up," Mick called out as Josef, already dressed, raced off and Mick half stumbled after him, still struggling to pull up his pants. "Josef for fucksake, slow down." Mick finally caught up with him, making a grab for his arm and spinning him around to face him. "Are you sure you want to do this" he asked, reaching up to brush a few stray leaves of clover from Josef's hair and looking at him with some considerable concern.

"What do you mean 'am I sure'?" Josef looked at Mick incredulously, "We've been planning this for months now. I proposed to you, remember? Of course I'm sure"

"I know all that Josef, it's just…"

"Just what, Mick? I thought this is what you wanted? No fuss, just the two of us getting married without the three ring circus act" he raised an eyebrow in a gesture of acknowledgement at past difficulties and then folded his arms across his chest, regarding Mick with a hint of challenge in his smile. "You don't want to marry me now? Is that it?"

"I never said that, Josef. Don't you dare put words into my mouth" Mick shot back at him indignantly.

Josef thought for a moment about making some incredibly crude and cutting comment about other things being put into Mick's mouth, but decided against such vulgarities, lowering his arms back to his side instead and dropping the tone of his voice to a gentler level, as he regarded Mick with a questioning look and asked, "What is it then? You seemed keen on the idea just before"

"I was, I mean I am" Mick hesitated for a moment, letting out a frustrated breath as he struggled to find the right words. He took a step towards Josef and wrapped his arms around his waist, resting his forehead on his. "Your enthusiasm back there was a little infectious, Josef" he laughed, kissing the top of his head affectionately and then gently pushed him away, holding him at arm's length, "but this is not like you, Josef" he said with more than a little concern in his voice. "You've gone from being so damn hung up on the details of everything and wanting everything to be controlled and perfect, to just 'let's get married right now'. I know you, Josef. You just don't do things this spontaneously, not something as serious as this. I don't want you to regret this after the fact"

"Mick, look at me" Josef spoke in earnest, reaching out to grip Mick's face in his hands, turning his gaze towards his, "I will never regret marrying you, alright. Never" he paused for a moment, allowing the words to sink in. "Mick you have to try and understand" he tried to explain carefully, "I have spent more than four centuries feeling cheated by something I didn't even think I believed in. I have existed for all of that time with the shadow of the past hanging over me. It has haunted me for all that time, despite my persistent denial of the entire situation" he held up his hand to stop Mick from saying anything, giving him a look which was meant to convey the sentiment "yes I am perfectly aware now that that is exactly what was happening, Mick. You were right when you said I couldn't run from the past forever". He took another breath and continued on. "Back there" he said, gesturing over his shoulder, "I finally realised that the only time I have ever felt at peace or connected to anything greater than myself is when I am with you, Mick. That was divinity revealed to me. In the present moment, in the moments when we are together and everything makes sense even when it doesn't"

When Josef had finished speaking, Mick could do little else but stand there and stare for a few moments, not knowing how to respond. He knew Josef was imploring him to understand and he didn't know if he really did or even if it was possible for him to do so. After all he hadn't been through what Josef had carried with him for all those centuries of his Vampiric existence. "I don't know what to say" he finally admitted.

"That's easy, Mick" Josef arched one eyebrow and grinned, unable to resist breaking the heightened emotions of the situation with his own special brand of cheek, "I can tell you exactly what to say, just repeat after me, "Josef I love you, we should go and get married right now"

"Josef I love you, we should go and get married right now" Mick shook his head and laughed in response.

"Yes, we should" Josef replied back to him, the expression in his voice serious this time, as he wrapped an arm around Mick's waist and began to walk with him back to the hotel.

"You might want to have a shower and get changed first though, Josef" Mick told him along the way, grinning knowingly as he pointed to the wet patch on the front of his shirt and trouser where the semen from his orgasm, still slicking his abdomen, had seeped through.

"Actually I thought I'd just go like this" Josef dead panned in response, "I think it makes a nice testament to our love, don't you?"

"Josef!"

"Mick, you idiot, I'm joking." Josef laughed and rolled his eyes upwards in faux exasperation, giving Mick a teasing shove and then snaking his arm back around his waist, holding him close. "I love you, you know that" he told him with a soft smile.

"Ditto" Mick replied, smiling happily as he bent his head towards his lips and kissed him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Shower's through there" Mick pointed towards the door leading through to the bathroom, "You can borrow a clean a shirt from me. Just until you get back to the church and find something of your own to put on" he added, rolling his eyes at the "surely you don't expect me to wear your clothes, Mick" look Josef had given him.

"What about you?" Josef asked nonchalantly, as he quickly stripped off his clothes and walked into the small bathroom, with Mick following closely behind, turning the taps in the shower on and adjusting the temperature of the water to a level that was comfortable for a vampire.

"What about me?" Mick shrugged and looked slightly perplexed, leaning against the frame of the door and watching as Josef stepped under the shower spray, his gaze lingering of the musculature of his back as the water formed small rivers of beads on his skin.

"What are you going to wear?" Josef asked over his shoulder, before turning to Mick and flashing him a knowing grin, seeing the way Mick was staring at him like a man who hadn't been fed for a month and was now looking at a sumptuous banquet laid out in front of him. "Mick would you like to join me" he asked, cocking an eyebrow invitingly.

Mick hesitated for a moment, hovering in the doorway as if he were considering what to do, before he laughed and shook his head, hurriedly removing his own clothing and steeping into the small shower cubicle with Josef, pressing him back against the tiled wall as he wrapped his arms around his waist and caressed the small of his back. "What do you want me to wear?" he asked, in-between teasing, warm wet kisses placed strategically along Josef's throat.

"What you've got on looks good" Josef grinned at him, "We could have a nice pagan wedding, naked amongst a circle of standing stones, I'm sure I remember there being some in the fields around here somewhere"

"Gee, why don't we just dance down the street and chant Hare Krishna at the same time while we're at it" Mick pretended to scoff and rolled his eyes, then shook his head and let out a snort of laughter.

"Don't be a smart alec, Mick" Josef chided him teasingly, spinning him around in one sudden fluid movement, reversing their positions, "that's my department"

"And you do it so well, Josef" Mick smirked at him.

"That's not all I do well, Mick" Josef smiled salaciously and arched an eyebrow, then dropped to his knees in front of him, taking his erection in his hand and running his tongue teasingly along the length of the shaft, before wrapping his lips around the head and slowly taking the full length of Mick's cock into his mouth and down his throat.

"Oh shit" Mick gritted his teeth and swayed slightly, leaning back against the tiles, the water from the shower beating down over his face and chest as he gripped the back of Josef's head with one hand, entwining his fingers through his hair and used the other hand to try and steady himself.

Josef was right, he did this well, "a little too damn well" Mick thought to himself as he felt Josef working his throat muscles expertly around his cock, letting out snarls of appreciation and feeling the first stirrings of an impending orgasm begin to move through him.

Suddenly Josef stopped what he was doing and slid back up along Mick's body in one inhuman fluid movement, pressing on top of his shoulders with his hands and pushing him down onto the floor below.

"I want to fuck you" he explained hurriedly, just as Mick opened his mouth to protest the cessation of the blow job, grabbing one of the small complimentary bottles of conditioner from the soap holder next to the shower and joining Mick on the floor, climbing on top of him and pressing his knees back against his chest. Quickly applying some of the lubricant to the head of his cock and around Mick's arse, he pressed the head of his erection against Mick's entrance and slowly pushed his way inside him, pausing for a moment before slowly withdrawing and then thrusting back into him, adjusting his angle slightly to give more direct stimulation to Mick's prostate as he began to fuck him with slow measured strokes.

Mick growled with pleasure and Josef picked up the pace, increasing the length and speed of his thrusts, throwing back his head and snarling his own pleasure, feeling Mick's fingernails digging into the flesh of his back, as he clung to him and let out alternating purring snarls and growls of arousal.

Moments later Josef felt Mick's body tense beneath him, his back arching upwards as he hung suspended on the brink of orgasm and then slipped over the edge, letting out a single roar of release and sinking his fangs sharply into the skin of Josef's throat. The euphoric sting of Mick's sharp canines biting into him sent Josef spiralling into his own shuddering, snarling climax. Thrusting up into Mick's body one last time, hard, he growled with pleasure and sank his own fangs deep into the side of Mick's neck.

"What's so funny?" Josef asked when it was over and the last pulsations of their respective orgasms had faded away, propping himself up onto outstretched arms and looking down at Mick curiously, as Mick lay beneath him in a fit of the giggles.

"I'm sorry" Mick bit down on his lip and stifled another burst of laughter, "I was just wondering what you discovered in that orgasm"

"The secrets of the universe, Mick" Josef quipped as he smirked down at him and then carefully slipped himself out of Mick's body and got to his feet, pulling Mick up with him at the same time.

"Come on, let's get dressed. We have a wedding to attend" he smiled and gave Mick a quick kiss before sauntering back into the bedroom area of the hotel room and going through the suitcase of clothing Mick had bought with him. "Didn't you bring anything decent with you?" he asked over his shoulder, letting out a small huff of frustration as he struggled to find something of Mick's to put on.

"Well gee, sorry Josef" Mick rolled his eyes and spoke sarcastically, "my main thought at the time of packing to find you, after you'd decided to just up and leave without warning, wasn't really 'hey maybe I should take a nice suit with me just in case we decide to have a completely spur of the moment wedding'. Here" he told him, grabbing one of the more decent shirts he had packed, "just wear this"

"I'm being difficult again aren't I?" Josef laughed and then smiled at Mick ever so sheepishly, as he pulled his arms through the sleeves of the shirt, noting to himself with some surprise that it didn't actually fit half bad, and doing up the buttons.

"Yes, you are" Mick gave him a pointed look and then laughed, quickly stepping into a pair of jeans and pulling one of his long sleeves over his head. "I'll just go wake the others and tell them what's going on" he said then, sitting on the bed and slipping his shoes and socks on.

"Ok," Josef replied and bent down to kiss Mick's lips tenderly, before straightening back up again and insisting that he, "hurry up about it though"

"Josef" Mick rolled his eyes and shook his head, letting out a small huff of mock frustration, "we've been planning to get married for the last how many months? I really think we can wait at least five more minutes"

"No. We can't" Josef smiled and shrugged simply, looking at Mick pointedly, holding his gaze with his own until a small teasing smile began to tug at the corners of his mouth, "I'm just joking" he grinned at Mick and then walked over to wrap his arms around his neck and give him another quick kiss, "Go, wake the others, tell them to hurry up and get dressed. I'll see you back here" he instructed and then pushed Mick towards the door.

----------------------------------------------------

The seven of them, four vampires and three mortals, gathered in the courtyard garden at the rear of St Mary's Church, an hour later, Katherine O'Dwyer standing next to Beth and Ryder, cradling Roisin protectively in her arms and noting to herself, with some concern, the way Beth seemed to be shifting nervously from one foot to the other, seemingly reluctant to be there, as indeed she had seemed from the moment Mick knocked on the door to the hotel room she shared with Ryder England and announced that he and Josef were to be married immediately. If Ryder shared any of Katherine's concerns he wasn't showing it, focused as he was on keeping a tender arm around Beth's shoulder and whispering the occasional piece of light hearted commentary to her regarding Josef and Mick's spur of the moment wedding, noting the incongruousness of Mick's jeans and long sleeve shirt set against Josef's resplendent tailored black suit and complementary red shirt.

"Trust Josef to pack one of his best suits to go running off to another country to find himself" he snickered in Beth's ear, which she responded to by forcing a grimace of a smile and giving a curt nod, as Katherine looked over at her and furrowed her brow, silently offering up a prayer that whatever was bothering the female vampire it wasn't going to interfere with the celebration of the moment.

"Shall we start then?" Father Patrick smiled at the small group, Mick and Josef standing hand in hand, front and centre amidst the semi circle formed around them, and opened his copy of the Roman Ritual to the rite of holy matrimony.

"Dearly beloved" he began.

"Immortal beloved" Josef corrected him.

The old priest responded with a polite nod and cleared his throat. "Immortal beloved" he began again, "You are about to enter upon a union which is most sacred and most serious…"

"Wait" Josef spoke out, interrupting the flow of proceedings, before they'd even started, once more. "Skip that part and just read from there onwards" he let go of Mick's hand and took a step forward, indicating the passages he was referring to with the trace of an index finger along the page of the book Father Patrick held in his hands.

"Would you like to conduct the ceremony yourself, Father Lucias" the old Priest asked in a tone of completely false sincerity, referencing Josef's former title as an ordained Priest of the Holy Catholic Church as he stepped to one side and held the Roman Ritual out in front of him for Josef to take.

"That won't be necessary, Father" Josef inclined his head towards Father Patrick and looked suitably contrite for the moment, stepping back and taking Mick's hand in his once again, as Mick stood there and tried not to laugh.

"May I continue then?" the old Priest bowed his head and smiled with faux grace, then cleared his throat once again and began to read the words of the text before him.

And so you begin your married life by the voluntary and complete surrender of your individual lives in the interest of that deeper and wider life which you are to have in common. Henceforth you will belong entirely to each other; you will be one in mind, one in heart, and one in affections. And whatever sacrifices you may hereafter be required to make to preserve this mutual life, always make them generously.

Out of the corner of her eye, Katherine saw Beth take a halting step forwards, a deep growl emanating from the back of her throat as she listened to the words that were being read out.

"I can't do this, I just can't do this anymore" Katherine could hear her muttering under her breath. Too late, Ryder tried to make a grab for her as she suddenly lunged towards Mick, moving with the inhuman speed of a vampire and grabbing for his arm.

"Mick. No" she roared suddenly, all of the emotions and feelings she had been forcing herself to hold in check for the past few months finally coming to the fore in one sudden rush of pleading fury. She snarled at Ryder to "let go of me" as he quickly reached her and pinned her arms to her side, pulling her off of Mick and holding her back as she kicked and fought against him. "Mick, this is ridiculous" she continued to plead, "You still have feelings for me, I know you do, you just can't admit it. Mick, please you can't marry Josef it's not fair on him, it's not fair on us, just listen to me for god sake Mick" her voice reached a fever pitch of hysteria as she continued to rant and rally against Ryder's hold on her at the same time.

"Get her out of here" Mick gritted his teeth and hissed at Ryder, stepping in front of Josef and placing his arm out as a barrier between him and Beth, fearful that he was about to tear her apart with his bare hands at any given moment.

"Well that was rather dramatic and unexpected" Josef quipped, as he watched Ryder sling Beth over his shoulder and carry her, kicking and screaming, away from them as fast as possible, her haunted cries still echoing through the night.

"Josef, I'm so sorry. I had no idea she was going to do that" Mick started to say, but Josef placed a finger to his lips and halted his words mid sentence.

"Mick, its ok" he told him, offering a quick reassuring smile to the vision of his pale faced and stunned lover standing in front of him, before he reached for Mick's face and cupped his chin in the palm of one hand, holding his gaze steady with his own, "There isn't anything to what she said though, is there Mick?" he asked, studying his expression carefully.

"Josef!" Mick blurted out incredulously, before he took Josef's hand from his face and pressed his lips against his fingers, "You shouldn't even need to ask me that" he spoke earnestly, clutching Josef's head in his hands and drawing him towards him, resting his forehead against his. "I love you and only you, I wouldn't be standing here about to marry you if I didn't. Now would I?" he laughed and shook his head, brushing a finger along Josef's cheek at the same time, before he pressed his lips against his and kissed him.

"That's all I needed to hear" Josef stated simply, as he broke away from the kiss and took a step back, holding Mick at arms length and offering him a slightly off centred smile that made Mick laugh and almost swear in that very moment, he'd fallen in love with him all over again.

"Right, well are you two just going to stand there and make eyes at one another or are we actually having a wedding, because you know this little one is up way past her bedtime" Katherine spoke up a few moments later, offering a pointed smile to no one in particular and gesturing with an incline of her head towards the increasingly restless infant in her arms.

"You're very bossy sometimes, you know that don't you" Josef turned to her and scoffed with mock indignation, drawing himself up to his full height and looking at her with an expression of tongue in cheek haughtiness.

"Runs in the family" Katherine shot back with a cheeky grin, challenging Josef to respond with an arch of an eyebrow.

"Touché" Josef replied, making a slightly over extravagant bow in Katherine's general direction, before he straightened back up again and nodded to Father Patrick to continue on with the ceremony.

"We'll just skip ahead to the actual exchange of vows then shall we?" the old Priest quickly thumbed through the pages of the Roman Ritual in his hands, waiting for Josef to respond before he continued on with the proceedings. He appeared completely unphased by what he had witnessed just before; after all it certainly wasn't the first time he had seen a wedding interrupted by a sudden flurry of emotions coming from the perceived betrayal of a jilted former lover.

"Ok, fine" Josef replied dismissively, his thoughts in that moment focused just on marrying Mick as quickly as possible and dispensing with any further ritual. "Wait" he blurted out seconds later, invoking a collective groan from the remainder of the small group gathered there. "We don't need vows". He took a step closer to Mick, wrapping his arms around his waist as he drew him in for an embrace and pressed his forehead against his once again. "We know how we feel about one another, Mick" he whispered to him, "why ruin the moment with a meaningless recitation of words"

Josef paused for a moment, eyes closed, letting his rate of breathing fall into synch with Mick's, before he took a breath and lowered the sound of his voice to a level only audible to another Vampire. "Everything I am and everything I own" he told Mick then, "I would give up in an instant for you"

"You frighten me sometimes, Josef" Mick replied, matching the level of his voice to Josef's, his hand trembling slightly as he caressed the back of his neck and entwined his fingers through Josef's hair.

"Why?" Josef took a step back and looked into Mick's eyes with a questioning expression, his head tilted to one side as if he were trying to work out some great mystery, before he traced the pad of a finger over Mick's mouth and then drew him towards his waiting lips, kissing him deeply and then repeating the question again, "Why? Why do I frighten you sometimes, Mick?"

"Your intensity of feeling, Josef" Mick swallowed audibly and tried to keep his voice from cracking with emotion, "How the hell do you expect me to live up to something like that, it's impossible"

"I don't expect you to live up to anything, Mick" Josef replied, pausing to kiss Mick tenderly on the lips once again, "All I expect is for you to keep doing what you've been doing for the past fifty years, that's all"

"Oh yeah" Mick let out a small burst of laughter, "and what would that be?"

"Just be with me, always" Josef responded back to him simply.

"You make it all sound so easy" Mick sighed, struggling to keep the sudden rush of emotions that Josef's words had instilled in him under control.

"Does it need to be complicated?" Josef's question was simple in its challenge and Mick found the only answer he could honestly give was "No", taking a step away from Josef's embrace he turned to Father Patrick and with a sudden burst of joyful laughter insisted that he immediately,

"Declare us married"

"Don't you want to exchange rings or anything?" Father Patrick smiled in reply and then let out a small "Ah" as he saw the ever so slightly bewildered expressions that had fallen over Mick and Josef's faces. "You didn't think that far ahead, did you" he chided them with a teasing laugh.

"Not really" they glanced at one another and responded almost in unison, Mick offering a rather sheepish smile to both Katherine and Father Patrick as Josef stood alongside him and furrowed his brow, stroking his chin absentmindedly and thinking exactly what to do about this particular oversight, mentally kicking himself at the same time for forgetting something as obvious as wedding rings, in his haste to be married to Mick sooner rather than later.

"Do you have a cord, a piece of string, a rope or something?" Josef raised his head and directed the question towards Father Patrick a few moments later.

"Why? Married life getting to you already?" Father Patrick couldn't resist making the joke, and then quickly cleared his throat when he saw the look of almost righteous indignation that had crossed over Josef's face. "I'm sorry" he said, quickly swallowing back the urge to make any further jokes at either Mick or Josef's expense. "Yes I do, of course I do. Inside in my office, I'm sure there's some string left over from last years Christmas toy run. Will that do?"

"Perfect" Josef smiled graciously as the old Priest quickly took his leave, returning after a short while waving a rather haphazardly wound ball of red string in the air and announcing to no one in particular, "Found it"

"Is anyone going to tell me exactly what we're planning to do with that string?" Mick asked, looking around in complete confusion at the faces of those gathered around him.

"Tie our wrists together" Josef replied matter of fact, as if the purpose of the string needed no explanation, and reached for Mick's arm, clasping his hand around his wrist and indicating for Mick to follow suit. "It's called handfasting" he added with a slightly dismissive wave of his freehand, "It was popular back in my day, where do you think the term tying the knot comes from?"

"Oh, ok then" Mick laughed and shook his head, grasping hold of Josef's wrist. "You know if you told me fifty years ago that one day I'd be standing in a churchyard, in Ireland, marrying my best friend by having a piece of red string tied around our wrists I would have called you crazy" he paused and then smiled at Josef, leaning over to plant another tender kiss on his lips before he finished with, "and I couldn't be happier".

"Have the two of you made whatever vows you wish to make to one another?" Father Patrick gently interrupted the moment.

"Yeah, we have" Mick was the one to reply, his eyes never leaving Josef's as Father Patrick stepped forward and quickly wrapped a piece of the red string around both their wrists.

"I love you" Josef whispered to Mick as the old Priest bound them together.

"Ditto" Mick whispered back.

"Then, by the powers vested in me I declare you husband and…I mean Vampire and…" Father Patrick hesitated, his tongue stumbling over the words as he struggled to think of what exactly to declare the two male Vampires in front of him he had just wed.

"How about you just declare us married, like he said before" Josef grinned at him cheekily and pointed to Mick.

"Alright then, by the powers vested in me" the old Priest repeated, "I declare the two of you to be married. You may kiss the…I mean you may kiss..."

"Each other?" Josef offered with tones of sarcastic helpfulness.

"Yes, that" Father Patrick laughed in response, as Josef drew Mick towards him and crushed his mouth against his lips.