Chapter 8

"Can't sleep?" Josef slid into the pew next to Mick and draped an arm across his shoulder, lazily tracing circles on the back of his neck with the fingers of his hand.

He had awoken at 5 am and reached over to find an empty space in the bed next to him. Considering neither one of them had actually gotten into bed before 2 am, Josef correctly surmised that Mick had lain awake next to him before tossing aside the bags of ice packed around his body and staggering out of bed to find somewhere to sit alone and brood.

"He's probably off conducting his own internal one man judge and jury of himself right this very moment" Josef thought to himself with a wry smile as he too climbed out of bed, feeling a little hazy from his own lack of sleep, wrapped a robe around his naked body and set off to look for Mick.

Sitting next to him now, in the stillness of the Church as Mick sat staring at the altar in front of him, a look of dark reverie on his face, Josef could tell he was right, he knew Mick too well by now. He had been sitting here for however long, replaying the events of the past over and over in his mind and mentally declaring himself guilty for every conceivable mistake or wrongdoing he could possibly think of.

"Merciful death, how you love your precious guilt" Josef thought as he continued to caress the back of Mick's neck with tender strokes of his hand, remembering the line from an old novel he had read, ages ago now it seemed, remembering how he had whispered those very words to Mick before now, another time Mick had seen fit to pass judgement on himself.

Out loud he asked, "Did you get any sleep at all"

Mick muttered a non committal reply and shook his head.

"Come on" Josef reached across to pat Mick's leg reassuringly, before half rising out of the seat and turning to offer Mick his hand, "come back to bed and get some more rest"

"Does he ever answer you" Mick ignored Josef's outstretched hand and continued to focus his attention on the altar in front.

"Who God?" Josef sat back down and glanced at the altar himself, before turning to face Mick, "Well if he did" he continued, quietly matter of fact "I certainly wasn't listening"

"I thought you'd made your peace with him" Mick gave the tiniest scoff of laughter and turned his head towards Josef, offering him a half hearted smile.

"I have" Josef shrugged in reply and then cocked his eyebrows and let out a slight sniff of laughter, "but it's not like I'm going to start inviting him over for poker night with the boys. Why?" he added gently "what are you trying to ask him"

"Just how in the hell I'm supposed to make sense of what's going on right now" Mick blurted out, throwing his hands in the air before placing the pads of his fingers against his temples. "Everything was fine Josef, she was fine" he continued, massaging the sides of his head with small circular strokes, as if somehow the action would rub away his confusion.

"Mick, you can't know that for sure" Josef told him quietly as he took Mick's hands away from the sides of his head and pressed the tips of his fingers to his lips, "some people…some Vampires, are just very good at pretending everything's ok when it's not"

"You know I sometimes wonder what would have happened if I hadn't turned her" Mick looked down at the ground for a moment, before turning back to face Josef, entwining his fingers with his and smiling briefly for a moment as he felt Josef's thumb stroke the back of his hand.

"She'd be an old lady by now Mick" Josef looked at him and smiled simply, "and you'd be watching her die"

"And us? What would have happened there?" Mick asked then.

"I don't know Mick, you tell me" Josef held Mick's gaze with his own as he continued to stroke a thumb across the back of Mick's hand.

"I can't imagine my life now without you in it" Mick replied, after the briefest of hesitations.

"Well there's your answer then" Josef smiled and stood up, pulling Mick to his feet along with him, "Come on" he instructed him as before, "come with me. If you can't sleep, you can at least have a shower and prepare for the day ahead. We've got things we need to attend to".

Mick let out a soft sigh of breath and nodded in silent acquiesce, falling in line behind Josef as he allowed him to take his hand and lead the both of them back to the small room in the Church that they had been sharing.

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"I should go and try to talk to her again, try and get her to see reason" Mick tilted his head up towards the spray of the shower, letting the water roll over his face and down his neck.

"Why, what good will it do Mick?" Josef replied, standing behind Mick with one arm wrapped tightly around his waist, the other draped over Mick's shoulder drawing soap lathered circles across his chest with slow movements of a hand. "Besides" he offered a slight shrug, shifting his arm from Mick's waist and caressing his hip as the other traced a languid path along his stomach "you can't, she left yesterday to fly back to Salzburg"

"Why didn't you tell me?" Mick twisted his head around and looked at Josef with an expression on his face something akin to bewilderment, "was Ryder with her?"

"I didn't want you running off after her" Josef shrugged again, the same slight nonchalant shrug as before, and shifted his hand from Mick's hip up to his face, caressing the planes of his jaw before tilting his chin towards his face and pressing his lips against his, "and yes Ryder was with her. Ryder was the one I spoke to" he added, breaking away from the kiss and concentrating his attentions on Mick's neck instead.

"How was he?" the words came out in a slightly staccato hiss as Mick's breathing hitched at the sensation of Josef's fangs nipping lightly at the sensitive skin of his throat.

"Well he wasn't exactly whistling Dixie, if that's what you mean" Josef replied matter of fact, feeling a distinct tremor run along Mick's spine as he lapped at the small droplets of blood his fangs had created, just before the tiny pin prick wounds healed, with the tip of his tongue.

"You should have told me" Mick mumbled half to himself after a moments pause and then let his head fall back against Josef's shoulder more, the slightest purr of a snarl eliciting from his parted lips as Josef's other hand moved from his stomach down to his cock, his fingers lightly encircling his erection and caressing along his length with slow measured strokes.

Josef ignored Mick's muttered reply, concentrating instead on working his hand over Mick's cock, increasing the pressure of his grip, sliding his hand along the length of his erection, stroking him from base to tip at an ever increasing pace until Mick was thrusting into his hand in time to the rhythm of his movements and letting out short staccato snarls of pleasure, biting down on his lower lip to try and keep from making too much noise.

"Let it go Mick" Josef bent his lips towards the side of Mick's face, his breath fanning hot over his ear, and silently pleaded with him, "Please just let it go, don't do this to yourself again, don't do this to us again"

Mick's mouth found his then, the kiss a slightly awkward scraping of fangs and panting open mouthed breathing. Josef shifted his hand on Mick's neck back down to his chest, wrapping his arm around him tightly, holding him steady as Mick's thrusts into his hand grew more & more frantic and uncontrolled, feeling the pressure and release of Mick's body pressing back repeatedly against his own erection, the stimulation enough to bring him to the brink of his own orgasm.

They both hit the peak at the same time, bodies hanging suspended on a knife edge, muscles tensing, before they fell into the abyss together, snarling out their mutual release and sinking their canines into each others flesh, their fluid flowing out of them in wave after wave of hot sticky climactic pulsations as they panted and moaned each other's names repeatedly and bit down even harder with their fangs.

"Feel better?" Josef whispered in Mick's ear a moment later, after he'd given the both of them time to recover from their respective orgasms.

Not waiting for a response he quickly manoeuvred himself under the direct spray of the shower and washed Mick's semen from his hands, letting the water flow over his abdomen at the same time, washing away the traces of his own climax. He felt Mick reach for him again, felt strong hands gripping his shoulders and spinning him around, Mick's arms encircling his waist and drawing him into his body as he pressed his forehead to his and whispered his name almost like a prayer, the word coming out sounding strained and slightly desperate.

"Josef"

"I know Mick, ditto" Josef whispered in reply, pausing for a moment to trace a finger along the side of Mick's face and over his lips before giving him a quick tender kiss and breaking away from the embrace.

"Come on, we'd better hurry up and get dressed" he instructed Mick then, stepping out of the shower and grabbing a towel, "Katherine should be awake by now. We can't put this off any longer."

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Josef sat at the head of the table looking for all the world like he was holding court, or so Mick thought as he sat opposite him and watched as Josef studied the photographs in his hand with a carefully contrived sense of detached interest.

"Tell me about them" Josef said simply as he pushed the photo's back towards Katherine, on the other side of the table to where Mick was seated.

"What do you want to know exactly?" Katherine replied with a shrug, tilting her head to one side and chewing on her bottom lip almost nervously, as if she half expected the pictures in front of her to come to life and exact their retribution for daring to break the unbreakable code of silence. A code, Mick figured, had surely been instilled into her repeatedly over the years.

"Anything you can tell me" Josef replied, hands clasped, his forefingers pressed against his lips, forming the shape of a pyramid, his eyes focused intently on Katherine, yet looking past her at the same time. It was a gesture and a look Mick had seen before when Josef was planning to hunt quarry. Almost as if he had begun to stalk his prey before he'd even laid eyes on them in real time.

Somewhere in the distance Mick could hear Katherine's voice telling Josef what he needed to know, catching brief words and phrases here and there, '2 am', 'club', 'always', 'like clockwork'. He didn't need to know the details, Josef would take care of that for them, he always did. Mick's mind drifted instead towards memories of the first time he had hunted with Josef by his side, truly hunted, as equals, partners, not just the tagalong newbie when Coraline had been showing him the ropes.

It had been the winter of 2009, a week before Christmas to be precise, 6 months after Paris. Mick had still been taking cases back then, still working the Private Eye route despite Josef's insistence that he had enough money to keep the both of them in the lap of luxury for at least the next millennia, damn it.

One case in particular from back then would always remain in his memory, not the least because it was the catalyst for his first true hunt with Josef; the first time he had really known what it was truly like to accept his Vampire nature, but also because the case had been a particularly hard one to work. A child abuse case, a particularly cold and vicious serial predator that had preyed on the innocence of children too young to be exposed to the sort of sick games this monster wanted to play with them. He had listened to hour upon hour of victim impact statements, heard details of the crime that he had later shared with Josef, which had actually turned Josef's stomach as much as is it did Mick's. He had gathered painstaking amounts of evidence, surveillance, hours of recording secret wiretaps, used every means at his disposal to expose this animal for what he truly was. Then he had turned everything over to the L.A.P.D, who in turn handed it over to the L.A District Attorney's Office, who decided to Prosecute forthwith. And the monster had been bought to trial and then walked free, on a Technicality. A goddamn technicality.

Mick could almost feel the bile rising in his throat at the memory of that.

"You trusted the mortal system and it failed you" Josef had told him when he had burst through the door of their L.A mansion and begun to rant and rail at the unfairness of it all. "I've said to you before that human's don't know how to take care of their bad guys"

And then he had offered Mick a smile that would have made the steeliest of any mortal's blood run cold and announced, with a low predatory snarl, "We do this our way now."

And that was how Mick came to find himself one winter's night in 2009, a week before Christmas, prowling through the streets of L.A with Josef, his beloved Josef, newly found and declared partner in unlife by his side, all feline grace and deadly catlike poise, stalking their intended victim.

He had seen Josef in his element that night, the supreme predator, four hundred years of perfectly refined Vampire elegance and god he looked beautiful, all white skin and red bruised eyes the colour of ice cold marble, fangs like polished ivory catching the dull light of the street lamps. And there had been blood, so much blood, and snarling, and sinking of fangs into flesh and a sense of overwhelming righteousness and justice finally being served, properly.

And they had almost fucked right there in that dark alleyway when it was over, smearing blood over each others faces as they panted and snarled and ground themselves against one another, and it should have felt wrong and dirty, down there in the grime of the street beneath them, but it didn't because he was with Josef, his Josef, and dear god the memory of that night was beginning to make him dizzy…

"Mick?" the sound of Josef calling his name snapped Mick out of his reverie, "Mick" Josef repeated, regarding him with a cock of his head and a curious smile, "Hello earth to Mick"

Josef laughed as Mick blinked a couple of times and shook his head. He reached across the table then and stroked the back of Mick's hand with one finger and Mick couldn't suppress the slow growl that had formed in the back of his throat when he did that. Josef offered him a knowing smile in reply and then bared his fangs, ever so slightly, and snarled back at him, the softest purr of a snarl and Mick was positive if Katherine hadn't been sitting there staring at the two of them whilst they engaged in what must have looked like some sort of bizarre Vampire mating ritual, he would have had Josef bent across the table and fucked him like sex was going out of style and Macy's had just announced a door buster, two for the cost of one at warehouse prices, sale on orgasms.

"So is that like the Vampire equivalent of the Indian love call or something?" Katherine snickered, half to herself, prompting Josef to flash an indignant look at her and roll his eyes, whilst Mick just sat there and looked sheepish for a moment.

Mick heard Katherine say something in what he assumed was Gaelic then and Josef laughed in response and then quickly translated Katherine's words.

"She says we shouldn't be so coy and indignant, it's not like half the neighbourhood hasn't already heard us howling at the moon at night"

It was Mick's turn to look indignant then; "We're Vampires not Werewolves" he scoffed, trying to cover his embarrassment at being reminded, yet again, that he and Josef really didn't know how to 'keep it down'.

"She knows that Mick" Josef laughed in reply and leaned over to kiss him, "it's just a turn of phrase"

"I know that Josef, but…"

"Come on" Josef stood up then, interrupting Mick's protest and reaching for his hand to pull him to his feet. "We hunt tonight. We need to get some rest before then, I believe a trip to the local morgue is in order. Mick and I need to get some decent sleep in a proper freezer, for restorative purposes before we hunt" he quickly explained to Katherine, when he saw the slightly confused and bewildered expression that passed over her face when he mentioned the word 'morgue', "and entrance to anywhere or anything can always be bought at the right price" he added, making a rather grandiose sweeping bow and then grinning at her with boyish Kostan charm.

"And what about me?" Katherine fixed Josef's gaze with her own, setting her mouth into a determined line, "what's my entry fee?"

Josef straightened back up and walked over to Katherine "Absolutely nothing, this one's on me" he told her, placing a reassuring hand on her arm.

"What about the Vampires though? The others I mean" Katherine looked at Josef, unable to hide the concern on her face. "You're not going to take care of them are you?"

"I can't Katherine" Josef suddenly looked very apologetic, "Believe it or not we have rules in our community, I can't just kill another Vampire in their own city. Not unless my life or the life of someone close to me was directly threatened. I can deal with the mortals, the others I can protect you from" he quickly added when he saw she was about to offer some sort of protest.

"How long for?" she asked then, a slightly bitter edge to the tone of her voice, "Until one of them actually tries to kill me and your allowed to kill them or until I'm a withered old woman and miraculously die of natural causes?"

"However long it takes" Josef replied matter of fact, giving her arm one last quick reassuring squeeze before he turned to go.

"Josef?" Katherine called out after his retreating from, stopping herself just in the nick of time before she used the term "Uncle" instead. "Whatever happens I don't want to die, ok?" she told him in all earnest when he turned back to face her, the expression in her voice and in her eyes making it clear to him what she was really trying to say.

Josef exhaled a slow breath and then swallowed nervously, averting his eyes from Katherine's and muttering a hurried reply of "Let's hope it never comes to that"

He turned again to leave, walking over to where Mick stood waiting for him and wrapping his arm around Mick's waist.

"One more question" Katherine called out after him once more, waiting for Josef to turn back towards her one final time. "Do Werewolves exist?"

"Well I suppose if we exist, then Werewolves are possible too" Josef replied, after he had exchanged a brief glance with Mick and they had both stifled a laugh at the look of rapt fascination on Katherine's face, "but if they do I've never met one" he finished with a polite nod and a gracious smile.

"Ever the charmer aren't you Josef Kostan" Mick whispered to him after that, as they both turned together and walked out the door, arms encircling each other's waists.

"Oh shut up Mick" Josef scoffed and rolled his eyes in faux indignation, before he leant over and tilted his head to plant a quick kiss on Mick's lips.

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"Come on" Josef announced, his tone slightly more cheerful than what Mick actually wanted to hear, having just been woken up from a deep sleep.

Josef pulled the door of Mick's cooler open, sliding the metal trolley out with a resounding clank, and then followed up with an overly dramatic singular clap of his hands.

"Time to get up lover. We've got places to go, prey to hunt, bad people to kill" Josef trailed a hand in the air and then grinned.

Mick sat up and swung his legs over the side of the trolley, still a little groggy. He blinked a few times and then shook his head, scruffing his fingers through his hair at the same time, as he tried to brush away the last remnants of sleep. He sat for a moment and watched, as Josef strutted and paced in front of him, looking for all the world like a demented peacock.

"Admit it, you love this don't you" Mick thought , flashing Josef an adoring look just as Josef completed one length of the room and turned heel to face him.

He didn't mean the hunt itself of course, Josef was over 450 years old after-all and it wasn't as if he'd never hunted or enjoyed hunting before now. Mick had introduced him to the concept of the righteous hunt though, or the 'fangs in full effect' hunt as Josef liked to half jokingly refer to it. In such circumstances, both of them were able to unashamedly indulge their inner vampire without regards to such mundane things as morals, or personal codes of conduct, or potential feelings of guilt and remorse. After-all, when all was said and done, their victims did have it coming to them...in no uncertain terms.

"Are you getting dressed or are you just going to sit there and look tempting" Josef quipped, sauntering over to Mick and wrapping his arms around Mick's neck. "Carpe Noctem." Josef bent his head to Mick's ear and whispered, snarling softly to him.

Suddenly Mick was very much awake.

"That got your attention didn't it" Josef laughed and stood up, Taking a step back he folded his arms across his chest and arched an eyebrow, regarding Mick with a knowing smile.

Mick felt his breath catch in his throat. He drew in a quick inhalation of breath and, for a few moments, found himself seriously struggling against the urge to throw Josef to the ground, tear the immaculate suit from his perfectly honed physique, and fuck the smug little grin he was giving him clean off of his devilishly handsome face.

"Not now Mick" he heard Josef saying to him then, the tone of his voice and the expression on his face suddenly serious. "We've got work to do first. Not that I don't appreciate the view."

Josef cocked his head and grinned, as he handed Mick the bag containing the change of clothes that Josef had practically demanded Mick bring with him.

"You need to be dressed properly" Josef had told him, his tone more than a little haughty in it's insistence, "We can't risk being turned away at the door, or worse, drawing attention to ourselves because you decided that turning up in jeans and t-shirt was perfectly acceptable club attire"

Mick let out a sniff of laughter at the way Josef had spoken the word 'work', as if he were verbally encasing it in quotation marks, and the rather salacious tongue in cheek remark he had made about enjoying the view, and then took the bag from Josef's outstretched hand.

Mick dressed hurriedly, purposefully avoiding Josef's gaze as he did so, still unsure about any level of control he might or might not be able to maintain if he were to spend too long contemplating his husband.

A smile tugged at the corners of Mick's mouth as he thought of that word, husband. Josef may not have liked the term but he still liked to think of him that way, although he knew he'd probably be pushing his luck to actually express such sentiments. He laughed quietly to himself and shook his head. If Josef wanted to think being referred to as his, husband , made him sound like a prize breeding bull, then so be it. He certainly wasn't going to argue the point with him.

"Tease, maybe?" Mick laughed to himself once more. "Argue? Definitely not"

"You look good" Josef regarded Mick's outfit, black pants and black shirt to match his black suit ("black hides stains better Mick" he had told him), with an approving look. "Are you ready to go" he asked Mick then.

Drawing closer, Josef waited for Mick to nod his agreement and then draped his arm loosely around Mick's waist and guided him out the door, into the dimly lit streets that awaited them.

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The club, a small place tucked away down one of the many dark alleys of Galway, and decorated in what Josef assumed was supposed to be some sort of post modern industrial style...in other words it looked like someone had gone on a rampage and ripped large sections of the place apart, leaving bare pipes and iron dangling strategically from the walls and ceilings...was in full swing by the time they got there, a little after two am.

Getting past the security on the door without much more than a quick cursory once over and a lilting Irish voice, that sounded rather incongruous on the overly muscular frame, telling them to 'have a good night'...to which Josef rather sarcastically responded with a raise of his eyebrows, "Oh we plan to.", they moved inside and made their way quickly up a set of narrow stairs. Moving down a short corridor, they came to door of the room where Katherine had indicated they would find Patrick Brogan and the rest of his band of now walking dead men.

They paused outside the closed door for a moment, sniffing the air for the scent of their prey, listening closely to the movements of those inside. Downstairs the DJ had just started playing Sonic Destroyer, the whirling sound of the track sounding like some sort of demented organ grinder having a fit to Mick's ears. He laughed to himself and mentally rolled his eyes at what he considered to be a rather strange fascination that human's seemed to have with the past, considering this particular track was now old enough to almost be thought of as 'classical music'.

And then suddenly Josef was Vamping out, a snarl eliciting from his lips, and it was on.

Josef reeled back and knocked the door down with one swift powerful kick, indicating for Mick to stay behind him as they burst through the now non existent doorway. Mick had about five seconds to smile to himself and admire Josef's over protective gallantry towards him, before one of the mortals in the room pulled out a small pistol and opened fire.

The would be attacker gasped and stammered in terrified disbelief, as he saw Mick's face, and watched as the bullets struck his chest. The only effect they seemed to have on this nightmare standing before him, was to cause a slightly annoyed expression to pass over it's face.

Over in the corner of the room, Josef had already dispatched two victims. A pair of half witted oaths, they had merely stood and looked at each other with slow witted bewilderment, watching as this unholy creature descend on them like something out of a phantasmagorical nightmare and then sank it's fangs into the neck of one, draining blood with snarling greedy gulps, before snapping the neck of the other with one well aimed flick of it's powerful wrist.

Josef shoved the oaf whose neck he had just broken off to one side like a broken rag doll and wrapped his arm tighter around the other's shoulders. Holding him close, almost tenderly, he sank his fangs deeper into his neck and massaged the vein there with his fingers, using a soft squeezing motion to draw out the last dregs of blood.

Josef looked over at Mick, his own fangs sunk deep into the neck of his victim, the man who had foolishly thought mere bullets would be enough to stop one of the undead. Purring and whimpering noises elicited from Mick, as he sucked at the blood flowing from the two small wounds his bite had created. The sound sent shivers down Josef's spine.

Mick raised his eyes to Josef's, and curled his lips in a beguiling sneer.

They stayed like that for a few moments, each watching the other feed as if they were engaging in a dance of seduction across a crowded room.

Then Josef caught the retreating form of Patrick Brogan out of the corner of his eye. He was trying to make his escape, crawling on his hands and knees across the floor towards the hole in the wall where the door used to be, desperately hoping he would go unnoticed by whatever the hell demons had just entered his domain.

Dropping his lifeless prey to the floor, he moved with the terrifying, inhuman, speed of a Vampire in full flight, and grabbed the hapless man by the scruff of the neck.

Lifting Brogan off the floor, with one powerful upwards movement of his arm, Josef held him out in front of Mick.

"Hi, how ya doing?" Mick quipped, raising his eyebrows and cocking his head to one side, as he grinned maniacally at the soon to be dead man dangling from Josef's outstretched arm, legs kicking helplessly in midair.

Micl took Brogan's arm gently in his hand and bowed his head towards his wrist. "Don't worry." he told him, purring with seductive menace. "I'll be gentle."

"But I won't be." Josef whispered in Brogan's ear and then snapped the man's neck to one side, hissing to him in Gaelic. "For my family." He let out a triumphant, predatory, snarl then and sank his fangs deep into Brogan's jugular, tearing away chunks of flesh with the force of his bite.

Josef lowered the dying man's form to the ground, fangs still embedded in Brogan's neck, and snarled with delight when he sensed Mick move up to join him.

Mick's tongue lapped at the smears of blood on Josef's mouth and fangs, fingers entwining through Josef's hair, as he gripped the back of Josef's head and lifted his face towards his. Growling into his mouth, Mick crushed his lips against Josef's in a heated kiss.

Clinging onto each other tightly they rolled as one, in a tangled heap of fangs and limbs, away from Brogan's prone form. They listened as Brogan gasped and spluttered his last living breath, and then Mick was stretched out over Josef and Josef was letting himself be pinned by the weight of Mick's body.

Mick snarled, burying his face in Josef's neck, and began to move against him.

Gripping the back of Mick's neck tenderly with one hand, Josef reached down between their bodies with the other and hurriedly undid the fastenings on Mick's pants, releasing Mick's cock into his hand and curling his fingers tightly around the head.

Josef smiled to himself, as Mick let out a soft snarl of approval and began to thrust into his open fist.

"Come for me" Josef turned his head towards Mick's ear and whispered to him, still stroking the back of his neck and entwining his fingers through Mick's hair, as Mick's thrusts into his hand became more frantic and uncontrolled.

That was all Mick needed to hear in order to push him over the edge.

Josef felt Mick's body tense, Mick's breath coming in short sharp pants of anticipation as he hung suspended on the brink, and then found himself falling headlong into the abyss. Snarling with pleasure, Mick sank his fangs into Josef's neck, and flooded Josef's hand with his fluid, dampening the front of his pants as he rode out the orgasm crashing over him.

"Told you black hides stains better." Josef laughed knowingly, when Mick was spent.

Pushing Mick off of him, Josef stood up. He gave Mick a little longer to recover his senses, and then reached a hand down to help him to his feet.

"Come on, we can't stay here, we have to go." Josef instructed Mick then, indicating that he should make himself decent.

Josef took Mick by the hand and leading them both out of the club, into the dark lit streets below.

They made it as far as the third street lamp from the corner, before Mick finally lost all semblance of control.

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"Was there a Jean Rollins retrospective playing that no one told me about?" Josef rolled his eyes and huffed at Mick, just as Mick suddenly turned and launched himself at him, slamming him up against a nearby wall and devouring his face and neck with snarling, rabid kisses, his hands frantically tugging at the fastenings on Josef's pants.

"Fuck me" he hissed at Josef desperately, fingers still clawing urgently at the front of his trousers as he tried to pin him against the wall and ground his pelvis against his.

"Fuck you?" Josef grabbed Mick by the neck and lifted him off his feet, holding him at arms length away for him, "In the middle of the street and risk being arrested after we've just killed four people? Not one of your better ideas, Mick" he growled at him and lowered him back to the ground, flashing him a warning look to not try anything as he released his grip from around Mick's neck.

For a moment Mick looked like he was about to launch himself at Josef once again and Josef snarled another warning, commanding him to "Relax", giving Mick a curt nod of approval, arms folded across his chest as he stood back for a moment and watched Mick take a few deep breaths and bring himself back under something resembling control.

"Wait until we get back to the Church" Josef told him then, the tone of his voice a little gentler as he reached out a hand and caressed the side of Mick's face, before pushing him back a step, turning away and taking off running at full Vamp speed as he laughed and called out over his shoulder "I'll see you back there, Mick"

"You bastard" Mick hissed under his breath and took off after him.

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Mick finally caught up with Josef just as he pushed open the large heavy wooden doors of the Churches front entrance and stepped inside. Covering the last few feet between them with one swift powerful leap, he caught Josef around the waist and knocked him off his feet, the both of them landing sprawled together on the cold stone floor of the nave.

"Perhaps you'd like to just throw me onto the altar and fuck me there, Mick" Josef quipped to him, rolling his eyes and letting out an indignant huff of breath as Mick panted and snarled on top of him, covering his face and neck once again with a series of frantic kisses. "Oh for fucksake Mick" Josef snapped at him in frustration when Mick suddenly looked at him and grinned, as if Josef's tongue in cheek suggestion was just what he intended to do, "What the hell's gotten into you anyway", he pushed Mick off of him and quickly scrabbled away, getting to his feet and looking down at Mick with arms folded across his chest once again. "You. Bedroom. Now" he commanded him with a pointed look and a raise of his eyebrows.

Mick didn't need to be told twice, in one fluid movement he was on his feet and covering Josef's body with his, pressing himself against him as they staggered together towards the room the guest bedroom they were currently occupying, moaning and snarling into each other's mouths as they tried to co-ordinate kissing and walking in a tangle of limbs at the same time.

"Nothing's gotten into me Josef" Mick protested half breathlessly, in between devouring Josef's lips and tongue with his mouth, "You're my…" he stopped himself just in time.

"I'm your what Mick?" Josef broke away from Mick's embrace for a moment, holding him at arms length, regarding him with a slightly challenging expression as he cocked his head to one side and arched an eyebrow in a gesture of tongue in cheek sarcasm.

"Partner, Josef" Mick mumbled into Josef's mouth as he drew him back towards him and crushed his lips against his once again, "I meant to say partner"
"Of course you did Mick" Josef muttered back to him sarcastically as they tumbled through the open door of their bedroom and Josef quickly manoeuvred the both of them into the small ensuite bathroom adjoining the room, turning on the shower and adjusting the water to a comfortable lukewarm temperature before helping Mick to strip out of his clothes and shoving him under the spray.

Stripping off his own clothes, Josef joined Mick under the shower and grabbed him around the waist, spinning him to face the other way and pressing him up against the tiled wall.

"Happy now" he whispered to Mick with an expression of slightly cheeky salaciousness, as he reached around to take hold of his cock and began to stroke the length of him with slow teasing strokes.

Mick moaned and nodded his agreement, letting his head fall back against Josef's shoulder as he moved his hips in time to Josef's hand movements. "We should just fuck all the time" he turned his head and half panted into Josef's neck.

"Of course we should Mick" Josef quipped in reply and mentally rolled his eyes, "When we get home I'll turn our house into one giant freezer unit, that way we can just walk around naked all day and night with my cock up your arse continuously. How does that sound?" he finished off with more sarcastic breeze, as he reached for the small bottle of complimentary conditioner on the ledge next to the shower and quickly squeezed some of it's contents onto his fingers.

"Good" Mick nodded enthusiastically and snarled with approval when he felt Josef's fingers slip in-between the cheeks of his arse and quickly apply the makeshift lubricant around his entrance. "It's better than thinking about stuff" he added, half muttering the words to himself as Josef bent him forward and pressed the head of his cock against Mick's anus and entered him in one swift and sudden thrust.

"You have to deal with it sometime Mick" Josef placed a supportive arm around Mick's waist, holding him steady as he bent over him and whispered gently in his ear.

Mick chose to ignore Josef's words, pushing himself back against his hips instead, trying to take more of him in as Josef slowly withdrew and then thrust back into him, starting to fuck him with a series of repeated short hard strokes of his cock as he pressed a hand into the small of Mick's back and bent him forwards more, adjusting the angle of penetration slightly to allow more direct stimulation against Mick's prostate.

"You have to deal with things, Mick" Josef repeated to him, as he wrapped his arm tighter around Mick's waist and leant back to give himself more leverage, thrusting into him at an increasingly hard pace. "You can't just expect me to fuck you into oblivion every time something comes up that you can't handle"

Mick's only response was to snarl and press himself even harder back against Josef's thrusting hips, letting out a panting moan of approval when he felt Josef's hand around his waist reach lower and grab hold of his cock, pumping the length of him firmly from base to tip.

Josef bent forward then and stretched out his other hand towards Mick's face, reaching around his shoulder and pressing his wrist against Mick's lips as Mick's growls of pleasure became increasingly louder and more frantic sounding. Then suddenly Mick was letting a single sharp snarl of release and sinking his fangs into Josef's flesh, whimpering and shuddering with pleasure as he pressed himself back against Josef's hips as hard as he could one final time and rode out the orgasm that was tearing through him.

Josef joined him a few seconds later, snarling out his own release and sinking his own fangs deep into the muscular flesh at the top of Mick's shoulder as he snarled his way through his own orgasm, lowering Mick to the tiled floor beneath them and sinking down with him as the last pulsations of their respective climaxes slowly faded away.

"Mick-" Josef whispered to him a few moments later, after he had carefully withdrawn his cock from Mick's arse and rolled over to lie next to him on the cold tiled floor, wrapping his arms around Mick's shoulders and drawing him into his embrace.

"I know Josef, ok, I know. I'll deal with it" Mick hurriedly replied before Josef had a chance to finish what he was going to say. "Just not now, please" he added, his voice sounding strained as he reached a hand down between Josef's legs and took of hold of his cock, starting to stroke him back to full hardness.

"Mick for fucksake" Josef snapped at him in exasperation, although he wasn't exactly in any hurry to stop Mick's hand movements up and down the shaft of his growing erection. "You cannot possibly want me to fuck you again so soon"

"Why not?" Mick replied, nuzzling his face into Josef's neck and nipping lightly at the skin of his throat with his fangs, "It's not like we've never fucked repeatedly before"

"I know that Mick" Josef sighed and wrapped his arms tighter around Mick's shoulders, burying his face in Mick's hair and kissing the top of his head gently, "it's just…" he hesitated for a moment, trying to think of a polite way to say "Mick there's a difference between fucking someone repeatedly when you're both in control and fucking someone repeatedly when one of them is very much out of control", before deciding the direct approach was always best, and suited him better.

"Josef please, just for tonight I want to forget about everything but us, I don't want to have to think about anything" Mick half pleaded with him in response.

Josef finally relented completely after that, quickly disentangling his arms from around Mick's shoulders and standing up, taking Mick by the hand and pulling him to his feet along with him in the same motion.

"Come on then" he told him gently, leading him out of the bathroom and towards the double bed in the adjoining room, "I'll make you forget your own name if that's what you want."

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Ambrosia

"Ok Mick" I repeat to myself silently as I lead him over to the bed, "You don't want to have to think about anything right now? Then fine, we will deal with it tomorrow, together, always together. Just for tonight, just for you, I will make you forget your own existence"

"Lie down" I instruct him when we reach the bed, pressing a hand gently down on his shoulder and smiling to myself with self satisfaction when he obeys my direction without protest or question.

I can see shivers of anticipation running along his body, tiny almost imperceptible tremors of muscles as he lies back on the mattress below and waits for me to join him. I hesitate for just a moment, admiring his prone form stretched out before me and them climb onto the bed and lay along side him, reaching a hand up to his neck and caressing my fingers along his throat and down his chest, digging my nails into his flesh ever so slightly and leaving tiny raised red scratch marks at the same time.

I feel his hands go around my neck, pulling me towards him just as I run my hand over his abdomen and down to his cock, running my fingers lightly over the length as he moans softly and crushes his mouth against mine. He tastes like ambrosia to me and his hands are clutching fistfuls of my hair as I fall into his kiss and let myself drown in the sensation of his lips just for a moment.

He says I frighten him sometimes with the intensity of my feelings. Truth be known I frighten myself. I would quite happily sell my soul and walk into the fires of hell for him, I'd never tell him that though, not in so many words at least. Can't let Mick think he's the one who has the upper hand in this relationship.

"No of course not Kostan" I laugh to myself and mentally roll my eyes, knowing my own mind doesn't believe that for one moment.

"I love you" I break away from his kiss and whisper to him then, placing my lips against one ear and then the other, repeating the words to him as I wrap my fingers around the shaft of his cock and start to stroke the length of him slowly. I smile to myself when I hear him whisper "ditto" in response and he arches his back and starts to thrust into my hand.

I pull away from him for a moment, listening to him groan in frustration as my hand releases his cock. Then he opens his eyes and his gaze follows mine, towards the large tin of cooking lard we had to procure from the Church kitchen the other night when we finally used up the last remnants of the lubricant we had with us. I raise myself up onto an outstretched arm and grin down at him, arching one eyebrow suggestively and he knows what I'm thinking.

"Do it" I hear him say through gritted teeth and the words come out sounding like a gasped rush of air as his eyes fall shut and his cock twitches visibly and for a brief moment I think he's almost going to come from sheer anticipation alone.

I quickly fetch the tin from the small wooden ledge next to the bed, prising the lid open and dipping my hand into its contents. I know Mick will already be well lubricated, his passage a slippery combination of my own fluids from before and the conditioner we used as a makeshift lubricant, but for what I'm planning to do to him we need to take things up a notch.

I scoop out a generous amount of the thick viscous substance from the tin and liberally coat my fingers and hand with it, instructing him to draw up his knees and pressing my first two digits against his anus, feeling them easily slip inside his passage. He moans and arches his back when I begin to press gently upwards against the front wall of his rectum, massaging his prostate gland and causing sparks of electricity to flow through his body. I carefully slip my third finger into him then, listening to his breath start to come in short, sharp, staccato pants.

"Relax" I whisper to him and kiss the top of his forehead as I very slowly push a fourth digit inside him, forming my fingers into the shape of an arrow and then pausing for a moment to allow him time to assimilate being entered so fully before I slip my thumb in as well, my hand naturally forming into the shape of a fist as I press up further into his passage.

He loses control then, letting out a snarling hiss of pleasure and digging his heels into the mattress beneath him as he bears down and starts to fuck my hand in his arse. I can see a light sheen of perspiration form on his brow and I brush damp strands of hair from his forehead with the fingers of my other hand before reaching down and taking hold of his cock, stroking the length of him firmly from base to tip once again as he continues to impale himself on my fist, the movements of his hips becoming increasingly more frantic and uncontrolled.

He's snarling repeatedly now, his vocalisations of pleasure punctuated by cries of "oh fuck" and "God" and the sound of those words coming from his lips is driving me to the brink of insanity as I press my own erection against his thigh and thrust myself against him repeatedly.

I can't stand it any longer; I need him inside me right now. Still keeping my fist in his arse, I dip my other hand back into the tin of lard and spread some of the contents over the head of his cock before carefully manoeuvring myself over his body and hovering just above his erection.

"Mick" I call out to him sharply, trying to get his attention and then waiting for him to open his eyes and look at me, "Do you think you could possibly disengage your brain from your prostate for just one moment and help me out here" I raise an eyebrow and look at him pointedly, rolling my eyes in frustration when he's slow to respond, looking at me as if he's off in the distance somewhere before the veil of realisation finally falls over his face and he reaches down to grab hold of his cock and hold it steady for me as I lower myself down onto him.

I close my eyes and let out a soft moan as I feel his cock entering my arse and I sink down slowly onto his erection, taking the full length of him inside me and then leaning back slightly, rocking my hips back and forth over him as I feel him start to thrust up inside me and dear god in heaven it feels good and suddenly all I can think over and over again is "I love you, I love you, please god don't let this ever end", my thoughts becoming increasingly desperate and more frantic as he thrusts up into me harder and harder and I ride him into oblivion.

I'm pretty sure I'm saying those same words out loud now, half sobbing them delirious with pleasure but I'm not even certain if Mick can hear me, he's lost in his own world and then suddenly he's screaming my name and reaching for my hand, sinking his fangs sharply into my forearm as he explodes inside me and I feel the muscles in his arse start to clench rhythmically around my other hand and I'm falling with him, grabbing for his arm and sinking my own fangs deep into his wrist and oh Christ fuck Mick I love you.

I wait a few moments for the last pulsations of our orgasms to spend themselves and then carefully pull my hand from his passage, reversing the procedure I used before and collapsing on top of him, his cock still buried inside me.

"I love you" I bury my head in his shoulder and whisper to him again, my voice sounding strained and almost desperate, as he wraps his arms around my neck and strokes the back of my hair. I know I've only just said those words to him a few short moments ago but right now it suddenly feels very important that I say them again. There's a storm coming, I can sense it. I don't want to think about it either but I know it's there and I'm terrified we won't survive it. I don't want to admit that to him though, Katherine was right when she said I'm protective of him and I will be the one to batten down the hatches and help him through the maelstrom. I hope.

I don't want to think about this now. I push myself back up onto outstretched arms and grin down at him as he looks up at me and smiles that slightly crooked and adoring smile that I love so much.

"You need a break?" I ask him, arching an eyebrow and regarding him with a slightly challenging look.

He wordlessly nods his agreement and the grin on my face grows wider as I bend my head towards his ear and whisper to him, "You've got two minutes", laughing to myself as I hear him mutter the word "Fuck" under his breath.

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

"If I'd known us getting married was going to have this sort of an effect on you, I would have proposed a lot sooner." Josef let out a sniff of laughter as he lay alongside Mick and wrapped his arms around Mick's shoulders, choosing for the moment to not bring up the real reason he had just fucked Mick repeatedly for the past two hours.

"Why didn't you?" Mick disengaged himself from Josef's embrace and rolled over onto his side, propping himself up on one shoulder as he regarded Josef with a slightly quizzical look.

"I don't know." Josef replied, trying to sound as if the answer to that question didn't really matter and offering what was supposed to be an attempt at a nonchalant shrug at the same time.

"Yeah you do, Josef." Mick arched an eyebrow and gave Josef an ever so slightly challenging smile, keeping his gaze focused on Josef's face as he waited for him to respond.

"Alright Mick, you want to know why I didn't ask you to marry me sooner." Josef finally replied, taking a reluctant breath and looking up at the ceiling as if he really didn't want to continue the conversation. "In a word, Coraline."

"So let me get this straight, Josef," Mick shook his head in disbelief and looked perfectly incredulous for a moment, "you didn't ask me to marry you sooner because of my ex wife who has been dead for fifty years?"

"Yeah, pretty much." Josef's attempt at a breezily sarcastic comeback failed miserably as the words came out sounding far too forced for the effect he was going for.

"Josef," Mick shook his in disbelief once more, "that's ridiculous, why?" Mick paused for a moment, once again regarding Josef with a slightly pointed quizzical look, "So you losing the plot with our original wedding plans and turning it into a three ring circus was Coraline's fault as well?" he asked then.

"Look, I just thought you wouldn't want to go through all that again" Josef tried to reply dismissively, waving a hand through the air in front of him in what was supposed to be a gesture of 'none of this matters now'. "Besides," he added after a moment's hesitation, the tone of his voice less dismissive than before, "I just wanted to try and give you what you didn't have with Coraline."

"Right, so you basically going insane and driving me and everyone around you completely crazy, whilst you ran around in a complete flap over the most trivial of details about our wedding, that was your idea of giving me what I never had with Coraline." Mick arched an eyebrow and gave Josef another pointed look, offering him a slightly teasing grin at the same time.

"Yeah alright, Mick." Josef rolled his eyes and started to huff in response, trying his best to look as if he were entirely not comfortable with having this particular conversation with Mick, although truth be known part of him was grateful for the distraction away from any issues with a certain blonde female who was turning out to be more of a handful than what Coraline had ever been to either one of them.
"And what do you mean 'didn't want me to go through all that again'." Josef heard Mick interrupting him incredulously then, quickly adding with more than a slightly scoffing edge to his voice, "Just because things didn't work out between Coraline and me doesn't mean I was never happy with her, at all, ever. Come on Josef, you know that, you were there at the time"

"Yes, thank you Mick," Josef threw an exasperated hand in the air and then offered Mick an overtly sarcastic smile "thank you for the reminder of what it was like to watch you fawning around after Coraline like some obsessed little puppy dog when I wanted you for myself."

"I'm sorry" Mick looked momentarily surprised at Josef's out burst, "I didn't mean to…" he started to add, the expression on his face suddenly very contrite, his voice trailing off as he left the sentence unfinished.

"It doesn't matter," Josef's expression softened as he brushed aside Mick's previous words with another wave of a hand and then reached his arms around Mick's neck and pulled him back down into his embrace, "it was a long time ago now." he added softly, smiling half to himself and brushing a few stray strands of hair from Mick's forehead as Mick nuzzled his head under Josef's chin and draped an arm across his chest. "Come on, we should try and get some sleep. We'll be flying home tomorrow evening."

Mick knew their previous conversation was over at that point; even so he still couldn't resist having one last tiny dig.

"Josef?" he started to say, as he quickly disengaged himself from Josef's embrace and reached over the side of the bed to collect the bags of ice to pack around them that Josef had at least had the good sense to fetch from the kitchen, in-between their fourth, or was it fifth, fuck session.

"What Mick?"

"You're an idiot sometimes" Mick finished with a teasing grin and then laid his head back down on the pillow next to Josef's and draped his arm across his chest once more.

"Mick?"

"What? Shut up?"

"Exactly." Josef laughed and shook his head as he wrapped his arms around Mick's shoulders and drew him into his embrace once again.

And that's when the honeymoon was over.