IV
Edwards hunts him.
He picks his scent up near a hotel, follows it to a kebab shop, loses it near a subway and finds it once again outside a school. He traces him through the streets. He snatches bits of him outside cheap food stalls or on the corner of a road, right by the curb. Then he smells him on the jacket of a man and he finds the boy down the next alley.
He's sitting on a faded, pale pink mattress, splotched yellow and grey. The light from a window two floors above catches in his eyelashes and they glint like gold dust. Slim, little fingers clutch a note book; neat white teeth dig into his bottom lip. His brow is puckered in confusion.
And then, as Edward watches, the boy freezes and slowly he raises his eyes. The blood drains from his face and his book slips from his fingers. He's on his feet in a moment but he seems to know better than to run.
Edward approaches him slowly, like you would a cornered animal. He doesn't want to frighten the boy. His shoes click against the bricks under his feet.
As he draws closer the boy's fingers reach back, touching the wall behind him as though to make sure it's still there. But he doesn't take his eyes of Edward. Even when he comes as close as he can without touching. Even when Edward raises one finger to hover before the boy's quivering lips.
It's almost more than Edward can bear when the boy's eyes cross. He tilts his head and smooths his thumb across one cheek.
When he does so the boy's eyelids flutter.
"I can't stop thinking about you," they both say at once.
The boy catches his breath. There's tremulous fear and desire in his heavy-eyed gaze. He touches Edward's wrist and rises on to his tiptoes. Their noses bump. And Edward catches his lips with his own.
"Ouch," the boy mutters instantly and pulls away abruptly, breaking their kiss. Blood stains his lips and his fingers tremble as they press to his mouth.
Edward crashes their mouths together fiercely, sucking the boy's lower lip into his mouth.
The boy gasps hard and Edward moans.
Little, bloody fingerprints pattern Edward's shirt where the boy's nails dig into him.
Later, Edward takes him quick and rough, burying his teeth in his jugular once again. By the time he's finished the boy is unconscious, his head lolling from side to side. Edward catches him, holding him close and licking his neck to stem the flow of blood. He carefully lays him down and arranges the blankets around him. A trickle of blood runs under the neck of his tee-shirt. Once again he tucks five hundred quid into the boy's pocket.
He's about to leave him when he notices the book on the floor. He bends and picks it up. It falls open to the last page. The boy writes like a child. Maths equations scribbled across the crisscross of lines. There's a textbook open on the ground next to it. Edward looks around.
There's a pen too.
/ \
Jasper wakes with the dawn the next morning. He's about to roll over and try to keep on sleeping when he remembers his forgotten homework. He stretches out his back, tracing the extra scar on his throat. It still feels hot under his fingertips. He finds his book on the mattress next to him. There is also a plastic box of four pastries and a bottle of water and two new blankets. He picks up the book and it opens up to the last page. A scrap of paper flutters from between the pages. Jasper picks at his absently as he scans the page and realises all his homework has been completed. He smiles and looks down at the note. See you soon.