"Say it," poisonous and sweet words dripped in Michael's ears, forcing him to draw his head to the side and squeeze his eyes shut. He just wanted to block them out.
"Say it," David repeated, grabbing Michael's face and drawing it back so that he could give his lips a hard, painful kiss. His claws digging sharply into the skin. The boy gasped for air, opening his eyes again to gaze up at his enemy and his...god, how Michael hated to think the word...but...his lover.
Writhing on the bed together, they had found a pace that suited them both. A little too fast for Michael, and a little too slow for David, but somewhere in the middle. Most nights, Michael didn't even get a choice in the matter. It would be fast and rough, painful and glorious. The kind of sex that verged on torture, with only one of the pair reaping any true enjoyment out of the experience. Then again, David always thought of his own pleasure first. In comparison to how most nights went, this practically verged on gentle by David's standards.
"Are you going to say it?" David growled into Michael's ear, grinding into him and forcing Michael to painfully dig his heels into David's back.
"What do you want me to say?" Michael asked weakly, too tired to play the game.
"What the fuck do you think I want you to say?!" David demanded, picking up his pace and shifting his hands behind Michael's back so he could dig his claws deep into his shoulder blades. There was so much blood on the bed. From victims, sometimes. But mostly from sex. They'd have to replace the sheets this week, David mused. Otherwise Thorne would just tear them up eventually if he didn't get a chance hunt down a proper meal.
"Hey, Davey, are you going to finish this pizza?" Marko called out from across the room, kicking his heels up on a beech-wood stump as he leaned back in his seat and picked at David's leftovers.
"God damn it, Marko! I told you to keep quiet if you were going to stick around when we fucked!" David snapped, glaring back at the other member of his gang. It rather ruined any semblance of romance he was trying to maintain with Michael.
"Touchy!" Marko rolled his eyes, taking that as a no and grabbing the last slice of pizza from David's plate. Food wasn't really a necessary indulgence for a vampire, but it tasted pretty good in-between feedings. And it was definitely something to do when he wasn't allowed to actually participate in any sex-related activities. David had made it quite clear on several occasions that he wasn't willing to share. And as for Michael...when he wasn't actively being banged routinely on their well-used bed, he didn't take too well to Marko's advances either. Not that he tried too often. He preferred women when the opportunity arose.
By the time both David and Michael had finally finished, Marko had also finished...off the last slice of pizza. Not nearly as satisfying as what they'd been doing, but good for passing the time.
"Davey, you should nibble his ear more often, he likes that," Marko suggested jokingly as he stood up to stretch. Morning would be coming on soon, and he was ready to call it a night. As entertaining as the live pornographic soap opera was, it was much more enjoyable to just hang out and chat. Maybe kill one or two people in the process, too. Things had gotten so dull around the caves without Paul and Dwayne to liven things up.
"If I wanted your opinion, I'd ask for it," David grumbled, pulling Michael in close so he could get a proper cuddle. It was much easier these days to get him to reciprocate. Maybe Michael was getting to enjoy it on another level, David wondered, as he inhaled the scent of Michael's hair. If they never found Dwayne and Paul's bodies, or ashes, or whatever they were now...David rather enjoyed the idea of watching Michael become less enchanted with Star over the years. Surely if he didn't have to keep his promise of letting Michael have her, the process of watching his former lover age and lose her beauty would be enough to make him more actively seek David's company. As fun as the battle of dominance and submission could be, sometimes he honestly just wanted Michael to reciprocate when he was in the mood for a good fuck.
"Just say you want this, Michael. Tell me you want me..." David whispered into his lover's ear, relaxing into the mattress and closing his eyes. They would rest together, until the heat of the approaching sun became too much to bear. Because Michael was still so stubborn, still so desperate to see the morning light again, that David was willing to make one compromise for him. He wanted to see him smile.
"I want..." Michael began, letting the last word fade on his lips. He wanted Star...that was the truth of the matter. And they both knew it...
"Hey, Star, mom wants to know if you're coming down for dinner?" Sam knocked on Star's bedroom door. It was Michael's room, but...Star's too. Nobody in the family really voiced whether or not they still thought he was coming back. But it was hard for any of them to imagine he would. He was gone...and the only person who couldn't believe it was Star.
"I don't think so, Sam. Just put my plate in the fridge," Star called back, sitting down on hers...and Michael's bed. Normally by now she would have gone down for dinner, and mentally prepared herself for another nightly search on the boardwalk. But all she really wanted to do was sleep. In her dreams, she still saw Michael, but she was able to touch him. In her dreams...he didn't disappear.
"We're all really worried about you, Star," Sam called through the door. He stood tense, unsure whether he should test the knob and talk to her face-to-face. Nobody really wanted to bring the subject of Michael up. It was painful for all of them. And Star...she was just another reminder. The choice was made for him though, when he realized he'd been standing quietly outside the door for two whole minutes.
"Go downstairs, Sam. I want to be alone," Star whispered, just loud enough for him to hear. She didn't move until she heard the sound of his footsteps fading on the wooden steps below...and when she was finally certain she was alone, star reached under her pillow to pull out a bottle of Valium. The same bottle that had been lying on Michael's bedside table, opened, the night he disappeared.
Star gazed at the little plastic talisman in her hand. As of late, she couldn't sleep without it. And since sleep was the only thing that seemed to bring her any peace now, she'd grown to depend on the little medical miracles in pill form. The pill itself didn't put her to sleep, but it took the edge off of her worries. There seemed to be so many nowadays.
She worried that Michael would never come back. She worried that maybe he would, and he wouldn't be the same anymore. Sometimes she even worried that she'd died the night he disappeared, and was merely living through the final dream before death. Whatever the truth of the matter was, she felt sure she was going absolutely insane.
By the time Star had finally settled into bed, the rest of the household had long turned in. Though she knew she would probably be exhausted the next morning when she dragged herself into work, Star couldn't shake the feeling that Michael was out there somewhere. Watching. Waiting. As she drifted off to sleep, his name was the final word on her lips. It always was.
When Michael and David were caught in the throes of bliss, and Star was finally drifting to sleep, a white dog pawed at a mound of soil half a mile away from the Emersons property. Anyone who might have seen him would have thought he'd just discovered a treasure trove of juicy bones. They wouldn't have been too far off the mark.