WARNING: SMUT
Nikola had no idea how the old bed did not give up the ghost after all the pounding Dimitri did on him, but it was still in one piece.
The sheets were a mess, the room smelled of sweat and come. The open window did nothing for the heat.
Dimitri was still kissing him.
"I can't believe it," Nikola had expected many things.
He had expected for the airplane of his undead lover to refuse to fly. He had expected said lover to get tired, eventually.
But he had not expected for the man to still explore him like a map.
Dimitri bit inside his skin once more. He began to drink blood. Just a sip. Just enough to get Nikola's toes to curl up.
"You are… ach," Nikola didn't get to finish the sentence.
The airplane, still inside him, was flying again.
He closed his eyes. Letting more and more of the Selkie's mana out of his system. Thoughts about death by water, claw, or fire were long forgotten.
Sleep was but an unreachable dream.
****
When night fell, Dimitri finally spent himself one last time and rolled off him.
The bed, by some miracle, was still in one piece.
"Did you pay a lot to the carpenters?" Nikola was not proud that this little teasing of his was spoken only after the fourth attempt.
"Hm?" Dimitri asked, as he hugged Nikola and pulled him so, that the man could rest his head on his chest.
"I said: did you cover the carpenters who made this bed with gold for the good work?" Nikola finally managed to get out, feeling a bit more collected.
"I made the bed," Dimitri said, as he petted Nikola on the ass. "And I take the compliment in good grace."
"You? You can do carpentry?" Nikola asked, as he raised himself on his elbow so he could look his lover in the eyes. "Why didn't you mention it?"
"Well, dearest," Dimitri winked at him. Now, that Nikola knew what sort of promise that wink hid, he was not ashamed when his mouth watered.
If he only wasn't so tired. The entire day…
He wondered if he could walk after this.
"One has to have a hobby for the eternity. Or one is lost. My hobby was making furniture a couple of years ago. Then it was to cook. Care to give me a suggestion for my next hobby?"
"Language learning?" Nikola had always wanted to learn more than just English and Bulgarian, but he had problems with it.
"Why?" Dimitri asked, as he shifted Nikola so, that the man fell on his chest once more.
"We can see the world," Nikola had savings. He could invest, now that he knew that eternity was knocking on his door. "Do you think… will I age?"
Druids were a thing of the past. If there were any now, Nikola didn't know of them.
But the truth was, that most of the myths spoke of old men with white beards.
Nikola didn't fancy being a senior citizen until the end of time. Just how many good years did he have left in him?
"The druids who don't eat souls end up old and die. But… well, that ship has sailed for you," there was a note of something akin to sadness in Dimitri's voice. Nikola wondered why that was.
"You ate the Selkie. Your digestive track has, let us say, adapted to eating souls and raw meat. Which is why you have your… trial."
Nikola furrowed his brows. So, if he had never eaten the Selkie, he could have just grown old and never gotten to be a druid?
He voiced that question. He got a gentle hand in his sweet-drenched hair.
"No. You would have still been a druid. Just not someone who lives forever. It is complicated and as I told you before, love, I am only 150."
Nikola wanted to snort at that. Man, he was just twenty-five, and he had gotten himself someone who was nearing his two hundreds.
But, darn, Dimitri really didn't behave like someone who was going to be walking with a cane soon.
"Just a question," Nikola wanted to learn more. There was something Dimitri was not telling him.
How else had the vampire known that to save him, he had to feed him the Selkie? How had he captured the monster's soul?
"Yes?" Dimitri's eyes were shining. Nikola thought about all the times they had shown before.
Back when they first met. Back when Nikola had the missing children on his mind.
Back when Dimitri was a threat.
And not just that.
But also back when Dimitri was sipping from the Selkie and was feeding him raw meat.
The vampire wanted to keep a sense of control. He wanted to show Nikola that he was not to be messed with.
But Nikola had spent the last day in the man's arms. Had heard him yell out his name, to chant it, even.
The time when Dimitri could stop him with a parlor trick was long since done with.
"If I don't eat souls, what will happen?"
Nikola needed to know. He didn't care that the question was uncomfortable. He didn't care that Dimitri's eyes were shining like a predator's at night.
"You will lose yourself. You will take the souls from whatever you can," Dimitri pointed at the window.
Some of the grass outside the cabin still looked dry and had a yellow tint to it.
Despite all the mana Nikola had let out in the air.
"Oh," it was all clear for him now. He was not someone who was going to escape his fate if he was unwilling to face the fact.
"I am a monster."
For a moment, Dimitri's eyes stopped shining. Then he sighed.
"For you, I am a monster as well, then? Damned?" The vampire asked him. "If I can live with blood from animals, who is to say that you can't share in my bounty?"
Nikola buried his nose in Dimitri's neck. His scent was driving him insane, even now.
"Love," Dimitri let out a growl. A growl meant as a warning.
But Nikola still had some of the Selkie's mana in him. The grass outside was not healthy yet.
This time it was him who straddled his lover and began to rock his hips.
"What happened to you being tired?" Even as Dimitri said it, he still took hold of Nikola's tights.
Nikola leaned in.
"Take my mind off things," he whispered.
How could he tell the vampire just how much he wanted to devour him? How could he tell him that he was probing the man's mana?
Learning from it?