One Night

The song in italics is “One Night” by The Corrs. I don’t own it or Nightwalker, just playing with them for a bit!

Please be aware that this story contains scenes of a sexual nature. There is also blood exchanged between two men (because they’re vampires and that’s what they do). This fic takes place after the fic “All Souls Night”.

One Night
By: Delilah deSora

Long day and I'm ready
I'm waiting for your call

Shido sat quietly behind the wooden desk, his hands absently tracing half formed figures on the top. The building was unnaturally silent, as though waiting for the moment when night would give up its fight and slip away as the sun broke the horizon. In moments such as this it was possible for the vampire to believe he was the only person left alive on the earth.

The girls had long since gone home to get some much-needed sleep. Even Guni had slipped away to do whatever urban fairies did when they wanted to be alone. He should have been at home as well but Shido just couldn’t bring himself to leave, so he sat, hovering at an all too familiar crossroads.

He could go home or he could go . . . elsewhere. He didn’t need to ask where the elsewhere was for he could feel the familiar pull just below the surface of his skin, urging him to give into it. It wasn’t strong nor was it something he couldn’t ignore. It was like the feeling of cloth on skin, something that could be overlooked completely but still acted upon the senses, waiting for the moment when it would be noticed.

Shido was noticing the feeling now. It always seemed strongest during the breaking hours of dawn. It could have been because dawn meant he could finally relax and forget about the night’s worries or it could have been his own natural instinct pushing him to protect himself by sleeping near a source of safety but a part of him knew why his master’s silent call was so tempting during these sacrosanct hours.

He was lonely.

Over a hundred years of running was a long time to be fearful and alone. It was a long time to deny what he knew waited for him at the end of that call. It was a long time to deny what he was. It was a long time to deny what his other half meant to him.

The call was so much more seductive now. It sang to the blood inside of him, stroking memories created only a few nights ago. It throbbed in the half healed mark on his neck. It whispered to the part of him that had awoken to the satisfaction of being reunited with its mate.

The twilight brought out that part of him. He would awaken feeling tense and needful. He’d reach out before he could stop himself, searching for a solid body to satisfy its desires. It frightened him and Riho’s presence didn’t help. She flooded his senses, making him want to take her but he recalled Cain’s words. He could distance himself from his master’s touch but he couldn’t take another to satisfy himself. His mate wouldn’t allow it and after having watched Cain prove his strength Shido wasn’t going to take the chance that Cain might forgive him an encounter with the female.

Shido sighed quietly and set the hat down, standing. He could feel the sun just below the horizon and knew he had waited long enough. He needed to move on before he was graced with its wakening rays.

'Cause I've made up my mind
My heart aches with a hunger
And the want that you were mine
No I cannot deny

Once upon a time Shido hadn’t minded being crowded.

He gently picked up the book that had been left on the cushion and carefully paged through it. Yellowed parchment threatened to crack and dissolve into pieces at his touch but they held as he turned them. Words, nearly forgotten in his hundred years of flight came back to him and with them brought a myriad of new feelings to fight with the insistent urgency that he shouldn’t be here.

He heard the door open and he stiffened slightly. He should leave, he should flee, he should . . .

Long fingers filtered through the hair at the back of his neck and Shido shivered. The book fell from his hands as he was shaken by the sensations that flooded through him. An arm wrapped about his waist, pulling him back gently against the larger body of his lover.

Lips touched the skin of his neck just below his ear and he sagged back into the hold, trusting in the other’s strength to support him. Cain hovered over him and Shido closed his eyes, accepting the position that was so natural to him. He had never been an aggressive individual and he would never be a true master vampire. He could create other vampires but he could never control them. He could never lead them.

Wasn’t that what had brought him here in the first place?

He didn’t like being in control; it wasn’t natural for him. This was what was natural, to give in to a higher power, to put his trust in another.

Was that so wrong?

Stop.” He whispered, pulling weakly at the arms that held him as he felt the cloth of his shirt pulled away, baring his pale skin.

He heard a disbelieving snort and Cain tightened his hold. “No.”

A cry was wrung from his throat as sharp fangs sank into his shoulder.

So for one night
is it all right
That I give you . . .

Heat from the fire covered his chest and face while the body of the man behind him cooled the bare skin of his back. It was like he was standing on the brink between night and day. He imagined it was the warmth of the sun before him with the chill of the night wind behind.

Lips touched his temple, drawing him out of his thoughts.

“What time is it?” He murmured, trying to summon the strength to rise.

A dry laugh escaped the older vampire’s lips. “What is time to us?”

He frowned. “I have to go back, I have things that must be done.”

A gentle hand rolled him onto his back and he stared up at the man above him. Cain dipped his head but paused a breath’s away from his goal. “I would take that from you,” he whispered, “I would give you an eternity of this.”

Shido closed his eyes, trying to stir the hate he harbored against this man but he could not formulate the thought. He couldn’t feel anything but the rapture that the vampire’s feeding had created within him. With a sigh he opened his eyes, staring up at the golden-eyed creature. “You would give me an eternity of nothing.”

Cain’s lips touched his and he groaned, opening to his lover’s mouth. Fangs threatened his lips but even this act could not stir fear or anger within him. When Cain moved to lay a kiss on his cheek Shido found he only felt the tender emotions he had discovered during long forgotten nights in a castle under the pregnant moon.

“I would give you an eternity of pleasure. I would give you everything. You know that.”

“You will not give me my freedom.”

Cain licked his shoulder, sending a wave of pleasure through him. “I have given you even that, my love. For one night, I would give you freedom from your guilt, from your quest, from your pain and hate. For one night I would give you freedom from yourself.”

“And from you? When will you give me that?” Shido asked.

Silent laughter rippled across his skin. “When you come to your senses and stop running down this foolish path you have made for us.”

Shido snorted, reaching up to tangle his hands in Cain’s golden mane. “Then all we shall have is one night.” He whispered, pressing his lips to the graceful curve of his lover’s neck.

“Then I shall have to pray that the world stops and makes this one night an eternity for us.”

My heart
My love
My heart
Just for one night

When the blood slowed he pulled away, staring at the ever-changing patterns of the fire as his mate laid him back gently. He groaned, feeling the strange mixture of heightened senses and dulled reality as Cain’s blood flowed through him. He could feel it, like liquid gold racing through his veins.

He watched as the fair-haired vampire lifted his arm, cradling it against his chest. “Will you allow this?”

He nodded, watching as though he were a million miles away yet as close to the other man as possible as Cain kissed his wrist before biting. There was no pain as his flesh was opened and his blood spilt. When his lover moved to repeat the action on his own wrist Shido stopped him, reaching up to draw the pale hand to him. He mirrored his mate’s actions, kissing chilled skin before biting deeply.

Cain pressed their wrists together and Shido arched up, capturing the other man’s mouth. A hand filtered through his hair to cup the back of his head and he sighed contentedly, feeling something pleasantly frigid wrap about his very being. Groaning as the ephemeral touch constricted almost painfully he pressed tighter against the man it was binding him to.

A growl rumbled in his mate’s chest and he was forced back against the floor. With a snarl he bit the vampire holding him down. Cain reared back with a started gasp and Shido answered the gasp with a growl of his own.

They stared at each other in silence for a moment before Cain sucked away the blood seeping from his lip and backed down, dipping his head to lick apologetically at his neck. Shido relaxed, accepting the request for forgiveness. When his mate moved to kiss him again it was on an equal footing. Pleased with the apology, Shido licked at the wound he had given until it closed.

My body
My soul
Just for one night

He was forced to content himself with lying still as his mate played his body. A hand ran along his side, teasing his ribs and he hissed, squirming slightly until it slid down his hip and over his thigh. With a groan he parted his legs, enjoying the feel of nimble fingers dancing over sensitive flesh.

Staring into the fire he could feel his mate’s excitement and joy. It caused warm feelings to course through him. Why had he thought this was wrong? Why had he thought that he could live without this? How had he forgotten how it felt to truly live? Feeling his mate’s hands on his body and his presence in his mind was the closest he could get to feeling human. His golden hued mate was the sun in his dark night. Cain’s bitter kisses warmed his body as surely as the golden rays, his touch was the gentle breeze of summer, his love . . .

Cain’s love was the eternal light that made him alive.

Just as the sun Cain could burn too brightly and burn him and just as the sun Cain’s jealously could strike down even those he nourished but just as the sun’s seasons passed his anger would always fade and he could be the comfort and hope when Shido found himself wandering too long in winter’s eternal night.

Like now, Shido mused.

My love
My love
For one night
One night
One night

Shido blinked and turned away from the fire to stare down at his mate. Cain’s head rested on his stomach, his free hand lightly rubbing his hip. Shido flushed slightly, realizing that he had been ignoring his attentive lover.

“Nothing. Everything. Things I cannot say. Things that I fear.”

Cain rose, shifting slightly so that they lay next to each other. Long fingers brushed his violet hair back behind his ears before resting on the side of his face. “I feel the turmoil within you. I have always felt it. It grows and it grows. It frightens me with its intensity.”

Shido closed his eyes, feeling a great mass of fear and sadness welling within him, breaking through the rapture his mate had given him with his sharp kiss. “I don’t . . . I don’t understand anything anymore. Everything has become so confused. I hate this, yet I love it. A part of me says this is wrong yet a part of me cries out that this is what I have always searched for. How can it be so wrong yet so right? How can you be both wrong and right?” He opened his eyes and gazed imploringly at his master.

Cain was silent for a time, gently brushing his hand across the tears that Shido did not remembering shedding. Finally he took a deep breath and released it. “It is because of the truths you have made for yourself. You exist in a world that is neither black nor white. Neither day nor night. It is both,” A finger slipped between his lips, catching the curve of a fang and making him groan as Cain teased the muscles that extended the canine, “You are a vampire, a nightwalker, yet you yearn to be something else. You yearn so much to be human that you have convinced yourself that a part of you is. To your mind you are neither a nightwalker nor a daywalker. I am a part of you; the part of the you that acknowledges that it is a vampire so the part of you that vampire recognizes that while the part of you that is convinced it is human must reject me since humans cannot have what we have. Therefore I am both right and wrong in your world.”

Cain released him and he sighed, burying his face in his hair. “What must I do?”

His mate kissed him gently. “You must decide, Shido. You must chose which world you live in. Because you can not live in both.”

“But how do I decide? I cannot live as a human, no matter how much I wish to. I cannot live in the daylight and eat food.”

“Then live in the night, Shido, with me. Accept what you are. What we are together.”

He shook his head. “I can’t Cain.”

His mate caught his chin. “But you can!”

“I will not be part of this ‘golden dawn’ that so consumes you!”

Cain clicked his tongue in irritation. “I have never required that of you! All I ask is that you are with me, at my side, even if it is at court. Surely you can at least return to our own people with me!”

Shido pulled away gently. “No, I can’t! I won’t hurt humans. I won’t take their lives and those at court, at any court we go to, will see that as weakness. I’m not a master vampire. Even if I defeat those that challenge me there will always be more because I can only rise so far in rank and the other master vampires will see me as a threat to their superiority. They’ll turn on me, Cain. It will be a death sentence to go back.”

“Not if you go back as my consort!”

Shido hissed and bared his fangs in anger.

Cain held up his hand in supplication. “I know you dislike that idea, love, but we would know the truth and it would give you protection. Nobody would have the power to challenge you or order you to do anything you did not wish.”

“I will not be your plaything!” Shido snapped, “Not in reality and not in name! I may not be a master vampire but I am not a sniveling weakling looking to sell my body to a stronger vampire for protection! I will die before I allow anyone to think that of me!”

Cain sighed. “As endearing as that fire in you may be, love, it does display itself at the most inopportune of times and over the most trivial of things.”

“You may lead our dance, Cain, but you do not control me.”

“I know.”

His mate smiled and Shido grunted as he was pressed back to the floor by a heated kiss. Cain’s body covered his and he gasped into his lover’s mouth as they rubbed together. A strong hand caught his thigh and pushed it up, opening him to his mate’s fingers. He cried out in desire as feather light touches made his flesh sing in pleasure.

Cain pulled away from him, golden eyes shinning predatorily. “I do not control you, Shido, but I will make you mine.”

An impatient finger slipping past his lips and pressing lightly on his tongue cut off Shido’s reply. He sucked on the appendage as his mate dropped his head to kiss the side of his throat.

“But I only do that because it is what you want of me, because you allow it,” Cain sat up and reached back making the violet haired vampire shudder as he opened him, “remember that when you are making up my list of sins tomorrow.”

“I know exactly what is going on the top of that list if you don’t shut up and start acting rather than sitting up there and talking.” Shido growled, bucking slightly.

The golden haired vampire tossed his head back and laughed, his long hair brushing his mate’s desire and making him tremble. “As you wish it so shall it be done.” Cain replied, climbing off of his mate’s stomach and settling the smaller body in his lap.

Shido closed his eyes in bliss when pale lips kissed his cock lovingly. A devilish tongue teased him until he was gasping for air and nearly slithered off his mate’s lap. Cain growled as the smaller man’s actions excited the creature within him that sensed it has its prey at its mercy. He could feel his instincts taking control and he felt the vampire within him sing through their trapped wrists into his mate.

Golden eyes glared at him hotly and he rose, feeling his body find the correct position against its other half. With a snarl he pushed forward, feeling their bodies move against each other in a rhythm that was all their own. He kept pushing until he lay on top of his trembling mate. His mouth found the faint mark on the pale throat and he bite hard, driving sensitive fangs deep into his mate’s flesh.

Shifting his knees to find the correct leverage he pulled back, lifting Shido’s limp body up onto his lap. He felt his lover’s chin rest on his shoulder as his free hand snake around his back. Closing his jaws tighter he heard the violet haired vampire whimper slightly before Shido rose up on his knees. Cain groaned as he felt himself slid almost completely out of his mate’s body before Shido collapsed back onto his lap, driving him hard back into the tight sheath. A grunt escaped from Shido but he was soon rising again. Over and over his mate rose and fell. When the pace quickened Cain clung to the pale creature, holding him steady.

Soon the pleasure threatened to overwhelm him and he lost his grip on his mate’s neck. He buried his face in the violet hair, crying out his passion as his lover rode him. He was only vaguely aware of Shido’s nails digging deep furrows in his back but when delicate fangs sank into his neck he gave over to the flood of ecstasy his mate’s sharp kiss created within him.

With a scream of pleasure he tightened his grip, pouring his seed deep within the vibrant creature. Shido’s bite became even more intense as his mate came. Cain held him, stroking the violet haired that was an endless source of fascination for him, as Shido sobbed violently. He could feel the turmoil of emotions flowing within his mate as they poured through the bond the two vampires had just completed.

When morning awakes me
Well I know I'll be alone
And I feel I'll be fine
So don't you worry about me
I'm not empty on my own
For inside I'm alive

As he dressed and licked the blood off of his arm he smiled. He could feel Shido stirring in his coffin across the city. His mate drifted in a haze of wakefulness for a few moments before finally giving into the morning’s call and slipping back into the deep sleep of the vampire.

He hadn’t been surprised to awake and find his one obsession gone. For one night he had been given the chance to remind his wayward mate of what he was and what he could have if he would just ask but Cain knew that Shido was not ready to give him more than that. But, he mused as he drifted through the heavily shaded rooms of his home, it was enough.

There would be another night. He had an eternity and after all, what was eternity if not an endless dance of nights?

And what other dawn could break an eternity of nights if not a golden one?

Cain threw back the heavy drapes and stared out over the city.

With a feral grin he laughed.

That for one night
It was so right
That I gave you
My heart
My love
My heart
Just for one night
My body
My soul
Just for one night
My love
I loved
For one night
One night
One night