And No Other by Te 8/98 Disclaimers: If I could, I would take them and hold them and squeeze them forever and ever and ever. And make them like it. Spoilers: Doubtful. Summary: Everything falls apart. Ratings Note: NC-17 for m/m sex and violence. Woo-hoo. Warnings: Dark. Read the summary again. One more time. There ya go. Vampires. Blood. In various combinations. Author's Note: Another moment from the "A Love of Dead Things" universe. Chronologically: Freeze This Night Never So Alive The Idea of Forever And No Other Time Acknowledgments: To Viridian, and Dawn Sharon, in the hope that this answers a question or two. To my Sister Blue, in the hope that we do a little better than this. Thanks: To Di, for translating Tespeak and dragging me out of the black pit of artistic suffering. To Dawn Sharon, for still more dragging. And, of course, to Alicia for the brutality I so desperately need. Any remaining mistakes, squicks, and/or ambiguities are entirely my own fault. And No Other by Te Daddy793@aol.com ****** //We could we could... //We could dance all night--// Mulder was adrift in the darkness, sprawled along the poorly soundproofed back wall of the theater, chafing himself against the choreographed groans of the movie, against the scent of desperation and thick, thick blood. Alex was already in motion. Prowling the aisles... //My killer.// It was hard not to laugh; the slow wave of turned heads following his lover's progress was almost farcical. Alex was beautiful in the strobic flash of creamy thighs, moderately terrifying cocks; beautiful always. The familiar form was symmetrical again--he always wore the prosthesis for these outings. The wicked flash of the hook, now... That was new. ****** Thump of bass outside and below their apartment. Unseasonably warm this Virginia //I don't want to stay here. //*They* are here. Some of them. Give it a few more weeks...// fall and the children were out and about. The music snapped his eyes open, dragged him out of rest, into the vague pain of just- past-sunset, into hunger. Alex was asleep, though the clear, pale forehead was creased in incipient irritation. There was still a subtle flush to his body, a memory of warmth. He had fed last night. It was all right to pet the fine flank, let his fingers wander in search of the artery. Gradually, the body gained a different sort of stillness as Alex awoke. Subtle shift and the lean form was a little closer, the legs spread a little wider, and he could watch and wait and there was the pulse he was waiting for, a shade of excitement. Older than reason, younger than self and so so good, even before he dove in, just to know he could, knowing Alex would let him take it all... //You give to make me crave you, I take to do the same.// Today, though, he was only allowed a few moments to feed before the hand buried itself in his hair, tugged him closer to where Alex wanted him. Mulder pulled out at his own pace, allowed a thin trail of blood to mark his progress up the younger man's body. "So wasteful, beloved..." Languid smile brushed pale cheek, smudging, daubing. "You have so much, Alex." Alex scowled dramatically, rolled out from under the covers to sit on the edge of the bed, casually dislodging Mulder. "I didn't plan on feeding again tonight." //No one interesting left to kill?// It was just a game, but Mulder was abruptly irritable. Six months of this strange model of domesticity, of being told what he could and could not do... Not surprisingly, Mulder could see Alex's shoulders stiffen, despite the fact he hadn't said a word. He was growing accustomed to the younger man's occasional bouts of empathy... though they weren't any less irritating because of that familiarity. "We haven't hunted together for weeks, Mulder..." There was a hint of a plea in the soft words. "We don't care for the same grounds." Alex let himself fall back on the rumpled bed and the older man couldn't help but take in the spare and subtle curves of his form, reach out to dabble in the drying blood. //Instinct...?// Small, meaningless patterns on flesh that didn't quite jump under the brush of his fingertips.... He had taken too much. Mulder lapped his fingers clean before gazing at the calmly wicked face. "Come out with me tonight." "Where, Alex?" And the other man was up and moving, that snakelike strike of a kiss that never failed to make him gasp, never failed to leave one or both of them wounded again, if only briefly. "New grounds..." ****** Mulder watched the younger man pause, considering, between two of the middle rows. Voices were raised a little too loudly for this game, hope and want, shocked arousal from the chosen one. Mulder drifted closer, knowing he was only a flicker among shadows, settled in on the other side of "Meet Tim, Mulder." //Is this the way it has to be, tonight?// "H-hey... you two know each other? That's cool. That's cool." Tim turned away from Alex to face him, smile a little nervously. "So, uh... did you guys want a threesome? Want me to suck you..." The words trailed off as Alex trailed the ice-cold hook along the man's neck. It made him jerk, twist interestingly and gasp. Shift of the orgiasts onscreen and there was a wash of false silver across Tim's hair. Freshly washed-- obviously not a regular. Alex had worked his hand over to cup the bulge in the man's pants, slipped him out and began to stroke gently. Mulder watched, fascinated, as sweat broke out over the thin upper lip. The hook was still against Tim's nape. "Unnh..." Mulder dove in and lapped away the sweat... just as thin and salty as any junk food. "I don't know about this kinky s-stuff." Whiskey chuckle from Alex and Mulder pulled away, ran a thumb over the trembling mouth. Alex leaned in, whispered in Tim's ear. "I know." Slash across the carotid and Mulder was there and ready, Alex catching the breathy scream with a kiss as he continued to stroke with brutal efficiency. Tim was a glyph of tortured passion, arching into Alex's hand even as his struggles to get away from Mulder weakened. Mulder fought the urge to settle in, knew they were already drawing too much attention. No casual observer could call this quick and dirty, no careful one call it anything but what it was. He wanted to finish it quickly, blunt the hunger for another few days, get back home to the quiet. Alex, however, had other ideas. Just as the heartbeat began slowing, far, far too soon, his prize was ripped away. Sickening crack hidden by the snap of black leather on the screen, ragdoll slumped in the seat. This wasn't the way it went. "What... what ever happened to "discretion above all things," Alex?" The frustration in his voice was maddening. "Good news, Mulder. We're leaving." Flash of guilt, remembrance made the older man's voice hoarse. "I'm not done, yet... I have--" "Conspiracies to uncover, former employers of mine to kill, I know..." //Am I a joke to you? //Am I just kidding myself?// "... done *here*. I got word just before I came in this morning: Better pickings to the North. You were already asleep." Affectionate slide of hook over his cheek. Harder than the hand, true, but still a little warmer. Mulder leaned into the touch on a whim to make the younger man smile, perhaps lose some of that smug control. When it came again, the voice was a little more needful, a little easier to take. "They're on the run, Mulder. We've been... successful." "And this?" Alex began to lean close, glared at the obstacle irritably for a moment before throwing it to the floor. Lapping kisses to remove all trace of Tim from the older man's face, an expansive gesture at the rest of the audience. "This.... This is your farewell party." ****** "Who do you want, Mulder?" The voice was at his ear, and it hurt. Everything hurt. He had awoken to darkness broken only by the pale flesh driving above him, groin to groin; his entire body was aflame. //My new life?// Rough tongue in his ear and he hadn't been this sensitive since middle school, couldn't stop arching up to meet the thrusts of his new lover. "Tell me who.... Anyone you want." "What... What do you mean?" Rock hard and pulling pulling... he felt burnt, cut open and husked. The only blood in his body was pooled in his genitals and nipples, the rest was cold and aching for... //Oh, Jesus...// Alex paused then, positioned himself to look into the older man's eyes, a little humor, a little question, hunger to match his own. "I don't know, Alex..." //Don't make me choose.// "I have some ideas." Gentle smile. Impossible to darken it further than some benign roguishness. "Tonight we'll follow my lead, all right?" He could smell the younger man. Nothing like the intriguing musk that night in the cell //And what if we'd taken it further, then?// but still lovely. He could almost tell himself his reaction was solely due to the new drives ruling his body, even allowing himself a moment to drift, wondering how long it would take his baser nature to be subsumed *this* time.... But then the scent increased. Alex had slashed his own chest, was slathering his fingers in the wound. There was a blink of time, a moment of feeling so pure as to be undefinable. Rage and lust, melted and tempered, merged and he was on the younger man, stabbing at the slash with his tongue, doing his best to gnaw it wider with Alex's silent approval. Everything he was physically was trying to tell him just how right this was, from the involuntary curl and spike of his tongue, to the thighs that widened to take Alex's slick fingers. "Jesus, you have no idea how long I've wanted this..." Some complicated spin, the distinct impression that this would've been painful once, and he was straddling the younger man. The move had ripped him away from the wound, which was closing itself rapidly without his attentions. Mulder nearly mewled. "Shh, shh, this'll make it better. Focus on this, Mulder..." Twist of clever fingers inside and it was almost ridiculous that something so //human// simple could still affect him this way. He felt himself arching, bucking shamelessly and there was almost a drive to let it all //merge// flow through him and for just a moment he was snapped back into the *need*, every cell howling for blood and yes he could think that now but Alex was adding another finger and it was all one and all right, just fine to be thirst, to let your body make all the demands necessary. Alex was bright, gleaming, eyes flickering ceaselessly over his body, its shifts and rolls. Mulder let his own gaze fall pointedly to Alex's cock. "You want this?" Mulder tore his own wrist open. Alex hissed, thrust into the stream. "No more teases." The older man felt another wave of want hit him, confusing in its difference and intensity, but then Alex was removing his hand.... Briefly, terrifyingly, Mulder felt his hand ache to dart for the flexing wrist, grasp and hold it right there. Forever. Time shuddered for Mulder, blink and he was bereft, gasp and he was guiding himself to Alex's cock. Kiss of slick but tacking flesh, too cool but needed, slow rock to be joined. "Alex--" "Do it, I want to watch you--" Mulder rode him at his own pace, surrounded by iron and sharp little cries, filthy with himself and his lover. There was no redemption in this, just the useless coda to a drama that had already ended. Irresistible self-indulgence and Mulder wanted, desperately, to weep for it but there was a slick-sticky fist on his cock, and a husky voice calling his name and there was nothing to do but surrender, nothing to be but pleasured. ****** Mulder stared at Alex for a long moment, helpless to avoid seeing *precisely* how they'd gotten here... just what he'd allowed himself to become. The sex had only left him hungrier, malleable. Alex had only to point at the first one, whisper vaguely of crimes, //I would've killed anyone at that point...// and he had attacked. //This is all I have, now.// He watched the frown gather itself behind the too-observant olive eyes. Waited for the pain. //I will indulge myself in everything, Alex. Everything.// "If this is my party..." "Yes?" //So eager...// "I want to choose my own favors." He smiled then, lush and wicked, and Alex's reaction was sweetly, predictably immediate. "Anything you want, Mulder." ****** End. ****** Partially inspired by the song "Siamese Twins" by The Cure... thanks for that, too, Viridian.