Roleplay City
Infusco => INFUSCO: Enter The Shadows => Alternate Realities => Topic started by: Trillian on December 30, 2009, 09:42:33 PM
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IT WAS A COLDER NGHT than most, and Ben was having more trouble than usual staying warm. He\'d started a fire at the back of the alley, but the flickering flames and promising warmth had drawn some vagrants a great deal tougher than him, who\'d chased him away from the flames and the meal he\'d been cooking, ready to eat. Half a sausage wasn\'t much of a meal, but was all he\'d managed to scavenge that night and now it wasn\'t even in his belly.
He was closer to the mouth of the alley now, away from the flames and huddled in his clothes in the middle of a bunch of discarded printed paper. He wasn\'t schooled in reading, but he knew that the pages would insulate him well if he shoved them down his shirt and kept them to his skin. His feet were freezing and the bindings around his toes were coming loose. He would lose his toes in the next few nights to frostbite, he thought, if he didn\'t get some better bindings soon. He\'d have to run the risk of thievery again, to steal some warmth from those who sold it to those who didn\'t really need it because they had a room to stay in and fireplaces to keep them warm. The last place he wanted to be were the city prisons; he wouldn\'t last in there, he knew.
He could hear people approaching from the street and slunk further into the shadows, against the wall and the garbage along it, keeping out of sight. They were laughing and talking, a couple of males by the sound, and he\'d heard tales of some of them beating up on street trash. Street trash like him. He didn\'t want to attract their attention.
He got it anyway, even though he was in the darkest shadow and curled up into a tiny ball, one of the two men glanced in (and there were a couple of boys his age trailing along after them, and they were all well dressed) and stopped his gait. He was tall and blonde, looking right at Ben even though Ben knew he shouldn\'t be able to see him in the dark, in the shadows, and he entered the alley, while the other man and the other two boys drew to a stop, watching him.
Ben held his breath, lowering his gaze in case his eyes were giving him away in the brief light from the fire further up the alley. Perhaps they\'d glistened and that was what had captured the well-dressed gent\'s attention. Even as quiet as he was, he could feel the other approaching, and the hairs on his nape prickled. His stomach, however, didn\'t sense the danger quite so much as it sensed it\'s lack of food, and so it growled unhappily, reminding Ben that he really had to feed himself.
He looked up to see where the blonde man had gone, just in time to see a flash of a pale hand grip him by his ragged collar and haul him up to his feet by it. Ben released a soft cry of alarm, not daring to yell out. Held with easy strength against the wall while his feet balanced on tip toes, Ben stared at the shadowy figure that was the ponytailed blonde before him. Cold fingers gripped his chin and turned his face to and fro before an invasive finger worked its way between his lips in order to check his teeth.
"Pretty, though dirty," came the critique, and on the street came a few giggles, from the blonde\'s entourage. "How much do you charge, boy?" The man wiped his hand on his vest while Ben struggled to answer.
"I don\'t," he said in a voice just over a whisper. "I don\'t have anything to sell."
The blonde gent scoffed, still holding Ben up by his collar rigidly, so Ben couldn\'t get away even if he bothered to try - and he didn\'t. It would be four against one even if he got anywhere, and there was nowhere to go.
"You have a pretty face and a tongue that seems to work. How much to have you on your knees?" he asked, letting Ben know exactly what his proposition was. The comment attracted a few more sniggers, and Ben wondered if this was something the blonde did often; paying a whore to service him while the others watched for sport.
"I don\'t charge anything. I don\'t do that."
This seemed to give the blonde pause, and Ben was lowered to his feet properly, though the hold didn\'t loosen.
"You live on the street, yes?" he was questioned.
"Yes."
"So how do you get money?"
"I don\'t."
"So how do you eat?"
Ben paused, not wanting to describe how he sifted through other people\'s garbage for scraps, like a mutt would, and how he tried his best not to steal, but sometimes he had to.
"I eat whatever I find," he admitted finally, after a slight shake from the blonde to prompt him.
"So you scavenge. Explains your smell."
More giggles, and Ben turned that way to look at them, except he was stopped by a hand on his chin once more, forced to look in front.
"Never mind them," the blonde hissed, his face immediately before Ben\'s own. "How long have you been on the street?"
"Since... since I was twelve."
"And how old are you now?"
"Fifteen, I think," he said, knowing roughly his age by counting winters. His birthday was always during winter, so it made sense to age himself that way, and knew his age by taking note of each winter he survived through.
"What\'s your name?"
"Ben."
There was another pause, with his face held in place by his chin, and so he kept eye contact with the blonde man even though he couldn\'t properly see him in the dark. He wondered how the blonde had managed to see him so well, and figured there must\'ve been a sliver of moonlight on him to give him away.
"Hello, Ben. I, am Lazarus," he said, announcing himself in a manner that implored Ben\'s response.
"Pleased to meet you," he said as politely as he dared, hoping that Lazarus would show him mercy and release him, though in his heart he knew that the blonde wanted something more out of him. He was entertainment, he knew, and he hoped that the entertainment would end here, with an insult and then to leave him be while he returned with his entourage to his nice, warm home.
Lazarus laughed at the comment Ben made, and dropped his hold on Ben\'s chin, the hold on his collar loosening in order to slide his hand over Ben\'s right shoulder, his thumb at the base of Ben\'s throat. He turned away from Ben, to look at his friend and his boys, and spoke to the other man.
"Rigby, have the coach brought here," he ordered before turning his gaze to Ben, who felt rather than saw the others continue on, leaving him alone in the mouth of the alley with the blonde. His heart began to beat faster for some reason, like Lazarus was more dangerous when he wasn\'t being watched - even by his friends. "Calm down, boy," he was told, like Lazarus knew he was beginning to panic.
"What do you want?" Ben had just enough strength to ask, though he didn\'t have much power in his voice. He had terrible thoughts of being toyed with, murdered and discarded. He was only a street urchin after all, boys like him were found dead all the time.
"I want to take you to my house and feed you, so you\'re not so skinny and your stomach not so loud, and bathe you, so you\'re not so dirty and your smell not so rank," Lazarus said, screwing up his nose which Ben could hear in his tone more than seeing it with his eyes, "and once you\'re pretty, I\'ll have you in my bed."
Ben\'s mouth felt dry and his head swam with the prospect of being raped, his visions of being toyed with and then killed and discarded were becoming more real by the minute.
"I don\'t want to," he said, risking angering Lazarus.
"You would prefer to live on the street than be in my home?" Lazarus challenged.
"I don\'t want to be raped," he clarified, which brought another laugh from Lazarus, while his fingers left Ben\'s shoulder and throat in order to clutch his hair at the back of his head.
"Oho, I won\'t rape you, Ben. I\'ll have you willing. All my boys have come from the street. I give them a nice place to live, to eat and not be hungry, to sleep and not be cold. They do whatever they can to thank me. They love me, for changing their lives for the better."
Ben said nothing, though he suspected Lazarus paused in order for him to. When the silence continued, so did Lazarus.
"Don\'t you want to be off the streets, boy? Somewhere warm, happy and loving? You\'ve been dealt a rough hand, and you\'ve done well to survive so far. I\'m impressed by you, by your honesty, by your cleverness. Don\'t you deserve a chance for something better? You saw those two boys with me, yes?" Lazarus waited for a nod from Ben and got one, though slight. "They were just like you, on the street, too proud to whore until they had to, to survive. I took them away from that, gave them a place to stay in my house, now they\'re happy, with full bellies, warmth, love and laughter around them. Tell me you don\'t want that."
"I..." Ben began, but he couldn\'t say it. He wanted it, oh yes, he did, and the silvery tongued Lazarus knew it. "I don\'t want to sell myself to get it," he whispered.
"You won\'t have to, to get it. You\'ll climb into my bed for no reason other than wanting to," Lazarus promised. "In gratitude."
Ben said nothing, and they stared at each other until the clip clop of horses distracted both of them, and a coach pulled up directly at the mouth of the alley. He was allowed to look at it, and as he watched, the door swung open and the other man - Lazarus\' friend - peered out, extending an arm that would\'ve been beckoning, except he was holding out an apple for the taking. An apple! In winter. Ben\'s stomach growled again as he thought about biting into the delicious red skin of it.
"There\'s more than apples at my home," Lazarus whispered into his ear, now releasing his hair and stroking his nape in a way that brought a pleasant shiver along Ben\'s spine in spite of his not wishing to be seduced. "Food, and a bed just for you in a room just for you," he said, his cool breath at Ben\'s ear. "How could it be worse than what you have now?" he challenged.
There was a risk, believing what Lazarus said, but he\'d seen those two nicely dressed boys, and wanted to have what they had, wanted to sleep in his own bed, to take a bath, and mostly, to take that apple and whatever else there was to eat.
"Okay," he agreed, and Lazarus put an arm around his shoulders in order to lead him to the carriage, where he took the apple meekly but ate it without delicacy once he was inside.
*
THE CARRIAGE RIDE WAS AN hour into the ride, with Ben tucked against Lazarus\' side, and the man called Rigby directly in front of him, watching him with predatory eyes. Ben\'s own gaze would only meet Rigby\'s shining emerald ones for a moment before sidling away to look at the two boys seated beside one another, who occassionally looked at him, but more often looked out the window or whispered to each other and giggled.
"Boys," Lazarus said suddenly, making Ben jump beside him. The two youths across from Lazarus stared at their master while he spoke his order. "Play with each other."
At first Ben thought it was a kind of social request, for them to include him in their conversation, but when they grinned at Lazarus like he\'d just complimented them, they began nuzzling and kissing one another in an intimate way. Ben stared at them with horrified surprise for a long moment before they began getting a little too heated and he broke his gaze from them, looking down at his hands in his lap, wringing each other.
"Ben," Lazarus was in his ear again, with his insistent whisper. "Enjoy the show, love."
He shook his head lightly, so not to bump the blonde near him.
"Are you embarrassed?" Lazarus asked, a little louder and in a manner that made Ben feel worse than ever. He was already blushing from the early display, he didn\'t dare look up and see what stage the boys were at because of how they were moaning and sighing (though they\'d stopped temporarily and he guessed they might be looking at him).
"Yes," Ben whispered, hoping the admission would make Lazarus order them to stop.
"Why?" Lazarus goaded him, and soon those soft moans began again, and Ben glanced up just enough to see one of them had a hand down the other\'s pants, massaging what lay in there. He quickly looked down again, more embarrassed than aroused by the display (but there was a kind of sick interest to it as well, that he wanted to shy away from). He could only shrug. "Is that why you don\'t sell yourself?" Lazarus continued, wanting to find out what was bothering Ben so much. "Because you lack experience?"
It wasn\'t the only reason, but it was good enough for Ben to nod slightly. The man across him in the carriage - Rigby - expelled a short huff of air, like he was caught between scoffing and surprise.
"Are you a virgin, Ben?" Lazarus all but squealed. Ben\'s cheeks grew redder, and he turned his face away, not wanted to answer, but Lazarus only asked the question again, getting more graphic with each one. "Haven\'t you let anyone touch you? Not been inside you? Haven\'t used your tongue on a gentleman\'s prong nor bent over to be prodded with it?"
"No!" he said, horrified by the descriptions Lazarus was coming up with.
"What about being kissed? Ever been kissed?" the blonde asked. Ben\'s gaze looked up to find Rigby\'s glittering gaze on him before he looked down again. No help there.
"No," he whispered.
The boys giggled but Lazarus rounded on them to shut up, which earned a startled look from everyone in the cab.
"This boy is pure, our Ben," he said, pulling Ben closer to him with his arm about his shoulders. "Makes him a sweet prize," he said, implying that the boys opposite weren\'t so. It killed their mood enough to stop what they were doing, Ben realised, and knew that he hadn\'t been endeared to them thanks to this declaration their master (and now his master, he supposed) had made.
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THE CARRIAGE CAME TO A stop twenty minutes after Lazarus declared Ben a prize. The boy closest to the door was the one to open it, and his playmate scrambled out afterward. As Rigby shuffled to the opening, Lazarus stopped him with a hand upon his knee, his other hand still settled on Ben\'s opposite shoulder, keeping him close. Rigby looked up questioningly at Lazarus.
"Feed him, bathe him, clothe him, bring him to me in that order. Make sure nobody gets their hands on him to taint him. I want him untouched."
Ben blushed again, knowing Lazarus was expecting some kind of sexual gratification from Ben and that he still wasn\'t willing to do it.
He didn\'t hear a response from Rigby, but when the other man stepped out of the cab, Lazarus followed next, finally taking his possessive hold away while he stepped out after him. He looked up to see Lazarus standing at the doorway, looking in, and shuffled on the bench seat across to him before getting up (having to bend over in the confines of the carriage cab) and then step out after Lazarus moved aside.
He hadn\'t been looking out the window while they travelled once he\'d seen trees and more trees, but now, with the sound of gushing water in his ears - the sound of rain but not - he looked first towards the source of it, seeing a very large, circular fountain which the driveway had come up to and around. Around the fountain where flowering bushes neatly trimmed, and in the centre itself was a giant stone fish that looked like it was jumping straight up into the air (its tail curved and therefore held at the base this way), whose mouth the water was expelling out of. After looking at the fountain for a moment and hearing running footsteps moving away from him, he turned to track where the other two boys were headed.
The building was huge and grand. He looked up and up and up until he saw the top; five impressive floors with uniform square windows all the way across. There was a main block and then two slightly smaller wings which reached four floors but stretched out so far that Ben had trouble imagining where the building ended.
"You live here?" he asked, unable to hold the question back as Lazarus\' cool hand claimed his own in order to lead him to the building - which wasn\'t a castle, but was no less impressive because of it.
"Yes, I do. So do you, now," Lazarus said with a smile. Behind them the driver of the carriage moved off, though he didn\'t leave the grounds. Rather he headed down a gravel strip that led to the back of the house where there were stables some distance away, and a carriage house beside it. Ben hadn\'t seen the driver of the carriage, but suspected he wouldn\'t have been much older than Rigby. He would later find out the driver was a youth only a couple of years older than himself.
They moved up the front stairs and into the house through the large double doors, into a foyer whose square marble floor was patterned into a complex eight pointed star shape, the kind of shape that made Ben think of maps and compasses inside shop windows he\'d peered into. Behind them the doors were closed, and his hand was released in order for Lazarus to turn and look behind himself. Ben followed suit, watching Rigby slide an impossibly large plank of wood into place behind the doors, effectively locking them. He felt claustrophobic, all of a sudden, seeing his only known exit blocked so easily.
"The last meal\'s already been served," Rigby said to him as he approached them both, and it was the first time Ben had heard his voice, which was a little deeper and a little rougher than Lazarus\' velvet tones. "The kitchen\'s being cleaned, but we can still get you something."
Ben\'s stomach growled as if in approval, and Ben lay a hand across it, willing it to silence.
"Thank you," he said, his voice echoing a little in the giant foyer.
"I\'ll be upstairs," Lazarus declared and Rigby nodded at him. Ben received one last touch - a squeeze on the shoulder from Lazarus - before the blonde disappeared. Ben glanced at him but Rigby had won his attention now, with the promise of food.
He had to follow Rigby, who simply walked ahead of him and expected him to trail after. They moved into the left wing, and into a wide corridor with lots of closed doors. At the end of the corridor was the kitchen, with such heavenly smells still lingering from the meals prepared earlier that evening that Ben\'s stomach grumbled loudly at him again. Rigby must\'ve heard for he glanced back with a wry smile, and when they entered the kitchens Ben saw five more boys scrubbing the place clean. When they looked up at him they paused in their work, unsmiling, before getting back to it without comment. Ben turned to watch Rigby, who moved around the kitchen collecting items until he had what he was after, shoving ham and cheese into a large bread roll cut open before cramming it shut and handing it over to Ben, who took it in both hands and was about to shove a corner into his mouth before he was stopped by Rigby with a hand on his arm. He was as cold as Lazarus, Ben\'s clothes unable to stop the icyness of Rigby\'s fingers pressed against him.
"At the table," he ordered, and Ben followed him to another room behind the kitchens where there was a roughly cut table and benches near it to sit on. Ben hopped onto a bench and ate at the table eagerly, cramming the roll into his mouth and eating like someone was about to take his food away from him, like they had in the alley. At the end of it, he licked his fingers and then burped, looking at Rigby apologetically.
He was then led to the opposite wing, where another corridor, this time with a mixture of closed and open doors (and when Ben peered inside he saw a bathing station in each one), before Rigby turned into one of the open doored rooms seemingly at random. The door was shut behind him and so he stood watching while Rigby turned a strange contraption that lowered a bucket into a hole in the floor by rope. Ben could feel a muggy warmth in this room, which he welcomed, most of the heat coming from the hole in the floor that the bucket had gone down. After half a minute, Rigby pulled up the bucket and emptied the water contents into the tub. He did this about twenty times, until the tub was filled halfway and he ordered Ben to strip and get in.
Ben hesitated, not wanting to get naked in front of a stranger, and without immediate movement, Rigby turned to glare at him.
"Hurry up and get undressed. You don\'t have anything I haven\'t seen before, or better examples of," he snapped irritably. Not wanting to anger Rigby further, he stripped out of his clothes (which were mostly rags) and folded them as neatly as possible to place them on the floor in one corner, glad that Rigby had his back to him because he was waiting for the bucket to return once more.
Ben stepped into the steaming bath tentatively, for the water was a lot hotter than expected. It took him faster than he\'d wanted to take getting in though, wincing as he sat into the water and hugged his knees, wanting to cover himself as much as he was able. A fresh bucket of hot water was poured onto his back and he yelped before looking up at Rigby\'s scornful face. There was a pump and another bucket in a different corner of the small room, and that was where Rigby headed next, pumping several times before water gushed out. It was dumped into the bath, and Ben found the temperature cooling a little. He turned grateful eyes onto Rigby, who was looking at him with obvious distaste and so he lowered them.
"Use this," he was ordered, and Ben looked up in time to be hit in the face with a wash cloth. He was handed soap next, and Rigby grabbed the stool that was for a second party to wash the back of the bather, but he did no such thing, pulling it around so that he was facing Ben, with his back leaning against the wall, his arms folded against his chest as he watched Ben\'s discomfort with amusement.
Ben set about getting himself clean, and by the time he\'d finished everything, Rigby mumbled that he would wash Ben\'s back, and so he leant forward which he was scrubbed.
"Get out, use that to dry yourself," Rigby gestured at a hanging towel, "and stay here."
He left Ben in the bathing room alone, wondering what he should do about the water in the tub, but followed Rigby\'s orders, towelling himself as dry as possible. He would\'ve put on his clothes but figured Rigby had gone to get some fresh ones for him, remembering what Lazarus had asked. After he was dressed he was going to be taken to the blonde, and he waited with trepidation, wrapping the towel around his body to cover himself as he anticipated Rigby\'s return.
A fair amount of time passed before Rigby returned with a handful of clothes, placing them on the stool so they wouldn\'t get dirty from the floor, and handing items to Ben one at a time so he could get dressed in them while Rigby watched. He glanced a few times, trying to cover himself even as he dressed, which caused the other to snort.
"You\'re too skinny for me," he said unkindly. "And you have the lips of a girl," he commented, as though such a thing was unwanted. Ben pressed his lips together, knowing it was likely their naturally pink colour that had prompted Rigby\'s distaste. He was more comfortable with Rigby\'s obvious dislike for him than Lazarus\' obvious desire.
Once he was dressed, Rigby took the lead again and Ben followed, going upstairs many times until they were on the topmost floor, passing other boys on the way who gave Ben curious stares until they reached a door that was heavy and ornate. He figured Lazarus was behind this door, and was proved right when Rigby knocked and the blonde\'s smooth tones bid him to enter.
Rigby opened the door and gestured for Ben to go in first. He did so, and Rigby shut the door behind him without entering the room himself. Ben expected to hear a lock, but there was no other sound than footsteps walking away.
The first thing he felt was the temperature of the room; warm and cosy from the fireplace on the far wall, stoked and roaring. A giant bed that looking like it could sleep ten took up most of the room in front of Ben, but Lazarus wasn\'t on it. He was on Ben\'s right, in an armchair that was arranged with another armchair and settee - a sitting area.
"Come, sit," he said, patting his lap. Ben approached, but chose the settee opposite Lazarus instead, earning himself a leering grin. "Have you seen yourself in a mirror?" he asked, and as Ben shook his head Lazarus pulled a slight face. "Shame, you\'re as pretty as I thought you might be."
Ben said nothing, unsure of himself in this place and feeling small in this giant room, with a very tall, very confident blonde man opposite him.
"You don\'t know what I am, I bet," Lazarus stated, leaning forward so that his elbows rested on his knees and his fingers linked around each other while Ben was scrutinised by the stone-grey stare the blonde had.
"A Lord?" Ben guessed, figuring he had to be of some nobility to be able to afford a place like this. Lazarus laughed good naturedly and patted his lap again.
"In a manner of speaking, but I\'m so much more than that. Sit upon my knee and I shall demonstrate."
Ben felt his mouth go dry and his stomach lurched.
"I thought you wouldn\'t make me do anything I didn\'t want to do."
"Relax. I\'m not going to finger you or stick my cock in your hole, little boy," Lazarus said, then laughed again at Ben\'s mortified expression. "I just want you to sit on my lap so I can press my lips against your neck."
Ben shook his head. No. He\'d been told Lazarus would have him willing, and this was a test of that. Was he allowed to refuse?
Lazarus\' eyes narrowed and he got up from his chair in a way that had Ben expecting he would be grabbed by the scruff of the neck and forced into whatever position Lazarus wanted. Except Lazarus stalked past him and went to his door, opening it to speak to whoever it was waiting outside - Rigby? - and then returned to the armchair opposite Ben, settling himself upon it.
"I shall have to demonstrate another way," Lazarus told Ben, like he wasn\'t impressed with being forced to do so. "What do you think of my home?" he asked, though Ben was waiting for a demonstration.
"Um. It\'s beautiful."
"Thought you\'d like it," Lazarus smirked, glad for the compliment. "And what do you suppose all the boys do for me?"
Ben blushed and looked at his hands while Lazarus laughed at him.
"Such dirty thoughts for a pure boy," he admonished, and when Ben looked up, Lazarus answered his own question. "They take care of this place. Each one of them has a job to do, to earn their place here. You\'ll have some work to do as well. Likely in the gardens, they always need constant attention," he said. "And of course, they help me to survive."
The way Lazarus said this last had Ben cocking his head sideways, unsure of what kind of survival Lazarus was talking about. He half expected to be told about Lazarus\' sexual appetite and how the boys kept him fed. He wasn\'t so far wrong, but the devil was in the details.
Before Lazarus could explain further, a knock at the door interrupted them, and Lazarus bid that person to enter. A young man, older than Ben by four or five years, entered the room and went to Lazarus\' side immediately.
"Ben, this is Jonas. Say hello."
Ben said hello and Jonas turned to look at him. He was the first person to offer Ben a smile while he greeted him back. Ben decided that Jonas could be nice enough to be a friend.
"Sit on my lap, Jonas," Lazarus said softly, and his wishes were complied with as Jonas got himself comfortable with a bit of shifting. He wasn\'t as tall as Lazarus, but taller than Ben, and as he leant back against Lazarus, he turned his head away so that his neck was available.
Ben\'s eyebrows raised a little, considering the initial request made of him. Apparently Lazarus liked kissing necks. If that was all he wanted from Ben, he supposed he might one day come around to offering, except what happened next had him second guessing himself.
Lazarus nuzzled Jonas\' neck and licked with a curling tongue with his gaze finding Ben to see if he was watching. Ben was, though uncomfortably, he figured if Lazarus wanted him to watch him kiss someone\'s neck, then he could do that much. Jonas was smiling, Ben noticed, and he figured it must feel nice, to be kissed - though the licking part seemed a bit wet rather than erotic. Lazarus pressed lips to Jonas\' neck, as promised, and then, so Ben could clearly see, bit down.
Jonas jerked a little but wasn\'t held in place strictly by Lazarus, who only had a loose hand across his chest, and the other on the chair arm. Ben\'s eyes widened as a thin trail of blood leaked down Jonas\' neck (something he would realise later was purposefully shown him, for no such trail needed to give Lazarus away), and Lazarus began to suck and drink, swallowing what was Jonas\' blood out of a wound he\'d created.
Ben lifted his legs up off the floor and held himself in a tight ball, much like he had in the bath, retreating as much as he was able without getting up and running away. While he watched, he couldn\'t help but notice the way Jonas\' had surrendered to Lazarus, that he was sighing in a way that reminded him of the boys playing in the carriage with one another, that his eyes were closed and his lips were curled in a smile, like he liked it. Moving his gaze from Jonas\' face to Lazarus, he found himself locked in a stare with the vampire.
-
HE HANDLED THE NEWS REMARKEABLY well, once Jonas was released in a happy daze and walked away. Lazarus talked about the kind of creature he was, and Ben took it all in like a sponge. It made sense to Ben, suddenly, that Lazarus would surround himself with mortals (though he didn\'t get why everyone had to be male and young, even though he did get it, he refused to acknowledge that he was now part of it).
Lazarus dismissed him once he finished listening and asking questions, giving Ben the answers he sought until there were none left. He left the room to find a boy around his age standing in the corridor outside Lazarus\' room, as though waiting for him. The boy didn\'t introduce himself, but called Ben by name which meant he\'d been told about him. Ben was led downstairs and down one corridor before facing a door at the end of it, told that this was now his room before the other boy left.
Ben entered the room, expecting only a bed (and that would be luxury enough) but found a bed, a desk and chair facing the window, a dressing table and mirror, and a hanging rack in the corner with some empty hangers and some full ones with more outfits for him. Removing his clothes to his underwear and hanging them, he climbed into bed beneath the sheet and couldn\'t believe his luck.
THE NEXT DAY HE WAS awoken at ten of the clock by Jonas knocking on his door and urging him to hurry. Ben dressed quickly in order to not keep him waiting. Upon opening the door, Jonas explained about the daily running of the place, and said he could either eat now at the late breakfast or wait an hour for the early lunch. Ben didn\'t want to wait and so Jonas took him to the dining room, where about a dozen boys were seated at a long table, eating. Ben was instructed to find an empty place to sit, and once he was there, not five minutes later a youth a little younger than him placed a plate of sausage, tomato and scrambled eggs before him. Ben ate without pause, shoving the food into his mouth and hovering over his plate like someone might take it from him. He got a few looks, but none that seemed taken aback by his behaviour - like they already knew why he was behaving in such a way.
He was taken outside after breakfast by Jonas, who handed him over to a young man named Shane, who announced himself the head gardener and then explained a whirlwind of details to Ben who couldn\'t keep up with them all. In the end, Shane accused him of being not very bright and gave him a pair of gloves and overalls which were to be worn over his clothing, and told him to weed the long line of vegetables. Ben changed supervisory hands yet again to someone a couple of years older than him - Avon - who was the second person to smile at Ben in greeting (and got a smile back), before taking him under his wing well enough to patiently show Ben what to remove and what to leave behind. They worked until the sun went down, and Ben was aching all over from it - mostly his knees and his back, and in spite of the gloves, his hands had developed a couple of blisters. He\'d come back empty handed, but was walking among a group of youths carrying what they\'d picked during the day in baskets; carrots, leeks, radishes, potatoes and other vegetables that Ben couldn\'t identify.
He followed Avon to the main bathing area, bypassing all of the showers and finding himself on the edge of a shallow, very large square pool of water. There were already naked boys sitting around the edge of it, either soaping themselves or each other. Ben didn\'t look too closely at them, but followed Avon\'s suit of undressing in a doorless cubicle and then moving to the edge of the bathing pool, climbing into the lukewarm water which Avon explained to him was heated from the fires in the basement, and they were operated mostly by the older boys and that it wasn\'t a job Ben would want to end up getting. Normally Ben would be too shy to openly bathe in front of others, but most of the other boys were caught up with what they were doing, and he felt like he stood out less by conforming (plus Avon urging him along helped too). He bathed himself, was handed a towel near the edge of the bath by Avon who knew the new boy was shy and had compassion for him, and towelled himself dry in the cubicle, intending to put his clothes back on but they\'d disappeared. Avon laughed and told him they\'d already been picked up to be laundered, and they would return to their rooms for some fresh clothes before going to have supper.
After eating at the table with Avon at his side (and considering the other boy a friend), he felt full, warm and very content, pleased with his lot and happy that he\'d been brought here, where everything ran smoothly and he wasn\'t accosted anywhere near as much as he\'d been on the streets, nor as it was impressed to him by Lazarus\' order to Rigby that the other boys weren\'t allowed to touch him. Nobody had tried, and he didn\'t think they would either (though it had only been one day, and he did recall some looks from others that had made him uncomfortable).
Immediately after shoving the last morsel of food into his mouth, Rigby\'s hand landed on his shoulder and he looked up at him in surprise, still chewing on the piece of bread he\'d mopped his gravy-covered plate with.
"Lazarus wants you with him," Rigby said gruffly, earning more than a few stares but none of them surprised. Avon made a comment Ben couldn\'t miss while he moved out of his chair to join Rigby.
"Nice to be the new boy," he said, and Ben spared him a backward glance before Rigby\'s hand found his shoulder again and steered him away from the dinner table and up the many flights of stairs again before they were both looking at Lazarus\' ornate door.
"In you go," Rigby said, shoving him roughly towards it. Ben opened it without knocking and slipped inside, pressing his back to it once it was closed and immediately turning his head toward the sitting chairs, guessing that Lazarus was there again. He was right, and Lazarus tapped his lap in order for Ben to seat himself upon it. He approached and chose the settee opposite again, causing Lazarus to sigh obviously.
"I give you clothes, shelter and food, and you can\'t even sit on my lap?" Lazarus challenged.
"I don\'t feel..." he shrugged, not knowing the best word to describe how he felt about doing such a thing.
"Grateful?" Lazarus supplied, causing Ben to frown and look down at his hands in his lap. "Thankful?"
"Comfortable," he mumbled.
"Comfortable enough to share your nudity with the other boys," Lazarus said, and Ben looked up sharply to see the blonde smirking at him. "How come they get to see you and I don\'t?"
"Because they weren\'t... looking at me," Ben said haltingly, feeling like this was a ridiculous reason but it was the real reason all the same. Lazarus stared at him long enough that he felt compelled to add more. "They were just washing themselves. They weren\'t paying attention to anyone else."
"Oh, you were looked at, Ben," Lazarus confirmed. "Everyone new to my house is looked at, covetted, desired. Some boys have bets with each other to see who can get the new boy on his knees first, or on all fours," he added, watching Ben blush. "Rigby\'s ordered them not to approach you," he explained, "but that doesn\'t mean that they don\'t want to have a go at you."
Ben was silent, and Lazarus tapped his thighs again, gently.
"I won\'t touch you if you don\'t wish it," he said softly, "but you know what I am, that I need blood to survive, and I\'ve done enough for you that you should want to help me out."
Ben chewed on his lower lip, thinking about it. Lazarus seemed to know that he was considering it, and pushed a little further.
"You saw Jonas, how calm he was, how he liked it," he crooned, spreading his legs a little further apart in order to slouch on the chair. "It\'s just a little bit of pain, at the start, when I penetrate," Lazarus said, grinning at the innuendo which wasn\'t lost on Ben despite his virginity, "then it feels so very, very good."
"But it looks intimate," Ben argued suddenly, not wanting to say no but at the same time not wanting to say yes.
Lazarus stared at him for a long moment.
"Would it be better if I didn\'t make you sit on my lap?" he offered.
Ben thought it over, and took long enough for Lazarus to grow impatient and to stand up from his chair, approaching the settee and sitting beside Ben on his right, placing an arm around his shoulders. This was something Ben had experienced throughout the carriage ride, so it wasn\'t so imposing. Without asking again, Lazarus leant over to him, scooching forward on the cushion so that he\'d be at a better height to get to Ben\'s neck. He began to nuzzle him, and at first Ben made it difficult by keeping his head down but eventually turned his face away from Lazarus\' attentions, knowing that gave the vampire easier access to his neck. His heart was beating rapidly in his chest with a mixture of fear and excitement at Lazarus\' attentions. The nuzzling, kissing and licking felt a lot better than he\'d expected, and Lazarus had him well in place with his elbow bent at Ben\'s opposite shoulder and his hand clutching Ben\'s left arm, while his right hand was positioned on Ben\'s left knee. Ben thought maybe he could give in to the drinking, but when Lazarus started scraping teeth against his skin in a buildup of the nuzzling, Ben began to squirm and fight against him, panting no.
"No?" Lazarus asked imperiously, moving back and away so he could stare at Ben, his hold not loosening even as the teen turned his head to look at him.
"I\'m sorry, I... I can\'t, I\'m not..." he was shaking his head, feeling a mixture of right and wrong from being touched and handled this way. It felt nice, oh yes it did, but what was the difference between paying for this place with his blood than with his body? He was still selling himself, wasn\'t he?
Lazarus glared at him for a moment before it softened and he released Ben, sitting back.
"Go then, go do whatever you wish, and tell the first boy you see that I want him to come to my room, so I can take my desire for you out on him," he said, causing Ben\'s eyes to go wide but at the same time he nodded, wanting to escape Lazarus\' attentions.
The first boy he saw ended up being Avon, who was waiting for him at the end of the first set of stairs Ben scurried down. It took a little effort on Avon\'s side to get the information out of Ben - who hadn\'t wanted to send his new friend to Lazarus who seemed a sexual predator - but Avon was keen enough to go, jokingly accusing Ben\'s shyness of interfering with his ability to satisfy Lazarus in full, not knowing that Ben had refused him outright.
*
LAZARUS SENT AVON TO FETCH Rigby once he was done with the boy, and was bitterly pleased by the boy\'s mincing walk out of his chambers. He\'d not bothered to drink from Avon, using his mouth and his backside instead until he\'d had his fill by filling the boy\'s hole with his seed. He\'d lasted over an hour, ignoring the boy\'s own orgasm at the halfway mark until he\'d had his lot. It wasn\'t so much pleasure for Avon in the second half, but when Lazarus asked him at the end if it was good, the boy had supplied the right answer.
Now, with Rigby before him, his second in charge and his only childe in the household, he recounted that Ben had refused him his blood (earning a dissatisfied grunt from Rigby) and that the shy young virgin boy should be given a position where natural sexual curiosity could take its course. To be a bathing attendant; taking away clothes to launder, fetching dry towels to hand out, sitting and watching over the bathing pool until he was needed to perform those tasks (a cushy job assigned to those boys who usually pleased Lazarus or Rigby the most), meant that Ben would be subject to a lot of playtime activity among the boys, who often took advantage of group nudity and bathing in order to satisfy their sexual urges. They wouldn\'t care if Ben was watching them or not, he knew, and so his pure young charge could educate himself and hopefully get himself worked up with enough knowledge and fantasy that he would succumb to Lazarus\' advances. Rigby complimented him on a good plan, and promised to put it under immediate effect. Ben would soon find himself promoted to a better position than gardening - which was often a sought after job in the first place.
-
IT WAS THE SECOND DAY of his new task when Ben first found himself the observer to another bout of \'play\' between a couple of boys in the bathing room. The nights before he\'d gone to Lazarus\' room, fetched by Rigby, refusing Lazarus his blood both times and not allowing the vampire to do much more than sit beside him with an arm around him while they argued the point. Ben knew Lazarus was trying to wear him down, and he supposed he might give in at one point, but right now he didn\'t want to.
He recognised one boy from the carriage ride of the night he\'d arrived at the manor, but the other boy wasn\'t anyone he was familiar with. Older, possibly nineteen or twenty, and with his back to the edge of the bath (and profile to Ben), giving Ben a perfectly clear view of what was going on.
At first he looked away, knowing that their hands were busy with each other underneath the water, and only glanced back every now and then to see if they would
move onto something more intimate
stop in order to continue their playtime in a more private place, like in one of their rooms. He\'d heard nightly activity through the walls of his room while trying to sleep; grunts, groans, moans, cries and the sound of slapping or bedsprings creaking, or other furniture thumping in time with their sex. He tried not to imagine what they were up to except images would come to him unbidden, and he would hold his pillow against his head to block the sounds out.
Now he couldn\'t block out the sounds, though the boys were fortunately doing their best to stay quiet. The bathing room was tiled and echoed, and the two of them and Ben (plus the other bathing attendant on the opposite diagonal corner of the room) were the only ones inside the room.
He looked at them to see carriage boy climbing onto his partner\'s lap, facing him. His knees were bent so that his feet were flat against the bath wall, and his friend was holding him by the shoulders. Ben looked away as he listened to the sound of them starting the act, the soft splash of water accentuating their slow rocking. He looked back and watched the see-sawing motion they\'d set up, the boy on top controlling the rocking and gradually getting quicker. Ben looked away and stared at the wall for a long moment until a different kind of splashing and murmuring took his attention again. They were changing positions, so that the boy from the carriage was standing in the thigh-deep water and bent over with his hands on the floor above the bath. His partner was angling himself to go back inside, and Ben - though shocked - couldn\'t help but look at the erect pole as it was aimed into and then shoved inside the other boy, causing him to stifle a cry. Ben turned his head but peeked at them now that his view wasn\'t blocked by water and watched as they fucked to a frenzied pace where the older boy grimaced and shivered. It was over and Ben dropped his gaze, feeling like a pervert for watching them and not looking their way again, forcing the other attendant to walk all the way over to Ben\'s side in order to hand them both towels after they bathed again and hopped out some minutes later.
He didn\'t give into Lazarus that night to drink from him, but the memory of the boys in the bathing room gave him enough to crave and then use his own hand in bed.
It only took a week before he noticed boys were behaving differently around him, and after seeking Avon out at mealtime he received nothing but spit on his shirt for his trouble. Confused by his friend\'s behaviour (and figuring Avon didn\'t want to be his friend anymore but not knowing why), he found himself isolated very quickly. It didn\'t stop the boys from fucking in the bath in front of him though, but it did add an extra element of them watching him while they did it, making him uncomfortable enough to look away more often than not, causing them to jeer at him.
The worst came into the second week, when Lazarus would only call him into his room and keep him there for five minutes to find out if Ben would or wouldn\'t let him feed from him and sending him away when he continued to refuse.
As part of his duties, he had to mop up the bathing room\'s floor after supper, after the bathing room was off limits because boys had to retire to their rooms. The other bathing attendant kept looking at him more than he was mopping, and Ben ignored those looks as best he could. It was probably his concentrated focus on what his mop was doing, swishing to and fro, that he didn\'t notice several boys sneaking up on him. He was grabbed by steely hands from behind - one over his mouth and the other around his chest, lifted up enough to be dragged against one wall (with his assailant behind him and the mop falling out of surprised fingers). He cried out though it was muffled, and wide eyes saw four boys (he recognised Avon and one of the carriage boys - the one he\'d perved on, plus two others whose faces he knew but not their names or where he recognised them from) circling around him.
"Tease!" one of them spat out at him.
"You think you\'re too good for him," Avon accused, shoving Ben in the chest, where he couldn\'t move because someone was holding him in place. He grunted with the force of it and tried to break the hold, but it was like trying to break iron. The person holding him was taller than him, and very strong.
"Saving yourself for someone better?" the carriage boy sneered. "I saw you watching me in the pool, you horny freak. Good enough to watch but not good enough to share!"
Ben kicked out feebly and received a punch in his stomach for doing so, winding him. The other bath attendant soon joined the four boys and then there were five of them jeering at him. Their remarks were all along the same lines, and they began talking on top of one another so that it was just noise - scornful noise.
"We\'ll have you on your knees soon enough, boy."
The voice in his ear was familiar, and with a sinking heart he knew who\'d orchestrated this. Rigby. The cold hand clamped over his mouth couldn\'t belong to anybody else.
"Don\'t make a sound or it\'ll only be worse for you," Rigby threatened, and then released Ben\'s mouth and chest so he could push down on both his shoulders, forcing him to his knees as promised. He landed hard and cried out, only to have a hand tangle in his hair and pull him back so he was leaning on an angle with his face up to see the boys that were taunting him.
As though this was some kind of signal, all five boys shoved their pants down and freed themselves. He saw that three of them were already hard, obviously excited by Ben\'s humiliation - or perhaps the thought of what was to come next.
"We can\'t hurt you, Mr Purity," Rigby sneered, looking down at him from above so Ben could see the hate in his face. "But we can still teach you a lesson. Go on," he prompted, and Ben looked across at the boys who were masturbating in front of him. He closed his eyes for a moment until his face was slapped and his eyes sprang open, tears pricking them. "Watch it happen, and accept it. There\'s worse things that can happen than the loss of your virginity, boy."
Ben let out a shaking breath, and that was when the first spatter of semen hit his face. He blinked hurriedly, though none had got in his eyes. He could feel it across his cheek, chin and nose. The boys cheered and a couple of minutes later he got a second spraying - much more powerful than the first, seeming to cover most of his face in three spurts. He could taste it on his lips, smell the acidic scent of it as it began to slide down his skin. Another spray soon after, on his cheek and ear. The fourth and fifth arrived almost together, another gushing in his hair and face. One of the boys reached forward to wipe it over his face like it was soap, and when he opened his eyes he saw Avon showing him his semen covered hands to prove that it was him that did it. Ben hadn\'t started crying until he saw the boy he\'d thought could be a friend do that, and they jeered at him until Rigby shoved him forward so that he landed on the floor. He half turned until he saw Rigby standing over him and stayed on the floor, not wanting any more on his face. The vampire, however, had a different idea, and he hawked up spit until he could release a huge wet glob onto the back of his head. Humiliated and disgraced, he remained on the floor until he heard them all walk away, laughing with each other about it.
Rigby pulled him to his feet once they were gone, surprising him that he\'d remained.
"Lazarus doesn\'t want to see you tonight," he told him with distaste. "Tomorrow night he will, and you\'re going to do whatever the hell he wants. Understand?" Rigby hissed, shaking him.
"Yes!" Ben agreed, if only to end this drama. Rigby marched him to a private bathing room, drawing a bath for him again but this time with cold water alone from the pump. He ordered Ben to strip, and Ben obediently complied, stepping into the tub and sitting in it so that Rigby could soap him up. He wasn\'t given him it himself until only his genitals were left, and Rigby tossed the soap into the bath, ordering him to wash the rest of himself while he watched over him. Ben did so as efficiently as possible, tears still running down his cheeks but no longer sniffing or sobbing like he had in the main bathing room. Instead of being handed clothes, Ben was handed a towel until he was dry, and then Rigby tossed it aside and grabbed Ben by the wrist, pulling him out of the room and taking him upstairs, naked, to his room, past surprised or laughing boys until they reached his room and he was shoved into it, falling on the carpeted floor with the force of it (and only just not hitting the wall on the other side) before Rigby slammed the door, shutting him in.
Despite the bath, he still felt dirty, and sobbed on the floor until he could get himself under control enough to put on some shorts and climb into bed, burying his face into his pillow to try and stop the sound of his cries until he was so exhausted he slept, but fitfully.
-
The next day was difficult, but Ben managed to get through it. He didn\'t make eye contact with anyone, though made sure to perform all his tasks so he couldn\'t be complained about. He felt like more boys were looking at him than usual, and it felt to him like they all knew about what had happened. He ate supper during the last served meal, for there were always fewer boys because the first two served suppers were piping hot, while the last was kept warm in an oven and were usually whatever hadn\'t been finished during the previous two meals.
"He wants to see you," Rigby said from behind his chair and he jumped. There was a potato left on his plate but he left it in order to not keep Lazarus waiting. He followed Rigby upstairs to Lazarus\' room and knocked on the door as soon as they reached it. When told to come in, he slipped into the room and looked to the right to check if Lazarus was on the armchair. He was.
Ben went to him without Lazarus having time to pat his thighs, and sat upon his lap. Lazarus shifted and held him in place, urging Ben to get comfortable until finally they both were. Ben expected him to merely start the process towards biting his neck, and so turned his face away so that Lazarus could have easy access to it, but it seemed the blonde was more interested in talking.
"Why the sudden change of heart?" he asked, stroking Ben\'s inner thigh.
"Because I\'m thankful. I want to show my gratitude for what you\'ve done for me."
Lazarus didn\'t say anything for a long moment, though he continued stroking Ben\'s inner thigh in a way that was pleasant, but Ben wasn\'t getting aroused.
"Did something happen?" Lazarus asked, knowing there was no other reason for Ben to change his mind so suddenly except some kind of incident.
"You didn\'t ask for me the night before."
"No, I didn\'t. Did that bother you?"
Now it was Ben\'s turn to remain silent for a while as he struggled to come up with an answer.
"Yes," he said, lying. "I want you to drink from me, now."
There was a pause, and then Lazarus moved while also gently prodding Ben off his lap. Ben complied, wondering what was wrong, and looked back at Lazarus once he was standing. The blonde vampire stared at him for a long moment before patting his lap.
"Straddle me, facing forward. I want to see your face when you lie to me."
Ben blushed, ashamed to have been caught out. He wondered if Lazarus could see right through him. He\'d never been a good liar, but he\'d not known he was that bad. Complying with Lazarus\' wish, he knelt onto the chair, straddling Lazarus either side and getting flashbacks of the two boys in the bathing room. He shuffled forward, enough for Lazarus to make a purring growling sound, which kept the blush on Ben\'s cheeks reddened. Lazarus wrapped his arms around him and linked his hands together at the small of Ben\'s back, keeping him in place.
"So what happened to make you change your mind? See something erotic?"
Ben hesitated, then nodded. He would let Lazarus think it was the two boys in the bathing room, and not what had happened last night. He didn\'t want to relive that, or confess that it had happened. It shamed him.
"What did you see?"
"Two boys in the main bathing room," he said quietly.
"What were they doing?" Lazarus pressed, smiling at Ben, his eyes half-lidded as he gazed at Ben\'s lips adoringly.
"They... had sex," he said, hoping Lazarus wouldn\'t make him describe how. Lazarus mulled on Ben\'s words for a moment.
"Do you want to have sex now, then?" he asked.
Rigby\'s threat came to the fore in his memory, that Ben would do whatever Lazarus wanted. He hadn\'t actually asked for it, but had asked what Ben wanted.
"No," he croaked, losing his voice a little so that he had to clear his throat.
Lazarus sighed, disappointed with the answer, and Ben lowered his gaze to look at the space between their chests.
"But you want me to drink from you now," Lazarus confirmed.
"Yes," Ben whispered, then lifted his gaze.
"Why?" Lazarus\' stare narrowed as he watched Ben mull uncomfortably over the answer.
"Because," he said, and Lazarus lifted an eyebrow, waiting for the rest of it. "Because I don\'t think I\'m too good for you."
The phrase was something that caught Lazarus\' attention.
"Who accused you of that?" he pressed.
"Nobody," Ben said, and lowered his face, but Lazarus pulled his linked hands sharply forward so that Ben\'s groin pressed against the vampire\'s own and his pale blue eyes lifted to meet Lazarus\' own in alarm.
"Look at me when you lie to me," Lazarus ordered, and Ben\'s chin wobbled.
"Sorry," he breathed, fighting the instinct to look down or away.
"Did somebody do something to you?" Lazarus asked, one of his hands unlinking in order to caress Ben\'s back in a way that was soothing rather than sexual.
Ben shook his head but what came out of his mouth was different.
"Yes."
"Did someone touch you?" he prompted.
"No, not really."
"Not really? What does that mean?" Lazarus was chasing his answers with a harsher tone, wanting to get down to the root of the matter.
"They didn\'t touch me."
They. Lazarus mulled on that tidbit for a long moment while Ben stared at him, his heart thumping in his chest and his pores emanating fear.
"You\'re mine. I wanted you to be kept pure for me. How did they taint you?"
"I\'m sorry," Ben whispered, and his face was held by the chin, Lazarus\' strong fingers holding him in place.
"Stop apologising and spit it out. What did they do to you?"
"G-grabbed me. Pushed me onto my knees," he paused, and Lazarus sneered at what might come next. Ben closed his eyes because he thought he would be blamed for everything, but he said it anyway. "Touched themselves and sprayed on me," he said, amazed that he could say it without his voice shaking. Funny how he could sound like it wasn\'t affecting him, yet he was in turmoil inside. "Spat on me, at the end."
"Spat on you?" Lazarus repeated, scowling. Ben opened his eyes to see Lazarus looking at him intently. "So why are you begging me to drink from you?"
"They thought I thought I was too good for you," he admitted. "But I don\'t think that. I just... I\'m scared. I... I\'ll let you bite me, and drink from me."
Lazarus thought it over. The boys had interfered with his plans to have Ben willing, doing it in a way he hadn\'t wanted. Still, the results were the same, but he hadn\'t wanted Ben bullied into it. Fuck, he could\'ve done that himself if he\'d wanted. He wasn\'t going to turn the offer down, though, not when it was warm and willing and on his lap.
"I\'ll drink from you," Lazarus promised, stroking the youth\'s hair lovingly and liking that Ben didn\'t pull a face or shy from his words, "but I want you to tell me names of the boys that did it."
Now Ben pulled a face, not wanting to get himself in further trouble with the boys he co-existed with but also not wanting to deny Lazarus further, seeing as denying him had led to this.
"I don\'t know all their names," he said.
"But you know some," Lazarus said, tapping Ben\'s nose with his index finger and causing the teen to blink. "Tell me."
"What\'s going to happen to them?" he asked.
"Never mind what. Tell me," Lazarus said, growing more insistent.
Ben chewed on his lower lip, but he didn\'t deny Lazarus any further.
"Avon. One of the boys from the carriage ride, the brunette."
"Luke," Lazarus supplied. Ben nodded, but it wasn\'t a name he\'d heard. He\'d only known the carriage boys by sight. "And?"
Ben shook his head and shrugged, to imply he knew no more names.
"Both boys are followers Ben, there had to be a leader."
"I don\'t know any more."
Lazarus stared at him for a long time, until Ben dropped his gaze, but he wasn\'t about to give up Rigby\'s name. If there was anyone that could make life very hard for him, it was the other vampire in the household.
"Alright, Ben," Lazarus said, pulling him forward so that Ben was resting against him. "I\'ll drink now," he warned, and Ben turned his face away so that Lazarus only had to turn his head and he would be at his throat. The kissing and nuzzling brought sighs from the mortal, and the scraping of teeth had Ben gripping onto Lazarus\' shirt in alarm until Lazarus hushed and stroked his back until he relaxed. Once Ben was calm, he bit, and after the pain, as promised, came the pleasure.
Lazarus had used Jonas to show Ben initially because Jonas was of the kind that responded with a daze. There was another common response; that of wantoness. Ben was of the latter, but he seemed more prone to abandon than Lazarus would\'ve believed from someone without sexual experience. His sighs and moans were darling, as Lazarus suckled on his neck, and Ben was thrusting forward with his hips in time with the pulling of his blood, hardened by the drinking and not shying away from Lazarus\' own erection that he was rubbing against. He was a squirming, electrical sex machine that Lazarus dearly wanted to settle upon his rod, to feel those pulsing motions from the inside. He made do with clutching the boy\'s rear though, driving the motions until he\'d drunk more than he usually did and was forced to close off the wound lest Ben faint off his lap.
He took too much regardless, and Ben was dizzy from the loss. Standing up and carrying the boy to his bed, he undressed him to nudity, figuring if others had seen him then so should he, without any protest from Ben, and then put him under the covers, stroking his hair until he fell asleep.
HE LEFT THE ROOM SHORTLY after, seeking out Rigby\'s in his room and storming in to find the other vampire being serviced by Avon\'s mouth. The boy was pulled off and tossed out without ceremony, and Rigby pulled up his pants from his ankles in startlement.
"I told you to keep him pure!" Lazarus snarled, rounding on the young man he\'d made his fledgling twenty years ago because of his loyalty. "And then I find out he\'s had other boys cum on his face?"
Rigby blinked slowly while his thoughts whirled. The accusation sounded more like Lazarus knew of the boys and not of his own participation in it.
"I\'ll be sure to punish them. Who were they?" he asked, showing concern.
"One of them was just in here, blowing you!" Lazarus said, jabbing a finger into his chest. "As for the rest of them, I\'m sure you have a better fucking clue than you\'re admitting."
Rigby\'s heart sank but he held Lazarus\' stare.
"They do run in the same groups," he hazarded.
"You spat on him, and he didn\'t give me your name. He protected you, for whatever damn reason, probably out of fear. I trusted you to keep him pure, and you do this behind my back."
"He was denying you!" Rigby shouted.
"That\'s why he\'s pure, moron. He denies everyone."
Rigby found himself with little else to say, and slowly dropped to his knees.
"I\'ve never denied you, Lazarus," he said. "I\'ll make sure he\'s safe. I\'ll make sure you\'re happy."
Lazarus mused on his fledgling\'s position, knowing it had been a long time since he\'d been in the worship pose.
"You know what I like. Do it all," he prompted, and stepped directly before Rigby, who nodded his understanding and set about freeing Lazarus from his clothes.
-
BEN FOUND HE DIDN\'T MIND being drunk from by Lazarus, and settled into a routine where he was fed from once every two weeks, though he saw Lazarus more often than that, in order for the vampire to attempt to have him surrender to sex. Rigby made Avon and the other boys disappear, and he heard a rumour that they were servicing the fires in the basement - the harsh job that Avon had once told him he never wanted to get. He couldn\'t feel guilty for being the reason they were all there, though he did pine for the friendship he\'d thought he\'d get with Avon.
The rest of the boys in the household didn\'t goad him, but they also didn\'t become his friend either. Ben had been moved from the bathing room attendant job in order to be a server at mealtime, which he liked better because it meant he had access to the kitchens between mealtimes. Rigby still scowled and cursed at him, but only when he made a mistake and even though he never felt completely at ease with the other vampire, he felt safer as time passed and nothing more happened.
He\'d begun to allow Lazarus to touch him during feeding (not that he was in any mind to stop him), but was no longer uncomfortable with being pawed at both over and now more recently, under his clothing. The last thing they\'d done was Lazarus freeing Ben from his pants and then stroking him until he came as Lazarus drank. It was also the first night they\'d kissed, for after Lazarus closed his wound, Ben had turned his head and sought Lazarus\' lips, thinking it was fitting to at least kiss him if they were doing something so intimate. There was no spark, but it was still nice as Lazarus\' expert tongue dominated Ben\'s curious, seeking one. Lazarus had propositioned him a great deal for an hour afterward, insistent that Ben allow him to do more and growing angry and impatient when he was denied, making the night sour for Ben somewhat. It could\'ve ended on a pleasant note, but Lazarus hadn\'t allowed it. He\'d sent Ben to fetch a boy called Mark, describing which floor and room he was in. Ben left and did as Lazarus asked, knocking on Mark\'s door and explaining that Lazarus wanted him. He didn\'t miss the fact Mark was blonde like Ben, and had blue eyes like Ben (though not as pale), same size and height, though his face was very different. It was close enough for Ben to understand how Lazarus was going to view his time with Mark, however, and he scurried to his room.
The sex was still going on around him, and the constant pressure from Lazarus was making him more aware of it, and starting to want it for himself. He\'d always considered sex to be something born of love, though, or at the very least with someone he felt would appreciate him. With Lazarus sleeping with every boy in the household (of which he knew there were seventy three, including him), it hardly made him feel like he would be special. He knew Lazarus was old enough to not need to drink, though he drank from Ben whenever he could spare it. Rigby, however, he\'d heard needed to drink every night and had boys on a rotating roster in order to not weaken anyone. He\'d never called on Ben, for which he was grateful. He had the impression that for how little Ben liked Rigby, Rigby liked him much less.
And so Ben survived for months in the household, isolated and spoken to by the boys only when they needed to in order to operate efficiently in their jobs. He spent his free time outside in the gardens, getting himself lost in the hedge maze and daydreaming.
His schedule didn\'t change, nor did anyone elses. Not until the newcomers arrived.
-
They came at night, only a couple of hours before dawn, in a carriage that rocked and reeled as it flew along the ornate driveway of Lazarus\' estate. They pulled up in front the enormous house as quietly as was possible, considering the speed of the vehicle had barely lessened as they approached the mostly-dark mansion. When they stopped before the ornate doors, the carriage driver stared at the building for a minute or so before he jumped down nimbly and strode to the carriage window.
"Stay here," Kerr growled, unsurprised when the heavy velvet curtain covering the open window was pulled back and his sire\'s cherubic face appeared in the opening.
"There are vampires inside," he sang ominously, his dark blue eyes enormous and alight at the prospect. "One\'s very old."
"I know," the Irishman snarled, angry enough to reach in and snatch the curtain back into position, uncaring that it entirely covered Sawyl\'s face. In fact, he preferred it that way. "Just stay here. I expect they\'ll send us packing very quickly, considering our likes," he explained bitterly, spinning on his well-shod heel and striding towards the front door. He didn\'t get so far away that he didn\'t hear his sire\'s parting comment.
"Speak for yourself," the child vampire chimed defiantly, giggling softly with the other two occupants of the carriage.
Kerr was so furious with the lot of them that he couldn\'t bring himself to respond. Frankly, he didn\'t have time. They only had a few hours before dawn and he didn\'t anticipate they\'d be sheltered within the house, no matter how enthusiastically he threw himself upon the mercy of the ancient residing within; naturally, it fell to him to clean up their mess, as it always was, and he was livid with all three.
He paused before he knocked, adjusting the ornate lace cravat at his throat and checking that his black coat was straight. A little dusty from their panicked flight from the city, but still fine enough to distinguish him as a man of means rather than some wild-eyed vagabond looking for charity. His white tights and knee-high black boots had suffered the same messy treatment from the environment and he leaned down to brush at his thighs before straightening and running his hands through his dark brown hair. It fell from a central part and reached as far as the top of his nape - he had a habit of spreading his thumb apart from his fingers and swooping through it when he was upset, rather than tucking it behind his ears. He sported a goatee beard around his mouth and thick sideburns that speared down and reached halfway along either side of his jaw; the effect made him look older than the twenty-six years of age he\'d accrued by the time he was turned.
Of course, not of it made him look as old as he actually was, for there were not many mobile two hundred and forty year olds about. Clearing his throat (and sensing a great deal of mortal life beyond the doors, some of it passing by close enough to convince him he wouldn\'t be able to break in without notice), Kerr lifted his right fist and rapped smartly on the door. When it was opened by a teenaged boy, he frowned, but managed to utter the request he\'d been rehearsing.
"Hello. My name is Kerr Galvin and I would very much like to meet with the master of this residence, to discuss the possibility of shelter here throughout the coming day."
-
The boy was strong for one his age, for only the older teenage boys and young men were able to push the heavy timber plank through its iron holders in order to open the doors after being locked down for the night. When he was greeted by the vampire on the doorstep he blinked his shock and then held up a hand, his index finger more prominently then the rest.
"Wait one moment," he said, then turned to his right. "Fetch Rigby," he said, and a much younger teenage boy could be seen dashing up the stairs to do as was bidden. A couple of minutes later Rigby appeared, walking quickly down the stairs but not running, though the urgency of an unknown vampire waiting at the front door was certainly reason to hurry. All the boys could identify the undead in this house, and Rigby didn\'t like the idea of one of his kind coming in to upset their little order.
"Thank you Samuel," he said, and the youth who\'d opened the door nodded before leaving. "Pardon me for being rude, but I must ask what your business here is?"
He could feel the age of the vampire before him, much older than himself, but only a speck in time compared to Lazarus. He wasn\'t worried so much about being invaded as he was about being unsettled. His gaze flicked past the stranger\'s shoulder to see the carriage in the driveway before he looked back at Kerr in order to listen to his response.
-
Kerr gave the vampire who answered the door an apologetic look, pressing his hand humbly to his breast. "No need for apology, it is I who is being rude, intruding like this - I understand that - it\'s just that we\'re desperate," he explained, a note of it entering his voice as he admitted it.
"My sire and my fledglings, they\'ve... caused quite a spot of bother in the city. It\'s dangerous for us there, we\'re fleeing but the dawn is approaching and we don\'t have anywhere else to go. We need... shelter, if at all possible" he beseeched. "I was hoping the master of the house might oblige us," he hinted, knowing that this vampire was not the ancient being in the mansion but willing to tell his story to him because he was obviously important.
He wouldn\'t have come to the door first, otherwise.
-
If it was up to Rigby, he would\'ve turned this vampire away, but Lazarus didn\'t like decisions made without his input, and so the one in front of Kerr hesitated, unsure of what the best course of action was.
"You may come in to negotiate your stay while your bloodline wait outside. I\'ll fetch Lazarus. What\'s your name?" he prompted. When Kerr gave it, he turned and beckoned a watchful boy from out of a doorway. "Rene, fetch Lazarus for me and tell him I\'m in the tapestry room with a kindred named Kerr Galvin."
Rene blurted out a \'yes Rigby\' before dashing upstairs. Rigby began moving to said tapestry room, expecting Kerr to follow and glancing back once to make sure he was - though he could feel Kerr at his back in a rather prickly, unlovely way.
The tapestry room was a sitting room where each wall was covered in several vertical tapestries except for the back wall, which had a huge war story to tell from left to right, taking up the entire space. A cluster of armchairs and two seater settees were gathered in a square around a low, wide coffee table, all of the furniture upon a huge, square rug almost as detailed as the tapestries themselves.
Rigby offered a seat and then sat opposite wherever Kerr chose, lowering himself onto his cushioned chair while eyeing Kerr off, glistening green eyes like emeralds watching him speculatively, like an animal waiting to strike. He knew Lazarus would take his time getting down because he had a boy with him, and would get dressed and preen before coming down. He was faster than Rigby expected, showing up in ten minutes, and soon the Ancient was approaching the chair in which Kerr sat, giving Rigby a questioning look.
"He wants to stay for the night, and his bloodline," he explained. Lazarus finally rounded on Kerr and held his hand out for the shaking.
"Rude, Rigby. You should\'ve introduced us properly."
"Sorry, Lazarus. Our visitor is Kerr Galvin," he turned to Kerr and made a short bow of acknowledgement. "Kerr, this is the lord of the household, Lazarus of Bethany."
He used Lazarus\' biblical reference, knowing the Ancient would be heartened by this enough to take Rigby out of the bad books in case he was in them.
-
Kerr - who\'d spent the ten minutes of silence that sitting with Rigby afforded him looking at the beautiful tapestries around the room and fending off numerous mental queries from his family with acerbic instructions to let him concentrate - was conscious of Lazarus approaching before he was in the room. By the time he stood before the brunette Irishman, he could barely contain himself.
Their words flowed around him but his every instinct drove him to his knees at the blonde ancient\'s feet, ignorant of his outstretched hand because his face was more or less buried in the gorgeous rug beneath them all. "Sir," he breathed into the woven carpet, "you honour me. I am humbled and grateful for your time." The name of the being before him (whose face he\'d barely had time to register, given the speed at which his instincts had forced him off his seat and into his supplicating position) struck him; being as devoutly Catholic as he\'d been raised, he could hardly not know the name Lazarus of Bethany. Given the power that was resonating through him, he was also not given to doubting the claim that that was exactly who stood before him.
The knowledge left him speechless and unable to lift his head unless directly ordered to do so - and when he did, if that hand was still outstretched, he would take it within both of his and kiss it reverently.
-
Lazarus\' eyes widened at the display before him - as did Rigby\'s - and his outstretched hand was returned to himself, settling at his hip while the other did the same opposite.
Lazarus had come across this before, though it was rare, and it had only been a couple of times in the past couple of hundred years. Both times it had to do with his great age and he had no doubt that it was because of this again. Every time he\'d had it happen, also, he\'d won himself a devout follower, much more loyal than any fledgling he might create on a whim (though Rigby was certainly the most loyal fledgling he\'d had so far).
He realised Kerr wasn\'t going to move unless he said something, and so he gave permission.
"You may rise."
When Kerr lifted his head, he wouldn\'t find an extended hand, but he would certainly be greeted with a broad smile on Lazarus\' face.
"Take a seat," he commanded next, choosing the one Rigby had chosen opposite the one where Kerr had been before his reverent display. Rigby moved to the one at Lazarus\' side, on his right and watched Kerr with a much more wary gaze than he had before.
"It seems a very novice mistake, to be caught without shelter upon dawn\'s approach," Lazarus pointed out, gleaning from Rigby\'s short sentence that Kerr and his bloodline were needing a place to stay and assuming that they were in dire need of assistance, because they could all feel the night\'s ending approach.
-
Kerr\'s expression was less adoring and more grim as his family was referenced and the fury he\'d been feeling returned to him. It was less strong, now that he had Lazarus\' presence triggering his impulses of supplication (and the peace to be found therein), but it couldn\'t be completely wiped out; it was too huge.
"Yes, well it was less of a novice mistake and more of a necessity," he answered quietly, his lips pressed together in a thin line. "My sire... he\'s a willful child vampire and I\'m afraid his impulses are exactly as mature as those of an eleven year old. He and his mothers - I may as well tell you, they are freakish beings, two women, with two bodies, but their heads are joined and one of them gave birth to Sawyl before we sired them into eternal life," he explained resignedly, his eyes speaking their apology as he presented this tangled web of information for Lazarus\' approval, "they like to \'play\' with their food and one of the men they\'d taken got free of them somehow. They never should have taken the whole family on, but there you have it. The local constabulary was alerted and we barely made it out of the city in our carriage. I wasn\'t with them, of course," Kerr asserted, wanting to make that clear.
Lazarus lived in a home that practically breathed from the amount of mortals he could feel housed within it; he doubted very much that such a sympathiser would take kindly to his tale of mortal torture and terrorising. The least he could do was admit that he played no part in such horrible games and make it clear that he was just the negotiator, the protector... the maid who had to clean up their sinful mess yet again. He still held no real hope that they\'d be accepted into this well organised and seemingly-blissful household.
"Ideally, we need some shelter for a while, to give me time to travel back to the city to organise our hastily-abandoned affairs properly, but I\'m willing to take what I can get, at this stage. A shaded stable room, if you can spare it, where we might slumber the day before we move on to find something a little more permanent, possibly closer to the city? In all honesty, I was in such a panic that I simply drove and took no time to observe my surroundings, so I have no knowledge of what we may have left behind us. Yours was the first place I noticed, whether because that is the lay of the land or just how long my panic lasted, I cannot say for certain. I do not wish to burden you any longer than is necessary, though, we will take anything you will allow, at this late stage," he promised, his tone still excessively apologetic but also a bit hopeful and desperate now, also.
-
Lazarus mused over the news. The idea of letting in willful vampires who tortured those who drank from was not appealing, yet Kerr seemed stable enough. He obviously couldn\'t control his bloodline however, and that was a dangerous thing.
"Reminds me of the Faraday family," Lazarus said, and Rigby glanced at him to see if he was being sent a message about what they\'d done with the Faraday vampires. "They were somewhat sadistic as well," he said, musing. "But it didn\'t turn out so ghastly, in spite of my initial concerns."
Rigby knew why it hadn\'t turned out ghastly, but he wasn\'t about to discuss that with Kerr. He\'d been mortal when they\'d come by the house, and hadn\'t bothered to ask permission to stay like Kerr had - they\'d just... entered.
"I don\'t want to invite your bloodline in if they\'re just going to whittle down the lovely collection of boys I\'ve gathered for myself," he said, raising his eyebrow at Kerr and awaiting promises that the other vampire would control his \'family\'. He sensed a desperation emanating from Kerr, and it was only logical to feel it, for there weren\'t too many options facing them before dawn - other than to seal their carriage down and stay in it for the day. A dangerous prospect, to be sure.
-
"Oh, understandably!" Kerr stammered, looking at Lazarus in something akin to amazement, not believing his luck. It actually sounded like the ancient was considering letting them into the house - and possibly not just for the day. He needed to test that theory, though.
"I would go so far as to say that, in fact, they wouldn\'t even have to drink from any of your... uh, boys... for just the one day - they certainly got their fill tonight," he finished grimly, pausing as he adopted a frown of concentration, glancing up at Lazarus from beneath his lashes, his gaze flicking uncertainly to Rigby and back again. "Unless... you\'re saying... that we\'re welcome to stay here for longer than just a day?"
-
Lazarus smiled benignly at Kerr when the expected promise was made, and raised an eyebrow at the rest of the other vampire\'s guess.
"Indeed I permit that you may, but I wish for a few things in return," Lazarus declared, waiting for Kerr to acknowledge that he would hear him out before continuing. "For one, my fledge here Rigby hasn\'t had mental training in a long while, and I can\'t bother myself to teach him," he said.
Rigby looked at Kerr steadily, pleased that Lazarus would think of him though he suspected there was an ulterior motive to it. Lazarus never did anything for others if he could help it. He\'d never received mental training from Lazarus and had always considered that the Ancient hadn\'t wanted him to be mentally powerful, but now he was reconsidering. It was very possible Lazarus was speaking the truth in this instance; that he really couldn\'t be bothered.
"And for another, I would request your presence with me every night that you are here for a few hours."
Lazarus awaited Kerr\'s reply.
-
Kerr blinked and suddenly felt all school-girlish to have this wondrous ancient being requesting his presence every night - his shy smile and bashful glances gave the fact away in lieu of an outstanding blush. It wasn\'t just a cursory \'you should pay your respects to me each evening\' either, it was a request for his company for a few hours. That was not an offer made lightly, nor even from a foundation of suspicion (for he\'d made it very obvious that the rest of his family was the untrustworthy sector); it came from a desire to know him.
He was not used to anyone wanting to know him, and that made the offer even more intimidating - but pleasurably so.
"I would be delighted," he said honestly, swallowing as he braced himself to meet Lazarus\' cool grey eyes and calculating rapidly. "I will sleep this coming day and leave early on the morrow; I should need to spend only one day in the city and return the next evening. I then anticipate that we would spend a couple of months here in your home, while our new home is arranged. I think it might be time to see what sort of delights Paris has to offer," he smiled, naming the destination he\'d decided upon.
Whether Sawyl, Meinwen and Dei wanted to live in Paris or not didn\'t bother him - he would set it up from the current city and that would be where they would go next. Some decisions he was allowed to make for himself. He glanced at Rigby and then looked back at Lazarus with some hesitation then.
"In my immediate absence, I will instruct my sire to begin Rigby\'s mental training, as you wish. He, truthfully, is the expert at the craft and though I found him to be impatient with my training - due to my slow understanding - I\'m sure he\'s much better equipped to train your childe than I would be, having done it before," he told Lazarus, his tone a mix of apology - for his own ineptitude - and of placation, that he should offer Sawyl up as the expert for this task.
It wasn\'t that he anticipated not having the time to work with Rigby, despite his nightly date with Lazarus, it was simply that he felt inadequate. Sawyl and the twins were exceptional mental practitioners naturally and the blood of Angus, the ancient that had sired Sawyl and Kerr (the Irishman didn\'t believe Angus to have been anywhere near as old as Lazarus, though he wondered if it was his other sire\'s blood in him that reacted so strongly to the beautiful blonde man before him), certainly didn\'t hinder the child\'s abilities.
Sawyl was the natural choice to be Rigby\'s trainer... though Kerr did worry about what sort of trouble that could possibly cause down the track. Oh well, they\'d be out of the house before it could manifest, he believed (though a couple of months was possibly a little ambitious).
-
A couple of months, then. Lazarus mused on this, figuring a couple of months was a good amount of time to win over the loyalty of Kerr - considering he was already open to him. He was almost like one of Lazarus\' many boys, in a way, he knew the look of admiration and respect by now, and it was easy to find it on Kerr\'s face when he was gazed upon by the darkly coloured vampire. The seduction of a loyal servant should prove much easier, what with the many temptations Lazarus had to offer him. The other vampires that were part of Kerr\'s bloodline weren\'t important to him, but Rigby\'s training would keep them busy while offering his fledge an opportunity to keep an eye on them as well. He knew Rigby wouldn\'t have missed the reference to the Faradays, and knew what to do if trouble did arise. Mental aptitude or not, there were many ways to deal with their own kind if necessary.
"That sounds fine," Lazarus said, sealing the negotiations Kerr had made with him with a few words of acceptance. "May I enquire what age you all are? I\'ll need to know how often you will need to feed to keep you all satisfied so that there are no... excuses, for anything bad to occur. Rigby here still needs to feed every night but we have enough boys to keep him sustained."
He wondered if his guests would be imposing on his own desire to feed on the youths in his home (none of which he really needed to drink from, but he enjoyed it, damnit).
-
Kerr\'s expression became somewhat awkward when the mention of feeding arose but he answered smoothly enough, shifting slightly in his seat so that his elbows were resting on the arms of the chair, fingers laced together over his lap.
"Sawyl is two hundred and forty-five, I\'m two hundred and forty-four and his mothers are two hundred and forty-three. They really only need to drink every third or fourth night, though they indulge more often. As for myself," he began, shifting again so that his awkwardness became apparent, "I drink from animals so, uh, I shan\'t be imposing upon your hospitality in that respect," he said, smiling stiffly.
He wasn\'t certain why he felt so embarrassed - likely because he anticipated that Lazarus wouldn\'t understand his odd choice, given that he loved feeding from mortals so much that he surrounded himself with them. He doubted that even if Lazarus had seen the things he\'d seen Sawyl and the twins do to mortals that he would give them up. Kerr was not so strong.
-
The mention of animals had Lazarus pulling a face. It wasn\'t an over-the-top expression, but it wasn\'t one to be missed either. Easily read as disgust, Lazarus glanced over at Rigby who remained impassive as always. He didn\'t talk about Kerr\'s choice however, but couldn\'t refrain from commenting on their bloodline dynamic.
"How very strange, to make a fledgling after a single year," he said, but continued talking without giving Kerr a chance to explain himself. "There are empty rooms on the upper most floor, where myself and Rigby sleep. A few of the boys are up there also, but most of the floor is empty. I\'m still in the process of filling my house," Lazarus smirked. It was like taking two steps forward and one step back a lot of the time, as boys aged to their mid-twenties and were told to leave. "Bring them in and Rigby and I shall show you all your rooms."
The next couple of hours were spent settling in the four of them. Meinwen and Dei were in the biggest room (the same size as Lazarus\' own) at the opposite end of the house, with Sawyl right beside them. Lazarus insisted that Kerr take what he called the Garden Bedroom, which was a windowless bedroom with two painted murals of a garden scene on the walls. It was two rooms down from Rigby\'s room, and only a short distance away from Lazarus\' own.
Ben was on his way upstairs while Lazarus chatted with Kerr in front of the door in the Garden Bedroom. Lazarus had Ben visit him every third night, and so he was on his way up to see the master of the house. He didn\'t expect to be drunk from tonight, for it had only been a week and a half since last, but he thought Lazarus might be more insistent touching him tonight, considering the talk they\'d had last. He was in conflict about how much he would allow because he\'d liked everything Lazarus had done for him so far, and he was starting to feel selfish and prudish in the face of everything he saw and heard around him.
It was with these thoughts on his mind of sex and other means of gratification that he turned into the corridor towards Lazarus\' room and stopped when he saw the blonde vampire talking to someone Ben didn\'t recognise. He was pale like Rigby (but not quite as white as Lazarus) and he immediately thought of him as another vampire. The stranger glanced at Ben as he came to a stop in the corridor several feel away and Ben felt something spark in him, leaving a tingly feeling at their eye contact. He considered the stranger to be very handsome, but the physical response he felt while looking at him was bewildering. His heartbeat sped up and Lazarus turned around to look at him, the movement causing Ben to break eye contact and look at Lazarus.
"Ben, love, go wait in my room," Lazarus ordered, and Ben self-consciously passed the vampiric pair to disappear into Lazarus\' room as ordered, though not before stealing a peek at the strange vampire once again - a lingering peek, if such a thing was possible - and then disappeared into the room.
"The boys are useful for more than just drinking from," Lazarus bragged to Kerr, even though he hadn\'t experienced Ben\'s full scope yet. "If you want to drink from them, Rigby can give you a roster of boys. If you want them in your bed however, you can pick whoever you like at any time."
He was very sure Kerr wouldn\'t pick Ben, and if he did and Ben refused, he knew Kerr wouldn\'t press the issue like Lazarus did.
-
Kerr suddenly felt a little strange all over and the comment from Lazarus made him blink in lieu of blushing. It was almost like the ancient had peered into his mind, which had been greatly stimulated by what had jumped at him from the teenager\'s mind. Ben. Kerr had first been alerted to his presence when he\'d rounded the corridor, thinking very graphic things - surprising the Irishman with the power of his thoughts moreso than what he was thinking. The buzz of a mentally-adept brain at work dimmed as the boy approached, stopped and then passed him but he couldn\'t help staring. His thoughts were exceptionally loud for a mortal. And he was very pretty.
Of course, Kerr didn\'t indulge in such things. Not voluntarily, anyway. Sawyl had managed to coerce him into some very uncomfortable situations (that he enjoyed to great satisfaction, of course) and the twins had forced him into their bed once but the whole Loman show nauseated him. He\'d since sworn off sex and drinking from mortals, the lust and indulgence of the way they did it leaving a stale taste in his mouth.
"Uh... thank you, that\'s very gracious of you," he said politely, bowing gratefully for want of something else to say. Lazarus likely wanted to get to his suite and be with Ben (and, oddly, the thought of that caused a flutter inside his gut), so he wasn\'t about to tell the ancient his life story and delay him. Agreeing was easier. "I\'ll obtain a copy of the roster as soon as possible for the others," he said, nodding towards Sawyl and the twins\' rooms.
After bidding Lazarus a worshipful good night, Kerr went to hurriedly take care of his horse - only to find it had already been groomed and stabled while he was settling in. Further impressed with the synchronicity of this household, he retired for the day, thankful for their luck overall.
The next forty-eight hours were very busy for Kerr. After rising early the next night, he issued stern warnings to Sawyl and his mothers before he obtained the feeding list from Rigby, ensured they\'d follow it and reminded them they\'d agreed to start Rigby\'s tutelage as soon as he was ready. After a brief visit with Lazarus - he was somewhat surprised to find the man bereft of Ben\'s company but told himself to be pleased, rather than disappointed - he set off back to the city to wrap up his family\'s affairs.
He and the servants did as much packing and organising as possible but he wasn\'t able to speak with his solicitor because he\'d arrived too late by carriage; he spent the night making notes with the serving couple who lived in the house they were leaving, telling them how he wanted everything sent off (they were aware of his family\'s vampirism but weren\'t interested in travelling with them to Paris - Kerr believed that had a lot to do with the way the other three members of his family generally left the house).
After a day spent in his own bed (for the final time for a while), he hastened to his solicitor\'s offices. He gave final instructions for the sale of the current residence and the purchase of the next one, supplying Lazarus\' address for emergency contact purposes and authorising the use of copious amounts of his finances for the re-structuring of their future residence so that the twins would be comfortable.
The solicitor also arranged the transfer of Kerr\'s considerable business to their Paris offices (the vampire had learned to select larger companies for this convenience specifically) and for the shipping of all the furniture. His solicitor doubted that two months would be enough for the movement of said items but Kerr, not wanting to impose upon his host\'s hospitality any longer than necessary, impressed upon the mortal that three months would be acceptable but any longer and he would deduct fees from their business. He left the man in a quivering state, agreeing as bravely as he dared, so the vampire knew he\'d very successfully made his point.
Kerr\'s final bit of business in the city was to return to his residence and collect everyone\'s clothes trunks, his urns of sheep blood, his butchering equipment and load his final two ewes into the carriage. They were quite docile beasts even though both were quite heavily pregnant, and they seemed content to curl up on the floor of the rocking carriage to weather the long journey. He spent most of the drive singing to them or the night air, for it was not an interesting trip; he found himself urging the horses on quite quickly, in fact, for he was very much looking forward to re-entering Lazarus\' household.
It wasn\'t just that he was titillated by the indulgence - in a fine manner, rather than the excessive one in which Sawyl and his mothers chose - evidenced in the mansion, he was also looking forward to spending time in Lazarus\' presence. One so old must have learned many lessons in his years and have much wisdom to impart; Kerr felt, much of the time, that he was approaching a crossroads in his existence where he would have need of such insight. Sawyl drove him to despair on a far more frequent basis than was healthy for his mind - and the fact that he could see right through him and into his thoughts on a whim only made it worse.
There was also the draw of the items in the house - the tapestries, carpets... artefacts... but also the boys. They would conveniently distract Sawyl for the months they would need to spend there, he was quite confident, leaving Kerr with the ability to indulge in learned, adult conversation on a nightly basis, rather than withstanding the temperamental storms and floods of tears that regularly sprang from his family. He was happy to shed the burden of his responsibility for a brief respite and looked forward to the things he would learn from his ancient counterpart (a man he admired automatically but also looked up to for his ingenious living situation), the manner in which his mind might be stretched.
Of course, there was also the memory of being told that he could take any boy he liked to bed at any time - and that thought surfaced far more often than he\'d have liked (though it was a long and boring trip on his own, he justified). Since he hadn\'t had any real interactions with any of them yet, he found himself focussing on Ben - he was the only one out of seventy boys whose name he knew for a start. He also wasn\'t a child, judging by his physical appearance - a teenager, yes, but mature enough to be almost a man, almost as tall as he and Lazarus, muscular and solid, unlike... well, unlike Sawyl for a start.
Kerr told himself that, since he\'d had such limited exposure to the other residents, it was understandable he\'d think about Ben when contemplating what it would be like to simply ask a mortal to his bed. It seemed such an alien, bold move - something he admired Lazarus for, certainly, but wasn\'t certain was possible of himself.
Certainly, he\'d had Sawyl in his bed but those encounters had been as disturbing as they were sexually satisfying (there\'d been only three of them thankfully, all when his tiny sire had duped him by playing on his emotions, which he\'d long since wised up to) and he didn\'t feel it would be the same with a mortal boy anyway. He wouldn\'t want anyone small or scrawny, he\'d want someone at least as big as Ben, whom he wouldn\'t crush. Imagine, just taking someone willing in to his bed chamber and drinking from him, before kissing him and touching his warm, soft skin, kissing his ruby red lips...
He cast embarrassed glances into the darkness when he realised his thoughts were thickening his manhood, making it pulse in a way it hadn\'t for a long time - and over a certain blonde boy, nonetheless! In his mortal life, he\'d enjoyed numerous female lovers, had fallen in love with one but never diverged with a male lover. Although Sawyl wasn\'t his ideal partner in any form, he was enough to let him know that the experience was easily as pleasurable with a man and it made him wonder if he would dare indulge during his stay in his temporary residence. There would be stimulus enough, he knew, and if Lazarus encouraged him to participate... he doubted he\'d be able to resist for long.
Driving up to the house, he stopped near the rear entrance to find some boys who would take the trunks up to his and his family\'s rooms, asking them as they unstrapped them from the carriage roof if his sire had been any trouble while he was gone (and getting vague smiles for an answer). He then drove farther onto the property to the nearby stable. After grooming his horses and putting the sheep in a stall of their own (he\'d have to ask around about getting some better feed for them, surely there was a farm nearby he could purchase some from, rather than growing his own), Kerr headed back to the main house. He was dirty from travelling and chose to bathe before he went to see Lazarus (a little thrill at the very thought of seeing the tall blonde again ran through him).
Since it was well past four in the morning, it was late enough that all was quiet in the bathing rooms - thankfully, he managed to get water organised for himself and slid into the bath gratefully, washing himself thoroughly. After he dried off, he surveyed his pile of dirty clothes suspiciously, not finding the idea of putting them back on for the trip up to his suite particularly appealing. It was very late, though - most of the household was slumbering peacefully (including his family, he\'d sensed) - and he decided it would be worth the risk; he wrapped a towel around his hips, gathered his dirty outfit and finger combed his hair before he snuck out of the bathing room.
He did relatively well, crossing the path of only two boys on the well-lit ground floor - they paused in their conversation, gave him curious smiles and looked him over unabashedly - and no-one on the staircase. Just when he was getting confident (travelling down the final corridor, as luck would have it) though, Lazarus\' door began to open. He came to a full stop a metre or so away, standing there clutching the towel over his hip with his left hand and his dirty clothes under his right arm, swallowing worriedly as he waited to see who it was. Bare chested and bare legged (barely covered by the small towel, quite frankly) was hardly the first impression he wanted to make on his peer upon his return.
-
It wasn\'t Lazarus that exited, but a young man - perhaps in his very late teens or possibly already in his twenties - with a curly mop of brown hair. He glanced at Kerr, nodded acknowledgement with a dimpled smile and walked very quickly to the staircase that would take him to the lower floor. It was impossible to miss the reek of sex that came from him as he approached and then passed Kerr before disappearing, leaving behind the scent in his wake.
Kerr had time to enter his room and dress in fresh clothes before there was a smart rapping on his door. Upon answering it, Kerr found Lazarus himself grinning at him, smelling quite strongly of the youth that had left his rooms about ten minutes beforehand but not with the lingering and distracting smell the mortal had been covered in.
"Ah Kerr, I thought I heard you arrive. Come, let us talk," he said, leading the way for the other vampire to follow him, heading for his room but knocking on Rigby\'s door first with his knuckles twice as he passed. "When you\'re ready," he said at the closed door, for he knew Rigby had a boy with him and was likely in the middle of something which Lazarus didn\'t need to interrupt. He continued to his room and entered it, heading for his favourite armchair - the one Ben commonly saw him in - and sat, gesturing for Kerr to sit opposite.
"Is all your business tended to?" he asked politely, wanting to know that Kerr got everything sorted that he needed to. He figured it was the only way he could get the Irish vampire to settle.
-
"It is," Kerr smiled, settling into the chair Lazarus expected. He\'d had time to pull on a pair of pants and a simple, flowing long-sleeved shirt that had a criss-cross tie at his throat that he\'d left open (though the shirt was tucked in, naturally). He hadn\'t been certain he was going to approach Lazarus at such a late hour and had been planning to just relax in his room, so dressing up hadn\'t occurred.
"My solicitor is taking care of the move in our stead, everything should be ready in Paris in a few months - I trust... everything was alright in my absence?" he fished, hoping nothing had gone wrong with his sire already.
-
"Yes, Rigby\'s training started," he said, musing on the fact that Rigby had for the first time shown excitement about something - or any emotion at all, in fact. "He tells me Sawyl has already started playing with the boys, but he hasn\'t been forcable with them, so that\'s fine. I\'m surprised the boys are interested in him," he said, for Sawyl was far too young and even the youngest in his house (at fourteen) looked much older than his years. Lazarus didn\'t have a taste for children so much as those youths who\'d already taken a step towards manhood.
-
Kerr pulled a face. "He has a way of appealing to the better nature in people, convincing them to do things they normally wouldn\'t - and it\'s nearly always not influenced by him mentally, either. He just... has this knack of getting people to do what he wants," he informed the ancient wryly, placing his left elbow on the arm of the chair he was sitting in and leaning his temple on his index finger, head now slightly tilted as he watched Lazarus with a smile that turned more wondering the longer he was in the blonde\'s presence.
"Your boys... " he began, than licked his lips when he wasn\'t entirely sure how to continue in a polite manner. Quickly deciding there wasn\'t one, for such an intrusive question, he forged ahead. "They\'re all your lovers? Taken from... the city? To live here and... please you?" he hazarded curiously.
-
Listening to Kerr explain Sawyl had him raising an eyebrow. Yes, if the little vampire was manipulative, then it would go a long way towards gaining the trust and favour of the boys in his house - who were all prone to such wily ways.
At the question Lazarus laughed heartily, then answered it with a broad grin.
"Lovers, Kerr? Such a romantic word and hardly one I\'d use to describe my relationship with these boys, but in the interest of your understanding, I\'ll say yes, they\'re all here to please me, they all desire time with me and hope for my acceptance and attention. I\'ve saved most of them from the streets, some have even come from money - such as Rigby, he was one of my boys but some twenty years ago I sired him because I didn\'t want him to go. He\'s... extraordinarily useful and devoutly loyal, and he manages this place well."
-
Having Lazarus laugh at his idealistic foolishness had him lowering his gaze to play with an imaginary fold in his pants; he felt like a child, being scolded for looking at the world naively. The sensation was doubly crushing due to his reverence for the ancient. He cleared his throat and lifted his gaze determinedly once a moment of silence had passed between them.
"So... you travel to the city to recruit them? Regularly?" he enquired, hoping such a question wouldn\'t get him laughed at, for he was already feeling tentative about pursuing such personal information from a man who likely enjoyed his solitude (except for the seventy or so people he had around him, of course... they didn\'t seem to be welcome to pierce the shell of charm around Lazarus, though, and Kerr didn\'t want to overstep his welcome on that front either).
-
"Yes," he said, looking at Kerr speculatively. "Do you like my setup, Kerr? It\'s taken me over a hundred years to establish it, and have it running so smoothly. Rigby was certainly a big help in the last twenty years, though I needed to gather enough boys around me in order to feed a fledgling. Such a demanding schedule, when our kind is young," he said, delving into his own memory for a moment before focussing on Kerr again.
A knock at the door sounded and Lazarus bid the knocker to enter, knowing it was Rigby. When his fledge entered, Lazarus gave him his orders.
"Collect two boys here, Eric and William would be good," he said. Rigby nodded and shut the door behind himself, leaving Kerr and Lazarus together once more. "I hope you\'ll share a drink with me?" he requested, his eyes sparkling at the idea of having Kerr drink from a source more favourable than an animal.
-
"I do like your setup, yes," he smiled, refraining from commenting on the overall decadence of the place - he wasn\'t sure how Lazarus would take such a thing, even if he did say it in a complimentary way. After all, the decadence was what had him so intrigued (though he was too shy to say that), so he liked it, but he wasn\'t confident he could make that sentiment carry.
"And yes it is," he agreed to the proposition that feeding a fledgling was demanding - Rigby wouldn\'t change his feeding habits for a long while yet, either. It did worry him that he and his would disrupt such a schedule, by draining the resources... which led to him opening his mouth and closing it without speech to that last comment, somewhat flabbergasted. His eyes were even wider than his mouth.
"Uh... I drank in the city last night," he admitted, having taken a good portion from his supplies so as not to worry about transporting them. "P-plus... well, I really don\'t want us to be a burden on your resources. I mean, the others might get greedy and, uh, I don\'t want to add to that - as you say, it took you a hundred years to get this setup right, I don\'t want us to impose on the status quo too much," he stammered apologetically.
Of course, the idea of drinking from one of the lovely and willing boys - especially in Lazarus\' company - was entirely thrilling and had his palate racing already, but the notion that he\'d be dispatched to garner such children from the city or outlying farms somewhat dampened that interest. He couldn\'t imagine seducing anyone into this household - and he would feel obligated to do just that if he took from Rigby\'s needs.
-
"Nonsense," Lazarus said, flapping a hand in the air. "Rigby survives on thirty six lads, and I have more than double that. I wish to drink with you as company, or are you refusing?" Lazarus asked, figuring Kerr would likely not refuse. He was looking forward to enticing Kerr with his lifestyle, using the boys as a means of seduction.
-
It wasn\'t in him to refuse one who held so much influence over him, though he made a brave effort at doing so - by opening his mouth. Instead of a refusal, however, quite the opposite exited.
"No, of course I wouldn\'t refuse you," he told the blonde sheepishly, an apologetic smile gracing his lips as he shifted in his seat, leaning slightly forward in a subconscious effort to appease and comfort his companion. "It\'s just that I don\'t need to drink, because I did last night. I can always take some more in, no doubt," he said with a crooked laugh.
The fact was, Lazarus had to be in the same situation; there was no way one as old as he needed to drink nightly, yet he had a companion in his suite regularly. As he\'d sensed when passing the other boy earlier, though, that wasn\'t always in pursuit of drinking; the lord of the house certainly used his minions in other, far more pleasurable ways as well.
None of it was anything he was willing to bring up with Lazarus, so he would simply take a shallow drink from whichever boy he got to be polite and then retire for the evening. Two full nights of travel and mentally taxing negotiations with a variety of people had left him keen to sink into his mattress and slumber.
-
"Good, then," Lazarus said, slapping his thighs as a way of settling their communication. "Tell me, have you travelled much? What location is your favourite?" he prompted, wanting a conversation with Kerr to keep him occupied until the boys came. It certainly wouldn\'t take long for Rigby to rile them up and have them brought over. Perhaps another few minutes and there would be a knocking on the door. No doubt Kerr wouldn\'t be able to finish answering Lazarus\' questions before they were interrupted, but that was okay - he was looking forward to drinking with the other vampire and seeing his reaction to either boy (for both reacted sexually when drunk from and were often bold and willing in their actions) when drinking from one.
-
Kerr talked about the fact that he and his family were very well travelled as far as continental Europe went. They\'d begun their days in Ireland and moved throughout the British Isles when they\'d had their first taste of life as a vampire becoming difficult - deaths had occurred in the mortal ranks they\'d drunk from, even when they weren\'t trying because none of them were very old and experienced when they first set out (Kerr neglected to mention the fact that Sawyl was sired by an ancient - as was he - and they\'d killed him before embarking blindly on their journeys).
He\'d just settled down to talking about the country he loved the most so far - Italy - when the boys entered. His passionate waxing about the balmy nights on the coast or the secretive liaisons one might have in the orchards (even if he hadn\'t indulged, it was the romance of the place that inspired him) dwindled away as Lazarus introduced their guests. The boys - young men, really - looked sleepy and Kerr wondered if they\'d been brought from their beds for this task. They seemed cuddly and eager, causing Kerr to squirm somewhat when William ingratiated himself upon his lap and entwined his arms trustingly about his neck.
Furtive glances across him towards Lazarus told the Irishman that he wasn\'t being watched, for the blonde was murmuring to Eric so he looked back at William somewhat worriedly. Drinking from a warm, willing mortal was far different from bleeding a sheep and butchering its corpse for sale as he usually did - the blood was rarely warm when he drank it and not all that pleasant for it. Still, it sustained him and that was all he needed.
Looking into William\'s docile gaze told him that there was far more than sustenance to be gained here and it made him gulp. Hard. Gathering his courage, he began kissing the boy\'s throat, using his tongue to nudge and test, finding a perfect position to bite very quickly. It was like it was meant to be and the boy\'s soft sighs were a surprising encouragement to him. He bit, swiftly and smoothly, the piercings in his flesh shallow enough to let a small amount of blood leak out with every pump of the boy\'s heart.
Memories and sensations assaulted Kerr and he was awed by the power of it. It had been decades since he\'d drunk from a living being and it was very suddenly brought home to him how wonderful human blood was by comparison to everything else. It was the sweetest of nectars, the most seductive liquid he\'d ever held upon his tongue and his arms wound about William, pulling him closer yet, to savour the intoxication of it all.
Not long after he\'d begun drinking, however, a very different sensation had him opening his eyes in alarm. William\'s sighs had become moans of pleasure and he was wriggling purposefully against Kerr, his hand sneaked between the two of them and cupping the vampire\'s crotch. It responded to the attention against his will - the mortal seemed far more adept at such a task than his age warranted - alarming him into closing off the shallow wounds prematurely so that he could pull back and look at William in shock.
His expression obviously didn\'t register with the dazed boy. "Are we going to your bed now?" he asked dreamily, leaning in for a kiss. Kerr dodged his seeking lips, getting a hand between them in order to press his index finger to William\'s lips - he only puckered them, laughed, and then began sucking on the digit, his meaning clear as he looked up at Kerr from beneath his lashes.
"Dear God," the vampire stammered, aghast at having his finger sucked and his gentlemanly ploys thwarted by a lustful protagonist. "No, that wasn\'t my intention," he said indignantly. Thankfully, it pulled William off his finger; unfortunately it gave him entirely the wrong message.
"Oh, we\'re staying here, then?" the brunette asked blithely and, almost as quickly as a vampire himself might do so, he shifted position on Kerr\'s lap, straddling him. To Kerr\'s utter horror, he wantonly pressed his bulging crotch to Kerr\'s and rubbed, moaning while his body undulated and he pressed his face into the hollow of Kerr\'s throat. His hot breath there was maddening, causing Kerr to swallow again as his hands went to William\'s waist, in an effort to stay him.
"Lord... no, I didn\'t mean that, either," the vampire told the mortal, his eyelids fluttering. His body wasn\'t interested in his dignity nor in easing himself into this new environment - not with a willing, warm being humping his lap so deliciously, anyway. His body was quite willing to succumb to this unexpected delight, drunk on the wine of human blood and buoyed by the most pliant and eager body he\'d met in years. Looking across at Lazarus for clues as to how to handle things gave him no assistance, either - the ancient was very obviously enjoying Eric, touching him skilfully.
Kerr pressed his eyes closed and gritted his teeth, leaning his head back on the chair and trying to ignore the fact that William\'s hands were now in his pants and those warm lips were on his throat. It was almost humiliating, the way his body reacted so eagerly when he couldn\'t with any certainty say that he was even attracted to the boy - brunettes generally weren\'t his thing, blondes were, for a start - he was just there. It made him feel like an absolute heel and he couldn\'t in good conscience let this continue. By the same token, he couldn\'t let Lazarus think he was being rude or a prude, either, so a devious plan finally hatched in his brain.
His actions were mostly shielded from the ancient; he reached down to cup William\'s bulge, gulping when it caused the boy to buck and move his lips to Kerr\'s for an impassioned kiss. He allowed his eyes to close and began employing a few of his other talents in order to resolve the situation. Using telekinesis, he sought the sensitive bundle of nerves he knew to be buried in the boy\'s behind, pressuring it rhythmically though his hands strayed nowhere near that area. At the same time, he dug through the boy\'s mind and found the images at the very centre of his memories that seemed the most graphic, that tingled the most when he touched them, declaring them to be his fondest memories - it meant that the sensation that was most prominent for William was that of a mouth around him, but Kerr was certain he wouldn\'t care.
The effect was near instant and electric. William\'s body stiffened and he cried out helplessly as he rode the waves of the most intense, painless orgasm he\'d ever had to its completion, clinging to Kerr before flopping limply atop the vampire, unable to function immediately, let alone talk. Kerr still felt shame, though he was glad it was over - the patch of clothing he was still cupping began to dampen as William\'s seed soaked into it so he removed his hand, patting his waist once more as he held the quivering mortal. His own erection was still yearning for a similar release but he hope now that William had climaxed, it would die down of its own accord.
Kissing the boy\'s feverish forehead, Kerr peeked across at Lazarus, doubting he and his mortal would be anywhere close to finished and wondering if it would be polite to excuse himself and William so that they could go their separate ways.
-
Lazarus had indeed been watching, though only with glances every now and then for he was busy working Eric up into an eager package, yearning to please. Usually when the twenty year old was brought to a throbbing, wanting stage, he was at his best orally, and Lazarus considered him to be the best of the lot when it came to his mouth. He\'d noticed William had succumbed to Kerr\'s touch, peaking in his clothes. Lazarus was both pleased and disappointed that Kerr had managed to work William so expertly.
"We shall swap," Lazarus declared, nudging Eric off his lap so the boy would stand (and his erection obvious and uncomfortable beneath his clothes). "I\'ll take William who I\'m sure will be happy to return the favour you\'ve given him on me while you experience the most sinfully skilled tongue in the entire household," he said, reaching a hand to Eric\'s buttocks where he squeezed a cheek and smiled back at the grinning youth. The compliment wasn\'t lost on Eric, who looked Kerr\'s way (and ignoring his mortal companion on Kerr\'s lap).
"I can make you last or bring release quick, whatever you prefer," Eric offered, with a mumbled \'good boy\' from Lazarus even as the blonde Ancient stood and strode over to take William off Kerr\'s lap and into his arms.
"Take him into your room if you want more privacy," Lazarus offered, "though I wouldn\'t mind watching," he hinted even while he moved to his bed in order to drop William on it and returning to his armchair.
-
Now Kerr was entirely stumped. He didn\'t dare refuse Lazarus. He couldn\'t say he\'d had his fill with William, for the evidence was still there in his lap when the mortal was moved off him. All his clever plans come to nothing; all he could do was look from the ancient\'s retreating form to Eric\'s eager one... to his lips, slightly pinked from contact with Lazarus but still not all that attractive. He didn\'t look at them and want them around him - women\'s lips, soft, full and pink were his thing (which was why Sawyl had been so successful with him those three times) - but the situation was spinning out of his control and there was something heady about it all.
It was all about Lazarus, he realised. The way the ancient hinted that he wanted to see, knowing it would please him... that\'s what made him want to succumb, best lips in the house or not. The notion that Lazarus mind find some pleasure in his pleasure was submissive, he knew, but that was everything he was around one so old and he couldn\'t fight it. Especially with a lap full of want urging him onward.
"Alright," he agreed quietly, looking up at Eric but conscious that Lazarus was returning to his seat. "As quickly as you are able," he told the boy kindly, hoping he was true to his offer because he generally had trouble climaxing quickly from a mortal mouth. People who needed to breathe tended to have great difficulty with one of his dimensions (again, why Sawyl had been so successful) and the process was never a quick one. He was unsure whether having Lazarus watching would speed up the process for him, or not, though - the idea of him sitting right there in his seat caused a flutter inside him, of that he was sure.
Slouching in his seat, he watched Eric drop to his knees before him, looking helplessly at the boy\'s mouth as he untied his pants and pulled his erection free before he slithered the garment down his body and kicked them away. His penis wavered somewhat limply as he sat back down, pantsless, for he\'d been doing his best to have it retreat and so it was no longer at full strength - he didn\'t tend to fluctuate between the states of flaccid and erect very quickly.
Sitting forward momentarily, he took his shirt off, because it would dangle down in the way and he didn\'t want anything to block Lazarus\' view. He then settled back with his arms along the chair\'s arms, hands hanging down the front, his unmarked, muscular body bare. He had dark chest hair covering his pectorals, long and straight but not overly thick, that traced a spearing line down the centre of his abdomen to the nest of his pubis. His legs were covered in the same dark, straight hair as on is chest, his toes wiggling somewhat self-consciously as he looked across at Lazarus.
Now that he\'d embraced the idea that he was going to please the ancient with a show, he gave himself over to it, sighing appreciatively and shifting with pleasure as Eric\'s mouth engulfed him (as best he could). He held Lazarus\' gaze for a while, finding it was erotic rather than distracting; to his surprise, he liked being watched by the ancient and he moaned his pleasure, running his hands through Eric\'s hair affectionately, glancing down at the boy every now and then and finding what he saw only amplified his pleasure. His hands also crept over his body, rubbing and lightly pinching his own nipples, sculpting his chest, skimming down his stomach and thighs and back into Eric\'s hair or to his shoulders.
Always, though, his gaze returned to Lazarus, the intensity of the moment lifting markedly whenever he encountered that seductive grey gaze. He licked his lips a great deal, sucking in breath to let Eric know he was enjoying his efforts by making noise but feeling - because he was looking at Lazarus when he did it - that it wasn\'t all about the mortal at all. It was about the ancient vampire who\'d driven him to his knees the first night he\'d met him and for whom (he was surprised to realise now) he\'d drop to his knees again. If it pleased him. He would even abandon his own pleasure and crawl away from Eric of that was what Lazarus hinted he wanted.
As was his habit, he pressed his feelings of supplication and willingness into Lazarus\'s mind (abandoning the seduction of Eric\'s to do so, for he\'d been doing the same for this mortal as he\'d done for William - though to a lesser degree for it made his attentions too erratic for Kerr to be consumed by them if he gave Eric too much attention), wondering if he\'d accept him or reject the offer because he did prefer watching more.
-
Lazarus\' mind was very hard to press a mental message into, Kerr would find, and what did manage to get through brought a dark frown to Lazarus who shook his head while trying to shake it off. He hadn\'t expected Kerr to want to share that way, and so he told Kerr in no uncertain terms how he felt about that.
"Don\'t," he said, which brought Eric\'s attentions to a pause and he remained still for a moment, waiting for further command but when none came he continued, deep throating Kerr in a way that usually brought everyone around to their peak in quick fashion.
Lazarus didn\'t break eye contact from Kerr, but when that sensation of having his mind invaded faded, the frown melted and he managed to offer the nude vampire a sulty smile. He liked that Kerr wasn\'t prudish (like he\'d thought initially at the first few refusals but now the other vampire was proving himself quite capable of enjoying the stimulation offered around him). For him to come across two new males in the household one after another who protected their sex unreasonably would only frustrate him greatly. Ben would remain his challenge, though he was looking forward to seeing what he could share with Kerr - would he do as much as Rigby? If so, that was intriguing, for this man in front of him was a vampire in his own right, without any loyalties to Lazarus other than the fact he\'d acknowledged Lazarus\' great age.
"If he can\'t bring you to your peak in the next few minutes, I recommend you take it out on his rear," Lazarus said, and knew that Eric would likely feel every thickened inch of Kerr\'s ridiculously sized erection if it was forced into his ass. "We can both take turns," he enthused, erect and throbbing himself from the little show before him. He\'d been intending for William to imitate Eric\'s actions on him, but a fuck was always better.
-
As willing as he was to please Lazarus, Kerr found that the notion of actually having sex with Eric scared him silly. He\'d done it with Sawyl, certainly, but the little vampire had enjoyed the incapacitation, could heal quickly. He had no idea how to take his time and measure himself properly with a mortal and he didn\'t want to end up hurting Eric. Pain was always a terrible dampener to lust.
With these terrified thoughts in mind, Kerr concentrated on Eric\'s mouth, adjusting the boy\'s hands to compensate where he couldn\'t reach, liking the feeling of the warmth around him enough (with his own hands guiding the mortal\'s) that it brought him to his peak within the stated \'few minutes\' time limit. It was surprisingly good, though nothing bone-jarring, since there were so many pressures upon him and it had been a century or so since his body had understood this pleasure.
"He\'s good," he murmured, smiling blearily at Lazarus and patting Eric\'s head appreciatively. "Why don\'t you two finish each other off and I\'ll go to bed?" he offered, ready to lean down and collect his clothes and leave the room immediately. His offer to pleasure Lazarus himself had been met with firm resistance and a stern command - he wasn\'t about to humiliate himself in that sense again. Besides, both Eric and Lazarus were still eager; it seemed a perfect opportunity for them to indulge and him to retreat, as far as he was concerned.
-
Kerr\'s climax pleased Lazarus greatly, watching and listening as the boy swallowed in gulps, spilling nothing though he did sit back on his ankles and had to wipe his mouth with his sleeve before looking first at Kerr and then at Lazarus for recognition of his task. He got his compliment from Kerr and looked back at the darker vampire with a pleased smile. He\'d thought he wasn\'t doing well, for Kerr had taken much longer than others had when experiencing Eric\'s talent.
"That sounds a fine idea," he said, standing up and gesturing for Eric to settle into his bed near William (who he noticed out of the corner of his eye that he was touching himself - another audience member to the display Eric had given). When the boy was out of the way, Lazarus took the two steps over to Kerr and extended his hand to touch him on the shoulder. "Don\'t send me mental messages," he said more softly now, so that only Kerr would hear. "Anything you have to tell me will be said out loud."
He\'d particularly despised the invasion in his head, but wasn\'t about to berate Kerr for something he hadn\'t specifically told him not to do - so now he was specifically telling him not to do it.
-
"Understood," Kerr gulped, looking up at Lazarus through large eyes. He felt like a child caught doing something terribly naughty and Lazarus the parent who was thoroughly disappointed in his behaviour. He wouldn\'t make the mistake again and he would ensure his family didn\'t try the same thing - all four of them used mental communication as easily as mortals breathed air so he desperately hoped they wouldn\'t slip up and anger the ancient.
"Goodnight," he bade respectfully before reaching down to scoop up his clothes and scuttle out of the room with them covering his genitals.
-
The next few nights went smoothly, with Kerr discovering there was a field that his sheep could feed in (for behind the gardens and stables were livestock fiels - so that the boys could eat meat without the older boys being sent to the city to shop for groceries too often, though they did that also in order to fetch bread, extra meat and other items that didn\'t come readily to the mostly self-sufficient manor Lazarus had set up).
Every night Kerr would experience two things; the sexual adventures of Lazarus and the spying eyes of Ben.
With the former, Lazarus had begun to delve into a variety of sexual elements with which to seduce Kerr. Not only was he participating almost every night with a boy to either drink from or to be brought to orgasm by, but he was also required to watch what Lazarus did with them, and the Ancient\'s actions grow bolder with each passing night, and always did he offer for Kerr to share a boy with him, every night offering the sex of one of his youths and every night being declined but with Kerr giving in on a different vein. The fifth night Lazarus felt like he\'d bonded quite well with Kerr, for with a boy between them (Avon, in fact, for the first time he\'d been invited back since being sent down to the boiler rooms) - Lazarus was claiming his ass while Avon worked his mouth around Kerr. Lazarus made comments to Kerr that they were connected via this mortal between them, and the pair stared at each other over Avon\'s body while they thrust in and out of him. Lazarus reached his peak first, causing Avon to mostly choke on Kerr\'s member, and promised Kerr that he would accept the next boy on offer, in order to please him.
With the latter, at a couple (or sometimes several) times early in the night, Kerr would feel Ben\'s thoughts and turn in time to see the blonde youth retreating through a door or staring at him whenever their paths crossed (though Ben was shy enough to look away or move away when caught out).
Ben was spared most of Lazarus\' attentions for the past week, even though a drinking night had come and gone, Lazarus hadn\'t taken his blood, nor insisted on his sex as much as he had on prior nights. Ben met this with relief, thinking Lazarus was either trying a different tactic or he\'d already sated himself with someone before Ben\'s visit.
He wasn\'t thinking of Lazarus as he climbed the stairs on the sixth night, however. With some overhearing, he\'d found out that the strange dark vampire was named Kerr, and every night while listening to the boys fool around in their rooms near his, he would fantasise about Kerr, mostly putting his image in Lazarus\' place, using his hand to stimulate the fantasy and feeling both guilty and excited over it (especially if he got to see Kerr a few times earlier that night).
He knew his resolve was weakening. The pressure Lazarus had applied on him, the arguments he\'d heard from the blonde and being surrounded by sex constantly was making him want to delve into their world. He was in the middle of it after all, and everything seemed so good, so pleasurable, he wondered if he was being a fool for denying himself.
He\'d climbed the last stair riser (on the opposite set of stairs from the one that took him near Lazarus\' room, for he\'d developed the habit of being in places where he might be able to spy Kerr), and heard the voice of the vampire he was enamoured with. Peeking around the wall into the corridor, he stared at Kerr while thinking all sorts of improper thoughts about him, hoping that he could look a great deal and not get caught. The fleeting glances and short stares weren\'t enough. He wanted to stare at Kerr all night, as strange as that sounded.
Once again he was caught out after a minute, and his eyes widened with startlement before he pulled his head back into the space he\'d been peeking around, at the landing of the stairs right near the corner of the corridor Kerr was standing in. He hoped Kerr would just start talking again, but when there was silence, he was about to peek out again. He didn\'t have to, for turning to face the corridor again found him staring directly at Kerr, a foot away, freezing him to the spot.
-
Once he was close to the boy, Kerr somewhat lost his nerve but he managed to cover it easily enough by posing against the wall just around the corner from Ben, leaning on his shoulder and tucking his thumbs casually into his pants pockets. He smiled, jauntily crossing the foot closest to the wall across the other (since his upper body was taking all his weight) and looking at the blonde with twinkling eyes.
"Ho there," he greeted quietly, being sure not to show his fangs (though that was a pointless gesture, considering Ben\'s likely relationship with the lord of the house). "How was your day?" he asked.
It was a limping thing to say, but he couldn\'t very well start with, \'So, I know you\'ve been watching me, do you know how loud your thoughts about what I look like naked are?\', could he? He\'d embarrass the boy into skittering off - as had happened over the past six nights. Kerr\'s evening always began in Lazarus\' suites with him attempting to have an enlightening conversation with the ancient that inevitably turned into him fending off one sort of sexual act or another. He was then left to his own devices for the rest of the night.
Most of those were spent with him checking in on Rigby\'s training and then poking around the house. Ben seemed to have a knack for finding him lifting up large and heavy (even for him) items of furniture or oddly placed objects, for always, as soon as he became aware of the boy and moved to put whatever he was holding down (or pull his head out of wherever it was stuffed) so he could talk to him, he took too long and the boy escaped him. He was surprisingly nimble and quick-witted for a mortal.
Not tonight, though, he\'d finally caught him head-on (his conversation about cooking with one of the boys had naturally petered off when he was alerted to Ben\'s thoughts and it hadn\'t been rude for him to saunter away). His gaze drifted, without him intending to, to Ben\'s lips but he forced himself to look back up into his eyes instead; the combination of the mortal\'s thoughts and his own would prove a combustible combination if he didn\'t keep a lid on it, no matter that he\'d had an intense sexual experience with Lazarus an hour or so beforehand.
-
The question hung in the air for much longer than it should\'ve, considering the kind of innocuous question it was. Ben was caught staring in a close up version of his long-distance sport, and blinked a few times before finally answering.
"Good," he said, surprised that it hadn\'t come out as a whisper or croak. His voice sounded fine, in fact, and he was left gazing raptly at Kerr, who was much more handsome this close than he was from far away.
Offer yourself
God no, what would he think of me?
He\'ll probably take you up on your offer
You\'ve heard the stories, how he plays with Lazarus
Offer your blood then
It\'s been two and a half weeks, you can donate
And let him touch you
Oh God, what it would feel like to have him touch me
Ben blushed at his own internal thoughts and dropped his gaze, gathering himself before looking up again, unwilling to look away from Kerr for long when he was right there. He tried to burn every detail of his face and physique into his memory, to be able to call it up later, when he was alone in bed.
-
God. It was a lot harder than he\'d expected it would be, to be so close to someone whose inner monologue blared out between them. Of course, he was tuning in to Ben\'s thoughts automatically as well, finding it difficult to not listen, so the situation seemed worse thanks to the pair of them, not just the mortal.
"I\'m Kerr Galvin," he smiled, holding his left hand out for the lad to shake. He was aware that they both knew one another\'s names by happenstance, but formal introductions were something that came easily to him to speak about at that moment. He waited until he got his predicted handshake and reply before he continued. "I\'m glad that your day was good. You work in the kitchens, right?"
-
"Ben Samson," he said, the first time he\'d said his family name in a very long time, and it felt detached and unreal on his lips. He took the hand Kerr offered him awkwardly with his own left hand - for Ben was right-handed, and held it rather than shaking it, focussing on the cool feel of his flesh against Ben\'s own warm one. He swallowed, very aware of his pulse quickening at the touch and the zinging feelings he was getting throughout his body from not only being so close to Kerr but touching him.
"Yes. In the dining room, more so," he corrected, for he didn\'t know how to cook and it seemed misleading to claim that he worked in the kitchens when he was only a server. The only business he had in the kitchens was getting the trays of food out of there and giving it to hungry youths around his own age (or older).
-
"Ah, I stand corrected," the Irishman grinned, his voice soft as Ben left his hand in his. It was not a huge hand and not overly rough or weathered and it felt warm and almost petite inside his larger one. "I\'m pleased to finally meet you," he murmured, his gaze dropping to Ben\'s mouth reflexively.
He also made no move to let go of the boy\'s hand.
"I\'ve noticed you watching me poke about the house but every time I go to speak to you, you disappear. Have I been... doing something wrong? Poking into things I shouldn\'t?" he asked blithely, his thumb now stroking Ben\'s wrist, delighted by the leaping pulse.
-
The motion on his wrist had him expel a heavy breath of air before he held it and shook his head.
"No," he confirmed vocally. "I just..."
like looking at you
fantasise about you all the time
want to ask you to drink from me
wish you were leader of this house
want you to want me
"... um... end up in the same place as you," he said with a shrug, liking the contact of their hands and thrilled that Kerr was causing sparks to fly by massaging his wrist. "Do you want to...?"
He trailed off, not brave enough to ask Kerr to drink from him, though it was at the forefront of his mind, with all the other more sexual thoughts in the background, waiting their turn. He blushed again, knowing what he was like when being drunk from, but wanting Kerr to like him for it.
-
"Drink from you?" Kerr supplied, finding the thrill of teasing Ben was far more intoxicating than participating in some of Lazarus\' games. It was harmless, this flirting the two of them were doing, but it went to his head far more quickly and set his dormant nerves tingling much more strongly than some of the other thrills he\'d experienced recently. His smile became automatically a little more cocky, his gaze grazing down the line of Ben\'s throat before it lifted back to his eyes.
"You weren\'t just on your way to see Lazarus?" he asked, needing to check that. Everybody else he ever happened upon on this floor was either coming into or going from the lord\'s room, it made sense that that had been Ben\'s destination too... unless he\'d specifically been looking for Kerr. The thought warmed him and made him feel even gigglier (even if he didn\'t let it out).
-
Ben\'s mouth went dry at Kerr\'s suggestion, causing him to lick his lips and then feel self-conscious about the maneouvre. The current that was passing between them was still strong, still tingling, and Ben\'s hand squeeze Kerr\'s lightly in response to the suggestion made to him. Though it was more of a finishing of the suggestion he\'d been about to make to Kerr.
"Yes," he said softly, and stared blankly for a moment when Kerr brought up Lazarus\' name, breaking the haze. "Um, no, he\'s not expecting me, right now," he said.
It was the truth, though the rest of this truth remained squashed. Lazarus would be expecting him in a little over an hour\'s time, but in the time he had he would be in Kerr\'s room, on Kerr\'s lap, in Kerr\'s hold, with the dark vampire drinking from him with him
writhing
giving into whatever Kerr propositioned him with, he was fairly sure. If Kerr wanted him here and now, in this corridor, he wasn\'t so sure he\'d refuse, and he wondered what it was about Kerr that had him desiring him so badly.
-
He\'d already had blood this evening - he\'d had more blood in the past six nights than he\'d had from mortals in the past hundred years, frankly - and it was making him run hot with the stimulus Ben was sending him. The squeezing of his hand, the licking of his lips, the thoughts of being sexually active with him... everything Ben did had Kerr going weak at the knees.
Not trusting himself to speak, he adjusted his grip on the mortal\'s hand so that he was holding it as he walked beside him, and he silently led the way to his room.
There was a similar setup in his suite to Lazarus\' but Kerr didn\'t want to sit in a chair and have Ben sit in his lap. It seemed far too intimate a thing and almost... humdrum, after his near week spent in a chair in Lazarus\' room. Rebelling from what he\'d learned so far - as well as wanting something completely different with Ben, who was so different with his lucid thoughts - he closed the door behind the two of them, locked it and walked Ben towards the bed.
He toed his shoes off beside it, looking meaningfully at the boy as he then climbed onto the mattress, still holding his hand. If Ben hesitated, he would give the place where they were joined a beseeching tug, looking at him hopefully until he crawled on. There was much he wanted to say to reassure the boy, but he was also feeling a little rebellious in that sense as well; he\'d prefer to do to prove to him that he wasn\'t interested in some sort of tawdry exchange. Not straight away.
Ben might have been thinking such things about the two of them but Kerr was likeminded enough to recognise the romanticism beneath the desires. Neither of them were hasty participants in the goings-on of this house (though he sensed Ben\'s reluctance rather than seeing anything specific in his thoughts - he wasn\'t going to delve and the mortal\'s thoughts when with him were all of him and how much he liked Kerr rather than those in the house), both of them were aroused but not with any specific purpose.
Until they came together, of course. Without saying anything, once Ben joined him on the bed, Kerr would lean over him, caress his face once, briefly, and lean down to tenderly kiss lips he desperately wanted to taste. Ben\'s mouth was the one thing he was unable to erect any sort of barrier to, in this house. Well, that and Lazarus\' desires, really.
-
He followed without qualm to Kerr\'s room, liking the fact the room was locked behind them (rather than feeling trapped, as he\'d been when first entering the house and seeing his escape blocked), offering them privacy and cutting them off from the rest of the house. He took a spare moment to glance around Kerr\'s room before his stare settled on the vampire again, unable to stay away for too long.
There was no need for a beseeching tug, for Ben crawled onto the mattress willingly after Kerr, though his heart was racing in his chest and his breathing loud to his own ears. He recognised the need for quiet submission, and while it thrilled and excited him, it also made him feel young and naive. Lazarus had constantly chastised him for cherishing his lack of experience, and now, beside Kerr on the bed, he wished he knew more about what to do and how to please.
Kerr made it easy. Looking at him fixedly, not believing that this was happening for it felt like a combination of every fantasy he\'d dared to have, he saw Kerr zeroing in on his lips and it was a perfect move. His eyelids fluttered closed as their lips met, the zinging returning at full force around his body (but more prominently in his groin, seemingly the centre of his soul now that he\'d arrived at this house). His arms naturally came up to entwine around Kerr\'s waist, hands drifting up his back towards his shoulders and fingers curling to scratch lightly over clothing. It was magical, a fantastic reality, and his mouth opened for his tongue to move forward and curiously seek out Kerr\'s, attempting to taste his lips, willing to be dominated but very happy to meet in the middle.
-
Although it was Kerr\'s intention just to kiss, he was delighted by the feeling of Ben\'s hands upon him and he returned the favour. The boldest he grew was sneaking his hand under Ben\'s shirt to feel his chest, wanting him to do the same while he was lost in his kiss. It seemed innocent yet they both knew it wasn\'t, for they were both aroused and yearning, yet neither was game to take that extra step to push it somewhere else. Dipping his tongue into Ben\'s hot mouth, tasting his pillowy lips and letting his hands roam the boy\'s torso were enough.
Eventually, wanting more contact, Kerr broke their kiss to pull his shirt off. "You have the most beautiful lips I\'ve ever seen," he told Ben heatedly, impatiently flinging his clothing away and grasping the mortal\'s face as he zoomed back in for more kisses. His smile was broad as he pecked at the redness he\'d created. "I could kiss them all night, would that be alright with you?" he teased, swooping from one lip to another and not allowing Ben to return his attention properly.
He knew nothing of Ben\'s requirement to visit Lazarus, so he meant what he said; he\'d kiss him all night if he was allowed.
-
Time seemed to stop as they explored each other\'s mouths. Every romantic notion Ben had ever had about Kerr eventuated and then some. He hadn\'t ever really stopped to appreciate the idea of kissing Kerr, but now that he was in the middle of it, it seemed enough for him. The question posed to him - could he be kissed all night - was an easy one to respond to. Without hesitation, he whispered yes, forgetting Lazarus for the moment in his haze of lust.
After Kerr\'s shirt was gone, Ben\'s followed, but he had no idea of how long it took before that step. There\'d been a long time in between of him wishing he could press his naked chest to Kerr\'s, and then Kerr pulled away to work on the straps so it could happen. He helped also, with fingers that didn\'t seem to be working as nimbly as usual for he was shaking so much. Eventually he left it alone and let Kerr do the rest, sitting up and pulling out of his clothing, easing back down with Kerr lying against him, kissing some more. At one point Kerr\'s leg worked between Ben\'s own, but he didn\'t stop kissing in order to see what was going on. It was far more erotic to simply advance, and it was so easy and natural being with Kerr.
He felt Kerr\'s full weight on him for a while, fully between his legs and grinding themselves against one another, with Ben bucking gently. Kerr swivelled and took Ben with him, having him on top and lying lengthways. Ben took a moment to smile down at Kerr before lowering his head for more kisses. He felt like an eternity had passed, yet in reality only a few minutes. He liked the way he could feel his racing heart pounding against Kerr\'s cool chest, and eventually he shifted so that he was straddling Kerr. Very quickly after this Kerr moved again, even though the position allowed for a lot of erotic pressure against their groins. Ben was below him again, feeling Kerr\'s hand reposition themselves beneath his ass, and he couldn\'t recall when Kerr had started touching him there, but it was certainly a welcome feeling.
It could\'ve gone all night, except after two and a half hours his name was yelled out by Rigby, who was passing Kerr\'s room and heading down the stairs. It was enough to wash the lusty haze away from him completely, and Kerr stopped kissing him as well. There was a brief pause as they stared at one another, with Ben beneath Kerr, his hands entagled in Kerr\'s hair, their groins pressed hard together with Kerr angling up the way he was.
"I have to go, I\'m sorry," Ben breathed, knowing Lazarus had sent Rigby to look for him. He must\'ve been a bit late, and had no idea how late he really was. He needed Kerr to move off him before he could leave, however.
-
Kerr began moving, but slowly, wanting not to knock anything that was overly sensitive from being engorged - on either of them. He moved into a sitting position on the bed, his right leg raised so that he could rest his arm on his knee and watch Ben, gnawing the inside of his lip.
He didn\'t want to say it. Suddenly, he didn\'t want to know. But he couldn\'t help himself, because he had to know. "To Lazarus?" he queried thickly.
-
When Kerr moved away, Ben also sat up, running his hands through his hair to neaten it and looking at Kerr just before he was asked a poignant question. Unable to answer it while looking at the one he\'d been kissing for so long, he lowered his gaze to the bed and nodded, moving off it so he could gather his shirt and put it on. Even feeling ashamed as he was, he couldn\'t stop himself from looking at Kerr even as he was straightening his shirt from its inside-out position, so he could put it back on. It was difficult, looking at Kerr and feeling aroused by him, knowing he had to go to Lazarus next.
"I\'d rather stay here," he said quietly, hoping it was enough to be forgiven.
-
Kerr smiled, but it was somewhat bitter. "Maybe I should come with you?" he offered, but he got an odd sensation in his gut as he said it. "He likes to watch me with his boys."
It was a stupid thing to say, almost like he was trying to make Ben jealous by pointing out that he\'d been having varied experiences with Lazarus all week, but there was also another reason behind it. If he went with Ben to Lazarus\' room, it might be the catalyst he needed.
He could finally see himself having sex with someone in Lazarus\' presence and the ancient would be what pushed he and Ben forward (though he didn\'t feel such a hasty step was necessary, he simply couldn\'t think too hard about what Lazarus would soon be doing with Ben because everything in him burned to be that man instead).
-
At Kerr\'s offer, Ben blushed and looked at his shirt in order to put it on, unable to meet Kerr\'s gaze for a very long moment. He hadn\'t expected Kerr to say something so callous, but what did he know about this vampire except that he was horny for him? He felt stupid suddenly, and betrayed.
"If he wants you he\'ll send me to get you," Ben said softly, his shirt now on and he was doing the laces up. There was a kind of unfinished quality to this scene, and he didn\'t know why it was going wrong. Hell, he knew why, he was being called for by another vampire after spending too much time with the one in front of him. He\'d thought the kissing meant Kerr liked him back, but the remark made to him had him feeling like he was just another one of the boys to Kerr - much like how Lazarus viewed him. Maybe that was why he was holding onto his virginity, it was the only thing making him different.
He intended on leaving Kerr\'s room without another word.
-
Kerr opened his mouth to speak but couldn\'t find the right words in time. The boy left quietly and he knew he\'d left a mark where he hadn\'t intended to. The words he should have said were, \'I\'m sorry, I didn\'t mean that,\' but they didn\'t come before Ben had gone.
Flopping angrily back onto the bed, Kerr growled at his own stupidity, feeling like a heel and knowing it was too little too late to chase Ben down now. He would have to wait until Lazarus was done with him, and wasn\'t that a painful little barb to swallow? The mere thought of Lazarus playing his usual games with Ben caused a burning jealousy inside his breast that he found hard to contain. He wanted to know what they were doing and he knew it would be very easy to listen to Ben\'s thoughts and spy without alerting either of them... but he also didn\'t know.
Instead, he ended up simply laying there, twisted with angst and trying to rationalise his admittedly irrational behaviour to himself. He couldn\'t justify his feelings, though, couldn\'t make himself believe that he had any right to tell Ben what to do, when he was in Lazarus\'s house - the fact that they\'d had a peek-a-boo thought relationship for a few nights didn\'t mean he knew the boy any better than the others. He just liked him more. A whole lot more. Too much more, if he couldn\'t get this unexpected possessive streak of his under control.
He resolved to tell Ben he was sorry and tell him exactly why, listening for the moment he left Lazarus\' room (hoping it would be before dawn) and ready to rush out and do it right there in the corridor if he had to. He needed to make his boorish behaviour up to the young mortal and start acting his age.
-
He entered Lazarus\' room quietly, without knocking as he was usually wont to do. Lazarus wasn\'t at his chair when he checked, but was stabbing the fire with a poker. The blonde Ancient turned around when he heard the door close and hung up the poker in order to approach his armchair, all while watching Ben with angry grey eyes.
"You\'re late," he snapped, though Ben likely knew this as Rigby had been the one to send him here. He\'d heard Rigby yelling along the corridor and then again downstairs as he patrolled the house, intending to patrol the gardens in order to find Ben.
"Sorry," Ben said, and approached Lazarus until he was standing by the Ancient\'s armchair, expecting to be reminded that he hadn\'t been drunk from, and that they would be doing more tonight than they had previous nights. It was a standard routine, and they\'d advanced each time but not anywhere near as quickly as Lazarus wanted.
Lazarus patted his lap, and said \'Facing\' so that Ben knew to straddle him. Feeling like he\'d just been rudely awakened from a pleasant dream, Ben did as ordered and turned his face away in order to show Lazarus his neck. He wasn\'t nuzzled however, wasn\'t kissed or groped, he was grabbed by the upper arms roughly and shoved back so that Lazarus could glare at him.
"What did you let him do?" he said, and shook Ben when he took longer than a moment. There was no denying it or asking \'who\' when they both knew. He should\'ve realised Lazarus would smell Kerr on him, when the two of them were sharing so much. "Are you still a virgin?"
"Yes," he answered, glad that he didn\'t have to go into detail for the first question, but he wasn\'t being let off the hook so easily as Lazarus\' piercing grey eyes measured him.
"Did he ask for your company?" he asked, more quietly this time.
"Kind of," Ben said, not wanting to be shaken again. His arms were hurting where Lazarus was gripping them.
"Kind of? What the fuck does that mean?" Lazarus asked, his voice rising.
"He asked to drink from me."
Lazarus felt his heart plummet. He hadn\'t warned Kerr off Ben because he\'d expected the teenager to deny him. Wasn\'t it a fool choice, for now he\'d got Ben used to the idea of being drunk from - and liking it. What a surprise though, that he would allow Kerr to after building such an extensive relationship with Lazarus?
"It\'s my night to drink from you," Lazarus hissed.
"You still can. He didn\'t drink from me," Ben explained, causing Lazarus to ponder what that meant.
"What did he do with you then?" he asked, and Ben pressed his lips together and lowered his gaze. Lazarus sneered at this reaction, for he could only guess how Kerr had used Ben\'s mouth. "You haven\'t done that for me!" he said angrily, not liking not being the first experience for Ben for everything.
"Yes, I have!" Ben argued, lifting his gaze, his hands lifting as much as they were able and gripping Lazarus\' arms by the elbows. "You\'re hurting me," he added, hoping the Ancient would be lenient.
Lazarus was confused in fact, for Ben\'s mouth hadn\'t pleasured him yet the boy seemed to be speaking the truth. He loosened his grip but didn\'t let Ben go altogether.
"What have you done with him, that you\'ve done with me?" he asked softly, almost crooning in order to get Ben to answer his question.
There was a very long pause, and then: "Kissing."
Lazarus blinked.
"Is that all?" he asked, still using his same crooning tone.
Ben stared at Lazarus before nodding. He wasn\'t about to tell Lazarus about the groping and how they\'d lain on top of each other and rubbed against one another. It wasn\'t anything special anyway, according to Kerr.
"Do you think it\'s fair, to kiss him so quickly after everything I\'ve done for you?" Lazarus asked, liking the way Ben shook his head immediately. He was interested in what that meant. "How do you plan on making it up to me?"
Ben understood what Lazarus was getting at. It wasn\'t really a punishment, for he knew the blonde would be after more from him anyway, and he was grateful that Lazarus wasn\'t angry at him.
"What do you want?" he whispered, hoping Lazarus wouldn\'t ask for too much.
"After I drink from you, I\'m hard and aching for release," Lazarus explained, making Ben blush, though he wasn\'t game to lower his gaze, knowing Lazarus liked to watch his reaction to his graphic words. "You\'ll give me that release. With your mouth."
He\'d been hoping Lazarus would accept his hands, and relieved that he hadn\'t been asked for sex in full, but asking for his mouth was enough to give Ben second thoughts. In his hesitation, Lazarus saw an opportunity.
"Of course you\'re not experienced enough to satisfy me, love. It takes an expert tongue for me to peak," he informed Ben, and waited for the teen to look at him for what he was driving at before he gave the game away. "You\'ll have to have someone do it to you, before you can do it to me."
Ben figured Lazarus was asking for them to perform mutual oral sex and so he nodded, for such a thing had been prominent in his thoughts, and it was the harsh reality he needed from the romantic notions he\'d been fooling himself with about Kerr.
"I don\'t get on my knees for just anyone, Ben," Lazarus said, gesturing for Ben to move back and off him. Ben complied and nodded, thinking that Lazarus must be treating him to something special when the real blow came. "So how about you find your kissing partner and bring him here? He knows what I like because he\'s been watching it, and I\'m sure you won\'t mind his mouth on you again, even if it is a little lower than you\'re used to."
Ben\'s jaw dropped open and he started shaking his head, but before any sound came out Lazarus raised his index finger imperiously at the youth standing before him.
"Are you denying me now? After you just agreed?"
Ben was quiet for a moment, then shook his head again.
"No, Lazarus. I want to make it up to you," he said, for he honestly did. He\'d gone behind the blonde vampire\'s back with someone who hadn\'t cared about him at all. So far Lazarus had been patient (even if he had been pushy) and Ben did feel grateful, and it hadn\'t been too long ago that he\'d considered giving in to Lazarus completely (before his fantasies had exchanged Lazarus with Kerr).
"Go get him, then," Lazarus ordered, and Ben left to do just that.
He didn\'t waste time in the corridor, and Kerr\'s room was only a few metres away. He headed straight for it, intending to knock.
-
Kerr was startled out of his thoughts by the very sudden reappearance of Ben in the corridor - so quickly after he\'d gone in, too! With his own dashingly romantic thoughts tumbling in his head - of how Ben had refused Lazarus after all and was returning to him - Kerr bounded off his bed and rushed into the hall outside.
"Ben! I\'m sorry!" he gushed, striding up to the boy and speaking quietly to him, grasping his hands and leaning down so that he was peering sincerely into his eyes. It occurred to him that he couldn\'t say the rest of what he wanted to say out loud because Lazarus would hear him - he already would\'ve heard his hasty apology, in fact - and what he had to say was private. Very naturally, he switched to speaking mentally to Ben.
I shouldn\'t have said something so nasty - I was being childish because I was jealous of you going to him. I had no right to burden you like that, I\'m sorry; he\'s your master and I shouldn\'t have lashed out at you just because you\'re special to me - as you no doubt are to him.
He finished by shaking his head and letting go of Ben\'s hand n order to touch his face gently with his fingertips. "I\'m sorry," he whispered again, hoping they would now turn back towards his room and spend the rest of the night together.
-
Ben was horrified while ecstatic at the same time. Kerr really was how Ben had thought (hoped) he was, and now with this apology on his lips, Ben wanted to hug him and say he was forgiven, but he couldn\'t.
A harsh blush pinked his cheeks and he lowered his stare from Kerr, unable to say what he had to next while looking into Kerr\'s eyes.
"He-wants-to-see-you-he-knows," he mumbled in one sentence, pulling away from Kerr and giving him one last lingering stare before turning and heading for Lazarus, frowning even as he reached the door and knocked. Lazarus bade them to enter and Ben hurried into the room without looking behind him to see where Kerr was or what his expression was.
Lazarus, on the other hand, was looking forward to seeing the pair of them interact, (even though it was twisting his gut to think how easily he could\'ve prevented this with one quick warning to Kerr on the first night when they\'d both seen Ben). He stood up from the chair even as Ben approached, and placed his arm around the youth\'s shoulders as he waited for Kerr to make an appearance.
-
Kerr was stunned. Not so much because Lazarus knew he\'d been with Ben - a fledgling who\'d met him once would\'ve been able to smell him all over the mortal after their two and a half hour make out session - but because there seemed to be something very serious about the fact. Ben was acting very strangely and even his wording had Kerr inordinately worried.
He didn\'t know why, though, because Lazarus seemed to have enjoyed him enjoying what boys he\'d met and he\'d invited him to take any he wished into his bed on the first night. Why did it matter that he finally had (in a manner of speaking)? Was it because Lazarus now wanted him only to perform such deeds where he could watch? Ben seemed... too scared for that to be the case, though, so it likely had something to do with him, too.
Glancing behind himself towards his open door - where his shirt and shoes lay forgotten on his floor - he then looked forward and began moving to Lazarus\' chamber. It was no doubt bad taste for him to turn up in stockinged feet and pantaloons but he reasoned that it wasn\'t anything Lazarus hadn\'t seen before. And it seemed like they were already waiting for him, a further delay wouldn\'t be welcomed.
He entered Lazarus\' room cautiously, stepping in front of the door and moving his arms behind his back to close it with a quiet snick, resting there when it was done, both hands worrying at the knob while he stood tall and resolute to the eyes in front of him. The very possessive manner in which Lazarus was standing in order to hold Ben disturbed Kerr and a feeling of dread awakened in his heart. It didn\'t only feel wrong, it all looked wrong now. Lazarus\' expression seemed hostile and Ben\'s was... mortified was Kerr\'s closest estimation.
"What\'s wrong? What\'ve I done?" he asked the ancient with a frown, on one hand taking blame with his words and wanting to protect Ben but on the other recoiling from the very notion that he\'d upset his ancient benefactor as well. It wasn\'t in him to consciously go against one whom he\'d peel his very skin off for, if it was asked of him. Ignorance was likely no excuse for one so absolute, however.
-
"Oh, I don\'t believe it\'s anything you\'ve done," Lazarus said, gesturing for Kerr to enter the room, even as he moved forward to his giant bed with Ben being propelled beside him. He sat down upon it, taking Ben with him, so that the pair of them were now looking across at Kerr from the edge of the luxurious bed. "It\'s more about what you didn\'t know. My fault entirely, of course, I had no idea young Ben here was going to do a turnabout on me." He looked down at the mortal at his side with a smile that didn\'t reach his eyes and rubbed Ben\'s upper arm where his hand lay while Ben stared at Kerr with wide and guilty eyes. "Did he tell you, for instance, that he\'s the only virgin in this entire household?" Lazarus said, delighted that he could still announce the boy thus, and predicting that Kerr hadn\'t been told, for that would make Kerr\'s advancement on Ben much more predatory and intrusive. "Not bad for someone who\'s been here for six months, or living on the street before that," Lazarus explained further before waiting for Kerr\'s reply.
-
"Uh, no... it never came up," Kerr replied awkwardly, feeling silly for staying by the door when the other two were so far away, so he began strolling forward. His hands hung limply by his sides but his fingers wiggled, because he wanted to do something with them - having no upper garments on rather denied him that action, though.
"I suppose it is," he finished lamely, looking at Ben for clues as to how he should respond. He could see that Lazarus valued Ben\'s virginity as a prize and began to see where his own transgression had taken place - he might have stumbled upon stealing such a thing when he took Ben to his room. He might also have been refused anything more than he attempted with the boy, too, no matter how lewd his thoughts often were when he looked at Kerr.
"Look, I didn\'t really give Be a chance to say much, I just... took him to my room and, uh... well, we kissed," the Irishman appealed to Lazarus, looking into his lovely grey eyes. As usual, it had the queer effect of humbling him and turning him to water before the veritable giant of a man, but he did his best to hold his stare and his pose. "It wasn\'t anything too, uh, graphic, I promise, and I\'m sorry, also," he finished sincerely.
-
Lazarus listened to and watched Kerr impassively before turning and placing a kiss on the side of Ben\'s head, which earned downcast eyes from the mortal, shamed for his behaviour and knowing that Lazarus was very angry, and this was the way it was showing.
"He and I have been building a very slow trust," Lazarus informed Kerr, not acknowledging his words of apology or otherwise. "A very slow trust," he repeated, to get his point across. "Naturally I thought he would deny you, but he seems to like you well enough to spend time with you doing things it took me months to extract from him," Lazarus said with a smile. "So I thought I\'d use that to my advantage, if you don\'t mind. Ben\'s given his permission, Kerr. He\'s promised me that he will grant me the favour of his mouth." He waited for this news to sink in, watching Kerr closely with sparkling eyes. "Of course being inexperienced means he\'ll make a terrible attempt at it," he said, looking at Ben who was still studying his hands laying limply in his lap. "And I don\'t get down on my knees before mortals," Lazarus said with a scoff, "so I figured if he\'s comfortable with you, and you\'ve had a lot of my boys mouths around you to know what\'s best, you can demonstrate on Ben\'s body what his mouth and tongue should be doing upon mine."
Lazarus smiled winningly at Kerr, and now Ben was looking up, blushing but gazing steadily at Kerr. If anybody was going to be demonstrating on him, he would rather it be Kerr than anyone else, and this was a flaw in Lazarus\' thinking, if he was seeing it as punishment. It was more embarrassing to Ben for Kerr to know that he would be performing the same task on Lazarus afterward.
-
Kerr\'s jaw dropped and all he could do for thirty seconds was gape at the pair of them. He thought he\'d felt heat when he\'d had Ben alone in his bed; that was nothing compared to the burning he was feeling now. Of course, his flawless complexion gave off only the faintest blush, having processed the blood he\'d ingested earlier in the night, but he felt inexplicably embarrassed just then.
It wasn\'t that the notion of doing it to Ben in front of Lazarus got to him - he\'d been trained out of that concern already this week. It was the fact that he had absolutely no idea what he was doing. Certainly he\'d had it done to him by Lazarus\' boys - and Sawyl, though they\'d never discussed that - but he had never performed such an act. How in God\'s name was his inept slurping at Ben supposed to teach the teenager how to do it any better to Lazarus than he would do it using his own ingenuity?
The answer was clear, and those moments of stunned silence eventually showed it to him: it didn\'t. Lazarus just wanted them both to suffer firstly and to watch it all unfold secondly. That rebellious streak in him reared its spiteful head at the realisation and he found himself holding Ben\'s steady stare (Lazarus\' had just made him cringe when he\'d met it before, his jealousy showing up clearly in his expression as he glanced away, trying not to picture Ben sucking on Lazarus in his absence).
Lazarus wanted his show and his allegiance re-asserted and Lazarus always got what he wanted. "I\'ll do my best," he vowed with a shy laugh and a conspiratorial smile going Ben\'s way (even though he was speaking to the ancient). It was the only attempt he made at shirking responsibility though, for he stepped boldly forward and made a point of kneeling between Ben\'s knees in the next second. It didn\'t bother him that Lazarus was sitting right beside the mortal - he\'d had closer experiences with the ancient this week, frankly. He also didn\'t dare use the rest of the bed without permission to do so - and speaking was beyond him just then.
He began by reaching up and cupping the back of Ben\'s neck, drawing the boy forward so that he could kiss his ruby lips. His own mouth had caused them to swell into the sexiest pout he\'d yet seen, and he couldn\'t resist another taste. He also needed an excuse to reignite the spark they\'d shared, to make this alright, like it was an extension of their earlier activity and not just some crude, spontaneous act. It worked, for him, so he soon released Ben\'s mouth and smiled as he turned his attention to undoing his pants.
Kerr found it the most difficult to ignore Lazarus\' pointed gaze during the disrobing process, but unless the ancient said something, he gritted his teeth and took his time. He held eye contact with Ben as much as possible, employing the trick of sucking on a couple of the mortal\'s fingers to titillate him (he was overjoyed to see Ben\'s lids waver with desire) while he covered his groin with his hand, massaging gently and getting to know what he would face before he saw it (hoping to lessen embarrassment).
Once Ben\'s pants were off, things went more hastily. The Irishman found he was eager to draw Ben into his mouth and he treated it as an extension of the youth\'s mouth; kissing his stiffened member lovingly, tasting him as if he were a fine wine, his tongue a slave to the texture and every bump along its length. His hands served as aides that occasionally gripped the base and pumped but also reached up and stroked Ben\'s chest, caressed his face, gathered the warm mortal hands to put on his head to encourage him to grip his hair and force him to swallow (in his mind, he was pretending he didn\'t want to, just so Ben could feel a great deal of the control he wouldn\'t have later, with Lazarus)... they also delivered cheeky squeezes to his thighs, behind and nipples when they were of an inclination to do so.
When he sensed that Ben was fully in the moment - and he didn\'t even consider cheating and using his mind this time, wanting it all to be his own physical work - he found a rhythm it seemed the blonde liked and simply went for it. Celerity was in his favour, of course, but he tried to keep it to a minimum as his slick mouth slid up and down Ben\'s straining erection at a rapid rate, urging him with his own little mewling noises to peak; he held him as best he could while he did, raising up to wrap his strong, cold arms about Ben while he enjoyed the moment, holding him until he\'d ridden it out.
He swallowed the salty, bloody concoction that shot into his mouth happily, enjoying Ben\'s descent from bliss as much as he could - considering the entire act had made him twice as hard as he\'d been when they\'d been kissing on his bed and he was left aching for a simultaneous release in a way he hadn\'t in centuries. He found he was smiling with a quiet pride, looking at Ben\'s face, his replete expression happily. He was awed to know he\'d done that to him and it hadn\'t seemed very hard at all (though he would ask for a review later, to get better at the act).
Then reality intruded when Lazarus reminded him he was still sitting there and the Irishman turned his gaze guiltily to his liege, withdrawing his hands from Ben, sitting back on his heels and clasping a threaded-together fist before his throbbing crotch in an attempt to mask how much pleasure servicing Ben had given him. "Will that be all, m\'lord?" he asked Lazarus quietly, inclining his head, lowering his gaze respectfully and expecting he would be released imminently. Lazarus seemed likely to guard his alone time with Ben quite viciously, for which Kerr was selfishly grateful; he didn\'t want to be here to witness the mortal\'s attempt at a sequel.
-
He hadn\'t liked the kissing between them, and had been just about to say something when Kerr finally moved away from Ben\'s lips. He watched it all, for the first time regretting his decision not to do it himself. Lazarus had always known this would be the one thing he wasn\'t first on Ben\'s body at - but he\'d expected one of the boys to perform the task on him, such as Eric, but this had been a spontaneous decision.
It wasn\'t enough punishment, he decided, as Ben orgasmed into Kerr\'s mouth and the pair of them looked satisfied. He didn\'t want satisfaction, he\'d wanted to make them uncomfortable with one another, so that their awkwardness would prevent their desire to continue their relationship.
"That was certainly a show," he said, a comment that was neither negative nor positive. At Kerr\'s question, Lazarus had an answer at the ready.
"Grab one of the chairs and bring it close to the bed. I want you to watch how well your student learned."
"No!" Ben cried out, drawing Lazarus\' glare but he didn\'t shrink beneath it. "Don\'t make him watch," he added quietly.
"He does that for you and you deny him a show?" Lazarus spat, still upset that the pair of them had looked so engrossed in one another and comfortable in the act in front of him.
"Please," Ben whispered, twisting around on the bed so he could speak only to Lazarus, his face turned away from Kerr so that he was speaking directly to Lazarus\' ear and expecting Kerr wouldn\'t be able to hear. He still didn\'t know about a vampire\'s elevated senses, for none of it had been explained to him apart from drinking blood and immortality. "We\'ll do it all. Just don\'t make him watch."
"All?" Lazarus repeated, dropping his voice to a whisper also even though he knew Kerr would be able to hear, and delighted that Ben was deciding this with Kerr in the room. "Your virginity?"
"Yes," Ben said so softly it was a word on his breath.
Lazarus wound an arm around Ben\'s back and hugged him at the waist, kissing his temple before turning to Kerr again, still on the floor.
"Kerr, my offer still stands, but not with Ben," he said, not clarifying what the offer was and figuring Kerr would guess it was about satisfying himself with any boy in the house at any time. "I won\'t be seeing you tomorrow night, I\'ll be otherwise occupied," he said, looking over at Ben who was quietly sitting beside him with his pants off but with his hands covering himself on his lap. "You may leave."
Once Kerr was out of the room, Lazarus stood up and began pulling off his clothes, dropping them to the floor beside the bed and prompting Ben to do the same with the rest of his. Thinking that tonight would be the night for Lazarus to claim his virginity (and not getting why Lazarus would be busy tomorrow night), he pulled off his remaining clothes and crawled further back onto the bed once he was naked, feeling self-conscious but also tingling from the orgasm he\'d experienced with Kerr\'s mouth.
Lazarus knelt on the bed after him, but instead of lying atop him like Ben was expecting, he settled himself down on the bed, arranging the pillows at his back so that he was comfortable with his shoulders to the headboard and the rest of his body splayed out.
"Your mouth, love," he said, beckoning Ben over and prompting him to crawl between his legs. Ben submitted and was on all fours, looking along the length of Lazarus\' body before he lowered his mouth to Lazarus\' erection, mimicking the actions performed on him. All while he was doing it, he imagined Lazarus\' length entering him from behind, unable to stop the picture from dominating his thoughts. He was worried about how much it would hurt, because the Ancient was bigger than the boys Ben had seen (except for the older ones, like the one in the pool he\'d seen with Luke), and if Lazarus would take his time with him.
It seemed to take forever to bring Lazarus to his peak, and his jaw ached. He\'d gagged a few times also, when Lazarus had taken control of his head movements by entwining fingers in his hair and demanding a rhythm Ben had been unprepared for. Eventually Lazarus shot into his mouth, surprising Ben and he swallowed instinctively, for that was what he\'d always seen being done, and that was what Kerr had done for him.
"C\'mere, I want to taste myself on your lips," Lazarus slurred immediately afterwards, and Ben crawled over his body to reach him so that they could kiss. Lazarus was demanding, probing his tongue around Ben\'s mouth. The Ancient was glad there was no sign of Kerr in that pretty mouth any longer, for his seed had washed it out. After their kiss broke, and Ben was looking at Lazarus expectantly, unsure of what to do next and hoping he\'d be told, Lazarus explained himself. "Tomorrow night you will immediately come to my room, and I will drink from you and do everything I wish to you, with you willing and begging for more, yes?" he prompted.
Ben blinked his surprise that Lazarus wasn\'t having him now and nodded solemnly.
"Good boy. Now go to your room."
Ben dressed quickly and left, closing the door to Lazarus\' room behind him gently and finding Rigby striding up the corridor towards him. Ben froze on the spot but Rigby grunted and turned around in order to head back downstairs. Once the corridor was empty, he hurried to his room.
-
Kerr would have been quite happy to watch Ben - and imagine it was him the boy was working on. He pressed his lips together grimly and nodded once when told he should leave. He cast a lingering look Ben\'s way, a reassuring smile for him, but the boy was already preparing for Lazarus, so he left and went straight back to his room.
The thought that he could invite anyone to come with him (except Ben) did rise as he walked the short distance to his room, but something in him balked at that. Only Ben had aroused this insane level of curiosity and awareness in him, it would almost be like cheating to finish it with someone else.
Instead, he locked his door once more and stripped nude, laying on his bed and touching himself. His mind moved outward, connecting to Ben\'s. It took him a moment to find a place to watch from (and he dearly wished he could invade Lazarus\' mind but he\'d been specifically forbidden it), where Ben was connecting all the good feelings that had happened to him with what he was doing - rather than picturing what having sex with Lazarus would be like - but he eventually settled.
It wasn\'t a particularly good connection mentally, but Kerr didn\'t need too much physical stimulus after the hours he\'d spent with Ben; he spilled up his stomach and over his hand long before Lazarus was satisfied. It was a surprisingly powerful orgasm, too, considering that he\'d had quite a few of them during his stay here. None had compared to this one.
He cleaned himself up and lay back again, trying not to watch what was happening in Lazarus\' suite but addicted to following this through, now. He was as surprised as Ben was when sex wasn\'t demanded of the boy, though he could see Lazarus\' reasoning; Ben would be fresh tomorrow night, and there would be no thoughts of Kerr to taint their first time, it would be a clean start. He\'d do the same thing in the ancient\'s place.
Kerr tensed as Ben finally left Lazarus\' rooms, hoping he\'d be visited but understanding that the boy was too scared. He decided it was up to him. He got up and pulled his pants and shirt on, not bothering to tuck or tie too properly and walked to his door, focussing all his mental energy on ascertaining where the household was. No-one was moving about on the top floor, Rigby had gone downstairs somewhere, no-one was much moving through the house, either, he\'d be able to turn invisible and avoid notice.
He reached for his doorknob... and stopped. One thing would defeat him at this stage, but it was a powerful enough thing that it had him dropping his hand back to his side and, eventually, turning forlornly and undressing before climbing back into his own bed: Lazarus\' hearing. Unfortunately, he\'d been placed in a room close enough to the ancient that it would certainly hear his door open and Kerr sneak out, no matter how quiet the Irishman was. When he\'d first been given the room, he\'d been flattered to be placed so close; now he was utterly chagrined and suspicious about whether this had been intended all along.
There was only one option but he didn\'t have a lot of blood left in his system to make it count for much (and he was certainly glad he\'d drunk so often from Lazarus\' boys now), so he relaxed on his bed and did it with minimal effort. His mind lifted and sought downward, not really knowing where Ben\'s room was and sorry now that he hadn\'t mentally followed when the boy had left this floor. He had to jump from mind to mind, room to room to get to the one he wanted and by the time he actually succeeded, he was nigh on exhausted. He didn\'t have the energy to monitor Ben\'s reaction to his message, all he could do was say what he\'d come to say and let his mind come reeling back to him so that he could sleep.
I\'m sorry if I caused trouble for you tonight. I think you\'re very brave and I greatly enjoy being with you - you\'re wonderful. I hope we can still be friends, even if we must keep our lips to ourselves. Sweet dreams and I hope to see you soon.
He communicated images of all the places he liked to explore in the house and the desire that he run into Ben in one of them. Surely, if people witnessed them just being friendly, Lazarus couldn\'t object? It was Kerr\'s hope, for Ben had crawled beneath his skin and he was an itch that the vampire couldn\'t scratch, a drink he couldn\'t get enough of, a wonder he needed to be near all the time. At the very least, he thought they should become firm friends.
When he awoke the next evening, Kerr got dressed in old clothes, gathered his butchering equipment and hastened downstairs. He\'d arranged with the head cook - George - to teach him and a few of his keen apprentices how to butcher and cut up a sheep properly, based on his many years of experience with the practise. They\'d all thought it wouldn\'t happen until closer to midnight, due to Kerr\'s standing date with Lazarus, but the ancient\'s occupation with Ben could be turned into a positive for him, the Irishman decided.
Of course, when he got downstairs he found that his timing was still off, because the first round of dinners were being served and George had no time to traipse out into a field with him while he was busy overseeing the first lot of food going out and the second being put on to cook. Kerr apologised and simply hung around, looking for Ben to be coming in to collect trays of food to serve, but he didn\'t appear.
Deciding he needed something to do for a few hours (so he didn\'t send his tired, seeking mind skyward), Kerr went and asked his sire who would be an appropriate person to drink from, to renew his resources. Sawyl teased him for ten minutes before he offered the list and then it was a matter of finding the boy. When he did, he drank from him perfunctorily in one of the ante rooms, quite pleased when the boy seemed to fall into a stupor during the process. Giving his thanks, they then parted ways and Kerr walked out into the night.
He took his time strolling around, trying not to think about what was going on in Lazarus\' suite and whether Ben was alright, choosing instead to focus n the butchering job. He selected a sheep and walked it back to the house, dawdling enough so that he arrived as the third dinner round went out and the kitchen staff were able to watch his demonstration on bleeding and butchering. It took over an hour but a sense of comraderie and awe had sprung up between he and the boys by the end of it, all of them amazed at how efficient and neat he was.
Still, butchering was a messy job and Kerr helped the boys store the meat before declaring he was going to bathe. A couple of his new fans declared that they would too, once the kitchens were cleaned and not to use up all the hot water. Deciding to continue in the sharing spirit, Kerr chose to go to the large bath to clean himself, feeling a little self conscious because he wasn\'t alone but looking forward to his friends coming in to chat as soon as they were done. He\'d done his best to wash off all the blood on him outside, so he disrobed carefully away from others, giving the boy who came to take his bloodied garments a warning that they were messy but smiling when he was assured that the boy would be fine and they would be back in his room tomorrow night, cleaner than ever.
There was nothing for it then but to slip into the warm bath, ignoring the sidelong looks he was getting (he assumed because he was a vampire bathing with mortals) and paddling about while he waited for his new friends.
-
Ben did as promised, heading for Lazarus\' room as soon as darkness chased away the sun. He\'d risen in time for the lunch serving, expecting to have to explain himself, but Rigby had already informed the kitchen and serving staff last night that they would be one down today. They\'d been surprised to see Ben at lunch in fact, but still didn\'t go out of their way to be friendly with him. He felt a large number of looks on him though, and every time he glanced up he caught someone staring at him. They knew, then, that he was expected in Lazarus\' room. Blushing but continuing his tasks, he eventually got used to the stares, whispers and sniggers until his job was done and he sat down to his own lunch.
Afterwards, he toileted and then bathed, very aware of the setting sun and that he would be expected soon. Wearing a towel back to his room, he fussed about what he would wear before putting it all on and then lying on his bed until night had just about come. As he left his room on the fourth floor, he was hoping not to bump into Kerr on the way to see Lazarus - that would be painful. He reached Lazarus\' door (passing Kerr\'s with a brief glance towards it) and tried the knob, but found for the first time that it was locked. Of course it made sense for the Ancient to lock his door as he lay sleeping, but he hadn\'t expected it. He knocked instead, but it wasn\'t Lazarus\' door that opened immediately, it was Rigby\'s, behind him.
"Finally doing the deed, yeah?" Rigby taunted, and Ben blushed again, horrified that everyone would know for it seemed once Rigby knew, he\'d run around telling everyone. "Hope he fucks you hard enough you won\'t be able to walk properly for a week," Rigby said, earning a mollified glance from Ben, for it was the idea of pain that scared him most, and he didn\'t trust Lazarus to be a particularly caring lover.
He heard the lock on Lazarus\' door click and he barged in without preamble, practically running into the Ancient\'s arms, who held him before kicking the door shut.
"Never mind him," Lazarus said soothingly, stroking Ben\'s hair fondly before taking his hand and leading him to the bed. "You\'ll have a pleasant enough time, I assure you."
Ben said nothing, feeling there was nothing worth saying, and soon Lazarus was unlacing his shirt, pressing cold hands to his hot flesh and bringing forth a soft sound from him.
"Delightful," Lazarus whispered, stroking his palms over Ben\'s chest, shoulders and then his bare back as the shirt fell to the floor. The Ancient moved back so that he was sitting on the bed, and Ben moved forward with him, unbidden, reaching out to undo Lazarus\' shirt in return.
They undressed each other in silence. Lazarus stood up in order to throw the bedcovers off in entirety, leaving only the crisp white flat sheet for them to lay on. He gestured for Ben to climb on first, and the youth did, moving to the middle of the bed and sitting there shyly as Lazarus opened a drawer and took something out of it to rest it on the bedside table top.
Ben was beckoned over to him next. He expected Lazarus to start touching and kissing him, but he was told to turn around instead. He did so, and Lazarus placed a hand on his shoulder before pushing him forward so that he was bent over. Ben swallowed dryly, wondering if Lazarus was going to just thrust into him without any preamble. He did, but what Ben felt was slickened fingers after Lazarus had dipped it into the greasy mixture he\'d set on the side of the bed. Ben gasped as Lazarus\' index finger probed into him wetly, exploring and prodding before his middle finger joined in, earning another gasp from Ben.
The intrusion was unfamiliar and very strange to Ben, but it wasn\'t unpleasant either. Lazarus knew where to press inside of him to make his body spark, wiggling his fingers in such a way to draw moans and gasps from Ben, who eventually started pushing back with the same rhythm as Lazarus thrusting his fingers in.
"Good boy," Lazarus praised, pleased that Ben was finally getting into this. "Now I\'ll drink from you," Lazarus announced, withdrawing his fingers and making Ben feel used and hollow. He was slapped on his rump and could feel the residue of Lazarus\' sticky fingers on his skin. Crawling forward and turning around, he watched the blonde Ancient settle himself on the bed in the same fashion as he had when he\'d prompted Ben to suck on him the night before. "On my lap, face away," he said.
Ben was very aware of Lazarus sliding his hand upon his own erection while he waited for Ben to do as instructed. The lubrication was also still inside him, making him feel slippery and strange. He crawled over to Lazarus and sat on him, with Lazarus\' erection pressing against the small of his back. The Ancient seemed to not mind this, and as Ben leant back into him, Lazarus began kissing and nuzzling the base of his throat and along his neck as he usually did before drinking. Ben was gripped with one of Lazarus\' slickened hands, and the vampire slid his hand along Ben\'s length up and down until Ben was whimpering for more.
The bite came next, and as usual the pain didn\'t last until he was awash in wonderful, warm sensations, accentuated by Lazarus\' hand on him. He wasn\'t drunk from for long before those wet, probing fingers returned inside of him, and he shifted to give Lazarus better access, crying out his pleasure as Lazarus expertly delved into him, scissoring his fingers out before pushing back in, stretching Ben in order to accomodate him in full.
There was nothing romantic in the way Ben was lifted and then dropped on the head of Lazarus\' erection, for it was a practical maneouvre. Ben tensed as Lazarus\' cock slid a little way into him, much bigger than two fingers. He was keeping his body elevated with his legs until one of Lazarus\' hands pressed down on a shoulder. He gasped as he sat down on Lazarus all the way, filled with a steely rod that wasn\'t anywhere near as cold as the rest of him - perhaps because he got his fill of blood and it had all gone racing to his erection. The wound in his neck was closed in order for Lazarus to focus on their sex without distraction.
At first Ben was slowly lifted and dropped with Lazarus\' movements, but soon he got his own rhythm and controlled it, keeping it slow and finding that even though it was uncomfortable for the first few minutes, there was pleasure in it, like Lazarus had told him the first night they\'d met.
It took them a long time before Ben climaxed, changing positions a few times before Lazarus had Ben in his favourite pose - bent over and clutching the headboard while Lazarus thrust repeatedly into him. Their rhythm had built up slowly, much like the seduction of Ben had, until finally Lazarus was sure that Ben had been stretched well enough to take the pounding Lazarus was giving his ass. The youth certainly had a great deal of stamina, and had been very accomodating. It was when Ben reached his peak, spurting his seed against the headboard and pulsing and squeezing around Lazarus\' rod that the Ancient came immediately afterward.
It was while they both lay in each other\'s arms that Lazarus spoke again, once Ben\'s panting slowed down to normal.
"You can do what you like with Kerr, except letting him fuck you. You have a nice, tight little hole, and I\'d hate for him to stretch it out."
Ben was embarrassed at Lazarus\' permission and description, and blushed.
"Did you like it?" he asked, wanting to hear Ben speak.
"Yes," he said, for he had. Lazarus might not have indulged in any kind of foreplay, going straight for what mattered most to him, but it was still good.
"Good, because I\'m having you again before you leave my room tonight."
Ben stayed with Lazarus for another hour afterward, talking about things other than sex, for which Ben was grateful. After the hour passed, Lazarus prompted for them to enter his own private bathing room. A bath was drawn and the pair of it sat in it together, washing each other as Lazarus wanted. After getting out and towelling off, Ben was ordered on his knees on the carpet in front of the fireplace and his mouth used with Lazarus standing and thrusting into him. It wasn\'t an easy task for Ben to cope with, and constantly had to stop because he was choking. Lazarus made fun of him a little before sending him to get the lubrication once more and he brought it over before Lazarus claimed him again on the floor. The second time Ben didn\'t orgasm, though Lazarus did. Even with the lube he was feeling a little raw at what he\'d been through. The night was far from over, but Ben was told to dress and fetch Rigby, declared that he was done for the night.
He felt self-conscious as he moved about the corridors, even though he was fully clothed, because he could smell the lubrication and feel Lazarus\' seed leaking out of his backside even as he walked. Even though he hadn\'t yet found Rigby, he couldn\'t wait any longer to bathe and approached the main bathing room, because he didn\'t want to bother with the pumps and bucket, he just wanted to be clean right away.
He\'d fully undressed at one of the cubicles and was approaching the bath when he spied Kerr paddling about on his own. He froze, but the idea of being smelled by Kerr if he got too close got him in motion again, and he stepped quickly in the water, sitting on the floor and letting the water splash over his shoulders, covering him completely except for his head.
-
Kerr stopped what he was doing when he spied Ben, feeling everything go still and knowing he shouldn\'t look the boy over but unable to resist. There was no bruising on the mortal that he could see and he took that as a good sign, blinking when Ben moved, hastening into the water.
Not caring that the cooking crew would soon arrive, Kerr moved over to sit on Ben\'s right side, smiling at him and trying to look as casual as possible - there would be witnesses, after all. "How are you?" he asked quietly, searching Ben\'s eyes for signs of pain or discomfort and not believing he saw any. He desperately wanted to reach over and give him a comforting hug but managed to restrain himself.
His hands continued swishing lethargically through the water, making him look only mildly interested in the conversation, while he only touched Ben with his gaze.
-
It was awkward and strange, to be speaking with Kerr (who still gave him that excited gnawing in his belly) after having Lazarus do all he had, and knowing Kerr knew about it - as well as the rest of the household, likely.
He shrugged, but gave voice to his answer.
"I\'m okay," he said, not returning the question because he didn\'t want to know how Kerr felt about him having sex with someone else. There was a kind of empty feeling in him now, and he felt guilty for enjoying everything Lazarus had done, and even more guilty for knowing it would happen again and not minding the thought of it. "Have you been looking around the house tonight?" he asked, desperately wanting to talk about something other than the screamingly obvious.
-
Kerr chuckled and shook his head. "Not really, no. I\'ve spent most of the night walking around the fields and the rest of it hanging around the kitchens and out the back showing the cooking staff how to properly butcher a sheep and get the most meat off its carcass possible - I grew up farming sheep and would\'ve lived my mortal days doing the same, if I hadn\'t been turned," he confided in Ben, tilting his head towards him and smiling into his eyes as he shared the very boring nature of his humble beginnings with him.
He lowered his gaze to watch his hands move through the water, feeling coy suddenly. "I thought, after I bathed, I might go into the library and either find something to read or someone to play chess with me. What\'re you up to? After you bathe, I mean?" he asked airily, glancing sideways at Ben. He really wanted to be told that Ben didn\'t have to return to Lazarus tonight and that they might be able to spend some time together, but he didn\'t want to cause any more trouble for the boy so he wouldn\'t be so presumptuous.
-
The request for his company initially brought forth a smile, but it faded as he recalled his limitations.
"I don\'t know how to read," he admitted softly, "or how to play chess."
He felt uneducated and stupid, suddenly. Kerr was a glamorous version of a gentleman - never mind the sheep reference. He considered Kerr as much of a lord as Lazarus; perhaps it was due to their vampirism, perhaps it was to do with their manner of speaking or dress. Ultimately, unless it was sex they were after, Ben felt he didn\'t have much else to offer now.
"Is chess difficult?" he asked, figuring it was very complicated by the look of the game when he\'d watched two of the boys play it. He hadn\'t been able to understand the rules because nobody wanted to explain it to him, and it was such a slow-moving game that he hadn\'t had the patience to figure it out himself.
-
"Not the way I play it - I\'m not very good," he chuckled, swimming around so that he was facing Ben, his expression becoming more serious once he was looking the mortal directly in the eye. "I\'d be happy to teach you anything you wanted to learn," he said sincerely, then looked around them to confirm that there was no-one within earshot. He moved closer anyway, because he enjoyed being next to Ben and although there was only a man\'s foot length between them, he wished it were less.
"It\'s just... will it cause more trouble? For you? I mean, I don\'t think Lazarus wants us to spend time together, does he?" he asked quietly, saddened by the thought that in a house full of people, the one he wanted to spend time with he would not be permitted to see.
-
"I don\'t see why not, it\'s not like you can take anything away from him now," Ben said with a steady gaze, before the impact of his own words forced him to look down at the water between them. He could still feel the throbbing memory of Lazarus inside of him, like a brand. He remembered the horrible reason why Lazarus had wanted him not to have sex with Kerr, but he also remembered being told he could do whatever else he liked with him. "I\'m allowed to spend time with you," he confirmed, though he wasn\'t fully comfortable with the idea of it happening right away, not after what he\'d done with Lazarus tonight.
He looked away, hearing a bunch of boys laughing with one another a fair distance away, but they sounded like they might be headed for the baths, and Ben didn\'t want to be naked around a bunch of them again.
"I\'ll meet you in the library," he said, wanting to disappear quickly. A bathing assistant headed towards him with a towel as soon as he stood up in the water, aware that Kerr had a close-up view of him right now, but he\'d had a much closer look last night. The memory should\'ve embarrassed him, but he wasn\'t humiliated by it at all surprisingly, and turned to leave.
-
Kerr promised to be there as soon as he could be, smiling as the kitchen staff finally appeared. They\'d worked hard and were very jovial in the baths once they all climbed in; Kerr stayed to chat with them in a more relaxed manner, answering their questions about where he\'d learned his skills, how old he was, where he\'d grown up - the usual beginnings-of-interest type questions.
When George began kissing one of his staff and the boy Kerr was talking to noticed and began looking at him differently, Kerr excused himself, offering his services any time they needed them but apologising for needing to be elsewhere. It had been half an hour since Ben had gone and he didn\'t want to keep his friend waiting any longer, not for the sake of merely being polite to some people he happened to have spent some time with.
As usual, he was surprised to find a clean outfit of his own clothes waiting for him when he got out and dried - he didn\'t know whether he should be bothered by the fact that boys went into his room to select clothes for him or not, but he\'d been shrugging it off for a week now. It was very convenient, after all.
Finger combing his hair, he hastened to the library, disappointed to find that Meinwen and Dei were in there, reading. He acknowledged them as he moved to Ben, knowing that he would be watched if anything unusual went on, so he kept it thoroughly professional. After an hour, Kerr had taught Ben all the basic rules and they were playing uninteresting games of chess, so the twins bobbed their way out with a new book each.
Kerr waited until their game was finished before he made Ben another offer, speaking casually as he re-organised pieces. "Would you like to go somewhere else?" he enquired. "Do anything else? I don\'t want you bored... and I\'d be lying if I said I didn\'t want to spend at least part of this night holding you, away from prying eyes," he admitted quietly, glancing up at Ben from beneath his lashes.
He anticipated that Ben might have had far too much contact for one evening and that he\'d be rejected, but he hoped that saying he only wanted to cuddle swayed the youth. He didn\'t care if they didn\'t even kiss, he just wanted to be somewhere quiet where he could touch Ben without worrying what would be said. Ben\'s room was possibly even better than his own, since it was so far away from Lazarus.
-
Ben was fascinated with the game, but was awful at it, being new to the rules and unable to remember them all after one explanation. He constantly requested the kind of move that this piece made or that piece made, and when Kerr answered kindly and patiently, he relaxed.
He wasn\'t sure about taking up Kerr\'s offer, however, squirming in his seat while he considered it. He wanted to cuddle with him, he really did, but it also felt very wrong to spend time in his bed on the same night as giving in to Lazarus. He was very aware of the pleasures of sex now, and even though Kerr had hinted that all they would do was hold one another, it still seemed like a tacky thing for Ben to do. He was surprised Kerr even wanted him. Maybe he didn\'t know Lazarus had claimed him in full - maybe he only thought he\'d offered his mouth and that was all.
"I... I gave myself to him," he whispered, not daring to say it any louder but not wanting Kerr to think highly of him, that he might still be untouched in that way. Lazarus had valued Ben\'s virginity a great deal, and he supposed Kerr must as well. "I\'m sorry."
-
Kerr looked at Ben crookedly, wondering why he\'d reinforced that point and skimming his mind to clarify for himself (it only occurred to him at that moment that when they were being quiet and concentrating, Ben\'s thoughts didn\'t interfere too much in his mind). His expression melted into a smile.
"There\'s no need to apologise," he said kindly, "I understand how it is and that you owe me nothing - he\'s been your master for a lot longer than the week I\'ve been visiting. You two have a relationship, I\'m just... " he frowned briefly, unsure of how to define himself to Ben, considering the intimate nature of their relationship and how close he felt to him. There was only one definition that was appropriate, though, "a friend. Look, if it\'s too much for you to contemplate getting close to me, do you want to just go for a walk somewhere? It\'s a nice night out; I\'m feeling a little claustrophobic in here, that\'s all."
He finished packing up the chess set as he finished speaking and so he stood and tucked his chair in, attempting to prompt Ben into action. It honestly felt like this house had eyes when he was out in the open with people; if a locked up room wasn\'t an option for Ben, perhaps a night-dappled meadow would be. He could at least hold his hand, there.
-
"A walk sounds nice," Ben said, standing when Kerr did and also pushing his chair in, happy to follow Kerr\'s lead because it wasn\'t a difficult one to follow - not after being in the presence of someone so demanding. Also, it fed Ben\'s more romantic notions of Kerr, and it was something he wanted to experience. Lazarus had bypassed all that and he\'d felt somewhat cheated. "I\'ll take you around the maze," he said with a grin, pleased that he could show Kerr all the prettiest spots hidden away inside.
-
They ambled out of the house, Kerr talking obviously about the maze as they went so that anyone they passed would see that, not only were they unhurried in their movements, but also that they were walking as friends would out to the maze, to explore it.
Indeed, Kerr greatly enjoyed Ben\'s tour, marvelling at how good his memory was to be able to find his way through in - to him - complete darkness. They stopped at various places along the way and Kerr began to touch Ben as he moved to look at the things he pointed out - just a hand on his shoulder as he leaned around or a nudge with his elbow when he iterated how clever Ben was to remember his way so well - because he craved contact.
When they finally reached the centre and the arrangement that was there, Kerr stepped behind Ben and wrapped his arms around his waist from behind - tucking his arms beneath the mortal\'s - to admire it, murmuring in his ear and also encouraging him to look up at the stars. He rested his cheek against Ben\'s head but didn\'t kiss him, happy with finally being able to simply stand there and hold the boy, gaining as much reassurance as he might be giving.
"How did you come to be here? In Lazarus\' care?" he enquired after a quiet lull had fallen over them and he felt comfortable with broaching a possibly painful subject. He leaned around to be able to see Ben\'s profile, wondering if they should sit on one of the nearby benches but unsure about making that move if he wasn\'t going to get a long answer out of his friend. It seemed like something that was potentially painful to talk about.
-
It wasn\'t a painful topic for Ben, for in that regard Lazarus had been his saviour. He was well fed, well clothed, had a purpose with his job and was generally a lot healthier for it. Yes, it had come at the cost of his virginity eventually, but he wasn\'t sure that he wouldn\'t have made the decision to whore himself for money in order to eat, either. At least this way giving in to Lazarus had been under his own terms, even if it wasn\'t as magical as he would\'ve liked.
"He got me off the street," Ben said. "I was living off scraps and leftovers mostly, squatting in empty rooms if I found them or wrapped up in rubbish in alleys if I didn\'t." Ben held Kerr\'s arms around him, liking the contact. "I was scared of him before I even knew what he was," Ben recalled, "but everything he promised came true. He saved me."
Until he said that, he\'d not really known how he felt about Lazarus, but hearing the worship in his own voice, he realised that he did care about the vampire, even if the blonde did make him feel small and insignificant most times. He\'d protected him from the other boys, kept him safe after they\'d done some horrible things by making an example out of them, and though he would never have friends here to talk to, it wasn\'t much different to how people had reacted to him on the street, so he didn\'t really know any better.
Kerr, on the other hand, made him feel special, and that was worth the same to him as Lazarus making him feel safe.
-
"But... how did you come to be on the streets at... how old are you? Seventeen? What happened to your family?" Kerr continued, wanting to know Ben\'s whole life story, not just the fairytale ending.
He was impressed with Lazarus\' generosity, really and wondered how often the ancient travelled to the city to recruit new house members. He\'d be interested to sit in on a trip to see how he did it.
-
Ben shrugged, his memories of his family were still strong considering he\'d been twelve when separated from them, but they weren\'t emotional memories in the slightest. Even though they\'d fed him, clothed him and given him shelter much like Lazarus had, there\'d been a lack of interest from them.
"They couldn\'t afford to keep both myself and my brother, and he could count and add up for our father\'s trade, so I wasn\'t of much use," he explained. It hadn\'t seemed fair to him at the time, but he\'d met lots of other boys on the street thrown out at a much younger age for less of a reason. "I wasn\'t old enough to be apprenticed. I\'m lucky they didn\'t sell me, really," he mused, hearing horror stories of slavers. "I could\'ve ended up in a mining town."
He pulled away from Kerr but reached back for his hand. "Let\'s sit," he invited, tilting his head and smiling shyly while he tugged on Kerr\'s hand, needing little enforcement for the vampire to follow after him. He cosied up to Kerr on the garden bench.
-
Kerr giggled, resisting Ben just so he could tease and be tugged again, his eyes twinkling playfully. He wrapped his arms about the mortal when they were sitting, nuzzling his lips against Ben\'s temple but still not making the move to kiss his delectable lips.
"You know," he mused aloud, "I\'m here for another few months while our new home in Paris is organised. If you\'d like to learn to read and count - write as well, I suppose - I could attempt to teach you. I\'m no teacher but... I\'m patient. I\'m surprised that Lazarus doesn\'t have some sort of... education policy like that in place. It seems that everyone here is under twenty-five, so it seems he sends his mortals back out into the world at some stage. It would be kind of him to send out educated gentleman, rather than simply skilled blood donors."
His tone was slightly admonishing as he contemplated this process, finding the idea of it excited him. "In fact, there might even be others that wished to learn literacy skills, do you think I should ask him about offering?" he asked, pulling back to look down at Ben. His smile turned cheeky as he looked into his lovely lightly-coloured eyes. "It would give me something to do, to contribute while I\'m here, instead of simply hanging off an ancient or mooning around annoying you." He dropped a wink to reinforce the fact that he was teasing.
-
"I\'d like to learn," Ben replied hurriedly, though when Kerr spoke of classes and educating the rest of the boys, Ben felt a selfish pang in his chest and pressed his lips together lest he say something out of place. It was nice of Kerr to think of everyone else, but Ben wanted him to himself - he didn\'t have friends here, and Kerr had announced himself as one.
"You\'re not annoying," Ben grinned, shoving lightly at Kerr\'s leg, falling for the bait the vampire set up for him and then resting his head on Kerr\'s shoulder. "I like spending time with you," he said, his tone changing as he looked up at Kerr from close, thinking about kissing him and about how his lips had tingled so pleasurably from being kissed. He wet his lips and instantly felt the cool of the night air, imagining that the breeze was a soft brush of Kerr\'s mouth against his own. He\'d closed his eyes to savour it, wanting, wanting...
-
Kerr was helpless to resist, shifting slightly so that he could face Ben a little more and get a better angle to kiss him from. His hand came up to touch the mortal\'s face gently, reverently and he surrendered to the delicious taste of Ben, having already learned his every contour the night before and happy to revisit with his tongue tonight.
He wasn\'t sure how long it went on - an age and a heartbeat at the same time - but he eventually pulled back and leaned his forehead against Ben\'s, rubbing noses with him in order to give him some breathing time (though his lips pooched out instinctively whenever their movements brought them closer together momentarily).
"You know something else that makes you special?" he whispered, like he\'d already extolled a hundred of Ben\'s virtues and found yet another one hidden in a pocket.
"Your mind. When I\'m this close to you... your thoughts are so easy for me to pick up - easier than any mortal I\'ve ever met, in two hundred and forty years. I think it means you\'re mentally gifted. If you were a vampire, you would be able to do things with your mind faster and better than anybody, even Rigby. Well, as long as Lazarus sired you, and you had his ancient blood to compete evenly," he murmured, speaking off the cuff and not thinking too much about what he\'d just told Ben - certainly not considering how this news would affect him.
He tilted his head, ready to lean in and claim more kisses, his fingers working up Ben\'s cheek and heading for his hair.
-
Ben was startled by this news, turning it over in his head even as Kerr leant in. He responded to the kiss, but wasn\'t completely given over to it and pulled away after a few moments to look at Kerr in the dark. A lamp nearby provided some light for him, but they weren\'t bathed in it and he couldn\'t see Kerr\'s face properly in the dark.
He tackled all the things that Kerr had said, one by one, starting with the first statement.
"My thoughts are easy for you to pick up?" he repeated, not knowing that such things could be performed. Kerr had said it so casually, like he thought Ben knew, and he wondered if Kerr had heard all his thoughts when he\'d initially been following him around spying on him. God, was that why he\'d reacted the way he had when they\'d finally faced each other? Because he\'d known how willing Ben was? "Can you read minds?"
-
"Yeeeees?" he drawled slowly, thinking he\'d just got confirmation on something he\'d suspected for a few nights now; Lazarus did not run his household using mental training. He frowned.
"I\'m sorry, I assumed you knew - I assumed Lazarus might have given it away by now but now that you say that, I actually believe he hasn\'t bothered to train his mental talents. They\'re not something that come naturally, you see, you need to develop them. That also explains why my sire is training Rigby\'s talents while we\'re here - because perhaps Lazarus can\'t. He has heavy mental blocks in place and he reacted very adversely when I sent him a message a few nights back."
Kerr gnawed his lower lip thoughtfully, doubting that someone he idolised could have lived so long yet not trained his mental abilities - in a way, it made Lazarus even more interesting, because he\'d got by on charisma and physical talents alone. It occurred to the Irishman that having Rigby in the house with those abilities would make it safer for the ancient, also... though if he misused them (and Kerr had a feeling about the second vampire of the house), it would make things more dangerous for everyone else.
He blinked, coming out of his thoughts and tilting his head at Ben. "Didn\'t you wonder how I spoke into your mind those times? Last night... before you slept? Or... did you not... receive my message?" he stammered awkwardly, certain that Ben had been awake but uncertain, now that he was getting this reaction, whether he\'d been as successful as he\'d thought. He had been exhausted by the time he\'d found the right mind... he hoped it had been the right mind!
-
"I did!" Ben said excitedly, "but I thought it\'d been a dream," he confessed, feeling silly now for dismissing such lovely words. "I didn\'t know you could hear me," he said, blushing now because he was remembering all the very graphic thoughts he\'d had about Kerr while watching him. Gah! Could he see pictures as well as hear words? Ben hoped not, that would be far too embarrassing to contemplate.
"Is there more? I mean, other than reading minds and sending messages, is there more?" he asked, his interest heightened by the idea that vampires had an upper hand in more ways than one. It had seemed a fair exchange though not one Ben was terribly interested in - immortality for the price of blood - but he hadn\'t known about the other benefit of mental abilities. Perhaps being a vampire wasn\'t such a bad thing.
-
"Well, yes," Kerr answered cautiously, contemplating whether he should tell Ben or not. It had never come up before - he\'d never been close enough to a mortal (or interested enough in them) to tell them about the range of vampire abilities one had. He\'d had it impressed upon him him that it was sort of a secret club of information and one he shouldn\'t divulge willingly...
Still, the night was cool and beautiful and it was calm and picturesque in the centre of the maze, so he figured that it couldn\'t do too much harm for him to talk about the ones he knew about.
That decision made, he disclosed everything he knew, at that point in his life; that vampires could use their minds to move things, to disappear, to read and affect the minds of others, to communicate. He also told Ben of the physical enhancements all vampires had and gained as they aged and theorised on the ability to shapechange with him - his sire was convinced it was possible and was attempting to train himself to do it, but Kerr didn\'t feel he had the ability or discipline yet, even though he was but a year younger than Sawyl.
Any questions Ben had on the subject of vampirism or on his family, Kerr answered thoughtfully and willingly, hugging the mortal close to him in an effort to stave off the chill of pre-dawn air. The longer they talked, the later it was getting, though, and Kerr could tell Ben was getting tired. He\'d had a big night, after all.
"I will share with you one last observation, if I may, before you lead me out of here - before you\'re too tired to lead me out of here!" he joked, but his smile lessened as he gazed thoughtfully at Ben. "I had assumed that Lazarus\' great age would have endowed him with man great abilities, but he doesn\'t seem to partake in mental play at all - in fact, he warned me sternly against it the one time I tried and has employed my family to train Rigby in the mental arts in his stead. I\'m not entirely sure why... but this disturbs me," he confided.
-
Ben grinned at being accused of tiredness, knowing Kerr was right about that for he\'d stifled many a yawn in the past ten minutes of their conversation. He\'d been fighting it because he was fascinated by all Kerr told him.
When Kerr told Ben about his concerns, Ben frowned back at Kerr, mirroring his expression, but not sure about what Kerr was getting at.
"Why? What do you think will happen?" he asked, savvy enough to understand that Kerr was considering an outcome that Ben himself couldn\'t see.
-
"Well... I don\'t really know but... it just makes me uncomfortable to think that this house was created as it is, a hundred years ago, with no mental influence in it whatsoever and it\'s balanced. Introducing those abilities - even in the most honest and upstanding gentlemen - might well skew the balance of power... towards Rigby, basically. With the skills Sawyl\'s teaching him... he can do anything he likes to people, force them to do anything he wants and there could be no repercussions... especially if Sawyl teaches him to access memories and alter them. I suppose, in some ways, it will be a good thing if we leave before that happens," he mused, gnawing his lip as he watched Ben.
He felt guilty, because it sounded like he was casting aspersions on Rigby and he had no experience with the man that had indicated he was untrustworthy in any way. It was unfair of him to worry that a powerful weapon was being put into the man\'s hands when he couldn\'t be certain he would misuse it; he just had a feeling.
"Ah well," he dismissed, trying to lighten the mood with a smile as he stood up and took Ben\'s hand. "How about you get me out of here so I can walk you to your room and steal a goodnight kiss, hmm?" he teased.
-
Ben chewed on the information offered him also. If it was true that Lazarus didn\'t use any mental powers, then Rigby would be the dominant force in the household. He didn\'t know Rigby well enough to know how loyal he was to Lazarus, but he certainly did know that Rigby didn\'t think much of him.
At the request to be led out and have a goodnight kiss, Ben\'s thoughts skittered away where they could be looked at and analysed later while he smiled up at Kerr.
"Okay," he said agreeably, and took Kerr\'s hand in order to lead him out.
The night certainly had been a long one for Ben, and his time with Lazarus seemed more like a dream while his time with Kerr felt more real. He didn\'t feel any different, even though now he knew what sex felt like, and was mildly surprised by the fact his knowing such a thing didn\'t really change him.
They were at the door of Ben\'s room in little time and he hesitated in the corridor. Nobody was awake at this time of night, except for Lazarus and Rigby upstairs likely. Lazarus normally invited two youths in one night - one to begin with and one to end with, and in between he would prowl the household while Rigby tended to be everywhere at once making sure everyone was doing their jobs. There was a guilty feeling in the pit of his stomach about wanting Kerr to hold and touch him, on the same night that Lazarus had claimed him, yet it was dissipated by the fact he knew someone was with Lazarus now. Still, the guilt didn\'t completely go away.
With a look cast over his shoulder at Kerr, he entered the room and held the door open for Kerr to follow him in.
-
Kerr entered the room with raised eyebrows, surprised that he hadn\'t been farewelled at Ben\'s door. He felt compelled to admit his feelings, in fact.
"I was expecting something polite at the door, don\'t feel you should, uh, entertain me if you\'re too tired or too... uh... overwhelmed by it all," he said in his most conciliatory tone.
Still, even as he spoke, he was looking with interest around Ben\'s room and at the small bed therein, allowing Ben to manipulate him however and wherever he wanted, eager to lay with him and lose himself in those lips. They were like an addiction, something he rarely stopped looking at and couldn\'t bear to be apart from for very long - he wasn\'t sure, in fact, how he\'d pull himself away to get up to his room, but pushed it aside as something to think about later... later.
-
At the start of the night, Ben certainly hadn\'t wanted any intimacy. He\'d not wished to blur the lines for himself and Kerr, but now that he\'d spent a great deal of time with the darker vampire, he\'d easily trumped the blonde. Sex or no sex, it wasn\'t about who\'d claimed his body but who was beginning to claim his heart. Kerr shared everything with him, while Lazarus guarded his time jealously.
"I don\'t feel like I have to," Ben admonished, closing the door behind Kerr after the vampire stepped in before looking at him a little more shyly now that they were in privacy. "I was hoping we could just,"
kiss
"for a little bit that we could,"
taste each other\'s mouths
kiss until our lips tingle for hours after
be close
"um, hold each other in my bed," he finished, not daring to speak of what he really wanted, figuring they\'d probably naturally come to that anyway.
He gave Kerr a broad smile, unable to contain his excitement of being close to the being he was most attracted to, shining through even beyond his shy exterior.
-
Kerr giggled and strolled up to Ben, grasping his face in his hands as he leaned down and planted a kiss on his lips. He then leaned to the side and whispered in the boy\'s ear: "I can hear your thoughts, remember?"
At Ben\'s blush, he picked him up and walked him to the bed, tumbling down upon it with him, a mess of arms and legs tangling around four perfectly synchronised lips that knew exactly what they wanted. Kerr was hungry to taste the mortal and his every move was met with brave enthusiasm. Somehow, they settled on the small bed as best they could, in the quiet, unlit space, and forgot all about the world around them. Everything for Kerr was once more Ben\'s lips, his taste, his tongue\'s texture and a very slow burning ache in his groin that was oh so pleasant when it bumped against anything on Ben.
It went on for at least an hour and Kerr began trying to say his farewells once the sting of the approaching sun was becoming more noticeable inside him. He was quite certain this house was sun proofed as much as possible, but he knew he was wisest to be in his room when it rose properly. Still, Ben\'s mouth was delectable and it took four false starts before he finally left the mortal to get a few scant hours of sleep before he had to begin his day routine, and hastened up the stairs with a very firm rod in his pants to make the ascent slightly trickier.
The broad grin faded somewhat on his face as he reached his floor and met a rather odd sight, however. Rigby was leaning against his door and staring at him - the look made him feel almost like a common criminal and it was enough to draw him towards the youngling, a frown growing on his forehead. "Ho there, Rigby," he greeted warily, "everything alright, then?"
-
Rigby took a slow glance along Kerr\'s body before his stare met the other vampire\'s, and he smiled without humour.
"Things are alright with me, and it seems things are alright with you," he said, not bothering to return the greeting in the most cordial way. "If you play too much with the shiniest trophy, it might tarnish."
Not that he gave a shit if Ben went against Lazarus\' wishes (in fact he would prefer it that way), but he didn\'t like the bond Ben seemed to be forging with the newcomer after all that Lazarus had done for him.
-
Kerr\'s lip curled with disdain at the wording and he stopped to stare down the younger vampire, his hands curling over one another in front of his crotch even as he gave Rigby a haughty look.
"Ben\'s not a trophy," he sneered. "I just like spending time with him - and I won\'t tarnish him. You and I both know that," he asserted, looking pointedly towards Lazarus\' door before regaining the youngling\'s stare. "Surely it\'s none of your concern?"
-
"You\'re a guest in this house, and I don\'t want you taking advantage of the host\'s generosity," Rigby said, not backing down even though Kerr\'s age was superior. He had his own righteous path to stride upon, defending Lazarus\' home and belongings from someone who felt he had to paw everything.
Invitation to take as he wished or not, Rigby wasn\'t going to let Kerr upset the balance. He\'d sort out Ben if he couldn\'t sort out Kerr.
"That boy isn\'t your prize," Rigby continued. "On the same night he\'s been plundered, it\'s bad taste to sample whatever riches were missed first time around."
-
Kerr\'s expression was horrified and outraged. Even though it went against the grain to be such an extrovert, his hands moved and arrowed towards his groin, directing Rigby\'s attention there as he spat a rebuttal.
"Good grief! You can plainly see that I\'ve plundered nothing!" he declared indignantly, his hands folding back upon themselves once more. "I think it\'s bad taste that you imply things you know nothing about and I\'ll thank you not to make such assumptions in future! Ben and I merely enjoy one another\'s company and we don\'t need to be having sex to do it! I\'m not taking advantage of anyone, least of all my host!"
Realising that his voice was getting rather loud as the heat of embarrassment and indignation flamed through him, Kerr stopped himself saying anything further to deny the charges. He was flustered, unused to these attentions and certainly not understanding such allegations when he\'d done nothing but what he\'d been told to do - by Lazarus himself!
Lazarus had also told Ben he didn\'t mind him spending time with Kerr and their union was more about yearning and conversation than capitulation and sex. They truly did enjoy one another\'s company, in innocent and exciting ways; to suggest their friendship was just about sex was as gauche as it was false.
"I bid you good night," he told the younger vampire through stiff lips and moved to stride past him and into his own room with any dignity left about him to gather.
-
Rigby didn\'t bother to correct Kerr on his mistaken assumption. The plundering had been performed by Lazarus, with Kerr picking around the edges of whatever wasn\'t used. He\'d thought he\'d phrased it cleverly and his opinion of Kerr only lowered further when he couldn\'t even understand the insult correctly, rebutting with evidence of his erection, which only made Rigby want to comment further but he held his tongue. Once Kerr stalked away, Rigby disappeared into his own, where he had Eric waiting for him in his bed.
He would use Eric, Samuel and Avon to teach Ben a lesson about living in this house. Now that Ben\'s prize was taken, he was free to all others. Lazarus was sure to lose interest soon.
*
BETWEEN SERVING DINNERS AT the manor, Ben would often take a quick nightly walk through the maze and daydream. This was common knowledge, even though nobody was invited to join him (nor invited themselves), but he was often spied venturing in, and every now and then he was spotted at the fountain square, where he would be lying on a bench staring up at the stars in the sky while the frog fountain gushed water nearby. There were a few small niches to hang around in, but the fountain was reported as Ben\'s favourite spot. During the day he\'d be in the topiary court, but at the beginning of the night he\'d be at the fountain, because it wasn\'t very deep into the maze and he would have to return for the next dinner shift twenty minutes later.
Rigby used this information well.
Ben was strolling without haste, rounding the corners he knew so well, taking himself to his favourite spot at night. The fountain was lit from beneath the water, making the frog statue within look like some kind of fairytale. He supposed it was from a child\'s story, because it had a tophat, but it wasn\'t a story he\'d ever heard.
He was surprised to find some boys already seated on the bench once he reached the open space, quietly waiting. Their silence immediately made him suspicious, and all three of them were staring at him. It was Avon\'s presence that worried him the most, after what had happened last time.
He came to a complete stop, staring at them while they stared back at him. Avon opened his mouth to say something softly, and although Ben suspected it wasn\'t something for him to hear, he heard it anyway, over the insects chirruping and the rustle of nocturnal animals moving through the greenery.
"No way."
It confused him, because Avon had said it like he hadn\'t expected Ben to be here, but why else would they be waiting? Maybe something else was happening and Ben had stumbled onto it. He took two steps backward with the intention of turning around and making his way out, but at the second step he bumped into something hard and unyielding. Looking up and over his shoulder he saw Rigby\'s cruel expression facing down on him and the manager of the household clamped a sturdy hand on his shoulder to halt his escape. Ben opened his mouth to protest but nothing came out, and his mouth then shut firmly with a click of his teeth.
"Yes, Avon, Ben wants to prove himself now, to make friends," Rigby all but sneered over Ben\'s head before shoving him forward back into the clearing. Ben took three quick steps forward to regain his steady footing and stood near the fountain unhappily. He wanted to say something but nothing was coming out - he couldn\'t even open his mouth. He\'d never been so scared that something like that happened to him, and it was a frightening feeling, to lose control over a basic function such as speech.
"He doesn\'t look like he wants to make friends," Eric supplied, gesturing at Ben but looking at Rigby.
"He just knows he\'s going to be a little sore at the end of it," Rigby supplied, and Ben began to panic inside, though nothing outward showed it. It was like he was stuck in place with glue, frozen like the frog statue in the fountain. "Go on, Ben, show them you want to belong," Rigby said, turning to him and giving him a concentrated look.
Ben\'s hands moved to the lacing of his pants and he began to undo them. This was when he realised he was now under a kind of puppetering control, because he wasn\'t moving his hands of his own accord. He gave a meaningful look at Avon, trying to communicate with the fear in his gaze, but the other boy was looking at his hands, not at his face.
"No way," Avon said again, but this time he sounded more pleased about it. Ben shoved his pants down along with his underwear and turned around awkwardly before bending over the lip of the fountain, prostrating himself before the boys and bracing himself with his arms upon the statue. The fountain water gushed over his wrists, splashing drops onto his face and hair, and he was very aware of the light breeze on his naked backside, making him feel scared and ashamed.
"Did you bring the salve, Eric?" Rigby asked, almost sounding bored.
There was no answer but Ben could hear small sounds and footsteps as he was approached.
"Nnnnh," he managed to say, not quite coming out with \'No\' and was given comforting words for the noise he made (by Avon, he was sure, who also tossed in praise to him for not being a \'snob\' anymore).
Slickened fingers were then rudely inserted into him, two of them by the feel, and Ben could only grunt, still unable to speak. At first he could only think his protests, mentally begging them not to continue, wondering if this was really happening, but it was only when the fingers left him and something much thicker pushed its way into him, causing a hot pain in his backside as he was forcibly stretched, hands on his hips holding him in place, that he thought to mentally beg for help from someone who he could only hope would hear him.
KERRohmygodPLEASEstopthem
Please please hear me please come
save me make them stop
in the garden in the garden maze
ow ow that HURRRRRTS
please please get me at the fountain
come help me PLEASE
Whoever had entered him first hadn\'t bothered to build up slowly, he was already pushing in and out of him rapidly, telling the others watching (and waiting their turn, Ben was horrified to guess) how good and tight he was. Ben squinted his eyes shut and continued to plead even as he braced himself against the pounding sex.
-
As it happened, Kerr was looking for Ben. When first he awoke, it was required that he visit Lazarus but before he went tonight he wanted to go and chat with his friend about his planned proposal to teach some of the boys to read, write and count. He\'d sensed that Ben was uneasy with the plan somehow, not understanding that the awkwardness he\'d sensed sprang merely from wanting to be the only one, only knowing that there was something in Ben\'s reaction.
He wanted to be sure what that something was before he went mouthing off to Lazarus. He thought he might even take Ben with him to the ancient\'s quarters, to plead his case. If he could find him, of course.
Kerr had gone to his room first, followed by the kitchens, but when he was directed - by his butchering pals - to the maze\'s fountain, he just about slapped himself. How stupid of him not to think of the maze first! He hastened towards it, a smile forming on his lips as he thought about beginning the night with a bit of alone time with Ben, instead of Lazarus.
He\'d barely stepped a foot out of the enormous house when that smile was wiped from his face. Ben\'s terror had his thoughts projecting clear across the lawn and Kerr reacted instantly, moving faster than he\'d ever moved in all his existence in order to reach his panicked friend as quickly as possible.
What he found when he rounded the last bit of hedge that blocked his vision filled him with horror. He didn\'t stop to take in the scene fully, he charged straight for the mortal boy raping Ben and latched a hand upon his shoulder. He yanked him backwards so hard, his shoulder dislocated and his collarbone fractured, causing him to begin screaming in absolute agony as he was unceremoniously flung across the clearing and back towards the bench the mortals had all been waiting on. That was when Kerr stopped to look around.
Ben was moving, reaching for his pants with fumbling hands, obviously in a hurry to cover himself up but so shaken by his experience that he wasn\'t able to move smoothly. The question was... why? Why didn\'t he fight them, use his voice, why had he appeared to be accepting it so calmly when Kerr had first shoved his way past Rigby, but now seemed upset? It was very odd... Rigby. Kerr\'s head spun and his eyes narrowed as his mind pushed at the younger vampire\'s, finding the truth of what he\'d done easily because he didn\'t know how to bury his own thoughts yet.
"You son of a disease-ridden whore," the Irishman cursed him blackly as he gathered himself to respond. Attack for attack. After a few moments he was ready and he slammed Rigby\'s mind with an amount of thought and sensation he wasn\'t experienced enough to understand, let alone deal with. It was something Sawyl had done to him when he was so angry he needed to hurt and maim - often enough that Kerr had figured out how it was done but had never performed the trick on anyone himself. Whenever it happened to him, he crumpled like a lifeless sack of potatoes and had been known to lose consciousness for hours at a time.
He hoped desperately for the same effect on Rigby, but wasn\'t confident that his skill would go beyond stopping his manipulations on Ben and giving him a searing headache. That would be enough, of course; enough to get this insane situation under control. He moved towards Ben, ignoring the mortals crowding around their injured companion and the vampire who seemed to have begun it all, intending to gather his friend into his arms and walk him straight up to Lazarus\' suite, to reveal this horror in all it\'s pus-infested finery.
It would only be as he opened the doors to that man\'s bed chambers that it would occur to him that he might have condoned this attack, happy to see Ben punished unduly. Though he would falter in his step, he would see it through to the truth at the end of it.
-
Rigby had no stamina to withstand a mental attack, regardless of whether Kerr felt inadequate or not. He\'d already used himself up holding Ben in place and keeping him silent, so now after a bolt of pain seared it\'s way into his head, he passed out from the severity of it. The boys didn\'t even notice, for they were so busy fussing over their yowling friend that Rigby\'s collapse didn\'t gain their attention.
It was only when Ben was cradled in Kerr\'s arms and carried out of the maze that he finally succumbed to his crying. He hated crying, he really did, but this was something he couldn\'t hold back his sadness and despair from. He didn\'t want to be here anymore, to live in this house where everyone except Lazarus and Kerr hated him. Even though he had a job he liked and meals that he knew were constant, a bed in a room that belonged to him alone, it wasn\'t worth this. He clung to Kerr and after his initial sniffles and sobs he found himself getting over his tears fairly quickly, once Kerr was taking him into the house, in fact, carrying him upstairs. At first he thought he was being taken to his room, but when Kerr went all the way to the top, he thought he was being taken to Kerr\'s room. Until, of course, they wound up in Lazarus\' room.
Lazarus had only just returned to his room a few minutes before Kerr barged in with Ben in his arms. He was standing before the fireplace and warming himself after having stoked the flames, holding a poker in his hands which he hadn\'t yet used. He turned around when his door opened without so much as a knock and frowned at the picture of Ben in Kerr\'s arms, clinging to the dark vampire. He approached them, knowing he was going to be told something he wouldn\'t like.
-
"Did you know about this?" he snarled without preamble, fury coating his words with acid as he glared at Lazarus.
"Did you condone your right-hand man holding Ben immobile and mute while a bunch of your boys raped him?" He found he was so angry he could barely stop himself shaking as he stood there before the house\'s patriarch.
-
Lazarus was catching up to what Kerr knew, piecing together the accusations in order to define the story.
"I don\'t condone rape," he said, which was true enough. Seduction, yes. Manipulating, yes. Even bullying, yes. But only when there was permission granted would the deed take place. "Rigby... held him down?" he asked uncertainly, thinking it was unlike his fledge to be so physical, and unlike any of his boys to continue with such violence. It was one thing to have a rapist, and another to have a group of them.
The taunting had been something else entirely, what had been done to Ben in the bathing room had been about humiliation. This, though, went beyond boyish bullying and social elitism and into another place that Lazarus didn\'t want to nurture and have flourish.
-
"No," Kerr sneered, "my fucking sire\'s taught him how to Dominate people, hasn\'t he? He can sap mortals and anyone with no mental prowess of their will and all their abilities if he likes - he\'s a weapon! A wild animal loose without a harness and you set him amongst the pigeons!" the Irishman declared grandly, knowing his emotions were getting the better of him as he accused Lazarus of more and more outrageous things (when it was obvious the ancient had no clue what was going on) but unable to rein himself in just yet.
"Well, I smacked his mind and left him in the garden where he belongs for the time being, I hope his head hurts like Hell when he wakes up!" With that, Kerr prepared to spin on his heel and stride out of the room, this time to his own. His message was soundly delivered to Lazarus, he thought.
-
He was fully caught up to the situation thanks to Kerr\'s succinct explanation.
"Wait," Lazarus ordered, and was glad Kerr obeyed his command. The two of them faced off for a moment before Lazarus continued. "I will deal with Rigby first thing tomorrow night. I promise you he will not remain unleashed," he said, his upper lip curling in a sneer. Whether it was because he disliked Kerr\'s accusations or because of what Rigby had done remained uncertain. In reality it was a mixture of both. "For now, set Ben down on my bed. I will care for him."
Ben clung a little tighter to Kerr upon hearing Lazarus\' request, not wanting to be separated from his true savior but didn\'t verbalise a protest. He knew Kerr would have to do as Lazarus said. Everybody had to do what Lazarus said.
-
Kerr frowned and hefted Ben a little when he felt him cling - not because he was too heavy for him to hold, of course, but as an automatic reaction to being told he would have to set his bruised little flower down. He didn\'t want to leave him alone - and Ben\'s subtle cues told him that he didn\'t want to be left here - but he also didn\'t want to anger Lazarus, so he merely stood there, frowning indecisively until he\'d thought of something to say.
"With all due respect, you probably need to get down there and deal with what I did when I found them all. I think I may have broken one of their arms or something - I don\'t know if you\'re in the habit of using your blood to heal or not, but he\'ll likely need it, from the way he was screaming when I left. Also, this night is yet young and I don\'t feel my skills as a mental attacker are near as strong as my sire\'s; Rigby should be awake enough for you to deal with sooner rather than later. I\'d rather just take Ben to my room where it\'s quiet and no-one will come in demanding my attention," he said, implying that Lazarus\' room was the most popular room in the house and Ben would get no peace there.
-
Lazarus\' eyes narrowed as he stared at Kerr, disliking being denied his request, but there was validity in all of Kerr\'s points. Lazarus very strongly wanted to talk to Ben, to comfort the boy and make him feel better, in order to better bond with him. Kerr was right however, Lazarus had many responsibilities and leaving Rigby on the grounds to recover from his mental attack wasn\'t the best way to go about the situation. He didn\'t share his blood freely though, and if one of the boys who\'d set out to rape Ben was hurting, then so be it. He\'d made his bed and now he\'d be thrown out of it, with wounds to match.
He nodded eventually and graciously extended a sweeping hand in order to gesture Kerr to leave. When the darker vampire left his quarters with Ben still in his arms, Lazarus stalked out of his room and then out of the house, following his blood bond to Rigby, who was in the maze. It took Lazarus a few goes to find him, for even though he knew exactly where his fledge lay (and could hear the whimpers of a youth in obvious pain), he hadn\'t known to go to the fountain clearing until he figured it out after a couple of attempts took him very close to them. He backtracked and was standing at the entrance of the fountain square, posed in a very domineering manner with his hands on his hips and looking sternly at the display in front of them.
Avon and Eric were hunched over a third boy on the ground. Ah, damn, two of his lovelier boys. His gaze found Rigby struggling to get up across the square, holding his head as though he was in a heap of pain, looking very much like a drunkard with a hangover.
Avon was the first to notice Lazarus and he paled visibly before standing up, facing him. His action caught Eric\'s attention who did the same thing, revealing that it was Samuel on the ground between them. Well, fuck. This was a trio he was going to hate to lose, but he wasn\'t going to have them following Rigby\'s orders over his own.
"Get Jeffrey. Tell him to bring his kit," Lazarus told Avon, who nodded and moved quickly to him, sidling past him and then running as fast as he could fetch the young man who knew how to bandage wounds. Lazarus looked coldly at Eric, who seemed to shrink under his gaze. "I\'m going to miss your mouth," he said frankly, which only confused the teen before a slow dawning of understanding found its way upon his face. He began making noises but Lazarus silenced him with a raise of his hand before he turned to Rigby, who was sitting up at this stage and looking blearily at Lazarus. Even through the haze of pain, Lazarus thought there was an intelligent guess behind Rigby\'s eyes as to what was going to happen to him.
Lazarus said nothing, moving to the edge of the fountain and sitting upon it so he could stare at the mess around him. While Jeff made his way over, Rigby regained more and more strength while Lazarus watched, while Eric knelt at Samuel\'s shoulder and tried to hush the other boy\'s groans.
Jeff arrived with a very unhappy Avon in tow, who stood awkwardly by the tall hedge near the entrance and watched silently as Samuel was prodded at before he was bandaged up with some obvious pain. Jeff only spoke at the end with the announcement that Samuel\'s collarbone should heal straight as long as he didn\'t move his arm for the next two months. It was put into a sling and was dismissed by Lazarus, but the three boys stayed because they hadn\'t yet been told to go.
Rigby\'s gaze was sharp by this stage, though he still sat on the grass staring up at Lazarus, who was considering all his options. Finally, with his mind made up, he turned to face the three youths who Rigby had manipulated to meet his own needs. If they were fooled into this, then they were stupid boys who should\'ve remembered the lesson Lazarus gave them the first time around when they\'d picked on Ben. Eric hadn\'t been part of that original group, but too bad.
"Go to your rooms and pack your clothes. Take whatever out of them that you think will help you out there, on your own. Blankets, pillows, whatever, I don\'t care. I want you gone before I wake up tomorrow night, which means you have a day to say your goodbyes and get the fuck out of my house."
"Lazarus, he offered himself up to us-" Avon began, but Lazarus wasn\'t in the mood to hear it.
"GO!" he shouted so loudly that he was sure everyone in the household had heard him even though he was outside. Eric and Samuel left but Avon lingered, and Lazarus didn\'t miss the wetness in his eyes. To his credit, he turned around and left without another word, which left Rigby. Lazarus turned to him next and glared at him. "It\'s your fault I lost those three," he seethed.
"I can help you replace them," Rigby promised, though even to Lazarus\' ears the offer sounded distant. It was like his fledge already knew of his fate.
"When our guests leave, you will be leaving with them," Lazarus told him. "And they will be leaving very soon."
"You know I wouldn\'t do anything against you," Rigby swore, but Lazarus was no longer sure.
"I trusted you with their training, and the first thing you did was abuse it. In MY HOUSE! Against one of MY BOYS!" he yelled before recollecting himself and staring imperiously down his nose at his fledge. "You can keep the account I set up for your use," he said, referring to the pool of finances he\'d given Rigby in order to help manage the household. There was thousands of dollars in there, which should keep his fledge comfortable, and was a great deal more than he deserved. "You can choose whether or not to go with our guests when they leave, but they\'ll likely want you to replace the one they lose."
Rigby stared at him for a moment, working out what Lazarus meant before declaring it.
"You\'re keeping Kerr," he said. "He wants Ben," he added.
Lazarus said nothing, for he already knew this about Kerr. Ben had taken to the darker vampire as well, which had pissed Lazarus off somewhat, but ultimately Ben belonged to him and his household, and hopefully Ben meant Kerr wouldn\'t be difficult to sway. He was fairly sure Ben would ask him to - for Lazarus would tell him to.
-
When Lazarus dismissed him, Kerr turned on his heel and strode swiftly out of the room, before the ancient changed his mind. He didn\'t have to be told twice. Turning, he headed for his room and used his mind to open the door before him, not wanting to jostle Ben too much. The simple act of closing it behind him made him aware of how much he\'d drained himself when attacking Rigby, however, and he knew he would need to feed soon or risk turning manic.
Still, Ben was his priority and he lay him gently on the bed before he curled up beside him, sensing that the mortal didn\'t wish him to go too far just yet. Putting himself in Ben\'s place was difficult, he couldn\'t imagine how horrible the experience had been, but he was aware that there would be pain and there would be shame. He was familiar with that himself.
"Are you in a great amount of pain?" he cooed, brushing Ben\'s hair back so that he could kiss his forehead and cheeks tenderly. "If you are... how would you feel about taking some of my blood? Not enough to turn you, don\'t worry!" he interjected hastily, sensing the boy looking at him in startlement. "Just enough to heal your body and stop the pain - then maybe we could head down to the bathing area to wash you off?"
-
"Thank you," Ben said so softly as he was lain down, in a voice that only vampiric hearing would pick it up. "For saving me."
Kerr was right, there was shame. The pain had dulled away to a mild throb, not enough to keep hurting him but certainly a nasty reminder as to what had happened.
The tears had dried up well and truly by the time he was in his room, cuddling up with Kerr. There was something about the vampire\'s presence that seemed to make things a lot better. It had been a great shock to be in the situation he was in, but now - even shortly afterward - he thought he could recover from the experience quickly, thanks to Kerr\'s attention.
"It doesn\'t hurt anymore," he admitted, "but a bath would be nice. In a bathing room," he added hastily, not wanting to be in the main bathing pool area and preferring to maintain his privacy with Kerr.
-
Venturing back out of the room almost as soon as they\'d entered it made Kerr somewhat nervous - he knew Lazarus was out in the back garden by now, contemplating the mess he\'d left behind. He wondered if he would get into some sort of trouble over it and could only hope that Ben being a favoured boy of the ancient\'s meant that he would be positively looked upon for rescuing him.
"I\'d like to promise you that no-one will see you," Kerr told Ben as they got up and left the room, "but I\'m afraid I haven\'t the resources to run any interference for you. I\'ll need to feed soon, in fact, but it can wait until I find someone after your bath." He gave Ben a reassuring smile as they travelled as swiftly downstairs as possible. The vampire held an arm about the mortal, his body slightly turned towards his as they walked, as if he was trying to shield Ben with his body while his mind was recovering.
Unless Ben said something else, they both focussed on finding the least used bathing room as possible - stopping to get clean clothes on the way if he wanted. Once inside, Kerr left Ben to get water into the tub while he went to get a towel, drawn to the myriad of pulses and heartbeats around him while he was thirsting this badly, but not making eye contact so that he could return to his young charge instead.
Re-entering the private bathing room, Kerr closed the door behind him and sat on the stool beside the tub, looking Ben over with a fond smile that declared he was pleased to see the mortal in one piece. "I wonder what Lazarus will do about all this," he mused aloud, hands tucked between his knees and content to let Ben soak for as long as he liked. "Stop Rigby\'s mental training for a start, I hope." Ben might not be in a mood to talk about his chief tormentor but Kerr couldn\'t help expressing what was prominent in his overactive mind - the fact that he was thirsting also didn\'t help him think of less controversial, more soothing things to talk about.
-
Ben felt cleaner emotionally as well as physically, when in the bath, especially with his saviour sitting beside him. Even though Kerr\'s topic wasn\'t the most comforting, Ben didn\'t want to ignore it either.
"I don\'t know why he hates me," he said, his next breath drawn hitching as though tears were still close to the surface even though they weren\'t anymore. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly as he looked at Kerr. "From the start, ever since I came here. I didn\'t do anything wrong." He pleaded his case to Kerr, because he wasn\'t brave enough to plead his case to his tormentor and likely never would be.
-
Kerr frowned, giving the topic his undivided attention. "He\'s probably jealous," he guessed after a few moments of thought. "Hasn\'t Lazarus always treated you specially? Because you were... well, because he valued you highly?" the vampire changed course hurriedly, shying away from saying the word \'virgin\'. It seemed indelicate, in light of current events.
"Maybe Rigby hasn\'t liked you because you attained more status than him, and he\'s the fledgling? An ancient\'s fledgling, no less," he mocked, thinking Rigby likely felt himself better than everyone due to that fact.
Kerr had to admit that, on that count, he was a little jealous himself. Angus had been very old but mentally unstable and not matching Lazarus in any way. The fact that his own siring came of diluted blood further demoted him; Rigby\'s \'head stat\' likely made him almost equal to Kerr, who was chronologically two centuries ahead. It wasn\'t fair, that such a horse\'s ass should be so lucky.
-
Ben frowned at Kerr in puzzlement, hugging his knees in the bath.
"Lazarus wouldn\'t choose me over him though," he pointed out, figuring his own worth had diminished now that Lazarus had already claimed his virginity. He looked at Kerr thoughtfully for a moment. "Do you like Lazarus?"
-
Kerr\'s lips pooched out and he had to think about it.
"Um... yes, I think so," he said, giving a laugh. "He\'s not really the sort of person I would have sought to spend time with but he\'s a lot of fun, I guess. He hasn\'t managed to impart any of the wisdom he\'s learned from living through many ages yet, but I suppose that might come - I hope so, anyway, because if this house is all there is to him... well, that would be disappointing," he admitted, his mouth twisted into a crooked shape.
"How do you feel about him?" he asked Ben, feeling suddenly (inexplicably) nervous.
-
"I don\'t know," he said, shrugging to accentuate this fact. "He doesn\'t make himself loveable," Ben said, knowing that Lazarus didn\'t care about love, only about sex. He liked the blonde Ancient enough to have given into him, to allow himself to be seduced, but there was nothing deep about their relationship. It was all a power struggle.
-
"No," Kerr agreed and fell silent, thinking about Ben\'s living in the house. The notion that he would be here without him when they left in just over a month\'s time made him nervous - what might Rigby do when there was no-one to outdo his powers? The man obviously had no moral core.
"Do you think you\'ll be happy to stay here until Lazarus decides you\'re too adult for him and kicks you out? I worry about you here, on your own and with Rigby picking on you - what happens when it\'s time for my family and I to leave?" he voiced exactly what was on his mind, feeling his heart pulled at the expression on Ben\'s face.
-
Ben looked unhappy at the thought of Kerr leaving, he didn\'t say anything for a long moment before telling Kerr what he thought might happen.
"Lazarus looks after me," he said finally. "I don\'t think Rigby can do anything worse to me," he told Kerr softly, with a pause. "And Lazarus didn\'t like what happened, so he\'ll get Rigby under control."
Ben had faith that Lazarus would get things back on track. Ben could cope with not having friends in the house, as long as he had no obvious enemies. He thought maybe the three boys might feel bad about what they\'d done after finding out Ben hadn\'t been permissive like they\'d thought - Lazarus had been adament from the start that his house was about willingness, not about rape.
"He keeps boys until their mid-twenties," Ben said, "which means I have around nine or ten years. I should be okay by then. He gives them all money to start with," he said, impressed with how Lazarus did look after his \'staff\'. He thought if he was older and had a little money, he might turn out okay.
-
Somehow, what Ben said only made Kerr feel disappointed and the thought of this lovely, creative boy turned into a man and released to his own devices caused a flare of emotion in him that had him speaking far more impulsively than he usually did.
"I don\'t want to lose contact with you when I go," he confessed. "In fact, when you\'re free of Lazarus\' obligation, I think I\'d very much enjoy you travelling with us - if you\'ve a mind to do so. We have to work on your reading and writing skills as soon as possible, so that we can write and keep in touch, what do you say?" he smiled, looking deep into Ben\'s eyes and feeling warmed by it.
-
Ben\'s heart skipped a little at the suggestion, but he had more immediate ideas in mind.
"I\'m not obligated to stay here," Ben explained, for he\'d never considered himself a prisoner. He figured if he wanted to go, Lazarus wouldn\'t stop him. "If you\'re going away, I\'d prefer to go with you than stay here."
Ben didn\'t know anything about Kerr\'s vampiric family because he\'d not interacted with them - but they couldn\'t be bad if someone like Kerr was with them.
-
A slow smile spread across Kerr\'s face and the feeling of disappointment disappeared entirely as he gazed at Ben.
"Well then," he said softly, "if you\'re prepared to come with us, I\'d love to have you along when we move to Paris in just over a month\'s time. Sawyl can be dangerous and an arrogant brat, but if we work on him slowly, I\'m sure he\'ll come around and leave you alone by the time we arrive in a new city. Ooh, I can\'t wait to have someone sane to spend my nights with!" Kerr told Ben excitedly, reaching forward to grab the mortal\'s arm and give it a squeeze.
Images and thoughts of what his life would be like with Ben around burst into his head like stars coming out at night, each new one revealing another... and another. He\'d never had a companion he found so interesting by his side before and could imagine himself teaching Ben to read just so they could stroll through the Parisian library and museum, looking at ancient artifacts and marvelling at the wonderful things that man found or invented. Even if he was only fifteen now, Kerr sensed he would easily become his academic and intellectual equal (if not superior!) very quickly, and would make being trapped living with Sawyl and the twins so much easier to bear.
In time, he thought he might even sire Ben, though he would keep that card close to his chest so as not to frighten him. Unable to control his excitement at the possibilities blooming within him, he leaned forward to kiss Ben soundly.