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.
