Blood Sacraments (29 page)

Piotr decided to go examine the manuscript right now, hoping it might give some direction as he plotted his courtship of Andy. Crossing Mayfield Road, Piotr glanced around to make sure that no one looked before he jumped the fence surrounding Lake View Cemetery. He sauntered through the tombstones and trees, wanting to whistle but again afraid that someone might notice him. Several yards into the cemetery he turned a corner that led to his crypt and froze.

Two muscular men, in their early twenties, towered over a figure who lay on the ground, motionless and bleeding.

“Fucking faggot.” One of the assailants stepped back and ran toward the poor victim, kicking him in the head with the full force of his boot. His partner in crime spit down on the target.

Piotr had encountered such scenes before. The ethic allowed him to dispatch both of these brutes for dinner, thus ridding human society of two less than desirable elements. It especially angered him that they had attacked some poor person simply for being or looking gay.

Piotr snapped a branch off a nearby tree to alert his prey to his presence. One whipped around and saw him standing there. “Fuckin’ peeping tom, huh?” His friend, who had bent over the victim with a knife, looked up and smirked.

Before either could move toward him and gain any advantage, Piotr used his vampiric speed to close the distance between them. In a mere second, he stood between the two men and allowed his fangs to descend.

When they jumped to attack, Piotr captured each by the neck and held them at arm’s length. The one with the knife lashed at Piotr with it and even cut his arm, but the wound healed immediately. Just as he was about to commence with the rest of his theatrics, Piotr glimpsed the body beneath them.

No. Impossible. His entire body collapsed and he let go of the two men when he recognized the backpack, then the shirt, still only half buttoned from their earlier encounter. Andy lay motionless, his face so bloodied and bruised that Piotr would never have recognized him without the familiar clothing.

Rage welled within every inch of Piotr’s being. A rage of protectiveness, of anger at someone attacking the innocent. But even more, a rage that his chance at love, after all these centuries, lay shattered and dead beneath him.

Piotr whipped around and in no time came up behind one of the men, both of whom had raced away when he released his grip. He roared as he got close enough to kill him. Piotr extended both arms in front of him, and in one swift motioned clapped his hands together, the fiend’s head exploding with the vampiric force.

The other man, the one with the knife who had kicked Andy in the head, screamed in terror as he turned around and saw his friend’s brains all over the pavement, his face nothing more than a deflated balloon. Piotr captured him easily by reaching out and grabbing his face like a bowling ball, two fingers penetrating each eye socket and his thumb ramming into the man’s mouth and up into the top of it. With relative ease, Piotr pulled his hand back and ripped off the man’s face. He slumped to the ground, where Piotr could only hope he would suffer a slow and painful death.

Piotr hardly stopped to contemplate this vindication, however, as he hurried back to Andy’s limp form. He fell to the ground and huddled Andy close to him, ignoring the blood that got everywhere. He swayed back and forth, crying so hard that the blood tears streamed down his face and dripped onto Andy, mingling with the youth’s blood.

What vile twist of fate had brought him to this point? What karma or force would finally bring the possibility of companionship to his life, only to strip it away in a few minutes of bitter hatred and prejudice? Was this what Piotr deserved, after years of following some ethic outlined in a manuscript, thrust at him as he ran for his life? Was God so cruel as to punish him for nothing?

The damn book gave no instructions for this situation. Neither had the various vampires he had met along the way. What could he do? How could he possibly go on with immortal life, not only in its continued loneliness, but now the loss of love?

Piotr lifted Andy’s crushed skull and smashed it against his own face, wanting desperately to pretend that they lay together, in his crypt after he had brought Andy over to death. He licked a bit of Andy’s blood, knowing that it always gave a vampire the complete view of that person’s life. Piotr saw nothing but goodness there, a kind heart, a loving son and friend, a scared and lonely gay man trying to find himself in a world that often hated him.

No matter how gruesome, even to him, Piotr kissed Andy. Passionately, sucking in the blood and tasting every bit of this youth whom he had grown to love in less than an hour.

Then it hit him. The blood not only came into his mouth at his sucking, but flowed into it, pumped by Andy’s heart. He still lived! Faintly, and not for long, but he lived.

Piotr sucked harder at the blood, pulling every ounce into his stomach until he felt the heart stop, just before it brought death to Andy. Piotr tore at his own wrist, spraying blood all over the ground before he smashed his arm over Andy’s mouth and let the blood flow into the weakened body.

Slowly, taking so much time that Piotr feared he had waited too long, Andy sucked at the blood. His muscles tensed on their own finally, as Andy licked and drank and came back to life. Piotr watched as the blood healed Andy. His bones came back together, his face healed, and in minutes Piotr had in his arms the beautiful youth from the coffee shop.

Andy glanced around, bewildered. He sat up, completely healed and now immortal. “Piotr?” he asked. Piotr nodded his head. “What happened? I don’t understand. Why do I feel this way?”

“What way?” Piotr stalled for time. Of course he knew what Andy meant.

“Strong. Wait!” Andy whipped his head around in fear. “Where are they? They’ll attack me again.”

Piotr reached out, yanked Andy back to him, and clutched the young man tightly. “No, they’re gone. Dead. Not here.”

Andy turned his head to Piotr, his eyes wide open. “What?”

Piotr’s heart skipped several beats. He had but moments to explain everything to Andy or risk losing him forever. He could sense the panic rising in Andy, the fear taking over despite the fact he must now sense his immortal power.

Piotr unleashed the entire tale on Andy in one breath, including his love and the attack that he had come upon. “I didn’t know what else to do. I couldn’t sit here with my power and watch you die. I should have asked your permission, or left it alone. This wasn’t mine alone to choose. I know that. I couldn’t, though.”

“Couldn’t what?” Andy had relaxed as Piotr talked, leaning into his chest for support.

“Watch you die.” The blood tears trickled down Piotr’s face again.

Shocking Piotr, Andy reached up and swiped at the blood, taking a bit on his finger and licking it off. “So you saw my life, as I saw yours?”

Piotr nodded slightly in answer. Then Andy reached up and pulled Piotr into a long and passionate kiss.

The unexpected contact broke Piotr from his worry. The manuscript expressly forbade such a transformation. It dictated that bringing a lover over should take time and care. It warned that the council might get involved and punish those who defied it. But who? And how would they know? As Piotr kissed Andy back and held him so tightly that human bones would break, he cared nothing about these rules. He had had no choice. He only worried about Andy.

The sound of approaching voices shocked Piotr back to reality. “I don’t know. Dispatch said the scream came from in here. Probably some damn ghost.” A policeman’s light flashed across the trees around them.

“Come on.” Piotr took Andy’s backpack, then reached over and pulled him off the ground. Andy jumped up with little assistance. Piotr had already forgotten he was a vampire, too. He led them quickly through the cemetery and to his chosen crypt. With little effort, he moved the enormous slab of marble and hurried them inside. Piotr closed it quickly behind them.

“Wicked.” Andy stood a few inches from Piotr and took in the atmosphere. “Do all vampires live with this luxury? Shit.”

Piotr had forgotten how the crypt might appear to anyone else. He had taken the bodies and buried them underneath, then secretly gutted the old room, turning it into a small studio-type apartment for himself. Despite its small size, he had a twin bed, chair, and shelves of books in it. He’d also decorated the walls with artwork and heavy curtains, like a castle back home.

“Actually, this is rather shabby compared to how other—” Piotr choked on the word, not knowing if Andy could yet handle the idea of being a vampire.

“Vampires?” Andy tilted his head at Piotr, then broke into a huge grin.

“You’re okay with it? This quickly? You realize you lost your mortal life?”

“I lost it before you got there. Remember? I’d be dead, one way or another. Right?”

“True.” Piotr nodded his head sadly. He felt sick for Andy.

“Well, this sure beats the alternative.” Andy smiled again. “I mean, who wants to die, right? I suppose I just need to know what it means and all. Like, any rules I have to follow. Or, you know, other stuff.”

“Other stuff?”

Andy fidgeted with the tassel of a curtain. “Yeah, stuff like love and stuff. You know, stuff.”

“Ah.” Piotr walked over and picked Andy up. He carried him to the bed and laid him gently on it. “Stuff like this?” Piotr leaned over and kissed Andy. “Stuff, like the fact that I love you? Already I love you, after one brief encounter?”

Andy had closed his eyes but opened them and stared back at Piotr. “You do?” He smiled again, that giddy, kidlike grin that had enraptured Piotr from the beginning.

“You know I do. You saw it in my blood when you drank it.”

“Yeah. You don’t have to be lonely anymore, you know. Right? ’Cuz you drank my blood, too, right? It told you things?”

Piotr remembered the visions from Andy’s blood. He had lingered on it for a moment at the time. After passing over Andy’s life, he saw the feeling of infatuation and longing that had enveloped Andy as he raced around the corner onto Mayfield. Right before the men jumped him and dragged him into the cemetery, Andy had dreamed about a ceremony, wedding the two of them. He had worried that it was but a fantasy that would never come true for him, but refused to stop it.

“We can have the ceremony, if you still want.” Piotr climbed onto the bed next to Andy. “I’m not afraid, like you are, or at least were, about how fast this happened. It’s right. I know it.”

“Me, too. I mean, I was scared until I knew you liked me, too. It just worried me, you know? Like, what if I was some punk kid in love with an older man who just wanted to fuck me for a while or something. But I know now. I know what you wanted, all along. So, like you’re here for me, I’m here for you. Cool?”

Piotr laughed. Modern slang still made him giggle. “Cool.” He kissed Andy on the tip of his nose. “I have a lot to teach you about being a vampire. And you need to read that manuscript.” He pointed to it, sitting near the bed on a table. “I’m afraid we already violated a rule when I made you this quickly. We need to make sure to toe the line now.”

“We’ll do. Just tell me what to do.” Andy traced his hand along Piotr’s arms. The passion welled within both of them.

“About those fantasies. Do you care what order we fulfill them in?”

“Huh?” Andy scrunched his brow together but smiled at Piotr, who had moved on top of his love.

“Well, you had a wedding and then—” Piotr still had Old World sensibilities, making it difficult to simply blurt out personal things.

“Consummation?” Andy leaned up and kissed Piotr on the cheek. “Sex? You mean, you want to fuck me?”

Piotr felt his face blush red, which made Andy laugh, a deep, guttural laugh. When he stopped, he pulled Piotr into another kiss, then fumbled to take off his shirt. He sat up and yanked his own off, too.

“Well, you want to? The order doesn’t matter to me.” Andy had grabbed Piotr by the pants and pulled him back over.

“Want to what?” Piotr played the game, teasing Andy back now.

“Fuck me. Please.”

“No.” Andy’s grin fell, so Piotr leaned in for another kiss. “But I’ll make love to you, every night, forever.”

Slowly, Piotr probed every inch of Andy’s mouth with his tongue, running it along his teeth and feeling the fangs that had descended in Andy’s excitement. Not wanting to wait, Piotr yanked his pants off and released his passion, then literally ripped off Andy’s shorts.

Piotr cupped Andy’s balls, then felt along the thin penis and fondled the tip, rubbing the pre-cum around in his finger. He brought it to his lips and tasted it. Andy scooted down the bed and licked Piotr’s chest before stopping at his penis. He sucked hungrily at it, nipping Piotr a couple of times with the tips of his fangs. The pain felt exquisite.

Not wanting to climax, Piotr pulled himself out of Andy’s mouth and flipped him onto his stomach. He clutched onto Andy’s hairless ass with both hands and squeezed. Andy raised his hips in the air, begging for more. Piotr licked along Andy’s crack and drove his tongue into Andy’s ass. Andy pushed back, groaning with pleasure. He spat into Andy’s anus, then slid on top of his love.

“Make love to me, please.” Andy turned his head sideways and licked Piotr’s cheek. Then Andy reached his arms behind him and pulled Piotr hard on top of himself, hanging on to Piotr’s ass tightly.