Thank God You're Timeless (collab fic)

[Spooky]

As the last body slid to the floor with a thud of finality, the younger vampire licked his lips though it did little to remove the crimson stains around his mouth. There was nothing like a good feed to leave him feeling satisfied and relaxed. In the beginning it had been thrilling, the chase, the torture, the kill. He had taken to his new life with a great zeal, relishing in every moment, every lesson his maker gave. Many things had happened between then and now, some that he would rather not to think of, but he thought he preferred the contentment he felt now to the thrill of before.

Then again, hindsight was twenty-twenty.

Leaning back languidly upon the floral sofa, he surveyed the room with half-lidded eyes. Two ladies and two gentlemen, all finely dressed, lay haphazardly around the expensive rug and furniture. Dregs of society, those who have misplaced self importance and offer nothing but greed and incivility to the world; those were their victims now. Poorly mannered, new money who spent their fortune on their image and tried to hide from their debt. They would be as missed as the beggars the vampires were sometimes forced to survive upon when the upper class began to get wise and it was time to relocate. Along the road, those less fortunate were easier to obtain and to hide. They did not have the same taste, being ill fed and with such poor hygiene, but it was almost an act of mercy to put them out of their misery.

At least that was what Tulio told himself when they preyed upon his conscience while he preyed upon their blood.

His blue eyes finally falling upon his companion, he allowed himself a moment to openly admire the other man. He was still the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in all of his existence, this creature of darkness, taker of life, giver of eternity. This man was his teacher, his maker, his lover, is friend; he was everything. He was air, he was sustenance; he was shelter, he was life.

“What do you think? Would another mass murder be believed or should we just burn the place and be done with-” Tulio began to ask, the barest hint of a smile curving his mouth upward, but it froze in place as the words died on his lips. To anyone else the faint sound would have been inaudible, but with his enhanced hearing it shattered the bubble of contentment that had surrounded him. For a moment there was silence, and he could almost convince himself it had been his imagination, but then he heard it again, distinct and piercing...

The sound of a child crying.

There was no mistaking it, no lying to himself that it was a neighbouring house, or a ruffian on the street. The child was in the house, presumably belonging to the master of the household and his not-so charming wife.

Two of the victims staring sightlessly upward from the floor.

His eyes finding those of his sire again, there was no mistaking the haunted look dwelling in them... a familiar look. It was as if he had been transported back in time, centuries ago. The memory washed over him, making the stolen blood in his body, still warm from fresh veins, run cold.

Vladimir Dracula recognized the look as well, and if it was still possible for him to recognize the feeling of fear, he would clearly identify the snaking fingers curling around his vacant soul as such.

You see, he shared the same memory, and it was one of the few in his entire existence that he loathed and regretted above all others.

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A/N: Just a little teaser. more to come. ;D

[Spooky]

You see, he shared the same memory, and it was one of the few in his entire existence that he loathed and regretted above all others. It lingered in his mind, gave him the poignant, all-encompassing sense of deja vu that currently had a firm grasp on his heart.

He had known from the moment he had first breathed Tulio in, that night so many centuries ago when they had first met, that he was not the same. And when he had changed Tulio, when he had held him close for the first agonizing hours of the younger vampire's life, he had realised on some level that this man would change him, that it would not only be Tulio's life that was altered forever by Dracula's choices.

He had known, by instinct and emotion, he had known, and it had still caught him completely off guard when Tulio had changed instead.

Had someone said hindsight was twenty-twenty? It had never been so true to Dracula as it was at that moment. It felt as if he were being faced with the same choice as he had all those years ago...but this time, he knew the outcome - of one of the choices he could make, that is.

"Tulio," he said, the single word layered with more emotion than any human could possibly have hoped to detect in one word; pleading, desire, longing, and without a doubt, an element of fear. He closed the distance between them, extended a hand, still warm with the heat of the now-lifeless body he had been feeding from. He shook his head once, and tried to assess his options.

"Walk away," he murmured. "Walk away with me." They didn't have to find the child. They didn't have to look at it, let it into sight or heart or mind. They could leave and never look back. Dracula lived with a thousand memories so much worse than the distant cries of a child, and he knew Tulio had plenty that were far more disturbing, too.

But in that moment, he knew that it didn't matter. It didn't matter if Tulio could walk away or not, because Dracula would not allow things to happen the same way twice. He would not lose Tulio again. If Tulio wanted to stay and do something outrageous like find the child a new caretaker, Dracula would suffer through it, because he had let this man leave him once before, and it had made him question everything he was. It had driven him to desperation he had never known or wanted to know, left him on the verge of loathing the immortality he adored so completely.

He would not allow that to happen again. It was against every survival instinct he had to allow himself to fall victim to those emotions again, and he would not subject himself to it when he had any other avenue remaining.

For a moment, he thought he saw agreement in Tulio's eyes, thought that perhaps they might walk out of the house together and leave the unfortunate child to its fate. It was a thought so tempting to the younger vampire that he almost gave in, his hand twitched at his side, longing to reach out and accept the escape that was offered, but it was only a fleeting thought that passed far too quickly.

He had walked away last time, leaving the child to be found among the barely recognizable remains of her family, but he had been unable to forget her; her almond eyes had haunted him until he could bear it no longer.

Everything had changed.

They could walk away, but Tulio knew history would repeat itself whether he saw the child or not. He would always wonder of its fate. Was it old enough to walk, to stumble upon this mess? Was it old enough to remember its parents? Would the bodies go undiscovered, the child unfed and uncared for until it too passed on? The questions would eat away at him until he could take it no longer.

Closing his eyes, Tulio shook his head. “I can’t,” he replied, the words like pure agony, torn from the very soul he no longer possessed. He hated his conscience for torturing him so; he hated his lover for no longer possessing one; mostly, he hated the bodies upon the floor, and the people they had once been. What sort of parents allowed guests, strangers, into their homes at all hours, to drink and carouse, instead of caring for their child? Contradictory to his regret for killing the parents for the child’s sake, Tulio could not help but be glad they were dead, he felt them even more deserving than ever. They did not deserve to live, and they did not deserve the young life they had neglected.

Slowly rising to his feet, he stood just before Vlad and met his eyes directly. It was clear in his gaze that his mind was made, there would be no walking away this time. Dracula could pretend that he might change Tulio's mind...he could try. He could use words that would convince any mortal that the idea of walking away had been their idea in the first place. But not Tulio.

And what was he to do? Walk directly into the same mistake he'd made last time? Make the exact same error twice, inflict that kind of pain upon himself and the man he loved all over again?

He held Tulio's glance, blue riveted on blue until the last traces of self-deception were gone, until he could no longer even pretend to believe he had a chance of ending this precisely the way he wanted to, then he lowered his head in a single nod. Stepping towards Tulio, he pulled the younger vampire close, one hand sliding up between them to wrap around to the back of Tulio's head, the other drawing him near, hand resting at the small of his back. He inclined his head against Tulio's, his lips millimeters away from Tulio's ear, and he breathed in deeply.

"All right," he said, so quietly that the words were nearly inaudible. "We will finish this your way, dragul meu." He drew back, his other hand moving up to rest against the side of Tulio's face, almost parallel with its counterpart. He said nothing else, but the question was in his eyes, it was asked as clearly as if he'd spoken the words aloud.

And what would you have me do?

For Tulio’s part there could be no relief greater than what those few words gave him. Had Dracula refused, had he tried to change his mind he wasn’t sure he could have born it. He could not live without this man again, but he could not have lived with himself had he walked away. The relief that washed over him with the realization that he would not have to make that choice was almost overwhelming. It showed clearly on his face along with such gratitude, such love, that he could barely contain it. Moving his own hands up to either side of Vlad’s face to mimic the pose, he leaned forward, removing the last few inches of distance that separated them, cold lips pressing together with such urgency, such devotion. Vlad tasted of blood, of life, of darkness, of light. He was home, he was safety, he was comfort, and this time things would be different, this time it would not end.

Not that it had ever truly ended.

“Thank you,” Tulio whispered, pulling back not for the need of air, but to express with those two words what he felt much deeper than they ever truly could. Dracula had never been one for verbal sentiments, not ones that he actually meant, anyway. He offered plenty of platitudes and empty promises when he was in the process of securing a meal, but when it came to the things that really mattered to him, the things that he could not honestly deny a passion for...he preferred to demonstrate that passion in deed rather than in words.

He nodded again, a slightly angled tilt of the head that signified both you're welcome, mingled with an air of what other choice do I have?. But because he had earned it - or was at least in the process of earning it, he leaned in again and claimed Tulio's lips with his own, fiercely, demanding and providing in the same motion. When he pulled away, he let his gaze linger on Tulio's features for a long second or two, then dropped his hands, one finding Tulio's wrist, fingers clasping around loosely.

"Let us find this...child." His tone made it clear that he would have preferred to use a different word - perhaps "nuisance" or at the very least "thing." He would do this for Tulio, because he would not live without him, but he could not be compelled to enjoy it. What were they going to do with a child? Drop it off on someone's doorstep? Leave it at an orphanage with some fabricated explanation of where they'd found it? Every option sounded as ridiculous as the last, yet still they moved through the house, silent as death save for the piercing cries of the only living creature remaining.

Tulio’s feet felt leaden as they moved up the stairs, each step becoming harder to make. They moved quickly, yet the staircase seemed endless; the higher they went, the more weighted down he felt. What was he even doing? The damage was done, the child’s parents were dead; what did he really think he could do now? What difference could he make? The greatest mercy he could offer the child was a quick death.

They had reached the landing now, and for a moment they paused. Vlad’s grip on Tulio’s wrist was somehow both comforting and stifling, and had he needed breath he would have been holding it now. At the end of the hallway a door stood half open.

The cries were coming from within.