There was a warm chuckle just over his shoulder as a large, rough hand smooth down his back. He arched into the touch, pressing up into each caress.
“You’re just like a cat,” his lover remarked, still petting him.
“How’s that?” he asked sleepily.
“For one, you’re purring.”
“Hmm, I’m content. How else?”
“You’re moving like a cat being pet.”
“That’s because you’re petting me,” he replied. “Not the first time a vampire has been compared to a cat.”
“Not the last either, I bet.”
~*~
“Tai?”
~*~
“Why me?”
“Why not you?”
“I’m not her, either of them. I’m not like them.”
“A grá, I don’t want you to be like them. I want you to be you. The silly, sometimes foolish you that I love.”
“You love me?”
“I’m head over heels in love with you and I always will be.”
~*~
“Tai!”
~*~
Goo dripped from his lover’s dark hair, glowing almost violently. He couldn’t help but laugh at the disgusted look that he recieved. A wicked twinkle shone from the dark eye and a moment later a handful of gooey demon guts flew across the room to land on his chest.
“What?”
“That’s what you get for laughing!”
“Really?”
His lover shrugged and smirked. “It seemed like good idea at the time.”
“Run, lover, run.”
~*~
The heat of the body beneath his stole his unneeded breath away. He pressed his lips to the golden shoulder, tasting sweat and need and wanton lust. Soft moans and sharp cries filled his ears as they moved together, their rhythm slow and deep. Long legs wrapped around his waist, holding him closer as short nails raked down his back. He licked a path up the arched neck, feeling previous claiming marks under his tongue.
“Please.”
The utter need in the whispered word drove him the last step and he bit down on the tender flesh letting the pleasure-laced blood fill his mouth. Dragging his tongue over the marks, he sealed them and bit again in another spot, listening as his lover shouted as his pleasure overwhelmed him. Moments later he let his own climax hit, burying teeth and cock deep into the welcoming body.
“Love you.”
“I love you too.”
~*~
“TAI!”
~*~
He knew he should be feeling the physical pain, but it was eclipsed but the total emotion injury. The dark eye that stared at him was cold, not the usual warm whiskey colour. The full lips were a thin line and the normally happy man was nearly glaring at him. He couldn’t understand what was going on. He thought they were happy. Life-well, unlife-was going well so this didn’t make any sense.
His lover pulled the stake back and a slimy smile slid over his mouth before the stake slammed home. He tried to gasp out a question, a word, anything but there was no air. And as his body started to fade away to dust he noticed the lack of life in his lover’s eye. This wasn’t his Xander. Something else wore his love’s body; something that used Xander to murder him.
‘I love you,’ he mouthed as disappeared in a cloud of ashes.
~*~
“Tai, wake up!” Sal’s voice was sharp, driving into his brain like a spike.
Tai tried to open his eyes, struggled to make it back to the waking world. Distantly he could hear the Captain talking to Erna, their voices low and hushed. He tried to remember if he’d had another episode, but this didn’t feel like the normal aftereffects. This was different; new and stronger than anything he had ever felt before.
“Come on, Tai, that’s a good boy,” Sal murmured encouragingly as he finally opened his eyes.
“Sal? What happened?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted, curling an arm below his shoulders to help him sit up. “Something about that passenger.”
Tai suddenly remembered the one-eyed man and random images from his dreams flickered through his mind before fading away. There was something strange going on and he was going to get to the bottom of it.
