Nik had never really been one for bringing people home with him. Once or twice, yeah, but to say the things that Enzo said he was saying? It didn’t sound like him – or well, it didn’t sound like something he would admit to a near perfect stranger. He was lonely, horribly so, but telling anyone that? It wasn’t something he’d ever done, and yet…
The look on Enzo’s face. It didn’t look like the face of someone playing a game, or someone looking to hurt him.
God, Nik was so confused.
“I don’t understand. Who could…” He closed his eyes as Enzo’s fingers made a path over his throat and down the front of his shirt, biting back a small sound at the jolt of electricity when his nipples were touched. The mental image of wrapping his legs around Enzo’s slim hips was almost enough to make him weak in the knees, but Nik held his ground – and met those beautiful dark eyes. “Who could do something like that?” he asked again, voice strained.
He might not remember, but his body certainly felt like those touches were familiar. Wanted. And there was a very large part of Nik that wanted everything Enzo was saying to be true…because it meant someone cared.
Nik sat down heavily in the chair, his legs suddenly too shaky to hold him up any longer. There was immediate relief, finally off his feet for the first time in hours. Now if only his head could be appeased so easily.
“How do we fix it?” We. How do we fix it? Because if there was even the remotest chance that what Enzo was saying was true, then Nik wanted it. He wanted someone that cared enough about him to do the things Enzo was doing. He wanted an end to the loneliness. If Enzo cared, then Nik wanted to know him. “I’ll help. Just tell me the truth. Tell me who could have done this, and tell me what I need to do to help you fix it.”
The expression on Nik’s face recalled so beautifully the expression that had been on his face when he’d come that Enzo was rendered quite weak. His heart was no less broken, but he could see in Nik’s eyes a willingness to see the truth, to embrace it, to fix what had been broken between them. He helped Nik sit down, and he pulled the other chair around so he could sit facing him.
“There are terrible things in this world,” Enzo said, searching Nik’s eyes for any reluctance to hear what he was saying. “I wish you didn’t have to know. This could only have been done by…”
He took a deep breath, and reached for Nik’s hands, holding them, resting on his knees.
“There’s things like me,” he said. He needed to show Nik his face, or Nik was never going to believe him. “I… you have to believe I wouldn’t hurt you,” he said. “You must.” If Nik freaked out, Enzo would compel him to forget; and then he would leave, and stay far away. No, he couldn’t let that happen. “You must stay calm, he said, with just a touch of compulsion.
He let the veins beneath his eyes swell and darken, and he let his fangs descend.
“I’m a vampire,” he said. “But I promise you, I’m not a bad man. I can make people do things. We all can. You’ll find your landlord has no interest in you continuing to pay rent – I did that, when I was here the other night.”
He retracted his fangs, and set his features back to human.
“A vampire could have made you forget me. Or a witch, but I can’t imagine what witch might hold such a grudge against me. I’ve been… gone a long time,” he said. “I can’t possibly have angered anyone enough to do this to us.”
“Do you remember speaking to anyone unfamiliar?” he asked. “Anyone at all. Even in passing. In the last two days. I can kill the vampire who did this, or persuade the witch to reverse the spell… but only if I can find out who they are.”
snowghoul
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