Page 17 of Illuminated

I leaned forward on the kitchen counter from my side to get a better look at his eyes. “Why do your eyes change color? They look almost silver. I’ve never seen this eye color before.”

“Then you have never seen a vampire during daytime. Many don’t like going out when the sun is up, especially not in this day and age when you can absolutely avoid it. A vampire becomes weaker -- is easier to kill -- when the sun is up. I could still bite you, though.”

I leaned right back, my eyes wide, and he grinned.

“They -- those priests. They caught you during the day?”

He nodded. “Yes. Yesterday, when I was walking along the beach.”

“You were walking along the beach?”

“I’m not one of those vampires who mind the day. I’m not afraid of being weaker, and I enjoy --” He made a vague gesture. “-- Living. On top of that, it was a beautiful day.”

“Yeah, it was.” But the memory of it soured when I imagined how the priests had taken Auris. I didn’t think he would have willingly come with them. It couldn’t have been a fun experience.

“Ethan,” he said. “I am well, thanks to you. There is nothing that you should worry yourself over.”

I blushed, looked down at my coffee, and took another swig.

“Sorry. Then your plan is to hide out here while the holy men are looking for you back in Cromere?”

“Oh, they will look all over. You’d think they’d find better things to do -- baptisms, last rites, confessions -- but they consider this some sort of holy war. I wasn’t asked whether I wanted to participate, they simply take it as a given. And during the pandemic, I am quite sure they are enjoying the fact that travel was and still is limited to some extent.”

I looked at him, bewildered that he would joke about this when he had been bound and nailed to a cross not twelve hours ago, but Auris seemed unfazed. Finally, he got up from his chair and walked around the kitchen counter. He took me in his arms and kissed me.

“This is not the most pleasant thing to talk about, and since you are making no efforts to feed yourself, there are other things I would like to do.”

His hands first brushed along my back before they went down to my butt.

“Other things?” I said, doing my best to make it sound as if I hadn’t been thinking about all theother thingswe could be doing as well. I put my mug down and ran my hands up his back. My cock was already filling, and I knew my shorts were about to get very uncomfortable.

“Yes, other things. And you should be lying down for some of them, so forgive me but I am taking you back to bed.” He picked me up off my feet and slung me over his shoulder. I possibly squeaked a little bit, because this was new. I didn’t exactly have the right body type that invited others to just casually sweep me off my feet.

It was also unarguably sexy. Auris was inarguably sexy, exactly like the fairy-tale prince every queer boy ever wished for.

* * *

There wasn’t much I could do to stop a vampire from putting me to bed and slowly stripping me naked on the covers, not that I wanted to. It felt too good being with him. It felt… right, easy somehow as if all that he needed me to be when I was with him was myself.

Auris took his time, just looking when he had me naked.

“Are you warm enough?”

“Yeah. Fire’s still going.”

“Merely embers, Ethan.” He pinched my right nipple. “And you look cold.”

I couldn’t help giggling before sucking on my bottom lip.

He took that opening to strip out of his own shirt and pants.

Like his face, the rest of him was beautiful, but that wasn’t even what grabbed my attention. I ran my hand over his chest, over the unmarked skin.

“You have no scars at all. From yesterday.”

“They tend not to stick. Don’t worry about that, ever.”

“But I feel a heartbeat.” I tapped his chest with my index finger. “Right there.”

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