Page 7 of Blood Kisses

Severin occasionally visited the opera in an attempt to feel less lonely. This was a good production but it couldn’t hold his attention when he sensed Nikolaus so close by. He was even sure the human’s scent carried to him all the way from the box despite the presence of so many other potential prey and it made him gnaw his lip and dig his nails into his palms. He needed to control himself or the meeting would go badly wrong. He hadn’t come here to hurt Nikolaus. Not at all.

At the intermission, he started to shiver with excitement. He watched the box, saw Anna leave, and hurried up the aisle to the exit. Anna was heading down the stairs to the powder room. Severin looked right and left and then let himself into the box.

It was dark but he could see perfectly well. Nikolaus turned from his seat with the words on his lips: “That was quick.” He stopped, frozen, his face horrified.

Severin felt endless shame. He never wanted to see that look again. He would rather kill himself first. “Don’t be afraid,” he said quickly, stepping forward.

Nikolaus remained in the chair. His black hair gleamed under the low lights, reflecting gold and red, and his violet eyes were dark, mysterious pools of emotion. “What do you want? Have you been following me?”

Severin steadied himself on the box railing because his legs felt weak. He felt as though he was the prey, rather than the other way around. “I wanted to speak with you. I wanted to apologise for my behaviour.”

Nikolaus laughed, a low, bitter, scornful laugh that raked Severin’s very soul. “I’m sorry? Are creatures like you in the habit of going around apologising to victims they failed to take?”

Creatures. Severin swallowed. “You know what I am. You also need to know that the other night meant something more to me than...” he stopped, wondering why he was trying to explain at all.

Nikolaus’s gaze never left his. A heavy silence shrouded the box. Chemistry crackled between the two of them. Severin smelled the adrenaline flooding Nikolaus’s blood. He heard the rapid pounding of his heart.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I won’t hurt you. I don’twantto hurt you.”

Nikolaus moistened his dry lips with his tongue. The hand clutching the arm of his chair shook visibly. Severin stepped right up to him, gripped him under the elbows, and Nikolaus rose and pressed himself into Severin’s chest, hooking arms around his neck. Whatever Severin had been expecting, it wasn’t this instant pliability on Nikolaus’s part.

Severin kissed him and stars exploded behind his closed eyelids. He wasn’t sure he had kissed anyone at all in five hundred years and if he had, he couldn’t remember now. All that he was and all that he had done was swept away in a blinding flash of passion. He felt human again, with human wants and desires and nothing so petty as killing to survive. Nikolaus’s lips were like velvet and sweet as honey. The relentless pounding of his heart filled Severin’s head as they kissed without pause, tasting and exploring the other’s mouth as though time had stopped and it could go on forever.

Severin found Nikolaus’s tongue. The human moaned softly and Severin pressed him back against the railing, holding him tight, oblivious to the hundreds of watching eyes below. Nikolaus was hard and so was Severin, but the vampire made no move to touch him. This was all he wanted. Just this kiss. Even the blood lust was subdued, muttering sullenly in the background, and he didn’t know why. Sharing this scorching kiss should have made Severin insane and yet he exercised the iron control he hadn’t been able to find on their first meeting. He wouldn’t frighten Nikolaus. He wouldn’t hurt him.

The soft click of the door behind them alerted Severin first, the sound easily distinguishable to him over the babble of voices in the theatre. He let go of Nikolaus instantly, stepped back and rubbed a hand over his mouth as though he could stop his lips from burning.

Anna appeared in the box and Nikolaus looked at her like the guiltiest of men. She in turn stared at Severin. She was an attractive red-head with pale, freckled skin and watery green eyes. “Hello, sir,” she said when none of the men seemed forthcoming.

Nikolaus seemed to physically gather himself. He clutched hard at the box railing like it was the only thing keeping him upright. He was dreadfully ashen, his lips kiss-swollen and infused with blood. “Anna, this is Severin Murnau. He’s an old friend of mine.”

Anna glanced suspiciously at Severin. She held out her hand and Severin took it, bending low over it and missing it with a sweep of his lips. Anna drew back her hand. “How cold you are, sir,” she said, her face cool and mistrustful. Perhaps she saw him instantly for what he was, as some humans had the talent to do.

Severin inclined his head in agreement. “I feel the cold,” he said.

The three of them stood there a moment longer looking at each other before Severin took the opportunity to escape, not that he wanted to leave Nikolaus for one second. “It was lovely to see you again, Nikolaus. I hope we might catch up again in the future.”

He watched the human with his dead heart trapped in his throat and begged Nikolaus silently to take the avenue open to him.

Nikolaus hesitated a moment before he reached a card from his pocket. “Of course, Severin, do call on me.”

Severin took the card. He held out his hand and Nikolaus shook it silently. The human’s palm was clammy. His eyes were large with desire.

Severin bowed once to Anna and left the box. He hurried down the stairs looking neither left nor right, and emerged on the busy street. He stood staring down at the card in his hand and wondered why Nikolaus had made it so easy for him.

Chapter Seven

Bavaria, Germany, 1895

Severin threw back the covers when a knock came at the door and pulled on a silk robe. Outside stood a servant with a cart containing jugs of boiling water for bathing. Severin bade him enter and the human hastened to the bathroom with a nervous backward look at the vampire. His throat was unmarked so this was either his first room or the other vampires were still slumbering satiated from last night’s banquet.

Severin thanked the man after he had filled the porcelain bath and topped it up with cold water. He dropped his robe and sank beneath the water, hissing in pleasure. He lay there and imagined sliding his fangs into Nikolaus’s neck at the same time as sheathing himself in his backside. These thoughts had tortured him for the past ten years. Somehow, though, he suspected Emil might have something to say if Severin killed his pet. He was not sure he cared. All of his desire and desperation had come flooding back. He needed Nikolaus.

Severin slid down the dimly-lit corridor like a black-clad wraith. Other vampires passed him and he kept his head bowed, not making eye contact. He was thirsty and his head ached, but he was single-minded in his determination even though he knew he shouldn’t be searching for Nikolaus while hungry.

He descended a spiral staircase, headed past a bustling kitchen, and located the stone steps that led deep into the bowels of the castle. Just the place Severin suspected a vampire like Emil loved to play.

The air was cold and foetid. The steps were slippery with moisture. Noiselessly, Severin took his time, arriving in a large, dark room that seemed to be a storage area for antiquated furniture. A torch burned on the wall a hundred yards away. Severin set off down the corridor and passed through a half-open iron door. He gasped as he stepped inside.

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