Dozing on his lap, Anri looked more peaceful and calm than Seth had ever seen him.
He was also sexy as hell. Trying to memorize this moment, he studied Anri’s toned, naked torso, pale and thin, with a teasingly faint wisp of hair trailing from his belly button until it disappeared under his waistband. Anri’s ribs were gentle bumps pressing out against his skin, ridges Seth longed to run his fingers over. If he was a little too skinny, it didn’t detract from how erotic he looked, fully satisfied on Seth’s lap.
The place where the arrow had pierced Anri’s chest, the place where there should have been a wound, or at least a scar, was completely unmarred. Seth longed to run his fingers over the smooth skin, to feel for a scar, but he didn’t dare disturb the tranquility.
It was surreal, Anri in his house, in his lap, his taste still heavy on his tongue. His face burned with the realization that he had taken Anri in his mouth. It had felt right, so good he didn’t stop to think. He felt a little out of control, but he hadn’t wanted to stop. He still didn’t, not where Anri was involved.
His heart did a tiny flip as he remembered Anri’s cool hand on him afterwards, shocking him by reciprocating and sending him to the moon with pleasure. He still couldn’t believe this timid vampire had finished him off of his own volition. What would it feel like to have those cool hands on him again, tracing over his body? Wistful longing filled him. He had to feel Anri’s cool hands on his skin again. The need to run his own hands over that cool, silky skin was nearly unbearable.
Staring down at Anri’s body, he tried to memorize the moment in the event he never got another chance like this. Anri’s relaxed manhood peeked out over the band of his boxer briefs. He found it incredibly cute, but he knew Anri would freak out at the sentiment. Shifting slowly to free up one arm, he attempted to tuck Anri away without waking him. As he pulled back the band, Anri stirred and lazily opened his eyes. Seth snatched his hand back guiltily.
Anri reached down casually and adjusted himself back into his pants, lazily zipping and buckling them. Seth tensed as he waited for Anri to panic and bolt.
Instead, he stretched a little then laid back down into Seth’s lap, shifting to find a comfortable position. Seth couldn’t relax as he waited for the Anri he knew to wake up and freak out hard. It seemed his vampire was full of surprises tonight, and despite his fears, Seth felt himself settle into the subdued vampire. Anri’s hand rested comfortably on his thigh, tracing small little patterns on his jeans.
“Um…hey,” Anri mumbled. “That was…that was fucking amazing.”
Smiling genuinely, he stroked Anri’s soft, mousy hair. “Yes, it was. I don’t think I’ve ever felt…I’m glad you didn’t push me away. I’m glad you stayed.” Seth leaned his head back against the wall, enjoying the post orgasm endorphin release. Game hunters must feel like this, he thought, this type of gratification when they finally caught long pursued prey. No amount of girls or nights out with Lance compared to the level of satisfaction he felt with Anri in his lap, sated and calm. He had finally caught his prey.
“Me too. Seth,” Anri said softly, “I don’t know if I can be this…frank with you normally. I…want to say this while I can. For whatever reason, it doesn’t seem so embarrassing right now. I…I want you. I want you so bad that it drives all reason from my mind. It doesn’t even make sense to me, why I want you so fucking bad, so fucking much, but I do. I want you to want to chase me. I want you so bad, and it scares the shit out of me. I can’t trust myself.”
“Anri,” he said, fingers weaving in and out of those silky dirty blond locks. “You don’t have to trust yourself. You should trust me. Just…trust yourself to me. I’ve never felt anything like what I feel for you. I-I think…I think I might be in love with you…” Seth could feel the heat burning from his cheeks.
“Mmmm,” was Anri’s response. “Me too. I think…me too.”
His chest tightened and emotions he had been holding back now overflowed. He leaned over awkwardly and kissed Anri’s face. Even his cheek felt cool beneath Seth’s lips.
He could still taste Anri in his mouth. Jesus! He had swallowed it! It had felt so right in the moment, and oddly enough, it hadn’t tasted great, but it wasn’t horrible, either. He had a weird, almost foreign thought that the flavor was maybe something he could acquire a taste for…
Anri shivered. He shifted, then sat up. “Sorry, I’m kinda cold.” Locating his shirt, he reached across Seth’s body to grab it. His fingers fumbled with the buttons as he tried to dress himself. “My hands don’t seem to wanna work right,” he chuckled, melting Seth’s heart.
Seth looked over at the door to the basement. “I don’t really have anything upstairs, I live in the basement. I just use the kitchen and the bath up here, mainly…”
“It’s okay. I…if you give me a minute…I’ll come down. I, uh, I should probably tell you about Angelina.”
Anger and jealousy were dual flames in Seth’s stomach. “You have a girlfriend?!” It came out like an accusation and Seth regretted it immediately. He had been the one to force his advances on Anri. Of course Anri had a girlfriend. How could he not?
Anri flinched, hiding his face under a curtain of hair. “No, no, I don’t! Really! She’s…she’s the reason I’m so fucked up, I guess.” He sighed. “She, um, was my girlfriend. Ex! Ex-girlfriend!” he emphasized. “She…god, this sounds dumb now that I’m saying it out loud. She, ah, locked me up and tortured me. Hurt me, starved me. In her basement. For I dunno how long, more than a month. So…I’ve got a thing with, ah, basements…I’ve never, shit, Seth, I haven’t even told Simone about what I’m gonna tell you.”
Relief flooded through him. He hadn’t fully realized how possessive his feeling were towards Anri. The desire to monopolize him was a fist, relentlessly squeezing his heart. This urge to cherish him, to protect him and keep him all to himself, these were new feelings for him.
The reality of what Anri had confessed to him finally sank in. “You were tortured!?”
“Please, Seth…I’ll come downstairs. First, just…give me a minute,” Anri begged. He looked towards the basement door, and then at Seth. Seth nodded, then stretched out, testing his muscles, slowly pushing himself off the floor. Anri said nothing else as Seth moved over and opened the door, though he seemed to be steeling himself to go down. Reaching out his hand to Anri, he tried to think of something reassuring to say, but everything sounded really cheesy in his head, so he said nothing.
Anri took a deep breath and asked, “will you go down first?”
He nodded and Anri grabbed his hand, gripping it like a lifeline. They slowly climbed down the steps together, Anri’s hand in his, into his bedroom-slash-living area. Anri’s breathing was labored, and now he knew it wasn’t from the exercise.
The basement had an open floor plan which he had partially divided with two large Japanese shoji screens he had inherited from his grandmother. One side of the room was set up as his living area, a small glass-topped coffee table in front of a 57” television mounted to the cinder block wall. He had set up a makeshift entertainment stand for his game consoles underneath with bright plastic crates stacked up on their sides, one for his Xbox and one for his Playstation. A brownish loveseat sat behind the table, its back against the shoji screens.
On the other side of the shoji screens lay his king sized bed, rumpled and unmade. He knew that a king sized bed was probably too big for just one person, he just didn’t care. He liked being able to stretch out. And, well, bigger beds could be pretty fun. A wicked smile crossed his face as naughty thoughts of Anri in his bed waltzed through his mind.
Anri’s grip relaxing on his hand brought him out of his fantasies. “You okay?” Seth asked nervously.
Anri looked around, controlling his breathing. “I’m okay. I’m okay. It’s nothing like that time. Like her basement. I’m okay.”
“Angelina’s?” Seth lead. He couldn’t seem to suppress the jealous bile rising in his throat at the mention of Anri’s ex.
“Hers,” he agreed. He didn’t seem to want to talk about it yet.
“Are you, shit, I should have asked if you wanted something to drink while we were upstairs. God, I’m not with it. You mess me up, Anri.” A look crossed Anri’s face, something like panic and disappointment. “No, in a good way. I’m all messed up. I can’t think right. I am totally distracted and hyper aware around you, like a nervous virgin.”
Anri was still tense but a small smile crossed his face. “You are definitely too good at, um, that…to be virgin. God, Seth…” Seth hoped that Anri was replaying their tryst in his mind, a small smile turning the corners of his mouth up in a way that made Seth want to lick the corner of it. He shook his head a little, trying to remember how to be a good host.
“You gonna be okay if I run upstairs and get us something to drink? Do you want something to eat? I think I have some crackers or something…”
Anri hesitated, gauging himself. “Yea, um, yea, I’m fine,” Seth thought he sounded like he was trying to convince himself as much as Seth. “Coffee? No, that will take too long. Water. And whatever you have for snack is fine. I’ll just..sit here and get comfortable. Do you…um…have a bathroom down here?”
Seth felt like an ass, failing at being a good host. “Yea, it’s right behind the shoji screen, other side of the bed. Sorry.” Seth turned to leave, looking back again as Anri peeked behind the shoji screen at his messy bed. Seth turned and ran, his face burning as he hopped up the steps two at a time.
He grabbed two cups and filled them with water from the jug in the fridge, an ancient ‘70s yellow antique which somehow still worked. Rummaging through his cupboards he found a can of BBQ potato chips and grabbed them, tucking them under his arm, then picked up both glasses of water and carefully trotted back down the steps.
Anri was still in the bathroom, so Seth put the glasses on the table and put the chips between them. He realized the chip can wasn’t open and thought that Anri might feel weird about opening it, so he opened it, peeling off the seal, then popped the lid back on again. Shit, he was nervous.
He still couldn’t believe that Anri was in his room. He couldn’t believe that he and Anri had…he was still amazed at the confidence that had come over him. Anri flipped a switch in him and he had embraced it. It had felt so good, his hands balled in Anri’s long hair, controlling his movements and bending Anri’s will to his desires. Seth fidgeted on the couch, then moved to the floor across from the couch, figuring Anri would be more comfortable talking if they sat across from each other.
That and…also the fact that he worried he wouldn’t be able to control himself if he was that close to Anri, smelling his scent. The taste of him still in the back of his throat brought on another rush of lust.
He needed to change the subject or he was going to get another erection, even though he had just come. He took a deep swig of water, then another. The taste of Anri washed away and part of him was disappointed.
The toilet flushed and Anri came out, again peeking around the shoji shyly. Dear lord, Anri was so flipping cute. He was going to be the death of him.
“Um…” Anri said, moving around the shoji. “You don’t have to sit on the floor. I can…this is your house.”
“No! I’m comfortable here. I…please sit down. Make yourself at home,” Seth begged.
Anri went to sit but small chirp from his pocket distracted him. He pulled out his cell phone and checked the screen. A frown crossed his face. “What?” Seth asked him, concerned.
“Simone asked me if we did it yet.” He raked his hands through his hair. “Shit…It seems…goddammit. I hate it when she’s right.”
“Right? About what?” Seth questioned.
Anri’s face turned bright red and he flopped down onto the couch. “Well, she said,” he coughed, “I am probably gay for you. Just for you, though! I’m not gay! At least…well I don’t feel attracted to dudes. Just you.”
Seth was stunned for a moment, then burst out into laughter. “That is the best! Well, I guess I’m gay for you, too.” Anri blushed and neither of them looked at each other, then they both burst out laughing again. Anri sent back a text message.
“What did you send her back?” Seth wondered.
“I told her she could fuck herself,” Anri smiled. “And that I wouldn’t be home tonight.” He blushed again, looking away from Seth again. “If…if that’s okay with you…”
Joy bloomed in his heart and he felt like he was flying. “Am I dreaming? This is just too good to be real.” Anri blushed but didn’t respond. “Seriously. It feels a bit too good to be true, you know what I mean? It makes me nervous, waiting for the normal Anri to come back and run away from me again.”
Anri frowned a little. “Well, I guess I’m just tired of running. This feels right, more than anything else I’ve done. So much so that I just don’t want to fight it anymore. I can’t. So…”
A moment later Anri’s face changed and Seth worried he had somehow offended him.
“I need to tell you about Angelina. If we are going to do this. Do you? Want to do this? With me?”
Seth was confused. “Do what? I don’t understand what you are asking me.”
Anri flushed and looked down. “I dunno…like dating? Um, be my Wren I guess? We seem to have done this all out of order.” Anri’s hands tangled through his hair again.
It was Seth’s turn to blush now. Instead of answering he crawled around the table and put a hand on Anri’s knee. Kneeling between Anri’s legs, Seth put his other hand beneath Anri’s chin and pulled him forward into a kiss. Anri’s lips curl into a smile just before he opened his mouth. The kiss was tender and slow and Seth pulled away first.
“I take that is a yes?” Anri smiled.
“Of course. I thought I had made my feelings obvious,” he replied seriously.
“I just…I guess I just need to hear it, you know? My mother always told me there’s power in words.”
He crawled up on the couch next to Anri. He wanted them to be as close as possible. Anri froze as he settled in next to him, their knees barely touching. Anri subtly shifted into his knee, a tentative gesture which increased the contact. He seemed to be trying hard to make it not seem too obvious.
“I’ll say it as many times as you need.” As the words left his mouth, Seth realized he meant them. He wanted to be with this man for the rest of his life, he was sure of it.
A smile flashed across Anri’s face, then he turned serious. “Angelina. I need to explain it to you. So, when I get like this again, at least you’ll understand. I feel like I owe it to you. And, I sort of want to tell you about it.”
“Okay,” he said, trying not to sound too eager to hear about Anri’s past, even if it wasn’t good stuff. He was dying to know anything about his mysterious vampire.
Anri hesitated, then took a deep breath. “So, I met Angelina when I was in college. She was in the same major as me and we had a lot of classes together. Eventually we started hanging out, and she seemed pretty cool. She was also a Wren, which helped. She knew what she was and I didn’t have to try and hide who I was or my…needs. So, we did…things for a while. We dated for, I dunno, I guess about a half a year when she started getting weird. I mean, I should have seen signs sooner but it’s really easy to ignore it in the moment I guess. Anyway, she…What?” Anri paused, seeming to sense Seth’s urge to ask questions. It was so hard for him to not interrupt with his million questions.
The pause in Anri’s dialogue was too hard to resist. “I’m sorry. Can I ask questions? You have a degree? Why are you working in a bar? Also, just to clarify, you and Angelina, was she your Wren? Does that make it official, like more than dating?” he asked in rapid progression.
“Yes, I have a BS in business management. I manage at Kintsugi to learn all I can cause I wanna open my own place sometime, and yes, we were dating, more or less, but being a vampire’s Wren just means that you are exclusive. Like dating, single source for blood, something like that, though it’s not any more defined than the million ways Norms date.
“So anyway, we had been dating nearly, oh, I guess six months or so when she started acting weird. Well, weirder than normal. She was always a bit strange, but witches usually are. She started to use my blood in her spells, although I didn’t know it at first. Being a vampire, blood and sex are always…well, they kind of both go together.” Seth watched as Anri tried to keep the flush from spreading to his cheeks and failed.
“Waitaminute…spells? Like, magic? Like Angelina is a witch? Witches are real? A ‘for real’ witch? No shit…” First vampires, now witches? He was going to need a crash course on ‘the way things really are’ very soon.
“So, yes, spells, but the right term might be more like rituals. Magic is…well, kind of tricky to explain. I really only know what Angelina told me, but she said It generally comes from a connection to another realm, either through the fey or demons. People don’t have magic, and it really isn’t like Harry Potter or anything. Um…I guess it’s more like our rules don’t work in their realms the same way and vice versa. So, things that seem like magic here are just everyday life to them. We can grant them some of the, um, realities of our realm in exchange for a trade of realities in their realms. Does that make sense?”
Seth must have looked as puzzled as he felt. Anri frowned, but he waved it away. “Not really, but keep going. Angelina is a witch and she uses some type of connection to another realm to do ‘not quite magic’?”
“I guess that works for now, but that isn’t quite right. Whatever. Angelina started to do bigger and more dangerous magic, which required more blood than she could get without being super obvious about it.”
Seth interrupted again, “You just gave her blood for magic? Did she drink it? That sounds…dangerous. Is it dangerous?”
“I didn’t just ‘give her blood’. And, yes, it is very dangerous. You need to use natural elements when performing transactions between realms just to open the connection. The more life that is in the connection, the stronger exchanges you can have. And, no, I didn’t just ‘give’ her blood. She was pretty…um…frisky? Kinky?” Seth admired the blush on his face as he looked away with embarrassment. “Fuck no, Seth, she never drank my blood. That is not something that is done, ah, well it is, sometimes but not, ah,” he coughed, blushing, then continued quickly “and, she was a vegetarian.” He laughed wryly, then continued, “She liked to…um…cut me. It’s a….” Anri trailed off, embarrassed.
“So, the sex was good and she would cut you and use your blood somehow in her rituals?” Seth asked casually. At least, he tried, but he couldn’t help the burning jealousy at the thought of the witch with his Anri. He knew that was in the past, but it didn’t matter to his jealousy.
Anri nearly gagged. Seth smiled, enjoying the responses he could tease from him. It was obscene how cute he found Anri. “Um…yea. She used to do this thing, and her…” Anri said, motioning his hands suggestively as he fidgeted nervously. Jealousy burned brighter, his chest constricting at the thought of Anri with anyone else. He knew it was irrational, but…goddamn it…Anri was his.
Anri must have noticed his jealousy. His face flushed and he dropped his hands to his lap, rushing back into the story. “Well, um, anyway, I didn’t know it then, but she would prepare the ritual on her body, then initiate um…stuff, and then she would cut me and draw the patterns on herself. I thought…I dunno what I thought. It was hot at the time. She was so wild and alive and it was powerful and sexy. This is…really, really embarrassing.”
Seth put his hand on Anri’s knee but didn’t say anything. He seemed to appreciate the comforting gesture and a surge of calm radiated from the contact.
“So, yeah, anyway. One day, she cut me deep. Deeper than ever before. More than I…well, it got violent. She cut me while I was, ah, otherwise distracted, and almost drained me right there. I passed out from blood loss, which says a lot for a vampire. I was tied up, ah…down, I guess, and she caught my blood in a bowl. She had planned the whole thing out. I blacked out, and I don’t remember much after that. I remember being chained up in her basement. Like, with old school, medieval times-style iron spell-locked shackles on my ankles and wrists. And around my neck.” Anri grimaced, and Seth thought he might be reliving the fear and betrayal from that time. He said a silent vow that if he ever met Angelina, she would pay for everything she had done to Anri.
“Shit, Anri. Where do you even get shackles? That is super crazy…” Seth said, aghast. Anri smiled weakly before continuing, hiding behind his hair again.
“I have no idea. The fucking pagan store? She kept me prisoner in the basement, bleeding me nearly to death every time. I didn’t have enough blood, I don’t really remember much of it. I felt wild, out of control, what I do remember. So close to my lust, sometimes consumed by it. She left me in the dark most of the time, too. There were no windows. Every day, Seth, every day she would come down, turn the lights on and talk at me like nothing was wrong. Like this was the most normal thing ever. That is what really fucked me up, her acting so normal when everything was so wrong.”
Anri said nothing for a few minutes, lost in his thoughts. Seth finally broke the silence. “How did you get away?”
“I…she took too much from me one day. I was so weak and tired, I lost myself. I don’t remember doing it, but I had bitten her leg and drank her. I don’t….I didn’t kill her. But I drank more than…well, I wanted her dead. I’d never drank that much before, and I couldn’t drink as much as I wanted, enough to kill her. I think, well, all in all, I’m glad I didn’t. I’m not a murderer. I didn’t kill her, Seth, even lost to bloodlust. It helps me not feel like a monster…”
He leaned on Anri, trying to comfort him, silently urging him to continue.
Anri obliged. “Her blood was…she had been working on a portal. She wanted to bring something over. Something big. Her blood was thrumming with energy. Somehow, and I am super lucky for this, she had the keys on her. Sometimes I have nightmares where she didn’t. Where I killed her, then died there anyway, where no one would ever find me, locked forever in her basement.” Anri shivered, sagging against him. Anri shook his head, as if clearing the nightmares. “I left her on the floor, bleeding…and I ran. I think I was mad for a day or two. When I finally came back to myself…I called Simone first chance I got, and I came here.”
Anri ran his hands through his hair nervously, his gaze anywhere but in Seth’s direction. “That’s why I live with Simone. I don’t want to be alone. I still have nightmares. I think she would have eventually killed me, Seth. Maybe that night, I dunno. I hate it that I’m fucking afraid, and that I’m afraid of her. That’s why. That’s why I didn’t want a Wren. Why I’m so afraid of getting close to someone again. And…the basement, that too.”
Seth leaned heavily into Anri’s side, resting his head on Anri’s shoulder. Anri cringed at his intimacy, but he lingered there anyway. Eventually Anri relaxed again, sighing heavily. It was obvious he was re-experiencing those memories of Angelina and he felt a twinge of guilty, even if it was good for Anri to get this off his chest. It hurt that he was the making Anri remember.
Dreadfully Erotic 