Secret Santa gift part 2
- Chapter 3 -
The day as Jared said was indeed busy, but not how he’s foreseen it.
After coffee, and some much needed blood cocktail from a secret place, Jensen was ready to face the day. Chris was already waiting for him, with a mountain of prepared paperwork, and an appointment for the afternoon.
The day was suspiciously smooth sailing, - even the meeting finished in good time - especially for a fool moon, when even the humans felt the ancient pull, so Jensen looked up with a certain kind of bad feeling when after a respectful knock, the butler appeared in the doorway.
“Mr. Ackles, a gentleman is looking for you, he doesn’t have an appointment, but he assured me that he’ll be welcomed if I show you his calling card.”
“Thank you Alfred, may I see the gentlemen’s card?” Jensen just took one look at the golden letters, and he knew that trouble was brewing.
-------======---------=====
The first time Jensen saw Jeff was way before the 1800s.
Travelling was really not something that the vampire considered fun. Especially when he had to go for weeks on a ship with bare minimum of blood supply. This trip’s only solving grace was that he was going to the heart of his favourite drink’s home: Java. With this, Indonesia won his heart, and he was actually looking forward to arriving there.
When they finally sailed to port, he was among the first ones to leave the ship. He needed some time to find his “land legs”, and while he was standing around, trying to get used to a non-moving land, his eyes landed on an interesting figure. When he first saw the back of the man with short, salt and pepper hair and wide shoulders, he let out a big, dreamy sighs, - only in his mind, naturally - because he was an Ackles through and through, and tried to get a closer look at the other man.
And what a man. He looked like he was glowing within, even his eyes had gold flecks in some light. His clothing was traded with gold thread, but the overall effect with the leather bracelet was still strong, and masculine. When the older man saw him, his whole face lit up, like they were old friends, who were apart too long.
“And to what do I owe the pleasure?” Said the stranger, with a confidence of a man, who knew what he wanted and was not afraid to get it.
“I’m Jensen Ackles. Just arrived with the Night Shade.” The vampire tried to answer with the same nonchalant manner, but when he held out his hand to shake the other man’s, his glance caught on the stranger’s wrist. He saw a highly stylized inverse S, in gold ink.
“You!” Shouted, but at the same time the older man caught his wrist in his palms, and started to caress it.
“It looks like.” Answered smiling and didn’t let Jensen hand out of his hold. “The big, bad dragon caught an itsy bitsy vampire-fly in his net. Care to join me in my humble abode?”
Jensen had no other choice but to follow him, if he didn’t want to cause a scene, right as he arrived.
- Chapter 4 -
One would like to say that the feud between vampires and dragons was as old as Time itself. But it was actually only started with the foundation of the Clans. Both of these majestic creatures fancied themselves as a bit of a leader, but there was a very big difference between how they saw the other supernatural beings.
The dragons had firmly believed that you can only be pure blood, if you were born to be a creature. Seeing that you can only become a vampire, they never thought themselves to be the same level as them. And if they were never on the same level, that meant the feud was even more uglier.
The vampires families were as old, as established and as rich as the dragons, and of course they never thought of themselves as anything less, just because they started their centuries-long life as humans. But that didn’t mean that they hadn’t picked up the gloves when it came to the war between the two sub Clans.
So when Jensen saw Jeff’s gold calling card, he knew that it was not an accident that the other man chose this particular day - a full moon - to visit.
---------========---------======
“Very well Albert, I’ll see Mr. Morgan. And can you send a note to the caretaker not to be seen around the house till my guest leaves?”
It was a statement of the household rather than the butler’s good upbringing, that Jensen didn’t even get a raised eyebrow for this strange request.
With a ‘certainly, sir’ the butler was already out of the door, and Jensen was on his feet. He tried to tell Christian the abbreviated story about Jeffrey Dean Morgan and their first meeting, and the following decades as quickly as possible, to bring him up to speed. Luckily even if Jeff knew about Steve - which Jensen very much doubted it - there was not any known problem between the dragons and the sirens. Because yes, the vampire was very much right again about who the mysterious Steve Carlson was.
Of course to be a born creature from a minor sub Clan and to be a very much human lover of that said creature is a different story. A human lover who happened to run away with the darling heir of a wealthy factory owner family was a bit of a scandal doesn’t matter which side - human, or creature - you look at it. So it’s better to trade here carefully. Especially if you add a werewolf to the mix on the eve of the full moon. Yes, what can go wrong?
The first thing that Jensen realised when Jeff walked in the room was that the other man changed a bit: dragons tend to age. He had a salt and pepper beard to go with his hair, and there were some more fine lines around his gold flecked eyes. And of course he was still as magnetic, when he first saw him on that shore.
Jeff was the type of man who commanded everyone’s attention when they walked in any room, and this time it was no different. Even Christian who was pretty much used to the supernatural, looked a bit dazzled for a couple of seconds.
“Hello Jensen, how is my itsy bitsy fly?” Was the first thing that Jeff said as soon the door was firmly shut behind the butler. Jensen realised that he left out the ‘vampire’ part, mindful of the other person in the room, so there was a good chance that he doesn’t know anything about Christian.
“I’d appreciate it if you would stop calling me on pet names.”
“Seeing that you had your own pet now? Or should I call him puppy?” The tiny cut wouldn’t mean anything for an outsider, but Jensen already knew that the warning to Jared was a waste of time.
“Jealous?”
“Of you, or of him?” When the only answer was a raised eyebrow, Jeff continued smoothly. “You know that I’ve never gotten over what we used to have...” And his voice was liquid gold.
“You meant that you’ve never gotten over that you lost something from your precious treasure.” Jensen fought truly hard not to be affected by that particular tone.
“And what’s the problem with being a treasure?”
“Nothing, if you are an inanimate object, or that’s all you want from a partner.”
This was an old merry go around between them. To tell the truth Jensen was very happy for a long time in that not so humble abode where Jeff led him that day. He was enchanted by the handsome, charismatic dragon, and very much impressed that despite of their species’ feud he still chose him. And his experience made a lot of night truly unforgettable.
It took a while to realised what was the problem with that perfect picture. He was sure that the other man really loved him, just how a dragon can love an especially rare and absolutely, perfectly beautiful object. He was just part of his amazing collection. The perfect masterpiece. And he couldn’t even hate his lover for it, because for him this was the height of pure love.
Their break up was ugly. And for years and years even if they attended the same Clan meetings, they never even acknowledged the other one. This only changed when Jeff got married. He found a perfect wife who thought the same way about treasure. An another dragon. Go figure.
But all of this still didn’t answer the question of what the other man was doing here right now. Which made Jensen pretty antsy.
“So to cut to the chase, what is the reason for today’s surprise visit?”
“Hmm, so no more pleasantries? It’s a shame. But if you really want to know. I came in official business… Actually in two businesses.” And with this he firmly planted himself in one of the ornate chairs. “My little fly it looks like you just attract all kinds of problems.”
----------=========--------------===========
Jared was just working on the north wing, trying to finish as much as he can before sundown, when he saw the cook’s son was running from the side door, shouting from afar.
“Jared!”
“What’s up Sammy? Did you eat something again, what you shouldn’t have?” Turned around for a minute, just for a boy to see that he was joking, and went back to work.
“No, it’s not about me. I have a message for you from the butler.” This made Jared stop his work and actually turn around to face Sammy. “He said that Lord Ackles has a visitor, and asked you to go to the kitchen till he leaves.”
“All right.” This was all that the other man could say to this strange statement. But a free invitation to the kitchen, was a free invitation to the kitchen, and since Jared became a werewolf his appetite was not how it was before… Actually it was even worse.
-------------------==========-----------============
“First thing first, it looks like sweetheart, you lost your manners.” Said Jeff with a smile on his face. “You still haven’t introduced me to your..., let me guess, your secretary.”
“Oh, I didn’t know you would stay that long, that warrants an introduction.” Came a quick reply. “But it looks like you made yourself comfortable here, so let me introduce you to my secretary, Mr Eliot Spencer. And here is my old acquaintance Sir Jeffrey Dean Morgan.”
Christian was there without missing a beat on the fake name, with a pleasant smile on his face to shake hands. But again the other man shot their little game in the foot.
“Mr Spencer? Nice to meet you. Maybe you can help me, seeing that you’re Jensen’s right hand man. As I mentioned earlier I’m here for business, looking for somebody… a Mr Lindsey McDonald.”
The secretary’s face was amazingly natural, given that was his earlier persona’s name, when he was working at the Carlson’s factory. He only turned around and went back to his table, leaving to Jensen to play the situation, however he saw fit.
“There is nobody in this household with that name, if I can recall, Jeff. But may I ask why are you looking for this gentleman?” The vampire was not the same young creature, which first set eyes on the older man years, and years ago. He was more cautious now. And he needed more information, fast.
“Actually, I came here to help him.”
“To help him? Just from the kindness of your... heart?”
“You know me better than that, sweetheart. I came here to help, and the gentleman can help me in return. Quid pro quo.”
“Yes, this is more like you. But sadly we don’t know anybody with that name around here.”
“And this lead me to my other business.” The dragon just followed up like he didn’t even hear the previous statement. “About your puppy.”
Jensen prided himself as a good card player, whose face would never betray his real feelings. Which was a handy skill with his business negotiations. Of course when it came to Jared it was hard to not take things at heart.
“If you refer to Mr Padalecki, you know he has a name.”
“Oh, yes. A pretty interesting one. Sadly it’s not really his in a sense, that he didn’t get it, more like he took it.”
Jensen had to think quick on his feet. There was something that the dragon wanted badly enough, enough, that he went to all this trouble to gather a lot of information about Jared, and possible Chris and Steve. The last problem was the easiest one. Jeff can’t touch the siren and he knew it. Even though Steve ran away, and caused this indiscretion, all he had to do is go home, say a half decent mea culpa, and he would be back in his parents’ good grace faster than you can say ‘favourite son’. He is a siren after all, travelling, and making humans do what they want is in their nature. Not that Steve would leave Chris, but that’s not part of the game right now.
This left only Jared and Chris. Both of them had a lot of angle to play from the dragon point of view. A human can even be killed without too much of a fuss, especially if they caused problems to the Clans. Which Chris obviously did.
A werewolf is very hard to get rid off normally, but not in this case. Jeff is an exceptionally influential dragon and Jared had no connections to really speak of in his own sub Clan. He met with a witch, who helped him with his fullmoon-chamber, and who became a good friend of his, but Jensen doesn’t know if just one witch, even if as powerful as Erica can really make a difference, if push comes to shove.
So all he had left was negotiation. And he was determined to have the upper hand.
-------========----------==========
When Christian stepped foot in the kitchen, he saw a very usual picture. The werewolf was there with that boy Sammy, both had an empty bowl in front of them, but they still tried to convince Jim Beaver, the cook, to give them something from tonight supper’s sweets.
As soon as Jared saw him, he tried to rope him in the scheme too. “Oh, hello Chris, I’m happy that you are here, can you help me convince Jim, that nobody will miss a couple of slices of cake, if he gives us now?”
The younger man’s only mistake was that there were only two men in the whole household, who can withhold his patented ‘puppy eye look’, and that two were here, now in the kitchen: the secretary and the cook. Even Jensen couldn’t say no, when his lover really put his mind to something, which thankfully most of the time consisted only food or sex.
“Jim even let him starve his own son.” Jared pointed at Sammy, because he never liked to give up something too easily.
“Look, I don’t think you’ll die of hunger if you skip this dessert now after…” and Chris looked at Mr Beaver for information, who simply put up two of his fingers exasperatedly. “two bowls of stew.”
“You are both mean!” Collapsed the younger man dramatically in his seat. Sammy was just laughing at the theatrics, and even his father’s mouth twitched suspiciously. Because everybody knew in the mansion that not soon after Jared turned up, alone, without anything to his name except that one nice set of cloth he was wearing on his first day, Jim took him under his wing. At first sight the old man was very rough around the edges, but under the gruff and puff he had a real heart of gold.
“If you finished your great role of Oliver Twist, you should come with me. Mr Ackles is waiting for you.” With this Christian turned around and stepped out in the Hall, to wait for the younger man there.
- Chapter 5 -
Jared found Jensen in his fullmoon-chamber in the cellar.
“You know, I had an interesting conversation with Chris on the way over here.” Started the werewolf in lieu of a greeting when he climbed in through the fake wall.
“And you mean interesting in the sense that he didn’t say anything about the visitor, that you were dying to know about, but you tried anyway.” Came the reply, when the vampire stood up from his inspection of the enchanted chains that was secured to the ground.
The younger man just used his “what you can do” face, which was not really different from his “I had too much sweets with supper, and despite my supernatural metabolism, this will hurt.” But seeing the pain the other will go through today, Jensen decided to take pity on him.
“It was Sir Morgan, a dangerous and influential creature; a gold dragon. He wanted something that I have. He had a lot of information that can cause a problem for you, Chris and Steve, and I rather value the three of you more than a simple object. End of story.” And with this he turned back to his earlier examination. It’s not that he didn’t trust Erica’s abilities, but he needed to do something that at least looked useful. He felt always so absolutely useless in the face of Jared’s inevitable suffering.
“No, no, no. If you think you can get away with not telling me any details, you’re dead wrong.”
“Jared, you should be getting ready, the sun will be down soon.”
“I know, perfectly well, when the sun is going down. I feel it in my bones.” Snapped at the vampire the younger man, which just showed that Jensen was right. He should be getting ready. “I’m sorry, I didn’t want to argue. I just…, I feel the pull, and this strange encounter is not helping.”
“I’m sorry too.” Said the vampire, while he finally abandoned the chains and faced the young werewolf who started to undress. “I knew that it was not a coincidence that Jeff choose this particular day. He wanted to have all the advantage. Which I suppose he had.”
“It looks like you knew him from before.”
“Yes, we used to be lovers.” And Jensen found some very interesting spot on the ground that just needed to be examined. Thoroughly.
But the other man didn’t let him hide like this. With one long step he was in his personal space, lifting his chin up, and putting a searing hot kiss on his cold lips.
“I am aware that you lived longer than me. And I have personal experience that you were not a virgin the first time we had sex. Very good experience to tell you the truth. Especially when you started riding me, beautifully naked and your mouth…” This was the moment the vampire decided to reciprocate the kiss from earlier. This was always a good method to stop the young man babbling about endlessly.
The only downside of this method was that you can’t use it in public, or if you had a time limit. Which sadly they had now. So after a couple minutes of fun, while the vampire was thoroughly enjoyed that the other man was already down to his underpants, he had to make them stop. Forcefully. The closer they got to the sunset, the more animalistic Jared became. For the werewolf, this was his mate, and he wanted to claim him for life.
“Ok, there’s no more time.” Jensen’s voice made Jared aware of his surroundings again. He quickly dropped his underwear too, seemingly unaware of the effect that the previous kisses had on his body. Within a minute he was in full, heavy chain securely fastened to different parts of the chamber.
Jensen closed the last handcuffs, gave a quick kiss on the younger man’s lips, and stepped back.
“Everything seems in order. And tomorrow we can finish what we started.” The vampire tried to put some levity in the situation, but even for his own ears it sounded forced.
“I’ll hold you to that. And I didn’t forget that you conveniently cut off our conversation about this old lover of yours, and what he wanted from you.”
“There’s not much to say, even tomorrow. He got what he came for, and he will not be bothering us again, I was made sure of that. That’s the most important thing.”
For Jensen, really was this simple. He was not evading the answer to spare Jared’s feelings. He never wanted to be a treasure, and never cared for one. Being cold on the outside, was not the same to be cold inside when it meant for the people around him. Jared wanted to say something more, but when he opened his mouth, all it came out was just a grunt. His transformation has begun.
The vampire stood there for a couple of minutes more, but when his lover’s grunts were morphed to cry of pain, he couldn’t stand it anymore. He left the chamber and closed the fake wall. He looked back only once on the top of the stairs, but there was no physical evidence of the horrible struggle that was going on between animal and man.
Tonight maybe the animal won, but the sunrise will bring back the man he loved and cherished, and then they have all the time in the world together.
The day as Jared said was indeed busy, but not how he’s foreseen it.
After coffee, and some much needed blood cocktail from a secret place, Jensen was ready to face the day. Chris was already waiting for him, with a mountain of prepared paperwork, and an appointment for the afternoon.
The day was suspiciously smooth sailing, - even the meeting finished in good time - especially for a fool moon, when even the humans felt the ancient pull, so Jensen looked up with a certain kind of bad feeling when after a respectful knock, the butler appeared in the doorway.
“Mr. Ackles, a gentleman is looking for you, he doesn’t have an appointment, but he assured me that he’ll be welcomed if I show you his calling card.”
“Thank you Alfred, may I see the gentlemen’s card?” Jensen just took one look at the golden letters, and he knew that trouble was brewing.
-------======---------=====
The first time Jensen saw Jeff was way before the 1800s.
Travelling was really not something that the vampire considered fun. Especially when he had to go for weeks on a ship with bare minimum of blood supply. This trip’s only solving grace was that he was going to the heart of his favourite drink’s home: Java. With this, Indonesia won his heart, and he was actually looking forward to arriving there.
When they finally sailed to port, he was among the first ones to leave the ship. He needed some time to find his “land legs”, and while he was standing around, trying to get used to a non-moving land, his eyes landed on an interesting figure. When he first saw the back of the man with short, salt and pepper hair and wide shoulders, he let out a big, dreamy sighs, - only in his mind, naturally - because he was an Ackles through and through, and tried to get a closer look at the other man.
And what a man. He looked like he was glowing within, even his eyes had gold flecks in some light. His clothing was traded with gold thread, but the overall effect with the leather bracelet was still strong, and masculine. When the older man saw him, his whole face lit up, like they were old friends, who were apart too long.
“And to what do I owe the pleasure?” Said the stranger, with a confidence of a man, who knew what he wanted and was not afraid to get it.
“I’m Jensen Ackles. Just arrived with the Night Shade.” The vampire tried to answer with the same nonchalant manner, but when he held out his hand to shake the other man’s, his glance caught on the stranger’s wrist. He saw a highly stylized inverse S, in gold ink.
“You!” Shouted, but at the same time the older man caught his wrist in his palms, and started to caress it.
“It looks like.” Answered smiling and didn’t let Jensen hand out of his hold. “The big, bad dragon caught an itsy bitsy vampire-fly in his net. Care to join me in my humble abode?”
Jensen had no other choice but to follow him, if he didn’t want to cause a scene, right as he arrived.
- Chapter 4 -
One would like to say that the feud between vampires and dragons was as old as Time itself. But it was actually only started with the foundation of the Clans. Both of these majestic creatures fancied themselves as a bit of a leader, but there was a very big difference between how they saw the other supernatural beings.
The dragons had firmly believed that you can only be pure blood, if you were born to be a creature. Seeing that you can only become a vampire, they never thought themselves to be the same level as them. And if they were never on the same level, that meant the feud was even more uglier.
The vampires families were as old, as established and as rich as the dragons, and of course they never thought of themselves as anything less, just because they started their centuries-long life as humans. But that didn’t mean that they hadn’t picked up the gloves when it came to the war between the two sub Clans.
So when Jensen saw Jeff’s gold calling card, he knew that it was not an accident that the other man chose this particular day - a full moon - to visit.
---------========---------======
“Very well Albert, I’ll see Mr. Morgan. And can you send a note to the caretaker not to be seen around the house till my guest leaves?”
It was a statement of the household rather than the butler’s good upbringing, that Jensen didn’t even get a raised eyebrow for this strange request.
With a ‘certainly, sir’ the butler was already out of the door, and Jensen was on his feet. He tried to tell Christian the abbreviated story about Jeffrey Dean Morgan and their first meeting, and the following decades as quickly as possible, to bring him up to speed. Luckily even if Jeff knew about Steve - which Jensen very much doubted it - there was not any known problem between the dragons and the sirens. Because yes, the vampire was very much right again about who the mysterious Steve Carlson was.
Of course to be a born creature from a minor sub Clan and to be a very much human lover of that said creature is a different story. A human lover who happened to run away with the darling heir of a wealthy factory owner family was a bit of a scandal doesn’t matter which side - human, or creature - you look at it. So it’s better to trade here carefully. Especially if you add a werewolf to the mix on the eve of the full moon. Yes, what can go wrong?
The first thing that Jensen realised when Jeff walked in the room was that the other man changed a bit: dragons tend to age. He had a salt and pepper beard to go with his hair, and there were some more fine lines around his gold flecked eyes. And of course he was still as magnetic, when he first saw him on that shore.
Jeff was the type of man who commanded everyone’s attention when they walked in any room, and this time it was no different. Even Christian who was pretty much used to the supernatural, looked a bit dazzled for a couple of seconds.
“Hello Jensen, how is my itsy bitsy fly?” Was the first thing that Jeff said as soon the door was firmly shut behind the butler. Jensen realised that he left out the ‘vampire’ part, mindful of the other person in the room, so there was a good chance that he doesn’t know anything about Christian.
“I’d appreciate it if you would stop calling me on pet names.”
“Seeing that you had your own pet now? Or should I call him puppy?” The tiny cut wouldn’t mean anything for an outsider, but Jensen already knew that the warning to Jared was a waste of time.
“Jealous?”
“Of you, or of him?” When the only answer was a raised eyebrow, Jeff continued smoothly. “You know that I’ve never gotten over what we used to have...” And his voice was liquid gold.
“You meant that you’ve never gotten over that you lost something from your precious treasure.” Jensen fought truly hard not to be affected by that particular tone.
“And what’s the problem with being a treasure?”
“Nothing, if you are an inanimate object, or that’s all you want from a partner.”
This was an old merry go around between them. To tell the truth Jensen was very happy for a long time in that not so humble abode where Jeff led him that day. He was enchanted by the handsome, charismatic dragon, and very much impressed that despite of their species’ feud he still chose him. And his experience made a lot of night truly unforgettable.
It took a while to realised what was the problem with that perfect picture. He was sure that the other man really loved him, just how a dragon can love an especially rare and absolutely, perfectly beautiful object. He was just part of his amazing collection. The perfect masterpiece. And he couldn’t even hate his lover for it, because for him this was the height of pure love.
Their break up was ugly. And for years and years even if they attended the same Clan meetings, they never even acknowledged the other one. This only changed when Jeff got married. He found a perfect wife who thought the same way about treasure. An another dragon. Go figure.
But all of this still didn’t answer the question of what the other man was doing here right now. Which made Jensen pretty antsy.
“So to cut to the chase, what is the reason for today’s surprise visit?”
“Hmm, so no more pleasantries? It’s a shame. But if you really want to know. I came in official business… Actually in two businesses.” And with this he firmly planted himself in one of the ornate chairs. “My little fly it looks like you just attract all kinds of problems.”
----------=========--------------===========
Jared was just working on the north wing, trying to finish as much as he can before sundown, when he saw the cook’s son was running from the side door, shouting from afar.
“Jared!”
“What’s up Sammy? Did you eat something again, what you shouldn’t have?” Turned around for a minute, just for a boy to see that he was joking, and went back to work.
“No, it’s not about me. I have a message for you from the butler.” This made Jared stop his work and actually turn around to face Sammy. “He said that Lord Ackles has a visitor, and asked you to go to the kitchen till he leaves.”
“All right.” This was all that the other man could say to this strange statement. But a free invitation to the kitchen, was a free invitation to the kitchen, and since Jared became a werewolf his appetite was not how it was before… Actually it was even worse.
-------------------==========-----------============
“First thing first, it looks like sweetheart, you lost your manners.” Said Jeff with a smile on his face. “You still haven’t introduced me to your..., let me guess, your secretary.”
“Oh, I didn’t know you would stay that long, that warrants an introduction.” Came a quick reply. “But it looks like you made yourself comfortable here, so let me introduce you to my secretary, Mr Eliot Spencer. And here is my old acquaintance Sir Jeffrey Dean Morgan.”
Christian was there without missing a beat on the fake name, with a pleasant smile on his face to shake hands. But again the other man shot their little game in the foot.
“Mr Spencer? Nice to meet you. Maybe you can help me, seeing that you’re Jensen’s right hand man. As I mentioned earlier I’m here for business, looking for somebody… a Mr Lindsey McDonald.”
The secretary’s face was amazingly natural, given that was his earlier persona’s name, when he was working at the Carlson’s factory. He only turned around and went back to his table, leaving to Jensen to play the situation, however he saw fit.
“There is nobody in this household with that name, if I can recall, Jeff. But may I ask why are you looking for this gentleman?” The vampire was not the same young creature, which first set eyes on the older man years, and years ago. He was more cautious now. And he needed more information, fast.
“Actually, I came here to help him.”
“To help him? Just from the kindness of your... heart?”
“You know me better than that, sweetheart. I came here to help, and the gentleman can help me in return. Quid pro quo.”
“Yes, this is more like you. But sadly we don’t know anybody with that name around here.”
“And this lead me to my other business.” The dragon just followed up like he didn’t even hear the previous statement. “About your puppy.”
Jensen prided himself as a good card player, whose face would never betray his real feelings. Which was a handy skill with his business negotiations. Of course when it came to Jared it was hard to not take things at heart.
“If you refer to Mr Padalecki, you know he has a name.”
“Oh, yes. A pretty interesting one. Sadly it’s not really his in a sense, that he didn’t get it, more like he took it.”
Jensen had to think quick on his feet. There was something that the dragon wanted badly enough, enough, that he went to all this trouble to gather a lot of information about Jared, and possible Chris and Steve. The last problem was the easiest one. Jeff can’t touch the siren and he knew it. Even though Steve ran away, and caused this indiscretion, all he had to do is go home, say a half decent mea culpa, and he would be back in his parents’ good grace faster than you can say ‘favourite son’. He is a siren after all, travelling, and making humans do what they want is in their nature. Not that Steve would leave Chris, but that’s not part of the game right now.
This left only Jared and Chris. Both of them had a lot of angle to play from the dragon point of view. A human can even be killed without too much of a fuss, especially if they caused problems to the Clans. Which Chris obviously did.
A werewolf is very hard to get rid off normally, but not in this case. Jeff is an exceptionally influential dragon and Jared had no connections to really speak of in his own sub Clan. He met with a witch, who helped him with his fullmoon-chamber, and who became a good friend of his, but Jensen doesn’t know if just one witch, even if as powerful as Erica can really make a difference, if push comes to shove.
So all he had left was negotiation. And he was determined to have the upper hand.
-------========----------==========
When Christian stepped foot in the kitchen, he saw a very usual picture. The werewolf was there with that boy Sammy, both had an empty bowl in front of them, but they still tried to convince Jim Beaver, the cook, to give them something from tonight supper’s sweets.
As soon as Jared saw him, he tried to rope him in the scheme too. “Oh, hello Chris, I’m happy that you are here, can you help me convince Jim, that nobody will miss a couple of slices of cake, if he gives us now?”
The younger man’s only mistake was that there were only two men in the whole household, who can withhold his patented ‘puppy eye look’, and that two were here, now in the kitchen: the secretary and the cook. Even Jensen couldn’t say no, when his lover really put his mind to something, which thankfully most of the time consisted only food or sex.
“Jim even let him starve his own son.” Jared pointed at Sammy, because he never liked to give up something too easily.
“Look, I don’t think you’ll die of hunger if you skip this dessert now after…” and Chris looked at Mr Beaver for information, who simply put up two of his fingers exasperatedly. “two bowls of stew.”
“You are both mean!” Collapsed the younger man dramatically in his seat. Sammy was just laughing at the theatrics, and even his father’s mouth twitched suspiciously. Because everybody knew in the mansion that not soon after Jared turned up, alone, without anything to his name except that one nice set of cloth he was wearing on his first day, Jim took him under his wing. At first sight the old man was very rough around the edges, but under the gruff and puff he had a real heart of gold.
“If you finished your great role of Oliver Twist, you should come with me. Mr Ackles is waiting for you.” With this Christian turned around and stepped out in the Hall, to wait for the younger man there.
- Chapter 5 -
Jared found Jensen in his fullmoon-chamber in the cellar.
“You know, I had an interesting conversation with Chris on the way over here.” Started the werewolf in lieu of a greeting when he climbed in through the fake wall.
“And you mean interesting in the sense that he didn’t say anything about the visitor, that you were dying to know about, but you tried anyway.” Came the reply, when the vampire stood up from his inspection of the enchanted chains that was secured to the ground.
The younger man just used his “what you can do” face, which was not really different from his “I had too much sweets with supper, and despite my supernatural metabolism, this will hurt.” But seeing the pain the other will go through today, Jensen decided to take pity on him.
“It was Sir Morgan, a dangerous and influential creature; a gold dragon. He wanted something that I have. He had a lot of information that can cause a problem for you, Chris and Steve, and I rather value the three of you more than a simple object. End of story.” And with this he turned back to his earlier examination. It’s not that he didn’t trust Erica’s abilities, but he needed to do something that at least looked useful. He felt always so absolutely useless in the face of Jared’s inevitable suffering.
“No, no, no. If you think you can get away with not telling me any details, you’re dead wrong.”
“Jared, you should be getting ready, the sun will be down soon.”
“I know, perfectly well, when the sun is going down. I feel it in my bones.” Snapped at the vampire the younger man, which just showed that Jensen was right. He should be getting ready. “I’m sorry, I didn’t want to argue. I just…, I feel the pull, and this strange encounter is not helping.”
“I’m sorry too.” Said the vampire, while he finally abandoned the chains and faced the young werewolf who started to undress. “I knew that it was not a coincidence that Jeff choose this particular day. He wanted to have all the advantage. Which I suppose he had.”
“It looks like you knew him from before.”
“Yes, we used to be lovers.” And Jensen found some very interesting spot on the ground that just needed to be examined. Thoroughly.
But the other man didn’t let him hide like this. With one long step he was in his personal space, lifting his chin up, and putting a searing hot kiss on his cold lips.
“I am aware that you lived longer than me. And I have personal experience that you were not a virgin the first time we had sex. Very good experience to tell you the truth. Especially when you started riding me, beautifully naked and your mouth…” This was the moment the vampire decided to reciprocate the kiss from earlier. This was always a good method to stop the young man babbling about endlessly.
The only downside of this method was that you can’t use it in public, or if you had a time limit. Which sadly they had now. So after a couple minutes of fun, while the vampire was thoroughly enjoyed that the other man was already down to his underpants, he had to make them stop. Forcefully. The closer they got to the sunset, the more animalistic Jared became. For the werewolf, this was his mate, and he wanted to claim him for life.
“Ok, there’s no more time.” Jensen’s voice made Jared aware of his surroundings again. He quickly dropped his underwear too, seemingly unaware of the effect that the previous kisses had on his body. Within a minute he was in full, heavy chain securely fastened to different parts of the chamber.
Jensen closed the last handcuffs, gave a quick kiss on the younger man’s lips, and stepped back.
“Everything seems in order. And tomorrow we can finish what we started.” The vampire tried to put some levity in the situation, but even for his own ears it sounded forced.
“I’ll hold you to that. And I didn’t forget that you conveniently cut off our conversation about this old lover of yours, and what he wanted from you.”
“There’s not much to say, even tomorrow. He got what he came for, and he will not be bothering us again, I was made sure of that. That’s the most important thing.”
For Jensen, really was this simple. He was not evading the answer to spare Jared’s feelings. He never wanted to be a treasure, and never cared for one. Being cold on the outside, was not the same to be cold inside when it meant for the people around him. Jared wanted to say something more, but when he opened his mouth, all it came out was just a grunt. His transformation has begun.
The vampire stood there for a couple of minutes more, but when his lover’s grunts were morphed to cry of pain, he couldn’t stand it anymore. He left the chamber and closed the fake wall. He looked back only once on the top of the stairs, but there was no physical evidence of the horrible struggle that was going on between animal and man.
Tonight maybe the animal won, but the sunrise will bring back the man he loved and cherished, and then they have all the time in the world together.