Dark Side Of The Moon (16/19)
Title: Dark Side Of The Moon
Chapters: 16/19 ( Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 )
Authors: narya86 & tetila
Pairing: Daniel Agger/Fernando Torres
Rating: Overall NC-17.
Disclaimer: More fiction probably isn't possible. We just borrowed the names of certain people... ;)
Summary: The first demon had died under Fernando’s hands when he had been nine. Daniel had always tried to stay away from Hunters, for obvious reasons.
A/N: We decided to post the last few chapters of this unlocked again, at least for some time. Events are unfolding rapidly from this point. ;)
Chapter 16
What if the storm ends and I don’t see you
As you are now ever again
The perfect halo of gold hair and lightning
Sets you off against the planets’ last dance
Just for a minute the silver-forked sky
Lifts you up like a star that I will follow
But now it’s found us like I have a found you
I don’t wanna run, just overwhelm me
What if the storm ends and leaves us nothing
Except the memory, a distant echo
I want pinned down, I want unsettled
Rattle cage after cage until my blood boils
I wanna see you as you are now
Every single day that I am living
Painted in flames, a peeling thunder
Be the lightning in me that strikes relentless
~ Snow Patrol ~
***
Fernando sat in the big squashy armchair next to one of the large windows in Dan’s study, his left leg tucked under the other dangling off the chair while he ate Oreos right from the package. He was careful not to get too many crumbs scattered on the ground as the last ‘discussion’ he’d had with Dan had been about his eating habits and the food he apparently left all over the house.
A rustle of paper brought his attention back to Dan sitting at his desk, reading some papers. Fernando had been perfectly happy with watching Dan work, smiling when he looked over at him once in a while, and eating his cookies. He relished days like these, and sometimes it made him scared of the time when all this would stop. He wasn’t ready to give it up when he had only just found it.
“So… I read something yesterday,” he broke the comfortable silence around them, trying to ignore the part of him that was afraid of this conversation but too curious to just forget.
“Hm?” Dan gave an answering sound as he finished reading the passage he was at, but then he looked up and turned towards Fernando, giving him his full attention. Something else the Hunter had come to appreciate, that feeling that, whatever he had to say, it was important enough to be listened to.
“I was reading in one of Alejandro’s books, and they say there was this ritual for dark elves to turn -”
He wasn’t even able to finish his sentence before Dan interrupted him.
“Stop.”
The familiar green-brown eyes were scrutinising him piercingly, his face almost completely expressionless. But then he turned away, back to his documents, his voice calm but with a new edge to it.
“Don’t even go there.”
Fernando felt an angry flush spread on his face. What the hell was wrong with what he had said?
“What?”
“I said don’t go there,” Dan cut him off, voice not exactly raised but on the brink of it, head still bowed over his documents. “Don’t even think about it.”
“But I just wanted to…” he started again, and it seemed like he had finally ticked Dan off who turned angry eyes back on him.
“Fernando, no! I know where you’re going with this, but we’re not in some stupid romantic vampire chick flick! You have no idea what you’re talking about, and those who wrote those books didn’t either!”
“So it’s true?” Fernando asked stubbornly, not willing to back down just yet.
In a move that looked a lot like frustration Dan threw down his pen onto the desk and turned away again. “Just forget you ever heard about it.”
But Fernando didn’t want to forget it, he wanted the truth.
“Can you do it?”
“Fernando…”
“Don’t ‘Fernando’ me. Can you?”
His only answer was the soft rustle of paper. And it was all the answer Fernando actually needed.
“You can…”
“I don’t know. I never did and I never will. So stop it.”
“Why not?” he asked meekly, not wanting to annoy Dan any further whose tone had turned steely.
For a moment there was silence between them, and he watched how the dark-haired lowered his head. “Because humans are too weak and nine out of ten die during such a turning. Because it’s a cruel and selfish act of my people, and I won’t ever condone it, much less do it myself.”
Fernando worriedly chewed on his bottom lip and slowly put the cookie he still held in his hand back into the package. Suddenly he felt foolish for even asking, and he hated how sometimes, with only a few simple or to the point words, Dan could make him feel like an inexperienced little boy who had no idea how the world worked.
There was a sigh, and when Fernando looked up again he saw Dan collecting his papers and getting up from his seat.
“I need to go, meeting in an hour. I’ll see you tonight,” he said, calm having returned to his voice, and before Dan left the room he stopped by Fernando’s armchair, bent down and dropped a fleeting kiss on his temple.
The door softly clicked shut behind him, leaving Fernando alone with his thoughts.
So theoretically Dan could do it. But it really sounded dangerous, so maybe he was right when he flat out told him no. But there was a part in Fernando that screamed to ignore all the risks, that had made him speak up in the first place. Because where was the freaking difference? Didn’t Dan know he would die anyway? It was just a matter of when and how. It could be tonight by some random vampire if he was unlucky, or in three years. But it would happen. And then it wouldn’t matter, would it?
But did that mean then that in the end, Dan didn’t want to keep him at all?
***
Fernando was still pondering about their fight when he arrived at the headquarters later, still worrying and second guessing himself about Dan’s sharp reaction. He tried to tell himself he was just overreacting again and that Dan’s reluctance to talk about the ritual didn’t have anything to do with his affections for him but rather everything with the possible danger accompanying it.
The first thing he noticed when the elevator doors opened was the unusual quietness of the room, no animated conversations or familiar laughter in the air, and the only person in the room way Isabel sitting at her desk, back to him.
“Hey Isabel, where’s everyone?” Fernando asked, and his voice made her turn around instantly. Her face was curiously serious as she stood up and quickly crossed the distance between them, speaking in a low but insistent and hurried tone.
“Fernando, listen. They sent a Warden, he’s just talking to Tonio in the armoury, I’ve already called the others in. There’ve probably been rumours because you had this… phase, but you don’t have to worry about anything since you’re obviously just fine. Just act professionally and he’ll be on his way again in two or three days, okay?”
“A Warden?”
Shit. He had thought his little slip up had gone unnoticed in Rome. “But I’m fine,” Fernando replied quietly, looking worriedly towards the armoury.
“I know,” Isabel said softly, briefly touching his shoulder. “Like I said, just act like it and there’s nothing to worry about.”
There was everything to worry about, Fernando screamed inwardly. Dan, what about Dan? What if something like Randstad happened to them?
Fernando was saved trying to come up with an unsuspicious answer as a door opened and voices sounded down the hallway. They both turned around and the Hunter’s gaze fell upon Tonio who was accompanied by a man in a dark suit, middle-aged, brown hair that was already thinning, a slightly crooked nose, stern eyes.
“Ah, here we have our Hunter. Good to see you, Mister Torres. My name is Andrej Kalinin,” the man said and immediately came over to them, hand outstretched, in his voice a distinct accent.
“Mister Kalinin,” Fernando acknowledged the other man as he accepted the offered hand. It felt cold and clammy. “What brings you to Madrid?” he asked, proud of himself that he managed to keep his voice as neutral as possible. So far, so good.
“I’m sure Miss Tirado already informed you that I have been sent from the Council in Rome,” Kalinin said and Fernando nodded.
When the number of Hunters had slowly started to grow back around the time of the Nativity, a council had been founded in the by far most populated city in the world back then, the capital of the ancient world. They had started to organise the Hunters, to give them teams to back them up, to provide them with everything they needed, but also to have a watchful eye on them in case anything ever went wrong. Especially that last task fell to the Wardens.
“She did. And I can assure that I’m perfectly capable of doing my job. The Council has no need to worry,” he replied. His voice might have sounded a bit cold, but he didn’t like the Warden’s piercing, searching gaze, as if he was an insect under a microscope.
A thin smile appeared on the man’s lips. “This is purely a matter of a routine check up, Mister Torres. In the next few days I’ll simply have a look around these facilities, will talk for a while to you and your team members, have a look at your physical state and your training. Then I’ll be on my way again.”
“I see,” Fernando nodded slowly and smiled at the Warden, hoping it didn’t look as forced as it felt, but he doubted the Council had only sent the man here for a routine check up. They only came when they thought something was wrong with a Hunter. “Is there anything you need me to do before I go on patrol?”
“Not for today, no,” the man answered and folded his hands behind his back. “I will just have a look around here first once your other team members arrive. Tomorrow around midday I would like to talk to you for a while and observe your training in the afternoon.”
“Alright, I’ll see you tomorrow then,” Fernando acknowledged the man and waited for him to nod before catching Tonio’s gaze. “Let’s get me ready for patrol?”
“Sure, come on,” his friend said, glanced back and forth between them for just a moment, but then turned around to lead Fernando to the armoury.
When they arrived there Fernando’s thoughts were already going in circles. He really tired to focus on Tonio quietly reassuring him that they’d all say that everything was fine, but all he managed were some nods and affirmative ‘mhm’s in the right places.
Just two or three days, he told himself. Then he’d be gone again. It couldn’t be that difficult, could it?
***
Fernando was pretty tired when he unlocked the door to his apartment in the middle of the night after patrol. While he had been out hunting he had been distracted, irritated and tense all at once, and it had drained him, if he was honest with himself. Now he just wanted to go to sleep, forget about everything.
He startled when he saw the shape standing at the edge of his large living room windows, but then he punched the switch for the light and had an unhindered view on Dan who had turned away from the window towards him.
“Fuck, don’t do that,” he breathed out sharply, a light taste of adrenalin still tingling in his body as he threw his jacket on the couch. “You scared the crap out of me.”
“Sorry,” Dan answered quietly, hands tugged away in the back pockets of his jeans. “That wasn’t my intention.”
Fernando didn’t answer, only hummed lightly in reply before he closed the short distance between them in three long strides and pulled Dan into a hug, pushing his face in the other man’s neck, the familiar scent already calming him. Daniel’s arms came up slowly but immediately and were wrapped around his waist, the warmth of his hands radiating even through Fernando’s shirt.
“Are you mad?”
For a moment Fernando contemplated the question and found that, after all that had happened that day, he didn’t really feel mad anymore. Lightly irritated maybe, but not mad. “I’m just -” he shrugged, trying to find the right word, “confused. I guess.”
Dan sighed, his breath hot against Fernando’s neck. “I really need you to understand this.”
“All I know is that it feels like you don’t want me around for more than a few months.” Fernando had to laugh at his own words right then. “God and now I sound like a girl,” he mumbled.
The dark-haired drew back from Fernando, shaking his head. “That’s not what this is about. I swore to myself that I’d never do this because… it’s painful, and in the end people simply die. And maybe other dark elves are cold-hearted enough to watch that happen with the knowledge of having put them through it themselves, but… I’m not. And then there’s the fact that I’m only a half elf, and you’re a Hunter. I know that you don’t like to hear this, but you are, in fact, not completely human. Maybe I can’t do it after all, or maybe it’d go horribly wrong. You don’t even know what you’d become. Or you might have some reverse reaction to it and just die right away. Or who knows what could happen.”
“I’m going to die anyway, Dan,” Fernando interrupted him softly. “And it’s not a matter of decades, most likely not even of years. Months maybe, weeks. Days.”
He knew he sounded macabre here, but if there was anything he had learned from his years as a Hunter, it was that his life expectancy was pretty limited. Of course he was physically and mentally much more stable than he had been before, but that danger was always there. Always. And it was inevitable. Maybe it would simply happen already the next time he stumbled upon the Agurauk. Not that unlikely at all.
Dan let out his breath sharply and looked back at Fernando. He didn’t say anything for a few seconds even though the muscles of his jaws were working. And when he did, his voice was quiet and strained.
“I don’t want to be the one to kill you.”
“I’d rather have it be you than that thing,” Fernando returned, his chest tight, but Dan turned away, back towards the window. The silence was like a heavy, suffocating blanket that made it hard to breathe.
“I won’t change my opinion.”
And as tense as he had been all evening, in that moment, something in Fernando snapped. Because it stung, hurt like hell that Dan was seemingly capable of accepting a life without him just like that.
“So you say you love me but are willing to just let me die?”
Fernando’s voice was wavering between anger and distress as he watched the other man’s back for any reaction. And Dan didn’t turn around, so he had nothing else to go by as he received his answer.
“I did it before. I can do it again.”
Fernando swallowed around the lump in his throat, tried to think of anything he could say but couldn’t because he only heard his own blood pounding loudly in his ears.
“I think you should go now.”
He could see the tension in Dan’s back, but for a moment simply nothing happened and Fernando felt a sudden surge of flaming red anger rushing through him. He was so sick of this, just couldn’t deal with it right now on top of everything else. “I’m serious, Daniel. Get. The. Fuck. Out.”
The sharp words seemed to push Dan into movement and he turned and walked past Fernando, steps quick and gaze averted. And the door clicking shut left the apartment silent and Fernando alone.
He let out a breath he had been holding and it seemed strangely loud in the silence as he felt his eyes string but didn’t allow himself to cry. Not again. He needed to be stronger as this.
Fernando just stood there for a moment, breathed in and out, squeezed his eyes shut and then abruptly walked over into his bedroom and began to undress. Fuck this, fuck them all, was the thought that jumped around in his head, drained and numb when he crawled into his bed, the sheets pleasantly cool against his skin. The lingering scent that clung to them though, even when he pushed himself hard to ignore it, was the only thing that made him able to sleep at all.
***
“And when did those dreams stop?”
Fernando watched how Kalinin incessantly scribbled down notes but couldn’t make out what was written from across the table. It was hard to focus on anything else though when the Warden barely ever looked him in the eye, and when he did, it was so piercing that Fernando simply wanted to look away again.
“They didn’t,” he answered truthfully. He had guessed the truth, but without all the details, would be the best way to go here. “I still have them once in a while, but not as strong as before.”
The Warden made a soft, inexpressive sound and raised his eyes to catch Fernando’s gaze. “Did anything change that might have made them lose their intensity?”
I started to fool around with a dark elf.
For a moment Fernando imagined the facial expression of Kalinin if he would actually tell him the whole truth. Maybe he would shock the man into a stroke or something.
“I told a friend about them. I guess it helped somehow.”
“Who is that friend?” was the question that followed immediately, and the Warden started writing again.
“Nathan Shaw, the Hunter in Sydney.” After all it wasn’t that big a lie, he had told Nate about it after all.
“I see.” Kalinin nodded slowly, scribbling down more on his pad, the scratching for a moment the only sound in the room.
Fernando wished he knew what he was thinking.
“I gathered from my conversations with your team members that your mental and physical state improved significantly since then.”
Fernando nodded. “Yes, I felt better once I got enough sleep again.”
“When was the last time you encountered the creature?”
The funny thing was Fernando actually had to think about it before he remembered his breakdown in Dan’s arms and the morning when he had been so horrible to him after he had told him he loved him for the first time. So much had happened since then.
“Mr. Torres?” Kalinin interrupted his thoughts.
“It’s been two or three months, but we’re still getting regular reports about incidents involving it.”
The Warden nodded slowly and simply watched Fernando who tried not to squirm in his seat. He prayed for the moment this would be over.
“All things considered then,” Kalinin finally spoke on, and Fernando tried to breathe evenly. “Do you think you’re able to face the Agurauk?”
***
Training was an uncomfortable affair. Fernando and Tonio had executed their usual program while both of them tried to ignore the man watching them from the sidelines. He had felt like he was back being a Potential, always observed, graded and controlled. Never alone. It made him nervous and he was as glad when it was over as he had been when the interrogation had finally been over.
He had been able to breathe easier when he had left the headquarters, but only until he had stepped into his empty apartment. Daniel’s absence and the fight they’d had was permeating the air and instead of sitting down, watching some TV, eating dinner, Fernando wanted to curl up in his bed. That, though, only brought back memories of last night’s recurring nightmare that Dan hadn’t been there to soothe away.
And Fernando cursed himself for having brought up that ritual the day before - because he needed Dan, especially now. Wanted to forget this whole fight had ever taken place. But, hell, what Dan had said hurt.
After about five restless hours he had walked back into the headquarters to get ready for patrol. His whole team was there with the exception of Isabel and Juanita who’d had their shift in the morning, and the mood wasn’t as relaxed as usual. Maria upstairs had only greeted him with a timid smile, Gabriela, Felipe and Alejandro with not much more than a few brief words, and Doctor Luengo had nodded at him. Tonio was pretty silent as well when they were in the armoury together.
Fernando wished patrol was already over so he could just go home, eat something, try to find some sleep and maybe he would go to Dan’s house the next day when Kalinin was on his way to Rome again. Work things out.
“Do you need anything else?” Tonio eventually asked, drawing Fernando out of his thoughts. “Or is that all for tonight?”
“No, I’m all set,” he replied with a small smile as he pulled on his jacket over his vest and weapons.
“Do you want us to get anything to eat for you when you get back?”
Fernando chuckled, faintly comforted by the old familiar joke between them. “Chinese would be nice.”
Tonio smiled back at him, then raised his fist and nudged Fernando’s shoulder. “He’ll be in Rome again tomorrow and everything’s as it always was.”
“I know,” he replied as he playfully snipped at Tonio’s ear and ducked another light swipe from him, laughing as he opened the door. “I’ll see you later, and don’t forget the Chinese. I want some noodles.”
Tonio only shooed him out of the armoury, and Fernando grinned until he reached the main room with the large desk where Gabriela, Luengo and Kalinin were sitting. His smile dimmed a little and he nodded at the three of them.
“Alright, I’ll be off.”
“Good luck on your hunt,” Kalinin answered while Luengo nodded and Gabriela smiled.
“Thank you. Good night,” Fernando returned and turned towards the elevator, glad when the doors had closed behind him.
The night was windy and cooler than the usual dry hot summer air. Clouds had been piling up all evening, and now the sky in the distance lit up every now and then in short, bright flashes, thunder rolling like a low, distant growl. A respite from the heat that the whole city welcomed.
Fernando wandered aimlessly through the darker parts of the city centre, casting a glance towards the sky every now and then, hood already drawn over his head. After a few hours his round for the night was pretty much done and had been only mildly entertaining as everyone seemed to prefer staying at home in the face of the upcoming storm, and that obviously included the vampires. Two pretty ugly demons on one of the local cemeteries had been all the night had provided him with. Fernando was just wondering if it’d be worth taking a stroll through the club scene when another wave of thunder echoed over the city and the first, thick drop splashed onto his hand. So he buried them in his pockets, adjusted the hood on his head and decided that he could call it a day and make for the headquarters again.
The rain was getting heavier by the second, drenching his clothes right down to the skin, and by the sight and sound of it, the thunderstorm had reached the city. And if the streets hadn’t been relatively empty before, they certainly were now, Fernando thought as he hurried through the deserted darkness on his way back.
It was about four streets away from the headquarters when, over the loud rushing of the rain, his name was called.
Fernando stopped in his tracks and looked back over his shoulder, squinting against the falling rain and the water running down his face. He instantly recognized the figure jogging through the rain towards him, partly hidden by the shadows of the stone wall next to him.
“Dan.” He couldn’t help but let a small smile appear on his face even though a part of him remembered very much how their last encounter had hurt.
In the end he didn’t even really have the time to let that part of him build up anger again though, because as soon as Dan had reached him, he took Fernando’s face into his hands, drew back the drenched hood and his thumbs over his cheekbones to catch the drops as if they were tears.
“I was looking for you,” he said, barely loud enough to be heard over the rain, pausing for a short moment when thunder rolled up above. “I just… I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for what I said…”
Fernando could only shrug and helplessly lean into the touch. “Dan,” he began but paused again to search for the right words as he felt fingers treading lightly through his hair.
“Please don’t be mad at me,” the dark-haired mumbled before he could find any though and leaned his forehead against Fernando’s. “I sometimes feel like I’m losing perspective on… life. Or maybe I never really had it. I know I must have hurt you, and I’m so sorry. You’re the most important thing in my life, Fernando, I hope you know that, and if there was any easier way I’d do anything to keep you with me. We… we’ll figure this out somehow, just like we always do…”
It probably wasn’t the most rational reaction Fernando could have had in that situation, but when he closed the short distance between them and silenced him with a kiss, pulled Dan into him, closer, just closer, it was exactly what he wanted right then. He wanted that feeling of being safe that Dan never failed to give him, that feeling that no matter what, he’d fight for this, for them, he wanted that hand to hold him. He didn’t know how they could work this out because he wasn’t naïve, the problems they were facing were clear as day to him. But just to see that Dan really, honestly cared made him want to cling to him and bury himself in the familiar expanse of his arms until all those problems became obsolete, if only for just a moment.
So when Dan sighed into the kiss he took the opportunity to deepen it, to press closer into the warm body and hungrily search for that lust he knew Dan had for him.
He knew he had found it when he felt the hands on his hips tighten and a thigh slip between his legs, pressing up just right. “Dan -” His voice sounded rough and broken against Dan’s lips as his hips jerked against the contact, and he was hard in a matter of seconds. Fernando knew that it was simply his body looking for an outlet for the stress he had been under, worried because of the Warden, angry and anxious because of their fight, and simply to feel Dan’s warm body against his again now was such pure relief that his own reaction didn’t really surprise him.
Their kiss didn’t lose any of its heat or intensity, but eventually Dan tried to draw away. “No, don’t,” Fernando mumbled pleadingly, grabbling and pulling at the wet fabric of the jacket Dan was wearing. He didn’t want to stop. Not know.
“Fernando,” the dark-haired moaned softly as the Hunter pressed up against him, their lips finding each other again in a hungry, increasingly urgent kiss tasting faintly of rain. Above, thunder was cracking without either of them taking notice.
Fernando groaned at the slight friction between them, the anticipation tingling underneath his skin like a warm, prickling liquid as he tore at Dan’s jacket and shirt, untucking it with both his hands until he felt the other man gasp into his mouth when he finally found a way underneath it, caressing the smooth skin and the lean muscles under the surface, easily feeling Dan’s body shiver.
“What’re you doing?” the dark-haired asked without entirely breaking their kiss, their lips sliding together wet with rain, his hand warm on the back of Fernando’s neck. And even when the Hunter impatiently tore the jacket off and the shirt over his head, he still went back for another kiss without one heartbeat’s hesitation.
For a moment Fernando just melted into Dan’s arms and deepened their kiss before he dug his nails into Dan’s shoulders to pull himself back. “I want you,” he whispered, tilting his head to lick at Dan’s neck, catching the drops of rain with his tongue and closed his lips around Dan’s earlobe, tugging. “Now.”
A soft groan fell from Dan’s lips, but in the next moment Fernando felt hands on his waist whirling him around, his back connecting not too gently with the wall, and then Dan’s face right in front of him, blackened eyes. “You’re crazy,” was muttered against his lips, and yet just a moment later a hand was tugging at his belt. “Out here?”
Fernando felt a shiver of excitement trail down his spine and let his head fall back against the wall when Dan nipped and licked down his neck. “Yes,” he breathed, his voice breaking slightly in the end when Dan’s hand found his swollen flesh, sparks of pleasure rushing through his body.
The rain was surrounding them like a curtain, large and harsh drops prickling down on their heads and shoulders that Fernando, though, barely felt, a moan echoing softly between them as Dan flicked his thumb over the tip of Fernando’s aching length. He cursed when the hand vanished but was almost immediately turned around, his hands coming to rest on the rough wall he faced now, and among the quickened breathing next to his ear Dan’s hands swiftly pushed the waistband of his jeans down over the curve of his butt cheeks.
Fernando impatiently ground back against Dan’s crotch, seeking more attention, more contact as he craned his head back to met Dan’s lips in another open-mouthed kiss. “Dan,” he groaned out, wanton and needy, breath hitching as he felt two fingers sliding into him, the friction with just the rain water harsher than he was used to, but in no way even near uncomfortable enough for him to stop wanting this. Lips were nuzzling the back of his neck, a gentleness belying the almost impatiently scissoring fingers inside of him.
“Oh god,” Fernando panted, he almost wanted to come right there and then when Daniel’s fingers hit that spot inside him. “Come on Danny, hurry,” Fernando pleaded and was rewarded with a soft curse before the fingers were swiftly replaced. He moaned and squeezed his eyes shut when Dan breached his entrance, shuddered, the relaxation of his muscles to fit around him a familiar thing for Fernando by now. He felt the hand on his hip tightening and an almost experimental and yet barely controlled thrust into him.
Fernando groaned loudly, squirming and arching back to meet the small thrusts, to get Dan moving deeper and harder into him. All it took was one last hard push, and Dan was buried to the hilt inside him, he could feel every inch, and it still was a strange sensation but it definitively felt good. Connected.
Neither of them stilled to relish the feeling though, their movements too urgent, directed by their heavy arousal demanding to be fed, nurtured with deep, rhythmic, fast thrusts, fingers digging into skin and cloth, lips meeting for messy kisses.
Fernando reached down for his own cock and stroked it languidly, causing himself to moan throatily. “Dan, Dan I’m near,” he breathed out, rolling his hips up in synchrony to the other man’s movements, urging him on.
An arm was drawn around his waist, a warm hand coming to rest low on his stomach as the thrusts became even faster and more insistent, and he whimpered as the nerves shooting pleasure through his body were stroked with every movement. But when the barrier between them came down like a floodgate it was the last push both of them needed.
“Fuck!” Fernando yelled out and threw his head back, groaning loudly while his orgasm ripped through his body. Black spots dancing behind his eyes and his knees going week as he slowly collapsed back against Dan and half against the wall in front of him, the arm around him keeping him upright, and he felt Dan shuddering against him before the flow of energy between them died down and finally separated them again.
In that moment, while Fernando was still catching his breath, eyes closed, drinking in the wonderful afterglow, Dan froze behind him.
Confused he turned his head around to look at Dan over his shoulder, only to see him stare through the rain at a spot somewhere in the dark further down the street. “Dan, what - ?”
He didn’t have enough time to finish the question as in that moment, Dan tore away from him, movement so fast that it blurred with the rain, and in the blink of an eye he was flying down the street. Before Fernando knew what had happened, before he had even finished hurriedly closing his jeans again, stumbling after him with weak legs, he saw in the distance a black figure being pulled from the shadows, thrown to the ground, something clattering to the asphalt - and then he recognised the figure Dan was standing over.
Andrej Kalinin.
For one terrible second Fernando’s head was completely empty, and then it exploded with a flood of nauseating realisations. He couldn’t feel his legs but managed to take a few hurried steps in their direction when he saw, in horribly clichéd slow motion, Dan lean down and grab Kalinin’s head. Panic seeped into his bones, hitting him hard and fast.
“No, Dan, no!!”
His cry was almost drowned in the rushing torrent of the rain and the rolling of thunder overhead, but it made no difference either way.
The Warden’s neck broke with a soft crack.
***
I can hear my train coming
It’s a lonesome and distant cry
Now I’m running for my life
I can hear the wind blowing
Sending shivers down my spine
Shakes the trees and the power lines
I can see the sun setting
Casting shadows on the seas
It’s getting colder, it’s starting to freeze
I can hear my train coming
Looks like time is not on my side
I’m still running for my life
What makes a man pray
When he’s about to die?
I think I know
I think I might know
~ City & Colour ~
~ TBC in Chapter 17 ~