for Tesla

[will_you_see]

Alcuin could feel the sword sliding into his flesh. Ah Elua, the pain! He thought at first that he was simply reliving his death again, but then he felt silk ropes knotted at his wrists. He was tied to a bed, and when he opened his eyes he saw Vitale Bouvarre pinning him down onto the mattress with the sword. He was naked and hard, his eyes

Comments

[thedevamper]

Unlike Alcuin, Nikola was having pleasant dreams. He was dreaming of a world bending to his will,of a glorious vampire race made in his image, of Helen and James challenging him and sharing his bed, of Alcuin and Kate seducing him. He dreamed of all the things he could invent and all the things he had written. It was a wonderful dream and it was why he wasn't best pleased at being rudely awoken.

"Alcuin," Nikola groaned, fingers tangled in Alcuin's hair as he shifted closer to the man. Realising the body pressed against his was shaking, Nikola opened his eyes and ran his hand down Alcuin's back smoothly and almost comforting. "Alcuin? It's alright, it was just a dream."

[will_you_see]

It likely said a great deal about Alcuin that as soon as his head was clear enough that he knew where he was and who was speaking to him, the first words out of hid mouth were, "I'm sorry..." He was still breathless with lingering fear, the image burning into his brain, and no matter how he tried to calm himself he could not seem for the moment to stop trembling. He didn't even realize that he was clutching the scar at his side as if it were a fresh wound.

[thedevamper]

“As you should be that was a rather pleasant dream,” Nikola murmured, though his voice didn’t sound as displeased as his words. Brushing Alcuin’s hair back from his face gently, Nikola tilted Alcuin’s chin up to look at him before he tugged him close. Noting the way he held his side, Nikola pressed his lips together. “You can make it up to me later for now you can tell me what this is all about. You’re shaking.”

[will_you_see]

Even when Nikola tilted his head up, Alcuin did not quite meet his eyes, and was relieved when he could bury his face against the crook of his shoulder instead. He had never clung to Nikola like this before, not sought comfort from him, even when he was upset after Daniel's disappearance. It simply wasn't the shape of their relationships. But at this moment he couldn't help it.

"Sometimes I have nightmares," he said softly, his voice almost a whisper. "With less frequency over the years. When I first arrived it was... worse." Nearly every night. Phedre had taken to sleeping in his bed for a while to calm him. Though then it had been even more memory than dream. Reliving his death over and over.

[thedevamper]

Nikola, for once, felt a little out of depth comforting Alcuin. Helen rarely turned to him for comfort when she needed it nor had any of the others in the past so it was a little odd comforting Alcuin now. And he was probably failing spectacularly at it, inventions and science he could do but people, not really.

"I had gathered that," Nikola replied, brushing his fingers through Alcuin's hair before he began to massage Alcuin's scalp. Nikola let out a soft breath as Alcuin buried his head against his shoulder and clung to him. "And now they've stared again. Do you want to tell me what they were about?"

[will_you_see]

Alcuin hesitated visibly. He lifted his head and looked at Nikola, at least no longer appearing as if he were on the verge of tears. He took a breath, and decided to simply tell the truth.

"My murder. Watching Anafiel die. The man who tried to kill me once before that."

[thedevamper]

"Your murder? And Anafiel's? Who was he?" Nikola asked, brow furrowing slightly as he looked at Alcuin. Nikola's hand went still against Alcuin's body as Nikola turned towards him. Nikola pushed back into a more inclined position, tugging Alcuin close to hi. "Start from the beginning."

[will_you_see]

Alcuin realized then how very little Nikola knew of his past. He had told him of Naamah's service, confessed to being a courtesan, but other than that...

"Anafiel Delaunay is the man in the painting," Alcuin said. And then... "You truly wish to know?" Sounding not so much surprised as sincere. He hadn't wished to burden Nikola; it was all so long ago, and hardly seemed to matter now.

Except, clearly it did. Because even now it haunted his dreams.

[thedevamper]

"I had wondered when you would tell me about him," Nikola murmured. He had thought of the painting before, dismissing it at the time in pursuit of other things but now, he considered the man in the painting. Anafiel. He must have been some man to attract Alcuin, Alcuin chose only the best like Nikola. "Of course I want to know. He was important to you clearly otherwise you wouldn't be waking in terror."

[will_you_see]

"Then I will start at the very beginning," Alcuin said, and took a breath, relaxing a bit into Nikola's embrace. It was easier to tell it as a story. All of it, even if so much of it had once been secrets, such secrets. Now... here... it was little more than a fairy tale

[thedevamper]

Nikola slid his fingers down Alcuin's spine, holding the man close as he listened to Alcuin's story. Nikola was not good at comforting others, he left that to Helen and her band of merry men but well, for all his snark and dismissal he did in fact like Alcuin. Not that he'd say much about that. It didn't pay to let anyone else know that he had feelings.

"And what exactly did you do in Anafiel's household?" Nikola murmured.

[will_you_see]

"I studied," Alcuin said after a moment. "I learned. Languages and history and geography and tumbling and dancing and music... and perhaps most importantly, the arts of covertcy. How to observe, how to listen, how to lie."

This was the part of the tale that always seemed to go badly when he imparted it here. No matter how he told it, he could not escape the implication that Delaunay had used him. And perhaps it was true

[thedevamper]

Nikola looked at Alcuin carefully, studying his face. It seemed like this Anafiel was a man after his own heart, using a long con to get exactly what he wanted. True, Nikola had never had the patience to use children but young men and women he could eventually evolve into vampires... yes.

"Of course you would," Nikola murmured understanding how subtle this Anafiel had been. And it certainly explained some of Alcuin's behaviour. "And then your learning of the arts was not academic was it? Someone taught you what you know now. Was it him?"

[will_you_see]

"It is remarkable how much one can learn academically," Alcuin said softly. "But, no, it wasn't him, not... for a long while."

He paused, and then said, "On my sixteenth birthday, my virgin price was auctioned. Anafiel had been... clever, cultivating an interest in me among the right people for years. The price I fetched..." He shook his head. "It was unheard of. And the man who won, his name was Vitale Bouvarre." There was suddenly more tension in his body. "He was not a very nice man. And he became obsessed with me."

[thedevamper]

"Yes but there are some things that have to be experienced," Nikola replied, tracing his hand up and down Alcuin's back. Fingertips tracing a pattern against his back, Nikola turned his head and listened to Alcuin attentively. Especially the part in cultivating an interest, the more Nikola heard the more Nikola... appreciated the man's work. "Is he the one you were dreaming of? This Bouvarre fellow."

[will_you_see]

Alcuin hesitated, and then nodded. "In part, yes. He..." He closed his eyes for a moment, wondering how Nikola was hearing this. Would he think Alcuin weak for allowing it to affect him after all this time?

"He tried to kill me. He contracted me time after time, and I accepted because he had a very important piece of information. Eventually I demanded the answer in addition to a high price - the remainder of the cost of my marque - in exchange for seeing him once more. He gave me both, and then sent someone after me. I was stabbed, nearly died - " The scar on his side. "And my bodyguard was killed. That was the last assignation I ever took. It wasn't until after that Anafiel found out how I'd hated it. And it wasn't until after I made my marque that I had the courage to seduce him."