PART FOUR -- UNDENIABLE
"It's been a while since I added to this Vampire story arc. A Boy Who... kind of took me away from it but rest assured Rayne and Kevan have not been forgotten. This is quite a difficult storyline to work with as it will tackle Rayne's own personal issues with abuse head on but he is an older and stronger character than he was during the period of A Boy Who... Kevan was created as an incidental character but as with the fictional persona of Ant, I'm becoming rather fond of him."
*
Rayne Wylde was pissed off and he was tired. Worse than that he was hungry. He had been alternately pacing his apartment and tossing restlessly on his bed for the past twenty-four hours with the taste of Kev Delaney's blood on his lips and in his mouth. Last night whilst Kev was fucking him in the car he had bitten the mortal out of sheer frustration with his behaviour. Now he wished he had taken the time to feed instead.
The Vampire had snatched a good mouthful from Kev's boss, McCall before they left him trussed up in the back of his car but it was not enough to take away the memory of Kev's rich, coppery blood and spunk. Rayne loved to suck cock. Next to bleeding a lover in the throes of orgasm it was the best rush in the world. A half-pint of semen was almost as nourishing as a blood feed and much easier to obtain in this day and age. That thought only served to remind him of how bone-gnawingly ravenous he was.
If Jabez were here he would have reminded his Fledge that it was important to feed regularly. Rayne knew it well enough by now. If he did not hunt and feed he only grew cranky and tired, then increasingly sluggish until it was almost too hard to rouse himself to the prospect of the chase. Cursing under his breath he hauled his body out of bed and into the shower.
The hot water stung his flesh until he began to feel warm and halfway alive again. After feeding and sex, a hot shower was the 'next' best thing in the world.
He was even able to laugh admonishingly at himself as he towelled his naked body dry and searched out some dark, neutral clothing that was discreet enough to hunt in. One of the most rewarding things about being in a relationship, he deliberated as he slipped out into the night, feeling the cool wind stir his damp, black hair, was that he always knew where the next meal was coming from. If he was feeling too lazy to hunt he knew that he could always fall back on Kev. His lover had never minded the sting of sharp little teeth in his neck, or wrist, or thigh as Rayne was rising and falling on his big cock or straddling his face on the bed or the lounge floor.
The Vampire stopped and frowned to himself as he reached the corner of Canal Street, deciding on a route for the evening. When had he started to think of Kev as a part of his life? How easily did the word 'relationship' slip into his mental vocabulary? This was just ridiculous! It had to stop. It was going to damned well stop. Tonight!
In the Union he ran into Dave, Kevan's partner. Dave had once posed as a bartender here when he and Kev were undercover, hunting a rogue Vamp who had been killing young men in the district. He had found the habit of slipping down to the pub for a beer and some gossip on his way home from the late shift a hard one to break.
"Hey Ray? Isn't Kev with you?" Dave asked, looking surprised to see him alone.
"We're not joined at the hip," the Vampire retaliated sharply. "Why would you think that?"
"Just that... he's been hanging out at your place a lot recently, and you guys were supposedly coming over to ours last night and you never showed and Kev wasn't in work today. I just figured that maybe..." Dave shrugged and did not finish the sentence.
'Shit!' Rayne had forgotten until now that they had indeed blown Dave and his boyfriend Bernard out thanks to Don Mac-fuckin'-Call and Kev's insistence on showing his boss a good time. He felt aggrieved. Dave was a good guy and it would have been polite at least to ring him last night and explain that they had been held up.
Then he felt angry because he was making excuses to humans again. Jabez would be laughing at him now, if he could see this. Some pathetic Vampire he was.
"I haven't seen him," he lied, waving down the tall, dark-haired bar tender and pointing to his usual; a stiff shot of Stolichnaya on the rocks.
"Didn't you have a date last night?" Dave frowned, puzzled by this.
"We did... I called it off." Rayne accepted the shot glass and knocked his vodka back in one, pushing the little vessel back across the counter for a refill. "I was busy."
"I bet he was gutted. He was really looking forward to seeing you." Dave took a good pull on his beer and set the glass down with a speculative look. "Are you guys a bit rocky?"
"Nope," Rayne threw down a second shot and pushed a fiver across the bar then rose to make a move. "Gotta go, Dave. Sorry about last night. We'll have to rearrange it some time."