Love Bites. [Daci/Cassie]

Dacian had been waking up after sunset for the last week. It was somewhat disorientating as usually he woke up a good few hours before. His body clock was getting out of sync, and he was late leaving the Three Broomsticks. Various staff gave him nods of recognition as he passed but he ignored them resolutely. When people you didn’t know started to recognise you, you had been on one place for far too long.

The Three Broomsticks was not a comfortable place to be, but the presence of Cassie made it that much more bearable. Cassie could probably make anywhere bearable. He could of stayed elsewhere, but staying with Cassie had a detrimental affect on his mood. Segregated from Vivian by a boy not much older than her would have had him in fits of fury by now, but Cassie had a calming influence on him. He woke each evening, pleased for once that there was someone nearby to talk to. He would never admit it, but eternity was lonely.

He woke that evening as usual, expecting Cassie to be bustling around. He’d opened his eyes with a start when he’d realised he couldn’t hear her familiar heartbeat. She had been gone once before, shopping in the village. She had returned shortly after sunset, so he wasn’t too concerned now. After a brief visit to the bathroom to wash his hair in the sink, he towel-dried it and tied it back in a plait. Cassie was still not back, so he sat down on the only chair in the place and practiced moving his fingers.

They had started to regain some mobility the night before and he was impatient to be able to use the arm. The rest of it was still charred and blistered, but the redness was fading and the cross-shaped scar, now charring to black, was not quite as painful. After a few painful minutes, he had been able to move the index and middle fingers a centimetre. Not exactly a full recovery, but they were getting there. Another week and he might be able to hold something. Preferably Cassie.

Impatient to see her now but acutely aware that he also needed to visit Vivian, the vampire stood and donned his hat, tucking the plait up under it and carefully shrugged on his leather duster. He had all his effects back from Edward, including the long sword with leaned in the corner of the room. He left it there, finding it difficult to manage the dexterity it would take to loop it on his belt.

The walk to the Hogs Head in the icy slush had him in a ferocious mood by the time he reached the back door. Cassie had not been in town. Her scent, a few hours old, had escorted him all the way to Edward’s pub. She was here. She had returned to Edward. Permanently or not, the jealousy welling up was murderous. With restraint, he knocked on the door in soft repetitions. Vivian needed feeding, but then he was finding somewhere else to sleep. It had been idiocy to fraternise with the mortal. He should have realised her fickle nature would have her back in Edward’s bed before he could recover enough to make good on that promise.

Just one more week. Couldn’t she keep her legs crossed until then?

He had thought Cassie different than that. He had thought her care and affection had been something real, something worth expending effort to maintain. He should have known, should have seen it coming. Why else would she build his hopes up? To watch them crumble. Cassie and Edward’s sadistic idea of fun no doubt. Dacian resisted the urge to punch the wall in frustration. What was taking Vivian so long?

It was unfair of him to jump to conclusions. Cassie was not like Edward, she was not bedding every man in the vicinity. Albeit he had been keeping her busy for the last week, and she had been with Edward before that, but he had smelt at least one woman on Edward in the last week. As much as he wanted to blame it on her, he knew she wasn’t so heartless. Whatever reason she had for coming back to Edward, it was more than likely his own failures that had driven her away. Edward was someone familiar, not some night-dwelling, soulless, immoral blood-drinker that had almost died in front of her and sequentially tried to eat her and then bed her. He wasn’t exactly the most stable of company.

Vivian finally opened the door and he could take a reprieve from the turmoil of emotions. “No.” He replied, hushed and harsh. “I’ve told you before, you have to learn.” He grumbled at the sight of the lollypop but made no effort to deprive her of it. Until he had succumbed to the flavoursome smell of it and tried one himself, he had tried to take the things away from her. They did in fact taste quite nice, and they curbed her hunger when he wasn’t there to feed her. Of course he hadn’t admitted to Vivian of trying one of the sweets, bur Cassie had caught him with one and found it ‘adorable’. He’d grumbled at that but had finished it anyway, promptly dragging her to the bed afterward to show her just how adorable he was. Another round of anything they could get away with without removing any clothes ensued. The removal of clothes always made it infinitely harder to stop.

Dacian growled and put his good hand between Vivian’s shoulder blades, impatiently propelling her at a brisk walk down toward the village centre. One of these nights he was going to get his way and Vivian would learn to feed properly. Tonight seemed as good a time as any. From the ridged set of all his muscles except the ones he was using for walking, he wasn’t going to take much resistance tonight.

Dacian spun a little too fast due to the ice underfoot with a ludicrous expression on his face. “What’s wrong?” He stalked back a few paces, coming to stand beside Vivian. “Oh come now, Cassie, I know you’re not really this vacuous.” He leered, his jaw stiff with tension. “You know exactly what is wrong so please just turn around and go back to him.” The vampire responded with a sneer.

He covered his inner turmoil well. All he could think about was how he and Cassie would smell after being together like that. How their scents would linger on each other’s skin as if they had laid claim to each other. Edward had claimed Cassie, and Dacian had lost yet another fight. The trend was not sitting well with the vampire, and he covered his dismay with a harsh and biting exterior. It was a wonder the man hadn’t snapped anf gone after Edward already. A sneaking suspicion he was quick to stamp down on suggested that he didn’t kill Edward because of Cassie.

Just looking as Cassie so imploring and utterly clueless, Dacian wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry. “Now if you don’t mind, Vivian and I are busy. I’m sure you and Edward can find something enjoyable to do. Just go with the first thing that comes to mind. Nothing new there.”