Personal Demon [Cassie]

[Dacian]

It was like resisting a compulsion. She may as well be hypnotising him with her offer. He did need blood, that much was obvious, but not from Cassie. It would be weakness to give in and bite her after resisting for so long. He could go without her help, but he won’t want to if she kept this up. He’d barely had a taste of her yesterday but his sensory memory (un)kindly reminded him of how good she tasted. He licked his lips, shaking his head the barest amount.

That pleading tone of her voice was destroying his resolve. How could he resist when she was offering her blood willingly? She was almost begging him to use her. No, she was worth something to him; he would use her on his terms and not hers. “Don’t.” He warned her not to continue, not to tempt him. Why did she have to say please? Why did she have to care? She wriggled under his skin and gradually drove him insane with her generosity.

Despite her willingness, it was impossible not to notice how her heart races, how she smelt mildly of fear. At least she had some common sense not to offer without being a little bit scared. Her offer was so tempting. He was pulling on her wrist slightly, subconsciously trying to bring her closer. She was overwhelming him. Even if he managed to make her leave, he would not rid his thoughts and senses of her for a long while. It wasn’t a surprise that he didn’t want her to go. “Don’t.” This time it was a soft plea for her not to go.

He wished he could see her, wished he wasn’t so damaged that he could feel her skin on his properly. Dacian wasn’t so naïve to think that he would never have drunk from her, but it would have been under better circumstances. He was slipping on this slippery slope and he could see no way to get out of it. She was here, close, offering her live-giving blood and he would succumb. He groaned quietly, giving in. The sound of her heart was too much to bare, the scent of her fear only making him salivate.

“No sudden movements. It’ll hurt for a moment, but I suppose you know that already.” He expelled a breath through his nose, lips tightening painfully. “Sit next to me, face the bed.” His hand squeezed a little on her wrist before he grudgingly let it go. He mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like ‘thank you’. He grumbled under his breath, impatient now.

[Cassie Vimes]

Cassie pouted as Dacian kept resisting. She was probably mad to be so willing to let a vampire bite her, but it seemed since he had already the previous evening all her apprehension about it was gone. He wouldn’t hurt her, he’d promised her that. Well when he bit her he would, the initial pain from the bite would be fleeting and a small price to pay to help him. The point was she trusted him not to drain her dry, not to cause any permanent damage.

He was tugging her closer, fingers tightening ever so slightly over her wrist, and that made Cassie think the second denial wasn’t nearly so certain. Dacian’s resolve was starting to falter and she gave a soft smile even as her heart rate ratcheted up another notch. It was one thing to offer, but another entirely for it to actually happen. She gave a little shiver, thoughts of his teeth breaking her skin, her blood gushing into his mouth filling her mind.

When he had bitten her before Cassie hadn’t had time to think about it. She hadn’t known it was coming and her memory of the actual event was hazy at best, this time the fear was very real, but she tried to squash it down, ignore it. It was too late to back out now, it would be too cruel to dangle the offer in front of him then snatch it away because she was having a bit of a freak out. ”Okay.” She said with a small nod, taking a few deep breaths to calm her nerves. It didn’t really work. At all. ”You’re the expert.”

As Dacian released her wrist Cassie scrambled to follow his instructions. She may have pushed him into this, but he was in charge now. Cassie might be foolish enough to let him bite her, but she wasn’t so stupid that she thought she knew better about how to go about it. Scooting over, she turned away from him and gathered her hair and twisting it to hang over the shoulder furthest from Dacian. Her hands were trembling so she folded them in her lap.

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[Dacian]

It was a good job really that Cassie was willing prey. Hunting himself right now was out of the question. The problem was that Cassie smelt like he had been stalking her for a mile. Part of her didn’t want to do this, but he was too far gone now to reject her offer. He was expecting her to bolt as soon as he released her wrist. Her movements were hard to decipher but she was not moving away. He clenched his teeth, silently willing that she would. He wouldn’t be able to catch her, she would be free.

He could hear her, still close. She must have sat because when he reached out for her, his fingers came into contact with her back. Tracing her spine upward, he found she had already moved her hair away from her neck. He swallowed quickly, almost lunging right then. He was going to have to wean her out of the habit of being kind to him, it only encouraged him. Dwelling as little as he could with his hand on her neck, aware that his skin was not exactly nice to the touch, he reached over her far shoulder to rest them lightly on her chin.

Feeding was usually a quick affair, snagging the prey and holding tightly so they couldn’t lurch and rip their skin while his teeth were embedded in it. here was a moment between the initial bite and the sedative kicking in where the victim was perfectly aware of what was happening and all they wanted to do was get away. Although Cassie was offering, he didn’t trust her instincts not to try and have her jerking away. His other hand pulled at the collar of her shirt and rested on her shoulder, his grip barely even noticeable.

Her heart was fluttering, her breathing irregular. She was scared, and he wasn’t helping by hesitating. Before she changed her mind, his grip tightened almost painfully on her jaw, forcing her head back against his shoulder and exposing the length of her throat. Dacian’s other hand tightened on her shoulder and ignoring the pain of the sudden movement, he struck low on her throat, careful to avoid any major blood vessels. His fangs pierced the skin with no effort and he braced for her flinch, keeping her still until he’d injected enough saliva to dull the pain.

Than, cautiously, he loosened his grip. He’d not given her enough sedative to make her completely unconscious. If she willed it, she would have been able to break free from him. Unable to completely let her go, his hands rested where they had taken hold before. Her blood was as delectable as before, and for once he savoured the taste, taking his time. The blood welled slowly here so it took a little while to fill his mouth for each swallow. That was probably best; it gave the sensation of having taken more. He could only take between one and two pints before the blood loss would start to affect her. As he didn’t usually kill his meals – instead letting them live for another day – he knew when he’d taken enough. It definitely wasn’t enough to sate him, but it curbed the hunger for now.

Grudgingly he disengaged his fangs, lapping over the twin puncture wounds to seal them. He needed much more blood before it would make any outward effect, but at least Cassie’s donation would stop him from crawling out in desperation to find someone. She needed to sit for a while, and considering her track record for listening to him, his hand at her chin slipped down to hold the waist of whatever she was wearing on her legs. He couldn’t tell if it was jeans or skirt from touch alone. He’d been about to curl his arm around her when he vainly decided against it. The less she saw of him the better, he couldn’t be a pretty sight. His mind flipped back to long ago when a great fire had raged through the capital. He’d seen burnt bodies then, and at least he could save Cassie’s eyes from seeing that if he kept her facing away from him.

The vampire sighed, closing his singed eyes and listening to the steady beat of Cassie’s heart. She’d be fine. He’d been making such a big deal of it, and for it now to be done with no apparent ill effects was almost an anticlimax. Hoping she hadn’t succumbed to the sedative, he whispered a quiet thanks and relaxed with the knowledge that he would at least survive this.

[Cassie Vimes]

Cassie’s eyes fluttered closed, trying to mentally prepare herself for the bite. She was so keyed in to expecting teeth on her neck that she flinched when she felt his fingers tracing lightly up her back. His fingers came to rest on her chin, his touch so light she could barely feel it and his other hand tugged gently at the collar of her shirt to pull it away from her neck. Her breath hitched, anticipation thrumming through her.

She had to fight every instinct to keep from struggling as Dacian pulled her head back, the tight grip he had on her bordering on painful and a world of difference from the light touch of his fingertips a second before. Then his mouth was on her throat, teeth slicing easily into her skin, and Cassie was forced to bite her lip to keep from crying out. She managed to temper it back to the smallest of whimpers, her eyes screwing tighter shut as pain plumed through her. She couldn’t move, his grip on her too tight to even try and wrench free of the bite.

One moment she could feel the sharp throb of pain and the next it seemed to fade, his grip loosening along with it. Cassie didn’t move, though she considered it for a moment, her head resting on his shoulder. She kept expecting to slip into the unconscious at any moment, as she had when he bit her before, but it never came. It gave her something to focus on though, and stopped her from thinking about her blood pooling into his mouth.

By the time Cassie realised it wasn’t going to happen he was pulling away from her and it was all over. She let out a shuddering breath, all of her limbs suddenly feeling far to heavy for her to work up the energy to move. Whether it was an effect of the sedative in his saliva or just from the blood loss she wasn’t sure, but either way she was far too comfortable leaning half against him and half against the wall. ”Well that was…” Her brain had moved right out of panic mode and slipped into sluggish, making it hard to think. ”Different.”

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[Dacian]

Dacian might have chuckled if his lungs permitted it. Instead he settled for a huff. Trust Cassie to find something to say on the matter. His fingers tightened a little on her waistband, making sure she wasn’t about to bolt. She seemed relaxed enough, though, and he was fairly sure she wouldn’t turn on his when her head cleared. She had offered, after all. But woman had a tendency to get irrationally annoyed about things.

The vampire lazily licked the blood from his teeth, content enough now to lounge and let the meal digest. The anxiety of being able to see Cassie was at least dulled by being able to taste her. Dacian relied heavily on his sight so not having it was weighing on him. He was safe enough here – theoretically – but he would not be leaving until he could at least see. Poor Cassie was stuck with him. That was the problem with feeding waifs and strays, they tended to hang around.

“Different? What exactly are you comparing it to?” He asked with a little less wheeze in his voice. “Do men bite you often?” He huffed through his nose again, his eyes closing as he leaned his head back on the door frame. “And last night didn’t count.” He clarified. It hadn’t really. He’d assumed she’d been some nameless stripper. Biting prey and biting Cassie were two completely different things.

[Cassie Vimes]

Cassie gave a contented sigh, snuggling a little closer to Dacian, her hand slipping behind her to brush over the fingers that were hooked over the waistband of her jeans. She wasn’t going anywhere, but she wasn’t going to discourage any contact either. It probably wasn’t normal to feel happy about losing a couple of pints of blood, but since meeting Dacian her definition of normal had become rather frayed at the edges.

The doorframe was digging into her shoulder blade in a way that wasn’t entirely comfortable, but the bed was so far away and Dacian was on this side of the room. ”Well,” Her lips quirked into a small smile. ”There was this one guy that had a thing about nibbling my ears…” Cassie trailed off, not feeling the need to elaborate further, especially not when she was busy putting all her efforts into stifling a huge yawn instead.

”But last night totally counted.” Accident or not Dacian had bitten her, the fact that she couldn’t really remember what happened didn’t need to be mentioned. She furrowed her brow, trying to coax back a few of the details, but gave up after a moment. Remembering could wait, she had sleep to catch up on and despite Dacian’s huffing they seemed to be getting on reasonably well. Maybe she was just too tired to get annoyed. Maybe tomorrow she’d try to go a whole day without fighting with him.

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[Dacian]

Dacian was glad he had enough nerve function in his hand to at least give him an impression of what he was touching. He kept a tight a grip as possible on her waist band, determined that she was not escaping. The brush of her fingers on his was a welcome contact, and he made a short humming sound in appreciation. So long as she didn’t try to touch any other part of him, he was happy for her to have his hand. He slowly shifted a few stiff fingers to loosely interlace with hers while keeping his hold on that waistband.

The man was hesitant to move, but he leaned his head a little closer to the back of hers so he could easily inhale her scent. With the fresh blood in his system, his body was starting to demand rest so it could begin to heal. He fought the need to sleep, focussing on her voice. His soft growl of jealousy was almost pretend at the mention of another man in close vicinity to her ears, and his breath briefly displaced the hair at the back of her neck. She was tempting, and the fact that he considered her his property was entirely not helping. With a resigned sigh, he leaned back on the doorframe, his fingers tightening a little on hers.

“Last night I made a mistake.” Those words passing over his tongue felt like ash, but that might just be the blackened skin peeling from his lips he could taste. “Besides,” he started with tired smile to his voice, “It’s mostly your fault for being there. You have a nose for trouble.” He huffed, falling quiet. Her heartbeat might be making him hungry, but her slow breathing was encouraging him to sleep. She needed to drink some fluids, but he hadn’t the energy to try and coax her to do so. She could be so stubborn.

[Rickie Connery]

Work, get yelled at, be jumpy and useless, bed, work, get yelled at, be jumpy and useless, bed, work, well you get the picture. That was what Rickie Connery’s routine had been since he’d started working at Scores. Silas was frequently having to yell at him because, as he’d found out, he was a terrible barkeep. The actual serving of the drinks he was fine with, it was just the talking and socialising bit he was having troubles with. That and every now and then his earplugs wouldn’t quite work and he’d find himself ‘taking cover’ under the bar without realising he’d done so.

He couldn’t have been happier when his shift had ended, it meant he could return to the relative safety of the Three Broomsticks, spend time with Muck and attempt to get a few minutes of sleep. As he trudged through the empty pub something nagged in his mind began to nag at him. There was something he was supposed to tell someone but he couldn’t for the life of him remember what it was. He knew it had something to do with the blonde Australian, Cassie, it was important and had to be said right away but that was it. He’d been forgetting things a lot lately, another reason Silas yelled at him for.

Outside his door Rickie fumbled with his keys in the dark, the candles having been extinguished long ago. As he tried to find his room key the man caught voices coming from Cassie’s room. Naturally curious he strained to listen but soon chastised himself for being so nosey. The girl’s business was her’s and that meant not his, they’d only ever seen each other in passing so it was definitely not his business.

Finally finding the right key, Rickie shuffled inside and shifted the bag with all of his belongings off his bed. Out of it fell a leather satchel bag with a red cross in a white circle printed on it. His Medic’s bag. Rickie had taken it and all its contents with him when he’d run away. The memories it held came flooding back in one almighty rush. The power of them washing over him made Rickie feel the need to lie down and gasp.

The only thing that pulled him out of the sea of memories was ironically another memory. He’d remembered what he needed to tell Cassie and by the sounds of it she was still awake. Instantly he was on his feet, out the door and at Cassie’s door. For some reason he was slightly nervous as he knocked on the door. Actually he really nervous, he always was when dealing with girls he found pretty.

[Cassie Vimes]

Cassie was supposed to be outraged. He was trying to make it her fault that he’d been skulking around trying to pick up a meal where she worked. Working up any sort of irritation at his total shirking of responsibility for his actions was lost under a wave of exhaustion. Her muttered retort, it had been a good one as well, one that would definitely have made him shut up once and for all, turned into a nonsensical mumble instead.

She squeezed back on his fingers, a sleepy sigh escaping her lips. Falling asleep here was definitely a bad idea, but it was also inevitable. Cassie let herself drift off and only startled awake at a knocking on her door. It felt like she’d barely slept at all. She checked her watch, squinting through the gloom to read the hands, and realised with a groan that it really had only been about five minutes. Who the hell wanted to talk to her at stupid o’clock in the morning?

Extracting herself from Dacian’s grip was a bit of a challenge and Cassie was tempted to just give up and ignore the noise until it went away. She stumbled clumsily in the direction of the door, her hand going to her head as it protested moving by throbbing with a headache that matched each beat of her heart. Her tongue felt dry and heavy in her mouth too. All in all she felt like crap, so her tolerance for uninvited guests in the early hours of the morning wasn’t exactly high.

Fumbling at the door she eventually got it open and peered blearily at the person on the other side. ”Rickie?” Cassie frowned, slouching against the doorframe and her hand slipping from her head to her neck, subconsciously covering the nonexistent evidence of the bite. Had Silas sent him here to spy on her? Perhaps he was going to get Rickie to finish what he’d started. ”What are you doing here?”

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[Dacian]

Sleep had taken a quick hold on the vampire, and only reluctantly released him when Cassie’s voice floated back to him. He woke slowly, jerking in panic when he found himself all but blind. The previous night floated back to him, and he wrinkled his aching face at the memory. The fact he was barely healed suggested he hadn’t been asleep long, and he should be getting back to sleep. But it seemed Cassie was talking to someone. A male someone.

A growl rumbled in the back of his throat and he struggled to his feet. Legs braced, he managed to prop himself against the wall and he glared toward the general direction of the door. The other man’s voice was unfamiliar, so he drew some quick breaths, holding back a hiss as his expanding ribcage stretched skin that was not ready to see movement. His scent was mildly familiar. Perhaps staff?

He struggled against the haze of sleep to hear what they were saying, and he hoped Cassie would soon get rid of the man. Despite his penchant for only female blood, he was hungry and any human was in danger of becoming his next meal. Cassie he could control himself with, but the man might not be so lucky if he came in range. It was a good job he could barely move; else he might be dragging the poor sod into the room and devouring him right now. The vampire swallowed his growl, but it was still present in his voice. “Cassie? Not now.” He grumbled, trying to ignore the thrum of heartbeats echoing in his head that drowned out whatever speech was passing between the two.