Angel

19-Salvation

When the night crawled over four AM, Kylo found himself standing at the threshold of his door with Vincent running his hand over his dark hair. "One night soon," Kylo said, "I want to share it with you, all of it." Looking shyly at the lord, he added, "I want to be in your arms and in your bed."

Cupping Kylo's face, Vincent spoke softly. "As do I. You have no idea how badly. But first –"

"I must know your secrets," Kylo replied interrupting him.

"Yes. I would prefer it that way."

"Why, Vincent?" Kylo placed his hands on the lord's hips. "Why must we wait?"

"Because the last time I did not confess everything, my lover ended up dead. I will not lose you like I lost Esme."

"You never told me how she died."

A storm flickered over Vincent's pallid face and he visibly flinched. "She took her own life. I found her in the bathtub, her arms slit from elbow to wrist."

When Kylo blanched, Vincent pulled him into his arms. "She did not know everything and she gave her heart to me. Hold on to your heart until you are sure I am worthy of it."

"I know what you did," Kylo whispered, "That you killed."

"Angel," Vincent murmured into Kylo's hair. "You don't know how many times I have killed. I...I am unholy." Vincent pulled Kylo closer, not wanting to let go. "Tomorrow. I swear to you I will tell you everything there is to know. But now it is late. Morning comes all too quickly." Touching his lips to Kylo's crown, Vincent added, "Find me in the east sitting room after sunset. There will be a familiar face to usher you inside."

Kylo cocked his head in confusion.

"A guest. You will know who she is when you see her."

Before Kylo could utter a reply, Vincent pivoted and fled to his room, shutting and locking the door behind him.

When Kylo woke late, he found it strange that he had so easily turned night into day. Not that he minded. The night held a fragile silence the day could never manage. It was as though night was velvet and day was thorns. Kylo looked at the shadows waltzing on the walls. He could learn to love the strange change. Vincent was certainly a man of the night and Kylo was more than happy to share it with him. Solitude. Silence. Serenity. With the lack of cacophony coming from too many voices, and the hustle and bustle of day, Kylo reached for the shadows and felt at peace.

When he rose, he dressed in the finery Vincent had given him. Every stitch of clothing was magnificent. If it was something the lord has, Kylo thought, it is style. Slipping into a pair of dark blue linen trousers and a cream shirt that was made solely of lace, Kylo shook his hair until it fell over his shoulder.

The house held a hush. Kylo descended to the sitting room as Vincent had requested the night before. The paintings on the wall looked down at him as he moved across the length of the hall. Oily eyes followed him as he neared a shadowy figure standing by the door.

"Conde," bowed a woman. Her long hair curtained her face so that Kylo could not see her when he bid her good evening. "The lord is waiting."

When she rose, Kylo realized it was one of Marillia's ladies-in-waiting. Her face was as pale as death save a blush sweeping across her cheeks and a slash of red on her lips. As Kylo looked at her he felt a tingling sensation all over him.

"Your hair," he commented as he absentmindedly reached for the copper strands. "I had not seen it down before." Yet as Kylo spoke those words he was taken aback. Visions of a woman hovering over his bed, her hair swaying as if in water, rushed to him and nearly swept him off his feet. Realizing who she was, Kylo dropped the strands and staggered back.

The thrall gave him a smile. "I ask your forgiveness," she said hypnotically as she stepped towards him. "We just thought you were the most handsome man we had ever seen." Raising her hand to brush along Kylo's cheek, she allowed her lips to part and show off a pair of needle-fine fangs.

"It wasn't a dream?" Kylo cried softly.

"What is a dream? A wish? A hope? A fear?" The thrall slid her fingers down Kylo's arm then stepped back, giving him space.

"But you are one of Queen Marillia's..." Kylo went to say ladies-in-waiting but somehow he was unsure that title was correct.

"The lord will explain, Conde." The woman gave Kylo a deep bow. "Do not fear us. We will never come again without consent."

Opening the door of the sitting room for Kylo, the thrall gestured for him to enter.

Kylo found himself breathing hard, his heart pumping against his chest. He felt a faint fear tickle at his brain but he had also never felt so excited before. The women had been real, he thought as he stepped into a semi-darkness, I do not know where Vincent has brought me. I should be terrified but I ... I feel alive.

Parting a long, red velvet curtain obscuring his view from the rest of the room, Kylo stepped inside the belly of the sitting area and gasped. On a floor full of cushions, which were nestled among hundreds of candles, lay Marillia and Vincent with one of the women from Kylo's dream between them. The woman's shirt had been opened to indecent proportions. Her head was thrown back. Marillia had her face in the crook of the woman's neck while Vincent was biting upon a patch of skin above the woman's breast.

Kylo's eyes glazed over the feasting. The thrall's lips were part and a soft moan escaped them. Tiny drops of blood dotted her skin yet she didn't look to be in any pain.

When Vincent turned, his lips were crimson. The lord extended his hand to Kylo. "Do you find me unholy and unpure now, angel? Now that you see what I truly am, do you still want to stay?"

Kylo could not move. He felt as though he had turned into stone. The vision before him sunk under his skin and crawled into his brain. "You are..." he whispered as Marillia looked up, her lips stained vermillion.

"Say it, Conde," Marillia urged.

Rising as if a shadow from the fog, Vincent moved to Kylo and stood by him, yet not close enough to touch. "I am unholy."

"You are a vampire," Kylo whispered and Vincent nodded sadly.

The scent of blood reminded Kylo of the lord's wine rather than the step-family's death. He found it bitter, harsh, yet not unbearable or something to flee from anymore.

"It is what I have been for centuries, angel," Vincent said. "This house has been in my family for ages as I had stated but it was built upon my birth."

"You're old," Kylo said unmoving.

"I am very old."

"Vincent," Kylo paused as he caught sight of Marillia and the woman rising. Hand in hand they slipped out of the room to give the men their privacy. "You are who you are and when I said that I was in love, I was telling you the truth. What I see here...yes, it is..."

"Frightening?"

"It is what you are. You accepted me as I was. Poor, weak, a Cinder-boy with nothing, and saved me when you could have let your guards beat me and tossed me out into the streets."

Blood tears welled up in Vincent's eyes. "I needed to save you."

"And you did save me." Kylo erased the gap between them. He placed his hands on Vincent's waist and looked at him in all honesty. "You are my salvation and with you, I am finally home." 

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