Chapter Text
Alucard bent and gently lifted the curled figure from the snow. Though by size but a girl, he quickly realized she was a grown woman, dark skinned and with beaded braids splayed across her face. She seemed uninjured, but her clothing was soaked, her skin cold to the touch and she wasn't shivering, which he knew was a bad sign. A normal man might've thought she was dead, but Alucard could just hear her slow heartbeat. He started to move at a pace no human could keep.
* * *
“Open the door or I'll break it down.” Atop the thunderous knocking it was not unexpected, and Richter's smile had a sardonic quirk as he obeyed the familiar voice, whip in the hand out of sight just in case the voice wasn’t attached to its proper owner. Alucard shouldered past him before the door was half open, and Richter's expression changed as he caught a glimpse of his icy, sodden armful.
"Who is that?" He stared at the small features as Alucard laid her out by the fire, light glinting off the wet beads in her black hair.
"I'm not sure. I found her in the snow, well outside the town.”
"Alucard..." Richter sought to catch gold eyes with his own, but they were focused on the task at hand. "Not that I mean to question an errand of mercy, but what made you. Uh. Alucard, what are you - Ahh!" Richter half turned his back, scandalized.
"I'm stripping her," came the impatient answer as Alucard flicked long pale hair over one shoulder. "These wet clothes will make it impossible for her to get warm, and the cold is killing her." Golden eyes gleamed briefly back at Richter as he tried not to look. "If your youthful nature can't bear what needs to be done in a gentlemanly manner, perhaps you should step outside. I'm not leaving something on her for your modesty's sake."
Richter flushed slightly, scowling. "Don't be ridiculous. I'm not that young." Nonetheless, he didn't come any closer, and Alucard didn't seem to expect him to, unwrapping the last of the woman's soaking garments and laying them on a wooden chair to dry. Richter loitered, watching. His eyes flickered as he tried to keep them away from anything incriminating, but the woman was so small it was difficult not to take in the forbidden with the innocent.
"Is this going to be a problem?" Alucard shook out a blanket he'd pulled from the cupboard, one eyebrow lifted. Richter couldn't decide if there was just a hint of sardonic curl to his lips or if that was a guilty conscience talking.
"I'm not going to forget myself, if that's what you're asking. But do we really have time for this?"
"You were planning on sleeping tonight, weren't you? One night should be enough time to get her warm again. If she still needs care after that we can leave her in town.” Alucard folded the blanket around the prone form and lifted her to the broad hearth, careful to sweep the mass of tiny braids behind her so that no beads were caught beneath her. He felt her cheek and forehead, then frowned and felt her neck and chest under the blanket, Richter looking away edgily. "If I can't feel a change in a few minutes, we'll have to try something else. Hmm, bring me another blanket."
Richter fetched the last blanket from the cupboard and handed it over her. Alucard used half of it to rub the cold moisture out of her braids and then the dry half to wrap around her head, leaving only her mouth and nose free. "That should keep her from losing much more heat."
"Alucard. You don't normally interfere in human lives - what made you step in to save her?"
For a long moment the other paused, eyes on the still form by the fire. "She looked like a child," he murmured. "But by the color of her skin, no child belonging to this town.”
"She's no child," Richter muttered, eyes flicking to the door to be sure he'd barred it again.
"I'm aware of that. But look at her! Where did she come from?"
"Some gypsy band, I would imagine." Richter shrugged, not much interested in the mystery.
Alucard snorted softly. "Her skin’s too dark for any Rom I've seen. Besides, why would they leave one of their people behind?"
For this Richter had no answer. Alucard stripped his cloak off and hung it by the door, then turned to frown at the hearth again. "If she's too cold to warm herself, you'll have to help me warm her in the bed."
Richter choked. "Warm her... how?"
Pale eyebrows arched in dry amusement. "You're really having difficulty with this, aren't you? And she's not even conscious. At the simple presence of a woman in the room, you're suddenly overheating."
"Alucard, that's hardly fair - she's naked!"
"I put a blanket around her," he pointed out reasonably. "It's not as if you can see anything."
"It's still indecent," Richter growled, staring fixedly at the wall.
"I don't see why. Certainly my intentions are entirely respectable. Is your blood too hot to maintain your courtesy or self control?"
At that Richter turned to hotly deny it, and saw the glint in heavy-lidded golden eyes, and his protest died on his tongue.
"You're right," Alucard said, sounding contrite as he stepped forward, though his eyes still gleamed, "I am being unfair. She is naked under that blanket. On the other hand," he said, stopping next to Richter and staring down at the shorter man, "so are you under those clothes. Should I allow that knowledge to make me – hasty? Would you appreciate the loss of my self-control?"
"You're always self-controlled," Richter said, meeting his gaze without blinking. "What's your point?"
"I note you didn't answer my question. Nonetheless, my point is this: could you retain your self-control right now if you were naked in bed beside her?"
Richter swallowed as unobtrusively as possible. "Do you think that's going to be necessary?"
Alucard turned and looked at the blanket-swathed form on the hearth. "I'm afraid it's likely. She hasn't started shivering yet, which means she's still dangerously cold."
Richter frowned and looked away in discomfort. "I don't know. She's very well shaped," he muttered.
"Well, if waking in a bed between two naked men is likely to jar her composure, I doubt it would allow her any more equanimity to find one of them in - a state of interest, shall we say."
Richter looked up to glare at him and found an unnervingly sharp smile on Alucard's face. Predatory, he might almost say.
"Now, what might we do to be sure this does not come to pass?" he mused, one pale hand rising to cup Richter's jaw as if absently.
Richter did his best to breathe normally, as if the thought of what Alucard seemed to suggest had no effect on him, but then he had to swallow because his mouth was watering and what was the point anyway, when the damphyre could hear his heart thundering? He was also trying not to think about "two naked men", because the thought of Alucard naked wasn't doing much for his own composure. It was likely to put him in a state of interest, in fact.
"Alucard," Richter did his best to keep his voice level and calm, perhaps with a hint of amusement, "have you been distracted by the knowledge that I'm naked under my clothes?"
"Not in the least." There was a brief pause while Richter began to feel uncertain, and then the hint of a smirk appeared again. "I'm using the fact to our best advantage."
"I see." Richter had to clear his throat. "Is that really a good idea?"
"Richter, are you being coy?" The fingertips on his cheek twitched and the thumb rubbed up and over his lips. Richter swallowed hard, grateful he'd at least avoided moaning.
"No I'm not being coy, I'm serious. Should we leave an unconscious woman on the hearth? What if she moves and that blanket goes in the fire? What if she tries to roll over?"
"Believe me, if she improves enough for that sort of movement, I'll hear her heartbeat elevate before she even starts to shiver, in plenty of time to prevent catastrophe."
"Oh. Well, I suppose she's not close enough to get burned. Still, if she's in as much danger as you say, can we afford to leave her there? I mean, shouldn't we be doing something now?"
"Exactly. We'd better hurry." Alucard's teeth gleamed very white as he planted both hands on Richter's chest and shoved. Yelping, the vampire hunter went over backwards, landing splayed across the bed several steps behind him.
"But what about the - Alucard, I'm serious!"
"Yes, but you're also stalling." On him in a single stride, the damphyre pinned him to the bed, one knee between his legs. "Do you really think I would put her life in danger, Richter? The fire will warm her enough to be safe for a little while. The truth is," he slid one cool hand under several layers of cloth to stroke warm skin, and Richter gasped, "right now my body against hers would help her not at all. If you help me raise my blood to human warmth, together we can save her." Alucard smiled slightly. "If you're willing, of course."
"You know, you could have just said that at the beginning," Richter said, attempting to wriggle farther away from that intrusive knee.
"Well, I wasn't expecting you to protest so much." Alucard began to draw Richter's arms out of the sleeves of his coat and Richter gave him a look.
"I can undress myself. Why don't you look to your own clothes?"
"Do I need to remove my own clothes?" Alucard tossed Richter's coat at a peg on the wall and to Richter's annoyance it caught and hung, swinging, while Alucard began undoing Richter's belt.
"How else did you intend to raise your body temperature, if not by pressing your skin against mine?"
Alucard paused what he was doing long enough to catch blue eyes with his, lips curving just a little.
Richter blushed and rolled his eyes. "Yes, I know what else, that's not what I – oh forget it," he growled, and stole his belt away from Alucard in time to finish pulling it off himself.
Alucard smiled and stepped off the bed to begin undressing. Richter muttered to himself as he pulled off his shirt and folded it, removed his boots and dropped them beside the bed. For the fiftieth time since their first meeting, he thought how strange it was that simply by his manner, Alucard could make him feel like a silly boy. It wasn't something that would occur to the damphyre to do on purpose, he knew, unlike the enjoyment Alucard took in putting him off balance. It was simply due to the confidence of the man's movements, the elegance of his language and behavior – and after hundreds of years perfecting those qualities, perhaps it was no wonder that in comparison Richter felt like a callow fool.
He unfastened his trousers and Alucard was suddenly there, all ivory skin over fluid muscle, peeling the pale blue cloth down his legs. Golden eyes held blue as he folded Richter's trousers and tossed them onto his other garments without looking. Naked and pinned by that steady gaze, it took an effort to relax, but Richter took a deep breath and lounged back on his elbows, one leg splayed across the bed, the other knee bent, foot planted. Meeting Alucard's eyes, he half closed his own and smiled.
Apparently the attempt to look seductive was successful, because before he could so much as twitch, Alucard's face was buried in his neck, sucking, breathing, nibbling - nowhere near hard enough to break the skin, he was faintly relieved to realize.
“That girl is not the only one who's well shaped," breathed the voice in his ear, "and you know it, don't you, Richter Belmont."
"I might," Richter said, "but I'd no idea you'd noticed. Can legendary damphyres still be affected by the human form?"
"You know perfectly well I can." A cool hand ran down his flank and Richter twitched at fingernails gliding just inside his hip.
"That's true. I did catch you staring at Maria the first time we met," Richter's voice became slightly strained as teeth nibbled their way up his ear, then gave out entirely when the fingertips roving about the tops of his thighs finally moved between them.
"I did not stare." Alucard's other hand rested on his chest, thumb rubbing over one pebbled nipple. "That would have been discourteous."
Richter was shivering, back slightly arched, lips parted. He was already hard under Alucard's hand, though it was barely touching him, and he wasn't sure how much longer he could pretend to be able to think. "True, you do try to be courteous,” he managed, grabbed Alucard's wrist and surged upright to flip him onto his back. By the time Alucard landed, however, he had captured both of Richter's wrists and was looking quizzical.
"That's dangerous, you know," he said mildly.
Richter rolled his eyes. "I'm a Belmont. I'm used to dangerous.” He ducked down to apply teeth and tongue to Alucard's collarbone, and after a moment Alucard forgot to hold on to his wrists. Grinning, Richter set to work. He knew Alucard wouldn't be content to lie still any more than he had been, so he moved from one pale nipple to the other until they flushed with human color, then licked one hand wet and slid it between ivory thighs. Beneath him, the long body tensed, and Richter's eyes widened. The flesh under his hand was rigid and twitched at his touch. His fingers rippled at the sensation. Alucard made a noise at the back of his throat.
The room whirled around Richter's head and he slammed down on his back again, Alucard's lips pressed to his, tongue flickering against his own. One long-fingered hand snaked between his legs and stroked firmly. Richter gasped, hips jerking up into the movement, and kissed fiercely back. Lying passively on his back like this made him edgy, but it was certainly convenient for this one part.
Ten breaths later he had stopped thinking it was convenient in the least. Alucard was teasing him, hand stroking the length of him once and again only to get distracted and lose the rhythm, fingers moving idly on his skin while he waited with clenched teeth for that firm touch again. Richter could feel sweat beading on his upper lip, on his chest and inner thighs, his fingers clutching the bed cover. His only comfort was that Alucard's pale cheeks were flushed as he bent over Richter, eyes glittering, and his breathing was rapid.
"You can't expect me to lie here if you're only going to tease me," Richter pointed out, hips shifting restlessly.
"You're right, although now that I'm forewarned you may find it difficult to move me." His smile was slow and very sharp. “I'm rather enjoying having a Belmont helpless at my hands."
Richter's brows pulled down and his body tensed. He knew the damphyre didn't mean it that way, but he did have a knack for saying unnerving things. Commenting on the scent of one's blood the first time he met one, for instance. Now there was a dead giveaway, if the gold eyes weren't enough.
"But you're right. Not to reward you for your cooperation would be unkind." His smile flashed again as Richter frowned suspiciously, and then his head bent low between Richter's legs and every thought left Richter's head as though fleeing for its life.
After several minutes of heat and wet and oh-God, slick flicking tongue and suction, he did manage one brief coherent thought. Driven by disbelief, it was "How does he know how to do that?" Richter had known women who did this for a living who couldn't manage to swallow the length of him, and Alucard, who had every grace of aristocracy, did it as though he'd learned the trick along with fencing, penmanship and turning into a bat.
At least it wasn't entirely effortless - he could hear Alucard panting when he pulled off for a moment, which was some comfort when Richter was shaking like a leaf. Fingers twined in wheat-pale hair, Richter reminded himself that a gentleman did not try to force himself back into someone's mouth when said someone's breathing might be impeded by so doing. Also, one had damn well better not choke a damphyre, or those fangs might just cause damage. Richter was almost as impressed as he was grateful that he hadn't yet had reason to notice those fangs.
Alucard glanced up the length of his body and Richter lost his train of thought at the heat in those bright, inhuman eyes.
"Don't worry, I haven't forgotten your reward." The deep voice was husky and a little hoarse, and Richter had to close his eyes to get his control back. Then his eyes snapped open and his spine arched as Alucard swallowed him again.
"Oh God," he said thickly. "Alucard – "
Sliding over him firm and smooth, holding the rhythm this time, speeding up, wet hands replaced his mouth when he had to pull back, and golden eyes lanced bright hot looks up at him. Richter shuddered, fingers twitching on smooth fine hair, and felt his control give out. Head going back, he cried out as he came.
Some minutes later he returned to himself to find Alucard thoughtfully licking his softening anatomy and jerked.
"I beg your pardon," Alucard said politely, "is that uncomfortable?"
"It's. I don't... nngh," Richter said.
“I see. Well, now that you have had your reward, I trust you will not object if I continue?"
"Continue...?" Richter asked dazedly, and then realized that the hard jut against his leg was not Alucard's knee. "Oh. Uh, yes. I can, uh – " and then he realized Alucard was holding up a vial of oil.
"If, of course, you agree?"
Richter flushed. He had been perfectly well aware of what Alucard was probably planning, but he didn't particularly like the feeling that his role had been taken for granted. Of course, if he agreed, which of course he would, was it? He wasn't some overawed village girl, dammit.
On the other hand, who could imagine pushing Dracula's son down on his back? Except for the return of a favor for a favor Richter'd been about to suggest, that oil and the sequence of events it implied was really the only possibility.
"Fine," he said shortly, and twitched as an oiled finger slipped between his legs with all the confidence of a predestined outcome. Irritated, he shifted up the bed out of reach of that hand, closing his legs to be sure. "Not like this," he snapped. "Let me roll over."
Alucard frowned slightly. "Are you sure, Richter Belmont?"
"Yes, I'm bloody sure." At least facing away from him on hands and knees meant Richter didn't have to meet those unnerving golden eyes. It wasn't a particularly dignified position, however, and after a few seconds of hesitation that felt like hours, Richter was grateful even for the teasing touches of slick fingertips against his skin to distract him from his own humiliation. Then two fingers drove inside him and he forgot all about it.
After God alone knew how long with oil and stroke and flex and lights bursting behind his eyes every other touch, Richter was shaking, sweat trickling down his thighs, will alone holding him on his elbows and knees. He nearly did collapse when Alucard finally stopped. One smooth slick sound from behind him and a soft sigh, then the murmur, "Ready?"
"If that's a jest," Richter groaned, "’s a bad one."
"No jest," came the amused voice in his ear as a long hard body – much warmer than it had been when they’d started this – settled over his, and then Alucard's hips flexed and they both groaned as he pushed in.
Richter's teeth clenched until they ached while he deliberately tried to relax everything else. Several thoroughly uncomfortable minutes later, it was even beginning to work, and then Alucard's second full stroke in hit that spot and Richter arched up against him, panting like a cat in heat. One pale arm wrapped around him, fingers seeking out his nipples while Richter quivered, reaching a shaking hand back to fasten on Alucard's hip.
"Alucard," he grated, "faster, go... "
"All in," slow pull out, "good time," long thrust in.
"Now is a damned good time," Richter growled, hands falling back to claw at the bed cover as his hips twisted hopefully.
His only reply was a breathless chuckle, and Richter quickly lost the ability to plead, words deserting him in favor of growls and whimpers and hips that shifted and ground back against too-slow thrusts. Pale hair fell in sheets down their sides and brushed over Richter’s shoulders when Alucard lowered his head, mingling with tousled brown and sticking to damp skin everywhere.
"Gods," Alucard hissed some timeless stretch later, deep voice rumbling against Richter's back. "You are so very fine, Richter."
Richter gasped for breath, flexing around him, and heard Alucard make a choked noise. His hips slammed forward, full into that place, and Richter groaned deep in his throat. Both arms came hard around him as Alucard quickened his pace, pulling Richter back against him harder, faster. Richter did his best, but the damphyre was stronger and didn't seem to need much help, and writhing seemed to be the most he could manage by this time anyway.
"Alucard," he moaned, twisting. "God..."
"Richter," the roughened voice said urgently, and one hand slid down his body, wrapped around him and stroked hard.
Richter yelled, bucked, whined high and desperate in his throat, and came like Dracula's castle falling. Still shuddering, he was just aware of Alucard stiffening over him, moaning roughly, hips jerking in stuttering rhythm before the warm wet pulse hit inside him and Alucard melted over his back, fingers digging into Richter's shoulders.
Gentlemanly to the last, he managed not to put so much weight on Richter that he collapsed, pulling off after a moment of panting to spread out beside him on the bed. After a few minutes Richter realized that that pleasant comfortable feeling was Alucard's fingers combing idly through his hair. Recalling the irritation of some time ago (twenty minutes? Two hours? How long ago had he held up that vial?) over Alucard’s assumption, he rolled over to say something appropriately sardonic.
The gold eyes that met his were strangely gentle, almost fond, and Alucard's lips were soft with pleasure. Richter's sharp tongue curled itself in his mouth and he swallowed.
"Richter Belmont, you are thoroughly extraordinary. That was... most pleasant. I trust you are equally satisfied?"
"I. Yes," Richter managed, then regaining his poise, added "I should be able to sleep beside the lady without causing alarm when she wakes, in any case."
"Ah. Yes."
"That was the main purpose of this little interlude, wasn't it?" Richter's eyes narrowed on the golden gaze as it flicked away, seeming almost amused.
"Of course," Alucard said blandly.
"Or should I not put it past a gentleman of your caliber to have used such a pretext to take advantage?"
"Advantage?" White-gold brows drew down. "After that delicate little courting dance we went through, you dare accuse me of false pretenses? I was plain enough with my desires, I should think. You were the one requiring a pretext, Richter Belmont. You Christians and your terrible fear of pleasure, though it harm no one."
"We Christians?" Richter stared at him. "I had thought... Are you not a Christian, Alucard?"
"Putting aside the obvious argument over whether a creature that can be burned by holy water can possibly be a Christian," Alucard said dryly, "I am, to an extent. Something gives a priest the power that blesses the water and makes it holy, so there is a God. I am neither an atheist nor agnostic. And I do not believe in any blue-skinned gods with more arms than a spider, so there is that. Yours has better taste." He cut off the disturbed chain of thought winding through Richter's head with a leisurely kiss, which not only stopped him wondering about blue-skinned gods with too many arms, but made him wonder why he’d cared about them in the first place.
Head spinning slightly in a pleasant way, Richter lay watching long ivory limbs unfold and stretch themselves upright beside the bed. In a few rapid strides Alucard knelt by the hearth, pulled the blanket from the woman's head and began to unwrap her from the other. Lifting the tiny shape in his arms, he bore her back to the bed where Richter hastily pulled the covers back and helped to lay her down. Then Alucard spread himself out beside her, and the two of them pressed her chilled body gently between them and pulled the covers over all.
"Do you think she'll be all right?" Richter said quietly.
"She's warmer than she was. I think she'll be well by morning." One strand of pale hair lay across a mass of narrow black braids as he spoke over her head. "If you wake with her curled against you, don't be surprised. My skin will likely have cooled long before then."
"Alucard... Were you saying you invented that pretext for my sake?"
"Strictly speaking, it was not purely an invention, as it is more helpful to her for me to be warm. But yes; with it, you could allow yourself to agree. Can you honestly say you would've assented without the excuse?"
A brief silence passed as Richter considered this. "Yes. I did before," he pointed out.
"Ah. Yes, but that was... rather in the midst of things. Not overmuch time for reflection, as I recall."
That was putting it mildly, Richter thought, and yawned involuntarily.
"Time to rest, I think. Sleep sound, Richter Belmont."
"Mm, and you. And next time, don't make excuses for me."
"And force you to bear the sin of fornicating with devil-spawn, with no saving grace? I think I have more mercy then that."
"You're not devil-spawn," Richter growled, uncomfortably trying to ignore the rest of it, which had in fact entered into his mind previously. "You're a brave and honorable man, and it's a privilege to fight beside you."
Alucard chuckled softly. "Go to sleep, Richter," and as Richter sank into sleep with suspicious rapidity, he felt long fingers gently carding through his hair.