Chapter Text
You can truly never rest on a bed pack exposed beneath the stars.
As lovely, poetic, and adventurous as the thought would sound to young ears, it leaves one uneasy in the night.
On a typical evening in such a beautiful open clearing, it’d leave a good adventurer nervous. But slept beneath two strangers, infested with the same monster triggering parasite as you-waiting your insides to boil and explode as you turn into something inhuman.
It had been awhile since you’ve gotten a good rest. You think to yourself how long it will be before it happens again.
Your thoughts filter in and out like this all night as you lie leaving and gaining consciousness.
On one momentary spell of wakefulness your eyes try to take in the treeline above you as you have been. A flash catches in your vision, your heart rate spikes, and before you know it your eyes are shooting open and looking to the side of you.
“...Shit.”
Now you can sense his presence.
His breath on your neck.
You can sense the fangs touching over the veins on your neck with the faintest pressure, and they move back as the owner realizes your consciousness.
Dark red eyes meet yours as you sit up and push yourself back.
You must have begun to react as Astarion shushes you quietly, backing up and lifting his arms to signal his retreat.
“What in the fuck do you think you’re doing?” You half-whisper, half-yell at him- last thing you need is to get Shadowheart and her good, saving nature involved in whatever is unfolding in your lap.
“It’s not what you think, I swear. I-I’m just… thirsty… is all.” He’s almost embarrassed as the words come from his mouth.
Looking at him bewildered, the dots finally all connect in your head.
The scorching, unnaturally bright red eyes, his pale complexion, and as his mouth moves to utter his last sentence his sharp canines are revealed to you once more.
“So you were just going to have me as your meal, just like that? How many lives have you taken this way?”
An array of emotions flash across his face.
“None! Not to feed off of at least...” His eyes flutter to the dirt beneath his foot, shame reaching across his features once again.
“I typically feed off of game… Bears, deer, boar… It’s enough to sustain me, but not when we’re fighting so frequently like this. I’m left feeling weak, unsatisfied.”
He looks back up to you.
“Please… All I need is a taste.”
Your heart beat makes its presence known throughout your entire body.
A stark lie it would be-to convince yourself you haven’t been eyeing him since the moment you stumbled upon him after wrecking the ship. His negative attitude repulsed you at times, his motives left you uneasy, and you could hardly believe a man so snooty would be capable of surviving without his high class comforts out here.
Yet when your eyes scanned your party, you made sure his eyes are the ones you glance at last.
When setting up for camp in the evening, there wasn’t an excuse that couldn’t be made in order to be the pack next to his.
Most ashamedly, you knew days ago how you desired for him. Desired for any reason to be close in his proximity.
You start to recall daydreaming about such a thing during your bath last night. Crimson flames flush your cheeks and you cast the memory away before the details flood back.
All the while, these thoughts run through your head, he waits.
Patiently.
Expectantly.
You know he is not a fool to his charms.
No way he hasn’t used such looks to his advantage to allow him to get himself this far. He knows you will give in. Perhaps it’s why he chose you in the first place.
You do indeed give in.
“O-Okay… But we can’t do it here, not with Shadowheart sleeping next to us.” Shadowheart breathes quietly asleep next to the both of you, but it is only slight of a miracle this fact remains.
He perks up, then smiles as if cheekily celebrating the sweetest success all by himself.
“Why, of course, darling. Your wish is my command.”
He lifts himself off the ground quietly, and lifts his hand to help you to your feet. You take the hand offered to you quietly snapping up, and try to hurry off to the treeline before your missing presence is noticed.
You are unsure if the truth would be better than what could only be assumed if you both were found missing.
“Don’t get too cocky, you owe me. Big time.”
He laughs, not letting go of your hand to guide you through the trees, a distance only short enough to not alert your sleeping companion.
Your heart races, embarrassingly reminding you of the excitement going through your body, walking through the dark with this handsome man.
For a flash it seems too soon to do such a thing, as if there’s a reasonable amount of time before traversing the forest to have a vampire feed off your blood is okay. Surely more foolish things have been done to get close to people you desire.
“Are you ready, Darling?”
Your attention snaps back to him, his head now angling towards you, and you let your back rest against a nearby tree as you settle to face him.
You nod.
“As ready as I’ll ever be…”
He reaches a hand onto your waist, and you tell yourself it’s only to steady your body. His other hand moves the collar of your shirt down, with a tenderness not allowing you to remember you’re a victim here.
Blood pulses and thunders in your veins. If even you could notice the intensity of it, it had to be painfully obvious to his senses.
His breath falls onto your neck, causing you to tense up in anticipation. The hand on your waist grips and a tongue flits out to your skin, testing… Tasting.
Goosebumps make their presence known on your neck and arms.
As your brain continues to get lost in the excitement of being close, you’re brought back when you hear the sharp teeth piercing. The sound registers a few moments before the pain flushes through your neck.
The sensation of blood leaving you is subtle compared to the ache from being bitten.
Sweat beads at your forehead. You bite your lip and almost let yourself groan quietly, but the thought is interjected.
“Mmghhf…”
Your body flashes hot in shock at the moan coming from Astarion as the blood reaches his throat beneath you.
It isn’t long before your flush back into chills as the sucking on your neck leaves you gasping. Bark embeds in your hair as your head falls onto the tree behind you, squirming, unsure if in pleasure or pain.
A minute could have gone by, or perhaps it was hours. You would not have cared either way, as it seems throwing self preservation away in the name of pleasure seems reasonable to you. At some point the suction on your neck breaks, and you feel a release of pressure as Astarion moves back.
He sighs in satisfaction.
You notice his hands gripped tightly, almost supernaturally strong, at your struggling hands at your side. Later you will notice crescent moons where your nails stung your palms in your struggle.
He notices too, and lets go.
Now, the leg fitting plush between yours, pushing up into you, moves away slower as his eyes meet yours.
He smiles a cat-like grin, drips of your blood falling from the corners of his mouth, and you notice the fangs adorning his mouth clearer than ever.
“Well, a thanks is owed. Though it seems it may have been pleasurable for not only myself.”
His words are highlighted with sarcasm, you both knew it was meant to be a joke, but his eyes meet yours in a way that leaves you believing it could be said with truth.
He’s not a fool after all.
Moving your mouth to reply to him, noticing how your tongue feels swollen and dry in your mouth you nod to him wordlessly, signaling your end to the interaction.
His smile falls, uncertain how to take the lack of reaction. Perhaps it could be chalked up to shock, but one couldn’t be certain.
“I’ll leave you to collect yourself then, do be careful not to get lost out here.”
The smile returns as he saunters off into the dark.
The forest ground welcomes you, your back scooching all the way down the tree allowing you to sit against it. There’s no way your shaking legs would make it back right now.
Hands reflexively reach up to touch the wound pulsing on your neck. It’s ache will be a constant, stinging reminder of what just happened. A swipe of blood is left on your fingers, causing you to grimace and wipe the blood onto the moss beneath you with shaking hands.
So many memories flash through your mind at one time, as you process what just happened.
The hand gripping your waist.
A hand sweeping under your shirt to push it away.
The tongue sweeping a quick entrance onto the vein on your neck.
The leg between yours.
The thought of going back to your pack, rolling away from his sleeping figure makes the ache in your gut hammer even harder.
Gods, it was going to be a long night.
You make your way back to the trio of bed rolls around the fire. It crackles lowly, you can tell it was attended to upon Astarion’s return.
Your eyes purposefully land everywhere except his figure, layered in shadows and light from the flickers of the flame. You do not think you are brave enough to lay your eyes on him, lest you see he is still awake.
The morning comes sooner than expected, and you can’t thank whatever is responsible enough. The moments flopping like a fish, trying to rest your unstable heart was enough to mimic a lifetime of suffering.
Your mind never left the thought of him.
Red eyes. Sharp teeth beneath a plush, chaotic grin that left the most hollow ache in your chest. The beautiful, white curls that framed his face and ears, as perfect and heavenly as an angel.
With every pump of your blood, the marks he left ached. It was sick how it made you feel. Used, in the most delicious way. You ached for more, and being used as mere food-as prey, had your heart fluttering in your chest.
How sick and twisted. It somehow made you want to kick your heels up like a teen girl in love. So long as it led to you being close to him, it seemed you wouldn’t mind what you suffered.
He must have been able to tell your thoughts were circling around him, as he joined you sitting across the campfire as you packed up to leave camp for the day.
“Hello there, Darling, mind if I join you?”
You continue to take inventory of your belongings, giving him a shrug of acknowledgement. As if acting casual would save you from being as far deep in as you are now.
“I suppose I do deserve such indifference… how are you feeling?”
Was he worried about you?
“I’ve been worse.” It wasn’t a lie.
“I’m sure… I was hoping I didn’t scare you too much.”
It’s impossible to not let the chuckle fall from your mouth.
“I suppose not, then.”
Your pack hits the ground with a thud, and you look up to him.
“No, I’m not scared of you. But not all are as compassionate as I…” you look over to Shadowheart packing her things a few yards away from the two of you.
“I’ll consider myself fortunate, then. Perhaps even fortunate enough for another taste?”
It feels like he’s read you like an open book. It’s as if he just knew you were already anticipating being used by him again. It wasn’t perhaps the healthiest dynamic you felt building, but your desperation to be close to him left you unwilling to care.
“Perhaps.”
He smiles coyly.
“I’ll be looking forward to it then… No more surprise midnight visits, that's for certain at least."
A scoff, like a laugh, leaves your throat. Not at him, though he certainly may think it is, but at the fact when he said that you felt disappointed. You truly have hopelessly fallen for him already.