We Don't Die

Chapter title: Carpe Jugulum

Rating: NC-17

Musical Inspiration: Bring Me To Life by Evanescence, A Minor Variation by Billy Joel.







Present day, 2007



Call it a little vain, but Mac waited until Danny had left the building before the vampire himself clocked out. He didn’t bother with public transportation but stepped onto the roof of the crime lab and flung himself over the side, sailing over the cars and buses and taxis below, hopping from rooftop to rooftop, going home. Mac’s apartment was a penthouse in name only, just because it was so big and because it was on the top floor of his building. The sky was starting to near ‘false dawn’ when Mac landed lightly on the balcony of his apartment, unlocked the door, and slipped inside.



Call it a little more than vain, but Mac took a shower and put on fresh, casual clothing. Jeans, sneakers, a t-shirt, an old black leather jacket… nothing special. Mac wasn’t about to dress up for this, although when he thought about it he snorted. Mac wore casual clothing about as often as anyone else dressed fancy.



If Danny was going to see this side of him, then Danny was going to see something that he wouldn’t automatically associate with Mac at work.



Finally he stood in front of the mirror and ran a comb through his hair yet again. Flack’s comment earlier that night was still bothering him, and Mac glanced irritably at the creases in his face. As long as he kept feeding, he didn’t age… but since it had been seven years since his last ‘meal,’ he was aging faster than a regular human.



He didn’t want to think about it. He stuck the comb in his pocket and made his way back to the balcony. All right, he was going to do this. He balled up his fists and took a deep breath, trying not to think of all he’d been ‘accomplishing’ all those years by controlling himself. And then he forced those thoughts out of his mind.



And then he opened his window and stepped out onto the balcony.



All the old memories came rushing back to him and he stood for a moment, feeling the night breeze ruffle his hair, listening to the sounds of the city, scenting the wind that brought with it the smells of cars and industry and people… and blood.



Instantly his mind focused. He had a target: Danny. He poised and fired his underused thigh muscles and found himself sailing over the six-lane road fifteen stories beneath him, landing a bit heavily on the roof on the other side. Odd, he used to be able to make that jump no problem and land without a sound. He supposed that it was the lack of a proper diet.



As he made his way almost halfway across the city, he found himself beginning to tire out. Dammit, he was out of shape, and the ‘rancid coffee’ he’d been living off of hadn’t helped any.



He tried not to think about what he was doing: going to feed, to fuck his subordinate. It didn’t matter who Danny was, really, because he’d given Mac something that only one other person in his life had given him: consent. And Mac could ignore that even less easily than he could ignore the scent of Danny’s pheromones earlier.



He’d been given consent before, of course, when he’d approached potential hosts and they’d agreed to rent a room with him. This was different, though. Danny wanted him.



It was a full-blown compulsion as strong as a regular human’s need to eat and sleep and breathe. Somehow, somewhere, written deep in Mac’s vampiric subconscious was some sort of ironclad rule: Danny wanted him. Mac had to go to him. It was that simple.







It had taken him nearly half an hour, but Mac was now standing in Danny’s bedroom.



Danny was naked.



He was lying facedown on his bed, his face snuggled into the pillows, and the single blanket on him covered one side of his hips and all but just a hint of curve to Danny’s ass, and Mac found it more than tantalizing. He took the time to catch his breath—which was ironic considering that he didn’t breathe, but his legs were tired—and just admire the swell of Danny’s ass peeking out from under the blanket.



When he’d calmed down, he toed off his shoes and crept across the room, making no more sound than a wasp walking on a windowpane. He stopped at the foot of Danny’s bed and ever so gently pulled the blanket down.



He fought to restrain a groan. Danny’s ass was perfect. It was small, with just the right amount of curve, and very soft and smooth looking, and Mac restrained the urge to grab two handfuls.



He tore his eyes from the ass and let his eyes rove over the rest of the figure. He’d always known that Danny was a good-looking man, but framed as he was by the blankets and with that serene smile on his face, he was… beautiful.



Mac couldn’t take it anymore and silently pulled off his jacket and t-shirt and socks and jeans and shorts and slid onto the bed, somehow able to do so without even rocking the mattress. Mac never thought too hard about how he was able to do that, as though if he thought hard enough and couldn’t figure out how it worked, then he wouldn’t be able to do it anymore. A random thought flew into his head, and Mac smiled at the memory. He’d been reading the Garfield comic strip one time and Garfield had decided that he was going to try walking on two legs. He’d tried it and actually been doing fine until Jon had come up to him and said something along the lines of ‘hey, cats can’t do that.’ And Garfield had instantly fallen flat on his face and muttered ‘now he tells me.’



The humor was forced out of his head as Mac yanked his mind back to the present. He was on all fours with his fists on either side of Danny’s chest and his knees spread to straddle Danny’s hips. He bent down low, drinking in the scents… blood, sweat, shampoo, a little cologne, and sex pheromones. It seemed an odd combination until he remembered the little ‘incubus bait’ Danny had planted. Danny had masturbated into a washcloth and left it on the windowsill, along with a few drops of blood. Honestly, the man was lucky that another incubus or succubus hadn’t shown up… or three.



He found himself drawn to the scent of Danny’s hair and then to the skin just underneath his jaw. He could see the carotid artery pulsing calmly in the dim light, and he licked his lips. He could feel his cock swelling, itching for that tight ass. He could feel his fangs sliding out, itching for that hot blood.



Now… how did he want to do this? Did he want a quick snack first, to gather his strength? Did he want to start with the sex, to ease Danny into the whole ‘blood doll’ thing? Or did he just want to ‘go for it’ and hope Danny wouldn’t hate him?



Danny shouldn’t hate him. The Italian had invited him over, after all. So to speak.



The sex pheromones decided the battle, and Mac decided to go for it. He crawled carefully backwards until he could lower his head to the cleft of Danny’s ass, letting the musk of a recently aroused male overwhelm his senses. Tentatively he slipped his tongue out of his mouth, hovering it just above the tiny wrinkled pucker between those perfect ass cheeks as though unwilling to break himself of his long streak of celibacy, of breaking the professional barrier between himself and Danny.



Danny stirred in his sleep and Mac froze, and the shifting of the Italian’s body brought that wonderful little hole straight to Mac’s tongue.



Instinct took over and Mac used the body contact to establish the dim, flickering link between himself and his sleeping host, weaving the spell that would keep Danny asleep… for now. He felt it take hold and felt Danny slide deeper into oblivion, and Mac smiled to himself. I’ve still got it.



He let his tongue explore around the tight ring of muscle, slicking it up so he could press a hesitant finger against it and then press gently inside. To feel that hot silk wrapped around his finger made Mac give a choked groan and he gave into temptation and pressed his lips to one nearby asscheek, letting himself taste the smooth warm flesh as he pumped his finger in and out, eventually remembering to add a second. Mac was ‘gifted’ for a man even when his cock wasn’t swelled with blood, not too long but really quite thick, and he didn’t want to rush. God, he wanted to enjoy this. It had been so long… Mac caressed Danny’s ass with his lips as he sent a third finger to join the first two, pumping and scissoring and twisting the thick digits.



Finally he couldn’t take it anymore, and he removed his fingers and quested within himself for that little-used gland at the back of his throat, triggered it, and sucked a tiny glob of his self-made lubricant into his mouth. Carefully he applied it to the stretched entrance with his tongue, coating the hot flesh to avoid harm. Danny was about to get the ride of his life and Mac didn’t want to injure him.



Mac sat up on his heels and spat another glob into his hand, slicking up his cock. He positioned himself at Danny’s entrance and then rested a fist next to Danny’s chest, his other hand aiming, his nose once again searching for that wonderful pulsing vein in Danny’s neck. He found it and pressed gentle lips against it, and let his fangs slide out.



His hesitation and his excitement cost him his hold on the ‘sleeping spell,’ and Danny felt the pinpricks and woke up. “What the…”



Mac stiffened. And then he made his decision and bit down gently, piercing the skin and puncturing the jugular, and he felt Danny swoon under him as that hot, wonderful blood began trickling into Mac’s mouth, and Mac’s hips decided to join in the fun as Mac’s cock began sliding slowly in, and Danny shuddered and moaned.



The muscle relaxants in his saliva and the ‘lube gland’ still functioned just fine after their seven-year vacation and Mac had no problems slowly burying himself to the hilt, and he gave an animal growl of arousal and just rested in that incredible tight heat, letting Danny’s heart pump blood into his mouth one trickle at a time.



Mac’s first thought was to wonder how in the hell he could’ve ever given this up.



Mac’s second thought was how absolutely perfect Danny’s body was, even though Mac wasn’t even moving.



Mac’s third thought was derailed as the fresh, hot blood began coursing through his system, making a quick pass through his stomach before going straight to his cock. The incubus-strain was funny that way; the penis actually functioned as some sort of lewd ‘storage tank’ that could be processed later, once Mac was asleep.



Danny moaned and writhed underneath him as Mac’s cock began to slowly swell even larger, and the vampire closed his eyes and began pulling out and thrusting in slowly. He wanted this to last. Oh God he wanted this to last. He never, ever wanted this to stop. It had been so long, too fucking long…



In no time Danny’s groans began to turn painful, and Mac understood the problem. Danny was getting what was probably the hardest erection of his life and he was laying flat on his stomach. Mac snaked a muscular arm under the slim stomach and hauled him to all fours, and Danny’s head hung limply; Mac ended up having to hold his torso off the bed. He carefully maneuvered the Italian to get his knees under him so Mac wouldn’t be bending his spine at an awkward angle. It gave him a better angle for thrust, anyway, and Mac’s pace began to increase as his cock continued to swell, each beat of Danny’s heart making Mac’s length that much thicker, that much longer.



Mac could taste a change in the blood, could taste and smell Danny’s first orgasm coming even though his dick wasn’t getting any stimulation, and Mac bucked his hips harder and then Danny quivered and howled and came, his cock so hard that his come actually hit Mac’s arm where it braced Danny’s chest.



The peristaltic contractions were absolute ecstasy, but Mac was far from finished. He kept going, kept thrusting and kept drinking, and soon Danny was coming again. It was, God it was perfect. Danny was so hot, so tight, so willing and his mind swirled with the pleasure that fed Mac, sustained him, gave him life even as Danny’s body gave him that blessed delicious tang of copper in his mouth. The blood, Jesus. It was ambrosia.



Mac was really pounding him now, his entire being concentrating on fighting back the urge to suck, to drain Danny dry. He continued to let the blood seep into his mouth even as he pounded the human with a dick that had to be at least ten inches long and two-and-a-half inches across. Danny was screaming now, screaming with pure and unadulterated pleasure as his cock throbbed and released a third ivory streak.



Mac decided that his host had had enough and pulled one long, sweet mouthful of blood out of Danny’s neck and then he snarled and came hard, shaking and bucking and growling as he shot about a tablespoon of Danny’s blood into the Italian’s guts. As they both froze there, Danny panting and sweating and Mac breathing hard through his nose even though he didn’t need to, Danny’s arms lost their strength and Mac’s arm was the only thing keeping Danny from face-planting into the pillow. Mac was loath to stop drinking, but he had to. Relentlessly he pushed back the vampire instinct and pulled his fangs out and licked the wound closed. Gently he pulled out, oblivious to the whispered “no” from Danny. He held the Italian up in a kneeling position as he hunkered down and craned his neck. He pulled blood from himself and into his tongue, lengthening it and inserting it into the warm silken glove that he’d so recently vacated, cleaning the last bits of himself from Danny’s insides.



Considering how weak the Italian was, Mac was glad he’d chosen to drink from the jugular vein and not the carotid artery. Drinking from the carotid was dangerous for Danny because it robbed his body of oxygenated blood on its way to the brain. The jugular was filled with deoxygenated blood, and that was safer for Mac to drink. There was a marked difference in the taste but at the moment Mac couldn’t care less. Hot fresh blood coursed through his system and here he was pulling his tongue out of his host and gently arranging the human to a position on his stomach much like the one he’d been in when Mac had arrived.



Mac drew the covers over him and Danny tried to look at him but it was impossible; exhaustion and blood loss had made his eyes and his head so heavy… he looked weakly in Mac’s direction and managed a tiny smile before he passed out.







The next morning



Danny Messer woke up feeling tired, but fine. It was late in the afternoon and he could see the sunlight streaming through the cracks in the closed blinds… and why was his bed so warm? He turned to look beside him.



And there was Mac, lying naked next to him, as still as a stone.



That scared him; Mac was in his bed and he wasn’t breathing. Memories flooded back to him of what they’d done last night, of what Mac had done to him and how mind-blowing and incredible it had been, and he touched fingers to his neck. There wasn’t a scratch.



Mac was lying there naked on his back and on top of the blankets and absolutely motionless and with tiny streaks of sunlight crossing his face and chest, and Danny’s first thought was that Mac had died of sun exposure somehow. After turning to the side to snatch his glasses off the nightstand and pull them on, he reached out a hand to shake the vampire awake and he was surprised to feel that the flesh beneath his fingertips was still warm. “Mac?”



Mac stirred but still didn’t breathe, and Danny’s brows furrowed. Didn’t Mac need oxygen, too? “Mac,” he tried again, shaking the shoulder.



Mac’s head lolled and his normal-sized tongue flicked over his lips, and finally he took a deep breath and opened his eyes, seeing Danny’s worried face over him.



“Good, you’re… dammit, Mac, I thought ya were dead or somethin’.”



Mac gave a sleepy smile. “Forgot to mention, I don’t breathe. I still do it anyway just to keep from making people nervous and so I can still smell things, but I don’t have to.”



Danny blinked at that. Mac closed his eyes and yawned, his fangs briefly stretching out before retracting again.



This wasn’t the Mac Taylor that Danny knew, the Mac that was uptight and always quiet and efficient and focused and so stiff and formal. This Mac Taylor lounged on his bed like a well-fed housecat, looking at him through heavy and satisfied eyes. “I want to thank you, Danny,” the vampire whispered. “I feel like… I know it sounds corny, but I feel like a brand-new man.”



He also looked about fifteen years younger, now that the Italian’s eyes had adjusted to the gentle sunlight. The crow’s feet in the corners of his eyes, the stress lines on his forehead, the creases around his mouth had disappeared. He still had the circles under his eyes—those were hereditary, actually. Danny looked elsewhere and scratched the back of his neck. If Mac had been attractive before, he was dead sexy now. “No problem.”



And then Danny became aware that he was still touching Mac’s shoulder as the vampire reached slowly for his hand, rubbing the fingers gently with his thumb. “Can I ask you for something?” Mac murmured.



Danny cocked his head. “What’s up?”



Mac gave a smile that was a little embarrassed, something Danny had never seen on his face before. “I was wondering if I could get a little breakfast in bed.”



Danny flushed, something that definitely perked Mac’s interest. “I… I guess.”



Mac smiled again and started to lean up, but immediately flopped back when one of the bars of sunlight made contact with his eyes. He cursed quietly and draped an arm over his face. “Another thing I forgot to mention, a little sun won’t kill me but I sunburn like nothing you’ve ever seen. It’s not burning too badly right now but that’s just because I fed last night.”



“I’ll take care of it,” Danny told him, hopping out of bed. Mac immediately growled and burrowed completely under the covers, an act Danny found to be strangely endearing as he padded into the bathroom. He paused long enough to answer nature’s call before grabbing two large bath towels and heading back into the bedroom, laying them over the blinds as best he could. There were a few gaps, of course, but they were in odd corners of the room.



Danny was examining his handiwork when he felt two large hands encircle his waist and a pair of soft lips against his shoulder. “Thank you,” Mac murmured again. Danny hadn’t even heard him move.



Danny pressed back into the firm chest behind him, letting his head fall back as the lips slowly moved toward his neck. He heard Mac inhale deeply, drinking in the scent as he laid almost hesitant kisses over the jugular vein. Then one of Mac’s broad hands left Danny’s waist to cup his chin gently, and Danny trembled as the lips pressed firmly to his neck, and he felt the two pinpricks that turned into a gentle burst of pain, and then he moaned.



Danny wasn’t even aware that they’d moved, but then Mac pulled back and licked gently at the wound to close it, and Danny realized that he was on his back on his bed again. Danny’s head popped up as Mac just lay there and looked at him. “That ain’t all, is it?” the Italian asked in a tone that he hoped didn’t sound too needy.



Mac chuckled. “I was just checking your blood pressure. I don’t want to take too much.”



“Blood pressure, right.” Danny found himself grinning as he casually reached over to tweak one of Mac’s nipples. “That what they’re callin’ it nowadays?”



Mac shrugged and moved closer to him. “I’m a little behind on the terminology.” And then he rolled partly on top of the Italian and pressed gentle lips to Danny’s mouth, just to taste him, just to get the show moving. Danny gave a soft sigh and opened his mouth, sucking a little until Mac slipped his tongue out and gave Danny something to play with. Still somewhat propped on his elbow, Mac’s free hand wasn’t idle and roamed slowly down Danny’s chest, allowing himself to go slow and enjoy the body that he’d been so eager to fuck that morning. Danny moaned softly when Mac rubbed the pad of his thumb over one of Danny’s nipples.



And then Mac moved so that his lips were sliding down Danny’s neck, and the vampire seemed to take great pleasure in licking that salty-sweet flesh for the longest time. “Just a quick snack,” Mac murmured huskily, as though to remind himself to keep on task. “I’d hate to drain you completely.” He looked up at Danny.



Danny swallowed and looked into Mac’s eyes for the first time since that morning, and he was transfixed by all the colors he saw there… he’d never seen those colors before. They were beautiful. He wanted to tell Mac that, but he couldn’t find the urge to talk or to move.



Mac lay propped on his elbow and his upper hand started at Danny’s lightly furred pectorals, slid down the smooth hairless plane of his belly, and found the small tangle of dark-blond hair below his navel. Danny’s mouth fell open and he gasped, but he made no other reaction as Mac’s hand wrapped around his cock.



Suddenly the hand disappeared and Mac brought it to his mouth, spitting on it before sending it back to Danny’s roaring erection.



Danny could still blink, but those colors filled and dominated his field of vision… and suddenly Mac closed his eyes for a moment and the spell was broken. Danny rapidly blinked drying eyes. “Mac, the hell was that?”



Mac sighed. “Basically, it does the same thing as shining headlights on a deer. Distracts them and gets them to stay still.” He worked his hand on Danny’s cock, spreading his lubricant and massaging the length in gentle, firm strokes. “I don’t know why I did it. I guess… I’ve been wanting to mesmerize you for a while now.”



Danny snorted. “I ain’t that good-lookin’.” He tilted his head back, sighing happily at Mac’s ministrations.



“I beg to differ,” Mac said in that low, husky voice. “Did you know, Danny, that I don’t just feed off blood?”



Danny lifted his head and cracked one eye at him. “Yeah? What all do ya eat?”



Mac smiled and brought his nose to Danny’s chest. “Blood. Sweat. Semen. Vaginal fluid.” He gave a small chuckle. “It’s like I feed on… pleasure.”



Danny lifted an eyebrow. “So you sex-vamps are a little on the kinky side, eh?”



“Oh, please,” Mac grumped. “I’m a vampire, yes, of the incubus-strain. We feed on sex just as much as we feed on blood.”



“So you’re a sex-vamp.”



Mac sighed and flicked his normal-sized tongue at Danny’s nipple. “And while I’m letting you in on the secrets of my kind, remember what I said about pheromones being like catnip.” He paused and lifted his head to stare at Danny again, and there were no colors this time. “Which reminds me. Leaving blood and semen on that cloth, Danny… you’re lucky you didn’t attract a whole pack of us. And I’ll tell you from experience, not everybody is as considerate with humans as I am.”



Danny’s look was solemn considering what Mac was doing with his hand. “Hey, Mac, I’ve been meanin’ ta ask… anything you’re allergic to, that I should keep away from ya?”



Mac looked at Danny for a long time and then shrugged a shoulder. “Tell you later.” And then he slid down Danny’s body until he was laying between Danny’s legs with the Italian’s cock pointed almost straight at his mouth, almost begging, and Mac was smiling as he acquiesced and opened wide and took Danny all the way in.



Danny moaned and his legs twitched as Mac stayed down there, so long that Danny started to get worried until he remembered what Mac had said earlier about breathing.



Mac didn’t need to breathe… so he didn’t need to come up for air.



All Danny could comprehend was how good it felt, how amazing it was and why hadn’t he tried this earlier and what the hell was Mac doing because it should be physically impossible to do something like that with a tongue. Or his throat muscles, either. Clearly Mac had lost his gag reflex long ago, and Danny was wondering what he’d done to make his epiglottis impervious to strain.



Oh, fuck comprehension. Danny’s head rolled on the pillow and he tried hard not to buck his hips. Tried and failed, because he wasn’t really sure what Mac was doing and he couldn’t describe it and it filled Danny with the need to thrust, to fuck himself into that deep tight hot caressing silken softness, and one of Mac’s hands was cupping and massaging and rolling his balls in one large palm and Danny shouted and came, fists clenching the bedsheets, toes curling because Mac was massaging the tip of his dick with his throat muscles, and Danny shook hard as his eyes rolled back in his head.



And then Mac released his dick, and Danny panted at the ceiling. He glanced down his body and saw Mac looking at him with an inscrutable gaze, something almost like fondness darkening his eyes. Mac saw him looking and gave a little half smile and ducked his head, kissing Danny’s thigh and then sliding his lips across it as though looking for something beneath the sparse dark-blond curls.



Femoral artery. Mac found it and bit gently into it as his hand stroked Danny’s saliva-slick cock again, and Danny melted into his bedcovers and tried to figure out which was better, this or the blowjob he’d just received. He could feel his lifeblood seeping into Mac’s mouth and it was every bit as hot, as arousing as the large hand that expertly stroked his cock with calloused fingers, and Danny could feel his eyes rolling back in his head again, small supernovas flashing behind his eyes, when his orgasm seemed to sneak up on him and he came with almost a surprised shout, bucking into Mac’s hand.



He bit back a whimper when Mac pulled his fangs out and licked the wound closed, and then Mac ran his lips up Danny’s leg to his cock and spent far more time than necessary to clean every hint of semen off Danny’s dick and Danny’s stomach and Mac’s own hand, and then Mac slid up the side of Danny’s body again and kissed him one last time, gently, almost tenderly. The vampire gave a contented sigh and abruptly dropped to flop an arm over Danny’s waist and wrap his legs around one of Danny’s and rest his head on the pillow next to Danny’s head. “Thanks,” Mac murmured.



Danny blinked at the ceiling. “You’re thankin’ me? Jesus, Mac, I ain’t had full-on sex as good as what you just did, and you’re thankin’ me?”



Mac shrugged a shoulder. “Thanks for breakfast.”



Danny gave up trying to understand it. Jesus, if that was what Mac considered a ‘quick snack,’ he just might end up chaining the vampire to his bed.



Thinking about it, Danny realized just how little he knew about Mac, both as a person and as a vampire. “Hey, Mac?”



“Hmm?”



“What was that you were sayin’ ‘bout allergies and stuff? I wanna know.”



Mac was quiet for a moment, but it seemed to be more the kind of quiet as someone mentally reviewing a list. “Well, when I said that sunlight won’t kill me, I meant that it won’t kill me instantly. The longer I go without feeding, the weaker I get and the more it affects me. Fire is another weakness as well. My skin is very sensitive to heat.”



Danny lifted an eyebrow. “So how about UV lights at crime scenes?”



Mac rather reluctantly leaned up on his elbow and cocked his head. “As long as I’m careful, they don’t hurt. UVA and UVB lights are just like the sun to me.”



Danny made a mental note of that. “So, what else? Garlic, crosses, holy water, that kinda thing?”



Mac snorted. “Crosses and holy water do nothing to the incubus-strain. Other vampires, I don’t know. I do have a nasty skin allergy to silver, actually. It burns my skin to the point of, well… silver-burned vampire flesh has a tendency to not heal until all the burnt cells are removed. Garlic actually does something, but not what you think.”



Danny lifted an eyebrow and settled in for Mac’s little history lesson.



“There’s an incurable genetic disease in humans called porphyria. It causes a deficiency of haeme, the red blood pigment produced in the liver, which helps to carry oxygen in hemoglobin.



“Porphyria is also known as the vampire’s disease. The skin becomes incredibly weak towards sunlight, so even the mildest exposure can cause horrific burns and scarring. Thus, they usually only go out at night or during the evening. Sometimes fingers or noses will actually fall off, and the hands get thin like an animal’s paws. The lips and gums retract, which make the teeth look a lot longer than a normal person’s.



“Some early sufferers, as well as people today, think that they can balance the haeme deficiency by biting and drinking the blood of others. Although haeme can’t pass through the stomach wall, that didn’t stop them from trying.



“Back around the time where the vampire’s ‘legend’ first started getting off the ground, most villages were small and isolated. And, as I said, the disease is genetic. In most cases the gene lays dormant, but sometimes being bitten by an open carrier of the disease can cause the dormant genes to ‘awaken,’ thus giving rise to the belief that a vampire’s bite could Turn another.”



“But it can,” Danny interrupted.



Mac cocked his head. “As far as ‘porphyria’ vampires go, attacks of the disease can be triggered by stressful events… such as losing a lot of blood after being bitten and half-drained by a relative. Real vampires, sure, but there’s a little more effort than just biting. The incubus method of Turning a human is… odd.”



Danny decided to leave that one alone. “So what’s the deal with the garlic?”



Mac picked up where he’d left off. “Garlic contains a chemical called diallyl disulphide, which greatly aggravates the symptoms of porphyria as well as destroys a haeme protein called P450. So it makes sense that someone who already had a deficiency in haeme would avoid garlic.”



Danny took it all in. “So, garlic won’t kill ya…”



“It’ll just make me sick, and somewhat ‘spoil’ the blood that’s already in my body so that I would need to get more. And as I said, the less blood I have in my body, the weaker I am.”



Danny sighed. “Well, if we’re gonna do this again, remind me ta not eat anythin’ with garlic in it.”



Mac blinked. “You actually want to do this again? Let me feed from you?”



Danny furrowed his brows, mouthed some words to himself, and sent Mac a look that seemed like a thinly-veiled way of not saying ‘you idiot.’ “Mac, that had to be the hands-down fuckin’ best sex of my life. And I feel fine. Little tired, but I figure that couple’a days from now I’ll be okay.” He looked into Mac’s unreadable eyes and was confused at the way Mac looked confused, as though the vampire was wondering why anyone would want a repeat experience of him sucking their blood. “Yes, Mac,” Danny said patiently. “I wanna do it again.”



Mac seemed to be silently arguing with himself, gave almost a resigned sigh, and almost hesitantly reached up to run his fingers along Danny’s shoulder. “You really don’t mind? Doing this for me? I still have to be your boss, Danny.”



“Don’t care,” Danny said snippily. “Ya look one helluva lot better, and I feel fan-fuckin’-tastic. You can still be the boss at work.”



“So nothing’s changed,” Mac insisted almost worriedly. “I’m just coming over to your place for dinner.”



“If you wanna call it that, yeah.” Danny couldn’t be sure, but in his eyes it seemed like their working relationship was the last thing on Mac’s mind. “C’mon, Mac, it’ll be just like always, except now I don’t gotta worry ‘bout ya goin’ off your freakin’ nut every time we hit a bloody crime scene.”



Mac blinked. “Have I really been that bad lately?”



“Well, now that you’re cured… yeah.” Just as hesitantly, Danny reached up and touched Mac’s cheek. “I don’t mind keepin’ ya cured, Mac.”



Mac gave the quietest sharp inhale Danny had ever heard, and then the vampire closed his eyes. “Cured?”



Danny realized what he’d said. “I ain’t sayin’ bein’ a vamp is a disease, Mac. I’m sayin’ that…” inspiration struck and he couldn’t help a grin. “I’m sayin’ that I found a way ta cure your depression and your damn eatin’ disorder.”



Mac’s eyes flew open and he stared at Danny with something akin to shock, and abruptly he gave a quiet laugh. “Eating disorder, huh?” He seemed to have made his decision, and he leaned down and gently brushed his lips against Danny’s. “All right. I’m willing to stay cured if you’re willing to do it.”



“Willin’ and able, Mac. Believe me.”







Author's note: Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated!