#who art in heaven
Pairing: Nanami Kento x Black!reader
Chapter 7 Summary: The bond between you and Nanami runs deeper than you can imagine and as more of the Viscount’s treachery comes to light the bond seems ill-advised and dangerous.
Warnings: talk of death, blood, gore… but still no worse than canon, NSFW, Smut
Good dick could not give you the will to live your life as a monster… but god damn it, it could make a compelling argument. He held true to his word the night before and did not make you traverse the underground instead settling for the creaky old bed at the very top of the church turret. He found fresh linen, which was a pleasant surprise but now it was ruined. The bright morning light shone on the crucifix above the bed that you had no choice but stare at as he slammed into you relentlessly from behind. You’d made the unwitting mistake of trying to have a much needed conversation with him this morning and this was the result.
He was pressed tightly against you as you spooned and you laid awake for a long time before you perceived the change in his breathing that told you he was awake.
“Nanami, we shouldn’t be so attached to each other. It’s not healthy,“ you said softly, the words made your chest ache as they came out of your mouth.
“I didn’t ask,” he answered blithely, wrapping his arm around you tighter. It put your ass right against his hard-on and your eyes rolled back in pure pleasure. He was absolutely naked behind you so you felt every bit of him.
“And I don’t really care,” he continued.
“You know how this ends.”
“Do you enjoy repeating yourself?”
“You’re not listening to me.”
“No, you’re not listening to me. We’ll work on that though,” he promised as he pressed a kiss to the back of your neck.
“Nanami-”
“For a hedonistic monster that deserves death, you are set on resisting pleasure,” he mumbled against your skin, rolling over to be on top of you. His weight shifted you on to your stomach, “A filthy little bloodsucker would be too busy begging me to mark her up again.”
He grazed his teeth against your shoulder and your whole body shuddered, “Give in to me. Be a good girl and stop telling me things I don’t care about.”
You had enough brain power to recognize that he offered you no way to really win. Well if you wanted him less you could just tell him to let you go and you were sure he would. If you gave into your desires though then you’d be allowing him to divert your attention away from the very real problem that was whatever Nanami felt for you. The obvious solution was to push him away, make him understand that he was going to get hurt, that the longer you played this game the more it would hurt him to let you go.
It should have been an easy choice, but his teeth were teasing your flesh as he rutted against you. His hard cock dragged against your ass leaving you to remember how he felt inside of you the previous night. Your pussy ached, throbbing greedily at the idea of being filled by him again. You moaned and he hummed a satisfied smile.
“Do you want me?”
“Kento,” you moaned as he rolled his hips again,
“I know. Give in to me. Let me make it better. I promise I’ll make you see God, my love.”
And that was how you wound up in this predicament, overwhelmed by the wet slap of skin against skin and the obnoxious creak of the old bed beneath you. The metal headboard smacked the wall in the harsh staccato of his merciless thrusts. The impact of which made the cross that your eyes were pointed at, but not quite seeing, jump on the wall. Your gaze was half lidded and your eyes were beginning to roll back. He had a hard grip on your hips pulling you back against him as he fucked into you.
“Oh God!” You whined, head dropping from fatigue and general disbelief at the way a man you always considered to be principled and disciplined was bullying into your guts, “Ken…tooo,” you drew out his name, voice shaking with force of his thrusts.
He pulled out of you suddenly much to your dismay. You turned to complain, or maybe to beg him to put it back in, but he shoved you over to your side before manhandling you onto your back. Once you were there, he put your legs up on his shoulders and entered you again. Your legs pressed on either side of his neck, forced together as he brought his hands to your shoulders. His large warm hands slid from your shoulders up to your neck, holding it in a firm grasp that anchored his punishing thrusts. You yelped a loud affronted moan as your whole body jostled with the force of it.
Nanami’s eyes were trained on you, taking in your breathless fucked out expression. The way your breasts bounced with every thrust was utterly hypnotic. He kept his eyes on the repetitive motion, fucking you harder just to see them bounce and jiggle just a bit more. You held on to his wrists, a natural reaction to the way he was holding you. The full sensory experience of you made it impossible to think of anything at all, mind too frenzied with the sound of your wet pussy gushing around him, the slap of skin to skin, and your sobbing moans. Your jaw dropped, revealing the sharp points of your canines. They’d droppped just a bit more with the flood of arousal through your system. You called out his name again and he fucked you harder in response. If he had the mind to worry about it, he’d be concerned about the integrity of the old squeaking bed you were on. As it was, he didn’t care. He’d fix it along with the altar table later.
Your orgasm overtook you with vicious intensity, stealing the breath from your lungs, making every muscle in your body lock down and tremble. Your head pressed back into the mattress as your back arched from the overwhelming feeling. You couldn’t speak, couldn’t breath, couldn’t even think. The mounting crest of your pleasure seemed to stretch forever, one ceaseless moment in which you’d never felt closer to another person in your life, and there was that oneness that you thought only existed when feeding, but it was opening in ways you’d never experience from blood alone. It felt like heaven.
When that moment ended, as all things do, you gasped a harsh desperate sound as you fought to get your breath back. Then you exhaled with a loud moan cursing and calling out to any being you thought might be listening: Kento, God, Jesus, it was all interchangeable at the moment, something you were sure you’d have to answer for on your day of reckoning. Nanami let go of your throat, diving forward to kiss you. Your legs fell open with the movement. His lips were insistent, not rough but passionate as if he meant to devour you this way. You were too out of it to keep up with him, especially since he was still fucking you.
You were impossibly wet, your last orgasm seemed to open you up to him just a bit more and he was so deep in your slippery warm cunt. He could live like this, spending eternity fucking you. He would have to fuck you for eternity, because it seemed to be the only time you weren’t trying to convince him to live without you. He growled low in his throat pulling away from your lips to kiss your throat.
“Mine,” he grumbled, feeling shivers spill down his spine as the pressure of his impending orgasm became harder and harder to hold back. The sound you made in response to his words did nothing to help his situation. You were whining and sobbing from pleasure right in his ear. Your nails were digging into his back.
He tore away from you, sitting back on his hunches as he gripped his length, fucking into his fist those last few times before he came. He painted your skin with his cum. It landed on your stomach in white ropes. You laid there, fighting to get your breath back, stomach heaving with your breath. You were far too beautiful, far too good to be any of the things you accused yourself of being. He put a hand on his stomach, compelled to rub his cum into your skin, to dirty you because maybe then he could do what you asked. If you were sullied in his eyes maybe it wouldn’t drive him to madness every time you insinuated you might take yourself from him. Alas, for that to work he’d have to believe that sex had the ability to sully a woman, and he did not. And for him to stop believing in the purity of your heart, then he would have to give up a lot of beliefs about the goodness of people. To believe that you deserved death, would be to abandon his faith entirely.
He cursed, leaning forward to kiss over your heart, the very place where you wanted him to shove a stake at the end of this. With his lips pressed right there he could feel the frantic beating of your heart. Your chest rose and fell in heavy intervals. He pressed his cheek to it, his nose nudging the side of your breast, and the softness there beckoned to him. He kissed and sucked the soft flesh of your breast only for you to run your fingers through his hair pulling him into you so tenderly, it took him off guard. He tore away from you with a heavy sigh.
“There is work to do, we cannot stay in this bed. Besides, I doubt it will survive another round.” As if to prove his point the bed let out a long obnoxious creak the moment he shifted his weight. He sat on the edge of the bed with his back to you. He rested his elbows on his knees trying to quiet his own mind. He was mostly reminding himself that there was work to be done, and he couldn’t stay in this bed with you.
He continued, “There are showers in the underground quarters. I will go down with you.”
When you didn’t respond, he looked over his shoulder at you and found your eyes were closed and you were still in the same position he left you in.
“Are you alright?” he questioned.
“You can’t… fuck me like that and start talking business. You could at least hold me after damn.” You lifted a sluggish hand to wipe down your face.
He stood, causing the bed to groan. Then he picked you up, “We have things to do, but I will assist in getting you cleaned up.”
Showering with Nanami had been a fantasy at one point, something you thought about on your own, to your own touch. Nanami was always warm to you, which was to be expected. When you hadn’t fed in a while you were usually room temp or colder. His presence now was not as you imagined. He was softer with you, uninterested in pushing you up against the shower wall to take you again. He was always rough when you expected him to be patient, and patient when you thought you might be ravished. He kissed over the place he bit you the previous night while he lathered you in the body wash of long dead vampires. You got a good look at his back as you leaned against the shower wall waiting for him after you were clean. The cross in the middle of his back had red lines over it from your nails. Ancient languages were highlighted with red as well all from your feverish attempt to get him closer when he was already inside of you. You reached out and touched a set of marks, pressing the pads of your fingers against the lines. He stiffened a little under your touch, and you looked up at him. He was looking at you over his shoulder.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?” he asked.
“These. I hurt you.”
He huffed a humorless laugh, “While you have a reason to ask for my forgiveness, this is not it. It didn’t hurt and it will heal shortly.”
You were confused but chose not to speak. You couldn’t quite make sense of Nanami right now and it seemed like he wasn’t in the mood to take questions about it. So, you just shut up, enjoying the view, trying to ignore the nagging feeling that something was going to go horribly wrong in the very near future.
When the two of you were cleaned up Nanami announced that he needed to go out to meet Gojo, “If you are up to it, you can explore the underground, see if these vampires had any information on our cause.”
“Okay,” you answered without looking up at him, you were trying to smooth the wrinkles in your habit. It was a futile task but it was something to look at that wasn’t Nanami’s ridiculously handsome face.
“I won’t be gone long. I’ll come back with food.”
You nodded.
He put a finger under your chin and tipped your head back to look at him. He was silent, searching your expression for a moment, “What is the matter?”
“Nothing.”
“I hate it when you lie to me.”
“I want to go with you, but I know that I need to be here. That’s all. Nothing serious.”
He hummed, “I’ll be back before you know it.” He gave you a short chaste kiss before turning away from you to go through the church door.
You wound up doing as he asked, which wasn’t uncommon for you, but now that you were going through dead vampire’s stuff, you were feeling a little indignant about it. He couldn’t fuck you like a maniac and then give you chores to do like some submissive housewife. The two of you weren’t even married. Still there were supplies, clothing, an interesting collection of records, evidence of an orgy room, a fully functioning kitchen with top of the line equipment, a bathing room and a bunch of other interesting rooms to be found. There were lights in the underground, though they were dim and yellow, adding a sort of hazy look to the stone columns and walls. With the lights on you could get a better look at the high polished marble floors and the baroque style carved stone of the columns. It was quite nice under the church. You supposed it would be ridiculous to spend eternity in squalor.
When Nanami picked up Gojo he knew his day was going to be long. The white haired menace got in the SUV, took a deep breath then smiled. It was the most unsettling smile Nanami had ever seen, mostly because he didn’t know why Gojo was smiling. He just was.
“What?” Nanami demanded.
“Nothing. It’s a good morning.”
“You hate mornings.”
“Not this morning. I can tell that this morning is going to be very interesting.”
“We are going to the church to confront the archbishop. I am sure that will be riveting.”
“No, that will be boring. He’s going to demand you come back to the parish with the leech,” Gojo said and he turned in time to see Nanami’s face twitch in annoyance, “You’re going to say no. He’s going to threaten your life, I’m going to tell him to eat shit. And then we’ll make a formal split from the Rising Star church. Nothing interesting about any of that.”
“Then what is so interesting that you’re smiling like an idiot.”
Gojo chuckled, “Your new cologne.”
“I’m not wearing cologne, it’s the soap that was in the underground. That is all.”
“Right, and a closed mating bond,” Gojo grinned and Nanami turned to glare at him, “Oh come on, you reek of her. It’s seeping out of your pores.”
“Mating bonds are-”
“Powerful among vampires. God, I thought you were possessive of her before, am I allowed to look at her now or are you going to try to rip my eyes out.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I’m not a full vampire, it’s a diluted bond at best.”
“Yeah you think your filthy blood sucker will try to take my head off then.”
Nanami’s hands tightened on the steering wheel, his white knuckled grip tickled Gojo to no end.
“I’m joking! She’s not filthy… well I guess she wasn’t when I last saw her. But after you’ve sexed her up who knows-”
“That’s enough,” Nanami grit out.
Gojo sighed slumping in his seat a bit so he could properly rest his head on the head rest, “Oh you’re a fucking idiot.” There was a wistful smile on his lips, “Aren’t you going to kill her at the end of this?”
“She’s not going to die.”
“Uh huh,” Gojo nodded, “And I thought I was stupid for falling in love with a damned soul. I didn’t know I was gonna have to kill him. You’re just a glutton for punishment.”
“She’s not going to die.”
“She’s a vampire. You’re a vampire hunter.”
“We don’t even know if she’s a vampire. You said it yourself.”
“She is very adamant about dying.”
“She’ll change her mind.”
Gojo pretended to retch, “Oh my god, you are so weak in the knees. Stand. Up! ‘I can change her’” he continued to mock.
“Gojo, she hasn’t done anything wrong. It’s not her fault she was changed, and she’s done nothing but help us kill vampires.”
“It’s not me who you should be convincing. Take it from someone who knows, when the person you love wants other things there’s only so much you can do.”
“This isn’t like that. She doesn’t want to hurt anyone.”
“So I guess you don’t count.”
“She hasn’t hurt me.”
“Yet.”
“She wouldn’t-”
“Nanamin, the two of you are mated and she doesn’t want to spend eternity as I monster. She’s going to break your heart.”
Nanami gritted his teeth, “Let’s just focus on the church.”
“Fine… but one friend to another, bonds meant to last an eternity are strong, but a soul’s will is stronger. You cannot save anyone who doesn’t want to be saved. Trust me.”
Nanami was silent. He was wise enough to know that Gojo meant well. Within the brashness of his words was real worry and real care. At the moment he wasn’t of the mind to receive his words with grace. The mere thought of harm coming to you was enough to make him feel like coming out of his skin. Logically, or whatever was left of his logic, he agreed with Gojo. This was stupid. He’d seen vampires make the stupidest decisions based upon their mates. He’d watched his own father do it. He forfeited his life to protect his mother, even though he knew Cordelius was going to kill her anyway. Maybe he just didn’t want to watch her die. Or maybe he was stupid enough to hope for something different.
Nanami thought of that night, now that he was effectively mated. He viewed his father differently now. He was much younger, barely twelve when it happened. His mother hid him in a little crawl space between the walls, a place he often went to hide during games of hide-and-seek. He loved it because through a crack in the old walls he could observe his parents looking for him, and his father pretending to be unable to sniff him out. He looked through that crack as his father fought the Viscount Alexi Cordelius, doing all he could to protect his mother in the midst. He thought his father wasn’t strong enough to take on Cordelius, that there was nothing he could do to keep the younger vampire from killing, that the diet of animal blood made his death inevitable, but now he wondered if he was holding back because he wouldn’t risk his mother getting hurt in the all out brawl that would have ensued. In the end, he stepped right in front of an attack meant for Nanami’s mother.
“Leave her be,” he’d pleaded, “This quarrel between you and I has nothing to do with her. Let her go.”
“You are a waste of life. I shudder to even call you a vampire, you weak, spineless knave,” The Viscount seethed as he ripped the late Lord Nanami’s heart out. Nanami remembered his mother’s screaming sobs so vividly. He shut his eyes before he could see his mother murdered, but the sickening silence left behind haunted him at times when there was no one to talk to him and disrupt the silence.
His whole life he’d trained with that moment in mind, learning all the ways that his father could have thwarted Alexi Cordelius if he had the guts to do it. And now he thought again of that, of risking your safety to fight an opponent. He used to wonder why his father didn’t simply turn his mother. It would have been easier if she could protect herself, or if she could even run fast enough to get away from the fight. Now he knew it was not so easy to ignore the will of one’s mate and he knew his mother did not desire an immortal life.
He would suffer any amount of painful deaths before he let any harm come to you, and he would prostrate himself at your feet before doing anything that would make you hate him. This was perhaps his stupidest decision to date, maybe even stupider than becoming a priest in a losing battle against vampires, because he couldn’t bear to hurt you, but you expected him to take your life.
~
The church was exactly as he left it. He wasn’t sure what he expected, a disgraced church didn’t look any different from a holy church. That was the whole point. As far as he knew it could still be hallowed ground. It wouldn’t be after Gojo was done though. Nanami knew you would worry if he brought you along so he didn’t protest when Gojo said to come alone. He was going to revoke his blessing from the church and therefore take away his protection. You would worry about the sisters because you were a kind woman and not a hardened soldier against the forces of evil. It was a necessary move to cut the head of the church down. He thought he could straddle the fence on black and white matters.
The moment they stepped on past the gates Gojo made a sound of discontent. Nanami looked up at him curiously to see the frown on his face. He wondered what he was sensing. His gift of six eyes came with a certain amount of precognition, and hyperawareness. Whatever Gojo saw in the present, future, or past of this place was enough to immediately annoy him.
“We’re taking this straight to the man in charge,” Gojo grumbled, stepping forward.
Nanami had only stood before the archbishop once, and that was to ask to postpone your execution until Cordelius was dealt with. The man was incredibly old. His position was one that lasted a lifetime. Nanami’s father saw him seated at the head of the church.
No one tried to stop them as they strolled to the Archbishop’s private office. No one would think of doing anything to impede Gojo’s progress. He was the son of an ophanim, the closest angels to God, and the holiest being they would meet in their time on earth. Their steps echoed on the pristine floor. The double doors at the end of the hallway led to the archbishop’s office and there were guards at either side, an uncommon sight. The bishops at the door held silver blades and stared at Gojo with a sort of trepidation that only came from an unwilling duty.
“Step aside,” Gojo said on a heavy sigh, “those things won’t even touch me. I’ll tell the archbishop you fought hard.”
They stepped in his way, holding up the gleaming silver swords to block him, “I’m sorry. We cannot let you pass.”
“Lack of hospitality is a sin, youknow?” Gojo said in a lilting songlike voice.
“It’s our orders.”
“I know,” Gojo batted away their swords as if they were made of wood and he grabbed their arms and tossed them out of the way. They were not hurt in any significant way, just a few bumps and bruises to groan about later. He stuffed his hands in the pockets of his dark pants and planted a heavy kick in the middle of the heavy mahogany double doors. They flew open to reveal the scene that had made Gojo frown when he stepped on the premises.
The archbishop should have been an old man, but life had returned to his wrinkled face. Gojo tsked as he walked in looking from the archbishop to the two vampires sitting in front of his desk. They glared at him with eyes as vibrant as jewels, and just as cold and hard as them too.
“Well, devils in the church. I wasn’t even gone that long.”
Fear was palpable in the archbishop’s eyes as he looked at Gojo. Nanami wondered what he thought would be the outcome of this decision. Gojo was always going to come back to the church so he was always going to find out about the archbishop’s treachery. What was the plan?
The archbishop spoke hastily, “There have been vampires in this church for-”
“When I want you to speak, I will ask you to speak. Until then, shut up,” Gojo instructed coolly as he strolled into the office, “A half vampire, and an immortal hybrid never affected the sanctity of this place. We are accustomed to aligning ourselves with those interested in the preservation of human life. The status of their birth, and their transformation was not a factor. What are you doing, old man?” He stopped walking when he was behind both vampires, but his focus was obviously on the archbishop. The vampires recoiled from him, but if they thought to move then they certainly changed their minds when Nanami edged closer, with his hand on the blessed pistol on his hip.
The archbishop stood from his chair fiercely making it squeal against the flooring, “I am embracing the next step of humanity’s evolution-”
Gojo groaned aloud, “I was hoping you would say something original.”
“The greatest threat to humans is themselves! They must be thinned! With a chosen few as immortal beings and enough humans to keep us fed, this planet could be pulled back from the brink.”
“Is that what Cordelius told you? Is that what he sent these two to convince you of? He must have. I thought it was odd that no one had seen you in person in a while. Guess it would have been hard to explain how a ninety-something year old raisin became a young grape again. But maybe you should have worked on your old man voice a little more. You sounded a bit too lively over the phone.”
“Who are you to tell me what to do?! I am working for the betterment of mankind and God smiles down at my efforts! I am purifying this wretched world! What do you know? You were left behind by your own kind! You’re a disgrace!”
In a move too fast for anyone to follow, Gojo was suddenly behind the desk and looming over the archbishop. His blindfold was off, and he glared at the man with eyes as blue as the hottest part of the flame. “I wasn’t left behind, I chose to stay. When all of the nephilim gave up on the salvation of man, I chose to stay. Your god does not watch for you. He watches for me and what I will do next.”
“What are you going to do next? Kill me? It won’t change anything.”
Gojo grinned at that assessment, even as he bent a little to be in the archbishops face he did not remove his hands from his pockets. He had no reason to. No one in this room posed a significant threat to him, “You’re right. It won’t change anything but I can’t risk letting you live either.”
“I am thinking of the greater good of mankind, surely you can understand-”
“Blah blah blah,” Gojo mocked, taking his hand out of his pocket to make a hand puppet as he mocked him, “It’s nothing personal. Oh, what’s that old saying humans wrote in that book you guys have been raving about for centuries: The lord giveth and the lord taketh away? Well, this is just me taketh….-ing away.” He put the one hand that wasn’t in his pocket, on top of the archbishop’s head, “Well maybe it’s a little personal too. You make me want to puke.” Gojo pulled the head off of the archbishop’s shoulders causing blood to spray all over the office. Nanami pulled his guns at the same time, aiming them at the closest vampire. They turned to look at him in enough time for them to see him shoot. The man pushed the woman aside, taking the bullet to the chest, but it did not hit his heart. The silver bullet made his flesh sizzle and smoke. The woman growled and launched herself at Nanami, a truly foolish move that made him wonder if these two were even trained in combat.
“Leave one alive,” Gojo directed before tossing the archbishops head like a ball into the woman hard enough to pulverize the thing and change the course of her body as it soared through the air. It allowed Nanami to focus on the man just behind her making his attack. He shot him again but the vampire dodged. At this Nanami wondered what had been the logic behind taking the first shot. Nanami breathed in and recognized the way their scents intermingled. With them so close together it was hard to tell who was who, only that there were two vampires. They were mated.
“They’re mated. If we kill one, we won’t get anything out of the other,” Nanami answered.
“And you would know all about that wouldn’t you?”
“So would you Gojo. Let’s not talk about lengths we’d go to for love,” Nanami gritted out.
“Oh, I really got under your skin. Alright, alright, I’m in a glass house, I know when to stop throwing stones,” he chuckled before joining the fray to get both vampires subdued. It wasn’t hard. They were strong fighters and keeping them alive meant both Nanami and Gojo had to fight. Gojo’s power was absolute and destructive, better suited for obliterating enemies. He wasn’t very good at subduing. Nanami’s expert precision made it possible to inflict immobilizing wounds while Gojo kept them fighting for their lives unable to divert from defense lest they be killed by any one of the blows Gojo threw.
When their bodies hit the floor they hissed and cursed at Gojo and Nanami bound them and picked up one each. Gojo put a hand on Nanami’s shoulder teleported them deep underground, in a place that very few people knew about. Nanami hadn’t been there since he decided to spare your life. He put the blessed cuffs on the vampires,and set the other bindings so that they could not move. They yelled and cursed the whole time and Nanami was unmoved. Gojo pulled up an old wooden chair and sat in it backwards, resting his arms over the back of the chair in an awkward looking position.
“Alright, who knows the most about the Viscount’s plans?”
“Fuck you, I’m not telling you anything, you damn sycophant of a lying idol!” the man spit.
“So it’s you? Well, you should start talking, because Nanami here is precise with a knife he can cut the flesh off of a vampire without killing it, and the best part is, your healing factor will make sure there’s always more flesh to be cut away.”
“Do what you want to me! I’m not talking.”
“You?” Gojo laughed, “No, we’re not going to do anything to you. We need you to be able to give us information. I was talking about your mate, silly.”
Nanami watched the horror flash across the vampire’s face as they met eyes.
“So first question. What is the woman that the Viscount wants badly enough to infiltrate the church?”
Only four vampires seemed to have lived in this church for a long time. The belongings of the others were still in suitcases. They seemed to only just have arrived. Rotten luck on their part really, if they were a day later they would have avoided this place all together. Or maybe they would have strolled on to the grounds unaware that it was freshly hallowed and died anyway. At least that would have been a quick death. You couldn’t imagine having your throat ripped out by a blood crazed monster was pleasant. Though you supposed it served them right considering the lives they’d taken. Maybe Nanami was right, you were just doing what you had always done which was kill vampires, now you were just… less wasteful. You huffed unsatisfied with that conclusion. It just made you more dangerous to Nanami. Though you supposed you hadn’t attacked him before and you didn’t get the urge to attack him this morning. You also weren’t particularly hungry, and probably wouldn’t be for some time. You found a room with a good amount of very pretty dresses made for a petite frame. When you opened the wardrobe the scent that came out was all at once familiar like cloves and nutmeg. You could see the first young woman you’d come across in this church in your mind’s eye. The fashion of these dresses was familiar to you. They looked like something fresh out of the gilded age. Beautiful piece with careful embroidering, and she had a good amount of petticoats. Old vampires were prone to nostalgia and seeing their feeders in garb from their prime usually endeared them to him.
When you were with the Viscount you’d always dressed like Buttercup from The Princess Bride. He was an old vampire, he would never say how old but you were sure that the setting of The Princess Bride fit. These dresses didn’t look as comfortable as yours had been. There was so much fabric she was meant to carry around, and feeders were not known for being a strong bunch. Being bled on a schedule made many girls weak and anemic and many vampires didn’t care to take very good care of them, to balance their diet with lots of iron and potassium. Once the blood quality declined the feeder was killed. You supposed you were lucky enough that the Viscount was particular about his girls. You were all monitored by a physician and fed a careful diet to keep you producing enough red blood cells to not only survive but to make a full bodied bottle of blood for him and his guests.
You made a soft sound of disgust thinking of it. You wished you’d been of the mind to bury that woman. She had been through so much that in the end… she thanked you. You wondered if you would still feel thankful to rest in the end. While you searched around you noticed a journal hidden deep in the wardrobe. You opened it curiously and read the contents.
“My name is Jamika. They call me Jane but I don’t want to forget what my real name is. I’m terrified I’ll forget because no one calls me it here. I want to go home. I want my mom. I know I’m too old to want my mom, and I shouldn’t cry. If they catch me it’ll be bad. But I want to go home. God please let me go home.” It was dated February 2004. She was probably just a child then. They preferred to get feeders young. The more dependent they were on their vampire masters the less they tried to run. You wondered how she got her hands on a journal, and she kept it for so long. This wasn’t the kind of thing they liked feeders to remember. They preferred that life outside of them was forgotten.
Another entry read, “I am tired all the time. I nearly fell asleep during my chores. An older woman prodded me with the end of her broom. It left a really bad bruise but I don’t think she did it that hard. It didn’t hurt. I don’t feel good. But when Brandy told one of them she felt ill they took her away and she hasn’t been back. I don’t think she’s alive. I don’t want to die.”
Jamika had good instincts. To risk the chance of disease ruining the “crop” feeders who showed signs of illness were usually killed outright. Especially if they were a part of a “winery”- vampire run establishments that ran a cover as a normal winery to the human world but they casked and barreled blood to vampires. Her conditions made you believe that she had been in a place much like that.
You skimmed her journal, feeling tears prick at your eyes as you remembered similar experiences, the post feed weakness, the way they clung to you afterward, seeking out warmth like reptiles even though they’d stolen it all. You remembered the way the cold used to blow right through you. The Viscount used to use it as an excuse to put you under his cloak with him forcing your bodies close together.
“I was given to a new blood drinker. She is strange but does not seem violent. When I talk to the others they all talk about how great she is, except I don’t believe them. They talk about her like a God. It doesn’t sound right. It sounds… insincere. They all say I’ll love her too, soon. I hope not. I don’t want to be like them. My god I’m so tired. I just want this to end.” June 2011
“They moved me again. It’s underground. They keep saying I’m a special one. If it means they stop biting me I’ll take it. No one has fed from me in three months. I am starting to feel stronger again. The tunnels are hard to understand. I walk them during the day. There’s no sunlight down here but the blood drinkers sleep anyway. I will find a way out or die trying.” September 2019
“I am not the same. They made me drink something and for three days I burned. I thought they set me on fire. My skin feels raw, writing this is loud, and I am so thirsty. God, what have they done to me?” March 2020
“I am losing myself. I have to check this journal sometimes to remember who I am. I am Jamika… but it feels wrong to call myself that. Jamika would have died before drinking blood the way I do. They call me Jane and it’s starting to feel like a more apt name. I know Jane better. I killed a child today. A young feeder, with sweet blood. They want me to be strong. They say I have a special place in a new world. I don’t want to do this anymore.” October 2021
That was the last entry you could bear to read. You’d skipped many more. If that broken-nosed vampire hadn’t messed up this would have been you. If you hadn’t ran and stumbled into the life of someone equipped to help you, you would have been just like Jamika. You closed the journal and stared at the unassuming cover. Her body was long gone, but that wasn’t really her anymore. She’d lost herself years ago. This journal though, was all that was left of the girl she had once been. You would put it to rest.
You went outside and found that it was much later than you expected. The sun was setting. A certain amount of nervousness went through your body. Nanami said that he wouldn’t be gone long. He had been gone a very long time. You hoped he was alright. The thought of anything happening to him made your stomach twist. Nevertheless, having a task in mind kept you from dwelling too long on it. You went around to the little shed around the back filled with tools. You grabbed a shovel and went searching for a good place to bury the journal. It didn’t take you long to dig a deep hole and when you put the journal inside you murmured a prayer for her. Maybe God wouldn’t hear it because you were a vampire, but maybe it was the thought that counted. You went back towards the church at around twilight, when the sky was more velvet blue with only a thin line of saturated orange and pink at the horizon.
If you didn’t have Nanami, would you have lost yourself completely? He was there every step of the way reminding you of your rage, your drive to learn how to fight, and inadvertently reminding you of simple joys. An evenly matched conversation in which you feared no bodily harm for your thoughts, the amusement of teasing someone else with no fear for a wounded ego. The egos of vampires ran deep and you’d seen many a young woman be killed because she scorned one. Nanami was not that way. He was calm, somewhat stoic, but his rye sense of humor had been a source of comfort for so long.
You glanced out at the tree line longingly and then you froze. Like a startled deer your legs locked and you stopped in your tracks, staring out between two trees. Your throat immediately went dry and your heart began to pound. The figure between the two trees was familiar to you and you hadn’t seen it in more than 3 years. The Viscount Alexi Cordelius stood on what must be the boundary between hallowed and secular ground. He was as you remembered him, in a loose white tunic tucked into high waisted pants that you were sure were older than you, and boots that laced all the way up to the knee. His dark hair curled in big spirals that made the hair that wasn’t long enough to fully curl stick up like waves of the ocean. His eyes were piercing even so far away, a subdued grayish violet, like Elizabeth Taylor.
“Well a vampire nun on holy ground. You really are special,” he said in a voice that was soft like crushed velvet, and deep enough to find utterly soothing if you didn’t know how dangerous he was.
“Viscount.” You addressed stiffly.
“Oh, pet, we know each other well enough for me to be more than my title to you.”
“You don’t know me at all,” you said, taking a step backward.
“You don’t smell like yourself,” he said, “You smell utterly intoxicating as always but there’s someone else there. You’re mated? You left me behind so easily. I am curious about the vampire who could do what I couldn’t.”
Having him mention Nanami even though he didn’t know him by name set every nerve in your body on edge. Before you could stop the sound you were hissing, like every monster you ever came in contact with. You reacted like a beast whose home had been threatened.
“Ooo,” he purred, lips twisting up in a beautiful yet sinister smirk, “I’d really like to meet the vampire that tamed you. What would you do for me to keep him safe?”
“I would tear your heart from your body,” you said on a hard breath. The way your body was reacting to his threats was alarming but you couldn’t help it. You wanted to rip his head from his body, string him up from the church steeple as an example to everyone who thought about attacking Nanami.
“I don’t sense another here. When will your mate be back, I have to see if he’s worthy of my greatest creation.”
“You won’t touch him.”
“Will you stop me?” He grinned. You knew that he wanted you to step off of hallowed ground so that he could ambush you. The Viscount was an old vampire, and a natural born one at that. He had powers that you knew nothing about and ones that you couldn’t comprehend. Your only protection was the church, but Nanami would be coming back and he would be vulnerable.
“I won’t let you take me.”
“You’re a fighter. I should have known better than to let those dullards look after you, You always needed special attention. Does he know how to take care of you? Does he know to treat you special, or do you allow him to treat you like you’re common?”
“… What am I?”
He laughed, “You’re a vampire. You haven’t figured that out yet.”
“But I… fed on vampires,” you argued, “And I’m on holy ground-“
“Oh, so you know that already? Is that what happened to my friends in this previously disgraced church? Well at least they went to a good cause.”
“Am I… can I give birth to vampires?”
“Why? Did you let that nobody into your secret garden?” He smiled but you still knew his face well enough to detect the anger on it. His thin straight nose wrinkled a little and his eyes narrowed just a bit.
You frowned at his choice of words and your distaste made his face light up with recognition.
“Oh you did. Naughty nun,” he laughed, “You are not a divine mother. It would have been a waste to use you as mere breeding stock. No you are much, much more special to me. So you must know I won’t stop until I have you. I’ll do whatever I must to get you back, I’ll even forgive your triste with a common vampire, because you will be the queen of this damned world when I’m done with it.” Though he said his words calmly his lips were tense. They were full, dusty pink, soft to the touch- you remembered- but when he was angry they thinned a bit with tension.
“What does that mean?” You asked.
“It means you are so much more than you can even imagine and far more than a simple vampire could hope to handle.”
“And if you take me, what’s stopping me from just killing you, huh? If that’s what I’m supposed to do? If I was made to kill vampires.”
“If you think you can, I’d be delighted to go out that way and live as a part of you for all eternity.”
Your entire being recoiled at that idea. As you went to argue with him you heard the sound of an approaching car. Your heart dropped and it was already at the soles of your feet so it might as well have been in the pits of hell. Nanami was coming back. The Viscount tilted his head listening to the tell tale sound of tires on a dirt road.
“That must be him. Let me greet my adversary.”
“No. NO! Nanami! Turn back!” You wailed, not daring to step past the boundaries of the church. If the Viscount got you whatever plans he wished to force upon the world would be another crucial step forward towards fruition.
“The VISCOUNT IS HERE!” You yelled again as the Viscount gave you a cruel smile.
“Catch me if you dare,” he taunted before bolting off in the direction of the dirt road. You darted off to, going around the perimeter to the drive and throwing open the church gates just in case he made it in, so there would be no roadblocks. You stood between the gates, peering out at the road anxiously. You screamed for Nanami again.
~
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Next Chapter
Pairing: Nanami Kento x Black!reader
Chapter 6 Summary: After your kiss with Nanami you’re left to wonder at the state of your relationship with him as the two of you go on a mission to take back a small church as your new base of operations. Nanami makes his intentions with you very clear in the end.
Warnings: talk of death, blood, gore… but still no worse than canon, NSFW, Smut
You woke up with your head pillowed on Nanami’s chest, which was not how you fell asleep. You sat up slowly, so as not to wake Nanami as you made your escape from his loose hold around your waist. As you looked down at him you noticed how relaxed his face was, and how one of his hands rested on his stomach. He slept like the dead, which was a very vampirish thing to do. All he needed was a coffin and he’d be a regular Dracula. You’d never be able to sleep in a coffin. You tossed and turned too much. As you moved away from him his other arm, the one that had apparently been wrapped around your waist, holding you to his side, fell to the mattress. At least the agility that vampirism allotted you made you nimble enough not to jostle the bed as you got out of it. You went to the ensuite to freshen up, and then got dressed. You couldn’t stand to linger in that bed room. Despite the fact that it had been hours since that kiss, your lips still felt like they were tingling from it. This was worse and better than the way you felt after feeding from him. You hadn’t taken anything from him, not technically, though you were sure it was against some kind of code for him to do that, but he had asked to kiss you. You hadn’t taken any more than he willingly gave. Though you suppose the same could be said for his blood. He had given that freely as well, you suppose the big difference there was that you hadn’t wanted it. You’d made your peace with dying.
You thought all of this over downstairs in the kitchen, rooting through the cabinets for coffee or tea. You could at least reliably make that. As you set a french press you heard the tell tale whistle of metal through the air and turned fast enough to catch a metal pike that would have gone through your skull. You turned to look at the origin of the weapon and found Gojo wearing a sleep mask, and his pajama pants.
“You’re not screaming in agony, so it seems all holy metals have no effect on you at all,” he said, continuing into the kitchen as if he didn’t just make an attempt on your life. You stared at the metal pike in your hand unsure of what to do with it.
“Um… did you just try to kill me?”
“No. If I was trying you’d be dead.”
“Right. Just testing my reflexes then,” you concluded, setting the pike on the counter so you could continue your task.
“You did well,” he congratulated. You nodded slowly trying to go back to what you were doing, but now you were on edge.
“So how did you sleep?” Gojo asked patiently.
“Fine.”
“So are you and Nanami really nothing more than friends? Because I thought for sure I would hear some bed rocking.”
You stared at him in open shock that he was bold enough to ask you something like that, “He is a priest.”
“So? He’s still a man, and you’re a woman. And he’s into that… are you into men?”
“I like men just fine, things aren’t like that with Nanami,” you said and you weren’t even sure if you were lying or not. You weren’t sure if Nanami would have gone further or not last night. You really didn’t understand his motivations at all, which was weird for you. He was such a straightforward person so you could usually assume the motivations behind most of his actions, but this was a true mystery. There was nothing to really gain from it… right?
“Hm, well if you like men just fine, I’ve always been curious about the pleasures of a vampire, but I couldn’t find one that wasn’t set on killing all humans, and the last time I shacked up with someone who had a thing against humans it didn’t end well.”
“… Sorry, I’m a nun,” you said in a deadpanned tone.
He shrugged, “You could just say no. You’re loyal to Nanami and I respect that. In fact, it’s in your best interest. I don’t have a great many friends, so if anything happens to Nanami and even suspect that you were behind it, I’ll make you wish for death long before I give it to you.”
“I already wish for it.”
“Well then I’ll be sure you’re begging me to kill you.”
You sighed, “If something happened to Nanami, I would be asking you to kill me. But I get your point. You’re protective of him. I know my word doesn’t mean much to you, but I would die before I hurt Nanami, and if I’m left behind and Nanami’s no more for this world… well it wasn’t for lack of trying to go with him.”
“Right…. And you two are just friends. Cool. That’s not confusing,” he chuckled.
“I wouldn’t even call us friends. Just people bound together by a promise .”
“So you’re married.”
“He’s going to kill me at the end of this.”
“So there’s a few more conditions on ‘til death do us part,” he shrugged nonchalantly.
You stared at him, at a loss for words. He seemed set on misinterpreting everything you said.
“I have known Nanami since his parents died, which was thirteen years ago. Cosmically it’s a short time, but it’s a good portion of his life. In that time he’s had one other friend, and then you.”
You cocked your head curiously.
“Before you there was another kid in seminary school, hunting vampires to be another soldier of the cloth. He was killed on a hunt. Nanami left the parish for a few years, and came back when he was 23. He was on his own before you came along. My life has too many moving parts to sit around taking orders from the church all the time. But Nanami seemed suited to the work. Well he used to be, now I’m not so sure.”
“He’s a good person. I’m not the most religious, but the sisters have nothing but good things to say about Nanami and-”
“Truth be told, Nanami’s not particularly faithful either. He’s just suited to the work. When he talks people listen. And while his belief in the text written by man is not strong, he has a strong sense of morality and in some ways is better. He’s not working for a ticket to heaven, because he doesn’t believe there is one for him. He’s doing it because it’s honest work and it’s good work.”
You opened your mouth to respond, but heard movement upstairs and thought better of it. Gojo let silence continue on. You made your own coffee, then a second mug of just black coffee as you heard Nanami’s footsteps on the stairs. He came into the kitchen and you turned with a mug of coffee.
“Good morning, Father Nanami,” you said and you watched his mouth twitch in slight annoyance but he nodded at you nonetheless.
“Morning. Gojo, what’s our next move for today.”
“Wait, you didn’t make me a cup of coffee!” Gojo complained.
You stared wide eyed, “I don’t know how you like your coffee.”
He grinned, “I don’t.”
“Then why-”
“Today, I need you two to get the hell out of my house. So we’re taking back an old church. And by we I mean you,” Gojo cut you off.
“Taking back a church? From whom?” Nanami questioned.
“Vampires of course. It’s good land, and it’s a shame that the church let it fall in the first place. There’s a small coven, just four vampires who inhabit it. You two can handle that right?”
“What will you be doing?” Nanami asked.
“I will be gathering the materials to sanctify the church. And I need you two to hop to it. Tonight is a full moon, and if you don’t get it done today, then I won’t be able to get you two out of here until next month and that is not an option.”
With that Gojo grabbed a poptart from the cabinet and left, therefore leaving you and Nanami alone. He looked the same as always in all black, ready to go bust another den of vampires. You found your gaze lingering on him, as if you expected to find some obvious physical change in him after a singular kiss. You shook your head in disappointment with yourself. You could just ask him what that was about. It would be easier than trying to glean meaning out of what happened on your own.
“Um, Nanami,” you called hesitantly.
“We should get ready to leave,” he said abruptly, “Your weapons are upstairs”
If ever that was a hint not to ask your question. Maybe it was just because Gojo was around. Nevertheless, it was hard to get the courage back to ask him about it right away so you just did as he said, taking your mug of coffee with you as you went upstairs to gather your things. The two of you would have the whole car ride to talk about it anyway.
Except in the car he played music the whole time. It was far too loud to hold a conversation, heavy drums, screamed lyrics, the whole nine yards. Plus, the church wasn’t terribly far away. It was 45 minutes away in the woods, a quaint chapel with vibrant stained glass in the windows. The stone building put you on edge for some reason. It reminded you of the kind of thing you’d see in a horror movie. Maybe it was a place where witches were hanged and people today went missing.
“What’s our plan?” you asked Nanami.
“Well it’s day time, so they’re probably sleeping. I can’t imagine they get many human visitors way out here. It’s probably just a meeting place for vampires.”
“And we’ll be calling this place home? I can feel the ghosts of racist white people calling me slurs.”
He looked at you then the church and sort of huffed a little laugh, “I see what you mean. Come on.”
You thought that the door might be locked when Nanami went up to it, but it opened with a long creak. The inside was nicer than you expected. The stone flooring had a nice finish on it still, and the inside of the church smelled fresh. These vampires were certainly keeping the place in top shape. When you saw Nanami pull his weapon you did the same, taking a silver stake from the sheath at your thigh. You supposed there was absolutely no reason to pretend like you weren’t here to slay vampires.
Sunlight filtered through the stained glass windows, painting parts of the room vibrant jewel tones. You heard movement to your left, and both you and Nanami looked in that direction. You took a deep breath, smelling the sharp scent of a vampire. To be fair, this place reeked of vampires, but you could tell the difference between a lingering scent, and a new approaching one. This one was like cloves and nutmeg, a strong spiced scent like autumn. It was pleasant, but very nearly overwhelming. The approaching vampire was a woman who looked like she’d just stepped out of the pages of a Jane Austen novel. She took a breath to alert the others, but you’d already darted across the room and put your stake through her heart. You held her body close to yours to keep her from falling too loudly. Her jaw dropped in a silent scream. Her eyes violet like amethyst gems stared right into yours but there was no anger in her stare.
“Thank… you,” she whispered, and you felt your body go cold. You were frozen there, looking at her pale skin. The skin of her throat and chest were scarred with bite marks, the kind that still lingered on your body if you knew where to look. Just like yours, they had faded with the transformation from human to vampire. Somebody changed a feeder, but why? You leaned forward to breathe in the last of her scent and found that she smelled quite nice. You wondered if that’s what people smelled from you. You turned to look at Nanami with wide confused eyes. He, of course, had heard the exchange.
“What is this place?” you said softly
“Stay sharp,” he said curtly instead of answering. Truth be told, he had no more of an idea about what was happening than you did.
You carefully set the woman on the ground, before continuing through the church. But now you couldn’t help but wonder why this place was Gojo’s pick for relocation. What was so special about it? There was a door at the end of a hallway that you opened, letting Nanami take the lead down the dark staircase. You thought that the other vampires would be sleeping, but you could hear voices from far off. This basement had to run deeper than you knew. It was pitch black. Vampires had no need for light. Your vision was a good deal better in the dark. You wondered if Nanami was okay. His vision was not as good as yours without light. With that in mind you gently grabbed his shirt and pulled him back so you could be in front. The stone walls on either side of you were cold, and there was a dampness in the air that seemed inevitable with the underground. This place was obviously taken care of. It did not smell, except for a faint earthy scent, and the ground beneath you was smooth and even.
As you drew closer the voices grew louder, at least seven distinct voices could be heard. Four out of seven were male voices, two were definitely female and the last one you couldn’t quite place. They’d only said one word. The two of you passed many rooms in your journey, each one was empty. It seemed they were all in a meeting of some sort, in a large hall, that made their voices echo. As the two of you approached the hall began to take on a red glow on the lower half of the walls and reflected off of the floor.
“Cordelius expects us to be ready to move tonight. If you idiots hadn’t let her get away in the first place we wouldn’t be scrambling now,” a woman said.
“We found another one just like her!” an eerily familiar voice said. Your heart was in the pit of your stomach.
“Emmy is a peace offering, if we want a place in the new world that old bat is building we need her.”
“I don’t understand what his damn fascination is with that damn feeder. She was always more trouble than she was worth. He sullied her blood, you know? Emmy’s the real deal. A genuine Eve of the new world. He should be over the moon that we found her. In fact we did him a favor, losing that troublemaker. The church has her now, they’ve probably offed her by now.”
“We know they haven’t! Tara’s security had eyes on her!”
“So they’re torturing the stupid bitch!”
You heard the sounds of a scuffle and the hard thump of a fist hitting flesh. The man cried out.
“They’re using her as a weapon against us! Do you have any idea what will happen when they figure out what she can really do! She took out one of the undead on her own, and she’s weakened! If she starts feeding like she’s supposed to all of us are dead.”
You and Nanami were both around the corner from the hall. The lower half of the walls, and the floor were an ominous red, while the ceiling shined a vibrant blue. Maybe they had LEDs in the hall, but why would they? At any rate, it was obvious that they were talking about you. Obviously, if you drank human blood you’d be a stronger, quicker, deadlier weapon, but you would also be a monster.
“Where is Emmy?” A new female voice spoke, “Doesn’t usually take her so long to come back.”
“Send the other girl to go get her,” the previous woman said.
“Rebecca,” a man called and you heard the corresponding movement. It seemed like you weren’t going to be able to eavesdrop anymore. This woman would surely see the two of you. You took a deep breath, and among the usual scents of a normal vampire was one like fresh lilac and patchouli. Another turned feeder? You glanced at Nanami so that he knew what you were going to do. You had to stake her, and once you did, you knew the vampires in the hall would react. You gripped the stake in your hand as tightly as you could, then she came around the corner. Death found her before she even knew it.
“What was that?!” a woman exclaimed and Nanami moved around you to shoot the closest vampires. The sound of his guns firing with deadly precision was deafening as it echoed in the hall. You set the woman on the ground gently, pulling your stake out of her chest before standing to your full height to help Nanami. You turned in time to see an attack coming from the left. You sprang, your body colliding with the man who meant to take him out. His back hit a pillar before he fell down on top of you. You moved quickly to get in a better position. In his dazed state you got him onto his back and lifted the stake to kill him, then he said your name. It gave you pause, and you really took the chance to look at him. He was one of the vampires who were supposed to take you out to feed two years ago when you made your escape to the church. He had ashen skin, dramatic side burns, and a thin nose that had been broken quite a few times.
He punched you in the stomach and got you off your balance, grabbing at your wrists to try and restrain you.
“Kill the fucker with the guns, I’ve got the fuckin prized pony!” he bellowed to the other vampires in the room. You realized that there were more vampires in the hall, most of them had been silent through the discussion. There were too many. At least 15. You’d definitely stumbled across some kind of meeting. The rapid fire of Nanami’s guns stopped with a click and you knew he was out of ammo.
Nanami let out a heavy sigh. There were at least three vampires coming right at him immediately. He dodged their attack, reaching behind him for the weapon strapped to his back. It was a blessed cleaver, sharp enough to take off a vampire’s head, and the blessings on the blade saw to it that the blow was fatal. Still getting the blade left him open to attacks. A vampire punched him hard enough to send him into one of the pillars in the room. He did manage to get the blade free as they approached. He got back to his feet, unwrapping the blade from it’s cloth bindings. The white, black-dotted fabric made for great knuckle protection as he wound it around his hand. A set of fangs were bared and headed straight for his face and he shoved his fist in their mouth, grimacing against the enormous pressure of supernaturally strong jaws around his hand. He lifted the now uncovered blade and cleaved their head from their shoulders. He had to pry the dead jaws of the vampire off of his hand and it fell with a thud. It gave the other attackers pause. They expected the body of their ally to move but it did not. Nanami used their hesitation to go for you. Four vampires were moving with you, trying to take you from him. He had the time to cleave two of their necks before he was being mobbed again.
That was all the assistance you needed. With your dominant hand free you were able to attack. Shoving it through the nearest vampire’s chest and taking out its heart. It wasn’t enough to simply take it. If regained in enough time, it could be put back in the vampire. The vampire sure tried to take it back from you. In a knee jerk move you brought the heart to your mouth and bit it, sinking your razor sharp fangs into the organ, and using your now free hand to protect yourself.
Vampire blood was not sustaining to vampires. If a vampire bit another vampire it was purely for pleasure. It did not trigger the feeding frenzy that could make it so dangerous for a vampire to feed directly from a human host (which is why blood was often bottled or put in special casks for guests). So if you had the mind to think, you would have been confused about what happened next.
The hunger that possessed you was unlike any you had ever experienced. Suddenly you were parched, throat burning with the need for blood. You had never experienced anything like this… even when you first encountered Nanami’s blood. It was good, great even, but it wasn’t this. You blacked out.
Nanami heard the vicious growling that erupted behind him as he fought. He recognized your growls specifically, but he couldn’t hazard a look. He could only hope that the sound of tearing flesh and broken bones were by your hand. An old vampire was at his throat. She, of course, did not look old but the power behind her strikes and her abilities gave her age away. He held a hand at her throat, and her hand was holding his other one (the one with the cleaver). Every second that passed her fangs drew closer to their mark. His arm shook with exertion his own growls joining the vicious sounds echoing in the hall. Frantic screams added a truly chilling chorus to the mix. Just when he felt like the arm holding this vampire back was going to give out, something knocked into her like a freight train. It was too fast for even Nanami’s eyes to follow. He saw in the end it was a body that had been torn in half, but did not bleed. He turned in the direction that the carcass came from. You stood there for a split second before you were moving too fast for him to see you anymore. But in that split second he noticed that your mouth all the way down to your chest was dripping with blood. He felt the whoosh of air as you leapt over him on the ground to launch your body at the vampire that had already coiled herself to spring. You both hit the ground hard, rolling around like feuding lions. His eyes took in the rest of the room. Not all of the bodies were drained. Some were bleeding out on the floor, hearts snatched from their chests and discarded with chunks bit out of them a few feet away from them. The red glow in the room only seemed more intense and the blood splatters on the vibrant blue ceiling shone with a ghastly sort of beauty. A sickening crunch and snap called Nanami’s attention back to the fight. He had only looked away for a few seconds. You were crouched over the vampire’s body, the greedy sound of hasty glugs told him that you were drinking her blood. His grip on the cleaver in his hand tightened.
“Y/N,” he called, stunned by your actions. Vampires didn’t taste particularly good to other vampires. They bit each other for pleasure, not to feed. He couldn’t understand what you were doing. But you turned sharply as he moved towards you, your wide dark eyes appraising him for a split second before you were on top of him. His head smacked the stone floor sharply, and he winced. His weapon suddenly felt impossibly heavy in his hand now.
“Y/N, dammit this isn’t you,” he said as you loomed over him, “Don’t do this.”
You breathed in sharply, before your gaze went to his arm, the one holding his weapon. You grabbed his wrist and he winced expecting you to take off his hand or inflict some other form of violence to stop him from using the holy weapon against you. Instead you pressed your nose against his wrist, breathing in slowly. You trailed your nose from wrist up his arm, to his neck. He should have taken the opportunity, taken your head off when he felt your lips on his neck, slick with blood, and warm with the flush of feeding. Yet, he did nothing, paralyzed in the moment. You pulled back to look him in the eyes and he stared at you, confused that you hadn’t attacked him. Your eyes were still unfocused. You obviously weren’t yourself still, but you made no move to attack. You took his face in your hand, smudging blood on his face and yet he found he did not mind. And he didn’t mind when your bloody lips pressed against his.
Similar to the previous night, Nanami found himself wanting to be as close to you as physically possible. He let go of the cleaver in favor of wrapping his arms around your body, taking you off balance to roll so that you were beneath him. His mouth moved with yours in hurried, hungry patterns, ones you wouldn’t let escalate the night before, too busy worrying about things that had no bearing on your present moment. He could feel the sharp edge of your nails even through his shirt. If you were all there, you would stop this. That thought sobered him. He pulled away from you sharply, ignoring the desperate sound you made at him.
“Hey, snap out of it,” he said firmly, “Listen to me, you’re not yourself.” He held your face in his hand to keep your gaze on his. You made another desperate whining sound and he realized expecting you to come down from a blood frenzy while surrounded by the blood you fed on was asinine.
“Come on,” he said, moving to pick you up cautiously. At any moment, he was aware that you could turn on him. Especially as he moved you away from the blood you so desired. It would be easier to just kill you while you weren’t trying to fight him. Still, he picked you up, carrying you out of the winding halls beneath the church. In the light of day the carnage staining your body was much more gruesome than he could have fathomed in the dark. You were covered in blood, and now so was he. You hissed at the light and his heart dropped a moment. Was this it? Was this the moment where whatever resistance you had to normal vampire weaknesses vanished? Or maybe the abrupt change from dark to light was drastic for such sensitive eyes and he was worrying over nothing.
“Nanami,” you murmured, voice slurred together a bit.
“I’m here.”
“Are you alright?”
“I’m fine.”
“I didn’t hurt you did I?” your voice was smaller with that question and so he looked down at you.
Coming back to yourself felt foggy, like when you stop drinking at a party and suddenly the lights inside your brain turn back on an hour later. You’re still drunk, but you’re self aware again, and you can acknowledge that you’re drunk and maybe you feel bad. You felt full, like a bag of liquid sloshing around with every step Nanami took. When you came back to yourself you first noticed Nanami’s scent, and then the warmth of his touch. The last thing you noticed was all the blood on him, smudged across his neck, and all over his mouth.
“No. You didn’t.”
You let out a relieved sigh, “I don’t know what happened. I didn’t even smell you bleeding.”
“You didn’t go into a frenzy over my blood. I don’t think I’m bleeding.” He set you on a nearby pew and took a seat beside you, “Think,” he urged. “Try to remember, I know you can.”
You ran your hands down your face, and you felt how wet your hands and face were. They were both covered in blood. And you recalled the time you lost to the blood frenzy.
“Oh my god. Oh my god,” you whispered.
“Hey, you only attacked vampires. I don’t think you had any intentions of hurting me,” Nanami said, trying to comfort you.
“What am I?”
He faltered, “I don’t know.”
“I’m sorry,” you hung your head.
“What are you sorry about? You saved my life.”
“I kissed you while I was like that. I didn’t even ask. I basically assaulted you-”
“Consider yourself forgiven. We’ve kissed before you know.”
“And you asked me.”
“I didn’t mind,” He answered.
“I don’t understand you,” you admitted, sounding utterly defeated, “I’m too tired to try.”
“Rest. I’ll call Gojo, tell him we’re finished here.”
You nodded, easing yourself back to lie down on the church pew.
Nanami lingered for a moment, wishing he had something to cover you with. He didn’t so he set upon making sure that the small church was secure before going outside to call Gojo. The sun was high in the sky as he went out. He took a deep breath to clear his head, and then made the call. He told Gojo an edited version of the events that took place in the church. He didn’t need to know that you drained the blood from over a dozen vampires, he didn’t need to know that you seemed to be a commodity worth throwing ones life over. Vampires didn’t risk their lives easily, and they were set on taking you, not killing you. If they meant to kill you, they probably wouldn’t be dead right now. There were a lot of details he left out for your protection and also for his. Because there was no logical reason why you were still alive after what happened today. If he, himself, had anything close to a self preservation instinct he wouldn’t be lying for you. When he went back inside of the church, he set upon cleaning up any evidence that would make his words an obvious lie.
When you woke up it was sunset. You stared at the colored light streaming through the stained glass windows for a moment, still waiting for your brain to turn on completely. You felt full. Completely and utterly satisfied, something you’d never felt before. Animal blood kept you moving, it made the thirst bearable so that you wouldn’t be a threat to humans but you were always thirsty. You didn’t feel thirsty. You felt… well you weren’t sure what you were feeling. You got up, and walked around the small church until you found a bathroom. You looked at your face in the mirror. Blood was smeared all over you. You knew that your hands were covered in red, dried blood caked under your fingernails. Before you even looked in the mirror you knew your face had to be a mess. Your skin felt tight with dried blood on it. Still, seeing it was harrowing. You looked every bit like a thing right out of a horror movie… like the vampires you used to see stumbling out of the other feeders’ rooms, too blood drunk to care about their mess. You felt disgusting. You turned on the water and scrubbed at your face, trying to get the blood off as quickly as possible. Then when that was done you scrubbed at your hands, choking on horrified sobs, as tears made your sight swim. Everything was just a wash of red in the sink, until red faced to pink, and then eventually the water ran clear. Your breath heaved and hitched as you cried. You never wanted any of this. You’d give anything to just be a normal woman.
You noticed your clothes and you knew there was nothing you could do about the rapidly stiffening fabric. You didn’t bring a change of clothes with you. With that, you left out of the bathroom to go find Nanami. You could hear a rhythmic thud from outside and figured it was him. You stepped outside into the light of the setting sun, scanning the area before you heard a grunt and another thud. He was around back.
He too was in the light of the setting sun, and it glistened on his bare back, that was smudged with blood and sparkling with the sweat on his skin. He lifted an ax above his head and brought it down swiftly on the log in front of him. You moved forward slowly, feeling a bit in a daze. You stepped on a twig and drew his eye. He looked over his shoulder at you and then snatched the ax out of the stump the log was resting on.
“How are you?”
“‘M fine,” you mumbled, “Why are you out here looking like a sexy ax murderer?” you asked.
He huffed a little laugh, turning towards you, “I need a fire for the pyre.”
“Right,” you nodded, remembering all the bodies beneath the church. Even the sight of Nanami’s pecs, perky and glistening, couldn’t lift your spirits.
“They were all vampires. You did what we always do.”
“You drain vampires too?” you asked bitterly.
“It’s better than draining humans.”
“I wish I didn’t drain anyone.”
“They were vampires,” he insisted.
“I’m a vampire! Worst of all, I’m a cannibal.”
“I don’t think you are. Gojo already had his doubts about you being a vampire. This proved it.”
“Did you tell him about this? Does he have any idea what I might be?”
He shook his head, “No, I didn’t tell him. It wasn’t important. We did what he wanted, we got rid of the coven here and a few more vampires-”
“Nanami, this is important! You can’t just leave out the fact that I drank from them. And I was stronger! And they were good, Nanami. Especially the girls who used to be feeders. They were sweet,” Your voice took on a sort of mournful throbbing sound because there were tears collecting in your eyes as you thought of those women. They were probably in the same predicament as you, changed against their will after spending a whole life being bitten and fed from. You killed them that way. You were no better than any other leech.
“Nothing has changed,” He insisted, “You killed vampires-”
“If killing vampires is what we do, why won’t you kill me?! I’m just getting more dangerous! What if I kill you next?! What then?! Do you think I could live with myself if I hurt you?!”
“I don’t think you can… hurt me, I mean. You were in a frenzy, and all you did was kiss me.”
Your whole body flushed as you remembered the feeling of his mouth moving against yours. The taste of blood was on his lips, and his body was warm and firm against yours. It had felt truly euphoric.
“Nanami,” you said miserably.
“Go get another log. I want to have this pyre going before sundown.”
You knew that meant he was done trying to convince you that you weren’t a monster. He was done talking to you in general, and honestly you didn’t know what else you could possibly say. He could be so stubborn and it was impossible to get him to feel differently about anything. The pyre was going strong when Gojo got there. He looked between the two of you curiously.
“Damn, what the hell happened to you?” Gojo asked you.
“There were more vampires than you said,” Nanami answered for you, “17 bodies on that pyre.”
“… You two are good at your jobs. Somebody’s gotten stronger,” He said lightly, but he peered over his black shades to look right at you. You stared back at him, wondering if maybe it was written on your face just how monstrous you’d become. Maybe you wanted him to know so he could do something about it. Nanami stepped in front of you, obscuring his view of you.
“Cordelius has turned a lot of women already. There were 7 women who used to be feeders in their midst.”
“All of them were failures, I’m sure, if Cordelius wasn’t here with them.”
“What’s so special about this chapel?” Nanami asked, abruptly changing the subject.
“It’s secluded, private, I think the stonework is charming, and it’s on the land where the last fallen angel was slain. So, there’s a lot of power here. It’s the only place in the country where a mother of vampires can be made.”
“What?” You asked.
“It needs to be hallowed again to thwart him,” Gojo continued. Gojo lifted up a stack of folded clothes.
“I need a priest and a nun.”
“I don’t know if I qualify as a nun-”
“You took the vows, right?” He asked and you nodded, “And you haven’t recanted them?”
“I didn’t know that was an option!”
“You’re a nun. Just like Nanami is fully ordained. Change into your uniforms you two. I’ll be sure these remains are nothing but ashes. Nanami took both stacks of clothing and led the way back inside. The moment you were in the church there was a bright flash of red outside.
Changing into the habit felt more wrong than it ever had before. You avoided reflective surfaces, not wanting to see yourself like this. Nanami looked more like himself back in his robes. His rosary hung around his neck completing the all black clothing.
“Father,” you addressed sardonically.
He scoffed, “Come on.”
“I don’t know what I’m doing,” you said frantically.
“Neither do I. I’m sure Gojo will tell us.”
There were candles alight at the altar, a ceremonial night, and a few dubious powders. He took a flask out of his pocket and you could only assume it held holy water from the way he flicked it around him. Gojo looked every bit as angelic as one could, with a halo of white hair, bright blue eyes.
“You’ll both kneel in front of the altar and recite the prayer in front of you until I tell you to stop,” He instructed, flippantly.
You did as he said and Nanami joined.
Gojo chuckled, “My is that all I had to say to get you on your knees, Nanamin?”
Nanami glared at him. You might have laughed under normal circumstances. Instead you stared at the prayer written in front of you. Trying to be sure you didn’t mess it up. It was simple, just a few stanzas.
“Alright,” Gojo breathed in, “Begin.”
You read the prayer ahead of you, only to smell the sharp spicy scent of Gojo’s blood. He had a bright silver blade in his hand and drew the point of it across the his palm. His blood fell from a red line in his hand, but glowed bright blue as it hit the stone floors. A cool breeze rushed through the chapel, you felt it but the candles’ flames did not react to it at all. He blessed the church, reciting words in a language you didn’t know, while letting his blood fall upon the church floor as he walked around it.
“And done,” Gojo announced. You lifted your eyes from the page to look at him and saw four eyes haloed above his head, “I… need to go lie down. You two, I’m sure you can find something to do with yourself for the night.”
You looked at Nanami, curious of his reaction to Gojo’s words and when you looked back he was gone.
“There is an old bedroom up in the attic. I won’t make you traverse the underground right now.”
“Nanami, we need to talk about this. I don’t understand you anymore. I’m not useful to you. I’m a liability, an unnecessary risk.”
“I believe that is up to my judgment.”
“What do you want from me? This doesn’t worry you?!”
“You heard them down there before we stepped in. You were likely made with the vampire culling in mind. I doubt you’re anything more than a new type of vampire, one that can feed on other vampires. That woman said that if we figured out how to really feed you it would be bad for them. Obviously, you really feed on vampires. It’s that simple.”
“It’s not! They should be trying to kill me, not kidnap me if that’s the case! None of this makes even a lick of sense. I don’t understand what you’re thinking. Or what you’re doing. Why are you protecting me? I’m going to die at the end of this. You get that right? Do you get that because I’m starting to think you don’t.”
“Stop it.”
“No! At the end of this I die! We can’t keep kissing and you can’t keep protecting me. You’re holding on to a dead woman. I’m a walking corpse!”
“That is not what you are-”
“I AM! I’m already dead. I’ve been dead since the moment you met me.”
He grabbed you by the shoulders and shook you, “You’re not dying!” he yelled at you, “You don’t have to. We could continue living together as we have been-”
“Nanami,” you said mournfully, “You are telling me what you want from me, what I should want for myself. Your word isn’t final. God, are all men selfish, then?” there was a hint of humor in your tone, but there was nothing funny about this impasse you were at with him.
“I’m allowed my vices aren’t I? I spent a decade alone before you came along. I’d forgotten what it was like to have a companion, for there to be another soul at my side on this damned road to nowhere.”
“I wasn’t under the impression that I had a soul.” You continued your humorless laughter because if you didn’t laugh you might do something stupid like cry.
“Soulless creatures burn up in the sun and on hallowed ground, they take from the innocent, and kill without remorse. You aren’t like that.”
“I could be.”
“But you choose not to be. Don’t you get that there has never been a vampire with a greater right to eternity than you. After everything you’ve been through, you deserve more than a violent death.”
“Nanami, don’t get attached to me.”
“It’s too late for that, you temptress. It is far too late for that. You spend three years straight, flirting with me and now you have the audacity to be appalled when I feel something for you,” He said, squeezing the tops of your arms as he shook you a little.
“I’m a lecherous leech, remember. A debaucherous demon. A baseless bimbo. You’ve had so many alliterations for me over the years. I know you can’t be getting choked up over me now.”
“Things are different now. We’re different now.”
“I’m not different. When all is said and done, if you won’t put a stake through my heart, I know someone who will. You gave me your word, but if-”
“That was before you made me care about you, you damn succubus,” he said harshly.
“There’s the good father I know and love.” You looked up at him mournfully and he returned your gaze with an incensed one of his own, and then he was kissing you. It happened so quickly you didn’t really even know how to react at first. This kiss was nothing like the other two, it was rough and angry, you could feel the sharp edge of his fangs threatening to cut your lip and tongue. He grasped the tops of your arms tightly as he pulled you in close. Just when you were settling into the kiss he pulled away from you.
“Do I really mean nothing to you?” he asked, resting his forehead against yours, “the years haven’t softened you to me at all?”
“What does it matter?” you complained.
“It matters to me,” he said.
He would know if you lied and yet you couldn’t tell him the truth. It would only make him hold on to you tighter. This was all bad. You had no idea how to handle someone who wasn’t prepared to kill you at a moment’s notice. You’d never encountered any man who wasn’t prepared to cut you loose at the earliest convenience. Nothing good could come out of this for Nanami, and he didn’t seem to care.
“You’re nothing to me,” you said, “You’re just the next man who thinks he can own me with pretty words and promises-.”
“Stop lying,” he growled at you, shaking you firmly.
“You’re nothing to me,” you shook your head, “I’m just another hedonistic vampire, I’m hoping you’ll fuck me on the altar and keep fighting for me until you have nothing left and then I’ll leave and I’ll never look back like vampires do.”
“I know you’re lying… well partially lying. You really do want me to fuck you on the altar don’t you?”
“No,” that was a bold faced lie. The firm hold he had you had your heart racing.
“Tell me the truth.”
“Nanami, none of this means anything, because at the end I die.”
“Fine. I’ll look you in the eye and shove a stake through your heart. Is that what you want to hear from me? Violence?”
“Nanami-”
“Shut up,” he growled at you, “I’ll make you honest one way or another. You’re just a hedonistic vampire, huh? You’re using me?” he asked and suddenly he was dragging you towards the altar where the candles from the ritual were still lit “Fine. Use me. You wanted it on the altar right?”
He kissed you again with another hard bruising kiss. His arms wrapped around your body and you weren’t strong enough to pull away from him. Instead you pulled him in close, grabbing fistfuls of his robes to keep yourself plastered against him. Maybe you weren’t as big of a liar as you thought because you were melting in his embrace, knees going weak as his tongue moved against yours. You wouldn’t even let him away for a breath, leaving him to gasp and breathe into your mouth. He had to pry you away with a hand on your throat. Your eyes fluttered open, bewildered by his sudden choice to pull away from you. For a split second, you worried that you’d done something wrong. However, even though you couldn’t fully understand the expression on his face you knew it wasn’t one of reproach. It was dark, full of desire, and it stirred something in the pit of your stomach. He crowded up against you, making you fall on your butt on top of the altar table. You tilted your head all the way back to keep looking at him while he stood over you. He tugged his clerical collar off and tossed it away from him. Next opening the long black cassock to reveal his normal all black attire under it. He never took his gaze from you.
He kept his eyes on you while he took off his extra clothing, “Tell me to stop and I will, but if you don’t…. If you don’t you’ll have to forgive me for the man I become once I get a taste of you.”
You were not interested in stopping him. You should have been, if you were a better person you would have pushed him away. But you’re not, and you never were. It would be convenient to blame it on the fact that you were a greedy vampire. Maybe that was the root of your evil, who knows. Either way, you liked the sight of him rolling up his sleeves with practiced efficiency, giving you all the time in the world to think things over and back out. You liked watching him gett on his knees before you. You used to dream of having him like this but the roles were reversed. You’d dream of being on your knees, begging for salvation from your sins and taking full advantage of the fact that vampires don’t have an easy gag reflex. You never expected Nanami to be gently closing a hand around your ankle and lifting it. His eyes were heavy on yours, waiting for you to do anything to stop him. You swallowed loudly, as the skirt of your habit slid up and over your knee bunching up in your lap. The angle of your ankle on his shoulder made you lean back, knocking over candles only for them to sputter and go out on the cool stone floor. He kissed your ankle, then his lips trailed up your calf, all the way up to your thigh. He bit the soft supple flesh of your thigh.
“Oh god,” You gasped.
“Is this all it took to get you to praise God? Maybe you are just another dirty vampire.” he went higher, kissing right at the junction of your thigh to your pelvis, “Push me away now, this is your last chance.”
You squeezed your eyes shut and made no move to stop him. You didn’t want to. Then he was snatching down your underwear. He didn’t tease, which is what you expected from him. You expected to have to beg him but as always he gave to you willingly, a fact that would eat you alive later and you knew it. He pressed his mouth against your sex immediately and you cursed. His tongue was hot and wet, nudging against your clit in a set rhythm, before he started lightly sucking. He started sucking in earnest, mouth moving against your sex in lewd wet sounds. Your eyes popped open in surprised when he slipped a finger inside of you, and you were staring at the face of the virgin Mary in one of the stained glass windows.
“Nanami, ah! Nana-”
He pulled away with a sharp smack to say, “You’ll call me Kento.” He went right back at the task of making you lose your mind. His mouth never lost contact with you, moving as you squirmed to keep worrying your clit. He added a second finger, curling both of them against the sensitive spot inside your pussy. He wished he had the composure to make you beg for him, to reduce you to a shaking whimpering mess, but he was far gone, in his own frenzy that he didn’t have a prayer of breaking out so easily.
You were so warm and wet against his mouth, like a well that never ran dry, he drank from you as if he’d never known water, feeling your essence dribble down his chin. He could tease you because it meant depriving himself of the sweet frantic sounds of your pleasure. The closest he could get to teasing was sliding his lips from your clit down towards your entrance. He pressed his tongue into you as far as it would go, until his nose nudged your clit.
“Ken- Ah, Oh god, oh god, oh-” you let out a high pitched little squeak as he shook his head, making his nose nudge your clit even more as he enjoyed the taste of your arousal right from the source. When at last he felt like he might burst if he didn’t get a full breath, he slid his mouth back up to your clit, breathing sharply through his nose.
His relentless ministrations made you cum much faster than you could have foreseen. It was far better than your own touch had ever been and he didn’t stop immediately, grasping your hips in his strong hands to keep his mouth on you. His moans vibrated lightly against yours, mingling with your own.
Your sex was pulsing against his mouth, greedily trying to draw him in. He could spend an eternity with his mouth pressed against your cunt, letting his lips slide against your soaking petals without a modicum of unpleasant friction. But alas, there were other pleasures on his mind, and the way you were jerking in his grasp told him he was pushing you a bit too far. He withdrew from under your skirt with the sole mission to take it off. Your veil was a bit askew on your head as you lifted your head to look at him. He’d never understood Adam’s decision to be damned with his foolish lover more than he did at this moment. He would turn his back on paradise to run towards hell if you resided there.
“I am a pious man,” he said on a heavy sigh as he stood in front of you, “but even I have my limits.” As he spoke he unbuttoned his shirt revealing his body to you, watching the way your wide open eyes drank him in. The genuine wonder in your gaze made him feel like a thing to be revered and scorned in equal amounts. If he were smart he’d have listened to you before. He would do as you asked… and yet being unwise won him the beauty of your legs open for him, sex glistening with your own arousal, and his saliva. It earned him the adoration in your gaze, and the beauty of your form. Knowledge of nakedness was a blessing. This was for his eyes only, a gift Adam never would have known if he hadn’t partaken of the fruit.
“I want to fucking tear you apart.” he grumbled as he abandoned undressing to bite the softness of your breasts hard enough to make you gasp. His fingers entered you again, scissoring and pressing down firmly to get you accustomed to the stretch.
“Kento!” you whined.
“That’s it, call out my name, maybe that will save you,” he mocked. His shirt was open wide, cross resting against his skin. He leaned in closer, kissing up to your throat and pressing his teeth against the steady beat of your pulse with no intention to break the skin.
“You’ll have to forgive my selfishness on all fronts. I need to be inside of you,” he said against your fevered skin. He couldn’t even be bothered to fully undress. It was a real injustice to you, but he would work hard to make sure you couldn’t think of the inequality of your nakedness.
“Ngh, Kento I- Ah,” You looked at him as he took his fingers out of you to hastily tug at his belt. The orange glow of the remaining candles flickered against his body. He was beautiful, always had been, and he’d taken care of you all of this time. How could you begin to be strong enough not to give into desire, to abstain from the temptation he wrought. Your eyes wandered down to the sharp “V” that spilled into his pants, slowly being revealed to you. When at last shoved his pants down enough to be out of the way you got a good look at his cock to see he was already hard.
“Jesus, Joseph, and Mary.”
He gave you a small reproachful look for using such names in vain, but it did not stop him from hitting your clit with the head of his cock, and then rocking his hips forward a bit to rub against it before he pressed down, collecting your wetness. He did this pattern a few time, easing himself into the pleasures of your body, preparing himself for the feast of your lust. When he finally allowed himself to be engulfed in you he did so slowly, dragging the head of his cock through your folds, down to your entrance, and rocking slowly into you, giving you inch after tantalizing inch gradually. With a syrupy sweet roll of his hips, languid like water but without rush, more like honey dripping from a dipper.
He still wasn’t teasing you. His body was overheated, like the flames of hell themselves had come up to greet him. You were so wet, wrapped snug around him. Your sex yielded to him so beautifully, molding deliciously to his length like you were made to take him. If he went all in he might lose his mind completely and despite his warning he had no intentions of scaring you off by hurting you. This was about pleasure, something simple, something honest since you couldn’t stop lying to him. You were not a proper hedonist, you were too easily martyred, too satisfied with the prospect of your own suffering. You weren’t a hedonist, but he could make you wone.
“Kento, please. Please, more,” you babbled at him, sitting up to grab his hips and pull him towards. It’s not that he disliked the sound of your begging, he disliked that you were searching for suffering. As wet as you were he could still hurt you by slamming into you, he could still lose it and tear you apart, without even knowing it you were tempting him towards such violence that he usually kept under tight bounds. You had an inane drive towards misery that he hoped to get rid of for you. He wanted you to beg him for pleasure, nothing more. He glared down his nose at you before he pressed his palm against your chest to push you back against the altar firmly. You hit the table hard sending a few more candles off the edge, tiny tea lights, and candle sticks that broke on impact and flickered before going out.
“Impatient thing. You really think you’re in a position to ask anything more of me,” he said, but in spite of his words he snapped his hips forward, shoving in until his hips clapped against the backs of your thighs. You yelped, and he grabbed your throat in a firm grip.
“Constantly asking for things without any real idea what you’ve requested. If you’re going to throw out your life anyway, why not give it to me? Why not be mine forever?”
He loomed over you know, firelight dancing across his face while his rosary dangled right in your face.
“Kento-” you cut off with another loud yelp as he started fucking you hard enough that you were worried the altar table would break. The only thing that kept you from sliding up the surface. You felt your coif and veil begin to slide up because you were partially laying on it, which was an uncomfortable sensation. You tugged at it futilely only for Nanami to snatch it off as he lifted you by the throat to kiss him. Each thrust felt like it was rattling every bone in your body, sparking pleasure like flint striking, one spark after another, chasing that roaring flame. You wrapped your arms around him pulling him in close. His breath was heavy, panting when your mouths separated long enough for him to catch a breath.
“So wet,” he murmured, “Used to- ah- used to think about showing you exactly what you had to look forward to when you’d confess those dirty things to me. Is it what you hoped, do you still think you can handle my vices?” He thought of all the lecherous thoughts you’d inflicted upon him over the years, and you had the nerve to be surprised that he was reluctant to let you go. What could have been the purpose behind flirting with him for years? Were you simply that cruel? You meant to rile him up and then demand he kill you with his own hand. You had no idea what you asked for and yet you were constantly making demands.
You moaned wordlessly holding on to his wrist to ground you. You felt the hot flash pleasure catch and become a steadily growing fire as his pelvis ground against your clit from the way his body was pressed against yours. One of your hands gripped his lower back, coaxing him in deeper, trying to pull him closer like that was even a possibility.
He really did feel like he was going to tear you apart if he couldn’t keep himself in check.
“Bite me!” you squeaked out. He let go of your throat baring his teeth at you as your sex clenched down on him. You always did know how to shake his self-control. He hissed softly as his fangs were bared to you. You moaned looking at the spit slicked canines in his mouth, imagining what they would feel like biting into you. Now there was a request for pleasure.
“Say it again,” he demanded.
“Bite me!” you whined, voice jumping with the force of his thrusts as he hit the end of you every time.
“Beg me for it. Beg me for my bite,” he demanded, growling at you as he grasped your hips with both hands driving into you fast and hard.
“Please, please, Kento. Please, I need it. I need you to bite me. I can’t…. I can’t trust myself to do it to you. Just fuck, I need it. I need it so bad,” you babbled at him a mile a minute, looking up at him as he was bathed in orange light. He let his head fall back as he groaned towards the heavens. His jaw went slack and he rolled his neck before sitting his dark gaze on you again.
“Kentooo!” you called out and he bent down, kissing your neck and grazing his teeth against your throat, before he grabbed a handful of your hair and tugged it hard. Your neck was bared to him and he bit you. You cried out as pleasure flared up like an unchecked wildfire throughout your body. Nanami shuddered against you, going harder than before making the table beneath creak and crack until it finally gave out, sending you both to the floor and yet it did nothing to break the spell of desire and lust between you. Your fingers tangled in his hair, pushing him against your neck. Your other hand clawed at his back, grounding you so that you could lift your hips to meet his frenzied thrusts. He pulled out of you suddenly, spilling his load all over your stomach and chest, but he stayed pressed against you so as his hips jerked his cock rubbed between your bodies, slicked by his cum and both of your perspiration.
“Kento,” you whined as the pleasure from his bite put you on cloud nine. You were limp and pliant in his arms, utterly euphoric in your bliss. Every touch from him, felt orgasmic, and you find yourself whining and whimpering like he was still fucking you senseless. A bite had never felt like this before, and you didn’t have the mental capacity to wonder why.
When he finally pulled away, your eyelids were heavy, but you managed to watch him collect your blood from his lips with his tongue before bending down to kiss you.
“You will have to lend me your mercy. Even at my best I am selfish. And I cannot bear to be without you now,” he murmured it so low you could have deluded yourself into believing that you’d imagined his words. Maybe you had. It was better if you did.
~
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Next Chapter
Pairing: Nanami Kento x Black!reader
Chapter 5 Summary: You and Nanami learn more about the Viscount when you meet with Gojo again. You also learn quite a bit more about each other.
Warnings: talk of death, blood, some gore… but no worse than canon
You carried the tray of tea snacks into Nanami’s office. The moment you were out of the abbess’ view you grabbed a pastry from the arrangement and shoved it in your mouth. You bumped the door closed with your hip. Nanami had a pair of glasses with a red tint perched on his thin straight nose. The old book in front of him was utterly incomprehensible to you as you came closer to the desk, sitting the tray down.
“Special delivery from Sister Hannah, she sends her regards,” you turned the tray so that he could see the glazed hearts on a couple of the danishes.
“Who?” he asked without looking up.
“Damn,” you snorted, sitting down heavily in one of the chairs across from his desk.
“What?” he asked, looking up at you in time to watch you take off the coif and veil of your uniform.
“Poor girl, she already has a hopeless crush, and you don’t even know who she is.”
“I don’t work with the sisters often.”
“You’d think you did from the way they talk about you. Father Nanami, you are the object of many fantasies in the convent. You could have any number of the sisters on their knees… for repentance.”
Nanami hummed, “Any amount?” he mused uninterestedly.
“Well, not me.” You grinned, pouring yourself a cup of tea. He looked up at you again, brown eyes searching your face with a question he was never going to ask aloud. You noticed his gaze on you and your smile turned coy.
“I’m not repentant,” you said, sitting the teapot down.
He chuckled softly, “Of course.”
You bit your lip, “Think you can make me repent, Father?”
“No,” he shook his head, “You are beyond help.”
“Right, I’m damned either way, I might as well do it thoroughly.”
He hummed in response, “There are some intricate rituals detailed in this book. Though they are hidden in plain sight with different colored inks.”
“Oh so you didn’t decide to add a little spice to your outfit,” you said.
“No, sorry to disappoint,” he answered, “But they seem to be rooted in alchemical law, something that everyone but old vampires have completely abandoned. Modern science requires knowledge not skill, but alchemy was the practice of both.”
“Gonna make a lot of scientists mad talking like this.”
He ignored you, “There is a ritual of purification that involves crucifying a young woman, virginal of course, and bleeding her body for three days straight, and then transfusing vampire blood through her. I can’t imagine many people surviving, but they thought it might keep a woman viable as a vampire.”
“For what?” you frowned. You leaned forward to look at the drawing in the book. The illustrations made your stomach turn. Staring at the woman, depicted as crying red tears, you remembered your three days. You were suspended on a crucifix but you weren’t bled. You were instead fed a strange mixture of blood and other powders left to writhe in agony as the very molecular make up of your body changed.
“Well, to breed natural born vampires.”
“Does it say it works?”
“No, but someone is trying it out and my bet is on the Viscount.”
You studied Nanami for a moment, wondering if you should tell him about your transformation. It wouldn’t help him find Alexi Cordelius but it was pertinent to his research. Though you worried if it might work against you. He had some kind of reluctance behind letting you die, maybe he was just serious about needing your help with the Viscount. But still, you didn’t want him to have a reason to renegotiate your deal.
“Have you seen anything like this?” Nanami asked.
“Once,” you answered, because there was no point in lying to Nanami, he would know immediately, “he didn’t bleed her though, and there was no transfusion, just the crucifix is familiar.”
He hummed, “It seems like proof enough that he’s trying it. Natural born vampires are rare. Currently, there are five still alive in the whole world.”
“And so if Cordelius was successful?”
“He could start breeding a very powerful type of vampire, one that is much harder to kill.”
“Fun,” you sighed.
Nanami studied you for a moment, then closed the book and took off the glasses he’d needed to read it. He made his own cup of tea and you picked up another book. Before long the phone on his desk rang. He answered it promptly. You were busy thumbing through pictures of werewolves changing under the moon. The sketches inside the book were amazing, nearly grotesque in their details.
“What do you mean?” Nanami asked, his voice sounded alarmed, which made you look at his face. He looked worried, brows crowded in on one another as he listened to the words said to him over the phone, “Are you sure?… Yes, yes, we’re coming… I understand.” He paused again to listen and he let out a weary sigh, “I will see you then, bye.” The moment he hung up he was moving.
“You need to collect your things from the convent. Do not let anyone know what you are doing. You have 20 minutes to get everything you need and meet me at the gate. Do you understand?”
You hopped up, alarmed by his sudden change in demeanor, “What’s going on?”
“I don’t have the time to explain. We are leaving and we won’t be back, so do as I said.”
You hurried to put back on the coif and veil as you left Nanami’s office. You didn’t have very many personal affects so you took the essentials, stuffing your clothes, toiletries, and things like that into a duffle bag. The sisters were together for prayer so your tasks went unnoticed. You put on regular clothes, leaving your uniform on the bed.
You met up with Nanami and he took your bags, tossing them in the car while you got in. He didn’t start explaining until the two of you were on the road.
“Gojo, called, he thinks that the church has been compromised.”
“What?”
“He found evidence of correspondence between the head of the church and Cordelius.”
“If that’s the case, then he’s had access to me this whole time,” you said.
“It’s possible.”
“How did he even come to that conclusion?!” You asked, horrified by the concept that there had never been anything coming in between you and Cordelius. If he wanted you he could have had you at any time. If he and the church were in correspondence then they could have served you right up to him. Why hadn’t they?
“I don’t know. We will ask when we get to a safe house.”
“Safe house? What are we in witness protection now?!”
“Cordelius is after you, that much we know. For that reason alone, he can’t get you.”
“Then I’m the one who has to leave?”
“Do you think I’m going to stand idly by while one of the last beacons of hope for humanity is slowly corrupted?”
“No.” You answered, there was no way Nanami would linger in the church after learning it was compromised. It just wasn’t like him.
“Precisely. We will get more information later, until then, put your seatbelt on.”
You did as he said, and tried not to dwell on your fears, but you couldn’t help it. Obviously you weren’t a normal vampire. You could be out in the sun and holy items didn’t bother you. You thought you’d know if you could get pregnant. You’d have a period, but you hadn’t had one of those since your change and they were infrequent before then. You figured you were barren like every other vampire woman. The new level of horror that came with a fate of birthing natural born vampires for all eternity shook you to your core. Had that been his plan? Truly it was a fate worse than death. You found yourself picking at your nails as the miles of highway stretched out before you.
“…. Would you kill me if it seemed like the Viscount might win?” you asked suddenly.
Nanami glanced at your haunted, thousand mile stare, “What do you mean?”
“If we go head to head with the Viscount, you’ll be sure I’m dead before he takes me.”
“He will never get his hands on you. I will see to it,” he said fiercely.
“… Promise you’ll kill me first.”
“Why do you always make me promise you death?” he asked with a heavy sigh.
You snorted, “Because I don’t think you’d promise me a night to remember.”
He hummed, “Fair.”
“You really know how to break a girl’s heart.”
“The last time I gave you something to remember you ran from me.”
“Blood! Nanami, is that all you know about pleasure! It wasn’t even sexy. I was dying. It’s not what I dreamt of in the lonely chambers of the convent,” you said dramatically. He raised an eyebrow at you. You turned your body as much as you could to face him.
“You know I used to think of human things, you know? I thought you might caress my face, kiss my cheek, then my lips, or at least in a fit of passion tell me your feelings before you were behind the kind of euphoria blood brings. You’re always straight to the point though aren’t you.”
You watched his grip on the steering wheel tighten as he stared ahead, so you continued,“I thought you would take your time, get to know how I like to be touched first, maybe wait for me to be on my knees and begging you for an ounce of pleasure… but I guess I was going off of the assumption that you were a virtuous man. And you told me that you were not. Just pious.”
“Sorry to disappoint,” he murmured.
“I’m accustomed to disappointment,” you said on a breathy sigh, really just teasing him, but you wondered then, “Was it good for you?”
“Excuse me?”
“When I sucked your blood?”
“You didn’t have to phrase it that way.”
“There are worse ways I could phrase it.”
“It was good… you were dying so it wasn’t without its fault.”
“… Would you like me to do it again?”
Nanami swallowed loudly. He’d be lying if he said he never thought about it, but he never thought about it of his own volition. The thoughts came when he looked at your lips for too long, or worse when he closed his eyes just before sleeping. He remembered that oneness, how everything felt like it was drawn to one fine point of utter bliss. There had been nothing else, and the memory of it was a poor replacement.
“Do you?”
“I asked first.”
“Yes, but your desire is of more consequence.”
“Is it? Because I don’t remember biting you. I remember you bleeding in my mouth first.”
“But a desire from you means taking something from me.”
“There are things belonging to you that I’d like to suck, your blood is not one of them.”
He whipped his head over to stare at you, obviously scandalized. You bit your lip, trying to keep yourself from laughing.
“Your mints, of course. I can hear them rattling in your pocket.”
He rolled his eyes in a big exaggerated motion. You lost your battle against laughing then. He looked so put out with you, you could hardly stand it.
“You’re beyond salvation,” he griped.
“Maybe you should keep your mind out of the gutter, Mr. Pious,” you continued giggling. He wanted to resist looking at you, but ultimately failed, catching a quick glimpse of the way your nose wrinkled as you laughed, and how relaxed you looked.
“You are the worst.”
“Ain’t I a stinker?”
“You should be careful speaking to me that way.”
“Or what? You’ll blush up to your ears?” you taunted. The tips of ears were bright red, flushed with embarrassment. He wrinkled his nose, pulling his mouth into a little snarl of annoyance, showing you his fangs.
“What do I have to do to get you to shut up?”
“If you want my silence you’ll have to kill me for it.”
He just sighed. You could be so morbid. He didn’t like to think about killing you. When he made the decision to postpone your execution all those years ago, he expected you to disappoint him in some way that would justify your execution. If his sense of humor was a bit darker he’d laugh at his luck. You’d only become harder to kill, he couldn’t even allow you to die. He loathed to think of what Gojo’s reaction would be if he knew that Nanami had saved your life by giving you his blood. In truth you were an innocent, someone forced into this long life, with the heavy burden of a curse.
The safe house was hours away, and so before long, lighter topics of discussions were exhausted, and the radio stopped playing anything good. You stared out of the window at the wide open fields on either side of the highway, and then the other cars on the road with you. The people in those cars did not know the things you did. The general public wasn’t aware of vampires or ghouls, or any of the other things you’d known about since you were young. They lived blissfully unaware of the dangers of the night. You’d known about vampires since you were 13 and found yourself being sold to one. Your life before that point was lost on you. There were small flashes of memories. You remembered your mother, and you remembered losing her and without having anywhere to go you became a ward of the state. The state “lost” children all the time. “Losing” you meant being sold into the life of a feeder where you learned, intimately, that vampires were very real. You supposed Nanami never got a moment of ignorance. He was aware of his nature, and the nature of the world from the beginning. Maybe that was better. He was never under the false assumption that the world was safe.
“Did you know your father?” you asked suddenly.
Nanami pulled in a slow breath, obviously deliberating on whether or not he was going to answer your question, “Yes.”
“Really?”
“Yes, he was a natural born vampire, and respected among other vampires for it. His relationship with the church was unique in that he was aligned in its favor.”
Your eyebrows shot up, “How did that work?”
“He found out that vampires didn’t need to drink human blood and so he worked to convince others to do as he had and live only on the blood of animals.”
“… What happened to him?”
“He was assassinated by his friend the Viscount Alexi Cordelius. He killed my mother that night as well, but you can’t technically call her death an assassination, I assume she was just a casualty.”
“Oh,” you breathed, and so that was his motive for wanting the Viscount dead. You supposed it was as good a motive as any, “So his current goal, to birth more vampires, just throws salt in the wound huh?”
“You have no idea,” he chuckled darkly.
“‘M sorry for your loss,” you murmured.
“Thank you.”
You decided all at once that you couldn’t keep quiet any longer, “The ritual… the ritual I saw the viscount do with the crucifix… it was me.”
“I know.”
“You did?!”
“Of course I knew, you told me when we first met that you were crucified, remember? Besides, if you weren’t more than a very fragrant vampire, the Viscount wouldn’t be looking to get you back. Do you think that you’re… fertile?”
“I don’t see how I could be,” you grumbled, “Maybe he failed because he didn’t do all the steps correctly.”
“Perhaps,” he responded lightly.
“You don’t think so.”
“I think whatever his purpose was with your creation, you met it. If he meant to make you the Eve of vampires, then you are, but if you’re meant to be something else, you are that.”
“So… whatever I am, it would be better that I’m long gone before Cordelius gets his hands on me.”
“Whatever you are, Cordelius will not get his hands on you,” Nanami amended, “I expect Gojo will have more answers for us.”
You didn’t miss that he did not agree that you needed to be long gone. It didn’t matter though. You suspected that if you wanted to meet your end and Nanami was not willing, Gojo would be. Whatever Nanami’s motives, the end for you would be the same, it had to be. You couldn’t be expected to spend eternity as the very thing you hated most.
“Nanami, I have been at the mercy of vampires for a very long time. First with Lord Drakon, who bled me within an inch of my life monthly, and spent the rest of month fawning over me to make me as dependent as the rest of his feeders. When the Viscount came, he took a liking to me. I was only 18 then, and he was like some dark vampire prince, seemingly coming to whisk me away from my life in Drakon’s manor. He had stories of far away lands, and promises of the things he would let me see once he took me from that manor. I didn’t believe him at first, but then he did take me. And we did travel for a full year. And that whole year he never fed from me. He even ‘tainted’ my blood with my permission. Virgin’s blood is a big deal, you know, to vampires. But when he did feed from me you know what he said?” you glanced away from the road ahead of you to look at Nanami. He glanced over curiously. His eyes looked heavy with the echo of your grief.
You continued, “He said I tasted just the same, like I was still a virgin. And he realized that virginity never mattered. It was smoke and mirrors, something no one ever bothered to check, and he told his friends so, and my choice was responsible for… god knows how many other feeders to get a new layer of torture added to their already tortorous lives. It was my only solace with Drakon, that he didn’t want to ruin my blood… It’s all blood with vampires. I forgot for a moment, a split second, and so many people paid for it. The Viscount never cared about me, he cared about my blood, and he was trying to create a bond with me through it just like Lord Drakon but he thought I just needed some romancing first.
“I say all of that to say this, Nanami. When I fed from you I finally understood what Drakon and Cordelius were looking for from me, it’s a sense of oneness, pleasure so fine tuned it feels like it’s balanced on the tip of a needle. And I hate that I got that from you. So the next time it looks like I’m going to die, let me.”
Nanami was silent for a long time and you didn’t do anything to break the silence. The weight of his guilt was even heavier in his chest.
“It is still common knowledge among vampires that virgin’s blood is preferred. If it’s any solace to you,” Nanami said softly.
“It’s not, but thanks anyway.”
The safe house was at the end of a winding road up a mountain. It was more modern than you were expecting, and far bigger. The mid century modern home nestled in the forest was a bit jarring. Nanami parked out front and the two of you grabbed your bags from the car and went inside. You could hear music playing. It was a weird tone shift from the sober mood between both you and Nanami. You heard the approaching footsteps of the nephilim and turned to see him poke his head out of the doorway.
“Welcome to your new home,” Gojo grinned, there were bandages wrapped around his eyes and you peered at him curiously.
“Um, what?”
“How much did you explain to her already?” Gojo asked Nanami.
“Precisely what you told me, which wasn’t much. You said the church was compromised and Cordelius was in correspondence with the head of the church.”
“Good, good, no secrets between the two of you, I like it. We’ll talk about the rest over dinner. Y/N, a hand in the kitchen.”
Your heart dropped a little, “Uh, I can’t cook.”
“Really?”
You shook your head. You could technically cook, if there were very clear instructions, but even then it left something to be desired. The other sisters forbid you from kitchen duty. Thinking of the sisters in the abbey you felt a little sad.
“Will the sisters be alright?” you asked, looking between Gojo and Nanami.
“Why can’t you cook?” Gojo, posed instead of answering your questions.
“I spent my formative years as a blood bag, and the rest of it in the convent,” you huffed.
“I will help you in the kitchen,” Nanami settled then turned to you, “I’m sure the sisters will be fine. We are the only ones who would have been immediately affected. As long as we do not allow the church to fall, everyone should be fine.”
You nodded, turning your gaze to Gojo again only to find him making a truly unreadable expression. You suspected the blindfold made it hard to tell what he was thinking. You could tell that his brow was furrowed but you didn’t know where he was looking… or… wait.
“Wait… why are you cooking with a blindfold on?!”
“For the challenge,” Gojo said, turning on his heel to go back the way he came.
“He can see,” Nanami assured, “he has many eyes. Not all of them are seen in this realm.”
“I only have six,” Gojo said, “Come on Nanamin! Dinner won’t cook itself.”
“Um… I could put things away…” you said looking around the wide open front. The place had a pretty open concept, lots of windows. If you were sensitive to sunlight you’d certainly be in trouble. This place received a lot of natural light.
“Oh, the rooms are upstairs!” Gojo called, “There’s only one guest bedroom, you two are fine to share right?”
You felt your whole body go hot. You stood, preternaturally still as you waited to hear what Nanami would say in response. Surely he was going to protest such a close sleeping arrangement. However time passed and no one said anything else. You took that as a sign that Nanami was perfectly okay with that. Petty pride kept you from saying anything. He’d already made fun of you for how you reacted to feeding. You were not going to prove him right by being so obviously embarrassed by just sleeping in the same room with him. You climbed the stairs with your bags, and found that there was already a door open.
“Which-?!” you began but Gojo promptly cut you off.
“It’s the only open door.”
You nodded and tossed a look down the hall. There were other rooms in the spacious hallway, and then a door at the very end of the hall. You wondered what all the other rooms were, if not bedrooms. Nevertheless you chose not to pry and entered the wide open guest room. It looked like a guest room, void of personal belonging, more like a hotel than a place where someone might find daily comfort. You let your bags fall to the floor as you noticed the big bed on the far wall. There was a desk, an armchair, and a chaise lounge by way of furniture. You guessed that you could probably sleep on the lounge if it came to it. Nanami was a priest after all, there had to be rules against lying with a woman, or any gender they’re attracted to. He wouldn’t fit on the lounge for sure.
While you fretted about this upstairs, Gojo and Nanami stood beside one another. Nanami took over cooking. He wasn’t sure Gojo intended to cook at all. All of the ingredients were out but nothing was going. He washed his hands and got to work. It’s not like he trusted Gojo’s ability to cook anyway.
“You brought the pretty blood sucker,” Gojo said with a smile, leaning against the counter. Nanami froze, holding a knife to cut the vegetables set out on the counter.
“You said that the church was compromised. I couldn’t have left her behind.”
“Yes, you could have. Easily, too. You just didn’t even think to do it,” he laughed.
Nanami did not look at Gojo, instead he focused on chopping and peeling an onion. Gojo was right, of course, he hadn’t even considered leaving you behind. Why would he? You were a valuable asset to his ongoing hunt for Cordelius. To leave you behind would be a waste, and it wouldn’t have made sense. It would be irresponsible to leave a vampire in the parish.
“You could have staked her if you were worried she’d be a danger,” Gojo posed, as if reading his mind, “I told you vampires infiltrated the church, and your first idea was to bring the special one, the one who can walk on hallowed ground with you to the safe house.”
“She is a valuable asset for furthering our goals.”
“But that’s not why you brought her.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Nanami said curtly, chopping swiftly to focus on his task and not his own thoughts.
Gojo hummed, “What if I told you that she was how the vampire got in?”
Nanami stiffened, “I would ask for your proof.”
“You wouldn’t take my word?”
“I would need proof of her betrayal before I acted.”
“Nanamin,” he clicked his tongue, “We’ve been friends for years. It’s my word against a leech that used to canoodle with the bigger leech who killed your parents. Hell, she might still be canoodling.”
“It’s unlikely, so I would need your proof.”
“Why? You don’t watch her every second of every day. From what I hear you allow that one quite a bit of freedom. She could be doing anything behind your back. And if I told you that she was playing you, then what?”
“Are you telling me that?”
Gojo shrugged.
“What is the point of this? It makes no sense for her to betray me. That is why I would need proof. I would have to make sense of it.”
“She’s a liability.”
“She’s innocent!” Nanami snapped slamming the knife down on the counter before turning to glare at Gojo. He stared up at the taller man, trying to make sense of the vacant smirk on his face. His posture hadn’t changed, despite the fact that Nanami’s had.
“She’s a vampire.”
“She didn’t ask for this. If this is just a little thought experiment to see how far I am willing to go for our cause, know that if she did betray me I would put a stake through her heart without hesitation. But as it stands, I know that she remains loyal to our cause.”
“I told you that the church, an institution you have been a part of since you were a kid, was compromised and you believed me without an ounce of proof. You dropped everything and drove miles to meet me here. I suggest that a vampire you met two years ago is a traitor and you shut down on me. You must really trust her.”
“I do.”
“She trusts you too. Nanami-” Gojo began but took a breath and then laughed, “at least she’s a smokin’ hot vamp and not one of those weird translucently pale ones.”
Nanami frowned at Gojo’s crude assessment, but he couldn’t help but to think that Gojo was going to say something else at first. There was no real passion behind his taunt.
“Since you two are so close, I can see why you don’t mind sharing a room.”
“You have plenty of rooms in this house.”
“But only one with a bed. I couldn’t make my dear friend, or a lovely lady sleep on the floor.”
“I will be fine with a futon in your study.”
Gojo made a sound of faux sadness, “Sorry, no futon. I redecorated. It will be just you and the lady you trust enough to question me over. Besides, if you leave her all by herself, I might decide she’s a liability to take into my own hands,” he said lightly.
Nanami didn’t believe Gojo would do that, but Gojo was always a little unpredictable. If he called his bluff, he might do it just off of the strength that Nanami tried him. Whatever his purpose behind his meddling, the end result was the same, he would be sharing a room with you. He staunchly ignored the way his skin suddenly felt overheated.
You came down after taking Nanami’s things upstairs too, not really knowing what to do with yourself otherwise. When you finally caved and went to the kitchen, Gojo was sitting at the kitchen island watching Nanami cook. He smiled at you, chin resting on the heel of his palm.
“Hello, itsy-bitsy vampire.”
“Uh… hi. This is a beautiful home you have.”
“Thanks. I’m not here nearly as often as I want to be.”
“I bet, with a place like this, I’d want to be home all the time.”
“Hm, it does get lonely. Big house, no one to share it with. I’m glad to have you. A pretty lady always livens up a home,” he said, batting his eyes at you.
You chuckled, “I don’t know if I’m the type of pretty lady who livens up anything.”
“Well, it could use a little taste of the macabre as well,” he shrugged. His lips turned upwards in an alluring smile. You hardly knew what to do with yourself. It was just that the last time you met this man, he tried to stake you, and now you were pretty sure he was flirting with you. You laughed nervously before sliding your gaze to Nanami to see what he made of the situation. He was openly glaring at Gojo. Your eyes darted to Gojo again but he didn’t seem to notice Nanami’s death glare.
“Sorry, but I’m not long for this world if you’ve got anything on Cordelius,” you said, hoping to steer this conversation into more comfortable bounds.
“Right, l guess this is as good a time as any for this discussion. Cordelius is very likely in the city, trying to find a way to get to you,” he pointed at you, “Of course he’s known where you were, but considering the church is holy ground, there wasn’t much he could do to get you, and his attempts at capture have all failed.”
“Attempts at capture?” Nanami questioned, “There haven’t been attacks on the church.”
“Yes, but you didn’t think it was weird that after two years of normal hunts, and relative silence on Cordelius that all of a sudden the two of you were escaping by the skin of your teeth?”
“What do you mean?”
“Tara Lydos, for instance, I thought it was odd that all of a sudden her coven would become a blip on the radar for the higher ups. They had always known about her, but since people went to that club of their own volition the church let it be. Now all of a sudden it was imperative for the two of you to go in and gather intel.”
“You’re saying that was a capture attempt,” Nanami questioned.
He nodded, “Yes, I believe so. It was definitely documented in Cordelius’ notes. He made sure that Tara had information, and he also made sure she had the wrong information. And for the ghoul, we haven’t seen one of those in a century. What are the chances it shows up on your hunt? If they really thought that it was a coven causing those problems, they wouldn’t have sent just the two of you. I believe that hunt in particular was supposed to kill you, Nanamin.”
You remembered just how focused the monster was on Nanami. You’d had to jump in its way to be as grievously injured as you were, “The church was trying to kill Nanami?”
“No. They were willing to sacrifice him though. I found records of correspondence about the ghoul. The church knew about it and they knew that Cordelius was behind its sudden appearance in the city, whatever the church is after they were willing to sacrifice both of your lives for it.”
“The monster was only attacking Nanami because Cordelius wants me back alive.”
“Yes,” Gojo nodded, confirming your guess, “but it should be said that ghouls come in varieties. They are… something close to cannibalistic. A ghoul that used to be a human, will hunt humans. A ghoul that used to be a vampire will hunt vampires. I believe that ghoul used to be a vampire.”
“But it wasn’t interested in me,” you protested, “I mean, Nanami is half human maybe that’s why-”
Gojo shook his head, cutting you off, “The other vampires in the den were killed by it. Nanami is half vampire. Which makes me wonder what the hell you are.”
You frowned, “I’m a vampire. I thirst for human blood just like every other vampire does.”
“Do you?”
“Yes,” you flushed, upset by this facet of yourself. Some small naive part of yourself wanted to believe that you were not a vampire. At least you could find solace in the fact that you weren’t the very creature you hated, but if you weren’t a vampire then what were you? And could you be something much worse. You thought of the being Cordelius wanted to make. That was still a vampire… wasn’t it?
“We have an idea of what Cordelius’s goals are… and I think I’ve surmised why the church would work with him.” Nanami said changing the subject.
Gojo lifted his eyebrows in interest, “Do tell.”
“A vampire culling. That might be the extent of the church’s knowledge if they’re helping, but we think he wants to purify the covens and bring back natural born vampires.”
Gojo frowned, “I was afraid you would say that. I took a few things from his castle and I was hoping there was nothing to my findings but if you’re right, then we have our work cut out for us.” Gojo stood straight and moved around the kitchen island to walk past you and out of the kitchen. He left you and Nanami alone.
Your head felt like it was spinning. You took a seat on one of the kitchen stools and just stared at your hands. If you hadn’t saved Nanami… would you be in the Viscount’s clutches now? The only thing you could think of behind his hesitation that night, if he was really around waiting to get you, was the fact that Nanami was still there. You’d never seen the Viscount fight. He often said that he was a man of the pen, not the sword. You didn’t know if that meant he couldn’t fight, or simply preferred not to. However, if the Viscount killed Nanami’s parents then he must be capable of some kind of violence.
“What does he mean I’m not a vampire?” You asked Nanami.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. The declaration astonished him as well. Up until the moment Gojo said it, Nanami was sure that the man was looking for a way to execute you early. Though now he worried if Gojo knew about the ritual, and he suspected you to be the vampire Eve. His threat to end your life earlier would hold far more weight then. He knew it would be for the greater good, a short term solution to buy the world time before a resurgence of natural born vampires. It wouldn’t stop Cordelius from making someone else like you though. It was better to stick to the original plan to keep you safe until Cordelius was taken care of.
Gojo came back with a few strange objects. One looked to be a chalice, something that looked like an urn, and a pendulum.
He lifted the urn first, “This contains the flesh of Lucifer himself.”
“Who?!” you exclaimed.
“The devil?” Gojo responded as if you really didn’t know who Lucifer was.
“That has to be as old as time then!”
Gojo shook his head, “Christianity is relatively new. It is very old, but not as old as other relics.”
“How do you even get the flesh of satan?”
“I don’t know. I fear he opened a portal to Hell, but I don’t know how he would have. I was just as confused to find it as you are to see it now. They’ve dried it and ground it down into a fine powder.”
You felt your stomach do a hard flip as you studied the urn closer. You recognized it. It was among the collection of things given to you for your transformation.
“Vampires were the children of Lillith and Lucifer. They escaped behind him into the garden and God damned them to the night,” Gojo said in a sort of off-handed manner. He continued to explain that the things in his hands were definitely for a ritual. He assumed it was to make another mother of vampires. All of the things he had were present on the night of your transformation.
You opened your mouth to say so but made eye contact with Nanami before you could speak. He shook his head, almost imperceptibly, his glare was tense. You closed your mouth, getting the hint.
“If he’s looking to make a new Lillith then, I’ve definitely put a damper on those plans,” Gojo said with a triumphant smile.
“That’s a relief,” Nanami answered, “We can focus on tracking him for now.”
“Right. Well, that’s all that I know and it’s all I care to talk about on an empty stomach. Dinner should be about ready, right Nanamin?”
You sat at the table between the two men… but you barely tasted the food. You wished that Nanami hadn’t bothered to save you. If all of this was true and you were supposed to be some monster birthing machine, you wanted nothing more than to meet your end. Gojo announced that he would handle the clean up, and so you went upstairs. Nanami discreetly allowed you to go in first, lingering downstairs.
“Nanamin,” Gojo called, “It won’t be easy for you to put a stake through her heart. But when the time comes, can I trust you to do the right thing?”
“I will do what has to be done,” he said, but his own words settled in his ear poorly. He excused himself before Gojo could question him, going upstairs to the open bedroom door. He found you sitting on the side of the bed, twirling a silver pike around your fingers. When he came in you looked at him, holding the pike in a closed fist. You held the pike out to him. He put his hand around it, confused by what you were doing. He stood right in front of you, your chin tipped back to look up at him. He expected you to let go of the pike once he had it. Instead you wrapped your cool hands around his and pressed the sharp end of the pike to the middle of your chest.
“Y/N,” he said warily, trying to pull away, but your hold on his hands stayed firm.
“Nanami,” you said with a watery voice, “You have to.”
“We don’t know anything for sure-”
“I tried to do it myself, but… I just couldn’t. Maybe it’s self-preservation, maybe I’m just a coward, but I couldn’t do it.”
“After we catch Cordelius,” he said.
You shook your head, “What if we don’t win? What if we find Cordelius and he wins?”
“He won’t.”
“You don’t know that for sure.”
He tugged away from you firmly and you let him go, “You’d ruin the bedding.” He grumbled.
You laughed, “You always have an excuse. We could do it on the floor if that’s better for you.”
“On the floor,” he mused, “You’ll do it anywhere, won’t you?” He joked dryly. You tossed him a little look to show that you understood his joke but didn’t find it amusing, not right now.
He sighed when you looked down at your lap, refusing to even look at him anymore. He tipped your chin up, “I know what you told me in the car. I understand your fears, but you must see that I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“… That’s what I’m afraid of Nanami,” You said.
He visibly deflated, “When the time comes, I’ll…” he trailed off.
“Neither of us thought I’d live this long. You were supposed to be rid of me at least a year ago.”
“I’ve gotten accustomed to you,” he agreed.
“I’ll ask Gojo to do it. I don’t think he will hesitate.”
“Don’t.”
“Why not?”
“I…l admit that I have grown accustomed to your company but I will keep my word to you.”
“That’s your hesitation. You’re just used to having me around? Nanami, you were never this hesitant to do what needed to be done before I fed from you. If this is about that bite-“
“Do not reduce this to a bite,” he snapped at you. He needed a second to think things over. Gojo had already been prodding at him, questioning his ability to do what needed to be done.
“That’s what it was. This connection? It’s just blood and I’m sorry-“
“Quiet.” His voice was low and firm, “you may reduce yourself to a bloodthirsty monster if you like but I am not your sycophant. I am not in a spell of blood and lust. This conversation is over.”
“Fine.” you whispered.
He grabbed his bag from the floor beside the bed and started towards the en suite but paused before fully entering.
“I’m counting on your help. I need you here to end this.”
You didn’t respond and he closed the door.
Nanami stood there for a moment leaning against the door trying to make sense of the warring emotions in his chest. Gojo was right. He hadn’t hesitated to abandon the church, and he hadn’t considered leaving you behind. There was a time in his life where he would have. It made more sense to. If the church was compromised by vampires why the hell would he bring a vampire with him. But this was you. You’d nearly died for him already. You had been watching his back for two years now, when nothing was in it for you but a quick death at the end of everything. Before he knew you he would have taken Gojo’s word at face value, agreed that you were a traitor at worst, or a liability and deadweight at best. What the hell happened? He didn’t know, all he did know was that it happened before the bite.
He got in the shower, still thinking about it. He knew it wasn’t feeding that changed things, because the choice to feed you was so unlike himself that it had to be yet another symptom of this change and not the cause. If he was honest with himself, he knew that he hadn’t considered your usefulness until after you were already saved. At the time, all he could think was not you, not yet, and not like this. He didn’t want you to die for his sake.
When he left the ensuite he found that you were on the bed any more, instead you were lying on top of the chaise lounge, probably in some bid to be out of his way. He was already irritated with the vexing unnameable emotion that today’s discussions had agitated.
“Get in bed,” he ordered firmly.
“I’m fine here,” You said softly.
“I’m not going to tell you again.”
You turned to look over your shoulder at him. He was pinching the bridge of his nose. He wore a sleeveless black top. It showed off the entirety of his arms naturally. His arms flexed in their position just a bit, but otherwise looked big and kinda soft. You were sure if he turned to the side you might see a bit of his chest.
“Father Nanami-”
“Don’t make me repeat myself. I am not going to make you sleep on the lounge without a blanket.”
“… Then where will you sleep?”
“On the other side of the bed. It’s large enough that there’s no reason for us to touch. It will be fine.”
“…Really, I’m fine-”
“Y/N.”
You sighed, yielding to him. You didn’t actually want to sleep on the chaise lounge. It was cold in this house and you felt like you might freeze overnight if you tried. You hurried past Nanami, trying to nonchalantly put your hands over your butt a little. Your sleep shorts were a bit short. Nanami did not turn to look at you as you passed him, he continued to the other side of the bed to settle down for the night as well. He didn’t look your way until he was ready to turn off the lamp on the night table. He glanced over his shoulder at you, to see you laying on your side with your back to him. He looked forward and sighed, turning off the light instead of saying anything else.
You stared into the darkness, and your eyes quickly adjusted, shifting the world into a kind of gray-scale but still having perfect vision. You stared at the details of the room, listened to Nanami breathing, and the slightly elevated rate of his pulse. You forced yourself to be still though you had the urge to toss and turn.
All your life, no one had ever given you the impression that they would hesitate to kill you. Certainly not Lord Drakon, the first vampire you ever encountered. He had so many feeders at his disposal that he killed one once a month without fail. You thought for sure you would be one of them when he couldn’t make a bond with you. You even expected that the Viscount would kill you. Even while he was trying to butter you up, you never thought that his affection for you would get in the way of him ending your life if that’s what it came to. Now here you were counting on Nanami to be the same… and you weren’t so sure. He often called you innocent. You’d never taken a human life. Maybe that was his hesitation. Unlike Drakon or Cordelius, Nanami was a good man. You didn’t know how long you spent thinking like this, considering your future, and whether or not you could trust Nanami to keep his word, but eventually it became too much for you. You rolled onto your back, staring up at the ceiling.
“Nanami, are you awake?” You said soft enough that if he was asleep it would not disturb him. However if he was already awake, he would hear.
“No,” he grumbled.
“Lying is a sin, isn’t it?” you joked weakly.
“It is.”
“I’m going to hell aren’t I?”
“You are a damned being.”
“And there’s no way to undo this, even though I didn’t ask for it?”
“Not that anyone knows of.”
“What kind of God could do this to its children?” you whispered so your voice would not betray the tears that welled up in your eyes as you asked your question.
“It’s as you said before. He is either not benevolent, or not all powerful.”
“I thought you believed in a great balance.”
“I don’t know anymore.” He answered solemnly.
You blinked and tears escaped your eyes. You fought the urge to sniff because that would give you away, but you couldn’t help how uneven your breath had become as you held it to suppress sobs. You just wished so fervently that none of this had ever happened to you. Silence stretched until you gave a soft sniff.
“Are you crying?” he asked, his voice was softer than it had been, more tentative.
“No,” you grumbled, rubbing your face with the heel of your palm.
“Lying is a sin, you know?”
“Well I’m already damned, so.” You felt the bed shift as Nanami moved and you glanced in his direction to see what he was doing. He was turning on his side to face you. His face was in perfect detail in your vision. After all, you were a creature of the night. His dark eyes appeared abysmal in the darkness, like the kind of cave that would echo back.
“May I kiss you?” He asked.
You balked, “What?” You hissed. He must be out of his mind completely. Where did that come from?
“If we’re damned either way, we might as well do it thoroughly.”
“You’re not damned. You couldn’t possibly be damned, you’re too good. You look like a literal sunbeam when you’re not frowning.”
“I’m always frowning,” he droned.
“No you’re not. You crack a few smiles here and there, and they remind me of the sun. Kinda hard to look at but beautiful and warm.”
“Is this supposed to make me not want to kiss you?”
“You are a priest.”
“I might be.”
“You can’t break your vows over me. I’m not worth all of that-”
“I did not ask you for an appraisal of your worth. If you do not want to kiss me that is fine. But I won’t listen to you tell me what I think of your worth, because you don’t know.”
“I don’t understand where this is coming from.”
“I told you, I am pious but not virtuous, I have my vices. Indulge me?”
You turned on your side to look at him. This might be the only chance you got to kiss someone that you truly admired, who was a good person, “…Okay.”
You watched as he got up to hover over you a bit. He was slow in his descent obviously giving you time to back out, but as he drew closer you simply closed your eyes and waited for his mouth to touch yours. Nanami’s lips were much warmer than yours. You felt the heat of them echoed throughout your whole body, and a ghost of that same pleasure you felt from his blood made your heart pick up its pace. You could hear Nanami’s heart even louder, pounding like a drum in his chest as he deepened the kiss. His mouth moved with your insistently. Despite how roughly he kissed you, there was a hand on your cheek, and his thumb was stroking your cheekbone so gently it brought tears to your eyes. Your fingers slipped into his hair, pulling him close to you. It felt… better than feeding, because it wasn’t blood that put your body in a frenzy, that caused that unique feeling of twin euphoria. It was something normal, something human: A kiss.
You pulled away needing to get your head on straight, “Just a kiss,” you murmured, “You just asked for a kiss.”
“What if I want more now?” his voice was deeper than you were used to hearing it, heavy with desire.
You opened your eyes to peer at him, “We are in your friend’s home. And we’ve only just kissed.”
He smirked, “Chaste as a nun,” he teased.
“And you call me the lecherous leech.”
He pressed another firm kiss to your lips, leaving you utterly breathless before he laid at your side again, “No matter. I am patient.”
You bit your lip, staring straight up at the ceiling again. Your cheeks were on fire and your heart was still hammering in your chest. Nanami had kissed you… and as much as you wanted to bask in the giddiness of this moment, you could only feel a sense of foreboding tugging at your heart strings instead.
~
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Next Chapter
Who art in Heaven: Books and Vampires
Pairing: Nanami Kento x Black!reader
Chapter 4 Summary: Nanami addresses the fact that you have been avoiding him, and the two of you go to a church to get more information on the ghoul that nearly killed you.
Warnings: talk of death, blood, some gore… but no worse than canon
Who art in Heaven Masterlist
Previous Chapter
Nanami sat inside of the confessional booth all evening, expecting you to come by and say something vulgar that would assure him the two of you were alright. You did not come to confession. It had been a week since the night you fed from him and you seemed to be avoiding him all together. He heard about you, from the abbess of the convent. You’d gone back to your usual room, and the woman was actually pleased with your behavior for once.
“She’s acting like a proper lady of Christ,” the woman said, which didn’t sound like you at all. He didn’t see you in the front row of his sermon, making bedroom eyes at him, or holding his eye contact for the fun of it, nor were you waiting at the back of the church to tease him on his way out about the lecherous thoughts you needed to be forgiven for.
He went searching for you one evening when the sisters said you weren’t in your room. He doubted that you ran away, but it was still concerning not to know where you were nevertheless. When he found you, you were back in the cellar but this time in the armory, whittling pieces of wood into stakes. He didn’t know what to say to you. Upon seeing you he almost wished he hadn’t sought you out. You weren’t in your habit, which made sense, you were woodworking. Instead you were in a tight fitted tank top and pants, bent over with your elbows resting on your knees. It really put your cleavage front and center.
He cleared his throat, “Did we need more stakes?” He didn’t know whether or not to sit so he stayed lingering in front of you a bit before eventually taking a seat at your side, on the wooden bench.
“We always need more stakes,” you said without looking up.
“Mother Superior says you’ve finally become a respectable lady,” he said, studying your profile to make sense of your expression. You seemed to have been incredibly busy. There were fresh salt rounds, silver rounds. Nanami didn’t like using a shotgun, they lacked precision, but there were other hunters who took ammunition from the parish, most notably Gojo.
You made a little sound of amusement, “‘M happy to finally make mommy proud.”
Nanami felt his lips twitch up at the ghost of your usual humor coming back, but you let the quiet between the two of you linger and he felt at a loss for what to do. Maybe if he kept giving you the bait for bad jokes then things would feel normal again.
“You know I thought for sure you would have sins to confess, today.”
You hummed, “Why is that?”
“Er, uh well you always do.”
“I think you know what I’d repent for. And I think we both know it wouldn’t do me any good.”
“Right but uh, maybe I wanted company.”
“Shouldn’t you be overjoyed that the congregation has no late night confessions?”
This was not going well, “What about training? There are plenty of defensive holds you have yet to master.” he said thinking of how you always made jokes about being pinned under him.
“It seemed like a bad idea given I’m always aware of your pulse. I don’t want to know if fighting you would trigger bloodlust,” you said, sounding more miserable than before. Nanami frowned, not knowing what to say. He was beginning to feel guilty about his choice. Well if he was honest, he’d been guilty about it since that car ride back to the church.
“Are you angry with me?” he asked plainly.
And you turned to look at him. The confusion in your gaze did serve as a bit of relief but he didn’t know why. What difference did it make if you were upset? The deal between the two of you was set in stone. It was almost his duty to keep you alive so that you could fulfill your side of the bargain. He was sure you risked your life because… well he wanted to say so he could kill you, but honestly, you were dying. Your primary motive for the things you did couldn’t be death because there were easier ways to meet your demise. It made no sense. You couldn’t risk your life for a chance to die. So you risked your life to save him, and that knowledge settled heavily in his chest. He was looking down at his wrist, the one he cut. It healed without a scar, naturally, but that didn’t stop him from drawing his thumb across that place where the wound had been.
“No.” you answered and your answer pinged that extra sense in his brain that told him you were lying.
“Are you sure?” he asked. Nanami was looking at you through his eyelashes. The guilt on his face was obvious and you wanted to take it from him.
“I’m not angry at you,” you shook your head, “Just kinda disgusted with myself. I’m… mad at Cordelius, I’m mad at myself. Even right now it’s like my ear is acutely tuned to your heartbeat. And it’s maddening. I’m feeling a little Tell Tale Heart right now.”
“Are you planning to smother me and hide my body under the floorboards?” He questioned in jest.
You chuckled, “No… Are you here just because you were worried about me skipping out on the word of God?”
“I’m not. We have a new directive.”
“What are we hunting now?” You inspected the tip of the stake in your hand and then set it aside, brushing the wood shavings off of your clothes.
“Vampires like always.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, it’s not a true hunt. This is a favor to Gojo, a place he thinks we should check out. But there’s a vampire or two there we will have to eliminate.”
“So it has something to do with Cordelius,” you said, nodding to yourself, “I’ll meet you at the gate in ten then.”
“Right,” he meant to say but the intensity of your gaze made his voice get a little stuck in his throat so the word faltered a little.
The love of leather among hunters made more sense to you now that you were a bonafide hunter yourself. You used to think that it was just a sexy decision, but nothing held up to wear like well crafted leather. Given the last hunt, you weren’t keen on going in underprepared. You didn’t like to use a gun because they could be loud, and once they ran out of bullets they could only be used as a bludgeon. Your silver pikes were preferred, but if you ran into another “ghoul” you’d be grateful for the sawed off shotgun on your hip. The dramatic coats just made for a way to hide all the weapons harnessed to your body. A drop of water hit your cheek, and you looked up at the gloomy sky in time for more rain drops to fall.
You heard an umbrella open from a few yards away from you and you turned to see Nanami approaching. There was the red glow of a cigarette between his lips, which was a habit you didn’t know he had, and you didn’t appreciate all that much. The smell of it made you wrinkle your nose.
“Of all the vices, Father,” you teased as he got closer.
He made a noncommittal sound, “Not my vice of choice, actually,” He flicked the ashes off the end of the cigarette.
“Then why are you smoking?”
“Can you smell anything but the smoke?” he asked.
“No.”
“Good, we’re going to be in a car together for a while. I didn’t want my scent to be overwhelming for you.”
“Oh… thanks? Though I think I might have preferred the burn of thirst. You stink now. And smoking is bad for you.”
“Who would have thought that smoking would be your line in the sand? You’re not a very pious woman.” He blew the smoke away from you, before looking at the cigarette with a certain level of distaste.
“You are a pious man though. Won’t god be angry with you?”
“Perhaps, but what will he do? Damn me?” he raised his eyebrows a bit, “Come on.” He nodded for you to go through the gate. You frowned looking at him. He was wearing his rosary over the black turtle neck that hugged his body a little too close for you to think pure thoughts. His coat hid his harness but you knew it was there.
“Shouldn’t you put away your rosary?”
“Hm, no, We’re actually visiting another church.”
“Oh, that’s new.”
He took another long drag outside of the church gates, before flicking the cigarette carelessly. You made a sound of complaint at him before going to step on it.
“Set the church on fire, why don’t you?!” You said. He came over with the umbrella to shield your head.
“It’s raining.”
“So?”
He just rolled his eyes, “Let’s go.”
It was common knowledge among those in the know about vampires that they could be found in the oldest churches. There was at least one skulking around most gothic style buildings, it didn’t have to be a church. This cathedral had been around for centuries. Nanami detailed that the two of you were looking for a few books to learn more about the ghouls, and then you would stake the vampires there when you got the chance. The two of you got out of the car in front of a huge cathedral.
“This place has been here for over 300 years,” Nanami remarked as you peered up at it, squinting your eyes against the rain. The high puff your hair was in could probably use some moisturizing anyway so you weren’t overly worried about Nanami and his umbrella, though he still put it over your head, blocking your view of the high church turrets.
“Shame it fell to heathens huh?” you said in jest.
“Not all bad. Vampires have far more respect for books than humans,” he said, leading the way towards the church. The church looked empty. The tall arched windows were dark and the front doors were closed. It used to strike you as odd that there wasn’t more stained glass in your own church, until Nanami clarified that stained glass was a vampiric invention to filter the amount of sunlight coming through the church windows. It would have been suspicious if they game into what used to be brightly lit churches and started boarding up windows. The stained glass was a clever ruse and the pretty colors drew people in.
Nanami knocked on the heavy wood doors and you didn’t think the two of you would be getting an answer. However, you could hear movement inside of the church, first from up high, then swiftly to the door. You sniffed trying to decide if there was a vampire on the other side of the door but instead got a big whiff of nicotine. You gagged.
“Ugh, don’t smoke on my behalf anymore. That is torture.”
“Sorry, I thought it might help.”
“Yeah help in driving me away. If you wanted me to get away from you, you could have just told me. No need to sabotage yourself.”
“I told you, I was just-” he began but then the door opened. Dark, deep seated eyes peered at you and you stared right back at them with unwavering intensity.
“Can I help you?”
“Hello,” Nanami greeted, “we’re scholars, looking to use your library?”
The dark eyes of the vampire in front of you appraised Nanami and then lingered on you for a bit longer than you appreciated. Nanami seemed to notice too, because he put an arm around your shoulder. You fought not to scrunch your nose. You weren’t nearly done giving him shit for smoking. The thought was nice but the reality was just awful. You would be grateful when he went back to smelling delectable.
“Young vampires care about history? I never thought I’d see the day.”
You kept yourself from rolling your eyes. Old vampires were all the same. They swore the younger ones were uncultured and unrefined while they actively bent history in their favor, desecrating cultures and ruining lives in their quest for blood. It was a pot calling the kettle black situation. He stepped aside, letting you both in. The cathedral was dark inside just as you suspected. It looked like a normal cathedral, though you could catch the faint scent of blood in the air, likely exacerbated by the rain. You wondered who this old vampire last fed on.
“We’ve come across a troubling creature. It killed 5 vampires downtown just a few days ago,” Nanami said seriously, “the Carmine Coven was its victim.”
The vampire clicked his tongue, “The Carmines… doesn’t surprise me. These are strange times. The Lydos Coven lost Tara and quite a few members not a fortnight ago.”
“I thought that was a territory skirmish,” Nanami lied, confusion in his voice when there shouldn’t be any.
“The vampires responsible had better continue to keep their heads down. The Viscount isn’t taking it well.”
“Viscount?”
“Yes! Oh you young folks know nothing. You’re not even a century old are you?”
“I am only 27, a dhampir, my mate was only turned 3 years ago.”
A dhampir and a newborn! This is what Cordelius spoke of! Vampires sullying themselves with humans, tainting the food with their seed, and making newborns just to leave in the world. We are in need of a culling,” he grumbled, “It is a good thing you two had sense enough to seek out wisdom. Even you, boy. You smell more like a vampire than those other half breeds.”
You frowned listening to this vampire. It felt like any moment now he was going to start selling vampire eugenics to the two of you. And more than that, Nanami had called you his mate. It was probably to make the old bat stop eyeing you, but you were still a little flustered by the idea. He hadn’t stopped touching you since you crossed the threshold. The vampire was still monologuing to the two of you.
“Do you have literature on beasts with black blood, razor sharp teeth, they look almost human, but they walk on all fours.”
“The Undead Guard? So Alexi did it? Yes, yes, we have literature. Come this way I will show you.”
He took the two of you underground to a cool dry room, that was perhaps the most modern part of this cathedral. There were so many books lined up on shelves. He took you to a vast line up of books, on every creature from the chimera to the unseelie. He dragged a thin finger across the binds until he stopped at a thin book, and then another thicker one, and a leather bound book that looked more like a sketchpad than a book. He gave the material to Nanami before bowing in front of you.
“Learn, young ones, understand the new dawn that we are approaching. You are among the few chosen to inherit it.”
You kept your face neutral as Nanami led the way to a table, his arm pulling you in tighter to his side, “Don’t get handsy, baby, we’ve got company,” you cooed at him. He shot you an unamused little look before pulling you in so he could speak in your ear.
“Would you like me to leave you with Count Bigotry?”
You stuck your tongue out at him.
“Then behave,” he let you go to pull out your chair for you. The old vampire left the room, encouraging you all to read while he found a fine vintage to share.
“Careful, how you talk to me, Father,” you flirted.
He rolled his eyes, “Or what? You’ll avoid eye contact and stutter when you speak to me?”
You scowled at him in retribution for his dig. It didn’t help though. He seemed utterly pleased with himself, having left you with nothing to say. You sat stewing in that for all of ten seconds before you had a lot of things to say.
“I wasn’t prepared for that,” you hissed at him, “That shouldn’t count.”
“Pleasure is pleasure,” he answered flippantly.
“And what do you know about pleasure?”
“More than you if a single bite made you hide from me for a week.”
“What’s more than a bite?” you asked, because it seemed like sharing one’s blood might be a step above sex.
Nanami raised his eyebrow at you, “And you called me the virgin.”
Your jaw dropped, “You’re the one who grew up in a church,” you hissed.
“I may have grown up in a church, but I haven’t always been there. And I was not always a priest.”
You narrowed your eyes, “You were an exotic dancer weren’t you?” you guessed for the sake of teasing him. He did not rise to your taunts.
“Pious I am, virtuous I am not,” he concluded, turning his full attention to the book in front of him.
“As a sister of the parish, you may lay down the heavy weight of your sins on me,” you said, resting your chin on your palm, and waiting for him to scold you for being crass. Instead he slowly lifted his eyes from the book and held you in place with his gaze alone.
“You are all fang and no bite,” he responded.
“Oh I bite.”
“You don’t,” he shook his head, “But I do,” he flashed his fangs at you, “Give up, I’ve figured you out. You wouldn’t know what to do with the weight of my sins.”
You didn’t even blink as you stared at him in shock. Was he… flirting with you? Or was he simply teasing? Either choice was more than a little disarming because Nanami had never done either. When you had nothing to say you watched him smirk a bit, reading the text before him smugly. He was, in some ways, right about you. You were not virtuous, in that you were no longer a virgin, and you weren’t particularly pious, but you were far from someone getting their fill of sex and pleasure. You were pretending to be a nun, which meant, besides kissing a few nuns and maybe fingering one in the shower once, you were untouched. You certainly hadn’t been touched by a man in years. Which honestly was a welcome reprieve. Vampires were very touchy-feely. It came with the hedonism you were sure. You supposed Nanami was born into vampirism, you always thought his restraint was proof that vampires chose to indulge so gratuitously in pleasures of the flesh and everything else, but if even he had his vices then maybe it really was of their nature, of your nature. You weren’t even pretending to be reading over his shoulder, instead studying the gold strands of hair on his head that caught the yellow lights overhead. It seemed genetically unlikely for him to be blonde, yet you never saw any roots showing, so you could only guess that it was natural. You’d wager that his father, the vampire, was the blond one. It was neatly cut and pushed away from his forehead with a product that’s hold was a bit looser than normal due to brief brushes with the rain. You reached out and fixed a strand that stuck out and forward, like a little unicorn horn as he looked down at the book. Your fingers were light in his soft silky hair, carefully coaxing the hair to cooperate. Nanami turned to look at you again now that you were touching him. You couldn’t make sense of his gaze and so you began to take your hand away.
“Sorry,” you said.
He flexed his jaw before answering, “There’s a passage here on all the creatures classified as the undead. There are more than just our ghoul.”
You purposefully put your gaze on the page, staring at the grotesque drawings. You were very nearly resting your chin on his arm as you studied the open pages. Finally you turned your attention to the book in front of you. It was titled, Curiosities of Vampirism: Curses and Bindings, you wondered if the ghoul could be a cursed vampire. It made more sense in your brain that someone could go from human, to vampire, to ghoul, better than it did to skip that middle stage. There were plenty of curses detailed inside of the book. Some you’d heard of in the Viscount’s musings about the scourges on vampires, others were new to you.
“Ah young love,” the old vampire mused as he came back this time with a bottle of wine and chalices from which to drink, “Do the two of you belong to a coven?”
“We are on our own,” Nanami answered.
“May I ask, my boy, why are you and your partner not mated? Eternity offers so few companions and far fewer beautiful ones that smell so sweet.”
“We have eternity, what’s the rush?” Nanami questioned.
The vampire laughed, setting the bottle and glasses on the table, “Perhaps it is diluted in your blood, but we vampires hoard our pleasures. We need them in our long lives. If you do not claim your pleasures, someone else will. That goes for you too, my darling. Though, I can smell you on him,” he said this while pouring a glass for you. His eyes were pale, almost as if they’d collected dust. It wasn’t very noticeable. You were sure that a human never would have noticed it and perhaps most vampires did not either.
“How old are you?”
“Why… nearly 500 I do believe.”
“And you are here alone?” you turned your voice into something more mournful and less opportunistic. It wasn’t lost on you that you both intended to kill this vampire.
“I am now. The others are on the hunt. You may both stay for dinner if you like.”
“How generous, but we won’t be staying that long,” Nanami said.
The old vampire smiled, “Wise. There are plenty of full blooded vampires in my coven who would not be as respectful of your… unofficial bond. Particularly for a fine flower such as she. Do consider what I’ve said. You are not human, your desires are not so fleeting, we could hardly live as long as we do if we were so changeable. If you truly want her now, you will want her for eternity even should you fall to the pits of hell.”
Nanami stared at him, unmoved. You wondered if he was at his wits end pretending to be mated to you. His face looked so unamused by the old vampire’s musing. The vampire seemed to recognize this too.
“Buuuut if you do not want her, I would encourage the young lady to stay here. She might have the entirety of the coven at her feet. Has anyone told you, my dear, that you have stars in your eyes? I never understood the saying until I looked into your eyes, dark as coal, throwing the light right back at me. You have stars in your eyes and you smell like fresh blooms on a summer night.” He placed a hand on yours as if he meant to pick your hand up, but Nanami grabbed your wrist.
“Do not become overly familiar,” Nanami’s voice was quick and precise, showing a bit of his fangs. You looked at him, impressed by the performance he was putting on. He actually looked cross that this old vampire was touching you.
The vampire smiled, “Ah you do have some brass to you. Should you find yourself in need of lodging my dear,” he looked back at you and you met his gaze as he caressed the side of you face gently. Then you heard the tell-tale sound of Nanami’s gun cock, and then he fired. The silencer on the end dulled the sound, but you were left staring at the corpse until it fell over. You whipped around to look at Nanami in shock.
“Oh… were you getting attached? We were going to kill him anyway. Now was as good of a time as any.”
“Yeah, but, you may have given me a warning.”
“I’ll be sure to remind you the next time I kill a vampire,” he snapped.
“It just surprised me is all. There could be other vampires here!”
“He said himself that the others were out hunting.”
“And what about when they come back and see him dead?”
“We will be long gone by then. Come on, help me take some of these books. You were still in shock as Nanami started putting books in your hands. You stared at him, completely flabbergasted. When he noticed you gaping at him he rolled his eyes at you.
“I’m sorry, did I ruin your fantasy of being mated to an old bigotted vampire, old enough to start collecting dust?”
“Nanami,” you called as he turned away from you and grabbed another stack, “Nanami, I’m still trying to process. What is going on with you?”
“We need to get as many of these books as we can while the rain has paused. Let’s go.” He started towards the exit.
He seemed to be nearly running from you, though you supposed there were a lot of books to move and only so much time to do it. It took a few trips, and the back of the sedan was full when the two of you were done. You still couldn’t make sense of his actions.
“That is going to be trouble for us later,” you murmured as he got in the driver’s side.
“When I want your opinion, I will ask for it,” he said, sighing.
He really made you testy, “Look I agree, the whole vampire culling talk was giving Nazi vibes, but it still serves our goal, you know less vampires in the world.”
“They meant to refine the ones among them. If there are vampires not worthy of life, then you understand what they think of humans.”
“Right but that’s not new. All vampires think of humans as nothing but blood bags.”
“Not all of them,” he said.
“Well, not me, and certainly not you,” you amended.
“There are other vampires who are just as repulsed by the disease of vampirism as you and I are.”
“Where are they?”
“They died the first time some egomaniac started talking about a culling.”
You nodded slowly, trying to make sense of the fury in his gaze. You wondered who he’d lost. You sort of assumed that because Nanami had been alone since the moment you met him, that he’d always been alone. You never thought to wonder if at one point he might have had people he cared about, perhaps even a lover. Is that what made his eyes burn with fury, a lover who was killed in the last “culling”. You laughed ruefully as you felt a certain bitterness begin to ache in your chest. What were you upset about? You were a deadwoman walking. What did Nanami’s past matter? Your limited future was set. You would eliminate the Viscount Alexi Cordelius and then Nanami would kill you.
You wondered if he’d shot that old vampire because he feared I might take his invitation. He had been promising a life pleasure, it just hadn’t seemed all that pleasurable to you, so you didn’t even consider it. With that you said little else. The car ride was silent and you were listening to the sound of the rain as it began to pick back up. You watched the church become smaller in the rearview mirror.
“You’re quiet again,” he remarked as the two of you were on the highway.
“I thought I was annoying before.”
“Annoying me has never kept you silent.”
“Touche,” you said.
Nanami glanced at you to see you were looking out of your window. It seemed he was back at square one with you. He didn’t know why he reacted that way to the old vampire, he wasn’t offended by being called a half breed, or any of the other prejudiced connotations that the vampire used against him He just found himself increasingly irritated with him as he kept talking about claiming you as if the two of you were nothing more than brainless animals looking to mark their territory. Of course there was no territory to mark. The two of you weren’t “the two of you”. You were a team because he decided to vouch for you, and he truly didn’t expect to have you around that long. Maybe Nanami just feared for your safety. He got that same nearly helpless feeling from when you were dying in his arms, when that old vampire started talking about your home in that coven. He didn’t like it.
“Did you want to go… with him?” Nanami asked softly.
You snorted, “Did I want to join a bunch of eugenics backing vampires?” you laughed, “Get real.”
“You could have done it. I’m sure that old vampire would have fought for you, and between the two of you, you could have overtaken me.”
“Is that what’s bothering you? You thought he was tempting me?” you turned to look at him, an amused grin on your lips, “Father, you usually give blonds a much better name.”
“You seemed to be listening quite intently,” he shrugged.
“Because we were pretending to be wayward vampires looking for guidance,” you explained, “I was playing the part. I spent my whole life under the thumb of old, bigoted vampires. Do you really think that I’m just going to leap at the chance to spend eternity with a new one? I thought you knew me better than that.”
He let out a heavy breath, “I do.” It was the truth. You never would have found a place there, you didn’t even drink human, you hid from him when you drank from him. The idea that you would even think about joining them was preposterous.
“You’re stuck with me until you drive a stake through my heart, Nanami. That’s our deal. I don’t get to skip out of it early right?”
“No. You don’t.”
~
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Next Chapter
Pairing: Nanami Kento x Black!reader
Chapter 3 Summary: While Gojo is in Wales confirming the location of Alexi Cordelius, you and Nanami go on a hunt to slay a den of vampires that have been causing a series of disappearances in the city. However, you both get more than you bargain for when you enter the den.
Warnings: talk of death, blood, some gore… but no worse than canon
Nanami gave you your weapons as you stood by the gate. The parish was quiet, everyone else was fast asleep while the two of you went vampire hunting. With the apprehension of Alexi Cordelius out of your hands at the moment, higher up officials had not paused in their demands for Nanami to neutralize nearby vampiric threats. You thought they might, or you thought that with the approach of your execution they’d be eager to put you under lock and key. It seemed like everyone expected you to turn tail and run. Why would you run though? What would you have to look forward to? Life had been one long run of awful luck. If someone pressed you to answer, you would struggle to find a singular happy memory. You were sold as a feeder at 13 and you didn’t have any memories before that. In the Viscount’s vast library there were psychology texts that you grabbed on a whim. There are lots of reasons why people don’t remember their childhood. Repression was a likely culprit. It was easy to believe that nothing good had ever happened to you. And beyond some vague impressions of humble living and the face of your mother you didn’t remember too much from your childhood. Life was so horrific after that that you weren’t sure your brain had the space to encode all of that. What was there to hang on to?
Nanami waved his hand in front of your face, “Are you with me?”
You blinked and looked up at him, “Yeah, is this just a den raid?”
Nanami put his guns in his shoulder holsters, lifting one arm and then the other to do so, “Yes. They’ve made themselves highly conspicuous on the strip.”
“Highly conspicuous like how?”
“The media is already beginning to suspect a serial killer.”
You nodded, “We’re gonna have to call clean up too aren’t we?”
Nanami tossed you what sufficed as a sympathetic look, “Yes we might.”
The cleaners were a group of people hired by the higher ups to dispose of the bodies when you and Nanami were done. It would be too convenient for vampires to turn to ash the way they did in movies. Someone had to collect the bodies so it wouldn’t catch the media’s attention. The cleaners were none too keen on vampires as a whole. They even had a certain amount of disdain for Nanami which was uncommon. Most people, especially those of the church held him in pretty high esteem. Of course not everyone knew he was half vampires. The cleaners could sniff it out. Maybe that’s why they were cleaners. They knew what bodies to burn and what bodies to find the next of kin for.
“It will be a relatively simple raid,” Nanami assured when your troubled expression didn’t go away.
“I’m sure,” you agreed.
“… If you’re worried about the cleaners, they won’t step out of line with me around-”
“I’m not worried about the cleaners. What will they do? Kill me?” You asked sardonically.
“You haven’t been yourself lately,” he observed as he shrugged on a suit jacket to cover his weapons. You worried the button of your long jacket that served the same purpose.
You smiled for his sake, “What do you mean?”
“You don’t come to my sermon, or pester me at Bible study…” he began.
You hadn’t felt like sitting through the word of God. With such a strong lead on Cordelius it seemed only natural that your own death be heavy on your mind. Vampires were damned beings. From the moment you were turned you had two choices: Spend eternity as a leech on mankind, or forfeit your life and spend eternity in hell. It didn’t seem fair. You did not ask for any of the things that happened to you, and for a long time you prayed for salvation. As far as young girls sold to feeders go… you got lucky. The vampire who had you first was only interested in your blood. He wasn’t interested in girls or women for that matter… in the few moments in which you could speak to the boys you knew their lives were different. They kept the two groups apart, virgins’ blood was better. He kept the girls for fine virgin blood, and the boys for errant pleasure drinking.
The last sermon of Nanami’s you sat in on, mostly because you liked the sound of his voice not because you found the words particularly compelling, he spoke of a benevolent, omnipotent, and omniscient God. It was too much for you. It could not be the truth. A benevolent God could not impose such suffering, to be benevolent He could not be all-powerful, or all seeing. Either he was good, but could not stop the suffering, or he was good and did not see the suffering. Then if He wasn’t benevolent, but instead both omnipotent and omniscient then what was the point of worship? What was the point of all of this if He were just another cruel force in the world? It was too much to think about and so you left, focused on chores in the convent, lied about attending meetings with Nanami for “private prayer” and that was that. The sisters thought you were troubled. The sisters were right.
“Not even you could warm my heart to the thought of God at the moment.”
He hummed, “So that is why you are scarce.”
“How do you reconcile the existence of evil with the presence of a benevolent God?”
“Balance,” he answered calmly before opening the gates.
“Balance?”
“It is a law of the world. Everything in the universe has an equal or an exact opposite. The world is a great balancing act.”
“So you believe in a greater good?”
“Mm, I believe in a greater neutral. Neither good nor bad, it is what it is.”
You opened your mouth to ask what he thought about you and your eventual death. Did he think your death would serve some great balance and which way would the scales tip? Surely it would be a win for good in his eyes. Nanami, for a reason he would not disclose, not that you asked him directly, but he had this evasive way of speaking that told you he would not share this information if he could help it. So in the end you elected not to say anything and to instead follow him out of the church gates and to the black sedan waiting for the two of you. You didn’t really want to hear him tell you that he thought it was for the best that an evil thing like you met its end.
Nanami was deeply put off by how quiet you were in the car. However, just when he was going to ask you what was wrong you started fiddling with the car radio. Nanami did not listen to much music, and any other time he’d bat your hand away from the knobs, but if it got you out of this weird, nearly depressive state, then he would bear whatever you decided to listen to. After a few minutes of searching through the radio stations you turned off the radio and turned your entire body to face him in your seat.
“Hey, can I ask you a personal question?”
‘You’re going to ask me no matter what I say.”
“How old are you?”
His eyebrows shot up a bit. He did not expect you to ask that, “27”
“Huh, okay you’re new to this immortality thing.”
“Yes.”
“Can I ask another personal question?”
“Sure,” he agreed easily enough, since your first question was tame.
“Are you a virgin?”
He gripped the steering wheel tightly as he grit his teeth, “I could swerve into oncoming traffic. What then?”
“Then you’d die a virgin.”
“I liked you better when you were silent.”
“I like you better when you’re shirtless but we can’t all have what we want, now can we?”
“I’ve got duct tape in the back,” he shrugged.
You gasped, “Kinky, for a virgin.”
Nanami turned on the radio and you laughed. He was easily upset in a benign way. He always got flustered with your flirting, and it kept your mind off of the philosophical musings of the afterlife. It didn’t really matter what was on the other side, you’d be meeting it soon.
You looked out the window taking in the city. City life didn’t appeal to you. You supposed that was because the most you knew about it was what you saw while you were out with either Cordelius or Lord Drakon before him. Drakon didn’t get out much, so it was the Viscount who paraded you around the nightlife. Vampires liked to show off their fancy trinkets, and procuring a girl from Lord Drakon was a big deal. He found the best of the best or so that’s what everyone always said. Still back then Cordelius had felt like a savior.
He didn’t feed from you at first. Instead the two of you talked. When he learned that you were well read (as one of Drakon’s favorites it was expected) he fed you more knowledge, telling you what he thought of the world. You could see his face so clearly in your mind’s eye. His wavy dark hair against alabaster skin, and the way his eyes shone like emeralds when he was talking about his passions. He was a renaissance man, literally, born in the 15th century. You thought there was no one in the world who knew more than him. And how could anyone use knowledge like that for evil.
Nanami parked in a narrow alley. You got out before him, taking a light breath to catch the scent of nearby vampires instead you fried food, and something sweet with it. You looked back, out of the alley, and gasped as you noticed there was a ferris wheel in the distance.
“A fair!” you gasped, “Nanami we should stop by and get a funnel cake after this.”
“No.”
“Come on! I bet there’s pretzels too. And they’ll be warm and hot, and salty,” you described in a sultry voice. Nanami just narrowed his eyes at you, no longer confident that you were only describing pretzels.
“Hedonistic she-devil.”
“Love it when you call me sweet names, father,” you giggled, lifting your chin to scent the vampires again. A vampire den was hard to miss. As you disregarded the smell of food in the air, you could catch the tale end of the sharpness that vampires but there couldn’t have been very many of them, and they must be pretty far away.
“You couldn’t have gotten any closer?” You complained.
Nanami frowned as he walked towards the steps of the “address” the higher ups gave him. It was and address of the building but the den was to be found around the back and down a set of stairs.
“It’s right here.” He pointed down the rest of the stairs and you stood at the top before taking a deep breath only to slap your hand over your nose.
“You don’t smell that. That does not smell like vampires.” You knew that Nanami’s sense of smell wasn’t as fine tuned as yours but the scent was still fine tuned. If your nose was like a Bloodhound then his was a respectable German Shepherd. He sniffed as well and his nose scrunched.
Nanami thought it was just city filth, but as he continued down the steps the smell only got stronger. He, of course, could identify the smell of vampires, but you were right. It seemed faint. Either way, he would have to check this place first since it was the address given. There was a basement unit with an unlit door. Vampires wouldn’t need the light, so there was no reason to have one. However the neons of the surrounding buildings added a little bit of light. Not much to be helpful to the human eye but it helped Nanami. Something was off about this place. He drew one of his guns as he approached the door and he heard you grab a silver pike.
There was music playing inside, a thumping bass, so loud he didn’t know how they could stand to be in the same room as it. He glanced back at you to signal his next move and you nodded, a sharp jerk of your head. He kicked in the door and sped through ready to shoot.
There were 5 bodies strewn about the front room. Intestines hanging about like a grotesque garland, blood splattered everywhere. It was as if some beast had torn through them all, taking at least two of them in its mouth before shaking its head the way dogs do. Some looked to have exploded from the inside out, putting blood and entrails on the ceiling. You cursed softly and then there was movement in the den. Both you and Nanami snapped to attention. Careful to step around the bodies as best as you could you followed him towards the sound. Beyond the front room there was a narrow hallway, where dark crimson streaks of blood littered the dingy white walls. Whatever beast that had been in here, it was big enough to take up the hallway. You could only imagine that the blood stains came from it rubbing its body against the doorway. The movement became steps, the click of claws on wood floors. As the two of you approached the first door you felt the hair on the back of your neck stand up. You grabbed Nanami by his collar and yanked him back as the beast suddenly burst out of the first room, sending specks of wood and dry wall your way as its massive shoulders went through the doorway and a bit of the wall surrounding it. Nanami fired at it while still in motion, burying a silver bullet in its body. The things shrieked a sound that rattled your ear drums. You felt Nanami stumbled as if his knees were suddenly weak.
The beast had gray skin that was nearly translucent. You could make out every blue bulging vein in its body. Its upper body was wide with rippling muscles and huge arms that gave way to big clawed hands. However it stood hunched in on itself with a pinched waist that jutted out against grotesquely muscled legs with clawed feet. The thing was upsetting just to look at.
“Come… here,” it croaked at the two of you. Nanami’s collar was still in your hand so you felt him pitch forward towards the monster, and you yanked him back in surprise.
“Come… HERE,” It insisted and you had to pull Nanami back again, getting in front of him to stare into the monster’s eyes. They were milky white, and perhaps they were glowing. You couldn’t tell. Their eyes peeked out from stringy blood soaked hair. Their face was almost human looking, but they were missing the outer parts of their nose. It was just a triangle shaped hole in their face with the wet glistening glands of their olfactory system bare for all the world to see. Their lips could not contain their teeth, and so the marred, hissing nature of the voice you heard made sense. You stared at their pointed teeth and spade tongue in true confusion. You’d never seen anything like this before. The longer you looked at it, the more it made your skin crawl. You snatched one of Nanami’s guns and fired right into its face causing another screech, then a thud as Nanami fell to the ground. You glanced at him, and felt something like a battering ram smash into your side. You went through the flimsy drywall and into a brick outer wall. When you hit the floor you barely had a chance to right yourself as you looked up to see the beast going for Nanami again. With that you dashed between them, blocking the strike with all of your strength. And then putting your foot in its chest before kicking it down the length of the hallway.
“Nanami, knows not the time for a nap,” you said, keeping your eye on the beast.
“It’s… voice,” he said in a sort of dazed tone.
“Plug your ears or something!” you snapped at him as you watched the beast get back up. It charged at you and you got your silver pikes ready before charging as well. You weren’t even sure if stabbing this thing through the heart would do it. Either way, Nanami was right behind you to follow up your attack. The beast was strong, every swing you failed to block hit you like a truck, and you had to fight through the pain of bones resetting themselves and cuts healing as quickly as you got them. You were glad that you chose to feed before the mission.
Before long it became obvious to you that its main goal was Nanami. Even when you were the biggest threat, it sacrificed itself for a chance to snap at him. You did your best to leverage this advantage, and with the two of you fighting it, it had no chance to speak, though you could tell the mere sound of its voice, even when crying out in pain, had an effect on Nanami. You did your best to fight off heavy handed blows, but it found a good opening to take a snap at him and the best you could do was jump in front of it. It’s needle-like teeth pierced through your body like butter. One of your arms was in its mouth and you pushed up through its hard palate, snapping the sheet of bone. It released you, but you weren’t done.
Nanami watched, rooted in place for just a moment after the beast bit into your body. It let you go, and black blood poured out of its mouth. You growled as your body gave its all to end the fight. He watched you tackle the thing down, wrestling with it for a moment. And when it tried to bite you again you hooked your hands into its mouth and started opening it. The wailing of the beast rang through his head, blurring his vision, but he could see you prying open the beast’s jaws until bones began to snap and crack. You weren’t satisfied until you’d practically turned the beast’s head inside out, and then when it fell you stomped on the remains to be sure it didn’t get up. His vision cleared when it stopped wailing, and you were simply tearing at a lifeless body.
He called your name and you stopped stomping on the corpse. You turned towards him. The whites of your eyes were blood red, and your dark irises seemed abysmal. Your fangs had dropped, sharp points pressing against your bottom lip. As you looked at him you swayed unsteadily, and he hurried forward to catch you as you tipped forward. He heard you wretch and then blood splashed on the floor. This wasn’t good.
He cradled you in his arms so that he could see your face. Your skin had taken on a sort of gray undertone, like a wilting rose. You looked up at him and your face twitched into a little smile.
“Sorry to… skip, out of our- our deal early,” you wheezed, and he could hear the rattling of what had to be blood filling your lungs.
“You’re not dying,” he said firmly, looking you over. But your blood was already saturating his clothing.
“Hate to call you a… liar, father but,” you coughed and more blood gurgled up from your throat. He turned you on your side so that it could pour out of your mouth. His mind was racing. You wouldn’t last the drive back to the parish, and there was no place to get animal blood nearby. To be honest, he wasn’t sure animal blood would save you. It worked too slowly. Your heart would give out before it had the chance to work. There was still so much more to do.
“Will you pray for me? It prob- won’t hel-” you cut off as the rattling in your chest came back and you were retching up blood again. You didn’t have long.
You thought you might cry in the end. You certainly felt sad enough to cry, but also… you were happy that maybe your death did maintain some balance. Surely the world losing someone like Nanami would have offset the balance. He was surly, and could come off mean but you knew he had a good heart. He cared about people even if he couldn’t connect with them. Maybe there was a great neutral, a balance that a god maintained. Bad things happened because they must. Not because the divine willed it. In the end you had so many things left to say. When you thought Nanami would kill you himself you thought you’d get a chance to apologize for teasing him so much. You were annoying on purpose most of the time. It was for your own amusement and you knew it annoyed him. Some small part of you also wanted to protect yourself from ever thinking that he cared about you. His constant rebuffs kept your own heart in check. It was a defense mechanism. You thought you’d have time to properly repent, maybe get some holy oil in on the action. It probably wouldn’t have worked anyway. This was as good a death as any you supposed.
You closed your eyes because it became too hard to keep them open. You could feel a sort of pull, like your entire being was being sucked out through a straw. The end was beginning to feel peaceful, like you were floating down a river, letting the water take you wherever it wished. Just as you felt the last of you begin to surrender to the pull, there was a warm scent in the endless darkness, truly mouthwatering. Darkness became red, blood red, and pure euphoria slipped through your being. For one wild moment, you wondered if this might be heaven after all. Then the ache set in. That special ache of healing, of wounds closing and bones resetting. It hurt to become whole, but the saccharine flow of warmth against your mouth made it just another pleasurable sensation. It was oil slick and wet… blood. A quiet breathy moan made your eyes snap open. You felt something squeeze your body as you opened your eyes. There was just the blood splattered ceiling in your sight at first. Drops of red and black blood decorated the white smooth dry wall. And then you heard that moan again, followed by warmth against your cheek. It was only then that you fully realized something was in your mouth.
Nanami had his wrist pressed against your mouth. His other arm was wrapped around you, pulling you tight against his body, and pinning your arms to your sides in the process. He was trying to keep you from holding on to his wrist, but the added closeness was grounding in a small way. Feeding was euphoric for both the party feeding and the one being fed from. It served two purposes, to keep the prey in place, and to elevate heart rate in the prey to increase blood flow. He grit his teeth against the pleasurable sensations as he pressed his face against your shoulder to help stifle the breathless gasps he couldn’t control. They came as a byproduct of him holding his breath to keep the lustful sounds of pleasure from escaping him. He’d never felt anything like this before, even when he had known his own touch, there was no greater pleasure than the feeling of your tongue against his wrist. Still he fought to get his wits about him. Hereadied the bit to replace his wrist with when he took it away.
He just needed you well enough to sleep this off. He wouldn’t survive the task of fully healing you. Even know his hand was cold and tingling from lack of blood flow. The soft needy sounds you made as you drank made it hard to pull away, but vampires were beguiling creatures and it was only natural to want to give one what she wanted. He pulled his wrist away and shoved the wrapped leather hilt of his silver dagger between your jaws as you surged up to chase his arm.
“Look at me,” he said softly, lifting his head so that your eyes met, “I’m taking you back to the church. Control yourself.” You fought against his hold on you, eyes still vacant with bloodlust. He had to change his hold on you as the blood metabolized and you gained strength back. He managed to get you in a nelson hold and he wrapped his legs around you so that you couldn’t continue to fight him. It was just another minute before you stopped fighting him all together. He didn’t let you go immediately, worried that it was just a decoy. Then he heard your breathing change. It was no longer ravenous and bloodthirsty, instead it was hitched and uneven: You were crying.
“Why?” you asked, “Why’d you bring me back?”
“We have a deal,” he responded before slowly letting you go.
If he was perturbed by your quiet on the way to the hunt, then the absolute silence was hair raising. You stared out of the window most of the time without acknowledging him. At first he wished you would speak, but after a while he realized that he had his own thoughts to make sense of. Retroactively, he could say that there was too much left to learn about this beast, and why its voice did not affect you. There were too many unanswered questions about you, about the viscount, everything. But he knew that any other hunter tasked with keeping you as an… assistant of sorts, would have let you die. Gojo certainly would have, not out of coldness but because the alternative of feeding you was… perhaps morally bereft. He wasn’t sure yet. But he just couldn’t let you die that way.
When you two got to the parish he opened the church gate for you and you hesitated. You wondered if you would burst into flames on hallowed ground now. You had fed from someone. If that was the only thing keeping you alive then that was over. What did it matter though? You asked yourself and you stepped past the gate and there was nothing. Maybe Nanami wasn’t human enough. Maybe it had nothing to do with feeding. Without saying a word you began to walk towards the convent.
Nanami called you and you turned, eyes still staring at your feet, “You need blood.”
You shook your head, “I’ll sleep it off.”
“The sisters… you’ve tasted blood now and-”
“You’re afraid for the sisters…” you said softly, “Do you want me in the church basement then?”
“You could take my room.”
You felt your face go hot, which was only possible because of the fresh supply of blood you had, “Um… I’ll go to the basement,” you chose speeding towards the back of the church. You could barely stand to look at him. Repeat feeding created near unbreakable bonds between vampire and consort. It’s why it was such a big deal to have a collection, many were devoted to their master you… never were.
You thought of this as you opened the church cellar doors. The cellar was a pretty normal place, old, a little leaky, but it did have a bed, a desk and a few other comfort things leftover from when you first came here. Nanami was still wary of you despite having taken on this task of making you something like an assistant. You spent a long time in the secluded room of the cellar. There were no windows, so you would have no idea when it was time for you to get up. This place reminded you a lot of the rooms in Lord Drakon’s castle.
Lord Drakon tried to make a bond with you, through routine feeding, and gifts. He didn’t like to have to chain and leash his feeders, but he did. Especially the ones who were not yet broken. He couldn’t trust you not to look for a way out, which was smart because you would have. Similarly, the viscount tried to bond with you as well. He didn’t feed with you immediately, instead he gave you a new room in his castle, a big one, the kind the princesses had in fairytales. He spoiled you with gifts: jewelry, books, food, dresses, anything your heart could desire. And instead of taking your blood he was charming, utterly beguiling, coaxing you to him with honeyed words of a new world in which smart young humans like you would be safe. He said it sickened him the way that his counterparts kept humans like cattle. He himself had two other consorts, all with big rooms and pretty clothes, all utterly devoted to him. You never felt the spark of connection that the other women described, how they said their hearts beat for him.
This wasn’t the same, you were the one doing the feeding, but for a moment as you drank, you felt a kind of oneness that you’d never felt before. It was… satisfying, like threading or needle or seamlessly weaving through lanes. Everything was sharpened to a point, on fine point of absolute pleasure, a perfect feedback loop of delight. You understood what both vampires had been looking for in you. It was a full body experience. You were grateful that the blood on your body made it impossible to discern whether arousal made your thighs slick or if it was the fault of the wet fabric of your clothing that caused the wetness. At any rate you were grateful to get into a shower. The water ran pink for a very long time and you stood there remembering the soul deep pleasure of feeding. How were you going to go back to animal blood when you tasted that, how were you going to face Nanami? You didn’t want to see him the way that vampires saw you. You were just a sweet snack, something to drink when they felt peckish, or pleasure when they were bored. Nanami was… well he wasn’t your friend you didn’t think he would care to be called that but he was more than just blood. That was the problem with vampires, why you despised them so much. Everything was just blood to them.
You slept through the day. Sleep helped you recover what blood didn’t. Even when you were rested you didn’t dare leave the cellar. It was safer that way. What if you did have a new insatiable craving for the blood of the living? You didn’t want to go out that way, after terrorizing the people of this church. You slept for most of the time, and when you weren’t sleeping you were lost in thought.
Nanami came to check on you on the second day without seeing you. He had food. You didn’t need to eat but he knew you liked to. He called to you as he walked down the cellar steps. You answered, though your voice was quiet and monotone. He found you curled up on the bed with your back facing the door.
“Are you alright?”
“Fine.” you answered.
“You haven’t been out of the cellar,” he remarked.
“I thought we were afraid that you’d turned me into a blood thirsty monster.”
He took a deep breath, “Well, I’m still standing so I don’t know how blood thirsty you could possibly be.”
He had a point, you hadn’t even considered ceasing breathing. His scent was slowly saturating the room and besides thinking that he smelled nice, you were no more enticed to sink your teeth into him than you ever were. Additionally, there was a secondary smell that was far more mouthwatering. You sat up slowly, avoiding eye contact with Nanami. You noticed a styrofoam container in his hand and eyed it curiously.
“What’s that?”
“Well, it’s a funnel cake, but I guess I’ll eat it myself. Bloodthirsty monsters don’t tend to be into that kind of thing.”
You scowled, “You don’t even like sweets.” You went to grab the container but he pulled it out of reach. You went to glare at him and found him smirking down at you. The mere sight of his face especially after having seen him in the grips of such euphoria that only a vampire could bring was too much for you. You felt your face flush just a little, and you turned away.
“Fine, I hope you get powdered sugar all over your robes,” you grumbled.
Nanami frowned. He’d never seen you get bashful. He was accustomed to your brazen personality. To be fair, he had been the slightest bit… nervous about seeing you but he knew it was just the worry that he had in fact made you bloodthirsty. Or at the very least that’s what he insisted to himself. He gave you the container and you took it without looking at him.
You looked much better than when he last saw you. Of course your skin always had color but there was a bright undertone in your skin that faded when you were wounded. Sleep had done you well.
“Cleaners picked up the beast. They are calling it a ghoul,” he said, “They think it used to be human.”
You frowned. That thing used to be human, that transformation must have been agonizing. You wanted to kick yourself for feeling such strong sympathy for the thing that would have killed you if Nanami hadn’t given you his blood.
“The running theory is that it was responsible for the gruesome deaths. Which makes more sense. That den of vampires had been there for decades. They never caused so much trouble before.”
“Wait, you all knew about them… and you just let them stay there.”
“They were a… special case. Vampire hierarchies are quite delicate. Sense they are immortal, the positions they hold in their own society cannot easily find replacement. Which leads to fierce loyalty among those who know them.”
“The church didn’t want to provoke a large-scale attack?”
“Precisely. It was better to just keep an eye on them. Few vampires kill humans these days, they can survive without taking all of a donor’s blood.”
You snorted, “Donor. Don’t make it sound so noble.”
“Many humans consent.”
“And the ones who don’t?” You turned a sharp glare to him.
His shoulders sagged a bit with his sigh, “There are not enough hunters to go after every coven. They sent me for this one because I work with you. It would have been… steep to do alone.”
“You could have done it.”
“I would have left down more than a pint of blood. If I was fighting the coven that is. Against that beast I would have been killed.”
You frowned again and chose not to say anything else to him. At your silence he continued the conversation himself, though he was not used to carrying the conversation when it was you he was talking to.
“Gojo called this morning to say that the castle in Wales is empty. It’s possible that Cordelius moved upon learning the fate of Tara Lydos. He’s gathering information before he comes back. He wants to see the ghoul carcass himself.
“It’s a good thing you didn’t let me die then, huh,” you mused, but you did not sound as if you thought it was a good thing.
“I think so, but you don’t seem to. What is your aversion to living as you are? You don’t drink human, so you’re not a leech on humanity, and you’ve never killed a human so you are not a murderer.”
“It’s all blood with vampires, everything, all of it. I am constantly aware of the need to have it, get more of it. I choose not to let those thoughts consume me. And I have been on the other end of just being blood. I don’t want to do that to people. I don’t want to be like that.”
“Is that how you see me now? Just a talking blood bag?”
You huffed, “No, obviously not you’re my… You’re you,” you said because you still couldn’t call him a friend. He was just the only person you had such constant contact with. Things were weird now.
“Good. You’re alive because we have unfinished business. Sorry, but you won’t be skipping out of our deal.”
~
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Next Chapter
Pairing: Priest!Nanami Kento x Black!reader
Chapter 2 Summary: You are unfortunately introduced to the strongest hunter the world has ever known.
Warnings: talk of death, blood, some gore… but no worse than canon
Who Art in Heaven Master List
“Do you think I smell exceptional, Father Nanami?” you asked as you sat beside him on one of the pews. You expected him to dismiss you with a curt ‘no’ and be done with it, instead he leaned into you, putting his nose very nearly on your neck. A pulse of heat singed through your body in one hot flash.
“Yes,” he answered, “But it is not as Tara described for me. I can only assume that is because I am only half vampire.”
You cleared your throat, “I wasn’t aware that I smelled different from any other vampire.”
“Vampire scents often lack subtlety. They are designed to draw in humans after all, and human olfaction is much weaker than ours.”
You brought your wrist up to smell yourself and then you moved higher, trying to catch the scent that everyone was talking about, “You’re saying it’s a subtle smell.”
“Its appeal is subtle. It is quite nice though. I wonder if Cordelius knew this would happen when he changed you.”
“I don’t know. To be honest, when he plucked me from my room that night and started talking about me being his favorite I figured he was going to finally drain me dry. Didn’t expect the uh… ritual.” You didn’t like to talk about the ritual. As far as Nanami was aware you didn’t remember it. It was common to experience amnesia after changing. Many new vampires forgot their humanity entirely. You just weren’t one of them. You remembered it all too well. At that thought you wrapped your arms around your body.
Nanami noticed the way you shrunk in on yourself. He had asked you in the beginning what you remembered about the ritual, back when he thought meeting you would be as simple as asking his questions then putting a stake through your heart. You gave him small details, a chalice mixed with unknown powders, you were bound, but there were other things he wanted to know about now. He didn’t know how important the exact nature of your transformation would be. When he asked later you lied, though he could discern that it was not from any desire to protect Cordelius. Obviously, being turned against your will was deeply traumatic, and he could only guess that being changed by something that kept you captive your whole life and becoming the very thing you hated was traumatic as well. You made a deal for death, so he chose not to pry. In time you would tell him, or if he knew for sure that it would be helpful in his quest to locate Cordelius then he would ask. As it was, he was just curious if the ritual was to blame for your immunity to holy items and the sun. He wouldn’t press the issue for his own curiosity alone.
“ I put in a request for a… colleague to look into Cordelius in Wales.”
“Oh? Another half vampire.”
“No, a hunter. Perhaps the best there is.”
“Wow, friends in high places. You’ve got Hellsing on speed dial,” You said in jest speaking of the man that was more myth than reality. You could never be completely certain if he had once existed and died, or if he did exist and was still around, or if he was purely a thing of legend.
“Better than Hellsing… and worse. I’m sure he will come by soon for a direct debriefing. You should stay out of his sight. He might not be so forgiving of your nature.
“Or I could be right in his sight and skip out of our deal early.
“Or that,” he sighed, “Is that truly what you desire?”
You thought he might chastise you about going against your word, or be even a little annoyed with you, but he just seemed resigned. Nanami was always surprising you. Whenever you thought you had him figured out he did something that you just couldn’t understand.
“Well I’m still alive to help you find Cordelius. If he’s in Wales…”
“We should be sure he’s in Wales first,” Nanami said evenly.
“And if he is, that will be the end of me. That’s our deal. I have no desire to continue living like a leech. The peace of death is all I can hope to look forward to.”
Nanami searched your face for a moment, but you couldn’t make sense of his expression. On the surface it was quite neutral but it was the way that his gaze lingered that hinted at something deeper underneath it all.
“Don’t get soft on me now,” you said with a little laugh, “I can be more annoying if that will make it easier for you.”
“Trust me, you do not need to be more annoying.”
“You sure? Because I could explain in graphic detail how we could have some fun with the altar candles.”
He hummed, “You know, maybe you should greet the hunter first. I think you’d find him far more tolerant of your flirtations,” he said, standing up to leave you. Your laughter echoed after him as he walked down the aisle between the pew to go find something else to do. He simply shook his head at your antics.
It was two days of the usual nights filled with researching vampirism or grueling training with Nanami. It seemed he had it out for you after he took a knife to the side in your defense. He was still a better fighter than you. You might have the lionshare of strength as a full-blooded vampire but he had you out maneuvered and out witted. It also didn’t help that he always trained in a tight black t-shirt that showed off just how built he was under those priestly robes. It was hard to believe he could be allowed on hallowed ground. The sight of his body was sinful. His shoulder to waist ratio really did things to your brain, or maybe it was the impact of hitting the hard packed dirt outside that made Nanami look especially heavenly standing over you with a wooden stake in hand.
“Are you even trying?” he asked in a bored tone.
Instead of answering you let your muscles tense before you sprung up at him, batting the stake out of the way though he did not lose his grip on it. The force of your body weight crashing into him made him stumble backwards but he eventually regained his footing, and you felt the stake press against your back. You were wrapped around his torso, poised to rip out his throat.
“I would have already ripped out your throat by now.”
“A vampire would not have stumbled. You’d be dead,” he assured you, pressing the stake into your back a bit more firmly.
“But I’m fighting you. And you’d be dead if I had a mind to kill you.”
“In the field you won’t be fighting me. You’ll be fighting full blooded vampires. They are stronger than us both, you know?”
“Sure but I won this match,” you insisted.
“No, you would be dead.”
“Nanami,” you complained, leaning back to look at him. Which made you wrap your arms around his shoulders to stay up there like that. You paused in what you were going to say and focused on just how firm and broad his shoulders were.
“Get. Off.” he said precisely and you did as he requested with a small smile.
“Tie breaker,” you offered, getting back into a ready to fight position.
“It was not a tie,” he answered but prepared to fight again as well. In about two minutes he had pinned a hand carefully on your throat but jammed up so that his thumb pressed against one side of your jaw and his forefinger pressed against the other. It made it difficult and painful to open your mouth. The stake was pressed right between your breasts.
“You would be dead,” he said, loosening his grip on your neck.
“But what a charmed way to go,” you breathed, before batting the stake away again for another skirmish. It didn’t last long before your back hit the ground again, hard. You wheezed as you tried to recall the breath he knocked out of you. He had both of your hands in one of his, and before he could bring the stake down, you spread your arms wide and lifted your hips in one hard motion making his gravity tip forward, and as he nearly fell you rolled him over on his back with another hard tily of your hips.
You wound up straddling his waist with the stake still in his hand but the pointed end was against his chest, “I win.”
He stared up at you with a slightly annoyed expression. You leaned in a little to gloat, pressing the sharp point of the stake against him just a bit.
“You know you’re real handsome on your back, Father.”
He got out of your hold with an embarrassing lack of effort and you found yourself on your back again with his forearm against your throat. He glared down at you with indifferent dark eyes.
“You’re not even trying.”
“Oh I’m trying alright,” you murmured, thinking about how this was probably the closest you were going to get to any type of action before you died. What a pity. If you knew staying alive was a vow of chastity you would have insisted that he killed you when he found you.
“You are honestly trying to win?”
“No. I am trying to see how many positions I can get you in.”
“I’m looking forward to the day I drive a stake through your heart.”
“I’m looking forward to the day you shove that long hard- ow!” you complained as he hit you in the arm with the stake. He got up with a world weary sigh and he reminded you of the time that the hunter would be in the church so you could make yourself scarce.
On the day that the hunter was supposed to be in the parish you found tedious chores to do in the convent. Something that would prevent the other sisters from asking you to go to the church with them. Dusting was a task most of the other sisters hated but you didn’t mind it. It gave you a chance to take in the old architecture. You didn’t have much time for dawdling. You usually slept through most of the day when everyone else had their free time to do as they pleased. Waking up in the middle of the day put you right in the hustle and bustle of things. You’d do anything to stay out of the kitchen with Sister Lori.
You were washing the windows when a shock of white hair caught your eye across the courtyard. Even from far away you could make out his form in excruciating detail. He had circular sunglasses covering his eyes, and he wore an all black suit which only exacerbated his paleness and the way he stood out. As he walked he stopped suddenly and turned to look right at you. Or at least it felt like he was looking right at you, but no human could have seen you this far off and yet it made the hair on the back of your neck stand up because you just knew he was seeing you.
“Sister,” one of the other nuns called and you startled so badly you nearly fell off the ladder. She seized the wobbling thing to keep it from falling, “So sorry!” she called out, “You don’t usually startle so easily. Father Nanami has called for you.”
You nodded before looking back at the window to find the man was gone, and nowhere to be found in the immediate vicinity. You climbed down from the ladder. The grounds were pretty empty, and you walked towards the east wing of the church where his office was. However as you walked along the stone path you caught the scent of blood in the air. Your bodily reaction was to be expected. Your mouth watered and your muscles tensed, body ready to spring into action for the easy prey that must be in the vicinity. However, your mind was alarmed by the idea that someone was injured at the church. You lifted your chin to put your nose in the air and catch the scent to find the wounded person. You stepped off the path and towards the woods surrounding the parish. As the scent grew stronger you called out.
“Hello! Is someone out here? Do you need help?” you called but received no answer. Perhaps they passed out. You kept talking as you got closer, not wanting to scare the person if they were wounded, granted you were dressed as a nun and people didn’t often find nuns scary… well unless they were raised in catholic school but even then, the fear was not of mortal danger.
You did not expect to see the hunter from before. He was sitting on a fallen tree with his legs crossed. One of his hands was bleeding, the other hand was twirling a silver stake. All your muscles locked down.
“There’s an imposter in the church,” he mused with a smile.
“You… don’t look like you need help. So, I’ll just be going,” you took a normal step backwards, before letting the full strength of your muscles send you speeding like a bullet back towards the church.
You made it out of the trees before a force like a wrecking ball slammed into you. You lost your footing and fell with a hard thud.
“You know, most hunters approach their prey quietly. What was your plan, to lure the bleeding victim to you? They would have already been injured,” the man mused as he walked towards you leisurely. You scrambled on your feet again, and turned to look at him. Blood was still running down his hand, but as he got closer you realized the smell was a little off. Not like Nanami whose smell was uniquely non-human but extremely appetizing. This man’s blood felt like the equivalent of the smell of cooking peppers. From far away it was intriguing, maybe even appetizing, but as he kept closing the distance between the two of you, it began to burn your nose, and you almost felt like sneezing. It was an overwhelming scent and everything about it made you feel like you should be running again.
“I thought there was someone in need. That is all.”
“Is that so, bloodsucker? Tell me, how do you stand on hallowed ground?”
“I am going to meet with Father Nanami now, you can hear an explanation from him, I am sure you’ll believe it more from his mouth.”
He laughed and then rushed you. You had enough time to focus on defense, blocking the rapid fire blows that came, and carefully avoiding the stake in his hand. Whatever this man was, he wasn’t human.
“Oh, you might actually take some effort,” he laughed, pausing his attack. He looked at you with piercing blue eyes over his glasses, tossed the stake up to change his hold and in the blink of an eye he was on top of you. The sensation of hitting the ground came a second later and you cried out as the force of it broke bones. Still you grappled with him, diverting his momentum, because stopping him seemed impossible. The stake stabbed into the ground beside your head.
“Gojo!” Nanami’s voice barked out, far louder and angrier than you’d ever heard him sound. You lost focus for a second and the sharp point of the stake was coming right at you. You had no choice but to grab his wrist, slowing down his attack but not stopping it. You growled with the effort it took to hold his wrist back.
“Gojo, she is not an enemy. She is helping me find Cordelius!”
Gojo, who had been smiling down at you gleefully with murder in his eyes, changed his attention from you to Nanami and you took that chance to shove him off of you. You pushed yourself up and behind Nanami, only to tip forward the moment you were still. Nanami caught you, pulling you into his side.
“Nanamin,” Gojo gasped, “Consorting with the enemy. I never expected something so… exciting from you.”
“We can have this discussion in my office. Away from prying eyes.”
While the idea of that sounded phenomenal, you were not able to move on your own. The ribs broken from the impact of your body hitting the ground at speeds you couldn’t fathom was so bad you weren’t even standing. Nanami was holding the full weight of your body.
“This has to be a good story,” Gojo laughed, “Come on let’s go!” He breezed past the two of you.
“What the fuck?” you wheezed.
“I thought he was already gone. He doesn’t usually stick around the parish,” Nanami said to you, before picking you up, “Close your eyes, they’ve turned.”
You did as he said. and he noticed the smell of your blood. The black fabric of your robes was beginning to stick to your body. Your heart was beating far faster than it ever did, but faster still was his own heart. There was nothing he really could have done, physically, to stop your execution. Gojo was the strongest vampire hunter there was, and if he was set on killing you, you would be dead. Though he was impressed you were able to stay his hand at all. The sclera of your eyes were blood red though, a clear indicator that it had taken everything you had to stay his hand for just a moment.
“What is he?” you demanded.
“Nephilim.”
“Half angel?” you asked for clarification.
“The only one left alive,” Nanami confirmed.
“Fuck,” you complained.
“I’ve got blood in the office.”
“Please tell me it’s not deer’s blood. It fucks with my stomach and I’ll be in the bathroom for the rest of the day.”
Nanami snorted, “No, pig actually.”
“Oh, fancy.”
“Type O as well.”
“You’re spoiling me, Father. I might get the wrong idea and start thinking that you like me.”
He chuckled and a ghost of a smile tugged on his lips. Once in his office, he laid you on the leather chaise lounge before going over to his desk for a key to the cabinet where he stored blood. Gojo took a seat in one of the chairs in front of Nanami’s desk, making his curiosity about you known as he continued to stare at you with his strange eyes.
“So you two play priest and nun for… fun?” he asked as Nanami closed the fridge inside of the cabinet.
“I’m not playing priest. I am a priest… she is playing nun though. I don’t think she meets the qualifications to make her vows.”
“I think I could qualify as a born again virgin at this point,” you said.
“Your virginity, or lack thereof, has nothing to do with it. The way you act in confession is reason enough for you to never be approved.”
“I thought those things were confidential.”
“So what’s the story behind having a vampire in the convent?” Gojo asked impatiently.
Nanami gave you a chalice of blood before sitting in his desk chair. He took a deep breath before telling Gojo about how he found you. You knew that story so you didn’t pay much attention to it.
“And you didn’t kill her immediately?” Gojo said, “That’s not like you, Nanamin.”
“She’s innocent, she’s never taken a human life.”
“How do you know?” Gojo asked.
Nanami frowned, “I know when people are lying to me.”
“Yes, I know about your little affinity. But how do you know she hasn’t killed anyone since. Do you ask daily? Weekly?”
Nanami’s frown deepened but he turned to you while you were busy drinking, “Have you ever killed a human being?”
You licked the blood off your lips before answering, “No.”
Nanami turned back to Gojo, “She’s never killed anyone before, and she’s not asking for indefinite protection from me or the church. She didn’t ask for protection at all.”
Gojo cocked his head to the side, “What did she ask for?”
“She asked me to kill her. In fact, she thought that stepping on hallowed ground would do that.”
“Well it should have. So should the sun… now that I’m thinking about it.”
“Which is yet another reason I hesitated in killing her, the main reason though is her connection to Alexi Cordelius.”
“If he’s looking for her, why not just tell him where to find her? He’ll come to you.”
“It’s as I told you before, I don’t know his endgame so it seems ill-advised to go in blindly. Plus, with the added knowledge that he is looking for her, it begs the question why.”
“Why would Cordelius be looking for you?” Gojo asked you. You were slightly surprised that he was addressing you directly. He’d seemed so content talking about you like you weren’t in the room.
“I ran away from him right after my transformation was complete. I can only assume he wants me back in the collection.”
“And how did you come to know Cordelius?”
“I was sold to him as a feeder.”
“You do smell quite nice for a vampire,” Gojo murmured, “But why would he turn a feeder? That seems wasteful.” He posed this question to Nanami, not you which was fine because you didn’t have an answer.
“I can’t think of anything more than he really liked her smell and wanted to keep it forever. She had an almost… intoxicating effect on the vampire Tara Lydos who gave us the information on where to find Cordelius.”
“Circling back to something,” Gojo turned his attention back to you, “if you wanted to die, why not let me kill you? You’d have gotten your side of the bargain.”
“I gave Nanami my word that I would stick around until you all got Cordelius. I try to keep my word.”
Gojo just scoffed, “Are you prepared to kill her when I find him, Nanamin?”
“That is our agreement,” Nanami nodded.
“Cool,” Gojo shrugged, leaning back in his chair without a care in the world.
“That’s all you have to say?”
“Yep.”
“… Alright well, you can go check the given location for Cordelius.”
“And when he’s there, you can drive a stake through that one’s heart,” Gojo pointed at you jovially.
“Right…?” Nanami agreed, appearing confused. Gojo laughed before standing and leaving without a second glance at you. You watched him go before relaxing against the chaise lounge again. You groaned, setting the empty chalice on the floor. Your body had mostly mended, but it was still incredibly painful to even breathe. You heard Nanami coming closer, but didn’t bother to move. Everything hurt too badly.
“How are you?” he asked, placing a hand on your shoulder.
“Feels like I got hit by a bus.”
“I’m upset with you, you know?” he said, though there was a peculiar ring of amusement in his tone. It made you turn to look at him. His eyes, brown like bourbon, met yours and he smiled just a bit.
“You have been holding out on me when we spar.”
“I was fighting for my life, Nanami,” you responded.
“Which is how you should always fight.”
“But I might hurt you,” you threw back.
He tilted his head, “And I would heal.”
He was right but the idea of it still made you deeply uncomfortable. Again, you remembered the first time you realized the effect that Nanami’s blood could have on you. After what you did you locked yourself up in your room for days. He did not call for you to leave so you could only guess that he was a bit cross with you as well. After a week when you could stand to face him, he just wordlessly started helping you build a tolerance to seeing his blood and smelling it. You didn’t want to hurt Nanami. He was doing something good. He was ridding the world of vampires, and it would be such a horrible thing for the one he trusted, the one he thought was innocent, to be the one to kill him. You knew that there was a good portion of the higher ups who were waiting for it to happen, or for you to mess up and kill a human. He’d put his neck out for you and you didn’t want to make him look like a fool… even though you didn’t ask for any of this.
“I’d rather not hurt you at all. Besides, if I win every match, how am I gonna get you on top of me,” you flirted, knowing it would make him drop the subject.
He rolled his eyes at you standing to his full height, “Get out.”
“I’m still in pain.”
“That’s too bad”
~
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Next Chapter
Pairing: Priest!Nanami Kento x Black!reader
Chapter 1 Summary: You follow your first lead on the Viscount Alexi Cordelius: A vampire named Tara Lydos whose coven resides in nightclub used to lure unsuspecting humans in for trade as feeders. You an Nanami go in to get information.
Warnings: talk of death, blood, some gore… but no worse than canon
A/N: Don’t get use to double uploads. Since the first post was just the preface I wanted to give y’all the actualfirst chapter
You opened up the door to the confessional and stepped in with a sly smile on your face. You sat down, smoothing the skirt of your robes down as you sat.
“Father, are you there?” you asked, looking towards the grate beside you. Your sight was great in low light, so you could see the familiar profile of his face. His strong jaw and perfectly straight nose was a dead give away. Plus when you spoke he let out a long suffering sigh.
“Yes, Y/N,” he droned, voice void of any and all emotion.
You giggled, “Good. I’ve been having lecherous thoughts again, Father.”
“I should have killed you when I had the chance.”
“Guess you didn’t expect to be stuck with me for two years,” you laughed quietly, “I’m still hoping you’ll lose it one day and stake me.”
“Not until we find the Viscount. Then it will be my utmost pleasure.”
“Yeah? You looking forward to penetrating me, Father?” you purred leaning against the wall that separated the two of you.
“My directions are to continue your nightly prayers, beg God for forgiveness and perhaps a more tolerable personality.”
You clicked your tongue, “I thought we were all made perfectly in His image.”
“Not you. You are an annoying bloodsucking leech.”
“I drink blood, I don’t suck it. But I could-”
“Get out,” he cut you off and you pressed a hand over your mouth to keep from laughing too loudly.
“We are still meeting at the front gates at midnight, right?” you asked.
“Yes, one of the younger priests will look after the church. You will be on your best behavior tonight.”
“Oh, I’ll be real good for you, Father.”
He sighed again, “Get out of here. Now.”
You pressed your lips together before getting up and leaving the confessional booth. You smoothed out the robes of your habit and moved on to continue your duties in the church. When you agreed to stick around in order to kill the Viscount you never expected to have to pose as a nun. You were the least holy woman ever. It seemed blasphemous to make you wear the habit. You were pretty sure the younger priests were having a hard time with their vows based upon looking at you. Even with the robe jumbling your form, your face was pretty enough to carry you through life. When you were feeling bored, you’d smile and bat your eyes at them, just to see them fumble. Some of the sisters were the same way. You had your eye on one, who maintained that gay women were perhaps God’s holiest creatures. Did you follow her logic at all? No, she was probably just under the weight of some crazy religious guilt, but you were interested in how far she wanted to go to prove her theories. This church was weird. To be fair, there was no shortage of weird churches in a world where vampires existed. One of the first things many vampires did, upon the dawn of the modern age, was corrupt churches. They changed scripture, skewed ideals, turned the abrahamic religions against each other. There were very few truly holy churches, and this was one of them.
Nanami had explained that even though it appeared Catholic it was technically agnostic because the larger organization of the Catholic church did not recognize them. Their own ideologies differ too greatly. Which was to be expected, considering the state of churches these days.
“You are on truly hallowed ground, so please do your best not to desecrate it.”
You frowned, “I was under Sister Megan’s skirt last week.”
Nanami breathed sharply through his nose, “Sexuality does not affect the church. I’m not going to tell you how to do it, because I’m confident you would start seeking out an opportunity to ruin everything.”
Life in the church was simple though, and incredibly boring. It was a miracle that the sun didn’t bother you, past being a bit bright for your eyes. It was something that gave Nanami pause as well. As far as the both of you could tell the Viscount meant to make you special. However neither of you knew what his purpose was. Tonight you would be going to check out a known vampire coven to see what they knew about the Viscount. Nanami would fill you in on why he thought they would know. The higher officials of the church usually gave him orders, and then you got your orders from Nanami. Sometimes you just helped him slay vampires. It was something to look forward to. Nanami was an excellent fighter. Over the last two years he’d trained you in fighting vampires.
Since you existed on animal blood you weren’t as strong as your human blood drinking counterparts but you had a few advantages over them. The use of holy items was one of your advantages as well as the fact that you don’t smell like a vampire. Lastly, if you could make it until daylight, you’d win against any of your opponents. Right now, the running theory about your immunity to holy items was that you were not damned because you had not taken an innocent life. You’d never had human blood. Nanami was not completely sold on that idea, though.
You met him at midnight by the church gates. When he was going out to deal with vampires he always retired the priest robes. It made him stand out too much. No vampire was going to let a priest into their midst. Instead he wore an all black suit. It was basic, but it betrayed how built he was. The broad shoulders were obvious no matter what he was wearing, but his arms, the beautiful muscles of his chest, that sat like the perkiest pair of boobs you’d seen in your life, the way his waist pulled in, that was only visible in this plain black suit. So you loved the suit. Nanami was sitting on a ledge sliding silver rings on his fingers. Nanami had many weapons at his disposal, but he preferred to be more hands on.
“You know, those rings are kinda hot,” you said as you approached.
He spared you a withering glare before handing the briefcase at his side to you, “Get your weapons.”
“All work no play, huh?” Again, he didn’t respond. Your only source of constant entertainment came in the form of teasing Nanami. He was so easily exasperated with you. You set the case on the same ledge he was sitting on and grabbed your equipment. It was easier for you to hide your weapons under dresses and skirts, plus you enjoyed the spectacle of putting on your thigh holsters. Though Nanami didn’t even spare you a glance as you clicked everything into place.
“Where to tonight, boss?” you asked as you slid your daggers into place. You had a long black coat to go over everything and hold more weapons.
“The Lotus night club.”
“Oh? Do you dance, Father?” you asked with a smile.
“No.”
“I think I could change that,” you shook your hips, playfully.
“We’re after the head of a coven. Her name is Tara Lydos.”
“Oh a girlboss,” you said lightly.
“She helps old rich vampires acquire feeders,” Nanami continued. He looked up in time to see your expression darken. He knew that would sober you up a bit. You were good at Vampire slaying, he would willingly admit that much, but everything that came with being your handler hardly seemed worth it at times. Your cause had remained the same, and that was something he could respect. You wanted to kill the Viscount Alexi Cordelius, and any vampire in between you and that goal would meet their end. He could at least admire your unwavering resolution. When this mention began to stretch on and you took to your immortality a bit more he feared that you would desire a renegotiation of your terms. After all, the strength and rapid healing that came with vampirism was a privilege humans did not enjoy. Either way, your enthusiasm to kill other vampires had not waned.
Human nightlife drew in vampires like moths to the flame. Unfortunately, the only people getting burned were the humans. It was a concerted effort by the holy churches that were left to make people aware of the vampires living among them, but it was an even bigger effort on behalf of vampires and the larger societal norm to ignore such things. When vampires infiltrated the churches one of the first things they did was mock the very existence of vampires, witches, lycans and things like that. First they started by hunting other species that made humans their prey, the werewolves took the biggest hit, then they went for the witches who could spot a vampire a mile away and had the power to kill many of them at once. From there, anything left behind got the message. Vampires had placed themselves at the top of the hierarchy of monsters. Furthermore, they were slowly but surely making their move to domesticate humans.
Nanami walked into the nightclub first with you close behind him. The music was so loud you could feel the bass thump in your chest. Flashing lights made the image of the dancing writhing bodies around you skip and appear jumpy until your eyes grew accustomed to the milliseconds of darkness between the different colored lights.
“Keep up,” Nanami said to you, grabbing your wrist to keep you moving. You didn’t even realize you’d stopped moving.
This place smelled like a buffet, and you didn’t mean that it was appetizing. That mix of food smells was not always appetizing when you went into a buffet. The sight of the food was. If you saw humans as food maybe you would be more enticed. Moreover, you were worried about the sharper scents, the ones that stuck out. Like getting a nose full of cinnamon, or sandalwood, the scents of vampires were easy to find. You scanned the room and noticed whose eyes turned to you and Nanami. There was suspicion in their gaze. You turned your gaze to Nanami who was obviously looking for someone. Unknown vampires walking into a feeding den was already cause for suspicion but when both of them smell weird it could get you ambushed.
You pulled Nanami towards you as the two of you were moving across the dancefloor. You were stronger than him, though easily out maneuvered. He changed your grip on his wrist immediately so that he was holding your wrist in a tight grip.
“What are you doing?” he demanded.
“Dance with me,” you purred, stepping in closer to him and pulling him down so you could speak in his ear, “We’re drawing suspicion.”
Nanami looked around, and he saw the eyes following the two of you. You were right, much to his distaste. The two of you were drawing attention.
“I’m gonna get a drink.”
“You don’t wanna dance with me, Father?”
“Don’t call me Father right now.”
“You don’t wanna dance with me, daddy?”
He let out a sharp annoyed breath, glaring down at you. His mouth was down turned, and his brow tense. You grinned up at him.
“I need that drink,” he sighed, turning away from you but still keeping that firm grip on your wrist. You kept your smile on your face and elected to hug his arm close to your body. That action served two purposes: It made the two of you look a bit more like a couple to outside eyes, and you got to feel Nanami’s bicep. The bar lights were green making the vampire behind the bar look a bit ghoulish but no less beautiful. Her lips were painted black while the lights made her pale skin appear green. Her eyes were on Nanami first, and then you. She gave you a sly smile
“Aren’t you a pretty thing,” she purred, “First one’s on the house for pretty women. What are you having?”
“I’ll have a cosmo,” you answered leaning against the bar to return her flirtatious grin. You knew Nanami was rolling his eyes, you didn’t have to look at him to know that. It was two years of working with this big grump. Two years of talking to him about your mission, training with him, and flirting. Sometimes you miss how frequently the two of you used to train. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of his warm solid body pinning you down when you failed to block his attacks correctly. If you had any sense you would have prolonged your learning period. However Nanami had his ways of making you focus and betray the fact that you were learning to fight and quickly.
“And your best bourbon for this one, neat,” you ordered, remembering that he needed a drink not you. You could get drunk but it took a while. But from the way the bartender was pouring your drinks, maybe it wouldn’t take that long. You glanced at Nanami to see he was looking around. You wondered how he usually handled places like this. You leaned in close to him, tugging him down by his collar so you could speak in his ear.
“You look like a narc, Nanami. You’re making the bartender suspicious.” You cut your eyes to her, and saw that she was still eyeing him. You kissed his neck before pulling back. You felt his body temperature spike at the action as you pulled away. His heart was thumping right along with the bass in the club.
You turned to the bartender leaning over the counter to talk to her and show off your cleavage, “He’s a bit shy around us,” you winked, “He’s only half-blood.”
Her eyes lit up with interest. If this was the kind of place that trapped human’s with rare blood types then it came as no surprise to you that she would find him interesting. It put extra eyes on the two of you, but now they were no longer suspicious eyes. She gave you your drinks and the two of you sat down to enjoy them.
“Already scouting out a prettier woman than me?” you questioned. He gave you a questioning look and you curled your finger at him to move in closer.
“You’re not very good at this. You look suspicious.”
“I don’t usually fraternize in dens of iniquity,” he hissed at you.
You pulled back and rolled your eyes, “Just leave it to me, beautiful. I’ll make this work.” You brought your drink to your lips and took a large gulp. You’d gone on a couple missions with Nanami, he usually went on his own, especially when you were still bad at fighting. At this point you could only assume that those missions were just raids. He didn’t need to be discreet, he just had to be fast and strong. Those missions were all about killing as many vampires as possible, and maybe torturing one for information. It was not possible for the two of you to start staking your way through this place. There were too many humans around who could get hurt, and honestly you were far too outnumbered to try a stunt like this. So you’d have to blend in. As you swayed along with the music and sipped your drink you looked around for the target. You caught sight of her on the eastern balcony. She was a woman as pale as death with dark hair and makeup that only exacerbated her paleness. She spoke to a vampire beside her, probably her hired muscle. The vampire came down from the balcony into the dancing crowd and they stopped at a young woman who was dancing like she meant to bewitch everyone in the room. The vampire escorted her up to VIP with your target.
“Let’s dance,” you said, finishing your drink hastily.
“Absolutely-”
“Good,” you grabbed his arm as you hopped down from the bar stool to go towards the dancefloor. You knew he was allowing you to drag him along, probably for the sake of not causing a scene. When you got to the middle of the dancefloor, you turned to press your palms against Nanami’s stomach and slowly bring your arms around his waist.
“It looks like she calls hot people up to VIP. Why don’t you make use of the pretty face God gave you.”
Nanami glanced up at the balcony, obviously considering your words, “Fine… but I am not familiar with the way that people dance at places like this.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll take the lead,” you smiled. You grabbed his hands and put them on your hips. You missed dancing in clubs. You weren’t exactly a party girl in your first life, but you were known to step out when it suited you. Dancing with Nanami reminded you of so many nights when you were still human. You were smart enough not to be in a place like this, but the heavy bass of the music, the flashing colored lights and the feeling of anonymity in a crowd that clubbing gave you was all encompassing. It was nice to forget yourself… not that something like that was possible now. Your senses were too sharp. The position of everyone in the room was all too obvious to you. You knew the warm bodies from the cold ones, and could hear the heavy beating hearts all around you. But it was nice to pretend to lose yourself as you made Nanami move with you. He at least had rhythm, though his hands were resolutely plastered to your hips and he looked like a middle schooler at his first school dance.
“It’s like you don’t even care if we get this lady. If you can’t handle it I’m sure I can do it alone,” you teased in his ear, pressing your chest to his in order to get close enough to do it. With that you turned around to put your back against him. You heard him give another suffering sigh as you bent over to shake your ass. Much to your surprise, Nanami didn’t let you go. Instead he simply changed his grip to keep you against him. So he did know a little something about dancing in a club.
There were things you missed about being human, that you missed now. You missed how your body used to flush, when you were flustered. If you’d met Nanami, by some weird twist of fate, while you were still human your body would have been constantly overheated, and feeling his hands on your hips, your waist, anywhere really would have had your pulse racing. A light sweat might have misted your skin in reaction to just how beautiful he was, or how big and strong his hands felt against you. Now… there was arousal sure but you couldn’t, in good faith, say that your heart was racing. It had barely picked up its pace, and you weren’t hot all over. You were probably closer to room temperature, like a corpse reanimated and moving about. The only body heat you gained was from warmth stolen from the atmosphere and the friction of your body against Nanami’s. Nanami was warm, perhaps warmer than a normal human though his heart rate was more like yours than a human. It moved slow and steady, pumping blood with optimal efficiency. His warmth made you lean into him, like a snake seeking out warmth.
Your movements could have put the serpent of Eden to shame. The winding of your waist and the temptation they brought, was enough to get the attention of the people around you. Nanami was more aware of the eyes that peered at you than you were. In a body that never grew tired of such a motion, and feet that would never begin to ache in your silly, impractical shoes, dancing was just a matter of skill. And you were very skilled.
Nanami truly couldn’t tell if you were giving your all for the sake of the mission, or trying to fluster him. Knowing you, it was a little bit of both. It worked though. Nanami bristled as he saw a vampire striding purposefully toward the two of you. He gripped your hip and pulled you back against him in case this was an attack.
“Oh, careful daddy you’ll get me all excited,” you purred, only to look up and see the vampire from before coming towards the two of you.
“The Lady wants to see you in VIP.” He said, before turning purposefully to lead the way. Nanami followed first, taking hold of your wrist to drag you along with him. The crowd parted the men in front of you and you simply moved in their wake.
VIP was filled with humans, any of whom might have their lives irrevocably changed tonight. They could be killed in a back alley somewhere, drained dry, or they could be taken home for the same purpose. An unlucky few might find themselves elected as feeders. You passed a young man with blood that smelled sweeter than maple syrup, with that same woodsy scent to go with it. He could be one of the unlucky few. Tara Lydos had not been the one to sell you like cattle but another woman like her had. It was easier for humans to trust beautiful women. They were under the unfortunate notions that beauty meant goodness, and women were harmless.
Instead of being left to wander, the two of you were taken to a private room. It was empty at the moment, with a half circle booth and a pole in the center of the room. Personal dances from vampires and human alike looking to gain something from a powerful woman.
“I’ve never worked a pole before,” you said.
“That’s surprising,” Nanami mused.
“Yeah? You’ve thought about me on the pole. We could see what I’m capable of. I don’t think Lady Tara Lydos would mind.”
“Please spare me,” Nanami breathed, “Your lascivious dancing has done enough.”
“Was it as good for you as it was for me?”
He turned his stoic face towards you in order to glare. You playfully snarled at him before snapping your teeth. The door to the private room opened and a tall slender woman walked through it. She had long bone straight hair that was a bit thin, and cut bluntly at the ends, playing up the sharp angles of her body. She had a joint at the end of a long that she held between her fingers. It seemed out of place in the club but very unbrand for her look.
“A half breed and a strange smelling vampire walk into my club,” she began, her voice was deeper than you expected, but after a moment it seemed completely natural to you.
“Is there a punchline to this joke?” you asked when she didn’t continue.
“You tell me.” She stared you down and you met her gaze unflinchingly. You hadn’t done anything yet so there was no reason to be nervous.
“We’re just here for a good time,” you said blithely.
“So why is your pet so tense?”
“When was the last time you saw a half breed?” you asked, “We don’t typically let them live long.”
She nodded in agreement, “He’s cute. I see why you keep him around. But you seem like a rarity too, aren’t you one of Cordelius’s girls?”
You bristled and you felt Nanami tense at your side. You didn’t expect to be recognized. It’s not like you’d managed to memorize the face of every vampire who walked through the Viscount’s court, there were too many of them.
“You were the rose of the group, I’d know your scent anywhere. It seems an awful waste for him to change you, and even more of a waste for him to cut you loose.” She smiled showing off her glistening canines. You didn’t know what to say to her words or what she meant by them.
“I don’t pretend to understand that man,” you answered blithely, “But I heard you could deliver a good time, and considering my first life, I’d say I’m owed a good time.”
Her grin only widened, “I would ask the purpose of your pet?”
“… He’s easy on the eyes, and a brilliant fuck,” you answered after just a moment of hesitation. You glanced at Nanami out of the corner of your eye to see how he was fairing. He was tense, but it wouldn’t be odd for him to be tense in the current situation. He was in a room full of vampires. Tara Lydos seemed to float as she moved. Her steps were too graceful to determine one from the next. She loomed over Nanami and you watched his hand twitch towards his concealed weapons. You leaned in close, grabbing his wrist to keep him from doing anything hasty. The last thing you needed was to get into a brawl with the entire club.
“I don’t usually go for blondes, but there was just something special about this one,” You cooed running your fingers through his hair. To Nanami’s credit he kept his expression neutral.
She hummed before running a claw like nail along his jawline.
“You have good taste. You both smell odd, but you have this delightful sharpness to you that I’ve never smelled before. I suppose vampires never turn a human with such sweet blood. This is the first time I’m smelling someone like you. You must have a hard time keeping us away from you.”
“Ah yeah. I have to beat people off me with a stick,” you said in a sort of cavalier manner. Nanami never let on that you smelled like anything really. You had no idea that your scent was different from any other vampire. Even on the small routine hunts you went on you never noticed anything was amiss, but you supposed the two of you didn’t usually leave vampires alive long enough for them to talk about it. She leaned in close to you taking a deep breath.
“It’s intoxicating. Maybe that’s why Cordelius changed you. I’ll have to send him my regards. He is a visionary.”
“Where is the Viscount these days?” you asked, trying to seem nonchalant about it as she kept breathing in your scent.
“You don’t know?”
“He’s not one for telephones,” you offered, which was the truth. In your time under lock and key with him you listened to more than a few of his rants about technology and the modern world. He could be a crotchety old man. She hummed a sound of agreement.
“In the last letter I received he was in Wales.”
“Ah, in the old castle,” you nodded knowingly.
She hummed again, this was a more pleasured sound and her nose got closer to your neck. She stiffened, “Pardon me. I do find you hard to pull away from.”
You let out a coy little laugh, reaching out very slowly to touch her hair. You didn’t want her to misinterpret this moment for an attack. She leaned into your touch as you played in her hair.
“Why don’t you sit with us?” you offered, “There are more pleasures to experience from me than just my smell.”
Vampires were hedonistic creatures. It could not be confirmed whether this was a simple fact of their nature or a byproduct of immortality, but it was true of most vampires. You thought that Nanami was proof against the rule, he hardly did anything pleasurable, but one could argue that was because he was only half vampire. Every other vampire you came in contact with was like that. After all, the act of feeding was euphoric. Well the act of feeding on human blood was euphoric and you only knew that from your time as a feeder. Drinking animal blood was… unpleasant to say the least. But feeding from a live human could put a vampire into a blood drunk high of epic proportions.
You gently pushed her to sit in the booth beside you, and you crawled in her lap. You watched her wave away the guards standing by the door as she brought her hands up your body. You’d be remiss to say you didn’t have a bodily reaction to her touches. It had been 2 years with only minimal sexual contact. Being a vampire got you your own room in the convent but you didn’t trust yourself to be too close to humans, so as much as you played around about corrupting the nuns, the most you could do was flirt and give them impure thoughts to repent about later.
She fawned over you, “You’re warm for a vampire, you know? I hardly believe you have fangs.”
“Wanna see ‘em?” you grinned letting her see the sharp canines that plagued your existence,
“Do you know if Cordelius is still in Wales?” Nanami asked and you felt Tara bristle. She must have forgotten he was even there.
“What is your business with Cordelius?” she narrowed her eyes at him.
You had to think quick, so you settled in her lap and put an arm behind her neck, “I promised him I would take him to meet my maker, see if the brilliant Viscount might make a respectable vampire of him.”
She breathed in slowly, obviously taking a long whiff of you in the process. She moved in close again, nuzzling your neck. You made eye contact with Nanami who was staring at you in confusion, You gave him an equally confused look back. You didn’t know what was going on any better than he did, you were just better at thinking on your feet.
“Yes, yes, Cordelius is still in Wales he said he had to regroup after losing a… treasure of his,” she became very still and she pulled back to look at you, “When was the last time you saw Cordelius?”
“A couple of months ago,” you lied through your teeth.
“Is that so? Then naturally you know he’s been looking for something very dear to him. He wouldn’t say what.”
“Yes, a bauble from the 18th century. He’s quite attached to it.”
“It was no bauble,” Tara’s arm around you became a steel band, locking you in place, “No he was looking for something far more precious.”
“You’re holding me a bit tight there, sweetheart.”
Tara opened her mouth to yell but Nanami had a silver blade up to her throat before she could make a sound.
“I will take off your head, leech.”
“What is this?” she hissed looking at you with wide blood red eyes.
“Sorry, baby,” You lifted the skirt of your dress to grab the thin silver pike strapped to your thigh, “What does Cordelius want with me?”
“I’m not telling you shit- Ah!” she cried out as Nanami placed the blade against her neck more firmly.
“That is not a suitable answer. What is he after?”he insisted.
“You’ll kill me anyway. I am never-!” Before she could even finish, Nanami took off her head.
“We might have gotten more information from her,” you complained.
“And she might have alerted the guards. Come on,” he said and you got out of the dead vampires lap to follow him. He cleaned his blade on her dress before concealing it again. The two of you tried to walk past the guards outside of the room casually. However, you barely made it a few feet before they were yelling at you. It was just enough time for them to look in the room, see her body and start chasing.
Nanami broke out into a sprint grabbing your arm in the process. With the other hand he pulled a gun. You knew it shot silver bullets, something that could kill a vampire or severely wound one. You took the lead in forging your escape route as he turned around to shoot the two vampires with deadly precision. Screams erupted in the club. So much for keeping a low profile. As you made it to the stairs vampires lunged with gleaming teeth at you and you yanked Nanami back to keep him from their clutches. You drove the silver pike still in your hand into the throat of the closest one and kicked its body into the crowd causing a good number of them to fall backwards. Nanami turned in time to shoot at the approaching hoard. You had another silver pike and grabbed it with practiced efficiency. You didn’t spend the better part of two years training for nothing. Nanami let go of your hand to grab the second gun on his hip. Nanami was lethal with twin pistols, but you were all too aware that he only had so many bullets
“We’re jumping off the side,” you said before grabbing the back of the harness he wore to bring him with you as you hopped on the banister and jumped feet first into the crowd of mostly vampires. The heel of your shoe went right into the skull of one sending them down to the floor and making you fall on your ass. You had enough forethought to let go of Nanami as you fell. You struggled to get your heel out of the bloodsuckers skull and two vampires took advantage of your struggle pouncing on you with teeth bared and ready to rip out your throat. You were ready to meet your end only for brains to spray across your face as Nanami turned in enough time to shoot the closest one in the head.
“Ah, fuck!” you complained wiping blood out of your eyes. You slipped your foot out of your shoe and kicked out, connecting with the body of the second vampire pouncing after you.
“Get up!” Nanami yelled at you, before unceremoniously grabbing your arm and literally throwing you out of the way. Much like a cat, your body twisted instinctually to put you on your feet and you landed in the crowd, still slightless with blood in your eyes. Sound and smell guided your hands and with nails strong as steel you shoved your hand into the chest of the nearest assailant and ripped out their heart. You blinked feverishly to clear your sight and began doing your best to get back to Nanami. He looked in your direction, and threw his gun at you. You caught and followed his line of sight to a huge vampire who was in the air, poised to tackle you. You fired, but that didn’t stop his body from falling on you again. It smashed all of the air out of you.
Nanami sighed as you hit the floor again. He was going to make you train twice as hard when you got back to the parish. You growled in frustration, and shoved the body off of you and into the crowd. He put out a hand for you and you grabbed it. As he looked in your direction he saw the silver gleam of a weapon slice through the air. He spun quickly. Putting you in his place and getting in yours. He was fast enough to spare you the attack, but not fast enough to protect himself. The blade sliced through his back and he winced before he brought his own silver blade out and took off their head.
“Nanami!” you called out while still holding his hand. You yanked him out of the way of another attack coming behind him. When he was close enough you grabbed his harness again and led the way for your escape.
It wasn’t clean by any means and when you made it out to the streets there were plenty of people screaming. If people called the police it would probably be a while before they showed up. Law enforcement didn’t go to vampire hot spots in a hurry. Their general move was to let the vampires sort out themselves then account for casualties. There was a special sector for vampiric cases. You could smell Nanami’s blood. It wasn’t fatal, but it wasn’t good for him to keep bleeding like this, especially with vampires likely hunting the two of you.
You got to the car and Nanami went to the driver’s side.
“Maybe I should drive!” you said, wary of the blood he was losing.
“Shut up and get in the car!” he bit back at you.
You did as he said, pulling in a deep breath before you got in. You held it, knowing you wouldn’t be able to roll the windows down, for fear of leaving a scent trail. Nanami sped off in top speeds just as a group of vampires spilled out of the club doors. Nanami was not human, but for some reason his blood still appealed to you, perhaps with a deeper draw than human blood did. You didn’t know why that was.
The first time you realized it was a problem the two of you were sparing. You landed your very first attack on Nanami, your nails sliced into his midsection. You pulled in a breath to gloat only to be hit with a surge of bloodlust so strong it nearly overcame you. If it were anyone else, they would have been dead. Your body moved on instinct, cutting through his light defenses, and going straight for his neck. He seemed to realize almost immediately that you were no longer fighting to train, and he had become prey. Just as swiftly as you attacked you were pinned to the ground with a stake at your chest.
“Get control of yourself or I will kill you!” he said firmly. You did control yourself, but you thought he gave you more time than you should have to do it. Now it was easier to resist, but you didn’t like to be in close proximity to him while he was bleeding. This was… uncomfortable, but you could hold your breath indefinitely. It just wasn’t a pleasant feeling.
The drive was rough. He drove as fast as he could weaving through traffic at speeds that would have made a racecar driver crash. You focused on not breathing. You lost the vampires pretty easily on the road and the two of you wound up stopping at a rest stop on the fringes of the city. The car was barely parked before you opened up the door to get out. You went around the car to wrench the driver’s side door open.
“You’re bleeding out, come on,” you bent to pop the trunk so you could grab the big first aid kit out of it. Nanami’s healing was faster than that of a human, and it rivaled a vampire’s healing factor. He would sleep this off, but you needed to help his body along. The two of you walked into the women’s bathroom together, mostly because they usually had more space, and if need be you could duck into a stall. He tried taking the supplies away from you but you dodged his hands.
“It’s on your back. You can’t reach back there,” you informed.
He sighed, looking at you with tired eyes, “Don’t torture yourself. I’m bleeding.”
“I can handle it,” you assured, meeting his gaze. He searched your eyes for bloodlust, or any hint that handling his wound might be too much for you, but you appeared calm, with eyes just as dark as they always were, scleras the same white as always. He relinquished the First aid kit to you while he took off his shirt.
You were trying to be mature about this. He was heart, and if you breathed in, the weight of his scent would hit you like a ton of bricks, but as he shrugged off the black button up to reveal the tank top underneath you were struck with a hunger that had nothing to do with Nanami’s blood. His muscles were still tense from the fight and so the way his biceps were bulging seemed more than a little obscene. Then he took off the tanktop and you were staring at a large back tattoo. You never would have guessed that Nanami had tattoos. The first thing that stuck out to you was the crucifix, and ornate thing positioned in the middle of his back, with the vertical axis sitting on top of his spine and the horizontal point hugging just underneath his shoulder blades. Upon his shoulder blades, there was script in latin, and you knew enough from your studies to know that it was a blessing of the higher church. And beside it you noticed Ethiopian script and you could discern a tone of spiritual cleansing but you didn’t know enough to give specifics. The mix of writing, and symbols upon his back were truly dizzying. It made you want to get in close and study it.
“Still bleeding out,” he reminded you when you made no move to touch him.
“Oh right,” you looked up to see him in the mirror, and nearly stalled again. When the two of you trained he always wore a shirt. Sure, you could tell through the worn cotton that Nanami was built, but seeing the way the muscles of his chest sat was not good for your mental health. You put your eyes on his lower back that was actually ink free for the most part.
“Well, it didn’t mess up your ink, father,” you said as you began to soak gauze in alcohol to clean the wound. He did not dignify you with a response. You moved quickly, cleaning the wound and trying to ignore the slight hitch in his breathing every time you wiped the wound. If he were a normal human he’d need stitches, but a good night’s rest, or a sip of blood would close the wound in time. You were sure to need a couple of blood packs before you went to bed. Your body was sore in the places where wounds closed preternaturally fast. His skin was incredibly warm to the touch, and you tried to be as gentle as possible.
“Maybe don’t jump in front of stakes for me,” you said, as you wrapped a long bandage around his midsection, “I’m just a leech after all. No need to risk your life.” You smiled as you glanced at him while you stood in front of him. You tucked the end of the bandage to secure it while he looked at you. You could physically feel his gaze. His face betrayed nothing so you couldn’t even infer what was going through his head.
“I still need you for leverage on Cordelius,” he said curtly, “He’s looking for you, and we’re looking for him. That’s perfect don’t you think?”
~
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