Chapter Text
He found out thanks to a phone call.
After five hundred fourteen years as a vampire, cultivating his unmatched proficiency at the mind gift, it was an ordinary phone call, of all things, the only warning he received before his entire existence was upended once again. Such was the price of doing the right thing, the “healthy” thing, allowing Louis his privacy and respecting the feeble mental boundaries he had set around his thoughts. Such was the price of his past overindulgences with Daniel that meant he could no longer easily listen into his brilliant, razor-sharp mind whenever he wanted to. No, too much blood had been exchanged to allow that. So, it had fallen on dutiful, loyal Benji, the task to alert Armand about what was going on at his own home.
He had left the farm at once, of course, taking to the skies as fast as he could, but he knew, even before arriving, that it was too late: Louis was gone. His steadfast if not passionate companion of almost a century had vanished into the night like a thief, while Daniel laid agonizing on the living room floor.
Daniel, his beautiful boy. Cruel, ruthless time had only made him all the more alluring, carving with its kiss elegant lines on his face, expertly hand-brushing streaks of silver on his lustrous curls with the devoted care of a lover. As if time too cherished him, choosing to perfect him instead of consuming him as it did with all the other mortal things that walked the earth. But another lover, one Daniel had been flirting with for as long as Armand had known him, was ready to sink her inescapable claws on him once and for all, the desperate rescue breathing maneuvers of a young man Armand loved like a son, the only thing keeping her at bay.
" Armand! " Benji was screaming at him inside his head, too busy breathing air into Daniel’s mouth every few seconds to speak out loud. And Armand knew what the child wanted, he wanted his father figure to take over, wanted him to intervene and make everything alright as he always did but Armand was unmoored, like a puppet that had had its strings cut, unable to remember how to move because he could hear Daniel’s heart beating sluggishly, exhausted, undoubtedly close to giving up.
He had feared, dreaded, and obsessed over the day that very moment came at last, Daniel’s death. But nothing could have prepared him for the reality of it, for the way his stolen blood froze inside his veins, the searing burst of pain shredding his chest, the cold seeping inside, chilling him to the very marrow of his bones. Armand only realized he was shaking by Benji's alarmed thoughts, concern making his rhythm falter just for a split moment but enough for Daniel’s heart to stutter. Daniel’s time was running out, and Armand, after half a century, was not ready.
" Armand, please, help me " Benji kept pleading, too tired to go on, but refusing to let the man die.
The immortal inhaled a breath he did not need but was comforting as he steeled himself and forced his feet to move one after the other at a normal, human speed.
"It's alright, Benjamin" the kid jumped at the hand on his shoulder, eyes flickering in confusion to the spot Armand had just vacated. Maybe he hadn't moved at human speed after all. "I'll take it from here"
Benji's shoulders sagged immediately in relief, and, with one last look at the elder man on the floor, he stood up.
"And Benjamin" Armand called out before he reached the door, "don't go to your room. Take your sister and the others and go to Al Moosawi, stay there tonight" He loathed to use his thrall on the kid, he really did, but he would not do so if it wasn't so important, "And whatever happens, do not return to the tower"
He didn't tell him he would come looking for them when the time came it was safe. He wasn't sure he could make good on such a promise.
The kid left, glassy-eyed and unaware of his surroundings. It was just as well, since Armand became unaware of anything else the moment he took Daniel into his arms, the way he had done a thousand times before. After a scene or after a fight, after a long night of art shows and parties and afterparties had worn his human out, or just because he wanted to, because he could, because he loved even the weight of him.
A ruby fell on Daniel’s cheek, bursting into a hundred maroon smithereens, and Armand realized he was crying. There had been a time Daniel would have licked those tears and begged for more, begged for the dark gift. But that had been a different Daniel. This Daniel was uninterested both in immortality and in his blood.
And wasn’t that exactly what Armand had wanted? For Daniel to live a normal life, without a need for his blood, to forget that insane desire of his to become one of them? He had given him up all those years ago exactly for that, and he had gotten his wish tenfold: Daniel had lived the outstanding, thrilling, and full life Armand had always known he was destined for.
But now that life was coming to an end, every cell in Armand’s body was crying, demanding he put a stop to it. It was almost a physical pain, his cold body boiling with the need to sink his fangs into Daniel’s neck and make it right , because he knew beyond any doubt he could not survive without him.
Once, Daniel’s frailty, the ephemeral nature of his existence, fleeting like the glimmer of a comet in the sky, had seemed to him more precious than any treasure, any masterpiece of art he had ever known. In his morbid romanticism that could only be rivaled by Daniel's, he had dreamed himself in this exact position, cradling the love of his unlife, the dearest and most cherished one of his long list of lovers, as his heart beat for the last few times. In his fantasy, he kissed Daniel’s forehead lovingly for the very last time right as his final breath left him, then stood with the dignity his master had always tried to instill in him and walked into the sun to meet his own fiery end. Like Romeo and Juliet, Armand and his Daniel would be together in death.
Now, faced with the raw reality of it all, he understood there was nothing romantic or noble about it. Watching Daniel gasp for air that would not come, hearing his heart struggle to keep beating without it, feeling the familiar presence of his consciousness brushing against Armand’s own mind slowly shutting down and fading away was something abhorrent, an abomination. There could never be anything natural about a universe where Daniel did not exist. He could not allow it. He would not allow it.
Daniel had wanted it once, back when Armand kept him surrounded by riches and every night was an adventure. Sailing the warm Gulf stream under the clear night sky sprinkled with uncountable stars like little fish, a million tiny jewels reflected on the water he had been desperate for it. Maybe Armand could make him want it again, there were still many wonders left in the world to explore, and if the world wasn’t enough, well, Daniel had always been so fond of the moon, he could take Daniel there, he could certainly afford it. Anything for Daniel. Anything for his forgiveness.
Armand did kiss Daniel’s forehead then, as he had always envisioned, only it wasn’t a farewell. It was an apology, a silent prayer for an absolution he knew would never get, then he sank his fangs into his husband’s neck.
It was as intoxicating as always. Daniel’s blood danced inside his mouth and sang inside his veins, rich and luscious, ambrosial under the cloying sweetness of medication. Armand drank with abandon, feasting on it as he had never dared before, letting it enslave him completely, letting its searing heat penetrate the coldness of his marble hard flesh. The vampire in him shivered with pleasure, the lover in him could not stop it. For that's what he had wanted all this time, this sweet surrender to his most primal desire: To consume Daniel and in turn be consumed by him. To let the floodgates open and let it all wash over him. To drown in Daniel.
He saw it all. The swing high over the creek, the chestnut braids he chased across the playground, the stacks of old books pilfered from the library and the trash cans and his neighbors, the old man asleep on the couch, reeking of alcohol, incapable of caring for himself, let alone for the fragile boy he never meant to bring into the world.
He saw the ticket to freedom, disguised as a thick envelope in the mail. Saw the terrified, exhilarating early meetings, the discovery of hard planes instead of soft curves, of rough stubble and chapped lips instead of cherry lipstick. Saw the white, powdery substance that had made him feel immortal for the very first time.
Saw himself, statuesque and terrible under the bar lights. Saw Loui's laughter, saw long nights tangled in sheets between demons, and even longer days tangled between demons of a different kind.
Saw him , flaming blue eyes and blond hair clipped short and neat, pressing cold hands to feverish skin, holding back dirty curls as he retched in a plastic bucket.
Saw her , with her black curls that made him long so much, without ever knowing for what. Saw the tiny creatures, first one and then another, small and alarmingly breakable, like little birds in his hands. He loved them, would always love them, would never know how.
He saw hospital rooms and war-torn cities, he saw rehab centers and flashing lights. Awards and admiring faces and empty bottles and empty needles. And the undertones of sadness whenever he caught a glimpse of bronze skin or amber eyes or the smell of salt and rust.
Never before had Armand allowed himself to get so intertwined with someone's essence as he drank it in, never would again.
In a daze, still inebriated by the swoon, Armand made the gash to his throat that would seal Daniel’s fate. Tenderly, carefully, like a newfangled mother guiding her firstborn to the breast to nurse, Armand ushered Daniel’s face towards the flowing crimson stream. And like a newborn with all the right instincts, Daniel latched immediately. A surge of pride, of hope, overcame Armand. Yes, his beloved would make a fine vampire, a very fine vampire indeed. Certainly a voracious one, Armand was finding it difficult to keep his composure with Daniel’s searing, hungry mouth around him, pulling deep and lapping at the blood with his sinful tongue as he drank -oh, how Armand had missed that tongue and all the wicked things it could do, the things he had taught it to do- sending firebolt after firebolt of bliss through his veins, setting every single one of his dead nerve ending alight and alive. So he stopped trying. Stopped trying to resist it, to resist Daniel, to struggle against this grand and glorious thing that they were destined to, that he had been fighting for nearly fifty years. Armand at last let go, and opened himself completely, for Daniel to take it all, all that he was and all that he had been: The little boy in a religious fervor he could barely remember, the scared feral creature he had been at the brothels, the young, mischievous princeling that had walked the streets of Venice, the specter haunting the catacombs of Paris, the cruel coven master, the eccentric billionaire. All of them belonged to Daniel now, maybe had belonged to Daniel all along, before he had even been born, Armand’s blood-red string of fate tied irrevocably to his since the beginning of time.
He didn’t realize he was shaking until a pair of steady hands, growing stronger by the instant, closed around his shoulders to keep him still, Daniel’s weight shifting on his lap until he felt the familiar, brand new shape straddle him, deja- vu of a thousand nights past. He never thought he would get to have this, not like this, Daniel’s fingertips digging into his adamantine skin, his moans muffled against his neck, his hips undulating languorously against his own. Armand held him close, rueing the moment he would have to let go, did not understand why he should ever have to.
Then, he felt it. The double drums Louis had described, only they weren’t out of rhythm, no. Daniel’s heart and his were beating in perfect synchrony, their song one and the same, even as the dance was inverted. Daniel’s veins were the ones pulsing with Armand’s blood this time around, his heart feeding on Armand’s heart. The pressure on his chest was too much, yet when Daniel made to stop sucking, to let go, Armand fastened his arms around him, keeping him in place. He would give his boy as much of the blood as he physically could, he needed to be strong and powerful, enough to be able to fend for himself in case he decided to…
But his beloved boy wasn’t drinking anymore, he was catching his breath, head tucked under his chin, clutching at him as ferociously as Armand, seemingly as unwilling to release him as he was. Only then those hands were pushing him away as the human scrambled to get away, twisting in pain, retching dryly on the marble floor. Armand took Daniel into his arms again, mumbling sweet nothings into the sweaty curls, trying in vain to soothe his suffering. After a few minutes, the struggling came to a halt, The entire world stopping for a moment as they laid there on the floor, slouched against the couch, arms around each other and legs tangled together. The universe itself held its breath, expectant, the calm before the cataclysm.
And then, Daniel arose. And then, Armand felt the earth beneath him convulse, quaking and twisting as reality rearranged itself, as the moon went dark and the stars fell from heaven, the sky bleeding in shame. Armand knew when the sun rose again, it would be dark too. No light in the entirety of creation could ever shine as bright as Daniel’s incandescent amethyst eyes. Armand’s own eyes took him in greedily, roving over the straight, graceful demeanor of reshaped bones, made strong again, of firm, tight muscles filling in under previously too-loose skin, devouring the sight of this magnificent creature that was his fledgling. His fledgling, his newborn, his one and only.
His beautiful boy.
“Armand?” The clear, deep voice of an angel called his name. Armand could have wept. He tried to reply, he did in his head, before remembering that would not work, not even if he did it with intent, not ever again.
“Armand…” Daniel repeated, trying to get the entranced vampire’s attention, “What did you do?”