The Blood of the Soul

First Light

A/N: Sorry for the delay in updates, guys! Life got away from me, but I'm aiming for around 4-5 more chapters (and yes, there will be more smut).

Liam

Liam woke with his head resting in the crook of Theo's neck and the vampire's arms locked around him, pressing their bodies flush against each other. And it struck him for the second time that the only times he'd actually slept, properly slept without nightmares plaguing him, had been with Theo beside him.

They'd fallen asleep in increments, alternating between pressing kisses to smooth skin and sharing thoughts that bubbled to the front of their minds—at least, Liam had. Thinking back, Theo had been sullen and tight lipped and content to skim his fingers over Liam in lieu of a response.

Now that the sun had risen, and they'd taken turns showering, he found the vampire standing just shy of a patch of sunlight in Willow's spare room.

Liam was confident that the blood they'd shared had left his system by now. For those few hours, he'd felt connected to the vampire in a way he couldn't explain—and when Theo had been on the brink of death inside that dark storm, Liam had felt it in his bones.

Not only had that extra connection evaporated, but Theo's formidable walls were up again, and he showed no signs that he might allow Liam a glimpse behind them at all. But Liam had seen enough from his own time in that other realm to be able to guess just how painful leaving must have been. He'd just have to be gentle with him.

"Are we going to talk about it?" Liam asked Theo, looping his arms around the vampire's middle from behind and resting his forehead against his shoulder.

"About what?"

Liam bit him, his teeth digging into the side of Theo's arm.

Theo glanced over his shoulder at him. "Did you just bite me?"

Liam licked the spot where the indent of his teeth was already fading. "What, you thought you were the only one that could?"

"I'm the only one of us with fangs."

Theo curled his lip, exposing his top row of teeth, and the memory of what they felt like piercing his skin, the resulting pleasure, had his blood heating.

"Don't change the subject." Liam spun Theo in his arms so that he couldn't avoid the question. "You know exactly what I'm talking about. What did you see in that other realm?"

"Nothing."

"I saw my father there," Liam offered up his own devastating truth, and Theo full-body flinched. Liam's fingertips skimmed Theo's pale cheek, the permanent boyish charm, and wondered what he might look like today if he hadn't stopped aging. "I saw you, too. You were human."

"Yeah well it wasn't a big deal. Not like it matters."

Liam leaned into him, then, recalling what Theo had said to him that night in the motel. The night that his entire world had exploded along with his apartment and even after Liam had been so cruel to him, Theo had carved out a safe place for his aching heart.

"It does matter. If it hurts you, it matters."

Theo pursed his lips, clearly still unwilling to talk.

"Did you see your sister?"

"Yeah."

When he was silent, Liam stifled the urge to shove him, to rattle him, to snap him out of the prison of torment he'd locked his own mind in. Instead, Liam gripped the nape of Theo's neck and pressed a kiss to the smooth skin of his forehead.