Page 69 of Love Lives

"I helped you for my own reasons." Aldrich studied Remy's skin. He looked a little pale, but not too pale... Aldrich could take a few drops...

"Because you want to fuck me?" Remy challenged.

"Among other things." Aldrich opened the drawer and pulled out the pack of condoms he'd deposited there earlier. He held it up for Remy to see. "Look, I found something useful."

"How..." Remy glanced at the drawer, then back at Aldrich. "You put that there!"

Aldrich grinned. "Maybe a fairy put it there, who knows? Does it matter? Point is, I have some very selfish reasons."

"I don't care. You're still not a bad person."

"So you still want me to leave?" Aldrich placed the condom on the pillow next to Remy's head and dipped down to kiss Remy's neck. Just above that spot where he'd bitten him that first time. Remy’s breath hitched in his throat. "I don't think you do," Aldrich murmured, his lips still brushing the other man's skin as he spoke. "I think you want me to bite you again."

After all the shit Aldrich had gone through for Remy that day, he really deserved a drink, didn't he?

"That's got nothing to do with it," Remy said, but still, he didn't move away. That was just as good as consent, wasn't it?

"I'm not hearing a no."

Exasperation stole into Remy's voice. "You're impossible."

"Impossible to resist? Guilty as charged." Aldrich raised his head a little to look at Remy's face. "There’s one thing you’re wrong about, though. I really am a bad person." He wasn't sure why he said that, except he felt as if he had his finger hovering over a big red button that he couldn’t help but press.

How would Remy react if Aldrich told him everything?

"I know that you're a killer," Remy said, voice surprisingly steady. "You're a vampire. That's how it is."

"I’m not just a killer. I killed my own family."

Remy went eerily quiet, studying Aldrich's face as if searching for a lie. There wasn't one, though. His mouth opened, then closed again. His eyes narrowed as he eventually spoke. "Why?"

“Does it matter why?" For the longest time, Aldrich hadn't known. He had some suspicions now, but no proof. He'd learned to accept himself either way. Could Remy do that? Or would that be too much to ask of someone so blameless?

"You must have had a reason."

"I killed my little sister." No, Aldrich was not going to make this easy on Remy. Sure, he could have said that his whole family had consisted of monsters and he'd done the right thing by killing them, but... that wouldn't have answered his question.

How much could Remy deal with?

How far could he be pushed?

Would he run, or would he stay?

"She was just this little girl," Aldrich went on, his eyes never straying from Remy's face. "Her blood tasted like peaches." That was made up. Blood didn't taste like peaches. In reality, Aldrich hadn't drunk from his younger sister. She'd died at the edge of his knife.

The whole family,Zenon had said.You wanted to kill them all.

But Remy didn't have to know that. Not for the purpose of this exercise.

"Why?" Remy asked again. As if his chances at getting an answer he liked were better this time.

"Because I wanted to."

"I don't believe that."

So this was how Remy was going to play it then. Denial. "I could show you,” Aldrich offered. “It must be in my memories somewhere. You like to dig around in those, don't you?"

"I don't need to see that." Remy closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Aldrich couldn't help but wonder what was going on in that head of his. What he was going to do next. When Remy opened his eyes again, though, he seemed to have found a new resolve. "I don't care what happened. I don't want you to die."