Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/9013687.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Underage
  Category:
      M/M
  Fandom:
      Raven_Cycle_-_Maggie_Stiefvater
  Relationship:
      Ronan_Lynch/Adam_Parrish
  Character:
      Ronan_Lynch, Adam_Parrish, Richard_Gansey_III, Joseph_Kavinsky, Noah
      Czerny, Blue_Sargent
  Additional Tags:
      Alternate_Universe_-_Vampire, Blood_Drinking, Anal_Sex, Anal_Fingering,
      Psychic_Bond, Minor_Suicidal_Thoughts, Rimming, Oral_Sex, Hand_Jobs,
      Dream_Sharing, I_had_to_google_so_much_about_the_history_of_drag_racing
      in_the_USA_my_god
  Series:
      Part 2 of Take_My_Hunger_(Pynch_Vampire_AU)
  Collections:
      Dream_In_Color's_Faves
  Stats:
      Published: 2016-12-24 Updated: 2017-02-06 Chapters: 4/7 Words: 16613
****** The Dark Side of Your Dreams ******
by bucketmouse
Summary
     It's been two weeks since Ronan changed Adam from a human into a
     vampire like him. More happened on that night than either were aware
     of, though, and it will only wait so long before demanding what was
     given. Not to mention the complicated world of vampire politics Adam
     has now found himself in the middle of.
     (Vampire AU, follows 'The Red Of Your Blood')
Notes
     As always, great thanks to asael and notraelet for their
     encouragement! They are the MVPs of my heart.
     I'm not sure how long this one is going to be as it's still in
     progress but I'll aim for an update a week, I wanted to give a
     holiday present to everyone who has been so kind and commented so
     far! This one starts out Ronan POV but I will be switching between
     him and Adam for this story. Chapters will be named with POV
     character.
***** Ronan *****
When your life expectancy changed from eighty years (give or take a decade or
two depending on hard living) to effectively eternity, age changed from a
number to a series of fractions, of percentages.
Twice your human life so you lived half and half in each world, that was
childhood. Twice that,young adult. Twice that again, adulthood and later. A
golden ratio instead of a lifeline. Average age for the change was in the mid
to early twenties - it was considered ideal. Then you were a baby until you
were forty. Not an adult in your new world until eighty, around when you would
have been expecting to be planning your death.
There was a reason for that. Gansey had told Ronan once that a quarter of all
those changed to vampires didn’t live to see eighty. It was something about the
way everything had changed by then. At eighty many of your loved ones from life
had died or were dying. The world you knew it no longer existed. And yet you
remained, timeless, ageless, a photograph frozen in place that would never
descend into the decay that affected everyone else.
There was no shame in it. It was difficult to predict who would last and who
wouldn’t. One in four, Gansey had told him. Count three of your friends if you
all turned around the same time - one wouldn’t be at your centennial.
Try to guess who it would be. Turn it into a fun game, why don’t you?
At seventy-one, Ronan knew Gansey was worried he would be one of the unlucky
one in four. Declan thought the same. Matthew - Matthew didn’t think about
things like that, it wasn’t in his nature. It concerned Gansey most of all,
though. With Niall gone, Gansey had assumed parental responsibilities for
Ronan. At Ronan’s age it meant little aside from someone whom sensitive legal
documents could be shared with without needing Ronan’s okay first.
It also meant that if Ronan wanted to die, Gansey was legally bound to help him
if he asked it of Gansey.
It was something they never talked about, but they didn’t need a mental link
for Ronan to know how it plagued Gansey’s thoughts. That every time Ronan came
back from a long drive after going AWOL all weekend Gansey was mostly just
happy Ronan was still alive. That he wasn’t out there spending all night
dwelling on the fact that the scenery was no longer hot rods and car hops and
rockabilly music. Or at least if he was, he wasn’t considering that he didn’t
want to live in a world without all that.
That was probably why - once his initial anger had subsided - Gansey was
actually happy that Ronan had been the one to change Adam. Now Adam Parrish was
the responsibility of Ronan Lynch, and he had to commit to at least another
sixty years to fulfill that responsibility.
Well, the joke was on Gansey. Ronan Lynch never cared for legality before, he
wasn’t about to start now. Besides that, Adam was a survivor. He would weather
any storm life threw at him. Ronan had no doubt that Adam would not need him
that way. He still kept those thoughts to himself, though, shuffled back into
the territory of Not Thinking About it until Adam was safely in a deep sleep,
like he was right then. Thinking about Adam, of course, brought his attention
to Ronan, his dreaming consciousness just barely brushing against Ronan’s,
curious but relaxed in a way he never achieved when he was awake. Ronan took a
deep and unneeded breath, relaxing into the mental touch in hopes that Adam
could see what he was seeing, feel what he was feeling.
The rush of adrenaline of going nearly ninety miles per hour on a twisting
country back road at high noon, the light off the wet pavement from the morning
storm almost blinding in spite of his enchanted leather bands and the
sunglasses over his eyes. This was happiness. This was peace. This was part of
this world that was worth it.
He thought over what had brought him there, replaying it for Adam to see if he
hadn’t been paying attention before. Meeting Kavinsky on the road, the rev of
engines, the light changing from yellow to red to green and then they were off
with the smell of burning rubber in their wake. His mind wandered back further,
various races blurring together - Ronan had been racing for a long time. ’How
long?’ a whispered question, tired and dreamy. The countryside flashed by all
around him.
How long?
The memory was as vivid as if he was living it again, behind the wheel of is
1959 Chevy Bel Air, knuckles gripped tight to the steering wheel in one hand
while the other held to the gear shift, his pulse racing as he waited for the
scarf that served as a flag to be waved. He had a heartbeat back then for that.
It thrilled him the way nothing else had, and as the scarf came down and they
took off from the starting line only one coherent thought was in Ronan’s mind:
‘I am going to do this forever.’
He let that memory help ease Adam back into deeper slumber again. Classic cars
and high speeds and so much joy it threatened to make the heart burst. Ronan
knew Adam hated what he was going through right now - the change took a wicked
toll on the body, allowed for little that wasn’t eating and sleeping as your
whole physiology shifted to accommodate becoming something new. Gansey had once
called it going from caterpillar to butterfly with no chrysalis in between.
Adam kept losing himself in the acute knowledge of the passage of time. Time he
should be spending studying, should be spending working.
It was a roundabout blessing, really, that the cover story was wild animal
attack. It allowed him time to get used to the change when he was supposed to
be in intensive care as far as anyone knew. Sleep that he had desperately
needed in life as well and wasn’t getting enough of. Gansey obligingly fetched
his homework for classes so he wouldn’t fall behind and spoke to his jobs for
him, loath as Adam was to accept help. People did not understand Adam Parrish,
but they liked him, and Gansey’s charm was hardly needed to get them to agree
to assist in whatever way they could.
Technically all of that should have been Ronan’s job, but he was less suited to
charm and more to intimidation to get his way, and barely went to class
himself.
Which was really what he was out doing while Adam was sleeping before he got
caught up in drag racing. Kavinsky left in the dust behind him, Ronan glanced
to the passenger seat where his cellphone lay, ringing. Declan. Ronan ignored
it. Half a dozen hours until sunset and in that time he had to get fed, see a
nun about a room and be back in time for when Adam woke up, surely hungry
again.
===============================================================================
The sun was setting when it made it back to Monmouth, three missed calls from
Declan and one from Gansey having piled up in the meantime. The dying light
painted the main living quarters of the repurposed building in brilliant
scarlet and topaz hues. He could feel Adam’s steadily growing hunger radiating
between them, not quite enough to wake him yet but edging on it. Personally, he
wanted Adam sleeping in his room, in his bed, but he could respect Adam’s need
for something that passed for his own space.
Besides, Chainsaw kept waking him up if he slept in Ronan’s room, and Noah
hardly minded Adam (and Ronan) using his bed.
Gansey was in the main room at his desk, phone against his ear. He looked up
when Ronan entered, snapping his fingers to get Ronan’s attention and keep him
from making a bee-line to Noah/Adam’s room while he quickly spoke into the
receiver.
“Yes, Mallory, I’m certain that’s quite a troublesome event - look, can I call
you back in an hour? Yes, Ronan just got back - yes - positively. Wonderful,
I’ll talk to you again soon.”
Ronan rolled his eyes but obligingly waited for Gansey to finish his call with
the old man, though it didn’t pass without comment.
“Isn’t he like a hundred years old now?” Ronan asked as soon as Gansey hung up
the phone. “How is he not dead yet?”
“Lynch,” Gansey scolded, as if Ronan’s name alone could be considered a curse.
Depending on whom you asked, it could be. Ronan let out a scoff but said
nothing more, looking expectantly at his friend instead for what had Gansey
holding him up.
Gansey sighed, deep and tired, tapping his fingers against his desk before he
decided that it was better to let the subject drop in favor of getting to the
point.
“Declan came by,” he said
“No shit,” Ronan replied, he’d seen the tire tracks on the gravel that matched
Declan’s car. “Too bad I missed him.”
Ronan’s tone made it very clear that he wasn’t at all regretful.
“He wasn’t here to see you, actually,” Gansey said carefully.
“What, he wanted to yell at you for whatever fee I had to pay for the thing
with Parrish’ dad?”
“He was here to see Parrish, Lynch,” Gansey finally said with exasperation.
Ronan stilled, jaw tightening.
“What the fuck for?” Ronan demanded.
“You might not care that you have a supernatural pedigree, Lynch, but Declan
does. And Adam might not have been brought into your family in the most
traditional way, but you turned him, he has your blood, ergo Niall’s blood,
ergo Adam is the newest addition to the Lynch dynasty even if he never takes
the name,” Gansey stood, rubbing at his chin with his thumb as he began to
pace, restless and more than slightly frustrated. “Have you even told him what
that means for him?”
“Hadn’t thought about it,” Ronan answered honestly.
“Well maybe you should start!” Gansey huffed, his head of steam from
frustration finally coming to an end. He exhaled, rubbed his hand across his
face, then started to gather his field notebook and phone. “Apparently the ley
line has changed, it’s… different now. It’s like it woke up but no one’s done
anything to make that happen. I’m going to go speak to Jane - we’re going to
see if her mother or any of the other women in that Boston Marriage of a
household know anything they’re willing to talk about.”
Difficult conversation officially over, Ronan gave a displeased snort of his
own.
“‘Boston Marriage’ - it’s twenty thirteen, Gansey. You can say ‘lesbians’.”
Gansey sputtered, face reddening.
“That doesn’t mean - unmarried women naturally co-habitate with each other, it
doesn’t make them all ’female adventurers’.”
You had to learn to deal with the changing of the times, it was the only way to
survive and not fall into melancholy and eventual death. That was one of the
reasons why there were so many rules about changing someone. Gansey, while a
product of an illegal change and further even more deeply illegal abandonment,
had proved remarkably able to roll with the differences and evolution of
society that even the carefully vetted sometimes found difficult.
Every now and then he showed his age, though. Like having to sometimes remind
him that women were not, by default, all naturally asexual creatures.
It was worth it to see the way he got worked up over it, the older slang he’d
break out when flustered. Ronan found that one of the small joys of their
friendship.
So was the absolutely offended way Gansey managed to shoot a rude gesture to
Ronan after Ronan yelled “GANSEY, THEY’RE LESBIANS!” after his retreating form.
In the other room, across their connection, Ronan felt the hunger growing
stronger in Adam. He’d be waking up soon, and Ronan wanted to be there for it.
It was probably a dick move, really. Or at least motivated by the kind of sort
of more dickish aspects of Ronan’s personality, but he loved watching Adam wake
up hungry. There was no real danger or worry to it since Ronan was always there
to feed him, and within another night or two he’d learn to at least go a full
day of sleep without being ready to frenzy now that his body no longer had its
internal supply to work through. Ronan had to get his entertainment and fill of
it while he could.
He left the door to the main room open as he made his way into Noah’s room
where Adam slept, blankets tossed from his dreams. He had nightmares earlier in
the day before Ronan was able to calm him with happy memories of his own to
share. The older vampire kicked off his shoes and climbed onto the bed,
situating himself between Adam’s legs.
Ronan brought his wrist up to his mouth, tearing upon a vein on the edge of one
of his fangs.
“Wakey wakey,” Ronan murmured, holding his wrist above Adam’s face so a few
drops of blood would fall onto his lips.
The effect was instant.
Adam’s eyes snapped open, completely black aside from a the thinnest ring of
blue around the edge. He visibly drew in the scent of the blood, of the
bleeding wrist right above his face. His grip when he grabbed Ronan’s arm would
have easily snapped bone if Ronan had been human, teeth sinking into the
offered flesh and sucking so hard Ronan could feel the bruises forming and
healing and forming again. Adam drank and drank and drank, a feral growl
rolling from his throat.
Ronan figured he was probably pretty sick, but goddamn, it was such a turn on.
Specifically the way when Adam had drank his fill he let his head fall back on
the bed, reflexively gasping for breath he didn’t need but habit demanded, eyes
hazy and sated. Aside from the red left on his lips, Adam’s face just after
feeding from Ronan when he was particularly hungry was more or less identical
to Adam’s post orgasm face.
Ronan knew he should be ashamed. He was, a little bit, but he’d had seventy
years to work through his issues or at least become comfortable with them.
While Adam recovered, Ronan leaned in to kiss softly at the delicate line of
his collarbone.
“You’re an asshole,” Adam said without any real venom, hand reaching up to
stroke the buzzed fuzz of Ronan’s hair, fingers tracing back and forth. Ronan
gripped Adam’s thighs and pulled him just a little closer, close enough for
Ronan’s clothed erection to bump against Adam’s crotch. It wasn’t enough for
Adam to just drink his blood, Ronan wanted to be inside of Adam in other ways
too and he let Adam feel that, shuddered with want at the low groan it drew
from Adam. “I can’t believe you even have enough blood left for that.”
Ronan pushed Adam’s shirt up to his elbows so he could lick and suck at the
dusky pink nipples, careful not to accidently break the skin even as he reached
blindly to the nightstand for the one thing it now contained. Thank goodness
Noah didn’t mind them using his bed for this, not that it would have really
stopped Ronan even if he did.
In spite of Adam’s scoffing or feigned reluctance, there was no hesitation as
he lifted his hips when Ronan went to slide down the boxers he slept in,
kicking them off the rest of the way once Ronan maneuvered them off one leg.
He looked over Ronan’s shoulder, noted that the door wasn’t closed all the way,
Ronan silently told him Gansey just left, and that was it for any actual
reluctance. They didn’t even bother to get fully undressed, Ronan’s hunger and
eagerness feeding into Adam’s, which fed into Ronan’s in return. When he was
young he’d been told that was one of the dangers of turning someone you were in
love with, of being too in synch and losing yourselves in one another. It had
sounded like such bullshit at the time.
Slicking his fingers with lube from the bedstand and sliding them into Adam to
stretch him, Ronan figured if he was a better man he’d probably owe someone an
apology. Adam was responsible though, he wouldn’t let Ronan get too lost in the
taste of his skin. Watching the way Adam gasped and squirmed and whimpered as
Ronan crooked his fingers inside of him and stroked his insides though - every
time was like his first race.
’I am going to do this forever.’
“It’s good, good enough, come on -” Adam gasped, rocking his hips towards
Ronan’s fingers even as he pulled them out to slick up his cock instead. It was
the best feeling in the world, sliding into Adam, feeling Adam tightening
around him and hearing those punched out moans of Ronan’s name on his lips.
Living long enough to find Adam Parrish, it made every shitty thing in his life
feel worth it. Ronan bit and kissed at Adam’s neck, his hands finding Adam’s to
twine their fingers together as his hips pistoned. There was something a little
desperate to it when they made love first thing in the evening, something that
burned bright and hot, reaffirming their connection on every level. Like this,
Ronan could lose himself in Adam, in the strange green and smell of the forest
at the edges of Adam’s psyche.
Ronan came first, having worked himself up much of the day in anticipation of
it, but when he let go of one of Adam’s hands to take Adam’s cock in his hand
and jerk him off, Adam wasn’t far behind.
Sticky, satisfied, Adam reached back up to run his hand along Ronan’s buzzed
hair again while Ronan stayed inside of him and busied himself with that spot
on Adam’s neck he was deeply fond of. Adam’s mind drifted, and eventually he
was thinking of the memory of Ronan’s first race that he’d shared. Ronan’s hair
was longer back then, dark and curly. It had been buzzed down to stubble as
long as Adam knew him.
“What happened to the car?”
“Mmm?” Ronan asked, still rather preoccupied with the line of Adam’s throat,
the pale skin of his neck and jaw, of the idea of just staying in Adam until he
could get it up again and they could go for round two.
“The car, in the - the Chevy Bel Air,” Adam said, staring up at the ceiling of
Noah’s room, trying not to squirm. He’d never seen the car, Ronan only drove
his father’s BMW now.
“Oh. I totaled it,” Ronan said, as if it was nothing to total a car.
For him it wasn’t. When you could just walk away from car crashes without a
scratch and had a love for speed, there were a lot of chrome casualties
littered in your wake. His father’s car was the only one he took care with.
“You’re an asshole,” Adam repeated, with a bit more meaning to it this time,
this time pulling back just enough to make it clear that Ronan was not getting
another sexy round two right away, biting back a whimper as Ronan obligingly
pulled out. He did know how important it was to take care of things and to
treasure them, and it wasn’t that Ronan didn’t understand that… it’s just that,
well…
He loved cars. He loved them so much it felt like his heart would burst from it
sometimes. But the love of them was tied directly to what they provided. Speed,
freedom, joy, escape. They were never classics when he purchased them, they
probably would have been worth a lot of he’d let them sit in some garage with a
tarp to keep them from gathering dust, but he might have just as well thrown
the key away if he was going to do that. Owning them without using them gave
him nothing. Owning them and using them for what they were created for until
there was nothing left gave him everything.
The feelings passed in the silence between them, and Adam’s hands on his head
turned to softer, gentler caresses.
God. It was something holy, what they had between them. He hated words, hated
how they screwed up what he meant to say. This, the connection he had with
Adam, it bypassed all of it. Emotion to emotion. A perfect communication.
“Do you ever sleep?” Adam asked softly. Ronan and Gansey were insomniacs, but
that was something uniquely them, something they’d been in life rather than
something that happened due to their age and current state of existence. At the
edges of Ronan’s mind dark things lurked, memories of creatures not of this
world, shadow and claws and a taste for his blood in particular. All waiting
for him to fall asleep again.
Suspicion and curiosity began to grow in Adam, and Ronan shifted on the bed,
sitting back on his haunches as if a greater physical distance between them
would do anything. He didn’t want to talk about it. He’d have to, eventually.
Sooner or later Adam would know, but he wanted another day to ignore that.
Adam pushed himself up to lean back on his elbows, looking up at Ronan, face
the blank of concentration he got when he was puzzling over something, careful
and neutral. If he wanted to press, he’d find it out. Ronan quite literally
could not stop him.
“Okay,” Adam said instead, raising a leg to bump against Ronan’s side with his
knee. “You already know all of my demons, though. Yours don’t scare me.”
Ronan desperately hoped it would stay that way.
***** Ronan *****
Chapter Summary
     Ronan has a surprise for Adam, they meet a less than friendly face on
     the road, and start to piece together that something else is going on
     with Adam's turning. Took 'em long enough.
The beginning of the night was spent in what was quickly becoming routine for
them, if the last two weeks were any indication. Wake up, feed, sometimes fuck,
sometimes shower after the fucking, Adam getting dressed and studying to keep
up with school so he wouldn’t be at a loss once he returned, then whatever
business Ronan had planned for that particular day.
It wasn’t much of a routine, really. When Gansey wasn’t otherwise occupied they
worked on the search for Glendower. Ronan would have been content to spend the
time with Adam doing positively nothing but it quickly became clear that free
time was a foreign and unsettling concept to Adam Parrish and the less he had
right now the better. Free time meant him focusing on the passage of it, on
trying to wrap his mind around dealing with the idea of not having enough time
to suddenly having an eternity. That it was no longer a race against the clock
to graduate Aglionby with the best grades possible to get a good college to get
a good job to get out.
That he could be like Gansey now, who was so in love with academia that he had
attended high school and college more times than Ronan could count for the
pleasure of learning alone, of keeping up with what was considered basic
knowledge for the changing times. Hell, he could be like Ronan who was
approaching eighty and had never once graduated high school in all that time,
on his third much-pressured attempt to do it at least once.
Alright, it was pretty obvious he’d be more like Gansey when it came to how he
was going to spend his eternity. Ronan magnanimously did not hold it against
him. While Adam studied and Ronan watched him study, Ronan’s phone buzzed from
where it was discarded on Gansey’s desk with the signal of a text. Ronan’s
disgust was so palpable at just the sound it made that Adam sighed.
“You hate phones so much it would make someone wonder if you were born before
their invention,” Adam said, standing and fetching Ronan’s cell to check the
text. Either Adam did it or it went unread. “Gansey says Persephone was
particularly cryptic but Fox Way was otherwise unhelpful. He wants to know if
we were going to Cabeswater at all tonight.”
There was entertainment coloring Adam’s voice. Gansey had specifically
addressed the text to Adam, rightly knowing that Ronan would not be the one to
read it.
“That was the plan,” Ronan said, as if he had one at all. “I got a surprise for
you first though.”
Adam didn’t raise his head but he did glance up from the phone out of the
corner of his eyes, a small smile tugging at his lips and amusement coloring
his mind.
“Oh? Is it on Noah’s bed again? It’s starting to feel a little awkward…” Adam
said, still smiling.
“I don’t mind,” came a soft sigh from Noah’s doorway. “It’s more action than I
can give it. Not for lack of trying.”
Both Adam and Ronan startled at the sudden appearance of the more oft than not
absent third roommate of Monmouth Manufacturing. To be perfectly frank, Ronan
still wasn’t exactly sure how the whole ghost thing worked for Noah - then
again, Noah acted equally in the dark. He did seem to think it was a unique
circumstance though.
That was a relief. It seemed awful that everything about vampire society was
built around finding a way for a kind end if you wanted it only to find out you
were then trapped on this world no matter what. Then again perhaps it was about
the particular circumstance of his death. He claimed, at least, to not
remember, but he had confided in them recently that it was not a suicide.
“Can’t imagine your kind of dead yields a whole lot of action,” Ronan said once
he recovered from the surprise, grabbing one of the crumpled up wads of paper
from Gansey’s wastebin to chuck at Noah’s form. It struck him, bouncing off his
shirt to roll across the floor. Noah pouted faintly.
“You never know. Blue’s single now, right?”
Okay, that was worth it if only for the way Adam startled again and made a
stifled choking sound.
Ronan did as well, but it was all performative on his part. He really did not
understand the appeal of the midget.
“You might as well come with since you’re here,” Ronan said, finally moving the
conversation back to the point and things he was actually interested in. He
needed to show Adam his surprise before Adam picked up the nervous excitement
from Ronan and followed that thread to finding it out on his own. Ronan hadn’t
carefully arranged it while Adam was in a deep sleep for nothing.
===============================================================================
Even without Gansey and Blue, it felt halfway back to normal with Ronan, Adam,
and Noah all piling into Ronan’s BMW to head into the night for shenanigans.
Adam texted Gansey back that they would meet him and Blue at Cabeswater, and
Noah messed with the radio and managed to find music that offended both Ronan
AND Adam’s sensibilities, which he felt deserved an award.
Noah also did his thing where he seemed perfectly capable of following the
conversation even when more than half of it wasn’t spoken aloud anymore. Gansey
had already gotten flustered by Adam and Ronan’s private communication and they
both tried to keep it down when they weren’t alone, but Noah’s rolling with it
due to whatever it was he could do as the strange double dead thing he was
hadn’t been making it easy.
Saint Agnes Church was, conveniently, on the way to Cabeswater. Adam recognized
the building as they pulled into the parking lot at an angle that was roguish
at best.
“Do I need to get baptized to save my now dammed soul?” he asked Ronan. It was
mostly a joke. Ronan grinned and said nothing, though he entertained the image
of Adam dressed in white all wet.
“Do you think there’s actual baptism pornography?” Noah asked from the back
seat, all wide eyed curiosity that neither boy bought from him anymore. Ronan
suspected that you needed to go back to the era of disco and casual drug use
and sex to find a less innocent soul, as nonthreatening and nonsexual as Noah
appeared to be to those that didn’t bother to pay attention to him.
The church itself was empty and as tempting as it was to pull Adam into the
main building, they did have Noah as a chaperon and what he wanted was not in
the church itself. Debating vocally with Noah on whether or not baptism porn
existed, Ronan lead the two to the side of the church building to the almost
hidden set of rickety stairs up to the small, currently empty room.
It was dusty, and the ceiling was slanted at an angle that meant Ronan and Adam
had to duck at points. It had a bathroom with a shower and a bath though, and
at least two electrical outlets that were visible at a glance, though whether
they worked was up for debate. In the upper corner of the one real window a
small spider had made her web before apparently abandoning the small room for
greener pastures.
“What’s this?” Adam asked, looking around. It took very little time to pace the
small area.
“Yours,” Ronan said. “If you want it.”
Adam looked away from the window to Ronan, his pale eyebrows raised. Suspicion,
wounded pride. Ronan frowned and tried to express as best he could - he
understood Adam needed his own place, his own space. He didn’t want to live at
Monmouth with Gansey and Ronan, so.
Ronan had made arrangements with the nuns. They’d rent the room to Adam as a
nonprofit.
“How much?” Adam asked first.
Ronan answered, but didn’t give any time for Adam to work on overdrive of all
the ways he’d have to work himself to the bone before adding, “I’d pay the
first year - technically I’m supposed to fucking baby you for the next, what,
seventeen to twenty years?” but whatever, that’d just piss Adam off - he
wouldn’t pay at all but it was Ronan’s fault he was now working at a loss from
the time he needed to take off of work to learn to cope with his new existence
- and Adam had Aglionby tuition to deal with that he was insisting on paying
for himself.
Adam still didn’t like the charity - it isn’t charity, I’m being responsible
for my own fuckups, dipshit, isn’t this what you always complain about me not
doing? - but he was short on options, and even as he went to the window to look
out of it and let his mind work on counting every theoretical dollar he could
earn every day and how much of that would go to Aglionby and how much would he
not need due to not needing to pay for food and how much of that could be used
to pay for the small apartment… Ronan could feel the undercurrent of wary hope
there. Of a fondness already growing for this terribly small space that would
be too cold in winter and too hot in summer. A place that would be his own, at
least until he got out of Henrietta entirely.
The groan of ancient piping interrupted their thoughts and Noah let out a yelp
from the bathroom only to appear at the doorway a moment later.
“The shower works. If you were curious.”
Adam turned from Noah to Ronan.
“... When can I move in?”
===============================================================================
In Ronan’s car again they figured out when exactly Adam would move in. Ronan
and Gansey had already gotten Adam’s few things from the trailer, and he had
not asked how it went. Once Adam was officially ‘out of the hospital’ and able
to function day to day without Ronan being joined at the hip to him they’d
bring over his things to Saint Agnes. Noah offered to help decorate. Adam
gently turned him down. Ronan offered to help decorate as well. Adam turned him
down significantly less gently.
The night was quiet around them, but filled with potential.
It wasn’t that Ronan was unobservant, but few could match Adam Parrish in terms
of being able to read the subtlest of cues in a room, and being plugged
directly into his mind made Ronan starkly aware of that. So it was Adam that
noticed it first, but Ronan was only half a second behind him.
First it was how silent Noah had gone. A glance in the rear view mirror showed
he was still back there, even if he ducked quickly out of sight of the
reflection. Ronan couldn’t blame him - Noah had somehow always looked so wrong
when reflected in mirrors and it was inevitably an unpleasant experience for
all involved.
Still, the glance back showed what had probably caused Noah’s sudden silence,
and what had absolutely caused the sudden roll of contempt from Adam.
Kavinsky’s EVO.
“He dresses like he fell out of a vaporwave video,” Noah muttered from the back
seat where he still slouched down, just barely visible. He’d been popping in
and out of visibility a lot lately, Adam observed in the quiet of his own mind.
Ronan hadn’t noticed until it was pointed out.
Another benefit of being plugged into Adam Parrish’ mind - being able to hear
the positively savage snide remarks he almost never voiced. God, there were
many. Like the gem of asking if Kavinsky was actually created in the 80’s and
never moved past it, or if his current look was a conscious choice on his part.
Ronan snorted, distracted by that thought. He didn’t know, to be honest. He’d
met Kavinsky at the same time Adam did, when he transferred to Aglionby from
New Jersey last year. As far as his creation, Kavinsky had told a hundred
different stories about it, each less plausible than the last. All that Ronan
knew for certain about him was that he was also a vampire, like Gansey
preferred to feed off of humans, and didn’t know how to handle a stick shift
properly.
“I can’t believe you beat him in a race with this,” Adam said dryly, turning
his head to glance back at Noah, a little worried at the boy hunched up in the
back seat. Shadowy, but still visible.
“They say seeing is believing, right?” Ronan said, glancing in the rear view
only once more before slowing down just enough that the next stop light turned
red by the time they reached it. Kavinsky’s EVO pulled up beside them on
Ronan’s side of the BMW. The feeling of contempt from Adam grew stronger,
uncaring that Ronan sensed it, and Noah scooted to the seat behind him.
It had been a warm night, so Ronan’s window was already open when Kavinsky
rolled his down.
“What’s with the trailer trash? Dick putting you in the doghouse?” Kavinsky
called.
’Is he always so sure about things he’s so wrong about or are you a special
case for making him stupid?’ Adam asked Ronan silently with a raised eyebrow.
Ronan couldn’t help it, he let out a barking laugh.
One that was delayed enough that it clearly had nothing to do with what
Kavinsky had just said.
The Jersey boy ripped off his sunglasses so fast Ronan actually wondered if he
broke them in the action, looking between Ronan and Adam as he pieced together
the only explanation for what could have had Ronan laughing at what seemed like
total silence.
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
Really, Ronan would have liked to continue that pissing contest, because he was
perpetually thirteen in a lot of ways, but Adam cut him off by looking down at
his watch then back up at Ronan, giving Kavinsky not a moment more of his
attention. The funny thing was, to Ronan at least, it wasn’t even an
intentional diss on Adam’s part. Kavinsky had been considered and dismissed and
that was that, the same way Adam shut down other members of their class. Ronan
loved it.
“If you want to have your fun, make it fast. They’re probably already waiting
for us.”
“Alright, alright…” Ronan sighed. Then, mostly to be an asshole, he leaned over
and pulled Adam into a quick, deep kiss.
It made winning the race afterwards that much better.
===============================================================================
Noah was back to his normal self again when they made it to the edge of
Cabeswater, parking the BMW next to Gansey’s camaro which Blue and him were
leaning against the back bumper of.
Noah was out first, jogging the couple steps to Blue to give her a tight hug
that she laughed and returned, even as she complained of how cold he was. Ronan
gave a mental gagging sound, the same he’d made when Adam had thought of how
pretty she was.
She was alright, sure, less annoying now that Adam had broken up with her, but
he still didn’t get what the fuss was that drove Gansey and Adam to so much
distraction and had Noah orbiting like a particularly loving satellite. Well,
alright, Noah probably wanted to get laid and Blue was on the very short list
of people who had no problem consistently perceiving him.
It was Adam’s first time seeing Blue since their break up, and the nervous
anticipation rolled off of him in waves even as he looked calm and composed as
ever on the outside. Still, when she saw him, she smiled and detached herself
from Noah so that she could give him a hug too - Ronan couldn’t squash a spike
of jealousy that flared up - and the nervousness faded in favor of relief. They
were good, Adam’s easing psyche transmitted without intention. It would be
awkward for a little bit, but no real damage done.
“Parrish and I will need to eat again before we go, but we’ll save that until
the maggot is gone,” Ronan said, talking to Gansey as if Blue wasn’t there. Not
that he was at all jealous of that attention.
“I can’t believe you kill animals here,” Blue started, which was really what
Ronan was waiting for as he crowded into her space, fixing her with his
standard stare that made lesser men cower.
“Why, you volunteering? I can’t imagine maggot tastes good but hey...”
The touch on his back was light, calming. Ronan had not really needed to be
pulled back since Adam had been turned, too preoccupied with keeping his new
charge safe, but that road went both ways. This time it wasn’t Gansey who
calmed Ronan, but Adam.
’Don’t get me wrong, you need to control yourself. I’m not your master,’ Adam
thought as his touch stilled Ronan even as Blue sputtered at his words, not at
all cowed by them or the stare. ’But you don’t need to be jealous anymore...
you WERE jealous before, weren’t you?’
Ronan gave one last sneer at Blue before he looked back at Adam, impassive
stare met for impassive stare, then turned to stomp off into the underbrush.
“Let’s get moving, I’m fucking starving.”
===============================================================================
Gansey explained the current situation as they made their way through the dark
nighttime forest, three vampires, one ghost, and one daughter of a psychic.
Adam thought Blue was brave for her lack of fear in her situation, Ronan
thought she was being an idiot. They would have to agree to disagree.
There was a coven of witches just outside of Radford that Gansey had been
friendly with for generations, and like Blue’s family they stayed where they
were because of the ley line. It made magic stronger and easier even as it
slumbered. Not that Ronan ever felt he needed to know the finer details of
witchcraft, but Gansey had picked quite a bit up in his dealings with the
family and found that the magic they used, at least, had little to do with the
ley line in an active sense. Being near it was all you needed for a little
extra oomph, it did not factor into any of their specific spellwork directly,
they didn’t draw from the energies of it. That had been what brought him to
seek out Fox Way in the first place. The witches knew and trusted Richard
Campell Gansey III, and would have been happy to help him as much as they could
but anything beyond the existence of it was out of their area.
They had still noticed the signs, though. The strange things that occurred
along where the line would have cut through their area of Virginia. Knowing
Gansey’s interest in it, they had brought it to his attention when he had
Adam’s watch enchanted. Surges here and there along the line, where there had
once only been a steady trickle of energy it was now raging rapids of it,
spilling into the surrounding countryside and flooding meadows and fields. Some
way, somehow, the ley line had been activated.
In Cabeswater, once they were far enough into the trees that the cars had
fallen out of sight, it wasn’t difficult to tell. The whole place felt
different when they moved past the area Ronan hunted in, radically alive the
deeper they went. Gansey, Noah, and Blue all slowed their walk, they hadn’t
been here to hunt and were unsettled by the changes as the wind almost sounded
like a whisper through the trees.
Ronan was, as usual as of late, distracted by Adam.
He walked like a man with a purpose, his eyes far away. When the others slowed
their pace to get their bearings, Adam continued onward, certain of his
direction, of his goal. Through Adam, Ronan could hear it, the wind truly made
into words in Adam’s ears, the press of wet leaves crowding into Adam’s mind. A
whisper, Greywaren-
Ronan jogged head to catch up with Adam, reaching out to grab the other
vampire’s wrist to stop him. When he looked back, Ronan saw that they had
almost lost sight of the other three adventurers. How had they gotten so
separated?
“Adam?” Ronan asked, voice tense. When Adam didn’t respond right away, Ronan
tried again, and if Adam didn’t respond this time he’d just have to open up a
vein to get his attention- “Adam.”
Adam blinked, dazed, looking around at the forest before back at Ronan, down to
where Ronan grabbed his wrist. Confusion colored his mind as his brow lined
ever so slightly with the effort as he tried to figure out what had happened
and drew a blank.
Adam had no memory of the minutes that had passed since they lost sight of the
cars.
“Okay, enough fucking spooky forest bullshit,” Ronan said, voice deceptively
aggressive compared to the gentleness of his touch as he lead Adam back to
where the other three were. “Adam’s hungry, this is bullshit, we’re fucking
off.”
Adam was hungry, though his hunger was a distant thing, still distracted by the
sounds of the forest itself. A hum, a laughter, the sound of crying, a few
notes of a song.
Gansey snapped his fingers.
“That reminds me, Parrish - Parrish!”
Adam startled again, looking back to Gansey. Unable to feel Gansey through an
invisible connection meant he actually had to focus on his friend, that better
snapped him out of the daze than Ronan had. Blue’s concern was palpable, Noah
seemed impassive. Ronan considered throwing him in the small river.
Gansey fished his glass bottle that used to house V8 from his bag, holding it
out to Adam.
“Here, try this,” Gansey offered, concerned. Ronan had an idea of what would
happen even before it did, but Adam was often willing to humor Gansey. Ronan
let go of Adam’s wrist so he could take the bottle, and he unscrewed the top
and took a hesitant sip of the liquid.
To his credit, he didn’t spit it out or anything, but Adam did cough heartily
and only just barely swallowed before quickly holding the bottle back to
Gansey.
“What is that?” Adam asked. Ronan struggled not to laugh.
“... B Positive, I believe.” Gansey said mildly.
“You had to know that would happen,” Ronan replied snidely. Gansey looked
offended.
“Not every single Lynch is animals only, Adam could have been an exception!”
Gansey said, cunningly manage to avoid mentioning Declan by name. Tastes for
blood tended to run alongside the tastes of whoever turned you. Niall preferred
animals but had nothing against the taste of humans, which meant Matthew had
almost the exact same preference, Declan mildly preferred animals but drank
whatever was available, and Ronan thought humans as a whole tasted disgusting.
And, apparently, Adam took after Ronan there.
“Well this has been a hayburner of a night. I apologize for wasting your time,
Jane,” Gansey continued, turning his attention to Blue who had watched the
proceeding with a mild fascination. She shook her head.
“It’s almost curfew anyway. I mean, I think. I’m not sure if I have a curfew
but it is almost midnight and that sounds like a normal curfew time, doesn’t
it? It was good to see you again, Adam,” She reached across to squeeze his
hand. “Don’t be a stranger, okay?”
===============================================================================
Noah tagged along with Blue and Gansey when they left Cabeswater, raising an
eyebrow knowingly when he waved goodbye to Ronan and Adam. Ronan gave a very
rude gesture in return. He couldn’t hear Noah’s laughter from the inside of the
Pig, but he saw the way the ghost held his sides and went through the motions
of it enough to catch Blue’s attention at least.
So he flipped the bird with the other finger as well.
Adam didn’t try to stop him this time, just rolled his eyes. Ronan Lynch was
his own man who needed to handle his own shit - Gansey was the one obsessed
with turning him into a productive member of society, Adam was the one who
thought he should crash and burn on his own merits.
It was part of what Ronan liked about Adam.
It was however another night, and as such another attempt to teach Adam to
hunt. It never went as badly as the first time again, though Adam had yet to
make a successful kill. He psyched himself out more often than not, deep scars
of a lifetime of violence not being something that could be healed in two short
weeks. Ronan would not have bothered, except it gave them a chance to be alone
in Cabeswater and he wanted Adam to be able to go on even if something terrible
happened to Ronan.
He lived his life rather recklessly, it was a constant possibility.
They tried to stick to the edges of Cabeswater after what had happened earlier,
but it was easy to get turned around in the forest and it wasn’t like the deer
were equally wary. Shadowing Ronan, Adam was able to successfully help him in
taking an animal down, though Ronan handled the kill itself. It was the best
Adam had done so far, really, and after draining it dry Ronan was prepared to
fuck Adam into the mossy ground again when he looked up and realized Adam
wasn’t looking at him like he always was.
He was looking off into the trees, face blank, mind a mass of branches and
leaves and whispers on the wind. Adam, personally, did not think he was in
danger. Only calm came off of him, the same sort of dreamy relaxation that only
showed for him in sleep, where his anxiety ebbed away. Even his hunger was a
dimmed, distant thing. Like Adam was somewhere else, though Ronan could see him
standing right there.
Reaching up, Ronan touched his hand. Adam’s fingers easily curled around
Ronan’s. Words echoed through his mind, from Adam’s mind, but it wasn’t Adam.
’Greywaren,’ they whispered.
Ronan didn’t try to shake Adam out of it this time or call his name. He jumped
right to drastic measures, bringing his wrist up to his mouth to cut open the
skin there for the second time tonight.
It wasn’t as instant as when Adam was starving, but he’d probably always
respond to the smell of Ronan’s blood - especially with how they intended to
keep up their connection. It didn’t take long but every minute that passed felt
like an eternity in miniature, the green and leaves receding back into Adam’s
mind, letting his awareness return slowly as if waking up from sleep.
“Ronan?” Adam murmured softly.
“I’m right here,” Ronan said, holding his other arm out to Adam, offering up
his blood. Whatever it took to keep Adam in the here and now. When they last
checked the time it was well into the area marked as ‘early morning’ rather
than ‘late night’ and Adam was still young enough to need to sleep during the
day, anything actionable would have to wait until tomorrow evening after it got
dark again. Even so…
“...I think I need to go see Persephone,” Adam said.
***** Adam *****
Chapter Summary
     Uncomfortable with what occurred at Cabeswater, Adam asks Ronan if
     there isn't somewhere else they can finish the night's feeding at.
     Ronan starts to open up about some of his secrets to Adam.
     (They also bang in this chapter.)
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
“You need to eat,” Ronan said when they returned to the BMW, his hands gripping
the steering wheel.
“I’m not that hungry yet,” Adam replied. The lie would have been easier if
Ronan wasn’t able to feel what he felt, the hunger at the peripheral. Somehow,
the reminder that he had constantly lived in that state while human didn’t put
Ronan any more at ease.
“If you don’t eat before sunrise you’ll frenzy before the next sunset,” Ronan
said. He hadn’t moved to turn the car on, but they were safely out of the
thicket of Cabeswater, back to where they’d parked. Adam set his jaw. He wasn’t
going back in there, not tonight. Not before he could talk to Persephone, to
someone who might have an idea of what was going on with him which was,
apparently, not fucking normal.
“You and Gansey can go days without eating sometimes,” Adam pointed out, the
edge of hunger wearing on his already frayed calm.
“And we’re fucking fully mature vampires or close to it. I’ve been a vampire
for over fifty years and Gansey’s been one for almost a hundred - You’ve been
one for two fucking weeks Parrish, would it fucking kill you to trust me?”
“Apparently, yes,” Adam answered, voice cold.
Silence fell over the car, neither boy looking at each other.
The sting of regret came almost as soon as the two-word reply had. Adam didn’t
apologize, because neither of them apologized for such things. That Adam was
the first to have his temper break between the two of them was merely chance.
It could have just as easily been Ronan.
They were vicious, angry creatures. Teenagers, and technically they always
would be.
Ronan was right - Adam could acknowledge that once he had time to calm down in
the silence of the car, of the forest around them blocking out any sounds from
distant roads. He woke up with an almost uncontrollable hunger as it was, and
Ronan was ensuring that he fed within hours of sleeping. The once comforting
forest now seemed disquieting, its shadows hiding secrets that begged to be
whispered to Adam, and he was certain that whatever knowledge they imparted to
him could not be unknown once known. Adam Parrish had spent too much time in
his life where the one thing he could control was Adam Parrish, and the
possibility of losing even that was unbearable.
“Is there somewhere else we can go?” He asked Ronan, finally breaking the
silence as the muddled feelings bled through their connection. Ronan’s grip on
the wheel shifted, and he turned the key to let the engine wake like a sleeping
dragon.
“Yeah,” Ronan said, the uncertainty and worry bleeding away from him. “I know a
place.”
===============================================================================
Moon-drenched farmland passed by the window of the BMW as it ate the asphalt of
the road, an eternally hungry beast sometimes as unearthly as the one that
controlled it. Resting his head back against the car seat that was practically
becoming a second home to Adam as it was, he turned to look at Ronan while the
other young man drove. The full moon lit up his sharp profile, skin washed out
to almost pure white in the pale light of the evening, the shadow of stubble
across his cheeks and chin just starting to show. Farther away from Cabeswater,
Adam was more relaxed again. He still felt it, heard it, at the edges of his
perception, but in the car with Ronan it was easy to let Ronan overtake and
drown it out.
He wondered how the stubble on Ronan’s face would feel against his skin. Adam
had come to understand his attraction to men at the same time he understood his
attraction to women, but when just living and breathing and existing under his
father’s roof was dangerous he didn’t kid himself into the belief that said
attraction could ever be anything other than a quiet thought kept at the back
of his mind, just for himself.
Now…
Now Ronan let go of the gear shift on the empty country road in front of them
as he went almost double the speed limit so that he could take one of Adam’s
hands and bring it up to press Adam’s palm against his cheek, tilting his head
just enough to let his dry lips brush against Adam’s skin. Even small and brief
the kiss was electric.
Adam recognized the signs for Singer Falls. A twenty minute drive, they’d made
it in just over ten.
The roads they took from there was a strange mix of alien and as familiar as
the veins under his own skin. Adam Parrish had never been here before. Ronan
lived here for fifty years, it was the place his heart would always live, the
place he longed to return to with every fiber of his being. He had to go slow
the closer they got to his home, the familiar twisting roads gravel instead of
pavement proper, long branches from plum trees heavy with fruit hanging low and
untended to. It was a small miracle that they didn’t need to get out of the car
at any point to clear debris from the ground.
No, not a miracle, Declan came by sometimes. The anger and bitterness at the
very thought of his brother - even from his own mind - cooled the heat between
them enough to let them focus on the actual task.
When Ronan put the car in park, they sat in silence for a few moments. To one
side, fireflies lit across the fields, even out of season, fallen stars come
down to dance among the grass before they returned to the sky. To the other
side and around the edges of the field, a lush forest dark and inviting waited,
pale shadows of curious creatures just barely visible. Huckleberries grew wild
everywhere. One light was on in the large farmhouse, just barely visible behind
closed curtains though no other cars were in the driveway.
The whole place felt like walking into a dream. It gave Adam the same relaxed
feeling as if he was asleep. You are safe here, the Barns seemed to whisper.
’It’s beautiful,’ he thought, not wanting to break the perfect silence of the
night around them. He could see how Ronan’s heart ached to return to it. Even
someone as desperate to take flight as Adam could see that this was a place
worth returning to.
“Yeah… well, I’m also technically not supposed to be here, so. Keep an ear out
for cars in case we need to split,” Ronan said, breaking the silence himself
because that was what Ronan did when he couldn’t bear to see someone else break
something.
They didn’t go to the farmhouse, or to the field littered with fireflies and
the dark shapes of barns. Instead they went right into the thicket of the
forest. Adam shadowed Ronan, as he had learned to do perfectly these last few
days.
Adam had never seen so many creatures.
The herd of deer that passed through it was impossible in size, brazen and
fearless of Ronan and, by extension, Adam. A small white faun separated from
the pack and came right up to Ronan, nosing at his hand as if a horse searching
for treats and giving a disdainful sniff when it found none, forgiving him only
when he brought his hand up to gently stroke between its ears. The bold,
confidant creature reminded Adam so much of Ronan, and yet to Ronan its self-
assured manner struck him like Adam. Ronan let his hand slide down to give it a
small scratch under the chin before he made a soft sound to shoo it back
towards the rest of the herd that had waited for him. Together they moved like
a school of fish, pale shadows against the trees until they managed to vanish
from sight.
“This can’t be real…” Adam whispered, staring at where they had gone, holding
so very still aside from what was needed to speak. There was no silence to
break here - night birds called among the trees, crickets chirped loudly in
expectation as they were on the cusp of summer. “I have to be dreaming.”
“I know when I’m asleep and when I’m awake,” Ronan replied. He had eaten at
Cabeswater, it was Adam that needed to feed next, then Ronan to make up for
what Adam had taken from him. They walked in companionable silence for a time,
exploring the oak and cypress trees that seemed to go on forever. Ronan picked
some huckleberries and confirmed that while they could eat human food still it
would simply not offer any of the nutrition needed to live. Still, it could be
pleasant. He held up a berry in offering by example, and Adam took it from
between Ronan’s fingers with his mouth. Mostly to watch the way Ronan watched
him do it. A hunger that had nothing to do with blood.
A juvenile, joyous thought crossed Ronan’s mind - I’ll race you back to the
fields - and that was all it took for the two to be off, running through the
forest and darting around the trees and bushes. Ronan had no true advantage -
Adam had all of his memories which surfaced unbidden of how the forest was laid
out, and Ronan collided with Adam when they broke through the tree line to send
them both crashing into the long grass of the fields, laughing breathlessly as
they hit the ground. It was Ronan, it was Ronan’s infectious good mood just
from being in the place he called home. Everything that wasn’t joy got turned
to anger for him, but when he was happy there was so much of it his heart could
burst from it. They kissed, playful and chaste at first, growing more heated as
the hunger took over, until Ronan was shifting to be between Adam’s legs,
grinding his hips against Adam’s as Adam pulled him down for kiss after kiss
and delighted at the feeling of stubble against his cheeks and lips.
Adam was realizing belatedly that he was being spoiled by what he had with
Ronan. Blue had been his first real ‘significant other’ before Ronan, and he
had gone from hand holding and the occasional hug flying completely blind in
the darkness to something where they literally could read each other’s minds
and know exactly what the other wanted, letting their shared desire feed into
each other, and both were up for anything. They didn’t have to waste time with
discussion or risk just going for it and making something weird. Ronan let his
lips trail from Adam’s down to his neck, licking and sucking at the paler skin
while he blindly grabbed the lube from his jacket’s pocket.
Adam would have laughed, but it was just getting sensible to keep it on him at
all times now. Especially if feeding was going to be involved.
Thoughts passed rapidly between them. There and like this and slower this time
and bite me.
Ronan and Adam had hastily shucked Adam’s jeans just in time for Ronan to slick
his fingers and slide one inside Adam to prepare when it was Adam’s turn to
press his lips against Ronan’s neck and bite down. Ronan groaned, his clothed
erection rubbing hard against one of Adam’s thighs while he held the other one
up against the grass so he could have access to Adam’s hole. He was still a
little loose from their desperate fuck early in the morning, and a second
finger slid in with almost no fuss. It proved helpful, because Ronan had at
best half a brain when Adam was sucking his blood. The feel of Adam drinking it
down, drinking the very essence of him down, of how Adam needed it but still
savored the taste of it - Adam let himself feel a little pride at how often
Ronan thought he could get off just from Adam sucking his blood.
Maybe someday they’d try, but so far Adam had always needed more than that.
Ronan’s lust inevitably sparked the flame in him as well, and afterwards he was
freshly fed and wired on it. Adam was getting pretty good at feeding off of
Ronan - of finding where the line was to pull back while taking as much as he
could without crippling Ronan for it.
Usually, anyway. When Ronan started fingering him before Adam was done eating,
it was a little difficult to keep focus. Especially with how Ronan was getting
far too good at finding that wonderful spot inside of him and shamelessly
putting as much pressure on it as he could.
Adam fell back on the grass, tongue darting out to lick what was left of
Ronan’s blood off his lips as Ronan slid the third finger into him, crooking
them just right to rub against Adam’s prostate once more. He bucked his hips up
into it, Ronan leaning just far back enough to not give his cock any friction
from the movement and Adam was too briefly spaced out to resist a faint whine
from it. A burst of prayers and profanity alike came from Ronan - some silent
expressions of thought, others a rough whisper. He repeated the movement again
and again, a little dizzy himself and entranced by the way Adam squirmed and
moaned.
“Think you could come just from this?” Ronan asked, thoughtful. No matter what
Adam’s answer was he wanted to try, but Adam wanted something more substantial
inside of him right then.
“Probably,” he answered just the same, because Ronan would know even if he
didn’t. One more press and Ronan let his fingers slide from Adam, falling
easily back against the grass at Adam’s push, and Adam was over him a second
later, straddling Ronan’s waist. Though Ronan’s eyes weren’t quite glassy, they
were having trouble focusing perfectly.
Worry crossed Adam’s features, cooling his blood just a fraction. “Are you-” he
began, but Ronan guided Adam’s hand to the front of his jeans where his cock
strained against the denim.
“Got enough blood left for this,” Ronan said, cheeky. Fears quelled, Adam
didn’t have quite enough focus left to be annoyed at that flippancy. He got
Ronan’s jeans open without tearing them, sliding them down his thighs and
slicking up his cock with the discarded bottle of lube before tossing it back
into the grass next to them. Then Adam took his time, guiding Ronan’s cock into
him, sliding down inch by inch and savoring each one. Ronan’s grip was tight on
Adam’s thighs before he even made it halfway down, needy whimpers drawn from
Ronan’s throat.
At least it wasn’t just Adam who felt so desperate for each touch.
Look at me, Ronan’s thoughts demanded. The heat of lust was heavy in Ronan’s
unblinking gaze as he watched Adam. The intensity of it was almost too much,
especially with how hot he was inside of Adam where they were joined. A part of
Adam wanted to look away, still self-conscious of his own self image and how
strange it stood against the one Ronan had of him.
Adam had never looked away from Ronan’s stare in the past, however. He wasn’t
going to start now.
One hand still braced against Ronan’s chest, Adam reached down with the other
to remove one of Ronan’s from his thigh so he could thread their fingers
together, to hold tight as he sunk the final few increments down so that Ronan
was fully sheathed within him. They both let out a shuddering moan from that.
Ronan’s blood inside of him, Ronan inside of him, they were as joined as two
separate people could be. Even if Adam hadn’t found it surprisingly thrilling
on his own - which he had - the way that thought got Ronan going every time
would have been able to get Adam to full hardness alone.
Fucking in the field of the Barns, of the place that was so very Ronan, it was
like being surrounded by him as well, like making love in the back seat of his
car but with much more space for Adam to ride Ronan, which they both favored.
Ronan grinned again, bucking his hips up just slightly. Adam pressed down
firmer on his chest just slightly, one eyebrow raised.
He set the pace slowly as he moved up and down on Ronan’s cock, slow enough to
draw out the curses and prayers alike from the other vampire. He let himself
focus on everything, on the feel of skin on skin, of the heat of Ronan inside
of him. Adam wanted to commit it to a memory so deep he would never forget the
feeling. He was fierce and independent and the master of himself if nothing
else, but sometimes he wanted to drown in this feeling, to drown in Ronan, just
for a little while.
And Ronan let him. He moved his other hand from Adam’s thigh to grip Adam’s
erection instead, pumping it slow but hard in time with the way Adam moved on
top of him. Precome was pooling on Ronan’s belly, white on white, and it didn’t
matter at all that they’d already fucked first thing that evening. He needed it
- they both needed it.
Adam still tried to stretch it out as long as he could, to pause and just relax
and try to calm down when they got too close to the edge before moving again.
He wasn’t sure he’d ever stop being hungry for Ronan, for this, not in ten
years, not in thirty, not in however long they had.
Forever. They had forever, if they wanted it.
Ronan’s grip on Adam’s cock tightened, his strokes becoming more desperate,
more frantic as he bucked his hips up again. Of course, Ronan would get off on
the thought of forever, wouldn’t he?
Adam couldn’t blame him. The possibility was intoxicating.
Ronan came with a curse that was positively foul, earning a smitten laugh from
Adam which in turn pulled a groan from Ronan’s throat. Adam’s laugh was
something he lived for. He squeezed Adam’s hand again, and his pace not slowed
from his own orgasm he pulled one from Adam shortly after.
Sated in every way he could be, Adam laid back on his side in the grass against
Ronan, fingertips tracing the line of Ronan’s jaw while Ronan did the same to
him. He felt weightless, perfectly relaxed, and some of Ronan’s dizziness was
transferred across to him as well.
“You need to eat,” it was Adam’s turn to chide.
“Mmm,” Ronan replied, closing his eyes instead and turning his head just so, so
that he could catch Adam’s fingertips against his lips. Ronan let his tongue
dart out just enough to draw Adam’s fingers in, to suck on them just barely.
Adam felt the warmth spread through him again.
He pulled his hand away, Ronan opening his eyes to give Adam a faintly annoyed
glare. Like a toddler who had a toy taken away.
The glare got stronger at that comparison, on that note. Adam smiled. If Ronan
had a heartbeat it would have skipped to see it.
“No more until you eat,” Adam said softly. Though he was good at keeping his
voice even, he couldn’t hide the ripple of concern there. Ronan sighed, the
sigh of the greatly put upon, and pushed himself up on his elbows to fix his
jeans and stand.
“Wait here for me, I’ll be right back.”
Even not going with Ronan, Adam closed his eyes and opened his senses to their
connection. To see and feel the hunt even while he laid back in the field,
listening as the night birds fell silent and the morning sparrows began to
chirp in the darkness. The exhaustion of the day began to set in as his mind
drifted. He was thinking that he had it wrong, actually. Ronan did not hunt
exactly the same as some dangerous predator, but with the careful efficiency
and care of a farmer, having the same trust from his herd even as he needed to
eat them sometimes.
That realization warmed Adam too, in a different way. It was like the callous
Ronan he’d first been introduced to with Gansey was… not a completely different
person entirely, he was still callous, he was still short-tempered, he was
still vicious and temperamental and a hundred other awful things, but there was
so much more than that as well. Adam still wasn’t certain he understood the
Ronan that Gansey insisted still existed, the one who was around before Niall
Lynch had been killed. Adam had never met that one, and he didn’t think he ever
would.
He liked this Ronan just fine, though.
Adam rolled from his side onto his back as Ronan approached again, sleepily
pulling his own clothing back on. The sky was beginning to change from the
almost black of night to the hazy navy blue of pre-dawn light. He still had his
watch on - he hadn’t taken it off since Gansey had given it to him, just in
case, but he did worry that he would fall asleep in the car like this. It was
still a twenty minute drive back to Henrietta, and with morning traffic to
battle with they were less likely to be able to make the same speed they had
before.
“Come on - we’ll just stay here today, head back at sundown,” Ronan offered,
holding his hand out to help Adam up.
Even tired as he was, every touch felt electric. Ronan’s skin was warmed from a
fresh kill.
“I thought you said we weren’t supposed to be here. What if someone comes?”
“No one comes during the daytime,” Ronan said with a faint scoff, then as that
didn’t entirely dismiss Adam’s concern, “I’ll move the car behind one of the
barns and my bedroom has a lock. No one will even know we’re here.”
Adam severely doubted that, but he also couldn’t help stifle a spark of
curiosity at the chance to look inside the farmhouse, to see the place in
person that he’d caught glimpses of in Ronan’s memory.
Ronan’s smile was like the edge of a knife, but it was always that way.
Adam waited at the edge of the field while Ronan moved his car, helped him kick
the gravel to cover the tire marks, then followed him inside.
===============================================================================
The inside of the Lynch family home was so remarkably similar to 300 Fox Way,
not that Ronan liked the comparison. Every surface was bursting with color,
with texture, with more things to draw the eye and ear and smells to catch. He
couldn’t imagine waking up here when you were still learning heightened senses.
Everything begged for a chance to drive you to distraction.
Ronan held Adam’s hand while he lead Adam through the kitchen and into the
hallway, assuring Adam silently that it was different if you were raised into
it. Adam caught glimpses of it then - snippets of happy childhood memories, of
his parents, of the fully grown brother Declan, of Matthew just a few years
younger than Ronan as they both grew and played all with the knowledge and
gentle training for what they would need when the time came. Of the thrill of
being allowed to go hunting with his father when he was twelve, of being so
good at it that when the time came for him to feed on his own he needed
absolutely no help at all.
It was difficult to compare that Ronan with this one. So much had changed for
him. In the hallway to their left was the stairway up to the bedrooms, to the
right it lead to the sitting room. Adam could see the light peeking out from
under the doorway there.
Ronan was silent, holding Adam’s hand in the gentle dark and quiet of the
hallway. When he finally spoke, his voice was thick with emotion.
“... Do you want to meet my mom?”
===============================================================================
Looking down at Aurora Lynch, Adam’s first thought was Sleeping Beauty.
Specifically, the Disney cartoon, though doing the math in his head quickly she
had to be much older than that. She was still youthful, but not so much so that
it was inconceivable that she could have young adult children of her own.
The furniture of the sitting room had been moved around to accommodate a bed,
the kind of plush and comfortable thing that one would want to spend days in if
they could, the queen size taking up much of the room’s available space. In the
bed, Aurora Lynch lay sleeping, her blonde hair like spun gold draped across
the lace-trimmed pillow.
All the curtains in the room were drawn, although a small table lamp let off
just enough light to see around the room by. A comfortable chair was by her
bedside, though it looked as though no one had sat in it for some time.
“How long has she been like this?” Adam asked quietly, looking up from Aurora
to her son, Ronan. He was unable to look away from his mother, memories of her
so alive and full of light and love dancing across his mind.
“Since dad died,” Ronan said, equally quiet, though there was no risk in waking
her. She slept on, peacefully.
“And she doesn’t … feeding isn’t a problem?” Adam had to ask. Sure, Ronan and
Gansey could go days without eating, but Niall Lynch had been dead for three
years now.
It was complicated, and Ronan didn’t have the words to explain. Different
explanations flitted through his mind, that she wasn’t exactly human, wasn’t
exactly a vampire - I thought you said half-vampires weren’t real? - Not that--
Ronan’s grip on Adam’s hand tightened just slightly. Fear began to bleed
through his consciousness. Fear so quickly turned to anger with Ronan, Adam
squeezed his hand in return. Resolve strengthening, Ronan nodded towards the
hallway, towards the stairs up to the bedrooms.
“... I think it’s better if I show you.”
Chapter End Notes
     So sorry for the late in the day posting for this! I decided on
     Wednesday that I hated absolutely everything I had written for this
     chapter so far so I kinda rewrote all of it... /cough
***** Ronan *****
Chapter Summary
     Ronan tells Adam one of the many secrets he's been keeping.
Chapter Notes
     Wooooo this was super delayed! I'm so sorry everyone who was reading
     - I had some sudden health issues that put me back significantly, and
     while I'm on the upswing and dealing with them it's probably going to
     make this move like molasses. On the BRIGHT SIDE I think I've only
     got about 2 or 3 chapters after this left? We'll say 3, though the
     last will probably be a small little epilogue. So we're not far off!
     Thank you for sticking with me this far!
Ronan knew there was a time before he lived with Niall and Aurora Lynch, but he
held no memory of it himself. He was just barely learning to talk when they
took him in. As far as Ronan Lynch was concerned, his life had always been at
the Barns, he had always had Aurora and Niall as parents.
The thing was, while Ronan had no memories of his own, he DID have faint
memories of his father’s. They’d already had Declan and traditionally the
Lynches took only one successfully turned child per generation. Oh, sure, they
boasted a complete success rate among the changed for survival, but that was
because they had time to watch and learn those they chose. Almost twenty years
was enough time to learn if someone wouldn’t be able to cope, or for them to
decide they didn’t want that future. That option was always open - mortal
family had its own usefulness. Especially in the days before a society built on
24-hour access. So while Niall and Aurora weren’t really looking for another
child, Aurora loved babies, and there was no harm in just the looking.
It was the flowers that caught Niall’s eye. Beautiful blue, shaped like tiny
stars, aglow with their own inner light. Nothing that existed in this world.
“Where did you get those?” He had asked the small Ronan, curious and friendly.
Ronan had just enough vocabulary to express that he’d gotten them from his
dreams.
He was one of many war orphans of the time, conveniently for Niall, and by the
end of the day he was Ronan Niall Lynch, and Niall’s favorite son.
===============================================================================
The sun was slowly but surely coming up, and while the room had light curtains
already covering the window they did little to keep the majority of the light
out. Ronan left Adam to get his shoes off and get mostly undressed while Ronan
found the darker, thicker curtains and hung them over the few windows in his
room to drop them into a more comforting darkness. Only once that had been
completed did he turn back to look at the other boy. To let himself admire how
it looked to have Adam on his childhood bed, dressed only in his threadbare t-
shirt and boxers. The bed was big enough for the both of them, if only barely.
They’d have to cuddle.
Adam raised a curious eyebrow. He could sense Ronan’s nervousness, but he did
his best to not follow that thread, to give Ronan what privacy he could. His
own fatigue was great, but he was struggling for wakefulness for Ronan.
“Get comfortable,” Ronan said with a sigh. His father had impressed in him that
this was not a secret to share, not with anyone, and so Ronan simply hadn’t.
Not with anyone who wasn’t a Lynch, not even with Gansey.
But Adam was kind of a Lynch now, and Adam deserved to know, and Ronan trusted
Adam. Of course, trusting Adam was never in question. When it came to his
secrets, it was a always matter of trusting himself.
As Adam pulled back the bed sheets and curled up under the comforter, Ronan
kicked off his boots and stripped off his clothing until he had nothing on,
squeezing into the bed and spooning against Adam’s back, arms tight around the
other boy. Silent reassurances, a request again for Adam to trust him, and
Ronan for the first time did what he had been avoiding these last two weeks. He
slept at the same time as Adam.
===============================================================================
Ronan had his suspicions but no proof this would work. Yet when he opened his
eyes to the branches of the forest overhead, the hood of his Chevy Bel Air
under his back, Ronan knew Adam was there too. He rolled off the hood and let
his feet hit the asphalt. He was ‘alive’, mostly. He looked like he did back
when he was alive. He reached into his mouth and felt along his flat and
perfectly human teeth. It happened sometimes, when he was feeling nostalgic
before he slept. He hadn’t been able to tell if there was a correlation between
an ability to pull things from his dreams and whether he was a vampire or a
human in them. The ground was a patchwork of asphalt and grass, the Chevy
parked on one of the only solid sections of concrete. Faint and faded white and
yellow paint was here and there barely visible under the wheels.
From the tree line there was movement, and Ronan first thought it might be
Orphan Girl, but no.
The question was whether it was the real Adam, or the Adam that Ronan saw in
his dreams all the time. He held cautiously still, waiting to see how Adam
would react. Warmth, or coldness? The Adam of his dreams had always been
unwilling to speak with him, disinterested in whatever Ronan had to offer,
impossible to impress.
This one smiled, and Ronan could feel the dreamy relaxation of the real Adam.
He was barefoot, but otherwise dressed normally. Where he stepped, flowers
grew. The same bright blue little stars. Behind Ronan, the Chevy shifted to a
Pontiac GTO.
“Totaled too?” Adam asked as he approached, reaching out to touch the chrome
edges of it, fingertips tracing the window. Ronan could swear he felt the touch
of Adam’s fingers against his skin.
“Yeah,” Ronan said quietly, though his voice was rough. “It lit on fire,
actually. Pretty dramatic.”
As Adam stood next to the Pontiac, the asphalt began to split and crack,
hairline fractures that allowed the grass and flowers and vines to creep up, to
climb the tires. The flowers were the same color as Adam’s eyes.
“This is a dream, isn’t it?” Adam asked, as if he just realized. He looked at
the car, at the trees, then finally at Ronan. Unafraid, he reached out to run a
hand through Ronan’s dark, curly hair.
“It is,” Ronan said agreeably, tilting his head against Adam’s hand to allow
Adam to touch whatever he wanted. He prefered his head shaved for many reasons,
but there was something darkly pleasurable about feeling Adam’s fingers
threading through his hair.
“You didn’t bring me here just to show off all the classic cars you totaled,
did you?”
The car shifted again, a Chevrolet once more but a Vega instead of a Bel Air.
“I didn’t,” Ronan admitted, though he still thought that would be a pretty
impressive seduction technique. Adam gave Ronan a withering look without any
actual anger to it. No, Ronan, he was already seduced, showing off your toys if
anything made him rethink that.
Ronan grinned. Adam had never called himself ‘seduced’ before.
He backed Adam against the car and Adam went easily, letting both his hands
find Ronan’s hair as their lips found each other. Ronan’s heart beat wildly in
his chest. Ronan didn’t occupy himself with what-ifs, it wasn’t in his nature
to wonder about a life he could have lead. Besides, whatever shitty things he
had to deal with had lead him to Adam Parrish here, with him.
Feeling absolutely electric, Adam between him and one of his many vehicles for
speed and freedom, Ronan felt like he could do anything.
“I can take things from my dreams,” he confessed. He felt too powerful here,
with Adam with him. His self-loathing was a distant thing, surely safe for
tonight if nothing else.
Adam’s look that he gave Ronan at that didn’t quite say ‘bullshit’, but there
was healthy skepticism there. Ronan was offended, even knowing that the
skepticism was as second nature to Adam as Ronan’s faith.
“Really?” Ronan scoffed, leaning in to nip at Adam’s neck, his ear, to drag
blunt teeth against his jaw. “After vampires and ghosts and magic fucking
forests - this is what makes you think I’m bullshitting you?”
“I don’t think you’re bullshitting me,” Adam protested, letting his hands fall
to Ronan’s shoulders, to touch and feel the leather of his jacket when it was
still new, not around half a century old. He breathed softly and easily,
tilting his neck back so Ronan could make the effort to kiss and bite and suck
a mark into it, because this was a dream and if Ronan willed it, it would be.
“It’s just that… vampires, ghosts, ‘magic fucking forests’, they aren’t very
different. Folklore that exists across generations and cultures. ‘Taking things
from dreams’ is less common folklore and more… I don’t know, Tor or Harper
Collins.”
“Here I thought you were going to say DC or Marvel,” Ronan grinned. Adam
matched the expression.
“You look more like ‘modern’ fantasy novel character from a book written in the
early 80’s than a superhero, but does this mean you’re offering to wear
spandex?”
Ronan laughed, a joyous caw of sound, pressing his face against Adam’s shoulder
and wrapping his arms around his waist to pull him close. Ronan had handfuls of
flowers, of vines, from growing on the Chevy behind them, from the way they
crawled onto Adam as well, desperate to be close to him. Ronan could empathize.
“Wake up,” Ronan whispered to Adam. “I want to show you something beautiful.”
===============================================================================
It was difficult for Adam to wake during the day, but Ronan had faith in Adam’s
stubborn determination. For his part, he awoke briefly paralyzed like he always
did, but for once no fear or anxiety came with it. Adam was a warm body against
his side, pressed close and comfortable. In the time they’d been asleep he’d
shifted around and now had an arm sprawled across Ronan’s chest, his hand
draped so casually across Ronan’s flank, fingertips brushing against Ronan’s
ribs.
The subtle sweetness of the scent of flowers hit him as Adam began to stir,
groggy, still tired, every part of his nature demanding he fall back asleep.
The bright light of day peeked out through a crack in the curtains, signaling a
sunny and cloudless sky. The perfect day on the cusp of summer.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph, Adam looked beautiful when he slept. The tension
present on him in wakefulness was all gone, and Ronan thought that if in the
eternity they now had he could bring that peace and relaxation to him in full
wakefulness his whole shitty life could be made worth it.
He came back into himself as Adam started pulling himself fully from sleep,
blinking slowly as he tried to focus on Ronan’s gaze.
The whole bed was littered with blossoms, with leaves. In Ronan’s hands, in
Adam’s hair, crushed under them and between them. Adam’s brow furrowed
slightly, pale eyebrows drawing together.
“... Are we still dreaming?” he asked quietly.
“Nah,” Ronan said, smiling. “I could pinch you to be sure, though.”
===============================================================================
Dreams were no place to hold up a conversation, and Adam was unable to stay
awake while the sun was in the sky. He drifted in and out of sleep, brief
wakefulness, and deeper sleep still. Sometimes he was conscious enough in
dreams to ask Ronan questions, but forgot as soon as he fell into deeper sleep.
The first time that happened, Ronan shifted the car back into the Chevy Bel Air
and popped the trunk. It contained half-remembered items from a lifetime away,
out of date textbooks, an extra shirt that was in style when Eisenhower was
president. A Kennedy button. What Ronan was looking for in particular, a
composition notebook and a stray pencil. He took both out to hand to Adam.
“Just write a question down if you have one and pass it to me. I can answer
them when you’re awake. Save us both some time.”
Adam flipped the notebook open and paged through it, eyebrows raising into his
hairline. Ronan had not considered checking if it was blank before handing it
over.
It had not been, apparently. Through Adam’s eyes he got to read some of the
more detailed fantasies he’d had about Adam in Latin class over the course of
their friendship. Adam quickly tucked the notebook behind him before Ronan
could snatch it back.
“And here I always thought you were making fun of me for not being as good as
you at it,” Adam said with no small amount of mirth, a mischievous smile on his
face. Even when Ronan had disliked Adam as the newest member of Gansey’s inner
circle, he had always found the other boy attractive.
Even before Gansey had become friends with Adam, Ronan had taken notice of him
in class. Had wanted him in ways that were distinctly unchristian.
Instead of taking the notebook back, Ronan dropped his hands to Adam’s hips and
pulled him closer to kiss him again.
It was one of the best days of sleep that Ronan had in longer than he could
remember. He was always cautious for the dark things at the edge of his
perception, but they stayed their claws and beaks for one day at least. He
would need to explain their danger to Adam eventually, but that could wait
until Adam was at least able to remember it. One thing at a time. Adam drifted
in and out of deeper sleep while Ronan drifted in and out of wakefulness. When
he was awake, he got to lay in bed with his arms around Adam and watch his
sleeping face. Ronan’s heart ached to return to his home permanently, to bring
Adam with him and have this every day.
He knew Adam wanted to leave - Henrietta in particular, as far away as he could
get, and Ronan didn’t begrudge him for it. You didn’t hate the birds for
migrating away during winter, you could only hold them in your memory and wait
for spring to bring them back again. His own heart was in Virginia, his bones
made from the soil of the land and his very soul from the mountains and fields
and God willing he would never leave it. Being twenty minutes drive away was
bad enough.
Adam didn’t wake in a frenzy like he had the night before, but then again Ronan
hadn’t opened a vein to wake him up either. He just kissed along Adam’s neck
and shoulders and jaw line and held him close until Adam groggily awoke with
the setting of the sun. He let out a breathless laugh when Ronan bumped his
hips back against Adam’s - pressing his erection against Adam’s ass, Adam’s
boxers the only thing between them.
“Do you even have any lube left?” Adam asked softly, hunger for blood battling
with his hunger for flesh as Ronan let a hand slide from around Adam’s waist
into his boxers to palm his cock awake. The laughter turned into a soft moan.
“If I do it’s all the way in my jacket,” Ronan groused. The jacket was tossed
carelessly over the back of the chair, well out of reach of his arm, which was
about as far as he was willing to reach. He’d clearly have shelve fucking Adam
into the mattress of his childhood bed for another day. Good thing there was
plenty they could do that didn’t involve that.
Ronan grinned, nipped softly at Adam’s neck, then ducked under the covers. Adam
barely had time to gasp out an “Oh!” before Ronan was between his spread
thighs, yanking his boxers down to take Adam into his mouth. It was a little
tricky, to keep his fangs behind his lips, but in that regard Ronan was a quick
study. Adam laughed again, hands going down to steady against Ronan’s
shoulders, to touch the back of his head - of course this Ronan dedicated study
time to. It was different than slacking off in class, though. This he actually
cared about.
Adam was so warm in his mouth, cock quickly thickening as Ronan sucked on it.
He varied up his pace to keep Adam unable to predict it even with the shared
connection, swallowing him down as deep as he could before pulling back again
to lick every inch that he couldn’t fit down his throat. Adam hadn’t been as
ready to go as Ronan first thing, but neither of them ever lasted terribly long
right after waking.
Still, there had been something Ronan wanted to try.
He didn’t give Adam time to notice what he was planning, did little planning
aside from letting the idea cross his mind before he shifted his grip on Adam’s
thighs to be under one, pushing it up against Adam’s chest and twisting the
blankets in the process before he was ducking his head down again to lick at
Adam’s hole.
“What are- oh!”
Surprise, the faintest trace of concern quickly overridden by pleasure all bled
through Adam’s mind as Ronan’s tongue stroked against his skin before squirming
inside of him. Adam turned his head to press his mouth against the pillow, and
while that did stifle the sounds that were escaping in spite of his best
efforts, Ronan never thought of Adam as quiet anymore. He might not make noise,
but his thoughts were never still, and they had become a riot of desire. Ronan
wanted to reach his hand down between his legs just to get some kind of
friction going, he was going to die just from feeling Adam’s need. He ignored
his own cock in favor of paying attention to Adam’s again, pulling back just
enough to slick up his own fingers with his tongue to get a better angle inside
of him, mouth returning to Adam’s cock while he fingered Adam to completion. He
knew Adam’s body inside and out now, and it took no time at all to find the
spot inside Adam that had him begging for Ronan. There was little better than
feeling Adam come apart around him, the little hiccupping gasps he let out when
he was actively trying to be quiet.
When Adam came, he swallowed, sucking on his softening cock until there was
nothing left, until Adam’s little pleasured whimpers started to edge on the
oversensitivity of pain.
From between Adam’s legs, Ronan smirked up at him as he watched Adam raise
himself onto his elbows. His hole was twitching, needy and slick from Ronan’s
tongue, and even oversensitive right after his orgasm, Ronan could feel how
badly Adam wanted Ronan’s cock inside of him.
So, rimming made Adam really ready for dick. That was good to know.
Adam scoffed, reaching down to grab Ronan’s arm to tug him upward, to kiss at
Ronan’s neck. His lust mostly sated, there was another hunger taking its place.
Adam rolled them over so Ronan was sprawled on his back on the bed and Adam was
sitting across his thighs.
It was easy, as Ronan had stripped entirely before going to bed. Adam leaned in
to nuzzle against Ronan’s neck, licking gently at the pale skin of his throat
as his hands slid down Ronan’s stomach to grasp at his cock. Ronan had been all
worked up by the time he started sucking Adam off, so he was already fully hard
in Adam’s calloused hands.
When Adam bit down on his neck and began to suck, it took every bit of self
control for Ronan to not come right then and there.
Adam wasn’t exactly made of muscle, he weighed comparatively little against
Ronan even though they were similar in height. It was still enough to keep him
pinned to the mattress, to keep him in place as Adam gently stroked and teased
at Ronan’s erection, fingertips giving barely there pressure that had to be
considered torture in several places. Just when Ronan thought he was close,
about to burst, Adam pulled back from both his neck and his dick.
Blue eyes dark, mouth rimmed with red, Ronan thought Adam never looked sexier.
Later on he’d be able to appreciate Adam gaining a quick control of himself, of
his hunger, being able to pull back like that. Right then, Ronan cursed it
until Adam took pity on him and ducked down again.
Ronan was right though, having his blood sucked had no impact on his ability to
orgasm. If anything, it made it happen sooner.
They laid in bed briefly, curled up against one another. Ronan kept nuzzling
against Adam’s neck, and even knowing they needed to leave soon to make it back
to Henrietta didn’t seem like the proper amount of urgency.
The sound of tires on gravel changed that.
Adam heard them at the same time, and they both sat up in the bed, alarmed.
Yes, tires on gravel, approaching the farmhouse. Ronan slid out of bed and went
to the window, pulling back the curtain just enough to catch a glimpse of
Declan’s car. He was suddenly terribly relieved that Adam had talked him into
hiding the BMW behind one of the barns after all, and hoped desperately that
Declan would not find it or them.
Under other circumstances he would have just confronted his brother and it
would have ended in a fistfight, but right there, right then - well, Ronan
didn’t even have pants on… and he didn’t want to get Adam in more trouble by
association.
Silently he returned to the bed, making a shushing motion as he sat down next
to Adam. Neither breathed nor spoke, they needed neither. In the silence Adam
asked Ronan how long Declan was normally here for, but Ronan honestly didn’t
know. It wasn’t like their mother needed any real care.
The slam of Declan’s car door sounded like a gunshot, although his steps were
only barely audible on the wood of the floor as he walked through the
farmhouse. The two upstairs could track his movements, still and patient.
Through the kitchen, into the sitting room where he stood for a while. Each
minute was an eternity before Declan moved along. Towards the staircase. Adam’s
hand went out to grip Ronan’s arm and hold it tight enough that bruises formed
and healed instantly, but Ronan did not make a sound. Concern kept rolling
through Adam’s consciousness, plans for how to act should they be discovered
flashing by too quickly for Ronan to understand or track, every possible need
accounted for.
Declan’s steps moved passed the stairway, through the hall, out the back door.
Ronan swallowed, barely.
All in all Declan was there for less than fifteen minutes, though it felt like
so much longer as they waited for him to move, to leave. He paused only once,
back in the driveway, Ronan once more sneaking a glance out the window to see
Declan stop right by his car and stare off towards the barn Ronan had the BMW
parked behind. Facing away, Declan’s expression was unreadable.
He opened the door of his car and got in, driving away.
“Thank fuck,” Ronan hissed, quickly grabbing for his clothing. He’d remained
undressed the whole time, not wanting to step on one of the more creaking
floorboards and give them away.
“We need to wait before we leave. Just in case. Give it like … ten minutes, at
least,” Adam warned. Ronan wanted to think he was being paranoid, but that
paranoia had already saved Ronan’s hide once so he figured he owed Adam that.
Once they dressed they went back downstairs, diverting into the sitting room
before they left so Ronan could say goodbye to his mother. He had told Adam, in
the quiet of dreams, about her. About what Ronan knew, anyway. A vampire yes,
but like none that existed in the world. A queen from another land far away
from here, seen only in dreams, brought to this world by Niall Lynch the love
of her life. Without him, this was what she was, sleeping eternally. It was the
fate of all dream creations that were alive, when the dreamer died. Her true
love was gone, there was no one to kiss her awake anymore.
Ronan reached out to squeeze his mother’s hand, gently, murmuring a ‘Bye, Mom’.
Adam noticed the chair had been moved just a bit and wondered if Declan had
done the same.
As the last of the sunlight faded from the sky above Singer Falls, the two were
back on the road to Henrietta once more, hopefully to find some answers about
the whispers in the trees of Cabeswater, and what they meant to Adam in
particular.
Neither were sure of what they were going to do with an answer. Neither were
sure of what they could do without one.
At least they had each other, no matter what came.
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