WHO Nandor & Guillermo WHERE Heirloom Sphere, safe room. WHEN Night of day three or four? Before their supplies went missing. WHAT Nandor hasn’t fed in a while and is hungry, but Guillmero is the thirsty one~ STATUS Complete! WARNINGS There is vampire feeding here but it’s not explicit or over the top. Just a nibble, and completely consensual.
Nandor didn't need to eat every day, but the longer he went without blood, the weaker he got. His mood wasn't particularly cuddly either. He was at least grateful he'd started carrying his homeland's dirt on his person, or he'd have been a basketcase by now. Day four had just started and so far the only viable food option that wasn't suspicious was still Guillermo, which.
Well.
There were many reasons why he didn't want to feed on Guillermo. They were in the pile of reasons he still hadn't turned Guillermo. They weren't entirely selfish. There was always the chance he wouldn't be strong enough to stop. He could smell Guillermo's blood from across the safe room as he paced back and forth with dramatic flares of his cape.
"If I don't eat soon, I will not be able to hypnotize or turn into a bat," he grumbled petulantly. Holding up his hand, he examined it and then pressed his fingers against his face. "Do I look paler than normal, Guillermo? I am wasting away."
Guillermo had been watching Nandor for a while, concerned. Usually at home the worst case scenario was having to slum it for a meal if he couldn’t find something to their particular tastes, but New York was so varied it was shockingly easy to find someone. Here all they’d really seen was a friendly feywild creature and uh, constructs? Enchanted books?
Nothing helpful in that regard. The longer they went, the tricker it got. He’d been gifted goodberries and some extra rations, which helped sate his own hunger and left him with extras in case something went wrong, but he knew it was only a matter of time before it would just get worse for Nandor.
“Uh, a little? It’s kind of hard to tell when everything is by candlelight.” Another stupid thing for his stupid brain to fixate on. Guillermo frowned. “I’ve heard these things can last up to two weeks, sometimes a little less, but-- yeah. We’re going to have to figure something out.”
Nandor continued to pout and pace. His gaze had drifted to Guillermo more and more often lately, but now he was actively trying not to look. He was reminded of the vampires that visited their home in the Island of Staten and how they would pester him as to why he did not feed on his familiar. Now Guillermo was something else and it felt even more dangerous.
"There was a time when I had to feed on rats, but ugh. I can still taste it now," he grimaced. He threw himself onto a bedroll and draped an arm over his face. The fabric of his sleeve muffled his complaining, but not the dramatic nature of his whine. "You need to stop smelling like a five-star dinner, Guillermo! Stay on the other side of the room, please!"
“I didn’t move, Ma- Nandor.” Guillermo course-corrected as he’d done a million times, but his face flushed at the way that Nandor described him as a “five-star dinner”. It was likely just due to the fact that he was hangry, but it still gave Guillermo a pleasant thrill down the spine of his back to be talked about like that.
He could be pushy, he knew that. It wasn’t the first time he’d offered this, not even the hundredth time if they were counting the instances he’d asked Nandor to turn him. So Guillermo shifted a little - closer, because he was taking a chance - and stared his former-master down. “My crossbow is only going to get us so far. You’re more of a liability when you get hungry like this, you could feed from me now. That’ll give me time to rest and replenish for tomorrow, I won’t feel weak out there.”
Nandor didn’t need to peek out from under his sleeve to know Guillermo moved closer; he could hear the slight uptick in his heartbeat get louder. He hissed quietly under his breath. He was not a creature of self-denial. But Guillermo was important to him. It was becoming increasingly – and annoyingly – obvious exactly how important Guillermo was to him.
“You don’t understand. I have been drinking people dry for seven hundred years and I have only just started sparing their lives instead. And you! I don’t…” Nandor sighed and sat up, slumping against the wall behind him. Guillermo’s blood had always smelled particularly inviting. Nandor had assumed it was just the smell of virgin blood. Now, he could also add the draw of vampire hunter. Equal. He’d never drunk from someone he considered a vital part of his life.
“I don’t know if I can trust myself with your blood, Guillermo.” It was the most serious, the most quietly genuine he had ever sounded.
That made Guillermo flush even deeper. It should’ve been a deterrent, something that made him shy away and brush it off, change the subject. Instead, he was into it, leaning into the idea that some part of him was irresistible to Nandor. Some part of him was wanted. Maybe it wasn’t for the right reasons but he moved forward a little more anyway.
“You think I can’t stop you?” Guillermo reached up and pulled on the cross that was hanging from a delicate chain around his neck. He pulled it off and shoved it into a pocket, out of sight but not out of mind, or reach. “I can make you stop, I promise. I want--” He wasn’t sure if the tactic of what he wanted was going to work, so Guillermo shifted gears. “I don’t want you to suffer.”
Nandor watched Guillermo with wide round eyes. He winced when the cross came out, a little bit of steam rising from under his collar, but then it was gone and he was back to staring. He would’ve liked to pretend he’d have been better at handling this situation if he wasn’t hungry and trapped. But he wasn’t entirely sure that was true. Guillermo had a way of bossing him around that he maybe went along with a little too easily. It wasn’t his fault he liked to be told what to do!
It wasn’t his fault that Guillermo smelled delicious either. Or that the threat of Guillermo having to stop him was just as enticing as the strip of Guillermo’s throat on display.
“I have gone longer,” he admitted. It didn’t stop him from leaning closer. His fangs grazed his bottom lip. “You have to be sure, Guillermo! I will not turn you here, like this. I would just be using you for food.” He was very close to Guillermo’s neck now, and sounded far gone already.
Guillermo was getting warm, most likely due to Nandor’s gaze and just the whole situation in general. His blood was pumping extra from excitement or adrenaline, he wasn’t sure exactly where they fell on that line. But there was no fear, and no worry. He trusted Nandor, and he trusted himself.
So he popped open a few more buttons on his shirt. Maybe he should’ve removed it entirely, he’d seen more than his fair share of messy feedings but-- something told him this wasn’t like that. “I’m sure. I’m positive. What if the next room we end up in, it’s something we need you at your peak for? What if it requires a bat transformation and you can’t do it because you’re too weak?”
Maybe he was reaching now, but Guillmero scooted right next to Nandor now, and tilted his neck. It was just a bare whisper on his lips when he leaned in without hesitation, “Go ahead.”
"I suppose you're right…" Truthfully, Nandor didn't really need all that much encouragement. He was hungry and Guillermo was a buffet. A dangerous buffet. Ah well, Nandor was hardly going to refuse under these trying circumstances. He did pause, with his fangs brushing Guillermo's neck, but it was more about a moment of regret these were not more romantic circumstances. He could have made this better for Guillermo. With that thought in mind, he pressed a hand to the other side of Guillermo's throat and caressed soothingly there with his thumb.
"You are not allowed to regret this, vampire hunter," he murmured, both teasing and a little vulnerable. Biting down, he closed his eyes and focused on getting just enough blood to satisfy his thirst. It was a test of self-control. It was a test he was almost immediately tempted to fail with the delirious rush that coursed through him and he pulled Guillermo closer, too tightly, before he caught himself and withdrew. He muttered something feelingly in his mother language, by instinct alone. He'd forgotten what it even meant in all these many centuries.
Anything Guillermo might’ve replied with died on his lips as his head tilted back even further and he practically melted into Nandor. This was far more than any simple feeding, as Guillmero felt his body respond to the touch with the same edge of excitement he’d expected. He’d waited so long for this, and even if Nandor was already promising he wouldn’t be turned…
Well, he could close his eyes and pretend, couldn’t he? There was no harm in that, as things got a little foggier, a little harder to pull away. It was easy to forget he was supposed to be the one telling Nandor to stop, when he’d fed too much.
But instead of reaching into his pocket to pull out the crucifix, he instead gave an moan that would’ve embarrassed him if he’d been more alert, and fisted his hands to Nandor’s shirt to keep him in place.
Leaving Nandor to be the responsible one was terrible. He wasn't incapable, he just hated it. Nobody liked the vampire who swept out onto the lawn and said stop fighting where the human neighbors can see. But for Guillermo's sake, he swallowed the need to get as close to him as possible and instead jerked away with a groan and moved to the other side of the room with supernatural speed.
The sound Guillermo had made was still ricocheting through Nandor's thoughts. He ignored it in favor of straightening his back and adjusting his clothes.
"Yes, well! Thank you, Guillermo. You have done me a great service and we should never speak of it again!" He knew that was unlikely and that this would probably just reignite Guillermo's requests to be turned, but he was not above turning into a bat and hanging in the corner of the room if he must.
“Oh.” His head felt light, but that was probably the blood loss. His heart felt light, too, but that-- was also probably the blood loss. Maybe a little of the other emotions churning around in his stomach but it was more and more difficult to focus on those right now. “You’re welcome?”
But what if he wanted to speak of it again. It was a weird high that couldn’t be achieved from mere drugs, just the euphoric feeling that washed over him. His hand came up to touch the wound on his neck, blood just lightly dripping thanks to Nandor’s careful bite. Tomorrow, he’d be embarrassed he didn’t have it all together, for now he felt both energized and tired and unable to do anything about one of them.
Guillermo finally nodded and blinked at Nandor’s figure that seemed too far away. “Okay. I think I should probably get a little sleep now? I’m uh- tired.” He managed to reach out for a nearby white bandage to put on his neck before laying out on Nandor’s bed, woozy.
Nandor’s resolve to stay on the other side of the room didn’t last very long. Guillermo looked pale and weak. Huffing a breath through his nose, Nandor quickly crouched down beside the bed and replaced Guillermo’s hand on the bandage with his own.
“Rest. I will…see to this.” He was in control now physically, even if his emotions were still all over the place. He dabbed at Guillermo’s neck and cautiously stroked his free hand back through Guillermo’s hair. Being soothing was the least he could do! “We will find you some food when you wake.”
“Okay.” Guillermo still sounded sleepy, but his hand grazed Nandor’s and pain felt further away the closer he got. He blinked up at Nandor and then gave a small little smile as he snuggled in and closed his eyes, “Thank you.”