Chapter 9: Chapter 9: Settling in, part 4.

An ancient voice rumbled in Nikola's mind, unwanted and without permission:

Let him drink from you and repeat after me…

Azazel! Long time no…well, it's still no see so, I suppose. No, hear? Just what is it that you want to accomplish here? He can't steal my immortality. If it were possible, you would have taken it away five centuries ago when I banished you from the island because of your debauchery.

Azazel grumbled and Nikola enjoyed this little victory. Of all the angels, Azazel was his least favorite.

I was pumping out more soldiers for you, you ungrateful whore. Now do as I ask or when I get out…

And when will that be, hm? During the end times?

Azazel screamed his frustration and Wei Caihong winced, proving that he had been listening in. Nikola huffed and raised his hands in the air.

Fine. Let's get this over with. But I won't be babysitting your Lamia. Nor will I move from here once the village folk tear him limb from limb after one too many young maidens disappear. Now, what's the chant?

Ode to the night mother, she who suffers…

Nikola repeated it and begun to undress himself so that his shoulders were bare for Wei Caihong. He stopped his chanting to look at him with a sneer on his face.

"Well? I am supposed to chant as you bite me. So, go ahead and bite."

Wei Caihong fell to his knees and gripped Nikola's shoulders feverishly. He gulped as Nikola resumed his chanting undisturbed, and then lowered himself, so he could plant a kiss at the crook of Nikola's neck.

Nikola's hand shot up in response, and he gripped Wei Caihong's hair, forcing his face down, his mouth pressed firmly to the creamy skin.

Bite, you fool!

Azazel screamed in Wei Caihong's mind. The noble felt fear for the first time. Nikola's grip became painful in his hair, and a heat spread all over Wei Caihong's body.

A clear threat. Bite or die. Wei Caihong opened his mouth and sunk his teeth into the skin below, making his choice and sealing his fate.

"Accept this sacrifice, willingly made, into your embrace! For this night and all the nights to come!" Nikola finished, and he noticed that he no longer had to hold Wei Caihong close to himself.

The man was gripping him desperately and drinking from him. His teeth had become sharper and now Nikola felt two fangs in his skin where before there had only been canines.

The change is complete. Said Azazel smugly into his mind.

Nikola rolled his eyes.

I can see that. Why do you need a Lamia for?

He was answered with silence, and Nikola cursed the angel in his mind. Then he tugged at Wei Caihong's hair and tried to get him off himself, but the newly made vampire wasn't letting him go.

"Ok, enough now. Let me go already and go, ah…" Wei Caihong moved their bodies so that he was now laying on top of Nikola. Nikola tried to push him away, for he was still a warrior and in a good shape but found that the noble was far stronger than before.

So, he resorted to magic, heating the blood in Wei Caihong's veins, and watching in amusement as the man tore his fangs out of him and screamed in agony.

Nikola was still laying on his back, however. To anyone walking in, this would look lewd. He scrunched up his nose at that thought.

Wei Caihong's eyes were a deeper shade of brown and in the candlelight, they looked almost crimson now, the gold flakes completely gone. The man lowered himself so that his lips were inches away from Nikola.

"My Emerald," he began and when Nikola tried to push himself up, Wei Caihong's hands moved to keep him down. "I lied to you about our future together. It's true. But there is still so much more I need to learn from you. Will you teach me and… WHAT?"

Nikola stared at Wei Caihong and propped himself up slightly despite the hands trying to keep him down.

"You…you…demons!" The noble screamed again, and Nikola smirked at him. So, this was a trap after all.

"What is Azazel telling you?" Nikola didn't really care all that much. But seeing Wei Caihong so bothered brought him a cruel sense of satisfaction.

"He says that sunlight and fire can kill me! That anyone can just come and behead me! You both tricked me!"

Nikola's lips twitched. Good old Azazel playing with mortals. What else was new?

"I tried to warn you. I told you of the original Lamia, remember? And Azazel is more of a demon than angel these days. But you probably knew that already."

"And you?" An accusing finger was pressed to Nikola's naked chest. "What's your excuse for not stopping this?"

Nikola just smiled and winked.

"I'm no saint, my Ebony," he said, mocking Wei Caihong with false affection the same way he had been mocked.

The vampire was on him in that instant and no matter how much magic Nikola pumped into his spell he still couldn't shake him off. Finally, Wei Caihong screamed when his skin turned red as a crab's, and he dug his fangs inside Nikola's skin again.

"Do you wish to die?" Nikola didn't mind that there was blood dripping down Wei Caihong's jaw and into his outer robes.

He had others at home. He could spare a set.

"Or do you want to get even with Azazel for tricking you? Because if you simply die now, he will gloat about it for days. I know. He gloated when I tried to throw myself into a volcano during the first days of my immortality. After my little sister died giving birth to Samyaza's unholy spawn."

The fangs were slowly removed from Nikola's skin, and he placed a hand over Wei Caihong's hair, petting it gently.

"We can help each other. I can help you with your little sunlight problem. Not much I can do about decapitation, though. In exchange, you will help me get Penemue out of the Abyss."

Blood was dripping down Wei Caihong's mouth, and yet even that had its allure. Nikola leaned in so that their noses pressed together. The noble closed his eyes, holding on to Nikola for dear life.

"My Emerald," he whispered finally, then he leaned the rest of the way in so that their lips were touching. "It seems we won't have our fire dance, after all. But can we have one without a candle?"

Nikola searched the features of the man in front of him. The man to whom Penemue had given him. If Penemue wanted to see how it felt like to wear horns, then Nikola could oblige. At least he wasn't doing it with one of the angel's brothers.

I always knew you were a whore. Came from Azazel. Had I known you were so inclined to have a little vengeance on my dear brother, I would have offered myself.

Shut up, Azazel.

Nikola looked at Wei Caihong expectantly, and he ran his fingers over the man's earlobe.

"Turn off the connection to the Abyss and let us find somewhere dark for the dance."

Wei Caihong looked like he was about to throw a tantrum. He kissed Nikola forcefully and received a spell as a warning. Still, when the kiss eased up on its intensity, Nikola returned it.

"I want Penemue to hear when I make you mine, my Emerald."

Nikola griped his new plaything's hair in warning and angled his head so that he could whisper in his ear.

"But that means having to listen to Azazel's filth the whole night. And to the rest of them moaning in pain. Is it really worth it, my Ebony?"

Azazel begun to say something, but he was instantly cut off. Nikola smiled and let himself be swept off his feet and carried.

"It's really not, my Emerald," Wei Caihong said, and Nikola muttered a quick incantation to heal all the man's internal damage. He needed him healthy for what they were about to do.

"Now that we get along," begun the noble uncertainly. "Can I also ask you to feed me your blood every time I require it? So that the villagers don't tear me limb from limb?"

Wei Caihong opened a great decorated door with a tiger engraved on it. Nikola looked as if he were considering it, but he knew he wasn't going to leave the vampire to his fate.

At least not until Penemue was out of the Abyss.

"Make me scream tonight, and I'll consider it," Nikola was placed on a bed. And wasn't it a pleasant surprise that the noble even had one? And then his legs were being lifted, and his robes were being opened, and he was wrapping his legs around a cursed being of the night and closing his eyes.

In his mind he replaced brown eyes with blue, and he dug up the memory of soft curls tickling his naked skin, moaning Penemue's name.

Wei Caihong's hands stilled in their mapping of Nikola's skin for just a moment, and then they resumed with more urgency.

Nikola pitied him. Maybe, before Penemue had claimed him, this man could have made him happy.

How was Nikola supposed to be satisfied with a lit candle surrounded in darkness, when he had bathed in the warm rays of the sun for centuries?