The Vanishing by Karla Nikole

Four

My timing is shit.Nino’s heart is racing. He’s been wondering about this for months, the topic nagging and clinging to the edges of his consciousness. He’s always stifled the urge, knowing how much Haruka dislikes talking about his first mate.

Yet here it is. Awkward and spilling out over their anniversary dinner.

“Yuna did not want children,” Haruka says, his eyes unblinking. Nothing more.

“So… that’s it?” Nino asks. “End of story? The two of you never tried…”

Haruka takes a visible breath, his gaze shifting toward the patio doors of the courtyard. “We did. She became pregnant once, but eventually lost the child. We did not try again.”

Dammit. Nino feels like he’s been punched in the chest. His throat is tight. “I—I’m so sorry…”

Haruka nods. “It is not something I like to think about.”

In Nino’s mind, the next natural question is whether or not Haruka still wants children. Does he want a big family? Should they seek assistance to try to have kids themselves someday? But Nino can’t answer these questions himself. He doesn’t know what he wants, only having recently contemplated the topic.

He still feels like an adolescent in some ways. He can’t imagine being responsible for the lives of young vampires—teaching and guiding them between their ancient culture and the complexities of modern society. He’s still figuring it out for himself.

Picking up his wine glass, Haruka brings it to his lips, then tilts his head back to drain its contents. When he’s finished, he pushes up from the table. Panicked, Nino stands, blocking his path.

Haruka frowns. “What are you doing?”

“What are you doing?”

“I am getting more wine.”

They’re frozen in silence. Just as Haruka moves around him, Nino acts on impulse. He steps into him and crouches down. In a swift motion, he chops his arm at the back of Haruka’s knees, making them buckle so that he can sweep him up and cradle the bulk of him against his body.

Haruka’s eyes widen from the surprise attack. He squirms. “N—Nino, put me down.”

“I shall carry his grace to the counter—”

“Stop.”

Laughing, Nino places his flustered mate back on his feet. “His lordship doth protest—it amazes me that we’re the same height but you’re not heavy to me at all.”

“Please do not do that.”

“Why?” Nino frowns. “You let me pick you up when we’re having sex?”

“That—that is different.”

“How so?”

“There is context,” Haruka says, avoiding Nino’s gaze as he tries to move past him. Nino steps into him again, scrunching his nose.

“So I can only pick you up if I’m sliding my cock—”

Gasping with wide burgundy eyes, Haruka reaches up and pinches Nino’s mouth shut with his fingers. Nino breathes a muffled laugh. Haruka laughs as well, bringing his free hand up to cover his flushed face.

Nino grabs his wrist, pulling Haruka’s fingers away. “Seriously, Haru? Nobody else is here but us—even Asao and his supersonic hearing are gone for the night. Why do you get embarrassed like this whenever I try to talk about our sex life? We talk about everything else.”

“Because discussing it is redundant.” Haruka breathes out, running his palm over the top of his smooth black head. “I am there. I know what we do.”

Stepping even closer into him, Nino squares his hips and presses Haruka’s backside into the table. He rests his hands against Haruka’s waist, then leans in and kisses the sexy little mole just off the center of his nose. “The lord of the manor just isn’t accustomed to someone talking dirty to him. It could be fun… You can tell me what you like?”

Haruka shakes his head, grinning. “You know what I like based on my reaction… and I do not know those words in English.”

“Lies. You can say them in Japanese?”

He pauses, his eyes shifting to the side. “Those words don’t exist in Japanese.”

They both laugh. “Stubborn,” Nino chides. “Alright, I give up for now. I’ll ignore the fact that you know about fifteen other languages, and that those words definitely exist in Japanese.”

Haruka leans into his mouth and Nino drops his jaw, letting their tongues touch and slide, tasting each other like two lovers reacquainting themselves. Haruka’s mouth is always a few degrees cooler than his own and with a hint of fresh roses. The sensation reminds Nino of spring—a rainy day when the air is crisp and sweet. How can a kiss create such vivid imagery in his mind? The feeling like being swathed in a dreamlike haze—an entirely new setting where he’s sheltered and deeply loved. He’s never experienced anything like this until Haruka.

The kiss is fierce. When Nino tilts his head, Haruka pushes back, meeting his intensity. Just before breaking the affection, Haruka grips Nino’s hair in a fist and pulls his head to the side. He leans down, lips brushing along the concave of his neck. Nino tightens his arms around his waist and Haruka bites down into the left side of his neck and pulls.

Nino groans, exhaling from the familiar heat rushing down his belly and settling in his groin. Haruka never feeds from the opposite side, careful to avoid the permanent scars at the curve of Nino’s shoulder. The wounds are old but forever tender from abuse Nino experienced as a child.

Haruka sucks hard at Nino’s flesh, his sharp fangs sinking further into his neck. Nino closes his eyes from the sheer euphoria of the intimacy. Haruka always pours the most elegant thoughts into him whenever he feeds. It feels like poetry: love and passion flowing in profound verse and expression.

He sucks harder and Nino’s eyes flash open. Burning. His nature deep at the base of his core shifts, wanting to release. To submit to Haruka’s will. Nino closes his eyes and exhales a breath, allowing Haruka to take it from him.

The heated rush of Nino’s aura releasing is like an effervescent wind racing and swirling up his spine, then wildly dispersing from every pore of his body. It radiates in a blazing glow of deep orange light. The sensation is incredible, as if Nino’s insides are being set free and entrusted to his mate. Sometimes, Nino physically orgasms when Haruka does this, depending on where he feeds. Now, Nino keeps his body in control, his mind recalibrating from the pleasure and focusing.

The moment Haruka pulls up from feeding, Nino bends to wrap his hands behind his mate’s thighs. He lifts and urges him to sit against the table, their dinner dishes clattering and shifting aside.

His burning gaze is focused while he unfastens Haruka’s pants, but then Nino flickers his eyes up. “This context is appropriate for me to pick you up, yes?”

Haruka laughs in his deep, throaty way. When his pants are undone, he lifts himself. Nino makes quick work of guiding everything around the curve of his firm ass, then down the length of his long legs. He tosses Haruka’s clothing to the floor.

Sitting half naked in the moonlight and framed by flickering black candles, Haruka looks like something out of Nino’s wildest dreams. Maybe Nino isn’t even creative enough to dream of someone so seductive and otherworldly. He’s always thought of his mate as beautiful. Sophisticated. But with this long and heavy hair, he isn’t even like a vampire. He seems like something from a different species altogether.

Nino grabs the hem of Haruka’s sweater and guides it up his body. His mate is obedient in lifting his arms, allowing him to remove it. He unbuttons Haruka’s dress shirt, selfish in wanting to see all of him before indulging in his body.

Haruka’s deep voice cuts through the silence. “Have I become il secondo?”

They both laugh as Nino finishes his task and separates the material of Haruka’s shirt. He smiles. “Cheesy.” Reaching up behind Haruka’s head, he dismantles the tie holding his heavy bun. He drags it forward, letting his hair unfurl thick and wavy like liquid onyx against his creamy almond skin.

“My love, do you prefer my hair this way?” Haruka asks quietly. “If… you like this, I will not cut it.”

Nino pulls a chair up from behind, situating himself in front of Haruka’s gaped thighs. He wraps his fingers around the backs of his knees, urging him forward as he meets Haruka’s gaze. “Tesoro, I don’t care what your hair looks like. You are what I prefer. I just want you to be free.”

Haruka’s irises morph, gradually shimmering in vivid sunset orange. The heady scent of his rosy aura radiates from his lean body. He’s opening himself. Letting his true nature breathe and expand. He’s not as restrained as he used to be (the way he was in the very early days of their relationship), but it still takes a minute for Haruka to relax. They’re getting there.

Smiling, Nino bends down, softly kissing the tops of his creamy thighs. Haruka squirms as he moves higher, but Nino shifts his head up and leans forward, playful in kissing and licking his tight belly.

Nino grasps the back of his knees again, and Haruka inhales when Nino pulls him even closer, resting one of his bent legs on top of Nino’s shoulder. He kisses and nips the inside of Haruka’s thigh, feeling his mate’s body shiver with need. Nino glances up at him, and Haruka’s glowing eyes are desperate, his exposed chest heaving as he laces his fingers into Nino’s hair. He isn’t always capable of breaking through Haruka’s composed façade, but in these moments when he’s successful, it gives Nino a sublime high and confidence like he’s never known.

He takes Haruka’s hard shaft in his fingertips, then dips to lap his tongue against the tip. Haruka sucks in a shaky breath, eyes clenched shut.

“You taste so good, Haru…” Nino shifts, gripping his mate’s hardness with one hand, then using the other to slip deeper between his legs. He teases and strokes the softness of Haruka’s opening with his fingertips.

Haruka tenses, arching his neck. The wild length of his hair falls back behind his shoulders. “God help me—”

“Tell me what you want, tesoro,” Nino says. He flicks his tongue against the wetness of him again to taste. Incredible. “Should I put your cock in my mouth?”

He looks up at Haruka, waiting as he continues caressing and playing, enticing him with his fingers. Haruka finally looks down, his Adam’s apple bouncing in his throat from swallowing. He takes a visible breath. “Please.”

Nino smiles, then bends and takes the length of him into his mouth, slow and smooth. Haruka groans in a throaty sound as Nino works, running his tongue along his ridges—greedy in consuming him. Within minutes, his mate cries out and shivers in ecstasy, deliciously spilling over from Nino’s seductive actions.

Haruka’s body is trembling when Nino finally lifts his head—dragging his tongue and licking, making sure nothing is wasted. He stands up from the chair, but Haruka surprises him when he grips Nino’s pants at his waist. His long fingers are aggressive, unbuckling and unfastening with urgency. Nino smirks, leaning forward to press their foreheads together. “Was there something else I could help you with?”

“Take off your pants,” Haruka whispers, his breathing ragged.

Compliant, Nino does as requested. Before he can shift his pants and underwear past his knees, Haruka clutches his shirt and tugs Nino back down to sit in the chair. His mate looks wild as he stands from the table, then steps forward and straddles his thighs. As soon as he rests his weight against Nino’s lap, Haruka takes his mouth. The passion behind the kiss makes Nino’s heart beat like a drum in his chest.

When Nino pulls away, it’s like coming up for air after being swept deep into the undercurrents of the ocean. He swallows, unable to catch his breath. “There’s olive oil behind you.”

Haruka looks back, then leans and grabs the deep green bottle from the table before opening it. Once his fingers are slick, he reaches down and wraps them around Nino’s stiff length in between them. Nino sighs, the warmth of climax already pulsing within him from Haruka’s weight and touch.

“What do you want me to do to you?” Nino smiles, lazy. Haruka’s fingers are marvelous as they stroke and move—talented, as if he’s playing an instrument. His scent is making Nino’s head fuzzy, like he’s had one too many drinks.

With his dark eyebrow lifted, he takes Nino’s hand and guides it behind his back and toward his naked ass. “You know what I want.”

Using the slick residue from Haruka’s hand, Nino slowly presses his finger inside him. Haruka shifts in pleasure and Nino can feel the tight, warm canal of his mate’s body flexing and yielding to him. Nino bites his lip, breathless. “It would be nice if you told me… openly.”

He drags his finger out, careful as he switches and presses two fingers inside, making Haruka arch and groan as he pulses them deeper. When Haruka brings his head down, his irises are bright sunset. He takes hold of Nino’s chin so that their eyes meet. “Enough talking.” He places a quick peck on his lips before shifting up and away from his fingers. Gripping Nino’s shaft, Haruka guides himself down to meet and gradually take in his length.

When they’re connected, there is no more talking. Or thinking. There’s just the two of them and their innate need to be entwined. For their natures and bodies to exist as one. Haruka rolls and rocks his hips while Nino grips him, his fingers digging into his flesh. Within moments, they have both ascended to something that feels like paradise.