*Interlude(of what I can’t be sure)

The second floor of the Rexinum’emi Grandemat, or Lord’s Mannor, was restricted to the select few he favored, and his business associates. This particular bedroom, however, he’d been saving for a certain special someone. Unfortunately, right now, it was being occupied, not by her, but her twin brother. Velisian prowled the edges of the room, mind running rapidly through different courses of action.

Orpheus had his sister’s hair, that beautiful burnt auburn that only showed it’s red highlights under just the right light. The room had been designed for her, so the lights plucked each splash of ruby and gave it the ripeness of a pomegranate, about to burst. Velisian licked his lips.

With the exception of Atlanta and very few others, women were not to his liking, and there was a certain appeal to holding her male copy prisoner here. He knelt in the center of a wide round bed, his wrists locked in heavy chains and stretched high above his head. The thick muscles of his broad chest and stomach pulled taut from the strain, and a slight sheen of sweat had broken out on his brow. It was the only outward sign of discomfort on the young man’s handsome features.

In the pale green of his eyes, lurked a seething hatred that said as surely as Velisian stood there, I’ll kill you if I can.

But in an uncharacteristic show of mercy, Velisian hadn’t given him over to his favored underlings. It would have been men for this one, because that was Orpheus’ liking, and by nature Velisian enjoyed turning pleasure to pain. All the better if Orpheus could never make love to another man without remembering.

But he had to tread carefully here. Velisian wasn’t ready to test the toll such abuse would take on his sister, who already, no doubt, knew where to find him. He didn’t want to inadvertently damage, Atlanta emotionally. No. Everything he did to her would be very deliberate. So what to do with the boy?

Orpheus had never been fond of casual nudity. In fact, the only people who had ever seen him nude until tonight were his mother and father, the doctor who delivered him, and his sparse lovers. That was it. But now he was stretched out for this…this…vampire’s eyes and he couldn’t fight the rage it built in him.

Atlanta had spoken of Velisian fairly often lately. It seemed the vampire held some sort of fascination for her, but the look in his eyes said clearly that his tastes ran more to men than women, if he favored female companionship at all. Orpheus had been openly gay since he was fourteen, and because of his family and upbringing, he’d never let anyone make him feel badly about it.

The way Velisian eyed him now, like a tasty piece of meat, as he slowly paced the edges of the room, made him feel dirty. He’d kill the sonofabitch the moment a chance arose, and so he waited patiently, though the silence fed the tension in his muscles.

As if the rexinum had heard his thoughts, he spoke.

"So, Orpheus, tell me," he purred, "Will your sister be angry if I touch you?"

"Don’t even fucking think about it!" Orpheus snapped. His hunter’s pride stung and his own helplessness in that moment weighed down on him. Velisian approached him slowly, looking strangely serpentine and almost feminine at the same time.

His pale blond hair, was pulled back into a half ponytail, keeping it off his startling face. His skin held the pale alabaster smoothness of the oldest ones, but Orpheus could barely make it out beneath the splash of glitter across his cheeks, and the thick charcoal that lined his pale blue eyes. His lips were full and glossy pink, with that "freshly licked" look to them. Brian, his boyfriend, had bought lip gloss just like it for himself. The memory of coming home to find his lawyer lover in nothing but that lip gloss stirred something low in Orpheus’ gut.

Velisian felt more than he saw the stirring of sexuality within the restrained man. His eyes flickered down Orpheus’ body to the beginning swell. "What a shame. I highly doubt this is for me?" But as he asked, his eyebrows rose in silent question.

"Fuck you."

Velisian’s laughter prickled the air, rushing across Orpheus’ skin like his whole body had gone to sleep. "Wouldn’t you just hate it if I said, ‘okay’?" He waved the comment off with an actual flourish of his hand. "But since we are alone together until your sister arrives, I’ll tell you something about myself, what do you think?"

He stopped at the foot of the bed, safely out of easy spitting range, though Orpheus didn’t seem the spitting type.

"We’re not friends. I don’t want to chat," he growled instead.

A sudden pain lurched through Orpheus’ abdomen, forcing the muscle to contract fiercely. As his body curled it pulled tight against the chains that bound him. His shoulders screamed in pain as they were forced to support the sudden spasm. He clenched his teeth, so that only a muffled grunt escaped him.

Cool fingers lightly massaged the back of his neck. "Shhh, shh, don’t hurt yourself, Orpheus Vervain. We can’t be leaving marks on this lovely body of yours. It will interrupt my plans. But you will indulge me for this short time until your sister arrives. If you do that tiny thing, you will go home without injury."

Orpheus tried to lash out, but the weights clapped to his ankles held him down as surely as ever. When his struggles ceased, Velisian stood again before him. The vampire could admire a man who fought the way Orpheus did. It was always sweeter when they fought for him. He throbbed slowly to life within the confines of his leather pants.

But he wasn’t doing anything of that nature tonight. Tonight was just a test. He continued on.

"I’ll ask you, do you know why my shirt is made of silver?" The thin silver mesh that hung over his chest glinted in the light, showing snatches of pale and reddened flesh.

Orpheus slumped in his chains but gave no answer.

"Let me show you what pleases me best of all, little Draken."

Velisian’s hand spilled up his shirt and over his flesh, moving slowly like a lover’s caress, but his eyes showed no emotion, concentrating on holding Orpheus’ gaze. Then he stopped and flexed, and drew the hand downwards. The result was four bloody rive

rs from chest to navel, and when the shirt fell against him once more, every drop of blood that touched silver hissed and smoked.

A nearly violent shudder wracked the rexinum‘s body, and he wrapped his arms around himself, pressing the burning metal further into the wounds.

Orpheus watched the display, a mixture of disgust and fear playing within his stomach.

~~~~~Not Finished Of course but it’s something~~~~~