Chapter 8
Donnell was feeling a bit nervous. He tried not to pace his apartment, but he couldn’t quite help himself. He was waiting for Kieran to show up, and his eyes kept darting to the tree where his gift to the mage was sitting. What if Kieran didn’t like it? Would he be polite about it? That would only make it worse, he decided as his stomach muscles clenched a little. This was the first gift that he’d given anyone in a very long time, and he just wanted this to go well.
His doorbell rang, and he jumped about a foot in the air. Whirling around ,he stared at the door for a moment as though he were waiting for a monster to break through it and attack him. But finally he forced himself to move, as standing here like an idiot wouldn’t accomplish anything. He went over and opened the door, revealing a smiling Kieran standing there. “Merry Christmas, Donnell!” the mage caroled happily.
“If you say so,” Donnell replied, his voice only shaking a little. Come on in, then.”
Kieran strolled into his apartment. “You sure know how to make a person feel welcome,” he teased, his eyes twinkling.
“As you’re about as welcome as the plague, I don’t see why I should put any effort into it,” the vampire said acidly. He was feeling even more nervous now, and it was making him irritable.
Kieran shrugged, not looking put off by his bad mood. “Anyway, its Christmas morning. Time for you to open your presents,” he said, beaming.
Donnell glowered up at him, but the human refused to be fazed at all. “Come on!” he cried, waving a hand at the vampire as he went over to the side table. “I can’t wait for you to open these…Hey, what’s this?” his long fingers scooped up the silk-wrapped and beribboned package, and he looked at Donnell curiously over his shoulder.
“That is my gift to you,” Donnell told him in arctic tones.
Kieran blinked, then looked down at his hand in a dumbfounded manner. “You got me a gift? You didn’t have to do that.”
“No more than you had to buy me all of this,” Donnell said, waving a hand at the pile of presents as he approached the table.
“I suppose you’re right. Okay, I’ll open yours if you’ll open mine.” Kieran’s fingers began to make swift work of the hair ribbon, pulling it loose.
Donnell took in a deep breath and picked up one of the presents. His fingers were shaking too much for him to be able to open it swiftly, so Kieran got to the box holding the cross before he could even get the wrapping paper off of his first gift. “Wow!” he heard the mage exclaim. “This is so pretty! I love it, Donnell!”
He glanced up, seeing that Kieran was running his long fingers softly over the painted picture on the top of the box. He looked entranced. He felt that weird fluttering in his abdomen again as he said softly: “The real gift is inside the box.”
Kieran looked surprised, but then he flipped open the to of the box and reached in to pull out the Celtic cross. His eyes lit up. “Oh, man. This is so amazing, Donnell! I love it! Thank you!” his enthusiasm and joy over the gift made the vampire fell incredibly good. He watched as the mage put the chain over his head so that the cross was on top of his other necklaces, his long fingers stroking over the silver tenderly. He felt moisture prickle behind his eyes, but this time the threatening tears were happy ones. He’d forgotten what it felt like to make someone so happy with just a simple gift. If he’d ever known what that felt like, since he’d lived in a poor village where no one could afford to buy presents for each other, and afterward Vassily hadn’t been an appreciative sort…
Kieran looked at him, his fingers still stroking over the cross. “Open yours now,” he said, his eyes bright with anticipation.
Donnell nodded and looked down at the gift in his hand. He managed to get the paper off at last, and pulled out a white box. Taking the lid off of it, he saw a pin nestled in white cotton within. It was a round pin with a black enamel background and a star done in crystal in the foreground. “When I saw that, I thought of you,” Kieran explained. “Because you’re a star, Donnell. Cheesy, I know, but that’s how I felt…”
The vampire shook his head, although his fingertips still sketched over the pin lightly. “Do you like it?” Kieran asked hopefully.
“Yes, I do,” he said truthfully.
“Cool! Open another one!” Kieran cried enthusiastically.
He picked up another present and opened it. A t-shirt was folded up tightly in the box. It was black, and it said in red letters across the front: ‘Vampires have bite’. A single trickle of blood ran down from the E on ’bite’. He eyed this. “Is it a good idea for me to wear this?” he asked doubtfully.
Kieran chuckled. “Sure, why not? Nobody will believe that YOU’RE a vampire, they’ll just think that you’re a Twihard!”
Donnell looked puzzled. “A what?”
Kieran winked. “Never mind. Onward, good sir. Open the rest.”
Donnell sighed but did so. He uncovered a box of imported chocolates, a red scarf with silvery star spangles on it, a bracelet made of plain steel links, and the stuffed ’vampire cat’ that Kieran had tried to give him in the diner a few days ago. This last raised his brows, but the mage simply grinned and shrugged. “So did you like your presents?” he asked in a wheedling tone of voice.
Donnell looked down at the little collection. A strange group of gifts in some ways, but… “Yes,” he replied. “Yes, I do. Very much.”
“So…did you like your Christmas so far?” Kieran asked.
Donnell stopped sucking on the candy cane that the mage had insisted that he try. It was cherry-flavored. He slid it out of his mouth so that he could answer. He spoke truthfully for once, wanting Kieran to understand just how he felt. “I’ve enjoyed today very much, Kieran. In fact, I can’t remember having had any days as good as these last few have been since Vassily left. Maybe even before that, because he was…” he paused as he searched for the right words, “Selfish, self-centered. Egotistical. He cared only for himself. I simply couldn’t see that because I was so in love. It was such a shock to realize that he cared so little for me that he could just walk away without a word…” he stopped again as his throat threatened to close up. “But I have to accept that fact. I have to try to move on. Thank you for making me see that.”
Kieran smiled at him, reaching out to gently touch his knee. “I was happy to,” he replied simply. “It's good to see you smile,” he added, studying Donnell’s face. “You have a really nice smile, you know. I hope to get to see it more often.”
He felt that tightening in his abdomen again. “Are you…? Will you…? Move on? Now that Christmas is almost over?” he asked in a choked voice. His whole body had tensed as he waited for the inevitable, painful answer. What would keep Kieran here with him? He was morose, depressed, and irritable. He couldn’t be very much fun to be around for someone like Kieran. He wasn’t sure why the mage had stayed to give him a good Christmas…maybe charity. But now that the holidays were almost over, he’d probably go. Just as Vassily had…
Kieran reached over and used his thumb to wipe up the glitter of reddish tears on Donnell’s lashes. “Tell me to go, Donnell,” he said simply. “Because that is the only way that you’ll ever get rid of me. The day you tell me to go, I’ll hit the road and never come back. But until then, I’m afraid that you’re stuck with me,” he added with a crooked smile. “If I’m the plague, then you’ve caught a good dose of me…one you’ll never be able to cure…”
Donnell felt a lump rising in his throat as he stared at Kieran’s face. The mage looked back at him, his heart in his eyes. The vampire felt an emotion that he hadn’t in so very long that he didn’t even recognize it at first…hope. And a fragile happiness that blossomed in his chest like a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis. “Are you…sure?” he said hoarsely.
Kieran nodded. “I’ve been lonely too, Donnell,” he told the vampire. “Really lonely. It's so hard to make friends and then have to walk away from them when I don’t age and they do. When I saw you on the street, I knew what you were immediately. I knew that I could make friends with you and that you wouldn’t age and die on me. That’s the best Christmas gift that I’ve ever gotten,” he went on with a dazzling smile. “Especially after I got to know you, and I saw the person hiding behind your morose façade. He’s really great,” his fingers stroked down Donnell’s neck. “I like him a lot. I can’t wait to get to know him better,” he said sincerely.
Donnell nodded. “I feel the same,” he said. “To have a friend IS the best Christmas gift of all.”
Kieran kissed him just then, stopping his words in his throat. But he really didn’t care. He opened his mouth and returned the kiss, his tongue sliding over Kieran’s sensually. His hands found the mage’s shoulders and held on as their lips met and moved against each other. He turned on the couch to press his body against Kieran’s, wanting more contact. Kieran’s hands closed over his back to hold him close, and they stroked over his shirt tenderly.
He had no idea how long the kiss might have continued, had there not been a knock on his front door. Donnell pulled back, blinking in confusion as his ears registered the knocking. He turned to stare at the door, his brows drawing together in puzzlement. Who could it be? There was no mail or parcel delivery on Christmas Day, and his landlord wouldn’t be inclined to visit his tenants on a holiday.
Kieran remarked: “Who is it, Donnell?”
He shook his head as he climbed off the couch and headed for the door. “I have no idea,” he told Kieran over his shoulder.
“Huh. Hope its not the cops or something,” Kieran said in bemusement.
Donnell shrugged, and reached out to open the door. But he froze as a wash of familiar energy reached him through the door, and his eyes went very wide and blank. That was…No, it couldn’t be! But when he opened his senses and sent them outward a bit, he saw that it was. Every vampire had a different energy signature, there were no two that were alike…so there was only one fanged creature of the night who could be standing outside of his front door.
“Donnell? Are you okay?” Kieran asked him in concern.
No, he wasn’t. He really wasn’t. As one in a dream(or a nightmare) he reached out to fumble with the doorknob. He heard Kieran speak to him again, but he ignored the human. He swung the door open, revealing a very familiar vampire standing there in the hall. “Hello, Donnell my love,” this man purred, smiling that toothy smile that marked him as the predator that he was. “It’s been a long time.”
Somehow he managed to speak, although he had no idea how he did it: “Hello, Vassily. A very long time indeed.”
*****
Kieran stood in shocked silence for a moment, taking in the fact that Donnell’s Maker was standing out in the hallway! Then rage flashed through him. How dare that bastard come casually strolling back after a hundred and fifty years with no word to Donnell?! This would be sure to devastate him again, and he didn’t need that. Kieran’s lips drew up from his teeth in an angry snarl as the handsome vampire said persuasively: “May I enter your domicile, Donnell? You have to invite me in, remember?”
He saw Donnell’s shoulders tense. “Don’t let him in, Donnell!” he snapped, stepping up beside the vampire and setting his hand on Donnell’s shoulder possessively. “Get lost,” he told the surprised-looking vampire tersely.
Vassily’s dark brows drew down as a spark of anger entered his peculiar amber-colored eyes. “And just who are you to give orders to Donnell?” he asked silkily. “Go away, human. I have no time for you. Unless you’d like to stay and be a nice evening snack for us?”
Kieran scowled. “I’m Donnell’s friend, that’s why I don’t think that he should let you in,” he rasped. “He told me about what you did - how you just left him without a word and wandered off a hundred and fifty years ago. What makes you think that you have the right to come strolling back into his life after all of this time? Why don’t you just hit the road and never come back this time? It’d be better for all of us.”
Vassily frowned darkly at him. “You have nerve, I’ll give you that,” he said with a hint of a growl in his voice. “But you are also very foolish. What makes you think that you can talk to me like this? Do you know what I am, human?”
“Yeah. You’re an asshole,” Kieran said disdainfully.
Rage burned in Vassily’s eyes now. “You will pay for your insults, little human,” he said, his voice menacing. “I cannot touch you now, but the moment that you leave Donnell’s home I will rip you to shreds.”
Kieran sneered at him. “You think so?” he said. “Then why don’t I step outside right now? Let’s do this thing, bloodsucker.”
“No!” Donnell cried, catching at his arm. “Kieran, don’t! He’s very strong; he’ll kill you!”
He turned and cupped his fingers along Donnell’s jaw, cradling it as he looked into the frantic dark eyes. “Please trust me,” he said softly. “Please, Donnell.”
The vampire stared mutely up at him, but then he nodded once. Kieran sighed and caressed his chin before withdrawing his hands. He turned back to the silently fuming Vassily, who was still waiting out in the hallway since he couldn’t enter the apartment without Donnell’s express permission. “Let’s go,” he said shortly, stepping out into the hall himself.
Vassily glanced at Donnell, who was standing there mute and pale in the doorway. “Perhaps we should take this outside,” the vampire said, belatedly thinking of his feelings.
Kieran snorted. “Oh, you care about how Donnell feels now?” he said in disgust. “A little late, don’t you think? Like about a hundred years?”
Vassily’s lip lifted off of his sharp white teeth. “You annoy me, human,” he spat. “I am going to enjoy this!” and he lunged at Kieran in a blur of speed and motion, as Donnell cried out piteously from the doorway.
Kieran barked a single word to activate the spell that he’d already started casting almost the moment that he’d seen who was at the door. A wave of magic slammed into Vassily, pinning him in mid-air. He struggled against it, but while he was a supernatural creature he had no skills in magic. He couldn’t break the spell. “Release me at once!” he barked furiously to Kieran.
The mage shook his head. “Hell, no. Do I look stupid to you? Now this is how it's going to go, Vassily. I’m going to cast a spell on you, a permanent spell. It’ll act like an early warning system. If you ever come near Donnell or me again, the spell will activate. That means within a few miles of us, so get that straight and learn to avoid places where we are from now on. Because believe me, you do NOT want this spell to activate, Vassily. It would be a very messy, ugly situation - and one I can assure you that you will not survive. Is that clear?”
Vassily was staring at him in bewilderment. “Just what are you?” he asked warily.
Kieran grinned, his slightly crazy grin that showed off his teeth. “I’m a Merlin,” he replied simply. “And a very powerful one, at that. Donnell is my friend. I don’t want to see him get hurt, and I’ll do anything that I have to make sure that he doesn’t. That includes casting a spell on a vampire that will make him explode like a balloon that’s been blown up too much if he ever tries to come near Donnell again. You understand?”
Vassily was still, not struggling anymore. “I underestimated you,” he told Kieran.
“You did, because all you saw was just another human. Now,” Kieran began to wave his hands in that way that was so familiar to Donnell already. He murmured to himself in an undertone, and both vampires felt the heavy press of a magic spell being cast. Then he was done, and there was an almost audible snap as the spell locked into place. “That’s done,” Kieran noted. He waved his fingers again, and the force holding Vassily in place dissipated. The vampire sank to the floor. “You’ve got a window of thirty minutes to get away before the spell goes into effect,” Kieran told Vassily calmly. “I’d get going if I were you, since I believe that contrary to legends you guys can’t fly.”
Vassily just stared at him for a moment, then he turned to Donnell. “Farewell, Donnell. Since I won’t be seeing you again until this human dies,” he glanced coldly at Kieran, “Let me just say that it's too bad that we did not mange to have a reunion. I was looking forward to it.”
Donnell finally found his voice again. “Goodbye, Vassily. I thank you for Making me, but that is all. I never wish to see you again.”
Vassily started to say something else, but then he shrugged and walked swiftly away down the hall. He had some ground to cover in the short time before the spell went into effect. Behind him, the two men watched him disappear into the stairwell. Then Kieran turned to Donnell. He gave the vampire an apologetic look. “I’m sorry that I scared you, Donnell; but I didn’t want to warn Douchebag Supreme there about what I am and what I can do. I needed the element of surprise to take him down.”
“I understand,” Donnell assured him gravely. “And…thank you, Kieran. I do not think that I would have been strong enough to send him on his way if I had been alone, even though he has hurt me so.”
The mage grinned. “Hey, what are friends for?” he replied merrily. “You’re welcome, Donnell. I was happy to send that piece of shit on his way.”
The vampire laughed and shook his head. “Come back inside,” he told Kieran. “We shall not let this incident spoil the rest of our Christmas.”
“That’s the spirit,” Kieran replied gleefully, stepping past him.
Go to Next Chapter
Donnell was feeling a bit nervous. He tried not to pace his apartment, but he couldn’t quite help himself. He was waiting for Kieran to show up, and his eyes kept darting to the tree where his gift to the mage was sitting. What if Kieran didn’t like it? Would he be polite about it? That would only make it worse, he decided as his stomach muscles clenched a little. This was the first gift that he’d given anyone in a very long time, and he just wanted this to go well.
His doorbell rang, and he jumped about a foot in the air. Whirling around ,he stared at the door for a moment as though he were waiting for a monster to break through it and attack him. But finally he forced himself to move, as standing here like an idiot wouldn’t accomplish anything. He went over and opened the door, revealing a smiling Kieran standing there. “Merry Christmas, Donnell!” the mage caroled happily.
“If you say so,” Donnell replied, his voice only shaking a little. Come on in, then.”
Kieran strolled into his apartment. “You sure know how to make a person feel welcome,” he teased, his eyes twinkling.
“As you’re about as welcome as the plague, I don’t see why I should put any effort into it,” the vampire said acidly. He was feeling even more nervous now, and it was making him irritable.
Kieran shrugged, not looking put off by his bad mood. “Anyway, its Christmas morning. Time for you to open your presents,” he said, beaming.
Donnell glowered up at him, but the human refused to be fazed at all. “Come on!” he cried, waving a hand at the vampire as he went over to the side table. “I can’t wait for you to open these…Hey, what’s this?” his long fingers scooped up the silk-wrapped and beribboned package, and he looked at Donnell curiously over his shoulder.
“That is my gift to you,” Donnell told him in arctic tones.
Kieran blinked, then looked down at his hand in a dumbfounded manner. “You got me a gift? You didn’t have to do that.”
“No more than you had to buy me all of this,” Donnell said, waving a hand at the pile of presents as he approached the table.
“I suppose you’re right. Okay, I’ll open yours if you’ll open mine.” Kieran’s fingers began to make swift work of the hair ribbon, pulling it loose.
Donnell took in a deep breath and picked up one of the presents. His fingers were shaking too much for him to be able to open it swiftly, so Kieran got to the box holding the cross before he could even get the wrapping paper off of his first gift. “Wow!” he heard the mage exclaim. “This is so pretty! I love it, Donnell!”
He glanced up, seeing that Kieran was running his long fingers softly over the painted picture on the top of the box. He looked entranced. He felt that weird fluttering in his abdomen again as he said softly: “The real gift is inside the box.”
Kieran looked surprised, but then he flipped open the to of the box and reached in to pull out the Celtic cross. His eyes lit up. “Oh, man. This is so amazing, Donnell! I love it! Thank you!” his enthusiasm and joy over the gift made the vampire fell incredibly good. He watched as the mage put the chain over his head so that the cross was on top of his other necklaces, his long fingers stroking over the silver tenderly. He felt moisture prickle behind his eyes, but this time the threatening tears were happy ones. He’d forgotten what it felt like to make someone so happy with just a simple gift. If he’d ever known what that felt like, since he’d lived in a poor village where no one could afford to buy presents for each other, and afterward Vassily hadn’t been an appreciative sort…
Kieran looked at him, his fingers still stroking over the cross. “Open yours now,” he said, his eyes bright with anticipation.
Donnell nodded and looked down at the gift in his hand. He managed to get the paper off at last, and pulled out a white box. Taking the lid off of it, he saw a pin nestled in white cotton within. It was a round pin with a black enamel background and a star done in crystal in the foreground. “When I saw that, I thought of you,” Kieran explained. “Because you’re a star, Donnell. Cheesy, I know, but that’s how I felt…”
The vampire shook his head, although his fingertips still sketched over the pin lightly. “Do you like it?” Kieran asked hopefully.
“Yes, I do,” he said truthfully.
“Cool! Open another one!” Kieran cried enthusiastically.
He picked up another present and opened it. A t-shirt was folded up tightly in the box. It was black, and it said in red letters across the front: ‘Vampires have bite’. A single trickle of blood ran down from the E on ’bite’. He eyed this. “Is it a good idea for me to wear this?” he asked doubtfully.
Kieran chuckled. “Sure, why not? Nobody will believe that YOU’RE a vampire, they’ll just think that you’re a Twihard!”
Donnell looked puzzled. “A what?”
Kieran winked. “Never mind. Onward, good sir. Open the rest.”
Donnell sighed but did so. He uncovered a box of imported chocolates, a red scarf with silvery star spangles on it, a bracelet made of plain steel links, and the stuffed ’vampire cat’ that Kieran had tried to give him in the diner a few days ago. This last raised his brows, but the mage simply grinned and shrugged. “So did you like your presents?” he asked in a wheedling tone of voice.
Donnell looked down at the little collection. A strange group of gifts in some ways, but… “Yes,” he replied. “Yes, I do. Very much.”
“So…did you like your Christmas so far?” Kieran asked.
Donnell stopped sucking on the candy cane that the mage had insisted that he try. It was cherry-flavored. He slid it out of his mouth so that he could answer. He spoke truthfully for once, wanting Kieran to understand just how he felt. “I’ve enjoyed today very much, Kieran. In fact, I can’t remember having had any days as good as these last few have been since Vassily left. Maybe even before that, because he was…” he paused as he searched for the right words, “Selfish, self-centered. Egotistical. He cared only for himself. I simply couldn’t see that because I was so in love. It was such a shock to realize that he cared so little for me that he could just walk away without a word…” he stopped again as his throat threatened to close up. “But I have to accept that fact. I have to try to move on. Thank you for making me see that.”
Kieran smiled at him, reaching out to gently touch his knee. “I was happy to,” he replied simply. “It's good to see you smile,” he added, studying Donnell’s face. “You have a really nice smile, you know. I hope to get to see it more often.”
He felt that tightening in his abdomen again. “Are you…? Will you…? Move on? Now that Christmas is almost over?” he asked in a choked voice. His whole body had tensed as he waited for the inevitable, painful answer. What would keep Kieran here with him? He was morose, depressed, and irritable. He couldn’t be very much fun to be around for someone like Kieran. He wasn’t sure why the mage had stayed to give him a good Christmas…maybe charity. But now that the holidays were almost over, he’d probably go. Just as Vassily had…
Kieran reached over and used his thumb to wipe up the glitter of reddish tears on Donnell’s lashes. “Tell me to go, Donnell,” he said simply. “Because that is the only way that you’ll ever get rid of me. The day you tell me to go, I’ll hit the road and never come back. But until then, I’m afraid that you’re stuck with me,” he added with a crooked smile. “If I’m the plague, then you’ve caught a good dose of me…one you’ll never be able to cure…”
Donnell felt a lump rising in his throat as he stared at Kieran’s face. The mage looked back at him, his heart in his eyes. The vampire felt an emotion that he hadn’t in so very long that he didn’t even recognize it at first…hope. And a fragile happiness that blossomed in his chest like a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis. “Are you…sure?” he said hoarsely.
Kieran nodded. “I’ve been lonely too, Donnell,” he told the vampire. “Really lonely. It's so hard to make friends and then have to walk away from them when I don’t age and they do. When I saw you on the street, I knew what you were immediately. I knew that I could make friends with you and that you wouldn’t age and die on me. That’s the best Christmas gift that I’ve ever gotten,” he went on with a dazzling smile. “Especially after I got to know you, and I saw the person hiding behind your morose façade. He’s really great,” his fingers stroked down Donnell’s neck. “I like him a lot. I can’t wait to get to know him better,” he said sincerely.
Donnell nodded. “I feel the same,” he said. “To have a friend IS the best Christmas gift of all.”
Kieran kissed him just then, stopping his words in his throat. But he really didn’t care. He opened his mouth and returned the kiss, his tongue sliding over Kieran’s sensually. His hands found the mage’s shoulders and held on as their lips met and moved against each other. He turned on the couch to press his body against Kieran’s, wanting more contact. Kieran’s hands closed over his back to hold him close, and they stroked over his shirt tenderly.
He had no idea how long the kiss might have continued, had there not been a knock on his front door. Donnell pulled back, blinking in confusion as his ears registered the knocking. He turned to stare at the door, his brows drawing together in puzzlement. Who could it be? There was no mail or parcel delivery on Christmas Day, and his landlord wouldn’t be inclined to visit his tenants on a holiday.
Kieran remarked: “Who is it, Donnell?”
He shook his head as he climbed off the couch and headed for the door. “I have no idea,” he told Kieran over his shoulder.
“Huh. Hope its not the cops or something,” Kieran said in bemusement.
Donnell shrugged, and reached out to open the door. But he froze as a wash of familiar energy reached him through the door, and his eyes went very wide and blank. That was…No, it couldn’t be! But when he opened his senses and sent them outward a bit, he saw that it was. Every vampire had a different energy signature, there were no two that were alike…so there was only one fanged creature of the night who could be standing outside of his front door.
“Donnell? Are you okay?” Kieran asked him in concern.
No, he wasn’t. He really wasn’t. As one in a dream(or a nightmare) he reached out to fumble with the doorknob. He heard Kieran speak to him again, but he ignored the human. He swung the door open, revealing a very familiar vampire standing there in the hall. “Hello, Donnell my love,” this man purred, smiling that toothy smile that marked him as the predator that he was. “It’s been a long time.”
Somehow he managed to speak, although he had no idea how he did it: “Hello, Vassily. A very long time indeed.”
*****
Kieran stood in shocked silence for a moment, taking in the fact that Donnell’s Maker was standing out in the hallway! Then rage flashed through him. How dare that bastard come casually strolling back after a hundred and fifty years with no word to Donnell?! This would be sure to devastate him again, and he didn’t need that. Kieran’s lips drew up from his teeth in an angry snarl as the handsome vampire said persuasively: “May I enter your domicile, Donnell? You have to invite me in, remember?”
He saw Donnell’s shoulders tense. “Don’t let him in, Donnell!” he snapped, stepping up beside the vampire and setting his hand on Donnell’s shoulder possessively. “Get lost,” he told the surprised-looking vampire tersely.
Vassily’s dark brows drew down as a spark of anger entered his peculiar amber-colored eyes. “And just who are you to give orders to Donnell?” he asked silkily. “Go away, human. I have no time for you. Unless you’d like to stay and be a nice evening snack for us?”
Kieran scowled. “I’m Donnell’s friend, that’s why I don’t think that he should let you in,” he rasped. “He told me about what you did - how you just left him without a word and wandered off a hundred and fifty years ago. What makes you think that you have the right to come strolling back into his life after all of this time? Why don’t you just hit the road and never come back this time? It’d be better for all of us.”
Vassily frowned darkly at him. “You have nerve, I’ll give you that,” he said with a hint of a growl in his voice. “But you are also very foolish. What makes you think that you can talk to me like this? Do you know what I am, human?”
“Yeah. You’re an asshole,” Kieran said disdainfully.
Rage burned in Vassily’s eyes now. “You will pay for your insults, little human,” he said, his voice menacing. “I cannot touch you now, but the moment that you leave Donnell’s home I will rip you to shreds.”
Kieran sneered at him. “You think so?” he said. “Then why don’t I step outside right now? Let’s do this thing, bloodsucker.”
“No!” Donnell cried, catching at his arm. “Kieran, don’t! He’s very strong; he’ll kill you!”
He turned and cupped his fingers along Donnell’s jaw, cradling it as he looked into the frantic dark eyes. “Please trust me,” he said softly. “Please, Donnell.”
The vampire stared mutely up at him, but then he nodded once. Kieran sighed and caressed his chin before withdrawing his hands. He turned back to the silently fuming Vassily, who was still waiting out in the hallway since he couldn’t enter the apartment without Donnell’s express permission. “Let’s go,” he said shortly, stepping out into the hall himself.
Vassily glanced at Donnell, who was standing there mute and pale in the doorway. “Perhaps we should take this outside,” the vampire said, belatedly thinking of his feelings.
Kieran snorted. “Oh, you care about how Donnell feels now?” he said in disgust. “A little late, don’t you think? Like about a hundred years?”
Vassily’s lip lifted off of his sharp white teeth. “You annoy me, human,” he spat. “I am going to enjoy this!” and he lunged at Kieran in a blur of speed and motion, as Donnell cried out piteously from the doorway.
Kieran barked a single word to activate the spell that he’d already started casting almost the moment that he’d seen who was at the door. A wave of magic slammed into Vassily, pinning him in mid-air. He struggled against it, but while he was a supernatural creature he had no skills in magic. He couldn’t break the spell. “Release me at once!” he barked furiously to Kieran.
The mage shook his head. “Hell, no. Do I look stupid to you? Now this is how it's going to go, Vassily. I’m going to cast a spell on you, a permanent spell. It’ll act like an early warning system. If you ever come near Donnell or me again, the spell will activate. That means within a few miles of us, so get that straight and learn to avoid places where we are from now on. Because believe me, you do NOT want this spell to activate, Vassily. It would be a very messy, ugly situation - and one I can assure you that you will not survive. Is that clear?”
Vassily was staring at him in bewilderment. “Just what are you?” he asked warily.
Kieran grinned, his slightly crazy grin that showed off his teeth. “I’m a Merlin,” he replied simply. “And a very powerful one, at that. Donnell is my friend. I don’t want to see him get hurt, and I’ll do anything that I have to make sure that he doesn’t. That includes casting a spell on a vampire that will make him explode like a balloon that’s been blown up too much if he ever tries to come near Donnell again. You understand?”
Vassily was still, not struggling anymore. “I underestimated you,” he told Kieran.
“You did, because all you saw was just another human. Now,” Kieran began to wave his hands in that way that was so familiar to Donnell already. He murmured to himself in an undertone, and both vampires felt the heavy press of a magic spell being cast. Then he was done, and there was an almost audible snap as the spell locked into place. “That’s done,” Kieran noted. He waved his fingers again, and the force holding Vassily in place dissipated. The vampire sank to the floor. “You’ve got a window of thirty minutes to get away before the spell goes into effect,” Kieran told Vassily calmly. “I’d get going if I were you, since I believe that contrary to legends you guys can’t fly.”
Vassily just stared at him for a moment, then he turned to Donnell. “Farewell, Donnell. Since I won’t be seeing you again until this human dies,” he glanced coldly at Kieran, “Let me just say that it's too bad that we did not mange to have a reunion. I was looking forward to it.”
Donnell finally found his voice again. “Goodbye, Vassily. I thank you for Making me, but that is all. I never wish to see you again.”
Vassily started to say something else, but then he shrugged and walked swiftly away down the hall. He had some ground to cover in the short time before the spell went into effect. Behind him, the two men watched him disappear into the stairwell. Then Kieran turned to Donnell. He gave the vampire an apologetic look. “I’m sorry that I scared you, Donnell; but I didn’t want to warn Douchebag Supreme there about what I am and what I can do. I needed the element of surprise to take him down.”
“I understand,” Donnell assured him gravely. “And…thank you, Kieran. I do not think that I would have been strong enough to send him on his way if I had been alone, even though he has hurt me so.”
The mage grinned. “Hey, what are friends for?” he replied merrily. “You’re welcome, Donnell. I was happy to send that piece of shit on his way.”
The vampire laughed and shook his head. “Come back inside,” he told Kieran. “We shall not let this incident spoil the rest of our Christmas.”
“That’s the spirit,” Kieran replied gleefully, stepping past him.
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