Page 17 of Vampire Claus
Paul clasped his wrist and tugged gently, drawing them both inside. Every fiber of Taviano’s body was ready to bolt but he remained fine. More confident as the samenothingcontinued to happen, he stepped fully into the church.
The Mass had reached the portion in which the congregation recited the Apostle’s Creed. The murmur of a hundred voices echoed around the walls and statues and stained glass windows. “I believe in the Holy Spirit. With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified…,” they intoned.
A blinding smile lit Paul’s face as he watched Taviano begin to accept. He led them to an empty pew at the rear of the nave and Taviano sank onto it, stunned. A Christmas tree stood at the left of the altar.Father Francesco would never have permitted such a secular display.The crèche to the right, however, reminded Taviano of the one in his mother’s house.
They remained seated, leg pressed to leg, arm to arm, through the presentation of the offerings. He silently mouthed the prayers in Latin. A profound sense of homecoming tightened in his chest and made his vision blur at the edges.
Rising at a signal from the priest, they stood through the Lord’s Prayer, and then seated themselves again. Most of those present filed down to take the wafer and sip the wine as the choir sang jubilantly in the loft.
When the priest instructed the people to exchange a sign of peace, men and women throughout the church shook hands. Taviano turned to Paul, his eyes burning with unshed tears, and kissed him.
“La pace sia con te,” he whispered, trying to convey everything he felt, with gratitude above all.
Paul answered proudly, “And also with you.” He entwined his fingers with Taviano’s and held his hand tightly through the final glorious anthems that soared from the choir. When the Mass ended, the priest instructed the congregants to go and celebrate the birth.
They left St. Stephen’s ahead of the crowd, and Taviano felt as light as he had when he rushed through the night with Paul in his arms. The snow had ended by the time they emerged and the clouds had begun to part again. Paul dragged Taviano around the building and down Clark Street. The fresh powder coated walls and trashcans and doorsteps, softening the shapes around them and muffling the city noises. They found a dark corner and Paul pulled him into it. Wrapping Taviano in a mighty hug, he whispered excitedly, “I knew it. I knew you aren’t a monster.”
Taviano hugged him back, but he was still in a sort of shock. “All those long years.” Many, many times he’d needed the comfort of the Church and had kept away only on Bronislav’s word. What else might his maker have lied about, or not understood himself? He knew some of the things Bronislav had taught him proved wrong or incomplete. So why had he never tested the stricture on holy places?
The answer to that question was obvious: from the start, from his first victim, he’d known he was damned. Like a self-hating fool, he hadacceptedthat he was a murderer. A church wasof courseforbidden to him.
Until Paul refused to believe that Taviano was a fiend.
Something rolled down his cheek, tickling his skin. When he wiped at it, his finger came away glistening with a clear substance tinged with blood. “I think I’m crying.”
Paul took Taviano’s finger and drew it into his own mouth, sucking it clean before Taviano could stop him. “You probably shouldn’t have done that,” he said with a frown.
Paul grinned cheekily and said, “Lacrimae mundi. The tears of the world.” He shrugged. “Hey. I went through Confirmation. I remember a few things.” Suddenly his grin faltered. “Whoa.” His pupils dilated and his heartbeat throbbed. Sweat broke out on his forehead as Taviano drew him closer.
He tried to recall what had happened on the few instances he’d witnessed a human taste ichor. Once, in the sixties, he’d watched from a distance. An unknown vampire stood in the center of a circle of naked men and women. She dripped a single bead of ichor onto each of their tongues. The ensuing orgy had shocked and intrigued Taviano in equal measure.
In his most reassuring tone, he said to Paul, “Don’t worry. You’re feeling my demon’s magic but you had the barest taste. It isn’t enough to do any harm, though you’re about to feel very odd.”
Paul looked at his hands like they were the most fascinating things in the world. “I think…I think Iseemy pulse.” He threw back his head suddenly and pivoted left and right. “What am I hearing? Cars. People. A fight.” He focused on an apartment across the street and smiled hugely. “Fucking. I hear two people fucking.”
Taviano had to laugh. “It takes a lot of focus to sort through the noise and let in what you need. It won’t last long.”
“My skin tingles. I’m not cold again.”
His wonderstruck expression moved Taviano. Paul apparently relished the experience, so he might as well help. Gently, he enfolded Paul in his arms, nudged a finger under his chin, and said, “Take a look at the stars.”
Paul tilted back his head and gasped. “All of them,” he moaned, sagging against Taviano. “I see all of the stars. Thecolorsthere. I had no idea.” He looked at Taviano again and blinked several times before brushing fingers over his cheek and down his neck. There was awe in his eyes.
“You’re glorious,” Paul murmured randomly, then, “I’m tripping balls.”
“I wish I had a lexicon so I understood what you’re saying. Tripping balls—is that good or bad?”
“It’s very, very good. Can we fuck?”
Seven
“What?”
As if Taviano hadn’t heard the request clearly. As if he couldn’t feel the yearning in the fingertips Paul stroked along his face, or tell that Paul’s shaft was hard as stone.
Taviano had been human when he last made love, and that had ended disastrously. The lesson of that final time—when his father had caught, beaten and sent him to seminary—still hurt. The few intervals after that he’d touched for pleasure involved nothing more than fingers or a flick of his tongue. No one, man or woman, had sufficiently stirred his human nature to seek connection since Bronislav turned him.
But then, he’d never met anyone like innocent, strong-willed, funny, fierce, delightful Paul.