“Time.” He breathed, almost to himself. “You just need time.”
“I don’t–”
“I will give it to you.” He whispered, ignoring Cullen’s outburst. “I have waited this long; I can wait a little longer.” He took a few slow steps back and then turned for the door across the room, his eyes wild with rage. “I will be back to see you in a few days.”
“What?! Days?!” Cullen burst forward, unsure if he meant to attack him or rush past him to the bedroom door. “Hang on! Take me back right now!” He reached for him, nearly touched his arm, but Leviathan disappeared with a wave of quick shadows. Cullen gasped, looking around the now empty room in terror and confusion. It was as if the other man had never been here at all.
He stalked away from the room, feeling even more sick than before.
He’d known, of course. Known that Cullen hated him, that he was scared of him. He’d known he would resent what he had done at first and that he would be afraid and confused. He may not have ever experienced being human, but he still knew how their brains worked. Especially after being locked away inside them for all that time.
Still…feeling that hatred coming from him… Seeing how much he hated him and hearing his pulse race with rage and fear…it was all too much. It had taken all his strength not to fix itright then and there. To not pin him to the bed and force him to like him… No, he wouldn’t do that. He didn’t need to. Time would fix the problem for him, especially since Cullen was a demon now. His body would betray him before his heart did. And that was certainly something Leviathan could work with.
Cullen wasn’t sure how long he stood there, his chest rising and falling with quick, desperate breaths while his mind raced with memories.
The cold night. The waves and waves of shadows that had begun to pool around him. Leviathan using Cullen’s own power to attack his friends and portaling them away so he could give him his terrible “present”. The fear on Walker’s face and the taste of his blood…
Cullen gasped softly and raised a slow hand to his mouth, hesitantly running his fingertip across his teeth. They felt normal. But he knew…he remembered–vaguely–the feel of fangs slicing through his gums, remembered burying them in his boyfriend’s shoulder… And when he’d attacked Leviathan just now, he was sure sharp, dagger-like claws had sprung from his hands. But when he raised them now they looked perfectly normal.
Had he imagined it?
He thought of the slices that had been slashed into Leviathan’s cheek, the shock that had been in his eyes when he’d turned back to Cullen and knew it wasn’t possible. That had happened. His nails…his teeth…
He reached to touch his eyes, though of course he wouldn’t feel a difference, even if they’d changed. He could have gone to look for a mirror–but he didn’t need to do thateither. Because he could see it now.
The…sharpness.
The scrapes in the wood on the floor and the dust moats floating in the dark air. The thin layer of smoke that hung far above his head. Not from the fire but from some sweet, smoky scent coming from outside. Something was burning.
And somewhere far away, water gurgled and bubbled as if it were boiling. And down below him, somewhere in what must have been a massive building, Leviathan’s heart beat a frantic, angry rhythm. The more he focused on it all, the louder it grew, so he shook his head and brought his hands up to cover his ears as he squeezed his eyes closed.
Too loud. Too close, all of it.
The crackling of the fire. The heat in the room. The reek of blood. The memories of his body taking over, forcing him to attack his boyfriend, to bite him and drink his blood like some kind of freaky vampire.
And Walker…Walker had stabbed him. Or tried to anyway. Had screamed that he was a monster and that he needed to get away from him.
It hadn’t hurt so much at the time, not with his mind all blood-soaked. But now…now the thought of it brought him to his knees.
Walker didn’t want him.
Walker was scared of him.
More tears came and his lips trembled. And since Leviathan was no longer standing here watching him like some kind of fucking creep, Cullen let the grief of it all wash over him. He sat back against the edge of the bed, curling his body in on itself while he dropped his head into his lap and sobbed at the loss of it all.
8
For a long time, he simply let him cry. Let him sit on the floor of their bedroom and wail into his arms like a spoiled child. Leviathan remained several floors below, sprawled across a lounge chair in his private library, a book in his hand, though he had not managed to read, to pry his attention away from the crying boy above him.
He waited.
Minutes.
Hours.
Days.
And when Cullen had finally cried himself out, had finally moved from his place on the floor and started to walk across the room, Leviathan sprang up from his place on the chair and let the shadows swallow him up. When he stepped out of them again, his foot hit the familiar stone of his bedroom floor. His eyes instantly fell on Cullen, who had been moving towards the glass balcony doors. And who now stood frozen, his eyes wide as they came up to meetLeviathan’s.
