Quiet Laughter

**Karnik doesn't belong to me. This chapter is co-written with Redaura**

Danu strolled up behind Karnik without a fear in the world, reached up and covered his eyes with her hands. "Guess who?"

Karnik’s lips twitched. "The fairest in the land?"

Danu chuckled, "Alas no, but the cleverest."

Karnik smiled. "That was masterly. Such a delicious tidbit you dangled in front of me." He turned to face her. "I have to concede you seem to have played my enforcer quite well."

"A queen always knows how to play her people." Danu said with a laugh. "As for dangling Tighe, I had nothing to do with that. Fate, it seems, conspires for your pleasure."
Karnik raised his eyebrow. "Oh? It seems that Royal was counting on you to keep the half breed from me..." His grin was evil. "Such a shame that would have been."

"Very much. She really can't blame me, I am merely keeping Tighe to his vow. To stay with Royal until their dying day."

Karnik grin grew wolfish. "You, are a remarkable being." He took her into his arms and twirled her madly around the room, ignoring the people that leapt out of their way.

Meanwhile, Royal led Tighe through the damp empty streets to the three story châteaux Karnik currently lived in. It had a lovely garden, a koi pond and thick gray stone walls.

The rich family who once graced the grand home met a unfortunate end many years before Royal came to be in her Master’s service but she could still hear their screams on rainy nights. Tighe could almost see them.

“What is this place?” he asked with a shudder. “It feels so…cold.”

“No time to explain. You want to stay with me? I gotta find a place to hide you.” Royal responded her eyes studying every thing the sparse light revealed.

“But fraella…”

“No buts.” She snapped jerking her brother through the room and into the dinning room. “If I was a blood thirsty vampire without a soul where would be the last place I would go…?”

She spared the large wooden table that dominated the room barely a thought. Eyed the ruby red drapes that covered the windows with distain for being too obvious. Royal let out a sigh before guiding her brother into the next room, the kitchen.

“I need an explanation” Tighe said pulling his arm free as his sister paced the room as she searched for a place to hide him. “How did this all happen? Why was Karnik at Grandmother Danu’s party? Does she know him?”

“She set us up, Tighe.” Royal snapped. “That twp slebog knew you vowed to stayed with me. She knew I’d leave you in her care. So now all she had to do was tap the Master on the shoulder and he’d ensure you’d keep your vow. Damnit!”

Just then she saw what could be her brother’s salvation. A place that only herself and the servants ever went into. The pantry.

“Stay in here until sunrise.” Royal told him as she shoved him inside. “I’ll go find someone pretty he’ll enjoy and see about permanent arrangements for you.”

She had just safely stashed her older brother in the pantry when Royal felt a breath on the back of her neck. She spun around quickly only to come face to face with Karnik. She gasped.

Karnik smiled nastily. "Got lost?"

"Master, I was." Royal allowed herself only a second to find a believable excuse. "Getting a snack for myself."

"That's nice. Why is my treasure in the cupboard?"

"Tighe? I left him in your room."

Karnik lashed out, his palm hitting Royal on the bottom of her chin, knocking her flying. "Like a second chance to answer?"

Royal shook off the dizziness and pain of the blow. She felt something in her hand, looked down to notice the door knob to the pantry was sitting in her hand. Royal let out a half mad giggle.

Karnik tilted his head to the side. "Glad you're finally seeing the funny side." He kicked out at her.

Royal crashed into one of the counters and nearly splintered it in half. Blindly she grabbed the first thing she could and threw it at her master. "I won't let you hurt him!"

Karnik pirouetted on his toes in glee. "I was hoping you were going to say that. What are you going to do?"

Royal pulled her aching body up, snatching up two butcher knives from the cracked counter as she rose. "What do you think I'm going to do?" she growled and charged the vampire.

Karnik ducked neatly beneath the knives and kicked her in the small of the back. "Why, go flying into my lovely furniture."

She rolled with the blow and ended up smacking the side of a velvet lounge. Royal let out another growl as she kicked up to her feet and went to deliver a slash to Karnik's stomach and then throat.

He let her knuckles graze his outfit, the buckles were made of iron and let her run past him, leading her a merry chase around the area.

The iron burned her but she wasn't going to let Karnik know that. If he knew it hurt her, then if he got to Tighe.... She let that thought go and focused on the fight.

In one fluid movement Karnik moved behind her, mimicking a moment of intimacy, one hand around her throat. He toyed with the idea of strangling her, but decided he'd rather play with his toy. He banged her head, ignoring her struggles, against the iron door until he was well and truly certain she was out.

In the pantry, Tighe kept frantically trying to open the door. He heard Royal growling and letting out shrieks of war. But what really scared him were the thumps and finally the eerie silence. Tighe suddenly heard someone approaching and prayed it was his sister.

Karnik dumped her without care onto the flagstones and approached the cupboard, keeping himself silent. With one swift movement he ripped the door from its hinges, bypassing the lack of door handle.

"Boo!" He yelled cheerfully.

Tighe screamed and went diving out of the pantry but one thing stopped him from making an escape. He saw Royal's battered body not two feet away. Tighe went to her side with a sob. "Fraella...wake up."

Karnik poked him with the toe of one boot, hoping it would prompt him into running.

Tighe ignored the nudge and drew his little sister's body into his lap. "Royal, wake up." he cried as he rocked her. "You're not supposed to be weak. You're the strong one, wake up!" Emotion over came him and he screamed at Karnik. "Why the hell did you hurt her?!"

Karnik rolled his eyes and kicked Tighe to the floor. "She's mine. I can do what I want."

"No! She was mine first!" Tighe shouted shielding Royal with his own body as he scooted back into the safety of the pantry. "You have no right to treat my baby sister this way!"

Karnik giggled at his naivety, entertained again. "You're mine too. And what's yours is mine."

"Fuck you!" Tighe screamed and began throwing the pantries contents at Karnik.

Karnik ducked the missiles and gave up waiting for his prey to run. He'd been looking forward to chasing him around his chateaux. Ah well, manually dragging him there was just as appealing. He easily slung the struggling fae over one shoulder and made his way to the red drawing room.

"Lemme go!" Tighe screamed as he kicked and began helplessly beating on Karnik's back. "No!" He stared at Royal's still form as he was carried away. "Royal!"

Karnik shook him. "Aren't you worried about what is going to happen to you?”

"T-to me?" Tighe asked in shock. He pulled himself upright and gave Karnik a puzzled look.

Karnik shrugged. "It will be a surprise then!"

Tighe was cautious. Royal told him that she rather him be dead than to be in her Master's clutches, so there had to be a reason.

"I don't like surprises."

Karnik laughed, delighted despite himself and let the fae slide down the front of his body until they were crotch to crotch. "I could just tell you..."

Tighe gulped audibly. He didn't like where this was headed. "That would be nice." he replied breathlessly.

"Here's a clue..." He locked his mouth onto Tighe’s, sensuous abuse before sinking his fangs into the tip of Tighe’s tongue. "A clue."

Tighe screamed inside the vampire's mouth and shoved him away. "No. No-no-no-no...” he said as he began to back away. He tasted his own blood and it spurred him into action.

Karnik let him get to steps before he tripped him to the floor, and using his hair, dragged his newest toy kicking and screaming to this favorite bedroom. It had everything he would need close to hand.

“No!” he screamed ignoring the pain, clutching the wrist of the hand that drug him by the hair so not to have his hair torn out. “Please let me go. Dieu einde, tereden.”

"Non!" Karnik said cheerfully, slamming the door behind him and shifting his grip on Tighe’s hair so he could fling him onto the bed. "Would you prefer branding or knives?"

The fact he spoke back to Tighe in the Fae tongue bewildered him long enough to get him tossed on the bed without a fight. The question however…

“Neither!” Tighe cried crawling off the bed.

Karnik laughed throatily. "How about some good old fashioned manual mutilation?" He pounced on Tighe just as he was about to clear the bed and flung him back into the center, tearing at his clothes. "Your guts would look lovely on my headboard."

Tighe began to scream and fought to keep his clothes. His mask was torn from his face when he went to protect his shirt. His shirt was shredded when he went to keep his pants. His pants were lost along with his shoes in a tangle of flesh.

"Ah sweet music." Karnik said and delicately sank one of his finger nails into the soft flesh of Tighe’s thigh. "The music of love." He added with dark amusement.

He hissed at the pain and was still. Royal tried fighting Karnik and lost. What could he do that his unfettered sister couldn’t? Tighe tried his best, he tried begging, he tried running and hiding. Karnik was simply too strong. All he could do was submit.

Karnik drew back and looked at his victim. "Given up already?"

At his words, Tighe’s temper flared. He was tired of simply `enduring’. His father tried `enduring’ a human war and it got him killed. He `endured’ Garai Lian and got raped. Tighe decided he was going to fight.

He raked his nails across Karnik’s face.

Karnik grinned. "That's the spirit!" and using one knee to pin him down grabbed the items he wanted. One iron brand and one knife. "Let's not be stingy here."

“Let go of me you bastard.” Tighe shouted grabbing a handful of Karnik’s hair and yanked hard. He had a fleeting Fae like thought about how soft his hair was but focused more on the present.

Karnik half snarled at him and stabbed him through the palm with his knife. "Never."

Tighe screamed and nearly passed out from the pain. The knife was iron or iron based and ate through his skin like acid. But he still could fight.

“Your mother was a slug and your father was a cockroach.” He said through gritted teeth before thumbing Karnik in the eye.

Karnik giggled. "Is that the best you can do?" He pulled the knife out slowly, wiggling it a bit.

Tighe gasped and fought against a wave of nausea. Keep fighting, he told himself. Just as the knife came free, Tighe brought up both hands and slammed them at least two times over Karnik’s ears.

"Delightful, but inconvenient." Karnik grabbed both of his hand, placed them palm to back and used the knife to pin them to the headboard and hummed in delight at the delicious sounds that brought forth.

Since he could no longer use his hands, Tighe tried using his legs to dislodge Karnik from atop his body. The smell of his blood and the scent of burning skin made his stomach roll and he nearly vomited.

Karnik grabbed one leg and nuzzled his inner thigh, his nails digging delicately in. "Oh how fine." He licked a lone thin line of saliva down to Tighe’s groin and swiftly pressed the branding iron into the soft flesh.

Tighe screamed in pain and arched up into Karnik. His leg was numb with throbbing anguish. He was coughing and gagging. Tears flowed down from his eyes in a steady stream.

"That's my mark on your leg. Allow me to assure that, should anyone get as far as to see this mark, they will cower at your feet and beg forgiveness." He sliced at the other thigh and pondered matching marks.

“Please stop.” Tighe sobbed and then went on to babble in various languages he learned over the centuries.

"But I'm not satisfied yet." He trailed his fingers and nails over Tighe’s body in an imitation of a lover caress, licking up the blood from here and there.

Tighe moaned, more out of pain than pleasure.

“What did I do wrong for you to have chosen me?” he asked weakly.

"You are merely a pretty victim of circumstance." He spread Tighe’s legs and forced the handle end of the brand into Tighe’s ass. "Hmm. Still so tight."

Tighe let out a hiccupping gasp. Memories of Lian’s rape of him assaulted his mind. He tried getting his feet under him to push himself away and force the brand out but his legs wouldn’t respond.

Karnik’s smile turned wolfish. "Perfect." With a practiced flip of his fingers he had unbuttoned his trousers and was pressing with brutal disregard into Tighe’s already abused entrance.

His feet began moving, kicking helplessly against Karnik’s side. Tighe managed to remove the brand, slapping the walls of his entrance against the silken steal of the vampire’s cock.

Karnik growled. "Now who said... you could do that." He thrust into Tighe’s body without mercy and sank his fangs into his neck.

A strange feeling of euphoria slammed into him as those sharp teeth sunk into his flesh. Perhaps the vampire struck a sweet spot, undiscovered by his prior rapist. It made his own cock twitch.

Did that make him a masochist, he wondered as he began making deep throated mews.

Karnik noted this response with interest, as it was usually one he had to work harder to bring about in tandem with so much pain. He pulled back slightly and scrapped his teeth all down the neck to see what reaction this caused.

He gasped and arched his head back, unconsciously exposing his neck to the fiend above him.

“Quit it.” Tighe managed to gasp out.

"Oh, I don't take orders from anyone." He continued teasing with his teeth, randomly biting down all along his neck, his torso, his arms....

He began to squirm uncomfortably, his hands fighting against the knife that pierced them. He arched into the bites without thinking, squeezing his eyes shut with a gasp with every dagger like blow. Tighe wanted something but didn’t know what he sought. He needed it but didn’t know how to ask.

It was only after Karnik had reached his climax, that he noticed his captive’s predicament. "What's wrong kitten?" He smiled and moved his mouth around the bite and explored the flesh of his belly and inner thighs.

“Something…” he panted. He arched up into Karnik again, seeking that illusive answer to his need.

In the dark and quiet nook that was once a pantry, Royal drew herself up to her feet groggily. She placed a hand to her head and came back with blood.

"Something?" Karnik said archly. "Don't tell me your lovers were all lacking... Basic information?" he said ignoring the blatant hypocrisy.

“I-I’ve only had two.” Tighe replied meekly. “And they…were in the last twenty-four hours.”

Back in the kitchen, Royal staggered toward the red drawing room where she knew her Master would have taken her brother.

Karnik’s disbelief did not show on his face. Instead he raised an eyebrow and smirked in a particularly carnal way.

"And this will be the one to remember." He pulled the knife out of Tighe’s hands, and moved his mouth around Tighe’s cock, threatening to bite.

He let out a squeak and held himself very still. The ripping of the knife from his flesh was merely a memory to the sensation of just Karnik’s breath near his cock.

Her Master had left the door open, Royal noticed as she staggered down the hall toward her destination.

He enveloped Tighe’s cock with his mouth, only slightly grazing the shaft with his teeth, and sucked.

The kitten should be awed. He hadn't done this for many centuries.

Tighe gasped and moaned loudly. He dug his injured hands into the mattress on either side of him and tried not to wildly thrust up into that talented mouth. His breathing became uneven. In his ears was the sound of silent church bells.

Royal watched silently in the shadows of the hall as he brother came. She shuddered as he bounced his head against the bed beneath him as another climax overcame him. Only when he was lying peacefully did she turn and leave for her own room at the other end of the estate.

Karnik licked his lips and growled in satisfaction, languidly licking some of the faster healing wounds as they healed. That had been very satisfying.

Tighe’s voice had given out along with his body. He could only watch helpless as Karnik tasted of his wounds. He let his mind wander back to his sister. He wished she was here but would have been mortified if she had seen him debased so.

Yet, he longed for her company.