The Hunt

19


River was unsettled by Andreji’s obscure behaviour. He hurried back to his room, packed his things, and checked out, paying his bill, as fast as he could to avoid any further agitation. He was ready to leave after an hour, at about eleven o’clock.

Once again, he was wondering what big boss was up to. Had he decided to leave spontaneously because he had been angry, or was there another reason?

The entrance door of the hotel swung open to admit two couples, dressed up in a way that made River assume they had been to the opera. They chatted animatedly as they stepped up to the reception. For a few moments, River just watched them listlessly to distract himself from further useless pondering. Suddenly, his eyes narrowed. That man looked strangely familiar…

The door opened a second time. Andreji strode in. With a few measured steps, he reached the armchair that River sat in. “Have you checked out already? If we go immediately, we can easily make it to the train at a quarter to twelve,” he said in a moderate, even tone.

River still stared towards the reception.

Andreji leaned forward, placing his left hand on the armrest and seizing his fledgling’s chin with his right hand to catch his attention. The young man slowly turned his gaze to him, surprised to find his Master next to him. “Sorry,” he mumbled, “I just…” His gaze drifted back to the person it had been fixed on before.

Andreji turned his head into the direction as well.

The couples stepped away from the front desk. Their eyes rested shortly on the only other people in the hall – River and Andreji – and headed towards the elevator.

“He doesn’t even recognise me,” River murmured.

“Pardon?”

River turned back to his Master; in the face of his impatient countenance awaking to the memory of their collision an hour ago. However, Andreji seemed inclined to hold in whatever snide remarks rested on his tongue. “I… Although I have never met him in person, I’m certain that man there, with the blonde woman plastering herself on him, that’s my father…,” River explained his behaviour.

“So?”

River looked at him puzzled.

“Do you want to meet him, now?”

The young man watched as the doors of the elevator closed. He shook his head. “There is nothing that connects me to this man, not really. I have realised that long ago.”

“Well then…,” Andreji seized River’s bag, “the train it is.” He looked down on his fledgling. “As your Master I inherit the duties that would have been your father’s before anyway.” He turned around and moved towards the exit.

River gazed at him with a bemused frown for a few seconds, before he followed this man that he was not sure he knew at all. Father, eh?

They took a taxi, and Andreji instructed the driver to head for the station.

“Where are we going?” River demanded to know.

“I will tell you everything once we are on the train,” Andreji delayed the answer.

They bought tickets from the ticket machine and boarded a train whose destination was ‘München’ five minutes before its official departure. It was relatively empty.

Having picked a compartment, they stowed River’s bag and Andreji’s belongings on the luggage rack and set down – facing each other – on the seats at the window.

A thought struck River. “What about my tattoo? I’ll need several more sessions before it’s completely removed…”

“I am certain that you can do that in France as well,” Andreji replied coolly.

“France?”

Andreji reached into his coat and took out a small piece of paper. He handed it his fledgling. “I would like you to be there in-,“ he counted a moment, “about fifty-one hours. This is an estate not far from Le Havre in the north of France.”

River chuckled, shaking his head as he read the address. “Your orders grow more and more obscure.”

“Keep silent about that location or about who you are,” Andreji went on as if the young man had not said anything. He dropped the tone of his voice by an octave as he impressed, “And do me and yourself the favour to stop talking to other vampires – or to anyone else about what happens between us, for that matter.”

Realisation and a small portion of guilt dawned on River. True, it was not very decent to discuss intimate details of their relationship with an outsider. Still, did not everybody need that from time to time? In his situation, that should be understandable, should it not? Everything was strange and new for River; he had no clue how things were supposed to be going, but the chat with Sage had affirmed that he was right sensing that something was not as it should be between him and his Master. He had a right to know, had he not?

Instead of saying that, however, River turned to a different question. “Was it the fact that I was discussing things with any other vampire that upset you so much or was it particularly Sage that bothered you?”

“Both,” Andreji admitted with a dark, humourless smirk. “You should know better than to converse with people who have whored their way into vampirism.”

“Pardon?” River asked in astonishment.

His Master waved the question off, apparently not interested in explaining himself.

The train jerked slightly and was set in motion.

For a while, they sat in silence, staring out of the window. Eventually, River raised his voice again. “You said to come to the place – that means we’re not going to travel the whole route together, I take it.”

“Hardly possible, as I am sure you have realised by now. Eat breakfast in Munich, take a train to Paris, stay there over night, and then go to Le Havre. Do you have enough money left?”

“Don’t worry.” From the way his Master spoke to him, River derived that Andreji was not quite as angry at him as he had originally assumed. The young man just wished his Master would not be so distant. He longed for their relationship to be closer, warmer.

The ticket inspector slid the door to their compartment open. “Guten Abend. Die Fahrscheine bitte.”

Andreji handed her the tickets.

She read them, marked them, and handed them back, thanking Andreji.

When she had gone, River used the unlikelihood of any further interruption and leaned forward to rest a hand on Andreji’s knee. His Master looked at him neutrally. His heart pounding faster with fear of being repudiated again, he got up and initiated a soft kiss. Giving the older man every time in the world to object, he slowly settled down on his lap and teased his lips to ask for entrance. He was surprised at himself for the hunger that flared up in him.

He was even more surprised when a hand settled firmly on his butt, and Andreji rose, taking him along so that River clutched his Master’s hips with his legs to keep from falling and embraced him, feeling Andreji’s strong shoulders under his arms. The still expressionless man switched off the light and drew the curtains of the compartment door.

“What are you up to?” River asked, amused, doubtful, and excited all at once. A second later, he found himself pressed against the cool glass of the window, his mouth violently invaded by a hot, moist tongue, Andreji’s stomach exerting an exquisite pressure on his loins. The Japanese moaned silently, burying his hands in masses of silky, white hair. All the tension of the evening and the past days flowed into their kiss and into his groin, the longing hardening his member before he knew what was going on.

River let his hand feel the muscular chest in front of him, feel the heat radiating from it. He let it slip lower, between their bodies and beneath the soft waistband of Andreji’s trousers, eager to ascertain that there was passion in his Master as well. The hard flesh he sought out twitched slightly as River’s fingers grazed over it. He enclosed it in his hand and gave it a soft massage. Sweet delight, while his lips started to hurt from the assault they were under. He tilted his head up to expose his neck. The attacking lips accepted the substitute.

Andreji’s hands wandered from River’s bottom over his hipbones to the fastening of his trousers to open it.

“Perhaps we shouldn’t in here…,” River objected half-heartedly.

A low chuckle against his neck send warm sparks into his guts. Suddenly, he was set on his feet. His trousers and pants were pulled down. “Andreji!” he hissed, not at all thrilled by the idea of being caught in the nude by the ticket inspector or another passenger. However, before he could act any further upon his indignation, warm depth closed around his erection so that all he could do was detain the contented moan that threatened to rise in his throat. A little play with his foreskin, a bit of sucking and licking on his testicles, and in between, his Master fully helped him out of his trousers.

A few instances later, River found himself on all fours on the floor, his arms sprawled out, almost touching the door in front of him, his legs spread wide, a latex-covered finger presenting him with the sweetest sensations as it circled inside of him. Yet another minute or two later, Andreji’s thick hardness pressed against his entrance. River breathed deeply, his face flushed, his member pulsing hotly as it dangled between his legs. The taller man slipped past the resistance of his fledgling’s body, gliding slowly but determinedly deeper and deeper into his tightness. River could not refrain from whimpering a few times.

Muted steps advanced in the corridor outside. Andreji paid them no attention. River, however, pricked his ears intently. For some bewildering reason, his member grew even harder from the excitement. The steps passed by while Andreji moved slowly in and out, rendering River’s breathing ragged. This position was perfect, River had to admit, his eyes fluttering shut. “Uh… Andreji…,” he whispered, once more deprived of any coherent thought, an urge to feel that name on his tongue erupting from deep inside him.

A strong hand settled on the back of his head, messing up his hair but also providing a strange feeling of security. After a while, it was removed and instead slipped beneath River’s shirt to caress his stomach (his member twitched in anticipation) and his chest (his member grew impatient) and rub his nipples between index finger and thumb (he felt like coming – if Andreji had only been moving a little faster!).

Suddenly, he was jerked up- still impaled – and pressed against Andreji’s chest. Both of the other man’s hands were now moving over his upper body and along his thighs. River rested his head against his Master’s shoulder, moving in the rhythm of Andreji’s hips pushing his hardness into him. Whimpers. Soft moans. He grabbed for a hold, one hand on the seat next to him, the other settling on the warm flesh of Andreji’s butt. “More,” he murmured.

A hand caressed his cheek. The thumb pushed past River’s lips into his mouth. He welcomed it eagerly, sucking it in almost as if it was a different part of Andreji’s body. Finally!, two fingers started teasing the tip of his throbbing erection, smudging the fluid that had emerged there already. “Yes,” he hissed past the digit in his mouth.

Andreji’s pushes grew harder, and so did his grip. He pulled River up on his feet, turning him to the window, where the younger man’s hands found hold as he bent over, and making him stand on his toes. With each push, they collided hard with each other, River’s bottom cheeks quaking wildly. Heat rolled over him as long and extensively as the young man had never experienced it before when he spilled more and more of his seed onto the window and the small container for litter beneath it.

Panting, the two of them remained in the exact position for several moments, savouring the afterglow. River did not even stop standing on tiptoe, despite it growing a little uncomfortable.

Eventually, Andreji pulled out and got rid of the used condom. River turned around and watched his Master put away his sex and button his trousers. He leaned in for a kiss, savouring Andreji’s taste.

“You would not have some paper tissues?” Andreji asked, holding out his come-smeared hands.

River smiled, filled with warm contentment, and fetched some out of his bag. He handed one to the other man, used another to clean himself as well as possible, and dressed again. Afterwards, he cleaned the compartment of what he had left behind and opened the window to air it.

In the end, River settled down on his Master’s lap. He yearned to remain close to him, to kiss him, to feel that the other man was not quite as cool as he seemed to be.

“Why a condom, though?” he asked as he leaned back in Andreji’s arms.

“I have a few days to go without any opportunity to take a shower,” Andreji explained matter-of-factly.

River toyed with the tickets that had lain on the seat next to Andreji’s. In the dim light that fell trough the window at times, he noticed something. “You’re not coming with me to Munich? This one says… - ehm – something else,” River asked, avoiding speaking out the German name of the town that was printed out as destination.

Andreji smirked. “Am I detecting a sadistic streak in you there?”

“Pardon?”

Andreji fished for the information sheet that held the arrival times and handed it his fledgling.

River glanced at it, not understanding what this was about. Then he saw it. “Oh, right. Sunrise.”

Andreji shrugged.

River snuggled up to him, closing his eyes. What lay hidden behind that French address? Why was Andreji luring him there so suddenly?

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