Title: Avow
Author: scy
Feedback: scynneh@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: Not mine
Fandom: Heroes/Moonlight
Pairing: Adam Monroe/Josef Konstantine
Rating: R
Spoilers: Up through 'Powerless' and 'Fated to Pretend'
Summary: Given enough time, things return.
Author's Notes: A crossover OTP of mine.
May 2008

There were channels through which different types of message passed. Josef had access to many, and he used them to send orders out, and obtain useful information. On occasion, though, an unexpected communication was delivered.

Josef stared at the email.

'At large. -A'

His computer guy was in South America, but Josef liked to give him projects so that he didn't feel unneeded.

"It was sent by a computer in an Internet cafe," Ryder said. "Sorry, but there's no way to tell who logged on, the user name was assigned by the network, there's nothing else to identify them with."

"Thanks," Josef said and hung up. Apparently whoever had sent the message was giving Josef the smallest amount of advance warning possible without openly invading Josef's territory. The number of people who would dare do that was small, and he knew that they'd show up sooner than expected.

When Josef came into his office, he smelled living blood, and felt a heartbeat throbbing in the air. Somebody was sitting at his desk, though the chair was turned to face the window and from the doorway, he couldn't tell who it was until he tasted the air.

“I know you're breathing me in,” a voice said. The accent was British, and familiar.

“I haven't seen you in a couple decades,” Josef said, coming forward, and the chair spun around.

Adam was lounging back like any businessman about to conduct a deal, but he seemed slightly disheveled, his collar was undone, an oriental sword was set against the wall nearby, and there a scent in the air that Josef didn't usually associate with the man. He had been running, not too long ago, from or towards something, and Josef didn't know that this had been his destination.

“Are you still Adam?” Josef asked.

“Why not, it's an old favorite,” Adam said, smiling.

“Do you plan on staying long?” Josef ignored the obvious reflection, he remembered the old days too, and how they'd ended up when the dust and blood settled. He was more cautious than some would believe, and even an old friend had to be forthright when they showed up unannounced, it was just smart.

Adam's smile became warmer, and he reached up to unfasten another button. “That depends on what sort of welcome you have in mind.”

Even from several feet away, Josef could pick out a droplet of perspiration as it glistened in the spot where skin disappeared under Adam's shirt. He crossed the few feet that separated them, and put his hands on the arm rests, leaning into Adam and inhaling through his mouth. “Are you trying to pay your way?”

As Adam's eyes drifted over Josef's face he began breathing faster. “I know how you like your pint of blood.”

“I won't be bought off,” Josef said. “Not even for what you're offering.”

“You're not the one offering up his throat,” Adam said.

“As if that meant anything lasting from you.”

“Maybe I've changed. Thirty years is enough time to consider the how one's actions can prove confining.” Adam frowned at Josef.

“What are you talking about?” Josef ran his tongue over his teeth, not yet sharp, but only just.

“Did you ever wonder why I didn't show up in New York?” Adam asked.

Josef had, but he didn't dwell on anyone's broken promises unless they directly affected him. “Momentarily.”

Adam sighed. “And you say that I'm jaded, Konstantine.”

“Here it's Kostan,” Josef said.

“I noticed that when I looked you up. Your company has its fingers in everything, even if the world only sees what you let them.”

“It's a good idea to be well connected.”

“That, we agree on,” Adam said.

“Is that why you're trying to get me to have a drink?” Josef asked.

“You've always been more agreeable after a bite and a fuck.”

“Is that what you think is going to happen?” Josef put a hand on Adam's throat, pushing inwards, feeling his breathing stagger as he fought to draw in air. “If you're dead, I can do what I want with your body, take a few samples, find out what it is that makes you so special. I have labs and scientists working for me now. Nobody would ask questions, you would disappear for good if I wanted it.”

Adam jerked his head to the side and jabbed his hand upwards to rest on Josef's chest, below his rib cage. “You feel that? I'm holding a silver knife, and if I so much as twitch, it's going to hit your heart. I'm not so naïve to think that you'd welcome me back without conditions, Josef, but don't assume that I'm not aware of what this modern age has done to the concept of confinement.” He shook his head. “I wasn't at liberty these last thirty years, old friend, somebody did what you describe, and I won't be permitting it again.”

Josef stopped leaving bruises, and stroked where blood rose in the shape of his fingers. “Where were you?”

“In a prison that I might as well have built with my own hands.”

“Did you destroy it?”

“I escaped,” Adam said. “That was enough.”

“For how long?” Josef had seen the villagers carrying torches and knew when to run and when to wait and set a trap.

Adam showed his teeth, and Josef knew that there had been a battle, and blood spilled.

“You already did it.”

“Not all of them are dead.”

“But they will be,” Josef said, and bent down, lips hard against Adam's. “If you don't get what you want.”

“As it should be,” Adam said, and grabbed Josef's lapels, yanked him closer and bringing them together.

Josef countered by hooking his fingers in Adam's belt and using it to toss him across the desk. He smirked down at Adam and tilted his head to one side. “The last time, where was it?” he asked.

Adam laid his hand on the right side of his throat. “Here, you bit so hard that if you could have, I would have scarred.”

“Too bad,” Josef said.

“I would have liked to keep it,” Adam said, and turned his head to the right.

Josef stroked Adam's throat thoughtfully. “If you've brought trouble, I'm not going to be dragged into it, Adam.”

“Stop worrying,” Adam said. “Enjoy what you have.”

“A philosopher you're not,” Josef said and let his fangs descend. He sank them into Adam's flesh, and felt the man jerk upwards, a primitive response to the threat, and then, he relaxed into the bite in a way that Josef had always savored.

Self control didn't apply in many situations that a vampire found himself in, but unless they wanted to have a cleaning service on speed dial, a drink wasn't fatal. That didn't apply to business, and some relationships shared the same principles.

When you met someone after your female companion had insisted she wanted to build a pirate army, expectations were skewed. Then, Adam had been young, looking, bled, but didn't die, and had a flexible morality that Josef appreciated. That had held true over the next couple hundred years, but now there was another layer that Josef wasn't sure about. Though as he pulled back, leaving Adam sprawled across his desk, pulse stuttering in his throat, Josef admitted that the man still looked and tasted good, and he shook off the blood loss and sat up on his elbows to smirk at Josef.

“How was I?”

“Just like I remember,” Josef said and licked his lips. The blood had given him a flush, but he hadn't shifted back all the way, and his eyes saw the heat beginning to be restored to Adam as his body healed from the blood loss in a matter of seconds.

“You like watching that,” Adam said, and adjusted his shirt.

“It's a uncommon sight,” Josef said. “You've never told me how you manage that every single time.”

“Dying is much less interesting,” Adam said.

“I agree. What are you going to do instead?”

Adam stretched, and if there hadn't been blood on his collar he would have looked like he was wrestling out a business deal, instead of being lunch. He smoothed down his suit and slid off the desk. "I hear you've got something of an exposure problem."

There was no reason to ask how Adam had found out, everybody had sources, and over a hundred years or so, it was easy to know how to ask the right questions. "It happens from time to time," Josef said. Usually he moved on, started over and made the problem go away. Now, there were factors preventing him from leaving, and of course Adam knew that, they'd seen the signs in each other before.

Adam rarely held back, but in this instance, he only brushed solidly against Josef as he retrieved his sword. "Well, I'm familiar with both sides of this sort of problem," Adam said.

"Lucky for me that you're in town," Josef said, taking a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiping his mouth.

"Isn't it just," Adam said as he stepped in close again, and touched Josef's face. "You missed a spot."

Josef lifted his chin, just to see what Adam would do, and the other man sighed and then grabbed him. 

"Do you want easy, or hard?" Adam asked.

"A little of both," Josef said, sated, but hunger rose again as they leaned into each other. "You know how," he said.

"Remind me," Adam said, and laughed when Josef bit down.
 

-end