The sun glinted blindingly off of the expensive sunglasses that sheltered the tall, cluttered young man’s eyes, and he shivered slightly as he drew his thick coat around him to hide himself from the daylight. The hat on his head covered his blonde hair, and the red scarf and gloves made him look like a hypochondriac penguin with an allergy to both air and fashion. He glared angrily up at the tall wrought iron gate that enclosed the apartment complex, his perfectly rounded nose twitching slightly as he curled his upper lip in disdain.

Did that idiot really intend to live in this disgusting place? The bittersweet stench of humanity was overwhelming his nostrils and he could barely keep from gagging. If this was his abode of choice, then he’d have to find a different roommate.

There was such a thing as standards.

He punched the series of numbers he had been given into the gate’s touch-tone keypad, flinching as he broke one of the tiny metal digits. The mechanism promptly began to make dialing sounds, which turned to ringing, then to a whir, a click, and the sound of the rusty gate sliding open.

He was suddenly very tempted to be turn around and walk away, but he knew that doing so would anger his friend. He entered slowly, cursing the bright sun for being so hot and himself for not putting on enough sunscreen. (He had used only one bottle instead of two.) He scrutinized the small, uninteresting little buildings. It all looked so… boring.

It didn’t take long to find the right apartment… it was the only one that had loud rock music blaring from the inside. He didn’t bother to knock, choosing instead to swing open the unlocked door and slam it shut behind him. The inhumanly fast guitar chords that had led him here were being blasted by an expensive speaker system that the damned klepto fox had probably swindled from some enamored little boy. He noticed with keen interest the little electric guitar propped against the coffee table. It seemed that the music had been recorded by the tenant himself.

The outside of the cramped apartment clashed almost comically with the rest of the inside. Where the outside was dilapidated and cheap, the inside was brimming with expensive and rare items and furniture. The speaker system itself was over 900 dollars and stood over six feet tall, while the television was flat screened and large, the carpet made by a famous French designer, and even the couch was made with the most beautiful white fox fur. This slightly disturbed Artemis, considering, and when he heard the soft footsteps of his friend he looked up and opened his mouth to ask exactly why a werefox would have a couch made of real fox fur… but his accusation was cut off by the half-naked male glomping him.

“Arty! You made it!”

“Mercury… I understand that class is not really your thing, but could you at least try and cover yourself before letting in visitors?” Artemis said, closing his eyes.

The shape shifter laughed, released his captive, and ran a hand through his dripping wet hair. He was clothed only in a sky blue towel, and his skin was wet and warm from the fresh shower. Artemis felt his skin heating up— he knew the flush would be obvious if he hadn’t been wearing so many layers. Mercury was a horrid little thing. Oh, how he hated him.

Unfortunately, the fox’s unorthodox appearance caused him problems. Most people thought that his hair was bleached, and that his too-blue eyes were contacts, but they were not. His appearance changed the day he was bitten and transformed by the one who came before him; his dark blonde hair had faded to the snowy white color of his canine form’s fur, and his dark blue eyes turned icy and dilated as his vision improved to inhuman levels. Add that to the piercings on his lip and his ears, the sharp canines (not as sharp as Artemis’s own) and the long, deadly sharp, unbreakable claw-like fingernails, and you had a generic ‘good-for-nothing punk’. Which he wasn’t, of course, but first impressions rarely ever changed.

“You’re not a visitor, mon chérie. You’re my roommate.” He said.

“Actually, about that…”

“What?”

“Couldn’t you have found a more… distinguished… place to live? These apartments reek of humanity.”

“Think of it as a food source.” The lithe young man turned up the radio and flopped on the couch.

Artemis winced and fought the urge to shield his ears from the music. “A food source.” He repeated slowly. “You shouldn’t joke like that, Mercury. It’s unbecoming.”

“I know, I know.” The were stretched his long legs out purposefully and ran his tongue over the small hoop in his lower lip. It was a habit he usually displayed when distracted.

“I’m not going to live in this... this… stink hole.” Artemis stated forcefully.

“Stink hole? It’s not that bad.”

“It’s so umano!”

“English, mon ami. I don’t speak Italien.”

“And I don’t speak Francese, but you use it anyway.”

“Then we’re both at fault, no?”

“Don’t start with the accent. You got rid of that over 50 years ago.”

“Yeah, yeah. What is umano?”

“Human. This place is overrun by humans.”

“Uh… duh. It’s an apartment complex.”

“Why choose a place so utterly mortal?”

“Because it’s fun to be surrounded by ignorance.”

“You have strange ideas, vixen.”

The smaller male frowned in distaste. “I told you not to call me that. I may be a fox, but I’m a guy fox. Vixen’s are chicks.”

“Speaking of vixens… would you please explain to me why the couch you are so languidly laying upon is made of the fur of your brethren?”

Mercury let out a sharp bark of sardonic laughter. “Tell you what. I’ll explain it to you if you stop forcing yourself to talk like a hoity-toity British aristocrat.”

“Forcing?”

“Artemis, you know damn well that that type of archaic language sounds stupid coming from someone that looks like a teenager. Speaking of appearances… good Lord, I mean… look at you. I understand that you’re a vampire, but is it really necessary to wear sunglasses, a scarf, a leather coat, leather pants, boots, and a hat… in May? It’s not even hot outside!”

“It’s sunny.”

“You’re not going to burn up and die, Artemis! For God’s sake, you’ve already dispelled half the vampire myths just by wearing cross earrings and carrying a mirror around in your damn pocket! And in case you’ve forgotten, we went to the mother-fucking beach last year! During the day!”

“I was wearing sunscreen.”

“I know… I got five bucks when I recycled the bottles. You used ten of them.”

“And still got a sunburn, remember? A bad one.”

“And you got over it!”

“After three months of taking baths in that stinky aloe vera shit!”

“Haha!” Mercury laughed gleefully, clapping his hands together. “I win! You’re talking normal again!”

The Italian collapsed to the floor dramatically, his arms raised in mock despair. “Oh, Great Lord above… deliver me from this evil, and I shall serve you forever…”

Mercury wrinkled his nose and threw a pillow at him. “God damn Drama Queen!!!!!”

Artemis laughed. “Drama King, vixen. Now. I stopped talking like a ‘hoity-toity British aristocrat’, so now it’s your turn to explain the couch.” He paused. “And I could take it as an insult that you’ve called me British.”

“Whatever.” The white-haired male said dismissively. “Do you want my explanation or not?”

“Yes, please.”

“Okay… don’t laugh at me.” The werefox sat up straight and brought his knees to his chest. He stroked the white fur idly, almost lovingly. “I did it because… well… I thought it would be better if I had it.”

“I don’t get it.”

“Look.” His expression was serious. “These foxes… they were killed for their fur. For sport. They were killed so some rich-ass-noble-aristocratic-holier-than-thou fucktard could have a fox head up on his wall and a blanket over his bed. But who did it doesn’t really matter… what matters is that it’s been done. And that it can’t be un-done.”

“And… this means…”

“I was walking through the mall after getting my tongue pierced—”

“Wait, wait, wait. You got your tongue pierced?”

“Of all the important things I’m explaining, that’s the part that catches your interest. I should have know.” He stuck out his tongue so the vampire could see the silver stud that pierced the muscle.

Artemis shook his head in exasperation. “And they say that weres are allergic to silver.”

“Like they say that vampires can’t eat garlic?”

“I’m Italian. What kind of Italian can’t eat garlic?”

“A smart one. I’m never going out for pizza with you again. Anyway, I was looking for something I could eat without being in pain when I saw this through the window of an antique store. The shop keeper guy was arguing with some prick about the price. The guy reeked of blood, and I knew… I knew that he had killed animals for their fur before, ya know? And… and I knew then that I couldn’t let him have it.”

Artemis nodded. “Go on.”

The shape shifter sighed and gestured for the blonde to sit next to him. When he had sat down and gotten comfortable, the story continued.

“I went into the store and told the guy that for every hundred or thousand the hunter dude promised him, I’d up the price. The hunter dude was pissed, so he kept raising until it reached the highest amount it could go.”

“How much, Mercury.” It wasn’t a question. It was a demand.

“One hundred thousand.”

“Mercury!”

He ignored him. “The hunter dude smirked at me and said, ‘Top that, kid.’ So I pulled my credit card out of my wallet and told the guy that I’d pay him two hundred thousand.”

“And he sold it to you.”

“Yeah. He even said he’d send someone to help me bring it here. I told him I didn’t need help. I’d move it myself.” He looked away from the vampire’s gaze and sighed forlornly. “I put it right there, and I laid down on it and just started crying. I mean… these were full foxes, ya know? Not werefoxes like me. And I stayed on it the whole night, and it was like the spirits of the foxes were with me, thanking me for saving them from their fate. I think I might have fallen asleep on the damn thing.” He paused. “And when I woke up, I realized that I had to cheer up and stop acting emo. Now the couch is here with me, and I can appreciate it, and I can treat the couch with care instead of pride and arrogance like that selfish son of a bitch I yanked it from.”

“Ah. I see.” Artemis said.“I understand.” He reached his arms out and pulled Mercury closer to him. “I think you did the right thing. You deserve it more than any of those damn humans do.”

“Yeah.” He paused. “We should get off of it now.”

“Yeah?”

“Well… your ‘penguin hobo in the middle of the Arctic’ clothes are keeping me from feeling your skin, and I don’t think their spirits would appreciate it if you stripped on top of them.”

Artemis scoffed. “And your ‘I’m not naked, I’m just relaxed’ outfit is okay?”

“I was naked already when you got here, blood sucker!”

“And that’s supposed to make it any better, dog?” The blonde took off his sunglasses and set them on the table, then removed his hat, his scarf, and his boots.

“I’m not a dog! Rozy’s a dog. I’m a fox.”

“Technically, Roziel is a wolf.” His now bare and ungloved fingers flew down his coat, unbuttoning each little metal skull in a fraction of a second.

“He’s more of a dog than me!”

“Both foxes and wolves are in the canine family.” The coat was shrugged off and discarded unceremoniously on the carpet. He was left in only the leather pants, a studded belt, and a blood red tank top that read, in large, Gothic, black lettering, “Bite me”.

“But foxes are more feline than wolves.” Mercury continued.

“For God’s sake, Mercury! Enough with the stupid, pointless arguments!!!!!” He was tempted to take the scarf and gag the boy!

“You started it!”

“How the fuck did I start it?!”

“I don’t know!” He yelled in frustration. They were both standing now, having risen during the verbal squabble.

“Well, there you have it!”

Mercury let out an annoyed shriek and stomped towards the bedroom. “You’re so fucking arrogant, I—” His eyes widened with surprise as his feet slipped on a puddle left behind from the shower and went out from under him. He fell to the floor with an “oomph”, his towel loosening and slipping off as he descended.

“Grlf…” Artemis made a strange sound, and when the fox sat up indignantly he realized that the vampire was trying to keep from laughing.

“It’s not funny!” He cried, pushing himself up. He glared at the older male, who could no longer keep in his guffaws and chuckles and burst into hysterical laughter.

“Really, Mercury. If you’re trying to intimidate me, it won’t work.” He stared at the were pointedly, bursting into laughter once more as the lithe young man’s skin flushed, only just now realizing the full extent of his nakedness.

“Argh!” Mercury swept the towel off of the floor and ran into the bedroom, slamming the door behind him. Unfortunately, he had used the entire force of his animalistic strength and ended up breaking the door off of the hinges. He let out an angry and humiliated growl and slumped on the large oak four-poster bed, swiftly shutting the thick red velvet curtains before Artemis could enter the room.

“Aw, come on, Mercury! It’s not like I haven’t seen you naked before!”

“Not on accident!”

“How the hell is it any different?”

“It just is!”

“Don’t hide from me! I was only joking.”

His reply was a low mumble that sounded something like “Shut the hell up you glorified mosquito”.

“Mosquito?!” Artemis repeated incredulously. “Mosquito?!”

“Mosquito!!! You’re an arrogant, self-righteous, vain, egotistical, bigheaded, pretentious, ostentatious, supercilious, self-centered, bigheaded—”

“You said that one already.”

“—stupid, idiotic, reckless, shallow, evil, murderous, old, senile, insane, criminal, psychotic, perverted, horny, preternatural, inhuman, demonic blood-sucking moustique!!!!!”

“…”

“Is that really how you think of me?” The vampire’s voice was dripping with malice.

“YES!!!”

“Well, then…” He shoved the curtains aside and pounced on the surprised male, pinning his arms down above his head and ignoring his thrashing.

“Get off!!!”

“Would you like to now what I think of you, dog?”

“I don’t give a shit, leech!”

“I think that you’re a silly, foolish, uncontrolled, irresponsible little cagnolino that has no regard for his own well being!”

“GET THE FUCK OFF ME!!!!!”

“No.” Artemis shifted so that his entire weight was pressed against the fox.

“You’re too heavy!”

“I’m sorry… my Give-a-Damner is broken.”

“Like I give a rat’s ass about your Give-a-Damner! Get off!”

“No!” He pushed down on Mercury’s arms. “I don’t know what the hell your major malfunction is, but I do not like being compared to a tiny, useless, and annoying insect! I’m way too attractive to be anything like an ugly little bug!!!!!”

“Pfft…”

“Eh?”

Now it was the fox’s turn to burst into laughter, the shocked and offended look on the vampire’s face out of place enough to dissolve his last grain of antagonism. “Mon Dieu… you really mean that, don’t you?”

“Of course I do!” He said, confused.

“Of course you do.” The fox reiterated. “You really are vain.” He reached up and mussed the blonde’s silky locks.

“Hey!” He sat up and patted down his hair, rolling his eyes. He might have looked ridiculously inept in his earlier outfit, but without all the layers it was obvious that he was really quite attractive. His hair was a light, shoulder-length platinum blonde, and his skin was the color of precious ivory. He was thin, with a graceful neck and slender fingers that tapered into long, clear, and perfectly manicured fingernails. His most endearing quality, however, was the fact that his eyes were two different colors. His right eye was the most brilliant emerald green, and his left was the color of sapphires.

“You’re a strange one. And I take back my insults… except for the ones calling you vain and arrogant. I think I’m justified in those.” He noticed with vague interest that the vampire’s skin seemed to be paler than usual.

“That’s the problem. You really shouldn’t be thinking at all… you’ll hurt yourself.”

“I could say the same thing to you.”

“You could, but it wouldn’t be quite as accurate.”

“Hmph. So, mon chérie… are you going to get off of me?” He asked wryly.

“I would, but that would defeat my purpose of coming here.”

“I’m guessing that your ‘purpose’ had something to do with your insatiable libido.”

Artemis only grinned.

“My… I must be psychic.” He quipped sarcastically. “However did I guess?” He blinked then, another startling realization hitting him as he figured out the exact reason why Artemis’s skin seemed to be so insipid. “Artemis!”

“What?”

“You stubborn fool! When was the last time you fed?”

The blonde’s face darkened. “That’s a stupid question. Can’t we just—”

“Artemis!”

“It’s not important.”

“Pour l’amour de Dieu!!! Your skin is almost as white as my fur!”

Artemis snorted.

“Don’t snort at me you fucking imbécile, or I’ll shove a pencil up your damn nostrils! Come here.” He rested his hands on his companion’s cheeks, flinching at the feel of the cold flesh hitting his warm skin. “You haven’t fed today.”

“I don’t have to feed every day, you know.”

“But you didn’t feed yesterday either, did you?”

The fox sighed concernedly. “I know you much too well, Arty. If you had your way, you’d waste away into infernal nothingness. How you lived without me, I haven’t the faintest fucking idea.”

“I’d like to now how I live with you.”

“So you’re playing that card now?”

“If I’m playing a card, then yes.”

“You need to feed.”

“I’d rather starve.”

“I’m aware of that, dipshit. But I, as your best friend, can not allow that to happen.”

“You’re not my mother, asshole.”

“Artemis.”

“No.”

“Arty.”

“NO.”

“Artemis!”

“I SAID NO!!!”

“Je jure devant Dieu, Artemis! It won’t kill me, and you know it! It’s not like you haven’t done it before!”

“That doesn’t mean I like to do it!”

“Keep telling yourself that, dumbass. Now drink, or so help me God I will slit my wrist and shove it in your pussy-footing mouth. Do you understand me?”

The blonde let out an angry and defeated sound and pushed the smaller male down hard on the bed. “Yes, I understand you! If it’ll make you fucking shut the hell up, I’ll drink your damn blood. But don’t you dare blame me if you get anemic.”

Mercury snorted and threw back his head. “Scaredy-cat.”

“Yeah, yeah.” His mismatched eyes rolled in annoyance as he slipped his hand behind the werefox’s head and tangled his fingers in his velvety soft white hair. His lips hovered over the throbbing artery, his heart beating in his chest as the smell of the other male’s blood grew stronger and more potent with the rushing adrenaline. “Sorry.” He said.

“You’ll be even sorrier if you don’t hurry the fuck up.” His breath hitched at the feel of the tiny, sharp fangs puncturing his throat.

Artemis only moaned as the rush of hot blood filled his mouth with the flavor of crimson honey, and his earlier hesitancy all but disappeared along with his reason. He barely registered the were’s claws ripping his shirt as they grasped for some kind of hold, digging into his skin when they found none. He could, however, feel the rapid beating of both of their hearts as the ecstasy of taking and being taken filled their inhuman minds.

They never fully understood why the drinking of Mercury’s blood didn’t do to Artemis what their friend Roziel’s had done to the vampire who had tried to take him. Artemis thought it was because the vampire was newborn, and he himself was over 500 years old. Mercury believed it had to do with something he called “le Effet à Sonnette” or, “The Rattlesnake Effect”.

The theory was simple: A baby rattlesnake’s venom is more dangerous than that of an adult’s. The reason for this was due to two factors— baby rattlesnakes had less control over the amount of venom they injected into their attackers, and their small size made the poison more concentrated.

Roziel was turned into a werewolf during a battle between the shallow-minded weres and vampires of 100 years ago. Promptly after being bitten by a werewolf, he was discovered by a fledgling vampire who decided to turn him in an effort to gain a slave. The fresh were-venom in Roziel’s blood killed the vampire, but the vampire’s own blood had already entered his wound and mixed with the were genes. It had created a sort of split personality in the young boy, who was thirteen years old at the time and small for his age.

Mercury, on the other hand, was turned by a female werefox in France shortly after he was left orphaned by war. She had taken him under her wing and showed him how to fend for himself, before committing suicide a week later. He was seventeen, and nowhere near as tiny as the young Roziel.

He found Artemis in a deep, death-like sleep 50 years later on a trip to New England. His blood was neither as fresh nor as concentrated as Roziel’s had been when he allowed the vampire to drink from him, and if he hadn’t have found Artemis when he did, the blonde would have undoubtedly died from starvation.

In fact, the God damn idiot had that problem a lot. Sometimes the guilt of stealing a living person’s precious blood was enough to make Artemis suicidal, and that was when Mercury had to step in. Because he was not neither human nor animal, his blood cells reproduced much faster than a normal person’s; Artemis could drain enough to make the were lose consciousness one night, but the next day he would be back on his feet and healthier than before. It came in handy when the Italian had stubbornly gone without feeding for two or three days and was about ready to collapse. Mercury could always sense when this was the case and interfered before any true damage was done to the vampire’s psyche.

It was the same thing this time, even though Artemis had tried to hide his tell-tale pallor with the fifty-million layers of clothing.

“Artemis.” He whispered. The feel of his blood leaving his body was always an exhilarating feeling that, more often than not, caused him to become strangely high and drunk with lust. “Artemis…”

“Nn…” The blonde grudgingly unlocked himself from his partner’s rosy skin and gasped for breath. There was no blood on his lips, no traces of the intoxicating liquid anywhere in his mouth or on his tongue. Mercury’s wound had already closed; the holes too small and superficial to keep his supernatural genes from healing.

He kissed him now, starting out slow and chaste and quickly transitioning into a more feral and ferocious tango. He savored the new and unfamiliar feeling of the cool metal stud on their tongues. His fingers danced lightly over the fox’s bare skin, the barely there feeling sending little shivers of pleasure down the shape shifter’s strong spine.

Mercury broke apart from him and pressed his lips to Artemis’s shoulder, his tongue flitting out to taste the skin. The vampire’s color was deeper now, the fresh blood in his veins giving him a deeper, rosier coloring. He was no longer cold and hard, but was now warm and soft from the nutrients and arousal that coursed through him.

Mercury loved it when he was like this.

“Mm… Mercury.” The blood drinker’s Italian accent was stronger in the complete abandon of his thoughts. “You… taste good…”

“So do you, mon chérie.” He breathed. “Your skin is warm again.”

“That means I’m full.” The arrogance disappeared as he let out an uncharacteristic giggle. “And drunk.”

“I like you better drunk.”

“I know you do, vixen. And I like you better naked.” He pushed his hips down and forward, the friction startling a gasp from the were.

“Damn you, you arrogant son of a bitch!”

“Heh.” His fingers trailed down his firm, fit torso and dipped into his belly button. “I suppose I might be… but just a little bit.”

“Just a little?” Mercury let out another bark of laughter.

“Yes. Just a little.” His fingers stopped their decent on his stomach. “Not horribly so.”

“You’re jokes are always really fucking hilarious.”

“Oh, really?”

“Oh, yeah.”

He laughed and reanimated his slender digits, moving further and further downward until they tangled themselves into a small nest of soft snowy curls. Mercury shivered at the feel of the smooth nails so close to the most intimate part of himself.

“You tease too much.”

“Do I? I hadn’t noticed.” He smirked and rested his lips on the werefox’s collarbone. He stayed there for a moment, breathing in the sweet, musky, animalistic scent that seeped from his pores. “I tend to think that I don’t tease enough.”

“Tease me any more and I’ll sue you.”

“How can you sue me when all your money is either stolen or mine?”

“Not all of it. I make money when I perform.”

“On the street corners.”

“You make me sound like a whore, Artemis. I sing and play guitar.”

“You entertain people for money. Isn’t that what a whore is?”

“Says the vampire that models for Gucci.”

“I may model for them, but I’m not famous or anything.”

“You were in Playgirl.”

“Come to think of it, a model is more of a whore than a singer that plays guitar on the streets.”

“I don’t think so.”

“You get paid for being naked.”

“I have never been photographed fully naked!”

“Key word: Fully.”

“Mercury!”

“J-k, j-k.” The fox said flippantly.

“Oh, God. I hate it when you use that leet bullshit.”

“Technically, it’s one-three-three-seven.”

“I don’t care!”

“And therein lays the rub!”

Artemis growled.

“What?”

“I hate Shakespeare. He was a prick.”

“You speak like you’ve met him personally.”

“I did. He was an ass— thought that he was better than everyone else. I was tempted to drain him just to shut him up. And you know what? I bet he didn’t even write all those damn plays. I bet he got someone else to do it for him.”

“How cute… is that a hint of jealousy I hear?”

“Jealousy? Pfft. Hardly. But let’s stop talking now.” He blew on the were’s burning skin. “Why are you animal-people so damn warm? It’s like you’ve been on fire recently or something.”

“We’re hot-blooded, I think.”

“Mm-hmm.” Artemis moved his lips from Mercury’s collarbone to one of his perfectly pink and round nipples. He took it in his mouth, swirling his tongue around the pert nub and growing even more stimulated with every little sigh that his younger companion produced. When he could stand it no longer, he sunk his fangs down into the skin and drew out a tiny bit of the warm blood. He sucked for a little while, then detached his fangs and continued to kiss down the quivering stomach.

Mercury groaned and arched his back. “Damn it, Artemis! Stop your fucking teas—” He gasped as Artemis took him whole in his mouth, the warm, wet feeling causing him to moan. The act was driving him to an excruciatingly wonderful numbness, and he felt himself slipping away, his mind foggy and unclear. He would have disappeared completely, if it hadn’t been for the vampire grazing his sharp fangs across the deep blue vein on the underside of his sensitive length.

“Aïe! You little bastard!” He shrieked, digging his toes into the expensive Egyptian cotton sheets. “Fucking sadique!”!”

“I’m a what now?”

“Sadist!!!”

“Oh?”

“YES!”

“Well… if you want me to be…”

“What do you—” His voice was muffled as Artemis deftly twisted his body around and bit down into his shoulder.

“Nng!” He inhaled sharply as the Italian’s long fingers pressed inside him, the smooth nails scraping against his walls as the vampire probed him. “Mmm… Artemis… you bitch…..” He gasped.

“You’re too kind.” He forced in another digit and chuckled at the cry that escaped Mercury’s lips. “And if I’m a sadist, then wouldn’t you be considered a masochist?”

“Gg…Nn…” He growled and fisted the bed sheets, his teeth biting down on the blankets.

Artemis smirked and pushed his digits in deeper, drawing even more strangled moans out of the smaller male’s lips. He pulled them out and pressed them in again, over and over, stretching and scissoring and prodding as the guitarist pushed down on them wantonly.

He licked his lips, the taste of the saccharine crimson still slightly lingering. He removed his probing fingers and quickly did away with his pants.

“Come on, Artemis…” Mercury groaned. “Hurry up, I can’t fucking—” He released a pent up scream of frustration and ecstasy as the model forced himself inside him, rocking his hips back and forth to propel himself deeper.

“Oh, Dio…Oh, God…” Artemis moaned. He shifted, shuddering as the warm, taut muscles tightened around him. Mercury’s moans were music to is ears; low, guttural, feral and dripping with lust.

He moved, thrusting in at a steady rhythm, and his hand gripped Mercury’s hot, pulsing member and pumped it in time to his own beat. More throaty growls emitted from the writhing and twisting young man beneath him, and Artemis could barely keep from crying out when the werefox’s claw-like nails dug even deeper and more painfully into his preternatural flesh. His pace quickened, and the friction of their bodies rubbing together caused the most wonderful and scorching sensation of heat. He was tempted to bite down once more into the flushed skin of the man’s exposed throat, but was caught up in an even greater, more intense wave of pleasure and could only let out a deep, masculine moan and a string of Italian curses as his climax hit him more powerfully and suddenly than it ever had before. He didn’t stop, however, and continued to thrust until a choked out whimper alerted him to the location of the one spot that would make the wild and animalistic guitarist join him in release. His hands pumped harder and faster and his thrusts targeted and hit that tiny area over, and over, and over again until the were was left gasping and twisting and squirming, and curling his toes at the peak of his rapture. One more perfectly aimed strike triggered Mercury’s white-hot release.

Artemis drew out and collapsed on the bed next to his companion, breathing heavily as he closed his closed his mismatched eyes in exhaustion. Mercury sat up slowly and winced at the pain.

“You okay?” The vampire mumbled.

“Bien sûr, mon chérie.” He breathed. “A little sore, but I’ll live.”

“You’re in pain?”

“You would be too, if you were in my position.” He froze as the double entendre hit him. “In that position, anyone would be sore!” He laughed loudly and violently, his chest heaving.

“God, you’re fucking crazy.”

He laughed harder.

“Mercury!”

“Aw, am I embarrassing you?” He crawled to the head of the bed and flopped on his stomach. “Am I?”

“No.”

“I’m hella fucking tired. Come over here and sleep with me, Arty. You should get used to the bed, since you’ll be living in it.”

Artemis sighed and moved next to the deliciously delirious little Frenchman. “I told you, I don’t want to live in this place.”

“So you’ll forfeit my friendship over your arrogance?”

“Forfeit your friendship?”

“Or should I say ‘my body?’”

“You are NOT blackmailing me!!!”

“Of course not!” The guitarist sang innocently. “How could you ever suggest such a horrible, horrible thing?”

“Mercury!!!!!”

He grinned slyly, the devious glint in his eyes making him look very much like the clever animal he represented. “Yes?”

“I won’t live here!”

“Then you can’t visit here.”

“That’s entirely unfair—” His vehement protest was cut off by the shock of the seductive little bastard crushing his lips against his him. When Mercury finally pulled away, Artemis could only glare at him with his perfect mouth pulled down into a defeated scowl. “You son of a bitch. I fucking hate you.”

“So… you’ll live with me then?”

“What do you think, vixen?”

“I’ll help you move in!” The fox beamed and planted a quick, happy kiss on the vampire’s blood-heated cheek.

“I hate you.”

“Of course you do.” He pulled on a pair of tight blue jeans and a black sweater five sizes too big for his slender frame, and slipped his feet into the black Vans™ that lay on their side at the foot of the bed. Artemis grabbed his clothes off of the floor and went into the living room to change.

“Now, my amorous roommate… let’s go get your shit.” Mercury rushed in from the bedroom and grabbed his car keys off the table, then headed out the flimsy, white-washed front door. “And don’t you dare put on all those layers. You don’t need them.”

Artemis waited until he had left the apartment before grabbing the sunglasses and the leather coat. “I get the refrigerator!!!!!” He called, chasing after him.

“Like hell you do! You don’t even need to eat!”

“I don’t need to, but I still do.”

“Yeah, well I can’t survive on blood like you do, moustique.”

“Shall I throw you a bone, cagnolino?”

“Sure. Just throw me some barbecue sauce along with it.”
“As long as you keep your blood sugar up. You know how much I like sweet things.”

“Ha!” The fox snorted. “”I’ll make sure to eat lots of chocolate covered dog biscuits.”

“That’s the way to do it!”

“I bet.”

“Heh.” Artemis grabbed Mercury’s arm and twisted him into his arms. “You know I can’t get along without you, right?”

“You’re horribly dependant on me, I know.”

“Yes, and it’s a damn shame. But you’re dependant on me, too.”

Mercury sighed and leaned his head back against the taller male’s chest. “I guess so.”

“Then let’s hope our newest little home won’t combust like the last one.”

“Because I’m sure that you absolutely hated staying with that model chick while I looked for a new apartment.”

“I loathed it. She was throwing herself at me every five seconds... I didn’t get a minutes rest. I thought I was going to die.”

“Ah, the horrible life of the whorish bisexual vampire.”

“And how did the atrocious life of the immodest homosexual werefox go?”

“I stayed with a friend.” He grinned. “It seems that you’re not the only superhuman that’s posed for Playgirl.”

“Wait… what?!”

“And boy… they don’t lie when they say that his type are fucking huge.”

Artemis let out an indignant shout and grabbed for the were, who danced nimbly out of his way. “Who was he? Was he a vampire? I told you I wouldn’t stand for you being with any other vampires!”

“Oh, don’t worry. He wasn’t a vampire… he was an incubus.”

“AN INCUBUS?!”

Mercury bolted. “I’ll meet you at your girl’s house! Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to introduce myself properly!”

“COME BACK HERE YOU CRAZY DOG!!!!!” He roared. He knew better than to chase after him, though. Mercury’s name fit him better than one would think.

After all, there was a reason that the nickname for the liquid mercury was ‘quicksilver’, and even the Roman god that the substance was named for was known to be incredibly swift, fast, and impossible to capture.

He chuckled as he picked up the car keys that his companion had carelessly dropped and pressed the button that would mechanically unlock the shiny black Porsche. He got in and turned the satellite radio up as far as the booming speakers would allow it.

The main reason, he continued to muse, that the name fit his supernatural roommate was the fact that quicksilver was a dangerous poison that could make somebody go stark raving mad just by coming in contact with the skin… and God only knew how many times that his precious Mercury had caused him to lose his preternatural mind.

If he hadn’t been practically dead already, the evil little vixen would have killed him.