Harlem, in hindsight, probably wasn't the best of places to take Nothing, however that is where we went. I knew, rationally, that there was a chance whoever he chose to feed on would not be alive when he was finished, and it is an unfortunate truth that less fuss would be made about a lost body in an alley here than in a ritzy neighborhood where I was wont to go alone. We got off the train at 135th and I slid my gloves over my newly thawed fingers as we took to the steps outside.

I led Nothing farther away from the larger streets before telling him to keep his eyes open for someone who piqued his interest. Hands shoved deep within my pockets, I let him choose, more than content to simply walk on the decently quieted streets. It was nice out, though it was freezing cold.

After fifteen minutes of wandering, he found her. Tight jeans and a slim Northface jacket, cornrows with streaks of blond extensions, Nothing watched her from across the street with unmistakable interest. There was a vibrancy that flew at us from across the empty street, pulling not only him but also myself across the intersection toward her.

The woman was approaching a thin alley with piles of black trash bags marking its entrance. We met her there, and Nothing clamped a hand over her mouth quick enough to stifle any noise she might have made. Her squirming body was pulled deep into the side street, her eyes wide and filled with instinctual fear. I caught myself feeling for her - this wasn't the way I did things, frightening the poor girl out of her wits. It struck me that we were lucky she wasn't carrying a weapon as she should have been, traipsing around at 4am.

Nothing forced her head to the side, groping to rip the zipper of her coat down and expose the chill expanse of her throat. She panicked more, eyes seeking me, pleading with such force that I had to look away. "Hurry it up!" I told him. Evidently, he did.

He wasn't gentle about it, leaving her screaming into his hand, struggling, most likely ripping her throat as she tried to pull away. I remember cursing under my breath, cursing him for what he was doing, as I took the few steps separating me from the two of them. I took one flailing arm in my hands, shoving the sleeve away and sinking my extended fangs into her flesh. I made sure to push enough pleasure into her veins to make up for the dual pull of two vampires feeding. I didn't take much, though I was certainly hungry, but my eyes closed at the savory sensation of her blood flowing slowly down my throat.

Then there was a change. The blood grew slightly thicker, slightly more full, and I pulled myself away. We had to stop. "Enough," I told Nothing simply, "Let her go."

He, of course, ignored me, and I could see the change in his victim as she was once again only exposed to the pain of his greedy draw. He would kill her. Desperately, I moved forward, sinking my teeth into his ear with enough force to puncture straight through. He jerked back, tearing himself from her flesh, his arms leaving her body.

Nothing glared at me for a moment, a thin trail of blood running from the corner of his mouth. Freed, the woman collapsed to the dirty pavement with a dull thud, pocketbook slipping from her shoulder to pool in a heap next to her. His hands clenched into fists as he frowned before starkly ignoring me, moving to kneel on the damp concrete and obviously planning to empty the body completely of its blood.

I hissed at him, not wanting to draw attention to our location. "Leave her!" I yanked at his collar, pulling him away from the barely breathing girl.

"I'm hungry," he insisted, eyes narrowed into slits, "I want more."

There might have been something in the water soaked air, or something in the blood I could feel, hot and heavy, in my stomach. I might have been drugged, been half asleep, been confused, because I could not have been thinking straight when I rolled up my sleeve, clenching my hand to make the blue line in my wrist unmistakable.

"Take it from me, then. We're not going to kill her."

Nothing looked at me as if I was completely insane, which I'm sure was closer to the truth than false. He didn't move, and my temper grew short.

"It's too late to go looking for someone else. Take it from me or go hungry!"

Apparently this was enough to convince him. His bare hand closed around my forearm, yanking me closer in a sudden move that almost pulled me to the ground. His eyes were on my face as he hesitated briefly, then bringing my slowly freezing flesh to his lips, licking at the pulse to test it and opening his mouth to take the blood in.

It was painful. Contrary to popular belief, the pleasure of our bites is not automatic. We consciously make it so, siphoning a bit of our energy away to make it less hell and to keep the victim quiet. Nothing did not care to do so in that first minute, and the pulling sensation ate at my chest, forcing a little pained gasp from my throat.

He had pity on me that he had never felt for the woman. Perhaps it was that he was satisfied in the knowledge he'd caused me pain, because suddenly the pleasure crashed over me in thick waves. My eyes widened briefly before I closed them, not wanting to face the fact that it was Nothing causing what was now rolling through me just as it had been Nothing that had rolled over me under water three nights ago.

I lost track of time, focusing on the feel of the velveteen lips against my wrist, of the hand that pressed my own gloved one to his cheek. Nothing let me go.

My hand fell to my side and, after pulling my thoughts back together, I pulled my sleeve down over the rapidly healing puncture marks. When I looked up, he was still watching me, licking his lips like a cat with tuna in his stomach. I tried to ignore him.

I crouched next to the girl, closing her wounds and wincing at the feeling of fabric constricting over the erection I was denying wholeheartedly. She was still breathing, though her formerly caramel colored skin had taken a strangely sick hue. She had enough blood left in her to survive, as long as she got inside before the storm hit. We'd have to get her into a train station where it was warmer. Busy planning how we could possibly do so without being noticed, Nothing's sudden hold on my arms made me jump.

"What?" I craned my head to look up at him, and then found myself standing, pulled by the strength in his arms. He pushed me against the wall firmly, eyes glowing as the snow started to fall around us. Breath puffing hot steam against my ear, hips pressing forward, jutting against my own, his hands snuck underneath the leather of my coat, coldly brushing against my stomach. I turned my head to watch him, with his long lashes now shuttering his eyes, and found it was all the invitation he needed to close the last few inches between us. Burning stained lips crushed down against my own. There was a bruising grip on my sides just above the line of my jeans, but it didn't matter. I wasn't up to fighting against something I knew I wanted. My gloved fingers found themselves winding through the black of his hair as I forced his mouth open and plundered my way inside.

He was sweet. We ate at each other, biting lips and cheeks and tongues as his hips slowly began a rough gyration across my own. He aggravated me. His body, full of its hard planes and sharp edges, filled me with a forceful desire to drag my lips across every inch of his skin. I wanted to feel every goose bump on his body with my tongue. I wanted to torture him.

I pushed him away.

"Come on. We have to get her inside." I moved for the body, set to support it on a mad hurried dash for the nearest train station. We could leave her by the booth, I thought. Or maybe in the train.

"Fuck her!" He growled, once again snaring my arm. "Let her die. Why do you care?"

We stared at each other for a heavy minute, the storm growing around us with the flare of thick flakes. It would be a bad storm. I had no answer.

He let me snatch my arm from his grip, let me bend to pick her up, and after a moment followed a few feet behind me as I made my way to the station. He refused to say anything more, but I imagined I could feel his brooding. I told myself it didn't matter to me, that he could sulk like a child if he wanted to, but I could feel the hardness between my legs sulking with him. It agreed; we could have left the girl to die in the alley. We could have fucked there on the pavement next to her as her body cooled to ice and taken her wallet when we were finished. It cursed me with every step I took, making sure to rub against my jeans in exactly the right way with every step. I would find no relief there.

The booth was empty.

I carried her into the first car of the train, gently setting her on the seats closest to the conductor's room. I swiped my lips across her forehead in a kiss meant to force her to forget, and Nothing and I exited the train at the next stop.

I leaned against one burgundy column, inches away from the tracks, waiting for the next train to take me back home. Nothing glared, seething at my back, but I pretended not to notice. Not moving had begun to calm my body down, and I closed my eyes, wishing I could wake up and find I'd been dreaming the entire night. It was nearly 5am. It was entirely too late.

The train came with a whoosh of thick air, and the two of us stepped into a car completely devoid of people. I sat down on one orange seat heavily, leaning my head back while the doors slid shut and the train slid forward. For a minute, nothing happened. Then Nothing happened.

His hand sought between my legs, squeezing, stroking, convincing my body in a way I was defenseless against. Soon enough, his questing fingers found the copper toned button, opening it quickly and yanking the zipper down. I was all but naked in a train at a time when someone really could enter in at the next stop. I scrunched my eyes tightly as his hand wrapped around my erection, swallowing as my thoughts began to wander away from me.

Nothing forced my legs further apart and then I could feel him between them, his stroking hand giving way to the smoothness of one shaven cheek. He played with me as I felt the train slow and stop at the next station, heard the opening and closing of the doors, and felt us move on uninterrupted. Fleeing the lit station, the train entered the darkness of the tunnel once more. By the time we had passed the second blue telephone marker, his lips had parted and he'd swallowed me whole. By the time we passed the sixth, my hands were again in his hair. When we reached the next station, I couldn't have cared less about anyone joining us in the train car. I was lost.

His tongue caressed me, his throat squeezed around me, teeth nibbling at me with just the right amount of pressure. He kept my hips still against the plastic seat with two warm hands and slowly bobbed his head. He kissed every inch of my length as it glittered in the florescent lights that flickered above us.

I came at 86th street, as the train pulled into the station. It was silent, lower lip caught and bleeding beneath my teeth. Nothing's throat worked around me one last time as he swallowed and pulled away, tucking me back inside my pants with a self satisfied smirk as he closed the zipper and button. I stared at him all the while.

We'd missed our stop. I fell silent on the way back uptown, spending most of my time looking out of the window as we sped through the tunnel once more. There was a woman in a suit sitting on the far side of our car, and Nothing grinned at me whenever I glanced over at him. He didn't say anything. There was nothing he needed to say - I knew.

I locked myself in my room at home, sitting on my bed with my head in my hands, trying to ignore the gnawing of my empty veins. For all my age and supposed wisdom, Nothing had won, and we both knew it.

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Author's Note: A THOUSAND apologies for the month and a half. College is taking up a lot of my time, and I was having a few personal problems at the same time. When I did have the time to write, I just wasn't able to get anything down.

Thank you to anyone who waited for me to update. 3 to all of you.