Bright, Rich, Sweet: Chapter 2
Apr. 4th, 2008 11:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brainofckI usually re-read these AFTER I post, but no time today. Ping me with e-mails if you see obvious typos? brainofck at gmail dot com. Thanks! :)
Title: Bright, Rich, Sweet (2 of 6?)
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
muck_a_luck, posting in brainofck, with special contributions by cocoajava, including a large, co-authored section (Approx chapter 3)
Pairing: Daniel Jackson/Jack O'Neill, Jack O'Neill/OFC
Rating: NC-17
Summary: A vampire cannot live by (chicken) blood alone. Jack becomes a vampire.
Content/warnings: Does one warn for bloodplay in a vampire story? Het content, later chapters
Words:Approx 25,000-30,000 overall, 7900 this part
Disclaimer: If anybody is planning a script like this for SG-1, I'm certainly not going to claim any rights to it. However, I'd be delighted to work in a co-writing/consulting/first-reader/advisory-type capacity, with my fee to be negotiated at that time. :D
Archive rights: Absolutely none. My journals only.muck_a_luck and brainofck
The Matrix: Taste. The Matrix is located here.
Beta: Thanks togreen_grrl and zats_clear for beta services and editorial advice.
Chapter 1
There was blood all around him. On his hands. On his face. On his lips. In his mouth. It was oozing through his hair and slick between his toes. He could feel it in his inner ear and trickling down his neck. It was all for him. It smelled so good – salty and sweet. It was Carter's blood, bright and clear. And Teal'c's blood, sweet and exotic. And Daniel's blood, rich and deep. And he was bathing in it and drinking it and it was wonderful. He was so hungry. So, so hungry.
Their empty, drained corpses rotted forgotten in the other room.
He sat up, blinking in the bright darkness, reorienting himself after the nightmare.
He was sleeping like crap. It would be nice if his biological clock would quit flip-flopping. He wasn't holding his breath, though. He might as well get used to the fact that he was now a creature of the night. He rubbed his eyes and swung his legs over the side of the bed.
He shuffled out to the kitchen, switching on lights as he went so that he could pretend he was still human and still needed them. The sudden brightness didn't hurt like it should, his dark-adapted eyes adjusting differently than human eyes, he supposed. The night vision must work differently.
He opened the fridge. Which was filled with quart plastic tubs. He really, really wished he could still have a beer.
Blood it was, then!
As he carried the bowl of pig's blood left over from dinner to the table, he wondered if it was possible to be a hypoglycemic vampire. He was always hungry. He refused to consider that Daniel and Gyan might be right and perhaps a vampire could not live by chicken blood alone.
He skipped the spoon entirely and dipped his fingers into the gelatinous substance. It was disgusting, but it was the middle of the night and who was going to know but him and it just felt right that if he couldn't bite...
Morosely, he sucked his own fingers, cleaning the cold blood away digit by digit. He pretended it tasted like bacon.
The next morning was a Saturday. The team had four days off before they were due back at the mountain. He fully expected to hear from Daniel, to berate him for his stupidity or find out how he was doing or both. But nothing. He was relieved, and yet hurt. No call all day. Nothing on Sunday, either.
Monday, he moseyed down to Daniel's office.
"Hey, Jack," Daniel said distractedly. Jack watched him blindly reach for his coffee as he flipped back and forth through the tiny well-thumbed paperback in his hands. He was looking for something, a scowl on his face.
Jack settled into Daniel's computer chair to wait him out. Daniel finally threw down the book, muttering in disgust, and whirled around, hopping off the stool headed for the bookshelf right behind Jack. He barely stopped himself from crashing into him.
"Oh. Hey, Jack," he said again, offering a friendly smile. "Can I help you with something?"
"Nope," he said. "I just wanted to drop by and say thanks for Friday night."
Daniel's face went blank.
He blinked a few times, then the blank went away and was replaced by the wrinkle between the eyebrows.
"Friday?" he asked. "I spent all Friday doing department head stuff. Didn't I?" he seemed confused. He reached over Jack to flip through his desk calendar. "Yeah. Archaeologists and linguists all day."
Jack frowned.
"Nooooo," he said. Then he grinned, finally cluing in. "Thanks for 'forgetting.'"
"Forgetting what?" Daniel said. He was doing the furrowed brow thing again. Jack smiled even bigger and got up, slapping him on the shoulder. Which made Daniel scowl.
"Seriously. What?!"
Jack rolled his eyes. "You know. Friday night. Beer everywhere. I know I was a jerk at the time, but thanks for the rescue."
Daniel's face went slack and blank again. Then he kind of shook it off.
"Beer?" he said. He looked like he was in physical pain. "Rescue?" He shook his head.
He stumbled backwards leaning against the lab table.
"Daniel? Are you okay?"
"I don't think so," Daniel said shakily.
By the time they got to the infirmary, Daniel was almost completely back to normal.
Dr. Fraiser flashed her light in his eyes, frowned a little bit, took his pulse, took some blood.
"Explain to me what happened, exactly," she said, handing the vial off to her nurse.
"Jack started asking me about something that happened on Friday," Daniel said. "I couldn't remember what he was talking about. And the more he tried to explain to me what happened, the worse I felt. I got dizzy and my head started to hurt. But now I'm feeling much better. Maybe I had too much coffee."
Jack shook his head, just enough that the doc would know he didn't agree.
She made a few notes on her chart.
"What were you trying to remember. Can you tell me about it now?"
Daniel's face went completely blank.
"No," he answered. He went pale again and closed his eyes tight.
"Just lie down, buddy," Jack said, catching him as he swayed. Dr. Fraiser helped him get his feet up on the table.
"Nurse," she called. Her nurse rushed back over.
"Keep an eye on Dr. Jackson for me. I need to speak to the Colonel privately. Let me know if there is any worsening of his condition."
"Yes, ma'am," the nurse said. Dr. Fraiser dragged Jack bodily by the arm into her office.
"What happened?" she asked him.
He flopped into a chair.
"I think I accidentally erased his memory," Jack said.
"Go on," the doctor prompted him when he didn't elaborate.
"Okay. Friday night, I did something so stupid, you won't even believe I did it," he confessed. He suspected that only respect for his rank kept Dr. Fraiser from rolling her eyes.
"I drank a beer," he plowed on.
"That couldn’t have been good," she said.
"No. It was just as bad as any of the things I ate under observation. Except I had left the cooler with the blood in it out in the truck. I think I was probably convulsing when Daniel walked in on me. He got some blood into me and when the worst of it was over, I adopted my usual manners."
He smiled with what he hoped was self-deprecating charm.
"I know I'm not the best patient."
Again, the doctor did not roll her eyes.
"Anyway, I told him to get out and forget anything had ever happened. And he did. He just shut up and left. No argument. Nothing. And he didn't call me later to find out if I was okay. I figured he was just pissed at me for being a bastard. But this morning, when I tried to apologize and thank him, he started acting like he did just now."
Dr. Fraiser slowly sank into the chair beside him.
"Well. That's certainly..."
"Yeah," Jack wholeheartedly agreed.
Leaving the doc's office, he knew he couldn't just leave it alone. This was an ability that needed to be tested. He waved to Daniel as he left. He was already chirping away happily to one of the many attentive nurses. Very attentive. Jack grinned to himself and headed for Hammond's office.
As he settled into the chair across from his CO, he captured the general's gaze, and concentrating very hard on making the general do exactly what he suggested, he said, "Sir, I think this year we should have a St. Patrick's Day party at the alpha site."
At first, he thought it hadn't worked. The general's eyes returned to the file he had been studying when Jack interrupted him. But then his hand was reaching for the phone, almost independent of the general's apparent intentions.
"Sergeant," he said, "I think this year we should have a St. Patrick's Day party at the alpha site."
Jack fought the urge to smirk. The general's expression was blank, his posture stiff. Then he blinked in confusion.
"What? Yes, I realize it was last month!" A pause. "No! Of course the Jaffa there will not want green beer."
The general was looking more and more confused.
"I think this year we should have a St. Patrick's Day party at the alpha site," he repeated belligerently, nearly shouting, and slammed down the phone. He looked at Jack like he was surprised he was still in his office.
Jack concentrated hard again.
"Sir, maybe the St. Patrick's Day party thing isn't such a great idea. I think we should cancel it."
He got up and left as General Hammond again reached for the phone. Sauntering through the briefing room over to the stairs, he saw Siler deep in conversation with Teal'c as a technical crew crawled all over the Gateroom. He found a bemused Harriman hanging up the phone. He slouched against the wall next to him.
"What's goin' on?" he asked, nodding out the observation window.
"Just some regular maintenance," the sergeant replied.
Jack walked with him over to his work station.
"Hey," he said. The sergeant looked up at him. "Teal'c's a great guy. He looks like he could use a hug."
Jack thought he was really going to need to get a few prints from the security feed at the end of the day.
It worked great on Ferretti, too, and he learned that he could get someone to do something not only ridiculous or humiliating, but really dangerous.
"I bet you really want to pop Teal'c's naked ass with a towel," he muttered, while Teal'c was still under the spray and couldn't hear them.
Oh, yeah. He was going to be visiting the security office for some pics.
"Jack," drawled Daniel from the doorway of his office.
Jack looked up in surprise. Nobody ever came to his office.
"Daniel! To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"Teal'c was telling me about some strange things that happened to him yesterday. While I was in the infirmary. Apparently recovering from your super powers of suggestion."
Jack grinned.
"You wanna see the pictures?" he offered, pulling them out of his desk.
Daniel frowned.
"It's not funny, Jack. What happened to me showed it could be dangerous."
Jack smiled fondly at the picture of Ferretti in a head lock. Then guiltily shoved the photo back into his kneehole drawer.
"Jack!"
He adopted a more serious expression.
"Yes, Daniel. That's why I needed to try it out in a safe environment. To see whether it was something I could control and to learn what it feels like to do it, so I don't do it by accident again, like I did with you."
Daniel sat back in his chair, not looking the slightest bit mollified.
"Not to mention the possible applications in the field," Jack said. "The next time some mostly innocent natives freak out, I can provide another option short of violence. This thing could save our asses one day."
Daniel's eyes narrowed.
"Maybe," he replied reluctantly. "But if I think you're using it on this base again, I'm turning you in to Janet. If you had mentioned this to her, you could have tested 'this thing' in a controlled environment under her supervision."
"Yeah, but it wouldn't have been nearly as much fun," Jack smirked.
Daniel sighed and rolled his eyes. He shoved himself out of Jack's guest chair and stomped out of the office.
Jack went back to his pile of bureaucracy, smiling as he remembered the looks of confusion on Siler and Teal'c's faces as Harriman threw his arms around the Jaffa.
"Jack," said Daniel from the doorway. He was standing there thoughtfully this time.
"I wonder if you can make yourself invisible."
"What?" he asked.
"I was reading in one of Gyan's books that vampires can choose not to be seen," Daniel said. "I hesitate to mention this to you, but..."
"That could have real implications in the field," Jack finished for him. "Does it say how it's done?"
"No," Daniel said, "But I would guess it could be an extension of this whole mind control thing."
"To the nurse's locker room!" Jack said gleefully.
"You better hope it works," Daniel muttered darkly, trailing along behind him. "If Janet finds out about it, you're a dead man."
"I'm already dead!" Jack replied. "It's you who should be worried. I want to know if I can make us both invisible."
As they walked down the hall, Jack concentrated on the idea that nobody could see him or Daniel. They moved along not calling attention to themselves. Nobody greeted Daniel. Nobody saluted Jack. Eyes seemed to skitter across Jack's face as people passed them by. Daniel kept looking back at him, then at the people in the hallway.
"Are you doing it?" he asked softly.
Two airmen walking by gave Daniel twin startled looks. One of them crashed into Jack, then nearly fell over himself snapping to attention.
"As you were," Jack said to both of them, breezing by and taking Daniel by the elbow. He started trying to think them invisible again, but all eyes in the corridor were fixed on them. Their invisibility didn't kick back in until they rounded the corner.
It was the crowded, bustling hall immediately outside the mess. Daniel stopped in front of the door. Daniel and Jack were soon dodging oblivious SGC staff.
"O'Neill. DanielJackson. Why are you obstructing the entry way?"
Jack turned to the Jaffa in surprise.
"Whoa," said Carter, clearly startled herself. She had been about to walk headlong into Daniel's back. "Wow. I didn't see you there."
Teal'c looked puzzled.
"We were just testing something out," Jack said, pushing Daniel through into the mess.
"Testing what?" she asked.
"Jack can make people not see us!" Daniel whispered excitedly. Teal'c raised an eyebrow.
"But it didn't work on Teal'c," Jack muttered. It was a big disappointment. "Just our luck. Probably all Jaffa are immune."
He turned to Teal'c and focused all his attention on the big man.
"You are really hungry for blue jello. You should eat Carter's."
"Hey!" she objected. Teal'c frowned disapprovingly.
"O'Neill. If I desire blue jello, I will simply take a portion for myself from the desert shelf. I will certainly not take it from MajorCarter's tray."
"Damn," Jack muttered. Daniel snickered behind his hand.
And so life went on. There were missions, and it all was remarkably unremarkable. He put on sunscreen. He started wearing a bandana under his cap to cover the back of his neck. He still wore the goggles. He tried to steer Hammond away from assigning SG-1 the really hot planets.
If the natives noticed he was a bit longer in the tooth than he once was (and who wasn't?), well, they didn't say. Teal'c was great that way, what with the Apophis tat right out there. The locals usually focused on that, and the fact that Jack was a little pale just didn't faze them at all.
Dr. Fraiser, though, was a whole different bucket of worms.
"You're starving," she said bluntly.
"I'm the undead. How can you be so sure?" Jack asked, though he suspected she was right. He was always hungry, and he was pretty sure that he wasn't really supposed to have this grey tinge to his skin and sort of blue lips.
"I'm declaring you unfit for duty until you agree to eat properly," she said, adopting a particularly Napoleonic pose.
"No."
"Yes! The donors don't know they're donating to you, and you don't get to know who they are. Gyan said you only need about four ounces of blood a day to be healthy. So four ounces is what you are going to have."
Jack opened his mouth to argue the point yet again.
"Just stop before you start," she said. "This isn't some sort of issue of dietary preference anymore. It has become a medical condition. You. Are. Killing. Yourself. There's no reason for it. If you lost a lot of blood from a gunshot wound, you'd expect a transfusion. You need the blood just as much now."
She swirled out of the iso room she always used these days to maintain his privacy.
Jack lay back on the table and waited.
She came back in with a coffee mug.
"That's ten ounces," Jack objected.
"Yeah, well, you get some extra until I'm sure you're on the road to recovery," she said. She handed him the mug, which was warm.
Then she stood there, waiting.
"You don't have something better to do?"
"What? I should leave so you can dump it in the potted plant and pretend you drank it like a good boy? No way. And don't waste it. That's blood I could have used for other lifesaving purposes, so treat it with the respect it deserves.
"...like a good boy, Colonel," Jack muttered, scowling at her, but he took a tentative sip. She had gauged the temperature perfectly. His body temperature was a steady 91 degrees – endothermic, but a lot cooler than normal human temperatures. He liked everything a lot cooler these days.
It tasted good. He took another sip. It tasted better than good. Better than imaginary bacon blood. Before he knew it, he had finished it in almost one long drink.
When he lowered the mug, Fraiser looked a little rattled, though she covered it well. Jack winced. If he could freak out Fraiser, he could only imagine what he must look like. He licked a little residue of blood from his lip.
The doc shook it off and grinned at him.
"There. Report back here at 0800 tomorrow for another mug. And stay on base tonight. I want you nearby if anything unexpected happens."
Yay. His first feeding on human blood. 'Unexpected,' the doc is thinking.
"Wait," he said suddenly. Dr. Fraiser obligingly turned back.
"Promise me you won't let SG-1 volunteer to... You know. Donate."
The doctor raised her eyebrows.
"Oh, tell me I did not just drink Carter's blood or something!" he growled.
Dr. Fraiser shook her head.
"No."
"Well, just be sure I don't... It would be just..." he made a face.
Her quizzical look changed to understanding.
"I have nightmares about it," he blurted before he knew what he was saying.
She smiled gently.
"Of course, Colonel. I assure you that I'll respect your wishes on this point."
He was relieved when she left. He hopped down off the exam table feeling better than he had in weeks and trooped off to quarters feeling happy, healthy, and completely disgusted by turns.
Ah. The life of the undead.
He began reporting to the infirmary for his "coffee" with the doc every morning. While the blue lips went away and the weight loss stopped, the grey tinge only got worse, and he couldn't manage any weight gain.
Every morning he left her office craving more. Hungry.
So he shouldn't have been surprised the day that he arrived to find Gyan pacing Fraiser's cramped office.
"Well, this is unpleasant," Jack said.
The vampire was giving him the once-over. He turned to Fraiser.
"He will not do what he must do," said Gyan. He sat in the chair across from Fraiser, giving Jack the hairy eyeball the whole time.
"You can keep him alive with blood from a cup for a short time, but if he does not have living blood he will eventually shrivel, dry up, and blow away."
Gyan glared at him.
"Of course, it is a horrible, lingering way to die. Many of the ones who will not take living blood manage to die peacefully, harming no one. But many others, at the end, become as they were at the beginning – feral and mad."
Gyan pointed an accusatory finger at Jack.
"Do you want to be like your SG-11, ripping out the throats of your friends and loved ones, not caring whom you kill or infect in your final desperate hunger?! If you were among your own kind, we would not permit this!" Gyan turned back to Dr. Fraiser.
"It is against our laws for vampires to starve themselves while living among humans. You should send him through the Stargate to a place where he can hurt no one. That is what we would do."
Jack found himself with his arm around Gyan's throat, the vampire's neck bent back at an impossible angle, almost before he realized what he had done. The anger hot and overwhelming. The only reason Gyan wasn't dead was probably Jack's weakened state. The vampire's iron grip on his forearm tightened as Gyan tried to pry Jack's arm away.
"Colonel!" Dr. Fraiser shouted. Jack released him and leaped away again, putting distance between himself and Gyan, ready in case the vampire wanted to make a fight of it.
It was pretty cool, actually. He hadn't had a good chance to try out his new skills in a real fight. Nice to get an idea of what he could do.
"You see what I mean, doctor?" Gyan said, his voice hoarse. He rubbed at his throat. "He will only become more dangerous if he continues to refuse blood."
Dr. Fraiser's eyes flitted back and forth between the two vampires.
"I'll take it under advisement," she said. The look she gave Jack made him feel vaguely guilty.
The next morning, Dr. Fraiser did not greet him with a cup of blood.
He eyed her warily.
"Colonel, the time has come," she said calmly.
"0800 hours?" Jack asked, with the pretense of confusion. Though he knew exactly what she as saying. And he was so hungry.
"This way, Colonel," the doctor said, taking his elbow and steering him away from the infirmary down the hall toward the isolation rooms.
When he saw them he twitched his arm out of her grip. Carter was sitting on the exam table.
"I said not them," he growled.
He wasn't drinking the blood of SG-1.
He knew things about people after he drank their blood. It didn't matter that the doc didn't tell him who the "donors" were. He would go out into the facility and one of them would walk by and he would know how they tasted. Know the texture of their blood, the scent of their lifeforce, the flavor of their souls.
He did not want to know these things about SG-1. He already knew their auras, their moods, the beating of their hearts in ways that he should not.
"Well, who then, Jack?" Daniel demanded. "You won't do this with people you don't know very well. You can't ask subordinates. You can't ask your peers. You won't ask your friends. So it's us or nobody."
"And 'nobody' is no longer an option, O'Neill," rumbled Teal'c.
He was so hungry.
"Sir, if you won't attempt to eat, this is going to progress from a medical situation to a security issue. Your behavior indicates that Gyan was correct..."
Her voice faded to static as Jack gave in. They wanted him to drink. They were determined that he would have their blood before he left this room. He was hungry. They were so tempting. He found himself standing between Carter's knees, leaning in towards the pulsing vein on her throat. He could sense every droplet of blood in her body, feel it moving. He could feel her heart rate increasing in fear and anticipation as she tipped her head to give her neck better exposure.
He breathed across her skin, his cooler breath making her shiver and her scent strengthened. He wanted her. Her blood. Her skin. Her short soft hair. Her cunt.
With a snarl he jerked away from her. Carter's eyes were glazed and fixed on him. He knew she was getting wet just as well as he knew he was getting hard.
"No!" he shouted. It shook Carter out of her trance.
"Did you see her? Did you see how she looked? I'm not doing that to anyone. I hadn't even touched her!"
He was panting. They were watching him warily.
"I'll drink blood from the cup the usual way, but I am not biting anyone," he said to Fraiser, trying to be calmer. "Could we drink it in here, please? I'd prefer as few people as possible saw me this way."
"Of course," Fraiser said. "But Colonel..."
"We can talk about it later, doctor," he said firmly.
Teal'c arched an eyebrow, then offered Carter a hand down from the table. She refused to take it, though she stumbled a step before she got her balance.
She walked up to him, invading his personal space.
"I know why you stopped," she said.
"Dismissed, Major," he replied curtly.
Which earned him Daniel's disapproving frown as well as Teal'c's evil eye. Dr. Fraiser reappeared with his blood.
Carter turned to Dr. Fraiser.
"It's the sexual component," she said simply.
"Well, we knew there would be..." Daniel began. Then stopped and stared at Jack.
"Have you been totally ignoring everything I've been telling you the last month?"
"Out. All of you. Now." Fraiser said.
Daniel pushed past him into the house, skipping the pleasantries.
"So clearly there's more to feeding than just eating," Daniel began immediately.
Jack shut his eyes and counted to ten.
"Daniel," he said. "We are not discussing this again. I am not biting anybody, end of story."
"Gyan said that most vampires die of starvation." Jack took a deep, steadying breath. Daniel's favorite mantra. "There's obviously some component of feeding directly on a person that you need to survive." Daniel met Jack's steely stare. His determination shaded over to anger.
"I'm not going to let you die just because you're a stubborn bastard," Daniel growled. He turned and stalked back to Jack's bedroom. Jack found him standing by the dresser.
"I don't think you need that much blood," Daniel said softly. "Gyan's texts say that vampires live for years on the blood of a single willing companion. One person couldn't do that if you needed much."
He had picked up Jack's utility knife from the dresser. He drew the sharp blade over the soft skin of his inner arm, flinching just a little, breath coming in a sigh.
The long, thin scrape welled blood. The presence of it filled Jack's senses completely. Daniel's voice, continuing on about... something... sounded far away, drowned in the sound of Daniel's blood rushing through his veins, smothered by the heat and smell of the richredthickhot...
Daniel extended his bleeding arm, offering it to Jack to taste. To drink. To feed.
Jack felt his body reacting. His pupils were dilating and slitting, and he knew from previous experience that they were fading to a pale blue white. He felt his lips pulling back from his fangs.
"Daniel," he whispered. "You need to leave. Right now."
"It's okay, Jack. You're not hungry for a lot of blood. All you need is to experience living blood from living flesh. You don't need to hurt me."
"Daniel," he breathed, but he couldn't hold back, with Daniel standing so close, offering him what he wanted. What he needed.
He reached out and took Daniel's wrist in an iron grip, but stopped himself from yanking him forward. He hardly needed to, anyway. Daniel was standing right there, and let Jack raise his arm easily.
Jack lowered his head had ran his tongue down the long scratch.
Daniel's blood was rich and fragrant. Like coffee and chocolate and wine, but also like hummus and pad thai and mint chutney. There was nothing in Jack's experience to compare it to. None of the human blood Jack had consumed from cups in Fraiser's infirmary was anything like the food he was taking from Daniel's warm, silken skin.
When the first blood was gone, Jack worked his way back down the cut with this tongue, worrying it and encouraging the blood to flow. He found that just the edge of his tooth was enough to bring the blood welling back to the surface. Precious, tiny droplets. Just a taste. Tiny lapping licks.
As he drank, he felt himself changing. He could feel the way drinking was completing him. It wasn't making him well. It wasn't healing him. It was allowing him to grow and expand – to fill the empty places in this strangely different body. And it was awakening other needs, as well. Just as it had in the infirmary when he had refused to drink Carter's blood. Drinking Daniel's body, Jack knew what Gyan hadn't told them. Daniel was right. He didn't just need to drink. He needed... something else. Energy maybe. Energy from Daniel's blood. Energy from Daniel's body. His life force. His soul.
It was only then that Jack processed Daniel's hitching breathing. The way he was swaying on his feet. He looked up, too stimulated in all his senses to be properly concerned, but knowing intellectually that Daniel might be in danger.
Daniel's eyes were glazed, and in every way he looked completely, happily drunk.
"Vampire glamour," Daniel murmured, smiling seductively. "God, you look hot." Daniel laughed. "Vampires are almost always an allegory for hypersexuality. I think the missing component from your feeding could be sex. Oh. Hmmmm... Maybe I didn't quite think this through." Daniel's smile didn't fade, and he didn't sound the slightest bit worried.
Jack caught Daniel behind his neck and dragged him forward. Kissing him, awkward with his new teeth, Jack nicked him. Daniel moaned. Jack drank from his bloody lip, pushing the blood back into Daniel's mouth, then chasing it, drawing it back to himself again, over and over until Daniel was a lax, panting weight in his arms.
He carried him and deposited him on the bed. Rutting. That was what his body was demanding. And Daniel was looking up at him in blissful expectation. Trusting. Yearning. Opening himself up to give more.
"Daniel?" Jack choked out.
Daniel smiled lazily in response. He reached down to fumble at his belt and fly.
Nonono, that wasn't right. Daniel was his friend, not his lover. Daniel wasn't gay. Daniel was just here trying to help him out. He was sure Daniel never planned to screw him as part of the deal. No.
He took Daniel's hands in a strong, firm grip.
"No," he said softly. "Daniel, you don't want to do this." He trembled as he forced himself to pull Daniel upright onto his feet and carefully guide him to the door.
"I don't?" Daniel asked, sounding genuinely confused and disappointed. "I do," he said, putting his arms around Jack's neck and kissing him again.
"We're not doing this," Jack said sharply. "I'm calling you a cab."
The half hour spent waiting for the cab was possibly the longest of his life. It made him think about black holes and time dilation. But the cab finally arrived and he shoved Daniel in, paid the driver three times as much as it should take to get Daniel home. Then he followed them in his truck just to be sure.
"Wow. You look a lot better this morning!" Fraiser exclaimed. "What did you do? On the table, right now."
Jack sighed. Trust the doc that if he looked better she would just use it as an excuse to prod him.
"Nothing," he lied. "Just must have finally had enough of the real thing to turn the corner."
He did look better. The grey pallor was gone. But now he was all jittery and restless. He had gone from slightly depressed and listless to completely overcharged and jumpy. The lights were too bright, now. The auras of the humans on the base were too luminescent. Smells were too strong, sounds were too loud.
Whatever he had done with Daniel hadn't really fixed him.
Later, when he tracked Daniel down in his lab, he knew he couldn't do it again. Jack felt wired, but Daniel looked like he had the flu. Dark circles under his eyes and skin too pale.
"Thanks," Jack said simply from the doorway.
"Don't mention it," Daniel said listlessly. "How did I get home last night? I hardly remember anything after I got to your place. I cut myself right? And obviously you drank..."
"Yeah," Jack said. "How are you feeling? You look like crap."
"Thanks," Daniel said with a weak attempt at a smile. "I'm just tired and headachy. Though interestingly..." He held out his arm, which was almost fully healed, with only the palest white trace to show that he had been bleeding last night.
"Well, we're not doing that again," Jack said gruffly.
"Teal'c, Sam and I thought we could take rotating shifts," Daniel protested.
"No way," Jack said. "I don’t care if you are perfect tomorrow. The condition you are in now... Not acceptable."
He knew he meant it when Daniel couldn’t even muster the strength to argue about it.
It took about two days for his jitters to wear off, and about a week for Daniel to recover from his reaction.
Unfortunately, it only took about a week for Jack's former symptoms to come back.
Before Dr. Fraiser could start in on him again, he went to Teal'c.
"O'Neill," Teal'c said, opening the door to his quarters. With a genteel inclination of his head he stepped back, welcoming Jack into his quarters.
"I need your help, Teal'c," he said quietly. Teal'c merely nodded and went to sit on the reed mat. He took out his own knife and without any discussion, drew it across his thick forearm.
His blood smelled different from Daniel's. Sweeter. Lighter.
As Jack knelt in front of his friend on the mat, he felt another presence. Covered by Teal'c's lifeforce, or surrounded by it, or subsumed in it, he wasn't sure how to describe it, but he felt the symbiote, living inside Teal'c. It was hidden from his view, obviously. He wondered if it had an aura, and if it would be the color of vomit.
He caught Teal'c's arm gently in this two hands, lifting the blood to his mouth. Steadying himself. Teal'c let out a gusty sigh as Jack caressed him with lips and teeth.
Teal'c's blood tasted like cloves on his tongue.
And it burned like fire.
Jack screamed, and bit down in pain. Then his world went black.
He woke in a warm, soft bed. Everything felt dull. His sense of smell was numb, his hearing muffled. When he opened his eyes, everything was dim. For one heart-stopping moment he thought maybe Teal'c's blood had been the answer all along. Maybe he was normal again. Then the hunger cramped his gut. No such luck, then.
He was surprised to find that he was not in the infirmary, but rather in one of the VIP suites. He was so hungry. He should be in medical restraints. Or a cell. He could feel the need to feed overwhelming him. If he weren't so weak, he knew he would be hunting now. He needed blood. He wanted it. He shut his eyes tight and whined.
"Hey," Daniel said gently.
Jack's eyes snapped open and using an impossible amount of energy he managed to tip his head to one side to see his friend, sitting next to him in the bed, propped up on pillows against the headboard. The shock of seeing him momentarily broke through Jack's misery.
"Naked," he managed to croak. Daniel smiled down at him.
"You're doing much better than the last time you woke up," he said, sounding pleased. He got out of bed and padded away, probably toward the suite's living area.
"I'll be right back," he said reassuringly.
Which wasn't that reassuring to Jack, since before he got out of Jack's line of sight, Jack had plenty of time to confirm that Daniel wasn't just sitting in bed without his shirt on.
Daniel did come right back. He had been gone about a minute when the microwave beeped, and Daniel reappeared to sit by him on the edge of the bed. He wrestled Jack until he was leaning limply against Daniel's side, then Daniel held the microwave-warmed cup to Jack's lips.
It was just chicken blood, Jack's favorite, though how Daniel could have known that he couldn’t imagine. Probably just a coincidence. Or maybe Daniel's sense of humor. Everybody knows you eat chicken soup when you're sick. The chicken blood wasn't enough, but it did make Jack feel better. He felt stronger and more in-control. His senses woke – only to focus on Daniel with a frightening intensity.
Funny how it was just at that moment that he realized that Daniel wasn't the only naked person in the room.
"Daniel, we can't," he ground out through clenched teeth. "I appreciate the gesture, but we can't."
It was a difficult conversation to have while Daniel was settling him gently back into the pillows. Once Jack was resting to his satisfaction, Daniel slid in under the covers, too. Right on top of Jack. His skin felt hot against Jack's body. His blood was flowing through his veins right against Jack's skin. As he propped his arms on either side of Jack's head, Jack felt the weight of his body everywhere. He was drowning in Daniel's scent. He wanted Daniel's blood. So much.
He stared up into serious blue eyes.
"Yes, we can," he said. "Janet and I made them take all the equipment out. No one can see. No one will know."
"I'm not doing it again," Jack said. "It made you sick."
"Only because we didn't finish," Daniel said, with a sneaky, seductive smile and a small tilt of his hips.
"No," Jack said firmly. "It's not that I don't appreciate the offer, Daniel, but if I'm going to have sex to save my life, I'll do it with a woman, thanks."
In response, Daniel lowered his lips to Jack's and kissed him. A sweet pressure of lips with a gentle brush of tongue. Before Jack could pull himself together, Daniel's tongue was peacefully exploring Jack's feeding teeth and soft palate. By the time Daniel pulled away, tongue flickering out to taste his own wet lips, Jack had forgotten everything by his desire to have Daniel.
Daniel resumed his attempts to persuade Jack, his voice a rich purr, arousal enriching his scent. His cock was half-hard against Jack's belly.
"You shouldn't have tried to drink Teal'c's blood," Daniel said.
"Ya think?" Jack muttered, but his heart wasn't in it, as his own dick was straining upwards, brushing tantalizingly against the sheets.
"You almost bit Teal'c's arm off. He forgives you, by the way."
"That's good," Jack said, hardly hearing anything Daniel was saying.
"Gyan said you essentially swallowed lye when you tried to drink Jaffa blood. He told us you were going to die." The news was delivered in a husky, seductive whisper against Jack's ear.
Gyan's name killed Jack's mood as effectively as a bucket of ice cold water. Too bad his erection didn't get the memo.
"You are not whoring yourself out to me just because Gyan thinks a suck and fuck, vampire style, is just what the doctor ordered," Jack growled. He pushed and actually found the strength to shove Daniel off of him.
"You're right," Daniel said. "I'm not. I'm doing this because I want to."
"No you don't. You're a great guy, Danny, but I know you don't do guys."
Daniel just grinned back at him.
"When I realized what we did wrong the last time, I went to the toy shop downtown and got myself a nice, lime green dildo and plenty of lube."
Jack didn't know whether to be shocked, horrified, or just intrigued when Daniel rolled over to the bedside table, pulled out his new toy and flung it on the bed. Jack could see the drawer was full of bottles and tubes, too.
"I've been practicing in my spare time, Jack," he purred. "Do you want to watch?"
Jack intercepted Daniel's hand as he reached for a bottle. He held him tightly by the wrist, and brought their faces close together.
"Your crazy ideas about research don't change the fact that I'm not going to fuck Gyan's whore," Jack snarled.
Daniel brought his other hand up to Jack's face, letting his fingers linger over Jack's lips where he could feel his larger teeth.
"No," Daniel said, "You're making love to your beloved." His smile was sweet. But the look in his eyes was less confident now. "Let me do this for you, Jack. You don't have the time to go out, pick up some stranger, take her for drinks, and talk her into letting you suck her blood. I'm here, I want to do this. You want to do this. With me." His voice trailed away to a whisper.
Jack could already feel the hunger, briefly suppressed by his snack of animal blood, coming back strong. His sight was already fading again. He felt weak and shaky, just from the exertion of this argument with Daniel. He found that Daniel's arms were around him again, easing him down onto his back.
Daniel reached over into the drawer and brought out a simple tube of KY. And a knife.
Jack felt like he should make a joke about his kinky sex life, but his brain was having trouble coping with the vision of naked Daniel, perched on his thighs, his very erect penis now dueling with Jack's, slicking up his hand and reaching for Jack's cock.
He groaned as Daniel took a tentative grip.
Daniel slathered lube all over him.
Then he stopped.
"Daniel," he started to protest, only to realize that Daniel had only stopped to reposition himself so that now, the head of Jack's dick was pressing... pressing...
He was barely breathing as Daniel impaled himself. He stared up in amazement at Daniel's face, eyebrows crowding together in concentration, attention fully-focused internally. When he touched bottom, he seemed to come back to himself and realized Jack was watching him. He smiled brilliantly, looking ridiculously pleased with himself. He was breathing harder. Jack still was hardly breathing at all.
He had never imagined having sex with Daniel. Not explicitly. He had never let himself. Maybe he had jerked off thinking about Daniel washing his hair in the shower. Maybe. But never anything like this.
Then Daniel moved up, then resettled. Jack's vision hazed to red around the edges. Daniel grunted to himself, and tried it again. It was so good that Jack had actually forgotten the real purpose of this whole process until Daniel sat still again and reached for the knife.
"You don't need that," Jack said. "Can you put it back on the table?"
Daniel paused, looking at him long and hard. Then slowly leaned away to lay the knife back down.
Jack reached for him and Daniel came forward to meet him. Jack let his teeth graze over the tender skin of Daniel's neck, burying his nose in Daniel's soft hair, breathing him in as he touched his tongue to the first welling droplet of blood from the tiny nick.
Daniel whimpered as Jack moaned. Daniel's blood was so rich, so satisfying. The horrible hunger was driven back. Jack barely had the presence of mind to be careful with his teeth, just sipping Daniel's blood, not taking it all.
It was only after several minutes of feeding that he realized how their bodies were rocking together. They were forming a feedback loop of energy like an electric current, flowing through them both, making them both stronger, making them vibrate and hum and groan together. Jack rolled them over, pinning Daniel's relaxed, pleasured body beneath him, nipping his neck again and drinking more even as he delved more deeply into Daniel's body, Daniel's legs wrapping around him, pulling him in, holding him.
Daniel came first, climaxing with a moan that would have been a full-throated scream if Jack hadn't felt it coming and covered Daniel's mouth with his own. Daniel's tongue licked at Jack's bloodied lips and teeth. Then Jack's world whited out in the most intense orgasm he had ever experienced. It shook his entire body. He knew he was collapsing onto Daniel, and rolled them both over so they lay facing each other. Daniel was out cold. Jack wrapped him up in arms and legs and fell asleep with their foreheads pressed together.
He woke up with Daniel still in his arms. His first realization was that he wasn't hungry in the slightest. He wasn't jittery and overcharged, either. He felt content, satiated, calm and relaxed in a way that he wasn't sure he had ever felt.
His second realization, was that he couldn't let this happen again. Jack couldn't let Daniel sign on as Jack's dinner and dessert just because he was a good friend and wanted to help out.
Of course, thanks to Gyan, Daniel had Jack's number with this "beloved" crap. It didn't really change anything, though. Jack could just deny it and tell Daniel thanks, but no thanks.
Then Daniel opened his eyes, and for one heartbeat, Jack thought, screw that, he's mine. But just one heartbeat.
"Hey," Daniel said blurrily. "How are you feeling?"
"Great," Jack replied. "You were right. Gyan was right. Everybody was right. I'll seriously get to work tracking down somebody to do this with on a regular basis. Thanks, though. For helping."
Daniel's posture didn't change. His expression remained calm and open. But Jack could feel the fight coming in the increase in Daniel's blood pressure. The quickening of his pulse.
"There's no need for you to go looking for someone else, Jack."
"Of course there is, Daniel," Jack said matter-of-factly. "We can't do this all the time. I don't need to insult you by reminding you that I function as your CO in the field. Or that you're straight. Or that sodomy could land me in front of a court martial. Yadda yadda. Trust me, it won't be hard to find someone who can do this for me. You don’t need to be the one."
Daniel considered this, there in their nest, their legs still tangled together, wallowing in the damp, protein-laden, sweaty sheets. Jack was amazed at how Daniel's anger and wounded pride made absolutely no appearance on his face.
"I think you're making a mistake," Daniel said.
"I know you do. But I don't," Jack replied. "Now shut up and go back to sleep."
He stole another four hours in Daniel's arms before they rolled out to shower in the private suite bathroom and report the success of the feeding to the doc.
Chapter 3 (incocoajava's journal) There is no internal navigation from Chapter 3 to Chapter 4! Please return to this page and click here for Chapter 4!
If you're interested, all my stories, in order, from one page. Also, my fiction recommendations.
Title: Bright, Rich, Sweet (2 of 6?)
Author:
muck_a_luck, posting in brainofck, with special contributions by cocoajava, including a large, co-authored section (Approx chapter 3)Pairing: Daniel Jackson/Jack O'Neill, Jack O'Neill/OFC
Rating: NC-17
Summary: A vampire cannot live by (chicken) blood alone. Jack becomes a vampire.
Content/warnings: Does one warn for bloodplay in a vampire story? Het content, later chapters
Words:Approx 25,000-30,000 overall, 7900 this part
Disclaimer: If anybody is planning a script like this for SG-1, I'm certainly not going to claim any rights to it. However, I'd be delighted to work in a co-writing/consulting/first-reader/advisory-type capacity, with my fee to be negotiated at that time. :D
Archive rights: Absolutely none. My journals only.
muck_a_luck and brainofckThe Matrix: Taste. The Matrix is located here.
Beta: Thanks to
green_grrl and zats_clear for beta services and editorial advice. Chapter 1
There was blood all around him. On his hands. On his face. On his lips. In his mouth. It was oozing through his hair and slick between his toes. He could feel it in his inner ear and trickling down his neck. It was all for him. It smelled so good – salty and sweet. It was Carter's blood, bright and clear. And Teal'c's blood, sweet and exotic. And Daniel's blood, rich and deep. And he was bathing in it and drinking it and it was wonderful. He was so hungry. So, so hungry.
Their empty, drained corpses rotted forgotten in the other room.
He sat up, blinking in the bright darkness, reorienting himself after the nightmare.
He was sleeping like crap. It would be nice if his biological clock would quit flip-flopping. He wasn't holding his breath, though. He might as well get used to the fact that he was now a creature of the night. He rubbed his eyes and swung his legs over the side of the bed.
He shuffled out to the kitchen, switching on lights as he went so that he could pretend he was still human and still needed them. The sudden brightness didn't hurt like it should, his dark-adapted eyes adjusting differently than human eyes, he supposed. The night vision must work differently.
He opened the fridge. Which was filled with quart plastic tubs. He really, really wished he could still have a beer.
Blood it was, then!
As he carried the bowl of pig's blood left over from dinner to the table, he wondered if it was possible to be a hypoglycemic vampire. He was always hungry. He refused to consider that Daniel and Gyan might be right and perhaps a vampire could not live by chicken blood alone.
He skipped the spoon entirely and dipped his fingers into the gelatinous substance. It was disgusting, but it was the middle of the night and who was going to know but him and it just felt right that if he couldn't bite...
Morosely, he sucked his own fingers, cleaning the cold blood away digit by digit. He pretended it tasted like bacon.
The next morning was a Saturday. The team had four days off before they were due back at the mountain. He fully expected to hear from Daniel, to berate him for his stupidity or find out how he was doing or both. But nothing. He was relieved, and yet hurt. No call all day. Nothing on Sunday, either.
Monday, he moseyed down to Daniel's office.
"Hey, Jack," Daniel said distractedly. Jack watched him blindly reach for his coffee as he flipped back and forth through the tiny well-thumbed paperback in his hands. He was looking for something, a scowl on his face.
Jack settled into Daniel's computer chair to wait him out. Daniel finally threw down the book, muttering in disgust, and whirled around, hopping off the stool headed for the bookshelf right behind Jack. He barely stopped himself from crashing into him.
"Oh. Hey, Jack," he said again, offering a friendly smile. "Can I help you with something?"
"Nope," he said. "I just wanted to drop by and say thanks for Friday night."
Daniel's face went blank.
He blinked a few times, then the blank went away and was replaced by the wrinkle between the eyebrows.
"Friday?" he asked. "I spent all Friday doing department head stuff. Didn't I?" he seemed confused. He reached over Jack to flip through his desk calendar. "Yeah. Archaeologists and linguists all day."
Jack frowned.
"Nooooo," he said. Then he grinned, finally cluing in. "Thanks for 'forgetting.'"
"Forgetting what?" Daniel said. He was doing the furrowed brow thing again. Jack smiled even bigger and got up, slapping him on the shoulder. Which made Daniel scowl.
"Seriously. What?!"
Jack rolled his eyes. "You know. Friday night. Beer everywhere. I know I was a jerk at the time, but thanks for the rescue."
Daniel's face went slack and blank again. Then he kind of shook it off.
"Beer?" he said. He looked like he was in physical pain. "Rescue?" He shook his head.
He stumbled backwards leaning against the lab table.
"Daniel? Are you okay?"
"I don't think so," Daniel said shakily.
By the time they got to the infirmary, Daniel was almost completely back to normal.
Dr. Fraiser flashed her light in his eyes, frowned a little bit, took his pulse, took some blood.
"Explain to me what happened, exactly," she said, handing the vial off to her nurse.
"Jack started asking me about something that happened on Friday," Daniel said. "I couldn't remember what he was talking about. And the more he tried to explain to me what happened, the worse I felt. I got dizzy and my head started to hurt. But now I'm feeling much better. Maybe I had too much coffee."
Jack shook his head, just enough that the doc would know he didn't agree.
She made a few notes on her chart.
"What were you trying to remember. Can you tell me about it now?"
Daniel's face went completely blank.
"No," he answered. He went pale again and closed his eyes tight.
"Just lie down, buddy," Jack said, catching him as he swayed. Dr. Fraiser helped him get his feet up on the table.
"Nurse," she called. Her nurse rushed back over.
"Keep an eye on Dr. Jackson for me. I need to speak to the Colonel privately. Let me know if there is any worsening of his condition."
"Yes, ma'am," the nurse said. Dr. Fraiser dragged Jack bodily by the arm into her office.
"What happened?" she asked him.
He flopped into a chair.
"I think I accidentally erased his memory," Jack said.
"Go on," the doctor prompted him when he didn't elaborate.
"Okay. Friday night, I did something so stupid, you won't even believe I did it," he confessed. He suspected that only respect for his rank kept Dr. Fraiser from rolling her eyes.
"I drank a beer," he plowed on.
"That couldn’t have been good," she said.
"No. It was just as bad as any of the things I ate under observation. Except I had left the cooler with the blood in it out in the truck. I think I was probably convulsing when Daniel walked in on me. He got some blood into me and when the worst of it was over, I adopted my usual manners."
He smiled with what he hoped was self-deprecating charm.
"I know I'm not the best patient."
Again, the doctor did not roll her eyes.
"Anyway, I told him to get out and forget anything had ever happened. And he did. He just shut up and left. No argument. Nothing. And he didn't call me later to find out if I was okay. I figured he was just pissed at me for being a bastard. But this morning, when I tried to apologize and thank him, he started acting like he did just now."
Dr. Fraiser slowly sank into the chair beside him.
"Well. That's certainly..."
"Yeah," Jack wholeheartedly agreed.
Leaving the doc's office, he knew he couldn't just leave it alone. This was an ability that needed to be tested. He waved to Daniel as he left. He was already chirping away happily to one of the many attentive nurses. Very attentive. Jack grinned to himself and headed for Hammond's office.
As he settled into the chair across from his CO, he captured the general's gaze, and concentrating very hard on making the general do exactly what he suggested, he said, "Sir, I think this year we should have a St. Patrick's Day party at the alpha site."
At first, he thought it hadn't worked. The general's eyes returned to the file he had been studying when Jack interrupted him. But then his hand was reaching for the phone, almost independent of the general's apparent intentions.
"Sergeant," he said, "I think this year we should have a St. Patrick's Day party at the alpha site."
Jack fought the urge to smirk. The general's expression was blank, his posture stiff. Then he blinked in confusion.
"What? Yes, I realize it was last month!" A pause. "No! Of course the Jaffa there will not want green beer."
The general was looking more and more confused.
"I think this year we should have a St. Patrick's Day party at the alpha site," he repeated belligerently, nearly shouting, and slammed down the phone. He looked at Jack like he was surprised he was still in his office.
Jack concentrated hard again.
"Sir, maybe the St. Patrick's Day party thing isn't such a great idea. I think we should cancel it."
He got up and left as General Hammond again reached for the phone. Sauntering through the briefing room over to the stairs, he saw Siler deep in conversation with Teal'c as a technical crew crawled all over the Gateroom. He found a bemused Harriman hanging up the phone. He slouched against the wall next to him.
"What's goin' on?" he asked, nodding out the observation window.
"Just some regular maintenance," the sergeant replied.
Jack walked with him over to his work station.
"Hey," he said. The sergeant looked up at him. "Teal'c's a great guy. He looks like he could use a hug."
Jack thought he was really going to need to get a few prints from the security feed at the end of the day.
It worked great on Ferretti, too, and he learned that he could get someone to do something not only ridiculous or humiliating, but really dangerous.
"I bet you really want to pop Teal'c's naked ass with a towel," he muttered, while Teal'c was still under the spray and couldn't hear them.
Oh, yeah. He was going to be visiting the security office for some pics.
"Jack," drawled Daniel from the doorway of his office.
Jack looked up in surprise. Nobody ever came to his office.
"Daniel! To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"Teal'c was telling me about some strange things that happened to him yesterday. While I was in the infirmary. Apparently recovering from your super powers of suggestion."
Jack grinned.
"You wanna see the pictures?" he offered, pulling them out of his desk.
Daniel frowned.
"It's not funny, Jack. What happened to me showed it could be dangerous."
Jack smiled fondly at the picture of Ferretti in a head lock. Then guiltily shoved the photo back into his kneehole drawer.
"Jack!"
He adopted a more serious expression.
"Yes, Daniel. That's why I needed to try it out in a safe environment. To see whether it was something I could control and to learn what it feels like to do it, so I don't do it by accident again, like I did with you."
Daniel sat back in his chair, not looking the slightest bit mollified.
"Not to mention the possible applications in the field," Jack said. "The next time some mostly innocent natives freak out, I can provide another option short of violence. This thing could save our asses one day."
Daniel's eyes narrowed.
"Maybe," he replied reluctantly. "But if I think you're using it on this base again, I'm turning you in to Janet. If you had mentioned this to her, you could have tested 'this thing' in a controlled environment under her supervision."
"Yeah, but it wouldn't have been nearly as much fun," Jack smirked.
Daniel sighed and rolled his eyes. He shoved himself out of Jack's guest chair and stomped out of the office.
Jack went back to his pile of bureaucracy, smiling as he remembered the looks of confusion on Siler and Teal'c's faces as Harriman threw his arms around the Jaffa.
"Jack," said Daniel from the doorway. He was standing there thoughtfully this time.
"I wonder if you can make yourself invisible."
"What?" he asked.
"I was reading in one of Gyan's books that vampires can choose not to be seen," Daniel said. "I hesitate to mention this to you, but..."
"That could have real implications in the field," Jack finished for him. "Does it say how it's done?"
"No," Daniel said, "But I would guess it could be an extension of this whole mind control thing."
"To the nurse's locker room!" Jack said gleefully.
"You better hope it works," Daniel muttered darkly, trailing along behind him. "If Janet finds out about it, you're a dead man."
"I'm already dead!" Jack replied. "It's you who should be worried. I want to know if I can make us both invisible."
As they walked down the hall, Jack concentrated on the idea that nobody could see him or Daniel. They moved along not calling attention to themselves. Nobody greeted Daniel. Nobody saluted Jack. Eyes seemed to skitter across Jack's face as people passed them by. Daniel kept looking back at him, then at the people in the hallway.
"Are you doing it?" he asked softly.
Two airmen walking by gave Daniel twin startled looks. One of them crashed into Jack, then nearly fell over himself snapping to attention.
"As you were," Jack said to both of them, breezing by and taking Daniel by the elbow. He started trying to think them invisible again, but all eyes in the corridor were fixed on them. Their invisibility didn't kick back in until they rounded the corner.
It was the crowded, bustling hall immediately outside the mess. Daniel stopped in front of the door. Daniel and Jack were soon dodging oblivious SGC staff.
"O'Neill. DanielJackson. Why are you obstructing the entry way?"
Jack turned to the Jaffa in surprise.
"Whoa," said Carter, clearly startled herself. She had been about to walk headlong into Daniel's back. "Wow. I didn't see you there."
Teal'c looked puzzled.
"We were just testing something out," Jack said, pushing Daniel through into the mess.
"Testing what?" she asked.
"Jack can make people not see us!" Daniel whispered excitedly. Teal'c raised an eyebrow.
"But it didn't work on Teal'c," Jack muttered. It was a big disappointment. "Just our luck. Probably all Jaffa are immune."
He turned to Teal'c and focused all his attention on the big man.
"You are really hungry for blue jello. You should eat Carter's."
"Hey!" she objected. Teal'c frowned disapprovingly.
"O'Neill. If I desire blue jello, I will simply take a portion for myself from the desert shelf. I will certainly not take it from MajorCarter's tray."
"Damn," Jack muttered. Daniel snickered behind his hand.
And so life went on. There were missions, and it all was remarkably unremarkable. He put on sunscreen. He started wearing a bandana under his cap to cover the back of his neck. He still wore the goggles. He tried to steer Hammond away from assigning SG-1 the really hot planets.
If the natives noticed he was a bit longer in the tooth than he once was (and who wasn't?), well, they didn't say. Teal'c was great that way, what with the Apophis tat right out there. The locals usually focused on that, and the fact that Jack was a little pale just didn't faze them at all.
Dr. Fraiser, though, was a whole different bucket of worms.
"You're starving," she said bluntly.
"I'm the undead. How can you be so sure?" Jack asked, though he suspected she was right. He was always hungry, and he was pretty sure that he wasn't really supposed to have this grey tinge to his skin and sort of blue lips.
"I'm declaring you unfit for duty until you agree to eat properly," she said, adopting a particularly Napoleonic pose.
"No."
"Yes! The donors don't know they're donating to you, and you don't get to know who they are. Gyan said you only need about four ounces of blood a day to be healthy. So four ounces is what you are going to have."
Jack opened his mouth to argue the point yet again.
"Just stop before you start," she said. "This isn't some sort of issue of dietary preference anymore. It has become a medical condition. You. Are. Killing. Yourself. There's no reason for it. If you lost a lot of blood from a gunshot wound, you'd expect a transfusion. You need the blood just as much now."
She swirled out of the iso room she always used these days to maintain his privacy.
Jack lay back on the table and waited.
She came back in with a coffee mug.
"That's ten ounces," Jack objected.
"Yeah, well, you get some extra until I'm sure you're on the road to recovery," she said. She handed him the mug, which was warm.
Then she stood there, waiting.
"You don't have something better to do?"
"What? I should leave so you can dump it in the potted plant and pretend you drank it like a good boy? No way. And don't waste it. That's blood I could have used for other lifesaving purposes, so treat it with the respect it deserves.
"...like a good boy, Colonel," Jack muttered, scowling at her, but he took a tentative sip. She had gauged the temperature perfectly. His body temperature was a steady 91 degrees – endothermic, but a lot cooler than normal human temperatures. He liked everything a lot cooler these days.
It tasted good. He took another sip. It tasted better than good. Better than imaginary bacon blood. Before he knew it, he had finished it in almost one long drink.
When he lowered the mug, Fraiser looked a little rattled, though she covered it well. Jack winced. If he could freak out Fraiser, he could only imagine what he must look like. He licked a little residue of blood from his lip.
The doc shook it off and grinned at him.
"There. Report back here at 0800 tomorrow for another mug. And stay on base tonight. I want you nearby if anything unexpected happens."
Yay. His first feeding on human blood. 'Unexpected,' the doc is thinking.
"Wait," he said suddenly. Dr. Fraiser obligingly turned back.
"Promise me you won't let SG-1 volunteer to... You know. Donate."
The doctor raised her eyebrows.
"Oh, tell me I did not just drink Carter's blood or something!" he growled.
Dr. Fraiser shook her head.
"No."
"Well, just be sure I don't... It would be just..." he made a face.
Her quizzical look changed to understanding.
"I have nightmares about it," he blurted before he knew what he was saying.
She smiled gently.
"Of course, Colonel. I assure you that I'll respect your wishes on this point."
He was relieved when she left. He hopped down off the exam table feeling better than he had in weeks and trooped off to quarters feeling happy, healthy, and completely disgusted by turns.
Ah. The life of the undead.
He began reporting to the infirmary for his "coffee" with the doc every morning. While the blue lips went away and the weight loss stopped, the grey tinge only got worse, and he couldn't manage any weight gain.
Every morning he left her office craving more. Hungry.
So he shouldn't have been surprised the day that he arrived to find Gyan pacing Fraiser's cramped office.
"Well, this is unpleasant," Jack said.
The vampire was giving him the once-over. He turned to Fraiser.
"He will not do what he must do," said Gyan. He sat in the chair across from Fraiser, giving Jack the hairy eyeball the whole time.
"You can keep him alive with blood from a cup for a short time, but if he does not have living blood he will eventually shrivel, dry up, and blow away."
Gyan glared at him.
"Of course, it is a horrible, lingering way to die. Many of the ones who will not take living blood manage to die peacefully, harming no one. But many others, at the end, become as they were at the beginning – feral and mad."
Gyan pointed an accusatory finger at Jack.
"Do you want to be like your SG-11, ripping out the throats of your friends and loved ones, not caring whom you kill or infect in your final desperate hunger?! If you were among your own kind, we would not permit this!" Gyan turned back to Dr. Fraiser.
"It is against our laws for vampires to starve themselves while living among humans. You should send him through the Stargate to a place where he can hurt no one. That is what we would do."
Jack found himself with his arm around Gyan's throat, the vampire's neck bent back at an impossible angle, almost before he realized what he had done. The anger hot and overwhelming. The only reason Gyan wasn't dead was probably Jack's weakened state. The vampire's iron grip on his forearm tightened as Gyan tried to pry Jack's arm away.
"Colonel!" Dr. Fraiser shouted. Jack released him and leaped away again, putting distance between himself and Gyan, ready in case the vampire wanted to make a fight of it.
It was pretty cool, actually. He hadn't had a good chance to try out his new skills in a real fight. Nice to get an idea of what he could do.
"You see what I mean, doctor?" Gyan said, his voice hoarse. He rubbed at his throat. "He will only become more dangerous if he continues to refuse blood."
Dr. Fraiser's eyes flitted back and forth between the two vampires.
"I'll take it under advisement," she said. The look she gave Jack made him feel vaguely guilty.
The next morning, Dr. Fraiser did not greet him with a cup of blood.
He eyed her warily.
"Colonel, the time has come," she said calmly.
"0800 hours?" Jack asked, with the pretense of confusion. Though he knew exactly what she as saying. And he was so hungry.
"This way, Colonel," the doctor said, taking his elbow and steering him away from the infirmary down the hall toward the isolation rooms.
When he saw them he twitched his arm out of her grip. Carter was sitting on the exam table.
"I said not them," he growled.
He wasn't drinking the blood of SG-1.
He knew things about people after he drank their blood. It didn't matter that the doc didn't tell him who the "donors" were. He would go out into the facility and one of them would walk by and he would know how they tasted. Know the texture of their blood, the scent of their lifeforce, the flavor of their souls.
He did not want to know these things about SG-1. He already knew their auras, their moods, the beating of their hearts in ways that he should not.
"Well, who then, Jack?" Daniel demanded. "You won't do this with people you don't know very well. You can't ask subordinates. You can't ask your peers. You won't ask your friends. So it's us or nobody."
"And 'nobody' is no longer an option, O'Neill," rumbled Teal'c.
He was so hungry.
"Sir, if you won't attempt to eat, this is going to progress from a medical situation to a security issue. Your behavior indicates that Gyan was correct..."
Her voice faded to static as Jack gave in. They wanted him to drink. They were determined that he would have their blood before he left this room. He was hungry. They were so tempting. He found himself standing between Carter's knees, leaning in towards the pulsing vein on her throat. He could sense every droplet of blood in her body, feel it moving. He could feel her heart rate increasing in fear and anticipation as she tipped her head to give her neck better exposure.
He breathed across her skin, his cooler breath making her shiver and her scent strengthened. He wanted her. Her blood. Her skin. Her short soft hair. Her cunt.
With a snarl he jerked away from her. Carter's eyes were glazed and fixed on him. He knew she was getting wet just as well as he knew he was getting hard.
"No!" he shouted. It shook Carter out of her trance.
"Did you see her? Did you see how she looked? I'm not doing that to anyone. I hadn't even touched her!"
He was panting. They were watching him warily.
"I'll drink blood from the cup the usual way, but I am not biting anyone," he said to Fraiser, trying to be calmer. "Could we drink it in here, please? I'd prefer as few people as possible saw me this way."
"Of course," Fraiser said. "But Colonel..."
"We can talk about it later, doctor," he said firmly.
Teal'c arched an eyebrow, then offered Carter a hand down from the table. She refused to take it, though she stumbled a step before she got her balance.
She walked up to him, invading his personal space.
"I know why you stopped," she said.
"Dismissed, Major," he replied curtly.
Which earned him Daniel's disapproving frown as well as Teal'c's evil eye. Dr. Fraiser reappeared with his blood.
Carter turned to Dr. Fraiser.
"It's the sexual component," she said simply.
"Well, we knew there would be..." Daniel began. Then stopped and stared at Jack.
"Have you been totally ignoring everything I've been telling you the last month?"
"Out. All of you. Now." Fraiser said.
Daniel pushed past him into the house, skipping the pleasantries.
"So clearly there's more to feeding than just eating," Daniel began immediately.
Jack shut his eyes and counted to ten.
"Daniel," he said. "We are not discussing this again. I am not biting anybody, end of story."
"Gyan said that most vampires die of starvation." Jack took a deep, steadying breath. Daniel's favorite mantra. "There's obviously some component of feeding directly on a person that you need to survive." Daniel met Jack's steely stare. His determination shaded over to anger.
"I'm not going to let you die just because you're a stubborn bastard," Daniel growled. He turned and stalked back to Jack's bedroom. Jack found him standing by the dresser.
"I don't think you need that much blood," Daniel said softly. "Gyan's texts say that vampires live for years on the blood of a single willing companion. One person couldn't do that if you needed much."
He had picked up Jack's utility knife from the dresser. He drew the sharp blade over the soft skin of his inner arm, flinching just a little, breath coming in a sigh.
The long, thin scrape welled blood. The presence of it filled Jack's senses completely. Daniel's voice, continuing on about... something... sounded far away, drowned in the sound of Daniel's blood rushing through his veins, smothered by the heat and smell of the richredthickhot...
Daniel extended his bleeding arm, offering it to Jack to taste. To drink. To feed.
Jack felt his body reacting. His pupils were dilating and slitting, and he knew from previous experience that they were fading to a pale blue white. He felt his lips pulling back from his fangs.
"Daniel," he whispered. "You need to leave. Right now."
"It's okay, Jack. You're not hungry for a lot of blood. All you need is to experience living blood from living flesh. You don't need to hurt me."
"Daniel," he breathed, but he couldn't hold back, with Daniel standing so close, offering him what he wanted. What he needed.
He reached out and took Daniel's wrist in an iron grip, but stopped himself from yanking him forward. He hardly needed to, anyway. Daniel was standing right there, and let Jack raise his arm easily.
Jack lowered his head had ran his tongue down the long scratch.
Daniel's blood was rich and fragrant. Like coffee and chocolate and wine, but also like hummus and pad thai and mint chutney. There was nothing in Jack's experience to compare it to. None of the human blood Jack had consumed from cups in Fraiser's infirmary was anything like the food he was taking from Daniel's warm, silken skin.
When the first blood was gone, Jack worked his way back down the cut with this tongue, worrying it and encouraging the blood to flow. He found that just the edge of his tooth was enough to bring the blood welling back to the surface. Precious, tiny droplets. Just a taste. Tiny lapping licks.
As he drank, he felt himself changing. He could feel the way drinking was completing him. It wasn't making him well. It wasn't healing him. It was allowing him to grow and expand – to fill the empty places in this strangely different body. And it was awakening other needs, as well. Just as it had in the infirmary when he had refused to drink Carter's blood. Drinking Daniel's body, Jack knew what Gyan hadn't told them. Daniel was right. He didn't just need to drink. He needed... something else. Energy maybe. Energy from Daniel's blood. Energy from Daniel's body. His life force. His soul.
It was only then that Jack processed Daniel's hitching breathing. The way he was swaying on his feet. He looked up, too stimulated in all his senses to be properly concerned, but knowing intellectually that Daniel might be in danger.
Daniel's eyes were glazed, and in every way he looked completely, happily drunk.
"Vampire glamour," Daniel murmured, smiling seductively. "God, you look hot." Daniel laughed. "Vampires are almost always an allegory for hypersexuality. I think the missing component from your feeding could be sex. Oh. Hmmmm... Maybe I didn't quite think this through." Daniel's smile didn't fade, and he didn't sound the slightest bit worried.
Jack caught Daniel behind his neck and dragged him forward. Kissing him, awkward with his new teeth, Jack nicked him. Daniel moaned. Jack drank from his bloody lip, pushing the blood back into Daniel's mouth, then chasing it, drawing it back to himself again, over and over until Daniel was a lax, panting weight in his arms.
He carried him and deposited him on the bed. Rutting. That was what his body was demanding. And Daniel was looking up at him in blissful expectation. Trusting. Yearning. Opening himself up to give more.
"Daniel?" Jack choked out.
Daniel smiled lazily in response. He reached down to fumble at his belt and fly.
Nonono, that wasn't right. Daniel was his friend, not his lover. Daniel wasn't gay. Daniel was just here trying to help him out. He was sure Daniel never planned to screw him as part of the deal. No.
He took Daniel's hands in a strong, firm grip.
"No," he said softly. "Daniel, you don't want to do this." He trembled as he forced himself to pull Daniel upright onto his feet and carefully guide him to the door.
"I don't?" Daniel asked, sounding genuinely confused and disappointed. "I do," he said, putting his arms around Jack's neck and kissing him again.
"We're not doing this," Jack said sharply. "I'm calling you a cab."
The half hour spent waiting for the cab was possibly the longest of his life. It made him think about black holes and time dilation. But the cab finally arrived and he shoved Daniel in, paid the driver three times as much as it should take to get Daniel home. Then he followed them in his truck just to be sure.
"Wow. You look a lot better this morning!" Fraiser exclaimed. "What did you do? On the table, right now."
Jack sighed. Trust the doc that if he looked better she would just use it as an excuse to prod him.
"Nothing," he lied. "Just must have finally had enough of the real thing to turn the corner."
He did look better. The grey pallor was gone. But now he was all jittery and restless. He had gone from slightly depressed and listless to completely overcharged and jumpy. The lights were too bright, now. The auras of the humans on the base were too luminescent. Smells were too strong, sounds were too loud.
Whatever he had done with Daniel hadn't really fixed him.
Later, when he tracked Daniel down in his lab, he knew he couldn't do it again. Jack felt wired, but Daniel looked like he had the flu. Dark circles under his eyes and skin too pale.
"Thanks," Jack said simply from the doorway.
"Don't mention it," Daniel said listlessly. "How did I get home last night? I hardly remember anything after I got to your place. I cut myself right? And obviously you drank..."
"Yeah," Jack said. "How are you feeling? You look like crap."
"Thanks," Daniel said with a weak attempt at a smile. "I'm just tired and headachy. Though interestingly..." He held out his arm, which was almost fully healed, with only the palest white trace to show that he had been bleeding last night.
"Well, we're not doing that again," Jack said gruffly.
"Teal'c, Sam and I thought we could take rotating shifts," Daniel protested.
"No way," Jack said. "I don’t care if you are perfect tomorrow. The condition you are in now... Not acceptable."
He knew he meant it when Daniel couldn’t even muster the strength to argue about it.
It took about two days for his jitters to wear off, and about a week for Daniel to recover from his reaction.
Unfortunately, it only took about a week for Jack's former symptoms to come back.
Before Dr. Fraiser could start in on him again, he went to Teal'c.
"O'Neill," Teal'c said, opening the door to his quarters. With a genteel inclination of his head he stepped back, welcoming Jack into his quarters.
"I need your help, Teal'c," he said quietly. Teal'c merely nodded and went to sit on the reed mat. He took out his own knife and without any discussion, drew it across his thick forearm.
His blood smelled different from Daniel's. Sweeter. Lighter.
As Jack knelt in front of his friend on the mat, he felt another presence. Covered by Teal'c's lifeforce, or surrounded by it, or subsumed in it, he wasn't sure how to describe it, but he felt the symbiote, living inside Teal'c. It was hidden from his view, obviously. He wondered if it had an aura, and if it would be the color of vomit.
He caught Teal'c's arm gently in this two hands, lifting the blood to his mouth. Steadying himself. Teal'c let out a gusty sigh as Jack caressed him with lips and teeth.
Teal'c's blood tasted like cloves on his tongue.
And it burned like fire.
Jack screamed, and bit down in pain. Then his world went black.
He woke in a warm, soft bed. Everything felt dull. His sense of smell was numb, his hearing muffled. When he opened his eyes, everything was dim. For one heart-stopping moment he thought maybe Teal'c's blood had been the answer all along. Maybe he was normal again. Then the hunger cramped his gut. No such luck, then.
He was surprised to find that he was not in the infirmary, but rather in one of the VIP suites. He was so hungry. He should be in medical restraints. Or a cell. He could feel the need to feed overwhelming him. If he weren't so weak, he knew he would be hunting now. He needed blood. He wanted it. He shut his eyes tight and whined.
"Hey," Daniel said gently.
Jack's eyes snapped open and using an impossible amount of energy he managed to tip his head to one side to see his friend, sitting next to him in the bed, propped up on pillows against the headboard. The shock of seeing him momentarily broke through Jack's misery.
"Naked," he managed to croak. Daniel smiled down at him.
"You're doing much better than the last time you woke up," he said, sounding pleased. He got out of bed and padded away, probably toward the suite's living area.
"I'll be right back," he said reassuringly.
Which wasn't that reassuring to Jack, since before he got out of Jack's line of sight, Jack had plenty of time to confirm that Daniel wasn't just sitting in bed without his shirt on.
Daniel did come right back. He had been gone about a minute when the microwave beeped, and Daniel reappeared to sit by him on the edge of the bed. He wrestled Jack until he was leaning limply against Daniel's side, then Daniel held the microwave-warmed cup to Jack's lips.
It was just chicken blood, Jack's favorite, though how Daniel could have known that he couldn’t imagine. Probably just a coincidence. Or maybe Daniel's sense of humor. Everybody knows you eat chicken soup when you're sick. The chicken blood wasn't enough, but it did make Jack feel better. He felt stronger and more in-control. His senses woke – only to focus on Daniel with a frightening intensity.
Funny how it was just at that moment that he realized that Daniel wasn't the only naked person in the room.
"Daniel, we can't," he ground out through clenched teeth. "I appreciate the gesture, but we can't."
It was a difficult conversation to have while Daniel was settling him gently back into the pillows. Once Jack was resting to his satisfaction, Daniel slid in under the covers, too. Right on top of Jack. His skin felt hot against Jack's body. His blood was flowing through his veins right against Jack's skin. As he propped his arms on either side of Jack's head, Jack felt the weight of his body everywhere. He was drowning in Daniel's scent. He wanted Daniel's blood. So much.
He stared up into serious blue eyes.
"Yes, we can," he said. "Janet and I made them take all the equipment out. No one can see. No one will know."
"I'm not doing it again," Jack said. "It made you sick."
"Only because we didn't finish," Daniel said, with a sneaky, seductive smile and a small tilt of his hips.
"No," Jack said firmly. "It's not that I don't appreciate the offer, Daniel, but if I'm going to have sex to save my life, I'll do it with a woman, thanks."
In response, Daniel lowered his lips to Jack's and kissed him. A sweet pressure of lips with a gentle brush of tongue. Before Jack could pull himself together, Daniel's tongue was peacefully exploring Jack's feeding teeth and soft palate. By the time Daniel pulled away, tongue flickering out to taste his own wet lips, Jack had forgotten everything by his desire to have Daniel.
Daniel resumed his attempts to persuade Jack, his voice a rich purr, arousal enriching his scent. His cock was half-hard against Jack's belly.
"You shouldn't have tried to drink Teal'c's blood," Daniel said.
"Ya think?" Jack muttered, but his heart wasn't in it, as his own dick was straining upwards, brushing tantalizingly against the sheets.
"You almost bit Teal'c's arm off. He forgives you, by the way."
"That's good," Jack said, hardly hearing anything Daniel was saying.
"Gyan said you essentially swallowed lye when you tried to drink Jaffa blood. He told us you were going to die." The news was delivered in a husky, seductive whisper against Jack's ear.
Gyan's name killed Jack's mood as effectively as a bucket of ice cold water. Too bad his erection didn't get the memo.
"You are not whoring yourself out to me just because Gyan thinks a suck and fuck, vampire style, is just what the doctor ordered," Jack growled. He pushed and actually found the strength to shove Daniel off of him.
"You're right," Daniel said. "I'm not. I'm doing this because I want to."
"No you don't. You're a great guy, Danny, but I know you don't do guys."
Daniel just grinned back at him.
"When I realized what we did wrong the last time, I went to the toy shop downtown and got myself a nice, lime green dildo and plenty of lube."
Jack didn't know whether to be shocked, horrified, or just intrigued when Daniel rolled over to the bedside table, pulled out his new toy and flung it on the bed. Jack could see the drawer was full of bottles and tubes, too.
"I've been practicing in my spare time, Jack," he purred. "Do you want to watch?"
Jack intercepted Daniel's hand as he reached for a bottle. He held him tightly by the wrist, and brought their faces close together.
"Your crazy ideas about research don't change the fact that I'm not going to fuck Gyan's whore," Jack snarled.
Daniel brought his other hand up to Jack's face, letting his fingers linger over Jack's lips where he could feel his larger teeth.
"No," Daniel said, "You're making love to your beloved." His smile was sweet. But the look in his eyes was less confident now. "Let me do this for you, Jack. You don't have the time to go out, pick up some stranger, take her for drinks, and talk her into letting you suck her blood. I'm here, I want to do this. You want to do this. With me." His voice trailed away to a whisper.
Jack could already feel the hunger, briefly suppressed by his snack of animal blood, coming back strong. His sight was already fading again. He felt weak and shaky, just from the exertion of this argument with Daniel. He found that Daniel's arms were around him again, easing him down onto his back.
Daniel reached over into the drawer and brought out a simple tube of KY. And a knife.
Jack felt like he should make a joke about his kinky sex life, but his brain was having trouble coping with the vision of naked Daniel, perched on his thighs, his very erect penis now dueling with Jack's, slicking up his hand and reaching for Jack's cock.
He groaned as Daniel took a tentative grip.
Daniel slathered lube all over him.
Then he stopped.
"Daniel," he started to protest, only to realize that Daniel had only stopped to reposition himself so that now, the head of Jack's dick was pressing... pressing...
He was barely breathing as Daniel impaled himself. He stared up in amazement at Daniel's face, eyebrows crowding together in concentration, attention fully-focused internally. When he touched bottom, he seemed to come back to himself and realized Jack was watching him. He smiled brilliantly, looking ridiculously pleased with himself. He was breathing harder. Jack still was hardly breathing at all.
He had never imagined having sex with Daniel. Not explicitly. He had never let himself. Maybe he had jerked off thinking about Daniel washing his hair in the shower. Maybe. But never anything like this.
Then Daniel moved up, then resettled. Jack's vision hazed to red around the edges. Daniel grunted to himself, and tried it again. It was so good that Jack had actually forgotten the real purpose of this whole process until Daniel sat still again and reached for the knife.
"You don't need that," Jack said. "Can you put it back on the table?"
Daniel paused, looking at him long and hard. Then slowly leaned away to lay the knife back down.
Jack reached for him and Daniel came forward to meet him. Jack let his teeth graze over the tender skin of Daniel's neck, burying his nose in Daniel's soft hair, breathing him in as he touched his tongue to the first welling droplet of blood from the tiny nick.
Daniel whimpered as Jack moaned. Daniel's blood was so rich, so satisfying. The horrible hunger was driven back. Jack barely had the presence of mind to be careful with his teeth, just sipping Daniel's blood, not taking it all.
It was only after several minutes of feeding that he realized how their bodies were rocking together. They were forming a feedback loop of energy like an electric current, flowing through them both, making them both stronger, making them vibrate and hum and groan together. Jack rolled them over, pinning Daniel's relaxed, pleasured body beneath him, nipping his neck again and drinking more even as he delved more deeply into Daniel's body, Daniel's legs wrapping around him, pulling him in, holding him.
Daniel came first, climaxing with a moan that would have been a full-throated scream if Jack hadn't felt it coming and covered Daniel's mouth with his own. Daniel's tongue licked at Jack's bloodied lips and teeth. Then Jack's world whited out in the most intense orgasm he had ever experienced. It shook his entire body. He knew he was collapsing onto Daniel, and rolled them both over so they lay facing each other. Daniel was out cold. Jack wrapped him up in arms and legs and fell asleep with their foreheads pressed together.
He woke up with Daniel still in his arms. His first realization was that he wasn't hungry in the slightest. He wasn't jittery and overcharged, either. He felt content, satiated, calm and relaxed in a way that he wasn't sure he had ever felt.
His second realization, was that he couldn't let this happen again. Jack couldn't let Daniel sign on as Jack's dinner and dessert just because he was a good friend and wanted to help out.
Of course, thanks to Gyan, Daniel had Jack's number with this "beloved" crap. It didn't really change anything, though. Jack could just deny it and tell Daniel thanks, but no thanks.
Then Daniel opened his eyes, and for one heartbeat, Jack thought, screw that, he's mine. But just one heartbeat.
"Hey," Daniel said blurrily. "How are you feeling?"
"Great," Jack replied. "You were right. Gyan was right. Everybody was right. I'll seriously get to work tracking down somebody to do this with on a regular basis. Thanks, though. For helping."
Daniel's posture didn't change. His expression remained calm and open. But Jack could feel the fight coming in the increase in Daniel's blood pressure. The quickening of his pulse.
"There's no need for you to go looking for someone else, Jack."
"Of course there is, Daniel," Jack said matter-of-factly. "We can't do this all the time. I don't need to insult you by reminding you that I function as your CO in the field. Or that you're straight. Or that sodomy could land me in front of a court martial. Yadda yadda. Trust me, it won't be hard to find someone who can do this for me. You don’t need to be the one."
Daniel considered this, there in their nest, their legs still tangled together, wallowing in the damp, protein-laden, sweaty sheets. Jack was amazed at how Daniel's anger and wounded pride made absolutely no appearance on his face.
"I think you're making a mistake," Daniel said.
"I know you do. But I don't," Jack replied. "Now shut up and go back to sleep."
He stole another four hours in Daniel's arms before they rolled out to shower in the private suite bathroom and report the success of the feeding to the doc.
Chapter 3 (in
cocoajava's journal) There is no internal navigation from Chapter 3 to Chapter 4! Please return to this page and click here for Chapter 4!If you're interested, all my stories, in order, from one page. Also, my fiction recommendations.
