The study was warm from the fire but Valen's presence was warmer still an ache that drew Elias closer in spite of every instinct telling him to retreat.
Valen didn't press. Not yet.
After the kiss, he guided Elias not towards the bed but towards the long chaise before the fire. It was deliberate. The intimacy of proximity without the presumption of seduction.
"Sit" he said, and Elias obeyed before realizing he'd done so.
Valen sat beside him, close enough for his knee to brush Elias's, the contact lingering like an unspoken question. His gaze roamed Elias's face as if he were studying a centuries-old manuscript, eyes tracing every detail, memorizing the curve of his mouth, the way the firelight caught on his lashes.
When Valen touched him again, it wasn't in hunger but in worship,fingers trailing along the inside of Elias's wrist, following the beat of his pulse like a melody only he could hear.
"You feel it, don't you?" Valen murmured. "How still the world becomes when it's just us?"
Elias said nothing, but the slight shift of his breath betrayed him.
Valen leaned in, brushing his lips across Elias's temple before speaking again. "I could drink from you right now and you'd let me." His voice was velvet and certainty all at once. "But that's not what I want tonight."
Instead, he kissed Elias's knuckles , slowly enough that Elias began to feel the weight of each gesture. The tension between them thickened, the space charged not by what was happening, but by what was being deliberately held back.
Minutes stretched. Valen's hand moved to the side of Elias's neck, thumb resting lightly over the vein there. His eyes locked on Elias's, voice dropping to a murmur that was more confession than seduction.
"You think I'm dangerous because I could end you" Valen said. "But the truth is, you are dangerous to me. Because you could make me want to begin again."
The words lingered in the air, and for a long time, neither of them moved.
When Valen kissed him again, it was deeper , still slow but threaded with a longing that curled hot in Elias's chest. The kiss was an anchor, holding them in the moment. No rush. No chase. Just the steady unraveling of walls.
Hours passed like that kissing, pulling back, speaking in low murmurs, kissing again. At some point, Elias's head came to rest against Valen's shoulder, and Valen held him there, thumb idly tracing circles against his arm.
The rain never stopped, and neither did Valen's attention. He kept Elias within arm's reach the entire night, not to possess, but to keep the truth close enough to feel.
And when the fire finally burned low, Valen whispered into Elias's hair soft, but certain.
"You are not leaving me untouched."
The fire had burned to embers by the time Valen finally pulled back, his mouth still hovering close enough that Elias could feel each word in the warm air between them.
"Think on it" Valen murmured. "Whether your answer will be surrender or something sharper."
Elias' chest rose and fell too quickly, the heat from Valen's touch still coiled low in his stomach. He tried for composure, but his voice came out rough. "You think you've won already."
"No." Valen straightened, a predator indulging in patience. "But I think you're tired of losing to yourself."
He didn't touch Elias again. Didn't have to. The ghost of his hands, his mouth, the weight of his body , it all lingered in the space between them, heavy and intoxicating.
Valen stepped back toward the door, the sound of his boots against the polished floor sharp in the quiet room. "Sleep, Elias. You'll need it."
Elias waited until the door closed behind him before letting out the breath he'd been holding. The taste of Valen was still on his lips. The memory of his voice still curled against his ear.
He knew he wouldn't sleep.
Sunlight bled through the curtains, pale and almost reluctant. Elias sat on the edge of his bed, staring at his own hands, remembering the way Valen's had covered them steady, claiming, impossibly warm for a creature without a heartbeat.
Down the hall, he could hear the slow, deliberate pacing of boots. Valen never hurried but somehow, he always arrived exactly when Elias thought he'd gotten a moment to himself.
The knock came, low and unhurried.
"Come in" Elias said, his voice steady enough to pass.
Valen stepped inside, a faint smirk playing at his lips as if he could still taste the previous night too. "You still owe me that answer."
Elias arched a brow. "I remember. But you said it wasn't going to be a question this time."
Valen closed the distance between them, his shadow falling over Elias like a slow eclipse. "It isn't." He reached down, tilting Elias' chin up with two fingers. "It's a request."
Elias's lips were still tingling when he finally pulled back enough to breathe, his chest rising and falling in shallow rhythm. The firelight behind Valen painted the edges of his face in molten gold, but his eyes those ancient, restless eyes remained fixed on him as if daring him to break first.
Elias swallowed, trying to steady himself. "Valen…"
The vampire hummed in response, the sound low in his throat, his thumb still tracing idle circles against Elias's hip as if it belonged there.
"Where are your servants?" Elias asked suddenly. His voice wasn't accusatory just quiet.
Valen stilled. Only for a second, but Elias felt it.
"You've been in my manor nearly a week" Valen said, his tone even "and only now you ask that?"
Elias tilted his head, eyes narrowing slightly. "Only now I've been still long enough to notice."
Valen's lips curved not quite a smile, more a shadow of one. "They're elsewhere."
"That's not an answer."
"It's the only one you'll get tonight."
But Valen didn't move away. If anything, he stepped closer, the heat of his body crowding Elias until the question hung between them like smoke.
And in the thick silence, Elias realized Valen's hands hadn't loosened their grip at all.
Valen's eyes caught the firelight as he stepped into Elias's space, closing the already minimal distance until Elias felt the cool brush of his coat against his hands.
"You've been watching me." Valen murmured, his voice so low Elias felt it in his sternum. "I like that."
Elias didn't flinch, but his pulse betrayed him, quick and unsteady. "You avoided the question."
Valen's lips curved again, this time deliberate. "No" he said, the syllable rolling slow off his tongue. "I redirected it."
His hand found Elias's chin once more, thumb grazing along the line of his jaw as if memorizing the texture of skin and the faint stubble that had grown there. "I can tell you where my servants are but you won't like the answer. And I'd rather your mouth be busy with something else."
Elias arched a brow, trying for composure but Valen's other hand had already slid to the small of his back, pressing him just enough to feel the restrained strength beneath the stillness.
"Distracting me doesn't make me forget" Elias said.
"It's not distraction" Valen replied. "It's demonstration."
Before Elias could ask what that meant, Valen dipped his head, his lips brushing just beneath Elias's ear in a whisper-soft drag. Elias shivered despite himself.
"You come into my manor" Valen murmured against his skin "you play your games, wear your masks, and now you ask about mine." His hand moved lower, barely grazing over the curve of Elias's hip. "Do you think you'll be the one to strip me bare, Elias? To see every shadow I keep locked away?"
Elias's throat tightened. "Maybe I already have."
That earned him a slow, dangerous smile. "Not yet. But I could show you what it feels like when someone tries."
Valen's lips ghosted over his cheek, his mouth not quite kissing, not quite not. He lingered there, close enough that Elias could feel the faintest cool breath between words.
"My servants" Valen said finally "serve me in other ways now. They are not in rooms you can visit."
The way he said it sent a ripple of something between fear and fascination down Elias's spine.
But before he could form another question, Valen's mouth claimed his not harshly, not gently either. It was a kiss built to consume thought, to press the question back into the dark corners where Valen kept his answers.
Elias found himself yielding without meaning to, caught between the slow drag of Valen's tongue and the unyielding way his hand cradled the back of his neck.
When Valen finally pulled back, his voice was velvet over steel. "If you want to know about my servants, Elias… earn it. Without the lies. Without the masks."
Elias's lips felt swollen, his breathing uneven. "And if I don't?"
Valen's eyes softened, just enough to make it worse. "Then you'll leave my manor with one question haunting you more than all the others."
The fire popped. The shadows stretched. And Elias realized the night was far from over.