Iggy's eyes nearly bulged from the sockets, wanting to see only to escape, but unable to see anything. Muffled against the blankets, his mouth flew open and he screamed from the top of his lungs. "Please don't!" he wailed and kicked his legs and tilted his shoulders side to side, attempting to pry himself out of the groove of the bed. "Please! I will learn anything! I will learn how to protect myself! I promise! Please, don't make this the only way out. Give me another chance!"
Baine peered down on him. Iggy's blue eyes met his shadowed green eyes. A moment of silence descended. Then, Baine said easily and confidently, "this is the only way out. I'm sorry, but I have to do something that you aren't going to like very much." He gazed up at Nansen. "Just make sure that I stop in time."
"You got it, boss."
Baine gently pressed Iggy's resisting face flat against the cot. His neck was completely exposed. Stretched. His glare fixed on the curve of Iggy's throat and his pupils expanded to full capacity. He had been waiting and wanting this more than anyone could have fathomed. His lips drew back and he moved closer in.
Iggy could feel his hair brush his face. His lips touch his skin. Then, an immense pressure along the side of his neck. The bite squished in his ear. Breathlessness made him quiet.
Under Baine's lips, the sensation sparked like fireworks, tingling throughout Iggy's guts and along his spine. He arched back, but Baine hovered over him, now surrounding him in his own embrace. Sucking hard and long, Baine's eyes closed. He drank, at last. He drank Iggy's strength. His willingness to fight. His life. He wrapped his right arm around Iggy's shoulders and squeezed his torso tight against his chest. The tingling running throughout Iggy's whole body exploded the harder that Baine held him. A moan escaped his lips and he found himself wanting to be crushed.
The bite wasn't painful. It was actually... blissful.
In the midst of excitement, Emi bolted for the door. Nansen let go of Iggy and ran after her. Her hand planted on the doorknob, but she couldn't get any further. Nansen swooped her up over his shoulder and tossed her onto her own cot. Her knees curled into her chest and she hid her eyes behind them, cowardly.
Iggy's newly released hand flung away from his spine and landed on Baine's round shoulder. The limb was so heavy that he couldn't fight. He listened to the rhythmic swallowing and his heartbeat pounding inside of his chest fighting the loss of blood. His eyes shut.
As he sank into the peaceful, yet terrifying moment, Baine abruptly stopped and pulled his head up. His cheeks were flushed and the only blood left was on his tongue and teeth. Nansen stood directly next to him, handing him a white towel from the side table. He pressed it firm to the side of Iggy's throat where the open wound still trickled.
Just when the sucking stopped, the blissful sensations did, too. Underneath the towel, Iggy's flesh sizzled with heat. His muscles tightened around the wound and through his shoulder his head tilted to the side towards the pull. The burning poison spread to his jaw and upper arm within seconds.
Baine gripped him harder and pulled him closer. His voice shook from the high. "Drink from me," he said, and just then Nansen slid a small razor hard and slow across the side of Baine's neck. Blood sprayed across Iggy's lips, but his glare went around Baine's head to the ceiling behind him. Dimming, fading, losing more color, becoming unreal… Fast and slow, everything went black.
The thick hot blood touched Iggy's numb lips and he took his first gulp. He was sure that it was all a dream. He would wake up in his own bed. Everything would be the same… Gulp. The burning sensation in his neck diminished with each swallow. Gulp. Surely, it was all a dream. Gulp. His eyes opened, drearily.
Baine's hand pressed firm against the back of Iggy's head, nestling his wide mouth over the wound, as his blood flowed forcefully into him. Blood. It was all new and absurd. Iggy swallowed and swallowed as if he were swimming and that was the only way to keep from drowning.
Nansen hovered over Baine's shoulder and stared into Iggy's face. Nansen's cheeks were bright red and he was sweating. "OK, OK," he exhaled a large puff of air and pulled his shoulders back. "He's conscious, again."
Iggy's gut clenched tight. Unable to swallow anymore, he coughed, spurting blood straight out of his nose. Baine released him, he fell fully onto the cot and gasped for air. Nansen stuffed the white rag under his neck and pulled the blankets up and over him. Then, Nansen circled the cot and tucked all of the edges tightly underneath, wrapping him up in a sort of cocoon. As he tucked in the last corner of the blanket, he looked over his shoulder at Baine and asked, "are you alright?"
Everyone could hear Baine's heaving breaths, and how he had pounded back into the chair, trembling with adrenaline. "I didn't want to stop." He was even more surprised than he should have been. "I almost didn't…"
Nansen laughed. "Yea, it must have been the last fifteen years of teasing, right? You're lucky that you have me here to make sure you don't ruin everything. If only you'd listen to me. Or just maybe ask in the first place..." he droned.
Baine grinned. "I... I just haven't done that in such a long time. But, thank you brother. I know that I can always rely on you. I mean it." He stood from his chair, went around the bed, and knelt down to be face to face with Iggy. His eyes were bright green, his pupils were drawn in and small. He was satisfied.
Iggy wanted to lash out. He wanted to die, specifically so that Baine couldn't have him. He wanted Baine and Nansen and everyone in the kitchen and everyone in the meeting and everyone he'd ever met to regret everything that they'd agreed upon and done. He wanted vengeance. His face twisted in rage. The anger was always strong in him, even at his worst.
As the fierce emotion boiled out toward his skin, Baine's hand rested flat on his cheek, and on the wave of his whisper, all that anger and rage died away when he told him, "I love you, Little One."
Little One, an old nickname that Baine used to call Iggy constantly. Little One, come read this with me, or let me read this to you… Little One, that's not what we do with glue… Little One, I love you.
While Iggy's defiance ate away at Baine's patience a few years back, as adolescence often does, Baine abandoned the use of that name in any nurturing sense. It became more of an insult when he wanted to knock Iggy's confidence down a peg. What would you know, Little One? You can't really think that's how it works, Little One. Get in your room, Little One, I'm not taking you anywhere. But this time, it wasn't like that. Baine's hand swept Iggy's forehead, and he stayed, observing the fragile child in him, once again.
Baine's legs also felt like jello under the weight of his large torso. He peered over his shoulder at Emi who was stiff, solid, nervous and scared, clinging to her shins, still. He sighed, exhausted. "I can't do another one. I need to heal and replenish myself."
"That's alright," she squeaked in support, "we can wait."
"Sure you can," he chuckled. He shot a glance toward Nansen. "How are you feeling?"
Nansen soaked his sleeve in the sweat from his forehead and swallowed hard. His voice was tight yet shaky, a side effect of his discomfort. "I'm hot."
"Do you need to leave?"
He crumpled his eyebrows and waved his hands. "No, I'm not going anywhere."
"I'm proud of your resilience, brother." Baine smirked and his eyes softened. "Thank you for staying with him. I don't have the heart to watch this."
"You don't have a heart at all."
Baine shook his head side to side and staggered to the door. "Bring him to me when he is ready, you old nun. And don't lose the other escapist."
As soon as the doorknob clicked, and Baine was gone, it hit Iggy.