Time had shifted, like Liam had warned that first night. Stepping out of the cab, Danny felt the cell phone in his pocket vibrate and ignored it for the moment, more lost in admiration over Manayunk and how much, yet how little, it had changed in twenty years. ‘Twenty years,’ he thought while the cab driver stepped out of the car, circling around to the trunk and setting Danny’s belongings onto the curb for him to collect. As Danny handed him his fare, the man smiled and nodded thanks.

It had taken Mari five years to turn him. The Eighties shifted into the Nineties and the trio continued to live together, Danny’s life becoming nocturnal and his habits, more like his immortal lovers with each passing year. Eventually, he got a job at the vampire nightclub, and as he came and went from the condo, he made himself more and more at home until the eve of his thirty-second birthday, when the passage of time had finally brought him to a crossroads.

“I think I’m ready,” he announced to Mari and Liam, not preempting the comment with anything else. They looked at him and he remembered the resolved way he admired his lover, and his would-be maker. “I’m ready for you to turn me, if you’re ready to do it.”

The ordeal had been a strange and amazing experience.

Death didn’t hurt but for a few short seconds and life afterward made what preceded it pale in comparison. After three days asleep, he woke with strange new senses, an insatiable hunger, and the same two people beside him who had been there for five years prior. It took two years until he could consider leaving Liam behind, and by the time another three had passed in addition, they all realized the inevitable had made its way onto their doorstep.

“I have to take you away,” Mari said, brushing the backs of her fingers across Danny’s cheek. “I’ve held on as long as I can, chiquito. But we’ll see the world before you need to return here.”

Though it had broken his heart to leave Liam, Danny knew he wouldn’t trade the wonder of the decades that followed for anything else.

And now, he had returned, to Philadelphia. Another millennium had begun while he’d been away. The condo where Liam lived had been renovated and though they’d had the chance to visit over the years, something about looking at his old home again made Danny see all the new coats of paint, the improvements and additions, as if he hadn’t ever seen them. The sound of the taxi driving away broke him from his silent meditation, but as it did, he smiled and picked up his luggage. He knew Liam had already sensed him coming, and though it had only been a few drops of blood exchanged between the two, he felt it as well and marveled over the wonder of it.

He couldn’t ever be with both together again – not like those five years – but he’d returned to his one love after a long time spent with the other.

Ascending the stairs, Danny rushed to the front door of Liam’s condo, almost at the door when it swung open. Liam laughed at the sight of him, a sound filled with joy and relief. Danny dropped his belongings and threw his arms around Liam, and the older vampire did the same.

“I’ve missed you,” Liam said, pressing his cheek against Danny’s head as Danny shut his eyes. Danny felt him kiss his hair and as he took in the smell of his lover, Danny felt overwhelmed by the moment.

“I’m home,” he murmured.

“You’re home. And I am off work for at least two weeks to spoil you rotten.”

Danny pulled away and laughed. As he touched noses with Liam, he could feel the lightness and levity between them, but also the draw and hunger the other man inspired again. He didn’t recognize when the first kiss happened, but by the second and third instinct took over where confusion had once reigned. Liam pulled him into the condo – not stopping to gather Danny’s belongings before slamming the door shut behind them. Danny felt his back hit the wall and groaned with approval, his fangs straining to descend.

“Should I say it for old time’s sake?” he asked, grinning at the confusion and arousal in Liam’s eyes. Leaning closer, he whispered, “You are not allowed to kiss me like that unless you intend to fuck me,” into Liam’s ear, nipping the lobe with his duller teeth.

Liam’s gaze darkened when their eyes met again. Lifting Danny into his arms, he carried him into the bedroom and, after Danny landed on the bed, he crawled on top of his lover and devoured him with kisses. Danny tasted blood on his lips, feeling Liam’s fangs graze him, and couldn’t help the full-body shiver that assaulted him, making him crave a deeper taste that somehow he stopped himself from taking.

Instead, he flipped the older vampire onto his back. Hastily removing his shirt, Danny threw it aside and admired Liam while he squirmed out of his clothing as well, grinning at the eager way Liam disrobed. Rather than match his pace, Danny watched with only his shirt removed and stood to take off his pants. They descended to his feet slowly, removed with taunting care along with his shoes and socks until he stood naked in front of Liam.

“I think I’m the one who’s going to demand being fucked if you keep that up,” Liam murmured.

He didn’t look away the entire time. And when Danny crawled up the bed, kissing his knees and his thighs before licking across Liam’s length, Liam shut his eyes, spreading his legs and hitching up onto the balls of his feet as if inviting Danny inside. “Still beside the bed?” Danny asked, lowering again to suck on Liam.

“Yes,” Liam said, his voice quivering. “Though as it stands right now, you could nearly take me without any of that.”

“We can break each other in better a little later.”

Smiling the unholiest of grins, Danny reached into the bedside table, producing the lubricant and placing a generous amount of it onto his fingers. Tossing the tube to the side, he slid his fingers inside Liam and worked them around, transfixed and enchanted by the needy, hungry way the other man took them in as if demanding Danny finger-fuck him into completion. Danny continued to work Liam into a frenzy. Within minutes, Liam had been reduced to unintelligible sounds, until he yelled for Danny to stop, his toes curling while he looked to be descending from a near miss with climax.

“Now,” Liam said. “Now please. I need you.”

Danny nodded, sliding his fingers out and quickly replacing them with his cock.

Liam clung onto him, using his heels to push Danny deeper as Danny thrust inside and pulled back, establishing a swift rhythm with the snap of his hips. Languid moans encouraged Danny, and though Danny felt his own tension mounting, Liam undulated and gave himself over to his own lust, crying out Danny’s name and calling out obscenities like a man who had become possessed. Danny admired the loss of control, savoring it, and as a heady climax impacted into him, he rode each twitch and lost himself as much as Liam had.

Collapsing side-by-side, it took an extended silence, for Danny to find his bearings again.

He curled into the warmth of Liam’s arms, remembering when they had been cooler than his own. As he buried his face in the crook of Liam’s neck, the older vampire peppered him with kisses, and whispered, “I love you, my darling,” to him, clutching him close like Danny might somehow escape.

Danny smirked at the idea, remembering that escape had never been an option. “I love you, too,” he said. “And I always will. Every day, for the rest of eternity.”