It felt like there was a spike being slammed into Canute’s head.

Not only that, but his throat felt scorched and dry. There was an ache coursing through his body, throbbing, flicking, and it made him angry. Worse, thirsty.

The soldier inside him was wary, guard immediately put up as he woke up in unfamiliar territory. He was naked, and sticky with sweat, grime and dirt. It was possible that he’d been running to avoid meeting the sun all day, which was why he was so parched. It was also probably why he felt so exhausted.

Running away from a death through burning into a hellfire was always bound to tire someone out.

But now here he was, staring up into a pair of deep, brown eyes that made something inside his chest ache. They were the color of roasted chestnuts, dark and rich and somehow it made Canute want to drown himself in their depths.

It certainly beat the way he felt right now, which seemed more like an all-consuming pit of despair that threatened to swallow him up.

Everything was hazy and the room felt like it was wobbling, but Canute anchored his gaze to the eyes of the person before him. He chanted some sort of mantra in his head, in an attempt to concentrate. Focus on those eyes. Just focus on those eyes. It took a little while, but Canute managed to clear his head and the face in front of him came into clearer picture.

It was odd of Canute to think that the face before him seemed familiar. Maybe it was the brightness in those otherwise dark-colored eyes, the sense of innocence that seemed to brim out of the young man’s expression. It reminded Canute of a young woman he used to be sweet on about a thousand or so years ago, before he’d even met Cyrus and they’d decided to call themselves brothers. Hell, it was even before Canute had realized he was a berserker, just before he’d been turned into a vampire.

She always had a bright, sunny expression on her face. There was this genial warmth that spread through him whenever he looked at her. It was almost like Canute had been looking up at the sun, and felt the soft, gentle heat caressing his face—that was how it felt to look up at the stranger before him.

The young man’s eyebrows were knit together in worry. He was biting on the corner of his lower lip. He had wide, round eyes, in contrast to the wily, fox-like eyes of the man he thought was his Kindred.

 Just the thought of the betrayal made Canute feel like slipping back into the darkness.

But he couldn’t do that. Not now, not when he was looking into that warmth, and feeling something bloom in his chest in a way it never had before. Not even with the man he didn’t want to name, or think of.

The betrayer.

The liar.

The man who made him think he was Canute’s through his magic.

Canute didn’t even want to think about his name.

Every little inch of his body seemed like it was yelling out in protest. His legs ached. His biceps throbbed, and worst of all, there was a grumbling in his stomach. And if these were the Dark Ages, he could have easily just grabbed the young man in front of him and bit down and there wouldn’t have been any repercussions for his actions.

But these were more civil times. There would be no eating anyone without their consent.

The young stranger placed a hand gently against Canute’s forehead. A light, ticklish sensation suddenly bubbled up inside of his head. He thought he was familiar with magic, although recent experiences had taught Canute that he actually wasn’t. He had a lot more to learn.

“Are you okay? Can you hear me? Can you understand me?”

Canute tilted his head in confusion. He knew that the man before him was speaking Japanese. It wasn’t really a language that he spoke. Even Himiko had taken to speaking in French around him when they used to talk, and yet he could understand this young man perfectly.

Canute blinked.

“Yes, I can understand you perfectly,” Canute replied. His voice was a little scratchier than usual. He huffed and grunted, trying to clear his throat. “Not that I should.”

The young man looked at Canute guiltily, before raising a hand. “Magic. I didn’t know if you spoke Japanese.”

Canute nodded. “I don’t.”

“Oh.”

Canute slowly rose up to a sitting position, wincing. He brought a hand to his aching head. The helpful stranger immediately brought a washcloth to his shoulder, trying to wipe away some of the dirt and grime there.

Canute blinked, turning from the hand languidly rubbing up and down his shoulder to clean him, up to the young man’s face.

Suddenly, it felt like there was a spiking burst of warmth inside of Canute’s chest. He remembered this feeling, once before. Some people called it love at first sight, or a deep, undeniable animal attraction.

A few days ago, he would have welcomed this sensation. Now, it was a nuisance.

He didn’t want to feel this way.

“I can wash myself,” Canute said, placing a hand as gently as he could over the young man’s, stopping him from trying to clean Canute up. “If you have a bathroom, or even just a tub, I’d be more than happy to do this on my own.”

Canute knew he probably really needed a bath at that point, anyway. Hell, maybe he needed two or three.

All he could remember was running, for a long time, and trying to get out of the city. There were too many bright lights, and the sounds of people, and it was proving too overwhelming. He remembered wanting to go back home. If he could have swum back to the Chateau Sanguine, he would have.

The young man extended his hand, the one with the washcloth. “Okay,” he said. He stood up, and pat his lap until a small dog appeared from the periphery and leapt up into his arms. “Momo and I will warm up some water for you in the bathroom. You should rest. You were really wounded when I found you earlier.” Then the young man paused, looking over Canute’s body. “You’re all healed now, though.”

Just as the young man was about to head out of the room, Canute spoke. “Wait,” he said. “What’s your name? You’re doing all of this for me and you don’t even know who I am.”

“I know enough,” the stranger answered back, smiling. He was positively radiant, beaming at Canute like he wasn’t bothered at all that he’d just saved a naked Viking in his forest. “You were wounded and you happened to be within the woods I protect as its guardian kami.” He paused. “I guess in the west, I’d be closest to a nymph or a dryad or some kind of nature spirit. My name is Haru, and I’ll see about getting you something to eat.”

Not that Canute needed any explanation, but he was thankful for the clarification regardless, if only because he knew it would have been impolite for him to assume. There were levels of social decorum in Japanese culture that wasn’t prevalent anywhere else in the world.

Then again, maybe those same social standards were tossed aside when Haru had seen him naked and bloodied in the woods.

“I won’t be able to eat anything you give me,” Canute said. “Unless it happens to be blood.”

“I know,” Haru replied. “I figured I might be able to give you some of mine.”

“Well, if you were going to do that, I wouldn’t mind drinking off the tap.”

Haru’s cheeks visibly colored. He looked down, hiding his face in his hands. “That’s—I mean, it’s okay, but I don’t think…I mean, I don’t know if…”

Canute couldn’t help the slight smile that appeared on his face. Cute. “I won’t if you don’t want me to.”

Canute hadn’t meant to tease, nor had he meant to seem so playful. As soon as he realized it, though, Canute tried to keep his face as passive and expressionless as possible. It was easy, given the current circumstances.

Haru slowly extended one of his arms toward Canute, and it made the large Nordic man blink.

Was he offering to feed Canute right then and there?

Haru wasn’t looking at him though, and his cheeks seemed to turn even redder by the second. “You should eat a little to regain strength. That should make you feel better.”

The kami’s voice became a bit higher pitched, and he was mumbling, tripping over his words.

How…adorable.

Canute wondered how a young man could be so openly giving, so openly trusting, in this cruel, cruel world that they both lived in. He said he was a kami, so he had to know that there were evils lurking around every corner, right?

Still, he wasn’t about to turn down a drink. It was probably in part due to his interest in Haru, which was strong enough that Canute could consciously realize it, and another part due to his thirst. Desperate times called for desperate measures. And on the other hand, Canute wanted to feel that warmth and sunniness for himself.

Canute gingerly took a hold of Haru’s wrist, and he rubbed his thumb slowly across the middle, just firm enough to figure out where exactly the vein was. He lifted Haru’s arm up until it was mere inches away from his lips.

“Are you sure?” Canute asked.

Haru nodded. “It’s not going to hurt, right?”

Canute shrugged. He probably wasn’t being reassuring, but he didn’t know if Haru was particularly sensitive, or if he was somehow the type of creature who weakened easily. “It shouldn’t.”

Haru looked up at Canute, then back down at his wrist. He did this a couple of times, enough so that Canute realized that Haru was probably feeling a little conflicted.

“If you don’t want to, I can always just hunt outside,” Canute said, trying to reassure Haru. “I won’t hurt a human, if you’re worried about them. But a willing donor will always beat an unwilling victim.”

There was a flicker of uncertainty that Canute saw in those eyes, but it was enough for Canute to realize that toying with this young kami was perhaps too much for Haru. He’d gone from embarrassed and red in the face, to scared and nervous in the span of minutes.

Haru looked up at Canute, then back down at his wrist. Back up at his face, and then down at his wrist. This happened a number of times more, before the kami finally took a deep breath.

“Please, if it’ll help you, then you should have some,” Haru said. “Immodesty is a small price to pay for helping someone in need. Besides, this is for your health. It’s not like we’re doing anything bad.”

Canute couldn’t contain his surprise. He raised an eyebrow at Haru and nodded, the thought crossing his mind that he probably didn’t need to tease the younger man so much.

Canute yanked the young kami forward until Haru was only about a foot away from his body, and then he lifted the man’s wrist to his lips. He felt his fangs ache. His inner demon already wanted out. The gentle thrum of a pulse was so close, it would have been so easy to just take it…

The vampire stilled his body, taking a deep breath before baring his fangs. There was no better way to do this than just quickly—otherwise he would be going hungry for maybe a couple hours more, at best, and maybe even weeks at worst.

Canute plunged his fangs right into that vein, bursting with vitality and life and letting the taste, the essence, flow right into his lips. It made him shiver with both arousal and need.

Gods, Haru tasted like the sun. He tasted like warmth, and heat, and all the things that Canute didn’t know he could still feel. Haru’s blood was sweet and gentle, much like the man himself, and Canute knew he had to keep himself from drinking too much. Even though Haru was immortal, it wasn’t as though he was a fount of blood. Canute had to pace himself, both for his sake as well as Haru’s.

He might have been a monster, but he wasn’t that much of a monster.

One sip, and then another led to a groan coming out of his lips, and it preceded Haru’s own unceremonious squeak. Canute thought it was cute, much like the rest of Haru’s actions and his demeanor, and with every slow, but light sip he partook of the kami’s blood, he felt strength return to his body. Strong enough to feel, in full effect, how Haru made his cock rise in arousal, and things that once lay dormant inside him to come out, brimming with life.

When he looked up into Haru’s face, the expression that met his was flushed. Haru was biting down on the corner of his lower lip, and the effect was as immediate as it was strong. Canute wanted nothing more than to slide right into the kami’s body right there, and claim him.

It felt like something was clicking into place, and Canute needed to push it aside. If he did this, he would bring so much untold danger to these kind souls. No, he couldn’t think about the possibility…

The possibility that maybe, just maybe, this young kami was his actual Kindred.

Was this the universe’s way of righting a wrong, of giving him back his hope?

But Canute couldn’t think like that. He wouldn’t think like that. Not when his emotions were so raw, and the pain he felt was so fresh. He couldn’t risk his emotions being wrong again.

Canute couldn’t trust his own mind. Who knew what sort of magic ensorcelled him?

The taste was just too bright, the flavor so intense, that Canute had to stop himself. He was taking too much. One mouthful, and then another, and he knew any more than that and it might do more harm to the young man—and maybe even himself—than good.

Canute pulled free from the kami’s wrist, giving the twin pinpricks a gentle lick. He might’ve paid a little bit more attention to Haru’s skin than was absolutely necessary. His tongue laved across the smooth skin, sliding up and down lewdly. He hollowed his cheeks out and a little plop resounded when he finally pulled free.

Making sure the wounds were clean, Canute moved away slowly, tongue sliding across the younger man’s skin just one last time. He offered only the slightest of smiles as he leaned away.

That had been far too much than was strictly necessary, but was that so wrong? At least, that’s what a small part of Canute’s mind was telling him. The other part was telling him what a fool he was for allowing his discipline to slip even for just that one, brief, magical moment.

“Thank you,” Canute said quietly. He settled back into his seat and shuffled up to stand, feeling the strength return to his body. “I can get to the bathroom myself. Please, just sit back and rest. You might be woozy for a little while. I might have drained a little too much.”

Haru nodded slowly. He looked like he had just been debauched in some way, his eyes dilated and his cheeks flushed. In a way, Haru had just been touched in a not-so-appropriate manner. A little trickle of a sweat drop slowly cascaded down his temple, and as he met Canute’s eyes, the kami nodded.

“The bathroom is just down the hallway to the left,” Haru said breathlessly. There was a pause, and then he slowly brought one hand up to point out the door.

Canute tried to smile, although it came out awkwardly, as he headed for the door.

Haru gasped suddenly. His eyes widened.

Canute blinked. That’s when it clicked in his mind that he was still naked.

It wasn’t such a huge deal to him—he liked being naked, especially during his off-times when he didn’t need to do anything—but the issue that was a big deal was his rather large erection pointing straight out, almost menacingly, at Haru.

Though modesty had been thrown out the window, especially because Haru had been rubbing him with a wet washcloth, Canute still felt the need to try to cover himself up.

That was embarrassing. Not that he could control when he had erections, but had his excitement from earlier really been this palpable? Canute felt heat in his cheeks as he cleared his throat, cupped both hands over his genitals, and scooted out of the room to head straight to the bathroom.

Screw waiting for someone else to warm some water up for him. He needed a cold dose of reality to slosh over his body.

This couldn’t be happening. Not now.

All he wanted—hell, all he needed—was to get back home to Monte Carlo, where things made sense.

As soon as Canute reached the bathroom, he immediately grabbed onto the shower handle and turned the water on. The sudden, bone-chilling cold was a welcome relief, especially because it turned his excitement away from Haru.

Canute only heard the bathroom door sliding open once as a woman spoke out from the doorway.

“I’m leaving a towel and some change of clothes for you here,” the woman said. “I’m Kaguya, the priestess of this shrine. Take your time and meet us back at the bedroom when you’ve washed up.”

The doors slid closed. Canute didn’t even have a chance to respond as he ran his fingers through his blond locks.

What was this he was feeling? He had such a visceral reaction to Haru’s presence, and an even stronger reaction to the young man’s blood. It tasted like the finest honeyed mead, warming him through, like from hundreds of years ago, when Canute and his brethren used to wrest control of tumultuous seas and frozen tundra…

It tasted like…home. Like he was back in the Chateau Sanguine, surrounded by his brother and the family they built for themselves.

No. He couldn’t feel this way. He wouldn’t feel this way. Not when he knew he couldn’t trust his own feelings and emotions.

He trusted how he felt about Ranmaru and this is what it got him. He was in a foreign land, used as a pawn in machinations that shouldn’t have concerned him, all because of some elaborate scheme that didn’t even need him. It just needed a person stupid enough to listen to his heart.

And what did that get him? Canute should have known better. After all, he was a soldier. He followed plans, and he wasn’t stupid enough to think that everyone who gave him orders had his best interests at heart.

Still, it was different when he had personal stakes on the matter—when it was his emotions being manipulated.

Canute sighed. Shivering underneath the almost zero-degree cold of the water, he shakily brought a hand to the shower knob and turned the water off.

He moved out of the stall and dried himself off with the towel he’d been given, staring at his reflection in the mirror.

 It was a miracle he was still alive, and even more a miracle that he hadn’t been left out in the forest by these people.

Kindhearted as they were, however, Canute knew that there was always a price for someone’s help.

Reciprocity was the name of the game. He’d had that ingrained in his head for nearly a thousand years.

“Don’t get any funny ideas. You’re a drengr, a warrior, a berserker. You’ve dealt with tougher.” Canute told himself, slapping his face, psyching himself up. “This should be a good thing. Now you know that your Kindred isn’t a lying wretch. Hells, maybe they’re a soft, kind person, playful and sweet, just like those village girls way back when.”

He didn’t believe his own words, but it was all he had to hold on to.

The image of Haru appeared in his mind, a tiny ray of light that made Canute sigh almost wistfully. Maybe the young man was the one Canute was supposed to share a bond with?

Donning the clothes handed to him, Canute exited the bathroom doors and walked back to the room, but only after taking a deep breath to calm himself down.

Canute slid the doors open to see Haru sitting exactly where he left him, except the dog that was nearby was now settled on his lap. Kaguya was there too, standing nearby.

She was a beautiful woman, and had they met a few hundred years back, Canute might have seduced her.

Now, Canute wasn’t so sure.

“Ah, our guest is back,” Kaguya said. “I take it you’re feeling better.”

Canute nodded. “Yes, I’m feeling a bit better. I have only this kind young man to thank for that.”

“I bet,” Kaguya said, obviously knowing more than she was letting on. It was in the twinkle in her eyes and the slight upturn of her lips in a show of amusement. “Thank you for not making a mess around the temple grounds. It would be a shame if I had to glamour the people nearby.”

Haru cleared his throat and wiggled in his seat. “Um,” he started. “Now that you’re awake, did you want to call someone? You’re a little bit farther away from the city center, it’s a miracle you’re still alive if you were moving while it was daytime.”

“Then again, you could have blacked out during the night. Judging from how bad your feet were when we first saw you, it wouldn’t be a surprise if you had run barefoot for maybe ten, fifteen miles,” Kaguya added. “If someone was trying to find you, they’ll be here soon.”

Canute frowned. “I don’t know if anyone is coming to find me. I’m not certain.”

“Why do you think that?” Haru asked. “Surely you didn’t come to Japan alone.”

“I was with Madame Himiko when she was attacked,” Canute replied honestly. “Before you ask, I wasn’t the one who hurt her. I was caught off-guard trying to help her.”

Kaguya stared at him. “Oh, believe me. Someone’s trying to find you.”

Flashes of that night filled Canute’s mind. He tried to shake them off, to no avail.

“It should be easy enough to send a message to her. She knows magic, and she has people who can receive messages, so I’m sure Kaguya can send her a message, or something,” Haru explained.

Kaguya blinked. “I don’t think that’s necessary, Haru.”

“Why is that?” Haru asked.

“Because she’s here,” Kaguya replied. “I can feel her presence right outside. On the temple grounds.”