Chapter Text
Louis did not yet realize what he was.
A fascinating thought, considering one of his greatest driving factors was shame for what he was. Shame for being a hypocrite who knew the harm he did with his chosen profession yet continued gleefully, shame for feeling no love nor lust for the women who crossed his path, shame for his inability to be everything his family expected him to be.
Shame for the knowledge that his body was different, that his gums sometimes ached when he set eyes on a man, that the shape of his lust was different than other men's. Wrong. That he sometimes entered a blind rage without warning, a lustful haze fast on its heels. That he could look in the mirror sometimes, fingers pinching and pulling his lips away, to see two thin and wickedly curved, deadly sharp teeth that should not be there. That wouldn't be there for long, if he focused on his distaste for them until they retracted back inside their hiding place deep in his gums.
Louis did not realize what he was, but Lestat did. Lestat saw all the beautiful parts of himself Louis kept hidden, thinking them ugly because that's what the world had whispered cruelly into his ear since he was born unto it, greater and more beautiful than anything it had produced prior. Lestat saw him and saw what he was and what potential he held. Lestat saw him and knew immediately that, if nothing else, he had to ensure Louis was able to see it too.
He followed Louis quietly from the shadows. He eavesdropped on conversations held aloud and not, listening in on Louis's private thoughts. He was pleased to hear it wasn't all shame, that Louis believed he deserved more. That he was angry with the place this world had designated for him, that despite his shame he fought uphill battles daily for the smallest chance at a better place. That despite all his shame, Louis was brave. Louis was a fighter.
Louis could be the one, Lestat thought. He just needed time.
He took things slowly, introducing himself at the Fairplay first. He'd spent many a day imagining how their first official meeting would go: scenarios in which he won Louis over with his charm and wit as well as ones where he failed and how he might course correct if needed. All that time wasted on daydreams in the end because the real event went better than he ever could've anticipated.
Lestat didn't even need to read his mind; he could smell the heavy musk of his arousal just as easily. Had he not been so careful in bringing an ample supply of chasteberry and milkweed tea with him on his journey, he might've made a mess of his chair right then and there.
It was the one kindness his maker had offered him: a remedy for stopping the heats. If it weren't for the tea, he would not have dared to approach Louis. He would have taken one look at his beautiful face, smelled his true nature, and fled in the opposite direction. Because despite his maker's singular kindness, he'd also been the one to teach him firsthand just how dangerous alphas could be. After an experience like that, nothing—not even the knowledge that alphas were just as close to extinct as omegas like himself were—could ever reassure him.
But Louis didn't know what he was, let alone what Lestat was, and so he was safe. He was likely to never encounter another like himself and unless he was lucky enough to find some ancient tome about their kind, he wouldn't ever know. Lestat would make sure of that if he had to.
"But seriously: how'd you do that? You some kind of sorcerer?" Louis asked.
Lestat chuckled. "Not quite."
Louis had invited him on a walk under the guise of showing him the town after their second meeting: a poker game Lestat had taken as an opportunity to show off a little.
"Then how? And can you teach me?"
"Why don't you ask me later? Perhaps I'll tell you, and if you really want to learn…"
Louis scoffed. "Who wouldn't wanna learn how to stop time?"
"Nothing is free, my friend. Might be that you learn the price and decide you want no part of it."
"And yet you're not gonna tell me if I ask what that price is, are you?"
Lestat said nothing. He felt Louis's pointed gaze and smiled, his smile only growing wider when Louis grumbled and started to walk faster, intent on leaving Lestat in the dust.
It was good that Louis was curious and not afraid. Lestat accepted it eagerly for the advantage it would give him later down the line, when he decided it was time to reveal himself fully—or the vampire, at least. Louis didn't need to know what an omega was, let alone that Lestat was one. Such knowledge could be turned into a highly dangerous weapon with ease. Lestat might've been convinced Louis was the one as soon as their first meeting but he wasn't naive enough to think that a man capable of drawing his interest was above such a thing. Lestat would keep his secret 'til the end of time.
Louis was still working despite his condition—something that both surprised Lestat and didn't.
With his heightened vampiric senses, he could smell Louis before he could see him. Pre-rut pheromones traveled far as a way to draw in unmated omegas and as an unmated omega experiencing them for the first time, Lestat had to admit they were powerfully effective. He'd barely left his front door when it reached his nose, the sickly-sweet musk making him feel weak in the knees despite having already finished his nightly tea. Dangerous.
He considered going back inside, staying away from Louis for however long it took for his rut to subside and thus for it to be safe to be around him again. But then when had Lestat ever played it safe?
He went to meet Louis as planned. Figuring he must have gotten held up late with his work as he was yet to arrive, Lestat purchased a newspaper and sat on the nearest bench to read it. He made it only about halfway through the cover page before he realized two things: one, that Louis was nearby. Two, that there was something very wrong with the way he smelled up close.
He couldn't quite put his finger on it.
"Sorry I'm late," Louis said after taking a seat next to him. "Had a little problem needed to be dealt with."
"No worries, my friend. The night has only just begun."
Louis must have caught the way Lestat's nostrils flared as he tried to determine what exactly it was about his scent that was so wrong, because he lifted an arm and sniffed at himself before apologizing again.
"This is gonna sound weird and is honestly pretty embarrassing, but I kinda have this…thing, that happens about twice a year where I get really smelly for about a week. Started seein' a doctor after I turned thirteen about it but never found any solution."
Lestat breathed deeply, trying once more to determine what it was exactly that he was smelling over the top of Louis's natural musk, but it was too muddied for him to identify any distinct notes beyond something vaguely sour.
"Uh, I'm sorry—do you need me to move away?"
"No, no!" Lestat sat up straighter and waved the suggestion away. "It's not that you stink, I just—"
"You ain't gotta lie to be polite," Louis interrupted, shaking his head. "I know what I smell like. Sprayed myself with two whole bottles of cologne before I left the house hoping that would help a little but it never does. Don't know why I thought this time might be different."
"Oh, so that's what I've been smelling…"
"Pardon?"
"As I said, it's not that you stink. I was simply trying to determine what the rest of the smell was, because I could tell it wasn't coming from you."
The honest truth was out of his mouth before he had time to stop and consider whether such a thing was appropriate to say at such an early stage in their friendship. And perhaps it wasn't because Louis frowned at him, narrowing his eyes and worrying his bottom lip. Before he apologized without reason, as was his initial instinct, Lestat listened in to his thoughts.
Is he really not just bein' polite? He doesn't look bothered at all…
"It doesn't bother me, really."
"But why? Everyone I've ever met like this has either complained or plugged their nose and ran the other direction."
Lestat was having a bit of a dilemma. He could prove himself easily, but then he would have to field even more questions than he normally received from Louis, because there was no chance he would accept his honest answer without questions. Being entirely honest wasn't an option so he'd have to decide where exactly to draw the line…
"Maybe you just got somethin' wrong with your nose," Louis said. "Lucky you!"
Something about the way Louis tried to laugh it off despite his insatiable curiosity made Lestat's decision for him.
"My nose works just fine," he said. "It doesn't bother me because I'm the same."
Louis had been reaching into his pocket for something but he paused and sat up straighter when Lestat spoke.
"The same…what do you mean the same? Same as what?"
"Same as you." Lestat let that settle for a moment. "You've never met anyone else like you, have you?"
Louis opened his mouth as if to speak but nothing came out, so Lestat continued.
"Smelling different isn't the only thing that happens to you two weeks in the year. You're different every day, just in a way people can't normally see."
He opened his mouth wide and, careful to not reveal the newer ones, let his omega fangs slide out for Louis to see. By sight alone, they were no different from an alpha's. And since Louis had no frame of reference besides himself, the lie came easy as pie.
"You're…you're like me?"
Louis was almost breathless with the weight of the realization.
Lestat smiled. "Just like you."
As expected, Louis had a lot of questions. Lestat did his best to answer as many of them as he could without giving himself away, using the excuse that he had also not met anyone like himself before Louis for any he wasn't comfortable answering. Most of the questions were perfectly understandable, but there was one in particular that hurt his heart to hear.
"Do you think we could be fixed?"
"By fixed, I assume you mean to be made like all the others."
"Yeah, normal," Louis said. "Not all…wrong." He gesticulated vaguely.
"There's nothing wrong with us, Louis."
Louis's answering laugh was harsh.
"You kiddin' me, right? I mean, there's so much that's bad! The tooth pain, the sweatin', the mood swings, the stink, the…"
He trailed off after breaking eye contact with a fake cough, making it extremely obvious where he was headed.
"The overwhelming desire?" Lestat finished for him, voice low though there was no one close enough to hear.
"…Yeah."
Lestat didn't know if a version of the tea he drank to quell his heats existed to help alphas with similar. At least one of the ingredients in it was toxic to ordinary humans and he would rather not risk Louis poisoning himself. If Louis had been an omega like himself, he would have offered up the recipe without a second thought.
"It can be uncomfortable," Lestat said. "Perhaps even dangerous, sometimes. But I've managed just fine."
"How?"
Lestat took a moment to consider his answer.
"By finding a partner who can keep up with my appetite."
Louis went quiet. Again, Lestat didn't need to read his mind to guess where his thoughts had gone, but he chose to do so anyways.
Not so easy as that. Don't do a thing if I don't go all the way, and there ain't a chance the girls wouldn't notice…
Lestat blinked, sitting up a little straighter as he remembered that this would be different for Louis, who had not just internal but external anatomy outside the ordinary. Of course any partner of his would notice he was built differently if, as his thoughts suggested, he was only satisfied when that part of him was properly stimulated.
"They don't think it's…weird?" Louis asked, after so long that Lestat didn't initially register he'd spoken.
"Well, it is a surprise at first. But if you manage to find the right partner, someone willing to be a little…adventurous, they usually end up enjoying it."
"Enjoying it? Really?"
Lestat nodded. "It may look strange, but it has its merits."
"…Okay. Well, I should probably get on home before Paul starts to think I'm workin' late, kickin' my nightly damnation of souls into overtime."
Lestat chuckled, allowing him the convenient exit. "Good chatting with you, Louis. I hope to see you tomorrow night?"
"Yeah. Yeah, I'll be around."
Lestat had made a complete fool of himself at dinner.
He'd been on his best behavior, well aware that he needed to make a good impression not because he cared what Louis's family cared of him but because Louis would be upset if he didn't. He'd dodged the first three of Paul's clumsy verbal attacks but had unfortunately fallen into a dark memory after the fourth, sharing far too much information before abusing his powers. It'd be impossible to recover from that.
He told Louis as much on their walk later that night. Louis brushed it off, still hiding behind the mask he wore for his family and the public at large, but Lestat could see it was slightly askew, showing the tiniest sliver of the real Louis beneath it.
And on top of that, Louis's scent right now was almost overpowering. He'd assumed Louis normally sat at the end of the table for meals, opposite his mother, but he'd also noticed the fan behind her. He'd thought it strange to have it on during dinner until he'd caught a whiff of Louis shortly after.
If he wasn't in rut already—which Lestat suspected he very much was—then he would be very soon.
"Did good gettin' off that boat when you did," Louis said, nodding his chin at him before taking a swig from his flask.
Good to see. Louis was the type to loosen up considerably when inebriated, and he would need to be considerably loose for what Lestat had planned for him tonight.
"Shall we have a nightcap?"
"Uhh, should probably check the cribs and get home…"
His mouth might've rejected the offer but his body moved forward still, following Lestat up to the front door as if pulled by some unseen force.
"You must, Louis. I bought you a gift."
"A gift?"
Lestat smiled. "A flower."
He nodded up towards the balcony. Louis stepped back just enough so he could see Lily smiling down at him. He returned her smile but when he turned it back on Lestat, it looked tense. Lestat searched his thoughts as he invited him inside and learned that he was nervous about the thought of performing for the both of them. He didn't want to disappoint but he didn't want to reject Lestat's kind and undoubtedly expensive gift. He hoped Lestat didn't end up regretting it.
Some small talk, first, as Lily was so used to holding. Lestat had thought initially that he might need to coach her for this specific encounter but that wasn't to be the case. Louis was drawn to Miss Lily for good reason. If she minded the smell of his rut pheromones she gave no hint of it, drawing close to him with all the grace and elegance a great courtesan should possess.
At first Lestat only watched, talking Louis through it not verbally but telepathically. Again, Louis asked how he did it. Again, Lestat ignored the question. It wasn't time yet. Lily wasn't alone: Lestat had another gift for Louis if he chose to accept it.
Louis was resistant at first: pushing Lestat away soon after he attempted to join, but Lestat read him and knew it wasn't a true rejection. Louis was simply worried about what he considered the interloper. Had Lestat had any inclination his gift might've been taken as such, he would not have purchased it for the night. Somehow he'd miscalculated and been overly cautious.
But no matter. Miss Lily was removed from the equation quickly and with a reward befitting her service, and then three became two: alpha and omega.
What happened next was hardly a surprise. Lestat allowed Louis to take the lead, as alphas (especially alphas in rut) were naturally inclined to do, but only briefly. He wrested control back from him shortly after Louis pushed him up against the wall, showing just a hint of his preternatural strength. Louis resisted instinctively but relaxed when Lestat leaned in to press another soft kiss to his lips. He turned easily, following Lestat's direction, and moaned sweetly when Lestat finally sank his vampire fangs into his throat.
Ah, the blood. Despite the ample alcohol in his veins, Louis was every bit as sweet as Lestat had imagined. Were he anyone else, Lestat would have drained him in a matter of seconds, let his cold body drop to the floor with a contented sigh and left only the memory of him on his tongue. But Louis was not anyone else, and so Lestat drank slowly—small sips, just to give himself a little taste. He needed Louis to still have enough blood in him to handle his second gift.
Just before Lestat removed his vampire fangs, he let his omega fangs slide out and quickly pierce the skin between the marks he'd left. Louis likely didn't even feel it as his fangs were thin as needles at the tip but that tiny bit of venom Lestat just injected him with would work fast. If Lestat's plan were to be successful, he had to work even faster.
"What you said before…" he started, gently guiding Louis back to the couch. "About your…difficulties, with this time."
Louis's eyes were very dark, only the tiniest sliver of brown visible around his pupils.
"My difficulties?"
"And I said you needed a proper partner…"
Louis gasped when Lestat gripped his cock, sliding his fist down to the base and tightening. He went still for a brief moment, during which Lestat worried he might have given him too much venom, but then he grabbed Lestat by the waist and hauled him onto his lap. Lestat's breath hitched, thrilled to be manhandled by a mortal. Even more so when Louis slid his hand down over the curve of his ass, searching with intent.
"Allow me," Lestat purred.
He sat up straighter, one hand on Louis's shoulder and the other on still on his cock, lining them up. He sank down onto it with very little resistance and they both groaned.
"You…you got yourself ready for me?"
"Mmhm."
Lestat rolled his hips once, testing it out. Louis was perfect as he normally was: a little shorter than Lestat, and noticeably fatter, but he would grow substantially as things progressed.
Lestat snapped his hips roughly and Louis growled, grabbing those hips and moving his own in time with Lestat. It was impossible to believe he had so little experience comparatively with the way he kept up so easily.
"Nngh, last chance to back out," Louis warned him a short time later, his voice wobbling with the effort.
Lestat was genuinely impressed he managed to keep such a level head despite the venom—perhaps he hadn't given him enough?
"No backing out," he said. "I want you to have this: my second gift to you tonight."
Lestat could feel it. Louis was thicker, most noticeably at the base. It was getting harder to pull away each time. Once, twice more…and then on the third thrust, Louis's knot popped into him, stretching him further even than he'd prepared for.
Lestat came first. Normally he'd be able to hold out longer, but an alpha's knot was unparalleled. The immense pressure against that most sensitive organ within him had him seeing stars, falling forward and gasping for breath. Louis started to come shortly after, throwing his head back against the headrest with a long, low moan.
It was then that Lestat realized how truly grateful he was for the subtlety of his secret anatomy. Perhaps if one knew to be looking out for such a thing, one could tell by feel alone that one's partner was an omega, but Louis knew nothing of his own nature let alone that of anyone else. If he noticed anything different he had no context nor reason to think it held any meaning, which meant that, with the help of the tea he drank daily, Lestat was safe to engage in such activities without risk.
And what a shame it would have been to go without this!
Lestat wasn't as sensitive where Louis was buried as he was in his secret channel, but it was easy to imagine that he could feel every hot spurt of Louis's cock as he emptied himself deep inside—as he would continue to for the next half hour at the least, maybe longer. Lestat recovered from his orgasm quickly and leaned back enough to look Louis in the eye but Louis eye's were shut, his mouth hanging open as he experienced pleasure the likes of which he'd probably never dreamed.
Lestat reached up to stroke his face with one hand. He leaned into it slightly, eyelashes fluttering. Lestat leaned in to kiss his cheek first, then his jaw, then down the side of his neck, pausing to flatten his tongue over the puncture marks he'd left. Louis pulsed inside him and Lestat's chest started to rumble, producing a sound unfamiliar even to his own ears. Louis gave him a pleased sigh as he kissed his throat and then he finally spoke.
"What's that sound?" he asked. "Are you…purring?"
Lestat hadn't a clue what to call it, focused as he was on more important things.
"I suppose I am," he said, half anticipating the noise to stop when he spoke though it continued uninterrupted.
"We can just do that? Like some kinda animal?"
"I don't know how I'm doing it," Lestat confessed. "I've never done it before."
"…So there are things even you don't know. What does it feel like?"
"Vibration. A bit like I need to cough, though I don't. It's strange."
"Huh. Any idea why it's happening?"
Lestat took a long moment to think about it.
"Cats purr when they're content. I may not be a cat, but I do feel quite content right now."
He wiggled his hips a little for emphasis, tugging on the knot. Louis gasped and then, surprising the both of them, he too began to purr.
"You're right, it does feel like I need to cough."
Maybe it was the cat comparison, maybe it was just that Lestat was very pleased with this new development, but whatever the reason he felt the urgent need to rub his face and neck all over Louis's, so he did. Louis recoiled at first, startled, but then he laughed and started to pet the back of Lestat's head like he was, in fact, a giant house cat.
Curious, Lestat pressed his ear up against Louis's chest. The rumble of his chest was very loud but he could hear the thump of his heartbeat beneath it: strong and healthy. He'd neither taken nor given too much. Louis would recover quickly without suspicion.
But there was still one thing left.
Lestat raised one hand and pricked the tip of his index finger with his thumb. A single drop of blood welled up and then he reluctantly left Louis's chest, straightening up to see the small wounds he'd left on his neck. He pressed his finger to the higher wound then slid it down to the lower one, watching closely as the skin immediately stitched itself back together.
He expected Louis to ask, curious as he was whenever Lestat revealed some hint of his power. But he said nothing, only raising his arms to wrap around Lestat's waist to pull him even closer, pressing his lips to the side of Lestat's neck. Lestat recoiled instinctively but he covered it up well enough, he thought, by distracting Louis with another long, deep kiss—one which didn't truly end until Louis's knot had gone down enough for him to finally slip out.
Lestat had been so sure that Louis would come back. He'd waited on his balcony every night, anxious fists gripping the railing, looking down both ways for the slightest glimpse of him, but for weeks Louis avoided Royale street entirely.
Lestat couldn't go to him first, it would defeat the purpose of this entire endeavor. He needed Louis to come to him, choose him, knowing that he was something inhuman. He needed to be curious enough, to want him enough, that he would come and ask one more time on his own. That would be the moment Lestat revealed himself fully and made his proposal. If Louis was not afraid, if he accepted all that Lestat was, if he chose to be with Lestat not just in body but in blood…
Louis did not come to him. Tragedy struck the Pointe du Lac household and, stricken with grief, Louis continued to avoid him, calling for him silently all the while. Practically screaming for help from the quiet confines of that beautiful mind only Lestat had access to.
Come to me, Louis. Come to me.
Concerned for Louis's state of mind, he tossed aside his own rule about keeping his distance to confront him directly. This proved a mistake as Louis heard only what he wanted to hear and not what Lestat actually said, mistaking his attempt to assuage the guilt he felt for his brother's death as provocation. Lestat did not chase him after that but he did not leave him be, either. Not in the state he was in.
It was the shame that held Louis back more than anything. It pained Lestat to know he still felt so trapped by it, smothering under the weight of it. He was hurting badly, desperate for a shoulder to cry on, but he'd been poisoned against the very idea of letting himself have what he really needed. In his desperation he returned to the Fairplay for the first time since they'd met, searching for what he intended to be Lestat's replacement, not knowing that Lestat had killed her the very night they'd made love the first time, ensuring that she could never tattle and that Louis could never again hang onto the lie he'd told himself about himself for so long.
He didn't take the news well. Refusing to give in, he ran to the Church instead. Lestat heard his shameful confession and simply couldn't take it any longer. He flew to the Church, interrupting the tail end of Louis begging the simple creature on the other side of the confessional for the kind of salvation that would only shove him further into the cage he'd been born in. He dragged that priest out of the fragile little box and tore into him, making a quick meal out of him and showing Louis exactly what he was.
Louis stumbled out of the confessional shouting and drawing the hidden blade from his cane, but when Lestat tore himself away from his food to snarl at him, he hesitated. They both looked up when the second priest came in, probably drawn by all the noise, and stopped a short length away upon catching sight of the carnage. Lestat took it as another opportunity to show off—giving the priest the smallest of head starts before moving at impossible speed, closing the gate just before he could escape, and then shoving his fist through the back of his head and out the other side.
He returned to Louis just as quickly but stopped abruptly when he realized Louis stood waiting for him with the tip of his blade held at his own throat.
"This primitive country has picked you clean," Lestat started, approaching slowly, one hand raised to show he wasn't a threat. "Every room you enter, every hat you are forced to wear…and none of it your true nature."
Louis had been backing away from him but he tripped over his own feet, falling onto his ass atop the altar and dropping his cane in the process. He scrambled to pick it back up while Lestat continued to deliver the speech he'd so carefully constructed, meant for a very different scenario but just as well suited to this one.
"What rage you must feel as you choke on your sorrow."
Louis was thinking that he didn't want the monster to take him, that he would rather take his own life than give in to the embodiment of temptation itself. But as Lestat spoke, as he drew slowly closer…he opened up just enough to consider it. To consider the gift that Lestat had to offer him.
Lestat took the blade in his hand. Sharp as it was, it cut him rather deeply, but he didn't react.
"I love you, Louis. You are loved."
Lestat saw the answer in his eyes then, but still he continued. He assured Louis that the fear he felt wasn't for the monster before him but the one he believed existed inside himself. He told him that he could take his sorrow away, replace it with the kind of power he could never imagine, that he needed only to nod his pretty head and say yes.
"Be my companion, Louis."
His answer wasn't immediate nor verbal, but slowly he nodded and a great weight Lestat hadn't known he'd been carrying on his shoulders disappeared all at once. He thought he couldn't possibly be happier but then Louis took his face in his shaking hands and pulled him in for a kiss, not at all intimidated by the blood on his lips, in his mouth, on his tongue. He kissed Lestat like a man starved, even pulling him back in briefly when Lestat tried to end it.
He had to fight himself to keep his omega fangs from dropping too as he leaned in for the bite. That first drag of Louis's sweet intoxicated blood tasted like the first sip from an oasis after a century spent lost in the desert. Words couldn't express how glad he was to be allowed, finally, to drink deeply of him, to fill himself with all Louis had to give, every last drop he could afford. When he could afford to give no more, Lestat pulled away, ready to fill Louis with himself in turn.
He raised his wrist to his mouth and cut it on one fang but before he could offer his bleeding wrist to Louis, he was suddenly pushed to the floor. Surprised to learn Louis had enough strength in him to manage such a thing, Lestat reacted much too slowly. Louis's alpha fangs were buried in the side of his neck, right over his sensitive scent gland, before he could even think to prevent it.
Many things happened all at once then: first, Lestat came in his pants so hard and so suddenly that his hearing went out completely for a moment—he knew only that he'd shouted by the pain in his throat. Second, he saw an explosion of color—bright but fuzzy and highly disorienting, he could see only the vague shape of Louis through it before it disappeared, replaced by the third thing, an encroaching darkness around the edges of his field of vision and the loss of feeling in the tips of his fingers and toes. Overwhelmed by the overload of all these different sensations, he realized slowly and with great difficulty that Louis was drinking too much from him. He was going to drain him dry!
Lestat tried to move, to speak, to pry Louis off of him, but all he could manage was a pathetic gasp as Louis opened his jaw just to bite him again, injecting even more venom unknowingly. It worked fast—Lestat felt impossibly more lightheaded as what remained of his blood tried and mostly failed to escape the suction of Louis's lips sealed around his neck on its destination southward. Even losing his blood at such a rapid rate he felt heated, feverish, desperate now to keep Louis and himself connected, never to part again.
Lestat's last thought before he finally lost consciousness was that he'd chosen well. He'd offered over his power, his love, and his companionship and Louis had, without even knowing how, chosen to take him as his mate as well.
When next Lestat woke they would be joined in a way no other pair ever could be: maker and fledgling, alpha and omega, and companions in eternity—all of it sealed in blood.