The Ascent

"You think this is a shackle," Julian said, his voice dropping into a resonant, inhuman register that vibrated in Arthur's teeth. "You think you have the authority to dismiss me because your mind is currently lying to you."

Before Arthur could process the shift, Julian moved. It was a blur of supernatural speed.

One second, Arthur was curled defensively on the sofa. The next, Julian’s cold, unyielding arms were securely under Arthur’s knees and behind his back, lifting him from the cushions as effortlessly as if Arthur were made of paper.

"Julian, put me down!" Arthur gasped, his hands instinctively flying to Julian's broad shoulders as the vampire carried him toward the apartment's sliding glass balcony doors. "What are you doing?"

Julian didn't answer. He kicked the heavy glass door open, shattering the lock, and stepped out onto the balcony. With a powerful, terrifying flex of his legs, Julian vaulted over the iron railing.

Arthur squeezed his eyes shut and screamed, bracing for the deadly fifty-story plunge. But the fall never came. Julian scaled the sheer exterior of the high-rise with impossible, gravity-defying speed, the wind roaring violently in Arthur's ears.

Seconds later, Julian landed silently on the building's expansive rooftop garden.

He set Arthur down on his feet. The transition was a visceral shock to Arthur's system. Gone was the stagnant, heavy air of the dark living room. Up here, the biting, freezing urban wind whipped across the concrete, carrying the smell of exhaust, impending snow, and the electric ozone of the city below. The metropolitan skyline glittered around them in a sprawling, indifferent ocean of light.

Arthur shivered violently, his thin t-shirt completely inadequate against the freezing temperatures.

Julian immediately dropped to his knees on the rough concrete right in front of Arthur. He shrugged off his heavy, expensive cashmere overcoat and wrapped it tightly around Arthur's trembling shoulders, pulling the lapels closed over Arthur's chest.

Arthur looked down at his husband. Julian, still kneeling, looked up. The civilized facade was entirely gone. Julian bared his teeth, the sharp, deadly points of his elongated fangs gleaming in the ambient city light. His eyes were wide, feral, and utterly terrifying.

"Look at me," Julian commanded over the howl of the wind. "Look at the monster you are trying to send away."

Arthur trembled, gripping the edges of the cashmere coat. "Julian..."

"I am a butcher, Arthur," Julian said, his voice raw and echoing with centuries of violence. "I am ruthless. I have painted this city in blood more times than you can fathom. I do not feel pity. I do not feel remorse. The only thing in this miserable, endless world that keeps me from becoming a mindless beast is you."

Julian reached out, his cold hands wrapping securely around Arthur's waist, anchoring the human in the biting wind.

"You think your humanity is a burden? Your humanity is my only tether," Julian swore fiercely, his crimson eyes blazing with an unyielding, desperate devotion. "Your fragility, your grief, your illness—it is the only proof I have that I still possess a soul, because it is the only thing I have ever truly loved."

Julian pulled Arthur closer, pressing his face against Arthur's stomach, holding him with a grip that could crush stone but was infinitely, agonizingly gentle.

"We stood in front of an altar," Julian shouted into the cold wind, repeating the words like a sacred, unbreakable incantation. "For better or for worse. In sickness and in health. You think three days in the dark scares me? You think a mortal chemical imbalance is enough to drive away a creature that has survived plagues and wars? I will sit in the dark with you for a century, Arthur, if that is how long it takes for the light to return to your eyes."