Gabriel approaches Ravi just as he is closing the book, a strange look on his face, his mouth slightly agape, eyes unfocused.

“Done?” Gabriel asks quietly.

Ravi glances up at him in surprise. He nods.

“What’d you think?” Gabriel asks.

“I’m not sure what to think. I’m both fascinated and horrified by these beings. They’re a danger to the human race, to be certain, but they were slaughtered, genocided, even when they tried to adapt. Like the Bengal tiger, desperately hunting humans for food when resources are scant, they did what they had to in order to survive. I hardly think that makes them monsters.”

Gabriel licks his lips.

“What if I told you that I knew one personally?”

Ravi’s eyes go wide as he looks at Gabriel, “are-are you serious?”

“Yes.”

Gabriel can see Ravi swallow, looking around as he appears to contemplate what he just heard.

“Would you want to experiment on him?” Gabriel asks, “use him for your research?”

“No!” Ravi says, his voice getting higher as he struggles to respond, standing from his chair, “of course I wouldn’t want to…I mean…I would love to talk to one of these…people. I wouldn’t want to put him out, or cause him discomfort, or harm.”

Gabriel smiles. This is what he wants. Ravi’s curiosity is what he wants. He nods his head toward the book shelves separating them from the front of the library.

“C’mon. I left my phone at the desk. I’ll contact him for you. We can meet him together when I get off of work tonight.”

He can hear Ravi take a deep breath to calm himself as he starts to follow Gabriel through the towering shelves of books. They walk through two aisles before Gabriel determines that they are well hidden.

It’s the middle of the night.

Ravi is the only other person in the library besides Weiss, who is probably downstairs cleaning, or dancing with his mop as he is wont to do.

Ravi lets out a startled gasp as he accidentally walks into Gabriel.

“What’s wrong?” Ravi asks, surprised.

“I need you to watch something,” Gabriel says, holding out his bare wrist so that Ravi can see his pale flesh. Ravi looks at Gabriel’s wrist curiously, eyes going wider when Gabriel slices a nail into the soft flesh of his arm and makes himself bleed.

“What are you do-”

Ravi trails off as Gabriel’s arm begins to heal right there before his eyes. The crescent shape of the cut disappears entirely, leaving only smooth flesh, and a small trickle of blood. Gabriel watches the look on Ravi’s face turn from curiosity to shocked understanding. Then he watches him take a startled step backward.

Gabriel feels his gut plummeting. He recalls how terrified he had been when Tristan had gone to turn him. The fear had lurched in his chest until he was terrified it might choke him. How strange to view things now from Tristan’s side of events. 

“You’re actually one of them?” Ravi breathes, and Gabriel can see that he’s trembling slightly as he struggles to keep eye-contact with the being he’s just discovered to be a vampire.

“Yes,” Gabriel says, taking a step toward Ravi who sucks in an anxious breath in response.

“You’ve killed people?” Ravi asks quietly.

Gabriel nods.

“How-how old are you?” Ravi stammers.

“Very old,” Gabriel states plainly, running a hand gently down Ravi’s shaking arm. Then Gabriel is pressing against Ravi, pushing him into the bookshelf. He gently massages the back of Ravi’s neck through his curls, trying to soothe him. Ravi’s breathing is heavy, his chest rising and falling against Gabriel’s.

“Tell me you’ve felt it,” Gabriel whispers against Ravi’s temple before pressing a smooth kiss there.

“Felt what?” Ravi breathes, and Gabriel can’t help but notice that he flinches at the kiss.

“Our connection. This thing between us. You’ve been coming here for weeks,” Gabriel says. “You’re drawn back, again and again. It’s not about the research. Tell me it’s not about the research.”

“Gabriel, let me go,” Ravi pleads, trying to shove against him. But Ravi is only human, and he is no more capable of pushing Gabriel over than he is of moving a brick building with his bare hands.

“I won’t kill you,” Gabriel says, pulling his head back to stare into Ravi’s frightened eyes. “This is destiny. You coming into my library…is fate.”

“You want to turn me?” Ravi asks quietly, his panicked breaths filling the air between them. 

Gabriel nods, and he can hear a small whimper in the back of Ravi’s throat.

“Tell me you want this,” Gabriel begs.

“Please,” the word is barely a whisper as Ravi shakes his head numbly, hands pressed against Gabriel’s chest, trying so desperately to hold him back.

Gabriel twists his fingers into Ravi’s curls, pulling his head back, exposing his neck. Ravi gasps, and Gabriel can see him swallowing anxiously, his Adam’s Apple bobbing up and down. 

“I just want a taste,” Gabriel murmurs, leaning down and licking gently over Ravi’s jugular. “I’ve thought about this moment since I first laid eyes on you. You’re intoxicating. The scent of your blood is like nothing I’ve ever known before. Just a little taste.”

“St-stop,” Ravi pants, muscles taut as he struggles against Gabriel. “Please don’t.”

Gabriel’s canines grow sharper and he brushes them lightly over Ravi’s neck, not quite breaking skin. Ravi gives a small choked cry at the contact of teeth over skin.

“Tell me you want this,” Gabriel repeats. “Tell me you want-”

“Hey, Gabriel! Up for another game of five-card-draw, or did you lose enough last time?”

Gabriel whips his head around. Weiss has entered the top floor of the library, is expecting him to be at his post.

He’ll find him sooner or later.

Gabriel doesn’t want to have to kill him.

In that single moment of distraction, Ravi manages to catch Gabriel off-guard, pulling himself free, and running away down the aisle.

Gabriel is fast. Supernaturally fast.

He catches Ravi at the end of the next aisle, slapping his right hand over Ravi’s mouth, and pinning Ravi’s left arm over his stomach.

“Shh-shh, I know you’re scared,” Gabriel whispers, “I was terrified when my maker turned me.”

Ravi’s right hand grips at Gabriel’s arm, trying desperately to pull Gabriel’s hand from his mouth.

“If Weiss catches us, I’m going to have to kill him,” Gabriel explains, “so I’m going to need you to be quiet.”

Gabriel pulls Ravi’s head to the side, exposing his neck again, listening as Ravi cries out against his palm. He can taste the venom on his canines, a poison his own body is immune to. A paralyzing agent that could sedate a full-grown elephant if he were so inclined.

Gabriel leans down, biting into Ravi’s skin just enough to break the surface, to let the venom seep into Ravi’s system. 

A splash of Ravi’s blood flows into his mouth, and it is sublime, the most incredible thing he has ever tasted. It’s a struggle to stop there, to not drain the man dry as he lets the venom spread through Ravi’s system. 

He feels the grip on his right arm tense, feels Ravi’s whole body stiffen.

And then the grip relaxes.

Ravi’s arm falls down to his side, and his body goes slack. Gabriel carefully lowers him to the floor, tenderly brushing back curls from Ravi’s eyes.

Then he stands and hurries away to head off Weiss.

“Hey man, what are you doing?” Weiss asks when Gabriel finds him at the front desk.

“Oh, some of the day crew suspect that kids may have been stealing books. I’m going through and doing an inventory. It’s extraordinarily boring work,” Gabriel lies.

“Need any help?” Weiss asks.

Gabriel shakes his head, “nah, I’m doing alright.”

“Did you want to take a break and play some cards?” Weiss asks.

“Not tonight,” Gabriel murmurs, pretending to look up something on his computer until Weiss takes the hint.

“Right. Well, maybe tomorrow night then.”

“Sure. Tomorrow night sounds great,” Gabriel says, giving Weiss a friendly smile as he turns and walks away.

When Gabriel is sure that Weiss is gone, he hurries back to Ravi, who is still lying in a daze on the floor. Gabriel gets on his knees, straddling Ravi, and brushing the backs of his fingers gently across Ravi’s jaw.

“I can give you everything you could ever want. I can show you first-hand what all your father’s work could not,” Gabriel says as Ravi’s gaze trails languidly toward him, a great effort on his part as he struggles to fight the venom’s effects. “But it has to be your choice.”

Gabriel bites down onto his own wrist, then holds his arm over Ravi’s mouth so that a few small droplets of blood wet Ravi’s lips.

Ravi slowly becomes more coherent, the blood being the anti-venom to the poison Gabriel put into his body.

Ravi darts his tongue out, licking the blood from his lips, swallowing it down.

Just a taste. A little test.

Gabriel moves aside as Ravi sits up, quickly positioning himself as far from Gabriel as possible, which isn’t very far when he’s still too weak to move.

“If you want me, then you know where to find me,” Gabriel says quietly, reaching forward to brush his fingers over Ravi’s chin; pausing when he flinches away.

Gabriel smiles sadly, and stands. Ravi stares up at him in fear.

“I have to get back to work,” Gabriel says gently, “I’ll see you around, Ravi.”

He returns to his desk, barely paying any attention to his work when Ravi walks up to the front, pauses to look at Gabriel for just a moment, then leaves.

Gabriel doesn’t get up to follow Ravi; to grab him or to beg him to come back.

Because he knows he will come back on his own.

In a day. A week. At most, a month, Ravi will return. He will crave what Gabriel can give him, crave the blood that was forced on him like the world’s most addictive drug. And Gabriel will turn him.

Ravi might struggle, might beg him to make it right.

But in the end, the only thing that would be right would be for them to be together. Always.

A connection. A bond.

Strong like the one between Gabriel and his maker.

Stronger even.