c o r r u p t

[walking distance]

Pierce never liked to wake up early unless he had to, and because of his life-threatening heart tumor, it seemed he had a ‘get out of jail free’ card whenever he needed. Not that work was exactly equivalent to jail, but the worst part was waking up the next day after a particularly eventful night. And last night was definitely eventful. In fact, Pierce was probably tired enough to sleep another good few hours, if he hadn’t woken up to the sensation of cold, soft lips against his head. He stirred and batted his hand dismissively, only to realize that the chaste kiss had come from Marc. “What, did you want a goodbye kiss before heading off to work?” he mumbled sleepily, rolling over onto his side and pulling the blankets over his shoulders. The brunet wasn’t particularly affectionate unless it came to foreplay or something beyond that—‘go hard or go home’, as they said.

Between all blood and sex and noise, the brunet was sure he would have woken up to a bed stained with black blood and other bodily fluids. He made a face, eyes still scrunched closed as he curled up as small as he could to avoid touching the dirty parts of the bed. Only then did he realize how cold the blankets were and how fresh they smelled. “Damn, you have some hardworking maids around here,” he commented, eyes still closed. He didn’t know why sleep didn’t come back to him, especially with a bed as heavenly as Marc’s, but when he accepted the fact that he wasn’t going to be able to go back to sleep he rolled out of bed. “Lemme borrow your shower,” he mumbled, groping the walls so he didn’t have to wake up completely.

The water was instantly warm, unlike back at his place; Pierce had to bear the cold for a good five minutes before the water would heat up, and by then he was usually done. Not to mention, Marc had so many different soaps and shampoos that Pierce didn’t know what to use (or how to use it all). Eventually he just went for the one with the simplest design and hoped for the best—so he came out smelling like Marc.

“Do me a favor and let me borrow something,” Pierce said, coming out of the shower covered in a huge, fluffy towel. Actually, from the quality of the material alone, it was comfortable enough to be worn as a shirt—but Marc owed Pierce anyway. The blond was dressed so nicely that he could have been going to work. And on second thought, he probably was.

“Marc,” Pierce put his chin on the vampire’s shoulder, very aware that he was still dripping wet from his shower, “You’re not going to work, are you? You’re the most powerful man in the world, surely you could spare some time…” but then he trailed off when the scent of Marc’s blood hit him again, emanating from the wounds in his neck. Well, he supposed he could prioritize something else for the moment.

“On second thought, let me come to work with you. I need to know how I became this way,” Pierce said, his demeanor doing a 180, his eyes both inquisitive and challenging. “Unless you know and are hiding something,” he added, drying his hair and looking around for something half-decent to wear. “If that’s the case, things aren’t going to look pretty when there’s a huge increase in the demand for blood. That being said…where do you keep your human blood?”

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[assburger]

Marc watched with a soft sigh as the other stumbled towards the shower, even opening the door for his clumsily walking friend. “Only Amelia would dare enter my bedroom in the middle of the night.” He rolled his eyes, looking down at his nails in an impatient manner. Under his breath, he added coldly, “She’s gonna bother me all day about it.” He at down for a short while and relaxed at the edge of the bed for a long time, wondering how much had changed since he last saw Pierce. He sighed again and shuddered at the thought that he had been with Pierce, who was supposedly an FBI agent. A shitty one, he thought, rolling his eyes. How the man hadn’t gotten arrested years ago for sexual harassment charges was beyond him.

When Pierce got out of the shower, Marc stared at the fact that the man had so freely taken one of his towels and now had the nerve to ask to borrow something to wear. Still, it wasn’t as though Marc was short of clothing, though he had a feeling that most of his clothes wouldn’t fit Pierce too well. Marc’s clothing was mostly tailor made for his lanky, skinny body, whereas Pierce was more athletically built. He was about to get up to go to his closet before the other deliberately put his wet head against the young CEO’s shoulder, getting the clean suit wet. Marc grimaced a little but was gentle as the other spoke. “You could come with me to work, but I expect nothing other than professionalism,” he added. “You are to dress appropriately and keep you clothing on, and you are not to ‘gay it up’ as you young people say nowadays.” His icy eyes drilled through Pierce’s face.

Clearing his throat, Marc added, “Fine. Come to my office with me. But I honestly can’t tell you how you became this way. In fact, I’m a little worried that there could be an outbreak. Just…be careful about spreading your blood to other people, and please…just try not to sexually harass every living being that you see.” He tried to sound concerned for the wellbeing of the humans in the area, but in actuality, he was more worried that there would soon be an uprising of people with just as much power as he did, maybe even moreso. Marc was well aware that he wasn’t the strongest vampire ever made, but all this time, he’d been counting on his brains to take everyone else down.

But there was another factor to it. He wanted to keep Pierce close to him because not only did the FBI agent have much more information on him than he would have liked, but also because Pierce was more important to Marc than the vampire would have liked to admit. He sighed and answered, “I don’t think there will be a sudden increase in the demand for blood. Most vampires…” Meaning almost every vampire out of the “big five” other than Marc himself. “Most vampires aren’t as…sadistic as I am.” Smiling smugly, he added, “After all, truly nice people don’t control the world, do they?” He chuckled to himself before clearing his throat. “I keep my human blood inside of my blood banks. I have a few bottles in my personal refrigerator in my home and office, but I try to keep the bottled blood to a minimum. The less evidence, the better. I’m sure you of all people understand that.”

Without getting too much into details, Marc walked downstairs to the first floor and waved a hasty goodbye to Amelia who was eating breakfast at the table. Her feet were propped up in her chair, and she ate cereal victoriously, side-eyeing the two men that were leaving. Just before Marc and Pierce left the building, she yelled out, “Have fun working, Marc! Try not to be too a**l today like you were last night. Wouldn’t want to cause a disturbance in the office.” The secretary, who was taking a day off, kicked back in her pajamas.

Marc rolled his eyes on the way out and immediately headed for the shiny Black Cadillac that was waiting for him. The driver, Laurent, asked in soft French, “Mr. Cavalier, where are we going today?” Then, he looked at Pierce and murmured in thickly accented English, “Pleasure to meet you, sir. Ms. Amelia has told me the most pleasant things about you.” Something in Laurent’s dark eyes seemed to suggest amusement, though the man kept a perfect smile on his face.

Without remarking on anything else, Marc merely murmured in French, “The headquarters as usual, Laurent.” Though English was his first language, his parents had been French immigrants and taught him at an early age, and through the years, the prodigy managed to teach himself six different other languages. But French was simply one that he held close to heart.

The ride was in silence, with the two men in the back. Marc looked into the distance, trying to focus on anything but Pierce. After a few minutes, they finally arrived in the office, and Laurent parked in the private garage. He opened the doors for the two, and Marc slipped inside the building with a quick security check and went up the elevators to the top floor, before receiving news from Tiffany, the secretary that was on duty today. He was close to all his blood banks, though none were as close to him as Amelia was. Tiffany merely greeted, “Hi, Mr. Cavalier. Katarina Soliev is waiting for you in your office.” Katarina was one of the few that had access to his office, along with the five others, though Marc couldn’t say that he was exactly fond of her presence. Whenever she visited, she wanted something, and usually, Marc was not one to say no, despite their broken bonds.

Once he entered the office quietly with Pierce, Katarina, silver-haired and aged but still elegant and as refined as ever, smiled a little. Her smiles were always somewhat bitter, and that was just one of the many things he used to like about her. Even after all these years, she still wore her meaningless wedding ring, he noticed, as though to spite him. Katarina rose from her seat and walked up to Marc, pulling him into an embrace that lasted for a little too long, before looking over Pierce coldly. She blinked slowly before focusing her steely grey eyes back onto Marc. In a soft Russian accent, and whispered sensuously, “So good to see you, dearest Mr. Cavalier. Or should I simply address you as Marc?” She turned to Pierce and narrowed her eyes, as though she already sensed something between them. She threw her head back and laughed. “Pitiful. Without me, that whore Amelia couldn’t satisfy you herself, so you turned to a man.”

Her voice grew soft again after her harsh criticism. She saw the obvious surprise on Marc’s face when she called him out so easily. “I can smell him all over you, Marc.”

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[walking distance]

Pierce listened to Marc talk as he dressed, putting on and taking off a few of Marc’s shirts before finally finding one on the larger side and didn’t make his chest look big. (For the record, his chest wasn’t big—Marc’s shirts were simply cut weird.) While he buttoned it up he listened to Marc talk, attention particularly piqued when he talked about vampire business. He thought it was funny how he’d learned more in a few days about Marc and his entire company than the FBI had learned in years, but at the same time it was somewhat unsettling how comfortable this whole thing felt, waking up in someone else’s place and wearing someone else’s clothes and even going to work with someone else. If Pierce didn’t know any better it would have sounded like a serious relationship and even the thought of it started to rub him the wrong way.

“Don’t be jealous because you didn’t get any!” Pierce called back to Amelia as the door shut. It seemed even the driver already knew Pierce, although he didn’t doubt that it wasn’t good things Amelia would be saying about him. He resisted the overwhelming urge to say something along the lines of does ******** your boss last night fall into the category of ‘most pleasant things’? and instead gave Laurent a polite smile. The brunet spent the majority of the car ride admiring the interior of the Cadillac (which Marc seemed to have lost appreciation for) and restraining himself from telling Marc that his French was hot.

Before he knew it they were back at the Cavalier building again, and as he walked through the glass doors and ever-tedious security check he couldn’t help but be amazed that so much had happened in between today and the last time he came through those doors. The process was a whole lot more streamlined with the CEO of the entire company leading the way, though. Pierce gave Tiffany a grin when he saw her—this secretary was cute, too. How would things have been different if Tiffany had been working the day he came instead of Amelia? He decided not to linger too long on that, simply concluding that Marc had good taste in partners.

Along the same lines, however, who was this Katarina he kept hearing about? He was sure Marc mentioned her last night at some point, and her name didn’t have a positive connotation in his mind. Oh, the ex, he suddenly recalled, and his mouth pursed as if by reflex. Pierce didn’t want to get into that kind of drama business; it wasn’t his style. Nevertheless he followed along, hoping it wouldn’t be too painful.

He recognized the woman from somewhere, probably from the files at work regarding the Big 5. Her hair was silver and for Pierce that was already kind of a turn-off, because he wasn’t into older women anyway. The way she looked back at Pierce showed that their dislike for each other was mutual. She kind of reminded him of a snake, and if she was a vampire like Marc was she was probably a damn old one. The brunet wrinkled his nose and then noticed his vest folded neatly over his chair, so he went to retrieve it. Their conversation was eavesdrop on with the acoustics of the large room.

Typical jealous cougar, Pierce thought, putting his vest on and buttoning it up promptly. Pierce certainly didn’t love Amelia but he didn’t hate her either. But it wasn’t his business and he took a seat, waiting (im)patiently for the woman to leave until he was brought into the conversation.

“And you smell like you have a stick up your a**,” Pierce said lowly, fingers drumming against the surface of the desk and eying the woman. He wasn’t about to play ‘knight in shining armor’ and rescue Marc from his own ex, but Pierce thought he smelled like a man for the most part, with some cologne that was less strong than Marc’s. Nothing wrong with that. The funny thing was that Pierce knew he was talking to someone who was only second to Marc in terms of power and global control and was talking back to her anyway. Marc’s spiel about ‘professionalism’ was quickly tucked in the back of his mind.

“You should play with boys your own age,” Pierce said thoughtfully, resting the side of his foot on his knee, “the nearest cemetery is just outside the gates if you needed directions.”

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[assburger]

Katarina stared at Pierce with an expression that suggested that she had just been backhanded across the face. Marc couldn’t help but let out a bit of a chuckle, despite trying to keep a professional air about him. He was a young man, after all, and nothing delighted him more than seeing a bitter ex get hurt by a few words. He licked his lips, staring down at the woman that dared to look at him for help. She pouted slightly, walking towards Marc with a fake helpless expression on her face, the same one that she had wooed him with one several occasions. He sighed softly, thinking whether he should just have a little fun with Pierce and flip the old hag off for the pain she caused him the past several years or act professional and see why she was here to begin with first.

Luckily, it was the doctor and professional that took control of his emotions, not the child that wanted to have fun and hurt his ex for the sake of it. Instead, Marc stepped between them, giving Pierce a scolding look, before folding his arms defensively and asking Katarina, “What are you here for? Did you need to discuss our company policy? Was it anything business related?” He sighed and rolled his eyes, sounding very irritated. He was used to Katarina coming to visit for the sake of trying to mess with him. Marc was a weak man and gave into her advances quite easily, but in front of Pierce, he knew that he had to keep his face.

“Actually…” she murmured, voice becoming coy, “I was here to show you a headline.” From inside her purse, she pulled out a newspaper that was titled “Unidentified Man Sneaks Into Cavalier Estate, Last Spotted with Cavalier Himself!”

In horror, Marc reached for the newspaper and snatched it out of her hand, reading the trash that was printed across the page. Marc Cavalier…pharmaceutical shark…suspected gay…lose respect for sexual misbehavior…The more he read, the more irate he grew, crumpling up the paper in his hand. It would be the first time that something stupid spread about him in the news, but this time, the news was actually telling the truth. He even saw blurred pictures of Pierce sneaking into his estate, Pierce getting into the car with him this morning. Damn, they’re fast, he thought, letting out a heavy sigh.

As he looked back up at Katarina, she smiled and added, “Well, you seem to be quite worried, Marc. I came here to offer a hand of kindness, of friendship if you will. You and I parted quite bitterly all those years ago, and I’m sure that you haven’t gotten over it; neither have I.” She walked closer to him, running her fingers through his hair, looking almost motherly, strange, considering that they had once been lovers. Marc’s eyes widened, and he looked down at her with a detached stare, reminded of memories he would rather have forgotten.

“No,” he whispered, shaking his head, not quite speaking to Katarina but rather to himself. He convinced himself that he’d gotten over her quite a long time ago, but the memories were still there. She’d been his first and only real relationship, more than just a blood bank or a call girl. Marc stepped backwards, trying to avoid her poisonous touch.

“Loosen up, Marc,” she hissed, casting an evil glare at Pierce. “Your boyfriend here is useless. And your reputation will be tarnished if you don’t cover it up soon.”

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