Blood Bourbon

4 AM

Ryker had not moved from the bedroom where Daryl was for four days.

96 hours of watching the man battle through the effects of vampyrism, then beyond it to something even Carbry was at a loss to explain. Daryl was a vampire, he had woken half out of his mind in a blood lust with fangs and incredible strength, only long enough to guzzle two and a half bottles of blood before passing out. But Daryl was also not. He slept and as he slept he continued to breathe. He healed like a vampire did and from what Carbry could tell, had roughly the same strength and speed as a newly turned vampire. Weaker, clumsier and slower than Ryker by a long shot but far exceeding a human.

However, there were moments in the blood lust when his teeth were more than a vampires, two rows of viciously sharp teeth and claws that they had learned to pin down after Ryker had been gouged in the bar.

And beyond all that, Daryl still smelled like Daryl. Not like a vampire, not like anything else. Just plain old human-ish Daryl, though that strange allure that the cowboy had, was stronger. Ryker had thought it was just the evolution of them being mates until Carbry remarked on it.

But Ryker didn't care about the confusion. Daryl was alive and back safe. They had moved back to the mainland, to New Orleans, the safest location to avoid reprisals. Though they were in one of the lesser used buildings of the Knight Corp complex, just because there were far too many unanswered questions until Daryl was awake and completely under control.

Still, after four days of overwatch, Carbry had convinced Ryker to take a break from it, not long after Daryl had awoken to feed. He had been waking up every six hours or so, so they should have had plenty of time. And there was an alarm on the door and sophisticated security measures that would prevent Daryl from wandering out into anywhere public. It felt wrong, to put them in place, knowing how it bothered Daryl to be cooped up in and how he had just escaped a facility that wasn't much different, restriction wise.

Ryker was listening to Tim brief him on the security situation when the alarms to the bedroom went off and the two of them stalked down the hallway silently. Ryker wanted to tell his boss to back off, but he fought off that overprotective urge, if only because he didn't know what kind of state Daryl would be in. Ryker had no issue following Daryl's scent, and they stopped at the kitchen door, frowning as they heard the man inside, making happy purring and growling noises. From the smell of it he was merely eating uncooked beef and drinking blood from the fridge, which was a lot better than some poor bystander or something.

Tim shifted up beside Ryker, whispering lowly in his ear, more akin to how they move silently while hunting than anything intimate. "I'll stay out here to make sure everything is ok."

Ryker nodded, waiting until the sounds stopped before moving into the room, finding himself half tackled by a very clumsy and extremely confused Daryl. The man seemed to be struggling to hold down a single thought, his features shifting between vampiric and human. He just listened until it became clear that Daryl was nearly so distressed about something that he was about loose complete control. The talk about children and Sharur's had only confused and panicked Ryker, so he merely slipped back into his cowboy's memories, shifting through the jumbled mess of them until he found himself living through Daryl's torture at the hand of that Hunter, including the row of cells filled with Sharur's and the young shapeshifter who had been treated like bait.

Ryker nearly lost control himself, barely holding himself together as he half dragged Daryl back to the bedroom, thankful that Tim had shifted out of sight while they walked past.

Once in the room, he wrangled Daryl to sit down on the bed between Ryker's legs, leaning into his chest as Ryker leaned into the headboard. They sat like that, with his arms wrapped around Daryl, chin resting on his shoulder and just rubbing his chest gently. "We'll figure it all out, Daryl. I'm going to be right here with you."

"Your database." Daryl stiffened then, glancing around the room frantically. "Your computer..."

Ryker held him close, nodding and kissing the man's shoulder. "We'll look through it in a bit, Daryl. I just need this. Please."

Because, as much as he wanted Daryl to calm down, to have a few moments of peace before having to deal with those thoughts again, he also needed to hold his cowboy.

Daryl nodded, letting out a breath and relaxing back into him, though his heartrate took longer to calm.

"What happened? They had... video... of the street... of you getting shot." Daryl shuddered, laying his head back on Ryker's shoulder, turning his face into Ryker's neck, breath hot against his skin.

"They did shoot me." Ryker winced and lifted one of Daryl's hands, tracing the man's finger tips along the nearly completely healed scar tissue. "I lucked out. And your damned vests saved my life."

"It was the same guy. He said he shot you." Daryl murmured softly, already starting to fall back asleep. He nuzzled Ryker's neck, his hand slipped along Ryker's jaw to the back of his neck, just holding onto him. "He broke me, Ryker."

Ryker shook his head, wrapping his arms tighter around Daryl, holding him closer. "You are not broken. You stumbled, you fell, but you are here. You're alive. And he's not."

"He's at the bottom of the ocean, or maybe he's shark shit." Daryl grinned against his neck. "It felt really good to kill him. I know it's not supposed to. I'm not a killer... but."

"You did what you had to do to get back here, to me. To stay alive. That asshole does not deserve your guilt, cowboy." Ryker shook his head, nuzzling Daryl back in return. "They told us you were dead too... it nearly broke me. You're my mate, Daryl."

Daryl grinned again, nuzzling him and accenting his words with sharp little nips. "Mmm, nope. You're mine. I love you, Ryker. Even if you freak out at that word. I do love you."

"Being a mate is more than love." Ryker chuckled and nipped Daryl back, kissing him before he could argue. "But I love you too. Now sleep."

"I thought you said vampires don't sleep." Daryl yawned into their broken kiss, slipping quickly into unconsciousness despite the argument.

Ryker rubbed his chest gently, closing his eyes and leaning back into the headboard, just breathing in the scent of Daryl, feeling like he needed oxygen in his lungs as much as his odd little cowboy did.

But it was just the smell of his mate that his body craved.