Andrew and Jamie - 4. What are these feelings?????

Casey and Jamie knocked and came in the room, “Jackson, the council called and said your presence is required as soon as you’re free. A situation has risen.”

Casey delivered the message in a mock formal tone and then added with a scowl, “The person said that I should ensure you got the message immediately or there would be, and I quote, ‘consequences if I delayed’. What did he think I was going to do, make dinner before passing on their message?”

Andrew stirred as Jackson frowned, “By the tone you just repeated I would say you spoke with Elder Rickman, he sometimes seems to forget he is not a Roman captain anymore.”

Andrew stared at him in wonder as he made his goodbyes and headed off to make his way to the council building.

Andrew switched his gaze to Casey and asked, “Roman captain?”

Casey laughed, “Yes most of the council elders are well over a thousand years old, so they have lived through a lot of interesting times. Rickman and Jackson are the eldest members and they are almost 2000 years old. This community was built about a thousand years ago and has only expanded since then.”

Andrew and Jamie looked stunned and Casey couldn’t help laughing. He had always been a curious child and so he had learned the history of the community and its residents. Jackson was a good friend of their mother’s and although Casey had always found him bossy, he had been a great source of information, when they could talk without butting heads. Today had been the longest conversation he had ever had with Jackson without ending up in some sort of debate or outright argument.

Andrew was starting to look tired again and when Casey glanced at the time he saw it was getting on for 2am. “You need to get more sleep to help you heal.” He turned to address Jamie, “Get him some more blood from the kitchen and then you can take first watch while I’m getting some sleep, I’m so glad we had some volunteers tonight or we would never have covered you at the guard’s clinic.”

He turned and left the room, leaving Jamie and Andrew looking at each other. “I’ll be back in two sec’s,” Jamie said, rushing out the room to follow Casey’s instruction about the blood and cursing himself for not thinking of it first.

As soon as Jamie was gone, Andrew tried to get out of bed. He really needed to clean up, he felt sticky and dirty, but he did not want to have anyone help him. That would be too embarrassing. He managed to get himself up right and was halfway across the room holding onto the furniture before he began to feel dizzy and was just about to fall when Jamie came back in the door. Jamie took in the scene in a second and dropped the bottle he was carrying on the floor as he grabbed Andrew and took his weight.

“What are you up to?” He asked angrily, helping Andrew back to sit on the edge of the bed.

“I need to wash up a bit and wanted to get there before anyone had to help me.” Andrew replied once he was sitting and had his head down between his knees to relive the dizziness.

“Well for a start you have not had enough blood to be up and around unaided at the moment. And secondly do you even know where the bathroom is?”

Andrew took a deep breath and raised his head to stare; he had not even thought that he didn’t know the layout of the house. He smiled ruefully at Jamie and shook his head carefully, “No I don’t know where the bathroom is, but if you’ll help me get there I really need to wash, I feel all sweaty.”

Jamie helped him up and with an arm around his waist escorted him out the door and down a long corridor. The bathroom was a large room at the end and was large enough to house a toilet, large bath tub (with what look like bubble jets inside it) and a large shower cubicle that had multiple showerheads in it and looked like it was big enough for a football team. The whole room was tiled in pastel colors and the floor was a rough type of tile that Andrew had never seen before. Jamie helped him to the wash basin, gave him a wash cloth and towel and then left him to clean up on his own, telling him he would be right outside the door and to call if he needed him. Andrew was very grateful for the privacy as he completed his wash. He was looking longingly at the shower, but knocked on the door to let Jamie know he was ready.

Jamie soon had him back in bed and drinking a bottle of blood as Jamie chatted to him about various things going on around the community. Andrew had not really made any friends in the community, even though he had been there three months now. The only people he really knew were Jackson, Jamie and his work colleagues. He preferred things that way; people couldn’t hurt you if they didn’t know you and if you didn’t care what they thought. He missed his sister and he wished he could contact her, but he knew his parents and everyone else from his old clan would not let him have contact with her.

His parents had always been cold towards him. No matter how well he did in school, they always pointed out where he could have done better. Then he had been outed and to make matters worse he was accused of practically molesting an elder of their council. That was the last straw and they kicked him out that day with only what he could carry. When he applied to the nearest community, Jackson had taken him under his wing. Still being young Jackson decided to become his sponsor, which meant he was in charge of Andrew’s education in vampire culture (which was obviously seriously lacking) and also for making sure he was kept safe within the community till he was settled. Jackson had become like a father figure, something he had never felt like he had before. Even as gruff as Jackson could be, he showed more interest in Andrew and his wellbeing than his own father ever had.

He came out of his trip down memory lane to find Jamie staring at him. “You were in a world of your own,” Jamie informed him. He then proceeded to insist that Andrew lay back down and get more sleep.

Andrew fell asleep with the sound of Jamie telling him stories of what he had seen happen in his lifetime in the community.

Andrew woke in the early morning before sunrise to find Casey asleep in the chair by the bed and Jamie curled up asleep on a blanket on the floor. Jamie must have sensed the movement as he opened his eyes and smiled when he saw Andrew was awake.

“Hey sleepyhead,” he said sitting up and rubbing his eyes, “I must have dozed off while Casey and I were talking. Are you hungry? I have some blood here,” he stood and picked up a bottle that was on the side table.

Andrew tried to sit up in the bed but he was trapped by the tangled blankets. As he squirmed, Jamie reached out to help him and caught his foot on the edge of the bedside rug. Andrew suddenly found himself with Jamie laying full length over him, cussing up a storm.

Jamie scrambled off Andrew. “Are you ok? Did I hurt you?” Jamie asked frantically. He grabbed Andrews face to look into his eyes and see for himself that he was ok. As they looked at each other time seemed to stand still. Jamie started to lean in and Andrew met him halfway but as their lips met, a shock went through both of them and it caused Andrew to jerk back. His eyes were wide with shock and he quickly looked down at his hands trying to stammer out an apology.

Jamie was just about to try and find out what was wrong when he heard his brother through their mind link “Don’t push it at the moment Bro,” he said, and caused Jamie to jerk his head back. How could he have forgotten that his brother was in the room?

When he looked around he saw his brother had slipped out of the room and was looking in from the doorway. Jamie nodded to him and he slipped away without Andrew noticing.

Jamie got off the bed and after helping Andrew untangle himself from the blankets he handed him the blood to drink. Andrew refused to look at him at all.

Before he left the room he dropped a brief kiss on Andrew’s cheek and left; looking back once he was at the door. Andrew was staring after him, bottle in one hand and the other hand on the cheek Jamie had kissed.

Jamie needed to talk and found his brother in his bedroom where he entered without knocking.

“I need your help Bro,” he stated using their mind link. He knew with his vampire hearing Andrew could eavesdrop if he wanted to.

“I’m assuming you mean Andrew?” Casey said laying aside the book he was studying from.

Jamie joined him on the bed moving the book aside and nodded, “I want him like I’ve never wanted anyone. But anytime I get near him he runs. Even before this when I was running the clinic at the guard’s headquarters he would only speak to me if I asked him a direct question and then would run out the room. If I thought he wasn’t interested I would leave it but for some reason I believe he is interested and I can’t seem to let go. I have a need to always know where he is and what he is doing. I want to touch him all the time even though I know he will try to run if I do. What’s going on Casey?” Jamie had put his head in his hands by the end of his speech.

Casey seemed to think before he responded, “Just by looking at Andrew you can see he is starved for touch. From what I found out about his history he has never been shown what real unconditional love is like. If all you want is a fling then I won’t help you, I think he deserves much better than that. However I can see his attraction to you and I don’t think it would take much to turn into much more. If your feelings are as strong as you seem to be telling me they are, I will help you when you have thought a few things through.”

“I don’t know what’s going on with me but I know I don’t want to hurt him in any way. I want to protect him and keep him safe. That feeling has gotten worse since he was hurt. Just seeing him lying on our floor when I got home was terrifying. I know you know something; I feel it in your voice, please tell me what I’m missing”

“Yes I’ve realized something you haven’t but I’m not telling you,” before Jamie could protest Casey held up his hands and continued, “This is something you have to realize for yourself. If you think back over the last few days and our discussions since Andrew got here, coupled with your feelings as you just described them to me, you’ll realize what I mean.”

Jamie thought hard, he remembered his feelings when he had heard Andrew was hurt and how his heart had nearly stopped when he had seen him on the living room floor bleeding. He thought about his need to be near him and to make sure he was ok all the time. He finally remembered the feeling of Andrew’s lips on his when they had kissed just moments ago. He then started going over his last conversation with his brother that had centered on the Samuel situation and vampire mating. His thoughts stalled and he looked up at his brother in total shock….

VAMPIRE MATING …

MATES…

OH SHIT…..