Hobbit - Barduil - Kiss of the Vampire

When Thranduil tells Bard he is a man of constant surprise, he means it. He means the man surprises him as much as the man causes him to surprise himself. He tells him his love for him is a well with no bottom and Bard tells him he's no poet. 

Thranduil didn't think he could ever love a mortal, he couldn't see why anyone ever would but he did. Thranduil didn't think he could ever love a man, he never thought he could ever love again but he did. The idea of loving a vampire had never crossed his mind, but he did that too.

On Bard's 60th birthday, he'd turned to him and told him he has something he had to tell Thranduil. Something that Thranduil was going to notice eventually he'd trailed off, looking away and Thranduil knew he was going to tell him he was going to die.  

Bard told him he'd been attacked by a wild man, a vampire it would turn out. He'd bitten him, trying to kill him and Bard had fought him off. Dashed his head on a wall and had got some of the vampire's blood in his wounds. That is how it happens, no vampire tries to spread their curse when they kill, it's always accidents. Always surprise when the injured wild man, the vampire they didn't realise limps away from certain mortal injury. Always compassion that brings the victim back into the home, to attack their families when they turn.

So when Bard turned to him, when he was sure in his heart Bard would die, and told him he was cursed, Thranduil knew he would die and Thranduil would be the one do it. He wasn't going to allow Bard to attack his family, his people. He wasn't going to allow Bard to become a monster. He'd done his duty before. 

Vampires were drawn to his woods, to the dark and the evil that lives there. Vampires that used to be human, some that used to be Dwarves, and a few that used to be Elves. All of them wild, long bony fingers, rows of pointy teeth and too bright eyes in their sunken sockets. They were spirits with physical form that rose from the grave to follow you home. They worn the remains of ones loved one faces, like they wore their torn clothes but their was nothing left to reason with once they'd turned. 

Vampires were drawn to where the people were to feast but those same crowds also repelled them, drove them to the dark. Maybe they remembered, maybe they just found the solitary traveller to be easier pray. Thranduil didn't know, the vampires never answered his pleas. Couldn't after he'd removed their heads.

The only proper way to kill a vampire. Nothing else would do. Injuries only slowed them down, everything that would kill anyone else even an Elf would eventually heal. Their curse always returning them to the state they were when they first turned. 

The three charred vampires that found after Smaug's attack proof of their regenerative abilities. They all returned to their previous state unblemished expect for old wounds, all biting at the guards beyond their cells. None of them starved, only getting more crazed until he'd removed of that along with their heads. 

"When?" Thranduil had asked, resigning himself. It was always going to end the same way. It was only the context that could change. "When did this happen?" How long did they have left? How long to get their affairs in order? How long until he would..?

"I didn't know. I don't remember. A long time ago, at least an age ago." Bard had answered, "Time is so strange."

Time is so strange, thought Thranduil, the mortal understood. The immortal, he corrected himself. Bard was immortal. He'd be bitten an age ago, he'd turned but he hadn't gone wild. He'd retained his humanity, somehow. Like he'd somehow slayed a dragon, like he'd somehow lead his people, like he'd somehow won his heart. Somehow. 

Bard was a man of constant surprises, and Thranduil surprised even himself.

Thranduil had stepped forward then, hugged Bard tight and Bard had hugged him back, a relieved man. 

Thranduil loved a vampire, because he loved Bard. That part wasn't a surprise anymore.

They would have everything, together. 

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Here's my gift for shippingagenda, for the Barduil Gift Exchange on tumblr.  I really hope you enjoy it. <3
Happy Canada Day too.

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Tumblr Reblog - Drink deep, the blood and my love runs deep here

Read on A03 here


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Commissions are OPEN

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