Like Starlight and Wine (A Baldur's Gate 3 Astarion x Tav Fanfic)

15. Sanguine Hunger

That night, as usual, I don't sleep well - flitting between dreams and nightmares - the familiar feeling of darkness digging its claws into me, wrapping me in its embrace. It's nothing new. But tonight, something is off... Something besides the nightly visions of horror... The feeling of another presence nearby. Something tangible - prowling - a predator ready to indulge in the prey... It feels like another nightmare. But is it?

Maybe I wake up in that exact moment because I know something is wrong. Or maybe I just get lucky.

My eyes flutter open, focusing through the haze of darkness, trying to make sense of what I am seeing. Teeth. Fangs. Piercing red eyes and silver hair like starlight glistening in the moonlight. I feel the familiar presence of the pale elf nearby, yet I'm staring into a pair of pointed fangs as Astarion bares his teeth at my neck. I feel the coolness of his breath against my skin as the air hitches in his lungs, his gaze flickering to mine. Surprise. Realization, that I've just caught him in the act of... whatever this is. The fear in his eyes as soon as they make contact with mine.

"...Shit." He curses, pulling back quickly as if he expects me to reach under my pillow and ram a dagger between his eyes.

Not that the notion isn't wholly inconceivable in this moment. I can't help but wonder what he was up to... hovering over my sleeping body silently in the middle of the night, his face so close to mine... it's all very questionable at best... damning at worst.

As Astarion backs away, I quickly get to my feet, folding my arms over my chest defensively waiting for an explanation.

"No no - it's not what it looks like," he pleads from a safe distance, and I'm not sure I've ever seen him look so vulnerable. "I swear! I wasn't going to hurt you. I just needed - well, blood."

Blood? As in... my blood? Was he talking about murder? No... there is no murderous intent in his eyes. Only weakness... and a ravenous hunger. My mind flashes back to all the signs... all the hints he'd unintentionally left - the boar we found drained of blood in the wilderness; the fact that I'd never seen Astarion eat any real food; and that time I caught him leaving camp mysteriously in the middle of the night among many other things. There, in the dim firelight, I finally see him for what he really is: a vampire. A slave to sanguine hunger. This is the deep dark secret he'd been keeping from me all this time? This was the real Astarion?

"You mean to tell me-" I stutter. "All this time you were-? I- I can't believe I didn't see it... We even found the boar you snacked on before!"

"It's not what you think," says, his eyes beseeching mine. "I'm not some monster. I feed on animals. Boars, deer, kobolds - whatever I can get. Normally, those are the kinds of things I hunt. But it's not always enough. And after everything that's happened to us - everything we've been through - I'm just too slow right now. Too weak. I can't even catch so much as a rodent. If I just had a little blood, I could think clearer. Fight better. Please."

Suddenly, a strange sensation courses through me, and my companion's mind unfolds, secrets half-revealed. He feels it too.

"I- what's this?" He asks in surprise. "What's happening?"

Something stirs deep within me, hungry and alert... it's taking something I'll never get back as Astarion's mind opens up to mine, revealing cracked and quivering memories. At their heart, I see dark eyes commanding me to feed. I open my mouth and bite down. Not into a tender neck, but into the twisting body of a rat - the only thing my master lets me eat...

My mind tunnels jarringly back to the present, and I am me again, looking into the desperate red eyes in front of me, so tired, so weak. This has been his ailment all along - not enough blood to sustain him. He's virtually starving in whatever way a vampire starves. And he's been forced to eat animals for so long... when what he's really wanted all along is... Something more substantial.