obsession, vampires, supernatural abilities, mentions of biting
Special Halloween series
Vampire Erik Headcanons
Going for a more general approach, but pulling mostly from the book
Erik already exhibits many…nocturnal qualities as it is, even without adding any supernatural elements
He is not all too keen on sunlight; lives far below the opera house in isolation from society; prefers to lurk, unseen, in the dark
His skin is sickly and lifeless, weathered like parchment, and his skeletal frame struggles to fill the clothes he wears
Even in the book, he seems never to need to eat or drink
He even sleeps in a coffin!
If anything, being a vampire makes Erik’s every eccentricity connect naturally
Erik rarely feeds as he prefers to keep to himself in the solitude of his dwelling
But when the need eventually strikes, he makes a great event of it, wandering to the surface at nightfall, selecting his target with deliberation
He generally tries to target those who would not be missed from the world: traffickers, evildoers, the corrupt
Though he is by no means a force of good in any way
The phantom is careful not to drink from those in the opera house
As it stands, his relationship with the workers and management is strained at best, even before the new managers come along
The last thing he wants is to egg even more fools into pestering him and attempting to flush him out more than they already do
But in the case of unfortunate stragglers who wander into his domain of their own volition…
Well, let’s say his policy of not feeding from the members of the opera house can be overlooked in these…extenuating circumstances
When Joseph Bouquet’s body was found, dangling from a rope, curiously, two inexplicable punctures in the side of his neck were present as well
And when it comes to you...
His hands quiver at touching you, not only due to depravity of human contact, but also from a vast, irrepressible desire for your blood
Despite his gaunt frame, his vampiric nature grants him supernatural strength
His hand shudders with restraint, knowing that he could easily break you if he is not careful, knowing that he could lose control if his thirst clouds his reason
I think this version of Erik would be more patient and restrained than the normal iteration of himself
Age and wisdom mellows out his more extreme tendencies
Furthermore, the extreme speed, strength, and hunger means he has had to develop the maturity to curb his emotional outbursts, as indulging them could wreak havoc
Even with all the comparative wisdom this vampiric version of Erik has garnered, he is still so helplessly allured to your youth and innocence
And if you show acceptance and empathy not only towards his physical flaws, but also to his supranatural side...
Needless to say, the Phantom is beyond smitten, harbouring an obsession too fiery and intense to even possibly contain
Being the object of his fixation is even more dire for you with this version of Erik
His heightened senses can easily catch wind of your position, smelling your trail with the ease of a bloodhound
You have no hope of outrunning him, overpowering him, or even the permanence of his death
If escaping the human version of the Phantom seems a nigh impossible task, then it will take a divine miracle to escape vampire Erik
It is best for your own sake that you avoid ever attracting his interest
Else live the rest of your life by the side of an immortal being with no possibility of escape
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Nightfall: The Center of the Labyrinth
Bloodbag!Carlo is stolen back by his previous tormenter and keeper, Erik (Maxim's maker).They strike a temporary deal together.
CW: blood drinking, vampire whumper(s), bloodbag whumpee, physical violence, coercion, intimate whumper, pleasing the whumper is a survival tactic
masterlist
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“You look so well, Carlo,” said the vampire. Carlo heard that familiar tone in his dreams still. False warmth underlined with mockery. A pinch of contempt, reserved just for him.
He didn't answer. The study felt damp, like a window had been open to the chilly spring rains. He shivered. How was he back here? He was supposed to never be back here again. How had it gone so wrong?
“Maxim likes you, I take it. Do you like him?”
Carlo lifted his eyes to the centuries-old vampire standing in front of the stained glass window of his study. He wondered when was the last time Erik had seen the window brilliantly backlit with sun, if ever. He could see the golds and rubies and sky blues in his mind's eye. In the night all he could make out was grayscale, and one hue of green so dark it seemed to carry weight. Erik himself seemed to be made of shadows, or gather them to him like familiars. Still, Carlo didn't answer him.
There was a flash of movement and Erik was in front of him, holding him intimately by the jaw. He didn’t squeeze, but the light pressure was warning enough. “Have you forgotten your manners so quickly? I asked you a question. Do you like your new keeper?”
“Yes,” Carlo whispered, his heart pounding. “I like him.” He could see where age had begun to crease Erik’s face in life, at the corners of the eyes and bracketing the sides of the mouth. The centuries smoothed their skin so lines looked fossilized in stone, suggestions that were no longer biological realities.
“I'm glad I was able to facilitate such a happy pairing. He takes good care of you, that much is immediately obvious,” he said, releasing Carlo’s chin in order to snake the same hand into his hair and make a fist. Carlo’s head was drawn back as he was forced to look into Erik’s black eyes, eyes that made him feel like prey. “But he has not turned you. So he likes you, but not that much, hm?”
“He offered to turn me,” Carlo lied. “I said no.”
Maxim had never offered. He could hear Maxim in his head now warning him, in his gentle authoritative way, to close his mouth now and have some sense.
Erik’s face betrayed a flicker of surprise before the contempt was back, curling his mouth at the corners. “You turned down immortality?”
Despite his pounding heart, Carlo doubled down in his defiance. “I turned down whatever you are. You call it immortality, but it’s waking death.”
“No one turns down the chance to live forever,” Erik said. “Especially not one so young and desperate as you.”
“And be like them?” Carlo asked, nodding towards the door to indicate the other vampires that lived downstairs. In that moment his hatred for them burned brighter than his fear of Erik. “They’re addicts. They can never be free of their hunger. They’re not powerful. They’re cockroaches. Parasites that flock here to flatter you and feed on your scraps. Half of them will be dead before their natural lives would've ended.”
In a beat of silence, Carlo thought he might’ve gotten away with his insolence. Then a quick, deliberate slap landed so hard across his mouth that his head snapped to the side and his ears rang.
“You forget yourself. The Gift doesn’t need you, tiresome little bloodbag.”
He held a hand to the side of his stinging face protectively, vision blurred with startled tears. He’d spent too long with Maxim, warm and fed and growing bolder, wishing he’d been braver and fought back harder with Erik and his vampires. But this was a small reminder of what would happen if he did. To make it worse, he knew Erik hadn’t hit him with his full force. His cheek would be shattered if he had.
“Look at me.”
Carlo obeyed. Something in Erik’s voice commanded his very bones with its aloof intensity, an uncanny calmness thin as April ice.
“You can go downstairs with them right now, you know. Right back to where you were when I pulled you out. Or you can stay here, with me, and be grateful. And if you are grateful, and gracious, and good, you will be treated with mercy, and dignity.”
He ought to be relieved by this offer. It was more than he expected. Instead, it made him miss Maxim and the house up in the woods so sharply he felt his throat tightening.
“What will it be?”
He was not defiant enough, not strong enough to choose the vampires downstairs. He couldn’t do that again. His bravery was a fragile flame, and this ancient monster had so easily kicked dirt over it. Besides, Maxim would want him to behave, to do whatever Erik said and preserve himself for as long as possible.
“I will do my best… to do whatever you ask of me,” he whispered. “I swear.”
To his meager credit, Erik didn’t stop to rub this psychological victory in. Instead he wasted no time in pulling Carlo’s wrist to his mouth.
“Don’t stiffen like that,” he complained as Carlo recoiled. "I'm not trying to hurt you."
But you just hit me, Carlo thought incredulously. He tried to relax. He thought of the Valium Maxim had given him at first, those sweet dazed sessions of blood drinking that felt like a kiss, like a hand between his legs. He tried to take slow breaths.
“That’s better,” Erik encouraged. “It’s alright, this is hardly our first time, is it?”
No, Carlo thought. It isn’t. Erik would be as charming as he was formidable if he were just a little bit more sympathetic to human life.
But when fangs punctured him, it was surprisingly gentle. He bit off a whimper and took another steadying breath, knowing resisting on any level would just make him sick and sore. Thanks to Maxim, he now knew how good a vampire’s bite could feel, if the vampire wanted it to, and if you knew how to let it. He took a slow breath and pressed himself towards Erik’s unyielding body, like crawling into a lap of stone.
Erik drew him closer, pleased by his receptiveness. He pulled his fangs from Carlo’s wrist and slipped them like twin needles into his neck instead. Maxim would’ve asked, he thought as he arched into the sensation. He closed his eyes and pretended it was Maxim holding him, that it was Maxim’s fangs making that twinge of pain light over his nerves. He wrapped his arms around Erik’s neck, shuddering and dropping his dead weight into those vampiric arms that may as well have been bridge cables for all their hellish strength.
For a moment he wondered if Erik wouldn’t just kill him now, drain him until he was unconscious and then dead. The twinge of fear was like a pulled thread in a soft sweater, threatening to dissipate the entire illusion. No, he thought. He’s not pulling hard enough. He’s just tasting you, like you’ve been tasted a thousand times. He wants you alive so he can use it against Max. He gave a guilty gasp of pleasure when Erik delicately licked the tiny incisions clean and free of blood.
“You’re a different bite than you were before,” he said when he pulled away.
To be called a bite was the undead equivalent of being called a lay. You could be a good bite or an easy bite. Maxim would never have called him any kind of bite. He opened his eyes slowly.
“I guess he took his time with you. Brought you around to your senses.” Erik brushed Carlo’s hair back from his forehead in a startlingly tender gesture. “That little outburst earlier seems merely amusing now that I’ve had something to eat. Almost endearing. Perhaps I should’ve made you mine.”
Carlo made no effort to extract himself from his arms. “Why didn’t you?”
“Because my friends were hungry, and I’d promised them a party. I see it was a mistake, now. There will always be more wayward mortals on this side of town.” Erik put his thumb on Carlo’s lip, slid it over his blunt, nonthreatening mortal teeth. “I should’ve kept you to myself.”
The mirage of Maxim was fading, and Carlo was acutely aware whose house he was in again, whose arms. He didn’t trust this sudden magnanimous affection. Still, he needed it. He could survive much longer with it than with Erik’s contempt.
“Keep me with you, then,” he said drowsily. Erik had taken more blood than Maxim usually did, he could feel it. “And I won’t be all bitten and used up, how you don’t like it.”
“I expect no resistance from you,” Erik said, ghosting his fingertips lightly, softly, over Carlo’s cheek, under his chin.
“You won’t find any,” he promised as his eyes closed, too heavy to fight any longer.
He felt the vampire lifting him up and setting him down somewhere soft. He could smell a fire in the hearth. The woodsmoke chased the dampness from the room. He could feel its warmth on his face and his bitten neck, tender in a way he’d grown to like. If he tried to get up he’d feel sick and weak. But if he stayed very still and let exhaustion take him, he would be alright.
He fell asleep thinking loyally of Maxim’s house, pretending it was there he slept.
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