Title: Temptation Waits
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Josef Kostan/Mick St. John
Fandom: Moonlight
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1,535
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the lovely Josef Kostan or Mick St. John, unfortunately. Please do not sue.***
Los Angeles, 1955
There had been so many temptations in his life. But never one like this. Never one that could pull him under, leave him gasping for breath, make him forget who and what he was and declare his feelings in one single gasp that revealed everything about himself.
How many times had he been tempted by some sweet young thing in the past? It had happened far too often for him to be able to remember each time. And he usually gave in to temptation, even though he only went so far before his protective barriers went up.
Josef sighed and leaned back in his chair, looking up at the ceiling. Yes, he'd been tempted before. There had been so many beautiful people who had crossed his path, some who knew what he was, some who didn't. And he had always had a smile for them all.
But this time was different. So different that he was shocked at himself for feeling the way he did. He'd never have imagined that this could happen -- yet here he was, unable to get one single person out of his mind. A person who he'd never have thought would enthrall him.
A man. He was falling for another man.
This was by far the strangest thing that had ever happened to him. He'd always thought that he couldn't possibly be interested in anyone but a female -- especially after the night that he'd been turned. That alone should make him push these thoughts away.
He couldn't do that. Even if he tried, he knew that those thoughts would only come back to haunt him, growing more and more powerful with each passing moment. There was no way that they could be put out of his mind or disregarded, now that he'd let them run free.
Ever since Coraline had first led her new boyfriend up to him and introduced the two of them, Josef hadn't been able to get the man out of his mind. His gaze had followed the man around the room at the party they'd met at all night, unable to look away.
Mick. Mick St. John. Even his name was sexy, Josef thought with a groan, leaning forward to rest his head in his hands. Why was it that he couldn't stop thinking about this man? He shouldn't have this kind of reaction to simply meeting someone.
What had it been that caught his imagination? Had it been those beautiful blue eyes that had seemed to sear him with one look, seeing deep into his soul? Or had it been that devastating smile, the smile that Josef was sure had melted his heart?
Or had it just been some indefinable aura about Mick that drew Josef like a lodestar? He didn't know the answer to his question; maybe he never would. All he knew was that he wanted Mick, in a way that he'd never wanted anyone else in all the years of his long life.
He'd felt desire before, but never like this. Mick was the kind of temptation that he'd never let himself give in to, the kind of temptation that he knew could be dangerous. He'd given in to temptation only a couple of years before, and it hadn't ended well. He knew better.
But this was more than desire. This was unlike any feeling he'd ever known.
It wasn't just desire. Mick wasn't just a temptation that beckoned to him, a momentary flirtation that would only last for a night, or at best, a few weeks. No, he represented something far more dangerous, a desire that Josef had sworn long ago he would never give in to.
Mick was more of a temptation than he could resist for long. The temptation to try to turn someone again, even though it hadn't worked the first time he'd tried it. Mick was the one person who could make him break that vow he'd made in the deepest recesses of his heart.
He had told himself that he would never try to turn a human again. He'd thought that he was strong enough, but he'd chosen the wrong human to attempt it with. Sarah hadn't been able to leap the chasm from her life to his; she'd gotten lost somewhere in the middle.
What if the same thing were to happen to Mick? It had been hard enough to see the woman he loved fall into a coma that he knew in his heart she would never emerge from; he couldn't bear to see it happen to another person who he loved even more deeply.
What he'd felt for Sarah was nothing like what he felt for Mick. This wasn't just love, it was a compulsion that gnawed at him more fiercely every day. And he'd just met this man! He could only imagine what it would be like if he got to know Mick better.
This was so far beyond love that he couldn't begin to put it into words. It almost bordered on obsession, and that was something that he didn't want to feel. He'd seen enough of it to know that it never ended well, and he didn't want to fall into a trap like that.
But he was falling. And he couldn't stop the momentum.
Mick didn't have an inkling of how he felt. Or did he? There was something knowing about that smile, about the way that Mick tilted his head when they were talking. There was knowledge there, even if it was buried inthe back of Mick's mind and he wouldn't admit it.
Could Mick posisbly feel the same way? Was Josef a temptation to him as well? The only way to get the answer to that particular question would be to ask -- and Josef wasn't ready to do that. The last thing he wanted was to see Mick back away.
They were friends, and that was how it would have to stay for now. But temptation was waiting for him, just around the corner -- and he knew himself well enough to know that sooner or later, he would give in to that temptation. He wouldn't be able to help himself.
Josef already knew Mick well enough to know that this man wouldn't want to be turned. It wasn't in his nature to want to become what he would probably look at as a monster; he'd be repulsed by the very idea of what Josef was if he knew the truth.
What would Coraline do about that? She claimed that she wanted to be with Mick, but Josef knew that the other man wouldn't want her once he knew the truth about what she was. Mick would turn away from her as surely as the sun would rise in the morning and set at night.
If she turned him, then it was almost a foregone conclusion that Mick would turn against her. Maybe not at first; it might take some time for the spell she held over him to break completely. But it would break down a little at a time, more and more every day.
Then what? Josef sighed as he closed his eyes again, running a hand over his face. That was the problem. He didn't know what; he knew what he wanted, but that desire was something that he couldn't let himself give in to. Not if he wanted to stay safe.
Safe? Since when had he been the kind of person who played it safe?
Mick would probably laugh if he heard Josef say that something wasn't safe, he told himself with a rueful smile. Mick would say that of all the people he knew, Josef was the one who was the most likely to take risks, to put it all on the line on a whim.
But he'd never done that with his very existence. Maybe he had a long time ago, when he was younger and had just come into this life. But those years were long past; he'd learned the value of guarding his secrets and keeping himself safe within his own little circle.
He'd widened that circle to include Mick. And with that one decision, that nod and the gesture that had beckoned Coraline to come over and introduce her boytoy to him, he had opened himself to a temptation that was getting harder and harder to resist with each passing day.
If he didn't give in to that temptation, he would go crazy. But he would fight it as long as he could -- and hope that when he finally did succumb, Mick would forgive him for whatever he might do. And he would hope that Mick felt the same temptation drawing him in, as well.
Temptation was waiting for him -- and Josef knew that he couldn't keep himself away.***