Voodoo by Gemma

Darren loves New Orleans.

Its full of odd, eye-catching things and people, and the pace always seems languid and boneless. He supposes it’s the heat, because New Orleans at this time of year is so humid that at times he feels like he’s six years old again, treading water.

Right in over his head.


He remembers Daniel had a girlfriend who’d lived in New Orleans. He remembered her eyes were green because Daniel had a shirt the same colour and looked good in it. It was her who had shown him 'round the first time, 'round the French Quarter and Jackson Square.

He remembers that she knew, and that her eyes were filled with sympathy.

Despite the shirt, he hates the colour green. It tastes like pity in his mouth.


There’s a flat in the French Quarter that he thinks looks like Lestat’s from Interview with a Vampire. He keeps an eye on the property pages whenever he’s in town just in case, and walks by it whenever he can.

He’s going to ask Leonie to keep looking after they leave.

There’s a part of him hopes that he’ll get it, and a part of him that hopes he doesn’t. A part of him wants to believe that Lestat could live there, and when he walks by, he can almost hear a harpsichord.


When he returns to the hotel in the afternoon, Daniel is asleep like most of the people in the know. The heat is almost unbearable, crawling along his skin, leaving sweat and salt behind. He looks in a mirror, and his hair is a wild halo around his face, almost into his eyes. He won’t cut it for a while, and he’ll leave it until his grey starts showing before dying it again.

His knees are aching from dancing and pounding the concrete, and he wishes for ice, but there’s not a bit to be had.


Daniel’s hair is so light that the grey barely shows. His eyes have tiny crow’s feet formed by years of smiling, and his teeth are real-person crooked. Darren dreams of the feel of the hair brushing his belly and the teeth leaving bruises on his skin. In his mind he can almost feel the pressure of Daniel’s hands on his hips while Daniel moves inside him, relentless and slow as the mid-afternoon heat. Runs his tongue along his palm to taste the sweat, and recalls the taste of male sweat in his mouth and in his nostrils. Lies naked on his own bed and feels almost too lazy to jerk off, so he closes his eyes and in his mind he conjures his visions of Daniel like voodoo.