He might have been exhausted, but the moment the door opened Damiano was on his feet along with Thomas and Ethan. There was Victoria wrapped in a blanket looking all stoic and controlled, but the moment she saw them her composure cracked. They all moved towards each other of one accord and wrapped their arms around each other in a completely chaotic four way hug. They were all crying and they clung on with rugged determination.

It had only been a little more than twenty four hours and their whole world had changed, but together they had strength.

"I think you should all sit down before you fall down," Leo said.

Damiano would have told him to fuck off, but his legs betrayed him. Only Ethan's strong arms prevented him from hitting the deck.

"Are you alright?" Victoria asked, checking him over like a worried mother hen.

"That's our line," he protested.

"I'm fine," Victoria replied, which was clearly a lie, "just glad that pretentious bitch is dead. Did I really feel you in my head?"

"You did. That's why Damià can't stand up. He did something incredibly dangerous without anyone who knew what they were doing," Thomas said.

"Traitor," Damiano complained, "and I can so stand up."

"Shall I let go then?" Ethan asked, the bastard.

He glared, Ethan raised his eyebrows. Apparently the other two guys were ganging up on him. Possibly he had frightened them a little more than he had thought.

"No," he finally admitted.

Somehow they all ended up on the same bed. Not an easy feat with the size of hospital style beds in the room. Ethan was sitting at the top end, long legs down one side of the bed. He had Damiano pulled against him, half sitting, half lying down. Victoria was between Damiano's legs curled on her side and into his chest, wrapped in her blanket and his arms with one of Ethan's hands in her hair. Thomas was to the other side of all of them, towards the bottom of the bed with an arm thrown over Victoria's hips and Damiano's legs.

None of them wanted to stop touching the others. Damiano didn't know what the others were thinking, but if it was anything like him, the touches grounded him, stopped his thoughts flying away with everything that had happened. Now the crisis was over and Victoria was back with them, he needed something else to focus on, and touch helped. It also helped to feel Victoria right there in his arms.

"That cannot be comfortable," Leo commented.

"We're fine," Victoria snapped, which shut that topic of conversation down flat.

Damiano tightened his embrace just for a moment in perfect solidarity.

"You're not," Sofia said as she reappeared from behind the curtains at the end of the room carrying a small tray, "especially not you two." She looked pointedly at Damiano and then Victoria. "But you will be. You've already proven that."

Damiano hadn't even realised she wasn't standing with Leo anymore. He'd noticed them when they had come in, but he'd been far too focused on Victoria since. However, his eyes zeroed in on the four little red cartons on the tray with straws sticking out of them. It appeared none of them were being given a choice either, because Sofia had opened them all. The first time he had been presented with one of those he might have been horrified, but part of him definitely perked up as Sofia walked over, even though he had already had two. However, as soon as the scent of blood reached them, Victoria had the opposite reaction. She buried her face in Damiano's chest and started shaking.

"Vic," he said, Sofia instantly forgotten as he stroked Victoria's hair back so he could see the side of her face, "hey, it's okay."

She shook her head, still clinging to him.

"We won't let anything hurt you," he promised to murmurs of agreement from Ethan and Thomas.

If anyone so much as looked at Victoria funny they were going to have three pissed off guys in their face, at least until Victoria was feeling better and could tell them to fuck off with the macho shit.

"Can't ... the pain," were the only words Damiano could catch from what Victoria mumbled into his chest.

Sofia placed her hand on his arm before he could respond to that.

"Victoria," Sofia said in her usual gentle tone, "did Tera force you to drink from an unwilling victim?"

Victoria nodded into Damiano's chest. He felt cold.

"Directly?" Sofia asked.

This time Victoria shook her head and Damiano realised he was holding his breath. At least that wasn't as bad as it could have been.

"The fear of a victim can be transmitted in the blood," Sofia explained quietly. "It is part of the addiction that rogues seek. It is an anathema to most of us."

"There's nothing in this, Vic," Damiano tried to explain. "We had it before. It's from willing donors."

Victoria still shook her head. All he could do was wind his arms around her a little tighter. He could not imagine what it must have been like to literally taste someone else's fear. They were going to have to talk about what Tera had done to Victoria to push her into the state in which Damiano had found her at some point, but it wasn't time yet. They needed to help Victoria through this first.

"We can feed from each other, can't we?" Ethan's quiet question made him look round. "I read it in the information you gave us."

Of course Ethan had read the help packet they had been given while Damiano had been uselessly pacing up and down earlier that evening. Ethan was conscientious like that.

"Yes," Sofia said even as Leo said: "Is that a good idea?"

"Whatever keeps them all strong is a good idea," Sofia said, looking over her shoulder. "Not you," she added when she turned back, pinning Damiano down with her all too knowing gaze.

He couldn't help thinking she was pissed at him for his earlier escapade, even though she hadn't been there to see any of it.

"Vic," Ethan said, leaning over his shoulder, "do you think you can feed from me?"

"Or me?" Thomas added.

Damiano so wanted to offer as well, but he didn't fancy arguing with the look Sofia was giving him. Victoria didn't immediately agree to the other's suggestion, but she didn't immediately disagree either, so he took that as a good sign. When Sofia offered the tray, he took one of the small cartons and decided to be a good boy for a change. It was still weird how the blood tingled on his tongue and how it made him feel, but he downed it as fast as possible. The last thing he wanted to do was stress out Victoria more than she already was.

He gave the empty carton back, feeling a whole lot stronger and waited for Thomas and Ethan to finish as well.

"It's gone," he said, rubbing gently on Victoria's back as Sofia walked away once they were done.

When Victoria finally released the death grip she had on his top and slowly turned her face partially outwards, he couldn't help his small sigh of relief.

"We're kind of stuck with this," he said quietly as she seemed embarrassed, but also still afraid, "and we can't have you wasting away. Want to take one of these idiots up on their offer before they grow a collective brain cell?"

"Arsehole," was Thomas' comment to that, which caused a ghost of a smile on Victoria's face.

"How long have you known me?" Damiano asked, determined to keep the mood light.

"Okay," Victoria said in a small voice that had all of his attention focusing back on her.

With minimal fuss Ethan made it very clear if was going to be him and they all shifted around a bit so that Victoria could reach him.

"What do I do?" Victoria asked, looking to Sofia for help once she had Ethan's wrist in her hands.

"Focus on what you want to do and allow your instincts to take over," Sofia said. "Tera already forced you into your full vampire form, so it shouldn't be too much of a shock to your system. Ethan, it will hurt for a moment, but then it should become pleasurable."

Victoria nodded and looked at Ethan, who gave her a nod of encouragement as well. Damiano did his very best to pretend he wasn't right there with a front row seat, because he didn't want to disturb them.

Victoria's eyes began to glow gently and she trembled once, her mouth opening so Damiano could just see two tiny points between her lips. He was suddenly sure he had never seen anything more beautiful or powerful. As she bent forward over Ethan's wrist, Damiano held his breath. It was strangely intimate and yet he couldn't look away.

As Victoria carefully bit into Ethan's flesh, their drummer gasped quietly, before he let out a breathy, 'Oh.'

Damiano could feel Ethan trembling, but it was not from fear or pain, that much was utterly obvious. He could almost taste their connection on the air, their linked pleasure. He did not dare more, it would have felt sacrilegious.

It took less than thirty seconds before Victoria was drawing back. She licked blood off her lips even as Ethan remained motionless, long hair hanging down and hiding his face. Damiano was overcome by a wave of lust that blew away anything else he was thinking and he had to clamp down on it hard. It wasn't right to think of his friends like that, but his baser thoughts clearly didn't see it like that. Ruthlessly he pushed those instincts down.

"Okay?" he asked in his best effort to be a good friend not a perverted one.

Victoria looked at him and gave him a small nod before she turned her attention back to Ethan.

"Ethan?" Victoria asked, reaching out to touch his wrist where the bite marks were already disappearing.

"I'm fine," he said.

"Thank you," she told him and Damiano tried very, very hard not to be jealous of the look the pair shared.

He gave himself a little slack because they were in an extraordinary situation, but he knew he really needed to get his reaction under control.

"Holy fuck," Thomas said. "I so want to try that."

So maybe he wasn't the only one that had had a reaction then, which was something.