by Aidan Wayne
Vlad hung his head. “I’m sorry that I’m not doing well.”
“I’ll be the judge of that, Vlad,” said Charlie. “And you’ve been making excellent progress. Now, let’s go over what you’ve been practicing, hm?”
Charlie didn’t start off with testing Vlad’s shift. Instead he had Vlad demonstrate where he was with his other abilities, methodically putting Vlad through the paces of glamour, thrall, dematerialization. Vlad did well in all of them, and Darren couldn’t help but feel proud at how much Vlad had accomplished.
Unfortunately, things went differently when Charlie finally had Vlad try to shift. First he couldn’t do it at all, and then he got stuck halfway, eyes green-gold, fangs not sitting right in his mouth, his hands clawing but his fingernails blunt. He glanced over at Darren and whined before squeezing his eyes shut. Charlie immediately put his hands on Vlad’s shoulders.
“Vlad,” he said sternly, “Listen to me. Are you listening?” Vlad nodded, his shoulders changing shape under Charlie’s hands, the bones shifting. “Remember a few sessions ago, how you found your focus? Your inner you?” Vlad whined again. “Nod if you remember, Vlad!” Vlad nodded.
“Good. Focus on that. Create a clear picture in your mind. You’re sinking back into yourself. Back into your body. Settle down and control your shift.”
Minutes ticked by. At last Vlad sagged underneath Charlie’s hands. His nails and fangs retracted, and his body settled again. When he opened his eyes, they were mostly green.
“Good,” Charlie said. “Not bad. And you reverted a lot quicker than last time. Do you know why you couldn’t complete it?”
Vlad glanced at Darren, then put a hand to his temple. “No,” he muttered.
Charlie frowned. “Vlad,” he said with a sigh. “What’s going on?”
Darren exchanged a look with Charlie. “Um, maybe I should leave? I don’t actually want to be a distraction.”
“No, please. I’m all right. I just have a headache.” Vlad rubbed at his forehead. “Please stay.”
“Are vampires even supposed to be able to get headaches?” Darren asked.
“Not usually,” Charlie said, “but it can happen with overexpenditure of power. And we have been working hard today. Why don’t we take a break?”
“No,” Vlad growled. “I can do this. It should not be this hard.”
“Controlled shifting can take time to learn,” Charlie said gently. “You’re very used to your physical body. Your body and mind likes the way you are now. It doesn’t like having to change shape, and then having to change back. It’s perfectly reasonable that you won’t get it right away.”
“But you said it was basics,” Vlad said plaintively. “I… I thought.”
Charlie smiled. “Basics are different for everyone. You’re already fairly advanced in thralling and dematerialization, what with your power level and how much you practice. Shifting will come.” He hesitated then, and Vlad leaned forward.
“What?” he asked. “What is it? Am I doing something wrong?”
Charlie shook his head. “Not at all. It’s just…. You know you and your house are both warded, don’t you?” Darren and Vlad looked at each other, before Vlad nodded.
“Yes,” he said. “Tabitha and the councils thought it would help keep me safe.”
Charlie sighed. “Vlad, you’re not a danger to anyone. You’ve got fantastic control. And it’s only gotten better since we’ve begun working together.” Vlad opened his mouth, possibly to correct Charlie that that wasn’t what the wards were for, but Charlie was still talking. “With your power level what it is, I think they might actually be making it harder for you. Interrupting your concentration on a subtle level. They’re wonderfully done and obviously powerful, but you might think about talking to Tabitha about dropping them.” At Vlad’s closed expression, Charlie added, “Or at least during some practice session, if not all the time.”
“I will think about it,” Vlad said eventually.
“I won’t pressure you,” Charlie said, voice gentle. “I know what it’s like to worry, and being warded can be comfortable. But it can also become a crutch. If you get used to using your power when it’s warded, you might not know how to control all of it when you do remove the wards. And I promise that if we train together, I’d be able to handle it if something went wrong.”
Vlad looked unconvinced, but he nodded seriously. “Thank you very much for the offer,” he said. “I do want to make sure I’m training properly. I will talk to Tabitha about it.”
“Whatever you’re ready for,” Charlie said. “Now, we really have been working hard. How about we just call it a day? Spend some more time on your dematerialization. You’re more comfortable with it, and it’s part and parcel of the same energy used for shifting. Concentrate on your mindset when you do, so you can try to recreate that when you work on your shift.”
“All right,” Vlad said, voice still distant. “Thank you for today.”
“DO YOU want to talk about it?” Darren asked once Charlie had left.
Vlad heaved a sigh. “I know it’s silly to still worry. I’ve been here for months. She does not know where I am. I’m safe.” He swallowed and picked at the threads in the couch. “But I’m still afraid.”
Darren scooted closer to Vlad, so they were pressed together shoulder to hip. “I’m sorry,” he said. “That really sucks.”
Vlad let out another sigh and leaned against Darren.
“For what it’s worth,” Darren said after a moment, “I think you’re amazing. I mean, you’ve done so much since you first came here. You made friends—don’t think I don’t know that you and Beth text all the time about current events—you started mastering your powers, you went to the ice cream shop with me, Vlad! And interacted with a total stranger! A few months ago, you wouldn’t even leave your house. That’s big. Those are all big steps. And you took every single one of them yourself.”
“Not by myself,” Vlad said, threading his fingers through Darren’s.
Darren grinned down at their joined hands. “Okay, yeah, maybe I might’ve prodded you along a little sometimes. But you let me. Take you out of your comfort zone, I mean. What I mean is… you’re going to do it.”
“Do what?”
“It.” Darren gestured with his free hand. “Whatever. Seriously, whatever you want or need to do, you’re gonna. Eventually. You’re stubborn like that. But you can take your time too, if you need to. If the wards still make you feel safe, keep them for now. You can practice with ’em gone later.”
“But Charlie’s right,” Vlad said. “I need to be able to control the shift. The wards might be hurting my progress.”
“Charlie also said that your control’s fantastic, remember? And that shifting will come. There’s no rush, right?” Vlad turned his head away. “Right? Vlad?”
“I need to learn how to do it,” Vlad said, shoulders hunching. “I need to. I can’t—I can’t leave things to chance.”
“Leave what things?” Darren asked gently.
Vlad swallowed and sat up again, though he didn’t let go of Darren’s hand. “I was… I was turned against my will,” he said. “You know that.” He looked to Darren, eyes pleading, and Darren could only nod.
“Yeah I—yeah. I figured it out.”
“There are two ways a vampire can turn another person,” Vlad said, staring at the floor. “One is when the vampire is experienced and does it on purpose. The second is if the vampire is powerful and does it by accident. I’m… I’m very… strong.” The last word was barely a whisper. “And I don’t want—I can’t—”
“Vlad, hey, hey.” Darren shuffled them both so they were facing each other, their linked hands between them. “You have had so many opportunities to lose it. You’ve been mad, you’ve been scared, you—remember the garlic? I held your hands down so you didn’t cut yourself up, and the moment I touched you, you stopped fighting, to keep from hurting me. Or when Charlie wanted to thrall me? You reacted, yeah, for like two
seconds before getting control again. You’re like the king of control. If anything, you should be worrying about me.”
“I already worry about you.” Vlad frowned.
Darren sighed. “Not like that. Hello? Descendant of a dragon or something? As-of-yet undiscovered and completely uncontrolled powers bubbling up?” He gave Vlad’s hand a squeeze, smiling softly. “For all you know I’m a walking lightning rod. Might be dangerous hanging out with me.”
“It sounds like you were a walking lightning rod before too,” Vlad said, but his shoulders had unhunched a little.
Darren shrugged. “Yeah, maybe. I just need to figure out how to do it on purpose now. That’ll be crazy awesome. But… I might do it by accident too. You’re not worried at all? Not the least bitty bit?”
Vlad rolled his eyes. “Okay, Darren, I get it. I trust you to be safe, you trust me to be safe.”
“Exactly. That’s why you’re the smart one.”
“You’re plenty smart.”
Darren snorted. “You say that ’cause you love me.” An idea suddenly popped into his head and he blurted out, “You ever think—” before he stopped, cursing his lack of brain-to-mouth filter.
“What?” Vlad asked.
“Nothing, it’s stupid,” Darren said quickly. “We just got off the topic. I didn’t mean to bring it back.”
“What?” Vlad demanded. “Tell me.”
Darren made a frustrated noise and waved a hand. “I was just thinking… if maybe this is why you’re having such a hard time with shifting? Because you’re afraid of hurting someone. So you like—subconsciously fight it.” Darren shrugged a shoulder. “I had a real hard time learning glamour when I was younger. I couldn’t get anything to stick at all, until I realized I needed to stop practicing with female bodies. A lot of stuff clicked, after that. It’s way harder to work with something if you’re hating it the whole time, is all.”
Vlad nodded thoughtfully. “I don’t… like shifting into my hunting form. I don’t like how it makes me feel.”
“How’s that? If you wanna share, I mean.”
“Dangerous.” Vlad was starting to look upset again and maybe it was time to change the subject for real.
“That’s it,” Darren said, leaping to his feet. “Let’s go do something. Take our mind off our powers and the stuff we’re trying to get ’em to do. C’mon. Anything you want. It’s your turn to pick an activity. I’ve been doing it forever.”
“It’s hard to be creative when my range is Tabitha’s house, your house, and the woods,” Vlad said mildly.
“Yeah, well—” Darren smirked. “—we’ve since expanded that, haven’t we?”
Vlad eyed him, and then his lips quirked up, smile small but there. “All right,” he said. “Then, could we go cycling again?”
“Absolutely, yeah! Let’s head over to my house and grab the bikes.”
FOR ALL that Vlad clearly enjoyed the bike ride, he was still kinda quiet all through it. Which, okay, Darren got it. He had a lot to think about. But it just seemed like Vlad never got a break. This crazy vampire lady who turned him was just a constant presence, always hanging over his head. It was seriously messed up. Who did that to a kid? Who did that to anyone?
When they got back to Darren’s house and put their gear away in the garage, Darren tried to come up with something else to do. Keep the distraction going a little longer. Or at least do an activity that didn’t allow so much thinking. He should have known bikes would lead to brooding.
“Hey,” he said, catching Vlad’s eye. “I never really showed you our garden, did I?”
“I’ve seen your backyard before,” Vlad said, confused. “Several times.”
“Yeah you’ve seen it, sure, but I haven’t shown it to you. There’s a huge difference. I mean, uh, it’s just a bunch of plants, I guess, and it’s cool if you don’t want to, but—”
“I’d love to see it,” Vlad said quickly.
Darren smiled. “Awesome. I think you’ll like it, I promise.” He led Vlad around to the back of the house. “Now, our front’s great too, but since neighborhood codes and stuff, we keep it more organized and ornamental for the most part. You know, flowers, clover, and it’s all tidy. No dandelions or anything.”
“No grass either,” Vlad observed.
Darren wrinkled his nose. “No kidding, no grass. Grass is dumb. It’s just like—it’s prickly and superselfish and is crazy picky. Grass is the worst. Lawn grass, anyway. Most wild grasses are okay.”
“I didn’t know there were differences.”
“Oh yeah.” Darren nodded. “Don’t even get me started. It’s just—grass is okay for cows and stuff, but there’s no reason for it to take up a perfectly good lawn, you know? Not even fae eat grass, but everyone can eat clover. A good clover salad, with dandelion greens and cherry blossoms? Makes me sad you’re a carnivore. Anyway, c’mon. Here we are.”
Darren opened the gate with a flourish and led Vlad inside. He was looking forward to showing off a little and getting Vlad’s mind onto something else for a while. It was true that Vlad had been to the backyard before, but it was always either raining or dark, and he usually stayed on the porch. There was way more to see, especially with a grand tour. And the garden was interesting. The front, full of neat flowers, was just as useful, but the back was where the real organized chaos happened. It was a true faerie garden, and those were ecosystems.
He knew it had been a good plan when Vlad seemed genuinely interested. He marveled at the rigs Darren and his dad had set up to maximize the space, asked questions, and even spent a good few minutes watching, fascinated, as Darren showed him how fae collected nectar.
“Of course, you have to be careful,” Darren murmured to Vlad, both of them bent over a bloom. “If you don’t remember to pollinate the flowers when you do this, there’s trouble.”
“How long does this take you?” Vlad asked incredulously. “You always have a pitcher full.”
Darren laughed. “It goes faster when you’re not doing it really slowly, on a single flower, for the purposes of showing someone else.”
“Oh. Yes.”
“And my dad shrinks to do it, which is apparently easier? Not that I’ll be trying that anytime soon.”
Darren had shown Vlad about half of the yard when Vlad said, “I’m surprised there isn’t more wildlife.”
Darren raised a pointed eyebrow at the birds chirping madly in one of the trees. “What do you think those are? Newsflash: not plants. And it would be nice if they quieted down,” he added loudly. The birds ignored him.
Vlad’s lips quirked. “Not what I meant. I was thinking… more things? Tabitha is forever chasing rabbits out of her garden. I’ve been practicing my thralling on them.”
“How’s that been working out for the rabbits?” Darren snickered.
“Well,” Vlad said, “there have been… fewer around, recently. But you don’t seem to have any at all. I can’t even smell any close by.”
“Yup,” Darren said with a nod. “Rabbits are… what’s a good word for them? Oh yeah, evil, basically. They decimate gardens. And, you know, multiply like rabbits. We mostly keep them out of here. And by ‘we’ I mean my dad. I can summon creatures, but I can’t give general orders.” He threw the stink-eye at the birds again. “Clearly.”
“I could make them go away, if you want,” Vlad offered, moving toward them.
“Whoa, hang on!” Darren threw out a hand to keep Vlad from walking forward. “We’re leaving this section alone.”
“How come?” Vlad asked, obligingly taking a step back.
“That’s the start of our herb garden,” Darren said. “And the mint is really wild this year. I’m not even allowed to work with it right now; it runs rampant as it is, but my dad thinks my power buzzing hasn’t been helping.”
“You remembered I’m sensitive to peppermint oil?”
Darren gave Vlad a weird look. “Like I wouldn’t? I’ve got your ‘no’ list freaking memorized. A repeat of t
hat time with the garlic? No thanks. You are not almost dying on my watch. Let’s go over this way.”
“I didn’t almost die,” Vlad muttered, following Darren. “You are exaggerating.”
Darren clutched at his chest. “I would never.”
“I do not even know why I like you.”
“But you do like me.”
Vlad smiled at him, stepping closer. “I suppose.”
“Right,” Darren said, leaning in. “Because I’m delightful.”
“And perhaps a few other things,” Vlad said, before closing the distance between them.
AFTER TALKING about it, Darren and Vlad decided to tell everyone that they were dating all in one go, to just get it over with. Bethany and Trisha took the news about as well as Darren expected.
“I knew it,” Bethany said, triumphantly. “You guys were both so gone over each other I could practically smell it.”
“You can smell that?” Darren asked, aghast.
“Oh my god.” Even over the phone, Darren could tell she was rolling her eyes. “It’s an expression you moron. Congratulations, he doesn’t deserve you—”
“Hey!”
“But he’s so over the moon for you he probably won’t notice, so good job with that. I can already tell you guys are going to be like, disgustingly cute together.”
“Uh, thanks,” Darren said. “I think.”
“You’re welcome. Now hang up. I have to call Vlad.”
“What? Why?”
“So I can warn him about what he’s getting into and also threaten his life if he hurts one of my best friends, duh.”
“Wait a sec,” Darren said hurriedly. “You can’t give Vlad the shovel talk. Beth!” His only answer was silence. He looked at his phone where it was flashing “Call ended” at him, sighed, sent Vlad a quick text—You’re gonna get a call from beth sorry!!!!—and dialed Trisha. The ensuing squeals were very excited and happy for him.
Vlad called a few minutes later.
“I just got two very interesting phone calls from Bethany and Trisha,” he said.
