by M. J. O'Shea
Lisa nodded and smiled. She seemed to be getting her nerve together. “Yeah, let’s do it.”
I chuckled. She was fine.
Zack moved around the table until he was right next to Lisa, on the opposite side of Leila. Each one of them brushed her hair back from her face and gently ran their noses up her neck like they were enjoying the aroma of the most delicious dinner.
“You start,” Zack murmured to Leila, who bathed Lisa’s neck with the tip of her tongue before delicately sinking her small pointy fangs into the soft skin. Lisa whimpered for a moment, then arched her back and made a breathy sound of pleasure.
Zack took that moment to lean forward and lick the other side of her neck. When he bit, a flush rose on Lisa’s chest and neck. She let her head fall back onto Zack’s shoulder, and she lifted her hand to softly cup his head. He and Leila both caressed Lisa’s stomach, her ribcage. Lisa keened quietly and covered Leila’s hand with her own, clutching at her fingers.
I was reminded forcefully of a few days before, when Zack had told me how good a vampire bite feels to a human. I’d never seen that particular expression on Lisa, but I knew it well. It was how I looked when PC was in the middle of, well, pushing the boundaries of the lycans’ rules. Lisa started trembling and breathing hard, and I wondered if she was actually going to lose it in the middle of a very public place. The moment seemed awfully intimate; too personal for me to watch, for sure—yet I couldn’t look away. Noah and Jason were entranced, staring, slack-jawed and flushed while their other halves devoured the human between them. When I saw the veterans staring, I knew what we were seeing eclipsed the usual by far.
Finally, Leila, then Zack lifted their heads from Lisa’s neck, licking gently to stop the blood from seeping out of the small puncture wounds they’d made. Lisa stood there silently for a few moments before she let out a shaky laugh.
“That was incredible, guys.” She breathed deep, collecting herself, before turning to me with a huge grin. “Miles, you’ve gotta try it.”
PC growled a little and pulled me close. “Not a chance. He’s mine.”
Everybody looked at him silently for a tense second or two before they laughed. After all, he was kidding. Sort of.
After that we all settled into the booth, some of us with drinks, others with satisfied grins barely concealed on their faces. Lisa took a long swig of her Long Island iced tea and leaned over to nudge me with her shoulder.
“I’m glad I met you,” she whispered with a low chuckle.
I nudged her back. “Me too. It’s been an interesting fall for us regular human folks so far, hasn’t it?”
“Can’t wait for more.”
I couldn’t either.
With a smile, I leaned back in the booth, Lisa on one side of me, PC on the other. In an intimidating vampire bar in the middle of the Upper East Side, the last place I would have ever thought to be, I felt completely comfortable and, weirdly enough, at home. My group of friends, new but so close to me already, were teasing each other and laughing around the table. PC leaned closer, drawn to my happiness, and reached out to curl his hand around my thigh. Everything seemed right. I was with the guy I’d been born to be with; we were becoming closer every day. I was going to be part of his world and we’d be paired forever. I had more friends than I’d ever had in my life, and so much of the time I was overwhelmingly… content. It was a feeling I had yet to become accustomed to, but I planned on spending many years practicing.
Should’ve known it wasn’t going to be quite that easy. In the middle of my contentment, a little part of me was always waiting―waiting for PC to flip out again or for some catastrophe to disintegrate the fragile happiness we’d slowly started to build. I knew it wouldn’t take more than one small bump in the road to have him back in the place where he was swearing and screaming and threatening to do whatever he could to tear us apart.
PC, who’d been relaxing next to me, hand on my thigh and smiling like he didn’t have a care in the world, suddenly tensed up; a sharp growl started in his chest, moving up until it was just barely contained in his throat. I felt it rumble against my side, menacing and at the same time protective.
“What is it?” I followed his gaze.
Aw, damn….
It seemed like our bump in the road had just walked through the door. It was Rugby Jeff. What were the chances of running into him at a vampire bar so far away from school? Pretty much impossible. PC started to stand and I dragged him down, clutching his shirt in my fist.
“Let me go, Miles.” His voice was quiet but a little scary. “I’m going to kill that asshole.”
“Leave it alone. I bet he hasn’t even seen us. He’s not worth getting in trouble.”
But it was too late. PC was up and stalking toward the bar and the cargo-pants-wearing jerk who hadn’t been able to take rejection.
“Oh Jesus. What if he shifts? He’s going to have vampires all over him!” Zack looked alarmed.
I jumped up to go after PC, followed quickly by Zack and Noah.
“The rest of you, stay here,” I heard Zack mutter to the others at the table. I could tell he was trying to keep the peace. I imagined nobody could start a fight like a crew of pissed-off vampires.
We reached PC’s side right as he was about to take a swipe at the much larger guy.
“What are you doing?” I hissed, grabbing at his shoulder. He pushed me aside, so intent on getting in my ex-harasser’s face that nothing else seemed to matter. His angry strength was surprising; my arm smarted from the place where he’d grabbed it.
The guy held up his hands, obviously not wanting a fight. “Listen, I’m sorry. I saw you guys and followed you here. It took me this long to get the nerve up to come in. I had to talk to you. Please. What you did the last time―I can’t stop thinking about it.”
“Did he see you shift?” Noah looked horrified.
“Yeah. Asshole went after Miles. I couldn’t stop it. Get him out of here before it happens again.”
Zack made a growling noise. “What do you mean ‘went after Miles’?”
“Oh Jesus, not you too!” I was not in the mood for my self-appointed protectors to get into some big fight over me. “Listen, it’s over; it’s not a big deal. Jeff, you need to go; this isn’t a good place for you. Just forget you ever saw any of us, okay?”
Jeff looked uncertain.
“Go.” I stood and started pushing him toward the exit, followed by a hostile-looking PC and two vampires who would be ready to jump in with little provocation. “You’d better move fast,” I muttered. “I’m going to try to hold him back, but you’ve seen him when he gets mad.” It was a bit melodramatic, but I wanted to get that guy as far away from PC as I could. I didn’t even want to think of the consequences of him shifting where we were.
Jeff looked at me for a second, uncertain, and then glanced behind him at PC, who looked like he was on the verge of doing something irrational. He wavered for a few more indecisive seconds, then turned on his heel and bolted, slamming through the door of the club. When PC didn’t shift and run after him, I let out a sigh of relief. Not much of one, though. I could still feel his anger, pulsing off him in waves as he pushed through the people toward the front door.
“What was that?” Noah blurted out as soon as the four of us hit the sidewalk.
“That was this total dickwad who seems to have a permanent hard-on for my boyfriend. The second I saw him, I just… lost it.” PC put his head in his hands, made a frustrated screaming noise, and sank to the ground, leaning up against the side of the building. Then he wrapped his arms around his knees and curled up.
Zack and Noah made silent gestures at me to go sit next to him. I tentatively followed their direction, crossing my legs and sitting on the ground next to PC. I put my arms around him. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to calm him down or simply reassure myself that he was still there. He leaned into my embrace, and I was a bit relieved. I hadn’t been completely sure he wouldn’t snap at me.
“Now you see why this is impossible? If Noah and Zack hadn’t pulled me away, I would have fucking killed that guy. My protective instincts toward you are uncontrollable, Miles. I would have killed him.”
“And you’re going to tell me with all your years of hunting you’ve never killed anything before?”
“Well, yeah, a few, but not a person. I mean, he was a total douche and he deserves to get his ass kicked and more for the way he acted toward you, but I wasn’t going to even give him a chance to defend himself. I was so irrational.”
“I’d get that way about you too. If someone was trying to touch you I’d kill them.” I kind of surprised myself by how much I really meant that.
“But I pushed you. You. The last person in the universe I’d want to hurt.”
“Well, yeah, you did, and I’m guessing you feel so bad about it that you’re not going to do it again. Listen, please don’t launch into another big ‘I can’t do this’ downward spiral. We’ve been good―happy, right?”
“Yeah, we have. It’s been… nice getting used to being with someone. Better than I thought. I’m just—”
“I know.”
There wasn’t anything else I could say. I knew that he was still fighting us in his head. That he wasn’t ready to completely surrender to the inevitable truth that we’d always be together. PC wrapped his arms around me and squeezed. We sat on the cold sidewalk and held each other silently. It took me a minute to notice that Noah and Zack had politely disappeared.
“Don’t want to leave you anymore,” PC mumbled into my hair. “I’m scared about what I’m capable of doing to protect you. I don’t know how this is going to work, but I don’t want to run away from it.”
“That’s what the bond’s doing. It makes you want to be with me.”
“I don’t know if that’s what it is. Maybe it’s the bond; maybe it’s just me now. How can you tell if it’s instinct or if it’s real feelings?”
“You’ll be able to tell,” I mumbled. It was a big step for him to admit that he couldn’t see walking away anymore. I wished I could be completely happy with it. I still wanted more.
“Sorry I freaked out for a second there. As usual.”
“S’okay. Wanna go home?”
“Yeah. Let’s go home. Can you go inside and say goodnight to everyone? I better stay out here.”
I nodded, then stood and went into the bar to say good night to our friends.
Chapter 11: Extra, Extra
“UM, PC, have you seen the paper today?” He was just coming out of the shower; his skin damp and smelling like my shampoo.
“No. You didn’t start the crossword without me, did you?” He came up and gave me a soft greeting kiss. I returned the kiss enthusiastically. It seemed like I was constantly starving for his touch.
“You smell nice,” I murmured, distracted from my news.
“So do you.” He smiled at me and leaned over to nuzzle my neck. The nuzzling turned to kissing and before long he was biting and sucking my neck and making my heart race. It took a huge effort to pull away.
“Wait, PC, stop. We can’t. Besides, I think you really need to see this.”
The article had scared the crap out of me. I’d picked up a paper on my way home from class earlier. My eyes had nearly bugged out of my head when I saw the headline splashed across the front page.
“Vampire” Killings Spread Across Manhattan
I vaguely remembered Lisa saying something about some homeless guy getting killed weeks earlier, but with all the recent commotion, I’d forgotten all about her creepy anecdote.
The article described a slew of victims who’d turned up dead in the past few weeks with puncture wounds on their necks and bodies drained of blood. The victims were usually unremarkable—street people, prostitutes, the kind of people who might not be missed right away. The reporter wrote that the police were working on a theory that there was some sort of weird copycat scenario, perhaps someone with mental problems and a vampire obsession.
I wasn’t convinced of that. A few weeks before, I would have read the article and agreed that there was some psychopath out there roaming the streets of Manhattan with a sharp poker and a serious fixation with the undead. My views had changed rather rapidly. Now it seemed like something that PC and his friends should look into.
“What is it?”
I wordlessly spread the paper out on the comforter and watched his eyes grow wide.
“Shit,” he muttered as he scanned quickly. “How did I not hear about this already?”
“You think it’s something that you guys are going to have to take care of?”
“Don’t know. It looks like it, though. Jesus. I better call Noah.” He got up and started pacing, looking for his phone. I could tell he was flustered. “It doesn’t make sense. No one rogue could’ve made such a mess, and even if they did, they’d never be so careless. It’s almost like they wanted it to be visible. And, seriously, how could I not know about this? It’s in the damn newspaper.”
He pressed a button on his phone.
“Hey, Noah. Were you still asleep?” Noah said something that made PC’s face turn pink. He hadn’t been asleep, and I had a pretty good idea why. “Listen, sorry to, uh, interrupt, but I think we have a problem.”
He explained the situation to Noah, then listened while Noah spoke, his face growing more annoyed by the second.
“… What do you mean, you’re already dealing with it? … From now on, let me decide how much I want on my plate. … Yeah, that’s what I thought too. But why would any rogue want to be caught? … Sure. We can be over there in about twenty minutes. You wanna call the others? … Okay, see you in a few.”
He hung up and held out his hand to pull me from the bed.
“We’re going to Zack and Noah’s?” I asked.
“Yeah, time to get dressed.”
ZACK AND Noah lived in a building not much farther from campus than PC’s place. We decided to walk since it would probably take just as long to find a cab and then sit at the various lights. I spent the whole walk over worrying about the newspaper article and the possible implications for PC’s safety. I hated to bring up the hunting argument again. It had gone so spectacularly awful the last time, but my body started cramping painfully if I even thought about him chasing after some lunatic vampire killer. Like he’d said that very first weekend, I’d be over if something happened to him. If I somehow managed to survive the loss of our bond, I’d probably wish I hadn’t. The thought made my insides wrench.
Noah opened the door freshly showered and a little sleepy-eyed. PC chuckled.
“I can’t believe you just got up. This guy likes to sleep even more than I do,” PC muttered to me. His voice wasn’t exactly quiet. Noah popped him on the shoulder. “Ouch!” he complained, rubbing his shoulder theatrically.
“Wasn’t asleep. Do I have to repeat what I told you already?” PC cringed, Noah grinned, and I got the feeling that embarrassing PC was a long-standing game for him and Zack. “Zack’s in the shower still. You guys want a drink or something? We keep a few on hand for, well….”
Oh. For people who ate.
“I’ll take one,” I told him.
“Beer, soda?”
“Soda, please. I hate beer. Give me a chick drink any day.”
Noah flashed a smile at me and ambled to the kitchen. He returned a few moments later with a Dr Pepper and a glass with ice.
“Thanks.” I poured the soda and took a long drink of it. The sugar helped soothe me. I didn’t have a good feeling about where that newspaper article was heading. PC and Noah talked casually for a few more minutes while we waited for Zack. I was happy to nurse my drink and listen quietly. When Zack emerged from the back of the apartment, pink-skinned and drying his hair with a towel, PC and Noah settled almost immediately, their faces turning businesslike.
“Okay, so let’s go over this again,” PC said.
Zack seemed to be willing to take over. “We’ve got a rogue, or a group of r
ogues, running through the transient population of the city. The body count’s rising and we don’t have a clue who’s responsible. Doesn’t that pretty much say it?”
“Pretty much,” Noah agreed.
“Is there a chance that it’s not really vampires?” I had to ask, just to be sure.
Noah shook his head. “No. We’ve seen a few of the bodies. There’s no way it wasn’t done by a real vampire. I could smell the venom from ten feet away. But still, the question is, why would they be so careless?” He was scanning the article. I could almost see him tallying the body count, well, at least the known body count. “Even the worst ones know to cover their tracks. It’s harder to hunt when the city’s swarmed with cops looking for a serial killer.”
“Could it be a message?”
PC’s question made perfect sense to me. I didn’t know the politics of the vampire world, but when a human does something violent and visible, they usually seem to be doing it for a reason.
“I thought that too. But who would the message be for? Not much of a message if the recipient doesn’t get it.” Noah shrugged.
“What if we’re the recipients?” Zack tilted his head, looking thoughtful. “I don’t mean us specifically, but like us in general. Rogue hunters.”
“And what would leaving a bunch of drained homeless people tell us?”
“I don’t know. That we can’t mess with them?” Zack shrugged. “It was just an idea.”
“No, it’s good, baby. We just need to figure out who, or what, is behind this and hopefully start getting some answers.”
“Hunting tonight?” PC looked almost eager. I felt a nauseated pit in my stomach.
Noah sighed. “Yeah. We’re going to have to.”
PC laughed. “What happened to you, man? You used to be the first one ready for a good hunt.”
Noah cocked his head toward Zack. “Look what happened last time I ran off searching for trouble. I’m a little more careful now.”
Zack rolled his eyes. “Please don’t tell me you’re still feeling guilty about that. I told you I wanted to become a vampire. Wasn’t the way I’d dreamed of it happening, but still. It’s fine.” He gave Noah an intimate grin and pulled him in for a short, intense kiss.
