Neil Franklin
“You do it this time,” Natalie said. “The whole delivery, on your own.”
Natalie looked to be in her low-twenties, and she was one of the overall younger vamps logging less than a century overall.
They were in one of the specialized delivery vans with heavy vampire-designed and built safes—one basic, and a larger one for cold storage—each welded to the vehicle’s frame. They required both a combination and fingerprints to open. The safes were camouflaged and never visible when the van’s doors were open. Whether it was written communication that would be destroyed after reading, or blood distributions, all inter-vampire deliveries were kept in the safes.
The specially equipped vans also required fingerprints to start them. They looked like basic delivery vans on the outside, and the fingerprint pad that supplemented the standard key starter was inconspicuously located so would-be thieves wouldn’t even notice it. Standard “hot wiring” could not bypass the need for a fingerprint.
Neil raised his brow but stepped forward without hesitation. He’d seen Natalie do it enough times. He opened the outer cabinet that further shielded the existence of the safes from potential prying eyes and turned the dial. The combination, like everything, had been easy to commit to memory. He softly laid his fingers onto the pad that was out of sight on the side of the safe to complete the process, and a click signaled he could rotate the heavy handle and open the door.
He selected the six small, cool boxes for this stop and re-secured the safe. These deliveries would be easy. Even though he hadn’t yet met the recipients, he knew he had nothing to worry about from fellow vamps.
Natalie waited in the van as he strode toward the brownstone. The vampire deliveries were carefully coordinated, and he was immediately buzzed in. They knew when their deliveries would arrive, and he knew who would be home to receive them.
This was a faction-owned building with six apartments, all vampire-occupied. Only two occupants were home at this time, but he could safely leave all the packages with them.
He knocked on the first door on the left. A woman who looked to be in her early sixties answered. “Good afternoon, Neil. I’m glad to finally meet you.” She spoke with a Boston accent, and looked like someone who wasn’t quite ready to give up her old hippie days. It seemed so natural for her, but no doubt Marshall, Willis, and Mona were behind it.
“Nice to meet you, too, Daisy,” Neil replied. “I’ve heard a few stories.”
Her eyes crinkled with laughter. “Albert tell you about when I got to play his cantankerous old mother?”
“He did.” Yet at only a hundred and sixty-three, she was at the younger end of the range of faction members, at least when their total number of years was considered. Neil snickered. “I’m told y’all enjoyed that role a little too much.”
He handed over four of the boxes. “It was fun,” she said. “But I think I like this time around better.”
She worked part-time on weekends in hospital admissions. Otherwise, she was called on now and then for undercover work with the investigative team.
“Mine is growing on me,” Neil said. “It’s starting to feel…normal.” That word popped up a lot as he contemplated his new life, tracking device implanted in his scalp notwithstanding.
“You have a good day, Neil. I’ll see you around.”
He thanked her and tread up to the third floor to deliver the remaining two boxes to one of the occupants. Even forewarned, he was unprepared for the sight of a five-year-old child. Or rather, a four-hundred-and-something-year-old vamp who looked like a preschooler. Someone had been an outright bastard, four centuries back, turning a kid.
“Hi-ya!” Ethan threw open the door with a mischievous smile. If anyone outside the faction ever asked, Daisy was babysitting him. But since he actually had the faculties of someone far beyond his apparent years, they didn’t necessarily hang out together all day. Sometimes they did, just for the company, or since she and his “parents” were his access to the outside world.
“Hi.” Neil tried not to stare, but the image of this adorable little boy, terrified as some sinister vampire attacked him, was too much. He grimaced. “Sorry. Damn, I—”
“It’s cool,” Ethan said. “That’s the usual reaction. Decent people are all horrified at the thought. But honestly, other than the original assault, and the first few days when I didn’t know what was going on, I’ve had a pretty easy time of it.”
Neil nodded. Ivan and Eunice had found the kid and taken him under their wing. An open laptop lay on a table behind him. He served a couple roles for the faction. He trolled the Internet’s underbelly, keeping an eye out for any vampire-related conspiracy theories, and he took online classes in the names of various adult faction members, then he summarized new information in reports he submitted to the pertinent teams.
Ethan shrugged. “The rest of my family was wiped out by the flu a couple years later. All-in-all, I’m glad to have lived through that time and still be around enjoying technology I could never have imagined back in my day.”
Which sounded suspiciously like a grandfatherly type of person trying to ease a young child’s concerns. Neil snorted a laugh. “I’m gonna like you, Ethan.”
Ethan took the two boxes off Neil’s hands. “And I’m used to newbies at our parties grappling with not censoring themselves like they would around a real kid, so no worries.”
“Just one more thing for me to adjust to, right?”
Ethan waved him off with a cheery, “Later!” And Neil traipsed back out to the delivery truck.
“Any issues?” Natalie asked.
“Nah.” Neil shuddered, thinking again of some grubby cold-hearted creeper preying on a child. “Not really.”
“I know, right?” Apparently, Natalie was as good at reading people as Albert was. She’d seen it all before. Probably dozens of times. “Even after fifty-eight years, it still gets to me.”
* * * *
“Y’all like to go to Roman-themed museum exhibits?” Neil asked as they wandered through an outer space display at the Natural History Museum.
Albert shuddered and glanced around to make sure nobody was within listening distance. “I’ll go with you to one if you want, but I wouldn’t do it for myself.”
“I guess you don’t need to, huh?”
“It’s just that…” Albert grimaced and sighed. “I have deeper regrets of things I had to do in life as a Roman soldier than anything I’ve done in all the years since.”
“Oh.” Presumably that included the vigilante stages between the longer more stable cons, when he and his cohorts had picked out deserving criminals to waylay and drain, then destroy the evidence. “Yeah, I get it.”
“I understand why you’d want to, though,” Albert said. “I’d want to see one, too, if the situation were reversed.”
“I don’t want to bring up bad memories.” Neil squeezed Albert’s hand.
Albert nudged with his elbow. “Not like I don’t remember it anyway. And what better guide, right?”
“True.” Neil returned the mild jostle. It felt just like the kind of lighthearted playfulness he’d engaged in as a human. Even after two thousand years of living, Albert seemed to have the same wants and desire to enjoy life as Neil did.
He was beginning to believe they weren’t as far apart as he’d once thought. Maybe he really did have a chance with Albert’s heart, despite his relative naivety.
Neil knew there was some kind of physical connection between them, but it was stronger when they were sharing blood and reveling in each other’s scent. So maybe it was something that wore off and would fade if they were separated. Maybe even something that would be easily replaced if he joined with another.
Infighting within the faction would be dangerous, and Neil saw no evidence that it existed, so perhaps there was some element of the vampire psyche that precluded all the relationship drama that plagued humans.
Albert brought Neil’s hand to his lips and leveled him with his patented smoldering stare. “Ready to go home?”
“Oh, yeah.”
* * * *
Neil flexed his hands and nervously shook them out.
“You’ll do fine,” Erica said. “Natalie says you did great last week running the route with her. No missteps at all.”
“Yeah, I know. Thanks.” But it wasn’t quite the same thing as being out on his own. He wouldn’t have thought twice about running a delivery route by himself after a week’s training when he’d been human. Except now, a serious slipup could cause him his life. A lot of lives were on the line if he were to be found out. He was downright thankful for that damned implant in his scalp and the band of gold on his right ring finger that could buy him a few seconds and/or summon help.
“Stop worrying,” Erica said. “You’ve seen yourself in a mirror. You look perfectly normal, and your accent is good.”
Not only did he look “normal,” but he looked like Neil, not Phillip. Although no-skid shoes were required, the only uniform was a vest over his own clothes, probably because a full uniform would negate a good share of the “disguise” that was his personal style.
“I can do this,” he said more for his own reassurance than as a reply. And truly it should be easy.
The delivery business was legit. It was not only for inter-vampire deliveries. The legit business covered for that, and it was large enough that some vans were used only for those regular deliveries. As a newbie, that was the kind of van Neil would drive.
Sure, it meant interacting with humans, but so did driving the specialized vans, and the contact was minimal. Ring a bell or knock on a door, hand it over with a smile and a “Have a good day,” reply appropriately to anything they might say, and adios.
“I believe in you,” Albert had said this morning before kissing him goodbye.
Now, he turned the key in the ignition, and the loaded van roared to life. It was a standard vehicle, so no fingerprint needed. Erica waved him off, and he pulled confidently into traffic.
His morning route ran through a community of single family homes. In the afternoon, it would include the neighborhood where he now lived with Albert.
His first stop involved a large box. Not too heavy, but awkward. Also not a big deal. If the recipient was home, protocol was to either hand it to the person who answered the door, or set it down just inside. So it shouldn’t have been a problem.
Of course, it would be a little old lady who answered the door. He smiled. So far so good. But he could hardly hand that large unwieldy box to an eighty-something geriatric leaning on a cane, right?
She smiled back, which was a bonus because quite a few people just frowned or grunted something unintelligible. But then she did the unthinkable. Instead of allowing him to set it down inside the door, she asked him to come in and put the box on the kitchen table for her. She even said, “Please.”
What was he going to do, refuse? Of course not. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Thank you, you’re such a dear.”
“No problem, ma’am.”
And he didn’t expect it to be as he stepped into the house. It wasn’t strictly following protocol, but customer service kind of demanded it, right?
Two small dogs came running, their nails clattering on the vinyl tile floor as they rushed toward him. Then scratched to a sudden halt a yard away, yelped, and ran back to the doggy bed in the corner where they’d been to begin with.
His eyes widened, and the woman stilled and watched him warily. He gave her what he hoped was a reassuring smile rather than one that screamed I’m an axe murderer and the dogs know it. Because somehow dogs always knew the nice people from the bad ones.
He put down the box and backed away so she’d know he wasn’t about to pull out a switch blade or something. “Have a good day, ma’am.”
She stared for a couple more seconds as Neil’s heart thumped double-time in his chest, then her frown morphed into a smile. A real genuine smile. “Oh, I remember now! They did the same thing to another man from your service. He explained about the dog repellent they have you spray on to protect you from the biters.”
“Oh.” He stopped himself from putting a hand to his chest to advertise his relief. “Sorry about that, ma’am. I should’ve thought to mention it. Didn’t mean to frighten you.”
Out in the van, he collapsed into his seat and dropped back his head against the rest. “Nothing happened,” he muttered. He shook out his hands. “Nothing happened.”
Why was it that in an entire week of training, everything happened just as it was supposed to happen—ring the bell, hand it over, blah, blah, blah. But the first customer of the first day on his own had to go and throw a monkey wrench into the works? Okay, maybe it was just a pair of pliers in the end—needle-nosed at that—but it had freaked him the hell out.
Worse-case scenario, she would’ve thought he was a creeper and had a few extra moments of worry until he’d left the house. She would have never jumped to the conclusion that he was a vampire, for goodness sake, and raised hell, telling her story to anyone who would listen.
He had to do a better job thinking on his feet. Albert had said, “I believe in you.” He’d been recruited in part because they thought he’d be capable of handling himself. He couldn’t let them down. He couldn’t let Albert down.
Neil rolled his shoulders and put his hands on the steering wheel. If nothing else, he’d gotten his glitch for the day over with. He put the van into gear and drove to the next stop.
He rang the bell, handed over the package, said, “Have a good day,” blah, blah, blah, and so on through the rest of the morning until it was time to break for lunch.
Obviously, he wasn’t going to eat, but they received the downtime, anyway, and could do with it as they pleased. Within reason.
Walking alone in the park was considered too risky. It was a “pairs or group” activity. He’d been presented with a smart phone with an account balance that allowed him to purchase apps, music, books, or movies to stream. Plenty to entertain himself. In the future, he’d likely spend his break reading in a coffee shop, like he’d done with Natalie, where he could pretend to nurse a cup while reading. But, since Neil was heading to his own neighborhood for the afternoon anyway, he went home.
Home. It was becoming less and less strange thinking of Albert’s apartment as his home. His old life was beginning to feel almost like it had happened to someone else, as if he were simply remembering a movie he’d watched. His life as Neil Franklin was so completely different from what it had been as Phillip Brewer.
Albert was feeding papers into the shredder when Neil walked in. He straightened and opened his arms. “I was hoping you’d come home on your lunch hour.”
“You were?” Neil melted into Albert’s embrace and wrapped his arms around the man’s waist. This was just what he needed after the nerve-wracking start to his day.
“Of course, dilectus meus. I miss you when you’re gone.”
Neil tilted his head to look into Albert’s eyes, who stared back with that intensity…that unfathomable strength of passion that took his breath away. Neil gasped when he consciously remembered to breathe. Which didn’t help, because that scent.
He was lost, drowning in the spell those beautiful eyes cast over him, and floating on the tide of that intoxicating aroma. It was a sexual connection, but it was also so much more. Albert was Neil’s world. His everything.
And part of what was so beguiling was that Albert gave every impression of feeling the same.
Albert blinked and shook his head, then took a step back. “First things first, before I lose myself, as I always seem to in your presence.” Albert smiled and trailed a finger down the side of Neil’s face. “Tell me, how did your morning go?”
“Mostly fine, but…” Neil told the tale of his first customer.
“Ah.” Albert’s brow furrowed. “I’m sorry you had that fright. I’ll take care of it.”
“Take…” Neil stiffened. “I don’t want to get anyone in trouble.”
“No, dilectus meus. No one is in trouble. It is a small thing, and the animals’ reactions are not unique to vampires, so it’s not particularly dangerous. But it’s something that can and will be addressed in future converts’ orientations to head off any potential risk.”
Oh, of course. “Sorry, I didn’t mean—”
“No need to apologize. On to happier thoughts, yes? Eunice and Ivan have invited us to a small gathering in their home on Friday evening. Would you like for us to accept this invitation?”
Us. He liked the sound of that word. His worries from the morning faded under Albert’s easy acceptance of the situation. “Yeah. Would you?”
“I would. They have been dear friends for many years.”
“How long have they been a couple?”
Albert pulled Neil closer and unfastened the top buttons of Neil’s shirt. He closed his eyes and buried his nose in Neil’s neck. “Close to five hundred years now.”
Neil shivered, and his reaction to that incredible number was lost when the click of Albert’s fangs extending disengaged his brain.
* * * *
“Lunch” with his lover—no, boyfriend. Surely they were at least boyfriends, weren’t they, not just roommates with benefits? Dare he hope to refer to their relationship as a life partnership some day? Like what Eunice and Ivan had, with their identity cycles synced so they could stay together through the centuries?
Anyway…time with Albert had been just what he’d needed to clear his head and get back into “you can do this” mode. The afternoon route ran smoothly. Much of the time he could leave the delivery with a doorman, but in some buildings, recipients buzzed him in to personally hand over the package.
On his next to last delivery of the day, he was buzzed up to a fifth-floor apartment, and just his luck, the elevator was out. While he wasn’t suddenly any stronger than he’d been before, he wore a satisfied smile at how he kept his respiration perfectly even as he hustled up the stairway. No more huffing and puffing with a little exertion.
The click of a door opening, and a light bark accompanied by the sound of footsteps, alerted him to a dog on the landing above him, heading down to be walked. This would be a little trickier than the incident this morning, since they’d be crossing paths in a narrow passageway, but he had his head in the right space now. He could deal with this.
He straightened confidently and slapped on a friendly smile. The dog came into view first, and Neil stutter-stepped, then froze when the man walking the Boston terrier—Hobbs was the dog’s name—came into view.
Hobbs whimpered but at least he didn’t try to dash in the opposite direction. Not that trying to bury himself in Cameron Ferguson’s shoes was much better. What the hell was his ex doing in this building? Cam ground to a halt and stared with his mouth hanging open.
Which was Neil’s own damned fault for freezing and looking guilty, because the changes to his appearance had surprised even himself for the first few days, any time he’d caught sight of his reflection in a mirror. It would not have jumped out at Cam if Neil had managed to keep his cool.
“Oh, my God. Phillip? I heard you died.”
Cam moved as if to embrace him, and Neil finally—fucking finally—broke out of his trance for damage control.
Neil put up a hand, palm out. “Whoa there, cowboy,” he perfectly laid on the accent Marshall had drilled into him and pointed to the name tag sewn onto his vest. “Sorry about your friend, buddy, but I don’t know you from Adam’s off ox.”
Cam halted and peered through Neil’s black-rimmed glasses into his now-green-hued eyes, then cast a quick glance up and down, taking in everything from the undercut blow-dried hair style and the ear cuffs, to those damned skinny jeans. He sniffed, and Neil could practically see the wheels turning in Cam’s brain when the Joop! Homme he’d thought was overkill turned out to be a brilliant piece of the puzzle as Cam quickly sorted through the evidence three of his senses threw at him.
“Sorry, uh…” Cam’s gaze darted to Neil’s name tag. “Neil.” Cam stepped back again, almost tripping over Hobbs. He gave the dog an odd look, which was no surprise considering the very-un-Hobbs-like behavior.
“Yeah, no problem. Sorry ’bout the dog. They make us spray dog repellant on our pants. It’s a liability thing, I guess.”
“Oh, right. Good thinking.” Cam scratched his head. “It’s just that you seemed to recognize me, too.”
Which was a valid point, dammit. “I guess we both have doppelgangers out there. Y’all look a lot like my buddy, Gator, back in Sweetwater. Couldn’t figure what he was doin’ here with a pooch his German shepherd could eat for lunch.”
Cam gave a nervous laugh and picked up the poor dog.
Neil edged to the side, giving them a wide berth. “Y’all have a nice day.”
“Sure, you, too.” Cam gave him another once-over before resuming his trek down the stairs.
“Lord willing and the creek don’t rise,” Neil muttered.
When he made it to the fifth-floor landing, he closed the door behind him and sagged against it. Had he pulled it off?
Cam had never seen him while he was sick, so he wouldn’t have more than what he’d been told as evidence of Phillip’s demise. The man was firmly rooted in reality, so he wasn’t going to jump straight to any kind of vampire explanation for Neil’s presence here, but might he suspect some kind of shady goings-on?
Neil took a deep breath. Somehow, even though there wasn’t an influx of oxygen into his bloodstream, the old habit still had a calming effect. Only then did he recall his implant. Should he have used it? He glanced at the ring that activated it. No. It wouldn’t have been an appropriate use of it—at least not of the zombie option. He hadn’t been in mortal danger, and that would have only raised more questions from Cameron’s perspective. It would have made the situation worse. Not to mention put Cam at risk of falling down the stairs. A left swipe for help wouldn’t have done any good, either.
He pushed off from the door and made it through an otherwise undramatic delivery. On his way down the stairs, he passed a man heading up. The man gave him a penetrating look and a curt nod but didn’t say anything. Maybe it was a reaction to the shock he’d just gone through, but Neil got the distinct impression the man might be a member of the vampire security team responding to an alert triggered by his racing heartbeat. When he exited the building, he forced himself to act normal and not look around for Cam—or additional vamp agents.
The final delivery of the day was, thankfully, routine, and he drove back to the delivery depot with his heart in his throat.
* * * *
Erica was waiting for Neil when he pulled in and ushered him to her office. She got right to the point. “Tell me why you think someone who didn’t give his name, but we traced to a phone owned by a man named Cameron Ferguson, called in to ask if Phillip Brewer worked for us?”
The good news was, Neil’s heart wasn’t in his throat anymore. The bad news was it had dropped into his stomach. “Shit. I thought I’d pulled it off. Seriously.”
“Explain.” At least she didn’t appear angry, but the angle of her brows and her tight lips broadcasted her concern.
He laid out all the details, including his own culpability with his initial freeze-up.
“Okay.” She leaned back and drummed her fingers on the desk. “Not ideal, but probably not a big problem.”
“What did Cam say?”
“Nothing much.” Kind of like Erica was doing. Clearly, he wasn’t in the loop.
“What do we do now?”
She shrugged. “Our investigators are looking into why he was in that building. Albert will listen to our recording of the call, your explanation of what happened, and whatever the investigators come up with. Then he’ll make a decision.”
Neil stiffened. “Like what? What might happen?”
Erica didn’t answer, but she did raise an eyebrow that plainly stated he still wasn’t in the loop. “Natalie’s waiting to take you home. Don’t worry. Albert will handle it.”
He nodded and tried not to look like a condemned man as he walked to Natalie’s car.
The entire ride home, all he could think about was that word…decision. Albert would make a decision…and he’d “handle it.” That and the scene from weeks ago in the park, when he’d still been human. When he’d had only minutes to choose between becoming a vampire or dying on the spot.
Because his opinion on that hadn’t changed. He’d never asked, but he had no doubt he wouldn’t have walked away from that conversation as a human.
He’d decided his ethical bar was okay with the knowledge that anyone who turned down their offer would die on the spot, by balancing the fact that the victim would have had only weeks or maybe months to live, and recognition that their knowledge of the vampire world could take it all down. Thousands upon thousands of vampire lives would have been a risk.
He’d learned that a lot of thought and effort went into narrowing down their prospects to minimize that possibility. They didn’t take that decision—to end a human’s life early—lightly.
And neither did he. If Cameron was convinced he was Phillip, it was Neil’s fault. Cameron was an innocent party and should not be put at risk. Well, he was an asshole, but still, an innocent party. If it came down to someone needing to die to make the danger to the vampire community go away, then it should be Neil. But for Albert, he would have been dead by now anyway.
Albert wasn’t there when Neil arrived home. He found a note, in Albert’s firm, clear printing, that said, “In a meeting. Home soon.” No doubt they were dealing with the mess Neil had created. Neil plopped into a chair to wait it out.
Would Neil even be told what they planned to do? And if Albert told him something, would it be the truth?
He could never contact or try to track down Cam to find out if anything had happened to him, so how would he even know if Albert handed down an order to have Cam killed? Neil had promised that he’d leave his human life completely behind him, and as he glanced at the smart phone he’d placed on the table beside him, he had more than a suspicion the vampire tech team would know if he tried. And Albert would learn of it moments later.
Honestly, he couldn’t even muster up any anger at the thought. They had too much on the line to put that much trust in a new convert, so he understood the need for them to keep an eye on him.
All he could do was decide whether he was going to trust Albert…or not. The man kept most of his vampire business to himself, but when he did share information, it had the ring of truth.
Neil ran a hand through his stylish floppy hair, then closed his eyes. He needed to stop doing that to his hair. Not so much because it messed up his new do, but because keeping his old mannerisms would counteract all of Willis, Mona, and Marshall’s hard work.
Unless that didn’t matter anymore. Maybe Neil was more trouble than he was worth, and getting rid of him would head off this issue with Cam as well as prevent future snafus.
He scrunched his face and whimpered. He didn’t want to die now any more than he’d wanted to as a human, but it might be the right thing to do to make sure Cam stayed safe.
* * * *
It could have been minutes or hours later when he snapped awake at the sound of the door opening. He jumped to his feet as Albert entered the apartment.
As if there was a super-strength magnet embedded in Albert’s chest, and Neil was made of steel, he was immediately drawn across the room when Albert opened his arms, looking for all the world like a man without a care who was simply happy to be home.
Safe again in Albert’s arms, all was well. He could feel it in his bones. “You aren’t going to kill Cam, right? Or me?”
Albert’s arms hardened, then his hands gripped Neil’s arms and held him away. “Do you really think we’d do that?”
His eyes were unreadable, but the tightness of the line of his mouth wasn’t reassuring. “I’m…sorry.” But how could Neil know what measures they might be willing to take to ensure their continued secrecy and security?
“Do you really think we’d do that?” Albert didn’t precisely bite out his repetition of the words, but neither was it a gentle inquiry.
Neil clenched his jaw. “Would I have walked away from the park that day as a human?”
Albert blinked in surprise. “That…was different.”
Which was probably as close to an admission as Neil was going to get.
“Was it?”
Albert’s brows turned down, and his eyes glistened. Then he dropped Neil’s arms, walked into their bedroom, and shut the door.
Neil trembled, staring at the closed door. Maybe that had been insulting in this instance, but dammit, if Erica had given Neil more information about what Cam had said or done, or what remedies were on the table, it would have gone a long way to easing his mind. And it was a measure the vampires resorted to at times, so it had been a legit concern.
He paced for half an hour before stalking into the kitchen to check the refrigerator. Sure enough, half a bag of blood was inside. Apparently, Albert had consumed his share before leaving for his emergency meeting. Neil leaned against the counter, connected the adapter, and sucked it down like an old pro, fangs and all, without spilling a drop.
Back in the living room, his shoulders slumped as he stared out the window until darkness fell, then he turned and contemplated Marshall’s old room before dropping onto the sofa. Taking Marshall’s old room seemed too permanent. Too much like a statement of intent. So, he lay on the sofa and closed his eyes.
* * * *
When he opened his eyes the next morning, Neil found Albert sitting in a chair, staring at him. “I owe you an apology,” Albert said.
Neil sat up. “I’m sorry I screwed up. And…” And for not giving Albert the benefit of the doubt, but dammit, he still thought they could have offered him more to go on.
“Not your fault.” Albert shook his head. “It was your first day out on your own. You were shaken by the earlier incident, and it was our failing for not preparing you for that. The encounter with your ex-boyfriend was a lot for someone to handle on their very first time flying solo. You handled yourself admirably under the circumstances.”
“Thank you.” It was all Neil could do not to cross the room and throw himself into Albert’s arms, but the distance was probably best to keep a clear head. “I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions.”
“I’ve thought about that,” Albert said. “That hurt, but you’re very young, and you haven’t known us very long. With what you’d figured out about…the park, it’s not surprising that you wondered.”
“I should have trusted you.”
Albert shook his head again. “It would have been blind trust. We are in the habit—while not directly lying—of holding back some of what we tell new converts, to not overwhelm them.”
Was Neil ready to hear about it now? Ready or not, he nodded.
“Although we take every possible precaution to avoid it, yes, we’ve had to kill a few potentials over the years. I hate that it’s necessary, but by that point, it’s the only option. And…” Albert grimaced and looked away for a moment before again locking eyes with Neil. “And there have been a few additional take-downs.”
“But…you try to avoid it,” Neil whispered. Right? Please?
“Of course. But on three occasions in the past decade or so, one of our members was injured in the course of a crime. As you know, our self-healing abilities can’t be explained for a human. While the crimes themselves wouldn’t have been death-penalty offences in a court of law, they did preclude those persons from being extended an offer as an alternative to…permanently silencing them.”
That was one way to put it. Neil nodded. He didn’t like that any better than Albert appeared to, but he understood it. “And if an innocent party were to witness something like that?”
“An offer—a choice, really—is extended. A fully informed choice, with everything laid out for them. I’m happy to report that, in each instance, the person chose to join our ranks.”
Neil stood and smiled. To hell with his resolve to not cloud his thinking. He crossed the room and climbed onto Albert’s lap. He buried his face in the man’s neck as strong arms wrapped around him. He pulled in a lungful of Albert’s scent and relaxed into that comforting embrace. “Thank you for telling me.”
“I want you to know that we go to great lengths to prevent situations like that because we value human lives.”
Neil nodded. “Can you tell me what’s going to happen with Cam?”
“Nothing will happen to your ex-boyfriend. He called the delivery service and asked if Phillip Brewer worked there. After receiving a negative reply, he asked how long Neil had worked for them.”
Neil sat back so he could look into Albert’s eyes. “And?”
“While that’s not information businesses would typically answer to a random caller, our receptionists are trained to make judgment calls, and correctly deemed that pretending to be ignorant of such protocol and telling him you’d recently transferred from the Tulsa branch would be a good course of action.”
“He accepted that?”
“He called the Tulsa branch.” Albert winked. “But not before Erica did.”
Neil put a hand to his heart. “And the Tulsa branch backed up the story?”
Albert nodded. “And records will now show that you’ve worked there for a couple years.”
“You are amazing.” Neil laughed. “Seriously, it was just that easy?”
“I’ve listened to the recordings, and more importantly, Eunice has, and we agree that his tone indicates that he’s accepted their word.”
“So that’s it? All fixed?” That was nowhere near the point where Cam would be forced to make a choice.
“Not quite.” Albert shook his head. “While we believe he’s satisfied, we don’t want him to be continually reminded of it by running into you repeatedly.”
“Oh.” Neil stilled.
“Our investigators discovered where your friends and recent ex-boyfriends lived and worked. That’s always considered in making our members’ living and work arrangements. But you were a rush job, and they missed that Cameron’s current boyfriend lives in my neighborhood.”
And there was only one way to remedy that situation. Neil would have to move. He closed his eyes and molded his body against Albert’s, trying to commit the feeling to memory.
He’d already figured out there was no special tie between a convert and his maker. Albert and Eunice had been the primary makers of the converts over the last few decades, and none of them were devoted in either direction. So, he should be able to get over this.
Much as he wanted to believe that this man with two thousand years’ worth of experiences had fallen for him in this short length of time, the idea was flat-out inconceivable. He had to be imagining the times when it had seemed like Albert felt something deeper. Albert’s hand gently rubbed his back. He was so caring, but yes, trying to make anything more of it was simply…well…inconceivable.
A smile played over Neil’s lips as a vision of Inigo Montoya saying to Vizzini, “You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means,” ran through his mind.
He wished. Neil sniffed and whispered, “I understand.”
“Good.” Albert patted his back. “I hoped you would.”
All Neil could do now was wait to be told his new living arrangements. The faction owned the buildings they lived in. Everyone residing in this building was a vampire. It minimized the risk of accidental discovery, streamlined security and blood deliveries, and made the process easier for a group that was continually relocating its members as their identities changed. There were always a handful of vacancies available, but as a newbie, he’d likely be assigned to room with someone with more experience to guide him. Either way, it would happen quickly. He tightened his arms around Albert. He could be a grownup about this.
“What time is it?” Neil stood and went to the window. The sun was high enough he should probably be at work by now. “Damn, I’m going to be late for my second day.” He looked for his phone. Why hadn’t his alarm gone off?
“You’re not working today, so I turned off your alarm.”
“But I just need to be given a different route, right?”
“Correct, but tomorrow will be soon enough. Today is moving day.” Albert smiled. “You’ll learn that vampires are nothing if not efficient.”
“Oh.” Neil frowned as his stomach dropped. “Right.”
Albert joined him at the window. “This makes you sad?”
Neil’s face scrunched. So much for being a grownup about it. “Of course it makes me sad!” He’d hoped to have a day, maybe two, to get used to the idea.
“It’s a nicer part of the city.” Not that they were in a rundown area now, and no doubt all the faction’s buildings were in low-crime areas. “And it’s close to the university you’ll attend in the fall.”
“University?”
“Yes. You expressed an interest in furthering your education, so we hope you’ll be willing to pursue a medical degree specializing in pathology. You’re a good fit, appearance-wise, for an identity chain with a couple of our existing members.”
Neil stepped back into Albert’s open arms. Dammit. He should be over-the-moon excited about that prospect. In normal circumstances, he’d be jumping for joy right now, but it paled in the shadow of losing Albert.
Albert tipped up his chin. “You don’t want to do this? Have I misread you so terribly?”
“No, it’s not that. Of course I want to do that. It’s like a dream come true.” He shuddered and averted his gaze. “Don’t worry about me, I’ll get over this.”
“Get over…?” Albert turned Neil’s head and peered into his eyes. “You think you’re moving away from me? You don’t realize I’m coming with you?”
“You’re…we’re…” A smile spread across Neil’s face as Albert’s words sank in.
“You didn’t.” Albert glanced to the side when someone knocked on the door, then he planted a quick kiss on Neil’s lips. “That’ll be our movers. Amor meus, how could you think I’d be able to leave my blood-mate?”
Amor meus. And what the hell was a blood-mate? He certainly liked the sound of it. Neil picked up his phone while Albert answered the door, then opened the Latin/English translation app he’d downloaded and entered the Latin phrase.
The moving crew trooped in with a stack of flattened boxes and newsprint for wrapping fragile items, and immediately got to work.
After a couple failed attempts with misspellings, Neil pushed the button and the words “my love” appeared on the screen. His grin widened as he held the phone to his chest. He looked at Albert, and the man winked as if he knew what Neil was doing.
Blood-mate. There really was some kind of vampire-related connection between them, but right now he didn’t care what was behind their feelings. Either way, it was real, so he was going to revel in it.
Neil held Albert’s gaze and mouthed, “I love you, too.”
THE END