The fourth day, no, night…I have to stop thinking of them as days. There are no more days for me now, only nights.
Be that as it may, that evening I awoke with the usual hunger that drove me down to the kitchen. This time, however, I put on my jeans, first. I wasn’t up for another confrontation with Justin. If it happened I might let my anger out, physically, which I knew wouldn’t be my smartest move. He was much older than me and undoubtedly a hell of a lot stronger. Not that I wasn’t tempted.
I took the stairs two at a time, flung open the refrigerator to grab a blood bag, and tore into it as if I hadn’t drunk in a week. Dropping it onto the counter when it was empty, I got another one and drained it before putting both of them in the trash.
“Feeling better,” Justin asked laconically from the doorway.
I whirled to glare at him. “You had no right!” I snarled.
“What does right have to do with anything?” he replied calmly. “We’re vampires. We do what we want as long as we don’t reveal our existence to the humans.”
“So if I wanted to kill you for what you did to me, I’d be within my rights to do so?”
“First, you couldn’t. I’m ten times as powerful as you. Second, even if you succeeded you’d immediately be designated a rogue and every vampire in the area, no, in the country, would be after you.” He smiled maliciously. “When they caught you, and they would because you’re too young to know how to hide from them, they would make certain your death was extremely painful.”
I wanted to punch the smug look off his face. Instead, I turned to walk swiftly away, calling over my shoulder, “You never intended to fuck me, did you?”
“Of course not,” he replied. “I don’t do men.”
I’d said that in anger, figuring he’d admit he would have because he at least found me interesting as more than a companion for the next year. Whirling around to look at him, I asked, “Then why the hell didn’t you pick up some woman?”
“They may be fine in bed, but as housemates they’re a royal pain in the ass. They either expect to be catered to hand and foot or they try to take over, bustling around cleaning and rearranging things and…” He shook his head.
I almost laughed. Not because I found that funny, but because at least in that respect he and I were in agreement. I’d grown up with a mother who ran roughshod over me and my father. The most important thing in her life was a clean house and God help us if we left a sock under the bed, a water-ring on the coffee table, or crumbs anywhere in the living room while we were watching TV.
“I see you agree with me,” he commented.
“Reading my mind?” I snarled.
“It could have been your body language or your very expressive face.”
“But it wasn’t.”
“Not this time, Lucas. I try not to pry but occasionally it’s necessary. I had to find out how much it bothered you that I’m not gay.”
“I don’t give a damn one way or the other, although it’s going to be a long, dry spell since you aren’t. It’s the idea that you used the fact that I am to get me to come home with you that pisses me off.”
“Would you have, otherwise?”
“I, umm…Probably not. You could have compelled me to,” I pointed out.
“True, but I didn’t.”
“In a club full of willing men, why did you choose me?”
“I told you, the first night, you’re young and healthy. The fact you’re not some big bruiser also played into it. I learned a long time ago that men like that tend to think they’re better than everyone else because of their size.”
I could see his point. I’d run into a few of them in high school. They would bully smaller guys like me for the fun of it. I was a slender five-nine which made me the perfect target. I’d bulked out since then, in order to protect myself, but I’d never be synonymous with tall and athletic. That didn’t seem to bother the guy who’d hired me to tend bar at the club. As he’d said at the time, there were bouncers to handle troublemakers.
Thinking of that reminded me. “What about my job? They must miss me by now. At least I hope they would,” I added dryly. “And my apartment? The rent’s due in a week. If I don’t pay it, chances are the landlord will toss my stuff in the street. He’s not big on people who pay late.”
“Tell me where it is and I’ll get your clothes and anything else you think you want to keep. Not the furniture, though.”
“Yeah, well the furniture’s mostly from a secondhand shop so I can live without it. If I come with you…” I looked hopefully at him.
He considered the idea and nodded. “If you’ve calmed down, we can do it tonight.”
“Let’s say I’m not about to try and strangle you at the moment and leave it at that.”
He chuckled. “Tomorrow or next week is another thing?”
“You never know.” I smiled, briefly.
“At least you’re being honest. Go finish dressing.”
I did, and then we took off for the city. This time I was aware of my surrounding during the drive. He definitely lived out in the boonies, or the bayou, I guess. The first house we passed was a good three miles from his. They got more frequent once we were on the road that ran beside the Mississippi. A little over half an hour later, he found a parking space close to my apartment. Not an easy thing to do since it was only eleven P.M., give or take.
“Definitely not high class,” Justin said when we were in my place. Or I suppose what had been my place before my life changed drastically. He had a point. As I’d told him, the furniture was used when I got it. It wasn’t in bad shape but for sure it was nothing special compared to what he had at his house.
“You’re a reader.” He crossed to the small bookcase to see what my literary tastes were, and shook his head. “Perhaps you could kill me, after all.” Since most of them were thrillers or mysteries I could see why he joked about it.
I went into the bedroom, got my suitcase and knapsack from the closet, and filled them with my clothes. I didn’t own a lot, but having worn the same thing for the last four days I was glad to be able to have some choices from now on. I changed into clean jeans and a T-shirt. Then, after collecting my personal items from the bathroom, I closed the suitcase and took it and the knapsack into the living room.
“Do you have a box to pack these in?” Justin gestured to the books.
I almost said I’d leave them, but didn’t. The collection of books he had in the parlor, which was fairly large, suggested he’d think less of me if I didn’t take mine with us. Why I cared, who knows, but I did. “Let me check the alley,” I told him. “There’s probably some in one of the Dumpsters.”
He grimaced, but didn’t stop me. I found two that were in relatively good shape, brought them back upstairs, and filled them with his help. Then I collected the pictures of my family hanging on the wall over the bookcase, putting them in the knapsack. I debated on a few of the knickknacks I’d collected to decorate the place, chose a couple that meant something to me, and after stuffing them in between the clothes in the knapsack, told him that was it.
I hefted the knapsack over my shoulder and grabbed the suitcase. By then he had picked up the two boxes of books as easily as if they weighed nothing. “That definitely reinforces how strong you are,” I told him as I opened the door.
“You could do it, too,” he replied. “When we get back to the house, you can take them in.”
I suspected he was right, since I knew vampires were much stronger than humans. Still, I wasn’t about to offer to carry them, as well. We made it back to the car without my landlord knowing I had vacated the premises, which was fine with me. He was a nasty, nosy older man and I didn’t relish the idea of a face-off with him for terminating my lease without letting him know.
True to his word, when we got back to the house Justin had me carry my books into the parlor. I guess I wasn’t all that surprised to find that it was easy—much easier than when I’d lugged them into my apartment a couple of years ago. Taking the rest of my things up to my bedroom, I unpacked, put my personal belongings in the bathroom down the hall, and then went looking for him because I needed a hammer and nails so I could hang my pictures.
I found him in a room behind the parlor that I hadn’t seen before. It was obviously his office as it contained a large desk with a desktop computer. A printer sat on a stand beside it, and a file cabinet and a bookcase were against the wall on the opposite side of the room.
He turned from what he was doing to ask, “All unpacked?”
“Yep. I need a hammer and nails, though.”
“You’ll find them on the workbench in the basement.” When I looked at him in question, he told me the stairs were in the pantry next to the kitchen. Another room I hadn’t realized existed.
I went to fetch them and found out the basement also held a washer and dryer, as well as a furnace. There was a door at the far end, which was locked as I found out when I tested the handle. “Secret hiding place?” I said under my breath. When I got back upstairs, I asked him.
“Yes, and no,” he replied. “To all appearances it’s a storage closet. Behind one of the shelves is a hidden entrance to what indeed is, well, humans call them panic rooms. It’s where we’ll go in case of trouble.”
“How likely is that?” I asked, hoping never.
“Rarely. Only once in the past hundred years, and then it was because an enemy of mine sent two of his human minions to murder me in my sleep and then burn down the house. Obviously, they failed.”
“I suppose that’s a relief of sorts.” When he shot me a dour look, I said, “You know if they hadn’t failed, I wouldn’t be here. Hell, I wouldn’t be a vampire. So yeah, ‘sort of’ works.”
He laughed. “I can see your point.”
“What are you doing?”
“Answering emails from friends.”
“The life of the modern vampire?”
“Indeed,” he replied. “Much easier than it used to be.”
I asked, half teasing, “Do you Zoom, too?”
“Occasionally, when there’s something we need to discuss immediately and face-to-face. I’m not a big fan of it, but when needs must.”
“Can I…?” I shook my head. “Probably not since the couple of guys I’d want to talk to would probably want to know where I’d vanished to.”
“Hopefully they’re friends enough that they’d care. You’re correct, however, getting in touch with them isn’t allowed.”
“Oh, well.”
I left the office, going back up to my room to hang the pictures. As I did, I wondered if my family would have noticed or cared that I wasn’t around anymore—if they’d still been alive. Probably not. My parents hadn’t approved of my lifestyle, as my father had put it after I came out to them. My brother and I hadn’t been that close as he was three years younger than me. My aunt and uncle? Well, they’re dead, too.
By the time the pictures were hung, I could feel that morning was approaching. It was what Justin called an early-warning-thing vampires had so they could find shelter before sunrise. “Otherwise, you’d turn into a pile of dust.” Not something I wanted to happen. Roland’s ‘suicide by sun’ was not in the top of my to-do list.
I went downstairs to tell Justin I was heading to bed. His reply was, “Sleep well,” followed by a grin. Not that I had a choice, but I said I would—and did.