6

"This is cruel and inhumane," Ezra declared, standing at the very edge of the top step. He tugged down the thick plaid scarf Morgan had wound around his neck in order to display his disapproving frown. Morgan had also tempted him into his thickest sweater, a heavy and faded red cable knit that hung low on the vampire's narrow frame, and God he still looked good anyway. Even spitting mad and mismatched.

"It's a beautiful day. The sun is shining. The birds are chirping. Listen to them." Morgan swung out an arm to indicate the yard. Overnight the top layer of snow had refrozen and turned crunchy. The sun kicked off it in glittering waves.

"I'd rather eat them."

"Only as a last resort. I don't know much about bird anatomy, but they can't have much blood in them. But since you mention it, you've eaten more than half my food already. If we don't go out to buy more, we may starve."

If anything, the vampire's pout increased. "You go. I'll stay here and wait. Where it's warm and dry."

Morgan crunched his way back to the steps, re-flattening the path he had made earlier when he went out exploring and found the trail through the trees. He'd almost forgotten about the rest of Trevor's pitch for the place.

Quiet, peaceful, and only a short walk to civilization by the trail.

Morgan had driven through the village on his way to the cabin and, though it hadn't looked like much under near-whiteout conditions, he remembered a handful of stores. Some of them must sell food and whatever else they would need.

"It's not far. We can hit the store and be back by noon if we leave now." Morgan grinned. After spending most of the last day holed up in bed with him, Morgan was getting used to Ezra's moods, all those little tells that said more than his mouth ever did. So Morgan took the end of the plaid scarf in one hand and tugged gently. "How often do you need to feed? It's been three days since you bit me."

"I can go a week if I have to. Human food helps a little. It's not the same, but it helps."

"Okay. Come with me now and if you're a good boy..." He pulled down his collar suggestively. Cold air snaked around his neck and he shivered.

"Really? You mean it?" The pout disappeared, replaced with a giddy interest.

So easy. Morgan laughed. "If you're good."

"I can be good. I can be very good." The flash of fangs in his smile went straight to Morgan's balls. It was going to be a while before he got used to how hot he found that. And how much he didn't care that he shouldn't.

It was wrong. According to everything he'd ever learned, every lesson his family had ever taught him, it was wrong. He should feel ashamed. But he didn't. Not this morning over the last of his cereal. Or last night when Ezra had curled up beside him to watch the new dusting of snow drifting in the moonlight. And not while they were getting each other off on the floor right after that. Every bit of it had been perfect.

Ezra came alive like that. One firm word was all it took to pull all his walls down and turn him soft and pliable. It was a gift Morgan hadn't even known he needed. Hadn't known he even wanted. Now one glimpse of Ezra, that naked need in his eyes, and he was ready to go.

But in three more days, maybe four, Morgan had to go back to whatever was left of his life and Ezra would probably go back to his. That would be the end of it, wouldn't it? It hurt to consider. Three days and already so fucking greedy.

"Come on. Let's go."

Ezra shot him a curious look and then bounced down the stairs. The moment his heel hit the iced-over snow, it slid out from under him. Morgan grabbed his arm to steady him. "Excellent plan," Ezra said dryly. He lifted an eyebrow.

"Wait. I have another one." Morgan turned around and bent down. "Climb on."

"When I said I wanted to climb you, this wasn't what I meant."

"We can try that way later. Come on. Humor me before I change my mind."

"If it means I can stay here, go right ahead and change it," he said as he wrapped his arms around Morgan's neck and let himself be lifted. "I feel silly."

It wasn't the ideal way to walk, but Morgan didn't mind. There were worse ways to spend the day than walking in the snow with his breath puffing in the air and an attractive vampire clinging to his back. Ezra's breath fanned against his neck.

The trees closed up around the trail until it was as if nothing existed except for the two of them and the silence. A squirrel darted for cover at their passing. The birds kept chirping and he thought he heard Ezra growling at one that had chosen a nearby branch for its perch. Whatever he said after sounded suspiciously like "chirpy little bitch." Morgan stifled a chuckle. "The problem with your misting, is that from them drugging you?" It had been bugging him since yesterday.

"I don't know." A sigh. "It's not like I've got experience with this, but it's possible. Likely even. They knew what I was even if they didn't know who." He dropped his chin onto Morgan's shoulder. "It's getting better though. I feel stronger already."

Morgan nodded. "What about your family?"

A stillness came over him. "What about them?"

"Did you want to... call them or something? Tell them where you are?"

"I don't know where I am. All these trees look the same."

Morgan couldn't glare at him when Ezra was on his back, but he thought it in his direction. "Don't be a smartass." A nip at his ear made him jump. "Shit. Stop that. I don't want to drop you." He tightened his hold on Ezra's thighs wrapped around him. Maybe this wasn't his best idea ever. "I'm getting the distinct impression you don't want to call them," he said, forcing his mind back to safer areas that didn't include the many, many ways Ezra was rubbing against him right then.

"Not yet. I..." Ezra's chin dropped onto his shoulder again as he nuzzled closer. "Once they know where I am, they'll make me go home. And I don't want to. Not yet." He paused. "Why don't you want to talk to yours?"

"How did you—were you snooping in my phone?"

"You have no idea how much you talk to yourself when you're cooking, do you? I don't even need vampiric hearing for that."

Morgan flushed all the way to the top of his skull. "I'm usually alone in the kitchen, okay? It's a habit. Wait. What have you heard?"

Ezra laughed darkly.

"Tell me."

"You like my ass."

"That's a given. What else?"

"Who's Theresa?"

If he had cracked through the icy surface of the lake it couldn't have chilled him any faster. "My sister." He lifted his eyes to the faded blue sky. More snow might be on the way. If there was any kind of God, it would completely bury the cabin and him inside of it. Preferably with Ezra. Naked. He had a body that was made to be naked.

Another nip on his ear brought Morgan back to the less entertaining topic of conversation.

"What? She's my sister. She got married. It's all very happy and shiny and domestic except for the part where we all still go out hunting monsters on Friday night instead of doing family dinner. Life is fan-fucking-tastic. The End." He cleared his throat. "And maybe we were supposed to do family things this week for the holidays, but I told my parents I was quitting hunting and that went ridiculously bad so I skipped town before any of the rest of my family could get an opinion at me. But it's a good thing I did or else you would still be a little vampsicle back at the cabin."

"I am grateful for that," Ezra conceded.

"Anyway, it's fine. I left a message before I left. They won't even miss me. We're good."

Ezra snorted. "You didn't even tell them in person?"

"It's self-preservation. My sister does this thing. You think everything is fine and you'll get out of the conversation unscathed and then BAM! 'What are you doing with your life, Morgan? You've got to commit, Morgan. You can't just float around forever, Morgan.'" He shrugged, shifting his grip on Ezra so he could stretch his back. "She's very traditional all of a sudden because she's got a husband or some shit. She never used to be like that. We used to understand each other. Now?" He made a dismissive noise.

Ezra's touch ghosted over Morgan's cheek and toyed with the fine hairs at the back of his neck.

"We hunt monsters for a living, for fuck's sake," he muttered, shivering at the distracting touch. "And suddenly I'm the asshole because I might want a job with health benefits someday."

"You don't enjoy it?"

"Hunting? Not really. It used to seem like the greatest thing in the world when I was little. My parents would come back with all these wild stories and we'd have big parties with all the other hunters. Celebrations. Like it was some kind of holiday just for us. I thought that's what it was. But it's really not. It's dangerous and it's fucking lonely. I get that there's shit out there and people need protecting from it. It's an important job. I just don't want it to be my life."

He looked down, watching his boots flattening the snow in the exact shape of his passing. Usually leaving footprints was bad. It meant he'd screwed up. Leave no trace. It was one of their many mottoes.

He'd gone to a regular high school. Made friends with people whose parents worked in banks and answered phones for a living. People who stayed in one place and could talk about what they did without lowering their voices.

It had never occurred to him that he could have that. It wasn't even an option. Being an accountant was like asking to be a bird. It was never going to happen.

No one had ever asked him what he wanted.

"What do you want to do then?"

Morgan started to laugh, but it dried up in his chest. "I have no clue." He thought about it. "I like doing crosswords."

"I don't think that's a job."

"No, probably not."

They crossed out of the trees and onto a footbridge over a stream choked with ice.

Ezra wriggled in his arms. "Let me down."

"Aw, but whatever you're doing right now is kinda getting me going. I like it." He stopped and let Ezra down with a groan. Something in his back screamed. He ignored it and turned to eye Ezra. "I can't believe you're not cold like that."

"Vampire constitution."

"Handy."

"Sometimes." He drilled into the crust of ice on the bridge with one sharp heel. Shot a grin at Morgan. The tip of his nose was turning pink and the breeze ruffled his hair like a gentle hand. In the weak winter sun, he looked like marble, the light catching on every shadowy vein beneath his olive skin. "I thought maybe you could use a rest from carrying me." He picked up a dried leaf, twirling it between his fingers before he dropped it into the water moving sluggishly beneath the bridge. "It's pretty here."

Morgan stood next to him at the railing. The stream narrowed and cut between the trees in the same direction they were heading, but for now the rest of the world lay out of sight. His hand settled over Ezra's. "Yeah, it is."

*****

THE DOOR JINGLED MERRILY as they fell through it and into the store. It was a smallish convenience store slash gift shop that apparently did brisk enough business in the off season to warrant staying open year round. Morgan hadn't realized this area had anything worthy of tourism—besides perhaps the residents' own wishful thinking.

"Charming," Ezra purred. Morgan shot him a quelling look. Ezra's mouth instantly snapped shut and his wind-flushed face got even pinker.

Morgan nodded to the elderly lady watching them from the register and grabbed a shopping basket from beside the door before heading into the nearest aisle. Ezra's heels clicked after him.

"Oh look, they sell commemorative bottle openers," Ezra whispered in his ear. "And painted rocks. How perfectly thoughtful."

"What kind of cereal do you want?" Morgan asked, ignoring him.

In answer, Ezra waved a hand that took in the entire shelf. "One of those. It all tastes the same to me anyway." He held up a package of curly straws that had been hanging from a display at the end of the aisle. "Do humans really use all of these things?" He turned them over as though searching for directions.

"It depends on the human. You act like you've never seen a store before."

Ezra blinked cat-like eyes at him. "I haven't. Not like this." Then he smiled and pushed the straws at Morgan. "Buy them for me."

"What? Why?"

"Because I want them."

There was a tug on the basket as Ezra pulled it from his hands. "Don't go buying anything expensive."

"Is that even possible in a place like this?"

"I don't know, but something tells me you could find a way."

Ezra grinned and floated off ahead of him, depositing one of the rocks he'd just been disparaging into the basket before moving on again.

Morgan followed. He was happy to observe and occasionally shake his head when Ezra made a grab for something too ridiculous. "No tiny shaving cream," he declared, averting his eyes to avoid the hopeful look Ezra aimed at him. "I brought my own. The tiny ones cost too much."

And a little while later: "Do you even eat corn chips, let alone hot ones? Or sunflower seeds? Or... this—what is this?" He held up the little can to read the label. "This isn't food. This is a cake of air freshener. You can't eat this." He put it back on the shelf.

Ezra turned from the display of cheap sunglasses and spun to face him. "Which do you like better? These or these?" he asked, swapping the mirrored aviators he had on for a different pair with circular black plastic frames dotted with rhinestones. He tilted his head up at an angle, hand held beneath his chin like he was modeling for a magazine spread instead of standing in a combination gift and grocery store. When Morgan didn't answer he tossed his head and put the aviators back on. "Well? Which?"

"You look good in everything." Morgan cleared his throat and looked away. "Why don't you get both?"

"Don't mind if I do."

Ezra hummed his way through the rest of the store and Morgan stopped trying to keep track of how much everything would cost and let himself enjoy the experience of being normal. With a vampire. But normal. His kind of normal.

He wanted this to be his life. The shopping and arguing over cereal and getting caught checking out Ezra's ass as he stretched to reach something on a shelf. He could see himself with Ezra. Not just for a few days or in this little snow globe world they'd built. He could see months, years, maybe more, all decorated with the silly smile Ezra had on his face right now, tongue poking out between tooth and fang.

Stay.

The plea kept popping up on his tongue. His throat was getting raw from swallowing it back down.

Stay with me.

Stay.

Please stay.

It wasn't fair. He couldn't ask Ezra to do that any more than he could do it himself, but that didn't stop the wanting or the ache in his chest, the spot that Ezra had already claimed somehow. It was fast. Too fast. He'd always thought this kind of thing would happen slow for him if it happened at all.

By the time they made it to the register, the basket was filled to the top. Morgan eyed it with unease. "You realize we're gonna have to carry all of this back, right?"

Ezra scoffed. "I can carry it. That hardly weighed anything."

Vampire strength. Right.

Ezra went rigid, eyes widening in some sudden realization, before he scampered back into the aisles and left Morgan to make awkward small talk with the lady at the register as she rang everything up. Morgan smiled pleasantly. "Nice weather today. First time I was able to get out with all the snow."

"Temperature will be going back up again after today. Should melt most of it. Better enjoy it while you can."

Morgan nodded. "Yeah."

Then Ezra careened into his back. He slapped something onto the counter. "You're very well stocked," he said, that same sly smile curving his lips as he nudged the box of condoms and lube further across the counter.

The woman didn't even bat an eye, for which Morgan was eternally grateful. Especially since he couldn't say the same for himself.

Barely one step outside the store, Morgan felt the vibration of an incoming message on his phone. Lots of incoming messages. He clenched his teeth and waited for them to stop. Service at the cabin was spotty and the whole point of running away had been to be unreachable so he'd left his phone turned off until today. He'd known the silence could only last so long.

His heart rate skyrocketed before he even pulled the phone from his pocket.

Shit.

Ezra pointed ahead. "There's a coffee shop over there. Let's go in." When he caught the look on Morgan's face, his enthusiasm withered. He looked like all the light had gone out of his world. "What is it?"

Morgan turned off his phone again and shoved it back into his pocket. "It's nothing. Just my family."

Ezra nodded in understanding. They really were a perfect match. He couldn't even tell Ezra to call his family when he could barely stand to read a text from his own.

Morgan forced a laugh. "Since when do you drink coffee?"

"Since never. Caffeine makes me unbelievably jittery. But they might have muffins. I like muffins. They're spongy. And cranberries look like little blood clots."

He could have done without that last comment.

"Fine. But only for a minute. I want to get back to the cabin." A few words and Ezra was back to sparkling at him. This time Morgan's laugh was sincere. "You're like a fucking puppy. I should get you a collar."

Ezra's eyes widened, breath catching in his throat as he skidded to a stop. "Really?" he breathed. His lips glistened where he'd licked them.

"It was—" a joke, was what he meant to say, but he hadn't finished the thought before it was followed by another, of Ezra on his knees, black leather around his throat, and that open and pleading look on his face again. It was the same look barely peering out of his dark eyes now. Maybe Morgan wasn't joking after all.

He needed to kiss him. Immediately. So Morgan did. One hand found the back of Ezra's neck as he pulled him in, the bag of groceries slowly getting crushed between them.

When he drew back again, Ezra's face was pink with pleasure. "What was that for?"

"Because you're perfect." Morgan stroked his cheek.

"I'm not..." He shook his head, wild hair falling into his eyes.

"For me you are."