A piercing blade of bright light woke Vince. He squinted irritably at the source of it, a break in between mostly closed curtains. The sage green color of the drapes looked wrong for some reason, and he finally remembered he wasn’t in his old room anymore. He sat up and looked around himself in wonder.
It was unreal how fast things had changed after those few, simple words to Zach. ‘My mom and I want to move to Brookhaven.’ He hadn’t even told him in person, he’d just sent a text message. After that, magic happened and they had brand new furniture, a whole team of people to help them pack their belongings, get rid of their old furniture, clean their old place, and move everything over here. In less than a day. If that wasn’t magic, he didn’t know what was.
He heard movement in the other room and decided to get up. His tired, stiff muscles tried their best to keep him from moving properly, but he was used to pain and exhaustion. If he stayed in bed every time he felt this way, he’d never do anything.
Boxes were shoved up against his walls, on top of his new dresser, and inside the opened closet. He didn’t have a lot of stuff, but you’d think he did by looking at his unpacked room. He hadn’t wanted anyone touching his things last night, and he hadn’t had the energy to do much beyond making his bed so he could go to sleep, so there everything was waiting for him now.
He threw on a pair of jeans and joined his mom in the kitchen. She turned and smiled one of the happiest smiles he’d seen on her in a long, long time, which only reinforced the fact that he’d made the right decision in coming here.
“Honey!” She reached out and gave him a big hug.
“Good morning, mom.”
She pulled back and looked around herself in amazement, then went back to unpacking a box of dishes. His attention was drawn to the percolations of the coffee pot, with an empty mug sitting beside it. “Is that for me?”
“Yes. I wasn’t sure when you’d be up.”
He reached for the cup and filled it up with his lifeblood, black coffee, then watched her for a time while it cooled. She was busily moving things around the way she liked them, opening cupboards and drawers, sometimes just to look at how big the space was, and occasionally catching his eye. The air was thick with all the emotions she had turning in her this morning.
He took a sip of coffee, then tried to break the tension. “This is a nice place.”
She immediately went still, then slowly looked at him.
He said, “We’ll give it a try. If things go south, we’ll take off and find a way to survive.”
She silently nodded. They’d already talked this through, all the good and bad things that could happen being here in the midst of a bunch of supernaturals they didn’t really know. By now, there wasn’t much else to say about it.
He noticed a brand new kitchen towel draped over her shoulder and smiled. “You’ve been wanting new towels.”
She turned her head to his glance and got a little smile. “Ed asked what my favorite color was.”
Her cheeks turned rosy pink at the mention of Ed. He chuckled, gave her another hug, and turned to help her unpack when a knock at the door surprised them both.
Zach, Ed, and a woman jaguar around his mom’s age stood in the doorway with bags of hot food.
“Hey everyone. Thought you might be hungry.” Zach walked in like he lived here, Ed and the woman trailed more tentatively behind.
Zach directed the woman to put the food on the table after he moved some boxes off it. As soon as she did, she turned to Vince and said, “You must Vince. I’m Lauren, Zach’s mother.”
He immediately wished he’d bothered to put a shirt on as he shook her hand. “Ma’am. Nice to meet you.”
Her smile was warm and her eyes were kind as she said, “Now don’t get all nervous around me. Whatever Zach inherited to make him alpha wasn’t from my side, I can assure you. We’re just so glad to have you two here.”
She wrapped both hands around his and gave him a little squeeze, his heart sinking at the thought of what he’d inherited from his own father that possibly hadn’t manifested yet.
When she introduced herself to his mom, and everyone became distracted with situating the food, he slunk back to his room to find a clean shirt.
Zach followed him in and quietly said, “I’m glad you guys decided to move in.”
He turned around and was surprised by how serious he looked. And tired. “You’re not normally up this time of day, are you?”
He shrugged. “I’m up when I need to be up.” He fought a yawn. “I’m usually sleeping during the day, though.”
Vince looked around his new room as he tried to remember where his shirts were. This place was a thousand times nicer than their old place, not to mention all the new furniture. He almost felt guilty for constantly mistrusting Zach and giving him such a hard time. The others were still making noise in the other room, but just in case, he stepped closer and quietly said, “You promise to protect my mom? From anyone?”
Zach frowned. “Yeah. That’s what family’s for. Why? What’s bugging you?”
He stared him down for a time, then said, “Nothing.” Now wasn’t the time to talk about his homicidal father. There were too many people here, and he didn’t want to upset his mom by bringing it up. She’d had enough stress in life to worry about and this should be her time to finally relax.
He turned back to a box on his dresser and rifled through it. He couldn’t remember if these were his clean or dirty clothes because he’d just thrown everything randomly together last night. He gave a couple shirts a sniff and decided it was his clean pile. He slid it on while Zach closed the door.
“I want you to try drinking blood.”
“What?”
“Blood. We’re supernatural creatures and blood holds power in it. It can also heal… sometimes. It can make people stronger anyway. I want you to try it.”
He was sure his face couldn’t look any more disgusted than it was.
“It’s not as bad as you think. In fact, after the first time, some people even start to crave it.”
“Oh God, stop.” He waited for Zach to make some joke about it and tell him he was kidding, but Zach was either too tired, or this wasn’t a joking matter to him, which was unnerving.
“Think about it. If that’s all it took to heal you, wouldn’t you want to try it?”
“Have you ever drank blood?” As soon as he asked that, he remembered the vampire Benicio telling him that he’d torn into Anthony’s arm and drank his blood recently. He kept that to himself.
“Of course. I’ve had Anthony’s blood more times than I can count over the years. And when I’m shifted into my cat, when I make a kill in the forest… of course I’ve had blood.”
A vision of Zach running as a powerful, sleek jaguar brought back the sharp sting of always being an outsider in a world he was supposed to belong to.
“I thought you were going to force my shift on me at full moon. Won’t that heal me?”
He wasn’t comforted by the uncertainty in Zach’s eyes. “Maybe. But even if I can get you to shift, I don’t know if that’ll fix everything. We just don’t know.”
**
They all ate breakfast around the new dining room table, and he hated to admit he liked the feel of all these jaguars together. This group of people that were all cat made it feel like home to him even though he didn’t know them very well. It was like when he first realized how to tell a jaguar’s scent from other animals. Everything about them felt right. Their scent, their movements, their comfortableness with each other… It was as if they’d known each other all their lives.
When everyone started disbanding, he texted Penny. She said she couldn’t come by today because she was with family, which was more than likely a nice way to tell him she wasn’t interested anymore, so he was on his own tonight. That was ok. Lauren invited him over to her place for Christmas Eve dinner with her and Zach and their family and friends, but as much as he liked this sense of community, things were happening too fast. He wasn’t ready to let his guard down yet, and going to the alpha’s mother’s place felt just a little too close for comfort.
Besides, he felt like he was now in charge of looking out for both his and his mom’s safety. She’d been the one to insist they not trust too quickly, but she was falling into this like she had no fear. Maybe she didn’t. Maybe she’d decided to hell with the hard life they’d had, especially since it seemed like she’d found someone to love.
She and Ed were all into each other today, smiling and laughing, Ed sometimes grabbing her into his big arms and just hugging her until she pulled away, especially whenever she looked Vince’s way. Their affection for each other was cute, but he also found it irritating, which made him feel like crap. He shouldn’t be upset at his mom for finding love so fast, and with a seemingly decent guy.
Penny came to mind again and he scowled. Would he always struggle with absolutely everything in life because of his handicap? Women? Friends? Shifting…?
He went down to the club so he didn’t spoil his mom’s mood, and had been nursing a beer for a while when Kaia and Anthony stepped out of the vampire hall. Kaia didn’t notice him right away, but Anthony’s eyes locked on him. His expressionless face looked inhuman and intense. It wasn’t until Kaia finally noticed Vince and guided them over to say hello that Anthony seemed even remotely human.
And Kaia was going to let herself be turned into that?
Vince went back home a while after that and was surprised to see Zach waiting inside with an attractive woman. She had dark hair and dark eyes, and seemed happy to be here.
“What’s up?”
He gestured to the woman. “Bobbi’s going to let you drink from her.”
“What?”
“Blood. Remember? You said you’d try it.”
Vince stared in horror at her.
Zach said, “Bobbi’s pack.”
“Well that makes it all better.” Her being in Zach’s pack was at least better than being one of the other animals, but he hadn’t really thought this through when he’d relented earlier today and agreed to this.
“You promised to keep my…” He clenched his teeth, too mad and embarrassed to finish his sentence.
“And I have. Lots of shifters have blood, Vince. People who are at a lower supernatural strength, like you, have blood from someone at a higher level to help their magic get stronger. We’re not sure if it’ll help with your stomach aches or not.”
He pursed his lips. He supposed her knowing what some of his problems were was ok. “Fine. Ok. Fine.” Gross. How was he going to do this? He needed to try, but staring at this beautiful woman, and imagining drinking her blood seemed all kinds of wrong.
She gave him a sympathetic smile and he looked away in fury. He refused to be treated like he was handicapped, even though he was, but his mom watching them from the living room with such an eagerness in her eyes made a fire burn inside him. He’d do this for her because she’d helped him with so much in life. He could make himself try this on the off chance that she could finally focus on her own needs and not have to worry about him anymore.
Still, he didn’t like this feeling of everyone trying to ‘help’ him. He shouldn’t need help, dammit.
He muttered in defeat, “Just tell me what to do.”
Bobbi thankfully didn’t have pity in her eyes as Zach gestured for Vince to sit on the ground. He then produced an extremely sharp knife from his pocket and put it to her wrist as she sat at the dining room table, and to her credit, she didn’t even wince at the sight of it.
“I thought it would be in a glass or something, not fresh from the tap.”
Bobbi gave him a smile, the tension in the room easing a bit, though he seemed to be the only one who was mad tonight.
Zach said, “All right, here we go. I’m going to slice her wrist and then gravity will do some of the work while you do the rest. Are you ready?”
He looked uncertainly at her.
She said, “Don’t worry about me. I’ll heal. It’ll sting at first, but I’ll be fine. I’m here for you.”
“Why though? You don’t even know me.”
“We’re pack. That’s all that matters.”
He didn’t think of Zach’s pack as his pack. In fact, he didn’t think of himself belonging to anything even remotely close to a pack because he wasn’t an animal. He was human.
Yet here he sat, about to drink blood. The world narrowed down to him wondering what the hell he was doing, but he got ready anyway.
Zach poised the knife against the flesh of Bobbi’s wrist. “Let’s do this.”
He thought there might be a big to do, but Zach just sliced her, Bobbi hissed, and the next thing he knew, her wrist was shoved against his mouth.
Zach bellowed, “Drink.”
He swallowed the warm liquid down, sickened by the fact that he wasn’t grossed out by the taste of it.
A large swallow was followed by another, followed by the beginnings of something strange happening in his stomach. He kept swallowing. Whatever was going on, surely it was good for him.
He swallowed quickly because he was starting to feel dizzy. His heart raced and his stomach…
He raced to the kitchen sink and heaved harder than he had in his whole life. Thick, dark blood splashed against the stainless steel basin, some splattering along the outer edges and up, onto the counter. He couldn’t even control his gasps as his stomach felt like it was turning inside out. Good God, why couldn’t he just heal?
Zach cursed in the background as Vince kept heaving.
**
The rest of the night was spent in bed, shaking in cold sweats. Christmas day was a little better. He didn’t feel like puking, anyway. The protein shakes Ed was so good at making stayed down to his surprise, and he luckily had a few days to rest since the holiday rush was over at work. If he’d had to go in, he probably would’ve been sent home for how horrible he looked.
When Ed was off doing something for a while, Vince and his mom exchanged Christmas gifts, which wasn’t much for either of them. A new shirt for him, a necklace and a feel good book of inspirational quotes for her. Just because they lived in these fancy digs now didn’t mean they had any money, though it sounded like Anthony was working on setting something up for them.
It felt weird and oddly depressing to be taken care of like this. They were totally dependent on someone else for their very lives. Zach insisted it wasn’t weird since they were now family, but Vince didn’t like it. He wanted to be able to take care of himself, which was why he wasn’t ready to quit his job. His mom quit one of her jobs, though, and from the sounds of it she might throw in the towel on the other one, too.
He couldn’t blame her, but he didn’t like it.