Page 1 of Inhuman Nature

Prologue

Shrewsbury, England

Fifteen Years Earlier

Happy Eighteenth, my beautiful boy. I’m looking forward to seeing you tonight – LW

Shaun flushed as he read the words on his laptop screen.

It was far from the most explicit message Lawrence had sent him, but it held the most promise.

A long time coming, too.

No more clandestine video calls over crappy webcams with one pixel between them. After months of talking online, Shaun was getting his wish to meet in person.

However, Shaun wasn’t just about to meet his boyfriend for the first time. He’d been let in on the sort of secret that few in this world knew.

Shaun was meeting with a vampire.

It sounded fake, of course. Shaun knew that. He’d scoffed when Lawrence had first claimed as much, presuming it to be some form of role play. But then came the photos and the video evidence. Elongating fangs. Preternatural speed. Claws growing before Shaun’s very eyes. He’d even seenLawrence drink blood from a wine glass, which was sort of disgusting, but also cool.

Shaun often thought about what it would be like when Lawrence drank from him. He’d practiced for it by pressing the tines of a fork into his wrist to mimic the pain of a bite. Even though he doubted the dull prongs compared to Lawrence’s sharp fangs, imagining teeth in their place always led to Shaun running to his bedroom to deal with the resulting hard-on.

He’d spent much of his last few months in a similar state whenever Lawrence sent him a new message, but one could only take so many lengthy showers before one’s dad made a pointed joke about contributing to the electric bill. So, on this occasion, Shaun abstained.

He typed out a reply to Lawrence, his fingers skittering over the worn keys as he wrote and deleted and rewrote the message before sending it off.

I can’t wait to see you either!

Shaun yanked his empty rucksack out of his closet and set it on the bed, open and ready for his things to be packed. Lawrence hadn’t revealed their destination, but he’d promised a few nights away together for a birthday present. He’d sworn Shaun to secrecy, which Shaun had readily agreed to, because his mum would never let him go out with his much older boyfriend.

Not that she could even know about the whole vampire thing. She would be unhappy enough that Lawrence looked around thirty—she didn’t need to know he was actually acentury old. In Shaun’s view, that made the age gap more acceptable. And it wasn’t like Lawrence would ever appear any older, either.

Lawrence wasn’t supposed to have told Shaun about the paranormal world at all, but he hadn’t wanted there to be any lies between them. According to whatever laws the vampires had in place, Lawrence would get into a lot of trouble for having revealed himself to Shaun. But he had done so regardless of the danger. For Lawrence to take such a risk, Shaun knew it meant something special.

“Shaun, you awake yet?” His mum’s voice through his door had him flailing.

“Just a second!” He threw his rucksack back into his wardrobe, hiding any evidence of his plans. After throwing a hoodie on over his pyjamas, he schooled his expression and opened the door.

“Happy birthday!” she said, drawing him into a hug.

He rose on his tiptoes and rested his chin on her head. “Thanks,” he mumbled into her hair. He sensed her wanting to say something, so stepped back. “Go on. Get it all out of your system.”

“You’re so grown up! How did this happen? Five minutes ago, you were a tiny little baby. I can’t believe it!” She paused. “Right, that’s all I’ve got. No more sentimentality.”

Shaun didn’t bother stifling his grin. “I bet you’ll last ten minutes.”

“At least a quarter of an hour,” she promised. “Dad’s in the kitchen getting breakfast ready. Coming?”

“Sure.” He followed her down the hallway towards the kitchen. Their bungalow wasn’t large, but his mum had filledevery available space with mismatched knick-knacks and overflowing bookcases, and she’d painted the walls and doors in bright colours from banana yellow to hot pink.

“Happy birthday!” his dad called over his shoulder from where he stood at the counter, stirring something in a big ceramic bowl. Shaun noted the pile of wrapped presents on the kitchen table, but he homed in on the other presence in the room.

“Oh,” his mum said, nodding towards it, “what do you think?”

“We got the right one, didn’t we?” his dad asked.

Shaun’s mouth moved, but no noise came out.