Page 117 of Inhuman Nature

“You look like you’re going to pass out on me. The last thing I need right now is for you to be unconscious, too.”

Shaun’s face cycled through emotions. Relief, guilt and, finally, understanding. He slumped on the sofa with his hands around his stomach and curled into DJ. Rake spared a glance for Kit, making sure he hadn’t died on them. Kit’s face was blank, even as his legs continued to right themselves. Judging by Rake’s own throbbing skull, it had to hurt. Kit, however, betrayed nothing.

Rake went back to his task, DJ’s blood tasting cleaner with every suck. He didn’t notice DJ was awake until the weight of a familiar hand brushed his head. “Rake?” DJ croaked, voice sounding worse than it did after he pulled an all-nighter.

“Deej, you’re all right,” Rake said, looking up.

DJ’s eyes were wide, his pupils so large they eclipsed the brown. He sprang to his feet. “What happened? Shaun! How are you here? Where’s Lawrence?”

“He’s dead,” Shaun said. “Proper dead.Deaddead.”

“That’s the important part,” Rake said. “He’s gone, and we’re all still here.”

“Well, apart from Lynette,” Kit said, pointing to a pile of ash in the middle of the floor. DJ had stepped right throughit, spreading the dusted bones across the rug.

“I’m standing in Lynette? Mistress Lynette?” DJ said, voice rising. In his panic, he walked through the ashes again.

“Oh,” Shaun said, pressing a bloody hand to his mouth. Rake couldn’t tell if he was trying not to laugh, or was horrified. Maybe both. Either way, Rake needed to take control of the situation.

He sprang from the sofa and picked up a wriggling DJ, bringing him back to the couch and putting him back between him and Shaun. “It’s okay,” he said.

“‘It’s okay’, he says,” DJ cried. “I just walked through a dead vampire. There’s another dead vampire somewhere else in the house. Oh, and to top it all off,I’ma vampire. I also— Wait, you picked me up.You’rea vampire. Oh my god. We’re all vampires. Jesus.” He threw both hands over his face.

“Um,” Rake said eloquently.

“I was too late to get him to a hospital in time,” Shaun said. “So, yeah, he’s a vampire too.”

DJ scrabbled to bring Shaun into their embrace, the three of them lying on the sofa in a tangle of limbs. Shaun shook like he was cold, and DJ vibrated with excess energy. They were all covered in drying blood and gore, which made Rake’s skin itch, but he held them both close.

After a few seconds, DJ started to sob. “I’m so sorry I almost killed you.”

“What?” Rake grabbed DJ’s face with both hands. “That wasn’t you. You weren’t in control. That was all Lawrence.”

“It would have been by my hand! Or… teeth,” DJ said, letting out a wet laugh, which led to more crying. Rake kept holding him, pressing DJ’s face into his shoulder as Shaun bracketed him in from the other side.

“It’s okay,” Rake said again, not knowing what else there was to say.

“We’re all together, and that’s what matters,” Shaun added.

DJ turned his head towards Shaun. “I was losing my mind when you disappeared.”

“Me too. About you, I mean.”

“I’m so glad you’re safe,” DJ said.

“I’m fine, in case anyone was wondering,” Kit said loudly.

DJ grinned. “It’s good to see you too, Kitty boy.”

“What the fuck did you just call me?”

“Kitty boy.”

“If I could walk right now, I’d come over there and slap you.”

“Kit, what happened with Lawrence’s new creations?” Shaun asked, providing an obvious distraction.

“We corralled them into one place,” Kit answered, still glaring at DJ. “That’s when it became apparent DJ wasn’t with them. Still don’t know how they got to the other side of the city so fast, though. They were running around Hove, terrorising the pensioners.”