Page 28 of Inhuman Natures #1

Rake

“He isn’t going to come back tonight, is he?” DJ asked Rake as he looked out the window, the orange glow of the streetlights reflecting against his skin. It had been two days since Shaun had sought out Lynette and the other vampires. They’d heard nothing since.

“I doubt it,” Rake said. Something told him that nothing was right about the situation at all. His uneasy mood probably stemmed from his sleeplessness, though he didn’t want to discount his instincts.

DJ started to pace the room. “I want to do more.”

“I’m not sure there’s anything we can do,” Rake said, wracking his brain. “He told us to wait, act normal, and stay inside when it gets dark.”

DJ whirled on him. “For how long? A few more days? Weeks?”

“I have as much information as you do.”

“Ugh.”

“Do you need me to do something?” Rake asked. “Something in my power to do, I mean.”

“Like?” DJ drew the word out .

“Sex?”

“You don’t have a magical dick, Rake. It won’t solve anything.” DJ puffed out his cheeks, giving him the appearance of an over-stuffed squirrel.

“You’re tense. Sex usually calms you down.”

“True. But I can’t wait around any longer. We need to help Shaun. We should reconsider going to the club.”

Rake sighed. “He told us not to tell anyone that he told us about vampires. If we ask around, won’t they get suspicious? It could put him in more danger.”

“What about werewolves?” DJ asked suddenly.

Rake stared at him. “ What about werewolves?”

“I dunno. Was thinking they might help us fight the vampires if it came down to it.”

“ Twilight is not a how-to guide, Deej.” Rake knew this because DJ’d sat him down over the past couple of evenings and made him watch the films. He’d hated every moment of them, but at least now he understood some of DJ’s references.

“What if Lawrence caught Shaun before he even got to the club?” DJ asked, fiddling with the drawstring of his hoodie.

Rake had been unwilling to let his thoughts go there. “I—” He ran his hands through his hair. He didn’t know how to voice his worries.

“We need to try something. Anything,” DJ insisted.

Rake sighed. “I did have a thought about asking Van if she knew how to remotely access Lawrence’s computer. Remember, she told us she was in that ethical hacking society at uni? Could help us find some dirt on Lawrence and give us some leverage.”

“Van did give herself the job title of ‘Magical Lesbian Hacker Queen’ in my contacts when she added her number,” DJ said, scrolling through his phone.

“Of course she did.”

“Perfect. We have a plan A. But I’m gonna propose a plan B.”

Rake nodded. “Yeah?”

“We break into Lawrence’s house and see if Shaun’s there.”

Rake blinked.

“During the day, of course,” DJ added. “It’ll be completely safe.”

“ Safe ,” Rake echoed, incredulous.

DJ bobbed his head from side to side. “As safe as it can be, breaking into the house of a maniacal vampire who wants to kill us.”

Rake rubbed at his brow. “Do you know how to break into someone’s house?”

“…No.”

“So we’re back to plan A.”

DJ clicked his fingers. “Didn’t Sophie once tell us a story about breaking into an ex-boyfriend’s house to retrieve her favourite vintage coat?”

“She was wasted when she told us that,” Rake pointed out.

“Doesn’t mean it wasn’t the truth. We can do the same for Shaun—go get his stuff back from the house.”

“Fine, but that is firmly plan B, okay? We speak to Van first.”

“Sure. Van first. Then Sophie and plan B,” DJ said, nodding furiously.

“But we’re both hoping plan A works out,” Rake clarified.

“Sure,” DJ repeated .

“Sweetheart.”

“Yes, Sir?” DJ asked, his eyes shining with poorly disguised excitement.

Rake sighed. “We’ll speak to them tomorrow at work.”

The corners of DJ’s mouth tipped up. It was the first time he’d smiled since Shaun had left.

Rake realised then that he didn’t want to go a day without seeing one of DJ’s smiles ever again. He’d grown so used to them that he’d taken it for granted.

They would find out what had happened to Shaun, and then Rake would make sure to give DJ a reason to smile every day for the rest of their lives.

Should be simple enough.

The next day at work, they ushered Van over to one of the smaller corners of the cafe. Rake had texted her ahead of time, and even bought a vegan wrap for her, as DJ had advised buttering her up. The cafe wasn’t busy, but Rake eyed a table of developers to their right as he sat down.

“Why are you two acting so suspicious?” Van asked. “Should I be readying myself for some corporate espionage?”

Rake grimaced, shifting his gaze to the developers again. Thankfully, none of them so much as glanced their way.

Van lowered her voice. “You guys aren’t actually doing anything illegal, are you?”

“Yes, we are,” DJ confirmed, shooting her some finger guns.

Rake sighed. At both the horrendous use of finger guns, and the half-baked plan he was about to admit to having concocted. “As I said in my message—we need your help with something.”

“I’m down for a bit of crime.” Van looked far too enthused at the prospect of breaking the law. It probably made her the perfect person to ask for help.

By mutual agreement, neither Rake nor DJ had mentioned Shaun to their friends yet.

It had originally been due to the whole meeting-for-the-first-time-in-a-kink-club thing, and then it was the we’re-not-just-kinky-we-might-also-be-polyamorous thing, and most recently it was because of the whole turns-out-the-guy-we-like-is-actually-a-vampire-being-hunted-by-his-murderous-creator thing.

A complicated situation, all considered.

But now, they needed to share.

Before Rake could introduce the subject himself, however, DJ blurted out, “We’ve started seeing someone.”

Van’s face lit up. “Oh my god, I’m so happy for you! Who are they?”

Rake’s face heated as DJ spoke. “His name is Shaun. He’s adorable. It’s new, but we like him.”

“You guys haven’t always been poly, have you?”

“Nope. And not to go into details, but”—DJ paused for what was clearly intended to be dramatic effect—“it’s fan-tas-tic.” He enunciated every syllable like it was a separate word. Rake agreed with DJ’s statement, no matter how he said it.

“So, when do I get to meet him?” Van asked, and DJ’s face fell. Seeing it made Rake even more determined to go through with the plan.

“That’s the thing,” Rake said. “He’s in a bit of trouble.”

Van narrowed her eyes. “Is this where the crime comes in? Don’t tell me you met online, and he’s asking for money?”

“No!” DJ said. “He’s not a catfish. We met him in real life. But he’s got this…problem. A problem person. A personal problem.”

“What?”

“It’s Shaun’s”—Rake swallowed, hardly able to say the next word because of how inaccurate it felt—“ex-boyfriend. Lawrence isn’t a good person.

I thought if you could help us get into his laptop, then we could get some info on him and make sure he doesn’t bother Shaun again.

” That felt like a reasonable explanation, whilst also not being an outright lie.

“Look, I’m not one to suggest going to the police willy-nilly, but surely this is a matter they should deal with?”

“We can’t go to the police. For reasons,” DJ said, as if that explanation would allay any of Van’s concerns.

Rake scrubbed a hand over his face. “We can’t inform the police, because Lawrence has connections. He was abusive to Shaun, but we can’t do anything that will put Shaun on anyone’s radar.”

Van’s expression hardened. “Okay, sign me up. I’ll help with whatever’s needed. Is there a chance of getting our hands on the hardware, though? If we have the laptop, it’s gonna make this a lot easier.”

DJ turned to Rake, delighted. “Plan B?”

“Breaking and entering,” Rake lamented. “How have we got to the point where this is our only option?”

“Do you have any experience of breaking into a house?” DJ asked Van brightly.

Van gave him a droll look. “Oh yeah, let me go get my CV for you. Details all my past criminal activity. ”

As if on cue, Sophie rushed into the cafe, head swivelling before her gaze landed on them. She came over and sat down next to Van. “Sorry I’m late, DJ. Got held up in a meeting.”

DJ pulled a huge bar of chocolate out of his bag and slid it over to her. “Your bribe,” he said.

“Deej, you engineered this,” Rake said, realising he’d been played.

“Sorry, babe,” DJ said, smiling sheepishly. “Plan A was never going to work.”

Sophie opened up the chocolate and popped a square into her mouth. “I’m a bit pissed you guys had me down as the backup plan. A mission to get your guy’s stuff back sounds fun.”

“You were never the backup in my mind,” DJ assured her.

Rake gritted his teeth, then almost cracked a tooth when David came into the cafe. “Don’t tell me you told him, too?” Rake hissed.

“I thought that if we were bringing Van and Sophie in on this, we might as well also ask David for his help.”

“Why?” Rake said.

“He can be our getaway driver.”

“One of us can drive. It’ll be fine,” Rake said, hurrying to get the words out before David was done paying for his sandwich.

“Rake. You know David feels left out when we do things without him.” DJ turned pleading eyes on him.

“Fine. But he stays in the car. He’s far too loud to come into the house with us.”

“We’re gonna be like the Famous Five,” DJ said with a wistful expression on his face .

“Sure,” Van agreed. “If the Famous Five were known for their minor misdemeanours.”

When David sat down next to DJ, Rake used his leg to pull DJ’s chair closer to his own. David noticed and raised an eyebrow in their direction. Rake couldn’t tell if he was making fun of him or not. He let it go, anyway. They had more important issues to focus on.

“So, why exactly is everyone being all shifty?” David asked. “Your messages were super vague.”

“We’re planning a crime,” DJ said with his trademark blinding smile.

“Um, what?”

Rake sighed. If they were going to do this, then he needed to make sure everyone was on the same page.

“DJ and I are seeing someone, but he’s in trouble.

We’re going to break into his shitty ex’s place and steal his stuff back, as well as taking Lawrence’s laptop to get some leverage over him. There. Everyone is caught up.”

“What the hell are you on about?” David said, mid bite of his sandwich. “You get a new boyfriend and suddenly decide that you’re gonna be gay and do crimes?”

“Bi and do crimes, in my case,” DJ corrected. Rake gave David an appropriately judgemental glare.

David huffed. “You know what I mean.”

“You can use a lock pick, right?” Van asked Sophie.

Sophie grinned. “Indeed I can.”

“And you’ll be the getaway driver?” DJ asked David, batting his eyelashes a little.

David’s mouth pursed, but he nodded.

“Brilliant. So when are we doing this?” Van asked .

“Tomorrow,” DJ said decisively. “Saturday.”

Rake looked around at the faces of his friends and acquaintance. “Tomorrow,” he agreed .

Fucking Plan B.