Page 31 of Inhuman Natures #1

DJ’s quick scan of the documents earlier hadn’t appeared promising, so he began with the photos this time.

There were a few maps of Brighton, which DJ skipped past, despite Rake wanting to study the odd lines that followed no clear route.

DJ didn’t think they’d find any answers there.

When he moved to the next photo, however, he wished he’d stayed on the maps.

He inhaled a sharp breath as he looked at the scan of an old Polaroid.

For a second, he thought it was of Shaun.

But, no, it was a similar-looking boy who couldn’t be much older than a teenager.

It had a name and date scrawled on the bottom.

Christopher Coren, 1990. Then there was another.

Same boy, with a year of 1993. And then back again to 1989.

The most recent date was in the late nineties.

“He looks like Shaun,” DJ whispered.

Rake didn’t answer, just made an unhappy noise in the back of his throat.

DJ clicked through photo after photo, trepidation churning in his gut. Most of the photos were of the same boy, interspersed with some innocuous ones of various landscapes at night. According to this, even vampires were partial to taking shitty photographs of the moon.

The boy wore the same expression that DJ had recognised in Shaun’s eyes when he’d first seen him at the club—complete and utter defeat.

DJ didn’t want to pry into the unfortunate soul’s life more than was necessary, but he felt compelled to scroll through each photo.

In some, the boy wore almost nothing, so DJ skipped past them.

Others he lingered on, trying to determine if there was any information to glean from the sad story they told.

Christopher didn’t appear changed despite the years the photos spanned. If it hadn’t already been clear he was a vampire, DJ flicked to one that confirmed it. It was of a nude Christopher, eyes streaming with blood, fangs peeking out from his parted lips.

Rake slammed the lid of the laptop down. “I can’t,” was all he said, before getting up and striding out the living room door, leaving DJ blinking back tears.

He heard a muffled shout from the bedroom and rushed in to see Rake screaming into a pillow.

DJ hovered near the door, unsure whether to approach.

He couldn’t tell if this was an actual meltdown or if Rake simply needed an outlet for his feelings.

It wasn’t often Rake let his anger and frustration get to him, but occasionally everything just got a bit much for him.

Too many stimulants, too many people brushing against him in crowds, too many things happening that were out of his control.

After a few more screams, Rake went silent. But he stayed face down on the mattress, arms limp by his sides. DJ took it as a sign. “You okay with me touching you right now?” he asked as he sat gingerly on the edge of the bed.

Rake made a non-committal sound into the pillow.

DJ chanced it, reaching one hand out and laying it on the back of Rake’s neck.

Rake tensed for a moment, but relaxed once DJ started stroking down his back in soothing motions.

After a few minutes, Rake turned onto his side.

His face was puffy, but he looked like he’d calmed down.

“Thank you,” Rake said quietly.

DJ moved his hand to Rake’s chest, holding it against his heart. “Any time.”

Rake closed his eyes and pressed his own hand on top of DJ’s. “Do you think there are photos like that of Shaun?”

DJ swallowed past the lump in his throat. “I don’t want to find out.”

“What do we do here, Deej? I hate being so useless.”

“How about we start by seeing if we can contact Christopher? He might help us if he’s still around.”

Rake cracked one eye open. “How do we go about trying to get in contact with a vampire we only have a name for? He could be five hundred years old for all we know. I doubt we’ll be able to find him on Facebook.”

DJ lifted one shoulder. “It is all boomers on there these days. We might get lucky.”

Despite everything, he got a proper smile out of Rake for that. “So say we find him. What then?” Rake asked.

“Given what we saw in those photos, and from what Shaun told us, I doubt Christopher was with Lawrence by choice, either. If he’s still around, then he could speak to the other vampires for us. ”

Rake wiped a hand over his face as he nodded.

“Let’s go back and see what else we can get off the laptop,” DJ said, holding his hand out. Rake took it, his hand warm in DJ’s.

They ended up combing through the rest of the photos, which yielded little in terms of additional information about Christopher, other than how badly Lawrence treated him.

DJ’s heart was in his throat each time they moved to the next image, terrified that the face they’d see would be Shaun’s.

But there weren’t any of him, not even one.

They moved on to the documents. Most were basic things like bills they scanned for any details that could be usable, but it appeared Lawrence was just a stickler for keeping records, no matter how pointless.

Next, they checked the browser for website history, clicking on the most recent links.

Lawrence had a very conservative taste in newspapers, which wasn’t surprising.

The other sites he visited most often were various banking and investment websites which DJ couldn’t make head nor tail of.

They couldn’t get into half the sites without extra login details, so Rake navigated to the stored passwords to see if there was anything of use.

He scrolled until they stumbled upon something—one of the websites used a different email address from the others.

DJ pointed at the screen. “[email protected]. That has to be Christopher, right?”

“I would put money on it,” Rake said.

“Should we email?” DJ could barely contain his excitement. If this was Christopher’s contact, then they might just find themselves with a necessary ally .

“Let’s do it.” Rake pulled out his phone and copied the email address, then sat with the empty message, looking at DJ. “What do we say?”

“Ask if it’s Christopher and if he knows Lawrence.” DJ had no idea why Rake seemed to want him to take the lead on this, but he was more than happy to.

“That all?”

“For now. Until we know if it’s actually him.”

Rake sent the email off, and they sat there for a second before DJ laughed. “Are we just going to wait here in silence until we get a response?”

“Maybe.”

At least they didn’t get an undeliverable mail notification. DJ checked out some other sites on the laptop for a few minutes before Rake’s phone pinged with a reply.

Who is this?

“It has to be Christopher,” DJ said. “Anyone else would have ignored it, right?” He took the phone from Rake and typed out the situation, though avoided mentioning the whole vampire thing, just in case. After a quick read-over and approval from Rake, DJ pressed send and waited.

The ping of another response had his heart racing.

Meet me in Haywards Heath. Tomorrow. Midnight.

The following email had an address. DJ searched for it, finding out that it was a hotel car park .

“We have to go, right?” he asked.

Rake’s brows creased. “Seems risky.”

“But…?”

“But we should do it. For Shaun.”

DJ gave him a wide grin. “For Shaun.”