Page 39 of Inhuman Natures #1

Rake

Consciousness returned to Rake like the burst of a dam. He got to his feet before he knew where he was. The room came into focus, and he took in Shaun’s face, red with tears. Kit stood near the door to the room—Rake’s bedroom, he realised—with a look of anticipation.

“DJ,” Rake said, finding his mouth too full of teeth to speak clearly. He stretched his lips, wondering why it felt so odd. He tried again. “DJ’s a vampire.”

Shaun’s eyes went wide and his mouth opened, but Kit piped up. “Oh, that’s going to make this whole thing so much easier, actually. Shaun, do you want to do the reveal?”

“Reveal?” Rake asked, and this time there was a jolt of pain on his tongue.

Touching his mouth, he tried to work out what was amiss.

He froze when he touched a too-sharp tooth, hissing as it sliced into his finger like a knife through butter.

Drawing his finger away, he looked at the red bead of blood in confusion.

He used his thumb to wipe it away, and the incision disappeared altogether.

“Rake.” Shaun’s voice was tentative. “How are you feeling?”

Rake blinked. “I should be dead. ”

“Well, technically…” Kit said.

It all made sense. “You recreated me,” Rake said, looking at Shaun.

“I did. Are you angry?”

Rake crashed down onto the bed, needing something solid underneath him. “I’m a vampire.”

“Yay?” Kit said.

“Shut up, Kit,” Shaun said.

Kit threw his hands up and flounced out of the room.

Shaun sat down close to Rake. “Are you okay?”

Rake touched the side of his neck where DJ had bitten him. There was no evidence of it now. “I think so,” he said. It was all a bit too much to take in, but he wasn’t physically hurt.

“I had to recreate you. It was that or watch you die, and I wasn’t willing to do that.”

Rake gave Shaun what he hoped was an encouraging smile. “I didn’t want to die. I don’t know if I wanted to be a vampire either, but it sure beats dying. Permanently, anyway.”

“What happened to DJ?” Shaun asked, face crumpling.

Rake clenched his hands into fists. “Lawrence made him into a vampire.”

“Oh, god.” Shaun’s eyes welled with fresh red tears.

“Lawrence compelled DJ to drain me. Deej was trying to stop the entire time, but the bastard didn’t let him.”

“Rake, I’m so sorry. Do you know where they’ve gone?”

“No.” Rake eyed Shaun’s neck. It looked oddly inviting.

“Maybe Lawrence took him back to the house.”

“Why the fuck would he have taken him to the one place we’d know to check?” Kit called from the living room.

“Stop listening in!” Shaun yelled. “We’re having a private conversation.”

Kit came into the bedroom, huffing. “I’m helping . But do you really think Lawrence is arrogant enough to take DJ back to his house?” Kit paused. “Wait, I think I already answered my own question.”

“If you’re going to be sarcastic, you can fuck off,” Rake said.

“Don’t speak to me like that. I’m basically your uncle now,” Kit said in a haughty tone.

“Uncle?” Rake repeated, incredulous.

“Lawrence recreated both me and Shaun, making us brothers of sorts. His blood runs through our veins. Shaun has recreated you in turn. Ergo, child of my brother.” Kit pointed to himself. “That makes me your uncle.”

Rake looked at Shaun. “Still never gonna call you Daddy.”

“I would be eternally grateful for that,” Shaun said.

Eternally. Well, shit. That was the sort of time Rake might have now that he was a vampire. Then something else struck him. “Wait, by that logic, DJ’s like a brother to you both.”

Shaun made a disgusted face. “Ew.”

“And Lawrence is like your dad, and my grandad?”

“Aren’t we all such a lovely incestuous bunch,” Kit said in an overly sweet voice, clasping his hands together in front of his chest.

“ Ew ,” Shaun repeated.

“I vote we never talk about this ever again,” Rake said.

“Seconded,” Shaun said.

“Do I get a vote?” Kit asked. “If so, I suppose I agree. Lawrence was never the Daddy I wanted.”

Before Rake could question what exactly he meant by that, Kit wandered away, muttering to himself. Rake frowned. He could hear Kit as clearly as if he spoke right into his ear, listing all the ways he wanted to destroy Lawrence.

“I can hear things… very well,” Rake said.

“All your senses will be heightened. You’ll learn to suppress it when you don’t want to hear or see or smell everything in the vicinity,” Shaun explained.

Rake focused his hearing on the surrounding area. He followed the upstairs neighbours’ mundane conversation word for word, then tuned into someone creeping up the stairwell, their footsteps so soft he wouldn’t have noticed if he hadn’t been paying attention.

“It’s Lynette’s creation,” Kit said, walking past them in the hallway towards the front door. “The one who was supposed to be making sure that nothing bad happened to either of you. I think we ought to let her know how shit a job she did.”

Rake sure had the urge to make that message clear. He rushed to the door, finding himself going much faster than expected. He ended up in a head-first collision with the vampire as she rounded the landing. They both fell, limbs flailing.

Shaun shouted as Rake tumbled down the stairwell. He hit the foot of the stairs with a thud, the female vampire falling on top of him.

She bared her teeth and struck out at him.

“Hey!” Kit barrelled into the vampire and threw her against the wall.

The sound of what had to be snapping bones had Rake covering his ears.

Shaun appeared, pulling Rake up and shoving him behind him.

It was ineffectual given their size difference, but Rake appreciated the gesture.

Everyone had their fangs and claws out, the female vampire righting herself and facing off against them .

“Mistress will not be happy with this,” she said.

“See how happy she is when you tell her you let this happen,” Kit said.

“I came here directly when the sun went down,” she said, indignant.

“Lawrence was here before sundown,” Rake said, needing to make that clear.

“Before?” Shaun asked.

“Before,” he confirmed.

“Ooh,” Kit said. “Did he get all burned up?”

“He looked like he had third-degree burns before he healed.”

“See? I couldn’t have stopped him, then,” the female vampire said. “You can cease your attack.”

“Damn,” Kit said, wind going out of his sails. He’d been ready to throw hands.

“I didn’t know how fast I was going,” Rake said. He didn’t add that he’d been livid and intended to do something . He just hadn’t planned quite what.

“Super speed takes a while to get used to,” Shaun said, more to the female vampire than Rake.

She studied Rake. “You were just recreated?”

“It was to save his life,” Shaun said.

“And the other human?” she asked.

“Recreated by Lawrence. Against his will, like Kit and I.”

“But you consented to being recreated as a vampire?” she asked Rake directly.

“Yes.” It wasn’t quite true, but had he been able to accept Shaun’s offer, he would have.

She made a vague noise of disbelief. “You’ll all need to come to the club, regardless. I was coming upstairs to tell you of Mistress’s summons.”

“Summon my arse,” Kit said, then frowned. “Okay, maybe I should have considered my phrasing a wee bit more, but you know what I’m saying. We need to do the job you were supposed to do. We need to rescue DJ.”

Rake hadn’t expected Kit to become one of DJ’s staunch defenders, but he appreciated it.

“Mistress said she wants to be involved in any resolution on this matter. Plus, he”—she gestured to Rake—“needs to pledge his allegiance to her. All vampires do, especially the newly recreated.”

“Sure, uh,” Shaun floundered as he addressed her.

“Winnie,” she provided, irritated.

“Oh, come on, how was he supposed to know your name when you lot left him stuffed in a cage alone for the past few days?” Kit said.

“They what?” Rake shouted. He advanced on Winnie, but was stopped by a small hand in the centre of his chest.

“Hey, it’s all right,” Shaun said, looking up at him.

“I’ll be having words with Lynette,” Rake vowed.

“Great, so you agree to come back to the club with me?” Winnie asked.

“After we clean ourselves up,” Rake said. The blood on his skin itched, and he was hyper-aware of every dried flake.

Winnie didn’t look pleased, but seemed to realise that arguing further would get them nowhere. “Fine. But make it quick.”

They traipsed upstairs, Winnie making a show of rubbing her back whilst Kit pointedly refused to ask if she was okay. Rake steered Shaun to the bedroom, wanting to get fresh towels, and Kit led Winnie to the open-plan living room and kitchen.

Rake closed the bedroom door. Not that it did much else than provide a well-needed physical buffer. He spotted DJ’s bulging rucksack in the corner of the room as he went to dig out the towels from their chest of drawers.

“Oh, we brought you some of your things,” he said, picking up the bag.

“What? When? How?” Shaun shot the questions at him one after another, face going from excited to horrified in the space of a second. “You went to Lawrence’s house?”

“How else did you think we figured out how to get in touch with Kit?”

Rake upended the contents of the bag onto the bed, the little wolf figurine DJ had found falling on top of a t-shirt.

Shaun descended on the glass wolf. “Okay, so I’m furious with you right now for putting yourselves in danger like that, but I can’t stay mad when you brought me this.” He stared at the figure for a long second. “My mum gave it to me.”

“Lawrence let you keep it?” Rake asked, surprised.

“I suspect he didn’t give it a second thought.”

“If it brought you comfort, then I’m glad. And I’m even happier that we could bring it back to you.”

Shaun met his eyes. “Thank you.”

“Well, you can wear your own clothing once you’re clean. Pretty sure those are the shorts and sweatshirt you borrowed from us. Did Lynette not let you change?”

Shaun looked embarrassed as he twiddled the edges of the too-long sleeves. “No. She didn’t. ”

“What a bitch,” Kit said loudly from the other room.