Page 53 of Inhuman Natures #1

His eyes welled with tears when he thought about his mum replacing him. And then he scolded himself for thinking such a thing of her. His mum’s love had run deep. She’d doted on him and given in to his every whim. That she would ever seek to replace him was unfathomable.

Shaun got to the final folder—the one with his own name on it. He opened it, not sure what to expect.

A copy of his faked suicide letter.

A news story about efforts to search the river for his remains.

A death certificate issued a year after his disappearance.

And a funeral announcement.

It had been held at a small church in Shrewsbury. He doubted many people had attended. He’d had few friends, and no family left other than his parents.

At least he wouldn’t have to compel Van. For anyone without knowledge of the supernatural, the evidence suggested a faked death. Illegal, sure, but nothing that Van would need to forget. Hopefully, she’d look past his lack of physical ageing and just put it down to good genes.

Shaun read over the information a couple more times, the location of his headstone catching his attention. “I think we should go see it,” he said, after he’d digested the information.

“Shrewsbury?” DJ asked.

“My grave.” Shaun took in Rake and DJ’s carefully blank expressions.

After a few beats of silence, Rake asked, “Your grave?”

“My grave,” Shaun confirmed.

“Right. Like that’s a normal thing to do,” DJ said, then winced as Rake flicked his ear.

“I’ll admit it’s a weird thing to do, but I want to,” Shaun said.

Rake nodded. “We’ll be there for all of it, sweetheart.”

They drove up to Shrewsbury a couple of nights later. Shaun and DJ’s shares of Lawrence’s estate were due imminently from Boris, so they planned to check out a couple of different cities on the way back, intending to choose an appropriate place to make their new home.

Shaun appreciated having something to look forward to that wasn’t his past.

The drive took around four hours, and Shaun was antsy the entire time. DJ drove, but Rake wouldn’t let Shaun sit in the front to distract him with his nervous energy, even though Shaun argued that all of them would survive a crash.

Which wasn’t the point, of course. Shaun was just being bratty. But he felt like he was allowed to be, given the circumstances. Rake didn’t agree. He promised Shaun that if he continued to act out, then DJ would pull over at the side of the motorway so that Rake could give Shaun a grounding spank.

Oddly, that did manage to calm Shaun down for a while.

But he was soon back to bouncing up and down in the middle seat, his nerves hitting as they made it into Shrewsbury. Shaun shuffled over and pressed his face against the window. Even in the darkness, it didn’t appear like much had changed.

Small towns tended to stay small towns.

Letting themselves into the converted barn they’d rented was easy enough, and after making sure that every curtain and blind in the house would block out any light, they clambered into bed together. Shaun was right where he wanted to be; in the middle, with Rake and DJ on either side of him.

Other than some light kissing, they just wrapped themselves around each other, not allowing for any personal space.

It was comfortable despite the tight squeeze.

Their mutual lack of requirement for breathing and natural cool body temperatures meant they could pile in on one another to their hearts’ content.

Shaun fell into sleep more easily these days. The only thing that woke him was DJ’s occasional stirrings. He’d inherited Lawrence’s propensity for waking before the sun fully set, and so they would sit together on the sofa—Shaun reading and DJ gaming—whilst Rake slept on.

Rake acted like he’d been a vampire for decades, not a matter of weeks, with how easily he’d taken to the change in shifts. Not only that, but he liked not eating physical food, because he appreciated not having to deal with the different textures.

DJ had been handling that aspect less well. His appetite fluctuated, and he missed the choices and cuisines he used to take for granted. He was also convinced he could get drunk if he fed from someone who’d imbibed enough. His theory hadn’t yet yielded positive results, but not for lack of trying.

As DJ slipped from the bed that evening, Shaun woke, too. He padded after DJ, settling himself in his lap on a big armchair in the living room as they waited for the sun to dip below the horizon.

“You going to be up for seeing your parents tonight?” DJ asked between slow kisses.

“I doubt I’ll ever be ready. I want to do it anyway, though.”

DJ danced his fingers up and down Shaun’s back. “It’ll be okay.”

Deep down, Shaun knew his parents’ love for him wasn’t something that would ever disappear, but it was still a daunting prospect all this time.

They went to see his mum first, parking near her new house to try to catch a glimpse of her. The three of them waited in the backseat until the hour grew late. No luck.

The second night yielded different results, however. The driveway had been empty when they’d arrived, but an hour or so later a car drove up and pulled in.

Shaun sat stock still as he caught sight of his mum. Her hair was now grey, and she wore it shorter than she had before. Her style hadn’t changed; she still preferred comfort over anything else, dressing in leggings and a jumper dress.

His mum looked happy. She clasped her husband’s hand as they walked to the door, and he laughed at something she said. She’d always made Shaun laugh as a kid, performing as characters in the stories they acted out and putting on funny voices when she read to him at night.

His throat felt tight, and his eyes stung. His mum didn’t close the curtains right away, so Shaun watched as she situated herself in the living room and turned the TV on.

“Shaun? Sweetheart?” Rake’s touch startled him when he reached up and brushed a strand of Shaun’s hair away from his face. “Are you okay?”

Shaun only nodded.

“You look like her,” DJ said softly. Shaun supposed he did. She was short, like him, and skinny, like him, and had soft features, like him. Other than his ginger hair, he’d taken after her more than he did his dad.

“Yeah,” he agreed. They sat there for an indeterminable amount of time, both Rake and DJ providing comforting touches .

Rake broke the silence. “We should feed before we go back. You’re even paler than usual.”

Shaun hadn’t even considered feeding since they’d arrived. He gave Rake an apologetic look. “You must be starving.”

“I’m all right.” That was a lie. New vampires needed more blood.

“Let’s go find a few people to eat,” Shaun said.

Ever since Lawrence’s death, feeding hadn’t felt so unnatural.

The three of them always made sure to take care—to never make it hurt.

It also helped that Shaun had to feed to keep Rake from starving.

Knowing every time he fed that it was in service of his Dom eased Shaun’s guilt like nothing else.

The following night, it was his dad’s turn. Shaun hadn’t been as close with his dad as he was with his mum, but it didn’t mean seeing his dad holding the hand of his little girl was any easier.

“Well, damn,” DJ said. “Red hair runs in the family.”

Shaun couldn’t help but crack a small smile at Iona’s bouncing copper pigtails as she skipped alongside his dad.

She chattered about what they’d just seen at the cinema.

His dad had always been a lover of film, preferring arthouse dramas, but always willing to take Shaun along to the newest blockbuster.

The front door of the house opened. Heather, his dad’s new wife, met them there. Her face lit up when Iona broke away from his— their —dad to run towards her, regurgitating the plot of the movie.

Shaun asked DJ if they could leave soon after that.

They spent alternate nights camped out in front of their houses. Glimpses through the curtains were all Shaun got some nights, but on others, he got more insight into their lives.

One particular night seared itself into Shaun’s memory when he saw his mum and the two teenage boys coming in from a late dinner together.

There was a second where something flashed in his mum’s eyes.

Just a short moment, when she looked at the boys and her expression grew vacant, as if her mind went elsewhere.

Shaun knew, he just knew , that she was thinking of him.

And then she shook her head. The moment was over. She told the boys off for bickering, but Shaun tuned them out.

“I need to be away from here right now,” he said shakily.

“Gotcha,” DJ said.

Rake had been sitting in the front, but squeezed his body through the space between the seats to come into the back with Shaun. The second Rake had his hands on him, Shaun started sobbing and couldn’t stop.

Rake rocked him, his hands running over his hair and back whilst he made gentle shushing sounds. Despite Rake’s efforts, Shaun didn’t stop crying even when they got back to the house.

Embarrassed and overwhelmed, Shaun rushed straight to the bathroom and locked himself in before Rake and DJ could follow.

He climbed straight into the bath and turned the shower on, sitting under the cold water.

He felt rubbed raw, like his skin no longer fit around his bones, like someone had burst open his chest cavity and was squeezing his heart.

“Shaun, sweetheart, are you going to let us in?” Rake said through the door.

“I—” Shaun couldn’t get any more words out. It was all too much .

“If you use your safe word right now, I’ll leave you alone. Otherwise, I’m coming in.”

Shaun said nothing.

Dimly, he noted the sound of Rake and DJ debating something, and then the door opened with the splintering of wood. Rake got into the tub opposite Shaun, not touching, just sitting. DJ reached over and turned the water off before hovering on the lip of the bathtub.

“She still thinks about me,” Shaun said.

“Of course she does,” DJ said.