Page 3 of Little Wing (Shades of Fairhaven #1)
C hilled crimson swirled around the rocks glass as I watched my brother throw his drink back, practically inhaling the synthetic blood.
While I sat comfortably, still dressed in my grey blazer I kept on from work, Mateo was on another level.
His plaid work shirt was unbuttoned, and his tie was hanging loose around his neck.
Celebrations were in order; we finally got our business license and loan basically secured, yet I couldn’t help feeling the nagging tug in my chest.
Our dreams were going to come true.
And yet these dreams were only ever dreamt because our siblings were dead.
“Hey, are you drinking, or babying that crimson?” Mateo asked, leaning over the table.
The smell of synthetic blood was heavy on his tongue.
He was younger than me in looks with his boyish grin and sun-kissed blond hair, but his true age surpassed mine.
While I worried and calculated our next move since arriving in Fairhaven, he celebrated every win, no matter how small.
“Here,” I said, sliding the glass across the table, watching his slender fingers wrap around the glass. The crimson liquid disappeared without so much as a deep inhale from him.
While Mateo waved down the scantily dressed server to order another round, I buried my fingers in my shaggy brown curls, lingering on the trimmed undercut.
All of this felt so fucking heavy, but I just had to keep in mind that this was going to help so many people, vampires especially.
Having a place like Little Wing would change lives for the better and prevent needless deaths.
There were benefits to this treaty—vampires could finally roam free without hiding like rats. But when new vampires were created without having guidance for survival—it was like tossing us straight onto a wooden stake. What was the point?
I continued to ask myself that question even years after Elias introduced us to our new siblings. All four of them were new, thirsty, and clueless, and they were all abandoned the moment the treaties were signed.
All four of them were destined for death.
Even now I continued to see their faces when I closed my eyes, but Mateo was right. This was supposed to be a celebration because while our siblings were lost, we had the opportunity to make a difference. Fairhaven would be a start.
Mateo and I left London after Elias allowed his own madness to overcome him.
He offered to take whoever would be willing to follow him blindly.
With the way he began to act after his mate died, I assumed we’d be walking straight into the sun.
But we weren’t ready to give up and die.
After witnessing his deterioration as a vampire, and above all—a maker, creator, and father—we made the decision to take what we learned from our nest and turn it into something that could truly help young vampires.
Like Elias and Camille once did .
“You think Camille would be proud of us for doing this?” Mateo suddenly asked, his fair cheeks taking on a hint of color. He was clearly buzzed, but even as immortals, this liquor beckoned the truth.
“Maybe,” I sighed, finally reaching for a glass of the liquor brought by the server. “I’d imagine she’d be happier not having to pretend to be something she wasn’t.”
“Maybe they wouldn’t have killed her then," he said bluntly.
With those words in the air and the sound of booming house music around us, there was nothing else I could have said. Instead, I raised my glass to him and tipped my chin in cheers.
“To Mom and the fallen.”
“Hear-hear,” he crooned.
Since moving to the other side of the world, Mateo and I embraced the benefits of the treaty between humans and vampires.
Elias and Camille taught us how to blend in and survive long before a treaty was even up for discussion.
We knew how to fit in and how to keep our thirst under control.
Before the treaties, we dabbled in animal and human blood.
Now we had choices—synthetic, wild animal, and even donor blood from those who were willing to provide.
Whichever option we decided to partake in, it was always done the right way.
Elias and Camille made sure we always walked that path—never straying from doing the right thing.
Maybe that’s why it was so easy to walk away from Elias towards the end.
After losing Camille, his moral compass failed to show a True North.
Once we settled, Mateo and I found jobs, secured a place to live, and began brainstorming what would come next for us.
What value could we, as vampires, bring to Fairhaven quickly became evident at the sight of young vampires in and outside of town.
Before long, Mateo brought his wife, Quinn, into the equation.
From that moment our daydreams of Little Wing became more than just fleeting thoughts.
We put our heads together and worked to make this a reality not only for us, but for Quinn, and for every other vampire that was tossed aside or abused.
We knew that we wouldn’t put an end to all the awful circumstances that vampires could find themselves in, but at least we could make an olive branch available, to extend a helping hand to those willing to grasp it.
The thoughts lingered at the forefront of my consciousness every time I pictured what Little Wing could be—no, what it would be. We had so much of the necessary paperwork completed. Our loan was almost a sure thing, too. All that we needed was a space to let our vision blossom.
“Hey, you’re doing that thinking face again,” Mateo chuckled, leaning over the back of the couch where I was, in fact, staring at the blank television screen while I mindlessly scrolled through essays submitted for the vampire history course I taught at Fairhaven College.
“I guess I was. How are we looking? Will Benji be ready for us this evening to go over spaces?”
“Yes,” Mateo quickly responded, pulling out his phone to confirm. “He said he’ll have an update for us once we get to his office. Shit, Silas, what if this is it? What if this is the space we’ll finally be able to work in?”
I watched my brother grin as he leaned back to give me a playful shove.
Despite this being the twelfth offer we had put in on a space for Little Wing, he certainly hid his anxiety well.
Eleven rejections in the span of a few weeks would bruise anyone’s ego.
But we had a great realtor who wouldn’t bullshit us on our chances.
He was working nights for us just to make sure we could secure the perfect space for our cause.
Here was to hoping that Mateo's positivity wouldn’t go to waste in the next few hours.