Page 44 of Love Bleeds

"You had better not." As he spoke, Collin took Luke's wrist in his hand again, turning it over and inspecting it.

"What are you looking at?" Luke asked.

"Do you still have fangs?" Collin asked instead of answering.

"Fangs? What?" Luke paused. "I don't... wait....why...?" Even before he was done speaking, his fangs extended.

"Congrats, little brother," Collin said. "You've successfully turned yourself paranormal."

Luke stared at Collin in shock, his big eyes wide with all the questions he obviously wanted to ask. So many that he didn't know where to start.

"We can talk later," Collin decided. "Remy’s preparing dinner and you must be starving.”

“Remy is here?”

“Everyone’s here. But I’ll bring you some food up to your room when it’s ready.”

“You don’t have to,” Luke protested. “I can get up.” He looked down on himself. “Might want to shower first, though.”

Collin gave his little brother a measuring look. “Are you sure you’re—“

“I’m fine!” Luke cut him off, swinging his legs out of bed before Collin could say another word.

“Okay, okay.” Collin raised his hands in a placating manner. Then, he directed his gaze at Crimson. "Would you come down and help me set the table?"

Crimson had no idea why Collin wanted him to come down with him, except that it probably wasn't to set the dinner table. Still, he nodded and--somewhat reluctantly--climbed out of bed. After putting his pants and shirt back on, he followed Collin downstairs.

"Is there something you want to tell me that you don't want Luke to hear?" he asked before they'd even hit the bottom of the stairs.

Collin glanced over his shoulder at him but remained silent. "I'm not sure," he said as they reached the dining room. "It depends."

"Depends on what?"

Collin paused in front of the cabinet with the plates, then he took out several sets. Although he couldn't eat, Crimson wondered what was for dinner. Already, the air smelled of food. What kind of food, Crimson couldn't say. Something with roasted meat in it, maybe. He had only vague memories of what food smelled like.

"What's your animal form?" Collin asked suddenly, handing half the plates to Crimson.

What did that have to do with anything? "I can shift into a fox."

"A fox! Foxes are carnivores, right? We can cut you some meat then."

Crimson blinked. He'd never considered that he might be able to eat in his animal form. He'd never felt an urge to. Then again, he hadn't spent a lot of time in that form yet either. "I don't know if I can--"

"Don't worry, you can eat in your animal form." Collin gave him a smile. "Talon does it all the time. He's a big fan of jerky."

Jerky? Crimson wanted to ask, but Collin was already moving on.

"I'll tell Remy to set some food aside for you if you don't want to shift in front of everybody," he said as he put the plates down on one side of the table. Following his example, Crimson took over the other side.

"I don't mind, I think." After all, he wasn't the only vampire here, was he? It sounded like Talon was a vampire too--whoever that was? "Where is everyone?"

"In the living room, mostly. I'll get them in a moment, I just..." He lowered his voice. "I wanted to talk to you first."

"What about?"

"When I walked into the room just now, you and Luke..." Collin trailed off, seemingly having a hard time finding the words he needed. He started over again. "Luke told me recently that you might be bisexual. Not that I'm judging or anything, I'm gay myself, but, well... are you?"

Was he? Crimson actually had to think about it for a second. There was no doubting the attraction he felt toward Luke, but would he feel the same toward women? Possibly. He hadn't really had a chance to explore that. He'd thought Alice was hot, but then Alice had turned out not to be Alice at all... "What does it matter?" he asked eventually instead of responding to the question.