Page 29 of The Good Vampire’s Guide to Blood & Boyfriends

“Yes, but what I mean is.” Brennan stopped, frustrated. “What I’m trying to say is, it’s never your fault. Sometimes it’s the parents’ fault, maybe, but you can’t blame yourself for not being there if he pushed you away. It’s brain chemicals and generational trauma, but not your responsibility.”

It suddenly felt important that Cole knew that.

“Don’t you think more people in the world would be okay if they saw a friendly face when they needed it? If there was a little more compassion?” Cole asked.

A possibility occurred to him that Cole was there out of pity after seeing Brennan’s panic attack, that he was walking on eggshells around Brennan, scared of hurting his feelings when he was near his breaking point.

“Other people’s happiness isn’t your responsibility,” Brennan said.

“Okay. Maybe not. I’d still like to try.”

“That’s a nice way of thinking, but what about what you want?”

“I’m right where I want to be,” Cole said, so quick Brennan was dizzy with it.

“Oh? In a dark, wet room, alone with a vampire?”

“Don’t forget cold. ”

“Sounds like a nice night,” Brennan said.

“It has been,” Cole said. Slid closer to Brennan, the water around them sloshing. Brennan could feel Cole shivering.

“If you’re cold, maybe we should go—”

“Brennan,” Cole interrupted.

Brennan opened his eyes. Cole was close, one hand latched on to the edge of the pool, the other clinging to Brennan. He squinted, but his eyes must have been adjusting, because he almost caught Brennan’s eye.

“Yeah?” Brennan asked, his voice coming out deep enough to surprise even himself, and Cole’s eyes darkened, or maybe Brennan’s night vision wasn’t reliable and he was thinking wishfully.

“Can you see in the dark?” Cole asked. He unwound their fingers and slid his hand up Brennan’s arm, over his shoulder, up to the back of his neck. Thank god they were submerged in water, because Brennan felt like he was on fire.

“Um, yeah,” Brennan managed.

“Good. I’m afraid if I try to kiss you, I’ll miss.”

Brennan’s stomach did a dramatic somersault. He was a computer glitching, data not computing, but there it was: Cole. Wanted. To kiss. Him? The wheels kept turning—

“Do you need me to spell it out for you?”

Cole’s breath was on his face. His brain was slow like molasses, clogged up with processing new information, like, Cole smelled like old coffee and vanilla and chlorine. Like, Cole wanted Brennan to kiss him.

“Maybe,” Brennan squeaked out.

Cole laughed against Brennan’s cheek, eyes crinkling.

“Good lord, it must be exhausting inside your brain.”

Cole’s nose nudged Brennan’s, finding his way in the dark, pausing in question.

Brennan was overwhelmingly aware of Cole’s pulse—in his throat, in the hand pressed to the back of Brennan’s neck, rippling through Brennan from where their skin touched.

“You have no idea,” Brennan said.

But he wasn’t scared. He was in control. And for the life of him, Brennan couldn’t find a single reason to stop himself from what he wanted to do. He lifted a hand to cup Cole’s cheek, curved their faces together.

The wheels in Brennan’s head stopped spinning.

They met in the middle, soft and sure, and then pulled back, Cole’s breath against his lips, their foreheads touching, and Brennan closed his eyes again, but it was okay, because then Cole was diving back in and they were really kissing.

The sensory difference of kissing, as a vampire, was the first thing Brennan noticed—because that romance-novel bullshit of tasting things besides morning breath on a kiss was true, and Cole tasted like mocha and ice cream.

The smell of Cole’s shampoo mixed with the chlorine was suddenly overwhelming, this close.

But he sunk into the soft press of mouths and let himself get lost in it, letting his more human instinct take over and kiss Cole with the thorough attention he deserved.

Cole wrapped his arms like vines around Brennan’s neck and shoulders, pressing forward and pulling Brennan in.

Brennan followed gladly, drinking Cole in with his one free hand, cupping his cheek, his jaw, going up into his hair and down his back, wrapping an arm tight around his waist. Cole sighed a dreamy little sound and dropped his head back, Adam’s apple bobbing.

Brennan pressed two hard kisses to the skin of Cole’s neck, then another, tasting the salt and chlorine.

And then the sound of Cole’s pulse in his ears, the feel of it rushing under his lips, sent a jolt of something feral through him, the same gut instinct that usually had him lunging after squirrels. He felt his fangs filling his mouth in that familiar, uncomfortable way.

He launched himself away from Cole in a jolt, splashing halfway across the pool, hands covering his mouth to hide his fangs.

Cole looked… like he’d been kissed senseless, frankly, lips red and damp hair sticking out in odd directions. Brennan wasn’t much better.

Then Brennan’s eyes fell to Cole’s neck, where a single dot of blood pearled.

“Oh god. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Cole said, dazed more than anything, but Brennan scanned him for signs of pain.

“You’re bleeding.”

“I’m okay,” Cole said again, daring to creep closer in the water. “Are you?”

“Yeah,” Brennan squeaked. “But maybe we should cool down.”

“Are you thirsty, do you need to go—”

“No!” Brennan said, because he wasn’t going to hurt Cole, he was in control, but — “They sometimes. Come out. When…”

Cole’s dark gaze flickered between Brennan’s eyes and lips like he understood.

His mouth curved into the smallest smile.

He closed the rest of the distance Brennan had created and brought one hand to Brennan’s face and oh-so-slowly pressed his thumb to the corner of his lip, where one of his fangs poked out.

The next kiss Cole pressed to his mouth was gentle and light.

“I trust you,” Cole said.

“I could have hurt you,” Brennan protested, weak to his own ears.

“But you didn’t.”

“We should get out of the pool,” Brennan suggested.

“We should go back to your place.”

Brennan blinked a few times and wondered if a better vampire would have said no and gotten far away, but he was too far gone for that. Instead, Brennan made a show of pinching himself. Cole flushed beautifully.

“We should definitely go back to my place,” Brennan agreed.

Brennan had never gotten out of a pool and into clothes faster in his life, even though they were giggling the whole time.

Brennan was trying to help Cole not trip over himself in the dark, while Cole used the dark as an excuse to touch Brennan’s chest once and his ass twice, playing innocent but laughing loud and bright when Brennan teased him.

They were still damp when Cole locked up the pool.

Once the door was locked, Brennan pressed Cole against it with another searing kiss, because apparently that was something he could do and he’d take advantage of that for as long as he could.

Brennan only pulled away when Cole was smiling into the kiss too much.

They threaded their hands together to weave through the gym. Outside, the cold wind was harsh against their damp skin and hair.

“Shitting Christ,” Cole tugged his jacket closed and zipped it up. Damp curls dangled in his eyes, and for once, Brennan let himself push them out of his face. Cole’s eyes danced with affection. “At least it’s not far.”

Brennan glanced around the quad. It was late now—had to be almost four in the morning, at least—and campus was empty. Just autumn leaves on the ground and a winter chill in the air.

“Could be faster,” Brennan suggested, deciding in a split second that he was more than willing to risk it all for a chance with this boy, pathetic as it was. He crouched down in front of Cole and reached back. “Hop on.”

“When I told Mari I wanted to climb you like a tree, this isn’t what I had in mind.”

“You wanted to—you told Mari —?”

“I tell Mari everything.” He laughed.

Cole hopped up and Brennan situated Cole on his back, Cole’s arms going around his neck, Brennan’s hands under his thighs.

Jesus, Brennan hadn’t thought through how much physical contact there was in a piggyback ride. Cole’s whole front was pressed to Brennan’s back and Brennan needed to be alone with Cole in a bed, like, yesterday.

“Hold on, okay?” Brennan warned, poised to run.

“Sure thing,” Cole said, cheeky. “You know what this reminds me of?”

“I swear, if you say Twilight —”

“ Twilight, ” Cole said.

For that, Brennan took off running.

Cole’s gasp cut short in his ear as they launched into what felt like flight, wind whipping around them as Brennan moved impossibly fast. Brennan kept an ear out for signs of other people, but all he heard was Cole’s incredulous laugh and then whooping like he was on a roller coaster.

They cut through campus, hurtling toward the block of off-campus housing where he and Tony lived.

Brennan slowed to a walk as they approached the building. Cole laughed breathlessly in his ear.

“The vampire strength is pretty hot,” Cole said. “Think you could bench press me?”

Brennan wanted to do a lot more than that.

Cole hopped down as Brennan unlocked the door, and then they stopped altogether when they saw what was behind it.

Marisela, aiming a bottle of pepper spray at Brennan’s face, the other gripping her phone.

On the floor beside her, just next to a pile of shoes, was Brennan’s freezer, lid open, contents displayed: approximately a dozen packs of hospital-grade human blood strewn across the ground.

Next to the freezer was the broken lock that used to keep it shut, and a hammer.

“You know,” Mari said, “at first I honestly thought it was a coincidence when we saw you the day a bunch of blood went missing from Dr. Huong’s lab.”

“Mari, what are you doing?” Cole started.

Mari kept the pepper spray trained on Brennan’s eyes. Brennan had no clue if pepper spray worked on vampires, but that was not a theory he wanted to test out anytime soon.