Page 129

Blake

B lake flipped through the rumpled magazine, scanning the images without reading any of the words.

They’d been waiting a few hours already in the small emergency room waiting room.

Blake had heard somewhere that abdominal pain got you bumped up the line, so he’d coached Cass on what to say and told him to at least try to look like he was uncomfortable, but it didn’t seem to be getting them seen any faster.

The boredom of waiting was somewhat improved by the fact that Cass’s version of pretending to be in pain seemed to be curling up into Blake in the waiting room chair, tucking his head into Blake’s shoulder like a little kitten.

It shouldn’t have made the wait better, really.

Blake had only one serious relationship under his belt, and she’d been way too into PDA and physical contact in general: always clinging to his arm, wanting to hold his hand, or snuggling into him in public.

He’d tried to resign himself to it to make her happy, but he’d hated it.

It had always seemed like she was trying to show him off, make a big display, like it wasn’t out of any real need to connect with him.

He hadn’t exactly been heartbroken when she’d broken it off.

But for some reason, with Cass, he didn’t mind. It was even nice. Cass smelled good, especially when Blake pushed his nose against his soft hair. And Cass seemed to…need it, in a way. It wasn’t for show, not like Blake’s ex-girlfriend. He needed to be touching Blake, to take comfort in it.

Why didn’t that bother Blake more? Because Cass was a friend, not a boyfriend? Yeah, maybe that was it—a friend in need.

A friend you jerked off this morning with more enthusiasm than you’ve ever shown a hookup before?

Blake ignored that unhelpful thought. There would be time for a sexuality freak-out later.

Maybe. Hopefully. First, they were going to get some medical attention.

They were going to get to the bottom of what was going on, an explanation that didn’t include the word vampire . And then they were going to be fine.

Cass was going to be fine.

And then there’d be time to talk about the touching and the kissing and how good it had all felt.

When Cass’s name was finally called, Blake had almost dozed off, his head resting on top of Cass’s, Cass’s hands gripping at his arm. They followed an unsmiling blonde woman into a small, curtained-off emergency bay, where she left them with instructions to wait for the nurse.

Two minutes later a guy in scrubs came in, smiling warmly at them both. He was good-looking, almost pretty, with big brown eyes and messy brown curls, a smattering of freckles that sort of matched Cass’s. Jesus. Was this what Blake was doing now, noticing when guys were pretty?

“Hi, you two, I’m Danny. I’ll be your nurse today.” Danny turned his focus immediately on Cass. “You’re Cassian?” At Cass’s nod, he glanced to Blake. “And you are…?”

“I’m Blake.”

“Family?”

“Boyfriend.” Blake ignored the way Cass startled at his answer. Cass was already clinging to him like they were together, and Blake didn’t want to be asked to leave. Boyfriend was more official than friend, right?

Danny nodded easily. “Okay. Cassian, if you’re willing to release your beau and hop up on the gurney? I promise I don’t bite.” He smiled to himself like it was an inside joke while he pulled on a pair of blue hospital gloves.

Once Cass was on the gurney, Danny started looking him over, listening to his heart and lungs and palpating his abdomen. “Where exactly do you hurt?”

“Um…” Cass flushed at the scrutiny, clearly unsure of what to say.

“Look, sorry for lying,” Blake cut in. “But we’re not actually here for stomach pain. He was given something last night, and he’s been having…weird symptoms ever since.”

Danny leaned back from his inspection, gloved hands going to his hips.

“Oh! Okay, lying to your healthcare team, always a good start.” But he wasn’t looking at them too harshly, despite the sarcasm—maybe ER nurses were used to getting the runaround every now and then.

“Let’s start with some vitals, then you can tell me about your symptoms, okay, Cassian? ”

“Just Cass, please,” Cass requested meekly, but Blake didn’t miss the look of relief that they were no longer having to pretend.

Danny hooked Cass up to the monitor, pursing his lips while he looked it over. “Heart rate in the fifties, a little low but not unusual. You a runner, Cass?”

Cass shook his head. “Confirmed bookworm.”

“Blood pressure a perfect 120 over eighty. Oxygen shows…zero percent.” Danny’s dark brows rose. “Huh. This cord must be broken. Feeling short of breath?”

Apparently that relief had been short-lived because Cass was fidgeting more the longer Danny spoke to him. Before Blake could reassure him with a wink or a soft touch, Cass was blurting out, unnaturally loud, “Have you ever had any vampires come through here?”

Danny stared at him.

“Like, sprouting fangs and drinking their friend’s blood after a wild night out?”

Danny continued to stare for a long moment. Then he snapped his gloves off, shaking his head, and poked it out of the curtain. “Chloe, we’re gonna need the isolation room!”

Without another word, he transferred them both to a real room instead of an open bay, one with sliding glass doors.

He pulled a curtain over the doors so they were cut off completely from the rest of the ER.

“Sorry, just…more privacy.” He turned back to Cass, who he’d placed on the edge of another gurney.

“All right, what exactly were you given last night?”

“Blood, I think?”

Danny bit at his lip. “After someone bit you?”

Cass nodded."

“Show me,” Danny ordered.

Before Blake could ask what exactly Cass was supposed to be showing, Cass did the whole face thing again: black eyes, little fangs peeking between pink lips. It was even more disconcerting under the bright hospital fluorescents than it had been in their hotel room. Not scary, just…different.

“Okay. Well.” Danny took a minute, studying them with a furrowed brow, and then out of nowhere, he was smiling warmly at them both. “Welcome to the club, then.”

There was a long silence after that, with Danny still smiling like they’d just signed up for some exclusive membership.

It was Cass who found his words first, his face back to normal, clearing his throat timidly. “You, um…believe me?”

The hopeful hesitance in his voice just about gutted Blake.

Had his denial over the whole thing been hurting Cass?

He hadn’t meant to make him feel alone. It was just…

Who believed vampires were real based on the words of some hotel creep?

Hadn’t Blake been doing his part as a—as a friend —making sure they weren’t letting some strange guy’s lunacy become contagious?

“Of course I believe you,” Danny said calmly. “You’re not the only vampire in Hyde Park, you know. Brave of you to come to the hospital with it though.”

“Well, Blake thought—” Cass was avoiding Blake’s eyes as he spoke, and Blake suddenly missed when they’d been huddled together in the emergency room, two against the world. “He thought it might be something else.”

“I’m guessing you didn’t know about our kind before last night?”

Cass shook his head. “Nuh-uh.”

Danny’s big brown eyes filled with sympathy. “Oh God, you poor baby. Okay. Tell me everything that happened to you.”

Cass did, explaining the events leading up to their ER visit, glossing over some of the steamy bits of the morning, although not enough to keep them both from blushing. When he reached the hotel creep’s insistence on the “tether” part, Danny glanced over to Blake with a knowing look.

When Cass was fully done, Danny took a moment, seeming to collect his thoughts. “Okay. Wow. And you’re sure this vamp left town?”

“He seemed pretty eager to go.”

Danny nodded thoughtfully. “That’s one problem solved.

So… Man, where to start? Some vampire basics, I guess.

A lot of the myths are…myths. Sunlight doesn’t hurt you, as you clearly already know.

Same with garlic and crosses and all that jazz.

Some other stuff is true: you won’t age.

You won’t die unless killed, and that’s pretty hard to do.

You have to drink blood to survive, usually about once a week, but you might need more at first while you’re new.

Newbie vampires tend to be…hungry.” He looked between Cass and Blake again.

“They also tend to be unstable. More aggressive. They have a harder time ending a feed. But you did feed? On Blake?”

Cass nodded, looking mesmerized by the words coming out of Danny’s mouth. It was enough for Blake to feel an inappropriate stab of jealousy. He was supposed to be the one helping Cass.

Still, Blake could feel his face heating at the memory of that feed, jealousy fading. Danny glanced at him knowingly. “I bet that was fun. Vampire bites tend to be very…pleasant…for the human.”

“I didn’t have any trouble stopping.” Cass’s lips formed a small pout. “I don’t think I hurt him.”

“You wouldn’t, I don’t think,” Danny said. “Not if he’s your tether.”

Blake finally found his voice to ask, “What is that? The other vam—the other guy said it too.”

“All vampires have a mate, one that tethers you securely to your humanity. Fated, we think. Your inner vampire, that presence you feel inside you? The one hungry for blood?” Cass nodded back at him like he knew exactly what Danny was talking about.

“It recognizes them. Craves them. Vampires who never find them tend to lose hold of their humanity. They go feral and have to be put down.”

Cass cocked his head, the same way he did when he was considering some piece of complex data during one of their study sessions. “But I’ll still lose him eventually, won’t I? If I never age, or die, and he’s human…”

Blake felt like their words were coming from very far away all of a sudden, and not only because Cass was talking about his inconvenient mortality. Because, what, now he was not just not so straight but also possibly fated mates ? With Cass?

“Well, most mates don’t stay human.” Danny continued his education, he and Cass both oblivious to Blake’s inner freak-out. “They’re turned. The bond isn’t even solidified until they are. It’s actually pretty cool that he’s stabilizing you even while human. I can’t wait to tell the others.”

They kept chatting, their words occasionally piercing through Blake’s new brain fog. Danny was telling Cass something about his new ability to do compulsion, something that sounded an awful lot like mind control.

Blake stared at Cass while they spoke. He looked so…

adorable. Not like something that needed human blood to survive; that was for sure.

His pale-blue eyes were wide, taking in all that information, and his freckles stood out under the bright hospital lights.

He seemed to be taking it shockingly well.

But then, he didn’t have a choice, did he?

He’d been changed forever. For literal ever, if this nurse was to be believed. And that could be Blake too.

Most mates don’t stay human.

Blake was jumping up from his seat before he knew it. “Um, Cass? I’m gonna… I’ll meet you at the hotel. I need to grab some food. Human food. Feeling a bit off, you know?”

Cass and Danny looked up at him in surprise. “We’ve got Jell-O, or sandwiches?” Danny offered.

Blake shook his head, backing up to the glass doors. “No, I need something, like, hot. Something real. I’ll—I’ll see you later?”

He tried not to notice how devastated Cass looked, way more devastated than when Danny had told him he was a for-real vampire. Danny for his part looked as kind as ever but…knowing. Way too knowing. “I can make sure Cass makes it back okay,” he reassured Blake.

“Thanks.” Blake was already opening the sliding door. “Thank you. See you later, buddy.”