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Whatever. Soren sat up straighter in his seat, tossing his head back. He refused to be brought down by this. He wasn’t just another townie lusting after the local doctor. He was a dark, dangerous predator, doing what dangerous predators did best. He couldn’t help that his vampire instincts urged him to hunt and stalk his prey.
“Do you know what, in my very long life, I’ve considered the most troubling of human emotions?” Gabe stared back at him. “What?” “Shame.” Gabe’s eyes widened slightly in surprise. Had he been expecting Soren to condemn him for his anger? “Shame infects every other emotion it touches.” Soren squeezed the back of Gabe’s neck again. “What I’ve just heard is the story of a boy—because fourteen is still a boy—forced to grow up too fast. To become a pseudoparent right after the loss of his own. Your anger at your mother is justified.” Gabe opened his mouth to protest, but Soren cut him off. “It is.
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Almost like he was channeling Danny but with a certain charm that was all his own. He made her laugh and projected a confidence that had many of the other little old ladies staring after him. Soren resisted the urge to hiss at them to stake his claim.
Gabe ignored the innuendo. “What if something happens to Danny? I won’t be able to fix it.”
Gabe hadn’t gone into medicine for the same pure reasons Danny had gone into nursing. Gabe didn’t have the compulsion his brother had to save everyone, to care for everyone. Gabe had just… He’d wanted to be that person. The competent, capable adult. The one with the answers, for once.
The little vampire in the armchair was making a lot of…noise. Gasps and squeals and the occasional, “Oh no.” Jay caught Gabe watching him a moment later, and gave him a wide-eyed look. “The ocean is really scary, huh?” Gabe couldn’t help it. He laughed. “You’re a vampire. You’ve got your spiffy supernatural speed. Couldn’t you just…outswim a shark?” The little dark-haired vampire bit his lip, turning back to the screen. “Oh…no. I don’t know how to swim.”
No Hendrick. But so many humans! A little old lady called me adorable. I love the hospital!
He was currently reviewing the different merits of every single type of candy from the vending machines. Gabe could only assume one of the lesser-known vampire superpowers was not getting a belly ache from too much junk food.
Colin looked the little vampire up and down. “Got any barista experience?” “Nope,” Jay answered sweetly. “Food service experience?” “Nope.” “Customer service experience in any way, shape, or form?” “Nope.” “Big fan of coffee?” “I’ve never had it,” Jay said sincerely, smile still firmly in place.
The rest of the world got to see this confident front, but only Soren got to see the real deal. The insecurities, the anxieties, the emotional depths. It turned out knowing someone else’s flaws was a gift, in its own way.
They ate at the kitchen counters. Or at least, they tried to. Jay’s omelets were somehow both burned on the outside and runny on the inside. A masterful culinary feat, in Soren’s opinion.
“Christ,” Soren said, his voice muffled by Gabe’s chest. “First your obnoxious alarm, then you sneezing on my head. Terrible way to wake up.”
chiding,
unwaveringly
“You’re little and quaint” was Gabe’s super mature response. Take that, vampire.
Soren wouldn’t mind that part. The one downside of a happy, emotionally healthy Gabe was that he was now ten times more appealing. Ten times more…golden. People on the street eyed him like he was a big stack of chocolate-chip pancakes. And he was. But he was Soren’s big stack of chocolate-chip pancakes.
They were celebrating Gabe’s “six-month vampiversary” with a gift of his choosing.
