And make sure to give KillaB applause for his new Chapter 13 of GFD: Ray of Hope.

When I awoke the next evening Tyler was already showered and dressed and sitting next to me on the bed, I hated when he woke up before me, he leaned in and gave me a kiss.

“Honey I have business to take care of tonight, I want you to stay home and keep Mike company, he still has some time to spend here, and I think it would be good if you could teach him how to use and control his extra” Tyler smiled and gave me another kiss.

“Stay home” I pouted. “I don’t want to stay home, I’ve been locked up for a whole year and now that I’m home you want to force me to stay inside, NO, I know it would be a good idea but not tonight babe, I need to go out and have fun, I need to hunt, I need real blood, do you understand where I’m coming from” I said with my best puppy dog look knowing full he can’t resist that look.

Tyler took a deep breath then sighed. “Why do you do this to me, you’re such a punk you know that” He said then punched me in the arm.

“Hey what was that for” I gave him a confused look.

“That’s for giving me that look, you know I can’t say no when you do that” Tyler smiled then got up and headed for the door, turning just before he reached it. “Stay out of trouble tonight Caden, I know you, and with your new powers you don’t need to be attracting any attention to yourself” Tyler gave me a stern look. “OK” He added.

“OK….gosh you’re no fun” I crossed my arms, gave him the look, and then giggled.

“I love you Tyler bear” I said then blew him a kiss.

“I love you too Caden” he returned the gesture, and then left the room.

I jumped out of bed and rushed over to the closet to gather my clothes; once I had my outfit picked out I walked to the bathroom and got into the shower. I missed my shower, the temperature of the water, the pressure; it just felt good to be home. I stood in there for at least ten minutes just letting the water run down my body. Knowing that I wanted to make as much of the night count I washed up and got out. After I got dressed I went down stairs to the room that Mike was staying in, he was already up, dressed, and just sitting down reading a book.

“I remember those days” I said as I leaned against the door way. He spun his body around so fast I thought he was going to fall out of his chair. “Did I scare you” I giggled.

“Just a little, but you were always able to sneak up on me, even as kids” Mike smiled.

“Yeah those were the days” I sighed. “Well hey how would you like to go out with me tonight, Tyler wants you to stay home but I think you have probably been cooped up in this house for quite some time now, and plus I’m going out to hunt, then hit the club, it would be nice to have some company”

“Yeah that sounds like fun, but wouldn’t Tyler get mad at you for taking me out” Mike said with a concerned look on his face.

“Let me worry about him, and even if he does get mad one little love session and he’ll forgive me” I snickered.

“You’re so silly” Mike laughed.

Mike put down his book, grabbed a coat and we headed out for the evening. I took him to my favorite hunting grounds just outside of the city, the cops must be cleaning up this area from the looks of it, and the amount of degenerates had dwindled from the last time I was here. We walked over to my favorite spot and took a seat at a bench that was in a dark corner of the park. I began to scan the area for a suitable donor and at the same time asked Mike to do the same, I was kind of testing him on his knowledge of hunting, not saying that Tyler wasn’t the best teacher, I just wanted to see what he had learned so far. A large man appeared at the far end of the park and was walking in our direction.

“What about the one Caden?” He said as he pointed the man out.

“Ok, what makes him a good candidate?”

“Well his blood is clean, and from what I can read from his mind he’s here to rob people, maybe even kill someone if they resist, from what Tyler has told me those are your favorite” Mike said with a smile.

“Yes they are, and your right he is a perfect candidate, all I have to do now is wait for him to get a little closer so I can make my move.” I smiled at Mike as my eyes flashed a red glow.

A young woman was walking through the park and I could hear the thoughts of the man, she was going to be his next victim, I had to make my move sooner than I thought. I had to think fast to get his attention off of her.

“Alright pay up, you owe me a hundred dollars now” I said loudly.

Mike looked at very confused. “What are you talking about?”

“Just play along” I said.

“How about double or nothing…No, alright, I will give you three hundred right now if you can beat me again”

That was enough to catch his attention; the man began to make his way in our direction. “Three hundred, I wonder how much those guys have on them” The man thought. I had him right where I wanted him. He was getting closer but I had my eye on him. When he stepped out from behind a nearby tree I pretended to be startled and shove money into my pocket.

“Can we help you” I said.

The man pulled out a gun. “Give me all of your money now and there won’t be any trouble” His hand was steady and his voice firm as though he had done this plenty of times in the past, and this was just another routine robbery.

“We don’t want any trouble sir” Mike stammered as though he was scared, slowly reaching into his pocket.

I slowly took a step toward the man. He quickly aimed the gun at me. “That’s far enough, give me your money” He demanded again.

“Ok…ok, take it easy, we don’t want any trouble like my friend said” I reached for my back pocket and pulled out a wallet. “There is over five hundred in hear, just take it and go” I showed the man my wallet, his thoughts and facial expressions told me that this was going to be his biggest hit yet. As he approached me I slowly turned to Mike and winked, Mike smiled and let out a light chuckle.

“What’s so funny” The man said as he got closer slowly reaching his hand out for the money.

“All clear boss” Mike said.

“What’s clear” fear began to creep into the man’s voice.

“The area is clear” Mike smiled at him.

“Clear…clear for what?”

“For this” I let my fangs drop and my eyes flashed a fiery crimson color. Before the man could even react I had already knocked the gun out of his hand, the look of fear and panic on his face had turned to disbelief. Within a split second he was on the ground and I was on top of him, he began to struggle but I used my strength to hold him down, He went to scream, but I was quick to place my hand over his mouth only allowing a slight squeak escape. His eyes widened when my fangs came into full view, a small drop of saliva fell from my fangs hitting him on the neck, almost like a target. I leaned his head back and watched the blood pump through the artery in his neck, I licked my lips and then sunk my fang in deep, his body winced from the pain and blood squirted out of the side of my lips, the taste of his blood was delicious, I wasn’t sure if it was the fact that he was my first real human in over a year, or if his blood was just that good, no matter what it was I was enjoying it. I bit down even harder and began to suck the life right out of him; his struggles have begun to diminish with every passing second, and his heart beat was getting weaker and weaker. When fished I wiped the remaining blood off of my mouth with his shirt. I stood up and turned to Mike and gave him a smile. “That was sooo good” I said as I smacked my lips together and allowed my fangs to retreat back into my gums.

“I feel like having a good drink and dancing now, what do you say Mike should we get going?”

“Yeah sure, sounds like fun, where do want to go?”

“Well there is this really cool vampire club downtown that we should go to”

“Ok, I never been to one of those yet” Mike said with a smile.

 I hid the body near some bushes so the slag hunters could come get it before anyone would find it. We left the park and made our downtown to go to the club, when we reached the alley where the club was located there was a few vampires hanging out outside, a few of them were giving us weird looks as we passed. I was quick to flash the fiery glow of my eyes to let them know that I wasn’t some punk kid vampire, I don’t know what it was with the older type that always seemed to look down on a younger vampire like me, I guess they were jealous of my looks, or maybe they could just smell the fresh blood on me, whatever it was I didn’t like it. We reached the door and there was a large line outside, maybe of about twenty to thirty vampires waiting to get in. I walked up to the door man and shook his hand and twisted it in a slight angle before I let go, not to give him money, more to just show him the ring on my finger letting him know that I was more than just some average everyday vampire.

The door man nodded opened the door and welcomed us into the club; you could hear the wining of the others outside that have been waiting to get in as the door was shutting. As we walked through the small hallway you could hear the music starting to get louder. It had been so long since I’ve heard music the beat instantly got my body moving, when we finally reached the interior of the club the light and sounds brought me back, I missed this scene and all I could think of was that I was going to have a good time to night and nothing was going to stop me. Mike and I made our way through the crowd, the was a lot of very cute guys there that were smiling at me as I passed, and of course I smiled back, even giving some of them a wink and gesturing a kiss at them. We found an empty table near the dance floor and sat down, a waiter was there within seconds after we sat down which was very surprising, normally in a club this busy you would be waiting for quite some time. The waiter was fairly tall and had short blonde hair, a very cute smile and these light green eyes that just seemed to draw you in, I was just staring at the boy when Mike tapped me on the arm.

“Huh….what” I shook my head.

“HI my name is Tristan, I will be serving you tonight, can I get you guys something to drink” He said blushing.

“Maybe later Tristan” I smiled. “For now I’ll just have a Captain Morgan’s on the rocks” My comment caused him to blush even harder.

“I will have one of those too” Mike chimed in, causing our little eye fucking connection to break.

“Ok, I will be right back with those”  He said giving me a smile, then turn and headed for the bar, the way he wiggled his cute little ass as he walked away caused me to get a little stiff in the pants.

“Do you hit on all the guys when you go out?” Mike asked shaking his head.

“What that…hehee…that was nothing, you should see when me and Tyler are together, we’re bad, and Tyler, he has some of them almost cuming in their pants with the way he talks to them”  I said as I was scanning the crowd.

A few moments later Tristan showed up with our drinks, placing them down on the table then taking a seat next to me. “Here you go gentlemen, is there anything else I can get for you?” He said it like a general question but was looking directly at me.

I giggled then responded. “I’m anything but gentle” I smiled at him. “No, we’re fine at the moment, thank you Tristan”

“My friend here wants to sleep with you Tristan” Mike snickered.

“MIKE!” I was shocked at his comment. “Way to be subtle” I giggled then took a drink.

 “Oh really” Tristan said while blushing, he then leaned in close placing his hand on my thigh and whispered in my ear. “I go on break in a few hours, how about we go upstairs and fuck the shit out of each other”

I turned and look at him, smiled as I placed my hand on top of his pulling it closer to my now stiffening cock; I then leaned in and gave him a kiss. I guess Tristan wasn’t one to be subtle either, he began to stroke me through my jeans and placed his free hand on the back of my head pulling me in closer and started to kiss me with passion, passion the likes of which I usually only get from Tyler. We broke our kiss and smiled at each other, Tristan then got up slowly pulling his hand away from my cock like he didn’t want to leave, and who was I trying to fool I didn’t want him to leave either.

He smiled at me just before saying. “I have to get back to work before I get in trouble” Looking around as he tried to discreetly hide his erection.

“Mmmmm….I can’t wait to get a hold of that monster cock later” I said staring at the large bulge in his pants. 

“Ditto sexy, I will be back in a while to get you another round” Tristan smiled then walked away heading back to bar.

“You are bad Caden” Mike said. “I will have to admit you are one sexy guy, if I was gay I don’t know how I would be able to keep my hands off you either”

“Why thank you Mike, I owe you for that one though, I probably would have just flirted with him all night” I raised my glass. “A toast…to hot sex” I said laughing.

“To hot sex” Mike responded, we touched glasses then took a large drink. As Mike was about to place his drink on the table he looked down at the dance floor. “Speaking of which, I going to go talk to that girl right over there, I’ll be back”

“Good luck with that, hey do you want some help hooking up?” I giggled.

“Nah its ok, she’ll probably fall in love with your hot gay ass then”

I all could do was laugh, Mike proceeded down to the dance floor and approached the girl, within minutes they were talking and laughing, she must have liked him because within no time she had her hands wrapped around his neck and they were making out while dancing. I sat there enjoying my drink watching everyone dance and to my surprise two of the boys I saw on the way in were walking up to my table.

“Hi” one of the boys said.

“Hi” I responded.

“ummm…we were wondering if we could sit at your table with you” The boy looked aound the room.

“Sure, be my guest” I said with a smile and motioned for them to take a seat.

“Thanks, all of the other tables are full and well we saw you come in and you’re…ummm hot” The two boys looked at each other, then back at me. “My name is Jay and this is my friend Chris” The two of them looked like twins, both had black hair and gorgeous blue eyes, and slim bodies, although Jay was a little taller, still they were two of the hottest white surfer boys that I have ever seen.

“My name is Caden, it’s nice to meet you both” I finished my drink and placed the empty glass on the table. In no time at all Tristan was at the table with another glass, he had a little bit of a sad look on his face as if I was already going to replace him with these two cuties. I pulled him close to me and gave him a kiss to reassure him that he was the one I still wanted, even though I wouldn’t mind having them as well.

“Thanks sweetie” Tristan responded, he then looked over to the two boys. “Can I get you guys anything to drink?”

“Yeah we’ll have two shots of grey goose, ummm doubles please” Chris said.

“No problem, will that be all”

“Yeah you forgot the drink for my friend” I said pointing at the one glass on the table.

“Already taken care of, I brought drinks to him and his lady friend over there at the other side of the dance floor, he said to put them on you tab…is that ok?”

“You’re awesome Tristan, and yes that’s fine, get them anything they want, and while you’re at it put the two shots on my tab as well” I pulled him in for another kiss, then slapped him on the ass very playfully. “No get back to work” I said giggling.

“Yes sir” Tristan said then walked away with a little bounce to his step.

“Hey thanks Caden” Both Chris and Jay said in unison.

“No problem guys” I said.

A few minutes went by before Tristan returned with their drinks; he had a concerned look on his face this time. “My boss said there is a man here that would like to talk to you, he didn’t tell me his name just said that he is waiting for you on the second floor”

“Ok thank you Tristan, and don’t worry I will be fine” I gave him a reassuring smile. “I will be right back, will you two boys hold my table for me…feel free to order anything you want, Tristan here will take care of you”

“Sure, no problem, and thanks” Jay said, and the two boys smiled at me.

I made my way to the second floor of the club not sure who was asking for me so I kept my defensive traits on high alert. When I reached the second floor I was stopped by two large me that asked me to stop and put my arms up, they then proceeded to pat me down for weapons.

“That’s not necessary you two, let him pass” A voice from behind them said.

As I passed the two men the man who spoke became visible. “Tavin!?! How are you, you son of a bitch?” I said with a light chuckle.

“I’m good Caden, so I see you’re back to the night life already, and so soon, I would have thought Tyler might keep you at home for the next few day in bed”

“He tried, but I gave him the old puppy dog look and he couldn’t say no”

“When is he ever going to learn” Tavin giggled.

“He’s not”

“So where is you Sire this evening?” Tavin says as he looks over the crowd.

“He said he had business to take care of this evening” I said with a little sadness in my voice.

“The new blood you’re with, I take it that’s Mike”

“Uh huh, that’s him” I said nodding.

“Well I would like to meet him one day, not tonight though; it looks as if he is getting lucky with that girl”

“I sure hope so, his first time having sex as a vampire is going to bed fun for him” I said giggling.

“Ok so back to the reason on why I brought you up here” Tavin turned to me with a serious look on his face. “Caden the word on the street is that someone has put up ha heavy bounty on your head, and I wouldn’t doubt it if it was Marcus or someone he’s connected with. The punishment you received for what you did is unprecedented, no one ever gets away that easy, someone in a very high place has helped you out and I think it would be in your best interest to find out who that is”

“I see, well I will keep that in mind, thank you Tavin”

“I will call you if I hear anything new regarding this situation, go now and enjoy the rest of you evening out”

I nodded shook his hand, turned to leave his table. I walked past his body guards and proceeded down the stairs. I was happy to see Chris and Jay still at the table when I returned; they were making out and got a little startled when I sat down.

“Sorry to interrupt you guys…please continue” I said smiling at them.

Both of them giggled, gave each other one more peck on the lips. “It’s ok, we were just passing time until you returned” Jay said and Chris giggled.

“Hey do you want to come and dance with us Caden” Chris asked.

“Dance with you two hot guys, sure why not”

As we were leaving our table Tristan approached from behind tapping me on the shoulder. “Hey sexy did you want me to bring you guys some more drinks”

“Ummmm yeah why don’t you bring us three shots of Patron”

“Ok be back in a jiff, oh yeah I take my break in about half an hour, are we still on?” Tristan smiled.

I leaned in and gave him a kiss. “We sure are, or you know what would be even hotter, if you want to come back to my house and have a threesome with my boyfriend and I, I'm also going to see if these two hot boys want to join in”

“Is your boyfriend as hot as you?” Tristan asked.

“Even hotter than I am”

“And what about these boys are they down as well?” Tristan said looking over my shoulder at the boys and smiling.

“I’m sure I can get them to join in” I giggled.

“Ok I’m cool with that, just give me you address before you leave”

“I sure will, hey while on your break why don’t you come and join us down here?”

“Yeah that sounds like fun, I will be right back with your drinks” Tristan then turned and left making his way to the bar, Chris, Jay and I turn and then walked to the dance floor.

After Tristan brought us our drinks he joined us there on the dance floor during his break, the four of us were the center of attention, it might have been the fact that Chris and Jay had taken their shirts off and were now getting really freaky with each other, Jay had his hands down Chris’s pants, and it looked as if he was jerking him off.  Tristan and I just looked at each other and started giggling hysterically. The longer we were together on the dance floor the more I was sweating; it felt like the alcohol was literally dripping out of every pour of my skin. The four of us continued to grind and rub up on each other until Tristan’s break was over, by that time my legs were starting to feel a little sluggish, it had been a little while since I had been out dancing and drinking, and the two of them were now taking their toll. I decided to take a seat back at our table to rest for a bit, Tristan brought me another drink and told me that his boss was going to let him go home early. I looked around the room for Mike, he was still with the same woman from earlier, and the two of them looked pretty drunk by this time. I finally got his attention and the two of them came and joined me at my table, Chris and Jay showed up a few seconds after them. We sat there and enjoyed a couple of drinks while we waited for Tristan to join us so we could leave.

After leaving the club the six of us were stumbling around, Tristan being the most sober one was in the middle of all of us trying to keep the group up and stable. We had made it only a few blocks before I noticed that we were being followed. At first I thought it was only one vampire, but I concentrated a little harder to find that there were at least five of them, all of the drinks I had now starting to take effect, this was not the time to be drunk. We rounded the corner to start making our way out of the city, just as we made our way out of sight of the small hunting group I looked over at Mike and stopped in my tracks, leaving the small group.

“What’s wrong Caden” Mike said. By the look on my face he knew something was wrong.

“Mike I need you to take them back to the house and fast. I want the rest of you to follow him, and no arguing with me please, just go” I turned away from the group to face the oncoming attackers. “Mike…tell Tyler where I am when you see him….now go”

 Mike did as he was told the rest of the group followed suit with no resistance, which surprised me; I would have thought that at least one or two of them would have put up a fuss wanting to help out. Just as the group was out of sight, my mid night stalkers made their appearance, there was six of them in all, five stood behind what must have been the leader.

“I see your friends left you all alone Caden, what a shame” said the leader.

“How do you know my name” I said in an inquisitive tone as I took a defensive stance.

“You just don’t get it do you. You killed one of own and you think you’re just going to get some little slap on the wrist for it, our master wants blood and I plan on giving him that” He said with a snicker.

“If it’s a fight you want, it’s a fight you’ll get, but not here in this busy area, you know the rules of the elders, we can’t be seen by the public using our extras” I pointed my finger towards the mountains behind me. “If you want to fight we do it there, out of sight”

“If that’s where you choose to die then so be it”

It took about a half hour to get to a secluded spot in the mountains; we found a nice clearing that was perfect for a fight. I took of my jacket and tossed it to the ground, then turned to face my opponents. I put my hand up and motioned them to me, the leader laughed. “What you want to face all of us at the same time, boy you either have a big set of balls or you have a death wish”

“Why don’t you come and find out” I stood there as the six of them took out weapons, the five lackeys had long silver spikes that reflected the light from the moon above, and the leader took out a small katana.

I shook my head and started to laugh. “Weapons, you guys must have some sorry extras” 

“GET HIM” The leader shouted in anger.

Three of them rushed me, the first one swung his spike towards my head, I leaned to the side dodging his attack then hit him in the bottom of the jaw with hard uppercut sending him flying onto his back. The second attacker came from my side trying to stab me directly in the chest, I moved slightly to the left grabbing his arm and breaking it at the elbow, causing him to drop his weapon and drop to his knees and scream in pain. I needed to take them all out as quickly as possible, and with my new

powers it felt as if these guys were moving in slow motion. The third attacker quickly picked up the dropped spike and came at me swinging with everything he had. I dodged as fast as I could, but it seemed as if this one was a little fast than the others, I was moving my head from the left to the right so fast I thought I was going to start to get dizzy, that’s when he got me, sliding the sharp end of the spike across my cheek, causing it to bleed and drops of blood to drip off of my chin and on to my shirt. I looked down at the blood starting to soak into the fabric, then up at him. I grabbed both of his wrists and looked him directly in the eyes. “This is my favorite shirt” My eyes began to get their fiery glow and smoke started to rise from under my palms as I started to burn the flesh off of his arms, he screamed so loud it echoed into the darkness and could probably be heard for miles. It was at that moment when I was hit from the side and taken to the ground by the one with the broken arm, we rolled around for a few seconds until I was able to throw him off of me and get back to my feet in just enough time to catch one of them that was in the air coming towards me, I threw him down on top of the other one that was still on the ground. It was at that moment when the rest of them decided to attack. The leader and the two others started to surround me, I took a defensive stance once again, I knew that there was no holding back now; I had to give this fight my all.

“I bet you are wishing your friends were here to help you now” The leader said.

I chuckled. “I don’t need their help to take care of you” I extended my arms out to my sides, my palms facing two of them, my eyes got their fiery glow as I charged up a fired large fireballs at the two of them, both of them were engulfed in flames as they were sent flying back and towards the woods, their skin burnt almost completely off before they hit the ground, it only took one thought to get the fire to grow even larger causing their body’s to be turned into ash, this of course caused the surrounding brush to catch fire as well.

“I told you I didn’t need any help with you scum” I said to the leader, then looked at the two of his fallen comrades and laughed.

The one with the broken arm stood with his eyes wide open staring at me in amazement, as his body was trembling.

I was then attacked by one of them that had tremendous speed, I almost didn’t see him coming, I jumped to the side as he attacked but was too late, he was still able to stab me in the stomach, causing me to hunch over from the pain.

 “I got him” He laughed. I grabbed his arm and pulled it back causing the spike to slide out, I then looked up at him. “Not quite” I said looking him in the eyes just before I grabbed his head with both hands and burnt his head completely off, his headless corpse hit the ground at my feet.

They were dropping like flies and I was only using one of my new powers.  I used my speed to quickly get behind one of them, I sent wave after wave of bolt of lightning through his body until he too was dead; I then sent his body a blaze just to make sure.

“Only two of you left, and one of you is scared shitless, so it looks like it’s just you and me” I said to the leader.

“Nope just you and me” He looked over at his companion. “COWARD” He then severed his head with one swift move.

“You would kill one of you own, because he was afraid of dying, you’re a monster” I said with anger in my voice.

“I’m a monster, take a look around Caden, you have brutally murdered four people in a matter of minutes, if any one here was a monster it’s you, I’m sure the elders would be glad to know about you” With that he took off running into the woods.

“Coward…get back here and fight me” I took off and gave chase, throwing fireball after fireball at him with no luck, the only thing I could hit was the trees he was running past, with in just a few hundred feet I had caused the start of quite a large forest fire, at that moment Tyler’s words echoed through my mind. ‘If the Elders find out you have those powers the will probably hunt you down as well’. I had to catch him and kill him before we reached the edge of the woods and made it into civilization again. I ran as fast as I could to try to catch him setting more of the hills on fire. Just as we reached the edge of the woods I hit him and sent him flying to the ground, he was on fire and screaming for his life. I walked up to him and stood there looking down at his body.

“That’s what you get for trying to kill me, I wish I could let you live but I can’t” With those words spoken I hit him with bolts of electricity until he was dead, then burnt his body to ashes. I looked behind me to see miles of the hills of Los Angeles on fire, with sunrise fast approaching I had to make my way home before I was caught out in the sun to die myself.

To Be Continued…

The walk back from the gas station where they’d bought their candy was uncomfortable. Dodger was being quiet; he was never quiet, and Cole knew that meant the ordeal with Andrew had taken a toll on him. Dodge wasn’t used to this like he was, to fighting for survival, for his very life, no matter what the cost. He hadn’t become nearly as desensitized to the horrors they had to perform to survive. They’d had to kill him, though. Hadn’t they? They had no money, no place to sleep, only the clothes they were wearing, and he was already worried about their one newborn. A second would make things infinitely more complicated: he’d have to be trained, watched for his extra, and hunt, all without arousing any more suspicion from humans than they already were. Cole was worried enough as it was, with the extra responsibilities for Corey. If they hadn’t just taken on another newborn, maybe they would be able to… but…they just couldn’t afford the risk.

“We need to see if we can come up with some more money for the hotel,” Cole said, pulling open the door to their room for Dodger.

“We’ll find a way, we always do,” Dodge replied softly, not once making eye contact. “You know, if we have to ditch the newborn to save money, I’m okay with that too,” he added.

Even though he knew Dodge wasn’t joking, Cole couldn’t help but give him a small smile. “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” he said, shaking his head. “You know, Dodge, you’re gonna have to soften up to him sometime soon. Orphan and Corey are pretty serious.” He was going to add that it looked like Corey would be around for awhile, but stopped short at the glare Dodge shot across their room at him.

Cole stripped his shirt off, wiping the blood off his face as much as possible, and sunk onto their bed staring up at the ceiling, still lost in his thoughts. Dodge followed behind him, but instead of lying in bed with Cole, went straight for the second bed in their room, which always went untouched.

“What are you doing, Dodge?” Cole asked lightly. If Dodge was planning on sleeping in the other bed, it meant trouble. Dodge NEVER slept apart from Cole. When he did, his already vivid nightmares got ten times worse.

“I’m going to bed, what does it look like I’m doing?” Dodger snapped, keeping his back squarely facing Cole.

Cole sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed. “You know what I mean,” he responded, even more quietly than before, as he reached a hand out to lightly touch Dodge’s wrist.

“Get away from my bed or I’ll find another room,” Dodger said, moving his hand out of Cole’s reach. He was obviously avoiding looking anywhere near Cole, as he stripped off his shirt and Cole’s hoodie, and along with them, the last traces of blood from Andrew and the old man. Cole saw him shiver slightly as he saw the remains of what they had done stained into the shirt.

A black hole opened in Cole’s chest as his childe shied away from him; he suddenly felt alone. Even more alone than he had when he’d woken up to find himself alone, changed, broken and clueless, a newblood vampire with no idea who or what he was.  He was used to Dodge being mad at him, sure; hell, he was usually mad about something or another. But that was still normal. They’d still kiss, and cuddle, they’d still sleep in each other’s arms. This time was different… Dodge was pulling away from him, for whatever reason, and the thought of not only losing his childe, but also his lover, the thought of returning to wandering the streets of San Antonio aimlessly, alone, it destroyed him.

“What’s the problem, Dodge?” Cole asked, unable to keep the sadness and fear out of his voice.

Dodger turned around, studying the look on Cole’s face with a frown before shaking his head. “The problem?” he spat, as he walked around the bed toward his sire’s clothes on the floor. He picked up the bloodstained t-shirt and waved it angrily in Cole’s face. “THIS is the problem, Cole!”

Realization hit Cole, along with a fresh batch of frustration. “And what if we’d let him go, Clark!?” Cole spat angrily. “Would you rather a hunter caught up with him and he ended up with a shiv to the chest? Would that agonizingly slow and painful death be better as long as we don’t have to do it ourselves? What we did, that was a piece of mercy, Dodger.”

“MERCY would have been to change him. He had NOTHING, Cole!” Dodge screamed. “Even though I only knew him for twenty minutes, he was depending on me! And instead of helping him, you come around and start bossing everyone around and making decisions all on your own. If we’re all a ‘family’ we should have all decided, not just you. You killed an innocent boy, and you made me help you.”

Cole’s eyes narrowed at Dodger as he lowered his voice to a dangerous whisper. “We're trying to survive, here, Dodger. We're homeless, we barely have enough money to get a place to sleep for ourselves, we're already attracting attention… we can't afford to take anyone else with us. We can't pay for him, we can't draw any more attention to us with another dead body every month, and the bigger our group gets the more people notice us. In case you haven't noticed, vampires who get attention aren't exactly on good terms with the elders. They have a tendency to get dead."

Dodger met Cole’s glare with an equally frightening one of his own. "Oh real mature, Cole. Make up excuses for what you put us through tonight. He wouldn't have told anybody about us. He trusted me… he trusted me and I let you kill him."

“Yeah, he trusted you, and you knew as well as I did there wasn't a chance we'd be able to take him with us. Don't blame me for what we had to do. We don't know he would have been safe if we'd just left him there." Cole looked at Dodge sternly, tears welling up in his eyes. "It's not an excuse, Dodge. I'm not putting us into danger over some kid who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. If the elders didn't like him knowing, he'd be dead anyway and so would we. But you can be sure they wouldn't have been as quick as we were, or as kind."

"No!" Dodger yelled, pointing at Cole. "Don't start crying. That's not fair at all," he said, this time softer. Dodge always had a weak spot for his sire's tears, and Cole knew that. "We could have kept him, you just didn't want to. We could have dumped Corey instead."

Cole’s mouth twitched into a half-smile. Whenever Dodger started talking about abandoning Corey, Cole knew things were getting back to normal. "The way Orphan looks at him, we're gonna be stuck with him around for awhile. He's part of the family whether we like it or not." Cole hesitantly stepped over to Dodge's side, putting an arm on his shoulder. "We're not monsters, Dodge, but sometimes we have to do these things to survive. It sucks, and I regret it every time, you know that. But we can't take in every stray just because we want to. We have to think about what's best for us."

Cole could feel Dodger’s body tense at his touch, but as he spoke, Dodge seemed to relax, at least a little. "I just bonded with him, I guess.” Dodge replied sadly. “I knew what we were going to have to do, but he was talking and I read his mind and he was happy…I feel horrible."

Cole sat down on the bed next to Dodger, hugging him tight around the waist. "Good,” he said simply. “You should, I do, we all should. If we don't that just makes us soulless monsters. I don't think we'll ever feel good about it, but… it's this or death. I wish there were another choice. I spent years looking for one."

Dodge finally met Cole’s eyes for the first time since their angry glares earlier. Tears welled up in his eyes, but refused to spill out. “I know,” he whispered softly as his arms found Cole’s body.

“I’m so sorry,” Cole replied, his voice full of sadness. “You know, there’s something else that’s been bothering me, Dodge,” he continued after a few minutes. “We really need to figure out a more permanent living situation here. I think we’d better talk to the dynamic duo next door, and see if they have any ideas.”

Dodge sighed and rolled his eyes, with a look that clearly said he’d rather make Corey sleep in the sewers if it meant he had a warm hotel bed to sleep in during the day, but begrudgingly followed Cole next door anyway.

“I…um, I have enough money if… if we wanna stay at the hotel a little longer…” Corey offered in a small voice when Cole told them what he was thinking.

Dodger rolled his eyes, stepping toward Corey. “Let’s see what you got,” he said softly, reaching out a hand for the money. “I still say we should start looking for a warehouse type place anyway even if we plan on staying here.”

Corey took a few quick steps back, to distance himself from the older vampire as quickly as possible. He put his suitcase down, opened it, and pulled out a few fistfuls of cash. “I…I-I took it from duh-Dad’s safe, be-be-before I left…” Corey stuttered out, his hand shaking the closer it got to Dodger. “I… I mean… this is my new family right? And… I wanna help.”

“No, we’re not using Corey’s money,” Orphan said firmly, stepping between the two. “I think… somewhere else than the hotel would be good, but if we have to stay here, I can always… uh… scrounge up some cash, I guess…” he said.

“I don’t mind, Orphie—” Corey started softly, making Cole roll his eyes and nearly gag out loud, but he was quickly cut off by Dodger.

"Yeah so can I, but I don't want to. He's offering. We ARE family. God knows how much we spent on your room while he was in his crossover," Dodger said as he flipped through the money. Just in his hands alone was well over five hundred dollars, and there was far more piled in the bag Corey had taken it from. "Wow, your dad must be shitting his pants right now," Dodger said, glancing up at Corey. "I'm proud of you, newbie."

Corey shook his head, shrugging dismissively. “He probably just misses his fucking punching bag.” His voice was soft, but Cole couldn’t help but notice the acid that flooded his tone whenever his father was the topic of conversation. Clearly he and Dodger weren’t the only ones with bad parents. 

“Yeah, well, Dads in general just suck. MINE barely even knew my nam—“ Dodger spat out, but was abruptly cut off when Orphan snatched Corey’s money back out of his hands. “HEY!” he shouted at Orphan, before turning impatiently toward Cole. “Can’t you shoot him with lighting or something?” he demanded, his hands automatically finding his hips.

Cole just sent a smirk his way before dropping an arm around Corey’s shoulder. Turning to Orphan, he said, “Lucas, Corey’s right. Don’t treat him like a little kid; if he wants to contribute to the family’s wellbeing, then we’ll let him until we find something more permanent. This will buy us a little time,” he added, snatching the money back out of Orphan’s hand, “and you can give your little sweetie back any money you snatch on your own. I don’t care. But for now, this is ours.” Cole and Dodge both turned their backs on the younger vampires and headed for the door. “And don’t worry, I won’t hit him with lightning,” Cole said over his shoulder at a very worried-looking Corey. “…yet.”

“Um….” A small voice stopped them before they could get to the door. Judging by how meek and unsure it sounded, it could only have belonged to Corey. “When… when I first got to the, uh, the city… I-I slept in a warehouse, um… out… far away from everything. There weren’t any windows, and it was… um… I don’t remember any sun during the day… would that work?” he asked, his voice trembling as much as his body.

Dodge and Cole looked at each other briefly, seemingly having a silent conversation with their eyes. After a few moments, Cole turned to look at Corey. "You remember where it is?"

Corey nodded. “It’s um… past the park, and… and the train station. It’s like… it took me like an hour to get there walking, but, um… I was… bleeding, and stuff…” he trailed off.

Cole could tell that Dodge was having a hard time restraining himself from rolling his eyes as he turned to Cole. “We’ll check it out, see if it’s any good or not.”

Cole nodded his agreement to Dodge. “We’ll try to find it tomorrow night,” he said, before taking Dodge’s hand and heading back to their hotel room. Sunrise was drawing nearer, tearing them further from consciousness, so the two crawled into their bed, meeting at the center before wrapping their arms around one another for one last embrace before the Sleep took hold.

***

Cole's muscles ached and he wasn't sure why. His eyes fluttered open as he looked to the side and found his answer: Dodger was laying awkwardly halfway underneath him, causing his left side to twist into an uncomfortable position. He yawned and stretched, not wanting to move too far from Dodge's side as long as he was still asleep. He felt Dodge yawn softly, and cuddle closer to him. "Nooo," Dodge whined softly, his bottom lip sticking out in a pout. "More sleep."

Cole wrapped an arm over Dodge's back and sank further into the bed. "Okay, but just for a bit. We promised to find a new place to live today. If we don't go explore soon, it'll be too light to make it back here in time. And anyway mother Orphan will be pissed if we use any more of Corey's cash."

Dodger let out a grunt, deciding not to comment on the subject, but to bury his face in his sire's neck instead. Cole sighed and stroked Dodger's head for a few minutes before finally turning and getting out of bed reluctantly. He dressed, and zipped up his hoodie before tossing a shirt and a pair of jeans onto Dodger’s head, which Dodge promptly ignored.

“Fine…” Dodger said after a few minutes of silence. "But only if I can push Corey off of a building," he mumbled into the pillow. A big sigh of frustration followed, and Dodger's messy bed hair head popped out from under the shirt that had previously covered him from view. "At least let me THINK about it. Deal?"

"How about you think of today as scouting for the perfect building to fulfill your fantasy?" Cole smirked, sitting on the bed to poke at Dodge's side. "Now come on, before the newbloods skip out on us and we have to hunt them down for half our night. The earlier we find this place, the sooner we can start practicing your extra."

Dodger pouted, tugging the shirt on over his head. "No fair," he said as he stood up on the bed and pulled the tight jeans over his legs. "You can't use my extra against me." He buttoned them up and hopped off of the bed, walking over to the mirror and attempting to tame his brown hair. "Alright sweetstuff, I guess I'm ready," he said, furrowing his eyebrows together. "Except he better not whine all night!"

Cole took Dodge's wrist and led him to the others' room, and knocked loudly. After a few seconds with no answer, he knocked again, shouting, "WAKE UP, LAZIES, IT'S TIME TO GO FIND US A HOME!"

Dodger leaned against the wall, hands on his hips as he waited. "Are you sure they're even in there?" he asked, trying hard not to roll his eyes. "Break down the door and see."

Cole muttered back, "if they are and they're… otherwise occupied… I don't think my stomach could take it. I'd rather just wait and find out."

Dodge took in a deep breath, tapping his foot now. "Coooole, come on!” he whined. “I'm not waiting out here for them to finish playing hide the middle finger. We have to find this warehouse. Break…door…now…please?" he asked his sire, putting on his best innocent expression to sway Cole's decision.

Cole sighed and nodded at Dodge, before pounding on the door again loudly. "Corey! Orphan! Get your asses out here so we can—"

Cole thought he heard a voice that sounded like Corey’s yelling, but that couldn’t be; Corey never raised his voice above a whisper. "…did you hear something, Dodge?” he asked. “I think they're in there.” The thought of what they could be doing other than answering them made him blanch, and he almost gagged. “Oh god, maybe they are having sex…." Deciding he’d rather not think about that, Cole continued shouting. "OY! Get your asses out here before I have to break down there door, we're burning moonlight here!"

Dodger, whose gaze had wandered while he was waiting, glared playfully at Cole. "And you call yourself a vampire?" he asked while grabbing his sire's shoulders and spinning him around to face the lobby where Corey and Orphan were sitting waiting, grinning at Cole’s red face and hoarse voice. "Let's go. I want to get some candy before we go."

Cole turned around bewildered. "I…. but… HEY! Didn't you guys hear me yelling? You could have stopped me looking like a fool in front of the entire hotel if you'd just spoken up earlier!” he said angrily. “Come on, are we going to your warehouse now? I want to be there with enough time to get back here if it turns out we can't stay there. And we're making a pit stop for candy before we go, too."

Orphan nodded, standing up and helping Corey to his feet as well. “Corey says it’s probably only about a half hour walk or so,” he informed them as Corey nodded shyly behind him.

"Half hour?” Dodge grinned mischievously. “That's not bad at all. Think we can stop by the club for a dance or two? Sneak some money out of drunk's hands?" he asked, turning his gaze to Cole. "We could really use it as backup."

Cole nodded and grinning at Dodge, grabbing his hand on the way out the door. "Yeah, I like that plan. That way we don't have to use any more of Corey's money and Lucas will get off our asses. And you know I love the way you dance," he added with a wink.

"I like when we double-team them," Dodge replied with a wicked grin, nudging Cole with his shoulder.

Cole giggled with an evil smirk of his own. "You boys get to watch the masters at work tonight! See how a real con is pulled."

Corey, however, did not look quite so amused. Rather than following the others out of the lobby and toward the club, he slowly shuffled along, looking pitifully at Orphan before asking, "Um…Orphie and I… um…can we wait out by the riverwalk? I… don't…wanna go…."

Dodger narrowed his eyes, letting go of his sire's hand and walking up to Corey's side. "No," he said flatly, turning to stand in front of him. "You're in this family. You have to learn things and this happens to be one of them. Besides, even though he won't admit to it, Orphie likes watching this," Dodger said just above a whisper so only Corey could hear.

Corey lowered his eyes and nodded, finally falling in step with the rest of the group. Cole saw Orphan lean in to comfort him, but couldn’t bother concerning himself with what they were saying. Right now, what he cared about was having a drink to allow him the patience to deal with Corey, swiping some money to keep his family clothed and sheltered, and finding their way to a safe place they could call their home. He hoped this warehouse of Corey’s would pan out… especially if it was an older warehouse, it was likely to be made almost entirely of brick, with very few windows to provide deathly rays of sun while they were unconscious during the day. It would probably even be fairly easy to secure, too, so no one could disturb them while they were sleeping, or worse, rob or attack them. The hotel was great and all, but… there was no way they could keep staying there. A group of four young boys was already attracting quite a bit of suspicion, not to mention if they were still there for Corey’s first feeding, it could turn into a massacre. A nice abandoned warehouse in the middle of nowhere, where they could lie low and keep off everyone’s radar, was definitely their safest bet.

Cole and the others made their way to the front of the club, and gave the bouncer a slight nod before heading to the side door where they could enter unnoticed by the people standing around the front entrance. Cole knocked once, and the bouncer who had made his way around the side opened the door with a frown. "There's MORE of you? Jesus, two underage kids is suspicious enough, but this one doesn't look a day over 10! What do you think I'm running here?!" Cole and Dodge put on their best innocent smiles, and the bouncer just sighed. "You better not make any trouble. And remember, you pull any cons and I get twenty percent for letting you in here."

Cole glared at the bouncer. "TWENTY percent? You know full well your cut is ten," he said, acting offended as they pushed their way past him and into the club.

Dodger stuck his tongue out at the bouncer as they passed. "Seems like a busy night,” he mumbled to Cole as he scanned the room. “Have you found our first victim?"

Cole nodded, pointing to a man slouched at the bar with a drink in his hand and at least four empty glasses at his side. He glanced behind him at Corey and Orphan. "You two go find a table or dance or something, have some fun, relax, grab a drink, sit in the corner, whatever you want. Just make sure you have a good view of the bar, you'll want to see this."

Orphan nodded, lightly squeezing Corey’s heavily shaking arm. "Relax, Corey. Cole and Dodger, even if they don't show it, will rip apart anyone who tried to hurt us, kay? Just relax… I'm right here…" he said, as he led his childe to a vacant corner.

As the younger two got comfortable in the corner, Dodger surveyed Cole’s first mark. "Perfect," he said, scanning the drunk's mind. "Ugly wife… hates his job… likes to watch his stepson shower," Dodge mumbled, a smirk gracing his lips. "I think we have a winner. Follow my lead?"

Cole nodded, and Dodger walked up to the sloppy man, slipping in the booth next to him. It didn't take long for the man to notice him. "I was wondering if you could… um… show me where the bathrooms are?" he asked, looking shyly down at the ground before glancing back up at the man. His voice was innocent, but the grin and wink he gave the man were anything but. “To be honest with you… I'm not supposed to be here." The man gave Dodge a crooked grin, his eyebrow raising up while his hand slid up the vampire's thigh. Cole closed his eyes for a second, trying to suppress the urge to make the man his dinner for laying a hand on his childe.

"Yeahhhh let's go," the man slurred, barely understandable. With that, the older man grabbed Dodge's hand, pulling him roughly towards the bathroom. Dodge threw a glance over to Cole, nodding at him to follow.

Cole followed quietly behind them, entering the bathroom just seconds after Dodger and the man, and winked at Dodge in the mirror to signal him to turn on his extra. Dodger nodded, tilting his head to the side to crack his neck so he could get down to business. He tried to ignore the man's grabby hands and focus on getting his extra up and running. He focused on the man's breath, on the feel of his fingertips. Dodger tried to get into his mind—not a difficult feat, given how uninhibited he was—and before he knew it, the man was blindly trying to grab for him, his mouth opened in silent screams. Dodger grinned, and quickly starting reaching into pockets. "Come on, Cole. I got him."

After Dodge took the cash and placed the man's wallet back in his jeans, Cole positioned the man facedown in one of the stalls. As soon as he was ready, he nodded at Dodge to release his extra, and started shaking the man's body. "Hey, dude, heyyyy are you okay? You don't look so good… mister? Are you alive? Do you need me to call an ambulance?" he asked innocently. The man’s confused stare was enough to convince Cole he was drunk enough that he’d never remember Dodger or his missing money.

Cole left the bathroom, meeting up with a grinning Dodger on the other side of the door. "Come on. Let's go make sure Corey isn't crying in the corner,” Dodge giggled, grabbing his sire's hand and walking over to the table Corey and Orphan had grabbed, when he saw… a vampire, quite a bit older, dancing on the table. The two newbloods had looks of surprise, confusion, and fear plastered on their faces, as the stranger looked down on them. “I didn’t break anything up by coming over here, did I?” he asked with a wink.

"I think you did," Dodge said, narrowing his eyes as he slid into the booth next to Corey and took out the money, counting it quickly under the table, out of view from the older vampire. "Hey," he said, turning his head towards the newborn and slipping their money in his hand. "There is $300 here. You want to prove yourself? I want you to keep our money safe until we get to the warehouse. If you lose a single dollar… well… you don't want me to go there," Dodger whispered, playfully ruffling Corey's mop of hair. "By the way, go get us all drinks. Except for him," Dodge said with a smirk, pointing at the invading vampire.

Corey looked at Dodger with alarm. "Buh-buh-but… but it… we’re… I’m… I can’t… I’m only thirteen! I can’t buy drinks!” he stuttered nervously.

Cole grinned at Corey. "They know us here. Trust me. Just point over here at us, they'll know what we want. Get something for yourself, too. It'll put a little hair on your chest," he said, purposely ignoring the older vampire’s invasion as well. It worked, and the intruder glared at them with a growl before stomping off in a huff.

Dodger shook his head, and quickly shushed his sire. "No, Corey. You're a vampire. Make THEM give YOU a drink. I better not see you pointing over here at us either."

Corey swallowed nervously, his body shaking yet again. "How do I make them? Look at me!" he whined, pointing to his 4'10” body. "I'm…no one would be scared of me!" He sighed under Dodger’s glare, and stammered out, "If…. if… if I do this… will you stop being mean to me?" 

Cole rolled his eyes. "He probably would have if you hadn’t just asked that question," he said playfully.

Dodge just shook his head, knowing someday Corey would be thankful for this lesson. "I'll stop being mean to you when you make me, and probably not even after that," he said with a shrug, cuddling closer to Cole. "But seriously, you're making me want to eat someone. Go get us drinks."

They all watched in amusement as Corey slowly and shakily stood up from the booth and stumbled over to the bar, giving even the weakest of humans a wide berth. "He might just be an ok vampire after all," Dodger said to the table, before narrowing his eyes at all of them. "If anyone tells him I said that, they'll find themselves sunbathing."

"Hm, we'll just have to wait and see," Cole replied, wrapping an arm around Dodge. He saw Corey steal a glance at the bartender’s turned back, before looking hard at Dodger with a look of determination on his face. With a deep breath, Corey hopped over the bar, grabbed a few bottles, and hopped the bar again before dashing through the crowd back to their table. Cole stared at Corey, wide-eyed and slackjawed. "Wow…" he said, barely above a whisper. "That," he started, putting his hand on Corey's shoulder, "was awesome. You might just be a vampire after all." He and Dodge grabbed a bottle each, passing the remaining to the newbloods to share.

Corey shook his head, grabbing a bottle and guzzling down a few gulps. "That was scary," he said with a sigh.

Dodger looked from the bar to Corey and back then, shaking his head. "Who the fuck are you?" he asked, extremely puzzled. Orphan stared back with wide eyes, shaking his head slowly in disbelief before reaching over and grabbing the already half-empty bottle from Corey’s hand.

After several drinks, and countless retellings of Corey’s daring adventure, Cole decided it was time to go. Corey had become incoherent, releasing a stream of gibberish from which he could only make out the words “dad” and “beat.” Whatever it was, he doubted Corey was reliving pleasant memories. He did, however, keep reaching for the bottle that Orphan had thankfully kept out of his reach. Cole swatted Corey's hand down. "Nuh uh,” he scolded. “You've gotta be able to remember where that warehouse is. In fact, we should get going so the cold air outside can sober you up. C'mon boys, let's head out."

"I'm not carrying him home," Dodger said, taking one final gulp from his bottle as they stood up to leave. "Seriously, I will push him off a bridge."

Corey screwed up his face in what looked like anger, or perhaps constipation, before exploding at Dodger. "I don't need your help!" he spat out, fueled by the alcohol. "I was all alone from the time they started beating me to the time I ran away."

"And drinking helps?" Dodger asked angrily. Cole could tell that memories of Dodge’s human life had flooded his head, memories he knew were unpleasant and painful. "That makes you as low as your father. At least your father knew your name when he was beating you." Dodger turned to Cole, motioning for him to slide out of the booth. "I need air now." Dodger squeezed past Cole out of the booth, only turning around to flip off Corey.

Cole snatched the bottle Corey had just managed to get his hands on, saying "you've had enough, kid," as he followed Dodge out the door. He wrapped his arms around Dodger from behind when he caught up to him.

"I thought I was over it," Dodge mumbled softly, making sure only Cole could make out what he was saying. "I don't know if I will ever be able to forgive them." He shook his head, turning around in his sire's arms and nuzzling his shoulder, his whole body tensing up once Corey came out after them. "You might be feeling confident and cocky now, but I will kill you if I have to,” he spat furiously. “You aren't even close to being a vampire yet, don't forget that."

Cole pulled Dodger in closer, and spoke softly into his ear. "You don't have to forgive them. You just have to forgive yourself for believing them." He ran his fingers through Dodger's hair comfortingly as Corey released a string of obscenities so slurred Cole could barely make out what he was saying. He gave Dodge one lingering squeeze before releasing him and putting a hand on Corey's shoulder. "I think it's time we find that warehouse now," he said, giving Corey a hard look before turning to Orphan. "If he leads us into a dead end because he's drunk, then I'm letting Dodge here have his way and push Corey off a building. You better be sure, kid. If I end up frying because of your drunk ass, I won't be happy. So, think real hard, and make SURE we're going in the right direction, mmkay?"

Corey returned Cole’s look, and said firmly, "it's past the park, and the shelter, and the train station, and I remember I was bleeding from THIS—" he lifted up his shirt, revealing a large scar on his chest, “—so you can just follow my blood!"

"So dramatic…" Dodger whispered under his breath, shaking his head as he turned away from Corey. He and Cole walked hand in hand from the side of the club, pointing themselves in the direction of the park.

Suddenly, however, Cole got the feeling that someone was watching them, and he didn’t like it one bit. A glance at Dodger told him he wasn’t the only one feeling uneasy. His face tensed up slightly, but he didn’t want to worry Corey, especially in his altered state. Instinctively, he made his way to the other side of Corey and Lucas, so as to not leave them unguarded.

Corey looked between Dodger and Cole. His intoxicated brain was sluggish, but he’d obviously picked up on the change in their demeanor. "Someone's watching us," he said before Cole could shush him, a little too loudly for Cole’s comfort.

"Wow, thanks captain obvious. We had no idea!" Dodger hissed as he shoved Corey back towards Orphan. "Stand still and shut up. Don't draw attention to us, idiot."

Orphan tensed up on hearing Corey's words. He looked around, a slightly fearful expression appearing on his face. "What?" he asked Corey, before looking at Dodger and Cole for confirmation.

Corey nodded, as he held a finger to his lips "Shhhhhhhhh… don’t worry! The great Dodger will save us all!" he exclaimed in an exaggerated whisper. Apparently, some part of the instructions “stand still and shut up” was too complicated for him to handle.

"Lucas, get him to shut the fuck up," Cole whispered sharply to Orphan. "We don't need any more trouble."

Orphan nodded quickly, before stepping closer to Corey. "But… Uh… Nothing's gonna happen right? What're you hearing? What's happening?" he asked.

Cole gave him a reassuring look. "Yeah… nothing's happening. I promise. You guys are gonna be fine," Cole said, sounding far more confident than he felt.

Dodger was studying the roof of a nearby building, his head tilted. Cole followed his gaze; he thought he saw movement, but he wasn't entirely sure. "No, actually we're all going to die," Dodger said with a smirk.

Corey simply stared at Dodger, replying, "I wouldn't have cared if dad killed me."

"Lucas!” Cole hissed furiously. “Shut him up! Now is NOT the time, Corey. Let us fucking focus, here," Cole sighed in frustration, as Dodger nudged his side, pointing to the roof.

"Watch up there, I'm going to go try and see if I can get my extra to work," Dodger said as he walked towards the side of the club. He leaned against it, closing his eyes as he tried to focus on whoever was watching them.

"Do it, Dodge,” Cole said tensely. Dodger rubbed his fingertips against his temples, trying to feel what their stalker felt. He took in the scent of the night, imagining whoever was watching them do the same. It took Dodge a minute, but he felt the slight "switch" in his mind, which hopefully meant their stalker couldn't smell anything.

As if realizing he’d lost the element of surprise, a dark figure jumped down from the roof of the club, landing lightly on the pavement in front of them. It was, Cole recognized, the same vampire who’d been dancing on their table earlier in the evening. His gaze was unnervingly serene, but when he spoke there was no mistaking the acid in his tone.

“Well, well, well… what do we have here? Looks like a bunch of trespassers up to no good at MY bar.”

“YOUR bar!?” Cole said coldly, stepping between the newbloods and this new vampire. “I believe it’s open to everyone. We haven’t done anything wrong, so back off.” As he spoke, Dodge slipped into the shadows. Cole was hoping he would be able to activate his extra more strongly now that he had eye contact with their assailant.

"Yes MY bar smartass. You came here without invitation, and then you disrespected me. On MY territory. Looks like I’m going to have to teach you a little respect, tough guy.” The man kept a fair distance between them, but just close enough to be threatening, his eyes locked on Cole’s.

"Any luck there, Dodge?" Cole asked quietly under his breath. "We came here to have some fun,” Cole added loudly, this time addressing the man in front of him, much more boldly than he felt. “And now you've gone and ruined that. I don't like having my evening ruined." He managed to keep the tremble out of his voice for the Corey’s sake; he was already a basket case, and there was no telling what he would do in his drunken state. They didn't need anything else to add to their trouble.

Cole heard Dodger mumble "fuck" under his breath. It sounded like shutting the man down wasn’t going well. Cole would fight if he had to, but he hadn’t been in a real fight since he was human. He really didn’t have any clue what he was doing. He could only hope the man was bluffing.

"Yeah, yeah, I've heard it all before tough guy. You see, me and the boys here, we really don't give a fuck." At his words, three other men entered the alley.  This was not good. They were outnumbered, and Corey and Lucas were both far too new to be of any use. "If you have a problem with us, you take it up with me, not the newbloods," he said coldly to their assailant, who was staring at Corey, his lips curled into a smirk.

"You're volunteering to be the first to get his ass kicked, tough guy?" the man asked, brushing off the collar of his jacket like he was suddenly bored. Cole narrowed his eyes at the insult, and squared off to fight, but was stopped from a voice in the shadows. It was Dodger, who, it appeared, had given up on his extra, opting instead for a small rusty metal pole.

"No," he said as he stepped out of the darkness. "I'm volunteering." He twirled the pole in his hand, raising his eyebrow.

Cole smirked as Dodge stood by his side. "Two on four. How's that sound, eh? Might even be a fair fight if you had a couple more friends." He wasn't sure why he was making this worse, but at least he wasn't coming off as weak. "So come on then. Whatcha waiting for?" he asked, cracking his neck.

The man just smirked at Dodge with a look that clearly said, "you can't be serious." Drawing a tire iron from his coat, he nodded to his crew, who all took a step forward, effectively blockading off the street. "It'll be such a shame to bust up that pretty face of yours…" He stalked closer toward Cole and Dodge, brandishing his tire iron expertly.

"Good thing you won't get close to it," Dodger snapped back, now stepping next to Cole. "I think it would be a good time to make it rain, Cole," he added under his breath, gripping the pole in his hand tightly. "I'm really going to enjoy driving this into your heart." He stepped closer to the other vampire, blowing him a kiss before raising the pole to strike. On cue, Cole's emotions began to well up – they'd already started, when the man threatened his childe's face. Lightning cracked above them and a torrential downpour soaked the alley in just a few seconds.

"You wish, sweetheart.” The man’s voice sounded excited as he brought the tire iron up hard on the pole, sending heavy vibrations through them both. "Boys, do it," he called and his crew closed in on them.

Cole's head whipped around as he heard one of the thugs sneaking up on the other side of the newbloods. He scrambled to the other side of their party, ramming the man behind them full-on in the chest. The two traded punches, both landing far fewer than they threw. Cole took a punch to the side, which winded him, sending him reeling into Corey's body and nearly knocking him to the ground. His anger flared up even stronger, and lightning struck the dumpsters on the far end of the alley as he ran forward, sending a punch to the goon's chest that knocked him back against the brick wall, before he fell unconscious to the ground. On the other side of the alley, he saw Dodge land a kick hard to the leader’s crotch, sending him reeling.

"JOEY!” he shouted, stumbling slightly in pain. “Get the newbloods already you fat fuck! Henry, come back me up. Nice tricks,” he added to Cole and Dodge, before taking a swing with his tire iron at Cole’s head as if it were a baseball. Cole managed to catch a glimpse of “Joey” being headed off by Orphan before Dodge streaked by him, jumping onto the leader. Cole ducked quickly, and between Dodger's distraction and his reflexes, narrowly avoided getting his skull fractured. Since the newbloods seemed to have Joey occupied, and Dodge clearly had their leader distracted, Cole weaved behind his companion and headed straight for Henry, landing a few blows before being knocked painfully to the ground. He had an excellent view of the group’s leader slamming Dodger hard into a brick wall, and knew he had to act fast before the man killed him. He jumped painfully onto his feet as Dodge went down, running across the alley and brutally kicking the leader in the gut, hoping to get him away from Dodge before he delivered a fatal blow. Before he could get another hit in, though, “Henry” grabbed him in a tight bear hug from behind.

“I don’t think so, tough guy,” Henry said, as he moved his arms up to Cole’s neck, cutting off his air supply. Cole flailed and struggled, trying to send elbows into the man’s stomach and any other soft parts he could reach, eventually landing a foot in the man’s crotch, sending both of them tumbling to the ground in agony. Both Cole and his attacker lay on the ground for a few seconds, long enough to watch Dodge activate his extra against the leader of the gang attacking them. By the way he was suddenly off balance and couldn’t seem to find Dodge, it appeared Dodger had removed his sense of sight.

“So that was you, eh pretty boy?” Cole heard the man ask as he staggered to stand up again. He wasn’t standing for long, though, as Dodge had managed to recover his metal pipe, and take a hard swing at the back of the man’s head. Cole could practically hear the smirk in Dodge’s voice as he replied, “That was me too.”

Cole heard Henry starting to get up, though, so he stopped watching Dodger, and managed to stumble to his feet just before the man next to him. He landed a punch to the man’s face, laying him out again, and then stomped on his stomach heavily, hoping to wind him so he would stay down. Unfortunately, Henry used this as an opportunity to roll over, tripping Cole who landed back on the ground next to the man. He landed on his back next to Henry, winded from the blow but not quite beaten. They both rolled on their sides, grappling on the ground as Cole struggled to win the advantage. Henry landed a fist in Cole's stomach, winding him yet again, and sending him reeling off to the side. Now he was pissed, in excruciating pain, and almost out of energy. He summoned what little strength he had left, his rage welling up inside him, and sent a bolt of lightning straight for the man's chest, missing by inches but causing a small explosion that knocked Henry into a wall, where he dropped unconscious.

Cole was still on the ground as the unthinkable happened. The leader had somehow managed to regain his sight, and was brandishing his tire iron menacingly. He took a swing that was sure to kill Dodger; there was no time to react. Cole shut his eyes. He couldn’t bear to watch his childe, his lover, his only friend in darkness reduced to a corpse and a splatter of blood and brains on the sidewalk. He waited for the sickening sound of metal on bone; but it never came. Cole opened his eyes slowly, taking in the unexpected scene in the alleyway. Two of the thugs lay unconscious where he left them, one was being pinned to the ground by Orphan but still fighting—apparently Lucas didn’t know how to throw a punch or a kick—Corey lay on the ground hacking, having obviously just taken the tire iron blow for Dodge, and Dodger was helping Corey up, with the gang leader stumbling backward from a particularly painful punch from Dodger. He’d have to remember to thank Corey later for saving his childe’s life. Especially since Dodge would be too pissed about having to have his life saved to do it himself, at least for a few days.

Cole staggered over to Orphan, who looked like he could use the most help. "Do I have to do everything myself?" he sighed, before walking over and kicking Joey in the face, breaking his nose and knocking him unconscious. "There. That's how you fight, Orphan. We're going to have to teach you these things some day…" Cole then slumped to the ground, exhausted, hoping to regain his strength in case Dodge needed his help. He didn’t, it turned out, as he managed to land a series of blows that knocked the man to the ground in a matter of a few more seconds, before he himself keeled over from exhaustion. The four of them remained on the ground for a few minutes, before Cole slowly got to his feet.

“Corey,” he said softly, as he helped Dodger to his feet and put Dodge’s arm around his shoulders, “I think it’s time you took us to that warehouse. Maybe we can make ourselves safe there.”

"Corey better know where the fuck he's taking us or we're throwing him in the sun," Dodge said under his breath to Cole as they began limping away from the alleyway and the bodies of the four unconscious men.

Cole stopped for a second to shake his head like a dog, trying to get the debris off his face and out of his hair. "After what he did for you tonight,” Cole whispered back, “I trust him with my life.”

Dodger peeked open an eye, feeling a curious hand stroke his naked hip slowly. He yawned, stretching out his legs as he rolled over, the warm rays of sunlight streaming in from the window. God, he had missed his old bed so much. The way it dented in the most comfortable ways and molded around his body… It was the one thing, the only thing he could say he missed from his human life.

 It was then that Dodge felt lips on his ear and he let out a soft giggle, turning towards Cole. "Morning, sweetstuff," Dodge whispered softly, snaking his leg between his sires and rubbing their feet together. He could feel Cole’s warm breath against his earlobe and it made Dodger squirm under the thin blanket covering them.

            “G’morning,” Cole’s sleepy voice whispered softly, his lips tickling along Dodger’s neck. Cole played with the end of Dodge’s hair, his arms wrapped tightly around Dodger’s middle. The sunlight streaming in from the windows gave his sire’s skin a glow, and Dodge couldn’t fight the temptation anymore. He ran his hand along Cole’s belly, his index finger dipping into his bellybutton.  He had never been so content before than he was in his old room, in Cole’s arms.

            “I think we should sleep all day,” Dodger said against his sire’s skin, his lips tracing over his Adam’s Apple and down to his collarbone. He felt Cole press against him; the feeling of his hard groin made Dodge tingle in all of the right places. “Mmm,” he moaned softly, his hand slipping under the covers. “Definitely staying in bed all day.”

So naturally, Dodger wasn’t surprised when he heard a knock on the door. He stopped teasing Cole’s nipple, to give his sire a frustrated glare. “I bet you Corey is whining about something. Should I tell them to fuck off or do you want to?”

“I know how much you like to,” was his sire’s response as he kissed the soft spot under his ear. As Dodge slipped off the bed, tugging on a pair of boxers, Cole stayed snuggled under the covers. “Hey Dodge?” he called out while Dodger turned around to face him. “Just…I love you.”

Dodger blushed softly, leaning over the bed to place a soft kiss on Cole’s nose. “I love you too, sweetstuff,” he whispered back, tempted to climb back into bed and forget about Corey and Orphan.

But Dodger, being the kindest vampire in the world, left his naked boyfriend in bed. He walked over to the door, glare in action. “What the fuck do yo-” his words were cut off as he came face to face not with his “friends” but with his father. “W-what? Father?” Dodger called out in disbelief, stepping back in fear as his father lowered a set of white pearly fangs much like Dodger’s own.

He was knocked on his back in a matter of seconds, his father jumping on top of him. “Found you,” he hissed, his hand around Dodger’s throat. Dodger could hear Cole’s scream, and he glanced over towards his sire, searching for some type of help, but it was too late. He felt fangs piercing his neck and ripping him apart. The last thing Dodger saw before he closed his eyes-

“Holy fuck!” Dodger said as he nearly rolled off the bed. He was sweaty, shaking, and his hands were grabbing his throat, happy to know it was still connected. “Holy shitttt,” he said again as he pushed his brown hair out of his eyes and tried to control his breathing. “Effing ridiculous…” Dodger muttered to himself as he looked over at the clock. His lips turned down into a frown as he realized he had an hour to kill by himself. He hated having nightmares, especially nightmares about his father. The more Dodger tried to convince himself he was over the issues with his father, the more his father reappeared in his dreams.

With a yawn, Dodger stood up, running his fingers through his bedhead. The hotel they were currently staying in was small, only one bed, bathroom, TV, and a little table with a coffee pot on it. Dodger sat at the table, turning on the various coffee machine buttons. He had never had coffee before. Of course he knew vampires weren’t allowed to drink or eat…but his sire was sleeping, and Dodger would be lying if he said he wasn’t a tiny bit curious…

Twenty minutes later, Dodger was spitting out the horrible mud-like substance he had made, and he was not happy. Instead of tossing it out, he added various disgusting things into the mug that he found around the motel, including lotion, soap, and even a sprinkle of garlic that he found under the bed.

Dodger finally heard Cole stir and he instantly sat back on the bed, holding the coffee mug under his sire’s nose. “Drink this,” he said as he tried to shove it further under Cole’s nose. “I made it just for you.”

"You don't actually expect me to drink something you've made without me watching, do you? I learned that lesson the hard way with your 'whipped cream' last week,” Cole said, giving Dodger one of his ‘stern’ looks.

Dodge had opened his mouth to defend himself when he heard his stomach rumble. "Hungry tonight?" Cole asked him as he rolled out of their bed, Dodge jumping off of it right after him.

“I guess so. Let’s go now. I want to have plenty of time to pick out a perfect donor.” Dodger hurried to pull on one of Cole’s hoddies, tossing his sire his shirt to get him to speed it up.

“First we have to see if Corey is awake…” Cole said and Dodge immediately opened his mouth to protest. “Shush. Five minutes that’s it.” Dodger didn’t like the compromise, but his sire silenced him with a kiss.

Dodger and Cole walked hand in hand down the hall, towards Orphan and Corey’s hotel room. Dodger was grumpy and muttering to himself while Cole reminded him that Corey was now part of the family and they had to check and make sure his transformation was going smoothly. But as Cole reached up to knock on the door, it burst open, Orphan running out quickly. Dodge looked at Cole, to where Orphan had ran out of the hotel, back to Cole, and then finally into the room. “What the fuck?” he asked, before hearing Corey moaning around on the bed. At first Dodger thought he was having a real good time, but stepping into the room, Corey looked like he was having a seizure.

“W-Who are y-you?” he asked Dodger and Cole as he sat up on the bed, looking at them as if they were complete strangers.

"Corey… um…. welcome… back? It's us… Cole and Dodger. Are… is something… what the hell happened in here?" Cole asked as he pushed past Dodge and stood at the end of the bed while Dodge walked towards the small table, picking up a note. He read it silently, rolling his eyes.

“He’s going to have to come with us, even if he’s insane,” Dodger said as he passed off the note to Cole and rubbed his stomach. “You’re turning out to be a LOT more work, new blood.” Dodger glared at Corey, his eyes narrowing at him.

"What…did…did my dad call you? Does he not even care he almost killed me last night? No…wait, I ran away from home, I met…ORPHAN! Where is Orphan? I met Orphan…and then…where is he?" Corey freaked out, while Dodger just yawned and sat on the end of their bed, letting Cole explain for him.

"He's being a moron," Cole said and Dodger watched him roll his eyes. "We'll find him, you'll jump into his arms, and everything will be good again. But we have to get a move on, that boy is fast, if we don't move soon we'll lose him in the city."

"What happened? I … I woke up and thought I was back home and my dad had beaten me, so I … I curled up into a ball you know…like…like I used to do, and … I was just confused, what…I felt like a TRUCK ran me over! What HAPPENED?" Corey continued to freak out as another rumble went through Dodger’s stomach. He huffed impatiently, glaring at his sire even though it went unnoticed.

"Yeah, that's the change. Your body was basically completely remade from scratch, it doesn't exactly tickle. It'll subside, I promise, just give it a couple of sleep cycles. I'd guess Lucas saw you recoil, thought you hated him, and took off. Like I said, moron. We'll find him, evere," Cole hissed, slipping into Verzpertillio which usually got Dodge all hot and bothered, but now he was just plain bothered.

“C-change? I’m o-one of you guys now?” Corey asked, his eyes wide with terror, but then a look of acceptance came across his face that puzzled Dodge. “A…vampire?”

Dodger threw his hands in the air, jumping off of the bed with a growl. “NO. You’re a werewolf. What do YOU think? Jesus…” Dodger trailed off, narrowing his eyes at the new blood that seemed to be very good at getting under his skin. “I’m hungry, Cole. I don’t want to waste time playing baby-sitter for him because Orphan is an emotional roller-coaster. It isn’t fair.”

Dodge felt bad when he saw Cole run his fingers through his hair and sigh in obvious frustration. “Yeah…” His sire said softly, nodding his head, “You go feed; I'll take the freshman out for a fun game of find the sire in the city-stack. God, that bastard, just running off like this, I swear I'm going to rip him to shreds when I catch him…”

"YOU WON'T HURT HIM!" Corey screamed from the bed, which instantly set off Dodger. He tackled Corey on the bed, pinning him on his back, his hand holding Corey’s throat, not enough to cut off oxygen, but hard enough to let Corey know he would lose if he moved an inch.

"DON'T talk to Cole like that or I’LL rip you to shreds," he growled, glaring at the newborn. "You play by our rules and if you threaten my sire I will find the sharpest thing in this goddamn hotel and stab you right through the heart before you even blink. How does that sound to you? It sounds like a fucking awesome time to me,” Dodger hissed, his fangs dropping down from his gums as he tasted Corey’s fear on the tip of his tongue. The newborn’s eyes widened in surprise at Dodger’s quick attack and he started to whimper out, the formation of tears starting in his eyes.

A soft hand made contact with Dodger, and he turned his head to see it belonged to Cole. “Come on, Dodger. I’ll take Corey to find Orphan, you go eat, and when you’re done send me a message. I’ll find you,” his sire said, leaning in to kiss Dodge’s tensed up shoulder.

Dodger snapped out of his protective trance. He took his hand off of Corey’s throat, leaning his head side to side to crack his neck. “You know you don’t seem too bad for a newborn. I like your temper, just not you.” With that, Dodger climbed off Corey but not before pinching his nose with a soft laugh.

The cold night air hit Dodger’s face and he breathed it in slowly. Every single bone in his body seemed to tingle with anticipation of feeding. Dodger loved the cat and mouse type games that he played with his “donor.”

He carefully scanned each human being he passed on the sidewalk, having learned his lesson about carelessly picking his meals a couple years ago. Dodger, of course, was a picky eater. It took him longer to hunt then it did for Cole.

"Mmmm, you look like a good fuck, pretty boy, and you got a nice bum. I'm going to have so much fun with you…" Dodger stopped dead in his tracks, biting back a laugh as he peered into the dark alleyway. He wasn’t surprised to find an incredibly old man pinning a young boy against a dumpster. How romantic.

At first Dodge’s first thought was that the man was getting his rocks off with some two dollar boy prostitute, but Dodger could smell the increasing fear, and it came from the boy. His fangs dropped as he started to silently creep into the alleyway. Dinner’s ready.

“Hey gramps, how about you pick on somebody your own size?” he called out, hands on his hips as he stopped behind the man. His lips turned down into a frown when the man continued to ignore him. “Hey shitforbrains!” Dodger called out, his eyes narrowing at the man’s head, “I SAID…find someone your own age you pervert!" He spun the man around, instantly sending a punch to his nose. The bone broke once Dodge’s fist made contact. The satisfying crack made his mouth water. "I HATE repeating myself, don't you?" Dodger asked as he turned towards the boy, shaking his head in disappointment. "Drives me absolutely nuts."

The man let out a cry of pain, letting go of the little boy in order to grip his nose. The boy, instead of running away as he should have, backed up against the wall and stared wide-eyed at Dodger.

Slightly distracted by the kid, Dodger lost focus on the old man who managed to get his arms around Dodge’s waist in an attempt to lift him up.

“You old motherfucker let me go!” Dodger wiggled around before kicking his foot back right into the man’s shin. They both tumbled to the ground, Dodger on top of his dinner. “Oh my god you’re hard!” he spat out with disgust. “Unfuckingbelievable,” he muttered while grabbing a fistful of the man’s hair. “Close your eyes kid,” Dodger said as he tossed a glance back towards the boy, “Chances are this won’t be pretty.” He winked before turning back towards his meal. “It’s really a shame that I can’t play with you…” Dodge trailed his finger slowly down the donor’s neck, feeling him trembling. He lowered his head into the nape of the male’s neck, nuzzling it before giving his salty skin a long lick. “Guess I’ll have to get over it,” he said before biting into the man’s neck and drinking. Dodger, having done this plenty of times before, was hardly affected. He had saved a life and taken one. He actually felt pretty damn good about himself right now.

Dodger pressed his fangs more into the man's neck, trying to get a little more blood until he was full. He heard the kid making a commotion and rolled his eyes. He saved the kid's ass! He should be jumping for joy. When the man's head fell to the side, Dodger pulled away, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "What are the chances of you never speaking about this again?"

"I- I- I- I won't tell anyone. T-there's no one for me to tell anyway. I'm an – an orphan, my parents are dead. I d-don't have any friends or family. No one loves me…." The boy’s reply made Dodger want to throw himself off a bridge…too bad that wouldn’t do any lasting damage. There was no way Cole would let Dodger turn this kid, especially since he seemed so whiny. Holding up a finger, Dodge silenced the kid. He closed his eyes, focusing solely on Cole. He knew the chances of him being in trouble were great, but he couldn’t fix this mess alone. Concentrating hard, Dodger managed to corner Cole and shut down his sight and hearing.

After a few minutes of waiting, Dodger heard the distant boom of thunder. “No way!” he narrowed his eyes at the storm. “He’s going to make me go to him!” He crossed his arms over his chest, bottom lip sticking out in a childish pout. “Can you believe that?” Dodger said completely ignoring the kid’s persistent questions mostly asking Dodger WHAT he was. “Hey, you know I totally saved your ten year old ass. You could thank me,” Dodger said as he hopped up onto a nearby dumpster.

“O-oh…sorry. Thank you…really thank you. I don’t know what I would have done…” the boy said, tears welled up in his big brown eyes.

"No big deal, it was fun. I'm Superman by the way, but you can call me Clark Kent." He extended his hand out to the kid. "Excuse the blood though," he said with a small frown. "Your name is…?”

"I'm…Andrew, Andrew Closel. W-who…well…what are you? Did you really just drink that man's blood? Are you a- a Vampire?" the boy asked, cautiously stepping up next to Dodger to study him more closely.

“What? Vampires? Are you high? I just TOLD you, I'm Superman!" Dodger said, puffing out his chest. "No? Well you're no fun. Yeah, vampire. Grrr…arrrgh you know? Don't worry though I don't eat little kids only mean adults," Dodge said, sitting on the ground, wondering why Cole hadn't come yet because every moment that passed he told the kid more and more secrets. He was going to end up sleeping outside if he didn’t shut his mouth.

"Yes blood, and no sun, I tried to test the garlic theory today, but my boyfriend refuses to drink anything I give him so I'm going to try it out on the newborn vampire that woke up today," Dodger explained before the boy could ever ask the questions. Sighing, Dodger placed his chin in his hands. “I also have this nifty mind reading ability. The boy you checked out earlier at Burger King was a fine piece of ass by the way.” Dodger turned his head to wink at the kid, attempting to lift the mood.

“What else?” Andrew asked, plopping down next to Dodger on the dumpster. Dodge couldn’t help it. The kid was so curious and innocent.

"We have super cool powers! I can take away senses. It's the best power out there, and the most powerful. I'm pretty much the God of vampires, you know? Do you want my autograph? I bet you could totally sell it on eBay for a million dollars."

"If you're the vampire God, does that make me Moses?" Dodger instantly grinned, jumping up from the dumpster to properly greet his sire, by sticking his tongue as far as he could down Cole’s throat. His sire wasn’t fooled by Dodge’s attempt of distraction. "Another human? Are we collecting? Gotta catch 'em all?"

Dodger furrowed his eyebrows together at Cole’s lame joke, but he was further irritated as Corey chimed in. "Does that make me Pikachu cause I'm the cutest?" His question was answered by a snort as Dodger rolled his eyes. If Corey was a Pokémon he’d be the one that was made of mud.

“W-Who are these people, Clark?” Andrew said. At first Dodger didn’t reply, he was too busy trying to catch Cole’s lips with his own as his sire licked off the dried blood on Dodge’s face, but Cole stopped, tilting his head as he studied Dodger and his new “friend”. “OH…err…he’s also on a mixture of drugs and pain medication. I have no idea what he’s talking about.”

"Yeah, drugs, definitely. I can totally smell them all over his blood; this kid's whacked out," Cole said and Dodger nudged his sire’s stomach with a pout.

"Um…what about me? Thank you for saving me, Clark…but what will happen to me now?" The boy looked up at Dodger, who refused to return his gaze. “C-Can I stay with you guys? I can be like you guys! I promise I’ll be good. I just have nowhere else to go…”

Dodger looked to his sire, hiding any emotion in his face from the boy. He knew what had to be done; it was a matter of how. “Of course, Andrew,” Dodger said, tossing his arm around the little guy’s shoulders. “Cole and I just want to talk to you before we take you back to our place.” He turned towards Orphan and Corey, giving Orphan a nod so he could watch the entrance of the alleyway.

Cole led the way, Dodger following slowly behind Andrew. Once they were out of sight of the other two vampires, Cole turned, placing his hands on Andrew’s shoulders, and giving the boy a reassuring smile. “I hope you can forgive me,” Dodger’s sire said sadly before attacking the boy’s neck. Andrew immediately screamed and Dodger rushed into to cover the boy's mouth with his hand. “Come on, Dodger. I need your help,” Cole mumbled into the dying boy’s neck. Despite being full, Dodger ducked his head and bit into Andrew’s neck. He couldn’t bring himself to enjoy the blood.

Walking back towards Orphan and Corey, Dodger could see Corey visible shaking, while Orphan just shook his head at the pair.

“We had to do it, Orphan. We did him a favor, get over it,” Dodge said as he walked up to the vampire, wiping the remains of Andrew’s blood off of his mouth and smearing it over Orphan’s lips. “Sometimes we have to do shitty things to protect us. It’s human nature.”

"I know we're vampires and all, but I can't… I can't in good conscience kill innocent people. I already hate having to feed, but when I do I'll stick to using the evil people," Orphan replied, giving Dodger a disgusted look as he wiped off the blood as fast as he could.

“If we didn’t do that he would have had a worse death. At least I saved him from being raped by someone old enough to be his grandfather.” Dodge’s eyes narrowed as he fought to defend their actions.

“Enough. Both of you,” Cole stepped in, wrapping a protective arm around Dodger’s side while Corey molded himself likewise against Orphan.

"Orphie…I…can we go take a shower? You said I needed to, right?" Corey said softly, making googly eyes at his sire.

“Yes. Please do. You smell like you’re decaying,” Dodger hissed back, rolling his eyes at the newborn who cowered in fear behind his boyfriend. Well at least Corey knew who the boss was. “Cole, let’s go get some more candy.”

They walked slowly towards the gas station, both lost in their own thoughts about what had just happened. Dodger was not used to feeling sad or upset about a human. He didn’t care for these types of emotions at all.

“We also need to see if we can come up with some more money for the motel,” Cole said, as he opened the door for Dodger.

"We'll find a way, we always do. You know…if we have to ditch the newborn to save money, I'm ok with that too," Dodger said, giving his sire a serious look to make sure Cole didn’t take it as a joke.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, Dodge, you’re gonna have to soften up to him sometime soon. Orphan and Corey are pretty serious.”

Dodger glared at his sire, fully prepared to make him sleep on the floor.

Corey sighed as he sat down on the bench, his mind reeling from just how bad he’d fucked up at the shelter. He was sure he wouldn’t ever be allowed back in. He sighed, taking a bite from his hot dog and looking around at all the people. He didn’t like it out here; there were way too many people around.  In the middle of his dinner, he felt like he was being watched. He glanced up and saw two older boys with their eyes on him, the younger looking boy with hunger in his eyes. It was the same look his Dad or Colin would get before he was beaten.

He quickly dropped his dinner and got up, grabbing his suitcase and running away, weaving in between people to try and lose the two older boys. He turned down what he thought was a side street, racing down it while looking behind him. He almost didn’t turn his head in time to see a brick wall blocking his path. He quickly turned and raced back down the alley, only to see ANOTHER boy standing in his way. This boy looked like he was really ready to hurt him, so he backed up, falling to the ground as he did.

“P-p-p… please… please don’t hurt me!” he pleaded, still backpedalling, hitting the brick wall behind him. Suddenly, he couldn’t see, smell or feel, and then….

“So, Corey, you feeling better now?” the boy asked. He stared at the boy, alarmed, wondering how the stranger knew his name. Did his Dad send him? He curled up into a tight ball, using the suitcase as a shield.

“PLEASE don't hurt me! I'll give you all my money! P-p…p-p-p-please…!” he begged, shivering from fright.

“Who said anything about hurting you? I promise I’m friendly,” the boy said, smiling as he continued. “Oh, and just in case you weren't doing too well earlier, my name's Lucas, or Orphan.”

“Corey…” he whispered, still cowering in fright behind his suitcase. The memories of his father’s abuse caused tears to roll down his cheeks. “He… he always said he’d never hurt me anymore, but… he… he always did…” He saw the boy turn his head away, probably disgusted with how weak and pathetic he sounded.

“I don’t know who he is, but I promise, and I always keep my promises… I promise I won’t hurt you and you don't have to be scared anymore. Kay?” he said, as he offered Corey his hand. After making sure the boy wasn’t going to hurt him, Corey shakily reached out for his hand, then lunged forward, buried his head into Lucas’ shirt and sobbed for all he was worth.

“I… I had to go, I… I just… I couldn’t take it anymore, he… Dad, Dad always hurt me, he always beat me up for the stupidest things, I… I… I left, I ran so far away and I hope he never finds me!” he wailed as he held onto Lucas as if he was drowning, and the other boy was a life raft. “Sometimes I just want to die so I don't remember anymore; it hurts sooooo bad to remember.”

“Shhh Corey, it’s okay, he’s gone, you’re safe now. Shhhh, let it go. Cry, Corey, it’s fine,” Lucas whispered, as he gently rubbed Corey’s back and rocked them back and forth. Corey couldn’t explain it, he didn’t know how, but… he knew this stranger, Lucas, understood. He knew what pain Corey had been through. And as stupid as it sounded in his own head, he knew he’d be safe, he knew Lucas would protect him.

“He… he always, he always finds me, no matter where I run, I just… I had to… run further, but if… if he… god if he finds me now, I’ll… I think I’ll kill myself! I can’t go back, I won’t, he’ll hurt me sooo bad!” Corey exclaimed, as he clung to Lucas tightly, feeling the other boy sliding his fingers through his blonde hair.

“Don’t worry, you’re safe now. And he won’t get you here, I won’t let that happen if you’ll let me be there for you. Can we rent you a motel room to stay in or do you have a place to stay? And maybe… take a shower or something?” Lucas asked, smiling.

“I… I’ve… been… um, I don’t have anywhere to go, and… I… I know I stink, I’m… I’m sorry,” he said softly as he tried to pull away from Lucas. Lucas let him go, so he scrambled back a little, still trapped by the brick wall behind him.

“No! You don’t stink… too badly… really at all! It's just… yeah, you’re right, I suppose people wouldn’t rent to either of us, I know you can’t tell but I’m only 14. But I’m sure if we ask nicely, Dodger and Cole could get you one, and we’d meet up again tomorrow night, after sunset. Maybe at the same place, that hotdog stand?”

“You… you don’t… you’re not going to…?” he trailed off in confusion. He tilted his head slightly as he asked, “The… the hot dog stand? I… if you rent a room with me, you won’t stay?”

“Well, If we do rent you a room, I’d love to stay with you, but… uh, I don’t like sleeping in motels anymore, the um… windows, I don’t like windows…” Lucas said, trailing off and looking upset again. He still didn’t trust that Lucas wouldn’t hurt him, but he hadn’t yet… but he did say he didn’t want to stay with him, and that scared him more then anything else.

“Wait a second! You don’t like windows? Where do you sleep? Can’t I stay with you? I don’t wanna be alone in case he finds me!!” he exclaimed hysterically, petrified inside at the thought of his Dad finding him again.

“Be right back…” Lucas said, before he turned and jogged down the alley to talk to the older boys he’d seen earlier, the ones who he’d been scared of. Lucas waved to him, so he picked up his suitcase and ran to the other boy. He felt protected with Lucas, but he still couldn’t help but jump whenever he heard something a bit too close to him. Lucas murmured soothingly every time that happened, which made him feel a lot better.

After they got to the hotel and rented two rooms, he followed Lucas into theirs, putting his suitcase down and watching the other boy making the room as dark as possible, so no moonlight could get in. He shrugged, not questioning his savior, lest the other boy turn on him. He grabbed a new set of clothes from the suitcase, then looked up at Lucas. “I’m gonna take a shower, OK? D-d-do you wanna go first? I can wait,” he said, quickly looking down and away, not holding eye contact.

Lucas sat down on the bed, grabbed the TV control, then turned on the TV. “No, go ahead buddy. I’ll take mine after, just don’t use all the hot water!”

“I promise I won’t, Lucas,” he said, walking into the bathroom and shutting the door behind him. He turned the water on hot and let it pour onto and into his wounds. By now, after having spent the last week at the shelter showering twice a day, his cuts and gashes had healed up nicely.

Once he finished, he got out of the shower and gently patted himself dry, then looked down at himself, relieved that the cuts had healed, and the welts were almost gone, though he’d probably always have a ton of scars. ‘A nice little permanent souvenir from his bastard family’ he thought to himself, sighing as he got dressed. As always, he put on long tee shirt to hide his body from anyone who might look.

“You can go now, Lucas…” he said softly as he gingerly made his way around the other boy, still hesitant around him. He wanted sooooo badly to trust Lucas, he really did, but… he couldn’t, not totally, not yet. He noticed Lucas staring at him, so he pulled his shirt tighter around his body, hoping the other boy couldn’t see how ugly he really was. As Lucas turned away, heading into the bathroom, Corey hung his head sadly and sat on the edge of the bed.

“Well, what now?” he heard Lucas ask a little later.

“Um… I told you why I’m here… won’t your parents miss you tonight?” he asked, unsure of where to go from here. Lucas did make him feel safe, safer then he’d ever felt in his entire life, but… there was something off about the boy, something didn’t feel right.

“Well, it’s kinda a long story, but I don’t care about my parents either, anymore.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, are they dead, Lucas?” he asked softly. He stood up and hugged the other boy gently.

“Well, uh, actually I’m not too sure if they are. It’s just, well, I don’t live with them anymore, I stay with the two friends you met earlier.” Lucas said as he returned the hug gently, as if he wasn’t used to hugging. “And you could stay with us too, and be forever safe from your dad, but it would require a lot of thinking on your part. You’d have to be 100% sure without any doubt that's what you want to do,” Lucas said, confusing Corey greatly.

“I won’t ever be safe, he’ll always find me! I wanna be safe forever but I can’t!” he exclaimed, absolutely sure of it.

“It’s not all fun and games, Corey,” Lucas said, laughing a bit. “It would mean changing every habit, even your sleeping habits, everything. It would mean changing the way you think, and even who you are. But I promise, and remember I always keep my promises, that you wouldn't ever have to fear your dad again.”

“What’re you talking about?” he asked as he pulled away slightly from the other boy and stared into his sky blue eyes. He took the chance to ask Orphan the things he’d been wondering since they got into the room. “And why did you make it so dark in here? And why did you want a room with no windows in it?”

“Um, well… Corey, I’m… um, not… entirely human. I mean I am, but I’m also kinda bonus human, it’s just… well, uh, look, I’ll be honest. We’re vampires, but it’s not what you’ve heard, or what you’re thinking. Don’t be scared, I promise I don’t wanna hurt you or anything!” Lucas said, looking anywhere but at him.

“Y… you… you’re… vampires?” he asked, taking two steps backwards, then he sat on the bed, stunned. “Y… you and… and those two other boys… but… this isn’t right, Lucas, vampires don’t exist.”

“That’s not entirely true. We do exist, but we try and hide around the humans so they don't notice us. But you don't need to be scared of me, I promise I won’t hurt you, please don't hate me!” Lucas said, before he turned away.

He looked over at the other boy… the vampire, and he could swear Lucas was crying, but he didn’t know for sure, so he didn’t bring it up. He sat on the bed and thought for about… three seconds, before getting up and hugging Lucas from behind.

“I… I don’t… you’ve been sooo nice… I don’t…” then he trailed off as a thought occurred to him. “Were you nice to me cause you wanna kill me and drink my blood?" he asked softly, not intending the question to be mean or… anything like that, he was just curious. Lucas turned around and looked down into his eyes, his hands lightly gripping Corey’s shoulders.

“No buddy, I… as soon as I saw you were scared I just wanted you to be okay, cuz I really like you… I thought… it’s just… that’s what people think vampires are all about but we only get thirsty once a month,” Lucas said as he lightly squeezed Corey’s shoulder, while a few tears gently fell down his face. Corey got onto his tippytoes and used his thumbs to slowly wipe away the taller boy’s tears.

“If you’re not gonna kill me then I’m not scared, you’ve already been nicer to me then my Dad ever was, and you promised you’d never hurt me,” he said, before he leaned in and kissed Lucas, to try and make the other boy feel better. It was a short kiss, but it felt like it lasted forever. Lucas looked down at Corey with a shocked expression. “I… I dunno what I… I… um, you just, and then…” Corey stammered, trying to back away from the other boy, convinced he’d fucked up beyond belief.

“Wow…” Lucas said softly, touching his lips, then he looked at Corey again. “You’re really cute, has anyone told you?” he asked as he ran a hand through his hair and squeezed his shoulder.

“N… no, no… no one’s ever told me that before… but you… you’re really hot!” he gushed, before he realized what he said. He blushed, then covered his mouth and looked away from Lucas. The taller boy gently moved Corey’s face back towards his own, then tilted his head up, and brushed his lips against the younger boy’s, before pulling back, his own blue eyes shimmered softly.

“I… I’ve never kissed anyone before, Lucas…” he said softly as he got onto his tippytoes and kissed the taller boy again gently. He was surprised when one of Lucas’ hands gently pressed on the back of his head. He was surprised, but he definitely enjoyed the longer kiss, as he tugged gently on the older boy, forcing them both to fall onto the bed still attached at the mouth. He finally pulled back with a blush, when he realized he was straddling the other boy.

“Wow…” he said, breathing hard and smiling. He shivered slightly when Lucas lowered his hands to hold onto Corey by the waist, before Lucas slowly rubbed his back, chest and thighs.

“Lucas…” he whispered, he felt his dick getting hard in his boxerbriefs. “Lucas…” he whispered again, desperately. His body felt like it was on fire as he felt the other boy lightly rub his body.

“Corey… wow… I…” Lucas whispered back, slowly lifting up the younger boy’s shirt and rubbing his bare chest.

“No… no, Lucas, don’t…” he said suddenly, ashamed of the… marks on his body, suddenly feeling ugly. He pulled back from the other boy and got off the bed, shaking his head. “I can’t…” he said softly, tears prickling his eyes as he slid down against the wall.

“Why? What’s wrong buddy? Is everything OK?” Lucas asked, sliding down next to him and putting an arm around him.

“I’M UGLY! MY FUCKING DAD MADE ME FUCKING UGLY!” Corey yelled as he softly pushed the other boy away from him, then buried his head into his knees and cried harder.

“No, Corey, no that’s not… listen, I’ve… I’ve gotten to know you somewhat and you’re beautiful, no matter what your Dad did to you,” Lucas said, using his hand to slowly turn Corey’s face until they stared into each other’s eyes. Corey’s breath hitched as he closed his eyes in shame and looked away from the other boy. He slowly reached down and stripped off his shirt, tears silently falling down his cheeks as he lifted it off his body and let Lucas see his disfigured body. Lucas gently grabbed his shoulder and pulled him into a hug, gently rubbing his back.

“You’re beautiful, Corey…” Lucas whispered, planting little kisses on his forehead anytime he looked up even a little.

“Hold me?” he pleaded as he cried himself out on Lucas… again.

“Don’t worry, I’m here…” Lucas said as he rubbed most of Corey’s body. Corey whimpered softly as the other boy touched the welts lining his back. He shuddered as he remembered the awful beating he’d taken two weeks ago that had prompted his running.

“Hey, hey don’t worry, he’s gone, shhhh, stay here with me, Corey…” Lucas whispered, before he softly kissed him again. Corey looked at the other boy, then tried to blink back his tears and smile, before he leaned in and kissed Lucas softly. He wrapped his small arms around the other boy’s neck and deepened the kiss, moaning softly. Lucas pulled away after the kiss ended, then pulled his shirt off. 

“Sorry, just feels weird to be the one with the most clothes on. So how do I look?” Lucas asked softly, biting his lip. Corey looked over the other boy’s body, not finding a thing wrong with it, including the lump in the middle.

“You… you look sooooo good Lucas… I’ve never, I mean, I didn’t know I was gay or anything until you…” he trailed off, then kissed the older boy again. “You’re soooo hot! I… I’m sorry I’m so ugly.”

“You’re not ugly, you’re beautiful. And you’re even more beautiful because of what your father did. So what if you’re scarred, to me you’re always beautiful,” Lucas said, gently licking and kissing his neck.

“Listen, I’m gonna pass out in just a few minutes, as soon as dawn hits, and I’ll wake up again at dusk. See you then?” Lucas asked. Corey motioned to the bed, so Lucas picked him up and laid them down in bed, with Corey on the older boy’s chest. He yawned; having been up all day, and now all night, he was really tired, too. He laid his head down onto Lucas’ chest and fell asleep, hoping for no nightmares tonight.

Corey woke with a scream as he felt a pair of arms holding him tightly. He panicked for a second, thrashing to get free, before he realized that no, he wasn’t at home, he wasn’t about to be beaten, he was laying in Lucas’ arms. He shuddered a little and lay back down, feeling an inner peace that he’d never felt before. He leaned down and softly kissed the other boy’s lips, before pulling back and frowning at how cold Lucas was. He got out of bed and doubled over all the sheets, making sure the older boy was securely snug and covered as much as possible, then grabbed a pen and paper from the desk in the room, writing a short note for Lucas.

Hey Lucas,

You were really cold when I woke up, so I made sure to tuck you in. I think you’re getting sick, so I guess I’ll buy some chicken soup and stuff for you, OK? Come to the hotdog stand, and then we can go back to the hotel and I’ll make you the soup….

Corey

Then he put on a new outfit, grabbed about $50 from his suitcase, and headed out of the room. He sighed as he noticed it was raining with thunderstorms around. He sighed again and walked down the street, heading for a store in the middle of the town. He bought himself a baseball cap, then some packets of chicken soup for Lucas, and a tuna sub for lunch, along with a soda. After he finished eating, he wandered around, happy that there weren’t that many people around because of the rain, since he wanted to be alone.

He hadn’t been beaten in over two weeks now, though… he was soooooo unused to that, it scared him. Even though he knew in his mind that he was in San Antonio, way way away from his Dad and Colin, he still feared them showing up somehow, but that feeling was starting to fade. His thoughts turned to Lucas; he still wasn’t convinced the boy was a vampire…whatever he was, he was the first one Corey could remember who… didn’t want anything from him…or didn’t hurt him, or … was just there, someone Corey felt safe around, someone who could be…counted on.

Before he knew it, his stomach was growling again, a sign that it was dinnertime. He sighed and headed down towards the Riverwalk and his hot dog stand. He bought a couple of hot dogs for himself and one for Lucas, and two sodas, then went into an enclosed pavilion, sitting all the way in the back and in a corner, so that no one could sneak up on him. He kept an eye out for Lucas, or his two friends, not that he really remembered what the other two looked like, except that they looked scary. He hurriedly finished up his dinner, and then carried the other hotdog and soda, still hoping to run into Lucas as he headed back for the hotdog stand. His smile got progressively wider, threatening to split his face as he spotted his black haired “angel” sitting at one of the outdoor picnic tables.

“H…h…hi, Lucas…” he whispered as he sat down, putting the hot dog and drink down in front of the older boy.

“OH MY GOD Corey! I thought you’d run away from me! Are we still okay? I’m sorry, what’d I do? When did you wake up?” Lucas fired questions at him as he sat up straight, offering a small smile to the other boy.

“Um, I dunno, 1 or 2pm, you…um did you get my note? And…um we’re fine, you didn’t do anything, promise!”

“Yeah, I got your note, it was really sweet. But I promise I’m not sick, kay? It’s… it’s part of what I told you last night. When we sleep… we get really cold. It’s OK…” Lucas whispered. “You really are sweet, Corey, thanks for being worried.”

“Oh, OK, as long as you’re not …” Corey said, before he was cut off.

“Well, well, well, you guys were up early.” He looked up to see one of the older boys from yesterday sitting down on the table. The other boy sat down on the bench across from him and smiled. He looked a little friendlier, but still… Corey wasn’t sure. He blinked once, then shuffled closer to Lucas, away from both of them.

“Uh… well Corey was apparently up in the afternoon, and I woke up after dark and came out here looking for him and you two,” Lucas said, putting an arm around Corey and hugging him even closer. Corey blushed but relaxed, tilting his head back and smiling.

“Are you hungry, Lucas? I saved a hotdog and soda for you!” he said, smiling and pulling the food closer to them.

“Awww thanks Corey that’s really sweet!” Lucas smiled, now hugging him with both arms, resting them on his stomach. “Although I think you should eat it, you look famished and you haven't really had good food in ages, so you take it.”

“Ooooh how cute…are you gonna cut it up into pieces and feed it to him, too? Jeez, you two are gonna put me into a diabetic coma, you’re so sweet,” the older boy said, rolling his eyes. He started talking in a higher voice then. “Oooh, Dodge, I brought you some jolly ranchers! Do you want me to pick through them and find all your favorite flavors?!”

“If he wanted me to…” he said softly, shyly looking away from both boys. He felt Lucas tighten his arms around him, so he felt better about what he was doing.

“I think he’s going to cry, Cole,” Dodge said, looking like he was about to smile. “This one clearly doesn’t have a backbone.” He let out a soft laugh, looking between Lucas and him. “Besides, hot dogs aren’t Lucas’ thing…didn't you know? He likes his food more…wet.”

“I dunno, Dodge, I’ve seen the way he looks at this one. I think he could easily go for a bite of Corey's hot dog…” Cole said, grinning.

“It’s OK, Corey, I think you’re perfect the way you are, kay?” Lucas whispered, making him smile again. “And you can eat the hot dog, I’m not that hungry, I had something to eat before I came to find you.”

“Please, I highly doubt it’s that big,” Dodge said, rolling his eyes. “Care to share a little peek?” he asked, looking right at Corey. He shook his head shyly and backed further into Lucas’ body, not knowing how to handle the friendly teasing, something he definitely wasn’t used to.

“Dodgerrrrrr, Coleeeee, cmonnnnnn,” Lucas whined, trying to help him out.

“Wow, I guess it really isn’t that big," Dodger said, nudging Cole's side. "That’s too bad, don’t you think?” he asked, tossing his head back as he laughed softly.

“Lucas didn't complain last night,” he whispered, half hoping Cole and Dodger didn’t hear him.

“What was that, pipsqueak? I didn’t fully hear you,” Dodger said, narrowing his eyes and leaning forward.

“You know if you don't take a bite soon, I might just have to have myself a little snack. I'm getting rather … thirsty …” Cole said. Corey just shook his head at Dodger, then leaned forward, devouring the hot dog in about 30 seconds, only stopping to slurp down his soda. He noticed Dodger staring at him, looking disgusted.

“You wouldn’t …” Lucas said, not sounding happy. “Joking is one thing, but … you can’t be serious!” he added. Corey watched as Dodger lightly bit Cole’s ear as they whispered back and forth. He didn’t know whether to just sit there and trust Lucas or get up and run, so he just sat there, unsure of anything. He didn’t think Lucas would hang out with people, or vampires, that would kill someone for no reason, but … he just didn’t know.

“No, we’ve decided we’d much rather have someone with a backbone,” Dodger grinned, rolling his eyes. “Your boytoy here is severely lacking in that department.”

“Anyway… ” Lucas said, after a very awkward silence, “so, uh, where are we staying tonight, Cole? Can we stay in the same motel?”

“I dunno guys, it’s a bit expensive…” Cole started to say, before Dodger shoved him off the bench.

“Of course we can stay another night! It’s on Cole!” he said, turning to look at Corey with a grin. “You should really consider just staying with us, Corey. We wouldn’t mind taking you in at all.”

“But… but… I… I… I’d have to like… JOIN you, right?” he asked, a little scared of that idea. He…he wanted to be safe from his Dad forever, like Lucas told him last night, but he…wasn’t sure about becoming a vampire…not yet, anyway.

“Shhh, no, not yet, not until you’re ready or YOU want to, it’s your decision,” Lucas whispered, gently rubbing his stomach. He relaxed at that, tilting his head back and smiling at Lucas again.

“Lucas, what exactly did you tell him? You didn’t forget the discussion we had when you joined us did you?” Cole asked from the ground.

“I won the bet!!! I won! YOU OWE ME CANDY!” Dodger exclaimed, jumping off of the table and onto Cole instead. “Jolly ranchers and a motel room. However did I get so lucky?”

“What’s so special about candy?” he asked, looking at Dodger bouncing around. All three of them ignored him.

“OOMF!” Cole grunted as Dodge landed on him. “You haven’t won anything yet, shush. Look at the fresh meat's neck, see? And you can smell the human on him.”

“Uh… no, not at all, uh, well he asked a couple questions and I tried to not tell him, but then… it just came out and… well… HEY LOOK! There’s a distraction!!!” Lucas said, pointing to the sky.

“I won’t tell anyone, guys, I promise! Um, are all of you…you know…?” he asked, shaking his head in disbelief.

“But HE KNOWS, Cole! YOU said Lucas didn’t even have the guts to tell him anything, and I said he would,” Dodger said, sounding very pleased with himself. “So. You. Owe. Me. Candy,” he finished, poking Cole in the chest with every word.

Cole sighed and shook his head, looking between Dodger and Corey. “Fine, you’re right. It’s lootin’ time. Lucas, since this is all YOUR fault… would you be so kind as to go fetch us a bag of jolly ranchers?”

“What's so special about candy?!?!?” Corey yelled, before blushing and looking at the ground. “Sorry for yelling, don't… don't… hurt me?” he asked, backing into Lucas’ body, looking for protection. His new friend wrapped both of his arms around Corey, holding the blonde tightly.

“It’s just… Jolly Ranchers are their favorite type of candy, it’s kind of a running joke between us, I guess. I don’t usually try and join in most of the time,” Lucas said before he rubbed Corey’s stomach lightly through his shirt. Then turning to the other two, he added, “get your own damn candy, I’m busy and I have a cutie on top of me.”

He sighed contently and laid his head on Lucas’ chest, enjoying just sitting out in the open, knowing Lucas, and maybe his two friends, would keep him safe. After a few minutes, he sat up and spun around, then wound his arms around Lucas' neck, pulling the black haired boy down for a quick kiss. He felt so empowered with Lucas and his friends around, he felt free for perhaps the first time in his life. Lucas pulled back, then quickly kissed him again. He giggled and kissed Lucas again, a smile bursting on his face.

“You wanna talk a walk around the river, Corey?” Lucas asked softly. He nodded, so Lucas got up, Corey still in his arms. Cole reminded Lucas about the Dawn, whatever that was, before he and Lucas could leave.

He was surprised when Lucas reached for his hand as they walked. He immediately took it and squeezed softly, sighing in pleasure. The feeling of… safety and the knowledge that he wouldn’t get hurt… those were things he wasn’t used to in his life, he knew how precious they felt, and… for Lucas to just give him those feelings by his mere presence, combined with what they’d done last night, he was pretty sure he was in love.

They walked in a very comfortable silence all night, all the way down the Riverwalk and back the other way, returning to the hotel about a half hour before sunrise.

Corey yawned as he woke up, a brief flash of fear quickly being replaced by burgeoning feelings of love and gratitude as he looked down at the sleeping form of his angel. He leaned down and placed a sweet kiss onto Lucas’ cold lips, then just snuggled in tight against the older boy, not yet wanting to leave the inviting, if cold, arms.

“I never thought I’d ever find someone like you, Lucas, I thought I’d … be alone forever,” he said softly, knowing the older teen couldn’t hear him. He lay still until his stomach growled at him, letting him know it was time for food. He carefully got out of Lucas’ grip, then wrote him another note, letting him know where he was going.

He was surprised when he got outside. It was the first time he’d seen the sun in almost two or three days, since it had rained all yesterday, and he’d spent the day before that mostly sleeping in Lucas’ arms with the room as dark as possible. He avoided the park, and the shelter, and anything that reminded him of… that first week in San Antonio. He ended up at a school, and that’s where he spent the rest of his day, using the swings, and allowing them to take him away from all his troubles and issues. When he was back home in Salt Lake City, there were nights he’d run to the school and do the same thing, despite knowing he would be in for a beating the next day… he’d needed the break.

He was back at his hotdog stand again by sunset, and ordered three hot dogs and two sodas again, then sat outside to enjoy the warm air and beautiful sky. He could hardly wait for sunset, for when Lucas would wake up and come find him, for when they’d be together again. It kind of scared him, that he was feeling soooo… needy, especially for someone who he’d known for 3 days, for someone who wasn’t even human, for someone who was a VAMPIRE. He smiled; Lucas was a vampire, but he cared more for Corey then his own family ever did.

“Hey cutie…” he heard from behind him. He felt Lucas sit down next to him on the bench, and immediately scooted over, sighing as he snuggled up to the older boy. Lucas put an arm around him, squeezing him tightly, before allowing him to continue eating.

“Hi Lucas!” he said happily around a half chewed bite of his hot dog. He quickly took a long sip of his soda, washing down his food, before turning and kissing the older boy. Lucas smiled down at him as he pushed a hot dog and soda towards the older boy. Lucas gently pushed them back, telling Corey that he wasn’t hungry. Corey grinned and quickly devoured the extra food, sighing contentedly.

“Oh, and have you seen Cole and Dodger? I don't even know if they were in their room when I left. You wanna walk along the Riverwalk? We might spot them,” Lucas asked, gently nudging him, then getting up. Lucas reached down to Corey, offering his hand, and Corey smiled and grabbed it, allowing Lucas to pull him up onto his feet. He rose up onto his tiptoes and kissed the older boy, before they again walked hand in hand up and down the Riverwalk, looking for Lucas’ friends. He sighed in pleasure as they walked, those comforting feelings of peace and security coming to him again.

“What did you mean when you said that I could join you, the first night we met? Join you how?” he asks casually, never once dropping the older teen’s hand, he squeezed it gently, hoping to reassure Lucas.

“Well… I offered… to have you, uh, become one of us. That’s kinda what I meant by leaving your world behind. But you don’t have to; I don’t wanna force you to do anything! I promise,” Lucas said. Suddenly, out of nowhere, he clutched his stomach and fell to the ground, gasping in what sounded like intense pain.

“LUCAS!” he yelled, immediately dropping down next to the other boy and kissing away the tears that were falling from the beautiful blue eyes. “What’s wrong??!? Can I help you? What do I do?” he asked frantically as he hugged the boy around the neck, hoping close physical contact would help. A few more seconds passed, then Lucas just stood up like everything was fine, and then helped Corey onto his feet.

“It’s… I’m fine, just had a pain spasm. Uh… I’m hungry I guess…” Lucas said, before bending down and kissing Corey lightly. Corey tugged on Lucas’ hand, inherently knowing there was more to it then just Lucas being ‘hungry,’ he looked around nervously as he was led into the shadier part of town.

“We can go get you a hotdog, Lucas, I still have money, why are you walking away from the food?” he asked, confused as they walk further down the Riverwalk “Lucas, I don’t… I don’t like it here, it’s… “ he trailed off again, for the first time since meeting Lucas, he was scared to be near the older boy.

“Hey, umm… I’m not really… hungry for stuff like hot dogs. Remember that first night, when you asked if I had to drink people’s blood if I was a vampire? That’s pretty much what this is… but I don't wanna scare you, you’re still safe, I promise. But… I need to feed. Soon,” Lucas said, turning away from Corey. Corey squeezed the older boy’s hand to reassure him again, even if he was pretty scared of the area they were in right now.

“What if… you, um, … had some of my blood? People donate blood all the time, and it would help you, right?” he asked. He was happy when Lucas squeezed his hand back in return.

"Hey, I… reallllly appreciate the offer, you’re soooo sweet…” Lucas said, quickly kissing Corey. “But, I’d rather get full tonight, and I know some people that may deserve to, uh… not be seen again. But I’m not sure you need to see this, since I don’t want you to remember me when I’m hunting.”

“So… so, um… where… do I go? Lucas, don’t leave me alone!” he begged, hugging the older boy firmly around the middle. “P-p-p…please don’t leave me alone!”

“OK, OK, lets go find Cole and Dodger, didn’t they mention something about Jolly Ranchers? We can check out a candy shop or something,” Lucas said, prying Corey’s hands from around his middle. “And I told you, Corey, you’re safe with me, always, OK? I always keep my promises.”

They jogged off together, with Lucas in the lead. A few minutes later, they ran into Cole, or… Lucas did, anyway. Both of them fell to the ground, and he couldn’t help but giggle just a bit, quickly turning it into a cough as Dodger glared at him. He still wasn’t sure about them, but if Lucas trusted them… they couldn’t be all bad, he guessed.

“Lucas, what the HELL are you doing just STANDING there like a MORON?” Cole shouted in an angry voice. Lucas got to his feet and quickly apologized.

“Yea, uh… sorry, we were just walking and I got the spasm of pain. It’s… that time of the month,” Lucas said. He didn’t catch anything else, since they started whispering. He stared at the ground, already planning his apology for being just a scaredy-cat baby. Why would any of them want anything to do with him?

“You’re not a scaredy-cat baby, and I like you, that’s why I want to be with you,” Lucas said, scaring him a bit. “I don’t really… do this… a lot. I try to avoid… humans.”

“Yeah, you should be proud, you’re the first human he’s spent more then 10 minutes with,” Dodger said with a very sick looking smile. “In fact, every other human he spends time with…”

“Dodger, please… don’t?” Lucas pleaded. Dodger sighed but didn’t say a word further.

“We’ll watch him for you,” Cole offered, stepping toward Lucas and Corey.

“Thanks, Cole,” Lucas said, before turning to Corey. “Hey, mind staying with Cole for a little bit? I’ll be back really soon, but I need to take care of this before it gets worse and I can’t have you see me like that. I'm sorry, but they won’t hurt you, I promise,” he trailed off, before continuing. “Or, if you want you can walk with me back to the hotel room, and you can stay there and watch TV for 20 minutes while I do this? Please?”

“I’ll stay in the hotel room, Lucas… if you lock the door and give me the key, OK?” Corey said softly.

“That sounds like a good idea Corey. Just make sure you ask who it is when I knock on the door, k?” Lucas said, grabbing Corey’s hand and walking towards their hotel. Corey sighed in relief and whispered a quick “thanks,” squeezing his protector’s hand. However, he didn’t detach himself from the older boy’s side until they get to the hotel. He saw Lucas change into an old shirt, then the older boy hugged and kissed Corey.

“Alright, here’s the key. I’ll be right back, I promise,” Lucas said. Corey got onto his tiptoes and planted a much longer, deeper kiss onto the older boy, wrapping his waifish arms around Lucas, pleased when he felt Lucas’ arms wrap him in a hug. “I gotta go, but I’ll be back,” Lucas whispered, heading out.

The TV droned on in the background as Corey’s thoughts whirled around in his head at a million miles an hour. It had only been 3 or 4 days since he’d met Lucas, and he was sooooo dependent on the older boy, it scared him. Scared because the last two people he’d trusted so much had both hurt him badly. Scared that he was setting himself up to be hurt again… but despite all of that, he found himself helplessly falling in love with his black-haired, blue-eyed angel, and he eagerly anticipated his arrival back at the room.

A knock on the door roused him from his thoughts, and he hesitantly called out, “L-Lucas, is that you?” as he got off the bed and approached the door.

“Yeah buddy, it’s me. Was I gone long?” Lucas said. Upon hearing the older boys voice, Corey flung the door open and jumped into his arms.

“It felt like forever, Lucas! I missed you soooo much!” he exclaimed, kissing Lucas passionately. He faintly tasted some blood, but didn’t mind it one bit. He grinned as Lucas carried him into the room and shut the door behind them.

“Hold on buddy, I really gotta shower again, I feel filthy. Won’t be too long more I promise,” Lucas said, dropping Corey onto the bed and winking. He stripped down to his boxer-briefs in front of Corey, before he stepped into the restroom and closed the door. Corey waited a few seconds, unsure if he should follow Lucas into the shower, but he eventually decided to do so. He slowly walked towards the bathroom, doubt plaguing every step, until he got to the door.

“Lucas? I needa take a shower, too…” he said softly, stripping down to his boxerbriefs as he awaited Lucas’ answer.

“Yea buddy hop in! The water’s kinda hot but it's what I needed. You want it cooler?” Lucas said, pushing the shower curtain aside. Corey smiled and stripped off his boxer-briefs, then got into the tub, looking down at his feet.

“I like my showers hot, too, Lucas,” he said softly, still not looking up. Lucas grabbed Corey’s hands, pulling him closer. He gently lifted Corey’s head, stared down into the blonde’s green eyes, and kissed him, before pulling him into his body, hugging Corey to him, just holding him. Corey shuddered at the display of affection, wrapping his arms around Lucas and letting the water run over them.

“Well, I really think we should clean up some while were in here,” Lucas smiled.

“Yeah, I’m a little dirty.” Corey smiled, as he grabbed some soap and slowly rubbed it on Lucas’ neck. “You got some… um… blood on your neck, Lucas…” he said softly, still rubbing the skin until all of it is gone.

“What? How’d that get there?” Lucas asked, sounding surprised. He grabbed another bar of soap and started to wash and massage Corey’s back, sides, and chest. Corey put a hand on Lucas’, then locked his green eyes onto Lucas’ vibrant blue orbs.

“I’m not a baby, Lucas, I know you had to… had to… kill someone tonight,” he said quietly, rubbing his bar of soap over his protector’s body, letting it wash away all traces of blood. They worked in silence for the next few minutes, cleaning each other off. He sighed as he felt his own body being washed. “That feels sooo good, Lucas…” he whispered, closing his eyes and leaning into the older teen.

“I’d never think of you as a baby. Hehe, well, okay, you’re MY baby. But other than that, no. That’s why I told you straight out earlier. If you decide to join us, I want you prepared, you need to understand the consequences of the choice along with its advantages,” Lucas said. Corey felt his whole body warm when Lucas called him ‘his baby’, and he kissed the older teen to let him know he appreciated that.

“How, um, how would you…make me a vampire?” he asked nervously, grabbing one of Lucas’ hands and holding it in his, then resting their clasped hands against Lucas’ chest. He saw Lucas bite his lip, never a good sign.

“Well, I’ve never actually done it, but, basically… basically, it’s when you bite somebody and you don’t take all their blood and you have to want them to become a vampire I think.”

“So… you’d, um, you’d have to hurt me, right?” Corey asked softly.

Lucas nodded slowly. “Well, it would hurt, yes. Not too much, but the pain is there. Thankfully, it also fades away really quickly as the venom… or whatever that goes into you while I’m biting you does it’s job. Sorry,” he explained. To Corey, it sounded like Lucas really was sorry that it would hurt, something his father never was. Inwardly, the battle that was raging was almost over, and the victor was going to be Lucas, he knew it.

“Maybe, we should dry up and get out of the shower?” Lucas asked. Corey swallowed hard and nodded, the conversation had gotten… not fun anymore.

“Yeah, I’m all clean now,” he said softly, climbing out of the tub and wiping himself off really quickly. He put on a fresh pair of boxer-briefs, then sat down on a bed. Lucas followed a few seconds later and did the same. Lucas turned to look at the covered window, facing away from Corey.

“Corey, the past few nights have been, … well, amazing. Already, I feel natural with you, more than anyone else. Is it weird if I tell you I think I love you?”

“Everyone who was supposed to love me died or hurt me, Lucas,” he said, before he got up and joined Lucas on his bed. “I… I don’t know what love is, but when I’m with you, I feel like no one will ever hurt me, you’ll stop them somehow. I feel soooo safe, so … peaceful when I’m with you. And when I’m not with you, I feel alone and afraid,” he said ineloquently, falling into Lucas’ arms and burying his head into the other boy’s naked chest.

“Well, I promise, the only time I could ever hurt you is for the bite for you to join us, if you really want. That’s all. And, well, I want to be there for you, to protect you always. I don't really know love either but I've not felt like this for anyone. So I think it is,” Lucas said, hugging Corey closely. Corey pulled back until he was staring Lucas in the eyes, then he slowly leaned in and kissed the older boy gently.

“I won’t bite you unless you tell me you’re sure you want to join us,” Lucas whispered softly.

“How did you know what I was thinking?” he asked softly.

“Uhm… vampires can pretty easily read human's thoughts,” Lucas said, before quickly adding, “but I promise I haven’t been spying on your head, I promise, Corey!” and again, Corey didn’t know how, but he just knew Lucas was telling him the truth, that he could trust this… vampire. “I just… saw that one and didn’t think about it, sorry.”

He blinked as he tried to put that piece of information in with everything else. “Soooo that means…” he trailed off, wondering if … “when we met… did you… you were gonna drink my blood, right?” he asked, staring down into Lucas' blue eyes. The fact he was asking that while lying on said ‘blood drinker’s’ chest didn’t escape him.

“N… no, not after we met. I just wanted to comfort you then,” Lucas answered him, but he could tell that Lucas was dodging the question. He wasn’t upset at the older boy; Lucas probably thought answering ‘yes’ would send Corey running out of the room. He smiled, letting his savior know he wasn’t upset, or mad, or anything of the sort.

“But you did wanna before you talked to me and read my thoughts, right? Lucas… I’m not, mad or anything, promise,” he trailed off, then said in a more forceful tone. “But don’t lie to me, please?”

“No, I wouldn’t lie, and especially not to you. Yes, my first intention when my friends and I saw you eating that hot dog was to… uh… drink your blood. But then I saw you, and read your thoughts, and I couldn’t anymore.”

“Yeah, then you saw what a pathetic loser I was and you pitied me,” Corey said sadly, knowing there could be no other explanation for it.

“Not at all. I saw a young, cute boy, a good person, who’s been mistreated all his life, beaten horribly, even for nothing. I saw someone that without thinking about it, I just trusted. And that's saying something,” Lucas said, smiling gently and quickly kissing Corey. For his part, Corey closed his eyes and shuddered, basking in the affection and love Lucas was showing him.

“R-r-really? You saw all that? Thanks, Lucas!” he exclaimed, before he kissed his… boyfriend. He sighed, looking up at his boyfriend, his lover, his savior and his protector, he knew without a doubt that this was where he belonged, that this was where he wanted to be, tonight, and every night for the rest of his life.

“Lucas…” he whispered, voice quivering with emotion. “Bite me. I want to be with you forever.”

Lucas smiled as some tears leaked from his eyes, causing a beautiful golden glow in his eyes. “Are you sure? It’s not all fun and games but we’d be together.”

Corey gulped once but nodded, he’d never been more sure of anything else in his life. He belonged with Lucas. “Yes, Lucas, I want… I want to be with you, you’ve been nicer to me then anyone ever has, if that’s love, then I love you, Lucas, and I want to be yours.”

Lucas just nodded, then gently flipped them over so Corey was laying flat on his back. The two shared a passionate lusty kiss, before Lucas moved to the side of Corey’s neck, slowly licking and sucking on the skin there, almost like he was giving the blonde a hickey.

“What will happen, Lucas?” Corey asked softly, moaning at the sensations.

“Well, you’ll be out of it for a month or so, but when you wake up, your life will be changed, and you will be stronger and faster, and everything. But most of all, you’ll be with me…” Lucas whispered. He blinked a couple of times, then gulped again.

“Do it Lucas… don’t let me change my mind, do it now!” he pleaded, his hand coming up to rest on the back of his boyfriend’s head, holding it in place against his neck. Lucas nodded, then pulled back a little, still staring into Corey’s eyes with his own. He watched in morbid fascination as Lucas lowered his fangs, his eyes changing from their usual beautiful blue to a… violent bloodthirsty red.

Lucas reared his head back and then shot it forward at an alarmingly rapid pace, and Corey SCREAMED as loud as he could as his boyfriend’s fangs penetrated his skin. He could literally feel the sickening sucking of his blood, could just barely see Lucas swallowing his blood as easily as he’d swallowed his cum a few short seconds ago. He shivered as he felt himself growing colder, an overwhelming urge to sleep coursing through his small body. Panic raced throughout his body, as he fought it, trying to stay awake, trying to escape the torment. In the end, he lost, and the last thing he saw was Lucas’ blood red eyes before he passed out.

Lucas frowned, scribbling down a few last answers to the test. He hated history, always had. It seemed like these questions were simply there to confuse him. He sighed, turning in the test, before heading out the door of the classroom to the gym to get ready for soccer practice. As he reached the gym, he quickly pulled on his practice jersey and shorts, stuffed his school stuff in his locker, grabbed his cleats and ball and headed to the field, determined to get some touches on the ball before the rest of the team got there.  He flicked the ball onto the field with his foot, before doing a few leg stretches individually.  He ran to where the ball had stopped, lining up quickly and placing a shot in the top corner, hearing the sharp SWISH of the net and smiling. He sprinted quickly to retrieve his ball, before dribbling around, pulling a few trick moves, making sure to focus on improving his technique, staying light on his feet, only on the balls of his feet.

He slowed to a stop, before looking around, seeing his coach looking at him intently. Making eye contact, he approached, looking for his coach’s advice. “Good moves out there Ramey, but work on keeping your movements more fluid. Don’t think about it, just do it,” his coach said, smiling encouragingly.

He reached an arm out to pat Lucas’ shoulder. Lucas quickly dodged the arm, nodding and quietly whispering ‘Thanks’ as he headed to grab a drink of water. He’d grown appreciative of Coach Henderson’s coaching style recently, and it had made his game better, even in the space of 6 months.  The rest of general practice went well, and he noticed that he was on top of his game today. His shots hit their mark more often than not, and his mood reflected it. After practice, as usual, Coach Henderson pulled him aside. Most of the time, it was just stuff he could do to improve his play more. This time, it was more serious.

 “Lucas… You’re… You’ve got a lot of potential,” he started, before adding, “A few weeks ago, I sent out a few videos of your games, and some practices, to some scouting friends of mine. I just heard back, and… well, check your mail,” he said, smiling softly.  Lucas nodded, just dodging the compliment. He stepped off the field, grabbing his stuff and heading to the front of the school, to wait for his ride, whenever his parents decided to come pick him up. He hoped he wouldn’t have to wait 2 hours again today, like last week.

He jumped up, seeing the familiar truck of his teammate pull around the front, the passenger window rolled down. “Hop in, man, I’ll drive ya home!” the older teen said, and Lucas quickly agreed, opening the door and throwing his stuff on the floorboards before taking a seat and buckling his seatbelt.

“Thanks Adam, I appreciate it,” he said quietly, looking to the senior as he spoke.

“Not a problem bud, it’s on my way anyways. So what’d Coach say to you today? I noticed he always talks to you after practice. You did good by the way, but you gotta work on getting through defenders. ‘Course, they’re all gonna be bigger than you pretty much since you’re on Varsity, but still…” He rambled on, before resuming his talk, not ending until they pulled to the front of Lucas’ house.

“Thanks again,” Lucas mumbled, grabbing his bags and hopping out of the truck. He waved as the teen drove away. He checked the mail, seeing a motley assortment of bills, advertisements, and…  his heart skipped a beat. A thick letter, addressed to him, from the Houston Dynamo! He ran excitedly inside his house, slamming the door behind him. He tossed the rest of the mail on the counter, before eagerly ripping open the letter, and reading it twice through. “MOOOOM!!” he yelled, running to find her in her bedroom, reading a book. “I got invited to a tryout for the Houston Dynamo in San Antonio! It’s from the coach, he says that even though I’m really young they wanna see what I can do in person!” he exclaimed happily.

“That’s nice,” his mom stated simply, not turning to look at him.

His heart fell, and he asked cautiously, “Well can I go?” hoping for a yes, hoping to get out of the house and follow his dreams, as visions of himself in a professional jersey overtook him

“Sure, whatever,” he heard from his mother behind him, since he’d already spun around to head to his room. His thoughts slowed to a crawl inside his mind, darkening thoughts filling his mind as he realized, once again, his parents really didn’t care. He wondered silently what it was like, to be loved or hated – to him, anything was better than simple indifference.

He sat down on his bed and reflected on who he was, what he’d done to cause his parents to… just ignore him. It seemed they didn’t treat his brother like that, they were okay with him, and really liked him. He DID always get his way, after all; and not only that, but he got it with a smile from his parents.   He sighed, his mood somewhat dampened by yet another rejection from his parents. If it’d been Matt, he was sure his Mom would’ve been jumping through the roof with happiness, the best he could do was a ‘whatever’. He sat down on his bed, and hung his head, again wondering what he’d done to his parents to deserve this kind of treatment. He put on his favorite Avenged Sevenfold CD, and then lay down on his bed, losing himself to the lyrics and music and escaping his misery. How he wished he could just… disappear to the world, just simply hide forever from his pain.

He heard his father’s sports car approaching the house and got up, irrationally believing that his father would be… more enamored with his accomplishment than his mother was. He grabbed the letter from where he’d thrown it, and headed downstairs, finding his father looking through the mail.

“Dad, guess what!” he exclaimed.

“Hang on, Lucas,” his father said, tearing into a bill. “How could they charge us $12,000 over factory for the Mustang? I paid them in advance!”

“Dad, I got invited to…”

“That’s great, Lucas, where ever you’re going, just be safe,” his father said, grabbing the stack of mail and going into his office.

“…San Antonio,” he finished, sighing. He needed one of his parents to sign a permission form, so he followed his father and put the form onto the mahogany desk. “I need you to sign this, Dad,” he said softly. His father didn’t even read it, he just signed it and handed it back.

“Enjoy yourself,” he said dismissively. Lucas mumbled something and went back to his room to pack.

‘What did you expect to happen, you idiot? That they’d wake up and see what they’d been doing?’ he asked himself, tears falling down his face as he shoved clothes into a suitcase. The next few days were even more torturous than that, his parents basically treated him like he was already gone, so much so that when the day for him to leave actually came, there were no tears, no hugs, no other demonstrative shows of affection (and who needed them, anyway? Honestly he hated any sort of… shows of affection). His father just drove him to the airport and told him to have fun, and then left, not even staying until the plane took off.

As he disembarked the plane, he looked around as he cautiously avoided coming into contact with anyone. He slung his bag over his shoulder as he headed out front to find a taxi that would take him to the hotel the coaches had recommended. He argued a bit with the clerk at the front desk, who was refusing to rent rooms out to anyone below 18, until he showed her that he was part of the Dynamo’s tryouts, and that his parents had signed the form granting him the right to make his own decisions. He opened the door to his room, finally, and tossed his bag on the bed then jumping after it, laying his body lengthwise on the bed.

As he lay there, his thoughts turned in his mind, and he realized that finally, he was alone. He’d effectively disappeared from his school, his family, like he’d wished so many times. This realization hit him hard, as it also meant that truly, nobody was around that cared about him. Before he’d always had friends, teammates, but now, at least until he met the others at the tryouts, he had nobody. He hung around the hotel that night, the TV playing some senseless movies while he wasn’t even paying attention, until he just dozed off.

The next day came, and he showered and eagerly dressed up in a soccer jersey and shorts, before grabbing his cleats, shin-guards, and his ball, tossing them in his duffel bag and heading out the door. He jogged the mile or so to the fields, before finally meeting the coaches responsible for inviting him to the tryouts.

“You must be Lucas!” the head coach turned and addressed him, offering his hand.

“Uh… Yes sir, I am,” he responded quietly, quickly shaking the offered hand then letting it go again. “Thanks for… Uh… Inviting me here,” he added.

“Well, I ain’t gonna lie, you’re definitely younger than anyone else here, but what we saw from those videos, well… If you play like that, you belong here for sure!” he enthused, before turning to the rest of the guys who were stretching. “Guys, this here’s Lucas. He’s joining us now, so… He’s a teammate of y’alls. Treat him that way!” he commanded, before turning back to the young boy and nodding with finality, dismissing the young boy as he turned back to the other coaches.

Lucas turned to the older guys and jogged over to them, joining them in their stretches, not daring to address them.

“So kid, you think you got what it takes to just waltz in here like that? Think you’re gonna show us all up or somethin’?” One of the guys had a sneer on his face as he spoke, until he was rebuked by another.

“Ahh, just shut it already Grips, kid’s gotta be good if he’s here, y’know?” This new one turned to Lucas and offered a handshake. “Name’s Twister. Or, well, I’m Ryan, but we usually just use our nicknames.” He looked Lucas up and down, before asking, “Uh… You look really young… If you don’t mind my asking, just how old ARE you?”

“Fourteen,” Lucas quickly replied as he shook Twister’s hand quickly before dropping it, then turning back and looking resolutely at ‘Grips’ and keeping eye contact.

“Got it… Fourteen, okay, well, that’s older than I woulda thought. Uh, what position you play? And where’re your parents?” Twister asked again, looking around at his other teammates since they were all backed up, apparently refusing to involve themselves with this new kid.

“I’m a striker, and I’m done with my parents,” Lucas answered, shaking his head emphatically. He didn’t offer any more details, since he really didn’t know or trust Twister or any of his new teammates, but he did like that Twister seemed genuinely interested in him as a person. It was refreshing, actually.

“Okay, so… No parents, you’re like… You an orphan or something?” he asked, before shaking his head. “Nevermind, doesn’t matter… Well, you’ll be Orphan to us, k? Like I said, we use nicknames a lot. Now, uh, lemme introduce you to the guys,” Twister said as he put an arm around the newly-dubbed Orphan’s shoulders (which the young teen quickly shook off, drawing a questioning look from his new friend), and started naming off the team members. “Okay, that’s Trapper, that’s Richie, you already kinda know Grips, ya got Burner over there, next to him’s Goggles, and last one’s Sunshine,” Twister finished gesturing to each of the guys, before turning to Lucas.

And so the weeks went. At first, his teammates were hesitant to accept him, with the exception of Twister. Eventually, he’d come to be taken in as one of their own, as he was getting used to the way they played; he came to earn the reputation his coaches had given him. He was the fastest on the field (which greatly frustrated Burner) and had amazing shots on goal (to Grips’ dismay). He still made mistakes that sometimes had the coaches get on his case big time, until he fixed them. He got closest to Twister though, since the teen always went out of his way to involve Lucas, to include him, both on the field and off the field.

Over the weeks, he’d gone out a few times with his teammates, downtown to the riverwalk. Sometimes they were lucky enough to be let into a club, which gave him his first experiences with alcohol. Other times, they just went out to be rowdy, until the local police came and warned them to quiet down. During those nights when the team didn’t go hang out, however, he’d slip out of the hotel and head downtown by himself. There, he met an older guy named Caden, and surprisingly, the two got close. It seemed, for the first time in his life, he had an actual father figure, one that genuinely cared about him, that really liked talking to him. He didn’t trust him at first, but over time Caden kept showing respect, and Orphan got to trust him, at least, in the parental sense.

“Alright guys, that’s enough for today. Y’all go hit the showers now, good job in the scrimmage,” Coach yelled to the group. “And Ramey, I need ta see you before you go,” the coach was pointing at Lucas, a stern expression on his face.

“Yessir?” Orphan asked worriedly, a fearful expression on his face. He knew he’d done something to displease the coach, that much was obvious from the look on the man’s face.

“Look son, when you first got here you was really good and all, and I knew I’d made a good move inviting you. Nowadays though, I’m not so sure. I mean, I seen your skill, and honestly I know you got it in you to play professionally, and I’d sign you now if I could. But for several days you’re just not there. It’s like your heart’s not in it, and I can’t have that here. So… I’m gonna give you a few more days to straighten out, but I gotta cut you if this keeps up. Straighten your shit out, son. I’m serious,” Coach finished rambling, dismissing the young teen with a serious nod, before turning away, leaving Orphan behind him, deep in thought as the boy walked to the showers.

“Is it true he’s got no parents? And what’s wrong with him anyways, he’s like… Always quiet, he needs to fuckin’ loosen up, man, like… Have you seen him freak out if you try to just touch him? He’s so weird!” Lucas heard hushed voices coming from the locker room as he approached. Slowing his walk to be quieter, he turned the corner into the room. There, he saw a group of all his teammates, including what he thought was his closest friend Twister all huddled together, whispering. Pushing back tears, he quickly gathered his stuff without dressing out and sprinted as fast as he could back to his hotel room. He needed one thing right now, some reassurance; and as unlikely as it seemed, the only source he knew to turn to was his parents. Before he left, he’d never have considered them, but he figured: he’d been gone a good while, they ought to be missing him, right?

Wrong. He picked up the hotel phone and called his home number long distance, all the while twirling the phone cord nervously in his hands. “Hello?” the male voice on the other end answered.

“He…Hey dad, it’s me!” He replied anxiously.

“Oh,” his dad said, sounding disappointed. He heard some scuffling on the receiver as his dad tried to cover up the sound piece, then a muffled “It’s just Lucas honey… He probably failed out or something and needs us to buy him a ticket back.”

“I… Uh… I just…” he stammered out, feeling his heart drop even lower.

“What, they kick you out? Ask for another chance, see if you can stay there longer,” his dad interrupted his mumbling, totally disheartening him.

“I… No, I’m still on the team, I just… Uh… I guess I’ll go then. Bye dad…” he sadly said, as tears sprang to his eyes. He hung up the phone, then collapsed on the bed, crying liberally as he felt totally alone, once more.

Lying there for several minutes more, Orphan made up his mind – he was done with the tryouts. He obviously wasn’t wanted there, and wasn’t wanted back at home. He figured… he could up and go to another city, maybe earn a try-out there. In his mind he started throwing out options for places he could travel, as he left the hotel, mentally saying goodbye. He was headed out to the riverwalk, to the place where he’d usually met Caden those several nights. He quickly wondered if it was late enough, he knew the older man only showed up an hour or two after darkness fell. Satisfied that it was, he hoped that just watching the water move on, waves always rippling the surface, would help him like it always did.

Lucas screamed in pain, his yells echoing through the deserted warehouse he found himself in. He tossed about, writhing in agony at the thousand hot knives cutting through his flesh, until finally the pain receded. Panting, he slowly got up, rubbing his eyes and noticing that he had perfect vision, even in the pitch-black dark. He groaned, stood up and headed to the door, as he tried to figure out what had happened to him. He curiously pulled the door open, his senses assaulted by the increased vision, hearing, and smelling he was experiencing. "What… happened?" he thought to himself, kicking a rock on the ground much harder than he'd thought, sending it flying. "Where am I?" The thoughts ran through his head as he made his way over to the riverwalk, by way of the soccer fields he'd played at.

Orphan looked over at the familiar fields, gazing longingly over the grass. He could smell the familiar scents of freshly mowed grass and paint, noticing that they were almost overpowering. He ducked his head, shuffling his feet more as he continued his way into town. Arriving into town, his ears ringing from all the sounds and his eyes aching from the lights, he collapsed to the ground. He lay there writhing, as he tried to get his senses used to the constant assault.

Before he knew it, there was a crowd of people around him, and an arm appeared on his shoulder and a voice whispered, "Relax. I can explain everything to you," then spoke loudly, "Sorry guys! My little brother gets bad headaches all the time, I'm just gonna get him home now." The stranger turned to him and asked “Are you okay?”

He felt himself get pulled up and dragged roughly out of the group of lookers-on before he shook off the contact and jumped several feet away, snapping a quick “Not so loud!” He gazed suspiciously at the newcomer, before casting an appraising glance at the dark alley he’d been led to. “Look, I… I’m fine,” he stated simply, his eyes darting left and right as he scanned the alleyway.

"Look you don't trust me, I don't trust you either, but if you go out there not knowing what you are, it's painfully obvious you don't, then you'll get killed and well…that'd suck,” the older teen said as he grabbed a seat on a nearby dumpster. “I can try and help you with the whole hearing thing too if you'd like."

Lucas backed up until he felt the grimy wall of the next building at his back, and he mumbled, “What…” He frowned, understanding that his stranger had information he obviously needed, though he hated to be in a position that left him depending on someone else. “What'd you mean, what I am?" he asked rudely, a scoff showing on his face.

The next thing he knew, his hearing was shut off completely, and the stranger was rubbing his temples strangely. He shook his head madly, an inaudible gasp escaping his lips as he fell to his knees, feeling that if this stranger was somehow responsible, Orphan would probably be better off taking his chances alone.

He saw the older teen throw up his arms, and he felt his hearing return. “Oh come on! It was a magic trick, hello? Give me five minutes of your time and I'll tell you everything you need to know and then you can ditch me, but I have a feeling you won't want to,” the stranger said.

He rose unsteadily to his feet and whispered, “fine…” then raised his eyebrow and quizzically asked, "A… A magic trick? But I couldn't hear, that was you?" He cringed, hating that he’d admitted a weakness.

The stranger nodded. “Yes. That's right, a magic trick. You'll get one too in about a month, you were turned into a vampire. Hence the whole heightened senses and mad, deep thirst for human blood."

Orphan shook his head vehemently "No, that can't be… I… I don't wanna drink blood or anything, I'm just not hungry,” he said, trying to rationalize this stranger's knowledge of his senses. "And… I… My senses are okay, I just woke up and I had no idea where, which is why I'm hearing strange things. K? Vampires don't… They don't exist!"

The deranged stranger jumped off the dumpster. "They don't exist?” The stranger asked, before he grinned wickedly, wincing as two huge fangs suddenly sprouted from his gums. “Fuck that still hurts…but explain that. You'll get them too soon!"

"Dodge, put those away, the poor boy's about to wet himself," another voice said, as its owner stepped into view while walking into the alleyway. "You'll find a lot of things that don't exist you can see if you look hard enough, kid. I'm Cole, by the way. And you are?"

The younger of the two, this ‘Dodge,’ huffed and pouted, saying, "I wasn't scaring him. He ASKED to see them! I saved him from a group of humans. I think his sire left him, but he won't tell me much."

Orphan clamped his jaw shut, fear written clearly in his eyes as he was surrounded by this Cole and his friend. He tried to step back, further into the wall, just wishing he could disappear. He opened his mouth quickly and whispered "I'm Lu… Uh… Orphan," he said, looking suspiciously at the two vampires.

“I'm Dodger,” the first stranger (the younger of the two) said with a shrug, shoving his hands into his pockets. "I know this is scary and stuff, but it's not all that bad…and if you stick with us we can teach you a lot of cool things."

The older one, Cole, added, "He's right, and you don't have to be scared of us or anything. We won't bite. Someone already took care of that for us. But we can teach you how to survive… it's hard being alone. I–I… it's hard being alone."

Orphan shook his head. "Just… tell me how to survive, tell me what I am. If you're right, I'm a vampire, I… What's that mean?" He shrugged. "And I don't mind being alone. I'm… I'm used to it," he said off-handedly, thinking that he didn’t want to have to place his trust in these two if he could avoid it. Cole, the older one, seemed more trustworthy, he was at least approachable. Dodger, on the other hand, seemed more confrontational. The younger vampire had proven that by using his ‘magic trick’ on him, knowing he was younger and defenseless.

He frowned, averting his gaze and attention as the two shared a moment that confirmed his suspicions. They were gay, and together, he assumed, as he saw the younger one wrap his arms around Cole’s waist to pull them closer together. He used the moment to think over what he’d heard about fictional vampires, hoping some of it was at least accurate.

"I was alone for a while after my change, Orphan. It gets lonely having an eternity in darkness if you don't have someone to share it with," Cole said, hugging Dodger tight. "You'll find that out quick… but go ahead, Dodge. Tell him how to survive. Then he can decide if he wants to go or not. I have a feeling he'll stay. Especially since that first feeding next month will be pretty brutal alone… and the aftermath…"

Orphan focused his gaze on Cole’s eyes, searching for a tell, before he glanced to ‘Dodger’. “Eternity?” he asked, wondering if he’d heard right.

"Yeah…we live forever. Unless you damage your heart or stay out in the sun," Dodger said as he played with one of the strings on his hoodie. "We also can't eat human food, except suckers or jolly ranchers. You'll need to feed in about a month, then you'll get your extra. Anything else?" Dodger asked, looking at Cole before back at Orphan. "Should I write this all down for you?"

Orphan blanched, too busy trying to memorize the list to acknowledge the sarcasm "Feed… Like… on a human?" he asked, before closing his eyes. "What's an extra?" he asked, as he got to that part. "Otherwise, no sun, don't get hurt, no food? No sodas?" He sighed in desperation, feeling overwhelmed by these new laws of nature thrust upon him.

"You have to make sure you're somewhere without any light during the day. It's part of our physiology, since we can't let sun touch our skin we literally drop unconscious at sunrise. So prepare early, and make sure you're in a safe place. Some vampires wake up early, some don't sleep at all, and they love to collect anything you've got into their personal collections when you're passed out on the floor. No food –“ Cole spoke, until he was interrupted by his partner.

"And no biting people with a tattoo on their neck, no telling people, no hunting important people," Dodger paused to glare at his Cole, as they shared something between just the both of them. The younger vampire turned his gaze back to Orphan and continued.  "And watch out for vampires that eat other vampires, and raiders who steal your stuff. No going back home," Dodger once again turned to Cole, an angry glare seemingly on his face. “And crying makes your eyeballs glow."

“No food. No soda. Blood, though. And we do tend to have a thing for alcohol, though that might just be Dodge and I here," Cole said. "Feeding on a human… well.. don't think of it like that. Think of it as a donation to keep you alive. By a very, very bad person who deserves to die. You know there are more than a few out there, dude."

Lucas sighed, turning to pace back and forth a few yards. "Uh… This is getting to be a lot… How do you guys know these things? Like… D'you have a poster or something to remind you?" He stuffed his hands in his pockets, wondering if he’d be able to remember everything.

Dodger shrugged. “He taught me everything; he saved me, changed me, and well, now he's stuck with me forever.”

Cole smiled at Dodger and pulled him closer, kissing the top of his head. "It took years to learn it all. I had to visit a lot of cities, make a lot of mistakes, almost got myself killed more than once. Like I said, it was hard to be alone. I couldn't let that happen to Dodge, you know? And that's why we're offering for you to come with us too."

Orphan shook his head saying quickly and avoided looking in the couples’ direction. The PDAs were getting to be too much for him to handle – he couldn’t see the point of shoving every unhappy person’s face with your success at finding someone else. He stiffened slightly, focusing on pushing the rising depression back into the recesses of his mind. He knew, however, that he’d never be that happy. He’d never be lucky enough to have someone that WOULD want him like that, that would love him. He sighed, before remembering the couple’s offer.  "You don't know me, and I don't know you. I… I can't. I gotta tough this alone," he said as he continued pacing back and forth.

"At least stick with us through your first feeding…we can find you somewhere to live after we teach you how to hunt," Dodger said, looking at him intently.

"He's right, you know. Do you know what happens to a vampire when he doesn't indulge in his need to feed, Orphan?" Cole asked, a smirk appearing on his face as he spoke. "And trust me… your first time… rarely ever is anyone willing to indulge their need to feed. And when that happens, the hunger pains will become so strong, you won't be able to control yourself. Your visceral instincts kick in. You attack the first source of blood you can find, vampire or human, good or bad, protected or not. And what happens if you kill and drink from a protected human? The elders will kill you on site. A high profile killing? You'd never survive. We have to be careful, we have to be secretive, and we have to obey the laws or else death could come to us and anyone the elders think encouraged us. Stick with us. We'll show you how to find deserving donors, and how to not take good lives, how to find shelter and protect yourself. If you choose to be on your own… well… good luck to you. I don't recommend it."

Orphan shuddered, trying to understand everything Cole had mentioned in his speech. "I… I guess I could, uh… Tag along. I don't got anywhere to stay, but… Wouldn't I impose? You two look like… Well, uh… I mean…" He stammered off, not wanting to accentuate their obvious sexuality, and still not really trusting the couple. After all, they were both vampires, and though they may seem to genuinely care about his survival, there was no way to tell, and he really wasn’t sure about the younger one. He shuddered, his last memories of being a human playing on the forefront of his mind. He definitely couldn’t handle another betrayal, another rejection like that.

"Yes, we're a couple, no, we're not going to have sex in front of you. Unless you like it," Cole winked. "You're making the right choice, now come on, it's nearly bedtime and we need to find a place to sleep."

Orphan blanched at Cole's direct approach to their homosexuality "I.. Uh… I…" he stammered, trying to find words. He shook his head slightly and changed the subject, "I… I'll follow you guys, for now. Where do you stay?" he asked.

"Right now we're jumping from hotel to hotel. We've been looking for a warehouse or something, but that adventure is for another night," Dodger explained as he waved Orphan over towards the exit to the alley. "We're not too far away."

"And tomorrow, you can come with us and help Dodge practice his extra. A newblood will be perfect for him to start off working on vampires, and you can get to see all the cool new tricks you might be able to learn now that you're one of us," Cole added, grinning at him.

"He's already seen my extra," Dodger said with a smirk. "I'm getting really good at it."

Orphan shrugged, frowning a bit and crossing his arms in front of him. He nodded once, before stepping off the wall and looking from one to the other vampire. "Great, he'll shut off my hearing again" he mumbled to himself quietly, as he shifted his head to face downwards. He mentally noted that as soon as he knew all the rules and how to survive, he'd leave this couple. He didn't wanna bother them, and he didn't trust 'em, so… Better to just leave.

“Getting good at it, eh? Well then. I guess you've graduated to trying it out on me, instead. Can't wait to see what you can throw at me," Cole grinned as he spoke. “But right now, it's getting late, so let's head back to that hotel we used last night. Stocked minibar, you know. We'll even let you get your own room Orphan, if you promise not to run out on us tomorrow. How does that sound?"

Orphan nodded, knowing he had no choice but to stick around, until he knew he could survive by himself. Unfortunately, until then, it meant they had something he needed: vital knowledge. He hated that it left him feeling at a disadvantage, but that's how it was. "I promise," he said simply, turning to the leader of the couple.

Dodger, the younger vampire turned and led them out of the alleyway, following a few side roads until they approached a worn down hotel. He’d had a whispered conversation with Cole on the way, so faint Orphan couldn’t hear what was said, but he assumed it was about him. ‘It figures’ he thought to himself, a frown appearing on his face. This was turning out to be exactly like what happened with his team, exactly what he expected.

As they reached the hotel, Cole gestured to him to stay outside, before turning and following Dodger inside, presumably to go rent another room. He saw Cole return a few minutes later, and the older vampire handed him a key, saying, “There ya go, buddy, all taken care of."

Orphan nodded, whispering a soft "Thanks," as he looked at the key in his hands. He twirled it slowly. "Uh… What room? And… It wasn't too expensive right?" he sighed, hating to feel indebted to this new acquaintance of his, but he didn't have anywhere near enough money to pay for a hotel room.

“It's fine, dude. And it's the room right over there on the left," Cole replied, pointing to a room on the second floor.

"Uh… Thanks again, I'm… I'mma go shower," he said, feeling Cole needed an explanation as he turned and jogged up the stairs and opened the door to his room, closing it behind him. He quickly stripped and readied the shower, the day’s… Night’s? strange events replaying in his mind. He was DEFINITLY going to need some time to think all this through, and really get to know those other two. His first impression was that they didn’t intend any harm, but… He still couldn’t trust them, not yet.

After his shower, he dried himself and put on a fresh pair of underwear, laying on the bed as he suddenly felt very sleepy. He sighed and turned on his side, closing his eyes as he fell into sleep.

He’d survived his first night in darkness, the first of many. Hopefully, they wouldn’t all be as confusing, as thought-provoking as this one had turned out to be.

Colin Williams. He HATED his name. It sounded like the name of someone famous, rich, sexy and important. And Colin, well, he was anything but. Whenever he looked in the mirror at his mousy brown hair and blue eyes, the only word that came to mind was “average.” But he didn’t really mind being average. It left him unnoticed, a little lonely sure, but at least no one had hassled him in high school. He was thankful for that, seeing the torture other kids had been put through for being smart, or fat, or gay. He had escaped unnoticed, and once he was in college, he’d realized just how much nicer it was not to have to deal with the constant threat of bullying. College was a godsend, he’d decided. Now, coming home for the first time in several years, he realized it had been a godsend for more that one reason. To get to his room, he had to weave through empty bottles of beer and vodka, while trying to avoid the smell of marijuana coming from the ashtray next to his mother’s unconscious body. At least that was all it was today.

He knew he should pick up the bottles and take them to the recycling, since his dad was never around and his mom was always passed out on the couch, but he was too tired from his drive back from school. He wasn’t even sure either of his parents had known he was coming home. He probably wouldn’t have, had his car not needed repairs. But he loved his uncle Jim, who happened to be an auto mechanic, too much to pass up a visit and his free repairs. After dropping off his bags at the house, he’d gone straight to the shop to visit, and got a huge bear hug from his uncle the second he walked through the door. At least there was one good man in the family, Colin thought, as he watched his uncle disappear beneath the belly of his car.

Later that night, Colin came home to find the house slightly cleaner than when he left it. A few of the bottles in the living room had been picked up, the dishes on the table had been moved into the sink, and his mother’s unconscious body had disappeared. To where, he wasn’t sure, but he also wasn’t sure whether he even cared. Unfortunately for Colin, he was about to find out anyway.

The front door burst open, and Colin watched from the kitchen as his mother and some man he didn’t recognize entered the house. They started kissing, passionately. When they moved to the couch, and his mother’s moans become more apparent, Colin realized his mother was having an affair. By the looks of him, with one of her dealers. Colin also realized that if he was going to keep from throwing up, he needed to get out of that house. Now. So he left.

It had been like a ritual during high school. Most boys spent their afternoons outside, but Colin spent his nights. The trees and grass, the fields of cotton and corn and wheat, the rain and sleet and snow, it was all an escape to him. A sort of peaceful tranquility he craved whenever he was home for too long. He would wander aimlessly, never pointing himself in any particular direction, until he found some new wonder of the universe to appreciate. The world really could be beautiful, he thought. His world just wasn’t meant to be.

Tonight, Colin came across a tall hill unobstructed by buildings or trees, where he could lie down and just enjoy looking at the stars. They were fascinating, the number of shapes you could find just by lying on your back and connecting the dots. Tonight was one of those peaceful nights that made the chaos at home just seem to fade away into nothing. But it wasn’t meant to last. It was never meant to last.

The feeling started about he had been lying in the grass for about an hour. That creepy feeling, like he was being watched. The hairs stood up on the back of his neck, and he looked around suspiciously. But there was no one. With every rustle of wind through the grass, Colin would search, but he had no luck. Maybe he was just being paranoid. Or maybe someone was stalking him. It was time, he felt, to return home. At least he was aware of what dangers awaited him there.

But he’d barely made it to his knees when he was grabbed from behind in a vice grip so powerful he could hardly even struggle. The man—at least, he assumed it was a man because of the figure’s towering presence and upper-body strength—had an arm around his throat, choking off his air supply and any chance of calling for help.

“Mmm…” the man moaned gruffly in Colin’s ear, “you look so tasty… I can’t even begin to tell you how much I’m going to enjoy this.” Before Colin knew what was happening, the man’s teeth sunk into his neck and his world was filled with white-hot pain. He struggled against his captor, but only succeeding in ripping more of his flesh away. It was agony, and he felt the life slowly being drained from him, even as he tried fighting back. But it was useless. The world went black, and Colin’s barely conscious body was allowed to drop to the earth with an unceremonious thud. He wasn’t dead; no, he was still in excruciating pain, but too weak to call for help or even keep his eyes open.

From behind him, he heard a voice say his name.

“Colin… I can see it in your head you know you’re dying. But I can offer you an escape. Eternal life. So tell me… do you want to die?”

Colin attempted to say no, but only succeeded in making a small sputtering sound in the back of his throat. He tried shaking his head, but was far too weak for his tiny movements to be seen. It didn’t matter, though. The stranger had obviously understood his answer, and kneeled down to bite him on the other side of his neck.

“Sleep well, my childe,” the voice said, and Colin caught a glimpse of long silvery hair before he was left helplessly staring up at the stars. It wasn’t long until his universe faded into blackness.

***

Twelve years. That’s how long he had been searching for his sire. He had all but lost hope, but still he trudged on in the hopes that one day he would be able to thank the older vampire for saving his life. It wasn’t really his main goal anymore, though. It was more something to keep his mind occupied, as he went through life. Or death. He wasn’t really sure.

He’d woken up one night to find he was no longer on a hill looking up at the stars, but rather on the floor of an abandoned warehouse. His body ached, a result of his struggles no doubt, and the only clue he’d been taken here by anyone was a short note he found lying next to him that contained only three words:

“Don’t go home.”

He got up, and stretched, noticing his body felt agile, limber, strong. It was a feeling he had never experienced before, and he rather liked it, even though it still confused him to no end. His watch, which he was a bit surprised was still in his possession, read 7pm. Even though the office he had woken up in was dark, the rest of the warehouse was still brightly lit from the setting sun. He must have been in bad shape, he thought, to have been dragged here without even noticing.

A step out of the office told him something was very wrong. Where the sun hit his skin, it sizzled and burned, and the smell of burnt flesh invaded Colin’s nostrils as he jumped back. His hand instinctively went to the bite marks on the back of his neck… but it couldn’t be. That was childish. To believe he’d had an encounter with not one, but two vampires, and joined their ranks. Absolutely absurd. And yet… his extreme sunburn said otherwise. As much as the rational part of his brain wanted to believe this was all a hoax, the universe had other plans.

And so he had to come to accept his new lifestyle. He developed the ability to distinguish humans from other vampires, which allowed him to learn more about the Darkness. He learned about the vampire language, Verzpertillio, and vowed to master it. He even learned how to feed on human donors, though this was the hardest of all. At first, Colin tried to assuage his hunger by buying a delicious looking greasy hamburger, the kind of thing he was never allowed to have at home. Within minutes, though, he had thrown up the hamburger behind some bushes. It wasn’t the meat he craved; it was the blood. He knew what he had to do, but he tried to put it off as long as possible. Colin’s first human feeding, not having had anyone to guide him through it, was the messiest, bloodiest affair he had ever seen. He had been taken over by bloodlust he was so hungry, and only remembered waking up with a man struggling in his arms and blood splattered EVERYWHERE. He’d even managed to get some in his HAIR! He had NO idea how that had happened.  

His second feeding was even harder. Because this time, there was no denying what he had to do. He tried to put it off by stealing raw bloody steaks from a butcher shop, but the owner caught him and chased him away. Hungry, scared, and crying, Colin curled up in an alley as rain began to fall, the thunder and lightning of the start of a rainstorm downing out his sobs in the darkness. He did end up feeding, on a sleezy drug dealer who happened to have been his mother’s main supplier and lover, but the guilt was still there. Even twelve years later, it was still there.

At first, he had stayed near his hometown, both because he wanted to learn if the vampire who had turned him was still in the area, and also because the sense of familiarity gave him comfort. As he searched, though, he realized his sire had long moved on. And his memories piled up, the beatings and abuse, the school plays and recitals that had been skipped, the loneliness… and he realized this change had been exactly what he needed. He could start over, now. Anywhere. The rumors he’d collected told of a wandering vampire who had passed through town on his way to Dallas, so Colin decided that sounded like as good a place as any to start his new life.

He had met with disappointment in Dallas, however. A vampire with silver-grey hair had indeed passed through, but had moved on to the south. Waco, Temple, Austin, it was the same story everywhere. A wizened, elderly vampire with grey hair had spent the day sleeping in whatever darkened warehouse he could get his hands on, before continuing his journey southward. Colin was disappointed, but had yet to give up hope.

Until San Antonio, that is. His sire, it seemed, had not yet made it that far south. Whether he had come into contact with a lethal hunter, changed direction and headed for one of the many other nearby cities, or decided he was very old and his time should come to an end and had therefore gone sunbathing, Colin wasn’t sure. The one thing Colin WAS sure of, though, was that he was NOT in San Antonio. For the last 12 years, Colin had made excursions to every nearby city, in hopes of picking up his sire’s trail again. He doubted there was any hope in finding him, though. After all, a trail gone dead for so long would hardly be easy to pick up again. He doubted if anyone would even remember who they saw 12 years ago. But that didn’t stop him from looking. He was counting on the fact that a lone vampire passing through town would attract attention, and someone would remember him.

What he hadn’t been counting on was the fact that a lone vampire passing through town would attract attention. A LOT of attention, in fact, from vampire gangs, from raiders, from anyone who thought they could take Colin down. During one of his earliest trips, to Houston, he had camped out in an abandoned auto mechanic’s shop one night. The perfect place, he’d thought, since no one in their right mind would want to go near the intense smell of oil and gasoline that filled the building. Unfortunately for him, a band of raiders had thought the same thing.

Colin had unwittingly stumbled into their nest, and all the sudden he found his body shoved hard against a nearby wall. Angry vampires leered at him from all sides; he was terrified. He cried out in pain, but his shouts were lost in thunder that boomed overhead as rain began to pound the rooftop. The vampire who had him pinned against the wall spat in Colin’s face in disgust. Big mistake: now all Colin could see was his mother, the mental abuse, and hatred coursed through him like wildfire. He brought his knees to his chest, and kicked against the raider’s chest hard, using the wall as leverage. Colin sunk a fist furiously into the raider’s face, as a bolt of lightning overhead lit up the room. He saw four more angry raiders quickly advancing on him, so he turned and ran out of the shop as quickly as possible.

Footsteps pounded behind Colin; his fear returned, and the rain became a torrential downpour. He ran block after block, taking random turns, hoping to lose his pursuers in the maze of a city. Left, right, left again, up a fire escape, off a balcony. His fear intensified with every step, until he stopped dead in his tracks as he faced a brick wall in front of him, a dead-end that was sure to get him killed.

“Fuck!” he cried, as he saw shadows fill the entrance to the alley. His only hope now was a miracle. The raiders came closer, and he backed further and further toward the wall until his back collided with brick and he could go no further. And still they approached. The leader of the pack, now sporting a broken nose that wouldn’t heal for at least three sleep cycles, towered over him as Colin sank to the ground. His fear and anger raged inside him, and as the vampire pulled his fist back to prepare a punch that would surely knock his head clean off his shoulders, Colin raised his hands, shut his eyes, and cried out in fear.

But the punch never came. He heard what sounded like an explosion, a scream of agony, and footsteps running as quickly and far away as possible. Colin opened his eyes and saw the charred body of the raider leader lying at his feet. He was dead. But how!? Colin’s fear rushed to the surface again, and he saw bolt after bolt of lightning rain down upon the city. Hitting the fleeing raiders, no less.

Am I doing this? Colin’s mind raced. He had heard about vampire extras, but his had never shown. Maybe, he thought, just maybe, I have some sort of… lightning power? He giggled at the thought, but just then, the rain stopped. Colin’s extra had manifested. It made him feel stronger, more powerful, like a real vampire. And a real vampire, he thought, needed a better name than Colin. Cole, he’d decided. His name would be Cole from now on.  

Today, Cole was planning a trip a little further than usual. He was going to go east, until he hit the beach. At least if he wasn’t able to find his sire, he thought, he would be able to enjoy a moonlight walk on the beach and a swim. But as always, the universe had other plans. 

It started as a tickle. A slight cramp, a little tug. Cole scratched his stomach and went back to consulting his maps. But then he felt it. A low rumbling, and his stomach seemed to cave into itself. He was hungry.

Twelve years, one victim a month, meant 144 murders. One hundred and forty-four. He still wasn’t used to the bloodshed. Tonight, he knew, would be his 145^th meal. Even though he always chose scum for donors, it didn’t get any easier. This would be no exception.

Abandoning his maps, Cole set out in search of tonight’s meal. If he didn’t take care of this soon, he’d maul the first person he saw whether there were any witnesses or not, and he knew that would be a very bad idea. His stomach rumbled again… this time the hunger had come on quickly, and very strong. It felt like his insides were literally crumpling into a black hole inside his body. He had to find food faster than he expected.

Cole sprinted his way to a more unfavorable part of town, and rounded one last corner before nearly passing out in exhaustion. There, a block away, he spotted a man grabbing a young boy by the arm and roughly pulling him into an alley. He knew he had found dinner.

With the scent of his donor in the air, Cole felt a new energy coursing through him. He strode down the block toward the alley, picking up his pace as he heard the sickening thud of bone colliding with brick. He jogged around the corner and silently grabbed the man by the collar, lifting him from the ground and shoving him against the wall of the alley roughly enough to cause blood to trickle from the back of the man’s skull. Cole’s eyes glowed as he effortlessly skimmed through the man’s memories.

“Well, well, well, you’ve had quite the rough week,” he smirked. “A journalist who can’t even get a descent story gets his livelihood taken away by a man with money and a need to protect his family’s secrets.” Cole scanned the poor boy, who lay broken and bleeding on the ground. The gay son of a politician; no wonder his father had worked so hard to keep him buried. “But that’s not all, is it… no… your family, your wife and three children, they left you didn’t they? Couldn’t handle your anger at losing your job. And now you’re left with nothing so you prey on the innocent boy you blame for your failures.” Cole’s fist connected with the man’s stomach. “Pathetic…” he sneered as the man’s ribs cracked easily and he started wheezing. “But don’t worry…” he scanned the man again, “…Dan. No… I’ll give you a story you won’t forget. A gripping tale about the seedy underbelly of this city. Rich, plenty of proof to back it up, and such a shocking conclusion the public would be in complete awe of your journalistic abilities. You’ll win the Pulitzer for this piece of history, for sure.” Cole’s hand dug into Dan’s shoulder, cutting off circulation to his arm, as the man winced in pain. “Too bad you won’t live to see it published…” Cole’s eyes gleamed red, his fangs descended, and after enjoying the terrified look on Dan’s face for another second, he sunk his fangs into the man’s neck, rolling his eyes back and sighing as the warm liquid gave him new life.

“H—help me…” a small voice pleaded from the ground. Cole dropped the lifeless body of his donor with a thud, and he turned to face the poor boy hearing his pleas. A wave of despair washed over him, and it began to rain as he realized it was too late, there was nothing he could do to save the boy’s life. The rainwater splashed around them, washing away the blood covering his face and the boy’s body. He knelt next to the boy, pulled him into his lap and embraced him, and ran his fingers comfortingly through the poor boy’s hair.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I’m so sorry. There’s nothing anyone could do, it’s too late. Nobody can help you now. I’m afraid you’re going to die. But if you’re not ready, I can offer you an alternative. An afterlife, but here, in this world. You’d be completely isolated from everyone you ever knew, but you’d still be able to experience the world. The choice is yours.” Rain soaked through their clothes and the dying boy began to shiver violently. “So…” Cole asked through his tears, “are you ready to die?”

The boy moaned softly in pain as he struggled to understand Cole’s offer. “D-do anything… just make the pain go away.” He weakly raised his hand, gripping Cole’s wrist softly. “Just don’t leave me,” he begged. “I-I trust you… thank you for saving me. I thought I was a total goner.” A rough cough escaped the boy’s lips and Cole knew his time was running short. “I-I’m ready…” the boy said, and Cole prepared himself for what he was about to do.

“Alright…Jake,” Cole’s voice broke as thunder boomed overhead. “Close your eyes, it’ll all be over soon.” He lowered his head and kissed the boy’s shoulder before sinking his fangs deeply into the skin of his neck, now wet with blood, rain, and his own tears. As the final poisons seeped through the boy’s body, Cole raised his head, took the boy into his arms, and carried him out of the alley to find shelter from the storm he knew would rage for weeks.

It was four weeks later when the boy finally woke up. Cole was ecstatic; he’d been so worried over the poor boy for weeks.

“Jake, thank god you’re okay, how are you feeling?” he asked, hovering over his childe like a newborn’s mother.

“What… where am I? Who are you? What the hell happened?” Jake asked, looking scared and confused. It wasn’t easy to explain. Cole did his best, explaining the change, Jake’s new body, his need to feed… even the beating in the alley.

“Jake, I—” he started, but Jake cut him off.

“Jake is dead,” he replied. “Call me…” he thought for a minute. “…Dodger. Yeah, Dodger. I like that name.”

It took Dodger awhile to get accustomed to his new lifestyle. Cole didn’t dare share with him everything he’d learned about vampires yet, it was too soon, he was too new. If he knew everything about their race, the lies and secrecy, the Elders, it would probably just remind him of being at home. Cole decided it was best to wait, to let Dodger enjoy his new-found freedom, for just a little while. This, unfortunately, was a mistake.

A month after Dodger had woken up, Cole took him out on one of his sire hunts. He could tell Dodge was unhappy about the idea, because he’d been pouting the entire trip. Suddenly, Dodger stopped, holding his stomach in agony.

“Dodge?” Cole asked, as his companion stopped short. “Dodger, what is it? Are you okay?”

“I think I’m having a vampire heart attack,” Dodge said as he took a deep breath. “Is that possible?” he asked, closing his eyes and biting his lip.

Cole cleared his throat, slightly concerned. "What do you mean, heart attack? Where does it hurt? What kind of pain is it?" He looked at Dodge holding his stomach, and feared that he already knew the answer to those questions.

Dodger stood up, furrowing his eyebrows together. "It was my stomach," he explained sheepishly. "I think it's gone now."

"Your stomach?" Cole visibly paled. "Are you hungry? It has been almost a month since you were in darkness…. shit. Shit. Fuck. Okay. We're going to the bad part of town, and we’re going now."

"No," Dodger said, shaking his head at his sire. "I know where I want to go." He grabbed Cole's hand, tugging him in the opposite direction. They walked for a while, with Dodger having to stop every once in a while to hold his stomach until the pain left. Finally, Dodge stopped at a large, older house.

Cole looked between Dodger and the looming house in front of them. "This is a house. A nice house, granted, but a house. Dodge, really, we shouldn't be around normal people right now, you're going to need to feed soon and it makes it a little easier if you feed on a nice lowlife scumbag. We shouldn't be here…" Cole tried to pull Dodger away. "Why did you pick this house, anyway?"

"Nice lowlife scumbags do live here, Cole," Dodge explained as he walked up the front steps. "Believe me, if anyone deserves it, it’s the people in here." Dodger walked around to the side of the house, waving Cole to come with him. "Everyone is gone anyway, so we won't get caught," he said softly as he hoisted himself up onto the trellis that was under the window. “I hope it's still unlocked…" He mumbled to himself as he started to climb up carefully.

"Dodge where are we?" Cole whispered, following closely behind Dodger. "We really shouldn't go back to anywhere familiar, if they see that you're still alive it just confuses everything. And if they knew what happened to you, if humans find out about our existence, the elders will kill us. Dodger, seriously, we shouldn't be here." Cole was beginning to panic now; he had a bad feeling about this.

Dodger just rolled his eyes, ignoring Cole. Once he came to face the window, Dodger jiggled it, using his other hand to push it in. The window popped opened, and he crawled in, stopping dead in just inside the windowsill. He was, it appeared, standing in some sort of craft room. "They threw out my stuff…" he whispered.

"YOUR stuff?" Cole said sharply as he realized exactly where they were. "Dodge, no, we're leaving. Now." He made a grab at the back of Dodge's shirt, missing by less than inch as he disappeared through the window in front of them.

Dodger turned towards the window, blocking Cole from slipping in. "I'm really sorry," he said softly, leaning out and kissing his sire softly on the lips before he pushed him back. Dodger quickly closed the window, locking it this time, before making his way out of his old room and into the hallway.

Cole fell to the ground with a loud thud. He was so furious at Dodger for coming here, to his old home that he didn’t even feel the fall. And he knew he had to stop Dodger at all costs. Making contact with anyone from his human life could only lead to trouble. With a couple of jumps, he broke through Dodge's window, glass shattering everywhere, and pounded out into the hallway in pursuit. Cole sprinted after Dodger, skidding to a stop as he passed a portrait on the wall. It was of a family. Not just any family, though, it was the GOVERNOR’S family. The murder of  high-ranking public figure? The Elders would kill Dodger for sure. Cole knew he had to move faster, pushing himself to stop Dodge before he got himself killed.

Cole burst into the bedroom Dodge had just entered, not stopping until he had wedged himself firmly between Dodge and his father. He grabbed Dodger by the collar of his shirt and physically lifted him out of the room, growling furiously under his breath. "You do NOT get to kill the governor. Public killings mean execution. You'd be dead by tomorrow. I'm not joking here, Dodge, you could be killed just for coming back here." He lifted Dodger and threw him out the window, jumping down silently behind him. As police sirens approached the front of the house, he pulled Dodger along trying to escape.

The walk away from Dodger’s old home was a silent one. Both Cole and Dodger were mad, and neither even wanted to look at the other. Cole steered Dodge into an abandoned auto mechanic shop, realizing it was time he had a serious talk with his childe and let him in on all the vampire lore he had learned during his twelve years in darkness. Dodger just sat on the hood of an old car, looking at Cole, no doubt already forming another plan to get back into that house.

"Vampires are an old, old race," Cole began. "To protect us from discovery, the Elders, the oldest of the vampires, keep a close eye on anything that could get us noticed. And they kill, instantly. Contact with your old life, letting anyone know you're still alive but haven't aged, feeding on anyone important, or especially anyone who's paid them for protection… not only will you be killed, instantly and painfully, but the human governments will come down on all of us. I should have told you about the Elders before tonight, should have explained everything. I'm sorry, Dodge," he finished sadly. "I know you must have questions about all this… I did too, when I first woke up, and I didn't have anyone to ask. What do you want to know?"

Dodge bit in the inside of his cheek, shaking his head before looking at his knees. "You threw me out a window," he said softly, kicking a rock away from his feet. "And I'm still hungry."

"You threw me out a window first," Cole pointed out.

"And I felt bad about it, but now I'm happy I did," Dodger said. Cole just sighed.

"Do you even care, Cole? You haven't asked me why that house…why them. This is important to me, ok? It's something I have to do, I was turned this way TO do this. I'm not walking with you unless it is back to that house."

"I don't have to ask why that house.” Cole shot back. “I know who it was in that house who you were trying to kill. The governor. Your FATHER. Because he used to beat you when you weren't his perfect little straight red-blooded American boy. I'm not blind, you know. Thing is, you're probably now on the Elder's watch list. I'm honestly surprised they haven't come here to warn you themselves. If you step foot near that house again, they're going to kill you. Immediately. Don't you see that? You won't get to touch the skin on that man's neck no matter what you do. I'm trying to save you, Dodge. This is the only way."

Dodger remained silent, his head bowed so Cole couldn't see him. He sniffled, looking up at his sire finally while big tears welled up in his green eyes, but refused to let them fall. "It's not fair," he whispered, his voice cracking harshly.

Cole put his hands on Dodge's shoulders, rubbing up and down his arms comfortingly before pulling him into a tight hug. "I wanted to go back too, you know? After I was turned… well, I knew things were different, and I went searching for my sire for a while, but about a year later I almost came back. I wanted to see the look on my mother's face. See if she even remembered I'd been gone. See if they'd even noticed. But in the end…" he trailed off.

"They threw all of my stuff out and I haven't even been gone for more than a m—" Dodger was cut off as another pain went through his body, but he held back, needing one thing from Cole. "I get the feeling you've been checking up on my past life. D-did my parents even look for me?"

Cole sighed, and removed his backpack from his back. Two weeks ago, he’d found an announcement in the local paper that the governor had sent his son to a prestigious boarding school. He looked at Dodger sadly. "I… I don't know. Your father is a very wealthy man, he could have… I mean, it's possible. I-I did find this… um… there was this thing, in the newspaper. Are-I don't-I don't know if I should show you…"

Dodger pulled away, already knowing without seeing. "How'd he cover me up?" He asked, sitting back down on the shook, his hair falling in his face and he didn't bother to brush it away.

“Boarding school,” Cole responded timidly. He hated having to do this to Dodger.

"He's been waiting all of my life for this,” Dodger scoffed. “I'm out of the way and he can have another kid…a GOOD kid." Cole could feel Dodge’s body tense up. "Fuck this. I'm over it. Teach me how to hunt."

Cole grinned at Dodge, trying to lighten his mood. “I know, I know, you're probably starving, let's go eat a nice drug dealer okay? Get your mind off things. Hey, maybe you'll even catch a high!" he joked half-heartedly, though nothing he said made Dodge even crack a smile. "You were the good kid, you know," he said in a low voice. "There's no one out there who could compare to you. If he can't see that… it's his loss. His problem. There's nothing wrong with you, not ever."

Dodger stood up, attempting a smile, but it was an awkward grimace instead. "Yeah but you actually like me whereas they didn't even know my name." He shrugged, taking Cole's hand in his own. "Really think I can get a high? I've never been high before."

Cole grinned at his newfound companion as he led him out for his first hunt. The two would share a lot over the next few years. Not even they knew how much, just yet. There was no way they could have foreseen what was about to come.

Jake stood in front of his mirror, grimacing at the reflection that stared back at him. His hair was slicked back into a greasy “mature” style. He instantly missed the scruffy way his brown hair fell against his forehead; just barely touching the lids of his eyes. No… the way it was styled now made him look like his father. The thought made Jake grit his teeth together as he balled up his fists in anger. He was anything but his father. He cared about so much more than his old man did.

With a sigh, Jake turned away from the mirror and straightened out his suit. His family had to attend a charity event, which meant that Jake had to endure hours of tasteless food, and mingling with about 70 snobby, rich people and their evil spawns. Even if Jake hated all of them, the boys his age were pleasant to look at, all dressed up and flirting helplessly with the prude girls. It was a joke, but it meant getting out of the house which was something foreign to him.

“Jacob?” A soft knock followed the intruder’s voice. Jake turned his head and saw one of the new maids enter in his bedroom. “Your father and mother are awaiting for you downstairs. The car is here.” He debated about correcting her with his name, but he knew she would be gone and replaced within a week.

With a final glance at the mirror, Jake nodded, and turned away. He followed the maid out of his bedroom and down the grand staircase to face his parents. “Good evening, father,” Jake said softly, while his mother wrapping her thin arms around him in a pathetic excuse for a hug. He hugged her back, not surprised to find his father paying absolutely no attention to him.

“Jacob! Look at you, darling. You look just like your father. All of the girls are just going to faint over you, my precious boy.” Her compliments were completely lost on him. He didn’t want to look like this father, and he didn’t want girls falling at his feet. He wanted to be happy, but happiness rarely came to him since his father won the title of governor.

“Governor Ethos? Your limousine has arrived,” One of the help said, a slight tremble in his voice as Jake’s father looked up from his BlackBerry. Jake rolled his eyes, his patience running thin already and they hadn’t even left the house yet.

The fifteen minute ride was the usual. The only sound coming out of the family was his father tip-tapping away on his phone. Jake just stared out the window, looking at the world around him, a world he barely knew.

Jake had always been sheltered growing up, and now. He was homeschooled by six different professors, everyday, year long. His only friends were the random assortment of maids, but after realizing they were always fired within a week, Jake stopped bonding with them, he didn’t even bother to ask their names anymore. The only times he was allowed out of the house were at functions, benefits, and parties. Not the fun “get drunk off your ass” parties, more like “sit around and listen to 120 year olds talk about the economy”. But it was something, and at this point, Jake took whatever he could get his hands on.

The function was held in a big, fancy building. Cars were lined up as women and men stepped out, all dressed up. News reporters were lined up along a fence, begging people to answer a couple questions. An older man, with blonde, fuzzy hair, reached across the fence and grabbed Jake’s arm, pulling him to the side.

“Jacob Ethos! My name is Dan and I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions?” The reporter didn’t bother to wait for Jake’s approval; he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and starting writing while talking. “How do you feel about your father’s recent speech regarding his protest against gay marriage?” The reporter, squinted his eyes in an attempt to look threatening.

“Funny story actually…” Jake’s words were cut off as he felt a hand clasp around his forearm, squeezing painfully. He didn’t have to look up to see whose grip it was; he knew that feeling all too well.

“My son will not be answering questions tonight, but I can assure you, my family supports my political views, and that we are all on the same page.” Jake’s father’s voice was eerie cold; he didn’t even have the guts to roll his eyes. He heard that line every time they were at one of these shindigs.

Sometimes, Jake believed his father knew he was gay. For awhile he thought that was why he was never allowed to go to school or even outside. It soon came to him that it wasn’t that. His parents solely cared about their image, and to them, Jake was a child that was prone to make mistakes. So they smothered him with guidelines and rules 24/7.

Jake was guided into the building; the bright lights blinding him while the rise of chattering voices and soft music filled his teenaged ears. The party room was decorated with dull colors; the only colorful items in the room were the dresses of the women. Some were dancing with their husbands, but most were floating around the room gossiping about the recent divorces or new political issues.

“James! How wonderful to see you!” Jake and his father turned around to greet Mrs. Gardner. Her heavy perfume made Jake’s eyes water up. The lady practically shoved her breasts in his father’s face. He wouldn’t be slightly surprised if they were sleeping together. “And little Jacob! I can’t believe how handsome you have gotten! Just like your dear father.” She kissed both of Jake’s cheeks, smearing her whore red lipstick over his pale skin. “Anyways I have to go get some more champagne. Find me later, James…I have a…ahem…parking ticket I need help with.” Jake couldn’t help but giving his father a sneering glance before ditching him, and searching for the nearest bathroom that would be his refuge for the rest of the night.

He made himself invisible for a good part of the night. Hiding in the bathroom until he felt he was being regarded suspiciously. The other half of the evening, Jake hid behind groups of kids his age, listening as they ranted about current events. It amazed Jake how controlled they were. They weren’t regular kids at all.

When dinner came, Jake was forced to sit in-between Mrs. Gardner and her husband. His parents got the privilege to stick up in the front with all of the other stuck up assholes. How thrilling.

Mrs. Gardner fawned over Jake. She petted his hair, while asking him about his studies. He was surprised she didn’t try and feed him from her fork. Jake tried desperately to ignore the flirting glances she shot up at his father. It was a tacky scandal waiting to happen. He lost track of how many affairs were currently going on with all of these people, but they were there, and they always go public.

“Jake, dear, do you still play piano? I remember you used to play beautifully,” Mrs. Gardner asked, cutting her salmon into itty-bitty pieces.

“Occasionally,” Jake replied, moving the leafy salad around his plate. The chicken was too dry, and the salad had pieces of apple in it, Jake found himself unable to digest the sorry excuse for a meal.

“I would love it if you could come over and teach my daughter, Greta, sometime?” Mrs. Gardner had her breasts pushed out and into Jake’s face as she asked. Her hand was sliding down his back, and around to his thigh. He couldn’t fucking believe this. Once her hand started to slide up towards his groin, he jumped aside, knocking her glass of red wine right into her lap. She shrieked and jumped up, her husband right next to her. Jake fumbled for an apology, but he could hardly contain his laughter as the red wine sapped into her golden dress. Serves that tramp right.

“Jacob!” He instantly cringed at his father’s powerful voice. It was one of those voices that just automatically shut you down. “Oh Clara, I am so sorry for my son…” Jake tuned out his father’s words. He knew he was in trouble when he saw the various photographers snapping picture after picture. It was definitely going to end up front page tomorrow. Great.

“Oh my clumsy baby!” Jake heard his mother’s voice, but he knew she wasn’t there to comfort him. She was there to distract. To defuse the situation like there was any chance of it not being on the ten o’clock news. “I guess it is past your bedtime…”

“Mom, its 7…” Jake tried to defend himself, the laughter of everyone at the party made him want to crawl into a hole and never come out. “And I’m fifteen…”

“Oh hush; let’s go get my coat, sweetie pumpkin.” Jake huffed, rolling his eyes as he stormed out of the party room, and outside. He instantly took in a deep breath of fresh air, rolling his head to relieve the stress of the night.

The ride home, Jake had to endure fifteen minutes of his father staring daggers at him. It was a silent car ride, but that wasn’t unusual for the so called family. Once the car pulled up to the front of their house, Jake was sent up to his father’s study. He sat down in a brown leather chair, waiting patiently for his father.

He waited a short ten minutes for his father to enter the study. He was supposed to use the ten minutes to reflect on the actions that gotten him sent to this awful room.

“I’ve told you, Jacob, how important my image is…” His father’s words were in a soft whisper that sent shivers down Jake’s spine.

“Yes, father,” Jake replied softly, chewing on the inside of his lip. “I’m sorry for the mishap at dinner. I-I was just excited.” He always tried to remain unaffected during his punishments, but it was becoming hard and harder to do so especially since Jake was truly innocent this time.

“Sit up straight.” Jake did instantly, his father walking around in front of him, belt in hand. “You will not embarrass me anymore, you little shit. If I have to I will send you away permanently.” Did his father realize that was more of a blessing than a curse? “You know the drill, son.”

Jake did. This had become a weekly routine for the two of them, father and son bonding perhaps? He lifted himself out of the chair, avoiding any eye contact. He was positive that made his father whip him harder. He unbuttoned his dress shirt, folding it neatly and placing it on the cushion of the chair. Jake pushed aside the desk lamp, and his father’s clock to make room for his upper body. He bent over the desk, goose bumps erupting from his arms as the cool wood hit his warm flesh.

When the first slap hit his back, it took all of Jake’s energy and focus to not cry out in protest. While the first one hurt, the second was the worse. By the tenth one, tears were welling up in his green eyes. The skin on his back was raw and the leather felt hot every time it connected with him. He tried to close his eyes and dream of being somewhere far away with a family that loved each other, but each slap from the belt brought him back to present day.

After the 15^thwhip, Jake had made the decision to get out.

It took him two days to plan it, a week to get the maid eating out of the palm of his hand, and three days to grow the balls to carry it out.

It was mid-evening. The sun was setting and it was sticky hot outside. Jake was working on some History with one of his tutors. Jake kept tapping his pen against his book, and twirling a strand of his brown hair around his finger. His bottom lip was chewed raw because of the stress of tonight’s plan. Tonight was the night he planned to run away. Jake had a small bag packed with clothes, money, and his prized possession; his grandfather’s watch.

“Mr. Alderson?” Jake called for his tutor innocently, “I’m done for the day.”

“Alright, Jacob. Remember to read chapter 10 tonight and we will continue on tomorrow.” Jake nodded as he exited the home library with his tutor. While his tutor went left, Jake took a right turn to his room. If everything had gone as planned, Rosa, one of the household maids, was going to help him sneak out of the worker’s exits in the kitchen. The hard part was getting past his mother.

“Hola! Senor Ethos,” Rosa said excitedly. She had grown attached to Jake since he started paying attention to her and giving her his ‘sweet boy’ act.

“Rosa!” Jake flashed her a smile full of his white teeth as he rushed to hug her tightly. He hesitated only slightly before dropping a pair of his mother’s diamond, anniversary earrings into her back pocket. “Can we go now? I promise my parents said it was ok, they just don’t want me to walk out the front incase someone recognizes me,” Jake explained to her as he grabbed his bag and they walked out his room together.

“Yes, yes! Go right through the kitchen and take a left. The key with should be on the left side of the rack,” She explained to Jake, as he slipped by past her, waving her farewell. He could taste the freedom on the tip of his tongue and it was making him anxious.

Jake ran down the steps, carefully setting his bag behind a big flower pot. He then slowly walked into the dining room, seeing his mother writing out invitations to once against another function.

“Mother?” Jake called for her attention, slipping into one of the silk covered chairs besides her.

“Jacob, mommy has a headache, darling. I cannot entertain you right now.”  Jake rolled his eyes. She barely said anything to him all week. He didn’t expect her to entertain him.

“I said…Rosa taking your earrings,” Jake said just above a whisper, clasping his hands in his lap as he waited for the explosion to occur.

His mother just looked at him blankly, as if he made it up entirely. “Ahem” was the only noise that came from his mother before she stood up, looking down at Jake. “Please excuse me, Jacob.” He could tell by the way her skin seemed to tighten on her face that she was angry.

Jake moved quickly back towards the flower pot, grabbing his bag and hoisting it over his shoulder. He was making his way towards the kitchen when he heard his mother’s shrill voice screaming at Rosa. Jake paused for a moment to feel bad for the maid, but he was running on limited time.

He ran through the kitchen, not caring who tried to stop him. He was so close to a new life that he nearly face planted into wall as he abruptly stopped to grab the key. In the distance, he heard someone shouting his name. Jake grabbed the key with shaky hands and unlocking the door. He flung it open so hard that he thought it would break off the hinges. Jake ran. He ran down the empty street, panting heavily. He had nowhere to go, but he knew he had to get as much distance as he could between him and his house.

He ran past 10 blocks before he settled down. He was near downtown San Antonio when he finally stopped. His legs were jelly, and he was dying for bottled water. Jake was bent over; hands on his knees as he tried to caught his breath. It was then that he felt a hand on the small of his back. He snapped up quickly, his eyes narrowing as he faced some strange, older man.

“Who’re you’re running from, kid?” The man’s voice was deep, and the way his body moved made Jake more than nervous.

“I’m…err…training for a track meet,” He said, biting on the inside of his cheek. “I have to go though. I’m meeting a friend of mine. Bye mister!” Jake said quickly before turning around. Before he could start walking away, the stranger grabbed his arm, his grip pinching Jake’s skin in the same tight grip as his father’s. “What the fu-“

“Do you not recognize me?” The man asked after cutting off Jake’s curse. The stranger forced Jake to look at him, and his stomach collapsed inside his body.

“You’re-“

“Dan. Yes, I asked you a simple question and your father broke my camera, and insisted my boss fire me! I have three children and a wife to support, you fuck! What is he hiding? Why doesn’t he want anyone to know anything about you?” The man’s grip tightened after every question, Jake squirmed uncomfortably in his grasp.

“I don’t know! I’m not my father, let me go!” He shouted, stomping on Dan’s foot and pulling away at the same time. The former reporter’s grip broke and Jake was flung back onto the ground. He scrambled to get up, but the older man was on him in a flash.

“Your father is going to pay for ruining my life,” He hissed as he picked the fifteen year old up like a ragdoll and flung him over his shoulder, carrying him into a darkened, empty alley.

The man tossed Jake on the ground roughly, his head connecting with a building with a sickening crack. As Jake stumbled to stand up, his legs were wobbly and his head was spinning. The older man laughed at his pathetic attempts.

"No wonder your dad tried to hide you away, sissy boy," He taunted Jake, pushing the fifteen year old back with one of his hands. Jake went down easy, his ass hitting the pavement.

"You asshole," He said softly, before Dan's fist connected with his jaw. Left and right, right and left, until Jake felt his lip split open. Blood poured down his chin and stained his shirt. It hurt to think, it hurt to talk, so he stayed there. Questioning why he felt the need to leave home. If only he had stayed. A fist to his chest sent Jake on his back. His eyesight clouded and his hearing wavered as he struggled to stay conscious. He spit out a mouthful of blood at his attacker, using all of his energy to reach up and scratch down Dan's cheek. The older man jumped back with a yelp, instantly kicking Jake's stomach, the crack of one of his ribs had him moaning out in pain.

In the flash of an eye, someone…something had Dan pinned up against the building. "Well, well, well, you've had quite the rough week…” The boy’s voice floated in and out of Jake’s head as he tried to stay focused. “And now you're left with nothing, so you prey on an innocent boy." Jake took slow breaths, his chest aching with pain.

"H-Help me," He barely was able to whisper to his new hero. Jake spit out another mouthful of blood, his fingertips starting to turn cold. Was this what death felt like? The thought made Jake panic. He felt tears leaking out of his swollen eyes, they left icy trails down his blood stained cheeks. "God help me, please," He begged, using what was left of his energy to throw himself on his side so he could throw up some more blood. By now his entire forearm was cold, and Jake could feel his body shaking violently as he got colder and colder.

The stranger ran over to him, dropping Dan’s…dead…body to the side. He picked up Jake’s upper body, placing him on his lap. Jake felt fingers through his hair, and the gesture was sweet.

“I’m sorry…” The boy said. Jake was puzzled by how young he looked. “It’s too late…nobody can help you now.” Jake let out a whimper as more harsh tears leaked out of his eyes. “I can offer you another option though, you’d be completely isolated from everyone you ever knew, but you’d still be able to experience the world. The choice is yours…”

He heard his words, but didn't fully understand them. Jake's head was spinning, and he feared he might throw up on the boy. "D-do anything…just make the pain go away." He weakly raised his hand, gripping the boy's wrist in a soft grip. "Just don't leave me." Jake peeked open one of his eyes, a couple tears leaking out and mixing with the rain. "I-I trust you…thank you for saving me. I thought I was a total goner," Jake said, his voice breaking. He attempted to laugh, but the sound came out more as a rough yelp. He heard his savior's question, the thought of dying breaking down his soul inside, but he couldn't bear to feel this pain anymore. "I-I'm….ready."

“Close your eyes…” The boy said. Jake did just that. He felt a soft kiss land on his shoulder, and thunder boomed above them. He felt at peace, but the unexpected pain in his neck caused Jake’s eyes to pop open in a silent scream. He gripped onto his hero’s arm tightly, fresh tears falling down his face before his world went completely dark.

Corey wearily finished up the last of the chores before his Dad got home…he knew the consequences for leaving even the smallest morsel of trash visible, the tiniest crumb on the counter…and he swept his tired eyes over the kitchen, satisfied that he was done. The oven beeped, signaling dinner was ready, so he took it out and placed it on the freshly cleaned counter, before slumping over onto a chair, exhausted. He’d tried extra hard today, fully cooking the chicken for 2 hours, checking the temperature every half hour, while cutting up the salad, and spreading bread crumbs, as well. It was the best dinner he’d ever made, he was sure of it.

“Cooorrrreeeeyyyyy, there’s a mess in the bathroom!” his twin brother, Colin, yelled. He sighed and got to his feet, his whole body still ached from the beating his father had given him three days ago, he really didn’t want another one today. He cleaned the bathroom, then went back into the kitchen, where his…Dad was waiting. Oh no.

“YOU WORTHLESS SHIT, IT’S FUCKING COLD!” his father yelled, backhanding Corey across the face, sending the 13 year old crashing into a cabinet. “IF I’VE TOLD YOU ONCE I’VE TOLD YOU A MILLION TIMES!” his father marched to where the boy had fallen, squatted right over his prone son, and punched him in the face. “DON’T. FUCKING. TAKE. IT. OUT. TIL. I’M. HOME.” Each word was punctuated by a punch somewhere on his already aching body. He bit his lip, trying to keep from crying out in pain, but a punch to the stomach knocked the wind from the boy, and he screamed, curling into a ball.

“P…pp…Dad…Dad please…please, don’t hurt me! I…I tried to do good, I promise, Dad!”

“YOU COCKSUCKING BASTARD! DON’T TELL ME WHAT TO FUCKING DO, I MADE YOU!” another hard backhand slap, then “GO TO YOUR FUCKING ROOM, WHILE I TRY TO FIX THIS MESS YOU CALL DINNER!”

He moaned as he tried to get to his feet, using the wall to pull himself up, then he slowly walked upstairs, almost falling several times, but making it. He slowly walked into his room then fell onto his bed, finally falling asleep from the exhaustion he felt.

“WAKE UP YOU PILE OF SHIT!” his Dad yelled, he cried out a second later as he felt a harsh belt slap against his skin. “Get the fucker naked, Colin.”

“Yes sir.” Colin asked, walking over to his brother’s bed. He grabbed Corey by the throat and threw him onto the floor, then ripped his shirt off. His Dad immediately whipped Corey repeatedly with the belt, causing the boy to cry out in pain as the belt buckle opened up gashes and cuts on his torso, again.

“You fucking made us, US, clean up your fucking mess you cunt!” Dad yelled, slamming the belt into his son. “Because you were fucking selfish and had to fucking sleep!”

“DAD PLEASE! I’LL BE GOOD! Please Dad…stop, it hurts too much, owwwww!” Corey screamed, trying to curl up into a ball again, but Colin stopped him, holding his arms straight over his head so his father could whip him over and over. Hot tears blurred his vision as he tried to get away from the belt, he exposed his back, and that, too, was whipped mercilessly. “Colin, please…”

“Shut the fuck up.” His twin said, pulling his dick out of his shorts and shoving it into his brother’s mouth, forcing the younger blonde to suck or suffocate. He heard his Dad laughing as his brother forced him to suck dick. Tears continued to stream down his face as his Dad switched to a lamp cord, double folding it and repeatedly hammering his youngest sons torso and back. He jumped and shook as already deep cuts were struck, he wished he’d…he wished he’d known, wished he’s gotten to … to drink, to numb his whole body with vodka, at least then he wouldn’t feel it so much…

“God you’re a fucking slut for cock.” Colin said, he didn’t know how much later it was, time blurred for him, he just knew his whole body was on fire, he was shivering and his brother was fucking his face.

“You gonna cum?” Dad laughed.

“Fuck yeah Dad…best cocksucker ever.” Colin laughed back, before pulling his cock from his brother’s mouth and jacking off, spraying his twin with his seed.

“Ahhhhhhh ahhhhhhh ahhhhhhhhhh!” Corey yelled as the cum shot into some of his cuts, it felt like his blood was literally sizzling.

“SHUT UP!” Dad yelled, harshly whipping him again with his belt. A few minutes later, or hours, he wasn’t really sure, but he knew it ended at some point, and both Colin and Dad left, leaving the boy battered on the floor, shivering naked and coughing, his whole body lined with gashes, cuts, welts and blood.

He laid there unmoving for a long time, wishing he were dead, or unconscious, or anything to stop feeling the horrible pain through his whole body, but he wasn’t, and he had to deal with it…this was the worst beating he’d ever taken, it felt like he was going to be in pain forever. He reached a shaking arm for his bed, intending to haul himself up to his feet, but when he put any pressure on his right arm, it sent white hot searing pain through his entire body, he just collapsed onto the floor and sobbed, putting his head against the side of the bed so his cries couldn’t be heard.

After a few more minutes, he again tried to get up, this time using his left arm to pull himself to his feet, then he limped into his bathroom, each agonizing step sending shockwaves of agony through his body, but he was well used to the pain, maybe not this much, but he knew what he had to do, he’d learned that lesson at the tender age of 7, when one of his…cuts had become infected, and his father had been forced to call a doctor. From then on, he knew to buy anti-bacterial creams and the like, for such times as now. He opened the medicine cabinet and removed the cream, then set about applying it, each touch on his wounds sending fresh waves of unending agony through his small, battered body. When he was done, he felt slightly better, but he had also come to a decision. He was done with this…he was going to run away, this time he’d do it so he’d never be found, not like the last few times. And if he ever thought…if…if he ever saw his Dad…he’d … he’d run and then kill himself. Anything…anything was better then this.

He limped back into his room and took out his backpack, and stuffed it with clothes, enough to last him two weeks, then he grabbed a sock and stuffed it into his mouth and went into his Dad’s room, being very very careful not to make a sound, as he went to the closet, and opened the door slowly. He knew his Dad kept his safe in the closet, and he knew the combination was Mom’s birthday. He looked behind him, making sure his Dad was still asleep, before opening the safe and grabbing whatever he could in one snatch, then quickly getting up and hurrying from the room, but not before he took his Dad’s wallet, too. He’d learned in the past not to take the credit cards, since he couldn’t use them, anyway, so he cut them into small pieces, leaving them littered on his floor, then he locked the door to his room, and stacked whatever he could behind it, before going over to his window and opening it, looking at the 3 story drop to the ground below.

“Either 3 foot drop…or Dad and Colin.” He thought to himself, and that made the decision soooo much easier, he stuffed the money into his backpack, then tossed it out of the window, before he climbed out and hung from the ledge and leapt, screaming as he landed on his right arm, thankfully, he didn’t think he’d broken any bones. He scrambled to his feet, picked up his backpack, and ran blindly, the only direction that mattered to him was “away”.

He found himself at the bus and train station, and pulled out his Dad’s wallet, then said to the clerk “One ticket to…San Antonio, please.”, wondering why of all the cities to choose from, he’d picked that one.

“How old are you, son?”

“13, but I’m meeting my uncle in San Antonio.” He lied. “He’ll be waiting for me.”

“At 2am?”

“Yes, he knows I’m coming.” Corey said, swallowing once, hoping this would work.

“What’s his name, son?”

“Uncle Frankie.” He said. “Frank Carter.”

“Here’s your ticket, a conductor on the train will be instructed to take you personally to find your uncle.” The clerk said, handing him a ticket. He nodded, then got onto the train he was directed onto, trying to think of ways to get away from the conductor once they reached San Antonio.

When the time came, it wasn’t all that hard, he just drove his elbow into the man’s groin, then took off running, exiting the train station and racing down some streets until he found a hotel…at which point he found out 13 year old boys can’t rent hotel rooms, especially at 2am in the morning. He was forced to sleep in the park that night, at least it was summertime and not cold, he used his backpack as a pillow, falling asleep really quickly.

He woke up when he felt the sun’s hot rays beating down on his face until it became unbearably hot and yawned, wondering why for a few seconds, before it all came rushing back to him. The beating…the stealing, and the escape. By now, his father would have called the police, and they’d know what he looked like, and…where he had been going. He needed to leave. Now. He quickly rolled off the bench, got up, and ran/limped out of the park, blending into the crowd. He also knew he needed to put new creams onto his … onto what his Dad and brother did to him, so he needed to find a drugstore or something.

He stopped in an alley and grabbed his Dad’s wallet, then filled it with 20s from his backpack, before resuming his search for a drugstore. He spotted a CVS and quickly went in, bought what he needed, and rushed out, not even waiting for his change.

“Hey!” someone said. “Hang on a second…” he shook his head, turning and taking off, zigzagging his way through the crowd, not taking any chances.

“There’s a runaway shelter down the street.” he heard someone say, the voice getting closer. He shied away, petrified of anything and anyone, preparing to run again. “You don’t have to be scared of me.” He snorted, as if his father hadn’t tried that same line several times.

“I live there, too, do you need a place to stay?” he saw now it was a girl, but he was still scared…anyone could hurt him. “You can follow me.” She said, reaching for his hand. He snatched it back, shaking his head again. “OK, OK…just follow me, and I promise no one will hurt you, OK?”

“Can I…just…shower?” he asked softly. “Then I’ll leave.”

“We don’t force anyone to stay, but if you need a place to sleep, you’re always welcome, my name is Danielle, I’m 16 years old. I promise no one there will hurt you.”

“M…my name is…” he said, blinking.

“I’ll just call you … Stray, if you don’t want to tell me your name.” Danielle said. “Will you follow me?”

“I, I don’t…”

“Just come, take a shower, and leave, OK? Just what you want to do, nothing more.” She said, imploring him. He nodded once, and the smile that lit her face made him smile just a little. Still, he stayed a few steps behind her, ready to run if he needed to.

“Who are you running from? Or running to?” she asked, turning to see him following. “From, then.”

“It…it…it’s OK.” He said softly, shaking his head again. She nodded, leading him on in silence, which was just fine with him. Once they arrived, Danielle had to sign him into the shelter.

“J…just use…Stray.” Corey said softly.

“The showers are down that hall and on the left for the boys, OK? There are private stalls if you don’t want anyone to see you, and you can leave your things in a locker, no one will take them.” She told him. He nodded, then slowly limped down the hall, following Danielle’s directions and finding a row of lockers. He kept his head down, making sure not to look at anyone, and also not bumping into anyone. He put his backpack into a locker, then grabbed his bag from CVS and went into a private shower stall. He stripped naked, and for the first time, looked down at his … at what his Dad had done to him, and he almost threw up. There were deep deep gashes into his chest, places where he was still bleeding from, and he knew from experience he would for the next few days, maybe longer. It wasn’t just his chest, either, he felt them running all over his back and legs.

He turned on the water, then opened the two boxes of creams, putting them onto the shelf, then turning the water on hot, biting his lip to keep from screaming out as the scalding hot water hit his battered body, searing the cuts shut. The pain, however, dropped him to the floor, and he couldn’t help but cry out once or twice as the searing water sealed his cuts. He had the presense of mind to turn over, letting the water do it’s job over his entire body, before grunting and getting to his feet, holding onto the wall to make sure he didn’t fall onto the floor. He shakily unscrewed the caps to both creams and covered his cuts (basically his whole body) in one, then the other, to prevent infection and to hurry the healing process, still, with the … severity of the beating he’d taken, he knew it would be a month or more before most of the marks on his body would fade. He turned off the water, then grabbed the towel that had…appeared over the stall door and used it to carefully dry himself off, then spread a second layer of creams onto his body, boxed both up, and walked out (a mistake).

Everyone who was standing in the showering area stared at him, and he got sooo many questions asking what happened to him, and a lot of really really sad looks, he could tell everyone pitied him. He hung his head, grabbed his backpack, put on a fresh set of clothes, then walked back out towards the front door.

“Stray!” Danielle called, walking towards him. He shrank back, but she stopped short. “Are…are you going to spend the night?” he wordlessly shook his head, inching along the wall, trying to keep away from her and get to the door. “I already told you I wouldn’t hurt you, Stray, I don’t know what you’ve had to endure, but I can promise you that whenever you’re inside this building, you won’t have to be scared of anything.”

“I…thank you.” He said softly, getting to the door, then opening it and bolting outside. He walked along some random streets, and found himself down near a river, with a lot of people and some vending booths. His mouth watered as he passed all the food, and he got into line for one of the stands, then ordered a bacon cheeseburger and fries, with a medium soda, then went and sat down on a bench and enjoyed his meal. After, headed away from the river, since it was getting even more crowded, he found he was heading back to Danielle and the runaway shelter, but he didn’t want to go back there, either, so he turned and went into the park, which was much less crowded.

He just wandered around for a while, until the sun set and it got darker out, and the park filled up with more people until he heard a twig snap near him, then he ran, he ran out of the park and across the street, ending up right where he didn’t want to be.

“For someone who doesn’t want to stay here, you sure come by a lot.” Danielle said, she sounded amused.

“I thought I…I heard…a…there was a…twig in the woods…” he stammered out. “I…I need to…to eat, then…go sleep.”

“In the park again?” she asked softly. “We have beds, Stray.”

“N…n…no, it’s…I should…I…can’t…”

“Stray, please…just, try it for tonight, OK? I don’t want to go to sleep tonight knowing you’re out on the street, or sleeping on a park bench, or in a warehouse.” Danielle pleaded.

“I…I have to go eat.” He said lamely.

“We serve food, come on, it’s good, and healthy.” She said, reaching out for his arm. He jerked back with a cry, not letting her even get a finger on him. “O…K, no touching.” She said, tilting her head at the building. He nodded, barely noticeably, but followed the girl into the building.

“No one will ever ask you anything here, Stray.” She continued, after signing him in again. “The only rule we have is you sign yourself in and sign yourself out whenever you come and leave, so we can keep track of people and stuff. But no one here will ever ask you for your story, or…why you’re here, or anything of that nature. If you WANT to talk, we’re all certified to listen, we’ve gone through the training required to be…counselors.”

“I just…I wanna eat…then…” he said softly, as she led him into the cafeteria.

“What would you like? Everyone is required to have a salad, then a choice of meal.”

“Hot dogs?”

“Sure, 2 or 3?”

“Three.” He said softly, before going into the farthest corner of the room, so he could see everything around him and no one could sneak up on him. Danielle came back and put his food down on the table, then sat down next to him.

“We have a bunch of rooms for…for people who…like to be alone, for whatever reason, they lock from the inside, and you have the only key. There are no windows so you can’t leave, but that’s all. I’m not saying you HAVE to stay here, but if you want to…” Danielle said, before getting up. “I have to go…there are other people here who need my help, let me know either way, if you’re going to stay, or not.” Then she left him alone to eat. Once he finished, he tossed his garbage, then decided he could stay, since everyone else was ignoring him…he felt OK. All he wanted was for no one to … notice him, since if no one noticed him, no one could hurt him. He walked slowly back to the front, then, as he saw Danielle hugging and petting a girl, he decided he didn’t want to stay. He didn’t want to…to be hugged, or anything, so he signed out, and left, heading further down the street.

He walked further and further down the street, then turned and headed down an alley, finding an abandoned warehouse sitting all by itself, he sighed, knowing that he’d found his bed for the night. He walked in using a side door, then dragged over some mats he found, putting then in the farthest corner and yawning, he’d been walking all day and was tired. He again used his backpack as a pillow, and fell asleep within seconds.

That’s how his first week in … where was he…oh yeah, San Antonio, that’s how his first week in San Antonio went, he spent time at the shelter, Danielle kept trying to talk him into staying there during the nights, and eventually, after a week, he said he would, so Danielle set him up in a room that was just like she said it would be, no windows, one lock, and the key was handed to him.

“When, if you ever feel you can trust me, or anyone else, you can give this key to that person, OK? No pressure, and you can just keep it, all right? All we ask is…if you ever…leave, that the key is left in the room, or at the front desk.”

“OK…thanks, Danielle…” he said, shying away from her when it looked like she might hug him.

“Right, no touching…for what it’s worth, I’m glad you decided to stay here tonight, Stray, I’ve been worried about you.”

“I…no one’s ever…thanks…” he whispered, hugging his backpack close to him.

“You don’t have to worry about anyone taking that, is that…all you have from…home?” she asked. He nodded, then climbed into bed, looking at her.

“They keep getting younger…” she whispered sadly. “Do you need a light?”

“No, Dad…no, I don’t.” He said, sighing softly.

“I’m here if you ever need to talk, Stray, all right? G’night, and…it’ll get better, whatever it is, I promise you it’ll get better.” She said, shutting the light and then shutting his door.

And that’s how the second week he spent in San Antonio went, he stayed at the shelter, but he kept to himself, he never…ever, spent time with any of the other kids, except once, when a 9 year old girl named Tanya fell off the indoor jungle gym and he was the only one in the area to hear her screaming.

“Hey…hey it’s OK!” he said, running into the room and quickly ducking under the jungle gym, then hugging the girl tightly. “What happened?”

“I…I fell from the top, and I hurt my leg, I think it’s broked!” she yelled. He hugged her tightly to his body, letting her cry until someone cleared their throat.

“What happened, Stray, Tanya?” it was some guy he’d seen around, but he never talked to him, he hardly talked to Danielle, even if he liked her.

“She fell from the top, I … I didn’t want to leave her alone, so I … I hugged her, I wanted…wanted to make her…feel good, I’m sorry, I should’ve…told someone…pl…please don’t…don’t be mad…” he stammered out, swallowing once. “Please don’t hurt me.” He pleaded.

“No one’s going to hurt you, Stray…we don’t hurt our children here. Can you carefully bring Tanya out, so we can check on her?”

“I…I’ll try…” he said, softly, trying to tug the girl along, but he just couldn’t, not without causing himself pain, his wounds pulled tight. He hung his head, and carefully crawled out from under the jungle gym. “I’m…I’m sorry…” he whispered, quickly running from the room. He grabbed his backpack, and ran from the shelter, not stopping, even when he heard Danielle calling for him. He spent the next couple of hours wandering down near the river, until he got hungry, he decided to have a couple of hot dogs and a soda, so he got into line, got and paid for his food, then went and sat down on a bench to eat it.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

Looking back on that day, so many months ago…he was struck by how…how afraid he was of petty things, things that shouldn’t have scared him. He also realizes that even though that wasn’t the night he was formally turned…that night was when his humanity was forfeit, the night he met Orphan, Cole and Dodger. There were times he … wished that he hadn’t done it, hadn’t accepted what Orphie had offered him, but then, all he had to do was look into the crystal blue eyes of his lover, and the minute regret was instantly dissolved, replaced by overwhelming love, and safety. THIS WAS where he belonged, in darkness, with his Orphan, his Lucas, his Joshua. 

There was only a few hours before sunrise and we still had a lot of ground to cover. Rodney and Minx were the first to head off into the thickening trees with the rest of us close behind, I was the last to enter with Hayden just in front of me. The deeper we went the darker it was getting as the trees got taller and blocked out more of the moons already dimming light, my senses were heightened due to the fear of being hunted, all of our footsteps sounded like a herd  of elephants trampling the bushes and twigs that covered the ground. Rodney did his best to clear the way as he ran along slightly making a path for those behind him, there was one branch that was bent forward as the others rushed past, as it snapped back into position it knocked Hayden off his feet, I was quick to pick him up and toss him onto my back and continue running, with him now on my back I was able to pick up my pace and catch up with the others. The moment I caught up with the rest of the group I heard the faint noises of one or more of the hunters tracking us just to the left. What were they doing? Are they afraid of us or are they just waiting for the right moment to strike. It was at that moment that Hayden tapped me on the shoulder.

“Jackson, two of the men are just to the left of us, I can kinda see them” Hayden whimpered out.

“I know buddy, they been there or a few minutes now, let me know if they get any closer or do anything weird, that way I can concentrate on the path”

“You got it” Hayden responded.

It was then I heard a third off to the right and he was close it looked like they were getting ready to strike and soon, a straight up fight I could handle, it was the waiting that had me on edge. “There’s a clearing up ahead” Minx shouted. That was it we had to make a stand there if we wanted to make it out alive. Just before the clearing I raced of the group telling Rodney to keep the group moving as I passed, he nodded in response, and I pushed my legs to the max as I sped up. At the clearing I made my way right to head off the lone hunter before he made his way out. Just as he took his first steps out of the trees I connected with a straight right to his chest sending him flying into tree, I didn’t waist any time and was right on top of him throwing more punches, breaking some of his ribs and what felt like a few of my knuckles in the process, the vest he was wearing must have had some metal plates in there or some thing, no human has that hard of a chest. The man winced in pain as his ribs broke, but that didn’t stop him from going on the offensive, he pulled a small sworn from his side and began his attack. I did my best to dodge his onslaught, he was pretty good with the blade and even with my enhanced speed he still was able to slightly connect a few times cutting my chest and arm. My body was beginning to slow down, all the running was starting to take it’s toll, and my mind was starting to wonder and thinking of the others and how they were doing, I had to finish this fight and soon. “Come on Jackson you’ve taken down tougher opponents in the ring and they were vampires” I thought to myself. My opponent dug his feet in and sopped himself after I sent him flying backwards after a swift kick to his chest, he was quick too, in one fluid motion he was on the charge again. What happened next I would have never expected, as the man drew near little Hayden jumped off of my shoulders onto a tree behind our attacker and was quickly on his way back before the man or I knew what was going on, the attacker had one choice to make, turn to stop Hayden or continue to attack me, I guess he didn’t see Hayden as a threat because he continued at me, that was his first mistake he made all night, well I guess his second, the first would have been to attack a buch of vampires in the first place. The moment Hayden hit the man’s back he struggled to get him off, Hayden grabbed the mans hair pulling his head back exposing his throat, and in one quick motion Hayden bit down, his killer instincts took over and he latched his arms and legs around the man, as he forced his weight forward knocking him to the ground, blood sprayed from his neck and out the sides of Hayden’s mouth, I didn’t the little guy had it in him but here I was watching as this little vampire took down his prey it was a sight to see. I knew we didn’t have time to waste so I jumped in and helped Hayden bleed him dry. When the man’s pulse had come to a stop, Hayden and I released him and stood up, he looked up at me and gave me a wicked grin, I giggled a bit and ruffled his hair, we wiped the blood from our mouths with the shirt of the now dead man laying before us.

I pulled the sheath and the sword from the corpse and tossed them at Hayden. “Here kid you deserve to keep a trophy for this one, not like you need the weapon” I smiled and he nodded. “We should catch up with the others” Hayden jumped on my back and we were off. There must have been something in the mans blood that was giving him strength, I could feel it starting to take affect on my body now, my legs no longer felt week. The others had just made it to the other side of the clearing, with no sign of the other two hunters in sight, did they fall back to regroup, did I put a kink in the plans by attacking first, all I could do was hope that the others were all ok. The gash in my chest was deeper than I thought, causing me to loose a lot of blood, even though I just feed, it was deep and looked as if it was going to take a few sleep cycles to completely heal. As we reached the edge of the clearing and reentered the forest it became clear to me that I needed to catch the others fast, I did have a copy of the map, but who am I kidding I had no idea where I was in order to make it to the safe house and dawn was fast approaching. The only thing I could do to follow the others was to follow the broken branches on the ground as Hayden kept a watchful eye for our enemies. I was pushing myself to the limit, my legs felt like jelly, but I wasn’t going to give up that easy, I pushed even harder. I came up to a large tree, and it was either go left or go right, I chose to go right, it looked as if everyone went right. It was then that Vaso appeared telling me to stop, it was to late, I heard the click and a large bear trap latched on to my leg, I screamed out in pain as the teeth ripped through my skin until they stopped on the bone, Hayden went flying as I fell to the ground tumbling into some bushes, Vaso ran up and tried to help me pull the trap off of my leg, we both pulled as hard as we could until it opened up just enough to get my leg free, Vaso pulled off his shirt and wrapped it around my leg to help slow the bleeding, I couldn’t help but look at his gorgeous body as stood before me half naked, his sent was intoxicating, it almost made me forget the pain altogether.

“What are you smiling at” Vaso asked cracking a little smile of his own.

“Me…oh..uh…nothing. It’s just nice of you to help me out…you know…giving me your shirt and all” I blushed and turned my head to the side to hide it.

“Hey no reason to get all shy now” Vaso said with a smile, he held his hand out to help me to my feet.

I hobbled up and put my weight on his shoulder, there way no way I was going to be able to run in this condition, if there was going to be a time for the hunters to attack it would be now. I was then I noticed a man coming out from behind some trees heading straight for us, Vaso pushed me to the ground, it was some thing that I wasn’t expecting. Just as the man was near Vaso and ready to strike, Hayden appeared from the bushes taking the attacker by surprise, just as he turned to see him coming Hayden used the blade he got earlier and took the man’s head clean off, his head flying one way and his body continuing at Vaso and I, the blood flowing out of his neck soaked the two of us.

“Sorry” Hayden giggled.

“Don’t be sorry, that was fucking awesome” Vaso said with a chuckle as he wiped the blood of his face.

“Wow, Hayden you’re becoming the little killer huh” I chuckled as I wiped my face as well. “I’m sure glad I gave you the sword now”

“Me too” As he put it away and walked over to help me up.

Hayden and Vaso helped me to my feet and then Hayden went over to take any other weapons he could find on the body. “Hey you never know, we just might need some of this stuff” He said as he took the vest containing a variety of weaponry.

“We should get going, the sun will be up soon, and in your condition Jackson we need all the time we can get” Hayden and I nodded in response.

The three of moved as fast as my body would let us, and with each step I felt closer to collapsing, little Hayden did his best to keep me up on his side, but it wasn’t enough, so Vaso picked me up and began to carry me in his arms, we were able to move a lot faster and cover more ground that way, and it was a big plus for me because I was so close to his hot body. Looking over at Hayden all decked out with his new found weaponry he looked like a little soldier. The sky began to lighten as the sun was on the rise, we only had a short amount of time before sunrise was here. I don’t know if it was the sun rising or the tremendous amount of blood that I’ve lost that was causing me to go in and out of consciousness or a combination of both.

“There it is….just over that ridge” Hayden shouted. “Hang in there Jackson we’re almost there”

Vaso looked down at me and smiled, I smiled back. We reached the safe house in just enough time, Minx was at the door along with Rodney, Lauren, and Saul, all of them with a worried look on their faces. We made it inside with some time to spare, Rodney locked the door behind us and Vaso brought me over to one of the small rooms with a make shift bed in it and laid me down, then took a seat next to me tending to my wounds and cleaning up some of the blood around them. I felt my body get all tingly as he touched my chest, I gave him a smile and he gave me one in return and then leaned in and gave me a kiss on the lips, it was just a slight kiss, but when he went to pull away I reached up and pulled him back and gave him a passionate one. I could hear Hayden telling our war stories from the other room as the others began to settle down for bed. We had a long night ahead of us tomorrow, and who knows what was in store. Vaso laid down next to me, he and I continued to make out, there was some thing about this boy that just made my whole life feel special, he came back for me which showed that he felt the same way for me, or at least I hope it did. We kissed and let our hands explore each others bodies until we fell a sleep in each others arms. It was one of the best nights of my life, well so far.