Page 35 of All Night Long

“How do you feel?”

“Like I got shot.”

A scrape of a chair, then footsteps approached the bed. Henry kept his eyes shut, as the pain made itself known. “Here’s the button to the morphine if you need it.”

Opening his eyes, Henry stared up at Gray, seeing the fatigue on his face. The lines bracketing his mouth and eyes, the dark circles beneath them. “How long have you been here?”

“I haven’t left.”

Henry’s eyes widened. “You were here all this time? How long have I been here?”

“You had to have surgery, so twenty-four hours.”

“And you stayed here the whole time?” Ignoring the pain in his shoulder, Henry tried to sit, but hissed.

Gray leaned over him and put his hands under the uninjured arm and helped him upright. “Where else would I be?” he asked softly.

“Do people know?”

“About us being mated?” Henry nodded. “Yeah. I’m in trouble and have to speak to the council. We have a rule that we can’t mate with humans unless the council agrees.”

“Really?” Henry grimaced and reached for the button, pressing it once.

“It used to be that we couldn’t mate with humans at all, but it’s changed since. It’s protecting us and humans. You don’t know we exist and if humans did find out and wanted to cause us harm, they could reveal our existence to the world. We’d be fucked.”

“Some humans wouldn’t care.” Even as Henry spoke the words, he knew some humans would hunt vampires down for fun and some would experiment on them. He wasn’t blind to the faults of his fellow humans.

“And you know not all humans are like that.”

“I know.” Swallowing, Henry searched the room for water and then gasped in surprise when Gray held a cup of water for him. “Thank you.”

“I’ve been a shitty mate.”

“Have you now? I wouldn’t have guessed.”

Wincing, Gray nodded. “I want to try. I know I’ll fuck up. I’ll say the wrong thing and hurt you, but I want to try.”

“I should have been shot sooner.”

Wincing again, Gray looked away. “It shouldn’t take you being shot for me to realize I’ve been a bastard. No, I knew I was being a bastard, and I didn’t care or I did and didn’t act on it. Fuck, I don’t know what I mean.”

Watching Gray struggle made Henry happy, but not too happy. He could see what Gray was trying to do. “We can start again.” He smiled, then giggled.

“And the morphine’s kicked in.”

“It’s nice and you look nice, but rough. And you smell.” Henry giggled again and hummed. Everything was so good right then. Lifting his hand, he giggled again. He was flouting on a cloud of happiness.

“So you’re one of those who get all giggly and shit on morphine.”

“Not you?”

“I throw up. Every time I have it, I’m sick.”

“It’s sucks to be you!” Henry sang the words and giggled again when Gray frowned at him.

There was a knock on the door and a nurse came in, smiling at Henry. “It’s nice to see you awake.”

“I’ve had morphine!” Henry grinned. “I feel so good!”

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