Page 6 of Colin

The doorbell rang.

Oh, thank fuck. Chances were it was that little old lady from down the street, asking to borrow some random baking ingredient. They never had what she was looking for, but it didn’t seem to stop her from coming by. Dane had always gotten a kick out of chatting with her.

But Dane didn’t look up from his game.

Fox sighed, pushing off from the doorjamb. “I’ll get it.”

He opened his door, his mouth turning down into a scowl the second he saw who it was. “Oh, fuck right off.”

Jamie, the green-haired punk, only grinned at him, a goddamn toothpick between his teeth like some wannabe cowboy. The guy had had more than one screw loose when he was human, and Fox doubted the transition to vampirism had improved that situation much.

“What’s up, man?”

“You getting the hell off my porch, that’s what. I thought we had one of those unspoken agreements, staying away from each other.” Fox bared his teeth. “You’re making me speak the unspoken, asshole.”

Jamie removed the toothpick from his mouth, waving it around in some conciliatory motion. “It would be my pleasure to never see you again. Just got a bit of business to attend to first. Someone—” He broke off, flashing a wide grin over Fox’s shoulder. “Oh! Tweedledum! Nice of you to join me and Tweedledick over here.”

Insulting nicknames aside, Fox’s muscles unclenched just the slightest as he felt his brother settle in behind him. Dane wasn’t completely catatonic, then. Although, none of it was exactly normal either.Daneshould have been the one to answer the door. He had less of a hair trigger than Fox when it came to dealing with the jerk-offs of the world.

“Okay, so…let’s see.” Jamie hummed in thought, as if they’d asked him a question instead of telling him to fuck off. “About a month ago, a little kiddo vampire turned up in Hyde Park.”

Fox’s muscles tensed right back up again, and he could feel the heavy tingle of shock radiate through the bond from Dane behind him. Turning kids was taboo as hell for their kind, for very good reasons. They were unpredictable and hard to control, with insatiable appetites. They had to be put down more oftenthan not, and who the hell wanted to do that to a child? “Did you— Are they—?”

But Jamie shook his head. “Nah. He’s not dead. He’s with his new moms, doing fine from what I hear. Real one of a kind, that one. But uh—”

“Who the fuck turned him?” Dane rasped out, his hand gripping Fox’s shoulder.

Jamie cocked a dark brow at him. “That’s what I’m getting at. We never found him. Luc and I have been looking, but we keep missing the fucker.”

Fox scoffed. “Sounds like you’re doing a shit job of looking, then.”

“Yeah, well—” Jamie shrugged. “Fuck you too, I guess.”

“What are you saying?” Dane asked. “You need us to clean up your mess?”

“I’m giving you a friendly heads-up. I’ve seen him. Not with my eyes, you know, but up here.” Jamie gestured to his head. The weirdo had visions, of the present and occasionally the future. Because apparently being an immortal bloodsucker hadn’t been enough paranormal activity for him—he had to go and be clairvoyant too. “There were saguaros and shit in the vision. I think he might either be in Tucson orwillbe in Tucson. Seasons are hard to determine in the desert visions, I can tell you that much.”

Fox paused a beat, waiting for Dane to say something, but his brother stayed silent. “Yeah, all right, we’ll keep an eye out.” They didn’t owe Jamie or his psychotic mate any favors, but there was no way they were letting a predator like that run free in their town. “What’s he look like?”

He listened on as Jamie gave the least helpful description of all time, of a generic-looking white dude with generic-sounding features. Why, when they needed to find someone, was it neversome super obvious tell, like a bright-pink mohawk and an eyepatch, or some shit?

Afterward, Jamie cleared his throat, running a hand through his shoulder-length hair. “So I’ve—I’ve got a little sister, you know? I think she’s older than what he’s looking for, but…”

Fox bit back a smart remark, holding his tongue for once. He couldn’t fault the guy for worrying over his kid sister. “Like I said. We’ll keep an eye out.”

And they would. Honestly, Jamie was a good enough guy, if a bit of an asshole. It was that semiferal fuck he’d ended up with that Fox couldn’t stand. How those two were a match was beyond Fox’s understanding.

That was the problem with romantic mate bonds—they turned people into goddamn idiots.

After a beat, Jamie nodded, turning as if to leave, before leaning back and peering out around the porch to the street, beyond what Fox and Dane could see from the doorway. “Holy shit!Colin?”

And then he was off, leaping off the porch like a demented gazelle.

“Fucker,” Fox muttered. “Dropping a bomb like that on us and fleeing into the night.” He glanced to Dane over his shoulder. “What do you think? Patrol around town tonight?”

As much as he felt bad for the kid who’d been turned, he was almost grateful for the shit news. It was something to focus on, something to distract Dane with, even. They could spend their nights searching Tucson for this nondescript asshole. And if they happened to find some tasty treat to share along the way…

But Dane was looking out in the direction Jamie had run to, shifting on his feet, his eyes brighter than Fox had seen them in a long time. “Something smells good,” he murmured.

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