Page 7 of Colin

Fox sniffed the air. Dane was right. Something smelled…fresh. Like the desert after the first rain of the season. Herbal andearthy and fucking delicious. Fox licked his lips. “Should we go see?” he asked, one foot already out the door.

But the scent was fading quickly, and just as fast, Dane’s expression was shutting down again, back into its blank mask. “Nah. Why bother?” He turned back around, retreating into the house. Back to his depressing-as-fuck video game, most likely.

Fox stared after him, his chest tight.

What the fuck? They were vampires, goddamn it. Immortal, bloodthirsty, and hot as fuck. They didn’t need to be bored or depressed or whatever the fuck his brother was right now. The two of them didn’tbrood. Not since striking out on their own, at least. It just wasn’t their thing. They could leave that to the Anne Rice characters of the world.

Fox needed to fix this. He wasgoingto fix this.

The only question was, How did Fox fix something when he had no fucking idea what was even broken?

three

Colin

“Colin!”

Colin stopped in his tracks, looking behind him to see a lanky figure jumping off a porch and running toward him. He knew those long limbs. “Jamie?”

His old friend barreled into his side, wide mouth forming a beaming smile around what looked like a toothpick between his teeth. His green hair was up in a half ponytail, and he was wearing his characteristic all black.

Colin peered once more over his shoulder to see where exactly Jamie had come from—he didn’t think he recognized the house as that of someone they knew—just as the porch light turned off, a shadow of a person disappearing into the home.

Jamie slapped him on the back before giving him a shake. He’d always been a handsy guy. “Dude. Jay says you’ve been in town forever. Why haven’t you hit me up?”

The best Colin could give him was a shrug. He’d had other things to worry about, hadn’t he? His dad’s accusations ran briefly through his mind. Had he been using his dad’s stroke asan excuse to withdraw? Or was he still maybe pissed at Jamie for not revealing the big, obvious secret?You’re a vampire, dude. So’s that creepy boyfriend of yours.It was hard to say, either way. “Forever’s a bit of an exaggeration. It’s been less than a month.”

If Jamie was put off by that vague brush-off, he didn’t show it. He threw an arm around Colin’s shoulders, leading him back down the sidewalk, and extracted the toothpick from his mouth. “Sure, sure. What are you up to right now? Wanna grab a drink? I was off to say hey to Monique at the bar. You probably haven’t seen her in ages, huh?”

Colin almost smiled, charmed in spite of himself by Jamie’s easy enthusiasm. The guy hadn’t changed much at all since they’d been teens, smoking pilfered cigarettes and trying out fumbling kisses with each other, just to see what it felt like. He had the same lust for life, the same ease with people. It was making it hard to hold on to any lingering resentment.

“Yeah, sure. I’ll take a drink.”

“Excellent.” Jamie gave him another enthusiastic shake, ignoring the middle finger Colin waved his way.

They weren’t walking long before Jamie tugged him into a bar on the corner. It was divey number Colin remembered passing by in high school often enough, though it had had a different name then. And different artwork, he realized, staring at an impressively lifelike painting of a horse in a tutu hanging directly across from the door.

The place was mostly empty, but that wasn’t surprising. It was a random Monday, and summertime tended to empty the town of its college-aged drinking population. Not to mention the elderly snowbirds, the ones who came for the perfect weather in the winter and fled back from whence they’d come once the summer sun started wreaking havoc.

Jamie waltzed up to the bar, arms held up like a track star crossing the finish line. “Monique, my love, you miss me?”

Monique was gorgeous as ever, her dark braids held up with a scarf, her thin but muscled arms crossed as if to fend off Jamie’s enthusiasm, even while the twitch of her lips betrayed her fondness for him. “Like a hole in the head, baby boy.” She nodded a greeting to Colin, then did a double take. “I know you!” She pointed a finger. “Cody?”

“Colin,” he corrected, not offended in the slightest. They’d run in mostly different circles in high school, Jamie being their only real common connection, before Colin had severed ties with him.

It was one of his many regrets, in those last days here. Listening to assholes he shouldn’t have, cutting off connections with the people actually worth a damn. It was a mistake he wouldn’t be making again.

“Well, I missedyou,” Jamie insisted, ignoring the lukewarm reunion happening in front of him. “Like—like someone with a hole in the head misses an intact skull. I came by just to see you. Picked up this stray on the way. He was—” He turned back to Colin, lifting his brows. “Whatwereyou doing?”

Colin shrugged. “Just walking. Wanted some fresh air now that the sun’s gone down. Maybe check out if any of the cafés are hiring.”

Jamie plopped down on one of the barstools, leaning an elbow on the counter. “You looking for work? Monique could give you hours.”

Monique lifted an unimpressed brow. “I could?”

“Yeah. Colin’s decent. I vouch for him.”

She pointed a finger between the two of them. “Weren’t you two make-out buddies in high school? Before you got into the hard stuff.”

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