Page 34 of Surface Scratch
“Oh!” Tariq set his feet back on the ground, kicking the door shut with his heel simultaneously. He began yanking off his accessories, his thick black hair left wild, sticking out at all angles from his head as he removed the ski mask and goggles. He let his gloves and coat fall to the ground, making no effort to pick them up. His dark skin looked clammy and reddened.
Why the hell was he dressed like he was about to go on an arctic fishing trip? It was cold out, but not that cold. There were rarely days he could remember here when anyone needed a full ski mask to stay warm. Then it clicked.
“You’re one too?” Caleb asked with more alarm in his voice than he intended.
Tariq held up both his hands, a half frown forming on his face. “Yes. I hope that’s all right with you,” he said.
“You’re fine. I’m sorry. I’m still adjusting,” Caleb said sheepishly, feeling his cheeks flush.Ok, so we’re just cool with everyone being vampires? Noted.He shoved the thought away. “How are you?”
Tariq wrapped him in another hug. “Who cares how I am? How are you? Are you feeling all right? Are you weak? Go sit down, I can make you something to eat,” Tariq said, his arm wrapped around Caleb as he pulled him back over to the couch.
Caleb laughed at the rapid-fire nature of Tariq’s inquiries, ducking out from beneath his arm and taking a seat on the leather couch. “I’m fine, Ophelia already fed me,” he said, smoothing the thighs of the baggy pajama pants Marcus had loaned him.
“That’s not good. I’ve tasted her cooking, it’s terrible.” Tariq laughed. He fell onto the other side of the couch, his hands stuffed in his pockets.
“I heard that!” Ophelia called over the music coming from her room.
They both laughed. Tariq shook his head. “I have no idea how she does that.” His bright and jovial look fell a little as he scanned Caleb’s exposed torso. “They didn’t do that to you, did they?” he asked, pointing to Caleb’s scarred shoulder. “Marcus was light on the details, but I saw the security footage from the alley and it looks like you really gave them a run for their money.”
Caleb rubbed his shoulder self-consciously, once again wishing he had grabbed a shirt. “No, it’s from the same accident that gave me this.” He pointed to his face. “Wait, what do you mean security footage?”
A grin spread across Tariq’s face. “Oh, that whole alley is chock full of cameras. You think that was the first time a bunch of assholes have tried to kill Marcus?” he explained. “I got an email with the footage ten minutes ago and got here as fast as I could after Ophelia let me know you were still recovering here. You put up a mean fight. I had no idea you had those kinds of moves in you.”
Tariq slapped his shoulder with another laugh, jostling the sore and achy parts of him in a way that made Caleb wince, drawing a quick apology from the darker haired man.
“I’ve never had to fight before, not like that,” Caleb murmured, staring down at his purple knuckles. “I probably shouldn’t have gone as hard on that one guy as I did…”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Tariq exclaimed, his voice so loud that Caleb jumped in his seat. “Those fuckers ruined a fantastic show—from my point of view, at least. Plus, it was pretty clear they weren’t aiming to subdue or maim. They were there to kill Marcus, no doubt about that. I can still smell his blood in here.”
Caleb’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down as he swallowed hard. Tariq had seenallthe footage from the alley, including the events immediately prior to the first crossbow bolt stabbing into the motorcycle.
“I’m just teasing, Pinky, no need to be embarrassed,” Tariq said. “You seem like you’re doing pretty well with the news. I remember when I found out vampires were a thing, I think I was in denial for weeks. Full-on ostrich.”
Caleb shifted uncomfortably. “How long did you know before you became one?” he asked. He still couldn’t explain to himself why he wasn’t more freaked out.
“Let’s see, I met Marcus in 1981… so about a year or so,” he said, stroking his manicured beard. “My maker didn’t have the same ability to soothe that your boyfriend does, so it was harder to reconcile for me.”
“‘Ability to soothe?’” Caleb echoed. “What do you mean?”
Tariq squinted at Caleb, like he was unsure whether he should explain himself. “We all have a gift, so to speak, that lets us affect those around us. You ever see those old movies where the vampire can do mind control or put some fainting broad in a trance? It’s kinda like that, but, you know, less rapey. My maker was an angry son of a bitch, so when regular people were around him they got grumpy. Sometimes he would just let it loose in a room full of people to see what would happen.” Tariq shook his head as he laughed. “I much prefer my ability. I can make people feel high, but I try to tamp it down because it can come on too strong and cause other issues.”
“So you can control it?” Caleb asked.Add this to the pile of questions to ask Marcus when he gets back.
“Eh, it’s more like I can try to hold it back, but it’s there no matter what,” Tariq replied. He kicked his feet up onto the coffee table in front of them. “Some of us think it has to do with what you were feeling when you were turned. I think it’s random. It’s not like there’s a handbook out there with an FAQ, so a good chunk of us are just winging it and hoping not to come across any hunters.”
“There are more hunters out there?” Caleb asked, his voice rising with the question. He felt like his chest was being squeezed. That meant Marcus was still in danger. How hard did they usually try to pursue a target? Hell, would the ones who’d jumped them in the alley come back?
“They’re everywhere, but usually they aren’t much of a bother if we stay off their radar.” Tariq eyed the large bruise on Caleb’s chest from where the woman had dug her heel in. “They usually don’t make a point of hurting non-vampires, but it looks like you were dealing with some zealots. They think saving humans at any cost is the best way to go about their mission, even if it means killing them. That way they can’t be turned.”
Caleb clenched his jaw, staring down at his lap. Those people would have killed him to get him away from Marcus? The thought churned his stomach. He didn’t believe in God, but he was starting to wonder if he did exist solely to punish Caleb for the mere sin of existing. It wasn’t enough to blow up his life and disfigure him? Some vengeful deity out there had to be messing with him, offering him a little ray of sunshine just so they could snuff it out. It wasn’t fucking fair.
“Is there anything we can do?” Caleb asked. He felt the pressure in his left ear shift right before the high-pitched ringing began.
Tariq shook his head. “At this point, we just wait and see if they crop up again. They could be from out of town, just following rumors, so for all we know they could be in Indiana or Kentucky by now, terrorizing some other vampire trying to get his rocks off with his human boyfriend in an alleyway.”
Caleb tried to give him a playful punch to his chest as color flushed his face again, but Tariq caught his hand. “No one was supposed to see that,” he said. A cool feeling fell over him, almost like a stream of invisible water was pouring over his head and coating him from head to toe. His jaw relaxed, leaving the empty, aching feeling of having had it clenched too long, and the tightness that had bubbled in his stomach faded. He felt pleasant, almost like he was floating. He looked at Tariq, blinking a few times to make sure he wasn’t getting faint.
“Whoops,” Tariq said, pulling at his collar to feign regret, but his smile gave him away. “Sorry, man, but you looked like you were gonna freak out.”
