Page 63 of Surface Scratch
“Oh my God.” Caleb’s cheeks burned. He tried to hide his face behind his coffee cup.
Marcus kissed his cheek. “You are such a lovely little tomato.” He chuckled and sped up, pulling on Caleb’s arm. “Come on, the park is a few blocks away.”
Caleb practically poured the coffee down his throat as they walked, ignoring the burning in his throat that he knew he would regret tomorrow, trying to drown out the various scenarios that could happen between him and Marcus in an abandoned mall dressing room. They were out in public for God’s sake, now was not the time to walk around half-mast.
But it did help him forget how apprehensive he felt about being outside once again. So maybe it was okay to just let his imagination go for the time being.
The park was larger than most of the ones he had seen in town, even as a child. It sat safely nestled in one of the historic neighborhoods, surrounded by big post-Victorian houses with big porches and small turrets. How had he lived so close and never come to it? It was gorgeous.
“This is my favorite place to go when I need to quiet my mind,” Marcus said as they walked through the woodchips of the playground. “The trees here are very old. They remind me of home.”
Marcus sat down on a bench that overlooked the playground, where most parents would probably sit with their phones while their children played, but it was cold and after 10:00 p.m., so they were the only ones there. Caleb glanced around nervously, taking note of every single streetlamp and light that was flickering or already out.
Could the Society have followed them out there?
“Sit.” Marcus patted the spot beside him. He placed his coffee cup between his knees and pulled the lip off. “If anyone approaches, I’ll hear them. There are way too many uppity rich people around here to ignore a large attack in this park. We’re safe.”
Caleb glanced behind him and up the street before sitting beside Marcus. Just to be sure. He didn’t have the same heightened senses vampires had, but that didn’t stop him from doing what he could. Marcus tipped his flask into his steaming coffee, the thick red liquid disappearing into the black coffee.
He looked away from Marcus’s cup, feeling like maybe he shouldn’t watch him spike his own drink.
“Do you miss it?” Caleb asked, trying to force himself to think about something other than the fact his boyfriend was being hunted because he was a two-hundred-year-old vampire.
“Home? Yes, but I think I miss the idea of it more than anything,” Marcus said. “The Japan I left in the 1800s doesn’t really exist anymore. It looks so futuristic now.”
“You haven’t gone back?”
“No, there are too many variables associated with flying now that make it unsafe for me,” Marcus said. He took a long drink from his blood-spiked coffee and wrapped an arm around Caleb, pulling him closer. “I’m not sure what I would even do there. I was an only child—I don’t even know if I have any living relatives. It’s easier to leave that place as a memory. The pleasant parts, at least.”
Caleb leaned his head against Marcus’s shoulder. Even with Marcus’s unnaturally low body temperature, he was slightly warmer than the air, and that felt so good on his cheek. “What do you mean?”
Marcus sighed and kicked one leg out, sending a spray of woodchips across the playground.
“I didn’t have it easy. Since my dad left my mom right after she got pregnant to come back to the States, she was on her own with me. Americans are generally bad at telling, but to the people back home, back then at least, I might as well have been a blond-haired, blue-eyed German guy. I’m what people would call ahafu. It wasn’t very accepted then. Plus, you know, my mom not having a husband.”
“That must have been hard,” Caleb said softly. Even though he’d been raised by a single mom, he never felt like there was any animosity toward his family because of it. Then again, he was raised in the twenty-first century, not the 1800s.
“As Americans say, water under the bridge,” Marcus said, giving Caleb a reassuring squeeze. “My mother was a tough woman, and my grandmother even tougher. They didn’t suffer anyone speaking poorly of me. I was lucky like that.”
“My mom was like that.” Caleb smiled to himself. “She was a music teacher at one of the local high schools, so she knew when to put her foot down. I had a teacher in middle school who hated how quiet I was, and she would always pick me to answer questions. My mom raised hell in the office until the principal agreed to move me to a different class.”
Marcus chuckled. “She sounds like she was feisty. Now I know where you get it from.”
Caleb gave him a quizzical look.
“Don’t look at me like that. You have a fire in you. It’s buried way down, but it’s there. It’s one of the things I like about you.” Marcus pecked him on the forehead. Caleb squeezed his own thigh to keep himself still as a round of butterflies swarmed within him. “How else would you have barged into my office that day if not for that little flame?”
“Ugh.” Caleb covered his face with his hand. He had been avoiding thinking about his outburst. It was so embarrassing.
“No, no, no, you can’t hide that gorgeous face from me.” Marcus laughed, pulling Caleb’s hand away from his face. “Hey, don’t be embarrassed, okay? If you hadn’t done that, we wouldn’t be sitting here now.”
You probably wouldn’t have a target on your back, either.
Caleb noticed Marcus’s face fall, realizing thought must have shown on his face even though he didn’t dare speak it.
Marcus jumped up from the bench, chugging his coffee before crushing the empty cup in his hand. He tossed it into a trashcan as he passed it, making his way over to one of the large trees on the perimeter of the park and putting his hands on his hips as he stared up the trunk.
Caleb made his way over to Marcus.What the hell is he looking at?
