Page 109 of Envious Of Fire
“We’re the ones who truly run the world,” says Drake. “It’s our kind that everyone truly fears. Our kind that gives vampires the reputation that has lived on through folklore and hearsay for thousands of years. Not the soft pre-vampires who forged flimsy governments and don’t know what it’s truly like to suck a human dry. Fancy Lord Darkadian? My brother and our family could end him and his reign tonight if we wanted to. Wipe the whole so-called vampire governing power out of existence. The only reason guys like him are in power is because weaker people put them there. They can just as easily be tossed to the streets.”
Drake shifts his face slightly, lips grazing Kyle’s neck again.
“The only thing that eludes us is … how to actually …enterthe House of Vegasyn.”
Kyle thinks of Tristan suddenly. Tristan and the last time they saw one another, in that long castle-like hallway with tall columns and the opened side showing an illusion of mountains. Tristan and the tea he barely drank. Tristan and the goodbye kiss they shared.
And the sound of Tristan’s voice as he apologized once again for ending their twenty-six-year relationship with a lie in the form of a pile of fake ashes.
Tristan, living within the beast of that House of Vegasyn.
“Your body grew tense,” Drake notes.
Kyle shakes his head slightly. “Sorry.”
“This conversation is stressing you out. I’m sorry.”
“Forget it.”
“The truth is, I really …” Drake’s face shifts again. His lips pucker. His hands, stuffed into Kyle’s pockets, squeeze ever so subtly. “I really like you, Kyle.”
“Stop.”
“I know. I know you’re off-limits. I don’t want to take any more advantage than I already have. I just …” Drake sighs, his breath playing across the sensitive side of Kyle’s neck. “I’ve just been alone for so long, I forgot what it feels like to be held.”
Kyle says nothing.
“I know,” Drake goes on, his voice softer. “If this is all I’m allowed, if it’s all I get … I can live with that. It’ll be enough.” He smiles against Kyle’s neck. “If it makes you feel any better, we’re pressed together so tightly, we don’t have a fleeting hope of touching each other’s dicks.”
Of all things to make Kyle crack a smile.
“There,” says Drake, feeling it against his own neck. Then he chuckles lightly, but soon grows quiet again. “Really. I don’t want to just be another vampire in your life, sucking out what you’ve got in you, taking and taking. I want to give something back to you. I want to do good in this world before my time. I want …” Drake moves his lips away from Kyle’s neck, rests his chin fully on his shoulder. “… to be better than my brother.”
That part catches Kyle by surprise.
Kyle turns his face slightly. “You can be.”
Drake turns, too. “Think so?”
“Stay with us in Nowhere. Don’t let your brother decide how you get to spend your days. Maybe you’ll meet more guys. Live the life you want. Be a college kid. That picture I painted you back at those dorms? It isn’t just some daydream, Drake, it could be your life, your real, actual life.”
Now it’s Drake who’s been rendered silent.
Until the muffled noise of Mikey’s voice comes through therock. “Can you guys keep it down? I can’t sleep with all of your damned mumbling, and this tiny-ass denim jacket barely covers me. Uncomfortable as fuck up here.”
Drake squeezes his arms tighter around Kyle. Kyle takes it for a hug and squeezes back. Only the sounds of their breathing fill the narrow space as they succumb to the weariness in their cuddled bodies.
24.
The One Thing You Love Most.
—·—
Brock is sitting in a chair staring at a painting of an ace of hearts. In the painting, the card is caught on fire, and behind it is a backdrop of green, blue, and purple neon lights. Some kind of expressionistic take on Vegas. A trippy casino. A dream.
“I died,” he recites to the painting, “and then I came back. It was all like a dream. I should forget it ever happened. Things are okay now.”
Was death just a dream?
