Page 75 of Love Lives
"Wait," Aldrich said, obviously working things out in his head. "Vlad is Cyril? You were having dreams aboutVlad?"
"It's not the same," I protested. "He's not Cyril anymore." As long as he didn't remember, he would never be Cyril again. "The vampire I see in my dreams... that was like... a thousand years ago."
"I get it. He's old. Age isn't everything."
Oh God. Hewasjealous. He totally was. If this hadn't been so annoying, it would have been hilarious. "They're not really my dreams, okay? And it's not really Vlad. You're totally old enough for me," I promised.
"I'm in the prime of my life."
"Of course you are." I gave him a quick kiss before I could think about what I was doing, as if we were a couple and this was our usual morning banter. For a second, neither of us spoke or moved. Then I made myself zip my pants and walked to the door as if all of this was totally normal. "You're gonna come downstairs with me?"
"Go ahead," Aldrich said. "I'll be down in a minute."
"Sure." I stepped out into the hall and made my way to the kitchen. It was odd to be back here again. Almost as if I had stepped back in time. It wasn't even that long ago that I'd moved out of this place, but with everything that had happened since then, it might as well have been a century ago.
Some of my knives were still in the kitchen. At least that was something. A piece of normalcy amidst all this havoc.
Someone cleared their throat behind me. I turned around to see Collin giving me a once-over. I had no idea what he was looking for, but his eyes narrowed in concentration. "Good morning," I said as casually as possible, hoping to deter my younger brother from whatever bullshit was going through his head.
He didn't return my greeting, instead he angled his head a bit and asked, "So, you and Aldrich?"
Really? Was that important right now? "Do you have a problem with that?"
"Just wondering," Collin deflected. "It's weird that my whole family is gay now."
"I'm not--" I stopped myself from finishing that sentence, took a breath instead. "Shouldn't it make you feel better?"
Collin shrugged. "I don't know. It's like it was my thing and you're all jumping on the bandwagon." He paused. "That sounds super stupid." He walked past me to get the coffee machine going. "It's too early for me to think straight."
"Don't worry about it." I could see things from his point of view too, when I tried. It had to seem at least a little weird. Unfair, too, considering that fight he’d had with Dad after coming out. Jared, Luke and I hadn’t had to go through that. Never would.
"Are you guys serious?" Collin asked, cradling his mug even though there was no coffee in it yet.
I shrugged. “Hard to believe Aldrich’s ever been serious about anything in his life.”
My little brother gave me a strange look. “What about you?”
What about me indeed? I didn’t want to be invested. I didn’t think it wouldleadanywhere, not really. But I didn’t want him to leave either. I’d been way too damn happy last night when Aldrich said we made a good team, as if that meant… what? That we were going to be a couple, get married, have kids?
I scoffed at myself. Since when did I even want those things?
“I’ll just see where it goes,” I said to Collin, half-convinced that I already knew. Even if I believed in eternal love—which I didn’t—Aldrich wasn’t the type for it. He was going to get bored of me sooner rather than later.
The thought hurt.
I didn’t want to acknowledge the pain, but it was like a toothache. No amount of ignoring it made it go away. Maybe I wasn’t so different from my mom after all.
Just another fool.
Needing to think about something else, I studied my little brother. “What about you?” I asked. “You doing okay? No panic attacks?”
The way Collin looked at me, I figured he was going to give me a blanket response or say that he was fine, but apparently, I wasn’t giving him enough credit. “Not as many as I used to have,” he said. “But you don’t have to worry. I can deal.”
I nodded, because for once, I actually believed him. Satisfied that I didn’t need to worry about Collin, I turned my thoughts elsewhere. “Is Puck still around?”
"I don't think he's left. Probably asleep, though. We were all up pretty late. Setting up some basic protection spells." My brother yawned. "They won't actually do much to protect us, but at least we'll know when someone's coming."
Well, if that wasn't a rosy outlook. I glanced at the coffee machine. Oh yeah, I wasdefinitelygoing to need some of that to get through the day...
