Page 33 of Drink Up, Darling
“I believe I am, Mr Peters. I should be retiring.”Fuck it, just flirt. No going back now.
“Do you remember the war?” Godwin asked sincerely.
“A little. My earliest memory was the end.”
Godwin nodded. “Fascinating. Truly, I am… wow. Ha! You’re real.”
“I suppose I should be thankful I died at the age I did.” Dariel asked himself if he’d ever actually felt grateful for that, but the words came naturally. He and Godwin latched onto each other’s gazes, and Athens deliberately pressed his head down into Dariel’s legs. Heat burned his cheeks—and not from the fire.
“Forever a beauty,” Godwin said.
‘He’s right.’
‘You’re feeling smug, aren’t you?’
‘Maybe.’
Dariel might have exploded in that moment. He had run out of flirting techniques—he was, after all, insanely out of practice.
“Okay. What now?” He began, pulling himself away from Athens so the other man had no choice but to sit back up.“You’ve confirmed your suspicions, we have solidified them for you, so what do you expect from us? We cannot be known. The moment you step out of this house, we will have only one option.”
No wonder you’ve been single this long. Threaten them, that ought to do it.
Godwin clapped his hands together, mellowing. “Well. That will be no problem, dear Dariel. For I summoned you both here this evening to…” he took in a deep breath, eyes glassy. “Well, to kill me.”
“I’m sorry?” Athens shouted, causing Dariel to jump. In the last five minutes of having Athens purely in his head, he’d already forgotten how loud the man could be.
Godwin beamed, but his hands trembled even more so than before. His body was betraying him. “You heard me right. Though after the evening we’ve all had, I’m sure that has now come as quite a shock.”
“I’m not going to kill you,” Dariel blurted out, confident in his statement. He would not raise a finger to this man. No. Never. He’d killed once before and refused to even come close to doing it again.
“You have no choice, though, do you?” Godwin said.
“We would simply erase your memory of the evening,” Athens said, indicating he was on the same page as Dariel. “No harm will come to you, I promise.”
“Ah, but then you’d have to erase the last decade of my life. I’d rather die with the knowledge than go on as a man without his mind.”
Neither of them spoke.
“I never expected you both to answer my invitation, but you did. Now my wish is one step closer to coming true.”
Dariel weighed the options the moment Godwin revealed his knowledge. Either they wiped all memory of their existence fromhis mind, or they stopped him from ever speaking to another human for the rest of his life. Though it seemed he was doing a fine job of the latter himself anyway, Dariel had been too entranced by this man to ever let his mind wander to any other option. To the very idea Godwin may have to die. A human man had found not one, but two vampires; creatures the world really did not know existed—not in any believable state. He could not live on with this knowledge, and simply wiping his memory may do more damage than good. But murder? No. Dariel couldn’t.
“Godwin, I know what we said, but we really do not want to have to do this. Let us cause you to forget us. It is the easiest option for us all. No one has to be harmed,” Dariel tried, still worrying even this option may not work. He could sense the rising pulse of their host; noting the beads of sweat on his forehead.
“I don’t want to forget you,” Godwin said, his voice innocent and childlike. His terror was plain to see.
“Godwin… I...”I don’t want to make you forget us.
“Why?” Athens cried. “Why do you want to die?”
Godwin wiped his eyes. “It is simply my wish. I decided a while ago I wanted my life to end, that I was coming to the end of my time on this earth, but I…”
“WHY? Why is your life not worth living? And why go to the extremes of findingvampiresto do it?” Athens was speaking so loud now, his voice shaking in time with Godwin’s hands.
Their host’s breathing grew erratic as he raised a trembling hand to his face, covering his mouth.
“Godwin? Why? Please. I don’t want to do this,” Dariel pleaded.
