Total pages in book: 209
Estimated words: 196141 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 981(@200wpm)___ 785(@250wpm)___ 654(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 196141 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 981(@200wpm)___ 785(@250wpm)___ 654(@300wpm)
“The vampire appetite slows,” says Drake, “and after time, you come to need less and less blood.”
The words stir Kyle, seeming to come out of nowhere. He frowns in the dark. “What do you mean?”
“You might’ve been wondering,” he says. “I know that you came to the Devil’s Mouth for answers. My brother told me all that happened when he found you at your house. It makes total sense that you sought us out. You want to know more. I can tell you everything down here, you know. Hey, does your neck feel stiff yet? You can rest your chin on my shoulder.”
Kyle resents the offer for half a second. Then he realizes he has few options anyway, and decides to give in, resting his head on Drake’s soft and available shoulder.
“But needing less blood doesn’t equate … drinking less.” A tiny sigh flies from Drake’s lips, touching Kyle’s ear. “Because the most dangerous aspect of a vampire, especially after they’ve lived for a very long time, is when they … become bored. Soon, the act of killing becomes a sport. There’s something so terrible about time passing, about how everything in your long life becomes … unstimulating, uninspiring … and so, so tedious … I’ve seen it. Drinking becomes less about the blood, less about our survival, less about power … It just becomes … fun.”
The first thing Kyle thinks about is La-La. The detached, almost psychotic grin that wouldn’t wipe off the vampire’s face. The playful way he brandished that katana, as if his only intent to lop off a head is to marvel at how prettily blood can spray from an artery, like an artful red water fountain.
Boredom, the most dangerous aspect of immortality.
From which the worst terrors imaginable are spawned.
“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 … enter the 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.”