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)
You have excellent memory. 10 out of 10, no notes.
“That’s kinda hard to forget, the way you worded it.”
Tristan stops at the archway leading back into the room. I was somewhat forced to invite you here tonight, admittedly. Lord Marky has had … well … something we will call a change of heart. Oh, and you’ll recognize some of the other faces tonight, too. Thirsty Cindy from the Dallasade domain, for one …
“Why don’t you guys just call it Dallas? What’s with all of these stupid names?”
Never given it much thought. Perhaps it’s our way of taking back the world. Like children who rename their toys. I once knew a little girl who called her barbie doll “Candy Boobs” …
Kyle moves to Tristan. “And what do you mean Markadian had a change of heart, exactly?”
He wants to replace the deal we made before.
“The deal? You mean where you ‘laid down your immortal life’ or whatever?”
Yes, that one, no big deal, just my existence. I suppose he is tired of dangling my life over the fire pit that is yours. He has other plans. I have never been one to be … dangled. Tristan continues back into the bedroom, fetches the jacket off the rack, stops. Maybe this is why it’s important to remain in charge of our own destinies. We must remain smarter than the thirst … always resist the blood, stay as we are in our natural state … oh, how vital it is, especially now …
Kyle averts his gaze.
If Tristan only knew that mere hours ago, he and another named Drake were taking turns feeding off of Elias’s neck.
That Kyle spent a day in a den of full-blooded Them.
That Kyle has drank more blood in the past month than he has in the past twenty-seven years.
Would Tristan still be able to look him in the eyes? Still be able to respect him? Sweetly tie his bowtie and fetch his jacket?
Or does he already know?
“Why are you saying all of this about blood and destiny?”
Tristan stands there holding the jacket, thinking. I want you to remember that I always cared about you. Even when I … pretended to die … and left you. That I only did it because I wanted you to be safe.
“I know.”
And I am certain that it is the blood that differentiates us from monsters. Tristan lifts the suit jacket, as if to smell it. Well, that and our fashion choices.
“Tristan?”
He turns, peers at Kyle with his misty blue eyes.
“Am I safe?” He comes closer. “Be honest with me. Are my friends in Nowhere safe?”
Yes, says Tristan.
“The town was swarmed tonight by … well, by Them.”
I know.
“You know?”
It is a delicate situation, I understand. Much like this one. You and me, in a room, preparing for a special event … you as my date. This doesn’t have to mean anything if you don’t want it to. Really, it’s more of a formality. Tristan lifts the jacket. Left arm first, please.
“Why did George come and get me? Why didn’t you?”
I’m not allowed to leave the House. I think I wasn’t trusted with the task. I do have a history of making terrible choices regarding you. He gives the suit jacket a little shake. Lefty firsty.
After a pause, Kyle slips his left arm into the jacket, then his right, Tristan guiding him. It is a perfect fit. Kyle peers at himself once more in the mirror, his look complete.
Being in Tristan’s presence again, in such a calm state, with this simple act of dressing before him, prettying up, it is almost mundane enough to lull Kyle into a dream. The two of them, still out there in that cabin, undiscovered, away from the world, free from the burdens of their lives.
This doesn’t have to mean anything, Tristan had said.
What a cruel thing to say. Yet Kyle understands completely.
Suddenly he’s back in Texas, back in his old house, feeling his heart racing as he anticipated going to school the next day and seeing Tristan again. Standing before this mirror, he can almost see his parents behind him with pride in their eyes, like they’re about to send their son to prom. He sees his brother, too, thirteen-year-old Kaleb, wondering what his own prom will be like, if he will even have the courage to ask someone to be his date. Kyle looks at his family in the mirror, all of them.
And then Tristan, lurking there.
“Was coming to Texas one of your terrible choices?” asks Kyle, still imagining his family.
Tristan speaks to Kyle’s reflection. I suppose we may never know the answer to that question. I would like to think it wasn’t. But our happiness came at such a great cost, didn’t it?
“Were we happy?” Kyle turns away from the mirror, from his family, gazes at the very real Tristan.