“I don’t know,” Shaun said quietly.
“Let’s get you dry and go lie in bed.” Rake stood up in the tub, fully clothed, and picked Shaun up under his armpits, lifting him and placing him on the tiled floor. Rake and DJ divested Shaun of every soaking wet item of clothing, then wrapped him up in a fluffy white towel.
DJ carried Shaun to the bedroom, making sure he was dry before putting him under the covers, naked. Rake came into the room without his clothing and slid right in beside him, DJ joining in a similar state soon after.
They laid there in silence, Rake and DJ’s linked hands resting across Shaun’s hip, tethering them together.
“I messaged my sister,” Rake said out of nowhere.
“What?” DJ asked, sitting up. “When?”
Rake’s fingers drew circles in the hollow of Shaun’s throat. “A few days ago.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Shaun asked.
Rake shrugged. “Didn’t see the point in telling you unless she responded.”
Shaun worked through that information. “So she replied?”
“Mm-hmm.”
DJ lightly smacked Rake’s hand. “Stop drawing this out! Tell us what she said.”
Rake stared at his hand. “Did you just hit me?”
“You can spank me in retribution later. What did Riya say?” As DJ spoke, Shaun realised he hadn’t even known the name of Rake’s sister. They still had so much to learn about each other.
“She said she was glad to hear from me, actually. She was a young teenager when I left, so she wasn’t aware of what happened. Being at uni has opened her eyes a bit.”
“Do you think you’ll meet up at some point?” DJ asked.
Rake shifted so that he lay on his back. “Maybe. We messaged back and forth. She seemed to be up for having some video calls from”—he did speech marks with his fingers—“Australia. Can see how it goes.”
“Aw, I look forward to meeting her,” DJ said.
“What made you decide to message her?” Shaun asked.
Rake turned his head, dark eyes meeting Shaun’s. “You, sweetheart. You’ve been so brave facing your past like this. Figured it was time I explored the possibility of reconnecting with my own family before I lose the option altogether.”
Shaun buried his face in Rake’s shoulder, unable to form words to sum up how he felt.
DJ’s hand reached over and pressed to Rake’s chest, rightover his unbeating heart. “I’m so proud of you,” he said.
Rake shuffled on the bed, clearly uncomfortable with the sentiment. It made Shaun chuckle. Neither of them could take a compliment well. He placed his hand on top of DJ’s, who moved to spoon him.
“Shaun, please don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t think we should go back to your parents’ houses,” Rake said.
Shaun’s first instinct was to argue. But then he thought about how he was just prolonging his torture. He’d had quite enough of it for one lifetime. “Okay,” he said.
The most important thing, Shaun told himself, was that his parents were both happy. And, ultimately, so was he.
But it hadn’t been plain sailing in the past few weeks since Rake and DJ had been recreated. Shaun sometimes struggled with knowing how long Rake and DJ had been together before meeting him, no matter how included and loved they made him feel.
Rake was prone to emotional outbursts when stimuli overloaded his enhanced senses—blocking out the sounds and smells of everyone around him was far harder for him than it was for Shaun, who’d practised it for years, and for DJ, who happily ignored everything other than what he was concentrating on in that moment.
DJ confessed, whilst getting dressed one night, that he sometimes wished the old vampire myth of having no reflection was true, as he couldn’t always face how he looked in the mirror.
But they worked through it together. Rake and DJ made room for Shaun in the relationship at all times and never made him feel less for being the newer partner.
