“Are you delaying?” Riley asked Seth, gesturing to the mug of cooling blood in Seth’s hand.
Seth shrugged, then set Colin’s comic carefully back on its pile. “Maybe.”
“Because it makes you a monster?”
Seth laughed, like Riley was being melodramatic. “Because it’s human blood. That can be weird enough on its own. You don’t have to attach anything extra to its significance. ”
It was a marvel, wasn’t it, how different Seth’s transformation was from Riley’s own? It was a little painful to compare—a sharp twist in Riley’s gut he might never fully get over—but it was also beautiful. An unexpected gift from the universe, that Seth didn’t have to suffer to be his.
Seth’s brow furrowed, like he was concentrating, and then black eyes and those sweet little fangs he’d used to drink from Riley’s wrist took over his features.
It was strange, seeing those green-brown eyes so dark. Strange but not terrible. Not terrible at all.
Seth took a careful sip. Hummed in thought. Took another. “Weirdly satisfying for a liquid,” he said after a moment. “Like a really good soup.”
Another minor revelation Riley couldn’t even be remotely surprised by: Seth comparing his first taste of human blood to a really good soup.
Riley took a seat on the edge of his bed as Seth slowly finished the mug. Seth set it down on top of Riley’s bookcase when he was done. “I did it.”
“You did.”
Seth came over to the bed, standing between Riley’s spread legs. The bed was low enough that it made them the same height, more or less. “A lot of changes in a short amount of time,” Seth said mildly. His eyes had gone back to their usual color without Riley noticing.
Riley swallowed. “Do you…regret it?” He didn’t think Seth’s attitude toward the mug of blood was one of someone devastated and defeated by their loss of humanity, but it didn’t hurt to check.
“No.” Seth shuffled closer, setting his hands on Riley’s shoulders. Riley took hold of Seth’s hips, reassuring himself with the familiar shape of him. “You know,” Seth began. “I came here because I was feeling…stagnant back in Seacliff. On paper, I should have been as happy as ever, but underneath, I was…aching, kind of. Wanting more and not knowing why.”
Riley tugged gently, encouraging Seth to move even closer, straddling his lap. Seth grinned at him after he’d settled, like that was exactly what he’d wanted. His gaze ran over Riley’s face, almost as if he was taking him in for the very first time.
“I’ve always put so much importance on tending to my community, to the people around me, but there’s something special about having a person of my own.” Seth cocked his head, still smiling. “It’s a little selfish, the way I feel about you. The way you’remine.I like that, I think.”
Riley grinned back at him. He liked that too. Belonging to Seth. Being a part of his private self, a small piece of Seth’s sunshine that didn’t get given away to everyone else. “What about your voice?” Riley asked. “Has it spoken to you?”
Seth cocked his head in the other direction, his gaze going distant as he thought it over. “Not really. Or maybe it has, and it just sounds like my own thoughts. I feel a…presence, I guess. A part of me that’s a little sharper. Hungrier.” Seth focused back in on Riley, and Riley could almost see it, that little something darker lurking in the back of Seth’s pretty eyes. “It’s very drawn to you.”
Riley leaned forward and pressed a kiss to Seth’s smiling mouth. What a relief, that their obsession might be mutual from now on. Or maybe it always had been, in a sense. Maybe that was why Seth had never truly turned Riley away.
“I’ve started things moving for our book club,” Seth murmured against Riley’s lips.
Riley stayed silent, waiting for a clue as to why Seth was changing the subject.
“You don’t have to come,” Seth told him, drawing back far enough to make eye contact again. “I initially thought…I guess I wanted to give you something more than what you’ve had. To help you feel like you belong here. Not just in the woods buthere, with the people that come with it. But I meant what I said before—you don’t have to be different than you are. If you want to keep your circle small, that’s fine. I’ll still be coming home to you.”
How funny that Seth claimed his love for Riley was a chance to be selfish, when his love felt like anything but. Riley could feel it inside him, warm and…calming. Like a weighted blanket thrown over the beast inside him, keeping Riley more content than he’d ever been.
“No,” Riley said. “I’ll try it. I like books, and we’ll see how I feel about the people.”
He was mostly interested in a chance to see Seth interact with other humans when he wasn’t in customer service mode. Maybe that wasn’t what Seth had in mind as to Riley’s investment in the whole endeavor, but it was what it was.
Seth would always come first. That wouldn’t change.
Seth beamed at Riley. “You can help me come up with discussion questions each month. I’m not actually much of a reader.”
“We can think of them together,” Riley offered, fingers tightening on Seth’s hips. “At home. Your home. Where I live now.”
They were discussing the future, in their own way, so Riley might as well get this part taken care of. Their bond had been completed, and Riley was no longer content to lurk in the shadows, the lost puppy in the woods.
He was ready to be brought in from the cold.
