“I never knew vampires could be fathers,” Raven mumbled before letting his head rest against the passenger side window.He was so tired.So very tired.
They arrived at the dorm, and Raven’s heart thudded with relief.The car door opened when Raven tried it, and he got out without issue, no changing of the plan, no leering smiles like when they’d taken him to Professor LeRoux’s home—he stopped mid-thought, halfway across the little strip of grass that ringed the parking lot like a moat of green.
What do I tell people?What if I run into someone and they already know?What if they…what if they ask me questions?
Behind him, he heard the sound of a car locking.Beep-beep.Mechanic and simple, unchangeable.
“So this is the dormitory,” Maxim said, stepping up on Raven’s left.
The hunter was tall.He didn’t look much like a hunter, and Raven wondered whether he was any good at the vampire killing, given that he fell into the slender category, not the bulky, muscly one.He wasn’t even carrying any weapons that Raven could see.
“Yeah, that’s it.”
“Hmm.It reminds me of boarding houses.Taverns and such.A while ago, you’d go from one place to another, and you’d stop in one for the night and hope that the extra coins you paid for a mattress truly meant there were no fleas in it.”He sighed.“I hate fleas.”
“They suck blood, you suck blood.Aren’t you basically the same species?”
Maxim chuckled, and Raven found himself staring at the man with that ridiculous braid that somehow suited him.
“Are you calling me a flea?Well, certainly not, Raven.You will see less jumping from me.”He gestured at the interconnected buildings that were all campus housing.“Should we go inside?”
Raven nodded, but nothing else happened.His feet wouldn’t move.People on the walkways turned to look, and that didn’t help.What if it’s people I know?What’re they going to think?
Maxim cleared his throat.“Should I go first?You will have to tell me where.”
Raven let his hands vanish into the hoodie sleeves, then raised an arm, pointed, and let his hand drop again.“Entrance is there.”
“Lovely.Well, come along.You must tell me about this place.”
He started moving, slowly.Raven tagged along, hoping he’d vanish behind the hunter, hoping he’d be able to fade back into obscurity really soon.He’d never been popular or outgoing.Maybe, if he was lucky, no one had really even noticed that he’d been…gone.
“What do you want to know?”
“Why the dormitory?”
“Because where else would I live?Rent is…rent.My scholarship doesn’t cover that.”
“Oooh!You have a scholarship?”
Maxim’s green eyes went wide, and Raven found that it was easier to keep pace.
“Yeah.Full ride.Academic merit.I…I’m good at studying.My mom says it’s stupid and that all the co-ex indoctrination is going to mess me up, but…” He wondered what she’d think.Co-existence with supernaturals was one thing, but what had happened… Had anyone told her that he’d not attended his classes in a while?I hope not.She’d blame me for going to the Forum in the first place.
Maxim clapped.“Bravo!That sounds like an outstanding achievement.Your chosen field?”
“E-English literature of the later Victorian Age.”
“Oh, my.That is a lovely subject.A shifting in the times, back then.You read the fae poets as well?”
Raven nodded as the stairs to his building came into view.“Yeah.The London Circle poets.”
Maxim pretended to whisper.“I knew some of them.Oh, they signed everything with their artistic aliases, but if you thought for a heartbeat they were humble, I shall disabuse you of that notion.Boastful, the lot of them.They would turn quiet coffee houses into ballrooms.Debauched ballrooms.One once singed off her bangs while lighting absinth.”
“Right.”Raven nodded when Maxim opened the door.A part of him knew the conversation was interesting, information he’d have gobbled up not too long ago, but now, he could barely follow what the hunter was saying.
It’s me.I’m the problem.I can’t concentrate.
“That way?”Maxim pointed at the elevator.
