Heath nodded.“I told Gordon.It’s fucking scary.The shift I mean.How you two made it… Obviously you did, but why anyone would willingly go through this is beyond me.”
Maxim forced himself to smile brightly.“Why, darling, it was so that I could have you, welcome you into this world, and show you around it.”
Heath groaned and rolled his eyes.“Should we get therapy for him?For the… You know.For what happened to him.You should have therapy for that, right?”
For one slow heartbeat, Maxim was outside of himself, drifting.He couldn’t feel his body.Then the moment ended, and he said, “You should.But he cannot be forced through or into it.In fact, he may not be forced to do anything.”
“Hunter’s orders?”
“Yes.”
Heath ran a hand through his hair.“Should I call his roommate though?You said he was super concerned, right?Maybe if he’s here when Raven wakes up, that could be helpful?”
Raven was used.He was turned.None of it in accordance with his will.Who knows how he’s going to feel once he comes through and realizes he’s human no more?Shame is such a terrible specter on the mind.A hunter that stalks your thoughts.
Despite his reservations, Maxim nodded.“Wait until morning though.No reason to pull Jason from sleep.Tell him we’ll call him when Raven is ready to see him.”
Heath nodded, clearly glad to have something to do.Action was easier than waiting, Maxim couldn’t argue that.“Right.Makes sense.Are you going to stay here?”
Maxim looked at Raven.“I am.And you should go to bed, darling.No reason the both of us should lose sleep.”
Maxim could hear the frown in Heath’s voice.“I can keep you company.”I can carry your sword, Daddy,he’d said as a young child, unwilling to let Maxim out of the house to do his work, scared his father might come back with memories of that work weighing him down, and in his child heart brave enough to do whatever he could to prevent it.
“I know you can.Ah, look at how adorable you are.Heath, dear, I swear, if you’d agree to letting your hair grow out, just slightly, everyone would think us brothers.Twins, even.I could take you out to a few clubs, help you talk to handsome men.”He forced his smile to brighten.“I will find you handsome men.”
Heath snorted.“You fucking wish, old bat.”
“I do!Come here.I’ll give you a kiss.”
“Ew.No, thank you.”
“A good night kiss, darling, to help ward off any monsters that might be hiding under your bed.Come into my arms.”
Maxim opened them for his son, and in turn, a deep frown appeared on Heath’s otherwise smooth forehead.“No, thank you.Why do you always have to make every little thing so fucking weird?”
Maxim kept his arms open.“Weird, darling?”
Heath grumbled, cursing under his breath.“I’m leaving.”He looked at Raven.“He’s going to be okay, right?”
Maxim lowered his arms.“I don’t know, Heath.I don’t know.”
Chapter 2
ThefirstthingRavennoticed was the smell.Clean linen, traces of a citrussy cleaner.A room that was aired regularly.
It clashed with what he feared, with what he knew.What had become his entire reality.In the other room, in the room with the bed I couldn’t escape, nothing smelled like that.I stank.The two of them stank.What they did to me stank.
Deep sorrow overtook Raven when he realized what that had to mean.I feel fine.I don’t hurt.They killed me in that dark, dank room, and now I’m dead.Fuck me, but there is an afterlife.That’s funny, actually.If Mom could see me, she’d point and say, “Told you so.”
“Are you waking?I can see you smiling.It’s quite all right to wake up now.You’re safe here.”
Raven flinched, then squinted.His eyes were fine, his vision clear.That was wrong, because he wore contacts that the vampire had taken out because he’d wanted to see Raven’s eyes.Such pretty eyes, he’d said.Raven remembered the way he’d smiled when he’d said it—taunting, as if he were complimenting a condemned man for his pretty neck.
Sitting in a chair next to the bed Raven was lying in, there was a man right out of either an action movie or a romance.He had long, pretty hair, blond and braided.Even so, it almost fell to his waist.He had green eyes, bottle green and bright, and he wore something skintight, but in the way police armor for crowd control was skintight.He was attractive in that undeniable way that had people of all genders happily agreeing, and Raven wondered whether his mother had been right about angels as well.
“There you are,” the green-eyed guy said.He smiled, and Raven tensed.“I won’t hurt you.Like I said, you’re safe here.”He gestured to the room.“This is my house.My name is Maxim Vallois, and I’m a hunter of the Forum.Do you know what that means?”
“Y-you k-k-k-kill them.Bad vampires.”Raven couldn’t seem to stop himself from trembling.It was like shivering in winter; an automatic reaction he couldn’t control.
