“You did what?” I exclaimed with a horrified chuckle. Yes, he’d gone there.
“I never actuallyateanyone, dude, chill. I bit them. I wanted to see how they tasted, how their blood tasted. I even got away with it for a while but then they called home when some girl snitched on me. Not that I blame her. Nita was mortified. Grounded me for a month. Dropped me off at school in the car, and picked me up the same way. Drove me straight home. I didn’t see anyone outside of school for ages, probably longer than a month tbh. I had to promise I’d never bite anyone again, or even lick them.”
“That must have been awful.” I felt incredibly sad for little Charley. I too had been an only child, but my formative years had been spent joyfully playing with anyone and everyone from as soon as school was over for the day, and from sun up to nightfall in the holidays. I was very much a people person, even though I was content to spend long periods alone too.
Charley shook his head. “Not at all. I barely saw daylight other than at school break times, and I didn’t have to pretend not to mind when the other kids called me weird. It was like respite from myself. I mean,Iknew I was weird, even then. Same as I knew I shouldn’t bite people, but that didn’t stop me doing it.”
“Was it for attention?”
“Fuck no!” He scratched at his scalp again. A nervous gesture? I couldn’t be sure. “I thought I wanted to actually eat them, thought they’d taste as good as they smelled. They never did, although the blood was—” He moaned softly. “The blood was…nice.” He was worrying his teeth with his tongue; the tip rasped as he moved it back and forth, a sound he couldn’t know I was able to hear over the music. “Fuck, Luc, I bit other kids. I made them bleed and I liked it. No wonder my parents gave up on me. I’m a monster.”
I’d have to tell him. “I don’t think you are, Charley. I think there’s another explanation. I’m just not sure you’re going to believe me.”
He paused the music. The silence was loud in the car, just the steady thump of two heartbeats — one a little faster than it had been before my pronouncement.
“Explain please.”
I took a deep breath. “Just hear me out, okay? Because you’re going to want to interrupt and tell me I’m full of bullshit. But I’m fairly sure I know stuff you don’t, and I’m not lying to you.” I waited until he nodded, blue eyes rapt as he stared at the side of my head. “You know about vampires, right?”
His hesitant, “Ye-e-s, and?” was better than I’d expected.
I continued. “They exist. They’re fairly rare, but they exist. And Iknowthey exist because I’ve met some.” Charley stopped breathing. “And…I suspect you are part vampire, which in itself is really fucking rare, but not, as far as I know, completely impossible. It would certainly explain your various issues. Plus the fact that, according to the scant information available, vampire hybrids tend to get more, um, vampy, as they hit puberty.”
Electrified silence filled the car. I drove on, because I was damned if I wasn’t going for a run in fur shortly after we arrived at the safe house, and the faster I drove, the sooner that would happen.
Finally, when I was beginning to think he’d gone into some kind of catatonic state, Charley whispered, “Areyoua vampire?”
I flashed him a quick, tight smile. “Nope.”Fuck no, thank you very much. Bad enough I’ve got the hots for a vamp hybrid, without actually being one.I could almost smell the indignation of my ancestors at the question, but that wasn’t Charley’s fault. Both our species had been deeply underground since forever, and the recent truce was a fragile one.
I heard his faint sigh before he asked me, “Are you human?”
Dammit, man, quit turning this back on me.
“Not entirely,” I hedged. Okay, that was a big fat lie, but he seemed kind of freaked out, and I wasn’t going to drop it all on him at once.
“Right. I’ll have to deal with that later. Lemme get this straight first. The stories, fables, I’ve occasionally heard during my admittedly short life so far, they’re true? Or they have elements of truth in them?”
I nodded, and heard him swallow a gulp. He seemed to pull himself together a bit. “Vampires are real. Like,reallyreal?”
I nodded again. “Yes, they are. The stories you’ve heard might be exaggerated or erroneous in some ways, but vampires definitely exist.”
“Jesus.” It went silent in the car for a few tense minutes, just the sound of Charley’s heart still thumping a little faster than its usual chilled rhythm. He still didn’t appear to be breathing, although I knew he had to be.
Then, after he audibly inhaled, “So, all my weird shit can be explained if I’m what, a half vampire? Is the rest of me human? Am I gonna live forever? Am I gonna go on a rampage and turn people or drain them ’til they’re dead? I really donotwant to drink human blood; that’s disgusting. I’m still traumatised I used to do this. I can’t want to!” He gulped again, and his pulse galloped. “Perhaps Idowant to drink blood, and I’ve suppressed the urge? Is that even possible? Fuck, Luc, I have a lot of questions.” He rummaged in the seat behind us. “I need to eat something. Like, anything.” The aroma of banana momentarily overrode the tang of his anxious sweat smell, telling me what he’d picked before he turned back around. Probably a comfort food when he was small, and even though it wouldn’t calm his vampiric nature, it seemed a good choice.
“Yes, I’m pretty sure your other half, presuming it’s a half, is human. There’s not much else you could be.” And no, I wasn’t about to explain that comment right now. “No, I don’t think you’re immortal, but you’ll probably live a long time. And dude, the whole draining humans until they’re just a shell isn’t exactly a myth, but it’s not really true either. Vampires do require blood, which would explain why you like your steak so rare it’s mooing, but you’ve been able to restrain yourself since it was explained to you that you shouldn’t bite people. It’ll be easier when you know how to care for both sides of your being. Sorry, I hate to interrupt this life-changing discussion, but I think we’re close to the turn off and I don’t want to miss it. Can you check the map?”
The safe house was alone at the end of a track, hidden behind a large clump of trees. It was squat, stone, and looked as if it had grown from the surrounding landscape. There were no neighbours for miles if Gethin was to be believed, and the solitude suited me just fine.
I pressed my thumb to the fancy-looking scanner. It lit up, and a disembodied electronic voice instructed me to scan my eye too. Once inside, I gestured for Charley to stay close by, and took the place apart room by room, checking for traps, listening devices or anything that didn’t look as if it belonged. Satisfied it hadn’t been tampered with, I parked my paranoia. We unloaded the car and put the food away.
I figured we should eat again, but first I’d sort out our sleeping arrangements. I found Charley on the landing, peering into the three bedrooms; two doubles and a twin. “You can choose,” I offered.
“Are we sharing?”
“If you like. But I won’t be offended if you’d like your own space. We might be here a while.”
He chewed his bottom lip, then gestured at the twin room. “That one, for me, if it’s okay. I’m well up for as much sex as you’d like, but I’m used to having some privacy.”
