“Gimme a minute, mate. Just wrestling this…Yeah, gotcha! Die, you bastard, die!” There was a delighted laugh, then it went quiet. I really hoped Baxter was playing a video game.
Moments later a familiar face came into view.Welp.Edwin might have seriously underplayed how beautiful Baxter was. The video call hadn’t done her justice either. I realised on the spot that while I did like blokes, a lot, I wasdefinitelybisexual, and right now I was torn between throwing myself at her feet or scarpering in terror.
Baxter and Edwin hugged, then she turned her attention on me, apparently sizing me up. “Ain’t you a cute one? James, right? Is Eddie treating you like a prince? If he’s not, I have ways of fucking him up enough to make him very sorry.”
I gulped, completely struck dumb. Baxter was as tall as me. Between her looks, the plunging neckline of her silky shirt, and the indecent length of her legs clad in scarlet leather trousers, I was having trouble remembering how to breathe.
“Leave him be, Bax. Of course I’m looking after him. James, ignore her. You’re a total twink, so it’s like throwing a catnip mouse on the floor for a kitten bringing you here.” He turnedback to his friend. “Make him a nice cuppa. I brought milk and sugar. Just the one sugar.” He thrust his small backpack in Baxter’s direction. “I’ll show him around.”
Baxter bared her fangs at him, chucked me under the chin, then strode off, presumably to the kitchen. I swallowed as I watched her rear view, which was almost as nice as the front.
“Fantastic arse, right?”
I raised my eyebrows at Edwin. “I thought you were gay.”
He tched. “I am, but hellooo.I’m not blind.”
“I heard that, Marsh! And no, you ain’t ever getting any. James, the jury’s out. Play your cards right, sweets, and you never know.” There was a delighted cackle of laughter before a door banged shut and I couldn’t hear any more.
Edwin showed me around, up and down stairs, in and out of rooms as he gave me a whistle-stop tour of the house. He told me it had been built in the early 1800s. I could see where it had been modernised in places, but overall it gave off the vibes of a time capsule or a really funky museum. There was a ballroom, for fuck’s sake, on the first floor, which took up almost the entire space. Bedrooms like something from an old war film adjoined bathrooms with equally old-fashioned fittings but also the additions of brand new shower cubicles where there was room to fit them. “For visitors, obviously,” Edwin explained as if it was obvious. Seeing as until the FWNN had abducted me, I’d had no idea vampires even existed, I’d certainly never given much thought to their social habits. I liked the fact Edwin had friends. The scant notions of them I’d had previously suggested vamps were all paranoid loners who stalked their victims in the dead of night and left them as drained husks in the gutter. A bloke with real friends and people who cared about him was more than I had, so I wasn’t going to scoff at his undead status or any of his habits.
I noticed a door on the ground floor, slightly ajar, with a staircase leading downwards. I asked Edwin about it. He flashed me another of his trademark grins.
“That’s work. I’ll show you later. Come and have your tea.”
Baxter’s kitchen was another museum-worthy relic, except everything looked in working order, not that I was any kind of authority on kitchens of any sort. I thanked her for the tea, which she handed to me in a massive mug, then parked myself on a chair at her insistence. After a moment’s hesitation, she and Edwin also sat down. Baxter shot me a wry grin.
“We tend to forget about pretending to be human when we’re alone. Good thing you’re already on the inside and know our secrets. So, you enjoying the shadow life so far then, James?” She regarded me like I was some fascinating new species she’d only just learned of.
I gulped a mouthful of tea before I answered. “Uh, yeah, Edwin’s a really good boss.”Go me, an entire sentence.
Edwin curled a hand around the back of my neck, which did funny things to my breathing. It felt like he’d claimed me. I wasn’t sure I was supposed to find that reassuring, but I did. I liked it, alot.He leaned into me,God, the way he smells,and dropped a kiss on the top of my head.
“James is awesome,” he drawled. “He seems to think cleaning is part of the job, which it absolutely isn’t, but I’m not going to argue when he makes most of the mess.” He winked at me, and I tried and failed not to blush. I was slowly learning how to cook meals that didn’t come solely out of tins and packets, because according to my boss, a good shadow cared for their body in order to feed their vampire. It made sense, but I was a novice cook and his kitchen window had been opened more than once to rid the place of the stink of burnt-on food. I was also becoming an expert at soaking saucepans to get them clean.
Baxter smirked. “Seeing as you can only just about make a cuppa, I don’t think you’re in any position to criticise a human,” she mocked her friend. She addressed me again. “He doesn’t keep you locked up, does he? You’re quite pale.”
I shook my head. Edwin seemed nervous about letting me roam the streets while he slept, mostly because he explained he might not wake if I phoned him, but he’d been happy for me to take myself off exploring in the late afternoons and early evenings while he was still stuck indoors. I didn’t go too far, but I’d been used to walking miles when I worked as a courier. I relished the exercise and the sun on my face. I had no problem with switching my days and nights around to fit in with Edwin’s creature-of-the-darkness existence, but I couldn’t imagine I would ever want tobea vampire. The thought of never having the option to soak up some rays weighed heavily on me. I wondered if he minded, but didn’t feel I could ask him. Wasn’t like he could change it if he did mind.
“I use sunblock,” I said to Baxter. “I burn easily anyway, with my hair and skin colour. I thought it was a good idea, to, uh, blend in.”You absolute bell-end, you can see she’s brown-skinned. What a stupid thing to say!
“You do?” Edwin looked astonished, then for some reason, ridiculously pleased. “You don’t have to do that.”
“I don’t mind.” Fuck’s sake, I could feel l was blushing again. I didn’t do this when we were alone, or not as much.
“You’re adorable. No wonder he’s smitten.” Baxter grinned at me. “However, if you do want to toast your lanky limbs to a golden crisp, you’ll be okay. You’re unlikely to develop any sun-related skin problems if you remain a shadow.” She waggled her eyebrows. “If you go really brown, perhaps I’ll steal you. You can match me, not him.”
My colour deepened as her words sank in.Smitten?No, he couldn’t be. He was just a nice guy being kind to his new in-situ food source.
“Stop teasing him. I don’t share my toys.” Edwin accompanied ‘toys’ with another head kiss, then turned me to face him and whispered, his sweet breath playing havoc with the contents of my underwear, “You’re not a toy, sweet thing. Not unless you ask to be.”
I knew Baxter must have heard him, because vampire, but she merely tapped Edwin’s nose with one scarlet-tipped finger and laughed. “You’re such an only child.”
He pouted. “Hardly my fault.”
I gazed at him through a mist of unwanted and untimely lust. “Were you really an only child?”
“Yeah, I was. And just as well, seeing as Mum wasn’t married to my dad, whoever he was. She used her dead granny’s wedding ring, called herself Mrs Marsh, and brazened it out as a widow. She got away with it too, although I sometimes wonder if a few of the neighbours suspected.”
