Page 74 of Black Hollow: Awakening

“Why are you complaining?” he asked. “You said yourself it already happened, so it had to happen.”

Blake almost choked in reaction to those words.

“And it happened because of your incompetence!” he concluded angrily.

“Well, as they say, you can’t escape destiny. He was hunting Will. If the door had been locked, he would have kicked it down. It would have ended up the same.”

“If it had been locked, you would have bought some time and he wouldn’t have been able to surprise you!”

“Found the first-aid kit!” Will announced triumphantly, cutting off the discussion that was definitely not heading in a good direction. Blake crossed his arms over his chest, glaring menacingly at his friend. “Umm… Will you bend down?” Will suggested, standing next to Liam. “Or would you rather sit?”

Liam looked him straight in the eye, smiled teasingly, then wrapped an arm around Will’s waist and sat him down on the kitchen counter. Will froze, shocked by this turn of events. Liam took the first-aid kit from his hand. He opened it, took out a cotton ball and hydrogen peroxide, and then cleaned Will’s cut lip.

“Wh-What are you doing?” Will stammered, as if it weren’t completely obvious.

“Are your teeth all there?” Liam asked.

“Yes?” Will said uncertainly. “I mean, yes,” he corrected himself after a moment, coughing. “They are.”

“That’s good.”

Blake had stopped paying attention to them. For some unclear reason, he started bustling around the room, looking around carefully.

“I think we should take care of your wound first,” Will said, feeling himself blush. Liam was so damn close! “It looked serious.”

“It’s nothing. There won’t be a trace of it tomorrow.”

“Are you sur—” Will was about to ask again, but at that moment Blake literally looked inside his fridge, which threw him off a bit. “Are you hungry? I hope not, because I don’t have any blood.”

Alden raised an eyebrow.

“Really?” he asked, stepping closer.

Standing by Will, he leaned in and whispered, “Because I see a whole five-liter bag right in front of me.”

Having said that, he bared his fangs, and Will jumped, hitting his head on the shelf above him.

“Ow,” he hissed, rubbing the back of his head.

Blake and Liam stepped back, both bursting into loud laughter.

“Don’t scare him,” Liam said with amusement.

“He was asking for it,” Alden stated, still chuckling.

Will was about to intervene in their exchange, but then something occurred to him.

This was probably the first time he had seen Blake laugh.

Alden looked so relaxed and… human. He would probably be offended by that description, but ever since Will had learned the truth, it was hard for him to treat Blake the same way. At first, he thought it was a matter of knowing that Blake was a vampire, but Liam was a werewolf, and Will didn’t have that problem with him. And he finally understood why. Liam was warm (figuratively and literally—almost like a portable radiator), while Blake was distant and unpleasant. It was much easier to categorize him as an Other. Moments like these, though brief, convinced Will that Blake did have human reactions after all.

“Can you manage on your own?” Liam asked.

Will smiled uncertainly.

“Yes,” he said, not wanting to cause them any trouble.

“Great,” Blake stated, sliding his hands into his coat pockets. “We’re going,” he ordered, then left the room.