Death Becomes Him - 1

Trent hadn’t seen Rory Mathieu in over four years. Now he was going to his funeral.

They had been the best of friends growing up, and more than that in high school, drifting apart when they went off to college. Then some six years ago they’d reconnected after both of them ended up in New Orleans.

Rory had always been a wild spirit so it had come as no surprise to Trent when he found out he ran one of the premier ‘Ghost and Vampire’ tour companies in the city. A far cry from Trent’s mundane job as the manager of a small hotel on St Charles, a couple of miles from the French Quarter.

Soon after Trent took over at the hotel, he ran into Rory at a club on Bourbon Street. At first he hadn’t believed what he was seeing. Rory’s dark hair hung well below his shoulders, tied back with a silver clasp. His lean body was clothed all in black, from the tight-fitting leather pants to the turtleneck to the silver-studded leather vest.

Rory happened to look across the room a moment after Trent spotted him, saw him and leapt to his feet. He moved through the crowds with an almost feline grace, coming to a stop in front of the barstool where Trent was seated.

“Do my eyes deceive me?” Rory said, grinning.

Trent chuckled. “No more than mine. What the hell are you doing here? And more to the point, how long have you been here? I mean in the city, not this club,” he added.

Rory tapped the shoulder of the man sitting beside Trent, then pointed to a vacant stool halfway down the bar. Without a word of protest, the man got up and moved. Once Rory was seated he replied to Trent’s questions.

“I came down here, hell, a year after graduation. Got a job with an interior decorating firm and quit six months later to start my own business.” He chuckled. “I decided that despite my degree, designing kitchens and bathrooms in real life was not all it was cracked up to be.”

“So what’s this new business?”

“I run tours of the city that take people around to haunted houses and places where vampires are supposed to reside.”

“Aren’t there more than enough of those already?” Trent asked. “There seem to be dozens of brochures about them at the hotel.”

“The one where you’re staying?”

Trent shook his head. “The one I’m managing.”

“Ah ha. Then at least one of us is using our degree,” Rory said, winking. “And to answer your question, yeah there are a few, but mine is the best one, with the best people as guides. I’ve done my research, which is more than most of the other company owners have. My people tell little-known stories and take the tourists to places off the beaten track.”

“Don’t your competitors steal the stories, and the places, from you?”

“So you’d think, but they’re lazy. They have their niches and stick with them.” Rory leaned back, studying Trent. “You haven’t changed much.”

Trent smiled. “Nope. The same buttoned-down me. You however…” He ran his gaze over Rory from head to toe.

“It’s mostly window dressing. I’m fairly well known around here now and people expect me to look like this. But I’m not wearing the leather coat that goes with the outfit at the moment.” He grinned. “It’s too damned hot for it so I dump it except if I’m leading a tour.”

“You do that, as well as run your company?”

“Yeah. It’s fun and gets me out of the office. So how did you end up at the hotel?”

“The obvious. There was an opening, I’ve never been here before but heard it was a great place, and very accepting. Although,” Trent shrugged, “that last isn’t as much of a factor these days. Hell, Massachusetts even has gay marriage now and they say California and Connecticut will within a year or so.”

“Where were you before?”

“Colorado Springs, which makes being here seem like heaven.”

“God, I bet. So”—Rory paused as if wondering if he should ask—“do you have someone in your life now?”

Trent shook his head. “It’s been a long time since I even considered the idea of anything more permanent than a week or a month. What about you?”

“I play around, but I’m not looking.”