Death Becomes Him - 22

“Behave?” Rory grumbled. “What does she think I’m going to do, drag you into my lair and have my wicked way with you?”

Trent shrugged. “Maybe. Not that I’d let you.”

“Oh?” Rory scowled, gulping down the rest of his wine.

“We need to talk about—things, before that happens.”

Brightening somewhat, Rory replied, “Yeah I guess so. Like what happens now that you’ve found me? And that brings up another point. Why the hell did you come looking? I had the serious impression you were more than willing to see the back of me the last time we were together.”

“I know.” Trent sighed then said, when he was certain Rory was paying attention, “I didn’t mean to. What I said, it came out all wrong but it took me forever to figure that out. I don’t know how many times I replayed the final bits of our conversation over in my mind until I realized how I’d screwed up. I—I thought you walked away because you decided coming back had been a mistake. Especially the way I was acting.”

“You did nothing I hadn’t expected,” Rory said quietly, reaching for Trent’s hand. “Even at the last, when I thought you were telling me you wanted me to leave; I knew that was going to be the end result.” He smiled, squeezing Trent’s hand. “There’s something a bit—spooky about a boyfriend who’s turned into a vampire.”

“No shit,” Trent muttered whole-heartedly. “Although”—he intertwined his fingers with Rory’s—“I’m beginning to get used to the idea. At least I think I am. I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t.”

“I hope that’s true. I’d hate to think you just dropped in to say hello and then go on your merry way.”

Trent snorted. “I might do that to a next-door neighbor, but somehow coming thousands of miles, then driving a ton more up a steep, winding mountain road hardly constitutes ‘dropping in’. Don’t you think?”

“Yeah, I guess. I forget human’s…”—Rory paused, shaking his head in dismay—“I shouldn’t use that word right now I suspect. It just accents how much I’ve changed.”

Putting his arm around Rory’s shoulders, Trent said gently, “You told me, that night, that just because you’re a vampire doesn’t mean you’ve changed who you were. You used to be a good person. A bit strange since you believed all the things you told the tourists, or at least most of them. I remember you saying you felt ghosts in some of the houses you took them to.”

“But remember, I never said I knew there were vampires around.”

“No, what you said was, if there were you wouldn’t be the least surprised that they didn’t show themselves because a stake through the heart would be painful. By the way, is that myth true?”

“Umm, yeah. But think about it. If someone staked you, you’d die. Right? Why should it be any different for us?”

“Good point.” Trent smiled, then kissed Rory’s temple. “What about all the other myths, like crosses and holy water and crossing water… Okay, that last is obviously false or you’d have been stuck in the Quarter for the rest of you very long life.”

“Big time. According to Emily, and after all this time I have no reason to doubt her, there are very few of those stories that are true. At least as far as protecting yourself from us, or killing us.”

“And being bitten by one doesn’t turn someone into a vampire?”

Rory laughed. “That’s werewolves, and to the best of my knowledge they do not exist.”

“To the best of my knowledge, until a while ago, neither did vampires so don’t count the poor werewolves out.”    

“Good point.”