Death Becomes Him - 24

“I know I want to be with you. I missed you every day while we were apart. If I hadn’t been so afraid of how you’d react, I’d have come back as soon as Emily thought I was ready to face”—Rory chuckled low—“life so to speak, on my own.”

“Then let’s figure out how to make it work. I have almost three weeks until I have to be back. We can spend it coming up with a plan.”

Rory cocked an eyebrow. “Just planning?”

“Well,” Trent grinned. “We could take moonlight hikes and watch movies and read to each other and…”

“Screw each other’s brains out? We used to be real good at doing that.”

Trent pretended to think about it. “That’s another option if we get bored.”

“Then I intend to be bored a lot.” Rory put one hand at the nape of Trent’s neck, leaned in and kissed him passionately.

Trent gave back as good as he was getting, urging Rory to open to him. Not that that was hard to do. He savaged Rory’s mouth hungrily until his tongue touched one of Rory’s eyeteeth. Pulling back in surprise, although he figured he shouldn’t have been, he said, “They’re sharp.”

“Yeah, well.” Rory looked distraught. “They need to be.”

“But… you feed from bags.”

Rory nodded. “They aren’t exactly paper-thin. Besides which, I think it’s, well hereditary isn’t quite the right word.”

“Genetic? Not sure that is either but I get what you mean. Way back before blood came in bags you’d have needed them sharp to feed from”—Trent shuddered a bit—“live donors.”

“Yeah.” Rory ran his tongue over one tooth. “I guess it is pretty sharp. I never really thought about that until now. Well except just after I was turned.” He chuckled. “And even then, there were more important things to worry about, like accepting what I am and learning to live with it.”

“You do—now?”

Rory nodded. “Not as if I’ve got much choice you know. Can you accept it?”

Trent traced a finger over Rory’s lips. “I can. I have. Otherwise I wouldn’t be here. Right?”

“Right.”

“So, where were we?”

“Making out?”

Trent laughed. “Yep, just like in high school.”

“You seem to be fixated on that time,” Rory replied with a grin.

“I am, because it was when I realized we loved each other. Not that we didn’t blow that out of the water when we went off to college.”

“True, but we made up for it later.” Rory kissed him lightly. “And now, we can make up for it again.”

“If something else doesn’t separate us. Fate seems to be having fun with that.”

“We both want this, I think, so she can go take a flying fuck.”

Trent broke into laughter. “Presuming she is a ‘she’, I totally agree.” He gazed at Rory, nodding. “Yeah, we both want it. And this time, damn it, we’re going to make it work the way it should.”