27 - ‘Come gentle night…’

“You never told me how you were turned,” Kemp said as he and Owen walked the path along that edge of the river that had become their favorite place to meet and be together.

“Not much to tell really. I’d just turned nineteen and decided to celebrate. I was living at the dorm since I didn’t have a car and wasn’t about to commute every day. Long story short I went out with a couple of friends and got totally plastered. Since the girl and I weren’t old enough to go into a bar her boyfriend picked up the booze and we went to the park. As near as I remember it I wandered off and passed out. Maybe they looked for me and gave or they just said the hell with it. Either way they weren’t around when I woke up so I started walking back to the campus. And got attacked by what Rikard said were a pair of rogues. He showed up and got rid of them but not before they’d pretty much drained me so he took me back to his place, finished the job and turned me to save my life.”

“That’s painful from what my brother said.”

“Big time. Hurts like hell, but better than being dead I guess.”

“What about your folks? I take it they don’t know. OK, stupid question, of course they don’t.”

“No.” Owen sighed sadly. “They think I ran away. We were having problems, which was another reason I lived on campus. As a result I told them I’d rather celebrate my birthday with friends, not them. We had a fearsome fight about that and they threatened to stop paying for school. I knew they wouldn’t really do that but…” He shrugged. “So anyway when Rikard found me and all, he sent one of his people to clear out my room of my belongings.”

Kemp wrapped his arm around Owen’s waist, giving his a tight hug. “Probably for the best. I mean that he made it look like you’d flown the coop.”

“Yeah I know but I miss them despite how things were at the end.” Owen turned, resting his hands on Kemp’s hips as he looked at him. “Do you miss your family?”

“A lot sometimes, other times not so much. I didn’t have much freedom when I was living with my father. He was afraid his enemies would find out what I was and try to kill me, even though I was blocking it all. OK, that’s not quite the whole truth, I was also afraid that, if and when I was no longer able to block my abilities, I’d attack my father and Leif even though I knew they weren’t evil.”

Owen frowned. “If that was the case, I mean if attacking any vampyre no matter what comes with being a dhampir, why haven’t you killed me?”

“Because it doesn’t come with being a dhampir, despite what I had thought. Leif tried to tell me that but I was afraid. I mean all I could think was what if he was wrong? It wasn’t until I met Trevor that I learned I could make a choice. And,” Kemp smiled, rubbing the pad of his thumb over Owen’s lips, “how could I kill someone as beautiful as you?”