Page 23 of Only Fangs

Mikael dropped down beside him and reached to steady his body, but Collin scrambled backward, trying to get as far away from Mikael as possible, his heart hammering in his chest.

Mikael stopped, holding his hands up in surrender. “I won’t harm you, I swear. I just want to understand what happened. You’re… mortal, aren’t you?”

Shit. He reallyhadfigured it out.

Collin squeezed his eyes shut. This was it.

This was the end.

He waited for Mikael to grab him and drag him off to the other vampires. Or to sink his teeth into him and drain him again.

Except… nothing happened. Collin slowly opened his eyes again, only to find Mikale staring back at him, an unreadable expression on the man’s face. “You do need to get out of here,” he said after a moment, rising to his feet and offering a hand to Collin. “Come on.”

Collin hesitated but eventually reached for Mikael’s hand and let himself be pulled up.

His legs still wobbled, and Mikael put a steadying arm around his waist, pulling Collin against his side to support him. “I know you probably don’t trust me after what happened, but I won’t let anyone harm you. Just let me make sure you get home safely.”

Collin bit his lip. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Mikael. He didn’t blame the vampire for what had happened. It was, after all, exactly what he’d always expected would happen if he offered his neck to a bloodsucker.

Really, it was his own recklessness that had gotten him into his mess. “Lead the way,” he said to Mikael without commenting further.

Mikael nodded and helped him down the hall toward a set of stairs with an ‘emergency exit’ sign above them. “We can’t walk through the club,” Mikael said. “Too many people there who’d ask too many questions, but there are other ways out of the building.”

He guided Collin up one flight of steps, supporting his weight, and then opened the door to another corridor. This one was empty and quiet, and they didn’t encounter anyone else as they walked.

Finally, Mikael led him out of a small door and into an alley. Collin inhaled the fresh air deeply and straightened as much ashe could while Mikael let go of him, closing the door behind them.

“Do you live far from here?” Mikael asked. “I’ll take you home.”

“No,” Collin said. “You’ll get in trouble.”

Mikael raised an eyebrow at him, so Collin explained. “The neighborhood where I live, where all the mortals live, is guarded by dragon-shifters. I doubt they’ll look kindly at a vampire trying to waltz in.”

“Don’t worry about that.” Mikael smiled. “You know how my ‘special power’ is that I can make myself visible to the camera?”

Collin nodded.

“It’s not just that. I have complete control over who or what perceives me.”

As Collin watched, Mikael seemed to blink out of existence.

One second he was there, and the next, he had vanished. Collin stared, eyes widening. When he reached out to touch Mikael, though, an invisible hand closed around his wrist. “I’m still here.” Mikael’s voice whispered into his ear.

Holy shit, that was weird.

Mikael appeared before him again with a grin. “Let’s get a cab.”

The trip back to Collin’s place was rather uneventful. They couldn’t talk much because Mikael was trying to hide that he existed to the cab driver and anyone who might be looking at the car, but he sneakily handed Collin the money to pay for the ride and reappeared right next to him when he stepped into the building that housed Collin’s apartment.

“I’m safe now,” Collin said to the vampire by his side. “You can go back to your coven.”

“Are you sure?” Mikael asked.

Collin felt like an ass for sending Mikael away like this after the trouble he’d gone through to see Collin home safe, but what choice did Collin have? The longer the vampire stayed with him, the more likely it was that Collin was going to do something stupid again.

Honestly, his ‘accident’ earlier tonight should have put him off the idea of making out with a vampire forever. It hadn’t, though. He was still thinking about kissing Mikael, about touching him and having those strong arms around him. Mikael’s bite had caused him to pass out, yes, but up until that point? It had been fucking amazing.

And Collin was a total nutcase for thinking that way.

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