Page 62 of Roman

Gabe nodded at that, but his mouth twisted. “That guy…except he’s not a guy, is he? None of them are. Not him or that little blond one or the one—the one who did this to me.” He raised his splinted arm in demonstration.

“What did he say to you? The one who did that.”

“Not much. He was busy with…other stuff. Right before he snapped my arm, he told me to be a good brother and give his regards to Roman and his ‘little human toy.’ I’m assuming that’s you?”

Jesus. “Not what I prefer to go by, but yeah, I guess so.”

Gabe’s stare went vacant again, the man lost in recollection. “He was so strong, Danny, so fast. I couldn’t do a thing to defend myself. And his eyes…his teeth… He— Hebitme. And it fuckinghurt. Then suddenly he was gone, and Sor—that blond one was there, licking all my cuts and the bite, and then they were just—just gone?” Gabe’s trembling had increased visibly, and the volume of his voice had risen until he was basically shouting. It was a miracle no one had come in to check on them. “Who the fuck are these people, Danny?Whatthe fuck are they?”

Danny felt helpless and small in the face of Gabe’s distress. It was one thing for his own world to be turned upside down in the span of a few days; it was a whole other thing for his brother’s to be. For him to be hurt and scared and confused.

“Maybe now’s not the best time—”

Gabe shook his head violently. “Tell me what’s going on, Danny.”

“You’re in shock, Gabe.”

“No shit.” Gabe laughed humorously. “Tell. Me.”

Danny went to sit on the edge of Gabe’s bed, trying not to be hurt when his brother flinched at his closeness. “If I tell you, you have to promise to stay calm. No more yelling. Unless you want them to put you in a psych hold after your surgery.”

Gabe nodded at him in agreement and said in much calmer, quieter voice, “Just tell me what’s going on.”

“Roman and Soren and Luc, the one who hurt you—you’re right, they’re the same. Well, not thesame, exactly. Luc’s gone kinda feral and grr-y, where the other two are generally pretty chill. Relatively. Mostly. Right. Well. Um. Well, they’re all…vampires?” Was this how Roman had felt telling Danny the truth? Because Danny was feeling straight-up bananas saying it out loud to someone else.

“Vampires,” Gabe deadpanned.

Danny bit his lip. “Yep. Uh-huh. They used to be human, and then they were turned—that’s what they call it when they become a vampire—and now they don’t age, and they drink blood, and they’ve got some other cool stuff going on like moving really fast or healing stuff with their saliva or like…mind control, I guess you’d call it?”

Gabe was staring at him, seemingly at a loss for words, so Danny figured he should just power through. In it to win it. Better for his brother to know it all if he was going to know any of it, right?

“So they all used to be friends, and then something tragic happened, and it loosened a few screws in Luc’s brain, and he’s had it out for Roman ever since. They’ve been playing this epic game of hide-and-seek for a few decades, but then Roman came here, and he saw me, and he thinks that maybe I’m his…destined vampire soulmate, I guess? Like, each vampire maybe has a person whose soul helps keep their inner demon thingy tame and not psychotic, and he thinks I’m that person for him?” Danny hated that all his statements were coming out as questions, but he’d never said any of that last part out loud to a non-Roman person, and he was aware that he sounded really, super, batshit crazy.

He tried to catch Gabe’s eye to gauge his reaction, but his brother had taken to staring at the wall.

“Vampires,” Gabe muttered a second time.

Danny giggled, to his own horror. “Kind of wild, right?”

“And that douchebag—”

“Hey!”

“—following you around… He’s fixated on you as, like, his vampire bride or something?”

Danny couldn’t help but roll his eyes at that. “Jeez, Gabe, offensive much? Vampirehusband, if you please.”

Wait, what?

Gabe was just nodding, eyes growing wild. “Okay. Okay, so…first step, we need to get you out of town. I can’t go with you yet, surgery and all, but maybe one of my buddies…”

“Gabe.”

“I’ve got a little saved up. Not nearly enough, but we can make it work. Do we need to change our names? How do you even go about changing your name, like, under the radar? Why didn’t they teach us that in school?”

“Gabe!”

Gabe finally stopped his frantic muttering and looked at Danny.

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