Page 51 of Soren

“Hi.” Gabe couldn’t help giving him a wave back. The guy was adorable.

Soren sighed dramatically for the second time. “You’re both killing me. Gabe, this is Johann. Johann, Gabe.”

Johann smiled brightly. “Call me Jay. You’re not one of us, are you?”

Okay, so this was avampirefriend of Soren’s. A few weeks ago, that might have sent Gabe into a tailspin, but now he just grinned back. “’Fraid not. Certified human over here.”

Jay’s eyes widened in delight. “Ohhh. So cool! Soren, you’ve got a human!”

Soren crossed his arms. “I don’thavea human. He justisa human.”

Jay bit his lip, looking thoughtful. “Maybe I should get a human?”

Soren brought a hand to his face. “Jesus fucking Christ.”

Hours later and Gabe was on the couch in a Ferdy-Soren sandwich, with Jay curled up in a neighboring armchair. Apparently he’d started at the hospital and tracked Soren’s scent from there (“You said your friend’s mate was a nurse. I took a chance.”). Gabe had expected the two of them to want to catch up, maybe go over some vampire gossip, but Soren had seemed completely uninterested in a heart-to-heart. They’d sat awkwardly in the kitchen together for all of five minutes before he’d asked Jay out of nowhere, “Have you seenJaws?”

And now here they all were, already on the sequel.

Gabe was trying to keep his focus on the shark on the screen, and the foolish beachgoers’ imminent demises, but he was a bit distracted. The little vampire in the armchair was making a lot of…noise. Gasps and squeals and the occasional, “Oh no.”

Jay caught Gabe watching him a moment later, and gave him a wide-eyed look. “The ocean is really scary, huh?”

Gabe couldn’t help it. He laughed. “You’re avampire. You’ve got your spiffy supernatural speed. Couldn’t you just…outswim a shark?”

The little dark-haired vampire bit his lip, turning back to the screen. “Oh…no. I don’t know how to swim.”

Gabe raised a brow. “You don’t know how to swim… How old are you again?”

He yelped when Soren’s elbow jabbed him in the side. “Hush,” Soren scolded. “It’s not his fault. Jaybird’s been…sheltered.”

Gabe decided not to comment on Soren’s adorable nickname for his friend. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to laugh at you.”

Putting his foot in his mouth wasn’t new for him, but he still felt pretty bad. Soren had filled him in earlier while Jay was getting settled upstairs. The particular den of vampires they had both come from was fairly old-fashioned. They tended to settle on the outskirts of human communities, keeping mostly to themselves unless they were going on a hunt. Modern pursuits weren’t really their thing.

Apparently neither were beach days.

“It’s okay,” Jay reassured him sweetly. “It’s pretty silly, I guess. Over two hundred years old and I can’t even swim. Soren, maybe you could teach me sometime?”

“Uh…sure thing.” Soren shifted awkwardly against Gabe.

This was an interesting side of Soren to see. He was clearly fond of his little friend. Protective of him, even. But he seemed to have trouble knowing how to show it. Gabe felt a rush of warmth for his prickly, bratty vampire. He planted a kiss on the side of his blond head, laughing when Soren scowled at him.

“I can help,” Gabe volunteered, turning to Jay. “I’m a great swimmer.”

Gabe wasn’t sure exactly why his offer had Soren scowling harder. He was just trying to be helpful. He could see why Soren was so protective of his friend. The younger vampire—fuck, was Gabe really considering over two hundred years old asyounger?—came off as pretty naive. And, at least on the surface, he seemed sweet as pie. Gabe couldn’t really imagine anyone being mean to the guy.

Even if hehadshown up a little bit out of the blue.

Soren had told Gabe he’d called his old friend for information, offering up a place to stay—“So sweet of you.” “Shut up.”—without really expecting him to take Soren up on the offer. Apparently the poor guy had lost his partner recently.

Or at least, Gabe supposed ten years counted as “recently” from a vampire’s point of view.

The trio finished the movie, complete with Jay’s added soundtrack. As the credits rolled, Jay stood from the armchair with a big stretch. “I’m heading to bed. If…that’s okay?”

“You don’t have to ask permission,” Soren told him gently.

Jay flushed. “Oh. Right. Sorry, bad habits.” He yawned. Vampires could apparently yawn. Gabe took note.

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