Page 89 of Soren

“You want more?” Danny asked, holding up a second blood bag.

Gabe shook his head. One had been enough. He wanted to go home.

He wanted Soren.

Gabe…pushedthe vampire back inside. He wasn’t sure how he even did it, but it retreated easily enough, satisfied with the blood he’d given it. He could feel its eagerness to return to Soren as well.

“Okay,” Danny said easily, placing the bag back into the mini cooler he’d brought. “We’ll have it in the fridge just in case. And really, you should be okay feeding regularly, if it’s anything like it was for me. Just make sure Soren’s with you your first time.”

“To stop me from going too far?”

“That and, uh…” Danny blushed, shifting in his seat. “Just in case you get…worked up.”

Gabe coughed. “Oh. Um, okay.” One of the downsides of becoming part of the vampire world was turning out to be all the intimate details he was learning about his brother’s sex life.

Danny laughed awkwardly, then cleared his throat, his eyes on the steering wheel, where he was drawing little invisible patterns. “So you and Soren, huh?”

Gabe sighed happily. “Yeah.”

“I guess it makes sense,” Danny offered up.

Gabe’s brows rose. “It does?” He knew it made sense tohim, but he was surprised Danny saw it that way.

“Mm-hmm.” Danny looked up from his invisible drawing. “I’ve never seen you so easily intimidated by someone. I should have realized it was attraction. I just thought you thought he was…creepy.”

Gabe laughed. “Well, I did. Sort of.” He ran a hand over his face, trying to fight back his smile. “But I also thought he was so beautiful ithurt.”

Danny’s dark eyes were searching. “And you’re happy? You didn’t feel pushed into this?” At Gabe’s frown, he rushed on. “I just need to hear it from you, okay? When it’s just us. It was a shock. You have to see that.”

Gabe nodded slowly. He did see. “I mean, circumstances might have pushed me into it, but I would have done it anyway. Eventually. I want him. I want to be with him.”

Danny made a sound of acknowledgment. “You’ve just been so…hesitant…about vampires is all.”

Jesus, Gabe really had been a jerk.

“Well, yeah. I mean, it’s weird as hell. My own body doesn’t make sense to me anymore.” He gave Danny a tentative smile. “There’s something special about you, Danny. That you accepted it so easily. Butlifeisweird. And scary. And unexpected. I feel like I’ve had the rug pulled out from under me repeatedly since I was a teen. At least this was my choice.Hewas my choice.”

Danny smiled at that. “Well…wow.”

“I’m happy with him.” Gabe shrugged. “He…soothes me.”

“Soothes you?” Danny gave him a questioning look.

Gabe ran a hand through his hair. “Yeah. All that jagged anxiety, that nervousness, that fear… It eases up when I’m with him.”

Danny’s face fell in an instant. “Anxiety? Gabe, you never told me…”

Of course Gabe hadn’t. He’d somehow gone through his whole adult life thinking feelings were meant for shoving under the rug. Not for sharing or processing or any of those other supposedly healthy things.

He tried to find the words to explain it. “I just— I thought…I thoughtIwas supposed to be the one looking out foryou. The older brother. I didn’t want to worry you; I wanted to take care of you.” He sighed, leaning back against the headrest. “But I fucked that up too.”

Danny hummed, nodding. “Yes, you did.”

Gabe stared at his brother in disbelief. “Asshole,” he accused, voice full of affection.

Danny smiled at him, then gave a little sigh, looking out the car window. “We don’t know each other very well, do we? As adults.”

“Not in some ways, I guess,” Gabe agreed. “That’s my fault too.”

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