Page 126 of Envious Of Fire
“Any sign of anything?” asks Kyle quietly.
“No,” answers Elias. Then he adds, “Don’t come close to any of the windows, by the way. I placed random silver junk at every windowsill and other stuff from the box all over the ground outside. You know, acting like Lego bricks left on the floor by a kid for Mom to step on in the middle of the night.”
“Kids are such little shits.”
“They are.”
“I hope it’s enough.”
“You know damned well it isn’t.”
Kyle looks at Elias. He feels pinpricks of resentment that aren’t his own. He touches Elias’s arm. “Babe …”
Elias glances at him, says nothing.
Kyle drops his gaze to the floor—and his hand from Elias’s arm. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said what I said earlier. About the month thing. I don’t know why I said that.”
Elias turns his stone-hard stare outside. The chief, who can clearly hear all of this, continues fussing with his firearms, his eyes on his work, keeping to himself. Mikey keeps pacing the room from window to window, his paranoid eyes glued to each one, noting even the movements of dead leaves stirred by wind.
Sometime later after Cade’s come up from the basement to check on everyone, give Kyle’s arm a squeeze, whisper a word of comfort to the chief, then return to her work downstairs, the tension in the room seems to ease. Even Drake has taken a seat outside, cross-legged, some of the birds daring to come up to him as if expecting bits of bread. Mikey has also taken a seat, but at the end of a pew, right up next to a window, convinced he saw something. Elias and Kyle sit next to each other on the foot of the stage staring ahead at the front doors.
“You talk about a day with him,” says Elias suddenly, voicequiet and calm, “and a month with me … I gotta admit, leaves me wondering what twenty-six years means to you.” Kyle peers at him. Elias meets his eyes. “I know he’s still in your heart.”
Kyle wrestles away the thought—and a bit of unexpected warmth emanating from Elias. “I wasn’t even thinking abouthim. Why would I be thinking about him at a time like this?”
“Because I know part of you wondered why he didn’t show up to save us from the vampire the other night.”
Kyle nearly laughs. “Nowyou’rethe one reading me?”
“Maybe I’ve got all of this wrong. You and I are more alike than I realized.” Elias stares ahead. “Who am I to blame you for being any degree of reckless? My middle name is reckless.”
“Actually, it’s Asad, which means ‘lion’ in Arabic. And yes,” says Kyle, “I remember.”
Elias smirks, then shakes his head and says, “I still don’t think it’s a good idea, trusting this Drake guy. I’m not behind this, Kyle. At all. But I’m sucking it up right now for the sake of survival.”
“I know.”
“My so-called Protected Blood status means shit to these vampires,” he goes on, as if in reminder. “It won’t save us here. My mom didn’t want me to come back, y’know. She’ll probably try to contact whoever she’s got, get someone big involved …”
“You mean someone from Vegasyn?”
“Don’t get your hopes up. I don’t get the sense they give any form of a shit what happens to their Protected Blood. That list only exists so they know who’s fair game to feed on. There’s no ‘protected’about it. Might as well call that list a room service menu. Or more like: what’s no longer available. A paper pamphlet they stuff into the menu. A fucking joke.” Elias rubs his head. “Nah, no one from Vegasyn is on their way to help us, no one at all, no, sir. We’re on our own out here. If I had money on it, I’d say Lord Mark-fuck-ian would be downright overjoyedif you, me, and this whole town were wiped off the map tonight.”
Kyle glances blankly ahead, realizing the truth of it. How foolish, to think for one fleeting instant Tristan could suddenly show up, Tristan and his knowing misty blue eyes and infallible confidence, bringing with him his impenetrable attitude that nothing can possibly touch either of them, knowing what to do in any situation, making damned sure not a hair on Kyle’s head is harmed. Tristan, who looks like a gust of wind could knock him over, yet proves in the end absolutely fearless of placing his head directly into the mouth of the beast.
Kyle wonders suddenly if he took Tristan for granted all of those years they were together. The security he felt with him. The mentorship. The guidance.
The love.
Time passes. Even more time. Soon, no one in the church is scared anymore. Just restless. Bored. Mikey is curled up on a pew to rest, but getting little of it, peeking his eyes open every few seconds to glance at a nearby window. The chief has done all he can do in terms of preparing, and he sits still, gun in hand and eyes as sharp as arrows, waiting like a statue. Kyle and Elias are now the ones pacing the room.
Drake comes inside at long last. Everyone stirs from their spots, for a moment alarmed.
Until he says: “They’re not coming.”
Kyle comes forward. “They’re not? How do you know?”
“I could’ve sworn they’d come. They should’ve come. My brother at the very least. Why didn’t they? I even sensed him, for hours, in and out, like a bad radio signal, heard footsteps.”
