Page 148 of Envious Of Fire
It is unfair, admits Tristan,since I know your true age.
“I still think you were born in 1910.”
Why?
“Just a random guess. Something to do with the person you described who transformed you. Wasn’t he in a bowler hat?”
I don’t like to think of him much, or the wife he took me home to like a stray he found on the street.
Kyle finds himself thinking of Lazarus and Drake suddenly. All of their “aunts and uncles” at the Devil’s Mouth. Do Drake and Lazarus seriously consider someone like La-La to be a part of their family? Drake called him Uncle, but was it sincere?
“Are all vampire families created in such a way?” wonders Kyle out loud. “Bloodless bonds that keep these fake families together with figurative knives held at necks?”
Not always figurative, points out Tristan.Also, yes, most of our kind do find families in such a way.We are obsessed with threatening our loved ones into submission.Markadian has a sister named Ashara he does adore so much.You will meet her tonight.
“Do I want to?”
Tristan slows.I just realized you used the V word.
Kyle only now recalls how averse Tristan was to it. “Sorry. The vampires that found us—oh, shit, used it again, sorry—they use the word so freely, I guess it rubbed off on me or something.”
Now Tristan stops, turning fully to Kyle.And is that all that rubbed off on you?
Kyle stares back. “What do you mean?”
You’re…familiar with Them now? Are They your friends?
“Hardly.” Then he thinks of Drake.
Your eyes.I see it, like an unfinished sentence, invisible words… It’s as if Tristan notices every flicker of change onKyle’s face, the tiniest indicators of falsehood.What aren’t you saying?
Kyle wonders how Tristan can act so concerned now. “We are completely on our own out there in Nowhere. Unprotected. I had to do something.”
So you aligned with Them for protection?
“Fuck no, they’re insane.”
Did They hurt you?
“Well, they tried, but I stopped them.”
You couldn’t have stopped Them with force alone.You reasoned with Them.You are more familiar with Them than you let on.Why are you lying to me?
“What the hell? I’m not—”
Did one of Them feed you Their blood?
Kyle opens his mouth.
Finds quite suddenly he can’t bear to lie.
Tristan’s misty blue eyes hover upon Kyle, seeing the truth in the silence. It isn’t often that Kyle has seen this particularly cold look in Tristan’s eyes. He normally seems so unshakable. Emotionally invincible.
And in this moment, all Kyle feels is fear in Tristan’s heart.
Fear.
Then comes an entirely different voice from the archway. “Oh my goodness and badness,” cries Cindy in her thick drawl, “if it ain’t the cutie-patootie in the flesh!”
