of a fuss. And he did hold onto your hand after I knocked
you on your arse,” Kerr chuckled into his can of beer. He
seemed to be enjoying the discomfort Michael now felt. “I
suppose Chris is good looking in a strange sort of way… if
you are that way inclined.”
Michael frowned at him and shook his head. “The
dreams are wrong. They have to be,” he said forceful y. “I’m
not that way inclined. There’s just no way possible they are
right, though I’m starting to believe you might have a thing
for him. Besides, if you recal , we had Doyle with us last
night as wel . So it wasn’t just me protecting Chris.”
Shuddering, Michael couldn’t help blushing just a tad
when the little voice who nagged inside his head spoke.
Then why didn’t you mind waking up naked beside him?
Why did you kiss his mouth? And why the hell did you
wake up wrapped in his arms again? “And as for protecting
you al , wel I haven’t got a clue what I’m meant to be
protecting you al from. I don’t suppose the dreams told you
who it is?”
With a shake of his head, Kerr spoke. “Yes, but it isn’t
Doyle who Chris can’t shut up about. That is al you — you
are his main topic of conversation lately.” Changing the
subject, Kerr asked, “What did Charm say to you on the
steps?”
Stal ing by taking another sip of his beer, Michael
thought about how much to reveal before he answered.
“She said he was watching me. He knows I’m here, he told
me he hates me for taking what was his, and he fears me
as I wil be his undoing. Does it make any sense to you? I’m
assuming she’s talking about the one who sired us al . I’m
not exactly sure I believe in al this dream bul shit.” Michael
sighed, “She said I should tel him how I feel. When I asked
her who, she told me I already know who.”
Michael watched as Kerr ran his hands across his eyes.
Maybe she had been talking about you, Michael thought.
Maybe she was talking about you not trusting me. “I mean,
if it’s the sire she is talking about then why would he have
created me in the first place if he thinks I’m going to finish
him off? It seems stupid to create me if he fears me. Why
not just kil me? It’s what I would have done.”
“Maybe he wants to die. Who knows? Until we know who
it is we’l just have to wait and wonder.” Kerr rose out of the
chair. “Anyway I’m off to bed. Should we tel the others? You
know Charm wil tel them al about her dream. She seems
to think the dreams are important.”
Michael shook his head. “We’l talk more tonight. Let’s
just sort it out in our own heads before we bring the others
into it. I am stil not sure this is real. What if it is just some
crazy arsed coincidences?”
Kerr snorted before saying, “You know they wil be
pissed when they realise we are keeping things from
them?”
“Yup, but they’l get over it.”
“Whatever.” Kerr said with a wave of his hand as he left
the room grumbling to himself about friendship and trust.
Sitting for a while longer, Michael ran everything over in
his mind. Somewhere in this whole jumbled affair there had
to be some sort of clue, but what was it? Weary, he got to
his feet and headed back toward his room. How could they
think anything romantic, or sexual for that matter, could ever
happen between Christian and himself? It just wasn’t
possible, was it? He felt ridiculous just thinking about it, but
stil the little nagging voice in the back of his head
persisted. He wondered momentarily what Christian
thought of it al .
A smile tugged at his lips when he saw that Christian
was stil sprawled out across the bed when he re-entered
their room, so he sat in the chair, propped his feet up onto
the edge of the bed and watched his sleeping friend.
Truthful y, he real y was kind of spunky.
What am I thinking? He did not find Christian attractive,
but Gypsy would have classed Christian as to die for. She
would have gone on and on about his kissable lips. His
sister thought anyone with ful lips had kissable lips. His jaw
didn’t have a chisel ed look, square or angular. When his
eyes were open they were the deepest blue. She would
have especial y loved his dimples. His whole face had a
slightly feminine cast to it and his hair when not slicked
back fel in golden waves to just below his ears, which kind
of made Michael want to run his fingers through it.
It struck Michael as funny so he laughed softly to himself
over the absurdity of it al . Yes, they were definitely wrong
about him and Christian. Wel , probably wrong about this.
Closing his eyes, he listened to Christian’s deep and even
breathing as crazy shit ran through his mind. For instance,
he wondered why vampires didn’t need to breathe while
awake, but the moment they fel asleep their respiratory
system kicked in. It just didn’t make any sense to him, none
of it did. And another thing which had him stumped was, if
they were dead, then why did they stil need to consume
food? Why couldn’t they survive on blood alone? He was
stil contemplating this when he fel into a dreamless sleep.
§ § § §
“Michael… Michael?” Doyle shook him awake, and then
smiled as he ran a hand through his unkempt hair, groaning
at how stiff he felt from sleeping in the chair al afternoon. “I
need to talk to you. Wel , I want to talk to everyone, so get
up,” Doyle said as he squeezed Michael on the shoulder.
Michael thought that Doyle seemed a little upset and
wondered why.
Michael glanced out the window, trying to get his brain to
wake up. The sun was getting low. Standing up he
stretched, his body cracking in protest as Doyle waited for
him beside the door. He felt as though he hadn’t slept at al .
The bed was empty, which meant Christian was up and
about. Why hadn’t Christian woken him before leaving the
room?
“What’s the matter?” He said as he fol owed Doyle into
the hal . Michael suddenly got the urge to reach out and
take his hand to try and comfort Doyle as he seemed a little
upset but thought better of it. It was bad enough they
thought Christian was his first great love. Now he wanted to
hold Doyle’s hand? What the hel was wrong with him? He
wasn’t even gay for crying out loud! He wasn’t. Gypsy had
always teased him about it, but he had never been with a
guy and kissing his cousin Jeffery didn’t count. It never
counted if it was forced on you. His thoughts came back to
the present as Doyle spoke.
“It’s best if I tel everyone together. I don’t think I could
stand to tel it more than once.” Michael thought Doyle’s
voice sounded fearful, and he remained silent until they
were in the lounge room.
“What’s going on?” Charm
asked with a yawn. “I could
stil be in bed.” Michael saw Charm watching them as they
entered the room and stood together at the end of the
couch.
“This is important! I need to tel you al something.” Doyle
chewed on his lower lip for a moment as if considering how
to begin. Taking a deep breath he said, “There was
somebody — no, there was something in the house today.
It was the same as the dreams, but somehow more
intense.”
Al eyes turned to Christian as the bowl he had been
eating from dropped from his hands, smashing on the tiled
floor, and shattering the silence Doyle’s statement had
caused. He seemed to be even paler, if possible. His eyes
darted toward Michael. Since he was trembling, Michael
walked over and placed a hand on his shoulder in comfort
and felt him relax. Warmth hit him as Christian leaned back
against his chest and Michael’s hand slid from his shoulder
around his waist holding him close. He ignored the looks
they both got. It didn’t matter; Christian needed comfort and
he was going to give it to him. No big deal.
Doyle’s gaze lingered on Michael as he continued. “I
couldn’t see who it was, but I knew someone was here. I
tried to cry out and warn everybody, but I couldn’t move.” He
searched their faces frantical y. “I felt paralysed. Strange
images played inside my mind. There was lots of fog and a
building made from stone. Wherever it was, it was
surrounded by lots of trees. We were fighting — I think they
were other vampires — and then I saw Charm and Michael
and they were surrounded by snow. They were standing on
steps in front of an old church or something.”
Fear flashed behind his eyes and Doyle’s voice faltered
with what he was tel ing them. “You were there,” he said as
he walked over and touched Michael’s arm. “There were
two others who I didn’t know. One of them was the very
image of you. Exactly like you, but maybe a little older, and
a girl I had never seen before. When she spoke, she had an
accent, maybe Scottish.”
Michael felt everyone staring at him. His thoughts were
interrupted as Charm shakily said that she also had felt a
presence of something, but had just brushed it off as a bad
dream. Kerr laid his hand on her in comfort, and she
shrugged it off in annoyance. Yep, thought Michael. She
was definitely not gonna want to be any of his loves. He
was not going there, no way in hel .
Every person had had a visitation. He turned expectantly
to Kerr, who final y admitted that yes he too had been
woken by a strange feeling of being watched. Michael
wondered what it could al mean. It was then he noticed
Kerr giving him the “we need to talk” look . Michael nodded
in response. Something was definitely going on. Sighing,
Michael realised Doyle had seen the interaction between
Kerr and himself and now wore a frown. Michael glanced at
him and shrugged.
As they prepared and ate dinner they avoided the
subject completely. It seemed it was a topic no one wanted
to face. After the meal ended Kerr asked Doyle to take
Charm and Christian with him, and to stick together at al
costs. His tone of voice told them not to ask questions.
None of them did, though they al gave them looks of
distrust at being excluded from whatever was going to take
place in their absence. Al Kerr would say is he needed
them to do this for him and he needed to talk to Michael
alone.
“Wel ?” Michael asked after everyone had final y left.
“What do you want? You know you have total y just pissed
Doyle and Charm off? You just treated them as if they didn’t
matter,” he said with just a touch of anger. “It wil piss Chris
off too once he realises what is happening.”
Kerr shrugged, “I needed them to take Chris out while
we took care of things here.”
“Take care of what? Doyle and Charm don’t trust me as
it is, and now you pick me over them. And Chris isn’t a child
who needs taking care of.”
“I chose you to stay because I trust them to take care of
Chris,” Kerr pointed back into the house. “You’re here
because I want to start by doing a thorough search of the
house. I want you to tel me everything you know.”
“Great, so in other words I’m here because you don’t
trust me and you stil haven’t told me why you think Chris
needs looking after.”
Kerr rol ed his eyes. “Michael, shut up.” He pushed
Michael toward the top floor of the house.
They began in the attic and worked their way through the
house, doing a room by room search. At the same time,
Michael fil ed him in on how he happened to come across
Charm earlier on. Tel ing Kerr about how Christian had also
thought there was someone in the house and how Christian
seemed real y freaked out about it, though he left out the
whole waking up naked part. Kerr just didn’t need to know,
no one needed to know about that. By the end of the
search, they stil hadn’t found anything to prove someone
had been in the house.
Michael knew he was probably grasping at straws, but
hadn’t he had some strange dreams since being in this
house? It was the best he could come up with on the spur of
the moment. He scratched his head before saying what
was on his mind.
Maybe he slipped himself into our dreams? I just can’t
understand why someone would be here and not do
anything.”
“How? Why?” Kerr frowned as they made their way back
to the kitchen. “And why did Charm and Doyle have more
vivid dreams than the rest of us?”
“You’re asking me? I don’t know, maybe your dreams wil
tel you?” When Kerr mentioned the others he seemed to
retreat into himself in thought. Michael just wished they
worked it al out soon.
§ § § §
“Are you al right?” Christian asked quietly. Charm
looked as miserable as he felt. They both knew this wasn’t
where they wanted to be. Christian glanced over at Doyle
and even he seemed to want to be elsewhere. Doyle had
been acting weird since Michael had joined the household.
But every time Christian tried to ask why, Doyle found a
way to blow him off.
His attention came back to Charm as she shook her
head, “I want to go home. We shouldn’t have come out
tonight. We should have stayed home, stayed together. It’s
safer.”
“Come on, let’s dance.” He led her out on to the dance
floor. They swayed slowly to the rhythm of the music.
Inhaling deeply, Christian buried his face in her hair as she
rested her cheek against his shoulder. She didn’t speak,
but words weren’t necessary as they comforted each other.
As the swayed to the music he knew he ful y agreed with
her; he wanted to go home too. Being here with the Charm
and Doyle just felt wrong when he wanted to be near
Michael.
Why was everything such a big secret anyway? Christian
hated it when the others acted as if he was some child they
had to take care of. Although Michael didn’t make him feel
that way. He got the impression Michael wanted him
around. Okay, so maybe Michael’s part in this was al in his
head because most of the time Michael didn’t even know
he was there and their conversations were usual y one
sided. But if he had of known, Michael would have liked
having him around. Since Michael had joined the family
they had become friends. The music changed tempo as
Christian and Charm danced to a few more songs before
they decided to leave.
“We’re going home,” Christian said to Doyle after they
had walked off the dance floor. Not bothering to wait for an
answer as he led Charm out after him. Taking off his coat
he draped it around her slender shoulders. From the corner
of his eye he noticed the drunk from the other week
watching him. Before he could stop himself, Christian
grinned as he laid his arm lightly across Charm’s
shoulders. The drunk stared at him and frowned as if trying
to recal exactly where he had seen him before. Christian
wondered what the man thought as his “filthy faggot” was
now leaving with a beautiful woman. If he remembered him
at al , he would probably think he was a hooker heading off
with another trick.
He didn’t need to look; he just knew Doyle had fol owed
them outside. “I stil need to feed. I wil meet you guys at
home.” He walked away as Charm and Christian agreed.
They watched Doyle walk way until he was completely
out of sight. Lost in their own thoughts, Charm and Christian
walked in silence for such a long time that Christian was
startled when Charm spoke. It felt so eerie. It always did
when they started talking about the dreams. “Wil you al ow
yourself to love him openly?”
“What the fuck?” Christian stumbled. Had he heard her
wrong? What the hel was it she had said? Who was she
talking about? Please don’t let it be Michael and those
damn dreams again. He didn’t think he was being obvious
with his lust for his roommate. The dreams had let them al
believe maybe it was the case, but Michael wasn’t gay.