by Aidan Wayne
“I see,” Vlad said. He sounded wistful.
“You can’t be wishing for homework,” Darren said.
Vlad shrugged. “I like to learn. Back home—back where I used to live, there was a separate school for the supernatural, not mixed like it is here. We still had curriculum in learning about different species and history, but we didn’t have any hands-on classes. Not that that would have mattered for the human students, but I did not have a lot of experience with other species as a result.”
“What, really?” Darren blinked. “But you had to at least, like, have had a neighborhood witch, right? Or the local werewolf family?”
Vlad shrugged again. “The only witch I knew of lived at the other edge of town, and I never even met him. There was an elderly goblin who lived quite close by, and I sometimes ran errands for her, but she was the only interaction I ever really had with supernaturals. All my teachers and friends were human.”
Darren tried to wrap his mind around that—living in a place where everyone was just human. Even if he was full-on human, he’d feel like that was a little weird. The world was so diverse. How could someone just grow up never having met a wood nymph or a werewolf before?
“Oh,” he ended up saying.
Vlad hunched his shoulders. “It’s different in America.”
“Yeah, I’m getting that.”
“If I’m still here by next September, I’m looking forward to going back to school.”
If he was still here? Where was Vlad going to go?
“Wait, so what do you do, exactly?” Darren asked, before he could think about why he maybe shouldn’t. “I mean, since you don’t go to school, and no one’s seen you around town. It’s like you never leave the house.”
“Since the school year is almost over, there was no point in my starting this year. And I went into town once or twice, when I first came.” Vlad looked away. “Too many people for me.”
“That’s always how it is with the new guy, though! They’re gonna come up and try to get to know you. Especially ’cause you’re with Tabby. Everyone likes her.”
Vlad frowned down at his plain blue bedspread.
Darren had a sudden thought. “You two are related, right? I’ve been calling you guys cousins in my head for weeks now.”
“We are related, yes,” Vlad said. “Our grandmothers were sisters.”
Darren tried to work that out on his fingers and gave up. “I’m just gonna keep calling you guys cousins, if it’s all the same to you.”
“That is fine. I am sure Tabitha would not mind.”
“Cool.” Darren kicked his legs. “So… what do you do all day, when you’re not in school and not going out?” Staying in a house all day sounded ridiculously boring, even if it was a house belonging to a witch. Vlad had been here for over a month. There were only so many times you could explore a house.
“I am studying a lot,” Vlad said, making an aborted gesture at his laptop. “I am reading a lot about my condition. There are not a lot of vampires around who are out in the open, but there are some forums for the real thing. I’ve been learning what I can do. And what I can no longer do.”
Darren winced. “That really sucks, man.”
“What does?”
“Well, it… it sorta sounds like you’re figuring this out on your own? I’ve got my dad and a whole network to help me out with fae stuff, and it still isn’t easy. Can’t you get like, a vampire tutor or whatever?”
Vlad swallowed and looked at his bedspread again. Whoops, bad-topic territory apparently, damn it. “As I said, vampires are not a very common species, it seems. Many of them are much older, and don’t want to deal with a… me.”
And Darren was smart enough to know not to touch that with a ten-foot pole. At least not on day two. Day three? “Okay, sure, fine, that can’t take up your entire day. What else do you do? You can’t just be marathoning Netflix.”
Whoa, that got an actual lip-twitch. “It’s not all I do, but I do watch a lot online. For my English. I am studying a lot in general, to keep up with schoolwork, but I am spending a lot of time on my English. It needs improvement.”
“What? Are you kidding? Your English is great!”
Vlad gave him a flat look. “Very funny.”
“What, no, hey, I’m being totally serious!” Darren flapped his hands. “You’ve got an accent, fine, but you speak really well. And you can keep up with me, so obviously you’ve got comprehension down.”
“Sometimes I do miss what you say. Mostly I figure things out with context.”
“Hey, it’s clearly working. All I can speak is English and a couple of phrases in my dad’s dialect. I’m lousy at languages.” Darren swiveled in the chair. “I’ve got to pick something to take next year, actually, and I’m totally dreading it.”
Vlad tilted his head. “What languages does your school offer?”
“Spanish, French, German, and Mandarin? I think. The kids who are training to be bilingual in their own tongue get to test out or take a self-study program, but I’m not motivated enough to try to learn a language on my own.” Not to mention that fae was freaking difficult, both to learn and to generally pronounce, and that was on top of all the different dialects.
“You should take German, then.”
“Why?”
Vlad looked surprised at himself, but all he said was “I could help you with it.”
Darren stared at him. “You do not speak German too.”
Vlad did the not-quite-a-smirk thing again. “I am not fluent in German, but I can have conversations.”
“That is not even fair.”
“I can also speak and read Ukrainian, Russian, and English,” Vlad added, and that was definitely a smirk now.
A knock interrupted Darren’s absolutely witty retort. “Boys? Vlad, may I come in?”
Vlad hopped off the bed and opened the door. And that was interesting too, that he always opened the door for Tabitha, instead of just giving her a verbal okay so that she did it herself. Darren did that with his parents all the time—just told them to come in. Why the added step?
Pity that probably wasn’t a good question to ask for their getting-to-know-you game.
Tabitha was carrying a tray. “I thought I’d bring you up a snack,” she said brightly.
“Thank you, Tabitha,” Vlad said, taking it from her. She smiled at him, waved at Darren, and then left them to it. There were two glasses, one filled with a red liquid, another with pale yellow, and a plate of… chopped pieces of raw meat? There was also a bowl of flower petals that Darren was pretty excited about.
“I think these are for you,” Vlad mumbled, holding out the bowl and the cup that wasn’t filled with—oh, that was probably blood, wasn’t it.
“Thanks,” Darren said. He eyed Vlad’s food with interest. “So… how does eating, like, work for you, exactly?”
Vlad raised an eyebrow. “I put the food in my mouth, swallow, and it gets digested.”
“Oh come on, you know what I mean.” Darren took a sip from his cup. “Oh hey, this is nectar. Tabby is actually the best. I’ve been wanting nectar all day. Honey’s okay, but it can’t replace the real stuff.” Then again, he did come by yesterday to get his herbals refilled. It’s no wonder Tabby knew what he’d be craving. He promptly downed half of it.
“You… drink plant nectar?”
Darren looked at him over the rim of his cup. “You’re the one with a cup of blood, buddy.”
Vlad hunched again. Blood-drinking wasn’t a good topic either? Really? It was just Vlad’s food. But Darren made a note anyway. “I was just wondering if it was because you were fae,” Vlad muttered.
“Oh! Yeah. Kinda? I like it okay normally, but it’s only around now that I really want it. So it’s probably a fae thing mashed with a human thing.”
“Around now?”
“Uh, ‘bleeding out my insides’ time?”
Vlad cleared his throat and averted his eyes. “Oh. Yes. Right.”
; Darren drank some more nectar and dug into his bowl of petals. After a moment, he saw Vlad sigh and then drink from his own cup. He didn’t touch the plate.
“Okay, so, stop me if this is totally an out-of-line question, but is there a reason you’re not eating? It’s not me, is it? ’Cause I don’t care. Trust me, raw meat is not even close to the weirdest thing I’ve seen people eat.”
Vlad frowned at his plate. “I just find it more obvious than drinking from a cup.”
“Blood is blood is blood, though, right?” Darren asked. “Wait, is it? Does blood have different tastes and flavors and stuff? My friend Beth—she’s also a werewolf. She’s Layla’s older sister. You’ll probably meet her at some point. Anyway, she says that all people smell different, so I guess I wouldn’t be surprised if they taste different too. Can you smell people too? Wait, duh, of course you can. You smelled me when we first met. Question rescinded.”
“The… entire question, or just that one?” Vlad asked, eyes wide and looking kind of overwhelmed.
“Just that one,” Darren said, picking out the tulip petals. “I’m still curious about people flavors.”
“I don’t eat people!”
That had Darren looking back up. “What, you don’t?”
“People blood makes me sick,” Vlad said, scowling at his plate. “I can… smell the peopleness.”
“Okay, cool, I guess,” Darren said. “What’re you drinking, then? And eating? Or not eating. You’re not really eating it.”
Vlad looked a little surprised at the subject change, probably at Darren not pushing, but he seemed willing to answer this question, albeit grudgingly. “They’re both cow. Organically and humanely raised and killed cow.” He glanced at the plate again. “It’s all the same cow. Tabitha bought half of a cow.”
Darren eyed Vlad. He was a teenager and thus still growing—maybe? How did vampire teens work? Were you forever stuck in puberty? That would big-time suck—and he was more built than Darren was, but still. “There is no way you could eat an entire half a cow.”
Vlad rolled his eyes and drank some more of his 100 percent organic humane cow juice. “Not all at once, no. Of course not. Most of it is frozen.”
“That works?”
Vlad gave him a funny look. Darren got the feeling that he was going to be on the receiving end of a lot of those. “It works the same way all frozen food works.” He hesitated and then added, “The raw meat doesn’t taste as good when it’s not fresh. But it’s not… bad.”
“Oh, okay. Guess that makes sense.”
Vlad swallowed and then, looking determined, picked up one of the pieces of meat. He didn’t stick his fangs into it like Darren was expecting. And Darren had yet to really see Vlad’s fangs since the guy barely smiled, but given he was apparently recovering from trauma or something, that seemed allowed. Vlad just popped it into his mouth and chewed. So he could eat meat too, along with blood? Maybe because it was raw and had blood in it? How did that work, exactly? Darren pushed the curiosity down and turned his attention back to picking out tulip petals so he didn’t stare. Vlad seemed uncomfortable enough.
Eventually, though, he peeked, to find Vlad watching him. “You don’t… mind?”
“Mind? No. Mind what?”
“The….” Vlad glanced at his plate.
“Dude, you’re just eating food. I’m eating flower petals. You’re not making fun of me. S’not a big deal.” The clock on Vlad’s dresser chimed loudly enough that Darren jumped a little.
“Damn, I’m sorry.” Darren stood up and grabbed his backpack. “I’d stay longer, but I have a ton of homework and none of it is stuff I am good at. Math stuff takes me forever. I gotta go get started.”
“I understand,” Vlad said, also standing. “Thank you for visiting me. It… it was nice. I will walk you to the door.”
“Uh, okay, sure,” Darren said, slipping his backpack on.
When they got to the front door, Vlad hovered around after opening it. “I… could you come by again?”
Darren was sort of maybe considering an offer but hadn’t actually expected Vlad to ask. “Sure. I don’t know if I can for the rest of the week—homework and stuff, but maybe Friday? When I’m done with school.”
“If you can,” Vlad said. “Have a good night.”
“Yeah, you too.”
DARREN WASN’T too surprised when Bethany and Trisha cornered him Friday afternoon. He usually hung out with them after school at least once during the week, even if it was just to do homework together, but Monday he’d begged off because he’d needed to see Tabitha for his herbals; Tuesday he’d spent with Vlad, and Wednesday and Thursday were more “alternate between glaring at math book and his window garden” time. Said window garden always went nuts once a month, and Darren liked his plants a lot, but his parents always got mad when they grew into his actual walls. It had taken most of both afternoons to get it sorted out. He’d even skipped out on his usual Wednesday evening gender-nonconformity group in favor of making sure that his violets didn’t take root into his windowsill. Audrey Two was big enough as it was.
“Darren,” Bethany said, leaning against the locker next to his, “Trish and I are going over to her house to get our homework done for the weekend. You’re coming.”
“Beth,” said Darren, stuffing books into his backpack, “we’ve talked about this. Just because you’ve decided you’re going to be the next alpha female of this town does not actually mean you get to tell me what to do.”
“It does when we’ve barely seen you all week,” Bethany said, frowning at him. “Besides, you and Trish have that paper on naturopathic remedies due on Tuesday. You might as well work together on it.”
“Oh please,” Darren said, grinning at Trisha. “Like she isn’t done already. Hasn’t your latest boyfriend been study-buddying with you all week?”
She rolled her eyes at him. “I might be done but I bet you’re not. I can give you some tips. Marco helped me find loads of references.”
Darren hefted his backpack and shut his locker. “Look, really, thanks. I wish I could. But I promised I’d pay someone a visit today. I still want to hang out and homework with you guys, though! Could we maybe reschedule to Saturday?”
Trisha and Bethany exchanged a look and broke out into identical, evil grins.
“Are you dating someone?” Bethany asked, smile practically feral.
Trisha clapped. “Oh my gosh, tell us everything!”
“Whoa, whoa!” Darren shook his head. “I’m not dating anyone. Not until I finish figuring me out, remember? Also, you know, someone’s gotta, like, show an interest in me first. No, I’m just—okay, so, remember that vampire kid who moved in with the witch down the street?”
“Her name’s Tabitha, Darren,” Bethany said, with the air of someone who’d been saying the same thing for seven years.
“We remember,” Trisha said. “No one’s even seen him since the first week he came, and it’s been over a month. I thought he left.”
“Or died,” Bethany said.
“Beth! What a thing to say!”
Bethany shrugged. “My parents went to visit, to welcome him to the neighborhood, and the house was so warded they couldn’t even smell him. He could have died for real and no one would know.”
“I’m pretty sure Tabitha would,” Trisha said. “Considering he’s living with her.”
“Or not living.”
Darren waved his arms around, trying to fend them off. “Oh my god, you guys, I know it’s Friday but calm your crazy. He’s not dead. Unless he’s undead, but I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure that’s a myth?”
“Darren, of course it’s a myth. We studied vampires last year,” Trisha admonished. “Did you not pay attention at all?”
“You are all conspiring against me,” Darren muttered. “But no, he’s still with Tabby, no, he’s not dead, and also I’ve kind of been visiting him. Kind of? And I promised I would say hi today.”
“Why didn’t you just say so
,” Trisha said. “Of course we understand. Saturday it is, then.”
Bethany grinned and tossed her curly brown hair over her shoulder. “I can’t wait to hear all about your new friend. The one no one else in town has managed to see.”
Trisha nodded emphatically, grin matching Beth’s. “I’m so excited to hear about him! In fact, feel free to bring him along, if he wants.”
Darren blinked at her. “I’ll ask.” It wouldn’t kill Vlad to get him out of Tabitha’s house. Probably it’d do him some good, even. Worth a try.
“WHY NOT?” Darren wheedled, picking at the hem of his T-shirt. It was a warm day for April, and Tabitha’s kitchen was getting full sun. Darren thought longingly of the forest Bethany lived near; they often went out to study there. Cool shade, surrounded by trees… that all sounded a lot better than staying inside yet again on a perfectly nice Friday afternoon. “It wouldn’t kill you to get out of the house. You could see more than just the inside of your room. Meet some new people…. Beth and Trish are great! You’ll probably really like them. I mean, you put up with me and they put up with me! You’ve already got so much in common.”
Vlad glared down at the kitchen table, where Darren had spread out all his textbooks after Vlad had requested to look at them. His shoulders had started to hunch again, but this was a perfectly reasonable question. Darren wasn’t going to head shoulder-hunching off at the pass.
“I am not good with other people,” Vlad said eventually.
“It’s only because you’re new,” Darren said, trying to sound encouraging. “You’ll get there. You just have to put yourself out there a little.”
Vlad scowled harder. “No. I am not good with other people right now. Now that I am… this.”
Scowling and talking about something in a vague and angry way? “A… vampire?” Darren guessed.
Vlad nodded.
“Well, you can start small, then,” Darren said after a minute. “Beth and Trish are just two people, and they’re both pretty great. Trisha’s super nice already, but they’d probably be extra nice to you, since you’re new and all. That way you can just… dip your vampire toes into the social waters of the world, yeah?”