He Joined Midnight Rockers, Then Their Vampire Lord Claimed Him novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: We Are Not Dangerous

At three in the morning the band tells Lucas what they are, why Abysis exiled them, and what they need to stay fed. They ask him to spend the night with them, and he says yes.

The next night, they told him in the kitchen at three in the morning.

Lucas sat at the table with a mug of tea he had not touched.

Noah sat across from him, Luke leaned on the counter, and Thomas took the chair beside Lucas and kept looking at his hands.

"We're not human," Noah said.

Lucas waited for the rest of the joke.

It did not come.

"We're vampires," Noah said. "All three of us. We have been for a long time."

"Okay," Lucas said slowly. "That's why the windows."

"That's why the windows."

"And why nobody eats."

"We can eat," Thomas said. "It just doesn't do anything for us."

Lucas looked at the three of them under the kitchen light, and none of them looked away.

He had read every interview they had ever given.

He had never once seen any of them in daylight.

"Prove it," he said, and his voice came out smaller than he wanted.

Luke pushed away from the counter and crossed to the stove.

He turned a burner on, and the flame rose blue and steady.

Then he laid his left hand flat across it.

Lucas was on his feet before he knew it. "Stop, you'll burn..."

"Look," Luke said.

His palm sat in the fire for a full breath.

When he lifted it, the skin was pale and whole and smooth, and a red mark was already fading to nothing.

"It hurts," he said calmly, and turned off the burner. "It just doesn't stay."

Lucas sat down again very carefully.

"Okay," he said. "Okay. Are you going to bite me?"

"No," Noah said at once.

"No," Thomas said, much softer.

"We don't drink blood," Luke said. "None of us. That's why we're here."

Noah folded his hands on the table.

"There's a lord who rules the vampires in this city," he said. "His name is Abysis. We used to live in his court. He expects everyone there to feed on people, and we wouldn't."

"So he threw you out."

"He exiled us," Noah said. "And there was a second reason. We took one of the other lords to bed. Lord Valentine. Not by force. By desire, and by his own invitation. Abysis called it theft."

"Of a lord."

"Of a lord," Luke said. "Valentine kept his seat. We lost ours."

Nobody spoke for a while.

The refrigerator hummed.

"We are not dangerous, Lucas," Noah said. "I need you to believe that. We have never hurt anyone. We play music and we pay our rent."

"I believe you."

He said it before he thought about it, and then he knew it was true.

He had been scared for about two minutes.

After that he had only wanted to know what came next.

"What do you eat, then?" he asked. "If food doesn't work."

The three of them looked at one another.

"Closeness," Thomas said, and his cheeks were pink even in the cold air of the kitchen. "That's the nearest word. Being touched. Being wanted by someone who is warm. When we go too long without it, we get cold and clumsy and strange. You saw me last night."

"That's what the custom is," Noah said. "Among vampires there's an old way of staying fed without hurting anyone. You spend a night with a person who likes you. Not because of what you are or what you can do for them. Despite it. Despite status and power. And you keep doing it, and you keep learning how to live among humans."

He looked straight at Lucas.

"It's the only thing that has ever worked for us."

"And I'm the person who likes you," Lucas said.

"We hoped you might be," Luke said quietly.

Lucas turned the mug in a half circle on the table.

His heart was racing, but not from fear.

He thought about two posters on his wall at home.

He thought about the wrist Noah had held on the first night, and the cold mouth that had warmed against his.

He thought about the way Luke had stood in the doorway, wanting to stay, and left anyway.

"Lucas," Noah said. "Will you spend tonight with us?"

"All three of you."

"All three of us."

Thomas had stopped breathing.

"Yes," Lucas said.

For a moment nobody moved.

Then Noah rose, came around the table, and took Lucas's face in both his cold hands.

"Say it again," he said, a little rough.

"Yes."

Noah kissed him.

It was slow and deep, and it was cold for exactly one heartbeat before it turned to heat.

Lucas gripped the front of his shirt and kissed back, and someone behind him groaned.

Hands came to his shoulders from behind, large and careful.

Thomas stood and pressed in against his side, and Lucas felt three bodies close around him.

Noah broke the kiss and rested his forehead against Lucas's.

His black eyes were wide open and shining.

"Then take us upstairs, manager," Luke said, hoarse, near his ear.

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