Chapter 14 Quin
FOURTEEN
Quin
Nerves filled Quin from top to toe. He’d not taken anyone on a date since Lark, and that had been so long ago that he no longer remembered what they’d even done.
The events on the first night of the full moon compounded everything.
Quin had to resist driving up to St Andrews the following day and tearing apart Conroy’s church—it was only the fear of what would happen if he broke the blood vow that stopped him.
Kit had recovered well enough from his wounds, at least, and their last two nights as wolf and vampire had been relaxed to the point of being idyllic.
But Quin had still spent his days fretting over the feeling that they were doing things backwards. Fighting for your lives together was at least third date territory, he reckoned.
Quin was determined to get them back on track, but as he went to pick Kit up, he questioned every single decision that had led him to this moment.
He practised his calm breathing as he waited for Kit to come to the car. It got worse when he caught sight of Kit and saw that he’d dressed up.
Well, as much as Kit dressed up. He wore a blue chambray shirt, sleeves rolled to his elbows and buttons undone to display the plain white T-shirt he wore underneath, with off-white jeans.
Quin was glad he himself had opted for a nice shirt and fitted trousers—both in dark colours—as they complemented Kit’s choices.
Kit slid into the passenger seat, eyes trailing up and down the length of Quin’s body. Quin resisted the urge to squirm under the scrutiny.
“Where are we going?” Kit asked.
“How are you doing?” Quin said at the same time, then laughed awkwardly. “Uh, I thought it could be a surprise.”
“I don’t like surprises.”
“Oh. Right. How does the cinema sound? There’s one near here—an old town hall conversion. It’s small. Maybe fifty seats, max?”
Kit paused for so long that Quin broke out in a sweat. “Sounds good,” Kit said after far too many seconds.
“Great. I, uh, like your jeans, by the way,” Quin stammered out as he pulled out of the parking space. “White is a brave choice.”
“How so?” Kit said, turning towards the window.
Quin’s face went hot. He focused on the road as much as possible, even when he wanted to keep stealing glances at Kit. “You know. White stains easily.”
Kit let out a surprised gasp of a laugh. “How messy do you think I am with my food?”
“Not as messy as I am,” Quin said. “I’ll probably get popcorn kernels stuck in my beard.” He grimaced the second the words escaped his mouth. Way to make himself come across as an uncouth caveman.
“You can fish them out later to snack on when you get hungry.”
“Could also fit some nachos in there if I tried.”
“Disgusting,” Kit said with a smile.
“Just the plain nachos! Not with salsa and guac on them. That’d be a bit too far.”
“Still ew.” Kit drummed his fingers on his leg. He seemed to be building up to something, so Quin stayed quiet, letting him work it out in his mind. “So,” Kit said, “like I said before. This is my first date. I’m hoping I do everything right.”
Quin braked just a tad too hard at the next set of traffic lights. “Kit—”
“I don’t want you to make a big deal of it,” Kit said, waving a dismissive hand. “Shaun advised me to share things about myself, so that’s all I’m doing.”
Quin was pleased to hear that Kit had been talking to his friends more. Kit had mentioned the vampire triad in passing on their beach walks, but conversation rarely lingered on them. “You went to see them a few months ago, right? Planning to visit them again soon?”
“Actually, I’ve been considering inviting them up here.
” Kit’s head lay against the headrest, exposing the line of his elegant throat, Adam’s apple bobbing as he spoke.
His T-shirt wasn’t low cut by any stretch of the word, but it still gave Quin a peek of his clavicle where it had dipped down on one side.
Quin redoubled his focus on the road. They were driving past acres of flat farmland as they made their way down the coast towards their destination, the sky above them never-ending.
Even though there weren’t many other cars around, it didn’t pay to get into an accident because he’d been preoccupied with ogling his passenger.
“It’d be nice to meet your friends,” he said.
“You’re assuming I’d introduce you to them.”
“I am.”
“Cocky,” Kit accused.
“Confident,” Quin retorted. “How did you meet them anyway? I don’t think you ever told me.”
One of Kit’s fingers drifted to his mouth, and he bit down on the nail as he chewed over his response for a few long moments before speaking.
“My creator also recreated Shaun and DJ. Shaun around twenty years ago, and DJ more recently. Lawrence compelled DJ to drain Rake, but Shaun recreated him in time.”
Quin had to concentrate hard on his driving to not take the next bend too sharply. “Shit. That’s dramatic.”
“Understatement.”
Quin swallowed. “So, none of you wanted to be vampires?”
“No. I suppose Rake was willing in that it saved his life, but he wasn’t in a state to consent. I told Shaun to do it.” Kit’s voice stayed steady, but strained as he continued. “Rake wouldn’t be here otherwise.”
Quin risked reaching a hand over to give Kit’s knee a squeeze. After a split second of tensing, Kit relaxed and met Quin’s eyes.
“I’m sorry that happened to you all,” Quin said, putting both hands back on the wheel.
“It’s in the past.”
“Doesn’t make it any less trau—”
Kit reached towards the door handle. “If you use the ‘T’ word, I’ll throw myself out of the car.”
“Uh. Right,” Quin said. He considered pulling over.
Kit tapped his nails on the window. “Your generation is so obsessed with trauma. Not to mention therapy.” Each word dripped with derision as Kit’s agitation grew.
“You can’t solve everything by sitting down with a complete stranger and telling them about the worst things that ever happened to you. It’s ridiculous.”
“I didn’t say you should go to therapy,” Quin said. “I take it someone else did?”
“Shaun. He went to a psychologist or psychiatrist or some other ‘ist’ and told me it helped him.”
“Don’t bite my head off, but there’s merit to his words.” Quin warded off Kit’s sharp look with a raise of his hand. “Don’t you agree that if the mere mention of trauma or therapy makes you threaten to throw yourself from a moving vehicle, then there might be some credence to the suggestion?”
“It’s not like I’d die if I did it,” Kit grumbled.
“Kit, come on. You’re stubborn, but you’re not that stubborn.”
“I’d argue that I very much am that stubborn.” Kit folded his arms over his chest and slumped in the seat.
“Sorry,” Quin said. His idea of their perfect evening was slipping from between his fingers.
As Kit stayed silent and stared resolutely forward, Quin’s hands clammed up.
All the doubts he’d felt at the start of the night returned tenfold.
They were almost at the cinema, and he wanted to get them back on track before then.
“Look, I think I’ve made a mistake,” he blurted.
“A mistake?” Kit’s voice was quiet and careful. Too careful.
“Oh, I mean, not in inviting you. No, that was the opposite of a mistake. An excellent decision on both our parts, I’d go as far as saying. Just in, well, the film choice.” He was rambling. He knew he was rambling, and yet, he didn’t seem able to stop himself.
“Okay,” Kit said, drawing out the word. “So what film are we going to see?”
“Um.” Quin flailed, because suddenly admitting out loud to a vampire that you were taking them to see a double bill of vampire movies didn’t even sound good in his head, let alone aloud.
“Is it…” Kit lowered his voice. “Is it like one of those old seedy cinemas that you go to watch porno films in?”
“What?” Quin took his eyes off the road to look at Kit in abject horror.
Kit was pressing his tongue into the side of his cheek, grinning. “You’re too young to have been about when those were a thing, I suppose.” He shook his head, laughing. “The shit that existed in the seventies and eighties would shock you.”
“I did not bring you on a date to watch porn,” Quin said, now feeling a lot better about what they were going to see. That was, if Kit didn’t tell him to turn the car around the second they got to the cinema.
“Such a gentleman,” Kit said.
“Just wait,” Quin said, playing along. “I’ll open the car door for you and lay my jacket down on the puddle outside as I escort you in.”
“Not your nice jacket!” Kit cried, though he didn’t hide his laughter.
“Yup. It’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.”
“I’m glad that’s all you’ll have to sacrifice,” Kit said, more seriously. “I owe you another apology for Conroy.” He’d spoken a lot whilst Quin’s beast was in control over the past couple of nights, but there wasn’t much mutual conversation when Quin could only respond in growls.
“It wasn’t your fault,” Quin assured him.
Kit bit his lip. “I didn’t want to tell you, but I’m to blame. Please don’t hate me, but I went to ask Conroy if he could get rid of you right after we first ‘met’.” Kit did quote marks in the air as he finished his confession.
This didn’t surprise Quin. “I figured it was something like that. I couldn’t hear everything that you all said to each other, but I got the gist.”
“You’re not mad at me for it?” Kit’s voice was tiny.
“No, of course not. I chased you down in a dark forest and then turned up on your street a couple of days later. It’s not that weird to presume that you’d go to your version of the authorities to complain.”
“I caused you to be hunted down like an animal.”
“What do you want me to say, Kit? That I’m angry about it? ’Cause I’m not. We’re both past it. We both got out alive. That’s all that matters.”
Kit hummed. “Okay.”
“You can trust me to be honest. If I thought you’d done something wrong, I’d tell you and we would talk it through.”
“You make it sound so easy.”
“It is,” Quin said. “You can talk to me about anything, you know that, right?”