Chapter 9
The water hit him in the face. Some emotion, a big dark thing he could not name, boiled up in Raven, and as the water drowned the noise, he keened, not crying exactly.
He started shivering. Steam rose, fogging up the glass shower wall and wafting out over it.
Everything was wrong and strange, and Raven felt like he’d put on sandals to cross a frozen lake.
He spent minutes under the spray, lathering himself in obscene amounts of soap, over and over, rinsing it off, then trying again.
Over and over. He sobbed. No one would be able to hear.
He lathered up again when he remembered how that bedroom had smelled, when he wasn’t sure whether he still smelled like that or whether it was his imagination.
He turned off the shower in the end, but not because he was clean. They’ll come for me. They’ll come for me, and then they’ll see me like this.
Dripping wet, he started brushing his teeth in front of the clouded mirror, the square sink looking so shiny, even where he held on to it.
He brushed, spat out the foam, once, twice, and again.
When the mirror cleared by itself, droplets running down it like tears, Raven put the brush down by the side of the sink, struck by curiosity.
Maybe it’s a mistake, he thought, pulling back his lips. There was this one news story about some guy who thought he was a vampire and then broke both his legs because he jumped off a building trying to fly.
His teeth looked normal enough. Maybe that wasn’t blood Maxim gave me to drink. Nothing really makes sense anymore. Me being a vampire makes no sense.
Raven rinsed his mouth with the mouthwash he’d found. He could barely taste the strong minty flavor of it anymore once he was done, once he finally stumbled back into the guest bedroom on bare feet, tiredness still nipping at his mind.
I guess I forgot to use a towel. Who cares? It’s not like it really matters.
He went through his bag, then got dressed, not sure any of his clothes really matched. He was too tired to care about it. He put on socks, and he could tell that one was dark blue, one black and longer than the first. When he was done he just looked around the room, so quiet, not sure what to do.
A soft knock on the door set his heart to racing. He spun to face the source of the noise.
Maxim? I probably was in here a long time. Was I supposed to come out again?
The knock repeated. It was soft. “Raven? Could I have a moment?”
Raven didn’t recognize the voice, but then he really had no idea who most of these people were. Maxim was the only one who seemed…almost familiar.
Raven considered his options, wondering whether he should just lie down on the queen-sized bed and pretend he didn’t hear. He wasn’t sure why, but in the end, he went to the door and opened it.
The black-haired man from earlier stood there, the one who had apparently selected movies. Bryan. He looked polite. Polished. He brightened when their eyes met.
“Hi. I hope you like it here. I think this guest room is especially nice. So, about your roommate.”
“Jason?”
Bryan nodded. “Yes. He was here before when we were still looking for you.” Bryan crossed his arms. “He’s back now.” He frowned. “Clement has been lurking in the foyer downstairs and he greeted him, if you can call it that. He wants to see you. Would you like to wait for him in the living room?”
Raven looked at his sock-clad feet. He’s probably not going to see that these don’t match, right?
“Okay. We… Maxim sent him to buy books. I don’t know, I just…”
Bryan shrugged. “You can never have enough books. Personally, I wouldn’t mind a library, a few floors with shelves and that paper scent.”
“Biblichor.”
“Huh?”
Raven shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “Old book scent. That’s what it’s called.”
Bryan blinked once, then smiled. “I like that.” He leaned in. “How do you feel about plants?”
“I… Plants are nice.”
Bryan nodded, his expression serious. “Excellent. I’ll find one for your room.” He cocked his head as if he was listening to something. “They’re almost here. Come on.”
He turned and headed back to that large open space; the living room.
Raven didn’t follow right away, standing in the door of the guest room as if frozen, as if his feet had forgotten how to move.
He wasn’t sure why he followed Bryan in the end, but he did, sticking close to the bright white walls, taking his time to look around and take in where he was.
Most of all, the place was full of light.
Never having been in a penthouse before, Raven didn’t know if the size of the place was normal.
There were doors opposite the one that led to his guest room, windows that revealed a gorgeous view of New Amsterdam, and a double-height ceiling that stretched up above a second level that could be reached by a staircase across from where the screen had been set up.
Somewhat in the center of the room under what was possibly one of those walls you couldn’t take out without collapsing the whole building, there was even a cute little coffee bar. Raven saw artistic-looking coffee tins with jungle scenes and coffee from Tanzania, Brazil, and Columbia.
He frowned at that before he remembered where he was. A vampire’s home. Of course he doesn’t need a kitchen.
“Dad, you cannot wear those pants. Please change into something, you know, normal.”
Raven tilted his head up to see where the words had come from. On the upper level, he could just about see the top of a head of blond hair.
“Darling, I’ve been assured these are fine.”
Heath snorted. “By who? The tailor who made the emperor’s new clothes?”
Maxim cooed. “My sweet boy, you remember when I read you that story! Come here.”
“Don’t you fucking start! You’re making it weird again, and you’re wearing weird pants while you’re at it.” The elevator dinged. “What the fuck was that?”
A blur flashed down the stairs, only to stop in the middle of the room, right in front of Raven.
“M-Maxim?”
The hunter smiled. “Vampire speed. You’ll get used to it.”
“Do not let Raven see you in those fucking pants, old bat!” Heath leaned over the banister of the upper level and frowned when he saw Raven. “Too fucking late. There goes the quiet movie night.”
“Raven?”
They all turned to look at Jason, who stood frozen in front of the large couch, a big bag of books in his arms.
Maxim brightened, putting his hands on his hips.
Raven looked at Maxim’s back. Are those cats on his shirt?
“Jason, you brought my books! That’s so intrepid of you,” the hunter said.
Jason’s mouth pinched in an expression Raven recognized as peak annoyance for his roomie.
“You left.”
Maxim nodded. “I left a note.”
“No, Mr. Vallois, you left with Raven. I appreciate everything you’ve done to find him, but seriously, what the fuck?”
A blond man with shorter hair and curls, his expression somewhere between bored and pissed off, walked in behind Jason.
“I brought the guest. Now there’s no one downstairs to greet guests.”
Bryan jumped up from where he’d been sitting on the couch and hissed, literally hissed at the blond man. Jason clutched the books tighter to his chest and took a few steps away from the two of them.
“You good, man?”
Maxim clapped his hands. “Well, I say. Jason, since you’re here and you took such pains shopping for me, you must stay and join us.
Clement, you should stay as well. It must get ever so boring downstairs in the foyer.
” He turned to Raven, and those bottle green eyes made the world fall quiet and stop its too-fast movement. “Raven? Come join us.”
Raven curled his toes against the sun-warmed floor. “Okay,” he said, not sure what they were asking of him, but thinking that maybe it really would be okay so long as Maxim was there too.
Maxim looked pleased. “Wonderful. Come on, let’s sit.”
“What are we doing?” Jason asked.
The blond man, Clement, crossed his arms. “Staying. Go sit on that couch. Spread out a little, be a good guest.”
Jason’s brows crept up his forehead. “Okay?”
He sounded about as certain about all of this as Raven was feeling.
Maybe I’m not alone in that, then. Maybe it’s going to be okay.
He followed Maxim to the couch and sat next to him. There was a quiet point between them, even when the others were still moving and talking. When Maxim looked at him, Raven relaxed, if only a fraction, if only for a moment. For the time being, that was easier than being alone.