3
Kylo
The morning after the party, Kylo woke with a long stretch and a drowsy smile.
Last night was wild , he thought with a happy sigh, and then it hit him. The full events, rushing at him like a tsunami. Whipping his arm up to his neck, his fingers searched its circumference but found nothing. Throwing the blanket off him, he raced to the nearest mirror and bent his neck to the side. All that remained from the vampire’s fanged kiss was a bluish-purple bruise—a hickey to remind him of the mystery man that consumed his blood. He bit his bottom lip as his mind delighted in every detail of the handsome lurker in the night and their unlikely introduction.
Gods, that…that really happened. His mind is crystal clear from the intoxicating effects of alcohol, his blunt, and the vampire’s venom. That was the best high I’ve ever felt—and no hangover! A cheeky smile crept across his face. While he’d be travelling home today, now that the school year was officially over, he wondered about the moment they shared and if it would ever fade from his mind.
It didn’t.
◆◆◆
For the summer break, Kylo flew back to his parents’ home in Arizona. While his werewolf pack is scattered and they don’t often meet outside important matters, his immediate family are kind-hearted, loyal extroverts who love hard and fast. Because of that, they are known to smother. Being the youngest in the family of five, Kylo was the oopsie child his parents were over the moon to welcome into the world—seven years after their daughter, now thirty, and ten years after their first born son, now thirty-three. The downside of being an accident is that both his siblings have already graduated from Obscura and long since settled into their careers—his sister is even married with a little one. His retired parents are living their dream in the peaceful suburbs of their family home, which means more time they can spend pestering him all summer break. Fun when they can go to the beach at any time of day, annoying when he wants privacy to write poems about the sexy vampire he canoodled with, and they just sit by him and stare like excited puppies ready to play. That being said, they encourage him endlessly, and he wouldn’t trade them for the world. Especially when they send him back to Obscura with a suitcase full of new clothes and dorm snacks.
For his first few years at the Academy, he was living on the West Campus, but due to some changed classes to accommodate his library science major, he was placed on the North Campus, which led him here. To live with the sexy vampire that fed on him before summer break.
Kylo sticks his head into the room, peeking around at the small accommodations. As he looks, he wheels his suitcase over the threshold. Wow, he’s really cool, he thinks, admiring the tidy, grey-monochrome personal touches on the vampire’s side of the room.
“Oh!” He looks over at his roommate, remembering he had never introduced himself, placing his duffel bag on his new bed as the vampire taps away at his computer. “I’m Kylo, by the way.”
“I know,” the vampire says bluntly, not looking up from his laptop screen.
“Oh.” Kylo purses his lips, thinking he might have given it to him the night they met, while he was heavily intoxicated by venom. “And what might I call you?” He hops back, sitting on his bed, leaning back slightly to prop himself up with his palms on the mattress.
The vampire’s eyes peer over the rim of his laptop. “Lathan,” he says simply, closing his laptop and tossing it onto his pillow.
Lathan, he repeats in his head, as if rolling the name on his mental tongue. It has a pleasant ring to it. “Nice to officially put a name to your fangs.” He smirks, and Lathan looks away after he does, as if the comment or his facial expression was distasteful. “Anywho.” He looks down at his things, knowing he should unpack with classes starting in just three days.
“Look, I don’t do roommates. Never had one. Been here three years. Prefer to keep to myself.” Lathan reaches for the book on his side table, presumably trying to get ahead in his reading for the semester. He leans into the corner of the room where a second pillow is propped, and flips to his last read page.
“You’ve never had a roommate before?” Kylo looks surprised, knowing that only the wealthier students can afford to reserve single rooms.
“Have you noticed the size of this room? It’s not meant for two people.”
“Damn… I had three just last term,” he mutters to himself, kind of jealous. Then he looks around at the room, realizing truly how small it is with all their belongings combined. It’s cramped, to say the least.
“Well, I’ll respect your space, don’t worry.” He pushes himself up and hops off the bed, grabbing one of the boxes the Academy had delivered, and unpacks his bedding. His duvet is fluffed up like a cloud, wrapped in a sage green cover, with a matching pillow and sheets. His throw blanket is extremely soft and plush, with a black and white checkered pattern.
As he’s making his bed, he can feel Lathan staring at him. Stealing a glance as he fluffs out his blanket, he notes the dark eyes peeking over the pages of his book. He bites the inside of his cheek and turns away as his mouth slips into a smirk.
Once his bed is neat and tidy, he takes any empty boxes that will fit and slides them, along with his packed suitcase, under his bed to use as hidden storage, in an attempt to make use of the limited room space. He pulls his school supplies and laptop out of his duffel bag and places them on his desk, then a rolled tube, nearly the length of his bag, and some tape, which he takes back over to his bed. His feet squish into the mattress as he haphazardly steps toward the wall, unrolling the poster of his favourite goth band, The Dahlias. Ripping pieces of tape off with his teeth, he secures the top of the poster, now stuck unintentionally crooked above his bed.
“You don’t look like you’d be into The Dahlias.”
“Huh?” Kylo turns his head, still trying to keep balanced on the soft surface. “Oh, yeah! You kidding? Their music totally broke the genre. They’ve changed the game in the subculture; I love them!” He smiles passionately before bending over to secure the bottom corners.
“What’s your favourite song of theirs?” Lathan follows up. When Kylo finishes taping, he lowers to sit on the bed, noting Lathan’s cocked eyebrow, as if testing him.
“Aw man.” Kylo’s smile grows, excited to talk about it. “It’s gotta be between ‘End of Time’ or ‘Shudder.’ ‘End of Time’ has such a catchy and rippin’ rhythm—it’s phenomenally made—but ‘Shudder’ is so beautiful and raw, the lyrics really make you feel, ya know? One of their best songs by far.”
Lathan hums in response, studying him.
“Do you have a favourite?” he asks in return, just happy to share something with his new roomie.
“‘Lonesome Soul.’”
“Woah,” Kylo says, impressed. “That was on their first album. Song’s deep, I can see why you like it.” Lathan doesn’t respond, but Kylo watches him reach over to itch his forearm, which is lit up by sunlight leaking in through the window and splaying over his bedsheets.
“Dammit,” Lathan mutters, sitting up and looking down at the pink patch of skin. Kylo’s smile drops, realizing his skin is burning from the direct sun. Lathan slides off his bed, his book flopping closed onto his duvet as he quickly moves to his wardrobe where he pulls out a small basket of toiletries and begins rummaging.
“Shit,” Kylo breathes as he hops up and closes the sheer blinds to only let soft light through, instead of the full rays of the sun. “You okay?” he asks, not knowing a lot about a vampire’s immune system.
Lathan retrieves a green bottle, sliding the basket back where it’s kept, closing the wardrobe before looking back at Kylo and the closed blinds with slight surprise. Popping the cap and squeezing the gel onto his finger, he begins to spread the substance across his light sunburn. “I’m fine. Sat in the sun all morning.”
“Okay.” Kylo shrugs a shoulder, trying to be casual about it. “If you need anything, just let me know.” I don’t wanna make him feel othered just ‘cause I have no clue how vampires work, so I’ll just go with the flow and hope for the best.
“Why did you have three roommates last year? Are you that annoying, or what?” Lathan asks sarcastically as he applies a second layer of gel.
Kylo’s head swivels back to him, taken aback, but then he lets out a laugh. “No, no,” he chuckles, catching his breath. “I was in a three-person room, but one of them ended up dropping out, so he was replaced during midterm.” It was quite the hectic arrangement, and I’d rather not suffer through that again. I’m glad it’s just you this year.
Lathan nods in acknowledgement. “Did you and your roommates ever have agreements? Rules?”
“Uh.” He thinks, recalling his past experiences. “The basics. No snooping, no stealing, keep your own space clean”— Even if they were shit at that particular rule— “stuff like that. Was there any other ground rules you’d like to have?” He wants to be as respectful as possible, since he is intruding on Lathan’s domain, even if it is Obscura-sanctioned.
Lathan cocks his head, as if internally treading cautiously. “And about…bringing people back here?”
“Oh.” Kylo’s brows raise slightly as his cheeks flush a pale shade of pink; he looks away awkwardly. “Usually they’d, uh, tell us beforehand, or put a sock on the door.”
“Mm,” Lathan snaps the lid of his bottle shut, placing it on his nightstand.
“So, uh, you goin’ to the party tonight? The one the RAs are throwing to start off the year?” Kylo says, changing the subject.
“No,” Lathan says cooly, without looking back up. He plops onto his bed again, tucking himself further into the corner to avoid even the indirect light, and grabs his book. Kylo just nods, watching him sit before kneeling to grab his suitcase from under the bed, thinking about what to wear. He swallows as his thoughts drift to the last party he attended, where he met Lathan.
◆◆◆
The sun is slow to set in the evening. By dinner, everyone who’s moving into their dorms for the day have arrived, and many are getting ready for the party—put on by Resident Assistants and the event committee, advertised on nearly every poster board and official Obscura social media accounts. Thanks to the lack of assignments burdening students and the excitement of returning to Obscura, the first party of the year always has a high attendance of every species—vampires, fae and mer of all subspecies, earthbound celestials such as cambion and nephilim, and of course werewolves like himself. Due to the numbers, the party is split between buildings to accommodate, so it’s always a rager.
Kylo arrives, dressed up nice in a red-patterned satin button-up and black slacks, ready to mingle and let loose. Although he tries to chat with both strangers and acquaintances alike, he can’t stop thinking about the last party. Lathan’s lips on his neck, the wicked high from the vampire’s venom, the pleasurable pull of blood leaving his throat—these memories have him in a chokehold. In an attempt to ignore them, he drinks and dances, hoping the liquor from the mysterious jungle juice or the thumping music and thrashing dancers will preoccupy his mind.
As the hours pass, and the party only gets thicker with bodies, Kylo can’t think of anything else. His heart racing as the memories plague him, tempting him with a good time. A better time. After gaining the courage to ask around for the vampire den—a common term to describe where any given species mingles in a group—he slips through the crowd toward a set of double doors. Pushing them open leads him down a long, empty corridor that connects the dorm building he was in to the one over. Red lights spill through the glass doors at the end of the hall, a menacing reminder of blood, quickening Kylo’s heart as he prepares himself to keep going. Inside, the shared space is drenched in LEDs that illuminate down the halls of dorm rooms.
Bodies casually enter and leave as if no one lives in them, an eerie goth playlist echoing over the speakers as vampires meld, drink, and dance amongst themselves. They all have their fangs detracted, on show, not hiding them from one another. It’s jarring for Kylo, having felt but not seen Lathan’s—it never occurred to him before that they’re typically hidden. They’re long and thin, compared to the shorter, thicker fangs that werewolves possess. Any one of them could deliver the sweet venomous high he craves, but not many seem thirsty.
Scanning the room, he swallows as his eyes land on two vampires talking in the corner, their sclerae a tinge of red that almost blends into the lighting around them. One is a tall, blonde man with a clean shaven face and a bone structure so strong he could be a model. The other, a beautiful woman, slightly shorter, with bright red hair that curls just above her shoulders.
“You two look like you could use a drink,” Kylo says as confidently as he can muster as he approaches. The couple look over at him, sizing him up.
“Are you lost, sweet pup?” The woman asks, her tone laced with both tease and intrigue. Kylo looks at them both, admittedly a little scared, but knowing the high those fangs contain, he decides it’s worth it.
Unbuttoning the first two on his shirt, he pulls his collar away from his neck, eyes begging for his next hit. “Thirsty?”
A deep, breathy sound comes from the male vampire, his pupils shrinking at the exposed flesh. He looks to his partner, and she grins so wickedly that Kylo shivers.
“Always,” the man purrs, stepping toward Kylo. The woman takes the wolf’s wrist, exhaling at the contact her fingers have on his pulse, before tugging him along, out of the open area and into an empty bedroom down the hall. The man follows, glancing over his shoulder.
As the door clicks shut behind them, isolating the three bodies in the dark room together, the woman pushes Kylo down onto the bed. She climbs him, pulling his partially unbuttoned shirt aggressively, her nose caressing his jugular.
“What a perfect, early graduation gift,” she hums against his neck. Kylo’s heart is racing faster than ever, his breathing shuddering with her touch, both anxious and heated from the two. His anticipation a drug of its own.
“So kind of you, wolf,” the man says, rolling his sleeves, looking down at him hungrily. Kylo doesn’t reply, watching the two carefully, his own mouth starting to water. Trying to relax, he closes his eyes, a willing host to their feast.
The woman doesn’t waste another second—her eyes aren’t even as red as Lathan’s were that night, months ago, yet she devours him mercilessly, sinking into his neck without preparation, without warning, drawing from him intensely. Kylo is taken by surprise, his eyes shooting open. This isn’t painless like before; he can feel her teeth tearing through his flesh.
He groans with a sharp inhale, his brows knitting together, trying to resist the pain, knowing the effects of the venom are coming. Was it painless last time because I smoked before?
The man grins, watching his girlfriend feast. Kneeling on the bed, he crawls toward Kylo, pulling his shirt open further, exposing the other side of his body—his shoulder, his chest. The woman’s hand grips the other side of Kylo’s neck, preventing her boyfriend from feasting there, but that doesn’t stop him. He pins his weight onto Kylo to keep him from moving, and bites his shoulder, just as roughly as the other.
The pain is real, and the venom doesn’t subdue it like it seemed to with Lathan. Rather, it keeps him weak, docile, as if to stop the vampires’ prey from fighting.
The man pulls back, readjusts, and sinks into a lower part of Kylo’s body, into his upper arm. His work is sloppy, selfish, without regard or consideration for Kylo, who lets out a pained breath as the fangs sink into his flesh again, ripping through skin and muscle. His head begins to lighten, fast. This isn’t right. He tries to move, to leave, but the venom keeps him paralyzed. This is bad. Shit, this is really bad. He lets out a whimper as he’s bit again, a tear rolling down his cheek as his mind panics inside the cage of his body. Is this how I fucking die? I should’ve listened to him… I don’t…wanna die…
As black spots start to fade into his vision, he sees a figure burst into the room. Lathan? he thinks before his eyes roll back, and he nods off into unconsciousness as the vampires drain him.