Gabe guessed he looked horrified, because Harvey rolled his eyes. “It was a joke! Sheesh, you’re so serious.”
Gabe rubbed his temple. He felt a headache coming on. “You don’t drink blood?”
“I’m a vegetarian and a Buddhist.”
Gabe nearly choked on his coffee. “You never drink blood?”
Harvey’s face stiffened into a mask. “I had to, to survive. But I drank only as much as absolutely necessary. Ray was always on my case about it.”
“Who’s Ray?”
“Nobody. What were those East European vampires like?”
“Ugly and mean—like me.”
“You’re not ugly.”
“But mean?”
Harvey’s expression was hard to read. “Most definitely. How did you find your current…umm…vocation?” he asked, rubbing a hand over his abdomen.
“It found me. It’s a family thing—as I discovered five years ago, when I met my uncle in Budapest. How did you become a vampire?”
“Oh you know, the usual, boy meets vampire, boy gets turned.” Harvey broke eye contact and quickly directed the conversation back to Gabe. “Why did you come back?”
“I had problems with my visa. I had no choice but to leave. Anyway, I’d grown up here, and I missed home.”
“I’m guessing you’re planning on taking up your pursuit again here.”
Gabe shrugged. “I haven’t been really thinking about it. But that’s all I’ve been doing for years; it’s become sort of an instinct. I don’t know what else to do.”
Harvey frowned. “I wish you wouldn’t. I really don’t want you to go around killing my friends. Not to mention, if the other vampires knew, they’d go after you. There are rules against killing humans, but slayers are free targets.”
“There are rules?”
“Well, of course. Dead humans attract attention. Nobody wants the cops sniffing around. Bad for business, as they say.”
“Do the other vamps drink that stuff you do?”
“No, not yet. It’s not ready. It sort of works, but there are side effects.”
“Like what?”
“Drowsiness, for one. You saw me last night. Normally it’s not a problem, I don’t drink that much, and only right before bedtime, so it’s no big deal. But most vampires don’t like feeling groggy. We’re already weak during the daytime. It makes us more vulnerable. I’m working on it, though. I have some ideas.”
“How did you even start?”
“I used to be a nurse when I was alive. I also studied natural medicine. I wanted to become a nutritional therapist.” Harvey sounded wistful for a moment, but he went on without missing a beat. “After I got turned, I had an idea that maybe it wasn’t the blood itself the vampire needed, and started experimenting with various substances. It took a while, but in the end, I was right; I haven’t touched blood in years. If I could just perfect my tonic, I could sell it in vampire bars.”
“There are vampire bars?”
Harvey’s lips twitched sideways. “I talk too much. You’ve never met a vampire you didn’t want to kill, did you?”
“I’ve never met one that didn’t try to kill me first.”
“Really, you must be exaggerating.”
“No, I’m not. Is every undead around here like you?”
“No, of course not.” Harvey rolled his eyes. “If you were a redneck alive, you’ll be a redneck undead. You won’t suddenly develop a fancy for velvet and puffy shirts. Not that anyone does—that stuff is strictly for the movies.”
The chime of the doorbell interrupted their conversation. Harvey jumped to his feet and scuttled off in the direction of the front door. Gabe used the opportunity to retrieve his bag. It was where Harvey had said—in the bedroom, under the bed. His leather jacket lay right next to it. He found Harvey in the living room opening a UPS box.
Harvey looked up. “Oh, you’re leaving?”
“I should.”
It was awkward. Neither of them seemed to be able to locate the right words for the situation. What would Miss Manners say?
“Would you…” Harvey started.
“What?”
“You know, lay off the whole staking business for now? I don’t want you to get hurt.”
Gabe considered it. He even felt oddly touched by the vampire’s concern. “Okay, I won’t do anything, unless I’m attacked. Will that do?”
“Great! Feel free to stop by if you have any questions.”
“Yeah, sure. Bye, then.”
Gabe spent the next few hours looking at help wanted ads in the papers. Not surprisingly, there was no demand for someone with his specific skill set. All he was qualified for was bagging groceries. He had the money from the sale of his parents’ store still sitting in the bank. It wasn’t much, but he could use it to start up something. Unfortunately, a recession wasn’t an easy time to start a business, especially if you had no idea what business you wanted to go into in the first place.
Eventually, his thoughts strayed back to Harvey. Simply being around and talking to the guy was bewildering. Harvey had a way of taking the easy, straightforward principles Gabe had been taught and shaking them up, turning them upside down, until Gabe didn’t know what to think.
It had been one thing taking care of foul-smelling monsters bent on ripping his face off. Sure, it had gotten a bit tedious after a while, but it was morally uncomplicated. Trying to eliminate someone who wanted to have a conversation like any regular person was infinitely more difficult. Logic having failed him, Gabe had only his gut instincts to fall back on, and his viscera was as confused as the rest of him. Secretly, he wished he could forget the past five years and go back to his old, normal life. He knew it was impossible but had no clue how to go forward either. He was still pondering that over dinner. Finally, he went for a walk. He wandered around aimlessly, or so he thought, until he found himself in Harvey’s neighborhood.
This time he went to the front door and rang the bell.
Harvey poked his head out, looking equal parts surprised and pleased, and no parts hostile. “Hey! What’s up?”
Gabe shifted his weight from one foot to another. “Hi. I thought maybe you wanted to go see a movie?” Hearing himself say it, he felt as surprised as Harvey looked. Harvey just stared at Gabe, speechless for a moment.
“A movie?” he asked when he found his voice.
“Yeah. Unless you’re busy.” It was probably a bad idea anyway.
“Nah. Let’s go. What do you wanna see?”
“I don’t even know what’s playing. Why don’t you decide?”
The movie Harvey chose was supposedly a big new release. Gabe, who hadn’t watched American television in a long while or gone to the movies much, only recognized the lead actor. The story was full of action, but that was just on the surface. Underneath hid a clever puzzle about what was real and what wasn’t, or if it even mattered. Gabe wasn’t one for deep philosophical ruminations, but he enjoyed the film anyway. Afterward, Harvey took them to a cafe still open at that late hour.
Gabe took a careful sip of his hot java, thoughts about the film still whirling around in his head. “I think the guy was still dreaming in the end.”
Harvey grinned back at him. “See, I knew you were a smart one! Do you think the other characters were real, other dreamers, or just products of his imagination?”
“Hmm, I didn’t think of that. You know, the young one reminded me of you.”
“Arthur?”
“Yeah, him.”
“He filled out that three-piece suit nicely, don’t you think?” Harvey asked with a lewd grin.
Gabe thought the actor indeed looked good in the suit. He also imagined that Harvey wouldn’t do any lesser job of it, but he didn’t share his opinions. Harvey took the lid off his coffee and bent his head over the cup.
“Are you gonna drink it?” Gabe asked, baffled.
“Nah. Most liquids just go through me without any effect, and my taste buds don’t work the same. But I can still enjoy the aroma. Coffee is number five on the list of things I miss.”
“What’s number one?”
“We’re not acquainted intimately enough to tell you that. Yet.” He looked at Gabe with a roguish expression, hinting at the possibility of all kinds of intimacies.
Gabe turned his attention back to his cup. He’d started puzzling out that Harvey was not quite the same during the daytime and at night. He was always chatty, ready for a quick barb, but now, after dark, he was more forward and playful. As if reading Gabe’s thoughts, Harvey moved his chair closer.
“Tell me more about you, my dark and mysterious prince. I don’t even know your full name.” How he managed to say such outlandish things without batting an eyelash was a mystery to Gabe.
“Gabor Vadas, but everyone calls me Gabe.”
“Gabor. What sort of name is that?”
“Hungarian version of Gabriel.”
“So you’re not a prince but an angel after all. How old were you when you came to the US?”
Angel? Hardly.
“I was born here. My parents immigrated in the seventies.”
Two thoughtful grooves appeared between Harvey’s brows. “Not an easy feat back then, right?”
“They had to sneak through the border in the dead of night. As a kid, I had the impression it was very dangerous, but they never really talked about it.”
“Do they still live in Chicago?”
“No, they died in a car accident years ago. I went back to Hungary not long after.”
“Sorry.”
Gabe gave a one-shoulder shrug. He was sorry too, but he could do nothing about the past. Certainly didn’t want to brood over it. “I don’t know your full name either.”
Harvey leaned back in his chair. “Harvey Feng. F-E-N-G, Feng. Not fang with an A.” He shot Gabe a warning look.
Gabe opened his mouth, then opted to use it to take a deep swallow of his cooling coffee. “So your father was Asian, then?” he asked.
“No. My mother was Chinese. I took her name when I turned eighteen. Probably to piss off my father.”
“Is he—”
“Gone. Both of them.” Without waiting for polite words from Gabe, Harvey pushed his cup aside. “So, what do you want to do? The night’s still young.”
They ended up walking down to the Navy Pier. Sure it was touristy and tacky as hell, but it was fun too. For a while, they were just two guys on a first date, or something like it, and all that other stuff was no more than a smudge at the edge of Gabe’s peripheral vision.
By the time they turned back toward the city, Gabe felt more relaxed than he’d been in years. At the El station, they stood too close for decorum, but their only company was a young guy wearing headphones and a bag lady, and both ignored them. It was a warm July night, even with the breeze blowing from the lake. Harvey’s skin felt cool to the touch, and Gabe had a sudden impulse to pull him into a warming embrace. But it was just Harvey’s normal body temperature—as Gabe reminded himself.
“Is it true that vampires have enhanced senses?” he asked instead.
“What do you think?”
“I don’t know. My uncle thought they could smell your blood, but I never had the chance to ask.”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“It’s not like all your senses just got amped up, thank God. Can you imagine, all the noises and stenches of the city squared?”
“What then?”
“Mostly living things. I can hear your heartbeat from across a room. If I concentrate hard enough, I can feel the nutrients coursing through the leaves of a tree.”
“Yeah, right.”
“I can smell your arousal.”
Gabe squinted at Harvey, unsure if he was being teased or not. The truth was he’d been semi-hard all night, but he’d thought his loose-fit cargo pants hid it well.
“Don’t be bashful. The full moon makes me horny too,” Harvey added.
“That doesn’t even make any sense.”
“Does it have to?”
Gabe was reminded of the previous time he and Harvey stood at an El station under different circumstances. “You knew the whole time I was following you that first night, didn’t you?”
“Would’ve been hard to miss. You were wrapped in a cloud of adrenaline. Don’t worry, though, I think I’m far more aware of these things than other vamps. At least, that’s what Ray says.” Harvey bit his lips at the slip.
This time Gabe didn’t ask about Ray, although he wanted to know very much. He was clearly someone who meant a lot to Harvey, and it gave Gabe a strange and annoying twinge of…something.
Harvey skipped over his gaffe. “Too bad it’s only true at night.”
Gabe realized how little he knew about vampires, aside from how to kill them. “What about during the day?”
“Then I feel like anyone else, only more dull.”
“I can’t imagine you dull.”
A joyful smile spread across Harvey’s lips. “The word has multiple meanings.”
“Someone helped you that night. Not undead,” Gabe said.
“Yes, a friend. You can sense us, can’t you? That’s how you followed me.”
“More if I concentrate. I didn’t actually pick you up till we bumped into each other in the bar, you were so faint.”
“Was it different in the Old Country? Or did you pick up all your vampires in bars?”
“Completely different. I could feel them a long way off. According to my uncle, it’s a genetic trait. Every man in my bloodline has been born with it since…I don’t know, hundreds of years. But it takes training to use it.”
“So it was your uncle who made you into a master of the sharp sticks?”
“Yeah. He was very old-school about it too.”
“Where is he now?”
“Passed away. Heart attack.”
Gabe didn’t add that Uncle Miklos was dead because of him, but Harvey seemed to sense his reticence.
Harvey reached up and pulled Gabe’s face down to his. Gabe didn’t resist the cool lips touching his own. He returned the kiss—it was slow and languorous, full of exploration and tentativeness, but not without an edge of danger. The more they kept kissing, the more heated it got. By the time the train charged into the station, there was nothing slow or uncertain about the way they tore into each other. Gabe’s brain told him that this was a very, very bad idea. Aside from the fact that it went against the credo he’d lived by for the past half a decade, getting mixed up with a vamp could get him killed. His dick told his brain to shut the hell up. It did.
After the forced restraint of the train, they started necking again on the street. By the time they reached the apartment, they were back on full steam. While Harvey was fumbling with getting the door key into the appropriate hole, Gabe pressed into him from behind. Hands on Harvey’s hips, Gabe pulled him close till the taut globes of his ass pressed into Gabe’s groin. Harvey groaned and missed the keyhole again as Gabe’s erection rubbed against him.