Empire of Vampires ✔️

Chapter Twenty-Two

'So, we finally caught a moment to teach you how to paint,' James stood in the middle of the art room the next day, his sleeves rolled up to the elbows and his torso cockily apron-less for he believed in his own expertise. It was a Sunday so the art room was empty except for the two of them, the students could employ it for personal use at any time there weren't classes being held.

Andrew, on the other hand, already had one hand covered in yellow after trying to crack open a new paint can. He'd pulled it hard, underestimating his own impressive strength, and the lid had spilt neatly in half, spilling itself on the tarpaulin.

He dragged his canvas around the floor now, soaking up the yellow to use as his background colour. James had suggested he try a sunrise and had insisted it wouldn't be too difficult for a beginner.

James looked down at him with a smirk, his arms crossed over his chest.

'You know it's just mixing up with the other tarpaulin stains and turning blue?'

Ugh he's soo annoying.

Andrew lifted up the canvas grumpily to see that the edge had in fact turned rather blue.

'I need that anyway! It's the sea.' He hurriedly set it on the easel and slathered the bottom with a large stroke of turquois paint. It immediately mixed with the yellow and turned an awful shade of green.

'You need to wait for it to dry,' James pointed out rather vexatiously.

'Whatever,' Andrew grumbled, embarrassed at his blunder. He waved off James's offer of a new canvas saying he was probably going to ruin that too. 'It can be a painting of a sunrise back in the 21st century when the ocean was green and full of plastic.'

James shuddered at the memory, piquing Andrew's interest. He hadn't stopped bombarding him with questions ever since he found out about everything last night. Keeping him up the whole night through, with surprising energy for a human, and then shaking him awake at the crack of dawn with more queries in mind.

'What were the little fishies like?' he begged now, dying for more details than what he'd read in books.

'Dead.'

'No, I mean before!' Andrew waved his arms around in exasperation. 'And those hundreds of species of crawly things before technology replaced the whole ecosystem.'

'I was terrified of them,' James admitted, walking over to assess the damage on the canvas.

'No way,' he gaped, unable to imagine James being afraid of anything, 'Even the little fishies??'

'No, not the FISH,' James glared at him, annoyed that he was being judged by a human who had never felt the awful tingle of a spider running across his skin. He pointed at the now dry canvas and ordered Andrew to continue.

Andrew absently stirred his red paint around with a faraway look in his eyes, probably thinking of more irritating questions to ask. He started sweeping big strokes to and fro on the horizon, mixing it in to make it orange.

'Start here and work your way outwards,' James directed, placing his own hand over the human boy's as he controlled his strokes, 'You don't want to be creating such harsh lines over the water.'

Andrew's hand felt weirdly clammy under the vampyre's surprisingly warm touch. He awkwardly wiped the sweat off his brow with his free hand, the forgotten paint dragging across his hair and leaving it tipped in yellow along with most of his forehead. He pulled away with a groan of frustration, yanking out his other hand from under James's.

'You certainly have a knack for making yourself look like art,' he grinned as Andrew grumbled something rude under his breath and plopped down on the nearest stool, having given up on his artistic ambitions.