Win is turned into a vampire against his will after being attacked at the university pool one fateful night. Five years later, he finds himself saving a drowning human in the same pool, their situations eerily similar. Neither can forget and are dra...
Win had passed out hard once they showered, Team successful in wearing him out. Before he rolled over to get his a nap in, Team sent a quick text to Pharm. When he woke a few hours later, a new message waited for him. Dean would arrive a bit before 10, and time was short.
Team exited the bed as slowly as he could manage. He was grateful for once that Win hadn't sprawled over top of him while they slept. Team scrawled a quick note with Win's stationary, peeking over his shoulder after each line scratched onto the paper. He shouldered his backpack, everything he needed for the meet already inside from the previous evening. He wanted to kiss Win goodbye, but decided against it. That one last touch would wake him up. Win would take one look at Team and know what he meant to do.
Sorry, Hia.
Before the voice of reason could yell any louder and turn him around, Team tiptoed to the door. He grimaced as the lock clicked, freezing to wait for any sign that Win's sharp ears had heard it past his slumber. Team dared to breathe again on the other side of the door. At least the house didn't have creaking floorboards to ease his steps over. Tense seconds passed as he cleared the hallway and stairs. He felt like a character in some spy video game, slinking through enemy lines. At the bottom of the staircase, he waited for the sound of footfalls or latches clicking. Anything at all to indicate that one of them was coming to stop him.
Silence.
Pangs of guilt bloomed in his chest. They had trusted him to stay put. To be a good house human and listen to the pack of strong vampires that had adopted him. Agreed to keep him safe while they searched for someone with the potential to hurt him. But vampires didn't go outside in the daylight—A-wut slept the same as they did.
Team readjusted the bag on his back. One more door. He gripped the doorknob of the front door, and it didn't budge. Team flipped the deadbolt back and forth, jangled the handle this way and that, but the door remained cemented in its frame. Ah, ha. So they didn't blindly trust him to not be this stupid.
He could feel his plan unraveling, outsmarted by the immortal occupants of this house, even while they slept. Hadn't Win said Ari had it specially built before he joined them? Just his luck. Team didn't understand the mechanism securing the door, only that it kept him inside and all the undesirables out. He fished his phone out of his pocket. Dean would arrive around the corner any minute. He didn't want to have to text his friends that he was wrong. That he was still "sick" and they made their trip for nothing.
Team smacked his phone against his palm as he thought about all the entrances to the house. Maybe they overlooked one. His eyes landed on the neat row of keys hanging on the wall beside the door to the garage. The SUV had a garage door opener fob. Win's bike did too.
The door sweep scraping against the tile made Team wince, but he had found the one exit that would open for him. Even if the garage door was "secured" according to vampire standards, they all had that little piece of plastic with their keys. A certain chubby bear dangled from its ring on the wall. Team apologized mentally to Win again and closed his hand around it.
Prepared this time, Team eased the door shut with a softer hiss of the rubber. He pressed the button of Win's fob, and the door whined in its track, revealing beautiful, golden sunlight beyond its edges. Team shifted from foot to foot, waiting for the gap to grow large enough to slip through. He thumbed the button on the fob a second time and left the key on Win's seat. The hunk of sheet metal jerked from the interruption and reversed direction. Team ducked underneath, careful not to trip the sensor.
He had done it!
His happiness was bittersweet. Team groaned against the rays burning his eyes, skin prickling from the sun approaching its apex in the sky. He shook away a silly thought. It was just because he hadn't seen daylight in over a week. Nothing to do with the vampire blood he had consumed. He hadn't already started to change. Free from the vampire house, Team broke into a jog, his friends waiting nearby.
"I thought you were gravely ill."
Dean's comment cut straight to the heart of the matter after the car door closed behind Team. Manaow threw her arms around him and squeezed before he could answer. She didn't care one bit if what he "had" could be "caught." Team felt a surge of love for the girl.
"Aow. You're so pale, Team."
Manaow brought her hand to his cheek. Team fought a bizarre impulse to nuzzle into the warmth of her skin. Had he really missed human touch this much?
"Are you sure you're ok?" Pharm shifted around to face him from the front seat. "You aren't pushing yourself?"
The concern was plain on his sweet face. Pharm was always so caring, a comforting person who Team could always turn to. Confide in. Another wave of emotion bubbled up in his chest. God, he had missed them so much.
Team hid behind a laugh, grinning a goofy smile to put his friends' minds at ease. Show them he was alright, healthy enough to be there with them, to compete, and—with any luck—return with a medal around his neck.
"Ha, that's my uncle, always thinking the worst." Team scrambled for more straws to stuff into his explanation. "I was feeling better when he requested the note. I feel completely recovered, I promise."
Oh? You promise, do you?
Team's inner voice rang loud and clear between his ears.
Like you promised Win?
"Your promises don't seem to mean much, Team." Win's voice cut through him like a hot knife. Team could see the disappointment and hurt in his brown eyes.
The clarity of the vision staggered him for a moment, but the scenery was already rolling by after Dean eased them onto the road. The vampires, and Win, were falling farther and farther behind him. It wasn't really Win; it was Team's own guilt clawing a hole inside of him. Making him feel even worse for rolling this particular dice.
"You used me."
Fuck. He had.
Team had been so blinded and preoccupied by what he wanted, he had let his own selfishness guide him. He almost asked Dean to take him back, but remembered he didn't have a way to get past the door. He was stuck with this impulsive decision. No choice but to see it to the end, consequences and all.
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