Between Worlds

Chapter 12

Malyn volunteered to follow the bus on his bike and Tyla insisted on riding with him. After the fire last night, the threats against Malyn, and then having to wait so long to find out whether Malyn was okay, Tyla didn't want to be apart from him again. Maybe that was illogical, but the idea of having Malyn out of his sight made Tyla feel panicky.

Shadow had lent Tyla some clothes, and though they were a little big, they were certainly more appropriate to ride a motorcycle in than his sleeping gown.

Sometimes Tyla felt like he wasn't cut out for all of this in the same way that Malyn and Finch were. He'd had an easy, safe childhood. When he had been little, he'd always dreamed of doing something action packed when he grew up. He'd practised his shielding over and over again because he wasn't allowed to learn anything violent, but he hadn't had the real world experiences Malyn and Finch had.

Malyn had grown up roaming forests and hunting for his food, and Finch... well, Tyla still felt guilty for asking about that brand on Finch's wrist. Finch had seen the kind of darkness Tyla hadn't known it was possible to come back from.

They'd never judged him for being different, though. His insecurity was a beast of his own invention. They had always insisted that their differences were what made them strong, and he agreed, but it was hard to know his place in things when Malyn and Finch felt like two sides of the same coin. They shared a sarcastic sense of humour that Tyla didn't always get, only with Finch approaching it with an undertone of pessimism and Malyn with unrelenting positivity.

All three of them, Malyn, Finch, and Adin, were so close. Sure, there were things Adin had kept hidden even from Malyn, but they had a certain level of comfort that Tyla was still building.

And that was why it was so silly to feel jealous. They were building that level of closeness, they were letting him into their lives, into the family they'd built, but growing relationships took time.

The strangest part was that he hadn't felt this way at all at first. He'd felt welcomed from the start. It had only been recently and, admittedly, mostly where Malyn was concerned, that he'd started feeling so insecure.

After about an hour of driving, Malyn overtook the bus, held his arm out to signal, and they pulled into a parking lot in front of a fast food store.

Everyone got off the bus and the six of them headed towards the store.

Just before they entered, Tyla glanced around and realised Malyn was no longer with him. Finch had held him back and they were talking together at the edge of the parking lot.

Irrational jealousy flooded through Tyla, but when he walked over to them, they were just talking about where they would go to eat the food after they bought it. Of course. Why did Tyla keep feeling this way? He had absolutely no reason to.

They headed inside the store, Malyn coordinated ordering for everyone, and then they sat down to wait for their food.

"It's a shame I was already a vampire when I came here," Luther commented. "There are so many different foods here, and so readily available. When I was a human, we ate the same few things over and over, with only the occasional treat for special occasions."

Malyn propped his face up on the palm of his hand as he watched Luther. "Does different blood taste different?"

"Oh, yes, absolutely," Luther said. "I have a source of rejected donor blood from the local blood bank. Or... did, I suppose. With people coming here from different worlds, there are all kinds of oddities that pop up during blood screenings that means they have to throw otherwise perfectly good blood away. You can imagine how even something as simple as a novel blood type can complicate things. I've tasted some very exotic bloods in my time."