Vampire Boys Of Summer (Completed!)

Episode 43: Saving Haru

I pulled the car into Mrs. Winston’s driveway and honked the horn several times. Haru groaned in my lap. I lifted the blanket off his head so I could see his face.

“We’re here, Haru. Can you walk?”

“Yes,” he answered in a weak voice.

“Look at me,” I demanded. He tilted his head until he was peering up into my face. “You had a taste of my blood the other night when you bit my lip. You can take a little more from me, I don’t mind. “ I offered him my wrist.

There was a peck on the window. The car door was yanked open. Startled , I pulled my wrist away from Haru’s face and confronted the intruder. It was Ryo.

“Get out of the car, “ he commanded. I did , but I wasn’t sure if it was by my own thinking or his vampiric suggestion. He reached in the vehicle and hauled Haru out with one hand. He turned his face towards him to shield it from the sun and wrapped the blanket around the body. “Fool,” he snarled.

He carried him in his arms up the porch steps to the front door and then turned to me. “Well, come on, if you’re coming.” I closed the door and followed them.

Inside the house, I got a surprise. Ryo was an Asian vampire, but it looked like he was redecorating Mrs Winston’s house using the Dracula’s Castle handbook. Gothic wall sconces held red candles, dripping wax onto the carpet. Old faded paintings of half naked men and women in throes of ecstasy hung on the walls going up the stairs, as if they were directing you to the room where sins of the flesh were celebrated. When he went up the first step, I thought the floorboards would creak. The whole atmosphere of the place was dark, goth, and mysterious. I followed him up, thinking it was expected of me, and as I climbed each step, I looked back, wondering if the way home was closing shut behind me.

We came onto the upper landing, and I felt that up here even the air felt different. It had a somewhat dizzying effect, and I put my hand on the banister to keep from swaying. “It will pass,“ Ryo said, as he pushed a door open with his foot.

I took a deep breath and tried to dispel the nervousness that was pervading me. Haru moaned in Ryo’s arms and it sounded like a weak protest. They stepped over the threshold and into the room. Ryo turned back to look at me. “Enter, all ye who dare,” he said with a smirk.

I felt my body hesitate and wondered if I should let them go on alone. It would be an easy thing to go back down the stairs and wait for Haru to get his rest, healing, or whatever. But, I didn’t. Ryo had issued a challenge. I didn’t want him to think he had some kind of hold over me, so I stepped into the room.

“Close the door,” he whispered. I pushed it shut with the flat of my hand and all light was extinguished from the room. I froze in place. I couldn’t see a thing. Ryo’s face could be right in front of me, his lips two inches from mine, his body encircling me without my knowledge. Then, there was light. The flicker of a candle, and I saw Ryo was nowhere near me. He had lay Haru on an ornate divan and was removing him from the blanket. “Get those other candles,” he said, without looking at me.

There were tabletop candelabras everywhere it seemed. They were spaced about the room atop various objects; a nightstand here, a dresser there, a coffee table, a cedar chest. There was a book of matches by each one and I went around the room lighting the candles. With each one, I was able to take in my surroundings more.

The room was styled in a Victorian lover’s dream. It was like I fell out of real life and into Wuthering Heights, or perhaps Pride & Prejudice. Heavy curtains covered the windows, blocking all the outside light from invading this sanctuary. The furniture was old, but in collectible condition. An antiques dealer would have fainted at all the centuries old furnishings. Lighting the last of the candelabra, I turned to Ryo, who had propped Haru up on the divan. He sat down next to his ailing vampire cousin.