In This Together

Chapter Seven

"What did you do to my brother?" Delaney demanded. It was days later and Luke still wasn't acting right. Given, Delaney hadn't had much of a chance to see the boy. Luke seemed like he was avoiding all of them, which was great if it meant that he wouldn't insist on going on anymore hunts with them, but there was obviously something bothering him besides a lack of interest in this lifestyle change.

Now, Howell and Delaney stood outside the bar, causing the older man to insist Delaney not to make a scene, especially at his own place of work.

Naturally, Howell was the first person Delaney blamed for whatever was going on. The only time Luke had been out of his sight, he'd been with the old man.

"Did you say something to him? What did you do?" he asked again.

Howell frowned, the crease in his forehead deepening. "I didn't do anything to the kid," he said. "All I had him do was his damn job."

"Which was?"

Delaney didn't like the answer he was given. "You had my brother torturing people?" he asked, incredulous.

"Not people. Vampires," Howell stated. "And you're acting as if you yourself weren't killing them."

"Yeah but—" Delaney had no good response to that. "You can't," he choked out before clearing his throat. "You can't have him doing that," he said, trying to sound forceful.

"What else is he gonna do?" Howell asked. "He's not a fighter, he barely knows how to shoot a gun, there's very little option here, boy."

Delaney said nothing and Howell continued. "You got lucky. You know all the basics already. If you want him to be a part of this, if he even still wants to be a part of this, he's going to have to take what action he can get for now."

"Well," Delaney muttered. "We might not have to worry about it at all." As of right now, it seemed like Luke had checked himself out of their group. Maybe it was better that way. It was definitely better that way.

---

Boy Scout was the nickname that stuck with Luke after their first hunt. The guy had kind of brought it on himself, but the other guys were having a great time with it.

"Where's the Boy Scout today?" Jamie asked once. At least the lack of Luke's presence wasn't going completely unnoticed, but Delaney was running out of excuses to give and usually ended up shrugging in response.

The truth, of course, was that Delaney didn't know where Luke was, what he was doing, or why he wouldn't at least talk to him, even if he wouldn't see him. So he would shrug, say he was busy, anything besides what he thought the real reason was that Luke wasn't around.

Delaney was trying to imagine how Luke felt. Probably disgusted with himself. Probably terrified. Delaney had been there before and if this was the case with Luke, he wanted to be able to talk to him. The two of them spent so much time not talking about what was bothering them, even though if they did, they'd know someone else was feeling the same way they were, and that they could get through it.

But instead Luke wouldn't return his phone calls, his texts, and every time Delaney visited the house, Luke somehow always managed to be gone. He supposed he should give Luke his space, people needed to work through things in their own way, even if Delaney firmly believed he could help.

"I don't get it," Delaney said one night, pacing around his apartment. Ryan was lounging on his couch, flipping through channels on the TV.

"I could help him," Delaney continued. "Talking about it helps. Isn't that the spiel they gave all of us when we got back to the States?"