AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But tonight, he’d learned the truth. Vampires were real. It wasn’t safe for Sky.
“You shouldn’t go to Phoenix. It’s too dangerous.”
Sky huffed a laugh and wandered over to a cabinet, where he grabbed a tall glass. “Don’t worry about me. My friends and I can take care of ourselves.” He walked over to the fridge and filled the glass with ice and filtered water from the door.
Nolan snagged his wrist when Sky placed the drink in front of him on the table. “No, I’m serious. I know you don’t believe me, but there are vampires at Phoenix. Lots of them. You shouldn’t go there.”
For the first time since he’d met Sky, his smile turned stiff and brittle. “You’re right. There are actual vampires at Phoenix, and it’s very dangerous for humans if you’re not careful.”
He jerked his hand from Sky as if the man had burned him, and lurched back in his chair, trying to put a few extra inches between them. The legs scraped loudly across the black and white tile floor. Was Sky a vampire, too?
No, that couldn’t be right. He’d seen him plenty of times during the day, mowing his little lawn and tending to his flowers.
Sky chuckled. “Not a vampire. I swear.” To prove his point, he opened his mouth to reveal two rows of perfectly straight, normal white teeth. He even ran the tip of his tongue over an average human incisor. He closed his mouth and rolled his eyes at himself. “Well, vampires can tuck their fangs away in the roof of their mouth, but really, not a vampire.” He straightened and nodded to the water. “Drink that. It’ll help. I can get you some hot tea, or maybe coffee? Or would you like a sandwich?”
Sky turned to a door with a frosted glass window that had “Pantry” written across it in a fancy script. “You know, I think I’m feeling like I could have a bit of a snack now. Something in your stomach would help soak up that alcohol.” He sounded as though he was mostly rambling to himself. Nolan didn’t remember having a single drink while at Phoenix, but it was the only explanation he had for his foggy head.
“I don’t understand. You believe me? You know vampires are real?”
His neighbor turned toward him, his smile becoming almost a wince. “Yes. Vampires are real. And you need to be very careful around them.”
“But-but-but how do you know? Why doesn’t everyone know?”
Sky gave him another hand wave and continued to the pantry, where he pulled out a couple of paper plates and bread. “Don’t you worry about me. Let me make you a sandwich, and you tell me about your brother. You said he’s not at Phoenix, but you were there looking for him?”
With a huff, Nolan slouched in his chair. He glared at the water in front of him. He didn’t want a sandwich or water, but if Sky knew about vampires, maybe he knew other helpful things that would speed up finding his useless brother.
He grabbed the water and took a big gulp, which helped to relieve some of his cotton mouth, and watched as Sky made several trips to and from the fridge, pulling out different deli meats, cheeses, lettuce, olives, and condiments. When Sky went about making a sandwich, it was clearly serious business.
“What are you feeling? Roast beef? Ham? Turkey? Salami? All of it?”
“Turkey is fine,” Nolan muttered.
“White, wheat, or sourdough?”
“Wheat. Do you run a fucking sub shop out of your kitchen?”
Sky flashed him the cheeky grin he’d seen on the man’s face every time he’d popped over to Nolan’s house for some random reason. “I make the best damn sandwiches in all of Millstone Creek. You’re gonna be back for my sandwich.”
A snort escaped him that could have been mistaken for a choked laugh. He would not laugh at Sky’s silly comments and innuendos.
“Now cheese…sharp cheddar, Gouda, Swiss…oooh, wait, I think I’ve got some of that pepper jack left. I—”
Sky broke off at Nolan’s sudden bark of laughter. This man was his own sandwich shop. Nolan was lucky to have half a loaf of wheat in the house that hadn’t gone moldy and a bit of ham.
“Cheddar is fine,” he said around his chuckles.
“Okay. This brother…” Sky prodded as he returned to making Nolan’s sandwich. It was enough to crush his brief spark of happiness.
“Yeah, Owen,” he muttered and swallowed the last of his water. He shoved out of his chair with the glass and walked to the fridge to refill it. “If he can find trouble that will either land him in jail or get him killed, he’ll do it without a single hesitation.”
“Ah, I’ve heard little brothers can be like that,” Sky murmured.
Nolan scoffed. “Older brother. Owen is my older brother by three years. I’ve been bailing his useless ass out since we were kids.” Nolan shuffled to the table and dropped into his chair. He glared at the full glass of water with the half-oval cubes floating at the top. “This is the first time he’s ever done anything with vampires, as far as I know.”
