Forever Fearless

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

“Issa, we don’t understand. Where was your head? What the hell were you thinking?” His father was always animated when he became emotional, and upon receiving the official report released by the Matarian Brotherhood, he was furious.

Ibrahim Hawatmeh was a sturdy man, a good foot taller than his slender son. In his youth, he obviously would have had the body of a linebacker, but now he just had the manly upper body with broad shoulders and a bulky chest. In middle age, he’d filled out and now sported a bit of a belly. His gray hair and bushy eyebrows, along with his stern, deep voice, made him sound authoritative, even when he tried to be conversational.

“Father—”

“You ran out onto the battlefield demanding a ceasefire? And a vampire escaped because of your recklessness?” He was reading the report verbatim.

“No, it wasn’t like that. Not exactly.”

“What then? I am not blind, son! I see the words before my own eyes, in black and white. I’m holding the official report in my hand!” He waved it frantically in front of Issa’s face.

“Ibrahim, let the boy speak.” His mother touched her husband’s arm. “Let him explain.” She turned to Issa with an expectant stare.

The entire conversation, if he could even call it that, was in Arabic. Issa’s parents often spoke their native language at home, and when they became upset, they did so without exception. Issa took a deep breath, and then began speaking in English.

“There was a boy there, and he’d been shot. A regular boy, not a vampire, about my age.”

“One of the cadets?” his mother asked.

Issa shook his head. “No, he’d come with the others, with the vampires.”

“So he was one of them!” His father’s unreasonableness was beyond annoying.

“He was human, father. He was not vampire or wolf. I stepped forward because he’d been shot, and I was trying to save him. I called for a ceasefire, but before I could reach the injured boy, the one remaining vampire scooped him up and ran away.”

“To devour him. To murder the boy as they did our Shadi!” He was speaking Arabic again. “The boy was either one of them, or he was their prisoner, and now, thanks to your foolishness, he’s probably been converted to vampire.”

“They loved each other!” Issa blurted out. His father’s words had pushed him to a point where he couldn’t hold back his anger. “The vampire and the human were in love, just as Shadi…”

His mother leaned forward. “Shadi?”

Issa shoved his chair back and stood up, stepping away from the table.

“What did you find out about Shadi?” his father demanded.

“He…he…he was like me. He was…gay. Shadi was gay, and you wouldn’t accept it. You wouldn’t accept him for who he was, so he left. It’s funny that for all these years you never bothered to mention this detail.”

“Issa, it isn’t true,” his mother whispered. “Shadi was just confused. He’d not yet met the right girl. He’d not yet figured out—”

“He knew! He knew who he was the same way I know, but because you rejected him, he ran away. And you always blamed it on the vampires. It isn’t the vampires’

fault your sons are homosexual!”

Slap!

The force of his father’s backhand sent Issa sailing backward, arms flailing. He cried out in pain as he tumbled to the floor.

“Ibrahim! No!” His mother intervened, rushing over to her son.

Issa, mouth bleeding, reached up to wipe away the blood. Lying on his back, he stared up at his parents. “And now you offer your second son the same hateful treatment.” He scurried to his feet and rushed up the stairs to his bedroom.

~~~~~

Issa lay in his room, thinking of Dylan. They’d spoken on the phone or computer almost every day but hadn’t actually seen each other since boot camp. Although they lived in the same state, they were four hours apart. Issa longed to be with him now, to feel Dylan’s strong arms embrace him.

The past few weeks had been a nightmare, all the death and needless bloodshed, watching Brendan tortured only to be rescued then immediately killed, then meeting his missing brother only to discover he’d become a vampire. Dylan was the only silver lining. Had it not been for boot camp, they’d never have met.

Issa picked up his phone, debating whether he should call his boyfriend. Once he told Dylan of how his father had struck him, Dylan would likely react rashly. He might even find a way to come try to rescue him and take him away. Issa couldn’t put Dylan in that situation. Not only did he want to avoid upsetting Dylan, but he knew that any confrontation between Dylan and his father would not end well.

He could do what his brother had done—run away. He could flee in the middle of the night and they’d be none the wiser. By the time they realized he was gone, he’d be far enough away…but then what? Where would he go? How would he survive on the streets? He could go to Dylan, but that would only complicate matters. Dylan’s dream of being a vampire slayer was contingent upon his loyalty to the Matarians, and Issa’s father was a leader of the Matarian Brotherhood.

He couldn’t seek out Shadi on his own. That’d be too dangerous. Eventually he’d find his brother, but he had to wait. Were he to somehow locate Shadi, he’d have to enter Raoul’s lair in order to meet with his brother. To do so would be suicide.

If only there were some way for him to contact the vampire who’d escaped, the half-breed named Colt. Maybe he’d somehow saved his boyfriend, and maybe they’d found their way to safety. If so, they might have the answers that Issa sought. They might know how he could arrange a reunion with his vampire brother.

A gentle rap on the bedroom door roused Issa from his thoughts. He glanced over to see his mother enter, and she was carrying a wet towel and some first aid supplies.

“Are you okay?” she asked in Arabic.

“Leave me,” he whispered.

Ignoring him, she closed the door behind her and stepped closer to his bed. “Let me see your face.”

“Is this what your husband did to my brother? Is this why he fled, to escape that man’s brutality?”

“Son, he is your father. Don’t speak disrespectfully.” There were tears in her eyes.

“And is it respectful of him to strike me?”

“Shh.” She sat down on the edge of the bed and placed her hand on his shoulder.

“He loves you very much but lost his temper.”

Issa felt hot tears streaming down his cheeks as he looked up into his mother’s face.

“Mother,” he whispered, “what I said is true. I’m gay.”

She leaned forward and dabbed the corner of his mouth with the warm washrag.

“You needn’t decide such things now. You’re still young.”

“I’m old enough to know.” He pulled away from her and slid up on the bed so he was sitting upright. “I know how I feel, Mother.”

She nodded. “And how did you discover this information about Shadi?”

Issa looked away, focusing for a moment on an inspirational wall poster that depicted an outdoor scene. He took a deep breath before turning to face her. “They’d captured this vampire and held him in a cage. It was horrible. He was being crucified with sliver spikes, Mother, and they had fluorescent lights on him that burned his skin.”

“Yes, but these are the tools we use to detain these monsters.”

“But I spoke to him, and he wasn’t a monster! He was a normal person just like you and me.”

“He may look normal, but—”

“He knew Shadi! He told me Shadi was fascinated with vampires and wanted to become one himself.”

“Lies!”

“And he told me Shadi was gay.”

“Is this why you’ve decided this? You’ve taken the counsel of a demon and believed all he’s told you? This evil one told you your brother was homosexual, and so now you want to be the same?”

“No! Mother, I’ve always known I was gay. Or, well, I’ve known a long time. I knew I was different from the time I was young. Then as I got older, I began to feel attractions.”

“With prayer, perhaps you can change.”

“Does a leopard change his spots? Does a zebra lose his stripes? No amount of prayer is going to change who I am, Mother. Prayers did not change Shadi, and they will not work on me either.”

Slowly she shook her head. “I will bring you ice. Your mouth is already beginning to swell.”

“Can I ask you something? I mean no disrespect, but I—”

“Speak your mind, child.”

“You named me Issa because you said I was a gift from God, no?”

She smiled and nodded, her eyes again flooding with tears.

“Why would you question the gift God has given you, Mother? I am as He created me.”

The smile slowly faded from her face as she stared into Issa’s eyes. “I…I don’t know how to answer, son. But it is true, I will love and cherish you as the greatest gift, the most precious blessing God has bestowed upon my life—no matter what.”

“No matter if I’m gay?”

“No matter what!”

~~~~~

After his mother left him, Issa turned off his phone and allowed himself to drift off to sleep. He didn’t want to risk talking to Dylan until he’d cleared his head. If he told Dylan his father had struck him, Dylan would surely overreact. Dylan was the type who’d do anything to protect his boy.

When he awoke the following morning, sunlight already streamed through his bedroom window. A glance at the bedside clock confirmed he’d slept in. It was already after eleven. As Issa slid out of bed onto the hardwood floor, he spotted an envelope by his bedroom door. It must be mail that his mother slipped under the door.

He padded to the bathroom, and on his way back, stooped to pick up the letter.

There was no return address, but he knew immediately it was official correspondence from the Matarian Brotherhood. He could tell by the typeface and the style of the envelope. They were identical to those used when he’d been invited to boot camp.

He tore open the envelope and began reading the typewritten letter. He eased himself into a seated position on the bed.

Unfortunately, we cannot assign you to a mission at this time for the following reasons: Cadet boot camp training incomplete.

Inadequate battlefield readiness

We encourage you to continue with your training and reapply for boot camp. Upon acceptance, a skill assessment and personality profile will be conducted in order to place you in a field that matches your unique abilities. This may or may not include military operations.

Fuck. If his father hadn’t been pissed enough already, he surely would be irate upon hearing this news. But worse than that, Issa knew that without an assignment, he wasn’t likely to see Dylan again anytime soon. He angrily crumpled the letter and tossed it across the room.

He went over to his dresser, removed a T-shirt, and quickly pulled it over his head.

Then he sat down at his desk and fired up his laptop. After a few clicks, he typed in the password to his bank account to check his balance. He had a little over four grand in his savings. That was enough to get him to Dylan, and then to Texas. Maybe he could find some clues that would help him locate Colt…and Robbie, if he was still alive.

~~~~~

“Sheltered” didn’t begin to describe Robbie’s life experience. He’d known a handful of people at school, a few coworkers at work, and his neighbors in the trailer park.

Other than that, he hadn’t traveled. He’d never been outside the state of Michigan before meeting Colt.

When they first arrived in Anchorage, Colt took them to the airport, and from there, they rented a car which they drove to their new hometown. It would have been much quicker to travel on foot, but they had to maintain appearances. They couldn’t just show up in Nenana out of nowhere. Colt had found a home on the Internet, then contacted the real estate agent and purchased the cabin he’d chosen, sight unseen, over the phone.

They arrived in town early in the morning before the sun came up. Colt had arranged for them to stay at the only lodging facility in town, a “rent-a-cabin” business. They checked in, and Robbie crashed, exhausted—relieved to at last have a real bed in which to sleep. He awakened to pitch blackness.

Now he knew what cats felt like, being able to see in the dark. He hadn’t yet tapped into a fraction of his newly acquired abilities, but night vision was one he’d discovered quickly. Their long, cold trip had been entirely void of light. They’d slept during the day, in the woods, covering themselves with a plastic tarp Colt had stored in their backpack. Each morning, prior to bedding down for the day, Colt hunted and brought Robbie a fresh kill. He’d devoured the blood like a starving cannibal, shocked by his own hunger.

As Robbie awakened, he could think of nothing but that hunger.

“Morning,” Colt said. He sat in a chair alongside the bed, reading a book in the darkness.

“Is that what it is?” Robbie asked.

“For us.”

“Why don’t you turn on a light?” Robbie asked. “Won’t it be easier to read?”

Colt reached up and flicked on the lamp. “Not really, but it usually makes the humans more comfortable. They get kinda creeped out by the idea of vampires slinking around in the dark.”

Robbie hugged himself, still not at ease acknowledging what he was.

“You’re hungry,” Colt said, standing up.

“A little,” he lied.

“You’re starving. Let’s go eat, and then I’ll take us to our new home. I got everything taken care of while you were sleeping.”

“You didn’t sleep yourself, then?” Robbie asked.

“Enough. I slept a few hours.”

“I’m sorry. I just get so tired as soon as it’s daylight.”

Colt smiled and nodded. “Yeah, I was like that for about the first hundred fifty years.”

“Oh God.”

Colt laughed. “Come on.” He held out his hand.

Robbie couldn’t believe they’d been told their new house was a cabin, because when they got there, they discovered it was a much nicer home than anything Robbie ever imagined himself living in. Built on a hill, with a large wooden porch extending the full length of house, it reminded Robbie of the type of old farmhouses he’d seen on television, on old shows like The Waltons.

“This is beautiful,” Robbie said as they stood inside the living room. He looked around, taking in the rustic decor. “And so big.”

“You like it?”

“I do, but it’s so far away from everyone.” It seemed they’d had to drive forever to get there, even from Nenana.

“That’s the idea,” Colt said. “Privacy.”

“What about the winters?” It currently was fall, and though Robbie didn’t know much about Alaska, he was sure they got a lot of snow.

“Well, most people in our situation use snowmobiles when they can’t get in and out by car. We’ll just have to see. It’s not like that’ll be an issue for us anyway. And going into winter, the daylight hours will be shorter—a lot. That’ll be good.”

Robbie crossed the room and entered the kitchen. “Wow, look at this huge kitchen…all the counter space. And a dishwasher!” He turned to see Colt’s smiling face.

“I know, it’s stupid. I’ll probably never use it.”

“Not stupid at all. Probably not, but at least we have one.”

Robbie thought about how his mom had always lamented the fact she didn’t have a dishwasher. With the money Colt had given her, now maybe she’d be able to get one.

He knew she’d miss him, maybe even as much as he missed her, but the money would help. She’d be able to get on with her life, do some of the things she’d always wanted to do.

“After all this settles down and things get back to normal, we’ll find a way for you to see her again,” Colt said, as if reading Robbie’s mind.

Robbie shook his head. What was normal? “That would probably just make it harder on her. Better she thinks I’m dead. I mean, how am I gonna explain all this to her? In twenty years I’ll look exactly the same as I do now.”

Colt nodded. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.

“You’ve nothing to be sorry for,” Robbie said, stepping closer to him. “You saved me, and you’re the one who truly lost your family. Twice.” He’d lost his human family all those years ago when Richard converted him, and now he’d just suffered the loss of his two fathers.

“I should’ve never placed you in that position to begin with.”

“Colt, there are no guarantees, not even for vampires.” He considered Richard and Brendan. They’d faced an eternity with each other until suddenly it was stolen from them. Robbie wrapped his arms around his lover’s waist and snuggled next to his chest.

“We have each other,” he whispered, “and that’s all that matters.”

“I love you,” Colt replied.