Jesse

12

"You know... when he said I was his other gay friend he didn't mean-"

"Are you not gay?" I asked him and he laughed before rubbing at his chest.

"I used to be. But with this leg..." He looked down as we kept going through the crowd and I just shrugged.

"Lack of leg can't be a problem." I told him with a small laugh knowing how good looking he was. It was easy to over look or get over if he had the right personality to match.

"Oh trust me... it is." He told me and I shook my head slowly as we got to a place he decided to go right into the store. I walked in as well, seeing a few people looking around, but not many actually holding items.

"So what is this exactly? A regular store?" I asked seeing that there weren't a lot of big named brands and some simple fabrics.

"A good one. It has quality and basics. I get most of my work clothes here, I figured you would want something comfortable to relax in now that you are safe."

"That would be true." I moved to start looking for sweaters and jeans in my size and I noticed that he walked off, heading towards a single man who was in the front talking to someone else. He seemed to linger, and while I could tell that he didn't crave the man, I could tell he wanted something from him.

I picked out shirts, and sweats and took a couple deep breaths as I went looking for socks and underwear. I had everything I needed besides a couple toiletries but I was sure that Brian would be able to take me to get those as well where they don't charge up the ass for a toothbrush.

"Ready?" I turned my head fast as I heard Brian's voice and nodded at him before we were checking out. I saw the sign as soon as I reached the register, I didn't have an ID and I certainly wasn't Zander so there might be a problem.

"Card?" The kid asked and I handed it over as I pulled it out of my back pocket, he looked at the name, seemed to pause before running it and then handing it back. He started to load the items into a bag and I realized as he seemed to be on auto pilot... that he was getting controlled or if he was already told what to do.

I looked over at Brian and saw that he had no issues, so I when I was done, we were heading out without issues. "Next?"

"Something to clean my mouth out with." I told him, tasting some kind of glue almost. It was like I had licked 1000 envelopes and I could tell I was getting hungry. Starving more like it.

"Then dinner?"

"Something like that." I told him and he smiled before smirking again before we were in the crowd again, going through, and when he went through the quarter he reached back, getting my elbow and holding onto it as we went back and forth around all the drunks in the crowd.

My elbow turned into my hand and I was holding on hard as some women were grabbing me and I made sure to wink and nod to our hands together as a sign of what team I was batting for. Some girls let go of me after a small pout and others shrugged and smirked as if they were gods gift to gays and they could possibly turn us 'normal' as they kept leaning in until I was completely away from them and Brian kept pulling my hand.

"Here we are." He let go of me, moved to get a small basket and he led the way as he tossed in some tooth brushes, some tooth paste, and he went for deodorant and actually let my pick out my own scent before he looked around again as if we were forgetting something.

"What happened between him and Vivian?" I asked as we waited in a line with 6 other people.

"She found her brother. Apparently there wasn't a  witch... he just abandoned her and wanted her back. He worked with the hunters or something, they had her and him locked away and then he learned they were going to be guinea pigs to try and destroy the vampire trait we have." Brian kept his voice low and I nodded slowly. "She was willing to try it, and he escaped, leaving her there... and it was when the experiment failed they killed her brother and left her to burn..."

"But she got out." I told him, knowing she was here in town and that was what Zander told me.

"She did. Barely. She came to me, asked for a bit of help, and I helped her. She got her life on track and I called Zander. He didn't answer right away, and it wasn't until he showed up that I realized he hadn't checked his phone. He didn't know she was alive."

"He hasn't gone to find her?"

"He has been in the bar, drinking away his life since he found out she was alive and well." Brian told me and I took a breath and he smiled. "I know. He is only making it worse."

"Being married to a woman once, waiting is never a good thing." I told him and we moved up in the line by a spot.

"I heard you... bring married to a woman... and having a son?"

"Two. Pride and joys for the first 100 years or so, now more of a pain in the ass when we're all together. Now we're basically all in trouble." I shook my head as I thought about it. They were my sons but I was the reason they were being targeted.

"I'm surprised you lasted a 100 years." He told me and I looked over at him wondering if he had kids.

"Does that mean you left your family early?"

"I left home at 16 and never looked back." He told me a couple stories of his explorations, how he met Zander and why he was turned, why his leg never grew back.

"And you're from?"

"Great and beautiful Ireland." He told me, bringing out his accent in full force and I couldn't help but laugh as he basically did a jig too.

"And you've been here for a couple years?"

"Decade. There about."

"Family left?"

"An 80 year old sister who was... she saw me. Now she's hospitalized for dementia." I shook my head knowing how bad some vampires feel when their family has seen them past their death. There are some who will stay around, protect their families and let them in on their secret. Those families and vampires were rare, they usually had some kind of issues at one point, but in my case, my family all wanted to join me.

"Did you need go and see them before it was too far away?"

"I wrote letters. Being open about my sexuality my father told me not to ever come home."

"You got to tell him then?" I asked knowing I had never been able to tell my father my thoughts about men, not that I wasn't sure how he would react, but because I never knew how to voice the ideas and the feelings that were mixed. Even when I realized my feelings, how pent up I was as a vampire I was scared and worried over how to tell Imogene. Let alone my sons.

"For a while I assumed I was bisexual, everything with my young bride was fantastic, it was a release when I never had any... I would love to look at men, I would have what I now knew as crushes, but no know it was just desire. But then I was with the first man... and there was never any desire to return to being with a woman."

I thought back to my first time with my first male lover. His name was Edgar, he was Spanish and very romantic. He had gotten me relaxed with a massage, a few wine tastings... and it was a perfect first time... with a man that is. It ended almost as fast as it started which was a real shame.

"For myself... I've never been with a woman, only a few men.... no love for me."  Brian told me and I felt bad, not knowing love at all? It's a sad life to live without a love.  Not every love is epic, but all humans, newly turned vampires, or even if they were turned 100 years ago or longer. Everyone deserves love every once in a while.

"Well you know the whole mate thing is real. For us now as well." I added knowing that I would be looking forward to finding mine, even if it takes years.

"You really believe that?" He asked me with a laugh and I looked around. We checked out slowly and he and I started for the front door.

"I've seen my boy find his werewolf mate. I have seen how Vivian and Zander-"

"He left her to die. That's a mate's love?" He cut me off and I looked at him before realizing that I wanted him to believe it. I didn't know why, just the fact that he didn't want to, that maybe he didn't feel the need to believe it, it made me want to push.

"Zander has always felt more hatred with his heart than love. He reacts quick to hurt." I told him and shrugged knowing that he had left the second his maker was dead and never felt bad about it.

"But that is how you treat a mate? I have seen my mother being beaten because she simply loved my father. She had us, she took care of home and house... and he would come home, late, find his food slightly colder than he liked it, and throw the plate at her. Love is for idiots."

"Now that... is perspective." I told him before seeing a happy couple as soon as we took a left on the corner. "They are happy. In love. Expecting." I said when I noticed the woman was more round than she was built for.

"Yeah until he cheats on her with the young nanny in a couple years." Brian huffed out and I shook my head. I started to look for a old couple, someone to show him that not everyone cheated or left or hurt the other.

Then I saw this mother, with her daughter, she was fixing her daughters dress, smiling, making sure the little girl didn't feel bad that she got her simple blue dress dirty with ice cream.

Before too long I realized that I was stopped, with him beside me, and we were both watching. The woman had dark brown hair, basically black, she was a bit dark like she had a job outside, and she had a face full of freckles, her smile lit up her daughters face faster than I would have thought possible. Her daughter had some similarities, face shape, eye shape, high cheek bones... but there was a certain factor that might turn around when she was older, she would probably look more like her mother as she hits puberty...

None of that matters besides the fact from how much that mom would love her daughter forever.

"That love, is forever, and if that can be forever, then so can all other loves." I told him knowing that I could remember the first time I held my sons, the first time seeing them walk, seeing them speak for the first time, it was all locked away in my head, cherished memories, the reason I would forgive all when it came to them.

"Even that isn't forever."

"Your father not accepting you doesn't set the path for love in the world. He seems like he was a mean bastard who didn't know how to love. That doesn't mean you don't have to learn what it's like."

"Agree to disagree?" He offered out and I just shrugged, looked back to the woman who was now talking to two more kids, all looking like variants of her, and she smiled wide as she grabbed hands with two that looked about the same age, though they didn't look like twins, if they were hers, they could be twins. She had three kids, all looking like bits of her.

And they would love each other until they were wiped from the earth.

And I... I would love my children, protect them, even if it meant I die doing it.