Stereo Blast Volume 1 [MxM]

Chapter 8.1

Taylor didn't put his knife away. He couldn't. His hand was frozen with the knife out and with the blade facing toward the back of the vampire. Even though it looked like he was the one in control and that he was making the vampire go ahead of him in some strange menacing and threatening way, it wasn't like that at all. What was really happening was that Taylor was letting this Nio scum lead him around like he was on a leash. He had Ryan over his back without a care as to how Ryan might feel—didn't even think about how that must be hurting Ryan's stomach and messing with his head—and he hadn't said a word since Taylor said to lead the way. Which now that he thought about it, sounded dumb as f**k. He thought maybe he could have turned this around, but he was kidding himself. Everything had gone to s**t and on top of all this, he was with a vampire.

A f*****g vampire.

The thing about vampires was that they were rich snobs who'd never entered the human districts under any circumstances. Taylor can't even remember when the last time a vampire stepped on human soil. It had to have been before the Rising and that was decades ago, way before Taylor was even born. The time before then had seemed so simple. Vampires didn't exist to humans and the districts were somewhat normal. He knew that no one was starving as much as the people were now and the government wasn't made up of vicious pigs who loved to drain the civilians drier than the vampires did. It was all a s**t show after vampires started turning up by the hundreds. They'd gotten out of control, killing people left and right.

That's why gangs like the Eastcliffs and the Wolves had started. They'd been organizational groups that came together in order to dwindle the vampire numbers. Mason Government had come in after that to put down the impending war starting up. The gangs had been stunted and districts had been put into place to cage in vampires.

It didn't turn out as anyone had thought. The basis was that the human gangs had turned to selling drugs and conquering their own set of the country. There'd been more gangs besides the Eastcliffs and the Wolves, but over the years, they died or merged with the existing ones. They were weak and as the weak did, they perished or were taken over.

Vampires on the hand had flourished. They were wealthy and had a common goal to keep that wealth. They built up nice schools to teach their children and provided research for their own healthcare.

It was f*****g ironic, to say the least. Vampires helped themselves while the humans killed one another like savage beasts. It didn't make Taylor like the f*****g snobs anymore because, at the end of the day, vampires were another enemy he had to deal with.

And he was here with one of them. A vampire.

No matter how many times he said it or thought it, he still couldn't believe what was happening. Tonight had been blown out of proportion. It had become something greater than what he knew how to handle. But in some funny way, he needed to experience this. This wasn't the worse it could get under the hands of Mykah. His father was the big guy in the district and he could do more damage than this vampire could do.

He didn't know about those things—whatever those people had turned into though. They were the odd things out. They were the things he needed to worry about.

Taylor kept his knife at ready. He looked at Ryan's sleeping face. At least he looked like he was fine. Taylor hoped he wasn't in some kind of nightmare dreamland where he was reliving the last moment with Tike. He hoped it was about something more pleasant than whatever he had in Kitro.

"Where are we going?" Taylor was itching for answers.

"We're crossing the border. After we burn the bodies."

Taylor almost tripped. "Burn them?"

"It's the only way to guarantee they won’t come back," the vampire said. "We have to make sure they stay dead."

Taylor bit back the remark on his tongue about how the feds should have made sure vampires stayed dead. "And then after that? You'll check Ryan and send us back?"

He wanted this over with as much as possible. He hated asking so many questions, but he was out of his element here. Every time he thought about just attacking the vampire and trying to kill him, he saw Ryan's face and how easy it would be for the vampire to kill him. He couldn't let that happen. Though he kept saying that over and over, it was what kept him going.

"That is what I said." The back of the vampire's head was illuminated by the blue and pink lights. His hair was cut short to the nape of his neck. Taylor could tell it was a lighter blond than his own hair color, the kind that many supermodels before the Rising had dyed their hair. It was the look attractive people had and it fit well with the vampire's overall style.

Taylor nodded even though the vampire couldn't see him.

"What's your name?" It had occurred to him that he'd been referring to the man as “the vampire". It was beginning to become annoying in some way.

Again, it was frustrating for him to do so much talking. He'd also noticed that as well—how quiet it was without Ryan to do all the talking. The space left vacant was quiet and almost sad without the bubbly aura Ryan gave off. He always seemed to know what to say in these kinds of situations. Really, he knew what to say in any situation. But it wasn't much of a feat to out talk Taylor. His voice was already starting to feel scratchy from asking so many questions.