Stereo Blast Volume 1 [MxM]

Chapter 7.6

This is what vampires did. They were fake in every way. They hunted humans, drank their blood and tossed the dead carcasses aside like trash. They thought only about their thirst and this vampire was playing the same tricks that he'd been taught to avoid. Taylor knew what vampires did, knew what kind of games they could play. This vampire was a hunter like the rest, who had slaughtered all those people and now he was asking what Taylor saw. It was hilarious is the saddest of ways.

Taylor narrowed his eyes. In a second, he turned from being angry to just disgusted.

He curled his lip. "I didn't see anything."

The vampire raised a brow but his features didn't change. His face was stuck in that careless and uninterested look that made Taylor skin crawl. He wanted for some reason to reach out and trace the planes of the vampire's face, to graze his skin against the stubble and feel how smooth the vampire's skin would be. But he bit back the urge, his teeth ripping the skin on the inside of his lip. He gathered Ryan closer to him, trying so hard to still the racing of his heart to no avail.

The vampire leaned in. Taylor could smell him, woodsy with the hint of musk, and it made his head feel light and heavy. He glared into the blue eyes of the vampire and he would attack if he got any closer. He knew it would mean the death of him, but it was all he could think to do. And his blood was running hot. He was at the end of his patience and he was still reeling from the adrenaline from running. The vampire wasn't challenging him though. The look in his eyes told Taylor that he was curious. Curious about Taylor reaction.

His eyes flickered down to Ryan's sleeping form.

"Don't you f*****g think about it," Taylor growled out. The vampire looked back up at Taylor, but he didn't grin or say a thing about it. He was interested though.

"Tell me and I'll leave. I just need to know." He was still talking in that calm melodic voice. It grated at Taylor's ears in a pleasant way. It was the worse thing about it all and the vampire's good looks paired with it.

"I didn't see a thing. We were leaving and then they—,” he lifted his hand and gestured at random, “—they started attacking each other."

There was a slight shake in his voice. It quivered and he swallowed down the nervousness. Everything was going to be fine. That's what he told himself. He didn't know why the vampire was here, why the people had turned into killing machines, or why Ryan wasn't waking up. The fact that he felt so helpless made it harder to push through when all he wanted to do was give up.

He hadn't noticed anything wrong until the screaming had started. He'd been too busy thinking about Ryan and getting him to wake up that he hadn't thought about what it might mean. He started running the instant he heard them yelling and the commotion happening behind him. It had been too risky to stay there. Everything had happened too fast for him to calculate. The vampire had shown up after and as he killed those people, Taylor saw the same eyes he'd seen on the man who'd attacked him and Ryan.

His eyes widened.

"There was a man," he began. The vampire gave a slight nod, barely visible. Taylor was caught again, his words stalling, and then he was looking past the vampire. He stared at the brick wall as he recounted the incident. "He'd attacked us a few days ago."

He looked down at Ryan. His blissful face, unaware of the danger he was in, pulled at Taylor's heart. The feeling was unlike anything he'd felt before.

"His eyes were like theirs," he said and he looked up, locking eyes with the vampire. "Not yours, but lifeless."

It was tempting to say the vampire's eyes were dead as well—technically speaking. The man wasn't exactly alive either.

The man's face—the one who'd attacked him and Ryan—had been something else entirely. He wasn't a vampire. He didn't have fangs. Though he'd been cool-headed, there was an urge within him that had made him attack blindly at Taylor. He wasn't thinking and Taylor had seen that the moment he'd come straight into their path. Those were the hardest people to fight against. They were manic, on the tip of erratic, and had no real motive for anything. Their drive was simply to destroy and to do as fast as they could. They didn't care if they got hurt in the process, nor if their actions would have consequences. It was all about killing and destroying.

And that man would have done anything to kill Taylor. it had been that very reason he'd run. He hated that he couldn't stand up, couldn't take the risk, but he was slowly learning that his life didn't consist solely around himself.

Ryan needed him. If he wasn't around, who was going to protect him? Tike had been the closest thing he had to a friend and he'd turned on him. The bloody mess, where Ryan no doubt had killed the man in an attempt to save himself, was evidence of something greater happening behind the scenes. Ryan couldn't survive on his own. Taylor was tougher than him and had the support of an entire gang. Ryan had no one but Taylor.

The vampire stood up. Taylor flinched at the unexpected movement.

The vampire held out his hand. "Get up."

"What?" Taylor gaped, but he didn't move. "I'm not going anywhere with you."

Before he had the chance to react, the vampire grabbed Ryan and slung him over his shoulder.

Taylor pulled Ryan back, but the vampire pushed him back by the chest with his large hand. Taylor fell back against the brick building, growling.

"Let him the f**k go," he commanded as he pulled out his knife. "Now."