Min's Vampire (49 page)

“
Freak?” Abbey finished for
him. “Then what are you?” She rolled forward, making him scamper
backwards, tripping over his own feet.

“
I’m just… just…”

“
Just a kid with a big bad
secret?”

Lucy stepped down from her perch on
the picnic table and walked toward the two of them. The look on her
brother’s face was bothering her. He suddenly looked
terrified.

“
What are you talking
about?” he said, his voice cracking.

“
You know. That secret
you’ve been praying no one would find out about. The one you’ve
been praying would just go away.”

“
You don’t know shit!” Seth
sounded angry now instead of scared. Lucy was about to tell Abbey
to let it go, but then Abbey looked around at the air around Seth’s
head like she was reading something only she could see. The smile
that crossed her lips wasn’t pleasant at all. Her hand came up and
she snatched something from the air, her eyes closing as delight
radiated all over her face.

“
Josh,” Abbey said
rapturously.

Seth turned so white the freckles on
his cheeks and nose stood out like ink.

Abbey opened her eyes and smiled down
at Seth, genuine empathy in her eyes. “He doesn’t even know, does
he?”

Seth started shaking his head
violently.

“
More like he doesn’t even
know you exist, right stone-boy?”

Seth looked about to puke when he spun
around and ran for the house like he was being chased by a pack of
wolves.

When the back door slammed shut behind
him, Abbey turned and smiled her beautiful, brilliant smile again.
“Sorry,” she said. “I just can’t stand people calling me a
freak.”

“
Yeah,” Lucy said, still
looking after Seth with amazement. “I got that.”

“
Funny thing to get bent out
of shape about,” Abbey said as she rolled toward the picnic table
again. “Especially when you dress and look like this.” She
flourished her hands around her indicating her ensemble.

Lucy just stood there, still shocked
to see her brother looking so afraid, and the actual gist of the
conversation Abbey and he had just had. Was Seth gay?

Lucy looked at Abbey and shook her
head. “Are you some sort of psychic or something?”

“
Witch,
actually.”

“
Oh.” She was starting to
feel pretty stupid saying that over and over.

“
But I didn’t need any magic
powers to see through him.”

“
Really?” Lucy shook her
head again and looked after her brother again. “
I
had no idea.”

“
Sometimes strangers can see
things clearer than people close to you.” Abbey’s expression
turned, only for a moment, very sad. “And he had Josh’s name
written on the inside of his palm, with a heart framing
it.”

Lucy raised an eyebrow, smiling. “So,
you’re a grifter?” Lucy had always wanted to use that word in
conversation.

Abbey shot her a cocky smile. “I’ve
picked up a lot just watching people at school, on the bus…
wherever I am. One good thing about not having any friends, you get
to really pay attention to those around you.”

Lucy sighed. “Too bad. Having a witch
as a friend could come in handy.”

Abbey set a level gaze at Lucy, the
smile drifting from her face. “You must think I’m crazy. There
can’t really be witches… magic… it’s just too crazy…”

“
I didn’t say that.” Lucy
plopped back down on the picnic table. “I’m just saying it’s not
stupid or lame to believe in stuff. I’m sure witches and a ton of
other things are actually real… except for the Easter
Bunny.”

Abbey snorted. “And Santa Claus.” She
plopped down on the picnic bench right beside Lucy. “They’re both
just capitalistic propaganda.”

Lucy smiled, remembering back to a
certain Christmas present she found under the foot of her bed when
she was eight. A present that no one in the world knew she wanted:
a harmonica. Her mother wrapped everything in glossy paper with
sparkly ribbons and bows. That package was covered in plain red
paper, no bows or ribbons. She’d known immediately that it had come
from Santa Claus.

“
No. There really is a Santa
Claus.”

Abbey looked at her
like
she
was crazy
now, and then shook her head. “Okay, there’s a Santa
Claus.”

Lucy smiled. “But definitely no Easter
Bunny. A giant Bunny hiding candy and pastel colored hardboiled
eggs around the house. It’s just too creepy!”

They nodded their heads in
agreement.

Chapter 9

THOUGH it had been almost two years
since Gabriel walked the scarred wood of the docks, and breathed
the salty air of the sea, it still felt like home. And with hardly
a second thought he wound his way through the maze of the marina.
He and his brother had never liked the sanitized country club
docks. It was here in the real world of those who spent their lives
on boats that they had found their place.

And with a rush of sadness Gabriel
realized his brother was still free—yet he’d left him to be alone.
He’d abandoned him.

He picked out the gleaming
red mast of
The
Belt-Buckle
. Micah had thought up the name,
and Gabriel had been so drawn into their new, short-lived freedom
that he had agreed.

A forty-foot wooden sailboat
called
The Belt-Buckle
…it still made Gabriel smile. Mostly because he knew his
horn-dog of a younger brother well enough that he knew he used the
ship’s name as a pickup line, and that it worked with eerie
consistency.

Gabriel turned the corner and saw the
boat for the first time in forever, and the longing for the sea,
and for his brother’s company tore at him. But then he caught sight
of his brother, shirtless of course, saying goodbye to his latest
conquest.

A redhead—Gabriel remembered Micah had
always wanted a redhead—with short cropped, spiky hair, maybe four
inches or more shorter than Micah, and built thinner and sleeker
than his hulking brother. The redhead was shirtless also, and his
shoulders and arms were speckled with light freckles.

Micah grabbed the redhead and pulled
him to him in a startlingly deep, passionate kiss. That surprised
Gabriel. Usually when the bedroom antics were at an end, his
brother wanted mostly to be alone again. Now he seemed to be
begging, with his entire body, for the redhead to stay… or at least
to come back soon.

After a good two minutes of blocking
out and erasing the memory of his brother’s vigorous use of his
tongue, Gabriel finally saw the redhead stagger off the boat and
drunkenly make his way down the dock in the opposite direction.
Gabriel and Micah met eyes at the exact same instant, and both
shared a rueful smile.

“
Well fuck me, if it isn’t
the elusive corporate shark!” Gabriel winced at his brother and
Lucy using the exact same words. “Didn’t think I’d ever see you
here again.”

Gabriel walked over to the side of the
boat and squinted up into the afternoon sun at his hulking brother.
“So can I come aboard?”

Micah scowled and tilted his head. “It
is your boat too… or did you forget that?”

Gabriel smiled as Micah held
out his massive hand to him, yanking Gabriel up onto the deck like
he was just some stuffed toy. Micah gave him a big grizzly-bear
hug, then held him at arm’s length for a moment, his eyes
happy—
Lucy had been right… he was missing
me.

“
I can’t fucking believe
you’re here, bro.” And Micah crushed him to him again.

Gabriel was having trouble breathing,
but he instantly felt the comfort and bond being close to his
brother invoked—the feel of him, the smell… the colossally juvenile
essence of his brother.

A burning seared the backs of his
eyeballs, and he blinked back an unwelcomed wetness. He wasn’t
fooling himself. He’d missed his brother all too much,
too.

“
Wanna beer?” Micah chortled
when he let Gabriel out of his crushing embrace and gave him a
playful, painful swipe in the arm.

“
Sure,” Gabriel said,
rubbing his now numb arm as he followed his brother to the cabin,
where the beers lived.

When Micah opened the fridge Gabriel’s
mouth fell open. There was a whole shelf of food—real food:
vegetables, steaks, cheeses, and even some fruit—right in the
middle of all the frosty bottles of beer. Gabriel’s jaw
dropped.

Micah didn’t cook, microwave, slice,
stir, or even make the occasional sandwich. He ordered in, or ate
out.

Micah cleared his throat, and then
wrangled two beers from the top shelf. He closed the door and
shoved a beer into Gabriel’s gut, making him wince. Gabriel was
about to say something, something rude and probably about Micah
turning into Martha Stewart since he’d moved out, but then he
caught sight of what was sitting by the sink in the
galley.

A plate rack with a draining board
under it. And in the rack, clean, sparkling dishes. Gabriel’s eyes
bugged out.

“
What the hell’s going
on?”

Micah took a gulp of his beer and
sauntered back toward the deck, ignoring Gabriel’s
question.

“
Micah!” Gabriel followed
his brother out onto the deck, but not before he caught a look at
Gabriel’s bed—it had been made, not a wrinkle in sight.

Micah was already standing at the bow
of the ship when Gabriel caught up with him. He was shaking his
head and stammering. Gabriel was about to smack him in the back of
the head when Micah said: “I love him.”

The air blew right out of Gabriel’s
chest, and he felt his entire body sag. It was as if Micah was
speaking to him in Chinese, and he’d grown an extra
head.

Gabriel stood there, shocked and
silent, for over a minute. He didn’t know what to say, and what’s
more, he couldn’t force the words out of his mouth. Finally he
said, “The redhead?”

Gabriel Smiled shyly. “Ian. Ian
Granger. He’s a doctor and he has a sweet little boat on the other
side of the docks.”

“
Oh.” Gabriel tried mulling
this over in his head. His horn-dog, perpetual bachelor brother was
in love. And with a doctor? Micah wasn’t known for his thinking, so
it must be true that opposites attract.

“
At least Mom will be happy.
You know, about him being a doctor.”

Micah snorted and took another pull
from his beer.

“
So, you… cook for
him?”

Micah spit out the beer he had in his
mouth and turned outraged eyes on his brother.

Gabriel smiled as he pushed that
button again. “I mean, it’s great that you’re the little woman in
the relationship.” He ducked just as Micah threw a punch at his
nose.

“
Asshole! Ian does the
cooking.”

“
Right, right… I’m sure he
does the dishes too.”

Micah’s expression didn’t change, but
there was a change in his eyes, something minute that anyone but
his brother might not have picked up on. But Gabriel read it like
the bluff it was.

“
You do the dishes…
really?”

“
He makes me help.” Micah’s
tone was a little bitter.

“
I like this Ian already.
When are you bringing him to dinner with the family?” Gabriel
sounded cocky, and he knew just the thought of going to a family
dinner filled his brother with dread. That’s why he so seldom
attended one.

But there was a smirk on
Micah’s lips, and a glint in his eyes. “About the time you bring
your
fiancée
to
one.”

Shit, he knows.
“How did you find out? And who else
knows?”

“
The hyena twins made sure
every single person in the family knows about your
girl.”

Gabriel closed his eyes and gritted
his teeth. If Sophie and Olivia knew, that meant that his Uncle
Remy knew. He was just looking for a way to bring Gabriel down. He
hoped Dante would be careful not to paint too pristine a picture
with the background check. Nothing like no flaws to make someone
look suspicious.

“
So what’s she
like?”

“
Like?” It hadn’t been the
question Gabriel had been expecting from his brother. Maybe
Is she good in bed
,
or
does she have a website on
Go-Daddy.com?

“
Yeah, bro, what’s this Lucy
of yours like?” He moved in on his brother, getting right in his
face with a shit-eating grin plastered on his face.

Gabriel shook his head and turned away
from him, suddenly lost in thought. It wasn’t that she wasn’t
great. He really liked her spunk… no, her moxie. And her
determination and practically preternatural gift for getting what
she wanted had earned her a great amount of respect in his book.
But none of that was anything he could say about the woman he was
supposed to be in love with.

But then there was a flash, a fresh,
recent memory that whispered through his brain like a silk ribbon
in a breeze. The way he felt when they were talking in his office.
Her bluntness. Her way of drawing out things from him that he kept
hidden, close to the vest, even from Delia…