A Mad Vampire Fell for Me

I'm Not Gay

The distance went both ways. If Dorian felt like a stranger to them, they felt the same about him.

Edmund and Eleanor had met Dorian a handful of times. He was a cold-tempered kid. On the surface, no obvious damage. And even if there had been, he was still their blood. He was coming home regardless.

If Jack Vane and his wife hadn't kept raising their price, Dorian would have been back years ago. He wouldn't have spent four more years scraping by on his own.

They'd tried to give Dorian money directly. He'd refused it, every time. He'd been young enough that carrying cash in the world he lived in wasn't safe, and he'd had the sense to know it.

But the Vanes wouldn't wire funds to that couple either. The Vane family had money. They weren't fools. How could they be certain anything sent to Jack Vane's household would ever reach Dorian?

Their caution was justified. The moment Jack and his wife learned Dorian wasn't biologically theirs, they cut him off.

He wasn't their child. They had no obligation to keep him.

He wasn't a good investment anymore.

Dorian never told Edmund and Eleanor what was happening in that house. He worked part-time jobs and put himself through school.

The way Dorian saw it, the Vanes didn't especially want him back. He was like something in a shop window, pleasant enough to glance at. You could buy it. You could walk away. The only question was how badly the customer wanted it.

He knew perfectly well that if he told the Vanes he was struggling, they'd throw money at him and move faster to bring him home.

So he didn't.

He wasn't an object. They didn't get to want him today and toss him tomorrow.

Working half the day and studying the other half wasn't suffering, he told himself. At least he didn't have to grind for perfect scores to please Jack and his wife anymore, didn't have to play the obedient son to make them look good.

Dorian did exactly what he wanted. No one was around to stop him.

Eventually the Vanes learned their son was living rough, and they could not abide their own flesh and blood at a level beneath them. They came down on the adoptive household with the full weight of the Vane name.

Within a week, Jack Vane let go.

Dorian found it blackly funny. Four years of stalemate. Solved in seven days.

He disliked both families equally. He had no wish to belong to the Port Haven Vanes, but what choice did he have? The Vanes had the arrogance of old money. A child of their bloodline could not be left to wander through the world like something abandoned.

Eleanor had always thought of Julian as her own. The sudden existence of a second son felt, to her, more like a charity case she hadn't agreed to.

Before Dorian arrived, she and Edmund had promised Julian over and over that nothing would change, that they would never push him aside.

Now, standing in front of Dorian, Eleanor was terrified of making the wrong move, saying the wrong word, upsetting Julian.

"Dorian. You're awake. We were just about to eat. Come join us." Eleanor produced a polished smile. In that moment, she was the lady of the house receiving a visitor, and Dorian was the visitor.

She hadn't found the right register. It showed.

Edmund was easier about the whole thing. Both boys were his sons. He'd settled into the idea without effort. "How's the room? If anything doesn't suit you, tell Patrick. He'll handle it."

Julian's eyes did a quick, calculating rotation. His face split into a brilliant smile and he darted over, latching onto Dorian's arm. "You're my big brother, aren't you?"

Dorian answered each greeting in order. His gaze dropped to where Julian's hands were wrapped around his arm. He shifted, just enough, and freed himself.

Julian's face collapsed on contact. Tears glazed the rims of his eyes, his mouth pushing into a pout. "Brother… don't you like me?"

Dorian's skin crawled. If the situation had allowed it, he would have sucked a breath through his teeth.

Before Dorian could get out a denial, the young man on the sofa rose. His expression was hostile, his posture coiled. "Dorian, is it? Let me make something clear. You may share their blood, but Julian has been at their side for twenty years. He is their son in every way that counts."

"The switch wasn't his doing. If you need to hate someone, hate the woman who stole you. Not him."

"You just got here. It's natural to resent him. But do you have to be this obvious about it?"

The man was well-packaged. The contents left something to be desired.

"If that's what you think, I can't help you." Dorian's voice was flat.

If Julian needed it, Dorian was ready to put it in writing. Sign a contract. He had no designs on the Vane fortune, no designs on his biological parents, and no designs whatsoever on Julian.

Edmund and Eleanor had insisted he come back. He hadn't volunteered.

The restrictions on a minor had been numerous. Reaching eighteen hadn't loosened them as much as he'd hoped. It always came back to the same three words: legal guardianship.

Cedric hadn't expected a kid from an ordinary background to have this much spine. His initial appreciation of Dorian's face curdled into contempt.

A stray that lands on a high branch and thinks it's grown wings. That type always bends with the wind.

"You…"

Edmund cut across them. "Enough. Julian is sensitive. Dorian, be more mindful of your brother's feelings. Julian, your brother has his own temperament. Learn to live with it. Don't spin every small thing into a crisis. It's beneath you."

Edmund turned to Dorian. "Dorian, this is Cedric Sterling. The marriage alliance between the Sterlings and our family. He was engaged to Julian. Now…"

Dorian: ?

Edmund read the look. He didn't know his son's orientation, though it was most likely the same as his own. Still, to be safe, he asked.

"Now that you're back, by the terms of the arrangement, the engagement falls to you. Would you be willing?"

Julian's heart stopped. Dorian came home and everything was supposed to be handed over? Just like that?

"Dad! No! Cedric is my fiancé! Why does my brother coming home mean he becomes my brother's?"

Cedric was drawn to Dorian's face. But Dorian wasn't a good person, and he had no respect for that kind of small, petty character. Julian, by contrast, had been raised as the genuine young master of the Vane family for twenty years. That was someone worthy of him.

"He's right, Uncle Edmund. Julian and I have been engaged this whole time. The feelings are mutual."

Edmund turned to Dorian and waited.

Under the combined heat of Julian's and Cedric's stares, Dorian spoke at his own unhurried pace. "Dad. Mr. Sterling is certainly striking. Handsome. Refined…"

Julian's heart seized. Cedric was his boyfriend. How could Dorian try to take him? Shameless. The way he was talking, Dorian had already set his sights on Cedric.

Why had Dad even asked? If the question had never been raised, the whole thing would have died on its own. His engagement could have stayed in place forever.

The original arrangement had never specified which son. There had only been one young master at the time.

Cedric was panicking too, his contempt for Dorian thickening.

This guy. A toad staring up at a swan.

Dorian shifted tone. "But I'm not gay. I like girls."

He spread his hands. The motion was casual, lazy, and for the first time everyone noticed the black polish on his nails. The gesture had a quality to it, careless and strangely magnetic. "So Mr. Sterling, handsome as he may be, is none of my concern."