A Mad Vampire Fell for Me

Into the Forest

Tobias looked from Dorian to Julian and back again, completely blind to the awkwardness radiating off Julian's face. He nodded, genuinely enlightened. "Guess I really didn't know that. But Dorian looks a lot like Lady Vane, doesn't he? Julian, who do you take after? Some ancestor?"

The person beside him drove an elbow into his ribs. Stop talking. One landmine wasn't enough? Did he want to keep stomping until something blew up in his face?

Tobias didn't understand why he'd been elbowed, but he trusted the elbow. If he was supposed to shut up, he'd shut up.

Dorian didn't recognize any of the faces Julian had brought this time. All strangers, except for Julian himself and Cedric hovering at his side.

Most people in their circle had heard the news by now: the Vane family had brought someone home, thrown a banquet, announced a twin brother. These particular friends had been abroad during the holidays and missed the event. They'd been curious ever since, piecing together hints from people who'd been there. Now that they were seeing Dorian in person, everything they'd been told made sense. More than sense.

One of them stepped forward to break the tension. "Dorian. Good to meet you. I'm a friend of Julian's. This is Tobias Ward, and I'm Thomas Ward. We're cousins."

Dorian nodded. "Good to meet you."

The others jumped in while the air was clear. "Hi, I'm Brianna Hall."

"Hey."

"Iris Hale."

"Hey."

Julian pulled himself together. He couldn't lose his temper. Not here, not now. They were out for the day, supposed to be having fun, and he was not about to humiliate himself in front of his friends.

Cedric didn't bother introducing himself to Dorian. He was above that. Above him. His eyes kept drifting toward Dorian's face anyway, whether he meant them to or not.

"Everyone's here. Let's go."

The group filed into the forest, and the silence swallowed them. Out in the open the morning had been warm, but within minutes of stepping under the trees the temperature dropped. The cold here was a different breed. It didn't stay on the surface. It seeped into the bones, into the narrow spaces between joints, and the thin jackets they'd all brought were doing nothing to stop it.

Seven of them. The others paired off instinctively for warmth, friends pressing together, which left Dorian on his own. He didn't mind. He wasn't the type to huddle, and solitude had never bothered him.

What did bother him was the running theater production five steps ahead, where Julian kept making noises like his vocal cords had been clamped in a vise and Cedric kept responding in a low, deliberate rumble that was clearly meant to sound attractive. Dorian had not realized that two men dating involved this much adhesive. He swore he had nothing against gay people. He just had something against whatever this was.

He touched one of his ear studs and kept walking. He wasn't cold. His pace was faster than the group's, and he found himself pulling ahead while the others lagged behind, shivering. The deeper they went, the worse it got. The two girls were struggling the most.

Dorian didn't have extra clothes, or he'd have offered them. He did have a thermos. He stopped, poured hot water into the cup, and held it out to them. "You're freezing. Have some of this. It'll help."

Brianna and Iris looked startled. The rumors about Dorian had been flying for weeks, and none of them were flattering. But they'd never actually met the guy, and a cup of hot water pressed into cold hands didn't match any version of the story they'd heard. They murmured their thanks and drank. The warmth spread, and it helped.

Dorian packed the thermos away and kept moving. The boys had walked enough now to work up their own heat. The girls, warmed by the water and the exercise, were doing better too.

Half an hour passed. They had seen nothing. Not a castle. Not a cabin. Not a single structure of any kind.

"Is this the right forest?" Tobias was dragging. He didn't exercise much, and his legs were already filing complaints. "Are we lost?"

Julian pulled out his phone. "This is the place. They said it'd take a while. About half an hour on foot, that's what I read."

"We've been walking half an hour," Brianna said. "Maybe we're going too slow?"

Iris nodded. "That cold slowed us down at the start."

Julian pocketed his phone. "Then we keep going. Can't be much farther."

Cedric put a hand on Julian's arm. "A-Yao, do you want me to carry you?"

Julian's fitness level was, generously, minimal. The Vane family had tried to make him exercise as a child. He'd dodged every attempt, and they'd indulged him. The one exception was skiing, which he'd forced himself to learn purely for the social currency. That was as far as his athletic ambition went.

The bill for all those skipped workouts had come due on this forest path. Julian was the only one breathing hard. The two girls were in better shape than he was.

This wasn't a mountain climb. It was a walk through the woods. The fact that Julian was this winded said everything about his conditioning.

Dorian, by contrast, was in the best shape of anyone here. He'd worked manual jobs for years. Half an hour of walking was like drinking a glass of water to him. He wasn't tired. He wasn't even warmed up.

The couple negotiated their logistics for a moment, and Cedric ended up with Julian on his back. Ten more minutes of walking, and the trees opened.

The castle stood before them.

The first impression was not a good one. Every stone was black, a deep and saturated black that seemed to drink the light rather than reflect it. The iron gates were massive, their surface alive with curling patterns, and two red gemstones were set into the lock. Gorgeous. Dangerous. Those were the words that surfaced in Dorian's mind, and they surfaced together.

He tilted his head back, scanning the walls. There were windows. It had taken him a moment to see them. The black was so total that his eyes kept sliding past the apertures, his brain editing them out of the image.

And behind one of the windows, a curtain moved. Or he thought it moved. He couldn't be sure.

Someone was watching them.

Dorian squinted at the dark glass. The feeling that rose in him was not curiosity. It was the body's older language, the one that spoke before the mind could translate. This castle contained something they were not equipped to handle, and every instinct he had was telling him to leave.

He turned around. "I'm going back. The rest of you can go in if you want. Do what you want."

The group had barely finished absorbing the sight of the castle, and now this. Tobias threw his hands up. "What's the rush? We just got here! The whole point of a castle expedition is going inside!"

Julian stepped in, voice bright with appeal. "Brother, come on. We all agreed to do this together. If you leave now, it ruins it for everyone."

"I'm not trying to ruin anything." Dorian's voice was even. "That building looks like somewhere people go in and don't come out. I'm a coward. I'm not going inside. And if I go with you, I'll probably ruin the mood even worse."

That did the opposite of reassuring anyone. The two girls exchanged a look, their unease suddenly visible.

Julian, seeing the group starting to splinter, jumped in fast. "Nothing's going to happen. People come here all the time. Nobody's ever had a problem. They all come back fine. The castle's empty. No one lives here. We'll go in, look around, and leave. Ten minutes."

Dorian couldn't be bothered to argue with him. He turned and started walking. Behind him, Brianna and Iris were hesitating, visibly weighing whether to follow him back.