22. Chapter 22

Chapter twenty-two

F elix and I danced till the moon rose high in the sky, the blood on Felix's face dried, and the other members of The Club found us, all seemingly unsurprised by the mess we'd made. Allen shook his head at me, though his eyes were warm.

He pulled Barry's body away—effectively cleaning up our mess, as the rest of The Club members grumbled and swore. Felix commanded the guests home, and they emptied out of the yard in a frog march, still unaware of how bloody the night had ended. Felix said they'd wake up the next morning with no recollection of what they'd missed.

And still—

We danced.

Eventually Felix and I left Barry's backyard. We traveled across town and parked off the road where we normally did. We'd decided it would be best if we checked up on The Club and our corpses, but that didn't mean we weren't going to take our sweet time arriving. I had an idea as I shut the car door and held my hand out to Felix .

He tangled our fingers together. And as we stepped beneath the foliage, an evil, wicked, wonderful plan was born inside my head.

We'd done this once before—under very similar circumstances. But then I'd still been my prickly, irritable self. I hadn't paid attention to him the way I should've. Hadn't loved him the way he deserved to be loved.

He deserved a do-over.

And that was exactly what I was going to give him.

I only hoped that he'd remember—because if he didn't, my words would not make any sense.

I've often wondered if I would've made some of the choices that I did—if I'd had someone who stood beside me. Perhaps I never needed the world to love me, but just one…single person. Maybe that would have been enough.

"So…we're boyfriends," I started, as we began the trek through the woods to the crematory where our kills were currently being disposed of. Nerves fluttered around inside my stomach as I waited to see if he'd understand.

He didn't at first.

He just looked confused as he nodded, and then…after staring at the look on my face, it finally seemed to click. Felix blinked, processing my words for a few more seconds before a sunny, bloody smile spread across his lips. I could literally see the moment he recognized the parallels between this moment and our first night together in these very woods. Which had been my intention, so I was more than a little glad it had worked.

"Yes," Felix answered, still grinning.

The tables had turned, and I couldn't even be mad about it.

Licking my lips, I held a tree branch up for him to cross beneath, and continued speaking, "We've been boyfriends for a while."

"All summer."

"We've never really talked about it."

"We don't talk about our feelings if we can help it," Felix countered. My belly fluttered. This was fun. This was so fun. Was this flirting? I loved it. I loved him. I love-love-loved him.

"That's fair," I replied, beaming back at him. I should've been angry, seeing as I was covered in icing and our romantic night had been ruined by Barry, but I wasn't. Because this was…well… This was romantic, wasn't it? Special.

A mirror of the first night we'd actually spoken to one another.

A redo.

"I like your suit," I countered, lifting another branch. Felix noticed this time every time I did it, hopping beneath them with a pep in his step that had rarely been there.

"I like your face," he flirted back, awfully. "Thank you."

I laughed.

Giddy, I continued, faster this time. "Having a lover is fun." My heart fluttered like crazy. Crickets chirped. The stars hung in the sky above, dancing above us. I felt lighter than a feather .

"It can be," Felix hummed, his eyes twinkling with mirth. "It can also be bloody."

"Yes," I agreed, biting my lip to stop from laughing. I knew he knew what I was doing. And he didn't stop me. In fact, he looked even more delighted than I felt as he waited, eyes wide, ready for me to continue the game I'd started. "You are quite small."

"I am." Felix agreed, snorting out a happy little laugh. "I am vertically challenged."

"My perfect little fangy hobbit."

"Rude!" Felix smacked my chest, and I stumbled back a little, gasping out a laugh when I realized he'd forgotten to hold back. The fact he'd been stronger than me all this time hit me like a freight train and my dick became suddenly, painfully hard.

Chuckling, I stalked after him, ducking between the tree trunks, my cock stirring as I watched him flit through the woods in a merry blood-splattered chase. I didn't worry about getting caught. Didn't worry about unkind eyes, or nosy townspeople. Because now I knew Felix could fix whatever mess we found ourselves in.

It was freeing.

I felt like I could breathe.

"You have very nice biceps!" I called after him as he ducked behind a tree. Only, seconds later, I felt him at my back—so quickly I hadn't even seen him move—and his arms were wrapping tight around me .

He squeezed, and I sighed, tipping my head toward the stars, my fingers curling around his wrists. They were so dainty, such fragile bones for a man that could snap me in two.

"I was so in love with you," Felix admitted, face hidden against my back. The mirth in his words was gone, replaced instead with the fragile truth. "I still am."

I swallowed the lump in my throat, staring up at the stars as my heart fluttered unsteadily.

"How long?" I wasn't sure I was ready for the answer, but I wanted it anyway. Needed to know he loved me as much as I loved him. Needed to know he needed me as much as I needed him.

That we were steady as the stars.

"Since the day you moved across the street." Felix's voice quivered, and his arms shook. He rarely admitted things like this. Things so close to the heart. "I saw you and I thought…my god, he's beautiful."

He could hear my pulse racing, and that should've felt invasive, but it was comforting instead. Like he could read my body when my words were clogged and my mouth grew stuck.

"Looking up at the stars was the closest to seeing the sun as I'd gotten, till I saw you."

"Oh, Felix." I twisted around, grabbing onto him and pulling him up into my arms. He went willingly, wrapping his legs around me like a goth koala as his head buried inside my neck.

"I was so nervous—that day you saw me with the body."

"You were?"

"I wanted you to help."

That was a shocking revelation. I blinked, hands stuttering to a stop for only a moment before I resumed petting him, leading him through the woods toward our destination now that the chase had ended—my prey caught.

"I did help."

"I know…" Felix sounded guilty again. "You wanted all my secrets…right?"

"Yes." That was a no-brainer.

"This is embarrassing. Maybe a little…creepy?"

"Tell me." His spine was silky soft when I crept my hand beneath his shirt and began to rub it.

"I killed him…because I got distracted."

"Distracted…" I waited, well aware that there was more to this.

"Thinking about you?" Felix shivered. "About what you'd do if I were to drink from you—" I shivered, the thought of feeding him making my skin buzz. "About what you'd do if you saw us. Maybe you'd get jealous, or angry—maybe you'd toss him aside and offer me your throat."

I never would've done any of that. "That's not like me at all."

"I know," Felix laughed.

"Or…I mean…" My own cheeks felt hot now. "It wasn't like me. Then."

"Oh?" There was a lot laced in that one simple word.

"Oh," I murmured, burying my face in his soft lemony hair. "So, you were distracted…"

"You were home." Felix squeezed me tighter, his heels digging into the back of my thighs. "And you smelled so good. And I…couldn't control myself."

Oh fuck.

God.

That was the sexiest thing I'd ever heard.

"You killed him because you wanted me." My dick was so hard I was half-tempted to push Felix into the nearest tree and shove it inside him. I wasn't going to. Because that was rude. Or at least, I thought I wasn't going to.

Until he made this soft, devastating, needy little sound and I thought, fuck it.

Boyfriends fuck in the woods, don't they?

Bugs and dirt be damned.

The stars watched on as I fought my way through Felix's rather lovely suit. They dangled above, full of promise as I turned him into the tree, slicked myself up with the packet of lube I always kept on my person, and shoved inside him.

Steady, steady, steady.

I fucked him.

Fucked him till he whined and scratched at the bark, tearing into it as though it was brittle as paper, his body squeezing me as I rutted like a beast in heat.

It wasn't until the sky began to streak through with peachy pinks, that Felix and I finally returned home .

Home to the cul-de-sac where two predators had unknowingly purchased houses right across the street from each other.

Across the street from the small but clean house with the picket fence, up the broken sidewalk that was once littered with weeds.

Up the rickety porch steps, and into a house that was more befitting of Dracula than a man who unironically wore pastels. A man who wore his heart on his sleeve etched in unpracticed, loopy embroidery. A man who was magic, even before I knew what kind of creature he was.

When we fell into our bed beside each other—after showering, obviously—I counted my lucky stars.

Counted Felix's freckles too.

Finally kissed the little mole beneath his eye.

And together, tangled beneath the covers, we decided what I was going to say when my coworkers asked me what I'd done for the weekend. Which ended up being that despite its hiccups, tonight could not have been a more perfect night.

Felix and I may not have deserved to rest after what we'd done, but we rested anyway. Content to be selfish. Content to slumber. Content to live happily ever after.

Four eyes, four hands, two grins.

Two monsters.

Forever.

Soon .

Was it cowardice, that I dared not kill him? Was it perversity, that I longed to talk to him? Was it humility, to feel so honoured? I felt so honoured.

8. D. H. Lawrence, "Snake".