Fangsy

The box clanked ominously when Kai set it down on the kitchen floor.

“Careful,” Roan called from the other room. Kai rolled his eyes.

“I heard that.”

Kai stomped through the living room, passing Roan bent over a tangled pile of cords.

“Stop listening to my eyeballs and get back to work, fangsy.”

Roan threw him a rude gesture and Kai smiled, heading out to the car for another box.

Across the street, one of their new neighbors waved. Waving back, Kai took a quick sniff. Flour, butter, sugar—she must’ve been baking. Faint floral perfume underneath. A hint of sweat from the sun beaming down at them both. Taking a walk to burn calories before whatever came out of the oven filled her with calories. Smart human.

She stepped off the sidewalk, stopping in the street a few feet away from Kai. He wasn’t worried. He’d hear the rumble of a car long before it was a danger to her.

“You two have been moving in all morning. Makes me tired just looking at you.”

           Kai shrugged. “Manual labor’s pretty much all I’m good for.”

When she laughed, his eyes found her neck. He could hear her blood rushing through her veins, heart thumping in her chest. Feeling his teeth sharpen, he hurriedly reached for a box.

“There’s a block party tonight. You guys should come.”

“We might, if we’re not crushed to death under all these boxes.”

Another laugh, another too-long moment listening to her juicy organs pulsing inside her.

His teeth were scraping the sides of his mouth, too big for a human’s jaw.

Back in the living room, Kai set his box down with a ragged sigh.

Roan didn’t look up from the wires in his hands. “You ok?”

“I’m fine.” Kai flexed his hands. His fingertips ached, claws eager to come out and play.

“You wolves are so antsy,” Roan said, shaking his head. “Every full moon feels like prom night.”

Kai threw one of the couch pillows at Roan, who ducked without looking.

“Could be worse,” Kai said. “I could be a bloodsucking creep lurking in alleyways.”

“I don’t lurk.”

“No, you just stand silently in the shadows. Totally different.”

Roan finally glanced up at Kai.

“Do you want help with that anger management? We do have a backyard now.”

           Kai considered it. A fight with Roan would definitely get the blood pumping. But it might also get the blood spraying into a neighbor’s yard or put a gaping hole in their nice new fence.

Roan nodded. “Fair point. Never mind.”

A growl slipped between Kai’s teeth. “No mindreading in the house!”

“For the hundredth time, it’s not mindreading. Your face is an open book and I just happen to be literate. You do the same thing with your nose.”

“I tell what you’ve touched, not what you’re thinking.”

           Putting his wires down with a sigh, Roan stood.

“You can also tell when someone is afraid, or when they just came from a fight, or when they’re about to start one. How is that different?”

Those dark eyes sent shivers down Kai’s spine. Roan often forgot to blink at home. It was like living with a haunted doll.

“At least mine doesn’t involve awkward prolonged eye contact.”

“No, yours is more like a dog sniffing butts at a park.”

Kai shoved Roan’s shoulder, laughing despite himself. Roan let him, swaying back a step, faint smile on his face. Kai told himself the shivers down his spine were still coming from those obsidian eyes. The smile had nothing to do with it.

They spent the rest of the day unpacking. With supernatural strength and speed on their side, the place was almost livable by the evening. When Kai paced through the house for the fourth time, Roan sighed.

“Just go already, will you?”

“It’s only seven. The moon won’t be up for a few more hours.”

“A few more hours of this and I’ll have hidden your body under the floorboards.”

Kai pointed out the window. “But we have a backyard now. You’re gonna let all that perfectly good dirt go to waste?”

“I prefer keeping my trophies close.”

“And being an emo cliche. Is there a raven in your room?”

Roan threw a wine glass at Kai’s head. Catching it, Kai grabbed the wine bottle off the counter, popped the cork with his teeth, and poured himself a glass.

Roan crossed his arms. “Is that a good idea?”

           Kai gestured between them. “You do remember neither of us can actually get drunk, right?”

           “Yes, but alcohol makes you cranky.”

           Kai snorted. “I’d say the same for you, but who can tell the difference?”

           Roan reached for another projectile and Kai quickly stepped out of the room before he found one. He left his wine glass on the coffee table right next to a coaster, the perfect gift for an OCD vampire.

           Up in his new room, Kai paced. Heat roiled under his skin. Noise snapped his attention to the window, which faced the street below. Sliding it open, he heard the block party their neighbor had been talking about. Children shrieking, tiny shoes pounding pavement as they chased each other. The dull roar of dozens of small talks blurring together, glasses clinking, cans sloshing, mouths chewing. Part of him wanted to go down there. Meet some people. Maybe have friends besides one grumpy vampire.

           That’s called a pack, genius.

           Kai stiffened. The only wounds his werewolf powers couldn’t heal were self-inflicted ones.

           What kind of a werewolf lives alone?

           I’m not alone.

           No, you’re shacked up with a bloodsucker.

           The term didn’t sound as endearing in his head. Guilt sprouted in Kai’s chest like thorns. Under that stoic surface, did Roan flinch every time Kai teased him?

           You act like they have feelings.

           Kai shook his head. The voice was water rolling in his ears, except this water burned.

           Vampires did have feelings. He knew that. They were less vocal than werewolves, that’s all. And being vocal wasn’t always a good thing. Roan may have been joking about anger management, but the holes in plaster and bruises on people in Kai’s past spoke otherwise. Wolves had their own problems.

           A pack would fix them.

           No. Kai closed his eyes, gripping the windowsill. A pack wouldn’t fix him. He didn’t need to be fixed—he just needed a new coat of paint. This town was his second chance. Blend in with the humans. Hopefully make friends with the inhumans. He’d smelled witch wards a few houses over, saw a troll in a three-piece-suit glamour getting into his car, watched a group of pixies glamoured as pigeons fluttering around a coffee shop downtown.

           Don’t forget the other wolves.

           Kai winced. He had indeed smelled other wolves while he and Roan were picking out pillows and buying booze. He knew most of them lived in a neighborhood a few miles away. That’s why he’d chosen this mixed suburb instead of an all-monster one. Wolves didn’t mingle as well as vampires, so they usually stuck together. But not him.

“You know, if you hate it that much, we could just paint the window a different color.”

For a moment, Kai was confused. Then he looked down and saw his claws buried in the windowsill, wood splinters sprinkled on his shoes. When he yanked his hands away, sawdust tumbled through the air.

“It’s not home till I’ve broken something.” Kai sighed, sitting on his bed. The sounds of the block party streaming through his window felt mocking now. Did he really think he could pretend to be one of these people? Maybe a rowdy, violent werewolf pack was where he belonged.

Even when Roan sat beside him, Kai still couldn’t hear him. No pulse, no breathing, and still no damn blinking. He wondered if it was nice being so unobtrusive. Having humans’ eyes dance right over you in a crowded room. Slipping in and out of public places without having to smile or chat or pretend the meat walking by was anything but food.

“What if I can’t do this?”

Roan was silent. He didn’t fidget, of course. Even thinking, he was still as a statue. Kai caught himself tracing the line of his nose, the edge of his jaw, the curve of his lips. Must’ve been the full moon. Predator instincts kicking in.

Those inkwell eyes swung back to face him, and Kai found himself holding his breath. Wrenching his gaze away, he stared at his hands, still sporting long, dark claws. Stupid vampires and their hypnotic eyes.

“If you’re referring to the full moon, I know you’ll be fine. We chose this area because of its large surrounding forest, and you’ve never lost control even in wolf form.”

Sitting so close, Kai could almost feel Roan’s voice rumbling through his bones.

“If you’re referring to coexisting with humans in this neighborhood, I agree it may be difficult.”

“Wow, thanks for the vote of confidence.”

“I meant for both of us.”

           Kai blinked at Roan in surprise. “What? Vampires are great at blending in. You’re only creepy around me, around everyone else you’re totally fine.”

           Roan cocked his head slightly and Kai clenched his fists, claws digging into his palms.

“I didn’t mean creepy creepy, I just meant sometimes you forget to blink and that’s a little noticeable, but I’ve never seen you do it around people so I’m sure you’re fine. And I don’t really mind anyway since you—” have beautiful eyes, his mind finished for him, but Kai clamped his jaws shut, eyes back on the floor. Why did the full moon make him so stupid?

What’s your excuse the rest of the month?

Shut up.

He’d been distracted all week by the approaching full moon. Energy levels rising, senses on high alert. His wolf wanted to eat things, but Kai found himself with slightly different needs. They both wanted to be close to people, to feel their warmth, to taste them—but Kai didn’t want a corpse on his bed at the end, and his wolf didn’t care if the person took their clothes off before it tore them limb from limb.

What about the week before that, when you were watching him change? No full moon made you do that.

Kai winced. A witch hired them to deal with a goblin problem in her basement. There was no getting ichor out of clothes, so they’d had to bring something to change into. Kai had nearly fallen over trying to get his pants on, eyes drawn to the muscles tensing in Roan’s arms, the smooth skin of his back. He knew it would be cold to the touch, unlike his. For werewolves and vampires, hot and cold weren’t just personality traits, they were physical facts.

Kai was so lost in thought, Roan’s sigh nearly made him fall off the bed.

“I may be good at pretending, but I don’t enjoy it as much as you do.” Now it was Roan’s turn to avoid eye contact, staring intently at the blank wall in front of them. “Sometimes I don’t know what’s the point. I know we’re supposed to make friends, that’s what people do, but everyone seems to think vampires are emotionless robots so why bother trying to change their minds?”

That gave Kai pause. He knew what wolves said about vamps, but that was a centuries-old conflict. He didn’t realize other creatures had similar biases. Suddenly, being invisible sounded more like a trap. So good at camouflage no one actually wants to notice you.

“You don’t have to change my mind,” Kai said. “I know you’re not a robot. A robot wouldn’t annoy the crap out of me all the time.”

That faint smile slid back onto Roan’s face, and something lit up inside Kai, so bright it eclipsed the moonlight. Then the sounds of laughter and shouting drew Kai’s gaze to the window and when he looked back, Roan was standing by the door.

“Looks like it’s time to go.”

The moon was peeking out from above the rooftops. He had enough time to put miles in between him and everyone else, including the local pack’s territory, and then it was just him, his wolf, and the moon.

“Yeah, you’re right.” Kai stood, grabbing a bag stuffed with clothes, water, and snacks.

As he passed by Roan, he stopped.

“Hey, I heard the other monsters are having a party tomorrow.” They knew better than to host one on a full moon. “We should go.”

Roan blinked at him. “We should?”

Kai nodded, smiling. He knew his teeth were too sharp, but if anyone could overlook that, it’d be a vampire. “Yes, we should. Let’s suck at making friends together.”

Another pause, but no blink this time. The statue was thinking. And then he was smiling back at Kai, wide enough for his fangs to show. Kai wondered what kissing a vampire was like. Did the fangs get in the way? His certainly would, but he usually made sure he was in human form before doing anything like that.

Roan was still staring at Kai, but the look in those dark eyes was shifting. For a moment, he looked as hungry as Kai felt. Kai quickly looked away, hurrying down the stairs and out to his car. Better not leave that open book lying around. Never knew what grumpy vampire would read it.