BOYS OF THE NIGHT - #23




All five guys ran to the kitchen doorway to see Barb standing in front of the refrigerator in disgust. She backed up a little, shocked.
"WHAT THE HELL?" she asked, slamming the door. "Wh- Why are there bags of blood in there?" she yelled, pointing at the appliance.
Kevin stepped forward, his arms crossed in front of him. "We went over this yesterday. You know what we have to do to survive. You wouldn't believe though."
She looked at him with widened eyes, terrified. Suddenly, she burst into tears, her body racked with sobs, she looked pathetic. "Please don't kill me! Please??"
Nick was instantly at her side, but she rejected his affection harshly. He touched her shoulder, and she shrugged him off roughly.
"Don't!!"
Surprised by her response, he backed away slowly, almost hurt.
"I'm sorry."
"This is sick! I can't believe this! God, why me?" she asked hopelessly, staring up to the ceiling. Barb wiped away her tears and sniffled. They all let her take it in, quietly watching as she breathed deeply, trying to regain her composure. Eventually, she settled down enough to talk to them civilly.
"I feel really sick."
"You're going to, for a while," Kevin said, shooting a glare in Nick's direction accusingly.
She felt her neck gently. The puncture wounds were completely healed over, but she could feel the prominent scars. "You... you said you did this out of love?" she asked turning to Nick.
He nodded, swallowing hard.
"Couldn't you just have raped me, or something? I mean, isn't kidnapping and biting a bit extreme?"
AJ laughed and elbowed Nick. "Good catch. Good catch."
"Vampires normally don't have sex," Kevin said, matter-of-factly to her. He turned to his mate and son and glared.
"Speaking of sex, I suspected Howie, but you two? Now that was a shock. Never saw it coming," Barb replied, acknowledging Kevin and AJ.
AJ immediately stopped laughing. He looked as if he'd been slapped. And very hard.
"Oh, come on. Don't play stupid with me. I'm a lot better at it than you. I saw you guys in that bed - when I went downstairs," Barb pushed, seeing she'd touched a very sensitive nerve with AJ.
"We're NOT gay. We just don't have a preference," Kevin answered, attempting to keep his calm. Brian and Nick snickered behind them at Barb's accusation.
"Oh, so you've got a Dutch Door, huh? Swinging both ways are we?"
"NO! WE DON'T HAVE A SEXUALITY!" Kevin growled, exasperated to the point of breaking.
She leaned back, afraid of what he'd do. "Okay! Okay! You're asexual. God, touch-y."
Everyone was silent for a few moments - the five guys staring incredulously at the one girl. Both parties were puzzled by the complexity of the other.
"So... so you are all... uh..."
"Yeah. Vampires," Howie said nonchalantly, looking at his nails. Barb just watched, still having trouble computing that.
"You guys just go out at night? Or what?"
"We can go into daylight, if, and only if, we've fed the night before. Otherwise, we get a severe case of sun poisoning," Kevin stated intelligently.
"And no Garlic?"
"That's bullshit. Bullshit," AJ said, "I'm Italian. I couldn't live without the stuff."
Seeing that they were very much normal and human-like, she began to relax, but curiosity, of course, led to more questions.
"Crosses? Do they hurt you??"
"No. I'm a full-blood Catholic," Howie disproved, holding up his crucifix necklace.
"Coffins?" she counter-attacked.
"A myth. Yet another myth," Kevin replied, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "A repulsively stupid myth, no less. I mean, why would the Undead sleep in beds for the Dead?"
Barb nodded approvingly, agreeing with him.
"So, you're basically human? You just have a sick, disgusting obsession with drinking, AND sucking," she threw at Nick, "blood?"
"It's not an obsession. More like a need. We can live up 700 years. But in order for us to live that long, and go out in public during daylight hours, we need it. It's crucial. So, to answer your question, yes, we are like you, only we have a few advantages... and for lack of a better term, we all have time on our side."
She didn't come back with another inquiry, but studied Kevin intently. "I know you."
He stared back, his green eyes carefully inching to hers. "I know you too."