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Darkness Man glared at the heart reaction to Nancy’s text like it would disappear if he thought hard enough about it. Memories of his coterie insinuating his affection (ugh) for her made him shudder with disgust. He shoved the phone back into his pocket with a gruff sigh when reality didn’t bend to his will.
He creaked open his coffin quietly, though the wretched thing screeched violently without his permission.
It didn’t matter as he glanced around their basement of the house. Bat Child’s umbrella hung from the rafters next to Madelaine’s coffin. HJ’s coffin was left open and LaVonte’s was closed. Darkness Man could guess how that happened with near accuracy.
A sliver of sunlight cast a rectangle on the concrete floor beneath their coffins. Seemed about midday or afternoon, though it had been too long since Darkness Man was mortal to remember the difference.
He looked over to Zaeth’s coffin, blanking when he saw his was still open. In fact, was that a trail of blood leading out of the basement?
No, not blood in the usual form. More so, the vampire version of the fluid.
Whatever, it was evidence of where the man went.
Darkness Man let out an irritated sigh as he stood up from his coffin. He covered any exposed skin (something no one ever deserved to see) with his pitch black clothing and ascended the stairs, following the splatters of blood.
The floors remained silent under his light pace, careful to not alert the herd to his movements. He knew they likely wouldn’t be able to do much against his actions but he didn’t want to explain his reasons for being awake at this hour.
The blood led to the door to the garage. Darkness Man cast a cursory glance around him before slipping into the dark room.
He smelled his blood before his eyesight adjusted to the darkness again. Once adjusted, he saw Zaeth leaned up against the side of his horse (or, the ghorse, rather). His muscular arm hugged the top of the ghorse and his head rested on top of his shoulder. Though his back was turned to Darkness Man, the ghorse made eye contact with him, craning its head around to stare at him when he entered.
It snorted, flaring its newly formed fangs among a mouth full of eerily square teeth. Darkness Man held up his hands in a placating manner, staying close to the door.
“Easy, easy. Just wanted to check in on him,” Darkness Man muttered, unsure if Zaeth was even awake.
(This was a bad idea, he should just be back in his coffin trying to forget all of-)
“I’m awake, y’know. You don’t have to talk to my ghorse as my proxy,” Zaeth glanced over his shoulder, “unless you’d prefer that?”
His dirty blond hair was tousled more than normal and temporarily caught Darkness Man off guard more than he thought it would. He was suddenly hit with a violent urge to run his gloved fingers through it (only gloved, never naked, he would hate that).
“No, I- I didn’t know you were awake. Didn’t want to wake you since you sneaked away to be here with… him?”
“How did you find me anyway?”
“Uh… your blood…”
Zaeth glanced at his shoulder.
“Oh, right. Forgot about that.”
He looked up at Darkness Man, still lingering by the door.
“Come sit down, man. You look like a pervert standing there like that,” he gestured with his fingers before resting his hand back on the ghorse’s back.
Darkness Man obeyed, settling down quietly on the other side of the ghorse. His shoulder brushed Zaeth’s hand. He half expected him to pull away, but was surprised when he moved it to rest on the joint.
“Why are you up this early anyways?” Zaeth asked.
His blue eyes met Darkness Man’s and he paused. Every reason that he had for this mission disappeared in the wind when those sky blue eyes stared at him.
“I just- I- I don’t know, felt bad not helping you with your arm like I did with your jaw,” Darkness Man stammered, keeping his eyes glued to the floor.
Zaeth’s hand disappeared from his shoulder before a finger shocked Darkness Man on the edge of his jaw. His eyes flared and quickly glanced to Zaeth. Zaeth’s eyes were impossibly soft and Darkness Man briefly considered whether that was due to blood loss on his part, despite the fact that the two were vampires who had no blood left as part of their curses.
“Is that really the reason? Or could Danderhoof still be on your mind?”
Darkness Man knew he grimaced when Zaeth chuckled, the skin around his eyes crinkling from the movement. Zaeth moved to cup his face and Darkness Man was suddenly grateful for the lack of human blood in his body for several reasons.
“Well, I know I just met Nancy- what, a couple days or weeks ago?- but I know you’re not in love with her or whatever the others were saying. Sometimes it’s just fun to razz you a bit,” Zaeth said, tapping one of his fingers on Darkness Man’s jaw.
“I know, Zaeth. I just didn’t want you getting the wrong idea about…” he trailed off, suddenly realizing where he was going with this.
Zaeth’s finger paused in its tapping pattern and Darkness Man missed it with a passionate zeal.
“About…?” Zaeth leaned in.
Darkness Man stopped breathing (he didn’t need to in the first place but the weight in his chest sure felt like that once familiar sensation).
A tense silence settled over the two before it was broken up by the ghorse snorting, moving their limbs up and down.
Zaeth laughed out loud, his fangs flashing from behind his lips. Darkness Man lightly chuckled and his chest felt warm. He knew that feeling (from eons ago) and it swirled in his stomach.
Zaeth’s hand dropped from his jaw and he missed it immediately, before that swirl came back when he grabbed his gloved hand.
“Why don’t we head back to the basement before the sunlight gets us instead of the Whittakers?” Zaeth offered, standing up and pulling Darkness Man up with him.
“Oh please, the Douglasses already got you which is a one up on those fucks,” he said, gesturing to Zaeth’s shoulder.
“Mmmmm, I wouldn’t say that’s ‘getting got,’ that’s more so tagging me like… I don’t know, like a deer?” Zaeth rambled as Darkness Man nudged open the garage door.
Darkness Man chuckled, silently nodding as the man rambled the whole way down the stairs.