Kissing With Teeth by Daryl Banner

Author:Daryl Banner [Banner, Daryl]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Frozenfyre Publishing
Published: 2023-10-08T16:00:00+00:00

16.

Only My Thirst Will Be.

—∙—

“Wait, she recorded everything?” asks Elias.

“Yeah.” Kyle strikes a note on the piano, filling the house with a ringing, high-pitched D#. “Everything.”

“I wish I was there. I lost you, you were going too fast, and by the time I found you, the cop was there, and—”

“It’s okay.” Kyle strikes another note, then turns it into a halfhearted arpeggiated chord, C minor. “Nothing I can really do anyway.”

“Feels like someone stole your sex tape or something. How violating.” Elias leans against the piano, his ass unintentionally contributing a series of discordant bass notes. “So what’re you gonna do? Try to get the phone from Cade tonight?”

“All I wanted to do was lay low.” Kyle plays another chord. “I wanted to disappear, here in this town, just be like everyone else, going about my day. Or night, in my case.” He hits a deep chord, strokes a few keys, finding a melody. It feels derivative of Bach, reminding him of his brother. “I was just … Henry.”

“I love listening to you play.”

“Now there’s a video. A crazy pawnshop thief whose ear I probably scarred. Police chief. His son. My boss’s daughter …” Kyle strikes another chord, then glances at Elias. “You.”

Elias gazes at Kyle, voice turning soft. “Me.”

Kyle drops his hands from the piano. “I feel like it won’t be long before everyone knows. Then people will dig. And they’ll learn my real name. And once they learn that, they’ll find out where I’m from, what happened, and then—”

“Or maybe it’s the best of both worlds,” says Elias. “This weird little town likes to keep its secrets, know what I mean? It isn’t interested in the rest of the world. And if everyone here thinks you’re not a bad guy, that you’re part of the community, what’ll they care who you really are?”

“Elias …”

“You’re overthinking it.”

“You don’t know my secrets. My real secrets.”

Elias shrugs. “C’mon. How bad could they really be?”

Kyle closes his eyes. Behind them, all he sees is red. It has been a very, very long time since he’s seen the relentless storm of red behind his eyelids, the red that claimed his family, the red he is certain he will never cleanse from his soul, the red that forever keeps his hands dirty.

“I want to tell you why I wish to stop drinking from you,” says Kyle. “The real reason. Do you know what happens to my kind when we drink blood? There’s a dire consequence.”

“What do you mean? What consequence?”

“Every drop I have … it transforms me more.”

“Huh? Transforms you how?”

“There’s a reason They exist, Elias. The ones people talk about. Bloodsuckers, like that guy called me in the pawnshop. If I keep tasting you, I’ll become that monster I’m trying not to be—one of Them. You will see why people throughout history feared Them. Capital ‘T’, Them. I’m a chained monster, and with your blood, you’re unchaining it, link by link, whether you mean to or not. How’s that feel? To be an accomplice in … in unleashing a monster? I can feel it already.

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