'You are a vampire, too?' Frank asked excited.
The stranger gave him a look, clearly not in the mood for games or jokes. 'Can you shut up?' he whispered. 'You don't want the entire neighborhood to find out who we are, do you?'
Frank shook his head, not because he understood, but he was kind of scared of the guy. He was almost twice his size, and kind of intimidating. 'Wait – aren't you the bartender who was hitting on me back at the bar?'
'I wasn't hitting on you! You're not my type!'
'Whatever,' Frank said laughing.
Yet, the guy was nervous. 'I was keeping an eye on you! I knew it the moment you guys walked in that you were vampires. I had to keep my customers safe from idiots like you! And now there's another vampire on the loose!'
'I'm sorry, okay?' Frank apologized. 'I'm new at this.'
'Clearly.'
'What is that supposed to mean?' Frank was getting angry, and Gerard had to hold him.
'I mean that you have a lot to learn.' He paused. 'I'm Ray, by the way,' he said, and leaned in to shake hands with them, all proper.
'Frank,' he said, not trusting Ray just yet.
'Gerard.'
'Well –' Ray continued. 'I know this is weird, and we don't know each other, but I just want to help. For everyone's sake. So – if you want, some friends and I have a place, you can stay with us for a while, we can teach you some basics. Before you turn the rest of New Jersey into children of the night.'
Frank turned to Gerard for reassurance, as usual. 'And why should we trust you?' he asked.
'Because I've been around for hundreds of years. I think I have more experience than you.'
'Fine. I'm listening.'
'Let's go to my place. Take some clothes with you.'
***
'Are you sure following a complete stranger to their place is safe?' Frank asked Gerard, as they followed Ray to a house at the end of the street. It was dark, but they could see an old Victorian house looked old and unkempt, with wooden boards covering the windows. There were no lights on outside, and it looked pretty much abandoned. 'This is how every horror movie starts, Gee.'
'Frank – we are vampires! We're already a walking horror movie!'
'But he's way older than us, and more likely, way more powerful!'
Gerard didn't say anything, but it was obvious he agreed. They noticed Ray got out of his car and was waiting for them. 'What should we do?'
'I don't know! Get away! He could kill us!'
'We're dead!'
'Fine!' Frank yelled, and got out too.
'I promise it's not as bad as it looks from the outside,' Ray told them, sounding a little worried. 'It's just to keep appearances, and keep people as far away as possible.' He led them to the porch, and took out his keys. 'Some vampires love the whole haunted house aesthetic, and even leave the spiderwebs. But some of us are clean freaks.'
Then, he opened the door, and they entered a long corridor, lit and clean, its walls painted a cream color. Definitely not what they expected.
'Not even my mom has her house so clean and organized,' Frank mentioned.
'Like I said,' Ray told him, leading them to the back of the house, and into the dining room, and then the kitchen. 'Some of us are clean freaks.'
'And by that,' a young woman interrupted. She had short black hair, and was wearing a black hoodie. 'He means himself.'
'She's Jamia,' Ray said.
'And who are they?' she asked, drinking from her beer, confused.
'Our newest apprentices.'
'So you two are vampires?' Gerard asked.
Jamia rolled her eyes, not in the mood to deal with them. 'You're letting newbies in again, Raymond?'
'Who are you calling newbie?' Frank asked, outraged. He knew it was wrong to hit a woman, but in this case, she was more powerful than him. And for a strange reason, that turned him on, which confused his gay ass.
'Shut up, newbie,' she replied with a chuckle. 'I'm not afraid to punch you.'
Yep, Frank would definitely let her punch him, or do anything she wanted.
'They bit a girl at the bar,' Ray explained, causing his friend to roll her eyes. 'I think some training would do them good.'
'Clearly. We don't want it happening again.'
'What?' Gerard asked, curious.
So Ray told them. 'Twenty years ago this guy turned and he told everyone he was a vampire, causing chaos everywhere.'
'Oh.'
'Yeah. We're just trying to live our lives, we don't want them to be scared or they'll kill us.'
'I get it,' Gerard said.
'Great. We're supposed to help each other.'
'No, I'm not,' Jamia added.
'Just shut up, and sit down. You too,' he said to Frank and Gerard.
The other three had no choice but to sit at the table and listen to Ray.
As soon as they did, he started his speech, knowing it by heart after repeating it for hundreds of years. 'Okay,' he said in a demanding voice. 'Me and Jamia are in charge here since we've been here the longest. You'll get to know the rest eventually. Any questions, come to us.
First thing, you can do pretty much whatever you want. As long as you don't hurt anyone. But –'
'I knew it was too good to be true!' Frank interrupted.
Ray just rolled his eyes, and kept going. 'I was gonna say – if you want to stay here, you'll have to help around somehow. There's always something to do around the house. That's how we've kept it the way it is. Or you can work at the bar, or at Geoff's sandwich shop.'
'I have a question,' Gerard said, raising his hand as if he was in middle school. 'Do we have to live here?'
'Good question,' Jamia said. 'You do have a choice of going home. But as of now, we prefer if you guys stay here for a while, until you're not a danger to society.'
Gerard nodded, but Frank gave her a death stare. 'What do you mean a danger to society?'
'You know what she means,' Ray said. 'I didn't have to be there to know it was you the one who bit the victim.'
'Frankie, they're right,' Gerard added, only making him angrier.
'You too?'
'Babe, you know I love you, and I'll support you, but you can't go around biting people. You're not three years old anymore.'
'Fine!'
'Great!' Ray said. 'Now, you have to stay indoor for a couple days while your new diet starts working, and to calm down his hunger.' He pointed at Frank, and Gerard had to pull his arm before he got up to punch Ray.
He showed them the fridge where they kept the blood supply, as well as regular food and snacks, and then showed them around. In the first floor they had a living room and a launch, with a pool table and video games. 'We usually just hang out here at night, for obvious reasons.' Then he took them downstairs, to the basement. Except it was another long hallway and there were different rooms, and it was bigger than they thought. 'Our ancestors built this underground facility for vampires the first colonizers arrived here,' he explained. They had another kitchen and dining area, a living room, and a laundry. There were at least five rooms with bunks in them, and five more with a single queen size bed. 'We started as a vampire shelter, pretty much. Helping out other vampires who needed a place to stay or were here on a trip. But the community is bigger now, so now we help others with their transition.'
'That's cool,' Gerard said.
'So? You're staying?'
'I guess.'
***
The first couple days were good.
They had an unlimited supply of blood – in fact, they were limited to four liters each, but whatever –, and food. And during the day, they helped Jamia cook, and the other guys were cool too. Geoff and Frank bonded over music, and he had guitars so he let Frank use one. Gerard was still drawing just like back at home. And there was a girl named Emily, who was too shy, but she sat with Gerard to watch movies.
Then, when Frank and Gerard got too bored, and Frank mentioned how he hated not seeing his reflection, Gerard started drawing him, and Frank did the same and drew Gerard, or a stick figure that looked like him. 'It's not as pretty as you,' Frank said. 'But it's pretty majestic.'
'I love it.'
And then Frank was on top of him, undressing him and going down on him.'
Later that night, Ray called them upstairs. They had a weekly hangout, and the rest of them were there. Bert, Kayleigh and Tucker. They invited Gerard and Frank to play pool with them, and they all got along pretty well.
They were all drinking Cokes and eating chips, and talking about nonsense, when Ray came in with a couple strangers, and the rest of them, ran to the door, and stared with their hungry eyes. 'Guys, chill,' Ray reminded them. 'These are Michael and Cortez,' he introduced them to Gerard and Frank. 'These are tonight's victims.'
Frank didn't even know what to say. Were they supposed to suck them dry?
'They're under a spell to let us feed off of them. You do not, under any circumstances, kill them.' He pushed Cortez to where they were, and left with Michael to the living room.
Surprisingly, Gerard was the first to grab a hold of the victim, and bite his neck, sucking him and licking the blood that was dripping. And the whole scene was turning Frank on, so he joined them, and bit his shoulder.
Fuck, that was hot. There was a lot of biting, and sucking, and licking, and Frank grniding himself on the victim's crotch while he and Gerard made out.
Frank was staring to consider he liked his new life as a vampire.