Ms. Cole was as human as one could get. She was the boring landlady who visited the building for exactly three days at the beginning of each month, so that she could collect rent, bitch about the state of the place whilst ignoring the overflowing maintenance request bin, and tack a monthly newsletter printed on colored copy printer with reminders of lease violations she’d never dole out. This month it was a reminder that burning candles was a fire hazard and a lease violation, and Knox would’ve felt wary if he’d had enough money to regularly purchase candles.

Speaking of money, he was short on rent by exactly forty-three dollars and sixty-two cents.

There was no one in the office when he got there, so he lingered awkwardly, reading the dingy corkboard of random flyers of lost animals that had likely never been found, paper faded and curling at the edges from age. There was a particularly cute cat named Mr. Pickles that had went missing five years ago, and Knox sincerely hoped that someone had found him, and that he was still living the cushy house cat life he deserved.

He was busy looking at the faded pictures of the previous landlords, apparently the building had been in the Cole family for two generations prior to the current one, but he couldn’t imagine that anyone would want to own it after Ms. Cole. He figured once she died it’d be demolished for asbestos hazards. Knox was looking forward to being entitled to financial compensation for the mesothelioma he’d inevitably develop after living here.

“Mr. Jameson!” He turned at the sound of a raspy voice, gravely from years of smoking, and faced Ms. Cole. Her printed blouse hung off her skinny frame, she moved to sit in front of her archaic desktop, chair creaking dangerously under her weight, “How can I help you, sweetie?”

“Uhm, I’m here to pay my rent, but I’m sort of short, not by much though, it’s only by less than fifty dollars. I promise I’ll have the rest next week, and I’ll even pay interest, if you’d like.” He said, hands prickling with sweat. She wasn’t known for being lenient about rent, and he couldn’t get kicked out. He hadn’t been able to pick up any other shifts at the convenience store in time and hadn’t had the time to pick up any sort of odd jobs as he tried to catch up on schoolwork.

It’d be hard to find another apartment in the city, and he supposed he could apply for student housing, but that would probably be by next year at the earliest and his tuition would go up, and then he’d have to hear from his parents. He’d have to be homeless in the meantime too, which wouldn’t be so bad if he had a car, but he could get by. He could use wifi and electrical outlets on campus and at cafes, and maybe even shower in the school locker rooms when they were empty. The only real problem would be finding a place to sleep, but he would have to sell his furniture so with the money from that he could probably invest in a really nice sleeping bag and just tough it out. He’d have more money for food too without having bills for rent, electricity, and water every month.

“Your rent for the next six months has been paid for, Mr. Jameson.” Ms. Cole said, looking at her monitor through her reading glasses.

“I swear I’ll have it next week, I just—wait what?”

“It’s been paid for.” She repeated, “You won’t have a payment again until March.”

Knox stared at her blankly, disbelieving. He expected her to burst out laughing any moment, then she’d tell him what a loser he was and there’d be an eviction notice on his door in the morning. A minute passed and he was looking at him over her cat-frames, brows pinched in confusion.

“By who?” He asked, wondering if his parents somehow had a change of heart and decided to start caring for their only child.

“I’m unsure. A very polite man with an accent called my work number and gave me the billing information over the phone. The account is under a Valentine Hawthorne.” She hummed, “He said he was a part of the housing non-profit with the local college. It’s so nice that they really care about their students.”

“Right…” He chuckled nervously, feeling jittery. “You said that they paid for the next six months?”

Ms. Cole nodded in confirmation, “Yes, that’s right. Is there anything else I can help you with?”

“No, ma’am. Thank you for letting me know. Have a good day.” He waved, then left the stuffy office. He completely left the building, hoping the fresh air would help his light head. Was he breathing hard?

Knox ended up on a bench some yards away, calculator app pulled up on his phone so he could see how much money Valentine had just dropped on him. 3,750 dollars. Almost four grand. He huffed an incredulous laugh, feeling like he was on the verge of passing out. The vampires were absolutely mental.

How was he going to repay them? What did they want from him? He didn’t even have a way of contacting the nest, to demand that they take the money back or something. He would just have to wait until they crossed paths again, if they did. Maybe this was just a final act of kindness before they left his life for good.

Of course, that was too hopeful of a thought.

Not having to pay rent meant that he had a little extra money now sitting in his bank account. He planned to save most of it, of course, but it was quickly getting colder, and the heater was busted at his apartment. There was no hope of it getting fixed until spring at least, so he would be needing a space heater to get him through the winter.

He was in the shopping district of town, having a surprisingly good time window shopping for things he wouldn’t buy, hand cold from grasping the iced coffee he’d splurged on. His feet were starting to get tired from walking around, and he’d have to lug the space heater home, so he quickly sucked down the rest of his coffee, depositing it in a nearby trashcan and began heading for the appliance store.

Knox was passing a building when he felt a tug in his gut. It made him pause, steps faltering to a stop in front of the doors. It was one of those that would’ve gone unnoticed as some sort of office building, each floor made of dark glass paneling, lack of a sign making it as indiscernible as possible. The doors were open though, warm air spilling out onto the sidewalk; the sound of glasses clinking and a hundred different conversations surrounded him like a warm, fuzzy blanket. Other shoppers were bustling past, bundling up as the temperature continued to drop, entirely oblivious to the strangely inviting aura emanating from the place. He took a step forward, tentatively, the rational part of his brain wondering why that might be.

It only took a couple of more steps before he’s entering through the double doors, and he’d just crashed some sort of dinner party.

The floor was polished marble, so shiny it reflected the round tables covered in pure white cloth that took up a portion of the room. The lights on the high ceiling were dim, tea candles placed on every available surface. Little flames flickered everywhere, illuminating the figures that moved about the room. Some were sitting with shiny, stemmed glasses dangling from their fingertips. Others were dancing, moving with a sort of otherworldly grace that he’d seen a lot of recently.

There was no food on the plates.

There wasn’t any sort of food in sight, actually. Why would they even bother to put out tableware if they weren’t going to eat? If the guests didn’t need food to survive.

Knox should leave. Undoubtedly. He didn’t belong here, just like he didn’t belong anywhere, really. He doesn’t though, instead moving to the bar off to the side, taking a seat in one of the empty stools. The bartender is there immediately, eyeing him with intense curiosity that Knox can’t meet. “I’d like a drink,” He said, “Preferably one without blood.”

The bartender doesn’t respond, instead going to do as asked. He does his best to remain impassive to the stares around him, hoping that it was against vampire culture to attack humans in the middle of parties. In all the stories, vampires always lured the prey away before feasting on them.

Minutes later a glass of… something was sat in front of him. He wasn’t well versed in alcohol- except for shitty beer and questionable things people would brew in their college dorms. Whatever was in front of him were neither of those things; the pale liquid topped with mint. He brought the glass up to his nose, giving the mixed drink a cautious sniff. It was only slightly comforting that the liquid was too pale to have any blood in it.

“Don’t prey usually avoid predators?” A voice appeared beside him.

Knox tried not to startle, carefully setting the cup down on the counter as his heart leapt to his throat. No doubt the vampire could hear the misstep in his heartbeat, but he still wanted to put off a calm front. What was he doing here? “Aren’t humans considered the apex predator?”

“A title your kind gave to themselves,” The vampire answered smoothly, helping himself to the empty stool beside him. He moved as elegantly as the rest, just as beautiful as any of the other vampires around them. Knox would have liked to stare, but he forced himself to look elsewhere. Like the dark glass of something in his hands. It wasn’t hard to figure out what it was, the viscous liquid sticking to the walls of the bowl where it had sloshed around. “One that we’ve been generous enough to let you keep. What is a snack doing in here?”

The vampire reached forward, fingers brushing against his cheek, sending an unpleasant chill down his spine. “I’m not a snack.”

“A meal then.” He said as if to amend the former sentence, “How did you get past the ward?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I just walked through the doors.”

“Hmm, interesting.” The vampire grinned, pointy fangs glinting in the candlelight, “How about we-“

“There you are,” A new voice interrupted, and Knox nearly sagged in relief as he turned his head to watch Callum approach. They were in a dress that hugged their body, dangling pearls cascading from their earlobes and blond hair pulled up to show off their neck. He didn’t have the chance to absorb much else as they stopped just short of him, spinning the stool around so his body was now facing theirs. The heels they were wearing made them tower over him, and Knox hardly protested as they gathered a fistful of hair, tugging his head back to press their lips together.

Knox was frozen. Callum’s lips were surprisingly soft despite how cold they were. It wasn’t as unpleasant as he might’ve expected, quite the opposite, even if he wasn’t doing much to help them out. Their lips moved softly against his for a moment before they pulled away, red eyes flitting to his clothing. “I told you to come find me immediately. What are you wearing, pet?”

They don’t seem to expect an answer, thankfully, his mind whirling from the kiss and the pet name. Callum turned to the vampire who’d previously been speaking to him, “Edwin, thank you for keeping my pet company when I couldn’t.”

The vampire, Edwin apparently, was looking between them with interest. “I didn’t know your patriarch allowed you to keep pets.”

“He’s a special case.” Callum smiled, wrapping an arm around Knox’s waist, “And he’s under our protection, for anyone who might be curious.”

“The entire Hawthorne clan?” Edwin raised his eyebrows, “I’m surprised Valentine would let him out of the nest.”

“Hmm, the rumors would support that, wouldn’t it? I’m afraid we must be going.”

Edwin merely nodded, taking a careful sip of his blood, “I’ll be sure to pass along the message.”

Callum tugged him out of his seat, and Knox did his best to remain upright despite that his knees felt like jelly. “Come on, pet, wouldn’t want you to get lost, hm?”

Knox had no choice but to follow, stomach swooping and lips tingling from the kiss. Callum kept a careful grip on him as they weaved through the sea of vampires, moving at a much slower pace than Callum probably would have liked. His clunky human feet didn’t want to cooperate with his fuzzy brain. They got to an elevator eventually, clicking one of the buttons and swiping a key card they seemingly produced out of thin air.

“When we get to my room, human, I expect answers.” They said quietly, voice hedging a dangerous tone as they began their ascent.

Knox let his head fall back against the wall, looking at their reflection in the mirrored tile of the elevator ceiling. He didn’t have any answers for Callum.