Moonlight Denial: Shades of Moonlight Book One

“I can’t believe they’re calling you in on a Sunday. You’re an architect, not a construction worker. What do they need you for?” Laura complained as she walked with her husband to the front door.

“Honey, it’s my plans, my design, my baby. If they have questions on something I’d rather them call me in for help rather than go in it by themselves,” Lance chuckled as he grabbed his jacket from the hook on the wall. He kissed Laura as he shrugged the coat on.

“Hopefully it won’t take too long, but, just in case, don’t wait up for me,” he advised.

“All right, just don’t work yourself too hard,” Laura said as she straightened her husband’s coat. A mischievous smile then appeared and her hold tightened on the clothing as she pulled the tall man to her. “But, if that does happen, I suppose I could find a way to…unwind you,” she said softly and slyly.

A grin couldn’t help find its way onto Lances face and he wrapped his arms around Laura’s waist. She still had that playful fire that made the man fall in love with her.

“Hmm with a promise like that I guess I’ll have to have an extra hard day at work,” he said cheekily before bending down to give his wife a kiss that she deserved.

It was minutes before the two reluctantly pulled away.

“Damn you woman for making me not want to leave,” Lance murmured between small kisses.

“Just think of me till you get home,” Laura giggled as her husband finally willed himself away from her and reached the front door.

“It’ll be hard not to,” the man said with a smile as he opened the door. “Love you, Honey,” he said and gave her one last kiss before going through the doorway.

“Love you too,” Laura called after him. She watched Lance go across the walkway to the driveway and she sighed as she closed the door. If only it were the old days of just lying in bed all day and enjoying each other’s company and enjoying a few…other things.

Laura’s bare feet padded across the wood floor and she adjusted her fluffy pink robe as she made her way to the kitchen.

“I suppose I’ll make a proper breakfast for myself now,” she said as she went through the kitchen doorway. A second later she poked her head back out and looked toward the staircase leading to the second floor.

“I wonder if my lazy bag of bones of a son is up yet,” she murmured with a little smile before heading toward the stairs. “Might as well see if he wants anything to eat.”

When Laura reached her son’s room she knocked on his door with a few rasps of her knuckles.

“Nicy, are you awake?” she called. Laura waited for a moment before knocking and asking again. When there was no answer she tentatively opened the door and peeked into the room.

A light chuckle and a small smile upturned Laura’s lips when she saw the lump under the covers. Boys could sleep till the world ended, she was convinced of that. Laura silently entered the room and made her way toward the bed. A surprised noise escaped her when her slipper covered foot bumped into something. Laura glanced at it and bent down.

“A couple of weeks and he’s already starting to throw things around his room,” Laura muttered as she picked up her son’s jacket. “What has he been doing in this thing?” she wondered as she noticed it was covered in dirt and bits of leaves. Laura shook her head as she hung the jacket up on Nicoli’s desk chair.

Laura then went to the bed and carefully sat on the edge of it. She looked down at her pride and joy with a small smile. He was currently lying on his left side, facing the window and away from the door.

“Nicoli, Sweety, you should really think about getting up soon,” she cooed softly as she gently stroked her son’s hair.

A groan rose from the lump and Nicoli tried to pull the blankets over his head, but his mother’s weight prevented that. So he curled under them more instead.

“Wha time zit?” came Nicoli’s groggy response.

“A little past ten,” Laura answered after checking her little wristwatch. “I was wondering if you wanted breakfast and don’t you still have that report to write?” she asked.

Another groan came from the boy as his head reemerged and he snuggled his face into his pillow.

“Shit, yeah, I do. Ow,” he halfheartedly whined when his mother flicked his ear.

“None of that language now,” she chided before petting his head again. “You should think about getting up then. If you sleep any longer you’ll run out of time.”

Something that sounded like ‘Gregrrrgh’ came from the lump before it let out a big sigh.

“I guess…”

Laura’s brows knitted in concern. It was true Nicoli wasn’t a morning person, but he was never this reluctant to get up.

“Baby, are you okay? You sound exhausted,” Laura said, pulling the strands of dark hair away from her son’s face and resting her hand on his forehead. “You don’t feel warm.”

“I’m not sick, Mom,” Nicoli grumbled, not feeling ill in the least. “I’m just…really tired for some reason.”

“Oooh I think I know why you’re being such a sleepy pants,” Laura said with a smile. “Your father and I heard Beethoven barking this morning. You must not have gotten back to sleep very well.”

Nicoli cracked open an eye. Why did that sound odd to him?

Beethoven barking? What?

That’s when a faint memory of Beethoven barking at his window surfaced. The question was why?

“Oh…yeah, I guess he was,” the boy murmured. That’s when he noticed the usual weight of his canine friend curled against his legs was missing. That was strange. “Where is he?”

“At some point he came and slept in our room, which is odd in itself,” Laura answered. “Do you know why Beethoven was barking at such an ungodly hour?” she asked curiously.

Nicoli closed his eye and tried to think. That was a really good question. Why had Beethoven been barking? What would cause the animal to start barking like he had at the strange man in town…

Nicoli was able to stifle the gasp that rose in his throat as his eyes snapped open. Omen. The strange man’s name was Omen. Waves upon waves of memories crashed around Nicoli’s skull. Omen and Ethan fighting. Running through the woods for his life. Falling off Banshee Cliffs. Ethan saving him. Waking up in his room next to Ethan and realizing Ethan was a…

No, no way. That was all a dream. A vivid dream, but a dream nonetheless. No way that actually happened, Nicoli tried to assure himself. Nothing but a dream. But then what had caused the dog to bark like a madman?

“Um…I’m not sure,” Nicoli replied, closing his eyes as he tried to think of something reasonable. “He might have been barking at an animal outside, or maybe another dog started barking somewhere so that got him going,” he offered, finding those answers good enough for him.

“Huh, I suppose that could have been it. Well, since you got stuff to do you better get your butt in gear and get up,” Laura told him and chuckled at the groan she received. “Now, how do pancakes for breakfast sound?”

At just the thought of golden, fluffy pancakes slathered in syrup and butter Nicoli’s stomach rumbled. It felt like he hadn’t eaten in forever.

“I’ll have to agree with my stomach and say that sounds pretty darn good,” Nicoli said with a pleasant smile.

Laura chuckled and bent down to plant a kiss on her son’s temple.

“All right, I’ll get it started and you come down in a few minuets. If you happen to go back to sleep then you’ll miss out and I’ll eat them all for myself,” she mock threatened as she stood up and started walking toward the door.

“And watch as they go straight to your hips,” Nicoli teased with a devilish little smirk.

Laura stopped at the doorway and placed a hand on said hip as she looked back at the lump.

“Just for that I’m burning yours,” she said before disappearing from the room.

Nicoli listened to her soft footsteps go down the stairs and sighed. He really did want to go back to sleep, really, really wanted to. Reluctantly he opened his eyes and stared at the window. The morning light was pouring in and lit up and heated the room nicely.

Amelia must have gotten to me yesterday with all of her mumbo jumbo, Nicoli thought. I mean how else could have I dreamed up all that crazy stuff? I’m gonna need a shrink after living here.

Nicoli pushed the covers off him and rolled over to get out of bed, but as he started lifting himself up the boy dropped back down and wrapped his arms around himself. A pitiful whimper came from him as he curled up in the fetal position.

“O-Ow, w-what?” Nicoli’s body was stiff to the point that movement hurt, really hurt.

Bewildered, Nicoli tried to slowly stretch his body out. Once he was completely sprawled out the burn in his muscles gradually faded away as they extended and loosened. After a few minutes of light stretching, Nicoli tried once more to get up. He was able to sit up without too much hassle, but the soreness was still lingering.

“Damn, am I so out of shape that a walk around the town did this to me?” Nicoli asked himself as he rubbed one of his shoulders. He noticed that the area that radiated the most pain seemed to be coming from his chest and stomach. That made his skin prickle a little and he shook his head as the vision of an elbow and a boot hitting him danced across his eyes.

“No, bad brain, stop it. It was just a dream,” Nicoli grumbled as he went to rubbing his temples. “Just a dream. Just a dream. Just a dream…” he repeated this mantra to himself over and over then released a deep breath. He felt much calmer and more assured than ever that all of the ridiculous nonsense was just a dream.

Nicoli carefully turned so he could drape his legs over the edge of the bed and he began running his fingers through his hair to try and tame any bed head he had. His eyebrows furrowed when he noticed bits and pieces of debris falling from his locks and fluttering to his lap. That’s when he got a good look at his sweats.

“…what the?”

Nicoli lifted a leg to inspect the fabric. Dirt was practically embedded in the material. Now that wasn’t right.

“They were not like this before I went to bed,” Nicoli said, very certain of that. He never went outside in his sleeping clothes unless it was to check the mail and he had never done anything to get them this dirty.

Nicoli’s newly reinforced assurance quaked at this revelation. His head whipped over to his desk chair. His pants hadn’t been the only thing to get dirty in that dream.

Trying hard not to surprise his protesting body, Nicoli eased himself off the bed and walked slowly over to the chair. Nicoli reached out for his jacket, but stopped to shake his hand when he noticed his fingers were trembling.

“Come on, pull yourself together damn it,” he told himself. The second time was more successful and he picked his jacket up and looked it over. Nicoli’s blood turned to ice when he saw it was just as dirty as his pants.

Blue eyes flickered over to his closet door, the place where the dream vampire chose to sleep for the night.

“No…no fucking way,” Nicoli murmured as he dropped the jacket on the chair and slowly approached the door. The boy’s strong denial was fluttering and flickering, doubt beginning to tell the boy that his dream was far more than a dream.

Nicoli stood in front of the closet, staring at the doorknob. Hesitantly he reached out and wrapped his hand around the metal knob, but made no move to turn it. A growl rose from the boy and he shook his head.

“Stop this. Just open the door and prove to yourself once and for all it was a dream,” he demanded. “There is no vampire in your closet.”

With that he turned the doorknob and yanked the door open.

“S’cuse me, Kid, but can you cover the window before you do that?” a groggy voice said from inside.

Just as quickly as it was opened the door slammed shut and Nicoli pressed his back against it with his arms outstretched.

“Oh – Oh my God…there’s a vampire in my closet,” Nicoli whispered in utter shock and disbelief. His last string of denial was cut and the reality of the situation crashed down on him like a ton of bricks.

“Jeeze are you going to think it was a dream every time you wake up? ‘Cause this is getting annoying.”

Nicoli shrieked and toppled to the floor when a familiar, translucent figure suddenly appeared beside him. The boy looked up with large eyes at an irritated looking Felix. After staring at each other for a few agonizing minutes, Nicoli laid back on the floor and stared at the ceiling as his nails dug into the wood floor.

“Holy shit. It wasn’t a dream. There’s actually a vampire in my closet and a ghost in my room.” Nicoli tried to push back into the hard floor when Felix floated above him, his face a few inches above the living boy’s.

“Na, you don’t say? What was your first clue?” Felix asked mockingly.

Nicoli’s shock gave way to agitation and he glared up at the specter.

“Hey, I don’t need any of your bullshit attitude right now, Casper,” the boy snapped and pointed a finger at the ghost. “So why don’t you just float your see-through ass away from my face before I-”

“Nicy, Honey. Are you okay? I thought I heard a thud,” Nicoli’s mother’s voice interrupted him as she called up from downstairs.

“I’m fine, Mom!” Nicoli called back, though he was far from fine. “I just – uh – got twisted in the blankets and fell out of bed!” Yeah, that was a good enough excuse.

“All right, well, gather yourself up and get down here before your pancakes get cold!”

Nicoli sighed and closed his eyes. Good thing she hadn’t come and checked on him.

“This is so fucked up,” he muttered. What had he done to deserve this?

“Yeah, welcome to life,” Felix told him as he glided away from the boy a bit so he was beside Nicoli and not over him.

Nicoli decided not to utter how absurd it was for a ghost to talk about the hardships of life. Instead he lifted himself up off the floor, ignoring the burning ache that spread through his body.

“You just…stay here,” Nicoli said, waving his hand in Felix’s direction as he made his way toward the door.

“Awwwe, but I wanted to come to breakfast toooo,” Felix whined in a childish voice. “Please, sir, I’m ever so hungry. Can you spare some crumbs, sir?” he pleaded, rising into the air and lacing his fingers together in a begging pose.

Nicoli stared at him before shaking his head and leaving the room.

Felix grinned when he heard a string of cusswords before the door was shut, leaving the ghost in the room alone. He tilted his head curiously when he heard movement come from the closet.

“Felix, can’t you just try and rope in that attitude of yours? It’s too early for it,” Ethan’s muffled voice came from his “bed chamber.”

The ghost boy pretended to think about it before flipping to lay on his stomach in midair.

“Of course not,” he said with a devilish smile. “You’re insisting on staying here, so I’m gonna act however I please,” Felix sneered.

Incoherent grumbling came from the closet followed by silence, which, Felix presumed, meant the vampire was trying to go back to sleep.

Felix chortled before he rolled over to his backside and gently gliding down like a leaf onto the bed. No one was going to tell this ghost how to act.

********************

Nicoli sat at the kitchen table, unable to keep his eyes off the ceiling. He wondered what the two were doing in his room, especially Felix. He was getting the sense that he wasn’t going to like the crass ghost very much, especially if he kept up with that annoying, prissy attitude of his. Ghost. Nicoli still couldn’t believe it. He had a real vampire and ghost in his room and they were actually real.

He supposed he couldn’t keep trying to convince himself it was all a dream since before he fell asleep, no, before Ethan did some voodoo vampire trick to force him into unconsciousness, they had all agreed the two were going to spend all day in Nicoli’s house. That was sure to be a joy.

“Hey there, space case, mind coming back down to Earth to eat something?”

Nicoli’s mother’s voice drew him out of his thoughts and he looked down as a plate of pancakes dripping with butter, syrup and topped with sliced bananas was placed in front of him.

When breakfast was first mentioned Nicoli had been so ravenous he most likely would have wolfed the fluffy cakes down in a matter of seconds, but now his appetite was less than roused.

“Can I ask what you were thinking about so hard?” Laura asked as she went back to the skillet to pour more batter.

“Nothing much,” Nicoli lied as his eyes flickered upward once more. “Just how I’m going to organize my report and all that.” Trying to snap out of it and act normal, Nicoli lifted his fork and began cutting into his pancakes.

“That’s good, you said Amelia was a big help, right?” his mother asked as she retrieved a carton of orange juice from the fridge and two glasses from the cabinet.

“Yeah, some of the stuff she showed me was a little…out there, but some of it was helpful.” Nicoli then looked around when he noticed someone missing from the group. “Hey, where’s Dad?” the boy asked.

“Oh, work called him in. He left right before I woke you up,” Laura replied as she set the glasses and carton on the table and went to check on her food.

“But…it’s Sunday,” Nicoli muttered as he nibbled on a bit of pancake before sucking it up and shoving the whole piece in his mouth. He may not have been hungry, but he was damn well going to eat everything on his plate and most likely another helping. He couldn’t give his mother any reason to think something was wrong.

“That’s what I said,” Laura chuckled as she turned off the oven burner. She gathered her pancakes onto her plate and went to set it on the table. “But, it’s an important building and they want to make sure everything goes just right,” she said as she lifted the orange juice carton and took the cap off.

“A museum dedicated to the supernatural being top priority…I’ve never heard of anything so stupid,” Nicoli grumbled as he devoured another slice of pancake. He couldn’t really call the supernatural stupid anymore, what with two supernatural beings up in his room, but he had to keep up appearances. It’d be rather suspicious if he suddenly accepted the paranormal with open arms.

“Nicy, don’t start,” Laura said in her warning tone.

“I’m not starting anything,” Nicoli said innocently. He was about to go on another topic when the juice carton suddenly fell from his mother’s hand and landed on the table, orange juice splashing everywhere. Nicoli jumped and quickly took hold of the container and righted it before it gushed out all of its contents.

“Mom! The hell…what?” he asked. He blinked at his mother who was staring at him in the strangest way. “Mom?” he said tentatively, her silence unnerving him.

“Nicy, your black eye,” Laura finally spoke. “What happened to your black eye? It’s gone!” she said in utter shock. She hadn’t actually examined her son’s face until that moment and now that she did, she was bewildered.

“What? What are you talking about?” Nicoli stared at his mother like she had gone crazy before reaching up to touch the skin around his eye. He was perplexed why it didn’t hurt when he pressed into it. That’s when he remembered. Ethan had healed his eye with his vampiric blood. This wasn’t good.

Stupid vampire! How the hell am I going to explain this!? Nicoli thought in horror. No matter what ideas streamed through his head, he couldn’t come up with any sort of good excuse.

“Uh – I – I have no idea,” he finally stuttered out. Playing stupid was his only way out of this. “Is it – Is it really just…gone?” Nicoli asked.

“Yes, completely,” Laura answered as she took the place of Nicoli’s hand and ran her thumb under his left eye. “Does this hurt at all?” she asked as she lightly pressed into the skin.

“No, nothing,” Nicoli replied. He could feel sweat starting to prickle along his forehead and all he could do was hope and pray his mother believed him.

“This is…amazing!” Laura said with a huge smile before wrapping her arms around a surprised Nicoli’s neck. “This is terrific! It healed so fast,” she said as she pulled back. “I suppose young men are just resilient that way.”

Nicoli stared at his mother before forcing a sheepish smile on his face.

“Yeah, I suppose so. Thank goodness, that thing was really getting annoying.” Nicoli thanked God over and over for his mother just being happy her baby was healed and not asking too many questions about it. He just hoped no one else would be wondering where his black eye had gone off too.

Nicoli and Laura cleaned up the table and themselves from the splash of orange juice. Then they sat down and ate breakfast together, ignoring the orange tang their pancakes now had. Soon the food was gone and the glasses drained.

“Thanks for breakfast Mom. I’m gonna go start that report so I can just get it over with,” Nicoli said as he put his dishes in the sink and headed for his room.

“All right, have fun,” Laura said as she nursed her second cup of coffee.

“Oh yeah, what could be funner than schoolwork on the weekend?” Nicoli asked sarcastically as he went through the doorway and towards the stairs.

“Oh, Nicy!” His mother called him back.

Nicoli’s head peeked around the doorframe with a curious expression.

“Yeah?”

“Don’t forget that I got invited to Mrs. Helen’s house today for that get-together she has every month,” Laura told him. “I’ll be leaving around twelve,” she said as she checked her watch once more.

“Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. Sounds fun,” Nicoli told her, thinking it good for his mother to get out of the house and go meet people.

“I just wanted to make sure you’ll be okay here by yourself,” Laura said, a touch of concern in her voice.

Nicoli’s face fell and he rolled his eyes.

“Mom,” he groaned.

“Yes, I know, I know, you’re a big boy now,” Laura said with an amused smile. “I just wanted to double check.”

“Yes, I’ll be fine,” Nicoli assured her. “You go have fun and I promise not to burn the house down,” he vowed, putting a cross over his heart before withdrawing from the doorway and continuing his previous path.

“You better not! Or else that black eye is going to magically reappear with some friends!”

Nicoli laughed with a shake of his head as he took the steps two at a time. He had completely forgotten about Mrs. Helen’s party. Mrs. Helen was the self designated mother of Lakeside Lane and once a month she would have a get together for all of the women of the neighborhood so they could just let loose and unwind from their stressful lives of work, husbands, and kids. Nicoli’s mother had told him and his father that she had been invited for the upcoming gathering and would be gone most of the day.

It was actually going to work in Nicoli’s favor. With both his mother and father out of the house it would be a lot easier for Ethan not to get caught. With a sigh of relief Nicoli entered his room. He was going to need this day to be made as simple as possible for him.

A little more than an hour later, Nicoli had written the first part of his essay on his laptop. It was going rather slow since he couldn’t get his concentration to cooperate and it didn’t help that he had a ghost hovering over his shoulder, pointing out every mistake he made.

“Will you stop!?” Nicoli finally snapped. “I don’t need a backseat writer!”

“Oh cool it,” Felix said, unperturbed by the outburst. The ghost boy was currently floating upside down with his arms crossed; apparently it helped him think better. “I was just saying this sentence would make more sense if you cut if off right here and add it to the sentence before it,” the ghost said, pointing out his corrections.

“Thank you, but I don’t need your help,” Nicoli growled, his patience growing dangerously thin.

“Coulda fooled me,” Felix scoffed.

Nicoli glared at the ghost and gnashed his teeth. He really wished he could punch the boy without falling through him.

“Nicy, Sweety, I’m going!” Laura suddenly called from downstairs.

“Better go say bye to your mommy, Sweety,” Felix said teasingly.

Nicoli glowered at him before getting up and exiting the room. He tried to push down his anger as he stood at the top of the stairs.

“Okay, Mom, have fun,” he said as he watched his mother bustle around the front door, getting ready.

“I will and don’t get too stressed about that report. I’ve been hearing you yell at yourself,” Laura said with a chuckle as she put on her coat.

Nicoli’s cheeks tinted red. He really wanted to throttle that ghost.

“Er, yeah, I’ll try not to,” he said.

“Now, just in case I do stay out later than planned, there’s frozen dinners in the freezer if you get hungry and don’t let your father near the stove or else the house will burn down,” she instructed.

Nicoli laughed and nodded in agreement. If anyone could burn water, it’d be his father. The man was that lost when it came to cooking.

“All right, I’ll be sure to ban him from anywhere near the kitchen,” the boy assured her.

“Oh, and don’t forget to let Beethoven in soon. I’m sure he’s had enough of romping through the backyard,” Laura added.

“Will do, now go already. Everything is going to be fine,” Nicoli said, trying to shoo her out.

Laura giggled and smiled up at him.

“Okay, okay, I’m going. Love you, Nicy,” she said and blew a kiss up the stairs at him before opening the front door.

“Love you too, Mom.”

“Oh, and if you need to reach me I wrote down Mrs. Helen’s number and put it on the fridge.”

“Go already!”

“Going, going, love you.”

Then finally the door was closed and Nicoli’s mother was gone. The boy sighed in relief and went back to his room.

“Sheesh, I think it’s a requirement for mom’s to be worrywarts,” Nicoli mumbled as he entered his room and closed the door.

“She seems nice though,” Felix said, now sitting on the computer chair and reading over Nicoli’s work.

“She is, I count myself luckier than mos – hey! What are you doing?” Nicoli yelled when he realized where Felix was.

“Nothing, just proofreading your stuff,” Felix said innocently.

Nicoli was about to yell at him more, but the words died in his throat when Felix put his hands on the keyboard and began to type. What shocked the living boy was that the keys were actually being pushed down as if a solid person was doing it.

“How – How are you doing that?” Nicoli asked, slowly walking over to stand behind the chair and watch as words danced across the screen.

“Didn’t you hear anything that Ethan said last night?” Felix asked, but his tone didn’t hold the sneer that Nicoli had been getting used to. It was just a simple question. “I’m not your normal, run-of-the-mill ghost. I’m strong enough to manipulate solid objects around me, though I’m still a little drained from making that chunk of the cliff collapse so this is about as much as I can do at the moment,” Felix explained, though his typing never faltered and his eyes remained glued to the computer screen.

“Oh…that’s pretty awesome,” Nicoli said, not realizing there were different kinds of ghosts. He wondered just how strong Felix was. “And – uh – about last night. Thanks for helping to save me,” he said a little bashfully, realizing he hadn’t properly thanked either Felix or Ethan. “I know it wasn’t something you really wanted to do, so, thanks.”

“Eh, no problem,” Felix said offhandedly before smiling. “It was rather fun to see that shocked look on Omen’s face.” The smile then turned into a smirk as he turned to look at Nicoli. “And it was thoroughly entertaining to hear you scream like a girl. I was rather surprised you didn’t piss yourself.”

Nicoli’s face flushed and he glared venomously at the ghost.

“Ha ha, now get your ass out of my chair,” he said, shooing the see-through boy away with his hands.

Felix simply shrugged and disappeared, only to reappear a little behind Nicoli.

The boy huffed as he retook his seat and when he was seated fully, he shivered. The chair was much colder than when he had got up. Nicoli shook it off as he went back to his essay. He reread some of it to get back on track, only to not recognize any of it.

“Hey, what the…?” Nicoli read over everything and with each word anger was coiling like a snake in his gut. He whirled around to look at Felix.

“You rewrote my entire paper!?” he yelled angrily.

Felix grinned and gave a roll of his shoulders.

“I didn’t rewrite everything. I kept some of your stuff,” he said.

Nicoli turned back around to look over the couple of paragraphs again and he cocked an eyebrow when he found it.

“You kept a sentence?” he asked, glancing at the ghost.

“Hey, I liked that sentence, it was pretty good,” Felix complimented, which was ruined by his smirk.

“You are just a complete asshole, aren’t you?” Nicoli asked. It wasn’t just that Felix had written over all of his work, it was that it was good. It had everything Nicoli had been trying to write about, but at least a hundred times better. The jerk.

Felix was about to gloat some more when a knock from the closet suddenly drew both the boys’ attention.

“Did you hear that or was that just me?” Felix asked.

“No, I heard it too,” Nicoli replied as he got up and cautiously walked toward the door. “Ethan, was that you?” he asked.

“Yeah, that would have been me,” Ethan answered. “I was wondering if you could somehow cover up the window so I can come out without risk of maximum sunburn,” he requested.

“Are you sure?” Felix asked, and Nicoli was surprised to hear concern in his voice. “Maybe you should rest a little more.”

“No, I’m good. This closet isn’t the greatest bed and how the hell am I supposed to sleep if you two keep bickering every five seconds?”

Both Nicoli and Felix looked away in embarrassment before pointing at each other.

“He kept starting it!” they both yelled then glared at each other.

“You’re the one that’s trying to usurp my essay,” Nicoli snapped.

“You’re just pissed cause I made it better,” Felix retorted with a smug smirk and crossed his arms.

Nicoli growled, but couldn’t flat out deny the claim.

“I’m gonna go find something for the window,” he grumbled and stomped his way out of the room. His eye twitched when he heard the annoying ghost snicker as he left.

Rummaging through the house Nicoli was able to find a box of tacks and an old blanket that would block out most of the light. He hoped it would do the trick. The boy made the trek back up the stairs and into his room.

“I found some things that might work,” he announced as he entered the room and made his way to the window.

“A blanket?” Felix said skeptically.

“Hey, that’s basically what curtains are, right? Frilly, thin blankets,” Nicoli said as he opened the box of tacks and worked on pinning the blanket over the window. He had to use many of them to hold up the heavy material, but he was finally able to keep it up.

“There, not very pretty, but it’ll do,” Nicoli said proudly through a tack between his teeth. “Okay, Ethan, you can come out now,” the boy called out as he put the extra tacks back in their box.

“Are you sure that’s going to hold?” Felix asked as he appeared beside the boy and inspected the work.

“It better, I had to use almost all of these things to get it up,” Nicoli muttered as he tossed the box onto his bed.

“It looks fine to me.”

Nicoli jumped and spun around, resulting in a sharp protest from his body. But the brief moment of pain passed and he glared at Ethan who had appeared behind him. The boy hadn’t even heard the closet door open.

“Jeeze, a little warning next time,” Nicoli said, crossing his arms with a hmph.

“Well, I do apologize,” Ethan said with an amused grin and a mock bow. When he straightened he looked over the patch job and nodded approvingly. “Yes, I’m sure this will do. I just needed most light to be blocked. It doesn’t have to be perfect.”

“Good, cause perfect isn’t in the menu,” Nicoli said as he tip-toed around Ethan and walked back to his desk. He was getting used to being around Felix, but a vampire was another matter. He concluded Felix didn’t have enough energy to hurt him at all, just annoy him. Ethan, though, could most likely do whatever he liked and there would be nothing Nicoli could do to stop him. So, he decided to be wary for the moment.

“So, you can find something to do while I finish this up. I can get you cards or my Gameboy or…something,” Nicoli offered, not sure what a vampire would want to do for fun.

Ethan glanced around the room, aware just how closely the boy was watching him. It was like every move he made fascinated the boy. He hid a smile by turning his back to Nicoli. Humans were so curious and easy to entrance by a vampire’s very presence.

“I suppose I can just watch TV till you’re done, unless that’s going to distract you,” Ethan finally suggested, his eyes settling on the small television set pressed up against the wall near the closet.

“Believe me, nothing could be more distracting than Felix,” Nicoli joked, grinning at the ghost who blew a raspberry at him. “But my TV isn’t in a very covenant spot. I don’t have my room totally in order just yet,” he said. Because it didn’t have a cabinet to stand on, and because of its small size, it was rather hard to see from the bed, hence why Nicoli had to sit on the floor during his research.

After some thought Nicoli was struck by an idea that could remedy the problem.

“Well, since neither of my parent’s are home right now, you can go down to the living room to watch TV,” Nicoli suggested. “That way you can relax a bit more on the couch and just take it easy,” he added, thinking that a night curled up on a closet floor wouldn’t be pleasant for anyone.

Ethan took a little longer in deciding than Nicoli liked, so the boy decided to seal the deal.

“It’s a big screen TV with satellite,” he said with a grin. He noticed the way Ethan’s eyebrows rose in interest before the man smiled.

“Well, hot damn, lead me to it then. It’s been awhile since I’ve been able to relax and actually enjoy television,” Ethan said.

“Isn’t that the truth,” Felix mumbled as he floated by the vampire.

“Cool, give me a sec to set up stuff then I’ll call you down,” Nicoli said with a smile. Before leaving the room he grabbed his laptop then made his way to the door.

“Where are you going with that?” Felix asked curiously, popping up beside the boy.

“Heh, like I’m going to stay up in my room and leave you two unintended? I don’t think so. I’ll be down there with you guys,” Nicoli scoffed before opening the door and heading out.

Felix stared after him with his head tilted. He then gave an offended huff and crossed his arms.

“I don’t believe it. It’s like he doesn’t trust us!” he exclaimed.

“Smart move on his part,” Ethan said, making the ghost look back at him. “Anyone would be crazy to trust you.”

“Ethan, that’s mean!”

Unlike Nicoli’s room, the rest of the windows in the house either had blinds or curtains, his mother made sure of that. So, after setting his laptop safely on the coffee table, Nicoli prowled around the house, closing all blinds and curtains he could find. Once he was satisfied that no beam of sunlight could get in he went to the stairs.

“Okay, its safe now!” he yelled up the staircase.

A second later a blur of white came barreling down the stairs, making Nicoli step back out of instinct. He watched as Felix flew around the living room before disappearing into the kitchen. The ghost then sailed past Nicoli and the stairs to go down the hallway that led to the second bathroom and the laundry room.

“Nice house, a little small, but nice!” Felix called out to the living boy.

Nicoli stared after him with a raised eyebrow before shaking his head and looking up the stairs just in time to see Ethan walking down. The boy was amazed when he realized that he couldn’t hear any creaks or squeaks from the vampire’s steps. His footsteps made absolutely no noise. Nicoli had to force himself to focus when he realized Ethan was talking to him.

“Felix is easily excitable to say the least. I hope you didn’t pull out too much hair while babysitting him,” the man chuckled as he reached the floor and stood beside the boy.

“Uh, well, I can say if I had to be around him for longer than a day I’d have to go on stress medication,” Nicoli said with a small smile before heading into the living room. The boy halted in his tracks when he saw Felix lounging on the couch, hands folded behind his head and eyes closed.

“You’re not that much of a treat yourself, buddy,” the ghost said.

“Wha…” Nicoli pointed at the ghost then back the way he saw Felix go last. He then threw his hands up, not even going to bother with it.

“You get used to it,” Ethan chuckled as he strode past Nicoli and to the couch. “Man, now I’m looking forward to getting some good R and R,” the vampire said with a pleasant sigh as he started to sit down.

“Wait!” Nicoli suddenly yelled and lunged forward. He caught the lapels of the man’s jacket and held on tightly, preventing him from sitting down all the way.

Ethan looked from Nicoli down to his hands then raised a brow.

“Is there a problem?” he asked curiously.

“Only slightly,” Nicoli huffed as he pulled on the jacket to make Ethan stand up. “In case you’ve forgotten, you’re covered in blood!” he cried out, gesturing to the vampire’s clothes that were caked in dry blood. “If any of that rubs off on the couch Mom is going to notice and freak out on me and you don’t know fear until she freaks out,” Nicoli said then grabbed Ethan’s sleeve and began dragging him back towards the stairs. “Come on, I’m sure my dad has some old clothes you’ll fit into and that he won’t notice missing.”

Felix watched his friend be pulled up the stairs by the smaller boy. He made a noise of interest before settling back on the couch.

“He got over his vampire skittishness rather quickly,” he muttered to himself.

Nicoli stood in his parent’s room, outside of the master bathroom, with his arms crossed and foot tapping.

“Is it fitting okay?” he asked.

“Well enough. I seem to be a little taller than your old man, but other than that they seem to be just fine.”

Nicoli perked up when the bathroom door opened and Ethan stepped out. Blue eyes scanned over the man’s frame, checking to see how well everything fit. Nicoli had given Ethan an old white, short sleeved polo shirt his father never wore. He noticed the sleeves were tight around the vampire’s arms, making him look that much more muscular. A pair of brown slacks covered Ethan’s legs, though they fell just short of his ankles.

“Not perfect,” Nicoli said thoughtfully. “But not bad.”

“Well, you did say perfect wasn’t on the menu,” Ethan pointed out as he fiddled with the pants a bit.

“Ah, that I did, now put your icky clothes in here,” Nicoli instructed, holding up a garbage bag he had run down and gotten from the kitchen.

“Yes, sir,” Ethan chuckled and grabbed his ruined clothes from the bathroom and dumped them into the bag. “It’d be best if you just disposed of them,” he said.

“Oh, no,” Nicoli said as he tied the bag closed. “You destroy your own evidence. I’m not having any chance of anyone finding some strange man’s bloody clothes in my garbage can,” he said and tossed the bag into Ethan’s arms.

“All right, all right, I’ll deal with it,” the vampire said as he tucked the bag under his arm. “So you’re sure your dad isn’t going to notice that a couple of his clothes have flown the coop?” he then asked.

“Na, he shouldn’t,” Nicoli assured him as they walked out of the room. “He doesn’t keep track of his clothes. He hardly knows what he owns, as long as he can find something that fits and doesn’t smell, he’s happy,” the boy explained as he took the garbage bag from Ethan and tossed it into his room before they headed down the stairs.

“He sounds like a simple guy. We’d probably get along,” Ethan chuckled.

“Yeah, well I’m not planning on introducing him to my friends of the fang or see-through kind,” Nicoli said as they reached the bottom. Just as he was about to go into the living room a scratching noise coming from the kitchen caught his attention.

“The hell…?” Nicoli murmured.

“Yeah, your dog has been doing that for the past five minutes,” Felix said from the couch. “It was starting to get annoying.”

“Well, excuse him. You couldn’t have come told me or something?” Nicoli asked as he let Ethan by.

“Of course not, that’d require me to actually be helpful,” Felix scoffed and chuckled when Nicoli let out an aggravated sigh and went into the kitchen. His chuckle was disrupted by Ethan swiping his hand through the ghosts head. “You know, just ‘cause I can’t feel that doesn’t mean I want your hands going through me,” the ghost grumbled as he rubbed his head.

“You need to be nicer. We’re guests here,” Ethan chided as he plopped down on the other end of the couch.

“Ne ner ne ne ne,” Felix mocked him. “And since when are you Mr. Polite? Usually you’d be strutting around here like you own the place.”

“Let’s just say I don’t have the energy to ‘strut’ anywhere,” Ethan said softly. Pale, delicate fingers rubbed at his forehead.

Felix brows knitted in concern. He hadn’t noticed just how worn out and ragged the vampire looked, even in the new clothes.

“Are you okay?” he asked worriedly, any trace of his condescending attitude gone.

“I’m fine, I’m just…I lost a lot of blood last night,” Ethan muttered.

“And you haven’t fed for a couple of days,” Felix muttered. Then the ghost’s features turned into a scowl. “I told you to feed before you went snooping around that blasted old house. Why don’t you ever listen to me?” he demanded.

“Because I thought I’d be fine. I didn’t know Omen was lurking around there waiting for me,” Ethan snapped. He did not feel like getting a talking to at the moment.

“And now look at the fine pickle you got yourself in,” Felix continued. “And you’re not going to be able to feed until night.” Suddenly Felix’s eyes widened as if he had been smacked by something, and he had. An idea had hit him like a brick to the face. “Unless…” The ghost turned to look toward the kitchen.

“Felix, no,” Ethan said sternly. “I know exactly what you’re thinking, now stop it.”

“But why not? He’s living and full of blood. Just put him in a trance or something and he’ll never know,” Felix suggested.

“No.”

“Why not?” Felix asked again, but more demanding.

“He’s been through enough,” Ethan answered. “Last night would have been traumatic for anyone, especially someone who’s lived in a cozy environment like this all their life and thought of people like us nothing but fantasy. He doesn’t need me sinking my fangs into his neck.”

“Uh-huh,” Felix murmured and crossed his arms. He didn’t believe that for a second.

Ethan glanced at the ghost then sighed and rolled his eyes at the look he was getting.

“Plus, he’s A positive. You know I hate A positive,” he muttered.

“I knew it,” Felix said with a chuckle. “I knew all that self righteous crap you were spewing was bogus.”

“I gave it a shot,” Ethan said with a shrug of his shoulders. “But, even if I was desperate enough for it, I doubt Nicoli would agree to it anyway and I won’t feed from him forcefully.”

“Yeah, say that once the bloodlust reaches its peak,” Felix retorted then quieted when he heard the patter of paws across linoleum.

“There, you’re fed and watered, happy?” Nicoli’s voice carried from the kitchen. “Hey, whoa, wait!”

Beethoven sprinted into the living room with Nicoli hot on his heels. The golden canine made a beeline for Ethan and bounded up on the couch and practically pounced on the man. The dog tongue searched for every bit of inhuman flesh he could reach.

Nicoli stood by Felix’s end, quite perplexed. He had thought his dog was going to attack the vampire, not smother him in kisses.

“Whoa, he’s acting like he already knows you,” Nicoli said, scratching his head in confusion.

“Well, he kind of does,” Ethan told him as he scratched behind one of Beethoven’s ears. “When I brought you home last night we got acquainted,” he explained as the dog plopped down in his lap. “But I had to kick him out when he kept trying to wake you up. I figured you needed as much rest as possible before you woke up from your little fainting spell.”

“So you’re the reason he was sleeping in my parent’s room. We found that rather odd,” Nicoli muttered. Watching the way Beethoven was totally accepting of Ethan made the boy think over how the dog had reacted to Omen, like the vampire was the good guy and the vampire hunter was the bad guy. To Nicoli, the roles seemed reverse.

“You know, from all the movies I’ve seen and stories I’ve read about vampires they always portrayed the vampires as evil and the hunters as good,” Nicoli said as he sat down on the couch between Felix and Ethan. “But last night that was totally backwards. Are all hunters like Omen?” he asked.

“No, I’d have to say Omen is pretty unique. Not many hunters would have chased down a human boy to kill them, maybe question, but not kill,” Ethan replied.

“Yeah, Omen is just a nut job,” Felix said, twirling his finger by his temple and making a face.

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Ethan chuckled. “He’s just very…determined in what he does. You also can’t trust everything you see in movies or books. The media gives us a bad reputation.”

“So…what’s the right reputation?” Nicoli asked. He looked down at his lap when the vampire looked him over with a quizzical eye.

“Well, tell you what. Even a blind man can see you still have some reservations about me so why don’t you just ask whatever question you’d like and I’ll answer them as best as I can,” Ethan offered.

“Uh, okay,” Nicoli agreed, folding his legs under him and getting more comfortable. He had so many questions buzzing around his head he didn’t know what to ask first. “Well, I already know you can go out into sunlight under the right conditions so…what about stuff like crosses. Do those hurt you?”

“Yes, unfortunately so,” Ethan answered. “Just touching one can burn the skin off me in a matter of seconds and things like holy water and silver does the same. That’s why Omen’s weapons were made mostly out of silver and hurt like a bitch too.”

“I think it’d hurt anyone to become an arrow pincushion,” Felix murmured and Nicoli nodded in agreement before thinking of his next question.

“All right, so can you kill a vampire by, you know…?” Nicoli pointed at his chest, right above his heart.

“Yes, that’s the main way to kill a vampire, even though there are others. But stabbing us through the heart is a slow and painful death that no vampire wants to go through.”

“Slow and painful?” Nicoli echoed in confusion. From all the movies he had watched with Zack and Brittany he had thought it was a quick death. What with the vampires always bursting into dust or reverting back into corpses.

“Yes, stabbing a vampire here.” Ethan pointed at his heart. “Is like stabbing a human here,” he said, pointing at his stomach. “Since our blood makes us natural regenerators it keeps trying to repair the damage to our heart, but once the heart is fatally wounded it can’t be mended, so our blood just prolongs our death,” the vampire explained.

“Ugh that’s rather…horrid,” Nicoli muttered, unconsciously covering his heart with his hand.

“Yeah, not the ideal way to go,” Ethan chuckled. “So, hit me with the next question,” he encouraged.

“Uh, all right…” Nicoli tried to think of anything else, when the question that had been nagging at him since he had met Ethan made itself known. “Okay, the first day we met you made the comment “Not too bad for a Weirdo.” Now…did you hear me call you weirdo or-”

“If reading your thoughts counts as “hearing” then, yes, I heard you,” Ethan said with a grin when the boy’s eyes widened and a cute blush tinted his cheeks.

“So, vampires are telepathic then,” Nicoli muttered. His stomach coiled in a knot of embarrassment. It was a good thing Ethan didn’t seem to be offended.

“Yeah, and it gets annoying, trust me,” Felix told him then smirked. “I’m just glad he can’t read my thoughts anymore.”

“He can’t?” Nicoli asked.

“No, ghosts are a bit…harder to read then humans,” Ethan said. “Their thoughts are so jumbled and frantic that last time I tried it nearly made me toss my cookies, so to speak. But you, on the other hand, kid, are like an open book. I don’t even have to try and I can read you loud and clear.”

Nicoli frowned and put his hands to his head. He didn’t like that too much.

“Ack talk about an invasion of privacy,” he said. “So, have you been reading my thoughts the entire time you’ve been here?” the boy asked.

“Do you really want an answer to that?” Ethan retorted with a smirk.

“Um…no, not really,” Nicoli muttered, then decided to press on so he didn’t get the hebbie gebbies thinking about Ethan in his head. “So, what other powers do you have? You can obviously fly, or levitate or whatever since that’s how you caught me last night, right?” he asked.

“Exactly right. I can also do the normal things like jump long distances and move quicker than the naked eye can see and if a muscle man challenged me to arm wrestle I could snap his arm in twenty different places before he could blink,” Ethan said as he flexed one of his arms, making his muscles more defined. “My mental powers I have to work on a bit more though. I’m more about brute strength really, and I get chastised for that a lot.”

“Mental powers?” Nicoli asked curiously.

“Yes, like what I did with you last night to make you go to sleep. I put you in a trance like state and convinced your brain it was time to sleep,” Ethan explained. “The higher your mental prowess is the easier it is to bend people to your will. With you it was simple to persuade you to sleep, but say it was someone who had more control over their brain functions. It would be a lot harder for me to entrance them, if at all.”

Nicoli frowned once Ethan was finished. It was like the man was calling him weak. Was he really that easy to control?

“Don’t worry, a lot of people can’t resist the power of a vampire,” Ethan said, seeing the boy’s displeasure. “Only people specially trained in the mind have a fighting chance against us. So don’t feel too bad.”

“Or you can feel as bad as you want,” Felix snickered, getting a glare from both Nicoli and Ethan.

“So, is that all mental powers can do, control people?” Nicoli asked, wanting to move away from his own weaknesses.

“Oh, no, there’s more to it. Some can manifest their mental energy into weapons for fighting,” Ethan said. “Like, for example, that flower vase over there.” The man pointed to a vase full of fake tulips on a stand near one of the windows. “I could most likely crack and shatter it from here with just the power of my mind. Most use these abilities in scuffles with other vampires to injure each other. But, at the stage I’m at I couldn’t do too much damage, maybe give them a few gashes, but not enough to do some real damage,” he explained. “These powers will get strong with age, but since I’m still fairly young I’m not too impressive.”

“That and you don’t train when you’re told,” Felix commented dryly and smirked when the vampire stuck his tongue out at him.

“Wait, young?” Nicoli interrupted. “When I think vampire I immediately assumed you were some ancient creature or something.”

Ethan laughed and shook his head.

“Don’t I wish? But no, at my age I’m still considered a kid amongst others of my kind.”

“How old are you?” Nicoli asked curiously.

“Well, I was twenty-eight when I was turned and I’ve been a vampire for about fifty-two years now, fifty-three in a couple of weeks. So you do the math,” Ethan said with a little smile.

Nicoli looked away as he did the math in his head. Math wasn’t his strong suit, so it took him a bit. When he summed it all up his eyes went wide and he stared at Ethan.

“You’re eighty years old?” he said in disbelief. He had a grandfather who was that old and comparing his old, wrinkled grandfather to the young and strong looking man next to him was almost too incredible to imagine. “And you’re going to be eighty-one soon?”

“Yep, in about a week or two and while that’s old for a human, to a vampire it’s next to nothing,” Ethan replied.

“Holy crap,” Nicoli muttered.

“Vamps get all the good deals,” Felix said with a huff. “Sure they have their drawbacks, but they have the fountain of youth down.”

“So, anything else on your mind?” Ethan then asked.

Surprisingly Nicoli was starting to run out of questions. He thought over everything he had heard about vampires, but then a particular scene from last night tickled in the back of his head.

“Let me go you bastard. You don’t understand the consequences if you kill me. I need to find the-”

“I know exactly what you’ve been skulking around here looking for and you actually think I’m going to let a monster like you free to go find it? I’m not stupid.”

“There are far worse out there that could be in possession of it and are looking for it as we speak!”

“And I don’t plan on letting them get their filthy claws on it either, I assure you.”

“What’s It?” Nicoli asked.

“What’s what?” Ethan asked, a brow rising in confusion.

“The thing you and Omen kept talking about last night. You said it would have bad consequences if he killed you because you had to go find It and he told you he wasn’t going to let you or anyone else get their hands on It. So what’s so important about this It?”

There was a stony silence from both Ethan and Felix, causing the boy to wonder if he had asked the wrong thing.

“Sorry, but I can’t tell you that,” Ethan said simply.

“Why not?” Nicoli asked, being denied only making his curiosity grow.

“Because it’s a secret, an important secret to me and my kind and I can’t go blabbing it to any human who asks,” the vampire explained with a little smile.

“Yeah, so I’d just drop it right now,” Felix told him, using his hand to give the cut off sign.

“But I’ll be happy to answer any other questions beside that, so what else do you have for me?” Ethan asked.

Nicoli wasn’t sure if he wanted to ask anything else after that. Whatever It was, was going to nag at him forever, but it was made clear that he wasn’t going to be told. So, he let it go and decided to go on. He did have one other thing he was curious about, but he wasn’t sure if it would be right to ask either.

“Uh, well…” Nicoli mumbled.

“Sheesh, don’t get all shy on us,” Felix teased.

Nicoli scowled at him before turning back to Ethan. He felt his cheeks start to burn and tried to make them stop.

“Er, would it be okay if I – uh – saw your fangs?” he asked meekly. Through out all of this vampire talk Nicoli hadn’t once seen Ethan’s fangs, his teeth looked like what any normal human’s teeth would.

Ethan stared at Nicoli then burst into booming laughter, causing Beethoven to lift his head in surprise. The vampire thought the kid couldn’t get any cuter, especially since the boy was reddening even more in embarrassment at his laughter.

“Sorry,” Ethan apologized when he got himself under control. “It’s just, you were being so skittish it took me off guard when you asked something so simple,” he chuckled.

“Yes, har har, so can I?” Nicoli asked, feeling like a fool.

“Of course, of course,” Ethan agreed the opened his mouth wide enough for the boy to see.

Nicoli watched with wide, inquisitive eyes as Ethan’s canine’s suddenly lengthened and became sharper. With childlike curiosity the boy examined them, scooting just a bit closer. They weren’t much longer than regular human canines, but would most likely touch Ethan’s bottom lip if his mouth was closed. What the teeth lacked in length they made up for in sharpness. The points looked small and sharp, like needle tips. Nicoli cringed slightly at the thought of those sinking into his skin. It wasn’t a pleasant thought.

Without realizing what he was doing, Nicoli lifted his hand to run his thumb over one of the ivory fangs. Before he could make contact Ethan took hold of his wrist, halting the action. Nicoli tore his eyes away from the fangs to look up into teal eyes.

“I wouldn’t do that,” Ethan said softly. Just the boy’s close proximity was making his teeth ache and his veins burn. He could feel the warm blood pumping through Nicoli’s wrist underneath his fingertips, calling to him, seducing him, and the vampire was trying his best to ignore it. Damn Felix for being right.

“Why not?” Nicoli asked.

Ethan simply smiled and chuckled.

“Would you want someone’s fingers in your mouth?” he asked. Ethan could practically feel the blood rise in the boy’s face as he flushed in embarrassment.

“Oh, right, sorry,” Nicoli murmured and sat back, his wrist slipping out from the vampire’s grasp.

“Jeeze, touching a man’s fangs without asking, don’t you think you’re hot stuff?” Felix asked.

Ethan began rubbing his head again as Nicoli yelled at the ghost to shut up. With the boy further away his hunger was easier to soothe. He absentmindedly stroked Beethoven’s head, who had settled back down, and wished night would come soon.

==============================Ch. 7 End