Blueblood 4: Dracula - 28. To Be (Gay) Or Not To Be (Gay) That Is The Question

The sunset was about to happen again that next night; now we would see if we got to some in time to stop the change. Even if they did, we needed to be sure they had no venom in them to change them later. Going in front of all the others there, Dragon stood on that podium thing again. “Okay,” he began softly, “as promised, here’s what happened to you.” He took a breath. “You know what happened and you even know what was that attacked you.” He smiled and pointed to his own head. “Yet, in here it just isn’t adding up with what you know is true.” He sighed. “What attacked last night, were vampires.” His statement was met with murmurs and the many there shaking their heads, but the ones shaking their heads, weren’t the ones bitten; they had yet to wake up. “Those shaking your heads…give me another explanation,” Dragon asked in a challenge. “Look at the person you’re with. You see the wound on the neck that’s healing, you saw those things attack and you can see your loved ones are changing. Look in their eyes. They are vampires.” He said logically. “The eyes will have dried up and soon they will know the hunger.” He frowned and then…whether he meant to or not, his voice now took on that resonance he used to persuade people. “For blood.”

“That’s ridiculous!” One man said beside a woman who had been bitten and from the accent was from England.

“Then you tell me what you think happened.” Dragon demanded as he waved to the woman next to the man. “Deny it all you want, but the fact is…your wife, girlfriend or just friend was attacked and it was a vampire! Look at her! Use your eyes!”

“What do we do now?” A woman asked beside a man also bitten.

Dragon smiled. “There are people here that know what needs to be done.” He leaned forward slightly and again. That voice was used. “Listen to them.”

As those three words were spoken, they echoed as I shook my head. “How does he do that!?”

Another man groaned beside another man who was attacked and said. “Nu-mi vine să cred. Nu-mi vine să cred.”

My translator told me I don’t believe this. I don’t believe this. I walked over to him. “So?” I asked him. “Your belief about what happened doesn’t matter. It did happen.” The translator told him what I said in Romanian. I walked up to stand next to Dragon. “It is not fair, but your lives just changed.”

“Я хочу додому.” A girl said and my translator to me in English. I want to go home.

“You can’t go home,” I said and it translated to Ukrainian.

“I have a plane to catch tomorrow!” A man said in English that was American.

“You’ll be missing it!” Colin, who was standing with his arms folded across his chest, shot out.

“We’re prisoners?” The same American, dark headed in his mid-twenties man asked.

“You’re all victims,” I said. “You can make choices, but it will take a few days for you to understand and see what those choices are.”

“We didn’t ask for this!” The man shouted.

“Neither did I!” Colin shouted back. “Nor did any one of those with us, no one asked for this!”

“C'est pas juste!” A man shouted.

“No, it isn’t fair.” I said and the translator said non, ce n'est pas juste. “But it happened.”

“You said you didn’t ask for this.” The American man said. “You weren’t attacked yesterday night.”

“I was attacked in the 19^th century,” Colin told him. “I’ve been alive two hundred and five years.”

“Two hundred and six in a few days.” I chuckled putting my arm around Colin’s waist. “You now have…or are with someone that’s ill.” I said. “A child that you find out has cancer or some other disease didn’t ask for that disease. Someone who slept with someone that gives them that deadly disease that almost killed everyone that got it…didn’t choose to get the disease, but they got it. You didn’t choose to become a vampire, but you are.”

“You’ve lived since the 19^th century?” The American asked doubtfully. “How can we believe you?”

Colin waved at the cave entrance’s direction. “In a few minutes, if you still doubt, go outside when the sun comes back up and see for yourselves. Your friend will know he can’t. I don’t care if you believe or not whether I’ve lived as long as I have. Your friend is a vampire.” He waved at the man beside him. “You will see it very soon.” He looked up at the cave roof. “And you’re about to see for yourselves…” he nodded, “now.”

The others with the VUN from England and the United States were walking around with bags of blood as the victims of the attacks were beginning to stir as the internal alarm clocks were all going off at the same time. Whatever the others believed or didn’t believe when the person that was attacked sat up…looked at who they were with, opened mouths that had the fangs and hissed. Those with them looked at their friends or loved one were startled and were backing away in fear.

Dragon came forward. “Stop!” He said and his words echoing again our minds. “Do not bite anyone! What you need is coming to you. Look.” He instructed and the new vampires saw the approaching VUN members and saw the bags of blood which were being handed to each and told how to get the blood out. All the vampires were instantly sucking the ports to get the precious blood in them.

“Are we still not believing?” Colin asked the American man.

“You won’t like it; you can deny it, but it’s happened,” I said again. “From the moment your friend was bitten, your lives have changed.”

The American man stood. “Why?” He asked standing beside his friend. “Marty was bitten, not me.”

“Your life has changed,” I said again. “If he’s a boyfriend, husband or just a buddy, I don’t care, but…your life has changed. All of you, bitten or not bitten now has a terrible secret. One I pray you keep. The event was planned by someone that’s now dead. It was to be televised and was sent out by signal to go around the world. We’ll be dealing with that, but if you two remain friends…which I hope you do…you can’t just go home like nothing happened.”

“I won’t say anything.” The American swore grasping for a way out.

“And how can you not say anything?” I asked. “You came here…with him to the Halloween celebration. People knew you were coming?”

“Sure.” The American said.

“How do you explain to them why you come back alone?” I asked. “Someone will ask…family, friends…someone will want to know what happened. What could you possibly give as an explanation to anyone about Marty’s disappearance?”

He didn’t have a reply.

Another man got up from the woman he was with who was drinking blood quickly and looked at Colin. “You’re a vampire?” He asked in accented English from England.

“I am.” Colin nodded.

“Why aren’t you drinking the blood?” He asked.

“Because I don’t have to now,” Colin said. “She won’t either…in a week. We have treatment. Not a cure, but a treatment.”

Then there were the other questions about the serum and how long it would take to work and all those questions we knew would be asked. This went on a while.

A young brown-haired woman from England from her accent came up to me. “I can’t get any bars down here.” She said holding her phone up. “I need to check on my little girl!”

I didn’t know why she didn’t, but I hadn’t thought of the problem in that some of these people had children. Children they had left at home with grandparents or friends. I suddenly realized…no one had gotten a phone call! Not one! You always hear someone’s ring tone going off…or reacting to the vibration in their pocket when it suddenly went off and you knew a call was coming.

I nodded. “You will be able to soon, but right now…who did you leave her with?”

“My sister.” She said.

“Soon, but right now, we need to get everyone on the same page.” I smiled at her hoping she understood. “You know why, don’t you?”

“Yes, but I send Gina a message every day.” The woman said. “She’ll be worried.”

I nodded. “And there is a reason to worry now, but are you ready to tell her what that problem is?”

The woman shook her head. “What am I going to say? Your brother-in-law has been bitten by a vampire? Now, he’s a vampire?”

“You love your husband?” I asked.

“Of course.” She said.

“If he’s to remain with you, there are things we have to do first,” I explained. “Understand?”

“I’m just…” she looked at her husband, then back at me and shook her head, “scared.”

“You will be.” I smiled again and put my hand on her shoulder. “This is a very sudden and drastic change. You need time. Eventually, you will go home.” I looked around at the others from the VUN. “As a matter of fact…” I looked at her. “Where are you from?”

“Warwick.” She answered. “Just north…”

“Sure!” I nodded smiling more. “Just northwest of London. I’ve been through there a few times. I love England.”

Her eyes grew, but she smiled from my familiarity and relaxed a little. “You’ve been there?”

“Passed through Warwick I’m afraid, but we had many vampires here from England. Colin and I bought in with Thornwood.”

“Thornwood!?” She smiled bigger. “That’s very fancy!”

I looked up and saw Sarah. “This young lady is Sarah. She’s a vampire from upcountry from Warwick near Thornwood. She can best help you.” I gave her my best sympathetic smile. “I don’t understand about the children part, but she does and raised two sons as a vampire; which to me was very hard, but she did it,” I said ushering the woman toward Sarah. I shook my head as I came to Colin. He looked a little frazzled, but he smiled at me.

“Are you okay?” Colin asked leaving another man who had unanswered questions, but Colin just walked toward me as he looked at the man. “I’ll get back with you.” He said to the man, quickly brought me in for a hug. “Again, are you okay?”

I gave a shrug and a nod. “I’m physically fine, but…there are things we need to have handled.” I waved at the woman who was now talking with Sarah. “She has a daughter! She communicates with her sister, who is keeping the little girl.” I waved at everyone here. “They all have lives…jobs, responsibilities that they need to take care of!”

“And we’ll help them deal with them,” Colin said simply. “I think Dragon can help with that.”

“How?” I asked.

“He can do that…hypnosis thing and make them less likely to tell anyone else.” Colin shrugged.

I smiled at him. “Colin, I love you. You are a very, very smart man.” I said kissing him.

Colin grinned back. “I thought you loved me for my hairy chest.”

“That, too.” I ran a finger over his shirt covered chest. I looked at his left side. “I need to change your dressing there,” I said touching his side lightly.

“I’m healing,” Colin said. “I’ve been shot twice here…I’m sort of starting to think they don’t want me here.”

There was a commotion as some other people came in; some of Dragon’s men along with Sorin and Stan. Sorin and Stan put down a cooler they had carried in together. The men with them also were carrying coolers.

“Stan!” Mark shouted coming rushing over and kissed Stan, unashamed and with all the affection he could. Stan returned it with as much feeling as he did a physical assessment of Mark by rubbing his hands over Mark and Mark did the same with Stan…in appropriate places for now.

Walking over to them as Stan and Mark were breaking up a little now that they knew and saw the other was alright. Once Stan was free a little, I brought Stan in for a tight hug. “My god, Stan. I am so happy to see you.”

Stan hugged me back just as hard. “Why? I wasn’t in danger…you were.”

“You played such an important role these past weeks…months!” I said sincerely as I let him go a little. “We wouldn’t have been able to do even half of what we have, without you.”

Stan’s fair complexion didn’t hide the blush. “I’m just doing what I was hired to do.”

Colin brought him in a hug himself. “No, you aren’t.” He kissed Stan on the cheek. “You’ve done above and beyond your job.”

“Colin’s right. You work with Buddy, but you added the Delkenzie program and got it to work. You got it to work on those portable devices. You keep tabs on where we are…all the time. You tracked me down when I was kidnapped…now you’ve arranged for food and basic toilet needs…” I shook my head. “Please, know…none of us would make it if it hadn’t been for you.”

Now Stan was beet red. He wrapped his arm around Mark. “I wouldn’t have Mark if you hadn’t pointed out what was in front of my face. I’d do anything for you two.”

Colin grinned. “You know Mark and you aren’t our employees, right?”

“We work for the FBI,” Stan said.

“I mean…” Colin said touching Mark as he spoke to Stan. “…we don’t see you as just someone that works with us. You two are family. I really mean that. You, Mark, Shelly, and Chuck are with the FBI, I know, we did it for your credentials, but you’re all become valued human beings we consider closer than siblings. You’re part of us.” Then he leaned in between Stan and Mark. “Especially you two.” He stage whispered.

I nodded. “And why is it…we communicate readily down here before, but now there are no bars for cell phones?”

Stan looked surprised. “Do you want them to?”

Mark grinned at Stan. “What did you do?”

Stan shook his head. “It wasn’t hard. I used the same thing I used when we got Devon out of Germany. I sort of…scattered the signal.” He said simply as he shrugged. “That’s all.”

“That’s all,” I repeated as I grinned. “You think of everything! I love you, Stan!!” I said hugging him again.

“You guys sure do a lot of hugging.” Sorin smiled as he scratched his ear looking a little sheepish. “Can I get one or two?”

“Absolutely!” Colin grabbed him in a hug which surprised Sorin, but he laughed as he hugged back. “We love you, too, Sorin!”

“How are things out there?” I thumbed toward the outside world.

Sorin shook his head a little. “Well,” he released Colin a little. “There were some deaths.” He admitted. “Three that left bodies, but they were stupid deaths due to arguments and being drunk. There were five at the castle. The problem with those are…the bodies disappeared this morning.”

Colin nodded. “They were bitten and the sun came up.”

“That’s right.” Sorin nodded.

“That’s one advantage with the venom,” I said. “No bodies are left. No ash?”

Sorin shook his head. “Nothing identifiable. The bodies were left where they were as the investigation proceeded and the sun came up and well…they just began to…burn. There’s nothing left. Those doing the investigation are completely baffled.” He shrugged. “But the ones from here locally, they know what happen…even if they won’t admit it.”

I frowned. “This is ridiculous.” I groused. “Everyone here knows what happen and still won’t talk about it!?”

Stan’s eyebrows rose a little. “Well, they might have to after this.” He pulled up his laptop and opened it.

“I thought the signal was scattered,” Colin said.

Stan nodded. “It is. I can turn it off, but I recorded this a few hours ago.” He tapped a few icons and the screen filled with a nice looking man in his forties…the typical news anchor type of man. It was interesting as the man spoke in Romanian, but Buddy and the Delkenzie program’s voice overspoke.

“Investigations continue into the deaths and mysterious disappearances that occurred at the greatly anticipated Halloween Transylvania celebration.” The man said as the screen suddenly showed from a camera above on one of those platforms as the partying was suddenly became more chaotic as people were screaming and trying to get away from some people coming in their midst and…they were small and the screen did not show it, but we all knew they were biting…whomever.

“Look at this.” Stan hit another button and it fast forwarded to another image, which Stan stopped. I mean stilled. It was a clear picture of Dragon.

“Damn it!” Mark groused. “They will know who it is!”

“How?” Stan asked Mark. “No one’s seen him that isn’t a vampire or knows a vampire personally in centuries. He won't be known.” He said logically. “But these two will be.” He said fast forwarding again and stopped. There was a clear image of Colin and me right beside Dragon as we came up to pulled Dragon to safety.

“Oh, shit.” Colin, who rarely ever cussed, other than the occasional damn, said as his eyes widened. “We’ve endangered everyone.”

I nodded. “We knew this could happen,” I said to Colin as I rubbed his back to give him…I don’t know…encouragement? Support? Stability? We did it together!

“They’ll be coming for us,” Colin said as he began pacing in his circle as he thought.

Stan nodded. “And ask you who this man is.” He pointed at Dragon.

“And therefore all of you!” Colin said worriedly now. “All they have to know that you all came with us…Devon and me…they will think you know who he is.”

Stan waved at his laptop. “But the report went on to say that he…Dragon…stopped the attackers by addressing the crowd.” He looked at me. “And believe me…Dragon’s abilities came through strong even on the recording.” He grinned.

“Did it?” I asked smiling, I wasn’t surprised. It did on the other broadcasts he sent out.

Stan nodded. “Oh, yeah.” He raised his hand cautioning us. “I don’t know what you want to do with this. There is no way for anyone can connect Dragon with the attacks. Only that he stopped the attack from getting worse.” He sighed and then smiled as he said pointedly. “It’s too bad we don’t know anyone…say in Congress or the Senate that could help us.”

I laughed at him. “One more time…” I hugged him again. “You are definitely part of us. Don’t ever doubt you are.”

Stan was turning pink again. “You would have figured it out, but thanks.”

“We may need a lawyer,” Colin said. “Someone familiar with International law?”

“Don’t they have to be board certified or something?” I asked.

Colin shrugged. “A man can represent himself…can’t we use someone who knows the law even if they’re not…certified?”

Stan nodded. “Sure. The reason a man passes the bar is to certify them to work in a state…and they have to know the law. It shows he or she can do the job. If you want, you can represent yourself…even here. I checked. Or, you could choose someone else…even if they don’t have the bar exam or certification. The bar and board are to make sure they can do the job.” He looked at Sorin. “Right?”

Sorin nodded. “It happens occasionally. Sure.”

Colin nodded. “Well, once we get this sort of settled…” he waved at all the people, “I’ll send a message to all the others and ask them for help.”

“A vampire.” I nodded.

“Remember that lawyer when the IRS came after me?” Colin reminded. “He was a lawyer before he became a vampire. The courts contested my using him, but he knew the law backward and forwards, remember? They couldn’t argue with that. We won.”

“I remember.” I nodded. “All the vampires we know or want to know, I’m sure there’s another vampire lawyer that would love this!”

We brainstormed about a possible cover. It was suggested about a medical emergency, but we all knew…we might be exposed, so we had to come up with a way to get these people out of Romania. We made sure no one left and the only way out was guarded. We even spoke to Dragon about planting the suggestion on those that would leave not to talk about what happened, but there were the questions about what they’d say about those they traveled with that didn’t come back right away. It was about sunrise when the new vampires were getting groggy and had to go down for the day. We gave them places to do it more comfortably. If the person with them wanted to stay with them, they had to be prepared for sunset and bring blood.

“How much blood do we have?” I asked Sorin. “With all these new vampires, are we going to run out?”

“We have plenty.” Sorin smiled. “A lot of cow, goat and pig blood, but blood.”

I nodded. “Okay. That works.” I admitted and realized it was almost noon and yawned.

Colin smiled and came over. “Okay, Mr. Wonderful.” He turned me around. “It’s nighty night for you and me.”

“I thought you were talking to Sorin.” I grinned.

Colin chuckled. “I’m not female or chubby enough.” He whispered to my ear. “We’ll see you later, Sorin. You’ll be here tomorrow?”

“If I can.” Sorin nodded.

“Dragon has room here,” I said.

Sorin smiled and shook his head. “No, I have a nice bed at home that misses me. It’s not that far.”

“How is it nighty night when the sun’s coming up?” As Colin and I walked toward the room we had used, it hit me what Colin had said. “Wait a minute!” I stopped and held my hand against Colin’s chest. “You asked Sorin about his preference!?”

Colin nodded. “I did.” He grinned. “Say what you will, but I was jealous! You’re a great looking guy and I wanted to know, so I asked.”

“And you’re a great looking guy, should I worry?” I asked, not quite demanding.

“No.” Colin shook his head. “You know you’re the only one for me.” He said kissing me.

“The next time someone shows more than a little interest in you, I might.”

What happened next, I was not prepared for. We got to the room we had the previous night…I opened the door and…there was Wayne and Amasis…together…kissing…in bed in dim light, but it was them!! At first, all I did was quickly move to shut the door back with an apology for interrupting, but then it hit me what I’d seen. I pushed it back open to check if I’d seen correctly. I was shocked! Okay? Yep. Amasis and Wayne were naked in bed…at least the top halves were, I assumed that what was under the covers was like that, too. “Sorry,” I said holding my hand up. “Sorry,” I said closing the door.

“Were they just…?” Colin asked shocked pointing as we went to find another room.

“It looked that way,” I muttered as we heard the door come open and a very naked Wayne came hurrying to us.

“Wait, wait, wait!” Wayne said in a hurry as he caught up with us. “I can explain.” He said quickly.

I grinned at him. “You don’t have to Wayne. You’re both way over twenty-one.” I shook his shoulder and I grinned, looking down at his naked form. “Aren’t you cold?”

Wayne looked down. “No. I’m fine and you’ve both seen everything already.”

Colin grinned. “We have…” he pointed behind Wayne down the corridor. “But she hasn’t.” He pointed as Shelly was about to enter a room she was using, but smiling at what she saw.

She smiled at us. “Nice ass, Wayne! Very nice.” She gave a whistle as she entered a room.

Wayne blushed a little, but hurried us to another room, checking, it was empty and pushed us in. “It wasn’t planned.” He began quickly. “I’d never…well…I’ve never…”

Colin looked in Wayne’s eyes. “Easy, Wayne. It’s okay. You know we do it.” He waved at me and Colin. “Is there a problem?”

“I just want you to understand.” Wayne began. “I never thought before, in the sixties when I…maybe being a vampire does make us gay.”

“You’ve never had sex with a man,” I said to clarify. “Do you think it’s wrong?”

“No.” He admitted. “Well…” he grinned, “there was that one guy when I was sixteen, but…” he shook his head. “Am I gay now?”

“You got an erection with Amasis?” Colin asked.

“Sure.” Wayne nodded. “He’s a good looking man.”

“But he’s a man,” I said pulling Wayne to the bed and sat down with him. “As time goes on…I begin to see less…homosexual and heterosexuals. I see humans.” I took a deep breath. “What led to…” I pointed toward the other room, “whatever you two were doing in there?”

Wayne smiled. “Well…we were working together and…we were about to call it a day…and…we hugged.” Now he was turning red. “I was just…lonely.” He said helplessly. “I sort of…kissed him.” He shrugged.

“But you wanted him,” I said making him look me in the eyes. “You know he had many wives and husbands in his life.”

Wayne nodded. “I think that was why I dared to do what I did. He had those others…”

I smiled. “You both felt lonely and of course you knew the other could meet that need.” I nodded. “That’s great, but every man and women he’s loved has died on him. He’s guarding his heart. Are you?”

“What do you mean?” Wayne asked.

“I’m not a parent, Wayne and in spite of the age thing we have, I’m not your parent…we are family. You’re both were lonely.” I said. “You both decided the other can meet that need, but feelings become involved. Even if you claim you’re not homosexual…but if you do this…you are.”

Wayne started to protest.

“What’s wrong with that!?” I asked. “We are.” I pointed at Colin and me. “But if you do this…you will have a connection with Amasis unlike anyone else. You could fall in love. Can you do that?”

“I suppose so,” Wayne said.

“My problem is…if you do…you two have got to tell each other everything!” I said. “How you feel and what you want. Don’t expect him to just know. Tell him and ask him to do the same. Demand he tell you what he expects from you.” I hugged him. “We dearly love you, Wayne. You know that. We love Amasis, you know that, too. I don’t want problems to arise between you two for some…miscommunication. I tell Colin everything!”

“And I tell Devon everything.” Colin nodded. “He knows how I felt about Debra, my wife, Josiah, even the guys I’d been with before. I know about his past boyfriends; for this to progress…and I hope it does…I think you two will be great together; if that’s what you want and are willing to do it.”

“If he feels that way,” Wayne said nodding.

“And how are you going to know that if you don’t ask?” I smiled. “Now, you know we have sex, right?”

Wayne nodded. “I’ve never done it, but…Amasis was willing to take it slow with me. We were just…touching for now.”

“Touching is good!” Colin said happily. “I love touching. I love to touch Devon and be touched by Devon.”

“But it will bind you together. Everyone he’s touched before is dead. You’re not.” I said. “I don’t believe you will walk into the sun and burn to get out of this life.”

“No,” Wayne chuckled. “I won’t do that.”

“Tell him that, when you’re ready. You’re offering him something he’s never had.” I said to Wayne. “When its love; tell him. Don’t worry about the gay or straight part, but love, if you mean it. Just be careful. I’m not losing either of you!” I said firmly with a smile.

Wayne hugged us both, as in both of us squeezed together in his embrace. “You’re not losing either of us. I promise.” He got up and walked to the door. “But I need to get back before he worries.” He opened the door to see if someone else was in the corridor.

“Shelly is right,” I said to him. “You do have a very nice ass.”

Wayne looked down at his own naked ass and grinned. “Thanks.”

“You know, Devon and I had sex before we went to work this evening; on those very sheets?” Colin said smiling.

“We thought the room was unused, sorry about that.” He shrugged. “And they’re not stained, so…” he looked again in the corridor. “See you later. I love you two.” He darted out, closing the door.

“But you…” I said pulling Colin forward to me as I kissed him deeply, consuming as he let me in willingly and kissed back just as much, “have the most beautiful ass and cock I have even seen or heard about.”

Colin chuckled. “Both of them and my heart belong to you. I love you, Devon.”

I nodded as my arms came around his solid form, hand probing his back and yes…over his well-formed ass. “I know. I love you, Colin.”

“I know.” Colin smiled. “Now let me see that gorgeous ass and cock of yours!”