Chapter 3: Chapter Three

Darren stood at the living room window looking at Central Park with its vegetation dotted with round globes of yellow light. The complex was a couple of blocks away but the buildings in front of Rafinesque Place were shorter and his vampiric vision showed him what he wished to see. The Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir’s waters twinkled in the silvery moonlight. As he gazed at the natural beauty before him, he began to think about when he moved to New York for the first time and how he would walk his dogs in Central Park. Just like that, he was depressed.

Darren had always been a dog person, but after his embrace, even his dogs didn’t want to have anything to do with him. They would bark, snarl, and back away from him. McGregor took them and left them on his aunt’s doorstep. After abandoning his dogs, he and Daniel were told to liquidate all of their assets and move to New York. According to McGregor, Australia was a hotspot of unruly vampiric activity, and the vampire king was not a king at all, and his recklessness is what attracted the hunters. New York, he said, had a community that would help them grow.

Behind Darren, cartoons played on the TV. He wasn’t sure which was playing now because his mind was far away. Lifting his fingers to the window, he began to thump them gently to the melody of “Carry On Dancing.” What a big fucking mistake that song was.

Having always been attracted to dark and arcane subjects, Darren was a fan of vampire literature and movies. Now, he avoided the subject like the plague, but that damn song would always be with him, a part of him. He wrote it, with Daniel, of course, about fucking vampires. Now, look at him, drinking blood for the rest of eternity. On that note, he lifted his mug of cooling blood and took a sip.

It was early fall, but the chill of the north was creeping in. Being able to withstand harsh elements as a vampire, Darren could walk out into a blizzard with shorts on. However, that would be foolish and attract attention that The PIEN did not want.

Oh, excuse me, he thought. Le Parlement Infinie des Êtres Nocturnes. The bloody Infinite Parliament of Nocturnal Beings.

One can only wonder why an organization that governs a supernatural populace would name itself that when they were highly prejudiced and disallowed weres- and other nocturnal creatures from joining. The battle between vampires and weres- has been raging for centuries and though the high-ranking vampire officials deny that they still enslave weres- as well as support the production of fur outerwear made from weres- hide, on the contrary, they still did. This was the species Darren now belonged to.

However, Darren could not deny that he missed his handsome creator’s embrace. He was beautiful. He had a rugged look to him, tan skin, strong, tall body, muscular, a headful of thick wavy brown hair, and that lovely hard-on inducing smooth teasing voice that was so low as it tickled his ears. What was also interesting is that he had an old scar on his face, stretching across his jawline and cutting up to the bottom of his lips. Darren never asked how he got it, and Darren never knew his name. All he and the others knew him as was the vampire king. In that short time, Darren loved him.

Tilting his head up, Darren looked at the ceiling as he heard the bed shift, and a pair of feet touching the floor and padding to the bathroom. He’s up, he thought solemnly and sighed leaning on the windowsill.

Technically, vampires didn’t have any control over their sleep/wake cycle. When the sun came up, they fell asleep, and when the sun went down, they woke up. However, when one adds alcohol or drugs to the mix, things change. An inebriated vampire could fall asleep whenever or stay up past daybreak. There had been instances of vampires high on cocaine burning up in the sun because they were so wired and awake. Darren only hoped Daniel wouldn’t graduate to drugs. He didn’t think he could handle that.

The shower was turned on in the upstairs bathroom and Darren felt relieved. He didn’t think he could take another day of Daniel’s funk. There had been times that he had gone two months without bathing. It was torture.

Darren continued to rest against the window as he smiled while he listened to Daniel move around and shower. Images of them showering together flowed into his mind and he smiled. Their hands moved over each other’s body, lips connecting, flesh against flesh…He sighed. That was the past and that’s all it would ever be.

Soon, Daniel’s feet were slapping the wooden stairs as he came down to the lower level. Darren watched as he crossed the living room to the kitchen. A small smile came to Darren’s lips as he was wearing the charcoal gray lounge pants he had gotten him for Christmas and nothing more. Some might find Daniel’s bony frame unappealing, but Darren loved it. His eyes drank him in as he passed enjoying how the pants were loose and hung low on his bony hips exposing the top of his little perk butt cheeks and the top of his pubic area with its trail of hair leading to heaven. Oh, how he wanted to walk up to him and run his fingers over his chest…

Things were different now, and when Daniel disappeared into the kitchen, Darren turned and continued to look out the window. Alcohol was still in Daniel’s blood. He was never truly sober. He listened as he fixed a mug of warm blood in the kitchen, and his mind recalled all the hell they raised in Australia with each other. The PIEN didn’t prohibit killing humans, they prohibited not cleaning up after yourself and attracting attention from hunters and Blood Reavers, which were insane humans who were addicted to vampire blood. As it were, vampire blood had drug-like properties when humans ingested it. Who would have thought?

Anyway, Darren and Daniel left bodies all over Australia. A toy vampire, those that are newly embraced until the age of ten, consumed large quantities of blood. At their current age, Darren, and Daniel each consumed between one and one-fifth to three gallons of blood a day. When they were just infants, they consumed way more than that. All Darren remembered was that it was a lot of death, blood, and sex. McGregor said they were lucky they weren’t dead. They then found out that there was a hunter on their trail. An Aboriginal hunter at that. Aborigines were the fiercest hunters in Australia.

“Cartoons?” Daniel asked, calling Darren’s attention.

Turning, Darren nodded his head. “It’s just on. You can change it if you like.” He didn’t look at Daniel, his face was down, and looking in his mug.

“Scooby Doo?” Daniel continued to question, this time with mockery in his voice.

Darren lifted his head and looked at Daniel sitting at his keyboard. His hair was washed and damp, his eyes weren’t red but there were still traces of pink in them, and that scowl, hideous and vicious, cleaved into his heart.

Darren didn’t say anything. He didn’t want to fight. Moving to the coffin, he picked up the remote and carried it to the keyboard. Daniel's hand reached for it as he was setting it down, and immediately, he dropped it. He didn’t want him to touch him. He feared his touch. In Darren’s mind, as long as he didn’t touch him, he was safe from physical abuse.

Avoiding looking at Daniel’s face which surely was wearing a more pissed-off countenance than before, Darren retreated to the couch and sat down sipping his blood. He heard him snort after awhile, but he kept his eyes forward. Though Daniel had mocked Darren, he didn’t change the channel.

With his mind returning to Central Park, Darren thought about going out that night. Perhaps he’d get the driver to take him in the car. At the thought of the car, his eyes flicked to the built-in shelf on the other side of the fireplace. On it was Daniel’s high-quality model vintage cars. None were made out of plastic. All were constructed from metal and wood. Conveniently, he left that shelf intact. Their car was vintage. It was Daniel’s; therefore, Darren decided he’d just walk. Heaven forbid he got into an accident.

After finishing his meal, Darren set the empty mug on the coffin. After shuffling the junk around on top of it, he found his bottle of midnight blue nail polish. It was the same color the vampire king wore. A smile came to Darren’s lips. He was pure, utter bliss.

After shaking the bottle of nail polish, Darren sat back on the couch and began to paint his nails silently. However, it didn’t take long for that to turn into a shitstorm.

“And you wonder why everybody thought you were gay all those years you were in the wardrobe,” Daniel stated with his words digging against Darren’s skin.

Darren tensed. Daniel knew everything he went through as a child. He knew how he was spanked at school by a principal for playing in a girl’s hair, how he was threatened with getting punched in the nose if he didn’t stop looking at a boy he had a crush on, and how he prayed to God not to be gay because he didn’t want to get AIDS. He knew all of it. He was goading him, ripping out his insides.

“Nah yeah, I wasn’t the only one in the wardrobe, love,” Darren fired back as he flashed hard-boiled eyes at his partner. His eyes had gone from a light blue to a deep cobalt.

“Darren,” Daniel started as his lip curled up at the corner. It was so fucking evil. “You were so far in the wardrobe that you were wearing your great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother’s undies. Besides, you turned me and that wasn’t the first time.”

Darren’s fingers gripped the nail polish brush hard with the long slender top pressing into his flesh. “Bugger off!” He snapped.

“You turned me, Darren,” he insisted.

“I didn’t turn you! If you’re gay, you’re just gay. You have to have it in you from the start.”

“Darren,” Daniel’s voice kept needling him, “come on. The way you always danced up on me and twirled around on stage, and are we not going to talk about the vampire thing?” Darren kept painting his nails. “Do you want me, Darren?” Daniel had shoved the blade in and now he was turning it. “You wanted me from the moment you saw me.”

Darren tried hard to ignore Daniel, but his eyes were stinging, and his anger was threatening to boil over. He didn’t want this. He didn’t want any of this, but it was going to get worse. Daniel started hammering “I Want You” out of the keyboard. Even if he were playing sober it would have sounded like a dead cat being resurrected because the instrument was fucked beyond repair.

“Oooo, I want you! I don’t know if I need you! Let’s die and find out!” Daniel sang at an unbearable pitch. In horror, Darren stared at his insane partner completely outdone. “Cola, cola, yeah! Chica…cherry…cola!” he continued.

Darren couldn’t take it anymore. He gathered his nail polish and moved to make his exit.

“You’re a fucking fairy, Darren Hayes!” Daniel shouted after him.

Darren turned and froze. He eyed Daniel. Silently, Daniel looked back. They stood there for a moment, just looking at each other. There was triumph and smugness on Daniel’s face and shock on Darren’s.

“I’m getting the fuck out of here,” Darren said. Turning, he continued on his path.

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“Don’t sprinkle any of that fairy dust, sunshine!” Daniel called after him and began screeching “To the Moon and Back” while playing “A Thousand Words” on the keyboard.

“I hate him, I hate him, I hate him, I hate him,” Darren chanted over and over again as he sunk into the window nook in the library. He could still hear him with his curse of amplified vampire hearing, but just being out of the room was easing his mind. How could he do that to him? How could he say that word? It was as bad as the other F word…Fag…He was ripping him apart. Gutting him.

As Darren continued to paint his fingernails, his hands shook. He wasn’t going to cry. His tears for Daniel had dried up, but it didn’t stop the pain from swelling in his being or keep it from constricting around his heart. Inside, he was dying. Inside, he was crying. He thought he had done the right thing when embracing Daniel, but now he could see it was a big mistake. He just couldn’t leave him there, dead in his arms. He was so pale and so frail.

Recalling that day so long ago, Darren remembered everything had happened so fast. The Aborigines stormed the vampire lair, and it was total chaos. He saw the king being beheaded and then a stake was launched into his chest, barely missing his heart. Everything went black. When he came through, he saw dead bodies everywhere. Some hunters had died too, but it was mostly his kind. Some vampires were beheaded, and some were impaled with boomerangs and stakes. He knew he needed blood to heal and the only person he thought could help him was Daniel. All he would need was a bit of blood to heal, that’s all.

Darren stumbled through the tunnels of Coober Pedy to his and Daniel’s underground hotel. He banged on Daniel’s door and called his name. He remembered Daniel opening the door and saying, “Oi, Darren, where the fuck have you been all week?” He hadn’t registered the state Darren was in until it was too late. His long, elegant neck was exposed, and hunger struck. Darren needed it, he needed his life. Like an animal, a beast, Darren shredded Daniel’s throat and gulped down his blood. When his mind cleared and he saw what he had done, he sobbed and held Daniel as his life slipped away. He listened to his raspy and gurgling breaths. He watched life slip from his face and eyes. He was dead.

Darren always had a thing for Daniel, and he couldn’t just let him die. Especially since it was his fault. Daniel was a prick, but he was still his friend and bandmate. He felt it was his duty to save him and so he did the only thing of which he could think. He embraced him.

Darren and Daniel ran with the night. Fiends of hell. They had each other to rely on and no one else. They hid in abandoned structures during the day and one night, while lying in an old rickety basement waiting for dawn, Darren blurted out, “I’m gay.” He didn’t anticipate the response he got. Daniel’s beautiful lips, not as full as his, but still juicy nonetheless, pulled back into that charming smile of his with rows of gleaming teeth and he said, “No shit, Darren. Everybody knows you’re gay except for you.” They laughed and Darren was glad Daniel hadn’t freaked out and run from him. He then dropped another bomb and told him how he felt about him and to that, Daniel said, “Well, shit, I’m dead, right? I’ll try anything once.” They fucked and there was bliss all over again. Darren’s heart was healed and saved. He spilled his guts to Daniel about how he was treated in school, about how he pleaded to his mother to take him to the hospital so the doctor could check him out for AIDS. His soul hurt and Daniel was there for him…Until he wasn’t…

One day, Daniel started acting strange toward Darren. He was barely speaking, they weren’t having sex, no touching, no kissing. Darren was too scared to ask him what was wrong. He remembered when his father got in those moods. It was just best to leave him alone. One day, Daniel went to check things out around the structure they were in, and he didn’t come back. Darren pined for him. He lay in that dilapidated shack becoming one with the structure. He fed off rats and other vermin of the Australian habitat. That wasn’t nearly enough to sustain him, and he lay weak hoping for the end. His body was in so much pain and he just prayed for death, but that’s when another vampire found him.

McGregor got Darren up and to his car. Darren’s energy was gone. He could barely make it to the car, stumbling several times with McGregor picking him up. He didn’t know where he was being taken but he knew he was with another vampire. He didn’t even remember how long the trip took. All he remembered was waking up in a hotel and seeing Daniel’s face. There wasn’t any time to talk as McGregor instructed him to eat. There were four humans tied up in their room and Darren drained them all, their cries muffled by the gags in their mouths.

For days, Daniel and Darren didn’t talk, but then Darren had to know why he left him. Daniel said he got scared but wouldn’t say what had scared him. They fell in love again. McGregor became their mentor and Darren forgave Daniel. However, as he sat in the nook and covered his painted nails with a coating of matte topcoat, Darren now knew what that fear was. The fear of being gay and being with him.

Downstairs, Daniel was howling the lyrics of “I Don’t Know You Anymore” and Darren just shook his head. “You’re goddamn right about that, you fucking soap dodger,” he replied to the coarse melody as he went to their room.

Sitting at his vanity, he put his nail polish away. He then dolled himself up with a bit of rose lip tint and black eyeliner. He combed his hair and spritzed on his favorite brand of unisex eau de toilette, Dorothy’s Secret. The name was a nod to the phrase ‘A Friend of Dorothy’ which was a furtive shibboleth used for discussing sexual orientations. He used to be close friends with the guy who created and owned the brand, Jason Mikkies, but that all changed when he was embraced by the night. Shit, he wished he had hooked up with Jason instead of Daniel. What the fuck was he thinking?

Dressing in all black the way he enjoyed it, Darren wore a black ribbed, V-neck sweater, jeans, and boots. Anger was displayed in everything he did. He didn’t slide into his clothes, he yanked everything on. He did the same with his jewelry. Yanked the rings on, slapped the watch around his wrist, and… halted looking at the pair of huge Asscher-cut diamond earrings… Daniel had given them to him for their fifteenth anniversary. What the hell happened to them?

Looking at the bedroom window, Darren contemplated throwing the earrings out. As strong as he was, he wondered if he could break them. Looking back at the earrings he contemplated. Did he really hate Daniel? He had chanted it. He had felt the heat of rage at what he said to him. Running his fingers over the stones he pressed his lips together so hard that they hurt. “Fuck him,” he muttered as he slid the earrings into his ears. After all, they were his now. “Dickhead.”

Lastly, Darren pulled on a beanie, a pair of sunglasses, and his charcoal gray hooded peacoat. Even though he hadn’t been in the spotlight for twenty-two years, he had to take care to conceal his identity, hence the glasses.

At the door, Darren laid his hand on the handle. He paused, trying to gather himself. He was going down there. Right now, Daniel was yelling “I Knew I Loved You.” Sighing, Darren gathered all of his nerves and left the room. Slowly and heavily, he managed the stairs and moved into the living room.

Silence…

Daniel immediately dropped the tune and looked Darren up and down. Darren could tell by the look on his face that he was pleased by what he saw. A smirk tugged at the corner of Darren’s lips. However, Daniel was a prideful dick, psychotic, and an alcoholic. “I knew you loved me before you met me! Darren dreamed me to life!” he shouted.

Darren shook his head and moved to the door grasping the handle.

“Darren?” Daniel called him. Halting, Darren waited. “Did you love me before you met me?” he was fucking off the chain that night. “Did you dream me into life?”

Daniel just wouldn’t stop with the knife. He was slicing Darren up and down inside, carving his name on his spleen.

“You need help Daniel,” Darren replied and turned the knob.

“Two beds and a coffee machine!” Daniel shouted. “One decaf and one with caffeine.”

Darren’s hand shook on the handle and slowly he turned and looked at Daniel. “How could you?” He asked with his voice shaking. He didn’t wait for an answer. He snatched the door open and ran out slamming it behind him.

Leaning against the door, Darren tried to calm down as he shook. He was an old enough vampire to breathe, and so he panted in an attempt to calm himself. He felt sick, his stomach flip-flopping and wobbling. He hoped the blood he drank wouldn’t come up. Slowly, he pushed away from the door and inched down the hall one foot at a time. The more distance he put between himself and Daniel, the better he felt.

“Are you all right, sir?” the elevator attendant asked. He was a human servant dressed in a stupid ass doorman outfit, complete with white gloves and those dumbass round hats. Darren was not in a good mood so he might as well take it out on a human. “Yes!” he snarled. “Going down, sir?” the servant asked without displaying any sign that he was bothered by Darren’s hostilities. “Obviously.” Darren eyed his neck. Maybe if he ripped his throat out… “Yes, sir,” the servant replied and pressed the down button.

Darren turned away from the attendant. This wasn’t him. He needed to calm down. Closing his eyes, he willed himself to gain control. He couldn’t let Daniel win. He couldn’t let him break him. Mind over matter, he willed himself, and soon, he was opening his eyes and was himself again.

“Sir, are you sure you’re okay?” the servant asked.

“Ah, yes,” Darren said and nodded. “Thanks for asking.” When the elevator dinged, he removed some bills from his pocket and placed them in the man’s hand.

“Thank you, sir,” the attendant replied.

Darren nodded his head to the servant and stepped onto the elevator when the doors opened. He told the elevator operator to take him to the lobby and once there, he offered him some bills as well. Usually, he would take a long stroll across the lobby, but he just wanted to get the fuck away from Rafinesque Place. Thrusting his hands into his coat pockets, he moved fast across the tile to the other side where he took the stairs down to the basement.

The noise of chatter coming from the whorehouse, the bar, and the restaurant annoyed Darren. After all these years he still wasn’t used to his heightened sense of hearing. Reaching the door leading to the underground tunnel, he waited for the servant to open it, and just like he did with the others, he gave him money and passed on.

Where was he going? Darren stood in the dark tunnel with its earthen floor and mucky sweaty old dark walls. The entire tunnel was fashioned out of brick and had been standing for centuries. It was ingenious how organized vampire society was. Never once has anyone in New York City ever discovered the tunnels. Even when the subway tunnels were put in place, the vampire tunnels were never disturbed. The simple reason was that vampires had a hand in every facet of human life. They had human servants on every level of government and industry. Remarkable.

Now, where was Darren going? He could honestly use a drink even though he didn’t drink much. Maybe he’d get a junior vodka red, which was the same as a junior blood wine, except with vodka. Raw was the closest, but Darren really didn’t want to go there except on days when he was working. Benton Pigglewidth, oh, sorry, Piggles, as he liked to be called, just creeped him the fuck out. However, it was the closest. Maybe he wouldn’t see him that night.

It would take about forty to fifty minutes to get to Raw by car, and longer than that if walking. Also, Raw was a closed establishment which meant that it was housed in an abandoned and boarded-up property, and the only way in was through the tunnels. So, Darren did the only logical thing a vampire would do. He ran…like, really, really, really fucking fast. He was nothing but a streak of black zipping through the tunnels.

It took Darren awhile to get used to moving fast. The thought that if he were human again, his body would literally break down because it was impossible kept plaguing his mind. The human body just wasn’t built to move at that rate and velocity. So, yeah, Iron Man was full of shit. Just about as full of shit as Daniel was, and the further Darren ran from him, the better he felt.

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