with tears, but he brushed them away with the back of his hand and cleared his throat. “It’s more than that, Otis. I don’t just want you to stay. I need you to stay.”
He glanced at Nelly as she left the room in search of tissues. “
Otis stepped closer to Vlad, putting a strong hand on his shoulder. His eyes brimmed with warmth and sincerity. “All that I have done to wrong you-not accepting you initially because of your mother’s human blood, leaving you to face D’Ablo alone, abandoning you when you needed my council most-I will make amends. That I promise you, Vladimir.”
Vlad nodded, overcome by emotion. He knew Otis would make it right, and he would finally have the comfort of his only living relative being close by. He released a shuddering breath and said, “ Thank you, Otis. For everything, but especially this.”
Otis embraced him tightly, then patted his back and let him go. Vlad had never felt so loved.
Otis smiled. “Don’t thank me yet. There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you.”
As Vlad raised his eyebrows, Otis set the
Otis swallowed hard and held Vlad’s gaze. “Please… accept an old fool’s apology.”
Vlad shook his head. “ There’s no reason to apologize, Otis. You were protecting me. I get it.”
Otis relaxed visibly. “Why don’t we celebrate my new residency over a glass of O positive? Nelly can mull some later. For now, we drink.”
Vlad offered a one-shoulder shrug. “Actually… I’m not all that hungry.”
It hadn’t seemed like a remark worth Otis’s reaction, but nevertheless, his uncle furrowed his brow and leaned closer, as if they were about to share a dire secret. “Is there something you wish to share with me, Vladimir?”
“What do you mean?”
Otis wet his lips, as if searching for the right words. “Before I left you those months ago, you were famished at every turn. But now… you seem satiated somehow. Would you care to tell me why that is?”
Images flitted through Vlad’s mind, but he clamped down on them so that Otis wouldn’t see. They were pictures of darkness, blood, alleyways, and a beautiful goth girl named Snow.
And even though he knew that the best thing he could do was to confess his mistake to the one man who would truly understand, he kept his mouth and mind shut, pressing his lips firmly together before saying, “Nope. Nothing. I guess I just got a handle on it.”
Otis nodded slowly. And what Vlad saw in his uncle’s eyes tore at his insides.
Otis knew he was lying.
But there was no way Vlad could tell him the truth, that he’d fed from the source and liked what he tasted and how the blood had made him feel. After all of Vlad’s lecturing on why it was better to drink bagged blood, after his refusal to learn how to hunt, he just couldn’t tell Otis that not only had he fed from a person, but he’d been wrong in his stubbornness. Because Vlad didn’t feel like he’d been wrong. He still thought it was a bad idea to bite people. He still didn’t plan on feeding from the source. What he intended to do was apologize to Snow, and never, ever let it happen again.
Everything would go back to the way it was. It had to.
Otis nodded, seeming to silently agree with something he was thinking. Vlad seized the moment to change the subject, and fast. “I wanted to ask you something. About Henry.”
Otis folded his arms in front of him and leaned back against the counter. “Now that I’ve bitten him, you’re wondering if Henry is my drudge.”
Vlad furrowed his brow. “How’d you know?”
“Call it a guess.” Otis smiled, then shrugged. “It’s a fairly common concern amongst newer vampires. The answer is no. Only the first vampire to administer a bite can share that bond. To me, Henry is no different now than he was before.”
Vlad sighed in relief. He’d been fretting over just how to convince his uncle that Henry deserved his freedom. Not that the thought of releasing his drudge wasn’t a painful one. But he respected Henry, and if Henry wanted freedom, he certainly deserved it. Still, Vlad would miss their connection. “He wants me to release him, Otis. And I’m going to.”
Otis looked briefly troubled, but spoke in a reassuring tone. “It’s not the end of the world to lose a friend, Vladimir. Even a friend who is bound to you by blood.”
Vlad’s voice caught in his throat. His eyes brimmed with tears at the thought of losing Henry. “ Then why does it hurt so much?”
Otis went quiet, and Vlad was almost certain he was thinking of Tomas. Just as Vlad was about to ask if his intuition was right, Otis spoke. “Because all endings have a certain amount of pain, just as all beginnings contain a certain amount of joy. It’s just the way of things. I’m sure you and Henry will manage just fine.”
As though the mention of his name had called him forth, there was a knock on the door. Vlad was not at all surprised when he opened it to find Henry there, looking happier than he’d seen him in months. It was bad enough that Vlad had to release him today. The least Henry could do was appear a bit more somber about it.
Vlad swallowed hard and averted his eyes. “Let’s go up to my room so we can talk before… well, you know.”
Henry nodded and followed him up the stairs. Once they were inside Vlad’s room, he said, “So you’re really going to do it? You’re really going to release me as your drudge?”
Vlad nodded, and Henry said, “Why?”
“Because I can’t stand seeing you bound to something you didn’t agree to. Because you deserve to be free of any kind of control. Because… because you’re my best friend. And you want me to.” The tears threatened to fall once again, but Vlad somehow managed to keep them at bay. He cleared his throat, but his voice cracked anyway. “Anyway, I just wanted to go over the procedure with you before-”
“I don’t want you to do it.”
Vlad blinked. “What?”
“I don’t want you to do it. Don’t release me.”
Vlad cocked his head. He looked at Henry with a mixture of intense relief and immense anger. “If this is a joke-”
“It’s not. I just had to make sure that you really would release me. I mean, for a long time, I really thought I wanted that. But not anymore.” Henry had grown serious, and in his eyes lurked the truth.
Vlad held his breath, too fearful that in the next second, Henry would change his mind again. “What happened to change that?”
Henry’s voice grew gruff. “You did. You saved my life in Stokerton, Vlad. And it’s not just that. The truth is I like having this connection with you. I like that you can call on me for help without either of us even realizing it. I like that we have each other’s backs-whether it’s reading the minds of random girls or fighting off ruthless vampires. I like that we’re a team. And I’d be an idiot to give that up.”
Vlad swore he saw the threat of tears in Henry’s eyes. He sighed and allowed a small smile to dance on his lips. He wasn’t losing Henry. Everything really was going to be all right. “I don’t know whether to punch you or hug you.”
“ There’s more.” Henry fumbled with his words for a minute. “I’m not going to ever ask you to mess with Melissa’s mind for me again. That was a really crappy thing of me to do, and I’m sorry.”
Vlad nodded in reply, and Henry ran his hand through his hair. “Anyway, I better get home and change before Freedom Fest. You walking over with Meredith?”
