" Yo u have been seeing my ghost after all, haven't you?"
He hisses in air then shakes his head. "That was a low blow, Nathan, even for you. One would have thought you'd be pleased. Doesn't the fact that you haunted me for years show I have a conscience? That I actually regret killing you? Or believing I had?"
"Do you? Are you really sorry?"
"Of course I bloody am! Do you think it was easy for me, going all this time knowing, thinking, even in the back of my mind on what constituted a good day, that I had accidentally killed the man I loved because I was so over-keen to keep him with me forever?"
I think my mouth works, my jaw's pathetic twitches a vague attempt to get sound to come out, but there's nothing. Nothing but a half-hearted, "But you didn't."
"No." Adam gives a single nod. "No, I didn't. But you let me think it, didn't you? And given that I've got form for killing, nearly killing, and/or attempting to kill, delete as applicable, Will obviously thought I'd kill his lover out of jealousy or bloody-mindedness or out of a desire to ruin the whole world because I'm some sad, lonely figure who's destined to wander the Earth, pining like Romeo for his fucking other Romeo."
"No, he doesn't. He doesn't think that at all."
It's easier to defend Will, who isn't even here, than it is to discuss myself or Adam, for some reason. Avoidance, thy name is Stephenson.
"Oh? Really? You can look me in the eye and tell me Will isn't scared of me raging about the unfairness of it all, tracking him down, and killing his lover?"
"Yes." I nod. "I can." Although looking him in the eye is a tad difficult now that we're getting to the nub of the matter.
"And why is that?"
"Uh, you see, we already did it. Will and me."
"You and Will already...? You already what? Killed...? Oh, wait a fucking minute..." Adam covers his face with his hands, shoulders shaking in what I think is laughter. He definitely doesn't seem in a crying mood right now. He raises his head, fingertips dragging down the skin of his face.
"He fell for someone mortal and got you to help him change the poor bugger because he had done the same for you." Another burst of laughter, but not full of humour. There's sarcasm there, or bitterness. Likely both. "He changed you, you changed his lover, and so now you're quits, yes?"
I don't want to think about what I've gone through with Kieran. His experience; he was the one who died and was brought back. He was the guest of honour. But it was something I never wanted to do, and I only went along with it because it was Will asking. Anyone else, and it would have been an instant no. Even with Will and Kieran, it took a bit of persuasion.
"I still don't get why you had to reappear.
Will couldn't have thought I was a danger to Kieran once he'd changed. You could have kept this all quiet, you know. I would never have discovered it. At least, there was a good chance of that being the case. You could have gone abroad; they have vampire safe houses there too, you know."
" I know that." More and more countries are accepting us every day. Legally. You can't legislate people's hearts unfortunately, but Britain is relatively safe. I mean, here we are, in a hotel specially built for vampires. We can dot around the country quite happily as long as there are safe houses to hide in while the sun passes overhead.
"Where are they now?"
"Who?"
"Will and Kieran, you idiot. Who else would I be talking about?"
"You think I would tell you?"
"For fuck's sake, Nathan; when is this suspicion going to stop?"
"I don't know. How about when you, oh, I know! When you stop attacking people?"
"I haven't done that in ages. The last time was aeons ago, and the guy deserved it. He said some very unsavoury things about my mother, and ---"
"But she's been dead since the nineteenth century."
"Yes, she has, but I still didn't want to hear her called a whore." Adam shakes his head once, briefly, as if trying to rid his mind of thoughts of his immediate ancestry, and brings himself back into the present. "That was over twenty years ago. I've been a good boy since then."
"Really," I deadpan, crossing my arms and looking him up and down. "I find that very hard to believe."
"You'd be surprised. You don't know everything about me, Sergeant." He makes a show of doing exactly the same thing, looking me up and down, focusing for longer than is necessary on my crotch. I send up a silent prayer that anger and sexual frustration won't manifest itself in an obvious, embarrassing way.
I want this conversation over and done with so I can go have a shower and take care of business.
"Admit it; you were curious," he says.
"About...?"
"Will comes to you with his new bit of fluff ---"
"Boyfriend."
"Whatever."
Adam's dismissive shrug reminds me of my reaction to Will telling me off when I referred to Kieran as loverboy. "Will comes to you with his new boyfriend, asks you to help him change him so they can be together forever and experience twu wuv, and you're a good little boy, obedient---"
"It wasn't like that!"
"No? Then how was it? You told Will no? You refused to help him out after all he'd done for you?"
"Yes. That was exactly it. I refused because I never wanted to help change someone after what I'd experienced, and he pulled the after all we've been through together bullshit, and when I saw him and Kieran together, I fell for it."
"And my name came up in the conversation, and you were all twisted up over killing one of those pesky mortals, so, what? You thought you'd come and see the one person on Earth
