The air between them was quiet now, save for the hum of the streetlamp flickering above. Alex stood still, lips slightly parted, fingertips ghosting over his neck where Liam's bite had burned with a terrifying kind of pleasure. The world felt like it had been split in two—before that moment, and after.
Liam had already taken two steps back, expression unreadable, his fangs gone, his eyes… still not quite human. There was blood on his lower lip. Alex's blood.
"You bit me," Alex whispered, not a question. He didn't move, didn't run—though part of him wanted to. Not out of fear, but because his body didn't know how to make sense of what had just happened.
Liam's eyes dropped, and he ran a hand through his dark hair. "Yeah."
The silence that followed was thick and uncertain. The cars down the road, the glowing windows of other houses—it all felt like a backdrop to something unreal. Something out of time.
"You kissed me," Alex added after a pause. "Then you bit me."
"Not exactly how I imagined our first kiss," Liam muttered, voice dry. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, smearing crimson. "Sorry."
"You're not."
"I am." Liam finally looked up. "You just… taste like something I wasn't ready for."
Alex's pulse jumped again, this time from something that wasn't fear.
"What does that mean?" he asked, backing away slightly, uncertain.
Liam hesitated. "You're not like other people, Alex. I don't know why yet. But there's something different in your blood. It's like... static. Electricity."
"Different how?"
"I don't know," Liam said, truthfully. "But I shouldn't have bitten you. I lost control."
Alex touched his neck again. It had already stopped bleeding, the skin weirdly smooth. "Is it going to... change me?"
"No. At least… not unless I wanted it to. That's not how it works," Liam said quickly. "One bite won't turn you. You'd have to be—" He broke off.
"Dead?"
Liam flinched. "Yeah."
A strange silence passed. For a second, the wind picked up, tossing leaves down the sidewalk. Alex let out a long, shaky breath.
"I should go," he said finally, looking toward his house.
"I'll walk you," Liam offered.
"No," Alex said. Not harshly. Just final. "I need to think."
Liam didn't argue. He only watched Alex walk away.
That night, Alex couldn't sleep.
He tossed beneath the blankets, staring at the ceiling, fingers still brushing the spot where Liam had bitten him. His skin tingled there—like the memory of the bite had etched itself into his nerve endings.
It wasn't just the kiss, or even the bite. It was the look Liam had given him after. A kind of longing mixed with restraint, like he'd wanted more. Like biting him had barely scratched the surface.
And yet, Alex hadn't screamed. He hadn't even tried to pull away. What did that say about him?
The house creaked as it always did, but now every sound felt heavier. More watchful. He thought of Harper—Liam's best friend—and wondered if she'd seen Liam like that before. If she'd ever seen his fangs.
He didn't feel angry. But he didn't feel safe either.
He drifted into a restless sleep around three in the morning.
At school the next day, Liam was nowhere to be seen.
Alex searched the hallways between classes, but Harper only shrugged when asked. "He's not sick," she said, almost too casually. "Probably just needs a break."
Alex narrowed his eyes. "A break from what?"
Harper shut her locker with a soft clang and turned to him. "You."
He blinked. "Excuse me?"
"I'm not trying to be rude," she said. "But whatever happened between you two last night messed him up. He doesn't bite people, Alex. Not unless he absolutely has to."
Alex opened his mouth to protest but stopped. She was right.
"I didn't mean for it to happen," he said.
"Neither did he." Harper's expression softened. "He likes you. I think that scares him more than anything."
Alex didn't know what to say to that. So he just nodded and left for his next class.
Liam didn't show up that day, or the next.
By Friday, Alex was spiraling.
He'd replayed the kiss a hundred times in his mind, trying to decode it—was it real? Had Liam only kissed him because of the blood? Because he couldn't help himself?
He needed answers.
After school, he skipped basketball practice and walked the two miles to Liam's house. The small, almost-too-perfect Victorian sat on the edge of town, surrounded by ivy and wrought-iron fencing. It looked like it belonged in a storybook—or a horror movie.
He climbed the front steps and knocked.
Nothing.
He knocked again.
The door creaked open on the third try.
Alex's stomach twisted.
"Liam?" he called into the dark hallway. No answer. "Harper?"
Still nothing.
He stepped inside.
The air was strangely cold. Not cold like winter—but cold like something dead.
The house felt hollow, like someone had drained all the life from it. The wallpaper was old, the chandeliers dusty. There were family portraits on the walls—but all the faces had their eyes scratched out. Alex stared at one in particular—a photo of two young boys, one of them unmistakably Liam. The other had a cruel smile.
He felt it then—that crawling sensation down his spine.
Someone was watching him.
"You shouldn't be here."
The voice behind him made him jump.
Liam stood at the bottom of the staircase, half in shadow. He looked tired, eyes dark, shirt wrinkled.
Alex turned slowly. "You weren't at school."
"I know."
"You bit me and disappeared."
"I know."
Alex took a step forward. "So talk to me. Tell me what that was."
Liam leaned against the railing. "You wouldn't understand."
"Try me."
Liam exhaled, long and ragged. "When I kissed you, I wasn't planning to bite you. But something about you—your scent, your heartbeat—it overwhelmed me. Like I'd been starving without knowing it, and suddenly… you were right there."
Alex swallowed. "But I'm not food."
"No. You're not." Liam's gaze softened. "That's what scares me."
They stood in silence again, just looking at each other.
"Did you like it?" Alex asked suddenly. "The kiss."
Liam blinked. "You already know I did."
"Then why are you hiding from me?"
Liam pushed off the railing. "Because if I get too close, I won't stop with just one bite."
Alex didn't move. "So stop lying to yourself."
The words hung in the air like a challenge. Liam closed the distance between them in two strides.
"You don't get it, Alex. I've killed before. I've drained people. And if I lost control with you…"
"You didn't," Alex said quietly. "You bit me, but you stopped."
"That was barely control," Liam whispered, voice shaking. "I could hear your blood, feel it in my mouth. It tasted like lightning."
Alex reached up and touched his cheek. "Then maybe you're not as much of a monster as you think."
Liam closed his eyes. "Don't say that. You don't know what I've done."
"No," Alex said, "but I know what you didn't do. You didn't kill me. You didn't even try."
Liam looked at him then, truly looked, like he was trying to memorize every detail of his face. "You're dangerous."
"I'm human."
"Exactly."
Alex didn't go home that night.
He stayed on Liam's couch, curled under a heavy blanket, heart pounding in his chest. Liam didn't sleep—he paced, watched the door, checked the windows like something might burst in at any second.
At one point, Alex stirred and found Liam sitting on the floor beside him, just watching him breathe.
"Why are you staring at me?" he murmured.
"I'm trying to remember what it felt like," Liam said softly. "Before I ruined it."
Alex smiled sleepily. "You didn't ruin it."
Liam hesitated. "Then what do we do now?"
Alex reached over and touched his hand. "We start again. This time, no fangs. Just honesty."
Liam stared at their hands. "I'll try."
But outside, in the woods beyond the iron gate, something else was watching.
Not human. Not vampire.
And it had smelled Alex's blood the moment it was spilled.
Something was coming.
Something worse than fangs.