Blood Claim by Laura Mykles (free e books to read .txt) 📕

"You want to come to me."

Tuning out the voice, Matt opened one of the drawers and drew out a wooden spoon. With strength he didn't know he had, he cracked it, creating a slim wooden stiletto from the handle. Would it be enough?

"Open the door, Matthew."

Matt crumpled to the linoleum, moaning piteously. The thing knew his name!

"Open the door, Matthew, and let me in. Let me in, sweet."

Matt clutched the two halves of the spoon, keeping the thought of Daniel in his head as he listened hard for any sign of the door opening. Daniel, the man he loved. Daniel, who was dead. Daniel.

He never knew how long the vampire taunted him that night. He still wasn't really sure what time he'd left the park. But it had to have been a few hours. It had stayed at his door, trying to coax him into opening it, teaching him by example the truth of the legend that vampires couldn't cross your threshold unless you invited them in. By the time it had left, he was exhausted enough to pass out for a few hours on his kitchen floor.

Blinking, Matt tipped his head back to stare at the wall above the candles and the framed picture. During the first few months after Daniel's death, he hadn't stepped outside his apartment at all. He lived on his savings and a little that Daniel had, surprisingly, stashed away, with Matt named as beneficiary. The money had lasted for five months, during which time Matt spoke to no one. His friends from school gave up on him. But then, he and Daniel really hadn't been all that close to anyone else. His family had disowned him before Daniel had experienced a similar fate with his parents, so his parents and sister never knew. They probably still didn't know. Matt spent countless hours on the Internet, digging up all he could about vampires, disappointed when he could never distinguish what was fact and what was fantasy or myth. To this day, the only true facts he knew about vampires were that they existed and that they couldn't get inside his apartment without some kind of invitation on his part. Bereft, confused, scared, he had become the biggest online game junkie the world had ever seen for a while, happy to lose himself in fictitious worlds.

Until Wolfe.

Matt let his gaze drop back to Daniel's picture. “You'd like him,” he said aloud. “Would you approve of me being with him? If I could?"

Silly question, really. He'd known Daniel well enough to know that he would hate that Matt had lived in seclusion for as long as he had. Although, Daniel could not have predicted a death at the hands of a vampire.

Standing, leaving the candles lit, Matt dressed. It was nearly noon. He'd need to get some work done soon. The arrangement with Wolfe allowed Matt to keep odd hours, going to bed at dawn, rising mid-afternoon for work.

So odd, he thought, donning his jeans. Not for the first time he wondered why Wolfe put up with his strange behavior. Except for the phone call the previous day, Wolfe had never questioned why Matt didn't go out. Their conversations had always been friendly, but when they weren't about business, they tended to stay on safer, less personal topics.

Still wondering, Matt wandered into the next room. His computers hummed gently from the desk and extension that took up most of the wall, but he ignored them for the moment in favor of food. Opening the refrigerator, he stared at the meager contents. “Geez,” he muttered, pushing aside a few mostly empty take-out containers. “Time to order food.” Thank God for grocery stores that not only took internet orders, but delivered.

His cell phone rang as he started to compose a list. His heart picked up pace as he crossed back into the living room to lift the phone from the desk.

"Hi."

"Hi.” Wolfe sounded cheerful, which dispelled some of the dread in Matt's chest. Perhaps the other man wouldn't hold their previous conversation against him. “I've been thinking about what we talked about yesterday."

Matt's heart sank as he dropped onto his ratty but comfortable old couch. “Oh?"

"Let's go to lunch."

His mouth dropped open. “Really?"

"Yes. It'll have to be a late one. I'm not sure I could pick you up before three. Is that all right?"

"You don't have to pick me up. I can meet you somewhere."

Pause. “So it's just the night that gets you?"

Ice gripped Matt's heart. He didn't know how to reply to that.

"No matter. I'll pick you up. Is three okay? Matt? Hello?"

Shock kept him from thinking straight. “Yeah. Okay."

"Great. I took a glance at the app this morning, by the way. Brilliant, as expected. Well done!"

"Thanks."

"Thank you. Okay, gotta run. See you soon."

"Bye.” But Wolfe was already gone. Matt swallowed as he set down the phone.

He was going to see Wolfe!

* * * *

After the shock of the phone call and invitation released him, Matt jumped into action.

"There's no way I'm getting any work done today,” he muttered as he gathered jeans and shirts from the laundry corner of his bedroom. “Wolfe will just have to understand that.” Although it should be fine. The project he'd turned in the previous day had taken up the majority of his time for nearly a year now. He was due a little break.

He had shoved some clothes into the mini washer that sat in the corner of his kitchen and started the cycle before he realized that he couldn't take a shower and do laundry at the same time. Cursing, he decided to figure out what to wear with his jeans. Or maybe he could wear some of the dress slacks he hadn't had on in ages, They had to still be in the back of the closet.

It was a measure of his excitement that he didn't dwell on finding a bunch of Daniel's clothes hanging toward the back of the