Chapter 19

Redd Warning: “Wow, you’re still ‘ere reading about gay priests? You gay or something? Idk man, just keep ’em d*cks away from your *ss and you won’t be half as bad, how about that?”

“By the way, here’s what these words mean for the fairies that don’t pay attention,” Redd flicks the cigarette towards you.

Sheltering – (Glass) manipulation of the environment
Echoing – (Pryce) telepathy, memory manipulation (for those who have mastered it)
Withholding – (Leo) a dimension where you can transport others’ consciousness into, a jail for Satan himself.
Restraining – (Evie) Controlling one’s body by drawing a symbol onto their skin, able to control the organ underneath it.

IN THEIR POINT OF VIEW,
Evie and Glass’ bedroom

“Hey,” Redd called out to Jude who stayed beside Glass the entire time he was confined to his own bed. “Pryce wants a meeting with all of us, including you.”

Jude was holding Glass’ hand against his face, with dried tears on them. It was as if Redd didn’t come here at all. But the school’s designated nurse came to inject Glass’ IV with morphine, just in case he wakes up. “It’s my fault, y’know. I should’ve known better than to leave him alone. I thought he wasn’t sober enough…”

He bends to kiss Glass on the forehead whispering, “I’m so sorry…”

“What did Evie do…” Jude finally pulled away from Glass’ hand to question Redd, “What the f*ck did he do for Glass to be destructive without your sh*tty drugs?”

Redd knows, but he is not sure about telling Jude. However, recalling yesterday where Jude used the Sheltering to destroy the Monsignor’s office, he has a growing fear of the newborn’s capabilities.

“I’m only a nursing student man, I can’t diagnose like a doctor. Strangely, he only stabilizes when he’s on either meds, or drugs. Without it, he gets disoriented or paranoid… I guess he used drugs to cure his head for a whole century ‘fore getting on meds, and now he’s dependent on either.”

“That doesn’t explain why he’s still like that…” Jude mutters, his eyes demanding answers.

“It’s better if you ask Evie. He might kill me if he finds out I told.”

Jude kept his eyes on Glass, his gaze as delicate and precious as his sleeping face. “If I confess a secret… will you tell me?”

Redd was silent. He’s not sure what kind of secret will be worth Evie’s wrath.

Jude decided to confess, anyway. “Forgive me, father… for I’m a sinner. I had a childhood best friend… I couldn’t recall a second of my life before I knew him. When I was 14, I discovered I couldn’t feel sexual urges for women like I’m designed to. This… curse in my heart lead me to a dark hole I couldn’t crawl out of. I wanted to end it all simply because I wasn’t normal.”

Redd proceeds to sit on Glass’ bed, closer to Jude. He couldn’t relate to his troubles; he spent his entire human life a normal, straight man. All he can do is lay a hand on Jude’s shoulder, making sure he knows Redd is listening.

“This childhood friend of mine wanted me to stay alive, so he pulled me out of that dark abyss… he decided to hold hands with me when everyone pushed me away. He let me kiss him, he let me feel what it’s like to love a boy… he wasn’t supposed to be gay, but I turned him into… whatever I am. He fell for me and… he went through the same dark abyss and I—I couldn’t pull him out of it.”

“Wha happened?” Redd asked, eyes falling as well as his heart.

“I broke up with him, so that maybe he’ll go back to his normal peaceful life without the sexual confusion. But he decided to kill himself…” Jude whispers, tears welling up in his eyes as he sees Salve on the bed, instead of Glass. But one blink, and it’s Glass yet again. “All I see is him, Redd. When I look at Glass… all I see is Salve. I can’t get him out of my mind, out of my heart.”

“Salve…” Redd nods sympathetically, “Pryce was asking who that was, you kept saying the name. I guess alcohol makes the mouth say what the heart wants. If he looks like Glass too, no wonder you fell in love.”

“He doesn’t look identical to Glass. I don’t know Redd, maybe it’s the height, their body… or maybe it’s the eyes when they smile.” Jude told him, “But I went ballistic on Pryce when he knocked out Glass, I thought he was hurting Salve. God, I was drunk… I’ll apologize later.”

“I kinda dig you yelling at Pryce like that. It’s hot,” Red jokes, which made Jude stare at him weirdly, but he chuckled nonetheless. It’s successful in cheering him up, at least. “Don’t worry, Jude. You confessed your sins, you will be forgiven. Salve has forgiven you, I’m sure.”

“Did he…?” Jude asked Redd, but that question was specifically for the boy sitting on the corner of the room, watching them. Jude couldn’t look at him… not after confessing everything to Redd.

“Love is not a sin, Jude. It’s the one thing Jesus gave us. Who we choose to love is not sin, it’s only what we do with it. Killing people in the name of love, violating the people we love… that’s what makes us sinners; not love itself.” Redd reaches out for his face, which he touches just to comfort him.

“I hope I’m forgiven, too.” In return, Redd decided to confess to him, as well. He wasn’t looking at Jude, his eyes were on the unconscious Glass. “Forgive me father for I have sinned? Coveting a neighbor’s wife… heavy coveting. God, I want to tear Glass away from Evie. He doesn’t deserve this angel.”

“Weren’t you the one who said Glass is also toxic?”

“Yes, but compared to Evie’s nuclear waste, Glass is nun’ but salt on water.” Redd chuckled, which Jude shared a laugh with.

“What did Glass do that made you fall in love, hmm? Did he use his powers in you… or is he just too hot?”

Redd was smiling, but his eyes looked sad while recalling the memory. “I was in the nearest town drinking with classmates from med school when I tried to get home and made a wrong turn, ‘got lost for miles. I uhh…”

I was drunk, probably smoked something hard that night. But I felt like I hit a person. There was blood on my windshield. “Oh sh*t!”

I stopped the car and stumbled out, trying to find them under my car. But when I looked up, there was a creature crouched on the roof of my vehicle. It pounced on me and… the next thing I knew, I was bleeding from the neck.

Still, I was alive enough to drive myself to God knows where, until I found a church in the middle of nowhere. I crashed into the gate, even.

“HELP! Someone—please help! Help me! Help!” I knelt by the door, slamming against it until my arms eventually gave out. It wasn’t until hours later that the door opened and my body laid on this convent’s floor. Nothing moved except my heart, which was barely breathing.

And yet I could hear him… Glass, an angel sent by God after one of Her devils came and killed me.

“Pryce, help him! Please!” He begged, after Leo carried and brought me to the dining room table where I laid on my back. I was still bleeding, none of them wanted me to stain their sheets. “It was my fault… I’m sorry…! Please help him!”

Redd touched his chest, forever scarred by what killed him that night. “Turns out Glass tried to turn a monkey into a vampire by giving it Lucifer’s blood. Sh*t went feral, escaped, and mauled me almost to death.” He lifted his shirt to show Jude the giant pale scar that contrasted from his body, stretching from one pec to his shoulder.

“Pryce didn’t want to waste Lucifer’s blood to save me,” he adds, “He didn’t want to deal with a newborn. But…”

“Don’t you yell at Glass, Pryce!” Evie placed a hand on his lover’s back. “My poor baby was just trying to make himself a pet, he didn’t mean to make that abomination. I’ll hunt and kill it by morning.”

“His actions caused the death of this young man, he has no right to cry,” said Pryce.

All while Glass begged, “Evie… Evie, please don’t let him die!”

“Oh, my sweet transparent angel… a newborn is incredibly hard to deal with. The thirst, the orientation to our lifestyle—not to mention this one has a hickie from a female that wears Victoria’s Secret Bare Vanilla, there’s no way he could be one of us.”

“I’ll take care of him!” Glass begs, “PLEASE, I’ll do anything you say! No more pets, no more experiments! Evie… I’ll do anything…”

“Oh… anything? What a nice offer for me to consider,” Evie’s eyebrows raised as he approached my body, running his pale hands over my dark skin and onto my uniform, his fingers running over my name stitched on my left breast pocket. “Russel Clyde… grey scrubs, most likely a practicing student nurse. Aside from a college girl’s perfume, he smells of hospital equipment and elderly people. He’ll be useful, Pryce.”

“As a medic?”

“Of course not,” Evie stroked a crying Glass’ head, “As a pet for my lovely boyfriend. This one is strong, definitely packing—he has a mountain in his pants even when soft, and handsome. With this, Glass will stop turning random animals into vampires. Won’t you, my love?”

He nods very quickly, almost desperate to save this young man’s life.

“Then it’s settled!” Evie cheered, “We get a medic, and Glass gets his pet. What a great deal. So Pryce… give this dashing young stud here the blood of Lucifer. And Glass…” Evie kissed his temple, “Why don’t you name your new pet, hmm?”

Redd smiled at the memory, while Jude and Salve looked horrified at his confession. “I could only drink blood from Glass for a whole year, as his pet. As a newborn, I was… a nightmare to deal with. I wouldn’t have s*x them, I would destroy the place any chance I get, I wouldn’t go to class. I went ‘to the nearest town once, trying to seek help but only drained an entire bar’s customers ’cause of the thirst. I got in major trouble for that.”

He continues, “Glass kept his arms open for me. When Pryce wanted to get rid of me, Glass threatened to destroy the convent with the Sheltering. He spoon-fed me blood when I refused to drink from him. Glass was so excited when he got injured just so he can watch me stitch ’em up. I shouldn’t be letting myself get treated like a f*ck-pig, but d*mn… it’s where I belong. With him… but he could never be mine, right?”

“You’re lucky, Redd. You can still sleep with Glass whenever you want, he’s never truly away from you. I can’t say the same for Salve,” Jude said. “But under all that, Glass is still good, huh. He was never mean to me, too. I wouldn’t blame you for falling for him.”

“Let’s just avoid falling in love with old vampires who will sink their teeth into anything they can sink their d*cks into.”

“How I’d love that.” Jude painfully laughs as he adds, “Strangely, I’m not jealous. When I heard about Glass and Leo, I was very jealous. But with you, I don’t mind. I don’t know why, I don’t understand myself sometimes.”

“Maybe you like Leo very much. You hate seeing ‘im with someone else,” Redd stated, making Jude look at him. “You don’t mind that Glass sleeps with me or Evie, right? Not to mention Pryce…”

“Glass is his own person, I’m just protective over him.” But Jude finds himself sighing over Leo. “No, I can’t hoard anyone to myself, Redd. You guys have your own system here.”

“But you like Leo.”

“He’s a nice friend—”

“I’ll f*ck Leo, you’ okay with that?” Jude turned his head to stare at him blankly, his eyes daring him to do such a thing. It made Redd laugh out loud, “You’re cute, J. But he won’t take it up the *ss and neither will I. Your man is safe with me.”

Jude laughs along with Redd, but their noise seems to wake up Glass on the bed. He’s awake! Jude gasps and Redd went to the other side to get closer to him.

“Hey, sleeping beauty…” Redd whispers to him, who barely opened his eyes. Jude watched as his bigger hands wrapped around Glass’ slender ones, careful as if handing his heart. “How’d you feel?”

Glass’ eyebrows dipped, confused. His two-toned eyes both look tired. “What happened… ? Jude?”

“Hi.” It’s the first time in a while he said my name. Jude squeezed Glass’ other hand, “You passed out. I’m sorry about what happened…”

“You didn’t take your meds, Glass,” Redd said, sternly.

“Oh no… I did it again?” Glass sat up with his elbows, “What did I break…?”

“Oh, you didn’t break anything, it was Jude this time,” Suddenly, both Jude and Glass look at Redd in confusion.

“He did?” / “I did?”

Salve sat on the bed next to Redd, nodding, “You did, Jude.”

“Yeah, Pryce told us you have the same powers as Glass,” said Redd.

“WHAT?!” Both of them yelled out in shock. Jude is shocked about the damage he did, while Glass is shocked about… “That can’t be! Vampires can’t have two powers—!”

Jude’s head snapped towards him, and only then did Glass realize he exposed Jude’s secret. One that he carefully hid from Evie, but now confessed to Redd.

“Jude has two powers?” He asked, severely confused. “You sure you have two powers? No vampire ‘ever had two powers before. If you have the Sheltering, what’s the other one?”

“Sh*t,” Jude cursed, and so did Glass. The damage has been done, he was outed. “Please don’t tell them about this, Redd. Let them believe I have Glass’ powers. But yes, it’s my second one. I’ve had the ability to see people’s memories for quite a while now.”

Redd looks even more shocked. “You have the Echoing?! Jude, you have both Pryce and Glass’ powers! Only that Pryce can’t do memories yet, he has to master that. Could you speak into our minds like Pryce does?”

“Wh-what—?”

“He can’t,” Glass answered, before looking at Jude to tell him, “I didn’t tell you that you have the Echoing, Puppy, because I wasn’t sure yet. You couldn’t speak to us telepathically.”

Redd says, “But now he has the Sheltering, too. We should keep this silent from Pryce. If he tells the Monsignor about this, Jude’ll be dissected and experimented on by the Vatican. I hate those f*ckers.”

“Dissected—why?!”

“Because,” Redd answered, “A vampire having powers has never been seen before. It’s impossible, and if a newborn is reported to have the Echoing and the Sheltering, you’ll be confined to prevent you from destroying everything and everyone ’cause you still can’t control them.”

After a whole minute of silent regret, Glass bit his lip sadly, “I’m sorry for telling, Puppy. I didn’t mean it.”

“It’s okay, Redd doesn’t seem to have a plan on telling the others.” Jude looks at the big man to ask him, “Will you?”

“You make Glass happy…” Redd said, leaning down to lovingly kiss the beautiful vampire’s head, “And not to mention, you make Lucien a lot happier being his friend. I can’t take you away from them, Jude. I won’t tell.”

LATER, AT THE SCHOOL MEETING
Monsignor’s Office

Jude had to shield his eyes from the decapitated statue of the Lady that matched the giant slash on the wall behind her, slicing the cabinets and decor along with it. He’s embarrassed, he’s ashamed, he couldn’t look any of them in the eyes.

He was at the center of the room with Leo leaning against his chair. Glass sat on Redd’s lap with Evie beside them, and Pryce is on the Monsignor’s table.

Pryce opened the meeting with, “Yesterday, we had a code black with Glass neglecting his medication—”

Leo interrupted by raising his hand. “We have codes now? What’s the code for Evie being a c*nt throwing Jude through a window—”

“Shut up, Leo. You’re just bitter he didn’t f*ck you last night,” Evie raised his hand too, “Why is Glass code black? Don’t tell me—”

Pryce cuts him off, “Glass is code black, Redd is code red, Evie is green and Leo is yellow, Lucien is white. Jude may be blue.”

“I want to be blue,” Glass raises his hand as Jude sips his water with wide awkward eyes. They all stare at Glass as he says, “It’s my favorite color, I don’t want to be black.”

Before Evie can correct him, Pryce raised his voice, “Glass is black because when he goes off the rails he does the most damage, okay? This has nothing to do with favorite color or skin color. Code black is Glass being off his medication.”

Redd sighed, ashamed. “It’s my fault, Pryce. I left Glass to drink his medicine, I never should’ve done that. Don’t punish Glass too badly, it’s on me.”

“I’m not here to punish Glass, I’ve gathered you all today to discuss Jude’s powers,” Pryce pointed to the damage behind him, “The headless statue behind me isn’t from Glass’ Sheltering. This is Jude’s.”

“Ahh f*ck,” Jude spoke up in disbelief, “I can’t just do anything like that!”

“It’s not uncommon for two vampires to have the same powers, Jude…” Pryce told them.

Evie scoffed, “Great, we have two destructive freaks in the household now. Jude should get code black and my baby will have his blue.”

“You call your baby a destructive freak, Evie?” Leo called out. “Then what are you, a malignant monster?”

“What the f*ck did you just call me, code yellow?!” Evie marched towards Jude’s seat, triggering Leo to protect Jude by attacking him if not for Redd holding Evie back.

“Calm yourselves down in the presence of the Lord!” Pryce barks at them, and Evie snorts because the Lord’s presence has rolls on the ground. “Of all people that can’t handle their emotions, it’s the century-old Vampires… you two are embarrassing yourselves in front of the young ones.”

Jude was in tears, guilty of causing a fight and decapitating the statue of the lady. He’s still guilty about looking at Glass as if he was Salve, he’s still shameful about the outburst he had yesterday. He looks at Glass and Redd, trusting the to keep his other power a secret. They’re the only one who knows…

“Now let’s get back to the matter at hand. Jude Creston’s powers will be listed as the Sheltering. Which means Glass will mentor him to avoid it going out of control. Jude, you will spend an hour a day with Glass to train you on controlling your powers.”

Glass turns his head to give Jude a closed-lip smile, “I accept. I’ll mentor him.”

Pryce nods, “Jude will also be the one to fix the Lady’s statue. I expect you to clean up the mess you’ve made. Meeting adjourned.”

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And it’s all fun and games
‘Til somebody falls in love
But you already bought a ticket
And there’s no turning back now