Chapter 24

Leo Warning ⚠️ : “Why are you still reading? Don’t you know this book is a one-way ticket to hell? Round trip ticket to me~ Shut up, Satan.”

Spin the bottle, spin the fuckin’ bottle
If you the reason why it’s empty, baby, spin the bottle
Truth or dare, no, you don’t want no problem

THEIR POINT OF VIEW

Leo knocked on Redd’s door again, and the big man opens it to see his face in pain. “Hey, L. Satan again?”

However, the look on Leo’s face is different. The man answered, “I need painkillers.”

Redd scans Leo judgmentally. “I don’t have any for emotional pain, brother. A confession, maybe?”

“You think I’m in emotional pain? Shut up man, you’re not a psychologist. Besides, too young of a priest to accept confessions,” Leo said, but Redd just shrugged and opened the door wider.

“I’m the medic. My job’s to make y’all feel better, and the diagnosis is—Satan’s angry in your head, and hell, you are too. A painkiller or a horse tranquilizer might calm the devil down, but you, my friend… mmm, that’s a whole different story.”

“You think I’m pissed, too?” Leo scoffs at him.

Redd waved a finger at him. “You’re a jealous lover, L. You find a pretty little thing with curly hair, and now you want to stuff’im in a cage where nobody sees’im. I’ve always wondered how you could stand watching us f*ck that pretty little thing…”

“What are you talking about?” Leo leaned against the doorway, arms crossed and an eyebrow raised. “Did you f*ck Jude, or what?”

Redd handed him two painkiller pills as he answered, “No, but sh*t I’d like to feel the *ss that turned Evie into a top, and got Satan to return to his jail. I’m a bit intrigued, is all.”

Leo’s eyes twitched, but he shook his head when he heard Satan say: “Let him be intrigued…”

“No. F*ck that sh*t, you stay the f*ck away from him, Redd. I’m not screwing Glass anymore, so don’t use Jude like he’s some kind of fleshlight you want to try on—”

“L!” Redd calmly yells in front of him, making Leo realize he has blown his emotions in front of the concerned medic. “Come on, man… don’t let Satan control you like this.”

“I—I’m not letting him control me, that f*cker said—” Leo rolled his eyes in frustration, before his voice turns into a shameful whisper, “He said he liked it when Pryce was there and wouldn’t mind you f*cking Jude with him.”

“That’s what you’re angry about?” Redd finds himself holding down a laugh. “Satan likes threesomes, that’s it? Sh*t man, sign me up…”

“This is a serious matter, Redd. This devil is addicted to Jude the same way I am. I’d rather kill this body than let him f*ck Jude again.” Leo sighs in frustration, “And the only way to keep him away from Jude is when I stay away from Jude. So I really have severe self-harm urges right now, can I please have stronger pain killers?”

Redd just gave him a look, now even more curious about what made Satan of all people desire Jude Creston. “Y’know L… I think he’s just using Jude against you. He’s your soft spot. Satan sees that plain as day, and he’s been using that boy till you crack enough for him to take over you. I know damn well you didn’t start hitting the bottle for fun—you ‘been drinking ’cause you’re jealous over Jude and Glass, and look where that got you.”

“Jude likes Glass…” Leo begrudgingly mumbles. “I can’t do anything about that. He doesn’t want to leave this place with me, and I have a feeling it’s because he wants to stay with Glass.”

“I can’t judge Jude when I did the same exact thing… not leaving ’cause of Glass,” Redd lit a cigarette, recalling the past when the heterochromic vampire took care of a newborn Redd. “Now, I’ve accepted he may never be mine. Maybe you should accept that Jude will never be exclusively yours.”

The idea that Jude will never be his, not fully, settles in his chest like something heavy. It makes his jealousy feel childish, his anger useless, and Satan ultimately setting fires to the plate of grapes in his head.

All of a sudden, there came a presence in the form of Jude Creston who followed Leo’s scent in here. “Leo… Leo look, I thawed the flower! Didn’t you see it?”

Leo took one look at the stupid red flower that Archer gave him, and Satan is hurling profanities in his head. “Err… that’s nice, Jude.”

Jude frowned at the unenthusiastic remark, so Redd stepped forward and took the flower from his hands. “Wow, you controlled the Sheltering! This is awesome lil man, congratulations!”

“I… have to cook for Lucien,” Leo says, rushing out of the room much to Jude’s confusion. He turned around and watched as Leo closed the door behind him, the flower also wilting in the slightest.

“I’m sorry, J… Leo’s just been going through it,” said Redd, his deep voice sounding softer now that he’s alone with Jude. He doesn’t want the boy to think he’s scary because of his size. “I’m proud of you, J. But how’s the Echoing?”

A disappointed Jude turns to smile at Redd, though forced. “I can’t control both Echoing and Sheltering. I can’t ask for a mentor on both because then they’d find out, right?”

“Right…” Redd sat on his desk, “Why don’t I do it? I’m not mentally unstable like Glass, I can teach you the Echoing.”

Jude chuckles, “We’re both young vampires, Redd. You can’t be a mentor…”

“And I’ve been f*cked up by Pryce’s Echoing longer than you, so I know what you are capable of, and I’ll help you. C’mon,” Redd gestured for Jude to stand in front of him, and with a second of reluctance, the young man obeyed. “You activate it by touch, yeah? Then you see memories?”

Jude nods, looking at both of Redd’s dark eyes. Is he asking me to touch him? “I can’t control when it happens. But yeah, I see visions when I touch someone.”

“Pryce can activate his Echoing by controlling sound waves as they pass through the ear. You can hear him speak to you through that. But he can’t really do memories yet. I’m really surprised you can do that.” Redd offers Jude his hand, “What do you see with me?”

Jude laid his hand on Redd’s much larger ones. This man was 6’4, maybe even taller, because he looks like he’s almost a foot higher than Jude.

“I don’t see anything…” Jude admits, but—a flash of a memory appeared in his head.

And it was him, Redd, lying on green grass, laughing at a chatty young woman’s words. He was younger, lean yet tall like a lamp post.

But that only happened for a split second. Jude came back to looking in those deep black eyes asking, “Who was the girl with the red hair?”

“Huh?” Redd’s face shifted into confusion.

“I… I can’t control what I see. But you showed me a girl with red hair, laughing while lyimg on the grass with you. Who was she?” Jude asked.

Redd seems to smile sadly, looking at the floor as if both amused and sad that Jude saw that memory of his. “Someone I left behind. Nothing special.”

“But she was special,” Jude corrects, but Redd doesn’t seem to be willing to answer.

“Don’t push it,” said Salve, seated on Redd’s bed. “I like this guy. Don’t piss him off by asking too many questions.”

The way he looked at her was so sweet, though. I’m curious. But Jude sighed, “When I look into memories, I could feel the past. I could feel Lucien’s pain, Evie’s intentions, Glass’ rage, Leo’s desperation, and your feelings toward that woman. I could only see the memories as how the person remembers it; they can block off certain scenes, change the narrative… but they could never change how they felt at that time.”

“Such a powerful thing the Echoing is.” Redd squeezed his hand, “Pryce can’t even do that. If anyone is special here, it’s you, Jude. Maybe that’s why they’re obsessed with you.”

“Who, what?” Jude nervously laughs. “No one’s obsessed with me… except Devvy, which is weird…”

Redd doesn’t know who Devvy is but he held Jude’s face delicately, “You’ve never thought about how Evie is hell bent on f*cking you? He only receives, Jude. You’re the first person he’s ever topped—and he has a boyfriend of 100 years.”

“Okay… I admit, Evie is a bit crazy but he’s always been crazy!”

“Leo stopped f*cking them since you came here, and don’t get me started on how enamored Glass is with you,” Redd rolled his eyes, “There’s just something about you that is… strange. Intriguing…”

Redd’s hand went from his face, to his neck, now gently squeezing it as if trying to draw out a breath. “It makes me want to find out what makes you special.”

“I’m not,” said Jude.

“I’m touching you right now, you still can’t see anything?”

“I… can’t…” Jude said, this time a lot more distracted because of the hand on his neck.

Redd raised an eyebrow. “Hmm… I don’t blame you. Pryce can’t even get into our memories for a second. We should start with telepathy.”

He took away that hand as easily as dropping a book, and Jude stood there stunned at how this vampire seduced him then just… stopped. Redd stood on the opposite side of the room.

“Talk to me,” he requested.

“About what?”

Redd scoffed and tapped his temple, “The mind, J. Use the sound waves, we are surrounded by it. The Echoing is the manipulation of sound waves, frequencies—think of it as tuning a radio.”

Jude stared at him, holding his breath, even. Sound waves. Frequencies. An echo… But his face turning red, and nothing happens. Then it turns purple, and still nothing happens.

“You can breathe, J.” Redd stood straight and started walking towards him. “But the distance probably isn’t working. Do you need me closer?”

Redd’s scent ends up invading his nose when he corners Jude between his body and the table. “Too close!”

“Am I?” Redd smirks, while Jude didn’t realize he just used the Echoing on him, unintentionally. The big man said, “At first, I saw you as a pitiful, poor soul who didn’t know what he was getting into by being a priest in this convent. You were a horrible sinner just like the rest of us, Jude Creston. And you doomed yourself by staying here…”

Redd leaned down, further intoxicating Jude with his scent of fresh firewood and berries. The man is looking down on him like he’s some fresh meat ready for the taking. Jude can feel his vision blur from how intense his heart is beating, begging not to be fed on. “Redd, please…”

“So why are you staying?” Redd said, “Why won’t you run away with Leo?”

Jude looks up at him with eyes of uncertainty. He shakes his head, remembering what he saw from the many times he touched Glass.

“I don’t just see memories… I feel you as if I was you. And… I’ve seen the times when Glass and Evie were living their best lives.” Jude smiled at the memory, “They were so in love, Redd.”

He recalled the time Glass and Evie broke into couples’ hotel rooms and make love in their bed, all bloody with torn guts. Everest bit into Glass’ bloody lips before whispering, “Light me a cigar, love…”

Glass used an entire candle to light up the cigar between Everest’s lips, the latter lifting a severed hand of a male off their love nest. “Look at that… a David Yurman. Give me your hand, Glass…”

Glass gave him his slender hand, further darkened by the dried blood that hung onto it. “This is like, the 400th ring you gave me, it isn’t special anymore.”

“Shut up,” Everest chuckled, putting it on his bare ring finger. “A ring represents a lifetime of commitment. Humans destroyed the sanctity of a ring by creating divorce. Now marriage isn’t till death, it’s only till the papers separate them. Now do you understand why I keep giving you rings?”

The beautiful Glass couldn’t stop touching Everest’s face, admiring the only vampire he would ever love. “Honestly… no.”

“You b*tch,” Everest playfully pins him down the bed of flesh, making Glass squeal. “Don’t tell me it’s not special anymore, I won’t stop until I’ve given you all the rings in this f*ck*ss world, you hear me?!”

“No! Stop! Evie!” Glass yells out while laughing because he’s being tickled with bites and nibbles until Everest just laid on top of him. “Okay, fine! I love your rings… thank you, my love…”

Everest sighed, “I feel like I rule the world when I’m with you. Like I’d never want anything else… not riches, not property… I just want to make you happy.”

That came from Everest Santiago who grew up being fed by a golden spoon. And he is truly, madly, and horribly in love with a beautiful prostitute who he turned into a vampire.

But Glass’ breath seemed to slow down. “Evie… do you ever feel guilty for everyone we kill?”

“You mean the human meat?” Everest sat up, “Baby, let’s not have this conversation again—”

“That’s why you want me drunk, Evie… because when I’m sober, all I could think about was all those innocent people we’re killing.”

“They’re not innocent, my love!” Everest held his head against his two hands, angrily yelling out, “They’re all SINNERS—”

“And we’re worse than them!” Glass cried out, “We are monsters. Sinners who don’t deserve to be forgiven!”

Jude looks away from Redd, telling him, “They had freedom, Redd. They had each other, they had everything.”

Redd continued, “But the guilt of feeding caught up to Glass and eventually, he couldn’t feed without drugs. He couldn’t be at peace without drugs.”

“When I looked into his memories, I knew exactly what he was feeling. And that’s when I knew I couldn’t be out there. I don’t want to be like him…” Jude confessed, without asking for forgiveness.

Redd stepped back, giving him space to breathe. “Wow. You’re more powerful than I thought, J.”

“Is… that a compliment or were you always looking down on me?”

“No, nahh man, I don’t mean it like that…” Redd smiles at him, shaking his head as if trying to wrap his head around the fact that: “You did it without knowing, by the way. Telepathy… I could hear your thoughts, but it seemed like you weren’t doing it on purpose. Then the fact that you could look into memories… and don’t get me started on the Sheltering.”

Redd lifts his hand and kisses the knuckle delicately, making Jude stare at him with wide eyes and a blushing face. “You are more powerful than you think, Jude. Don’t doubt yourself, and don’t deprive yourself of happiness ’cause of fear.”

“Redd… I…” Jude doesn’t know what to do especially when Redd leans in to kiss him, but before their lips could touch, someone rushed into Redd’s room and threw the door open.

“Redd, where the f*ck is—!!” Evie stopped yelling the moment he saw Jude push Redd away. “Oh. Did I just catch you in the middle of an affair?”

Redd rolled his eyes, “E, it’s not what you think—”

“Does Leo know about this?” Evie scoffed, walking towards a shameful Jude who kept avoiding his eyes. “Does Leo know you can’t be leashed, Jude? Does he know you’re always hopping from one d*ck to another—”

“Leave him alone, E!” Redd suddenly raised his voice, and as a big man his voice boomed throughout his own bedroom. But that was unusual for a young vampire to raise his voice against an elder.

Evie’s eyes turn red as he glared at him, tilting his head. “Why are you talking against me, Redd? Without me you’d be dead in a vampire pit after the Vatican has their way with you. You were nothing but Glass’ plaything, and I gave you to him. Playthings don’t get their own little pet…”

Redd didn’t say anything else, degraded by the  truth Evie chose to spit at him. Jude wanted to say, We are not your toys, you don’t get to play with us like this—

“Don’t say anything…” Salve stops him, “Whatever you do, don’t make it worse…”

Since both Jude and Redd dare not say anything else against this century-old vampire, Evie proudly tapped Jude’s face with his hand, “You learn fast, don’t you? Stubborn, but ultimately obedient.”

He turned towards the other male, “Don’t worry Redd, you can play with him during our feeding. I’m not so selfish s to keep him away from you. Now where’s Glass?”

“You lost him again? You’ve been losing him a lot the past few days…” still, Redd activated his Transparency and looked for Evie’s lover. Jude watched as all of his eyes turn white, searching the entire convent as if he had sight through the walls. “He’s in the lake.”

“Skinny dipping again?”

“He’s with Elio…” Redd looked through the walls where the lake was, “He is… laughing with Elio. Then threatening him. He threw a rock—”

“What the f*ck, why is he with that racist after class time?!” Evie ranted as he stormed out of the room, off to retrieve his lover.

Meanwhile, both Jude and Salve had their mouths open while looking at Redd, his eyes now back to normal. “Wow… you have x-ray vision? I’ve never really seen you use your powers before.”

“I don’t have any reason to use it on you,” Redd shrugs, “It’s called Transparency. Everything turns black, and I can see white outlines of walls and people. I can also use it to see through your body and look for any foreign objects in there.”

Jude smiled widely because it seems like he finally knows a lot more about Redd. It feels like they’re getting closer.

“How does that help with hunting? Since you know, all of our powers are used to hunt humans.”

“I’m basically a locator…” Redd answered, “Other than that, I still don’t know much about myself, too. I’m only two years old in vampire years. You’re two months and you have two powers you know nothing about. I’m doin’ better than you.”

Jude chuckles at him, playfully smacking Redd on the arm. “Okay locator, help me find my will to live, yeah?”

“He’s in his room,” Redd’s answer seemed to catch Jude off guard. “Or is it the one by the lake? You choose, J.”

Jude decided to choose, running out of Redd’s room in a rush. He didn’t even notice he rushed past a Geisha, gracefully walking through the halls with his grand black and red kimono and wooden heeled sandals. Hmm…

The Geisha arrived in front of Redd’s bedroom door, putting his delicate fingers against his lips before chuckling to himself. Is it my turn already?

⭐️ VOTE | 💬 COMMENT | Who’s your will to live? Ngl, I aspire to be as skinty as Jace Ford so he’s my will to live.