My Vampire Bromance

Chapter 34: An Intruder

"Oh wow!" I exclaimed. Looking up at the massive pine that now stood on the right side of my living room. "It's huge!" I grinned, but really I was grimacing inside. No wonder Victor had snagged every possible box of lights that he could. It had been hell to get this thing inside, and it was going to be hell to light it.

Victor strode up beside me, wrapping his arm around me, "Isn't it magnificent!"

"It's something," I uttered. To be honest, I felt like a little kid again. There'd not been a tree in the house since I was fifteen– my parents dying right before the holidays. My throat went dry as I choked down whatever old emotions were trying to crawl their way out.

I watched Victor step in front of me, "Now tell me Phillip! How do we get these wire lights on the tree?" He was excited, just about as excited as me it seemed.

"I'll uh...I'll go get the scissors to open the boxes. Then we can plug them in and get the tree lit." I turned faster than I meant to, leaving a starry-eyed Victor behind me. When I came back he was in the same spot, except that he sat on the floor, boxes of lights surrounding him, looking like Christmas had come early and I supposed it had for him.

"Got em!" I waved the scissors in my hand as I came to sit down across from him. One by one Victor handed me the boxes to slit open– silently, patiently. He never said a word, only kept his eyes locked on mine the entire time.

I wanted to ask what he was thinking, but I knew better. He was probably thinking the same thing I was, when were we going to kiss again? It'd been less than a day but it seemed too long, and though at first I thought he'd be upset about Thomas locking lips with me, he understood there was nothing I could do to stop it. 'Better to let the monster kiss you than to refuse and get your throat ripped out. Oh Phillip! I'm terribly sorry that I have put you in this situation! I hindsight I should have...' but I cut him off then, kissing him to let him know that I was okay with decision we both had made. Befriend Thomas, get him to reveal himself as a vampire, and then?...And then? I didn't want to think about the 'and then' part. He'd likely be heartbroken when I revealed that I have been with Victor the whole time. That is, if Thomas ever talked to me again after I ran away from him. Poor thinking on my part, but really...I looked up at Victor who was now pulling the stranded lights from their resting place. I only wanted Victor. And to my knowledge Victor only wanted me.

"So how do these work?" Victor held up the lights, eyes focused on me.

"Oh, you see the metal prongs at the end of the strand?"

"Yes,"

"That plugs into the wall outlet."

"The wall?" he stared at me as if I had lost my mind.

"The wall outlet, you know the thing that the coffee machine is plugged into?"

"Ah," Victor smiled, then handed it to me. He had no idea. For a vampire who blended in seamlessly with the times, electricity was still something he was confuddled with daily. Although he seemed to know how to blow light bulbs up well enough.

"I got it," I took the end of the lights from him and moved to plug it into the wall. The floor lit up with multicolored glass, shining off the wood floor. Victor sat still, seemingly amazed at the modern marvel. He had to have seen modern christmas lights before, yet the look on his face told me otherwise.

"It's beautiful Phillip!" He looked up at me. For the first time I didn't see Victor the amazingly hot vampire who was hundreds of years older than me, I just saw Victor. I saw the man he must have been before he was transformed against his will. I saw memories pass through him that I had no business asking about. I saw him as he slid the strand of lights over the palm of his hand, marveling at modern invention. I saw him.

"Let's get the rest of them connected and on the tree shall we?" I knelt down across from him and began the task of working the lights together. When I was done, I pulled him up to begin the monumental task that was getting the tree lit.

I motioned for Victor to stand behind the tree while I stood in front. The two of us passed the long strand of lights around the tree from one side to another. Every time Victor leaned around the large pine to hand them off to me, his eyes turned more and more the color and shine of a magenta glass ornament. His smiled deepened the higher on the tree we got. "I can't reach any higher," I said at last, "I'll go get the ladder."

"No need," Victor said. "Just hand them off to me and when it is too tall for even me I will figure it out." And figure it out he did, as when he reached nine foot mark Victor disappeared from sight, then reappeared as a little black cat with a chord of lights in its mouth.

I looked down at him, hands on my hips, "You really did that, didn't you?" I shook my head at him. Victor stood on his hind legs, front paws up un the air for me to pick him up. "You're kidding, right?" The cat shook its head. "Fine." Reaching down, I picked him up and lifted him onto the branches of the tree. "You be careful, I don't know what I'd do if you fall or end up getting electrocuted." But neither thing happened. Victor just looked at me with his glowing magenta cat eyes and pranced around the top of the tree and then down it, sliding effortlessly in and out of the branches while I continued to feed him chord until he finally ran out. He stopped at the bottom of the tree and looked up, eyes shimmering and dancing with the colors. "If you were a real cat, I'd be smitten." I cooed. He jumped onto my shoulder and rubbed against my face and then in a flash his arms wrapped around me, becoming human once again.

"Aren't you already?" he growled.

I turned, looking up at him, "Yeah, I am. I'm completely and totally enthralled by you."

Victor smiled. "As I am by you, Phillip Kosier." He leaned down and kissed me, asking for permission for his tongue to enter me, to deepen the kiss. I let him in. Digging my hands into his hair, he sighed against me. Before I knew what was happening, Victor was carrying me up the stairs, the front half of my body locked onto his, my legs wrapped around his waist. We fell onto my bed in a swift motion followed by more kisses. I touched Victor, practically ripping the sweater of mine he wore off. He echoed my movements gently by unbuttoning my flannel shirt.

We were quickly becoming undressed in the heat of the moment, his teeth scraping against my neck as I kissed his own. I yanked on his pants and he helped me undo the belt when the sound of something breaking in the house jolted the two of us from our way to frantic lovemaking.

Victor halted on top of me. I stared wide-eyed at him. "Did you hear that?" I whispered.

"Of course I did," Victor looked off to the side. "Don't move Phillip, I'll go check it out." He slid off me, pulling the sweater over himself and righting his pants before turning towards the door. The sound of another glass breaking hit my ears. I scrambled from the bed, throwing my flannel over myself as I came to stand beside him. Victor turned, "It's him...I smell him." My body went cold.