Saving Aden

Saving Aden (2): Hello Fascination

Aden blinked, the green in his eyes hardening slightly into more of a blue color. "Alright, I'll drop you off. What's your address?" 

"Just drop me off back at the coffee shop, I'll have a ride by then," I said with a soft laugh. Glancing up at the street signs as we drove through an intersection, I made sure that the street names were burned into the back of my brain.  

"How am I supposed to pick you up for school tomorrow if I don't even know where you live?" he asked innocently, turning back onto the road leading to the coffee shop. 

I grabbed my cell from my pocket, sending Gage a quick text to tell him where to meet me. "What are you talking about?" I wondered aloud, amusement coloring my tone.  

"We gotta stick together, right?" He actually had the nerve to wink at me.  

I rolled my eyes. "Let me do my job, Aden," I murmured.  

"Relax little vampire, I'm only playing with you." He pulled up along the curb, and shifted the Challenger into park.  

"I appreciate you meeting with me, and showing me to your house," I mumbled.  

"No problem," he replied, smiling shyly. "I'll see you tomorrow." 

I nodded, and climbed out of the vehicle to find Gage already leaning up against a brick building near the coffee shop. As soon as I stepped out of the car, Gage peered down at me from over the rim of his dark sunglasses.  

"Why'd you leave the shop?" Gage asked, his lips moving too quick for Aden to see.  

I waved as the human boy drove off. "Because I needed to know his address, and we can't exactly talk about vampires in a public place." I continued to smile and wave until he rounded a corner. "Other people could have been listening in." 

"We want humans to know about us though," Gage mumbled, draping an arm lazily over my shoulders.  

I rolled my eyes and ducked out of his hold, heading towards his vehicle. "You and I both know that isn't the way humans should find out. They need to be told delicately. None of them would understand if we just blurted out our existence."  

Gage quickly darted around me, and climbed into the drivers side of his Chevy Equinox. "You never know, they could just need a push," he called after me. 

I growled, low in my throat so that the humans around us wouldn't hear, and then got in on the passenger side. "Give it a rest." 

"You seem...different." Gage started the car. "What'd that kid say to you anyway?" 

My mind immediately went to Aden's father and his death. Fuck, I cursed internally, why'd he have to find out that way?

"Aden's father was killed by a vampire," I whispered, my voice thick with unshed tears. "That's how he found out about us." 

"It happens," Gage mumbled. Enraged, I whirled around to look at him, but my anger quickly melted away when I saw the sad, solemn look on his face.  

It hurt him to think about what our kind had done, and it hurt me to think of what humans had to go through because of us. Aden lost his father. Every human killed mattered to someone whether it be a mother or father, son or daughter, sister or brother, aunt or uncle, lover or friend, etc. 

"Be his friend," Gage said suddenly.  

My brow furrowed in confusion. "What are you talking about?" 

"I want you to befriend the kid. Make him trust you, tend to his needs, all that shit." He turned onto the street our apartment was on quickly, nearly crashing into someone as he did so.