Lover Dearest (Ziam Vampire AU)

Chapter 17

Thunder sounds through the house. Lightening flashes between the cracks in the windows. The walls of the old house seem to creak and groan under the splattering of heavy rainfall and the strong winds pressing against it. The lights in each room flicker and pop, going out for moments on end.

Liam is kind of terrified, but that has nothing to do with the storm brewing outside.

"Come on," Louis hisses. "This is the perfect time to go. Everyone's sleeping, and no one will hear us leaving over the storm."

Liam rubs blurrily at his eyes. He just woke up, and everything is confusing him. "What?"

Louis throws clothes at him. It's such a contrast from when Zayn woke up him gently to go out, the way Louis had roughly shaken him and pulled him right out of bed, and now he's throwing things at Liam instead of letting Liam pick something out himself.

And, admittedly, he didn't think they'd actually go through with this. He figured Louis would change his mind, or someone else would catch on and stop them. It's been a week since Louis promised to take him out, and Liam sort of forgot about it. Now, he's a little frightened at the whole idea, not to mention the storm. His terror is punctuated by another, worryingly loud, clap of thunder.

"I don't think this is a good idea," Liam voices.

"It's a great idea," Louis argues. "Now get dressed. Hurry up."

Liam reluctantly pulls on the jeans and sweater Louis literally whipped at him, and then Louis is dragging him out of his room, tugging him as he stumbles down the stairs. They're soaked as soon as they pull open one of the heavy front doors. The wind fights against them, threatening to push the doors wide open, nearly slamming them against the wall before Louis catches it and heaves it shut behind them.

There's a garage not far from the door, one with a separate entrance to the house. They run towards it as rain continues to pour down beside them and lightening strikes far in the distance, illuminating the entire sky for just a moment.

There are four different cars in the garage. There's a huge, sturdy looking jeep, a sleek black Ferrari, a fire engine red convertible and the white car Zayn had driven him in. "Give me a moment to get the top up," Louis says, heading straight for the red car. Liam isn't surprised that that's the one that belongs to him. Not even a little.

"I still think this is a bad idea," Liam says, as Louis gets the beige cover of the convertible up. "Really bad idea. It's storming. That's the universe enforcing that this is a bad idea."

"Oh, calm down," Louis says. "It'll be fine. Get in."

Liam gets in, against his better judgement. Louis pulls down the visor, attempts to fix his soaking wet hair, and then he sticks the keys in the ignition and hits a button to open the garage door.

Before Liam can change his mind, or jump out of the car like the logical part of his brain is begging him to do, they're pulling away from the house, speeding down the driveway and zooming out past the wide-open gates as rain patters against the windshield, obscuring their view.

Louis lets out a held breath. "I was worried for a moment there," he admits. "If Zayn had woken up he would have torn me limb from limb."

"What's he going to do when we get back?" Liam asks.

Louis shrugs. "I figure he'll be grateful if I bring you back in one piece," he says, as trees blur by on either side of them, cropping up on both sides of the long, winding road. "And if you're not in one piece by the time this is over, I'm going to rent a cabin in Canada and pray that he never finds me."

That only makes the bad feeling in Liam's stomach grow a little bit stronger. "Great."

Louis pats his thigh consolingly. "Don't worry, Liam. If you die, you'll go out having fun. That's all I could ask for in life, really."