† Elex †
When Elex heard footsteps in his sleep, he instinctively reached across to the bedside light – another vampire convenience – and flicked it on to check the time. Seeing the hands pointing out half past nine in the morning, he groaned and threw back the cover.
It was far too early to rise for the day; the library did not open until two in the afternoon, once the noon sun had fully disappeared. And since they catered to both humans and vampires, he had to adopt the latter's sleeping habits in order to serve them. Which meant not rising until half past eleven in the morning. Two hours from now.
"Norman?" he called quietly, as he lifted the dressing robe from the back of a chair and headed towards the spiral staircase where he heard the footsteps descending. He could not imagine what had come over his son. There was no need to use the staircase to reach the kitchen just feet from his bedroom door.
Perhaps he had left an important piece of homework in the library? He had been good enough to do his school work after enjoying their hot chocolate and biscuit. Which had given Elex some time to finish his cataloguing work before they retired to their apartment for the evening.
Risteph had closed up the library once all the patrons had left at three o'clock, then headed home to his husband.
"Norman?" he called again, as he stood at the top of the spiral staircase and looked down. There was no light on, which was irresponsible. Norman was just a child and was probably half asleep as he attempted to retrieve whatever he had left downstairs.
"Papa?"
Elex turned, his blood frozen in his veins as he spotted Norman standing in the open doorway of his bedroom, yawning. "Norman?" he asked, though he recognised his son perfectly well, as he had left his own bedroom door open and the light from the lamp shone through.
"Is something wrong, papa? I heard you call on me," his son replied, looking so innocent in the faint light.
Panicked, Elex turned and shut the door leading from their home to the spiral staircase. Once secured and the lock flicked into place, he grabbed the large side table by the corners, dragging it in front of the door to ensure that no one could open it from the other side. Only then did he back away and turn towards their living area.
"Papa?" Norman sounded so confused that he could not help but lift his head and meet his soft, dreamy gaze.
"There is someone in the library, noodle. We must call the guards and remain very quiet," he explained calmly, though he felt anything but. "Come sit by me as I call for help, okay? It will not take long for the guards to arrive; their barracks are very close and I do not think the intruder has left yet," he reasoned, trying to remind himself that there was nothing to panic about, yet.
Thankfully, unlike a lot of businesses in the area, the library had its own telephone system. Mostly due to being vampire owned, but also because Spencer was their best client, for both personal novels and professional texts.
Elex thanked the Gods that he was such a good customer, as he lifted the telephone from the table. "Hello, I need to be put in touch with the City Guards immediately. There is an intruder within the library and my son is with me," he explained to the operator, who understood the urgency and promised to have a guard dispatched right away.
"Someone will be with you shortly, sir. Please remain where you are, as long as you are safe. Stay quiet and calm. A guard is just around the corner and will be sent to you immediately. He will announce himself before requesting that you open the door," the woman explained calmly.
He thanked her and hung up, relieved to know that something would be done and he did not have to fear for Norman all day, until the shop opened and Risteph arrived for his shift. No matter what he might have done before Norman was born – confront the man or at least shout out a warning that the guards had been called – he could risk no such thing now. Not with a young boy cuddled into his side, already drifting off to sleep again because he truly believed that his daddy and the guards would keep him safe.
He could risk nothing, with Norman in his life. Not when he knew that there were no family members left who could care for him, if anything happened to Elex. He knew that Spencer and his family would ensure he was well taken care of, but Elex did not want to find out what that might entail. He had lost enough. He would not lose his son, too.
***
Elex winced, a few minutes after the phone call, when the sound of the front doors shattering open resounded through the building. It seemed the guards had arrived and the wooden doors would need to be replaced.
He cared not, as long as Norman remained safe behind their apartment door. Nothing else mattered to him but that.
There were a few shouts, the sound of glass breaking, then the crack of more wood, all inconsequential to his brain until there came an unexpected pounding on his door. Elex shot to his feet and cursed when Norman moaned. He lay his sleeping son on the sofa and headed for the door, pressing his ear to it as he responded to the knocking; "Yes?"
"It is the Royal Guards, Mister Rezal. We have apprehended the criminal. It is safe for you and your son to emerge," a male voice called through the doorway.
Elex sagged against the wooden blockade in relief. It had only been a few moments of panic, but they were enough to make him question everything about their life here in Rolfesson. "Thank you, sir. My son and I will be out promptly." He let them know that it would take a moment, as he needed to dress a little better than his undershorts and a dressing gown.
When the guard did not respond, he presumed that he would wait for them to leave the apartment. Which suited him fine.
It did not take long for Elex to find a suitable pair of trousers and throw off his dressing gown. He did not bother with a shirt nor any other garments, as he was in a hurry and it did not seem wholly necessary. Then it only took a few whispered words to wake Norman, who was far more excited by the arrival of the guards than he should have been. But, if it prevented him from being scared or upset about the intrusion to their home, he would count himself lucky.
By the time he unlocked the apartment door and removed the side table from behind it, Elex was both mentally and physically exhausted, with the loss of life-saving adrenaline. He felt rumpled, inappropriately dressed, and as though he looked like someone had woken him from the dead. So when he opened the door and found a perfectly put together Adonis on the other side, his shoulders sagged.
Of all the times that he should see the Royal Guard, Rence Thilil, again it had to be when he looked as awful as he did right at this moment. Not that the last time had been much better; they had locked eyes over the body of his dead wife, after she had collapsed in the street and he had discovered her outside their home as he returned from work.
Rence had been compassionate and warm towards Elex, despite their history with each other. It must have been almost twenty years since they last saw each other, before his wife's death. Twenty years since they were young men together, barely sixteen and caught kissing in the alleyway outside Elex's home.
They had been so reckless back then, unaware of the danger or the way his parents felt about homosexual relationships. It did not seem to matter to his parents that the King had taken a male Consort. They simply passed it off as Prosper being King and, thus, able to do whatever he pleased. They, on the other hand, would not have an unnatural son.
Just two days later, he had been married to his wife and moved out of Ruiseart and into Rolfesson, which had better work prospects for a young man in need of a career. And was a better place to raise a family, according to his parents.
He had been so young, then. So incapable of fighting them, when they brought the local priest into their home and forced him to listen to all the reasons why his feelings were unnatural and sinful. Unable to say anything when, just the day after being caught and still protesting his innocence, they had told him that Rence had married a local man, a vampire.
What was he to do, then? With no lover to fight for, Elex had submitted to the inevitable. Just as his wife had, aged nineteen and still unwed. They had been shamed into their marriage and stayed together simply for the fact that they were all they had in the world.
He still remembered consummating their marriage and feeling ill at the thought of never seeing Rence or being with him again. The reality of Rence living his true life in the open, while Elex could not. That the man he loved could abandon him to such a fate; that he had done so of his own will meant he could not have loved Elex at all. It had been a heartbreaking moment of realisation. It was only later, when the family began to complain about no grandchildren that he and his wife submitted to one last humiliation at their request; they spent one more night together and were lucky enough that she had become pregnant from it. He could not have borne a third command to 'perform his duty'.
Yet, now...now Rence was standing before him, gazing down at his son as though Norman were something impossible. As though he had no concept of the things Elex had gone through, to try to heal his broken heart of the man who had tossed him aside so easily.
Clearing his throat, Rence stiffened his posture and gesture behind him. "If you would, Mister Rezel, my commander is awaiting your report of the incident. And the Royal Consort has arrived. He is eager to speak to you, once you have given your report," he said, as though the last twenty years had never happened. As if they had never met before this night.
All Elex could do was nod and step past him, his hand holding onto Norman's, who quietly trailed behind him.
If the intruder had not been nightmare enough for one night, he could not have imagined the pain of seeing Rence on his doorstep, eyes so wide before closing themselves off to him. He could not have anticipated the stab of betrayal that was still as fresh today as it had been twenty years ago.
He had thought himself past grieving. Only, now, he would not grieve the loss of his wife, but the reminder of the innocent lad he had once been and could never be again. The loss of the only man he had ever loved, who had never loved him back.