The Vanishing by Karla Nikole

Thirty-Five

The moment Haruka passes through the doorway to the bright sunroom, Cellina stands, blinking her round gray eyes. Her dark auburn hair is twisted in an intricate bun atop her head, and she wears a beautiful mint-green dress that flutters when she walks. Cellina always reminds Haruka of a lovely butterfly… that could bite you if provoked.

She reaches out toward him as they draw closer, urging him to do the same. When their palms are clasped, she smiles in awe as she looks him over. “You cut all your long hair off—you look so handsome.” She stretches her neck and Haruka bends down. She kisses him on both cheeks. “The long hair was beautiful,” she says, beaming, “but this is more modern… fresh! Now you both have the sexy boy-next-door vibe.”

“You looked like a woman.” Giovanni sits with his arms folded at the head of the table. He raises his eyebrow in a smirk.

“I don’t think so.” Cellina tilts her head, considering. “If anything, he presented even more gender ambiguous with the long hair. Very gorgeous either way.”

“And so what?” Nino frowns at his brother. “What difference does it make?”

“Relax.” Giovanni stares, his face flat. “It was just an observation.”

Haruka rolls his eyes. Unsolicited opinions, as usual. Pompous creature.

Without warning, Nino laughs as he sits at the table. “I heard that.”

“You heard what?” Giovanni asks. Nino shrugs, his eyebrows lifted in innocence. Giovanni grumbles, “Don’t talk shit about me in your heads in front of me. I don’t like that.”

“I said that you are pompous, which is true.” Haruka sits down and scoots his chair up to the table. “How was the talk with Domenico this morning?”

Giovanni leans with his elbow on the table and points with his finger. “And good-looking. Don’t forget that part.”

“The talk went well, Haruka.” Cellina waves her hand in front of her mate to dismiss him. Giovanni sits back, snickering to himself. He is obviously in high spirits. Cellina grins. “He’s already asking us about grandchildren.”

The tension in Nino’s body skyrockets, so much so that it catches Haruka off guard, making his own body tense in response. He turns to his mate, bewildered. “What is wrong? Why—”

“Nothing.” Nino shakes his head, then runs his fingers into the top of his scalp. An unmistakable sign that it is definitely not nothing. “I’m fine. Sorry, Haru.” He takes a deep breath, but Haruka watches him, trying to read and understand his internal anxiety.

“Nino mentioned something about taking on some of these Socotra refugees,” Giovanni says. “If we do this, we need to develop a plan for integrating them into society. We can’t just dump them into an apartment and expect them to thrive. There’s a lot they need to learn—a lot of hand-holding.”

“I agree.” Haruka sits back, sighing. “They are already educated in math, science and languages, so that is one obstacle we do not need to be concerned with. Helping them adapt to the social-emotional aspects of dwelling in a modern society will be the true challenge.”

Cellina leans forward, folding her arms against the table. “Should we consider which realm leaders we’d want to be involved first, then have them help with developing a program?”

“I like that.” Giovanni nods. “But we should limit it. We don’t want too many chefs in the kitchen—or for this to become some weird political issue. What kinds of powers do these vampires have?”

“With the ones we’re accepting, Kahla is non-verbal because Lajos did something to her voice,” Nino explains. “But her mate told me that Kahla’s voice was very persuasive. Her aura’s manifested power was in her speech. Her mate—her name is Mai—she can manipulate her aura in shapes as an extension of her body. She showed me by making her essence into the shape of these giant blue and glittery bat wings. She can even fly.”

“Good God.” Giovanni frowns. “Flying vampires… Have you unleashed a bunch of freaks into our society?”

“Rude,” Cellina scolds. “Those purebreds have been enslaved for almost two centuries.”

Nino scowls at his brother. “I think all they want now is to live somewhere peaceful and to have freedom. They won’t form an alliance and turn into the X-Men.” Nino twists in his chair and looks at Haruka. “Do you know who the X-Men are?”

Haruka nods, but in truth, he has no clue. He isn’t in the mood for a digression into trivial human pop culture. Nino laughs. “You’re lying to me right now, but I’m going to let it slide.”

“We’ll figure out the details for the refugee plan later,” Giovanni asserts. “Let’s talk about feeding Father. He needs a bag at least twice a week—if all is well and he’s stable, which has been the case for a couple decades now. The best option is to create as many bags in advance as possible. I checked the reserve and there are twenty-six bags of my blood in there. That gives us a little over three months to get ahead of the curve and figure out this new situation.”

Giovanni takes a breath, rubbing his large hand against the back of his head. “Before we test your blood, I’m going to try feeding him with my blood interlaced with Lina’s—”

“No.” Nino sits up, his body tense again. “I said I’m doing it! Stop trying to do everything when I’m willing to help—”

“It’s okay, Nino,” Cellina chimes in. “It’s all experimental, and it would be best if we could share the task. It’ll make it easier on everyone.”

“And it’ll still be a hell of a lot better for me than it was,” Giovanni says. “Trust me.”

Acquiesced, Nino sits back in his chair. He exhales a heavy breath and shifts his eyes away. Haruka reaches over to grab his hand, and Nino laces their fingers together underneath the table. He squeezes Nino’s palm tight.

* * *

After having lunch together,Haruka trails behind Nino as they walk to the western building of the estate. Haruka smiles, reminded of a time when he and Nino were simply friends.

Back then, he would follow Nino up to his room, similar to this. But their relationship had been so careful in those days. Innocent and sincere. They politely stifled their true feelings for each other—the mounting sense of desire, love and need for something more. The emotional intimacy between them grew and bloomed, to a point where everything inside of them demanded the physical.

Being with Nino, touching him, kissing him, tasting and breathing him… It is fundamental now. Haruka cannot imagine his life any other way—nor would he want to.

When they’re upstairs in the master bedroom, Nino kicks off his shoes then plops down onto the bed to lie on his side. He’s been quiet since lunch, and he was quiet last night when he returned home, too.

Haruka pushes the door closed with a soft click, then moves toward the bed. He removes his shoes as well before climbing up and resting on his hands and knees, hovering over his mate. “May I claim the position of big spoon?”

Nino snickers through his nose, his eyes closed. “You may.”

After a little shifting and adjusting, Nino is warmly encapsulated against the curve of Haruka’s chest and body, his arms wrapped tight around his waist. The light filtering into the bedroom is white and clean. The vivid green leaves of a tree outside the window bounce and sway in the gentle breeze. It’s quiet. Haruka can hear the muffled birdsong outside the glass, as well as his mate’s slow breathing within his embrace.

But he feels Nino’s emotions stirring. His mind is frustrated, chaotic. Haruka waits, holding him until Nino’s voice registers soft in the silence.

“I don’t want to be selfish.”

Haruka lowers his head, nuzzling him against the nape of his neck. “You are not.”

“But G still thinks I am—I… I don’t want to be that person anymore. I’m trying not to be. I’m trying.”

He feels Nino quiver and curl into himself, so Haruka curves to envelope him, holding him tight. “You are notselfish. You have experienced serious trauma within your family environment, which has rightfully led to your apprehension in being involved with these household matters. Your relationship with your brother is intricate. But you are both changing as a result of your new circumstances. This will lead to inevitable growing pains between you. It is natural.”

“I know. I know, but… I’m nota child. He yelled at me like I was still a prepubescent vampire! What is it about me that makes people treat me that way? My whole life has been like this—my uncle taking advantage of me—”

“Nino, what your uncle did to you has nothing to do with your own behavior or personality. Do not assume any blame for his grotesque actions.”

“Alright, I… I get that. I do. Even still, my mom hauling off and killing him to protect me… Father not giving me any kind of boundaries, and G and Cellina dragging me along and holding my hand…” Nino shifts, turning in Haruka’s embrace so that he’s facing him directly. His amber eyes are glassy. Distraught. “And you, too…”

“Me?” Haruka blinks, his chest tight.

“Yeah,” Nino says. “When we go home, I need to start working again. Out in Osaka. In Kyoto. Spending the night away sometimes if needed or coming back on the last train. I enjoy going out for work and meeting people. I can’t keep staying in the house because you want to babysit me, Haru. It feels like I’ve been knocked back ten steps because of fucking Lajos and his vanishing me and the injuries. We need to get back to our regular lives—before all this happened.” Nino stares into his eyes, unwavering in the bright light of the room.

“I—” Haruka swallows hard. The stress, fear and uncertainty swelling and overpowering him at the mere thought of Nino being off somewhere and far away from him. Outside of his reach, helpless and unknowing. He shifts his eyes away, but Nino reaches up, placing his warm palms against Haruka’s face to hold his gaze.

“No one is going to hurt me or take me away from you again. Tesoro, you don’t need to be afraid like this. You keep trying to hide it from me, but you can’t hide anything from me. I can feel it too and it’s suffocating—this dread deep inside you. Please stop worrying like this.”

Just before the onslaught of buried emotions overtakes Haruka, he feels the warmth of their shared aura swell from within. Outside of him and all around him, Nino is manipulating it, calling it forward to comfort him like only he can. Nino snakes his arms around Haruka’s neck to pull him in tight. The oak and cinnamon of him combined with the heat of their aura soothes Haruka and slows his breathing. He reaches out to hold Nino around his waist and pull him even closer. Breathing.

“When Lajos took you away from me, I was…” Haruka takes another short breath, allowing their aura to calm him. “My world became nothing. It was terrifying and I—I cannot lose you—”

“You won’t.”

“But I have, Nino. I have lost much in the past. If this happens to me again, I don’t know… I will not live on without you—”

Nino leans in, his eyes closed as he places the softest kiss against Haruka’s lips. “You won’t need to. That was the past. This situation is totally new for you. Plus, I can protect myself now, right?”

Exhaling, Haruka rests against his forehead, his eyes closed. “Yes.”

“I protected both of us in Socotra—from a full-on attack with fifty-something purebreds and a cave-in! I showed you that I can do that, so you don’t need to be paranoid like this anymore. We’re safe now. And I’ll focus and learn even more when we meditate. Let’s start our lives again…”

Nino lowers his head, nestling his face into the small hollow between Haruka’s neck and the comforter, making him lift his chin. He rests, wrapped securely against Haruka’s body, their legs entwined. He can feel the slow rise and fall of Nino’s chest as they lie still in the sunlight.

Haruka traces his fingers along Nino’s lower back, enjoying the feel of him in the silence. In this perfect, peaceful moment. “I asked to be the big spoon with the intent of comforting you—in the end, you consoled me.”

Muffled against his neck, Nino’s voice registers half asleep. “We console each other. You forget that as easily as you can read and sense me, I can do the same for you. It goes both ways, panther.”

“It does…” Haruka sighs, closing his eyes.

“You also wanted to be the big spoon because you like cuddling up against my ass and smelling my neck.”

Haruka opens his eyes, grinning. “I do.”