Chapter Seven

Callum ended his shift feeling rather glum. Mason had already left when he returned from his break and Callum did his best to stop worrying needlessly over the shifter. When asked about his mood, he played it off as being tired and lethargic due to not having fresh blood in a while. None of them were experts at vampire physiology so he got away with the excuse rather easily despite his inability to lie believably. Although, when he thought about it, he still felt really full and more vitalized after drinking Mason’s blood. Usually the buzz died down and he felt normal, well, as normal as a halfie vampire could feel, after a couple hours but Mason’s blood ran through his system like he was on an extended adrenaline rush.

Callum walked down the street in a daze with a subtle frown on his face. He was still trying to convince himself that he didn’t care about Mason and his weird mood swing. That he was totally fine with Mason more or less ignoring him. That it didn’t matter that Mason had growled at him threateningly.

…

It had been two days!

How did he go from hating him to being… worried about him? Callum had to keep reminding himself that Mason was the reason high school was torture for three and a half years. But whenever he tried that point of view, he recalled how Mason had said that he was only a dick to Callum because he was a stupid teenager in love. Well, he was still stupid and in love, just a grown ass man now. Or did he not love Callum anymore? Or was this whole “I love you” thing really a just a giant, immature, clichéd prank?

It all made Callum’s head hurt. His life had never had so much drama before. Well, it had, but being half turned and this whole mess with Mason were on completely different ends of the spectrum.

Callum sighed and waited for the pedestrian crossing light to turn green. He wasn’t paying attention to anything and so he yelped when a hand wrapped around his arm.

“Jesus fuck!”

A man scowled at Callum but he was pulled away before he could be on the receiving end of a lecture on blasphemy or whatever.

Callum was pulled into the nearby alley and his heart rate spiked, the situation being far too familiar.

“Let me go!” he screamed, thrashing. He couldn’t hear anything other than his heart pounding away in his ears, throbbing. His eyes were screwed shut and he writhed and tried to punch his attacker but he kept hitting air. He couldn’t bring himself to open his eyes.

“Callum!”

“Let me go! Fucking let go!” he continued to scream.

The hand let go of his arm but only for a moment. In seconds, Callum was pulled flush against something warm and firm and arms went around his shaking body. One hand rubbed circles into his back under his bag and another pet his head. A second heartbeat pounded rhythmically in his ear, much slower and less erratic than his own, but not exactly calm either. Hushed words that he couldn’t decipher met his ears and he felt his panic die down from the new sensations. His breathing slowed and he relaxed against what he realized was a body.

“…okay, you’re safe. I won’t hurt you. You’re safe. Just keep breathing nice and slow. In and out. Listen to my heartbeat. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

Callum finally opened his eyes and looked up, meeting a pair of worried dark blues that were staring down at him.

Callum blinked and slowly pushed away, looking around the alley and getting his mind back to the present rather than the past.

“Mason,” he finally said, looking back at the shifter who looked about ready to grab Callum up in his arms should Callum freak out again.

“Hey,” Mason said softly. “You okay?”

Callum nodded slowly, “Y-yeah. Yeah. Fuck.”

“I swear I didn’t mean to scare you, if I knew you would have freaked out like that I wouldn’t have grabbed you. I tried calling out for you but…”

“I didn’t hear you,” Callum said, easing Mason of the suspicion that he had been ignoring the shifter. “So, what did you need?” Callum was going to avoid any attempts Mason made at trying to figure out just why Callum had freaked out so badly. Callum cursed himself. He wasn’t a weak, lanky human anymore. He was a stronger than the average human, lanky, half vampire.

“I just wanted to apologize,” Mason said.

Callum frowned in confusion. What did Mason have to apologize for?

Mason rubbed the back of his neck, looking at the ground shamefully, “For being a dick at the diner and growling at you. And now for scaring you like that. I’m really sorry.”

“Oh.” Callum was surprised. He wasn’t expecting Mason to apologize, he didn’t think Mason even needed to apologize. “It’s fine, don’t worry about it. Honestly, I should be the one apologizing for not leaving you a note or something when I left this morning. And I never thanked you for taking care of my drunk ass.”

“I’m not mad, I figured you’d leave if you woke up before me,” Mason reassured him. He grinned teasingly, “And, I’ll take care of your cute ass forever and if you move in with me, then we won’t have the problem of you leaving without a note and feeling bad.”

Callum had to hold back a smile and ignore the sense of relief at seeing Mason starting to act like normal. He forced himself to roll his eyes and scoff. Although, he couldn’t help but ask, “So, what happened this morning then if you weren’t mad at me?”

“It was just my wolf being irritable. I haven’t shifted in a while and he’s getting antsy. Dealing with him makes me pretty cranky and you just happened to be on the receiving end of my irritation. Can I make it up to you somehow?”

Callum scratched his head, “You really don’t need to…”

Mason pouted, “Please? I feel really bad about snapping at you.”

Now Callum was the one feeling guilty. There was really no reason for Mason to want to make anything up to Callum, but the poor shifter looked like he was about to break down from the needless guilt.

“Uh, can I see then?” Callum blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

“See what?” Mason asked. His eyes twinkled and Callum had a bad feeling about whatever was about to come out of his mouth. “I’ll show you my dick whenever you want, love. My body is at your sexual disposal.”

Callum blushed and groaned, “You are such a pervert. I meant your wolf. And are mood swings part of this wolf-shifting withdrawals thing?” Seriously. One second he was a kicked puppy then he was a lecherous wolf.

Mason shrugged, “Sometimes. And I’d love to show you my wolf although that doesn’t really feel like I’m making anything up to you.”

“I’ve never seen a wolf up close,” Callum shrugged. “Much less a shift, trust me, you’d be doing me a huge favor.” Callum had tried to look for quality videos of shifts but he never found any that he could use as reference. His only references were other comics that drew a couple of the stages but Callum wanted every second of them in order to draw them as accurate and realistic as possible. He hated when things that were real weren’t drawn accurately when the art style was meant to be realistic, one of his bigger pet peeves.

“Then wanna go now?” Mason asked.

Callum frowned, “Go where?”

“There aren’t too many places here where I can shift and let loose some energy freely. I usually drive out, about an hour away, to this field of sorts. It’s commonly used for shifters who live in big cities. I was going to head over there anyway so you could join me. I promise to bring you back before eight if you’ve got nothing planned for the rest of the day. We can grab a bite to eat as well while we’re there.”

Callum hesitated for a second, tightening his grip on the strap of his bag, but nodded, “Uh, sure, I guess.”

Mason grinned brightly, “Great, let’s go. I left my car at Haggard.”

As they walked towards Keynes, Callum asked, “Why on earth would you name a club Haggard?”

Mason chuckled, “I asked my uncle the exact same thing when he opened it up. It was pretty much randomized.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, he wanted to use an adjective so he found a randomizer thing that went from one to twenty six, it landed on eight so he had to pick an adjective that began with the letter H. After that he asked a bunch of people to list adjectives that would describe him that began with H. He typed up all the words he got into a randomizer and the website picked haggard.”

“That is probably the stupidest naming story I have ever heard,” Callum said, bursting out into laughter. When he calmed down and looked to Mason, his face burned at the look he was on the receiving end of. Mason was just staring at him with a warm, soft smile. The only emotion he could describe it as was loving.

“So, uh, where’s your car?” Callum said, looking away. They had reached Keynes and the club was just a block down. There was no queue as it was still quite early and most clubs didn’t open until around seven or eight, six at the earliest.

“Right over there,” Mason said, pointing to a dark green car that Callum was sure cost more money than he would ever make within a lifetime.

Mason unlocked the car when they were near it and Callum dumped his bag onto the floor as he slid into the passenger seat, grumbling under his breath when he could feel just how expensive the leather upholstery was as he pulled on his seatbelt. The inside of the car was as smooth and sleek as the outside with accents of a green that was suspiciously close to the color of Callum’s eyes.

“Music?” Mason asked as he started up the car. It barely made a sound, just a light, steady hum and the lights on the dashboard lit up.

“Sure,” Callum shrugged. It would at least fill in any awkward silences, which were sure to occur during the drive to and back to wherever Mason was taking Callum.

“Radio on, station 134.9,” Mason said aloud. Immediately following his words, the radio started up on the dictated station and some old rock music start playing through the speakers.

“Voice control, of course,” Callum drawled.

Mason chuckled as they pulled out and set off down the road towards the city limits, “Not impressed?”

“Should I be?” Callum questioned back.

Mason shrugged, “If you are, it works in my favor. If you want to change the station, just ask. It only responds to my voice so I can avoid people messing with my car even though I don’t let many people on.”

“This one’s fine,” Callum assured him. “So, where exactly are we going?”

“Secret~,” Mason sang.

“Did you just…” Callum stared at Mason. He could practically see the tilde at the end of Mason’s one word sentence.

Mason only grinned and winked at Callum before starting to hum along to the song playing on the radio. It was a Nirvana song, if Callum recalled correctly.

“Mason, seriously, how am I supposed to know that you aren’t kidnapping me?” Callum tried again.

“I would never take you anywhere against your will,” Mason replied.

Callum snorted, “Yeah, like I went on our last two dates completely voluntarily.”

“So you admit we went on two dates and this is our third.”

Callum made a noise of frustration and crossed his arms over his chest, looking out the window, “I am not talking to you for the rest of the drive.”

“You are so cute when you sulk,” Mason chuckled.

Callum did not rise to the bait but it didn’t stop him from mentally defending himself. He was not sulking. He was ignoring. They were two very different things. And he was not cute.

“God, I just want to pull over and kiss that pout away,” Mason groaned.

He was not pouting. He was not going to bite the bait. He was not going to give in. He was no—

The car stopped, caught in traffic, and Callum was not prepared for his chin to be gripped and turned to the left for warm lips to land on his own that were parted in surprise.

A wet, slippery tongue used his surprise to slip past his teeth for a mere second before pulling away and leaving Callum even more shocked than before with an addition of heat at his cheeks.

Mason grinned and ruffled Callum’s hair before stroking his cheek, purposely swiping his thumb over Callum’s still parted lips, “You going to keep sulking? Because I am totally fine with kissing away all your pouts.”

Callum’s face was beyond the color red. He made an unintelligible sound in the back of his throat and swiftly turned his head back to the window, refusing to look at Mason.

Callum felt Mason’s eyes on him right up until the light turned green and the cars began to move again.

Mason started humming again and Callum stared out the window, occasionally sneaking glances at Mason but snapping his eyes back to the window whenever he found himself staring too long.

After about forty-five minutes they had yet to leave the city. There was far too much traffic and even Mason found it odd.

“There’s never this much traffic to leave the city during the weekdays,” he frowned.

Callum shrugged, “Maybe there’s an event or something.”

Callum let his head rest on the window. He was never fond of cars, they always made him drowsy. Along with getting him really drunk, sticking him in a car and going on a long drive was a surefire way to get him to fall asleep. He stared out at the other stalled cars and jumped when his phone buzzed in his pocket, followed by his ringtone.

He fumbled for his phone and swiped along the bottom of the screen once he saw that it was Georgia calling. “Hey, Georgia.”

“Cal, where are you?” Georgia asked and then yawned.

Callum raised a brow, “When did the party end?” Remus’ parties always lasted an inordinate amount of time. The shortest one Callum had ever heard of had lasted six hours, and the longest being close to thirty-six. Callum still wasn’t sure how that was even possible.

Another yawn later, Georgia replied, “An hour ago? Maybe two. I’m so tired. But seriously, where are you? I’m in your apartment.”

Callum glanced at Mason to see that the shifter was watching him. He turned his head immediately and answered, “Uh, I’m going out of town for a bit. I won’t be back till pretty late, probably. And how many times have I told you to stop breaking into my apartment? Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.”

Georgia ignored his scolding and questioned, “Why are you going out of town? You never even leave your apartment unless it’s for work, grocery shopping, feeding, or I drag you by your hair.”

“No reason,” Callum said. “A…uh, friend wanted to show me something and it’s out of town.”

“You have no friends,” was Georgia’s immediate reply.

Callum frowned, “I do too have friends. I have you, Grayson, Dean and Martin, and… and… uh, other people.”

Callum could picture Georgia rolling her eyes, “Whatever. But seriously, who are you with? If it was one of them, you would have said their name. Oh my gosh, are you on an actual date? Two nights in a row, that has to be a record.”

Callum groaned, “I am not on a date. And last night was not a date either.”

“Who are you with, Callum? And don’t bother lying because you are horrible at it.”

Callum groaned. He did not want to tell the truth but it was true, he was a horrible liar and Georgia was the queen at detecting lies, even when she couldn’t see the person.

“Can’t I have my secrets?” Callum groaned.

“Nu-huh, Cal. Who are you with?”

Callum pleaded. “Let it go just this once? Please.”

Georgia sighed, “Fine. I’ll let you go for now but when I see you next, I will make you tell me who you’re on a date with.”

Before Callum could stress that he was most certainly not on a date, Georgia cut the line.

“I’ve never been someone’s dirty little secret before,” Mason mused.

Callum immediately denied, “You are not my dirty little secret.”

“So I’m your sexy little secret?”

Callum made a noise of frustration in the back of his throat, “I hate you.”

Mason chuckled and inched the car forward, “There’s a very fine line between love and hate, Callum.”

Callum grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest as he sunk back in the seat but immediately sat up when he realized that Mason would take his actions as sulking and pouting. Which he was definitely not.

The traffic didn’t ease up. They only managed to inch forward every once in a while and Callum felt drowsier and drowsier as time passed. Soon, he wasn’t able to keep his eyes open and drifted off against the window.

———

Callum grumbled when he felt a hand on his shoulder, “Georgia, go away.”

The hand didn’t leave and only started to gently shake him.

Callum slapped at the offending limb. “Go awaaaaay,” he whined, burrowing further into the corner he was in.

He heard faint chuckling but the hand retreated and Callum relaxed, thinking the disturbance had past. Just as he was about to fall back asleep he felt himself being turned to the left and furrowed his brow. He was about to tell Georgia to leave him alone when warm lips met his and a tongue slipped into his mouth. His brows furrowed further as the person who was most definitely not Georgia kissed him, coaxing him into relaxing and then kissing back.

Callum pushed his head up to get more pressure as the skillful person swept their tongue around Callum’s mouth. There was something familiar about this person’s kiss but Callum couldn’t figure it out. His sleep addled brain just found the person to be really good at kissing.

A soft moan left Callum’s mouth, swallowed by the person kissing him, as the pressure and force increased and his bottom lip was squeezed between a set of teeth. In the back of his mind, Callum knew that their lips were going to be red and swollen, it was a slow kiss but hard. Callum lifted his hands to slip around the other person’s shoulders. Their hair was short, only coming to the nape of their neck so Callum assumed he was kissing a man. The person also smelled like musk and a clean aftershave, scents that he had never smelled on a woman who hadn’t been in close quarters with a man.

When the person started pulling away, Callum frowned. He wanted more kisses. They were really nice kisses. He reached up to try and pull the person back down, but something across his chest pulled him back.

What?

Callum finally opened his eyes, blinking blearily as he looked down to see what was restraining him. A seatbelt.

Why was he wearing a seatbelt?

“Awake yet?”

Callum looked up and frowned at Mason who was sitting in front of a steering wheel, body turned to face Callum with his right arm leaning against the headrest of Callum’s seat. He was grinning, eyes alive, a light flush on his cheeks, and his lips looked a bit red and slightly swollen as if…

“Oh god,” Callum lit up, realizing what had happened. He covered his face with his hands, sinking further into embarrassment when Mason laughed.

“I enjoyed it, you enjoyed it, and I would love to do it again,” the shifter said. Callum could imagine Mason wiggling his eyebrows.

Callum ignored the suggestion and removed his seatbelt, refusing to look at Mason as he asked, “How long have I been asleep?”

“About two hours. The traffic was pretty bad so it took much longer to get here than it should have. But, we’re finally here so get your cute ass out of the car.”