Danny furrowed his brow, exchanging a quick glance with Mari, who merely shrugged in response. His heart lodged in his throat, and after putting on his sneakers and threading his arms through his leather jacket, he walked out with Liam, half expecting to be told this would be the night he’d be put out to pasture. “Where are we heading?” he asked, descending the stairs with Liam to the main floor.

“You’ll see,” Liam said, his tone detached and casual.

Nothing about the response settled Danny. To the contrary, while sitting in the car with Liam, Danny felt his anxiety fester and grow in scope, biting back the urge to descend into tears and plead with the vampire to reconsider whatever he was about to do. Liam turned on the radio this time, and made no effort to engage Danny in conversation, not even when they crossed the Walt Whitman Bridge and entered New Jersey. Twenty minutes into their trip, Danny took a shaky breath. “I wanted to say thanks,” he said.

Liam exchanged a quick glance with him, raising an eyebrow. “Thanks for what?” he asked.

“For the past couple of days. It felt good to forget.”

“What were you trying to forget?”

“The fact that I’m still slated to die at some point.”

When Liam failed to answer, Danny looked at him, trying to study the expression on Liam’s face. It was unreadable, and remained that way, until Liam freed one hand from the steering wheel and reached for Danny’s hand. He intertwined their fingers, and though Danny continued to regard him with confusion, Liam said, “Let’s not talk about that for now. I had other ideas in mind for tonight.”

Danny nodded, perplexed, but marginally relieved. When their trip crossed the hour mark, Danny became even more curious and soon, the beaches of New Jersey emerged in the distant horizon, the skies littered with stars and the moon at its fullest. Recollections of traveling here as a child sprang to life and though he hadn’t seen the shores of his home state since being a teenager, the fact that they were headed there at all only added to the mystery. Suspicions brewed inside his mind, left unvoiced while they exited from the freeway and parked near the dock of a marina.

“You can’t be serious,” Danny said as he stepped out of the car.

“What?” Liam looked at Danny, finally allowing a smile to crack at the corners of his mouth. “We did mention sailing.”

“I just didn’t think that you’d actually take me.”

Liam shrugged. He led Danny toward the boathouse, where one light still shone from inside. Pausing to knock on the door, he spent the time waiting for a response admiring Danny, finally saying, “I wanted to share this with you,” while the door swung open. A young woman who looked to be in her mid-20s glanced at the two of them before her eyes settled on Liam.

“You were the reservation?” she asked.

“Yes, I was. Did the sailboat become available?”

“Sure did.” She stepped out of the boathouse and shut the door behind her. Padding toward the docks, she left the implicit request that the two men follow. “Most people don’t like going up the river at night. Weird request, especially with a sailboat, but hey, if you’re paying what you offered –”

“I will,” Liam said, burying his hands in his pockets. “If I pay a bit extra, will you show me around the boat? It’s been some time since I’ve sailed one of these.”

“Sure thing. Half down now, though, in case you drown.”

Though she’d spoken with a playful tone, it did nothing to settle Danny. He looked at Liam in wonder, somewhat nervous about the prospect and tagging along out of what felt like obligation. It took an hour for the girl – who stated her name as being Grace – to show Liam the ins and outs of the boat and though sounded like Russian to Danny, Liam nodded at the end of the lesson. He produced a sizeable amount of money, doling out a portion of it and tucking the rest into his wallet.

Grace saluted and skipped off, shouting, “I’ll check in with you two in a couple of hours,” before disappearing back inside the boathouse.

“Are you sure about this?” Danny asked.

“Never been more certain of anything.” Liam shot Danny a smile and waved him onto the boat. While Danny embarked with a lot of nervousness, within seconds, Liam’s nimble fingers mimicked what Grace had shown him. He fumbled with the ropes once, but within a few minutes, the sail caught the wind and brought them away from the dock. Danny held onto his seat, his eyes straining through the darkness to catch sight of the opposite shore. Soon, he determined they were headed north.

Liam settled in first, then broke the silence again.

“A lot of us reach a point in our years where we evaluate how much the world has changed,” he said. “I’ll never forget when I met Mari and realized what a unique and special woman she is. There are times that humans didn’t know what to make of her, even in the places she considered safe to allow the real her to emerge. But, in my day, the men and women who do what she did were so much fewer, or much more reclusive with their tastes. The only ones who could manage to get away with it were aristocrats.”

“I’ve known a few people like Mari,” Danny mused, looking out across the water. The wind blew his hair around and forced him to shout to be heard. “More trans women than trans men.”

“I didn’t personally know any until I had become a vampire. Not many who would have claimed to be homosexual, either. It’s remarkable, how prevalent it is these days.” He made a few adjustments, slowing their pace until their journey up the river became slower and more sedate. Liam sat and smiled at Danny. “My point being, though, that having her in my life began what I think was one of those points for me.”

“When you stop and smell the roses?”

“Yes, in a manner of speaking.” He drew his knees up, wrapping his arms around his legs, and in that moment, the two-hundred-year-old vampire looked as small as a little boy. “If this explains the state you’ve found me in.”

Danny furrowed his brow. As he stood, he walked cautiously toward Liam and sat beside the vampire. “Is there any particular reason why you’re telling me this?” he asked.

Liam hesitated. He rested his chin on his knees and took a deep breath inward. “I’m trying to figure out what to make of us,” he said. “You fascinate me, despite myself. My impulse tonight was to call and make this arrangement, even before I got dressed. I wanted to keep you at arm’s length at first and here you are, sitting beside me on the water with the stars above us.”

“I keep trying to figure out the same thing about you.” Danny took a deep breath. He hesitated, glancing at Liam and inspiring the other man to do the same. “Funny,” Danny said. “I didn’t know someone as old as you are could be new at this.”

“At what exactly?” Liam asked.

Danny struggled to say the words. The epiphany struck him at nearly the same moment he had made the statement to Liam and though he knew what he meant to say, somehow, he couldn’t. “This,” he repeated. “Us, feeling the way we do.”

“How are we feeling, Danny?”

“Stupid and lost. And about to do something really foolish.”

“Such as?”

“Say something we can’t take back.”

They stared at each other. While the wind had died down and the sedate pace slowed nearly to a stop, Liam didn’t seem mindful of tending the sails. Instead, he lowered his legs, twisting around to face Danny and placing a finger on Danny’s lips. “Don’t you dare,” Liam said. “I know you want to. I know I want to. But I can’t promise you what you want.”

Danny reached for the hand blocking him from speaking, intertwining their fingers and lowering it down. “What do you think I want, Liam?” he asked.

“A future of any sort.” He sighed. “I swore fealty to the Marquis, Danny. I can’t imagine how that must sound to you, but in my world, it isn’t a small thing. This fealty keeps me tethered here until I’m released from any obligations I have toward him. And disobeying could carry a steep penalty.”

“And he ordered you do away with me.”

“That, he did.” Liam gave Danny’s hand a squeeze. “I shouldn’t even be doing this, leading you on the way I –”

Danny cut Liam off, leaning close to kiss him and remaining lip-locked with him until Liam acquiesced. Their mouths moved with the same, hungry motions as they had the night before; hands exploring in the same manner and once again, Danny felt the draw which locked them together. “It isn’t safe…” Liam said when Danny paused for breath, cut off when they both plunged into the next kiss. “This,” he managed. “On the water. If you want –”

“Take me back and make love to me under the stars.”

Liam nodded and kissed Danny one last time before standing to tend to the boat again, catching the next gust of wind and sailing them toward the docks. Calling out instructions, Liam helped Danny tied the boat off and after handing Grace the remainder of her money, he led Danny back to the car. “Trust me,” Liam said, unlocking the doors. “I have a place I want to show you.”

Danny nodded. While buckling his seat belt, he chided Liam, saying, “Admit it, you’ve sailed a boat since the 1800s,” and getting a response of, “Might have gone through a spell in the 1950s, too,” from Liam. The smirks they exchanged defied the darkness in their eyes and when Liam pulled off to a secluded, wooded area, he nodded at the tree line and tugged Danny along with him. Both men toppled onto the ground together. Taking off clothes, they rolled on top of the makeshift blanket they made and, again, they looked each other in the eyes as they hurtled together toward climax.

Nestled in the comfort of Liam’s arms, Danny rested his head over the vampire’s silent chest.

“We’ve got time,” Danny said. “We’ll figure this out.”

While Liam remained quiet, the way his fingers toyed with Danny’s hair, and the look in his eyes when they kissed, told Danny all he needed for the time being. If there was a way, Liam would see it through. He just couldn’t make that promise yet.

Danny had pledged himself toward accepting it. Had even packed away the small ache inside his heart, warning himself that life hadn’t always played fair with him in the past. They parked the car and Danny wavered between conviction and despair, wanting desperately to believe they might have a chance, and afraid to place faith inside such futile hope. He hadn’t settled on either by the time they walked up to the condo door.

What he found on the other side settled it for him.

Mari stood near the counter, blood stains on her cheeks which still looked fresh with the cordless phone still in her hands. As she looked at Liam and Danny, she maintained an even expression, but looked ready to dissolve into tears again if pushed toward the edge. “Mari?” Liam asked, closing the distance between them and not bothering to set the alarm when Danny shut the door. The vampiress took all his attention, instead. “What’s wrong?”

She muttered something in Spanish before glancing apologetically at Danny. When she looked back at Liam, she switched to English again. “One of Youssef’s lackeys. He says the Marquis wants to speak to you, immediately, and wants you to bring Danny with you.” Her gaze, once more, jumped between the two men. “Somebody saw us out at the club and he’s ‘afraid’ you aren’t ‘complying with his request.’ I tried not to tell him where you were, but they threatened to send somebody over here to wait for you.”

Liam tensed. “What did you tell them?”

“I told them you went for a drive. Nothing more. They made me promise that you’d call when you returned.”

“Of course, they did.” Liam looked at Danny. As the two men regarded each other, Danny felt what little color he had left drain from his face, his stomach turning from the constant rollercoaster that life and death had become. Something about the way he looked at Liam made the other man’s expression falter, and while Danny had settled on despair, Liam was the one who, in that moment, seemed to find conviction.

“Hand me the phone,” he said to Mari. “I’ll buy us the remainder of the evening. Hopefully that will be enough time for us to resolve this once and for all.”