The sound of his former name coupled with the jarring familiarity of the voice brought Azrael’s head up with a sharp jerk. The last few years of his human life had been mostly spent on his own, and he’d taken to using various fake names with the people he dealt with regularly. To Azrael’s knowledge, there was no one left in the city who knew his birth name anymore, at least no human. Alexandre had allowed him to change his name after Azrael recovered from his initial transformation to a vampire. Azrael had cast off his human name with ease, taking on his new moniker with a mixture of irreverence and earnestness.

His eyes immediately shot to the man’s face, searching for something identifiable to go with the familiar voice. It was the shock of red hair on the man’s head that caught his attention first. Even in the dim light of the bar, it looked like the man’s hair was nearly crimson. There was only one person Azrael had ever seen who had hair that color. His ugly shock turned into happy surprise as his eyes swept over the handsome face, whose eyes were hidden in shadow, though Azrael knew they were a brilliant green. The man was dressed simply in a pair of well-fitting jeans and a snug, slightly dirty t-shirt.

His mouth finally found a way to work. “Holy shit! Jacob?”

Jacob beamed with a wide grin that took Azrael back to his teenage years. “I thought that was you. I was afraid you wouldn’t recognize me.”

Azrael was on his feet in such a hurry that his beer spilled, splashing over him in a foul spray. “Of course I recognize you. Jesus, you got fucking big!”

It was true, Jacob had been thin as a rail the last time Azrael had seen him. Puberty was still working its effects when Jacob’s family had moved, and he’d been all height and long limbs. He hadn’t grown much taller since the last time Azrael had seen him, but he had certainly grown wider. Jacob had apparently put in the work to make sure he was as bulky as he was tall. He’d always towered over Azrael, but now he was nearly twice as broad.

Jacob looked down at himself in surprise. “I guess I did grow a little since the last time you saw me, huh?”

Azrael laughed. “A little? Dude, you look like you’ve been doing nothing but working out.”

“Is it too much?” Jacob asked.

Azrael shook his head. “Naw, it looks good on you.”

“You don’t look like you grew too much,” Jacob told him with a widening grin.

“Hey, not all of us can be giants. And I’ll have you know I’m technically average height for a man in the US. The low end of average,” Azrael said.

Jacob laughed. “You haven’t changed a bit. God, I missed you.”

Azrael’s retort was interrupted when Jacob reached out to pull him into a tight hug, surprising the vampire into silence. It wouldn’t be the first hug they’d shared, as they’d always been affectionate with one another. Jacob was the only friend Azrael had ever felt comfortable with, let alone comfortable enough to share physical affection. Most of Azrael’s physical contact with other men, before and after Jacob, had been either a fight or a quick one-night stand in someone’s rundown apartment. The sheer joy of the hug struck him speechless and he returned it without thinking, breathing in the rich smell of what he assumed was Jacob’s cologne.

When the hug broke, Azrael stepped away, a little flustered. “Sorry, I probably got beer all over you.”

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll just smell like I belong. You mind if I join you?” Jacob asked, with a nod toward the booth.

Azrael gestured to the opposite side of the booth. “God, please join me. I was just sitting here by myself for no good reason anyway.”

Jacob settled himself into the booth. “I can’t believe I ran into you. I thought you would have fled this place the minute you turned eighteen.”

Azrael scoffed as he sat down. “The only people who get out of here are either lucky or pulled out by someone else.”

“Mmm, yeah. I’ve noticed a lot of the same people around here, though there are some new faces. So, I guess I’m one of the ones who was pulled out, which means you weren’t one of the lucky ones if you’re still living here,” Jacob said, as he pulled napkins from the dispenser to mop up the mess.

Azrael reached to help. “I’m not living here anymore. I just come down here every now and then. Sometimes I just like to be where I grew up. Which is weird, because I hated this place with a passion.”

“A good reminder of where you came from maybe? If you’re not living here, then where are you living?” Jacob asked.

Azrael thought of his penthouse and shrugged. “Somewhere downtown.”

Jacob raised a brow. “There’s nowhere in that area that I know of that isn’t some fancy, rich place to live.”

Azrael winced. “It might be one of the big penthouses near the center of downtown proper.”

Jacob whistled. “Whew, that’s quite the jump from living around here. So I guess that means you were one of the lucky ones. What kind of luck are we talking about here? You got yourself a good job then?”

There was a moment of hesitation as Azrael tried to think of a reasonable lie. He had yet to run into anyone from his human days he couldn’t brush off with a simple reworking of the truth. Lying to Jacob didn’t feel right, no matter how long it had been since they’d last seen one another. There was no way he could tell his childhood friend the whole truth. It was the modern day, vampires were for stories and movies, and there wasn’t anyone Azrael had met who would believe him.

Jacob noted the hesitation. “That bad?”

“I just—well, a lot of things changed after you left. I ended up falling into a few things I shouldn’t have. Gained a few skills that aren’t strictly legal. And there’s someone who happened to notice what I could do and wanted me to do those things for him. So instead of doing those, uh, jobs for random, low-level, pretty much broke, people, I started doing them for him full-time,” Azrael explained, staying as close to the truth as he could without full disclosure.

Jacob mulled that over with a thoughtful look. “So, you’re doing work for this guy, not like, whoring yourself out?”

Azrael snorted. “No Jacob, I’m not sleeping with the guy so he’ll pay for my place.”

“Well, then I don’t really see the problem,” Jacob said with a shrug.

Azrael was unable to hide his surprise. “Really?”

“Yeah, I mean, it’s not like I didn’t grow up in the same kind of places you did. I know what kind of shit people around here can get up to. I’m just glad you didn’t end up falling into a gang, or whoring yourself out. Sure, you’ve always been cute enough to do the second one, but you’re too smart for either of those things,” Jacob said simply.

“Cute huh?” Azrael asked wryly.

“You would focus on that, ya little egotist,” Jacob teased.

Azrael laughed, giving Jacob a cheeky wink. Even years later, he couldn’t bring himself to tell Jacob the truth he’d hidden from the beginning. Along with being the only true friend Azrael ever had, Jacob had also been his first, and only, crush as a boy. He’d had plenty of flings with other guys, out of the sight and attention of others, of course. None of them had been anything more than a moment of lust and satisfaction, however. The only person to have ever sent Azrael’s human heart fluttering at a simple touch had been the man sitting before him.

“So the fact that I’m doing some vague, probably illegal shit for money isn’t a big deal to you?” Azrael asked.

“Are you off peddling drugs or killing unwed mothers?” Jacob asked.

That gave Azrael another laugh. “No, I’m not.”

Jacob shrugged. “Then no, I don’t see the problem. I mean, I won’t lie to you and say I wouldn’t definitely prefer you were doing something safer, but I know sometimes you have to choose between what’s right and what keeps you alive.”

Azrael hoped his relief wasn’t too obvious. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. You never did give me any shit, no matter what kind of trouble I got myself into.”

“I clearly remember a few times I was part of the trouble,” Jacob said.

“Like the time I convinced you that spray painting that cop’s car was a good idea?” Azrael asked.

“Well, that and the time you convinced me the apartment we broke into was abandoned and with a lot of shit in it for us.” Jacob grinned.

Azrael groaned. “It’s been almost a decade and a half man, am I ever going to hear the end of that?”

Jacob smirked. “Not a chance.”

“Look, I thought the place was empty. How was I supposed to know the guy was holed up in there, too scared to leave his own apartment? Or that the guy had a shotgun full of buckshot waiting nearby for anyone who was stupid enough to barge in? I was fourteen man, c’mon,” Azrael protested.

“At least we got out with all of our limbs still attached. Please tell me you’re more careful with whatever you’re doing now,” Jacob said with a fake wince.

Azrael rolled his eyes. “I’m twenty-eight years old man, I think I’ve gotten a little smarter since then.”

“Save for the part where you decided to come to the dangerous part of town for a bit of hateful nostalgia,” Jacob pointed out.

Azrael shrugged. “I can take care of myself. I might not be all muscle like you, but I know how to deal with trouble.”

Jacob nodded, accepting it without question. “It’s amazing how little this place has changed. I don’t know what I was expecting when I first showed up, but it’s like time has barely touched the place. Sure, it looks a bit rougher than it did when I was a kid, but for all I know, it was always that bad, I just didn’t notice.”

“You never did say where you were moving to, but assuming it was nicer than here. I bet this place looks like shit to you,” Azrael said with a snort.

“Yeah, my parents decided this wasn’t the kind of place they wanted me to be raised in. They were really worried about all the gangs, and I was having a lot of anger problems back then, so they decided to get me out before it got any worse,” Jacob said.

Azrael nodded, remembering how bad it had become before Jacob and his family had moved away. Their friendship started before they’d hit double digits and continued until Jacob had moved at fifteen. Before the move, his normally laid-back and docile friend had grown more and more irritable. It got to the point that Azrael would find himself standing still in shock as his typically calm friend exploded into a ball of rage and violence. It had never been directed at Azrael, but Jacob had always been embarrassed and apologetic after one of his outbursts.

“I take it your temper got taken care of then?” Azrael asked.

Jacob shrugged with one shoulder. “We moved out into the country a ways up north for a bit. I made some friends, got to know the people in the little community up that way, figured some things out about myself, and the problem fixed itself.”

Azrael stacked the beer soaked napkins on one end of the table. “Moved to get away from the city and ended up having a journey of self-discovery huh?”

Jacob nodded. “Something like that. I’m not too sure my parents were keen on the move in the first place, but I know they did it for my sake. I’m thankful to them for it. It sucked having to leave everything I knew behind, and it was worse leaving you behind. But in the end, it was the best thing for me. It was important I got out of here.”

“I remember being so pissed at you for leaving,” Azrael admitted.

“I know, I was so angry with my parents for dragging me away like that. I even begged them to try and adopt you so we could take you with us, but they wouldn’t. I guess I can’t blame them for that, but it seemed to make perfect sense to my teenage brain. What really pissed me off was they wouldn’t even let me call or anything. Refused to get a phone for years,” Jacob said.

Azrael blinked in surprise. “Wait, they seriously didn’t get a phone?”

Jacob nodded. “They were insistent that I didn’t have contact with anyone I knew from when we were living here. I wasn’t too happy about it, but what could I do? By the time they finally got a phone in the house, I couldn’t even remember your phone number to call you.”

“Didn’t matter, we’d probably lost our phone by that time anyway. It’s not like my parents could keep the bills paid, not when they had their drug habit to feed,” Azrael said bitterly.

“Would it be bad to ask what happened to them?” Jacob asked.

Azrael waved a dismissive hand. “My mom ran off about a year after you moved away. No idea where she ended up. Dad was in prison for stabbing some guy over…hell, I don’t even remember anymore. He might get out in another ten years or something like that. Doesn’t matter, I was taking care of myself long before they ended up exiting my life for real.”

Jacob smiled a little sadly at that. “Mr. Self-Sufficient, huh?”

Azrael could only shrug. “Well, you knew how it was back then. Your parents still poking around in your business?”

“They passed a few years ago, car crash,” Jacob told him quietly.

Azrael winced apologetically, wishing he hadn’t shoved his foot in his mouth. “I’m sorry. I know they drove you nuts when we were younger, but I know you loved them.”

His friend smiled. “I did, and they loved me a lot. They weren’t perfect, but they did what they could to try to help me.”

Azrael racked his mind for a topic that wasn’t going to make Jacob ask too many questions or result in him blurting out something insensitive again. It was so strange, feeling awkward around Jacob, when his memories of the man from when they were younger were so warm and welcoming. It wasn’t Jacob’s fault, the guy had certainly gotten hotter, but that aura of happiness and calm around him was still the same. Not for the first time since Jacob had moved, he wished his friend had stayed in his life. He could have used that sense of inner calm more than once.

“Not that I’m not happy to see you and all, but, what are you doing here?” Azrael blurted.

“Having a drink?” Jacob said with a cheeky grin.

Azrael rolled his eyes. “I don’t mean the bar. I mean, what are you doing back in the neighborhood, this city? I thought you were gone for good.”

“Funny thing about being an adult is that you can do whatever you want when you want. If you want to stop in on the neighborhood that was one of your fondest childhood memories, you can,” Jacob said with a shrug.

“I have a hard time believing this neighborhood held too many happy memories for you,” Azrael said dryly.

Jacob’s smile was almost shy. “Well, the best memories I had while I was here always involved you.”

Azrael glanced away, trying to fight the blush rising to his face. “You’re evading my question.”

“I do a bit of freelance work as a security consultant for private businesses and individuals. One of those groups has me here checking out some of their assets and making sure everything is secure,” Jacob finally answered with a shrug.

Azrael cocked his head. “From small-time miscreant, to a big-time security guy, that’s quite the leap.”

Jacob grinned. “You took your skills and honed them, I took mine and learned how to fight people like you.”

“You don’t even know for sure what I do,” Azrael pointed out with a small smile.

“Eh, but I know the kind of stuff you were learning when we were younger. I can take a good guess,” Jacob said.

“So you poke around people’s business and try to make sure no one else can do the same?” Azrael asked.

Jacob nodded. “That’s about it. I’ve been here for a few weeks, but I come in here every now and then, for the ambiance obviously.”

Azrael wrinkled his nose in disgust. “Lord, tell me you aren’t eating the food from around here.”

Jacob shook his head, laughing. “No, I know better than that. Mostly it’s just fast food or whatever microwaveable stuff I think sounds good. First week I was here, it was chicken nuggets, and now I’ve been on a kick with pot pies for some reason.”

Something in Azrael’s mind clicked into place and his reply died before it ever reached his lips. His mind whirled over what Jacob had just said and wandered back to Azrael’s earlier sneaking around. A security consultant seemed like a perfectly valid career, but all Azrael could remember were the high-end locks and devices on the basement door of his target’s apartment.

As if the universe knew what conclusion he was drawing, Jacob shifted to a more comfortable position on his bench. It was just enough that he shifted into the path of one of the ragged fans perched along the walls of the bar. The weak breeze from the fan was enough to bring the smell Azrael had barely noticed when he’d been hugged by Jacob. It was deep and earthy, what Azrael would imagine was the living equivalent to fertile earth and the wild smell of the woods. It wasn’t a cologne—it was the almost feral, natural smell Jacob gave off. His mind stuttered and ground to a halt as he realized his target, the person he was supposed to steal from and kill, was his best friend sitting across from him.