“ Alright fellas, we made it safe and sound!” The maniacal driver pulled up to the Motel. 

“ What’s the odds of you being able to come back and get us at 5am?”I asked. 

“What’s it worth?” He asked slyly. 

I rooted around in my coat pocket. “ Two Benjamins and a Gold casino chip for a comp stay at The Queen Of Sheba Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas?”

“Benjamins? How old are you?” Raleigh questioned. 

“ Well  I like your style! Deal! I’ll come get you at 5am.”  I gave him the bills and the gold casino chip. King made the mistake of giving me a few of these to get me out of the way one afternoon, I gave them out willy- nilly as payback. The chips were meant for high rollers and worth their value in gold scrap but were good  for complimentary hotel stays. We shook hands on it, and Raleigh and I left the car into the cold and snow. The dingy little hotel stood before us. 

“ Our home for the next few hours.” Raleigh said. 

“ I can already hear the bed bugs cheering our arrival.” I moaned, the place looked as if it hadn’t been redecorated since 1986 and even then it probably had been built well before that. 

The evening  Desk agent was playing a game on his phone, only half there mentally, who could blame him? He came to life briefly to  accept our vouchers and started on the reservation. “ One room or two?” 

“One room.” I replied. 

“ One bed or two?” He asked

“One bed please.” He didn’t even look up, but  I could  tell my request was a little  controversial in these parts. Two men sharing a bed for the night, although not the biggest baddest of the sins, there were just some places that sort of thing was still taboo even in the twenty-first century.  The vouchers secured the room and I was given the key cards. I felt absolutely chilled to the bone and damp, our clothes wet with melting snow. My damp brown curls dripped water down my face as I walked up to Raleigh he was still looking at his phone, worried. I shook the keycard packet. “ We can get ourselves to bed, there is no point in fussing over the weather, it won't get any better if you keep watching.”  

“ I’m hoping the next update will have the snow moving out quicker.” 

“ A watched storm never moves, it only serves to make you more miserable. Now I need a hot bath and a bed.” 

We went back out into the cold to find our room. The hotel was clearly booked with travelers every light was on, every shade was drawn, the place was filled with life, while the outside here was hushed and quiet with the snow fall. The snow was padding the earth and dampening sound, it was almost eerie that it was too quiet. Raleigh opened the door and we stepped inside the warm room. “ Well, this is.. home.” Raleigh sighed. 

It smelled of damp and cigarettes smoked for 40 years. Pale colors I left behind in the 1980’s decorated everything. There was even an old landline phone discolored by age and nicotine by the bed. “ I’m going to slip into a warm tub and not come out for a while.” I said walking through the room towards the bathroom. 

“Mal, I’m starving, maybe we should get something to eat?” 

“ There are vending machines in the courtyard, Love. Unless you want to snack on our neighbors, which I wouldn’t do given what State we are residing in currently.  However, there aren’t many options.” I replied as exhaustion finally reached epic proportions within me.  

“ There was a pizza place we drove by, and it was still open. Can we walk over? I need something real in my stomach.” He looked like a little puppy with big eyes, so human to still believe a pizza would fill the void of hunger in his vampire belly.

I went  to my case and opened it up. “ We’ll just take these little blood tablets I brought with me. It will make you feel less hungry.”  I rooted around my suitcase with a toiletry bag, and boxes of Turkish Delight, it was a gag gift I suppose. I always give my siblings Turkish Delight every christmas. I pulled out my toiletry bag and opened it up only to discover my bottle of hemoglobin tablets was not there. I realized suddenly because I rarely use them I left them behind in Vegas. When traveling outside the Wilderness, vampires must use tablets or syrups as blood drinking is harshly controlled, you may be able to find a butcher who sells pints of day old blood but it's never as good as fresh. “ Oh no…” I admitted defeat feeling the harsh reality of the hour. 

“What?” Raleigh sat on the bed watching me panic. 

“ I forgot our pills!” 

“ So can’t you pop back and grab them?” Raleigh shrugged. 

“ No,  I’m too tired. I won’t be able to travel back once I get to Vegas. At present  I’m almost entirely drained of my energy.” Now I felt like crying. 

“So what do we do?” 

I pulled out my phone and started to search for local Chemists in the area. “ We find a Chemist who can refill the prescription, since we’re outside the Wilderness we’re in a database that almost all Medical professionals with Vampire clientele can access to give us a refill.” 

“Chemist?” 

“ What you call a Pharmacist.” 

“Oh, there was a pharmacy by the pizza place, maybe it’s fate?”   

“Yes, if I get my pills you get your pizza.”

I dialed the number to the closest one. “ Hello? Are you open?” 

The surly employee grumbled, “ Of course we’re open!  Why would I answer the phone?”

“ Do you have access to the SKP International database for a refill of hemoglobin tablets?” 

“ Yeah, I do, only we ran out of the pills. Huge demand tonight, but I have syrup, if you want it, it's ready to go.” The syrup was cheap and effective, but tasted like a mouthful of pennies, it was hard to choke down in one swallow and I never have an issue with swallowing anything! 

“ Any port in a storm, I’m on my way.” 

“ Make it quick once these bottles are gone I’m closing shop.” 

“ Yes, we’ll hurry.” I replied, then disconnected the call. 

“ Why do we need those pills anyway? We don’t use them in Vegas.”

“ That’s because King has a huge blood bank. We can get relatively fresh human blood anytime we want it. But outside the Wilderness, you have to take pills or pay for industrial waste byproducts of organ meat and blood from abattoirs or have your own clean donors or livestock. There’s a lot more rules to it, you know. One doesn’t want to get caught hurting people, that's when Hunters are hired to kill.” Although we were a protected vampire species, step out of line and you were fair game. 

“There are a lot of rules to this vampire stuff, huh?” 

“ Mankind even Vampirekind like rules and regulations when it suits them! Alright, let's go back out into the arctic snow. Come on.” I was already regretting it. 

We began our journey up the block, careful trying not to slip on the icy sidewalk, the snow crunching underneath us, the wind blowing hard every two to three seconds, it was and ice covered hell. “ Mal, I have to talk to you about something.” Raleigh said, stopping for a moment. “I didn’t know how to bring it up but..” 

“ Now would not be the time for anything important, Love. We’re in a bloody snow storm!” 

“Yeah, but I don't know when would be a good time, and we need to talk about this. Maybe yelling in a snowstorm would hurt our feelings less.” 

A cold wind blasted against my body, then stopped and the silence returned. I wrapped my arms around myself.  “ Whatever it is, can't it wait until we’ve gone back to the hotel room? I promise whatever it is I won’t yell or fuss, it’s too blooming cold out here.” 

“ Mal I’m leaving for London and I’m not coming back to Vegas until Aiden is at least seventeen.” Raleigh shouted into the snow filled wind. His words made my heart nearly stop beating. He was leaving me, that was it, he was done with me. 

“No..” I replied, “No, we- you and I we  live in Las Vegas not London!” I felt myself shutting down. 

“ I can’t stay in Las  Vegas, not right now. Simon-” 

“Of course Simon put you up to this!” I accused him with a cold hearted snarl. “ I know we don’t have a lifestyle befitting a child, staying up all night and working in the mob and all, but regardless it doesn’t mean anything has to change!” 

“ No, I went to Simon myself for Aiden. It never felt right that I left Aiden with your family. You guys have been really kind and I’m grateful but I have to man up and take care of my kid. It’s not Simon’s job to be the parent to my kid I should be!” 

“ So that’s it? I’m left out in the cold? You should’ve talked to me about it well before Simon.” 

His face revealed the torment he’d held for the months since his parents’ deaths, the struggle I should be more sympathetic to, but I am admittedly  woefully selfish and I didn't want to listen- I struggle to share him, even if it’s with his own child.  “I’m not going to apologize for taking care of my family needs first.” He said. “ I can’t talk to you about it, Mal and that’s the problem. You can’t understand  but Simon does. Simon has kids. They understand where I’m coming from. I’m not asking you to stay behind, I’m not leaving you- God I love you more than you want me to- I’m asking you to follow me.” He reached out to me but I turned away “ Let’s live in London for a few years, and we can return to Vegas one day. What does it all matter if we have all the time in the world to live in Las Vegas, right? We’re living forever at this point, what is a few years? It’s just the blink of the eye for us! I’m asking for a sacrifice of our time right now while Aiden is a child.” What do I do? I can’t hide how I feel. 

“ I have to stay with King, there is no choice in that matter. We’ll discuss this living situation in London later.” I started back towards the Chemist, my heart pounding, fear rising- I was losing him! “ I have no options, Raleigh.” 

“ There is a choice! And you have options! I love you, you Dumb Motherfucker! I LOVE YOU!” he shouted into the face of the storm. I stopped in my tracks and turned back. “ I’m asking you to choose love over fear. I’m asking you to choose between a man who loves you with all his heart and one that only keeps you captive. Choose love, Mal!” 

“ Raleigh..” 

“Choose me and I will destroy the world for you.” 

“ No you wouldn’t ! You wouldn’t hurt a fly, you are too kind and loving to be a destroyer of worlds.” 

“ Then you agree? It’s better to have love in your heart than fear.” He reached to hold me, I pulled away. 

“ Raleigh I’m in too deep, you don’t know the bargains I have to make to keep you.. to.. I -” I started to feel anxiety overtaking me, I could not go against King. If I left King at best I'd be exiled, never to be allowed back in the US again, at worse he’d kill me because I know too much.

“ I don’t want to be the guy on the side, I want to be the full time guy. For god's sake I want to be someone’s love of their life, soul mate.. I want that to be you. I’ve loved you since the moment I laid eyes on you Malachy.” The wind tore between us, with icy claws. “ It wasn’t a vampire trick, you didn’t con me when I was human. I saw your fragile nature in your eyes, I saw through your thin veil of lies and bravado to see the frail human hiding in there. Mal,  I live in Vegas. Do you think I can’t tell a huckster when I see one? I saw your vulnerability- your true self when we were alone in each other's arms.  You wouldn't have offered me to be a part of you if you didn’t love me too.” 

“ King will never let me go to you.” 

“Tell King to fuck off, you don’t love him. Be real, man. Your love is only about  his power- that’s it. Even he knows his hold on you isn’t strong enough to keep you and  that’s where fear comes in.” Something about those words pierced me. If only Raleigh was more powerful than King! This whole situation is  David versus Goliath and without his slingshot, there was no way to bring the giant down. I went to Raleigh, into his open arms, which surrounded me in loving warmth. This was not a commitment of any side winning, I just wanted him to hold me and keep me on the ground. 

“ I can’t..” 

“ We’ll run away, then. King can’t touch you outside the Wilderness. He has no Goons here, no henchmen. Nothing can harm us or touch us right now. We could stand in this spot forever and King would never find us, never tear us apart.” 

“It’s a nice thought.” I sniffled. He was right and I knew it. I had had maybe all of five amazing kind men in my life that I had thrown away, each one would have given me the world if I gave into them, all they ever asked was for love. I had an unmovable rock in Raleigh, he would not be put out of the way no matter how hard I tried not to love him deeply.

“ Come on, let's get some food and those pills and get back to the hotel.” He gave me a squeeze in his big arms before letting me loose. We walked in silence to the Chemist shop picking up the syrup, a bottle of wine and the last premade pizza before everything shut down. 

“The storm seems to be easing, any update?” I asked as we arrived back into the warm room. 

“ Yeah, thank God, we should be on that plane come sun up.” He replied after looking at his phone, even as we walked in the door the storm seemed to lose its anger and was dying out. He set the pizza on top of the grubby little microwave, picked up the remote to the telly. “ How about a nice yule log?” he said, turning it to a television channel showing a fireplace with all the sounds of fire crackling without the heat and the smoke. 

“Well what kind of other kind of yule log is being offered?” I smiled.

Raleigh’s attitude was better, like the cleansing aftermath of a spring rain, he seemed renewed. “Why don’t we just hop into bed and try to warm each other up?” He said with a grin.

“We’re both cold blooded. Dear, how will we would we go about doing that?” 

“ We can sleep on the plane, so let’s just hop into bed and heat things up.” I slipped off my damp winter coat as he put his hands on my shoulders. “ Why take a bath if I’m going to make you dirty?” he kissed my neck. 

“ You’re terrible!” But he was right, getting into bed with him was all I wanted. Was it the promise of sex? Or the promise of the intimacy he created when we were having sex? He was a damn good lover and it showed in the way he handled my body in those intense moments of passion. I turned into his embrace, he kissed me hard on the mouth, it sent a wave of electricity up and down my spine. I gasped for air when he pulled away, the next thing I knew he was removing my clothes. I was tearing at his garments like a wild animal. We wouldn’t stop until we were stripped! Our poor neighbors on either side were going to get a sleepless night tonight!

End of part two.