Chapter 31: I see the future!

Jack didn't give up!

The very next morning he made some food, together with Nikola, just so it could be rich in mana.

As he carried the hamburger to Jean, he thought only about the man's smile.

Would it blossom when he saw the food? Would Jean talk to him today?

Jack rounded the corner, saw that Jean was in the garden once more, and then waved at him.

Befriend him first, Nikola had suggested. Jack was ready to give it a shot.

"Good morning!" Jack said, as he placed the hamburger together with the plate next to Jean. "This has Niki's mana. You can eat it."

Jean looked first at the ghoul, then at the hamburger, and then back.

"It smells divine," the vampire finally said, before rubbing his hands clean with a wet wipe.

As the vampire took the hamburger, Jack let himself relax.

First order of business done with, the ghoul took up with the weeding.

For a whole of five minutes, Jean didn't say anything. He just ate his meal, enjoying every bit of it.

Only when he had eaten the hamburger did he look Jack in the eyes.

"I don't understand you," the vampire said, as he placed the plate down and outside the flower beds. "I thought you wanted to turn me into dinner?"

Jack smirked. Oh, he was going to turn him into dinner, alright! Just not in a way that Jean wasn't going to like.

"I actually want to get to know you," Jack told him, as he winked at him. "And no, I won't eat you."

He watched as Jean's ears colored crimson.

"I apologize for insulting you," he murmured, as he thought about how he had behaved the previous day.

"No harm done. I was too forward," Jack told him, not looking up from the weed-infested garden.

If this was how Dimitri had felt at the beginning, then he didn't envy him.

The two continued to weed the garden. The silence stretched between them.

Until Jack decided that he had enough of that.

"I used to have a garden, before I awoke my ghoul heritage," Jack began. He didn't know why he was saying something like that to Jean, but he felt it appropriate.

"Oh? What did you grow?" Jean asked, as he tried to tug a very stubborn weed out. He took the small hoe and began to dig around it.

"The three sisters," Jack said, as he took hold of his bucket with the weeds and stood to go up.

"Three sisters?" Jean asked.

Jack smiled.

"There is a myth. A myth that during a very harsh winter, three sisters went to an indigenous people's tribe."

"Oh?" Jean sat down, his attention locked on Jack.

"Yes. They were fed and offered guest rights. The next morning, they were gone. A bag of seeds left behind for each of them."

Jean smiled wider. A smile so sunny that Jack knew that he had to indulge.

"You see, corn, squash, and beans are sisters. The corn supports the beans and gives shade to the squash. There was a time when these three plants were held sacred."

Jean nodded, but he didn't stop looking at Jack.

"Would you like another story?" Jack didn't get to speak about his heritage often, but when he got to do it, he normally tried to be a bit more poetic.

But words came difficult for him, when he was looking into those wonderful blue eyes.

He could drown in them. He could bury his soul in them.

His mouth watered.

 Jack stood up as if burned.

"I think I should go and empty this," he said, as he slowly began to beat his retreat.

"Wait! If you have the time, will you tell me another myth?" Jean asked.

How was Jack supposed to tell him that his inner ghoul was seeing him as food now? The beast was roaring in his mind.

Raging on and on about him eating the lovely man chunk by chunk.

Jack didn't answer. He went to the weed dumping site, lit them on fire, and then stared into the flames.

He needed help.

Dimitri was the only one who could provide it.

****

Dimitri woke up from his nap to knocking on his door. Nikola rolled around, burying his face in a pillow.

"You get the door," the sleepy druid said, as he kicked the covers off himself.

"I am tired and overheated," Dimitri murmured just as sleepily.

"And I am melting. Get the door, you furnace!" Nikola bit back.

Dimitri patted him on the back and finally got up. When he opened the bedroom door, he saw Jack.

His dark eyes were now red.

Dimitri stepped out of the room, closing the door behind him with a click.

"Since when haven't you eaten human flesh?" Dimitri might not be ancient, when it came to vampire age, but he had seen more than one ghoul with such eyes.

"Months. I don't want to eat it anyway. How… how do you control yourself so well?" Jack sounded uncertain. Dimitri didn't know what to think about it all.

"I have Niki, who gives me his blood. My beast is under wraps," Dimitri said, as he yawned. "Come now, we are going to a cemetery."

"I hate soil in my food," Jack said, but he was already heading towards the cabin door.

"You'll hate eating Nikola or Jean even more. And next time, don't starve yourself!" Dimitri took his car keys. He knew about only one graveyard in the area.

 It was hot.

He hated to admit it, but he hoped that there would be a fresh grave. Just the thought that they would need to hunt some mortal for Jack made him sick.

"Fine, then," Jack followed him.

Dimitri texted Nikola that he was going to town for a couple of hours. But he didn't tell him why.

He and Jack were having a lovely bromance. If Nikola figured out that the man he considered a brother was a human-eating monster, then that was going to end.

Dimitri didn't want to do that to either Nikola or Jack.