“Brian look at me.” Justin said to his lover. Brian looked over and saw Justin hover about two feet off the ground.      

“Holy shit Justin; can you move too?”      

“I haven’t tried yet; I dreamed last night I could fly and just concentrated on getting off the floor and this happened. If I can do it you should be able to do it.”       

“Not necessary; I can’t start fires either. Dracula needs to know about this pronto.” Brian pulled out his cell phone and Justin figured out how to fly around the room without hitting anything. It was just a matter of concentration and will power.      

“Hello Brian, how are you today?”     

“Dracula, I have a very powerful embraced lover flying in my office right now.”      

“Ha ha ha! I wondered what he could do next. That’s fantastic Brian. Another very rare gift. I too can fly as a human and a bat but rarely do it. Is there something I can help you with?”      

“You might teach him how not to break his neck for me.”     

“I’d be delighted. He controls it with his mind. If he wants to get down all he has to do is think down and lower his body to the floor. It’s not difficult to master. Have you tried doing it too?”      

“Not yet. Do you think it possible Count?”      

“You’ve been drinking a lot of blood from me over the years. Anything is possible Brian. I’ll be right over and help you boys.”      

“Thanks Dracula.” Brian closed his phone. “Dracula is coming over to show you the way to fly without killing yourself in the process Justin.”      

“It’s really pretty easy. I just don’t know what my range is; how high can I go; how fast can I go; stuff like that.”       

“The last thing we need is for a photo of you flying, leaking to the media or something.”      

“I wonder if radar could pick me up.”      

“Why would you go that high? The air gets too thin and too damn cold.”“Yeah, you got a point. I didn’t about that. I also dreamed I can climb walls too. It’s like I fly up the wall holding on to it.”      

“So your Spiderman now instead of Sunshine. Do you want a costume to go with your new superpowers?”      

“I bet I’d look really hot in red and black tights Bri.” Justin grinned and landed in front of Brian perfectly. “I want to go outside and test this new gift.”      

“Let’s wait until Dracula gets here to help you. If anyone else in the city can fly I haven’t seen it yet.”       

“Me neither; I might be the only one except for maybe Dracula as a bat.”      

“He said he can fly as a human too but not that often does he do it.”      

“I have so many questions to ask him about this gift.” Justin was very excited with this new development in his powers and gifts. Soon Dracula arrived and entered their home as Brian opened the door.      

“So where is your little birdie now?”     

“Waiting for you in the living room.” They walked to the living room and Justin got up to greet the Count.      

“I have so many questions to ask you.”

“First let me do something. Brian, concentrate on rising three feet off the floor.” Brian closed his eyes and followed Dracula’s instructions. When he felt his feet leave the floor he opened his eyes and came down again. Then with his eyes opened he concentrated and flew up into the air hovering about two feet high.      

“That’s what I expected to happen. Usually if an embraced lover has the gift so does the vampire. Misha can fly too.”      

“How come we never see you guys flying?”        

“We don’t have a reason to frankly. Not to mention the problems it could cause if the wrong person sees you doing it. We might glide around the house when alone but that’s about all we do at this time.”      

“How high can I go; how fast; can I carry a weight like another person with me?”      

“You can go too high to breathe; you can fly faster than is comfortable with the wind resistance; you can carry another person but I advise against it if you should drop them.”       

“I could use it in an emergency though?”      

“I suppose you could for a short distance. Your power is beginning to border on vampire magic now. Wall climbing is part of the gift. You fly up a wall touching it.”        

“I had a dream I could do all that last night.”       

“That’s interesting; most people learn they can do these things by accident.”      

“What is the danger in this gift Dracula?” Brian asked him.       

“Concentration is key for control. If you lose consciousness you plummet to the ground. Even an embraced powerful human can hurt themselves hitting the ground at over 200 miles an hour. You can fly into things if you go too fast for instance through trees in a forest or around buildings. You can hit birds or aircraft if you’re not careful. The worse is you can be seen.”       

“What good is the gift if I can’t use it? I can’t just fly downtown and get groceries when I want to?”       

“Considering the secrecy of our community it might be ok in the city. People would get use to seeing it. Especially if they see four of us flying. I bet there may be others in the community too who don’t fly out of being afraid of being seen. We’re use to living with regular humans so much; old habits are hard to break.       

“How hard do you have to concentrate on this? Can you fly and talk at the same time?” Justin asked.      

“With practice it becomes second nature; like walking and chewing gum. Why don’t you boys go outside and practice a bit. I’ll go up with you. It’s not that hard to do. Just keep your mind on what you’re doing.”  Dracula led the boys outside. “Let’s just try some basic moves now. We going to fly up about 30 feet, go around the villa and come back down here were we started. Dracula was the first airborne followed by Justin. Brian took a few seconds to get his thinking right.  Once all three were together in the air. Dracula led them around the villa.      

“Let’s go around again.” Justin yelled. “They went around the house again. Lindsay and Gus came outside to watch them having seen them in the window.       

“Cool trick Dad!” Gus yelled out. Justin waved at him. Brian looked and saw the audience and began to fall to the ground. Dracula was expecting it and quickly shot down and grabbed him within a second.      

“What happened?”      

“You forgot to stay in the air. Your mind has to remember where you are and what you’re doing. You got distracted is all.” Brian got his bearings and continued to fly. After a second pass they landed where they took off.        

“I use to love to do this on the old days when I wore my cape. It would billow around me when I flew. I could scare the shit out of people back them and get away with it.” Justin laughed at Dracula’s humor.      

“You know once word gets out we can do this more embraced lovers are going to want to get this gift.” Justin said.      

“Without my blood and a lot of it the vampire can’t pass in on. Their vampire would have to be an ancient or fed by one. This is advanced magic and very rare. I’m only developing you and Brian with my blood.”       

“Is that our flying lesson for today?” Brian asked.

“Unless you care to try this.” Dracula shot straight up into the air until he was just a dot and free fell until about 200 feet up and slowed his decent and touched down on his shoes quietly. Justin shot straight up too and followed Dracula’s lead perfectly. Next Brian tried it but didn’t go up near as far and came down a bit hard not judging his distance that well.        

“It’s only a matter of practice and you can do it no problem Brian.” Dracula encouraged him.  “That’s the basics; how to go up and down and fly around. You can go backwards, forward and play with speed and you have it all. Just remember to watch were your going. If that’s all I’ll bid you my leave.”  Dracula bowed to them and walked away then he vanished.      

“I wish I could do that.” Brian said smiling.      

“We can fly Brian! That’s pretty damn amazing itself.”      

“Great and we can’t use it for fear of being seen or photographed or some such shit.”        

“It’d be a great way to get out of a tight situation if we wanted to. We can fly after dark and not been seen. It’d be fun Brian.”      

“I’m not very comfortable flying even if I can Justin.”       

“Ok, I understand. It feels pretty weird at first for sure. I hope you don’t mind if I want to do it.”      

“Just be careful and remember what Dracula said about it.”       

“I’ll be careful; I don’t like pain of the kind a bad fall would cause not to mention how it would wreck my hair.” Brian just shook his head in disbelief at Justin worried about hurting his perfect hair. Gus and Jennifer walked up to them.      

“I didn’t know you guys could fly.” Gus said as he approached his father.      

“We didn’t know either until just a few minutes ago. I’m not that fond of it but Justin has taken to it like a duck to water.” Brian commented.      

“This is a terrific power. I plan to enjoy it very much but I probably can only fly at night to be safe from being seen.” They all walked into the house and the humans went to have dinner. Brian went to his office to do some work. Justin finished his meal and walked into Brian’s office.       

“What’re you doing Brian?”      

“Playing with our money; I take it from the dark clothes you’re wearing you want to go flying?”      

“Good guess”      

“Be careful and don’t get seen if you can help it, and don’t get the military sending an F-18 to shoot you down.”      

“Yeah; an air-to-air missile could ruin my day. I’ll be back later.” Justin kissed his lover and walked out of the house. It was a perfect moonless night. The street lights only illuminated the streets and not the skies. Justin soared straight up about 80 feet and felt the wind blow across his face; once he was high enough he headed to the lake to see it from the sky. As he flew along the coast line Justin admired the fine custom homes built there by some of the wealthiest vampires in the city. Most had private boat docks and yachts parked in the water. As Justin was flying along his sensitive hearing soon heard the cries of a young man.      

“Please Master, stop; please stop hitting me.”      

“Whack, slap, whack, whack, slap, slap.”      

“I beg you stop hurting me master!” Justin flew to the source of the voice and noises to find two people on a balcony outside one of the grand lake estates. One was a vampire and the other a young boy he vaguely recognized from the last auction. The boy was holding up his arms shielding his face and head as the vampire slapped him around like a rag doll.  Justin decided to reveal his flying skill and flew straight down landing on the balcony right in front of the vampire. He gently shoved the boy back and faced off with the vampire.      

“Why are you hitting this boy?”      

“How dare you invade my home! You have no right to be here.”

“I heard you assaulting this boy and came to see why you would do such a thing.”      

“I do it because I can. You sold him to me and he is mine to do with as I please.”     

“What’s your name son?”      

“They call me Dakota. I was in the last auction.”      

“So you agreed to spend a weekend with this vampire. Did you embrace with him?”      

“Yes, he said he loved me and promised me a good life. But things haven’t worked out that way.”      

“I did not sell him to you. You donated to the school and got a weekend date. He embraced with you believing you would be good to him. You have no right to abuse him like this.”      

“I own him; it’s our way, human. You would be wise not to interfere with me.”      

“Dracula, can you hear me?”      

“Yes Justin.”      

“I have a problem; can you follow my voice and come to me now?”      

“Count backwards from ten”      

“Ten, nine, eight, seven…”  Suddenly Dracula appeared on the balcony. He looked at Justin and the bruised and battered boy standing there. Then he looked at the vampire.      

“Hello Flavus; I wasn’t aware you now live in Kinneyville. He is your embraced?”    

 “He is Count.”      

“He has the abuse marks of a vampire’s hand. Why is that?”     

 “It amuses me old one. Do I need a better reason to treat my human as I wish?”      

“In these days and times you do. This is a violation of our code Flavus. You have forfeited your rights to this human.”      

“Then I must turn him to release him.”      

“He has no desire to be turned and you are the one at fault here. I will release your bond to him and be his protector until a more fitting vampire takes him.”       

“He failed to please me. I’ll just get another one.”      

“Perhaps someday but not at my auctions and you will be moving out of Kinneyville. Abusing someone is grounds for me to force you out of my city and you’re moving.” Justin told him. You’ll have no trouble selling your house.”      

“I’m not moving anywhere and I’m not done with this human either. I’ll take you down and drain you, blond one should you interfere with me.”      

“Come here boy.” Dracula motioned for Dakota to step forward. Dracula bit his finger and fed him a drop of blood. “Vos es vacuus vestri vinculum per Flavus, quod per meus cruor ego iam servo vos.” (You are free from your bond with Flavus, and with my blood I now protect you.)      

“Dracula is Dakota now safe from the death of this vampire?”      

“Yes he is Justin; and I witnessed this ancient vampire threaten to drain you and harm this child. You are well within your rights to defend yourself and the other human.” Justin shoved Flavus so hard he fell backwards.     

“Why don’t you pick on somebody your on size asshole?” Justin was pissed. When the vampire composed himself he extended his fangs and began to move toward Justin. With only a thought Justin’s eyes glowed white hot and then you heard the screaming of Flavus burning alive and within seconds he was but only a pile of gray ashes on the balcony floor.       

“Since you were embraced with him he put you in his Will. All that is his is yours now Dakota. I read his mind and know where the Will is at. You’re a billionaire now and this house belongs to you.” Justin said. “I better call Diamond and get the necessary paperwork done with the police. Dracula witnessed me defend myself from him attacking me with fangs drawn.” Justin pulled out his cell phone and called his son.      

“I witnessed it too. I think he would have killed me had you not came here tonight. This was worse than usual.” Dakota said.      

“Diamond, Dad here. I had to torch a vampire tonight in self defense. Dracula and the vampire’s human embraced lover witnessed it. Come here and take our statements. I’ll let the kid tell you the address.” Justin handed the phone to Dakota and the boy told Diamond the address. Minutes later Diamond was there with two other officers and took the statements and collected the ashes.      

“Just one question. How did you know the abuse of Dakota was happening Dad?”      

“I flew by and heard it.”      

“Flew by?” Justin flew up off the balcony deck to the amazement of his son and the officers then he landed. “I was flying around the lake’s coast line and heard him hitting the boy and him crying for him to stop it and I intervened.”      

“Is this a new embraced lover gift?”

“Yes, both Brian and I can do it but he doesn’t like it like I do.”      

“Brian drinks from me and it has made him strong enough to fly and for Justin to be able to.” Dracula said.      

“The official story is you were walking by the house and heard the abuse in progress. It’s going to be an X file anyway. All vampire related cases are closed secret X files.”      

“Dracula, you knew this vampire and called him by name.” Justin said.      

“He was a Roman gladiator who was mortally wounded in battle and I turned him to save his life. He has always been very cruel and I’ll not be sad for his death.”      

“I wonder if any other embraced boys are being abused like this. I need to do something to fight this kind of thing.”       

“Speak with Brian about it. You should pass an ordinance against turning an embraced lover unjustly and against abuse stronger than your Association clause. I might suggest a town meeting with all the vampires and embraced lovers to tell them the story about what happened here tonight. Inform the vampires what behavior is not acceptable and give the embraced humans a way to seek help if they are being abused. Personally I think this kind of problem is rare but even one case is one too many.” Dracula told Justin.      

“Excuse me for a moment Count.” Justin walked over and sat beside Dakota. “Dakota, you’ve been through a lot tonight and then you had to witness me ending your vampire. I’m sorry you had to see that, guy. I want you to come and stay with me at my house for a few days with my vampire lover. We have a great relationship. What happened to you isn’t how embracement happens; this is the first time I’ve seen abuse of a lover by a vampire. It’s supposed to be the most loving experience you could imagine.”      

“The first month was good Justin but suddenly he changed and started hitting me for no reason. I didn’t do anything to deserve it and would do anything for him.”      

“Well the good news is your rich now because his fortune is now yours. You can embrace again or not; that’s your decision. If you choose to embrace I’ll make sure you get a really good vampire next time. Go pack some clothes and my son will take you to my house. I’ll be waiting for you there.”      

“Thanks Justin; I don’t want to be alone right now. I think my arm and nose is broken.”      

“Diamond, take Dakota to the hospital for me; I’ll be there is a few minutes Dakota. Have them check you all over for any other injuries.”       

“I’m only 16 Justin.”      

“I’ll call and claim to be your guardian at the campus still. They don’t know any better. Just say the police has your report; they don’t need to know anymore than that.”     

“See you later Justin.” Dakota followed Diamond out of the balcony. He instructed the house servant to watch the house, and packed enough clothes for a couple of days then they left the house. Justin flew off and headed home. He walked in and found Brian in the living room.      

 “I’m headed to the hospital; a boy got beat up tonight by his vampire.”      

“That’s fucking disgusting.  Where is this vampire now?”      

“He’s a pile of ashes in an evidence bag in Diamond’s car. I torched him. Dracula witnessed it.”     

“Who was his sire?”

“Dracula was. It was also self defense since he was about to attack me with his fangs out. I’ve invited the boy to come stay with us for a few days.”      

“That’s fine; who was the vampire?’      

“Flavus”      

“He bought one of the best lake lots and paid cash.”      

“Well his abused embraced lover has it all now. I need to get to the hospital.”     

 “See you later; take the limo if you want to.”      

“I’ll just take my BMW Brian. We’ll be back later. They have to set his nose and I don’t know what other damage he has.”      

“Ok” Brian kissed his lover and Justin went to the garage and jumped into his car. He drove to the hospital and entered the emergency room. Then Justin remembered he didn’t get Dakota’s real name.      

“Excuse me; I’m Justin Kinney and one of my boys just came in with a broken nose and possibly other injuries.”      

“Yes Justin, Jason’s in room 6. Got right back if you like.” Justin entered the emergency section and found room 6. He knocked on the door and entered to find Dakota being examined by a doctor.      

“What’s your last name Jason?”      

“Hamilton”      

“I want some x-rays of your nose and right forearm which I suspect is also fractured. Can you tell he how this happened, Jason?”      

“Doctor, I’m Justin Kinney his guardian and he was in a fight. The police have a report so you’re in the clear needing to report it.”      

“Thanks Justin; just give me the officer’s name for my records.”      

“It was my son Lt. Diamond Kinney doctor.”

“Very good; let me order these x-rays and let’s see about getting you patched up. Are you in pain?”      

“Yes I am, but I can stand it.”       

“You don’t have to; I’ll bring you a shot to give you some comfort for now and a prescription for later.” The doctor left the room.      

“Is that your clothes Dakota?’      

“Yes Justin. I packed three changes.”      

“I’ll take them to the car and come right back.” Justin took his bag and left to take the clothes to his BMW. When he returned the doctor was giving Jason a shot. Next he gave the boy to a nurse to get x-rays and came back to talk to Justin.      

“Justin, I need to know that boy is not going back to the situation that put him in harm’s way.”      

“He’s coming home with me and my lover for now. The person who attacked him is no longer in the picture and is no longer a threat.”      

“I had to ask because there is oblivious signs of physical abuse here.”     

“That’s correct and it has been dealt with very well. He won’t be getting hurt again.”      

“I’ll trust you Justin; although we haven’t met before I know who you and Brian are. My private practice sees a lot of your boys at the campus.”     

“It might be cheaper for me to hire you full time doctor.” Justin said grinning.      

“I’m happy with the arrangement we have now. I also give your campus a 20% discount below my normal fee. You can’t hire me cheaper than that.”      

“I was joking doc; I’m very happy you came to Kinneyville and work here. How did you get to know our unique community?”      

“I’m very good friends with Dr. Cullen who is chief of surgery here. In fact I’ve called him in to help me with Jason’s injuries tonight. I expect him any minute.”     

“I’m very good friends with Carlisle. We were neighbors in New York.” Just then Dr. Cullen walked into the room.      

“Hello Justin; so we have an injured boy to repair tonight?”     

“He was embraced to a bad vampire Carlisle. Dracula and I dealt with him and the boy will stay with me and Brian for a few days as we get his life in order.”      

“What are his injuries Dr. Warren?”      

“His nose is broken and I suspect a compound fracture of his right arm. He’s at x-ray now; we should get the films soon.”      

“You say he was embraced Justin.”      

“Dracula released him and is his protector now. The vampire was going to attack me and things go a little warm for him.” Justin smiled.      

“I understand; I see you didn’t get harmed.”       

“He never got the chance Carlisle.”      

“And Dracula was there?”      

“Yes, he witnessed it all and called it justified on my part. He was also the vampire’s sire.”     

“Then you have nothing to worry about. You must be careful with your gift Justin.”       

“I understand. Dracula told me to handle it or I wouldn’t have taken that approach.”      

“Very good.” Jason walked in carrying his x-ray films. The doctors put them on the view and looked at them.      

“The nose will be a simple set and the arm is a single clean fracture and will not need to be set. You'll have to wear a cast for 4-6 weeks.” Dr. Cullen said. “Justin, we’ll have him done in about an hour from now.”     

“I’ll go to the cafeteria and have some tea while I wait for him.” Justin left thinking how many embraced boys could be like Dakota and he didn’t know about them…..yet.