It was just like quitting smoking.

 

That's what people didn't seem to realize. If you wanted to give up blood and you had a hell of a lot of willpower, you could do it. It wasn't easy. Hell, it was probably the hardest thing Byron had ever done, but it was possible.

 

Vampire stories were so romanticized. All the undead stuff, the melodrama of addiction, the eroticism, the homoeroticism? That wasn't life, for Byron, even if he was gay.

 

Well, bi, actually.

 

His boyfriend Tyler was always on him about bisexual invisibility and how they shouldn't let people think they were gay just because they were two guys who loved each other. Byron didn't care so much what people thought, but for Tyler's sake he corrected their mistakes.

 

Sometimes.

 

Well, okay, maybe part of the reason he let people assume he was gay was that it helped in his profession. If you're styling a woman's hair and she's sitting there thinking you're gay, she'll open up to you like crazy. It makes the job easier. Tell her you're bi and suddenly she's wondering why you mentioned it at all. Are you hitting on her? What's your deal?

 

So, often, Byron let sleeping dogs lie. No skin off his ass.

 

And then along came Amy and everything changed.

 

Everything.