Chapter One
The vampire coiled the rope around the human’s wrists before guiding his arms up above his head. There the vampire looped the rope around the bed post to tie it into place. It left the naked human bared, splayed out and vulnerable–
The shrieking, sudden climax of ‘Night on Bald Mountain’ jolted Luis back to himself.
He jumped guiltily, ripping his hand away from his cheek where it’d been resting while he watched, riveted, what was happening on screen. He felt the sting of his nail cut skin as he did so.
He slammed the laptop shut and grabbed for the phone on his bedside table. The ringer was silenced, but his heart was pounding as if his mother, the caller, had caught him.
Luis moved his guitar off his lap, whole body jittery. He was supposed to be looking up new sheet music, not porn. Definitely not vampire porn.
He’d got sidetracked by social media though, and one thing had led to another and…
His cheek burned from more than the embarrassed flush. He reached up to touch it and found wetness.
Blood.
“Shit,” Luis got up and headed to the bathroom.
In the mirror there was a small cut on the curve of his cheek, just low enough that it was going to sting like hell when he had to shave. He’d meant to cut his nails a day ago and put it off.
Great.
Luis went to the linen closet, to the second shelf for his travel medical kit. It was stuffed behind the new box of syringes he’d bought last week, with some of the laundry fresh towels stacked haphazardly on top. When he tried to weasel it out, everything went toppling onto the floor.
He sighed. The closet had needed reorganizing for months, but he’d kept putting it off. Seeing the surplus of needles and gauze and bandages depressed him.
Problem for a later him.
Luis took the kit to the counter and retrieved the antiseptic wipes and a pack of bandaids from within. There wasn’t a lot of blood, it was more papercut than anything, but it still stung.
He made quick work to clean, disinfect, and then bandage it anyway. Then he paused to frown at his reflection in the mirror. The bandage only made it more noticeable.
And on a Friday of all days.
Luis took the bandaid off.
In the bedroom, his phone chimed with a voicemail.
Great. Perfect.
Would a bare wound be offensive to a vampire? Luis didn’t know.
He put the supplies back in the kit and stuffed everything else haphazardly back in the closet. When he retrieved his phone, Luis petulantly deleted the voicemail without listening to it and swiped away the additional reminder on his phone that said BLOOD! that was five days overdue.
More problems for later him.
Ten minutes later, resentfully scarfing down a second protein bar to serve as dinner, Luis's phone started ringing again. He reached to turn the thing off before recognizing the song playing was ‘Libertango’ and not ‘Night on Bald Mountain’.
“Hey, I’ve only got a few minutes,” Luis said as the call connected and a video lit up the screen.
Cassie, his best friend, grinned at him from the other side. Then her expression faltered. “Oh shit, what happened to your face?” Cassie’s huge cloud of dark hair obscured most of the background as she leaned in.
Luis forced himself not to think about the video. “Uh, just nicked myself shaving. I’m fine.”
“Ouch, and on your pretty face too,” she frowned.
Luis didn’t dignify that with a response, finishing the last of his bar.
“What’re you up to–oh it’s Friday, isn’t it?” She asked.
“Yep,” Luis said after a swallow. “You forget?”
“Long week,” she groaned. “Had to spend a few late nights in the lab. You got time? I’m just calling so I don’t get murdered on my walk to the car.”
Luis tossed the snack bar wrapper. ‘Walking’ her home was a tradition between them. “A few minutes, so walk fast,” Luis said as he poured himself a glass of water.
Cassie snapped her gum with a grin. “I miss you actually being here to walk me home.”
“You’re pretty safe on campus, aren’t you?” Luis asked. He’d toured the university campus with her last year, and it had seemed nice enough. Certainly more well-lit and wealthy than where they’d grown up.
“Yeah of course. Called mostly to see your face, loser. I miss you.”
He thought, miss you too, but didn’t say it. He knew his voice would waver if he tried the words. Cassie had been worried about him before she’d moved away for her doctorate, and Luis didn’t want her to know just how much it sucked, being without her. Being left behind.
He and Cassie had been friends since middle school when they’d been paired together for a class project and discovered their mutual obsession with the band Saw Blades of Grass. They’d been inseparable since.
Except now there was four hours of driving distance between them.
He missed her so much sometimes it was a physical ache inside him.
Outside of Cassie, Luis had never been very good at making and keeping friends.
Closeted gay and shy and religiously sheltered, it’d been a potent combination that people had steered clear of.
The few other opportunities he’d had at friendship, his mother had quickly stomped out.
“Good to see your loser face too,” Luis said as he took the phone to the bathroom. He didn’t think the cut was still bleeding, but best to check.
“Getting ready to go out?” Cassie’s voice perked up. “What’s the fit? Show me.”
Luis sighed, but propped the phone up on the counter and stepped back for inspection. Cassie squinted at the screen. “Are you really going out in that?”
Luis picked up his toothbrush and covered it in toothpaste. “What’s wrong with it?”
“You’re wearing sweatpants.” She emphasized.
Luis looked down at them. “They’re comfortable.”
“They look like you’ve given up.” She eyed him meaningfully. “Have you given up?”
“What? Given up what?” He squawked. “You’ve never had a problem with sweatpants before.”
“Yeah, because it’s fine when it’s me and you hangin’ on the couch. But you’ve been going out every week to a fancy vampire bar with fancy, hot vampires. Please tell me you haven’t been wearing stuff with holes in.”
Instead of lying, Luis stuck a toothbrush in his mouth.
“Oh my god,” Cassie said with feeling. “Luis, I say this with all the love in my heart, but like, you’re not going to get a vampire boyfriend if you look like you just rolled out of bed and fought a racoon for your clothing.”
“I’m not trying to get a vampire boyfriend,” he garbled through toothpaste. “They’re married.”
“Uh huh, and you said they flirt with you.”
“That’s not what I said!” He pulled his toothbrush out of his mouth just to point it at the phone screen. “You’re twisting my words.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Karim ‘bickers with you’,” Cassie made sarcastic air quotes, “in a way that’s one sexually charged argument away from nasty wall sex, I’m sure, and you and Julien have some kind of ‘movie club’ where you nerd out about old movies and their missing-scenes while making eyes at each other. ”
“Mise-en-scène,” Luis corrected.
“Gesundheit,” she rolled her eyes. “But be so for real.”
“They’re married,” he said for the hundredth time. He wasn’t sure if it was for himself or for Cassie.
Cassie gave him The Look, the one that said she knew he was being purposefully obtuse. “And? Please tell me you’ve heard of open relationships and polygamy. I know your mom tries to make you live like a nun in a convent, but you do have Beyonce’s Internet.”
“It’s not–” He tried to cut in.
But now that Cassie had gotten started, she wouldn’t be stopped.
“Every week without fail you chauffeur two hot vampires around, then you call me practically swooning about how sweet and hot and cool they are. And what? You’ve been doing this gig for like a year now, and I know it’s not for the money. ”
That was… partially correct. His job paid enough, Luis had really only picked up the chauffeur gig to force himself to get out of his apartment. It was something to fill the void that Cassie had left in his life.
Luis worked from home, and it was so easy then to just… stay in. To order delivery food, to order weekly grocery deliveries, to let the days and weeks go by without actually seeing another person except his mother.
So, on a sleepless night when he’d been spiraling about his four walls closing in on him, Luis had browsed the job boards.
It had surprised him that despite making a risky, terrifying choice, the job actually helped. Week after week Luis now had a standing appointment that forced him to leave his house. It made him feel a little less like he was sinking into a swamp he couldn’t escape from.
Luis had left out some of that reasoning when he’d first told Cassie about taking the job. He hadn’t wanted her to worry or feel bad for leaving. Cassie pursuing her doctorate was great, and she didn’t need to be distracted from that. Luis was an adult; he could take care of himself.
“The extra money is good,” Luis said defensively.
“I bet it is,” her smile said she knew he was full of shit.
Luis blew out a breath. “Nothing’s going on.”
“But there could be, that’s what I’m saying,” Cassie said. “Spruce yourself up a little, bat those pretty lashes of yours. People fuck vampires all the time, and I hear it’s great. That could be you.”
Luis tried not to react to that, but a glance at the mirror told him he looked guilty and redder than usual. Was ‘sometimes I browse vampire porn and then feel so guilty I delete my whole browser history’ written on his face?
“Cassie.”
She laughed high and too loud. It was her real laugh, and Luis loved it to pieces. It always reminded him of Friday nights spent eating and drinking themselves stupid while binging their way through C-tier movies on her couch.
Fuck, he missed her.
“I just think it’s criminal that you don’t let yourself consider the opportunity. What’s the worst that could happen? They say no?”
“They’re vampires,” Luis said, “They could like… get angry.”