Chapter Seven
Luis went through the rest of the week on autopilot doing chores, ordering groceries, and ignoring the fact that neither Julien nor Karim had texted him yet.
Was that good? Bad? They normally didn’t text him during the week unless there was a venue or scheduling issue for Friday. Was this normal, or was it weird now that he’d given them blood?
He almost googled the social context of sharing blood with a vampire friend a dozen times before chickening out. Instead, he kept his head down, signed into work every day. He did what he always did when shit made him anxious: push it off for Later Luis to deal with.
Then, it was Friday again.
When the phone alarm went off, Luis went about business as usual to get ready, cursing himself for not at least texting them to try and feel out the mood. Karim would’ve given him something to work with over text.
It was typical though, the cowardice. Luis always put stuff off, avoided doing the hard thing, and then had to be dragged later into dealing with it.
As was boiling water for dinner, it occurred to him also that going back to their usual place tonight wasn’t an option. He couldn't go back to Bite Back. Just the thought of it made his palms sweat.
So, what was the plan then?
There were a handful of other vampire bars they cycled through when Julien or Karim were wanting for variety. Luis could request one of those instead? Make somewhere else their new regular.
Guilt seeped in, but there wasn’t another option. He really, really couldn’t go back to Bite Back.
This was exactly why he should have texted them earlier.
He picked up his phone, but instead of going to his texts, he opened a search browser. If they were going to have to change venues… what if Luis found them somewhere entirely new? Someplace fun and different. Maybe that would make the last-minute change more okay.
While polishing off a box of mac and cheese, Luis continued to research vampire-friendly bars in the area.
He knew of and had been to a lot of them, but there were some options they hadn’t tried.
One in particular jumped out to him, a place he’d been before with Cassie because they had live music.
Luis had never noticed they also served blood.
Hm.
When Luis arrived at Julien and Karim’s house half an hour later, he parked and switched cars, sliding into the cool, leather seats. Then he texted Julien that he was outside.
Karim was the first one out, and Luis’s nerves jumped in a way they hadn’t since the first month of driving them.
“Hey,” Karim said as he slipped into the backseat.
Today he was wearing an aged t-shirt with a young Dolly Parton on it, along with black jeans.
Luis glanced at him in the rearview mirror to assess.
Karim’s dark hair was back in its sleek, messy waves.
He didn’t look tired, but slightly apprehensive.
“Hey,” Luis said awkwardly.
There was a gap of silence. This usually would be where Karim would insult him and they’d bicker back and forth.
But maybe that wasn’t a thing anymore. Maybe Luis had ruined it by being too pathetic to joke with anymore.
Great.
His eyes darted to the rearview mirror again, this time catching Karim looking at him, expression purposefully blank. “Hey, so listen,” Karim shifted as though uncomfortable. “I got that guy’s ID from the bar.”
Luis looked away. “Uh, yeah. I don’t–I know I should report it or something, but I just, I can’t.” He’d thought about it a few times during the last week, but come to the same conclusion: it would hurt him and he just–he didn’t want to deal with it.
Coward.
He could feel the weight of Karim’s gaze and braced for the argument that would follow.
“Okay,” Karim said instead. “If you change your mind, just let me know. But I get it.”
Luis wasn’t sure what there was to get out of his stilted excuse, but his shoulders loosened. “Yeah. Um, okay. Thanks.”
The other car door opened and Julien slid in.
“Good evening,” Julien said with an easy smile. The door shut and Luis watched him tilt his head as if scenting the air. “How’re you feeling?”
“Good,” Luis said quickly. “Much better, thank you.”
Julien clicked on his seatbelt. “I’m glad to hear it. I wanted to text you this week to check-in, but thought you might need some space.”
Luis hated the stupid flutter in the bottom of his belly at hearing that.
The way he desperately wanted to know what Julien would’ve said.
Luis had tucked every one of his sweet words from last weekend into long-term memory, despite the guilt that had dogged him about it.
The voice that had told him those didn’t belong to him, not really. Julien was just being nice.
“Oh, um. Well, I’m all good now,” Luis said.
“Good,” Julien said with a soft smile. “I’m glad you’re feeling better. We’ve been thinking about you all week.”
Oh.
“Yeah, I’m okay,” Luis said. “And I’m uh, sorry for worrying you. And for last week–”
Karim made a sound of derision, “Please stop apologizing.”
“Karim,” Julien said, as Luis felt his cheeks flare with heat.
“No, I just–I mean thank you,” Luis fumbled out. “For all of that. I know I wasn’t… at my best.”
“We were glad to help,” Julien said. “Glad you weren’t alone. And if you want to file–”
“I already asked,” Karim cut in quickly, “he doesn’t.”
Luis was stupidly grateful not to have to explain it again.
“Ah,” Julien sounded apologetic, “right.”
There was a beat of awkward silence.
“Actually,” Luis said, desperate to move forward. “I was wondering if we could go somewhere new tonight? There’s a bar not too far from here that I thought you both might like? But, um, they don’t serve fresh blood, only bottled.”
He wasn’t fooling anyone with his suggestion of a new bar, but not even Karim made a pointed comment on it.
“Somewhere new?” Julien said with interest. “I think that could be fun. And bottled blood is fine.”
“Speak for yourself,” Karim grumbled.
“Ignore him,” Julien said immediately. “Bottled is fine, and we’d love a new place, wouldn’t we?”
Julien was too polite to ever physically elbow someone, but Luis could hear the nudge in his tone.
“Yeah, would be nice to go somewhere new,” Karim said. “Julien is such a creature of habit.”
Julien hummed. “Guilty. But that’s what you two are for, pushing me out of my comfort zone. Alright Luis, take us somewhere new.”
Some of the tightness in Luis’s chest eased. “Okay. Okay, great.”
Luis had been to Tamer Shrew half a dozen times, so he didn’t need to map it. He started the car.
In the rearview mirror he caught movement, and looked up to see Karim pulling out his phone. As he shifted into reverse, Luis felt his phone in his pocket buzz. He had to tamp down on the smile that tried to curl across his lips.
So maybe not everything had been irrevocably changed between them.
Luis could work with that.
##
Tamer Shrew was less of a fancy vampire bar and more eclectic live music venue, but Luis hoped for one night that would be okay. It was both different enough and familiar enough to him that going didn’t rattle his nerves too badly.
“This looks fun,” Julien said as Luis pulled into the tiny parking lot adjacent to the bar. Tamer Shew was packed, a full crowd inside spilling out into the street beneath the glow of neon lights.
“They serve blood here?” Karim asked. There was doubt in his voice.
“I promise,” Luis said as he turned the car off and they all got out.
On the walk up they could hear guitar riffs and bass pouring out of the bar. The front was clogged with clusters of people smoking and sipping their drinks inside the corded area.
“It better not be Vitavamp,” Karim said as they got to the bouncer and Luis had to stop to pull out his ID.
“Vitavamp?” Luis asked when the bouncer nodded him through.
“A brand of bottled blood. Karim’s least favorite,” Julien explained.
Karim crossed his arms. “I swear they add something to it. It tastes wrong.”
Julien said something in return, but Luis couldn’t hear it as they headed inside and the crowd enveloped them.
Luis led them toward the back of the bar.
It was further from the live music, but there usually were a few tables free because a lot of people preferred to stand up front.
They snagged a tiny one tucked into a corner.
“I haven’t been to a place with live music in a long time,” Julien said with obvious pleasure as he sat. The seats were so close together his arm brushed Luis’s. Luis’s skin goose bumped despite the warm air.
“It’s always pretty busy here, they book a lot of up-and-coming bands,” Luis said, turning to Julien. This close, Luis could see how the lights bounced off Julien’s pale eyelashes. His heart started to beat a little faster.
“Oh, you’ve been here before?” Julien asked.
“Yeah, me and my friend used to come a lot,” Luis said.
“Cassie, right?”
He startled at hearing her name out of Julien’s mouth. “Oh, uh, yeah.”
Julien nodded. “You’ve mentioned before you two went to shows together,” he explained. “She’s been trying to get you to get up on the stage.”
Luis blinked at him. He’d clearly mentioned that at some point, but had no memory of it. Now he felt embarrassed he’d given away something so intimate. He never talked about his music.
“Uh, yeah. She–yeah,” he said lamely. “But I haven’t been here in a while,” Luis said, “it’s not as fun by yourself.”
Julien nodded sagely. “She’s in graduate school, right?” Julien asked.
Where was all this coming from? Luis had worked hard in the last year not to really talk about himself to avoid getting attached to something that was just a job.
But clearly some things had slipped through the cracks.
And Julien had remembered every one of them.
“Yeah. She’s getting her PhD in pathobiology,” Luis said.
“What’s a pathobiologist do?” This came from Karim, who’d stopped scoping the bar with distaste and was now tuning into the conversation.