Chapter Sixteen #2
He and Karim went back to the door to grab Luis’s duffle, and Karim led him up the stairs and to a room down the hall from their own closed door.
It was, like every room in the house, beautifully decorated.
His last guest room had been blue and gold, but this one was orange and yellow, bright even despite the late hour.
“Be right back,” Karim said.
Luis set his duffle down out of the way and waited. It took less than a minute for Karim to return with a bundle of bedsheets.
He made quick work of making the bed. “Make sure you compliment the sheets,” Karim said when he finished, “Julien has been hyper focused researching bed sheets and thread counts and all this stuff. Don’t know if it makes a difference, but you know,” Karim shrugged.
“I will. Thanks for making the bed,” Luis said.
“No problem,” Karim said. Then he pointed.
“Full bathroom is there. You’re welcome to anything in the house, so if you get hungry, please feed yourself.
Julien and I usually go to bed around eight in the morning, up at six, but if there’s an emergency you can wake us. It’s the room at the end of the hall.”
“Oh, okay.” Luis couldn’t imagine an occasion where he’d need to, but it was nice to know he could.
Karim stepped toward him and Luis froze. He reached out, a hand touching Luis’s hair, ruffling it affectionately. It made sparks fizzle to life and zip down the back of Luis’s neck.
“Sorry,” Karim said with a toothy smile as he pulled away. “Been wanting to do that for a while. You always have this cute bedhead look, it’s hard to resist.”
“Oh,” Luis said, his throat catching. Karim’s eyes were dark, and with the fangs peeking out, he looked like he wanted to bite Luis. Taste him.
His heartbeat sped up.
“I always think they look so messy,” Luis said.
“They do, but it works,” Karim said. His eyes roved over Luis’s face, and then he sighed out a long breath and stepped back. “Goodnight Luis.”
He was just going to leave? But why would he stay?
Luis’s head bobbed. “Goodnight.”
Karim left, closing the bedroom door behind him.
Luis, considerably more awake than he’d been five minutes ago, just stood there in the center of the room. He could still feel the phantom touch of Karim’s hand in his hair.
And his own disappointment that that was all it had been.
##
On Saturday, Luis woke up in the most comfortable bed he’d ever slept in. The mattress was soft without making his back ache, and the sheets.
He was going to compliment Julien on his choice, and he wouldn’t even be putting it on. They were cool and smooth, a decadent caress every time he moved.
With a groan, Luis rolled over to find his phone and check the time. It was almost one in the afternoon. The blackout curtains were doing a hell of a job, because the room was nearly pitch black.
On his phone he had a text from Karim that included the house’s Wi-Fi password and a heads-up that there were breakfast muffins in a cloche in the kitchen for him.
Luis rolled onto his back with a long sigh. What must it be like to live in a beautiful house like this? To sleep in the world’s most comfortable bed night after night, and regularly eat the best meals he’d ever tasted?
Julien and Karim had obviously worked a long time to afford their current lifestyle, but the decadence of it still made Luis envious. He’d already lost so much time just… waiting around in his own life.
Would he ever have a house? A partner? Would he ever make enough space, unpack enough courage in himself, to practice his passion where people could see it and enjoy it?
Groaning, he pushed himself up. Luis wanted something like this someday, a lived in life. He wanted cozy and comfortable. Wanted nights at the bar with his friends followed by silly card games and conversation.
Wanted things he couldn’t have. At least not long term.
Maudlin thoughts pushed in and he shook them off. Ruminating wouldn’t help him, and he’d promised Cassie he wouldn’t spend any more time in bed rotting.
Luis found a light, turned it on, and then went about getting ready for the day. He took a long, hot shower in the beautifully adorned bathroom, and by the time he got out, scented in their fancy soaps, nearly half an hour had gone by.
Dried and dressed, Luis used his phone as a light to go downstairs to the kitchen. In the center of the counter was a cloche with muffins and a note in what had to be Julien’s swirling cursive handwriting. He’d detailed some of what was in the refrigerator and pantry to eat if Luis got hungry.
Luis got a plate and a muffin, and then paused before taking a seat. The kitchen curtains had been pulled, but he knew just beyond them were the gardens. The gardens in sunlight.
Luis was curious. He took his plate and muffin and went to the backdoor.
As Julien has said, the garden was expansive, sprawling from the edge of the pavers back until it ran into a tree line.
The area was enclosed with tall stone walls that ran the length of the property, creating natural privacy.
Luis stepped out onto the pavers, beneath a pergola of white roses.
It was spring, and everything in the backyard was in full bloom.
There were stones that wove the paths through the garden, and Luis ate his muffin as he walked them.
Like the house, there was a lot of love and care present in the garden.
As he walked, he noticed that a lot of the flowers were white or pale yellow or blue.
Reds, so common in most flower varieties, were noticeably missing.
There were also a significant portion of what looked like native and wildflowers spattered about.
It was beautiful.
Luis wondered if Karim and Julien walked the gardens in the moonlight.
When Luis finished the muffin, he took a seat on one of the benches. He could hear the hum of bugs, the sound of birds in the distant trees. He let his mind drift, imagining Julien and Karim out here. Holding hands. Sharing kisses.
The garden, like the house, felt like a testament to their love. The care, the cooperation. Luis had no doubt that Karim had labored out here considering the number of white roses present. It was ridiculously romantic.
His envy swelled. What would it be like to be loved like that? To let your house be filled with naked angel baby paintings because your lover enjoyed them. To grow a literal hoard of his favorite flowers just so you could surround him with reminders of your dedication.
Luis sighed, tilting his face up toward the sun. Would he have enough time to find something even half as good? He was already over thirty and his lifespan was, statistically, much shorter than average.
Why had he wasted so much time doing nothing?
##
“Oh hey–damn, is that their house?” Cassie asked the moment she picked up the phone.
It was late afternoon. Luis had eaten the lasagna leftovers, wandered about, and ended up in the library when he’d gotten bored scrolling on his phone. He’d had the thought to call and figured… well it was better than slipping into another melancholy funk.
“Yeah, the library,” Luis said, panning the camera around.
“Oh, a library, that’s fancy,” Cassie said. “I’m surprised to hear from you, I thought we said Sunday.”
Luis shrugged. “Yeah, but I was bored, had some time. They don’t wake up until six, so I figured…”
“Ah, right. The vampire schedule,” she was in her apartment on the couch. “Well, hey, how was your night then? Give me details!”
“We went to the bar, came home and played cards, nothing exciting,” Luis said.
“What? Not even a little making out?”
Luis rolled his eyes. “I’m telling you it’s not like that. We’re friends.”
“Right. Right, right, right,” she said. “Okay, well how’s it been being there, staying over?”
Luis bit his lip, but Cassie jumped on it at once, sitting forward, face serious. “What’s wrong? What happened?”
“Nothing,” Luis said quickly. “It’s not–it’s just–you ever been around people who are so in love and their life is like… perfect?”
Cassie looked thoughtful, and then nodded. “I mean maybe not up close and personal, but yeah I get where you’re going.”
“It’s just weird being here, seeing it all.
I know their lives aren’t perfect. But… I mean it’s all the stuff with Mom too.
” He felt his throat spasm, and cleared it.
“Like you’re going for your PhD and Julien and Karim have this whole life and their business, and I just…
what do I have? What have I done? I’m already thirty and I just–I don’t know. I feel a little lost. Envious.”
Cassie was listening closely. “I think that makes a lot of sense,” she said.
“You’re like, at this huge transition point.
And maybe you’re seeing things you want and well, hey if you want to get a PhD it’s never too late,” she smiled for the joke, and Luis chuckled.
“But seriously, you are doing something. Taking this job, making new friends, that’s been a huge step for you.
What comes next, I don’t know, but sometimes we don’t know until we do.
I think it’s okay to just sit in it, deal with it as it comes.
It’s good you want something, even if you don’t know yet exactly what. ”
Her words soothed part of the snarl inside him. “I just–I feel the time ticking.”
Cassie’s brows furrowed. “How’s that going, with the bites?”
They’d only touched on that part of it a little. “Good, really good,” Luis said. “It’s easier, it heals faster, and–and because there’s no needle, I can do it more often. So, I’ve been able to keep my levels low.”
Cassie was nodding. “Good. I’ve actually been looking into what research there is for your condition and vampirism.”
That surprised him. “There’s research?”
“Not a lot. Your condition, especially at your age, is kinda rare, obviously,” Cassie said. “But yeah, there’s a few studies where vampirism has been used as a long-term treatment method. But there’s no data that it changes health outcomes with any statistical relevancy.”
“Oh.” Right, because why would it?
“But there’s always the Change,” Cassie said suddenly.
Luis had been staring at one of the bookshelves idly, and his eyes snapped back to the screen. “What?”
Cassie shrugged. “There’s only been one case with your condition, but the Change cured her. And obviously lengthened her lifespan.”
Luis remembered Karim bringing it up at the bar, asking if he’d ever considered it.
“I–I can’t–” He started. Panic swept through him. It was a solution, but a permanent one. He’d be–he’d be different, his whole life would be different.
But already Cassie was waving the words off. “Look, I know. That’s too much for right now. Sorry, I–we can talk about something else. Um, so what’re you guys doing tonight?”
It took Luis a moment to let the previous topic go. Still, he followed her lead because he couldn’t grapple with the idea of ending his human life right at that moment.
“I don’t know,” Luis said. “We didn’t really talk about it.”
Cassie sighed, clearly annoyed Luis wasn’t making this easier. “Okay, well. Then how about–want to hear about the lab fire Jess started?”
“Who’s Jess?” Luis asked, confused by the whiplash of this conversation.
“My arch nemesis, remember? Booking all the same lab times as me? Using my equipment?”
“Oh, right. Okay, so there was a lab fire?” Luis asked.
“They had to call the fire department!” Cassie hissed, eyes lighting up. “So, it started yesterday…”
Thirty minutes later, after a full retelling, Luis had a much better idea of just why Jess was Cassie’s ‘arch nemesis’.
He waited for a gap in the conversation and then said, “I didn’t know you were into women.”
Cassie froze. “What? I’m not–I–” She stopped. Her face went through a slideshow of emotions.
But if there was one thing about Cassie, she was a quick processor.
“That can’t be true,” she finally landed on.
“What does the evidence say?” Luis asked.
Cassie frowned, sitting back. She let out a whoosh of breath that sounded like huh.
Luis couldn’t help but poke at it. “I guess that explains your obsession with that girl at the pier a few years ago.”
“The pier? Oh shit, the skater girl–” Cassie’s eyebrows were so high they looked stuck. “Huh. How long has that been going on?”
Luis laughed. “You tell me.”
Cassie shook her head. “Well damn. Learn something new every day. Guess I should… explore that, huh? But not with Jess. Jess is still my arch nemesis,” Cassie said.
“Uh huh,” Luis said with a grin. “Enemies to lovers is a popular trope I’ve heard.”
“Fuck you,” Cassie laughed, shaking her head.
Luis snickered. The tension of earlier had eased in his body.
“Well. This was more fun when we were only dunking on you,” Cassie said.
“Karma’s a bitch.”
“Yep,” Cassie said, then something chimed on her end. “Oh, hey, I gotta go. I promised to meet Dorian for dinner.”
“Alright,” Luis said, “Have fun, tell him hey.”
“I will. Oh! We were thinking about splitting the gas and driving down at the end of summer classes. Keep your schedule open.”
Luis’s heart leapt. “I will!”