Chapter Twenty Five
“So, we kissed,” Luis said on a call with Cassie a day later. He’d gotten up early, before sunset, to have privacy for the phone call. “And I think I’m now sleeping in their bed?”
The screen flailed as Cassie sat up. “What! Details! Who’d you kiss?”
“Uh, both,” Luis’s face was hot. “Turns out they like me.”
“I fucking knew it,” Cassie said with glee. “So, what, are we dating?”
“Uh. We haven’t really… talked about it yet.” Which Luis wasn’t upset about. Julien, in some ways, seemed intent on taking it slow, and Luis was good with that. A lot about his life had just changed dramatically. “But they both seemed… serious.”
Cassie was beaming. “This is awesome. No dates since college, and then you pick up two smoking hot vampire boyfriends in one fell swoop. Unconventional method, but I can’t argue with the results.”
Luis laughed and rubbed his burning face. “Don’t put it like that.”
“Listen, with everything else sucking recently, you deserved a win. And we like them back? Both of them?”
“Yeah,” Luis said. “I know Karim and I have gotten on each other’s nerves a lot, but that’s kind of settled down now. Or it’s different? I don’t know.”
“Enemies to lovers is not a new trope by any means,” Cassie added, “as you’ve reminded me recently.”
Luis huffed a laugh. “Karim and I were never enemies, not like you and Jess.”
“You know what I mean.” Cassie waved a hand to clear the words away.
“Wow okay, so we are maybe-dating. Exciting! Now I really need to come down and meet them. Give them the shovel talk. Coffin talk? Stake talk? No, that feels like it’d be offensive.
What’s the vampire equivalent? It’s not like they’d find a shovel intimidating. ”
Luis groaned. “How about you just don’t. I’m still… wrapping my head around all of this.”
Cassie hummed understandingly. “Anything you want to talk about?”
“Besides how they’re so, so out of my league?”
Cassie gave him a look. “Please, you’re great.
I know it, they know it. Hey,” she paused until he looked back at the screen, “what if, in this brave new world of yours, we try something new. What if we enjoy a good thing while it’s happening and not worry it to death?
If they said they like you, then they like you, and you should stop spending energy trying to argue them out of it, huh? ”
Luis groaned. “Stop making sense.”
“Can’t, it’s in my blood. Speaking of–” Cassie started.
“It’s all fine,” Luis said before she could get into it. “My levels are good, the bites are working, I’ve never been better,” he said, then added, “Physically.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Should I ask about the cult-member in the jail cell corner of the room?” Cassie asked carefully. “You haven’t really said anything about it since her arrest.”
Luis blew out a breath, sitting back. He was in the library on the cozy lounge chair. “I’m supposed to go and file for a restraining order tonight. At least start the process, since she might get out on bond and, well…”
Cassie nodded. “Yeah, that’s a good idea. But how are we feeling?”
That was a harder question to answer. “Guilty? Angry? Sad? I don’t want to send my mom to jail, I don’t want to bring charges against her.
I’d rather just… put this all behind me, but if I don’t, something else could happen.
Or her and her church could target other people.
Could target Julien and Karim. It just sucks.
It’s weird and when I think about it, I just get so angry. ”
“I’m angry too,” Cassie admitted. “That she’d do this to you. That I didn’t do better to get you away from her. That I wasn’t there.”
“Cassie,” Luis said, voice suddenly thick.
“No, listen,” Cassie said firmly. “I know it’s not my fault. I get it, logically. But you’re my family and she hurt you. She almost took you away from me. And that–that hurts. And it makes me so angry when I think about how close it all came to disaster.”
With everything going on, he hadn’t stopped to consider how Cassie might’ve taken all of it. “I’m sorry,” he said on reflex.
“Don’t apologize you idiot!” Now Cassie was blinking back tears. She sniffed and swiped at her eyes. “God, you’re so–you’re so stupidly sweet, Luis. It’s not your fault and I just–I just get feelings, okay? It’s no big deal.”
“Uh huh,” Luis said, watching her swipe again at her eyes. “I’m still… I wish it didn’t happen,” he settled on.
“Me too.” He watched her take a conscious breath to shake it off. “Whew, okay! So maybe we talk about that in small doses, huh? How about something lighter–heard about that asteroid supposed to hit earth in two hundred years?” Cassie asked.
A laugh choked out of him, clearing his rough throat. “God, no, but tell me more.”
##
After dinner that evening, he and Julien went down to the VPD to file the restraining order. There was waiting and paperwork and more waiting. Julien stayed at his side, guiding him, grounding him.
But Luis was grateful when they got back to the car and it was done.
“Karim’s packing a bunch of orders today, would you like to join us in the basement and hang out for a while?” Usually when they worked, they left Luis to his own devices. Today, Julien must have known he didn’t want to be alone.
“Yeah, okay,” Luis said.
When they got home, Julien paused at the top of the stairs.
“Ah, if the basement feels uncomfortable for you, you do not have to stay,” he said. “I’m sorry, it just occurred to me.”
Luis hadn’t thought about it either. “Okay,” he said, because he wasn’t sure if it would be hard for him.
But Julien and Karim’s basement was nothing like the church. It was a large, open space, finished and was well lit. It wasn’t abandoned and cold and dusty. If anything, it matched the rest of the house, except that instead of designed rooms, the furniture was cluttered along the walls.
He felt Julien’s eyes on him.
“I’m okay,” Luis said, and he meant it.
Halfway down the space was Karim, so they headed toward him. He was taping together boxes, and had a huge roll of bubble wrap on the table beside him.
Karim paused his taping when they got close enough. “Everything go okay?” He asked Julien.
“Yeah, paperwork was submitted,” Julien said. “How’s the shipments coming?”
They talked business a few minutes and Luis let his eyes wander the space. It was divided in half with stock on one side, then boxes, staging, and a computer on the other.
“There’s a couple things I need to shoot for the website; would you help me?” Julien asked Luis, drawing his attention back.
“Okay.” A gentle hand found the small of his back and guided him away from Karim and toward the staging area.
The staging area was opposite Karim, designed to resemble a living room with a camera and lighting positioned around it.
“Here, this lamp goes to Karim, please,” Julien said, stepping into the scene to unplug the one on the stand beside the couch. It had a stained-glass base and looked old. Luis received it carefully and took it to Karim.
When he returned, Julien had another lamp in its place and was moving behind the mounted camera.
“If this becomes too boring, feel free to wander off,” Julien said as he started snapping photos, the lights flashing with each picture.
But even an hour in, Luis was still helping.
Julien had slowly but surely replaced the artwork, the side table, the rug and several decorative elements on the shelving of the stage room.
Some of the finished items went to Karim for packing and some Julien had Luis return to their stock.
Julien had an eye for it, because none of the switches ever clashed, he seemed to know just what to change and how to get each item photo in its own cohesive habitat.
“Alright, that should be all for now,” Julien said as he turned off the camera and switch for the lighting. “Thank you for your help. I’m going to go edit these, but Karim’s going to need help to take the boxes up soon for pickup, if you’d like to assist with that.”
“Okay yeah,” Luis said and wandered back to Karim.
The other vampire immediately put him to work taping the last of the boxes as Karim put shipping labels on.
“Alright, we’re going upstairs, so don’t grab anything you can’t comfortably lift,” Karim said, easily stacking two boxes and lifting like it was nothing. Luis grabbed just one large box.
Karim led the way and Luis followed, happy to keep his mind distracted.
##
“You haven’t played me back,” Karim said as Luis walked into the bedroom just before dawn. Julien was in the bathroom doing his nightly routine, and Karim was flopped down on the bed, his cell phone in hand.
“My phone just buzzed,” Luis said. He’d felt it while brushing his teeth.
Luis got on the bed in what was becoming his spot. Immediately Karim set the phone aside and slid his arm around Luis. A low buzzing started in Luis’s stomach just from the one touch. “Afraid you’re going to lose this round?”
“You’re down a hundred points,” Luis said.
“I was down a hundred points,” Karim said cryptically as he rolled closer. It made the last few words a rumbling growl in Luis’s ear.
“I doubt you have another ‘vamoosed’ in your pocket,” Luis said.
“Mmm, something better,” Karim said lewdly, hips pushing against Luis’s side.
Luis turned his head and Karim’s gaze was dark. His sleep shirt had a hole right at the shoulder and was sagging around the collar. Luis’s eyes roved over each bit of offered skin.
“Oh?” Luis asked. His eyes caught on Karim’s mouth.
Then the man was shifting up and over him. His weight dropped down on Luis, an undeniably hardness pressing against him. Karim braced himself on elbows, and suddenly Luis was pinned in place.
His pulse jumped.
A finger played with one of Luis’s curls. “How far do you think we can get before Julien stops us?” Karim asked.
Luis swallowed hard. He had no idea, but he was down to find out.