Right. So.
He gave into the urge, sinking down into the bed and pulling the covers up, his face hot.
He’d… given them his blood. The big taboo. The one thing his mother had lectured him endlessly about.
And so far, the world hadn’t ended.
The covers shifted and Luis got another whiff of Julien’s violet scent. Julien, who’d been so careful and steady and supportive. Who’d done everything Luis had asked like it was nothing.
And now? Now they were going to drink his blood.Taste him.
His thighs shifted under the covers.
He definitely shouldn’t think about it like that.
Chapter Six
There was a man above Luis, face shadowed. He had a hand on Luis’s neck, holding him down, smiling as Luis struggled. A scream was lodged in his throat, but his mouth wouldn’t move to let it free. His limbs were sluggish, heavy, and there wasn’t enough air.
The man’s teeth were white, so white, big square blocks filling his vision. Laughing at him.
“I just want a little taste,” the man said, and then he was bending down, those teeth against Luis’s neck and–
Luis jerked awake.
He gasped for air, pushing himself to sit up. Adrenaline raced through his veins. The dream and the memory of the bar drifted on the edges of his periphery, tangled up together.
But he wasn’t in a strange place, and Eric wasn’t there. He was in Julien and Karim’s guestroom. Safe. Because he’d stayed over, slept the night away, and now it was morning. He could tell by the sunlight peeking in the edges of the drawn curtains.
His phone on the bedside table confirmed it. Sunday morning. Luis yawned and shifted, dropping his feet to the floor. Noticeably, the dizziness and weakness of yesterday seemed to have abated. He felt sore and stiff all over. It would be slow going, but he thought he had a chance at standing on his own today.
And he could probably drive home.
No, he wasgoingto drive home.
He forced himself up and stayed there. He had a spare set of keys to the house, so he could lock up when he left.
That sounded like a plan. Go home, put this all behind him.
He remembered then, Julien’s brief mention of the ID Karim had gotten off of Eric. Julien had probably been about to broach the topic of reporting what happened to the police.
Because Luis should probably do that. Actually, he should’ve gone to the hospital and they could’ve tested him for drugs and it could’ve been a whole thing.
But he was a coward, then and now. He wasn’t going to do that. Luis just… didn’t want to go through the whole thing. He’d have to see Eric again if it went to court. And his mom would learn he’d been at a vampire bar and–
No.
Luis wanted to just put it behind him. Pretend it didn’t happen. Nothing had actually happened to him so–so he just wanted to move on.
Fifteen minutes later, Luis crept through the house with all his things and slipped quietly out the front door.
He didn’t have any messages from Julien or Karim, so he hoped it was okay he’d let himself out. The only things on his phone were the stacks and stacks of unread texts and voicemails from his mother, which he was also avoiding dealing with.
Luis’s car was still parked in the driveway where he’d left it on Friday. As he unlocked, his eyes caught on all the bright flowers in the yard. He turned back, realizing he’d never been here in the daytime. Never seen the house in sunlight.
It was beautiful, actually. The front was accented in sun-drenched shrubbery and beds of mixed flowers in full bloom. One side of the house had trailing vines that were scaling up to the second story, and they were pocked with small yellow flowers. The house was handsome at night, with well-placed lighting, but it had nothing on the daytime.
All these flowers, and neither Julien nor Karim ever saw them in their full glory. It seemed a shame.
