Luis did some quick math. If Julien and Karim went weekly, and between the two of them they had four drinks, then weekly their bill was topping four hundred dollars. That didn’t include what they paid him weekly, and–and did they have bottled blood at home?
Luis did a quick search on how much blood a vampire needed to sustain themselves. There was a range, but–but yeah, they were not subsisting on their once a week drinks.
Luis felt stupid that he hadn’t known. Obviously people were getting paid, there was a market for fresh blood with how nice the bars were, but he hadn’t considered what that might cost. Hadn’t considered that it could be so much.
And every few weeks Luis was throwing away hundreds of milliliters of blood down the drain. He wasn’t even donating it.
It was so naive to only now realize how wasteful throwing away his blood was. It had genuinely never occurred to him. With his medications, he’d never been a candidate for human blood donations.
But what about vampires?
Luis pushed an irritated hand through his curls. If he really thought about it, there was an obvious reason he’d never come to this realization.
His mother wouldn’t have wanted him to.
Chapter Eight
Luis idly turned his phone over and over in his hand.
It’d been two weeks since he’d learned about the cost of the blood. Two Fridays taking Julien and Karim to the bar and back, plagued by the information.
Now it was Tuesday, and his red blood cell count had climbed enough that he’d need treatment again soon.
Friday was three days away.
Luis’s fingers tapped at the edge of his phone. He unlocked his phone, opening the texts he had from Julien. The last one was just Luis sending ‘here’ when he’d arrived at their house last Friday.
He started typing.
I had no idea blood cost so much.
Does blood from different people taste different?
Wild idea, would you be interested in my blood bag again next week?
He deleted all of those before they could be sent.
Luis:I have a weird question.
He sent that, and immediately regretted it. Half a minute later, there came a reply text.
Julien:Yes?
Luis:So uh. Was offering my blood to you guys… okay?
His cheeks were burning. Luis fingers tapped nervously against the edge of his phone.
Julien:It was. We enjoyed it very much.
Luis stared at the text message.Enjoyed? As in they were grateful for free blood, or that it tasted good?
Enjoyed?
Luis:Because I was wondering if you’d like the next bag too. I have to do my treatment again this week.
This time the reply took a while
Julien:That’s a very generous offer.
