Luis held back a laugh as Karim turned to lead him back through the house.
At his back, Julien let out a belabored sigh. “He gets impatient when he’s hungry, please excuse him.”
“It’s fine, I get it,” Luis said. Cassie was like that.Hangry.
He followed Karim back to the bedroom where the kit was.
“Let us know if you need anything,” Karim said. “We’ll be in the living room when you’re done.” He turned to leave with Julien, but paused. “And you’re sure?” He asked.
Luis felt a smile twitch the corners of his lips. “I am. It’s okay, really.”
Karim made a grunt of acceptance, and left.
Luis sat down on the bed beside the kit. He felt more calm and more certain of his choice this time. Dinner had been strange, but nice, and he wanted Karim to have something to enjoy too.
There was only the unpleasantness of doing it first.
Luis went through the steps–alcohol swab, tourniquet, needle assembly. The smell of the antiseptic still hit him hard, but having just eaten, the nausea was better.
The whole process didn’t take long. His muscle memory took over and he tuned his own thoughts out. He still grimaced at the prick of the needle, and hated sitting through the wait of the blood draw, but then the bag was full enough, and he was wrapping a bandage over the site and breaking it all down again.
His arm ached at the finish, but the relief of being done felt good. Everything went back into the kit, zipped away where he wouldn’t have to see it, except the bag of blood.
Luis sat for a minute letting the queasiness of the treatment settle. The antiseptic smell lingered, and Luis scrubbed a hand over his face, remembering instead the dinner Karim had made. The warm, fragrant scent of the lentils. The crispy, flaky fish.
The memory helped. Soon his heartbeat settled, his breathing evened.
Luis grabbed the bag and stood.
He found both vampires in the living room where Karim said they’d be.
“Here, I’ve, um,” he held out the bag. Both vampires stood–Karim quickly, eagerly, and Julien with a slower, smoother grace.
“And you’re certain?” Julien asked again as he stepped forward. He kept his eyes on Luis instead of the blood.
“Jules,” Karim said with annoyance, despite the fact that he’d asked the same question just minutes ago. He reached out and took the bag. “Quit looking a gift horse in the mouth.”
“You do remember how that story ended, don’t you?” Julien said.
Karim rolled his eyes, “To actually make the analogy work, Luis’s blood would have to be infected and then kill us. I don’t think that’s the issue here.”
“I’m sure,” Luis said. “I promise it’s not a Trojan horse.”
Julien gave him a dry look, but Karim snorted.
“Alright,” Karim said as he walked back to the couch with the bag. There were two empty glasses there. It took only a second for Karim to pull the release on the bag and start pouring into one of the glasses.
Luis stared, shocked. He knew they were going to drink it, but last time it hadn’t been in front of him.
“Karim,” Julien said.
“What?” He paused before filling the next glass. His eyes met Luis’s. “Jules wanted to offer you an out on this part if it creeps you out, but I figured you’ve been out with us for like a year, we’d know if you were squeamish.”
Which wasn’t inaccurate. Luis had been somewhat squeamish in the beginning about blood drinking, but hadn’t thought anything of it in so long.
Still, there was a difference between them drinking blood, and drinkinghisblood.
“Uh yeah, it’s fine,” Luis said. Because he was at least willing to see this through once, and see if that was true.
