He’d never cursed at her before, but now something had come uncorked in him, spilling toxin.
She frowned. “I’ve been calling and texting you, mijo, and you don’t answer. What am I supposed to think? I come here and then you’re not here, where have you been? It’s the middle of the night. You know that those blood suckers are out at this time–”
“Mom.”It heaved up out of him, so angry he felt like he was spitting fire. “What the fuck? Are you serious? I didn’t answer my phone so you came here and trashed my apartment?”
“AmIserious?” She mocked with a snarl, meeting his temper. “Ever since you moved out, you’ve been acting strange. You don’t have time for your Mama no more? You’re coming and going at odd hours, and with who? I know your girlfriend left you, I was just trying to figure out what’s going on with you.” She paused, shaking the guitar in his face. “I thought we talked about the music, but I see now the devil has been influencing you again–”
A rush of rage hit Luis so hard he couldn’t speak. He reached and snatched the guitar from her.
“Don’t touch it,” he forced out. He turned with shaking hands to put the guitar behind him out of the line of sight. Tried to take a breath that wasn’t lava in his mouth. Anger wasn’t going to help. He needed to calm down. He needed to get herout of his apartment.
“I’m over thirty Ma; I have a life!” Luis tried. “Not answering my phone for a couple days doesn’t mean anything is going on with me. I texted you I was fine!”
“Anyone could be texting from your phone!” She shouted back at him. “Where were you tonight?”
He wanted to scream; he wanted to throw something. He tilted his head back to try and get some semblance of control, scraping hands through his hair.“I was out,”he said forcefully. “I have alife—”
His mother crossed herself in Spanish and then grabbed the collar of his shirt and yanked. The suddenness had him pitching forward and down.
“Ow! What are you–?”
“What is on your neck?Is that a bite?”Her voice rose to a shrill and venomous pitch he’d never heard before. It cut into him as much as the collar of his shirt was.
Luis jerked out of her grip. His hand came up, slapping over the spot automatically to cover it. He’d forgotten all about the bite when he’d seen her car in his spot.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
“No, it’s just a bug bite–” he tried, but she wasn’t listening.
She crossed herself again. “A vampire attacked you!” She looked horrified.
Fuck, Luis had never meant for her to find out.
“I knew this would happen,” she said as she marched to the kitchen and grabbed her phone off the counter. “I just knew it! Those bloodsucking monsters were just waiting for their opportunity to get their hands on my baby–” She punched in numbers on her phone.
Luis’s heart jolted. This wasn’t happening, this couldn’t be happening.“It’s not like that.Who are you calling?”
“Hello," his mom said into the phone. “Yes, I’d like to report a vampire attack–”
Luis shot forward and grabbed for the phone. “Mama!” He was quick enough to get it out of her reach, and his height helped keep it away as he stepped back and put the phone to his ear. His mother cursed at him in Spanish, batting at him to try and get the phone back.
“Ma’am?” A calm voice on the other end asked. A quick look at the screen told him she’d called the police.
“Hey, sorry,” Luis said to the dispatcher, “We’re all good here, my mom doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”
“A vampire bit you!” She screamed.
“Consensually,”he said with feeling. “There was no crime, I went to a vampire bar.”
That was not technically the truth, but he needed to sell how much this was not an issue. The last fucking thing he needed tonight was cops at his door.
The operator asked him something further, but he couldn’t hear it over his mother’s shouting that he’d been attacked by ablood-sucking devil creature.
“We’re fine–I’m fine–she just doesn’t like vampires. Thank you, bye!” Luis hung up. Staying on the line couldn’t make it any better, the dispatcher would either believe him or not.
“We have to report this! They cannot get away with this!” His mom was trying to get the phone from him.
“Enough!”Luis roared. He put a hand out to try and reinforce distance between them. “There was no crime, Mama! Iaskedthe vampire to bite me.”
