Page 110 of Seer

I gaped at him.

He looked down at Greg. “Oh, hey,” he said. “Glad to see you found your guy. Sorry it wasn’t me; we could’ve had fun. You’d better start bonding with him so he doesn’t die.” He tilted his head back and saluted Ms. Jackson. “Congratulations on leveling up. Unexpected but welcome. Good luck, y’all.”

He jogged across the parking lot into the trees where the monsters had gone, semi-dead vampire bouncing on his shoulder.

“Do you know that guy?” asked Mr. Cruz.

A car’s headlights washed over us, and I heard it accelerate in our direction.

I glanced upward. “Ms. Jackson, that, uh, guy said I need to bond with Greg. Any idea how I do that, since we obviouslycan’t have sex?” I wasnothaving sex with an unconscious Greg.

The Ouija board appeared in the dragon’s chest.Noflashed.

“Shit.” I hugged Greg’s hand to my chest, pressing my lips together.

A car door slammed, and footsteps pounded as Lloyd ran up. “What happened? How is that a dragon? Wait, never mind. What happened to Greg?” He looked between Ms. Jackson, who loomed over us all, Mr. Cruz, and Greg.

A girl who didn’t look more than twenty years old skidded to a stop next to Mr. Cruz. She was wearing a green Build Barn polo. Mia. Her second self was a large reptile of some sort.

Mr. Cruz, still putting pressure on Greg’s neck, summed it up for them. “Vampire ripped the side of his neck. He’s bleeding pretty badly. Dragon won’t let me call an ambulance. Friendly vampire said this guy—” he nodded at me. “—has to bond with this one, whatever that means. But no one knows how, because there’s usually sex involved?”

“I know how,” Mia said.

Lloyd nodded. “It’s doable.”

I could’ve passed out from relief as they knelt next to me.

Lloyd said, “Cal, has Greg indicated that he... is in favor of bonding?”

I nodded impatiently. “He asked me to move in with him already. He told me we would end up together permanently.”

“Good enough for me,” said Mia.

“Agreed,” Lloyd said. “We need to get Greg’s shirt off. Take yours off too, Cal.”

Lloyd rummaged through the first aid kit and produced a scalpel while I stripped off my sweaty “I Paused my Game to Be Here” t-shirt.

Mia said, “I’m ace. Sex is how most people complete the bonding, but my grandfather told me it’s not the only way. The main point is the exchange of pheromones and the intent. Is this Greg?” She patted his ankle and I nodded. “Right. The intent will be the hard part. Since Greg isn’t able to tell his magic he wants to bond with you right now, you have to convince it that he does. And at the same time, you have to exchange pheromones.”

Lloyd efficiently sliced one sleeve off Greg’s blood-soaked button-down and stretched his arm to the side. “One armpit ready to go.”

Dimly I was aware of other people gathering around.

Lloyd said, “Cal, you have to smell his armpit, and at the same time mingle your magic with Greg’s and push your intent into it. Like she said, make sure his magic understands what you want to do and get it to consent. Then we have to get Greg to breathe in from your armpit while you keep up with the magic and the intent.”

“Got it.”

I hoped I got the chance to make Greg laugh later while I told him this story, but right now I was grimly focused on getting the bonding done before he lost too much blood.

My heart pounding, I arranged myself in a kind of partial plank pose straddling Greg with my ass in the air, careful not to put any weight on him.

Fantine appeared next to Mr. Cruz, and she set a bag down next to her before kneeling. “Veterinarian,” she said to him and began pulling more gauze out of the bag.

“Good, he might need stitches.”

“Let me take a look.”

I eased myself down so my face was in Greg’s armpit. He stank a little, probably from nervous sweat before he was knocked out. I imagined I smelled worse, but nothing mattered except forming this bond to heal Greg.