Page 119 of Seer

2) We’re not sure why no one believed vampires actually existed up until now, but I suspect the vampires themselves started a misinformation campaign

3) One of the vampires helped us, and he incapacitated one of the killer vampires and took it away somewhere. This “good” vampire seemed to recognize Ms. Jackson, the Elven creation we found in TWIST’s book room. Ms. Jackson said they don’t know who he is. He also seems to have spoken to me before, but I have no memory of it. We are operating under the assumption that the legend about vampires having some sort of power to manipulate minds and memories may be correct.

4) There are at least two killer vampires still out there, so everyone, particularly@wonders, should continue to take precautions and not go anywhere alone.

I’ve reached out to the people I contacted previously to create the map of missing Wonders, and I asked them what they know about vampires. So far only a few have gotten back to me, but each of them said they were always told vampires were a myth.

CHAPTER 27

CAL

I could’ve gottendrunk off the feelings Greg was sending through our bond. I didn’t want to tell him, but blocking him this morning had been extremely unpleasant. The bond had resisted, fighting me every minute. And I had, oddly, missed him. Missed his presence in my head, even though I’d only had him there full-time for a few hours.

But now the bond was open again, and I was getting sexual arousal galore. Greg’s eyes glowed silver with it. But behind that were strong feelings of something I thought was moving toward love. And a little bit of disbelief-slash-awe that I was happy to be with him.

Yeah, I could get drunk off those emotions.

I stood up from the table and quickly put the dishes in the sink. Greg brought the glasses, and we both washed our hands.

I took his clean hand in mine and dragged him toward the bedroom. Ms. Jackson was sacked out on the couch and didn’t twitch at us rushing past.

But the bedroom was where we’d left our phones.

And contrary to my assumption that people would wait until a decent hour to start trying to contact us, they’d already texted. And called.

The other DMs wanted an update, and Delphia wanted more than one sentence out of Greg about how he was feeling and his overall health.

Greg said, “Let’s just turn the phones off for a while.”

His phone beeped again. Then mine.

I sighed. “It’s tempting, but I’m not sure I’d be able to relax knowing your mom and everyone were waiting on us to respond.”

Greg nodded dejectedly and sank down on the edge of the bed. He picked up his phone, took a deep breath, and called his mother back.

After a brief discussion with her, we decided to set up a Zoom call so Greg and I only had to tell the story one time. We managed to push everyone off another hour so he and I could get cleaned up, but it wasn’t enough time for sex. Or at least not for the kind of sex I was planning to have.

But getting cleaned up required getting dressed. And my t-shirt and jeans from the night before were covered in Greg’s blood. Even if I ran them through his washing machine, it wouldn’t save them. And nothing of Greg’s would fit me.

I texted Steve, who for whatever Steve reason was awake at this ungodly hour, and he agreed to run by my apartment and grab some clothes.

He made it with ten minutes to spare. He handed over the clothes, but then he stood next to the couch, scratching Ms. Jackson behind the ears with an expectant expression on his face.

“Thanks for getting the clothes for me,” I repeated, holding the door open for him to leave.

Greg, who was sitting next to Ms. Jackson since we couldn’t be very far apart right now, said, “Yes, thanks. I don’t need my mother seeing my boyfriend’s naked chest.”

Steve didn’t move. “You didn’t tell me how you ruined yesterday’s clothes.”

I shook my head. “Our Zoom call is on that very topic, but you can’t stay for it. I promise I’ll give you and Felix the complete rundown over beers, okay?”

He pointed at me. “Tomorrow or Tuesday at the latest.”

“Yes, yes, fine.”

He left, and I put my clothes on right there in the living room. I laughed when I saw the t-shirt Steve had picked out. He’d always had great instincts. Greg was not as amused as I was at “Marked safe from vampires today”.

When we got on the Zoom call, the other Texas DMs were already there. Ric from the West Texas District, Shane from the Southeast Texas District, Ellis from the Northeast Texas District, and Caroline, Greg’s niece, from the Texas Panhandle District.