Page 117 of The Good Vampire’s Guide to Blood & Boyfriends

20THE STORM

BRENNAN’S PHONE

r/occultboston

u/micahlandau

Bloody Demonstration in Boston

[Video]

I can’t believe this happened. I can’t believe I saw it! I can’t believe I got video!!!

I was downtown visiting my favorite psychic and then I was walking along the harbor and suddenly red starts flowing down along with deflating plastic pint bags. They painted the harbor red with blood. This has to be part of the story. Who else would have so much blood?

But what really scares me is—what kind of message are they trying to send?

Edited to Add: Someone from theBoston Globecontacted me to use my video on their site. This is real. [Link]

>> u/fittingaesthetics: This doesn’t seem like a good sign. Maybe some sort of ritual? Or a warning? Do you think they know we’re on to them?

THE BOSTON GLOBE

The Boston Blood Party

[video caption] A river of blood overtakes the Boston Harbor after an unknown group poured thousands of pints of stolen blood donations into the water on Sunday afternoon.… Police are contacting hospitals in an attempt to identify where the supply was stolen from, but as of now their origins are unknown. “How any one person could accumulate that much blood for a frankly petty prank is beyond me,” said one police officer.

Cole was quiet, looking out the window as the MBTA commuter rail pulled them toward campus. The gray sky finally gave in to the building pressure to rain. Something similar was building, gray and cloudy, in the pit of Brennan’s gut.

Cole hadn’t spoken since they’d transferred trains. Not that Brennan could blame him. But it was so unlike him. Even on the verge of a breakdown, Cole was an open book. And here he was, the quietest Brennan had ever seen him.

“It obviously wasn’t optimal, uh, back there,” Brennan started, voice low, tentative. “Do you wanna talk about it?”

“No, thank you,” Cole said, with the mechanical ease he might tell a cashier he didn’t need his receipt.

“Okay,” Brennan said. Watched the winter grays of Massachusetts streak by through the window. “I just mean that I’m here for you, whenever youdowant to—”

“I’m good,” Cole interrupted.

Brennan ignored the heat in his cheeks. Not the pleasant kind he usually had around Cole, but a hot shame. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do. Bringing Cole to Travis felt weird, but Cole insisted he wanted to be there. But Brennan was powerless to take away all the pain he knew Cole must be feeling. He itched for his journal, left behind in his apartment.

He started thinking of everything he said, didn’t say, and shouldhave said during the whole dinner fiasco, which spiraled into everything he said, didn’t say, and should have said throughout their whole relationship and—

Cole’s hand found Brennan’s and pulled it to center between them, fingers twining with his effortlessly, stilling his movement and his thoughts. When Cole squeezed his hand, he squeezed back.

Massachusetts passed them by in a blur. Cole slowly unfurled from where he’d been facing the window.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to walk you to yours and Mari’s before I go to Travis?” Brennan asked.

“I’m sure,” Cole said. He squeezed Brennan’s hand tight like that might keep him from leaving him behind. Not that Brennan really wanted to. “We’re in this together, right?”

Brennan pulled their hands up to press a kiss to the back of Cole’s hand. “That goes both ways, you know.”

“I know.”

Brennan let himself relax. He held Cole’s hand the rest of the ride.

Travis’s dingy shack looked like even more of a mess than Brennan remembered. With the rain coming down like it was, the building swayed slightly, ready to collapse under a stray breeze.