Page 20 of Worse Fates

I burst out laughing, clearing away some of the need and confusion clouding my brain.

“I amuse you?” He grins, eyes sparkling with humour. Lucero’s voice is smooth and luxurious as melted chocolate — and fuck, I want a taste.

His accent is somewhere between Spanish, English and uniquely him. Maybe its a silver spoon, or hell, the whole fucking set with a couple dinner plates thrown in for good measure.

What I’m saying is, I don't think he’s ever uttered the words ‘super whacky’ in his life.

“You something me, that’s for sure. Anyway, gimme your phone. You can order and pay on the app, obviously.”

He hands over a sleek black phone and I scan the QR code to get the menu up. “You’re really trusting, huh? You shouldn’t give up your things to just anyone. What if I’d stolen it?” I hand it back so he can pay.

“You, my lovely Golden, are certainly not just anyone,” he tells me and I feel it in my gut. “Besides, if you want the phone—” he waves a dismissive hand, “—have the thing.”

Lucero then glances down at his phone to pay. He raises a thick eyebrow in the sexiest ‘I’m confused’ face I’ve ever seen.

“You need to press your thumb in the thumbprint to pay.” I grab his hand to show him, but a wave of shocking need electrifies my skin and I recoil, clutching my palm to my chest.

“Golden…” He growls my name and inclines forward, hands fisting on the plastic yellow table.

That unknown connection, a tether which urges me towards him, tugs. Tight enough to cut my air supply. But as long as it’s Lucero, I don’t mind suffocating.

Fear prickles my neck. Shit— this is so far from normal.

I’m not sure what secrets I give up on my face, but Lucero reclines with some effort—as if he’s also resisting the same tether— before speaking, “Ramy usually does these things for me. I’m terrible with technology, which is the only thing that makes me feel my age. Vampires, you see, are made to blend into society. We pick up customs and culture quickly.”

I’m not sure if it’s his voice, or sucking down enough air to blow up a kiddy pool, but the tremors in my hands begin to still.

“So you’re saying your born predators?” Which should be the scariest part of Lucero. I guess I’m stupid.

“We aren’t born, but made,” he explains. “But yes, we are.”

“I really shouldn’t trust you, dude, you’re one big red flag. A vampire hurt me and then I saw this thing in a mansion—”

“You saw Vidar.” His voice drops, eyes flickering away before returning to me.

“What’s a Vidar? Wait, you knew I was staying in that mansion?”

“Vidar told me.” He tells me quickly. “He’s the one who tuned me. More like family than friends. He looks that way because he hasn’t fed properly in nearly eight years, we vampires don’t die of starvation, we instead become husks.”

“Shit, that sounds bad. Why’d he stop eating?”

He studies me for a long time, he seems…sad?

“Vidar lost himself to apathy. Something that can happen to hold vampires, burdens of immortality become too much, they lose interest in living. Food has no taste, music becomes irritating, sex no longer pleasurable.”

I clear my throat at the last part, hoping I’m not flushing like an idiot. I didn’t know until meeting Lucero sex talk made me blush. I could’ve gone my whole life without that information.

“So, it’s vampire depression?”

I glance around at the two other customers, but either they think we’re crazy or too absorbed into their food, and pay us no attention. So return my focus back to Lucero.

His arm is thrown over the back of the chair, his body relaxed but poised, like he could strike at any moment. And Lucero watches me like he seems to do everything; intensely. As if I'm more to him than a skinny brown guy he found passed out in a park.

“And Vidar sent you after me?”

Lucero’s jaw clenches. “Something like that.”

“Now I feel like a dickhead,” I groan. “I squatted in his home, and he didn’t stop or hurt me. Then I see him and freak out—fucking rude, right? He can’t help the way he looks.” I slump back. “The vampire who bit me though, fuck him.”