Page 8 of Worse Fates (Soulmates Suck #1)

Is this what temporary insanity feels like?

Agitation crawls up my legs like they’re covered in ants, my knee bouncing to get rid of them. My brain is screaming run, I shouldn’t be sitting with a fucking vampire in a café in the middle of the night.

And the stupid part of me, which is controlled by…new feelings, begs to crawl into his lap and press into him until I don’t know where he starts and I end.

I shove my hands into my pockets to stop myself from touching him and clench the fabric in my pockets, twisting until I feel a rip. Fuck, but Lucero makes me…want things.

Instead, I focus on the cheery pop music playing low in the background. The dull ache in my neck reminds me I should be running to a church, or throwing the 99p garlic bread in Lucero’s disgustingly handsome face.

But while there’s only two other customers sitting at tables, I don’t want to cause a scene.

I realise I’ve been staring at him, not saying anything, for an embarrassing amount of time. Heat rises into my cheeks.

Smiling as if I’ve just given him a treat, he leans his forearms onto the tables and says.

“I believe you requested to be treated to a ‘super whacky vegetarian triple stuffed burger’, correct?”

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.”

Lucero chuckles.

“You are very kind, Golden. But don’t waste your feelings on Vidar, beautiful. He doesn’t deserve them.”

He thinks I'm beautiful, he’s said so already. I don’t let myself dwell on it. I don’t lean in closer, red on my cheeks. I definitely don’t whisper his name as if it’s a bone-deep need, craving the shape of it in my mouth.

“Lucero.”

“Golden.”

I’m pinned under his darkening blue gaze. The fabric in my jeans pocket tears off nearly completely as I twist—a single thread is the only thing keeping me in place. I need, god, I need-

Slam.

I jolt, a scream lodged somewhere between my ass and heart, as our food arrives piled on a black tray.

The server opens his mouth, but Lucero’s glare whips at him like lightning and the poor guy trips over himself to get back behind the safety of the counter.

“Golden—”

“Is it rude to eat in front of you? Also, does garlic hurt you?”

I shove my burger in my mouth as I ask. Whatever just happened I don’t want to address, or name it. Instead, let me sink the matter so deep it hangs out with the titanic.

“When I was in foster care I had a friend called Slim who was a Muslim. When Eid came around, I’d always feel bad about eating and drinking in front of him. He told me not to worry, but I wanted to be there for him, ya know? He was cool to me. The other kids were bellends.

“So one time I said I'd fast with Slim. Guess how long I lasted? One hour! Eating and drinking was all I could think about, well not water. Tango orange, the best drink. He laughed his ass off when he saw me scoffing my face with a doughnut behind the group home. It sucked when I had to leave him.”

I pause, my mind suddenly blank.“What were we talking about again?”

His grin is suggestive—of what, I have no idea— and rests those thick forearms of his on the table.

“It isn’t rude to eat in front of me, in fact I enjoy watching you. And garlic is a myth.”

“And you eat… blood?”

The corner of Lucero’s lips twitch.“Yes, blood sustains me. I can also eat regular food, but it has no value. Usually only new ones consume it, force of habit.”

“What about the sun?”

“Vampirism isn’t a curse like in the stories,”

he tells me gently.

“While we prefer the night, sunlight causes us no issues. However, a new vampire is sensitive to most things due to heightened senses. Then sunlight can be annoying.”

All my breath leaves me and I forget about the burger in my hands.

“I ramble a lot.”

“I also very much enjoy hearing you speak,”

he says, voice so low it makes my legs shake.

I drop the burger I wasn't really tasting on the tray. The top sags off, sauce and a sad piece of lettuce drooping with it. Closing my eyes I try to push back that storm trying to tear me to pieces. I’m too far away from him.

My knee is bouncing out of control. Warmth engulfs it as Lucero’s palm rests there. Embarrassingly, tears wobble on my lower lid.

“Oh, Golden, my sweet, Golden.”

His voice turns feather soft, but pierces my heart all the same.

“Calm, beautiful. It’s all okay.”

“Just tell me all of it,”

I ask, breathless.

“Because...”

I swallow.

“Lucero, I can’t make sense of what’s going on and I’m…scared, okay?”

“I know learning about vampires—”

“Fuck that!”

I snap, drawing the attention of the few other customers. My whole body vibrates with nerves or…feelings that I’ve never felt before. All too intense, too much.

He’s too far away.

“I can’t stop thinking about you, Lucero. I dreamt about you, too. It was weird. Like, you were there but I wasn’t. But the person who was with you felt like me, and…Lucero, please.”

I shut my eyes, a single tear rolling down my cheek.

“Please. Just touch me.”

I’ve not even finished speaking before he’s moving beside me. I’m pulled into Lucero’s space and finally, finally, I’m pressed into the safety of his embrace. The relief is so stark I forgive myself for the one or two tears I shed.

“I have you, Golden.”

His hold on me may be strong, but emotions shake in his voice. “Forever.”

The sigh that leaves me would be embarrassing, if being buried into him didn’t stop my heart from beating out of my chest. I tug his cotton shirt out of his trousers and slip my hands onto his flesh, pulling a hiss from him. Lucero’s skin might be hot, but being this close is like the break in a fever I’ve suffered for too long.

“Lucero…”

I whimper, small and raw and so needy I should be mortified. But when his arms tighten around me, I can’t find it in myself to care. Lucero sure doesn’t.

I also kinda want to rub up against him. But I do have some self control, even if it’s on a razor's edge.

“Sirs, erm, you can’t do that here—”

The server begins.

“Out, all of you.”

Lucero’s voice is bedrock deep and as loud as a thunderclap.

I flinch, but he soothes me with a hand on my back, as in unison, chairs scrape against the sticky floor.

Everyone’s eyes are glazed over as they march towards the door, including the servers.

Leaving us alone.

Well that was…odd. But I’m pulled into Lucero’s lap, and forget everything else.

It’s instinct to wrap my arms around his neck and press my face into his chest. His hand strums up and down my back. Like I’m the out of tune guitar lost somewhere in Vidar’s mansion.

“You're safe with me,”

he whispers, and I believe him.

“And that's the part that freaks me out, because why?”

Lucero rests his chin on top of my head.

“I was turned into a vampire over six hundred years ago.”