“Simone? Simone? Come on, come on, come on, Simone, pick up,” he chanted into the phone as it rang, panic tightening his throat. “Simone! Thank god! This is Seth. I think something happened to Anri,” he said quickly as soon as he heard the phone click to life on the other side.
“Mmm….huh? Seth?” Simone mumbled sleepily. “Hi, Seth, um…whatsss up?” Seth could hear muffled movement as she yawned and smacked her lips sleepily.
“Simone! I think…well, I have this feeling that something bad happened to Anri. I think he’s hurt or something,” he said so rapidly his words were running together. “Please, Simone. I can’t get a hold of him. Please. Is he with you? Tell me he’s with you. I need to know he’s okay.”
He heard Simone drop the phone and then the sounds of cloth on cloth, her getting out of bed. “Yea, hold on a minute. My head’s all wonky, you woke me up. Sorry. Give me a…second…I’m going to call you back.”
There was the distinct muffled sound of another person talking in the background.
“No, no, no! Don’t hang up on me! Simone, is Anri there? No, Simone don’t-” Seth cried as she disconnected the line.
The display on his phone read 4:58 pm. Maybe Simone was napping? Or…Seth blushed when he realized what she might have been doing with someone else in bed at almost 5 pm when Anri was out of the house. It didn’t matter. He needed to know if Anri was okay.
Seth realized he was pacing and forced himself to sit on one of the ugly couches in the front room. He didn’t really like to hang out upstairs, but he got a lot better reception up here. It felt strange for him to be up here for any length of time. This part of the house wasn’t his home, it was the part of the house he was upkeeping until the owner came home. Which would be never, he supposed. Still, he felt weird and out of place.
His mind was jumping all over the place. He needed to focus. Where was Anri? Earlier today, when he had been compiling data for his dissertation on campus, he felt this incredibly strong tightness in his chest, like a fist reached in and crushed his heart. Anri needed him. It wasn’t exactly painful, but the force of it had still knocked him to the ground. He knew that something was wrong with Anri, that Anri was in trouble, though he had no explanation of how he knew.
All calls to Anri’s phone went straight to voicemail. There were no responses to his text messages, either, although Anri had texted him ten minutes before he first felt different. It was nothing but random letters and words, gibberish. He had assumed it was a pocket text, but the longer he went without hearing from Anri, the longer it was since that first strange feeling, the more it felt like a call for help than a random text.
Anri had to work today, so he had tried to call the bar, too, but there was no answer. Technically the bar wasn’t open yet, so he wasn’t that surprised when no one answered. Frustrated, but not surprised.
Seth realized how crazy that sounded, that he might have some magical connection to Anri. More than likely, he was just imagining things. The pain, though? What was the pain he had felt? A heart attack? Indigestion?
He wanted to write it off as just in his head, but he couldn’t, not with how his chest was aching. Maybe he should go to an ER. Maybe he was losing his mind, the stress too much. But, he hadn’t believed in vampires a month ago and now here he was dating one so maybe it wasn’t so crazy to think this connection he felt was real. Deep down, he knew it wasn’t a heart attack or anxiety. He just knew that Anri needed him.
He shook his head. Nothing made sense and he was ready to crawl out of his skin. He scrunched his face up and stared at his phone, willing Simone to call him back. He counted to five and when it didn’t ring, he decided to drive to Simone’s place. He needed to do something. Maybe Anri was there? Maybe he lost his phone? Frustrated and worried, Seth pulled on his shoes and coat and ran out the door.
He was backing out of his driveway when his phone rang. He slammed on his brakes halfway out of the driveway and struggled to liberate his cellphone from his jeans pocket. Finally, he slid his finger across the answer button, moving awkwardly.
“Simone!” he practically barked into the phone, nestling it between his ear and shoulder uncomfortably.
“Seth, hey, sorry about that, what were you saying about Anri? I, uh, couldn’t talk just then,” she said a bit shyly.
“Simone, is Anri there, with you?” he asked quickly. “I just…”
There was a moment of silence before she answered. “Um, he’s at work, right? I haven’t seen him since I dropped him off last night. I thought he was with you…”
“I dropped him off at your place this morning, about, um 9 or 10? He said he was going in at 4. I have this feeling, Simone, I can’t explain it, I don’t know what it is, but I just have this horrible feeling that something bad has happened to him. I can’t get ahold of him on his cell and no one is answering at Kintsugi.”
“You have a…bad feeling? What do you mean?” she sounded weird, and without seeing her face, Seth wasn’t sure how. Did she not believe him?
“I’m telling you the truth. I know it sounds…” he struggled to explain.
“No, Seth, I believe you,” she replied carefully. He wished he could see her expression. “Tell me why you think something bad happened to him.”
Seth bit his lip ring gently, worrying it against his teeth. “I was at school and it felt like my heart was being squeezed tight. It still does, just not as strong as the initial feeling. And all I could think of was, Anri needs me. I know it sounds..well, I realize it sounds stupid but…I just, I think I’ll feel better once I hear him. I dunno…” Saying it outloud did not help make it sound any less crazy.
Another moment of silence. He started doubting himself, feeling stupid even as he turned off his street, still heading to the highway. “Are you driving?” she asked him.
“Yea…” he answered bashfully. “I just couldn’t sit still. I’m so anxious, I have to do something. I just need to know he’s okay, then I can go and check myself into the crazy house.”
Simone took a deep breath. “Okay, come here. I’m going to hang up with you and call the bar. How long ‘til you’re here?”
Seth reflexively looked over at the dash where the car stereo used to be to check the time, but there was still only a piece of cardboard covering it. “Probably about 15 minutes,” he estimated.
“Seth, I’ll call you right back, don’t stress. Drive safe,” she told him sternly.
Nineteen minutes was his limit. She still hadn’t called him back, so he called her again. She answered on the first ring.
“Seth!” She said quickly. “He’s not there! Ginger said that it’s a mess, that something happened. She thinks there might have been a robbery! Are you almost here? Where are you? How did you know?”
“Simone, I don’t know how to get to your place. I’m at Kintsugi, I just pulled in. I’ve only ever walked to your place from here. Shit…Did she call the police?”
“Stay there, Seth. I’m coming. Yeah, she did. Aren’t they there?” Simone asked.
“Not that I see. I wonder if they sent unmarked cars? I’m gonna go in.”
“No, Seth, wait for me. Please.” Seth could hear the worry in SImone’s tone, she was close to panicking. “Please. I…shit, I should have been more careful. I hope this was a robbery, but after he was shot the other day…I really don’t think this is a coincidence. Some fangbanger is after my baby brother.”
Seth could hear rustling and he imagined she was getting her coat on. “Fangbanger? Is he involved in something shady?”
Simone snorted. “Anri involved in bad shit? Unlikely. He probably bled…um, sorry, fed from some vampire groupie or something once and now they’re after him. Or…” she trailed off for a moment. “Oh my god, I’m so dumb. It’s fucking Angelina. That goddamn bitch. I always hated her. I don’t know what Anri ever saw in that…that’s why he was living with me, Seth. Something happened with her that…changed him. He was afraid of something after they broke up. He never talked about it.”
“Angelina? His ex?” Seth asked confused. He heard her car start up.
“Yeah, did he tell you about that bitch?” Seth could feel the hatred radiate from her words.
“A little. Not much. He didn’t seem to want to talk about it and I was too tired to push him. I didn’t want him to run away from me anymore,” he replied. He remembered enough, but he wondered if Anri told Simone about the witch and her rituals. He knew he hadn’t told her about Angelina keeping him prisoner. He felt special that he knew something Simone did not.
Another lengthy pause. “Seth…this question might be a little personal but…did you and Anri…um…you know?”
“Huh?” Seth asked, confused at the sudden change of topic.
“Did you and Anri, um, well he spent the night, right? Did the two of you, ah….shit, don’t make me say it. Wait, stay right there, I think I see you. You’re in a shitty little red Toyota?”
Seth looked up as a black Ford Focus pulled into the parking lot. “You’re in the black, non-shitty Ford?” Seth teased.
“Sorry! Yea.” She laughed. The phone disconnected as she pulled up next to him so that her driver’s window was parallel with his. While her power windows easily glided down, Seth cranked down his manually.
“So, no cops,” She said, looking around at the practically empty parking lot. “Why aren’t they here? Ginger said she called them.” Simone frowned. “This feeling you had, do you still have it?”
“Um, yeah,” he replied, his hand going reflexively to the spot in his chest where it felt tight.
“Seth, this is important and totally relevant to finding Anri. Did you, ah…you don’t need to tell me details but…did you and Anri…um…well, you know? Did you guys, um…” Simone trailed off. Her face cheeks were rosy, and Seth couldn’t tell if it was because of the cold or because she was embarrassed.
Then Seth got it. Shit, she wanted to know if he and Anri had had sex. Seth’s face burned and he looked away from her, studying the cracks on his ancient steering wheel. “Um…not all the way? Kinda? Um…Why do you want to know?”
“What does kinda mean? How far is ‘kinda’? More than third base? Did he tell you about what happened when you were with us? What he did say to you?”
“Kinda…um…we um…” he hesitated, completely unprepared to tell his Claret’s sister about the level of intimacy they shared.
“Okay. Um, did you kiss?” she asked, changing tactics.
Seth stared at the cracks harder. “Yes,” he replied softly.
“Did you, um, do more than that?” she asked more quietly. “I swear, I’m not trying to be nosy. It’s important.”
His face was on fire. “Ah, yeah, I guess. Not like sex-sex but um…third and a half base?”
She sighed. He peeked at her but she wasn’t looking at him. “Well, that’s good enough, it seems. Did he tell you about what happened at my place? About the bloodbond?”
“Bloodbond?” Seth asked, feeling stupid.
“Goddamnit, Anri,” she cursed. She shook her head, immediately dismissing her irritation. “He…well, he must have his reasons. But, he should have told you. Now I’ll have to tell you. Great. You said you can feel him? If you try hard enough?”
“Maybe it’s in my head. It doesn’t make sense. I think I’m going crazy. I’ll just go check myself into a psych ward. Nevermind,” he said without looking at her, ashamed and embarrassed.
She snorted. “Shut up, Seth. You aren’t crazy, you’re at least partially bloodbound to my idiot brother. Get in my car, I’ll drive and you’ll follow your connection to Anri. We’ll go find his dumb ass so I can kick it, and then you can kick it.”
“Bloodbound? I don’t understand, Simone,” he said as he threw his car into park and turned it off.
“Get in my car, Seth. If you’re feeling this way, we need to hurry. Angelina is a crazy bitch. No buts, just get in. I’ll try to explain things on the way.”
His chest tightened again and he jumped out of his car. He locked it out of habit, but if someone stole his car they would be doing him a favor. Rushing over to the other side of Simone’s car, he tried the handle but it was locked. He waited until he heard the auto lock click open then opened the door and climbed in.
“Wait,” he wondered once he sat down. “Do you know where he is?”
“I don’t,” she said, putting the car in drive. “You do.”
“I don’t know what you are talking about, Simone,” he said with mild confusion. She pulled up to the road and looked both ways.
“Hmm…I don’t really know how this works. Someone should write a user’s manual. Um…think about Anri and, uh, see if one direction feels more…right? I only know what my mom told me, I don’t know anyone else who’s fully bloodbound.”
Seth looked at her with as much skepticism as he could muster. She snorted.
“Just try. If it doesn’t work, then we will have to figure out something else.”
Seth rolled his eyes. “Fine. So, just shut my eyes and think Anri or something?” He closed his eyes. He was still skeptical, but he tried thinking about Anri anyway. He took a deep breath and focused on the pressure in his chest, thinking about the vampire he loved.
Nothing. He was ready to give up, except…he felt pulled in a particular direction, though the feeling was nearly imperceptible at first. He focused his attention on it but it was slippery and elusive. He imagined it as a string, and took hold of it in his mind. It was slick and it slid from his mental grasp. He tried again, but this time when he thought of it, he wrapped it around his hand. It was still hard to hold onto, as if it were covered in soap. He growled when it almost escaped from his mental grasp again, but he strengthened his hold and then he knew where Anri was. Not a solid location, but he felt a general direction.
He opened his eyes, testing his grasp on the mental cord with them open. It was not as strong but it was still there. “Turn left,” he said confidently.
If Simone was surprised she didn’t show it. She pulled out of the parking lot and went left. “I don’t know how it works. Just tell me when you think we aren’t heading the right way anymore. Is it like a map in your head or just a general direction?”
“Um…It’s like a cord. I can kind of feel him, like he’s at the end of this cord that seems to connect us. I felt it last night, and he said he felt it, too. I even felt it off and on throughout today, but I thought maybe it was just because I was really tired. Your brother is exhausting.”
Simone laughed. “It’s nothing like that. You and he are bloodbound, or nearly so. I’m so mad at him, making me have to explain it, since he obviously didn’t do it yet. I’m sorry, Seth, that this has been so fucked up. Everything…this isn’t the way it supposed to be for you. You have all of the reasons to be pissed and tell us both to go to hell. But…I’ve had this feeling about you, since I met you. You and Anri…it just seems right to me. I dunno…” She trailed off.
“You need to be going more that way,” he said in the lapse in conversation. He pointed northwest. “So, bloodbound?” he reminded gently.
She sighed in the same way that Anri did. The corner of Seth’s mouth curled up in a small smile even as his chest clenched with worry.
“So, um, damn. Anri should have told you. He always makes me do the hard stuff. Well,” she said, stopping at a red light, “When he was shot, he drank your blood to recover. He drank a lot of you. You were really, really close to the limit, you almost died. I’m serious about that,” she said, looking over at him. “You almost died. For real. I was really really worried. He would never have forgiven himself. And, if you had been any closer, I swear I would’ve driven you straight to the ER, I swear I would have. You never got worse, so I thought you were doing better. I thought when you woke up you’d just need to eat and you’d feel better. But…”
Seth nodded. “It was hard. It was really hard to wake up. And I was so cold.”
She nodded, turning left when the light changed. “Yeah, it seems you were going into shock. I’ve never drank anyone that low, but then again I’ve never been shot. He would have died if you weren’t around, Seth. I never said it, but seriously, thank you from the bottom of my heart for saving my brother’s life. Thank you for being with him that night or he would be dead, this I do not doubt for a second.”
“I would do it again, Simone,” he replied with conviction. “I know I’ve only known him for a month or something but…I think that I couldn’t live without him now. This sounds silly, even to me, but I have never felt like this, not ever. I love him. It’s so strange, I’ve never been attracted to men before. It’s just…Anri. He is just, he just, uh, hits all the right buttons for me. I can’t explain it.”
“I’ve heard that the relationship between a Wren and Claret, a true bonding, is like a fated pair. It’s kind of a vampire fairy tale, the romance of it. That there’s someone out there that is your perfect pairing, and that if you find the right Wren you will know it. I think…I think that is what you and Anri have. The vampire version of a fairy tale romance. Call me a romantic, but I think…” she trailed off, lost in her thoughts.
“Um…go right when you can. We are getting closer, I think. It feels stronger.”
She looked around. “I’m not familiar with this part of town. We might end up having to turn around a few times. Maybe you could look at a Google Map or something and, um, see if anywhere stands out to you?”
Seth shrugged. He pulled out his phone and opened his map app. Nothing seemed to stand out to him. “I don’t think that this bond has caught up with technology yet. Sorry.”
“It’s okay, what we are working with is better than nothing. It’s gonna get frustrating as we get closer to narrow it down.” She sighed. “I guess it’s better than not knowing at all.”
Seth nodded. “Go left, wait, no stay straight. So…bloodbond?”
Simone hissed. “Okay. If you are…well…if you get mad, I totally understand. After you woke up, you looked really bad. You were going into shock. You slept too long. I didn’t expect you to sleep for three days. So…well…I kinda forced Anri to take charge. We already knew you were a Wren, so…um…dire circumstances? Anri drained you, and he replaced what he drained with himself. Do you remember drinking from him?”
Seth thought for a minute. A lot of the time after the shooting was hazy. He remembered sensations more than what actually happened. But he did remember Anri asking him, and he remembered the weird sensation of clarity when he answered. He knew the right words to say. And he remembered, then, the coppery taste of Anri’s blood in his mouth, sweet and salty, coating his mouth. The blood had filled his stomach like comfort food. As he thought about it, as it came back to him, everything felt right. Like a thing that was meant to be. Maybe this romantic vampire fairy tale wasn’t so far fetched.
“I…remember,” Seth said quietly. He could feel the pull getting tighter. He knew they were getting close. “It was comforting. Like eating my favorite food. That’s weird, right?”
“Not for you. Not for a true bloodbound. So…um…you and Anri are kinda….” Simone trailed off again.
“Jesus, Simone! Just say it. The suspense is killing me!” Seth said both playfully and sarcastically.
“You and Anri are considered, um, bonded, sort of like marriage…by vampire laws or something. I don’t know anyone who has ever been bloodbound, not even my parents. It just isn’t a thing that’s done very often. You’re bound together. It starts with sharing blood, then it’s bound with, um, intimacy.”
Seth blushed. “So, exchange of blood, then sex, is the vampire equivalent of marriage?” He made sure to study the scenery outside of his window with scrutiny. He realized he didn’t know where they were, either. This part of town felt older, abandoned industrial buildings and boarded up store fronts. Lots of old warehouses, factories, broken windows and homeless people. “Um, we need to go more, um, rightish. That way,” he pointed out his window.
“Okay. I’m going to try not to stop anywhere around here until you tell me. The last thing we need is to get car-jacked.” She looked around for a place to turn right. “Are we getting close?”
“We are very close. I can feel him. I kinda feel like he’s worried. Or scared? Or both? It’s weird, and I can’t tell exactly.”
“Okay,” she said. She kept driving, her fingers strumming nervously on the steering wheel. “Not, married, I guess. It’s more than that. You can feel the difference, right? This connection? My parents weren’t even bloodbound. You have to do more than taste each other, you have to drain each other. And then, um, exchange, uh, other bodily fluids.” She sighed. “Anri should have told you before you guys, um, sealed the deal, so to speak. This bond, it’s unbreakable. At least, it’s supposed to be.”
Seth thought that the fact that he was vampire-married to another man for life should have him panicking a bit more, but surprisingly he was feeling rather okay with everything. This connection with Anri just felt right. Like Anri had said, it felt like home.
“I, uh, kinda forced him to seal the deal. I didn’t give him a whole lot of time to explain. It was kinda spur of the moment.”
She laughed, her face a deep crimson. “Okay. I just wanted you to know. I don’t really want anymore details into my brother’s bedroom affairs.”
“What about you?” Seth asked, needing something to keep distracting him.
“What about me?” she asked him back. “Let’s see…I’m the oldest, most intelligent and beautiful Rousseau sibling. Let’s see…we grew up upstate, and I moved to the City when I started making and selling jewelry. My mom taught me most of my sliver work.”
“Do you do well, selling jewelry?” he asked. “No offense, it’s just not something I ever really thought of as a job before.”
She laughed. “I do well enough. I make a lot of my money by cleaning and fixing jewelry, but custom pieces are where the money is. With Anri living with me now the ends meet more easily, but I was doing alright even before,” she said with a soft smile.
“Go left here. I didn’t mean it to sound patronizing or anything. I mean, the lip ring you made me is probably the best one I’ve ever had. It is perfectly balanced and weighted,” he complimented. “I’ve had some really crappy ones before.”
“Thanks, Seth,” she said softly.
“Do you have a Wren?” he asked. When she didn’t respond right away he worried he had made some type of vampire social faux pas. “I’m sorry, is that a personal question, something I shouldn’t have asked?”
“No, it’s fine,” she said with a sigh. “I prefer variety. I don’t really like to be limited to one source, so no, I don’t have a Wren. I am more…flexible in my feeding.”
“Is it uncommon to have an exclusive Wren? Vampire relationships seem complicated.”
She laughed then, and it was weak and full of distraction and worry, but it was also a genuine laugh. He felt slightly better, even though the anxiety level in the car was tremendous. “I guess, but treat having a Wren like going steady. You commit to one partner. Hey, Seth?”
“Yeah?”
“About Anri. He didn’t used to be this scared of the world. He’s always been a worrier, and he’s always had shitty self esteem, but ever since he called me that day to pick him up he’s been…different. Something bad happened to him, that witch did something to him that messed him up. Since he’s met you, he’s started to slowly get back to himself. He won’t be the same as he was before ever again, but I think you’re the reason he’s healing. I know it’s not fair, and I know I don’t have any right to say this, but I hope you’ll stay. He needs you, Seth.” She continued to watch the road, but Seth saw her wipe a tear away before it fell. She snuffled. “I know this is heavy, but I love my brother and he is good people, even if he doesn’t think so.”
“Simone, I think I’m in love with your brother, which was a sentence I never ever imagined I’d say in my entire lifetime without quoting something else.” She chuckled, wiping away another tear. “Go more left-ish when you can. If Anri lets me in, I’d like to stay and see what we become.”
“Thank you, Seth,” she whispered.
“Oh, don’t thank me. I’m not doing it for you, as I have purely selfish and self satisfying reasons I’m pursuing your brother. And with what I know about Anri, this is going to be troublesome for both of us. But…I think he’s worth it.”
Neither of them spoke for a while except when he gave her directions. As the neighborhoods continued to decline in quality Simone began slow-rolling through more and more stop signs. Seth felt the need to talk, to distract himself from his nerves and frustrations as they drew closer.
“So, my bloodbond with Anri? Unbreakable, huh? This is weird, but I’m really okay with this all. Doesn’t that seem strange? Stay to the right, turn when you get a chance.”
She smiled, looking at him out of the corner of her eye. “That’s why I think it’s meant to be. My brother has never ever looked at another person the way he looks at you. I’m pretty sure your feelings are mutual.” She squealed a little here then continued, “I’m always so happy when I’m right! I just knew you were his Wren.”
The moment was ruined when a slug of nausea tore through his connection. “Simone, stop. Stop! Turn around. It’s that building right there. That one.” He pointed to a dilapidated factory surrounded by barbed wire fence and broken pavement.
“Okay. I’ll drive around, see if I can find where we can get in.”
Halfway around the block they found a brown convertible Chrysler LeBaron parked right along the fence. Simone pulled up behind it and parked the car, leaving it running.
“Um…we didn’t really plan this far. It’s pretty obvious that he was kidnapped now, isn’t it? What do we do? Should we call the cops?” Simone looked uncertain, her earlier confidence gone.
“The cops didn’t come before. Something about this whole thing is wrong.” Seth’s chest tightened fiercely, pushing the air out of his lungs. It was a moment before he could catch his breath.
“Seth!” Simone almost shouted, “What’s wrong? are you okay?”
“Anri! He…something happened. It hurts. She is hurting him, Simone. I have to go. I have to go.” Seth was already crawling out of her car, the seatbelt still wrapped around his arm. “She is hurting him. I can feel it! Shit. He needs me. I have to go, now!”
“Seth! Wait!” Simone called after him. He didn’t even look back, couldn’t look back. The sun was dipping below the horizon now, the sky pink tones growing more and more magenta by the moment. Soon daylight would be gone completely.
Seth found a cut in the fence and climbed through like a man possessed. He followed his connection to Anri, found a door and rushed towards it, despite a voice in his head screaming at him to slow down and think it through. There was no time to think. Anri needed him now. That was all that mattered.
Dreadfully Erotic 