Like Blood for Coffee Pt. 03

Dressed better, but the same asshole, Eiri thought. He noticed Deedella in the room with them. Hall replaced Noth's chairs with curving wood that flattened at different heights - making the wood available either as a bench or a table. She sat on a higher surface, swinging her long, naked legs down. Wearing only a short, pink frock to cover her breasts, her hips.

Eiri declined to sit, keeping some power for himself by standing. Hall wasn't his boss - Deedella was. As a product manager in product operations, Hall might have some input on design if it impacted customer satisfaction. But Eiri wasn't going to let the elf think he had control.

Empowered, he argued with Hall, bitterly. Prod Ops felt that the folding design would impact the flavor coating for Fulbright. Hall whined that the candle motif wasn't clear enough and the color choices - blue and green - put too much dye in the cups, making them heavy. Eiri pushed back against a more circular redesign, pointed out that red was already planned for use in Q1 of the following year for a Chinese cultural promotion.

To his aggravation, Deedella nodded along after everything Hall said. Annoyed, Eiri wondered what was the point of sleeping with the boss if she wasn't going to have his back.

"Fuck China," Hall said, slapping his palms on the desk. "Your cups are ugly and Prod Ops isn't putting up with your shit."

"I think that's a discussion the design team can have outside of Prod Ops," Eiri pushed back. "I wouldn't want to wait your valuable time."

He looked at Deedella, compelling her to nod her head even once for him. But she was smiling at Hall.

"I'm sure Eiri can come up with something!" she said. "I've got some overtime left in my budget. You want to come in this weekend, Eiri? The Harvest Festival is Sunday; you won't miss it if you work hard!"

"Oh, I'm fine to miss it," he said. He gave Hall a pointed look. "I don't mind hard work."

The mood in the room instantly changed. Deedella's face fell and she glanced at Hall. The male elf's hair set to rustling, agitated. Eiri felt a small twinge of anxiety. Was it what he said? Or how he said it?

"No," Hall said. "You're not missing the festival."

"Excuse me?" Eiri asked. Confused, he glanced at Deedella for guidance. She looked a little sad, he thought, but she only met his eyes for a second before turning back to Hall. She said something to him in elvish. And then she slid down from the wooden surface and knelt on the floor.

Eiri started to move toward her, thinking she was sick or fainting. But Hall was rising, walking around the front of the desk. His movements quick and careful, like a jungle cat stalking prey.

"I want to ask you something, Lao," he said.

Eiri hesitated. But before he could decide what to do, Hall lunged forward to seize Eiri by the collar. Started, Eiri stumbled a little - shocked at the strength in the elf's springy little arms. He put a hand on Hall's wrist, squeezing - trying to break his grip.

"Clumsy," Hall sneered. He was so close, Eiri could smell his breath - sour, and heavy with coffee. "You see this woman here? My near kinswoman. You will lie with her at Harvest Time and get a child on her. Swear that you will do this."

What the fuck, Eiri thought. "This isn't a work appropriate conversation..."

Hall slapped him. Reeling, Eiri started to swing a fist back at him - and found himself caught, twisted around. He landed face down on the desk, Hall behind him, twisting his arm behind his back. He felt a cold shock of air on the upper backs of his thighs as his tunic rode up, exposing his skin.

"Swear that you will lie with her at Harvest!" Hall said, his voice shaking.

Eiri could feel the elf's arm tremble through the hand that held him. Barely contained energy setting the leaves and the dry skin to rustling, rasping. An animal rage driving him on. He felt a touch along his leg. A finger, sliding up under his tunic.

"You enjoy this," Hall said. "You like being fucked in the ass."

Eiri froze, recognizing the words. The exact ones he said to Noth in this very office. While ramming his fingers into her. He felt sick, his knees wobbling. The finger was there, then, slipping up between his buttocks, probing for that shameful spot he sometimes fantasized Deedella fondling.

"Alright!" Eiri yelled. "I'll do it, I'll do it - let go!"

Hall let go. Shaking, Eiri turned and caught sight of his manager, still kneeling on the floor. She had her hand up her skirt. Touching herself, while she watched her kinsman humiliate him.

This fucking turns her on, he thought, horrified. And he's her cousin or something - gross!

Eiri couldn't look at them - at either of them, no matter how beautiful they were. Deedella disgusted him, now. And he was afraid that Hall could somehow be reading his thoughts.

"Filthy fucking humans," Hall said. "Get out of my sight. And make the cups red!"

...

Eiri was still shaking hours later when he texted Christy to come to his apartment. She answered the door with more wine. This time, he joined her in a glass. And then another. And another. By the fourth glass, his head was in his hands and he told her about Hall and Deedella. About promising to impregnate her at the Harvest Festival. He left out the part about being thrown over the desk, that sharp finger searching him. Too embarrassing.

Christy hissed air between her teeth. "That's bad. They take that kind of stuff soooo seriously. Did you go to HR?"

"What can they do?" Eiri asked. "Have you ever tried going to them?"

She shook her head. "I didn't want to be a problem... I thought I could just deal with it, you know? I don't even mind having sex with them when they're not all crazy hormonal! But the baby stuff is gross. You know the men are mostly infertile? That's why they seduce humans all the time."

"Ew," Eiri said, genuinely disgusted. Before moving to Seattle, he thought what all humans thought about elves - they were beautiful, immortal, and wise. Now he thought they were short-sighted, selfish, and rapey.

I was better off fucking a fucking vampire, he thought. He reached for the bottle and found it empty.

Christy texted the Fulbright chat, Let's go out!

Eiri hesitated, already feeling a little buzz from the wine. "I dunno..."

"I know a good club," Christy coaxed. "I went there with Nothera one time. Remember her? Director Ipomoea?"

The sound of her name was like a knife twisting in his chest. Again, Eiri felt a stab of paranoia - how had Christy known he'd been thinking of Noth? He glanced at her, warily. She mistook his look for objection.

"It'll be fun," she insisted. "It'll make you feel better. And I've got something that'll keep us from getting ass-grabbed..."

She took a small glass bottle out of the pocket of her tunic. "We're working on a new additive for Fulbright that can do adaptive flavors - but the lab accidentally came up with this. Try it!"

Eiri declined. "You go ahead though. What does it do?"

Christy dipped her pinkie finger into the bottle, drew it out wet and dripping with something brown and syrupy. She sucked it off, slowly drawing her finger out of her mouth, winking at Eiri as she popped it out with a wet smack.

"Keeps elves from getting too handsy," she said. "Kind of like how vampires can make you think stuff? I can make them think they should fuck off. Now, come on! Let's go dancing!"

Jaymin and Alan texted that they'd meet them on the way.

...

The four humans met at a bar, first. Christy showed them her "little secret," how its effects let her mimic vampiric compulsion. With just one look, she could she could pull or push people away from them. With verbal commands, she could make strangers buy them drinks - or fuck off if she didn't like the look of them.

"That's fucking handy," Alan said. "Can I get some? I need these houseplants to quit grabbing my dick all the time."

"Right?" said Jaymin. "I tried to take a leak at work and some chick followed me into the stall - I thought she was going to tear my nuts off while I was pissing!"

"Ew," said Christy, blushing. "You let her watch you pee? You should have peed on her!"

Eiri decided to try a bit of Christy's secret weapon for himself, sucking a draught off her index finger. Already drunk, he took his time - holding her wrist, gazing into her face as he ran his tongue along the pad of her finger. Keeping a hold of her hand when he released her with his mouth. He saw how badly she wanted him - still, after all this time.

After the mess he'd made of workplace romances, he thought he'd learned his lesson. But when they made it to the club with the glowing fireplace in the center of the dance floor, he felt his resolve waning. He draped his arms around her naked shoulders, swaying to the elven music, feeling the heat between their bodies build. Remembering the feel of her pressed against him in the back of a car, somewhere.

Wouldn't this be better, he thought. Being with Christy was easy, uncomplicated. She threw herself at nearly everyone at work; what difference would it make if he was one more of her conquests? She couldn't bite him, couldn't coerce him. She was annoying and dramatic - but she was human and she was there, in his arms, pressing her crotch to him.

"What's up with that?" Jaymin teased him while they went to find someone they could compel to buy them drinks.

"I dunno," Eiri answered, honestly. He was hot and horny - stalking around the club in his well-fitting clothes, shirt unbuttoned halfway down his chest. He saw the stares, elf and human alike, and felt he could have anyone he wanted.

But he didn't want any of them. When they returned to Christy and Alan with the ill-gotten drinks, and she kissed him, he knew he couldn't go through with it.

It's Noth I want, he thought. Sorrow, cold and bitter, welled up behind his eyes. And suddenly he was pushing away from his friends, seeking a bathroom. Any quiet space to get his head together.

The small dose of the Fulbright drug made it easy to jump the line to the men's toilet, compelling all those in front of him to go order more drinks instead. He slid into the grimy single-stall room and was surprised to see two elves already inside, each sucking something out of a glass bottle. Like the one Christy had.

"Hey," one of them said. "What are you doing here?"

"Hiding from a woman I don't want to sleep with," Eiri answered. He started, shocked that he'd answered honestly. These guys were complete strangers! He eyed the bottles they held and asked, "Is that from Starbucks?"

Amusingly, they answered him with equal honestly, "Yeah - we got it from a friend that works there. It gives you vampire powers!"

"It does!" Eiri agreed. And the three of them were laughing like idiots. High in the bathroom of a club.

One of the elves squinted at Eiri, beady little elf eyes shining in the dim light. "What's this woman you don't wanna have sex with?"

"My coworker," Eiri said. "She's hot but, like, needy and annoying."

"Human, though?" the other elf asked, eyes equally bright.

"Yeah," he said. He described how she looked, told them where to find her. Both elves sidled out of the stall, leaving Eiri alone to pretend to pee.

The drug took a bad turn on him. He stared at himself in the mirror, not recognizing the glassy-eyed mess who stared back. His hair sweaty and mussed, his beautiful white silk shirt stained and wrinkled. What would his mother say, if she saw him now? Shame burned in his stomach. Eiri leaned forward to vomit into the sink.

I gotta get out of here, he thought. I want to go home...

He stumbled back out into the dance floor, the orange light of the fake fire flickering around him. Hands and arms and eyes, all moving around him - toward him. Trying to trap, ensnare. He slapped any that got too close, paranoid and shaking.

He barrelled out of the club and onto the street. The night air was cool, refreshing against the cold, anxious sweat all over his body. Eiri drifted down the sidewalk, trying to keep his head upright and his gait steady. He lost all sense of where he was or what he wanted to do. He saw the moon, a waxing gibbous, staring down at him - like a living thing, and he laughed to himself, nervous and panicky.

Somehow, without meaning to, he walked all the way to Noth's old apartment in Pike Place. He hadn't even realized it until he was standing outside her door, hand half-raised as if to knock.

What am I doing, he wondered. Why did I come here?

Shaking and sick, he started to cry. He was crashing hard, worse than coming down from the interrogation herbs the elves gave him after the lunchroom attack. Noth told him to hire his own personal security; why hadn't he listened? And why couldn't she be here now to give him career advice, tell him how to get out of impregnating his boss so he didn't lose his job?

Where are you, he thought. I need you!

The door slid open. Shocked, Eiri stood there, staring at it for a full minute before remembering it was an automatic door - a sliding panel like the ones in the office. Someone must have triggered this one remotely.

"Hello?" he called. The apartment was dark. He stepped inside, saw the furniture covered with protective sheets and dust covers. The blackout shades drawn. No one at home.

Eiri turned on the lights, and instantly felt calmer, seeing the space lit up by the low recessed lighting he remembered. He felt safe inside his lover's empty apartment. Away from the elves and their terrifying moon. The effects of the drug wearing off.

"Nothera?" he called. Climbing the stairs, he half-hoped he'd find her lying in the bed, waiting for him. But the bed was gone - only a mattress left on the floor in its place, wrapped in protective covers. And she wasn't there.

He remembered the broken bed frame from the last time they fucked. How she'd panted, sticky with his cum on her precious, expensive clothes. He curled up there beside the place where he last saw her like that. As if she were tied up beside him there, still. He left all the lights on to drive away his fear and sorrow, remembering the sound of her breathing as it slowed, steadied. He slept.

In the morning, the door slid open - he hadn't remembered closing it. A familiar voice called out, "Mr. Lao?"

He jolted up from the mattress, alarmed. Hurrying down the steps, he saw Noth's assistant standing in the kitchen, arms full of grocery bags. She greeted him with a warm smile.

"Good morning! Director Ipomoea said to keep an eye out in case you came back," she said. "She left the apartment for you to use, if you'd like."

Still hungover from the night before, his eyes burning and mouth sour and sticky, he was slow to respond. But his heart fluttered in his chest.

"She did?" he asked. "For me?"

"Yes. I saw you arrive last night on the security camera; I thought perhaps she'd forgotten to give you the access code. I'll write it down for you, here."

She cares, Eiri thought. He hadn't realized until that moment how badly it hurt when she left - thinking it was all an act, that he meant nothing at all to her. He remembered holding her in the dress boutique, her tears as she said she cared for him. She meant it. She really meant it.

"I've brought you a few essentials,," the assistant said, indicating the bags she set on the countertop. "But you'll have to go to the church to collect your personal effects yourself. I've got other duties to attend to."

"Oh, of course," Eiri said. His head spun. "Right. I can take care of it. Can you..."

He hesitated. The assistant looked at him, her expression giving away nothing. She wore a light scarf around her neck, hiding the place where her employers fed on her. The perfect vampire slave.

He couldn't ask. He wanted to - surely Noth's assistant could still get a message to her, if he asked. But what would he even say? She knew he'd come here and allowed set it up so that he could use her apartment. Could he really ask for more?

"Never mind," he said.

"I'll have the cleaners come by today to remove the dust covers and bring you some linens," the assistant said. "Feel better, Mr. Lao."

...

He had eighteen missed texts from the group chat and six just from Christy. Eiri smiled, scrolling through the mess, trying to piece together the night they'd had without him.

Sounded like Jaymin got willingly carried off by a rock elemental twice is size while Alan and Christy were double-teaming some water elves they met outside the club. The rest looked like gibberish.

But scrolling through Christy's texts chronologically, it looked like she made it back to the apartments at some point and sobered up. She said she left something at his place and was going to badge in to get it if he didn't reply. That was her last text, sent sometime in the middle of the night when he was still coming down.

On his way back to the church, he thought about inviting Christy to come live with him - as a roommate. He felt like they'd both be safer there than in the apartments paid for by the elves who seemed determined to sexually assault them as a business practice.

He had the invitation typed up to send from his phone, when he walked into his apartment. He walked into the bedroom to start getting clothes together and found Christy there. Lying dead in his bed.

[End part 3]