The Afterlife by Steven Luna

Author:Steven Luna
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781620151198
Publisher: Booktrope Editions

POST 21

This Again

For the entire duration of our friendship, Hube and I have been watching out for one another. Whether it was playground shitheads or high school douchebags or workplace jag-offs, we tried our damnedest to never let anyone get the better of us. He had my back, and I had his. With him having no family life to speak of, the whole Asher clan took him in early on as One of Ours. He was right in there with us, whenever he wanted to be. And since his family really didn't care much where he was or what he did, he was with us pretty much all the time. In fact, he was the only sanity in the place whenever he was there.

The people in his own house may not have cared much for him, but he was loved by everyone in ours.

Despite our birthdays being only three months apart, there has always been definitely a big brother-little brother dynamic between us. And it alternates depending on the situation, and always has; sometimes he's been the big brother and has kept me out of trouble when he saw it coming for me. The whole time I was vampiring, he was squarely in big bro mode. Now, with Lorelei, it had been my turn. I had been in the big brother driver's seat, and he'd been riding little-brother shotgun.

And I had totally fucking failed him.

True, we were both lured by the glamour of our music becoming something real, and by the heady rock and roll dreams of someone like Derrick Maines wanting to work with us as much as we wanted to work with him. But I was the one who set up the meeting without vetting Derrick's associates. I'd felt the crackling brain-drain happening over the phone and had been too stupid to put two and two together to come up with “vampire hooker.” And even though I eventually called her on it and tried to make myself clear that she was to back her shit off, even knowing who she was, what she was—and, more importantly, what she was chasing—still, I left him there with her. And for no good reason, either. I don't care if it was a minute, or a second, or fraction of a millisecond. I broke the code. I left Hube in peril.

And Lorelei happened all over him.

For me allowing This fuck up Hube's life like it's fucked up mine, there will never be atonement.

I know that without a doubt.

I knew it as soon as it all came down.

Not wanting to accept how hard this would hit him, I fooled myself into thinking she had just nicked him, just sucked a little nip out of his neck in the middle of their sex games to get herself high as she came. When I saw the instantaneous bruising and the depth of the wound, I knew this was full-on and all-in.

Not sure how it was possible, but I hated her even more.

I got him dressed,

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.