Conclusion

Note to the readers: This is the final chapter in this story. Thank you so much for reading; I'm very glad to have met this community and hope you enjoy the conclusion.

*****

The first thing Eiri did was call his mother. She wasn't awake; he left a message. Nothing specific about a dead coworker - certainly not that it was a woman, found in his bed. She would worry more about that part than anything else.

Then, he vomited into his kitchen sink, shock and panic erupting in a violent spasm. Blood rushed to his head, clearing the fog of panic long enough for Eiri to hang up on his mom's voicemail and call emergency services. He spent the time it took them to arrive scrubbing his puke out of the sink.

The first responders were a team two humans and an elf - wearing dark uniforms he didn't recognize. Somehow, he thought only Starbucks employees wore uniforms. Eiri badged them into the converted church apartments. The questions started immediately. Raid fire, one after another, after another:

"Did you know the victim?"

"When did you see her last?"

"What was she wearing?"

"She's a coworker," he answered, hearing his voice as if it were far away, coming out of someone else's mouth. He sat in his living room, back to the bedroom so he wouldn't have to see them bending over the body. Over Christy. Naked and covered in blood.

"We were out dancing last night," he answered further. "She was wearing... a party dress? I just got home and found her here."

They took his phone - it didn't occur to him to try to keep it from them. The questions continued, repeated, reiterated. Where had they been, when did he last see her. Why was she at his place. He answered. And answered. And answered.

Finally his phone - still clutched in the gloved hands of one of the human responders - vibrated. Eiri's heart jumped into his throat, and he felt his eyes sting. For some reason, he thought it might be Noth.

His interrogator checked the phone. He said to his colleagues, "It's them - saw us coming in on surveillance. They want us to bring 'em in. The stiff and the working stiff."

"Fucking seriously?" the elf demanded. "All the way to Beacon Hill during rush hour?"

"What are we, Lyft for corpses now?" the other human complained.

"Stop bitching, Gary, we get work-for-hire credits," said the man holding his phone, jerking his chin at Eiri. "And we can snag some of those chicory lattes they sell in the visitor center. Bag the other one up and let's go."

...

Human Resources was waiting in the lobby. Eiri thought they were there for him, but the two humans swept past him to stand beside the sliding gurney bearing the black body bag, pressing signature pads and little visitor goodie bags at the emergency services staff.

Eiri still couldn't bring himself to look at it. Her. Christy. He turned his head in the opposite direction, seeing his coworkers drift into the building, sliding their ID cards against readers. A few cast curious glances his way, but with the summer heat already invading the cooler indoor spaces, most were too languid, too sluggish to pay much attention to a dead body in the lobby. They probably thought it was something for the festival.

Security was there to collect him, escorting him into the campus to a conference room on the ground floor. They had their own questions: When did he badge out of work the day before? Who was his manager? When did he badge in at home?

Like the attack on the lunchroom months before, they asked the questions first while he was sober. Then they gave him one of their slimy, foul-tasting mushrooms and asked the same questions all over again.

Eiri swallowed what they gave him, wanting to avoid trouble. He expected to feel shaky and paranoid, like the last time. But this mushroom suffused his body with warmth that rose up from his stomach to his head. He floated, calm and comforted on the wave of dizzy heat as they asked and asked and asked about terrible things that should make him sad.

They asked if he'd had sex with Christy. He told the truth - she wanted to, tried to. But he didn't.

Why, they asked. He told the truth again: because he didn't like her that way and there was someone else. They asked who, and he thought that there was some reason he should be careful - some reason he should lie to them.

But he smiled blandly, drugged, and said, "A vampire."

The questions stopped for a while after that. And Eiri drifted away, unconscious.

...

In his dreams, she was there - a white, shining body laid on a bed of black satin. He stood over her and watched as she touched herself. Her delicate fingers sliding over the smooth skin of her belly, down between the curling hair between her legs.

She looked up at him, those deep bistre pools like cups of hot black coffee.

"Command me," she said. "Whatever you want, I'll obey..."

He commanded her to open her mouth. Dipped his fingers into it, feeling the warm wet pulse of her tongue against his knuckles. Those eyes blazing up at him, hungry and wide as he thrust in and out of her mouth, feeling the razor sharpness of her fangs against his skin.

He could hear her in his mind, her voice soft and needy. "Bind me. Beat me. I'll never retaliate."

He slapped that beautiful face, feeling the petal soft check flatten under his palm. Hearing her gasp echo in his head.

"Again," she murmured, pleading. "Hit me again, Master..."

He struck. And felt his own cheek stinging.

...

He came to with an HR rep slapping him awake. He was lying on the floor of the conference room. From the purplish hue in the sky outside the windows, Eiri knew it was evening - the entire day already gone.

"What happened?" he asked. He felt the hardness between his legs and instinctively reached down to cover his crotch with hand as he sat up.

"Mr. Lao," said the HR rep, graciously pretending not to notice his raging erection. "I'm sorry, but legal wanted to ask you some additional questions. We also don't feel it's safe to let you return to company housing at this time, so we're asking that you remain here, possibly through the weekend, while we work to find you some more secure accomodation. Ah... the festival presents some challenges. Were you at the orientation a few weeks ago...?"

Eiri got to his feet, his head spinning. His stomach growled, totally empty. "Yes... Is this about the clothes?"

"Yeah... We can't ask you to participate in the ceremony, but as it is a holy site, we also need to respect the religious observance..." The HR rep made a show of hemming and hawing, refusing to finish her sentence. Eiri sensed she wanted him to offer a solution.

"You want me to take off my clothes? During the ceremony?" he asked.

"Ah, that would help," she asid. "You don't have to participate! If you'd feel more comfortable, in fact, we can move you to a location away from where the ceremony takes place so that you're not exposed to anything... untoward."

He thought of Hall and Deedella, of himself bent over a desk - that teasing, threatening finger on his ass. Any trace of his boner vanished immediately. "Does it have a door that locks?"

"Of course," she said. "I can take you there - are you OK to stand?"

And this was how he ended up barricaded in Noth's old office. They'd added a skylight to the fishbowl; through it, he could see the waxing moon starting to rise.

All of Hall's furniture was gone. There was no sign of the elf anywhere.

...

Legal visited him the next morning. They'd brought in a little couch for him to stretch out on to sleep, and a tray of food from the cafeteria. But he wasn't allowed to leave the room, not even for a bathroom break until after the other employees had left for the day. And even then, only when escorted by security. The glass stayed frosted, opaque, preventing him from seeing what was going on outside the conference room.

Legal turned up just as the sun filled the skylight, send a bright shaft directly down into the office. The team was led by a human named Fontaine and two elf associates armed with note screens. They dragged in chairs from outside the room and positioned them across from Eiri's couch to face him. With the light coming from overhead, it felt like a police interrogation from some of the old black-and-white media clips he liked to watch. Back when cigarettes were still a thing.

"I'd like to find out a bit more about what happened," Fontaine began. He wore the Starbucks human employee uniform, but Eiri noticed his fit better - the leggings cut looser, closer to slacks. A wide lapel on the collar of the tunic that folded over his shoulders. "Can you start with when you left the office. Where did you go?"

Eiri told the same version of events again: home, then the bar, then the nightclub with the fake bonfire. The two elves began making notes. They each asked a lot of follow ups about where the club was, when they got there, who else he saw. Eiri tried to remember more details, but the last thing he could recall was pushing out of the place in a blind panic.

"Where did you go after the club?" the lawyer asked.

"A... friend's apartment," Eiri said, struggling to keep Noth's name out of it. He'd already admitted to having an infatuation with a vampire. No need to add more details.

The lawyer sensed his hesitation. "Who's your friend?"

"Former coworker," Eiri said, swallowing. "She left town. She... said I could go there, if I wanted."

He felt a sudden heat, a little flutter in his stomach. Just trying not to think of Noth made him think of Noth.

The lawyer watched him like a hawk, seeing the sweat break out on his skin, the pulse at throat jump. He turned to one of his associates and asked her to get them some coffee. Then turned back to Eiri to chat amiably about the weather. When they each had little cups of chilly cold brew from the mico-kitchens in hand, he started in on the questions again.

"Tell me more about your coworker," he began.

And now Eiri made up his mind to lie. He wasn't sure why, but he knew saying Noth's name would be dangerous. Invoking some unknown malevolence. He temporized, offering a half-truth: "She's a superior... I'd rather not get her involved."

"Did your superior know the deceased?" Fontaine asked.

"No," Eiri said, seizing on Deedella in his mind. She was his superior, and she hadn't known Christy. Furthest away from Noth as he could think. "They'd never met."

He sipped his coffee, hoping the chill of it would travel down his body to where he felt a throb of heat in his belly. His jiggled his legs anxiously, trying to discourage it from going any lower, spreading to his cock.

The lawyer watched him, shrewd and knowing. He asked, "Did you fuck her? Your superior?"

The heat in him exploded like a landmine, sending shards of sensation throughout Eiri's body. His fingers tingled, his heart thundered, his eyes watered. And that heat went through his dick like a jolt of electricity. He shifted, closing his legs together, trying to hide his the swelling bulge between them.

"Yes," he admitted. He tried to fill his head with thoughts of Deedella. Of her straddling him in the fairy glen. Of bending her over a desk...

But it was Noth that he saw there, beneath him. Noth, with her marble white skin slick with sweat, dotted with red burns from candle wax. He could picture her eyes, wide with surprise as he plunged his cock into her hot, wet mouth. Those delicate wrists trapped and bound beneath coiled rope...

"Something wrong?" Fontaine asked.

Eiri cleared his throat, took another sip of the coffee. "Nothing. It was only a few times... I don't want to get anyone in trouble."

"Plenty of that to go around," Fontaine remarked. He looked at Eiri, eyes narrowing. He stood up, signaling for his associates to follow. "I think we're done for now. We do have a few more questions for you, but it can wait."

They left him, and Eiri sagged into the couch, relieved.

That was close, he thought. No good could come of confessing his office romance to a lawyer. If was worried about being fired over a dead body in his bed, he certainly couldn't confess to fucking not one, but two, superiors.

He looked up at the skylight, watching clouds track across the azure sky. He felt the throbbing in his groin slow, ease, his body relaxing. His erection vanishing. Exhaustion took him, and he stretched out on the couch to rest his eyes.

He opened them again, hours later, when he heard someone open the door to the room. A tall elf with the whorls of House Air and mighty wooden antlers curving out from his head stepped in.

Eiri recognized him: Noth's husband.

...

Shit, shit, shit, shit... Eiri tried to master his fear as the elf swayed toward him, the leaves of his hair swishing. He wasn't sure whether Eldunord would recognize him from the New Year's party - or from their one encounter in this very office months ago, the night Noth took him to the dress boutique.

The great elf gave no indication of recognition, placidly blinking at Eiri for a moment before Eiri jumped up to offer the Executive Vice President his seat. The elf took it, long limbs folding with little pops of the joints in the knee. Eiri took one of the chairs Fontaine left behind, rested his hands on his knees, and waited.

He'd never really looked at Noth's husband before. All the younger elves looked human enough - maybe some with the leaves in their hair or pointed ears. But an elder was more tree-like than any of them. Only the shape of him looked human: wide chest, arms and legs. And, Eiri supposed, sex organs. Why else would they be so obsessed with beauty and fertility?

At last, the elf spoke: "I understand you've had a difficult time, these past few days."

"Um," Eiri started, worried about business etiquette. It wouldn't be appropriate to complain to a superior. Sitting in a nice office with free food. "It's fine."

Eldunord raised an eyebrow. "A dead coworker in your bed and sexual coercion from your boss is not what I would call 'fine' in the workplace. Please express your honest feelings."

Eiri lowered his head, unable to meet the glowing amber gaze of the elf who seemed to know and understand everything. He felt Eldunord rest a hand on his, where it'd balled up into a fist on top of his knee.

The touch was gentle. Sincere. And it melted Eiri's confusion and defensiveness, dissolving it into raw anguish. He started to choke up, covering his face with his free hand in shame.

"She... she was my friend," he finally said, forcing the words past the lump in his throat. He didn't know who he meant when he said it. Deedella. Christy. Noth... Tears stung his eyes.

"It's alright," the VP said. "Here, sit beside me..."

He left the elf draw him over to the couch. Seated beside him instead of infront of him made Eiri feel steadier, less intimidated. Eldunord kept hold of him, the rough skin of his fingers scratching the back of Eiri's hand. He smelled like a pine forest on a cool morning, refreshing. Calming.

"I know you by your work," the elf said. "You're very good. Creative. Thoughtful. Director Ipomoea nominated you for a management track in Design Studios - if you'd been a citizen, I would've transferred you there. Mr. Lao, I'd like to reward you for everything you've done, and maybe help to put some of the turmoil of the last few days behind you. Will you let me?"

"How?" Eiri asked, wiping tears from his eyes. "How can you help me? Will you let me go?"

"Back to the apartments? That I cannot do," Eldunord replied. "Whatever attacked that poor girl is still... at large. We do not believe it was you. But as this is the second teammate of yours to turn up dead, you and the other members of the Fulbright team are better off under guard here while we complete the investigation."

Second teammate? Eiri wondered who was he talking about. But instead of asking about someone else, he thought it would be wise to worry more about himself. The elf was shifting, reaching into a pocket of his jacket to pull something out.

"I'd like you to take this, now. It's a sedative, but it also allows us to ask... the more difficult questions without causing you undue stress," Eldunord said. "Afterward, I'll have one of the bio-pods brought up from the clinic for your use. It'll keep you nourished and comfortable while you sleep right through the weekend. Safe inside this room where no one will disturb you during the festival."

Eiri eyed the little dark cap, suspiciously. "What are the more difficult questions?"

"I'll let HR get into it," Eldunord said. He folded Eiri's fingers around the mushroom.

...

How many times had he and Deedella fucked? Where had they fucked? What time of day was it? Had she offered him any reward or compensation for fucking her?

Questions, questions, questions. Eiri answered them all, his head slowly starting to cloud and spin as the sky darkened into evening. He was lying on the couch at first, answering HR's questions about his affair. He fought hard to control himself, to speak only of Deedella - her flat ass, her high, firm tits - and give nothing away about Noth.

At some point he blacked out, and awoke to find himself enclosed in the pod. Still in the office, the skylight dark with the night sky. His clothes were gone; he supposed it was nearly time for the festival.

The bio-pods were squat trunk-like structures that melded to the body in whatever position it took, designed to stabilize injury, reduce stress, or just offer a quality power nap in the office. Some elf had shifted the wood in this pod to secure Eiri with long, root-like bands winding over his arms and legs, strapping him down in a reclining position, his head tilted upward, legs slightly bent.

And still, the questions came, asked by someone standing behind him, "Concentrate, please. You were getting dressed. The victim wasn't with you. What did you put on?"

Eiri shifted, trying to get out from under the wood holding him down, the long, wide wood appendages pressing into his skin. Every inch of it felt flushed, painfully constricted. Like his cheeks when he drank too much. He kept answering.

"Silk shirt, embroidered pants," he said.

"And beneath that?" asked the voice.

Eiri turned his head, straining to see what elf asked him. Male or female? Someone he knew or a stranger? Eyes - eyes, glowing in the dark, hovering a little ways away from his head. The luminescent irises reminded Eiri of the water elemental at the dress boutique where he went with Noth. He thought of the leather couch there, her kneeling between his legs.

"Boxers," he answered. "Viscose."

"What color?"

Eiri couldn't remember. He pictured himself looking down as he dressed, trying to remember what the fabric stretched over his hips had looked like as he pulled up the embroidered pants. Unbidden, he imagined Noth's wet pink tongue resting against his clothed dick, her saliva moistening the tender fibers, darkening them.

"Blue," he answered. Picturing her red lips pressing against the place where she wetted him with her tongue. He closed his eyes, seeing the blood against the back of his eyelids, thinking of his blood smeared across Noth's lips as she licked it from his fingers.

Stop it, he told himself. But he couldn't stop. He felt his blood, hot and heavy, filling his cock, pressing against the wood over his legs. He rocked his hips, rubbing himself against it a little. It was soft, and smooth, and warm.

"Do you masturbate?" the voice asked. Eiri didn't answer, at least didn't think that he did. But the voice went on as if he had: "How many times since you started work here?"

He almost answered - the stinging heat in his skin turning to a tingling langor as he remembered his slave's flushed face, the sight of her kneeling between his legs while he jerked off onto her tits. But shame, that habit of a lifetime, burned hotter and he resisted, refused to answer.