by Cat Miller
“What about you?” she asked. “I haven’t seen you around campus. I’ve only ever seen you at the club.”
“I’m not a student. I work for my dad. He is …” Kayden had never had a conversation this personal with a human chick before, and a vampire female would already know who he was. Kayden was as truthful as he could be. “Dad is in the security field. I’m expected to follow in his footsteps.”
“Like a private security company? Or is he a mercenary? I’ve read some awesome romance novels about companies like that.” Lindsay brightened at the idea. “I bet you’d be super-hot in all black with a bunch of guns strapped to you.”
She had no idea how close she was to the truth and how absolutely far away at the same time. Any vampire would know exactly who Kayden’s father was. Females would love to cozy up to him because of his position. Kayden liked that Lindsay didn’t know who he was. She was from a wealthy family and getting a much higher education, but she didn’t seem put off by Kayden’s “profession.” It wasn’t that he wasn’t educated. Kayden had had the best teachers. The Vampire Nation believed in higher education. Particularly the upper class of the nation was big on getting a college education. The upper class usually went to human college for the degree they wanted to use in the human world. Warriors didn’t usually do that unless, like Lindsay, they wanted to go into law to help their people when they ran into issues with human law enforcement. Warriors were groomed from a very young age to protect the nation. They got their education at the Enclave in classes taught by vampire instructors.
“He’s not a mercenary. It’s a private security business. My dad was military, and he uses that training to lead others in his field.” That was the only explanation Kayden was willing to give. He hoped Lindsay didn’t question him any further on the subject.
“That’s cool. I’m following in my father’s footsteps, too. I guess. I mean, why else would he want me to be a lawyer?”
Kayden let the subject drop because he didn’t want to encourage her to ask more questions about his parents. He did want to ask Lindsay more about hers though. Like why she didn’t know her father’s plan for her. He totally understood what it was like to have your life planned out for you, but at least he knew the plan. He also wondered where she was staying. That was at least a safe topic.
“Do they let you stay on campus year round?” he asked.
“No. I have an apartment around the corner from here. I stay on campus during the term. It probably sounds pathetic to you, but I like being near my friends and having an easy walk to classes. I’ve been alone for most of my life. I enjoy having people my age to interact with. It’s like I’m learning to be a normal person from them. I don’t really understand what it means to be normal. I grew up with servants and nannies for company.”
“That’s not pathetic.” It might be sad as hell, but it wasn’t pathetic. She was enjoying being young and having friends. “It does sound expensive though. College room and board, and an apartment in a high rent district.” She must be very wealthy. This explained why she frequented Chase’s neighborhood. It was her neighborhood, too.
“It’s more of a condo. I got a large inheritance, like a trust fund, when I turned twenty. I bought the place outright,” Lindsay explained, then cleared her throat. “I know that sounds crazy. My whole life sounds a little crazy when I hear myself talk about it. I’m twenty-one, and I have a huge trust fund, and I own a condo. My parents are paying for college though, so that’s normal. Nobody else knows any of this about me. I don’t want my friends to feel sorry for me because I’m basically alone. I don’t want them to think I’m some rich snob either. People treat you differently when they learn you’re wealthy. I don’t know why I’m telling you to be honest.”
“It’s my magic sexing skills,” Kayden teased to lighten the mood. For the love of fangs, now he knew why he didn’t want to stay with a chick after sex. Things got all deep and shit.
“Magic sexing, huh?” Lindsay laughed out loud. “Maybe it was my skills. Did you think of that?”
Kayden heard a hint of challenge in Lindsay’s voice. Oh, game on!
“Well, now, I guess we’ll have to find out, won’t we?” Kayden rolled Lindsay to her back, and she wrapped her long, tempting legs around his hips. He looked down at her smiling face, and something in his chest tightened. He blinked away the strange emotion, preferring to prove his sexual prowess instead of pondering it. He lowered himself to Lindsay’s swollen lips as he slid his already hard shaft back into her wet heat. Yeah, it probably was her so-called skills that had him so eager to go again, but he was going to have fun trying to prove otherwise.
He needed to get his fill of this female now before he had the chance to get too comfortable and say something that he would regret. Because the idea of wiping himself from Lindsay’s memory made him want to punch someone. So he would enjoy this night with her for as long as he could.
Kayden woke up feeling, if not exactly rested, completely sated. He rolled over and stretched. Not used to his surroundings, his hand hit a lamp that was too close to him on the nightstand and sent it crashing to the floor.
“Not only did you ruin my fun last night, now you’re breaking up my furniture. And you’re the one changing the sheets, man, because I’m not touching your bodily fluids. Is that how all the other warriors treat their best friends?” Chase mocked Kayden from the plush chair he’d bent Lindsay over hours earlier.
Kayden looked pointedly at the chair then back to Chase. “It’s too late for that, Chase. You’re already sitting in my swimmers.”
“Fuck, man! That’s gross! I’m going to have to have this place decontaminated.” Chase leaped from the chair like it was on fire.
Laughing, Kayden rubbed the sleep from his eyes. Chase looked around the room with his face screwed up like something smelled bad.
“You might need one of those black lights to find all the DNA splattered around here. It was a wild night,” Kayden goaded.
“I’m having a cleaning crew come in. Who knows what kind of cooties your bedmate brought in with her,” Chase complained as he began typing furiously on his cell.
“Fuck you, man, Lindsay is not dirty.” Kayden tossed a pillow at Chase, who dodged the projectile as if it were coated with the plague. “And keep your voice down.” Kayden looked toward the bathroom. Chase’s eyes followed Kayden’s line of sight to the closed bathroom door.
“There’s nobody else here, Kayden. I wouldn’t have come in if I thought you had company. Vince said your lady friend left a few hours ago,” Chase informed him.
Chase strode across the studio, opened the refrigerator, and pulled out the fixings for a sandwich. Vince kept the placed stocked for Chase at all times. Everyone deferred to Chase and his needs. Being born to one of the most powerful houses in the nation and a future councilman had its privileges. Chase got what he wanted when he wanted it. Many people wondered why he hung out with Kayden, a delinquent warrior. Chase was the heir to his house’s throne of sorts. Kayden was the heir to his clan’s chieftain. They grew up nearby due to their father’s connection. Otherwise, Chase would never have associated with someone from a lower class. Their people were still very antiquated. Kayden rather hoped that would change under Chase’s rule, but that was many, many years away. For now, life for both of them was all about having fun and seeing how far they could push the boundaries.
Vince was Chase’s head of security at Thirst, and he usually wasn’t around during the day unless there was a delivery. Kayden looked at the clock on the nightstand. It was five o’clock in the evening. He had slept the day away. There was also a piece of paper with looping handwriting scrawled across it tucked under the alarm clock. Kayden snatched up the note Lindsay had left him before she snuck out.
Kayden frowned. He didn’t know why he was annoyed that Lindsay hadn’t stayed or at least woken him before she left. She hadn’t snuck out. It wasn’t like Lindsay owed him a good-bye or any explanations. If she hadn’t left, Kayd
en would have had to deal with an awkward parting. Females, especially human females, were clingy after sex. Which was the very reason why Kayden rarely had sex with the same woman twice unless he knew the female understood that he wasn’t looking for a relationship. They had fun and moved on. No entanglements and no hurt feelings. So why did he feel like Lindsay had insulted him somehow? She’d saved him the trouble of having to let her down easy, right? He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and sat up to read the note.
“Cover that shit up, man! I don’t need my cornea scarred any further!” Chase complained from the kitchenette.
Kayden pulled the sheet over his lap.
“Stop being such a princess. And make me a sandwich while you’re at it. I’m starving. It takes a lot of calories to power a machine like this.” Kayden gestured to his large physique and grinned at his friend. Chase grumbled about arrogant warriors who didn’t know their place, but he pulled out another plate and started making an extra sandwich.
The note Lindsay left was short and to the point.
Kayden,
I had a class to get to. I didn’t want to wake you. Here’s my number. Call me.
~ L
Kayden grabbed his pants from the floor and fished out his phone. He programmed in the number Lindsay left and stared at it with his finger over the call button. Then he put the phone down and got dressed. Maybe it was better this way. He would see her around eventually. He liked Lindsay a lot. She was gorgeous. The sex had been over the top. He’d learned a lot about her afterward when they were just talking. That was a new thing for Kayden. Lying in bed with a female just talking wasn’t something he’d ever done. He liked Lindsay a lot, maybe too much. So he wouldn’t call her. She was human. There were too many possible complications when dealing with humans. Kayden didn’t want a relationship with anyone, much less with a human.
After stuffing his phone into his back pocket, he joined Chase at the counter to eat the mountain of a sandwich Chase had made for him.
“Do you have any free time? Do you have any big meetings or galas to attend, Your Highness?” Kayden asked Chase, who glared at him over the glass of soda he was drinking.
“No, you lowly warrior peon, I don’t have any obligations at the moment, why?” Chase hated to be reminded that he had responsibilities beyond what any normal person their age would ever have to deal with. Chase had to go to political and social events with his parents and sometimes in their place. He had to attend parties and galas. He had also recently begun to do some training for his future position on the Vampire Nation High Council. They both thought it was a waste of time. Chase’s father was a young male, even by human standards. Chase’s father, Mason Deidrick, wanted Chase to be prepared in the event his grandfather decided to retire.
“I need a break from the city that doesn’t include deadly weapons and hand-to-hand combat. You think your dad would let us stay on the lake for a while? A little R and R sounds good after this last training excursion. My father’s idea of male bonding nearly killed me,” Kayden suggested, really hoping Chase was down for a vacation.
Chase smiled around the last bite of sandwich he’d just popped into his mouth. He picked up his phone and glanced at the calendar.
“I don’t see anyone else scheduled to use the lake house for the next three weeks. Let’s do this! I’ll see who I can find to keep us company.”
“Nah, let’s go alone. If we need company, we’ll hit a bar or something.” Kayden didn’t want to deal with any females.
“You do know there aren’t many vampires up there, right? And there won’t be a large population of human women,” Chase asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Yeah, I know. I’ll make do.” And he would. Kayden still had a large stash of bagged blood from his training trip.
“Whoa! Kayden Paris! Look who’s getting down on the human bite and bang!” Chase laughed so hard he nearly fell off of his stool. Chase didn’t get Kayden’s aversion to sleeping with the humans he fed on.
“Whatever. Are we going or not?” Kayden would let Chase think what he wanted. Lindsay was the first and last human who would tempt Kayden to break that rule. He’d use bagged blood, or he’d take care of his physical needs on his own.
While Chase warmed up to the idea and started making calls to have the vacation house prepared for them, Kayden tried to ignore the phone that seemed to be burning a hole in his pocket. A getaway with his partner in crime was just what Kayden needed to cure his recent boredom. By the time he returned, Lindsay would have forgotten all about Kayden, and he would be feeling more like himself. Pulling out his phone, he deleted the number he’d just programmed into it. It was better this way.
Humans were nothing but trouble. He didn’t need the kind of complications that came with trying to keep them in the dark. He’d had to turn the damn light out while they had sex so she wouldn’t see his eyes and fangs. Thankfully, his night vision allowed him to see Lindsay’s flawless curves and lengthy, lean legs perfectly. No matter how much he’d concentrated, Kayden hadn’t been able to control his fangs. She probably thought he was a total jerk for not kissing her once they’d dropped and he had to avoid her mouth. He just didn’t have the time or patience to deal with a human. Kayden gave himself this excuse several times and hoped that any minute now he would actually begin to believe it.
One
PRESENT DAY
Chaos greeted Kayden Paris when he walked through the unguarded front door of Quench, a vampire owned nightclub in a resort town on the coast of South Carolina. It was also a favorite place for the visiting twenty-something humans to spend an evening drinking overpriced, watered down drinks, and dancing with a stranger, looking for a vacation romance. Romance was overrated, and Kayden had no time for the worthless notion in his life. Been there, fuck that.
Kayden was only a few feet inside the door when he knew something was off. The humans were rushing toward the door as he made his way into the busy hot spot for local and visiting vampires. Something was up. Usually, people were in a hurry to get into a nightclub, not out. Kayden quickly scanned the crowd, searching for the source of the commotion. The bouncers at this club were all vampires who should have been manning the door, checking identification, and warning out of town vampires of the club rules, but instead were charging toward a pile of bodies and swinging limbs at the bar toward the rear of the club. Kayden moved in that direction, hoping for a good fight to release some of the pent-up aggression putting knots in the muscles of his shoulders.
It had been a few years since Kayden had set foot in a club. That wasn’t his life anymore. He was no longer a carefree vampire youth happily wasting his time, enjoying the favors of inebriated female humans and like-minded vampires. It seemed like that time in his life was so long ago. Sometimes he longed for the days before lethal, addictive drugs, and vengeful vampires had changed his world, but there was no going back now. The Vampire Nation was in crisis mode, and Kayden was on the frontline daily.
Just hours earlier the Horde, a large band of vampire-human hybrids, had raided yet another abandoned house that had been transformed into a nest for rogue vampires who didn’t want to live by the Vampire Nation’s strict rules. Those bastards were keeping humans in cages like animals, just waiting to be fed on or otherwise abused. Kayden didn’t even want to think about what might have been done to the females they’d found. For now, he needed to focus on the task at hand. That was kicking some vampire ass.
The so-called rebels at the nest they’d busted called themselves freedom fighters. They believed they deserved to live and rule over humanity as the alpha predators they were born to be. They were following the lead of the Shade army and its insane leader. Weren’t they shocked when they were informed that the remains of the army were being controlled by a crazy, female demi-vamp who was now on the run? She was hiding from the council and spreading her poison to the youth of the nation. Not only had she been manipulating the army and all of its followers, but she was also killing and otherwise
ruining the lives of young vampires up and down the eastern seaboard. The attitudes of everyone in the nest quickly changed. They wanted to rule the nation and all of the humans. They had no interest in killing their own people.
Bad news must travel slowly in their circles. The freedom fighters had no clue the Shade Army, whose principles they held so high, were hiding from the nation they intended to overthrow after having their asses handed to them in an epic battle for control of the Enclave at the center of the nation’s military and police force. Shocked and looking green after a hell of a wake-up call, the rogue nest’s weak ass leader spilled everything he knew for the chance to have a trial before the council, instead of the instant death they so richly deserved. Little did the idiot know the council was in no mood to be lenient with lawbreakers after the historic council hall was half burned down during an attack by the Shade army. Not to mention the deaths of so many brave warriors and civilians in the battle to defend and reclaim the Enclave. The lowlife would be put to death, but that death would come at the hands of the council after every rogue was once again pumped for information.
Kayden was ready to rip off the bastard’s manhood and feed it to him after he’d seen the condition the humans were in, but calmer heads prevailed when Hawk stepped in to get the information they needed so badly. Much of the information was useless, given they were so far out of the loop, but the rebels shared some contacts for getting the drugs that were poisoning the vampire youth. The vampires in the nest were also using the drug recreationally. They knew of a few places where dealers could be found. Kayden wanted to quickly locate those dealers in hopes of finding a trail back to the source, as well as cutting off the supply of Hypnovamp in the area. Hypnovamp was a drug the rogues originally used to subdue vampires that were targeted for abduction. Now it was being sold to vampires and used to get high. In large doses it was fatal. The Vampire Nation had its first drug epidemic.