by Kat Cotton
The last goon tried to run, knocking over tables and chairs in his way, but he didn’t even make the door before I got him.
That was it. I’d cleaned up the room.
The woman in the short dress ran to me.
“You’re like some kind of superhero,” she said, throwing her arms around my neck.
“Not like. I am.”
The other woman, the one who’d been attacked at the bar, joined her.
“Thank you,” she said. She was still a bit shaky. “If you need anything, anything at all, just call me.”
Women often said that to me, but there was rarely anything I needed. I had my pack, and I had my unicorn baby. What else was there? Cake? Coffee?
I smiled and told them about my DVD series and online courses.
“Oh, you’re that guy. I’ve already got your DVDs,” short dress said. “I love your work.”
Before I could answer, my phone beeped. It was the mayor.
“Call me.”
I excused myself and went outside.
“Damn, Nic, this isn’t good.”
“I cleaned them up.” What wasn’t good?
I walked a little farther down the street.
“The Smith Street attack was a distraction. While you were there fighting, the ringleader and a bunch of his other minions hit Chapel Street. It was a bloodbath over there.”
I hung up. Damn. Damn. Damn. Outsmarted by a jerk like Lucio. I kicked a trash can. The metal clang reverberated down the mostly empty street. How could I have been so stupid?
The mayor called again. What now?
“Oh, there’s one more thing. The victims who survived all described the main vampire in the same way. Short, good-looking, shimmering like moonlight. Self-help guru. The Northside Gang isn’t just attacking. They’re glamming people to make them think it was you.”
I kicked the trash can again, hard enough to dint it. Could that gang get any worse? And the mayor could lay off calling me short.
Chapter 22 Nic: Oscar
I’d been totally fooled. Lucio would be laughing at me. Everyone would be. I’d fallen for the oldest trick in the book—and that just made me more determined to kill him. He’d be lying low for a while, but soon he’d resurface, and then I’d smash him. No mercy shown. Never let it be said that I let a punk like him beat me.
Now that Vlad had recovered his strength, I had a schedule for him. He worked better with a routine. In the morning, he had a bag of blood then did his gymnastics training. After that, he rested while I worked. Then, in the afternoon, we worked on vampire skills. Since he had lightning-fast reflexes and super-speed, I figured I could leave that. Today’s lesson was creating a thrall. Since he couldn’t work with humans, we practiced with Hellhound.
“Make him sit,” I told Vlad.
Vlad pushed on the dog’s butt. “Sit,” he said.
“No, not like that. Like this.” I fixed the dog in my gaze and focused on him sitting.
Hellhound immediately sat.
“Now, you try it,” I said to Vlad.
He nodded. “Sit, puppy.”
He didn’t really get the whole thrall thing. Maybe I needed to try something more advanced so he’d get the point. If he saw me thrall someone, it might click.
Before we got to the next bit, though, someone knocked on the door.
The mayor? He wanted to hang out too much. This was why he’d never win the war. I bet the Vampire King didn’t go around to people’s houses with cake, wanting to have fun outings with them. Although I’d never refuse a cake even if it was from the King.
When I got to the door, though, it wasn’t the mayor.
Oscar!
“What are you doing here?”
I couldn’t believe Oscar had disobeyed pack orders.
“I’ve come to check on things.”
He put his head on the side and smiled his sunny smile. It took much more than a sunny smile to get to me. I scoffed at that.
“The pack is to stay safe. I’ve told you that several times.”
He leaned against the door frame. I had no intention of inviting him in. He should be grateful that my haughty look was all I’d aimed at him. I should’ve punched him for directly disobeying me.
“The pack is only safe if you’re safe,” he said. “We voted and decided I should come to evaluate the situation.”
“You’ve come, you’ve evaluated, now you can leave.”
He folded his arms and stared back at me. Normally, Oscar would be the last to defy me. If it’d been Jeb, then defiance would be totally expected. If it’d been Jeb, though, I’d have had no problem with punching his face. Jeb and I had issues.
“You know I can’t do that. Anyway, there are some anomalies in the business accounts that I need to discuss with you. It seems that business agent we hired for European rights isn’t on the up and up.”
I sighed and opened the door so he could come in.
“Did you bring cake?” I asked him.
“No, I didn’t. You know that, even if we can’t put on weight, there are still a number of health risks associated with too much sugar and carbohydrate consumption.”
Hell, I’d rather talk about anything but that. I hated being lectured about cake. I ate a healthy amount of cake that posed minimal health effects.
“Tasty!”
Oscar looked around.
“Oh, that was Vlad. It’s nearly time for his dinner.”
“How is the training going?”
“Fine. Great. He’s learning to feed.”
Hell, did I really want Oscar here when the mayor’s man dropped off Vlad’s dinner? That could lead to a bunch of questions that I didn’t want to answer. I protected the pack from learning things that they didn’t need to know. Like how I was working with the mayor now.
“How about you go in the study and go through the latest business records while I take care of this, then we can sit down and talk. I can even order dinner in for us.”
Oscar nodded. Thank goodness. The less he knew, the better.
I’d just got him settled in the study with all my receipts and records to enter into his spreadsheet when the doorbell rang. Luckily, the thug had been gagged. I gave the guard a nod, then took the thug downstairs with no fuss.
Vlad rushed at us. “Tasty. Tasty.”
“Vlad, where are your manners?”
He stopped rushing and smiled.
“Okay, come here.”
I turned so I no longer had eye contact with him. I needed the control to come from within him, not from our bond. Otherwise, he wasn’t trained at all.
“Manners!”
He still rushed. I spun around and repeated myself until he stopped.
I’d been trying to withhold food until he could feed nicely. But with Oscar upstairs, I wanted the kid to feed quickly. I slashed the thug’s arm.
Even gagged, he still squealed a bit. Oh, well. now he knew how his victims felt. I had no idea what any of those people had done, but the mayor wouldn’t be offering them up for just a few traffic fines. Unless that was drug trafficking.
As Vlad fed, I watched the thug for signs of weakening. After a few minutes, his knees buckled and he became flaccid.
I grabbed Vlad. “Time to stop now.”
Vlad took a few minutes to detach himself, but I no longer needed to slap his nose. He’d made great progress in the last few days.
Vlad needed to nap after feeding, which made it easier to return the thug to the guard. I bandaged up his arm and thralled him, then escorted him back upstairs.
“What’s that?” Oscar called from the study.
“Nothing. Just me.”
I hoped he wouldn’t come out to check things. Tonight’s dinner had been a pretty unsavory one, to be honest: all tattoo-covered brawn. That neck tattoo in particular cheapened things. Also, his ears. I’d never seen ears so ugly.
Anyone who knew me as well as Oscar did would know I’d never feed on him. “You are what you eat,” I al
ways said, so I never fed on ugly people.
I worried about my baby feeding on such ugliness, but it didn’t seem to harm him in any way. Which was a good thing, since I didn’t have much other choice. It wasn’t like the mayor had a stash of good-looking criminals just sitting around.
I got the guy out of the house before Oscar came out of the study.
“Feel like dinner?” I asked him. I’d call the regular girls I fed on.
“Yeah, sure. Can I check on the Demon Child before we eat?”
“I’d prefer not.”
I knew that was one of the reasons he was here. The rest of the pack didn’t trust me alone with Vlad. They thought I’d spoil him. But that wasn’t true. I’d been as exacting in his training as I’d been with anyone else.
“I can’t force you, but if you don’t agree, I’ll think you have something to hide.”
He tried that sunny smile again, but it didn’t fool me. Damn him and his smiles. I smiled my charming smile back.
“I have nothing to hide.”
“You can say that, but if it’s true, then you won’t mind me seeing him.”
While I could be pretty sure that Vlad would be sedate after feeding, I wasn’t entire confident. Sometimes he acted out a little. Having someone unfamiliar around didn’t help. My stomach clenched, but I needed to stay calm so that Vlad didn’t get unsettled.
Oscar smiled again. Damn him and his betraying smiles.
I took him downstairs.
“Vlad, we have a visitor.”
“Tasty?” He jumped up from his nest.
“No, a friend.”
He smiled at Oscar. “Watch me,” he said.
Oscar glanced at me, and I nodded.
Vlad jumped up onto his bars and did his routine.
“Wow.” Oscar looked impressed. “He’s amazing. That’s even better than the videos you posted.”
“I know.”
“Is it really useful, though?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, the whole reason we rescued him was to train him to fight, yeah? If the Vampire King attacks, we need to use him. Wouldn’t it be better to train him in fighting techniques and the like?”
“He can fight. He’s proven that.”
“He can attack humans. That’s a much different thing. He has one huge advantage that we don’t have. He doesn’t have to obey the King.”
“Huh?”
“Didn’t you notice that? When the Vampire King attacked and we were all useless, like bugs in a trap, this kid still had free will. I thought that was the whole point.”
I nodded. “Of course.”
That was a lie, though. My point was to train him for the sake of having him in the pack. Not so he could be used as a weapon, but because he needed a family.
Since Vlad was in such a good mood, I wondered if I could leave him with Oscar for a while.
“Do you mind watching him while I get the next video done? I’ve not had much time lately. He sleeps a lot, but I never know when he’s going to wake. Between the training and other things, I’ve been a little stretched for time.”
I hated admitting even that much, but if I didn’t get the video done, I’d lose followers, and that led to lost money.
“Sure.”
I handed Oscar the score cards. “Watch him, and then give him points on his performance.”
Before I could even think about going on camera, I needed to make sure I looked decent. I hadn’t had time to devote to my full skin care routine lately, and it showed.
It took me twice as long as usual to look my best. After I’d finished, I called down to the basement.
“Everything okay down there?”
“Yep, it’s all good. This kid is amazing.”
I went to one of the spare bedrooms. I had a studio set up in there. I just had to turn on the lights and get the camera rolling. With Vlad preoccupied, it was too easy. I got everything recorded and then checked back through it. Once that was done, I sent the footage to Andre for editing.
As much as I’d been annoyed at Oscar for turning up to check on me, that took one big item off my to-do list. I headed back to the basement, satisfied that I’d done what I could to motivate people for the moment.
For an instant, the idea of having the pack around entered my head. It would simplify my life. But there’d be too many questions. I’d committed to this mayor thing now, and I needed to get that all out of the way first. Maybe, in a few weeks, we could leave town and all be together.
Oscar had started fight training with Vlad. I’d never done that.
Vlad rushed at Oscar while he blocked the attack. The two of them fell to the floor, wrestling like puppies. Hellhound decided to join in, rushing around barking. I wanted to warn Oscar to be careful. Vlad had the strength to overpower him, so this could go bad quickly. I moved to break things up.
Then Vlad laughed. I’d never heard him laugh like that. He sure didn’t when we were training. Occasionally, he giggled while doing his gymnastics, but never a full-on laugh.
Why not? I was fun. I was as much fun as Oscar.
“Okay, we can eat now,” I said to Oscar.
“Tasty?”
“No, Vlad, not you.”
“He could join us,” Oscar said with a smile.
Vlad grinned back at him.
“He’s already eaten,” I said. “He should sleep now.”
Oscar and I went back upstairs.
“How are things going with the Northside Gang in town?” he asked.
“The mayor has it all under control. I’ve hardly noticed a thing.”
He nodded. I hoped that convinced him.
“Want a game of Monopoly while we wait for dinner?” I asked him.
“No way. You always cheat.”
“What? I don’t cheat. I totally don’t cheat.”
Oscar gave me that look. That “serious talk” look. I hated that look. I hated serious talks.
“So, how are you, really?”
“I told you, everything is fine.”
He sighed. “You didn’t look fine when I arrived. You looked bedraggled. I’ve never seen you look bedraggled before.”
“Don’t you read magazines? It’s in this season.”
“Really?”
“Well, it is a bit time-consuming training the kid while I’m trying to stay on top of everything else, but it’s not going to kill me. I just have to work a bit harder than usual.”
“And you don’t have Kisho here to help.”
“Yeah. Not that I need him. Seriously, Oscar, I’m managing. The best thing you can do is stay safe with the rest of the pack so I don’t have that added responsibility on my mind.”
“We could help you. It’d be much easier with everyone here. You wouldn’t be stuck with it all.”
He could say that, but he had no idea what it was like being pack leader. I would worry if they were here. I needed to get Vlad trained, and I needed to deal with this whole impending war thing. Well, at least kill Lucio. Then the whole pack could be together.
“The kid seems like he’s doing well,” Oscar said. “We had a lot of fun.”
Fun, huh? That showed how little Oscar knew about training. It wasn’t about having fun. It was serious business.
Chapter 23 Clem: Fox
I didn’t feel nearly as cold as I usually did. I grabbed the remote and turned the heating down in our hotel room.
“Maybe this cleansing just takes a while to kick in,” I said. “It doesn’t have to be instant, right?”
“I think it’s instant.”
“But I feel warmish. That’s a good sign.”
But then again, Kisho had just walked out of the shower with a towel around him. Slung low so that the jutting edge of his hip peeked out. That might be part of the reason for things hotting up.
Kisho shrugged. “It might’ve calmed things down a bit, but it didn’t work. You need to face up to that, Clem.”
“I guess after being under
that death waterfall, everything is warm by comparison. By the way, I will never forgive you for making me do that alone. Or at all, since it didn’t work. And you can forget about that exorcism stick beating thing.”
“How about the sex aura? You think that’s back?”
“Maybe we need to find a demon so I can test my aura on it. You can be on standby just in case.”
“Coffee?” he asked. “It’s not like we’ve going to find a convenient demon just hanging round.”
“There’s the bass player from that awful band. I could test it on him.”
I leaned on the counter, watching him make coffee. Any minute, the edge of that towel could catch on something and fall to the floor. If that happened, I wanted to see it. Even with the towel covering him, his belly taunted me. It practically begged me to lick a line down it. Starting between his nipples, I’d run my tongue all the way down to where the towel started.
“You can’t kill an innocent just to test your charms. That’d be wrong.” He gave me that earnest frown.
“Did you hear that band? There’s no innocence there, just crimes against music.”
“There are other things we can try. Don’t worry.”
“So long as that virgin thing isn’t one of them.”
“There are other virgins in the world.”
“Hey, Kisho, you wouldn’t happen to be one of them?”
He shook his head. Damn. I guessed you couldn’t have that hotness walking around for three hundred years unscathed.
“What about anal? Anal virginity might count too.”
Again, he shook his head.
“What about—”
“Nope. No virginity here.”
He didn’t even know what I intended. My life mission now was to find out that entire list.
He handed me the mug of coffee, and I went into my room to get ready. I couldn’t handle so much temptation on display, and we had to meet with Hana again. This case was proving to be a battle between my love of money and my hatred of that girl.
“She thought you might appreciate her showing you some cool places to shop,” Kisho had said.
See, from anyone else, that would be nice and friendly, but from Hana, it just sounded like an insult to my fashion sense. Bitch. Like she was some kind of fashion guru.