by M. L. Briers
“Not by a long shot.” Vance growled at me again. I rolled my eyes.
“Isn’t watching you slaughter them enough?”
“No.”
“If I promise to have nightmares?”
“Oh you will, but still not hardly enough.”
One guy peeled away from the group and started to back off. Another caught that move and did the same.
“Hey, bitch, what are you doing, he’s one guy?” The ringleader said. Well, more accused.
“He’s fucking insane, man. Can’t you see that guy’s lost it?” He continued to back away.
“You gonna let them go?” I tried to deflect Vance’s attention away from me.
“I thought you said killing them was harsh.” Vance asked a stupid question.
“As opposed to you killing me, it seems like a good trade off.” I didn’t mean it, and I knew that Vance would never kill me- at least I hoped he wouldn’t…
“Hmm, it’s still fifty-fifty right now.” Vance assured me and I felt the urge to hit him with something hard. If he was still teasing me then I guessed I was ok- for now.
“W-what we gonna do, man?” Someone’s nervous question took my attention back to the group.
“Question is, what’s he gonna do. There’s six of us and one of him.” The ringleader laughed, but his eyes gave him away. Fear, worry, uncertainty.
“Let’s just leave.” I offered Vance over his left shoulder. It sounded like a good plan to me.
“Let’s just not and say we did.” Vance shot back. Predatory. This was his space; his property, and he wanted to mark his territory like a damned wolfman.
“Yeah, yeah, you run away.” The ringleader said the wrong thing at the wrong time. I stiffened; I couldn’t help it. I was half imagining what was to come and half praying that it didn’t.
“Vance. Don’t do this.” I whispered those words and heard him sigh.
I’d never witnessed him kill before. In all of our time together, in all of the guises I’d seen him in. I’d never once seen him lose it to the bloodlust that he described to me.
I’d witnessed him feeding by mistake; twice. That image hadn’t haunted me so much as captivated me, but this… I didn’t know if we could get past this.
I heard him sigh again. I could see his jaw moving as he bit down on it. It served him right if he’d read my mind and didn’t like what he’d heard.
If they’d killed me, sure, I’d be the first to say vengeance is all his, but he’d stepped up in the nick of time and come to my rescue. Why couldn’t we leave it at that?
“You’re killing me here, Marge.” He growled over his shoulder.
“If you want to take your anger out on someone, I’m right here, Vance.” I whispered again.
“What are you offering?” There was a playfulness to his voice that warmed me.
“I’m not offering you shit.” I heard him chuckle.
“You’re supposed to be good at negotiating, it’s why I hired you in the first place…”
“No, you hired me because my legs look good in a skirt, and you wanted to thumb your nose at the male enclave of the corporate world.”
“That too, but you have to offer me something here.” Vance was back to teasing and I was back to wanting to hit him with something hard.
“We can take him, man…” The ringleader said and I rolled my eyes. If only they knew what they were dealing with, but then he’d have to kill them anyway or wipe their memories as he had mine on occasion.
“I’m bored…” Vance started to take a step and only the ringleader squared up to him. The others were smarter and when push came to shove they might back their leaders play, and yet it was not only a lost cause, but it would last right up until Vance made his first move.
I reached out and wrapped my fingers around the hard muscles of his upper arm. He froze in place. I moved closer.
“I don’t know if I will be able to ever look you in the eye again.” I whispered those words. They were the truth.
While every woman secretly wants a hero to come swooping in to the rescue, he’d done that. What every woman didn’t want was to witness carnage.
“Damn it woman, you’re killing me with your damned kindness…” He growled out.
The next instant I was literally swept off of my feet by him. I hadn’t been this close to him in years. With his arms wrapped around my body- I felt that rush of excitement that hadn’t touched me for a long time- as he held me close and sped away from the pack of thugs, I felt blessed and cursed in the same moment.
My head spun as my body reacted as it always did to the feel of being pressed against him. It was exhilarating. I closed my eyes and held on as we came out into the overcast day and the rush of wind that swirled around us.
Then my back was against something hard, something cold, something metal, and it took a long moment for my equilibrium to get back on track. He didn’t move a muscle, just caged me in with his body, and I’d never felt safer in my whole life as I did in that one moment.
“Better?” He asked with what sounded like infinite patience.
“Getting there.”
“Good, because then you and I will be having words.” Now he didn’t sound so concerned, so gracious, he sounded pissed off.
“Vance…” I wanted to put a stop to this before it had even begun. I wasn’t a child that needed to be scolded for making bad decisions. I heard him curse, low and angry.
“Get in the damn car, Marjorie.” He yanked open the door and the hinges protested. I’d say it served him right if he yanked the damn thing off and wrecked his pride and joy sporty thing, but I was on the back foot already.
“Vance…” I shook my head. I’d rather go in my own car with my own driver than be subjected to his driving, especially as pissed off as he was.
“Not going to happen. I sent your driver home.” He’d read my thoughts again and that annoyed me.
“Can’t we just have a normal conversation like regular people?” I ground out.
“No. Get in the damn car or I’ll put you in the boot.” Vance’s warning tone told me that he just might.
I lifted my chin in defiance and considered it for all of a second until he inclined his head and his black eyes narrowed on me. Then I huffed and got in. There was no negotiating with him when he was in this mood. And I knew not to try.
The hard slam of the passenger door sealed my fate. I was to be scolded and made to feel like the idiot that I was. I wasn’t looking forward to it.
CHAPTER THREE
~
The small of my back still tingled from the feel of his hand against it as I walked in through the front door of his imposing mansion, and I’d broken away from him to head for his stash of alcohol.
He hadn’t spoken a word to me on the drive back from the warehouse. But he had tried to terrify me with his damn driving, and I was still quivering inside as I reached for the scotch. My hand shook, and a heartbeat later he was at my side, taking the bottle and pouring me the drink that I needed to calm my nerves.
My fingers brushed his as he placed the glass in my hand. I didn’t look at him. I didn’t need to see the disappointment in his eyes, maybe condescension, definitely anger.
I didn’t sip it. It went down like lava against the back of my throat and I blew out a long, hard breath at the burn that rolled down inside of my chest. I didn’t need to look at him to know that he was staring at me, evaluating me, he was always good at that, and it didn’t take his mindreading skills to know that I was a little- a lot, shaken up.
“Was death an experience you wanted to try?” His voice was deep, smooth, and melodic, at least the story books had that part right. It held my attention even if I was trying to ignore it.
“Let’s cut to the chase. I was wrong and you were right, and my stupidity almost got those men killed.” I placed the glass down on the side and went to turn away. He blocked my escape.
“I was right and you were wrong- and those, back there, I
wouldn’t call them men. More like monsters…”
“Monsters…?” I dared to peek up at him from under my lashes, and I have to admit that I didn’t like what I saw. He still looked fit to kill and I was the only one around.
“You think I’m the monster, Marjorie. I don’t rape. I don’t kill for anything other than a damned good reason. I might feed, but it’s usually part of something erotic, as you well know…”
I flinched at the thought of his bedroom antics. Not first hand, we’d agreed a long time ago that would never happen between us, but I had walked in on his feeding more than once- and just that sight had taken my breath away both times.
“I…” Didn’t want to talk about that. His women. His… I silenced my mind.
“I don’t think you’re a monster, Vance, or I wouldn’t be here.” That was true.
“What they wanted to do to you…” I heard the anger in his voice. I saw the disdain, the hate, the control as he tried to hold onto his wrath.
I lifted my hand and touched his. He stilled, calmed, frowned as he looked down at that connection between us.
“I’m sorry that I did what I did. I’m sorry that I put us both in that position…” He roared with anger and turned on his heels. Turned his back on me.
“Leave. Your driver is here. Go home and stay there.” He bit out. Demanded my compliance.
“Vance…” I wanted to make things right. He was my friend…
“Leave, Marjorie. Leave now.” There was no arguing with him when he got like this. There was no debate. He was set in his ways and wouldn’t be swayed by me or anyone else.
“Fine.” I started for the door, but he got there before me and blocked the way. I jumped, but not from fear, from surprise.
His eyes were wrong. The colour was alternating between black and green and I had never seen anything like it. I went to reach out for him, but his hand locked around my wrist and he kept my touch at bay.
“Make sure you go home.” Vance growled out the words. It was more than a damned warning.
“Vance…”
“Just…” He bit down on his anger. “Do it.” He warned me again.
This was different. It was wrong, and it was something that I’d never seen before. I nodded and he let go on my wrist. Then in the blink of an eye, mine, he was gone.
~
~
~
I wasn’t used to having free time. It wasn’t something that appealed to me. I didn’t have any family, friends, or even close acquaintances that I could spend time with. I was alone in the world, and that was the way that I liked it.
I was usually so into my work that I didn’t notice not having a life, but on nights like these, when I found that I couldn’t settle to anything, then I felt alone.
I had itchy fingers. I wanted to pick up the phone and call Vance just to hear his normal voice once more, but I was scared that it would still hold that anger, that disdain for my actions from earlier.
It wasn’t as if we ever hung out. Not in any real sense of the word. Business meetings, at all hours sometimes, and unexpectedly at others, but that’s all it was.
We of course saw each other at corporate functions when he deemed to show up. Back in the day he’d never missed one event, especially if there was dancing, and I can still remember the feeling of being swept around the dance floor within his arms…
I didn’t want to think of those times. They were long in the past. He’d pulled back from me as a friend, a confident, a long time ago, and now they seemed just like a dream.
If I were being brutally honest with myself, I’d have to say that I missed that side of him.
I wrapped my arms around myself and strolled towards the picture window; looking out on the darkness of the night. With the street lighting turned off in the wee small hours, I could imagine him being out there on the prowl, hunting. Not that he needed too. The man had women falling over themselves to be in his bed.
I didn’t want to go there either. He needed to feed. Doing it the way that he did ensured that both participants had a good time- at least that was what he’d told me some years earlier.
Good for him- lucky her… I can’t believe that I just thought that.
I’d be lying to say that I hadn’t imaged it, more than once; it was a regular occurrence in the small hours of the night when I needed something to take me over the edge, something to get me excited when I needed that release… but in real life…?
I shivered. It felt as if I had eyes on me. I pulled back from the window and turned off the lights on my way towards the bedroom.
I had to get some sleep. Tomorrow was another day, even if the clock on the bedside table said that day had already arrived. I didn’t know what to expect from Vance at his house in the morning, but I wasn’t looking forward to it.
~
~
~
Everything was as it normally was at the mansion. The food was laid out on the side, my pot of coffee with my usual mug was at the very end, and nothing seemed out of place, but then Vance hadn’t yet arrived on the scene to tell me otherwise.
“Good morning sunshine.” He offered me that unusual greeting as he strolled into the room and over to the alcohol. Yep, that was normal.
“Sunshine?” I was perched on the edge of my chair. I hadn’t even taken the coffee pot or the mug. I wasn’t sure I’d be around long enough to take a sip.
“It’s supposed to be kryptonite for vampires, but as we both know only too well, it’s not. Now plant a silver bullet or knife in my heart…”
“I get the picture, thanks for the drawing. Why am I your Kryptonite?” I don’t think I actually wanted an answer to that, but curiosity killed the cat, I just hoped that I wasn’t the cat.
“Because of yesterday. I can’t kill you, I don’t have the heart, so to speak.” He took a moment to look over and give me a wicked grin. “But, you also stopped me doing the one thing that I should have done, killed them.”
“So you’re saying I make you weak?” I pushed up to my feet. I didn’t like where this was going.
“I guess I am.” Vance shot me another look. This time it was a little more smug.
“You once said that I make you stronger, feel like a better man…”
“Oh the times they are a changing…” He tossed that little gem over his shoulder.
“Then I would say it’s time for us to part ways.” I wasn’t bluffing and he knew it. I caught the half frown that took his forehead and then disappeared again just as quickly.
“Would you?”
“You have two choices. You can kill me and leave the company to someone else of your choosing, or you can announced an acquisition and replace me that way.” I know which one I liked best. I didn’t have a death wish and I hoped he didn’t have those kinds of plans for me.
“You’ve thought of everything.”
“It was a long night.” I tossed back at him.
“Is that what you want? Dissolution of our agreement?” Vance still hadn’t looked at me. I didn’t have a damned clue as to what he wanted.
“No.” I put it out there. “But if I’m in your way…”
“I’ll tell you when you’re in my way.” Vance offered back.
“Then I should get to work.” I took a brief moment to see if he was going to say anything more- not a word. He didn’t even look at me.
I got as far as the second door before I felt him behind me. It was more the rush of a breeze that wrapped around my body than his actual presence, but then his fingers wrapped around my wrist and I was spinning back towards him…
Those eyes, green- then black, then green… He stared down at me. The feel of his hand against my bare flesh excited me, and the feel of his other hand on my hip as he stopped me from tripping over my own feet sent a multitude of images into my mind. None of them were good, not from my perspective…
“You like to imagine us as lovers.” Vance bit out. “And yet it’s the last thing that you actually w
ant.” That sounded like an accusation. I had to bite down on my thoughts.
CHAPTER FOUR
~
Vance moved closer. I felt the hard press of his chest muscles against the hard puckered nipples of my breasts and I wanted to moan at how good that actually felt. There was a warmth within me that had nothing to do with physical heat, and it was spreading from my womb outwards.
I felt the press of his hips against mine, and yet it was the press of his hard length that stole my attention. My womb wept for him, and I could feel that wet heat flood my channel. I pressed my inner thighs together, willing it to go away.
“We agreed…” I started to protest out of habit, but in truth every inch of my body was crying out to be taken by him.
“That was before.” Vance seemed to be holding himself back. It was the very first time that I think I have ever witnessed him unsure of himself, or unsure of me, maybe both.
“Before…?” I couldn’t hold onto my thoughts and follow what he was saying. Most of my mind was caught up on the response of my body to his closeness.
“Before I nearly lost you.” Vance’s eyes held me mesmerised; I’d never seen them change colour so rapidly, it was a sight to behold.
“Your eyes…” I had to know.
“Mixed emotions.”
“You still want to kill me?”
His mouth seemed to take forever and a day to pull back into a smile. His fangs were partially down, and just the sight of them caused me to shiver.
“I want to strip you naked, sink my cock inside of you, and fuck you until you beg me to stop.”
I couldn’t catch my breath. I didn’t want too.
“That’s the punishment for disobeying me and putting yourself in harm’s way.”
“That’s a punishment?” I couldn’t think straight. The man was offering me everything that I’d dared to imagine when I was alone at night, during my daydreams, and he was telling me it was a bad thing.