“You should get it detailed,” her voice blared through my speakers as the Bluetooth picked up the call.
I sighed. “Another problem for another day. I’m late for the hospital.”
“Is it because you were daydreaming about lover boy?”
I rolled my eyes as I drove out of the garage and onto the street. “No. I was not daydreaming about Ashton.”
I winced immediately.
“Oh! Ashton! I like it. Kinda sexy, kinda boy-next-door. Well done, Millie.”
“He’s definitely not a boy,” I muttered.
Allie cackled through the phone. “Oh, this just keeps getting better. When do I get to meet him?”
“Never.”
“Millie,” she whined. “Why can’t I meet him? We can invite him out for a drink at Crimson some night.”
“First of all, that bar is disgusting. I wouldn’t clean my toilet with the swill they serve there.”
“Snob.”
I ignored that and continued. “Second of all, he’s human.”
She was quiet for so long I had to check to make sure the call hadn’t dropped. Finally, when she spoke, I wished she hadn’t. “So, I’m finally getting a brother?”
I rolled my eyes again as I slowed to a stop at a red light. “Allie, first of all, he wouldn’t be your brother because I’m not your mother, you weirdo.”
“Yeah, but you’re my maker.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t make you in my uterus!”
She laughed again, and I couldn’t help but join in. “Second of all,” I began, ignoring her sigh. “I’m not making any more vampires.”
“That’s what you said last time, but then you changed Lacy.”
I ground my teeth together as I thought about my latest progeny. I’d met her at the hospital as a visitor, never imagining she’d wind up a patient. But when I found out she’d been brought in after a domestic dispute, I’d had to see her.
“Lacy was different,” I said, my voice devoid of emotion. If I let even an ounce of feeling into this conversation, I was going to burst into tears and I didn’t want to explain blood stains on my shirt to my coworkers.
“I know she was,” Allie said softly. “I just meant never say never.”
Her words barely registered as I got lost in the memories from that night ten years ago. Looking at Lacy in that hospital bed had been like staring into a mirror.
The black eyes.
The busted lip.
The broken bones and internal injuries.
The lies that fell from her mouth as she denied her husband hit her.
But I’d known the truth. I’d seen it in the emptiness in her eyes. That she’d given up. Accepted her fate.
She knew she was going to die that night, but I just couldn’t let her.
“So, when are you seeing him again?” Allie asked, her voice full of false cheer.
I welcomed it. My thoughts were snarled and dark, and that wasn’t how I wanted to start my shift. I needed to project calm and serenity at work, so I needed to get that night out of my head.
“Um. Never?”
“Millie!”
“What?” I asked as I pulled into the employee parking lot at the hospital.
“You let some guy into your cave of wonders and you’re just never going to see him again?”
There was a long pause as those words settled in my brain before I threw my head back and laughed, thankful I’d already parked.
“Holy shit, Allie. There’s something wrong with you,” I said as the chuckles kept falling from my lips and my eyes filled with tears.
“Would you prefer meat curtains? Honey pot? Pink canoe?”
“Stop. Please stop.”
She broke down into contagious laughter and I joined in. I’d needed this. I’d gone too long without talking to her.
“Listen–”
“Oh, no you don’t! I still want to talk about Ashton!”
“Well, I’m at the hospital, so it’ll have to wait until later.”
She sighed dramatically. “Fine. But if you don’t call me as soon as your shift ends, I’m coming over and sitting on you until you tell me everything I want to know.”
I didn’t doubt her for a minute.
“Okay, Allie. I promise I’ll call you tonight when I get home.”
“And you’ll tell me everything?”
Now it was my turn to sigh. “I’ll tell you more, but I’m not going to agree to everything.”
“I’ll take it.”
I laughed again. “Okay, Allie girl, I’ll talk to you later.”
“Bye, Millie girl.”
We hung up, and I climbed out of my car, happy to breathe in all the fresh air. My car really did need a deep cleaning if I was going to get the stench out of it.
I hurried into the hospital and up to the fifth floor. I spent a long time scrubbing my hands and arms before suiting up in a gown, mask, and gloves. It was unnecessary since I was a vampire and didn’t carry germs, but I didn’t mind. Anything to ease these poor parents’ worries.
“Hey, Miss Millie! Didn’t think we’d see you today.”
I turned to the charge nurse and gave her my most apologetic smile. “I’m so sorry I’m late.”
She raised a brow over her thick glasses. “You do remember you just volunteer here, right? And that you’re here more often than most of my nurses?”
I shrugged. “I’ve got the time and I like to help.”
She gave my cheeks a pinch, and I hoped she blamed my cooler skin on the AC blasting through the vents. “You’re a good girl, Millie.”
I was also older than her mother, but she didn’t need to know that.
Instead, I gave her a smile before listening to her rattle off the patients I’d need to work with that night. I listened carefully as I cleared my mind of all the negativity I had prowling around up there. I refused to bring that energy here.
The shift passed quickly like it usually did, and before long, I was back in my smelly car heading home. While I drove, I let my thoughts drift, and predictably, they wound up on Ashton.
Even now, I regretted how I’d ended things with him.
Would it have been so bad if I’d gone out with him somewhere? Let him treat me to a movie or a round of mini golf? Wasn’t that what humans did on dates? I could have pretended for a night, right?
The least I could have done was give him my number. What would that have cost me? Then I’d have some hope that I’d see him again.
It was then I remembered what he’d told me not to forget.
You know how to reach me if you change your mind.
Had I changed my mind?
My head was still chaotic as I pulled into my parking garage and turned the engine off. I made sure that the doors were closed and locked this time before heading inside. I couldn’t wait to get in my apartment, pop open a bottle of blood wine, and spend the rest of the hours until dawn talking to Allie.
But those plans cracked and crumbled the moment I stepped out of the elevator, and the stench from my car greeted me.
I held a hand to my nose as I followed the smell across the lobby and right to my front door.
My open front door.
In that instant, as I slowly backed away toward the stairwell, I remembered where I knew the scent from.
It was the man who got away that night with Ashton.
And I was in bigger trouble than I thought.
Chapter 6
Ashton
“That beef stew looks like it’s been eaten once already.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, it kinda does.”
I watched the head chef on the screen move down the line to the next poor victim and berate them too.
“You call this rosemary chicken? It’s more like Rosemary’s Baby. It’s horrific.”
Another laugh burst out of me as I sat up and looked at my kitchen. I was pretty sure I still had some fresh rosemary in there. And I knew I had chicken.
I turned the volume u
p and wandered toward the fridge, my head already buzzing with ways to make this meal unique.
Cooking had become a passion of mine since I left the military. After all those years of eating their food, I was eager to make something for myself that actually tasted good. It took a lot of phone calls to my mom and quite a few YouTube tutorials before I got decent, but it was worth it.
Now I didn’t just cook to feed myself, I did it because I enjoyed it. Something I never thought I’d say.
My work cell vibrated on the counter and I turned down the volume on the TV before accepting the call.
“Ashton McGraw,” I answered.
“What the fuck happened to my apartment?”
I pulled the phone away to check the number before sighing. “Hey, Hausle. I’ve been trying to get in touch with you for like a week.”
“Yeah, well, I’ve been busy. And I just came home to grab some clothes to find my fucking place an even bigger wreck than I left it. What the fuck?”
I set the knife and cutting board on the counter before my hand curled into a fist. “The people Wakefield was working with showed up.”
“So I’ve heard.”
I jerked in response. “How?”
“Millie called me.”
My heart raced in my chest and my hands began to sweat. How did just hearing her name make me react like that?
I’d been with my fair share of women, but none had ever gotten to me like Millie did. None of them did this to me.
“Now, I want to hear your version,” Hausle said, breaking me out of my thoughts.
I sighed again as I leaned my hip against the granite countertop. “Me and Millie were getting rid of Wakefield when there was a knock on the door. I opened it up and these three assholes came rushing in. Two cornered me while one went to Millie.”
I paused as the anger overwhelmed me. It didn’t matter that I knew she was okay now. The fact that she’d even been in an ounce of danger because of those bastards was enough to send my blood pressure rising.
Actually, any thoughts of Millie had the power to do that.
“Did she try to glamour any of them?”
“That hypno crap?”
Alexander chuckled. “Yeah, that.”
“Nah, she just sucked them dry.”
He was quiet for so long I checked the phone to make sure he was still on the line. “You don’t seem disturbed about that.”
It was a statement, but I was sure it was meant as a question. And the truth of the matter was, no, I wasn’t disturbed that she drained those bastards.
But, fuck, just thinking about Millie sucking blood made my dick ache.
I cleared my throat and stood up straight again. “I mean, it was kinda fucked up at first. But then it made sense once she told me what she was.”
I held my breath as I waited to see how he’d react to that information.
And how much longer I’d get to hold on to those memories.
“Am I to assume you know what I am now too?”
“Yeah,” I said, struggling with the next words. “She told me you’re both… vampires.”
I felt stupid even saying that word out loud, but I knew it was true. I’d seen it with my own damn eyes.
Alexander sighed. “You are much more involved than I’d anticipated.”
“Yeah, but I’m not saying shit.”
The panic started to percolate in my system as I realized he could still change his mind at any time and erase all these memories from my head. Most of them I didn’t care about, but if he took them all away, he’d be taking Millie from me too.
And that, I just couldn’t let happen.
I opened my mouth to start making my case when he began talking again.
“Your insight into our world might actually come in handy.”
I grabbed the rope he was dangling in front of me and held on for dear life. “How can I help?”
Alexander sighed again. “I’ve been doing some digging into Kevin Wakefield, and it’s not looking good.”
My hands fisted again just hearing that fucker’s name. “What now?”
“Turns out his ties go deeper than we thought. And those ties are much more powerful than we anticipated. We still haven’t gotten to the bottom of this pile of shit, but we’re almost there.”
“Okay, what do we know so far?” I asked as I dug out a notepad and pen.
“I know the guy at the top is a small-time loan shark and Wakefield owed him a fuck ton of money.”
“Which explains why he came after you.”
“Right, but me and my money don’t seem to be their priority anymore.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, it seems someone knows something they shouldn’t because they’ve targeted another vampire now.”
My heart jumped at his flippant use of that word, but I kept my mouth shut. If he was going to let me in and tell me the truth about what was going on, I wasn’t going to stop him.
“Okay, so where do I come in?”
“I need you to guard her during the day like you did Charlotte. The only difference is, she’ll be asleep the whole time.”
“What about Charlotte?”
He paused for a moment before answering. “She’s with me.”
I frowned. “She was with you before and you still had me guard her during the day.”
He sighed. “Yeah, but it’s different now.”
“How?”
He sighed again, louder this time. “Because she’s a fucking vampire now too, McGraw.”
I snapped my mouth closed as I let that information settle. “Oh.”
He chuckled, but it wasn’t happy. “Yeah. Oh.”
I tugged at the collar of my shirt. “Is that something she wanted?” I asked quietly.
“Yes. Of course. What do you think? I just go around making people vampires against their will?”
“I honestly have no idea how it works.”
He blew out a deep breath. “Well, it’s a complicated process with paperwork and meetings and shit, but she went through it all because this was what she wanted.”
I thought about that for another long moment before shrugging. “As long as she’s happy.”
I’d spent a lot of time with Charlotte Wakefield and knew a bit about the hard life she’d lived. I also got a chance to see her with Alexander a lot, and it was clear how much she cared about him.
As for Hausle? That man was a fucking goner for that girl.
So, if she said this was what she wanted, I believed her.
Even if I couldn’t really understand it.
I didn’t know a whole lot about vampires, but I could make a couple guesses. I’d never seen Alexander a moment before the sun set, leading me to believe he either couldn’t or wouldn’t go out in the sunlight.
Which was a huge fucking problem for me.
I thrived in the sun. My apartment was basically all windows to let as much of it in as possible. I couldn’t imagine having that taken away from me.
And then, of course, there was their liquid diet.
I loved food way too much to give it up.
“Besides,” Alexander continued, breaking me out of my thoughts again. “Charlotte’s with me somewhere safe and we’re not going back to my penthouse until we have this Wakefield shit sorted. While I work on that, I need you to keep Millie safe because they seem to have taken an interest in her.”
I’d been so wrapped up in the news that Charlotte was a vampire now, I hadn’t even really processed the fact that Millie was in danger.
And that he was asking me to protect her.
“What happened to Millie?” I asked, my voice low as my hands gripped the edge of the counter.
“She had her car and apartment broken into yesterday. She said she recognized the scent as one of the men who attacked you guys that night.”
Son of a bitch.
It had to be that third guy. The one who got away. The one we tried to track but lost. He must have seen
something he shouldn’t have, and now he was after Millie.
But how did he find her?
“McGraw?”
I shook my head. “Yeah. I’m here.”
“I need you at her house before sunrise tomorrow.”
I nodded as I jotted down the address he provided, my hands shaking.
I was going to see Millie again.
I was going to be in her home for a whole day.
I was going to smell her again. And touch her soft skin. And–
Those thoughts brought me up short as I remembered myself. I didn’t sleep with clients. Not now, not ever. It didn’t matter that I’d already fucked her once. Now that she was my responsibility to protect, I wouldn’t let those lines blur.
But damn, I hated my professionalism in that moment.
“You got all that?” Hausle asked.
I’d been mostly tuning him out, but I was sure I got the gist of it. “Yeah, I got it.”
“Good. Let me know if anything pops up while you’re on duty.”
“Will do.”
As usual, Hausle hung up without any pleasantries and I did the same. I set my phone on the counter and took a deep breath.
I didn’t know how the hell I was going to protect Millie without touching her again, but I knew I had to. Her safety was more important than any urge I might have. I couldn’t keep her safe if I was busy trying to get my dick wet.
Which meant that shit was staying in my pants. No matter what it took.
***
Millie
“Why are we coming back here again?” Allie asked as she looped her arm around my elbow.
“No one said you had to come,” I reminded her. “And besides, I’m not letting anyone run me out of my home.”
“That’s not the tune you were singing last night,” she muttered, which earned her a jab with my elbow.
“Last night I was just spooked. I didn’t like the thought that someone had been in my home. But it’s been searched by Parliament now, so I know there’s no one hiding in there. And besides, they’re sending someone to guard me.”
“Well, I’m still not leaving you on your own all day.”
I squeezed her arm as we loaded into the elevator. “Have I told you lately that I love you?”
Blood Feud Page 5