Rainer frowned as he looked through the window at Angelina packing her things. “What are you talking about? She’s not my girlfriend. She works at the office and that’s it.” Memories of last night pressed against his brain, but he refused to think about that—not yet, at least. “She wants to be a reporter, and I thought that she might be able to cut her teeth on that gala last night. There is nothing more going on there.”
“That’s not what people think. And honestly, if you want this to continue, you better make her your girlfriend. Word’s already out in the Starlight Mountains, and you’ve pulled up by ten points in the polls. This is your big moment! You’re showing you can improve relationships between vampires and humans because you have a relationship with a human.”
Rainer bit back a few choice words. So that was it, then? He takes Angelina to one gala and all of a sudden, she is the key to his success? After four hundred years of kicking around this planet, Rainer wanted to be one of the ones in charge. He wanted to be the one making the rules for once, instead of trying to change the ones that were killing people.
As king of Starlight, he’d have so much more power to do good. Sure, there were benefits like throwing his own parties—none of these boring galas. He was talking about kegs of beer, neon lights, blasting music. Grinding on strangers, drinking, shouting, maybe a beat-down or two. A real party, the way it was in the old days—but the main point was that he could go ahead and threaten to cut trade unless the treatment of vampires was actually looked into.
The interview he’d had with Greyson, the warden’s disgusting comments, that had all been released. The police had closed ranks, though. They reiterated again and again that Greyson got what was ‘requisite’ to drink. There was some public outrage over the incident.
But not enough.
If he was king, though, he could march into the oval office and tell the president that he (or she, depending on the outcome of this next election) that the US wasn’t getting any more of the diamonds Starlight was named for until jailed vampires were given weekly blood from the vein and for cops across the country to have sensitivity training.
And now. Now, it all rested on Angelina being his girlfriend?
His PR guy was talking still, but Rainer hung up the phone. None of what he was saying mattered unless they got one thing straightened out first. Taking a deep breath, he ran for the door before he could stop himself. He didn’t burst out of his office like some drama queen, of course, but his movements still had a sense of urgency. Angelina looked up, surprised, when he placed his hands on her desk and leaned over.
“I’m not firing you.”
Angelina blinked rapidly. “But—”
“But nothing. I’m not firing you. Last night you said you were going to write an article on vampires. I gave you an interview. I shared some very deep, meaningful things with you. That doesn’t go out the window just because we had sex when maybe we shouldn’t have.”
Angelina’s fair skin turned red. She was clutching a picture of Tommy in her hands. “That isn’t a good enough reason. I don’t have any professional training and I—”
“So I’ll arrange for you to take a few classes. Your editing work has been spot on. You show a real feel for this. A talent. And that’s more important than any training. Got it?”
“I…”
“Also,” he continued, “apparently the fact that I’m dating a human is seen as pretty incredible, so you need to pretend to be my girlfriend.”
Angelina’s jaw dropped. “What?”
“They already think we’re dating so all that you need to do is be seen with me. Or we could make it official and actually start going out. Actually, that might be a good idea. Me, dating a single mom and helping her take care of her young son. That paints me as sensitive and responsible. It’d be good publicity.”
“You are not going to use me and my son for your own gain!”
“No?” Rainer shrugged. “I can transfer you to a different department if you’re worried about people thinking that you only got the job because you’re banging me.”
Her face went scarlet. “I am not banging you! It was just the one time and I—”
He waited for her to continue but she did not. He shrugged. “I know. But think about it. I can give you everything you want. And you’ll have a built-in connection with vampires. I know Morticia gave you her number and God only knows why you took it, but if you’re interested in vampires—”
“I took it because I want a support system for Tommy, because I don’t know what it means to be a vampire.”
“I’m a vampire!” Rainer spread his arms and grinned at her. “What more do you need? Come on, Angel. How can you say no?”
She slammed her palm against the desk but said nothing for a long moment. Finally, she nodded. “Fine. Whatever. I’ll pretend to be your girlfriend. But you’d better understand that I am not going to let you fuck me again.”
Chapter Six
Angelina still had doubts about this whole thing, but she had to admit a certain amount of satisfaction when she bought a newspaper and saw her name on the byline. Her interview with Rainer (which they redid, with some more questions and actual preparation) was a huge success. Angelina had promised herself that she wasn’t going to check the online comments since they were rarely kind but Rainer himself had shown her a printout. Lots of people were saying that it was a raw, intimate look at the media mogul and there was hardly anything about Angelina supposedly being his girlfriend.
Even if it had been more difficult than she’d thought it would be, Angelina still had detailed the looks, the laughter, the way Rainer had embraced some topics while being reluctant with others. That seemed to be what people were most interested in. Not only his works, his experiences but how she saw him.
It was heady. It was amazing. And it was a little frightening, too. Because her thoughts were out there for the world to see.
Still, it was a success and that bolstered her confidence like nothing else.
“Your craft needs a bit of work,” the editor Rainer had paired her with told her as he looked over the article she had written about Isaac Fisher.
Rainer told her that a follow up couldn’t hurt, and she had managed to contact Isaac with information about how his life was going. He and his mate and partner had adopted a half-vampire baby recently and Isaac himself was half-vampire. Angelina had gotten a lot more information for Tommy than she had expected to get out of that.
Angelina nodded toward the editor. “I’ve been taking a few classes. I know that I have work to do. Is there anything specific you can tell me?”
“You use too many adverbs. Like this one. ‘Gently touching’. Caressing is stronger and more concise.”
“Right. Adverbs.” Angelina made a face. The thing was, she loved adverbs. And in this case, ‘caressing’ wasn’t at all accurate. It implied a lingering touch, fingers moving in long strokes. But if adverbs were out, then she’d have to deal with it. “I’ll work on that.”
The editor nodded. “You do have a knack for making people open up in interviews, though. Mr. Weiman said he wants you to keep working on the paranormal angles. So far, you’ve done interviews with two vampires. What do you say about joining up with one of my more experienced reporters to do an interview with a wolf shifter in jail?”
Why do they all want to see me in jail? Angelina fought back a smirk at the thought. It was hardly appropriate right now. She leaned forward, nodding eagerly. “I’ve always thought the best teacher was experience. I’d love to see how someone else handles an interview.”
“Oh, they won’t be in charge of the interview, you will. They’ll just be there to make suggestions.” The editor nodded once and stood. “You’ll be working with Phoenix Swift. Their office is just around the corner.”
Angelina nearly squealed with delight. Phoenix Swift was a reporter she had looked up to for a long, long time. A non-binary person, they were a strong activist for educating people on gender the
ory and had spent a lot of time in various cultures to get a broader view on the subject. They were one of her idols and had been one of the reasons she wanted to be a reporter.
“I didn’t even know they worked here,” she gushed, feeling like a teenager about to meet a celebrity. She found herself patting her hair, and the editor smiled at her.
“Phoenix doesn’t like to have a great deal of attention these days. They’ve earned some peace and quiet, don’t you think?”
“Yeah. Yes.” Angelina stood. “Thank you. Are they expecting me?”
“Should be.”
Phoenix Swift was everything that Angelina had hoped. Confident, humorous, with a twinkle in their eye and plenty of advice to give. Angelina quizzed them on everything she could think of on the way to the jail, making notes in her book.
The two of them would be interviewing a wolf shifter by the name of Kavan McBride. A member of the New York mafia, he had been in jail for a little over two years now. The story of how he’d been arrested and what crimes he had committed was a little muddy, and it was that muddiness that was drawing the attention of multiple news sources right now. The trial had been swift and the punishment severe—but now, there was talk about that first trial being thrown out because of mishandling of evidence and a new trial to judge McBride’s guiltiness.
The man himself was tall, broad and had an air of danger about him. The orange jumpsuit only served as a reminder that this was a criminal and Angelina had to fight back apprehension as she shook his hand.
“Thank you for agreeing to this interview,” Angelina told him. To her knowledge, he had been refusing to talk to the media at all.
Kavan inclined his head toward her. “I read your interview with Rainer Weiman. You seem to have a sympathetic eye for the paranormal, and I figured that you would tell the truth rather than twisting it into ‘the big bad wolf’. So, thank you, for contacting me.”
Angelina flushed as she glanced at Phoenix. They only grinned at her and nodded for her to continue. Angelina cleared her throat, fidgeted for a moment, then pulled out her recorder. “Do you mind if I record this.”
“Not at all.” Kavan watched her closely but when she made to turn on the recorder, he laid his hand down next to hers. She paused and looked up at him questioningly. “Miss Williams, I should let you know that I have no interest in being a villain or a martyr. I am a criminal and no matter what the courts decide, I want this to be honest. I won’t lie to you, but don’t make me out to be anything other than what I am.”
“Well… the thing about journalism is we’re supposed to be objective. But we live in a subjective world, and there are always too many viewpoints to cover to be truly objective. I’ll do my best, but I can only show you as I see you.”
She bit her lip and snuck a glance at Phoenix, but they only smiled at her.
I did expect a little more guidance than that, she thought but didn’t say it out loud. Clearly, they were trying to get her to take the lead and be confident in herself. And she could do that. Right? This was only the second official interview she’d had but that didn’t mean she couldn’t do it. And besides, this was meant to be more of a look at how paranormal beings were treated in the system than a piece specifically on Kavan, wasn’t it?
Suddenly, Angelina wasn’t so sure. She glanced at her listed questions and her gaze skipped over most of them. They didn’t seem… right anymore. What are you in here for? Everybody already knew that. How are you being treated? Uninspired.
Why had they given her such a big project when her highest educational level was high school? Her heart started beating faster and her hands began to tremble. Doubts swirled through her, and she had to hold her breath to keep from hyperventilating. This was so above her head; she didn’t know what to do!
Closing her eyes, she set her notes aside. People liked her interview with Rainer. She hadn’t had any trouble interviewing Isaac. She had to follow that same sort of flow. “You’re an orphan, right?”
She opened her eyes again to find Kavan looking at her in surprise. His brow furrowed as he nodded. “Yeah. I was raised by… well, the family. Went from home to home and… It was better than the foster system,” he added harshly. “I was in the system for a while and all I learned there was that shifting was of the devil and I deserved every blow I got.”
“And the family… that’s the mafia, right?”
Kavan rolled his eyes. “If that’s what you want to call them.”
“They didn’t discourage you from shifting, then?”
“Most of them were shifters. The ones who weren’t, they were married to shifters or were the rare case when shifters have a non-shifter child.”
“So not only did they take care of you, you could be yourself with them. And with the foster system, that was actively discouraged…” Angelina frowned as she leaned forward. No child should be punished over something they couldn’t control! No child should be squished down into a box, not allowed to express themselves for fear of punishment. No child should be made to be ashamed of who they were. “It’s no wonder the family is where your loyalty lies. What has the system ever done for you?”
Kavan still frowned at her.
“There is talk that you’ll end up released. If you are, do you think you’ll go back to how things were before?”
“For starters, I’m not getting released. Second… what else am I supposed to do? You know, they say they have rehabilitation programs in these jails, but you know what I’ve learned in my years in prison? Because this isn’t the first time I’ve been in jail. I’ve been in and out so often this jumpsuit almost feels like a second skin.” Kavan grinned at her, baring his teeth.
Angelina ignored the display. “What did you learn?”
His grin disappeared. “That all they want is to put me back in here. I’ve been through rehabilitation programs and the moment I was out, that was it. Nobody tried to help me. Nobody gives a flying fuck about us unless we’re breaking the law. And in here? Well, let’s just say that the foster system prepared me well for it.”
A tingle ran down her spine. “Meaning what?”
“Meaning a shifter needs to shift. We need to stretch our muscles and have a place to run. But shifting is strictly forbidden. I shift, I get stuck in solitary. But it’s not just regular human solitary for us, oh no. Shifters get the box. You’d have to be a rat to be able to shift in it. It’s hell, pure and simple.”
Angelina lowered her gaze to the table. There was almost a mocking edge to Kavan’s voice. He might have consented to this interview, but he clearly didn’t expect much from it. Tears filled her eyes as she imagined him as a little boy, being hit for something as natural as shifting.
“How old were you? When you were given your first… job with the family?”
When she looked up again, that look of confusion was back. He leaned back, folding his arms. “Eight. I served as distraction while a couple of the older boys robbed a jewelry store.”
“Did you go to school?”
“Homeschooled, for the most part. At least, that was what I was supposed to tell people. Learned reading and math and that’s pretty much it. Who needed to know history when all you’re meant to do is carry drugs from one end of the city to the other?”
Angelina let out a trembling sigh. “I’m sorry.”
Kavan snorted, looking distinctively uncomfortable. “What are you sorry for?”
“Because no child should have to go through that. You deserved better.”
Kavan peered at her and shook his head. “You mean that, don’t you? Well, whatever. Can’t change it now, and these jails, they’re not interested in giving us grown men a high school education. They barely care whether we live or die in here.”
Angelina talked with Kavan until the guards came to say that time was up. They barely mentioned the case, barely talked about what was happening to him now. Mostly it was about his past. The way he grew up, the way it shaped who he was now. And at the end, Kavan thanked her
and asked her to send a copy of the article before she published it.
Once back in the car, she wiped her eyes, which had started to stream, and glanced at Phoenix. “How did I do?”
“Good,” was all they would say. “You did good.”
***
“Well, it’s not at all what I was expecting.” Rainer glanced at Angelina and Phoenix, a slight frown on his face. “Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a great personal piece and shows a story of how someone can end up as a career criminal. But it’s not what I asked for.”
Angelina seemed to wilt in her chair, but Phoenix chuckled. Their grey hair shone almost blue in the light. “Rainer, sometimes the best of what we can get is not what we asked for. You wanted an interview of Kavan McBride different than what the media was talking about. We got that. Angelina was very insightful, don’t you think? The details of his case are open for the public with just a few clicks of the mouse, but this… this is an intimate look at him as a person. Who else has that?”
Rainer hummed under his breath. He could definitely use this, for sure. The big question wasn’t how to work it in so much as how to adjust the rest of his plans to fit it better. Because Phoenix was right—this was better than what he had asked for.
Right now, though, he wanted to see Angelina defend it. He glanced over the interview once more before focusing on her. “Why did you lead the interview in this direction?”
“Well…” She swallowed and glanced away.
She hadn’t looked him in the eye since the day she asked him to fire her. Which was not that great if they were pretending to be dating—something he needed to step up as well. So far, the only ‘dates’ they’d had were sharing lunch in the break room. Sleeping together didn’t count, not with what had happened after. Angelina pressed her fingers flat again her plump thighs (Rainer struggled not to think about how wonderful they felt wrapped around him) and looked at the ceiling.
“When I got there and was looking over my questions, I realized that they were what anybody would ask. You said that you liked my interviews with you and Isaac, and people liked the raw, realness of it. I realized that if that’s what I’m going to be known for, I need to be more personal. This whole situation… The way the paranormal community is treated... It’s all impersonal. It’s homogenizing, and in order to combat that, we have to show them as individuals first.”
In Bed with the Vampire: A Paranormal Romance (Shifter Dating Service Book 3) Page 7