by L. J. Red
Over the next few minutes, she cried herself out. Eventually, Dana released her and went over to the coffee machine, giving May a moment to herself while she poured out two mugs. Then handing one to May, Dana knelt on the floor in front of her with a protective look in her dark eyes. “Tell me everything,” she said, and May poured out all her troubles. She told her what Chad had done, her fears and worries, the fact that she had nowhere to go. She even explained that she had come to Chicago only a few months ago, in hopes that she would find work with vampires, that she had left behind her old life and everything she knew.
“I just don’t know what to do.” she ended, looking at Dana, “I don’t have anywhere else to go. I don’t have anyone—”
Dana raised a hand. “I’m gonna stop you there,” she said, “you have me. I may be a vampire now, but I still remember what it’s like to be human and to be stuck on your own,” she said. “I know how you feel. After my dad died, I didn’t have anyone, and if it hadn’t been for my friend Brigit, I would have sunk like a stone. But she was there for me when I needed her, and I’m gonna do the same for you. Even if we didn’t know each other that well,” Dana said seriously, “you work for the Shadows now, and we don’t leave one of our own out in the cold.” Dana smiled. “Okay?” she said.
May nodded.
“Okay, then,” Dana said, “the first problem is where you can sleep.”
“Oh,” May said, “I was just going to sleep here tonight,” and she patted the couch she was sitting on.
“No way,” Dana said, “you’re not sleeping on the couch like some unwanted house guest. I’m putting you in one of the guest vampire rooms.”
May looked at her wide-eyed. “Are you sure?”
Dana nodded. “We’re not getting into the whole vampire, vassal hierarchy shit right now,” she said, “but if anyone has an issue with you sleeping in one of the guest rooms, they can come to me, and then I’ll direct them towards Lucian. How’s that?” she said with a smirk.
May gulped. She was pretty sure that any vampire who had a problem with it would swallow it if they realized they would have to take it up with the terrifying leader of the Shadows.
“And you can stay as long as you like,” Dana said. “I don’t want you to worry about that. I’m not sure how you feel about sleeping at work—you probably need a break from us vampires sometimes—but as long as you need it, you have a place here.” She hugged May again briefly. May hugged her back tightly and was crying again. Dana eventually leaned back and stood to grab one of the kitchen towels from the counter, handing it over to May, “Here you go,” she said.
“I’m sorry I got eyeliner all over your top,” May sniffled.
Dana rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry about it. This top has seen far worse stains than just a bit of eyeliner.” Dana was wearing a dark top, suit jacket and pants, and she even had her badge and gun clipped to her waist.
May had been so wrapped up in her own problems, she hadn’t even noticed. “Oh no,” she said, “you’ve just come off shift, haven’t you? And here I am taking up all your time. You probably just want to crash.”
Dana held up her hand to stop May again. “Vampires don’t need so much sleep, remember?” she said, “And you’re not taking up my time, I’m happy to give it.” She tapped a finger against her lip. “You know what?” Dana said, a spark coming in her eyes. “I think you need a distraction. I think you need to get away from Chicago and all this mess for a little while. A breakup, even a breakup with a asshole like Chad sounds like, still hurts and distance can be a real healer.”
May looked up at her in confusion. Was Dana sending her away? The Sanctuary was where she worked. How would she survive without her job?
Dana grinned. “Don’t look so afraid, I’m not telling you to leave.” She took a seat beside May on the couch. “You know that the vampires are calling a Conclave, right?” May nodded of course, it’s been all anyone could talk about for weeks.
“Well, a meeting like that, the Circle Elders in one place” Dana said, “all the major players from every Bloodline gathering together and deciding on vampire law. It’s a seriously big deal. Lucian told me there hadn’t been one for centuries.”
“Is it because of what happened here in Chicago?” May asked.
“Partially,” Dana said. “The Monster of Chicago, the vampire serial killer turning out to be a vampire aristocrat from Bloodline Radiance was a big fucking mess. But the Conclave will be looking at more than that. They’ll be deciding on whether we, that is, the Shadows, can keep Chicago. Some vampires are calling it a power move, like it’s a threat to the power of the Circle, so we need to have a presence there to speak up for the Shadows and prove that what we are doing is for the safety and benefit of all vampires and humans.” She caught May’s eyes. “And the vampires that we send,” she said meaningfully, “will need vassals to go with them.”
May blinked in surprise. Go to the Conclave? A meeting of all the elite vampire aristocrats? She wouldn’t know what to do with herself.
“I’m not just saying this because I think you need to get out of the city,” Dana said. “I think you’d be good at it. I’ve seen the way you run this place. Honestly, don’t try to hide it.” She smiled. “You’re really good at getting people organized, you’re efficient, you’re one tough cookie, and I would want you in my corner,” she said with a grin.
May blushed. “I try… I mean… I try to do a good job.”
“Well, you do,” Dana said. “And I’ve noticed it, but it’s more than that. The vampires we’re sending from the Shadows, they need someone they can trust, someone they can rely on outside of their territory.”
May had a flutter of nerves. Dana kept mentioning the vampires from the Shadows she was sending, but she didn’t give any names. Who was she sending exactly? Because there was one vampire in particular that May desperately hoped to see. Or was it hoped not to see? She wasn’t quite sure. Her pulse picked up at the thought of piercing green eyes and broad muscles under a tight leather jacket.
Dana stood and began busying herself with the coffeemaker. “Do you want a top up?” she asked.
May looked down at her empty cup. “Sure.” She doubted she would be sleeping much tonight at any rate, not with everything that had just happened. “Who would be going to the Conclave?” May asked nervously.
“Well, we’ll be sending a contingent of vampire guards from here at the Sanctuary. Lucian has been overseeing their training and some of them want to petition the elite Bloodlines for the chance to join them.”
“Leave Chicago?”
Dana nodded. “Some of them. Not all. Lucian has his eye on a few to add to the Shadows, and he’ll keep them here. But as for the Shadows, Rune just got back from tracking down a new fledge who turned bad in Denver, so we’ll be sending him.” Dana hummed distractedly as she filled the machine, “and Talon as well, as they are Lucian’s best fighters. And then, of course, he will be sending his second-in-command to keep them in line. That’s Neal,” she added with a sidelong glance at May.
Neal. That was his name. Simply hearing the name made May shiver. He was the one built like a Mack truck, with a rough Scottish accent, and a face that looked like it had been chiseled from marble. The silent one. She would often see him from the corner of her eye, just watching her.
She didn’t know why he watched her so much, or what she had done to offend him. She couldn’t help the fresh wave of fear and attraction she felt every time she saw him. Now, she would be going off to some isolated place in the middle of nowhere with him. Holy shit.
Okay, calm down. It wasn’t just with him, but with him and a whole bunch of other vampires and humans. It would be fine. He probably wouldn’t even notice her amongst all the other people that would be milling about.
Why would he notice her anyway? She wasn’t worth noticing, mousy little May.
“So, will you take the job?” Dana asked, coming back with the coffee and smiling down at her.
/> Part of May wanted to say no. She didn’t want to be anywhere near Neal and the complicated feelings he brought out in her, but she couldn’t throw Dana’s offer back in her face. Her friend was going out on a limb for her with this job. Anyway, what choice did she have? Her job was all she had left.
“Yes,” she said, “I’ll take it. I’ll go to the Conclave.”
Dana grinned, and May managed a trembling smile in return, hoping her nerves weren’t showing on her face.
It would be fine. Neal wouldn’t even notice her, and she would focus on doing her job. No distractions. She wasn’t going to make a scene in front of him especially since he would pretty much be her boss now. And as for the feelings he ignited within her? Well, that was just a reaction to him being a vampire. They all walked, talked, and breathed sex. It didn’t mean anything. She wasn’t an idiot. She wasn’t going to fall for a vampire, and definitely not one who hated her so much he never stopped glaring at her.
Chapter 3
The next few days were a whirlwind of preparations. May didn’t have a second to think about her situation. She was rushed off her feet organizing the vassals that were leaving with her and making sure the ones that were staying knew exactly how to run the Sanctuary without her.
Dana was right. In the short while that she had been working there, she had become an unofficial leader of the human staff. She didn’t want to leave them without making sure they knew what they were doing. On top of that, there were all the things she had to make ready for the trip to the Conclave, like working with the vampire guards to make sure everyone knew what to do under the new security rules. She had been afraid that she would encounter Neal in one of the meetings since he was heading security for the Conclave, but luckily, she always seemed to miss him, just his lingering male scent reminding her he’d been there, and once she’d seen his leather jacket slung over a chair. Gone the next time she looked.
Instead she only dealt with the guards who were carrying out his orders. It made sense. She was just a lowly vassal after all. No reason for Neal to come anywhere near her. No reason for her to suspect he might be avoiding her. That wouldn’t make any sense.
A jam-packed three weeks later, they were off. A convoy of armored trucks setting out well before dawn, windows tinted black. The Conclave was being held somewhere in Canada, even she didn’t know exactly where and the journey up there was long and grueling. Cities began to give way to smaller towns with long snow-covered stretches of countryside in between them. They took a long, empty road through a forest, the trees thick and old, stretching high overhead, eventually opening up into a clearing.
The winding snow-covered road led up to a grand hunting lodge surrounded by a large number of cabins, and all around protected by dark evergreens.
May had expected a single cabin, but as they drove up to the sprawling lodge, she realized that had been silly. No single cabin would have had enough space for all the vampires and their humans milling around the parking lot. She’d never seen so many vampires in one space. All in fine clothes, none of them feeling the cold. The vassals were easy to pick out. They were the only ones wearing coats.
The cars crunched to a stop, and May craned her neck to look up at the main building. That would be where they held the Conclave itself. Big glass windows looked out towards the woods, the light from inside shining onto the snow.
The other cabins dotted around would be the equivalent of the guest rooms at the Sanctuary. The Shadows had commandeered a central cluster of cabins not too far from the main Conclave building. May clambered out of the car, shivering at the cold. Better get those cabins aired out and ready first.
May spent the next few minutes shuttling between the vehicles and the buildings. Vampire guards were temporarily given fetching and carrying duties on account of their strength, but May didn’t want them leaving their posts for long. Not that any threats could find them out here surely. She glanced around at the snow-covered clearing. But she didn’t want anyone to think she was overstepping by borrowing the security staff. Still, even working as quickly as they could, the night was almost over by the time May was able to send them back to their posts.
Dana had warned her vampires could be extremely territorial. A meeting like this, where all the vampires had to leave their own territories for neutral ground was a recipe for trouble. Each of the Bloodlines had their own cluster of cabins, but they’d still be in much closer proximity to what they were used to. Half of the Shadows’ job would be breaking up dominance fights between vampires, and to try and make things easier for them, Dana had insisted that only Sanctuary vassals—people the Shadows already knew—should be the ones to enter their cabins. So, May had decided the simplest thing would be to just unpack their possessions herself.
May had left Neal’s cabin until last, and now she only had to hang up a couple of his leather jackets and she would be done. She couldn’t help running her hand over the buttery-soft leather. She couldn’t believe how big they were. No one could have that many muscles.
She finished putting them in the wardrobe, took the stairs down to the main room, and was giving the cabin a final once over when the door opened and she spun around in shock. Neal stood framed in the doorway. The cold air rushed in past him. A flurry of snowflakes drifting by his feet. May shivered, but it wasn’t from the cold. It was from the look in his piercing emerald eyes.
Neal stalked forwards, pulling the door closed behind him. His green-eyed gaze pinned her into place. He padded towards her like a panther, a predator advancing upon his prey, and she was caught, unable to move, unable to think. Fear shot through her, her senses sharpening. His eyes. Focused on hers, burning with a dark light. She couldn’t look away.
Her skin tightened in awareness of him. She had never been alone with him before. His presence was so overwhelming, there was no air left to breathe. She swayed back, her knees weak, her mouth dry. He walked right up to her, close enough she smelled his raw, male scent. His eyes were magnetic, and she fell towards them, something within her reaching, yearning towards him.
Like falling off a knife edge, her terror slid away and hot, thick desire roared up within. She gasped, unfamiliar feelings raging through her body. She tried to push them away, to regain her senses, but nothing worked. Every movement closer to her, it was like he was drawing her to him, pulling on a thin, unbreakable thread that connected them. It was like he was drawing the very soul out of her body, beckoning into his embrace.
She stepped back against the banister, and he closed the remaining distance between them in an eyeblink and stood staring down at her. He hadn’t even said a word and she was already a mess. Flushes of warmth prickling over her skin.
There was something rising in the air between them. A bond that she couldn’t understand. All she knew was that she wanted to give in to it, and she needed him, she needed him to touch her. God, it was too much. Unthinking, she made a sudden abortive move to get around him. He slammed both his hands against the banister, pinning her in the space between his arms. She shrank back as he leaned forward. Her knees were weak and she shook, losing the strength to stand. Before she could fall, his arms were around her.
His touch ignited a cascade of sensation, burning through her, right to her core. “Oh, God,” she moaned. She needed more, more of his touch. She pressed herself against him, her nipples hardening at the sensation. His touch was exactly what her body had been craving. But instead of sating her desire it only fired it higher. She wanted his hands all over her.
“Please,” she moaned, barely aware of what she was saying, “I need….” Her senses were aflame. Her mind was reeling. What was happening to her? How was his touch enough to bring all her hidden desires to the front of her mind?
“What do you need?” he purred. She moaned at the sound of his voice, the rolling accent a delicious thick Scottish brogue that she wanted to wrap herself up in.
God, what was she doing? She didn’t understand. She had never felt anything remotely
like this before. She needed him like she had never needed anyone else.
“Lass, what you do to me,” he said softly, a wondering note in his voice. He ran his hands up her rib cage, skimming the sides of her breasts and trailing his fingers across her neck and into her hair. He tilted her head, raising her eyes to meet his, the piercing green that darkened with lust as she stared dazedly up at him.
He pressed his face to her neck, inhaling deeply. She shuddered with want, her eyes falling shut. His mouth was so close to the sensitive skin of her neck. The feather-light brush of his lips made her imagine, for a second, what it might feel like if he opened his mouth and bit down with his fangs.
The rush of arousal, the pleasure. She had no idea what it would feel like, but she wanted it, God, she wanted it.
She opened her eyes, blinking to try and focus. She needed to stop, she needed to get herself under control. How did she end up pinned against the stairs with a deadly vampire warrior plastered against her?
She was acting like one of those vampire groupies that hung around the vampire clubs. The Shadows didn’t like that sort of thing. She didn’t want Neal to think of her like that. She didn’t want to just be one of those throw-away bite addicts.
Neal raised his head. His eyes darkened with lust. “Tell me you want this,” he whispered.
Yes, May wanted to answer, yes. Her body ached for it. But she couldn’t do it. She wasn’t going to be just another sex toy to anyone, even if they were as gorgeous as sin and hard in all the right places. No, she shook her head, pulling back. “No,” she choked out. She needed more, she needed someone who would truly see her. She had had enough of being used. May pushed against his arms and turned her face away. He needed to let her out. She needed to get away from him, because if she stayed here any longer, her fragile will would break and she would say yes. Forget her self-worth, her resolutions, anything to feel him inside her.