Finding His Eden

by Mandy Greenwood

  Every piece of jewellery was specially chosen as was the suit – burgundy red just like the ribbon tied around the boxes and Alric’s eyes. Antiques now, but he’d had them crafted by his favourite silversmith while holidaying in London during the 1870’s; a man with an eye for detail and the sweetest blood. For months he’d spent his nights whiling away his time in the man’s bed, and during the day as Alric slept the man had made the items for him, including the very first piece he’d sent Eden, a fob watch on his sixteenth birthday.

  He couldn’t wait to see Eden wearing each of the pieces and most of all the suit he’d sent curious to know if Eden understood the significance of the colour. Alric licked his lips, tongue catching on his fangs as they descend at the thought of tugging the collar away from Eden’s skin, fabric brushing against his jaw as Alric sunk his teeth into the juncture of his shoulder and neck. Hungered to taste the deliciousness of his fated one’s blood from the source. Then he’d peel the suit off Eden exposing more flesh and more places that he could bite...

  An amused cough interrupted his pleasant daydream and Alric raised his head to find Skylhr standing in front of his desk. The quirk of his lips as he waited said Skylhr had been waiting a while, not that Alric had even heard the dhampyre enter the office, despite having requested his presence. He deserved to be the butt of Skylhr’s laughter and he let him enjoy it knowing Skylhr would be the one venturing out in the daylight to deliver the present to Eden. Not that there were many who could step outside while the sun sat high in the sky within the coven – dhampyres who’d been turned for at least a hundred years could tolerate it better than those vampire-born like Alric who’d been alive for thousands of years – and who Alric trusted implicitly.

  “You wanted to see me, Sir?”

  Alric snorted, Skylhr knew damn well why he was standing there. “Another package to be delivered to Mr Haversham-,” pushing it across the desk to Skylhr. “-preferably now... are you still okay for doing that?”

  Skylhr stared out the large window overlooking the city, sucking air through his teeth as he considered it. “Should be fine to make it there and back before the sun gets too high, so long as we don’t get stuck in traffic or have to wait too long at the door for him.”

  In other words, he’d be cutting it fine to make it back without incurring at least a minor burn, but it couldn’t be helped. Alric had been in meetings all morning so couldn’t get the package to Skylhr before now and if they left it until later they ran the risk of Eden not being at home. Getting the gift to him was a priority but Alric had no intention of embarrassing him by delivering it to him on campus.

  “Do what you need to, but if you can’t deliver it this morning let me know, immediately-” meaning he expected Skylhr to ring him or Albie on their personal numbers. Ringing the office would be useless as he was about to retire to the safety of the apartment upstairs and would remain there for at least the next five hours. “-then we can figure out what to do instead.”

  “Will do, Sir.” Skylhr picked up the package and strode out of the office, already phoning down to the driver to make sure they were waiting for him out front.

  Alric spun away from the door and stared out across the city. So far, none of his gifts had garnered a response from Eden, not even a no, thank you, which he was grateful of but at least it would have been something. He scrubbed at his jaw puzzled, he’d never had this much trouble getting man before and truthfully, he was glad of Eden’s stubborn suspicious nature, it would serve him well once he joined Alric’s world properly.

  Corporate wheeling and dealing weren’t the only tricky negotiations Alric had to navigate, though lately the other neighbouring covens had been quiet, not making any attempts to move in on Silverdale territory. The two wolf packs in the city however hadn’t been so generous, Alric dealt with several inter-pack disputes that had threatened the safety of everyone in the city; while several other groups had written letters of complaint requesting that the newly arrived wyvern group of about eight adults, none of whom were paired, be moved on. Alric had no intention of doing such a thing, Silverdale was a safe place for all beings unless they posed a threat and the wyverns did not. The two succubus who were rumoured to have slipped inside the city’s boundaries however... He’d needed to ask Albie if the rumours were true.

  He hissed as his skin began to sting, blisters forming on his hand where the strong sunlight had begun to shine on it. Alric pushed back his chair and stood quickly, his meandering thoughts had seen him lose track of time, even if it had only been ten minutes since Skylhr had left. There was only so much protection the UV tint on the windows could provide and he needed to retreat upstairs where the rooms were entirely windowless.

  Striding out of his office, he nodded at Mrs Walterson as she gave him a cheery goodbye and a promise to hold his calls until he returned. Never once had she questioned his odd working hours or the blisters that formed on his skin on the odd occasions he remained in his office for too long. One of the main reasons she’d kept her job for so long. Good staff were hard to find, especially those ones that knew how to keep their mouths shut and any questions to themselves. He stepped into the elevator and checked his phone for messages, pleased to see none from Skylhr. As he jabbed the button to take him to the next floor Alric tried not to focus on the searing pain in his hand, the skin almost entirely blistered and wracked his brain trying to remember if he had any cream in the apartment or if there was enough fortified wine to aid the healing process.

  The sun wouldn’t kill him, not like how the fairy tales told it or the large books of vampire lore that the humans had written over the last thousand years. It would hurt him; slow him down and cause him excruciating pain as his skin blistered. At worst he’d develop a third degree burn that would take weeks to heal; longer if you weren’t a part of a coven and relied on yourself to hunt. The cream had taken thousands of years of research and could help with small exposures especially when access to the best healing method, fresh blood, was not readily or easily accessed. There was no point in starting a panic amongst the human population with an increase in disappearances just because someone had gotten careless.

  Alric strode out of the elevator into a hallway that stretched the width of the building; his apartment not the only one on this floor with several of his coven employed by the Silverdale Corporation. Albie’s apartment was just across from his, but he was hardly ever there, Alric not at all surprised to hear his friends voice as he keyed into his apartment.

  “Cutting it a bit close, aren’t you, Alric?”

  Chapter Six

  Eden stared at the man on his doorstep. The same man who’d stood there about this time every couple of days for the last two weeks as though he knew exactly when Eden would still be at home. He scowled at the man, at the package he held along with another card and while Eden was a little curious as to what this one said, he was also annoyed. For all the pretty platitudes Mr Alric Drayton had written so far, he’d never bothered to deliver the presents to Eden himself.

  “Can your boss not be bothered delivering his gifts himself?” Arms folded across his chest; legs crossed too as he leaned on the door jamb.

  The man fidgeted, his gaze darting to the shadows and shuffling a few steps as they shortened. Again, his actions puzzled Eden, made him think this man - whose name he maybe should have learnt – feared the sun. It wasn’t as though people couldn’t be allergic to the sun or if they were... he shook his head refusing to entertain the outlandish idea. But it did make him wonder as to what type of person Drayton was if he was willing to disregard the health and well-being of his employees. Still his mind drifted back to vampires, to the mythos that surrounded them about their inability to tolerate the sun, though tolerate put it mildly and this man didn’t look like he feared bursting into flames. Doesn’t mean they aren’t real, a small voice muttered.

  “Mr Drayton is a very busy man,” the man replied. A highly cultivated line that sounded like it was trotted out regularly
. “And I’m only too happy to act as a courier.”

  Eden closed his eyes and exhaled slowly. “But maybe, I don’t wish to accept this gift-” waving his hand at the package. “-maybe you should return it to Mr Drayton for me.”

  The man smirked at him. “I can’t do that Mr Haversham. My job is to deliver it to you and that is all.” He winced as the shadows shifted and hurried to find a spot back in the shadows. Eden furrowed his brows as he noticed the blisters appearing on the man’s hand. “-if you wish to return the item, or any of the items Mr Drayton had given you, you will have to do so yourself.”

  “Maybe I will. Your boss sounds like a bit of an arsehole-” snatching the package out of the man’s hand. “-I mean he is making you play messenger when being out in the sun is obviously not good for you.”

  “It’d be a lot worse for Mr Drayton,” Eden thought he heard the man mutter as he raced toward the same SUV with blacked out windows and practically dove inside it.

  Eden closed the door and stared at the package in his hand, cursing once more. He stormed into his bedroom, threw the package onto his bed not bothering to even read the card this time. He couldn’t imagine it saying anything different to the cards he’d received previously. Turning to his drawers, Eden opened the top one and stared at the other packages neatly stowed inside it. He grabbed them out – all but the fob watch as he couldn’t bear to part with it – and tossed them onto the bed too before turning to his closet and grabbing out the burgundy suit Drayton had also sent him, adding it to the pile.

  This was all getting a little ridiculous.

  He could accept that the man sending him the gifts was Alric Drayton, but he still didn’t understand why. And the claims that he made – even if had heard the mutterings of the messenger correctly – of having lived for a long, long time seemed impossible. One simply couldn’t live for two thousand years without being immortal like a god or a vampire and that was... a thing of fairy tales and nightmares. Wasn’t it? The flash of colour that he’d seen in Drayton’s eyes; burgundy red like the ribbons tied around each of the packages and the suit that now lay on his bed, wasn’t normal either, nor were the flash of fangs when Drayton smiled. Of course, they weren’t real, Eden knew that because he’d studied the mythos around them; was writing his graduate thesis on the origins of their myths and to start doubting those facts now... if he even began to entertain the possibility that Alric Drayton was who he said he was, then it would mean everything he’d learnt was wrong.

  But none of that mattered when it came too deciding whether he should accept Drayton’s gifts or the overtures they might imply. And he needed to make that decision today before more gifts arrived tomorrow or the day after, certain that Drayton would keep sending them until he garnered some sort of response from Eden. And the longer he put it off, the harder it would be as Drayton would assume Eden was open to whatever kind of relationship he was seeking between them. Not that Eden was entirely sure what he felt about that either.

  He stood in front of his bed, hands on his hips and stared at the gifts. Each one more expensive than anything Eden could afford, even with the money Drayton had been putting into his bank account. And shit? Did he return all that money too... he couldn’t afford to do that now, maybe not ever. He exhaled heavily at the thought of the debt he’d owe if he had to pay it back, shoving his hands through his hair and tried to stop the panic creeping over his body. Returning the money wasn’t feasible. Eden would do it if Drayton demanded it, but then he’d never asked the wealthy businessman for it in the first place.

  But what he could deal with was these gifts. He would return them today... before he chickened out.

  However, he couldn’t turn up at the Silverdale Corporation’s head office wearing this, staring down at the ratty jeans he’d thrown on this morning. Eden wouldn’t make it in the door. He turned back to his closet, rifled through his clothes and muttered about their suitability before settling on a dark pair of jeans and a burgundy shirt – he refused to admit the colour bore a startling resemblance to the colour of Drayton’s eyes - and a dark blue suit jacket. Grabbing his towel off the end of his bed Eden hurried off for a quick shower.

  An hour after the last gift arrived on his doorstep Eden stood on the pavement outside the offices of the Silverdale Corporation trying to muster up the confidence he’d had when Eden left the house. He gripped the straps of the bag he’d stuffed Drayton’s gifts in, pushed through the doors into the reception area and marched up to the front desk as though he belonged here. Tried to hide how badly his knees were shaking as he glanced around the wide-open space: jarringly white tiles and black furniture that matched the suits of the security guards stationed at the elevators and near the front desk. The urge to turn around and walk back out was strong, but Eden kept moving forward; the weight of the bag in his hand reminding him why he was here.

  “Good morning sir, welcome to Silverdale Corporation, how may I help you?” the receptionist chirped, a smile plastered onto her face that didn’t falter even as Eden struggled to get out the words he needed to say.

  “I wish to speak with Mr Dayton.”

  She blinked. “I’m sorry sir, Mr Drayton is not currently available to see anyone. Did you have an appointment?” Eden shook his head. “Well then, I can make one for you-” tapping on her keyboard and pursed her lips together. “-there is a spare appointment... on Thursday. Two weeks from now. At eight in the morning.”

  Two weeks? He was not waiting for two weeks to sort this out. Who knew how many gifts he might receive in that time? “No, it must be today. Please call him and tell a Mr Haversham, Mr Eden Haversham is here to see him.”

  “But si- Mr Haversham, we have strict instructions that Mr Drayton is not to be disturbed for the next four hours. No exceptions.” The nervousness in her voice surprised Eden and he was almost certain that her hand had pushed a button to alert security.

  “He will make an exception for me.” Now that he was here, Eden had no intention of leaving until Drayton took his gifts back or explained why he’d sent them in the first place.

  He watched the receptionist’s gaze as it drifted over his shoulder and turned to see a lone security guard heading their way. The man’s stern expression quickly gave way to a sly grin as he got closer.

  “Mr Haversham,” he greeted him before turning to the receptionist. “Marcia, Mr Haversham is the one exception to Mr Drayton’s instructions. Always.” The receptionist looked shaken, eyes downcast as she gave a brief nod. “If you are ready Mr Haversham, I will escort you up to Mr Drayton now.”

  Chapter Seven

  The call from the front desk had been unexpected but a pleasant surprise, one that had roused Alric from his sleep, but he wasn’t complaining. He walked through the apartment flicking on lights, not for his own benefit but Eden’s. Entering the kitchen, he pulled out two bottles of water, thankful that he’d stocked his fridge with some on the off-chance Eden visited. Nothing else he had in the kitchen was suitable for human consumption. His lip twitched, Eden wouldn’t be human for long if Alric had his way.

  He strode across to the door reaching it before the security guard escorting Eden knocked on the door. If the man – yes, definitely... human – had been surprised by it, he wisely didn’t show it. Alric wasn’t the only one capable of finding staff who were adept at keeping their thoughts to themselves. But while the guard might have been silent, Eden was not, squawking loudly, face burning red as he stared at Alric’s bare chest and at the lounge pants hanging low on his hips. Alric couldn’t help sniggering at Eden’s reactions, both those visible and happening beneath his skin; the sweet aroma of his blood growing stronger as his arousal flared.

  And this was a good day clothes wise, Alric often slept nude.

  Paper crinkled as it rubbed against fabric drawing Alric’s attention away from Eden’s blushing face to the bag he was carrying, holding it in front him to hide the bulge in his pants. If anything, it drew Alric’s attention to it more. But what
intrigued him more was what the bag contained and why Eden had brought it with him. It was the perfect excuse however, to get Eden inside his apartment.

  “Eden, please, come inside-” he stood aside and gestured for Eden to enter, taking a lungful of the man’s scent as he passed. Alric dismissed the guard before closing the door and locking it as he turned back to face Eden. “-I am happy to help you with whatever matter is worrying you.”

  “I came to return your gifts-” Eden’s grip on the bag twisted, no doubt trying to figure out to pass it to him without revealing his arousal. “-I can’t accept them.”

  Alric narrowed his eyes and stalked closer to Eden, caging him against the back of the couch. He took the bag from Eden and placed it on the couch, for now. When Eden left, the bag of gifts would be leaving with him. “And why is that? I had them made for you, Eden.”

  Eden’s breath hitched, eyes blown wide but the lust Alric saw was quickly shuttered away. “They’re antiques, how could you have had them made for me? Besides, they’re too expensive... imply something that I’m not sure I want to give.”