by Sophie Stern
“I’ll talk to him,” I said.
“Look,” Ida lowered her voice. “I don’t often tell you a lot about myself, and I don’t generally pull rank, but someone like your brother is dangerous.”
“You can’t pull rank with me. I’m in charge here.”
“I’m twice your age, Colin,” Ida said. “You’re practically a baby vampire in my book.”
That rankled me a bit, but I respected her, so I listened to what she had to say.
“Someone like your brother has a quest.”
“A quest?”
“A mission,” she nodded. “He might be telling you that he’s come to Darkvale to merge the two cities he ‘loves’, but there’s more to his visit than that.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning your brother is a giant asshole. He wants something, and it’s not a peaceful merger. Watch your back, Colin. I think he’s going to try to stake you.”
“Me?” I asked.
“You,” she nodded.
There was a knock. We both turned to see Juliet standing in the open doorway of the office. She looked tired, and a little worn out, and wildly beautiful. Her hair was hanging around her shoulders in a frizzy mess. That was fine. It was just a good excuse for me to give her a bath.
“I’m sorry to interrupt,” she said. “I just wanted to let you know I’m back from the hospital. I apologize for my tardiness. There were some problems tonight and I had to stay late.”
“Problems?” Ida asked before I could.
Juliet stepped into the office and closed the door behind her. She locked it before turning back to me and Ida. Juliet knew that I trusted Ida with everything. She was my right-hand man, so-to-speak.
“We’re missing blood,” she said bluntly.
“Are you serious?” Ida paled. “Missing blood? How?”
I was instantly alert. Missing blood was different from there simply being less than usual. Donation amounts could vary based on how a person’s health was. A slight shortage wasn’t a huge deal, but missing blood? As in, someone stole it? That was concerning.
“I have no idea,” Juliet said. “We went back through the books for the last month, but everything has been normal. There have been occasional attacks around town lately, but you already know about that. The tensions between vampires and humans have been rising ever-so-slightly. It’s not enough to be a huge problem yet, but it’s enough that we’re all aware of this issue.”
“It’s Norman,” Ida’s head swirled around to me. Her eyes narrowed. “He has to be behind this. I warned you about him.”
“He was here all day,” I countered. “How would he have done anything like this?”
“He brought people with him,” she reminded me. “Humans. Maybe one of them went out and stole from the hospital.”
“Do you have security footage?” I asked Juliet. Somehow, I knew the answer before she sadly shook her head.
“It was deleted,” she said. “Mysteriously.”
“Strange,” I muttered.
Great.
This was just what I needed.
It was going to be a political fiasco for sure. There was a reason I kept my city under a tight rule. It was because when you fucked around with the system, people got hurt. If anyone found out that someone had stolen blood from right under our noses, they were going to freak. The vampires would start catching humans or robbing the hospital. The humans would try to hide, or they’d flee the city. The biggest problem with them running away wouldn’t be that we’d struggle to eat. No, the problem was that the world outside of Darkvale’s walls wasn’t safe for humans.
It wasn’t safe for anyone.
“What do you want us to do?” Juliet asked.
“What’s the hospital’s contingency plan?” I wanted to know.
“Keep going on like usual,” she said. “And we’re trying not to raise suspicion, but people are already starting to notice that there are shortages. We haven’t been able to fill every order we’ve received, at least not to capacity. It’s been a problem that’s been happening for a little while, but today was worse than usual. The missing blood made a big difference, and not in a good way.”
“Fuck,” I growled.
“Can you wrangle up extra donations?” Ida asked. “Maybe ask humans if they would be willing to give an extra serving of blood?”
“Yes,” Juliet nodded. “We can do that.”
“Good,” Ida said. “It’s a start. In the meantime,” she looked at me. “Talk to Nolan. I promise you, he’s behind this.”
“I can’t pass judgment that quickly,” I told her.
“I can.”
Ida left the room, and then Juliet and I were alone together in the office. I looked over at her and did a more thorough assessment. Yeah, it was fair to say she’d worked her ass off. She was tired and sweaty. Her clothes were wrinkled, and her skin looked damp with sweat. Her hair was sticking out at odd angles. While I was certain she’d looked beautiful when she left the house that morning, she looked worn out now.
“You need a bath.”
“I’m fine,” she insisted.
“That wasn’t an offer,” I told her. “Let’s go to my room.”
AFTER A SHARED LONG, luxurious bubble bath where we alternated washing one another with fucking, I dressed Juliet again for dinner. I’d sent Ida to her apartment to pick up her extra clothing, so she had an assortment of her own things to wear.
“While you looked beautiful in Elizabeth’s clothing,” I told her. “It seems a bit...”
“Morbid?”
“A little bit,” I nodded. “Besides, I feel like you might be more comfortable in your own clothing.”
“Thank you,” she smiled politely. “Elizabeth had great taste, but you’re right. Something about wearing another woman’s clothing is a bit strange.”
“Everything seemed to fit you fine.”
“Oh, it did. It’s not that,” she said. “It’s more like, I’m worried about getting her stuff dirty. That’s weird, right? Like, she would never know, but I’m still concerned about it.”
“It’s not weird,” I assured her.
“It’s a little weird.”
“Well, you don’t need to worry about it anymore,” I said. “You’ve got your own dress on now, and you look wonderful.”
She was wearing a tiny black strapless dress that hugged every curve. It made her breasts look even larger, and her ass looked round and spankable. My dick hardened as I looked at her. It was hard not to throw her down on the bed and fuck her.
“You like it?” She spun around in a little circle.
“I do.”
“Thanks,” she said. “I’ve never had a vampire talk about the way I look before.”
“It seems to me there are a lot of things you don’t know about vampires,” I pointed out.
“That’s true,” Juliet agreed. “Besides, it’s probably a little weird that I work at a vampire hospital, yet I still have so many questions. There are lots of little bits of information that I seem to be missing.”
“Like what?”
“What are my questions, you mean?”
“Yes.”
“Well, for one, how does someone turn into a vampire?”
I raised an eyebrow.
“That’s the big question? How do I sire someone?” Humans were such a curious lot.
“Yes,” she said. “I mean, obviously you feed from them, right? But you fed from me, and I didn’t change.”
“I’m surprised you don’t know,” I said. “I would have thought that this would be included in Vampire Avoidance 101. Besides, didn’t you say your brother was very careful about your understanding of vampires?” The more I heard about Matt, the more I realized he’d been very cautious in his treatment of his sister. He’d done everything he could to prevent her not only from turning, but from realizing who – and what – he was.
“I did,” she said. “He was always trying to protect me from getting too close to v
amps.” She smiled sadly. “Then I went to work at the hospital, and he couldn’t exactly protect me anymore. He had to accept that I was going to be around vampires whether he liked it or not.”
“I get the feeling that Matt really cared for you.”
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
“So?” She asked. “Being sired?”
I walked to my dressed and started grabbing the clothing items I wanted to wear to dinner. She might be dressed, but I was still in boxers and we were going to need to make an appearance sooner, rather than later.
“You have to die,” I said.
“Die?”
“If I wanted to sire you, I’d have to kill you, or at least get you very close to death, and then give you my blood to drink.”
“But how could I drink blood if I was dead?” Her jaw dropped. “Even if I was mostly dead, how would I drink it?”
“There are a few ways,” I told her. It was a grim process, and one that most vampires actively avoided. If you found someone you loved enough to sire, most of the time, you couldn’t live with the reality that you might kill them in the process of helping them transition to being a creature of the night. Even if you attempted to get them to ingest your blood, there was a chance that it might not work. Then you’d be alone for all of eternity instead of with the person you loved.
“Like pouring it down my throat?”
“Yes,” I agreed. “Some vamps will kill their partner by drinking too much of their blood. Then they’ll cut themselves and pour that blood down the human’s throat.”
“Interesting.”
“Other people just wait until the human is close to death, and then feed the human directly from their wrists or chests.”
“That sounds kind of intimate.”
“It’s very intimate,” I agreed. There was a reason that most vampires didn’t go around siring people left and right. It was very personal, and very intimate, and a special bond was forged when you sired someone.
“Have you ever sired anyone?”
“No.”
“Not even Elizabeth?”
“We were both already vamps when we met.”
“Why haven’t you sired anyone?” She asked. “I’m sorry if that’s a personal question.”
“Because it’s a very intimate experience,” I told her. “And most of the time, the human isn’t strong enough to survive. A human has to really, really want to be a vampire for that to happen.” I might be immortal, but that didn’t mean I was heartless. The idea of losing someone I was trying to save seemed far too painful even for me.
“So, if I wanted you to turn me...”
“I would tell you no,” I shrugged. It wasn’t even a question for me. There was absolutely no chance of that happening.
“You seem a bit strict,” she smiled at me.
“Only a little.”
I finished getting my suit on, chose the tie I wanted to wear, and then I guided Juliet from the room. We had only just stepped into the hall when Norman’s bedroom door opened. One of his humans came out looking pale and weak. Norman followed close behind. When he saw me, he looked surprised to see me. I wasn’t sure why. We were both going to dinner. Our rooms were across from each other. It seemed obvious that he might run into me.
“Brother,” he said. “It’s nice to see you.” His voice was tight and his tone said that it was very much not nice to see me.
“And you as well.”
He turned his gaze to Juliet before swinging back to me.
“I see that you also had a meeting with a human,” he said, raising an eyebrow. I hated the implication in his tone. Just because Juliet and I spent time together didn’t mean Norman and I were the same. We weren’t. Norman took what he wanted. Juliet had freely given to me.
“Juliet is my advisor.”
“And I’m sure she advised you on many important things in your bedroom,” Norman agreed. Somehow, the way he said that made me want to punch him in the face.
Juliet was silent, and the three of us started to walk down toward the dining room. Norman’s human seemed to have vanished into thin air. I knew exactly what he’d been doing in his room, and it pissed me off. The goal was for us to have a nice dinner together without any external stressors, but I was beginning to wonder if that was going to be possible.
I also wondered if my brother was going to leave earlier than planned since his goal of getting me to agree to a merger had failed. I wasn’t going to sign away part of my city to him. I didn’t want to rule over Darkvale jointly. It was hard enough to rule on my own without having to agree with another person on every little choice.
When we arrived at the dining room, we sat in the same seats we’d been in the day before. Alice joined us, as well as a few of the other vampires who resided in the house.
“This is a bit pompous, don’t you think?” Norman asked, waving at the table.
“What is?”
“Feeding vampires human food.”
“There’s nothing wrong with enjoying the finer things in life,” I told him.
“The finer things? No, the finer things would be if you had a human spread out on the table for us all to feed from.”
“And that’s why I’m not sharing my city with you,” I snapped, tired of his whining.
Norman was silent for the rest of the meal. We all ate turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, and green beans. Juliet seemed to like the meal a lot. I noticed that she took second helpings of just about everything, which was good. I had a feeling that she was usually pretty busy with work and didn’t always have a chance to eat. That was unfortunate. She was a sweet person and she deserved to be taken care of.
She deserved to have someone watching over her.
I could be that person.
The thought left just as quickly as it had come. Juliet didn’t really need a watcher, now did she? The idea of me being important and valuable enough to watch over her seemed a bit simplistic. That was where we were, though.
After dinner was finished, Ida and Alice cleared the table. A couple of the vamps had events to go to, so they took off. That left me with Norman and Juliet: a combination I wasn’t exactly thrilled about.
“Where did your humans run off to?” I asked him. “If they’re hungry, I’m sure there are plenty of leftovers.” I’d invited them to dinner earlier, so I wasn’t really sure why they hadn’t joined us.
“I’m not sure,” he said. “They’re probably just tired.”
Tired.
Sure.
I’d be tired, too, if some asshole vampire was sucking my blood without a care in the world. I’d be tired and I’d be exhausted, and I’d probably go hide away, as well.
“I understand,” I said. “Shall we go to the sitting room?”
I didn’t want to go to the sitting room.
I wanted to take Juliet back to the bedroom and feed from her. I wanted to fuck her until she was sore and tired and sated. Then I wanted to fall asleep with her in my arms and not a care in the damn world. Those were the things that I wanted.
“Of course,” said my brother.
Of course.
So, the three of us went to the sitting room and I started a fire. Juliet and I sat on one couch while Norman sat across from us.
“So, Juliet,” Norman said once I had settled in. “How long have you been fucking my brother?”
I wanted to punch him.
I wanted to make him hurt.
I wanted to brutalize him.
How dare he?
How dare he go after the woman I was crazy about?
Norman didn’t need to talk like that. He didn’t need to make any snide comments like that, yet he had. Why? Because he could, and because nobody had ever called him out on his crap before.
Fortunately, Juliet had spent plenty of time around vampires. She was completely nonplussed and didn’t seem to mind his harsh language or his negative attitude. I was impressed with her and the way she’d been able to
handle herself this week.
Perhaps most of all, I was shocked that she’d been able to assess him so quickly. She worked with vampires every day. She knew we could be a fussy bunch. To be handle that with grace and patience showed a great deal of character.
“I’m not a vampire, so forgive me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure that question is considered wildly rude no matter what your undead status is.”
“Is it?”
“It’s pretty rude,” she nodded.
“So, you’re scared to answer.”
“I’m not scared of you,” she said. “I pity you.”
My brother’s gaze narrowed as he looked at Juliet, and he sat his glass down. He’d been sipping on blood wine, but apparently, it wasn’t enough to take the edge off what she’d just said to him. If anything, he found her words even more wildly frustrating.
“Pity?”
“A bit,” she nodded. “You’re so pathetic that you traveled here to see if your little brother was willing to share his toys. He said no, but now you won’t go away.”
Fuck.
If I didn’t love seeing my brother squirm so much, I’d tell her to stop. She was egging him on and being a total bitch, but I kind of liked it. Norman had always given me shit. He’d always been the person who gave me a hard time in life. Now that I had someone to back me up, I wondered why I’d always cowered to him.
Well, I wasn’t cowering this time. Elizabeth certainly never had, either. She and Norman couldn’t stand one another, so we’d rarely been in a room all together. It was interesting to me that Juliet hated him every bit as much as my wife had.
Norman dove at Juliet and his hand was around her throat before I could stop him. He lifted her up by the neck. She gasped for breath, reaching for his hand.
“Never say that,” he hissed at her. “Never!”
9
Juliet
I COULDN’T BREATHE.
I didn’t realize just how much I took breathing for granted until I was unable to. It’s funny how humans are always like that, isn’t it? It’s like when you get a papercut on your thumb and suddenly, it feels like you have to use your thumb for everything. Getting a glass of water? You have to use your thumb. Driving? Thumbs. Oh, you need to do your laundry? Yep, you’re going to need your thumb for that.