Transfusion (Transfusion Saga #1)

Chapter 19

Intimidating Inferno

‘And those that do usually end up getting hurt’ When his warning came back in answer, it spelled out a clear message and one that made my heart sink into a pit of misery.

In fact, I was just typing out my goodbye text when another message came through,

‘Unless of course they’re the type of woman who can snap human bones and win in knife fights ;)’ I swear his reply nearly made me drop the phone! Was he actually saying what I thought he was saying? Or was it just a harmless bit of flirting? At first, I had no idea how to respond to that and had to take a moment to down a large gulp of wine just to steady my nerves.

And he wasn’t even in the same room as me!

‘So, what you’re saying, is that some men want a woman who can kick their ass?’ was my brave and cocky reply.

I swear I couldn’t keep my face straight as I waited impatiently for his reply.

“I take it by that look you’re still flirting and haven’t even got to the reason you text him?”

Wendy asked, making me smirk and say,

“Pretty much.”

Then I jumped again the second his reply came in.

‘More like a woman who can take a firm hand’ Now what the hell he meant by that one I didn’t know, but I blushed all the same as I knew how I personally took it.

‘Now for the real reason you messaged me’ He sent directly after and I had to say I was a little disappointed to know he no longer had time for me.

But then again, I had definitely received more from him that I ever would have thought, so I couldn’t be too unhappy.

‘I asked Dante if he wanted to come inside and join us so that Wendy could talk to him, but he said he wasn’t allowed’ Even to me, once I re-read it, I realised that it sounded childish and now I was regretting it.

‘I am glad to hear that he can follow orders’ was his curt reply.

‘But I don’t see why not, he can protect us just as well from inside’ I complained sending one back quickly before I chickened out.

The reply however was not the outcome I had been hoping for.

‘This isn’t a fucking dating service.

He’s there to do a job!’ I sighed and let my shoulders slump, feeling as though I had been told off for being a naughty girl.

“Well, any luck?”

Wendy asked, and I shook my head.

“Afraid not, sorry.”

“Oh well, I guess I will just have to go ahead and stare at the back of his fine bald head out of my peephole for the rest of the night.”

I laughed at this but seconds later I couldn’t help but find myself looking down at my phone and re-reading through all the messages.

It was a shame it ended on a sour note.

I had been enjoying our flirty sparring.

Then, just as I was releasing another disappointed sigh, there was a knock at the door.

Wendy and I both looked at it as if it was a foreign concept.

Then we both launched off the sofa and ran to the door, stopping to compose ourselves just before we opened it.

“Lucius said that I was to guard you from inside,”

Dante said, looking surprised himself as he was still holding his phone as though he questioned if he really had received that message or not, one that was still lit up on his phone.

I stepped back and let him in and the second he did his eyes automatically went to Wendy.

She blushed from the heated look Dante was giving her and looked visibly shaken by the sight of him.

She even turned her back as it was obvious that she needed a minute to get herself together enough to form words.

So, I decided to help her.

“Uh, welcome I guess…so would you like anything to drink, I think there is a beer in the fridge?”

I asked, knowing that there was from the last time Ben had been here.

He sometimes tagged along, having met Wendy a few times and fallen madly in love with her (not in a romantic way of course, on account of the gay girly friendly thing) so it wasn’t surprising that we all hung out together on a regular basis.

And well, this was one night he would no doubt be gutted to have missed out, considering the sight of the man candy that just walked through the door.

“Thanks,”

he said nodding and unbelievably the first words out of Wendy’s mouth were,

“Drinking on the job, that’s not very professional of you.”

I shot her a look behind his back the second he turned to face her, that silently screamed ‘what the hell?!’ But then I watched as Dante gave her a deadly grin and openly looked her up and down and from the look of things, he definitely liked what he saw.

“Don’t worry sugar, I can handle it, don’t you go worrying your pretty little head over it,”

Dante replied giving her a wink and then turning around to take the beer from my hand.

Meanwhile, Wendy looked as if she was going to have a heart attack or at the very least, need some smelling salts as clearly, she was having palpitations.

“Uh, Emmie, a word please,”

Wendy said all of a sudden in a tense tone and I followed her retreating frame into the bathroom, unable to miss the smirk Dante had, as if he knew he had knocked her for six…or shit, even twelve!

“I think we made a mistake,”

she hissed, making me frown.

“What do you mean, nothing has even happened yet, other than him putting you in your place for once,”

I told her, making her give me a pointed look.

“I just don’t think it’s a good idea him being here that’s all,”

she said, now making me wonder what was really going on.

Did she know something about who he truly was? I didn’t know how she would, but maybe she just sensed something.

So now I felt duty bound to push her on it hoping for her sake that she didn’t know.

“But why, I mean he seemed nice enough to me and he is here to protect us?”

“You, he is here to protect you.

Me, I could be collateral damage and it wouldn’t matter.”

I rolled my eyes and said,

“Come on, do you really think that big massive guy out there would let anything happen to either of us and besides, did you see the way he looked at you…man alive, it looked as though he wanted to eat you!”

“So not helping here!”

she hissed.

“What, I mean it in a good way!”

I hissed back.

“I don’t know…I just, well I just…”

“What Kirky? Just tell me,”

I pleaded, now getting worried as I had never seen her acting this way before.

“He just scares me, okay?”

she admitted and after the shock of her admission we both released a sigh.

“Look, I know he is a big guy, but trust me on this, some of the biggest guys out there are just big teddy bears at heart.”

She gave me a disbelieving ‘really?’ look that said it all.

“It’s not because he is so big that scares me, or even the fact that he looks badass enough that he chews nails for breakfast,”

she admitted, and I placed a hand on her arm and asked,

“Then what is it?”

She took a deep breath and then whispered what I was utterly shocked to hear, especially as she had only spent five minutes with the guy and said one thing to him.

“What scares me is that I really like him…as in…really like him.”

“Oh…Oh, I see,”

I said repeating myself the second her eyes told me how serious she was.

Now, the thing about Kirky was that I had never known her to act like this…around anyone.

She was usually the most confident person in a room.

But around this guy, then I guess for the first time in her life she didn’t know how to act and that in itself scared the shit out of her.

And to be quite honest, I could relate because there was only one person out there who had that type of power over me and his name was Lucius.

“Well, if that is the case, don’t you think it’s a better plan to go out there and try to make conversation instead of hiding in here for the rest of the night?”

“Uh…do I have to answer that?”

Wendy said, making me laugh.

“Actually, I was thinking about calling it an early night,”

she said, this time making me put a hand on my hip and say,

“Really, what, have you got school tomorrow or something?”

When she gave me a questioning look, I explained,

“Kirky, it’s seven ‘o clock.”

She scrunched up her face before admitting defeat.

“Okay, fine, just don’t…don’t…”

“Don’t what?”

I asked in confusion.

“Embarrass me, okay?”

Now this did make me laugh.

“Oh, you mean how you do to me all the time?”

I questioned, surprised when she admitted.

“Yeah, just like that.”

I released a sigh and said,

“Fine, I will try not act like you.”

“It’s all I ask,”

she replied, giving me a hug and making me chuckle.

After this we went back out there and did what all girls did when coming back from the toilet together, acted as if we hadn’t spent the entire time talking about a guy we were now going to face.

Dante nodded to me making me smile back in return, but man alive the look he then gave Kirky was one that could melt panties right off the skin.

Jeez, no wonder she was all hot and bothered around him and talk about intimidating...

I could totally see it now.

He smirked at her as she went past, muttering her little,

“Hey,”

and in response he answered,

“Darlin’,”

making her blush scarlet.

I decided to get out my phone and text back to Lucius, just because I couldn’t help myself.

‘You’re right, she can’t handle a bad boy, but thanks anyway’ I said finishing it off in a way that he didn’t need to text back if he was busy or just plain didn’t want to.

Of course, I felt my heart lift the second he did.

‘Not all woman can, but you’re welcome all the same’ Oh boy, was I in trouble if a single message as basic as that one could make me swoon.

But it didn’t end there because of the next text I got seconds later and all it said was a playful,

‘Ps… and he is single’

I smiled to myself which in the end wasn’t as private as I thought it was as Kirky sat down next to me and said,

“There’s that look again.”

So, I decided to play her at her own game and nodded to Dante who was currently sat at her little breakfast bar on one of her crown shaped stools managing to even own the space around him and not make him in anyway less manly.

He had just swigged back some of his beer and his eyes strayed straight over to Kirky.

“And there’s that look again,”

I whispered, nudging her arm and making her shoot me a ‘don’t you dare, you promised’ type of look in return.

So, I decided to get up and refill my drink and in the process try to be sociable in the hope that Kirky might loosen up and follow by example.

“So, Dante, how long have you been working for Lucius?”

I asked, hoping he didn’t forget himself and say something like the last five hundred years.

I watched his lips twitch, noticing that they were large but not in a weird way, as they suited the rest of his features.

But it did mean that when he smiled, he smiled big…which I kind of liked.

“Just started,”

he said in that deep baritone voice of his.

“So, you’re not a qualified bodyguard then?”

Wendy asked now getting in on the action and once again questioning his ability to do his job.

However, Dante simply looked more amused at her comment than affronted and he rose to his full height which, in her flat, fluffy slippers (because even I managed to convince her that heels when you’re going for the ‘chillin’ in my own home look’ didn’t exactly scream comfort) meant he towered over her.

Then he purposely moved in her path so she ended up taking a step back into the breakfast bar with nowhere to go.

Then he leaned in close and said,

“Don’t worry, Darlin’, I can handle anyone that might walk in this room…”

he said pushing off the side and giving her the space to breathe, however I didn’t then miss how when he threw his empty bottle in the bin he added to that statement.

“...or those who are already in it.”

Then he winked at me after looking back over his shoulder at Wendy who looked as though she was a missed breath away from passing out.

“In truth, I owed Lucius a favour so here I am, paying that debt,”

he said mainly to me as Wendy wasn’t exactly being her usual friendly self.

“Oh, well I for one am happy you’re here protecting us…aren’t you Kirky?”

He smiled at me and then tilted his head a little as if wondering to himself why I called her this.

“Kirky?”

I said again, more forcefully this time.

“Oh yeah, I mean you gotta get experience some way, right?”

This was her nonchalant reply that could have been taken as sarcastic.

But again, Dante just seemed amused by it, as if he hadn’t ever experienced this type of response from a woman before.

And well, if a little curvy, blunt ice queen, with gorgeous green eyes and strawberry blonde hair was his type, then Wendy was definitely in there.

In fact, it looked like an obsession was quickly building in his eyes as they kept giving away little signals that were subtle enough that Wendy couldn’t see.

But I could, and let’s just say that lust was playing a big part in them whenever he looked at her.

I was just about to speak in his defense when suddenly his phone rang.

He answered it with a manly,

“Yeah?”

A few seconds later what followed was a knock at the front door.

Wendy yelped in surprise as I gasped, but the difference between the two was that little miss ice queen suddenly decided to trust in the abilities of who she classed as ‘Bodyguard in training’.

She rushed over to him and stood behind him, making him look down over his shoulder at her as if wondering to himself where she had just come from.

“Right, they just turned up,”

he said making Wendy even more fearful as she grabbed onto his canvas khaki jacket as if he was her saviour.

Then he ended the call and grinned down at her as if enjoying the contact.

He turned side on, before taking her chin between his meaty fingers and tilting her head back before saying,

“Don’t worry sugar, it’s not the bad guys.”

Then she blinked her big eyes a few times as if trying to escape from the trance she was being put in, only it was all in vain as he was still touching her.

Another knock at the door was what broke their moment and it suddenly made me realise that maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea.

To encourage this type of connection between a demon and a human was a recipe for disaster, considering it was breaking the rules in a huge way.

But from the look of things, then I would say that Dante didn’t give a damn for rules.

As it was now clear that he had his sights set on a curvy strawberry blonde bombshell.

Now, exactly how Wendy would feel about having a massive, badass scary demon as a stalker was anyone’s guess but from the look of her right now, still holding onto his jacket as if it was her lifeline, then I would reckon she could grow to live with it.

Oh dear, and I had harmlessly thought this would just be a night of innocent flirting.

“Stay here, the both of you,”

Dante said, now having to step away from her after first being as gentle as possible, which was surprising for such a big guy, when he peeled her fingers from his jacket.

Then we watched as he walked to the door, looked out the peephole, which he had to bend a little to do, unlike Wendy as unless she was wearing heels, then she obviously struggled.

Then, because it was safe to do so, he opened the door and was handed a large suitcase by a man we couldn’t really see properly, on account of Dante being so large.

After this he closed the door and carried in the case before setting it down in front of me.

“For you,”

he told me, nodding down at it when I didn’t respond.

“What do you mean?”

I finally asked in confusion.

“Oh, maybe Lucius found some clothes and stuff for you in your flat that wasn’t damaged,”

Wendy said, looking down at it too.

“Maybe,”

I muttered before getting down on my knees to open it and find out.

I unzipped it and flipped the top over gasping the second I did.

“Or maybe not,”

Wendy said, seeing for herself a case full of brand-new clothes all with the expensive tags on show.

I looked up to Dante in question, making him hold his hands up in a defensive way, telling me,

“Don’t look at me, sugar, I’m just doing as I am told for once.”

Wendy made a scoffed sound but one pointed look from Dante and she lowered her eyes submissively and I couldn’t say that I blamed her.

I went back to the contents to see it was all stuff in my style and size that I would have bought if I’d had the money to do so.

But, considering they were all designer then they were definitely out of my budget.

“But why…I…why would he…?”

I started to stammer.

“My guess is that you needed them,”

Dante said just like that and with a shrug of his shoulders went back to sitting on one of the kitchen stools like this was no biggy.

“Wow, it’s gotta be said, but the guy has great taste,”

Wendy said picking up a beautiful crimson silk scarf that when worn around my neck would look like blood floating in water.

Oh yeah, he had great taste I thought with a grimace knowing why he had bought that scarf, being a blood sucking Vampire after all.

“Hey look, there is all your favorite beauty products in here too and even the shoes are in your size…cool huh…okay, not so cool for some unknown reason,”

Wendy said after seeing my frowning face and ending that sentence in a sarcastic tone.

“Why has he done this?”

I questioned.

“Well, duh, my guess it’s because he cares,”

she replied patting me on the back.

“But…but…”

But nothing really as I was utterly stumped on this one.

Which was why I got up and grabbed my phone, knowing there was only one person I would get my answers from.

Lucius.

‘Your suitcase arrived’ I sent him this message and I swear I stared at the phone so hard waiting for his reply that I started to get a headache.

‘I think you will find it’s your case, sweetheart’ The endearment at the end didn’t go unmissed.

‘Although it’s true I suit most things, even I have to draw the line somewhere and pink panties and stilettos are a hard limit for me’ he added in another message directly after, and my mouth dropped at the fact he was joking with me so easily.

So, I couldn’t help but send one back saying,

‘That’s a shame, I bet you would have looked hot’ I said, adding a wink emoji at the end and shaking my head at myself for flirting when really, I should have been asking him why.

‘Behave, kitten, or you will make me blush’ was his shocking reply and like this, anyone could have been fooled into believing we were actually a couple.

And I had to admit, I much preferred kitten to princess.

So, I decided to be as forward as he was right now and follow his lead by being daring enough to tell him so.

‘I’ll take kitten over princess any day’ Then I started biting the tips of my fingers as I waited for his reply.

I smiled the second I didn’t have to wait long for it.

‘Good to know’

‘You had another question for me, Sweet’ I smirked at his first text but then his second made me frown, as it was starting to look as if he knew me too well.

So, it was time to be honest.

‘Why did you send me those new clothes?’ I finished typing and sent it, only to wait on tenterhooks for his equally honest reply.

Because this was Lucius we were talking about…he didn’t deal in bullshit.

‘Because society today deems it necessary that we cover our nakedness in public and correct me if I am wrong, but you do still work in a public building, do you not?’ This was his sarcastic reply and I couldn’t help but laugh, even though I was pretty sure that if he’d had been here I would have just rolled my eyes at him.

‘Yes of course I do, but why did YOU buy me the clothes?’ I asked this time, making my point with the handy use of shouty CAPS.

This time he must have been giving some careful thought to his answer as I didn’t receive one for at least five minutes.

Enough time for Wendy to have made me a cup of tea (as evidently, we were out of wine) and a coffee for both her and Dante, who amazingly had started talking in the kitchen together.

‘Because I do as I please and what pleased me was the knowledge that you weren’t burdened with the chore’ I frowned at this as it sounded both sweet, kind and also some of it the BS I convincingly thought Lucius was beyond.

But I didn’t say this, no instead I kept it lighthearted and replied with,

‘A chore…you do get that I am a girl, right? Shopping for us is never a chore but more like written into our DNA’

‘Yes Amelia, I very much ‘get’ that you’re a girl and haven’t missed the obvious fact’ was his strange response.

‘And I believe society would also dictate that the right response you are looking for when receiving a gift is, Thank You’ I laughed again and typed back,

‘Ha! Since when do you care to conform to society?’

‘Since I pay my taxes every year like a good little Vamp, instead of just eating the Taxman like I want to’ At this I nearly sprayed my tea everywhere as I laughed into my mug.

“Something funny?”

Wendy asked with a smug look before saying,

“Oh yeah, it looks like you’re giving him hell over buying you a whole new wardrobe.”

Of course, she had no clue that when she said this, there was a deeper meaning hidden in the Hell part of that statement and Dante had to hide his smirk under his hand as he looked at me and winked when she wasn’t looking.

Because we both knew that you couldn’t ‘give’ hell to someone when they were actually created there by the Devil himself.

‘Then in that case, may I say that I am impressed by your restraint, even if I don’t agree with your decision as I personally feel he deserves to be eaten’ I replied, yet again adding another wink on the end.

Then I wondered what his reaction reading that would be? Would he laugh or just smirk and shake his head like he sometimes did, with an expression that said he didn’t know what to do with me.

‘Then I might consider it the next time I get my bill…now that I have your blessing of course’

‘It’s all I ask’ was my witty response and again I wondered if he was smiling reading it?

‘Besides, then I may be moved enough to actually thank you in person’ I added, blushing at just all the ways I would actually like to thank him and none of them were with words, but all were with the use of my lips.

‘Also, good to know, funny girl’ Okay, so if I thought reading his replies had made me smile before then none of them compared to this one…I was beaming.

I didn’t want this night to end because then I would have to go back to a time that this didn’t exist.

This playful flirting between us that even though it was new ground, it strangely felt familiar.

As if this was the real way that we should have been together, and we had finally found our place in each other’s world.

Because I was pretty sure that I wasn’t the only one who felt the sexual tension sizzling between us. As it was like he said, he does what he pleases, which meant that if it pleased him to be with me then he would have surely done that by now?

So, I guess the only place this left me was firmly in the friend’s zone.

And if I were honest with myself, then I would take all that I could get.

I knew the smart thing would have been to save me the heartache and walk away and before these last few days then I might have been strong enough to do that.

But now? Well, now I knew that it wasn’t an option for me any longer.

So, friends it was I decided, even if it was always going to be a one-sided boat and one day I would find myself drowning because of it.

I gave myself a mental shake, trying to rid myself of all the ways that this could go wrong and instead focused back on my phone, wondering what it was I could say now, when in the end he was the one that said it for me.

‘Goodnight Kitten, and you’re welcome for the clothes’ I smirked even though this clearly meant the end of our conversation.

But just the fact that he had called me kitten again told me that he was at least doing so because he knew I liked it.

‘I haven’t thanked you…yet’ I replied wondering if he would read in between the lines on this one.

‘No, but you will’ Now this sounded like a promise if ever I heard one.

But no, remember Emmie, this is the friend’s zone, so don’t get too carried away here.

Well, that was until his next message came through,

‘Oh, and Princess…’ Okay so this might not have started out so good making me growl at back to being called princess, but then the end of the message came through and it was about as far away from the friend’s zone as you could get.

Even further than my own person hell…

‘…I had fun picking out your underwear ;)’