Chapter Six – Jack
Chapter Six
Jack
How dare she.
Angela’s old office was too small for me to pace in but I didn’t want to be out there with Luna.
I thought about picking her up and forcibly throwing her outside—or using my whammy, giving her orders she couldn’t refuse—but something stopped me.
It wasn’t interest—the animal part of me wanted her, yes, but it was notoriously not choosy.
No…it was guilt. As much as Rosalie had deserved to die and as much as I’d wanted to kill her—something in the act felt like it had tainted me.
I’d survived for years as a vampire avoiding death, until this past week—and now it felt like death was stalking me.
Taking care of Luna was some small way to prove that I was still human—for me to spit in death’s eye.
But that didn’t mean that I would ever accept her slavery. Which probably meant she’d wisely abandon me in the fullness of time.
Couldn’t happen soon enough.
When I’d calmed down, it was almost four AM.
I hadn’t heard the door chime which meant Luna was still out there alone.
I went back on the floor when I heard Mattie’s truck, and found her hunched over a drafting table.
I thought I’d find her asleep, but as I rounded she looked up and then tried to hide what she’d been doing, crumpling paper quickly.
“What’re you doing?”
“Tracing. That’s what you do with tracing paper, right?
” She wheeled and threw it into the nearest trashcan.
She’d been copying on the flash that I’d created earlier in the night.
I should’ve spent the rest of my evening making more, instead of hiding in the office playing Minesweeper with the calendar, trying to figure out who I could cajole into taking more shifts.
“Next time, let me see.”
She shrugged a shoulder like a sullen teen as Mattie entered. “Hello, hello, hello!” he said, in his best Matthew McConaughey.
“Hey Mattie,” I said. “Hope you got some sleep.”
“Enough,” he said with a grin—then spotted Luna. I watched him inhale, then think better of whatever he was going to say. “Any work tonight?”
“Four tattoos. Sports crew.”
“Not bad!” The entire building rumbled as Mattie’s first client arrived—a big rig shifting into idle nearby. He started getting his guns out.
“See you tomorrow,” I said, walking for the door.
“See you tomorrow!” Luna said too, like she was mocking me.
We drove back to my apartment, me staring at the road, her staring out the window. There was no point in attempting conversation, I didn’t have anything I wanted to discuss with her, nor did I care what she thought about me. The sooner I got back to Paco and Sugar, the better.
So after I parked, I was dismayed to have her follow me to my door. “Shoo,” I said, waving her away.
“I thought you hired me.” Her full lips were in a heavy frown and I could see that she was tiring. Just because she’d lived with vampires didn’t mean she wasn’t human.
“I did. As a secretary. Secretaries don’t live with me.”
“When I left Vermillion—I thought this was a done deal.” She swallowed audibly. “I was Rosalie’s favorite.”
What I was supposed to glean from that, I didn’t know. “So?”
“I lived with her. Full time. I—I don’t have anywhere else.”
“How’d you get here?” I could make her sleep in a car….
“I caught an Uber.”
“And this is the only thing you own?” I said, pointing at her small backpack.
“No.” She ran off, looked both directions, and then dove into the nearby shrubbery to pull out an oversized duffle.
It was black and the only reason no one else had seen it was because she hadn’t come till night—plus my landlord wasn’t keen on exterior lighting.
“This is. I had to leave a lot of sexy boots behind.” She sounded genuinely mournful.
“You staying here—it’s not tenable.”
“Are you going to pay me a living wage?”
Was Dark Ink going to make any money? Not for a month or two. I didn’t know the state of the accounts—that was a job for tomorrow night. “I will. When I can.”
“Well—until then,” she asked, licking her lips in hope, and pointed toward the door.
“Goddamnit,” I muttered, but I unlocked it for us both.
She hadn’t gotten inside my place earlier—but now that she had, of course the first thing she saw was Nikki’s bra. She stalked over to it like a tiger and held it up to her chest. Nikki’s cup-size was far more generous than hers. “So this is what you’re into?”
“It’s a friend’s,” I said, snatching it away.
“Uh-huh,” she said, disbelief apparent in her tone.
“I know Rosalie didn’t believe in the term, but I’m managing.”
Luna rolled her eyes but didn’t protest. “So where am I staying?”
My bed was taken. “The couch or the floor.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t say closet.”
“Don’t tempt me.”
“Can I take a shower?”
“Sure. Just hurry up. It’s almost dawn.”
She dropped the duffle bag and disappeared into the bathroom. Sugar came out of hiding to complain at me. “I know. I don’t want her here, either,” I agreed, knuckling Sugar’s head.
There was a rapping at my door. If it was anyone else wanting favors from me I would bite them.
Instead, opening the door revealed Zach. He was still in his uniform. “Hey,” he said.
“Hey,” I said back. The sound of a shower started as I closed the door behind me.
“I just got home—and I saw that girl—and I thought maybe I shouldn’t come over, but then there was a girl here last night,” he said in a rush, then admitted the truth: “I park over here now, like a fool, because I want to walk by your door.”
“Zach,” I said, starting to shake my head.
“I know—you can’t give me anything. Your life is weird. There are no promises. But come on now, Jack. If our situations were reversed, would you let a guy like you go?”
I knew my truth, and then I knew the truth—about me being a vampire. “I would, if I knew what was best for me.”
One side of his smile quirked up to a grin. “Who really knows what’s best for themselves though?”
I closed my eyes and let my head thump dramatically against the door in the face of his logic—and then he was kissing me.
It wasn’t just one of those fly-by-night fuck-me kisses—it was soft and hopeful, plush and warm.
My hunger sang to be near him—and so did my heart.
I knew what this felt like and that it was a bad idea and I still couldn’t stop myself.
I tilted my head and opened my mouth up a little, letting him push me against the door.
He pulled back at long last. “Can I come in?”
“Only if you promise to take off all your clothes.”
“Done,” he said, and walked in like he owned the place.