7. I’ll pretend you owe me a bite anyway.
SEVEN
I’ll pretend you owe me a bite anyway.
After I devoured my sandwich, I took numerous branches from my apple tree into the conference room, armed myself with my favorite carving knife, and went to work.
Determined to take hold of my happily ever after in my own hands and pave a way for safety and security for everyone in Breckenan’s shadow, I carved.
As always, I sought to waste nothing of the tree, which had come to an early end at a vile vampire’s hands.
Justice would be served for everyone who had suffered. Those who no longer had a voice would know nothing of my efforts, but it didn’t matter.
I would sleep much easier knowing I had done my best to prevent future suffering and death. While necessity demanded I take my time with the smaller twigs and branches, the larger pieces of wood were given the same treatment I intended for my prey: swift, efficient, and lethal.
At dawn, with exhaustion nipping at my heels but four new stakes ready to help with our mission to eradicate Jeremy Breckenan, I went to bed, leaving Emerick to finish carving a stake from a branch he’d gathered on his own.
Unlike my apple tree, the wood from his branch showed signs of age, and I wondered how long he had been waiting before making use of nature’s gift.
I woke as the sun set to discover Emerick sitting on the bed with his laptop, tapping away. I yawned, stretched, and asked, “Did you get any sleep?”
“I got three hours. Darius has brought the woman to us. She’s downstairs in the cafeteria eating everything in sight and then some.
It turns out his estimation of her having a living wage was quite off.
He invited her to lunch as his treat, took her to a buffet, and discovered she can eat almost as much as you can when you get going.
Upon finding out she’s barely able to afford living in her apartment and has been cutting into her food budget, he pitched the job offer.
I have zero doubt she’ll jump ship, but we’re going to feed her first, put her to bed in a guest room, and talk with her when she’s up for it.
She’s going to call in sick; she has a few sick days left. ”
I hated starving, and that the woman had suffered pissed me off enough I escaped the comforts of my blanket to get dressed. “We’ll be able to protect her, right?”
“I think so, but we’re going to have to be careful. I’m debating sending her with Annora, Gerry, and Edgar to Europe. That will lure Breckenan to Europe once he finds out. That is both a good and a bad thing.”
“If we’re there and ready for him, it’s good.
If he gets ahead of us again, we put Edgar at risk, and he can’t even try to defend himself.
He’s just a baby.” I scowled at the thought of the little boy experiencing any suffering, although I understood there would be some misery in his future as we battled to get him to adulthood so he could lead a normal life.
Our work would determine the future of other vampiric children. Some would live when they otherwise would have died, but sacrifices would be made by all for that to happen.
I thought the price was worth paying.
It bothered me how many would disagree with me.
I respected that.
However much I loved little kids, I understood only the willing should make such sacrifices. It was then I understood my father’s grieved tone when he had told us that children should not rise.
He loved me, but he recognized the truth of the burdens a child like me brought to a family, and only the willing and ready should take on such an endeavor.
Emerick sighed. “He’s not quite a baby, but for the purposes of our conversation, he’s close enough, I suppose.”
I narrowed my eyes, huffed, and went to the drawer containing my stake carving kit to discover a new leather bundle occupied the space. “What is this?”
“It’s a travel kit for when we go to Europe, that way your regular kit can be sharpened and taken care of while we’re gone. If it gets lost in transit, you won’t cry as much.”
I grabbed my regular tools, accepted his comment with a nod, and tucked the leather-wrapped bundle under my arm.
“If you want me to talk with this woman tonight, you can bring her to the conference room and she can watch me carve stakes while we talk shop. If her financial situation is that dire, she’ll feel better with a signed job offer in hand, and we can put her in a guest room as planned or we can put her up in one of those fancy hotels you like and give unlimited access to room service.
Put guards in the same hotel with her and see if Darius is game to go to work with her in the morning and act like nothing has changed. ”
“Interesting thought. If she goes to work tomorrow or calls in sick, then we maintain the ruse a little longer. If Darius is there, she should be safe enough.”
“Especially since they shouldn’t know we’re on the move. I assume all the bugs have been eradicated?”
“To my knowledge, yes.” Emerick shrugged, set aside his laptop, and got out of bed. “I’ll text Darius and see about bringing her up if she’s eaten enough. I make no promises how long she’ll remain conscious after a meal that large, though.”
“With luck, telling her we want to sign the job offer will keep her awake. If not, she goes to bed, Darius gets her to work on time or has her call in, and they pretend like they know nothing of this venture here. If most of Breckenan’s lead vampires are hiding with him in the Amazon, then we have room to work. ”
“All the notable vampires we have identified went with him,” my husband confirmed.
“Excellent. That puts us one step closer to waging—and winning—this war. Bring the woman, let’s get the introductions out of the way, and send word to my father that we’re going to be on the move sooner than later—and that I could use his help making certain this woman doesn’t face my fate. With luck, that’ll motivate him.”
“I don’t think motivation is at all a problem for your father at this stage of the game, but I shall do what you want. Anything else?”
My stomach informed me it needed waffles and it needed waffles now. “Breakfast, please. Waffles better be part of my breakfast or someone is getting bitten.”
“I’ll make sure you get waffles, but I’ll pretend you owe me a bite anyway.”
I laughed and headed for the conference room.
Once upon a time, I had had a friend, and she had dubbed me Pepper, but life hadn’t worked out for us.
She had died, not from anything nefarious, but from cursed luck and being at the wrong place at the wrong time, being struck by a drunk driver while she’d walked to the store. I had gone to her funeral.
I’d forgotten, but my father had been bothered to take me himself, joining my mother in helping me grieve for her.
We’d been fifteen at the time of her passing.
Not only had my father attended Chrissy’s funeral, he’d paid for the expenses and the medical bills from my friend’s battle for her life. She’d ultimately lost that war, leaving behind a younger sister, who had also been my friend, and her parents.
After Chrissy’s death, they had moved away, and I had thought I’d never see her again.
Now older, Breanna stared at me in wide-eyed shock, her mouth gaping open. I could only assume I mirrored her.
In unison, we pointed at each other and blurted the other’s name.
Emerick raised a brow, as did Darius. My husband considered me with interest. “I see you ladies know each other.”
“Pepper was my sister’s best friend,” Breanna explained, and her smile lit up her face. “Your family helped us so much when she died.”
“My father handled the funeral arrangements and her medical expenses after the accident, and we went to the funeral as a family,” I added, marveling over how the pain of Chrissy’s death had made way for fond remembrance and an odd sense of peace. “Dad didn’t mind them coming over.”
“Of course I didn’t,” my father announced before he strode into the conference room, and he went to Breanna, ruffled her hair, and dropped a kiss on the top of her head.
“They were the only reasonable hooligans you had for friends at that age, and I had hoped they would be a good influence on you. It turns out you corrupted them into becoming independent girls. Darius called, and when he told me who was coming over, I changed my schedule. Has Jeremy Breckenan touched you, Breanna?”
I recognized when my father had gone from reasonable to a vengeful parent out for blood.
“I didn’t even know I was in his sights,” she replied. “Darius explained everything to me over dinner.” My childhood friend regarded me with wide eyes. “You’re a vampire!”
Unlike a lot of others I’d known growing up, both Chrissy and Breanna had loved everything about the preternatural. As such, I showed her my fangs and hissed.
She laughed. “And married, too?”
I gestured to Emerick. “We’ll have a proper ceremony soon, but vampires are idiots, so we did the court filings already.
So, the job offer is real, you’ll be expected to be my right-hand woman, and you’ll have to herd a lot of cats as part of your responsibilities.
Part of your job will involve helping me keep this vampire in line.
He mostly behaves, but he tends to have this ego from being the brood master. ”
Breanna snickered. “When we were little girls, you kept getting mad because the princes with white horses were wussies and you wanted your heroes to be willing to rip off the heads of your enemies. Honestly, we agreed with you, so we started having dark knights vanquish the wimpy princes with white horses.”