Chapter 22 – Locheran
“Ithought we agreed only people we trust would be here tonight,” I say, scowling at Rorik who stands with Layla and Vara.
He’s flirting with them, and Thorne is doing nothing to stop him.
“We trust Rorik,” Thorne says.
“The hell we do,” I growl.
Farrah clings to my side, holding my hand. She squeezes, attempting to calm me down. Her heart is racing, but not in fear… in anticipation.
“You just hate him because he’s a fuck boy too,” a familiar voice says behind me. I turn to find the former vampire queen, Millie. “He’s harmless.”
Millie’s wearing a fitted red wrap dress that showcases her thick body and matching red lipstick. Her dark brown hair is styled in big curls that fall around her shoulders. Millie’s always been a beautiful woman, but now I can’t imagine thinking that about anyone other than my mate.
You can still think other beings are beautiful, Farrah says in my head, snorting out loud.
“The mating bond doesn’t care. It’s still threatened by Rorik,” Thorne explains, interrupting our silent conversation.
I scoff but don’t correct him. I know it’s true, but I can’t convince the bond that the first vampire has no chance of stealing my mate.
“Is this the famous mate who tamed Locheran Perrier?” Millie asks, holding out her hand.
Farrah snorts and accepts the greeting. “I don’t think taming him is possible. But yes, I’m his mate.” She scrunches her nose. “It’s still weird saying that word.”
“Trust me, I know,” Millie says. “So, I’m told you’re a teacher? Classic Literature?”
Farrah’s face lights up at the question. “Yes! It’s Shakespeare week for my students.”
“I love Shakespeare,” Millie says then smirks. “I fucked him once. Thought about killing him.”
Farrah’s bright expression fades as her face pales. “What?”
Millie waves off the concern. “It was a dark time in my life.” She glances over her shoulder. “Where the hell is my mate? I swear I need to handcuff him to me or I’ll lose him. This is why I hired bodyguards.”
In that moment, a blond man suddenly appears, only the blur of his movement indicating that he didn’t just materialize out of thin air.
“Did I hear you say handcuffs? I’m game, baby.” He wiggles his brows at Millie who shakes her head but fails to hold back her smile. Of the dozens of years I’ve known Millie, she was never big on smiling. I love that her mate has changed that and has become her sunshine.
The hyper newbie vampire spots Thorne and gives him a nod. Teddy then places a sloppy smooch on Millie’s cheek before turning to me and Farrah.
“This is Teddy,” Millie says, elbowing her mate in the side.
He’s got what the world calls a dad bod and a personality that rivals mine. Though, to be fair, he’s more golden retriever and I’m like a German shepherd or a border collie.
Yes, Farrah silently responds to my thoughts. Hard working, loyal, and lots of energy but still a goofball.
Teddy holds out his hand for Farrah to take, and I fight back the urge to slap it away.
And fiercely protective, Farrah purrs.
Before I can steal her away and fuck her outside against the wall to prove to everyone that she’s all mine, Farrah slips out of my hold and takes Teddy’s greeting.
“Hi, I’m Farrah.” She points her thumb at me. “This one’s mate.”
This one? I think her way, but she gives me a wink before releasing Teddy’s hand.
“It’s good to finally meet you,” Teddy says, giving Farrah a wink.
I’m going to kill him.
“Okay, everyone," Vara says, saving Teddy’s life. “Let’s get started.”
Everyone wanders further into The 27 Club where we’re staging this human ritual video or whatever bullshit they’ve planned. I was kept out of the loop because they feared I’d kidnap Farrah and fly her out of the country.
Not going to lie… totally thought about it.
“This is going to take about an hour. We have more supes arriving soon to help.”
“More?” I ask, my voice an octave higher.
“Don’t worry, they’ve been vetted,” Rorik says and taps his temple.
“We need this to be believable,” Vara explains. “Farrah is at a packed nightclub that caters to supernatural beings. One sphinx, three gargoyles, and four vampires isn’t going to cut it.”
“And this is why we didn’t tell you,” Farrah says out of the corner of her mouth.
“Anyway,” Vara says, narrowing her eyes at me. “Farrah’s going to walk around filming with these.”
She holds up a pair of glasses that I assume holds a hidden camera. Thorne takes it from his mate and hands it to mine. She puts them on, then looks at me with a big grin.
Fuck, she’s adorable.
“We’ll have some trusted humans helping as well,” Vara adds. “There will be dry humping and sex sounds, humans appearing dazed and compelled, but the money shot will be Rorik feeding on a human out back.”
“Lucky me,” he says with a grin. The smirk doesn’t hold when everyone looks away from him.
I don’t know much about the first vampire’s personal life. Only what Thorne explained about him having two mates once upon a time. A human who he turned, and a gargoyle—both who are now dead.
I can’t imagine.
He had to live through that loss. Most supernatural beings who lose a mate die soon after from heartbreak.
But to lose two?
Rorik can’t die, but he can still feel pain. He still felt their connections break.
Vara continues. “Rorik will dump the ‘body’ out back, and Farrah will try to save her.”
“The human is a willing participant. Rorik will feed from her, but she won’t really die,” Layla explains to Farrah who nods in understanding.
Thorne starts handing out masquerade masks. “Wear these so you’re not identifiable. Staged or not, we can’t have the hunters seeing all this royalty, or former royalty, on camera.”
I take my mask and turn to Farrah.
“Are you sure this is going to work? Don’t you think your family is smarter than this?"
She frowns, taking my hands in hers and bringing them up to her mouth. She kisses my knuckles, like I've done to her many times before. The move makes my stomach twist. She knows I’m anxious about this entire thing but instead of being mad or annoyed, she’s listening to my concerns.
“They don’t know about supernatural nightclubs.
I’m sure of it. And if they do know these clubs exist, I’m confident they’ve never been inside one.
I can use these videos as my ticket to finally join the hunt.
Maybe I’ll suggest they send me in for more recon at supe nightclubs. Or a supe sex club.”
I huff a laugh, but my humor dies quickly. “Be serious, Mouse.”
That gets me more knuckle kisses.
“I’m sorry. I am being serious about this.
Look…” She locks eyes with me, begging me to trust her.
I do. I just don’t trust them. Her brows furrow at the thought that I clearly didn’t mask.
“They wouldn’t hurt me, Locheran. They may have been disappointed when I didn’t join, but I’m still their flesh and blood. ”
“They might not hurt you, but if they find out you’re my mate, they could kidnap you. Hold you in a dark dungeon. They know I’d come for you. And I would, with a vengeance. I’d burn down the world to find you.”
She smiles, looking down. “Please don’t burn the world for me. No more death and destruction. Start a bonfire in the woods if anything.”
I tug Farrah to my body, and she yelps. I don’t care if everyone in the room is staring at us now. Because my mate is being an adorable and funny rodent right now.
A bad, bad little mouse.
She inhales a sharp breath at the thought.
I grip her hair at the nape of her neck and pull until her head tilts up, allowing me to lean down and hover my mouth over hers.
“I don’t think you understand, Farrah,” I say, gently placing a kiss on her lips. She tries to deepen the kiss, but I pull back. “Not only would I burn down the world for you, but after the ashes have cooled, I’d rebuild every structure brick by brick just to burn it all down again.”
“Romantic,” she whispers. “A little dramatic, definitely psychotic, but romantic.”
This time I kiss her properly. A ‘tongue worshipping her mouth, my lips bruising hers, and my fangs making her bleed’ type of kiss.
When we come up for air a few minutes later, the entire room claps.
Farrah pulls away from me and I give her a wink.
“Now that we’ve had a show, let’s get this party started,” Vara says, smiling and shaking her head as she turns to walk away.
Istand along a wall, holding a beer, while I watch my mate walk through the crowded space. She’s perfect, acting scared yet determined. A few other humans have been scattered throughout the space, paired with supernatural beings, and told to act like they’ve been drugged or hypnotized.
Once the footage has been shown to Farrah’s family, it will be deleted. That way they won’t have a chance to send it out to the world and expose us as dangerous and murderous monsters.
I stay to the shadows and stalk Farrah because I can’t stay along the wall far away from my mate with this many supernaturals near her.
She spots Rorik walking out a back door, holding hands with a young woman in her twenties.
She’s petite with black hair, doe eyes, and skin that’s decorated in various tattoos.
A vampire donor, guessing by the paleness of her skin.
Farrah follows the pair and sneaks out the door a minute later.
I find Vara and stand next to her while she watches the feed from Farrah’s glasses on a tablet. Rorik does his part, burying his face in the human’s neck. He bites her and begins feeding. Fake blood is added to make it appear more violent. The human proceeds to pass out.
When he’s done ‘feeding,’ he drops the woman to the ground—roughly because otherwise it wouldn’t have been believable—and walks back into the club, past Farrah who dips into a dark corner to hide out of the way.
Farrah rushes over to the ‘victim.’
“Oh my god, oh my god,” she whisper-screams. “Are you okay? Hello? Ma’am? Are you okay?”
She inspects her neck, skimming her fingertips over the bite mark and pulling back to show the camera the fake blood.
Then she looks around as if trying to find someone to help.
With no one in sight, she picks up the woman under her armpits and drags her toward a door at the back of the trash area that leads to the street.
This is where the video cuts off. Farrah will explain to her father that she didn’t want to lose the glasses while helping the woman, so she took them off and stuck them in her purse.
“Cut!” Vara yells, like she’s the next Steven Spielberg.
Farrah walks back inside with the woman, whose name is Jessica, next to her.
“That was awesome,” Jessica says, beaming at my mate. “You were so good. I thought you were going to start crying.”
Jessica glances over her shoulder and finds Rorik leaning against the wall, arms crossed.
“Rory was amazing too. He’s so hot.”
She bites her lip and flutters her lashes at him, and he scowls back. He’s not having fun with this.
Why the hell did he volunteer then?
“Good job, everyone,” Vara says and leads us back into the center of the club. “Before we call it a night, let me review the footage to make sure everything recorded properly.”
Farrah walks to me and wraps her arms around my waist. I kiss the top of her head and find a booth for us to sit in. A supe who works at the club brings us drinks. Water and wine for Farrah and a beer for me.
She takes a sip of wine then another and another.
“Careful, Mouse, don’t you have class tomorrow at eight in the morning?”
She shrugs. “I’m having my TA takeover. I knew we’d be here late tonight, so I called her today saying I had a personal emergency I need to take care of. So that means I can get drunk.”
I groan. “Please don’t. You get really frisky when you’re drunk.”
“And that’s a bad thing?”
“Yes, I don’t fuck drunk humans.”
“But what about drunk mates?”
I shake my head.
“What if the sober mate gives the gargoyle soldier permission to fuck his mate while she’s drunk?”
“Nope. And why are we talking like this?”
“Fine. Fine.” She snorts and pushes the wine glass away. “But what about fucking me while I’m asleep until I wake up?”
I pinch the bridge of my nose. “You’re killing me.”
She laughs and buries her nose into my chest. And my armpit. She’s… smelling my armpit.
“I was curious,” she says and nuzzles back up to my chest.
“You were curious about how my armpit smells?”
“Yeah, you always smell so good. Even your armpits. Like campfire and vanilla and cedar. Little bit of citrus too.”
I take Farrah’s wrist and lift her arm, leaning down to smell her armpit.
I fake gag.
She gasps and slaps my chest. “Rude!”
I chuckle and bury my face into her neck. “You always smell good too. My sweet mate: Vanilla, coconut, and just a hint of passion fruit. My favorite smell, aside from your cunt.”
She squeezes her thighs together. “Don’t get me turned on. There are too many monsters here.”
“Says the woman who wants me to fuck her in front of a lot of monsters.”
“True, but that’s an exception. Do you really want them drooling over me any time I think about you?”
I sit up straight. “You’re right. I forgot. Anytime I’m with you, it’s as if the world around us doesn’t matter. I only care about you.”
“Ew,” Vara says, approaching our table. “Does he really say things like that to you?”
Farrah nods dramatically, smiling as big as her face will allow. “All the time. It’s romantic.”
“One word I’d never used to describe Locheran is ‘romantic.’”
“Whatever,” I mumble. “Are we done? I’d like to take my mate home to fuck her and fill her with my cum.”
“I did not consent to that visual, Loch. We’re done,” Vara says and walks off, mumbling something about ‘like an annoying brother.’
“Thorne’s going to do the same thing to you and Layla,” I yell after her. She flips me off without looking back.
I turn to Farrah. “Ready?”
“For sex? Yes! But no biting or hickeys. I have a very important meeting on Friday. I can’t have you leaving marks.”
I don’t mention that the marks would likely heal before Friday.
She gets out of the booth and heads to the exit. I follow, frowning at her back.
I’m trying not to think about Friday. I’m not invited to dinner with her father.
I’ll be nearby in case something goes wrong, and we have to go in and save her.
But to say I’m nervous is an understatement.
I’m more than nervous. I’m determined. Determined to protect my mate.
I’m preparing, gathering fuel and matches, ready to strike.
Ready to burn down the world to save her.