Chapter 6 #2
Aster wasn’t particularly disappointed about it, though. She was just happy things felt as normal as they could again. Sylvia seemed to feel the same, as she shot Aster the slightest hint of a smile before shucking on her coat—and her public-facing personality.
“Last night was just an appetizer,” Sylvia grinned, fangs glinting. “Time for lunch.”
Sylvia stalked out the door, a blaze of confidence into the Manhattan streets, and Aster, well…
Aster had to remind herself to breathe.
***
She should have known Sylvia would make a joke out of it.
The awkward phase had lasted approximately forty-five minutes, and now the dam had broken—and Sylvia’s was delighting in the full fury of the stream.
Since they had decided the whole thing was just a weird one-off, chalked it up to the oddities of vampire biology, it was simply another hilarious memento between them. Well, maybe for Sylvia.
Aster, again, was still remembering how to use her lungs.
“Hello. Hello? Earth to Aster?” Sylvia moaned. “God, will you stop doing whatever nerd shit you’re doing and just look at me? Or do I have to bite you again to get you to pay attention?”
Aster’s head snapped up from her keyboard. Her cheeks were already flushed just hearing that first sound come out of Sylvia’s throat, but by the time she got to the end of her sentence, her ears were bright pink. Sylvia delighted in it. Fucking sadist.
“Come on, we’re going to be late for lunch.”
“Did she just imply that she’s bitten you before?”
Apparently she and Sylvia weren’t the only two people in the world. Aster had honestly forgotten. Wallace was sitting next to her, typing away at Aster’s current work assignment, looking mildly horrified but also very intrigued.
“It’s a metaphor,” Aster muttered.
“It’s not,” Sylvia said, grinning brazenly. Then, with a wink, she added, “I bite all the bad employees.”
Wallace laughed nervously, looking at Aster for help.
She shrugged, rising from her seat. Aster’s office chair spun idly in the background as Wallace watched them go.
It took him several seconds before realizing that he should probably say something.
Because, well, Aster hadn’t done a single one of her own work items since arriving—and he had been swamped to begin with—and now she was having lunch at 2pm, and 3pm, and also 4pm.
His adolescent mind swam. This seemed like something you’d bring up with HR.
He frowned. Right.
“My life sucks,” he muttered to his computer.
***
Tommy Ashcroft was a luxurious man, which meant he ate luxurious things for lunch.
Things like fish roe, and beef tartar, and other assorted stomach nightmares.
At least, this is what Aster imagined he told himself, to justify whatever monstrosity they were currently being served by a waiter in a tuxedo.
They were the only ones in the top-floor restaurant.
“I rented it out,” he said, as if it wasn’t absolutely fucking obvious.
“I see that,” Sylvia said sweetly. Aster could see the crack in her facade when she actually looked at the food, though. Sylvia was a picky eater, and not a huge fan of shellfish. But above everything, she was a great liar. “This is like, my favorite dish ever.”
Tommy grinned. “The Lobster Clam Inversion?”
Sylvia hummed an affirmative as she notably did not touch the Lobster Clam Inversion.
“So,” Sylvia said, clapping her hands. “Shall we get into business?”
“Business?” Tommy frowned. “And here I thought we were going to do cocaine together.”
Aster’s eyebrows rose comically. Even Sylvia hadn’t been expecting that one. The HR lady’s mouth opened, then shut, trying and failing to come up with some kind of comeback before Tommy burst out in laughter.
“God, your faces!”
Sylvia chuckled dryly. Aster knew she was currently brainstorming ways to disfigure him.
He waved his hand dismissively. “The cocaine clearly comes after we figure out this whole ugly layoff business.”
Aster was still not sure if he was serious.
Either way, they did eventually start to discuss the layoffs.
Aster mostly listened, jumping in every so often with something she knew would make Sylvia break character just a little.
There was nothing more fun than messing with Sylvia when she was particularly committed to a bit—it was like poking a tiger while it was hunting prey.
The other vampire glared at her so many times she thought she might genuinely bite her in front of Tommy.
“You’ve got a great mind on those sexy shoulders, Selene," Tommy said.
Aster bit hard on her lip to stifle a laugh.
“Guilty as charged,” Sylvia replied easily. “So, Tommy. I was thinking, you have a big investor meeting coming up, right? Since I’ve been so helpful with this, maybe I can help you out with that presentation? I really know how to work a Powerpoint.”
Sylvia said Powerpoint like it was the dirtiest word in the dictionary.
Aster smirked, the pieces clicking in her brain.
So this is her plan.
God, she loved watching Sylvia work.
Tommy’s father, the CEO of Ashcroft Oil, was one of his chief investors. A ticket to that meeting meant being in immediate proximity to his father. And at the end of the day, that was their big goal. Enthrall Mr. Big Bucks. Little Timmy Tom was a small fry compared to his father’s fortune.
Sylvia and her had discussed just making Tommy the thrall instead of his father—it was simpler that way, and definitely easier—but they both knew that was a short-sighted plan.
Nepo babies always had a tight leash. Papa Bear would quickly notice all the funds leaving his son’s account, and turn off the tap.
They couldn’t have that. They needed unfettered access. Tommy was just a pawn on the chess board.
The CEO’s smile faltered.
“Oh, well…” he trailed off. “That’s a considerate offer, Selene. But those meetings are really not for regular employees. Lots of confidential information, you know.”
Selene—Aster blinked. Jesus, her acting was so good, she was starting to lose track—Sylvia took the rejection in stride, putting her hand over Tommy’s and—oh—her eyes were turning bright red.
A tongue ran over Sylvia’s lips. Aster’s body began to hum.
The fuck? No, it was not humming. But, god—it was.
It was, wasn’t it? Her eyes were stuck to Sylvia’s mouth, waiting, waiting—
Please. Please, please.
She realized, with a modest amount of humiliation, that she had become a complete slave to Sylvia’s fangs. All in under twenty four hours.
She watched them slide out of Sylvia’s mouth.
Her thighs rubbed together involuntarily.
Oh my god. Aster’s breathing was coming heavily now. What am I doing?
She shook herself out of it in time to see Tommy’s eyes turn crimson.
“You will invite us to the investor meeting,” Sylvia said simply, with such exacting control over her own voice that Aster felt like she was being stabbed with the most pleasant knife in the world. “And you’ll introduce us to your father. You’ll do this because you want to.”
“But I don’t,” he replied, frowning.
Aster gaped.
She had never, in six hundred years, seen a mortal reject Sylvia’s Suggestion.
Sylvia snarled. “Like hell you don’t.”
Her nails pressed furiously down into his hand, and it began to bleed. He inhaled sharply, snapping it away, and the color drained from his eyes—he’d completely escaped her spell.
“What the hell?” Sylvia said, sounding as baffled as Aster felt. She looked towards Aster then, eyes angry and almost scared. “What is going on?”
Tommy was staring at Sylvia’s fangs, his mouth open.
“What the hell are you?”
Aster could see the exact second that Sylvia shifted plans.
The vampire’s fangs rescinded in seconds, her eyes blinking back to green. She gave Tommy a sympathetic, worried look, and put a gentle hand on his shoulder, squeezing it.
“Mr. Ashcroft, are you okay?” she asked. “You stopped responding for a moment there. We thought you might have been suffering from some kind of an episode.”
He flinched away. “An episode? What the hell are you talking about? I saw your—your teeth!” He was on his feet, his entire body rigid, alarmed, like a cat with its tail up. “No, no. You’re not human. That was not… human.”
Sylvia laughed easily, rising out of her chair to comfort him. She reached for his elbow, but before her fingers could reach him, his hand came whipping out—
—and slapped her hard on the face.
The sound echoed through the room like a thunderclap.
The CEO slowly lowered his hand, shaking it. “I’m calling the fucking police.”
Sylvia’s cheek was bright red. Her mouth wide open, speechless.
And Aster…
Was currently climbing over the table.
***
“What the fuck,” was the last thing Tommy Ashcroft ever said.
Aster didn’t have a single thought in the time between his hand landing on Sylvia’s cheek and the moment Aster realized she had just dismembered a man limb from limb.
Her body had acted as if possessed. Aster had killed a man quickly before, but she’d never blacked out while doing it.
She was a methodical killer; she liked to enjoy the fear on their faces.
Sylvia was a sadist when it came to conversation, but she paled in comparison to Aster when it came to ripping someone’s head off—she wanted them to hear their own bones breaking.
Sylvia wasn’t her only friend just because Aster liked it that way.
There wasn’t a single vampire on Earth who wanted to get within five feet of her.
But this kill didn’t give her any pleasure. It had felt, in a word, necessary.
Still straddling his chest, Aster lowered her mouth to his neck, and said something she didn’t mean to say. It just jumped out of her, quite like this murder had—
“Do. Not. Fucking.” She breathed. “Touch her.”