Chapter 19
Max
When I left Star last night—freshly finger-fucked and sleeping peacefully under a light blanket of compulsion—I’d assumed the only thing on tonight’s agenda was getting her and Damon alone together.
What I did not expect was for our girl to appear for her shift looking as upset as when Heather first slithered into my store.
“Guys! My car, it’s… She… It’s totally trashed!”
“What?!” Damon barked, reacting before I could.
The vehemence in his tone didn’t surprise me. He had readily agreed to me visiting her on behalf of us both—probably thanks to him finally admitting he wanted her as much as I did.
If only to himself.
The way his body had reacted to my suggestion of sharing her also gave it away, plus, now I’d seen how wild her scent had made him when I first returned to our nest covered in it.
How eagerly he drank her blood from my veins.
And licked it off my face…
I hoped this was also a sign of him finally accepting his fate with me, as Damon seemed more settled afterwards than I’d seen him in decades.
Last night, he’d not only remained in my coffin instead of stretching out in his, but cuddled against my chest, just like he used to back when we were first on the run together in the Old West. This only solidified my belief that Star was the one who could help him find himself again—to bring him back to me and complete our chosen family.
Which is why we must do everything in our power to protect her.
Starting with taking a look at whatever happened to her car…
Employee parking for Retail Haven was located in the underground levels of an attached garage, so Damon and I pulled down the security gate and followed Star to her car to assess the damage.
“I didn’t notice until I parked here,” she breathlessly explained, leading us around to the passenger side. “But I guess now I know why a car full of dude-bros were catcalling me at the stoplight.”
Ignoring the deep need to track down these dude-bros, I took a deep breath and focused on the issue at hand—specifically, the bright red “SLUT” spray-painted along the entire length of the dingy white automobile.
And I can easily guess who’s responsible.
“A gift from your old friend?” Damon sneered, although I could tell the bite in his tone wasn’t directed at anyone other than our mutual enemy.
Heather.
Luckily, Star seemed to have my—our—mate’s number at this point, as she simply shrugged in response. Then, she sniffled, and it was all I could do to not claw my way through the concrete and exact immediate, violent revenge.
I suppose we should try “human” retribution first.
How boring.
“Do you believe this happened here or at your home?” I asked, forcing an outward calm I didn’t truly feel.
Damon sharply glanced at me—attuned to my moods through our bond—but I shook my head imperceptibly. As much as I would’ve liked to present Heather’s still-beating heart on a platter to our third, I didn’t want to do anything that would draw suspicion in Star’s direction. Or ours.
Especially from our coven.
Not until I can finalize an exit plan.
“H-here, I think…” Star replied, voice wavering in a way that made my chest tight. “I doubt Heather would have risked doing this at my aunt’s house, since it’s in a gated community.”
I snorted in amusement. High fences made no difference to our kind—not only because we could levitate, but we also moved too quickly to be caught on security cameras.
Which gives me an idea…
“Let’s go to the mall office and see what they picked up on the security tape,” I gently suggested. When Star glanced at me in surprise, I pulled her close and took a deep inhale of her flowery scent.
Like white jasmine.
Sampaguita.
“You’re mine now, baby,” I murmured, my gaze meeting Damon’s across the way, ensuring he felt included in the statement. “And I take care of what’s mine.”
He hissed in a breath and looked away, making me frown. All my mate had to do was walk over here and comfort Star along with me—rub his scent all over her and claim her as his—instead of continuing to deny himself what he clearly wanted.
Apparently, I need to be even more direct.
But first… human-style retribution.
Twenty minutes later, we were in the mall’s security office, watching the head of security rewind last night’s footage to catch the exact moment Heather vandalized Star’s car.
She’d somehow managed to angle her face away from the cameras, but she had on the exact outfit she’d worn when she’d invaded my store.
Plus, I can practically smell the Aqua Net from here.
Then, both a security guard and the mall manager escorted Star back to the parking lot to meet with the police and file a no doubt useless report. Damon looked like he was seriously considering going with them, but I quietly reminded him it was best if we avoided the cops’ attention.
What with a full century of blood on our hands.
Star said she could handle it, and I believed that she could, based on the way she squared her shoulders and exuded resolve. Plus, I needed to speak to Damon alone before she returned to Sizzling Discourse.
It’s time to finally get him out of his own way.
“She wants you, too, you know,” I bluntly stated as we walked through the fluorescently-lit concourse to reopen the store, grateful once again we’d managed to find a mall without the trendy skylights so many featured nowadays.
Opening the store after sunset also helps avoid any accidental exposure.
Glancing around, I took in the late October chaos. The biggest crowds seemed to be focused on the oddly-unsettling plastic masks sold in the Spirit Halloween that had recently appeared out of nowhere, as if conjured by magic.
I’d stopped in when the misleadingly-named store first opened, but there had been nary a Ouija board or tarot deck in sight, which was unfortunate. All I’d wanted was to give my mate the Two of Cups—to remind him of how fate first drew us together all those years ago.
“Okay,” Damon replied, as conversational as ever.
The Tower card might be more appropriate at this point…
Taking a deep breath, I rallied once again to discuss the dreaded thing we never could seem to talk about. “And I still want you just as much as the first day I laid eyes on you. This isn’t about replacing you, Damon. Star could be our third.”
I’d never heard of vampiric thirds until we’d joined our local coven, but the instant a triad mating bond had been mentioned, a new sense of purpose had filled my veins.
Damon was more than enough for me—and I told him so unceasingly—but he seemed restless and unfulfilled.
He’d told me it wasn’t anything I was personally doing “wrong” but I still wanted him to be happy.
If finding a partner able to give him what I couldn’t was what we needed to make that happen, I would welcome them with open arms.
And it appears she found us.
Thanks to fate once again.
Damon sighed heavily, his expression as unreadable as ever. “I won’t stop you from claiming her, Max. You seem perfect for each other…”
Insufferable, stubborn ass.
“Enough of this,” I hissed, grabbing his arm and pulling him into a side hallway, away from the bustling foot traffic of the main concourse.
Releasing him in front of the community bulletin board, I turned and glared at the man I’d chosen as my eternal companion, whether he liked it or not.
“She’s perfect for you too, Damon. And I have been perfectly clear in my intentions, so I’m not sure where you got the idea I want Star for myself, without you involved.
The only person excluding you from this arrangement is you, and I, for one, am tired of your silent suffering routine, you fucking masochist.”
His gaze darkened at the reminder of just how much he enjoyed pain, but I was in no mood to be distracted from the topic at hand.
True to form, instead of answering the goddamn question, Damon redirected. “Does this mean the notoriously noncompliant Max Luna intends to go before Vlad and the coven and present Star for inspection?”
Fuck.
Unfortunately, my mate not only knew me well, but had just made an excellent point.
Since ascending to his role—after the mysterious disappearance of the former board president—Vlad had unanimously passed a new rule that all coven members were required to present their potential mates to him alone, before they were turned.
While this didn’t always result in the hapless humans being found “unworthy” and killed, it happened often enough to make me hesitate to comply.
And I don’t even want to think about how Vlad “inspects” them.
Therefore, I felt it was best for Star to be kept a secret until after she was turned, because my mates were mine, and decided by fate alone.
Not some dusty Ancient One, fresh from the crypt.
“I think you already know the answer to that,” I huffed in response to Damon’s rhetorical questions, although the twitch of his lip made me grin conspiratorially. “Claim first, ask for forgiveness later.”
If at all.
Damon didn’t reply, and I froze as his expression abruptly changed. Something on the bulletin board behind me had caught his eye, and made him murderous.
Slowly turning, I found a crisp sheet of pink copy paper pinned to the board with “WANTED” printed in bold letters at the top.
What followed was a just-vague-enough account of a five-foot-seven, blue-eyed “fake” brunette who “possibly worked in a trashy goth store,” and was suspected of vandalizing the vehicle of one Heather Andrea Caswell of Lone Pine Estates.
That little shit.
“What the fuck is this?” Damon growled, tearing the ridiculous notice from the board to better glare at it.
I shook my head, officially disgusted by the entire thing. “It’s harassment disguised as a public service announcement. I wouldn’t be surprised if Heather had some hack lawyer in her back pocket to advise her on how to word her lies to avoid a slander lawsuit.”
A lawyer who should be disbarred.
Possibly dismembered.
“But…” Damon was gaping at the paper, rereading it as if he’d find some logic hidden in the fine print. “She’s the one who vandalized Star’s car! Is this supposed to distract the authorities from the truth? Or somehow justify her deplorable actions as retaliation?"
I sighed and snatched the paper away from him, crumpling it into a tiny pink ball before tucking it into my pocket. “Damon, you know there’s no rational explanation for behavior like this. Narcissists are so skilled at lying they start to believe their own version of events.”
We were more than familiar with these types in the vampire world, and Vlad was the worst one of all. Something about being nearly invincible—above the laws most had to abide by—produced a misguided sense of superiority that was truly frightening.
And bold… considering all that’s needed to take us out is the harsh light of day.
“Head back to the store and wait for Star to return,” I instructed, no longer interested in playing by silly human rules. “I’ll take a quick walk through the mall and pull down every notice Heather posted before Star sees them and gets upset. Our first priority is our girl.”
Damon looked momentarily undecided, but then pressed his lips together and resolutely nodded. Part of me was overjoyed he was no longer arguing over me calling her ours, but mostly, I was focused on the task at hand.
On disarming the enemy Valley Girl.
Before I dismember her.
Heather was far from the most intelligent foe we’d ever faced, but she was also delusional enough to be dangerous. People like her never stopped until their target was irreversibly broken, and I refused to let that happen to someone I cared about.
I was also concerned the stress of the situation might cloud Star’s judgment, causing her to act rashly or—worse—run.
Even though I’d told our future third I wouldn’t rush her into anything, I also had no intention of letting her go.
Star’s enemies were our enemies, and I was prepared to do whatever it took to keep her safe, just as I’d done for Damon a century ago.
Including turning her without coven “permission.”
Heather and her wealthy family most likely already had the police in her back pocket, so I had to assume I would be the one following up with the energy vampire myself.
With the help of some old associates…
I still wanted to wait until after the upcoming quarterly coven meeting to set my full plan in motion, and protecting my mates took precedence over everything else, but the last thing I needed was a lowly human thinking she could challenge me.
And if that means getting my hands bloody once again, so be it.