Call of the Blood (Everly Abbott #4)

CHAPTER ONE

Istood quietly at the riverside, smiling as a cool nighttime breeze washed over my face.

Around me, people went about their night on River Street, in and out of bars, laughing and spending time with their loved ones.

I smiled because I got to be with them. They didn’t know me, and I would never know them, but that didn’t matter.

A year and a half ago, I would have been anxious. Too many people in a place I would never find myself. Bar hopping on a Friday night as a lifelong socially anxious introvert was torture, not a good time.

In recent months, though, I found standing in the bustling energy was peaceful in its own way. Ignored by the crowds, and I ignored them.

A year and a half had changed so much about me.

I was told this could happen when someone went from human to vampire, but I hadn’t guessed how much it would change me or what that change would really give me.

Becoming a vampire gave me the thing that made standing here so comfortable, something I had struggled to find for my entire life as a human.

Confidence.

Eighteen months ago, I was little human Everly Abbott who could barely make eye contact, and I hated crowds.

I could be bumped into because I was in someone’s way.

Now, when someone brushed me in the crowd, the anxiety didn’t come.

I smiled politely, but didn’t move, no matter how big the passerby was compared to me.

At only five feet four inches, most were taller than me by a long shot. But I wasn’t bothered anymore.

I wasn’t bothered by a lot of things anymore.

A drunk girl stumbled out of a bar, her friends holding on to her.

They were laughing as she slipped and skinned a knee.

The smell of blood made my throat itch, but the urge was light.

I fed at the beginning of the night, and my self-control was mastered.

I chuckled and leaned toward the dark, where I knew my shadow was hiding.

“Want to bet she doesn’t remember how that happened in the morning?” I asked.

To anyone paying attention, I had said that to an empty space. It took a moment for my shadow to creep into the light where he was more visible.

“I could make sure she doesn’t."

Alexius was stunning. He always was. His beautiful, dark eyes caught the yellow glow of the streetlight and deepened to an earthy, rich brown.

Or better, molten dark chocolate. He’d let his hair grow back out to shoulder length, wavy and untamed, but gave off a rugged air to his otherwise classically styled look.

His perfectly trained body was beneath an attractive business casual look—black button-down tucked into black pants, with black leather loafers.

And the coat. The tailored thigh-length trench coat he’d left open in the front showed off the button-down shirt that had the top three buttons left undone.

I wanted to peel that coat off him and revel in the body that was underneath.

Not that I ever can… He’s my boss. I can’t keep forgetting that. He’s my boss. He’s my boss.

I repeated those words to myself several times as he walked so achingly slow to my side and stopped, looking at the drunk girls as well.

I quickly shook my head.

“No, no, that’s not necessary. Plus, with a group of girlfriends like that, they won’t let you near her. You’d have to hypnotize the whole group. It would get weird. You could be revealed as a weirdo.”

I wasn’t wrong. He and I had discussed this at length when to use some of the most powerful vampire techniques, especially in the mental blood magic that kept vampires secret when they had to feed on those not in on the big secret of the supernatural.

The reality was, I didn’t want to see him sinking his fangs into a woman, knowing all too well what those fangs could do. How he could make that feel.

“Yes… beyond that, River Street is not the place for anything of the sort. Do you remember why?”

“It’s too popular and too public. Plus, here in Savannah, there’s the coven,” I said softly. “Are we going to meet them later tonight? Is that why you followed me out here when I wanted to get out and stretch my legs?”

“Not tonight, but soon. I kept you hidden too long… Finally had to tell them about you after the incident in New York. Now that I’m letting you roam the city, they need to actually meet you.”

“I still can’t believe you just never brought them up until recently.

” I started walking slowly, my thoughts wandering back.

I knew that he was the only vampire in the city.

I had known there were no werewolves from any packs.

I was nearly certain there weren’t any werecats.

And fae? I never caught the smell of them, even if they were around.

An extensive, powerful coven of witches, though. That was quite the thing to just never bring up.

“It wasn’t pertinent to your training or adapting to the life you lead now. I shouldn’t have taken you places like Alaska or to Isaiah’s place.” Alexius followed, only a step behind me. My shadow.

“You never mentioned it to Isaiah. You never even gave me a hint. No one ever brings it up.”

“Isaiah knows, but it’s local politics, not something he needs to worry about. The coven and I have peacefully existed together for centuries and have never needed to ask the Tribunal to mediate.”

We walked away from the crowds, and even the people we did pass were drunk or just not paying attention. Our voices were low enough that if someone was listening, they would get close enough for one of us to notice.

But I wasn’t good at that yet.

“Are we okay talking about this?” I asked softly as we kept going.

“Yes, no humans are listening tp us right now. We’re just a couple walking back to our car, wherever we parked it.”

“Did you bring a car?” I asked, frowning over at him. “Because I brought mine. Did you park close?”

“No, I walked. I remembered how to track your phone on the app thing you kept telling me about, so I caught up once you parked. I knew you would be okay without me while I walked.”

“You remembered our location sharing…” I almost laughed.

In fact, I held it in for a few seconds, then it came out of me, piercing the quiet section of the block we were now on.

I laughed until there were tears in my eyes, and I doubled over, trying to breathe.

He stood beside me, still as a statue. I reached out and grabbed the coat, howling with laughter until I ran out of air in my lungs, which, while I didn’t need it for survival, it was necessary to make noise.

I let him go as quickly as I could, with no idea how long I had been holding it.

I wiped my eyes as I straightened up, finally able to take a full, normal breath.

“Oh my God. I’m sorry! I shouldn’t laugh.”

His face was inscrutable.

“It’s fine. We both know I’m not the best with technology.”

“Yeah, but laughing at you… you might not ever try again!”

“My ego is not that fragile,” he countered, a hand deftly grabbing my elbow and guiding. As we started walking once more, he pulled me closer, letting go of my elbow and reaching around me. I didn’t say anything, knowing he had some intention to the act. After ten or so steps, he leaned down.

“Someone was coming closer and seemed curious,” he murmured.

I glanced back quickly, and sure enough, there was a college-aged-looking young man watching us. I smiled back up at Alexius and told him the truth.

“He’s not my type,” I said, loud enough for the young man to hear me. “I turn thirty next year. College boys are too young for me.”

“And here you are, not looking a day over twenty-one,” he said, and for a moment I thought I saw a smirk. “One can’t blame him. You look beautiful.”

The young man, the next time I looked back, was heading back toward his friends. Once we lost sight of him, we could also see my car. I pulled away from Alexius, knowing I couldn’t hang on him like that for any longer than necessary, even if he did start it.

“I don’t look that young, do I?” I asked, frowning as I unlocked my car.

“Sometimes. Don’t most women like looking younger?”

“Not when it implies we’re not as mature as we really are. Twenty-one is very young. A lot of people are stupid at twenty-one. I don’t want people to make that sort of assumption about me.”

“You give people a lot of credit for being wise with age when I promise you, there’s little correlation.”

“Really?”

“You’ve met Isaiah.”

I couldn’t help but laugh, opening my driver’s side door as I did. He was smiling as he got into the passenger’s side.

“At least he’s smart in other ways,” I said, chuckling as I attempted to collect myself. I fiddled with the dials once the car was on, turning the music down so we could keep talking and messing with the a/c. A thought entered my head, a sobering one.

“Have you heard from him at all?” I asked softly.

“You know I’ll tell you when I do,” Alexius said, sighing. “He’s lost to the world right now. I know he’s alive. That much everyone knows. He still shows up to Tribunal meetings, puts on a normal face, and gets that work done.”

“But he still hasn’t talked to you…”

“And I can’t make him. I do wish he would pass along any intel, however. We’ve been treading water here for months.”

“Yeah.” I sighed and started to drive back to the beautiful home Alexius and I lived in.

The rest of the drive was in silence, something I was grateful for.

The deep sound of his voice was distracting in good and bad ways.

From my side of things, the tension was thick enough to cut with a knife.

A dark car. A handsome man. A million things running through my mind I wanted to say but never could.

But I could think of the smirk he had when he said I looked twenty-one.

And he wasn’t wrong. Coming from him, that was a compliment. I looked young, but not too young.

He said I was beautiful.

That was going to live rent-free in my mind for a month before I was over it.