CHAPTER 15
FRANKIE
∞
I ruined everything with my big fucking mouth. He was being kind and sweet, and I just had to go and rip into him for literally no reason. I’m letting my general anger and hatred of vampires cloud my judgement, and in turn, I’m taking it out on him.
I never expected any of this, and I think because of how I’ve portrayed him in my head, I just expected there to be some ulterior motive behind his actions. Vampires don’t do things out of kindness. They do things in order to manipulate you. That’s their nature and it’s been ingrained in me for years not to trust them.
I feel like he’s using Alex as a buffer between us. If Alex wasn’t here, I wonder how this situation would have turned out. He reaches his hand down to me to help me to my feet and I look up at him confused. He clenches his hand into a fist when he realizes what he’s doing and moves to step back from me, but I grip his wrist and slide my hand into his.
“Thank you,”
I whisper as he helps pull me up.
“I’m sorry for all of this. He’s just having a bit of a hard time with you around. You haven’t exactly made it easy for him with your obvious hatred towards our kind.”
“I have an issue with keeping my mouth shut when I should. I should have never said those things out loud.”
“Probably not, no. But it’s not just the fact on saying them, Frankie…you think them as well, and in turn, your body language screams stay away.”
He motions for me to follow him and leads me over to a bathroom further down a hallway. “Have a seat on the toilet lid there.”
“His apartment is really pretty. I never expected it to be decorated like this. It feels…”
“Homey?”
He laughs. “Wren can be a hard ass, but he takes pride in the things that are his…including his employees.”
“How long have you worked for him?”
“Hmm, I think I’m coming up on almost three hundred years. He took me in as soon as he turned me.”
“Wait, what? He’s the one that turned you. So, you’re a pureblood as well.”
“Yes. I’m the only one he’s turned in all his life actually. He is my sire, but he’s been an amazing friend.”
“I didn’t know any of that about you or him.”
“Maybe if you actually give him a chance and talk to him, you would find out more about him, instead of just making up your own assumptions in your own head.”
He quickly wipes away at the small cut on my hand, tossing the tissue into the trash next to the sink. He rummages through the cabinet and finds some medical tape and gauze, wrapping it gently over the wound.
“You seem very sweet,”
I say quietly.
“We’re not all bad, Frankie. Yes, we do some fucked up shit, but doesn’t everybody? It doesn’t mean we’re actually bad people.”
“I’ll try to be a bit more understanding with him.”
“I appreciate that. He’s not…doing well right now.”
We make our way back towards the kitchen, and I’m surprised to see the table set back upright and everything cleaned up already. The leftover food is set back on the table, and Wren is sitting quietly in his seat with a laptop open in front of him. My pen and pad are set in front of my seat as well. Alex sits down and I walk past Wren quietly. I feel his fingers lightly brush against the hand I just cut, and I turn to look at him.
He drops his eyes and clears his throat. “I’m sorry you were injured because of me,”
he whispers.
“It’s part of the job, Wren. Don’t worry about it.”
I give him a small pat on the head and shift into my chair. Both Alex and Wren are staring at me with confused looks on their faces and I have no idea why. “What?”
I mumble. “It is a risk of the job. Getting hurt in general is an occupational hazard.”
“You touched me…”
Wren whispers.
“Oh…sorry. I won’t do it again.”
He frowns at me and clucks his tongue before settling his fingers on the laptop and typing something out. “Alex, can you grab the files from my personal office, please.”
“Of course. I’ll be right back.”
He jogs off back down the hallway, and I just stare at Wren as he ignores me while he works.
“Are you alright?”
I ask quietly.
“I’m fine,”
he murmurs.
“Do you want to talk about what happened?”
He looks up at me through his lashes and rolls his eyes. “No. I don’t think there’s anything to talk about. You hate me and are here to do your job. You’ve made your boundary perfectly clear.”
“Okay.”
I don’t know what else to say. I do hate him…maybe a little less than I did yesterday, but the feeling is still raging in my chest.
I open up my pad and snag another pancake just as Alex comes back with a stack of files and another laptop. He sets the pile in front of me and grabs the laptop before sitting back into his own chair. I slip the first file from the top and open it. I’m instantly horrified from the photos inside.
“That was the latest vampire that was killed,”
Alex says, pointing to the file. “The body was found outside of Syringe Nightclub.”
The body is covered in multiple stab wounds and a massive laceration to the neck. I run my fingers over the photo and glance over at Wren. “They didn’t behead him.”
“No. It looks like they started to, but with this one being a normal vampire, he succumbed to the wounds to his chest and heart. Their healing isn’t as fast as a purebloods.”
I shift through all the files, and every single body looks about the same except for five. “These ones were completely decapitated…were they purebloods?”
“Yes.”
His voice is low and harsh, and I can tell he’s trying to hold back the anger inside of him at the situation. “So, what’s the plan?”
“I want to do a recon on Syringe. I want to see if anything seems off while we’re there and if we can get any information from the club owner. Daniel should be expecting us, since it happened outside his club.”
“I’m assuming you want to do this tonight then?”
“Preferably, yes. I rather get a handle on this before I lose anyone else.”
I jot down some of the details in my pad while he continues to type away on his own keyboard. I glance up to see Alex watching us and he gives me a small smile before turning his attention back to his own computer.
Wren pushes back from the table, and I watch as he goes and grabs the coffee pot again. He comes back over and pours coffee into the new mugs in front of us without saying a word to me or Alex. I can tell he’s still upset about everything, but at least he’s keeping it professional.
“So, will I be going with Alex to the club then?”
I ask as he settles back into his chair.
He looks over to Alex and then glances back at me. “That was the plan.”
“Will you be going as well?”
He furrows his brows, and I hear Alex cough, covering up a laugh. “Why would I?”
“Right…you don’t get directly involved.”
I rip my eyes away from his and fidget with my pen. “A King can’t leave his castle, right?”
I mumble quietly.
“It’s not like you would want me to go with you. You can barely tolerate me as it is. As you said, it’s better to not have to spend more time with each other than is necessary.”
I can hear the hurt in his voice as he says that, and guilt grips at my chest. “Wren---”
“Drop it, Frankie. I get it.”
He’s actually trying to use my name. He slipped up once already and corrected himself right away. He said he hated my name though…I think that was enough for me not to react to the fact he called me Chess again. It’s not that I don’t like the name, I just can’t handle hearing it anymore…I used to go by Chess.
I turn my attention to Alex, and he raises an eyebrow at me. “What time do you want me to meet you there.”
“Alex will pick you up at nine,”
Wren mutters, completely ignoring the fact I was asking Alex and not him.
“I have my own car,”
I say bluntly.
“I’m sure you do, but I rather make sure that both of you are accounted for at all times.”
“Wren, I can handle myself…I already told you that.”
“Will you please stop fighting me on every fucking thing I say? This isn’t a negotiation. You want to be treated as an employee, so that’s what I’m doing. This is an order. You will do as I say when it comes to this assignment.”
“Wren, I---”
“Enough!”
He snarls, slamming his fist into the table. Everything on it rattles at the assault. I stare at him with wide eyes as he stares at his lap, breathing heavily. I see his jaw twitch in frustration as he closes his eyes slowly, letting out a harsh breath.
“Yes, Sir.”
His head snaps up to look at me, and I just stare blankly at him. I did this. I made him shut down the small kindness he was willing to show me, and now I’m right back to where I started yesterday.
Alex sighs from his seat and shifts in his chair. “I’ll pick you up at your apartment, Frankie. It really is better this way.”
“Okay, Alex. Thank you.”
“It’s no problem at all.”
The rest of the meeting goes the same way. Everything about it seems strained, and at this point, I’m just trying my best to not break Wren further. When I was rude and fighting him before, he always had his own comebacks, and it was irritating, but it still felt like he had emotion behind it. Now…he just seems shut down. His face is neutral and doesn’t even show any hint of anything besides boredom.
“If there’s nothing else at the moment…I should probably go.”
“Fine. Alex will message you when he’s on his way.”
“What should I wear? Am I going as an enforcer or as someone that should be blending in?”
He finally looks up at me and furrows his brow. “Wear whatever you wish.”
“Maybe I’ll wear a dress,”
I say quietly. “I’ll blend in easier to the setting, but I can still fight in the one I have.”
“You only have one dress?”
“…yeah,”
I say, embarrassed. “It’s cute, but versatile…I don’t need much.”
“Go get some rest. It might very well be a long night.”
“I’ll…talk to you later, Sir.”
I bow my head to him and hear him cluck his tongue.
“Alex, walk her out.”
“Sure. Come on, Frankie.”
I wait a few more seconds, expecting him to look back up at me, but he doesn’t. I grab my pen and pad, and the files for now so I can go over them in better detail at home, and follow Alex back to the front door. I glance back at Wren and catch him looking at me before he quickly drops his eyes back down to his computer.