Chapter 9
Will
“Everything seems less bleak now,” Autumn says, falling back on the mattress with a soft smile on her face. I put that smile on her face. It’s hard not to feel proud. We fucked for hours.
I can still taste her sweet cunt, hear her moans of protest. She had to beg me to stop in the end. Too many orgasms.
I feel like a king.
Her smile fades slightly and she adds, “But there’s still a fuck-ton of problems. Gaius. Clarissa. Xander.”
“I don’t want you to worry about Xander,” I say. “I can handle him.”
“And Gaius?”
I hesitate. “I can handle him, too.”
Tugging the sheet up to cover her chest, she sits up and says, “Please be careful.”
“I will.” It’s true—I will be careful. Gaius is ruthless. He isn’t someone to be trifled with. And now he knows about Autumn. Not who she is, but that she exists. His curiosity is piqued. Nothing I can do about it now, though. So I say, “Tell me about Clarissa.”
“I don’t know what happened, not all of it.”
“Tell me more about her,” I say. “Why is she important?”
“Oh. She’s…I guess she’s to me like Xander is to you? She’s my very best friend. We’ve been close since before college. No one else was deemed appropriate by my stepfather, and people thought I was a snob because I was rich and shy.”
I frown. She sounds lonely.
She continues, “But Clarissa was always there, always by my side. She didn’t gawk at my big fancy house or act weird when Dale’s driver had to chauffeur me around in high school.
And I thought she really got me, and understood about Dale being, I don’t know, at the time I just thought he was a cold, shitty stepdad. ”
By now I know the real story, the rest of it, what she’s told me. So I simply take her hand. Hold her gently while she talks.
“Anyway,” she says with an awkward laugh, “I don’t know when they started dating, or how. Did he, like—did he pursue her? Is he using her to get to me? She wouldn’t allow that. She couldn’t.”
She could, though. In my nearly two centuries of time on this planet, I’ve seen worse. Humankind is capable of devious manipulations and machinations. Those who are innocent are often the most gullible. Those who crave love are the most vulnerable.
Autumn seems to be waiting for my response. I say, “It’s possible she fell for him. If he’s charismatic—”
“He is.”
“Then he has some sway over how he’s perceived. Or he could blackmail her, or bribe her.”
“She couldn’t be bribed,” Autumn says.
She truly seems to believe it. I will allow her to think the best of her friend. In my experience, however, I’ve seen the depressing truth. Greed corrupts.
“Is there anything you’d like to do about their relationship?” I ask.
She lifts a shoulder in a half-shrug. “I don’t know, honestly. If I were home, I’d talk to her about it. I’d convince her that Dale is a snake. But I’m not sure it would be smart, you know?”
“Yeah.” I scoot up taller against the headboard, thinking. “Too dangerous, you’re saying?”
“Yeah.”
“I agree. You shouldn’t speak to her in person.”
“I know.” She touches her phone. “Xander said no calls, either. I’ll have to do this over email.”
“I’ll fix you a snack,” I say, getting up to head to the kitchen. She won’t let me distract her from the problem with more orgasms and dominance. Failing that, food. I can provide nourishment at the very least. “Let me know if you need anything else, love.”
Frowning at her phone, she nods, deep in thought.
I wonder if she’ll be able to resolve the issue over something as simple as an email. Would that I could do the same with Xander.
Will
A couple of nights later, Autumn still hasn’t heard back from her friend. The two of us have been wrapped up in each other, ignoring the rest of the world. I’ve been in my study for the past hour, browsing book auction sites while Autumn watches a show called Academy of Ghosts.
Xander hasn’t been back. I have checked in with him to make sure Gaius's lackeys didn’t attack again and leave him lying in the street. All is well, apparently. Except he’s just as stubborn as ever.
Frustrated with the turn of my thoughts, I get up. It’s time for my favorite little distraction.
I head into the living room. The television is off, and Autumn is curled up on the couch. A cha-click sound comes from her phone. It’s pointed at me.
“Did you just take my photograph?” I ask.
“Maaaaybe.” She draws out the word, still looking at her phone. Her wide mouth turns upward in an amused grin.
Suspicious, I stalk toward her. “What’s so funny?”
“Nothing, nothing.” She taps at her screen and looks as if she’s trying to hold back her smile.
I swipe out for the phone, but the little vixen shoves it under the sofa cushion she’s sitting on.
“Do I have to take you over my knee?” I ask.
She simply laughs.
I lift her up—and the cushion she rests on—and retrieve the phone from beneath while she shrieks with delighted protest. The device is locked. However, the screen lights when I lift it. I’m now viewing my own face.
But the image of me on the phone is different. Shining bursts of light coat my skin in the image, causing it to glow and sparkle.
I stare at the image. It makes no sense. “Why am I covered in glitter?”
She cackles.
“What is this abomination?” I ask in horror.
She collapses against the sofa, laughing her sweet little arse off.
Arms folded across my chest, I stare down at her.
In between gasps, she finally says, “There’s this book. The vampires sparkle in it. And because of the filter, now you do, too.”
“Oh, really?” I say, setting the phone on the coffee table. “They sparkle, do they?”
She pushes her lips together, trying not to laugh. “Mm-hmm.”
I take off my shirt and make a show of looking at my skin. Flex my muscles. Pride warms me when I catch Autumn ogling my form.
“I don’t see any sparkles,” I say. “Do you, love?”
“Not yet.” She stares at my fly. “But I haven’t searched you all over, Daddy.”
I’m about to answer her when my phone rings. “Hold that thought,” I say.
“How about you meet me in the shower?” she asks with an impish grin. “We can wash the sparkles off.”
“I’ll be there,” I say, and hurry back to my study to grab my device. Autumn passes me on the way to the bathroom, taking off her shirt and giving it a playful twirl over her head. I reach for her, but the name on my phone screen makes me falter. Fuck. It’s Gaius.
He won’t take kindly to being ignored. Better to get this over with.
I give Autumn a quick wave to let her know I’ll meet her in the shower soon. As she shuts the bathroom door, I swipe my phone to answer the call. “Hello, Gaius.”
“William.” He sighs. “I’ve been terribly bored since you and your frerte left my house. Freya, also, has confessed she is struggling with the monotony. San Esteban holds many delights, but none so diverting as your company.”
“You are too kind,” I say. It’s an automatic nicety. It holds no meaning.
Gaius laughs. “Kind has never been a word used to describe me, old friend.”
He speaks the truth. Ruthless would be a more accurate word. The crimes I committed in his name. The blood on my hands, on my fangs…. I take a deep breath. It is in the past. I’m not that man anymore. Neither is Xander. Elisabeth taught us to do better. To be better.
“Other than boredom, how are you faring in my city?” I ask.
“We’re hosting a blood banquet tomorrow night to alleviate our boredom,” Gaius says. “That is why I’ve called. We would like to see you and Xander in attendance.”
“It’s a relief that you are issuing the invitation via a phone call this time.”
He chuckles. “Rather than bloodying your frerte, you mean.”
I force a laugh, mimicking his. Pretend it’s all good fun. That Xander wasn’t forced to drink deeply from Autumn in order to recover.
“So you will be here tomorrow?” he says.
“Of course.”
Because the alternative is violence. I don’t have a choice. We don’t have a choice.
“Also, we would very much like to meet your new ‘plaything.’ Please be sure to bring her along.”
“Of course.” I barely hear the words as I speak them. My heart rate has kicked up.
Gaius takes everything pure, everything good in this world, and he ruins it.
Autumn is in danger.
Not just from my bloodlust.
Not just from her stepfather.
But also from the vampire who sired me.
Autumn
I finish my shower, disappointed that Will never joined me. I love slipping and sliding against his naked body. His phone call probably distracted him, though.
I listen for his voice, but instead of talking, I hear pots and pans clanging in the kitchen.
The phone call must have been bad. I wonder if it was Xander. I wish things weren’t so hard between them. I wish I didn’t feel as if it was all my fault.
Quickly, I wrap a towel around me and move down the hall toward the kitchen.
Will has his back to me and he’s moving almost too quickly for me to track, his shoulders bunched up as he whisks something in a small pot over the sink.
I’m about to step into his line of vision when his phone rings.
He swears under his breath and drops the pot. It clatters into the sink with a bang.
I take several steps back into the hallway.
Better to let him get the phone call, and whatever feelings he’s having, out of the way.
I remember some of Dale’s absolute rages when he got news he didn’t like.
It was always best to be scarce. He never laid a hand on me until that night I left, but when I was an insecure teenager, his words could cut deep.
I’m making my way back to Will’s study when Will says, “Yeah. Hang on, I’m cooking. I’ll put you on speaker.” A second later, he says, “Done.”
“So, I got your text,” Xander says, his voice coming through the phone speaker.
I stop in my tracks, curious about why Will texted Xander. Maybe he needs support, or maybe they’re still arguing.
Xander continues, “Another blood banquet.”
“Yeah,” Will says. “Fuck.”
“It’s fine. We show up, mingle for an hour or two, let Gaius think we care about his show of wealth and power. And then we leave.”
“There’s one other thing,” Will says.
“What?”
“He wants us to bring Autumn as our date.”
Will sounds unhappy about this. I step back into the hallway.
Does he not want to show me off? If it’s a vampire banquet, there shouldn’t be too much danger with me being spotted by Dale.
In fact, I wouldn’t mind getting out for a little bit.
I love being trapped in a library with a sexy vampire, but it’s been days now, and even in the best of circumstances, I’m feeling a little stir-crazy.
“We could bring someone else,” Will says.
I pause, my fingers on the edge of my bath towel, holding it in place. Bring someone else? What the fuck? I couldn’t have heard him right.
“Someone else?” Xander repeats. “As in, another date to the blood banquet?”
My fists clench. Fuck that stupid idea! Will is with me. He misspoke. He would never take someone else. Either he misspoke, or Xander misunderstood. Because no way would they do that.
The very thought of Will and Xander with another woman standing between them in a pretty dress while they mingle with their friends puts a dark, ugly feeling in my chest. I glower in the direction of the kitchen, beyond irked.
But Will is going to correct Xander and the two will argue again about some other vampiric bullshit. Rinse. Repeat.
But instead of telling Xander how ridiculous the idea of bringing someone else would be, Will says, “Yes. Another date. Instead of Autumn.”