Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
bloom
I checked my rearview mirror a dozen times on my way to the restaurant where this week’s gathering was being held.
My bright red gaze caught me off guard every time, but I tried not to worry about it. Everyone in the city probably knew I was a vampire at that point, so I wasn’t bothering with those obnoxious contacts unless I had to.
The location of the gathering changed every week, bouncing between nightclubs, bars, hotels, coffee shops, restaurants, fast food places, and wedding venues.
Anything that could be booked out, would be.
The Vampire Aid Guild went to any necessary extreme to keep Vast City’s vampires healthy and fed.
They took themselves so seriously that they insisted on including Guild in their title, rather than a more modern term like Association, and refused to change their name even when someone pointed out the truly awful acronym that title created.
VAG, pronounced as a rhyme with bag. Not to be confused with VAG pronounced with a j sound, which was definitely the shortened version of vagina.
Hence everyone simply calling them the Guild.
Unless we were particularly pissed off at them, in which case we typically referred to them as the fucking vag (with a j sound).
My thirteenth glance in the rearview mirror proved that I should really listen to my best friend more, because I was definitely being followed, and a certain Alpha was definitely responsible.
The blonde werewolf woman who had driven me to my apartment was doing the following, and there was now a guy in the seat next to her.
I pulled into a gas station and parked in front of one of the pumps before pulling my phone out of my cupholder and opening my contacts app with a sigh.
Maverick had somehow pinned his name to the top of the list.
Shaking my head, I hit the button to call him.
He answered on the first ring. “You got the blood?”
Guess we weren’t beating around the bush.
“Yeah. Thank you.” Thanking him seemed necessary if I wanted any chance of him continuing to give me more blood after the bites he left on my skin healed.
“Have you healed yet?”
“I’m sure I will in the next few hours.” It wasn’t a complete lie.
I’d feed at the gathering, and I would heal afterward.
I glanced in my mirror again and saw the blonde woman’s car parked directly behind mine. She wasn’t even trying to be sneaky about following me. “Why did you ask my chauffer to stalk me?”
“Ah. That.”
“Yeah, that.”
“Well, if you’re going to be bait, you’ll need protection. I’m not actually risking your life.”
“I think I’d rather risk my life than have a pair of werewolves tailing me all the time. I’m trying to go to a family thing right now, and I obviously can’t bring them.”
“Why can’t you?”
I glared at the mirror. “Take a guess, Maverick.”
“They’re not going to kill anyone or report anything about your family. They’re only there to protect you.”
“I’m sure you can imagine how well that would go over with my family.”
“My enforcers are going to keep you safe and make sure no one touches you,” he said bluntly. “End of the discussion.”
Looked like I was right. This was about possessiveness.
Did he think he was the only one who could be stubborn here?
“Let me put it this way, then. If your enforcers leave this gas station while I’m at my family thing, I will find a way to touch every man and woman in the building.”
“Are you threatening me?” Maverick sounded amused.
I imagined it wasn’t something many people tried with him, and there was a definite chance it could backfire.
“No. I’m just letting you know.”
He chuckled. “Alright, Sugar. Go alone, but if anyone touches you, they die.”
“Sugar? No. Absolutely not. You cannot call me that. If you want to give me a nickname, you can call me… Mosquito. Or Parasite. Something related to vampires. Also, what the hell is an enforcer? And how do you plan to know who, if anyone, has touched me?”
“Enforcers enforce. They’re basically my assistants, but more violent. And last I checked, my nose is just as good as yours. Maybe better.”
“If that was true, you would’ve known that I didn’t kill Steven the moment you caught a whiff of me.”
“Your scent caught me off guard. The whole fucking floor smelled like cherries.”
“I don’t smell like cherries.”
“You do. You taste like them, too. They’re sweet. Like you.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Please tell me you’re not trying to flirt with me.”
“I don’t flirt.”
“Good. Neither do I. And fine, I won’t touch anyone.” That was a bold-faced lie, but what was the alternative? Starving to death? I had to drink someone’s blood, and I couldn’t take those bags from Harper when we had no way of getting more.
Also, I didn’t think he would actually know if I touched anyone or drank from anyone. That made those threats pretty empty.
“Alright. I’ll come by your place tonight, to make sure.”
“I don’t remember inviting you over, Mav.” I threw out the nickname he’d signed the note with.
“Invite my enforcers to your party, or I’ll consider the invitation to your place open. Bye, Sugar.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but he hung up.
Lowering the phone, I groaned quietly.
He was such an asshole.
I debated it for a solid minute before typing out a message to him.
Me
Call off the enforcers
Maverick
Done
See you around 8 tonight
Me
Fine
Maverick
Text me when you leave the family thing and they’ll catch up to you. You do need their protection.
I dropped my phone back in the cupholder and put my car back in drive.
Through the corner of my eye, I watched his enforcers pull into a parking spot in front of the gas station.
Letting out a long breath, I finally refocused on the road.
My parents and sisters were waiting outside the sit-down restaurant when I walked toward the doors. Technically, Mouse was my sister-in-law, but they’d been mated since before I was born, so I considered her my sister too.
She was nicer than Whimsy, anyway.
“See, I’m fine,” I said as I approached. I’d bundled up in an extra sweatshirt thanks to my hunger making me cold, but it wasn’t really enough.
All four of them threw their arms around me, pulling me into a massive group hug that made breathing nearly impossible.
“The Alpha might kill you for touching me,” I said into my mom’s hair.
“I’ll kill him if he tries,” my mom shot back.
She was just being protective. The woman couldn’t have hurt him if she tried.
“Here, give me your phone.” Whimsy plucked it out of my hand, which was trapped between her and Mouse, so I couldn’t stop her.
“Why do you want it?” I tried to take it back, but Mouse blocked me.
Maybe she wasn’t always nicer than Whimsy.
“Whimsy,” I complained, trying to reach past Mouse to take my phone back.
Being the youngest sucked sometimes. Starvation wasn’t helping, either. I was ridiculously sluggish.
Whimsy snapped a quick picture of the group of us. No one was even looking at the camera except her and my mom, who gave a thumbs-up.
“Whim, if you send that to him, I swear to god—”
“Sent.” Whimsy’s fingers moved over the keyboard while I groaned.
“Come on. What are you saying?”
“Threatening his life, obviously.”
“Do you really think that’s a good idea?” my dad asked.
“Yes!” Whimsy, Mouse, and my mom all said at the same time.
Dad didn’t argue.
He knew who was in charge in our family, and it wasn’t him.
Whimsy handed me the phone when she was done. “There you go. Have fun at the gathering. Love you.”
“Love you.” Mouse winked at me before lacing her fingers through Whimsy’s, and they both walked back toward their car.
No one actually enjoyed the gatherings. On an awkwardness scale, I’d say they were about as comfortable as a seventh-grade school dance. As soon as a vampire was mated, they never went to another gathering.
My mom stole the phone and read the message. “Oh, that’s good.”
“It’s really not.”
She was going to get all of us killed.
Whimsy
If you ever hurt my sister, you will face the wrath of five sets of fangs
PS this is Bloom’s sister
I barely resisted the urge to face-palm. You could absolutely tell she was in her eighties. Freaking immortals.
On second thought, Maverick was probably even older than she was
That was weird to think about, so I mentally shoved it aside.
“You’d better go inside and feed, honey. You look like you’re barely functioning,” my mom said, patting my shoulder lightly. “Try to flirt with Velour or Poem while you’re at it.”
“There is no world in which I flirt with Velour or Poem, Mother.” I stepped back.
“Green, then.”
“I am not mating with Green either.”
“Even Timber would be better than that werewolf!” she called behind me as I strode inside with as much sass as I could manage despite my current lack of blood.
It wasn’t much.
“I’m clinging to my bachelorette status,” I called back. “Love you.”
“Love you! See you at dinner tomorrow!”
There was no chance in hell I was going to my family’s weekly dinner after the shitshow that just occurred. I’d break the news over the phone, later. Excuses would definitely be made.
I sent Maverick a quick message with one hand as I went past the guild’s security guards, flashing them a quick smile.
Me
Sorry about that, Whimsy is a pain
Maverick
Her name is Whimsy?
Me
Yep
Maverick
Is that a vampire thing?
I put my phone in my pocket as I stepped into the awful meetup I’d had to fight so hard to prevent Maverick’s goons from attending.
Jazz music played from a radio. Humans mingled in some of the booths and around the tables, with a few single vampires spread out among them. The humans who were cleared to donate blood wore red wristbands. The ones who weren’t cleared wore black bands.
I managed to dodge everyone on my way to greet Neve. She was a tall, strong middle-aged woman with pale skin, straight brown hair that fell straight to her collarbone, and hazel eyes. She wasn’t kind to anyone, but she had always been polite to me.
I sat down across from her in the booth.
“Hi, Bloom. Glad to see you survived the werewolves.” Her voice was as cold as always.
“You and me both.”