Chapter 2
Chapter
Two
BENJI
There was no sign of Lysandro the next weekend, but I’d anticipated that since he usually only showed every other week. What I hadn’t expected was for him not to show tonight.
“Sorry, Benji,” Rafe said. He knew how badly I wanted to thank Lysandro for helping me out with Mr. Moreaux that night.
I shrugged. “It’s okay. I just wanted to…”
“Suck the ancient vamp’s balls dry after he got done sucking your blood,” Sadie said.
Rafe face-palmed. “Sadie, for fuck’s sake. You can’t say crap like that around me.”
She winked at me. “Why not?”
Rafe screwed up his face and glared at her. “Because I’m your freaking brother.”
Snickering, she pulled her straw out of her glass and licked the end. “Sorry, but I’m not wrong.”
She wasn’t either. Not even a little bit. If I thought I’d been hot for Lysandro before, hearing his voice had spiked my desire to a whole other level. My sex-fueled dreams left me waking up hot and needy, covered in my own cum.
Groaning, I checked my watch one last time. Velvet Vein stayed open until the wee hours of the morning, but it was time to admit defeat. “You’re not wrong, but let’s face it, he’s not coming.”
Rafe threw his towel over his shoulder and leaned toward us. “Listen, I only have fifteen more minutes. Why don’t you come back to our place with us, Benji? I’ll make breakfast, and we can all bitch about how bad men suck.”
Sadie clapped her hands and squealed like a giddy schoolgirl. “Let’s do that. We haven’t gotten together like that in ages.”
Rafe and I exchanged a whatever glance. Sadie hadn’t joined us in over a year because, like Eric, she’d landed herself a vampire boyfriend. Unlike Eric, she’d thought her and her man had made a real connection and that it would last until the end of time.
Eric was under no illusions when it came to his vampy Daddy. When they were over, Eric would take his spoils and run. Sadie, however, had moved back into her and Rafe’s place with a broken heart.
“Yeah,” I agreed reluctantly. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to spend time with them; I’d just hoped…
Well, I’d been determined to actually sit and talk to Lysandro tonight.
He’d given me an opening, or I thought he had, but maybe not.
It wasn’t like he’d stayed to let me thank him or even say goodbye.
Rafe and Sadie lived in a nice two-bedroom close to the bar. From what they’d told me, Ronan had found it for them because Damien didn’t like their employees having to walk too far from the club at the end of their shift.
We all helped whip up a breakfast of French toast, eggs, and bacon before sitting on the oversized pillows—the closest things they had to furniture—on their living room floor.
Rafe took a huge bite, then pointed his fork at me. “Tell Sadie what you told me.”
“About what?”
He tilted his head and glared at me.
“Wait. What am I missing? Did something else happen besides Lysandro stepping in to get rid of Mr. Moreaux?” She shivered dramatically. “That guy is so gross.”
“He’s actually getting banned if there’s one more complaint,” Rafe said.
“What?” Sadie and I asked together.
Rafe nodded while he finished chewing. “Yep. Ronan told me tonight. There’s another donor who hangs at the Velvet Vein, but he’s seeing someone who took him to a card game at one of his friend’s houses.
The guy supplied humans for refreshments, and I guess Moreaux got a little aggressive with one of the donors.
“He told me about it, and I passed on the information to Ronan, who told Damien. It must’ve really concerned him because he came out from his office and asked me to repeat what I heard, then he got our donor’s name so he could call and confirm what happened himself.”
“Good,” I said, hoping that was enough of a subject change for Sadie to forget that I had something to share that she didn’t know.
“I hope he gets banned. There’s something about him that makes my skin crawl.” Her gaze moved back to me. “So?”
“So what?” Her eyes narrowed, and I sighed. “It’s not just that Lysandro talked to me. He, uh…” I trailed off, suddenly feeling self-conscious.
“I can’t take it,” Rafe burst out. “You have to tell her so we can talk about it. Keeping it to myself is killing me.”
Sadie set her plate on the floor and knelt on her pillow. “Okay, now you guys are freaking me out. What happened that I don’t know?”
Setting my food down too, I covered my face with both hands. “I heard Lysandro in my head before he appeared behind me.”
“What?” she asked. “But that’s impossible.” I opened my fingers just enough to peer at her. “You’re serious.”
“Yeah, he is.” Rafe stood up and started pacing. “Sis, I saw it. Like Moreaux is all bothering Benji, so I was staying close enough to keep an eye on them, right? Next thing you know, Benji’s looking all around like he’s trying to figure out who’s talking to him, but there wasn’t anyone there.
“At that point, I’m worried something’s wrong, so my first thought is that the slimy old vamp drugged his drink, and I’m ready to call over security to intervene, when boom! Lysandro’s all pressed up behind Benji, kicking Moreaux out.”
Biting at the inside of my cheek, I nod slowly. “It’s true. I didn’t say anything right away because I’ve never heard of any of the other donors saying that they heard the vampires in their head, but then I worried maybe I was like…hallucinating or something, so we met up—”
“And I told him that I’ve only ever heard of vampire couples talking to each other telepathically.”
Sadie flopped back onto her butt. “Wow. That’s…wow. I know Lysandro’s supposed to be ancient and all, so maybe he’s got extra cool powers or whatever, but I’ve never heard of that between a vampire and a human either.”
“Maybe they just keep it on the downlow,” I suggested.
Sadie shook her head slowly. “No, I mean, Vladamir and I were together for a year, and nothing like that ever happened. Has Eric ever said that he can hear his vamp Daddy in his mind?”
I shook my head no.
“And he’s never fed from you either, has he?” she asked.
“Unfortunately, that would also be a no.”
She grinned at that, knowing about my huge crush on him. Neither her or Rafe realized how out of control it had grown, though. They didn’t realize the very real longing I lived with to feed him, touch him, just be in his presence.
“So it’s gotta be because Lysandro’s old, right?” Rafe asked, intrigued by the whole turn of events. “Otherwise how in the world did he get into Benji’s head like that?”
Lysandro
That was a question I wanted answered myself.
I’d willed Benji to hear me, wanting him away from Mordie, but I’d thought myself ridiculous.
Humans didn’t hear us in their minds. In the last two and a half centuries, it was rare to even hear of vampire couples speaking to each other that way anymore.
Circling the building one last time, I deemed the three humans inside safe enough.
Using the cover of night, I scaled the wall to peek in on them to make sure that all was well.
The three of them sat on large, colorful pillows—ones that I wouldn’t mind having at my home in Willowhope—brainstorming different reasons why Benji had been able to hear me.
On their walk home, Rafe had invited Benji to stay the night at their home, but I wasn’t sure where he would sleep. There was no couch or other furniture that I could see. Would Benji share Rafe’s bed? Or perhaps Sadie’s?
No, he leaned toward feeding men, and when I’d watched him from the doorway, before he knew of my presence in the club, I’d only seen his eyes wander toward other males.
Knowing that they were safely tucked away in the apartment for the night, I forced myself to drop down to the sidewalk below.
I had no business following them or eavesdropping on their private discussions.
The plan had been to make sure Benji made it home safely without anyone following in his wake, and I’d done that.
Thinking back to last weekend, anger surged through me. I never went to Velvet Vein two weekends in a row, but I’d wanted to make sure Mordie was behaving himself. When I arrived to find him lurking in the alleyway across from the club, I’d settled in and waited, watching to see what he was up to.
I’d practically torn him from limb to limb when I found him following Benji home. Since the young man had arrived safely, and Mordie had taken his leave, I’d forced myself back to the tiny town I lived in down the shore in New Jersey.
It wasn’t my job to police my kind. That was a reminder that I’d been giving myself much too often in the last weeks. One that was becoming increasingly harder to remember as I found Mordie sitting outside of Benji’s home multiple nights this week.
If it wasn’t for Benji’s roommates, and the fact he seemed to be somewhat of a homebody, only leaving his house after dark on the nights he went to Velvet Vein, I’d have found out Mordie’s intentions. Tonight, however, when I’d already decided it was time to confront him, he’d been absent.
As I prepared for the swift run home, I growled in frustration, detouring to the back entrance of VV and slipping inside. I couldn’t just let this asshole stalk Benji.
“What the fuck?” Ronan yelled as he rounded the corner, heading for Damien’s office, but found me.
Straightening my sleeve, I regarded him like the servant he was. “I’m here to see Damien.”
“The hell you are.” He stalked toward me.
Within a breath, I pushed into his space, my chest against his. He was taller, broader, but that meant nothing in our world. I was older, wiser, and it had been centuries since I’d allowed myself to be anyone else’s bitch—unlike him.
“You may be Damien’s lackey, but you don’t speak for him, and I wasn’t asking your permission.”
He growled, grabbing my arms. I snorted, shaking him off like the mosquito he was, then stepped around him and opened the door to Damien’s little haven.