Chapter 2
TWO
Addy’s charm could flash all the colors of the rainbow and then some, but the basic rule was the bigger the danger, the brighter the color.
A few types of creatures triggered the bright crimson hue, but with the peace conference going on, the likely culprit was vampires.
Unlike the tales where the creatures could only drink blood, vampires in town happened to be very caffeinated, simply by virtue of the dozens of coffee shops dotting the city.
All vamps required blood for their continued existence, but they could eat and drink, and many preferred doing so in public, just like any human, to appear more harmless than they really were.
Having some of the best restaurants in the state didn’t hurt either.
Most preferred to continue eating and drinking the same way they had before they’d been turned.
A few clung to the older, more traditional vampire ways and only came out at night to hunt.
Animal hunting—legal and heavily regulated—took the edge off a vampire’s ingrained instinct to stalk and conquer, but sometimes they didn’t stop at taking down an animal.
While a rare occurrence, occasionally a vamp would take their hunt to the city streets.
Those were the ones you had to worry about.
Everyone in town had heard the tale of a vampire so powerful he could shift into any bloodsucking animal while on the hunt. Since the only bloodsuckers in the animal kingdom I knew of were mosquitos, bats, and leeches, I’d never been too impressed by that rumor.
Those tales had only grown in dramatic impact since I was a child, until the legendary vampire could turn into smoke and slide under any door, mesmerize any human he wanted to, and seduce you with his epic smolder.
At first, those stories were terrifying, but now they’d morphed into a tale worthy of any fanfiction.
Yes, he was terrifying, but he could turn you into a quivering mess in the sack, so what was a little terror if he found your G-spot on the first try?
If the legendary vampire ever wanted to hurt you, you wouldn’t stand a chance.
But our city didn’t have a problem with missing people, no more than any other small city, so I didn’t put too much stock into those rumors.
If he wanted to scream “BAT” and explode into a hundred flying rats, more power to him.
I made myself far too uninteresting for anyone to hunt me. It wouldn’t stop a hellbent vamp on attacking me if I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but keeping my head down and my mouth shut went a long way toward keeping me safe.
Still, most vampires creeped me out, and I didn’t like it when they came into the shop.
Once I’d rechecked my buttons were secured, I pasted a polite smile on my face.
A single vampire strolled in, the sight strange enough to send alarm bells clanging in my head.
Vampires almost always traveled together.
If you saw one alone, you could be sure more would follow almost immediately.
I took a step to the right and peered over the vamp’s shoulder, looking for his companions.
Not a single person—vampire, witch, or human—walked in behind him.
Fingers of dread walked down my spine. I examined the lone vampire closely, the situation getting worse by the second. Whoever this was, he appeared youngish.
Young being a relative term. Vamps took a long time to learn to control their urges, sometimes dozens of years.
Most of the time you could spot the younger ones a mile away and not by their physical features.
The aging process stopped at the moment the toxin in a vampire’s bite hit a human’s bloodstream, so the way they looked was no longer a good indicator of age.
Maturity came into play when trying to peg a young vamp’s age.
Imagine a gaggle of male, human teenagers getting inside a bar using fake IDs and buying their first round of illegal shots.
That was how newly turned and younger vamps acted.
No cares in the world, only the knowledge of more power than they ever dreamed of and an immortal life to enjoy it with.
His clothing was modern and obviously designer, based on the small bat logo on his chest and the stylized red S on the side of his loafers.
He hadn’t yet adopted the usual classic, quiet luxury wardrobe most older vamps had.
No labels. No logos. Nothing to tell you they’d dropped a grand on a pullover.
This vamp was dressed like he’d chosen the exact outfit a model had worn on the runway, and that was an indicator of youth—he had money and wanted everyone to know it.
I couldn’t tell you who the designer was or where he’d bought the clothes because I purchased almost all of mine at the thrift store—nearly every single penny I earned, I put right into my high-yield savings account or reinvested in my business—but I could recognize expensive when I saw it.
He was tall, blond, and wore a brooding expression, one that turned into a smolder once he spotted me.
His eyes lit with avarice, flicking once to my covered-up neck.
Disappointment flared when all he saw was the scratchy gray cotton of my Three Little Beans polo.
He had a pretty face, as most vampires did.
Glacial blue eyes, high cheekbones, straight nose, and pouty lips.
His cologne was light but fresh, fingernails neatly trimmed, though I knew those bad boys could grow triple the length if he wanted them to.
The vamp leaned on the counter, too close into my personal space, and inhaled deeply. “Mmm.” He licked his lips. “Dirt.”
Tension grew in the air, the other patrons now watching the vamp carefully. The regulars would step in if the vamp went for me, but he was too close. I’d be a goner by the time someone fired off a spell.
No one in the place laughed. The joke was lame, one I’d heard a million times. Hedgewitches smelled like dirt. Har har.
My boss didn’t like vampires either, but she couldn’t refuse service to one branch of supernatural without getting into trouble with the Council, so she didn’t mind when I got a little mouthy with them. For the most part, I had great restraint, but I couldn’t stand twerps like this.
I leaned forward. His eyes widened in surprise.
“Mmm,” I said and licked my lips. “Graves.”
I regretted the words as soon as I said them. I should have just shut up and absorbed the joke. No harm, no foul, right?
The vamp’s eyes narrowed, a thin thread of crimson rolling over his iris. He didn’t like people knowing they were animated corpses, did he? I straightened and decided to be the bigger person. No need to rile him up. If he was only here for a latte, he’d be out in a matter of minutes.
I pasted a smile on my face and got my shit together. “Welcome to Three Little Beans. Can I take your order?”
It took a moment for him to speak. “I’ll have a double espresso. To go.”
A quick and easy drink to make. Thank goodness.
“Put it on the Prime’s tab.”
I almost snorted. Vampire Prime was such a twatwaffle name for their leader. Every state had a main Hive, and every main Hive had a Prime. Capital P. Just like the J in Jesus. Except if they saw Jesus, they’d experience spontaneous combustion. Which would actually be pretty cool to see.
Within each Hive were Nests, smaller groups of vampires who lived in what amounted to be a family unit.
Depending on how large the Hive was, a Nest could be only a few vampires, or it could be hundreds.
Since vamps kept their secrets close and their creation numbers tightly controlled, no one really knew exactly how many vampires a Hive actually had, much less the number of Nests inside one.
“Anything else?” I chirped, the false smile plastered on my face beginning to make my jaw hurt.
“Not right now.” He was still staring at me, a curious glitter in his eyes I didn’t like.
I totaled the order, took his money, and gave him a number. We usually took customers’ names, but I didn’t want to know anything about this vampire. Once he was gone, I hoped never to see him again.
Since the order was to-go and relatively straightforward, I gestured to the back that I would make his drink. Vampires had no known allergies except for the blood of the dead, and we didn’t serve anything with any part of a body, inside or out, so they were safe to patronize our shop.
Addy once thought about adding blood to the menu to draw in the discriminating vamps picky about their blood sources, but when she got a new insurance quote for the potential change, her face had gone pale and she hung up the phone, never to speak of it again.
When I turned to set a drink from another order on the counter, the blond vampire was leaning against the register, still watching me.
“What?” I demanded. His attention made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
He shrugged. “Few people fight back when facing someone like me. I’m curious, I guess.”
Curious was bad. Very bad.
“Then you shouldn’t ask for it,” I muttered, knowing I should act meek but unable to stomach pretending like I was scared.
Vampires or shifters couldn’t turn witches.
We were born with a specific protein in our blood that prevented transformation.
Granted, we did our best to avoid getting bitten because who wanted to get bitten by anything, much less by something with enormous teeth and a name like Chad?
However, I was being a little too mouthy, and I needed to cool it.
While monsters couldn’t turn us, they could still attack and kill. I’d be an idiot to antagonize him.
He placed a hand over his heart and smirked. “My deepest apologies.”
The truth charm on my bracelet tingled. Delicate, silver, and strewn with various charms—some magical, some not—the bracelet was the last thing my mother had given me, and I cherished it.
She’d added the truth charm last and said trusting my intuition was a powerful thing, and a little magical help wouldn’t hurt either.
Mom also made it so it only worked when I was in danger.
I didn’t understand her logic at first. As a teenager, I wanted to know when everyone was lying.
But when I questioned her, she shook her head and said I’d understand when I was older.
And I had. People lied more than they breathed.
They lied when they spoke, when they screamed, when they slept, when they thought…
people just lied all the time. To people they loved, people they hated, and to themselves especially.
That bracelet would have driven me slowly mad if Mom had made it tingle every single time someone told a little white lie.
The tingle of the truth charm told me one important detail. Whoever this vampire was, he wanted to hurt me.
But he wanted to play with his food first.