Vampire’s Cupcake (Off the Paved Road #2)

Chapter 1

Eli looked out over the shelves in his shop in Last Hope and sighed.

May was always a hard month. Every year, he believed he'd have things to sell, fooled himself into thinking the harvests would have started, and there would be vegetables in abundance, but there weren't. Some produce should've come in, but the spring had been colder than normal.

Luckily, he had eggs. The chickens were laying. He wouldn't have survived if they hadn't been, but by God, he was sick of eggs. He ate them every day in every way he could think of.

The door opened, and Elijah Lucas, the hotel owner, stepped inside.

Eli didn't know what they'd do with a hotel in Last Hope, but Elijah had put a lot of effort into making the old one livable again.

Humans weren't allowed off the paved roads, and while there was one paved road going through Last Hope, no one was stupid enough to travel it unless they had to.

Wild country surrounded the once mid-sized city, and the others ruled there. Humans wandering off never came back.

The others had taken over before Eli was born.

He'd never lived any other reality than of humans being prey and the others dictating the rules, but he'd heard the elderly talk about the before times.

Times when humans had ruled--or had fooled themselves into believing they did.

Times when there hadn't been food scarcity and when culture had thrived and science had driven development.

Then humans had grown greedy, had wanted more and more and more. Megalomania had taken hold of the world leaders, and the others had had enough.

Between one day and the next, they'd wiped out all larger cities, and within a week, humans, the few who were still alive, were only allowed a few scattered settlements.

Eli had no way of knowing what was true and not. He'd grown up believing everything he'd been told, but for the last ten months, he'd been doing business with Ciar and Draven Moonlight. A panther and an eagle-owl shifter. And if it hadn't been for them, Eli would be much worse off than he was.

"Do you have anything..." Elijah's voice trailed off.

"Anything?"

He shrugged. "Edible."

Elijah was on the small side. Thin--everyone was--but Eli believed he would've been slim even if he'd had an unlimited supply of food. It was the way he was built. The opposite of Eli who was tall and broad-shouldered and would've weighed a lot more if he'd had enough food.

His stomach growled. It would get better soon. The farmers in Fisherman's Lake would soon have produce to sell him.

"What are you looking for?" Eli stroked his beard. It needed a trim, but it was a hassle, so he did it as seldom as possible. Sometimes he considered shaving it all off like Elijah did, but...

"I have a booking at the hotel, but I have nothing to feed them."

A booking? As in someone coming to stay in Last Hope? Voluntarily? "What are they doing here?"

"I don't know. A middle-aged man named Jack Ambrose.

He didn't tell me what brought him here.

" Elijah gave him a hollow-eyed look, and something squeezed in Eli's chest. He had never been close to Elijah.

They'd lived all their lives in Last Hope, so they'd always known of each other, but Eli had made sure to keep his distance.

It wasn't safe, and he feared if he spent time with him, someone would notice the way his eyes tended to linger on Elijah's plush lips and sparkling eyes.

Except his eyes weren't sparkling now, and the lips were chapped and pressed thin.

"Are you okay, Elijah?" Eli took a step closer, then glanced through the shop window out to the street and stilled.

"Yes, of course." He plastered on a smile, but Eli didn't reciprocate. Elijah sighed. "It's a bit...I don't have a lot of food. Or any, to be honest, but with the booking, I can..." He looked around the tiny shop.

"What do you need?"

"I need to serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and preferably eat myself."

"I'll give you a good deal on eggs." It was what he had, and he'd replace the shop eggs with some of his own if he needed to. It was a good month to have chickens.

Elijah nodded and went to grab some eggs.

"I'm running low on everything other than eggs and meat, sorry."

"At least you have something." Some of Elijah's spark was back.

"When do you need the food?" Eli eyed the meat display. He believed Ciar and Draven would deliver something soon.

"He'll be arriving this afternoon, so I need to serve dinner today, then breakfast and lunch tomorrow."

"And for how long is he staying?"

"He's only booked one night so far, but he said he might prolong the stay if things went his way."

Eli frowned. "He called you on the phone?"

The hotel had the only working phone in the settlement. Elijah had worked hard to get it up and running. Not all settlements had a working phone. It was hard to repair wires, and it all depended on what the others in the area allowed.

In Last Hope the other's representative had always been Thano, the vampire leader from Moonlight Ranch. Eli shivered as he pictured him. Dark-haired, dark-eyed, danger in an immaculate suit.

About ten months ago, the sheriff and some locals had shot one of the vampires, and later that night, the others had swept through Last Hope, killing everyone who'd been on the town board. Everyone but Thano, of course.

Now half the board was made up by others and half by humans, but the humans kept switching their representatives, so Eli had no idea what was going on.

He did not want to be on the board if it meant he'd be killed if someone acted irrationally.

He shook his hand to rid it of the tension that had crept in.

Nope, better to keep away from the others as best he could.

He dealt with Ciar and Draven, most often through Romeo, Ciar's human mate, which suited him fine.

He trusted Romeo to do what he could to keep him safe.

"Yes, called from New Town."

New Town was one of the bigger settlements, and he believed it was where Romeo was from.

Elijah looked around. "Potatoes?"

"I have some, but not much, and they're not in the best shape."

"Any canned?" Elijah studied the sprouting potatoes.

Canned? "No, sorry. Do you can potatoes?"

Elijah grimaced. "Mom used to. It changes the texture some, but at least they don't go bad."

But to do it, Eli would need jars. Containers of any kind were hard to come by, which was why he gave people a discount if they returned milk bottles and jars. Most people brought baskets or bags when they went shopping, but not everyone had something for flour or milk.

Elijah picked a handful of potatoes from the wicker basket Eli had put them in. Normally, he sewed potatoes into fabric bags, but with so many of them going bad, he couldn't.

A few more weeks, and he was sure someone in Fisherman's Lake would be able to sell him fresh ones. June was normally when the earliest came in. Hopefully, they would this year too. He relied on potatoes.

The door to the shop opened again, and both Eli and Elijah turned toward it.

Danger dressed in a pristine black suit.

Eli forgot how to breathe when Thano's piercing eyes met his.

Ice shot through him, and he swallowed hard, barely registering how Elijah moved toward the dairy section, farthest away from the entrance.

"Mr. Moonlight." Eli dipped his head and noted a crow sitting on his shoulder.

Shit. "Is there a problem?" others didn't come in here, none other than Ciar and Draven.

If the board forbade him to run his business, he'd die within a couple of months.

He had his chickens and a few rabbits he kept for meat but with no income...

Thano rounded the counter and stood before him. He was shorter than Eli, reaching his chin, but it didn't take away from the powerful impression. He looked straight into Eli's eyes. "Cupcakes."

Eli stared. "Sorry?" Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Elijah walking straight for the door now when Thano wasn't blocking it and slipping out onto the sidewalk.

Thano never looked away from Eli, and he nervously met his gaze.

He'd met Thano before, but it was easier when Romeo was present.

They respected Romeo despite him being human, but Eli was nothing more than living, breathing meat to them.

Or he didn't think Thano ate meat. He drank blood.

Thano glanced at the crow, his face still unmoving.

"Romeo is reading us a book--" Eli did his best not to flinch.

Books were forbidden. The human government had banned all pens and papers, banned all culture.

There were no books, no music, no theatre--nothing to feed the soul or provoke thoughts.

A thinking population was a dangerous population.

"--about a witch who owns a bakery, and she's making cupcakes.

The crows want to give Romeo cupcakes as payment for the reading. "

Eli couldn't find his voice. Romeo was reading to the crows? From a book? He'd be killed if someone found out. On the other hand, he was living together with a man, panther, whatever. He was with someone of the same sex as he was, which should've gotten him killed a long time ago.

Had Eli landed himself a boyfriend, he'd be dead the moment he stepped out of his house. Or maybe before. He held no illusions of the walls of his home keeping him safe.

The only reason Romeo was still alive was because no one dared to do anything for fear of what Ciar would do if someone touched his mate. Some days Eli envied Romeo. On other days--he met Thano's gaze--he was glad he didn't have to deal with the others more than he did.

"I'm sorry." His voice was nothing more than a whisper.

"What are you sorry for?" The softness in Thano's tone had him fighting a blush. What the fuck?

"I've never seen a cupcake in my entire life."