Julian #2
I think back to the stories my parents told me when I was younger, to the wars between vampires and werewolves in the past. They were bloody and vicious and both sides suffered many casualties, until eventually they came to an agreement for peace.
My father facilitated it. The deal satisfied both and split the world in half—one ruled by us and one by the werewolves.
It’s why there are so few of them here in the Americas, and so few of us in Europe and Asia.
I trace the lines on my palm. Surely, they wouldn’t risk the peace like this, not when it’s worked out so far. We let them be and they let us be, the bloodshed forgotten as both our species prospered over the last two centuries.
Could it be shadowstalkers then? But they’ve never really had an interest in ruling the world.
They do their thing quietly and they don’t involve themselves with either of us.
Most of the time, you can’t even tell there’s one of them around you, and besides, they’ve always respected the rules.
They are a lesser species, much like ghouls are, less inclined to go rabid, too.
Shit. This is unprecedented. Our enemy could really be some deadly hybrid designed specifically to kill us. My stomach coils tight. What are we going to do? Who’s behind this? Where do we even look?
“What are you thinking?” Isidoro asks, his fingers tracing the curve of my jaw.
My heart stutters. When did he get over here? “Nothing, just… I agree. I don’t think it’s werewolves, or any of the lesser species. It’s not in their interests.”
Isidoro hums, looking at me in this strange way that makes the collar of my hoodie feel too tight around my neck. It sends a zap through my body, raising the hairs on my arms.
“Could the ghouls be doing this to themselves?” Ria throws, sighing as she drops her head back. “I’ve been following up on potential leads all day, but they all go nowhere.”
“I suppose they could be.” Isidoro’s fingers move to my forehead, massaging it gently. “But they aren’t exactly in a position to pull it off all by themselves. They are made to serve, they can’t even look at us if we don’t allow it.”
“Maybe they found a way to rebel…” I contemplate, my body relaxing despite the bad news. I close my eyes. Mm, this feels like heaven. It’s like he knows exactly which spot to press, how much force to apply. I think I’m melting.
“That is unlikely.” Isidoro shakes his head, the tips of his hair tickling my face and neck.
I should be on high alert with him so close, but my body has decided to take the opposite route and there’s nothing I can do about it. Sigh, I blame my earlier orgasms for it. I’m sure I’ll be back to normal tomorrow, once the buzz wears off fully.
“So, someone else is behind this then. And they are using ghouls as their guinea pigs.” Ria stands as I crack an eye open, smoothing out her pantsuit. “Julian, I need your help with some files from that planned merger. They won’t give them to me unless you confirm as well, in Andras’ place.”
“What files?” Isidoro’s fingers press harder, possessive and firm. My eyes look up. I’m met with his face and tight expression hovering above me, his wine-red gaze glimmering with something that sends my pulse soaring.
“I’m not too sure. I found them when I was auditing my father’s correspondence, in this hidden folder in the cloud. Some third party manages the access, but they refuse to let me in unless I get confirmation from Andras, or Julian, in his absence.”
“Why is this the first we hear about these files?” Isidoro demands in a calm, business-like tone, his eyes not straying from me as he continues to massage my temples.
Ria shrugs. “Because I just found out about them before the call. Now, could I please borrow Julian?”
Isidoro presses harder again, ripping a tiny wince out of me. His fingers slide down my jaw and neck until they’ve reached the spot where he bit me. It’s warmer than the surrounding skin, pulsating with the rhythm of my frantic heart.
He leans in. I hold my breath, my insides clenching.
His incisors extend and bite into my flesh at the exact spot they did earlier.
Pleasure floods me like a tidal wave, unstoppable as it washes over me and touches every nerve-ending.
My cock arches, confined in my pants, and I have to bite hard on my lip not to moan like a slut.
God, this feels so fucking good. The way his teeth pierce my skin, the hot sensation spreading outward from my neck, the suction, his wet tongue, how fucking possessive this bite feels, like he’s showing to anyone watching that I belong to him.
Fuck meeee, I shouldn’t be hot for this, but I so am. I dig it. It’s such a turn on knowing his lizard brain is so possessive of me and needs to mark me as his.
“Are you two done, or should I come back tomorrow?” Ria says with a hint of amusement in her voice.
Her teasing snaps me out of it. What was I just thinking? I got carried away. Again. I need to stop doing that. Cheeks burning, I gently push Isidoro off me.
“Let me know if something comes out of it,” he says, irises glowing.
Blood trickles down from one corner of his mouth as he squares his shoulders, and he licks every drop of it in the most indecent way possible.
If I didn’t know any better, I’d think he was trying to seduce me.
But this is a game to him, a desire-infused tease because I let him kiss me three times.
Or was it four? Five? I kind of lost count.
I jog out of the media room like something’s chasing me. Ria doesn’t protest when I drag her along, nor does she say anything as we plop onto the chairs in the conservatory. Her laptop is already there, along with a bunch of documents and files scattered across the table.
“Be careful, Julian,” she says smugly, keying in her password. “You’re playing with fire.”
I rub the bite, inhaling through my nose as another wave of desire slithers down my spine. “I got things under control.”
“Uh-huh, sure you do,” she chuckles. “You’re the one who tricked him into marrying you, but you seem rather content with playing along. I wonder why that is…”
I’d rather not think about that right now or my body might betray the answer. “Yes, yes, whatever. We’ve got bigger fish to fry. You said you needed my confirmation about some files? Show me.”
It takes us a few hours to sort out the issue with the third party and get access to the files.
Then the entire night to go through just a fraction of them.
They are mostly expenses, receipts, non-official contracts, the kind of stuff you’d expect to find when someone was skimming money.
Why he kept all this incriminating evidence here rather than only on paper is beyond me.
“So, he was stealing. Big deal. Everyone does it,” I toss as Ria frowns at the screen, the hope in me extinguished. Maybe this is another dead end, but I mean, why would her father keep controversial records in the cloud?
“Wait. What are those...?”
I squint, following where she is pointing. It’s one of the older documents, some supply order from Atlanta. My eyes skim through the content, shivers erupting all over as I get to the shipment code. “It’s the same format…”
Ria digs out her phone, pulling up the photo of the shipment records we found in the clothes factory. “You are right. It is.”
Within minutes, we have Tommy on the line. He’s got access to the whole hidden folder, his blond mug grinning as he runs some script or a program. “How did you guys find this?”
Ria glances at me, shrugging. “I called left and right. Found out about this service my father was using. Didn’t think it would actually pan out to be anything, but there was a secret folder.”
“It needed my or my father’s confirmation to even be opened,” I add. I can’t sit still. It’s like there’re pins under my ass. “Anything?”
“Give the script a few. It’s not done scanning through everything that’s in there.” Tommy laughs, his attention shifting away from the monitor as he says something in Spanish.
A further hour of excruciating waiting, and a chiming beep signifies that his hack has finished running.
“So?” I slide to the edge of my seat, heart hammering wildly.
Ria leans in too, her eyes hopeful.
Tommy flashes us a shit-eating grin, cheering with his hand in the air.
“We’ve got a match. It found a pattern. Good job, you two.
Now I just need to run my decrypting bot and we’ll have a location!
Judging by the number of times it showed up, and how many of these reports contain that shipment info, I’d say it’s got to be some sort of a hub. Maybe even where they operate from.”
Fuck yes. We’ve got these bastards. They are done for. The people who killed my father are going to pay for it dearly, and the threat they pose on us vampires will be squashed before it becomes an actual issue.
I sprint out of the conservatory, Ria shouting after me about checking surveillance and records once we have a location before jumping the gun. Yes, I hear her. But I need to find Isidoro. This is big. He needs to know that we might have found the mastermind’s hub.
I scour the gardens, the stables, even double-check inside the house, but that annoying motherfucker is nowhere to be found. Late-afternoon light filters in through the branches, which throw streaky shadows all over his property.
“Where did he go?” I growl, vibrating as I squeeze my phone and plonk my head against the second-floor window. The one at the end of the hallway.
We got it. We decoded the shipment details. Soon, we’ll know where we need to go. Pride bubbles up inside me. I need to tell Isidoro. We need to prepare. I’m sure he’ll be so stoked!
If I could only find him...
Something moves among the trees in the shade by that abandoned chapel, an impression of a shape my eyes recognize immediately. I push the window open, then jump down, landing a lot more gracefully than the last time I opted not to take the door.
I’m in a rush just like that night, but this time not to escape from my captor.