by Renee Rose
His cock, now fully erect, twitches against me and I huff out his name. He slides down my body and presses his face between my legs, licking my pussy until I scream out his name again. He removes whatever he’s been using to keep my legs spread from my ankles and moves my legs closed as I lie there, panting. Next, he unhooks my hands, lifts me up from the surface and then picks me up.
A moment later, I am lying on the bed. He removes the blindfold and gazes into my eyes. “Tell me you are mine, now and forever.”
I nod. “I am yours, now and forever.” I am still in the trance, so I have to do as he commands, but it doesn’t matter. I know I belong to him. I have since the moment we met.
He snaps his fingers, and I blink and then smile up at him. “I think I want to hear those words on your sweet lips without me commanding you to say them.”
I reach a hand up to his cheek and gaze up at him lovingly. “I am yours, Aaron. Yours to dominate, yours to love, yours to protect. Forever and always.”
“Always,” he murmurs as he kisses me again, and I know that he means it.
The End
Want more Midnight Does by Zara Zenia? Click here to read Her Vampire Rebel.
About the Author
Zara has lived all over the United States, ranging from Los Angeles to Chicago to New York City. She has loved meeting new people and looking at the stars while trying to get away from the bright city lights. She has loved writing ever since she was in 3rd grade, and finally decided to publish her work for a larger audience! She writes romances about steamy aliens and their strong heroines too!
Also by Zara Zenia
His Vampire Morsel
Lesli Richardson
To My growlie cuddly pet Viking, who knows exactly why.
Chapter 1
I love working the front door at Club Toxic. Especially on a Friday, the week before Halloween, when every jackass in Tucson seems to find their way through the club’s front door.
Can you hear my eyes rolling?
I’m literally old enough to be able to say I’ve seen it all and not even come close to approaching hyperbole. At Club Toxic, every damned night we’re open we get the newly twenty-one, the newly single, and the newly moved to town. The weeks leading up to Halloween only ratchet things up another notch.
Club Toxic has a very unique business model, too. Meaning we cater to a younger clientele of humans, versus middle-aged. This is a matter of practicality.
The younger humans attract vampires the most frequently, and not just because of their looks. They tend to be healthier, more resilient. Better able to bounce back from a feeding with fewer side effects.
They’re also more gullible, easier to get drunk, more easily thralled with far less effort—and risk to their minds—and are more willing to take risks, less jaded by life.
Sweeter blood.
Isn’t that what life boils down to sometimes? The search for the sweetest experiences? Excitement?
Understandably, Lucius doesn’t want a lot of people—humans, vampires, shifter, or otherwise—turning up dead around the club. That would be inconvenient. And the more often a human customer returns and is fed upon, the more risk there is of our secret being discovered.
What inevitably happens is that unless one of those humans catches the eye of a vampire in particular, they’re frequently thralled and, after a feeding or two, sent on their way with a command to never return to Club Toxic. As more of those kinds of customers fail to return, their friends tend to drift to other nightspots as well. Which is fine.
But boring.
I’m at the point in my existence where it’s nearly impossible for me to feel little more than bland disinterest in whatever life throws at me. The last time I truly felt excited about anything was in 1793, when I spent my evenings watching heads roll from a guillotine and into a basket on a scaffold in Paris.
Ahh, fun times, those. With the scent of blood and fear wafting through the air so thick that you could almost bathe in it.
Except what a shame about all that blood being so sadly wasted. I spent plenty of my nights in the prisons, drinking from the condemned and thralling them so they didn’t spend their last hours in terror. A few I took pity on and eased them out of this life sooner, denying the executioner his prize.
Tonight, it’s not long after sundown when I wheel my brilliant blue Mercedes SL550 Roadster into the private parking area behind the club, which is designated for high-level employees such as myself.
Mostly, vampire employees.
Technically, I guess you could say I’m one of the club’s assistant managers. I owe my loyalty to Lucius Frangelico, who owns the club. He turned me, and I call him Sire by choice, not simply because he demands it of his turned who stay with him. He is our self-proclaimed king, but he’s certainly earned and defended the title. At any time in my very long life, I could have walked away from him and not crossed his radar and been fine. Lucius values loyalty and respect, and he has those from me because he’s never done anything to betray me.
Over the centuries, he’s made me and my ‘brothers’ wealthy men and protected us. In return, we’ve helped him build his kingdom.
Now, Lucius’ main priority is his mate, Selene, and he’s delegated most of the daily operations to us, with Theophilus taking the lead.
I will not deny I didn’t see that one coming. At all.
Lucius taking a mate and turning her, I mean. A vampire turning a wolf shifter? It doesn’t happen. Except Lucius was in love, and Selene was dying.
Now?
She’s deadly, and every bit as ruthless as her king.
Meaning quite a few of us are breathing a little easier since Lucius and Selene embarked upon their extended honeymoon, leaving Club Toxic in our capable hands.
Having Selene around terrifies us, even if we’d never be stupid enough to admit that out loud. She could easily kill all of us before we could so much as share a breath.
Do you seriously think we’d want to ruin a good thing?
I can be sarcastic about my job and still do it.
Tonight, I’m dressed in a midnight blue Brunello Cucinelli jacket and trousers, with a dusky dark blue button-up underneath it. A black Stefano Ricci Africa Crystal tie finishes it off.
I like luxury. I grew up in a different time, on a different continent, literally in a different world than I now inhabit. I’ve survived. I’ve thrived.
I’ve hunted and killed and balanced my karmic scales quite a lot, thank you very much. If I want to spend my money on clothes and cars, I will.
They may not excite me but at least they make my existence comfortable.
After getting out, I lock the car and blur over to the club’s back entrance. We’re not open yet but gauging from the other vehicle in the parking lot, I’m not the first one here tonight. I punch my access code into the keypad and I am admitted.
The back door opens onto the rear hallway, where the stairwell door leading up to the office is located. I punch my code into that door as well and make my way upstairs, where I encounter a woman.
“Hello, Blue. I wasn’t expecting you to be here tonight.” It’s not her real name, but it’s what her name tag says tonight, even though she doesn’t appear to be wearing a wig.” Her real name is a protected secret.
She sits back and smiles. “Theophilus asked me to run a couple of errands for him today.”
“Ah. Are you staying?”
“Not long. Dex will be awake soon and we have plans tonight once he finishes with some business calls. I need to run one more errand, and then I’ll be back to help behind the bar for an hour after opening.”
“How’s the resort doing, anyway?”
She smiles. “Quite well. When will you let us have you over for dinner?” Her smile widens almost to a disquieting level. “You know what I mean.”
“I’ll have to check my schedule and get back to you on that.”
She softly snorts. “You’ve been saying that for months.”
> I like Blue—or Red, or Pink, or Blondie, or whatever name she’s going by on any given night. Yet even though she’s human—I think—she disquiets me far more than Selene.
Mostly because I’ve never before met a human so completely unafraid of vampires and shifters. She moves among us as if she isn’t concerned about her safety. I’ve even seen her stake a vampire with a wooden pencil. More than once.
I wish I was kidding about that.
She’s also strong and fast, for a human. Especially for a female human of her size. When she was working full-time here at the club, it wasn’t uncommon for her to bounce a human out the door for misbehaving before one of our vampire staff could step in and intervene.
Dexter is a lucky vampire, indeed. Although I personally prefer men to women, both for feeding and for fucking.
Blue is an enigma—one who’s not only protected by Lucius and Selene, she’s now mated to Dexter Van Sussex, a vampire nearly as old as Lucius, and far more wealthy. Dexter recently opened a hotel and casino resort here in Tucson, the Sunwolf Valley Resort, because he aged out of Atlantic Beach. He works with us, though, giving vampires jobs and funneling tourists to Club Toxic, as well as providing shifters with jobs and even emergency housing, in some cases, when they’ve needed to be relocated due to some crisis. It’s become a sort of neutral ground.
Meaning Dexter also has an unusually close working relationship with the Tucson wolf shifters. I suppose if Lucius is comfortable with that alliance then I should be, as well. Yet it’s another unsettling development, in some ways.
I mean, certainly I’m happy we’re not killing each other and drawing the unwanted attention of law enforcement after uncounted centuries spent fighting with and running from shifters.
But shifters are dangerous, and not just because they’re day walkers who despise vampires. Most of them, especially the wolves, are natural hunters with noses to match. We are sitting ducks in the daytime.
Blue, however, has never had trouble moving among shifters.
I pull out my phone, tap in a reminder to follow up with Dexter, and show Blue the screen. “There. Better?”
From her sly smile, I know I’m forgiven. “Yes, better. Feel free to assume a plus-one is invited, too.” Her sing-song tone is unmistakable.
I slide my phone back into my pocket. “I would, if there were one in my life.”
“You’re still single?”
“My life is uncomplicated and I prefer it to remain so.”
Which is a lie, but she doesn’t need to know that.
She scowls, a deep furrow creasing her brow. “You’re lonely. There’s no shame in admitting it, Tiberius.”
Dammit. “I’ve been alive a long time, Blue. If I wasn’t used to living alone, I wouldn’t have made it this long.”
She gives me ‘the look.’ I shouldn’t have to explain that look to you if you’re paying attention. You know exactly what look I mean. One eyebrow arched, the other eye narrowed. A sort of half-smirk quirking her lips.
“If you say so,” she says.
Meaning, of course, that she doesn’t believe me.
Hell, I don’t even believe me. Why should she?
“Anything I need to know about tonight?” I ask. I wasn’t here last night.
“Not that I’m aware of. Like I said, I’m not hanging around long.” She smiles. “Nothing bad on the horizon that I’m aware of, if you meant the bigger picture.”
I smooth my tie. “I don’t like being caught unawares. With Lucius out of town, I don’t want anyone thinking they can try something.”
“With Theophilus and the rest of you keeping an eye on things, I doubt there will be any problems. And if there are, you can count on me and Dexter stepping in to help, too.”
“And the shifters?”
“You know they will. They honor the treaty with Lucius. Honoring that treaty makes everyone’s lives run more smoothly. And profitably.” She crosses her arms over her chest. “Look, they just want to live their lives.”
“They hate us.”
“Uh, vampires haven’t exactly been friendly to them over the years, but they’re trying.”
“I know. It galls me to admit that.”
She giggles. “I can tell.” She pats me on the arm. “It’ll be fine, big guy.” She gathers her purse. “It’s only a week until Samhain.” She says it in the proper way, sow-wen, not like most people say it these days.
“Eight days,” I correct. “And I didn’t know you observed the old holidays.”
“We all have our mysteries.” With that she departs, still moving eerily fast and silent for a supposed human.
I wonder what her true story is, even though I’d never dare ask Lucius, or anyone else.
Perhaps, one day, I’ll work up the courage to ask her myself.
I’m about to follow her downstairs when I hear someone else punch their code into the keypad at the base of the stairs. I sense the blur from the rush of air, and from his scent, I know it’s Theophilus before he even makes it upstairs.
“Tiberius. New ride, I take it?” He passes me and sets his laptop bag on the desk he frequently uses. He’s the club’s manager and handles day-to-day matters, whether or not Lucius is in town.
“Picked it up yesterday. Like it?”
“Is that how you spent your day off?”
“Yes. What do you think?”
He shrugs. “Interesting color. I thought you usually went for black or dark grey.” He gives me a pointed up-and-down glance.
Smartass. “I do like some color from time to time.”
He smirks. “Sorry, it’s just that you like—” He gestures at my suit.
I smooth my tie again. “I like dark. What can I say? We can’t all be… flashy.” I gesture right back at him.
Tonight, Theophilus is wearing a deep red shirt under a charcoal suit, and a dark grey silk tie.
I remember a time in the distant past when we wore not five-thousand-dollar suits but the robes and armor of the Roman army. Lucius turned both of us, although not at the same time. We didn’t know each other in life. We would’ve died of our wounds in battle had Lucius not turned us.
Together, we’ve spilled and drunk more blood than is possible to remember. We’ve pledged our allegiance to Lucius and each other.
When someone threatens one of us, we all stand against them. Until recently, much of our wealth was less than legally earned, shall we say? But with his new mate, and with law enforcement’s new technology, Lucius has finally settled into a more legal business model. This keeps us safer, even though most of us admit it is rather… dull now.
“I am not flashy, brother,” he says. “I’m enjoying myself.” He sniffs. “Unlike you. It’s depressing.”
“It’s stylish.”
“Stylish is accenting with colors others than black, dark black, and off-black.”
“But I bought a blue car.”
I think he gets his eyebrow arch from Lucius. “And yet you still prefer to wear black.”
“I look good in dark colors.”
“You look like a broody wolf.”
“That’s a horrible insult.” Not the worst one he’s said to me over the years, however.
He laughs. “No, an insult would be saying you smelled like a broody wolf.”
On that note, I flip him a bird and head downstairs to make sure everything’s ready for us to open on time.
Chapter 2
My tiny studio apartment smells like a luscious batch of sweet, yeasty dinner rolls.
Mostly because there’s a dozen of them, freshly baked from scratch, thank you very much, cooling on my counter right now.
Meanwhile, I’m stretched out across the air mattress that’s my bed, with my phone in my hand, and I’m… scrolling.
I’ve done a lot of that over the past few days, when I wasn’t at work.
David hasn’t messaged me back yet, even though earlier we exchanged a few texts through the dating app not long after I returned ho
me from work. He’d said maybe he’d come by tonight, and he’d let me know by seven.
But it’s already after eight and I haven’t heard anything from him.
I don’t know why I’d think he’d really show up, because he hasn’t so far in the two weeks we’ve been chatting through the dating app.
I haven’t even met him in person yet.
Even though I don’t want to listen to it, there’s an annoying little voice inside my brain telling me that maybe David isn’t being completely honest with me about who he is.
And, yes, he is the first man I’ve ever dated.
Heck, he is the first person I’ve dated.
Ever.
I mean…
“Dated” with the air quotes, all right? Because are we really even “dating” if I haven’t so much as met him yet?
That’s not sarcasm. I’m really not certain, and it’s not like I trust my coworkers enough to ask them about it. I don’t want to give away too much of my story to people I don’t know very well. I don’t think my family will ever come looking for me, but in case they do, the less information others have about me, the better.
Except I was honest with David in our chats when I told him that I don’t have any experience with this due to how I was raised. Maybe I was too honest. Maybe I’ve scared him off.
But lying didn’t feel right.
I scroll through some of the app’s groups, ones I know David is a member of via the list on his profile, and see a thread between him and some others about going to Club Toxic here in Tucson.
Tonight.
Well, heck.
I pull up the club’s website and discover it’s not that far from my apartment building. I don’t have a car, but I could take a cab, or a ride-share, or even walk it, if I wanted to.
What do you even wear to one of those clubs?
I glance over at the cooling dinner rolls. There are a lot of things I have never done before, or I’m new to doing. I tried not to sound too lost when I chatted with David, but I admitted I was a virgin.
