“This dream sucks,” I told the ceiling, before sleep crept over me and turned everything dark.
* * *
When I pried gritty eyelids open, it was daylight. My head ached, and there was a rusty reddish-brown smear on the cuff of my white uniform shirt. I also had worryingly clear memories of Kat’s crazy ex showing up outside the club and stabbing Len before our boss came to the rescue and reduced the guy to screaming hysterics just by staring at him.
My memories of chugging bourbon and being driven home in a red pimpmobile were... somewhat less clear, but still undeniably present.
Jesus Christ. Was it supposed to be aspirin or ibuprofen for hangovers? And could I get away with taking both without needing a liver transplant afterward?
My phone rang, because apparently the universe hated me.
“Owww,” I moaned, fumbling for it and sliding the green call icon to shut it up. “Yeah? Who is it?”
I realized my mistake immediately.
“If I didn’t know better, sweetheart,” said an oily male voice, “I’d think you were avoiding me and my boys.”
I swallowed a groan, along with the words, ‘Gee, ya think?’
“Unfortunately,” I told the voice, “Calling someone a dozen times a day to yell at them over the phone doesn’t magically make money appear in their bank account. Believe me, I’ve tested it extensively.”
“You’ve got a smart mouth, girl,” said the loan shark. “It’s gonna get you into trouble before too much longer.”
“I sent you money last week,” I reminded him.
“You sent fuckin’ pennies last week,” the voice snarled. “Don’t fuckin’ insult me.”
“It’s not even my loan!” I snapped back, my head pounding in time with my elevated heartbeat.
The silence on the other end was ominous. I swallowed my anger at the world’s unfairness and strove for a conciliatory tone.
“Look, I’m sorry, okay? I changed jobs to one that makes more money, but there’s a two-week gap in paychecks. You know how it is.” Mostly bull, of course—and he probably knew it. “Give me another week, and I’ll have it for you.”
More silence. This time, it had a sort of flat quality to it, and I checked the screen. It was dark—my phone was out of charge. I sighed and squeezed the bridge of my nose between my fingers.
Vampires.
Aiden’s hoarse screams of terror.
Len bleeding out on the pavement.
I went in search of aspirin.
Two hours later, I was back at the club... not to mention, out the cost of an Uber since I didn’t have my car. I looked around the alley behind the Den. There was no blood on the sidewalk beyond; no sign of a struggle or anything out of place. The alley still smelled like the contents of the dumpster at the back, making my sour, hung-over stomach roil. I swiped my card at the employee entrance and went inside.
It was too early in the day for anyone else to be here except the janitorial staff. I walked across the echoing floor to the elevators and thumbed the intercom for the penthouse.
“I came back,” I said. “I need answers.”
The doors dinged open a few moments later.
I stepped inside, aware that most people would be screaming that I needed my head examined. When you had reason to believe that your employer might be a bloodsucking creature of the night, going up to his penthouse alone was maybe not the smartest move. Those hypothetical people probably had a point.
What they weren’t taking into account, though, was that the aforementioned creature of the night could easily have pulled a Dracula routine on me the first night I’d come here. The same creature of the night had also sent me home with a sober ride to sleep off my drunkenness after yesterday’s fiasco. And there was the fact that Len treated the alleged vampire like an eccentric older relative, tweaking him about his taste in movies and calling him Gramps.
None of it computed... and that was why I was here. At this point, having at least one damned thing in my life that made sense would be super-helpful. I took a deep breath, sliding my thumb over the warm surface of the crimson crystal hanging at my neck.
The elevator disgorged me onto the elegant penthouse landing. The door to the suite opened as I was lifting my hand to knock, revealing Leonides in shirtsleeves. I didn’t think I’d ever seen him without either a vest or a suit jacket. Somehow, it made him look half-dressed.
“Hello, Vonnie,” he said. “Would you rather do this here, or downstairs?”
“If we do it downstairs, I’ll just be tempted to go for the bourbon again,” I told him, sweeping past and into the penthouse.
It was just as posh and pristine as I remembered. On a hunch, I strode into the kitchen and pulled open the refrigerator door. Staples like eggs, milk, juice, and fresh vegetables sat neatly organized on the shelves.
“Looking for the blood bags?” he asked dryly.
I closed the door. “Well... I figured a coffin in the bedroom was probably too obvious.”
He sighed. “All right. I suppose we should just get this part out of the way and go from there.”
His eyes glowed with inner light, and when his lips parted, I could see the vicious points of fangs peeking out. I gasped, my back thumping against the stainless steel door of the refrigerator at the same instant Aunt Mabel’s pendant flared with heat against my breastbone. A yelp escaped me.
Leonides eyes returned to their normal deep brown and he gestured to the necklace. “You’ll probably want to take that off while we talk.”
I gaped, first at him, and then at my own cleavage and the hunk of garnet nestled there. The skin beneath it was angry red. Gingerly, I unclasped the chain and removed it, holding it out like a dangerous snake.
“What did you do?” I demanded, looking back and forth between Mabel’s necklace and the—vampire?—standing in front of me. “It’s never done that before!”
“Yes it has,” he said evenly.
My mouth worked for a moment before I managed to get more words organized. Where did he get off—?
“Well... I mean, it gets warm sometimes,” I allowed. “Just, from my skin, you know? Not hot—not like that!”
But... how could my skin make something warm enough that it felt warm—against my skin? And why had it never occurred to me before how odd that was?
“As far as I can tell,” Leonides said, “the pendant glows hot whenever someone around you is employing supernatural power. You said it was garnet, right?”
I stared at him, thinking back through every conversation I’d ever had with the man. “No, I didn’t.”
He leaned back against the kitchen island and crossed his arms. “Yeah, I guess you wouldn’t remember that, would you? But here’s the thing. Like I told you last night, you can forget this, too... if that’s really what you want. I’m just not sure it’s in your best interest at this point.”
A little flutter of fear beat in my chest as I thought of Leonides’ casual attitude toward his apparent murder of Aiden. I remembered the alley, scrubbed clean of evidence hours after the attack.
“One question,” I said. “When you say I can forget this, is that a veiled threat meaning I’m going to end up drained of blood at the bottom of the river?”
“And waste all that time and effort spent training you to tend bar?” he replied.
I stared at him.
“Sorry,” he said after an uncomfortable pause. “That was in bad taste. The answer is—no, it wasn’t a veiled threat.”
My brows drew together. “What, then?”
“Vampires have the ability to influence human minds,” he said matter-of-factly. “Honestly, it’s a pretty handy skill... though I could’ve lived without the rest of the baggage that comes along with it. At any rate, it’s how we feed without leaving a trail of terror and pitchfork-wielding mobs behind us. Drain half a pint or so, then mesmerize the donor into forgetting it ever happened.”
I was still backed against the refrigerator despite the fact t
hat he’d made no move toward me; the necklace still dangled from my fingers at arm’s length. My brain latched onto what was probably the least important thing he’d said.
“You know, the word ‘donor’ implies something voluntary.”
He tilted his head in acknowledgment. “Sometimes it is. And, yeah, in those cases there’s usually no need for the ‘look into my eyes’ routine. Which brings us back around to the point. The night we met, you got an unexpected crash course in the supernatural world. And afterward, you asked me to make you forget. So I did.”
I scowled, trying to reconcile that statement with my perfectly believable memories of the night I’d paraded around on Leonides’ arm for a few hours before feeling faint and coming up here to his penthouse to recuperate. He’d sent me home with five hundred dollars and my innocence still more or less intact.
A horrible thought occurred to me.
“Wait. Did you drink my blood?”
“I didn’t, no. It seemed impolite after everything else that happened.”
Nothing in his tone or expression indicated a lie, but...
“What else happened?”
He sighed. “Put the necklace on the counter for a minute. I don’t honestly know if the memories are still inside your head or not—I’ve never thought to test it before. Still, I suppose there’s one way to find out.”
I wavered. Apparently, he thought the pendant somehow protected me from his supposed ability to hypnotize people. If I let go of it, I was giving him the power to do basically anything to me.
Assuming I believed him, of course.
Hard on the heels of that thought, a fast-forward replay of the things I did remember from our few weeks of acquaintance flickered across my memory.
Leonides telling me to be safe, because there was some crazy shit out there in the world.
Offering me a job so I wouldn’t have to stay in sex work.
Leaning over Len’s bleeding body, calling him ‘son’ and telling him not to be afraid.
I swallowed hard.
“Okay,” I said hesitantly. “What do I need to do—”
His eyes glowed violet again, and this time, that shining gaze swallowed me up like a black hole.
NINE
“YOU REMEMBER ALL of the true events from the night we first met,” said a smooth voice. I needed to listen to that voice. I needed to do whatever it told me. Somehow, that was vitally important.
Connections in my brain flared to life, puzzle pieces shifting around and reassembling to form a different picture than before. A blond man conjuring glowing magic... accusing Leonides of being an abomination. Maurice running forward, reaching for his gun. The blond man somehow forcing him to point it at his own head. Me running forward to stop him... and then...
I gasped and slid down the refrigerator door to land in a heap, wrenching free of Leonides’ glowing gaze. “I... hit Maurice?” I asked in horror. “How is he not pissed at me?”
Leonides looked at me oddly, his eyes fading to their normal dark brown. “Erm... that’s the part you’re upset about? Really?”
My jaw clenched as the true import of everything I’d just remembered began to sink in.
“I’m getting pretty damned upset about a whole lot of things, boss,” I said, glaring up at him. “But that particular part’s on me, not on some crazy supernatural creature. Maurice was nice to me that night, and I left a handprint across the side of his face.”
Leonides had been watching me with raised eyebrows. He lowered them slowly. “If it helps, he doesn’t remember any of it. And, I mean, he was under Fae mind control at the time.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to ask if Leonides had hypnotized Maurice, too—but then I remembered the blond guy ordering everyone in the club to forget that anything out of the ordinary had happened.
“Jesus H. Christ.” I ran a shaky hand down my face.
Leonides crouched and rested his arms on his knees, lowering himself to my level but not coming closer. Tailored clothing stretched over a fit frame, momentarily distracting me until I gave myself a sharp mental shake.
“At this point,” he said, “the question becomes whether you want another do-over. I guess I could keep dicking around with your memories indefinitely—as far as I know, it doesn’t cause any long-term damage.”
I stared at him. “‘As far as you know’?” I quoted in a skeptical tone.
He lifted a shoulder and let it drop, not breaking eye contact. “Sorry, but it’s not like the FDA has been running double-blind studies on this kind of shit, Vonnie. Like I said earlier—from what I’ve seen with that necklace of yours, I’m not convinced we won’t end up right back here the next time something paranormal happens around you. But it’s still your choice.”
“My necklace...” I began, craning around to look over my shoulder. I couldn’t see it on the counter from where I was sitting collapsed on the floor.
“Tell me about it,” he said. “Where did you get it?”
My eyes went distant as I remembered the way Mabel’s laugh had lit up a room. “It was a bequest. From my great aunt. She was always a bit... eccentric, I guess you’d say? But she was also the only one in my family who never really acted like she was silently judging me for my various screw-ups.”
Something in my chest twisted at the way the casual self-deprecation slipped from my lips. My son was not a screw-up. He wasn’t a mistake I’d made. And yet, almost everyone in my life had made it painfully clear that getting pregnant at fifteen was a dire failure on my part—something that made my value as a person somehow less.
I swallowed the bitterness, still laced with biting acid well over a decade later.
“Anyway, Mabel always marched to her own set of drums,” I continued, moving past it. “She was into all of this new age stuff—crystals and meditation and what have you.” A harsh huff of laughter crawled up my throat. “I never put much stock in any of it. Guess that turned out to be pretty ironic, huh?”
“Just a bit, yes,” Leonides agreed. “She willed you the pendant, then?”
I nodded. “Yeah. It was part of her recorded last wishes that I wear it every day. I mean, it’s not like that was a difficult thing for her to ask of me. It just kind of became second nature after a while. Sort of like a good luck charm from someone who loved me, you know?”
“It’s quite a bit more than that,” he said gently. “That pendant contains magic. Or possibly it channels magic—I’m not an expert. Back to the main question, though. Are you planning on remembering this conversation tomorrow?”
I stumbled inelegantly to my feet, bracing against the cool metal of the fridge, and probably leaving clammy handprints all over the pristine stainless steel. Leonides rose in tandem with me.
Something inside me balked at the idea of losing everything I’d learned in the last twelve hours. The first time it had happened, I’d been trying to escape more than just the idea of a creepy blond guy with mind control powers and magic hands. I’d been trying to escape my own reality as well.
And yet...
“Let me have a day to think about it?” I said.
He regarded me with a level gaze that held no hint of unearthly violet light. “As long as you’re not planning on running straight to the National Enquirer. Covering up leaks is a lot harder these days than it used to be. And mesmerizing reporters is a pain in the ass.”
I couldn’t tell if he was joking or not.
“You know—when it comes to vampires,” I told him, “you’re really not what I’d pictured.”
His expression closed off like a blast door slamming down. “Don’t be fooled. Just because I take in strays doesn’t make me a safe person to be around, Vonnie.”
I bit down on my knee-jerk desire to snap that I wasn’t a lost dog begging for scraps at his back door. Because if I were being honest, that image hit a little too close to home for comfort.
“Well,” I deflected, “I’m still working on the assumption that you killed a guy and
disposed of his dead body like a pro last night, so...”
That same unaccustomed hardness still cloaked his features, making me wonder what I’d said to shut him down so abruptly.
“And if Kat had been armed when her stalker ex showed up and came at her with a knife, would you have blamed her if she’d plugged him through the heart in self-defense?” he asked in a flat tone.
“No,” I told him. “But I might’ve raised an eyebrow if she’d managed to restrain him so he wasn’t a threat first, and shot him in cold blood afterward.”
His expression didn’t waver. “Then I suppose we’ll have to disagree on that one.”
Would my opinion about Aiden’s fate change if I knew in detail what he’d done to Kat to make her so afraid? I wasn’t sure.
“What did you do to Len?” I asked instead. “He was coughing up blood. Then a couple of minutes later, he was perfectly fine. Was that magic, too?”
Leonides’ mouth flattened into a grim line, though I wasn’t sure if it was because of the subject matter or the memory of Len nearly dying. “Vampire blood heals humans—under most circumstances, at least.”
I mulled that over. “Huh. That’s handy, I guess.”
“It was for Len,” he agreed.
I suppressed a shiver at the reminder of how close I’d come to seeing someone I considered a friend bleed out on the sidewalk right in front of me.
“So, you’ll give me a day to decide what I want to do?” I asked, just to confirm. “No calls to the Weekly World News, I promise.”
“I already told you,” he said. “It’s your decision. And I guess you can let me know at the same time whether I’ll be needing to put an ad up for a new bartender.”
You won’t, I thought, not even sure where the certainty had come from.
Surely the smart thing would be to grab Jace, pack up as many belongings as would fit in the Taurus, start driving, and never stop. In fact, given my current life circumstances, that might be the smartest move for more reasons than my boss apparently being a vampire.
“Nah,” I told him. “I feel like I’ve really got a stake in this job, you know?”
Vampire Bound: Book One Page 7
