by C. M. Steele
“But life will not be that easy,” I confessed.
“What do you mean? Do we have to live in the shadows, hiding from people?”
“It’s not that way exactly, but there’s so much you need to know. First, who I really am.”
“Your name isn’t really Falcon, is it?” she asked, eyeing me suspiciously.
“It is, but it’s not my name, but where I come from and who I am there. I was Lord Lombardi, one of the sons of Maria and Alaric Lombardi. They were two of the Supreme Council’s leaders, and we lived in our own castle in Lombardy, Italy.”
“So, you and your family don’t live there anymore?” she asked with a scrunched brow. This was the hard part. After centuries, I had to talk about my parents and it felt like the pain was brand new. With only the companionship of Draco for all this time, I didn’t have anyone to talk to about it.
Running my hand on the back of my neck, I began to tell her, “That’s where things get complicated. Yes, it is still our castle, but only my older brother Alessio and his family are currently living there. My parents died in 1695.” She gasped. “Yes, we can die. It’s not often, or well, it wasn’t until that fateful day. They were poisoned with a drink that made many of our people in a sense allergic to the sunlight.”
“Like in the movies?” she interrupted.
“Yes, like in the movies.” I suppose some of the stories were rooted in truth. Although, it didn’t help that many vampires made their way through the centuries by capturing the arts. I knew several vampires that were actors and directors living in Hollywood and making exorbitant amounts of money.
“Then how are you able to go into the sun?”
I took a deep breath and continued. “I wasn’t there the day they drank the poison. I was fighting a battle far away from home along with Draco and a hundred other vampires. Not everyone was infected, but those who were didn’t know until the sun rose and they perished. Daily, more and more were infected. It was after a day or two that they learned to avoid the light, but it was too late for so many.”
She gasped again, shaking her head at the tragedy. “I’m so sorry, Falcon,” she said, pressing her head onto my side.
I ran my hand down her cheek, caressing her smooth skin. “It’s okay. That is why we started the laboratory. We wanted to find a way to cure our people.”
“How do you know they could be cured?” she asked. A reasonable question that I’d been asked for centuries by many vampires.
“My mother told me one day Draco and I would find a way to end the darkness. I informed my people that my mother had given me another challenge to find the answer and that was what I have been doing this entire time. We scoured the earth looking for anything that could lead to an answer, but so far, the closest we’ve come all has to do with the advance technology and genetic testing. We even spent centuries meeting with sorcerers, witches, and wizards of all sorts, looking for an answer, and every time we were told the same thing. Magic wasn’t used to create the poison, so the antidote would be non-magical. It has been carrying me through this time of loneliness, which has now come to an end.”
“I can help.”
She’d done more than enough coming into my life and making me whole. I felt smarter and more determined than ever. “You have. I feel alive again after over three hundred years.”
“That wasn’t what I meant. I meant finding a cure.”
“Really?”
“I mean, I’m a scientist after all. In fact, for as long as I can remember, I have been in love with my microscope. It would infuriate my mother that I had my head in books or my eye on the slides. I was studying cell walls in kindergarten.”
“That will work perfectly with having you in the laboratory. I have a special lab dedicated to the hunt for a cure. There are only three people allowed in that lab, Draco and myself, as well as my head scientist Vigo Johannsen.”
“So, will I be able to work in there?” her eyes were so anxious and giddy with the prospect of working in a lab. I loved the little mad scientist living inside her. It made me regret my harsh judgement of her credentials when Draco first mentioned her being the mayor’s daughter. I felt like I needed to apologize for it.
“I won’t say right away, but I will have Draco move you within a week for excellent work, and well, we’ll preface it with you’re the mayor’s daughter.”
“That’s not fair. I’ve worked hard to get where I am without their help.”
“I’m not saying that, love. But I do owe you an apology. When Draco ran your name passed me, I was insulted. I had been critical and claimed you’d gotten there with your father’s help.” I looked at her with a puppy dog expression hoping that she wouldn’t be put out with me.
She pressed her hand to my cheek and looked deeply into my eyes. “You don’t need to apologize for that. It wasn’t like you knew me then, but if you don’t think I’m deserving yet, I’ll try not to be offended.”
“It’s not that. If anything, I want you in the special lab helping to find a cure. It’s just that many of my employees have worked there for years and won’t understand why I promoted someone at all, and they’ll think we’re having an affair.”
“I have a question. Will I be able to hear other people’s thoughts?”
“You should be able to, but every vampire is different. Some can hear every thought, some hear only the loudest thoughts in a human’s head. There will be some female humans you won’t be able to hear even if you have the best internal hearing ability; those women will be future mates.”
“Really?”
“Yes, and as you age your abilities may grow, so you may be able to do other things in time. We won’t know until it happens.”
“Okay, so we didn’t talk about it earlier, but I want to know. Will I drink blood, too?” She looked horrified by the thought of drinking another’s blood. I wanted to laugh, but this was a serious question.
“Only if you want. Since our mothers are human at first, we still retain human abilities. Consuming human food is a bonus. I personally do not care for human blood. Fresh animal blood is better, particularly large cats.”
“So why do you drink blood?”
“In truth? It makes us stronger. When injured we recover much quicker. So it is best to have at least four pints of blood a month.”
“Have you killed humans to drink their blood?” Another solid question.
“I haven’t. There was only one time I ever killed a human, and he had it coming. Hell, he wasn’t just a human. He was a sorcerer and the cause of all the pain and destruction for the past three centuries.”
“Will you tell me about it?” That was something I didn’t feel like going into. There was so much deep seated anger and pain that it would sour our time alone. I wasn’t ready for that and she might not be ready for it either.
“Yes, but let’s not talk about it yet. I have something else in mind for the rest of the night.”
Chapter Seventeen—Leonora
The next morning, Falcon and I ate breakfast in his large kitchen, which to me seemed to be very normal considering Falcon was far from being anything remotely close to normal. I cooked us up something simple since he hardly had any food in his fridge. “So…you prefer wild animals to cooked food, it seems?” I joked because his food supply was super low.
“Not really, I just usually eat out. With my hours in the lab and no one to cook for besides Draco on occasion, there’s really no need. I don’t know if you noticed, but I tend to remain very civilized. Dropping to my animal instinct isn’t something I do often. Usually I drink from animals on the island. Many species are there now strictly for our consumption.”
“Oh, well, I don’t think I could do it. The blood lust hasn’t kicked in and hopefully it doesn’t.”
He just shrugged, grabbing a cup of coffee and kissing me before taking a seat with his plate of food. “But since I do have you in my life now, perhaps, I should get more groceries. This food smells delicious.” This felt r
ight and wrong at the same time. I was sitting in this beautiful kitchen with a vampire having breakfast and talking about drinking blood. Then I remembered I was one now, too. I thought it was pretty cool to be a bad ass vampire. I wondered what parts of movies were true. Was I going to be fast, learn to fly, or some other cool talent?
“Come, sit down and eat because we need to get you a whole new wardrobe.”
“We don’t really need to. I can force myself to go to my parents and pick up my suitcase.”
“Do you have a week’s work attire inside the luggage?” he asked with his coffee cup raised to his lips.
He had the most perfect smile and thinking became a problem. “No, I don’t, but…” I stuttered.
There he goes with those lips and sexy perfectly shaped eyebrows. “But what? It’s a necessity and I need to make you blend in as best as possible until I can shout our relationship out to the world.”
“Fine, but I have another question. Did you ever have like really long hair or beard or does it stay perfect like that all the time?” I asked, licking my lips.
“We have to get it cut just like humans. Yes, a long time ago, I had hair to my shoulders and occasionally a little bit of a beard. The beard would get messy with blood, so most of us perfect the clean look.”
“Okay, just wondering,” I replied, pursing and twisting my lips as I envisioned that look on him.
After breakfast, I put on the same clothes I’d been wearing and we headed out to a mall in the next town over to pick out a full business wardrobe. At first, I picked out a handful of clothes, but he immediately told me I needed more. He sat down on a large cushioned bench that he made look extremely small and waited while I tried on about a hundred outfits. He continuously looked at his watch and gave a grumble like it was taking forever, but I didn’t care if I heard a sigh every once and a while because he was the one that made me pick out so much. He was just going to have to deal with it. For a man who had lived many lifetimes over, he had a lot of nerve grumbling for a few hours.
Once I selected over half of the ones I tried on, I headed over to the lingerie area and got a bunch of bras and panties. I wasn’t too selective, so I just made sure it was my size and moved along. This was a hell of a lot more than I bargained for when he said to get clothes. Physically, I was done by the time we got to the shoe department. I wasn’t even picky anymore, selecting six pairs of heels, gym shoes, and a pair or two of flats.
“My sweet, you look exhausted,” he said with concerned look on his face.
He was the reason I was tired, and if he wasn’t so damn handsome, I would be a bit perturbed by him. I rolled my eyes at him after yawning a second time. “I am, someone decided sleep was a bothersome chore last night.”
He smiled at me with those blue eyes blazing with a burning fever of desire. The old man couldn’t get enough. “I still say it was, but I will let you sleep in the truck. Are you ready?”
“I was born ready.”
“Yes, you were.” I presumed he was talking about being ready for him, which I was. The man, or rather vampire, was perfect. I watched as he carried more than half of my bags to the truck. The first run was done while I was looking at shoes, but he made it look effortless, and the way his taut muscles flexed with every step made me horny all over again. I rubbed my thighs together, trying to soothe myself.
“Stop,” he muttered. He wasn’t even looking at me, but he could tell what I was doing.
“What did I do?” I asked him, he couldn’t read my thoughts that easy or could he?
“I can smell your pussy,” he grumbled. It wasn’t loud enough for others to hear, but I was freaked out. I was a virgin up until yesterday and my faced pinked up rapidly.
“Shh,” I chastised him, slapping at his arm. “We’re in public.”
“No one is here to hear me anyway,” he said with a shrug.
“We’re in the parking lot, which echoes,” I reminded him.
“It doesn’t matter, my love. Let’s go so I eat you out until you’re screaming for me to bite you again.” The devil was in those eyes, but I didn’t mind as long as he kept them on me while he had his face buried between my thighs.
Chapter Eighteen—Draco
I hated leaving them down the street and I knew Falcon was with me on that, but it was the best way to go about this. We had to keep their existence a secret in the vampire world. And that meant not going into work together, especially since we were playing them off as new employees.
“What about Vigo?” I asked as drove down the street. Vigo was like us, and that meant he would notice our scents on our mates. It would be hard to hide, especially because he was planning to have Leonora working hands-on with Vigo
“He can learn of them. I trust him and I want Leonora to work with him as soon as possible. If my mother was right, maybe Leonora can use that brilliant mind of hers to find a cure. She has the skills and our secret is safe with her, so she’s perfect.” Falcon was extremely proud that his mate was a scientist, and I had to say it was very promising. What were the odds that one of our mates would be scientists?
We pulled into the parking garage, waving to Henry, who was a cool human in my eyes. He was what a man was supposed to be and both of us respected him.
After parking, we straightened our ties and headed into the side entrance.
“Let’s go inside and set up their paperwork with HR,” Falcon said, pressing the elevator up.
“Hey, wait up. Let me tell Johnson about them,” I said, running off to talk to the head of security at the front desk. Falcon held the elevator waiting for me, so I rushed back before the alarm started to go off.
“I told him to hold them down here until I greet them. First, I’ll take them to my office and run through our plans for them before I take them down to meet you. Then we can escort them down to HR,” I said. I was the one who did the hiring, so it was only natural that I’d have them in my office first. After all, Falcon had a conference call with his investors for the stem cell project. They had advancements, but there was still a lack of funding. We could technically afford it ourselves, but then it wasn’t for us. It was for the humans, and the laboratory was just a front for our own personal research. When you bought expensive scientific equipment without being a company they started asking questions. It was hard to hide the fact that we were too young to be this wealthy or educated, but that was when reading minds came in handy.
“Yes, but I have to show her the labs first, so send Charlotte to HR first then I’ll bring Leonora to her,” Falcon said, sounding extremely possessive when he said Leonora’s name. I wondered if I sounded the same way and thought to myself I was more than possessive over her.
“Sounds good. Now, let’s see if we can keep our hands off them.”
“That’s going to be the tough one. I may have to take her in a supply closet or a special meeting in my office.”
“Same here. Damn employees coming into work and ruining our fun,” I joked.
We entered our floor where I could smell Veronica’s perfume. It was too fucking strong for human noses, but for us it was damn near caustic. “Morning, sirs,” she said with a smile. Why are they so freaking fine? I wonder if they are doing each other. Fuck, a real waste of sex. Those bodies are sculpted and strong. You could tell from their hands. I wonder…how big they are under those perfectly fitted suits?
“Veronica, do you have what I need for the call?” Oh, I’ve got all you could ever need, big boy. Falcon was doing all he could to keep a calm face, but I knew that stone cold look and he wasn’t too pleased with his slutty assistant. Before, it bothered him but as a nuisance. Now, with Leonora being here and possibly hearing Veronica’s thoughts, he was going to be pissed if Leonora was offended by Veronica’s dirty mind. She was obsessed with Falcon to the point of insanity, but I don’t think he took it as seriously as he should because he could crush her with his bare hands. He might now that Leonora could be at risk.
“Yes, sir.” Damn,
why does his hair have that just fucked look? I want to do that to him while I climb up that big, strong body of his. Wow, humans were masters of bullshit. That happy innocent face was full of slutty whore underneath it. They said we couldn’t be trusted, but humans are a different breed of animal. Thankfully, we could hear their sick thoughts; it really saved us a lot of trouble. With Veronica, her thoughts were harmless for the most part. Yes, she was horny all the time, but she hadn’t tried to act on it. We hoped it stayed that way for both our sakes. Falcon put up with her because he was afraid to hire someone new who might be a little too fucking nosy about the inner workings of the special labs. And hiring a vampire was a little hard with huge volumes of blood stored in this place. It was almost its own personal blood bank with all the samples we had in coolers. We didn’t crave it as much as most of our kind, but that was because we converted to animals long ago. Drinking human blood had been the reason our people were forced into the darkness, and plus, as time went on, their taste became fatty and gross.
“I’ll bring them by when it’s time. How long is your call?” I asked.
“It should be about forty-five minutes, but I’ll try to get them off the call faster.”
I waved bye as I headed to my office. Any moment now I would get a call from security and my palms itched to get a hold of my beautiful mate. She had me torn between working and fucking. It was unbelievable how much a cure didn’t mean anything to me anymore. My family was already long gone, so there wasn’t much incentive in a cure for me. Keeping some of those pieces of shit stuck in their own purgatory was kind of nice. We had less run ins and fights. I had to get a grip because my woman was going to step into my office shortly, and it was so damn hard to walk away from her this morning. It was burning in my soul not to touch her. This was going to be a long week and it was already Thursday.
