Captivated by a Vampire: Billionaire, Rock Stars, Vampires in San Francisco (Immortal Hearts of San Francisco Book 2)

by Griscom, Susan

  I stared at the empty container.

  “Chelle, where do you get your blood from?”

  “Humans, silly.”

  “No, I mean, where. Like, who packages it?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. I never thought about it. Cian or Ari usually take care of it.”

  “Take care of what?” The bouncer from the club said as he entered the kitchen and headed to the refrigerator. His broad shoulders practically as wide as the fridge, he opened it and poked his head inside. He definitely seemed to be a force to be reckoned with and not someone that I wanted to ever be alone in the same room with. Not finding what he wanted, he glanced at the counter and grabbed the container of orange juice, pouring himself a good-sized glass of it.

  “Getting our blood,” Chelle answered the big guy. “Ari, you remember Josh from last night at the club?”

  “S’up.” He gave me that universal man nod and gulped down half of the juice he’d poured.

  “You’re not a vampire?”

  Ari laughed. “Nope.”

  “But you live here?”

  “Yep. Ever since I was fifteen.”

  “You were a just a kid.”

  “Yep.” He sat at the table across from me. “Cian and Lane found me half dead in an alley and saved my life.”

  “Ari’s been with us for about seven years now.” I looked up at the new addition to the conversation. Cian reached inside the fridge and pulled out another plastic container of blood. After pouring it into a glass, he sat down next to me. I tried not to flinch, and I thought he might have detected my unease as he smiled at me.

  “Lane and I found Ari beaten up and left for dead in one of Chinatown’s back allies. He’d been the brunt of some thugs’ unjust discipline, strung out on heroine with the shit beaten out of him. He had no money or I.D. when we happened upon him. He also had no idea who he was. We nursed him back to health and gave him a place to stay. He’s been with us ever since.

  “When we found Ari near death, we had to give him some of our blood to save his life. Vampire blood has a strong healing element to it, that’s why it’s so difficult to kill one of us. We heal too quickly.

  “I’m not sure how much Chelle has told you, so stop me if I’m reiterating anything.”

  “No. Go on.” I was more than interested. In fact, I was fascinated by the whole idea.

  “Well,” Cian continued. “Because Ari had to ingest so much of our blood, we have a…bond, if you will.”

  “By bond, what do you mean?”

  “When I let him, he knows what I’m thinking. He only knows what I allow him to know, though. This bond we have also allows me to always know where he is. Because of the connection, if anything were to happen to him, Lane and I would feel it here.” He placed his hand over his heart. “It would devastate us.”

  I glanced at Chelle, then at Lane as he just happened to walk in at that moment, and I realized for the first time that they also had that bond.

  “Ah, a history lesson,” Lane bent toward Chelle, his lips a centimeter away from her cheek. Then he stopped and glared at me, then back at Chelle. “Sorry, love. I forgot.”

  Chelle shoved at his shoulder then came and sat beside me. I tried to ignore Lane and asked another question. “Why didn’t Ari become a vampire after ingesting your blood?”

  Lane smiled and answered the question. “It’s not that simple. Ari didn’t die. To become a vampire, a human must first die then become reborn with vampire blood. For instance, if a vampire drinks a human’s blood to the point of draining them dry and the person has stopped breathing, they would need to ingest a considerable amount of our blood in order to turn. Once the blood seeps into their veins, it starts working immediately, but the entire transition takes a few days.”

  “Like what you did to Chelle.” I couldn’t help myself, and I watched Lane’s lips tighten into a thin line. I wished I’d kept my fucking big trap shut.

  “Turning someone into a vampire is not something we like to do,” Cian said. “It’s a very difficult life.”

  “But you live forever.”

  “Yes, but I’m afraid Chelle may have given you a fairy tale image of what a vampire’s life is really like.”

  “I really haven’t given him much.”

  Maggie strolled into the kitchen and Cian glanced up at her before he went on to explain the disadvantages, but still managed to paint quite an appealing picture, if one were tempted to want that. I’d seen too much fucked-up shit, too many fucked-up lives to want to live forever.

  “And though some of us don’t like to drink directly from humans,” Maggie draped her arms around Cian from behind and kissed his neck, “we still need to ingest human blood often enough so we don’t die, which is why we have these.” She picked up the packet Cian had used and held it up.

  “About your original question,” Ari said. “We purchase the blood from a company who packages and distributes it strictly for vampires. It’s quite expensive.”

  “But where do they get it?”

  They all looked at each other.

  “I’ll take that as you don’t know.”

  “Never gave it much thought,” Lane said.

  “It’s real blood right? Human blood?”

  “Yes.”

  “It doesn’t grow on trees,” I said.

  “No, of course not.” Cian picked up the plastic bag and examined it. “I always just assumed they purchased the blood from morgues whenever there was a newly deceased body before rigormortis had set in, or from hospitals. Something like that.”

  “What if I told you the network asked me to investigate some recent robberies from a couple of local hospitals for a story because all the thieves stole was blood?”

  “That would bother me. Vampires are not above the law, Josh. I like to think that we acquire everything that we need legally. But being vampires, it’s not always that simple.”

  “So you’re condoning these robberies?”

  “No. On the contrary, it’s very disturbing. But would you rather us take blood straight from humans or drink from plastic containers?”

  I didn’t like either answer, but I knew they did both. “I suppose it depends on the human and if they gave you permission.”

  Cian smiled. “Right. If only it were that simple. Look, we don’t like that we have to rely on humans to survive, but we do. Some vampires find joy in killing humans, in fact, we’ve been gifted with super strength and our first instinct is to do just that. In my opinion, though, what would be the point? That only depletes our blood supply. We need you, you don’t need us. Without humans, we would die. Yet, our first instinct as we are reborn is to kill the very source that feeds us. There’s a certain amount of irony in that, don’t you think?”

  He had a point. A fucking scary one, but a point.

  “Do you think that our supplier could be involved in the robberies?” Mags asked as she placed a hand on Cian’s forearm.

  “I hate to think that, but I suppose it is possible. Ari. When do we meet with the supplier next?”

  “It’s always on the third of the month, which is two weeks from this Monday.”

  “Good. We’ll get to the bottom of this then. And, Josh, you might be able to get something out of this for your story. Not that I think you should announce to the world that vampires exist. But I’m sure we can come up with something to satisfy your network, if you agree.”

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chelle

  “Meet me at the café around six tonight. I’ll buy you some dinner,” Josh said as he kissed me goodbye. We’d been together almost non-stop since he’d found out about my vampirism. He’d spend entire nights with me and not leave me until he had to go to work. I knew he needed to go to the network. He said he had a story to finish, the one he was supposed to write about me. He said he had an idea, that I needed to trust him, and to make sure to watch the five o’clock news tonight.

  About a half-hour before five, I turned the large, flat-scr
een on in the recreation room and curled up on the sofa with my feet tucked up underneath me, warming under my bottom, a glass of blood from a plastic bag in my hand and Vicious on my lap. Lane came in and sat beside me. He sank back against the sofa and crossed his leg over his knee. His arm draped casually behind me, barely touching me. I was very aware of his closeness and tried not to let it bother me.

  “I haven’t had a chance to ask you, how did the witch’s spell work? Any more visions?”

  “Yes, actually,” I said. Moved by his concern, I decided to tell him what happened. “My mother was killed by a vampire and my father had to watch. Then someone shot and killed him. So the last thing he saw before he died was his wife torn to shreds by a monster.”

  “Wow. I’m sorry. No wonder you blocked it out. You were how old when you saw that?”

  “Five. It is sort of ironic that I’m now the same type of monster that killed my mother.”

  His hand squeezed my shoulder, and I smiled at his genuine show of caring. “I can’t imagine what that must have been like for you. But you’re not. You’re as far from a monster as this little girl here.” He scratched Vicious behind the ears and the puppy nuzzled her nose against his arm for more when he stopped. When Lane ignored her, she shimmied her way over into his lap, just to make a point.

  “Where’s the boyfriend?” Lane asked

  “What do you care?”

  He stroked his hand over Vicious’s head. “I care.”

  “So that’s why you were cozying up to me every chance you got? Trying to make him jealous?”

  He laughed. “Nah, just screwing with his head.”

  “Well, stop. Things are difficult enough.”

  “Okay. I’ll lay off, but he’s so easy.”

  “Lane.”

  “Okay, okay.”

  “Good. He’s going to be on TV in a few minutes.”

  “Oooh, a celebrity.”

  I punched him in the arm and he chuckled. “What’s going on with you and V anyway?”

  “Me and V? The witch?”

  I nodded.

  “Nothing. Why?”

  I shrugged. “You two always seem to be at odds.”

  He shrugged. “She just rubs me the wrong way.”

  Whatever that meant. I almost laughed. Hopefully, Vanessa’s drooling over Lane the other night was just a girl looking at a hot guy and nothing more; otherwise, I was afraid the witch was setting herself up for a world of hurt. But she never seemed to have any problems holding her own against Lane’s heavy banter whenever they were around each other.

  I took a few sips of my drink.

  “Glad to see you’re keeping yourself nourished. Especially if you’re going to be hanging around a human all the time and not using his blood, which I find completely ridiculous, by the way.”

  “Why do you hate him so much?”

  “I don’t hate him. Look, let me be honest. I never loved you the way you wanted me to. You know that. But I do love you. In a different way. My way. I created you. My blood doesn’t just run through your veins, it runs through your soul. No matter how much blood you ingest from others, my blood will always be there, pulling me, tugging my heart towards you, but not as a lover, more as a…daughter.”

  My eyes shot to his. “A daughter?”

  “That might be a stretch, but it’s similar. I care about you, and don’t want anything bad to happen to you. I worry as a father worries about his child.”

  “That’s why Jewels was, I mean is, so obsessed with you and Cian.”

  “Yep. But let’s not go there. Her love is deranged. The mere mention of her gives me the creeps. Her obsession is nothing like what I feel for you.” Lane wrapped his arm around me and tugged me against him. “You’ll always be a part of me. I can’t help it. If Josh is what you want, then I won’t stand in your way. But, at some point, you’re going to want to drink his blood.”

  “I know. I already do. But I don’t want to do it unless he agrees. It’s not easy with him because of his past experience.” I sat and recounted Josh’s heinous story to Lane and I was surprised by his response.

  “That’s horrible. It’s asshole vamps like that that make it so fucking hard for us. I’m sorry he—and you, as well—had to watch something like that.”

  “Will you stop giving him such a hard time?”

  He sighed. “If it pleases you.”

  “It would. It will. Josh makes me feel special…cherished when I’m in his arms.”

  “Well, sweetheart, one cannot hope for anything greater than that.”

  Vicious crawled back onto my lap just as Josh’s handsome face came on the screen. My stomach flipped at the way the camera loved him, He was sexy on TV.

  “The missing,” Josh began, “and the strange killings in our city parks. Are they related?” He went on to talk about the children and women who had been labeled as missing over the years, making the entire story relate to the killings in the park. And holy cow, taking the focus off of me for being missing, and probably giving me a clean slate as deceased. I had to hand it to Josh, he’d done well. Putting the notion out there. Now, maybe my foster dad could get some closure. But then again, Josh’s report may have satisfied his boss for the time being, but the report was purely speculative, and Alan wasn’t that easily swayed. I should know, I’d grown up with him. But I had to love Josh for his effort.

  I glanced at the empty packet of blood beside me. Cian had a plan set to find out what was up with the robberies. It was a good plan, and not one that seemed too dangerous even though we had no idea what we were stepping into. But regardless, he wanted all of us there, just in case. Six vampires together were better than just one. The more we all thought about it, the more we knew the blood we purchased had to be stolen from somewhere. Like Josh had said, blood didn’t grow on trees.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Josh

  I finished the broadcast and helped Lex pack up the camera. We’d decided the best place for filming was at the park where the murder had taken place. Adrienne hadn’t handed me the murder investigation, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t use it to my advantage. I only hoped it would satisfy her and her brother and end the search for Chelle.

  I helped Lex haul the equipment into the van then headed to the café to meet Chelle.

  The vampires hadn’t invited me along with them to meet their supplier, which was fine with me, but I planned to talk Chelle out of going. I didn’t want her putting herself in harm’s way.

  I opened the door to the café and stopped in my tracks as I saw the same guy who we’d been seeing off and on, the one Chelle always stared at, the one who’d stared back at her, the vampire who’d been sucking the blood from the woman at the club.

  I thought about leaving. But he wasn’t hurting anyone. If he were a monster like the one who had slain Emily, he’d have torn the waitresses’ throats out.

  I calmed myself and went to the same old booth I always sat in and plopped down on the bench, giving me a clear view of the front door as I waited for Chelle.

  About two minutes later, the vampire got up and left. I exhaled the breath I’d been unconsciously holding as the door closed with him on the other side of it. I wanted to get up and lock the door, but I didn’t think the owner of the Warming Hut would appreciate it much. I’d be kidding myself to think I wasn’t afraid of him, or Lane or any of the others. But I had to trust Chelle. I did trust Chelle.

  I smiled when she walked through the door and her beautiful eyes latched on to mine.

  She gave me a kiss before taking a seat across from me. We ordered—her another chocolate shake with a bowl of spaghetti and meatballs with marinara sauce.

  “That’s different for you. I’ll have the same, but swap the shake out for coffee,” I said and handed the menu to the waitress.

  I took Chelle’s hands in mine. “Chelle, I don’t like the idea of you going with the others tonight. Please just stay with me. Let them handle it.”

  “I need to
go. I know you don’t think so, but I’m almost as strong as Lane. I may not be as strong as Gage or Elvis, but neither are Cian and Lane. But I am strong. Believe me. I can handle myself.”

  “Let me come with you, then.” I hadn’t wanted to go with them all, but I was damned if I was going to let her go without me.

  She shook her head. “Cian would have my head if I brought you. It’s too dangerous.”

  “So I’m supposed to just stand aside while my girlfriend goes off to fight a band of vampires? How do you think that makes me feel?”

  Her eyes shot to mine and glowed with a silver rim. “Girlfriend?”

  “Fuck. Let’s not beat around the bush here. Yes, you’re my girlfriend.”

  “That makes you my boyfriend.” She waggled her eyebrows a little.

  “That’s right.” I laughed but quickly became somber again. “I refuse to sit back while my girlfriend puts her life in danger.”

  “We probably won’t be fighting. Just questioning.”

  “Then it’s settled. I’m going.”

  She rolled her eyes in defeat. I hoped.

  A few minutes later, two plates of spaghetti and meatballs appeared before us. Starving, I twirled a few strands around my fork and savored the rich, thick tomato sauce. Chelle pulled out one of those plastic packets from her jacket and poured the contents over her noodles. I squelched down the vomit caught in my throat, ready to lose the first bite of food I’d had all day. Gross. Now I understood why she’d ordered spaghetti with marinara sauce.

  “I know you need that, but wouldn’t it have been better to have it at home before you came?”

  She sucked in her bottom lip. “I’m sorry. This bothers you.”

  “No, no. I just don’t want anyone to see you do that.” I sank back in my seat, my appetite suddenly gone.

  “It bothers you,” she repeated. “I’m sorry, I wouldn’t normally do it, especially out in public, but I need my strength if I’m going to go with them tonight, and I haven’t been drinking directly from humans since I met you. Because of that, I need to have more of these than normal. Fresh blood from the vein packs a more powerful punch.”