Page 2 of Face

After pushing a few buttons, she looked up at me and smiled. “I think it’s working now. It’s faster, too. Thanks, Parker.”

I smiled back at her, still breathing through my mouth. “You’re welcome. Just come back if it shuts down again. Oh, and I put a bunch of stuff in your Amazon cart to test the site, so you might want to check that before you check out.”

“Will do,” she said before waddling out.

I sucked in a big breath I really didn’t need and swallowed down the extra saliva in my mouth from when it had been watering. I had obviously learned how to control my thirst for blood while around humans, but her scent was especially strong, and her heartbeat louder than others’ due to her pregnancy. I would never hurt her but being that I mostly stayed at the clubhouse around vampires all the time, human scents were stronger for me. It was the same when Bloome started hanging out here with Shadow. Thankfully she had sensed my unease and now sprayed some kind of pheromone on her that masked her human scent. I wanted to ask her to give it to Kalissa but didn’t know if it was safe for pregnant women. I needed to learn to control it, anyway.

My club brothers seemed to all find wives and girlfriends within the last year. I was grateful for the expensive noise-canceling headphones I’d found online since they were all going at it every single night these days. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be bothered being in a relationship right now, anyway. I was only twenty-six in calendar years and knew I had forever to find someone, so it was low on the priority list.

A beep from the computer brought my attention back to the task at hand. The antivirus software had detected another breach. I immediately opened the notification and saw another piece of malware being threaded into our system. I quickly clicked on it and ordered the antivirus software to get rid of it. The software obeyed, but when I checked the internal systems, the virus was still there. This was the third time today. Who was trying to infiltrate our system? Jemini had been right—it was spyware. So, someone wanted to look at the inner workings of our system. I put up more patches, and another firewall in hopes that would make it difficult for whoever or whatever was trying to get in.

Stretching my back, I realized I had been sitting in this chair too long. A glance at the clock on the computer told me it was almost one a.m. I’d been working on this problem since the sun went down seven hours ago and I needed a break. After snatching my keys and phone from the desk drawer, I walked out into the clubhouse and made my way to the breakroom.

“What’s up?” Venom asked as he sat at the table with Kalissa. They were both eating some kind of pasta with what smelled like seafood in it.

Trying to breathe through my mouth only, I put on a smile. “Nothing. Just needed a break. Gonna grab a drink and head to the gym.” I pointed to the fridge.

I pulled a blood bag from the fridge. After dumping it into an obnoxious coffee mug that read Eat Me with a picture of a mouth depicting fangs dripping blood, I popped it into the microwave and waited for it to warm up. Kalissa tried to hide the revulsion on her face but failed.

“Thank you for helping her out,” Venom said, pointing to his woman with his fork. “She told me you fixed her phone.”

I chuckled. “Her phone was fine. Her browser was corrupted. I just re-installed it. Easy stuff.”

“Easy for you,” Venom said before he forked the food into his mouth.

“You got a little sauce on your shirt,” Kalissa said, reaching across the table with a napkin in her hand. She wiped his black tee with it.

“Don’t you have to be at work in a few hours?” I asked her.

She smiled at me. “I quit the clinic. After the baby’s born, I’ll see about some part-time work, if need be.”

“There will be no need,” Venom replied. Reaching over, he rubbed her big belly while staring at her as if she was the most important person on earth.

Give me a break.

The microwave beeping saved me from replying. I removed the cup, drank all the blood in one long gulp, and put the mug into the sink. “I’m heading to the gym,” I said, not sure why I was repeating myself.

“Have a good workout,” Shadow said as I damn near bumped into his tall ass while he entered the breakroom as I was walking out.

“Thanks,” I murmured, heading up to my room to change into my workout gear.

The whole reason I came to the gym at this time of night/morning was to get in a workout in peace. Yes, it was a twenty-four-hour-type operation, but it was rare to see any more than like four humans here at this time of night. Tonight, there were over a dozen. One male was currently occupying my favorite treadmill, which made me instantly irritated. Why, I wasn’t sure, but that damn malware attack had put me in a bad mood.

With my enhanced eyesight, I could see he had twelve minutes left on his workout. I didn’t want to wait, and I couldn’t very well order him off the machine, so I begrudgingly took the one next to him. His treadmill was my favorite because I’d programmed my own workout speed and set into it and all I had to do was punch a button. Annoyed, I fiddled with the buttons on my machine to start the workout and then pulled my earbuds from my pocket. They were already plugged into my phone, and after starting the techno music playlist, I began a fast jog to get me warmed up.

In truth, I didn’t really need the workout. It had admittedly become part of a routine that I’d started while I was still human four years ago, and it stuck. Being a vampire seriously sucked, if I was honest with myself. I didn’t like the lack of the “high” I used to get from the endorphins and adrenaline coursing through my body after a good forty-five-minute run, but I still did it, nonetheless. As vampires, we lacked fully functioning eccrine glands that caused us to sweat, so occasionally, I would have to remind myself to squirt my water on my face to maintain the façade that I was perspiring like a normal human. I watched the television set right in front of my favorite treadmill that the asshole was currently inhabiting. The pain from exercise wasn’t the same as it had been when I was human. My muscles ached, but it never lasted long. When I was human—even though I was still very young—I would be sore for days after a long run or some weightlifting. Now, it only hurt for a brief time while I’d exercise.

As the techno music blasted in my ears, I kept my eyes fixated on the TV. The sitcom playing helped distract me from checking the time every five minutes. The closed-captioning on the television helped me to get engaged in the program while the techno kept me pumped and running at a good speed. A few minutes into it, a tap on my shoulder bolted me out of the zone. Irritated, I turned to see who’d touched me, and frowned.

“What?” I asked the douche who’d taken “my” treadmill.

“Parker Knight?” he queried.

Panting, I replied, “Yes?”

“This you, dude?” He handed me my Louisiana state driver’s license.

I continued to run but stared down at the ID as my feet pounded on the belt. “Yeah, it is.” I panted as if out of breath. “Where did you get this?”

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