Page 25 of Vampire Lee

“Yeah. We got the slaves out and slaughtered most of the others. A few of the…customers were brought in for questioning, but the ones who ran it are dead. Doesn’t mean there aren’t more places out there, of course, but we got Devin and Dillon out at least. Has to count for something.” He shrugged and motioned for Lee to follow him into the kitchen.

Has to count for something. Lee wasn’t sure what he’d believed they did, but this wasn’t it. He’d heard whispers at the bar and knew Rei did something in law enforcement. He hadn’t been thinking about blood slaves or whatever else they worked with. Kidnappings, since he’d talked about missing crossbreeds the night before.

With a shaky breath, he walked into the kitchen.

Chapter 7

Dillon drank his tea and ate half a sandwich, then he hung around in his room, but he didn’t feel safe there. The door didn’t want to stay closed.

There was no one on the third floor. Lee must’ve left. Doors didn’t help against monsters, so it shouldn’t matter, but he wanted a room with one he could close and lock. It kept sliding open, and it made his skin crawl.

When he’d first come here, Devin had shown him the third floor, explained how everyone else had a room on the second, and how Kenia’s would become available soon if he wanted it—he didn’t. An entire floor to himself. The third floor, far away from any underground rooms, and every room had windows. But he’d still had a hard time picking which room he’d be staying in.

He was choosing between one of the two farthest down in the corridor or the one closest to the stairs. Part of him wanted to be as far away from the stairs as he could get, so when people came up, they wouldn’t reach his room first. Then his mind had played little movie snippets, most likely suppressed memories, of him running as fast as he could through a corridor to be able to reach the stairs—in the dream, memory, fantasy, whatever, the stairs led up, not down.

His mind provided him with graphic images of what happened when you tried to run away from a vampire, and in the end, he picked the room closest to the stairs. If he made it down the stairs or at least halfway down the stairs, Devin might hear him. Back then, Devin had been the only one he’d dared trust.

It had shifted. Nowadays, he didn’t think Murrie, Rei, Hanna, or Faelan would hurt him. At least not on purpose. They might snap, might lose control, but if he rushed down the stairs and screamed for help, he believed they would help him. And Mars had Devin. Once he’d been convinced Devin wasn’t being kept a prisoner, forced to be with Mars, he’d seen him a little differently.

Mars loved Devin, and he was starting to see that maybe Devin loved Mars too. Fangs and all. Or he didn’t know if he loved his fangs. He wouldn’t ask.

Devin lit up when Mars entered the room he was in, and had Mars been able to control Devin’s mind, he might have believed Mars was forcing him to act as he did, but he couldn’t. Devin was immune to mind control, and he loved Mars, messed up as it was.

Though who was he to talk about messed up? He’d slept in the same bed as Lee and enjoyed it. Maybe enjoy was the wrong word, but he’d slept better than he had in…as long as he could remember. For a few hours, but a few hours of uninterrupted sleep were more than he’d had in years.

A beeping yanked him out of his head, and he walked over to the window. A truck was backing around the house close to where Devin had made the others place his garden beds the way he wanted them. Rei, Mars, and Devin were there, as was Lee.

Dillon stared. What was Lee doing there?

The truck dumped a mountain of soil on the ground. Mars talked to the driver, nodded and waved, and soon the truck was rolling away. Devin hung back, while the other three grabbed spades and a wheelbarrow and got to work.

Two shoveled dirt and the third pushed the wheelbarrow to different pallet collars and tipped the contents inside. Devin went after and raked it even.

They worked like a well-oiled machine, and Dillon stared, mesmerized. Soon shirts were tossed aside, and the May sun was caressing bare skin stretched over defined muscles. A younger, more carefree Dillon would’ve enjoyed the show. He continued to watch. Shoulders. He’d always loved shoulders. Muscles moving, the hollow where the collarbone started was his favorite spot on the body.

Lee looked up and for a second their gazes met, then Dillon turned away. Could vampires enthrall you through glass? He glanced back. Lee was saying something to Rei, who grinned before shoveling more soil into the wheelbarrow.

Then he glanced up at Dillon again and dipped his head in a small nod. Dillon kept looking.

It would be nice to feel the sun on his skin. He wasn’t going outside, and he didn’t think he’d ever walk anywhere without wearing a long-sleeved shirt ever again, but it would’ve been nice to feel the sun on his skin.

* * * *

After Lee had helped Devin get the soil into the pallet collars, he had headed to work. He was early, but he didn’t care. Shoveling soil should’ve sucked, but it hadn’t. He didn’t use his body for manual labor often, and it had been nice to get to know Devin a little better.

He’d been careful not to stand too close, not move too fast, things he never bothered with otherwise, but it had been worth it to see Devin relax more and more as they worked. And he’d teased both Mars and Rei. Maybe Dillon would tease one day too. He wanted to hear Dillon tease someone.

When they were done, he’d gone home to take a shower, and it had been weird. His apartment had been…weird was the best word he could come up with. He didn’t think he was being watched, but there was a little niggling, a little something that didn’t quite get the hairs at the back of his neck to stand, but they sure as hell didn’t feel as they normally did.

He’d thrown on clothes and rushed off to work. If he was to be in charge of the bar tonight, he might as well be prepared for anything.

Rei would come an hour or two before closing time. Hanna and Faelan would also swing by, but they’d nixed his idea of allowing himself to be taken captive. He and Rei would keep up the pretense of seeing each other to see if Maybe-Aaron would say or do something.

“Lee.”

Lee looked up from the lemons he was slicing. “Jala, I thought you’d be off today.”

She put a hand on the bar and leaned a little closer. Scenting him? He’d showered and lemons had a strong scent to them, but how good was lions’ sense of smell? And what was she trying to scent? “I heard you’re dating Rei the jaguar.”

---