Page 3 of Vampire Lee

“Mars, get real.” The human sounded exasperated. “If Faelan is bringing his boyfriend over, we need to be polite.”

“Boyfriend? I’m not—” Before Lee could say anything else, Rei appeared behind the human, his eyes narrowing the moment he noticed who was on the doorstep.

“Dude.” He more or less lifted the human out of the way. “It’s not cool coming here. Devin already told you—” He gestured at the human only to turn to him. “—what did you tell him?”

The human, Devin, threw his hands in the air. “Oh, my fucking God, how should I know? I don’t know who this guy is.”

“Lee,” Lee provided helpfully.

“The bartender.” Rei ignored Lee and stared at Devin.

“Seriously, Rei. I break up with so many people for you, I can’t remember what I’m telling them. Most often I say a work thing came up.”

“There was nothing to break up.” Lee had to clarify this misunderstanding before it got out of hand. More out of hand. “I’m not here for Rei. We hooked up once, that’s all.”

Rei stilled and looked at him. “That’s all?”

“Yeah…” He dragged it out. “I thought it was clear.”

“But you wanted to meet up after.”

Lee grimaced. “You said let’s do this again tomorrow, and I said sure, then your assistant called to tell me you couldn’t make it. I didn’t know you had my number, man.”

“Great.” The human pulled Rei away from where he was blocking the doorway. “See, you didn’t break any hearts this time. Not everyone is dying to be with you.”

Rei snorted but looked far more relaxed. Devin tugged at Mars too, but he didn’t budge, and Lee noted the small smile spreading on Devin’s lips. He didn’t mind having an overbearing vampire blocking the door despite trying to make it sound as if he did.

“Faelan is in the kitchen, as I—”

“Faelan!” Mars called loud enough to wake the dead.

Faelan appeared in the doorway, looking half exasperated, half amused. “No need to shout, I’m right here.”

“So why didn’t you come the moment he arrived?” Mars sounded annoyed, then his head whipped around to glare at Faelan. “You let Devin open the door for a stranger. Alone. Without backup.”

Devin made a frustrated sound, and Lee was unsure of what was going on. If Devin was their assistant, wasn’t he supposed to open the door? Why did they have a human assistant? Humans weren’t supposed to know about their existence.

“Lee is Murrie’s ten o’clock appointment.”

Devin snatched a phone from his pocket so fast, Lee would’ve reevaluated the whole human thing hadn’t his senses told him Devin was human and nothing else. “Oh, you’re the Vampire Lee meeting?”

Mars snorted, and Faelan shrugged. “It’s his name.”

“My name is Lee Dowell, not Vampire Lee.”

Devin chuckled. “I’m sorry for the idiots, Mr. Dowell. I think they were all dropped on their heads at one point or another. Please come with me.”

Lee crossed the threshold. A few steps later, he realized the whole group followed Devin toward a door to the right.

This couldn’t be how they normally acted. Was it because he was a vampire? Shifters didn’t like vampires in their homes, but there was a vampire in the group.

Right before they were about to enter, a dark-haired man came walking down the stairs. Too thin, and he had a haunted air around him, his eyes cataloged everything as if he expected monsters to jump out of the walls. His gaze focused on Lee and the others, then he whimpered, frozen in place halfway down a step.

Lee opened his mouth to say something, but Devin gestured at the door ahead of them. “Come on.”

“The man—”

“Dillon. Doesn’t like people.” He opened the door, and an office stretched out in front of him. The walls were white, there were six desks along the wall, and in the middle of the room there was a large conference table. The female Lee had been sure he’d recognize was sitting by one of the desks, tapping away at a keyboard, and by a desk farther in was a big man with honey-colored hair. Not wolf.