Page 33 of Hot Vampire Next Door: Season Four

“You know my name,” I say to him, “but I don’t know yours.”

He smirks.

“What?”

“It’s King, actually.”

“Wait…seriously?”

Ducking his head, he tries to hide his embarrassment. “Kingston is my full name. Everyone calls me King.”

“I thought royalty didn’t do menial chores?”

He laughs to himself, a quick shot of air through his nose. “The name is ridiculous. I will give you that.”

“No, I like it.” I offer him my hand. “It’s nice to meet you, King.”

There is a second of hesitation, like he actually believes the lie he’s telling, that I’m somehow above him and shouldn’t be engaged with. But he finally shakes.

“Nice to meet you too, Jessie. Formerly.”

“Now that we got that out of the way…could I use your phone?”

I left my phone at Duval House when I went with Stanley to the diner, but I keep forgetting to charge it. At home, I had a routine—set my phone on the cordless charger on my desk right before I went to bed. Now my routine is all screwed up and my charger is still at the house.

It might be time I admit to myself that I’ve officially moved into Duval House, and if that’s the case, I need to move some of my things here too.

King pulls his cell from the back pocket of his jeans and unlocks the screen. “Here you go.”

“Thanks.”

He returns to the sink and picks up another dish to wash.

Because I was smart enough to memorize Sam’s number in case of emergency, I easily tap it out and connect. She answers groggily on the fifth ring. “Who is this and what do you want?”

“It’s me. My phone is dead. I know it’s early—”

“How early?”

“Like nine?” I lie. It’s actually closer to eight, but I don’t want Sam to veto this idea before I get it out.

With a grumble, she readjusts the phone and says, “Speak.”

“Right after you left the diner last night, I was visited by a fae lord.”

There’s another rustle of fabric through the phone. “I’m sorry…did you say, ‘fae lord?’”

“My mom used to be in charge of the mortal census, do you remember?”

“Yeah,” Sam says.

“And do you remember what she used to complain about every year?”

“Trying to track down all of the fae and getting them to cooperate.”

“Right. Because it was decided that the mortal court system would take on the responsibility of managing the fae records.”

Sam sounds like she’s moving now. “So you want to go to the mortal court and see if you can find records on this fae lord?”

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