Page 4 of Flock This

The delivery service offered one such option, a job that required unconnected Spirits who couldn’t start political problems when they crossed territory lines. Usually it meant Spirits who gave up their clan, children of Spirits who hadn’t inherited the powers, but it also gave me—someone without a clan—a job.

If a vampire took a message to a werewolf, and that message was badly received, or if the two ended up fighting, each clan would want to respond. It’d end up with far too many complications and casualties.

For that reason, the clans kept to themselves and used messengers to pass most information and goods.

Which was where I came in.

As an anomaly, I had no clan, nothing to keep me safe, but also nothing to cause a political problem for those around me.

So after getting dragged before the council for official registration to a clan, when it turned out I didn’t belong to any of the four groups, the Justice Department offered me a job as a courier. The marks on my arm granted me access and also served as a death sentence to anyone stupid enough to hurt me.

The elevator beeped as it came to a stop. I’d never actually been to the penthouse before. Few things got delivered from the outside to someone as important as William.

When the doors slid open and I got my first look at the penthouse, at the expansive wall of glass that overlooked the city, I didn’t hide my gasp.

So this was what money could get a person?

It made my little two-bedroom house seem rather pathetic.

I stepped off the elevator and gave myself a minute to take it all in. Fancy furniture that cost more than a year of my mortgage, marble flooring and golden accents everywhere. The windows lacked curtains, but specialty tinted glass meant the sun’s harmful rays wouldn’t get through anyway. All I could see was a living room, telling me that the space sprawled out more for a kitchen and dining room somewhere else.

Wait, he wouldn’t need a kitchen, would he?

And dining room took on a whole different meaning with vampires.

“Courier service,” I called out, because traipsing through an ancient vampire’s place without at least announcing myself was terribly dumb. A vampire of his age could kill me before I got “mailman” out.

No response came back. It was early morning, with the sun just rising in the distance, so he shouldn’t have been asleep just yet.

“I’ve got a package for you!” I giggled internally at that, thinking about the worst porn that used that as an intro.

Still nothing.

Maybe he wasn’t home? No, if he hadn’t been home, the guard downstairs would have known.

I recalled a time when I’d walked in on a completely naked succubus, who had been ordering a lot of things and who had been dropping hints I had apparently missed.

Succubus vagina was not so subtle a hint that I missed it that time, though. I’d let her down easily then run like hell.

Please, don’t be a repeat. I don’t need to see wrinkly, old vampire balls today. I’ve already seen a werewolf with a dildo—isn’t that enough for one person?

I got to the wall of windows that overlooked the city, a doorway to my left. “Please don’t kill the messenger,” I called out, my tone more hesitant.

They’d marked this VIP, meaning I needed to deliver it today. I didn’t want to piss my boss off by failing to deliver it on time.

Around the corner, when I passed through the open doorway into the bedroom, I froze.

I never expected to be disappointed by the lack of a naked vampire, but I would have far rather found that.

Instead, stretched out on the bed was William Garrison with a bloody hole in his chest.

A stake-sized hole…

I slapped my hand over my mouth before I screamed. I couldn’t stop the action, but I could muffle the sound.

Maybe I could grab the package, drop it then get the fuck out of there. I’d pretend I didn’t see him at all, just leave the package on the table in the living room.

I lifted my arm with the marking and twisted my hand in a practiced motion that opened a small portal to the delivery bay—the place where packages remained until needed. I reached through it, ready to grab the item and run.

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