Page 9 of Hunting My Vampire

This was what I wanted most of all.

I already knew that we were sexually compatible and well-suited to each other, able to sate each other’s needs. I was almost sure this was no infatuation that would burn itself out either.

“Can I help you?” I heard someone say behind me.

I turned to see an old lady coming up the street with a small dog on a lead. The dog was shivering badly but growling at me.

“I was coming to see Kaya,” I said.

“At this time of night?” the lady asked disapprovingly.

“What time is it?” I asked.

“It’s after eleven,” she said, lifting her chin haughtily.

I could have snapped her neck with my left hand, while snuffing out the life of that little mutt of hers. Easily. But I was above such petty behavior.

“We look out for each other around here,” the old lady said. She walked up to me, as close as the little dog would allow her too. She was staring me down, willing me to leave.

“That’s nice,” I said with a big smile and walked off.

I called Zoran and told him to get all the red roses he could find, in this town and the next and bring them over to Kaya’s house. I gave him the address and waited for him in the shadows.

I wanted it to convey the depth of my feelings while at the same time the extraordinary nature of our relationship.

I knew a normal bouquet wouldn’t do the trick.

It took Zoran a few hours, but he arrived with a small truck, packed to the brim with red roses in vases.

We stacked Kaya’s porch with vases filled with red roses, even placing some on the narrow steps leading up to the house. It took hours but I had nothing better to do.

Winning Kaya’s heart was the most important job I now had. Something told me it was necessary to pull out all the stops, do whatever was necessary. This was a first step. I would give her a call tomorrow, maybe stop by the workshop and pretend the Lambo needed an oil leak fixed. It hadn’t leaked a drop since I bought it a year ago after our successful acquisition of the ski lodges in Canada.

That deal had sealed my succession in terms of our family business. My father had said as much when I came to see him to report on the outcome of the negotiations. I was already running the business by then but he liked to be kept informed. He passedaway soon after, at more than three hundred years old. In his life, he had weathered many foes and enemies, had built and lost fortunes, and had seen lovers come and go. This wasting disease he had contracted a few years ago was probably the result of contaminated blood. This happened sometimes. It could have been accidental or intentional. I was not quite sure. I had wanted to introduce him to my future wife but, unfortunately, the time for that had passed. I had never been married which had bothered him. He had wanted to see me settled, like my so-called brother Simon. But he had come to see that this could also work against us, especially if, as in the case of Simon, the family that he was married into had an agenda of its own. I had always been more focused on the business and had been able to help him raise the profile of our brand. Especially, over the last fifty years since the war had ended, when vampires were often seen as enemies of humanity. I projected a warmer, friendlier image. Simon was haughty and superior, never even pretending not to find humans boring.

When Zoran and I had finished arranging the roses, I stood back to admire my handiwork.

Surely no woman could resist such a sight, I thought.

Of course, I did not yet know Kaya or how much she was able to resist.

Chapter Five

Kaya

I opened my front door and thought a bush had fallen down on the porch. Or some kind of flowering tree. Then I saw the roses and the vases and realized these had been placed here on purpose.

“What the fuck?” I couldn’t believe my eyes.

I have never been the kind of girl who liked flowers and candy, and ten thousand messages a day.

I stared at the multitude of flowers. There was no card, but I knew who had sent them.

There was only one person who would have gone for such overkill on a simple call-the-next-day message.

I was totally disgusted.

If he thought this kind of cheap trick would work on me then he clearly didn’t know me at all.

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