Page 16 of Hunting My Vampire

She shrugged. “I knew how you felt about them. And… I never thought you were open to talking about them. I mean, I hung out with a lot of people, not only vampires. There were shifters and witches. I even had a friend who was a faerie.”

She paused. “The thing is: these friendships allowed me to explore different parts of myself. After growing up here livingwith my parents and everything that happened, I needed to find my own feet but then, I did.”

Pearl came back but often left again. Her father had a temper and it didn’t make it easy being around the house. It made my decision to leave for training so much easier too. When Pearl became pregnant, unsure of the father, she moved back with her mom to have help with the baby. By then, her father had been jailed for assault and things had quieted down at home. Tina eventually divorced him and told him he was not welcome at the house anymore. She hoped this would help Pearl settle down but it didn’t. She would stay at home for months on end, then get restless, go out to bars and meet men, have drunken orgies that sometimes lasted days.

I didn’t know why I was so attracted to Jack Beaufort. But when he appeared at my door the other night, I almost couldn’t breathe. It was like all the air had been sucked out of the room. He had such a powerful effect on me. I remembered our encounter in vivid detail, the way he tasted, how he felt inside of me.

I’d never been one of those pathetic girls who pined for a man, maybe that is why I reacted with such hostility towards him. I didn’t want to be the kind of woman who went weak at the knees over some guy but here I was, that was exactly what was happening.

That night after I came home and put Princess to bed, I felt that he was outside even before he knocked on the door.

I felt his presence. How weird was that?

I opened the door, and he came out of the darkness.

“Are you inviting me in? Finally?” he asked with a teasing smile.

I shrugged, too tired after working in the shop all day.

We sat down in my poky living room on the lumpy sofa.

I listened while he told me the story of how his company’s executive had gotten rid of Juan Marco Albarellos because he had threatened to stop their takeover deal. He’d known nothing about the order for assassination and before he could find out about it, it had been rescinded.

“But what about the witnesses who saw you with the shooter?”

“I’m working on that,” he said in a cool voice. “The company, Topaz Group, is full of people loyal to my father and to some of the board members. There are lots of hidden agendas. I don’t know the half of what is going on. I keep finding out new shit all the time.”

He sounded angry, bitter.

“Here I was thinking you lived the high life,” I said, teasing him a bit.

He leaned back against the upholstery.

“I want to change things at Topaz, but I keep hearing new accusations. I think I have more enemies than I realize.”

“You have enemies?”

He snorted. “More than you know! The world is run by powerful families. My family is one of them, but there are many others and we are all at war with each other, constantly. You can never take your eye off the ball.”

He sighed. “I want to change things, make the company completely above board and legal, but then this sort of thing crops up.”

He sounded like he meant it, like he wanted it to be true.

I wanted to believe him but I didn’t know if I could.

“I could ask around, you know?” I said slowly. “Find out who placed the order. The name of the witness.”

I was offering to help him but I didn’t know why.

“You would?” His eyes lit up.

Seeing him smile again made my pulse race and my heart beat faster. He had such an insane effect on me. I tried to ignore it, pretend it wasn’t happening but I was curious about his story. I had the feeling he was telling the truth. Maybe I just wanted it to be true but that was good enough for me.

“Sure,” I said, casually.

He sat up and his knee accidentally brushed mine. There was a charge of electricity between us as our legs touched.

I had a vision of us the other night, of his hands on my body, of me pushing myself against him, arching my back. The feel of his skin against mine.

---