Page 53 of Of Blood and Smoke

“She does not and no one will touch her. She knows nothing other than I’m her boss who cares deeply for her. I told her I was claiming her.”

“Have you?”

“Not physically.” A situation to soon be rectified, I’d determined.

Mother sighed deeply. “You won’t be swayed, will you? The only thing I can suggest is to take her, and soon. Another drink?” She didn’t wait for my answer but poured more of the tantalizing liquid. “I’m sure I don’t have to tell you this but keep in mind shemay very well reject you when you tell her the truth and mention you’re a demonic vampire.”

She snickered after a moment. “That should be fun,” she said drily.

“I’ll make it as pleasant as possible. Preferably while I’m eight inches deep inside her.” She knew I wasn’t referring to my teeth but didn’t bat an eye. After hundreds and hundreds of years of existence, relationships changed and the social norms that relentlessly defined shorter-lived species held no sway over us.

She tilted her head. “That sounds like a good plan.”

TWENTY-SIX

Della

It’d been a week since I last saw Josiah and I missed him. We’d settled into a sort of relationship, though he’d never given it a label. I’d gotten used to having him around and enjoyed his company and the little things that made him, him. Things like his fingers tapping when he was deep in thought, running his hand through his hair when he was agitated, an obsession with flowers, and a dislike of squirrels.

I’d taken to wearing my hair up frequently, as he seemed to prefer. He’d pay extra attention to my neck and massage it whenever I did so. Who didn’t love a massage? Not that he needed an excuse to touch me.

We’d engaged in multiple make-out sessions on the couch, but I still hadn’t managed to get him in my bed, much to my disappointment. No clue what he was waiting for but pretty soon I’d jump him and leave him with no choice.

Micha took over command of the office and the launch of their new drug, Onychinus. He had me proofreading the advertising copy—that had already been verified by the advertising department, and filtering through press inquiriesthat Christina didn’t have time for. It was busy. Every day was a whirlwind of emails, PDFs, file uploads and downloads.

Christina constantly sent me the wrong files, or emails without the needed attachments and when I’d approached her, she’d reiterate how “busy” she was. I tried a work-around by replying to the senders, telling them to email me directly, but the filtration system still sent them straight to her. So, it was another waste of my time in addition to all the other shit she tossed my way.

Her sabotage was too obvious for me to overlook. When I complained to Micha, he informed me that I was getting my work done regardless, and he soundly dismissed my concerns.

I didn’t like being a snitch, but I was stressed out and I knew how important a successful launch was for the new product.

I was pouring out my heart to Ashley about all of this when she interrupted me. “I know office politics are cray cray here, but I have to ask.” She took a long sip of her coffee. “What’d you do to Brett?”

We were in the employee lounge, which was more vacant than usual. “What do you mean? I haven’t heard from him.”

She tapped the screen of her phone absently. “I mean, he’s hardly around anymore. He said something about you making, what did he say? ‘Poor life choices’ and now he’s not even answering his phone. Andy’s been trying to reach him; he needs an oil change.”

Brett was handy with cars and worked side jobs doing repairs and other things, besides his illegal activities “Oh my god. He’s still mad Josiah sent a moving crew.”

“What? You didn’t tell me that.” Ashley eyed me suspiciously. “Are you two officially an item?”

Were we? I didn’t think so, but it was hard to tell. Josiah was possessive but he’d never officially labeled it to make me believewe were an item. Other than the whole “you’re mine” thing that I wasn’t going to bring up right now.

All I had to do was look at my parents. My dad sure thought his wife was hiswifeand look what happened—she had a whole other life. Not having a label gave me some control because then if everything went downhill, I could remind myself we weren’t a thing and move on easier. “Not that I’m aware of.”

“Sounds like a lot of effort if there wasn’t anything there,” she remarked.

I stirred my coffee with a little wooden stick I’d grabbed when I ordered. “Well don’t forget he’s a gazillionaire. What seems like a lot to us is nothing to him.”

Ashley nodded. “Good point. Anyway, how’s dad?”

My three times a week schedule of visiting my father had been downgraded to once this week with my overtime and last minute Onychinus prep ruling my life. “He’s the same, I hate it. Melinda’s been taking good care of him; such good care the home actually hired her.” I laughed. “She’s thrilled.”

Her eyebrows raised. “Wow, that’s awesome.”

“I know, right?” I polished off the rest of my beverage and broke the wooden stick, dropping the pieces into the sludge at the bottom of the cup. “At this rate I won’t get to see him again until next week.”

Ashley frowned. “I should go with you one of these times, I miss him too.”

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