Page 9 of Of Blood and Smoke

FIVE

Josiah

Closing the office door behind me, I went to the mini fridge installed under the counter and retrieved the bottle. The glass was cool in my hand as I poured the crimson liquid into a long-stemmed glass. I took a sip and glanced around the room.

The renovations I’d had done pleased me. No longer was I plagued by blindingly white walls and a mildewing carpet. I’d keep a few of the accessories, including a gorgeous large mahogany desk and some antique vases. It’d taken forever to have my office finished, with how busy I’d been.

If the flowers I would’ve loved to display would’ve lasted longer than a day in this environment, I’d have a bouquet displayed as the final touch. Unfortunately, the Bloodmoon flowers of my home, the Second Realm, fared poorly in the thinner oxygen that plagued this garish and noisy world.

I’d added other upgrades to the office, having gutted the space right beside into a workroom and apartment. Now, for convenience’s sake, I no longer had to go to the underground levels of my building to deal with criminals. They were stored right beside me and easily subject to my ministrations.

The area next door was outfitted with any imaginable device one could possibly need for punishment or extraction. Extraction of blood or information, whatever the occasion called for—sometimes both. Skilled technicians had installed a hidden plumbing system that simplified clean-up and made life here easier for everyone in my very small circle.

Attached to that room were the living quarters I made use of whenever the fancy struck me, which lately, was often.

As I settled in behind my desk, Micha entered and crossed the room, tossing me a small bit of plastic. “It's all there,” he said, and gestured toward the bottle. “May I?”

There was no need for him to ask but he did so out of respect. He was my closest friend and companion, and my right-hand man. “Of course, help yourself,” I replied, plugging the drive into my laptop.

While Micha poured himself a drink, I went through the contents of the electronic file. A lot of change had transpired since I’d begun building my business. It hadn’t been easy, and I’d stepped on many toes, but it’d been necessary.

I’d acquired the once enviable company while it’d been sinking under the disappearance of its founder and CEO here in Manhattan. It’d been a promising pharmaceutical company with aspirations to branch into natural supplements and agricultural interests, among other things, and we were pursuing those continued interests with force.

The previous owner had never been found and I suspected that interference from the Higher Courts of my home realm was responsible. Likely, my deep-seated loyalty to the Court had assisted with the ease of acquisition but that wasn’t any of my concern. I was precisely where I wanted to be, having fought my own battles to get here.

Others of a similar kind to myself and Micha had schemed to take over the company, wanting access to the Third Realm’scharms, and had been unsuccessful. I’d disposed of many a competitor to get to where I was, hence, the necessity of the specialized room. It was useful either way and helped keep things under control.

Micha and I weren’t alone in our ambitions, others had come before us and built the companies and industries that sustained us in multiple ways. The two of us were an unusual mixture of vampire and demon DNA and we thrived in this environment, taking advantage of the copious amounts of blood and energy that ran freely. While demons thrived off human’s energetic signals, they drank blood on occasion for varying reasons. With us possessing vampire DNA as well, we had an innate need for the elixir of life.

The preferred moniker for beings such as Micha and I was crossbreed, as opposed to the commonly used slur,half-breed. Being half vampire and half demon was an anomaly not many possessed the benefit of, and those who didn’t understand feared and denigrated our kind.

Fear was a powerful weapon, and we’d utilized its benefits to the greatest degree at every necessary opportunity.

Micha brought himself and his full glass to the chair beside my desk and sat down, setting his drink on a gilded coaster.

“The final version of our employment agreement may have some issues,” he said.

I glanced up. There should be zero issues with our standards of conduct and employment. “What is the problem?”

Micha sighed. “There’s some grumbling that the rules are illegal and demoralizing.”

“Which ones?”

He looked almost as annoyed as I felt. “The rules about silence, eye contact...and the part where it says we own them. We may have to word that differently—if you’d let someone with experience handle this.”

Wedoown our employees. We don’t pay them above and beyond reason, or provide them with every perk known to man, without expecting utter loyalty and obedience. “Fine, get someone to handle it. But I’m warning you, I won’t bend.”

“Josiah,” he started softly, waiting for me to look back up. “This isn’t Court. You’re not there anymore, nor do you need to apply the same rules.”

It worked there, and so it would here. I didn’t answer him; he spoke out of turn.

“I may need to make use of the interviewing chamber later,” he remarked after a minute of tense silence.

My gaze met his, his dark gray eyes now swirling with hunger. Hunger for pain, hunger for food—I wasn’t always certain which when it came to him, his moods were ever-changing and he was always in want of something.

“It's yours,” I affirmed. The footage I’d watched, courtesy of the data he’d brought me, was disturbing.

We were in the process of releasing a designer drug, Onychinus, and there’d been a leak. The preliminary doses were being distributed on the street for profit without permission and we’d found the traitorous criminal responsible for the theft.

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