Page 11 of The Psychic and the Vampire

“Your mate?” Bridget’s eyes bulged as she looked around. “If he’s your mate, then why isn’t he here?”

“I don’t think he’s realized it yet.” Ant smiled. “But he will, when he smells the blood I gave him. That was the right thing to do when dealing with a vampire, isn’t it? It was only a little vial of it, but then vampires only need a drop to know if a person is meant for them. I read that somewhere back in school.”

Bridget froze in the act of moving her coffee mug to her lips. “Viktor’s a vampire?”

Ant nodded.

Taking her sip, Bridget put down her coffee mug and then moved it aside, clasping her hands in front of her. “Ant, dearinfuriating brother of mine. When did you first see this mate of yours?”

“I didn’t realize he was my mate at first.” Ant didn’t want his sister to get the wrong idea. “I didn’t know that until I read him, which was after the bullet incident.”

“Okay, I’m going to try this again. When was the first time…the very first time that you first noticed this vampire that has been stalking you, and that you now believe is your mate? The first time you ever saw him?”

“Oh, that’s easy. I saw him for the first time when I was testifying at the Fallows murder case. You saw him too. In fact, I think you called him my stalker then, remember? Even though he wasn’t stalking me then. But he is or rather was the well-dressed angry man who glowered at me all through the cross-examination.”

“Ant, that man is a gangster!” Bridget looked horrified and Ant knew he had to help her feel better. Bridget believed she had a duty to look after him, but the feelings went both ways. He just wasn’t sure how.

“You don’t understand. Ant, I spoke to the court clerk about the vampire only yesterday. Hammond had called, wanting to make a time for you to sit with a sketch artist, so they can get a better idea of who killed Mr. Fallows. He asked if we’d had any trouble with anyone from the Manzano family. That vampire is Tony Manzano’s right-hand man.”

“Ah, thank you.” Ant beamed at his sister. “Now that reading I did on Viktor makes a lot more sense. We might have to take a bit more care in the immediate future, at least until this matter has resolved itself, but that’s wonderful news. Now I know where the shadows are coming from, so I can watch out for him better.”

“I’m going to have a heart attack. I’m just going to be sitting here like it was any other morning and my heart is just going to stopworking because it’s under so much stress,” Bridget growled. “Can you see it? My hair is turning gray right before my brother’s eyes. Look at it. I’m sure it’s going gray.”

“Your hair is not going gray, it’s still as lusciously dark as ever. I think it sounds like you need breakfast. I’ll make you a couple of bacon sandwiches. Life always seems better when you’ve got some food in your stomach.”

Ant got up and went to his fridge, his mood considerably lighter than it had been the night before. His sister knew about his stalker, and that his stalker was his mate. Those were two things Ant had worried about discussing. The gangster connection added clarity to what Ant had read when he touched Viktor. Now, he just had to wait and see how the whole situation panned out. He could do that.

“Did you want two buns or three?” He asked, reaching down to pull out the big frying pan he kept for similar sister-related emergencies. “I think three would be a good idea for you right now.”

“I can’t believe you gave a vampire your blood.” At least Bridget was drinking her coffee again, which was another thing that would help her mood.

“It was only a tiny vial, and I only gave it to him, so he didn’t have to keep following me around, waiting for me to start bleeding from some other injury. Who knows? He might have just thrown it out thinking I was a crackpot.”

Ant went hunting for bacon in the refrigerator, thanking the fact his tone gave very little away. It wouldn’t do for his sister to know how badly Ant wanted Viktor to come to the same realization he had.I’m fairly sure I can’t be in a mating all by myself.

Chapter Eight

“Ugh, I hate that fucking man so much.” Viktor stumbled into his house as the sun started to rise. His clothes stunk of cigarette smoke and cologne, and he still had traces of Tony’s puke caught in his nostrils. That guy could not hold his liquor. What’s worse, Tony had decided to dye his hair a glaring silver white, cut even shorter than before, reminiscent of a David Bowie look, and it really didn’t work against his Mediterranean skin. Viktor felt as though he’d spent the night babysitting a clown in a suit. All that was missing was the makeup.

Crossing over to his chair, Viktor slumped into it, rubbing his face with his hands. Letting out a long sigh, he leaned back in his chair, stretching out his legs as he stared up at the ceiling, thinking of the club, and in particular Tony and the people who followed him as if he was someone important.The central character in his own fucking mind,Viktor thought with a grimace.

Why did I ever get tangled up with that piece of garbage in the first place?Viktor thought back, trying to pinpoint where Tony went from being someone Viktor saw occasionally at clubs and bars to a point where he had the code to the man’s front door and managed many of the hassles Tony couldn’t be bothered to deal with.

It was my own damned fault.

Viktor defied anyone to reach eight hundred years of age and not have a solid handle on the way they operated. He’d been restless most of his life. He’d done the coven thing, but left because he couldn’t handle being expected to live by rules and expectations of people he didn’t have a high opinion of. He'd traveled the whole world over more than once, looking for that elusive something and never finding it.

I found glimmers of it in the past.Viktor’s chuckle in the silent house reminded him of how quiet it was. He fiddled in the side pocket of his chair for his remote and clicked it toward the ceiling. Soft piano music took the edge of silence off the rooms – a sound system went through the whole house. Viktor loved his own company, but he enjoyed a peaceful ambiance to be alone in.

But, oh, those memories.Very few people caught Viktor’s eye and held it for long. Back, before paranormals were outed, Viktor learned to blend in with whatever society he was in at the time. That really didn’t change when he could admit he was a vampire and didn’t send people screaming for wooden stakes or trying to peer at his mouth trying to see his fangs.

The key – the thing that had been bugging Viktor for some time, was why he had attached his life to Tony’s orbit – or more to the point, why he had stayed. In the grand scheme of life, Tony had nothing to offer him and was unlikely to even reach retirement age the way he was going. So why?

You’re a control freak and Tony was easily managed.

He was persistent.

He had a readymade community around him.

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