Page 4 of Accidental Vampire

“I’ll give you that one. You’ve made it half a year.” Monique gave me a mock salute.

I was obsessively checking my phone. The guy was running late. This wouldn’t be the first time a buyer backed out on me at the last minute. The only notifications were from Pinterest.

“You’re entitled to…” she started. I cut her off.

“Oh, don’t use the E word with me. I’m not going all white privileged Karen just to pay my stupid rent.”

“You’re entitled to...” she tried again.

“No, I’m not. I’m not entitled to any of it.Family moneydoesn’t make itmymoney. Their bank account, their place in society. Theirs, not mine.” My voice had kicked up an octave, and I hated it.

“Tiffany.” She shut me up with just one word. It was worse than when she used my government name.

“You’re entitled to a family that loves and supports you. We all are.”

“That’s why I have you. You’re my person.” I batted my eyelashes at her, hoping humor and charm would end the conversation.

“Look, I know you have this bootstrapping fetish. You think you have to earn everything and make it on your own?”

We both turned as a white box van screeched to a halt, causing a chain reaction of blaring horns down the one-way street. The driver flicked on the hazards. The cabbie behind him was shouting curses out the window as he tried to maneuver around the van. The buyer strode toward me and I could see a white envelope sticking out of his front pocket. It had better be stuffed with cash or I was screwed.

“I made it through undergrad and grad school on my own. You know my family comes with strings. No matter how much they say they want to help, that help isn’t free.”

“You have to learn how to let people help you, Tif. You’re also entitled to be happy.”

I got up and dusted off the little couch one last time. I was pretty proud of this one. It was my best work yet. And, fuck yes, I’d do it all by myself. Because I had to. That vision of a loving support system that Monique had? That wasn’t in the cards for me. That was fiction. I was never going to have someone who loved and supported me for me and not what it looked like to the rest of the world. I could do it all by myself. I would do it all by myself. Or I’d die trying.

FOUR

LACHLAN

I pushed her face to the side, exposing her neck and keeping her eyes off me. I had her pinned with a thumb on her chin and my knee between her legs. Not that she was struggling. They never struggled, and they always consented. Most even begged.

Her neck was lovely, long, expressive, her dark skin all dewy and glistening. I traced the black ribbon encircling it and wondered what it actually felt like to be free to make choices. Hers was tied in the back, so pledged to a Family, our Family, but not yet a full member. Her tasting fee wouldn’t be too high. Not that money mattered.

Tied in the front, that ribbon would tell me that she was free. Free from Family ties, free to choose, literally, actually, free to taste, drink my fill of and walk away. Freedom was always so damn costly.

I pushed into her just to hear her gasp, knowing my thigh would hit just the right spot. I splayed my hand around her throat. It was so dainty I could almost close my finger tips around it. I massaged the knot in the ribbon at the back, pushing it hard into her.

“Legate.” My official title rolled out of her on the end of a gasp.

Instantly, I felt anticipation and desire kick in. Hers, not mine. Yeah, that’s what you all wanted, wasn’t it? For the exalted Lachlan Venier to slide that ribbon off your neck and claim you? Make you mine. Second best to being Scion, with the honor of warming my bed, filling my mouth, and making my life worth living or some shit.

I toyed with the tails of the ribbon. She panted and writhed against me, grinding. I leaned my torso back so I could watch her squeal when I bumped my thigh up higher. We’d make a pretty picture, my fair skin against her dark. Veronica would love seeing my lips on her neck, drawing her blood on Tribute Day.

I pinched her chin and turned her face back to me. Her eyes lit with expectation. Winning me would secure her place in the Family. My free hand encircled her wrist, and I brought it to my nose. Her scent was high, like patchouli and sandalwood. She was almost there, she’d come if I commanded it. Had her watch as I scored her wrist with a fang, her eyes glued to the drops of blood ensnared by gravity. Tiny rubies tumbling down her smoky quartz skin. I leaned in and grazed a fang along the ribbon at the hollow of her neck. She whimpered and trembled, her prize just out of her reach. Her blood lust was right on the edge.

I disconnected from her body, leaving her reeling, on the verge of collapse, snatching back all that she craved. Her wrist still in my grasp. I pinched her jaw to make her stick out her tongue. I put her wrist to her mouth and told her to drink with my glare. And she did. Blood is too precious to waste. A tear slipping from her eye, having been taken so high and then left so unfulfilled.

I stepped away and pushed out of the kitchen door, leaving her and the other waitstaff to get on with the demanding work of fulfilling the whims and wants of the Family. They hoped to earn favor and eventually, gleefully and lustfully, give away their own freedom. I knew she’d be incapacitated for a while. Blood lust singing unrequited in her veins, cracking her like a geode. Someone else would happily pick up her pieces.

I was a god damn tease on an epic level. I enjoyed that more than I would have enjoyed her blood. It’s not like any of them had a care for what I actually wanted or needed.

“Lachlan, did you have to hold up the whole damn kitchen? Take your snack to a guest room like a normal person.” Aurora might be a petite 50 kilos, but she squared up like a heavyweight champ before the bell.

She blocked me as I tried to step around her, so I hit her with my bored-as-fuck look. She put her hands on her hips and nodded over her shoulder. Reluctantly, I looked in that direction. Great. Mommy Dearest was here. Veronica was at her booth, shining in a subtle spot light that was engineered to kiss her cheekbones.

“Ruining all our fun, isn’t she?”

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