Page 51 of Cloak of the Vampire
Lord Atalon moved to Ragnor to shake his hand. As I watched, Ragnor’s face cleared of any indication he’d just acted like a possessive lover rather than a Lord who hated my guts as much as I hated his.
CHAPTER 19
The next stop was the O’Brien League, led by Charley O’Brien, a short redheaded Irishman with a heavy, almost unintelligible accent. His League was located in Indianapolis and focused mostly on trade goods. Their underground compound was similar in design to the Rayne and Atalon ones, but it felt different; it was like a large factory with many divisions, each for developing different kinds of goods. Its specialty was coffee beans, and the entire place smelled that way.
“Here ye can taste our special brand o’ coffee,” O’Brien now said after we all sat down in his League’s cafeteria, which seemed more like a tavern than anything else. His Lieutenants, two women who were so tall they dwarfed the already short Lord, were personally serving us this special coffee, which could’ve passed for cappuccino if I merely went by its color. “Give it a sip, and let me know what ye think.”
All of us took a sip, and the reactions varied. Zoey spat out the coffee with a disgusted scowl. Logan and Abe politely downed the entire thing despite both their faces showing a deep struggle. Bryce jokingly forced Jakob to drink his share too. Cynthia didn’t bother touching her cup.
The only ones who seemed to have no reaction were Ragnor and Tansy. Ragnor was drinking it as though it was blood. Tansy had on a dreamy, contemplative look as she sipped the coffee.
I didn’t understand what the fuss was all about. The coffee tasted like an espresso with a strange aftertaste but nothing worthy of a grand reaction.
O’Brien grinned toothily and leaned back against his chair, satisfied. He turned to Ragnor. “What do ye tink, Rayne?” he asked, his eyes bright, expectant. He looked like a puppy who wanted his master’s approval.
Ragnor didn’t bother glancing at him when he said, “The addition of powdered reindeer meat is certainly ... a choice.”
My eyes shot to Tansy, who didn’t seem to be listening. Next to her, Jakob’s tanned face turned a bit green.
O’Brien perked up. “Still as sharp as always! It’s unique, innit?”
Ragnor gave a curt nod as he shifted in his seat and tapped his fingers on the table. Could he be ... uncomfortable? His face was twisted with barely contained disapproval, and he seemed to be pleading with whatever divine power was up there to make O’Brien shut up when he launched into an explanation of his experiments with different types of coffee.
Seeing Ragnor so out of his element unleashed a smirk. The power balance was very evident, with O’Brien sucking up to Ragnor as much as he could, seeking his approval. And yet Ragnor, who had the upper hand, was trying to be on his best behavior, even if it meant drinking a bizarre coffee brew.
It was hilariously out of character.
His eyes suddenly shot to me and landed on my curled lips. His face darkened, which made my smirk grow, and I gave him a wink before returning to the food being served to the table by the regular servers.
Other than the coffee-tasting incident, the rest of our visit at the O’Brien League passed rather uneventfully. When we were back on the bus, though, loud conversations erupted among my classmates.
“This League is not for me,” Jakob said, shaking his head so fast it was a blur. “I hate coffee. I hate the smell of coffee. I hate everything to do with fuckingreindeer meatpowdered into the fucking coffee.”
Bryce laughed. “You should’ve seen your face!” He snickered. “You looked ready to pass out!”
“It’s not funny, Bryce,” Cynthia snarled.
Zoey then said, “Besides the whole coffee thing, Lord O’Brien doesn’t feel very ... Lordlike.”
She was right. Lord O’Brien’s perky personality was one thing. His looking up at Ragnor like one would do at a god made him seem like a doormat. I didn’t know a lot about the vampiric Society and politics—at least not yet—but I could tell that, as Leagued vampires, we should strive to have a more grounded, self-assured Lord.
The discussions about the merits—or rather demerits—of the O’Brien League continued for a long time, and I dozed off, tired of listening to them talk back and forth about the same things.
Over seven hours later, we arrived at our third stop—the Daugherty League in Kansas City, Missouri. Lord Deion Daugherty, a slender, bony man with dark curls, was waiting for us at the entrance, accompanied by his own Lieutenants, a man and woman who could’ve been members of a rock-metal band, what with them wearing black, having colorful hair, and sporting a bunch of emo-like jewelry.
“Rayne!” Daugherty said when we stepped out of the elevator into the underground compound, which was painted entirely in black and purple, lit up by lanterns fit for Halloween. Daugherty came over to Ragnor and gave him a man hug—a one-armed hug with a pat on the back, which Ragnor did not return yet seemed to force himself to tolerate.
“Daugherty,” Ragnor said darkly.
Daugherty was either brave or stupid, because he didn’t seem to notice Ragnor’s tone and gave us all a big smile. “Ready to rock ’n’ roll, y’all?” he said and gave us all an excited grin.
I stared at him, at a loss for words. The others seemed to feel the same, because they looked at one another as if trying to discern what the hell was going on.
We followed Daugherty to a large music studio. I recognized the type; Cassidy and her band rented one of these for their rehearsals, but this one was on a whole new level: the recording room was huge, the studio included a music mixer the size of my whole studio apartment from before, and it was soundproofed with high-quality material.
Daugherty had us stand in the studio part of the room since there were about eleven vampires in the recording room, listening to something another vampire said. “Bring up the volume, Steve!” Daugherty ordered jovially, and the male Lieutenant pushed up the sound.
We could all hear as the talking vampire said,“Now, each of you are going to grab your instrument of choice and show me what you’re thinking of playing in the Auction.”
