Page 35 of Ouch! My Vampire Doms Don't Sparkle
“I need info,” I say.“Info on Gaius.And I know you don’t have anything else.But you know people who might.”
Since talking to Will about the blood banquet invitation last night, I’ve been scouring San Esteban for vampires who may have information.Unfortunately, because they are technically poaching on Will’s and my territory, they aren’t particularly forthcoming when I start hunting them down for a chat.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she says in a prim voice.
“Don’t bullshit me, Neve.There’s got to be at least a dozen loners in my city.Will and I don’t root them out because they aren’t calling attention to themselves.The least they can do is provide us with information they may have gleaned from the outskirts of SE.”
“They aren’t supposed to be in your territory,” she says in a short voice.“What makes you think they’ll talk to you?They fear you, you scary bastard.”
“Look, Neve, just tell me where to go.”
“Fine.I know a guy who might be in that poor district, I can’t remember the name.Some kind of flower.”
“The Bellefleur,” I say.
“Yes, that’s the one.Anyway, the guy’s name is Maxim.White dude, black hair.He’s usually hanging out near some diner, has a thing for one of the servers.”
“Thanks, Neve.He should’ve contacted me when he first came to my city,” I say.“Why didn’t he?”
“Hell if I know.Pride, maybe.I told him to talk to you, but obviously he didn’t.Don’t hurt him, okay?Maxim’s a teddy bear, and he’ll run if he’s threatened.He doesn’t want any trouble.”
From the affection in her voice, I wonder if Maxim wouldn’t make a good frerte for her someday.But I’m too smart to share the thought aloud.
I thank Neve once more before ending the call.Then I throw on my leather jacket, get in my car, and head out into the night.If I’m quick, I can talk to this poor asshole before meeting Will at Gaius’s Victorian mansion for the blood banquet.
The Bellefleur is indeed a “poor” district, as Neve called it, but it also feels more honest, real, than the shiny, polished face of Dorado Heights.It’s gritty, and the residents have grit.It’s interesting.
Once I’m in the district, I pull up a maps app on my phone and find a listing for diners.There’s one at the heart of the Bellefleur, not far from the pub where Autumn was working.
I find a spot a couple of blocks from the pub and park before walking back toward the diner.The scents of the city fill my nostrils—car exhaust, cooking meat, spices, perfumes and cologne, garbage, human urine and even feces.I pass a bar and the pungent sweet scent of liquor wallops me before I cough, clearing my throat and nose.
If I want to find this Maxim guy, I need to focus on my sense of smell and home in on one scent in particular: old blood.
As I circle the block, I come to an alleyway, and that’s where it hits me.The blood is old, but not ancient.This is a much newer vampire, younger than Will and me, perhaps sired within the last forty or fifty years.
I follow his scent beyond a row of cars parked in the alley.From here, the alley makes a sharp turn and comes out on a perpendicular street from where I entered.
Standing in the faint orange light over a bar’s exit is a man with shoulder-length black hair and a sharp nose, heavy black eyebrows.His attention appears to be on his phone, but he looks up sharply as soon as I approach.
“Aw, shit, man,” he says, and tenses as if he might run.
“I don’t want any trouble, Maxim,” I say.“Information only.”
“Then you’ll run me out of your city.”
“So you recognize me.”
“I know who to look out for, yeah.”He shrugs.“Neve told me to keep a low profile, not to start any trouble.All the cities are taken.And it’s too hard to get away with shit in a small town, man.”
I can empathize.The time will come, eventually, when Will and I need to spend a human lifespan away from this city.With our connections, we will have an easier time residing in another vampire’s territory—likely Neve’s.But for vampires without our connections or power, finding a home, whether permanent or temporary, can be a much more difficult prospect.
I say, “If you have information that I need, I’ll forget I saw you here.”
“What do you need to know?”he asks, bright green eyes meeting mine.
“Anything and everything about Gaius Black’s presence in my city.”
“Shit.”He shakes his head.“Man, I do not wanna get in the middle of this.”
