Reign of the Vampires Read online

  “Follow me,” Neeman commanded. He strode from the cell and down the courtyard, leaving Mason and the Vampires behind.

  Mason blew out a breath and unclenched his fists. He stepped out of his cell humming his ancient chant.

  * * * *

  Danika had slept without nightmares for the second day in a row. The renewed energy refreshed her mind and body. She felt like feeding again, but decided to wait. Too much too fast led to as many problems as not feeding enough.

  The evening before she’d eased William into his duties. He’d been scared as a rabbit in a trap, but he’d made the calls, followed the instructions, and got it done. For now, that was enough.

  She walked to William’s room and knocked. The door swung inward.

  “Good evening.” He bowed. His eyes were tinged with red. Puffy bags swelled underneath. The new schedule would take some getting used to. Slaves and minions were sometimes needed during daylight hours, as well as sundown hours. When Vampires took over a year after the outbreak, the new workday switched from sunlight to moonlight hours. Midnight was the new noon.

  “Good evening, William, I have a business meeting and a package that’ll be arriving at the office. After it does, we need to come home so I can deal with it.” She walked down the hallway toward the stairs.

  The house was a bustle. Vampires said their goodbyes to their mates as minions and slaves rushed around to collect any last-minute items their masters needed. The house slaves were already set about their work cleaning. Cars lined up outside with drivers waiting to deliver their patrons. Everyone stopped to say hello to Danika, and eye William as she advanced to her vehicle.

  “Evening, Lord Danika.” Paul bowed.

  “Paul, this is William. He’s my new assistant, and you’ll take him anywhere I should send him.”

  “Very good, m’lord.” Paul nodded to William.

  Danika slid into the backseat of the sedan and moved over to allow William in. Her phone rang and she pushed the button on her Bluetooth.

  “Chase, you’re out dark and early this evening.”

  “I came in to check on a few accounts and happened to notice that your personal account had a major withdrawal yesterday. I wanted to make sure everything was all right.”

  “Yes, everything is fine, thank you for checking.”

  “Do you mind telling me what you needed to withdraw over ten million dollars for yesterday?”

  “You told me to purchase a new slave. I did.”

  Chase sucked in a breath and Danika rolled her eyes. As if he hadn’t already heard the news.

  “Danika? Ten million dollars for a slave?”

  “Three.”

  “What do you need three slaves for?” His voice held a condescending tone.

  It was like trying to convince her father that she did need a new toy. “Two were for me. An assistant and a guardian. The other I bought as a baby present for Lance and Sinya.”

  “A guardian? Nika, are you in trouble?” Chase’s voice softened.

  Danika massaged her brow. She didn’t want to go into it with Chase. He’d think her suspicions were silly that Xenock hadn’t been working alone when he’d attacked her. And she wasn’t about to tell him of her nightmares and visions of Xenock.

  “My position is becoming more and more public, Chase. There are other lords who I’m sure would be more than happy to have me out of the way. That and with my ever-increasing appellate duties, I need more protection.”

  Chase was silent for a moment. “I agree, but ten million dollars? I wonder whom in the world you had to bid against.”

  “Garon.” She glanced over at William. He stared out the window. She wasn’t used to people overhearing her private conversations. It was something they’d both have to get used to.

  “How did you find that out?”

  “Non-private auction.”

  “Danika! That was very unwise. And bidding against Lord Garon is even more unwise.” His Russian accent had become heavy, as it did every time her uncle got upset. He’d spent hundreds of years trying to rid himself of it, but anger tended to bring it out in him. He sighed. “Can I assume then the auction had something to do with the memo I received this morning, stating that you’ve authorized the delivery company to charge us for his shipping for the next six months.”

  “I wanted to keep this personal, but unfortunately I was unable to.”

  “Yes, well, I fear that he’ll make this more personal yet. Lord Garon is not someone to trifle with, and now that you have something he wants, you can believe me that he’ll come to collect sooner or later. You need to be extra careful. How can you be sure this new guardian will be up to the task?”

  “He’s with Neeman.”

  “That’s good, but I don’t even want to know what you had to do to pull in that favor.”

  “I gave Neeman thirty days.”

  “Hopefully that’ll be enough time,” Chase said. “On another note, we have a storage facility that I need to check.”

  “Is there a problem?”

  “You’re welcome to come. I need to take an inventory of the stock, as well as the employees, that’s all. And we may need to do an audit on it to see if it’s worth keeping.”

  An audit, no thank you.

  “Let’s have lunch together so I can meet your new assistant.”

  “That would be lovely.” Danika pushed the button on her Bluetooth. William still stared out the window. “William, relax.” She laid a hand on his arm, and then pulled it away. “You’re my assistant now. What I know, you will know. You’ll hear my conversations and sit in on many of my meetings. Only the most private moments of my life will be kept from you. Yet through our bond, you will get the gist of what is going on. There’s no getting around that, I’m afraid.”

  “Did you purchase Mason?”

  “Yes.” Danika shifted in her seat and pushed at her hair. “Do you know him?”

  “We were in the same encampment. We were together when we got caught.”

  “How do you feel about him?” She watched his expression. Several different emotions played over his face: fear, admiration, joy.

  “Mason is a great leader, and if you have gotten him as a guardian, you couldn’t have done better. He’s saved me more than once. He won’t let anyone get close to him, but he’s the first to put himself in harm’s way to save someone else.”

  “But….” she prompted.

  He glanced over at her, then down. “There are things about him that are strange.”

  “What kind of things?”

  William shook his head. “It’s hard to describe. He’s secretive, like he’s had a bad past. He hates Vampires with a passion. And—” William stopped and peered out the window again.

  Danika’s gut tightened. He hated Vampires. That should make things interesting. If Mason was hiding something from the world, some terrible past, Danika hoped she’d be the one to free him from his demons. If he didn’t let her get killed, first.

  After a forty minute drive they reached the Savor building downtown on Wabash Street. William’s legs shook the entire back seat and he bit his nails as he peered out at the city. Paul opened the door for them and helped her onto the pavement in her new red and black platform shoes. She strode across the lobby of the tall glass building, with William running to keep up.

  A female vamp sat behind the receptionist desk, answering phones. Danika walked up without a word, and the girl stuck out her hand to give Danika a stack of messages.

  “Any package from Oliver yet?”

  “No, m’lord. But I can call the courier and find out when it will be arriving.”

  “This is William, my new assistant; I’ll have him make the call.”

  “Welcome, William.” The receptionist smiled.

  “Hi.” William waved and then shoved his hands deep into the pockets of his khakis.

  Danika looked over William’s ill-fitting shirt and rumpled kh
akis. She added wardrobe to the list of things to accomplish, then motioned William to follow her. A guard stood in front of two elevators. He bowed to Danika, pushing the button for her. As a Vampire guard, trained by the Tracking Squad, he was the only line of defense for the building, besides the alarm system. Most of the executives had their own personal guardians, and attacks on Vampires were rare since humans had fled the cities. Vamps only caused a problem when they went rogue. Other than that, everyone was relatively civilized. There hadn’t been an all-out coven war in more than a hundred and fifty years. And minor coven wars were usually small and lasted less than a year. The three kings stepped in if things got too out of hand. And their word was law only overridden by the Council.

  Danika and William rode the elevator in silence. She scanned her messages. The elevator opened into the large sitting room that was home to her office and personal room, plus Chase’s office. In addition, there was a dining room, a conference room, and a secure sleeping chamber for emergencies. She walked over to the tall receptionist-style desk in front of her office and pointed to it.

  “This is your space,” she told William. “I don’t have a personal secretary right now so you’ll be filling in. You’ll be fitted for an earpiece so you can have a headset for answering the phone. Anything else you need, call Trisha down on the third floor, and she’ll order it for you. There are human food menus in the dining room that you can order from if you get hungry. I have accounts with them all. There’s also a bathroom for you to use as needed. I’m going to set my things down; then I’ll inform you what you need to get done tonight.”

  “Yes, Lord Danika,” he said.

  Danika set her briefcase on her desk then turned on her computer. Flipping through her messages, she picked out the easy ones and walked out front. William already had the computer booting up.

  “You’re going to want to write this down.”

  William pulled out a pad of paper and a pen.

  His hand flew across the pad of paper, scribbling notes as she read off the instructions for the first round of calls. “Yes, my lord.”

  “And when you make the calls, announce yourself as Lord Danika’s William. I will send out an email letting everyone know that you are my new assistant. Oh, I also need you to call the receptionist downstairs for the number for Angelo Parizi. Call Angelo and tell him we need a man sent over today for a fitting. Lastly, please call shipping and get the phone number for our courier. Call and find out when my package is being delivered.”

  Two hours later, Danika got up and stretched. William had been working at his computer the whole time.

  “Oh, hello, Lord Danika.” He looked up. “I made the calls. I sent you an itinerary update for your meeting. The fitting is at one-thirty, and the courier said the package will be here by three.”

  Danika smiled. Yes, she decided, he would be a very quick learner.

  “Wonderful. Why don’t you take a break and order yourself something to eat. I want a Thai cucumber salad from Pho’s please. And Chase will be joining us soon. He’ll tell you what he wants.”

  William stared at her in confusion. “I didn’t think . . .”

  “That we ate human food? We can. We gain no nutrition from it, we need to drink blood for nutrition, but I still enjoy how it tastes.”

  Chase returned to the office around midnight, and they sat down together to have a meal. William had been shaky as Chase questioned him about his life, skills, and the encampment he’d lived in before the slave auction.

  “He’s a good match for you, and I think in time he’ll become a great asset,” Chase said when William left to clear the food containers. “Well done in your choice.” He smiled and gave her a light hug.

  Chase’s approval of William was almost like a confirmation from her parents that she was forgiven for the failure of Xenock. Mason would not receive quite the same welcome.

  * * * *

  Danika and William spent the last couple of hours with Angelo fitting William for a new wardrobe, which would be delivered the following day. When her package arrived William called down for a car. They closed up the office and headed to the lobby.

  “Is this how it always is?” William asked.

  “You mean is this how my nights go?”

  “Yes, my lord.”

  “For the most part. My life is the same as everyone else’s. I go to work, I work hard and do my best, and then I go home. Sometimes I have meetings. Once a month I hold court. Occasionally I meet with the three kings of America. Other than that, my life is as boring as the next Vampire’s.”

  William shook his head. “It is amazing. You’re living the life that humans want to live. And now humans are living, well...like animals.”

  Danika’s brow furrowed. She’d never thought of it that way. She’d never seen humans as much more than food before the awakening. But now, there were so few of them, they were a hot commodity. She wondered if the humans hadn’t attacked the Vampires the way they had, if the V2000 would’ve been developed at all, and if the world would have changed. They still didn’t know who’d unleashed the virus that had been meant to make Vampires impervious to sunlight, but had backfired instead. She doubted they ever would. She studied William and her heart softened a bit toward him. It was hard to think of him with his gentle nature trying to make it out there in the harsh environments the humans lived in now. It was good that he’d been brought in. He’d be happier now in her care. She smiled to herself for having saved him.

  * * * *

  When they reached home, Danika flung her jacket on the floor of her bedroom. Then undid her belt and dropped her skirt as well. She kicked off her shoes and hose and stood in her slip. She unbuttoned her light blue shirt and tossed it as well. Letting her hair down, she threw on her green silk bathrobe. When she emerged from the bathroom, William stood in the doorway, eyes wide.

  “Is something wrong?”

  He cleared his throat several times. “No, no, my lord,” he managed to croak.

  Danika laughed. It sounded strange. It wasn’t something that she’d heard from herself in a long time. “Come on, bring the files over to my bed.” She leaned back on her pillows. He sat on the end of her bed and Danika opened the package, pulled out the files, and flipped through them. They were the most recent cases judged by her underlords. She wanted to familiarize herself with them, because it was guaranteed that at least a couple would end up on her appellate docket in a few weeks.

  After reading through them, Danika picked up her phone and called her closest underlord, Oliver. They discussed the cases till close to dawn.

  Yawning, Danika hung up her phone. William had fallen asleep in the chair. She closed her dark curtains then shook his shoulder. At the sight of her, he jumped to his feet.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”

  “Calm yourself. The time adjustment is difficult. I woke you to sleep in your own bed. I don’t think this chair will be quite as comfortable.”

  “Oh, okay. Is...is there anything I can do before I go to bed?”

  “No, thank you. Feel free to get yourself anything from the kitchen you might need before retiring.”

  “Of course.” William headed for the hall. “Good night,” he said, over his shoulder.

  Danika picked up her phone, punching in the same number she’d dialed a million times before.

  “Danika.”

  “Hello, Neeman. I take it you got Mason without any trouble.”

  “He’s settling in.”

  “Good. And you’ll have him ready in a month?”

  There was silence on the other end. “I wish you’d tell me why you need a guardian.”

  The thought had crossed her mind to tell Neeman about her suspicions that someone tried to have Xenock kill her. After all, it’d been Neeman who’d saved her from her encounter. But she and Neeman hadn’t been personal for years now. “I’m getting into the company dealings more now. That and my ap
pellate duties are making me more of a target. I’d be more at ease having someone to watch my back. Plus I need a blood slave. It’s time. I can’t keep using Savor and house slaves.” It was mostly the same bull she’d fed Chase. But she knew Neeman, and he knew her. He wasn’t likely to buy it.

  “Danika, I’d do anything to protect you.”

  “Thank you, Neeman. I appreciate that. I’ll call soon to check on the progress. Good night.” Danika hung up before he got out another word. She couldn’t bear to hear him tell her again how he cared. They hadn’t been together in years. All she wanted to know was that Mason was being trained. Other than that, nothing mattered.

  Her mind replayed visions of Mason in his cell. The fear hidden within his eyes. The royal way he’d held himself. His scent, the sheer size of him. The next thirty days would be agonizing.

  Chapter 7

  Mason awoke at four in the afternoon. He’d been in the training facility for a week and was still having trouble adjusting to the time change. Stretching, he felt the spot where the latest training session had left a jagged gash in his arm. It was sore, but healing quickly, as always. His first days had been a nightmare. Every time he slept his mind replayed images from his imprisonment. He frequently found himself waking, sweat-ridden, steam rising from his body, or roaring into the darkness. He was mentally and physically exhausted by the third day, trying to keep his beast under control, while being surrounded by so many Vampires and vampyr, was more than taxing. Luckily, the meditation tactics they taught him were working. Neeman didn’t think it was doing much good, but he had no idea how bad things could be.

  The training facility was like nothing he’d ever seen. It had every piece of equipment ever made. Dogs, live rounds, a city within the building used for simulations, and above all, the trackers themselves. The most highly trained beings on Earth. Studying each male in turn as they attacked had already enabled Mason to find their strengths and weaknesses. It was hard pretending not to be as good or strong as he was, but if he showed them all he’d learned in a week’s time, they’d be suspicious. As a group, they were still able to overtake him, but solo he allowed himself to win half the battles.