Chapter 31

Lucianus

I didn’t smile as she looked truly haunted. She looked devastated. I couldn’t guess what she was thinking, but her expression gave me a sense of pending victory. She needed something. I could feel her fear and desperation through the mate bond and mark, and it felt absolutely delicious.

I couldn’t wait to have her that desperate for more than just money and whatever she needed it for. It didn’t feel as though she just needed money to survive, but it was something else. An unexpected expense, I supposed.

“Yes,” I said. “Why?”

She hesitated and looked down at the ground. “What would I have to do?”

I eyed her. “Blood.”

She frowned and looked up at me. “Blood?”

“So long as you provide a cup of blood for my friend’s company every ten days, you’ll be paid $50,000 per donation.”

Her eyes widened. I felt her hope and apprehension spiraling through our mate bond and took hold of it, tugging at it gently to get a better sense of how much she needed and what it would take to get her to agree. She needed it desperately and immediately. Whatever it was, it felt more important to her than even her schooling and her future.

“In… cash?” She eyed me. “No one carries that kind of cash around.”

“In liquid funds,” I shrugged. “Transfer, direct deposit—as good as cash.” I said, still a bit fuzzy about what difference it made. If humans had simply continued using simple coinage or their paper money, such worries would not exist.

“On the same day?”

“Yes. In addition, you’d receive a 200,000 advance.”

Her lips trembled. I could see how desperate and hopeful she was. I got a flash of a man’s face. A bit of my anger flared at the thought that she was thinking of a man, but the man on her mind was older than her by a great deal. There were no romantic feelings.

It felt paternal.

Then, I remembered that the stranger on the other side had mentioned something about her father. The man had to be him.

Her father had to be injured. I almost smiled. My wife’s father had been her world for a long time before he was murdered for treason against me. She would have done anything for him, and she had pleaded until she could no longer plead. After all, his scheme would have taken me from her. She had dealt the killing blow to her father and wept for months after. Her sister had been hard-hearted about his death but too weak to do it though she was the elder.

I turned my thoughts from her and focused on the girl. Her father’s injuries would likely be covered by the advance easily, but I knew that the following payments would be enough as well. If I was right, her father had been taken to a hospital affiliated with the company that I had set up to collect human blood for the sake of my realm.

Owning the blood supply and portals to the human world gave me power over others whose lives depended on blood.

As I recall, most hospitals had something in place about a guarantee of care even without payment, but as a hospital that was privately owned, operated, and was little more than a large private practice, they could demand whatever they liked. If she couldn’t pay it, he’d simply be transferred, and she’d be billed for at least the cost to stabilize him, including the ambulance.

How deliciously convenient.

“Can we go now?” She asked. “To donate or… whatever it’s called?”

I stood and gestured out the door. She jumped to her feet and spoke into the phone. “Tell them I’ll be there to sign the paperwork soon.”

She hung up as I followed her out the door. She reached the front door and seemed lost. Then, the car I’d hired pulled up in front. I opened the door and ushered her inside. She slid across the seats and seemed amazed by the seating. While the seats were soft, the leather carried the faint scent of human chemicals. It wasn’t the most offensive scent, but it was offensive enough.

“This is… such a nice car.”

“Of course, it is,” I said. “I don’t suffer substandard accommodations.”

She seemed confused, but she said nothing, gripping her phone so tightly I thought it might break. I relaxed, watching the scenery go by and smirking. The human driver was silent in the front seat, half-conscious but mostly under mind control. He barely remembered the fact that he was employed most days and spent his nights donating blood or being used as a sex slave as it pleased his keeper.

I almost laughed, thinking about how repulsive the church and the humans that followed that wretched pope would find him. The man had been Catholic once. It was part of the reason he had been chosen, a bit of consistent amusement in place of my raging, fury blackouts.

We drove to the small lab that Ilya and the others had set up in the city to facilitate the blood reserves of my realm. We were starting a larger operation across the world near every portal to ensure that the vampires of my world would have as much as they needed and that my forest could feed properly.

Once, the Forest of Darkness was much larger, but it had begun shrinking since the war because there weren’t human prisoners sentenced to die there any longer. I would have to check on Ilya’s progress with securing human prisoners from their large and useless prison system.

When we arrived, I led her inside and gave her the paperwork. Her hands trembled, but she flipped through the pages, searching for the signature line. Like so many humans who were truly desperate for money, she didn’t hesitate to sign the pages without reading them.

The idiocy of humans never ceased to amaze me. Their weakness and foolishness. I watched the magic of the contract drift over her skin and bind her. She shook herself and I ushered her down the hall.

“This way.”

A nurse prepared the station to take her blood as I helped her sit down and lean back in the chair.

She closed her eyes, and I felt a spike of terror go through her as her body tensed.

“Are you afraid of needles?”

“Yes.”

The nurse bound her arm and tapped on her arm, searching for a vein. She went pale as the needle was inserted into her arm, but she didn’t open her eyes as the blood began to flow through the tube and into the pouch waiting for it and marked with her donation code.

“Open your eyes,” I said. “It’s much more frightening in the dark…”

Her eyes opened, and her gaze focused on me rather than the nurse beside her, checking the blood flow. When the bag was full, the nurse glanced at me as she pulled the needle out, put a Band-Aid on her arm, and left. She sat up and shuddered. She pressed her hands to her face and seemed a bit ill as she swayed in her seat.

“Are you all right?”

She nodded. “Headache… And I feel… a bit sick. I’ve never liked needles… or blood.”

My lips twitched, thinking back to her taking just the smallest sip of blood from my wife’s goblet. No wonder she threw up soon after.

“Not so bad?”

Her lips twitched, and she nodded. I helped her out of the chair and led her back to the counter so she could give her bank information.

“Transfer 210,000 to her for her donation as quickly as possible and mark the 200,000 as an advance.”

The clerk nodded and got to work. She looked up at me with wide eyes.

“Why that much? I thought it was 200,000?”

“The advance, yes. Consider the extra as... a bonus.”

She licked her lip and went still as her phone rang and she answered it. Her eyes widened.

“Yes… yes, I am aware of it. No, it’s not fraudulent. I understand… Yes. Okay.”

She hung up and looked at me. “It was 210,000.”

“Yes,” I said easily. “Money means very little to me, but it seemed that you need it greatly. Besides, I was told that you weren’t being paid for all of our sessions. You’ve… shed a great deal of light on my illness.”

It was a lie, but she didn’t seem to doubt me. Her jaw trembled, and I felt gratitude and just the beginnings of affection starting to bloom in her heart.

“Thank you.”

The way her voice wavered felt like a victory. She was touched. She was already seeing me as some sort of savior. It would take so little to keep encouraging these feelings until she was willing to give me anything I wanted.

I smirked and turned away from her. I had her right where I wanted. She’d be crawling into my bed, begging me to take all of her soon enough. With any luck, I would have my fill of her before I dealt with the hunters and take her back to my realm within a month.