Page 10 of Blood Ties (City of Blood #1)

Elina

“What can I get you, Honey?” I ask the man who has sat down at the bar. It’s warm here so his outfit, including a high collar and hat, is slightly out of place. I lean over so I can hear him in the loud space. He smiles, showing me his fangs.

“Blood, warm. From the tap preferably,” he says, grabbing my wrist as I try to move away from him. I attempt to yank my arm back, my breath picking up, but his grip on me is like iron. My stomach twists with panic as I look for anyone, anything, to pry him off me.

“Get the fuck out of my bar,” I hear Rian yell as she pushes forcefully through the bar door.

Security flows through behind her, as well as coming from the front of the room.

It takes four quite burly security guards and a few vampires to get the stranger out of the front door, a stream of hissing and profanities following behind him.

“You crepuscule whore!” is the last thing I hear from him as he is yanked out the door.

“Jesus, Elina, are you alright?” Rian asks as she wraps her thin arms around my shaking body.

Over her shoulder, I see Bash standing there looking every bit the terrifying heir to the vampire throne of Ville de Sang, fangs on display, face twisted in rage.

His friend, Jack, stands beside him, breathing heavily, pupils dilated, as he looks around the bar-room.

People have turned to look at what the commotion is about, but no one seems overly concerned.

“You!” She points her long manicured finger at Bash. “Are you making trouble in my bar? I don’t care who you are—I’ll throw you out on your ass if you’re endangering my girls.”

“No, I was trying to keep trouble from your bar.” He leans a little to find me around her. “Elina, are you alright? I wouldn’t have let anything happen to you, on my honor.”

“I’m fine, and there is no such thing as vamp honor.

” Turning, I walk through the bar doors down to my office.

I need to relax before I have a panic attack.

Vampires are predators, and anytime they make me feel like prey, cortisol floods my body.

I’m going to have a heart attack one of these days.

This can’t be healthy for the human body.

Being in a constant state of fight or flight has to cause some sort of nervous system problem.

Storming through the door of my office, my hands shaking, I fight the urge to collapse right there on the floor.

“FUCK!” I scream as I sink back on the couch, taking a few deep breaths.

There is a tentative knock at my door. I lean over so I can see the camera feed on my desk, and in the hallway are Rian and Sebastien. Standing, I smooth down my skirt and pat my hair. I open my door, leaning casually on the frame.

“Hey, I’m coming out. I’m fine, just needed a minute”

“Bash was hoping to talk to you. You’ve met him right?

” She says as she gives me an imploring look, trying to telepathically tell me he’s important and I should let him in.

I slide my eyes from her to him standing behind her, hands casually in his pockets, looking like the Italian aristocrat he surely is, and not at all like the predator he was back in the bar.

“Yes, I am well aware of him, and no thanks. I have no interest in being trapped in a windowless room behind a locked door—” sweeping my eyes from his shiny shoes to the top of his perfect wavy hair, “—with a lion.” Rian inhales a quick breath of surprise at my response but I spy the hint of pride on her face.

Rian is like a stand-in mother, acting as security and sentry for those of us who work in the bar.

She doesn’t tolerate bullshit and doesn’t allow us to either.

Bash’s face, however, gives nothing away, no surprise or anger.

He wears a quiet, almost resolute, look in his eyes.

With that, I turn and walk back down the hallway, giving them my back.

Walking through to the bar, I see Sarah chatting quietly with Jack and I roll my eyes. After Ethan, the chances of a night-walker getting close to her are virtually zero. It is fun watching him lay it on thick though— he seems to be flirting pretty adamantly. Bash catches up to me then.

“Please allow me to escort you home this morning. I’m worried about your safety. I don’t know who he was or why he was so aggressive, but I need to make sure you’re safe,” he says quietly as he herds me into a more secluded area by the door.

“Why do you need to make sure I’m safe? We have talked a total of 5 minutes before now—I’m nobody to you.

I have seen you keeping women safe in the bathroom and I am not interested.

Seriously, Sebastien, I don’t need you to protect me.

” His face changes into one of confusion, as though he can’t believe that I am not accepting his offer for help.

It seems like he doesn’t hear ‘no’ very often.

“I don’t know why, I just do. That bathroom situation, I’m not going to apologize and it’s not as though it’s something unusual around here.

You didn’t even pay any attention to me as I walked out.

You certainly did not seem scandalized so stop acting so offended by it.

You may not need me to protect you, but I want to.

Ok?” He reaches out to hold my hand while he makes his speech. I back away and don’t let him touch me.

“I’ve had enough vamps touching me for one night. Go home, Sebastien.” At my words, he walks around me toward the bar and takes up residence back on his stool next to Jack. I guess he doesn’t intend to go home but I am not entertaining him. Sarah can handle them for now.

The remaining two hours of the night pass without incident, thankfully. I can’t decide if Bash’s presence in the bar is the catalyst for the incidents that keep happening or coincidence. Clearing out the bar a half hour before sunrise, I relish the quiet for a few minutes.

“You sure you don’t want a ride home?” Bash’s voice interrupts my first moment of peace in eleven hours.

“Certain, Bash. Go home. And stop coming here—trouble seems to follow you.”

“Can’t do that, Elina. I’ll see you tonight,” he says with a sad note in his voice before he walks out the front doors.

Sarah and I spend a few more minutes gathering things up and putting the last things back in their proper place before heading out that back door as the sun lightens the sky over the river—the same view everyday.

We both get into the back of the sedan this time, Sarah will be riding with me from now on, no more walking alone.

As we pull away from the curb, there’s Sebastien leaning against a street sign, a hint of morning light reflecting off the top of his head.

Huh, his hair isn't black at all. It's a deep brown with a scant auburn tint in the diffuse sunlight of the early hour.

Sunlight he never really sees and the thought makes me sad.

Everyone deserves the sun.

He must be much older than we thought if he can even be in the early morning light at all. I’ve heard the ancient ones can withstand some UV light, though only early morning, right before moon-rise or when we have complete cloud cover.

“So, Sebastien.” Sarah eyes me from across the back seat.

“So, what? He is Sebastien Malvani, heir to this absurd kingdom they carved out of the swamp and stole our lives to hold. What about him?” I ask her impatiently.

“He is bathed in blood, and did you see his face tonight? Terrifying. What do you want me to say?” I’m as irritated with my reactions to him tonight as I am with her for trying to force it out of me.

The shiver that went down my spine when he looked at me over his whiskey tumbler and the warmth that crept up my neck and stained my cheeks red when he made his insinuation about women he might be interested in, are shameful.

I shouldn’t find him attractive. I shouldn’t be curious about him at all.

But dammit, I haven’t been able to get him out of my head since Saturday.

“Woah Lina, reserve the hostility for your vibrator,” she cackles as she says it, to which I huff indignantly, before she continues.

“I know you don’t want to be interested in him.

I’m not suggesting you marry him and have his vampire babies—if we are going with the theory that vampire babies are a thing—I’m just saying, for curiosity's sake, you could take one for the team. Find out if his big dick energy is all ego or not. That’s all I’m saying. ”

“Why don’t you find out for yourself then—Jack seemed awfully curious himself. I’m sure he would let you take him for a ride.” I roll my head in her direction to see her reaction which is as delightedly shocked as I expected, and a laugh escapes me.

“Rude.”

We ride in silence for a few more minutes, before stopping at the curb in front of her house, and she hops out, giving me a quick wave before heading inside.

Stopping at my house, I pay the driver, and jog up the stairs and into the house.

I pop into the kitchen and give Grand-mere a kiss on the cheek, put $700 in the jar—thanks to an unquestionably generous vampire prince—and head upstairs to shower and sleep.

And maybe take my irritation out on said vibrator.

I jolt upright in the early afternoon, heart hammering in my chest. My dream is vague but those eyes—the dark heavy gray—felt like a weight on my chest. I can almost taste the whiskey in the air.

My heart hammers like I was running from something.

Bash is always followed by a faint whiff of the whiskey he drinks too much of, the cologne he covers it with, and smoke.

Or fire? I can’t really tell. The men in the romance books I read, when I have time, always seem to smell like wind, snow fall, sunlight, or even flowers.

In real life, the monster in my dreams smells like warm liquor, some sort of woodsy cologne, and burning.

I don’t know how vampires are actually killed, since I have never found myself close enough to one that is being extinguished to find out.

I know it causes a flash of light and it refers to their flame going out, so maybe the fire is because Bash is a vampire?

Do they all smell that way? I have no idea. I shouldn’t yearn for the answer.

I have even less idea why I am thinking about the way Bash smells or why I noticed the way Bash smells.

I have a few hours before work and decide to go grab some food.

I’m a little more flush with cash than usual—considering the extra tips from last night—so I throw my uniform clothes in a backpack, and get dressed in a pair of skinny jeans and an oversized tee that says ‘Vampires: Just goth mosquitos’.

“Bye Grand-mere! I’m going to grab some food and then head to Velvet, see you in the morning!” I yell, and head out the door.