Page 4 of The Vampire’s Receptionist (Charmed Away Temp Agency #4)

CHAPTER FOUR

Kian could tell he was overstepping some boundaries right now, but the vampire looked ready to keel over.

There was no way he was feeding regularly.

And with the bags under his eyes, probably not sleeping enough either.

The caretaker in him demanded he fix it.

And he figured he’d already put the question out there and made things awkward.

Might as well get an answer and see what he could do about it.

“I– Well– That is–” The poor man was obviously flustered, and his cheeks were pink with embarrassment. The few vampires he’d met were a lot more open than this one about feeding, but he also knew he was poking where he shouldn’t on his first day. He decided to give the man an out.

“Nevermind. Not my business. Though, medically speaking, I suggest you call your feeder. I’ll let you get back to your work. Let me know if you need more coffee or something.”

Retreating out of Dorian’s office, he headed back to his desk.

He’d nearly cracked up when he first saw the exhausted vamp shuffling towards the breakroom.

He looked dead tired, so Kian didn’t stop him when he walked past. He was going to say something on his way back, but Dorian had only had eyes for his coffee cup, and Kian was trying too hard not to laugh to interrupt him.

The vampire looked at that mug like it held the key to his heart.

Chuckling to himself, he sat at his desk. His butt had barely touched the chair when the phone started ringing. Answering, he put on his best customer service voice.

“Spellbound Corps Medical Division, this is Kian speaking. How can I help you?”

“Kian, thank god. I need to be reassigned. This guy is a terror.”

“Who? What happened? Do you need me to come down there?” He spouted off questions while fishing his notebook out of his backpack. He kept the list of worker assignments in there so he knew who was doing what job. Morgan was supposed to be working with the marketing team.

“One of the marketing team guys. He’s a werewolf and so freaking annoying. He’s already asked me out twice, and I just got here twenty minutes ago!” he hissed, like he was trying to keep his voice low enough that he wasn’t overheard.

Kian wrinkled his nose. Working with obnoxious people like that sucked, but didn’t exactly warrant immediate action.

“Is he making inappropriate comments? Making you feel unsafe in any way?” He definitely wouldn’t put up with that, and he didn’t expect anyone else to do it, either.

“No…” Morgan grumbled. “He’s just annoying. And the two other people working here say he’s like that with everyone, and he won’t ever stop. I don’t think I can put up with it for thirty days.”

Pursing his lips, he studied his list. There were a few people he could switch Morgan out with, but none of them had as much experience in marketing.

“Tell you what. If you think you can handle it for just today, I’ll contact Morana and see if we can switch you out with Poppy.

She’s not working at Spellbound, she’s on another contract, but it’s the same kind of job.

” And Poppy was a harpy who would chew up douchebags and spit them out without apologies.

Morgan let out a relieved breath. “Yes, please. I’m not ashamed to admit I can’t handle dealing with people like that. He gives me the creeps.”

Kian wrote a note to himself to call Morana about the switch. He paused when he heard a smarmy voice start speaking in the background.

“Morgan, you need to join me for lunch. It’s only right that the most senior worker in the office takes out the newbie. We can get to know each other better.” It was suggestive and seriously icky. Kian wouldn’t put up with that shit for a month, either.

“Tell him you can’t. You have a meeting with your boss. At lunch, you can come up here and eat with me.”

Morgan raised his voice, making a lot of uh huhs and mhmms as he pretended to listen to a long-winded speech from Kian.

He heard static as the phone muffled a little, and Morgan’s whispered answer for the douchebag.

“I can’t have lunch with you. My boss needs me upstairs.

I really need to focus on this, so…” He trailed off, and Kian listened for the reply.

“Ah. Douchebag bosses. I get that. Maybe tomorrow?”

“Yeah, maybe…” Morgan waffled, his tone giving away his disinterest. If the guy was anything like how Kian imagined him, he’d ignore that in favor of what he wanted to hear.

Kian waited until the guy walked away before asking, “You okay?”

Morgan groaned. “Did I really say yeah, maybe? He’s going to take that as permission! You need to get me out of here!”

“I’ll work on it. And feel free to use me as an excuse any time you need to. I don’t mind looking like the bad guy if it makes you feel safer. Tell him if I hear anything about you chatting instead of working or something, then I’ll lose my shit or whatever.”

Morgan snorted at that, and Kian snickered. “Shut up. He doesn’t know I’m not like that. Just use me as a scapegoat. I promise, I won’t take offense. And if you feel unsafe in any way, call me immediately. I don’t care about contracts. Your safety is most important.”

“Thanks Kian. I’m glad Morana hired you. With how busy she is right now, I’d be worried she wouldn’t have time to help.”

From what he knew of their boss, she would’ve gone to hell and back to make sure Morgan felt safe, but he understood the worry. Morana needed to take some time to hire more people if they were going to be losing so many to Spellbound so often.

After making sure Morgan felt safe enough to finish out the day and reminding him to come upstairs for lunch, Kian hung up.

He was going to call Morana right away, but the phone rang again with regular business calls, and he got distracted.

He managed to sneak in a time to send an email with the request just before lunch, though, and he’d call before the end of the day if Morana didn’t get back to him before that.

Morgan showed up when he was supposed to, and he draped himself dramatically over the breakroom table with a whine while Kian grabbed his lunch out of the fridge.

“How many times did he pester you after we talked?”

“At least once an hour,” Morgan bemoaned. “He’s trying to get me to agree to meet him for drinks after work. I don’t like conflict, Kian. It’s hard for me to just tell him no. And he seems like the kind of guy to make me regret turning him down.”

Kian turned sharply to look at him. “Why do you think that?”

Morgan didn't look up, his voice a little muffled against the table. “He seems like one of those frat guys who doesn’t take rejection well. And he’s a werewolf, so I can’t even lie to him without him figuring it out.”

True. Werewolves could smell better than any other race and could even pick up lies if they paid attention. Something about the way body chemistry changed when people lied or something. Kian needed to do more research on that.

“Come up here at four thirty. You can sit with me until the day is done, and then I’ll portal you home.

That way, he can’t follow your scent. And I’ll tell Morana the reassignment is urgent.

She’ll understand.” He studied Morgan’s slumped form with a worried frown.

“Do you want me to send you home for the day? I have the power to do that.”

Morgan shook his head. “No. The other two are really nice, and I like working with them. I don’t want to leave them hanging. Honestly, if he wasn’t there, I’d probably apply for a job here. Being a temp was always supposed to be temporary, and I like the mission of the company.”

He hummed an acknowledgment as he sat down, nudging Morgan to get him to focus on his lunch.

Skipping a meal wouldn’t help matters any.

He knew most of the temps were on short-term contracts until they finished school or their kids were older or whatever.

Being a temp wasn’t exactly a goal for most people.

He loved it, though. He didn't understand the urge to stay in one job forever.

A perfect example of someone living for their job walked in a second later, bleary-eyed with eyes only for the coffee machine.

Morgan watched with him as the division leader shuffled up to the machine, then stared at it for a while.

Kian tipped his head to see what was happening and had to roll his lips between his teeth to stop himself from laughing.

“Want me to make a new pot? I can bring you a cup when it’s finished,” he offered.

The poor vampire looked ready to pass out.

From the research he’d done on the division leader, Dorian Kuramori had joined the company when it was created and was the leader of the tech division up until a few weeks ago.

This was the first time he ever switched jobs after joining the company.

The thought made Kian shudder internally.

Turning slowly, Dorian frowned a little, like he couldn’t quite comprehend what he was saying.

Alarms went off in Kian’s head. That wasn’t just burnout.

Something was definitely wrong. If he was to make a guess, he thought the vampire wasn’t taking care of himself.

That was dangerous. Vampires were lethal if they weren’t fed on time.

He could lose his cool and attack someone by accident.

Pushing slowly to his feet, he approached the exhausted vampire, keeping his tone light and as non-threatening as possible. “Mr. Kuramori? Why don’t you head back to your office. I’ll make the coffee. Alright?”

Dorian’s eyes seemed to glaze over right in front of him. He needed to get the vampire out of here before he hurt someone. With a gentle but firm hand on the man’s elbow, he led him toward the door. Dorian went willingly enough, though Kian could tell he wasn’t fully aware of himself.

At exactly the wrong moment, Morgan cursed under his breath and stuck his thumb in his mouth.

Before Kian could question what had happened, Dorian lunged forward.

Kian barely had enough time to throw his magic at the vampire, stopping him from attacking the poor human.

Morgan shot out of his chair in a rush, putting as much space between him and the frozen vampire as possible.

“What the hell was that?”

“Stop running. You’ll only make things worse,” Kian gritted out.

Dorian was strong and fighting like hell to get free of his magic.

“I’m gonna open a portal. I want you to go through and tell Morana about the asshole downstairs.

Do not talk about what happened here. It’s not his fault, and he shouldn’t be shamed for it. Understand?”

Morgan looked dubious, but Kian gave him a sharp look, and he eventually relented with a nod. Carefully edging himself in front of Dorian, he threw a portal behind him. It would bring Morgan straight to Charmed Away. Before he could step through, Kian looked over his shoulder at the human.

“I mean it, Morgan. Not a word. Not unless you want me to change my mind and keep you working with the douchebag in marketing.”

That was bullshit. He wouldn’t do that. But Morgan was human and didn’t know he was lying. He made a face.

“Alright, alright. I won’t say a word. Are you sure you’ll be okay?”

“I’ll be fine. Just go.” It was getting harder to hold Dorian back. He needed Morgan to leave. Normally, with secrets like this, he’d make the man make a vow, but he didn’t have the time for that right now. He’d just have to trust Morgan’s integrity.

The portal closed the second after Morgan passed through it. Kian’s hopes that it would stall Dorian’s hunt were dashed when the vampire’s attention turned his way. He sighed.

“Because I know you need it, I’ll consent to a blood donation, but after this, we need to talk about you taking better care of yourself.”