Page 1 of Vampire Lee

Lee Dowell looked out over the crowd at The Rambling Rogue, the bar where he’d worked the last five or so years. He was looking for Rei. One of the people in Rei’s group of friends would suffice, but he preferred it to be Rei. Or maybe not. They’d hooked up, but then when they were to meet again, Rei’s assistant had called and informed him Rei was busy and unable to make it.

It had been weeks ago. A couple of months, maybe. He didn’t keep track.

“Vampire Lee! Give me another.”

He was yanked out of his head and nodded at Eli, the wolf shifter leaning against the bar. Vampire Lee. In the beginning, he’d tried to make them not call him that, but he was a vampire in a shifter bar. He guessed it was too much to ask. They had plenty of vampire patrons too, but there was no question about it being a shifter bar.

Pouring a beer from the tap, he looked out over the crowd again. “Have you seen Rei?”

“The jaguar?”

“Yeah.”

“Dude, good luck.”

Lee turned his gaze to him. Good luck? Had something happened to him? Come to think of it, Rei hadn’t been in for ages. Lee had seen him with his friends once or twice since they’d hooked up, so he didn’t think he was dead. Maybe he’d moved. Nah, the only thing Rei had sounded excited about was his job. Lee didn’t think he’d give it up unless he had to. “Why would I need it?”

“You banged him, right?”

Had Eli been there that night? He might have, he was a regular. Pleasant enough guy, despite being a wolf. Wolves were the largest shifter group, which was reflected in the clientele. Lee didn’t mind them too much, though pack animals—He grimaced. He didn’t understand pack animals.

“Yeah.” He dragged it out, realizing too late that Rei might not want him to tell anyone. He wasn’t exactly considered a catch among the bar’s visitors. Vampires and shifters could get along, he’d seen it, but…Yeah, he was a vampire in a shifter bar.

“Then he won’t come here again.”

“What? It’s a bar. The only shifter bar in Hagwall. Of course, he’ll come.”

Eli snorted. “How well do you know Rei?”

Know? He’d served him drinks for years, and they’d fucked. Once. It had been…Rei was a fine specimen, but it was a hook-up, nothing special. “Only superficially.” And he doubted Eli had much input to offer. He’d never seen them talk to each other.

“He’s somewhat of a legend.”

“Somewhat of a legend?” Deep down, he knew shifters weren’t more stupid than other species, but sometimes it was hard to truly believe it.

“He fucks everything with a pulse, then never calls them back.”

Lee shrugged. “And it makes him a legend?” Did it make Lee a legend too? He and Rei handled the subject of lovers in a similar manner.

Eli stared at him. “I don’t know, but now you’re one of the people he’s turned down.”

A light headache started to build, and he slowly shook his head. “I’m not looking for a hook-up, I need to talk to him.”

“Did he give you crabs?”

Vampires and shifters couldn’t get STDs the way humans did, but they could get crabs. “No.” His sigh was long and deep. “It is not related to sex, diseases, relationships, emotions, or anything like that. I only need a word, so if you see him, could you tell him? Or one of his friends. The bitchy wolf, what’s her name?”

“She’s not with them anymore.”

She’s not? They were a tight knit group, and they often came in together. Not all of them at once, but they came and went. He was pretty sure he’d recognize the females. If he remembered correctly, there were only two. Though if the bitchy one had quit, there was only one left.

He tried to conjure up an image of her. She was of average height for a shifter female, which meant taller than the average human woman but not enough to stand out, with long brown hair and kind eyes. Yeah, he’d recognize her if she came in. She often had a guy with her, also a wolf. He never spoke and had a tendency to melt into the back of the club. Come to think of it, Rei did too. “What happened to her?”

Eli shrugged. “I only know they’re one man short. My mother is on some committee or other, and they’re donating to them. She said they were looking for a recruit.”

Did you have to have a special skill to join? Lee was sick of pouring drinks for drunk shifters. He could use a challenge.

They were getting off-topic. “If you see any of them, can you ask them to come talk to me?”

Eli grabbed his beer and gave him a nod right as the next person shouted for Vampire Lee. Fuck his life. He went to take the order, and then another, and another.

Soon the evening was in full swing, the noise level getting higher by the minute, and Lee didn’t have time to scan the crowd anymore. There was no lull in the demand for drinks.

Hours went by, then someone walked up to the half-door at the end of the bar. He’d locked it, but anyone could jump over a half-door. He was in front of them before they could see him move. The guy didn’t jerk back though, he simply stared into Lee’s eyes. Not afraid of Lee trying to control him mentally, then. He never would, not in the place he worked. Hardly anywhere else either. Lee wanted his lovers fully aware, and he drank his blood from bags, so no need to mesmerize anyone not to feel his bite.

“Staff only.” He gestured at the sign fastened to the half-door.

“You wanted to speak to me.”

Did he? Lee stared at him. It took ages before recognition hit. It was the invisible wolf who hung out with Rei. Damn, he was good at disappearing in a crowd, which should be impossible since he was huge. “Right, sorry. What’s your name?”

“Faelan Campbell.”

“And you work at the—” He ended the statement with a wave of a hand because he had no idea what they called themselves. Did they have a name? There was some secrecy involved. They were law enforcement, and Lee believed you could report things to them, but it wasn’t like they had an online presence. Or maybe they had. He hadn’t checked.

“I work with Rei, which was what the guy said you wanted to talk to me about.”

“Eli, yeah. I was wondering if I could have a chat with your boss.”

Faelan narrowed his eyes. “My boss?”

There had to be a boss, hadn’t there? “The one responsible for—”

“Vampire Lee! I’m thirsty.”

Lee gritted his teeth and waved at the wolf calling him. Wanker. The crowd was building up around the bar, and it would take him ages to get back into a good flow where he wasn’t drowning in shouts about more drinks.

“Do you have a phone number?”

Faelan studied him for a second. “Why don’t you come by tomorrow, say around ten in the morning? I think Murrie is in then.”

“Great! I’ll do that.” He took half a step away only to turn back. “Come where?”

A small frown made an appearance. “Give me your number, and I’ll text you the address.” He reached for his phone, and Lee rattled off his number.

Faelan nodded once and disappeared into the crowd. Great, now he only had to figure out what to say.

* * * *

Lee walked toward the manor house with a sense of dread. Had Faelan given him the wrong address? This place was fucking massive.

Taking a deep breath, he jogged up the steps to the front door and knocked. Someone knew he was coming. The gate was locked, and he’d had to press a button to be let in.

It took a few seconds, then he heard steps approaching. He straightened. He didn’t know what breed the leader of the organization was. Maybe he should’ve checked before coming. He pulled in a deep breath to try to catch the scents of the people having walked through the door, but he was a vampire, not a bloodhound. Sorting scents out wasn’t something he excelled in.

The door opened and a short human with heavily tattooed arms squinted at him. “Yes?”

Human. Why was there a human here? It had to be the wrong address. “Hi, I’m eh…”

He didn’t have time to say anything more before a vampire more or less materialized before him, fangs on full display. Lee took a step back in surprise and stared between the vampire and the human.

“Eh, I’m here to see—” Fuck, he didn’t know the name. He was so ill-prepared. “—Faelan.”

“He’s in the kitchen.” The human pushed at the vampire. “Come in.”

The vampire hissed. Seriously?

“Mars, get real.” The human sounded exasperated. “If Faelan is bringing his boyfriend over, we need to be polite.”

“Boyfriend? I’m not—” Before Lee could say anything else, Rei appeared behind the human, his eyes narrowing the moment he noticed who was on the doorstep.

“Dude.” He more or less lifted the human out of the way. “It’s not cool coming here. Devin already told you—” He gestured at the human only to turn to him. “—what did you tell him?”

The human, Devin, threw his hands in the air. “Oh, my fucking God, how should I know? I don’t know who this guy is.”

“Lee,” Lee provided helpfully.

“The bartender.” Rei ignored Lee and stared at Devin.

“Seriously, Rei. I break up with so many people for you, I can’t remember what I’m telling them. Most often I say a work thing came up.”

“There was nothing to break up.” Lee had to clarify this misunderstanding before it got out of hand. More out of hand. “I’m not here for Rei. We hooked up once, that’s all.”

Rei stilled and looked at him. “That’s all?”

“Yeah…” He dragged it out. “I thought it was clear.”

“But you wanted to meet up after.”

Lee grimaced. “You said let’s do this again tomorrow, and I said sure, then your assistant called to tell me you couldn’t make it. I didn’t know you had my number, man.”

“Great.” The human pulled Rei away from where he was blocking the doorway. “See, you didn’t break any hearts this time. Not everyone is dying to be with you.”

Rei snorted but looked far more relaxed. Devin tugged at Mars too, but he didn’t budge, and Lee noted the small smile spreading on Devin’s lips. He didn’t mind having an overbearing vampire blocking the door despite trying to make it sound as if he did.

“Faelan is in the kitchen, as I—”

“Faelan!” Mars called loud enough to wake the dead.

Faelan appeared in the doorway, looking half exasperated, half amused. “No need to shout, I’m right here.”

“So why didn’t you come the moment he arrived?” Mars sounded annoyed, then his head whipped around to glare at Faelan. “You let Devin open the door for a stranger. Alone. Without backup.”

Devin made a frustrated sound, and Lee was unsure of what was going on. If Devin was their assistant, wasn’t he supposed to open the door? Why did they have a human assistant? Humans weren’t supposed to know about their existence.

“Lee is Murrie’s ten o’clock appointment.”

Devin snatched a phone from his pocket so fast, Lee would’ve reevaluated the whole human thing hadn’t his senses told him Devin was human and nothing else. “Oh, you’re the Vampire Lee meeting?”

Mars snorted, and Faelan shrugged. “It’s his name.”

“My name is Lee Dowell, not Vampire Lee.”

Devin chuckled. “I’m sorry for the idiots, Mr. Dowell. I think they were all dropped on their heads at one point or another. Please come with me.”

Lee crossed the threshold. A few steps later, he realized the whole group followed Devin toward a door to the right.

This couldn’t be how they normally acted. Was it because he was a vampire? Shifters didn’t like vampires in their homes, but there was a vampire in the group.

Right before they were about to enter, a dark-haired man came walking down the stairs. Too thin, and he had a haunted air around him, his eyes cataloged everything as if he expected monsters to jump out of the walls. His gaze focused on Lee and the others, then he whimpered, frozen in place halfway down a step.

Lee opened his mouth to say something, but Devin gestured at the door ahead of them. “Come on.”

“The man—”

“Dillon. Doesn’t like people.” He opened the door, and an office stretched out in front of him. The walls were white, there were six desks along the wall, and in the middle of the room there was a large conference table. The female Lee had been sure he’d recognize was sitting by one of the desks, tapping away at a keyboard, and by a desk farther in was a big man with honey-colored hair. Not wolf.

Lee pulled in a breath. Coffee. This room had seen a lot of coffee. Vampire noses weren’t nearly as good as shifters’, but he could smell some things. The guy could be a bear. Maybe. He’d know for certain when they were closer together.

“Murrie, your ten o’clock is here.”

The man looked up and blinked at the group. “I have a ten o’clock?” He was quiet for a second. “With all of you?”

“This is Lee Dowell.”

Murrie got to his feet, walked toward Lee, and offered his hand along with an easy smile. “I’m sorry. I haven’t prepared for our meeting.” He glanced at Devin. “I must’ve missed the appointment on the schedule.”

“Oh, it’s okay. I only need a few minutes.” He only wanted to tell someone with the power to do something about what he’d heard. Five minutes, tops, then he could go back to pouring drinks and not think.

“No, no, we’ll do this right.” He looked at the group surrounding Lee and frowned. “Let’s sit in the kitchen where we don’t disturb anyone.” Then he turned to Devin again. “Can we have the kitchen?”

“Sure.”

Mars, Devin, Rei, and Faelan parted ways so Murrie could pass, and Lee followed. Before they reached the door, Murrie snatched a pen and a notepad from one of the desks.

Once they’d stepped out of the office, Murrie closed the door behind them and looked at him. “So…what do you do?”

“Eh…I’m a bartender at The Rambling Rogue.”

Murrie looked confused but gestured toward the kitchen. As they walked in, the man, Dillon, made a sound and backed up against the island across from the big table in front of the windows.

“Oh, sorry, Dillon. Is it okay if Mr. Dowell and I sit here for a bit?”

Dillon didn’t reply, and Murrie let out a low sigh. Lee could hear it, but he doubted Dillon could.

“Please sit.” He gestured for Lee to move toward the table. Once he was seated, Murrie moved to stand between him and Dillon and gestured toward the door.

Dillon more or less ran out of the room without a word.

Murrie turned to him, grimaced, and pulled out the chair across from him. “PTSD, making progress, but…”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

Murrie shrugged. “It took Devin three years to dare to be around us without flinching. I’m not giving up on Dillon for a long time yet.” He smiled. “So…”

Lee wanted to ask what had happened, and why they kept traumatized humans in the house, but it wasn’t his place.

“I didn’t know we had a vampire coming in. Was it a last-minute decision?”

Silence spread while Lee tried to formulate an answer. “I…eh…spoke to Faelan—”

“You know Faelan? That’s good.” He made a note on the notepad.

“I don’t know Faelan. I asked him to put me in contact with you because…” He trailed off, and Murrie nodded.

“Diversity is important to us, and I’m gonna be honest and say we’ve been hoping to find a suitable female to fill the position, but we’ve been lacking vampires for years. Mars is our only one, and it makes it risky when we have to do undercover work. We’ve always been a majority of wolves, which of course reflects the community as a whole, but it can lead to some conflicts. Pack animals versus non-pack with everything it entails. Not to mention shifters sticking together against vampires, and now we have humans to think of too.” He rubbed his neck. “You’ve done anything similar to this kind of work before?”

Lee stared. Had he ended up in a job interview? “I’m sorry. I think there’s been a misunderstanding.”

“A misunderstanding?” Murrie stared at him. “You don’t want the job?”

“I’d love the job. I’m not sure what it entails, but believe me, I’m ready for anything where people don’t shout for Vampire Lee all through the night. It’s not why I’m here though.”

“It’s not?” Murrie looked baffled.

“I heard something I wasn’t meant to hear.”

Murrie nodded.

“In my line of work, you hear a lot of things, and at first I wasn’t paying attention, but—” He pressed his lips together. Maybe telling was stupid. Jala, his boss, would kill him if he told on her friends, and she was friends with at least one of the men he’d heard talk. She was a lioness, so she could cause a lot of damage, and he’d most likely lose the job.

“But?” Murrie waited.

“But…” Fuck, this was stupid, wasn’t it? He knew what happened in those places. A shudder went through him, but he did his best to ignore it.

“Lee?”

“I heard them talking about an underground fight. First, I didn’t pay attention because it happens all the time, right? But then—” He came to a halt. The words had tumbled out of him so fast he wasn’t sure if they’d made any sense to Murrie. “Then they said the bait finally was being shipped and was to arrive in two days, and something about how it was bad for the fighters’ training that the shipping had been delayed. And I heard it two days ago, so they should arrive here in Hagwall today.”

“Bait?”

“Do you know anything about dog fighting?”

Murrie swallowed and gave a slow shake of his head. “More than I want to, but not a lot.”

Lee filled his lungs. “Bait is used for stronger fighters to train on without risk of getting hurt. Fighting and/or killing someone with your claws for no other reason than you’re told to do so doesn’t come easy to most of us.”

Murrie paled. “Right.”

“You need to train your fighters to do it without thinking about what they’re doing.” Though many of them weren’t right in the head and took pleasure in hurting weaker beings. It was how Lee remembered it, at least.

A short nod followed his words.

“And since you don’t want your fighters to get hurt in the process, you bring in bait. Someone weaker who doesn’t stand a chance.”

“And you heard someone talk about bringing in bait?”

Lee was quiet for a few seconds. “I don’t care when they arrange normal fights. If two equally strong fighters want to beat each other bloody in front of an audience to make some cash, I simply look the other way. But if someone’s bringing in bait, it’s not participants who have chosen to be there, and it’s way more organized than a game for…fun.” He scrunched his nose.

“Gotcha.”

Lee waited while Murrie drummed the pen against the pad. Then hard brown eyes met his. They’d been blue before. “Can you give me names, location, anything along those lines?”

“I don’t know the names of those who were talking, but one of them comes by The Rambling Rogue now and again. I don’t think he lives in Hagwall, so not too often, but I’ve been there for years, so I recognize him. Bear, friends with Jala—”

“The lioness?”

“My boss, yes.”

Murrie nodded. “You think she knows what’s going on?”

Lee shook his head. “Nah, I find that hard to believe, but it doesn’t mean she won’t do what she can to protect her friend.”

“And you don’t know what means of transportation they’re using, where the new fighters will arrive, at what time, or anything along those lines?”

“Sorry, I…I looked for any of your people in the bar, but there was no one there. I didn’t know how to contact you, and I didn’t want to draw attention to myself by asking around, and yeah…” Fuck, should he have been asking around? “I’m not sure if it’s new fighters. It could be they keep a stock of weaker fighters to train on and those are the ones being shipped in now. Killing too many people will draw attention, and not everyone kills their fighters, but it doesn’t mean life as bait is pleasant.”

Murrie grimaced. “Right. We’ll look into our channels. Are you working tonight?”

Lee nodded, and Murrie wrote a list of numbers on the notepad, tore the page off, and handed it to Lee.

“These are our numbers.”

They were all the same apart from the last digit. Lee read the names. Murrie, Mars, Rei, Hanna, Faelan, and Devin.

“Devin can reach us all and most often knows where we are.” Murrie reached over and pointed at Devin’s name with the pen.

“Dillon’s not on here.”

“Dillon doesn’t work for us. He only lives here.”

Lee nodded.

“Add these to your contacts and get rid of the list. We have an official number people can call, but this way you can reach us faster.”

Lee’s heart blocked his throat. Shit, this was serious business.

“Contact anyone of us if you hear anything. I’ll brief the team, so they know what’s going on.”

“Thank you.”

Murrie stared at him as if he’d said the weirdest thing, and maybe he had, but he knew what it was like to be trapped in a fighting ring, and he didn’t wish it upon anyone.