I walked into my office, the sunny weather contrasting with my mood. I hadn't slept well last night, I hadn't slept well in a while now and I'm pretty sure the black eyes I had used concealer was a visible greenlight on my appearance today.
Apparently I wasn't the only one with a surly mood as Claude didn't even spare me a glance as I sat on my desk beside his."Good morning", I said, inflecting false cheer into my voice as I powered on my laptop."What's good about it?", Claude mumbled, his ocean blue eyes dim."I don't know, the fact that you're not staked meat for the sun", I jibed and his lips tilted a little bit. Or I was just seeing things again."The sun has no effect on me darling, try harder next time", he countered, his eyes twinkling with suppressed mirth. I googled the word bots, and read every single piece of article that G****e deemed worthy as an answer to my search.My eyes scouring over pages and pages of artificial intelligence. My phone rang, diverting me from what I was reading. Lanie was calling."Hello", I answered, yawning a little, my neck tired from craning."Did you forget we have a meeting by 12?", Lanie whispered, her voice carrying over through the phone."Oh shit", I screamed, glancing at the clock, the time reading at 11:57am. I had been so carried away. "I'm on my way", I replied when I realized Lanie was still on the line, running on my ass to the elevator.Tiptoeing into the conference room on floor 30, avoiding the eye jabs as I slid into the empty seat beside Lanie."Nice of you to grace us with your presence, Miss Paul", the assistant floor manager jeered at me."It won't happen again", I apologized, because technically he was still my boss even if he was a self absorbent piece of shit.Facing the projector with a humph, my assistant floor manager continued from where he had stopped.More pictures of the captured bot came up, the vampire mumbling on the headway progress they've made in disassembling the bot, his daylight ring glinting in the light as he waved his hands around in demonstration. Almost as if he was doing it on purpose.As the meeting drew to a close, the agenda I was most looking forward to was about to be discussed. "Three teams have been given the task of finding out the how, the who and the why?", the assistant floor manager ordered, talking through his nose. "These teams are expected to report to me every two week with tangible findings. You are also expected to cooperate with your team partners on every level". Then I raised my hand, everyone's eyes on me."Yes, Miss Paul", the assistant floor manager answered, his eyes flicking over me, the way one looks at an insect. With disdain."What if one doesn't know their team partner?", I asked courageously, my mind eating at me."I suggest you ask that question on Tinder or whatever dating app is on trend", he replied, dismissing me."But, sir", I insisted."Meeting's over. Weekly feedback in two weeks", He announced again and stalked away.Annoyed beyond measure, I stomped out after him, ignoring Lanie's shouts of protest, following him into his office, the door wide open."Sir if you could just deem an answer to my question", I prodded."I can't deem an answer to an unintelligent question", he bit back, his fangs visible. "You have two minutes to leave my office".Muttering a curse under my breath, with my head hung low as I walked out of his office door and collided into a rock hard body.My mouth already muttering apologies, I looked up into the eyes that plagued my dreams."Youu", I gasped.Perfectly shaped brows quirked up, a smirk gracing a well structured, kissable mouth, "Me?"Recollecting myself from my outburst, I realized I was still leaning on him, his hands smoothly rubbing my upper arms, my nipples perked up.The dose of lust shooting through my body, alarming me and I scooted away, my eyes assessing the man in front of me.His dark as midnight hair in glaring contrast to his beautiful ivory skin, his eyes an endless ocean of the night.He flashed his fangs in another smirk, confirming my suspicions, his voice coming out like sweet velvet, "I believe I just rendered you speechless".I scoffed, about replying to his shallow comment, when the scent of spicy chocolate drifted into my nose, coming from him. "It's you", my eyes wide in shock, convinced, when all too quickly the scent disappeared."Are you alright, darling?", The stranger inquired, looking at me like I had grown a third boob.Mumbling something unintelligent, I left, my heels clicking as I willed my legs to not run.Trembling, I splashed waters into my eyes, ruining my makeup and not caring, my sleep deprived eyes staring back at me in the mirror. I was starting to see things, I surmised, wondering what had made me react like that.Lack of sleep, I thought as I made my way back to my office after fixing my face, it definitely had to be.Claude flicked a glance at me when a knock sounded at our door, several minutes later. Nobody does that.Perplexed, I opened the door, the place empty. I looked around, about to close the door, when my eyes caught on something on the floor. A rose and a note. Picking it and carrying the items to my desk, Claude glancing at the items speculatively.The note read, "I smelt the rose and I smelt you~JV". My mind going gaga at the thought of a stalker."JV?", I thought out loud, the note vanishing from my hand. I glared at Claude who was trying to stifle a laugh as he perused the note, failing miserably as he burst out with gait."Someone has a secret admirer", Claude singsonged, his ocean blue eyes glowing."I don't know who it is", I said without thought."That's the idea, sweetheart", Claude retorted, placing the note back in my hands.I walked with Lanie into the lab's second project room, in search of her assigned partners.Claiming she hadn't met with any of the names she had seen next to hers on the list, she dragged me along with her going from people to people in the room and asking their names.Finally meeting her team partners, she turned to me with worried eyes, "So what are you going to do now?""I'll do the project by myself until the ass shows up", I answered, reasonably of course.Lanie laughed, "You can't do that. It's obviously not a one person job. That's why they assigned teams"."No, they assigned teams because we're humans and they think we're weak", I responded truthfully, I had given more thought to the reason behind the assigned teams than I had given to my change.Lanie stared at me, incredulously and I shrugged ,"There's no way you haven't thought about it too"."Some of us are half vampires, smart-ass". Dismissing the entire matter entirely, she said, "Have you found out about your team project yet?"I nodded, keeping my mouth shut from correcting her that there was no team, "The why"."I got the how", she replied."I feel these all correlate. If you find the why, you can definitely find the how and the who ''. "Which leads me back to my former point, but you're not ready for that conversation".Lanie nodded, whispering, "We can't do anything but follow orders".The scent of chocolate wafted through the room, my nerves palpitating as the man I had bumped into earlier on walked into the room, his eyes scanning the room and landed softly on me.My body shivered in excitement as he walked towards me, the others staring longingly as I was, his presence commanding total submission. He stopped in front of me, his eyes on me like I was the only one in the room."I've been looking all over for you", he said and smiled. My heart stopping at the sight.Shaking my head clear of the lust haze, I pinched Lanie, signaling her to stop drooling and faced the man in front of me. Forcing neutrality into my expressions, I answered, a little haughtily, "Can I help you?"The stranger laughed, somehow managing to hide the fangs I had spied before, even his laugh was perfect. I scowled, men like him and Claude surely had enough thongs flying in their faces and thought the world lived for them."Yes you can", he replied in velvet and I scowled even further, a retort forming on my lips as Lanie chimed in, pinching me to behave, "You must be new".His attention turned to her, noticing her and my heart caved at the smile he gave her, and I mentally slapped the stupid organ to focus."You can say that", he replied, turning to me almost immediately, his eyes glinting, like a twinkling star in the middle of the dark night, "I'm Vanir".We were to meet at the bar close to Laurent's Inc. to discuss strategy, or that's what I thought the meeting Vanir had scheduled was for as I walked into the bar, JP Cooper's voice serenading the air from a jukebox.I ordered a dry martini and settled into my seat waiting for my partner to show his face, the events of the day replaying through my mind. Lanie's shock at finding out, according to her, that the hunk of lickable, fuckable pure male was my partner still made me laugh till this point.The waiter dropped off my drink, informing me that the drink had already been paid for as I brought out my card.Checking the time, I sipped my drink, the having to wait, grating on my nerves. The bane of my existence walked in ten minutes later, greeting the waiter with familiar familiarity as he headed towards me, his eyes glinting and his teeth flashing."Dalia", he breathed out my name, like oxygen, essential for survival."A minute more and you would have had yourself a table for one", I
The bots finally attacked.Running into floor 30, my legs on fire figuratively, as I entered the project room, the gloominess and tension palpable as everyone focused on the screen hanging up the wall, watching live feeds of the attack. They had rained down in a mass of ten at the Schreps Mall, taking human hostages, shooting and destroying properties. "They had started operating from the start of work, passing off as humans to gain access", Lanie informed, her face gloom."Have they made any demands?", I asked, my eyes wide in frantic worry as the robots started segregating half vampires from humans. "No"."What about the police? Why aren't they doing anything?", I asked, horror coating my bones as people screamed from the television."They can't get in, it's being locked from the inside""That's not possible. A large and populous shopping mall would have more than two entrances", I cried out."The attack was well planned", Lanie answered, tears slipping down her cheeks as she watc
I moaned out in ecstasy as two of his fingers slipped into me, his other hand palming my breast roughly as he growled his approval, his fingers sliding in and out of my wet channel, pumping greedily. I closed my eyes in sweet agony, as his tongue sneaked into my mouth battling my senses, the scent of chocolate filled the room as I cried out from the torture, opening my eyes to see my faceless sexual tormentor finally had a face. Vanir.----------------------------------------------Lanie handed me a cup of coffee as we headed to the project room, people's chatter floating out into the hallway. The bots had been silent ever since their first attack a week ago. I hadn't seen Vanir since then either. The room quieted as our assistant floor manager walked in for another briefing, his daylight ring glinting gold in the light as he walked to the front of the room and turned to face us, "I commend the hard work you have all put towards seeing that the menaces sponsoring this chaotic mess c
Kane's birthday party was to be held in a club. A vampire club.Putting it into consideration that his father might get wind of it, we had rented out the whole VIP section under hush hush terms, not disclosing our names as we made payments. We had gone for the bad and boujee theme, getting decorations in gold, and, after several unending pleas, pink, for the party. The drinks were to be delivered by the bar and the party was tonight.I felt my phone vibrate in my purse and I took it out answering without knowing who it was, "Hello?"Sacha's voice filled my ear as she asked, "Have you picked up the cake yet?"Sighing, I pressed the button for the top floor in the elevator, the doors closing before I answered, "No I haven't, I'll do so this afternoon".Sacha hummed in approval, pausing for a second, then shouting anxiously down the line to my ear, "I don't know what to get for him"."Sacha, Kane's being annoyingly persistent over a birthday gift for the past two weeks now. What do you m
The bots attack on a vampire establishment had the newly mades and the vampires antsy, talks and murmurs of why the 'king of Vampires' hadn't done anything to quell the situation coming up on everyone's lips.Rumours circulating round that he was dead, the vampire population going wild with leashed fury, waiting, just waiting to be provoked once again. Distress calls, threat calls, all sorts of calls came in from every telephone in Laurent's Inc. either threatening the lives of the human employees or soliciting for protection against the bots or calling to confirm whether Jacob St. Laurent was truly dead; as a result majority of the human employees in Laurent's Inc. were sent home for a one week break until the fray settled.Lanie was among those sent back and I wasn't.I got to work everyday with my heart in my throat, praying that there won't be a repeat of that night ever again in my life.Claude had come to pick us up that night, after the whole shooting had died down and the bot
The following week went by quickly, test running my application with the help of the tech team and the vampire database stored in the archives. Inputting in computer languages, running programs, detecting bugs and correcting errors was the highlight of my week. The quietness of Moon City echoing everywhere as everyone awaited the event to be thrown by the King of Vampires.Claude wasn't in the office again, I noted as I entered, this will make it a week since I had seen him and more than a week since I had seen Vanir, it was all like he poofed into thin air.Settling, I called Lanie to see if there was any new information on the bots, putting it on speaker phone as the dialing tone filled the air."Hello", Lanie's light voice came through as she answered."Hey, has there been any new information on the bots?", I asked, going straight to the point, my hands clicking against the keyboards as I updated my project report."The trackers have been termed disabled", Lanie informed, causing
Sacha stayed with me for the rest of the week and went back to her house on Saturday to pack up her mother's things, arguing she needed to do it alone when I insisted on going with her. Her stubbornness won the argument for her.Therefore I answered Lanie's summons when she called me on Saturday morning to go dress shopping, exuding excitement like she was the one going for the event.I met with Lanie at the food court in Schreps Mall, where her brother worked, the mall that had been attacked a month ago, the place already looking brand new from the damage dealt on it by the bots."Hey", I said, popping in front of her, obviously startling her, from her shocked sea green eyes."You scared me", Lanie responded, as I sat opposite her, noticing her hair."You wore your hair down today", I said, my eyes round with excitement."This is not the first time", Lanie scoffed."It's the first time I'm seeing you with your hair down, without it being up first"."Whatever", Lanie bit back, rolling
Shaking tremendously, Andrew skittered back into the hall, the stench of his fear painting the atmosphere as Vanir faced me, the name 'Jacob' echoing in my head as Andrew's fear became my own."Vanir?", I let out, as he walked slowly to me, his eyes menacing and haunting, his gait relaxed, "Why did he call you Jacob?", I asked, stuttering as I backed up against the balcony railing, "I probably didn't hear him correctly", I said again, shaking my head as the temperature dropped around me."Vanirrr", I cried out again, as his chocolate scent warped around me, my eyes widening in dread as I locked on to his clouded eyes, his lips curling in a snarl as he reached me, caging me in between himself and the railing. "What are you doinngg?", I stuttered as I glimpsed his fangs elongate. "Vanir, please don't do this", I begged as his fangs came down on my carotid artery and I screamed, the pointed organ stopping just shy of my neck as I felt his exhale of breath."Alec would take you to my of