Page 12 of Bound By Blood

The intercom on his phone buzzed, and the voice of his secretary pulled him out of his mind. “Mr. Creed, your three-thirty is here,” she said in her usual flirtatious tone, causing him to sneer under his breath.

Irma had always had a thing for him, ever since she started working in the building, but she wasn’t even close to being his type. Not like Carly. Irma was the kind of person who always wore way too much makeup, and he had also never really been fond of the smell of silicone, which her fake breasts constantly produced. Besides, he wasn’t the ‘relationship’ type anyway. Not with the kind of life he lived. Though, he was fairly certain that she would be content just to get him into bed.

“Show them to the conference room,” he stated, his voice short and clipped. He always made it a point to show her that she didn’t stand a chance. It helped that he was irritated already at what had transpired the night before. “I’ll be right there.”

Landon rose to his feet and buttoned the jacket of his suit before heading toward the door. He still wasn’t sure what he was going to say to the elders, and he knew he had to play this right. They technically answered to his father, and since he didn’t want Drayton to know about it yet, he was going to have to ask them to keep quiet about this meeting between the three of them. It was a big risk, but he seemed to be taking quite a few of those recently.

Loxton and Oakley were already seated at the large oval table when he arrived. He closed the door behind him and stepped up to the counter, pouring himself a glass of water. He didn’t need it, but it had become a habit. All part of playing human.

“Thank you both for meeting with me on such short notice,” he stated as he took a seat across from the two men. He set the glass of water down on the table where it would probably go ignored for the rest of the meeting.

Loxton was a bald man with mocha-colored skin. His eyes were a piercing gray color, and he had a scar along the left side of his face. He had to of gotten it before he became a vampire as vampires had accelerated healing, but Landon had never asked him about it before. Nor did he have any intention of doing so. His business was his own.

Oakley was unlike any other vampire, a little wisp of a man. Much shorter than the other vampires with sandy blond hair and blue eyes. He wore thick, black-framed glasses too, though he didn’t need them anymore. Landon had always had the suspicion that his being turned into one of them had been a fluke. A killing gone wrong. No one would ever imagine that a guy looking the way he did would be a killer.

“Where’s Drayton?” Loxton asked curiously. “Will he be joining us today?”

Landon shook his head. “No. He’s currently out at lunch with the Mayor. He’s not aware of this meeting, and I would like to keep it that way.”

“I’m not sure I feel comfortable keeping anything from your father,” Oakley chimed in, his nasally voice grating on Landon’s already frayed nerves. “He is the one we answer to, not you.”

“I have every intention of talking to him about it later,” Landon replied shortly, waving his hand as if dismissing their concerns. When he looked at them again, his eyes flashed dangerously in warning. They knew the stories; they knew what Landon could do to them if they betrayed him. He would enjoy it too because that’s who he was. “But let me make this clear. This is my business to tell, not yours. Is that going to be a problem?”

Oakley studied him for several moments before he finally shook his head and motioned for him to continue.

Landon sighed, relaxing only a bit. He had thought getting them to agree to keep this meeting secret was going to be the hard part, but he had been wrong. Just thinking about telling the elders what had transpired the night before made him feel exposed and vulnerable. Of which, he was neither. He was a vampire, a monster, and he usually had far more control over himself than this. He needed to get it together.

“Last night, I was out hunting,” he began. “I had just taken care of a few things for my father and needed to blow off some steam. I had chosen my victim and began feeding with every intention of draining her dry. But something happened. It was like…” He paused in order to choose his words carefully. “It was like a feeling. Which doesn’t make sense as we don’t usually feel much apart from hunger. Long story short, I found myself incapable of killing her. It was physically impossible for me to drain her, no matter how much I wanted to. It was as if there were something inside of me that prevented me from doing so.”

As he finished his explanation, he looked up at the men in front of him. Loxton shifted uncomfortably beneath his gaze while Oakley appeared terrified.

“You left her alive?” Oakley gasped. “But, that’s against the rules!”

“I am aware of the rules, Oakley,” Landon retorted bitterly, his lip curled in a sneer. “Having created a few of them myself. But like I said, I physically could not kill her. It was impossible. Instead, I…” He was almost afraid to say the words out loud. Saying it out loud made it real, and he wasn’t sure he was ready for what happened when it became real. Swallowing hard, he straightened his shoulders, trying to appear as though this truth didn’t affect him as much as it did. “I found myself intrigued by her. I found that I wanted to protect her. I have never experienced something like that before, and I was hoping that the two of you might be able to tell me what is happening to me. If I have anything to worry about.”

Landon had made the last-minute decision to omit the fact that he wanted Carly in every way possible. While having sex with a human was not unheard of, the desire he had for her most definitely was. He didn’t just want to sleep with her; he wanted far more than that. He wanted to be with her. To him, he already sounded a tad crazy, and he didn’t want to add to that by expressing that he was more than just sexually attracted to a human he had been trying to kill.

Loxton and Oakley looked at each other before shifting uncomfortably. They appeared to be having some kind of silent conversation with each other, and Landon watched them closely, trying to decipher the signs. It didn’t take long for him to realize the truth behind their eyes.

Landon had been alive long enough to know what that look meant. They knew something. They knew what had happened to him, and it was taking all of his energy to maintain calm. He got the distinct impression that they didn’t want to tell him what they knew, and he couldn’t have that. He needed answers, and he was going to do whatever it took to get them.

“Trust me, you do not want to try my patience right now,” he added, his eyes flashing again. Because he didn’t get to kill the night before, he was antsy and on edge. He was quick to anger and could snap at the drop of a hat. Both Loxton and Oakley were not helping matters with their reluctance. “I did not get to appease my monster last night, and I have no qualms about doing it now. Elders or not. Tell me what you know, right now, or it will be a slow and excruciating death.”

Despite his threat, Oakley still shook his head, clearly refusing to tell him anything. Landon never did like Oakley. He was an ass-kisser. He was like his father’s lap dog, doing everything he was told without question and doing everything he could to stay in Drayton’s good graces. The guy was just as power-hungry as his father was. And Oakley always sided with whoever he believed to be the most powerful.

Thankfully though, Loxton sighed heavily in resignation. “We don’t know all the details, Landon,” he began. “But we have heard of this happening once before. Many centuries ago.”

“What can you tell me about it?” Landon pressed impatiently. He didn’t have any problems with Loxton. The two of them had worked together before, a very long time ago. While he wouldn’t say they were friends, as Landon didn’t have friends, he could at least say that they agreed on most things and had a mutual understanding of the way the world worked.

“Not much, if I’m being honest. What I can tell you is that this human is very important to you. Whether you want to believe it or not.”

Landon’s eyes narrowed slightly. He didn’t believe that. Humans were not important to him, and they never had been. They were only a source of subsistence, a way to feed his monster and sustain his life. He didn’t see how there was any way for this girl to suddenly become important to him. It didn’t make any sense, nor did it give him any answers.

“Why?” he asked after a while. “Why is she important to me?”

Loxton shook his head. “That we don’t know. Kata, the vampire this happened to before, became enthralled by a human male once. Obsessed even. She couldn’t stay away from him, no matter how hard she tried, nor could she drain him as she so desperately wanted. Eventually, the two of them began a romantic and sexual relationship.”

“A relationship?” Landon asked, unable to hide the surprise in his voice.