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“Would you care to join me?” I asked.

She smelled good, and the rush of blood through her veins told me I turned her on.

She gave me a cute little smile and sat down beside me. “I’m Beyonce,” she said. “Who are you?”

I felt rather than saw my friend’s eyeroll. There was no way this woman had given her real name. “Kiam,” I replied. “That’s not your name.”

She giggled and placed her hand on my thigh. My leg twitched at her touch and I reached for her hair. It felt like straw.

“It can be, for tonight,” she insisted. Her little pink tongue dragged along her lip, and she gathered her hair, tossing it over her shoulder and out of the way.

This wasn’t going the way I planned. Food was food but I liked to believe I had discerning taste. This woman wasn’t it.

“What were your plans for the evening?” I asked.

She spread her thighs and glanced at me. “Oh, a little of you,” she replied, tugging her skirt up.

Her skin wasn’t as soft as I’d hoped when I gripped her neck. I glanced at Josiah. He leaned back in his seat, drumming his nails on the table while he checked his phone.

“Go away,” I growled at the woman. She thought she was cute when she pouted. “Now,” I ordered her.

It didn’t take long for someone to haul her away. I shrugged my shoulder. “I guess I wasn’t that hungry.”

He snickered. “Tell me about your time in the First Realm.”

I divulged a little bit, including a brief point about a job I’d completed that involved one of his contractors.

Josiah sighed. “I wanted him to find the Seventh Realm diamonds for me. We’re working on developing new medications. They could be useful.” His phone vibrated and he checked the screen before setting the device back down. “He spent the evening at the benefit with a woman, as I’m sure you noticed.”

I hadn’t; I’d had my own priorities that night. “I think the other events took precedence over me paying him any mind.”

“Mmm...” my friend said.

Something had been going on in that house, outside the view of the public but detectable by vampires. It was none of our business, so we left the event early.

We sat here at our table for several minutes, both of us observing the happenings around us, lost in our own thoughts. My own kept straying to a nosey blonde who thought scaling walls was an appropriate way to visit a home.

Josiah lifted his phone again. “Della is waiting for me,” he announced.

I met his eyes and gave him a nod. He buttoned his suit jacket and walked away, leaving me to peruse tonight’s selection and finding none of them acceptable.

CHAPTER 4

Brittney

Christ.

My hair tumbled around my shoulders when I pulled it out of the fabric-covered elastic. It was so long that I’d find my arms tangled up in the strands in the morning if I didn’t corral it into submission on top of my head.

My equilibrium was off and I had a headache. I’d dreamed I woke up in the forest and gone back to the deserted mansion. Some man had been in there and it was pitch black and I was stuck inside with no way out. Just how hard had I fallen when I’d tumbled off that wall? Both my brain and my body felt a mess. The dream had felt incredibly life-like.

There was an hour left before I had to be at the office, and I spent it inhaling coffee, showering, and dressing.

My studio apartment was small, smaller than I’d like. It probably didn’t help that I’d painted the walls and ceiling black, but it looked great with the recessed lighting and the LED bars tucked in the overhead edges.

There was plenty of room for my shelves full of trinkets and curiosities and a small bookcase. Then there was the beloved velvet Victorian couch I found on the side of the road. After a shit-ton of cleaning, you’d never know it had sat forlorn on a curb for God knew how long. The piece was my pride and joy. The mold had been a bitch to get rid of, though.

The dream had left me really unsettled, and as I glanced around my home, one hand on the doorknob, I took comfort in the familiar items.