AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“And what kind of reminder would that be?” a low voice from somewhere near Gideon drawled. The cute blond vampire winced. He closed one eye and his smile became awkwardly tight.
“Um…when you mentioned in your message that your friend was having trouble with vampires from the Sandor clan, I brought it to my boss, since he knows all the various clans better than me. Plus, the Sandor clan can be…troublesome. I hope you don’t mind,” Gideon explained.
“No, that’s fine. We’ll take whatever help we can get right now,” Sky agreed.
“Here, Gideon,” the new speaker lazily interrupted. “Come close, so I’m on the camera as well. I want to see this necromancer you and Ryder are friends with. Even Winter knows him. Why am I being excluded from the fun?”
Sky looked over at Nolan as Gideon’s camera whirled and blurred with movement. Nolan didn’t know who this other speaker was. He didn’t know who Gideon was, and he definitely didn’t know who Gideon’s boss was.
“Gideon? You helped him with a ghost?” Nolan asked in a low voice while Gideon was getting resettled.
The witch nodded and smiled. “Yes, Gideon is a vampire who dances at Phoenix. He had a haunted trunk I helped make unhaunted. He’s dating Ryder—another vampire—and they are so cute together.”
Nolan blinked at him for a second as his brain tried to sort through all that information. He didn’t know what was tripping him up more—a vampire with a ghost problem or a vampire dating? Some part of his mind kept thinking of them as simply monsters that wanted to ruin his life or kill his brother. It never occurred to him that some of them might be normal and actually date.
“Awww, thank you!” Gideon cooed.
“Of course, you and Ryder are cute together.” The other speaker was now visible on the screen, and this was what Hollywood had taught Nolan a vampire was supposed to look like. This man was hot. Like stupid, “Yes, I’ll let you bite me” hot. Dark hair, glittering eyes framed by long black eyelashes set into a sharply carved face.
This vampire was insanely attractive, and the smirk on his lips said that he knew it.
Wait…why did he seem so familiar?
“Holy shit! You’re Rafe Varik!” Sky gasped beside him. That gave him a name but didn’t trigger any specific memory. He thought Sky had mentioned something about the Variks earlier. Fuck, it was all blurry now.
“You recognize me?” Rafe inquired, sounding very pleased by this development.
A blush stole across Sky’s cheeks, and Nolan clenched his teeth. What the fuck was this about?
“Oh, I follow your Instagram. The pictures of you and your husband together are so beautiful,” Sky gushed.
“Husband? Oh, I like that. I usually call mon ange ‘my mate,’ but I like husband, too. I’ll have to try that later,” Rafe murmured.
Nolan didn’t like this vampire. He might not have been threatening his life or Owen’s—yet—but he seemed too slick, and Sky was too enamored of this man. He probably wanted to make Sky his pet or whatever.
“Rafe, the Sandor clan,” Gideon whispered loudly from where he cuddled against the vampire.
“Yes, yes, I was getting to that. Necromancer—”
“Sky,” Nolan snapped. “His name is Skylar Wallace,” Nolan bit out sharply.
Rafe’s eyes widened, and his smile shifted from surprise to something sly. “Correct, Mr. Wallace, the witch who helped my precious Gideon, but who is this grumpy storm cloud?”
Nolan put an arm around Sky’s shoulders as he shifted closer so the vampires could see him. He’d already dealt with two carloads of angry vampires. Why not face some more on the phone?
The little squeak that escaped Sky just before he snuggled even closer interrupted his thoughts. Sky’s head even rested on Nolan’s shoulder. What was he doing, again?
“This is Nolan Banks, my neighbor,” Sky introduced. “His brother is the one who’s gotten into trouble with the Sandor clan.”
Rafe’s playful smile turned into a frown as he looked over Nolan. “And the human who was stirring up trouble in my club.”
“I’m sorry about that. I-I don’t really remember what happened that night,” Nolan stammered. Thankfully, Sky jumped in, stopping him from making a bigger mess of things. He explained how Owen came to be tangled up with the Sandor clan and what they wanted.
The more Sky spoke, the more Rafe’s handsome face twisted up with rage until he could barely sit still. Even Gideon’s mouth was hanging open at the end.
“Are you sure? They’re demanding a shifter be handed over?” Rafe asked. He leaned closer to the camera so that his face filled Sky’s screen.
“That’s what Aldo wants. He gave us twenty-four hours to find one, or they are claiming Owen or Nolan as payment,” Sky said. “Owen has disappeared. We can’t reach him to tell him about the deadline, and we can’t find him. They’re going to come after Nolan, and he has nothing to do with this mess.”
