B Positive by Jewel Killian

Five

Hand poised over the knob,I kept my ears focused on the hall for a good thirty seconds before opening the door. Convinced all was clear, I turned the knob and eased the door open.

Only to run squarely into the wide, burly chest of Big Dumb Dick.

How had that big, dumb fucker snuck up on me like that?

My pulse jumped. But as soon as the vamp freeze let me go, I tucked my pack behind me, hoping he hadn’t noticed it.

I was also really hoping he wouldn’t notice I wasn’t wearing shoes, as I gave him my sweetest smile and ran a hand up his arm.

I let my cheeks flush and batted my lashes at him. “Oh, hey you,” I purred. “I guess I got turned around. I’m feeling much better, though. Can you show me how to get back to the courtyard?”

BDD rolled his eyes and grabbed me by the back of the neck, scruffing me like a naughty puppy.

“Hey! Get your big meat mitts off of me!”

He pushed me down the hall, grip unrelenting. “The young ones are always the most confident.”

Big Dumb Dick hauled me down the stairs, through the halls, and past all the stupid rooms I’d committed to memory for this job.

Not that it had done me any good. I might as well have handed the king my head on a silver fucking platter for as much as my planning accomplished.

“In here,” he grunted, shoving me into the spacious, inviting study I’d pictured myself in before.

I stumbled to the center of the room, goodie bag falling to the ground.

Standing between two dark bookcases and silhouetted by the rising sun, the king of Laurel Cove faced the window, his back to me. He might have been surveying the midtown street or watching the attendees of his gala leaving. He might have been doing anything for all outward appearances.

Except I knew he was planning my death.

Beheading would be the quickest. Though a stake to the heart had a decidedly poetic slant. Something about going out because a beautiful, powerful king stabbed me in the heart called to me.

I would have been a really great emo kid.

I stood statue still, pulse pounding in my neck as I waited for the king to tell me how he planned to end my life. Fortunately, my brain decided it couldn’t be bothered to deal with the stress of impending death via hot king, and decided instead to commit to memory every detail of said hot king’s delicious physical form.

Like the way he stood relaxed with his back to the room, as if he knew that he could handle anything that came into his space. And how he allowed his frame to take up as much space as needed, something many tall and broad men didn’t do.

Even the way the seams of his dark gray suit pulled taut across the wide expanse of his shoulders drew attention to how powerful this vampire was.

“Hubris is a folly of youth.” His back was still to me and I thanked every god ever known to man for that small mercy because the man’s voice shot through me like electrified sex magic.

Was that a thing?

I drew in a breath and squeezed my thighs together, hoping to quell the throbbing ache there.

“Wouldn’t you agree?” He turned slowly, and I had just enough time to pull myself together.

His warm hazel eyes went wide for just a moment, probably because I was standing there, body humming like it was about to come. He cleared his throat, and I suppressed a moan as that rich, smoky rasp threaded through me.

What the fuck was wrong with me?

“Why can’t I scent you?” he snapped, face hard and eyes going full dark with vamp magic.

“Stinging nettle,” I said and stepped back. “Please, can you tamp down your magnetism, I can’t…” My hands and voice shook. My skin blazed with heat and desire.

All I could think of were the king’s lips on mine, hands on my body, and me grabbing fistfuls of night-dark hair, directing where I wanted his mouth next.

Or his clothes coming off and my hands on him, my lips everywhere.

“Stop that,” he hissed, turning his back to me once more.

I let out a shuddering breath, and the king bellowed for someone. “Rory! Take her out of here.”

BDD appeared at my side in a blur.

“At once, sir. Where would you like me to take her, King Julian?”

“Get her out of my sight!”

BDD grabbed my neck again and led me from the study. Back up the stupid stairs we went. This time we stopped on the second floor where he pushed me inside a room. I didn’t stumble.

What the holy fuck was that?

Jeez, I felt like a cat in heat yowling and sticking my ass in the air for a big tomcat in a gray suit.

Thankfully, the buzzing heat began to burn itself out. Just in time for panic to freeze my limbs at the sound of the door locking from the outside.

I ran to the door as soon as I could to try the handle myself.

I jiggled it hard, testing the limits of the lock.

But it didn’t budge.

So, the king had vamp-proof locks on his doors, but not his safes?

I slid down the door and sank to the floor, my stomach bottoming out.

It was a setup.

It had to be.

The king and BDD were right. I was a young and stupid vamp with too much confidence.

I’d thought studying hard would be enough.

I should have known there was so much I just didn’t know.

And now I had to sit and wait in this…what was this, a guest bedroom?

I supposed that was better than a dungeon. Or a padded room. Or a coffin. Until the king decided how he wanted to kill me, BDD had thrown me into a really cute, comfortable bedroom with pretty green wallpaper and a gorgeous four-poster bed.

Fantastic.

I’d really fucked this up.

I’d worked my ass off prepping for this job, and it hadn’t helped a single bit.

Because I was still just a baby vampire whose maker died before she could teach me anything about anything.

It was why I enjoyed living and working with humans. Exile aside, I understood humans. I knew how they operated, how they thought. Hell, it wasn’t that long ago I was one.

Vampires, however, were still a fucking mystery to me.

Like, really, how had that hulking security guard waited outside the door without making a single peep? I couldn’t even hear his heart.

But even the shitty humans were easy to deal with compared to vampires.

My thoughts went to Jaxson, and the landlord I was supposed to have a talk with today.

I had to get myself out of here.

I couldn’t very well sit around feeling sorry for myself and waiting for them to execute me.

Even though I totally deserved it. I had people counting on me.

I reached out next to me for my goodie bag.

Fuck!BDD had scruffed me before I could grab it. That’s okay, that’s fine. Just pull yourself together and think, Eden.

I glanced to the window overlooking the street below.

Third-floor jump?

That wouldn’t be so bad, right?

I’d never done it before, but I probably wouldn’t break anything.

Except the window.

I shot up, marched toward the window, and kicked it out with all my considerable vamp strength. Luckily, the window wasn’t also vampire proof, or else I would have probably broken my foot. “You can totally do this,” I said, staring down through the broken shards of glass as my heart tried to beat out of my chest at the thought of jumping through that window.

But the alternative to jumping was death, so…

I jumped.