Vampire Mate: BBW Paranormal Romance (3 page)

But Glenn was also a Council
member of the PAC, and the Paranormal Affairs Council always had
their meetings at night to accommodate all their members.

Glenn pressed his fingertips
together as he listened to the debate that was going on forever
between some of the board members.

He would have to wrap up this
board meeting soon.
Now
, if possible.

His Chief Executive Officer,
Harvey Chen, a dignified, bespectacled silver haired weredragon was
answering some questions from the other board members.

Glenn leaned forward and cut
into the debate. “Harvey is right. I don't think we should
sell the land.”

One of the board members
turned his frown on Glenn. “But Mr Kron's offer is...”

“
Too good to be true?
Then it probably is,” Glenn said levelly.

“
He's offering a really
good price, for that land. A crazy price, in fact,” another
board member interjected heatedly. “We'll be crazy not to
accept!”

“
But why would Mr
Sideous Kron be suddenly interested in a remote piece of land held by
GC Inc.? From what I know, Mr Kron moved to New Moon City about
sixty years ago, and he has largely kept to himself. A very wealthy
demon lord, but very reclusive. No one knows much about him, other
than he lives in a castle in Infernal Springs, that outrageously
affluent neighborhood at the periphery of New Moon City. So why this
offer out of the blue? And yes, what he is offering in no chump
change,” Glenn said, looking round the long table. “The
amount is insane, I'd say.”

“
Who cares if the old
demon is insane? He's got money and he's willing to spend it. If
he's throwing it our way, then I say we grab it. That demon is
loaded, comes from old money, I heard.” This from a bejeweled
board member whose shareholding in the company was pretty
substantial.

Glenn made no response. He
had heard the same about that eccentric, reclusive demon lord. On
the surface, Sideous Kron appeared to be a genteel, old-fashioned
gentleman, seldom reverting to his demon form, always dressed
impeccably in tailored suits and a shiny top hat.

Why would the demon lord be
interested in an abandoned parcel of land that lay far out of the
city? Lots of blood had been shed on that land, and no one really
wanted to have anything to do with the land that was stained red with
the blood of millions of slaughtered shifters.

The company had received
several offers for the land from a few developers before, but always
the offered price had been ridiculously low. And now, the offer by
Sideous Kron was ludicrously high.

Coupled with the fact that
Sideous Kron was a blood demon—it just didn't sit well with
Glenn.

“
I say we mull over the
offer for a bit longer before giving our answer,” Glenn said at
last, silencing the furious discussion that had broken out.

“
The offer won't last
forever,” someone pointed out.

Glenn shrugged. “Maybe.
Maybe not. It depends.”

It depends on how badly the
old demon wants that land, and what he wants it for.

There were a few disgruntled
murmurs, but as the Chairman of GC Inc., Glenn had the final say.

The board meeting was called
to a close, and as everyone filed out of the conference room, Glenn
pulled Harvey aside and told him, “You know where Mr Kron
lives.”

“
Yes,” Harvey said
quietly, looking at him over the rim of his glasses. “I will
see what I can find out.”

“
Be careful.”

Harvey smiled. “Ah,
don't worry. I can hide well in the clouds. I am not bulky and
noisy, like the other dragons.”

Glenn had to smile at that.
Harvey was an Eastern dragon, so when he shifted, his shape was long
and fluid, and his serpentine body slithered silently through the
clouds without the loud flapping of wings. Harvey was also discreet
and very wise, and he trusted his CEO's assessment and judgment.

“
Just stay hidden, and
watch Mr Kron's movements. But I suspect the old demon will be very
careful. You know he is a blood demon, so...”

“
He is not getting any
dragon blood, Mr Constantine.”

Glenn gave Harvey a grim
smile. There were many demons in New Moon City, but very few blood
demons. Blood demons were worse, far worse than vampires in Glenn's
view. Vampire bites didn't hurt. Their fangs were sleek and sharp,
and pieced the skin cleanly. Vampire fangs were also coated with a
kind of anesthetic and aphrodisiac, making the bite painless and very
pleasurable. But blood demons had serrated fangs. And their bites
were excruciating.

With the PAC laws and rules in
place, vampires and blood demons weren't allowed to bite to feed. To
feed, they had to go to the licensed blood bars all around the city.
Innovative bar owners had come up with blood of all flavors. There
was alcoholic blood, artificially sweetened blood, blood with added
vitamins and minerals, you named it, they served it. The only time
biting was allowed was during mating. It was a strictly no biting
policy in New Moon City. Biting and sucking of blood was allowed
only between consensual adults in the private, intimate act of
mating.

Outside of mating, if a
vampire or blood demon bit and fed off another, the vampire or demon
would be hunted down as a rogue by the PAC Enforcers.

Vampire bites were
pleasurable, orgasmic even, and the bed partners of vampires usually
wore their bite marks with pride. But the sexual partners of blood
demons often had to rush themselves to the hospital as soon as they
could extricate themselves from the demons' fangs. Blood demons
seemed to revel in causing maximum pain to their partners. Their
mating was filled with screams, and not in a good way.

Glenn shuddered. He would
never take a blood demoness to his bed.

Harvey walked out the door and
inclined his head in a bow. “Good night, Mr Constantine.”
Glenn sighed. He had given up trying to get Harvey to just call him
Glenn. Harvey with his silver hair and kindly face looked like he
could be his grandfather, even though he was a century younger than
Glenn. Glenn had been a vampire for a long, long time. So long that
he had almost forgotten how it felt to be human, to trust, to feel,
to fear.

Glenn trusted so few, felt so
little, and feared nothing.

His secretary, Mrs Philomi
Singh, locked the conference room door after him and walked with him
to the lift lobby. Philomi had been in his employ for close to
twenty-five years now. She had been a young woman in her early
twenties when she first started work, and now she was almost fifty.
He had attended her wedding, seen her have three lovely children, and
recently stood by her side as her husband's coffin was lowered into
the ground. Her husband had passed away after a lengthy battle with
cancer, and even though Philomi's three children had come to Glenn to
beg him to save their father, to turn their dad into a vampire,
Philomi had said no. Philomi had been adamant that her husband be
released from all suffering. It made Glenn wonder if Philomi thought
that he was suffering all this time.

“
I'm sorry to make you
stay so late, Philomi,” Glenn said.

“
It's my job. I have to
take the minutes. Anyway, it's a Friday night and the kids are out,
on dates, at parties. I'll rather be working than eating a cold
supper in my kitchen.” She left out the last word.
Alone.

Glenn turned to face her.
“Philomi...”

She held up a hand. After
working with him for twenty-five years, he swore the woman could read
his mind. “No, I don't regret my decision. It was Chandran's
wish as well. He wouldn't want to be...”

Like you.

She fell silent and Glenn
smiled wryly. He understood completely. And it seemed Philomi and
Chandran did as well.

“
If there is anything I
can do...” Glenn began.

Philomi spun round and cut him
off. “You've done so much already, Mr Constantine. You paid
all Chandran's medical bills. We wouldn't have been able to afford
all those medical treatments. Top doctors, first class care. And
even when I took weeks and months off to care for him at the end, you
continued paying me my salary. And what you're paying me? You can
hire three secretaries with my salary. And you know that.”

Glenn put on a solemn look.
“I am a business man, Philomi, so I always look at the bottom
line. And you—are worth every cent. Now, don't you dare go
back to the office. The minutes can be typed up on Monday. Get
yourself to a nice restaurant, open a bottle of wine and enjoy a
lovely, relaxing dinner. Or go to a bar and let your hair down.”

“
Ah, a bar. You mean a
blood bar. I've heard that you frequent the blood bars around town,
Mr Constantine,” Philomi said with a twinkle in her eye.

“
Out of necessity,”
was Glenn's impassive reply.

The blood bars were licensed
by the PAC, and as a Council member, it was part of Glenn's duty to
check on the bars and make sure they adhered to the licensing rules
and regulations. And to make sure that there was no biting in the
bars.

He hadn't taken a vein in so
long. Which meant he hadn't taken a female to his bed in as long.
The thought made him ache. The sense of emptiness and yearning was
acute, but from the state of things, it wasn't going away any time
soon.

There was another reason why
vampires had to bite and taste the blood of their partners. Sexual
attraction was one thing. A true mate bond was another thing
altogether. It was the real thing.

Glenn had had many women in
his bed, but none of them had stayed more than one night with him.
He had pleasured them, taken his own empty release, and tumbled out
of bed, still aching, still hungry. Just a single drop of their
blood on his tongue told him what he already knew.

Not his mate.

He never took more than a
drop. Just a nick on their necks—and he withdrew. The hunger
was there, still, always, but the hunger was for his mate.

A year ago, he thought he'd
found her, a curvy blond beauty with the most dazzling green eyes,
but before he could talk to her, much less talk her into his bed,
he'd lost her.

She was...

Philomi's voice broke through
his thoughts and Glenn started. There was a flicker of concern in
her eyes as she stared up at him.

Glenn smiled and said quickly,
“I'll see you on Monday, Philomi. You have a good weekend.”

Philomi gave him a gentle,
knowing smile and a sigh as she hopped into a cab. Glenn watched her
cab disappear round the corner, then turned and walked a little
distance in the direction of the PAC Headquarters. He could mist
there, but he just wanted to walk a bit, stretch his long legs and
clear his business head.

Glenn walked briskly down the
street, passing a few couples strolling hand in hand. Friday night,
and everyone was decompressing, dating, dancing and drinking.
Whereas he had just finished up a long-drawn board meeting and was
now heading to a Council meeting. No rest for the wicked, he
supposed.

A muffled scream from a side
alley made him whip round, his senses on full alert.

In a heartbeat, his form
shimmered into mist and he materialized at the mouth of the alleyway.
As he stepped into the alley, tendrils of mist still clinging to his
suit, he saw a burly skinhead pin a terrified little witch to the
wall. The witch's magick sparked wildly from the tips of her fingers
as she tried to fight off her assailant. She shrieked a spell, and a
shower of sparks landed harmlessly over the man's head. He laughed,
and as he pushed her skirt roughly up to her waist, his face
elongated and fur sprouted on the back of his neck. He was losing
control of himself and his beast.

The man jerked suddenly, but
not in Glenn's direction. He raised his head and sniffed the air
hard, his body twitching uncontrollably in his half shifted form.
His face was now more wolf than man, and his body bulged and his
shirt split into half, revealing his furry back. Glenn saw the
werewolf lurch suddenly to the side, as the air rippled and filled
with a new scent.

Glenn tensed, his fangs
extending instinctively.

It was the scent of a female,
but the scent didn't come from the sobbing witch, who was tugging her
skirt down and scrambling away in the opposite direction. Glenn
didn't go after her. There was something else in the alley right
now. Something even more dangerous than that rogue werewolf.

A buxom beauty stepped out
soundlessly from behind the snarling werewolf almost as if she had
been standing and waiting there all along.

Glenn froze in shock. It
was—her.

He stared at her fair,
beautiful face, and dragged his eyes down her sexy, curvy figure.
Her green eyes were shining as she moved towards the wolf.

Her bob of blond hair framed
her pretty face perfectly. Carelessly tucking her hair behind her
ear, she sashayed towards the werewolf, her tight leather mini skirt
riding up her creamy thighs as she moved. The heels of her boots
clicked softly as she prowled towards her target.