Vampire Mate: BBW Paranormal Romance (8 page)

It was the hardest thing he
had to do.

“
Charlene.” He
said her name one last time, and turned away from her.

She inhaled sharply, almost as
if in pain. He strode to the door and turned his head to the side,
fighting the urge to take a final look at her.

“
Glenn,” she
whispered.

He stilled.

“
We should talk,”
she said, and he heard the plea in her voice.

He bent his head. Kron had
announced emphatically that he had entrusted her with the negotiation
for the purchase of the land. If she didn't talk to him, she would
not have done her job, and Glenn had no doubt that Kron would punish
her for it.

Glenn wanted to kill Kron
right now, rip his demon head right off his shoulders.

But he—couldn't.

Kron was her Maker. If he
killed the demon lord, he would kill her as well. If a demon Maker
was destroyed, all his Made demons would be destroyed with their
Maker.

How, just how, could he kill
that demon, without killing her?

“
Yes. We'll talk,”
he gritted over his shoulder.
We have to, b
ut not here.
“Make an appointment with my secretary to meet me in my
office. We can talk then.”

“
I...I will. I'll see
you then,” she stammered.

He wanted to spin round and
grab her, and whisk her far, far away from Kron. But that would be a
futile and foolish act. Kron would Summon her back to him, and she
would suffer for it.

Demons had their own hierarchy
and methods of dominance and control. Even vampires differed in
their methods. Glenn knew some Master vampires maintained a tight
hold on the vampires they turned, forcing their will on them, making
sure their minds and powers were always weaker than theirs. Glenn
never believed in forcing someone's will. The vampires he turned
were free to do as they wanted, as long as they didn't commit evil.
If any of his vampires turned rogue, he would personally hunt them
down and destroy them himself. So far, he had only destroyed one of
his own. He had been very careful thereafter in choosing who to
turn. Bryn Ellis, his youngest vampire was now an Enforcer, and
worked and played hard with Charlotte, the Alpha's mate. Caleb Thorn
had also made good, and although he liked to party and loved a good
time, he was a vamp with a good heart.

It was all about choices and
free will.

Charlene had chosen to be a
blood demoness. From his knowledge of humans and demons gleaned over
the ages, he knew that a human could only become a demon if they
agreed to be Made into one. Charlene had been fully human. She was
not a natural or born demoness.

It was her choice. Her free
will.

No one could force her. Even
Kron couldn't force her to become a blood demoness if she had said
no.

“
Will you...be all
right?” he asked over his shoulder, without looking at her.

Her answer was a bare whisper.
“Yes.”

Glenn walked straight out the
opened doors without glancing back. If he looked back at her, he
knew he would never, ever be able to leave.

Getting into his car, he
turned the car around and gunned down the long driveway. The
gargoyles unfurled their stone wings as the gates clanged shut behind
him. Squinting up, he saw a long, silver dragon body slither out of
the clouds and follow his car.

“
Harvey,” he said
under his breath. He suddenly reached for his phone and dialed
Harvey's number. He heard the ringing tone and then Harvey's voice
came through. “Yes, Glenn?”

“
Harvey, how are you
able to pick up the phone when you're flying through the clouds,
directly above my car?” Glenn asked calmly.

“
Hands-free set,”
came his CEO's droll answer.

“
You shouldn't be here.”

“
I was just in the
neighborhood. How was dinner?” Harvey said, cutting straight
to the point. “Did he talk much about the land?”

“
No, he assigned his
assistant to handle the acquisition.”

“
Hmm.”

“
Hmm indeed. Get
yourself home now, Harvey. I'll talk to you in the office tomorrow.”

“
Okay, drive safe.”
Click.

Glenn saw a flick of a
magnificent silver tail in the sky as the silver dragon receded into
the distance. Philomi must have told Harvey where he was, and Harvey
being Harvey had come and circled Kron's lair until he saw Glenn
drive out the gates in one piece. Under that retiring, unassuming
manner, Harvey was loyal, cool-headed and courageous. He was a good
CEO and a great friend.

Glenn sped towards the city,
but he didn't want to go back to his silent, empty penthouse right
now.

A crowded, pulsing blood bar
was where he needed to be right now. He needed to drink. Not think,
not feel, just—drink.

He needed blood, but all he
could think of was
her
blood. The sweet, fair column of her
throat, the curve of her neck flowing into her round shoulders, her
inviting bosom...

He could still see her
brilliant green eyes, eyes that held no tears but so much pain.

With a growl, he shook her
image away. He couldn't even think straight right now. He needed to
check himself into a blood bar, stat.

Charlene followed him to the
front door and watched him leave, forcing her shaking knees to hold
up until she heard his car roar out of the gates. Once she knew that
Glenn had left Sideous Kron's compound, she turned and slumped onto
the sofa in front of the fireplace, all her bravado and belligerence
leached from her.

She wanted to bury her head in
her hands, or throw something, preferably something expensive and
fragile. She glared at the row of snow globes on a shelf beside the
fireplace. Something wasn't quite right about these globes. For
one, the glass was dark and opaque, rather than transparent. Through
the dark glass, she could sense rather than see something trapped
within the globe. Unconsciously, she gulped and inched further away
from those dark globes. There was definitely something sinister
about those snow globes.

Charlene closed her eyes and
recalled Glenn's tone and look of revulsion and contempt. Her
fingers curled into fists as her breathing quickened. Who was he to
judge her? He was a vampire, a blood drinker, and he was judging
her? Pot and kettle much? Even if he was a very handsome, very
intense, very hot pot, he still didn't have the right to look down on
her and revile her for being a blood demoness!

And he had turned his back and
just walked out of her.

To think that she had...liked
him. Well, it was a lot more than like really. She felt like she
belonged to him, with him, and that he was—the one. The one,
and only one, for her. Charlene gave herself a big mental kick in
the butt. There was no such thing as 'the one'. She wasn't a
giggling, starry-eyed young thing. Yet she was holding on to such
silly romantic illusions. The one. Yeah, right.

But when she looked into his
eyes, she had seen something that was deep and real. The want, the
anger, the pain. His conflicted emotions had been raw and real. He
had walked away from her, yet she wanted to run to him, run straight
into his arms. That was where she belonged. In his arms, in his
bed...

With a gasp, Charlene forced
her eyes open. The erotic image of their entwined, writhing bodies
sent a rush of heat down her body. She blinked hard but still the
image of her in Glenn Constantine's bed refused to dislodge from her
mind. She could see their bodies joined as one, moving against each
other, holding and clinging to each other as their fangs pierced into
each other's necks...

Charlene's hands flew to her
throat. Her heart was beating so fast, and she felt so hot, and so
wet between her thighs. From what she saw in her mind, she knew,
without a doubt, that taking Glenn's blood would be a very intimate,
pleasurable act. When she fed from her victims, she had taken their
blood by force. It was an act of necessity, violence and
retribution. But with Glenn, it would be so different. It wouldn't
be just feeding. Blood and sex were inextricably, intimately linked.
They would be connected and bound to each other. They belonged to
each other.

“
No,” she
whispered. “It can't be. It can never be.”

The flames leaped and cackled,
mocking her for her girlish fantasies.

You, a vampire's mate? You
can never be his mate. You are a blood demoness, a slave, a monster!

She jerked her head up as the
fire dimmed and shrank back. The fine hairs at the back of her neck
rose, but she took a deep breath and forced her spine to remain
rigid. She threw her shoulders back and held her head high as she
counted the seconds under her breath. “One anal demon, two
anal demon, three anal...”

Sure enough, not five seconds
later, Kron teleported into the living room in a puff of smoke.

Kron stood in front of the
fireplace, rubbing his chin and frowning, as if contemplating what to
do with Charlene.

Finally, he stated the
obvious. “The vampire left. And he didn't touch anything.”
Was he referring to just the food?

“
I guess he wasn't
hungry.”

“
Oh, he was, Charlene.
The Master vampire was very hungry.” The demon bared his fangs
in a smile.

Charlene put up her hands.
“Look, I didn't chase him away. He...just left. You didn't
tell me you were inviting a vampire to dinner. I didn't know I was
supposed to keep him here.”

Kron reclined in his armchair
and let his horns unfurl slowly from above his ears. The light from
the fireplace cast a looming, menacing shadow behind him as his horns
extended and curled. His shadow seemed to swivel its head to
appraise her even as the demon lord himself sat stone still in his
chair.

“
You're not.”

Charlene started. “Not?
What? I don't understand.”

“
You're not supposed to
keep him here.”

Charlene made no response,
just swallowed a gulp as the demon's shadow stretched and grew across
the wall. A shadowy clawed hand was creeping across the floor
towards her even though Kron's manicured fingers remained on the
velvet armrest of his chair. His pose was relaxed, unruffled, but
his shadow spoke louder than his body language.

“
Do you know what you're
supposed to do, Charlene?” Kron leaned forward in his chair.

Charlene shook her head.

“
You're supposed to go
to him, my dear.”

When Charlene's eyes bugged,
Kron went on smoothly, “I am sure that you felt Glenn
Constantine's hunger. That vampire needs blood...and sex—from
you.” The demon lord's thin lips curled in an amused smile,
but his red eyes were hard and calculating. His tone was nonchalant,
bored even, but Charlene heard the command in his words.

Go to that hungry vampire,
feed him, bed him, get him drunk on you, and get me what I want.

“
For sex and blood, what
do you want me to get from him?” Charlene asked in a dead
voice.

At this, Kron smiled broadly,
looking pleased. “I've put in an offer for a prime piece of
real estate that his company owns. I've upped the price, but Mr
Constantine doesn't seem interested in selling the land. I want that
land, Charlene. Get him to sign the sale agreement.”

“
That's it? You just
want to buy a piece of land from him?”
All this for a lousy
piece of land?

“
That land is rich,
Charlene. It is the richest piece of land in the whole continent!”

“
You mean there's oil,
or gold, or...I don't know, diamonds, buried underneath?” She
gestured with her hands.

“
You are still thinking
of riches in human terms,” Kron admonished lightly.

“
So riches in demon
terms would mean there are...lots of souls trapped there?” she
muttered.

Kron huffed loudly. “I
am a demon Lord of Beasts and Bloodshed. What good are souls to me?
Souls are just ornaments. Pretty to look at, fun to play with, but
useless to me.”

At his words, a violent shiver
coursed down Charlene's spine and her eyes crept to those dark snow
globes.

Ornaments.

Souls are just ornaments.
Pretty to look at, fun to play with, but useless to me.

Those weren't snow globes.
They were
soul
globes!

She made a strangled sound.

Kron smiled at her, noting
with pleasure the horror on her face. “Yes, my dear, that is
my collection of souls. If a Made demon is destroyed, either by his
own hand or by another without first being freed by his demon Maker,
his soul is trapped forever by his Maker.” He clucked his
tongue. “Some of my Made demons thought they could escape by
offing themselves. Such foolishness. Well, now they can never
escape. But enough talk of useless souls. We're talking about the
land. Why do you think that piece of land is so rich, Charlene?””