Kindling Flames—Gathering Tinder

  Sue hurried around the counter to make sure Vicky was all right.

  “I’ll be okay,” she reassured the concerned girl. “I’m just a little overwhelmed by it all.”

  Sue retrieved the coffees from the counter and handed one to her. “Why don’t you tell me about it?” Sue offered as she sat in the chair next to Vicky. “Maybe it would help to talk.”

  Vicky looked up at her reassuring smile and started into her story. Sue listened intently as Vicky relayed their trip out to the Vampire Council. She pursed her lips as Vicky recounted Michael’s behavior, but she smiled when she heard about the way Darien had thrown the man and tended to Vicky. Sue was spared no detail as Vicky spun her story. She even included the nightmares plaguing her.

  Sue sat and considered what to say to the upset woman. “You don’t have to worry about anything with Darien around.”

  Vicky looked up at the reassuring words.

  “He won’t let anything else happen.” Sue smiled warmly at her. She could still see the fear in Vicky’s face, so she went on. “Darien’s reach is much further than you think. The vampires now know you are under his protection, and no one else would dare to touch you while you’re carrying that,” Sue pointed to the bag Vicky had slung at her hip.

  Vicky was surprised to find it there. She hadn’t realized that she had picked it up on her way out.

  “The werewolves have already been warned about you too.”

  “What?” Vicky stared at Sue in disbelief.

  “It’s true,” Sue informed her. “Darien’s had words with the local pack alpha, and he’s made sure the rest of the pack knows who you are.” Seeing the shocked look on Vicky’s face, Sue decided it wouldn’t be a good idea to reveal that, since Rupert’s little misunderstanding, he had been sending wolves to make sure Vicky got home safely every evening.

  “But how do they know who I am?” Vicky looked around as if someone was watching her.

  “That bag marks you as being Master Darien’s.” Sue spoke softly to try to ease Vicky’s nerves. “Even if you didn’t have it with you, you’ve spent enough time in Darien’s company that you’re starting to smell like him.”

  Sue giggled as Vicky raised the back of her hand to her nose and sniffed it. As far as Vicky could tell, she didn’t smell any different from normal.

  “It would take a much keener nose than yours to detect the change,” Sue informed her.

  “How can you tell?” Vicky asked as she lowered her hand from her face.

  The barista smiled again. “I have a much keener nose.”

  Vicky’s eyes widened in surprise.

  “I’m a werewolf.”

  Vicky gawked openly as she processed this fact. She couldn’t believe that this sweet girl was one of the monsters Darien had warned her about.

  “You mean like fur and fangs in the full-moon light?” Vicky said in disbelief.

  Sue laughed out loud. “I’ve never heard it so elegantly put, but yes.” She smiled warmly.

  A million questions rushed into Vicky’s brain. “But how do—”

  “There you are.” Darien called as he finally located his assistant.

  Vicky’s mouth slammed shut on her questions. “Mr. Ritter!” she gasped instead and turned towards him, shocked that he had come looking for her. Tearing her eyes from the unexpected sight, she found the clock on the wall and realized she had been gone for much longer than she intended.

  Vicky jumped to her feet as Sue stood up and took the drink she had made for Darien.

  “Let me refresh this for you, Mr. Ritter.” She smiled again at Vicky before slipping back behind the counter.

  “Did you have a nice chat with Sue?” Darien asked, smiling at the color that rushed across Vicky’s cheeks.

  “I’m so sorry, Mr. Ritter!” she exclaimed. “I didn’t realize it had gotten so late.”

  Darien placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “It’s all right. We still have time before the meeting.”

  Vicky let out a relieved sigh when her boss didn’t reprimand her.

  “Do you feel better now?” he asked.

  She looked up into his concerned eyes and thought about the question for a moment. Sue had given her a lot more to think about, but the fear and worry that had been troubling her were gone. “Yes, I think I do,” Vicky answered.

  Darien nodded his relief and dropped his hand away from her shoulder.

  “Here you go, Mr. Ritter.” Sue placed a fresh drink on the counter.

  “Thank you, Sue.” He picked up the drink and took a long pull from it. He turned his attention to Vicky. “If you are ready to head out, I need to go yell at the board about these numbers. They are way off the mark this month.”

  Vicky smiled and nodded her head. “Thank you, Sue,” she waved to her friend.

  Sue waved back. “Any time.”

  Vicky grabbed up her coffee and followed Darien, who was leading the way to the boardroom. She was surprised at how quickly she had gone from dealing with the supernatural things slipping into her world to listening to her boss complain about figures and monthly spending reports. Sighing, she turned her mind back to her job.

  Darien paused in his rant to drain the rest of his drink, so he could dispose of it in one of the large trashcans in the hallway. It wouldn’t do to take the cup of blood into the meeting and risk it being dropped into one of the smaller wastebaskets. He licked the last drops from the plastic cover before tossing it in the can.

  Looking back at the woman following him, he pushed the button to call the elevator. Once they were both inside, he watched the reflection of his assistant in the shiny surface of the door. Vicky had plucked one of the shoulders of her shirt up and was sniffing at the collar. A thoughtful look crossed her face, and she smoothed her shirt back into place. “What are you doing?’ Darien asked as he turned to look at the odd behavior.

  Embarrassed, Vicky took a slight step back as she realized she had been caught in her investigation. “Um…” She couldn’t think of a good explanation, so she went with the truth. “Sue said I was starting to smell like you.”

  Darien looked at her for a moment before closing the distance between them.

  Vicky tried to retreat from him but found she was already against the back wall of the small, enclosed space. He placed his hand on the wall next to her and bent his head to the crook of her neck. Her pulse raced as Darien swung his face across her shoulder and up the side of her head. She could hear the deep intake of air as he pulled in her scent. Her breath hitched as he pushed away from her, and she met his eyes. His pupils were significantly dilated from where they were when he had first trapped her.

  “So you do,” Darien confirmed.

  Vicky’s heart skipped again. Before she knew what happened or had the chance to act on the strange impulses being sent from that tight pull in her gut, he was back over by the door where he had started.

  “I hadn’t noticed.”

  Vicky wanted to laugh hysterically at how calm her boss was after doing something so intimate and inhuman.

  In all honesty, Darien was very affected by the trembling mess he had made of his assistant. He smiled to himself as she pulled herself together. He loved the way she smelled and was sorely tempted to offer her a place in his menagerie. It had been many years since he had kept what some of the Council called “pets,” but the sight of Michael with his fangs in Vicky had stirred something in him that Darien hadn’t felt in a long time.

  Darien had become keenly aware that he was starting to have feelings for his assistant. Vicky’s presence brought something to his life that he hadn’t known he was missing. The smile that lit up her face, her innocence, the fact that she kept bringing him clementines. These had all moved him in ways he hadn’t realized until she was in danger. Darien had thought about it over the last day and decided the best thing to do was to wait. If Vicky handled this change in her world well, maybe he could invite her in deeper, but he wasn’t going
to do anything that would endanger her ability to act as his PA. She did an excellent job, and he would be hard-pressed to find someone to replace her if she quit. Darien reached for his calm center, trying to push away all thoughts of the woman trapped in the small box with him. He took a deep breath to clean out his head but found that the air was filled with scents. Her rose and jasmine perfume, a touch of fear, a hint of desire, her natural smell, and his own rich aroma mingled to form a heady mix that tugged at his body. Holding his breath, he could school himself back into a business mindset. He still needed to whack around the heads of his board members who were getting out of line. When the elevator door opened, he was glad to see Vicky had also recomposed herself and was ready to take on the challenges of the rest of the day.

  Vicky shut her front door and turned to drop herself over the arm of the couch. She stared up at the ceiling and tried not to think about what had happened that day. After the incident in the elevator, Darien’s attitude was strictly business as usual, and they ran on through their day like nothing had happened. She shook her head. Maybe this was normal for vampires. Surely, it wasn’t the strangest thing she had seen him do, and it wasn’t as if he had actually touched her. He just smelled her in the most provocative fashion in which she had ever been sniffed. Vicky blushed as she remembered the feel of his face against her hair and the look in his eyes.

  Shuddering, she pushed the intense image away. She needed something to distract her, and she knew just the thing. Vicky rolled off the couch and found her cell phone in the bag. She had started carrying her own things in Darien’s messenger bag. It was just easier to carry one bag instead of two. Hitting a number on speed dial, she waited for the phone to connect.

  “Hey, Vicks,” Vanessa’s voice echoed down the line. “What’s up?”

  Vicky smiled at the familiar sound of her friend. She was sure that Vanessa was human. “I was just wondering if you wanted to go out tonight?”

  “That would be fantastic!” Vanessa squealed. “Beth just told me about a special event over at Alchemy. I thought about asking you, but seeing that it’s Monday, I didn’t think you would want to go.”

  “As long as I don’t stay out too late, it’s fine,” Vicky answered.

  “Fantastic! Do you still have that black velvet dress you got at the Crystal Fair?” Vanessa asked.

  Vicky thought about it for a moment. “You mean the floor-length one with the wide, pointed sleeves?”

  “That’s the one!”

  “I think it’s in a box under my bed. Let me look.” Vicky got up and headed to the bedroom to check. She pulled out a plastic tub containing clothing she didn’t wear but couldn’t throw out. “Yes, it’s here.” She pulled a long, stretch-velvet dress from the box and placed it on the bed.

  “Great! Beth and I will be over in thirty minutes to help you with your makeup.”

  Vicky could hear Vanessa bounce as she spoke.

  “Get out those heeled boots from last Halloween. This is going to be great!”

  Vanessa hung up before Vicky could ask what was going on. She sighed and went to take a shower before her friends showed up.

  ***

  “I’m not so sure about this.” Vicky looked at her reflection in the mirror.

  Beth and Vanessa had curled Vicky’s hair so that it fell in rolls down her back. They had used a foundation that whitened her out, a light pink lipstick, and very heavy eyeliner. Coupled with the black dress and black vinyl boots, she looked like she could be a poster child for Hot Topic. All she needed to do was dye her hair black, and the image would be perfect.

  “I think you look fantastic!” Beth sprayed the last length of hair, so the curl would stay. Pulling the iron away, the curl bounced down with the rest of them. “All done,” she said.

  “Not quite,” Vanessa said, retrieving something black from her bag. She wrapped the wide strip of a velvet collar around Vicky’s neck. “Now we’re ready.”

  Vicky examined the necklace in the mirror. The inch-wide collar was adorned with two red crystals set a smile’s width apart. From the back of each crystal hung three chains, each tipped with a blood-red jewel. The six droplets danced across Vicky’s collarbone. Her heart skipped as she looked at the simulated vampire bite sitting over her pulse point.

  “I can’t wear this.” She lifted her hand to remove it.

  “But it’s perfect!” Beth complained as she stopped Vicky from touching the collar.

  Vicky sighed deeply at her friend’s stubbornness. “You still haven’t even told me what is going on at Alchemy tonight.” She eyed the corset Beth was wrapped in.

  “It’s Goth Night!” Beth squealed in excitement.

  Vicky looked over at the pirate costume Vanessa was dressed in.

  “It was the best I could come up with on such short notice.” Vanessa shrugged as she settled a tricorne hat on her head.

  Vicky had wanted to go clubbing to get her mind off vampires, not go hang with humans pretending to be them. She sighed and shook her head. Loud music and dancing was still loud music and dancing, no matter what the atmosphere. “All right,” Vicky acquiesced. “Let’s go before it gets too late.”

  Beth bounced in delight, and the three friends stopped long enough to pick up Beth’s steampunk jacket from the couch. Vicky slung the messenger bag over her shoulder.

  Beth frowned at the bag. “Why are you bringing that thing?” It was ruining the line of Vicky’s dress again.

  “I told you last time.” Vicky grumbled at her friends as she opened the door. “I’m on call and have to have it in case Mr. Ritter needs it.”

  “So you’re at his beck and call?” Vanessa laughed.

  Vicky blushed at the lewd implication. “It’s not like that,” she hissed, locking the door behind them.

  “I’ll gladly be at his beck and call,” Beth said breathily as she thought about Vicky’s boss. “He’s hot.”

  “Stop it,” Vicky hissed again, causing her friends to giggle. “I don’t want to think about him that way. He’s my boss.” The incident in the elevator popped into her mind, and she was glad it had started to get dark. It made the red on her skin harder to see.

  “Does he work you too hard?” Vanessa teased, and Beth giggled.

  Vicky let out an exasperated sigh and grinned at her teasing friends. “Sometimes,” she said, and her girlfriends oohed at her. She rolled her eyes and covered her face as they went into all the ways they would like her boss to work them.

  ***

  “You two are perverts,” Vicky sighed, as Vanessa parked her car in the lot next to the club. “Now, would you cut it out so we can dance?”

  Vicky tried to calm the heat from her skin, but there was no way she was going to get rid of the smile cracking across her face. Both Beth and Vanessa had very active imaginations, and the two girls had come up with a plethora of perverted things as they drove to the club.

  “But, we were just offering suggestions you could try out the next time you’re alone with Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome,” Vanessa teased.

  More like Mr. Tall, Dark, and Fangy, Vicky thought to herself. “Please, I just want to forget Mr. Ritter for the moment and have a good time,” Vicky begged her friends.

  Beth and Vanessa could see this topic was starting to bother Vicky, so they dropped it. “Let’s go pick up some hot guys who can’t fire us,” Beth teased, and the three girls crossed the parking lot and disappeared into the thumping music issuing from the club.

  ***

  The empty bottle clinked against the table as Vicky set it down and went to stand at the edge of the dance floor. Her eyes found her friends mixed into the crowd, swaying to the music. Vanessa had one guy pressed to her back and another rubbing against her front. The guys’ pirate costumes were identical, and they seemed to be twins. From the action on the floor, Vicky was sure those two scurvy dogs were going to steal her ride home tonight. Vicky’s gaze kept wandering until they found Beth hanging out with the steamp
unk crowd. She had a guy wrapped around her, and they were grinding on the dance floor.

  Sighing at her lack of luck, Vicky stood at the edge of the floor and swayed in time to the music. There had been several men who had started her way, but all of them had been intercepted by someone else, or they turned away before they reached her. She looked down at the formfitting dress she was wearing. Yes, it was long, but it hugged her in all the right spots. She shook her head as she tried to figure out why her luck was so bad tonight. Normally, she could find at least one person willing to dance with her.

  She was just thinking about getting her fourth beer, when she felt a hand on her hip.

  “You would be surprised to know how many phone calls I got, telling me you were here.”

  Vicky looked up at the familiar man pulling her into the line of his body. “Mr. Ritter!” she squeaked, completely shocked that he was standing in the thumping club. Too astonished to pull away, Vicky let Darien lead them back to the table where she had been sitting.

  He placed her in one side of the booth and waved at the waiter for two more beers before sitting down opposite her. “You look very nice tonight,” Darien complemented her.

  Vicky was still too dumbfounded to think as she looked over her boss. She couldn’t believe that he was in a dark, peasant shirt and black leather pants with a lace-up fly. The ends of the pants were tucked into black, knee-length plainsmen boots held in place by a cord wrapped around them. His rich, brown hair was artfully messy and hung into his face. Vicky gawked at the roguish air rolling off her boss as he lounged back in the booth. One arm was stretched across the back of the seat as the opposite leg kicked out across the opening of the booth. It wasn’t far enough out in the aisle that someone would trip over it, but it did prevent Vicky from an easy escape if she chose to run. Her mouth flapped as she tried to respond, but nothing came out.

  Cocking an eyebrow at her, Darien worked to keep his amusement off his face. Their bubble was broken when the waiter set two bottles on the table. Darien nodded his thanks, and the waiter made himself scarce.

  Vicky took a swig from the bottle Darien slid in front of her. “What are you doing here?” she finally found her voice as she looked at her boss in surprise.