CHAPTER 297: PARTNERSHIPS

6 years later.

There was a time when seeing a vampire would draw a curse from me. When seeing it feed on a human would have instantly propelled me to use my magic to save what or who needed to be saved.

But now, watching the vile creature drain the last of a prostitute’s blood in the dark alley, I did nothing. Nothing at all.

I was rather bored, impatient, needing to get the reason why I was here out of the way so that I could return to the comfort of my bed.

I didn’t shake when the girl’s eyes found mine, pleading for help; didn’t look away. I rather watched her bleed to death.

If she knew that I didn’t have a heart, she might not have bothered. She might have saved her strength to make a prayer to whatever supreme being would listen to her.

When the vampire was done feeding, when his dirty body began to shift, to change into a more youthful appearance, I threw the cigarette butt on the floor, crushing it beneath my heel with deliberate disinterest.

"Are we making any more stops?" I questioned, my impatience tainting an already cold voice.

The vampire, now looking like a handsome male my age, shook his head. "I don’t think you will resist slashing my head with magic if I should take another human. Even though you think you are impervious to the sight, I know you are not."

Whatever floats his boat.

Without saying any word to him, I started out of the alley, cornering into one of the bars in the street, where he would probably find another feed before the night was over.

Women loved handsome faces after all, would follow a handsome stranger into a dark space just because of sex and money. Wouldn’t I know better?

I kissed my teeth and ordered shots.

"Won’t you let me have a taste of your blood still? Just one taste... I’m barely restraining myself here." The vampire, called Dago, said, licking his lower lips as he stared at me. Lips that had been crawling with maggots only minutes ago.

I hissed in disgust and leaned back into my seat, folding my arms. "You should stop craving for my blood if you want to live longer than you already do. At least remember that I know how to dispose of you properly..."

He sighed theatrically, stomping his foot on the ground like a sulking child. "You are impossible, stingy! It won’t kill you to let me have just a pint."

I chuckled sarcastically. "No longer a taste? Now a pint? You are a greedy idiot. Are you interested in any drink before we have our discussion, something to keep up the image... well, if you are planning to leave here with a feed."

Dago snorted, his mouth curling in disgust at the mention of beer. Vampires only wanted one drink, and that was fresh blood. Anything else was trash.

"Do as you wish. You always do."

I gave him an innocent smile, beckoned on a server, and made his order.

"So, to what do I owe this visit, Sage?"

"She wants to know if your troupe is ready? The mission will be beginning soon, and she wants no mistakes. We need to be successful at it in one hit, if we all want to get what we want."

Dago nodded slowly, accepting the beer from the hands of the server, a young girl in her late teens. He winked at her, and the fellow blushed, waiting around the table longer than was necessary.

I pitied her, but made no move to shush her away. We needed the vampires in their A-game for the mission we had partnered with them for.

Finally, someone called her attention—maybe her mother, maybe a senior server, I didn’t care—but she hurried away, not before throwing a flirtatious wink at the vampire.

"It seems you have a feed for the night already..."

He smiled, naked glee in his eyes.

"You get the concept." A pause, a transformation of his jovial face to a business-like one. "For your question, we are ready. We want to taste fresh new meat after all..."

He licked his lower lip, slowly, again and again, a disgusting habit of his that reminded me of maggots on slime.

I turned away.

"So, when is the mission starting? Is the Queen ready for the fallout of this mission?"

"Yes, we are. Just worry about your own side." I dropped cash on the table, prepping to be on my way home.

"You know it still surprises me that you were the scaredy cat in the forest that night..."

I snorted. "I grew up... no longer that girl anymore."

Dago was the same vampire I had seen that night in the forest six years ago, during the Queen’s birthday. Turns out that he had been scouting the area for his kind, needing to colonize, to breed, to multiply.

He was yet to give us his main reason for this goal, but the Queen had set up a meeting with him, in an unlikely state of events, when killings started happening in the community despite the veil over it, and together they had come to a conclusion, seeing as they had common goals.

To me though, I didn’t think the vampires had been interested in the community in the first place, only in the Lycan region, for whatever mineral I heard could return their souls to them again, could make them ancients. They had just killed some in the community to gain the Queen’s attention, and then commit her to work with them.

But did I care really? Not at all. I thought, getting out of my seat. I only cared for revenge, to make the pack pay for all the wrongs they had committed against me. And no one was exempted.

"Well, whatever that made you grow up, I’m grateful for that."

I scoffed, and dropped a tip for the server, the young girl. Our eyes met—she was checking me out, trying to see if I was a girlfriend to Dago. I wasn’t sure of her final conclusion, but she huffed and returned to her job.

I collected my tip back into my pocket. She could be a feed then.

"I’m out. Hope I won’t be encountering your kind tonight..."

Dago shook his head. "I’ve told them already to stay away if they wanted to live longer."