Author's Note: All Original Characters, Names and Settings belong to J.R Ward herself. OC character belongs to me. This is an alternate universe. I am using an OC character from another fic of mine, though I have completely re-vamped her...in a sense. I'm giving her a bit of my own personality.

Author's Note #2: ATTENTION: I have no Beta. Thus I will do my best to try to make as minimal mistakes as I can, though I cannot guarantee, understand? Do Not, openly bash me about my mistakes, thank you.

Summary: Assail was a man of business and routine. The last thing he expected was for Fate to fall through in throwing a wrench into his perfectly aligned gears. When he nearly runs Lhust over, the last thing he ever expected was to be over curious about a female he nearly kills.

Lhust's life hadn't been going the way she expected it to go. With getting fired and now struggling to find a new job, she thought her life couldn't get any worse, until she avoids being run over and ends up throwing a pastry out of anger. With her life, Assail is the last person she wants to deal with. But with his over curiousness, would she be able to keep him away, especially as she tries to keep her life a secret? Would she be able to accept what he is and what he does? The limits of trust and romance will be stretched. Which will snap first?

Chapter 1

Lhust sighed as she strolled down the side walk. Fired. How the hell could she have gotten fired? It wasn't her damn fault. Like hell was she just going to allow some asshole feel up her co-worker, well, ex-coworker now. Just because you worked at a diner doesn't mean the servers there had to put up with bullshit. Okay, so she might have gone over board and broke the fucker's nose and hand, but she said she was sorry and explained it wasn't her fault to the chef. Nope. Didn't matter. What she did was wrong. Now here she was, walking down the cool side walk of Trade wondering where she's going in life. As a defective vampire like herself, there wasn't much options for her.

The day she had gone through her transition was the day Fate decided, "Oh look, I'm gonna fuck up your life. Baam. Defective!" She ended up not having fangs and was unable to dematerialize. She was as close to as a human as can been except she drank blood and couldn't stay out in the sun. Almost like Michael Jackson, but not really. "What the hell am I going to do now? I have to pay the mortgage soon." Soon meaning she had until the end of the week to cough up close to five hundred bucks out of her ass. No server made that much, not even in tips. And she had sort of, kind of, liked that place even though she had been working there for only a year. "Fate, why are you such a bitch?" Groaning, she kicked her foot in anger. "I hate life."

"Yo, L." A man with a bushy mustache called out from behind a small food cart. He was old enough to be her uncle or something.

Looking up, Lhust smiled. Oh Frankie. He knew how to put a smile on her face no matter how shitty of a mood she was. Frankie moved to Caldwell from Hoboken, New Jersey. He was Italian and he sold coffee and cream puffs day in and out. No matter the time, Frankie was always selling cream puffs. He baked them right there in his little cart and even stuffed them with cream. You always got a nice, hot fresh cream puff. Walking over, Lhust smiled, well, forced her smile a bit, but Frankie could instantly tell that something was wrong.

"Ey, why the long face, huh? Someones given ya troubles?" He asked as he wiped up a cream puff.

"Nah. Nothing wrong. Just, work. You know?"

"Any wise guys messin' with ya? Yous know that if yous ever need anything, just let me know. Me family has your back L."

Oh if only she could tell him that she got fired, but the last thing she wanted was for him to go out of his way in trying to help her. "Don't worry Frankie, I can handle myself." Since I'm stronger than yous...you, but you don't have to know about that. "I'm actually thinking of working somewhere else. The atmosphere in that diner was very..uhh...low."

"Tells me about it. That's why I lefts my sister-in-laws bakery. Very demanding. But this. This is I like. No worries about orders. No rushing. Nada. I can go at my own pace and the people heres just deals with it." He smiled and offered a very nice cream puff. "Heres. This'll cheer ya up."

"Oh, Frankie. Thanks. How much do-"

"Nahs. Forget about it. On the house. You were the first person so ever make feel good about myself and about my little cream puff cart here. If it weren't for yas, I'd be struggling in trying to feed my wife and kid. I owe yas."

Her eyes felt a bit misty, but she grew some balls and held them little fuckers from falling down her cheeks. "Thanks Frankie." She took the cream puff, feeling how heavy it was almost. He really stuffed it with cream. "I'll let ya know when I change jobs, okay? I'll see ya around."

"Yous takes care L. Be good alright."

With a smile and a good bye, Lhust walked away, cream puff in hand. At least there was one person in her life that was good and didn't want to mess with her. Most of the people in her life either left or they died. Her mahmen passed away when she gave birth to her. The only thing she had to go by in knowing her was listening to all the stories her father and grandmahmen told her when she was young. Her grandmahmen passed away when Lhust turned fifteen. It had been her time and Lhust always had that mentality that her grandmahmen would never die. The only person she had left was her sire and that relantionship sort of, okay, not sort of. It freaking dive bombed that night her grandmahmen passed away. Having to lose the two most important people in his life. He had wished everything would just be happy and normal. Boy, did he not get that, not after she had gone through her transition. Oh he was uber happy and estactic that she survived of course, if was finding out the negative results of her change. No fangs. Unable to dematerialize. That sort of strained their father/daughter relantionship a bit. Three weeks after she managed to cope with herself and with her new found life, Lhust had awoken and gone down stairs to fix her dad breakfast, only to find his absence and a note. He left her. He didn't give any reason. No address and name of the place he was going. He just wrote, "sorry" on a napkin and that was it. Lhust had never had to worry about working since her father provide the source of income, but with him gone, reality hit her. She had to find a means of making money else she would have ended up homeless. Well...she would have ended up with no water or power first and then she would have ended up with no food what-so-ever and from there she would have ended up being homeless.

She didn't know anything about anything. Finding a job was gonna be hard. Who the hell would hire someone who could only work at night? Obviously strip clubs and night clubs, but no way was she going to sell herself in that manner. Nope. No way. Okay. It was going to be her plan B...well...her plan C choice just in case she couldn't get a mildly, proper and decent job. Luckily for her, diners always required night people. When she applied at Joe's, ya, cliché name, she was instantly hired, no prior knowledge needed. Life was kind of turning around for her. She managed to get a job, was able to pay bills and pay the house's mortgage. Plus side, her dad got the house like twenty or so years ago, so the mortgage wasn't that bad, still pretty high in her eyes, but not bad. It would only take her, oh, about another ten years to finish paying the damn thing off. She still had hope that her dad would come back, say he was sorry and get back to work so she wouldn't have to deal in being a responsible adult.

Who would have thought being an adult was hard. Why couldn't she have been more in a more easier life? Why couldn't Fate just leave her alone and not be a bitch? "Does the world hate me or something?" She asked no one in particular. Looking down at her cream puff, she frowned. "At least you can't hate me. Cuz, you know. You're not alive. You're just a cream puff." Lhust frowned. "I'm talking to a cream puff. Oh my God, I need to get my life in check." With a heavy sigh, Lhust shook her head. "I need a new job." Pursing her lips, she raised her cream puff up to her lips and was about to take a bit when all of a sudden she saw something coming her way out the corner of her eye. It was so fast. One second she was about to take a big bite of her cream puff and the next she jumped backwards avoiding getting hit by a Range Rover that came out of the alleyway nearly killing her. The thing had come to a screeching halt just outside of the alleyway and right in front of Lhust.

She was spooked, her heart pounding. Here she was, talking, contemplating her life and had been close to taking a bit of her puff when this asshole just comes out of the fucking alleyway without even bothering to check if anyone was walking down the side walk. Who ever was in the car was obviously spooked themselves or they were trying to figure out what the fuck to do in this situation. Like, seriously? She couldn't fucking take this. Was the world out to get her? Did Fate managed to recruit others in trying to make her life a fucking nightmare? No. Fuck that.

She didn't know what went through her mind. It happened so fast. One minute she was questioning why the world hated her and next thing you know she swung her arm and launched her cream puff. It made a direct hit with the Range Rover's wind shield, cream and bread splattering and smearing around it. She stood there with her arm out, her eyes wide. Pulling her arm back, Lhust did a whole Ace Ventura move and looked at her hand, then at the windshield and back to her hand. Instead of throwing a gold medallion in a cave full of bats, she threw a cream puff at a Range Rover. Fuck! Who ever owned the Ranger Rover was obviously someone with money, because obviously, only those types of people owned vehicles that screamed, "Hey, look at me, I have money and I bought this thing with said money." Bigger question was, what sort of person owned it. Was it someone from the mafia? Human mafia? Vampire? She couldn't properly see inside. The side winders were deeply tinted and with the way with was parked in front of her, she couldn't see through the front. Her body was yelling at her to run. Run fast and don't look back. But her mind was saying, no! Stand up for yourself. Grow some lady balls. You almost died and these fuckers needed to know how pissed she was.

Seeing as no one was coming out,yet, Lhust swallowed and frowned at the Rover. Raising her pants, metaphorically speaking, she opened her mouth and yelled. "Watch where you're going you fucking ass hat! You could have fucking killed me!" Oh man, that felt so good. She suddenly got a rush. This sense of empowerment felt great.

Reveling in her new found Wonder Woman power, she heard the distinct sound of doors opening and then three males slipping from the Rover. Oh man, she was dead. Mafia. Total Mafia right here. And they were vampires, so this was even worse. The driver and the male that slipped from the back seat were twins, their faces exactly alike. They were tall and mean looking with long back hair and piercing dark eyes. The trench coats were not helping at all. For all she knew they were packing major heat. The one that slipped out from the front passenger side wasn't as big, but still terrifying looking. He was dressed in a more formal attire, his clean suit and coat screaming money. Midnight black hair slicked back and piercing black eyes that were focused on her. She was dead. Major dead here. Run, her body said. Just run.

The drop off had gone without a hitch. Assail had timed it and the exchange went quicker then what he expected. The lessers he was dealing with had managed to finally get themselves to properly organize themselves. Assail had been contemplating about finally getting rid of them and finding someone else to sell his product, but good help was so hard to find these days. So long as he didn't mention nor let the Brotherhood find out about his dealings with their race's enemy, then these lessers wouldn't be a problem to him. It was a good business deal. And ever since he took over, well stole more like it, the exchange and dealings that Benloise used to do, his profit margin has sky-rocketed.

"Three weeks from now. Same place, same time, same deal. Bring me my profit and I'll supply with more. I've calculated how much each bag will cost, so it would be best if you don't try and cheat me, understand?"

"Losing faith on me?" The lesser chuckled. "Don't worry about a thing. You'll have your money. Same deal as always." Looking to his comrades, he nodded to them and turned away, duffel bag in hand.

Assail always made sure to let them leave first. When he no longer sensed them or smelled that sweet, dead smell, he looked to his cousins and nodded. "Let us be off." Moving towards the Range Rover that was parked near the shadows, Assail stepped inside and set his metal briefcase by her feet. He began to think about his dealings. Perhaps he could raise up the percentage price a bit and have his product sold for a few dollars more. Depending on much is placed in the baggies, he would need to calculate how much per kilo then how much he would need to sell each baggy in order to make up the difference. Pulling out a little vial from his coat pocket, he unscrewed the top, scooping a bit of the white cocain powder in the tiny spoon and snorted it up one nostril then did it again for the other. He stopped taking double sniffs for each nostril a few months back. It was hard, but he managed. He still managed to get a bit of shake here and there, but his body had finally managed to settled it self with just one sniff per nostril.

"The next pick up is three days from now." He said to both his cousins. As Ehric brought the Rover to life, he went into reverse then drove out of the back parking lot from behind an old liquor mart and went straight down the alleyway.

"Same time as always?" Asked Ehric. He didn't bother turning on the headlights, not yet at least. He always headed down the alleyway without them turned on. It was only when he turned onto the street did he light them up.

"Yes. Same routine." Everything seemed to be the same routine for him. Nothing ever changed. His life consisted of him buying drug product from foreign vendors. From there, he proceeded to take his newly bought product to a warehouse where he payed trusted individuals to break it up in accurate measured quantities and then bagged. After that, he made his dealings with his race's enemy. Product is sold, money is made and everyone is happy. Yes. Everything went exactly the same. Sometimes he wondered, what would happen if Fate decided to throw a wrench in his life and sort of change it up? It seemed the fickle woman would never do such a thing, for it has yet to-

Assail slammed his hands against the dash board as Ehric hit the brakes hard. Feeling his body ricochet forward then back against his seat hard his gasping a bit. "Bloody hell man." He checked his person to make sure nothing damaging had happened to himself. Then he checked on Ehric and Evale. "Are you all good?"

"Yes." Evale simply said.

"I am fine, but what about her?" Ehric asked.

"Her? Her who?" Assail followed where Ehric was pointing and turned his head. There, standing a few feet from the Range Rover was a female. It seemed she had been walking and Ehric was quick enough to hit the brakes else he would have instantly mowed that female down. She looked spooked as if her life had flashed before her eyes. She didn't look injured. It seemed she managed to fall back fast enough to avoid injury. "She seems fine." He didn't really want to deal with this or with her. He simply wanted to go home and end his night with a port and cigar.

"Would it not be best if we see if she is truly fine?" Ehric asked, looking at the female then at Assail.

With a heavy sigh, Assail shook her head. "She is fine. If she were not, then we would be attending to her right this instant." Looking back at her, Assail took in her details. She had lovely black hair that was rather long. It stopped just at her calves. She had most of it tied back, exposing much of her face. She had a nice round face, a small pixie like nose and heart shaped lips that at this moment were parted to show her shock and aw almost. What was very catching was her eyes. They practically glowed. The looked blue. A pale blue, like snow basking in the moonlight. For some reason, his mind was rather curious about her. It was as if he wanted to know about her. Frowning at his train of thought, Assail shook his head and turned to Ehric. "Let us go. It seems that she isn't-" He jumped when he heard a thump against the windshield. Shifting his eyes, he saw a white splatter on the glass as well as what looked like a pastry rolling down and settling on the hood.

"Watch where you're going you fucking ass hat! You could have fucking killed me!" Was what he heard from her. She threw a pastry. At his car. Frowning, Assail glared at the female. So she almost had a near death experience, but that did not mean she had to go and damage his property. Sure a pastry wasn't much to damage, more like defacing. And it seemed she just realized what she had done.

Assail heard a chuckled from beside him and turned, glaring at Ehric. "You find this amusing?"

"Forgive me cousin. I was just thinking. Hell hath no fury like a woman's rage."

"Yes. Indeed."

"We did almost kill her. Tis only natural that she attack in a fit of rage. Mayhap it would be best if we apologized."

Turning back to the female, he watched as she began to contemplate about something. Mayhap they should apologize. Sighing, Assail thought, this was not the wrench I expected. "Very well. Come." Reaching for the door handle, Assail opened his door as did Ehric and Evale and they stepped out. Seeing her without having the window between them helped a lot. It seemed as if her features have been enhanced. She was tall. If he stood before her, her head would reach up to his shoulders. She was thin, though not overly. She had the proper amount of skin and curves a woman should have. As he opened his mouth to speak, he was cut off.

"I'm sorry. Please don't kill me." Lhust said, shaking just a bit.

Assail quirked a brow. "We are not going to kill you. We were simply going to-"

"-No, no. I know how you people deal. You say you're not going to kill me, but I know better. I've seen my share of mafia movies and what not." Oh God. Was she making this situation worse or better? She didn't know.

"I assure you, we are not going to kill you and we are not part of a mafia." Though maybe he should start one. "Listen. May I ask what your name is?"

Oh no. Giving her name out was like giving her social or home address. Her name contained a lot of info. No way was she going to give it to him. She had to leave. Leave now. Just say sorry once more, turn away and walk away. Speed walk. Just fucking run. "Oh, no, no. I can't give you- Listen, just, I'm really sorry and just, you know. Just be careful when you-"

"-please, all I ask is your name. I do apolo-"

"-No...no...just...I'm sorry. Okay? Really sorry about the, uhh, cream puff and well...sorry. Good bye." bowing in apology, Lhust turned around and practically booked it. Her legs carried back down the way she came until she turned the corner and ran a few ways until she stopped.

"Yo L, yous okay?" Frankie called out from his cart, concern laced in his words.

Lhust coughed, hands placed on her knees and her mouth taking in deep, lungful breaths. "Oh. I'm fine. Just fine. Yeah. Don't worry."

"Yous sure. Ya look like you've seen a ghost."

Shit! Lie. Fast. "Saw my ex-boyfriend." She coughed, her fist pounding at her chest.

"Ah. I've done that before, well...sort of. You gonna be okay? Yous wants a lift?"

Why couldn't she just dematerialize like all the other normal vampires? It would make her life so much easier. With a defeated sigh, she nodded. "If you don't mind? I missed my bus now."

"Ya, just give me a bit to packs up and we go, okay?"

"Thanks Frankie."

Leaning against the wall, Lhust leaned her head against the bricked wall. She looked up at the night sky and thought, what did I do to deserve this? Did I do something wrong? Did I step on a crack or picked up a faced down penny? As far as she knew she had not done any of the old bad luck things. Could anything more sucky happen to her life?

Assail watched as she turned and ran off. He had taken a step, ready to run after her, but then stopped, realizing what he was so close to doing. Pursing his lips a bit, he slipped back into the Rover and closed his doors. Ehric and Evale soon followed. "Let us go." Ehric placed the Rover in drive and eased onto the street, heading towards the opposite direction of the female.

"Peculiar female." Evale said from behing.

Yes, very peculiar indeed. If this was the wrench Fate decided to throw, he wondered if it would be the only time? He didn't know why, but he wanted to see that same wrench again. If Fate threw it once, perhaps she could throw the same wrench again.