A/N: Ok folks. This is a new story that has been nagging at me for a while now. I don't know when I'll be able to update it, mainly because I want to focus on finishing NIMWD (which should not take long, by the way) before picking this up again. I just had to put this out there for you to have an idea of my next project. Let me know what you think! Shout out to nikkistew2 for helping out in naming the story, and to littlebadhero for brainstorming with me, as well as all the amazing ladies of all FF groups on Facebook!
Chapter 1
Christian
"Ros, where are we on the new formula for the synthetic blood?" I bark into my phone as I walk into my office. I can see a terrible headache in my near future, and I'm already planning a way to let off steam for tonight.
"Northman's already breathing down my neck about it as well, Christian." Ros says and I can imagine her rolling her eyes at me.
"Get the Japanese on the phone. I want to get to the bottom of this." I snap and hang up, not bothering with anything else to say.
I lock the door to my office after I instruct Andrea not to bother me, no matter what, then I make my way to the wet bar and pour myself a glass of brandy.
When I was about 5 years old, my brother Elliot used to scare me with stories about vampires and werewolves, but even as a kid, I knew that the stories he was telling me were just that, stories.
Then one day, 6 years ago, I ran into my first vampire, and I realized that Elliot had been right all along.
Vampires were as real as we humans were.
Flashback – 6 years ago
I let out a long sigh of relief when the last of my dinner guests leave the private dining room. One new company under my belt, and at least 500 jobs saved.
Looking at the time, I realize that it's barely past 9 pm, and for the first time in my life, I really don't feel like going back to an empty apartment.
As I leave the room, I notice that the bar is full. Not as full as it would be on a weekend, but rather full for a weeknight.
Deciding that I want to stay a little longer here, I go to my usual table towards the back of the bar and order my usual double single malt scotch.
My eyes scan the room, and they fall on a man sitting at the bar with a glass of wine in front of him. He's talking to the bartender, and I notice that he's looking straight into his eyes. Ignoring what I just saw, I sit back in my chair, and I just simply watch people as they dance and drink and enjoy their night.
My eyes go back to the stranger at the bar a few more times, and each time I look at him, I realize that his drink is left untouched.
An hour later, I decide on two things; 1. The bartender needs to be fired for not having kicked the creep out yet, and 2. I was kicking him out personally.
Downing the rest of my drink in one gulp, I rise to my feet and stride towards him.
"Excuse me, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave." I say, my voice strong and my stance high.
The Dom in me is coming out to play, asshole, and you had better watch out.
The man just looks up at me, gives me a smile that I can only describe as sinister, then he goes back to his drink. He picks up his glass, holds it against his lips, then puts it back down without even taking one sip.
I can see Taylor approach, but he stands back, keeping a good distance to my left.
"I will not have creeps sitting around in my club." I say as I reach for my wallet and place a 20 dollar bill on the counter. "Since you have only ordered this one glass of wine, I believe this will settle your bill. Now, I am politely asking you to leave the club. Otherwise, I will have security escort you out."
Just as I finish speaking, the man turns to me, looks me straight in the eyes, and in the calmest, yet scariest voice I had ever heard, he says, "You will go back to your table, and completely ignore me. As far as you are concerned, I have had 2 bottles of wine, and I'm half way through my third. You will not pay me any attention."
I felt a tingling sensation at the back of my head as he said that, but when he turns around as if I was not even standing there, I begin to feel my blood boil with anger.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" I ask as I place my hand on his shoulder, and he turns to look at me with nothing but shock and surprise on his face.
"What the fuck?" He asks, jumping up to his feet.
"I just asked you that!" I say through grit teeth.
"What the fuck are you?"
"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"
"Sir, are you ok?" I hear Taylor as he approaches us, and the stranger looks at Taylor then at me, before he holds Taylor's eyes with his own.
"Leave us."
Without another word, Taylor turns around and leaves, making my jaw drop to the floor.
"What the fuck did you just do?" I yell.
"I apologize if I had caused any inconvenience." The man says, suddenly polite as he nods at me respectfully. "I was merely trying to enjoy my night. I will leave now."
"Hey!" I call as he turns to leave. "You will not be going anywhere until you tell me what the fuck it is you did to my body guard!"
The man looks at me for a moment, as if he was studying me, and I take the chance to study him. He's a little taller than I am, I'm guessing 6"4' to my 6"2'. He has broad shoulders and strong muscles, obviously a fan of working out. His hair is blonde and held back in a ponytail, but I can't estimate how long it is. He's wearing a long-sleeved black shirt, and I can't tell if there are any tattoos underneath, but judging by his clearly expensive clothing, I'm going to take a wild guess and say that he's well off.
"Is there somewhere private we can talk?" He finally asks once he's looked over the room more than once. "I'd rather we had this conversation in private."
Something in the back of my head screams at me to just let him go without a second glance in his direction, but I quickly shut that voice down and nod at him.
The fact of the matter remains that I want to know how the fuck he was able to command my chief of security and main CPO to just leave as if Taylor was his sub.
I give him a curt nod and walk into the direction of my private office at the club, and I can sense him closely following behind me. Once the door behind us was closed, I begin to realize that maybe I should've called Luke to at least stay at the door.
But it's too late, because before I could even breathe, I'm being pinned against the wall, my feet dangling from the floor, and with the stranger's hand around my throat holding me up as if I weighed nothing.
"What the fuck are you?" the man asks, his eyes glowering at me.
"What… what do you mean?" I manage to ask, barely able to breathe.
"You cannot be glamoured!" He says, then I suddenly hear a clicking sound, and for the life of me, I couldn't figure out where it came from. Then the stranger snarls at me, and I could literally feel the blood drain from my face.
There, between his lips, are two sharp fangs and they look like they were waiting to sink in my flesh.
"What the fuck!" I gasp in horror, my eyes almost bulging out of my skull.
"What. Are. You?" he asks again, this time bringing his face close to my neck. I closed my eyes, bracing for the pain of his teeth sinking in my neck, but it never comes. Instead, he just takes a long sniff, and then drops me as if I were a burning coal.
"Fairy." He whispers under his breath and runs his fingers through his hair, pulling at it. He then starts muttering in a language I couldn't understand, not that it matters much to me.
The only thing that matters is that there was a freaking vampire standing in my office!
What the hell have I been drinking? Someone must've slipped something in my drink!
Yes, that's the logical explanation. That's the only explanation.
"I'm going to kill Reynolds." I mutter as I get to my feet, completely ignoring the man who is now looking at me as if I had grown a second head. "He's supposed to man the fucking door. No one is supposed to be able to get any drugs in here! And who do they end up drugging? Me! The fucking owner! I'm going to fucking kill him!"
"You think you've been drugged?" The stranger asks, and I can clearly hear the amusement in his voice.
Well, my imagination is going on an overdrive if I can imagine that!
Why couldn't I imagine a perfect sub? Why couldn't I imagine a scene playing out perfectly in my playroom?
No! The one time I'm high, my mind decides to summon up supernatural characters and mythical creatures!
"Believe me, it would make my life so much easier if you were actually drugged, but you're not." The man says and moves to stand in front of me. "And I have two options to fix this fucked up situation we're both in. One, I can kill you. Two, I can explain things and take your word that you won't be running around repeating what you hear. If you do that, I will come to you and kill you, but that would be more painful for you for wasting my time in explaining thing. So, what will it be?"
"You're not real!" I snap at him, making him just roll his eyes, grab me by the throat again, and pull me to him.
"Oh, I'm real." He says, his voice dripping with venom. "I'm as real as your worst nightmare."
My eyes grow wide as I see him lean towards my throat, and I then feel a pinch against my neck. Seconds later, he pulls away from me, and I notice that his lips are bloodied, making me quickly reach for my neck. I touch around the flesh, then I feel two small puncture wounds, and when I bring my fingers up to look at them, I see blood on the tips.
"What the fuck?" I snap and reach for my handkerchief. "You bit me!"
"So much for stating the obvious." The man says as he licks his lips. "Delicious. And just as I imagined. Fairy."
"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" I ask as I pull the small cloth against my neck, and I can't help but feel surprised that it's not as painful as I thought it would be.
Not that I ever thought about how a vampire bite would feel like, but anyway.
"It means you come from a fairy bloodline. It's highly diluted, but I can't taste it in your blood."
"Fairy? As in Tinkerbelle?" I ask with a raised eyebrow.
"As in ancient creatures who have been roaming this earth long before I was born." He says and sits on the chair in front of my desk, crossing his legs and resting his right ankle on his left knee. "Are you ready to listen now, or should I just drain you? Your blood tastes amazing, so I wouldn't have a problem with that!"
"Like fuck you are!" I snap and throw him an angry glare. "I'm listening."
"As you probably summed up by now, I'm a vampire." He says, smirking at me with his fangs still down. "My name is Eric Northman."
End Flashback
To this day, whenever I ask Eric about why he didn't just kill me when he had the chance, he always gives me the same answer.
"I know a good investment when I see one."
Eric and I became friends after that night. Or as much as a person can be friends with a vampire anyway. When the vampires officially came out of the coffin, as they like to call it, I had already started on a business plan with Eric on how to make them more acceptable in the real world.
Right now, we're working on developing a better formula for synthetic blood, because according to all the vampires that I have met, True Blood is so vile they would rather eat human flesh than drink it. Unfortunately, they have to drink it. Legislations state that vampires cannot consume human blood for sustenance. They can, however, consume it for recreational purposes. However, that doesn't mean that they don't feed on humans. I know a couple of vampires who have their own tap of human blood, but they consume the synthetic type for pretenses only.
I look at my watch and find the time approaching 3 pm. It's too early for me to head home, but I can't find it in me to stay at the office any longer. I can finish whatever I have to do at my home office.
I quickly text Taylor to bring the car out front as I gather my things and leave the office. My mind is going a mile a minute with all the merchandise and publicity that needs to be done to promote the new blood, and when I bump into a small figure on my way out of the building, I simply let a string of curses leave my mouth. I quickly reach for the small frame that bumped into me so that they don't fall on their ass, and my breath catches in my throat at the intense blue eyes staring back at me.
"Are you ok, Miss?" I ask, once I managed to get my bearings back.
"Yes." She says, and as she stares into my eyes, I feel that same tingling sensation in the back of my head that I felt when I first met Eric.
Nope. It can't be. It's still day out.
"Do you need any help?" I ask when she doesn't let go of my arm, and as I try to look her over, the hold she has on my arms strengthen to the point that it is becoming painful.
Holy shit, what the fuck is going on here?
The girl, who I can guess is only 21 or 22 at the max, suddenly sniffs the air, and that all too familiar click sounds from her mouth, making my eyes grow wide.
No, no, no! This can't be happening!
I look up just as Taylor parks the car and gets out, but before he can even approach me, I pull the girl to the car and slam the door behind us.
"How the hell are you out in the sun?" I ask as I press the button on my side of the door that automatically tints the window.
I had this custom made the day after I found out about vampires. I never imagined I would use it.
Not until today.
"What do you mean?" She asks, her eyebrows knitting in confusion. "And why do you smell so good?"
"Hey, eyes on me!" I say when I notice her eyeing my neck. "I'm not your afternoon snack!"
"I'm sorry." She says as she looks away and closes her eyes. For a minute, I think she went into downtime, but she then opens her eyes and looks at me with eyes that I can only describe as lost.
"I'm sorry, sir." She says and moves away from me. "You smell too good, and I haven't fed in a while. I think it would probably be best if you dropped me off here."
"When was the last time you fed?"
"3 or 4 days ago, I can't really remember." She says after a moment of silence.
"How old are you?" I ask, receiving a confused look from her. "Vampire years." I elaborate. It's obvious that she's a young one.
"2 weeks, I think?" She asks, as if I could know the answer to that.
"Where's your maker?" I ask as I reach for my phone. I'm way out of my depth here and only Eric can help me out.
"I don't know." She asks, and I see the blood tears gather around her eyes. "I woke up 2 weeks ago in a dark alley, craving blood, and not knowing a thing."
"Have you contacted your family?" I ask as I hold the phone against my ear, waiting for Eric to pick up.
"No." She says as a lone blood tear makes its way down her face. "I don't know if I have a family."
My eyebrows reach my hairline at that, and I know I must look as confused as I feel.
"I don't remember anything from before I was made." She says and wipes away her tears, and then she starts muttering under her breath about never getting used to blood tears.
"You better be calling me to tell me that the formula is read, Grey." I hear Eric's voice coming from the other end of the line, and I know that I caught him in the middle of his feed.
Being as ancient as he is, I know that Eric rises before the sun fully sets. Besides, the time is already approaching 5 pm in Shreveport, so he should be having his first feed for the night.
"I think you better come here, Northman." I say, my eyes never leaving the girl sitting next to me. "I ran into a baby vampire, abandoned."
"How is that my fucking problem? Call the Seattle vampire sheriff and drop her in his lap!"
"Eric, it's 3 pm here, and I just ran into her." I say, earning a string of curses in every language that Eric must know. I catch a few French, German, and Italian among them, but I can't be too sure.
"I'll be there in a few hours."