***
The day after the full moon I find myself walking into work carrying Benji in my arms. He can’t pass Misty’s ward because he’s human. He keeps wanting to turn and run away, even after she mutes it enough for him to go through without dying.
When we open the front doors to the bar Tommy is waiting. He’s like a piece of furniture. The bar wouldn’t feel right if he wasn’t propping it up.
As the night goes on I notice it’s nowhere near as busy as it usually is. We actually find ourselves standing around between serving customers.
I wipe the already clean bar down for what feels like the fiftieth time, “It’s so quiet tonight.”
“It always is after a full moon. The werewolves are all recovering from their wild night.” Misty’s voice sounds muffled as she answers while cleaning out one of the fridges behind the bar.
The only customers we have are Tommy, Vera and Mike, all witches. I give them all fresh drinks.
Misty moves on to the last fridge. “Why don’t you and Benji pick a few songs on the jukebox and have a boogie. It’s not as if we’re rushed off our feet.”
We chose a few silly songs to dance to. The first one that starts to play is ‘Stop’ by The Spice Girls. We both know the dance off by heart so we’re pretty entertaining.
Misty, Tommy, Vera and Mike are all whooping and cheering until from out of thin air Dominick appears beside me.
My protective instincts kick in, but not before I jump.
“Here, get a drink, stay at the bar. I’ll be there in a minute,” I say, pushing some money into Benji’s hand. He practically runs to the bar without argument.
“Rosabel, your little friend is safe with me. I’m not interested in his blood not after tasting yours.”
“What do you want, Dominick?” I grumble. I am pretty sure this isn’t going to end nicely, especially if past encounters are anything to go by.
He grins, reaches out and trails his fingers down my neck. “Isn’t that obvious? You. I want you to become my feeder - my servant.”
“Not a chance, Dominick. I will never be yours. I want you to remove this damn tie too,” I growl, stepping back from his touch. My wolf may want to find a pack to join. When you join a pack you are connected to each and every member. You can feel them. It’s comforting. It’s not that I can feel a connection to him but even the idea of being connected to a vampire is just all kinds of wrong.
“Oh, you know about the tie?” He sounds disappointed, until he speaks again. “The tie can’t be removed. I’m sorry.”
I glare at him, hearing the lie in his apology. “You’re not sorry, and a friend informed me it can be removed with your death.”
He laughs. “Is that a threat, Rosabel?”
I try to be as serious and intimidating as possible, when I open my mouth next. “If that’s the only way to break it, yes.” Being intimidating to a King Vampire, who is two thousand years old, is virtually impossible, at least I thought it was but Dominick’s face is telling me something else. Maybe I did manage to intimidate the good king a little.
“You meant every word of that. You would kill me. I can feel it.” He looks puzzled for a moment.
“Are you an empath?” I ask. It would be the only way he could feel my emotions like that.
“No, but you are,” he says in surprise. “It seems that the tie has given me two gifts that I know of. One, I can materialise wherever you are by just thinking your name. And two, I can use your empathy against you.” His words make me want to punch him. How dare he!
He smirks, stepping toward me again. “Now, now. Don’t get angry.”
“STOP THAT!”
Laughing sinisterly, he leans in and kisses me on the cheek and before I can get a punch in, he leans away licking his lips.
Cocky bastard.
“The friend that told you how to break the tie wouldn’t happen to be Theo, would it?”
“It was your intention for him to find out. That’s the main reason you did it.” The taste of a werewolf may be enticing for him, but he wanted to get at Theo and biting a werewolf because of a loophole was always going to rub the alpha the wrong way. Dominick seems to get off on it. Even I can see that and I haven’t been in town long.
“Of course it was. Has he worked that out already? He’s smarter than I gave him credit for.” He leans forward, inhaling my scent. “You’ve mated.”
I nod as I lean away. “He chose me in front of his pack.”
“And you chose him in return, I can smell the scent. But you’re worried about it, why.” It was a statement not a question, “You haven’t sealed it yet. That is why it’s not so dominant, and I can’t let you seal it.” He’s worried. He might be able to use my empathy against me, but I could still use it against him too. Why would he be worried about us sealing our mating?
I glance over to see Misty and Benji huddled together in deep conversation at the bar. “You can’t stop us, Dominick.” When I don’t hear a reply, I turn back to find that Dominick’s nowhere in sight.
When I get back to the bar, Misty pushes a glass of what looks and smells like my usual towards me. “Ya look like ya need it. What did he want?”
“Just to rub it in about the tie. I hate him,” I mutter before taking a nice large mouthful of my drink.
Misty gasps and drops the glass she’d been drying. It smashes at our feet. “Don’t say things like that, it will get you killed.”
We both bend down and I start picking the big bits of glass up. “If that’s the case, my name will already be on the execution list. I told him I’d kill him if that’s the only way to break the tie. He knows I meant it too. He could feel it through my empathy. And thanks to the tie, he can now use against me.”
Misty grabs the dustpan and brush, sweeping up the smaller shards as she speaks. “You have to tell Theo. He is the only person that could protect you against Dominick.”
Our three customers leave during our clean up so Misty decides that since we’ve only had the three customers all night, we may as well close up early.