Page 4 of New Nebraska Home

“You’re a vampire. You are the bad vibes.”

“Let’s just please check out this place,” he said, sounding exasperated with my bullshit. He was going to be getting hangry soon, so this was probably going to be our last stop of the day.

“Can I help you?” A sweet voice came from the front of the house and I moved to look around Callum.

Holy fuck, what was she? Other than the mouthwatering answers to my prayers.

“We’re responding to the ad for the extra rooms. Are they still available?” Callum asked, taking the lead as I stood there staring.

I couldn’t say anything. The creature that walked out of that door was sun-kissed perfection. Her light brown hair hung around her high cheekbones, and the most stunning blue eyes I‘d ever seen. They reminded me of the waters around Cyprus, my family home, bright blue and endless. My mouth went dry as I stared intently.

I anticipated her scent, something like the sea and happiness. I was dying to get closer and find out. It wasn’t until Callum cleared his throat that I was pulled out of whatever daze I’d fallen into.

“Yes, the rooms are still available. Would you like a tour?” she said sweetly, but something in her posture made me think we weren’t entirely welcome. Clearly, I had to turn on the charm. Callum could have influenced her with his gifts, but he never did that with humans, calling it unethical and dull.

“I am so sorry.” I finally managed to find my tongue. “What is your name? I missed it.”

“Liz, and you are?”

“Brock Rivers, water elemental. This is Callum McCoy, master vampire.”

“It’s nice to meet you.” She held the door open for us to step past her.

“If you don’t mind me asking, are you…” I let my voice trail off so she could fill in the blank if she chose to.

“Perfectly average human.” She smiled. “Is that a problem?”

It was absolutely a problem if she thought she was average. Granted, I hadn’t spent a lot of time with humans, but there was no way this woman was run of the mill. She was a goddess in any circle. Why had no one told me human women could be this hot?

“Of course not.” I gave her what I hoped was a warm smile. “I was just curious. Usually I can tell.”

She nodded like she didn’t quite believe me. “My little brother, who also lives here, is half-Fae, if it matters,” she said as she pushed in front of us to lead us through her home.

“It doesn’t,” I said, getting myself mentally ready, preparing myself for Callum’s rejection.

There was no way he was going to want to live in a place with some wild half-human teenager. That was his major complaint about three of the places that we’d seen. There were babies. They would scream all day and night. There were teenagers they would play loud music. My favorite, was “There are toddlers, they’re always sticky, Brock. Why are they always sticky?” Okay, that last one had me laughing hard enough to make my sides ache and earn a scowl.

When a cute little boy peaked his head out from the top of the stairs, I was ready for Callum to see him and turn around. The kid was seven, maybe six, and adorable. How a woman who looked in her twenties had a sibling with such a significant age gap, I wasn’t sure. The kid gave me a funny look and because I was the mature, responsible adult I was, I stuck my tongue out at him, making him giggle and disappear behind a corner.

Since I knew Callum would be absolutely against living here, I didn’t really pay that much attention to the tour, just following along mindlessly. Until the child started following too, sneaking around corners and hiding in doorways, peering at us.

At first, I pretended I didn’t see the child spying on us, then I would slowly look over and he would dart away. It became our own little game. I was kind of having fun. Every time I caught him, I made a face, and he made it one back. This kid was good people, I liked him.

“How long is the lease?” Callum asked Liz as he shot me an exhausted look that told me to behave. “We’re looking at the entire finished basement? Correct?”

“Yes, the finished basement has two bedrooms, and a living room, with wall-to-wall built-in bookshelves. As well as a bathroom. It does also have its own entrance, and of course, you would have full access to the shared rooms on this first floor like the kitchen, the other bathroom, living room, dining room, etc,” Liz said. “As far as the terms for the lease, that’s all negotiable. Are you two looking to build your own house locally, or just taking time for escrow?”

“No, I have no plans to buy a house in the immediate future.” A flash of pain crossed his face, probably from remembering his separation from his coven, which had been years in the making. He didn’t like to talk about their falling out very much. I’d only managed to tease scant details about it, over the years I’d known him. Apparently, his fellow vamps had found him too moralistic, too straightlaced, after he’d been strongly against their growing involvement in drug dealing operations, something like that. I guessed pallets of drug money talked a lot louder than Cal had. “I assume the pool is also a shared space?”

“Pool?” I asked. There was a pool? How had I missed the pool?

“Yes.” She smiled. “It’s in the back. It’s not much, an aboveground pool, but we built a deck around it, and I keep it clean. Leif loves to spend a lot of his time in there during the summer, so it’s well maintained.”

“That sounds amazing.” I looked through the cute kitchen past the glass sliding doors to the surprisingly big pool. It wasn’t an open ocean, but Nebraska was landlocked, so it would do.

Callum looked at me again, this time with a question in his eyes. I couldn’t believe he was silently asking me if I was okay with this place. How was he not running through the door? I gave him a nod of approval before sticking my tongue out at the kid again. He thumbed up his nose at me and ran off.

“I promise I’ll keep Leif upstairs,” Liz said, like she was worried he would be a problem.

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