Page 57 of Pleasantly Undead in Dark River

But I couldn’t argue with the logic behind staying inside my wards, especially not when two vampires turned up on my doorstep today. For a moment, I thought they were Mormons, as they were both dressed in crisp white dress shirts and black dress pants. They’d even combed their hair to the side. All that was missing was a Bible clutched in their hands and a name badge. Instead, one held flowers.

“I can’t help you,” I said when I opened the door. Two days of being stuck inside had taken my empathy and compassion for these vampires and crushed it into the dirt. I did not owe them anything further than a no thank you. Hell, I didn’t even owe them that, but my good upbringing told me to at least say that much.

The guy with the flowers pushed them towards me, his face desperate. “Please, just hear me out.”

I shook my head. I couldn’t. I couldn’t have their stories on my conscience, their cry for help forever rattling around in my brain. Since word had got out that I was a succubus, fifteen vampires had come forward to try and woo me. Some by good manners, and some by force. According to Walker, some had never made it to the town’s limits. There were shallow graves all over the forest with the now decomposing corpses of vampires that hadn’t taken no for an answer when Lucius had told them to go home. If they did make it across the town's borders but not to my door, it was usually because X had sent them home a little more broken than when they’d come. I had been blissfully oblivious to this, of course, until Catherine, Town Leader and scary ass bitch, had informed me of it like X and Lucius were errant dogs, causing mischief. Or maybe I was the errant dog. I’d pledged here, and they couldn’t kick me out unless I broke one of the chief tenets of the town according to Nico, but still, I’d felt censured.

X had glared at her, his lip curling, and I swear she growled back. Luckily, Beatrice had interrupted the moment with food, but still, I was skating on thin ice and I knew it deep in my soul.

So now, when the Not-Mormon looked at me imploringly, I steeled my heart. “I’m sorry. I can’t. I wish I could but there’s just nothing I can do for you.” I begged him to understand with my eyes, and he dropped his flowers to his side in defeat.

My iron resolve cracked a little, but then X came up behind me, his fortifying hand steeling my spine where it rested on my lower back. “The lady said no, chaps. Go home, before I rearrange your faces.”

He cracked his knuckles, and Not-Mormon number two physically gulped. But the flower guy threw the bouquet on my step, and his cheeks went pink with rage. “Why should you have a monopoly on her, Executioner? She is the last of her kind. She should be kept and available for any of us who are in need. It is for the good of our race. For all races.”

Did this guy just suggest I should be a sex slave because I acted as some kind of anti-psychotic med for old, crazy vampires?

A knife appeared out of nowhere and sliced off the guy’s head. It landed with a sickening thud on my doorstep. As his body fell after him, Lucius was revealed, a feral sneer on his face. He turned to Still-Living-Not-Mormon and growled.

X stepped over the body on the doorstep and got in the other guy's face. He looked like he was about to piss himself now. “Do you share your compatriot’s feelings?”

The vampire shook his head, his clean white shirt now speckled with blood.

“The difference between us is that I do not see Raine as a commodity. I love her. Not her blood, but her as a person. And you can tell any fucker that feels the way your friend does,” X kicked the decapitated corpse with his boot, “that that is the difference between what I have and what you want. If they keep coming, they will keep dying.”

A throat cleared, and I turned away from the head on my doorstep - was it weird to feel nostalgic about that? - to the other two people standing at the edge of my yard. One was Nico, and I bounded over the body and into his arms. I kissed him hard, wrapping my arms around his waist and holding him tight.

He kissed my forehead reverently. “I missed you.”

I was smiling widely when a finger tapped me on the shoulder. “I just slew your enemy, and he gets the first kiss?” Lucius complained, his voice a little petulant. I tried to hold in my laugh as I turned in Nico’s arms. “Thank you, Lucius. I’m making an exception to the no body parts rule, because that guy was kind of talking about making me some kind of glorified glory hole. I don’t like that idea.”

An unfamiliar laugh echoed from behind me. “I didn’t quite believe it, but it seems to be true. Someone actually loves these miserable bastards.”

I turned quickly and a young man stepped toward the light from my front room windows. I knew who he was instantly, because I’d seen his picture on Nico’s living room wall.

Titus.

If that wasn’t proof enough, X went down on one knee, as did the shit-scared vampire, even though he was kneeling in the blood of his friend. It made me feel a little squidgy thinking about it really.

“Your Honor,” the scared vamp said with a shaky voice, and X just had his head bowed.

Lucius rolled his eyes as only a younger brother could do. “Always so much fanfare,” he muttered, then leaned forward and kissed me. Not with the passion he normally did so he could taste my blood, but with a soft reverence, like he actually missed me. I eyed him carefully, trying to judge what was going on in his head, but that was my first mistake. You couldn’t guess what was going on in a brain like Lucius’.

I didn’t know what to do, because Nico was still holding me solidly in his arms. Was I supposed to drop to my knee too? Instead, I inclined my head. “Uh, hey. Sir. I mean, your Honor?”

He huffed a laugh. “Is that a question?”

“Uh, no?”

A slow smile was spreading across his face. “What about that?”

I winced. “Okay, that may have been a slight question. You’ll have to excuse me, because I still have no freaking idea what I’m doing.”

He shook his head, and I marveled at how young he looked. I knew he was Nico and Lucius’ older brother, but he didn’t look that way. He had a baby face, but the power that surrounded him was staggering. I obviously had a malfunctioning sense of self-preservation, or an overactive sex drive, that I hadn’t noticed him before I made out with Nico. Well, there was significant evidence that I had no good sense, so that was on trend for me.

He gave me a genuine smile this time, and nodded. “It is fine. I’ve heard a lot about you, Raine Baxter, from all sorts of people. I thought it would be best to come down and see who has stolen the hearts of my brothers, especially if it was not by their own free will.”

Nico opened his mouth to protest, but Lucius beat him to it. “If you think that anyone makes me do anything without my express permission, Brother, you are sorely mistaken. Not even you, Oh Mighty Ruler.”

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